MasterChef Sun – ingredient from a loved one

Each contestant has an ingredient chosen for them by a loved one, with the note explaining their choice. Later, the judges select an ingredient for each contestant to cook with.

Now, I am trying to think who it was last year who got something random and had no idea why their rellie picked it … anyone recall?

I am expecting to see seafood and cauliflower. Please no more pork belly or lamb rack



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20 Comments

  1. And please no more pureed vegetable of any kind.

    I wonder what the judges will pick as an ingredient for their pet.

  2. Ha ha, Tim’s wife gave him some limp basil. He decides to make their hangover cure breakfast. What a classy guy.

  3. Simon is “reducing it down” for his yucky parsnips in coffee. Nicole tasted by licking her finger. I know the judges will kick Anushka off, but I am really pulling for her as the only thinking, mature, and realistic contestant.

    • I love it when amatas “reduce it down” . So impordant. Is having a lobotomy a prerequisite for getting on Ma$terchef?

      “Nicole tasted by licking her finger” …….got to be better than where $imon licks the judges.

  4. I’ve just got home after a lovely Italian meal out with a friend. Tossing up between MC and Stranger Things.
    Starting to watch MC just to see the ingredients chosen. Yes, Von, Tim’s basil looked like true Coles basil. Nushi got walnuts. Tessa cherry tomatoes, Nicole goat’s cheese, Simon coffee, Larissa lemons.

  5. Nicole tries to get away with taking the path of least resistance again – well it’s worked thus far. Here’s a tip: never make a dish you can’t pronounce … no such thing as angle-otti.
    Sure, we know you’ve worked ‘so hard’ and put ‘so much passion’ into the bisque … but you’re not as good as you think you are.

    So they give His Royal Eminence Simon his beloved Esteemed Cauliflower.
    Because it’s just sooo difficult for a vegan to prepare.
    As if it wasn’t bad enough to see the judges flailing around orgasmically about parsnips with coffee.

    While Simon sucks up to the judges, they suck up more to him. It’s a mutual suck-up frenzy. And he smiles beatifically at everyone, as though he deserves the accolades.
    This man could serve up cow dung and be praised for the earthy flavour. He’s unbearable.

    Poor Anushka was set up again. Quail, really?
    Because Armenians are used to a midget bird with 100 bones? Surprised Gary and Georgie didn’t give her bananas.
    I guess these are reserved for their Beloved Simon … metaphorically.

  6. That episode sucked.
    How ordinary.
    And the judges got to have their little fun with their bestie “handsome” Simon.
    There was speculation on twitter that he wrote his own letter from home and I was happy to jump on board that conspiracy theory!
    That burned cauliflower scraping looked TERRIBLE. And I like cauliflower. It looks like what I get when I roast cauliflower florets too long.
    They are so totally desperate to shaft Anushka that a monochrome trail of florets on a plate can beat her. NOT GOOD.
    I like Tessa, but when they said this is the best dish she has cooked in the competition I was shouting at the TV “Of course it is because she has already served it up multiple times and had a good chance to perfect it”. Fish & butter sauce is our new pork crackling.
    I can only assume they once got a lesson on butter sauce and are grimly clinging to it through thick and thin.

    I fear our speculation that Anushka will get shafted quickly is well on the way to reality. I mean, in what universe can she NOT outcook Timbogan? Oh yes, that’s right – the masterchef judging universe. Someone will have to dish out bananas, make it a Raw Meat Compulsory judging, hide some ailments from her (I thought that might have been the case last night maybe someone kindly “tidied up” her bench and hid what she thought was needed!) or put a peg over her nose so she can’t taste stuff. Anything is possible.

  7. Sad episode. They give Nicole, Tessa and Simon ingredients that they like and have used before. Of course, they don’t give Anushka anything to create a pastry. Nicole failed because she really isn’t that good and Simon should have failed with that basic cauliflower dish. Nothing extraordinary or interesting about it. Hibachi cauliflower was burned so how is that a good dish? The stooges liked Anushka’s dish but it didn’t have enough finesse…LOL. Where was the finesse in Simon’s dish? Anushka tried something she hasn’t done in MC before and it was tasty and she should have joined Larissa instead of Simon. Tessa cooks a dish she has done before and not just once. Boring.
    This continues to be one of the most disappointing MC seasons, with cooks who lack creativity and, for the most part, play it safe and “kowtow” to the stooges.

