MasterChef – Mon, July 18 – Christy Tania elimination

The bottom three contestants from the invention test now face the elimination pressure test set by pastry chef and dessert specialist, Christy Tania.

She’s been on the show before and – yay – another female chef. Here’s one of her desserts from Instagram.


She set a dessert challenge in 2014 MasterChef story here
In danger of elimination tonight are Mimi, Trent and IM.
(Oh and the Sunday night recap is finally up http://talkingtv.net/2016/07/masterchef-sun-july-17-mystery-box/)

Here we go … Christy appears carrying a giant cloth-covered dome. What’s inside is shrouded in vapour and looks more like an alien specimen in a giant test tube.


It’s actually what she calls “Mystique”, which is a chocolate, caramel, marshmallow and passionfruit curd cake with lots of tempered chocolate work on top. We learn Christy used to work as a project manager for IBM but eventually risked her parents’ ire by becoming a top pastrychef instead.
The contestants will have 4.5 hours to replicate the Mystique – that’s a looong challenge. Hope they get toilet breaks and time to nibble on some beetroot and fennel for energy.

IM is freaking out at the thought of doing such a complex dessert and Elena points out IM has never been in a test like this before. He’s panicking and stuffs up the first step of 65 steps, which is his marshmallow. Christy comes over to tell him his mixture was too cold for the gelatine. Oh, Intense Matt – get it together! It could only be worse if George came over and did a “Yes, George! Yes, George!”, but luckily he’s spared that horror. IM manages to fix his marshmallow so hopefully he’s back in the right headspace.
The gantry observers note Mimi is in her element, whereas GE says Trent is freestyling it and not measuring his layers. Now IM is having dramas with runny passionfruit curd and looks to the gantry with a “what now?” laugh of frustration.
“I’m just having an absolute shocker. I feel like it’s my first day in the kitchen,” IM says in a talking head.
Once again, George thinks he’s a midwife: “You need to push – c’mon!”
Now, IM has stuffed up a ganache, putting things in the wrong pot. Oh dear. It’s a hat trick of shockers. George – in his weird two tone black and purple suit – and Christy come over to either calm him down. Uh oh – there’s flashback footage of IM wistfully staring out at a lake, and then cooking at home with his wife. It’s either an elimination edit or a redemption arc. I’m thinking the latter and Trent’s going home. At least his next element seems to work and then his next. He’s even making caramel.
Mimi’s just trucking along, measuring everything carefully and putting up with George asking: “How much do you want it?”
And now Trent is having brownie dramas – it feels soft. I’m worried he’ll overcook it as brownie should be a bit fudgey. It looks a lot higher than IM and Mimi’s and Christy – after opening the oven door to slow down the cooking process even more – says he’s put too much of the mix in the pan.
IM is in a happier place and Mimi is powering ahead. Yet again we have to watch agonising footage of contestants trying to force desserts out of moulds.
Mimi manages to do it without breaking it and starts slopping mousse on top of the ring, until Christy pops over to say she’s forgotten the brownie layer.
We’re getting quite a lot of Christy helping them avoid mistakes tonight, instead of waiting til the contestants fall on their faces.
IM starts to peel the mould off his dessert and the marshmallow layer looks a little rough on top but it’s intact.
Poor Trent still has his brownie in the oven but has to bite the bullet and pull it out of the oven, or it won’t cool down enough to layer into the dessert. The texture looks very crumbly. He knows it’s not right but he’s a practical fellow and powers on. You can see the steam rising off it as he layers it with the cold elements. They may not set.
It’s time to create the blue chocolate moulds and IM is reminded of the traumatic time we all had watching Harry and Elise trying to get out their white half domes in Anna P’s pressure test. He has a lovely gloss on the dark choc for his twigs. So, IM CAN do desserts after all (although he did make a terrific carrot cake earlier in the comp).
Mimi and IM are up to the glaze stage and they both look great. Now it’s time for Trent to unmould his ring and it’s all sludgy because of the warm brownie. He has to try to squish it into the right shape. Awww, poor Trent.


Yet again we have to watch choc domes that won’t come out of moulds. What is the trick to this? IM is the only one who has success. But he can’t get the dark choc twiggy dome out so uses another blue dome instead with some cut outs in it. Good one, IM.

