MasterChef starts tonight

Tune in to Ten from 7.30pm for the “best season evah”.
How many episodes before we see a red silicone mould?


It finishes at 9.10pm. Tomorrow and Wednesday it runs from 7.30-8.40pm and on Thursday we get a whopping 2 hours. The blurb for the mega episode says: The top 24 contestants enter the kitchen for their first mystery box challenge. Later, the bottom four will cook off in an elimination challenge. Who will be the first to leave in 2017?
Sunday is the good ole mystery box challenge, from 7-8.40pm.

We start with a montage of what lies ahead, including Heston (hope he’s happier than he was last year), a trip to Japan, return visits from Anna P (death star chocolate dome maker), Maggie Beer and Curtis Stone etc. Looks like some cool challenges ahead.
The would-be contestants arrive, clutching their Coles bags, and here are the judges. Not sure about Gary’s purple paisley tie, and Matt is wearing a subdued grey long suit coat, but his burgandy cravat has a bit of sparkle in it, because it’s the premiere. George doesn’t have to wear a tie, but his shirt is buttoned to the top – because he’s the young ‘un.
George gives them the inspriational speech and makes them do the “Yes, George”. Ick. (Next year, add “hire a good accountant” to your speech, Georgie.)
Ok, let’s cook! These auditions are never much to write about but we get a challenge on Thursday.
Three yesses and you get an apron; only one and you get a chance to cook again.
Up first is Mich, who’s 19 and from Melbourne. Here hero is Reynold. She’s the golden ball girl and she’s using red silicone moulds. Bingo! But she cooks with Cadbury chocolate! Hmm, product placement? She taught herself to cook by practising stuff she saw online.
Pia, 48, is making gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce with a parmesan crisp. That’s a lot of richness.
Meanwhile, Mich is assembling her golden ball – I like her trick of melting the edge of the half dome by pressing it on the base of a hot saucepan. She’s studying nutrition, so I love that she wants to open a dessert bar. The judges are suitable impressed, as the producers knew they would be, sending her in first.


Please tell me she can cook mains, too.
Here comes Italian Pia with her gnocchi – she’s giving me a Julie Goodwin “cooking for the family so ordinary people can relate” kind of vibe. No gels or foams here. She starts tearing up when they praise her. I hope she can make it through the fancy pants cheffy-type challenges.


Here comes a blonde girl with Chinese dumplings. She’s in.


Fifty-seven-year-old Benita gets the “older lady who’s quite a character” slot for her pork belly.


Here’s a bloke with a pretty yuzu dessert. (From memory this is about as much airtime as Matt Sinclair got in the audition last year.) Ah, his name is Bryan.


A roo dish by headband-wearer Samuel is through.


A professional singer with Persian heritage makes a chicken and rice dish with “stock spheres”.


We hear mum mentioning she cooks it a different way, and is questioned whether the rice is cooked enough. Daughter brushes her off. And then tries to flirt a bit with Presto. She mentions how she is modernising it for MasterChef. They are totally going to tell her she should have done it the old-school way. She starts begging for her life before they’ve even tasted it.
She’s the first one that makes it to air as being rejected. Maybe a redemption story next year?
Uh oh – someone else makes a parfait that doesn’t set.
A girl with a white punky do is getting a lot of commentary time, and she was in the opening montage, so we know she’s through.
A string of people is knocked back.
Pete from Perth is making confit salmon. He’s the laidback Aussie bloke crane operator (remember Brett the bobcat driver, who went on to win?).


He knows how to make a foam and a is a George-style plater with nasturtium leaves. The judges love it. Onya, Pete.
Muscle-bound Ben leaves the gym and cooks a dish that’s a nod to his Ditch heritage and gets through.
They like the girl who made a dish she describes as tasting “like a burning pirate ship”.


Here comes handsome Dr Ray with “bacon and eggs” – a bowl of soft-poached egg and yummy bits, covered in a smoked potato foam. And he has two cute kids.
A blonde ponytail girl who looks a lot like dessert queen Kylie from a few seasons back presents a pho-paccio. It’s clever plating but unfortunately.
Oh no – another contestant with a brain injury! Following on from dessert specialist Karmen from last year – who was injured in a skiing accident – we have a young fella whose car was stolen the night before last year’s auditions and he was “injured in the process”. What does that mean? He chased them and was beaten up? Is it before the courts and he can’t say more? He was in hospital for nine weeks. Josh’s dish is the Japanese “Duck in the Wetlands” and they lap it up.
Poor Emily is trying to talk to the camera but Nanna keeps stealing the limelight. She’s doing the first panna cottas of the night, but they are mini ones that are just one element of her lychee dessert. Gary says she’s made a few errors. George says there’s too much sugar. But Matt likes her creativity so he sends her through to the second chance cook. Perhaps she’ll do better without a well-intentioned Nanna yelling at her.
We get a few more second chance cooks.

