Tag: TV

MasterChef – Mon, June 27 – Heston ice block challenge

For one day only, Melbourne’s iconic Brighton Beach bathing boxes become ice cream stands selling Heston-inspired ice creams and ice blocks. The least impressive team will face elimination.
Poor kids, rocking up expecting a delicious treat and copping a scoop of fennel and beetroot parfait …

Poor Trent and Heather – the “losers” paraded in front of the other contestants in their elimination blacks.
The other contestants have to make ice cream for 500 people and laugh nervously when they hear they have to do savoury ice cream. And not only do they have to be savoury, they have to trigger nostalgia.
The team pick is done by a zoopa dupa lucky dip into George’s Esky, which is literally cool.
The teams are: IM and Harry, Elena and Theresa, Mimi and Elise, Brett and Chloe. They have 4.5 hours to make one flavour of icy poles, two flavours of ice creams and waffle cones.
IM and Harry are going nuts with their flavour combos, doing prawn cocktail and Vegemite and butter ice cream and a gazpacho icy pole.
George and Heston (or let’s just call him “H” from now on, as his buddy George does) are worried about Chloe’s smoked beetroot, goat’s cheese and dill ice cream. They reckon the strong cheese will coat the roof of the mouth. Last time Chloe ignored a chef’s advice (in the Curtis Stone challenge) she and teammate Nicolette ended up in elimination. But it’s okay – Chloe has done it before and it’s awesome. What do George and H know?
Theresa is having waffle cone dramas and H tells her it’s because she needs more sugar in her batter.
Mimi is making cucumber, ginger and mint ice blocks and her mix is a lovely green colour, while Chloe and Brett are creating carrot and ginger icy poles with soda water and edible flowers (bleagh) – will the bubbles affect the freezing process?

Theresa has finally mastered her waffle cones but has yet to start her mustard ice cream with bacon and hot chips. She knows it will take forever to crack all the eggs for it so she decides to use an eggless recipe she half remembmers from seeing on TV. Oh dear. And if she fails she’ll take Elena down with her.
Mimi and Elise give a cucumber ice block to H to try and he says it’s too sweet. So they add vinegar. At least they’re ahead with their waffle cone making. Harry hasn’t started his but decides he’ll do waffle cups instead, which will be quicker than cones.
Mimi’s second ice cream is pea and ham ice cream but they are rushing it and don’t properly cook their peas and chuck a whole bunch of half cooked pureed bacon in it. Ick.
The boys’ Vegemite ice cream looks good (they’re serving it with a toast crumb topping – hope it tastes better than Cadbury’s Vegemite chocolate), and Theresa’s eggless ice cream seems to have worked. Whereas Chloe’s beetroot ice cream looks weirdly dry because of the overload of goat’s cheese. And that’s why you always listen to the chef. Her second ice cream is rosemary mascarpone and her ice blocks are ready but the soda has separated.


Uh oh – here comes the crowd, including a bunch of sprinting kid who are going to be sooo disappointed there’s nothing chocolate on offer. IM looks deliriously happy to be there – he’s still on his hot streak.

The judges taste


IM and Harry’s Vegemite and panko crumb ice cream: They like the texture and the crumb but H thinks there’s too much Vegemite.
Gazpacho icy pole: The judges love it. “That’s a cracker,” says H.
Prawn cocktail ice cream: George loves the look. Matt says it equals other savoury ice creams he’s had elsewhere. They like the concept.


Mimi and Elise’s pea and ham ice cream: The cones look great but Matt pulls a face when he tries the scoop. “I don’t like that at all… they’ve made me feel a bit queasy.”
Ginger, cucumber and mint ice block: H says it’s still too sweet.
Sour cream and chives: They redeem themselves; H says it’s delicious. The texture is great. So, one out of three.


