It sure was hot in the kitchen last night as Masterchef Ireland passed judgement on the last batch of finalists. Alan Corr tucks in.
After last week’s massacre down in the Masterchef Ireland kitchen, last night was all about splits between the judges, a rare sighting of a plantain, something called scallion ash, and rabbit. Lots of rabbit.
In the opening episode, Nick Munier (boyish but brutal) and Dylan McGrath (good scowl) crushed dreams like cloves of garlic and even the decisive cook-off lacked sizzle. So there were a total of ten aprons to be handed out to decide who would be in the final 16 cooking for the very hot €25,000 prize money and the glory of being king or queen of the kitchen.
Naturally, it was all very chop, chop and Dee Casey, a 31-year-old bank business manager from Dublin, knew it. Was she nervous? Well, in her own words she was less nervous the first time she went into labour. Her hands shook so much she couldn’t peel a quail’s egg (which doesn’t look easy at the best of times) but her bespoke corn beef and cabbage won the judges over.
41-year-old IT consultant Mark Messitt proved a glutton for punishment: he failed to make the grade last year and here he was back again to see if his food was lovelier the second time around. Not if it’s lamb and blueberries with dangerously-undercooked sweetbread: "You’d die if you ate that." was Dylan’s curt appraisal and poor Mark was out the door again.
Time for a montage to cut the chaff from the grain! We saw someone foolishly attempting to do a Blumenthal with a blow torch; there was a treacherous vegetable grater; an even more treacherous vegetable ramen; some uncooked fish and then there was lecturer Simon Morris who managed to sneak through with something as yucky sounding as coffee-rubbed fillet of pork with black pudding and whiskey maple sauce. I’d probably die if it ate that.
Londoner Nick McClune impressed with his rabbit ballotine and ladeez and gents we may have an early tip for the eventual winner in the diminutive and very nice form of Thai native Nisha Maguire. This 35-year-old business manager served up fish cakes that were both visually stunning and tasty, even if Dylan wasn’t convinced and she had to come back for the cook off
Jim Glackin of Belfast also went for rabbit but this bunny ponged a bit and Dylan wondered about exactly when it had made its date with destiny. Jim, who works for the Equality Commission, went with a theme of reconciliation and created a dish of rabbit, risotto and carrot in honour of the Irish Tricolour. “The rabbit didn’t travel well from the north” he said after he was given his marching orders.
Next up was... more rabbit! Part-time jockey Dani Quinlan (29) didn’t do a Fatal Attraction and she cooked her bunny to the judges’ approval but while Garda Michael Maher’s salmon soufflé with caviar crème fraîche may have sounded like an arresting dish (so sue me), it wasn’t “aerated” enough. Ohhhh, get them!
Like I say, chop, chop! In or out, you’ve got to hand it - with all the trimmings - to the contestants – Masterchef Ireland looks like terrifying work. McGrath and Munier are both experienced in the restaurant business who, unlike some telly judges we could mention, know their eggs (and everything else). It can’t be easy trying to be creative with the duo hovering in the background, tittering and whispering among themselves; last night, a duck dish split the pair and they retired to a corner to confer as the poor amateur chef quaked in terror.
This is slick, well-made telly and it isn’t about the hopefuls’ back (sob) story either: "I was forced to eat spam every night when I was a child." "I want to do this for my dear old mum who died after an overdose of Tapioca." Even the behind-the-scenes meeting with loved ones are either heart warming or kinda heartbreaking.
Anyway, as of last night, that’s your 16 finalists served up. Now things get really tasty. Nom, nom, nom, nom . . .
Alan Corr
