Masterchef (US) - General Discussion

[seacliffsal]

I, too, was not happy with the derogatory remarks made towards the boomers.  And, they put them the farthest away from the pantry just to make them go farther and for the potential for 'jokes' directed at them.  Notice though that it was the boomers who didn't push and shove in front of others in the pantry.  

Gordon is in great shape, but he's not that far removed from being in the boomer category (same with Aaron and Joe).  Does it make them feel better and younger to make fun of the boomers.  And Joe needs to remember that any fame he initially received was due to his mother who just happens to be...a boomer.

Oh, and the fact that they gave boomers photographs while giving other age groups digital photos just shows that we, as boomers, have even more resources at our fingertips than do the other generations (because we have real photos as well as digital photos-go figure!).  One of the younger contestants stated that her generation was the best because they have seen so many changes during their lifetimes...what did she think the older contestants had experienced?  Fewer changes?  They are all trying way too hard to 'prove' that their generation(s) is the best.  Just stop.

[susannot]

I really like Kamay, the attorney from DC.  (I am a retired attorney.)  Her steak looked perfect.  Just getting my opinion on the record in case she wins or loses tonight.

[Yeah No]

I thought for sure Murt was going to be in the bottom but I guess salmon meatballs were worse.  How Sunshine couldn't make Stilton cheese work in a dish that was made for it is beyond me, and it's definitely not a "bitter" cheese. It's one of my favorite cheeses of all time, and sorry to that other woman but her familiarity with French cheeses doesn't make her an expert on what is a very British cheese. At least I don't have to look at Sunshine's annoying smirky face anymore.

I thought it was telling when Rebecka gave the additional ingredient to Gen X because she knew they were tougher competition. That supports my theory that the show is slanted to favor Gen X. I think it's stupid to base this season on artificial generational rivalry when all of the judges are from that generation and might tend to favor it because of that.

And enough with the Boomer insults already. I never felt any rivalry with Gen X but the snarky comments from these three judges toward Boomers are leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

[mlp]

I wasn't a bit sorry to see Sunshine go.  I guess she can't help having a ridiculous name but her yoga(?) demonstration during the first group cook set me against her and bringing the native drummer was the last straw.  I was waiting for her to start sending smoke signals from her oven.

I like the little English teacher but I can't imagine having to sit through a whole class listening to her voice.  

What the doctor did to that salmon bordered on criminal.  Her dish sounded and looked disgusting.

[preeya]

9 hours ago, mlp said:

I wasn't a bit sorry to see Sunshine go.  I guess she can't help having a ridiculous name but her yoga(?) demonstration during the first group cook set me against her and bringing the native drummer was the last straw.  I was waiting for her to start sending smoke signals from her oven.

I like the little English teacher but I can't imagine having to sit through a whole class listening to her voice.  

What the doctor did to that salmon bordered on criminal.  Her dish sounded and looked disgusting.

Ditto!

Edited July 11 by preeya

[AZChristian]

10 hours ago, Yeah No said:

How Sunshine couldn't make Stilton cheese work in a dish that was made for it is beyond me, and it's definitely not a "bitter" cheese. It's one of my favorite cheeses of all time, and sorry to that other woman but her familiarity with French cheeses doesn't make her an expert on what is a very British cheese.

When I saw the Stilton, I was jealous and started craving it.  

[cameron]

Once again by sheer luck, Murt escapes the chopping block.

 

[fishcakes]

I'm annoyed that Anna won the challenge because they showed her tasting her food from a spoon and then banging the spoon on the edge of the pot to dump the excess back in the pot. That food was IN HER MOUTH and she put it back in the pot.

Not sorry to see Sunshine go, especially after she said it was because she was "thrown a curveball." No. It was because she served the judges unrendered fat and burnt gratin.

The Boomers must have done well as a group because Christopher's dish wasn't that bad. The judges liked the fish and the broth; they just thought the other component was unnecessary.

So far all of Murt's dishes have at least one thing that looks like it came out of a diaper.

[mertensia]

What is Murt's hard-on for TikTok?

