If, like me, you are a connoisseur of the finer things in life, your switches will be flicked by the following itemised listing:

1 – cooking approaching a professional standard
2 – human drama at its most intense
3 – witty repartee that would make Noel Coward blush

If you remain unaroused by these things, then I pity you. But if your cultural antennae is now twitching like a rabbit’s nostril, may I introduce to you ‘Close Up Masterchef Volume One’ – a magnified, photographic documentary of the eighth series of Masterchef (not counting the Loyd Grossman years, of course).

Whilst I’ve been a fan of Masterchef for some years now, early on in this series I felt a provocation I’d never experienced before – although the dropping of the auditions round initially felt like a mistake, it quickly became apparent that the quality of what was on offer before me was at an all time high. Like a prima ballerina or virtuoso pianist, confidence seemed to flow from the very pores of all involved – I knew this was a different level of televised episodic competitive challenge based cooking. And so I felt compelled to document. To record. To celebrate.

After some searching for the most appropriate method of capturing the sights, the sounds, the smells of Gregg, John, Shelina, Aki et al in action (including but not limited to interpretive dance, slam poetry and animal puppetry), I settled on close up photography. It seems obvious now, but by my troth, many a pained evening was spent trying to express myself appropriately. Many a dark, lonely, pained evening…

And now I offer the fruits of my labour to you, my fellow connoisseur.

I would not be uttering a mistruth if I were to tell you that I captured literally hundreds of images across the fifteen episodes of series eight, but that kind of indulgence simply would not do. As anyone who knows anything about cooking will tell you, it does not do to gorge oneself. So I present a distillation of the very essence of the toughest cooking competition the known universe has ever seen. A photographic jus, if you will.

I present Close Up Masterchef Volume One. Bon appetit.

Get your copy of Close Up Masterchef Volume One from the Avery Hill Publishing Online Shop – it’s here!

– Dave