Channel Ten has yet to announce an airdate for MasterChef but it can’t be far off.
Last year it started May 1, so I’m guessing it will go into the Bachidise Sunday night slot.
In case you’ve missed one of the zillion promos for it, here’s one:
Will this be a MasterChef miracle? An audition dish with just three ingredients!#MasterChefAU a season full of surprises, starts soon! pic.twitter.com/3787VbQfOg
What do you reckon the three ingredients are? Squid, perhaps parsnip for the puree and chips and whatever the herb is. Surely there must be cream or milk in the puree but I guess they don’t count that. They announced today MC will start May 7.
Well, here we are again. Seems like only last week we watched in horror as Intense Matt’s egg thingy unglued itself before our eyes, leaving an also deserving Glowing Elena to take out the MasterChef title.
Who would you like to win and who do you think will actually win?
MasterChef finale starts on Ten at 7.30pm and is supposed to finish at 10pm. So if you start watching around 7.50pm you may avoid the faff and flashbacks.
Oh, and vote in the new poll for tonight’s winner.
We start with a flashback to the first day of the Top 24, and of course we get zoom ins on Eloise and Tamara.
We’re reminded the winner gets a monthly column in delicious. mag and $250,000 towards their “food dream”. I’m not even sure what the food dreams of Ben and Diana are, but no doubt we’ll find out tonight.
Ben and Diana (or Di-zey to her fellow contestants) arrive in their crisp chef whites and Ben has a sharp new do, while Dizer’s pontytail is extra swishy. At least George is not wearing a hideous jacket tonight. Matt, however, is dressed for a funeral in one of his long coats in black, with a double breasted black waistcoat and a silver cravat for bling.
There are heartfelt speeches about achieving your dreams, yadda yadda …
Come on – can we just get to the challenge, please! Or at least an ad break; I want to heat up my leftover rhubarb crumble to give me sustenance for this ordeal.
FIRST CHALLENGE
Every mystery box they’ve ever been set is lined up in front of them. They get their pick. Cool idea and it reminds me of how much I’ve forgotten – even the ones made of chocolate. Diana is actually considering Peter Gilmore’s box, with the abalone, which freaked out a lot of contestants.
Ben goes back to the begging and chooses Glowing Elena’s mystery box, which was the first of the season. And Diana – because she is not scared of abalone – picks Gilmore’s box, partially because she gets to use the garden as well (Ben does not). They can’t use the pantry.
Last time Diana cooked from this mystery box I noted in the recap: “Diana’s braised abalone is next and even Gary has to praise her broth.” It bodes well.
Diana is making a green juice from Chinese broccoli and nasturtium leaves – this could be the hot new thing at Boost tomorrow. The judges love it when people do new stuff, a la Ben and his tulip bulbs.
Ben is making lemon myrtle ice cream (bingo!!!) with candied cucumbers and 50 other elements.
Uh oh – he slices his finger deeply and you can tell he’s gutted. It’s so deep he’s actually dripping blood on the floor.
In a nice change, we get a voice over from Benita – perhaps because she is wearing an eye-catching leopard print kaftan.
Ben carries on cooking like the machine he is but the blood starts dripping through the bandage and all over his apron. Poor bugger. He is having trouble getting his shortbread crumb cooked because of the delays – isn’t that what almost cost him a spot the other day? He has to quenelle ice cream without being able to grip the container properly, in case blood starts pouring over his ice cream.
THE JUDGES TASTE
Diana’s dish has that modern cheffy plating and the judges are impressed by its looks, especially when she pours the green juice around the abalone.
Gaz says it’s “absolutely delicious” and the green juice showed confidence. Man, Gaz was such a latecomer to the Dizey train but now he’s all aboard and full steam ahead. They all adore it.
After a bit of ribbing about his slightly flawed quenelle, Matt wants more goat’s cheese mousse but Gary thinks the balance was fine. They like the lemon myrtle flavour and the cucumber and George even polished off his plate. THE SCORES Ben: Gary 9, George 9, Matt 8. 26/30 Diana: (She will get stronger scores) And it’s three 10s, amid much whooping from the gantry. 30/30.
ROUND 2
Matt says there are no rules: they can cook whatever they like in 75 minutes, using the pantry and the garden. They must make three plates of food.
Ben is sticking with the pumpkin theme, doing butternut three ways with a Dutch spiced biscuit and coffee and cardamom ice cream.
Dizey is coating prawns in oatmeal – interesting! – with a salad. It’s a dish drawing on her Malaysian heritage.
Uh oh – Ben has tipped coffee granules into his ice cream churner. Karlie is worriedly whispering up on the pantry and I agree with her concern – why didn’t he dissolve them in hot water first? Could make for a weird sandy texture.
Gary pops over to Dizey’s bench to loom over her shoulder as she takes her prawns out of the fryer. Just what she needs. She decides her prawns aren’t crunchy enough – although Gary just gives her one of George’s dead-eyed stares – so she adds Panko breadcrumbs to the oatmeal mix and is happy with the texture.
