George Calombaris has managed to piss me off and he is not even bouncing on our TV screens in Masterchef Australia.

Yesterday George Calombaris took aim at Julia Gillard’s Fair Work Laws saying that paying penalty rates were crippling his business.

In an interview with the Power Index he moaned:

“The problem is that wages on public holidays and weekends greatly exceed the opportunity for profit…It’s just not a good business practice to be paying penalty rates. It’s really difficult to stay open and we only do it because of tourism but the reality is it’s uneconomical.”

“So our labour laws are something that need to be looked at and we keep talking about it.”

Morale must have been pretty low in George’s many restaurants last night, knowing that he did not think he should have to pay higher rates on the days of the week that people traditionally spend with family and friends.

Also I suspect George may have conveniently forgotten that he was probably paid penalty rates when he was younger and working as an employee.

He would probably prefer the US model where the customer subsidises the wage cost, with a minimum wage of $2.00 an hour and the diner is expected to tip 20 per cent of the bill to make up the wage short fall.

In the article George mentions his outgoings, one of which is a $45,000 pasta machine. A machine he has bought to decrease the labour required in the kitchen, something I don’t have a problem with, however, whining about paying minimum award wages for the staff you do have is a bit off, particularly when you own multiple business.

Let’s get this straight he is not some struggling small business owner.

George should also know that if the service is no good in his high end restaurants then the customer won’t come back no matter how good the food is. These people are essential in ensuring George can buy his imported cars, or just ensure that his partner does not have to work and look after their child full time.  A luxury a lot of families don’t have these days.

Seriously George appears to follow the Gerry Harvey business model where laws and policies should be there to ensure more money can be made on the millions they already have.

News flash George – These laws are in place to ensure unscrupulous employers have wages and conditions in place for people who due to education or life circumstances are unable to negotiate for themselves. For example like new immigrants who George’s parents once were.

Also if you are so fixated about fair wages what about giving some of yours back for the dud ratings Junior Masterchef produced in 2011, a show he was host and judge on.

UPDATE: The debate continues on this blog here with this guy writing an interesting article.

An issue I have been thinking about since seeing this tweet from Gary Mehigan who tweets @crispycrackling “George takes hammering over penalty rates, but the big question “is the weekend still family day? Half day closing Saturday & closed Sunday?”

By the way I think Gary looks pretty good in his twitter avatar maybe he lost some weight in the Masterchef off season.

Now I really need to move onto another story as this is not trashy reality blog not a political one, however the question must be asked is whether Sunday is now family day for the middle class, and if you are poor, a new migrant or a student it should just be considered another work day.

It has been revealed today that Junior Masterchef contestants in the Herald Sun are told what the challenges are in advance so they can practice to ensure the dishes they turn out are good and the viewers will then be amazed at these kids skills.

The father of a contestant turned whistleblower told the paper:

The young chefs know in advance what they will be cooking and can perfect dishes at home, it has been claimed.

Some contestants have crammed in professional cooking and acting lessons before the show started.

And dishes can sit on benches for two hours before being tasted and then judged, it is claimed.

The father of one contestant has admitted to hiring a private chef for three days a week over six weeks to teach his child, who was in the top 50, the recipe to success.

Production company Shine, also the brainchild of reality cooking juggernaut MasterChef, said contestants did “get some information about the challenges in advance” but not recipes.

But the father, who cannot be identified because he signed a confidentiality agreement, said while the contestants were talented, their skills were groomed prior to the food being cooked.

“The kids act all surprised but they have had the recipes for weeks.

“While everything looks spontaneous, the reality is these kids have cooked the dishes 50 times.

“It’s not reality it’s all staged.”

The contestant’s mother said parents also complained their children were feeling flattened after a gruelling day and a psychologist was brought in to “pump up” morale.

The Shine spokeswoman admitted that in certain challenges not all dishes were tasted because of time and that not all dishes were hot when judged.

“The judges allow for this when making their decisions,” she said.

It comes as figures show Junior MasterChef is off the menu, with its ratings sliding to a record low.

The second season began three weeks ago with ratings of 1.129 million viewers.

On Monday night it dropped to an audience of 741,000.

