MasterChef – Sun, June 26 – Heston week starts

It’s Heston Week on MasterChef and we have our top 10.

I found this rundown on the Freeview newsletter [can’t say I’m that sad to have missed out on trying a savoury ice block – that’s just getting people’s hopes up, then dashing them|:
Across the week, the contestants will be cooking a two-course meal for 80 diners on the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel; serving 500 customers savoury ice blocks at Melbourne’s iconic Brighton Beach bathing boxes; creating a three-course chocolate dessert menu for 30 diners at a subterranean space at Melbourne University; and, to celebrate Heston’s love of history, preparing a four-course dinner at Melbourne’s historic Rippon Lea Estate.
It is no regular week, with just one elimination challenge looming on Thursday that will see one contestant leave the competition.
The massive week of Heston challenges wraps up at Melbourne’s Carousel, perched on the edge of Albert Park Lake, where the contestants join the judges and Heston for a very special MasterClass.

RECAP
Sorry, gice, not much of a recap as I had a family thing tonight.
The contestants arrive at the Melbourne Star and the poor sods are yelled at to run the last 20 metres. George and Gaz’s torture is not limited to the kitchen.
They learn they will have four pop-up restaurants this week and then Heston rocks up in his big-eyed sunnies while everyone goes fangirly.

The teams are:
Chloe and Harry
Elena and Mimi
Brett and Elise
Heather and Trent
Intense Matt and Theresa

IM and Theresa should do pretty well here if Theresa can calm the hell down, as she is good at those finicky Heston-style desserts and IM is on fire at the moment. Weakest link could be Brett and Elise. Brett’s not much into fancy pants stuff and Elise could have a brain freeze.
They learn they have to serve their meals to the wheel’s pods as they rotate, with only a two-minute gap between each pod. The losing team is up for elimination at the end of the week, meaning they don’t get to cook for Heston again until then.

Harry decides for his universe theme he wants to rip off Anna’s Mess and turn it into a “Big Bang” (don’t think the wheel people really want smashed dessert all over their flash pods) but Chloe talks him into something a bit simpler.
Theresa is using black rice to make a “Black Hole” with citrus gel spheres. Partner Matt is doing chicken, potato and pumpkin with a “Trip around the Sun” theme.
Heather and Trent are making duck and fennel with a “Daytime/Nightime” theme but have yet to come up with dessert.
Elena and Heather’s “Sea Star” main features kingfish and scallops with an oyster emulsion [hang on – Gaz just told Mimmi she was doing a good job filleting fish – what the heck! Gary is being nice], while dessert is a “Shooting Star” with a yuzu syrup cake. Concept-wise it sounds like it will be right up Heston’s alley.
Brett is doing “Craters of the Moon” with cauli, scallops and prawn oil. Gaz doesn’t “get” it. Elise grabs the moulds of death to create a choc dome filled with mousse and, luckily, Gaz seems to understand her dish. Elise is having temperature drama with her chocolate tempering.
Heather will make a Comet dessert with chocolate sponge and blackberry. We hear her say she normally does a vanilla sponge and that she’s checking her measurements – I sense a flat sponge ahead.
Chloe is prepping her eye fillet and veg dish and Harry comes up with a “Floating in Space theme”. Elise’s choc is finally at temp but it cools too quickly and she has to start again. Tempering choc at an offsite location is not the smartest move – which Elise probably realised halfway through as she was elbows deep in couverture. Brett is trying not to get anxious but he needs her to just get on with it so she can help with the main.

Chloe pops her steaks in the oven and then something surprising happens – Gaz comes over the criticise the Chosen One. The steaks have boiled in the pan and she needs to chuck them.
Chloe and Harry’s team are the first pod and they have to carry the plates up a a few sets of stairs to hand them over to a waiter. Things are going ok (Elena’s main looks particularly pretty). Trent knows his duck is slightly overcooked but has to serve it anyway.
IM seems to be having trouble with time management and hasn’t started plating when his next two minutes rolls around
“Come on – you don’t have time – come one, what’s next! You’re going to miss the pod!” Gary keeps shouting at them in his version of “Yes, George! Yes, George!”. Just give them a moment’s peace, Gaz, so they can hear other speak. As IM and Theresa race up the stairs with the plates the pod starts to drift upwards again. How disappointed would you be to be a diner at a MasterChef/Heston event and miss out on a meal. Luckily for them a waiter risks life and limb to deliver their dish.

