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MasterChef

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Here is the latest from the FOX network on changing time slots for Master Chef:

Tuesdays (July 27-August 10)
9:00/8:00c - "Masterchef"

Wednesdays (as of August 18)
8:00/7:00c - "Masterchef" (Two-Hours)

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Propaganda from the FOX Network:

 In just two weeks, Gordon Ramsay brings the world's biggest cooking competition to America on Tuesday, July 27 at 9/8c! The new series takes amateur chefs, many of whom simply cook as a hobby, and attempts to turn one of them into a culinary master. Contestants on MASTERCHEF will be put through the paces with various challenges as they compete head-to-head to create delicious dishes. The series will serve as a unique platform for people from all walks of life who want to follow their dream of working as a professional chef. These contestants will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show their passion and excitement for food as their skills and palate are tested with the hopes of becoming the winner of MASTERCHEF.

With Ramsay at the helm of the competition, restaurateur wine maker Joe Bastianich and four-star chef Graham Elliot join the show, and together, they coach and judge the contestants along the way. Bastianich is a partner of Mario Batali and has established some of New York's most-celebrated restaurants, including Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, Lupa Osteria Romana and Del Posto. Graham Eilliot is the youngest four-star chef in the U.S. and the mastermind behind Chicago's first "bistronomic" restaurant, Graham Elliot. "I'm hugely excited to have Joe and Graham join me as judges on MASTERCHEF," said Ramsay. "Both bring a phenomenal wealth of expertise and professional experience to the show."


Note that the statement that Graham Elliott is the youngest 4-star chef tells you that the rating system referred to is definitely not MIchelin, which tops out at 3 starts. I have heard of 5 star chefs, which are probably using the MOBIL rating system. It would be nice to have just one system; I propose that henceforth all restaurant ratings (actually they are owner ratings, not chef ratings) be using the Michelin system. That means all 4 star and 5 star chef claims will be bogus. Understand that I am not knocking Graham Eliott Bowles who based on two Top chef Masters stints is a fine chef.

TexasLady:
Propaganda.  :lol:

I'll give it a shot. This reminds me of another show that was similar. I think on the Food Network with two teams. It made such a big impression on me that I can't even recall anything more about it, except I think they had a Red and Blue team with a male and female chef coach.

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Kris De Leon of buddy Tv wrote this on the new Gordon Ramsay/FOX collaboration Master Chef, premiering tomorrow night at 9pm EDT on FOX:

Gordon Ramsey has trained and tortured chefs to become the best that they can be on Hell's Kitchen, he's exposed viewers to the world of food preparation and celebrity food fads on The F Word, and has rescued failing restaurants on Kitchen Nightmares. Now he's on a new mission to turn non-professional chefs into kitchen superstars with his new series, Masterchef.

Based on the British program, Masterchef is a competition series that gives ordinary people who can cook well, despite never having been formally trained, to shine in their own right. Contestants on this show will be put through various challenges and will be judged by world-renowned chefs.

"Gordon Ramsay is the biggest cooking star on television today and one of the most dynamic personalities on FOX, so we jumped at the opportunity to work with him to bring Masterchef to the U.S.," FOX president Mike Darnell said in a statement. "Masterchef searches for people who possess that perfect blend of creativity, innovation and passion for creating great dishes - rather than focusing on running a kitchen - that earns them the title of MasterChef."

However, these everyday at-home cooks will also have to deal with Chef Ramsay's hard truth and no-nonsense advice when it comes to their cooking, which can be a little hard to swallow considering Ramsay is known for his explosive outbursts

Masterchef premieres on Tuesday, July 27 on FOX.


Tara Spicer of Buddy TV has written:

Unless you've been living in a cave your whole life--hunting and gathering food while the rest of the world watches it on TV--you've probably see at least one of the many chef shows currently in rotation. Top Chef, Master Chef, Hell's Kitchen, and Kitchen Nightmares  are just a few of the competition shows causing nationwide cravings (and my own personal longing to flambe something) and reminding amateur chefs everywhere that they, too, can achieve culinary greatness.
Well. Some of them anyway.
 
In Masterchef, a new series based on Britain's hit TV program, amateur chefs (translation: doctors, software engineers, guys in overalls, and whoever finds deep personal meaning in holding a spatula) converge from all corners of the country in the hopes that their baked potatoes/fish tacos/mac and cheese will win them the title of "Masterchef" and their very own cookbook.
 
In watching the Masterchef trailer, I can't help but be reminded of American Idol.  The formula is a predictable one: an obscenely long line of hopefuls screaming at the camera, a panel of three judges (Graham Elliot, Joe Bastianich, and the infamous Gordon Ramsay who easily trumps Simon Cowell both in snark and shirt size), and an "audition" where each amateur chef has to prepare a dish before the unblinking glare of all three judges. And, like American Idol, I predict there will be plenty of crying, monologues about people's moms, and video montages chronicling each contestant's "personal journey." Yawn. Let's just say what the real draw of this show will be: Gordon Ramsay. Being mean to people.  And Graham Elliot's distractingly white spectacles.
 
The show premiers July 27 on FOX, and I fully intend on tuning in on a full stomach so I don't crave seared ahi tuna or seafood bouillabaisse.

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100 CHEFS COMPETE

Due top my unagile fingers, I wiped out my entire recap of last night's premiere, so I am writing it a second time.

