MasterChef – Mon, Jun 13 – elimination

The bottom three contestants from the invention test face off in the elimination pressure test. Contestants have just two hours to recreate two of guest chef Ross Lusted’s signature dishes.
Ross appeared on MasterChef last year as one of the immunity challenge guest chefs. His squid and corn dish beat Jessie’s beef and beetroot dish, scoring 10s from George and Matt and an 8 from Cranky Pants.

It’s Elena, Elise and Zoe in the firing line and we are getting a lot of Elena telling emotional stories about her Nanna. Please, don’t send Elena home when we’ve only just started seeing her make the edit.
Anastasia is there at the side of the kitchen in her power apron, as she has some yet to be named power tonight.
Here comes Ross Lusted with two small cloches and Anastasia gets to pick which one the bottom three will cook.

Chicken dumpling, silken chicken and ginger fried rice.
OR
Perfumed stone fruits with elderflower and peach biscuit.

She picks the dessert and Ross says it’s the trickier of the two. It includes nectarine syrup, a see-through Indonesian biscuit made using bicarb (it looks like a super-fine brandy snap) and burnt peach butter made by burning peaches on a hibachi. They have two hours to cook, then five minutes to plate up the dish for the judges.


It looks like Elise has not recovered from her frying challenge brain freeze and she’s panicking, rushing through the recipe, making mistakes. Ross reckons her biscuits will be rough. Her mixture is looking dodgy and Ross comes over to tell her as much. She decides to strain out the lumps and push on.


Ross wanders over to Elena’s bench and says: “That’s the best batter we’ve had all day.” But she’s behind the other girls and is getting a little panicked.
Elise is starting to crack as well and having George bark “Snap out of it” doesn’t help.
Zoe decides she will just make half the sorbet recipe – a move that elicits a frustrated “argh” from Brett on the gantry.
They have to grill 1cm peach slices on the hibachi and Elise’s are of varying thickness, while Zoe’s are much more even. Elena is way behind and not thinking. She’s worried her poaching liquid isn’t boiling, so Brett rightly tells her: “Put a lid on it.”
And then she starts crying and walks to the side. Now, who was that nice chef a while back who came over to give a crying contestant a cuddle? We need him back. Ah, chef Jason of the quail afternoon tea, who was so nice to Brett when he had an emotional moment.
You can tell everyone on the gantry wants to run down and hug her, because George and Gaz are nowhere to be seen. More back story about her grandparents’ stonefruit orchard and she pulls herself together.
Ross says Zoe’s burnt peaches look great, whereas Elise’s are super charcoaled.
And he tells her that her cake is also too dense.
Zoe has been doing really well up until now but her reduced syrup looks very caramelly. Each contestant has to use a massive deli slicer to shave their cakes to create biscuits. Ross supervises so they don’t chop off their fingers.
Elena gets ahead of herself and starts slicing the fruit she’s not meant to cut until the five minutes of plating up. This could mean she loses some of the fresh taste of the fruit, which includes blood plums – my fave.

The judges taste
Elena: Ross says her presentation is beautiful and precise. The sorbet and wafers are great. But cutting the fruit early means she has lost some freshness.
Zoe: During her plating up time she realises her over-reduced syrup has set and the editors allow a muttered “shit” to air. She chucks it in the microwave so she can at least get something on the plate but it looks very globby. By the time George does his serving up it turns to toffee again. Her sorbet isn’t quite right – she overchurned it because she did half the mixture. The rest of the dish is great.
Elise: She knows she is in big trouble. Gaz loves the syrup but the peach butter is wrong and her biscuits aren’t holey.
Matt says it’s a toss up between Zoe and Elise. So, phew, Elena is safe then – she’s not going out on stone fruit.

The eliminated contestant is …
Zoe. No more swishy pony tails. Elise is lucky. The yayas will be in tears.

Where is she now?
Who knows, because …

Tomorrow
… She’s back tomorrow night with the other eliminated contestants to try and win back a spot.



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61 Comments

  1. Those kiddy bunk beds they make the contestants sleep in are hilarious .
    Hope Elena is safe. Won’t be sad if Zoe or Elise go.

  2. If our theory of red eyes still holds, then it’s Elena to go home. Mind you she has been crying all the way through which may have something to do with it.

    • Yes.She has so many negatives but they try to focus on the positives. No syrup and floury sorbet should be eliminated. Brace yourselves guys for what is coming!!!!

      • The same with Elise, crap biscuits and burnt (really burnt) butter but they only go on as if there’s only one minor fault. But a huge issue that Elena cut her fruit 5 minutes too early.

