I have not heard much about the beer/food dude but Poh has her TV show and Julie has a spot in Woman’s Weekly apparently and a regular cooking spot on our morning Today program. The first episode of MasterChef 2010 aired here last night and it was very good, they had 25 rows of two people all cooking at once, the set was amazing, like an aircraft hanger. I enjoyed it, there was one bit where they pandered to a young good looking girl who was hopeless and I was worried they were going to let her through despite her crap cooking ability, but they didn’t, so I’m pleased, I think I would have had to tune out for the rest of the season if they’d let her thru.

It is not skill all about. People need a reason to make you off.
Julie probably a good cook but there was also another possibilities instead of a good cook. But if Poh was the winner. Then it is COMPLETELY nothing wrong with that. That proves everything.

Comparing the show to the Uk version, I have to admit that there were elements which were better in the Australian version. The format with the challenges and the contestants living together etc made for a refreshing change, and there was a sense of great support from the restaurant and cheffing industry for the contestants as opposed to the Uk version, where the qualified chefs often looked slightly put out when a contestant was trust upon them for a day.However I wasn’t overly keen on the masterclasses and tended to fast forward most of those.

The one big difference however was the judges, I felt the Australian judges got a little too friendly and a bit personal with the contestants, gosh, all the tears. Perhaps its just the Brit in me that feels that was a bit excessive, but back to my point. Having such an interest in the contestants can often lead to a biased and in most cases unfair outcome. That being said, its your first attempt and as with most things in life, its a learning curve. I am sure lessons have been learned and perhaps some changes will be implemented in the second series, if there is one.

she has been bumbling the whole way through the series and to find out she won it is laughable in the extreme. Her food is ordinary at best.

I had to re-read my post and I stand by what I said, and respect your opinion. I think the fact that Poh is now on TV with her own show speaks volumes about who was better. All I’ve seen from Julie is some pictures of her in a crappy brochure that someone left in my letterbox trying to sell me some cooking utensils. I hope the next Australia series featuring unknowns (the celebrity series was crap) resolves to a more appropriate winner. And I hope you enjoy viewing the Australian series, I reckon it was great, as good as the UK version, which I miss but don’t pay for cable TV anymore. Never mind.

Don.

If you have another read you’ll see I’m trying to improve the program, not the students. I’d like the producers to improve the judgment process so that we do not see the preferential treatment for the contestant that represents their majority viewer demographic, and to that end I offered a suggestion of blind judgment and you may have noticed the compliment on the excellent production quality. As far as your claim of cowardice goes, if you can organise for me to meet the producers I’ll tell them to their face. As far as harshly criticising students goes, didn’t the judges do that time and time again, and Julie and the others improved didn’t they?

Don.

How on earth do you improve a student by harshly criticising them?

- I ask, how would this work for you?

and how will bagging someone you will never meet “improve society”?…. get a grip!

You have done this so cowardly over the internet- you are nothing more than a faceless bully

Thanks for your input. The whole point of this website is to try and improve things in our society and without expressing an opinion and providing an alternative approach then people will not be able to improve. If we only ever say anything nice then nothing will ever improve, but that’s just my opinion and thank again for yours!

Don.

Good point about the whole program results, I did not watch much at all over the first 11 weeks, but I bet you’re spot on!

Don.

Julie was prone to a dash of panic and there’s often plenty of reasons to do that in IT!

Don

I agree that the judges did favour the demographic, and were kind to Julie. The $100k will go to good use with her family and I do believe that it went to a good cause.

However, while Julie is the winner of the show I do believe that in the longer-term the personalities who will rise will be Chris and Poh. Poh is out there like Jenny Kee, while Chris proves that men can cook meat with passion.

I respect your opinion. I think it’s naive though to think that the producers are not out to maximise ratings and the demographic of people watching this was mums with their kids.

Don.