It appeared to be obvious the kids got a heads up on what the challenges were in advance, however I am surprised that they found out so far in advance and get the opportunity to practice them over and over.

Last year there were pictures (pics now removed but they were there I promise) taken where they had recipes stored underneath the bench tops to refer to. This was in a blog post titled Junior Masterchef how much smoke and mirrors should there be.

I don’t think anyone expects 10 year olds to be able to razzle out a perfect dish from a mystery box, or remember a recipe off the top of their head, however if they are getting weeks to practice a dish that is another thing entirely.

What do you think? What is the fair preparation time these kids should get?

The other issue of note is how the contestant’s mother complained about the gruelling nature of the shoot. To be fair to Shine Australia they do outline in their contract (see previous blog post here) that they are able to exploit your child. However this is the first complaint from a parent from either season about how draining shooting the show is.

Another point that needs to be raised is if they are not tasting all the dishes does that mean the judges are just tasting favourites so they have a better chance of winning points and being up the top of the leader board?

The complaint about the judges not tasting the dishes immediately is what occurs on proper Masterchef, I think they taste the dishes whilst they are cooking. I don’t have a problem with that.

I also suspect the child of these parents has been eliminated from the show…..

There was a lot of doom and gloom in the media about the Masterchef Australia brand and how disappointing the third series of the franchise was, however after attending Masterchef Live it made me realise how popular the show still is.

Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris were like rock stars to their audience with people lining up to see them on stage and have their books signed by them. Also Anna Gare was impressive with how hard she was working on the day. She told Jill Dupliex that she was asked to cook for the Queen, and how she almost turned it down because she was already booked to make cup cakes on that day.

Anna Gare also turned up at a Junior Workshop with last year winner of Junior Masterchef Isabella, with other little ones from last year, Sofia, Jack, and Pierre, as did Hayden Quinn.

Hayden Quinn was everywhere. Where ever I went he was on stage. Good on him he has realised to increase his fifteen minutes of fame he is going to have to work his patootie off.

I spotted Kate Bracks briefly doing a cooking demonstration, as well as Justine who did a cooking demo with Hayden at the Lilydale Theatre. Justine is now very confident with her public speaking skills.

Junior Masterchef is not rating well last night it was under 900,000. Personally I would like to see it flicked and The Renovators given another go. But that will not happen. This franchise still has another couple of years in it.

Matt Preston spoke to TV Tonight at the Kids Choice awards and he wrote:

Matt Preston has just returned from 2 weeks holiday in Lombok, Indonesia, so he hasn’t seen much of Junior MasterChef yet.

But asked about changes to the main event for next year, he said:

“I‘ve spoken before about things we need to do better. We need to work on the Immunity Challenges and make them better. We need to make sure that our perception of the contestants is the way you see them on screen. I think that’s really important. If we think that they are better cooks than the previous year, you need to see it on the television. So it’s a matter of looking at how the edits go.

“Hopefully it will be re-energised by having a different selection of contestants and that’s always a great joy. So much depends on what the raw material is like. Having Shine looking in different places I think we’ll get some good people.”

Asked about is involvement in casting, he said: “We come in at the Top 100 but the boys come in a bit earlier. They often do a hidden tour you don’t often see on camera.”

 

The second season of Junior Masterchef premiered last night and again it involves high production values with some very talented young chefs. This year they are again between the ages of 8 and 12.

I mean who had even tasted crab and duck by the age of twelve let alone know how to cook them.  This year the kids are going to go to Disneyland if they stay long enough in the competition some spoilers can be found through this blog post on TV Tonight. Who knew there was a Disney blog?

Tonight we saw the top 50 cooks, with five of them getting through to the top twenty. Each section was overseen by one of five of Sydney’s top chefs who had a ingredient their section had to cook.

The positives of the show:

• Everyone remains very positive about the cooking and the children;
• The cooking standards were high;
• The set was amazing and the hour goes quickly;
• It is a great show to watch with the kids;
• I like the chemistry of Gary Mehigan, Anna Gare and Matt Moran, but I must confess I did query on twitter last night that if Anna Gare was out of shape like some of the male judges would she be on the show;
• Putting through the winners means at this stage none of the kids are meant to feel bad about being on the show.

