Tag: recap

The Bachelor Australia – episode 2 – July 28

It’s day two at the Bachie Mansion (probably really day 4) and Richie will take two girls on one-on-one dates.


Presumably the ones who didn’t get airtime last night are the sane ones. Here’s a name refresher for you (but of course Natalie and Aimee are goneski and Vintaea bailed). So we didn’t really see Sophie, Mia, Tolyna, Faith and just glimpses of Kiki and Laura.

contestants with names

 
There’s a bit on Swear Bear Vintaea who obviously never watched the show before here
Again, Rosie from Mamamia does the best Bachelor recaps – they are usually posted soon after the show ends at mamamia
It’s day 2 (more like day 5) and the girls are hanging around the house in their casual resort gear and most look so much better without all the spack filler and sequins.
Osher drops off the date cards and it’s WA girl Nikki of the white hair (whom we met first in the premiere had the super high split). The others are totes jelly, especially when Richie turns up in a helicopter to pick her up – Channel 10 are blowing the budget early. How are they going to offered to pay their candle bill?
As they fly near the Sydney Harbour Bridge Nikki professes a fear of heights, so that will be exploited later in the show. The chopper drops them off at a secluded beach and then it’s into a row boat for a getting-to-know you convo. And just to remind us Richie is a true blue Aussie, he utters “crikey!” at one point.

Back at the mansion the girls are chilling outside when Kiki appears with a date card, revealing the names Sasha, (Snickers Faux Villain Keira: “She’ll be hilarious on a group date. Really loud – she’ll annoy the other girls. Heh, heh.”) Tolyna, Faith (wow – she is still wearing a lot of makeup and favours the American cheerleader look), artist Georgia, talentless singer Eliza, white rose holder Alex, another white haired girl called Laura, Kiki, former athlete Mia and Keira. Upon this, Keira utters what looks to be an “urgh” and looks like she just ate a dirty street pie. “I don’t like it,” she says at the thought of having to share the limelight. The dateless ones aren’t pleased with her reaction.
Under-the-radar villain Rachael aka Regina George tells the camera: “We’re here to date him – we’re not here to sit back and just chill out and get a tan in the backyard. I suppose she did really want a one-on-one date but we can’t always get what we want in life.”

On the first date, Richie and Nikki are having a dip in the ocean and pretending to splash each other. Nikki looks so much better with her white blonde hair all wet and tousled. The producers make poor Richie open up an already de-husked coconut with a machete for reasons I don’t understand. Real estate agent Nikki spills she was engaged to a guy she was with for 12 years. So, she’s 28 and they broke up a year ago, so she must have been 15 when they got together. She tells Richie she’s never been on a real date before. He seems to really like her, so out comes the rose and …

First pash to Nikki.
First pash to Nikki.

Back at the mansion the girls have been gathered to await Nikki’s return. Rachael thinks they won’t have kissed. Poor, deluded Rachael. Nikki says she just gave him a peck.

Nine girls arrive for the group date and it looks like they stopped at the tanning salon on the way because everyone but Eliza has Oompa Loompa-coloured legs. There’s a lot of cut-off denim and biker jackets. The girls are split into smaller groups for a retro-style photo shoot and Alex is the only one who doesn’t have to share her shoot with another girl. Keira and Russian Sasha are teamed up for a milkshake shoot.

We keep hearing about what a big character Kiki is but we haven’t seen it until now, when she walks out rocking her her 1950s leopard print swimsuit like a Playboy bunny.


Richie looks like he got a bit sunburnt on the beach date and Faith proves to be gormless yet flirtatious, comparing her modelling style to that of a potato.
Sasha works hard to ruin Keira’s photoshoot and Keira is rather meek about it – and obviously rattled.
On the next shoot Eliza is loving the dance shoot, pulling out all her dance moves. The other girls on the shoot are dying to get some time with Richie but no one wants to tackle Eliza to the grand to do it.
For the final shoot Richie is dressed like a T-bird and he and Alex get to sit in a gorgeous red Cadillac. Afterwards Richie says he got a few butterflies: “I was like: Be smooth, Richie, be smooth.”
The other girls come out to watch them giggling at each other. Sasha drily says: “Imagine how pretty their babies will be.”


The photographer makes them pretend to kiss while Keira provides sarcastic commentary just metres away.

