MasterChef Australia

Reigning MasterChef champion Adam Liaw is attempting to tap into a fashionable new restaurant style with the opening of his Japanese restaurant.

The 32-year-old lawyer, who took out the competition earlier in the year, is currently developing a restaurant venture with business partners Matthew Crabbe and Nathan Smith with Sydney the likely location.

Liaw’s concept for the restaurant is Japanese izakaya, a style of casual bar where food is served over drinks. The style is hot in the industry right now, with The Age’s food critic Larissa Dubecki declaring 2010 the “year of the izakaya”.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time,” Liaw said.

“We had restaurant plans long before MasterChef. We had the business plans all ready but obviously these kinds of things take a long time to make happen.

“Over the last few months I’ve been designing the menus. We’re pretty clear on the concept and budgets but the launch is still a little time away.”

Source: The Age

Ten’s original MasterChef has voiced her approval of the new format for the hit cooking show, saying she was “blown away” by the talent on show on Junior MasterChef.

Season one winner Julie Goodwin says she was hugely impressed by what she saw on the show, which debuted on Ten last night.

“It’s not just the technique but the ideas.” Goodwin said.

The amateur cook said she shed a tear of two when some of the kids didn’t make the cut.

“When they didn’t get through I was gutted. When they did get through I was so happy.”

Goodwin also praised judges Gary Mehigan and Geaorge Calombaris, as well as new host Anna Gare.

“I think the judges have been so beautiful in it. It’s really in their nature, that’s the kind of guys that they are.”

Source: News.com.au

Ten have officially got their hands on Matt Moran with the celebrity chef inking a deal with the network to appear exclusively on MasterChef and other Ten shows.

Seven had been chasing the chef for their new adaptation of Iron Chef but now he will pop up only on Ten shows including the likes of Good News Week and the 7pm Project.

“Matt is a fantastic, world-renowned chef and has become a valued addition to the MasterChef family,” said David Mott on Ten.

“We love what he has contributed so far to the show and 2011 will see his presence in the series increase significantly.

“Signing Matt to TEN makes sense and we are thrilled to have secured his exclusivity to our network.”

Source: News.com.au

There’s the TV show, the celebrity spin off, the junior MasterChef spin off, the magazine, the web site and the merchandise. What else can you do to cash in on the success of MasterChef?

A live event – that’s what!

The judges from the MasterChef Australia, will join celebrity chefs and past contestants in a live event in Sydney later this year.

George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan, and food critic Matt Preston, will present twelve MasterChef Live shows at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion over four days from Friday 10 December to Monday 13 December.

Each audience of three-thousand, will learn and experience “new cooking skills, watch invention tests and cooking challenges in a one-hour interactive performance by members of the MasterChef team”, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

Matt Preston expressed his excitement at the prospect of doing a live show, compared to the confined nature of the television program.

“With the phenomenal success of the past two television series, the next logical step was to bring the show to the public and let them experience every element of MasterChef as if they were taking part in the show itself,” he said.

“George, Gary and I are really looking forward to getting hands-on with the visitors and giving them a real behind-the-scenes taste of the MasterChef experience they won’t get anywhere else.”

As well as access to the show, ticket holders will also gain entry to the Festival of Cooking held during the same weekend in the Royal Hall of Industries at Homebush.

The festival will house hundreds of stalls and culinary demonstrations, facilitated by the show’s leading chefs including Kylie Kwong, Peter Kuruvita, Neil Perry and Justin North.

“I think it’s really important to meet people who come to our restaurants and watch us on television,” Kwong said.

“We’re not just figures behind the screen. We want to share our secrets and encourage everyone to embrace the art of cooking.”

This year’s competition winner, Adam Liaw, said the ultimate aspect of competing in MasterChef was the opportunity to learn from some of the chefs he respected.

“I cook dishes now that I couldn’t have made a year ago before those masterclasses with Gary and George and learning from people like Kylie and Matt (Moran),” Liaw said.

