Food writing veteran Lauraine Jacobs.
Top food writer says chef moniker more about celebrity status than cooking skills.
MasterChef? More like MasterCook, reckons top food writer Lauraine Jacobs.
The 25-year food writing veteran has fired a broadside at the top-rating reality show, which premiered on TV3 last Sunday.
The sixth season is, like its predecessors, called MasterChef NZ. But Jacobs has different ideas.
"It would be nice if it would be called MasterCook," she told the Herald on Sunday.
"It's a little bit of an insult to chefs who spent years training, working in kitchens, working their way up. It must be disturbing for a chef who has done all that training to see someone grabbing the limelight and becoming an instant celebrity.
"Although a lot of people [watching] get excited about food, I would like to see much more teaching the basics.
"People watch these wonderful concoctions being made but they've got no time left so they dial up a pizza."
The past president of the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers has written nine cookbooks and was honoured by the Queen in 2009 for services to the food industry.
She was pleased to see Depot boss Al Brown on the judging panel for TV3's reboot of the former TVNZ show, joining Mark Wallbank and Josh Emett, but disliked the competition aspect of the show.
"I've spent my life writing about food and I didn't ever see it as entertainment," she said.
"[Contestants] then become stars - we've got an awful lot of knowledgeable food writers who get overlooked."
She was sometimes contacted by former
MasterChef NZ
contestants, who were surprised when she did not know who they were.
"They were people that didn't probably get past the last 10."
Jacobs praised last year's winners, Karena and Kasey Bird, for their "sassy" ability to cash in on their celebrity by self-publishing their first cookbook, plus season two winner, Nadia Lim.
"She has written a couple of books, not just one, and through My Food Bag she is getting people into the kitchen."
Series three winner Chelsea Winter has also released two best-selling books.
Jacobs' views were supported by Kelly Young, season one runner-up on MasterChef NZ.
Young worked at Euro after the 2010 show and was keenly aware her profile was bigger than the experienced chefs she was working with.
"I felt like I had robbed them of some of the glory. Media is a powerful thing. It's just the way it is. [But] even now I don't say I'm a chef, I say I'm a very good cook."
Celebrity chef and MasterChef NZ judge Al Brown said although winners were dubbed "MasterChefs", if they wanted a career in a professional kitchen they would have to start at the bottom. "MasterChef is a brand but it is a bit tongue in cheek because the contestants are definitely cooks," he said.
"Many of them could go on to become good chefs but they would probably have to start by peeling large bags of onions and cleaning cooker hoods like everyone else."
Jacobs' comments are not her first frank assessment of the influence of novice foodies. In February, she launched a withering attack on "amateur diners" for destroying the reputation of top eateries through their online reviews.
"The average punter is entitled to an opinion but, when it comes to restaurant and food reviews, the ability to eat is not enough," Jacobs said at the time.
She never told them the five-course meal was vegan. So a cousin decided to act.