Here we go again, showing how cool Richie is by having him rock up on a motorbike for another date. “Oh my god he’s so bad boy,” purrs Georgia. He’s there to pick up Olena the mysterious Ukrainian. She’s a 23-year-old make-up artist who has had a string of disastrous dates. “We have nothing to talk about or he sets my hair on fire … that’s another story,” she tells the camera.


They go for a ride and she asks him some not-so-superficial questions about his family and future kids, fearful she won’t get another chance. He gives the usual “kids, eventually” answer.
Richie takes her back to his bachie pad.
“That’s my sleeping quarters – wait to you see that,” he tells her. Cue both of them cracking up. They go for a swim in one of his many pools even though it looks like they are freezing. She’s luring him in with her mysterious eyes again. He says he has another surprise for her but it’s not a rose: it’s a figure-hugging red dress that she puts on and rocks – the other girls are going to die.


“I feel like you challenge me a little but, which is great,” he tells her, and hands her a rose.

Back at the mansion the girls have started drinking already and there are dress splits galore. Nikki from the first date has a full-one J-Lo plunging neckline green dress on but it’s too short.
Richie takes Nikki off for a chat but then Alex appears clutching the white rose, looking mischievous. Some of the girls are confused as to the white rose’s power. “It’s like an unlimited packet of Tim Tams – it never stops,” Kiki succinctly explains to Georgia, who may be too young to get the reference to the genie ad.
At least Alex waits til he finishes his chat before revealing the rose, and he whisks her off to his dungeon, which is stuffed full of cushions, candles and Moroccan lamps. They share a passion for dirt bikes and realises their relationship will never work because he barracks for West Coast and she’s a Collingwood girl (carn the Pies!).
Keira is super cranky about the white rose, whereas Megan the diving chick sensibly says they would all have done the same.
Alex finally gets to have an in-depth talk with Richie about her son. “I feel just on CLoud Nine and nothing could dampen that feeling,” she says after their chat. And then she sits on a couch near Keira.
“You disappointed me personally,” Keira tells her. “I’ve said it behind your back and I’m telling it to your face.”
Alex doesn’t seem rattled: “I’m going to go to sleep tonight knowing that I’m a good person.” By this point a few of the girls have snuck away, over all the drama. And it just escalates from there.
Finally, one of the other girls encourages Alex to walk away, depriving us of the chance for a glass of wine to be thrown of someone. Can we hurry up already with the rose ceremony>

The rose ceremony
nikkidress
Oh god, Nikki’s green dress is just so wrong. Either cover up the chest or the legs – don’t flash both. God, Tiffany aka plank girl looks totally different to last night, as does Sophie the Mary Louise Parker lookalike, who gets her first bit of airtime, so she’s a goner. Oh – actually, she’s safe, so it’s white hair Laura and former athlete Mia who are goneski, off to watch Osher’s Australian Idol clips.

Later in the season
We get a lengthy montage of clips from upcoming episodes and it looks like Keira is around for a while as we see her in various outfits. And it looks like Richie does lots of pashing. I didn’t want to watch it too closely as it seemed to give a lot away.

And here’s a still from early in the episode.

Megan would rather eat Nutella from a jar than get in a chopper with Richie.
Megan would rather eat Nutella from a jar than get in a chopper with Richie.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

MasterChef finale – Tues, July 26 – Matt V Elena

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.
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.

And that’s all, folks.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

MasterChef – Mon, July 25 – Three cooks enter, two cooks leave

The final three contestants vie for a place in the Grand Finale in this service challenge. Each contestant must prepare a main and a dessert for 20 guests plus the three judges.

Here we are at the MasterChef house and Intense Matt, Growing Elena and Harry are competing to see who’s now the tallest, because it’s all about growth in the MC boxing ring – ahem – kitchen, and rounder tummies do not count.
Matt Preston has worn his tartan-iest navy and purple suit for the occasion; he seems to save his pink numbers for the “away” challenges.
“This is going to be the hardest day you have ever spent in the MasterChef kitchen,” Gaz warns the trio. I dunno, Gaz – there was that one jaffle challenge …
They each have to serve a main and a dessert for 20 guests plus the three judges. They have four hours to prep. Blah blah … destiny .. blah blah … journey .. blah … deliciousness. The last being, George says, the main criteria of the judging. Umm, surely that’s beetroot, George?
Shannon is there to mentor them.
Oh god, we’re eight minutes in and they haven’t started cooking yet because it’s all about the dream. And then George makes them do the “yes, George”.

