I do miss the MKR days in as much as there was no show on Thursday, meaning I had time for my first reality TV love: Survivor. And it’s the finale tonight, so I’ll be glued to that.
Tonight on MasterChef it sounds like there will be ceviches aplenty, or perhaps some raw desserts: The losing team from the service challenge now faces elimination as the contestants create a dish without any cooking. The bottom three will then cook-off to avoid elimination from the competition.
Who will survive? #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/250KHI4469
— #MasterChefAU (@masterchefau) 19 May 2016
The ingredient they use raw in round one must be used cooked in round two, if they are in the bottom bunch of cooks. Ooh, nice twist. The contestants have all picked a wide variety of core ngredients.
Nidhi picks cauliflower and Con has tuna. Charlie has strawberries, Jimmy scallops and sister Theresa pear (her raw bok choy salad doesn’t sound that appealing). Ranger Miles picks tuna but Gaz tells him his wasabi mayo is too eggy. And then he kindly waits til there are only 12 minutes left to tell Nidhi her cauliflower salad is too simple. Hey, Gaz, if it’s tasty I’d be happy to eat it – just because it doesn’t have meat or fish doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of being a good dish.
Chloe is doing scallop ceviche and again she appears calm and collected, tasting as she goes. Con plates up his tuna and it’s very George garden style. Theresa is panicking. We haven’t even seen what Elise is cooking – come on, MC – there are hardly any people in this challenge. Show her for 10 seconds. And what’s Karmen cooking? And Heather the “jew” queen?
The judges taste …
Con’s tuna with avocado mousse: They clean the plate. He’s safe.
Nidhi’s cauli salad: “I taste missed opportunity,” says Matt. He wanted pomegranate and dried fruit in there.
Chloe’s scallop ceviche with cultured cream and pressed cuke salad: It’s pretty and they like it.
Heather’s ponzu ceviche scallops: Yum and perfect are the words used.
Karmen’s sashimi salmon with avo mousse: Yum
Elise’s beef carpaccio: “Pretty darn tasty.”
Charlie’s strawbs with coconut: “It’s not a complex dish but gee it’s a delicious dish,” says a smiling Matt.
Miles’s tuna sashimi with wasabi mayo: The mayo is still rubbish.
Theresa’s pear and bok choy salad with walnuts: The presentation is blah but Gaz “wants more”. “I don’t see any growth here, Theresa.
Jimmy’s scallop ceviche with fennel salad: It looks pretty but there’s too much lime juice. The acidity overwhelms the other flavours.
The bottom dwellers are Theresa, Nidhi and Miles. So no sibling showdown.
I’m devastated to be up against these 2. I adore Ranger @milespieclub & my “cheeky" @nidhimahajanau 😭 #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/Om2N7GBvC8
— Theresa Visintin (@TheresaVisintin) 19 May 2016
SORRY, GICE, HAVE TO FLICK OVER TO SURVIVOR (But I’ve seen who goes)
I was going to give tonight a miss, and then I found an unopened bottle of wine.
Okay, I have found something better to do.
They are spending too much time on masticating and looking into the distance, and too little time showing us what the cooks are not cooking.
Finger out of the mayo , Gary. Who knows where his finger has been?
Poached pears , parfait again. Yawn City.
Nidhi gone. What a surprise.
What Nidhi did next. Not much really, returned to her job in a call centre.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/masterchef-australia-what-latest-eliminated-contestant-nidhi-mahajan-did-next/news-story/d73de527c5ebb9dd31931779333e9278
Somehow I can’t see Theresa staying for very much longer, no matter how much her brother tries to cheer her on. She seems a sweet lady, but should probably leave the cooking in the family to Jimmy.
Jimmy’s fennel salad didn’t exactly knock me out. Wake me up when the fennel fad is over.
Thanks for the great recap Juz. In watched Survivor today so didn’t have to watch it tonight.
Raw food. Yuk. The only foods I eat raw are fruit.
Was sorry to see Nidhi go, but those judges love their food crispy.
A pity Therese left her sauce off. Don’t know why she didn’t put it on. She was stirring it right there as they were counting down.
Survivor recap is up, Carole. I think you can guess my reaction to the result.
Thanks Juz, probably the same as mine & most everybody else.
Good decision.
I know every year they like to have the loveable, chubby, ethnic woman – but her food was just Indian food court. It was all she could do, and they couldn’t cover for her any longer. I guess her husband would’ve been happy to have her back as she “was meant for cooking.” Good luck to the jolly samosa.
Kind of not looking forward to Nigella-fest next week. It’s going to be an orgy of swooning, spoon-licking and sycophantic behaviour.
Have your prophylactics ready. With crunch.
Ahhh, yeah. A week full of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtS2Ikk7A9I
Zhee! I may not have much time for Nigella, but this made me not just lol, but practically cack myself! Thank you so much for posting!
My pleasure. 😀
Whoever edited that clip is a very clever (very naughty) geek.