Tickets for the theatre show are available from Ticketek, and are priced from $55 for silver-class seating to $120 for priority-class seating.

Source: TSR

Seven will take its brand new reality cooking series Iron Chef to the nation’s food capital with three top chefs on board.

Neil Perry, Guy Grossi and Guillaume Brahimi will feature on the new format as the Iron Chefs whom contestants must battle each episode.

“It’s different (from MasterChef) in that it follows professional cooks and not amateurs,” said Grossi, who comes from Grossi Florentino restaurant.

Perry, who feature don Ten’s latest season of MasterChef, believes the focus on professional chefs will provide a greater experience for viewers.

“Giving professional chefs the chance to come on TV will allow Australia to see the great diversity this country has in professional cooking,” he said.

“It will fire the imagination of people who love food.

“This engages the industry on a higher level. It is professional versus professional. Giving professional chefs the chance to come on TV will allow Australia to see the great diversity this country has in professional cooking.”

Iron Chef is part of Seven’s assault on the reality cooking mantel currently held by Ten and its MasterChef ratings juggernaut, with other cooking shows on the go including My Kitchen Rules and Conviction Kitchen, based on a Canadian format.

Ten will counter with the debut of Junior MasterChef next month.

Source: Herald Sun

Two of MasterChef Australia’s former finalists are opening a restaurant in one of Melbourne’s emerging food strips.

Chris Badenoch and Julia Jenkins from season 1 are in the early stages of renovating the Josie Bones, a 50-seater on Collingwood’s Smith Street.

The pair are describing the plan for their restaurant as a “beer bar with food matching” which should come as no surprise to fans of the first season who know Chris as the beer merchant with a penchant for hearty food.

‘‘It will be a high-end beer experience,’’ Chris says. ‘‘We’ll follow the share plates concept with a good showing of nose-to-tail dishes. I want to show people it’s not scary, although it will be a combination of both my and Julia’s styles of food.’’

The pair hope to open the restaurant in a couple of months.

Source: The Age

Sometimes in reporting how well a show rates (or how badly for that matter) we tend to all forget about the fact that there are now 7 day time shifted ratings that go towards the final official rating for a show.

Having said that – Masterchef Australia: The Winner Announced after adding time shifted ratings moves up to 4,029,000 from its overnight and as live figure of 3,964,000. That means it also moves up the second most watched show of the decade, ahead of the Rugby World Cup Final of 2003 – which was watched by 4.01 million.

In fairness though – figures have only started including time shifting from 2010 – so it is not exactly comparing apples with apples – however live sport generally is not recorded by people to watch later – so – had time shifting been taken into account in 2003 – its likely that the final figure would have remained he same.

Here is the 7 day time shift top ten for Sunday July 25, 2010.

Pos Ch Show Overnight Consolidated Increase %
1 TEN MODERN FAMILY SUN 1,121,000 1,206,000 85,000 7.6 %
2 ABC1 JONATHAN CREEK: THE JUDAS TREE-EV 610,000 683,000 73,000 12.0 %
3 TEN UNDERCOVER BOSS PREMIERE 1,779,000 1,845,000 65,000 3.7 %
4 TEN MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – THE WINNER ANNOUNCED 3,964,000 4,029,000 65,000 1.6 %
5 ch 9 CSI SPECIAL EVENT -RPT 503,000 568,000 65,000 12.8 %
6 TEN MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA – FINALE NIGHT 3,542,000 3,594,000 52,000 1.5 %
7 ABC1 LIFE-EV 615,000 657,000 42,000 6.9 %
8 Ch 7 BONES (R) 497,000 534,000 37,000 7.4 %
9 Ch 7 CASTLE (R) 366,000 400,000 34,000 9.4 %
10 Ch 7 DANCING WITH THE STARS – SUN 1,051,000 1,080,000 29,000 2.8 %

OzTam, 5 city metro.

Last year’s MasterChef winner Julie Goodwin will slot into Nine’s Saturday afternoon with her new cooking show Home Cooked! with Julie Goodwin.

