MasterChef Australia - S13E50 - The big double elimination

 Here we go with the double elimination (which is apparently necessary at this top 10 stage for some reason).

They have a choice – either go for a black mystery box or go for the black cloche. The mystery box is a regular mystery box but the cloche has an ingredient they must hero.  They all have to vote and whichever gets the most votes – everyone will have to use that in the first round. The best dish from Round 1 will be safe from Round 2, and worst dish goes home.

In Round 2, they cook with the thing they didn’t choose in Round 1 and again one more will go home.   

In the voting, 7 people chose the mystery box and only 2 went for the cloche. So they will all cook with the mystery box. The box has beef rib eye, a snapper, pumpkin, yuzu, chilli paste, walnuts – it is a pretty good box.

Pete is going for the pumpkin – he wants to present this 2 different ways – wedge and puree. He plans to amp up the puree with chilli oil  and maybe something from the green mango. This is surprisingly restrained for Pete.  Justin is also roasting pumpkin. Pete and Justin are broing out again.

Minoli is doing a pan fried fish and a fish broth with egg noodles.  

Elise is doing a funky pumpkin agnolotti – she is adding chilli paste and spring onion, and she is doing a kombu burnt butter. Jock says he is interested in this – which means he will certainly send her home if it is not as per his expectations.

Depinder is making a walnut ice cream and a pumpkin cake.  

Sabina has been forced to say stuff like ‘make sure it is done on time’ from the gantry because what would these contestants do in an elimination without that sort of information.

Pete says his pumpkin is not roasting as fast he wants it to roast – and then goes on to do his usual thing of explaining why his strategy is insane.

Depinder is now doing a salted caramel since she can’t really taste the pumpkin – surely the fact that she can’t taste her actual ingredient should be a bigger worry.

Minoli sees that a number of others are also doing broths. So naturally, she feels that it is important to do something crazy to “stand out” you know, as opposed to just making a really good dish and keeping herself safe. So now she is going with green mango strips instead of noodles. She says she is listening tto her gut – the last time she did this, she was eliminated. Also her gut doesn’t seem to understand that mango and normal noodles taste nothing like each other.   

Pete takes out his pumpkin with 1 minute to go – and it is super tender. He is happy with his minimalist dish.

Round 1 – Tasting

Elise – Andy says this is another level of cooking.  Mel says this is the kind of food that Elise should always be cooking – making her question all her life choices upto now.

Tommy – Mel says he is becoming the noodle master here. It only took some 50 episodes of him cooking the same kind of cuisine for this to happen.

Kishwar, Linda and Scott all have good dishes.

Minoli -  Jock says the broth is great, but he is struggling with the noodles.  Mel also is not too happy with the green mango. Andy also says its not bad but not amazing. They would have preferred normal noodles – this doesn’t look good for Minoli.

Pete – Jock says that’s delicious. The puree is fantastic – Mel also says there is a complexity, depth of flavour and a sophistication about it

Justin -  Mel says the pumpkin puree is beautifully refined. Jock calls it “refined dude food”.

Depinder -  Andy says technically everything is sound, but he didn’t get a lot of pumpkin flavour or even walnut flavour from the ice cream. Jock says not bad – but not great either. She could be in trouble.

As for results, Elise is the winner of round 1 and is safe from Round 2.

Comes down to Minoli and Depinder – but between the two surely substituting normal noodles with mango is a bigger issue. So Minoli is going home.

Now, on to round 2. This time they have to cook with whatever is under the black cloche. The ingredient is horseradish.

Depinder is hurt that her subtle dish was not well received by the judges so she has decided to pack in horseradish like anything into her dish.

Linda is making a vanilla and horseradish panna cotta.  

Scott is struggling with what to do with horseradish. He is doing a mirror dory dish with some horseradish components. Not sure what the plan is here.

Kishwar is also all over the place – she has brought back a mini pantry – she doesn’t know exactly what she is cooking.

Pete is doing a horseradish and vanilla ice cream, pepper and passion fruit tuile, pear juice and apple cider vinegar granita. Pete is going full-Pete.  

Tommy is making horseradish cured kingfish with a Vietnamese salad.

Depinder is making a horseradish ice cream – with tempered chocolate, passion fruit curd. Jock says this is way too much to do in the time that’s left.

Kishwar is running around outside the kitchen. She still doesn’t have a clear idea for her dish. Aaaaaaaaand she has started crying now.

Mel has come over to unsettle Justin by telling him he was so close to winning Round 1 but he didn’t and now he might go home after this round – but Justin is up to the task and defuses the situation by quoting Vin Diesel from Fast and Furious, and Mel has no clue how to respond.  

Scott is doing a pan fried mirror dory with horseradish cream with wasabi leaves and apple salad.

Linda is trying to make panna cotta in 1 hour – which again tells me that everything people say about how long it takes for things to set is all bullshit.  She is also making her horseradish syrup.

Scott is now worried he has overcooked this dish – it seems quite firm. This is not looking good for Scotty.  

Justin has put onion puree and has run to the pantry to get olive oil with 30 seconds to go. Fast and Furious indeed.

The cook is over and predictably, Kishwar is crying again.

Round 2 – Tasting

Tommy is calling this a Horse Rad-fish Salad – can’t be a Tommy dish without a bad pun. Mel says that was crazy tasty. Andy says the shaved horseradish is what has made the dish.

Linda – Jock says she is mad for trying a panna cotta in 60 mins. He says it was perfectly set. Andy says horseradish wasn’t the hero for him.

Justin – Andy says the broth is very forward with horseradish. Mel says very restrained and subtle. Jock says that sprint for the olive oil was worth it. It seems like he is safe.

Depinder -  Jock says its got what he wanted. Andy says should be very proud of herself. Phew she’s safe.

Scott – Mel says the horseradish cream and spring onion oil are nice – but the fish is overcooked. Andy says it’s a good dish but its “just overcooked fish” – which seems like idiotic thing to say – he is surely going home on this.

Pete – Mel says its fantastic. Says the flavour balance is alchemic – surely the best cook here. Michelin star dishes – I really hope this guy wins.  

Kishwar -  Calls this charred mackeral with grated horseradish and horseradish cream. Jock asks if horseradish is in the forefront. Mel says when you eat it all together its harmonius. No one is addressing whether horseradish is actually there or not.

So it comes down to Scott and Linda (both of whom are due to go) - both were not horseradish forward. Linda’s panna cotta was perfectly set – but Scott’s fish was over cooked and so he’s going home.

Tomorrow they are going to the Northern Territory – Depinder and Tommy seem inordinately excited by this.