MasterChef Australia - S13E18 - Bento Box Mystery Box

 Today we have a mystery box challenge, and everyone enters the kitchen in high spirits. Sabina says it’s been a great week so far, seemingly forgetting the traumatic elimination of Therese just yesterday where everyone was shocking and crying. 

Jock says they love mystery boxes because of the faces of the contestants when they lift the lids – and sure enough once the contestants lift the lids, everyone is super happy about the bento box inside the mystery box.

Today’s Master is Chef Yomo from Ishizuka in Mekbourne – who enters wearing chef whites but also a tie. Nothing says badass like a man who works in a professional kitchen in a tie.  

Chef Yomo says that Bento is all about textures and flavours and more than anything it should make you happy.

Now Chef Yomo shows some epic skills – like his take on wagyu beef, sashimi, Japanese style 5 layer omelette, and a vegetable tofu roll – and then …… leaves the kitchen. This is super weird, why not have him stay for the challenge?  Did they seriously get him just for this one demo of a few skills?

Anyway, everyone has to cook bento boxes – and given that they are bento boxes, basically that means you can cook pretty much anything that you would eat for a meal. The top 4 go to the immunity challenge tomorrow.

Elise is excited - because they can run free and this is not a real mystery box at all.  She is taken a Sicilian view of the box and making crumb fried quail, tomato salad which she makes in every single cook and savoury doughnuts with anchovies.

Brent is doing something Japanese-y and this is the only interaction we will have with Brent and his glorious beard for the entire episode.

Jess is inspired by her family and particularly her kids – she is using native ingredients which is an almost guaranteed way to impress Jock. 

Justin is out of sorts and running all over the place. Eric who has now fucked up multiple cooks on the trot is doing something very hardcore Japanese. Amir is going middle eastern and making, among other things, hummus and quail egg shakshouka.

Pete who, by law seems to have to be always doing something random, is being inspired by Christian Puglisi – a new age chef who he is obsessed with. He has a few ideas he is working with but still needs to figure out a fourth element. Andy tells him he has to motor – which is very useful advice when one has 50 mins of cooking time still remaining.

Tom reels off his menu which is so weird it literally shocks Andy and Jock into a rare moment of silence. Finally, Jock has no clue how to process what Tom has said takes the consultant approach and says “It depends on a lot of stuff but it might work”.

Scott is also going super ambitious today – he is doing beef tataki and chawanmushi - which is a notorious to get right Japanese custard type thing. 

To no-one’s surprise, Tommy has declared himself the person to beat in this challenge, because apparently living in Japan for a couple of years is qualification for making four things that fit inside a plastic box.

Depinder says she is inspired by the tiffin culture in India and is now making what seems like a full thali for a family.  She claims this is the kind of stuff she took to lunch to school everyday. Not sure which desi kid ever takes 2 curries, pulao, and paranthas to school to lunch on a daily basis. Mel has an absurd comment that Depinder is not hitting the brief. Her comment is to do with how the flavours should be harmonious and the bento box should be a “full balanced meal”. Perhaps her problem is with this bento box being a full balanced meal for not 1, but 4 people. 

Andy and Jock are told by Mel that Elise is making anchovy doughnuts so they go over to investigate. Elise tells them about her dishes and mentions anchovy doughnuts. Andy who has clearly not being paying attention says 10 seconds later “Someone tells me you are making savoury doughnuts with anchovies” and Elise patiently says yes bro, I literally said this 10 seconds ago. 

Super Confident Tommy again says it’s his challenge to lose because of his 2 years spent in Japan – but now his sashimi keeps tearing so he has to ditch it. He decides to grill wagyu beef on the hibachi which is an insane decision with just 25 mins to go and now I am wondering how much Japanese cuisine does this guy actually know.

We then have this episode’s obligatory close up on Aaron tasting his own food and saying how good it is. 

Depinder has rightly ignored Mel and is now working on her parathas and pulao and 2 curries. But to make things too on the nose, she adds a pickle which will apparently transform her bento from “not hitting the brief” to “perfectly balanced harmonious meal”.  

Elise’s doughnuts are not working - they are sticking to bottom of deep fryer as she tosses them by hand into the fryer. Now she is scooping batter with a spoon and putting it into the fryer but she doesn’t seem too happy with it. 

Mel takes a run up and shouts 30 seconds. Andy is saying her one and only value add in every episode is getting better and she should consider going into professional yelling.  

The Tasting:

Pete, as always, looks worried as if some mafia hit is going to happen if he gets a dish wrong. He says that he has tried to push the boundaries conceptually. On tasting, Jock says he really enjoyed it - he particularly liked the combination of the rocket puree with the unripe strawberry.  Andy says he loved the bouquet garni and felt the idea of taking leaves from trees and throwing them on the plate as an element that he gets credit for ‘cooking’ was particularly ballsy.

Jess  brings up her dish. Andy loves the kingfish and beetroot. Jock says the pastry work on the dumplings is fantastic, and well of course, particularly likes the use of native ingredients. Mel’s expert opinion on this is that the “bento box says zen. These are very beautiful, gentle dishes”. 

Justin has made some mishmash of Indian and Mexican cuisine in his bento box. Mel is surprised it is harmonious, which she wouldn’t be if she had eaten Mexican or Indian food before – they are very, very similar and have a lot of common ingredients.

Tommy the Japan Expert brings up his box and Andy checks his notes and says “It looks traditional” as if he’s ever seen or eaten a bento box before. Jock says the box is all good but the beef is a bit meh and it needs more time for caramelization. Mel not only refrains from offering a food opinion, but also says he suffers from self-doubt which is ridiculous because if anything this guy is mad confident – at times too confident. 

Elise, as expected is super stressed about meeting Andy’s expectations for the anchovy doughnuts. Her anchovy doughnuts are great except for one tiny flaw – that they don’t seem to have anchovies. Jock is laughing with disbelief and Andy is cutting open the doughnut in many small pieces and is looking for it. Elise is literally on the verge of tears and Empathy World Champion Andy says he’s devastated that she didn’t get anchovies in her doughnuts which basically sends her to the elimination on Sunday.

Just to prove that the universe is an unfair, terrible place, the only person who has got the anchovy doughnut is Mel who just says it was good.

Tom brings his Frankenstein bento box. It has confit squid, dauphinoise potatoes, asparagus salad, and eggplant on baguette. All the judges are flabbergasted and Jock can only offer “That was the weirdest bento box I have ever had in my life” as feedback. 

Scott brings up his dish – his chawanmushi is perfectly set and the tataki was great – so he’s in a good place to make the top 4.

Depinder now brings up her half restaurant worth of food. Jock says he had such high hopes when she brought up her dish – and after dramatic pause says that she has absolutely nailed it - and actually goes over and hi fives her. He says it could not be a more complete meal and also that this was precision on a plate. Now all this validation is too much for Depinder who has started crying. Mel is also crying because her idiotic advice earlier that Depinder was not hitting the brief has made the final cut of the episode for all to see.

Everyone’s done and Andy says the challenges are designed to challenge the contestants. Thanks bro. Would have never figured that on my own.

The top four are Depinder (who is used to this by now), Pete (who is perennially surprised by his success), Scott (who is still awed that his dish worked) and Jess (who is happy just to be here).

Next up we have what seems to be a fiery affair.