‘MasterChef’ review: Wait, what’s a trifle?

We’ll give the contestants of “MasterChef” some credit — not only are these home cooks having to create some pretty impressive dishes using the recipes in their heads, but they also have to cook some foods that are rather unfamiliar to many Americans.
For example, we turn to what may have been the hardest dessert to be handed to a few contestants during Tuesday night’s episode — the trifle. We’ve even a ton of desserts in our day, but even we had no idea what Gordon Ramsay’s self-proclaimed “favorite” was. Is it a vampire cocktail? How do you make a dish out of something you quite frankly don’t know? We felt bad watching Josh and Stacey try to cook this during the second half of the episode, as challenge winner Tanya had to divide the chefs up into groups of three to create some of the judges’ favorites.
It’s rather ironic that it was actually someone who had the easiest dish in strawberry shortcake that went home. Scott has had his moments in the competition, but the consistency just wasn’t there — and with him gone, we are finally starting to near a point where we are remembering who all of his fellow competitors are. With that being said, we don’t have a major worry about the show at the moment, even though Tuesday night’s episode was probably the worst of the whole season. The mystery box challenge was just a sickening ad for Walmart having cheap t-bone steaks, and we’ve actually seen a good bit of dessert this season and the later challenge felt rather redundant as a result.
“MasterChef” does need to up its game soon, and it also needs a few more characters to stand out. The ones that are the easiest to root for (Christine and Frank are prime examples) just so happen to almost be the quietest.
What did you think of this episode? For those of you looking for our exclusive interview with Ryan following his elimination Wednesday, we’re taking a little more time with it than usual. It’ll be up Wednesday afternoon.
Photo: Fox
lee
July 9, 2012 @ 1:40 am
i think the author was referencing to some of the contestants who didn’t know what a trifle is — like monti.
i think frank is going to win the competition but i just wonder why the editing of the show overlooks him.
PISSEDFFNOBODY
July 7, 2012 @ 9:54 pm
Trifle is a layered desert consisting of alcohol infused fruit, candied fruit, layers of flavoured jelly, sponge, cream and toppings such as hundreds and thousands. It has existed for hundreds of years and was a re-popularised by Escoffier and he invented a variation called Peach Melba in tribute to the singer Nellie Melba after she came to London to perform in Wagner’s Lohengrin. Your lack of knowledge of international cuisine does not render such concepts moot, if anything it suggests you are not as worldly as you might think in terms of international cuisine. If a grenadilla or carambola appears and you are equally mystified, I will be disappointed.