IM is cooking confit duck with harissa pumpkin and baby beetroot (BINGO!) and a brioche doughnut with orange and coffee. Yum! Winner! He’ll get points for his desert technique and not doing an Asian dish, which is his strength.

GE is using native Australian ingredients (we usually get a native challenge but didn’t this year – maybe because Jock Zonfrillo was on another netweork?). She’s doing an Aussie nicoise salad and for dessert, apples, bickies and cheese. This must be the dish with the perfect apple batons they showed on the preview. The apple component is a green apple sorbet. She is hard boiling a massive pot of eggs – I guess one per person. Her dishes will take forever to plate up.

Harry is showing different skills by doing European instead of Asian. He’s making lobster cannelloni with a smoked custard and a twist on a tiramisu. “This is something I’d want to see in a three-star restaurant,” he tells the camera of his dessert. Classic Harry. He’s obsessed with layered desserts, having missed out on serving a trifle that day Brett went rogue.

IM is getting a lot of “at home” shots. Building the winner edit? Harry’s delivery seems a little flat – and his enunciation is worse than usual – so perhaps he’s the goner.
GE has 16 elements to complete and has calculated she needs to do one thing every 15 minutes. It would take me that long to peel just seven eggs, so good on her. But, uh oh – they took her twice as long as she anticipated.


Now she has to cut up the world’s biggest piece of tuna and she starts freaking out a little. Don’t get stuck in the Mimi and Elise brain freeze trap, GE! Serenity now! At least you have the lovely Shannon Bennett there to try to calm you down.
IM is showing off his mad butchery skills, chopping up 14 whole ducks.
Harry is chopping up kingfish for his cannelloni filling and Shannon expresses concern about the fattiness of the fish. Harry listens – a bit – and ups the ration of lobster to kingfish.
GE is talking a lot about how far behind she is (and Shannon points out using unwashed potatoes is just adding to her workload). No doubt she will triumph on the end.
IM is starting to panic a lit and pops butter in the microwave … in a metal bowl! On the gantry a horrified Trent starts to clap his hands to his mouth and someone – it sounds like Chloe – yells out to him, luckily before there’s an explosion.
With 90 mimnutes to go Shannon gives them the “dig deep speech”. More from GE about being behind (she’s just completed a wattleseed crumb and a fennel gel and is simmering spuds in saffron). Shannon goes through all the steps she has yet to complete.
The gantry is whooping and clapping on cue – I wonder if they get to sit down in between whoops? IM revs them up by flaming his duck with madeira.


“I think he’s just amazing to watch,” Heather (sans headband) tells the camera.
Harry is prepping artichokes for his dish, which will take forever to do. It’s the skewered prawns all over again. After a while he tells Shannon he’s going to ditch them, but Shannon points out the word artichoke is on the menu, so he needs to lose something else instead. Harry decides to bulk things out with some brussels sprouts so he doesn’t have to do as many artichokes.
IM’s duck is looking pretty good – they haven’t alerted us to any potential mistakes yet. He is a machine.
Someone has shown Shannon George’s cue card: “It’s crunch time – push, push!” He tells GE she needs to speed up by 10 per cent. She’s stresed out but hasn’t yet cracked.
Harry is happy with his lobster reduction but he hasn’t made enough – aargh – how many times have we seen this (most notably with – jew-ess Heather).

Service starts and GE is still cooking her tuna. Shannon tells her she just needs four plates to start with.
IM gets four out quickly. “I’m really liking the presentation,” says Shannon.

The judges taste


IM’s duck: The judges are drooling just looking at it. Gary tilts back his head in ecstasy. “I’ve got nothing negative about this dish .. thank you Matt for being in this competition. He brings us so much joy every time he cooks,” says George. Gaz admires the French techniques used. He would drive 100km to eat this duck.


Harry’s kingfish and lobster cannelloni: “I really don’t taste the lobsert,” says Gaz. George and Gaz are confused there seems to be no soz. George heads to Harry’s bench to taste the soz and reports back it’s delicious. They yell out to Shannon to bring the soz over and drown their plates in it, so they can see what they missed. So a lot of diners will be missing out on it altogether. The kingfish was the wrong choice of fish for the dish.


