Masterchef Australia – The Hindu Wedding – What An Effort
I thought it was ironic that Masterchef Australia was catering for a Hindu wedding on a night that Dumb Drunk And Racist aired on ABC 2 last night, and that the star of the episode was top Indian chef Kumar Mahadevan who did a great job of mixing humour with whipping the contestants into shape.
Dumb Drunk and Racist could not decide to which “laneway” it was sitting in. Was it observational documentary, reality TV or a mockumentary. I took it as a mockumentary as it appeared to be taking the piss out of everyone and was more contrived than any episode of Masterchef. Not sure what taking an Indian to Bondi and making them swim in a rip so they could be rescued had to do with racism in Australia. However I was amused at the irony of the Indian’s being shown how racist Australians are towards muslims when in fact India was partitioned after the end of the British Raj on religious grounds. But maybe if this show is screened in India it might send of message to be tolerant to muslims and help improve the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. By the way there has been a lot of complaints about the Say No To The Burqua mural but hey don’t let the facts get in the way of one good made for TV extremist.
Recently on reality TV on we have seen a better representation of people from different ethnicities doing more for breaking down cultural stereotypes that currently exist. Amina who wears the hijab has the majority of Masterchef fans in her corner not just because of her cooking but because she is a great girl. Hell she cracked the best joke on last night’s episode. The Amazing Race last year had Mo and Mos the affable muslim guys who seriously need their own radio show, and this year we had the hot indigenous guys who unfortunately were eliminated far too soon.
Hell the cast is far more diverse than the newly announced series of Celebrity Go Back To Where You Came From where SBS cast all anglo-saxon people for the series. But this will lauded as great TV, and the first series was, but lets be frank it was aimed at it’s viewer demographic which is the white middle class. So I am not sure how many perceptions of their viewers they changed.
However it would be good for the four Indians to meet Julia who might be able to tell her Indians can in fact afford potato mashers in fact the middle class can afford to pay the extortionate fees to send their kids to overseas unis so they may also have an electrical appliance in their cupboards as well.
It could be argued, and that is another blog post, that shows like Masterchef Australia, and The Amazing Race show greater diversity than other shows on our screens. Also there WILL be a blog post on Dumb Drunk And Racist, but after I have seen a couple of more episodes to ensure I don’t make too many generalisations….
OK back to the recap….
It was a mega challenge the teams had to cook for a Hindu wedding of Sri Lankan Tamils.
The red team was Jules, Audra, Andrew, Alice, Julia, Sam, Mindy and Andy.
The Blue team was Emma, Wade, Beau, Kylie, Ben , Tregan, Amina, and Debra. Jules was captain for the red team and Beau for the blue team.
Like the yum cha challenge the captains had to cook off with the winner gaining an advantage of picking the dishes. They had to make raita something Ben had never seen tasted or heard of before. Are there no Indian restaurants in Tasmania?
Though having castigated him I was thinking why are they getting fry pans out to make raita? Duh to cook the spices…
By the way is Masterchef cutting costs on their medical staff? Amina who is a nurse rushed over to Ben to hold his finger up which he cut on the grater. Pity she did not give him a bollocking for stuffing up the raita. Jules is looking like she is a good cook with a wide knowledge of cuisines she might make top ten.
Jules picked Eggplant Pakoras and Potato Fritters for entree , Dahl and Potato Curry for mains and dessert was the Jackfruit rice.
The blue team had to do paneer kebabs and fried cauliflower, mains okra and vegetable curry and dessert was semolina.
The teams went shopping at Coles, however did they get the okra there?
They had a whole day of prep before coming back for another day of getting the dishes ready. And it was hard and heavy work, which must have made some of the contestants re-think their food dream.
Amina really did seem in her element, and she cracked me up when she was crying and she sobbed “There is going to be wedding so beautiful” then she laughed and said “Its the onions”.
Also I had to laugh at Julia’s cultural epiphany when she said. ”This is how the women in India do it, they don’t have fancy gadgets, machines or moulies or french appliances they are probably just smashing it in a pot”
Kumar turned into the Gordon Ramsay of the Masterchef Kitchen when he told Ben off about using the big cauliflowers for the vegetable curry when he need them for his entree. He told him to get some new ones and of course Ben sent a girl to the supermarket…
Even though the the judges thought the red teams entrees were better and the blue teams mains were thought to be tastier. The vote was up to the wedding guests where they had to vote for their favourite dish.
However If thought it was rude of Matt Preston telling Kumar that he preferred the red teams potato fritters better than his as they were crispier. But is that how they should be served Matt?
Also there was criticism of the red teams dahl. Gary Mehigan put it into perspective that they were cooking for 450 people and some of the 16 had not cooked Indian before. Yes I was shocked at that it is a pretty mainstream cuisine in Australia these days.