George likes the plating (the ice cream has a lovely gloss to it) and they love the balance of flavours. Again, George says he should open an ice cream shop. He lives in Queensland so it could indeed be a goer. And Karlie and I were wrong about the coffee – it worked well.
THE SCORES
Diana: Gary 9, George 9, Matt 9. Running total: 57/60
Ben: Gary 9, Matt is next with 9 so George must give it a 10 – yep. Running total: 54/60.
THE FAMILIES ARRIVE FOR THE FINAL CHALLENGE
And here come the tears. Awww – Ben’s kids sprint to him. Diana is bawling at the sight of the lady I presume is her mum, who she hoped would fly in from Malaysia. On the balconey Pete the crane driver is practically howling. I love it.
Diana hasn’t seen her mum for a year. Ben’s son, Phoenix is adorable and his Oma (Nanna) has also come along. He must have been very young when his daughter was born, as she looks to be in her early teens. I thought he had three kids? Am I miscounting?
Kirsten Tibballs from Savour School – the one who set the mystery box challenge that was a chocolate box – is back with the final challenge. (By the way, that mystery box challenge was won by Weepy Pete when he made the coconut-looking dome.)
The judges reveal the dish they have to recreate and it looks like a still life. At first I worry they have to recreate everything from the pine cones to the display platter, but it’s just the fruit: a mandarin, Granny Smith and a pear.
They are all differently flavoured, with many layers inside. The stalks of the pear and apple are 100 per cent couveture chocolate.
Kirsten tells them the pear is the easiest one. For the apple they have to make their own mould out of sugar starch and won’t know if it’s worked until the end of the process.
I really hope this is not going to be one of those impossible challenges where we see them freaking out for six hours – yes, six hours!! – and serving up misshapen fruit.
I would say Ben has the edge because he’s more of a dessert man but Diana is better at keeping her composure.
It must be impossible to read a recipe properly when everyone is screaming up on the gantry. She obviously gets her focus from her mum. Up on the gantry a bloke (Dizey’s partner, I think?) tries to engage Mum in some producer prompted banter but she shuts her down with a “I’m concentrating”. Good one, Mum.
Ben is freaking out a bit and his Calvados catches fire, which we know is wrong because Diana mentioned it earlier. The producers send Kirsten over straight away to tip him off, as they don’t want to spend six hours filming someone when the audience knows all along their dish is a failure.
Diana mentions how important it is to dissolve the sugar and we see Ben scraping undissolved sugar into his bowl. Kirsten is there again to ask: “Why are you doing that?” Oh dear – chill, Ben! Although, showing you so flustered at the start means you will probably triumph in the end. A pep talk from George and an “I love you” from his son puts Ben back on track.
Diana juices her mandarins by hand; Ben uses the juicer. The edit doesn’t tell us who is right.
Oops – Diana’s liquid centre thingy has failed because she still had undissolved sugar crystals in the pan. A pity Kirsten wasn’t there to alert Diana to the problem as she did with Ben, albeit for a more serious issue.
Diana decides to remake it.
Ben’s liquid centre has also failed – that’s the one he remade twice. Urgh – I hate it when a dish is so hard even talented cooks can’t get them right.
Ben has run out of ingredients so ditches the element and poor Diana’s second attempt has also failed.
MasterChef needs to go back to the finale being people cooking food I’d want to eat in a restaurant, not some kind of Dessert Ninja Warrior designed to break people. Makes me miss Great British Bake Off even more. I really don’t want to watch a talented cook like Diana crying quietly in the corner over sugar gel.
Finally they both get their fruit on the platter but Diana’s pear stem breaks at the last minute.
Time for hugs all round. And tears. Pleaase, can we rehydrate poor Ben and Diana and get them a coffee and a snack. Ben’s comforting of Diana as she crouches weeping behind the oven ends in somewhat hysterical laughter from both of them.
And we still have 20 minutes to go here in SA! Although 10 minutes of that will be ads.
THE JUDGES TASTE
Diana is first. Her mandarin looks pretty good but the apple is a bit squished and the pear overripe looking. Her decision to remake the sugar thingy cost her time to get the perfect presentation, but Matt sticks up for her ballsy move to keep trying.
They have trouble cutting the mandarin due to the thickness of the choc but the other two look pretty impressive inside.
Kirsten says “she’s got the flavours perfect”. Gary misses the liquid centre thingy and the mandarin wasn’t quite citrussy enough. (Is that because she didn’t use the juicer? Hope they tell us.)
Ben’s fruit is more polished looking – not as good as Kirsten’s, but good. George praises him for comforting Diana, when really you’d have to be a heartless bastard not to. The inside of his mandarin looks better than Diana’s and they love the taste. It and his chocolate stems are “outstanding”. Kirsten says his double-dipped pear (caused when the pear slipped out of is grasp into the choc coating) has a too thick coating, which makes it too sweet.
THE SCORES Ben: Matt 9, Kirsten 9, Gary 8, George 9. Running total: 89 Diana: Gary 8, George 8, Kirsten 8, Matt 9 (and this must be the score where they film the two endings, because that was the deciding vote, giving her 90 points). Matt really should have given her an eight and made them do a tie-breaker challenge – one of those 10-minute cooks. We’ve never seen that in a final. That score was unfair to Ben.
