Two Women Made the MasterChef Finale, but We Really Only Care About the Shoes

– Posted in: Mean Girls, Media, TV, Women's Issues

This week, the two finalists from Season 5 of MasterChef competed for the title of America’s Best Home Chef. After first being chosen from a pool of thousands, these extremely talented, self-taught women withstood three months of grueling challenges to become the last ones standing. And, incidentally, they joined other women from the international MasterChef shows when they became part of the first women’s-only finale on MasterChef U.S.

But apparently, all anyone really wanted to focus on was their shoes.

Courtney and Elizabeth from MasterChef

You see, the finalists, Courtney Lapresi and Elizabeth Cauvel, were both sort of known for wearing high heels while they cooked. Courtney, especially, wore some serious stilts that always warranted some sort of cutaway whenever she walked up to present her dish. I’m sure part of the fascination was strictly based on trying to figure out how she didn’t fall down while running around her cooking station.

Courtney sort of became known (although it was someone self-appointed) as “the hot girl in heels who could cook.” I do have to give the MasterChef producers some props for one thing: Courtney, it turns out, used to work as a stripper. But they didn’t make it a focus. It didn’t come up as the caption under her name — usually that said “Aerial Dancer.” And they didn’t show a bunch of snarky remarks from other contestants about it (which I’m sure they could’ve coaxed — those guys can coax out anything…).

But back to the shoes. To some extent, I get it. We’re humans. We see things that stand out and we focus on them. We want to put people in boxes so we can find them easily. On reality shows, we identify people by their outstanding characteristics before we learn their names (unless their names are weird and thus become the outstanding characteristic).

So it’s no surprise that Courtney became the girl in the heels. Especially since that’s what the producers focused on, even when Elizabeth wore them too. The show tells us a story, and we listen. And we hear what we’re told.

So in that finale, we were also told this — this was the battle of the girls. This was a chick fight. Not a battle between two great chefs but a junior high, scratch out your eyes, “I’m cuter than you are, I’m after your boyfriend, and I’ll mean girl you into the ground” chick fight. This was not about cooking.

When Elizabeth walked out in her flat black boots she was ready for war. When Courtney came out in her sparkly pink heels, she was ready for war. But not a regular MasterChef war. Not a battle a culinary prowess. This was different. At least that’s what we were all supposed to believe. And when they stood next to each other, there was no shortage of cutaways to their feet to make sure we all knew exactly what was going on.

My son and daughter haven’t watched the finale yet. They love MasterChef, and I don’t relish having these subtle bits of the story seep into their minds. Actually, what I really don’t relish is having to point out the subtleties so they can be ruminated over instead of just gobbled down without a second thought. It’s the gobbling without questioning that ultimately makes you sick to your stomach.

Because when we stop questioning, soon everything starts to taste just fine. Even when it’s old and should’ve been thrown out a long time ago.

 

6 Comments… add one

Andrea September 19, 2014, 4:13 am

So you’re saying they didn’t actually cook with their feet? 😉

Tammy Soong September 25, 2014, 10:58 am

Oh crap! I didn’t mention the challenge with the monkey toes?
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Rachel September 20, 2014, 8:21 pm

Its been awhile since I have been over here. Kind of took a break from blogging. But im kinda back. Anyways. I was a huge top chef fan, haven’t watched as much in recent seasons, it started to feel more about the “story” than the chefs, and the food 🙁

Tammy Soong September 25, 2014, 10:59 am

Well welcome back! Loved your post about the “All About the Bass.” And yeah, that’s what happens with all of those shows, and I just don’t know why.
Tammy Soong recently posted..Two Women Made the MasterChef Finale, but We Really Only Care About the ShoesMy Profile

Roxanne September 25, 2014, 9:55 am

I thought footwear was an important aspect of someone’s cooking prowess. My bad.
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Tammy Soong September 25, 2014, 11:00 am

Don’t feel bad. We can’t all be amazing water boilers like myself…
Tammy Soong recently posted..Two Women Made the MasterChef Finale, but We Really Only Care About the ShoesMy Profile

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