The latest series of Masterchef started last night, with the usual line-up of contestants chomping at the bit to reach the finals, with the dream of chucking in their day-jobs to open a resturant, write a cookery book and take part in numerous cookery fairs or pop-up supper clubs. I have enjoyed watching Masterchef for many years, and wrote a post in December about the last “Professionals” series which you can find in the archive section. But are you, like me, feeling that the format is getting a tad clichéd and needs some spicing up? More bang bang chicken than plain roast chicken? Do you find yourself nodding off when faced with Gregg’s pudding face yet again? Well never fear, I have just the answer for you: Masterchef bingo. From now on, Masterchef episodes can be turned into a fun game that will keep you on your toes and riveted to the telly! First you need to download your handy, free bingo card here:

Masterchef bingo card

Then decide how you are going to play; there are no hard and fast rules. If playing alone, you may simply decide to use one card per episode and just see how many boxes you can cross off and therefore which episodes contain the most clichés. If there are more than one of you playing, you may decide to nominate a line either across or down to each person, and the one who gets the most crossed off wins. Or just see who can be the first to shout out “bingo” on getting a full line or “house” for the whole card. Or turn it into a drinking game and take a slug of whisky or your desired beverage every time a word on the card comes up on the programme.

Some of the items on the card are self-explanatory; if you have “beetroot” for example, you can cross it off the first time a contestant uses beetroot as an ingredient; similarly whenever a contestant announces “Enjoy!” as an instruction/order you can take a drink if playing the drinking game. On second thoughts, maybe just the first time as they seem to shout “Enjoy” all the time and I don’t want to be held responsible for your inebriation. Not all the items are words that need to be said by the contestants, however. “Blobs” refers to the fashion for decorating a plate with blobs of sauce from a squeezy container that looks like it should contain paint at a nursery or ketchup in a greasy spoon. “Puddle/smear” can be crossed off whenever a contestant puts a spoon-shaped puddle of ingredient on a plate and then drags the spoon across it to give the puddle a tadpole tail, as a base for ‘plating’ the other ingredients on top. And “paint-brushed plate” does what it says on the tin and can be crossed off when the contestant starts to ‘plate’ the dish by painting a thick line of sauce across the plate.

From memory, fifteen of the items could have been obtained in last night’s episode, which got the series off to a cracking start with the introduction of Indian Sushi from contestant Chris, which didn’t have a single item on the bingo card – oh, except perhaps the ubiquitous ‘enjoy’ command. Still, we can’t have clichés with every contestant, can we?

Enjoy.