MasterChef – Thurs, Jun 23 – elimination

Cue sad music as the contestants get ready for their elimination challenge. Elise mentions it’s her seventh time in black – maybe the universe is trying to tell you something, Elise?
Whoever survives tonight is through to the MasterChef Top 10.


Mimi has been absent from the edit for a while, so if she suddenly gets a flashback we know she’s in trouble.
George says tonight’s challenge is a twist on the classic time auction.
Five pantries will be revealed, one at a time, every 15 minutes.
Whoever takes the first pantry gets 90 minutes to cook with those ingredients, plus staples. Wait another 15 minutes and you get to use both pantries but only have 75 minutes to cook. Oooh – will they all go for the 60-minute mark? If they wait for the very last pantry they will only have 30 minutes.

The first pantry is just a mass of herbs. No-one moves.
Pantry two is vegies and at first it looks like no-one will bite, especially meat lovers IM and Trent. But in fact both boys and Karmen go for it.

Karmen is making a mille feuille with basil ice cream and candied tomatoes. I hope it sets – she’s had a few last minute hurdles in the MC kitchen with elaborate desserts.

Trent is making pumpkin rotolo with cauli puree while IM is cooking roast carrot tortellini with confit leeks and roast tomato and burnt butter sauce – how good does that sound.
On the sidelines, Elise and Mimi are hoping for some desserty-type ingredients, like fruit or chocolate.
The third pantry is revealed … it’s fruit – fresh and dried. Elise is stoked.
Mimi wants to “think outside the box” and she wants to make baked rhubarb and a beetroot parfait. That’s it – parfait is thumping panna cotta in the “another bloody” stakes.
The final two pantries contained poultry and fish.


Elise is looking a bit brain freezey, as happens to her sometimes, but she decides to make apricot ABP with passion fruit curd and a thyme crumb. Theresa shouts down the helpful advice to put her moulds in dessert. Uh oh – are they the red moulds of death? We get an Elise flashback so it does not bode well for her.
But here comes to Karmen flashback – yikes!
George pops over to Trent’s bench to screw up his nose at the fact he is boiling his pumpkin in water. Don’t look now, George, but I don’t think he used giant tweezers to place the pumpkin in the pot, either. Trent chucks his boring pumpkin and grates some more to fry with butter and milk.
Elise decides to add a strawberry and thyme coulis to put inside her parfait. On the gantry, the onlookers are talking up Karmen’s weaponiness.
IM starts rolling his pasta and the sheets look silky smooth from the get go.
Here comes a Trent flashback – aargh. He wants to open a restaurant with a vegie garden out the back. He’s been the only one tonight to get a flashback where his “food dream” is explained. So, Trent’s going.
Here comes Matt Preston to distract Mimi while she’s cooking beetroot caramel, and she has to spatter some on his hand to shoo him away.
There’s so much chat from the gantry tonight – “what are you making?”, “will you need to be put that in the fridge?” – are the judges just lounging around out the back watching TV?
No, here comes Matt to scare Elise that she has too many flavours on her plate. Those judges sure love seeing a panic-stricken Elise. But she sticks to her guns.
Karmen’s pastry looks quite layer-ey for a rough puff. Hopefully it cools down in time.
No-one’s pulled out the smoking gun tonight, so that honour falls to IM, who gives his leeks a puff.
With three minutes to go, Karmen still hasn’t plated up as she’s hovering at the freezer, waiting for her pastry to cool. I’m with George for once: “Come on, Karmen!” She gets it on the plate and it looks good – can’t blame her for the trickle of tears that follows.

The judges taste


Trent’s pumpkin rotolo with cauli: “I’m stoked,” he tells the judges. They like the inviting look of the dish. The judges are smiling. George says it has a meatiness to it and he loves the rich, buttery sauce.


Karmen’s tomato mille feuille with basil ice cream: We already knew Karmen’s parents don’t want her to go into cooking but I think this is the first time we’ve heard her dad is a chef, who never wanted to be. The judges like the golden brown look of the pastry and the taste but her ice cream is a puddle by the time they eat. “I think Karmen may have a problem,” says Matt. Her ice cream is not basil-ly enough but they don’t understand the use of the meringue.


Intense Matt’s roast carrot tortellini with confit leeks and burnt butter sauce: [Geez, IM is a master of puttig shredded fried stuff on his dishes – it looks delish.] George tells him his plating up looks great. “How absolutely delicious,” says Matt Preston. “He’s gota beautiful dish that just sings,” says Gaz.


