The TV cookery programme Masterchef has started a new series which has been running for about three weeks. Masterchef is a competition and contestants have to undergo various challenges and cook against each other; there are three different shows, for amateurs, professionals and celebrities. It is one of my favourite programmes, I just love it!
This year the amateur chefs have a new challenge. John Torode who is one of the presenters cooks a dish which the contestants taste, try to decide what the ingredients are and then have to try and cook it themselves. They are given trays of ingredients, not all of which are actually in the dish. Some of them have good palates and can pick out different flavours, some of them seem quite hopeless and haven’t been able to tell the difference between beef, lamb or venison in one instance! In another test, someone picked out the meat in the cooked dish as chicken – and not just chicken but chicken thighs, then picked up rabbit from the tray and cooked with that!
I know the previous paragraph is littered with exclamation marks, but would I really be able to do better? I’m not sure I would, except I have noticed that not many of the contestants use their sense of smell… and not all of them seem to use their eyes, mincing things which should have been chopped, chopping things which should have been sliced… I guess, though nerves come into play and I think I would probably be very nervous.
It’s a great challenge though, and I’m enjoying the programme, and it is good to see a change in the format! I wonder who will win?
Lois Elsden 
I too love Masterchef. In New Zealand Masterchef this year they’re about half way through the series. A new challenge was introduced here last week, to bake a sponge cake. Oh boy, that caused some heartaches and one of the best cooks got sent home. I confess, I’m unable to make a decent sponge and have long ince given up!
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I think sponge cakes (like pastry) are a gift that you have -or don’t have! My husband’s Aunty Fran was the best Victoria sponge cake maker ever, and yet she just seemed so casual with the way she made them! They were always light as a feather and full of flavour! My mum was unable to make bad pastry – whether it as pies or tarts or flans her pastry was just delicious!
I think the sponge cake test is a brilliant idea!
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I’m very fond of Masterchef too! This new round is an interesting one – I agree it’s quite a challenge and I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between some of the subtler things like herbs and spices (although I like to think I could differentiate between various meats, I was a little surprised to see someone confuse lamb and pork today).
Of the contestants I’m thinking Shivi will go far… If you were a contestant on the show what three courses would you do?
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Good heavens – what a challenge… I think it’s about balance and it surprised me yesterday when Saira did what appeared to be two mains instead of a starter and main…
I think I might do something gamey for main, probably with North African/Moroccan spices accompanied by couscous and tabbouleh, so working backwards I might do a fishy starter – or maybe soup… nettle soup? Would that be trendy enough, it would be very pretty, bright green with wild flower (maybe wild garlic flower) garnish, soda bread (could be made in an hour as John showed) and something to sprinkle on, fancy bacon bits maybe…
Pudding… hmm, not so confident on puds… but after spicy stuff something cool so maybe a fruity something or other, white peaches maybe, or lychees…
Gosh what a challenge! This needs more thinking about and maybe another post!!
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Sounds like a good combination! I love the sound of the Moroccan-spiced main (would that be a tagine or something else?) and a cool light fruit sweet would round it off nicely. Nettle soup would definitely be in, to combine the soup/fish ideas, would crayfish tails work with nettle soup?
I may have just made myself very hungry… 🙂
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Oh yummyyyyyyy! Crayfish tails would work beautifully with nettle soup – and look so pretty against the green!
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