User:DaveJB/MasterChef (US TV series)

MasterChef is a 2010 American competitive cooking game show, co-hosted and co-produced by Gordon Ramsay. Produced by Reveille Productions, it first debuted on July 27, 2010 at 9 pm ET/PT on the Fox Television Network, following one of Ramsay's other series, Hell's Kitchen. The first series was initially seen Tuesday nights at 9 pm ET/PT; it moved to Wednesday nights at 8 pm ET/PT on August 18.

On September 7, 2010, MasterChef was renewed for a second season.

Format
MasterChef is based on the first season of the Australian format, produced by FremantleMedia Australia, which in turn was based on the BBC series MasterChef. Chef, television personality and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay together with wine maker Joe Bastianich and four star chef Graham Elliot are the judges in this new version of MasterChef. The US version, however, has some deviations from the Australian version.

Preliminaries
Of all chefs who auditioned nationwide, one hundred were chosen to cook their signature dish for the three judges. Each judge takes a taste of the dish and gives his opinion before voting a "yes" or a "no." At least two "yes" votes are required to advance, as well as the right to wear the white MasterChef apron. Thirty chefs will be chosen.

Challenge night
The thirty chefs proceed to the next night, which features two challenges. In the first, contestants complete a certain task, to the specification of the chefs, such as cutting and dicing onions. Six chefs will be eliminated from this round.

Immediately after is the Invention Test. A theme is given to the 24 remaining contestants, and they have thirty minutes to invent and cook a dish relevant to this theme. The contestants can cook with any ingredient they want, as long as the theme is prevalent in the dish. Once the dishes are cooked, they are all presented to the judges for tasting—presentation, taste and the prevalence of the theme ingredient is considered. Ten chefs are eliminated in this round, with the remaining 14 advancing to the next night.

In episode three, the theme of the dish was a single egg.

Off Site Team Challenge
The Off Site Challenge is similar to Hell's Kitchen -- the contestants are split into two teams, blue and red which consist of equal numbers and are given a task, for example, running a restaurant or catering for a party or wedding. After the task has been completed, the teams are given the results, which can be determined by third party votes. Members of the losing team compete in an elimination challenge. The winning team receives a reward.

Elimination
The two worst performing contestants decided by the Judges from the losing team in the team challenge compete against each other in a head to head challenge with the losing contestant being eliminated. Depending on contestant numbers, all members of the losing team will compete as individuals in the elimination challenge.

Elimination Table

 * (WINNER) This chef won the competition.
 * (RUNNER-UP) This chef received second place.
 * (Top 14) The chef won a place in the Top 14.
 * (WIN) The chef won the individual challenge (Mystery Box Challenge or Invention Test) and received an advantage in the next challenge.
 * (WIN) The chef was on the winning team in the Team Challenge and was safe from the Pressure Test.
 * (CC) The chef received the advantage of competing against a celebrity chef in this challenge. If they won, they advanced farther on in the competition, skipping a number of challenges. The chef could not be eliminated after this challenge.
 * (HIGH) The chef was one of the top entries in the individual challenge, but did not win.
 * (IN) The chef was not selected as a top entry or bottom entry in the challenge.
 * (PT) The chef was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, competed in the pressure test, and advanced.
 * (LOW) The chef was one of the bottom entries in an individual elimination challenge, but was not the last person to advance.
 * (LOW) The chef was the one of the bottom entries in an individual elimination challenge, and was the last person to advance.
 * (OUT) The chef was eliminated from MasterChef.

Episode 3

 * First Challenge: The 30 remaining contestants were brought to a warehouse and made to chop onions. Any contestant unable to cut the onions fast enough and/or to the standards expected by the judges would be eliminated on the spot. 26 of the contestants survived this round, with the remaining 6 being eliminated.
 * Second Challenge: Each of the 26 contestants that survived the first challenge was given an egg and told to create any dish they liked, with the sole rule that the egg must be the "hero" and centrepiece of the dish. Contestants who presented unsatisfactory dishes, or even dishes that did not feature the egg as its centrepiece despite otherwise being satisfactory, were instantly eliminated. After this challenge the final 16 remained.

Episode 4

 * Mystery Box Challenge: For their first attempt at the Mystery Box Challenge, the chefs were given a variety of ingredients that could be used to create a savory or a sweet dish. Most of the chefs decided to create savory dishes based around pork tenderloin (the only protein included in the box), but Avis and Sheena decided to create desserts instead.
 * Top 3: The chefs decided to call out the three who they felt had been most daring; Sheena for creating a chocolate mousse, Jake for carrying out the difficult task of cooking the pork despite not separating it, and Whitney for creating a refined version of a Southern pork dish.
 * Winner: Whitney was declared the winner, with each of the three judges saying they'd be happy to serve her dish at their restaurants; something that they were all the more amazed with considering she had never worked with pork before. As her reward, she was allowed to pick the primary ingredient in the next challenge, which turned out to be to produce a Chinese dish. Her choices were Chinese mushrooms, Mandarin oranges, and duck. Not being especially familiar with any of the dishes, she decided to choose the Mandarin oranges, thinking the other contestants would struggle.
 * Invention Challenge: Nearly all of the contestants struggled, with the notable exception of Slim, the only contestant from a Chinese background. The challenge winner, Whitney got the taste testing off to a bad start, with Gordon describing her dish as a "stir fry gone wrong." Slim's dish got a better reception, but Gordon was baffled as to why she didn't serve any of her Miso broth with the dish, since it was the most flavorsome item she worked with. Avis went next and got some very negative feedback, beginning a run of disastrously received dishes which eventually culminated in Joe accusing the contestants of not caring about the contest and wondering out loud whether there was any point even trying to find a MasterChef among them. Tracy and Sharone temporarily got things back on track with well-received dishes, only for Sheena's salad dish to stall the momentum, as the judges felt she had put no effort into it. Things went from bad to worse when Faruk presented his dish; Gordon said it was the worst thing he'd tasted that day, and the judges told Faruk that he would absolutely be up for elimination. However, things ended on a high note when Mike presented his dish, which the judges greatly enjoyed.
 * Winner: The judges easily picked Mike's dish as the winner, noting that it was "miles above everyone else's [dishes]."
 * Bottom 3: With Faruk already having being picked prior to the end of the challenge, the judges picked Sheena and then Avis to join him.
 * Eliminated: Avis was eliminated, as the judges felt she had an out-of-date cooking style and was in over her head. However, in a shock move, the judges announced that there would be a second elimination and also sent home Sheena, who they felt unconvinced was able to cook main courses to the required standard.

