Masterchef Australia is BACK for season 3!

Sheila and I are just sitting down to watch epsiode #1 of season three of Masterchef Australia.   This is by far the best cooking reality show out there.

• It is long - I think 85 episodes this year
• It is really well done and not about bullshit game play.
• You really get to know the people, and these people are like we are, interested amateur foodies.
• Gary, George and Matt rock.

I watched Masterchef in the UK in the early 1990s when Lloyd Grossman was the host and had this pouncy drowning in the mid-Atlantic accent.  He really was the best part of the show as the rest of if was pretentious.

I watched Masterchef New Zealand and I did not like the hosts and the whole program had a lot fewer episodes making it less compelling.   The New Zealand format was the identical format used in Masterchef USA and the choice of hosts was not great.  I love Gordon Ramsay on TV when he is doing it in the UK, when he works for FOX he is not himself but a caricature.

The challenges are interesting and compelling, getting to know the people and seeing them grow is interesting.   It is also very well put together, the producer and director are brilliant.

Top Chef is good, but really pales in comparison even though Top Chef has serious chefs.   Iron Chef America is decent but has become stuck in a rut of the same pattern of the episodes.

All I can say is that if you like food and enjoy cooking, you need to watch this show.