MasterChef – Day 2

And it’s time for the second chancers to cook. I was pondering how many contestants last year who were second chancers actually made it far into the comp, and thanks to Wikipedia, I now know this:
Auditions Part 2 – Sixteen second chance contestants were given the chance for the nine remaining spots in the Top 24, in a two challenge rounds. In the first round, an Invention Test, contestants had 75 minutes to cook a savoury dish from their choice of three different world food markets. The 8 best dishes won their makers a spot in the main competition. James’s dish was so good that he received an apron during the tasting. The other seven contestants receiving an apron were Georgia, Mario, Billie, Andrea, Jamie, Amy and John. The remaining eight contestants faced a Pressure Test set by Shannon Bennett for the one remaining spot in the Top 24. They had two hours to create his layered Warm Chocolate Orange Mousse, with a number of technical elements including tempering chocolate. Rose’s version was declared the best and she won the last apron.

So, winner Billie and Gary’s fave, runner-up Georgia. Speaking of Georgia, check out this recent pic from Facebook. She looks very different to her frazzled panda eyes MasterChef days.

DAY TWO
There are 11 contestants and five aprons. Four are up for grabs today. Losers go to a pressure test tomorrow to fight for the final apron.
George: “Flavour, passion etc.”
Each person gets a basket with 10 fave ingredients they supposedly use all the time at home. They only have to use one thing from the basket – boring – I like it when they have to mix weird stuff together.
Harry, bartender with the weird hair, catches his own seafood near Magnetic Island. He’s a veritable Ozzy from Survivor. He’s making lobster with some spicy flavours. So, Harry got airtime so he’s either amazing or appalling.
I like graphic designer Jordan’s honesty: “My favourite things probably aren’t the best to cook with – more just to eat as a snack.” They include oreos, apples, feta, prosciutto. She loves desserts but decides this is the perfect time to do savoury, with egg yolk ravioli. Yeah, don’t play to your strengths when you are trying to get on to MasterChef.
Our park ranger is making a spicy pie but he has Gary wincing when he says he’s not going to pressure cook his meat. He changes his mind but it makes me think Miles does not watch the show.
Snapper lady is a dab hand at filleting a humungous fish while coral top lady is a dab hand at Frenching lamb ranks.
Poor Jordan has stuffed up two batches of pasta dough. Make something else, Jordan! No, she keeps going even though she now only has one egg left for the filling. So it will be one ravioli
Adam from SA (go SA!) grew up on a chook farm, so he’s making roast chicken and chips with a mushroom medley. He wants to win one of his fave things, which is tinned stock powder. They blur it out but it looks like Vegeta. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Adam! That stuff may fly on MKR but not here.
HR person Sarah is doing beef cheek with pasta but she doesn’t have tomatoes so she’s using apple instead. That’s going to be beef with stewed apple. I want to see a picture of everything else in her basket so I can figure out what I would have made.
“I’ve spent a lot of time Frenching,” says Elise AKA coral top lady. Ooh, have you? She lucked out with some decent ingredients that complement each other – I reckon she took a punt they could be used for an invention test.
Vegeta dude is chastised by the judges and has a d’oh moment. Miles the ranger is happy with the flavours of his pie but he’s lining quite a large tin – will it cook in time?
As usual there are people in the room who are invisible, although we get glimpses of other raviolis.
Apple beef cheek girl thinks her dish stinks and she doesn’t want to serve it. She fell into the trap of thinking she had to serve a protein. Matt goes over for a pep talk and who wouldn’t be cheered up by a six-and-a-half-foot block in purple tartan suit and a cravat. Wisely beef cheek girl – Sarah – decided to do crepes with fruit compote.
Snapper lady Mimi looks like she knows what she’s doing and is getting a few confessionals where she has to explain the components of her dish. She’ll be safe.
Ranger Miles’s pastry is undercooked and he can’t get the damn thing out of a tin. He leaves it in the tin. The pressure test beckons.

The judges taste
1 Harry’s lobster with sambal and broth: “I think you’ve got some talent,” says Gary. It’s delicious.
2 Jordan’s egg yolk ravioli with basil oil: The music builds as Gary cuts the ravioli. Will the yolk be runny? Cut to ad break. Geez, never saw that coming. Yes, it’s runny. Gary appreciates the effort but they all think it needed more elements.


3 Mimi’s snapper with chilli and broth: This looks lovely and she’s done the trendy broth in a bottle thing.

Give me that and a bowl of steamed rice and I'd be happy.

Give me that and a bowl of steamed rice and I’d be happy.


Matt thinks it’s a beautiful plate of food given the limited ingredients she had. She’s one to watch. We get a lovely closeup of George’s sweaty head. Gazza hands her an apron on the spot – after Matt does the obligatory fake “ponder”. Well done, Mimi.
4 Invisible Lauren’s beef with eggplant puree: Beef good, not so the raspberry “gastrique” (which Google tells me is a fancy name for a sweet and sour sauce). Hopefully there’s not too much gastric on this season.
5 Invisible Molly’s salmon tartare: Good but too rich and lacking freshness
6 Invisible Melissa (older lady with the funky headscarf) fennel and salmon ravioli: George damns her with “It needs … flavour.” There’s no sauce. He uses the word “lubricate” and it sounds so wrong.
7 Invisible Jenny (or is it Ginny?) has managed to serve up multiple ravioli: Ricotta and orange rav with a lentil orange salad. She confesses she thinks Gaz “has got pretty eyes”. Argh.
8 SA boy has served his chicken and chips sans stock powder. He gets the thumbs up from Gaz.
9 Beef cheek apple girl Sarah-turned raspberry crepe girl: George commends her for putting up a dish. The crepe is fine and they’re happy she learnt a lesson.
10 Park ranger Miles serves up his stuck pie: George tries to prise it out of the tin and manages to get it out in one piece. Gaz has to eat humble pie and says it’s tasty. Matt loves the flavour. George says it’s hugworthy.
11 Elise’s pistachio-crusted lamb with parsnip mash (continuing the theme of MKR where everyone did parsnip mash): Elise is one of those weirdos who loved the pressure of the challenge. Gaz loved the lamb (which actually looks super rare). They liked her Frenching skills.

