FTA-TV Masterchef Australia

[crowsarethebest]

I think Poh has the best potential out of this lot. Like any artist she has a very creative and inventive mind and her presentation is always stunning. She has gotten her shit together since coming back and is the favourite to win for me. The dish she served up last night was amazing and she has great creativity and flair in her cooking. Obviously she is taking massive risks but she's talented enough to pull it off.

 

[Kerrby]

FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!

Seriously is this show rigged?

What does Julie have to do to go home! Her fish was raw and the judges couldn't even eat it. Second time in a row she's in the bottom two and second time in a row she has produced the worst dish but somehow she escapes elimination.

 

[Exhale You]

I must say, i've been pretty disappointed by the final week so far.

It's been just like any other week, the only difference being the extra eliminations.
I expected some massive, truly testing challenges, not just the same old challenges with one contestant having an advantage.

Poh really had the deck stacked tonight, but she still had to produce the goods, and to her credit, she did.
She's really had a good run with all the final week challenges suiting her, and tomorrow looks the same given the 'croquembouche guy' was shown (which suggests it'll be another artistic, presentation first dessert).

Justine did really well given she was totally unfamiliar with Malay food, whilst Chris seemed to again coast through rather than challenging himself.
I don't know if it's strategy or if he's gone off too early, but over the last week or so he's seemingly taken the safe, easy option in most challenges.

As much as i like Julie, it's utter bollocks that she again survived.
She's deserved to go both nights, yet instead both times they've sent home people the audience have the least invested in.
If i was a contestant in next year's series and did the celebrity challenge, i'd tank......

 

[ExTasDeeMan]

I find it amazing that most of those guys don't know Malaysian cuisine...

Props to Poh for using pandan leaves.

 

[Dagless]

No one should be getting an advantage in the final week. To give any such a huge advantage is crap, and isn't indicative of the chefs versatility at the moment IMO. Why not give EVERYONE a challenge rather than giving them relatively simple options?

 

[Exhale You]

No one should be getting an advantage in the final week. To give any such a huge advantage is crap, and isn't indicative of the chefs versatility at the moment IMO. Why not give EVERYONE a challenge rather than giving them relatively simple options?

Exactly.

They should be doing super challenges, if you will, rather than the same old challenges with a single contestant getting a massive advantage.

The final week should be a tough, uncompromising test to find the true Masterchef, not a gimmicky version of a normal week.

I'm hoping that by the next season they've refined how they do the last week, because so far this week has been shit boring.

 

[Dagless]

Three cheers for the Slippery Slope!

 

[Kahuna]

How can you kick someone off who prepared a dish that was edible compared to one you couldn't. I found it pretty funny how George started nodding likeing Poh's dish before he even tasted it, how can they say this show isn't rigged. It is quiet obvious they each have their own demographic.

Poh - Asian appeals to the multi-cultural community.
Chris - The manly man
Julie - The one the oldies like
Justine - Young go getter woman
Julia - Young go getter woman

Tonights episode was just between Justine and Julia really.

Now the eliminations will just follow who the judges like, Poh looks pretty safe at the moment. Hopefully she stuffs up majorly and is gone.

Winning the celebrity chef challenge really paid of didn't it. They would of been getting contact with one style of cooking while in the restaurant while the rest at the house would of been getting exposure to all different styles of cooking.

 

[Dagless]

How can you kick someone off who prepared a dish that was edible compared to one you couldn't. I found it pretty funny how George started nodding likeing Poh's dish before he even tasted it, how can they say this show isn't rigged. It is quiet obvious they each have their own demographic.

Poh - Asian appeals to the multi-cultural community.
Chris - The manly man
Julie - The one the oldies like
Justine - Young go getter woman
Julia - Young go getter woman

Tonights episode was just between Justine and Julia really.

Now the eliminations will just follow who the judges like, Poh looks pretty safe at the moment. Hopefully she stuffs up majorly and is gone.

Winning the celebrity chef challenge really paid of didn't it. They would of been getting contact with one style of cooking while in the restaurant while the rest at the house would of been getting exposure to all different styles of cooking.

Also, you can't underestimate the variation in ovens and stuff like that. 20 minutes can be perfect for one oven type, then burn something in the next. Julie just keeps on stuffing up, but keeps up the ratings (Wouldn't know why, shes annoying as hell) so they would want her in. Time to make Poh cook some meat again, she should then be gone (re: SHOULD)

 

[likka]

Don't like how each elimination seems to be isolated towards a single dish, with pretty much no value given to the quality of food they have served up all season.

