Master Chef

After spending plenty of time making fun of mom for watching these cooking reality shows - "Mom! These guys are so mean! How can you watch these jerks!" - I have become addicted to Master Chef.

This really happened because of two things: 1- I have made myself stop watching Rescue Me. The firefighter and I started watching this together, and then he got really busy, and I ended up with a lot of free time. I have finished three seasons! :-O So I have vowed to stop watching and let him catch up. I'll even re-watch it from the beginning because it is that good of a show. 2- I needed something to fill the silence while I started packing. I had watched all the shows in my queue (there is only so much Wipeout and The View that one can stand), so I clicked on 'most popular' at Hulu, and here I am.

I watched every episode and every clip I could find on this season. I started with the latest episode. Then decided to go back and see how they got to this point. THEN, once I had seen all the regular episodes, I went back and saw the audition rounds. It was really cool to see who are now in the top 9 audition for a spot.

Now my thoughts on this:

The judges: Gordon Ramsey isn't the biggest jerk on the show! In fact, I don't think he's a jerk at all! It goes to show you how TV producers manipulate shows to create personas and gather viewers. I think Gordon is just honest. Like Simon Cowell. I never thought he was a jerk. I thought he was smart and honest, and he has a funny sense of humor.

Graham: Don't really know anything about him. I kinda like his style. He rocks the 'big, round man' look.

Joe: Joe is a jerk. I don't even know who he is, or why he is on this show. Does he have a famous restaurant? I'm not saying that the judges need to coddle the contestants, hardly. But tell them their creations are good or bad; give constructive criticism, and move on. Insert funny sarcastic humor in too. But being a jerk is not funny. Try again, Joe.

And then there's the whole 'eating sounds' thing. I usually can't watch anything that has to do with people eating because the sounds drive. me. insane. I feel that I have gotten better about this, but it is still my number one pet peeve, and no amount of meditation will cure that! I haven't noticed Gordon doing this (maybe that's why I like him) but the other guys scrape their teeth on the fork as they eat. Really??! Isn't that like one of the biggest faux pas? It drives me crazy!

As for my favorite contestant, that would be Ben Starr. I like this guy. He has a very likable personality, but more importantly, he's super talented! He makes most everything from scratch and he's very creative with his ingredients. When I went back to see everyone's audition, seeing Ben's sealed the deal for me. I think that out of all the remaining people, he is the one who can have his own restraunt and make it interesting, fun, tasty, and appealing to everyone.



My least favorite, while he may be talented, Christian is a big jerk. He and Joe should start a restraunt together. And no one eat there.

I don't want to go into details about the last episode, for fear of spoiling it for anyone, but all I will say is that when the pig came out, I was really worried I was going to end up pissed at this show and have to stop watching. And I really didn't want to do that, because I am so hooked on it now.....

Who do you think will be the next Master Chef??