MasterChef – Mon – May 8

The blurb for tonight’s MasterChef says: The three contestants with the least impressive dishes from the invention test face off in the pressure test. To survive they must keep up with Gary Mehigan as he prepares his classic roast chicken.
I think they should have another go at Maggie Beer’s chicken terrine challenge, when all of the final four contestants served up raw chook because they weren’t given enough time to make the dish. That was in 2011, by the way, the year Kate Bracks won. For a while she had a cake-making business but Mr Google cannot tell me what she’s doing now. One of the other three, Michael Weldon, started a very successful burger joint here in Adelaide called Nordburger, that now has several outlets.
So it’s the three blokes in danger tonight: Doctor Ray, Crane Driver Pete and Irish Lee.



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36 Comments

  1. Good to know Michael Weldon is doing well. I think he also went overseas to work in some restsurants

    • I don’t know if he sold the burger biz, LP, but he’s cooked at the odd pop-up during the Fringe Festival or similar. The burgers are tasty and very popular.

  2. So tonight we got the fake Marco. Cooking along has been Marco’s pressure test. Now Gary is doing it

    • Precisely LittlePetal, it’s HomeBrand Marco.

      The is absolutely no love for Dr Ray. (His degree is too high prestige for the judges).

      Who is the blonde talking head?

        • So they have like 19 other contestants and only Tamara can narrate?
          She has sufficiently annoyed me that we may start switching the channel every time they cut to her.

  3. That is so BS with Dr Ray. You just want to be on MC to get some 15 secs of fame or to win $250,000 dollars. He will be back to his doctor’s job when he leaves MC

    • He was in TV Week saying the judges gave him a hard time asking him why he was giving up being a doctor. He said after a while they realised he was serious about cooking.

      • That annoys me about MC. The judges making assumptions about people’s occupations and acting with total disdain towards the contestant. You should be able to burn through your long service leave/annual leave have the masterchef experience then return home with a couple of tricks for your next dinner party. Surely, we are at peak dessert bar, food truck and cook-book.

  4. We don’t mind if contestants are honest and say they just want the TV reality experience and not a career in hospitality.

    • If they are really so passionate about cooking and want to be a chef than go and do an apprenticeship. Just like that guest pastry chef. Forgot her name but I think she is on this series. Left her well paid job and went to Paris to learn to be a pastry chef.

  5. You’d think roast chicken, easy. No doubt following Gary will involve de-boning the chook, or doing it confit, or on the crown, or all of that if such a thing is possible. I looked up how to cut a chicken on the crown; the pictures started with a whole chicken, head and feet included. It was gross; watching the whole bird being prepped nearly put me off chicken forever. I don’t like to remember that something I plan to eat was once a live creature pecking around, minding its own business. Good luck to the guys.

    • Oh dear, Von. I know what you mean. I have 2 chooks in my backyard. Everytime I look at them I am thinking I should stop eating chicken. But I dont eat red meat. I may have to only eat fish and veggies.

      • We did a split chook on the bbq yesterday. Sooo good! Keep your chooks, LP, and only eat other people’s poultry 😉

        • No,Lulu. I cant have a veggie patch either! I cant eat my lovely homegrown veggies. 😢😭😢
          I may just survive on love water and sunshine!!!

  6. What a painful episode. They should have turfed both Dr Ray and Lee. Dr Ray because his meal was a disaster and Lee because he was really boring television.

  7. Dr Ray sometimes come across as arrogant. I still remember his audition dish and the way he said bacon and egg.

    He misses the children. Nothing about the wife.

    • I noticed the lack of reference to the wife too.
      I find it really hard to sympathise with these reality show contestants that complain about being away from their children. They have choices and they choose to go on TV.
      Even if they think they’re too old for an apprenticeship they can do cooking courses and still “follow their dreams”.

  8. Who serves fucking pea custard with their roast? Sounds perfectly revolting. I hate peas.
    Poor Ray misheard how much cream was in it. If it wasn’t for Lee’s undercooked chicken he would have been gone. And he nearly set fire to the place.

  9. What a dispiriting episode. I voted for George in the quiz, but after tonight and Gary’s deeply unpleasant attitude I want to change my vote.
    “Yes Gary” as MPW-lite was just painful. He just followed every trick used by Marco- down to overwhelming arrogance. I hated this episode and ending up just ff-ing to see who was turfed.
    Felt sorry for Lee that they had to continually point out that the chicken was “raw” and Gary dredged up a cube that wasn’t cooked. Methinks they protest way too much. Ie for some reason Lee was ordained to go.
    The whole premise in week 1 of “no blast chillers / no fancy gadgets and a return to home cooking” just irks me. Surely these Amateurs don’t actually have these items at home, so removing them in week 1 when they haven’t even used them yet in the m/c kitchen just seems weird.

    Maybe I’m just cranky and over all the lousy tv and not feeling good at myself for watching this drivel! I’ll take myself off and try to improve my mood – I don’t want to be known as the Gary of talkingtv.

  10. Lead chef Gary told the contestants just before he finished “the cook” that it was ok for the chicken to be a bit pink, & his sure was (even a few red lines?). He was not shown flipping it over in the frypan. The purpose of the frypan treatment was explained to be to crisp and burnish the skin. At the tasting by the 3 stooges, George was tasked with asking whether the chicken was underdone. Gary had to feign a hmmm, yeah, look. Matt said that Lee could have flipped the chicken over to finish the cooking. How many times is it ok for chicken to be pink (never in my estimation), but the judges on these shows change the story to suit the preordained outcome? A travesty of justice every time! Nonetheless, Lee was the least able to keep up with Gary which was part of a consequently tough challenge.

    • Just checked the replay, and we do see Gary turning his chicken and one of the girl talking-heads says that they were told to flip it. When Gary said it was ok for it to be pink, it was when they were taking it out of the oven, and he stated that it could be a bit pink because it was being finished off in the pan.

      That said, I’m sure there are shenaningans at different times during the comp – just not needed this time.

  11. Lee was sweating into his cooking although I did see him wipe his forehead face very now and then. I am surprised he did not notice the pink areas on the chicken and Gary’s comment about a little pink didn’t make sense. So it’s acceptable for Gary’s chicken to have some pink but not the contestants.
    If Lee was eliminated Ray should have joined him.
    Wish they would get rid of interrogating the contestants before tasting their food. Asking Pete (I think it was Pete) how it felt to be wearing a black apron and possibly be going home….silly. What did they expect him to say? …..”It feels great. If you eliminate me I can go out and get real work experience in a professional kitchen, stop having to say, yes George and not have to listen to Gary’s whining and rude remarks.”
    Has Tamara been selected this season’s official narrator? 😉

  12. The advantage of fast forwarding is that I missed the commentary by blondie girl.
    Judging by the preview of the immunity pin challenge I don’t anticipate changing my opinion/early dislike of Eliza.

  13. So far, I like Ray and was very glad he wasn;t eliminated. It wasn’t his fault that the producers are showing his home life so repetitively. I thought the very calm way he dealt with the paper towel fire and the smoking pan were impressive. He only had a few problems on his dish, but they played them up to pretend that it was possible that he, instead of Lee, was leaving.

  14. Pete was impressive. He needs to make sure from now on to back his own judgement and not listen to the stooges trying to bring him down.

    • Pete was the only one who went up to Gary’s table to compare what he had done with what Gary had done.

  15. Take note amatas,judges and producers.~ “You can’t give what you don’t have” ~ Dr.Phil

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