Masterchef Training

LadyBeaker

Hi there,

So I love masterchef and all things food related! my friends and family
having been trying to get me to audition for the show for ages now and I've always been too scared too. I'm a self thought cook and would defiantly be the one on the show who had the messiest station as my kitchen always looks like a bomb has hit it! There's loads I don't know although I'm trying new things all the time but I'm thinking now I might give it a go (sure what have i got to loose!) and to help me from not making a total tit of myself I want to be as prepared as possible.
So if anyone has any tips or ideas about what would be good challenges to set myself then post them here and ill give them a crack and let you know how I get on, ill post pics too even if it turns out to be a right disaster!!

The Hill Billy

There are literally hundreds of recipes to choose from in the Cooking & Recipes and The Cooking Club forums. Why not have a go at some of those?

dudara

Learn to clean as you work - having a clean work counter makes cooking so much easier and will definitely take some strain off you should you ever make the show. If you have a messy station, you'll get frazzled looking for ingredients & equipment.

One thing that often amaze me is the lack of "classical" cooking skills. Buy some books on classical techniques. Larousse might be overkill but Michel Roux has a good series of cookbooks all centered on classic cooking. Pick several items and then master them.

Thud

master thses skills:

souffle
custard/creme anglaise
hollandaise (& possible mayonaisse)
debone and scale fish
butcher a chicken and/or rabbit
smooth purees and mashes
don't over cook meat/fish
de-grit mushrooms

usefull extras that always impress and are relatively easy:
make own pasta (filled even better)
spun sugar
decent sponge/shortbread/shortcrust/tuille
turned veg


amazing how many people get on the shows and mess them up

Use the rule of 3 for plating (or uneven number)

SBWife

In addition to the above learn how to cook risotto.

Merkin

dudara wrote: »

One thing that often amaze me is the lack of "classical" cooking skills. Buy some books on classical techniques. Larousse might be overkill but Michel Roux has a good series of cookbooks all centered on classic cooking. Pick several items and then master them.

Couldn't agree more. I'd really work on perfecting your classical dishes and techniques and build from there.

Cardinal Richelieu

Learn how to taste as you cook, so many chefs seem to not taste their food. As outlined above butchery skills and filleting of fish seem a constant stumbling point for many. Even try to get some time working in a decent professional kitchen part time if you can so you don't freak out on restaurant challenges.

pwurple

Also, masterchef may make it look like novices, but I've been on some short cookery courses in ballymaloe, and I've met a couple of the masterchef contestants from the UK ones there... a lot of them do those sorts of courses and ARE well trained ever before they go near those auditions. Thomasina Miers is a good example. She won british masterchef in 2005. She trained in Ballymaloe in 2004, doing the 12 week certificate course as far as I remember. She now has a series of restaurants, books and a TV series.

These are what you compete against. Trained chefs.
It's not to put you off, but some formal training may help you get where you want to go.

Gloomtastic!

SBWife wrote: »

In addition to the above learn how to cook risotto.

Anyone who has ever cooked Risotto on Masterchef has been booted out! It's one of the easiest things to make and the judges are never impressed. (UK judges anyway).

Having said that, they've never tasted one of mine.....

Mellor

pwurple wrote: »

Also, .
These are what you compete against. Trained chefs.

A short cookery course doesn't make somebody a trained chef imo. You have to cook in sone sort if professional capacity to be a chef.