The end is nigh. Who will win? Kim and Suong or Alex and Emily?
I hope they cut to Anna for most of the commentary – preferably with a wedge of cheese in her hand.
Vote in the winners’ poll.
I skipped the first 10 minutes but I imagine it was a montage of family, passion, cooking lows, cooking highs, yadda yadda.
Cut to Kitchen HQ and they have to prepare 100 dishes per team.
Kim and Suong are doing:
Wagyu with mustard leaf
Quail with Viet XO sauce
Tiger prawns with red sauce
Viet beef stew
Coconut creme caramel with citrus salad.
Right from the start their benches are full of rubbish. Put scraps in a big bowl, ladies!
I’m glad they are finally doing a classic dessert and just adding some Asian flavours. If it works this will be their first dessert success – better not be too sweet,
Alex and Emily are doing:
Tuna tartare
And we don’t hear what else they are doing as Mrs Hat is already panicking about time, before the first course is even served.
The booted contestants arrive (including visibly pregnant Mrs Military, which shows you how long it’s been since the comp started. And several teams I have blocked from my memory) then the families and K &S’s kids are so darn cute.
Oh god – Mr What’s A Colander? is here and he has never eaten raw fish. Over it.
HH entree looks far prettier but no doubt KS will have bags of flavour..
The judges sit down at the “blind tasting”. Oh yeah, I bet Kim and Suong made the tuna tartare with cumin mayo.
The judges love the tartare and there are no negative comments. The judges all like the Viet dish but Karen thinks presentation could be better for grand finals.
COURSE TWO
Kim is deboning 20 quail – that’s a lot of work.
HH are doing lamb brains wrapped in jamon. It’s a very cheffy menu.
Mrs HH is freaking “I just feel like I’ve been left to do this myself.”
Mr HH (confused): “Well, that was the plan, wasn’t it?”. Because he’s just been sitting around, not doing anything at all.
Suong has burnt some quail and then drops a bird. Kim wants to give her the bird.
The judges saw the brains are cooked properly and it’s a well thought out dish.
The quail is also cooked properly and the soz is great. Pete thinks it’s a perfect dish. Why are we seeing Steve and Roula critiquing dishes? They have proved their food knowledge – rather, their lack of – months before.
THIRD COURSE
HH are doing Moroccan lobster. I’m worried they are not “respecting” the “hero” of the dish.
As they plate KS realise they are two prawns short. So we had Quail Gate and now Prawn Gate. The plates looks pretty messy, although it’s to compete with food served in a lobster shell for looks.
The judges love the prawn dish but Pete concedes it ain’t pretty.
They are puzzled by the flavour combo of the lobster and Manu can’t fathom why they did not serve it with the harissa butter.
FOURTH COURSE
HH are making crispy pork belly with Calvados soz. I am going to use his truck of flattening the partially cooked pork with a heavy tray to ensure an even look.
At plating time Mrs Hat starts crying over a perceived slight. Sigh.
On the other side of HQ, some of the creme caramels for dessert are overcooked.
This is probably the time they have a break and do the next day’s filming.
The judges are happy with HH’s pork crackling. Colin says it’s a great dish – and he knows his pork. He’s impressed with their time management.
The judges adore the soz of the Viet beef stew and the tendons. They don’t say anything about the carrots oddly draped over the top of the cast iron dishes.
In the waiting room KS are arguing loudly over the overcooked dessert. HH have to sit there awkwardly.
FIFTH And FINAL COURSE
Suong is attempting to remake the creme caramel in not much time at all.
HH have called their dessert Penicillin. Why? It’s involves ginger jelly, lemon parfait, whiskey caramel and gingerbread.
They have even pulled out the dry ice for presentation, shown as dramatic Willy Wonka type music plays.
KS thinks their new creme caramels have worked.
HH’s dessert look restaurant quality.
Pete informs us the Penicillin name is a play on a cocktail.
Colin says the tuile adds nothing to the creme caramel, which Manu thinks is a bit overcooked.
The judges have fun pouring the whisky over the dry ice – after Colin takes a swig. Karen says presentation is 11/10. They also love the flavours.
Two hours in and we still have to listen to judges’ feedback to contestant. Let’s just fast forward to the scores:
KIM AND SUONG SCORES
Karen 8 Guy 9 Manu 8 Liz 9 Colin 9 Pete 9
Total 52/60
ALEX AND EMILY
Guy 9 Karen 9 Manu 9 Colin 9 Pete 9 Liz 10
Total 55/60
Cue one of two prerecorded “winner” endings.
HH definitely cooked better tonight / they deserved the win, they will need it to pay to send Emily on a meditation retreat. Or buy Mr Hat some more hats – although, after this, he may never wear a hat again.
