Knives, Aeroplanes and Masterchef.

I have to admit a secret indulgence for the TV show Masterchef. Briefly, if you haven't seen it, it's a 'reality cooking' TV show. Contestants are given challenges to cook the best meals and eventually, through eleminations, the last person wins. Think Survivor or American Idol set in a kitchen.

Anyway, last night there was a team challenge where two teams had to prepare a Business Class Menu to be served on the QANTAS A380. They had a limited time to prepare the food and pack the serving trolleys (all on the ground) to be loaded onto the plane.

Big deal, right?

The most annoying aspect of the whole episode was how the teams were often reminded that they could not take knives onto the plane. They had to make sure that any meals served were to be pre-cut. The contestants casually accepted that knives can't be used on the plane - so be it. The entire TV viewing audience is also reminded that only naughty people use knives on planes.

How realistic is it that a crew member's kitchen knife will pose a problem on any passenger airliner today? Post 9/11 mindset would mean that any hijacker would be asking for big trouble... the passengers know the deal - fight back and maybe die, or just sit back and die.

I think it's a master stroke by TPTB to have instilled such an acceptance that aeroplane security is beyond the absurd, when crew members can't use knives in a kitchen. How dumb can people be?

It's a conspiracy. Making people so compliant to accept the silliest regulations can only soften them up for further harsh measures, when the time comes...

Screw it! When I cook, which is often, I use knives. Sharp ones. I have been known to carve a boston butt or ribs with my K-Bar, if that was in easy reach. If I can't take a knife on a private plane in order to cook a gourmet meal, then the hell with them.

i read in the states a girl brought a cake to school for graduation and the plastic knife she used to cut it got her arrested

reply to post by kettlebellysmith


Im not the only one that uses his hunting knife in th kitchen?
boy, now I feel better...I like the fact that i can drop meat on the blade and it cuts it...I cant see me cooking passengers in business class...
they won't let me start a fire to cook them...

Tezzajw,

It is a conspiracy certainly that they kept reinforcing the idea throughout the show.

Now I have never been one for the fare on flights, yuk. They always prepare all the food way ahead of time, and the meals are just reheated. I dont even think they plate the food, it is already plated.

Maybe they are attempting to distract us from all the body scans, LOL.

reply to post by Danbones
HEY, I got two of those bad boys, and there's not enough money to get them away from me. I just keep the edges touched up once every week or so, and they never let me down.

reply to post by Danbones
[double post



[edit on 18-6-2010 by kettlebellysmith]

A knife is a knife is a knife, if the rules are no knives in the cabin then that's the rule, just because it's only supposed to be used by a crew member makes very little difference - maybe an incident would occur and that crew member may introduce the knife, loose control of it and now a weapon has been provided? - An aircraft of that size could have hundreds of people on it in confined area, one whack job can cause panic, lots of people in confined space is never good.

As regards the program making such a big deal out of it, well that's probably sensationalism, every one knows that a gourmet chef and their knives are inseparable - so this makes for a challenging and unique angle for, well a cooking show - they gotta keep that kind of show fresh, there are many cooking programs and they are fighting for ratings in a fairly narrow slice of TV viewers (probably, I don't know the ratings).

double post

[edit on 18/6/2010 by Now_Then]

I saw that episode. Reminded me of watching OZ and and the different things they made shanks with... although I thought they just meant that the passengers wouldn't have access to knives for, say, steak, but they'd have a flimsy plastic one. Makes sense that the in reality the kitchen/cabin crew wouldn't need knives anyway as they are just serving/replating food, not cooking it.