Today we have a Second Chance Mystery Box Challenge.
Andy says don’t hold back – and asks Wynona how much she
wants this apron. She says she wants it really bad.
There seems to be 2 mystery boxes today – one is transparent
and the other is the usual mystery box. The contestants have to make a choice –
the clear one has only 4 ingredients but they know which those are - Moreton Bay bugs, some sort of potato,
Fennel and Walnuts. The other one has the usual 8 ingredients – makes sense to
go for the bigger one unless you are 100% sure of what you want to make with
these four.
Jess, Maja and Katrina go for the small box. Katrina is
counting on the judges pulling a dick move with the other box.
Turns out they don’t and the other one is way better than
this one – like not even close. It has duck, pomegranate, macadamia nuts,
chives, goats yogurt, prawns etc. A much much better box.
Katrina has now realized what a huge mistake she has made
for 10 seconds of “stand out” fame and now her cook is more or less ruined.
The top 4 dishes today go into the cook-off for the final
spot back tomorrow.
Eric is making the one type of food he doesn’t screw up –
regional Chinese stuff. He is making a shanghai style pancake with chives
instead of spring onion, thyme omelette, and black garlic prawns.
Trent is doing a tart for some reason – remember how
monumentally he fucked up the tart in his first cook? He is super nervous
because Mel is here to talk to him and she was super mean to him the last time. She says don’t worry, make a decision and go
for it – which is how most bad decisions in this kitchen are made.
Maja is making Moreton bay bugs and fennel. She apparently
has work experience since she got eliminated. She is trying to show off all the
stuff she’s learnt. I hope she doesn’t get fired for undercooking fish in the
last challenge (but then we can just blame that on Justin)
Conor is being smart and sticking to what has worked for him
in the past and going Greek – hes making Gyro. This seems a bit too simple IMO –
I mean a piece of meat with yogurt in a flatbread – for a dish that will win
you a place in the competition seems a bit of a stretch.
Therese is going dessert (which she should have last time as
well) and making brown butter macadamia crumble, macadamia ice cream with duck
fat caramel.
Katrina is unsurprisingly stuck – why would she go for the
small box if she wasn’t 100% sure of cooking the protein? He says she has no
idea what to cook. Andy comes over to asks if she is all right – she confidently
says yes and then gives a super random answer to what she is making - pickled
egg yolk, ricotta, walnut and fennel – thus proving she is not okay by any stretch
of imagination.
Tom is making black garlic canelé – apparently this is a
super risky dish to do in 75 mins since usually the dough has to rest for 24
hours. If this works, I am going to lose all faith in all baking recipes.
Trent has dropped his expectation from winning place in
masterchef to simply making one thing right – btu even this has failed and his
pastry has messed up. His tart has not worked again. Now he is thinking black
garlic ice cream with a couple other elements.
Katrina has finally finished thinking some half an hour into
the cook and has decided to do a pickled egg yolk with fennel 4 ways.
Wynona is doing savoury – black garlic and parsnip puree
with duck leg.
Eric has somehow managed to screw up the simplest part of
his dish – the omelette – which is sticking to the pan. Now he is mauling his
omelette and trying to get it out.
Jock is questioning whether Tom needs to take this risk now
that his place depends on it. Tom has as usual ignored the advice and is cracking
on with his dish which really shouldn’t work in this time.
Wynona’s duck leg is overcooked. She has only 15 mins left so
she is now doing prawns and serving with the same sides.
Katrina is very excitedly telling Mel what her dish is – and
Mel is super unimpressed. She’s like “You are giving us a yolk? That’s it?”
Tom is Poh-ing and waiting for his caneles to come out of
the oven.
Eric has a full 10 mins to plate up his dish – he says this
is the most time he has ever had for plating so he is adding another element to
give himself some stress.
Amazingly, Tom’s caneles have worked and I have decided
never to trust baking recipes.
Therese’s ice cream is grainy – small microscopic graininess
she says. She is now focusing on fixing her ice cream – though it is beyond me
how one fixes ice cream in one minute. She also realizes that ice cream cannot
be saved like this – to mis-quote Uncle Roger – “if your ice cream too grainy,
you fucked up, no way to save grainy ice cream”. So now she is not serving it!
Damn so there is just a crumble on the plate.
The Tasting
Maja brings up her super elegant looking dish. Jock seems to
have loved it. Worthy of round of applause. What a killer dish he says. Mel also
says it is a really refined dish.
Tom’s caneles have not only worked, but are delicious. Mel
says it’s a 10. Jock is literally applauding him and says he should take a bow.
Wynona’s duck dish which is now a prawn dish. Jock says the prawns were perfect. Mel says
puree is silky smooth and nicely balanced. Andy says “congrats on being able to
grow in decision making” –which is idiotic because deciding to not serve
overcooked meat which will surely put you in the bottom is a no-brainer.
Jess’s dish is nice. Andy says it is an elegant restaurant
snack dish. Mel says really good cooking. Jock says it’s delicious.
Therese brings up her crumble. Its amazing how calm and in
control she is in this situation. Kishwar would have served a bowl of tears as
a side dish by now. Sad to see this capitulation.
Conor’s gyros are nice but not perfect. There are a couple
of flaws and Jock says middle of the road. He’s gone. Damn double whammy.
Katrina’s incomplete dish is felt by all judges to be incomplete.
This just confirms what we knew as soon as the other mystery box was
revealed.
Yoyo already knows she is not going to make it so she tries
to make this worth everyone’s while by valiantly trying to get Mel to eat a
prawn with a full intact poop shoot. Unfortunately Mel catches on.
Trent’s back up dish is also terrible. All the judges are
wondering how they messed this judgement up so badly in the auditions.
Eric’s dish. Jock gives big speech about how he had high
hopes and how he wanted this dish to be epic – and then says it was epic. Eric
has surely had a small heat attack by now – well done Jock.
The Top 4 are Maja,
Eric, Tom, and Wynona.
Andy once again commends Wynona’s “confidence to make hard
calls” and has clearly not grasped the idea of “serve overcooked meat = go home”.
Anyway, I’m sad to not see Therese or Conor make it – but at
least Wynona is still in the running. Let’s see who gets the final spot.
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