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MasterChef Australia S13E02 - The Auditions - Second Round

 Finally, the truly boring stuff out of the way, we are getting into some real mastercheffy action.

Today, 16 cooks trying to get into the top 24 by cooking one of the best 5 dishes of the day. There are 2 pantries – one with less ingredients but 90 mins to cook, and one with a lot of ingredients with 45 mins to cook.

Only 3 cooks – Conor, Sarah and Cameron decide to go with the small pantry. Conor wants to channel his Greek grandma, Sarah is intense and wants to make steak and chips, Cameron seems like he is just having fun and trolling everyone else.

Conor has no clue what he wants to cook – also he doesn’t follow recipes. Have a feeling he is going be an entertaining addition to the mix this year. Or it is going to be one massive disaster. Time will tell. 

Sarah says she is not leaving without an apron – and that judges are going to pry it out of her sticky fingers.  Cameron says the apron is his and trash talks Sarah saying they've already started embroidery on his - not realizing that both could get aprons. Sarah (also not realizing there are enough aprons for both) says its just a typo – betraying that she has no clue what a typo is.

Everyone else is regretting massively that they didn’t take more time. Ben the Tool is asking whether the others having more time is an advantage. Max the nice guy is totally ignoring him. I really like this episode because Ben the Tool gets about 30 seconds of additional airtime in the rest of this entire episode.

Max tries to sneak an ingredient from the small pantry and fails. He is doing a peach tarte tatin in 45 minutes. The other contestants are worried and say “he’s brave” and “hopefully he’s made the right decision” which I can only assume is the Aussie way of saying “He is an idiot and has fucked this up beyond recognition”.

Aaron is making crispy skin duck with fennel and onions. Wynona is doing her pork dish from Instagram. Conor has finally decided what he wants to make – an avgolemono substituting the chicken broth for fish broth.

Katrina has been totally thrown off by the judges coming over an asking her what she is cooking – and has forgotten her own dish. She has also forgotten to score her fish.

Max once again reminds viewers of his terrible decision to cook Paris Peach Tarte Tatin in 45 mins and Depinder now weighs in saying “He’s pushing it” which I can only assume is the Aussie way of saying “There is no chance of this happening, why is this guy even here?”

All contestants say how good their own dishes are – while Cameron makes a Dad joke.

Charlie makes his only contribution to this episode by cutting his thumb.

We are back on Max now. The judges now tell him he is an idiot as he could have used nectarines instead of peaches and had 90 minutes. Max finally realizes his error but still foolishly clings on some hope of making it.

Times up and now let’s get to the tasting.

Jock likes Elise’s dish. Andy says he wasn’t expecting that because before this he had no idea what the dish was.

Jock likes Wynona’s dish which he basically asked her to cook yesterday. Mel also liked the dish. Andy doesn’t bother commenting.

Ikesh’s dish is “work-in-progress” i.e. not good at all.

A few other good dishes follow. 

Katrina up next – who is nervous and worried about everything. Jock likes the fish and the dish overall – the other two just repeat what he says. Some things don’t change. Sigh.

Aaron’s happy at his awesome looking dish. Everyone loves this dish and he’s basically got the apron.

Max is now up next – to be put out of his misery. Somehow he is still optimistic that his dish is good despite making a 45 minute dish in 25 mins. Max lies he’s happy with his idiotic decision to go for 45 mins. Jock says overall it is still decent but the pastry is a bit undercooked. Bye bye Max.

Ben the Tool’s dish is universally panned – oily tostada, too much sala verde. So long Ben.

Cameron’s pasta is too thin. Sarah’s dish is just plain bad with the undercooked carrot, grainy puree and overcooked steak. Two more gone[1]. 

Finally coming to Conor – everyone loves his avgolemono with the King George Whiting. And it turns out his peppered nectarines were an inspired last minute addition.

The final fives chosen are Aaron, Elise, Katrina, Wynona and Conor. All highly deserved. 

Cheers and see you guys in Episode 3 – and the start of the actual Masterchef Season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


[1] As the parrot said to his co-passenger in the classic marathi joke “If you cannot fly, why do maaz?”

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