Well I have to hand it to Scott Ellis of the Sun herald he tweeted that he thought something was going on between masterchef contestants Alex and Chelsea as they were always standing together.

Well today in the Daily Telegraph they write that Alex had moved to Melbourne to be with retail manager Chelsea.

This raises a few issues:
1. Is this why Alex was bounced back into the competition so if ratings were down the publicists would have romance rumours to generate publicity? His cooking was pretty dodgy.

2. Is this why Chelsea has been getting so much airtime as well so we would know who she was when this story broke?

Or am I just too cynical that this story broke one day after Alex was eliminated. Chelsea did look teary when it was jay and Ellie walking back into the house.

Will put links in when I get to a computer I am on the fly today so writing blog post on iPhone for the first time.

Well we gave the US Curtis Stone, now Matt Preston will be unleashing his cravats on the US.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Matt Preston will be appearing on an episode of US Masterchef. The US version is hosted by reality TV chef king Gordon Ramsay. It is huge exposure (no pun intended) for the food writer with the show rating 6 million an episode.

It will be interesting to see if this episode can see him expand into a career into the US. A guest judging spot on Top Chef Masters perhaps?

Junior Masterchef is a great show and is rating really well for channel ten, however as with all reality shows we are seeing a sanitised version.

The producers have made a decision to not show the kids crying due to pressure or stress of the cooking, a policy I wish they would take for the adult version.

However the Daily Telegraph are reporting one of the boys in this week’s show when it was filming was in tear twice and he was given ten more minutes to finish his recipe both of which was not shown on TV.

The article said:

FANS of Junior MasterChef have been served a sanitised version of the children’s cooking contest, after producers edited out the emotional meltdown of one young contestant this week.

Producers were yesterday forced to defend the decision to cut out the crying scenes from the pre-recorded episode, witnessed by The Daily Telegraph and visitors to the Sydney set last August.

The 12-year-old broke down twice during the pressure test, was given an extra 10 minutes to complete the task and was later counselled by staff psychologists.

While producers managed the dramatic moment on the day, what went to air on Monday night was a heavily-censored version of events.

The show’s executive producer Margie Bashfield is understood to have agonised over the episode, but was not available for comment.

Channel 10 would not address the incident but said, in a statement: “Many hours, often days of shooting go into the production of a single Junior MasterChef episode.

“Therefore only those moments that enhance the storyline or affect the outcome of a challenge, are able to be included in the final edit.”

Drawing an average audience of about 1.3 million viewers and acclaimed for its positivity, the program now faces scrutiny for manipulating footage and the real impact the competition is having on its young stars.

I feel sorry for the kid, but I hope for the other competitors sake that the extra ten minutes didn’t have an impact on their scores, as there should be a level playing field.

Like a circus when the animals are trotted out to perform are we not seeing how they are really being treated behind the scenes? Fingers crossed the Masterchef experience is a positive thing for most of the children.

The nicer and more gentle Junior Masterchef has eliminated four kids at once tonight, and we now have a top eight.

The eight remaining contestants in the competition – Siena, 9 (VIC), Cassidy, 12 (VIC), Nick, 10 (NSW), Pierre, 12 (NSW), Lucy, 11 (VIC), twins Isabella and Sofia, 12 (QLD) and Jack, 12 (TAS).

Alex, 11 (NSW), Anthony, 10 (NSW), Emily, 11 (SA) and Sam, 11 (QLD) were eliminated.

Masterchef Junior is rating 1,445, 000 over 300,000 than The X Factor.

In programming gold Chris Badenoch, from Masterchef Australia Series One will appear as a competitor on Channel Seven’s Iron Chef.

I am sure the production company and SEVEN will be canny enough to put him up against Neil Perry, Iron Chef Australia/Asia after the snaffu that Neil got himself earlier this year about the Masterchef contestants. The uber-chef  said (see previous blog post here) that the Masterchef contestants would struggle to survive in a real kitchen, and that it was a “game show”.  Neil later said he had been misquoted.

It will be interesting to see if Chris will be able to produce four dishes in an hour as his food philosophy is very meaty, slow cooking. But he will have his partner in life and of his new restaurant, Julie Jenkins, to be his sous chef. I will just be watching the show for that dynamic.

