‘MasterChef Junior’ Presidential Postmortem: On the Set With (a Video of) Michelle Obama
The thing about most reality TV, as we all know, is it’s not that real; editing turns ordinary people into monsters and simple conversations into mad, headline-grabbing tirades. But step onto the set of MasterChef Junior and it’s clear that what you see is what you get. Like a good chef, the producers know to keep the presentation clean and let the personalities of the children speak for themselves.
Thursday night’s episode, “A Presidential Mystery Box,” took a year and a half to bring together. It was the result of a chance encounter at an event attended by both Gordon Ramsay and the first lady (the episode was filmed when Michelle Obama was still the first lady), and, says executive producer Robin Ashbrook, “Between the first lady’s team and our team, it was obvious there was synergy and a shared ambition of what we were trying to do.”
“It’s important to teach kids how to cook,” says Ramsay, and he says it should be taught in school. “They do it three times a day, seven days a week. They eat for the rest of their lives.” That goal naturally dovetails with the initiative to reduce childhood obesity that was Mrs. Obama’s focus for much of the last eight years.
You would think the kids would need coaching — like a game show audience with applause signs — but once they know where to stand, the direction for them is scant. Occasionally, there will be too much wiggling and lack of focus as cameras prepare for shots, but everything that makes it to air is 100 percent authentic. Why would they need to be told to be excited at the appearance of FLOTUS?
Their reactions are genuine, as is their cooking. Electric kettles are preboiled and handed to contestants to speed things along (and also to minimize the risk of a child dumping a pot full of scalding water on themselves), but other than that, the kids are left to their own devices. The pressure is intense, but the kitchen is almost preternaturally quiet as 14 chefs demonstrate the poise of people three times their age.
“You want to pretend there’s an invisible wall so you can’t see the other person.” That’s 11-year-old Justise Mayberry, who counsels a zen-like approach to the competition. “Once you’re in a calm state and you know what you’re going to do, then you set your mind to it and you do it. If you get supershaky — like I’ve gotten before — then you mess up.”
There were no nerves for Justise on this day. “I saw the shrimp, I saw the quinoa and I was, like, boom. Because I make seafood all the time — and shrimp specifically — so I’m, like, shrimp, making that quinoa rice? Of course.” She’s got the swagger of a chef three times her age, but the maturity of one as well. Even though her dish was near perfect, she still knew where there was room for improvement. “I wanted it more vibrant. The radishes weren’t dressed and I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh, please don’t get on to me about that.’ Christina was, like, ‘Please dress them,’ and I ran out of time.”
Justise wasn’t sure how she’d react to meeting the first lady. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never really traveled much,” says the Georgia native. “I’ve never been somewhere so fancy and nice with the president!”
Inspired by the presidential tone of the episode, Ramsay says if he were the commander in chief for a day, “I would establish, on the first of September, a National Wellington day.” Beef Wellington is one of his signature dishes — a baked and filled pastry that challenges even the most hardened line cooks — but he says, “Every household in the country has a star — whether it’s the Beef Wellington, a Fish Wellington, or even a Chicken or a Vegetarian Wellington.”
“I would have a Technology Shut-Off Day,” says Christina Tosi, the show’s other judge, who admits that she herself has difficulty getting away from phones and computers. “The idea of shutting everything off and spending time with the people you like — just keeping life supersimple for a day and forcing yourself to relish it and enjoy it — is something I would be a big proponent for.” She laughs, “That and a cookie a day.”
MasterChef Junior airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Read more from Yahoo TV:
