Congratulations to MasterChef Winner Jennifer Behm
Tonight was the finale of MasterChef America season two. For those who don’t watch MasterChef it bills itself as American Idol for cooks. It’s Top Chef meets Karaoke.
To contrast MasterChef with Fox’s other “reality” cooking show Hell’s Kitchen, Fox packages MC as ametuers vying to be pros where HK is pros trying to reach the top of their field. In actuality MC has a lot of professional chefs pretending to be ametuers while HK features a lot of minimum wage Whopper Floppers pretending to be chefs. Though last year’s MasterChef winner, Whitney Miller, was a very talented home cook who is actually taking the next step, her opponent in last year’s finale, Sheetal Bhagat, was a professional chef/instructor at a Chicago cooking school. Conversely, very few Hell’s Kitchen winners are ever heard from again.
The three finalists this year were Achiote Buffalo (stereotypical nice guy), Christian Collins (stereotypical d-bag) and Jennifer Behm (stereotypical angry chick). The winner was the stereotypical angry chick, Jennifer Behm.
Review: America’s Next Great Restaurant
NBC’s briefing:
From Emmy Award-winning producers Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves (“Top Chef” and “Project Runway”) comes “America’s Next Great Restaurant.” In this delectable new alternative series, people from every walk of life will vie for the opportunity of a lifetime to see their original restaurant concept spring to life – starting with the opening of a restaurant chain in three locations – Hollywood, Minneapolis and New York City.
Funding the restaurant concepts are four accredited investors: Bobby Flay, distinguished restaurateur (“Iron Chef America: The Series,” “Throwdown! with Bobby Flay”); Curtis Stone, internationally renowned chef (NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” “Take Home Chef”); Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle; and Lorena Garcia, executive chef and restaurateur.
I just watched the premiere of America’s Next Great Restaurant with Bobby Flay, Curtis Stone, Lorena Garcia and Steve Ells. Typical reality show framework. A group of wannabe’s (I love that) hoping be the recipient of a life changing win.
The first episode followed the American Idol script with a group of people – some are locks to make the top 10, some are on the fence and about a half dozen were only brought in to embarrass themselves on national TV.
That’s one of my major problems with reality TV is that it tends to cater to the very worst traits in humanity. In this case the desire to see other people fail . It’s sick. There is nothing to separate people who love to watch those terrible singers from the people who filled the Roman Coliseum to watch their neighbors torn to shreds by lions. They are barbarians.
America’s Next Great Restaurant is far better than that glorified karaoke contest which makes a week of programming out of failures. Plus the winner won’t end up with a contract that cripples their career for years to come. I’m not a fan of fast casual restaurants but the judges they picked have proven it can be done right. With the unsavory part out of the way I’m looking forward to the rest of the show. Nuf for now.
MasterChef Season 2 Casting Call
FOX has ordered a second season of Gordon Ramsay’s newest culinary competition series, MASTERCHEF, it was announced today by Mike Darnell, President of Alternative Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company.
“Gordon Ramsay is an incredible talent and the biggest culinary star on television today, so we’re very happy to have Gordon and MASTERCHEF back for another season on FOX,” said Darnell. “MASTERCHEF has resonated with viewers this summer, and we look forward to seeing where Gordon takes the show in Season Two.”
“It’s amazing and refreshing to see how much passion and raw talent there is from amateur home cooks across America,” said Ramsay. “It’s extraordinary the amount of energy and excitement the show brought in Season One, and I’m thrilled to be back at FOX for a second season.”
“The amazing reception for MASTERCHEF on FOX has been hugely rewarding for all of us at Shine Group,” said MASTERCHEF executive producer and Shine Group Chairman and CEO, Elisabeth Murdoch. “As the creators of this unique global franchise, we’re thrilled to see the U.S. audience love this show as much as we do. We are looking forward to building on this early success with an even broader, bigger search in Season Two, and to seeing the brand grow as it continues to do so in Australia, the U.K., France and around the world, breaking viewing and ancillary records as it goes.”
MASTERCHEF is the No. 1 new program of the summer among Adults 18-49, outperforming the next highest-rated show by +14%.
For those that believe they are the next MASTERCHEF please visit fox.com/masterchef.
