Hey Dan,<\/p>\n
For my sins \u2013 and they must have been pretty big sins \u2013 my better half has taken to watching Masterchef of late. Yep. We\u2019re inflicted with Australian Masterchef here in Thailand too. (Apparently it\u2019s one of India\u2019s highest-rating shows as well, so if a contestant of Indian heritage manages to stay on the island longer than he deserves\u2026well, there\u2019s your answer).<\/p>\n
Anyway, yesterday\u2019s challenge was to bake a cake. Not just any cake. But a cake of absurd dimensions, and one wearing one of Carmen Miranda\u2019s hats on top too, the task of replicating which the contestants were given 4.5 hours to complete.<\/p>\n
Apparently the bloke with the beard who is the mastermind behind said cake is some sort of legend in Australia. But as I don\u2019t live there, I don\u2019t give a toss. Arguably the same would be true if I did live there.<\/p>\n
The cake \u2013 which seemed to be roughly the proportions of a standard bucket \u2013 looked pretty enough to be honest. But then they decided to cut it. And of course that was easier said than done with a 50cm-high cylinder of cake \u2013 they had to take a knife the size of a sword and slice away at its edges, then divide it up so everybody could have a taste of every one of the different-flavoured layers (of which there seemed to be half a dozen or so) and then scrape some of the d\u00e9cor off the top. End result? A plate of mush. Nice.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s not that there weren\u2019t some nice-sounding elements to the cake, but I did wonder why we needed the kitchen-sink approach.<\/p>\n
It struck me \u2013 as does Masterchef in general \u2013 that everything that is wrong with the current restaurant trade is being celebrated here.<\/p>\n
Taste is rather a difficult concept to communicate via television, so in its stead we get visual presentation. Masterchef is merely a moving-picture version of Instagram, albeit with absurdly concocted and highly repetitive \u2018drama\u2019 to keep us watching.<\/p>\n
Now.<\/p>\n
While I\u2019m perfectly happy to avoid drama in a restaurant, I am getting a bit tired of prettily-presented plates without any substance. You know, those minor culinary concerns like aromas and flavours.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong. Presentation is important \u2013 it is that first impression that can be hard to shake. It\u2019s why you wear a tie to the office, rather than a tutu.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing: It isn\u2019t the tie that does the job. If the bloke in the tutu is the best at what he does, and the guy in the tie is completely incompetent then eventually that\u2019s what is going to be remembered.<\/p>\n
And that, thanks to Masterchef and Instagram, is what we\u2019re getting these days \u2013 we\u2019re getting the guy in the tie\/the girl in the pretty dress \u2013 but then when we taste the food, too often we realize that he\u2019s a dope and she\u2019s brainless.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re all show.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no substance there.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a beauty contest folks. It\u2019s food.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s try to put the cameras away, and remember that flavours are important too, and maybe, just maybe, the whole industry won\u2019t disappear up its own backside \u2013 a direction is seems to be racing, headlong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey Dan, For my sins \u2013 and they must have been pretty big sins \u2013 my better half has taken to watching Masterchef of late. Yep. We\u2019re inflicted with Australian Masterchef here in Thailand too. (Apparently it\u2019s one of India\u2019s highest-rating shows as well, so if a contestant of Indian heritage manages to stay on … Continue reading Pretty. Tasteless.<\/span>