MasterChef 2014

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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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Is Roux Jnr even in it this time as I know he has split from the BBC?

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.

 

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not too many duds who are wasting everyone's time.

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.

 

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They're arrogant *****. The abroad ones are far better.

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?

 

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So, finally managed to start catching up with MasterChef and I’m enjoying the changes they appear to have made since last year’s series. I don’t think they’d swapped the Invention and ‘Own Food’ tests round last year, had they?!

Anyway, I think it’s an inspired change from the usual format. Allowing all the contestants to show their abilities early-doors and then put them through an invention test does seem to make more sense than doing it round the other way. It's strange how a little change like that can make such a difference, especially in how you perceive the individual contestants.

I also really liked seeing Torode cook from the very boxes the contestants were being given, although we could have done without Greg's usual mugging to camera throughout the section. As before, was this in last year's series? I remember Torode doing some cooking, especially when showing the dish he wanted the contestants to replicate, but I don't recall him doing invention tests.

And do the contestants get to see the contents of both the invention test boxes before they pick one? I couldn’t quite work that out from what I’ve watched this far – some episodes allude to them being able to peer in first, where others show them discarding one box without having opened it. I guess it doesn’t really matter, but it would be an interesting additional twist if they kept the contestants in the dark right up until the reveal of the contents.

All-in-all, I'm enjoying MasterChef a lot more than I thought I would. It's been very interesting to see what all the previous finalists have been up to and play 'spot the missing one' from the bunch they have assembled and I think the only aspect that hasn't sat well for me so far is making the contestants stand in front of the them and introduce their dishes.

It's cringeworthy and, with the menus being on the tables, totally unnecessary.

 

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I'd agree with you there. I'm only one week in but I wouldn't say that either of the two that went through has earned it - glaring mistakes from others have secured their places rather than their own individual brilliance.

 

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they have to pick the box blind. it's only then they get 10 minutes to prep their menu/ideas before cooking starts.

Great - I thought that might be the case, but it wasn't overly clear from the episodes I've watched thus far.

 

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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

Just watched Micheal's first episode and I'm really surprised by what he chose to cook for the final round. He was that close to getting knocked out due to some really silly little mistakes and poor menu planning.

I reckon his best dish was the mackerel with the beetroot, which bodes well for the future. If he can come up with that in an invention test, he's got the necessary skills to succeed in the competition.

EDIT: Not entirely sure he got through to the next round by virtue of his own skill, but here's there nonetheless. He muffed the palate test up and I thought his salad was messy and lacked textural and visual variety, but Peter Griffin seemed impressed and he's hard to impress at the best of times.

Good work, sir.

 

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Jack doesn't seem to have been professionally-trained from where I'm sitting. He's made far too many basic mistakes for that and he'd be a lot better at presentation if he'd been through catering college or similar, so I just think he's done his homework, as it were.

My bet would be that he's got foodie parents, gets to eat out a lot and has been been fortunate enough to have some cooking lessons along the way. If the foodies parents guess is accurate, he'll no doubt have grown up in a home environment where he's got access to countless cookbooks and is able to experiment and learn.

It'll be fascinating to see what he does in the semis, as he's not really done anything that unexpected. All the dishes he could practice beforehand have been executed with a reasonable degree of success and he's been relatively fortunate in the invention and palate tests. He's also been relatively immune to criticism from the judges, which someone more senior than him wouldn't have got away with.

Take nothing away from him though - for someone of his age, he's extremely impressive and you can only learn so much before talent kicks in and takes you the rest of the way.

 

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Finally up-to-date following a MasterChef marathon and I think there's a fairly robust mix of personalities and abilities on show thus far.

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Robert - clearly someone with fine dining experience, albeit from an eating point of view and not necessarily from a cooking one. Seems to have lots of big ideas and wants to show off a range of skills, but is incredibly messy in the kitchen and makes silly little errors that bely his outwardly confident appearance. If he can take a step back and accept he doesn't yet know everything, he could be a contender.