Elena and Theresa’s mustard, bacon and french fries ice cream: H says he likes chips on the beach. “I reckon this ones the best one so far,” says Gaz. H says he could eat a tub of it. [Sorry I doubted you, Theresa.]
Lemon, pine nut and rosemary ice cream: It’s not right, the judges say. It’s bland and a bit medicinal.
Chilli, lime and coriander icy pole: They love it . “It’s like a frozen bowl of Thai dipping sauce,” says Matt.


Brett and Chloe’s beetroot and goat’s cheese ice cream: “Oh God,” says George, and not in a bang the spoon on the table way. “It’s got that curdled consistency in your mouth.”
Mascarpone, rosemary and bacon ice cream: The cone looks good and they like the bacon crumb. “That’s pretty tasty,” says Matt.
Ginger and carrot icy pole: “Oh dear.” “Oh god.” “There’s no flavour of carrot here.” Brett must have thought he was on a winner when he was teamed up with Chloe at the start of the challenge. Now he’s in real danger of being eliminated this week.

The judges decide
The two teams who stood out were Theresa and Elena and (Theresa gets dish of the day for her mustard and chips ice cream) and Matt and Harry (the prawn cocktail wasn’t perfect but, with tweaking, could become a signature dish).
Chloe and Brett are going into elimination with Trent and Heather, who have suddenly appeared again on the sidelines to stare at Heston, unable to touch him because they’re dead to him now.

Tomorrow night
An underground carpark is the scene for a pop-up chocolate-themed restaurant. We see the teams are Elise and Theresa, Mimi and Harry and Elena and IM. So I’m barracking for Elena and IM. Does Elena need an abbreviation now, too? She’s always so radiant and glowing – GE?



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The Briefcase sounds awful

Channel 9’s new show, The Briefcase, starts Monday week (June 20).
Honestly, it sounds like car crash TV, and not in a guilt pleasure Kiss Bang Love kind of way.
SMH writer Michael Lallo sums it up here



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MasterChef – Sun, Jun 12 – Luke Nguyen


Yay – it’s Luke Nguyen! Urgh – it’s Power Apron Week.

The contestants learn about the Power Apron Week and try to feign excitement. But they are genuinely happy when Luke walks in. His mystery box is revealed and there’s some cool stuff in there.

Luke's box of jicama, rambutan, shrimp paste, goat cutlets, lime, betel leaves, tamarind puree and crickets.
Luke’s box of jicama, rambutan, shrimp paste, goat cutlets, lime, betel leaves, tamarind puree and crickets.

I saw jicama (apparently it’s like a yam or turnip) for the first time a few weeks ago when they did the alphabet name the ingredient challenge, so I hope someone cooks with it. Goat curry is one of my faves, so surely someone will go that route. Topped with deep-fried cricket instead of the usual prawn heads.
Who’s going to remain invisible for this cook? My money’s on Anastasia – the new Elena.
Chloe is making a cricket praline parfait (when is she not making a parfait?). Trent gets to speak – yay! He’s doing goat in a betel leaf with a tamarind caramel. Heather is not wearing her headband. I’m worried she has left the source of her coooking power behind at the MC mansion. She whips out the smoking gun and uses it on the goatm to which she’ll add a tamarind glaze.
Intense Matt goes for broke and tries a goat ceviche. He’s curing the meat in lime, sugar and salt and is not sure if it will work. This is the challenge in which to take risks as no-one’s going home.
Elise is making a caramel cricket parfait. Not cricket wongtongs, Elise? She’s never been tasted in a mystery box and is hoping her caramlised crickets will give her the edge. Gaz forces George to try one and you can see if they weren’t on TV he wouldn’t do it.
Harry – frizzy fringe flying – is making goat skewers wrapped in betel leaves with rambutan jam. He’s deseeded the rambutans and is roasting them. Matt Preston gees him up and tells him the seeds will be poisonous unless they are correctly cooked. Google tells me that, while the seeds are bitter, it’s only folklore they are toxic and that testing has shown they are fine to eat. Roasting should remove the bitterness.
Who we haven’t seen: Anastasia, Elena, Nicolette, Mimi, Brett (we got a few words but have no idea what he’s cooking), Karmen and Zoe.
Gaz is keen on the dishes of Heather, IM, Harry and Elise.
Harry has given up on using the rambutan seeds and Elise has made a sugar coated betel leaf to go with her cricket parfait. “Things that taste good but don’t look good are fine at home,” says IM, but he knows he needs to jazz things up for MC. He adds a fried egg to his dish – perhaps he should have done an egg net instead.

