When I die, this is what I fear will be my first image in the afterlife…Yesterday, I wrote about the newest food reality/competition show scheduled to clog up the summer airwaves the way eating nothing but custard pie and tubs of lard does a fat man’s arteries. The show is Masterchef–a British import which dumps completely the conceit of having trained, professional chefs doing the cooking and goes straight to the masses in order that judge and host Gordon Ramsay might scream for a while at ordinary civilians who fancy themselves talented home cooks.While babbling on about said soon-to-be-blockbuster, I mentioned that the producers must’ve had a moment of genius when laying out the parameters of Masterchef because, in reading the press materials for it, I didn’t see any mention of a prize for the winner. I wrote:”Ultimately, one of [the 50 contestants] will be named “Masterchef” and win… Well, absolutely nothing, near as I can tell from the promotional materials. I could be wrong, but it looks like all the winner gets its a weird looking trophy. So in what has got to be one of the most genius moves in the history of TV gameshows, the prize here appears to simply be getting on television and having Gordon Ramsay tell you you’re a pretty good home cook.Which is just fucking brilliant.”Now as I said, I could’ve been wrong about that. And it turns out I was. I got an email this morning from a delightful woman named Tanya, who is handling the PR for Masterchef, and she informed me that there is, in fact, gold at the end of the rainbow.”There is a prize for winning the show,” she explained. “The winner will receive $250,000 and an opportunity to publish his/her own cookbook.”Which is great. I guess. Honestly, I liked the concept for Masterchef a little better when I thought it was purely about well-meaning amateurs getting on TV and battling over nothing more than bragging rights and some worthless trinket. But whoever does finally win this thing will probably be pretty happy with his or her quarter of a million dollars and potential publishing contract, too.