[fishcakes]

3 hours ago, mertensia said:

What is Murt's hard-on for TikTok?

The Gen Zs are obsessed with their TikTok views; Fatima was telling Gordon her spaghetti with salmon balls got 6M views. But that means nothing because gross recipes/demonstrations are always going viral, like countertop spaghetti or tennis ball cake pops. Something disgusting is way more likely to go viral than a normal recipe.

Edited July 11 by fishcakes

[preeya]

6 hours ago, mertensia said:

What is Murt's hard-on for TikTok?

What is TikTok?  I do know what tic-tac-toe is.

[fishcakes]

14 hours ago, preeya said:

What is TikTok?

It's a social media platform that hosts short videos. It's used mostly by Gen Z and younger and is controversial mainly for its data privacy practices.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I wish there had been a double elimination.

[DEL901]

I don’t know how the challenge will turn out…I just like seeing my company logo on the stadium.  BMO (Bank of Montreal) BMO sponsors the LA men’s and women’s teams for the last year and have sponsored Toronto FC for many years.  

Edited July 18 by DEL901

[tinkerbell]

This episode is hard to watch.  Boomers think like this, Gen z does that, but millenials think this way and Gen X does the other.

I know it's the theme this season, but reducing everyone to a stereotype based on age is as bad as last season's stereotypes of areas of the country. If I screw up a dish, is it because I'm a boomer? Or because I'm from the Midwest? Maybe my Polish heritage?

And then there's the inevitable  "hurry! We need it now! Come on, let's go!" Followed by "its RAW!"

Edited July 18 by tinkerbell

[mertensia]

And once again I wonder: what if you hate fish? What if you're a vegetarian? Can't they do a mass food challenge with more interesting food? Why is Gordon always perplexed that amateur cooks get flummoxed by cooking for 100 people?

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

This episode is hard to watch.  Boomers think like this, Gen z does that, but millenials think this way and Gen X does the other.

I know it's the theme this season, but reducing everyone to a stereotype based on age is as bad as last season's stereotypes of areas of the country. If I screw up a dish, is it because I'm a boomer? Or because I'm from the Midwest? Maybe my Polish heritage?

This stuff annoys me even more every week.

"Boomers are slow, stuck in their ways, etc."

"Millennials think they know everything".

It's just more confirmation for what is essentially age prejudice which makes those that engage in age discrimination feel justified.

There's just no place for it anywhere on TV, IMO. 

That said, did they have to pick people that seem to fit whatever eye-rolling stereotype they want to push about their generation?

[Trey]

13 hours ago, DEL901 said:

I don’t know how the challenge will turn out…I just like seeing my company logo on the stadium.  BMO (Bank of Montreal) BMO sponsors the LA men’s and women’s teams for the last year and have sponsored Toronto FC for many years.  

I thought I was seeing things when I saw the BMO logo. I didn't know they sponsored LA teams.

I was afraid Rebecca and Anna were going to come to blows over the fish.  Since the fish were raw I guess Anna was right.

 

 

[Colorado David]

can someone email/msg me who went home? our local affiliate cut away to 'breaking news' right as gordon was speaking at the end, so i have no clue other than its someone on the blue team. the cutaway to the news wasnt even breakaway worthy which is 10x more annoying. 

[Trey]

Chris went home for putting out too many raw steaks.

[preeya]

This team B.S. is becoming farcical and predictable.  Hurry up, be perfect, but don't screw up a fine-dining field trip.

Gordan blurts out "Becca (blue) could have the winning dish."

Joe polls one table that goes four to two in favor of blue. At this point, I said to myself, "red wins."

And of course, the red team wins.

Edited July 18 by preeya

[DEL901]

7 hours ago, Trey said:

I thought I was seeing things when I saw the BMO logo. I didn't know they sponsored LA teams.

I was afraid Rebecca and Anna were going to come to blows over the fish.  Since the fish were raw I guess Anna was right.

 

 

Bamako acquired Bank of the West last year so they new have a west coast presence.  I guess sponsoring soccer is a good promo move to get the name out…I was happy when they sponsored the women’s team too.  