The judges taste IM and Theresa’s chicken and pumpkin main: George says the potatoes taste delicious. Heston says the golden soz matches the colour of the clouds at sunset.

Back in the kitchen, Elise doesn’t understand her partner’s “Crater on the Moon” concept. She’s worried their dish doesn’t look elegant and mutters: “Shit, Brett – everyone’s looks phenomenal.” Plating it in a bowl certainly made it harder to look pretty.
The judges taste it and like the flavours but it’s more gastropubby and doesn’t fit the brief.


Trent and Heather’s duck dish looks rather pretty with its purple and orange contrasts. The judges like the puree and cabbage but, as Trent already knows, the duck is overcooked.


Elena and Mimi’s kingfish and scallop main gets a “brilliant” from Gaz in the kitchen and the pod judges are as equally impressed by the presentation. Matt says it’s a clever and surprising dish. Heston says the dish gave them an “energy”.

Heather gets ahead plating up her dessert until Gaz tells her the mascarpone cream is split. It’s just not their night.

The judges taste Chloe and Harry’s steak with leeks and say it is surprisingly delicious.

The sun has set and dessert service begins. Chloe and Harry only ended up doing half domes but Elise has gone full dome with a circle cut out – but her thick choc is giving her grief. Theresa’s dessert looks really cool and mysterious but Heather is worried about the heaviness of her sponge.

The judges taste


The judges prepare to taste Theresa’s Black Hole and Heston loves the look. Matt says the lime sphere looks like a little planet. “There’s just a discovery in every bite,” says George. Matt says they’ve nailed it.
Heather’s choc financier sponge comet is up next and Matt likes the way the cream “tail” skids off the plate. As Heather feared, the sponge is too heavy. But the judges like the other elements.
Elise’s choc dome looks like a “martian”, says Heston. He likes the look but it was heavy and bitter.


Elena and Mimi’s Shooting Star dessert with space junk for the diners to spoon on looks terrific. Heston likes the energy of the dish and the caramel but they agree the dessert is too sweet.


Chloe and Harry are worried their Big Bang spheres won’t smash but their choc looks thin. George drops it from right above his head and, yes, it shatters. Heston looks like he’s having fun. “It’s exciting to eat,” he says, and the flavours are good. The choc dome is much better than Elise’s.

The judges decide
They say there were three flawless dishes: Theresa’s Black Hole dessert, Elena and Mimi’s Sea Star fish main and Chloe and Harry’s Big Bang smash dessert.
Brett and Elise must be panicking but they’re safe; it’s Heather and Trent because the main element in both dishes had problems.

Tomorrow night: It’s the savoury ice cream pop-up at Brighton beach.



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57 Comments

  1. I like Heston, but I think he needs to start his week with a public apology for the spruiking he did before MC started this year. Instead of higher and higher standards being reached, this season has been ABPC, ABP, and myriad unappetising ways to use beetroot and fennel.

    • He needs to own up about those fantastic claims. I understand that he’s gotta eat.

      Will it be He$ton Week or He$ton Weak?

  2. On the Facebook MC site, Heston is being spruiked
    as “The best chef on the planet ” and “The best chef in the world”
    Give me strength to last the week, I predict most of the contestants will lose their shit when they meet the so called cooking messiah.
    There will be smoking guns, anti freeze oops I mean dry ice and goggles & oven mitts.

    • And notice there wasn’t any parfait last night – how come?
      I am starting to thing that the contestants are give a list of possible dishes to choose from. No way they came up with the dishes on their own.

  3. What a rush to crawl up Heston’s arse. It’s like a Bay City Rollers concert.

    I gave up dinner with Tom Cruise and House Rules for that?

