An array of bright, zesty flavours at Chin Chin, where the only problem was having to choose only some of the items from what looks to be a menu that is all hits, no filler.
Families put their reputations to the test, relationships on the line and decades-old recipes in the firing line, when they come up against each other in a head-to-head cook off.
The blurb captures the essence of this show fairly well, if with a pinch of predictable hyperbole. If you’ve seen the original British Masterchef and are dumbstruck by its transformation into our local version, then perhaps you can imagine this as a British My Kitchen Rules, with the added stipulation that the pairs must be from a single family. It’s low-key competitive cooking, with most of the drama being in the promotional para above. Paul Merrett and Amanda Lamb are the judges and their job is to choose between the pairs competing each episode. Each pair has an hour to prepare their three course menu; the winning pair is sent on the next round.
In the episode I watched, two sisters from Surrey, with a “traditional English food” background competed against a mother and daughter, who talked about their Iranian-Armenian heritage. The three course menus each side put up were fairly dull and the most-commented upon aspect of the competitors seemed to be how calm they were. The result was close to a tie – the judges were underwhelmed by both teams and, for a while, it seemed that they were reluctant to see either team again.
Will I watch Family Food Fight again? With Lifestyle Food as my background viewing, I wouldn’t turn it off or switch over, like I would for Good Chef/Bad Chef, but I’m not linking it and wouldn’t be distraught if I never saw it again. The concept is a bit ho-hum and needs something to lift it. Whilst it is good to see a food show where the emphasis is not on manufactured tension or interpersonal drama, this only works if the food is interesting which – at least in this episode – it wasn’t.
Poh moves out of her kitchen and heads off overseas – to Malaysia, the country where she was born. She is on a three-week trip starting in Kuala Lumpur to find out more about her heritage and traditional Malaysian dishes.
Poh wasn’t one of my favourite contestants in the first season of Masterchef. Her inclusion in the competition came after the judges rejected her first dish and told her to go home and cook something “from the heart” (or similarly cliché location). Her second dish got her through and the show did its darndest to eliminate that early mis-step from viewers’ minds by constructing a “Poh cooks from her heritage” narrative. When she was brought back as a “second chancer”, grudge-holding viewers (which could well be a set of, say, one) seethed at “third chancers”. Of course, when the final came down to Julie versus Poh, I would have preferred to see Poh through, as at least she’d consistently shown competence and creativity in the kitchen.
Coming second did not damage Poh’s food-related ambitions; the ABC recognised her potential and signed her up for a series to fill the old Cook and the Chef spot. I tuned into the first couple of episodes and, whilst she seemed very natural on TV, the giggling and fawning over guest chefs grated. Was that Poh? Perhaps it was just me, because after a few weeks I tuned back in and have become a regular viewer.
… which is how I came to be browsing around on YouTube looking for some Nutter magic. Actually, I was hoping to get a sound file of the Simply Baking theme tune to embed here as a tribute to the Nutter. I was unsuccessful in that, but I did uncover a short treasure trove of more recent Nutter appearances.
In this clip, we not only get the Nutter magic, but the special gnominess that is Anthony Worrall-Thompson. And that’s not all! A recipe for Lancashire style Welsh rarebit – really – is yours, if you want it. Enjoy!
MasterChef Australia judge Gary Mehigan and nutritionist Janella Purcell bring their own styles of cooking for a food showdown. Today Gary makes a ricotta pudding and Janella cooks a chunky peasant-style soup.
Look, I’m not really going to go through this in a great deal of detail. I’ve got the Food Channel on in the background to warm me through this bitterly cold day and have been enjoying wacky Ming and the BarefootContessa… and now this has come on. Usually I turn it off because it pisses me off no end, but today? I’m sharing with you.
Why does it piss me off so? I don’t like the morality attached to the good/bad dichotomy; that there is food that is inherently “good”, or “bad”. Nor do I like the peculiar smugness with which Janella presents her “superior” food, or the fact that Gary’s sugar-, cream- and fat-laden creations are set in contrast with her freekeh salads and farro soups without the benefit of any narrative of balance, moderation, or even a dash of STFU.