[fishcakes]

That elimination made no sense. Adam was running the meat station, sends out a couple of raw steaks, so Chris steps in to help him, they end up charring a few steaks, then Cornhole comes in and turns the heat way down and they end up not completing the service. Then they eliminate Chris on the grounds that he was running the meat station? How was he in charge? All three messed it up, but it was Becca's fault for not leading her team, and it should have been her gone.

Anna was also a terrible leader; she just got lucky. I wouldn't say millennials think they know everything, but Anna seems to think she does. She was  condescending to and dismissive of Rebecca and, in response, Rebecca got passive-aggressive with her. I totally understand Rebecca's reaction, but it was dumb because if they had lost, it wasn't Anna going home. I don't get why they let her be the leader just because she said she wanted it before anyone else could; she already had an advantage this week and I'm sure someone else would have wanted to try for an advantage for next week.

OT: Former MC judge Christina Tosi was in the season finale of The Bear and she had a few lines along with a boatload of other professional chefs.

Edited July 19 by fishcakes

[KLovestoShop]

I’m beginning to wonder about the education of some of these younger participants.  One of them asked “how many ounces in a pound”.  Isn’t that something you learn in elementary school?  They also ask a lot of questions about things that are basic knowledge.  
 

I’m so sick  and tired of the Boomers being constantly disrespected.  To be honest, I find Gen Y’s and Gen Z’s to be lazy and unconcerned about anyone but themselves.  They’re the ones who have never been allowed to fail, and therefore can’t handle anything negative as evidenced by their need for puppies before and after things that are even the slightest difficult like tests in college.  I’m waiting for Gordon to usher in a bunch of Golden retrievers to help calm them.  

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, KLovestoShop said:

I’m beginning to wonder about the education of some of these younger participants.  One of them asked “how many ounces in a pound”.  Isn’t that something you learn in elementary school?  They also ask a lot of questions about things that are basic knowledge.  
 

I’m so sick  and tired of the Boomers being constantly disrespected.  To be honest, I find Gen Y’s and Gen Z’s to be lazy and unconcerned about anyone but themselves.  They’re the ones who have never been allowed to fail, and therefore can’t handle anything negative as evidenced by their need for puppies before and after things that are even the slightest difficult like tests in college.  I’m waiting for Gordon to usher in a bunch of Golden retrievers to help calm them.  

Oh yeah, that "ounces in a pound" thing FLOORED me and my husband, then I remembered that Anna is not American and is probably used to the metric system. I think the show is deliberately trolling us with stereotypes based on the generations just to get these reactions out of us. They know what older generations think of what younger people don't know these days and they're focusing on anything they can find that feeds into the negative stereotypes.

The show did the same thing with Rebecca by highlighting her "stick in the mud" attitude and insistence on doing the fish all by herself. Meanwhile her team won in no small part because the fish was generally cooked well and customers liked the nice crust on it. But the show would rather make more out of anything it can to make her look like a "typical Boomer".

I also recoiled at the way they focused in on Horacio having to ask what he was cooking and generally acting befuddled by everything. Either he's really an idiot and was picked to make Boomers look bad or they're picking his absolute worst footage to show us to make him look like he's bordering on senile or something - Or BOTH. Either way it's insulting to all the candidates and generations, but especially to the Boomers because of the additional insulting ageist comments from all angles, including the judges.

Edited July 19 by Yeah No

[Colorado David]

one gets the feeling that the boomer age group is not the show's demographic, therefore they become easy targets for show trolling. that is nice b*tch-mean tv right there. and yet gordy is wholesome as hell to older cooks on Kitchen Nightmares, they often get tons of praise for their cooking, esp if its a mother/grandmother. again, slanting towards demogs i am sure.

agree on anna, it may be the metric thing. i sure as hell can't remember the metric conversions from the american measurements in my head, beyond miles to kilometers.

[Yeah No]

2 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

one gets the feeling that the boomer age group is not the show's demographic, therefore they become easy targets for show trolling. that is nice b*tch-mean tv right there. and yet gordy is wholesome as hell to older cooks on Kitchen Nightmares, they often get tons of praise for their cooking, esp if its a mother/grandmother. again, slanting towards demogs i am sure.

