For some reason, there is another elimination today. Poor Minoli has to go through 2 eliminations in her first 3 cooks back in this competition. Sabina is the only one who seems deliriously happy today.
Today they
are in the middle of nowhere on Alla Wolf Tasker’s property. They have to cook a vegetarian dish – using
the ingredients available in the farm with a few extra local ingredients. No
big open pantry today.
Alla says it’s
going to be challenging – because they have to actually know what to take and
what to leave, it is not like going to a shop.
Andy’s
excitement has gotten the better of him and he’s started his weird exaggerated clapping
even before announcing the time has started.
Amir is
struggling on how to make a vegetarian dish since he is used to using meat in
all his dishes.
Linda is worried
because she has no Asian ingredients that she usually uses like lemongrass,
galangal, ginger, fish sauce etc. Though I feel her main complaint is that she
can’t make Andy cry again because the chilli simply isn’t hot enough. Her response to this extremely European pantry
is to go full Asian and make a tomato broth.
Minoli is
going for beetroot. She says “what grows together, goes together” which I am
not sure about being true at all! Lots of poisonous stuff grows next to
perfectly good stuff so this may be a risk in more ways than one.
Amir is also
going for the beetroot and making a kabab with tabouleh and labneh. Amir has
marinated his beets and is now making tabouleh. He is hoping that beetroot is going
to behave exactly like the lamb – which seems like a huge mis-calculation.
Minoli is
explaining her dish to the judges and she seems to be all over the place. Jock is
totally confused. Alla also cannot visualize the dish and asks Minoli to be careful.
Sabina is
doing a salad with a lot of herbs and carrots and a lavash with the rye and the
beer. Alla seems to be super happy with this idea.
The judges
are making themselves a snack and stuffing their faces with fresh ingredients
from the pantry while the poor contestants are having to stand around in the
sun watching these 4 cook and pretend to care about what they are doing.
Linda is
making tomato salsa with tomato broth. Mel says you need to hit balance in a
sweet and sour soup. Linda says she plans to do this by using Tomato which “itself
is sweet and sour” – at this point even Mel is making more sense.
On other
hand, completely ignoring judges feedback has worked well for most contestants
in the past, and Linda has a good palate – so she’ll probably fiure it out on
the plate even if she can’t articulate it.
Mel and Andy are
for some reason are expecting Sabina specifically to come up with a dish that
looks exactly like Alla’s dishes. They are all worried about Minoli’s dish. Jock
says its either going to be blindingly brilliant or epic fail.
Linda’s broth
is missing something. But she has had brainwave of using mountain pepper which
reminds her of Sichuan pepper. This is the heat she wants – and now she seems
to be happy.
Amir’s dish is coming along well. Pete says this is the smartest he has ever seen Amir – I know he thinks it’s a compliment but this sounds like a dig at Amir for no reason to everyone who is listening (including Amir). Everyone is wildly cheering Amir for some reason but Aaron is worried that he needs to focus on his beetroot.
Amir
has repaid Pete's faith and promptly burnt the beetroot - the main element of his dish - on the hibachi to spite him. That will show Pete!
Sabina has actually
taken inspiration from Alla’s dishes and is already plating like her.
Linda doesn’t
have white vinegar so she is using the pickling liquid from the gherkins – this
has to be the most disrespectful treatment of that product ever lolz.
Minoli is all
elements ready for her veggie patch – so she’s rushing now . Again she is
hoping the judges understand her vision. Maybe she needs to work on actually explaining
her dishes properly rather than cooking them.
The Tasting
Sabina: We
have several weird, awkward moments with Jock who firstly thinks its very funny
to just say her name and then thinks its very funny to call her by her nickname
(Bines). Now Alla is also calling her Bines and Jock is thrilled (a lot more
than Sabina who is not sure what the fuck these guys are high on)
Alla loves
the presentation and says the flavours are great. She cannot believe Sabina is
just 22 years old. She is surely safe.
Linda enters
saying her heart is beating 10 million miles an hour. I don’t think she knows how
hearts work. Jock is surprised by how good the dish tastes. Alla agrees that it
was pretty spectacular. Andy says this is her most impressive dish yet because
she’s managed to do this without her usual Asian ingredients.
Amir’s beetroot
is not well cooked. The judges say the flavours are quite good, but the
execution is not great and the textures are faulty. He needed to slowly cook
the beetroot and just finish on the hibachi instead of chucking on the hibachi
at the beginning like it’s a piece of lamb.
Minoli says
her dish is an experiment (Seriously why do this in an elimination?). She is
now crying because she had to trust her gut and that this wild experiment may
not have been the best idea in a cook that could literally send her home 3 days
after she got back in.
Andy says the
presentation seems rushed, but Alla says the beetroots are delicious and that
there is a lot of herby deliciousness. Andy’s contribution to this discussion is
to say that the beetroot tastes like beetroot.
Results aren’t
very surprising – Amir is going home. As extra punishment they seem to have left
him in the middle of nowhere to walk back.
This was
coming for a while – Amir has been struggling in the last few cooks. Lets see
what tomorrow’s episode holds.
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