Monday, March 05, 2007

And then there was four

I think if I was happy with John and Gregg's decisions on MasterChef goes Large much of my joy of watching this programme would be lost. I wouldn't have all the yelling at the television and having deep, analytical conversations with D as to who's been robbed this time.
The six semi-finalists have been whittled down to four, and possibly the two I liked least (Hannah and David) from the six went through immediately but Steven and Ben did also. I was sorry that Harriet didn't make it, I love her enthusiasm for wild British food and her idea of a game restaurant seemed very interesting.
For whatever reason I can't really get my head round Hannah's cooking yet, and possibly Gregg agrees with me. Today's challenge was to create and cook the ultimate chicken dish, clearly something they've all been working on. Hannah cooked chicken, prawns and curry! Just the thought of it made me feel a little queasy but it must have tasted better than I could possibly imagine as she sailed through. Both D and I are fairly convinced that David is John and Gregg's golden boy, he can do no wrong. Even when he makes mistakes, he's not actually doing anything wrong! Though his Pan Heggarty looked rather tasty. Steven rather daringly served his ever so moist chicken on top of a mushroom risotto, which John always believes is actually two dishes and gets rather distressed about it every time. Has he not seen the show before?
The first cooking two team cooking challenges were rather interesting. Firstly they were pair up into two teams - Ben and David in team a and Hannah and Steven in team b. Then they had to produce ten servings of the same breakfast from a variety of enticing breakfast/brunch ingredients. Team a went for the classic fry up and came unstuck slightly with their unequal portions and Ben's extremely bizarre decision to drizzle maple syrup on their black pudding - er why?
Their second challenge was to increase the scale even further and prepare school dinners for 500 discerning hungry schoolchildren. I think they fared pretty well considering, but team a were caught short by underestimating the time it would take to fry 150 portions of fish. Team b should be applauded for managing to push so many chock full of vegetables pizza, and the children didn't seem to spot the amount of vegetables they'd been stealthfully fed!
I guess it will hot up even more tomorrow, I am assuming we won't lose another finalist until maybe Friday. I will have to rely on my glamorous assistant to deploy some modern communication method to let me know who leaves at I'll be a few miles up above the Atlantic when it all happens.
Personally I want Steven to win this time, I hope saying that doesn't put the kiss of death on him. We shall have to see whether I have jinxed him and how the rest fare also. Watch this space.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooooh, am I your glamorous assistant? You'll have to say, "Yes" now or I'll be disappointed...
D xx

J said...

Oh totally!
I should have said purple-shoed glamorous assistant and then there would have been no doubt!
Jx

Anonymous said...

Whoever wins this, it's gonna change their lives. I love Masterchef; I'm hoping Mr Cheese goes tomorrow.

By the way, I shall be doing 'your' (Jamie Oliver) cauliflower risotto tomorrow as I have to get rid of one of my THREE caulis!

Hope you are having a good break.

David Hall said...

Greetings. I found your link on a fellow Blogger's link page and hey presto, found my name mentioned on it! I'm Geordie Dave from the final 4 of MC. I won't take offence that you clearly weren't a fan of mine! Good to read your Blog, you are a serious fan of TV cokkery shows I see. Keep up the Blogging and drop by some time - maybe you will find that my food isn't as bad as you think!

All the best
David

PS It is Pan Haggerty not Heggerty :o)