The judges taste
Trent is up first and it doesn’t look that bad, even though he’s had to use two twiggy domes instead of a blue half sphere. “Please don’t be disappointed of yourself,” says Christy. “Do you think there’s any other sparkies in Australia that could put up something like this?” George asks. They cut the cake and there’s a lot of marshmallow and not much curd or caramel mousse. Christy says the flavours are good but the quantities are out of whack. His choc work is good but who are we kidding – Trent is going home.
Mimi: She also does not have a blue dome and did a twiggy ball like Trent. Mimi’s cake layers are well defined. “Looks bloody great,” says Gaz. The tempering is good and the textures and proportions are right. “I wanna eat the whole lot,” says George.
IM: He’s worried about his runny curd and the fact he had to replace a twiggy half sphere with another blue one. “It wasn’t just a cooking experience today, it was a life experience,” IM tells the judges. Christy notes the decorations aren’t right but they still look good. They cut and his layers are defined. “There’s no doubt there’s mistakes on there,” says Gaz. “The curd – it’s very runny.” Matt says his flavours are great. “The biggest surprise – he nailed the brownie the best,” says Christy. “The stripe is the finest… The twist of one blue ball is really brilliant” [That last sentence is one we never expected to hear on MasterChef]

And the loser is …
They cut straight to the chase. It’s Trent. The other contestants are more shocked than him.
“You are one of life’s true gentlemen,” says Matt. It’s cuddles all round and a big bro hug with IM.


Bye, Trent – you were a silent and barely glimpsed presence for the first three weeks of MasterChef, mainly because you were competent, drama free and did not have a swingy pony tail. Good luck to you and your yummy-looking rustic fare.

Where is he now?
Trent is working at Local Press Cafe in Canberra. He is also writing an e-cookbook and plans to open his own cafe next year.

Tomorrow night
We’re left with IM, GE, Elise, Mimi and Harry. They’re off to Daylesford to replicate one of Alla Wolf Tasker’s signature dishes. After this, another three will be up for elimination.



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MasterChef – Thurs, July 14 – US elimination challenge

The losing team from the Food Truck Challenge now faces elimination. Under the mentorship of Curtis Stone, they must cook a dish that symbolises what they’re going to do once the competition is over.


They get to cook at Curtis’s LA restaurant, Maude. According to the website, it only seats 25 people. Each month the menu focuses on a main ingredient that’s in season. At the moment it’s zucchini and next month it’s plums.
Curtis explains the seasonal concept to Mimi, Brett and Harry and says Maude (named after his Nan) makes him happy, but not rich. Luckily he does ads for Coles and is on every US cooking challenge show ever made.
The contestants have to cook “their dreams on a plate”.

Harry wants to do a lobster crudo with a smoked fennel, coriander and cucumber sauce. He draws a sketch of the finished product.
Mimi wants to show off her technique with her dessert of choc aero mousse with honey ice cream, whiskey jelly, honeycomb and lemon curd. It sounds like quite a lot of sweet elements. Curtis tells her it’s a lot for 90 minutes.
Brett tells Curtis of his dream to run a “simple” gastro pub in the country, and says his dish is inspired by something his mum used to make. Except she didn’t have a sous vide machine to do pork with roasted fennel and soil.
Mimi is having mousse drama, despite wanting to do “everything perfect” [sic]. Batch 2 works.
Brett is getting a lot of talking head time – he’s a goner. He’s making his soz last, when usually you’d do that first. And, guess what, we have yet another incident of people not looking in the fridge to see if the ingredients they need are actually there. Last night it was IM’s team and the crab (luckily that turned out ok) and tonight it’s Brett hunting, fruitlessly, for bones for his soz.
Harry is doing burnt lemon puree AGAIN! Why not chuck a brookie on there, too? He decides he needs some more elements for “a flavour explosion” as his dish is simple. These “explosions” are apparently pomegranate, microherbs and enoki mushrooms.
Uh oh – what Mimi thought was a freezer drawer seems to be just a cool drawer. She has a rapidly melting dessert on her hands.
Brett’s pork isn’t sous videing properly and now, almost at the end of the challenge, Gaz comes over to shake Brett’s soz pan – and his confidence – my suggesting he add some pork belly to add flavour to his jews. Brett’s head almost explodes and he decides to concentrate on getting his protein cooked instead. We get a lot of air time of him talking about his “okay” soz. Totally going home! Even though we get a fake out of Harry talking about how he forgot to taste his other elements with the burnt lemon puree.

The judges taste
“It comes down to the food,” George reminds the judges. Really, George? Really, George?


Harry’s lobster: First we get Harry talking about his childhood growing up near the Barrier Reef, and how the dish is his homage to coral. Curtis likes the “romance” of the food: “I think he’s done a really good job.” Gaz says it’s super creative and he loves it but the burnt lemon puree is too much. George says just the lobster and the soz would have been perfect. Matt says, nonetheless, they have a clear vision of his food dream.


