Tonight one contestants is through to the Masterchef 2014 Semi Final. There are four contestants left, Emelia, Laura, Jamie and Brent. They were going to be split into two’s and each would cook off.
The two winners will then cook off against each other to decide who will be sent straight to the semi final. For winning last night, Laura had an advantage, she got to choose her opponent, the type of cuisine and the protein they will use. She chose Brent, Italian and fish.
They were the first two to cook and had 30 minutes.
Round 1
Laura chose to make search tuna with a salsa verde and Brent chose to make pan seared snapper with a salad.
They both spent too much time in the pantry. Brent had to filet and pin bone his snapper, he was struggling and butchered it a little bit. Laura was clever by picking Tuna, which was very quick to cook.
With 5 minutes to go, George wasn’t happy with the snapper, he ran back to the pantry and grabbed some fresh tuna. He ran back and cut his finger.
Both contestants got their dishes up.
Brent’s pan seared tuna with fennel salad was first to be judged. Gary loved the shallot and the walnut dressing, but there were lots of flaws. George thought that if he had focused on each of the ingredients it would have been good, but it was rushed.
Laura’s seared tuna with shallot anchovy and tomato vinaigrette was next. Gary thought the dish was “amazing”. George thought she was very smart to choose tuna. Matt loved it.
Laura won round 1.
Round 2
Next up to cook was Emelia and Jamie. They tossed a coin and Jamie was able to choose the cuisine and he chose Indian. Emelia had “no idea” about Indian and chose shellfish for the protein.
Jamie chose mussels and Emelia chose soft shell crab.
Jamie’s dish was curried mussels and Emelia was cooking crispy soft shell crab on a bed of curried tomato. Both of them were very quick off the mark. The judges asked Emelia about the soft shell crab and she said she had never prepared or cooked them before, which was very risky.
Her sauce was a bit salty but she still had to balance it out with cream.
With seconds to go, both contestants got their dish up.
Emelia’s soft-shell crab with roasted tomato curry sauce was first to be judged. Matt Preston thought the sauce was well balanced. George thought the soft shell crab was prepared well. Gary liked the crunch of the crab.
Jamie’s mussels with a south indian curry sauce was next. His dish was “nicely cooked”. George was sweating from the chilli. Matt loved the smokiness of the oysters, Gary thought it was delicious.
It was a close judging. The winner of round 2 was Emelia.
Round 3
It was down to Emelia vs Laura. There was another coin toss and Emelia won it. She decided to pick the protein and chose Kangaroo. Laura chose lebanese.
Laura was cooking a seared kangaroo fillet with tabbouleh and bubba ghanoush. Emelia was cooking the exact same dish.
Emelia did a few untraditional things, She decided to put bread in her bubba ghanoush and a twist on the tabbouleh with blistered tomatoes.
Laura had to redo her cous cous because it was too watery and had never cooked kangaroo before.
Both contestants got their dishes on the plate. The dishes were almost exactly the same.
Emelia’s dish was first to be judged. Matt Preston loved the pairing of the flavours with kangaroo. Gary said it had some great flavours but there were some problems. The kangaroo was chewy even though it was cooked rare, the eggplant puree was a bit of a miss with bread in it.
Next was Laura. Matt loved the cooking of the kangaroo, it was cooked perfectly. The smokiness of the baba ghanoush was good. George said the tabbouleh was a bit of a miss.
Laura’s kangaroo was cooked the best, so Laura is through to the semi final of Masterchef Australia 2014