I think the show is clearly slanted to make Gen X look better than the other generations. It seems as though they were deliberately picked to be the most solid in terms of talent and none are being depicted as negative stereotypes of any kind. Plus no ageist comments are being made toward them. The one comment they keep showing in the promos is Joe calling one a "classic Gen X overachiever", which is not an insult. It couldn't be more obvious to me, anyway.

[fishcakes]

52 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

I think the show is clearly slanted to make Gen X look better than the other generations. It seems as though they were deliberately picked to be the most solid in terms of talent

My initial reaction was similar and that Gen X was being loaded with good chefs to insure one of them won the whole thing, but now I'm not so sure. They're down to only three people and except for Kimberly (the Minnie Mouse voice woman), they might as well be invisible. Daniela and Arthur have gotten zero screen time since their audition episode.

It's starting to feel like the Becca/Anna show with Rebecca as the evil obstacle and Murt as comic relief. Becca and Anna are the type the show likes to focus on -- people with decent enough skills but a TON of ego. Those players don't always win though. Last season Kennedy and Jennifer seemed to be the Chosen Ones, but then Grant won because the show also loves a contrived dark horse winner. Not sure who that would be this season.

[eel2178]

16 hours ago, KLovestoShop said:

I’m beginning to wonder about the education of some of these younger participants.  One of them asked “how many ounces in a pound”.  Isn’t that something you learn in elementary school?  

I just blew that off with "she must be Canadian."

It's Americans who are totally ignorant about the metric system even though pretty much every country in the world as well as the medical field in the US uses metric.

[eel2178]

4 hours ago, fishcakes said:

It's starting to feel like the Becca/Anna show with Rebecca as the evil obstacle and Murt as comic relief. Becca and Anna are the type the show likes to focus on -- people with decent enough skills but a TON of ego. 

I'm already thinking that Anna needs to go just based on her plating. So far, everything she has made has been very monochromatic. Actually, anti-chromatic might be a better description since everything she has plated has been almost solid white. For that reason, I didn't find her creation last week nor her team's meals this week to look very appetizing.

Have the judges forgotten that we first eat with our eyes? 

[mlp]

7 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I think the show is clearly slanted to make Gen X look better than the other generations.

Surely you don't think that could be because it's the generation of all the judges?  :) :)  :)

[Colorado David]

what what what? no way! after all we only get younger judges in here to judge cough ahem...lydia, mirimoto, pepin...and their peers, jeez far too long a list....bourdain, puck, ming tsai, ripert...

Edited July 19 by Colorado David

[Yeah No]

11 minutes ago, mlp said:

Surely you don't think that could be because it's the generation of all the judges?  :) :)  :)

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner, LOL......In a word, YES. And Gordon is an executive producer, too.

6 hours ago, fishcakes said:

My initial reaction was similar and that Gen X was being loaded with good chefs to insure one of them won the whole thing, but now I'm not so sure. They're down to only three people and except for Kimberly (the Minnie Mouse voice woman), they might as well be invisible. Daniela and Arthur have gotten zero screen time since their audition episode.

It's starting to feel like the Becca/Anna show with Rebecca as the evil obstacle and Murt as comic relief. Becca and Anna are the type the show likes to focus on -- people with decent enough skills but a TON of ego. Those players don't always win though. Last season Kennedy and Jennifer seemed to be the Chosen Ones, but then Grant won because the show also loves a contrived dark horse winner. Not sure who that would be this season.

I hear you, but the fact that Gen X is down to 3 might not mean anything. I feel like Rebecca, Anna and Murt could be the "red herrings" and the dark horses over on the Gen X team that we have never even seen on camera are the ones to watch. This show has done that kind of thing before. Suddenly one of the remaining Gen X-ers might emerge from the pack, seemingly out of nowhere.

[tinkerbell]

21 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I think the show is clearly slanted to make Gen X look better than the other generations. It seems as though they were deliberately picked to be the most solid in terms of talent and none are being depicted as negative stereotypes of any kind. Plus no ageist comments are being made toward them. The one comment they keep showing in the promos is Joe calling one a "classic Gen X overachiever", which is not an insult. It couldn't be more obvious to me, anyway.

