I’ve become my grandmother lately. Every evening about 8.40 p.m., I sit in the living room, clutching the remote to make sure that no one else takes control of the screen. I announce often to anyone who so much as passes by that I’ll be watching television from 9 to 10 p.m. You can join me, of course, but there will be no changing the channel. Not while MasterChef Australia is on.
India’s favourite western cooking show is back with its much loved judges, Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. No other reality cooking competition has come close to elevating cooking to an impassioned spectator sport the way MasterChef Australia has.
No other cooking show boasts of the staggering talent that MasterChef Australia does, either. This season, for example, only four weeks have passed, but we’ve already seen participants come out with exorbitant desserts, beautifully plated salads, meats cooked in methods that are impossible to pronounce, and dishes that will have you questioning how they still call themselves ‘amateur’. We’ve also seen the terrifying Marco Pierre White (the youngest chef to clip three Michelin stars to his belt) take participants through challenges and bark orders at them, as they sweat it out in commercial restaurant kitchens, preparing bulk amounts of fine food. This week, food goddess Nigella Lawson came on, sending participants, judges and the viewers into a tizzy.
The contest is designed such such that two participants are eliminated every week, and each time a participant comes up for elimination, there is a dramatic sit down with them, where the judges ask — What does this competition mean to you? What does cooking mean to you? While this exercise is mostly carried out for the theatrics, it is incredible to see the raw passion in some of the contestants’ answers. ‘This is my life,’ they say. ‘I can’t see myself doing anything else.’
When you watch this, you ask yourself — Isn’t it just food? The answer is in Netflix’s excellent documentary show, Chef’s Table . It traces the journey of some of the greatest modern chefs of our time, including Massimo Bottura, Grant Achatz, Magnus Nilsson, Dan Barber and Gaggan Anand. These are chefs who have changed the way food is thought of, seen, presented, and eaten. The documentary traces their beginnings, and draws the viewer into the present day. The chefs talk about their inspiration, how they drew strength when faced with failure and criticism, and what pushed them to be where they are today. The episode with Gaggan Anand, in particular, I found compelling for obvious reasons — I was able to understand better because of the Indian connection.
Gaggan now heads a successful restaurant named after himself in Bangkok, which has been featured in the Top 50 restaurants in the world, and was named Asia’s best restaurant in 2014.
In the episode, Gaggan recalls a time when he lost his job, despite being one of the most promising chefs in the country, and found himself making and delivering food for Rs. 15 to Pizza Hut employees. He meets small success later, and just when you think he’s doing well, political situations push him out of business, and he loses his brother. When you’re watching it, you wonder, how did he ever manage to push himself so much? “When you’re pushed so hard into the corner,” he says, “You explode.” The documentary then shifts to his triumphs, the night he won the best restaurant in Asia award, the overwhelming emotion in his voice when he says he’s lived a dream, and that’s when you realise, it’s never just food.
(MasterChef Australia is on Star World HD and Chef’s Table is on Netflix.)
