I Watched Masterchef Australia Last Night

Don’t ask me why, I just was. As a comedy writer, I appreciated one moment in particular for it contained that absolutely essential ingredient of a perfect comic moment: tragedy.

A lady in her 40s spoke at the beginning of her dedication to cooking and her desire to become a professional chef. She didn’t do very well in the first round. She under-cooked her meat or forgot to set her jam or threw a potato at the judge. I’ve forgotten what she did wrong but that’s not important. Now she was in the bottom ten, fighting for her place on the show.

Before the next challenge – which was to surprise the judges with chocolate – she revealed that she had brought along with her a talisman; a Portuguese porcelain cockerel. “It’s always brought me good luck in the past and I hope it will do so again today,” she said, fighting back the tears.

The countdown had begun. The lady in her 40s ran to grab the ingredients she needed for the challenge. She put them all in a supermarket basket and ran over to her work-desk, determined to restore the judges’ faith in her talent as a cook.

As she ran back to her work-desk, she tripped and tumbled to the floor. Her upturned basket of ingredients splattered beside her and her lucky Portuguese cockerel cracked beneath her falling body.

“So much for my lucky cock,” she said.

She lost and went home.