Tonight, the contestants are wheeled out on an excursion to the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, the location of Joan Lindsay’s novel, and Australian film of the same title, ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, the one where the schoolgirls go missing.
As the contestants walk to the judges, they talk about the rock. Nicole says she hopes no-one goes missing today.
When they come in, they see all the picnic blankets, and start to speculate about what they’ll be doing today.
The trio of judges, Gaz, George and Matt, are waiting for them to arrive.
Gaz first tells Tessa that she’s the third person in MasterChef Australia history to win two immunity pins. The only other pin in play at the moment belongs to Sandeep.
Unfortunately, Sandeep has a back injury and won’t be able to compete in the challenge.
“He is automatically in the elimination with the losers of today’s challenge,” Gaz says.
Like, I guess, it just seems a bit unfair to me. But MasterChef hasn’t been very fair since Friday, so go off I guess.
Yes, I’m still salty about Walleed (see recap of ep 31).
Anyway, today, they’ll be doing, “nothing more iconic than a picnic right here,” Matt says.
But they need a guide, and one appears out of nowhere – Maggie Beer!
To choose teams, Maggie comes around with a sack and tells them to pull out an apron.
The green team: Derek (captain), Steph, Tessa, Tim, Nicole, Ben.
The red team: Anushka (captain), Simon, Larissa, Abbey, Christina, Tati.
Our teams will be serving 100 people each, to be served in 25 baskets. Each one must include sandwiches, salad, another savoury item, a dip with things to dunk in, and a sweet treat for four people. They’ll have 3 hours before serving.
“Make it so full of flavour that the guests will fight for it,” Maggie tells them, before time starts.
Everyone runs off and starts planning the food. Montage starts.
ANUSHKA WATCH: Today, Anushka, the 49 year old optical distributor, is wearing her cream/translucent frames, and a cute black and white striped top.
Anushka tells Maggie about how she arrived in Australia in 2001, she didn’t know any English. She used to watch Maggie’s cooking shows because she could understand what was going on. “So thank you,” she says to Maggie.
Red is stressed, and they’ll be late.
“There’s no doubt about it,” Gaz tells them.
Derek is doing an amazing job as captain for the green team.
Simon has become more of the captain than Anushka. He complains about her leadership. Like when Walleed was the captain, it’s a difficult task, and it’s a major learning curve. I stand by Anushka ❤
Green team has all their baskets out, and red is only just sort of starting.
That means green is first to be tasted.
The green team have made chicken waldorf salad sandwiches, quiche, chocolate brownies, hommus and flat bread, and caprese salad.
“Good quiche,” Gaz says.
“Good cheesy flavour,” Maggie says.
They go through each of the elements and love them all.
There’s a lot of, ‘Mm!’
Maggie and the trio love everything, and then comment on Derek’s leadership, saying it was well organised and he did a great job.
Red team is ready to get baskets OUT!
It’s time for their tasting.
They’ve made hommus and lavosh crackers, frittata, carrot cake, beef sandwich, and fig salad.
“It doesn’t look too bad,” Gaz says, taking everything out of the basket.
They like the lavosh crackers and hommus, are happy enough with the sandwich but feel the salad, like the frittata has too much going on. Maggie and the trio enjoy the carrot cake.
Finally, it’s time to find out who’s in the elimination tomorrow.
Gaz tells the red team they struggled from the start.
Green team – Derek was clear and decisive as a leader, and it showed. Everything was delicious, so they’re the winners today.
That means the red team, Simon, Anushka, Abbey, Christina, Larissa and Tati will be in the elimination challenge, along with Sandeep.
As usual, this recap was written as I watched the episode, so there will be spelling and grammar issues.
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If you’re all up to date on MasterChef, but feel like reading some more more recaps, check out The Super Switch. Episode two aired tonight, and the recap is ready for a read. Head over to southhemitv.com to watch the full episodes.
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Felicity Feiner 
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