As Gregg tells us in each and every episode, Masterchef is looking for "someone who can turn out EXCEPTIONAL food".
Scallops are nice. More than nice, they are a pure, pearly white delicacy tailor-made for restaurant cooking.
But if you choose - as seemingly every other Masterchef quarter finalist does - to sear scallops and serve them up with a puree (any one from pea/ sweetcorn/ cauliflower/ pumpkin), they are no longer EXCEPTIONAL. They are boring.
Scallops are not the only fruit de la mer.
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Monday, 19 January 2009
Food fight!
Channel 4's bold but confusing food season has begun: can't wait.
Bold, because the adverts have been ace. Confusing, because they make the fatal ad-land mistake of leaving the consumer in considerable doubt as to what is being promoted.
But let me focus on the positives.
The lead advert has Gordon, Hugh, Jaime and Heston limbering up for the "food fight".
It has them as caricatures of themselves: Heston the highbrow, Jaime the cheeky cheffy chappy, Gordon the grump, Hugh the holistic hippie.
We see Hugh timing Jaime's chopping skills, Gordon running over Jaime's moped with his SUV and Heston refusing to wear anything but a white NASA developed suit.
It confirms that celebrity chefs have now become sketch show characters.
This is nothing new: Fanny Craddock was truly a stranger than fiction kind of character.
Then there was the boisterous enthusiasm of Keith Floyd, seen here plugging the greatest hits of the Stranglers.
Channel 4 will need more characters next year and there is plenty to choose from.
They could have Anthony zipping up his flies, Delia cooking mildew wearing a sack, or even Nigella, as Private Eye's remote controller naughtily put it, presenting like she has been given "porn star" to act out in a game of charades.
Bold, because the adverts have been ace. Confusing, because they make the fatal ad-land mistake of leaving the consumer in considerable doubt as to what is being promoted.
But let me focus on the positives.
The lead advert has Gordon, Hugh, Jaime and Heston limbering up for the "food fight".
It has them as caricatures of themselves: Heston the highbrow, Jaime the cheeky cheffy chappy, Gordon the grump, Hugh the holistic hippie.
We see Hugh timing Jaime's chopping skills, Gordon running over Jaime's moped with his SUV and Heston refusing to wear anything but a white NASA developed suit.
It confirms that celebrity chefs have now become sketch show characters.
This is nothing new: Fanny Craddock was truly a stranger than fiction kind of character.
Then there was the boisterous enthusiasm of Keith Floyd, seen here plugging the greatest hits of the Stranglers.
Channel 4 will need more characters next year and there is plenty to choose from.
They could have Anthony zipping up his flies, Delia cooking mildew wearing a sack, or even Nigella, as Private Eye's remote controller naughtily put it, presenting like she has been given "porn star" to act out in a game of charades.
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