MasterChef Australia - S13E17 - Kirsten Tibballs Pressure Test

Everyone is super depressed about the pressure test today. Fusion Dan is daunted about surely not being allowed to do fusion. Therese is saying she is not ready to leave the competition.

Andy says it’s good they are tense before a pressure test - sharing some valuable experience before rubbing it in their faces that they sucked yesterday.

Mel introduces the Master setting the pressure test today – and it’s Kirsten Tibballs. Which means this is going to be chocolate hell.

Justin is already devastated – because this is going to be all chocolate and is mentally preparing himself to go home.  

Kirsten says she will show people the dishes they will cook – they have to make THREE dishes so this is going to be doozy. Her dishes look amazing and delicate – works of art. The contestants have to make an exotique mousee cake,  style rebellion lollipops and a Ruby financier.  

Sadistic Mel is literally laughing at the contestants who are shitting themselves at this stage.

Jock tries to help out the contestants and asks Kirsten, “They get to pick one right?” and Kirsten says they have to make all three instantly earning her what she called “hate glares” from the gantry.

On the very small bright side, Kirsten is going to give a close up look at some of the chocolate techniques to be used – namely the silk screen for the cake, the marbling for the lollipops and the lattice for the financier.

Brent who is totally used to unreasonable expectations from bosses is chilled AF while the others are on the verge of a coordinated heart attack.

Jock encourages the contestants to cheer for Kirsten and thank her for making their lives miserable and sending one of them home.

The judges discuss how the kitchen is so quiet and Andy helpfully informs Kirsten that this sadistic challenge is the reason for that instantly making her regret doing this. That's the second typically positive chef that everyone is going to hate this season.  

According to Mel Therese is the person to win this challenge as the dessert specialist - which is a 100% sureshot sign that she is going to have a shit cook. 

Everyone knows Justin and Dan are the worst of the lot and will struggle, and everyone is confident in Brent because he is very good at following recipes and instructions.

Brent says he has never done any of this before – so this will be interesting to see. My (biased) gut feeling is that he is going to follow the recipe to the T and kill this.  He has finished a few elements – everything looks exactly like Kirsten’s and he’s done his silk screen perfectly.

Therese doesn’t want to speak too soon but she’s feeling confident.  (Narrator - She spoke too soon.)   

Justin feels like the underdog today because he is.  He says knows he needs to be calm and collected to get through this challenge. And then 10 seconds later he duly freaks out, sees what others are doing and typical Asian mentality cannot believe that the boilermaker is powering through it while he is struggling.

Justin is now freaking out about the silk screen and Jock and Kirsten show up and refuse to take obvious hints to go away and not put extra pressure. But Jock is there anyway. Justin does the silk screen and convinces himself that he has screwed it up – before being reminded that he needs to lift the silk screen. He does so and it’s perfect. Justin is shocked that this has not been a disaster.

Therese is making the PB&J cream – she has been in 4 eliminations so far and he has not played the pin yet. She is looking good so far and powering through the challenge.

Dan is distraught that he cannot do fusion today, while Brent is super happy about measuring things in millimeters and using a knife and doing things in a precise manner.

Mel feels she needs to balance the scales and tries to freak out Brent. She goes over and asks him why he is so calm – he says he has no expectations of himself. His super cool-ness and I’d wager his glorious beard, have won over Kirsten who would like to be friends after this is over.

The judges leave Brent – who is now layering his cake. He’s has done a perfect job.  

Dan is now making his PB&J cream which promptly turns into a crumb. Dan helpfully explains to the viewers that the “texture doesn’t seem right”. Yes, no shit Sherlock.

Turns out he has boiled his sugar syrup too long and now it has seized the mixture. Kirsten comes over and tells him how he needs to think to fix this - he puts in more water and the mixture starts coming together.  Visually at least it doesn’t look like the other creams (it’s a totally different colour).

Jock says Dan is 20 mins behind and is concerned about him.

Justin has done his cake and now is working on the lollipops, as is Therese.

Now everyone is starting to temper their chocolate. Therese says she doesn’t like to temper chocolate which makes this a prime case for her to use her pin today – since literally two entire dishes depend on tempered chocolate.

Dan feels like he is catching up – and Tom tells Dan that they all we love him.  (Narrator: They don’t.)

Therese’s coloured chocolates are not the right temperature and they are solidifying as she puts them into the larger bowl of tempered chocolate. Kirsten tells her she needs to reheat the pink coloured chocolate with the heat gun and re-temper. He does so – but now the rest of the tempered chocolate has cooled below the ideal temperature – I am amazed sure how she has not realized yet that this is a disaster.