Brett’s pork: He says his food dream is to serve meat and three veg in a modern way and gives a nod to his mum, who fed four kids with little thanks. Gaz loves the vibrancy of the carrot and ginger puree. The pork is cooked perfectly. Curtis says the soz has a residual bitterness.


Mimi’s dessert: Mimi says she wants to work in a professional kitchen to gain more experience. George says she’d have to start at the bottom, washing pots and picking herbs, and she’s up for it. Good to see realistic expectations. The judges like the look of it. Gaz and Matt can’t stop smiling once they taste it. “I think that’s the best dessert we’ve had this series,” Gaz says. Curtis is impressed and says if a chef wanting a job cooked that for him, he’d hire them. They agree Mimi is safe.

And the eliminated contestant is …
But first, Mimi gets some great feedback and is thrilled. She gets to join GE, Trent, IM and Elise in the finals week safe zone.
Brett, the “old man” of the cop is eliminated – oh so close to finals week. He takes it with good grace. Bye, Brett! You were good for a one liner and you never got frazzled or served up poncey food that needed tweezers.

Where is he now?
Brett has returned to his job as an airline captain. He still plans to open a gastro pub with his daughters.

Beetroot alert
It is now two episodes since a contestant cooked with beetroot. Hopefully they all got some to snack on on the plane trip home, so they didn’t get withdrawals.



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MasterChef – Wed, July 13 – food truck challenge

The contestants are split into teams to run their very own food trucks at the world famous Santa Monica Pier. There is plenty at stake with the winning team guaranteed a place in finals week.

I love a good food truck. Anyone else watch The Great Food Truck Race, the US show where food trucks drive all over the country and compete in challenges?


I didn’t think Matt Preston’s suits could any pinker, but his outfit is super musk stick-pink today.
They do a random draw and red team is Harry, Brett and Mimi, so blue is Intense Matt, Trent and Elise. (Glowing Elena gets to sit out, having won the grape challenge). The guest chef today is the founder of what is apparently a successful food truck empire, Guerrilla Tacos: Wes Avila. http://www.guerrillatacos.com/
They have 2.5 hours to prep two items for at least 200 people.
Luckily for them they are actually cooking outside of the food trucks in a kitchen bigger than some restaurant kitchens. IM suggests BBQ chicken as one dish.
Harry wants to do a soft shell crab taco and here he goes again, using someone else’s recipe, doing a burnt lemon soz they had at a restaurant in San Fran.
Over on blue, they decide to do soft shell crab as well but – uh oh – red team has used all the soft shell crab (there weren’t that many to start with). But blue doesn’t know that because they are busy chopping up chook.
Red’s second dish will be a corn and guac salad with corn chips. Chef Wes thinks it sounds more like a side dish. They decide to add prawns.
Wes like’s IM’s chicken dish but he warns them to check they have enough crab and, uh oh. They have to do seared tuna with avo, corn, jalapeno and pineapple instead.
Red team spends a bit of time discussing whether the prawns’ poop chutes have been cleaned. They decide they already have. Does this they haven’t?
The teams use the trucks to grill their chook and tortillas and fry their corn chips.
It’s taking Harry ages to peel the prawns and now he wants to skewer them. This is where Brett needs to go rogue and just tell him “no”. After the initial crab hiccup, it was smart of blue to go with tuna, which just needs slicing and a quick sear.
With 15 minutes to go, Brett steps up and allocates everyone tasks. Good one, Brett – you sort out Gen Y.
On blue team, IM wants to give everyone a quarter of a chook with some slaw, but Elise – good on her – speaks up and says that would be a nightmare for the punters to eat standing up. Too true. He listens and chops it into smaller serves. Please let the chicken be cooked.
Red team decide they don’t have time for the tacos and it will just be soft shell crab with salad – good call.
IM is loving working in the food truck and Elise is bantering with customers – nice to see happy people in an MC challenge.

The judges taste


Red’s soft shell crab with fennel salad: Wes is a bit sad they didn’t do the taco. Gaz says the crab is well cooked and the lemon soz is yum.


Blue’s tuna with pineapple and corn salsa: Matt says it’s a bit old school but suits the beach on a sunny day. George reckons it’s a bit simple and Wes says the pineapple wasn’t consistently chopped. (Two women in the crowd note the blue team chefs were “gorgeous”.)


