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MasterChef final

John Torode and Gregg Wallace
  • Posted at 12:25pm
  • 27 February 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 4 comments

Part of me is glad that MasterChef is over, largely because I fear for the sanity of Gregg Wallace and John Torode. I worried that if they had to make any more strenuous efforts to mine their near-bankrupt seam of hyperbole, they would both implode and shower us all with dust.

The MasterChef grand final (Thursday 26 February, BBC2) was a torrid and shouty affair, and it wasn't the contestants who were getting het up. They were, in fact, remarkably calm compared to the combustible presenters. At one point I thought the top of overexcited Gregg's head would erupt (what is his head filled with, I wonder - courgettes? Cucumbers?). Blimey, he even maniacally laughed out loud once, which was terrifying to behold.

No-one expected Torode and Wallace to be Gilbert and George, who've turned enigmatic self-effacement into part of their art. But really, lads, rein it in a bit. The melodramatisation of MasterChef was relentless. Week after week, night after night, we were clobbered with how tough it was, how the contestants would have their lives changed if they won (oh really?), yadda, yadda, yadda.

But T & W really belched the exaggerations like smoking chimneys during the volume tasks, when the finalists had to cook for large numbers of people. If the ravioli wasn't on time, the sun would fail to rise, the seas would fall silent and we would live in darkness for evermore. Or so you'd think.

The three finalists - Mat, Chris and Andy - took most of this nonsense in their stride, though of course they were encouraged to bare their souls about how "passionate" they were about food; about how much winning meant, and so on.

"Father of three" Mat was my favourite, in every sense. He was good-natured and you didn't feel he would crumble to a husk if he didn't win. He was the only one too, I think, to use the word "enjoy" about his MasterChef experience, as opposed to banging on about how "gutted" he would be if he lost (hello Andy!).

Mat was a worthy winner on the big night - his lavender mousse was a thing of beauty. He kept his cool and his smile, and he looked upon the scary task - cooking with a "legendary" chef (all chefs were "legendary" in MasterChef) in Denmark as a valuable learning experience. ("OUR GUYS CANNOT MESS UP!" bellowed Wallace, or it could have been Torode, stating the flipping obvious once more.)

When Mat's name was announced, I cheered and Andy looked thunderstruck to the point of ungraciousness. Yes, the best man had won.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times - read her column in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.

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Comments

  • Posted on 28 February 2009
  • at 10:44am
  • by MazY

'Shouty', 'Maniacally', 'Bellowed'? Were we watching different versions of the same final? I don't recall it being that bad. Has your thesaurus buckled under the pressure of having to assist you in creating a venomous blog entry, no matter what? I really think you've taken things to the extreme in order to justify your entry.

You could certainly have shared the same gripe as Frank and me, and mentioned the now almost customary repetition that fills BBC programmes. Now that is something to get vitriolic about. The degree of repetition they have now makes some programmes unwatchable. Ben Fogle's most recent offering that was shown on BBC2 was a perfect example. It got so irritating that I just had to switch over. However, I digress...

Mat was indeed a worthy winner with his talent and I hope his win opens the doors necessary for him to fulfil his ambitions in that area of his life.

  • Posted on 27 February 2009
  • at 9:07pm
  • by Jack

Totally with Frank. 'Cooking doesn't get tougher than this' - I used to watch in iplayer so I could fast forward over skin crawlingly repetitive bios and intro... otherwise skin

  • Posted on 27 February 2009
  • at 8:25pm
  • by Jayne

I'm glad Mat won too. Alison's right, Andy didn't hide his shock well; he was very over confident! I enjoyed the series and managed to block out all the shouting by focusing instead on the talented (and - in some early rounds - awful) cooks. Great show.

  • Posted on 27 February 2009
  • at 4:17pm
  • by Frank

Yes, but what kind of show would it be if they said things like, "This round isn't too important, if you mess up it'll be fine"? There wouldn't be much drama. It's nice to see passion.

To be fair on Andy, I know what it's like to really really have a dream, and the poor bloke was genuinely crushed. He and Mat were in tears half the episode as it was.

My personal gripe is the repetition - the amount of times India Fisher outlines the finalists' strengths and weaknesses every episode. Not as bad as Dragon's Den used to be, but still fairly numbing.

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