Elise’s charred apricot parfait with a passionfruit curd: It’s not the prettiest dish and Matt oddly puffs out his cheeks as he eats. “You know what it reminds me of? fruit Loops. There’s confusion there.” George thinks she needed to simplify the ingredients and ditch half the fruit. Matt and Gaz think she has the makings of a great dish.


Mimi’s beetroot parfait with rosemary shortbread and beetroot caramel: Matt thinks it looks fun. They “oooh” as George pours the soz. Gary goes for a second slurp. They love the salted beet leaf and the whole dish is delicious.
So, it’s the return of Mimi and Karmen and Elise are in trouble – unfortunately, most likely Karmen.

The verdict
Mimi, IM and Trent get pats on the back. And the person going home is …


Oh dear. Poor Karmen. A quiet achiever gone. Hopefully she picks up a gig with Reynold.

Where is she now?
She plans to launch a dessert bar in Perth later this year.

So, for those playing along at home, what pantry would have made you stop cooking?
Next week: It’s Heston Week. The dessert girls should do well with the complicated recipes. The Melbourne Observation Wheel challenge looks fun.
And a reminder for those who watch it that Offspring starts on Ten on Wednesday at 8.30pm (yes, it should have finished last season but I’ll be watching anyway).



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63 Comments

  1. Think we have a new drinking game for tonight: every time we hear “I really want to be in the top ten”, and “I just can’t go home tonight.”

  2. It hasn’t started here . No spoilers about about parfaits , pannacotta, ice cream etc.

    I want to be surprised! These are the greatest amatas evah! Yeah? The Ma$terchef Kitchin fails again.

    (Just kidding)

  3. More parfaits?!?
    I’m starting to wonder if that’s the only dessert in the world. Are they trying to complie 2016 parfait bible?

  4. Is Karmen in trouble? Or Elise with her Fruit Loops. Will it come down to who the judges hate the most.

    • When I saw poor Karmen’s Exorcist inspired parfait, gonski. I thought Elise or Mimi but Karmen was gone a long way from home.

      The producers are methodically culling the female contestants but Brett could be whacked soon to make it all look legit.

      Hope Heston likes parfaits. He’ll be hit by the karma bus for gibbering that the standard on Ma$terchef keeps going up and up. It was in the brochure for 2016.

      • On the Heston promo, I saw a chocolate log. Another Reynold copy cat. When will we see some real talent?

  5. Elise survives to make another Jew and fry another wongtong.

    Pretty young photogenic blondes always last til the final week.

  6. The judges irritated me. Faux outrage because nobody jumped at herbs. WTF?
    I liked Karmen, I think she knew she was done for at the end of “the cook”. Had to laugh at the “staged” shock from the other contestants. On the good side, one less prolific parfait maker.

    • I liked Karmen, too.

      No tatts , piercings or faux tears. Makes it hard to be Australia’s next Ma$terchef.

          • Repeat offender, Alan.Yes, Karmen and others will need to go to parfait prison or rehab after this. It’s as if the amatas have been radicalised to believe that nothing but parfait can realize their deluded dreams.

            Casting a critical eye over the amatas one can’t see the imagination to try proscuitto wrapped parfait or sous vide parfait yet. Crispy skin offal parfait with a fennel jew? I’m salivating.

    • I know, what the fuck could you cook with just herbs? And then they would have said have you done enough? No because I only had fucking herbs!!

      • One must “hero” the herbs or as Gary has now fallen to, “championing” the dang things.

        George( holding fork backwards) ~ ” You failed to hero the herbs in your parfait, your fennel jew done two ways didn’t sing to me, so you’re going home tonight”

  7. Catching up on a few nights. Luckily we could fast forward. Especially through the faux tears of Chloe.
    I am resigned to the fact that Chloe can do no wrong and will definitely be in the grand final.
    It is not a pleasant thought but she could serve up purΓ©ed worm parfait with caramel candied turds and get effusive praise for the hint of sewer and restrained use of vomit in the parfait.

  8. The very next Ma$ter$hef amacha who makes a parfait and/or a frozen sphere of some sort should IMMEDIATELY be eliminated from the competition. Seriously. Enough with the easy to make parfaits and frozen spheres. Pffft.

