Masterchef – Abstract Gourmet

Masterchef Reactions

Well the first episode has screened, so I thought i’d give a little reactionary post as to my thoughts.

1) It was fairly boring. The characters they chose to focus on were not the ones I found particularly interesting and I didn’t find any of the supposedly heart wrenching stories very heart wrenching. If they were going to go to the effort to generate contrived back stories for people then you’d think they’d at least make them more dramatic.

2) Why did Sydney and Adelaide come first ? Perth was the first city to have auditions, so for some reason I assumed there’d be some kind of chronological order to the finding of the final 50.

3) The judges were neither particularly inflammatory nor endearing, and the “Give us something better” remark from George was clearly staged as you’re pretty much resigned to making whatever you’ve just spent the last hour preparing before you go in to see them. Personally I find Gary particularly unlikeable as a pompous Englishman, I’m waiting for George to make some interesting cooking related comments and not just revert to wog boy stereotypes, and Matt Preston to wear less makeup and lose the cravat.

4) It is nothing like the UK series. This is not exactly a revelation. I knew from day 1 that it wasn’t going to be anything like the UK series, which seems to be able to focus just on the food and not get bogged down in drawing drama from the stone that is the lives of some of the contestants. When you target the lowest common denominator that is the prime time TV viewing market you have to give them the whole package.

For all of that however, I still found it vaguely entertaining, and the chili crab dish that took former pro-golfer Lucas Parsons through (not that he was ever not going to make it), would have most likely beaten my meager efforts. Though I am glad that I didn’t have the judging eyes of the world looking at my dish, because if it went down anything like the sweet chilli pasta guy, I would die a horrible death of shame.

*** Update after seeing episode 2 ****

I think I liked episode 2 much more than the first one, probably because it was talking about contestants from Perth who I got to know a little during my audition. As expected all I saw of myself was a crappy blurry pan of our staged excitement as we stood outside in the heat waiting to get into the goddamn building before the auditions took place, but hey, I guess that’s something.

I did love seeing Trevor do well, The Navy diver… he was in my group of ten and the guy is a truly lovely genuine guy. During the initial heats he cooked a lobster, scallop, and chicken terrine. I had the pleasure of tasting it and it was very tasty. Youngster Robert (who cut his finger) has a great story that will no doubt come out somewhere along the line of him using his first pay cheque to buy truffles. He was a nice kid too and I’m glad he got through to the final 50 at least.

I think I also got a glimpse of Charles who was also in my group of ten who cooked what looked like steamed dumplings, and Pete, an old family friend and one of the first people to ever show me that a bbq could be more than just crappy sausages and overcooked steak smothered in bbq sauce. Pete would serve up crayfish, crab, and prawns with his own home made dipping sauces. It was a scary new world for a kid from the country to encounter, and one that looking back on it, may have indelibly shaped my view of cooking.

Reminiscing aside, the show delivered a little more excitement than the first episode, tho that was probably because of my attachment to the characters. Hopefully the ones that do make it through the finals are able to maintain that attachment.

It is a little disappointing seeing so many people go through to the next stages who were in my group when I felt my dish was quite strong, but I am working on a killer sob story for next year, so don’t you worry.

Anyway… what did you all think ?

Masterchef “Sizzle” Reel

*** Update ***
The videos have now been removed due to a copyright claim by Channel 10 Australia. They were originally uploaded by youtube user micx0r, who also appears to exist on twitter, myspace, and various other sites as a digital media and viral marketer…

Premature release perhaps ? Or all perfectly intended…

Well the cogs of marketing are slowly turning and Masterchef Australia is lurching it’s way towards opening.
As yet an official start date hasn’t been released but it’s thought to be in May now, after the end of the Biggest Loser.

I’ve been getting more comments and bits and pieces from people over the last few weeks. More stories from the auditions in Sydney of romances between sausage girls and fish boys, of chopping onions and cutting fingers, of tasting bolognaise sauces, and “Amazing Race” style dashes to the Sydney Fish Market for some high energy challenges.

