After all the talk about Australia’s great culinary excellence and creativity that’s what it came down to. The judges seemed uncomfortable with asian food, deeply impressed by OTT deserts and were heavily engaged with the winner’s propensity for emotional outbursts. Unfortunately, as with so many of these reality shows, the best competitors seem to get culled out along the way. I think a few let themselves down by thinking that creativity and presentation really mattered for much (beyond the ‘just because I can’ deserts). The winner was compelling as an average mum passionate about spreading love with her inspiring roast chooks (sage and garlic stuffing – who would have thought) – but as a chef running a 100 plate a night place perhaps not so convincing. Still great television, massive audiences and lots of debate and controversy. The advertisers who got onboard early must look and feel like marketing geniuses now. And if it gets more people interested in the pretty straight forward task of cooking good meals at home then that’s great. Personally, I thought the finals week was a disappointment.
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8 Comments
I’m the first to admit that reality TV (and TV offerings these days) is something pretty poor.
However, Masterchef did hook me and it’s been enjoyable to watch.
But, damn, it really just came across as seemingly questionable judge work in the last week
Annoyingly, in the competition where Chris got knocked out it was stressed that cook book presentation was of very high importance in judging and Julie failed to plate up anything presentable.
It just disappoints me, more than anything, to get attached to it and it fails in the last steps.
Still, I hope all of the final contestants can make a good go of what they want to do.
I agree Jarod. I gave it a wide berth for a long-time and then got sucked in and then felt let down by the format and judging of the finals week. I think the judging should have been more open (maybe a panel of industry experts) and blind (you just couldn’t help that Julie got through because she was more bankable). And I thought the best nights were when they did real cooking in kitchens like the one on the submarine. That was much more real life chefing. I would have liked to have seen that format used in the finals. Plus I think they should have compared on their ability to do the same dishes across a range of styles not just roast chook done aussie style trumps the malaysian version.
Nobody expected these amatuer cooks to be chef quality. I’m not sure but if they had any real formal training it made them ineligible. Nobody at all is presenting Julie as the best chef in australia but as the winner of an amateur competition. Perhaps part of the prize being the opportunity to work and learn in professional kitchens might be a clue. I dont know about the judging when Chris was ousted but it doesn’t take a marketing degree to realise that if you have thousands of people who cook for their families daily watching at 7pm each night that the cookbook written by Julie would be a big seller. Poh’s might be more interesting to the young professionals who write opinion pieces but the home makers are the ones who will buy the book. I liked all of the contestants from the final week and all did well.
I thought the reason the “aussie ” chook beat the “Malaysian” version was that the judges felt Poh didn’t stretch herself wheras Julie exhibited skills that she was unable to do before she started.
Sure Heathdon that’s all fine but I’m still disappointed that the program was heavily dominated by business expense type restaurants (a culture the judges embody) that few of us are ever likely to be able to frequent and which I find all a bit dull and ever so digit in the bum. There’s just so much more of interest happening in Australia than was presented on this program. Maggie Beer on the ABC and Maeve whatshername program on the SBS for instance are vastly more informative if you’re actually interested in food.
You raise some interesting points. So when did it become a competition about cookbooks? And why have Donna Hay, there are a lot better judges of cookbooks then Hay – her books are about the pictures not the recipes. And does your last par suggest that Julie won because she was most improved rather than the best?
Maybe she should have been crowned ‘most improved home cook with a naff book idea”.
I agree with previous comments – the last week was a real disappointment after so much promise, and the lack of consistency in the judging coupled with the dubious challenges so close to the final made the whole competition seem contrived.
Julie not being able to tell the difference between a shallot and an onion after THREE MONTHS of eating, sleeping, and dreaming food – doesn’t exactly indicate a cook, let alone a chef. But it’s a little difficult to blame Julie when judge George confessed complete ignorance, on more than one occasion in the final week alone, of various Asian-inspired ingredients and dishes.
Ordinary result.
Yes Alison George seemed quite limited. Like one of our previous prime ministers, George seems to think that Asia is some place to fly over on the way to Europe, and I love Greek food too but its not usually thought of as one of the world’s great cuisines is it? I think George needs to get out a little more in a culinary sense.
I might be a bit behind but with this comment but will say anyway, I agree with most that has been said execpt.. Trevor your comment about Donna Hays books being all about pictures is totally not true I have her books and magazines and her recipes are great and would be able to be cooked by any novice all real food , like Julies that is why Donna could relate.
Interesting Jane, I should have a look at Donna Hay’s work again. I remember browsing some stuff of hers years ago and thinking it was, well, a bit dull and obvious. Which I guess is the point you’re making