MasterChef – Tues, May 23 – Reynold returns

More sweets tonight and – yay – Reynold is back! Glad he is doing so well with his Koi dessert bar in Sydney.

So, Overly Excited Bryan went home last night, which means the top three contestants from Sunday night get to cook for a chance to beat a chef for the immunity pin. We have Cool Headed Diana, Whizz Kid Callan and Young Sam.
Presto announces there’s a twist tonight: All three go straight into an immunity pin challenge, and each person will be cooking against one of three pastrychefs.
There are two award-winning female chefs, Lauren and Angelique – thank god for pastry week giving us a break from the heavily tattooed lad chefs – but all eyes are on our beloved Reynold.


There’s a knife draw and Lauren cooks against Young Sam, Diana gets Angelique and the crowd cracks up when they realise Callan gets Reynold as his opponent.
The MasterChef contestants get a 15-minute headstart and, of course, the wisdom of mentor Shannon Bennett and crimson sneakers.

Diana is making a dark chocolate sorbet on a sable (also known as a bickie) with orange sauce. Yum – Jaffa flavours!
Oooh – Young Sam’s got the lingo right – he’s “respecting the ingredients”. He grabs some blood plums, which are my fave summer fruit, so I may have to barrack for him tonight. Dark fruit with gingerbread, a vanilla parfait and a roasted chocolate. He’s never made gingerbread before! Man, my five-year-old has made gingerbread.
Callan is creating a layered sponge cake with fruit, jelly and toffees. Sounds more like a trifle. He wants to “hero” the strawberries, raspberries, grapes, kiwi fruit and yellow peach. Callan may be able to cook but he certainly doesn’t know the difference between singular and plural.

The judges are freed from the dungeon and allowed to start cooking. I wish I could slice up a pineapple as quickly as Reynold. He’s making a lemongrass and ginger consomme with mango cream and a white chocolate disc.
Callan has made a prosecco jelly – bingo! It’s the “it” element of the season.
Angelique is creating something with green tea, coconut and raspberry and she’s a mad, messy Frenchie in the kitchen. She’s very entertaining.
Lauren is creating honeycomb with creme fraiche ice cream and she’s much more precise – she spoke earlier about doing simple elements, well. Is it going to be MasterCheffy enoughy? The crowd on the gantry tried to convince her to tizzy it up a bit but she’s not keen.
Her honeycomb looks fabulous. I’m going to make mine in a high tin next time.


And she gets out the liquid nitrogen to make ice cream! About time – we’re three nights into Sweet Week. She shows Young Sam how it all works.


Angelique – who I hope comes back next year because she’s fun to listen to – decides to make some super precise tuiles. Her opponent, Diana, is devo to learn Shannon thinks her sable is too thick and tough, so she turns it into a crumb.
Shannon is good with the hints tonight – he’s given Callan advice on using one ingredient and now supervises Sam making some liquid nitrogen parfait snow. Looks pretty.
Shannon is even giving Reynold a little pep talk as he works on his chocolate – old habits die hard.
Callan has 50 elements but decides it’s not enough. He starts making a ganache from what looks to be milk chocolate.
Sam is doing one of those forest floor plate-ups that looks like a plate of pasta covered in parmesan cheese, while Diana’s is clean and precise. Reynold has the Georgie tweezers out. Callan’s sponge topped with fruit AND ganache looks a bit weird. Angelique is rightly pumped about what she achieved in 75 minutes in an unfamiliar kitchen, and on TV.

The judges taste
Reynold V Callan: They’ve got to know straight away which one was done by the professional. It is so delicate and beautiful. They are impressed by the hot consomme melting the white choc disc to reveal the mango surprise underneath. Georgie uses tweezers to pick each piece of fruit off Callan’s sponge. Use a spoon, George! The judges say the choc ganache doesn’t work. They don’t like the dish.


Diana V Angelique: They like Diana’s dark choc sorbet but George thinks the cook did not use the time well. They “ooh” as they cut open Angelique’s dessert and see the layers. They love, love, love it.


Young Sam V Lauren: Lauren’s honeycomb is “unbelievable” and her honeycomb is “flawless”. Gez says Sam’s dish is delicious and like a deconstructed version of black forest gateaux. They like the addition of the roasted plums. It’s a Christmassy dessert.

