MasterChef – Thurs, June 16 – elimination challenge

The losing team from the Curtis Stone challenge now faces elimination.
Elise and Trent are up due to coming the raw prawn, while Nicolette and Chloe did not listen to Curtis Stone because they are young and know everything.
They must cook a dish inspired by sea shells or autumn leaves WTF …


I really hope Elise makes wontons that look like sea shells, just so I can hear her say “wongtongs” one last time. No doubt Chloe will make some kind of smoked parfait with caramel sauce.

Here we go … Footage of them getting ready at the MC house but only Trent gets to speak.
“I’m not ready to go home .. this is the time to keep fighting, etc etc” from various contestants.
There will be two “jewels”, says George, with the loser from each to compete in the final “jewel”. Elise is up against Nicolette and Trent V Chloe.
Nicolette and Elise get the sea shell inspiration and Elise looks totally bamboozled. Chloe seems excited to get the autumn leaves theme.

We get Chloe’s back story about living in the country and eating chicken with her husband and – hang on – what – she’s married? She’s 24! She’s doing roast chook on the crown with onion puree and veg leaves. Glad she’s not making a dessert.
Trent is using beef eye fillet with kale, garlic, salsa verde and red wine butter sauce. Now we’re getting Trent’s back story. He’s from Batlow, which is an apple-growing town that offers gorgeous scenery in autumn, although it’s bloody freezing there in the Snowy Mountains.
Then we get some of Elise’s childhood photos of beach trips and hear she got engaged near the sea – both of which are allegedly inspiring her to create a dessert of strawberry parfait (someone had to do parfait!) and champagne jelly, coconut sand and tempered chocolate.
Nicolette is making poached meringue with lemon and strawberries, with a sand and the meringue apparently representing the sun. Matt Preston wanders over to tell her she needs to make the sea shell inspiration more obvious.
Trent is smoking butter to use in his red wine sauce. But he’s never done it before, and George and Gaz – encouraging as always – saunter up to scare him that it might not work.
Nicolette decides to listen to Matt’s advice (unlike with Curtis last night) and is placing her “sand” in a scallop shell with the meringue in the middle as a pearl. She’s making lemon curd centres also so we hear again about her dear departed grandad who had citrus trees.
Elise is trying to temper chocolate in a rush and she’s no Zoe – if she stuffs it up the judges won’t turn a blind eye. She stands in front of the open fridge door to cool her choc.
Trent wants to add more smoke to his dish (a reference to the smell of burning leaves in autumn) and decides to do the “fill a cloche with smoke” trick.
Chloe seems to have waited til the last few minutes to start her sauce, but that could be a trick of the editing.
All the dishes look pretty good and “cheffy”.

The judges taste


Elise’s parfait with coconut sand: George loves the presentation and it tastes delicious. “So toasty and crunchy,” says Matt. Elise will win the inspiration contest.


Nicolette’s poached meringue: The meringue is delicious and light but Matt says the lemon dominates the dessert. So, she’ll be in round two.


Chloe’s chicken with onion puree and autumn leaves: The judges love the look and that she hid the chook under a pile of leaves. Matt and George fight over the last bit of sauce. Gaz says it nails the brief and her soz worked.
Trent’s beef with beetroot and kale: The judges have to turn around so they can’t see him filling the cloche with smoke. The judges pretend they are worried the smoked sauce won’t work but they would have tasted it before when he was making it. After a few bites, Matt grabs the sauce jug and tips it all on the plate. “You’ve just nailed it,” says Gaz. “That is spectacular.” “This plate of food is so beyond your years,” says George. Matt says it’s one of the 10 best things he’s eaten this year. Woo hoo – good one, Trent.
But what does this mean for golden child Chloe?

The judges decide
Elise wins her “jewel” and Trent wins his “by the barest of margins, according to Matt.

Round two
The second round is all about what’s under the cloche so the lid is lifted and it’s … an empty plate? But George lights a match (must be getting whiffy after eating all that food) and chucks it on the plate to get …

Ooh, it's fire.

Ooh, it’s fire.


Does this mean even more smoking guns? They have 60 minutes to cook. Chloe could try and redeem herself with another bombe Alaska after her grainy meringue in the immunity pin challenge. But no, she’s doing toasted cinnamon buttercake with port-poached figs and a toasted marshmallow coating.
Here comes the smoking gun – she’s smoking the cinnamon quills for her cake. “I want this so bad [sic],” she says, taking a leaf out of Zoe’s grammar book.
Nicolette is making smoked white choc mousse to look like a log on a campfire and vanilla bean marshmallow.
I’m just happy no-one is making a parfait sphere.
Chloe has put a massive cake in the oven – why isn’t she using a smaller pan? It turns out ok, though.
Nicolette is talking a lot about the setting of her mousse but that’s not the problem – they won’t come out of the moukds. She blow torches the heck out of the moulds and they start to melt. Nicolette starts crying and Gary and George rush over to the cuddle her … not. – She’s only 19 after all. George gives her the abrupt prep talk “don’t lose it now … look at me .. yes, George, yes, George.”.
And that’s about all we see – that was a quick one.