  8. I have only just started watching whole episodes, and I am wondering why everyone is so negative about Simon? Can someone explain what he has done to be the villain?

    • Not wash his hair often enough. No shampoo in the pantry?
      Crawls to judges. Like Rox says below, they reward him with accolades and flattery normally reserved for young blondes.
      Fake smile. Playing the game like his life as a serial killer depended on it.
      Mistakenly believes he can cook. Ready for the rubber room.
      Parsnips in coffee. Yeah, that’s on my bucket list, right? My yucket list maybe.

    • As well as the points made by Dave and Rox, there is also the fact that it is invariably HIS dish failure that sends people to elimination in the team challenges. He never, ever takes responsibility for it nor does he express any feelings of guilt that his miss was the reason his team is in black the next day. Plus he can be really very nasty. In one challenge, he put the bread up really high and when Tati (who is very short) couldn’t find it, as it was way above her sight and reach, he barked at her that it was “on the open your f***ing eyes shelf”. He also grinned when both Ben and Derek were sent home – very unsporting of him. On the surface he wants to appear this humble guy who just wants to cook, but scratch it a little and a rather nasty person appears.

      • OK, that’s enough for me. I can forgive the hair etc but unkindness and not taking responsibility are big no-nos.

        On the other hand, the underwhelming dish described by Rox is typical of silly “fine dining” now anyway. Nobody gets rewarded for a brilliant stew or immaculate steamed pudding, only minute rabbit-dropping-style bits on a huge plate. Maybe Simon should be congratulated for reading the pomposity of the judges so well and playing up to it?

        Nah, the comment re the bread trumps that.

  9. Hi Fijane. The predominant issue with Simon is that he is awarded accolades from the judges for dishes which require very low level cooking ability and incorporate sometimes discordant elements.
    Inspired by Simple Simon, I have invented a dish for my dinner tonight. I call it Cottage Style Broad Beans with Rye Whisky.
    Method:
    Pod & boil 1 cup of broad beans.
    Loosely scatter cooked beans to left of centre of large plate.
    Randomly distribute little dollops of commercial cottage cheese over beans.
    Top with a sprinkle of finely crumbed toasted Coles brand rye bread.
    Splash a hint of whisky over the lot.
    Preparation Time: 60 minutes

  10. Late to the party this time – I opted to go out sailing in the archipelago on a glorious summer day yesterday rather than watch what I felt would be an underwhelming episode. Watching it today, I see that I made the right choice.

    This is finals week, so the food should be amazing and innovative, rather than the usual fare of fish and mash or a parfait. The episode showed starkly just what has been wrong this season – it seriously lacks true talent, or any oomph and pizazz. There is some vital component that is very much missing, as we are instead subjected to a boring array of repetitive cooking, a lack in creativity and an attitude of not excelling, but simply playing it safe.

    I do like Tessa, but to describe fish and mash as “creative” is a stretch. This was an invention test – what inventive thing did she (or for that matter Slimy) do to deserve to be safe? She may have cooked this dish very well, but it was not creative and she has cooked very similar dishes before.

    I think The Stooges loaded the guns with their “choices”, giving Slimy and Tessa something that they’d have no trouble with and throwing a curve ball to Tim and Anushka. “Knickers” got an ingredient that she ought to have done well with, but she stuffed it up as I think they expected her to. She’s not a serious contender – cannon fodder before we get Larissa, Slimy and Tessa in the grand finale week (why is there a finale week followed by a grand finale week?)

    Even thinking back to earlier in the season, when Tim had to ‘cook again’ for a spot in the competition. This season, they got to cook a dish of their choice. Previously the contestants in the same position had a real challenge – eg to make an Anna Polyviou dessert! There’s been too much “choose your own ingredients”, “cook what you like”, “open pantry” style of things and not enough true tests of ability and technique. And the immunity challenges have become a bit of a joke as well.

    • As I have mentioned before, giving unrealistic time limits has created a generation of contestants who have learned by rote which elements take the least time ie any cold, set dessert; seafood of any type; anything for which you can use a fancy machine (blast chiller, icecream churners, thermomix, sou vide etc) to reduce the actual work that the cook has to do.

      Things won’t change until they set challenges to make time-consuming items and give them the appropriate amount of time to do it. Then judge on the quality, not whether all the elements were achieved in some way.

      • The contestants could have done that last night but still refuse to choose a longer cooking time to cook something really delicious.

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