Masterchef: a ‘cultural kitchen revolution’ or just another game show?
MasterChef's premiere night saw it top the ratings
Teagan King
May 14, 2010
Chanel 10’s MasterChef is fostering ‘a cultural kitchen revolution’ says the show’s judge, Matt Preston.
With nearly 1.7m viewers tuning into its premiere, the show is at least having an impact on
people’s recipe choices.
An analysis by Taste.com.au shows that searches for recipes featured on the show rises dramatically immediately after they go to air.
A pressure test episode that saw contestants cook Spanish paella, resulted in ‘paella’ searches rising to the second most searched for recipe on the website.
Sam Watson from the William Angliss Institute of TAFE said there has been a 35% increase in applicants for short courses in food at the TAFE over the last 12 months.
‘I think people are starting to appreciate food more,’ Watson said. ‘Since the global financial crisis, there’s a need to eat cheaply and home cooking caters for that.’
Sam said the increase could be due to the popularity of MasterChef and Channel 7’s My Kitchen Rules, however thinks the shows are portraying an ‘unrealistic depiction of what cooking is all about.’
‘Glamorizing the profession on TV certainly helps [the popularity of cooking], however when they get in the kitchen they’ll see it’s not as pretty.’
Even cookbook sales seem to be on the rise. Candice Beyer, manager at Forest Hill’s Angus and Robertson bookstore says she has definitely noticed an increase in cook book sales this year.
‘A lot of people come in looking for Julie Goodwin’s book. It’s sitting at number 2 at the moment. What’s surprised me is the amount of young people that come in looking for cookbooks,’ Candice said.
‘You’ve had My Kitchen Rules prior to MasterChef and I think this has definitely impacted sales.’
But Dr. Jackie Cook, a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia and expert in the areas of Communication Studies, Journalism, Cultural Studies and Popular Culture suggests otherwise.
‘I think that people aren’t really watching it as a cooking show. If you want to watch a cooking show you’d watch someone like Jamie [Oliver]. If you’re watching MasterChef, you’re watching a cooking competition and it’s the competition that counts,’ she said.
‘I think food has almost nothing to do with it… It’s highly competitive and that creates tension. Effectively what you’re watching is a game show where the tension is so extreme…that you get very high emotions. That’s what’s so appealing,’
Dr. Cook admitted that people love to watch things about food however she denied there was a direct impact on the viewer’s attitudes towards food.
‘It’s competitive. It’s deliberately set up as a kind of spectator insight into the competition but it has actually very little to do with what the profession is all about. You don’t actually learn a lot about the food or even about the techniques…Nobody takes you through it stage by stage,’ she said.
‘Sure you might search for a recipe and buy a cookbook…but I question if viewers go out and buy the ingredients.It looks like people are going to try but do they or don’t they?’
Dr.Cook says the recent ‘fake plating’ deceit by MasterChef producers, could have an impact on the shows credibility.
The show’s producers admitted to allowing contestants to ‘re-plate’ their dishes after the cameras stopped rolling. [see full story]
‘It could be damaging [to their credibility] as a genuine competition or it could have a positive effect. Scandal is good for reality TV,’ says Dr.Cook.
Liz Altmeppen, viewer of the show, commented on the deception.
‘Of course it’s misleading to the viewers. We’re thinking at home that’s it’s a true competition when really it’s making a mockery of the competition and the viewers.’
‘It makes you think; What else have they kept from the viewers?…It just shows that it really is about ratings.’
Click to hear what MasterChef viewers had to say about the show.
