TwoCents & Five Questions With Gordon Ramsay (MasterChef)

who will be the next masterchef?

Gordon Ramsay, Celebrity Chef

When MasterChef premiered last summer, Gordon Ramsay was already a household name. With popular shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares putting him front and center, there was no way we could miss the demanding, and often foul-mouthed celebrity chef. MasterChef, however, showed us a side of Ramsay we hadn’t seen before. While he was certainly not shy or soft-spoken (if that ever happens, it may be a sign of Armageddon), we witnessed a slightly more encouraging and nurturing side to Ramsay as he dealt with the amateur chefs competing in the show.

Between that and the fact that I am a wanna-be culinary goddess myself, I was hooked, and I clearly wasn’t the only one. MasterChef is coming back for a second season starting tonight, and I’m excited to see what it has in store. I got the chance to speak to Ramsay about it last week to get his thoughts on this upcoming season.

TTC: When you worked on Hell’s Kitchen, you’re working with professional chefs, and when you worked on MasterChef, you’re with the amateur chefs. What’s the big difference between them? Are you finding that some of the amateur chefs could possibly be the level of the professional chefs?

Gordon Ramsay: If you asked me that question three years ago, I would have said that the difference was night and day. Now, hand on heart, the difference is pretty much insignificant and is quite scary in a way on how good the home cooks are becoming. So, it’s a breath of fresh air, really, that the domestic front can give the professional chefs, me including, a boot up the ass.

Why? I’m not saying we got complacent, far from it. But they’re getting good. I mean, they are getting very good. So, they, obviously, had a little bit more time on the hands, but they are obsessed foodies, and I would now confirm that we’re a nation of foodies here.

There was one lady in the competition who actually went to have her knives made to fit her hand. She actually went to a specialist that got the grip focused around her hand. I mean, soccer players get their football boots made to measure, models get dresses and shoes made to measure. You’re having these domestic goddesses now that go and get knives made to fit their hands. I mean, Jesus, I’ve never of that before.

TTC: So, we know what the participants took away from the first season, but what was the biggest thing that you took away from the first season?

GR: The biggest thing I took away from the first season; I got a little bit scared, to be honest. Whitney Miller, at the age 21/22 years of age, I saw her again three weeks ago putting the final touch to her cookbook. I just couldn’t quite believe how trained her palette was. I mean, MasterChef is a phenomenon in the U.K. and it is globally, but I didn’t actually think it would be as big as it was in the States.

You know, you go to the food halls, you look at all the food trucks, you go to the shops, you go to the malls, you see how busy the restaurants are, you see how excited young kids are cooking. I’m fed up with that sort of level of ignorance about chefs portray the wrong image, and chefs, you know, sending the wrong message out to kids with obesity and all that.

It’s not kid’s fault; it’s the bloody parents fault, and you can’t blame an 11-year-old on what they eat, it’s the parents. So, there’s a huge responsibility and the biggest scare for me was how competitive they really are at home. I’m not talking about glamorous ingredients. I’m talking about a box of anchovies, some dry spaghetti, sun-dried tomatoes, extra-virgin olive oil and some fresh lemons. That’s not at all expensive.

TTC: Can you talk about the relationship on and off set between you and Joe and Graham?

GR: Yeah, it’s sort of funny. Sometimes it goes like a sort of a highly competitive spirit sat on those chairs. Then they all sort of retreat to their comfort zones. Joe doesn’t like Indian food; Graham can’t understand Chinese food; Joe wants olive oil drizzled on everything.

Then we have a bit of banter, and then when we start arguing. Yeah, it gets a bit hairy sometimes. Graham comes out as a big cuddly bear that everyone wants to sort of love. Joe is the one they’re undecided of because depending on how he looks at them with his eyes will dictate whether they’re going through, and with me, well, you never know what’s going to happen. You know, if I find something absolutely delicious, I’m going to fight tooth and nail to get it through. If I think it’s shocking, then I’ll say it there and then.

TTC: How do you think this season’s contestants compare to last season’s group?

GR: This season’s contestants to the last group, yeah, fascinating because, obviously, they’ve all seen the show. They all think they’re going to sort of outsmart the judges. We raised the bar. We became more competitive with the mystery box challenges. We had some [that were] pretty darned difficult, you know, out of the studio challenges. I mean, really tough.

I think they came in better, to be honest, because we had different sorts of cuisines, widespread from a phenomenal sort of lady who cooked Mexican food for her local school, a private school, and they wanted it sort of almost on a daily basis and food to go home as well. When was the last time you heard food from school to be taken home to go?

We had a molecular gastronomy chef that wanted to cook with lots of liquid nitrogen and CO2 and dry ice. He looked like a professor, pushing his cart down. To the most amazing classic American. A phenomenal baker this year as well, which, yeah, my God, the guy’s name was Ben Star, and what an appropriately named surname, Star, because he cooked like a star. I’ve never seen a man stick a carrot cake together with roasted pumpkin and come out as delicious as his did. It was quite mind blowing.

TTC: What kind of criteria are you looking for in your next MasterChef?

GR: I love attitude. You know, when you got good ingredients in front of you, you need to be sort of quite ballsy and somewhat selfish, with a part of arrogance and a big pair of balls to sort of say, “Hey, yeah, I can make this dish better than you.”

So, I don’t know. I never want to get into a superficial world where it all gets wrapped up in cotton wool and we’re always scared to say, “Shit, that taste delicious,” or “Well done, it’s bloody amazing.” So, I like that kind of attitude with the confidence, a smidgen of arrogance. It shows on the end delivery in terms of that dish, and I think it’s quite healthy to be ballsy.

Thank you so much to Gordon Ramsay for taking the time to take to us about this new season of MasterChef. The season premiere airs tonight, June 6, at 8/7c on FOX.

JD – Sr. Staff Writer
jd@thetwocentscorp.com

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