The other aprons go to: Elise for the lamb, Harry (who reminds me of last year’s winner, Brent) for the lobster and Adam the chicken man.
Tomorrow night they’ll do battle for the final apron. So, based on tonight’s air time, does it go to Sarah or Jordan. They have to recreate a Shannon Bennett dessert, so I know many of you dear readers will be delighted to see you favourite MasterChef regular on the tellie again.



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72 Comments

  1. I tried inverting your photo, Bob. On my Gallery, it showed right way up, but then when I posted it here it inverted again. Huh???? I deleted it.
    Nice floor rug.

  2. What? A communication degree /graphic design offers a more secure future than pastry school? Yeah right.

    She is pretty, young and blonde. She should get through.

  3. Miles has got to be in. Why else would a film crew go all the way to wherever to film him.
    And he ‘took their advice on board’. So report card is, takes instructions well – makes good tv.

  4. Looks like the stock makers didn’t fork out the big bucks for their brand to be featured on MC.

    Witness Protection for Vegeta Gourmet Stock !

      • Who when picking their 10 fave ingredients says “chicken stock powder”. I have stock cubes in my cupboard but I can think of 100 other things I’d choose ahead of them, starting with feta, haloumi and bacon!

      • That was my thought exactly, Littlepetal.I was thinking, “Now he didn’t bring that from home”.

  5. How come these people keep making the same mistakes? Haven’t we had a hundred episodes where hands are rung over tough pasta and bought stock. And time. Why, why are we always running out of time?

    • When ‘fishing’ is just too pedestrian. He probably gathers or forages veg instead of buying limp coriander at Sponsors like the rest of us.

  6. My god if they don’t stop focusing on egg in ravioli woman I will scream! There are people I am actually interested in that the camera hasn’t even grazed on for more than a second in the whole episode – and this sage of her pasta and her flipping egg has been going on and on and on.

  7. I am going to have some ginger tea for anti nausea before tonight’s MC. The schmaltz is worse than eating straight marzipan.

    • We are seeing contestants who have practised the ‘cheaper’ staples of MC. It will be interesting to see how some of these contestants will fare once the ‘season variation’ comes into play.

    • Dave, I’d say he knew from the judges’ comments he was in, but the producers told him to act surprised. Problem is, cooking is the only thing Harry’s any good at. Acting? Nuh uh.

  8. Recap is up. Which invisible person are we cheering for to win tomorrow? No way is Miles the ranger going to pull off a Shannon Bennett dessert.

    • Gawd, I hope not. I think we’ve had enough of Miles.

      The preview made it look as though it’s a girlie – I’m hoping it’s the older lady who liked Gary, although such a thing seems impossible.

    • I think it’s Invisible Ginny according to captions. Gonna be real dog fight for that last apron.

  9. I’m lost. You gice are using names and I can’t put any names to faces yet. Did the older guy go through? Did swinging ponytail-rapper woman go through? I hope not.
    Who is the older woman with the headband?

    I was cooking my dinner so only halfway paying attention. My chilli chicken with vegetables was fantastic – my judgement.

    • Lost right there with you. I already admitted my inability to remember names but apparently I can’t recall what people look like either. Who knew?

  10. I enjoyed the show, but had to zone out the jargon and bs, and just enjoy the cooking. Ranger Dan needs to go just for not knowing the meat would need a long time to cook. How can he claim to be a cook but think that meat would have been tender the way he was doing it?
    Also it looked bad, and I wasn’t convinced that it tasted great.

    I am already planning to make the pab-fried snapper dish. It looked fresh and tasty, and easy to make.

  11. So we have another swinging ponytail hanging over the food and nearly touching it or maybe touching it….Jordan. Too much time spent on her and her ravioli dilemma. The ravioli didn’t look good at all.
    It would be too predictable to think that she will get the last apron.

    Looking forward to the return of Shannon Bennett.

  12. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    I really felt for that poor woman who kept fucking up her ravioli & in the end she only managed to serve one up. But thank God that yolk was runny. Someone made a funny Tweet. Waiting for the end of the ad break to see if the yolk is runny, that’s what my life has become. Yeah same here.
    I’m glad that guy that catches his own lobsters got through.
    So that dessert they’ve been showing in the promos is Shannon’s. Silly me thought it was one of the contestant’s.

  13. My, today’s Dr.Phil is going to be a hard act for the Ma$terchef juggernaut to follow with the encore. Ma$terchef will seem even more trivial than usual.

    Seven amatas , one apron. My knuckles are already white thinking about it. A~maz~ing~!!

  14. George is right, Ma$terchef HAS gone to another level.

    It’s not up, btw.

    Your recap was great, Juz. Thanks.

    My money’s on Jordan to get the chocolates tonight.

  15. Presume it will be Jordan going through tonight, as she received half the total air time last night, and stated that desserts are her thing. I can already feel the hair on the back of the neck raising, as she is feeling like she might be the “Georgia” of this season.

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