REALITY COMPETITIONS - Love 'em or hate 'em, they're a really big deal these days

[Dick Tuck]

Love the cooking ones. MasterChef, Top Chef, Iron Chef, and Hells Kitchen. I've even watched Ramsay's F-Word, in the UK, on youtube. Now that is an incredibly well done show.

It's also interesting seeing how Master Chef varies around the world. I tend to like the New Zealand version best, since they actually take you inside of some of those master classes the cooks are taking. I didn't realize how comprehensive they were until I read Sheetal's blog (I'm rooting for that woman). Anyone but Dave and his bromance, Sharone.

I've only watched Hell's Kitchen for the last several seasons and this summer have been following Master Chef. I have always loved to cook, always loved to prepare a 'wow' meal with superb presentation which unfortunately is rarely appreciated by my mostly redneck-ish family who love good food but don't care a flip about presentation or creative effort. So I always thought I would love being in that kind of competition where I could really experiment and do something outside of the more mundane meat and potatoes fare. I don't have the culinary education for Hell's Kitchen, but I could do Master Chef.

It has been interesting to me though that I think more guys like those shows than the gals do.

MasterChef Australia has been on air for about 8 seasons now, and this year they're doing a kids (8-12) version. That might be interesting, but for some reason I couldn't see Ramsay hosting it here. I keep seeing in my mind this youtube joke (warning, not workplace friendly):

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yjGPHo8JFQ]YouTube - Gordon Ramsay swearing at baby left in kitchen![/ame]