DIANA WINS! Yay! Although they both did a good job, she has been consistent throughout the comp and so organised. She would be an asset in any professional kitchen.
Ben gets $40,000. Karlie gets $10,000. The same prize money as last year.
The stakes are high as the three remaining contestants fight it out for the two places in the finale and the chance of winning the coveted prize.
Who will be eliminated tonight? Vote in the new poll. The finale is tomorrow night at 7.30pm, on Ten.
We start with Ben pretending to drink coffee while wistfully gazing out over Melbourne from the hotel balcony. He plans to use his Dutch heritage in his cooking for the service challenge and we see his Oma (Nan) briefly.
No Nan for Diana and Karlie.
They arrive at the MC kitchen and the eliminated contestants are up on the gantry to be the cheer squad. Ben’s hair is glued into place and Matt is wearing a teal suit with a white and silver cravat.
George is wearing a dreadful checked travel rug as a woollen blazer.
Ben’s dessert has a Dutch theme and is called pumpkin and spices and – fun fact – people in the Netherlands don’t eat pumpkin, they just feed it to livestock.
Karlie is making crayfish with a ginger broth, because as he know she loves Asian flavours.
Diana’s main has nine elements and her dessert seven. She is doing wagyu two ways – good move given her wagyu dish has highly praised at the Heston restaurant service challenge, even after she had trouble with cutting the meat to the correct size. There’s a lot of stuff on her dishes but Diana always keeps a cool head.
And the first ice cream of the night goes to … Ben! Of course! Vanilla and bay leaf. He manages to slosh half the anglaise out of the mixer and gets a calming back pat from Shannon Bennett – awww.
The edit shows Ben falling behind and looking stressed out – so he must triumph in the end. After an hour of prep he has not started on his main dish. Shannon calls the dish “brave” but Ben doesn’t bite and simply says “thank you”.
Karlie is boiling up some massive crayfish and her dessert is orange and sesame something ice cream.
Diana is making lemon verbena sorbet and rice pudding and the gantry freaks out when her pot starts boiling over.
Who knew you could cook with tulip bulbs? Ben is topping his with onion skins that the waiters will set on fire at the table. The judges will be impressed with this.
Diana is making a whey caramel that she learnt in the challenge set by former contestant Kylie – that dessert that looked like a pile of dried-out leaves. The judges like it when contestants show techniques they have learnt on their “journey”.
Karlie is having prawn oil drama so she’s going to ditch it. She is getting very flustered.
Meanwhile, for more info about the Dutch and their tulip bulb-eating habits go here.
I love that Ben and Karlie are freaking and Diana is just methodically working away. Shannon comes over to turn the screws on Ben. He needs to get his beef in the oven now or it won’t have time to rest – no-one wants blood on their plate.
He turns to a pic of his kids to give him strength. Usually this sort of thing irks me but it’s not like it’s the start of competition and they are using it gratuitously.
How annoying must it be to have Shannon yelling “Stop! Stop!” every few minutes to announce how little time they have left. I want Comforting-Pats-On-Back-Shannon back!
Diana is frying up some massive Wagyu scotch fillets – imagine the cost! (This place sells it for 100 a kilo, although commercial prices would be lower. Check out the butchery here.
Diana is calling for waiters to take her plates while Karlie is still cooking. Diana’s dish looks delicious – love the herb dust. THE JUDGES TASTE
Gary does the “lifting eyes to the heavens” look when he tastes the meat. Matt praises the sauce and says it’s a MasterChef Top Ten dish – big call! Well done, Diana.
Ben has had to do pickled beetroot as he ran out of time to roast, and he’s worried.
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The judges love the theatre of the flaming onion skin and are overjoyed to taste something they’ve never before tried: tulip bulbs.
George says the bulbs are delicious. I wish they would actually tell us what they taste like. They praise the dish but Gary points out it’s not as “multi-sensory” as Diana’s main. Remember the first half of the comp, when it felt as though Gary never had a kind word to say about her – well, none that made the edit anyway.
Karlie is STILL cooking and tearfully wanders almost out of sight, to be hugged by Diana. When her dishes do go out they look really interesting.
The judges say it was worth the wait.
The girls have it over Ben at this stage. We get the obligatory “it’s going to come down to dessert”.
DESSERT TIME
Diana is using someone interesting ingredients in her lemon verbena dessert, including finger limes and buckwheat. She’s put a lot of thought into the textures.
The judges think it’s really pretty, uses new combinations of flavours and is delicious.
Diana is definitely safe. She is a machine! And, yes, teary Diana, I hope your Mum comes over for the final, too!
Poor Ben is having drama with his pumpkin galettes being too mushy to lift outof the pan. Oh, Ben, this is not looking good! Quick – look at the picture of your kids again!
Karlie’s mandarin and black sesame dessert looks really interesting.
The judges love the look of it and the sponge is light BUT the mandarin sauce is bitter and Gary thinks it detracts from the tasty black sesame ice cream. George quickly jumps in with some superlatives to throw us off the scent.