The Herald Sun states:

Badenoch and Jenkins are now business, as well as romantic, partners. Josie Bones will be a beer bar with matching food.

“All the doubters out there have been proven wrong,” Badenoch says.

“We’re doing the restaurant together and it will be a combination of our ideas.”

Badenoch says he relished the chance to return to television.

“It (Iron Chef) was the opportunity to push myself,” Badenoch says.

“It’s one thing cooking against other amateurs (on MasterChef). Going up against guys of this calibre (Perry/Grossi/Brahimi) is a rare opportunity.”

Victoria’s Sacha Meier, Head Chef and manager of Lorne’s Ba Ba Lu Restaurant and Bar, will also be one of the challengers onIron Chef.

Other challengers are Sydney’s Dan Hong (Head Chef, Lotus Bar and Bistro), Adelaide’s Judyta Slupnick (Head Chef and owner of Phore Seasons), as well as Perth’s Matt Stone (Head Chef, Greenhouse Restaurant) and Herb Faust (Head Chef, Scotch College).

Iron Chef will screen on Channel 7 in mid-October.

Neil Perry talks to TV WEEK about his role on Iron Chef and his comments on this season of Masterchef.

The article says:

You’ve Turned down TV gigs in the past – what drew you to Iron Chef?

I’ve always watched the Japanese [version] and I have a lot of respect for what the guys do, so I thought it was a real honour to be asked to be an Iron Chef. I just didn’t realise how hard it was going to be!

How worried are you that you’ll be beaten by the challengers?

Oh, tremendously! Being an Iron Chef means I’ve got absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose.

Is it tougher than Masterchef?

I don’t know. It’s completely different, as it’s professional against professional, whereas Masterchef is about amateurs. The ferocity of [the challenge] – four world-class dishes in an hour – is really pressurised and I think the level of cooking that people [will] see might be a little more extraordinary than on Masterchef.

While you said your quotes were taken out of context, were the Masterchef producers angry that you described their contestants as “nobodies”?

I spoke to the judges and the producers and they all know exactly what I said. It upset me a little bit because [the article] missed the point, which I still stand by – that all these contestants coming off the show are terrific, but they really need to utilise that 15 minutes of fame and really work hard. I am 53 and I ‘m still working really hard to be relevant in this business.

Do you think people like Julie Goodwin will stick around?

Julie Goodwin will have her moment in the sun, but I don’t know if it will continue – I hope it does. With reality TV, there are always new contestants ready to take your spot, [but] if you own restaurants and work really hard at it, you have more longevity.

Why weren’t you at the Masterchef grand final?

I was invited, but Sundays are off limits as it’s the only time I get with my family. I only get about 40 days a year to spend with them, so I just couldn’t give that day up.

Do you feel bad for spending so much time away from your kids?

Yeah, you’re really torn. It can be really difficult, because I often don’t see my kids in the morning, as they’re not up when I leave, and then they’re in bed when I get home. I miss a lot.

What kind of dad are you?

Too relaxed! My wife calls me “the yes man”. My girls wrap me around their little fingers and pretty much get whatever they want.

Does it put a strain on your marriage?

No, we just work it out. We’ve had to realise that this is the life we’ve chosen. We do try and take time out together for date nights, plus we love having Sunday lunch with the girls. Josephine’s boyfriend, Matt, comes along now, so it’s an extended family.

Are you cool with her dating?

Yeah, I’ve learnt to cope! She’s happy and he’s a good kid. There are plenty of ratbags out there, and she’s not out gettign drunk.

Will you retire in the near future?

I think I’d honestly still love to be working in restaurants when I’m 80! It’s a lifestyle.

You’re a keen Twitter user – where do you find the time to tweet?

Just in the office doing all my work before I hit the kitchen! When the Masterchef drama happened, people were just so vehement and vile towards me on Twitter.

How did that make you feel?

You can’t take it personally, but, yeah, it does hurt. In my twenties, I’d probably have tried to punch them out, but at 53, you just go, “Wow, these people really have nothing else going [on] in their lives.

Gosh I hope that last comment wasn’t aimed at me… but I think he makes a good point about there will always be more reality TV stars to take someones place.