After the curse of Andrew had the desserts fall over, yes it was Audra’s fault but Andrew does always appear to be in the epicentre of stuff ups. However they had extras so disaster was averted it was time for the result.
The red team won and the blue team looked disappointed as they would be as it was as such a mammoth effort by both teams. There appears to be some drama tonight with the Ben saying he won’t go up against Emma. What is all that about? A big brother thing or don’t tell me they are hooking up?
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85 comments
Didn’t really understand the cauliflower thing. Ben was told off for using the large pieces for the curry leaving only small pieces to be fried, but the criticism of the fried cauliflower pieces was that they were too big so didn’t cook properly. Too much Audra and Alice last night. Loved Amina’s tears.
I watched the first half hour and other bits through AGT ad breaks and then the final verdict. From that I got the impression Ben was pretty much pissed off for the entire episode.
It seemed to start when he drew the captain’s carny; didn’t improve when he didn’t know what raita was and grew worse when he grated his fingers.
During an AGT ad break I saw him wanting to stab the Indian chef over the cauliflower drama.
Then the final verdict and his fragile MC house of cards came crashing down, along with what little of his spirit remained.
Ben knew from the beginning of the challenge that he was going to fail, sometimes a little affirmation of positivity won’t hurt to help win the challenge. Ben’s losing team reminded me of when Debra was picked for captain, I secretly did hope she was team captain last night! :p
Oh Emma! would you stop crying! contestents use the sprinklers for the last weeks of the competition!
Yes Georgie, Ben did seem to be in a very bad frame of mind as he even admitted. From cutting his finger everything seemed to go downhill for him, culminating in the strange comment at the end that he wouldn’t go up against Emma tonight, can’t wait to see what that was about. Both teams did really well, it would have been a very difficult challenge, no one deserves to go home based on it. I’m liking Amina more and more, she has a great sense of humour and seems a kind person, rushing over to help Ben was nice, maybe her leaving the nursing profession would be a shame as she has a lot of empathy for people. I noticed Audra snapping at Deb over the use of some herb or other, and maybe Julia was referring to the poorer people of India in her comments, not the wealthier ones. Very entertaining episode!
Agree that Ben was the loser with his attitude right from the get-go. Wish Amina had pulled the captain’s flower just because she would have been much more positive about it, and for starters not been near tears for grating a finger.
Audra annoyed me last night with some of her comments like plating up beside the blue team and what a nightmare it was. I dunno, she’s starting to come across as smug. And how come the commentaries were almost exclusively done by the red team? I counted Jules, Mindy, Audra, Alice and Andrew. Only remember seeing Ben with his glum face for the blues and maybe Amina (briefly).
And in a blink and you’ll miss it ad for the super Sunday line-up/Sumday night’s show, you can see two of the blues who survive tonight’s elimination.
Amina is just lovely.
Did everyone else see Audra and Debra’s spat? Debra was very rude ‘GIVE ME THE CORIANDER NOW!’ but Audra wasn’t much better. I think she’s quite prissy. You know those people who seem lovely but … aren’t.
Spot on analysis of the Hildebrand show, please do review it. I’m smack bang in the ‘white guilt’ demographic of it but I’d have to say I found it pretty poor and sensationalist. If you’re going to show the Indians Australia then why go out seeking the most racist people you can find? Hildebrand seems very quick and willing to condemn us all.
Of all the dishes they prepped last night, I would have eaten zero. One of the many cusines I will never eat. Good to see the guests enjoying it though. Also amusing is that people are going after Julia for suggesting indian women can’t afford stuff. I agree.
It’s the indian men that can buy that, then give it to their kitchen wives. ;p
Like Julia even more now due to zero range miss (happens to me often – lol), as well as eyebrows man for volunteering to help cleanup the spill of his enemy-team just so they could get the rest of the desert up on time. Small things like that are awesome. ^_^
Lastly did anyone catch Audra’s death stare as Andrew was telling her what to do while loading the trolley? What was that about? I don’t think she usually looks like that when she’s not jump-glomping people, does she?
Agree with your assessment on Kumar, Raver. This was a good episode because of the energy he imparted on screen and the overall difficulty of the challenge.
Joe Hildebrand is an unfunny A1 buffoon who’s main claim to fame is that he’s a spear-carrying, court jester for News Limited.
Based on what I saw of the very contrived ‘Dumb Drunk and Racist’ the basic premise was to take four well-educated, middle-class Indians and then bring them to Australia for set piece meetings with a carefully selected collection of deranged locals.
In typical fashion Joe thought he’d scored big time with his ‘sneer’ at Sydney’s inner west by featuring the deranged Burqa Mural guy and some abusive discourse between this idiot and some ‘random’ muslim who’d just happened to be passing through Newtown (why no shot of his WRX in proper Fat Pizza style?). Surely the Bondi Hipsters skewered inner-city pretensions ans racial hypocrisy in a more humorous and insightful manner – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbZapSkzfQ8&list=EL4xeB_muwhDY&index=2&feature=plcp.