There’s also been plenty of down sides for the people who didn’t make it through, and I assume those that did too. You’d think a TV show about finding Australia’s next big thing in cooking would at least be able to cater properly… But by all accounts the food was so dire, it did nothing to compensate for the indignity of having mobile phones confiscated and escorts to and from the toilets.

So then thanks to another tip off we see the first clips of Masterchef action released onto youtube. Big points to anyone who spots them self and leaves me a comment. I see one little food blogger in there (if only briefly), and a couple of my crew from the Perth auditions.

It does all look fairly contrived, but I guess we all knew that was going to happen.

Masterchef Confessions

I’m watching with great interest the number of people visiting my site lately after Master Chef Australia information. There’s been searches for masterchef auditions, what to cook for masterchef auditions, masterchef judges, masterchef and spam, spam masterchef and spam, spam spam spam masterchef and… oh wait, this isn’t monty python.

Apparently a lot of people want to know about Masterchef, and I am definitely one of them. So i’ve taken it upon myself to collate a little information from all the various visitors to my site in regards to the audition process, their impression of the fairness or otherwise of how the selections are happening, and any other little tid bits of information I can gather.

The score so far:

Out of the 7000 (or so) people who applied to be on the show, roughly 100 were selected from each state.
From the 100 or so who turned up to the Masterchef auditions, about 20 or so got through to the second day of competing. From those 20 or so people who made it to day 2 in each state, a final 50 were selected overall to go to Sydney for the semi finals.

Those semi finals will be filmed and are due to start on Monday next week the 9th of Feb.

Some stories coming out of the auditions are that a lot of people got through based solely on their stories, and who had little cooking ability. In my personal experience, I’d have to say this isn’t true. The people I met at the Perth auditions were all great people, who had as much love of food and cooking ability as I do, and I would have been very happy for any of them to go through.

I’ve also been talking to other people who did make it through, and can confirm that they are not all of the model stereotype, and did not resort to tricks or sob stories to make themselves seem more interesting in order to get onto the show. The people I’ve spoken to have also displayed an amazing level of knowledge of food and flavours, and I will be more than happy if they make it onto the show eventually.

The word from the audition floor is that seasoning and cooking things properly were big downfalls for a lot of people. Risotto was a hard sell, as were under seasoned dishes. Word on the judges is that George was very tough, Gary a bit dull, and Matt quite friendly. But then aren’t all Matt’s :)

Of course, there’s no denying that reality TV brings out the worst in a lot of people. The grand standing, the gregarious personalities, the over the top fakeness and willingness to do or say pretty much anything to get yourself recognised is all to tempting for some. I’ve heard plenty of interesting stories in the comments of the last post for that.

My two cents is that yes, this is reality TV, it’s going to happen. With Big Brother not airing this year, there will be a lot of disappointed teenagers and voyeuristic housewives looking for their reality fix. Masterchef needs to be the thing that fills that void. The producers are thus compelled to find personalities that fit whatever mould they think is needed to make the show entertaining. How interesting would it be if there were a bunch of food geeks sitting around a room discussing how to best sous vide a fillet of salmon ? (Ok, actually that would be quite interesting…but that probably just means I’m a food geek).

I’m still going to be watching the show of course. I’ve been through enough of the process now to be very interested in how it all turns out. And if a certain mystery person wants to send me a secret wink when they do get on the show, they may just make my day.

Masterchef Australia : Salmorejo with WA Marron & baby herbs

I came, I saw, I did not conquer.

The wiley among you would have guessed that my last post was in regards to Masterchef Australia auditions. Channel 10’s new big reality TV show for the year and the single train of though that has been occupying my mind for the past few weeks now.

I applied for the show before Christmas and then was pleasantly surprised to hear that I’d got an audition. The details for the audition were that we had to bring along one dish that would impress the judges. It should best be served cold, as there were no facilities to heat things up before they were tasted, and it should showcase your cooking ability and knowledge of flavours.

