Today the contestants are heading to the Northern Territory – they are literally at Uluru today. Truly spectacular setting.
Today is a service challenge – 2 teams have to cook a 3
course fine dining meal for 50 diners.
There is a lot of local produce in the pantry today – and naturally
they are expected to go Full “Aussie Pride” with this one.
They continue the random colours for the teams – today they
are orange and yellow.
Pete Depinder Tommy Kishwar are in the Orange team; and Justin
Linda Sabina and Elise are in the Yellow team.
Justin has decided to captain the yellow team and wants all
dishes to look simple but be complex and fine dining. They are starting with a
beetroot dish by Linda (with a beetroot broth), their main is a pepper crusted
Australian Steak with Onion Rings and their dessert is a native ingredient
inspired tiramisu which Elise is working on.
Justin is doing nothing and is concentrating all his energies
on trolling and trash talking Pete – who is the captain of the other team.
Pete is too classy to trash talk (for now at least). The
Orange team is making a sweet potato and carrot banksia (which Kishwar is
working on), Tommy is on the main – making a Kangaroo dish with an emu consommé
(inspired by the Australian coat of arms) and Depinder is making a native
ingredient panna cotta.
Linda explains that she has chosen beetroot because the colour
resembles Uluru – surely there were other better red things to make than
beetroot!
The judges (mostly Jock) are concerned about the onion ring.
Says its pub food, not fine dining. So now Sabina is making an oniony gel with
a local vinegar to fine dining it up.
Over at the other team, Jock suggests they blitz the emu for
the consommé. Depinder knows that panna
cotta is super risky if it doesn’t set – so she has put titanium gelatin to
ensure her panna cotta works. This seems risky – why not just make a less risky
dessert?
The teams are mostly done with their entrees and are setting
up the pass. Jock times the Orange team’s super elaborate entrée and finds that
they are taking 2 mins per plate. Which means they will just be serving entrée for
the next 2 hours. So they need to get their act together. You’d think they would have figured this shit
out 50 episodes in.
Entrée tasting:
Yellow team – Andy is worried about the dish having just the
2 elements, but the beetroot is absolutely perfect. Not just that the broth is
actually very complex.
Orange team – Jock says that was a delicious plate of food.
Mel says its neck and neck. Jock is glad they didn’t compromise on the dish
after he told them to get their shit together. Nothing to separate the two so
far.
Back in the kitchens for the mains prep. Sabina has taken
over in terms of giving instructions. She is focusing on the meat as some of
the beef still hasn’t cooked in the centre. Sabina knows the meat is inconsistent but she
is sure the flavours are there
Tommy has never cooked kangaroo before – that’s a big
pressure point. So he is super super stressed about this kangaroo.
Mains Tasting
Yellow Team – Jock says the sauce was fantastic, the crust
was nice because of lots of types of pepper; but the dish lacked care and
finesse. On top of that, Mel’s steak was a bit under.
Orange Team - Jock
says visually stunning, broth was super fragrant and aromatic. Jock says cook
on the kangaroo was perfect for him. Andy says this is all finesse.
Back in the kitchen now, Pete and Justin are trolling each
other and confidentally telling the other that they are losing. Elise’s jam is
super thick and now everyone in the team is trying to get the jam through a sieve.
Elise doesn’t think the dessert looks fine dining – but the flavours might be
there. Depinder’s panna cottas are set, so she is relieved.
Dessert tasting
Yellow Team – Jock says the dish was super delicious and has
a lot of positives. Jock says it was not heavy, it was rich. Mel is also super impressed. Andy also says the dish knocked him for six.
Orange Team - The Panna
cotta is too set. Depinder has put way too much gelatin in there, and
other than the visual look of the dish, it is terrible. Nothing good about it.
The Orange team duly loses this challenge - sadly because of
Depinder’s dessert. She is super guilty about
this – and I worry for tomorrow’s elimination.
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