The time and energy I”ve invested since January and it’s down to this lot. Will I never learn?!
At least it’s finally over, and we can all go back to our lives once the credits roll. Even Manu has done interviews where he said that he’s just sick of the drama and he’s annoyed that the show isn’t about cooking anymore. Hard to disagree with him.
I intend to watch this while channel surfing. I’m not all that invested, but hopefully the other teams show up early. As for the winners, I just think Emily will cry a lot and the Hats will win. But I just don’t like either of these teams enough to want them to win, you know?
Although I am kind of interested to see whether the Jordanian girls were invited back. Probably not.
I think because the Emily is really not well like by the public, they will have to let Kim and Suong win.
Kim said she is going to open a rest with her husband. Good luck to her. But Suong said Kim is very stubborn and a perfectionist. This is not a good trait to run a restaurant. Food can be good but if service is slow, customers will not return.
I made the Steamed Layer Cake today. Of course I didnt use the recipe on the website. The recipe is totally wrong. Using the wrong flour and 2KG of sugar.
Malaysians have a similar cake but without the mung bean layer. So I am happy to try the Vietnamese version. I do like it.
I don’t remember the names of half the contestants because this comp has been going on for soooo long
I remember the really annoying ones who can’t cook.
… which, to be fair, was most of them.
I feel the same, they were just panning round the previous contestants when they were eating, and I was thinking to myself, who are these people?!
Oh look at the little chickens!! The kidlets are sooooo cute 😊😊
The judges should have walked out to the song” I’m blue duba dee duba Di duba dee duba Di”
A lesser person would make the joke that, those are the most brains Emily has ever possessed.
But luckily, I would never stoop that low. Meanwhile, is it just me or does Alex have a goldfish attached to the side of his hat?
Looks like just the fish tail.
What a cook!
(Oh no you didn’t)
Put sound off, using subtitles.
Zen-Emily only lasted about half an hour. I don’t blame you.
I gotta say, though, Kim’s voice is starting to make my ears ache, too.
Emily lacks finesse. He he he
I loved the moment where Emily was complaining about how their kitchen was so loud and disorganised and chaotic.
I’m sorry Emily. What?
I’ve just worked out who jazzy reminds me of. The girls from romy and Michelle’s high school reunion!
I literally want to throw something at the TV every time Mrs Hat does a speaking to camera bit. I really hope they don’t win.
I’m still not sure why Liz is there at the judge’s table, but I think she doesn’t know why she’s there either, so she over-compensates with a never-ending line of dramatic facial expressions.
Seriously, Liz’s eyebrows could have their own TV show.
Because she is an experienced chef and restaurant owner of over 20 years. Owned a two hatted restaurant in Melbourne.
Emily’s not used to pesky clothes getting in the way when she cooks
Just imagine how much better Alex and Emily’s night would be going, if Alex didn’t have to constantly stop what he was doing to handle yet another breakdown from Emily?
At this point, I’ve changed my mind, I think the Vietnamese mothers have this in the bag.
The poor little thing. She is always the victim. Just cry and blame it on Alex
Urgh! I just yelled at the TV and told Emily to shut tp.
Judging from the comments, I think Hat and Crybaby will not need money for a wedding anymore…
Emily is just unbearable tonight.
Unbearable every time she is on
So much for blind judging. Gee, I wonder which team made the Vietnamese beef stew, and which one made the cocktail-themed dessert?
Although I had to laugh when Colin, rather than pour the whiskey over the dry ice, just took a shot instead. Well, serve whiskey to an Irishman, after all.
Gawd….. is it over yet?
No, they’re dragging out the scoring.
Is it suong or song? Surely it can’t be that hard to pronounce a grand finalists name correctly?
Scuse me while I vomit
Well done Alex!
Yeh, hats off to Alex. He cooked straight from the hat.
MKR is old hat.
To be fair, by about Emily’s tenth meltdown, I would’ve just thrown off my apron and ran for the door. I’ll give him props for sticking around just for that.
I’m only just watching now but doing a mini recap as I go.
Alex must be necking tons of Xanax to handle Emily. Congrats.
“Here Emily, I made you a cocktail. It totally doesn’t have a valium crushed up in there.”
What crap
They frickin’ won?
Sigh.
This was not worth sitting through five months of this show, for this.
So is it finally over?
Finally, yes. It’s done.
The Joanna Lulmey show on Ch 2 is great.Just here for the end……ie the “hat”chet job on the Vietnamese Team.
The ads are killing me.
It will be funny if they aired the wrong finale!
Social Media will have a meltdown again
Yeah, posters on FB seem generally quite unhappy with the ending.