Brent says he’s being really precise but it seems like he is making something very rough unlike what Kirsten had done – but at least his chocolate is tempered well.

Therese’s lollipops are coming out but they are ‘rustic’ i.e. ugly. Alarm bells are somehow still not ringing for her. 

Dan is now throwing his coloured chocolate in using the spatula instead of using piping bag. This surprisingly has worked and his lollipops actually look good.

The gantry is yelling to inform him that his lollipops are the best of the lot – at this point Therese should be running towards the judges with the pin but somehow she is not paying attention. I mean Fusion Dan has made better lollipops than the dessert queen – surely this merits a full blown meltdown.

But the lollipops keep falling off the stick when hung upside down. The gantry try to soothe the cooks by dramatically screaming with every ball that falls off .  Now Dan's turned them over and is resting them the right way up so he wont get the point like Kirsten but overall his lollipops still look okay.

Now everyone is working on the lattice cylinder. Brent, Justin and Dan have done a decent job with the lattice but Therese’s tube is looking very thick compared to the others and more importantly to Kirsten’s.

That’s the main chocolate element ruined on dish no. 2 for Therese – but she is still working for some reason, and not playing the pin. 

Brent’s cake looks amazing and Justin’s cake is also perfect. Dan’s cake also looks really good. But Therese has put her acetate ring the wrong way – and she is now messed up the main chocolate element on her third dish as well. 

Now she asks the gantry if she should play the immunity ring, and the gantry says it’s up to her. Thanks! What a great piece of advice which works perfectly in almost  all similar situations.

“Hey should I open a DEMAT account?”, “Hey should I get life insurance”, “Hey should I get vaccinated?”

“It is up to you”

With friends like these, who needs enemies?  Ridiculous.

 Therese has now gone full delusional and is desperate to get every element on the plate – which she definitely doesn’t have time for now. This is a total no brainer – she needs to play the pin.

Poor Brent has broken his lattice, but the chocolate is well tempered. Dan has given up on the mirror glaze altogether. Therese has not only screwed up 3 core elements, but she also doesn’t have all the elements – she leaves out her mirror glaze as well. 

Now everyone on the gantry is exasperated and hoping Therese to play the pin without actually telling her to play the pin. Perhaps this is something that could be construed as conflict of interest which is why they were told not to encourage pin use. Finally good guy Conor says “Yes play the pin” with 10 seconds to go. But Therese doesn’t play the pin. 

I don't remember the last time I was this shocked at a moment on Masterchef. 

The Tasting:

Jock says the challenge was super enjoyable lol.

Justin has 3 complete dishes up. Cake has really good layers. He’s finished everything. All of it looks good.  He’s surely safe

Brent also has all dishes up but his lattice is broken. Kirsten says it is chocolate magic – no more to be said he is 100% safe now. She’s blown away.

Therese brings her disaster on a plate.  Somehow she is still hoping the flavours work. Andy asks if she could go back would she play the pin – she says she would. Jock asks why she didn’t play it – she thought she could get it up. Damn this is going to be heartbreaking.

All the dishes look really, really rough. Mel says the texture of the lollipops is soft and the chocolate is not tempered properly. The Financier is good but the lattice is thick and clumsy. The mousse is really good, but it’s missing the glaze and one side of the silk screen. Kirsten says the look and visual appeal of the dish is important to her. 

Quite certain she is going home unless Dan has found a way to sneak in some five spice into the dish and fucked it up at a monumental level.

But he hasn’t. Dan’s lollipop is pretty close to Kirsten’s. The cake has a really nice screen print and he’s done a good job overall.

Coming to the results

Brent and Justin have both made great dishes and are safe. It comes down to Dan and Therese.

Therese is already crying and Sadistic Mel rubs in the fact that she could have played immunity pin.  They deliver the verdict, she had major flaws in all her dishes – and she is going home.

Everyone is shocked that she is going home and Therese herself seems to be in shock not reacting at all to this.

Empathy World Champion Mel again rubs in the fact that she had an immunity pin and could have used it to save herself but she didn’t.

Poor Therese – she knows it was a stupid move and now she will join Loki from S10 and Dani from S12 in the embarrassing list of contestants who went home with an immunity pin.

That said, she was super popular so I have a strong feeling she will come back when the do the repechage thing at the top 12 stage which has worked well for some popular contestants in previous years (Like Tim in S11).

Next up, we have a mystery box so that should be a relatively happy cook after this roller coaster. Cheers and see you then.