Here comes cheery, punky-looking Jess, a 29-year-old Melbourne nurse. She should cope well in the stressful reality TV environment. She’s created a Japanese-style savoury dessert using matcha (take note, Hashtaggers) and beetroot.


The judges love her handwritten collection of recipes, with pretty watercolour illustrations. So if she goes far in the comp, we already know what her cookbook will look like.
As Presto tastes, George uses the cover provided by his giant coat to mouth to camera “It’s amazing!”. Jess is through. “You are the textbook contestant we dream about finding,” Presto says.
Saffron-poached pears with smoked vanilla ice cream man has a cute, cheeky kid who’s brought in to the judging station to give Daddy his apron.
Salmon man gets through and, like the others today, he’s learnt MasterChef likes it when you talk about family memories and inspiration.
A few girls get the nod.
Beardie WA lawyer Ben makes “Sunday roast”, with 18 aprons already gone. He’s brought along some native WA wax flowers to go with the dish. He’s suitably emotional about the prospect of a food career and does a big “Oh What a Feeling” leap as he leaves the room. He has a Matt Sinclair vibe with his sincerity and passion.

To top that we have a molecular gastronomy/theatre guy, who once made lickable wallpaper for a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-themed school project. Dammit – there goes the theme for Heston week! Callan is doing a Japanese salmon tartare. He’s only 18. You seem lovely, but you know you can just do an apprenticeship, right, Callan? You’re not 40 and with a mortgage to pay.


George is doing the hiding behind Presto thing again so he can make faces at Garry. They think it’s sensational. Cue the orchestra! Sneaky Callan gives his family a heart attack by hiding the apron behind his back – there’s that theatre background.

Tomorrow night it’s the second chance cook, and they get to impress Maggie Beer.
Well, that went for far too long but at least they whipped through the contestants. And while we had some emotional back stories it was all delightfully restrained after MKR’s excess.
I do love that MasterChef posts lots of food pix to social media, which MKR annoyingly stopped doing this season.



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MasterChef – Tues, July 12 – grape challenge

Four of the most impressive contestants are cooking for a guaranteed place this week at Francis Ford Coppola’s Inglenook Estate in the Napa Valley.


It’s Trent V Mimi V Intense Matt V Glowing Elena in a wine-themed challenge, with the prize a shortcut to finals week.
Matt Preston is in his pink suit in tribute to red grapes.
The estate looks gorgeous, made even more appealing by me trying to ignore the sound of hail on my windows as I write this – SA is particularly Artic today.
The contestants are presented with a table laden with local produce and must create a dish that’s all about “the grape”.
IM is getting the most talking heads, followed by GE and Trent. Mimi is apparently also in the challenge.
Elena is cooking quail with grape chutney and vine leaves and a wine and verjuice soz.
Trent is making grilled quail with cauliflower skordalia and a raisin agrodolce (which Google says is an Italian soz made by reducing sweet and sour elements). Gaz and George tell him he’s on a roll.
Mimi goes the dessert route, determined to stand out, with a sweet inspired by a cheese platter. It’s a red wine and grape sorbet with a red wine cake and a blue cheese cream. Matt Preston reminds us Mimi pretty much won the Atelier Crenn challenge for her team yesterday with her work on the beetroot sorbet, but then scares her by saying wine sorbets don’t usually work. Oopsie.
IM is making roast lamb rack with chicken and mushroom jusand celeriac puree. Now, I love a good lamb rack but we’ve seen it so many times, and I’d rather see him cook something I wouldn’t have a crack at myself for a Sunday dinner. Gaz and George are worried there are hardly any grapes in his dish – luckily they reminded him at the start of the cook. He decides to ditch the mushies from the jus and add some red wine and dried grapes instead.
Trent is sounding confident about his dish and has lots of grapey elements.
Mimi adds red grape juice to her sorbet to help it freeze more and GE is dehydrating vine leaves for texture.
I’ve never seen cauliflower as yellow as Trent is using -it looks amazing, even if it is too lumpy.
GE is worried about the sweetness of her dish so decides to infuse lavender in milk to whip through goat’s cheese. The judges are worried about the lavender but she goes with it. Please don’t let this be another green tea jelly pond mistake.
And please let IM’s lamb rack cook in time.
Uh oh – the red moulds of death DID make their way over to the US, and now they are giving Mimi grief with an unset sorbet. She plates the rest of her dish and waits til the last second to get the sorbet.
Trent is getting yet another talking head – he could well win this one. His quail dish with fennel salt and cauli puree sounds delicious.
George does the obligatory “yes, George”. Sigh. IM’s lamb isn’t cooked enough so he has to pan sear it. Does this mean it’s not rested? Mimi has success getting her sorbet out and GE’s sticky glaze for her quail looks fab.