Top three tastings
IM’s citrus-cured goat salad: He’s not happy with his plating. “It looks homely but interesting at the same time,” says George. “Matt, presentation-wise, I like it,” says Luke. “That’s pretty cool.” The judges only have good things to say.
Heather’s smoked and barbecued goat with tamarind glaze: Luke is impressed she grilled the betel leaf, as he’s never done it. She gets thumbs up but they’re not raving as much as for IM’s dish.

Are crickets on special at Coles this week?
Are crickets on special at Coles this week?

Elise’s cricket caramel parfait with sweet betel leaf: Gaz says it looks “beyond amateur cook status” and it taste delicious. “It’s stunning to look at … wor, hey – congratulations,” says Luke, one of the nicest blokes on TV.

And the winner of the first power apron is …
Elise … darn it – I was barracking for IM. Elise’s dessert did look pretty cool, though. So, what power does she have that will turn out to be a poisoned chalice filled with rambutan seeds?
She gets to choose between “steamed” and “fried”. The ovens will be turned off. Luke is a good salesman for the wonders of frying, and she succumbs to his charms. Everyone will be happy with that.
Instead of looking for the top three, they are looking for the top one, who will get the power apron. Bottom three contestants are up for elimination. Elise gets 90 minutes to cook her dish, while the others have 60. At least the others will have 30 minutes to plan their dishes properly.
Elise is making pan-fried quail with mango harissa, maple goat’s cheese and bacon jus. So, she’ll use up her whole advantage chopping up pesky quail. Over on the sideline Nicolette picks up that Elise is making a jus, which uses involves boiling. But they are only allowed to fry things. The judges wait til she’s done heaps of work before dropping the bomb. This is where the so-called disadvantage has served the other contestants well.
The others start to cook and at least we won’t see any parfaits for this challenge.
Oh my goodness – Anastasia is speaking! She’s making seafood with a fried fennel pesto. And now Karmen finally gets to talk, about her laksa-inspired flatbread wrap. Chloe is making duck breast with sambal and compressed cucumber. It looks like compressing is the new smoking, which is soooo 10 minutes ago.
Elena has been reading my mind and is creating an egg net filled with pork and prawn. Pork served her well last week with the Spanish rice dish that finally got her airtime. Her egg net is green with what I guess is coriander but it’s not quite working.
Zoe plans to do a whole deep-fried baby snapper, even though she’s never done it before: “I’m going to run with it and hope I can cook that dish perfect (sic).”
Harry, who lived in Korea for a while, is making Korean fried chicken.
Brett – now the oldest contestant left in the comp by at least a decade – is making crumbed fish and chips.
With 23 minutes to go, Chloe hasn’t even broken down her duck and Elena is still having egg net drama. Luke gives her some tips. Come on, Elena – you can do it!
Zoe’s snapper is out of the fryer and it does not look great. So she goes and grabs another one. What a waste of fish! Why not switch to prawns or something. Panicking, she chucks it on the hot oil which splashes all over her arm. I’m surprised she didn’t go the desert route and make some kind of crepe with a dry caramel, dry-fried nuts and fruit.
Harry’s Korean fried chicken has been coated in a sticky sauce and it looks delicious. Brett is having soggy chip dramas and Elise feels like she wasted her time. Elena has given up on the eggnets and used her mixture for omelettes instead.
At least when they do the tasting we get to see what everyone else cooked.