Ben is at it again with setting things on fire, lighting up some cinnamon quills to be placed in a bowl in the table for aroma. It does not look as pretty as the girls’ desserts but they always praise him for his herby ice creams.
Gary loves it – phew – especially the salty finish on the butterscotch sauce. “It’s like the best pumpkin pie,” says George. It’s a “ripper”.
The three semi-finalists get a group hug with Shannon. I wish they would include him in the judging and give him points to allocate to the best worker in the kitchen.
THE JUDGES’ VERDICT
No surprise – Diana is first through. Yay! She has been a rock throughout the comp (apart from those cocktail-inspired dishes for Heston’s water-themed challenge but let’s not talk about that disappointing Heston Week) but did not make the edit for a long time.
And the other semi-finalist is Ben, because Karlie’s mandarin syrup was too bitter. Poor Karlie says it’s not a surprise after seeing the other two work in the kitchen: “I felt like I was lacking a little bit.” Awww.
I can see her going on to have a successful career helping create new dishes or products, rather than a job as a working chef, or perhaps in food styling. Her plating has always been beautiful and inviting.
TOMORROW NIGHT
It’s Diana versus Ben and, unless Ben plans his dishes very carefully, Diana will just steamroll over him with her attention to detail and time management – and delicious flavours.
As with last year’s Elena versus Matt finale, we have two worthy finalists.
Tonight, contestants will be working in teams to build an edible art installation in a specially constructed greenhouse. With just eight hours to impress the judges, which team will be safe from elimination?
George splits the group down the middle to make teams. Captain volunteers are Tamara with the swinging earrings and Sarah.
They get Darren Purchese as a mentor and have seven hours to prep, cook and fill their greenhouse. Losers face elimination tomorrow.
On Tamara’s blue team Headband Samuel comes up with the idea of an Urban Beehive as their theme and they all love it. Sarah’s red team goes Japanese zen garden.
Blue is making honeycomb – hope they got the recipe from chef Lauren from last night’s immunity challenge. They need hexagon biscuits to fit the bee theme and clever Tamara (who is some kind of engineer) crafts a hexagon cookie cutter out of some cardboard.
Red needs to dehydrate a gazillion strawberries to hang from the ceiling. You can tell straight away they have unrealistic expectations of how long it will take.
Blue seems to be getting the winner edit. They start having cutter dramas.
Red is making choux matcha “rocks” and biscuit sand. The sand will be scooped up with a grey pebble macaron made by Invisible Trent, who Sarah reckons is a gun at them.
Red have realised they need to put their strawbs in the oven instead but they put a tray on top of each layer, so the steam is trapped, turning them into strawberry jam. Uh oh.
Ray and Callan are making jubes – it wouldn’t be MasterChef without jelly!
Red’s “cherry blossom” flowers are finally working but it’s sooo labour intensive. This is the stage I’d be making caramel popcorn or something super easy just to fill some space in the greenhouse.
Yes – Callan is making Honey Joys! Good for the beehive theme.
And Sarah has asked her team to make matcha microwave sponge. Let’s hope the judges love matcha.
Karlie seems to be decorating the red greenhouse on her own. Gym Ben, who is stuck threading flowers, is getting a lot of airtime.
I like blue’s idea of sticking bickies to the wall of the greenhouse for an interactive experience. They have heaps more stuff in their’s. The dehydrated pineapple flowers look pretty. And they were smart to cluster their ingredients.
Gaz is telling blue there is too much sweet stuff in their greenhouse. It’s Sweet Week!!! Eloise makes a mascarpone mousse with raspberries to provide tartness.
Here comes the public and how are they all going to fit in that narrow space? They get to watch the judges eat first.
They love red’s choux buns and yes, Trent’s macs live up to the hype. Darren likes that nothing is too sweet.
For blue, they like the childlike feeling. And the team created a lot of elements. Presto has to encourage George to dunk his bickies as he’s lost without his tweezers.
They like it all but there’s a lot of sugar. The kids in the crowd will go mad for it.
The judging:
Darren praises both captains. Both teams did well yadda yadda.
Red’s greenhouse was more sparsely decorated but their flavours were more balanced. Well, there were more grown ups on that team.
Tomorrow:
Eloise is in the losing team so tomorrow has to decide whether she used her pin. No way – not with so many people still in the comp and the judges generally like her food.
It’s a taste test with the losers in a cook off.
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.
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.
It’s Sweet Week so Michelle had better get out her red dome moulds and lustre dust. Bryan is going to go nuts.
How many episodes until we get the liquid nitrogen for ice cream making?
It does look like they do some pretty cool stuff.
Tonight’s mystery box challenge is set by chocolatier and pastrychef from the Savour School, so expect loads of chocolate. Kirsten Tibballs has been on MasterChef three times before.
She was responsible for this pressure test cake in 2013 (yes, the infamous Emma Dean season): Looks tame compared to some of the more recent challenges.