Three cheers for the end of this season of MKR! No more crying, no more yelling etc. Oh for a cooking show with contestants like Henry and Anna who just got on with the job without all the theatrics.
And the winner not on the cover of MKR cookbook
Just imagine the restaurant. A confusing mismatch of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Mexican and French “cuisine”. The food critics will have a field day. Then again, watching their cohesive symmetry in the kitchen may yet become a spectator sport.
Emily does not have the patience to run an actual commercial kitchen. My gosh, that would be a disaster. Can you imagine working for her? I’d predict a very high turnover of staff.
She will only yell at the staff to get things down!
May they enjoy their slide from mediocrity to obscurity. Just like all those before them.
Bring on Ma$terchef. Good riddance to MKR 2018
Well that sucked. Beginning of the end for MKR I think
Lol, it looks like they removed the posts section from their FB page. Possibly too much outrage about the winning team?^^
Yeah, it’s actually surprising how little support there actually was for Mr and Mrs Hat. Hardly anyone wanted them to win.
RECAP IS UP
And a very fine recap it is – thanks Juz. That’s a 10 out of 10.
YUCK! Horrible choice of team to win MKR 2018. This season has been the worst that I can remember.
Would have been nice if there would have been contestants in the final who don’t yell and scream and don’t find it necessary to jump up and down and screech and cry. Wonder if they will split the $$ and go their separate ways. If they open a restaurant I can’t imagine it being successful.
To me, it seemed that it should have been a tie. They each had one bad dish.
Also….watching the judges’ faces when they were eating the lobster seemed like they really didn’t enjoy that at all whereas the mothers’ dessert was not great but it didn’t get the reaction that the lobster did. Don’t get how they gave the Hatsters overall higher score based on the lobster comments and their facial expressions while eating it.
Why bother calling them Team 1 and Team 2 when it is obvious which team cooked which dish. If they think the public believes that this is a blind tasting then they are truly stupid. Would be interesting to have the teams cook a certain type of cuisine for Round 1, another type for Round 2, etc, so that perhaps it would be a real blind tasting.
Towards the end, it really did feel like Alex and Emily were a protected species. Maybe there was some consideration about which teams really deserved to be in the grand final? After all, the Italians and Russians are both employed in commercial cooking enterprises, same with Henry and Anna if you think about it (plus, Henry was specifically recruited. I think that’s why production would’ve been hesitant to see them in the end).
It’s funny how both of the grand finalists had been in Elimination Kitchen for poor cooking, yet the people eliminated in the Semis (with the exception of the waitresses) were never that low.
Did think the mum’s would win because basically I thought after such a turmultuist, dramatic, bullying filled series channel 7 would love to end it with a bit of a feel good story on refugees succeed and channel 7 gives their family a leg up.
Realistically channel 7 tried hard to make them (mums) look like they did well..
K&S -> “hopefully the judges don’t get the burnt quail”
Producers -> “Make sure the judges get the best quail”
K&S’s dishes just lacked finesse all season.. sure lots of flavour.. but in the end their slap-dash throw everything in the pot style and calamatous food everywhere method brought them undone. What surprises me is that I’m sure a lot of the dishes they cooked they didn’t need much practice for as it’s something they’re very familiar with. During the instant restaurant rounds knowing after restaurant one (Sisters shocking score) they had a good chance of being safe.. they should’ve spent every moment improving their dessert skills and plating skills.
Last night was a case where you have a couple with connections and jobs in the food industry that utilised what they’ve garnered to put that last bit of polish on their dishes.
Worst season MKR ever…. time for a reset like Masterchef did a few seasons back and return to some fricken cooking.
I do worry about Emily as social media is really disliking her… hope she stays away from reading the comments as I don’t think mentally she could handle the not very positive feedback aimed towards her behaviour and antics…
If the mums had a no frills cafe serving soup I’d be there like a chat. But they don’t have the refined plating skills to win the extra points for presentation. We will be left dreaming of a grand final involving Olga and Valeria – I would have loved to have seen what dessert they created.
Kim Tran is opening a restaurant in Williamstown, Victoria – without Suong.
Kim seemed to be the “head chef” of the pair, although I read Suong is working on a line of sauces https://www.mamamia.com.au/kim-and-suong-feud/
There was another article in there about Alex and Emily planning to open their own cocktail bar and restaurant. I still find that thought utterly horrifying.
And another article somewhere, said that Alex and Emily would not welcome people who didn’t want them to win or were mean to them online. If you ring to make a booking, Emily will ask if you like her? Idiot.
I give any restaurant run by them 6 months tops. That is a generous estimate, too.
“And another article somewhere, said that Alex and Emily would not welcome people who didn’t want them to win…”
Wow, so that limits their customer base to about three people, then.
Surely, this will be a successful endeavour.