Ah, so it's "this group is too old, these 2 groups are too young, but THIS one is JUST RIGHT!"

Yeah, I can see that. 

I'm really hating the generalizations on this show. Then again. I'm a boomer who uses recipes I find on tiktok.

[Colorado David]

On 7/20/2024 at 5:24 AM, tinkerbell said:

 

I'm really hating the generalizations on this show. Then again. I'm a boomer who uses recipes I find on tiktok.

tiktok way too advanced for moi. me finding recipes online. allrecipes.com. w2ait tiktok advanced, i mean i have  more than a 8 second attention span. no diss    luv tink!!

 

Edited July 21 by Colorado David
apple logies

[fishcakes]

It's reruns for the next two weeks. Tonight they're rerunning the childhood comfort food episode and next week the team challenge cooking for soccer players. Then two new episodes each on August 14 and 21 and no idea after that.

Edited July 31 by fishcakes

[Yeah No]

On 7/31/2024 at 10:44 AM, fishcakes said:

It's reruns for the next two weeks. Tonight they're rerunning the childhood comfort food episode and next week the team challenge cooking for soccer players. Then two new episodes each on August 14 and 21 and no idea after that.

It was already doing reruns for the last two weeks too. So the show went on a break for a month. Ridiculous, but I think they've done this before. And as far as I know there was no explanation either. Some people have theorized it's because of the Olympics but no justification was given for that.

[fishcakes]

I would also guess these two weeks are because of the Olympics, but no idea why they had a rerun a month ago. Then they were off for a week so FOX could burn off the last two episodes of the atrocious Food Stars. Now they're up against Big Brother, so aside from the terrible theme and strange scheduling decisions, this season will probably be a ratings loser. Not that it will matter; GR is a cash cow for FOX.

[Yeah No]

9 hours ago, fishcakes said:

I would also guess these two weeks are because of the Olympics, but no idea why they had a rerun a month ago. Then they were off for a week so FOX could burn off the last two episodes of the atrocious Food Stars. Now they're up against Big Brother, so aside from the terrible theme and strange scheduling decisions, this season will probably be a ratings loser. Not that it will matter; GR is a cash cow for FOX.

It's like they'll pull anything mid season if they don't think the audience is watching and put it back on when they think it is. This just happened on Food Network. They pulled a popular series mid-season and started airing another one with the same star. No explanation, nothing.

Well it wouldn't surprise me if no one's watching this season. The whole "generations" thing sucks. 

Although people will watch any old crap, especially on FOX, like those dumb new game shows I detest. Of course they'll never pull them off. 😏

[mlp]

15 hours ago, Yeah No said:

It's like they'll pull anything mid season if they don't think the audience is watching and put it back on when they think it is. This just happened on Food Network. They pulled a popular series mid-season and started airing another one with the same star. No explanation, nothing.

It seems like this happens with Gordon Ramsay shows.  I remember HK being off for weeks a couple times but I can't recall why now.  What FN series are you referring to?  I haven't noticed I guess.

[Yeah No]

22 minutes ago, mlp said:

It seems like this happens with Gordon Ramsay shows.  I remember HK being off for weeks a couple times but I can't recall why now.  What FN series are you referring to?  I haven't noticed I guess.

Yes, now that you mention it I remember that happening with HK a couple of times too.

I'm talking about Alex G.'s show "Supermarket Stakeout". After several episodes they pulled it and started showing "Alex vs. America" instead. Meanwhile there are 4 unaired episodes of Stakeout that aren't showing up on future schedules. Personally I like Stakeout better than the other show so I was bummed. I wrote to FN to ask if it was coming back but after at least 3 weeks now I haven't heard back.

Edited August 8 by Yeah No

[mlp]

3 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I'm talking about Alex G.'s show "Supermarket Stakeout". After several episodes they pulled it and started showing "Alex vs. America" instead.