This is the cake that sent spice queen Neha home but it’s ok; she now has her own ice cream company. I am going to have to check out the orange chilli choc one. And so it begins …
Well, that’s a good way to keep energy levels up during a challenge. While Georgie chugs Swisse vitamins the contestants can nibble on the mystery boxes – they’d just better keep them away from Presto and Gary. They get to smash them with a mallet – the boxes, that is, not the judges.
They get mint, instant coffee, coffee beans, green tea, nectarines, coconut – desiccated and whole, raspberries, rum. Oh, and the chocolate box. They get the staples and a few baking-type ingredients are added, like gelatine and icing sugar.
Whiskey Eloise is making a trifle with marshmallow in it instead of cream.
Arum wants to use the matcha tea – shades of MKR here.
One blonde pony tail is doing a take on an Iced Vovo. Thank god they have names on their aprons – it’s Eliza. The judges will like the concept.
Ooh, Invisible Trent made the edit for a sec. Hi, Trent!
Pete the crane driver gets a lot of air time. So he’s either going to bomb again or do spectacularly. He’s making a toasted coconut ice cream and – yes – he’s got the red silicone mould out! Bingo!
Bryan is in his happy place. He’s doing a “fallen” ice cream in a rum and coffee. Sounds similar to something Theresa (one of the siblings) made last year, but I imagine Bryan’s will have more elements.
It’s back to Arum – guess we don’t need to know what all the other people are cooking – and he’s doing a matcha cremeaux that looks like the contents of a baby’s nappy. Instead he will make a raspberry sorbet.
There’s a lot of footage of people trying to open coconuts, Bushranger Ben seems to be making a jelly (don’t mention the jelly to Ray) and the smoking guns are out in force.
No idea yet what dessert girl Michelle is making, so it must be average.
Uh oh – Aaron is still using his green poo slick on the plate. It had better taste good.
Pete is getting his domes out but he hasn’t made any spares – aargh!!!! How many times do we hear this!? He’s obviously watched past seasons, though, because he knows to melt the edge of his half sphere on his hot baking tray so the two halves will stick.
The judges taste Bryan’s fallen ice cream: It’s pretty and they love it.
Arum’s raspberry sorbet with matcha and choc: The matcha cremeaux he was so worried about is praised by Kirsten. It’s a thoughtful dessert, says Presto.
Pete’s coconut: It looks pretty spiffy. I’d say Pete’s got this but they also want him to have an underdog win. Presto calls the ice cream “heavenly” and it’s a playful dish. (And, surely bonus points for using the red silicone moulds?)
And the advantage (aka kiss of death) winner is: Pete for his coconut.
INVENTION TEST
There’s a new chef to set the Invention Test and it’s Janice Wong, who’s also been on the show before.
In 2015 she set the Cassis Plum dessert challenge for an elimination test:
Rose went home off the back of this; she was up against dentist Matt and Reynold.
All the contestants are led into the pantry to view Janice’s glow-in-the-dark edible art installation, made of 7000 flowers. But they don’t let the contestants eat them.
They have 90 minutes to make a dessert using flowers as inspiration. Pete gets another 30 minutes – that’s huge! He also gets Janice as a mentor for the 30 minutes.
I thought the 30 minutes would be at the end because, in effect, the other contestants get 30 minutes to stand there and think about what they’ll do. Pete’s struggling a bit but, thanks to Janice, comes up with a garbled story about bees and honey for his inspiration.
Composed Diana is inspired by roses, using strawberries and cream with a rosewater ice cream and a pine sable (aka bickie).
Whiz kid Callan is is using a childhood memory of grandma’s house, involving apple pie and roses.
Ooh – Headband Samuel is making the edit! But it’s because he’s spent 20 minutes wondering what to do. Come on, South Straya! Luckily he spots a borage flower in the garden and I learn something here: Samuel says it taste likes cucumber. Thanks, HS!
Young Sam is making beetroot choc with a basil granita. He seems to have a lot of flavours going on.
Bryan is cooking a ginger and yuza pannacotta with elderflower.
Still not airtime for Little Mich.
Callan is creating a “baking scent” to evoke grandma’s house. I don’t think we’ve seen anyone do this before, although Heston has used it in at least one dish he’s set as a challenge.
Invisible Trent is getting a talking head, but it’s because his sorbet isn’t setting. He’d planned to plate it with an edible wreath around it. So, that’s at least one for the bottom three and I’m worried Bryan could be, too, because in his excitement to meet Janice he’s making 1000 elements.
They’re implying Headband Samuel is in trouble but I think he’ll pull through, but Young Sam is having beetroot woes.
Uh oh – HS’s jelly is not set. Is jelly the “it” element this season? Parfaits are so 2015 and last year was the year of the chocolate dome. And Invisible Trent’s sorbet is stuffed.
Callan’s “apple pie” is one of those modern “forest floor strewn with debris” type desserts. He should go well.
The judges taste Callan’s apple pie with rosewater granita: The judges love the idea of his baking scent. He gets the spoon drum on the table. Janice says it’s “naturally beautiful” and “the essence of cooking”.