GE’s Oz Meets Nice (Aussie tuna nicoise): And just before she serves it we hear her say it should have more sauce but she’s worried about keeping the diners waiting any longer. Not again! The judges notice, too. But she’s cooked the tuna well and they like the bush tomato sauce and tempura samphire. So she’s ahead of Harry.

Dessert time
From the gantry, Nicolette (wow -she’s a distant memory) gets to yell out George’s lines: “Good job, Elena – push, push, push!”
IM’s doughnuts look fab and he’s doing his curd in the microwave, but it’s not behaving itself. He chucks butter in thinking that may help but Shannon gives him the bad news that he’s just stuffed it by doing so. It’s the first sign of trouble for IM but he’d have to drop dessert on the floor, scrape it off and still serve it to not be put through.
Harry is using some fancy techniques, spraying his dessert with a melted chocolate and coconut oil mix (aka Ice Magic) and Trent gets a talking head to say how coll this is.
Luckily IM’s second go at curd works.

The judges taste


IM’s doughnut with orange and coffee: They look even ore excited than they did for his duck. “I haven’t seen a doughnut look that good for as long as I can remember,” says Gaz. They taste and are in heaven. “Can’t get enough of that,” Gaz says. George says it’s a restaurant quailty dish. “Those doughnuts could be coming out of a food truck with people queuing round the block to get them,” says Matt. (Well, he is a former barista, so a coffee and doughnut truck could be a goer.”


GE’s Apple, Cheese and Bickies: “How modern and exciting does this dish look.” says George. They all love it. “I love the fact it’s real – nothing’s mucked around,” says Matt. He actually prefers this over IM’s doughnut.


Harry’s espresso bavarois with marsala ice cream: (It looks good on the dark plate – much more refined than the desserts Harry and Elise served last night. and, to his credit, he did a good job after no doubt being rattled by George coming to his bench to taste the lobster soz.) The judges like that it’s not what they expected – fooled by the sprayed chocolate coating. Matt says it’s sophisticated and fun. George says he’s pulled out all the stops.

The judges decide
They pretend it’s going to be a tough decision but it’s obvious IM is going through. And surely GE’s only transgression of not enough sauce on the main far outweighs Harry using the wrong fish and serving only a skerrick of soz on his.
First up Gaz raves about two flawless dishes, and of course they belong to IM. He’s through! And starts crying and laughing. Good on you, IM! Winner winner, duck dinner! Pity they weren’t finale dishes.
George gets the talking stick and raves about GE’s and Harry’s desserts but says both their mains were too dry. Harry’s choice of kingfish was wrong. So GE’s through. More tears and Harry, to his credit, is grinning and clapping away.
“How do you feel about being in the finale?” George asks GE. “Pretty bloody stoked,” she replies (channelling a bit of Elise, there). “Matt and I sat on the first table on the first day of auditions, so it’s especially cool to be there with him.”
Hooray – the result we here at Talking TV have wanted for weeks.
Good luck, Harry – go find a great mentor to channel that energy in the right direction.


Tomorrow night
Heston is back. Well, that’s a surprise. I hope it’s not just two hours of recreating a Heston dish, as usually the finale has three different challenges. But since they did the service challenge tonight maybe it will be all Heston. Will he be able to muster up more enthusiasm for this latest appearance?



Facebooktwitterredditmail

MasterChef – Sun, July 24 – Who will be final three?

In this quarter-final mystery box challenge and invention test, contestants cook off for a place in the semi-final using ingredients chosen by their loved ones.
Let’s hope Harry, Intense Matt, Glowing Elena (why I didn’t call her Serener Elena I’ll never know – maybe because the judges sometimes pronounces her name Ell-en-a) and Elise had a chat with their loved ones before MasterChef started and teed up lots of parfait ingredients, seafood, chilli and vegies.


