Living for pleasure alone...

The final countdown: The MasterChef Final
Flavour, flavour, flavour....

Blimey that was tense, and frankly speaking a quite brilliant programme.It would have been an excellent food programme even if it wasn’t the final.

Seeing inside the top restaurants was fascinating, I’m amazed at how open these chefs are. They don’t need the publicity the hassle of filming entails (as they booked up months in advance), there can be only a couple reasons they agree to it. The power of the those 3 magic letters B.B.C or just maybe even Michelin starred chefs are obsessed to see if Sports Pr from Swindon can sear tuna properly!

By the end the final had come down really to Mat or Andy. I think sadly Chris was just too inexperienced. There are only so many meals you can eat in 25 years of life and every year the others had over him gave them 600 plus more chances of gaining that extra bit edge on him. Chris should pack his rucksack and travel the world as commis chef; he’ll be fine I’m sure.

Next up came Andy the producers really wanted me to hate him adding one last titbit to put me off he’s a North Londoner! But cooking the tuna dish in Spain with an entire 3 star restaurant literally watching him (did you see that even the waiters where leaning in to check him out!) took some courage and even though Andy used the term “I’m completely bouffed” by the end I had finally warmed to him, he was is a very skilful cook.

Lastly Mat who almost lost my support with the producers insist on telling us again his “journey” but the cooking he did in Copenhagen looked amazing. I don’t normally fancy these hyper stylised dishes but the skate and the steak tartare he cooked looked delicious.

I sort of knew he was ahead when they played one favourite tunes by Moby “god moving of the face of the waters" over shots of him on the dock in Copenhagen. I’m sure doing your tax returns would look heroic and inspiring with that sort backing.

So it was down to final 3 courses and it was genuinely tense, Chris’ dishes just weren’t sharp enough and poor old Andy stumbled (forlorn like Steve Ovett being passed by Seb Coe on the last corner) destined for another silver medal.

So Mat just won through with some incredible food, the only bum note to my mind was the chips with the spider crab chowder but the whole thing looked fantastic; he’s a deserved winner.

Post Prandial thoughts

Obviously weekday evening at 8 are going to be a bit empty for while now. I think this was best series of MasterChef I’ve seen. This brings me to a few last points. I think by the final the contestants had almost outclassed their judge’s knowledge. I think that the cooking was almost beyond the experience of Gregg and possibly even John (and this may heresy) they may need to get some guest judges in to help decide. Gregg was wonderful almost lost for words by the end and you could tell John was moved by how far the 3 lads had come.

Which leads me to my final point: reality TV gets slagged off a lot (and I’ve done my share of carping) but I think the difference with programmes like Masterchef and perhaps Celebrity come dancing is that unlike X factor or “come dime with me” you get to see people excel to do something you can’t do and do it beautifully. X factor and its ilk are about chav baiting, watching people mess up, belittle themselves (there is a hint of this in the early rounds of MC) and the winners normal aren’t sublimely skilled. But on Masterchef and the odd other shows like the young musicians show on BBC2 you see people get improve and achieve amazing things. And everyday people achieving excellence must something worth celebrating.

TV doesn’t get better than this.