Papnash, a Romanian doughnut, from Pusha Chernov's audition, Master Chef, Keshet 12/Master Chef
The main story in last night's main news release would once have provided a reason for expansion: a split in the party that, according to the polls, will form the next government?
Wow!
However, the news about Gideon Sa'ar's decision to split the state camp did nothing but a yawn and at most another quick glance at the poll column (meaning a poll that Sa'ar had just spoiled for Channel 12, a poll aggressively marketed by the channel from the early afternoon).
And it's not that there is no shortage of things to survey: today a new state budget will be submitted for approval by the Knesset.
This is a crazy document that teaches how our tax money is distributed here, you know - that thing that makes your salary much thinner on the way to the bank.
How much time will the news releases devote to this in an era where it is much easier to publish the results of a survey?
In the trial of history, the one in which they will seek to learn how the State of Israel collapsed in on itself, they will also learn about the fault of the media, which failed to direct the spotlight to what is really important - because why engage primarily if you can discuss a hypothetical question such as what percentage of Likud voters support the establishment of a committee State investigation.
Why hypothetical?
Please let each of the esteemed readers put our days on the calendar of their hearts and name three differences between a government and state commission of inquiry (participation is prohibited for political reporters and their families).
Crying after an hour and a half news broadcast?/Screenshot, Master Chef, Keshet 12
On the other hand, indeed a record season
The flame from the vanity fire that is visible to us from the screen is so high that you can roast an eggplant on it - and that's exactly what they did last night on Master Chef.
In the show "On the Other Side" (Guy Zohar) at Khan 11, the highly rated show from the competing channel was bitten.
why?
Because as a promo for the current season, the judges were filmed defining this season as a record season.
Zohar's investigative team went to the archives and found that the same sentence in different variations was said by the exact same judges in previous seasons as well.
This is the place for full disclosure: like any home cook, one who, when you want to compliment him, say "I wish you should have opened a restaurant!"
I too am a devout viewer of this lovable cooking reality show.
Although I did not open a restaurant (a quick glance at the difficult day of my restaurateur friends is enough for me), but I did develop and mature with Master Chef throughout its 11 seasons.
Well, sometimes friends, there is truth in advertising - and in this case, in a MasterChef promo.
In the first season, I still said to myself "Hahaha, I would have easily made it to the finals".
For those who think that I have sinned in arrogance, I will remind you that this is the season when they skipped from stage to stage thanks to dishes like Harima or Shakshuka, ones that my home cooks put on the stove just so they don't disturb him thinking about what he wants to cook this time.
Then the level gradually rose - and my status as a spectator with competitive potential (in my own eyes) decreased accordingly: from "candidate" to the final, to the semi-final, from there to the quarter-final, then I was content to tell my family that I was sure I could have entered the team - and so on, until this season I look In a 23-year-old contestant (on last night's show) who was presented as a business entrepreneur and squeezed into a siphon of fennel cream to turn it into whipped cream - until I looked at him and felt like screaming: you're only 23 years old, how do you know what entrepreneurship is, sorry - fennel whipped cream?
That is: in an era when none of the competitors will serve pasta without having prepared the dough himself, will not bring out a dish without adding some hand-made focaccia next to it, not to mention dessert dishes like the ones served last night in the pear duel (we'll get back to it soon) - I can only look on the screen with envy.
Jealousy of those who saved a shekel to a shekel to eat at Israel Aharoni's "Golden Apple" (at noon it was a business for 90 shekels, an amount that today is charged in a Tel Aviv cafe for toast and salad, but then it was a huge fortune for a student) and watches with the eyes of brides in generations who learned to cook From YouTube or listening to podcasts, just like the red-haired doctor who made a great pear cake as an appetizer - and a kind of chickpea tortilla for the main course.
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Suddenly tears.
The contestant who made me cry/screenshot, Master Chef, Keshet 12
Caraway pear
If you are now swimming in a sea of calories, trying to cling to an empty carb to float above the sauce, I will remind you of the starting point for this discussion: the level of Master Chef has indeed risen from season to season.
The information available on the Internet, the expansion of culinary acquaintance with a variety of cuisines in the world, the globalization that brought new raw materials to the supermarket shelves and even the corona virus, which gave us enough free time to figure out what to do with all of this, have made the new cooks so sophisticated that sometimes it seems that everything that differentiates Between them and the four judges is mainly experience rather than ability (and since I'm approaching an age where experience remains my only advantage, I can only embrace this difference with love, as I watch four give advice from the "tribal elders").
Paraphrasing the national poet: Did you fall in love because of what I loved?
I loved the pear!
Because with all due respect to the plus-sized model with the captivating smile from Nitiv, who defeated the young business entrepreneur, the main event of the evening was the pear duel between two people who are involved in the medical professions: a young doctor before his residency (radiology) against a veteran paramedic (Musk).
Both were amazing at handling the raw material, but while the work of the doctor, mentioned above, continues the winning line even to the second dish, the paramedic failed: he prepared a fish dish, but did not sear it properly, which left him alive at the edges.
This is a blunder on which cooking competitions fly: failure with the main raw material in the dish.
Only the paramedic has a moving story about the death of his wife in a car accident, and he tells it (while installing the dose) with such gentleness that it only increases the intensity of the emotion: this is how he realized from his experience, even before he arrived at the hospital, that his wife-beloved is no longer alive.
It's amazing, but even in the days when not a single medical news release is possible without heartbreaking photos from the funeral of a dead man in Gaza or a crushing story from that terrible Shabbat, this particular story brought tears to my eyes - perhaps because of the proximity in age to the contestant from the south and perhaps for the simple reason that his story reminded us that the sorrow of this world was A part of our lives even before October 7 (the program was filmed last summer, which seems far away now as if taken from another life).
Apparently the judges also thought like me (actually, why probably? Eyal Shani says so explicitly) and gave him an apron.
My bet is that he will not survive many more stages in the competition, but seasoning the less successful dish with an exciting personal story, gave him the qualification for the team (which will very soon be reduced).
Gideon Sa'ar and Bnei Gantz, the new "Pharisees".
It's better to dip flat pretzels in white cheese/Knesset Speaker, Noam Moshkowitz
Emotional Eating
And here we come to another criticism that is frequently made about this cooking reality show.
Someone wrote on his Facebook profile that if the measure of success in the show is an extraordinary life story, then he would have won the final even with a burnt omelette.
Apparently, there is a reason for a flaw here, literally: both contestants are supposed to be judged only according to the final product.
But cooking is first of all an emotion and a good dish is one that tells a story, even before the exact dosage of the spices is required.
Of course, it cannot come in place of quality cooking, but it is certainly an important component in how much we enjoy it.
From this point of view, this season's Master Chef provides a glimpse not only into the world of higher quality cooking, but into a world where the main question that preoccupies us is "What shall we eat now?".
Would you say, based on our events in the last five months, that this is mainly emotional eating?
I will be the first to agree, but what is the alternative - to listen again to Gideon Sa'ar's split speech from the state camp?
In my life, it's better to dip flat pretzels in white cheese, while we watch a plus size model weave a fennel stalk into a meat ball and hum "Why do I need politics now?".
More on the same topic:
Master Chef
Gideon Saar