We start with everyone getting ready back at the house and they are all so close to achieving their dreams, yadda yadda yadda.
The eliminated contestants are up on the gantry, applauding the frizziness of Harry’s fringe. Three people are missing – hard to tell who.
There are two rounds and the winner of round one is straight through to the semi final. One person from the three in round two is eliminated.
It’s the loved ones mystery box challenge first and they all get a letter from home – and Elise recognises the handwriting straight away. MasterChef loves nothing better than seeing contestants weep as they cook. It’s not quite on the level of Survivor loved ones letters but on the balcony even Theresa is crying. And we learn Harry’s real name is Harrison.
Usually there’s one person who gets screwed over by their loved one in this challenge and this time it looks like it could be Elise. Her box is half full of savoury items (including thyme, which no doubt is growing in the MC garden), and freekeh, which she’s never used before.


Everyone has eight ingredients in their box.
Elise’s fiance chose: Freekeh, gelatine, thyme, strawberries, quail, leek, almond meal, vanilla bean. (And we learn his nickname for her is Vanilla Bean. She’s stunned by the freeken but luckily they only have to use one ingredient – although I’d be worried round two is to use what you already haven’t.)
Glowing Elena’s mum chose: Almond meal, mud crab, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, vanilla bean, apples, bacon, lemons (A good all rounder box).
Harry’s mum chose: Tassie salmon, dry sparkling wine, sesame seeds, avo, lemons, asparagus, chilli, peas. (Surprised no crab of prawns).
Intense Matt’s wife selected: Longan, limes, peanuts, daikon, green papaya, snapper, chillis and Vietnamese mint. (Luckily my local supermarket was giving customers free longan tastings a while back or I’d be scratching my head right npw. They’re like a lychee.)

GE is making crab with cauli and Brussels sprouts and seems to be using many of the ingredients.
IM is doing a fish broth with snapper dumplings, and he and his then fiancee used to travel around Asia eating soup.
Elise is making vanilla and thyme panna cotta (it’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those) but the gelatine her fiance picked is not as strong as her usual variety so she’s taking a punt on the ratios. This could be vanilla custard. Can’t she just yell to Con the panna cotta king for help?
Harry is having a Mimi-style brain freeze and hasn’t started. He’s very sombre in the talking head … he’s either sick of he’s been eliminated.
He starts with a wine granita but still has no idea what his whole dish will be. Time for a George and Gary pep talk. He decides to do salmon two ways, peas and dumplings. Will he even use the granita?
IM’s dumpling skins look glorious. I want dumplings! Elise is making a strawberry jelly to go with her panna cotta (and using rectangular moulds – not the red moulds of death!) and bravely decides to have a crack at the freekeh. Luckily there are directions on the box. She pops it in the microwave and hopes it will puff up. Gaz likes the idea.
GE’s prep is excellent – she has everything lined up in little bowls, chef style.
Elise’s freekeh isn’t cooked enough so she whips up a thyme crumb for crunch and a black pepper tuile and praline. What’s next: spun sugar?
IM is making noodles out of his daikon. We call zucchini noodles zoodles, so does this mean he’s made doodles?
Harry is throwing all kinds of extra elements at his dish to add substance to it, including a lemon curd. Did he burn the lemons, as per usual?
Elise’s panna cotta seems to have set and it looks pretty good.The Brussels sprouts on GE’s plate give an amazing pop of colour. Even if it was a blind taste test they’d know it was her dish.

The judges taste


Elise’s panna cotta: The judges like the look of it. You can tell they like it – and, indeed, Gaz seagulls in to snag the last piece. The pops of pepper and thyme are great. Matt does say there’s a bit too much gelatine in there.


Harry’s salmon with dumplings and granita: Gaz says it looks pretty and sophisticated. “The things that throws the whole dish is that granita of champagne, because it’s raw.” Matt says the pasta is the best they’ve seen in the comp. So, he’s not the winner.


IM’s snapper with dumplings: “Lots of technique. The noodles for me are a hit,” says George. Matt says the fish is well cooked but questions the amount of chilli and Vietnamese mint. Seems like they were just trying to find something to balance the positives.


GE’s crab with Brussels sprouts: The judges adore her arc presentation and Gaz demands extra soz. Here comes the loud angelic music. She’s won. Gaz raves about her soz and while he goes on about “the alchemy of a sauce” the other two polish off the dish. “You bastards,” he says. Ok, I like Gaz a bit more today. Matt says the crab and apple combo was genius.

And the winner of round one is …
GE. She’s through to the semi final. Well deserved but if IM goes home after the next round I’ll be throwing a sous vide machine at the TV. I just have to buy one first.

Round two
They get to choose from types of ingredients, techniques and equipment. They do a knife pull for the order and they all must use the same selection.
Matt lists off some of the options: skewering, candying, juicing, using tea, grilling, aerating …
IM is first and he chooses “liquefying”, which involves juicers and blenders. As he says, this could be used for sweet or savoury dishes.
Harry picks “aeration”, which is whisks and siphon guns.
And Elise picks, surprise, surprise, gelatine.
The guys won’t be happy with the gelatine – time for a savoury jelly?

Gaz says Elise has chosen well by picking something that narrows the choices to favour her skill set.
IM is doing a dessert, a blackberry sorbet with honey nougat, tempered choc and port jelly – sounds like he’s using some of the skills gained in the Alla Wolf-Tasker challenge.
Elise picks an aerated choc parfait (ABC!!!) with an orange sorbet and jelly. Mmm – love Jaffas. On the gantry, dessert specialists Mimi, Charlie and Chloe aren’t keen. “I know Elise is always wanting to do something with parfaits but this is for a place in the semi finals … you have to make sure you’re showing the judges you’ve learnt so much,” says Mimi in a talking head.
Harry is making passionfruit sorbet, Aperol and grapefruit jelly and a coconut something – he needs to work on his enunciation.

The judges come over to Elise’s bench to freak her out. “Why are you doing another parfait again?” Gaz asks. She freaks out because she knows he’s right and he actually comes back to her afterwards to say “I don’t want to put you off, but it has to be said.” She agrees as tears plop into her sorbet mixture. “It’s MasterChef, not Average Chef,” she tearily tells the camera. Then whips out the smoking gun. “Smile – you love making desserts,” Anastasia tells her from the gantry. Because telling someone to “smile” always cheers them up. GE tries to cheer her up from the sidelines.

The judges remind IM how far out of his comfort zone he is.
Matt suggests to Harry he is trying to do too many things at once and Harry bites back: “I’m going to fight for the top three, Matt.”
So Matt moves on to Elise, who is still buckling under the pressure. Everyone on the gantry is worried about her.
Gaz reminds Harry he needs to add something crunchy to his dish, which is all soft textures. D’oh – that’s basic MasterChef, up there with seasoning and tasting as you go. With 12 minutes to go he decides to try and temper white chocolate. Oh Harry – why not just do a quick crumb or toast some nuts? White choc is hard to temper, whereas IM’s dark choc looks lovely and glossy.
So far everything we’ve heard from IM is that he’s happy, so it’s between weepy Elise and Harry.
It’s time to plate but Elise says her sorbet is too icy while Harry’s is not frozen enough. And his white chocolate “chips” are too soft, so he wisely leaves them off. And he hasn’t tested his coconut foam.
IM’s dish looks awesome. Winner pick! Elise’s dish looks a bit clumsy and GE comes over to give her a cuddle.


The judges taste


Harry’s passionfruit sorbet with jelly: “I feel like a shell of myself,” he tells them. His foam (which I’ve worked out is an espuma) is meant to stay fluffy but it melts away. The judges say he made a mistake by keeping the foam warm in the siphon gun. Gaz says it’s more of a pre-dessert cleanser than a dessert and it’s crying out for texture. George says the ice cream is “nice”. Faint praise.



IM’s blackberry sorbet with port jelly: “You get to that point of the competition where you can’t hide behind a savoury mask any more,” he tells the judges. They love the presentation. George says it’s like something a top chef would make. “The sorbet is spot on,” says Gaz. Matt says he’s like a boxer who’s switched hands midway through a fight and he’s excelled.


Elise’s choc parfait with orange sorbet: “It’s a bit clumsy, isn’t it,” says Gaz. The glaze is dull, the jelly roughly cut. The sorbet is icy and flat and the choc too hard. George loves the flavour of the smoked choc parfait. They’re disappointed but you can tell Gaz especially likes her – he’s come a long way from barking at her in the early rounds of the comp.

The judges decide
And it’s Elise. She’s not surprised. The judges say nice things about her. They don’t show her saying “wongtongs” in the montage – dammit. “I’m going to have my own cake store,” she tells the camera. Harry is a lucky boy.


Bye Elise!
So top three is IM, GE and Harry. we may have to rename IM Glowing Matt – he’s so happy.

Tomorrow night
Gaz tells them tomorrow is a service challenge, They have to cook a main and a dessert for 20 people in the MC kitchen. We see one dish with perfect granny smith batons, so that’s Elena’s.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

Bachelor Australia starts Wed

The Bachelor starts Wednesday on Ten, so we don’t even get a breather after the MasterChef finale.


It screens from 7.30pm to 9.10pm on Wednesday and 7.30pm to 9pm Thursday.

So sparkly and cleavagey.
So sparkly and cleavagey.

The first episode is the meet and greet for returnee Richie and the 22 contestants, all vying to don the sparkliest dress, while the blurb for episode 2 states: One lucky Bachelorette is whisked away to a secluded beach by private chopper for the first single date of the season. The group date sees the Bachelorettes embrace the ’50s for a magazine photoshoot.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

MasterChef – Wed, July 20 – reworking entry dishes

The bottom three contestants from the Lake House challenge (Mimi, Elise and Harry) now face elimination and must impress the judges with a dish produced from the ingredients they each cooked with to get into the competition.

They usually do a variation on this each year and I do like to compare the two dishes. Perhaps they could have done a knife pull instead with the challenge of immproving each other’s audition dish.
They have all come a long way but I’m guessing there will still be a parfait in there somewhere, as we near the end of this MasterChef “jurney”.
Here are some excerpts from my recap of the MasterChef premiere, way back in May:

Next up is the coffee roaster dude with one of those button earrings. We know he gets in because we’ve seen footage of him in the preview, freaking out in a team challenge. Good on him for giving the death dish, risotto, a go – and for wearing a glove when handling the raw meat. Hope he’s not one of those “I don’t do desserts” guys.
Matt the coffee roaster has an intense look about him. George likes him because they have the same hairdo.
The risotto is a winner but George’s “Will you make us proud?” goes down like a lead balloon. And then he pulls out the signature “big boy”.
Most of the contestants who got airtime in the first episode were dessert people – Celia, Karmen – and, of course, Jimmy and Theresa. All long gone. I did make note of a bloke called Harry who cooked salmon and did not receive an apron but was sent through to the second round of auditions.
Harry got more airtime (and recap time) in the second episode:
Harry, bartender with the weird hair, catches his own seafood near Magnetic Island. He’s a veritable Ozzy from Survivor. He’s making lobster with some spicy flavours. So, Harry got airtime so he’s either amazing or appalling.
And – blow me down with a feather – Elise made a savoury dish in episode 2 – pistachio-crusted lamb. I wrote:
“I’ve spent a lot of time Frenching,” says Elise AKA coral top lady. Ooh, have you? She lucked out with some decent ingredients that complement each other – I reckon she took a punt they could be used for an invention test.
I do remember that Mimi started off with a bang. I wrote:
Snapper lady Mimi looks like she knows what she’s doing and is getting a few confessionals where she has to explain the components of her dish. She’ll be safe.

So, no mention of Elena or Trent in the first two episodes, and I do remember they were invisible for a long time. I wonder what their audition dishes were? I’m guessing neat and veg for Trent and some kind of vibrant salady thing with quinoa or another ancient grain for Elena.

Ah, MasterChef has posted pix of the audition dishes. Harry’s is obvious but what about the desserts? Is the flowery one Mimi’s?

No recap for me tonight, gice. Got a lurgy and since IM and GE are safe, I’m hitting the hay.
Mimi went home. Here are the “new and improved” dishes which, judging by your comments below, weren’t crash hot.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

MasterChef – Tues, July 19 – Alla Wolf-Tasker

The top five contestants must cook five dishes from the menu of the Lake House in Daylesford under the guidance of legendary chef and owner, Alla Wolf-Tasker.
Here’s the restaurant’s sample menu
Chef’s tasting menu is $155, including coffee and dessert.

Only two contestants will be safe, out of Intense Matt, Glowing Elena, Harry, Mimi and Elise. Plus they’ve decided to increase their risk of hypothermia by making them stand outside in short sleeves in a place that’s on the chilly side even in summer.
GE is looking even more glowing than usual in her talking heads – is she living on beetroot and fennel smoothies?

The contestannts each have to recreate a Lake House dish for 40 guests in only 2.5 hours, over a staggered start. They do a knife pull and it’s:
Smoked eel Harry
Chicken Mimi
Roo Elise
Plumns GE
Blackberries IM

IM must be hoping third time’s the charm with this dessert dish after his liquid nitrogen disaster and rocky start to Christy Tania’s chocolate cake.

Harry is off first and has to fillet a swag of eels. What do you call a group of eels? A school? Google says bed, fry or storm. He’s an eel fan and, being Harry, is not at all daunted.
Mimi’s chicken dish looks delicious while Elise’s roo looks simple, when no doubt it’s not. There’s a fair bit of airtime devoted to getting the kale puree right, so it will be problematic.
Harry is ready to crack on with his eel dish but – whoops – it’s full of bones. Alla says he didn’t fillet it correctly so he will need to pinbone them. All seven eels. Seven! Instead he chops out most of the bones and hopes he has enough meat for his roulade.
GE’s plum dessert looks delicate and spectacular. Matt’s blackberry dessert has the forest floor look about it. and Alla says it’s called a Country Ramble. There are aboout 20 different elements on the plate – it will be very hard to plate up 40 of these dishes, let alone cook all the bits. At least there are no chocolate domes involved.
Mimi is freaking out and is still rolling up her chook when service is ready to start. It looks like Mimi has copped the death dish here, plus she’s having one of her brain freezes – and she knows it. She’s forgotten to get her stock on. She’s come back to earth with a thud after the success of her Christy dessert. George comes over to “inspire” her and amid her tears he comforts her with a curt “get it together … you hear me”.

The judges taste


Harry is serving his eel and beetroot dish (beetroot’s back, baby!) and he’s had to make his roulade smaller because he had less protein due to his filleting error. The judges comment that it does look different but he’s cooked it well. Matt says it’s now a beetroot dish rather than an eel dish.


Mimi’s chicken She knows the soz isn’t right but has to serve it anyway. “Certainly the wheels have fallen off the wagon,” says Gaz. While it’s tasty, it’s different to Alla’s dish. The lack of jus gras is a problem.

Back in the kitchen: Elise is happy that her kale puree is vibrant green – and Alla is, too. She seems in control, until Alla asks her if she’s taste it. Err, no. C’mon, Elise! It’s a basic step. And now your puree is apparently horribly bitter and you don’t have time to do anything about it. She’s put too much native mint in. With only two of the five contestants safe after tonight, it looks like Mimi and Elise will be in the elimination challenge. It’s hard to imagine GE stuffing up and IM is on his redemptive “OMG – I can do desserts” arc.


The judges taste
Elise’s roo: They like the look of it. Everything is cooked well – except the horrible puree that is spread all over the plate.


Back in the kitchen: GE is doing a talking head about how problematic the fruit strap-looking element ofher plum dessert could be. So it will be fine. Meanwhile, IM is losing kilos sprinting back and forth between two microwaves, nuking siphon sponges like a madman as only four at a time will fit on the tray.
Uh oh – GE is having jelly dramas and it looks a lot paler than Alla’s crimson hue. Instead of rolling the jelly logs – which keep breaking – she has to cut a slice to drape over the plate.

The judges taste


Elena’s plum and rosemary dessert: Gaz loves the rosemary sorbet. Everything is great except the plum gel was too thick.

Back in the kitchen it’s IM’s turn and he’s in a happy place. “You’re mis en place is fantastic,” Alla praises him. “You’re a champion, Matt.”

The judges taste


IM’s blackberry Country Ramble: They are impressed and we’re getting the swelling music. They love it. “Everything on there is spot on,” says George. It’s very close to Alla’s dish. Matt says it’s not out of place in the restaurant.

The judges decide


They are outside again and Alla is wearing a parka as the sun sets while the poor contestants are in their short sleeves. Gaz says the standout dish belonged to IM. He’s knackered but delighted. Good to see you back in form, IM. Mimi and Elise are bottom three. GE had gel problems but her flavour and other textures were great, so it’s Harry who’s bottom three.
Yay – our two favourites are through to the quarter finals.

Tomorrow night
They have to reinvent their audition dishes. Looks like Elise did something chocolate and Harry, of course, seafood. I’m guessing Mimi did dessert. They have to show how much they’ve grown – ahh, remember the heady days when we though pannacotta was the height of sophistication – so expect sous vide machines, smoking guns, parfait, liquid nitrogen and beetroot.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

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.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

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.



Facebooktwitterredditmail