The judges taste


Nicolette’s grilled peaches with smoked white choc mousse and toasted marshmallow and toasted macadamias (just call it “firepit”, Nicolette): The judges tell her how talented she is. They think it looks good. She’s grilled the fruit well and Matt likes the smoke and salt in the mousse. We haven’t seen much back story, so she could be safe .. if Chloe wasn’t one of their faves.


Chloe’s cinnamon buttercake with maple meringue and port figs: Chloe is worried her flambe won’t work but it does. “It’s exactly the brief,” says George. “Oh my goodness – how delicious is that,” says Matt.
So, Nicolette must be going home.

The eliminated contestant is …
Oh god – enough with the loud dramatic music! We know it’s Nicolette. And it is. The poor girl is devastated. JYou’re 19, Nicolette – just go get an apprenticeship and you’ll be right. And you’ll never have to listen to George maddeningly make you say “yes, George, yes, George” ever again.

Bye, Nicolette!

Bye, Nicolette!


Where is she now?
Nicolette is planning a series of dessert degustation events. She has also completed work experience with Anna P and Reynold. (So, who hasn’t worked for free in Reynold’s kitchen?)

Next week
It’s the invention test relay. That’s the one that was a disaster last year when hostie John changed the dish halfway through and made his team-mates – and the viewers – want to drown him in his white choc veloute.
We get a preview of Brett saying “I’m going to have to change it up” and a horrified Tiny Topknot commenting “Brett’s gone rogue”. Should make for good viewing.



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65 Comments

  1. Really, could they advertise their favouritism a bit more. The sulky scowls talking to Trent and that full-bore beaming from Gary talking to Chloe.

    • Next year they’ll have a discarded chewing gum wrapper and a mouldy cheese sandwich as inspiration. I wish they’d just do something more generic, like “cook a vegan dish”.

  2. The look on poor Trent’s face in the background, watching the judges fawn over metal snot says it all.

    BUT – the tables are turned !!! Metal snot has a shocked look on her face as the judges rave over Trent’s dish 🙂

    • But there is a GOD!!!! Trent cooked a better dish!!! Happy dance. Chloe will not be in happy tears now

      • I know, when they raved over Chloe’s dish I felt sorry for Trent & thought his dish is going to have to be pretty spectacular to beat her. And it was. I was so glad they raved over his dish even more.

  3. Why do they interrogate Trent about the originality of his dish?

    Watch Chloe tear up to manipulate the judges.

  4. “We’re in serious trouble’. In what way, shape, or form? Chloe cooked a very nice chicken breast with leaves and a not-reduced-enough sauce. Tasty, pleasant. Trent cooked something original and sophisticated and delicious, and one of the top ten dishes Matt has eaten this year, anywhere…

    Chloe will easily outcook Nicolette. Pet number one saved.

  5. Is it just me ? We keep hearing about strong cooks and standout dishes. I just don’t see it this year. Most of the cooking is mediocre and the contestants keep rehashing the same tired old dishes.

    • No! It’s not just you. They had to talk up a ridiculously exaggerated storm about some deeply ordinary chook and leaves. And trying to pretend that yet another boring parfait was something special. Ludicrous exaggeration. Worst season Evah.

      • When I saw Chloe’s dish I was surprised (but shouldn’t have been) about the over the top praise from the judges. At least they gave even more praise to Trent’s much more innovative and original dish.

    • Wouldn’t it be wonderful if next year there was a new rule. Contestants cannot repeat a technique/element week after week.

      • I want to see the ban on those silicone moulds. Mr LP said they look like boobs!!, especially those large silicone moulds

  6. Mmmm, if Metal Snot was crying the judges would be all over her but let’s just leave the teenager to fend for herself.

    • Yep. We can at least turn the screen off – imagine the hell of her smugness 24×7, it’s enough to make you cry salted caramel tears.

  7. Poor Nicolette, getting the bad news and she’s got Chloe in her ear banging on, ‘Believe in yourself! Push! Push!’

  8. The bigger Chloe gets , the harder she’s going to fall.

    Her fatal flaw is that she ‘s bought into the slopoganda that Ma$terchef is spewing up nightly.

    Alas, poor Ma$terchef
    I knew thee well.

    Worst eva season.

  9. At the start, when Chloe found out she was cooking against Trent, she literally rubbed her hands with glee .. as though to say this’ll be a piece of cake. I was overjoyed when he beat her.

    Then Trent gave Nicolette a hug, pointed to the balcony and said ‘get back up there.’ You get the impression that they had an affection for her – but not so much for Chloe. Except for Mimi, because pains-in-the-neck stick together.