  9. So, Bad Teeth (Anastacia) is in an elimination once and Shit Tatts (Chloe) has been in an elimination six times. Yet Bad Teeth is eliminated.
    And now, Slow Speaking Asian (Karmen) is in an elimination once and Ms Over Confident (Elise) is in an elimination – what – six or seven times? Yet Slow Speaking Asian is eliminated.
    I think Ma$ter$hef has officially jumped the shark.

    • Am I right in thinking that Julie Goodwin was up for elimination a lot in season one? Seems so long ago.

  10. So many dessert so call queens and king this year but they are all one dimensional.

    Chloe
    Mimi
    Elise
    Karmen
    Nicolette
    Zoe
    Charlie

    They all still need to spend some time with the pastry chefs before they can be any good

  11. Let’s stand around for half an hour doing nothing and waiting for dessert-friendly ingredients with which we are comfortable, just to prove how uncreative and unimaginative we are. Fie on those two. Karmen did a sweet dish as well, but at least she had enough ingenuity to use vegetables.

    The guys looked to be doing well, so I was barracking for Karmen, and I’m sorry she lost. Personally, I would have picked her dish, even with imperfect basil ice cream, over something that reminded me of Froot Loops.

    Best season ever, bull. So many of them only want to cook whatever genre of food they like, rather than stretching themselves and trying new techniques and methods and recipes. This has to be the weakest top ten ever. None of them stand out as particularly talented or original.

  12. I had to fast forward through most of this episode. I couldn’t believe that Elise and Mimi could not come up with a dish using veggies, herbs and the staples, but then I shouldn’t be surprised based on this season of MC. Too many contestants stuck in a world of parfaits, crumbs, ice cream, curd, beet root and silicone molds. I was hoping that either Elise or Mimi would go home with their total lack of originality. I would have eliminated them just for not being able to come up with a veggie based dish and also doing the parfaits.
    Karmen’s dish might have not been perfect but at least it was more original than E & M.
    Harry shouting out instructions to Karmen…LOL.
    George in face to face “confrontation” with Trent….don’t know how Trent just stood there. I give him credit for that. I would have backed away as far as possible.

  13. Top ten of what? Top 10 graduates of international house of parfait and sphere?
    The single dimension skills of most of these contestants is farcical.

    Only Heather, Trent, IM and Elena don’t make me nauseous. Yet it’s beyond certain that the faves will be there at the end, nodding and twisting, gesticulating and preening and making endless PARFAITS. It makes me long for a pannacotta.
    As God is my witness I vow from this day forth that I will never, ever order a parfait.

    • I don’t eat out much, but can’t remember ever seeing parfait on a dessert menu. And I think people would be pissed off to get this new parfait. They would ba expecting the ‘proper’ parfait of layers of jelly, custard & fruit.

  14. I still don’t know what a parfait is.

    Sad to see Karmen go. She and Anastasia were my last remaining female favourites. So now I am behind Intense Matt and Trent.

    • I don’t know either, never had a parfait.

      It’s French for “perfect”.

      Here it now means “fait a la mort” ~ done to death.

    • Sorry to repeat stuff from a previous thread, but what they are calling parfait is just a slab of icecream. A real parfait is a type of layered dessert, served in a tall glass. It can have a layer of icecream, but it is also cream, syrup, custard, fresh fruit etc.

      It seems like one idiot started calling it that, to sound fancier than icecream, and the other sheep have followed.

      It is about time that the challenges re desserts, specify that they have to be hot. It is too easy to do cold components early and then just assemble later. Here’s some desserts I want to see:
      – any type of steamed or baked pudding
      – pie (fruit, served hot, no icecream)
      – crumbles or cobblers
      – dumplings
      – baked custard based desserts
      – floating islands
      – hot pastries, danishes
      – and even the rum babas, without being squeezed by hand
      – anything that has been featured on Great British Bake Off

      And the new rule is, no savoury ingredients allowed.

      I think have to go and bake now!

