to think that if I was an Olympic athlete I would be more than a little pissed off at the chefs on the Great British Menu..

[IcouldstillbeJoseph]

If they compare themselves and their work to that of an Olympian athlete one more time I think i'll scream.

I'm sure getting a Michelin star is no mean feat but it's hardly the friggin' same as competing, at the peak of physical fitness, against the rest of the sporting world.

And if they use the term 'pushing boundaries' or 'ground-breaking' anymore...

Ahhh, that feels better now i've let that out...

YANBU!

I am almost finished training to be a chef and it really really irritates me when chefs build themselves up to be something close to god-like because they created a deconstructed tuna nicoise with a blackcurrant jus dressing or some other poncy, pretentious plate of food

Don't get me wrong, some chefs do create amazing food and are very skilled at what they do but they aren't curing cancer or saving lives!

I am also really bothered by the huge amount of waste that goes on in a michelin star restaurant, stupid things like, if a potato is the wrong shape, throw it away, if a bit of fish is not cooked properly, throw the whole plate in the bin, etc..

There's people starving in other countries who would like for a plate of rice and they're throwing away plates of food that cost £45 each because they're a bit cold....its pathetic!

Unfortunately, if don't express a desire to work in one of these high class establishments you get told off for being unambitious!

Totally agree.
I thought the point of the series was to produce food for the athletes, though, so I may have missed something here.
Maybe that would be a better idea?

Let's face it, no normal person would eat any of the shite they make anyway. Who wants to eat all that weird stuff - I've started to feel quite sorry for the people who are going to have to go to that banquet and pretend to like whatever they get saddled with. It's all very Emperor's New Clothes I think.

Well it's hardly the chefs' fault is it?!

Could they look any more uncomfortable coming out with that guff? Clearly they have been set a brief and have to go along with it, but it is really badly chosen - and given athletes are usually on special diets it seems ridiculous.

I thought the one with returning servicemen worked so much better, because you could see the chefs really enjoying thinking about what could be good 'British' comfort food made special, and several of them seemed to have great personal respect for the troops which made it seem very natural for them to talk about it being an honour to cook for them. I just think this brief was lazily planned and does not work.

(I still enjoy it though ... how can anyone not like rabbit?!)

It's all very Emperor's New Clothes I think.

Absolutely.

I think they've forgotten that they are chefs and have mistaken themselves for artists. Or olympians.

The biggest issues I've had with some of them has been all that "molecular" shit. Chucking chemicals and powders into the cooking to achieve a desired effect (can't think what now, but I've see them there with their plastic containers and adding powdered stabilisers and stuff in).

If I were paying through the nose I'd expect it to come without 'chemicals and shit' - not to find they'd added them in anyway just to make it hold an unnatural shape. If I wanted to eat that I'd buy a ready meal!

The likes of them might scoff at the likes of us 'good home cooks' but I'd rather have what I cook than poncey stuff that doesn't quite work anyway.

And that Oliver is just an arse.

Rant. RAnt. RANT!!!

I really should switch it off, but DH does like it so

i could never eat in a high end resturant, the steak is never cooked and i bet if you ordered well done the chef would faint. now i don't mind a little pink but everytime i watch a cookery programme is looks so raw

Oh yes, the returning servicemen one was good.

Perhaps it is just the brief this time.

I suppose it's a bit like parents complaining to teachers about the curriculum - we don't choose it we do as we are told.

Yeah, I don't care for the molecular stuff. I thought it was really 90s, too? So how come it is 'groundbreaking'?

I loved last years as well - I just like how Tom Kitchin and Lisa Allen both come across as if they really enjoy food and like people ... rather than just showing off.

I just remembered, though - that bloke whose dad got all teary talking about him in this series, that was rather nice, I thought.

I love a good raw steak though. My ex used to say 'wipe its arse, show it the frying pan, and pop it on the plate' and I got used to it like that.

I really do not fancy half the puddings though - there's been barely one I thought 'ooh, I really want to eat that'.

Nobody that I've seen so far has managed to fulfil the brief. I agree with the molecular dissing, a sphere of pea puree, why not just stick a pea on the plate, they are already spheres

If I was a Olympic Athlete I would be too busy admiring my amazingly fit and healthy body to notice anything on TV

Yeah, the brief is a bit weird to start with - and the judges seem to have forgotten that it's supposed to be about "groundbreaking food" not about Olympic-themed presentation (Stephen Terry's pudding, anyone?).

I quite agree about the Olympian crap but they're clearly having their arms twisted to say it, though the judges are thankfully wittering on about it less now.

And I also agree with jenfraggle about pea puree spheres. Just why?

I doubt the athletes would be impressed by some of the offerings either!

I do think a fair bit of it is for the cameras, but YANBU It's not even in the same league as training for the Olympics.

I do love Prue though.

-And I also agree with jenfraggle about pea puree spheres. Just why?-

I had to make a pea puree at college recently and I couldn't help thinking that the amount of peas required to make the bloody puree could feed 6 people!

Pointless!!

thank god it wasn't spherical or frozen with liquid nitrogen

If I wan an Olympic Athlete fat chance I would be mightily pissed off to be presented with a gold/silver/bronze theme. Also anything Olympic Ring or Olympic Torch style.

The chemical stuff and "pushing boundaries" just grates.

Still watch it every night though.

I was going to comment on the utterly pointless pea spherification. Honestly, if I want something that looks like and tastes like a pea, an actual pea fits the bill perfectly. I sit there thinking, why don't they just do some frozen peas in the microwave and be done with it? I remember that one of the contestants on a previous series of master chef Australia thought he was all Heston blumental and did pea spherification. The judges (rightly) laughed at it and said some normal peas would have been better.

I don't understand why all the molecular stuff is featuring so prominently. It's all so dated/commonplace.

I also don't want food that's had every single morsel fiddled with and strewn around the plate (and served with the stingiest portion of sauce/gravy every smile time).

Pigeon and rabbit is "fancy pants"???

And there I was thinking it was traditional English country food - peasant food basically.

We eat loads of pigeon, rabbit and venison - because it's free!

what is molecular food?

'molecular gastronomy' or using shit tonnes of chemicals to do weird stuff to your food. Or, if you prefer, doing what they do in the incredibly cheap, manufactured end of the food industry but charging loads for it.

and they boast about that?? weird

Oh yes. It's great to use chemicals to turn your food an unnatural colour/set it into a ridiculous shape/make it taste like something other than what it is but only if you charge £50 a go. If you do the same and sell it cheap in shops, then it's Just Not On.

But offal is dirt cheap and again, traditionally food for the poor - it's also really good

Agree on bizarre ingredient combinations though.

And yet I am watching it again now ....