Time to taste
Harry’s KFC with assorted side dishes: “I love the flavours,” says Luke. “You’ve transported us somewhere really special,” says Gaz.
Zoe’s snapper: The fish is cooked but her sambal is way too hot. “I was expecting more,” says Luke. She’s definitely bottom three.
anaprawns
Anastasia’s prawns with fried fennel pesto: “I go weak at the knees when I look at fennel,” says George. “I love that dish sooo much.” Gaz thinks the flavours go “boom!”.
Elena’s pork and prawn omelette: “It’s not great for me, I hate to say,” says Gaz of the soggy pancake. Yep, she’s in trouble.
Trent’s prawn and corn fritters with mango salad: “That’s exciting,” says George.
Nicolette’s version of a Vietnamese prawn salad: “Colourful” and “delicious”.
Heather’s nori-wrapped tempura quail: “Quite delicious.”
IM’s buttermilk fried snapper with green papaya salad: The fish is “just so damn good”.
Brett’s fish and chips: Gaz admires his chip-cutting technique. But they’re soggy. The fish is cooked well but the dish did not wow compared to everyone else’s efforts.
Elise’s quail with mango harissa: “You’ve gone from the highs … to just having an absolute brain freeze … I don’t like it.” Luke says she got confused and flustered and it shows in the dish.
Chloe’s duck with pickled, compressed veg and sambal: The judges coo “It’s so pretty” when it arrives. “It looked great and everything worked for me,” says Luke. George: “This is bang up to speed.”
So, we didn’t get to see what Karmen or Mimi made.

The top three
Anastasia, Chloe and Harry. The winner of the power apron is Anastasia. Woo hoo – someone different!

The bottom three
Zoe, Elena and Elise. Fingers crossed Elena will make it through.

Tomorrow night: The bottom three has to create a Ross Lusted dish. Elise probably has the advantage in that she survived the pressure of the Anna’s Mess dessert challenge last week, so she knows a bit about what to expect. The promo shows Elena having a little moment, so not her usual serenely glowing state of being.



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Mums on TV

Since it’s Mother’s Day, I thought I’d list the mums from the TV shows I’ve been watching lately.
* Frankie from The Middle – probably the most realistic mum on TV.
* Beverley from The Goldbergs – the biggest smother mother in the world with the fashion sense of Kath Day Knight.


* Michonne from The Walking Dead – she lost her own child and is now pretty much Carl’s mum, which is just as well because his birth mum, Lori, totally deserved to die in the zombie apocalypse.
* Which leads us to Carol from the same show. Sure, she misplaced her zombie kid in a barn for a whole season but since then she’s been kick ass. Just hope you don’ ever hear her say “Look at the flowers” to you.
* Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones – the Mother of Dragons isn’t very good at keeping her unruly kids in line, though.
* And, of course, Cersei, who streamlined Christmas gift giving by ensuring her kids could combine presents for their dad and uncle into one.
* Better get an Aussie mum in there, so let’s say Rose from Please Like Me. Sure, it was odd at first seeing the old Pippa from Home and Away as Josh Thomas’s mentally ill mother, but it’s a great show. The episode where they went camping together was brilliant.

Which mums are in the shows you are watching?



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MasterChef – Day 2

And it’s time for the second chancers to cook. I was pondering how many contestants last year who were second chancers actually made it far into the comp, and thanks to Wikipedia, I now know this:
Auditions Part 2 – Sixteen second chance contestants were given the chance for the nine remaining spots in the Top 24, in a two challenge rounds. In the first round, an Invention Test, contestants had 75 minutes to cook a savoury dish from their choice of three different world food markets. The 8 best dishes won their makers a spot in the main competition. James’s dish was so good that he received an apron during the tasting. The other seven contestants receiving an apron were Georgia, Mario, Billie, Andrea, Jamie, Amy and John. The remaining eight contestants faced a Pressure Test set by Shannon Bennett for the one remaining spot in the Top 24. They had two hours to create his layered Warm Chocolate Orange Mousse, with a number of technical elements including tempering chocolate. Rose’s version was declared the best and she won the last apron.

So, winner Billie and Gary’s fave, runner-up Georgia. Speaking of Georgia, check out this recent pic from Facebook. She looks very different to her frazzled panda eyes MasterChef days.

DAY TWO
There are 11 contestants and five aprons. Four are up for grabs today. Losers go to a pressure test tomorrow to fight for the final apron.
George: “Flavour, passion etc.”
Each person gets a basket with 10 fave ingredients they supposedly use all the time at home. They only have to use one thing from the basket – boring – I like it when they have to mix weird stuff together.
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.
I like graphic designer Jordan’s honesty: “My favourite things probably aren’t the best to cook with – more just to eat as a snack.” They include oreos, apples, feta, prosciutto. She loves desserts but decides this is the perfect time to do savoury, with egg yolk ravioli. Yeah, don’t play to your strengths when you are trying to get on to MasterChef.
Our park ranger is making a spicy pie but he has Gary wincing when he says he’s not going to pressure cook his meat. He changes his mind but it makes me think Miles does not watch the show.
Snapper lady is a dab hand at filleting a humungous fish while coral top lady is a dab hand at Frenching lamb ranks.
Poor Jordan has stuffed up two batches of pasta dough. Make something else, Jordan! No, she keeps going even though she now only has one egg left for the filling. So it will be one ravioli
Adam from SA (go SA!) grew up on a chook farm, so he’s making roast chicken and chips with a mushroom medley. He wants to win one of his fave things, which is tinned stock powder. They blur it out but it looks like Vegeta. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Adam! That stuff may fly on MKR but not here.
HR person Sarah is doing beef cheek with pasta but she doesn’t have tomatoes so she’s using apple instead. That’s going to be beef with stewed apple. I want to see a picture of everything else in her basket so I can figure out what I would have made.
“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.
Vegeta dude is chastised by the judges and has a d’oh moment. Miles the ranger is happy with the flavours of his pie but he’s lining quite a large tin – will it cook in time?
As usual there are people in the room who are invisible, although we get glimpses of other raviolis.
Apple beef cheek girl thinks her dish stinks and she doesn’t want to serve it. She fell into the trap of thinking she had to serve a protein. Matt goes over for a pep talk and who wouldn’t be cheered up by a six-and-a-half-foot block in purple tartan suit and a cravat. Wisely beef cheek girl – Sarah – decided to do crepes with fruit compote.
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.
Ranger Miles’s pastry is undercooked and he can’t get the damn thing out of a tin. He leaves it in the tin. The pressure test beckons.

The judges taste
1 Harry’s lobster with sambal and broth: “I think you’ve got some talent,” says Gary. It’s delicious.
2 Jordan’s egg yolk ravioli with basil oil: The music builds as Gary cuts the ravioli. Will the yolk be runny? Cut to ad break. Geez, never saw that coming. Yes, it’s runny. Gary appreciates the effort but they all think it needed more elements.


3 Mimi’s snapper with chilli and broth: This looks lovely and she’s done the trendy broth in a bottle thing.

Give me that and a bowl of steamed rice and I'd be happy.
Give me that and a bowl of steamed rice and I’d be happy.

Matt thinks it’s a beautiful plate of food given the limited ingredients she had. She’s one to watch. We get a lovely closeup of George’s sweaty head. Gazza hands her an apron on the spot – after Matt does the obligatory fake “ponder”. Well done, Mimi.
4 Invisible Lauren’s beef with eggplant puree: Beef good, not so the raspberry “gastrique” (which Google tells me is a fancy name for a sweet and sour sauce). Hopefully there’s not too much gastric on this season.
5 Invisible Molly’s salmon tartare: Good but too rich and lacking freshness
6 Invisible Melissa (older lady with the funky headscarf) fennel and salmon ravioli: George damns her with “It needs … flavour.” There’s no sauce. He uses the word “lubricate” and it sounds so wrong.
7 Invisible Jenny (or is it Ginny?) has managed to serve up multiple ravioli: Ricotta and orange rav with a lentil orange salad. She confesses she thinks Gaz “has got pretty eyes”. Argh.
8 SA boy has served his chicken and chips sans stock powder. He gets the thumbs up from Gaz.
9 Beef cheek apple girl Sarah-turned raspberry crepe girl: George commends her for putting up a dish. The crepe is fine and they’re happy she learnt a lesson.
10 Park ranger Miles serves up his stuck pie: George tries to prise it out of the tin and manages to get it out in one piece. Gaz has to eat humble pie and says it’s tasty. Matt loves the flavour. George says it’s hugworthy.
11 Elise’s pistachio-crusted lamb with parsnip mash (continuing the theme of MKR where everyone did parsnip mash): Elise is one of those weirdos who loved the pressure of the challenge. Gaz loved the lamb (which actually looks super rare). They liked her Frenching skills.

