I’m not really sure why I like Masterchef. It’s not the Reality aspect, because the drawn-out drama over who gets to keep their apron and who has to go back home to their teary-eyed family doesn’t appeal to me much. It also isn’t just looking at gorgeous food being made (although that is a big part of it), because there’s MONTHS’ worth of cooking content on TV and the internet that’s never really drawn me in.
Maybe it’s the sense of adventure: regular people taking on challenge after challenge, dealing with things they’re not familiar with and beating the odds, all the while staying in the utterly safe and mundane realm of cooking. That might be it: the drama-ifying of every-day events, making mountains out of jelly-mould-hills. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t REALLY matter whether the Beef Wellington is medium or medium-rare, or if the Soufflé collapsed; but in the moment, it’s a matter of life and death. Would it capture my attention as much if the contestants were fixing cars instead of cooking? Mmm… probably not. Relatable emotional narrative is important, but so is the theme. And the theme better have some heavy cream in it.
Speaking of high-risk cooking, I warmly recommend Yakitate Japan, the anime that literally makes baking bread a life and death situation, in a way that only anime can.
Addendum: We’ve reached 1,500 Likes on Facebook, celebratory cake to everyone! If you can bake it in 45 mins, that is.