(Meanwhile, IM is worried no-one is ordering his chicken, instead wanting the more exotic tuna. If I was offered free food I’d pick tuna over chicken, too.)
Blue’s bourbon and ginger chicken with apple slaw: “You’d be rapt if you got that,” says George of the portion size. Matt says it might be hard for others to eat. Wes says it’s juicy and delicious. They love it.


Red’s charred prawn with corn salsa and tortilla chips: Gaz loves the fresh flavours but George isn’t eating his prawn. Gaz has to drag the reason out of him, for dramatic effect. Poor Georgie has a pooey prawn. Wes had poo, too. They’d love it otherwise.

The judges decide
Well, they ain’t giving it to the in the poo team.
Matt tells them the three things that bring people unstuck in the MasterChef kitchen are: bones in fish, undercooked chicken (did IM’s heart miss a beat just then?) and leaving poop chutes in prawns.
So, yes, team poo loses.

Tomorrow night
It’s elimination time and Mimi, Brett and Harry are in black, cooking under the eyes of Curtis Stone “to keep their food dreams alive”.

Beetroot alert
Note: None of the dishes tonight used beetroot. Hopefully someone will do beetroot two ways tomorrow to make up for this glaring omission.



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MasterChef – Tues, July 12 – grape challenge

Four of the most impressive contestants are cooking for a guaranteed place this week at Francis Ford Coppola’s Inglenook Estate in the Napa Valley.


It’s Trent V Mimi V Intense Matt V Glowing Elena in a wine-themed challenge, with the prize a shortcut to finals week.
Matt Preston is in his pink suit in tribute to red grapes.
The estate looks gorgeous, made even more appealing by me trying to ignore the sound of hail on my windows as I write this – SA is particularly Artic today.
The contestants are presented with a table laden with local produce and must create a dish that’s all about “the grape”.
IM is getting the most talking heads, followed by GE and Trent. Mimi is apparently also in the challenge.
Elena is cooking quail with grape chutney and vine leaves and a wine and verjuice soz.
Trent is making grilled quail with cauliflower skordalia and a raisin agrodolce (which Google says is an Italian soz made by reducing sweet and sour elements). Gaz and George tell him he’s on a roll.
Mimi goes the dessert route, determined to stand out, with a sweet inspired by a cheese platter. It’s a red wine and grape sorbet with a red wine cake and a blue cheese cream. Matt Preston reminds us Mimi pretty much won the Atelier Crenn challenge for her team yesterday with her work on the beetroot sorbet, but then scares her by saying wine sorbets don’t usually work. Oopsie.
IM is making roast lamb rack with chicken and mushroom jusand celeriac puree. Now, I love a good lamb rack but we’ve seen it so many times, and I’d rather see him cook something I wouldn’t have a crack at myself for a Sunday dinner. Gaz and George are worried there are hardly any grapes in his dish – luckily they reminded him at the start of the cook. He decides to ditch the mushies from the jus and add some red wine and dried grapes instead.
Trent is sounding confident about his dish and has lots of grapey elements.
Mimi adds red grape juice to her sorbet to help it freeze more and GE is dehydrating vine leaves for texture.
I’ve never seen cauliflower as yellow as Trent is using -it looks amazing, even if it is too lumpy.
GE is worried about the sweetness of her dish so decides to infuse lavender in milk to whip through goat’s cheese. The judges are worried about the lavender but she goes with it. Please don’t let this be another green tea jelly pond mistake.
And please let IM’s lamb rack cook in time.
Uh oh – the red moulds of death DID make their way over to the US, and now they are giving Mimi grief with an unset sorbet. She plates the rest of her dish and waits til the last second to get the sorbet.
Trent is getting yet another talking head – he could well win this one. His quail dish with fennel salt and cauli puree sounds delicious.
George does the obligatory “yes, George”. Sigh. IM’s lamb isn’t cooked enough so he has to pan sear it. Does this mean it’s not rested? Mimi has success getting her sorbet out and GE’s sticky glaze for her quail looks fab.

The judges taste


Trent’s quail: “It looks fabulous,” Gaz tells him. They love the colour pop from the red grapes and dill and the taste of the skordalia. “It’s a sophisticated plate of food … The flavours are pure Trent,” says Matt. Gaz says he’s found his mojo.
IM’s lamb: “I think it looks fantastic,” Gaz says. IM has a little moment, thinking about his wife back home, whom he hasn’t seen for ages. She is going to bawl when she sees this bit.


The lamb is actually spot on. George drags through the sauce with his finger and licks it. They appreciate the work that went into the soz. “Great food,” says Gaz.