  4. I read from FB that it took 4 hours to finish the meals. Also no toilet break for diners. Once inside the pod, they can’t leave

  5. So Gary drew the short straw. Staying behind to yell at contestants, while Gary, Matt and Heston get motion sickness while eating.

    • Couldn’t be bothered watching. Did house rules instead and recorded mc. But I was totally turned off watching recording by the ludicrously stupid stories.
      Wanted to eat pods very quickly. Too much rushing and wankery,

    • I actually agree with Heston, not with respect to affairs, but distracting flashes would annoy me. Why can’t people sit down and enjoy a meal and each others company and leave phones alone ? I was walking past a restaurant and noticed they had video game consoles set up for the kids. We’ve lost all concept of social skills.

    • Default theme-‘floating through space’ then you can throw random things on a plate and claim it is space junk.

  6. Amata~ “Here Heston, I’ve created a Mars Bar on a piece of rocket and a Milky Way. This moon is made from cheese”

  7. That ep was boring and somehow more fake than usual.
    As if yellow team nearly missed the pod – almost expected a midget to come running out, shouting “da pod, da pod.”

    Gary tells red team not to make it look like steak on a plate. Chloe serves up steak on a plate .. by some miracle, the judges decide it looks like space junk. I think they have interstellar sickness.
    Harry completely plagiarises Scary Anna’s dessert, but it’s apparently cool to throw food around. Though two yr olds have been doing it for ages.

    The theme is outer space, so Elena decides to do under-the-sea … er ok.
    In that case, someone should’ve done inside-an-office; I’m sure that could’ve been tied in to molecules and quantum physics.
    The whole thing was so stupid.

    Heather will be giving her jews a work-out for elim.

    • I know that was such bullshit making it look like they were going to miss the pod then they go to an ad break. And of course when they come back they have made it by the skin of their teeth. Despite all the bullshit that they can’t stop them, I reckon they would have held them up for this ‘auspicious’ occasion. Don’t know if those people paid for their meals so if they did how pissed off would they have been if they missed out on their meal?

        • Oh thanks Littlepetal, I’ve often wondered that. Seems they only pay for the stall events where they’re judged by how much money they make.

  8. The bogus, excessive yelping when Heston arrived had me rolling my eyes. Then Harry and Chloe ending up on the same team had me in fear the earth would shift due to two massive egos confined to a small space.

    I turned the sound off, checking back once in a while, and that was too much. What a tedious start to a week of having Heston on the show. Gary has appropriated the moronic “yeah?” at the end of every sentence he barks. Matt lost track of time again. One of the women didn’t understand the rules, but didn’t ask for clarification. The golden child made steak and veg and was rhapsodised over. Harry’s purloined idea for a dessert got much more praise than it deserved. I’m not a fan of food as theatre, especially if I’m meant to be the performer. Adults dropping or flinging or splattering their food is stupid.

    Heston should get out of MC now, before he loses all credibility.

  9. Wow we are becoming less interested as it creeps pompously to the end. Surely that’s wrong?
    I have kind of watched now but fast forwarded through a lot. I did clock George being horrid to Elise for having chocolate everywhere, golden child being praised for deeply ordinary food and Harry tooting his own horn and saying beautiful a lot while shamelessly copying someone else. Check check check. All par for the course. Boring, and I like Heston. But some of those metaphors about food in space could be trialled at the UN for crimes against humanity. Torturous or what?.

  10. What a ridiculous ‘theme’. Obviously the work experience kid had fun thinking up all the dish names. Most of the contestants must be wondering why they have sold their integrity to Shine. Not to mention Heston having to play along with such twee rubbish.

    Very sad that two of my favs are in elimination this week. Any chance that another one or two could be added during the week?

    • Every challenge the weakest team will go into elemination. On Thurs 7 contestants will be in the elimination challenge.

      I like this week format with 7 out of 10 in elimination.

