COOKING SHOWS:SOMETIMES WELL DONE BUT THAT'S QUITE RARE

The new year has TV schedule has a few new series post $mas, and the return of most of the shows that were suspended for the $mas holidays. I must confess that I have a lot to catch up with because I have been watching four series of the Aussie hit cookery program "My Kitchen Rules". Cooking is something that I really liked doing before I became ill, now I need the entire kitchen redesigned to suit my abilities, but who's got the money for a new kitchen right now? Not me.
I like cooking shows and watch a lot of them with my wife. We watch Masterchef UK (where the best home cook wins), Masterchef Australia (where the luckiest contestant that wrangles a few immunities wins) and the US version where the person with the best back story wins. Oh, and the New Zealand version plus the new MS Canada. The British version may be less exiting but at least it concentrates on cooking ability without any game show elements which means the winner is chosen fairly.

In fact, part of the reason that I checked out My Kitchen Rules is that Masterchef Australia 4 last season really got me irate at times. There is nothing worse than watching strong contestants get eliminated because someone has won the right to make things difficult for them. In the US version, as with Hells Kitchen  USA (both feature Gordon Ramsay) you know that certain characters will be kept in not for their abilities but for their entertainment value. There are always loud, selfish, argumentative personalities that clash with every other contestant.  It also reinforces the American Dream by showing that they can overcome any obstacle, plus they exhibit single minded, ruthless win at any cost and by any means neccessary traits that underline the dominance of corporate thinking in TV programming. In fact it is the same thinking that is behind the NSA, the military and the government in the states.

Sorry, I'm climbing down off my soapbox now! It wouldn't harm to get back to the point either. Having just watched MKR the first improvement on MS Australia is the inclusion of a round that is similar in format to "Come dine with me". Each couple visit each other and the host couple cook a three course meal. The teams of two people mark each others efforts and to ensure that fair play is (almost) achieved by having the judges marking each course out of ten while the contestants mark the overall meal out of ten. That means if a pair of assholes mark other teams low to ensure their own safety in the competition the judges, Pete and Manu mark fairly on the quality of the three courses offered. When the first round is over they cook in Kitchen HQ.

The next improvement offered by MKR comes in the elimination round, a two vs two battle to remain in the competition. In come four guest judges who get a bigger part to play in this competition than guests to MS Australia. It offers another balance to ensure that the regular duo of judges don't get too attached to certain couples and stay focused on the foods. In all four and a bit series so far (it is currently running season five) I have been able not only to say that the winners were worthy of it, the final four always seem to be of a high standard any of whom could win.

I lost my temper watching MS Australia because contestants of little skill such as Lucy (last season), who got through one round by serving Muesli, stayed way past her natural departure point. But she was nice, you see, and that goes a long way with this program.In fact, I thought the winner, Emma, was a poor choice. During the contest the judges had to talk her out of doing chips cooked three time at least twice.No imagination This is my main criticism of this show. Not everyone is given hints and advice, just the ones that are popular with the judges . Still, she was an Olympic cyclist, you know, an Aussie hero. It reminded me of MS Australia the Professionals which was won by Rhys (or Reese). His back story in round one, where he told us of his drug taking past, and that the love of his mother and the love of food saved him from a life of drugs and crime. He said in to the camera "...if it wasn't for cooking I would be dead now." I swear to you, when I heard that I turned to my wife and said "He's going to win". I was right. Finally, on the subject of the Masterchef Australia franchise I thought that the only reason that they had an "Allstars" show was so that Cameron could win. Chris, his opponent in the final was not only much better, he is one of the only contestants to go on to manage their own restuarant successfully. In the final round they had to reproduce a dessert of Peter Gilmores called the Snow egg. In a display of shameless bias Cameron had built this egg in his series of MS Australia. No surprise, he won. This followed on from a previous round when he was going to do a vegetarian christmas dinner until the judges and even the guest judge Maggie Beer talked him in to changing.

Soon MS NZ will kick off, followed by Australia, then America. We can expect new tricks to keep the audience interested. Hopefully they will not be gimmick driven and will offer us a cooking competition and not a reality show crossed with a game show.

The MS Australia franchise have announced that this year there will be no spin off series, they are concentrating on the main show. Apparently MKR embarrassed them in the ratings battle. On a similar note, the Masterchef New Zealand show this year is going to feature couples.

I wonder where they got that idea from?