MasterChef Aus S11E04 – Recap

Tonight is the immunity challenge feat. Curtis Stone.

Mandy, Dee, Tim and Joe step out of the black cars. Once again, they’re oohing and ahhing about being the first to ever compete for an immunity pin in the first week.

They walk in and everyone’s standing up the top, clapping.  The cooking benches are set up for the cook along.

Facing the doors is Matt, George, and Gaz, the trio of judges.

Gaz is wearing a blue suit with a pink shirt and matching pocket square. He’s also wearing glasses again today.

George is wearing a slightly plaid looking suit jacket with a white shirt, and I’m pretty sure they’re navy pants. I think he’s also wearing a navy vest under his jacket?

And Matt is trying to quirk his outfit up again. He’s wearing a purple suit with a black shirt. His cravat and pocket square match – mostly white and black, but it looks like there’s also some purple in it. Overall, I’m a fan of Matt’s look.

Unfortunately, we don’t really see Anushka this episode, so I can’t comment on her glasses.

Blah blah blah, they’re talking, and then Curtis walks in, wearing white and an apron.

Everyone’s so excited to see him, Tim lets a tear slip, Dee starts to get a bit thirsty, and Mandy is star struck.

Curtis tells them it’s a cook along. They’ll have no recipe and no dish to use as reference, just looking at Curtis as he cooks. Dee looks like she’ll have no trouble keeping an eye on him.

I’m too gay to comment on his appearance.

The four vying for the immunity pin all comment on how they’re feeling about this.

Tim is scared, and Mandy’s not sure if she can keep up.

Curtis tells a story of a swimming teacher, Mr Gavin, who used to yeet kids into the pool to see if they’d sink or swim. I guess the link is that he’s yeeting them in now?

“It’s going to be simple,” Curtis tells them, before going on to say it’ll be steak, chips, and sauce.

Everyone’s like, ruh roh.

Then, without warning, he just goes, “First, you need to get your pans,” and goes over to get what he needs.

Mandy just kinda freezes and Gaz says, “Go, Mandy. Hurry up.”

Curtis is just talking and I am not getting any of it. Like, none of these words mean anything to me.

They’re all cooking, Curtis is going full steam.

At one point, Tim pours the sugar into one pot when everyone else poured it in the second one.

Overall, it looks like Dee and Mandy are able to keep up, but Joe and Tim keep falling behind and seem to be struggling.

Curtis talks about the beef like he’s on a Coles ad.

Just as Tim thinks he’s catching up, Curtis comes over and looks at the sauce.

“Start again,” Curtis says.

Tim stops what he’s doing and starts the sauce again.

A few of the other contestants are like, “What are you doing?”

Luckily he’s still got some stuff left over to do the sauce.

Anyway, that was the highlight of the entire cook, I’m not going to lie to you.

Finally, there’s the countdown and everyone has to finish plating.

When time’s up, Joe is happy he managed to keep up.

Dee and Mandy are nervous but happy.

Tim’s just excited to have cooked for Curtis.

Now we’re at the judging table with the trio and Curtis. As usual, they’re sitting Gaz, George, Curtis, and Matt.

First, they all eat Curtis’ dish and discuss where the bar is set.

Tim comes in first and talks to them about how he had a good time and how proud he is of Timself. He said it gave a good idea of what the rest of the season will be like, and it was an amazing opportunity.

He leaves so they can judge.

Overall, they like it, but they can taste the sugar in the sauce. Ruh roh.

Dee’s next. She’s pretty thirsty for Curtis.

She said the sauce was the hardest for her, and then she leaves.

The judges said the presentation was great and she cooked everything well. Generally they seem to like it, but George alludes to some issues in the dish.

Joe is next.

He tells the judges that this was the hardest thing he’s ever done.

That makes me a bit nervous for him for the rest of the season, because that’s pretty much a staple of MasterChef.

When he leaves, feeling like he’s got not hope, the judges say the beef is glaringly undercooked. The rest of the presentation is good, and possibly the best overall.

It’s agreed that nothing on the plate really screams, ‘Yay!’

Mandy is next, and I really want her to get this, I just like her.

She’s really proud of what she’s done, and I’m proud of her too.

Gaz comments on how big of a plate it is.

Overall, Mandy thinks she’s done ok, but she said when it started, everything went out the window.

“It was very stressful, and exciting. Curtis being here made it quite overwhelming,” she more or less said.

Curtis is like, “I’m shocked to hear that, because you were occasionally asking questions, and you looked very cool, calm, and collected.”

I’m like, “Give her the pin already!”

She leaves, and they start the critique.

“It looks like it was a stressful plateup,” one of the boys says.

Gaz starts frothing for the sauce, and everyone’s like, “Yeah, this sauce is the best.”

Curtis is like, “Actually, this sauce might be better than mine…”

I’m like, fuck yes she’s got this in the bag.

Across the board, they all worked really hard, and Curtis is proud of them, and says they should be proud.

Winner winner, chicken dinner

The winner of the immunity pin is Coles.

Oh no, that’s not right.

Sorry, I’ve just been inundated with ads for Coles and I got confused.

Actually, maybe that’s why I wasn’t really feeling the cooking bit – I kept hearing Curtis through the break talking about fresh food and Coles, and then he’s there in the program doing the same thing.

Winner is Tim, which is amazing because he really struggled to keep up and had to remake his sauce.

He kisses his immunity pin and says that today is the second best day of his life, after his wedding.

Curtis ends with words of inspiration to the contestants and everyone goes home happy.

Except me. Because I didn’t get to see Anushka’s glasses today.