  11. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    They really tried to dramatise it & imply in the promos that someone had missed the pod, but of course all of them made it.
    Brett came up with the crater on the moon so why did he leave it to Elise to plate up? She didn’t seem to understand it & did it wrong.
    As for the overcooked duck, well better overcooked then undercooked. At least overcooked is edible. You can’t eat it if it’s undercooked.
    Such a shame about that chocolate cake. It looked really yummy with the berries.
    I gave a slight cheer when Chloe’s steak was over cooked but damn she saved it.

    • Brett was still searing the scallops, so he had no time to do both. Gosh, craters on the moon is not a difficult concept is it? Very odd.

      I think making one team sit out all week this week is ludicrous. It’s a more severe ‘punishment’ than the Power Apron provided all up in combined rewards.

      • They did a similar thing when they were in the US a few years ago. Not sure if they were allowed to sightsee or were confined to their hotels.

    • Gary saved it for her by stepping in and telling her what she was doing wrong. Too bad he didn’t check on Heather’s batter or taste a piece of the baked cake and help her and Trent out.

  12. Ridiculous last night. Why can’t the show get back to basics and just cook? The best cook wins, simple.
    And I’m sick of all the smears of food on the plate, how are you meant to eat it properly?
    I’d like to see the judges from last night do that same challenge, think of a theme, cook and serve in a rush before they miss a pod, while the contestants sit on the wheel and enjoy the food, yeah! ( that Yeah business is so annoying ).

  13. Worst season evah…yeah? Heston failed to launch. Do the producers even comprehend the gravity of the situation or are they too spaced out to dig what’s going down? Take your fennel pills and put your helmets on. Ma$terchef is floating in a most peculiar way.

    The show needs a rocket up it. Perhaps the judges want a big bang~ on the side of the head.

    I’m watching with subtitles and sound killed. I can’t imagine how bad the whole package is.

  14. Do you remember when they were in New York and one poor contestant had to spend the week in her room after failing. George’s manners are even worse now, what a role model for his children.

  15. Having watched orbs and semi-orbs for so long I’ve gone mouldy. (I’m the one in the little red cap.)

  16. Good lord. I saw the trailer for the savoury “ice cream” and a kid was dong the exact face i would make if I thought I was getting a yummy ice cream and got some vile fennel & pumpkin parfait’ed liver concoction!

  17. The majority of the dishes had nothing to do with the themes. Looking at them they did not evoke the descriptions in any way whatsoever. Elena’s and Mimi’s sea stars did look like a seascape BUT what did that have to do with space. At least their shooting star dish did fit with the theme and sort of looked like a shooting star.
    Moon craters, floating in space, black hole, Big Bang, night time/day time (or whatever that was called) etc….I didn’t see it.
    As for the Big Bang….no originality. Surprised Harry didn’t bake a brookie and call it “Floating Turd in Space” which would fit nicely with this season of MC. The show is “Lost in Space”. Warning…warning…danger!

  18. MC has officially jumped the shark….

    how can we fit in orbs and spheres that the contestants are going to no doubt be cooking into a theme…. I can imagine the fight over the silicone moulds before each cook.. or maybe in the house they play musical moulds and eliminate those who wont get to use the precious silicon.

    The thing is, considering a lot of them are trying to temper chocolate and fill the moulds… none of them are doing it properly. Just use your finger.. dip it in the chocolate and lightly coat the inside of the mould to eliminate bubbles and create a good contact… then fill the mould with chocolate…. tip the thing completely upside down to drain… tapping the base gently… then flip and clean the top with a metal spatula etc. Ideally those moulds aren’t the best for making chocolate spheres, best use the solid moulds.

    At least most of them will go into elimination at the end of the week… was hoping Chloe would be first off the rank so we didn’t have to see her for a few episodes… the sparkle in her eye when she was teachers pet again…. vomit…. and miss Canadian is giving me the irits at the moment.

    • Ma$terchef 2016 has been a watershed year for new culinary techniques such as using a blow torch on the silicon moulds.

      Tonight the amatas have to invent their own flavours for a Heston ice cream. Heston was still incoherently mumbling something about the standard on MC going up. Those big sunnies are hiding massive jet lag .

      Three juvenile buffoons dropping spheres on a plate whilst revolving on a ferris wheel. Who dreams this shit up?

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