    Nicolette was upset to be eliminated, until Chloe started banging on in her ear – then she couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  10. George said to Elise when he tasted her dish “just tasting something you cooked and we’re quite happy about it.” What did he mean by that? Have they never been happy with anything she cooked? If I was Elise I’d feel pretty insulted.

    • I thought it was weird too. Especially given she got the poisoned chalice, I mean, power apron not that long ago. Which presumably meant she dished something they liked. The Gs are just not pleasant to her.

  11. What an exciting power apron week! I was amazed at all of the power it gave the contestants who won it. I am very disappointed that it doesn’t last longer than a week and was really hoping that it would be passed on to Chloe, as the winner of the final elimination round.

    This was the best power apron week evah!

    😉 😉 🙂

    The silicon molds need to be banned. How many more times during the rest of the season will we see contestants using them? Don’t mind Nicolette being eliminated although would have liked to have seen Chloe be eliminated, too. Why didn’t the judges console the teary eyed teenager like they have done with so many others. She needed a hug. Instead George has her saying, “Yes George, yes George” as if that was helpful.

  12. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    I had thought they would pair the teams up as they were for the service challenge but they pulled knives.
    If I got seashells I would have cooked seafood. I probably would have got that brief wrong.
    I was so relieved when Chloe went into the final round. I was worried the way they raved about her dish & thought Trent has to outdo that but he did.
    Poor Nicolette, I was really rooting for her & when her mousse stuffed up I thought she would be a goner. As soon as Chloe set fire to her dish I knew she had it. Was so disappointed to see Nicolette go.

  13. None of the 4 really met the brief (stupid though it was) of ‘inspired by seashells or autumn leaves’.

    Strawberries, meringue, lemon & coconut don’t scream ‘seashells’ to me, and plonking shells on the plate don’t make it so. Elise’s tempered chocolate was even further off track and just there to say “Look I can temper chocolate”. After watching this season we could all bloody well temper chocolate.

    Chloe’s ‘autumn leaves’ looked like kale and chard/silverbeet, all WINTER veg. Onions, also more winter than autumn. Trent’s kale- winter/spring again, like all leaf veg. Beetroot you can grow in autumn but peaks in winter, like all root veg. Add beef, red wine and smoke and that yells winter to me.

    And they bang on about cooking seasonally.

    Meh, Nicorette wasn’t made to last anyway. Go do an apprenticeship and learn the trade properly.

    • Cant even see Elise tempered chocolate on her dish.You tempered chocolate because you want the chocolate to be a feature of the dish and to be seen. Not tempering just for the sake of tempering. From her recipe she is making twigs with the tempered chocolate. Could have done with some melted chocolate.

  14. What a non-surprise that that really horrid little witch Chloe wasn’t eliminated. Did she lose some of her neck muscles? Everything the judges said at the beginning, Chloe was nodding, nodding, nodding, as though she were one of those stupid bobblehead dolls. And was she allowed to use a packet sauce for her chicken? She was pouring something from a packet (with the brand concealed) into the pan. Her consoling of Nicolette at the elimination was so artificial and attention-seeking, it made me seethe. I was hoping Nicolette would just shove her away.

    Whatever is going on in the next episode, Harry has some gall to say anyone has “gone rogue”, considering how loathe he was to abandon his dumb brookies in the other challenge.

    MasterChef isn’t very good this year and I am now watching mostly to see Harry and Chloe eliminated.

  15. Nicolette pop up dessert degustation is on. Must be kidding. $80 for a 4 course menu.

    Zumbo charges $60 for 5 course menu.

    Reynold charges $65 for a 4 course menu.

    Which one would you go to if you want to attend?

  16. I hate to confess, but I’m quite excited about relay round.
    Who can forget white chocolate velouté man? Well I clearly forgot his name but his brain flip was fabulous. The ‘Brett’s gone rogue’ promo is clearly leading us to expect another white chocolate velouté moment. So doubtless it will be something more prosaic. But still, could be fun.
    Or maybe rogue means deleting the fennel fronds and salted Beetroot from the dessert sphere. That would be totally rogue this season.

    • Perhaps it’s … Brett’s gone rogue: he’s making ice cream, not parfait. He’s using yoghurt without smoking it. And instead of scattering his dish with edible violets he’s using parsley.

    • Oh yes, that was John. Was one of the most hilarious moments on MasterChef ever. Let’s hope we have similar this year.

  17. They need new producers to give us something new. Not just hatching old stuff from last season.

    I do enjoy the relay challenge. I don’t think Brett rogue run will be bad. It could be just the opposite – improve the dish!!!!

    From the promo it looks like Harry is the first cook. He may be the culprit coming up with a whacky dish. Brett just making it ‘normal’

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