Today’s episode is focussed on the food of Italy, which means that the food of Italy will provide a minor distraction to Janella as she makes fun of Gary’s weight, which she can apparently do because she’s the “good” chef and a woman. He cops it because… he’s been told to? The producers think this nonsense is entertaining?
Janella’s recipe is the first one up today, and she starts with “lots” of extra virgin olive oil. Gary raises a quizzical eyebrow, given that whenever he adds oil to anything she responds with a variation on “piggy piggy pig pig”. She gets away with it, though, because it’s the good oil (and – did I mention? – she’s the good chef).
Gary is cooking octopus and discusses how it takes a long time to cook as it needs to be looked after to remain tender. Or something. I lost track when Janella interrupted this with “just like women!”. Perhaps I’m on edge after reading Bettina Arndt’s ridiculous SMH “opinion piece” on Julia Gillard being a bad role model for Australian women (and then Mia Freeman’s inevitable look-at-Mia response)1 but I am just exhausted by women who use their public profiles to display attitudes that would be decried as obsolete, patronising and offensive if they were held by men.
Okay, I’m turning off. That fake (at least I’m hoping it’s fake) “i’m so dumb!” squeal-giggle shtick that Janella has just demonstrated has done me in. Janella (having been asked to switch on a food processor): “Are you trying to trick me, Gary?” Simper. Gary: “Huh?” Janelle: “You’ve turned the food processor backwards”. Seriously.
Good Chef, Bad Chef is on Lifestyle Food, but I recommend finding something less maddening to do, such as cleaning the grouting.
1. No, I don’t follow Mia on Twitter, but – inexplicably – I follow someone who does and her response was retweeted by them. I feel dirty.
Join Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Sue Perkins in this quiz show that tests your knowledge of all things gastronomic. Features special guests James Martin and Charlotte Church.
This Channel 4 show made its local debut on Wednesday and follows a tried and tested format: a snarky host, two teams, each with a chef acting as “captain” and a celebrity as their support. Of course, it’s difficult to distinguish between celebrity and chef these days. As the blurb promised, Hugh F-W is the head of one team and James Martin – who I haven’t seen before, but came with the “housewives’ favourite” tag, so is therefore clearly not new to television – headed up the other. Hugh was joined by Charlotte Church (a non-chef celebrity) whilst James had Ching-He Huang (mysteriously missing from the guide summary) who was introduced as a food writer and TV chef, tipping the scales in the James team’s favour as far as food knowledge was concerned. Hugh’s team had greater international celebrity status, though.
The format of the show – if such can be gleaned from a single viewing – is a series of quizzes and challenges.
Round 1 – ten of a kind
20 seconds to name ten types of a certain food. For Hugh, it was pasta shapes, of which he identified eight, followed by a set-up-for-the-laffs question about pasta puttanesca. James had 20 seconds to name ten types of cooking oil, followed by a question that must have been in the press at that time regarding a man in Zimbabwe substituting something (urine) for oil. Ching-He was asked to identify vegies that are served with a traditional British Sunday lunch and Charlotte had to name ten items from the menu of her local Chinese Restaurant, the Golden Well in Bridge End.
Round 2 – what the fork is it?
Contestants try to work out what an unusual appliance or implement does. In the first round, Hugh tried to figure out the purpose of a bright red octopus-shaped plastic implement, deciding – after much hemming and hawing – that it was a vegetable cutter. No points to his team, as Sue demonstrated that it was designed to be used to turn cooked hot-dogs into… well… octopus-shaped cooked hot-dogs. No doubt Hugh regrets not using the design as a clue to the purpose. Ching-He and James managed to pretend they didn’t know what their implement was long enough for Sue to make a few vibrator jokes.
Round 3 – skills challenge
The team captains (right handers) had to prepare a hamburger with their left hand. Right hands were tied to their partners’ left hands, and partners were allowed to contribute a right hand. High concept, clearly designed for maximum mess and potential for injury.
Round 4 – palate test
A dish was blended up and served to the teams to identify. Hugh and Charlotte managed to identify their Tricolore Salad fairly easily, but James and his team-mate struggled a bit with their KFC Zinger Burger. James started off with “hot and spicy” and followed up with “bloody awful”. He managed to identify it with a few hints and was outed as a fan of the dirty bird. Hugh snuck in a quick comment about the unhappy lives of the Colonel’s birds before the round ended.
