Culturebox: Recipes for Disaster

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television Recipes for Disaster MasterChef, The Next Food Network Star, and Rocco's Dinner Party reviewed. By Troy Patterson Posted Tuesday, June 7, 2011, at 6:57 PM ET The publicity people at Fox, adepts at mailing out cheesy, clever, or otherwise notable promotional items, may have outdone themselves for aptness in announcing the new second season of MasterChef by sending an oven mitt that's as black as malice and composed of space-age plastic. With its S&M-chic styling, the mitt looks like some kind of spanking glove, and there can be no doubt that more than a few of this nation's TV reviewers are already using it as such, a masochistic streak being a prerequisite for the job. The mitt is most certainly in the style of the show it advertises, a competition where 100 amateur cooks venture to Los Angeles to be humiliated by Gordon Ramsay and two deputy abusers, Graham Elliott and Joe Bastianich. On camera, Ramsay talks about his Michelin stars as if they were instead the kind that a ninja throws, and he cruelly exhorts the contestants to subscribe to his winner-take-all ethos. "Be the best or go home," he sneers. "Nobody ever talks about the second-best dish they've ever tasted." Not true. Watch: The second-best dish I ever tasted was the rabbit at Jean-Georges, which is almost as good as Mom's apple pie. To continue reading, click here. Troy Patterson is Slate's television critic. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Rep. Weiner's Wife, Huma Abedin, Is Pregnant Shafer: More Great Kiss-Offs From Journalists to the Bosses Who Fired Them John Edwards Is a Lawyer. Why Doesn't He Represent Himself in Court?	Advertisement
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