Why not focus instead on inner-west political intolerance of a higher order such as the then Green-dominated Marrickville Council proposals to ban products from Israel?
Having spent the first 20 odd years of my life in Bondi (1962 to the ’80s), the choice of Beachie as one of the first Aussies to introduce the intrepid Indian visitors to very effectively covered the “dumb” part of the show’s criteria. The job of Beach Inspector (albeit, of course, an important community service) involves the use of less neurons than an average seagull going about its business. Seagulls at least look over the beach carefully processing when to time a raid on a distracted fish-and-chip eater. Beachies instead look to the horizon thinking about either their last root or their next beer.
If only Joe was funny.
Perhaps John Saffran would have been a much better choice for this show. Especially as the premise that negative Asian perceptions of Australian culture are potentially damaging to our nation’s standing and economy is a very worthwhile issue to shine a light on.
Dunbi – Yeah a bit of a waste of time going to the supermarket.
Georgie – It was the worse challenge to be captain for the poor bugger it was a huge job and all the contestants did a standout job. I wonder what the producers are doing to ensure everyone had a go at captain.
J-Ko – She should get a t-shirt made “I Cried On Masterchef”
Andy Pandy – Yes Julia probably was or where the tradition of smashing the potatoes came from.
To be fair to Julia, it was Kumar who taught her how to mash potatoes by smashing them into the pot. Of course there are mega rich people in India but many are poor.
Funny to hear Ben said his team deserved to win because of how they performed in the kitchen. Both teams performed well in the kitchen.
The shopping at Coles was just to highlight the sponsors, Coles and Masterchef. Would you go to Coles to buy 30kg or more of cauliflower or potatoes etc etc. LOL when I saw the amount of Masterfood spices in the trolley. I am sure Kumar buys his spices in 250g or even 1kg bags.
Looking forward to the waterworks from Emma again. She is going to cry her way to the Top 5. Oh please…….
Thank heaven for this blog, as I only watch parts of the show (other members of the family have the remote). What I did see was the exchange between Julia and Alice. While making the potato dish Alice says “I love love”. To which Julia looks at her coolly and says: “God you’re corny”. A perfect moment.
Also how good is Jules at making those quenelles.
Glasses: “Don’t you mean potatie?!”
@Anonymouse – Hildebrand is part of the “hate press” (BWAHA HA HA HA) that is owned by Rupert Murdoch. (More evil laughs).
Also, everyone is rude to Debra in the house because no one likes her and vice versa.
@Andy Pandy – Given the paltry living expenses wage the contestants receive, Amina has agreed to double-up as the on-site medic due to the budget cuts at Channel Ten last year. More pocket money for her. She gets $5 per cut. $10 to dress a wound. Imagine if she was on MasterChef in Season 2 with Jake? She would have been a freaking millionaire by the end of his run.
Anonymouse – I missed the Hilderbrand show. I’d heard about it but didn’t know what it’s thrust was. From what you’ve said:
“If you’re going to show the Indians Australia then why go out seeking the most racist people you can find?”
It reminds me of Les Patterson’s comedy routine on British migration in the 70′s. A picture of a huge white pointer, mouth agape and bearing all it’s teeth – the slogan “Migrate Now”.
Audra also start to annoy me slightly. Last night, Mindy seemed to speak like Audra with the somewhat monotonous voice or was I dreaming?
Having seen the operation of a few commerical kitchens and in particular one of George’s restaurants I am always amazed at how much talking, high fiveing and RUNNING in the kitchens on Masterchef. It just does not happen very dangerous practice to be running in a kitchen when hot food is being prepared and the only person talking usually is the Head Chef especially at service.
@Georgie. The show is being repeated tonight on ABC 2 at 10:30pm. You’ve been warned.
Hmm my post got eaten by the forum. :/
Anyway, reposting what I remember:
Of all the dishes served I would have eaten none. Indian cusine is one of many I find disgusting. Good to see the guests enjoying it though. Also, Julia is correct in saying indian women can’t afford stuff… it’s their men that buy it for them while they stay chained to the kitchen. ;p
Didn’t see the whole ep due but my ratings of what I did see:
+1 Like to Julia for zero range miss, happens to me often
+1 to Andrew for keeping cool when the tray came crashing down
+1 to eyebrows man for offering to help to clean up enemy team’s spill so they could get their food up on time
+1 to Jules for showing she knew some stuff
+1 to Kumar for being so helpful
-1 to Kumar for being an ass
-1 to Ben for taking a defeatist attitude. Could tell who won from your first interview man.
