Kids are interested in cooking.
MasterChef Australia judge Matt Preston clearly remembers the moment he realised the amateur cook-off show was having a strange and unexpected effect on children.
"I was at the Collingwood Children's College and I was standing there listening to these two eight-year-olds discussing the flavour and texture of a borage flower," he says.
Er, a what? "Exactly. A borage flower. Can you imagine?" Preston laughs. "And I thought, 'Wow, is it possible?' because for years we've struggled to get kids involved in cooking and right then and there, I realised we were finally making that connection."
The borage flower, for the culinarily uncultivated, is a herb that goes nicely in salads. If you're an eight-year-old MasterChef fan, you probably know that.
When they're not discussing salad ingredients or whipping up souffles or judging their parents' spaghetti bolognese, kids are watching the surprise hit. According to OzTam figures, 2 million people tuned in to the Ten Network show last Sunday to see the contestants make sausages, beating the return of Dancing with the Stars by more than half a million viewers.
Since its debut 10 weeks ago, MasterChef has claimed a 43 per cent share of the commercial audience on Sundays and consistently won its weekday timeslot. While OzTam does not measure audiences aged under 18 as a specific group, there's no doubt the reality cookery competition is a hit among young viewers.
So what has made a flamboyant, cravat-wearing food critic and two chefs, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan, the new superstars of the playground?
Much of it is down to the likeability of the cast and the show's wholesome, feel-good take on the reality-TV genre.
"These kind of shows are always about the ratings, but the thing that is so exciting and exhilarating is that this genuinely has a life outside the half an hour it's on the telly," Preston says. "People are actually downloading the recipes to make the croquembouche or the baklava or the panna cotta.
"All these people have been putting their shoulder against the door trying to get kids to cook - the Stephanie Alexanders, the Jamie Olivers - and the way I see it is that they've done all this amazing groundwork and all we've done is get on the other side and unlock it and suddenly the door has burst open."
Blame the "MasterChef effect" for school holiday cooking courses being booked solid for weeks. Those who do get a spot are spouting terms like "caramelise" and "plate it up", says Sabrina Parrini, who runs cooking classes for four-year-olds and up at Little Kitchen in North Fitzroy.
"All they want to talk about is MasterChef," she says. "We had one little boy who actually took over the lesson the other day. We were making tarte tatin and he piped up and said, 'That's not how they do it on MasterChef. So he showed us how to do it. The show has given kids an increased confidence and capability in the kitchen, which is great."
Among the budding chefs at Little Kitchen last week, Julia Pizzica, 11, and her sister Olivia, 8, from Pascoe Vale South, said they never missed an episode and like to "judge" mum Ros's meals.
"Olivia will tell me the texture of this is really good, Mum," Mrs Pizzica laughs.
She believes the show has made her children more willing to try new dishes even if they don't like the look of it.
This story first appeared in Sunday Life magazine, in the Sun-Herald and Sunday Age.
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