Previous Episode: MasterChef Australia Season Four – Pizza & Pasta Italian Week Challenge
Alice and Mindy are going head to head in an Italian Immunity Challenge. Pretty sweet, yeah? Well it gets better when you realise one of them WILL take immunity, guaranteed!
Today’s challenge will take place in Tuscany, Florence. Alice thinks she is the underdog. So what will they do today? Before they go to the immunity challenge, Alice & Mindy are taken for a tour of Florence to get accustomed to the flavours. It’s then off to Immunity!
Immunity Challenge: This challenge is held up at Villa Corsini a Mezzamonte. They are told that some of the things they learnt in the tour may help them here. Today, they will be taking on EACH OTHER! And, Antonio Carluccio will be featuring in this challenge. This challenge is split into two rounds. One is a taste test, where they have to identify 28 ingredients from a dish- ribollita.
Progress: Alice is first and goes for Potato. Correct. Mindy is next and she goes for carrot. Correct also. Alice then goes for pepper which is correct. Mindy tries cauliflower which is correct. Alice goes for broccoli and is also correct. Mindy tries her hand at Tuscan black cabbage which is very specific but correct. 22 ingredients left. Alice goes for garlic without tasting and she is correct. Mindy has a go at another type of cabbage, savoy cabbage. This is also correct. Alice gets the ball rolling again with onion which is correct. Mindy goes for barley over other ingredients. There is no barley in the soup and therefore Mindy loses, giving Alice an advantage.
Round 2 Brief: Today, they will be cooking recipes from Antonio’s book. They must both cook a set of three savoury dishes or three sweet dishes. Alice will get to pick which set they cook with.
Sweet Set
Ricotta Tart
Zabaglione
Apple Strudel
Savoury Set
Artichoke Soup
Stuffed Calamari
Roast Rabbit
Alice decides to pick the Savoury Set to give them both a fair chance.
Conditions: 90 Minutes cooking time.
Progress: Gary remains in the room. Matt, George and Antonio will be blind tasting the dishes. Mindy may have the advantage here, which would be bad for Alice because it was her decision. Mindy does however sound stressed. She wants to start on the soup first. She wants to caramelise one of her dish, despite the fact it doesn’t say to. Gary warns her off doing that. Alice is doing her rabbit meal and she wants to make sure she gets the balance of flavours correct!
Mindy has a few problems with the oven door, but she seems to be going quite well. 45 minutes to go and they both seemed to have made progress on all of their dishes. The deconstruction of the rabbit and squid seem to make Mindy a bit queasy, and she also decides to get rid of the squid skin, which wasn’t advised.
Gary comes around to check Alice’s oven and it isn’t working! Well, not properly anyway. Luckily, there’s some space in Mindy’s oven but it could be too late for her rabbit. She has to caramelise it in a pan and she feels she’s stuffed it up! Shoulda gone for sweet!
Soon, time is up, and at least they can all finish their dishes.
Tasting & Results
Alice
Artichoke Soup: George says there’s not much chicken flavour in the pulpetti and Matt thinks it will be good in the right situation.
Stuffed Calamari: Matt thinks the stuffing is balanced and light. George likes the drizzling of olive oil. Antonio calls it very tasty.
Roast Rabbit: The lack of artichokes is immediately noticeable. Despite Alice’s thoughts, Matt calls the rabbit beautifully cooked and George likes the vegetables.
Mindy
Artichoke Soup: Antonio says it looks delicate and smells wonderful. George loves the broth and enjoyed the artichokes. Antonio says the pulpetti should have been softer.
Stuffed Calamari: Antonio says the calamari isn’t very tender. Matt thinks it has been cooked too long but loves the flavours.
Roast Rabbit: This plate has no onions, which Antonio calls extraordinary. He calls the dish overcooked. He says the potato is too soft and the rabbit too dry.
Artichoke Soup WIN: MINDY
Stuffed Calamari WIN: ALICE
Roast Rabbit WIN: ALICE
Result: Alice has won immunity.
Well, a very good challenge and a very unexpected outcome. Alice is on the rise and what a brilliant place to win an immunity pin!
MasterChef Australia next airs Jul 11 at 7PM on TEN.
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