Saturday, March 5, 2011

Masterchef USA


So did you watch Masterchef US Season 1?

After endless episodes of 'The Bachelor/Bachelorette' (ugh!), better sence prevailed over Star World and they decided to go back to the Masterchef series.

Now, MC America was completely different from MC Australia. It was hosted by chefs and restaurant owners Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliott and Joe Bastianich (a tough tough cookie to impress). These people know food but they're Gary or George (of MC Australia)!

Gary & George were adorable! They were so friendly, always encouraging the contestants, giving constructive feedback...

The thing about Gordon Ramsay is that he's so jumpy and hyperactive that just watching him on TV can send your blood pressure soaring. And he can get really nasty if he wants to. But I find him hot in a strange, convoluted way. He took his shirt off in one of the episodes to switch into a chef's jacket, and that man has rock solid abs even at 43!!! I also found him to be the most compassionate of all judges - he was really patient and considerate towards Sheetal, a contestant of Indian origin who had grown up in a vegetarian home and used to find it tough to kill animals such as crabs (that she had to cook with) on the show!

Unfortunately, MC America was not a patch on MC Australia. First of all, it ended too soon (two & a half weeks I think). It got over before you could even get into the flow of it. There were no Masterclasses or celebrity chef cook-offs for immunity.

Secondly, the format was such that it didn't give you time or reason to root for a contestant. In MC Australia, everyone I know who watched the series had a favorite whether it was Marion or Adam or Jason. You felt like you knew a little bit of them, you would want them to win the challenges, and you wanted to see their dreams come true. No such feelings for contestants in MC US. No one I know had a favorite.

Third, the quality of contestants too was no patch on the Australian contestants. Those guys (Australians) were way more capable than the MC America contestants. They could whip up cuisines of any country - Mexican, Indian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French...they knew it all! They could tell one Indian spice from another. The MC US contestants on the other hand could make only American dishes. They could not even make Chinese! There were no spectacular dishes, nothing you would remember at the end of an episode.

Then there was the incessant crying (Tracey who cooked only out of her mom's recipe book and would cry everytime her dish got panned by the judges), Farooq (who would continuously make a victim of himself), and cocky, arrogant Jake and Sharone who thought they were better than everyone else.

The other thing I didn't appreciate was the constant bitching and trying to put others down, among the contestants. This was just not there in MC Australia! The contestants were so friendly towards each other, respected each other, and never bitched about or spoke disparagingly about a fellow contestant even when they were speaking just to the camera.

The only nice thing about MC America was Gordon Ramsay and the fact that it put an end to the horrible 'Bachelor/Bachelorette' series!!

What did you think of MC America?

7 comments:

WSW said...

Not a Gordon Ramsey fan at all-I mean compared to Gary and George none of the judges measured up. MC US was just another reality show.
PS: My expectations from the next season of Australia are so high am scared for the producers of the show ;)

Moonshine said...

The contestants were damn irritating.. and most of them were so cocky!!! There was no concept wanting to learn something new - as we all saw in MC Aus!! The contestants there were brilliant and were actually good. Here besides bitching and being cocky, they did precious little!!!

As for the judges, no one can beat Gary/ George/Matt!!! Though I did like Gordon and Joe.. they were good. But anyday, I would pick the MC Aus judges over them :) I wish to watch MC UK too now.. just to compare.. and Season 3 of MC Aus!!!!!!

And I agree, the show was tooo short!!!!!!!!! Though I wonder if I would have rooted for any contestant even if it were longer!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I agree MC Australia contestants were from a different league altogether.. But someone I like the MC US probably because i was able to watch most of the episodes. Also someone I wanted to Whitney to win, being one of the youngest and all! :)

Kalyan Karmakar said...

It was complete rubbish

Supernova said...

Yeah Gordon Ramsay is hot...thought I would hate him but found that he's not too bad...just too hyper.
What was bad was the way contestants felt that pulling each other down or boasting about themselves was the way to win. Quite revolting really after the camaraderie one saw on MC Australia.

Scarlett said...

@WSW - Apparently the producers of MC Aus were planning to change the format of the show a little bit & were asking people what changes they want to see, on FB. I'm eagerly awaiting the next season!

@Moonshine - You're right, I too probably wouldn't have rooted for any of the contestants even if the show had been longer. They were hardly talented (compared to the Aus contestants specially) and very very cocky & bitchy. The Aus contestants were so humble & friendly...I never heard any of them badmouth their competitors, even in the most stressful situations.

@Moonstruckmoony - Yeah, Whitney was one of the better ones. I thought Lee was good too.

@The Knife - And you thought AC Aus was high drama!

@Supernova - You know what, prior to MC US, I'd watched a couple of episodes of Hell's Kitchen and didn't like the show or Ramsay. So I wasnt too excited about seeing him as a judge on MC. But he was quite nice to Sheetal and would put Sharone back in his place. I liked that about him, if only he can calm down a little bit!

@

Anonymous said...

We are only now seeing MC USA in South Africa.
What an ABSOLUTE abortion of a TV show !!!
Judges are unnecessarily RUDE & obnoxious = normal for that idiot Ramsay. Think they are funny - nothing worse than false humour !!! APPALLING show !!!!!!!!!!