  3. Better late than never. She should have really gone last week but at least she’s gone.
    Unless they bring her back tomorrow. Perish the thought of that.

  4. Thank god, and weeks over due.
    ‘Follow your dreams’, she’s told. Clichés hit her butt on the way out the door.

    • When you say the judges like her, I think the phrase you were searching for is “the judges have a total fascination for her in inverse proportion to her talent and cooking ability”.
      I fear we can’t pop the corks just yet. (Well Gary did, but that’s an entirely different matter)

  5. ” Follow your dreams and you’ll find the path”~ Yeah right, guest chef.

    Needy Nidhi is coming back.

  6. Remember last year. Jessie got eliminated and came straight back. Same with Samira in S5. They need to bring back another guy to balance out.

  7. We don’t recall seeing Zoe’s “what she did next” card. Suggests she could be back.

    Thought Gary was vile to Elise in yesterday’s challenge. Why let her fluff around for half an hour then tell she was on the wrong track. The handing over of the power apron in such a manner much have been humiliating.

  8. So the Power Apron has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
    What possible advantage was it for Anastasia to pick the dish tonight? Does she get anything at all out of it, other than to look silly?

    So Elena is 1/4 Indonesian? Get outta here. I want to see Grannie’s milkman.

    And just as I was popping the champagne corks after Zoe’s elimination … she could be back tomorrow. Just to torture us.

  9. Zoe is working on a website for delusional wannabes. Speech impediments welcomed. No cooking knowledge required, but must have swishy hair and complete mastery of current cheffy words.

  10. Well, we had the re-appearance of a nanna tonight; haven’t had that for a while. Elena and the rest of you, I don’t care about your nanna, opa, mum, whatever; you are the one competing on the show. I wonder, though, how much difference Elena cutting her fruit a bit early really made to the dish. Is there that much time between end of cooking and plating time? Do the chefs at Ross’s restaurant wait to cut the fruit until just before serving?

    I did like that Ross helped the contestants and offered constructive instructions. That was a nice change.

    I was yelling at Elise to shut up when she was critiquing her dish before the judges tasted. She picked every single thing she wasn’t happy with. Let the judges judge, don’t influence their thinking before they taste.

    So long, Zoe. I hope you don’t make it back.

  11. Aww, QQ, bah-bah Zoe.
    I don’t think she will make it back into the competition (well, I hope she won’t. She’s my age and even if I sometimes can be overly girly, I still don’t behave like a baby. I know lots of women who do that, being all cute-sy and sugar-y…). I suppose the get a guy back into the show. Maybe Miles? He was heavily featured in the first episodes.

  12. Hmm, btw, seems like Elena also has German heritage as she calls her grandparents Oma and Opa. That is typical German actually. 😉 I heard that some Dutch use it too, but mainly it’s German.

  13. Great that Zoe has been eliminated but not for long. She will probably make it back into the competition in tonight’s episode (hoping that doesn’t happen but it probably will). If not Zoe then probably Miles.
    Power apron…where’s the power? Seems to me there has been a power outage.

  14. Oh, HOORAY!!! one down and and one to go.
    I am hoping Charlie comes back, but anyone other than Zoe and I’ll be pretty stoked. Jimmy or Charlie would be nice.

  15. The contestants are too nice. This is a competition and the with power you want to eliminate your competition.

    Anastasia should pick which dish each of them have to cook. Give the savoury to those that are good with desserts and vice versa.

  16. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    Well that dessert looked more trouble than it was bloody worth.
    Poor Elise stuffed up her cake/biscuit. No time to start again.
    I felt really bad for Elena when she broke down. And where were the judges? Usually they are quick to swoop in & give a pep talk when someone breaks down. And George was just so rude yelling at Elise to snap out of it. Fuck off George, you’re not helping.
    I love toffee so probably would have preferred it to the syrup. I’ve never made gelato so did not know you could over whip it.
    So we finally get rid of Zoe & now she might be back. Arrrrgh
    So no immunity pin. If I had the top dish the other night I’d be feeling really ripped off.

    • From my experience…. To get into one of these shows you require a psych evaluation and a long chat with a psych which in my belief is to ascertain predominantly 2 things;
      1. Are you a nut job who will end up killing a judge or fellow contestant.
      2. How can the producers push your buttons to get a desired outcome….

      For me, I guess my evaluation indicated I was mentally strong and focused and relatively resilient to challenges (of course if you’re smart enough during these sessions and tests you can easily manipulate things for your betterment)… what transpired is that all contestants bar me… were given hugs/encouragement etc by the judges over the usual nona/injury/drugs/etc etc… Also would have my allocated producer each episode hammering me with comments, questions in an attempt to break/isolate me further.

