MasterChef 2014

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glitch

Soldato
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It's back and it starts tonight at 9pm on BBC One.

Now, I've got to admit that my interest in the UK version has waned over the years and at times I had to force myself to watch last year's offering, with my Sky+ taking the brunt of things so I could FFWD through the boring bits.

But that said, once we got rid of the usual assortment of idiots seemingly only in the competition for amusement and the decent people were left, things improved immeasurably and the final three were worthy of their place with Natalie proving to be an amiable winner.

I'm still not sure if I'm happy with the manner of her victory - it felt like she was crowned champion by virtue of making less mistakes than the other two, rather than being outstandingly good - but she's proved herself to be a good all-rounder in the time that's followed and she ought to do well for herself.

What say you, fellow Cuisine-ists? Are you going to watch this year or has it all got a bit too much to take?

NB. If anyone is interested, this is one of the things Dayle and Larkin have been up to since the show last year. Larkin's also got his own website and Natalie's been busy, doing plenty of stages in top restaurants along with keeping her own page up-to-date.

PS. Cool litte MasterChef generator thingy to play with here.
 
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I'll certainly watch it just to see how it is likely to pan out. I like watching people sweat over the technical challenges. Is Roux Jnr even in it this time as I know he has split from the BBC?
 
PapaLazaru said:
Is Roux Jnr even in it this time as I know he has split from the BBC?
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Unlikely due to the potato thing, but I don't remember him making much of an appearance on the 'normal' version of MasterChef.

He's certainly not doing Professionals this year, that's for sure.
 
Moses said:
not too many duds who are wasting everyone's time.
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We can but hope, but it's never likely to happen.

For a show that's so focused on cooking we're seeing less actual cooking and more incidental stuff as the years roll on - couple that with the complete spanners who are put in for amusement factor and it gets a little tiresome at the start of the series. It's also very easy to pick the ones who will make it through - the second I saw Dayle and Larkin cook last year, I knew they'd make it to the final few weeks.

What really annoys me is that I can't believe they are incapable of finding 24 (or whatever the number is) quality home cooks who all show promise and know their stuff. You should be able to make an amazing series out of that, but instead we get a mixture of the good ones and the ones who don't know which end of a knife to hold.

And I refuse to believe that it's just the pressure that gets to these people and they go a bit potty as a result. They don't seem to know their arse from their elbow and seem to be picked to the detriment of people who are actually capable cooks.
 
I might give it a watch as there's sod all else on, but I hate the judges on the uk version. They're arrogant *****. The abroad ones are far better.
 
Glaucus said:
They're arrogant *****. The abroad ones are far better.
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I don't think they are arrogant, they've just slowly become caricatures of themselves over the years. Torode's actually a rather nice chap in person - very amiable.

That said, I don't think anyone could argue that the foreign versions have a more balanced judging line-up with relevant experience and better chemistry. I'd like to see the UK version brought more into-line with the Australian version, but who would replace them?
 
Glaucus said:
I might give it a watch as there's sod all else on, but I hate the judges on the uk version. They're arrogant *****. The abroad ones are far better.
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So funny how people always think they know someone from their persona in the media. As though they've never heard of a producer's influence.
 
Thought I'd bump this as my friend was on last night, and some of you may have noticed he made it through! He somehow got the sodium citrate a bit wrong in the cheese sauce hence the seasoning issue in the mac n cheese, and i think he was a bit ambitious with the brisket chilli cooking time, but hopefully he'll do well tomorrow night in the quarter finals :)
 
Yea, I think so too with the brisket. Just cutting it a bit fine, so over pressure cooked it to try and make up for timing, you think? Showed some great skills though, so looking forward to seeing him tonight.
 
randomshenans said:
Yea, I think so too with the brisket. Just cutting it a bit fine, so over pressure cooked it to try and make up for timing, you think? Showed some great skills though, so looking forward to seeing him tonight.
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I think it was overdone, but wasn't a good idea to dice it first, better to use a whole chunk and then shred it after I think! Either way an hour is never going to be enough!
 
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