Julie is becoming the new Sam, three nights in a row she has served up inedible swill and yet somehow is still around.

As long as my arseh*le points to the ground Julia will be a better cook than Julie, but once again Julie scrapes through on a another perplexing technicality.

Well done to Poh, she used her advantage extremely well and produced another top shelf pair of dishes. I really wanted to taste that dessert.

Chris and Justine dodged a bullet, but Malaysian is not their thing so the most important aspect of the challenge is that they survived to fight another day. Second and third was realistically the best they could have hoped for. Mission accomplished.

Tomorrow night should be good watching them attempt what looks to be a very complicated dessert. Ironically this should be another challenge right up Poh's alley, especially with the recipe to study the night before. Pisses me off that Julia won't be there as I think this is one she would have nailed.

 

[likka]

I'm hoping that by the next season they've refined how they do the last week, because so far this week has been shit boring.

Disagree with your assertion it has been boring. I've been slightly disappointed with the quality of the dishes, but the show has been just as entertaining to watch.

Admittedly they could have ramped up the difficulty of the challenges in the final week, but it wouldn't make sense to change the structure of the show.

I wonder if the final challenge will be a Apprentice type of commercial challenge, where the final two have to cater for separate large and important social functions. Wouldn't surprise me if they have to select a couple of eliminated contestants each to lead in this task... certainly would be straight out of the reality tv playbook the producers have been ripping off all season.

 

[Inferno]

I like the format, but get rid of the bloody advantages the winner gets. This is about who the best chef is, not who the best chef is but one gets an advantage. It's stupid for example that Poh got to pick the style of food and picked a type which the other contestants generally have **** all idea about which simply doesn't show their skill level, and only reflects their knowledge and ability (if they have actually ever cooked it before) to cook Malay food rather than cuisine where they should be somewhat evenly matched. Can understand it earlier in the competition, but in the Finals week is ridiculous.

 

[crownie]

utter BS.

Julie cooked raw fish and didn't even stick to the theme on her other dish.

no doubt now they are doing everything they can to keep her in to appeal to the older viewers, even my parents have just started to watch because of her, she would probaly have the best chance to make a successful cook book to relate to the age group that are more likely to buy cook books.

 

[HBF]

You have got to be kidding me!!!
Firstly, Jukie serves up a "vomit pie", and then tonight, serves up raw fish and a dish that has nothing to do with Malaysian cuisine, and she is still in the show.

Julia and Lucas can feel that they have been very hard done by here. Julie should have gone out last night, and I thought was a certainty to go out tonight.

If she gets through tomorrow night at the expense of Chris, Justine or Poh, the competition is seriously rigged. These three have shown that they are the 3 best cooks on the show, and deserve to get to the final 3.

 

[IanG]

The return of bad Poh just to remind everyone what a bitch she is. Arrogant, fake, reveling in twisting the knife into the others all to the max. God if she wins....... Too all those complaining about 'smug' Chris now you've got something real to complain about.

Agree about the magnitude of the advantage, its just ridiculous if she wins tomorrow they will have to reduce it because the show will become a non-event.

We all wondered about the effect of leaving the show for half a season, now we know, they may have got good experience but it wasn't the experience of doing things under pressure on TV. I do actually think that based purely on tonights dishes that it was line ball between Julie and Julia but that makes a mockery of last nights undeserved result which pretty clearly came down to personality.

 

[lifelike_]

Surely another poor display from Julie will see her eliminated tomorrow.

No surprise to see Poh win again tonight.

Moran's comments on Chris were pretty much spot on. Will be interesting to see how he approaches the rest of the week.

 

[SunKing]

Majorly pissed off to see my girl Julia go tonight. What does it take for mrs homey cooking Julie to get the boot Serves up inedible fish and yet again someone with far more potential gets kicked out She's hopeless and better go tomorrow night.

And god please stop the Poh names..Pohllercoaster f-off I'm hoping she goes after Julie leaving Chris and Justine as the final two.

 

[ShaunH]

what justification did they give for sending julia home instead of julie?

 

[hamG]

what justification did they give for sending julia home instead of julie?

Her dishes weren't Malay.

 

[eddiesmith]

I agree with others on the rubbish advantage in the final week, it would have taken a massive **** up by Poh to lose the challenge last night so by winning 1 challenge she is basically gifted the next one as well and a massive advantage into the following

I hope she screws up, she is so bloody arrogant and annoying

The way the producers have shown Chris to us has changed over the last few weeks.