Dani - needlessly fussy presentation aside, a fairly decent cook but one with limited ability. I'm not sure he's got the skills and the wide-ranging knowledge of cuisine to win, but if he's able to keep within his comfort zone he could make the final rounds. I just don't think he's got what it takes and his lack of cooking knowledge could well trip him up in the next stage.

David - my pick for the title. Seems very capable and has a fairly robust skill-set and knowledge of cuisine that could and should see him through to the final three at the very least. I only see his plating-up as a real weakness, but that's easy enough to brush up on and his use of flavours and techniques afford him a good foundation on which to improve. He's also relatively humble about his abilities, which is always a winner with me.

Angela - not sure she's got the temperament to make the final rounds, but she's certainly got the necessary skills. At times her cooking looks almost effortless and that's the mark of a great cook. If she starts taking it seriously she could make a real go of it and it's a refreshing change to see an older female contestant with the qualities that she has.

Micheal - I feel he's trying too hard to impress and he lacks wide-ranging skills, although he's clearly a competent cook. If he can reign himself in a little and stick to concentrating on flavours and presentation over technique and gimmicks, he could make the final three. He's certainly got the capability to learn and improve, which is an important factor in winning MasterChef.

Ping - until she's taken well outside her comfort zone we won't know just how good she is, but there's a degree of capability there and she's certainly impressed John. Technically she seems sound and she's not shy with her flavours, but can those skills translate to other cuisines?

Jack - he's good, but I don't know if he's good enough. He seems to be a very capable 'one dish' cook - to me, it looks like he's learned to cook a plate of food through repetition but he doesn't actually appear to understand the techniques that underpin them. I'd like to see more of his cooking where he's not been able to plan the dish well in advance.

Luke - I remain unconvinced by him. While he seems skilled and technically adept, watching the snippets of him revealed (to me, at least) that he's got a long way to go. I just think he lacks the basic foundations upon which a great MasterChef champion is borne and may well get found out during the next round.

Theo - bit of a cheeky chappy, which is already grating on me, but he's a competent cook and has shown relative skill with a wide range of cuisines. My main concern with him is that he's shown himself to be okay-ish at everything and hasn't really nailed a dish yet. I don't think he going to be good enough when it matters.

I'm hoping we get a couple more decent candidates out of next week - would be good to see a couple of female contestants make the grade so we get an even mix in the semis.

How did it play out last year after the preliminary rounds had been seen off? I dropped out at this stage and only came back in for the final three.

 

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Such a strange final week of heats - some absolutely awful cooking on display and one has to wonder how some of these people made it through to the televised stages. There has to be better out there than some of these muppets.

But despite those who fell by the wayside early, I had high hopes for the final four this week - yet there were so many glaring errors with their cooking it wasn't a great surprise that things panned out as they did. I'm not sure whether I'm more annoyed about their utter capitulation or for them giving the hateful Kate Spicer plenty of ammunition to whinge about.

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Sophie - love her. She's honest about her food, she's very down to earth and humble about her cooking and she appears to have a genuine passion for what she cooks. I want her to do well and I hope she gets the chance to shine.

 

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she did one bad dish and was axed.

She had done okay, but certainly hadn't done enough to give her immunity from one bad dish and let the judges base their decision on her past efforts alone.

From the moment she announced she was trying to marry the flavours and textures of red bream and mussels with apple and a curry sauce, you knew she was on a hiding to nothing and the dish itself just confirmed that.

Over-salted, badly-grilled fish sitting on top of overcooked mussels, chunks of apple, tenderstem broccoli and a curry sauce all dumped into a deep plate? All it achieved was to undo all her previous efforts and dump her out of the competition.

 

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It did surprise me - but that was a mess especially considering it was meant to be a signature dish.

Was a massive shock for me as well - had high hopes for her and was looking forward to the sides being evened-up in the knockout stages as both her and Sophie seemed strong contenders.

Been a bit new to me following these early rounds as I haven't done so for a few years. I think there's been a good standard overall but the heard seem rather inconsistent.

