Helen Writings
The success of MasterChef Australia is seeing television networks from five countries signing on for Aussie version of the show, originally a UK format.
Shine International have struck deals with television networks in India, Israel, Belgium, Ukraine and the Netherlands to make their own local versions of the cooking show. A production company in Iceland is also considering the show, while in India, Star TV has already signed a Bollywood star Akshay Kumar to host its version.
“The outstanding showing of MasterChef in the US and Australia, and new sales of the format in one of the most populous countries in the world, demonstrates that there is no bigger food show on the planet,” said Chris Grant, the president of Shine International.
The US has already begun broadcasting their local version with FOX as the producer. Taking a slight risk, celebrity foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay is co-producing the show as well as starring as one of the 3 judges who will eliminate the amateur home cooks from the top 50 down to the winner. Gordon has promised to tone down his expletives for the amateur cooks as they are just learning and not professionals like in his Hell’s Kitchen series.
There is a lot at stake for the contestants or cheftestants. $250K prize money plus a book publishing deal. Not bad for a couple of months work, if you win. However in the Aussie version, contestants had to commit to 9 months on the show with no pay, only an allowance, sign confidentiality agreements and only have 1 phone call to family per week. So there is a lot on the line and it will only pay off for 1 person.
The love of food appears to be universal and may provide boom ratings long desired for the associated television networks. Whilst the concept has been around for a while, the UK version experienced an resurrection in popularity when Fremantle Media purchased the rights for the Australian adaptation. Aside from the cooking, a little drama was added to reach audience emotion. The background stories of the contestants were shown, tears flowing and people coming back from elimination all added spice to a very well worn elimination formula. And it worked. After 2 seasons, estimates have placed a value of $100 million on the program through advertising, magazine and merchandise agreements.
In Australia, the finale of MasterChef for 2010 was the most watched non-sports show since 2001, with 2009’s finale right behind it. Only two sports events top the Masterchef finale, which was watched by about 1 in 4 people in Australia. If we do the conversion to the US, that would mean approximately 75 million people would be watching which is an incredible number. No wonder that FOX is banking on this Summer show to claw back ratings.
Tags: Chef, Cooking, Entertainment, Food, Television
Posted in Entertainment · September 8th, 2010 · Comments (0)
Your kitchen spice rack may look like an innocent piece of kitchen decoration — but it holds far more history and intrigue than you ever may have realized.
While the wonderful spices from all over the world that fill your cabinet shelf or wall spice rack may be common and easy to get today – a simple trip to the store and walk down the spice aisle – it was not always this way. Many spices have been extremely rare and much valued throughout most of history. In fact, many spices have interesting histories of their own.
Here is just one.
Why is it that we have two distinct kinds of pepper or peppers?
One the one hand it the all-important black flakes that appear with every meal from the fanciest 5-star restaurants down to the greasy burgers and fries in a take-out bag.
On the other is the entire family of pepper pods — that range from the sweet bell peppers to the incineary habaneroes.
Why are these two completely different foods both called “pepper?”
Actually, it’s not a random coincidence and the answer is more interesting than you might imagine.
The History of Pepper
Okay, it’s not as interesting as this weeks CSI or Brad and Jennifers weekly drama — but it is a fasinating story (especially if you are a foodie. Or geek.)
The story of the naming of peppers (the pod kind) is one of global conquest, wishful thinking and false advertising.
To understand this you must know about the history of pepper (the black powder kind.)
Black Pepper was the First World-wide Commodity
Black pepper originated in the mountains of Southern India and made it’s way to Europe almost 2,000 years ago.
Europeans very quickly fell madly in love with the taste. So great was the love and desire for the spice, that entire cities were built with the money that changed hands as it travelled the spice-route from India to Europe. Family fortures were created that are still around today.
And new worlds were discovered looking for faster, cheaper ways to get the goods to the consumers. Columbus was looking for a route to India when he bumped headlong into the Americas.
Which is where he discovered…
No Pepper
Pepper does not go natively in the New World. But several plants unknown to the Old World do. Tomatoes, Chocolate, Corn and, of course, peppers.
Okay, that’s the world conquest and wishful thinking part. Now comes the false advertising. When Chris and the explorers that came after 1492 didn’t find pepper (the black powder kind) to take back to Europe, the decided to do the next best thing — sorta. They dried pods of the native plants (the pepper pods — are you still with me?) and called it “Jamaican Pepper.”
It makes sense from a financial point of view — they couldn’t go home empty handed — and a bit from a culinary point of view — both powders are hot to the taste.
Well, the name stuck and eventually the name came to mean the plant and the fresh pod, not just the powder.
They are more properly called “Chilies”, by the way.
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Tags: Cooking
Posted in Cooking · July 22nd, 2010 · Comments (0)