In this show three amateur chefs aim to try to put together as pretentious a meal as possible in two-and-a-half hours. This includes a starter, a main course and a dessert. 

They are allowed to spend £10 on any food they desire to make their meal. And that's it. The winner of each regional heat goes through to a semi-final, and those three winners go through to the final where the winner is crowned 'Masterchef 19XX'. 

There are usually two special guests on the show, a popular chef and any old television celeb.  They talk to the chefs whilst they are cooking, asking them questions, and commentating.  Together with Loyd they each taste all the food, commenting on the good points, then secretly bitch about it behind the contestants' back whilst judging.

Loyd going "Mmmmmmm..." for ages over all the dishes during the tasting, rubbing your noses in it, because he knew full well Masterchef went out at 5pm and it would be at least another hour before Mum had made your tea.

The format is now rather different. Only two courses are prepared and each contestant must use the same key ingredient in each. Although this restricts the variety of dishes, it does make it a fairer contest and there is less need for the constant recapping of menus needed in the original version.

Also, there is now only one studio guest rather than a celeb-chef combo but again the show doesn't seem that worse off without it. Likewise, there is no plastic dummy version of Loyd dressed up as a butler.

There was a junior version of the show, imaginatively monickered Junior Masterchef. Here, the contestants only have to make two courses.  They are given two hours and, yes, the menus are still pretentious.