MasterChef (American TV series)
MasterChef is an American competitive cooking reality TV show based on the British series of the same name, open to amateur and home chefs. Produced by Shine America and One Potato Two Potato, it debuted on July 27, 2010 on the Fox network, following the professional cooking competition series Hell's Kitchen.
For the first five seasons, the series starred celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot and restaurateur Joe Bastianich. From Seasons 6–8, pastry chef Christina Tosi temporarily replaced Bastianich. On Season 7, Elliot departed as a judge, and in place of a third judge, there were a series of guest judges, one of which was Aarón Sanchez. Since Season 8, Sanchez joined as a regular judge. In Season 9, Bastianich returned as a regular judge, replacing Tosi. On September 19, 2018, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a tenth season, which premiered on May 29, 2019 with Ramsay, Sanchez, and Bastianich reprising their roles as judges/hosts respectively.
Format
MasterChef is based on the British BBC series MasterChef. It was created by celebrity chef, TV personality and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay. The competition takes place in the MasterChef soundstage located in Los Angeles, CA which includes a large kitchen area with several cooking stations which is overlooked by a balcony, a well-stocked pantry, a freezer/fridge area and a fine-dining restaurant/seating dining area room used for certain challenges.While the particular format of the season has slightly varied over the years, the following challenges have all been regularly featured:
- Skills Test: Cooks are challenged to perform a list of common cooking techniques or styles, or to replicate a particular cooking method of a dish. This type of test is also sometimes used as an Elimination Test.
- Mystery Box: Cooks are all given a box with the same ingredients and must use only those ingredients to create a dish within a fixed amount of time. The judges will select three dishes based on visual appearance and technique alone to taste, and from these three select one winner who usually gains an advantage of some type in the elimination test.
- Elimination Test: After the challenge is explained, judges evaluate all dishes based on taste and visual appeal. The judges nominate the worst dishes for elimination and criticize them before eliminating at least one contestant.
- Team Challenge: The cooks are split into teams by either team captains or the judges. They often occur in a restaurant takeover or pop-up restaurant taking the place of the staff of a particular restaurant. Diners taste both meals and vote for their favorite. The winning team advances, while the losing team will participate in the Pressure Test or face elimination based on the teams' performance.
- Pressure Test: Another form of the Elimination Test, in which losing team members compete against each other to make a standard dish within a very limited amount of time that requires a great degree of cooking finesse. Each dish is judged on taste, visual appeal and technique, and the losing chef is eliminated.
History
Season 1 aired as a summer series initially on Tuesday nights at 9:00 PM ET/PT, debuting on July 27, 2010; it later moved to Wednesday nights at 8:00 PM ET/PT on August 18.On September 7, 2010, MasterChef was renewed for a second season, which started with a 2-night premiere on June 6, 2011.
On October 6, 2011, MasterChef was renewed for a third season, which started with a 2-night premiere on June 4, 2012, following Hell's Kitchen.
On July 23, 2012, MasterChef was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on May 22, 2013, in its new Wednesday at 8:00 PM ET/PT timeslot.
On May 10, 2013, Fox renewed MasterChef for an additional 2 seasons, which will extend the show to at least 6 seasons.
On July 22, 2015, Fox renewed MasterChef for a seventh season.
Series overview
Seasons
Specials
Note: Bold indicates the winner of the challenge.MasterChef Celebrity Showdown
- Ta'Rhonda Jones vs Kaitlin Doubleday from Empire
- Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Ari Parker vs Terry Crews and Rebecca Crews
- Gigi Hadid vs Devon Windsor
- Christine Hà, Luca Manfé, and Claudia Sandoval vs Addison Osta Smith, Zac Kara, and Amaya Baéz
- Cheryl Hines vs Kal Penn
- Trai Byers and Grace Gealey vs NeNe and Gregg Leakes
- Ronde Barber and Tiki Barber vs. Joel Madden and Benji Madden
- Anthony Anderson and Chef Gordon Ramsay vs. Jordana Brewster and Chef Christina Tosi
- Guest Judges: Season 7 Winner Shaun O'Neale and MasterChef Junior Season 5 contestants: Shayne Wells and Justise Mayberry.
- Johnny Weir and his brother, Boz vs. Tara Lipinski and her husband, Todd
- Lisa Vanderpump and her daughter, Pandora vs. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and JWoww
- Tori Spelling and her daughter, Stella vs. Jennie Garth and her daughter, Fiona
- Evander Holyfield and his daughter, Ebonne vs. Oscar De La Hoya and his daughter, Atiana
Ratings
Reception
Critical
The premiere episode received mixed reviews from major newspapers and online review websites, with reviews commenting that it was entertaining, but criticized the emotional aspect. The Los Angeles Times claimed the contestants' back stories were "blown up," which referred to their dramatization. A Reuters reviewer explained the show "manages to be hugely entertaining and involving thanks mainly to the judges’ personalities and the ability of the producers to spot emotionally charged stories." The Globe and Mail said "the contrived sentimentality of it is, frankly, vomitous" referring to the emotion in contestants' reactions.The program also attracted negative attention in Season 2 when Agence France-Presse journalist Alex Ogle discovered that the producers doctored a crowd scene said to be of "thousands upon thousands lined up" to audition for the program. In post-production, portions of the scene were replicated so as to make the crowd look larger than it actually was, as evidenced by multiple appearances by especially noticeable people in the scene.
In February 2018, Salon published I Am a MasterChef Survivor, a book by former contestant Jessie Glenn claiming to outline the abusive practices that MasterChef used with contestants, provoking reactions from many in the food industry, including New Yorker food correspondent Helen Rosen.