Source: Twitter
It is Maggie Beer week on Masterchef. The contestants arrive at Masterchef Headquarters and are expecting a mystery box. They walk in the door and notice there are no mystery boxes on their benches. The judges announce Maggie Beer as the guest judge today and the contestants are super excited. As Maggie is here, they’ve decided to switch things up today and do the invention test first. There are 3 cloches with 3 core ingredients. Each person gets to choose their own core ingredient from abalone, silken tofu and lemon grass. Maggie says she loves Japan and all of these ingredients remind her of Japan. Ten contestants choose the lemongrass, two contestants choose the silken tofu and three choose the abalone. The winner of today’s challenge gets a massive advantage. They have 60 minutes and have an open pantry. Their time begins.
Miles is making some meat skewers and some flavoured silken tofu. Harry is making a lemongrass broth with smoked lobster. Elena is making an abalone and mushroom green tea noodle salad. Chloe is doing a lemongrass and coconut milk and prawn panacotta. Zoe is making a tofu cheesecake. She decides the cake alone is not enough so she adds a chilli cherry jelly to go on top. There’s 5 minutes to go and the contestants start plating up. Time is up!
It’s time for the judges to taste the top three dishes. Harry is up first. He has made a lemongrass broth with smoked lobster and lobster head butter. Maggie comments that the broth is really beautiful and she loves the lobster butter. Gary said he has really hero’d the lemongrass.
Next up is Elena. She has made green tea gluten free noodles with abalone. The judges taste the dish. George loves the noodles and so did Maggie but she would have liked more of the dashi broth. Matt says it’s a brilliant and creative dish.
The final dish they decide to taste is Zoe’s dark chocolate tofu cheesecake with a cherry chilli jelly. The judges taste it. Maggie says it is a silky cheesecake and she thinks it is a really really lovely dish. Gary loves it and wants to eat it all.
So now it is time to find out who wins the advantage today. It is Zoe. The judges loved her cheesecake. Her advantage is choosing all 8 mystery box ingredients for today’s challenge. Zoe and Maggie head off to the pantry to decide on the ingredients.
Zoe exits the pantry with her mystery box. She reveals the ingredients to the judges and contestants. She has chosen ricotta, tomatoes, pork mince, thyme, chilli, pancetta, basil and garlic. There’s 60 minutes on the clock and the contestants can use their staples.
Zoe is making meatballs with a tomato, basil and chilli ragu. Miles is making a pasta dish. Matt is making a pork mince tortellini. Chloe is making a pancetta parfait. Trent is making a spring roll with a chutney. Elise is making a dessert, a thyme biscuit sandwich with a caramel parfait. Harry is making Jimmy’s dimi’s, a version of dim sims. Brett is also making a ravioli. Nicolette is making a ricotta parfait with a thyme crumb. Charlie is making some pork rissoles with flatbreads. There’s 5 minutes to go. Elise plates up her parfait and it looks great until she adds the caramel sauce on top and she can see the parfait is not set inside and is starting to sink. She quickly puts it straight back into the blast chiller with 3 minutes to go. The contestants are plating up frantically. Time is up! Elise’s dish has collapsed and she’s hoping she is not going to be in the bottom three again.
First up for tasting is Trent. He has made spring rolls with a tomato chilli jam. The judges love them, Maggie comments that she loves the pastry. Nicolette is up next. She has made a ricotta parfait. George asks if Maggie Beer likes it and she replies that she is not sure yet. Gary says the dish doesn’t really work for him. Matt says she might be glad she has that pin. Zoe is up next and she has made parpadelle with meatballs. The judges like the parpadelle. Heather and Matt also bring up successful dishes and so does Karmen. Elise is up next. The judges taste her dish. Gary says the texture of the parfait is really nice. Maggie says she is looking for more flavour. Next up is Harry. He has made Harry’s dimmys. George tastes the dish and so does Maggie. Maggie comments that he has used too much verjuice and George says the meatballs are dry. Next up is Brett. He has made ravioli with tomato sauce. The judges like the dish, especially the sauce. George says Yum! He loves it and says it’s one of the best dishes he has tasted. Charlie is up next. He has made pork thyme and ricotta rissole with flatbread and tomato chilli jam. Matt comments that it doesn’t look great. Gary says the bread is dry and there is no freshness. The judges haven’t really enjoyed it at all. The last dish they taste belongs to Chloe. She has made a pancetta fat parfait with pastry and a caramel crumb. The judges love the dish. Maggie goes back for seconds. There’s nothing left on the plate as they love it so much.
The top three dishes today belong to Chloe, Trent and Brett. They will compete for an immunity pin.
Going into tomorrow’s pressure test is Charlie, Nicolette and Harry. If Nicolette decides to play her immunity pin tomorrow then she will be replaced by the fourth worst dish which belongs to Elise.