Just Hungry

Longtime readers of Just Hungry may know that I am a big fan of the UK cooking-competition show MasterChef. I’ve written about it here several times, and even did my own ingredient challenge for six weeks one year. I also watched most of the Australian version, and commented on it a bit too. Well now there is going to be a U.S. version of MasterChef. continue reading...

My favorite food TV show MasterChef is back for another round of competitive cooking fun! The hosts are John Torode and Gregg Wallace again, or Pasty and Toad as they are affectionately (or not) known in MasterChef fan circles. (I can’t remember who is Pasty and who is Toad though.) See my thoughts on the 2008 MasterChef finals and you’ll see why I love this show. I hope that 2009 will reveal equally exciting talents. continue reading...

Some food TV news for you if you live in the UK or regions of Europe that get British TV. The Supersizers Go is being repeated, The Restaurant is back for another round, and more. continue reading...

The three finalists of the BBC’s MasterChef 2008 wait anxiously for the winner to be proclaimed…

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My favorite food tv show is back! Plus, a look back at the best and worst of food television in 2007. continue reading...

[Update: Steven has a very gracious post about his win on his blog.]

The winner of Masterchef 2007 is Steven Wallis, a trend analyst from London. Here’s how he looked when he was proclaimed the victor.

As with previous seasons the final three-course original menu test was the one deciding factor for determining the winner. While both Ben and Hannah tripped up a bit on at least one of their courses, Steven really excelled with all three of his dishes.

Unlike last season, where the perceived failings of eventual winner Peter in tasks leading up to that final three-course test lead to some dissatisfaction about his being declared the winner over crowd favorite (and hottie) Dean, this season’s finalists were fairly even in the tasks during the final week. For me at least there was no clear favorite going into the final episode. continue reading...

A quick reminder to everyone within viewing range of BBC Two: the one hour finale of Masterchef Goes Large 2007 is on tonight at 21:00 CET / 20:00 BT! Will it be artistic but palate-deficient Ben, passionate but nervous Hannah, or the man with a fine palate who has a problem with time management, Steven? It’s too close to call…and besides last year we all thought Dean was going to win and Peter won instead, so who knows what will happen? Although I haven’t written much about this season, it’s been a great one, with some amazing challenges. I’m really looking forward to tonight!

Update: The season is over and the winner is announced.

MasterChef Goes Large, the best competitive cooking show on television today*, starts its third round today. If you live in the U.K. continue reading...

I am eternally grateful that the BBC broadcasts free-to-air on satellite, and that I live within reception range. I feel a bit guilty that I don't have to pay anything to view the Beeb as UK residents do, and believe me if they started to bill me something I'd pay it without question. The BBC has the best programming, bar none, of any network I've ever seen in any country. (I'm even a closet East Enders watcher, but don't tell anyone.) continue reading...

MasterChef is the BBC cooking contest program to find the "best amateur chef in the UK", ended last Friday. The winner was Peter Bayless, a 60 year old former advertising executive. His selection was quite a surprise to a lot of people, and the discussion about this on the BBC Food message boards has been quite heated, to put it mildly.

Seven weeks ago, when the second season of the UK food contest show MasterChef Goes Large started, I set myself a personal challenge: to play along and make a dish (or for the last week, 2 dishes) with the list of ingredients provided in the Invention Test that was the first part of the preliminary rounds. I've made 26 different dishes, based on 23 different ingredient lists (I skipped one day). continue reading...

It's the final day of the Masterchef ingredient test challenge that I set out to do some weeks ago. My thoughts on the whole experience will follow, but here is the last ingredients list: continue reading...

Despite being discouraged by the previous day's ingredients, day 23 revived my interest. The ingredients are: continue reading...

I've been plugging along at the Masterchef Ingredient Challenge mostly without hitch, but this list of ingredients just stumped me: continue reading...

I almost gave up on continuing the Masterchef challenge when it was revealed that for the final week of preliminaries, they were going to make the candidates do two dishes within 50 minutes, instead of one dish in 40 minutes. The reason for this is that this week's candidates are also-rans from last season, who were invited back because they demonstrated potential. continue reading...

Ack! Because of the schedule changes brought on by the Olympics, I totally missed tonight’s episode of MasterChef (for Thursday, Feb. 22nd - the 4th day of the preliminaries).

If anyone watched and/or taped it, and has the ingredient list, can you let me know, either here in the comments, or by email to maki at makikoitoh dot com. I would really appreciate it - thanks!!

[Update:] I have the list now- thanks!

[Edit:] The picture is really sub-par. It's hard to take a good picture of liver. Sorry. :(

It's day 16 of Masterchef. The ingredients: continue reading...

Day 15 of Masterchef! Here are today's ingredients: continue reading...

It's now week 4! The ingredients for the first day of the 4th round preliminaries were: continue reading...

Well it's day 12, the last day of the third week of the preliminary rounds. The ingredients were: continue reading...

It's day 11 of MasterChef! The ingredients: continue reading...

It's day 10 of MasterChef, and the ingredients were: continue reading...

The ingredients for the 9th day (1st day of the 3rd preliminary round) of MasterChef were: continue reading...

It's day 8, and the end of week two of MasterChef. The ingredients were:

• Tuna steak
• Fresh basil
• Fresh (?) linguine
• Potatoes
• Olives
• Parmesan cheese

Potatoes, again! This week potatoes have been in the list every day. I decided to go with the linguine instead - I was missing pasta anyway. continue reading...

The ingredients for day 7 overall, and day 3 of the 2nd round of preliminaries were: continue reading...

The ingredients for this day (day 6 overall, and the second day of the second preliminary round) were: continue reading...

It's now the second week. The ingredients for this day (day 5 overall, and the first day of the 2nd preliminary round) were: continue reading...

First off, I must apologize for this picture and the placement of the chutney on the plate. I didn't realize until all the food was consumed, thus making it too late for a re-shoot, that it looks like Mickey Mouse had a very unfortunate accident and got his brains shot out. continue reading...

The ingredients for Day 3 of the MasterChef preliminaries were: continue reading...

The ingredients for day 2 of the MasterChef preliminaries were: continue reading...

The ingredients for the first day of the MasterChef preliminaries were: continue reading...