  15. Last year it was semi freddi. Same thing. Something frozen. Sort of ice cream. Next year it will gelato in 101 ways.

    I agree this year contestants lack skills. Talk about best ever!!!! Falling flat on their faces

  16. Thanks for the great recap Juz.
    I was hoping that 2nd last one would be meat. They would have shit themselves.
    If a bright red dessert is put in front of me I expect it to be berry not fucking beetroot. I don’t care how much the judges raved about it, it would have been revolting.
    So I’ve been boiling pumpkin wrong all these years. How else do you boil it but in water? How stupid George.
    So Karmen hadn’t got her ice cream out of the blast chiller when time was up, but when she took it into the judges it was magically there. I was watching her waiting for her to suddenly realise she’d left it off. I thought if it wasn’t on the plate it couldn’t be served. And basil ice cream. no no no If I’m served green ice cream it better be mint flavoured not bloody basil.
    I would have called bullshit if Elise had gone home rather than Karmen. Her dish was obviously better.
    The guys did really well. They both seemed to have great dishes. Good on them.

      • Ice cream has to be scooped and ready to serve in the freezer at the end of the cook and then put on just before serving to the judges. It has always been like that. How else do you think the ice cream is not melted by the time it gets served? Do you even watch the show?

  17. With Karmen dessert, where was the meringue supposed to be place. Was it underneath the basil ice cream?

    It wasn’t on the plate when time was up. I thought that was why she was crying as the ice cream wasn’t on the plate.

    The judges sometimes or many times want to give the impression that it will be close.

    I thought that puff pastry was hard and wasn’t really flaky.More like a biscuit. Not surprise there as there wasn’t enough time to do a good puff pastry. Also she only baked 3 tiny pieces. She could have made a smaller portion of the puff pastry

    • if you really want to, with a freezer you can get rough puff made and ready to use in 30 mins. But these contestants pastry making skills seem non existant (particularly for a bunch of dessert kings/queens).

      At least Karmen is free from the BS that is this series… and if a male contestant wins this year, certainly we can exclaim with certainty the show is rigged.

      • So far none stood out. Among tbe females, maybe Elena is the one to watch. Among the guys, Matt is the better one. Trent has potential.

        I cant say it is rigged if a guy win.

      • It’s just part of the wander of the Ma$terchef Kitchin that boys and girls,together known as “gice” take turns to win each year. When you’re the greatest cooking show on the face of the earth….inexplicable shit happens.

        You can knock me over with a quails feather if a female wins. In fact, I’ll eat a parfait made from shit if it happens. Yeah?

      • The boys are more versatile, and better, cooks this year (with the possible exception of Elena). I won’t say that is is rigged if a guy wins. However I will say that I am truely over all the desserts.

  18. Unfortunately, Karmen totally deserved elimination. Her mill foyles (sic) were awful, and the pastry looked like it had come from a building site – they were like bricks. The ice cream had completely melted and looked like nasty little green puddles. Just a bad day.

    Dessert queens are definitely over-represented this year, so they need culling.
    Bring out a slab of meat, and some of these women become incoherent and need smelling salts.
    I think Matt and Trent are superb, more versatile cooks and the ones to watch.

    • They seem to just have them when they have certain guest chefs on for a week such as MPW. Will probably have a Masterclass during Heston week.

  19. Hello everyone, its been a while! I usually pop in during the top 12 or 10 of Masterchef and MKR.

    Great recap as usual, Juz! I always look forward to them and enjoy the giggles especially when I the read the comments, mainly those cracking ones made by BDD πŸ™‚

    Sad to see Karmen leave. Now I have three people I am rooting for, IM, Trent and Elena. So tired of all the faux dramas, I don’t want to see another parfait, can’t stand Chloe anymore (can she please go away soon) and generally it annoys me that they refer to the judges tasting ‘them’ as in the contestants rather than their food.. ‘I hope the judges taste me” “I’ve never been tasted” etc. Pfft!

    Looking forward to some good cooking in Heston week as I quite like him and the promo looks great!

    • I can think of 1 or 2 contestants that I’d quite like the judges to chow down on. They could treat the nosering like the sixpence in an old fashioned Xmas pudding.

    • Thanks Jasmine. Comments like yours help me to “keep pushing”.

      None of the two techniques for achieving and creating awesome crispy skin that judges shoot their loads for that I’ve seen on daytime tv, I don’t think I’ve evah seen on Ma$terchef.

      * use a hair dryer on the protein being served. Yeah?
      * throw a shitload of salt on the skin.Yeah?

      Just what I want to get through a winter’s night. Amatas and ice cream again.

  20. Thanks LP! And yes I’ve noticed that, I’ve liked Matt and Karmen from the start but Trent and Elena are new favourites πŸ™‚

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