MasterChef (Tue, 9pm and Wed, 8.30pm BBC1)A new batch of amateur cooks arrive to try and impress John Torode and Gregg Wallace into propelling them towards ‘MasterChef’ glory and a decent culinary career. (Or at the least, a free meal or two a year when the show welcomes back previous winners). So how best to wow the judges? For Gregg, sinful puddings and being an attractive woman seem to go down well; while the Torode is a sucker for Asian ...
more MasterChef (Tue, 9pm and Wed, 8.30pm BBC1)A new batch of amateur cooks arrive to try and impress John Torode and Gregg Wallace into propelling them towards ‘MasterChef’ glory and a decent culinary career. (Or at the least, a free meal or two a year when the show welcomes back previous winners). So how best to wow the judges? For Gregg, sinful puddings and being an attractive woman seem to go down well; while the Torode is a sucker for Asian fusion. There’s a slight format tweak this year, fewer contestants per week, so we get to spend more time with them before bootage. Also, there’s the addition of the brilliant Palette Test, an idea that has done well on Gordon Ramsay’s American shows, where the hopefuls are given a fairly complex dish to taste, and then have to name the ingredients in it. This invariably throws up some hilarious wrong answers: “Erm, lemon, onion and rosemary?” Actually, no: “chocolate and cream” etc. Embarrassing. Let the panicking commence!
less 