-1 to Audra for scary death stare at Andrew while loading the tray
-1 to Preston for that awkward Mumbai conversation with the random wedding guest
-20 to the indian couple. WTF, you trust your important day to a bunch of competitive amateurs and only inform them about it the day before? Idiots.
Also wondering how some of those women have small gems on their foreheads instead of a dot? Is that pinned/nailed to their forehead or just glued, which means it could add texture to their food/drink?
Eek, sorry for the multiple posts – either the blog or my compy (or both) is/are doing wierd stuff.
RR agree it was a very difficult challenge and who’d want to be captain in any of them anyway?
It occurred to me watching the verdict that a difference of 36 votes to determine the winner/loser was hardly a difinitive result, considering the whole event.
Possibly a good opportunity to congratulate everyone on the huge effort and forget about elimination this week – like the Sam and Andy challenge.
Thanks JStar – I’ll try for it but have a habit of falling asleep on the lounge between about 9.30 and 11.30pm.
@Georgie It was very, very Les Patterson. I think the demographic is quite confused having Hildebrand do this show. It’s really aimed at inner city lefties with lots of white guilt (as I said, my friends and I are smack bang in the demographic) but using a right wing journalist with no sense of humour? The message gets confused. I don’t know who Hildebrand is ‘for’ the average Joe, well generally that’s where you’re going to find the most racism, but Hildebrand is very scornful of the very people who are supposed to be watching the show … whoever said the main problem is that he isn’t funny is correct. John Saffran would have been hilarious, but that would have been a whole other show.
I did find parts confronting, the Indian lady who works with the travel advisory company and said Australians were violent because we are descended from convicts. I found that so incredibly hurtful that in a sense it was levelling because I haven’t really ever been vilified on the basis of my race before and yet we see it so frequently laughed off … see damn white guilt rears it’s head again. And it really shouldn’t- Australia is a wonderful country and it is pretty damn useless to have the same white middle class people sitting there going ‘Oh we’re racist and horrible’. People like Amina being seen on national TV as a favourite for every reason except her religion … that does much more!
TL;DR- there are probably some valid points in there, but I don’t think this is the correct format, host or show to actually provoke any meaningful dialogue beyond ‘we’re all so horrible, I feel bad’
Joseph I have an over zealous spam box (not a euphamism) so if anyone has some comments go off into the ether email me as they are normally sitting there. I try to remember to check regularly but forget.
Fides – Yes I will do a blog post on Dumb Drunk Racist as it definitely uses the tricks of reality TV contrived situations to elicit an emotional response. I also wonder if the Indians involved knew that it was going to involve. I am starting to think the premise of the show is for people to laugh at dumb bogans…Don’t the white middle class just hide their racism in a much cleverer way? Are white people the only ones that are racist? Hopefully in one of the episodes they will look at what causes this xenophobia – wouldn’t be the headlines and fearmongering from a certain tabloid would it? Maybe Joe can take some of these dumb drunk racists to meet the Daily Tele editorial team and some of their columnists. Just saying.
when red was annouced the winner ,i had this feeling when seeing ben was down and out that he would pull the pin right there and then, saying” i’ve had enough of this crap” ,the look in his eyes said it all . gee that debra is scary ,she comes across all prim and proper but she has evil in her eyes !!! scared the s..t outta me and i’m 6 ft 3 “GIVE ME THE CORIANDER OR YOU DIE !!!” yikes you have what ever you want ……
RR your spam box /commenting is not loving me today!
Third attempt to comment: I would have loved to be a guest/eating at that wedding. The food was divine. Jules is such a sweetie, calm, cooks well. Go Jules!
Where’s George? Can’t take the heat? He would probably be drowned in sweat after tasting all the spicy food.
Anyone has any idea why did Jules boil the water? Did she use it to soak the dried chilli?
Jules is a dark horse but not enough personality to go all the way. She reminds me of Courtney (Season 2).
Ben’s attitude & frustration resemble the Rockabilly couple on TAR. May be he just had enough and after all MC is not worth losing his job & girlfriend for after all? May be he was having Adam’s (season 3) moment and at the verge of quitting. May be it is all just drama of nothing but to suck us all into watching tonight episode.
The most memorable scene for me is Kumar yelling out to Emma “no lump no lump no lump no lump!”. No tear though, only fear.
Fides – Good spotting. Were the two blue team members (one male & one female) standing behind Mindy? I caught the scene (not sure if it is the same ond you are referring to) but couldn’t figure out who they were. They were standing quite a distance from the camera.
Wasn’t it lucky that when the tattooed one visited Coles for the extra cauliflowers that the store was deserted so she could whizz through, and that a store member just happened to be restocking the cauliflower section with a trolley load she just happened to have.
And I’m going off Audra and Mindy ……
Isabel – I noticed the store was empty of customers when they did their initial shopping trip too. Must have opened outside normal hours just for the filming?
Isabel – Oh good point. I wonder if it was filmed afterwards? Wouldn’t you just run to the nearest store to grab them?
EH – George was given a leave pass for this challenge because of the chilli quota. Not that any of the dishes looked fiery mind you.
Anonymouse – Agree re: the Indian lady and no doubt there has been an impact of students coming from India due to the racial based murder that occurred in Melbourne. Also there are other factors in play with the fall in students from Asia and one of these is the high Australian dollar. The show totally confused me and made me cranky. Wanting to show white Australian’s as being intolerant however also taking the piss out of the Indians which in itself was racist. Also the Burqa guy was obviously from a Yugoslave heritage and wasn’t there a religious based shit fight over there in the 80′s. So he comes with all those prejudices. I suppose my point the show should not pretend to be worthier than it actually is. If those same tricks were used on commercial tv shows the ABC viewers would be shaking their head in disgust.
Enjoyed that brief moment of Debra getting her sour on. Audra is a grating pill. I’d snarl at her too.
As for Ben! He’s been on the winning team in the vast bulk of the team challenges, and he’s all sooky about ‘we worked so hard’?!
EH…. re the whereabouts of George, he said he feeling “fluey” the other night, so I assumed he was a no show.
I have to admit here that I’ve blogged at Joe Hildebrand’s website for a few years as I’ve been amused by his blogs. I’ve never read a hard copy serious newspaper article ,only blogs. Watched the show, it’s a step up from Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year, at least and look forward to RR’s recaps.
Oh, I see George got a leave pass for the chilli.
Ben is such a softcock, btw.
The icing on the cake for Kumar’s show-stealing performance last night would have been him reprising the Birdie Num Num scene from “The Party” –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajMqhpCBPAY & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ov5fvCHmxo.
*waves hand*
Hey Joe. Can I appear as a culturally insensitive Aussie bloke on “Dumb Drunk and Racist”? Oh. Make mine a pinot grigio. Thanks mate.
BDD – I like Joe Hildebrand and he makes some great points at times particularly on some of the political stuff. But I think he needed to decide which way he wanted to take the show.
Good to see you back in full swing CB – you’ve been a bit hit and miss for a few weeks now.
Peter Sellers rocks – the whole Pink Panther series and The Party. I have it all on DVD. LMAO through the 70′s and 80′s at his antics when I wasn’t watching Monty Python, Blackadder and The Young Ones.
“When duty calls, you need balls.”
Give me Ben and a beret…
…and I’ll give you Frank Spencer –
http://www.magnuswalker.com/cmsms/uploads/images/frank.jpg
Am impressed to see most posters on here refusing to buy into the ABC’s same old “Aussies are racist bigots except for us nice green-lefties who only hate Israel” line. I agree that Masterchef probably represents something closer to the reality of diverse urban Australia than Dumb, Drunk and Racist.
Dying to know what the Ben and Emma drama is about but it clearly involves a flood of tears. Maybe Ben recently read Alice in Wonderland and is concerned about drowning in them.
I’m off to Coles tonight to grab me some okra. Will let you know how I go.
bdd – I’ve posted on Joe’s blog a couple of times recently after my sister told me that she had been his primary school teacher in Melbourne. Apparently I met him and his mother at my brother-in-law’s funeral in December 2010 but I didn’t realise who he was until she pointed it out.
In terms of his humour, views and opinions the jury is still out because I haven’t read much of his stuff. I have noticed he’s pretty quick and witty with the comebacks though.
How multi talented was Amina!? Medic, comic and chef. Out of all the contestants, she is the only one whose cookbook I’d buy.
Audra is beginning to grate on me; Ben had such a defeatist attitude; and Andrew is just annoying.
Liked seeing Wayne helping clean up the other team’s spill last night. Seems to be a team player and genuine nice guy.
With the teaser that Ben may withdraw from the competition, it may be that Ben needs to have time to get over his relationship breakup and the wedding challenge tipped him over the edge. Just a theory …
Not a bad theory , though.
My friend reckons Ben & Emma could be getting it on…hence Frank $pencer is falling on his sword, so to speak.
Bring it on , $hine. We’ve had enough of the crying game. Double alimination.
Only 5 weeks to the Olympics. If MC wants to finish before the Olympics there have to be some double eliminations. Also they want to start the Masterchef All Stars in July.
I noticed there were a few kids at the reception. So these kids get to vote too and such a coincidence that you can get exactly 450 votes. Matt P must have voted on behalf of the kids
Frank & Betty.
What a love match.
“Whose gonna see the Queen on Christmas Day, then?”
Do we know if the Hindu wedding was an arranged marriage , ie was it as set up as Ma$terchef itself?
