Masterchef USA Premiere Episode

Masterchef USA

Prime TV

Mondays 8.30PM

Ramsay-philes, take your seats!  Gordon is back (minus the swearing and tantrums) in the first ever season of Masterchef USA, the internationally popular series that transforms amateur cooks who are passionate about food into master chefs. 

Just last week, we bid farewell to that most hardest of task masters, Gordon Ramsay, in the finale of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’.  Our tear stained hankies barely had a chance to dry before he returned to our screens in Masterchef USA.  Gordon explains that Masterchef has been a big hit in Australia, the UK and Hungary, of all places (how could he leave out New Zealand?), but this is the first time American home cooks will get to compete.    Gordon gives us a glimpse of challenges to come, including catering a wedding and feeding a military unit.  The competitors are vying for the title of the first ever American Masterchef, but there’s also the lure of a whopping $250,000.00 prize and the opportunity for the winner to produce their own cookbook. 

There are three judges who will be guiding and deriding our Masterchef apprentices this season.  Graham Elliot, who at 27 became America’s youngest four star chef.  Snooty restauranter Joe Bastianich, owner of 20 of America’s best restaurants (so he claims!), and of course, the belligerent Brit himself, Gordon Ramsay. 

Only 30 people will receive the coveted Masterchef apron from the auditions today  and Gordon is determined that they should all be top notch.  The contestants are given one hour to cook the dish ‘of a lifetime’.  Gordon tells them to imagine the best dish they’ve ever tasted, then tells them that he guarantees he’s eaten better.  Not exactly words that inspire confidence in our cooks. 

Masterchef is supposed to show us the warmer, cuddlier side of Gordon, although that’s not immediately evident in the auditions.  Chris from Texas is the first nervous competitior to encounter Ramsay and co.  He has prepared a frankly delicious sounding delight called beer and cheese soup.  My two favourite foods!  What could go wrong!  Graham, a man after my own heart, likes it but Joe and Gordon turn their noses up at it, with Gordon going so far as to say it’s the most disgusting soup he’s ever had in his life.  To add insult to injury they make him leave his beer behind!  None of the following contestants fare much better with their lacklustre menus and Gordon stomps out into the waiting area to do what he does best, put the fear of god into his quaking neophytes.

Mike finally redeems the contestants by winning the first apron with his expertly prepared dish of Korean style pan seared duck breast, which all three judges enthisiatically praise.  I must admit, there was a tear in my eye when Mike returned triumphant to the waiting room with Gordon, to be rapturously greeted by his very proud brothers.   Mike gets everyone off on a roll and the Masterchef aprons start flying out of the judging room.  We meet Tracey, a doctor who was inspired to take up the whisk and ladle by her late mother, whose family cookbook she brings with her as her good luck charm.  There’s more eye moistening moments when her father proudly embraces her upon receiving her apron.   This is what Masterchef excels at, the feel good factor of ordinary people pursuing their dreams. 

David, is a cocky, over-confident type from Boston, Massachussets.  A state so famed for producing obnoxious males (think Ben Affleck)that they even have a name for it, the ‘Masshole’.  David comes over as supremely confident but Gordon soon has him in tears when he pierces his bravado façade, and ultimately rejects him for his attitude.  Graham and Joe decide to give weepy, defiant David a go and he walks away with apron in hand.  Thankfully, the experience seems to have humbled him somewhat. 

Randy, a famer sporting a pair of dungarees, breaks the winning streak with his  his dish of ‘funeral potatoes’.  A mushy slop of potatoes, mayonnaise and cheese that his family traditionally cooks for neighbourhood wakes, but also looks like it could bring you closer to your own demise if you consume it.  I thought the cardinal rule of cooking was never to heat mayonnaise?  As much as I love those three ingredients, it does look truly vile and Gordon describes it as ‘caveman food’.

Faruq takes the caveman food theme a step further by preparing a ‘chic mac and cheese’.  It looks pretty good, but as Gordon notes, this is Masterchef and if you’re cooking something so simple and ubiquitous it needs to be the best.  Unfortunately for Faruq, it’s far from the best as he has forgotten to season his dish.  Any devotee of cooking shows knows that forgetting the seasoning is right up there with heating mayonnaise when it comes to kitchen no-nos.  Ramsay prolongs Faruq’s agony by calling his wife and uber-cute son to quiz her about Faruq’s dedication to the competition.  But there’s more heart-warming moments when Gordon hands over the chef’s apron to Faruq’s young son. 

Next week, auditions continue to find the final Masterchefs who will compete under the tutelage of the new family friendly Gordon Ramsay, who really does seem like a bit of a closet softie.  Awwwww.