Mimi’s red wine and cheese dessert: “It’s all the things I like to eat,” she tells them. Gaz thinks it’s creative and gives his portion a good ole sniff. Matt thinks the winery could well use this dish as a signature dessert. “I think she’s smashed it,” says Gaz.


GE’s sticky quail: Uh oh – first we get a talking head of GE doubting her use of lavender. I think it belongs in the garden and drawer fresheners and that’s about it, but I hope for her sake it worked. Gaz tells her she’s been putting up great food lately. George says he’s mesmerised by the dish. He can’t wait to get his giant tweezers stuck in there. “How bloody good is that,” says Gaz. “It’s a dish with all the boring bits taken out,” says Matt. The lavender worked.
They’ve all done really well – how refreshing to have a challenge where no-one was too flustered and everyone was happy with the end result – but it sounds like GE has got this.
The judges decide


It was tough but the winner is GE. Woo hoo! Oh – there’s Brett, Elise and Harry on the sidelines. They’ve apparated in at the last minute. Hope they got to check out the cellar door while they were there.

Tomorrow
It’s a food truck challenge at Santa Monica Pier. This should be fun. It looks like the red team is Brett, Harry and Mimi, which means blue will be IM, Elise and Trent. My money’s on blue.



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MasterChef – Thurs, July 7 – auction elimination

The four members of the losing teams from the service challenge now face elimination.
(Sorry, gice – hope to catch up on last night’s service challenge recap at the weekend.)


Poor Intense Matt looks tired but maybe that’s because they are still forcing him to sleep in a bunk bed. We get IM back story about his recent marriage and his food dream. And more footage of Chloe’s beardo hubby and her farm restaurant food dream.
Glowing Elena looks extra glowy today. No back story as yet for her or Mimi. Have we ever seen Mimi back story?
They walk into the MasterChef kitchen and realise it’s the dreaded auction challenge, where they bid minutes of their 120 minutes total cooking time for ingredients: proteins, veg and miscellaneous (sauces, spices etc). They’re not allowed to use the MC herb garden, which will make it harder for whoever misses out on the herbs or spices.
In the past there’s always been one person who plays strategically, bidding on something they don’t want to inflate the price, but it often comes back to bite them.
Thanks to reader Liberty, who recapped all the bids:
Proteins
Mimi bids 25 minutes for beef
IM bids 35 minutes for duck (after a bidding war with Elena)
Chloe bids 15 minutes for eggs (she wants to do a dessert – shock, horror)
GE gets red mullet for free

Fruit & Veg
Mimi bids 20 minutes root veg
GE bids 20 minutes nightshades
IM bids 5 minutes for alliums (which is stuff like onions, leek, garlic and chives)
Chloe gets citrus for free (oh, dear – are we heading for another lemon curd bombe Alaska?)

Accompaniments
GE bids 20 minutes for herbs (outbidding IM)
IM bids 5 minutes for sauces
Chloe bids 5 minutes for spreads
Mimi gets spices for free (she’s done well with beef, root veg and spices and no doubt will go for the beetroot)

Cooking times
Chloe 100 minutes
GE 80 minutes
Mimi 75 minutes
IM 75 minutes

And they’re off
Chloe is off and grabs the honey, citrus, blackberry jam and eggs and there’s a close up of the black heart tatt on her finger as she uses the whisk to create a mousse, even though she doesn’t have a setting agent. Everyone else thinks it’s a risky move. But Chloe has her “I’m ignoring the warnings of experienced chefs” noise-cancelling headphones on and ploughs ahead.
Elena is taking care with her filleting of the delicate fish – it’s her first time using red mullet.
Mimi is doing eye fillet with roasted beetroot, pickled radishes and some jews. She’s using a fennel and mustard rub on her beef.
IM is doing crispy skinned duck breast and braised duck leg with a Chinese-style soz.
It’s a worry GE still doesn’t know what her dish will be, even though she had 20 minutes of watching Chloe cook.
IM has had to use a jar of bought soz to simmer with his duck bones, but he’s happy with the taste… until Other Matt comes over. “You might want to have a little back-up plan,” OM says. Uh oh. Don’t panic, IM – you can do it. Hell, without you being in the challenge tonight I wouldn’t have bothered to Google what “allium” met
How will IM save his soz? Smoke it? Freeze it into a parfait in the red moulds of death? Add it to liquid nitrogen?
After 35 minutes Elena has finished her filleting and creates a charred nightshade soz with chilli, eggplant and tomatoes.
Chloe is getting a lot of talking head time about how flustered she is and how things aren’t working.
Mimi is making charred beetroot leaf butter by blitzing burnt leaves with a butter sauce. When did burning everything get so cool? I’ve been on trend for years without even realising.
IM decides the solution to his soz dilemma is butter – genius!
Oh god – George is doing his “yes, George” thing. Urgh (it’s the same reaction I had upon learning Pauline was back in the Senate).
Another talking head from Chloe about her iffy mousse. The judges head to the fridge for a taste and point out it’s very soft. If only there was some kind of freezing device nearby.
Mimi gives her beef a little squeeze. “How does it feel?” Brett the Protein Man asks her from the gantry.
Elena is deepfrying her red mullet wings and panfrying the fillets in butter – you can see how delicate they are. Her plate looks gorgeous.
Mimi is taking her time to make her beef dish look fancy, topping it with some leftover burnt beetroot leaves. Chloe is having curd dramas and then discovers her mousse has set too much.