The judges taste


Trent’s quail: “It looks fabulous,” Gaz tells him. They love the colour pop from the red grapes and dill and the taste of the skordalia. “It’s a sophisticated plate of food … The flavours are pure Trent,” says Matt. Gaz says he’s found his mojo.
IM’s lamb: “I think it looks fantastic,” Gaz says. IM has a little moment, thinking about his wife back home, whom he hasn’t seen for ages. She is going to bawl when she sees this bit.


The lamb is actually spot on. George drags through the sauce with his finger and licks it. They appreciate the work that went into the soz. “Great food,” says Gaz.


Mimi’s red wine and cheese dessert: “It’s all the things I like to eat,” she tells them. Gaz thinks it’s creative and gives his portion a good ole sniff. Matt thinks the winery could well use this dish as a signature dessert. “I think she’s smashed it,” says Gaz.


GE’s sticky quail: Uh oh – first we get a talking head of GE doubting her use of lavender. I think it belongs in the garden and drawer fresheners and that’s about it, but I hope for her sake it worked. Gaz tells her she’s been putting up great food lately. George says he’s mesmerised by the dish. He can’t wait to get his giant tweezers stuck in there. “How bloody good is that,” says Gaz. “It’s a dish with all the boring bits taken out,” says Matt. The lavender worked.
They’ve all done really well – how refreshing to have a challenge where no-one was too flustered and everyone was happy with the end result – but it sounds like GE has got this.
The judges decide


It was tough but the winner is GE. Woo hoo! Oh – there’s Brett, Elise and Harry on the sidelines. They’ve apparated in at the last minute. Hope they got to check out the cellar door while they were there.

Tomorrow
It’s a food truck challenge at Santa Monica Pier. This should be fun. It looks like the red team is Brett, Harry and Mimi, which means blue will be IM, Elise and Trent. My money’s on blue.



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MasterChef final three poll results

Now we are getting down to the nitty gritty (aka the overseas trip), I’m putting up a new poll for MasterChef final three – and remember, it’s who you think will be there, not who you want to be there.
Here are the results of the old poll, with Intense Matt and Glowing Elena clear leaders. I’ll be interested to see where previous Chloe voters will land now.
polljul10finalthree
Mimi didn’t get much love but I’m thinking she is shaping up to be a dark horse. She started the comp strongly and then disappeared. If she can get past her brain freezes she could at least knock out Harry if he does one of his “I’m putting Harry twist on another chef’s recipe” dishes.



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Are you ready for the onslaught?

For the past month it’s been nothing but cricket and tennis on TV (I’ve been making the most of Stan’s 30-day free trial) but now it’s time for the annual bombardment of  premieres of shows old and new.

Channel 10 is attempting to get ahead of the pack by launching the second season of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! – a whole 24 hours ahead of the other channels. It premieres Sunday, January 31 at the family-friendly timeslot of 6.30pm (check your local guide).

There’s meant to be an after-show on Eleven, hosted by Bachelor reject Heather Maltman and jungle reject Joel Creasey, but it’s not showing up as yet on Sunday TV guides.

The following night the other channels join the party.

Nine kicks off with Australia’s Got Talent and a new panel of judges: Kelly Osbourne (daughter of Ozzy and fashion commentator), Eddie Perfect (beloved by Offspring and Play School viewers) and Sophie Monk (remember when she was an unknown on one of Australia’s first reality shows, Popstars?). Hughesy is hosting.

The Farmer Wants a Wife, also on Nine, starts the same night at 8.45pm.

I suspect Channel 7 is where most of us will land on the Monday night for the return of My Kitchen Rules (with the first part of much-promoted Molly telemovie looking likely to air on February 7).

Backtracking a little here, but if you have time the previous Monday night (January 25) turn to the ABC for the Australian of the Year Special. Four finalists have been selected for each state and territory in the categories Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia’s Local Hero.

If you’ve missed it no doubt you can catch up on iView or read more about the nominees at http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/

Other shows due in February are Nine’s scripted comedy Here Come the Habibs! and the Australian episodes of If You are the One on SBS2. Wanted, the TV series Rebecca Gibney developed and in which she stars, starts in February on Seven. Over in Pay TV land, the excellent Selling Houses Australia returns February 3 on the Lifestyle channel.

Here’s a link to a Channel 7 ad for the MKR premiere and a few other shows that start the same day:

So, what will you be watching?

UPDATE: The Celeb after show is now appearing in the TV guides. It’s called Get Me Out of here now, runs 9.30-10.30pm this Sunday (check your local guide) on Eleven  and is rated M for “Adult Themes or medical procedures, Coarse language”.

 



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Put down the remote and have a chat

Welcome to a new site about watching TV. Whether you love a show or loathe it, this is the place to talk about it. Reality TV – especially Australian content – is my guilty pleasure but those with more highbrow tastes are also welcome. However, if you’re a fan of Two and a Half Men you may want to slink away to another corner of the interweb … Bear with me while I find my feet with this new-fangled technology.

Cheers

Admin Juz

PS: You no longer need to register to comment. If the spambots attack this may change. If you want to email me, check out the contact page.



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