Learn from Masterchef the professionals. It's not just about cooking...

I love watching Masterchef (and all other cooking shows).
I love it because I love food.  I love making it, I love eating it, I love learning about it, I love watching it inspire passion and opinions in others.  I love that moment when someone pops that first mouthful into their mouth and the look of ecstasy on their faee is because of something I (or someone else mostly) has made for them.  However I digress.
Masterchef can not only teach us how to make a malt-vinaigrette foam.  It teaches us about humans.
Theres a few interesting things that we all need to remember about reality tv though - one its almost always a competition and people have their serious competitive hats on, and that editing is very clever, and we only see 1-2 hours out of hundreds of hours of footage.  We need to keep these in mind before we judge their tv performance as gospel.  But.  I watch it and I notice a few things, those who take risks because of passion and not ego usually get our vote.  They show personal touches, and humanity.  They let their guards down long enough for us to see a smile, or a worried look.  We like this as audiences because we relate to them.  We want to eat their food.  We want to invite them into our homes and drink wine with them.
I also notice that people hide behind a facade of confidence and arrogance and they make it hard to 'direct'.  A simple suggestion from the hosts of MC is often sneered at and taken the wrong way.
Contestants also seem to be so afraid of showing their personality - its as if they are taking everything so seriously that they forget to have fun and remember the delight that brought them there in the first place.
What does this have to do with acting?  Acting is about being human.  It's about telling the truth and not hiding.  It's about being warm and personable and likeable.  It's about getting people on your side and on board.  If contestants on reality shows stopped hiding we probably wouldn't yell at the tv so much.  Masterchef I know is about food and not about personality, but personality can easily be injected into the food they make.  We can all learn something from Masterchef - be yourself, make your food your own, and smile once in awhile!
xo