In July of this year Ipsos ran a poll that showed that the first series of MasterChef had a significant impact on the (reported) behaviour of Australians in the kitchen.
An overwhelming 61 per cent of people Ipsos polled agreed that watching MasterChef encouraged them to be more creative when cooking meals at home.
For more information on these results see
http://www.ipsos.com.au/knowledgecentre/news/090723.aspx
I was slow to become a fan of MasterChef but by mid-series, I was a full-blown devotee; ironically, perhaps, we planned our evening meals around the show.
As part of the recent Brisbane Writers Festival, I was on a live Radio National panel with chef and author Gay Bilson and novelist Marion Halligan. For photos and podcast see:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/australiatalks/stories/2009/2674092.htm
The issue of MasterChef came up in that panel discussion; neither Gay nor Marion were fans. I was a bit of a coward and remained silent as they savaged the show.
Gay was particularly concerned about how cruel the MasterChef kitchen was and how disparaging they were about ‘domestic cooking’.
I could definitely see her point. However, compared to shows like Dance Your Ass Off, MasterChef was positively warm and cuddly. I guess it all depends on how au fait you are with the conventions of reality TV.
I haven’t been able to see more than one episode of Celebrity MasterChef but I think it is somewhat less compelling. I am waiting for series two next year to see if they can pull it off again.
Until then, I am cooking a few dishes from the MasterChef repertoire include Chris’ tiramisu with double chocolate stout.
Also have become a fan of Matt Preston on facebook and just bought his essay collection yesterday; loving it so far.
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