So being the resourceful food blogger that I am, I started scouring the internet and coming up with as many ideas as possible for a dish that would be seasonal, local, interesting but simple, and ultimately delicious.

With my trusty group of taste testers in tow I toured through the culinary landscapes. Starting off along the lines of a roast beetroot salad with goats curd, rocket, caramelised walnuts and orange, then went towards a roast pumpkin salad with blue cheese, toasted pine nuts and baby spinach, then ventured towards carpaccio of beef, tuna tataki, ceviche of king fish, gazpacho with morton bay bug tails. My taste buds then went a little sweet and I experimented with panna cotta, with frangelico and lime.

I took into account a lot of the great ideas put forward by all you lovely contributors and then a week before the audition I had an almighty cook-athon. Raiding the markets for the freshest, most delicious looking produce I could, then spending all afternoon prepping up all the potential dishes.

I called the taste testers over for a final opinion on the direction to go in. It was a one of the last dishes however, that caught their attention. Kam had casually dropped the idea of salmorejo into the comments, and so while prepping up the gazpacho, I left some tomato aside to make that as well. It was an instant hit and my direction was set.

Salmorejo is basically a cold Spanish soup made with tomatoes, stale bread that’s soaked in water, garlic, olive oil, and sherry vinegar. The hardest part about the dish is pronouncing it properly (sal-mor-echo), the rest is dead simple.

Salmorejo comes from Cordova in Spain, and there it’s generally served with boiled eggs and jamon. I decided to serve mine with some local marron. Thinking the sweetness and lightness would be a great addition to the flavours in the soup, and getting a great suggestion from Deb about using baby herbs to give the dish some lift, without overpowering the flavour of the marron, as the chiffonaded basil I was using to garnish could be a little too much.

Once the main ingredients were set I diligently set about perfecting it. Trying as many different types of tomatoes as I could get my hands on, eating copious amounts of herbs at my local garden centre, and sourcing the freshest marron I could find. Fortunately Dad came to the rescue on that one, letting me know about a marron farm just outside of Corrigin. He rang up and they went out to the dams and fished some out just for me, then he drove them up to Perth in a box for me, well and truly alive and kicking (and ready to sever any fingers inadvertently left too close to the pinchey end).

The ingredients were thus finalised, and the night before the audition I sat up til 1am making the final batch of salmorejo and cooking the marron, ready for the 7:30am (!!) start time. How exactly I made it to the audition on time and awake I have no idea. But everything came together pretty smoothly.

Of course the auditions didn’t start at 7:30am. We instead sat in line for a good couple of hours while the camera guys and producers got little grabs of people looking excited and panned up and down the ever growing queue of people unnecessarily standing outside the building in the growing heat.

New queue buddies Manda, Tash, John, and I chatted about what we were all doing there in the first place, talked food, reality tv, and mused that we’d probably have the worlds best picnic with all the great food in everyones collective eskies at the moment.

So finally we get inside, sign our lives over to Masterchef and head into a little room to be briefed on the process. I’m not entirely sure what I signed when I put my signature to the release form, so I won’t give away any inside secrets about the show (not that I know any), but suffice to say it should be great to watch.

After our initial briefing we were split up into groups, and headed into our first audition session. About 10 people per group all went into a smaller room with a group of producers and assembled their dishes on a table up the front. Then two at a time talked about who they were and why they made the dish they made, and tasted the other persons dish and gave a little feedback on it.

I have to say all the dishes looked excellent, and all the ones I tried after the session tasted great. There was a terrine of chicken, lobster, and scallop, some vietnamese rolls with marron, a japanese tofu custard, a smoked salmon stack, a nectarine and pomegranate salad with lamb, a mango pudding with layers of panna cotta and jelly, a flourless chocolate liqueur cake with a berry sauce, scotch eggs with home made chutney, a layered salmon tartare, and a number of other different and wonderful dishes.

My salmorejo was very well received by everyone who tried it though. I was really happy with how the flavours came together and it looked great on the plate. When I heard my name called out for the second interview I was super happy. Those who made it through gathered anxiously outside, and those who didn’t were bid a fond farewell. It was surprising the amount of camaraderie generated in such a small time…but I guess that’s what being part of a shared experience can do to you.