Episode 5

 * Team Challenge: To cook lunch for 400 Marines.
 * Blue Team: Mike, Jake, Lee, Tracy, Tony, Sheetal
 * Red Team: Sharone, David, Slim, Whitney, Jenna, Faruk
 * Result: Both teams had trouble, as there was a power struggle betweek Mike and Jake on the Blue team, and the Red team failed to prepare enough side dishes, resulting in them running out of sides less than halfway through the challenge. Ultimately the Blue team were named the winners for their better team organization; the Red team's food was actually felt to be better, but their lack of preparation cost them dearly, with Joe noting that had they prepared enough sides, the Red team would have won hands down.
 * Pressure Challenge: Graham prepared a Texas style chilli, and the Red team chefs challenged to name as many ingredients (out of a total of 20) as possible without naming any ingredients there were not in the chilli. Whichever chef identified the fewest ingredients would be eliminated. Whitney went first and identified 12, followed by Faruk, who only identified 9, ensuring that Whitney would survive to the following episode. Jenna was next and only identified 7; the remaining chefs, Slim, David, and Sharone all easily matched and exceeded this number.
 * Eliminated: Jenna was eliminated for having the worst performance in the Pressure Challenge.

Episode 6

 * Mystery Box Challenge: The aim of this challenge was to produce cupcakes. Tracy felt confident due to knowing a recipe that her mother had given her, but she left it too late to cook the cupcake, resulting in the topping melting when she applied it, and causing Tracy to break down in tears, feeling that she had insulted the memory of her mother. Sharone and Jake were two of the least confident; Jake had never cooked a cupcake at all, while Sharone's only knowledge came from watching watching his wife make them.
 * Top 3: The selection criteria this time was who had the most appetizing looking cupcakes; despite their lack of confidence, Sharone and Jake were selected, along with Whitney.
 * Winner: Sharone was selected as the winner, and brought to the pantry as usual. In a twist however, celebrity chef Cat Cora was brought in to meet Sharone, who had to select which of her signature dishes the rest of the contestants would cook. Sharone selected a halibut dish. In a further twist, Sharone was told that not only would he be immune from elimination, he would face off against Cora in a simultaneous challenge, and was told that if he could cook a better dish than her, he would get direct entry into the MasterChef final.
 * Sharone's Challenge: Despite Sharone's best efforts, he failed in his personal challenge. While the judges enjoyed his dish, they felt that Cora's dish was "in a whole different league."
 * Celebrity Challenge: Slim presented her effort first, which was deemed to be overcooked and far too garlicky. Tracy got a better reaction, the only criticism being that there wasn't enough salad on top. Things started going downhill after that, as David's dish, despite his boasts during the cooking, was felt to be average, and Mike's was undercooked. Jake got a very positive reaction to his attempt at the dish, while the final two cooks, Whitney and Faruk, both overcooked and underseasoned their dishes.
 * Winner: Cora decided that Jake had offered up the best interpretation of her dish, and complimented him on a job well done.
 * Bottom 3: Mike was nominated first, with the judges shocked how quickly he had fallen apart during the episode. Slim was chosen next, due to concerns that she couldn't cook anything except for Chinese cuisine. Faruk was the final one chosen, for having both a poor dish and a poor overall record in the competition.
 * Eliminated: Faruk was chosen to go home. While the judges actually thought that Slim's dish had been the worst, they felt that Faruk had given up.

Critical
The premier episode received mixed reviews from major newspapers and online review websites, with reviews comenting that it was entertaining, but criticized the emotional aspect. The Los Angeles Times claimed the contestants' back stories were "blown up," referring 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 "scenes of blubbering and tears as his family gets involved.The contrived sentimentality of it is, frankly, vomitous" referring to the emotion in contestants reactions.

Television ratings
Although the series' premiere episode was the highest-rated debut for Summer 2010, with 5.75 million and the highest shares in that time-slot, the episode did not surpass its time-slot competitors' figures with the exception of The CW's repeat of Life Unexpected. The second episode held up from the previous installment with 5.90 million and continued to have the highest time-slot share, also placing third against the major commercial networks.

The third episode on August 10, 2010 earned the highest viewing figures of the series to date with 6.12 million, which was third amongst the five major networks; that night's episode followed the season finale of Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen.

Earlier American adaptation
An earlier American adaptation, MasterChef USA, was produced from 2000 to 2001 by West 175 Productions and was broadcast on PBS. That version, which lasted only fourteen episodes, was hosted by British chef Gary Rhodes and was based directly from the BBC series.