The scores
Callan: Gaz 5, George 5, Presto 6
Reynold: Gaz 9, George 9, Presto 9 (poor Reynold must have been having flashbacks)
Diana: Gaz 5, George 6, Presto 7 (good on you, Matt – she deserved a better score than Callan)
Angelique: Gaz 10, George 10, Presto 10 – perfect score!
Young Sam: Presto 9, George 9, Gaz 9
Lauren: Presto 9, George 9, Gaz 10 (she only had two elements on the plate but he couldn’t fault either of them).

The guest chefs
Angelique is from Monster Kitchen in Canberra, near the lake website here. You can see some of her funky desserts on their Facebook page.
Lauren is from Marque in Sydney website here.

And here’s the link to Reynold’s place.
Tomorrow night it’s the team challenge with the greenhouses full of edible stuff we’ve seen on the ads.



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Littlepetal

No way Callan is going to beat Reynold.

Sam plated a dish of sh#t

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Jayblossom

I can’t see any ammunity pins going tonight simply because none of three are the bozo’s … I mean judge’s favourites. I can’t see Diana smiling, simpering and batting her eyelashes so it probably won’t matter how good her dish is. Having said that I would like to be wrong.

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Maz

The judges are raving about Sam’s dish. My guess he gets the immunity pin.

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Jayblossom

I do give him credit for taking the opportunity to learn from the guest chef – he seems to have a pretty good attitude. The contestants really have nothing to lose in these ammunity challenges so they may as well earn from it.

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Littlepetal

Callan ‘s dish is pathetic. Poor effort

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Littlepetal

Sam was close but no pin

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Jayblossom

Wonder if it would have been different story if he’d been a young and pretty blonde female.

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Brussellsprout

Indeed. I was hoping he’d get a pin – Eloise will be insufferable now she possesses the only pin.

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Liberty

Monster Kitchen’s website appears to have crashed. Guess Angelique got some new fans tonight!

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Jayblossom

Her dessert did look fabulous.

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Littlepetal

The French girl is very entertaining. She obviously got talent and works hard to get to where she is.

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brussellsprout

I just loved her – how much fun was she?
Last night’s balloon girl – sorry, name escapes me – was very sweet too. The standard of guest judges is much better this year.

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Jayblossom

Diana and Callan neither one came close to the professional’s dish. I personally didn’t find Sam’s dish or his chef’s dish visually appealing.

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Shellbot

Sam’s looked terrible!

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Sara

It’s awful to see them salivating, adam’s apples going up and down as George shares out the food. No napkins, they just lick their fingers , pigs

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Littlepetal

Honeycomb & Cultured Cream is Laurent signature dish. Even Gary said he had made a few honeycomb but he couldnt make it so light and with that flavour

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Littlepetal

Honeycomb & Cultured Cream is Laurent signature dish. Even Gary said he had made a few honeycomb but he couldnt make it so light and with that flavour

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Juz

Recap up. Heaps of people on the MasterChef Facebook page saying Sam was robbed lol. Just because Lauren’s dessert was not flashy they don’t get it. Perhaps Angelique will pop up on The Living Room – I’d like to hear her go accent for accent with Miguel.

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lulu

Disappointing from Callan. Who’d make a sponge – it’s not a CWA challenge.
I like Reynold, but he was never a ‘home cook’ and since when is he only known by one name? Is he that famous?
I don’t know who the French woman is, but ‘behaving French’ is clearly a good marketing tool.
I liked the low-key honeycomb chef.

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Maz

Well actually…we do know that certain contestants in this competition can’t make sponge cakes (cough, cough, Jess) so in Callan’s mind it probably puts him lights year ahead of his competition.

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Carole

Thanks Juz. Callan & Diana’s dish looked pretty ordinary. Was pretty obvious which was the professional chef’s dish. Callan’s cake looked very dry.
Poor Sam. So close.
Was great to see Reynold back.

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Smythe

I was surprised that Sam did not get a pin. I don’t think I heard the judges say anything negative about it.
Good to see Reynold again and liked the other guest chefs.

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