      After a few weeks decided to test the theory and being the good actor I can be, decided to have a bit of a cry… got nothing, nada from the judges… with the producers not even mentioning it during questioning.

      So reality tv, is about putting people away from home, in a pressure cook environment where they know how to push your buttons and manipulate your emotions and feelings to achieve interesting outcomes that makes people switch on to watch.

        • I guess I was lucky that reality tv had been around for a bit and a lot of those suspicions we have when watching I took in with me.

          Yes admittedly walked into the process hoping that what we see is really just creative editing (a lot is too), but deep down after the realisation of how it’s all manipulated and controlled it is (accidentally producers left their van open whilst I was waiting for wardrobe and inside they had a nice storyboard setup for each contestant) that no matter how good you are it’s all about who the producers/network think will be best suited to win. Hands down I can say I think I deserved to take it out… and that from what I produced and delivered in the final compared to my competition (and comments made)… but in the end I wasn’t either pretty enough, marketable enough or fitting with the demographic of the network….

          So when watching these shows it’s interesting to note that the contestants don’t get a chance (bar team challenges) to taste each others food.. only the judges do… so how do we know that something that they say tastes wonderful really is.

          • Any chance you can tell us the reality show? You had me at … ‘Waiting for wardrobe… ‘.
            A friend of a friend was a camerman/or something on TBL, and I remember him saying that the idea was to make sure the contestants were exhausted so they were emotional. It made for better tv.

      • From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t take a real lot to exhaust a Biggest Loser contestant, either..The trainers get emotional, too, ‘cos they’re shagging each other…..but no one knows except you, me and the lamp post.

  17. Ever since the power apron was introduced, they have never been able to get it right. Some years, the PA has given far too much power to an undeserving contestant, other years it has just been useless and a waste of time.

    I’d much prefer the “power” that others have suggested here – a “save the best” option at each team challenge, where either the judges, a team vote, or the greatest money/vote earner, saves the best performing cook from the losing team.

    • Exactly. When Tracy got the inaugural PA, it went on forever, and she was like the ruler of the free world. Now, it’s gone to the other extreme.
      If they can’t get it right, get rid of it.

  18. Thank goodness Zoe went, I so hope she doesn’t return, I want Charlie back, but not Jimmy’s sister please. I felt sorry for Elena, she was panicking and someone should have helped her ( you judges !!! ). I’ve seen them hugging other upset people but not her. Maybe they weren’t on set at the time. She is obviously not one of their favourites.

  19. I am fearful of Zoe returning as we havn’t been told what she’s been doing since she left masterchef…. I expect her to redeem herself tonight by making burnt peach butter, a nectarine sorbet…

  20. I want Miles back because he’s the single worst case of unfair judging we’ve seen. The decision to send Miles home over Zoe was just absurd.

    Zoe is probably quite a good cook under normal circumstances but she cannot follow a recipe under pressure and starts taking shortcuts that don’t work.

  21. I don’t think the producers will want an ‘old’ contestant to win.

    Not sure whether the judges and guest chef did have a chat with Elena. They may have but not shown as the producers don’t want us to see.it.

  22. So I gather this week there will be no immunity challenge…. much rather have a go at that then some crappy power apron.

  23. The guest chef mentioned that the wafers were from an Indonesian Layer Cake which is wrong. He is using an Asian Ant Nest cake or Beehive cake.

    Also this dessert is rather ridiculous. Bake a whole cake just to get 2 thin slices. May look nice on the plate with holey biscuits but what about the rest of the cake? Have them with a cup of yes?

    • Make a trifle with it?
      Seems they make huge servings of a lot of things & only use a tiny bit. How many whole ducks go to waste & they only use the breast?

      • I am sure you can buy duck breast from Coles. Common Coles, make them just cook with portioned out duck breast.

        Talking about Coles, being the main food sponsor, the food production team have to go to Costco to buy flour and sugar in bulk!!! Cheaper in Costco, I think

  24. Drinking my cup of yes right now.
    Hitting the spot.
    Who will make it back into the competition?
    Anyone but Zoe please. I agree, Miles was robbed last week. Theresa was robbed too. Out on a very flimsy technicality. Would like to see Charlie or Nhidi return.

  25. Also, to be brutally frank, that dish didn’t even appeal to me all that much. And I adore stone fruit.
    But I once had the most amazing cheffy dessert at Sepia and even though there may have been the wretched fennel fronds in it, it was totally gorgeous such that I remember it clearly three years later! I don’t think I would recall that fruit one five minutes later.

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