THE JUDGES TASTE


IM’s duck two ways with onions and a char sui jus: This whole soz bizzo better be a misdirect. If IM goes and Chloe stays there will be rioting in the streets. Gaz loves the look of the dish. As George dishes up I notice he’s wearing the same bead bracelet as Chloe – do Swisse make healing bracelets?


The judges love the perfectly cooked duck but aren’t keen on the sweet yet salty sauce. OM says IM should have left the soz off.


GE’s red mullet fillets with nightshade sauce and salad: She looks confident. OM says it looks spectacular. Here comes the swelling music of triumph. “Can’t fault it,” says Gaz. “Incredible,” says George. OM says she could win the comp.


Mimi’s eye filet with roast beetroot: She explains the dish as George stick his schnozz in the soz bottle. Her use of beet leaves is on trend. Gaz says the leaves are a bit like a nori sheet. They like it.
Chloe’s honey mousse with orange curd, butter wafer and blackberry sauce: “Is that a mousse, is that an ice cream or is that a parfait?” asks OM, brow furrowing at the rapidly melting quenelle on the plate. “I think it’s a mousse,” says a worried-looking Chloe. Apart from the wafer, they could do with a straw for this dessert. “What a shame,” says Gaz. “That mousse is an absolute disaster.” It froze and then collapsed. And the curd was undercooked.

The judges decide
Elena gets the standout dish award. Gaz says they knew straight away which dish would send its maker home … and Chloe’s gone. George says he’s loved watching her “po-gress” and then does his “yes, George” again. Stop it, already!

Where is she now?
Chloe is launching Bowles Family Sauces, starting with her favourite – butterscotch. She also has plans to open her own bistro.

The announcement
Enough with the teasing … George lifts a cloche and reveals s Sydney tourist trinket and says they are going on a trip. But then OM tops it with his own cloche with a souvenir of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. Trent and Elise get to go bizzo class because they won yesterday. Fair enough – Trent needs to the extra elbow room to fit his shoulders in.



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MasterChef – Mon, Jul 4 – Peter Gilmore’s lamington

The three contestants with the least impressive dishes from last night’s invention test face off in the pressure test. At the end of the cook, one of these contestants will be going home.
It’s Peter Gilmore, he of Snow Egg fame, back to set Mimi, Trent and Theresa their elimination test.
Will it be another dessert?


Yes – it’s his take on a lamington.


Probably no recap til tomorrow, gice. SA is getting battered by heavy rain and wind at the moment and Mr 4 doesn’t want to go to bed.
I do know the eliminated contestant was Theresa, which won’t surprise anyone.

RECAP
The usual footage of mopey contestants back in their MasterChef jail – ahem – house, but Theresa is the only one who gets a flashback.
Upon their arrival in the kitchen, they know it’s a Peter Gilmore challenge the minute the judges say the chef has set two finale challenges.
He tells them today’s dish is not quite as difficult as the chocolate creation Laura and Brett had to replicate, buut it’s on par with the Snow Egg Callum and Adam tackled.
It’s a cherry jam lamington and it looks pretty cool – literally – as dry ice vapour is drifting off it.
Mimi and Theresa don’t seem to have any dramas with making their cherry ice cream (hooray – real ice cream, not Another Bloody Parfait) but Trent is having anglaise (aka custard) trouble. So we get a brief flashback to remind us he’s some kind of electrical safety inspector.
Half an hour in and it’s sponge-making time. Trent gets to do this dish exposition and this could be the most we’ve heard him speak this entire season. Mimi talks about how important it is to bake the sponge for 20 minutes. And then forgets to push “start” on her timer. D’oh. Luckily she put it in around the same time as Trent’s and he knows how to set a timer.
Next is a coconut cream mixture that will be used to create the coconut “flakes” in which Peter Gilmore’s creation is nestled. Then it’s on to cherry jam which, judging by the footage of Theresa pitting cherries, will include several long strands of dangling hair. She misreads the recipe and weighs her cherries AFTER she’s pitted them. Luckily Intense Matt is on hand to tell us that’s bad, because her jam will be sweeter.
Oh dear – they’re making ABP so they can shave off their coconut flakes. Mimi has misread the recipe and put the wrong amount of coconut mix in her parfait. But she twigs before she gets too far into the process and adds some double cream to thicken it up. IM and Chloe lean over the gantry railing to see what’s up.
So far this dessert, while having a lot of steps, doesn’t seem to use any techniques that are too tricky. Time is the biggest issue.
The judges come over to taste Theresa’s ice cream and Peter just says “interesting’. Aw, come on, Peter – other guest chefs have given more clues. IM reckons it may not be setting because it has too much sugar and Chloe agrees, so it must be true.
Their last step is to make a ganache and Mimi goes rogue and blitzes hers without checking the temp first. She and Trent seem to be ahead of Theresa.
With 15 minutes to go, Trent gets to shave his coconut flakes on a mandoline.


