Master Chef

I've really gotten into cooking competition shows in the last couple of years.  I like seeing the creativity of the chefs and how they work under pressure, and how their final product rates when it comes time for judging.  Plus I like shows where people compete based upon their skills or abilities.

I didn't watch season one of Master Chef, probably because I find Gordon Ramsay's persona to be offputting whenever I see a commercial for Hell's Kitchen.  I decided to give this show a try when season two started last month, and I've been enjoying it.  It's amazing what these former home cooks can do when presented with unusual ingredients or certain restrictions to follow.  Sometimes their dishes are spectacular wipeouts, but frequently they come up with something really great.

Ramsay himself is much softer here than in the promos for Hell's Kitchen.  Yes, he still curses like a sailor when presented with a very bad dish, but it's pretty much out of disappointment in what the contestant failed to show and hasn't seemed directed toward any of the cooks as people.  He also showed a soft side with some of the contestants during the audition rounds, which surprised me.

Out of the contestants competing, there are 2 in particular that I find offputting:

• Max is an 18-year-old student who I'm guessing is a trust fund kid.  He's from a wealthy upbringing and has traveled the world extensively, dining in fine restaurants as he went.  He then would work on copying the dishes at home.  He's talented, but he has such a condescending attitude toward the other cooks.  He's very disrespectful, insulting his fellow chefs regularly, and when the other chefs' dishes are being critiqued, he has a look of absolute glee on his face, while everyone else is feeling empathy for the chef whose dish has turned out so badly.  I really really don't like him.**
• Suzy is a 27-year-old neural engineer.  She has come up with some creative dishes and has done multiple dishes for several challenges where only one finished dish was required.  Definitely an overachiever, and when judge Graham Elliot said that she reminded him of the girl in school who would always pipe up to say "Teacher, you forgot to give us homework!", she stated that she was indeed that girl.  Suzy tends to think she can do no wrong and that the judges instead made the wrong decision when her dish is in the top three but another chef's dish is chosen as the winner, regardless of critiques the judges have made, noting where her dish fell a little short.  And when the judges are complimenting her, she just stands there nodding her head with a big grin on her face that looks like she's responding with "I know.  Isn't it awesome?"  Some thank yous would go a long way for her.

Last night's episode had an elimination challenge where contestants had to make dessert.  The winner of the earlier Mystery Box challenge got to choose which ingredient he would use in the elimination challenge (he chose nuts), and which ingredient the other chefs would use (he chose coffee for them).  Max is extremely lucky that chef Alvin screwed up bigger than he did, because Max's dish was described as an ill-conceived concept with a rancid taste.  I'm bummed that Alvin made such a huge mistake with his dish, which was coffee-filled beignets with a coffee pudding.  His use of scientific methods unfortunately did not serve him well, and he went home.

**I wrote this blog post between Monday's episode and Tuesday's episode.  Max got eliminated in Tuesday's episode, and I was not sorry to see him go.  However, a new contender emerged for unlikable contestants: Christine, a 27-year-old single mom.  She has always had a tendency to swear like a sailor and she gets flustered and stressed out in many challenges, but in the aftermath of last night's elimination challenge, she got really out of hand with her behavior.  She went one-on-one against Max in cooking filets 3 ways: rare, medium and well done.  She had better seasoning, and her cooking of the meat was more spot-on in 2 of the 3 methods.

When the team leader singled out Max and Christine, Max was ticked off, but Christine just about came unhinged.  She was dancing around like a Bantam rooster, and started throwing out some punches.  She behaved in a really unprofessional way, and while the challenge was going on, she kept giving Esther, the team leader, the stink eye.  I'm guessing she won't be in the contest too much longer judging by how often she panics when they have challenges.

The nice thing is that I like most of the contestants.  My top three favorites are:

• Alejandra, a 37-year-old architect with tons of natural talent in the kitchen;
• Derrick, a 33-year-old web designer who likes to make his dishes in unorthodox ways sometimes, and it usually pays off;
• and Christian, a 31-year-old stay-at-home dad who straightened his life out after his son was born and who learned to cook so that he could feed his son good food.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this season turns out, and maybe digging up episodes of season 1 as well.