Sydneysiders like to think of ourselves as a sophisticated lot, but I increasingly think the whole thing’s an act. How else can you explain a town where talented chef-restaurateurs like Matt Kemp are forced out of business for lack of trade yet people happily queue for fat-tongued mockney prat Jamie Oliver’s mass-produced faux-‘talian?

Oh and it gets worse. Much worse:

IN A further blurring of the line between reality TV and reality, a MasterChef restaurant is set to open in Sydney.

The pop-up restaurant and bar, MasterChef Dining, a joint venture of the Ten Network and the media production company Shine 360, will be built in the forecourt of St Mary’s Cathedral and open from July 3 to 22, with funds raised going to the OzHarvest charity.

Of course, the thing will be a huge hit. Sydney has a seemingly inexhaustible supply of would-be masterchefs who are “rooly pashunit about food!” who will fill every table at every sitting of the venture.

The sad thing is that Becasse’s Justin North, lately forced to the wall, is actually participating in this charade, presumably in a bid for publicity and trade. Sorry mate, the people who come to this thing will never spend a dime in one of your joints. These foll think that a “hat” is not an award a chef earns, but rather an object of personal expression that on no account needs be removed from one’s head upon entering a dining room.