Masterchef and the three hour beef wellington...

Is everyone else in the room hooked on Masterchef or is it just me?

I am loving this series mad. So far I am finding it so entertaining and it's like they absolutely read my mind on some of the things I hated about last season:

Sarah Wilson: I don't actually hate her (I actually quite like her column in Sunday Life) but she was just so redundant. And not a food person at all which made her such an odd choice to host the show...

Skipping the auditions: It almost killed me last time - there were like 10 episodes of auditions and absolutely no need whatsoever for them (other than the humour factor of the roadkill contestants who clearly couldn't cook). I like the fact they skipped that altogether this year and just started with the top 50.

Garry: I know most people love cuddly little George, but I have a bit of a soft spot for Garry. It's his cute British accent perhaps, or maybe his faux trendy hair. Or maybe it's the fact he can fillet a whole fish perfectly while wearing a sexy suit. Who knows. All I can say is that more Garry = happier Kitty.

However, it's not all beer and skittles in the Kitty house on the show. There are somethings I just don't like:

Matt: Oh dear... He is already starting to get far to ebullient and effusive with his descriptions... The whole strawberry patch, Wimbledon, warm summer's day thing with Phillip last week after the Farm Challenge just lost me. We don't really spend a lot of time hanging out in strawberry patches here in Australia, Matt. Nor do you in London, where you spent most of your childhood. I know he's trying to add value now that Sexy Man and Greek Boy have top billing, but perhaps scale it back a bit... And the less said about the pink jeans the better.

The contestants: Okay - I'll admit. Some of the contestants already annoy me. Basically it's the criers: Adele, Phillip... And the people who keep saying they are so unhappy in their job and that cooking is like their total passion. Sure - let's all give up our jobs as CFOs, Accountants, Lawyers etc and go work as an apprentice in a kitchen at minimum wage. THEN let's talk about how happy we are, hey?? Some people are so dumb, or perhaps it's attention seeking? Which leads me onto the next group - people who are "innit to winnit". Joanne - this means you! No-one cares - we just want to watch good food.

I do love some of the contestants. Claire seems really competent in the kitchen and Alvin makes me laugh so much. But a lot of them are just replicas of last year's bunch... Marion reminds me a lot of Julia, Adele of Julie and Aaron of Chris (or is there some unwritten rule of TV making that says that every reality show must have a character that always wears hats??).

And I guess it's the general attitude of some of the final 24. You can tell that some of them are just there for the fame, or potential for fame. They saw the success of the first series and thought "I can be as famous as Poh too." Reminds me a lot of the first series of Big Brother - absolute compelling viewing. Everything since then has been utter shite. I'll keep my fingers crossed that's not happening here.

As you can see, I am already hooked. I'm loving the challenges, I am loving the masterclasses and above all, I am loving the DRAMA.

And now for the challenge.


While I was watching the Beef Wellington challenge last week, I thought to myself "I'd like to try that." Clearly I didn't think it would be easy, but from memory they had 1 and a half or 2 hours to do it in, and with Mr Kitty and I working at a fairly snappy pace, it took us three hours. Yep - that's correct. Three whole hours. It was a massive faff to make, but it was totally worth the effort in the end. Would I make it again? Unlikely unless I had a lot of spare time on my hands but the experience was great (and I discovered I am not really a huge fan of tarragon). Mr Kitty clearly liked it - he ate a huge amount of the wellington and then lined up for the crepes suzette I made with the vast amount of mandarins we seem to have collected over the past week or so and the leftover crepe batter from the recipe.

I am already sorry I will miss the next three weeks of episodes and challenges while I am away - but never fear! I will try and catch up when I get back. Or you can all keep me posted!

Kitty