@Andrea. I’m calling it an editing fake-out with Ben’s withdrawal. Surely there would have been more dramatic tears shown from other people than just Emma’s (who is just a drama queen) if he did fall on his sword. Looks like the comment of Ben’s was done prior to the judges revealing which two would face off in the final round. I suspect the amata going home will be out of Wade, Tregan, or Emma. And if indeed I’m wrong and Ben walks, then he’s a fool. He’s the one who agreed to give up his job so he can cook tacos on national television.
The bridal couple came out as the winners in this by having all the food catered for at their wedding for free.
@JStar – “I’m wrong and Ben walks, then he’s a fool. He’s the one who agreed to give up his job so he can cook tacos on national television.” Damnit you made me laugh out loud at work. ;p
The couple would have needed to pay moneys (lots) methinks, and didn’t get a free meal for sure.
I think they’ll have double masterchef thingies running simultaneously with the all-stars, or is “filming” of all-stars starting in July?
Oh, no, no. The best joke of the night didn’t go to Amina. It’s Alice, surely.
“You’re very corny,” says Julia as they prepare the aloo tikki.
“You mean potato-y,” Alice replies.
I didn’t enjoy this episode as much as I thought I would. I guess I wasn’t really familiar with most of the dishes, so it was hard to make a connection.
I’m starting to like Audra and Mindy less. They’re probably two of the strongest cooks in the competition, but their interaction with some of the other contestants is a turn off. I mean, I don’t think anybody in the house actually likes Debra, but they seem to antagonise her a bit. Then again, Debra yelling, “Give me the coriander! Give me the coriander!” probably didn’t help, either…
Audra seems to have become a bit clique-y. I get the impression that she’s best buds with a few of them, and actively dislikes a few of the others. It’s like Survivor in the MasterChef house.
Amina, on the other hand, is racking up points for me. She’s a great cook, and she’s super friendly. She’s like a Muslim Santa!
The house is more like Big Brother, Jess. I agree with you, Amina is so nice I hope she wins. I’m totally going off Audra and Mindy as well now that they are showing their true colours. I think all of the ingredients should have just been there ready in the kitchen rather than everyone having to run around getting them. Its not The Amazing race after all, its a cooking show and that challenge was hard enough as it was. The food looked good to me, I like vegetarian food as I’m not a big meat eater so I would definitely have eaten it.
Agreed with Jess. I like Audra & Mindy less and Amina is my favourite at the moment. I love Debra’s style of cooking, can’t deny that she can cook as long as it is not Asian. None of the male contestants impressed me this season.
Mindy lost my love after reading her winning Murtabak’s recipe on MC magazine. Ketchup manis & bean sprouts should never be there. Murtabak is a Mamak (muslim Indian) dish & ketchup manis is a Malay/Indonesian ingredient. Bean sprouts in Murtabak? That’s just wrong. Oh well, what do I know? The judges love it, apparently.
Looking at how smooth Audra works in the MC kitchen comparing to the rest of the amatars, her catering background definitely gives her an unfair advantage.
EH- Mindy Char Kway Teow was not authentic either. My family and friends were just shock that she got to the Top 50 based on that dish!!!! But what do the judges know. Hearing George said this is the best curry ever made me laugh. For someone who doesn’t like chillies to know everything about curries is questionable.
Hi — long time lurker, first time commenter =)
Have been moved to commentate on Mindy’s ‘Asian’ cooking–growing up in Malaysia and having roots in the north of Malaysia (where the best char kuey teows come from) I was just as horrified as littlepetal. Every time the judges fawn over her amazing ‘Asian’ food I get quite angry (maybe I shouldn’t as it’s just a tv show after all); if these judges are supposed to be as good chefs as they’re made out to be, surely they’ve had better South East Asian food than Mindys!
Ok new theory on Ben in tonight’s elimination. I think he decides to answer ‘incorrectly’ so he is the final contestant in the next elimination round, to save Emma having to cook in an elimination. maybe he’s very sure of his culinary skills to beat the other contestants. Being chivalrous?
Socs-Welcome to the family!!!!!! I guess you are Malaysian or Singaporean?
Andrea-They should get us to be the scriptwriters.
Beige Ben might be able to take out Eyebrows, Beau or Tregan with a Taco n’ Tears but no chance against Amina or Deb. He might as well throw himself against a wall like a soft chickpea.
Or he can be a smashed potatoes by crashing into the pot
@Andrea. Interesting theory. I can see him doing that if Tregan was already announced as one of the final two contestants. Maybe not Wade as the guys are all buddy-buddy – (they are an endangered species in the house). Although, it begs the question, why are the contestants constantly coddling Emma. She was not the youngest competitor – (Matt was). And she isn’t the only one gave up a huge chunk of her life just to go on the show and get paid slightly more than welfare recipients.