Pete’s Beehive in the Garden: They like the honey ice cream but are not overwhelming in their praise. But he has escaped the advantage winner curse and won’t be bottom three.
Poor Trent’s unfinished dessert wreath: He’s understandably gutted. Diana’s strawberries and cream: It’s vibrant. George says it’s the best ice cream today. Janice says it’s a symphony on the palate. Good job, Diana!
Michelle’s “fallen flower” with brownie cubes: She has made a half chocolate dome (hmm, kinda similar to her audition dish. We know she’s not great with savoury – maybe her dessert repertoire is not great?). They like it.
Sarah’s By the Bay: It’s tahini ice cream, hazelnut mousse and orange blossom jelly: It looks fancy and cheffy. George says he is salivating for more. Headband Samuel’s Strawberry Sorbet with cucumber: “I don’t get it,” says George. Gaz likes the individual elements but they aren’t flamboyant enough. So one of my predicted final three will be in the bottom three.
Young Sam’s ganache with basil granita: Janice says it looks beautiful. They draw it out with an ad break, which means they will love it. “For a minute the world just sort of stopped and I was in the bowl,” George says. Janice says its beautiful and original. Well done, Young Sam.
Bryan’s Flower Garden: There is a lot of very bright bitsy stuff on the plate. “Just do three things, mate; not 700,” cautions Presto. Janice liked his panna cotta but the flavours don’t balance. He’s devo.
That’s it – we don’t get to see what the others made.
So I guess bottom three will be Invisible Trent, Bryan and Headband Samuel.
Top three: Callan, Young Sam and Diana.
And, yes, bottom three is as expected. Do they get the floating ice cream pressure test? Please let HS be safe!
Tomorrow night
Yes, it’s Christy Tania’s floating ice cream. I think Bryan may crack under the pressure because he knows desserts are considered “his thing”.
With MasterChef kicking off on May 1, the show is taking a look back at some of its success stories this Thursday with MasterChef Special Ordinary People. Extraordinary Food.
I’m hoping they check in with Billie McKay, the unassuming ponytailed winner in 2015 – one of the few winners who hasn’t been in the media much, apart from a column in delicious. (I know – they should just drop the full stop, right? mag.
The promo shows Poh and Andre (both serving up fabulous food here in Adelaide – Andre’s Cucina would be my No.1 pick from a special night out) and other faves such as Julie Goodwin, Justine and dessert king Reynold.
Finally – we’ve made it! It was a hard journey but we pushed, pushed pushed to boom, boom, shake, shake the room to get here for a chance to achieve our food dream.
Tonight the final two contestants battle it out to see who will be crowned MasterChef Australia 2016 winner and take home the $250,000 prize.
Oh, and a column in the always excellent delicious. magazine (and, yes, that fullstop is part of the proper name … yes, I know!).
So it’s the finale of which we dreamed: Glowing Elena versus Intense Matt. How lovely to have two grown ups who have shown great growth in the comp and have avoided any drama.
Glowing Elena was under the radar for a long time, thanks to the edit. MasterChef 2016 started on May 1 but it wasn’t until May 22 (Nigella Week) that she made enough of an impression for me to note this in a recap: Oh my god – Elena speaks!! She’s doing pumpkin parfait, pancetta crumb and cumin tuille. She’s a high school visual arts teacher who wants to inspire young people to grow their own produce. This is a lot of air time on Elena. Is she the winner?
Conversely, on May 8 (MPW Week), I wrote this about IM:
Intense looking dude Matt – he of the disc earrings – is doing a gnocchi and jus with crispy chicken skin. Marco tastes his jus as it’s cooking and gets the usual flick of the eyes over the bifocals … Next up is Intense Matt with his pan-fried gnocchi with lots of crunchy elements. Gaz is in heaven: “Savoury, chickeny, bacony cereal.”
MPW loves the soz: “I don’t think that you realise how clever you are … genius in your hands.” Matt says it’s better than even his recent wedding day. Oh no he didn’t!
START OF RECAP
I reckon it will be a good 15 minutes before anyone touches a saucepan. First we have to suffer through all the talking heads about the dream, the push, the “yes, George!” and who wants it most.
Why is the MasterChef trophy a giant platter? Surely it should be a gold-plated sous vide machine or a silver smoking gun?
Gary is wearing a paisley tie in his to camera piece about the intensity of Intense Matt. It’s weird.
Ooh – George is wearing a tie, too. The other contestants are dressed up aand Matt P just needs a tri-corner hat to go with his Napoleon Bonaparte frock coat.
Oh god, we’re starting with the deep and meaningfuls. IM and GE have to say what being on MC means to them? Surely they’ll make them repeat their answers at the end. The answers are pretty much “dreams”, “thankful”, “passion”.
There will be three rounds, with each round devoted to an entree, a main and a dessert – and we know the last round will be a Heston challenge that makes series one’s croquembouche look like a pancake shaker mix.
Round one: entree
There are 10 ingredients and they have to hero one: They don’t name them oil but looks like fennel (it had to happen), quail, sea urchin, fish that could be snapper, tofu, spring onions, duck eggs, marron (remember when Nev “cooked” it on MKR but didn’t know it should change colour?, oysters, pork.