The other aprons go to: Elise for the lamb, Harry (who reminds me of last year’s winner, Brent) for the lobster and Adam the chicken man.
Tomorrow night they’ll do battle for the final apron. So, based on tonight’s air time, does it go to Sarah or Jordan. They have to recreate a Shannon Bennett dessert, so I know many of you dear readers will be delighted to see you favourite MasterChef regular on the tellie again.



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Australian Story tonight: Michelle Bridges

Remember when Michelle Bridges was just the woman brought in to the Biggest Loser to be the Aussie version of Jillian Michaels? And now she’s everywhere, from frozen meals to athletic gear to showing up in my Facebook feed trying to get me to change my body in 12 weeks.
She’s had her share of controversies, from her relationship with co-star Commando to the whole eating vegies in the dirt thing, so tonight’s Australian Story should be really interesting.
The blurb from the ABC says:
“For the first time on TV Michelle Bridges and her family talk about her becoming a mum at 45, her relationship with ‘Commando’ Steve Willis and taking on the junk food industry.
The program traces Bridges’ remarkable journey as the daughter of a broken home in working class Newcastle who last year was named on the BRW list of Australia’s richest self-made women.
She’s described as one of Australia’s most influential health and fitness experts. In a new relationship with her “Biggest Loser” co-star, Steve Willis, the couple have been fodder for gossip columnists and paparazzi and now have a 4-month old son, Axel.
Bridges says having Axel has strengthened her ambition to tackle the junk food and sugar industries. “The truth of the matter is they sell crap food and make people sick and that makes me angry.”

I reckon it will be worth watching just to see more awkward bodybuilding comp photos (and look at that hair!). It’s on the ABC tonight (Monday) at 8pm most states, or you can no doubt catch it on iView later.



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If You Are the One: Australian Special Part II

I know there’s a heap of shows on tonight but this is a reminder to set SBS2 to record at 7.30pm, for part II of the Australian special of If You Are the One. If you have never seen this Chinese dating show, this is the perfect place to start.

I watched part I the other day and it was equal parts awesome and cringeworthy – the exact mix that makes the show so compelling.

Host with the most, Uncle Meng.
Host with the most, Uncle Meng.

For the Australian special the majority of the 24-strong dating pool are ladies born in China who have moved to Australia for study or work opportunities, while a few moved here at a young age with their families and stumble endearingly with their Chinese. One contestant is actually Italian-Australian with no Chinese heritage, but she speaks fluent Mandarin (I’m guessing here – could be Cantonese) and describes herself as an egg: white on the outside but yellow on the inside. This statement is greeted with hilarity by the audience, as is a male contestant’s claim to be a banana (yellow on the outside and white on the inside).

In the first episode there are fun glimpses of Canberra being described as a small town, lots of kangaroos and ocean views and Sovereign Hill in Ballarat (one of the blokes leads Chinese-speaking tours there).

The first episode ends with the compelling story of two people who vaguely know each other through mutual friends in Perth. Will he pick the reserved girl from his adopted home town or go with someone more outgoing?

If you missed it, you can catch it on SBS On Demand http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/612884547555/if-you-are-the-one-australia-special-i-australian-special-i



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