@EH – I might have to get that MC magazine to see how Mindy did her murtabak recipe. I note that on te MC website, there is no mention of kecap manis or bean sprouts.
@littlepetal – do you know where I can find that recipe for the char kway teow? What was “wrong” with it? Was it too anglicised to be deemed “Malaysian” anymore?
@Joseph Skyrim – hope you didn’t get into trouble at work as I’m constantly being told off to stop surfing the web and actually do the job I’m paid to do!
Love your theory, Andrea. 10 females, 6 males left. My guess: a female to go. Ben safe. Tregan go home.
JS – I just compared the magazine vs online version. Yup, slightly different. The dough/roti recipe in the magazine only has 2 ingredients: flour & ghee (no tepid water etc.). As for the filling, the amount of mince is different 300 vs 350g. It says bean shoots online but 1 cup bean sprouts on magazine. You can clearly see the bean sprouts in the magazine picture too. I misread (I read it a while back) soy sauce as ketchup manis. But still soy sauce should not be included in a Mamak/Indian dish.
JStar- Can’t find Mindy’s Char Kway Teow.
Have a look at Food Safari:
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/574/Char_kway_teow/search/true
This one is quite good.
JStar-Another version of the Char Kway Teow.
http://www.malaysianfood.net/recipes/recipecharkwayteow.htm
With the above recipe, you can omit making the chillie paste if it is too much work. Chilles Sambal will do the job.
Now I feel like a Chay Kway Teow!!!!!
Boo! If Emma continued to cry for another hour, she would have been evaporated, not dehydrated.
Thanks littlepetal. If you live near a heavily populated Asian suburb, you can dash out now and tuck in to this fantastic dish. I prefer the second recipe, mainly because it uses belacan. If Mindy’s recipe did not include this ingredient, then she should never have made it past the audition stage and Matt P should hang his head in shame. Matt is the only one who should know Asian flavours as the other two are clueless (particularly George). I remember during Season 1 finals week that I pretty much went all Annie Wilkes at the TV when George and Gary kept on interchanging the words, “Malay” and “Malaysian” cuisine as if they were one of the same.
Not sure who Annie Wilkes is? Here’s a link from the film, Misery. I was pretty much like Annie from the 52 second mark onwards, jumping out of my chair and yelling at the television. Come to think of it, I was pretty much like that during all of last year watching MasterChef.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVzX22lrWxA
There is a nice Char Kway Teow near my home. Maybe I will cook that tomorrow.
JStar / Littlepetal – Mindy’s CKT recipe is in MC magazine May issue. Just checked. No belacan but she used a chilli paste made of dried & fresh chilli and eshallots. She also used fish sauce.
Mindy uses lots of fish sauce in her dishes. NO fish sauce in Char Kway Teow.
Thanks EH for that! I’m with littlepetal on this. Am very surprised there is no belacan (which is a really concentrated and potent fermented shrimp paste. You don’t need to use a lot. I store mine in a glass jar or else it will stink up the pantry). The fish sauce is not really the best substitute given that the MC pantry can apparently house a pig’s head or an ox tongue – so why wouldn’t there be belacan or the Thai equivalent (kapi)? Mindy is huge with South-East Asian flavours but I would personally hesitate to cook her version of Char Kway Teow knowing it does not have shrimp paste but fish sauce as a quasi substitute.
I feel for the people in Perth still experiencing the culinary cryfest. Soon it will be finished and we can talk about it.
I suspect that Tregan visiting Coles for cauliflower was filmed some other time as Greenacre is nowhere near the Masterchef kitchen. The whole Coles buying experience was extremely sus as I can not imagine checking 70Kg of spuds out through a register and I have never seen okra in Coles and doubt if they would ever consider having 450 serves of same. Delivery was in a Coles truck and almost certainly an order placed by Kumar and not the random stuff picked up by the contestants. n.b. Masterfoods product placement. Kumar would not use that crap. This show is seriously spiralling downhill from last years low.
I was so amused by Amina crying over the onions! Wade is finally getting some screen time which is good.
When Deb took the coriander I am pretty sure she said something about Kumar instructing her to do it. As much as I dislike Deb I hated the way Audra grabbed her wrist and didn’t listen to her. A vicious streak for sure!
I couldn’t believe this whole challenge. What a thing to risk! I feel like the judges were being a bit nicer in their crit so that the show didn’t get hate for ruining a wedding. Not that the contestants did ruin it of course. Just that all the crit was delivered in a nice compliment sandwich (except for the cauliflower).
Nobody needs to tell me Julia was just mistaken or made a bad phrasing of what she meant: I covered both of those in ignorant and offensive. It is just annoying when some people treat all Indian’s like they are straight out of the start of slumdog millionaire. Someone has asked me if there is internet there for instance, so the consistent amalgamation of class into one stereotypical constructed experience does make me roll my eyes. It was a silly thing to say.
