I've never enjoyed cooking shows - I don't cook and I've never understood why anyone would want to watch people slaving over a hot stove when you can't even taste what they've suffered for. As a result I've never watched any version of MasterChef nor committed to any other cooking show and I never watch BBC Food.
I decided to tune into the MasterChef SA premiere on Tuesday night (20th) to see what it's like with it being new and South African and was pleasantly surprised. I thought I'd pop in for 10 minutes for a quick look and ended up watching the full episode.
One of the big surprises was the judging panel - they come across as so wooden on the promos I thought they were going to be cringeworthy but they weren't. They're fun and quite interesting and clearly have the necessary empty pits needed to suck down huge amounts of food.
The show looks high-res, particularly in HD and the sets are good - not too lavish to be distracting but shiny enough to give the sense that you're in a contemporary space.
My best were the cheftestants though because of how impossible it is to understand them. It's beyond me why anyone would be so passionate about preparing food that they'd go to the lengths they do. Even just entering the show was such a huge mission and yet there they were, bouncing with zest at being there, torturing themselves to deliver their best.
They struck me as being very different from contestants on a show like Survivor where many of the hopefuls enter because they want to be famous. In contrast all of the crowd on MasterChef seem to have entered because of a genuine passion for cooking.
This makes them come across as more real almost, as if the dishes they're preparing take the attention off of them and therefore make them more open and less guarded. It got me thinking that we're going to get to know them differently, more deeply perhaps and might even feel more strongly for them.
All in all I found myself surprised by the end because I'm keen on seeing more when I didn't think I would be.