Final round – buzzer questions
Peremptory trivia question round (won, in this instance, but Hugh and Charlotte).
The winner is announced and the credits roll.
This is a fluffy show which would probably serve as reasonable background TV for a task like doing dishes or preparing dinner. It’s not a how-to food show, imparting practical advice; it’s a trivia competition designed for maximum double entendre. Worth a look.
It appears that Simply Baking has ended. I have been so looking forward to settling down for my dose of the Nutter magic. So much so that I couldn’t quite believe it when I went through my recordings and couldn’t see it. Naturally, I blamed its disappearance on the other occupant of the house with opposable thumbs, which was not as satisfying as usual given that he’s away.
Eventually I accepted that I’d have to survive a Nutterless week, and scrolled through the program guide to reschedule the recording. The slot that had held Simply Baking is now home to Coastal Kitchen and I will never see the Sandman flame shirt again.
Occasionally I have things to do on Fridays. I know! Crazy, isn’t it?
Anyway, I have entrusted today’s Simply Baking to the IQ, so will have it safely recorded for when I get home. Of course, I doubt that I will do the Nutter justice if I were to watch and blog after Friday drinks, so I will get the post up as soon as I can tomorrow.
Foundations: Australian cricket legend Matthew Hayden is on a quest to achieve a more self-sufficient, sustainable and enriched lifestyle for his family.
Now that bodes ill. There’s nothing at all objectionable in the synopsis; in fact, it seems laudable. What will I do if Mr Hayden is not obnoxious? How will I cope if I have to change my opinion of him?
The show opens with a greeting from the man himself, who reassures us that this quest is only going to take six weeks. There will be guests, including the local producers who inspire him, and – if the previews are anything to go by – Andrew Symonds. Oh dear. I hope he’s in a later episode, as I didn’t sign up for Haydos and Roy.
After the credits, a montage of Haydos’ performances backed by the dulcet tones of Nine’s commentary team reminds us why we should give a rats about this particular personal journey. After explaining that part of the reason for this endeavour is an attempt to “relive [his] own childhood [and] hone in on the simple things in life”, Haydos is off to the chicken coop to collect eggs, commentating the process as though the hens are consciously involved in a sporting endeavour. I guess he’s got to have a selling point and the cricketing is the selling point, but if it continues it will be too much for this viewer to bear.
This is the first episode, which might account for the overdose in introduction: wife, kids, landscape designer, mum, dad and brother. This is where I discover that I can blame Kellie Hayden for the series of cookbooks.
Doesn’t time fly when you have a Nutter to look forward to every Friday? Well, it does for me, and my excitement was only slightly diminished to see that today’s episode will be all about teabreads, since really, it will be all about the Nutter (and, hopefully, the flaming shirt). Perhaps a Nutter twist will help take teabreads from pedestrian to orgasmic?
Nutter’s shirt today has no flames, unfortunately (if you are still reading, Dawn, it’s the lemon shirt that launched your creation all those weeks ago!). We start with a brief introduction to the concept of teabreads (which, I suspect, are what we might know of as “tea cakes”). We will be getting three recipes today: two sweet, one savoury, and unfortunately ALL healthy. Of course, my interest is piqued by the concept of the “millennium” version, which will apparently contain “all those delicious new flavours that are coming around at the moment”. What will they be? I’m unsuccessfully casting my mind back ten years to try to identify the flavour revolution, so am very keen on what we’ll see.
Today is souffle day, and not – as indicated by the Foxtel guide – omelette day. This is a great relief to me, not because I don’t adore omelettes (I am human, after all), but because I was struggling to understand how – even with a Nutter twist – an omelette could fall under the heading “baking”. Now I need worry no more! It’s souffle (with a Nutter twist). Two, in fact: one sweet and one savoury.
It is an orange shirt day again today, which I believe bodes well. The reason I say this is that we’ve now seen the orange shirt three times, if my memory is correct, so a revival of the flames can’t be too far away.
We’re starting with the savoury: the classic cheese souffle. Don’t be put off by the reputation of cheese souffle as a difficult dish – the Nutter tips’n'tricks will help us through!