IM goes straight for the quail. GE has granny smiths in her basket – more of her signature apple batons for decoration? After last night’s show.
IM is doing both roasted and confit quail, with charred corn and chorizo salsa.
GE is doing marron two ways with a ponzu dressing, a smoked veg salad and marron crackers. It’s a lot to do – she knows it and so do the judges. She’s having soz dramas with her dashi – something she has to nail given the judges said her main in the last episode was too dry.
IM is making a Pedro Ximenez reduction for his dish and the editors must have been chortling when they decided to cut in a pan to Con on the gantry – Con who used the wine in almost every dish he made in his short time on the show, causing me to believe he secretly works for PX.
GE has tried to fix her soz and Gaz comes over to give her a confidence boost. “That, is doing nothing,” he says after tasting. So blunt Gaz is back. Send George over for a “yes, George!” and she’ll be bawling on the floor in no time. “If you want any kind of complexity you have to take the panic away … making stuff is never going to be enough.”
She decides to roast the marron shells in a bid to bump up the flavour.
They’ve both done an amazing amount of work in 60 minutes.
The judges taste
And they are eating in the dishes in front of the contestants – seems cruel.
GE’s marron: Gaz was worried about the soz but he doesn’t really say if it’s any good. The marron is perfectly cooked. She’s done something she’s never tried before in the comp. “It’s a beautiful fresh dish, says Matt. He likes the saltiness of the marron cracker.
IM’s quail: They like the look. “It’s delicious; I love it,” says George. The confit legs are perfect. Woo hoo! IM must have this round.
Round one scores
GE: Gaz 7/10, George 8, Matt 8 Total: 23
IM: Gaz 8/10, George 9, Matt 9. Total: 26 Only an 8 from George and we didn’t hear one negative comment about the dish? He’s saving up for a 10 later.
Round two
They get 75 minutes to cook any style main they want. After
After a flustered start GE has her game face on. She’s doing twice-cooked lamb with a macadamia puree and pickled veg.
IM is cooking crispy skinned barra with brussels sprouts, fondant spuds and pancetta and prawn head broth. Hopefully he’ll do a fried prawn heard garnish – the judges love those.
Gaz gives him a look when he explains his broth idea and then pretty much trashes it. Please, IM, just make it and blow his bloody socks off with it.
IM forges ahead. “My gut’s telling me it’s going to be ok,” he tells the camera. He’s doing his brussies a few different ways – it’s a bit of a GE thing to do. GE is pulling out the big guns: she’s pickling beetroot (BINGO!).
GE says she wants her nut puree to have a slightly grainy texture. Really? She’s better hope the judges get it.
IM thinks his soz is a little lacking, so he chucks in some saffron. Mmmm. He does a text piece and thinks it’s done, but it’s raw inside. Fingers crossed it works with the real fillets.
GE’s lamb looks gorgeously soft, and if anyone can make a brown braise look pretty on a plate, it’s her. Again, we’re hearing from her how pushed she is for time.
IM is happy with his broth’s flavour: “It’s fully loaded.” God love him.
The judges taste
This time the contestants don’t watch the tasting.
GE’s lamb: She says cooking now is a bit like creating and artwork (remember, she’s an art teacher) and getting instant feedback on it, which is gratifying. “It looks like a little plate of jewels,” says Gaz. “I’m running out of words to express something that blows my mind,” says George. They love the soz – and George says it’s Michelin quailty. They’re all raving about it.
IM’s snapper: This whole thing of IM not listening too Gary about the soz and wondering whether his fish is cooked will turn out to be a total beat up. IM tears up when Gaz asks him how he feels about the dish. Gaz works hard to hold back the smile. You can tell they all really like him. Raised-in-a-barn George just drinks his broth straight from the jug. “I’ve been proved wrong today,” says Gaz. George says it’s a gorgeous and clever dish. “It tastes like it’s been on a great French menu for 50 years,” sys Matt.
Round two scores
IM: Gaz 10/10 (BFF Trent lets out a huge yell), George 10, Matt 10. IM can’t believe it. He’s now on a total of 56 points.
GE: Gaz 10/10, George 10, Matt 10. Total so far 53 points.
Gaz says it’s the first time in MC history there have been two perfect scores. And then they bring in their families, because they want to see floods of tears.
IM can bareley walk, he’s laugh-crying so hard at the sight of his wife and family. Up on the gantry, Charlie has to take off his hipster glasses to wipe a tear away. IM can’t believe his folks flew back from Italy for the finale but no doubt MC sprang for their tickets.
Round three
There are 40 points on offer for this last round. Gaz talks up how awesome and difficult this pressure test will be. “It takes not one but two of the nest chefs in the world to bring it to us,” says Matt. Ooh, Heston and who? Some bloke called Ashley Palmer-Watts, a top chef who is one of Heston’s proteges. Has Ashley been brought in to look interested when H can’t be bovvered. Heston says it’s harder than last year’s dessert pressure test (remember this?).
