Tag: returning

MasterChef – Tues, June 14 – returning contestants

So, the eliminated contestants are back, with a one in 12 chance at winning re-entry to the comp, and it’s the sweetest thing to see Charlie run and hurl himself into Intense Matt’s arms for a massive bro brog.


They have 60 minutes cook a dish from the following ingredients: Greek yoghurt, rosemary, beetroot, lamb rack, fennel (it had to be there), lemon, chocolate, quinoa, gelatine, botrytis, green cardamom pods and raspberries.
As the wearer of the cursed apron, Anastasia has the power to choose a returning contestant who can pick one extra ingredient. Pffft – call that a power? She picks her friend Theresa.
Theresa is excited because she’s been doing work experience with Reynold (the dessert king from last season who now has his own eatery) and has a dish in mind, for which she needs desiccated coconut. She’s making a snowball and choc rocks with raspberry centres.
A break from the comp has given Charlie a chance to rid his fringe of its floppiness and it’s back to its usual perfect state. He’s making a choc mousse raspberry sphere.
Cecilia is, of course, also making a dessert: a yoghurt sorbet with beetroot curd. She has been working hard at home on her plating (so, thank god, no more stuffed turnips).
Miles is making a choc beetroot parfait with nougatine wafers. Perhaps he’s not confident doing savoury with the ingredients available as there are no Asian flavours. He did well in the Shannon Snickers challenge but that’s when he had a recipe to follow.

Back from the ad break and it’s more Theresa, trying not to panic, as she so often in the past. Can’t we see what the others are making – not just random shots of lamb being Frenched (trimmed, that is).
Swishy Pony Tail Zoe – back before we could blink – is making a beetroot bavarois with confit beetroot, crunchy quinoa and candied fennel. Remember the old days, when the only dessert made of vegetables was a carrot cake? Those were the days …
More Charlie … Come on – surely we can spare a sec for Jimmy and amp up the sibling rivalry? Or Nidhi?
Zoe wants to show she’s learnt something new my making a tempered chocolate disc, but she’s rushing it and has to use the blast chiller. So, not tempered chocolate after all. “It’s perfect,” says Zoe, describing her dull, sheenless chocolate. She cracks her disc peeling it off the acetate – why did she only do one? Up on the gantry, Nicolette has a conniption.
So, the judges chatted at the start with Con – who got married straight after he left the comp – but the edit doesn’t bother showing us what he’s cooking. Grrr.

Should we add the phrase “elevate my dish” to the list of things MasterChef needs to ban, along with panna cottas and parfaits? Theresa just used it when discussing her idea to combine rosemary and raspberry.
Shannon pops over to turn up the heat on poor Cecilia, leading her to add a cardamom tuile to her dessert. Cut away to her repeating a lime a producer no doubt gave her: “Fifteen seconds is all I have between success and disaster.”
Miles’s choc parfait is a pile of poo and he knows it. Charlie’s mousse – which seems to parfait anyway – has worked, despite being in the red silicone domes of death.
Cecilia – who must have made a million tuiles before – is having bickie drama but finally gets it. She also shows off some fancy sugar work.
Charlie covers his choc sphere in choc plop – it looks rough as – what did he do to torture that chocolate? He needed to add coconut oil to create some Ice Magic.
Ooh – there’s a glimpse of Nidhi making a dessert. We’ll probably never know what it was.

Time to taste


Cecilia’s yoghurt sorbet with beetroot curd: She’s done a fancy, modern presentation to one side of the plate and shown off many techniques. Shannon: “You can tell you’ve worked damn hard.” The judges love everything. “That is a dish worthy of winning a place,” says Matt.
Miles’s choc parfait with raspberry botrytis jelly: His plating really has not improved – he needs to ask Cecilia for some lessons. But the judges love the flavours. Miles pretends for the camera he’s in with a shot but he knows he’s got Buckley’s.
Nidhi’s cardaomom parfait with choc crumb and raspberry sauce: Ah, we DID get to see Nidh’s dessert. It’s tasty.
Nathaniel’s lamb with fennel rings and choc rosemary sauce: Yep, he WAS in the comp – I swear. The lamb is well cooked. Wish we’d heard what they thought of the soz.
Con’s lemon ice cream with roasted fennel and toasted quinoa crumb (so Zoe wasn’t the only one with that idea): His dessert looks super pretty – I wish we’d seen him making it. Shannon likes the ice cream.
Charlie’s choc mousse sphere with raspberry gel: George could need a jackhammer to get through that chocolate shell. It looks nice inside. George loves the mousse, the raspberry gel and the crumb. Gaz says he nailed it.
Zoe’s beetroot bavarois with with puffed quinoa, candied fennel and choc: Shannon says her tempering of the chocolate was flawless. What the? “I like it, but for me it needs more chocolate flavour,” says George. Gary is more enthusiastic.
Adam’s crusted lamb rack with veg and lamb jus: “It’s good cooking,” says Gaz.
Jimmy’s choc mousses dome with sponge: “There’s lots to love in this dish,” says Matt.


Theresa’s yogurt rosemary snowball with chocolate raspberry balls (just call it Snow, Theresa): The judges let out “ooohs” when they crack open the choc rocks and raspberry spurts out. Matt is smiling as he eats. “There’s some skill in there, backed up by some really great flavour,” says Shannon. Gaz thinks it’s fantastic.
And that’s all we get to see. Sorry, Olivia and Ashley – you’re both the new Invisible Elena.

And the winner is …
As was bleeding obvious, it’s between Cecilia and Theresa. as with Highlander, there can be only one … and it’s Theresa. Will she be be able to keep a lid on the flustering and faffing this time round? At least her decision not to go home to Canada after her first boot, in order to do work experience in kitchens, has been validated.
But I do wish Cecilia had won.
Theresa also gets the power apron but we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what the new poisoned chalice is.

Tomorrow night …
It’s a service challenge and Curtis Stone is the guest chef. More importantly, Matt Preston wears an eye-popping candy pink ensemble.



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