Like you, I've not really paid much attention to the preliminary stages, but on reflection it seems to be more evenly-matched than last year with no real stand-out candidate for the title... yet.

The worst part for me is still Gregg. He really doesn't seem to know much about food, and it mystifies me as to why he was ever chosen as a presenter. This week's gem was suggesting Megan could poison him serving him crab gills - he repeated this myth 3 times

I'm actually finding him really funny this year - his flagrant mugging to camera and banter with Torode have been really amusing.

I can't believe I'm actually saying that, but perhaps he's finally worn me down!

Looking forward to the semis but I think I'll struggle to retain any kind of objectivity!

This series was filmed around October/November, if the usual schedule holds true - I hope your friend has been keeping a big secret for all that time!

Speaking of which, do you think your friend would be up for a reddit-esque AMA session about MasterChef if we asked nicely? There's so many questions I want to ask!

 

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Caught up with this week's episodes and I'm not overly surprised at what happened. For the most part they've all showed off more of the same and I don't think you could argue with the people who were shown the door and the reasons for their departure.

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David - made a mess of the pro kitchen and was far too lackadaisical in his approach. After one order that he'd managed to get out without too much hassle he seemed to decide that being a professional chef was easy and that the rest of service was going to be a piece of cake. And how wrong he was. Looked totally out of his depth throughout and I'm not surprised he isn't going to be playing a part in the rest of the competition. I really thought I saw something in his cooking, but clearly I was mistaken - although it did amuse me how fitting it was that his previously lauded sauces were his downfall on his two final dishes.

Michael - he appears to have the skills and necessary temperament to make the final three, but he keeps making silly mistakes and he desperately needs to stop trying so hard. I was impressed at the way he handled the prep in the pro kitchen but I was shocked he made so many fundamental errors during service and didn't seem to be able to cope with the pressure that was mounting. His grouse dish was fairly decent but his cod dish almost undone him - I think it's fair to say he is a lucky boy to still be in the competition.

Ping – clearly the front-runner for the title and I'll be amazed if she doesn't make the final three. In the pro kitchen she was a machine - she blazed through the prep with ease and was on top of service from the off. Everything she does seems to be an improvement on the last thing and she's stepping well outside of her comfort zone with some of her dishes. I've really warmed to her over the last three episodes and I hope she continues where she's left off.

Jack – I still don't rate him as highly as some of the others, yet he's still there and there's no reason why someone else's mistakes couldn't see him through in their place. I just don't think he's got it in him to win. He was all over the place in the pro kitchen, his pigeon dish was a triumph of style over substance and his pork dish had all the hallmarks of someone cooking from a recipe and not really understanding what they were putting on the plate, as the lack of season showed.

Sophie –went to pieces in the pro kitchen and seemed to be affected by the growing realisation that she didn’t have the technical skills she felt she ought to have. If she had a little more confidence in her ability I think she’d have got through service without a hitch, but you saw the point at which she’d decided MasterChef wasn’t for her. I think her invention test was just a lazy effort at putting something on the table in front of the judges and she really didn’t care what happened as a result. Shame, as I’d really warmed to her.

Dani – culinary naive and almost completely lacking in finesse, it wasn't a surprise to see him go. While he worked reasonably well in the pro kitchen, his invention test looked like he’d thrown the food at the plate and some of the components had no place on the dish whatsoever - he couldn't even justify their place to the judges! And as soon as he announced his crab and scallop ravioli and I saw he was trying to make focaccia in 80-minutes, I sat back and waited for the inevitable to happen.

Luke – I really can’t warm to him and he seems far too overconfident, but he performed reasonably well in the pro kitchen, albeit with a very simple dish to execute. But his invention test was an absolute joke and he would surely have been out had it not been for Sophie's destruction. In the final round last week I was surprised at how received his buffet plate was by the judges and even more surprised about his really annoying laugh. He's got to go!

Angela – didn’t see much of her during service in the pro kitchen, which says to me she was just knuckling down and getting on with things, yet the food coming out from her section seemed to be received pretty well. I thought her invention test sounded fantastic, but she completely messed up on the presentation and there were some glaring technical errors, yet she got through on flavour and then repeated the trick for the final dish of the week. Good on her - she makes me smile and she genuinely appears to be enjoying herself.

