Masterchef takes on Wolfgang Puck menu
Initial excitement over the summer reality-TV cook-off show MasterChef is long off the boil — it’s been four seasons, after all — but audiences still have an appetite for a cooking competition that emphasizes self-learned knowhow over culinary knowledge and kitchen experience.
One of MasterChef’s more gentle revelations over the years is the way amateur cooks are often more personable and easier to root for than many of the supposedly professional sous-chefs, corporate food directors and executive chefs who flame out each season on Hell’s Kitchen. Both shows feature Gordon Ramsay in prominent roles, but the Ramsay viewers see in MasterChef is very different from the hot-tempered rage-aholic on display in Hell’s Kitchen. Ramsay is more nurturing in MasterChef, more forgiving of mistakes and less prone to losing his temper.
Six chef-testants remain as MasterChef resumes Wednesday, after a repeat of last week’s T-bone challenge. The next instalment finds the home cooks taking over the kitchen at WP24, a fine-dining eatery in downtown Los Angeles, where they’re tasked with re-creating some of the restaurant’s more popular dishes for discerning diners.
WP24 sits 24 floors above the L.A. skyline, at the RitzCarlton. The menu was designed by Wolfgang Puck, with a focus on modern Chinese cuisine. The elimination challenge revolves around fried calamari with marinara sauce — not exactly fast-food fare — all the while trying to prevent Chef Ramsay and fellow MasterChef inquisitors Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot from blowing a gasket.
Tantrums are not usually a factor on MasterChef, though. It’s not that kind of show. As Bastianich hinted in a recent blog entry for People magazine’s website, the cooks who go far on MasterChef are those who learn the most over the shortest period of time, while adapting to the TV’s show’s frenetic pace behind the cameras — the part you don’t see on TV. (9 p.m., Fox, CTV)
Modern Dads is a new, down-market fly-on-the-wall camera series, in which four Austin, Texas, stay-at-home dads vow to maintain their “guy-centric” lifestyle and keep their bromances going, while taking care of the kids. Yo! From a cable channel that used to be known for its arts and entertainment programming. (10:30 p.m., A&E)
Tina Fey joins David Letterman on The Late Show, followed by a musical performance by Tennessee gospel bluegrass soul-singer Valerie June. Letterman can often be counted on to zag where the other late-night talk-show hosts zig: Late Show is one of the very few — only? — latenight talk shows not to be in repeats this week. (11:35 p.m., CBS, CFMT)
Late-night programming note: Jon Stewart, having taken the summer off from The Daily Show to direct a film, has decided he doesn’t want to return to work until Sept. 5. With John Oliver now on holiday, too, The Daily Show will be in repeats until then.
The Colbert Report is also off for two weeks but will return Sept. 3, with guest Gary England, the weather god of Oklahoma City and “Tornado Alley’s most famous weatherman.” Now you know.