Oh! I forgot to say how Amina rushed over to tend to Ben’s grated hand after the time was up (she seems a very caring person). Maybe the MC producers are coating costs and don’t have any medical staff on hand while there is still a nurse in the comp.
Robbo – Tregan was at the function venue in The Croatian Club which is in Punchbowl, so heading to Coles in Greenacre makes sense.
Marie – I think everyone just wants Amina to take care of them but agree it did seem a bit strange to see her immediately tend to the finger. She’d be such a lovely, happy and calm presence on a paediatric ward.
Yeah, the judges aren’t all that knowledgeable when it comes to “Asian cuisine,” as they say. Even excluding the whole Malay=Malaysian thing from Poh’s Malaysian challenge in season one, they still manage to mix up Thai and Malaysian flavours a lot. I can’t imagine a contestant serving up a Spanish style dish, telling the judges it’s French, and then having the judges all nod in agreement. Or someone using olive oil, Greek yoghurt, and mozzarella to make a German dish, and talking to the camera about how they’ve picked “European flavours” from the pantry.
To their credit, at least George and Gary don’t claim to be experts on Asian food. But to the detriment of MasterChef, they seem to bring in Kylie Kwong to fill that role. And she, supposedly a Chinese chef, leverages her ethnicity to appear authoritative on the cuisine, but she actually doesn’t know very much about it at all. (Did anyone see that show where she went to China, went up to a street vendor selling Japanese food, and talked about how the tastes and smells were so familiar?)
Hope you post about last nights ep soon RR!!
Tregan’s face! her reaction! Just gold….
@Jess, Kylie Kwong obviously did a “Luke Nguyen” whereby she visited her home town and dabbled a bit of cooking, the disadvantage she had was she did not know the language.
Librarygirl- Tregan is going to have the funniest montage when she leaves the comp at this rate! Her laying eggs when J. Oliver arrived plus some of her general expressions haha!
George made something ‘Greek’ on masterclass a couple of weeks ago. He used coriander and star anise along with a couple of other ingredients that I wouldn’t think were Mediterranean. What also shits me big time is the use of olive oil in dishes that are Asian of any persuasion.
Jess & J-Ko – Don’t get me started on the Aussie ‘Asian Experts’ – Kylie Kwong & Neil Perry. A lot of authentic Chinese recipes are written in Chinese. My favourite online source is: http://www.meishichina.com/
JStar & Littlrpetal – Re authentic South East Asian recipes, go to Gourmet Traveller magazine website and search for recipes by Melbourne chef Tony Tan. He is originally from Penang and the recipes he has written for the magazine stay true to SEA flavours. Some with a nice modern twists. He is well known by the industry but not much recognized by the public.
Wow – that was one of Ma$terchef ‘s greatest ever episodes…for contestants crying. I thought I was watching Ridge and Chloe from Bold And The Beautiful grappling with a tragedy.
It was an embarrassing kick in the guts to find out Emma was from Adelaide…….we’re not all as soft as that. I think the apprenticeship idea was just bluster for Ma$terchef.
Beige Ben’s -”I haven’t made this before..”…not again. He’ll find a way to make damper Mexican, just wait.
Jowl$y gave Emma a mega plastic goodbye hug….glad to get rid of her, I thought. The judges had to tip toe around her with her feedback to avoid another Wivenhoe Dam like spillover.
@BDD – hehe, I actually really liked last nights ep. Will wait for RR’s post before I put more detail. As a side note – is the Bold and the Beautiful still going? I loved that show! :p
4.30 weekdays on Ch 10( who else?), Joseph. You mean you haven’t got your own Bold And The Beautiful coffee cup like me? If you love trash TV , B&B delivers in spades and the cougars are smoking.
Up now guys sorry about the delay was out last night. And I forgot to record and did I get in trouble from partner as he wanted to watch it.
BDD – Jesus I just saw that last comment – Bold and Beautiful? Really? LOL
Hey B&B is awesome. Totally agree with BDD – i don’t drink coffee or tea though, hence no need for the cup! ;D
The cup is awesome. One side is Ridge saying ” I love you, Doc” , the other side he says ” I love you, Logan”. Polarising conversation piece, for sure
I got it from where Ma$terchefs shop and it will get a workout with Milo during the Tour de France.
Socs – I meant to respond yesterday thank you for lurking and now commenting. I hope it is not the last time. *waves*
I havent read this blog for ages so I dont know if ive missed the How annoying is Alice talk? She is SO annoying… whats with daggy glasses?
Here’s a clip from kumar’s own wedding which an arranged one from the time he and his wife appeared on an Insight program on SBS.
http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/webextra/50/For-better-for-worse
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