Some people watch sports. I watch cooking competitive reality TV shows. I have been watching MasterChef since it premiered in 2010 because I am a Gordon Ramsay fan. MasterChef has home cooks, i.e. not professional chefs, compete in individual and team competitions to determine who will win the title of MasterChef, get a cookbook deal and $250,000. Ramsay and usually two other chefs who are successful but not as recognizable as Ramsay judge the contestants. Initially the other two judges were Graham Eliot and Joe Bastianich, who may be more of a legacy cooking success because he is the son of Lidia Bastianich. At some point, Eliot and Bastianich left the show, and Christina Tosi, a baker, became a standing judge and a guest judge filled the third slot.
MasterChef has a pretty regular format. All contestants compete in the Mystery Box challenge to prepare a dish in a limited amount of time using the same ingredients. The winner of the Mystery Box challenge gets to choose elements of the Elimination Test challenge, favor or disadvantage some contestants and usually does not have to compete in that challenge. After one person is eliminated, there is a team challenge. The team captains are usually the two people who performed the best in the Elimination Challenge. The only time that the contestants compete outside of the MasterChef kitchen is during the team challenge, which can be set outdoors or in a professional kitchen at a restaurant. The people who eat the meals that the contestants prepared cast a ballot for the team that they want to win. The team that loses must compete in the Pressure Test. The judges, the winning team or the losing team captain may decide to exempt a contestant from the losing team from competing in the Pressure Test. The judges choose the loser of the Pressure Test and eliminate that person.
The only negative of MasterChef is that like reality shows like The Apprentice, contestants play a huge role in insuring that stronger cooks will be more likely to compete in elimination competitions and not be exempted. Weaker contestants can be overlooked and ultimately win. Then the MasterChef judges have to spin a yarn like Penelope and pretend that the person really developed over the course of the season or explain how that person is really nice so everyone was rooting for him cough *Luca Manfe* cough.
If you can’t tolerate the hyperbole in self-promotion regularly offered in MasterChef such as the trophy is the most sought after honor in the culinary world, then maybe you should skip MaserChef. MasterChef is as close as we may get to the British version of a Gordon Ramsay show because it involves more cooking and less sensational or degrading exploits than Hell’s Kitchen. Ramsay is constantly sneaking in some cooking tips to players who are floundering whereas the other judges are more critical and trying to establish a tougher presence. I recommend it as an entertaining diversion despite the unnecessary competitive smack talk from the players.