Review: Gordon Ramsay’s MasterChef
MasterChef is the latest American incarnation of a successful British reality competition. The original MasterChef has been a hot commodity for years in the UK as has its cousins MasterChef: Australia and MasterChef: Hungary. For the American version Fox has teamed Gordon Ramsay, one of the world’s greatest and most renowned chefs with two of the kingpins of the US restaurant industry, Chef Graham Elliot Bowles and restaurateur Joe Bastianich. Fox was nice enough to let me catch a preview of MasterChef’s debut episode, a sneak peek so to speak.
Meet the players:
Bowles is a prodigy who became America’s youngest 4 star chef at the age of 27. He is a pioneer of the trendy molecular gastronomy movement that couples cooking and chemistry. His groundbreaking restaurant, graham elliot, combines cutting edge American cuisine with humor and just a touch of moxie to create Chicago’s first “bistronomic” restaurant. His accolades are many having brought home traditional culinary affirmation like the coveted James Beard Award and new age recognition as a competitor on both Bravo’s Top Chef: Masters and the Food Network’s Iron Chef America.
If the name Joe Bastianich sounds familiar it should. His mother is famed Italian cheflebrity Lidia Bastianich. He is also friend and business partner to America’s most successful Italian chef, Mario Batali. But Bastianich’s life is about more than just great restaurants. He is also a noted winemaker who is described as a “street-level philosopher.” He has been honored as both vintner and restaurateur by the likes of Food & Wine and the James Beard Foundation. His book on wine pairing, Vino Itialiano (available at amazon.com), is considered the standard by which the genre is judged.
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Few people in the western world are not familiar with the name Gordon Ramsay. Though his reputation in the states is built mainly around his explosive temper and colorful use of metaphors in Europe he is thought of as one of the best chefs in the world. It is a shame that most Americans only know the exaggerated personality shown on TV because he is one of the most gifted and passionate people in the culinary world.
The premiere episode features 100 hopeful home cooks vying to be one of the 30 finalist competing for the title MasterChef. To earn one of the coveted MasterChef aprons each competitor is asked to cook the meal of their lives for the three judges.
The first round of dishes fails to yield a single plate worthy of remaining in the contest. This forces Chef Ramsay to give a pep talk to the remaining contestants filled with the bleep riddled prose that the host is known for as well as a bit of the overcharged, dare I say forced drama that is the mainstay of virtually every “reality” show.
As with every “reality” contest on TV there is a plethora of over-critiquing. Negative comments are far more negative than they need to be and positive comments are stuffed with Pentecostal exuberance. Nothing is ever mediocre in “reality” TV; it is either dreadful or the best thing ever. This lack of gray area is why television is anything but real.
The best example of overly-negative critiquing is when Gordon takes a stuffed bell pepper garnish from one plate, dumps out the contents so he can spit out the mouthful of fish taco he is tasting. The best example of made-for-TV positive shtick is Bowles tasting one contestant’s Korean duck wrap and stating, “That is like sex in your mouth . . . in the best possible way.” There are plenty of the tear jerking moments that producers love to show as well. MasterChef follows the American Idol formula to a “T.”
But, as with any of Ramsay’s shows, there are truly honest moments. It is these glimpses of lucidity that make him a star. At his soul, Ramsay is a compassionate person and it is evident that he genuinely cares for other people. It is likely that his persona and Graham Elliot’s lovable big guy personality will produce a similar chemistry to Paula and Simon. Although I highly doubt Bowles would look as good in a short red dress. Bastianich is the wild card; he lacks that biting English snark while at the same time he is cold and calculating in his critiques.
MasterChef separates itself from “Worst Cook in America” because it starts with ametuers who can already cook and seeks to make them better. It also separates itself from “Next Food Network Star” because it allows Southern cooks to compete. The best home cooks in America traditionally hail from the South but NFNS has clearly avoided casting calls in the South for some reason opting for mainly East Coast and West Coast auditions.
MasterChef also separates itself from all other TV cooking contests with its prize – $250,000 cash and a major cookbook deal which is potentially worth millions. I like MasterChef more than I do Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen or Chopped and far more than I do NFNS. But at the same time it is a far cry from Iron Chef America.
MasterChef premieres Tuesday July 27th (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on Fox. For more information check out the official press release HERE.
