How MasterChef is Skewering Australian Cuisine

It has become a bit of cultural phenomenon. Australian MasterChef over the past few years has been the runaway hit on Aussie television. A show where your average Joe can walk in off the street and become the newest, fandangle chef destined for a career on primetime television showing interested viewers their take on risotto.

Like any popular “reality” television, MasterChef’s clever premise bases itself on the sweat, blood and tears that goes into manipulating people with extreme tasks in a competitive environment under the glare of studio lighting and the focus of $120 thousand dollar high definition broadcast quality cameras.

The pressure is derived from three hosts with a number of celebrity guest chefs, setting a number of herculean culinary feats for them to feast on and cast their judgment on the quivering contestants. As I said, the show is the pretty much the most popular show on television that means it is influential and this is unhealthy for Australian cuisine.

Australian culinary culture has come along way since the days of chops, tomato sauce and bubble and squeak. Hurrah for that! I’m sure some of us long for those days and I can understand that, many of us have become accustomed to dining out even enjoying “fine dining” on a semi regular basis. Fine dining can be defined as any restaurant that calls itself a “fine dining” restaurant.

Unlike the gastronomic Mecca’s that are Europe, Asia, parts of Africa and even certain cities in North America, Australia doesn’t have the culinary traditions built up over generations of refining and dining that aforementioned do. This, coupled with an ingrained cultural cringe, a result of being tens of thousands of kilometers from our cultural reference points, means that we have traditionally been a little unsure of ourselves on the cuisine front.

Thankfully our wonderfully multicultural society has gone a long way to build our confidence. But the pretentiousness and over complicated dishes that are served up night in and night out, MasterChef, I fear, takes us back to the days where we think what everyone else was cooking was better than what ever it was we were serving up.

It causes that cultural cringe snobbiness that I thought we here in Australia had overcome in the 90s or at least after the 2000 Olympics.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that the creations that are served up each night to the incredibly pompous judges are not anything less than a gastronomic delight.  The standards are often set so high that the pompous pomposity of the judges leaves viewers with the feeling that anything less is deplorably inadequate. Which leaves me to ponder the steak and three veg I devoured last night.

Fortunately we Australian’s are blessed with living in a food lover’s paradise.  The quality of our produce is second to none and has an innate advantage. This alone means that what we prepare in our kitchens is of world-class quality.  As long you know the cooking basics, what you present at the dining table will always be more than adequate.

The challenge to my fellow Australians is to not be intimated by the architecturally inspired dishes and to be proud of the simple suppers that us mere mortals serve up on a daily basis. 

So appreciate the freshness and the simplicity of serving you and yours a well-cooked meal that attempts to adhere to daily nutritional requirements.