Gordon Ramsay and Faruq Jenkins, courtesy Fox Networks
MASTERCHEF
Friendly Rating: Elementary and older, depending on interests.
Safety Rating: Lots of bleeped language and some flirting.
Quality Rating: Compelling and yet….
Series premieres at 9 p.m. tonight on Fox.
I think my husband summed it up best. He wandered by as I was watching Chef Gordon Ramsay eviscerating one of the contestants on this competition show supposedly celebrating amateur cooks and said, “You know how insecure people feel when they’re cooking for their families, this ramps it up considerably.”
You’ve got three professional judges putting the contestants who make the cut through various challenges to find out who is the best of them all – and ready to perform professionally. In other words, American Idol for cooks, which is probably my biggest problem with it. I just can’t figure out how you’re going to celebrate home cooking by turning the best of home cooks into restaurant chefs.
I’m not a bad cook by any stretch of the imagination, but there is no way in Hades you would get me to cook for Chef Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich or Graham Elliot. Maybe Elliot, but he tends to play the Paula Abdul role, if you know what I mean. There was one moment in the episode airing tonight when Ramsay (appropriately) calls one of the contestants on his nonsense, claiming that “arrogant chefs are as common as blonds in Hollywood.” When I told my friend Victoria about it, she said, “Yeah, pot calling the kettle blond.”
My biggest fear is that we humble home cooks will feel judged by this show – as if our humble efforts aren’t very good just because we can’t plate like a pro. Well, feh, I say. Admittedly, there won’t be a lot of things to be learned during the audition part of the show. But we can turn down the chatter and learn as the contestants do.
And, if I’m really painfully honest here, the very fact that I had such a visceral reaction to the show does speak well of it. Good TV gets us excited. Good TV can motivate us, anger us, get in our faces. This is not necessarily a bad thing, even if, in this case, all it does is inspire a solid pbbbbbbbblt at a bunch of arrogant jerks who wouldn’t know good home cooking if it slapped them in the face. I just hope it doesn’t freak out those of us who are lucky if the meat doesn’t land on the salad come dinnertime.
One thing the guys did point out – good food is about the passion, about the love. And if the love is there, it’ll be okay. I promise you that. Now, flip them the bird and get cooking. You don’t have to be a Masterchef to be good enough for your family.
