MasterChef Goes Large is coming to BBC America this fall, giving food-loving US viewers a chance to check out a great British reality show. The show is a remake of an older, more subdued British show, simply called MasterChef, and is a culinary competition that challenges amateur cooks to face off against each other to see who is the Master Chef - sort of like Top Chef, only with a seemingly greater emphasis on sheer culinary skill, passion and talent and less on interpersonal conflicts. At least, as much as can be hoped for in any sort of reality show.
The number of contestant s narrows as the season goes on and the chefs face multiple types of cooking challenges. In the Invention test, each chef has less than one hour and a set of ingredients that must be used within the time gram to create a dish. The Pressure test puts the amateurs into real kitchens to see how they fare, as well as giving viewers an inside look at some great restaurants. And for the Final test, chefs are expected to put out their best 2 course meal for a review by the judges.
The show premiers on BBC America on October 2, but if you want to get in the mood to watch, blogger Maki of i was just really very hungry played along with the invention challenges when they aired in Europe earlier this year and tried to make 40-minute meals using the same ingredients that the MasterChef contestants were given to work with.
9-04-2006 @7:54PM maki said... It looks like BBC America is going to start with season 1 of MasterChef Goes Large, since the website says it's 30 episodes. Season 2 (the one I played along with) was 40 episodes. Either way though, this is I think the best cooking-competition show on English-speaking television, much better than Top Chef (which I love too) in many ways. Any amateur cook who's dreaming of someday 'going pro' should find it interesting.
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