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MasterChef Australia - S13E61 - The Finale Part 2

 We start with a recap of the season. Jock says they started with home cooks but now they have evolved into cooks who use complex techniques and make world class food. So clearly this doesn’t apply to Kishwar who can make the most basic food in a finale and still get a perfect 30. Now they are recapping some of their biggest mistakes – like eliminating Depinder, Tommy etc. This third round is a pressure test – Kishwar gets in a cry for good luck before the chef even walks in. Today the pressure test will be set by Aussie food legend (and incidentally the person who set the first ever Finale pressure test) Peter Gilmour. He enters with a genial smile on his face carrying TWO cloches. They have to make both dishes simultaneously. There is a savoury and a sweet dish – this is a legit big, finale worthy challenge. The savoury dish is shaved squid with koji butter emulsion, chawanmushi custard and a lot of small delicate garnishes. The dessert is called golden crackle which looks
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MasterChef Australia - S13E60 - The Finale - Part 1

Here we go – the end of the line. Phew. It’s been a long hard season for those of us who have seen this show for years. We start with a loooooong intro about the 3 contestants. Andy says Pete is basically ready to step out and start a restaurant. Mel says Kishwar has come a long way (by cooking the same stuff over and over again). Mel also adds that no-one expected Justin to be here – I mean who could have predicted this surprise when the judges were randomly eliminating super-star contestants. No one could have possible seen this coming. There are going to be three rounds in the Grand Finale – and for the first time, it will be held across 2 days. Today Round 1 and 2 – tomorrow Round 3. For Round 1 – they start with a mystery box with ingredients chosen by some of the best chefs in the country. A parade of big name chefs who have appeared on the show this season show up – Khanh Nguyen, Martin Benn, Darren Purchase, Alla Wolf Tasker, Kirsten Tibbals etc. Each of them have brought

MasterChef Australia - S13E59 - The Semi Final

All the contestants are back to cheer – everyone is kinda dressed up but Pete has shown up in pyjamas. Elise has started crying for some reason as has Sabina (perhaps both are lamenting the drop in standards of this show). Turns out there are going to be 3 people in the Finale – only one person gets eliminated here. So they have to make a 3 course fine dining menu for 20 diners + the judges. They have to showcase the food they like to cook and eat. (Given the brief, I don’t have much scope to make fun of Kishwar today) They have 4 hours to prep. I’m surprised no one is there to help them with the service – normally some famous chef would come to run the pass.   Justin is making cauliflower taco with mussels emulsion for his entrĂ©e. I am 100% sure this is going to be a problem for the judges since this is just a taco – not particularly fine dining either. His main sounds impressive – a lamb backstrap with a curry flavoured sauce and carrot puree. For the dessert he is making a brie

MasterChef Australia - S13E58 - Gem Stone Duel - Ticket to Finale

In case you missed it we are down to the top 4 now – this is without doubt the least impressive Top 4 ever in MasterChef. Like how have Justin and Kishwar made the top 4? Kishwar is the most unidimensional contestant to ever appear at this stage in the show and this includes Elise F who parfait-ed her way to Fourth place in Season 8. Sigh anyway, on the bright side, it will all be over soon. So back to the episode. They are in white aprons – so maybe this is not an elimination. They walk to the front of the room- there are 2 plinths with jewels in them. Today they are playing for a place in the FINAL! WTF! How can you get people to skip the Semi-final?! Surely a more sensible advantage would be to give a place in the Semi-Final and put the others through an elimination. It makes no sense that someone will reach the final without the giant service challenge that tests if they can actually run a commercial kitchen or not. Sheesh. Anyway, there are 2   rounds – both head to head

MasterChef Australia - S13E57 - Hugh Allen Pressure test

The Top 5 enter the kitchen – soon to become a top 4. Andy says “Can you believe you are the top 5” which is a legitimate question and not a rhetorical one since no one expected this bunch to make it here. Today we have a pressure test by Hugh Allen of Vue De Monde. He has been cooking since he was 15 years old apparently. He enters and Justin’s key takeaway is that he looks like a model. Mel seemingly agrees with Justin and asks Hugh how old he is (presumably to check n/2 + 7 scenes). He is 26 years old (she is 39 so it’s a close one). Shady jokes aside, it is quite insane that this guy at 26 is the executive chef at Vue de Monde – the same restaurant Shannon Bennett was at. He lifts the cloche – it looks like a bunch of flowers, not even like a dish. He calls it the the bottlebrush – it has strawberry gum with what looks like a hundred tempered chocolate sticks sticking out of it. There are two other elements- gumnut with wattleseed mousse and a billy button has a passion

MasterChef Australia - S13E56 - Society - Six Course Meal Service

The top 6 are in Society today – Martin Benn’s super fancy restaurant in Melbourne. This is a service challenge – the contestants will be running this restaurants first ever service. So no pressure. All of them will cook one course each and have a staggered start. On top of that Martin has assigned a feature ingredient for every course and they will not reveal till the cook enters the kitchen for their respective courses. And there is one more little surprise, today is an elimination. Way to spring it on everyone. But then this is finals week – so every cook will be an elimination. The order of the courses is Pete, Elise, Justin, Kishwar, Sabina and Linda – first 4 savoury and last 2 sweet. Looks bad for Sabina and Linda. Don’t see both of them making it through today. Pete starts cooking – this ingredient is nori. He hasn’t cooked with it before, but since this is super fine dining, I think he will ace this challenge. He thinks it can work with celeriac. He plans to make a crois

MasterChef Australia - S13E55 - Fast and Fancy Elimination

We are at the end of this godforsaken season now – finals week. So pretty much every cook will be an elimination. Today’s challenge is called “Fast food, fancy food”. In round 1 – they have to choose a hero ingredient from the pantry for a fast food challenge. Top 3 dishes are safe. The bottom 3 go to round 2 – they have hero the same ingredient in a fancy food dish. They go to the pantry and start picking ingredients Sabina goes for Kingfish. Justin and Kishwar go for the chicken. Elise goes for sardines (??), Pete goes with potatos (WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK PETE?!), Tommy has chosen beef. Tommy has to go all out for this one – since he is not super confident with fancy food. He is doing a classic vietnamese street food dish called bo la lot. Justin is making chicken tacos – he is going with a green Indian curry marinade, he is putting a LOT of chillies. He’s done tacos very well, twice before, so don’t see him screwing this up. As a side note - Andy is in a weird black turt