It didn’t take long for the conversation with MasterChef host Gordon Ramsay to turn away from his new reality cooking contest: “Here’s the thing about Lindsay [Lohan] eating food in prison,” said Ramsay, during a conference call with reporters yesterday. “At least she’ll lose f—ing weight.”

A PR rep tried (unsuccessfully) to cut Gordo off before he could weigh in on the LiLo situation, but it’s just that kind of trash-talking that could propel  the American adaptation of MasterChef to the ratings highs seen by its international predecessors.

While U.K. and Australian versions of the program are aired in 110 countries around the world, it’s the Australian adaption that provided the template for the newest iteration. The American version shares many of the aspects that made MasterChef huge Down Under – amateur cooks, heart-warming back-stories, a mix of surprising talent and scathing criticisms – and it’s set to debut at a time when Fox can use a backup plan in case the now Simon Cowell-less American Idol no longer packs in the ratings.

No surprise, Ramsay is eager to have his new show associated with the popular amateur singing competition. “MasterChef, in my mind, is ‘Chef Idol,’” said Ramsay. “We really put on the pressure,” he elaborates, “A laid-back atmosphere with a laid-back contestant doesn’t really produce a sparkle.”

The show lacks the audience participation needed to justify Ramsay’s Idol comparisons, but early episodes promise to have plenty of Idol-esque interactions (you know, the ones where the judges – to our delight – have to put up with contestants who are humorously awful):

“There was a tomato and cheese soup that looked like an English bulldog’s bottom,” Ramsay recalled. “One gentleman who turned up with (dried) apples that he carved our faces out of. I’ve never seen such a wrinkled apple in my life. It looked like I’m 96, and I’m 43.”

Along with fellow judges (Chicago chef Graham Elliot Bowles and restaurateur Joe Bastianich), Ramsay will cut down 100 contestants to 30 finalists in the first two episodes. The rest of the season will then whittle down the finalists with challenges ranging from chopping a truckload of onions to creating a send-off meal for hundreds of U.S. Marines to that old reality-cooking-competition standby, catering a wedding. The winner will be awarded $250,000 and a cookbook deal.

MasterChef premieres tonight, July 27, at 9 PM EST on Fox. And do check back on the Buzz for Friday’s installment of our “Reality Bites” roundup to see if the new show has the mustache-twirling villainy and inedible chops needed to win our weekly awards for sterling achievement in reality food programming.

– Graham Kates