I did not watch the finale of Masterchef until Wednesday night and I am grateful to all of you who sent me e-mails about the show when you used the title of the show in your subject line so I would not read the emails ahead of time because I don't think I could have watched the show and know I would have been even more upset than I am. Let me start by saying this. Jennifer deserved to beat Christian in their round because his plating did look awful and looked like something you would see on an airplane. I have no problems with that at all. She got to the finals fair and square.
That being said, there is no way on this earth that Jennifer is a better cook than Adrian. She just is not. Period, end of story. Last year they picked an attractive white woman and this year they picked an attractive white woman. They want to sell their products and have someone go on book tours and signings and they want a beauty queen and not someone who has the most talent. There is no way you can watch the whole season of that show and not think Adrian is the better cook. Week after week he came through.
I think the show is rigged in various ways which make it very annoying. The decision to only taste three dishes in the mystery box challenges means they get to pick the three people based solely on who they like rather than the quality of the food thus giving each person a 33% chance of having the serious advantage. That is one way they keep the person in. There is no objectivity to the process. It is completely subjective.
Here is what I think would be a great idea for this show. Do it like The Voice. I want the judges in a room where they cannot watch who is cooking what and have the food brought to them by waiters. Then they can decide which food they liked the best. This is about cooking right? They can still be in the room during the mystery box challenges and during the team challenges, but during anything that involves elimination, they are blind. That way the process is much more objective. If that is done on the show this season, Jennifer does not make it past the first three weeks, let alone win the show.
The way they do it now will ensure you will get the same winner each year, just with a different look. It is what would happen if American Idol switched to judges deciding rather than people phoning in. You would only have attractive blondes winning the show. You think Ruben Studdard or Taylor Hicks would have won in judges voting? Please. Maybe every few years they would let a woman of color win, but it would not have been Jennifer Hudson unless it was the new and skinny Jennifer Hudson. Fantasia? Not a chance. Granted, in a cooking show we cannot phone because we don't know how things taste, but they definitely can take my advice and show they are committed to having someone win who Gordon does not want to give one on one lessons to back in his hotel room.
Amen.
ReplyDeleteThis show is not about the cooking, it's about who's got the look to sell the most product line, such as the new "Master Chef cookware" and God help me "Jr Master Chef" cooking kits.
As recently as the top 5, consensus among my coworkers who watch the show pegged Jennifer as the winner. As one put it, "big tits, blond, and former beauty queen? She'll win."
THANK YOU.
ReplyDeleteMy bf and I both gasped when Jennifer won over Adrian. Are you kidding me?? His food was actually INTERESTING and always looked like it had FLAVOUR compared to hers.
We basically thought the same thing - so they chose the blond beauty queen? Bullshit. She was a frazzled mess every single challenge.
Adrian deserved that win.
I totally agree...fixed..another example of total and complete dishonesty and deception in this world.
ReplyDeleteOh, come the fuck ON. Tons of people who have won Hell's Kitchen happen to be ugly dudes. I get the feeling that Ramsey just has a natural, um, *affinity* with women, but he's picked winners before who happen to have penises.
ReplyDeleteSo...if say, Suzy -- who was a complete snot but an AWEsome cook -- had won, would you *still* bring up that point about female attractiveness being a factor? Because *she* wears her hair like a preschooler and looks like a Muppet, unlike Blindingteeth McBlondyhead.
Adrian doesn't know a morel from a shiitake. I DO know that much from a few episodes ago. And Jennifer KNOWS 'shrooms -- my stomach is still growling for that ravioli she made. Oh. My. God.
I liked Adrian, and I would have been cool with him winning this competition, but his ingredients were typically pretentious as hell, and I didn't think that most of his dishes looked all that appetizing, personally.
And Jennifer won a LOT of Mystery Box competitions, right? I like the contestants who steadily improve over time, rather than the ones who churn out the same shit week after week.
She had a ton of creativity, obvious confidence, and a big ol' swinging set of ladyballs. It's not HER fault she's a looker. I liked the chick, and I say more power to her. I LOVED it when she wouldn't give Christian any flour. :-)
But if she really wants to give up a cushy career as a realtor to deal with the misery of the culinary industry, I'm just gonna shake my head and say Godspeed...
This is one category of TV shows where I have nothing to add. That's right. I am posting just to let you people know that I have nothing to add.
ReplyDeleteIda - I believe Jennifer won ONE more box competition than Adrian did, and completely disagree that Jennifer's knowledge of mushrooms (um, she grew up near the mushroom capital of the U.S.) means she's a better cook than Adrian.
ReplyDeleteAdrian improved by leaps and bounds over the course of the show, and his food looked amazing. Right now, I can't picture one dish Jennifer cooked besides that egg yolk ravioli and her final dish. And poached pears for dessert? Seriously?
I sort of agree with you Enty. I was irked that Jennifer won. This person gets a cookbook and their face plastered on various things, so they want someone they think will sell. While I think Adrian would have done well, the blond girl is better & more "approachable" from a marketing perspective. Though if they had any brains at all they would also understand that there is a huge Hispanic population & love of Mexican cuisine in the U.S. that they could have tapped into.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found so amazing about Adrien was that he didn't appear to have any enemies. They all seemed to love him. This is a guy who is a waiter and wants to be a cook, but no one has been willing to give him a chance. For me, this is what the competition should be about. His food was sometimes a major miss & his plating really lacked on a few occasions, but overall I always found myself wanting to eat many of the things he made. He grew throughout the competition and was a class act. He seemed sincere, and his food always represented him. He stayed true to who he was and had talent...and that's why I'm so very disappointed at the end result.
