Welcome to episode 8 – it seems to be a happy day in the kitchen as, for once, no one is going home today.
Today’s superstar chef is Clare Smyth – who shows up on the
screen. Sad that she will not be joining the contestants this year – she is
scary AF and always makes for fun viewing. Now she is on a screen,
enthusiastically waving at what appears to be fridges on the right side of the
room.
She reveals a cloche with her butter poached scampi dish.
Today’s mystery box is essentially the ingredients used to make that dish –
scampi, fresh wasabi, chives, tomatoes and a flower pot that accidentally found
its way there. Top five dishes go into tomorrow’s immunity challenge and rest
to Sunday’s elimination. Seems like they have finally gone back to some form of
the original format – and not eliminating contestants every episode.
The judges discuss what they would have made - Andy says he would
do a smoked tomato broth, Mel would make tomato tart, Jock would make some
super detailed dish with multiple ways of using the scampi. Clare and Jock then
laugh at the other two plebs who came up with these simple dishes and bond
about being the 2 best chefs in this conversation. Clare ignores Andy and Mel’s pedestrian ideas
and deigns to talk only to Jock asking him to make his dish for her.
Aaron is making an open lasagna, Therese is making caramelized
onion ice cream, Pete’s biggest goal is simply to not fuck up the scampi like
he did with the chicken in the team challenge.
Conor is excited – and he’s doing a dessert – as he wants to
stand out. He does a Greek take on an ice cream sandwich.
Brent mentions he is a tradie with fat fingers for the 4
millionth time on this show. He and his glorious beard are playing it smart
today and making a dessert. It’s his weakness and this is the best possible
time to experiment and pick up some skills early in the competition. Andy who doesn’t understand how this works is
amazed that Brent is bothering to go outside his comfort zone – because we all
know that making the exact same thing every week is a sureshot way to win Masterchef.
Brent has never heard of rose geraniums before – but like
any good cook, he is tasting and adding that flavor to his dessert. Andy being
an asshole makes fun of him for not knowing this random ingredient that
literally no one in the room has ever cooked with.
Depinder is making a fresh wasabi ice cream bomb Alaska. Tom has had enough stress in the last few
cooks and just phones it in. Linda is making scampi tortellini with tomato
broth.
Dan is being inventive and is making scampi scotch egg. Mel
who hates innovation asks him why he is mucking around with scotch eggs. Mel
then goes over to Therese who is making onion ice cream – apparently this kind
of innovation is okay with her. She then goes to Depinder and tells her she
doesn’t like the idea of wasabi ice cream – despite this not even being that
new an idea[1].
Depinder who was doing well so far is now super nervous.
Pete is making seared scampi and tomato tartare[2].
He is excited and seems to be in a good place but, true to form, Mel comes to remind
him that he fucked up his chicken in the team challenge and basically sent his
team to elimination – and is personally responsible for Katrina never making it
in the food scene. Now Pete is miserable and nervous as he pan sears his
scampi.
Mel is literally dancing at the trail of destruction she has
left behind.
Aaron, who was totally ignored by Mel, is not nervous or
stressed and he’s having fun. Good to know she’s not ruined this challenge for
at least one person. His lasagna looks
perfect and he also has a great idea to use béchamel as a substitute for the
cheese.
The challenge ends and Clare Smyth says that several of the
dishes that contestants have cooked are looking good. This despite the fact
that she cannot even see the contestants, let alone their dishes.
Coming to the tasting.
Aaron presents his very pretty open lasagna dish. He also
give a super long description. Jock confirms that Mel, despite all evidence to the
contrary, can smell the aromas from the dish. Jock loves the dish and that’s that.
Depinder now presents her dish very nervously – and Jock
helpfully adds that he hates wasabi. Poor Depinder has almost started tearing
up - but the dish comes through. Mel says she really liked it, vindicating
Depinder for ignoring all the advice Mel gave. Jock was scared but he loved it
– and he loves how her brain works. Andy says he liked everything about the
dish except for how it tastes. Jock tells Depinder to ignore Andy’s idiotic opinions.
We run through the next few dishes - Amir’s pasta is good, Conor’s
ice cream sandwich gets surprisingly light coverage, Dan’s scampi scotch egg is
great and now Mel apparently likes his brain. I agree because ignoring Mel’s
nonsense feedback is a definite sign of smartness.
Therese’s onion ice cream has turned out well, Maja’s
linguine is fun to eat and tasty.
Brent up next. Andy didn’t think Brent would make dessert
this early in the competition – because the most logical thing to do is to make
something you aren’t strong at, at a much later stage with more at stake and
preferably when your place in the competition is on the line. Andy blusters
through a few more sentences and then gives up – and resorts to hard-core
classist prodding which Mel also (unsurprisingly) joins in for. Firstly, both
Andy and Mel incorrectly say that Brent didn’t know how to pronounce rose
geranium – he, like everyone else, didn’t know what it was and forgot the name.
That’s not the same thing. Secondly, even if he couldn’t pronounce an
ingredients name, it doesn’t mean he can’t cook with it or that it would be ‘car
crash’. Jock, who is visibly trying to control cringe look on face, doesn’t go
down this idiotic line of feedback.
Jock thinks Linda’s dish is brilliant and she has really
scampi-ed the fuck out of this scampi this.
Pete up next – he is super nervous despite there being practically no consequences of screwing up this cook. Jock literally applauds and
calls him the ‘Saucier of Masterchef 2021’.
Pete says he will wear this label with pride – even though it’s just
something a judge said and not an actual title.
The Top 5 is mostly as expected - Aaron, Pete, Linda,
Depinder … and Conor (this was a bit of a surprise, I thought it would be Brent
or Therese).
Next up we have an immunity challenge that should be interesting.
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