After becoming a hit television show in Australia, the United Kingdom and Hungary, MasterChef has finally made it to the U.S. and premiered on Tuesday night on FOX right after Hell's Kitchen. Tuesday nights on FOX can now officially be renamed to Two Hours of Watching Gordon Ramsay Tell People Their Food Sucks.
Hell's Kitchen, as I'm sure you all know by now, is a competition reality television show that whittles down a group of experienced chefs with big hopes until there is one left who is then given an Executive Chef job at a fancy shmancy new restaurant somewhere in the world. MasterChef is pretty much the same show, except these people are amateur cooks who have no real certification or accolades, just a love of cooking. Each week, the weakest of the cooks are told to leave the show until there is one person left who is then named the Master Chef and given $250,000 and the resources to publish their own cookbook.
The decision for FOX to premiere MasterChef right after Hell's Kitchen is pure genius. They already have their audience for Hell's Kitchen and now, when that show is over another show just like it comes on and those who love watching Gordon Ramsay scream at people can now watch him be kind of nice and, oh I don't know, human. It's like the Gordon Ramsay Bi-Polar Experience; at first he's calling people donkeys and cows and punching halibut until it smashes into hundreds of pieces, landing all over the kitchen and then he's all nice, almost the voice of logic and reason amongst the other two judges on MasterChef, and in the business of building people up and making their dreams come true. Aww, how sweet of him! He isn't really a guy with the shortest fuse ever, he's just misunderstood! In case you missed it, I did say that there are two other judges besides Gordon Ramsay on MasterChef; the first is Graham Elliot, who at 27 years old became America's youngest four star chef, and Joe Bastianich who owns 20 of America's best Italian restaurants and three award-winning Italian wineries.
During the premiere of MasterChef, the contestants are given one hour to cook the meal of their life and prove to the three judges that they deserve to move on in the competition for a shot at becoming America's first Master Chef.
When sitting down to watch yet another cooking competition reality show, especially one hosted by Gordon Ramsay, one would think that Gordon Ramsay would be his usual, scary, screaming, insulting self, but to our overall surprise, he does have the ability to hate someone's cooking and not call them a donkey or a cow while telling them to get out. He's actually the middle ground judge; the host of the show, a judge of the show, but not the most abrasive. In the abrasive judge role is Joe Bastianich, while Graham Elliot seems like he could be one of the nicest people you will ever meet. He is down to earth, funny and I'm quite intrigued by him. That, and I would love to see what he is like when he is seething with rage because he just seems to be so laid back and easy going.
Like any reality television show, the contestants of a competition make the show and within the group of these contestants are some real characters, to say the least.
The first contestant we saw present their meal was a man originally from Houston, Texas who made beer cheese soup and professed his love for cooking with beer. After a bite of his brown, lumpy slop-looking soup, he was sent packing, but not before he tried to take the bottle of beer with him on his way out. There was also a woman who used to play soccer for Brazil, whose voice could give a deaf person a headache and who Gordon Ramsay said if she put as much effort into her food as she did in her flirting, her food would greatly improve. She made tilapia fish tacos that were so bad that Ramsay spit out his mouthful in front of her and when the other two judges agreed that she needed to leave as fast as possible, she tried to talk over them, asking them for pointers and how to improve, only for Joe Bastianich to tell her the show isn't that long.
After a list of rejects in the amateur cooking world, a server from California named Mike made a pan seared duck breast and was the first of the contestants to actually impress the judges and earn a MasterChef apron. Among the others to receive an apron and move onto the next phase of the competition is Tracy, a physician whose mother taught her everything she knows about food and who cooked from her mother's cookbook and won the judges over with her love of food and learning and who I'm eager to see if she has the ability to cook, rather than follow a good recipe.
In the world of the utterly ridiculous was a farmer who prepared "funeral potatoes" that were presented in a pig plate. His potatoes, which I believe would cause a funeral to begin with instead of being a dish you bring to someone in an event of a funeral, were absolutely disgusting and runny. The judges picked it up and strained the butter and grease out of them after he left the judge's room.
David is one of the most memorable contestants on the show and I don't mean that in a good way. In fact, when mentioning on Facebook that I had watched MasterChef, the first reply I received was about David and how we have already decided he's a complete fake. The man, who is an over-confident fool, attempted to make a bouillabaisse in one hour, although it takes two days minimum to make an efficient bouillabaisse. After the judges called him out on calling his soup other than what it is and after Gordon Ramsay told him he's insecure about his cooking, which is why he is so completely arrogant, he began to cry and admit that he did not cook his heart out for the judges. The waterworks worked for two of the judges; Ramsay had the right line of thought by saying he should not move forward, but the other two decided that they would like to give him a chance and oh I really wish they didn't.
Faruq, a bartender from California with a delightfully low voice that, Graham Elliot described as "shaking the room", made chic macaroni and cheese and hands down, wins the best line of the night with "I'm going to make Parmesan crisps in the shape of butterflies." Faruq's appearance on the show was one of the longer ones when the judges insisted on his wife and son joining them all in the judge's room so his wife could tell the judges how much being a Master Chef would mean to Faruq, who put his culinary dreams on hold for his family. In the end he did earn a MasterChef apron, after a stern lecture from the judges about how important salt and pepper is to a dish.
My favorite contestant on the show is Avis from Louisiana who has such an amazing energy that as soon as I heard her speak, I was rooting for her to make it and swore I would stop watching this show all together if she did not earn an apron. Luckily, she did and I am really excited to see what she does in the weeks to come. And she better make it a few weeks, at least!
The series premiere of MasterChef was a promising one. It had great energy and its fair share of sentiment, ridiculousness and hilarity. It was so good, in fact, that Renee and I will be chatting about this show every Tuesday and posting our chats every Wednesday morning, so be sure to check back to read all about what we thought of the show as we watched it.
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