My Gordon Ramsay’s relatively new show Masterchef is proving to be a needed summer distraction from all the dreck currently on the airwaves. Seriously. I’ve found myself watching Scoundrels, Rivolli and Isles (or whatever the hell it’s called), and (urgh) Memphis Beat for God’s sake! Someone please speed up the start of the new Fall season before I die of bad acting and dialogue. You can die of it, ya know. That’s real. There’s documented cases. The government just won’t let us have access to them. But that’s another topic for another day.
For now let’s talk about the Mystery Challenge. It’s become a regular gig on Mahstahchef (as my Gordon calls it). There’s a box in front of the remaining eleven contestants at their stations. The judges ask the contestants what ingredients they’d wish to be under the box. My gal Tracy the doctor (in real life) says she wants it to be goods for baking. The others wish for, well I don’t know, meat and stuff. That’s not important. What is important is that Tracy gets her wish and it’s a cupcake challenge!
Uh oh. They show a sound bite with Tracy talking smack about how this challenge is going to be “money in the bank” for her, etc. Seems she’s been baking with her mom all her life, and feels really, really confident. Just sound the death knell now, somebody. Cause whenever the contestants talk like that before the challenge, they usually end up failing miserably. These are the times when I sit back in my cushy armchair and munch some more yogurt pretzels while smiling happily. What? That’s wrong? Hmm. Doesn’t feel wrong!
So! Everybody bakes some cupcakes. They only have forty-five minutes, and Tracy uses her time miserably. She doesn’t give them enough time to cook and cool before frosting. So the frosting melted, and so did Tracy. She was all crying and freaking out, because she heard her dead mother chiding her in her head about lost opportunities and messing up. Geez! Don’t mothers ever leave you alone? I guess not.
Meanwhile, the judges have been buzzing about how everyone is doing. They are all favoring Whitney, the youngest one in the competition. Gordon thinks she’s smart, and I think Joe Bastianich has evil designs on her. She ends up making it to the final three along with Jake and Sharone. Weird name for a guy, Sharone. But hey! He’s never made a cupcake in his life, and ends up winning this challenge.
For his reward, they tell him he will get a chance to catapult himself into the final four. Sometimes this show gets confusing, with the rewards offered and how many people will be booted. But! Possessing a college degree, I followed along and realized that if Sharone can win the next challenge, well then he has a guaranteed spot.
Turns out, in order to do that he must out-cook Cat Cora. I’d like to pretend I know who she is, as everyone was so excited to see her. But I don’t. She did make a lovely halibut dish, though. And the amateur’s job was to duplicate it as closely as possible, the person doing the worst job being shown the oven door. That is, except for Sharone. He had to try to make the dish better than hers! Yeah. Right. Seems she was an Iron Chef or something. Like this average dude will pull out all the stops, create this amazingly awesome improvement, and win the day. Only in the movies, my friends.
So, Sharone fails. He was fairly confident he wouldn’t (see my comments about being conceited above). All the other contestants seem pretty happy about Sharone losing because he’s a “kiss ass,” according to Jake. And Slim just flat out says “I don’t like that dude.” My. I looove it when contestants don’t get along. More yogurt pretzels please!
Jake wins for the dish closest resembling Cat’s. Mike, Slim, and Faruq are in the bottom three. It didn’t take a rocket chef to realize Faruq was going to get diced and sliced. He’s been struggling for a while. At least we won’t have to watch him cry anymore.
Faruq does say that he “didn’t have a chance to show what I can do in a kitchen.” Um. Huh? Yes. Yes, you did.
And then there were ten. But I’ll tell you about that in part two of my review!
Clacked by Tara Shrodes
on Aug 26, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
I like the show because it’s a nice break from the manic Gordon Ramsey that sometimes gives me an anxiety attack while watching Hell’s Kitchen. But the structure of the show is really annoying at times. Like, there are certain cheftestants who rarely, if ever, get to speak on camera or have their food tasted (like Lee, for example). They’re obviously focusing on the people who are going to make it to the finals, so it’s really not much of a surprise as to who stays and leaves each week. Once these others get some real camera time, then we’ll know their time is up. And by now, if you watch enough of these shows, you know (as you pointed out) that when someone does get some camera time to talk about how great they’ll do in a challenge, that they will fail miserably. Every competition show does this. We know all of the tricks! Find some new ones – like letting the other people talk to throw us off! And where has all of this hate for Sharone come from? We’ve certainly not seen any massive ego on display on camera. The comments certainly caught me off guard because he seems to be a confident but humble guy. For Jake to call Sharone a “kiss ass” made my head spin because not five minutes earlier he was kissing each judge’s behind after they complimented his cupcake! I was thinking, “Shut up already and get back to your stove!” Geez! Jake seems to have more of an ego than Sharone, but that is for part two!
Chuck, I hear ya. My husband and I keep wondering who Tony, Lee, Sheetal are in terms of their cooking. I also thought we’d see more of David by this time. It’s all in the editing with these types of shows, I suppose. I like Jake, but you’re right. He can be a kiss ass as well. Have you ever noticed that people accuse others of what they are themselves? I find that interesting. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment!
Yep, it’s all in the editing. Yeah, David started out front and center but seems to be fading into oblivion as far as the editors are concerned. Lee got more screen time last night, so I thought he was doomed. Jake gets way too much screen time, so I have to assume he makes it to at least the final three if not two. But he goes from his “I can’t believe I’m here” to “I’m the best here” from interview to interview and he does have a tendency to elevate himself above the others. No ego there, eh? I does make me crazy when they’re judging the food and Ramsey says, “Ahnd lahst but naht least” and there are still three people standing there who we didn’t see being judged! Maybe if they went to the food instead of making the chefs run a half mile to the judging area, there would be more time to see everyone’s food and we as viewers would at least be a little more surprised when someone gets eliminated.
ROFL, I love me some Ravioli & Isles! I have much the same fixation with Angie Harmon you do with your Gordon :) But back to Masterchef, the show is growing on me too! I like that these guys don’t profess to be Cordon Bleu trained chef’s and are still doing a pretty damn good job.
I cried myself silly as the frosting slid off Tracie’s cupcake and I just said aloud “Rhut Rho Scooby Doo”
And would I have loved to been at the counter just watching Cat making her dish with a chance to kibbutz and smack talk her then concede defeat and eat her dish!
Oh and did you see the ads for the next Hells Kitchen in Sept? Gordon Rules the Airwaves :)
*POST AUTHOR*
Bronsont, as you can imagine, I’m all a twitter for the return of my nasty nasty Gordon in September! Thanks for reading! Oh, and you can have Ravioli and Island Woman. I secretly think Angie Harmon is why my husband makes me watch it too.