Judges asked Theresa if her poached pear would be enough so she came up with a way to make it more interesting (sort of). If I remember correctly a simply poached pear was enough to get Charlie (I think it was him) into the competition. I would like to add poached pears to my banned/immediate elimination list along with parfait, panna cotta, stuffed zucchini flowers and ravioli.
Nidhi was a niche cook….Indian food. Not good at most other things. This time her Indian food did not save her. .
Yes, Nidhi is really a homecook. They didn’t lie about that. All we saw from her is just Indian food you get in the food court on a plate. No comparison to Rishi.
Yes, Nidhi didn’t show much range, or any really, but I’d have eaten her soggy bahjis over Theresa’s raw bok choy salad. That looked truly vile. Agree with Rosie, can’t see her staying for the long haul. She takes too long to decide what she’s cooking, sometimes she’s still not sure with seconds to go.
Nigella makes me think of my grandpa. In his last years he had such a thing for her, would sit for hours watching her faithfully-recorded shows. And he had zero interest in cooking. Was mildly creepy but funny.
Boy choy salad!! Not sure where Teresa get the idea from!!! Just because you can have kale salad doesn’t mean you do the same with bok choy.
Finally you can see the cracks in some of the contestants. Best ever!
Can’t complain, as I’m probably one of the few that didn’t really rate her cooking (although not rating many this season).. nice gal, but not best evah material.
Again one of the worst episodes evah… sinking faster than the titanic.
Nigella – already? Boo! Okay, so I’ll be gone for another week, because if I have to watch her simpering ways for a week, the pools of vomit will just be too much around here.
And please tell me fucking Maggie Beer won’t be turning up the week after that! Or maybe that’s a good ida, get all the horrors over and done with. I do actually like all of the other guest chefs.
lol
Oh yeah, the smiling, pretentious Maggieeee, spitting verjuice at everyone.
Ch 10 are losing the plot. I doubt if Norkella can save the train wreck that is Ma$terchef. I’m just going to write about her succulent breasts til she’s gone. The promos have featured them heavily, let’s face it. Why avoid the two elephants shakin’ the room?
Today’s Dr.Phil has been aliminated in favour of Jamie’s Comfort Food. Unacceptable.
I’m practically ready to jump ship to House Rules.
Yeah, they took ET off too. Not impressed but at least they encore it on Monday morning.
Pictures on news.com.au or Daily Mail of Nidhi on her knees, stroking the shoes of the three goons. She now wants to cook curries from home.
I don’t know why the camera has to watch the goons eating, gazing up at the ceiling and rolling the food around their mouths. It’s a horrible sight. I think they should give it up, they looks bored and disinterested.
Could we get any more promos for Nigella week? After the one hundredth time I heard Matt yell “…the domestic goddess…”, I wanted to put my boot through the screen.
I know some of it is editing, but is everything Nigella says a double entendre? I suppose she thinks it’s cute, but really it’s sleazy and a bit creepy.
At risk of making a nuisance of myself, for those who haven’t seen Zhee’s link in message 10 (and it may well have been posted before), please do go have a look. The chance to scream with laughter (well, I did), should never be ignored. 😉
Gary’s on The Project tonight. Just gave it the flick.
Yes, thanks for the Nigella link, Zhee. 110% true.
They are promoting Nigella Week to death.
Nigella’s the Ma$terchef Cash Cow.
This years MC seems a little try hard and desperate.
Rolling out the big name celebrity chefs in the early weeks.
Wringing out the emotions from the contestants in the sit downs prior to tasting in the elimination rounds.
Constant referencing to everything being ‘Amazing’
No standout or likeable contestants.
I’m hanging in there but more for this comment website than anything else.
I agree with you, Lola. The style of the desserts is more like Reynold Version 2. Lots of quenelle, spheres or domes.
We still don’t know many of the contestants.
Totally agree, I’ve been thinking the same – combining it with the assurance from the judges that it’s all about the cooking…then this article was on news.com.au Of course Ma$terchef would never hire someone for their back story. Sure they wouldn’t!
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/do-sob-stories-trump-true-talent-on-reality-tv/news-story/56c644c5f62ddb260fe66fad225e6bb7
Thanks for the link, Liberty.
Yep, thanks for the link. If the producers are casting for “personality” , where are the alleged personalities they’ve brought to the table?
Ha – just read this and came here to post the link!
I saw this article on the TVTonight blog. The Masterchef producers very neatly sidestepped the fact that once the person’s cooking credentials are established (to a greater or lesser extent), there is definitely manipulation after that, to keep the ones with the big backstories (or the most marketable) and quietly eliminate those who are average.
And I’m not sure why they thought Reynold and Billie would not have been used if the “back story” criteria had applied. Reynold had the I-want-to-cook-but-my-parents-don’t-approve story, while Billie was hugely attractive and marketable as well as being one of the best cooks.