MasterChef: A Supersized Portion of Appetising TV

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MasterChef Australia has catapulted from just being another trashy reality TV series that fills the void between dinner and bed, to being the TV series of the decade. For many it has grown past being a form of media to become a nightly event, an aspiration, even a way of life. And it breeds. MasterChef has spawned various offspring in the forms of a MasterChef magazine, celebrity chefs and restaurants, Celebrity MasterChef and now, Junior MasterChef. Where will it stop?

The season 2 finale this year was predicted to be such a ratings success that it forced the National Election Debate between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbot to a different time slot. It certainly dominated the ratings (duh! I’ll take cooking over politics any day), with the final challenges being watched by “an average national audience of 4.63 million, while the announcement of the winner was watched by a peak audience of 5.74 million” (Bacco007, The Spy Report, 2010).
And it is not just the media who are enjoying the show’s success. Thanks to the MasterChef juggernaut, gourmet food producers and retailers are riding a wave of demand for exotic ingredients. According to Lower (2010), “As viewers try to reproduce the Ten Network show's gourmet dishes at home, pheasant, squab and quail are some of the high-end items finding their way on to shopping lists”.

So what’s going on!!!???  Why is a cooking show, (a theme traditionally reserved for the low peak daytime television media spots) drawing such a crowd? Why are men, women, boys and girls, young and old drawn to this phenomenon? Being a fan myself, I feel I can shed a little bit of light on the reasons behind this bizarre craze.

First of all, the show is hilariously overdone. Ridiculously complicated recipes made from exotic ingredients most of us have never seen before, merge in an inventive dish presentation that makes them look as though they should be in the Museum of Contemporary Art- not the kitchen.

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And these dishes are not just revealed modestly- Oh no. First the music intensifies and builds to a crescendo, and then the TV screen is immersed in flames as the show cuts to an excruciating ad break. 2 minutes later, we are brought back to the show. We watch the process all over again, and finally, with the clashing of a gong in the background, the silver lid is lifted from the plate and we get our first glimpse of the ‘Tart of Scallops and Truffles with Sweetbreads, spinach puree and Beurre Blanc’ (Season 2, 2010). Such a rush!

Another highlight is the judges. The faces of Gary, George and Matt provide constant amusement as they meticulously chew each mouthful. Concentrating hard, they derive every flavour from the dish with their highly credible celebrity tastebuds. They wield their cutlery like elegant buccaneers, and it never ceases to amaze me how in each episode they are able to dream up new and exciting similes or ways of describing the flavours. This alone keeps me coming back.

Finally, I find that the real charm of reality TV lies in its schadenfreude characteristic. Deriving pleasure from the misfortune of others is truly a wonderful way to relax in the evening and is the reason (I believe) that reality TV has become such a popular genre of programming in the past decade. I enjoy the fact that I am sitting slouched and comfortable on the couch while the contestants- everyday people like me- are tormented and questioned under conditions of extreme tension and pressure. That is true entertainment!

And now MasterChef Junior is airing to give us our entertainment fix. These kids are quite incredible in their cooking skills, with one kid tempering chocolate to perfection in the first episode last week. Are these children for rent?  

However this show is missing some of the key highlights that draw me to MasterChef original. The judges cannot possibly be mean or harshly criticize the innocent children- a real shame I think. Criticism can be character building. So it would seem that the only loser in MasterChef Junior will be Katy Perry, whose smash hit ‘Hot and Cold’ has been replaced as opening theme song by an inspiring cacophony of happy violins.

So these are the reasons I believe the MasterChef craze has taken off. Can you provide any more insight? Meanwhile, as the social trend continues to move towards many of us having a time poor lifestyle, we won’t always try to replicate this show’s fabulous dishes. However we can live vicariously through them as we watch the show with an egg on toast, and pretend it is something more.

Bacco007, (2010), "Ratings: 1 in 4 watch MasterChef finale". The Spy Report (Media Spy), 26 July 2010. http://www.mediaspy.org/report/2010/07/26/updated-ratings-1-in-4-watch-masterchef-finale/, accessed 14/09/2010

Lower, G. (2010),‘MasterChef proves a golden goose for food producers’, The Australian website, 24^th July 2010, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/masterchef-proves-a-golden-goose-for-food-producers/story-e6frg6nf-1225896295409, accessed 14/09/2010

Image 1: Fenopy website (2010), MasterChef Screenshot, http://fenopy.com/torrent/MasterChef+Australia+s01e38+SDTV+xvid+avi/MjEyOTg0MA, accessed 16/09/2010

Image 2: TV.com website (2009), http://www.tv.com/matt-preston-says-masterchef-cooks-could-kick-my-a/story/14651.html, accessed 16/09/2010