Everyone is getting all their bits together, ready to assemble for the judges.
Mimi is having trouble with her coconut shavings and it’s because she stuffed up her quantities earlier. Theresa’s look great.
Trent seems to have had the fewest dramas- who’d have thunk it – Trent doing so well in a dessert challenge.
Ooh, here’s Brett with a talking head – didn’t realise he was even here. Thanks to him we know Theresa has added too much jam to her sponge. Luckily Mimi had one chuck of extra-frozen parfait left and it shaves well, so Elena can stop having a conniption up on the gantry.
Time’s up and it’s hugs all round.

Time to taste
Gaz says lamington is one of his fave desserts. “You’ve got a lot of favourites, Gary,” deadpans George, finally finding his sense of humour.
Trent: He’s up first and he gets to retell his foodie farm restaurant dream. “Pretty good effort,” says Peter. It all tastes great but Peter says some of his proportions of the different elements are a bit off. So, Trent’s safe then if that’s all they can find.
Mimi: She has another of her brain freezes as she plates up and can’t remember how many coconut shards to put in the bowl. Don’t they all sketch the dish at the start of the challenge or at least write notes? She hardly puts any in. “It doesn’t look great,” says Gary. Luckily Peter says the shard flavour is great. All of the elements taste great. Gaz pretends Mimi is still in trouble.
Theresa: George ensures Theresa tears up by asking her about her kids in Canada. She puts heaps more shards in her bowl and the dish looks good. George loves the mirror glaze and Peter liked the lammo, but the cherry elements were too sweet. So Theresa was the only one who cooked something that didn’t taste as it should – Trent and Mimi just made minor plating errors.

The decision

Come on – we know it’s Theresa. At least she went out on an episode where she didn’t get in a huge flap. She can start a dessert cafe making her fallen ice creams and that groovy green sphere on a bed of grated chocolate she made in the Heston ferris wheel challenge.

Where is she now?
Who knows? There’s no exit blurb. Last time they left it off was because the eliminated contestants came back to fight for a second chance – which Theresa won.
Bye, Theresa.

Tomorrow night
It’s Elise, Brett and Harry fighting for a chance to cook against Shannon Bennet.

Oh, Theresa has posted this on Twitter:



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MasterChef – Thurs, Jun 23 – elimination

Cue sad music as the contestants get ready for their elimination challenge. Elise mentions it’s her seventh time in black – maybe the universe is trying to tell you something, Elise?
Whoever survives tonight is through to the MasterChef Top 10.


Mimi has been absent from the edit for a while, so if she suddenly gets a flashback we know she’s in trouble.
George says tonight’s challenge is a twist on the classic time auction.
Five pantries will be revealed, one at a time, every 15 minutes.
Whoever takes the first pantry gets 90 minutes to cook with those ingredients, plus staples. Wait another 15 minutes and you get to use both pantries but only have 75 minutes to cook. Oooh – will they all go for the 60-minute mark? If they wait for the very last pantry they will only have 30 minutes.

The first pantry is just a mass of herbs. No-one moves.
Pantry two is vegies and at first it looks like no-one will bite, especially meat lovers IM and Trent. But in fact both boys and Karmen go for it.

Karmen is making a mille feuille with basil ice cream and candied tomatoes. I hope it sets – she’s had a few last minute hurdles in the MC kitchen with elaborate desserts.

