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Monday, July 12, 2010

MasterChef - the 7 Deadly Sins

When Jonathon presented his strawberries and cream flat cowpat dessert for judging in the 7 deadly sins I both felt for him and the judges. He had hit rock bottom and was off to elimination again. He has constantly been in elimination and survived but someone who knows so much about food and can produce good quality food is consistently producing the most embarrassing dishes.It was worse because by the time he was judged his creation had melted and spread even more. This is no MasterChef and at this stage I thought the judges did well to even taste it and offer sound advice.
It was a great show last night because there were some memorable, humourous moments - like the disaster of all disasters in a delicate pink and cream. Then the clumsy rissoles?! Even that was handled well because people were quite right on Twitter to question why Jimmy was there and Marion was gone at this stage of the competition. Again, if we are actually looking for a master chef, then Jimmy is not it.
The others performed credibly and even superbly and the dishes were what you would expect food to be - inviting. Claire's prawns looked exquisite. She has such a  delicate touch in presentation. I like the idea of Adam's churritos because the thing with Adam is he tries to bring some well known foods from other countries before us in a a way we might consider them and appreciate them. It doesn't always work, but  his talent is bridging the cultural divide with food. Courtney also produces very interesting and beautiful looking dishes and hers always seem to be very healthy and not the sort of thing which would add weight or sit on your stomach. I like the way she works with colour and yes, she got thrown by the 7 deadly sins because she is not used to thinking in metaphors and neither was Jimmy. There should have been 5 minutes to discuss and ponder because that whole concept blew her head up and she just needed time to think. Ditto Jimmy. So that wasn't about food, it was about linguistics and culture. Aaron, by contrast , just took off on the whole thing because he needs brain food and thrives on it and I have never seen him look happier or more confident. He was in his element and even though his idea didn't quite work - it might have. Alvin and Callum produced such wonderful dishes and even Callum's idea with the prawns was good even though he didn't get the soup quite right. He concentrates so hard and persists and has a delicate touch with food. Alvin just loves food and food ideas and seemed to be at home for the whole show.It's disappointing to see Courtney in the elimination round because I think she needed some time to work with the metaphor before she started cooking and she almost got it right.The other two just didn't get it right at all. I am hoping obviously she is not eliminated but who knows? I am really looking forward to seeing Claire go up against a top chef again. She works so meticulously and carefully and I like watching that aspect of her.

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