“There’s close to 100 steps,” Ashley tells them. It’s called Verjus in Egg.
It looks like an egg atop a nest of noodles. Heston cracks the egg and it craks like a real shell. It’s filled with coconut panna cotta and a mandarin and thyme gel for the yolk. At the bottom of the egg is a coffee parfait. Parfait AND panna cotta in the same dish.
The egg shell is made of two layers of chocolate but it looks like a real chook egg. A nervy IM exchanges a glance with GE and asks Heston: “Is it possible?” Heston says it is.
They have five-and-a-half hours for the dish. IM has done quite well with desserts lately but the finicky nature of this one favours GE.
To make crystallised coffee IM has to use what looks like a jar of Nescafe Gold. As a barista, that must kill him. The mad scientist magic works for both of them. “I’ve never crystallised anything, except by accident,” says IM.
GE has stuffed up mandarin “yolk” by jumping the gun with the setting agent. She needs to do it again but she doesn’t have enough mix to do a full batch. GE is trying to keep it together as someone lamely calls out “you’ve got this”. She’s going to do a half batch instead. Luckily they have calculators.
IM takes his “yolk” over to a vacuum machine and his face watching the science of it all is hilarious. He looks around as if worried he’s broken something, but apparently it’s all good.
Oooh, they are making their ABPs with powdered gelatine, which is usually a no no in the MC kitchen. IM’s ABP mix does not look thick enough and Harry, in a bow tie, is chosen to bring it to our attention.
GE makes a mountain of honeycomb which she then laboriously stretches in nest strands. GE’s ABPs have set a treat and she can pipe in her yolk. IM’s haven’t worked and H says he has to do them again. IM doesn’t know what he did wrong – did he not wait a bit before adding the gelatine mixture to the rest? His family looks worried but BFF Trent urges “stay cool”. He will have to wait another hour for the ABP. He starts to lose it. George comes over for the pep talk. “It will be like this in the kitchen one day,” he tells IM. Yeah, but when you’re a real chef they don’t lock you in a house for six months and hardly let you speak to your family or go for a stroll to grab a coffee.
Luckily he realises it was the lack of blooming time for the ABP that is to blame. At least he can do his tempered choc for the egg while it’s setting.
GE is worried because she hasn’t done much tempering – and she’s never used a marble surface before. She does well and uses a spray gun for the first egg layer, and you can hear Elise yelling down to clean the moulds carefully.
IM is having choc dramas – he’s let the temp drop too low. He uses it anyway. IM has become the underdog now. He at least drains his moulds upside down to remove excess choc – a step GE forgot. And his ABP #2 has worked. Yay.
Oh god – more excruciating watching choc being banged out of moulds. GE’s shells look pretty good – you can still see a bit of the seam where the two halves join. IM’s shells look so delicate and he’s rushing. There’s a little gap in one and he decides to skip the final sealing step to save time. Aargh – tension!
He looks lost at the liquid nitrogen station so GE pops over to give him detailed instructions.
Good on you, GE – this is why we love both of you as final two. You’d never see that kind of camaraderie in US cooking shows.
Finally, they are done, and GE sinks to the floor in relief. And then it’s hugs all round. But IM utters a heartbreaking “Oh no!”. His egg seam hasn’t held (he missed that last step) and it’s opened up. “I’m gutted,” he says through tears. His poor wife on the gantry is trying to telepathically tell him everything will be ok. Oh dear. They finally let her come down to give him a cuddle.
So, poor IM has just lost. Aaargh. Hopefully his runner-up prize will be enough to fund his food truck. He’s gained a legion of fans and will be a huge success at whatever he does. If he wants more experience in a professional kitchen first there will be hundreds of places around the country falling over themselves to offer him a job. GE is a worthy winner but IM made himself known as a contender from the beginning.
The judges taste IM’s egg: “It’s all good,” he bravely tells the judges. “What do you want us to remember about you as a person fro this plate of food,” asks Matt P. What the hell – who’s writing these lines? They crack the egg and it looks fine inside. “He’s shown great ability to dig deep,” says Heston. The ABP texture was perfect. The shell wasn’t tempered and the egg had split, though. GE’s egg: The judges are impressed. The shell is a little thick but otherwise they love it. “This one just had more impact… it seems a little bit bolder to me,” says Ashley.
Final round scores
The guest chefs from throughout the season are here, too, as well as Reynold, Emma Dean, Andy and Julie Godwin. I don’t see Billie – surely they would have mentioned her if she was there.
IM: H and Ashley 7/10, Matt 7, George 7, Gaz 7. Grand total: 84. GE is going to get 9s, so it’s all over for IM.
GE: Gaz 8, George 8, Matt 8, H and Ashley 9.
GE wins by two points.
Well done to both of them – we couldn’t have asked for a better final two. GE gives a nice thank you speech and graciously says how much she’s learnt from him.
“Thank you for your friendship and support,” he tells her in return.
Matt P tells IM how wonderfully tenacious he is: “We cannot wait to get into the queue of your food truck.” IM gets $40,000 and he seems genuinely surprised. And Harry gets $10,000.
