Previous Episode: MasterChef Australia Season Four – Rick Stein Invention Test
Audra, Dalvinder and Andrew face elimination tonight, but who will go home? Will they ACTUALLY send someone home this time?
After packing, the three head to the MasterChef kitchen for today’s challenge.
Challenge Brief: Today is a pressure test, and they must recreate a Calombaris favourite- his mother’s Greek salad. It’s a simple challenge- or is it? Another cloche comes out. Under it lays a ‘deconstructed 2012’ version of the salad…with cucumber ice-cream to be quenelled at the judges table. To be honest, his salad looks very un-restaurant-y. It’s too bland.
Conditions: 3 ½ hours of cooking time.
Progress: Dalvinder begins on her red pepper terrine with others following suit. George is nervous about what will be made today. Audra then begins on her cucumber ice cream. All is calm so far as other contestants seem to be relatively at the same stages. Unfortunately, Audra’s capsicums aren’t blistering, which isn’t good because she needs it for her terrine. Dalvinder’s looks good on the other hand. Andrew is last to take his out and they look fine.
George assures Audra that she’s in a good place, but would like to see her capsicums back in the oven. 2 hours remain- where did all that time go?! Audra takes her capsicums out and they look much better. Dalvinder is trying to cut her capsicum up but signs of stress are forming. Andrew begins contemplating doing half a terrine, which is against George’s advice. He decides to do a portion and hopes it works. Yeah, don’t bet on it, buddy! At least it’s getting him ahead of time, none of which will make any difference if his terrine is shit. Meanwhile, Dalvinder is lagging behind and needs to get a move on to trip her capsicum.
They then work on their sloppy agar-agar which proves annoying to Audra. Dalvinder can’t get hers to thicken. They then have to use that mix for the green olive gel. With an hour to go, it seems these people have only done limited jobs. Dalvinder actually loses her place on the five page recipe. She begins on her olive sponge. Andrew has fun with this stage by the look of it. He also has fun heating oil, almost setting it alight!
He reads the recipe wrong, and needs to redo his oil to boil his potatoes. Matt thinks Audra is in the lead however the other two judges think Andrew is in the lead. Dalvinder is struggling under the pressure and is breaking down. George goes over to calm her down. He gets the other contestants to help her clean up. How nice! Anyway, time for Andrew to get his terrine out and it actually works really well! But when he cuts it up, he remembers he forgot to keep his glad wrap on. This makes it fall apart and it doesn’t work for him. He decides to blast chill the terrine while he plates other things up. 3 minutes remain. The other two contestants get perfect terrines. Dalvinder has to just dump elements on her plate in order to finish in time.
Tasting & Results
Andrew: George loves the look of the sponge but says the terrine is jagged. Gary thinks he has nailed the cucumber ice cream and the feta fondant. George loves the olive paste. The terrine is panned.
Audra: She calls this her ‘best day’ in the MasterChef kitchen. Gary prefers her plate to George’s. Matt loves the elements on the dish. He doesn’t so much love the terrine, neither does George. George does however like the sponge. Gary calls the dish ‘magic, magic, magic’.
Dalvinder: Matt says that visually, the only problem is the olive gel. George calls the terrine fabulous but says the feta, mousse and gel are the let downs. He loves the tomatoes as well. Matt wants more salt.
Result: Audra is saved with such a fantastic dish. Finishing in nineteenth place on MasterChef Australia 2012 is…Dalvinder!
To me, I will miss Dalvinder, I thought she was brilliant and I think this is way too early for her to go. In all honesty, this elimination was against three deserving contestants (to stay, that is), but I guess the judges can’t save two contestants in a row!
MasterChef Australia next airs Jun 12 at 7PM on TEN.
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