Goodwin, who edged out runner-up Poh in last year’s season finale, will present her show which places emphasis on no-fuss cooking.

The aspiring chef will host a celebrity guest each week on the half-hour show in which she expresses her famous home-cooked style, with guests such as Steve Waugh, Amanda Keller and Ricki-Lee Coulter set to appear.

“[My] cooking is home cooking, the sort of thing I hope people want to cook for tea, or cook for their friends or their family,” Goodwin says.

“I have been so encouraged by the number of people who have told me they’ve rediscovered a passion for cooking.”

The NSW mother-of-three says she has received a number of offers since her victory but that she has tried to remain grounded amongst all the hype.

“I’ve really just been rolling with it ever since the show finished,” she says. “There have been an amazing number of opportunities that have opened up for me and I’m in the magnificent position of choosing whether or not I go with them.”

Home Cooked! with Julie Goodwin premieres on Saturday at 5.30pm on Nine.

Source: The Age

The success of Masterchef Australia is seeing television networks from five countries signing on for our version of the show, originally a UK format.

Shine International have struck deals with television networks in India, Isreal, 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.

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.

Source: TSR.

The top 30 shows of 2010 so far sees Masterchef dominate with the record breaking finale night representing the top two spots while ratings for the shows’ finals week in terms of the Monday to Thursday average and the last Sunday challenge also appear in the top ten. The combined ratings for the Leader’s Debate between Seven, Nine and ABC1 is the only other event to pass 3 million.

State of Origin is top sporting event for the year so far, with the Men’s final for the Australian Open behind. Underbelly: The Golden Mile is also in the top ten over two million even though the series overall did not perform as well as the previous two.

Seven’s top non-sport show was the final of Australia’s Got Talent, with Packed to the Rafters close behind, both over 1.9 million. The premiere of Undercover Boss – reported as over 2 million in preliminary figures – was adjusted down to 1,782,000 once correct times were taken into account – ends up in 14th.

Top 30 for 2010 so far.
1 Masterchef Australia: The Winner Announced TEN 3,962,000
2 Masterchef Australia: Finale TEN 3,542,000
3 Election 2010 Leaders Debate ABC1, Seven, Nine Combined 3,048,000
4 State of Origin 1 – Match Nine 2,455,000
5 MasterChef Australia (Finals Week Mon-Thur average) TEN 2,439,000
6 Aus. Open – Men’s Final Seven 2,419,000
7 Underbelly: The Golden Mile Nine 2,252,000
8 MasterChef Australia – Challenge (Finals week Sunday) TEN 2,194,000
9 State Of Origin 2 – Match Nine 2,160,000
10 Australia’s Got Talent Seven 1,955,000
11 Packed To The Rafters Seven 1,917,000
12 MasterChef – Final Masterclass TEN 1,882,000
13 Seven News Sunday Seven 1,843,000
14 Undercover Boss Premiere TEN 1,782,000
15 State Of Origin 3 – Match Nine 1,782,000
16 Nine News Sunday Nine 1,765,000
17 Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage TEN 1,749,000
18 Top Gear Nine 1,736,000
19 The Pacific Seven 1,653,000
20 State of Origin 1 – Pre-Match Nine 1,633,000
21 Glee TEN 1,611,000
22 Gruen Nation ABC1 1,608,000
23 Hawke TEN 1,597,000
24 Two And A Half Men Nine 1,588,000
25 The Biggest Loser – The Winner TEN 1,577,000
26 Seven News Saturday Seven 1,576,000
27 My Kitchen Rules Seven 1,562,000
28 Modern Family TEN 1,553,000
29 NCIS TEN 1,519,000
30 Spicks And Specks ABC1 1,511,000

Source: OzTAM. Updated July 31, 2010. Only highest rating episode or weekly average for each show is shown. In the case of Masterchef, the Sunday Challenges, the Monday to Thursday average, Friday Masterclass and Finale night are all considered separately, just like each of the three State of Origins are. Shows that air Monday to Friday are represented by their five day average, with the highest average shown here.