Throughout the first 7-8 weeks they portrayed him as talented, confident and easygoing, but over the last few weeks they've definitely changed their approach and focused on his arrogance, condescending nature and obnoxiousness.

I've no doubt he's been arrogant from the start, but only recently have they edited the program in such a way that it's obvious to everyone watching that Chris thinks he's a class above and has the competition won.

They've obviously done it because they want to have someone everyone loves to hate, someone the audience can rally against and watch in the hope that he screws up and gets his comeuppance, if you will.

I've noticed that many (including myself) have gone from liking Chris a lot to hoping he doesn't win the challenges, so their approach has obviously worked.

Well they had someone, but the trouble was that person is the judges favourite and is being gifted the competition, they needed to have everyone turn on someone else as they cant have a winner who is hated

 

[Daytripper]

Just a few comments for the paranoid conspiracy theooriists out there.

1. The people who in all probability will sell more books than anybody else are Poh and Chris because they have some sort of specialty. Poh with her artistic food bent and Chris with his meat and beer combnations. There are a million French cook books out there so that rules Justine out although even her stuff would appeal more than Julie's where the market is unundated with home cookery recipes.

2. The show was pre-recorded 6 weeks ago so whilst the producers had a general idea of who the fan favourites were they wouldn't be able to say it with absolute certainty.

3. Julie staying or going an extra night makes not one difference to Ch 10 and its bottom line. The advertising slots for the week would already have been sold and booked so whatever happens in the last week is irrelevant to them. If her staying ahead of Julia llast night meant an extra 5 weeks in the competition then maybe some people could accuse the producers of playing 'favourites' but 5 nights !!!!!
It means bugger all.

4. A competition like Masterchef needs to be seen to be credible to ensure its success. The pproducers are hardly going to start ordering judges to pick certain contestants to stay based on what they think is going on out there. Remember again this show is pre-recorded 6 weeks in advance. Also its a bit of a slur on guys like Gary, George and Matt that their opinion could be 'bought'. Especially Matt, his whole career as a food writer and critic would then come under question. I doubt if he'd be stupid enough to jeopardise that.

Finally enjoy the show for what it is and stop looking for things that aren't there.

 

[IanG]

4. A competition like Masterchef needs to be seen to be credible to ensure its success. The pproducers are hardly going to start ordering judges to pick certain contestants to stay based on what they think is going on out there.

No offence but thats naive. Credibility doesn't enter into it for the producers, they want the contestants who they think will appeal the most to the audience to stay. This is why this week has been such a disappointment because the comp has lost a lot of credibility with the way its been done.

 

[IanG]

Well they had someone, but the trouble was that person is the judges favourite and is being gifted the competition, they needed to have everyone turn on someone else as they cant have a winner who is hated

I dunno Poh did a very good job of making herself extremely hateable last night, far more than Chris has ever done. As for the change in the way Chris has been portrayed He's undoubtedly not 1 or the other, he's in between, yes he can be smug but he has also been generous to the other competitors and easy going at times.

 

[IanG]

Her dishes weren't Malay.

Also Julia's fish was raw just like Julie's.

 

[Exhale You]

Disagree with your assertion it has been boring. I've been slightly disappointed with the quality of the dishes, but the show has been just as entertaining to watch.

For me it's been boring because a) i expected them to be doing new, harder challenges rather than the same old ones, b) the whole 'one person gets a big advantage' thing has made the show far more predictable than it otherwise has been and c) apart from the odd dish, the food this week has been poor when compared to previous weeks.

I'm still enjoying it because i've a lot invested in the contestants, but i've found the whole week a real letdown.

I'm hoping they change things up a bit by making them do some genuinely fresh, difficult challenges over the next few nights.

We all wondered about the effect of leaving the show for half a season, now we know, they may have got good experience but it wasn't the experience of doing things under pressure on TV.

I don't think it was the pressure that undid them, i think it was more the fact that the audience didn't have any real affection or interest in them.

Lucas and Julia were gone for a long time, all the while the other contestants were able to forge a connection with the audience, and i believe that played a very big part in their decision to keep Julie over Lucas and Julia.

2. The show was pre-recorded 6 weeks ago so whilst the producers had a general idea of who the fan favourites were they wouldn't be able to say it with absolute certainty.

The lag was two weeks, not six.
And that came right from the mouth of one of the contestants.