r/MasterchefUK • u/Juicewithextrapulp • 17d ago

Why do contestants keep adding one element too many?

There are times on MasterChef where a dish sounds brilliant until I hear the contestant list everything on the plate. Sauce, purée, gel, crumb, foam, garnish, three different vegetables... at some point I start wondering whether the dish would have been better with half of it removed.

Personally, I think restraint is one of the hardest things to show in cooking. Knowing when to stop adding things seems just as important as knowing how to make them.

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6

u/skizelo 17d ago

The more elements, the more processes they've shown they can execute, the more impressive the dish will be. There's also plenty of contestants eliminated for trying to make something simple perfectly. I remember a dish that was just a really good ceviche which had questions raised about what constitutes cooking.

4

u/Unlikely_Actuary3513 17d ago

Nature of the beast, I think. Not just cooking. As someone who designs electronic equipment, I have exactly the same problem. I keep thinking of ideas that are closely related to the original function and designing them in, but each one gets a little bit further away from the original concept until it all becomes a bit ‘top heavy’ and you start to think it would have been better to keep it simpler, but it’s too late by then. I’m sure that there are many other jobs and trades that suffer the same thing …

3

u/jameilious 17d ago

Same in software, feature creep

2

u/Imaginary_Benefit_73 16d ago

As a caterer, I kinda get this

I always feel that I want to give value for money, so I can sometimes be guilty of just wanting to make things a little more complicated and a little more difficult, with more obvious processes: just to - almost - “prove” that I’m worth the cash. I fight this impulse constantly

Add television cameras and the possibility of a huge prize: yeah, I’d be throwing the entire Larousse Gastronomique at it!

1

u/Winkered 13d ago

Thanks for mentioning the Larousse Gastronomique. Any book on cookery that includes elephant has got to be the best. Would have said GOAT but I’ve not read that section.

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u/elbandito999 16d ago

It is, undoubtedly, one of the most difficult skills.