The premiere of Master Chef starts with an impossible premise, that you can turn the "best of America's home cooks (a bit of hyperbole there) into Master chefs in however long this series took to film, probably one month plus or minus. The traditional way of doing that is culinary school, followed by years of apprenticing in some sine dining restaurants to learn the ropes, then certifications as a master chef and finally, becoming a master chef. Gordon Ramsay, in his zeal to become the mentor of new culinary talent in the U.S., has proposed a way to do that.  The voiceover announcer stated that master chefs must demonstrate skill, passion, flair and potential. The prize is $2150,000 plus the publication of your own cookbook (which depending on how it's done could be valuable or not worth much). So, how much interests was there in competing for the single prize, with the other prizes being the opportunity to learn under 2 of America's and one of Britain's master chefs? there were "thousands of applicants" from which a pool of 100 was chosen to go to Los Angeles to narrow the instruction class to only 30. I will hazard a guess that  multiple cooks will be dropped in each episode to reach a final group of 2 or 3 competing for the title.

Approximately half of the 100 chefs listened to Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliott Bowles (note - for their resumes see a posting above), who are all acclaimed master chefs. I believe Ramsay got there at age 28 after careful apprenticeships, Bastianich inherited the genes from his more-famous mother TV chef Lilian Bastianich and Bowles I am not sure about when he became a master chef. However, it is clear that all three are well-qualified for the roles of both instructor (which we will not see much of for the first 2 episodes) and judge. The first task is to cook their signature dish. In future episodes we can expect that the challenges will involve feeding an Army unit and catering a wedding reception.

This show has FOX.Arthur Smith/Kent Weed using their tried and tried overdramatization formula with cliffhangers before commercial breaks and much pathos. If they wanted to be serious competition for the BRAVO top Chef series, which is the closest in concept to what is being done here except the instruction is embedded in comments about the positive and negative things the real chefs there have received for their Quickfire challenges and elimination challenges, FOX must cut the crap and focus more on the inherent drama of the competition. I expect to see a lot of trash talking and bursts of ego in future weeks. After all, even top chef and especially Hell's Kitchen highlight those.

The contestants in a carefully timed sequence started cooking on mobile compact kitchen units (the real star of the first episode) 60 minutes before they were due to finish, plate and present their signature dish before the judges. The judges are obviously negative immediately, clearly positive or on the fence in their verbal reactions to tasting each dish. There are a number of contestants who provided some pathos and were did not make the cut on last night's first episode. My favorite was the woman who played professional soccer in Brazil and was fawning all over Ramsay (hadn't she heard that Ramsay is happily married and would never allow on-screen dalliance?) whose tilapia tacos with mango sauce were judged not up to the standard for making the cut (perhaps a better fish might have done it). The footage only showed 9 cooks make that cut, although the voiceover announcer said that "more than half" (meaning at least 16) did so. I can predict that next week's choices for a few remaining spots are going to be dramatic and traumatic.

Here is a listing of what the 9 chefs shown as passing made and the commentary (if any) with all references to the instructors/judges using first name only for brevity:

Mike 42 server CA, Duck Ssams with orange miso sauce -  all 3 judges have comments like "brilliant and extraordinary", balanced and "spices and miso worked very well", also praising that Mike "moves fast like a master chef" in the kitchen and clearly cooked like a chef
woman, Caesar aalad with chipotle sauce
a 61 year old woman who Gordon told Joe that he was obligated to"give her an apron" after asking so many questions
a guy
Dr. Tracy Naylor, a 42 year old physician with father present and young child at home who emphasized her culinary heritage from her mother including a recipe book that she brought with her for good luck - smothered pork, which all  judges liked a lot but Joe asked if she could "take it to the next level" with instruction
a software engineer from MA, New England style bouillabaisse with French bread crouton and rouille - this guy came in over the top and impressed the judges with his arrogance until Gordon told him that a more humble approach would be needed if he was to survive, his flavors impressed the judges but Gordon told him that real bouillabaisse must take 2 days to cook and cannot be hurried into 1 hour; the vote was split but he made it
Josh a rancher
Christine LA who I am going to name the drama queen for her emotional outbursts, Cajun Catfish with Creamy Shrimp sauce - she cooks in the Cajun new Orleans style; Gordon found her catfish cooked perfectly but her pasta off, Joe said pasta terrible adn there was a split vote but she got yeses from Gordon and Graham
Farug a young man with wife and young child present, "sheikh" macaroni and cheese with bread crumb topping and Parmesan butterflies - Gordon told him to ditch the butterflies as they were superfluous and that cooking a simple dish like mac and cheese required perfect results; Farug's results were not perfect only because he had underseasoned the dish with not enough salt or pepper; this was one of those split votes; Gordon told him to take the salt mill with him and learn how to use it sparingly

The preview of next week's episode revealed that we can expect these 4 situations:
a woman given an extra 2 hours to go home, cook the best dish ever and come back to present it
a man with 3 fingers on each hand
a woman who Gordon told Graham he needed ot change his vote and go out to the audience and "give that woman an apron"
a man Graham says he will sponsor and personally mentor

So, the question you have no doubt waiting to have me answer is: Do I recommend this show for future viewing? I cannot give you an answer for another 2 weeks, as next week will be another sorting out process to select those needed to make the magic "30". The following episode will be the first instruction, which I expect to be extremely rapid fire just like Ramsay does on Hell's Kitchen, no doubt to emphasize the need for speed. I will let you know when I have seen the first instructional episode.

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