@RQ -- yyyeeeeeah, the pears were pretty lame, I have to admit. But so was Adrian's flaccid molten chocolate cake. :-P
ReplyDeleteI actually thought that Suzy was a better cook than Adrian, but she's also got that horrid personality -- which is probably partly why the judges kicked her ass out. Ditto Christian.
And Jennifer didn't grow up near the WILD mushroom capital of the U.S. (that's GOT to be somewhere in the Pacific Northwest) -- she grew up in an area where mushrooms are heavily *cultivated.* It basically means that she lived among mushroom farms, but I really respect people who know how to work with local produce, regardless.
The girl educated herself in the kitchen -- and, again, I just think she was the most creative contestant. But that's JUST MY OPINION. :-)
I just find it sexist when people get suspicious when a woman who happens to be extremely good-looking advances beyond her male peers. So she's hot. So what?
P.S. I still wish Ben had taken the top prize, anyway.
ReplyDelete*sniffs and wipes away tear*
When did the runner up on this season's Bachelorette find the time to also be on Master Chef? That guy is a talent.
ReplyDeletethis is why I didn't watch it. I have been a devoted Top Chef fan from the beginning and rarely am dissapointed by who wins. Plus, Tom C. does a blog and will honestly answer questions and give more details as to why the decide the way they do.
ReplyDeleteIda - she really wasn't that attractive. Fakest, weirdest smile ever. I agree with Carrie that she was chosen because she was the most marketable.
ReplyDelete@RQ -- Again: just my aesthetic opinion. Personally, I don't think Timberlake is attractive, but I know *you* disagree. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut I think that if Gordon REALLY based winners primarily on looks, that absolutely GORGEOUS Indian woman from last season would have advanced way farther than she did.
Ida - I don't think physically Timberlake is very attractive, it's his singing and dancing and talent in that arena that make him so attractive to me. Seriously...that falsetto? He rocks it.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Ida and thought the more creative person won and who grew the most in this competition from the very beginning. I, too, would have loved it if Suzy would have gone before Ben, I was amazed that he could put something together that tasted good at the very last minute without "having a plan".
ReplyDeleteI think the fix was in when they gave that one woman a full years culinary education and the opportunity to work in one of Gordo's fine dining establishments.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to see the 18 year old arrogant kid again and I think we will see Ben Starr somewhere else.
FWIW, I completely agree with you and picked Jennifer as the winner 2 weeks ago. Big blonde smiles and a high Q rating will decimate all other competitors in Ramsayworld.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more infuriating is tha thought that some vacuous bimbo walks around thinking she really is a master chef. Of course that bears NO RESEMBLANCE WHATSOEVER to the real Certified Master Chefs from the A.C.F.
Please do all of us a favor, if Ramsay is one of the BI's give us an early reveal so whe can really understand how this works. My money says he's as much of a horn-dog as Flay.
@RQ -- Totally agree with your assessment of Timberlake as a singer. He's *such* a talented entertainer (well, not in movies, but definitely on SNL), and I MISS HIS MUSIC.
ReplyDeleteTimberlake on the Barry Gibb talk show = pure win. Talk about using that falsetto to its full potential! *L*
ReplyDeleteIda, I agreed with your whole post about this. I was happy with the final two being the final two and would have been fine with either of them winning. BUT I think Jennifer was better in the finale than Adrian and he just wasn't extraordinarily consistent in the kitchen, even though I really liked him.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ben Starr, I wanted him to win, even though I knew he wouldn't. He just seemed so darn happy to be there and cooking for Ramsey. I seriously loved him on the show.
I disagree. I think Jennifer's cooking was constantly underrated because of her looks. Yes, she had low points, but so did Adrian. I think if he had pulled his presentation together earlier than the finale, he might have won, but it's hard to overcome a season of mostly blah. I would've given Jennifer the win on the fish scaling/fileting challenge alone. That took skill! And confidence, which Adrian was also lacking.
ReplyDeleteIf they were judging by looks, Adrian is a hell of a lot better looking than Jennifer, and wouldn't he have appealed a lot more to the women who mostly buy cookbooks & watch cooking shows?
They said they only tasted three dishes, but they made all kinds of comments that showed that they had tasted every dish before they picked the top three. At least during the prep time, if not the final product, so they had a good idea what each dish tasted like.
Since this is a reality show, I don't want it completely objective - if Suzy or Christian had won, I would've been pissed!
I also think that Top Chef and Tom C. in particular are sexist as hell, so Ramsay isn't alone in that.
Not sure the American Idol comparison works. Studdard and Hicks didn't exactly set the world on fire after they won.
ReplyDeleteNever seen the show. Top Chef is the only cooking/reality show I care about.
ReplyDeleteStuddard's first album went double platinum, along with a gold gospel album. Taylor tours extenstively and makes solid money. This idea that they aren't doing well is a false one.
ReplyDeleteif adrian didn't fuck up the last dessert, he woulda won. He did and Jen won fair and square.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ida -- not only should Ben have won, he would have sold a lot more cookbooks (or whatever they're hawking) than Jennifer will. Adrian would have even been a better fit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification, Layna. Glad to hear they're doing well.
ReplyDeleteAfter going back to read my comment, it feels that I came across a bit gruff, which wasn't my intent.
ReplyDeleteIdol has showcased some talented people who may not be superstars, but are doing pretty well for themselves. Truthfully, there's only one superstar from Idol right now--Carrie Underwood. Kelly Clarkson's status hinges on how her upcoming album is received.
But being that I follow the show a bit too much--it's my TV weakness--I keep up with several former contestants. And many have enjoyed some measure of success.
I understand how someone outside the Idol circle not realizing that, but many who follow Idol are petty when it comes to determining who's sucessful or not, instead of really looking at the person's overall career.