I didn't know that there are unaired episodes so I didn't think anything of that.  Huh.  At least with MC and other Fox shows, there's usually something on their TV web page that says there's a hiatus and when the new episodes will resume.

[Yeah No]

3 hours ago, mlp said:

I didn't know that there are unaired episodes so I didn't think anything of that.  Huh.  At least with MC and other Fox shows, there's usually something on their TV web page that says there's a hiatus and when the new episodes will resume.

FN never tells us stuff like that. They never tell the public when they've renewed or canceled anything either. And obviously they don't respond to questions asking about those things either. The only way anyone can find out if any of Alex's shows are coming back is because she might make mention of it on her social media. It sucks.

[KLovestoShop]

I’m of the opinion that Becca is a real life, pain in the butt, biotch. When she was part of the four best cakes, the other three were there for each other, but Becca stood far apart from them and didn’t slap hands with any of them.  And for the second show, all she did was flap her gums, which I’ve not seen any “saved” person to constantly do.  I just think that she thinks she’s the greatest. 

[mlp]

35 minutes ago, KLovestoShop said:

I’m of the opinion that Becca is a real life, pain in the butt

I was thinking the same things, especially during the second hour when she was acting like the star of the show.  

Arthur and Christopher have been two of my favorites so I hated to see Arthur do poorly and felt even worse when Christopher left.  I was sure Arthur would be leaving but I guess raw chicken is always the kiss of death.

[KeithJ]

One thing I've always liked about MasterChef is that the contestants always seemed to get along and supported each other.  Breaking the contestants into teams and adding advantages / disadvantages really takes away from the show.

[fishcakes]

I wish it had only been one episode because the cake competition was so funny. It was like a live action Cake Wrecks blog.

I haven't liked Anna since her audition episode and she's been so smug the last two weeks -- she even managed to outsmug Becca -- that I was pretty happy to see her fail so spectacularly. Not just that her cake was leaning, but that it was apparently so disgusting that Gordon said he was unable to take a second bite.

Rebecca's cake was also a leaning failure; she's just lucky the "Geag" cake existed. He did have to go because raw flour can make you pretty sick, but I felt bad for him. It was like a 10-year-old's cake, but ... your kid made you a cake! For your birthday!

Becca is truly awful, and the way she queened around in the second episode was insufferable. Hallie is crass and seems angry all the time. Those are the only two I actively dislike. Even Murt doesn't bother me because he's such a ridiculous person that it's entertaining.

I felt bad for Christopher, but raw chicken should be an automatic ouster, so it's understandable. I was so mad about Joe's "live like you're dying" comment to him. How insensitive to say that to someone with cancer. Good grief.

[cameron]

14 hours ago, mlp said:

I was thinking the same things, especially during the second hour when she was acting like the star of the show.  

Arthur and Christopher have been two of my favorites so I hated to see Arthur do poorly and felt even worse when Christopher left.  I was sure Arthur would be leaving but I guess raw chicken is always the kiss of death.

I thought that Arthur's poached egg look exactly right to me.  I like mine runny and this is what they usually look like to me when I have them in a restaurant. 

You would think that Aaron, Joe and Gordon would know how to correctly pronounce "kirsch".  Not suppose to sound like the curtain rod company.

[tinkerbell]

Something I've never understood:

Each contestant gets an apron with their name embroidered on it.  When they're eliminated  they make a big show of turning in the apron. Why? Does it get tossed in the trash, instead of letting them take home what would be a cool souvenir 

[seacliffsal]

I need the Gen Z team to start losing members-especially Becca and Halle.  They're a bit too smug for me to find entertaining.

Sorry to see Christopher go, but, alas, it was raw chicken.  Gordon did try to guide him when going around during the cook he commented on the size of the chicken thigh.  Fried chicken is not as easy to do well as so many people on so many cooking competitions seem to think it is.

So glad that Michael got a win.  They haven't featured him very much, but I have liked him since the start of the season-I think he helped someone when he didn't have to and that showed that he is kind.

Overall, I like more of the older contestants than the younger ones.  Maybe it's because of the 'jokes' directed towards them.  Or, they don't appear as smug as some of the younger ones.