Robert – made a complete mess of a really simple dish in the pro kitchen and then managed to pull a treacle tart of of his bag of tricks that had all three judges going back for more. I get the opinion that he thinks he knows more than he actually does and tries to be a little too clever than his capabilities allow. And what was going on with his final dish?! That smoked salmon 'beach' sounded ridiculous, looked ridiculous and should have been hammered for being a disjointed piece of cooking. I'm surprised he got off so lightly.

Theo - thankfully we didn't have to endure the tiresome cheeky chappy act for too long. He looked completely out of his depth in the pro kitchen and his choice of dish for the three judges was a non-starter from the off. You could see by the way he'd butchered the fish and was just throwing things together that he was trying to swim upstream and failing miserably.

Next week looks really interesting and I think we've got a strong final six, each with a very different take on food. I'm hoping for some fantastic cooking over the next few episodes and I'm praying that someone manages give Danny Dyer food poisoning.

I also really hope that mackerel dish being served up in the Tower of London is from Michael - it looks very similar to the one he pulled out earlier in the competition and it's just the sort of pared-back food he ought to be cooking.

 

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Two things confused me greatly this week. Firstly, there were at least two instances where people were using digital probes to measure temperature. I thought they were banned from the MasterChef kitchens as, otherwise, why aren't they all using them?

Could there perhaps be some sort of guidance that you can only use them for specific applications and you're unable to use them for, say, checking doneness? That said, Michael seemed to use one to check his cod was okay, didn't he?

And on the subject of Michael, I'm amazed he was using oil with his PolyScience Creative - I thought it was only the Classic that had that capability. To me it would have made more sense to seal the fish in a bag and then put that in the water, but I guess he had his reasons for approaching the cooking in the way that he did.

 

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Meant to ask him why he did the cod like that, I'm with you on that point, can't see the benefit.

Can you ask him if his PolyScience is still working?

MNot sure what was wrong with that cod dish, I quite liked the sound of it though.

I wasn't sure about the multiple textures of cauliflower on the dish with just the leek to balance things up - the judges comments about a lack of depth were pretty fair, assuming he hadn't done anything with the cauliflower to vary the flavour.

That said, a very similar dish was served up last year in the semi-finals, albeit one with a heavy Moroccan influence, and the judges were falling over themselves to praise it.

Something must have been missing from Michael's dish to get the reaction he did. Torode looked thoroughly unimpressed and he's usually pretty fair with his critique.

MAs for Gregg's 'what's an immersion circulator??' Surely that's not the first time anyone has used one on there

I'm pretty sure that's the first time someone has felt it necessary to bring their own one in, as they have plenty of Clifton baths around the place.

Ultimately there was no need for it as the fish could and probably should have been cooked in a bag in a water bath, so Greg making such a big deal about it was the right thing to do.

And as Moses has already mentioned. there's a large percentage of the audience who wouldn't have a clue what it was, so there's that aspect to cover as well.

 

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Right - the answer is, he was worried about damaging the texture of the fish with the vac sealer. I expect it's controllable but without one of those chamber sealers at home I guess it's not an issue.

Fair comment - easier to replicate the exact conditions you've been using at home than shell out a couple of grand on a chamber sealer.

What did he do with the califlower for the cous cous? Were there additional ingredients added or did he just blitz roasted cauliflower up .

There's no problem using thermapens in the competition - and yes you have to wonder why everyone doesn't do it!

Well, that is a huge surprise. I honestly thought they were prohibited equipment.

 

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Interesting on the way they've split the final six into two teams - for me, the most interesting and likely candidates for the final three are all in one team!

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Jack - he's young, he's clever and he's very capable in the kitchen, so providing he can get through the next week without making a complete mess of something, he's got as good a chance as any to make the final three. And once he's got there, providing he can knock out a three course meal that has all the technical skills he's been shown to possess, but manages to makes it taste good at the same time, there's nothing to say he can't be the champion. I still question whether he actually understands what he's doing as at times it looks like he's just relying on following a recipe, but there's no denying the boy's got style.