Trent is making pumpkin rotolo with cauli puree while IM is cooking roast carrot tortellini with confit leeks and roast tomato and burnt butter sauce – how good does that sound.
On the sidelines, Elise and Mimi are hoping for some desserty-type ingredients, like fruit or chocolate.
The third pantry is revealed … it’s fruit – fresh and dried. Elise is stoked.
Mimi wants to “think outside the box” and she wants to make baked rhubarb and a beetroot parfait. That’s it – parfait is thumping panna cotta in the “another bloody” stakes.
The final two pantries contained poultry and fish.


Elise is looking a bit brain freezey, as happens to her sometimes, but she decides to make apricot ABP with passion fruit curd and a thyme crumb. Theresa shouts down the helpful advice to put her moulds in dessert. Uh oh – are they the red moulds of death? We get an Elise flashback so it does not bode well for her.
But here comes to Karmen flashback – yikes!
George pops over to Trent’s bench to screw up his nose at the fact he is boiling his pumpkin in water. Don’t look now, George, but I don’t think he used giant tweezers to place the pumpkin in the pot, either. Trent chucks his boring pumpkin and grates some more to fry with butter and milk.
Elise decides to add a strawberry and thyme coulis to put inside her parfait. On the gantry, the onlookers are talking up Karmen’s weaponiness.
IM starts rolling his pasta and the sheets look silky smooth from the get go.
Here comes a Trent flashback – aargh. He wants to open a restaurant with a vegie garden out the back. He’s been the only one tonight to get a flashback where his “food dream” is explained. So, Trent’s going.
Here comes Matt Preston to distract Mimi while she’s cooking beetroot caramel, and she has to spatter some on his hand to shoo him away.
There’s so much chat from the gantry tonight – “what are you making?”, “will you need to be put that in the fridge?” – are the judges just lounging around out the back watching TV?
No, here comes Matt to scare Elise that she has too many flavours on her plate. Those judges sure love seeing a panic-stricken Elise. But she sticks to her guns.
Karmen’s pastry looks quite layer-ey for a rough puff. Hopefully it cools down in time.
No-one’s pulled out the smoking gun tonight, so that honour falls to IM, who gives his leeks a puff.
With three minutes to go, Karmen still hasn’t plated up as she’s hovering at the freezer, waiting for her pastry to cool. I’m with George for once: “Come on, Karmen!” She gets it on the plate and it looks good – can’t blame her for the trickle of tears that follows.

The judges taste


Trent’s pumpkin rotolo with cauli: “I’m stoked,” he tells the judges. They like the inviting look of the dish. The judges are smiling. George says it has a meatiness to it and he loves the rich, buttery sauce.


Karmen’s tomato mille feuille with basil ice cream: We already knew Karmen’s parents don’t want her to go into cooking but I think this is the first time we’ve heard her dad is a chef, who never wanted to be. The judges like the golden brown look of the pastry and the taste but her ice cream is a puddle by the time they eat. “I think Karmen may have a problem,” says Matt. Her ice cream is not basil-ly enough but they don’t understand the use of the meringue.


Intense Matt’s roast carrot tortellini with confit leeks and burnt butter sauce: [Geez, IM is a master of puttig shredded fried stuff on his dishes – it looks delish.] George tells him his plating up looks great. “How absolutely delicious,” says Matt Preston. “He’s gota beautiful dish that just sings,” says Gaz.


Elise’s charred apricot parfait with a passionfruit curd: It’s not the prettiest dish and Matt oddly puffs out his cheeks as he eats. “You know what it reminds me of? fruit Loops. There’s confusion there.” George thinks she needed to simplify the ingredients and ditch half the fruit. Matt and Gaz think she has the makings of a great dish.


Mimi’s beetroot parfait with rosemary shortbread and beetroot caramel: Matt thinks it looks fun. They “oooh” as George pours the soz. Gary goes for a second slurp. They love the salted beet leaf and the whole dish is delicious.
So, it’s the return of Mimi and Karmen and Elise are in trouble – unfortunately, most likely Karmen.

The verdict
Mimi, IM and Trent get pats on the back. And the person going home is …


Oh dear. Poor Karmen. A quiet achiever gone. Hopefully she picks up a gig with Reynold.

Where is she now?
She plans to launch a dessert bar in Perth later this year.

So, for those playing along at home, what pantry would have made you stop cooking?
Next week: It’s Heston Week. The dessert girls should do well with the complicated recipes. The Melbourne Observation Wheel challenge looks fun.
And a reminder for those who watch it that Offspring starts on Ten on Wednesday at 8.30pm (yes, it should have finished last season but I’ll be watching anyway).



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