It all started so well on last night’s episode of Masterchef when it was announced the cooking contestant hopefuls would be serving up English breakfasts for John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
No doubt John and Gregg were looking forward to it, too.
But then Masterchef had go and ruin it by allowing the contestants to utilise their culinary skills and creativity to come up with their own interpretations of this ‘King of meals’ for the quarter final.
Read more: Masterchef fans all wound up over John Torode’s pronunciation of fridge staple
“I’m looking for some flair, something extra, something worthy of Masterchef,” said BBC journalist and guest taster Amol Rajan.
He added: “What I don’t want to see is a couple of fried eggs and a spoonful of beans and a sausage.”
Well, he certainly didn’t get that. But he might have had the kind of food revolution that spills onto the streets rather than serves up overpriced burritos if viewers didn’t have social media to vent about how tinkering with such a national classic is not welcome.
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Viewers were not impressed with the task at hand. And they were very sweary as the expressed their displeasure, too.
One tweeted the show had gone too far: “[Bleep][around] with a full English breakfast? No, #MasterChef you’ve crossed the line this time…”
Another warned: “I do love #MasterChef but I’m sorry… you don’t [bleep] about with a full English breakfast. #leaveitout.”
Echoing certain political events from the past couple of years, another viewer tweeted the hardline position: “Breakfast means breakfast.”
And while how crispy the bacon is, how runny the eggs are can be, how the toast is sliced and the very presence or not of beans can be delicate enough subjects for true English breakfast connoisseurs, some of the radical approaches demonstrated on Masterchef had viewers completely bewildered.
Ribs, for instance, as served up by Lyn, are apparently a no go. While Gregg enjoyed the barbecue flavour, John felt there were two different dishes – and mealtimes – on the plate. Amol, meanwhile, thought ribs were irrelevant to his brief.
One viewer seemed very offended at the prospect: “Ribs in a full English? No. I do not want to be [bleep]ing around with bones at breakfast,” they tweeted.
Meanwhile, IT manager Greg’s full English in an eggshell concoction of egg yolk, crème fraîche, mushroom and bacon dust, sausage mousse and coriander honey with a mushroom and masala broth was praised by both judges and viewers for its inventiveness – but it is hardly a fry up, is it?
“A whole breakfast in an egg shell does rather sound like a *very* small breakfast to me,” observed one tweeter.
“Have a word with yourself,” chided another.
“Peak [bleep],” another surmised.
Why are they messing about with breakfast… 😕#MasterChef #MasterChefUK
— Magso (@magso5) March 22, 2018
What these contestants are doing to the traditional British breakfast is an absolute disgrace #MasterChef
— Lester (@LestWyatt) March 22, 2018
Another divisive issue for some viewers was why the complex mix of spices used by Nisha in her sausage and black pudding-stuff paratha topped with a chilli and coriander poached egg, masala baked beans and a pakora filled with garlic and mushroom hash brown with bacon jam and a grilled tomato wasn’t considered as ‘deviating from the brief’.
“Biased towards spice,” said one viewer.
“But isn’t Nisha’s an Indian breakfast?” asked another.
Wallies on #masterchef ruining the English breakfast 😂
— Sean (@sehol) March 22, 2018
If I ordered a full English breakfast & got any of those abominations on #MasterChef tables & chairs would go flying. #MasterChefUK
— Fat (@Bloke_On_A_Bike) March 22, 2018
English breakfasts, how do you have yours?
Masterchef is next on BBC One on Monday at 7.30pm.
What’s included in your ideal English breakfast? Head over to our Facebook page to join the showbiz conversation – @EntertainmentDailyFix.