MasterChef Australia - S13E03 - The first challenge for the top 24

 Okay so here we go – now that all the hyper-confident idiots who couldn’t really cook very well have been tossed, we are good to start with the actual competition.

The judges inform the top 24 that they are the top 24 – which is totally new information for all present.

Jock seems the most excited person in the room as he talks up the top 24 and the competition, no one reacts – so he yells himself and claps. About five minutes later, Mel tries the same thing – but most people have learnt that the best way to get through this competition to simply not take any of the judges seriously.

The first challenge is to be a mystery box. The judges build some suspense that the participants don’t know who has set the mystery box – and then reveal it has been set by Emilia – the winner of S12. This for good reason gets the participants super excited. But some seem surprised – I can understand why that might be so -  because the previous winner coming for the first challenge of the new season has only happened maybe 11 out of 12 seasons[1] - like who could have possibly predicted this.

Emilia is her usual radiant self – single handedly carrying the room from a judging perspective. To start with she explains the ingredients of the mystery box – reminding everyone that she won S12 (against former contestants most of whom have been professional chefs for years, as opposed to others who won against mere home cooks) multiple times.

Like last year, this season too we start with an immunity challenge and the contestants play for 3 pins. One big rule change is that you can play the immunity pin at any time during your cook – which finally makes the immunity pin concept sensible. You can actually be strategic instead of playing on dumb luck and deciding whether you cook or not based on no information. Welcome change.

We now start going around the contestants. One point of note here is that there is markedly more LGBT positivity in this season. There were people from the LGBT community in earlier seasons but that was kept nudge nudge wink wink. I don’t think anyone has said the words “I am gay” on MasterChef before Trent does in this episode. He is a big fan of Emilia and that immediately tells me he is a man of immaculate taste.

Tommy is making something very simple and says he plans to win by packing a lot of flavor into his dish. This is a revolutionary idea that surely none of the other 23 participants have thought of.

Emilia notices that Mel has gotten louder - which means that Mel has added to her repertoire of annoying qualities that we all could have done without. Excellent.

Elise has just made the profound observation that this professional kitchen built for a TV show’s recording purposes is nothing like her home kitchen.

Kishwar is nervous because she is just a home cook – as opposed to all the professional cooks that are taking part in this show which is explicitly meant for home cooks.

Therese seems to doing something super funky. After her insane dish in the auditions, I have high hopes for her to be the new Jess. She does however make 2 terrible puns in quick succession which now throws all my support in the balance.

As with every first episode of every season, someone comments that the kitchen in which 24 people have stoves, cookers and hibachis on is hot.

Tommy is amazed by how good a cook he is. Prime candidate for White Chocolate Veloute type disaster.

Andy and Jock unnecessarily scare the shit out of Depinder about her choux pastry being perfect. On a positive note, Andy and Mel have stopped going to contestants in the last 5 minutes and asking them (at best) philosophical and (at worst) stupid questions.

Coming to the tasting:

Minoli has made a really small dish – also only 3 portions for 4 people. Considering that barramundi is not that small a fish – it seems like she could have just cut the skin differently and there was room for 4. Someone get Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the job to prove this.

My main man Brent has casually thrown together a fish and chips which looks delicious. And I would say this even if not for his glorious beard.

Depinder’s choux is decent and for once, we have an Indian contestant who is not a crying mess in every single cook.   

Akhand Bharat doesn’t do all that well on the crying front though as Kishwar questions all her life choices as she presents her first ever dish to the judges. As with her audition, she cries through the wholes tasting – that’s 2 for 2.

Trent brings up his hot mess (at this point I have forgotten what his dish even was – just that it was garbage). It is so bad, even Mel is pissed and tells him to get his shit together. I can only imagine how terrible the dish tasted to get that sort of reaction from Mel who normally would have told him how much she loves his energy and personality if this tasted remotely decent.

The rest of the tasting is pretty uneventful. There are some great dishes looks like – Wynona, Therese, Tommy etc., but Jock has now said “I would be surprised if that wasn’t in the mix today” for half the dishes. This is very confusing.

Finally, Therese, Wynona and Elise get the pins. Emilia gives some motivational speech to everyone – and then Jock bums everyone out by telling them that they are all in the first elimination tomorrow. This is one aspect of the show I hate – at least let the guys be there for a week before you decide the first elimination. But anyway – that’s how it is.

Cheers and see you in Episode 4.

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[1] Only exception being last year – when it was clear that to make up for the massive clusterfuck of getting 3 randos to take over from iconic judges – they needed someone like Gordon Ramsay and not someone like Larissa from S11