Michael - if he can reign himself in and stop trying to overcomplicate things, he should make the final three. I think it all depends on who he gets sent to cook with in the final stages and whether they can impart their wisdom on him sufficiently to bring him back to the sort of food he was cooking in the first two rounds and steer him away from the overtly-technical approach he seems hell-bent on taking. I find myself empathising with him more and more as the weeks go on as I think I get where he's coming from with his ideas and approach, but it's not me he needs to convince.

Ping - I don't think she's had a single dish which absolutely blew the judges away, but she has managed to be the most consistent of all the contestants and hasn't made any silly mistakes. She was also the only person to utterly nail the pro kitchen, which should stand her in good stead for the coming weeks. A major plus-point is that her brand of fusion-esque cooking is just what the judges are looking for in a MasterChef winner and, thus far at least, she seems completely unflappable. I'd like to see her win.

 

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Oh I don't know, it served a purpose. It's a free advert for a BBC show and it puts the contestants into a challenging environment and makes them think on their feet. The biggest surprise for me was how efficiently they worked and that there weren't any major stuff-ups along the way.

The only downside was that nobody managed to nobble Dyer's food - truly a missed opportunity.

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Ping - another strong showing running a service in the kitchen and you could tell her team were enjoying themselves throughout. Very, very impressive work from her to get everything organised and keep things calm under that amount of pressure. Less impressed with her individual dish though - making a chocolate fondant in seventy minutes isn't particularly difficult and hers didn't look that attractive, although it was oozing from the middle like a good fondant ought to. Surprised at just how dull her plating was and why she underused that peanut butter mousse - it sounded amazing!

Michael - I really don't know what he's playing at as there is simply no way that I know of to water bath lamb neck fillet in seventy minutes unless you are capable of stopping time. I've had neck fillet in a water bath for seven hours and it's still not been done! Given he owns an immersion circulator, did he test the dish thoroughly beforehand? And if he did, how on Earth did he get that neck to cook through?! I'm just frustrated by him - he can do a lot better and should be wowing the judges by now. I know he said he wanted to go back to where he started on the competition, but this dish wasn't a return to form. And they've picked up on his over-salting again, which concerns me.

Luke - very, very surprised he's still around after that mess of a dish, but I can only assume they have kept him in because he has more depth to his cooking and more to offer than Robert, who I felt cooked the better dish. I really hope he doesn't get to the final week as he's not shown anything like the talent of the other four and doesn't seem to be as interested in the competition as the others are. Perhaps it's a personality thing, but either way I'm not warming to him and I don't want him knocking any other the others out.

Angela - I think she's going to make the final four but fall short of greatness through her continued struggles with presentation. That hare dish looked like someone else had already been having a go at eating it before it got to the judges and she's nowhere near being capable of the sort of naturalistic presentation she's aiming for. If she can sort that out, and she yet might, could her bold flavours and top-notch cooking see her through to the final week? She's arguably performing well enough...

Robert - slightly surprised to see him go, but based on that mish-mash of a dish and the lack of progression from the start, he arguably had to. Nothing about his cooking has changed over the weeks and for someone who professed a great culinary knowledge, he was too reliant on cookbooks from the seventies and eighties and 'dinner party' food which just didn't work in the competition format.

Jack - another fondant and one, for me, that looked overdone. Even if it's been sat there waiting to be judged, it had a crust about an inch thick and that's an utter failure for a fondant, plus everything else on the plate was easy to make and it all could have been achieved that in half the time. I have to question what he was doing with the seventy minutes and what he should have done instead to make that dish exceptional.

Looks like it's John Campbell in charge of things at the Tower of London tomorrow - should be excellent.

 

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Looks like it's John Campbell in charge of things at the Tower of London tomorrow - should be excellent.

Well, at least I got the chef right...

Love John Campbell's cooking. Such a fantastic culinary mind.