Then on to my second interview with some other producers. I took my second plate of the soup and marron in and placed it delicately on the table in front of them, only to have them mostly ignore it and get straight to the nitty gritty of why I deserved to be on the show. I did my best to justify just how keen I was and made sure to emphasise keywords like passion, dedication, commitment, and honesty… a motivation speaker would have been so proud of me.

Then, when I thought it was all over, I had another chat with yet another producer. This time the lovely Keily, who wanted to know all about where I came from and what I liked, and if I were a food, what food would I be. It was all quite comfortable and positive when I left it was with a fairly strong idea that I’d be getting a call back for the next round of auditions, where I’d have to prepare a dish and present it in front of the judges for real.

So when the call came through at 8pm that night saying sorry, you didn’t make it through, I will admit, I was a little disappointed. Ok, very disappointed. But what can you do really. It’s TV, they have a specific group of people they are looking for and I guess I didn’t fit into whatever that was. If my dish hadn’t of been so well liked I think I’d be more upset, but as it stands I did everything I wanted and said everything I felt I needed to in the auditions to represent who I am.

Pretty much anyone who knows me will know just how competitive I am, but at the same time I won’t get hung up on things I have no control over. Plus as much as I’d like to hate everyone else who did get through to round 2, everyone I met was really nice and I have nothing but good things to say about the whole audition process.

So to all the lovely people I met over the course of the day (Tash, Manda, John, Rob, Charles, Antoneo, Patrice, Pete) I wish you well and look forward to seeing just who does go through to be the first Australian Masterchef.

And now… how about the recipe for my dish.

Salmorejo with West Australian Marron and baby herbs

You will need

Roughly 500g of tomatoes – the reddest ripest you can find, I tried about 4 different types
and eventually settled on baby roma tomatoes which were plump and red and super sweet
200g stale bread – I used a loaf of sourdough that was left out for a few days, but really any kind of bread would be fine, just not multigrain.
3 or 4 cloves of garlic – vary this depending on how strong you want the garlic to come through
2-3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
100 ml of good olive oil
salt and pepper to season to taste

How I made mine

Depending on your tomatoes you may want to peel and core them before you start. I was using baby tomatoes and it wasn’t really an option, so I instead blended whole in a food processor and then strained them through a sieve to get rid of the skin and seeds. If you however, have a thing for peeling tomatoes (or you’re some kind of sadist) then you’ll get a great result that way too.

So blend the tomatoes with the garlic cloves, soak the bread in water til it’s soggy, and then squeeze the excess water out. What you’re basically making is a tomato emulsion, and the bread is here to stabilise and thicken it, and give it a nicer consistency.

While the food processor is still going, add the bread bit by bit until it’s all smoothly blended. It should be somewhat thick at this stage. Check the flavour and consistency and then add your sherry vinegar to taste, and gradually blend in the olive oil until you’ve got the consistency and flavour you like.

This soup is a real vehicle for the produce. So the better the tomatoes and olive oil you use, the better it’s going to taste. Once all of that is blended through, add salt and pepper and perhaps more sherry vinegar to taste, and more bread if you need to change the consistency.

Then either into the fridge for a while to chill it right down, or get a bit tricky a blend 3 or 4 ice cubes into the mixture for a quick cool down. I think it tastes better the colder it is, especially on baking hot Australian summer days.

The marron I simply cooked whole in salted water (after putting them into the freezer for 15 minutes to put them to sleep, and pushing a knive down through their heads between their eyes for a quick, tho still traumatic enough, death).

My final dish is then just arranging the soup on the bottom, a small mound of chopped and lightly seasoned marron into the middle of the dish, and a delicate topping of baby herbs on top. I ended up using baby basil, purple basil, asian parsley, and coriander. An elegant swirl of olive oil and the dish is ready to serve.

I recommend making a large bowl of it and watching Master Chef while bitching and moaning to your friends about what might have been :)