Tonight:
5°c
Guess who is coming to cook dinner?
Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter26 Feb 2009
TONIGHT six million people will watch Andy Oliver contest the final of reality TV show MasterChef. Last night he cooked at my home.
Oliver, 27, who lives in Hackney, has delighted the BBC2 programme's audience with a dazzling array of dishes such as pigeon ravioli and peach soup with wild strawberries. In the process he has become an unwitting sex symbol and housewife's favourite.
MasterChef's judges - restaurateur John Torode and Gregg Wallace (the shouty one who once ran a fruit and veg stall) - have been similarly impressed. This evening, Andy Oliver will be seen cooking off against Mat Follas and Chris Gates for the title of MasterChef 2009.
The series was filmed last summer and autumn and the winner is a closely-guarded secret but Oliver has already decided to pursue his passion for cooking by quitting his well-paid job as an executive with BT.
He is now looking for work at a top restaurant while in the meantime earning money cooking private dinner parties at the homes of people like er me. Hence, at only two hours' notice, he was knocking on my door last night with a bag of ingredients bought hastily at Waitrose in the Holloway Road and at a Turkish supermarket in Dalston. "Sorry I'm a bit late," he explained. "But it was hard to get in and out of Waitrose quickly because shoppers keep stopping me asking me if I'm the bloke off the television and wanting to know how I got on."
In fact he has become something of a heart-throb. "I have had a few offers from middle-aged housewives. I have had a few phone numbers coming my way," he admitted. He is, by the way, single. I show him to our kitchen where he begins preparation, except he is delayed by:
● My seven-year-old daughter who repeatedly asks him questions such as "did you win?" and "what's a scallop?"
● My 75-year-old mother, who has been telephoned by my daughter to tell her Oliver is in our kitchen, then demanding to speak to him. She says to him repeatedly: "You're my favourite. I hope you win."
● My pestle and mortar which has to be cleared of children's badges and sticky sweets and has not been used as a kitchen implement since it was purchased five years ago.
Having cooked during his run on MasterChef for Michelin-starred chefs, the Army and even the staff of Buckingham Palace, Oliver is remarkably unfazed by the short notice. By 9pm, only four hours after contacting him to ask if he will demonstrate his skills, the wife and I and two friends are sitting down to our first course - spiced quail salad with couscous and a pear and saffron chutney.
Chez Mendick has by now been filled with amazing aromas. His quail is, as judge Wallace might declare, a taste explosion. The second course is if anything even better. Sea bream with fennel, potato and lobster and mussel bisque is so delicious my only complaint is there wasn't more much more.
Meanwhile my wife is now cross that I didn't ask Oliver to do a pudding too.
Reader views (2)
Andy was the most consistent throughout all the weeks, showed his leadership skills and also his great mixtures of flavours from around the world.
- Sean Peters, Jersey, UK, 27/02/2009 13:17
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Shame he lost but the Kiwi was a better cook.
- Bob, Cheam, 26/02/2009 22:04
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