Masterchef : Australia vs America

Masterchef is a cooking competion originally from England and now has been adapted to many country. I first watched the Korean version where the contestants are the celebrity, it’s fun, exciting and I learn a lot by watching it. And then I started watching the US and Australian version. 

Masterchef US Judges. From left to right : Graham Elliot, Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich

Masterchef US is judged by three famous people in culinary world. They are Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot. The show was a dissapointment to me, the producers liked to turn it into a drama by combining the words the contestant said in an interview and turn it into a script. The audition was worse, they convinced the people who they thought has a unique personality and entertaining to join. The contestant couldn’t tell anyone about that, and they need to sign some kind of contract which very confusing for a person who didn’t have law education, sometimes they even have to quit their job because the shooting could take months only to be mocked in front of the camera. They were searching based on the personality of the contestant whether they could fit into their script, whether they could play the bad guys or the good guys. They picked the contestant to be antagonized by every other contestant, they stired things up to make as if he/she was the enemy, a target to be taken down and hated by the audience. After every session there were always an interview and you could never trust the interview because sometimes they combined it from several other interview in a different session. You could notice it by the clothes they worn in an interview how the clothes kept changing eventhough it was still in a same session. 

The session itself had become more like a game rather than a cooking competition. It was ridiculous when a contestant has won a challenge and get an advantages, the advantages was ridiculously massive. They could pick a core ingredients, they didn’t have to cook, and sometimes they could decide how the other contestant have to cook. And strangely after four seasons watching, I never saw a contestant which had become a target was affected by the decision that the winner had chosen. You could see there were a lot of patterns in here like when sometimes a contestant was very confident in a challenge and turns out he/she was the one being eliminated while the contestant who never have cooked that type of dish won it. The show has become more like The Apprentice. The judges sometimes try to look intimidating by throwing the dish into a trash can, give a very sadistic comment, throwing up the food they tried. There were a lot of other things that make this show was not entertaining anymore and had become some kind of shit to me. For me the turning point was in season 4, by the time they reached the top 5, I could guess who was going to win in this season. What could make the story better than turning someone from zero to hero. And I was right, the winner of season 4 Masterchef was a contestant which didn’t pass the audition in the previous season. From zero to hero. After that I stopped watching and didin’t even interested in season 5. I guess rating do talks, it seems that it is the show that Americans like. 

Masterchef Australia judges. From left to right : Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston, George Calombaris

I’ve read in several forums in internet that Masterchef Australia was the best version you could find and very popular. By the time I started watching, it has already reached season 5, so I was kind of late but I still try to watch it. And wow I was amazed, it was totally different than the US version, very great, magnificent, beautiful non script show. Maybe the judges were not as famous as those in US version, but how they executed it, the challenge that was thrown, the emotional was real and very nice. The Australia version had more episode than the US version, the concept had a lot of difference than the US version. There were still a mystery box challenge, invention test, team challenge, elimination. But they also added an immunity challenge where a contestant was faced with a profesional in a blind tasting. If the contestant won it, they will get an immunity pin where it could be used to save him/herself if he/she was in a pressure test. What funny was when they chose Jamie Oliver as an opponent in an immunity test. The contestants which are three people at that time have to faced Jamie to win three immunity pins (it used to be only one pin, but Jamie is special case). Please, I know immunity is a test to compete with professional, but Jamie is not a professional, he is a WORLD CLASS CHEF!! Even the contestants adore him. It’s like a high school student who just learn how to play basketball and going one on one against Michael Jordan in his prime time. And I was right, he turned the session as if it was his own TV show, as if he was not competing at all, talking to the camera while cooking and showing a lot of technique. 

The show is a little bit boring in the first three episodes because you didn’t know the contestants. But after several episodes you started to build some kind of bond with the contestants, it was very inspiring, very exciting and hoping that your favourite didn’t get eliminated soon. And while we developed some kind of bond with the contestants, so were they with each other. There were not targets that needs to be taken down, everyone was helping each other even in the elimination test. They were helping as hard as they could to keep everyone stay in the competition longer eventhough they knew that someone need to be eliminated. They sometimes cheer each other when someone feeling down, offered himself to replace the contestant in an elimination test, there were even a contestant that want to sacrificed himself to not compete and let himself to be eliminated because the person he went against was already like his little sister. It was very nice to watch, it was real emotion, not scripted. The judges also not very intimidating, they helped each contestant to go through every challenge, they acted as their friends, their mentor but at the same time they also needed to be professional to decide who will be eliminated. There were several episodes where no one was eliminated in an elimination test because they cooked so perfect and there were no negatives and forced it to a tie. I really respected them a lot. It’s the system that they needed to beat, not the judges, so the judges didn’t have to act tough in front of them. 

The competiton itself was very tough. It was a set of challenge that push you to your limit and let you reveal your maximum potential. It also gave you a lot of experiences. I saw it more like a fast track cooking course. Where when you passed each level of challenge, you have upgraded your skill to become a better chef. Of course there were also luck that played a lot in this competition, after all luck also played a part in our life too, decision making was also crucial in this competition where one bad decision could lead a catasthropic to the entire session. I’ve never saw a contestant aim to become the winner of the show at the first start, they will try to aim winning the competion when it has reached at least top 10, most of them rely mostly on the journey they were going to have in this competition to find their true self to do what they loved to do. It has become some kind of self seeker. I saw a contestant that face a lot of problem in their early several episodes and developed his skill during the competition and won it. There were also a lot of contestant who nearly give up in the middle of session because they were so broken down and lost their confidence to complete the dish and got back up, pushed themselves and served a dish that they thought was impossible to complete. When that happened, it boost up their confidence a lot and proved that they could do anything when they believed in themselves. And it was not the person with the most skill that won the competition, it was the person who could learn a lot and quickly, a person who believed in himself and not afraid to make mistakes. At the end of every week, there will be a masterclass session where the contestants could sit back and enjoyed how the professionals taught them some recipes, tips and tricks and sometime tried to recreate the previous challenge. 

 Masterchef Australia was much a better show than the US version, they sometimes invited several celebrity chef such as Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver in immunity test, Marco Pierre White and some local known chef. I watched the Indonesian version once or twice, and sadly they tend to be more like the US version, and some of the challenge was international cuisine, it was very pity that they actually could boost the Indonesian cuisine rather than relied on international food. The Korean version that I watched was more like the Australian, but sadly there was only one season where the contestants were all celebrity. Love the Australian very much and always looking forward to each season. 

Ordinary people, extraordinary food.