The programme is an enthralling showcase for British restaurant food, yet ‘professional’ still seems to mean Michelin
There’s a moment in the current series of MasterChef: The Professionals where the contestants are asked to make filled agnolotti pasta for their opening “skills test”, and Gregg Wallace, in his role as the man on the Clapham omnibus, declares he can’t remember what shape they should be. And then it slowly dawns on us that the chefs aren’t sure what they should look like either. And just when we’re enjoying this schadenfreude, it is compounded by a brief, glorious eruption, as one of chef Kirsty’s not-agnolotti makes a desperate leap for freedom from her pan – as if knowing its very existence is a crime against God. The chefs may well be professionals, the next big things of British fine dining, but they are also only human – such is the nuanced joy of the show.
Love it or loathe it, MasterChef: The Professionals is now in its 14th series, and it’s still the single biggest showcase for where the British restaurant industry is at right now: its latest trends, its eccentric obsessions and its frustrating limitations. The dishes that appear tell us something about the food world outside the BBC studio, even when it’s scallops and black pudding or rack of lamb with a red wine jus for the umpteenth time. Tonight the drama of “finals week” commences, as the remaining six chefs battle it out in front of an audience of millions – for the MasterChef winner’s trophy, but also the huge career boost that will follow.
MiMi Aye is the author of Mandalay: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen, and host of the food & culture podcast The MSG Pod
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