It’s the Maggie Beer elimination challenge, and the losers of yesterday’s picnic at hanging rock team challenge are hoping to stay in the contest.
Abbey, Larissa, Tati, Simon, Anushka and Christina are wearing their chef blacks today. As Sandeep hurt his back and didn’t compete yesterday, he’s also up for elimination.
Unlike previous eliminations, when they come to the MasterChef kitchen, they find everyone waiting for them outside.
Before George tells them what’s happening today, Gaz asks Sandeep if he wants to use his pin today and get out of elimination.
Sandeep doesn’t really want to use the pin, but he had an injury involving a disc in his lower back. He couldn’t walk, so he didn’t compete yesterday, and so today, he decides to use his pin. With his recovery, it’s best that Sandeep doesn’t compete today, and I’m really happy he chose to sit it out.
He goes and stands with yesterday’s winners.
Hot Tip: Johnson Leung tweeted about Sandeep. He posted on Instagram yesterday about a bad day, with what appears to be a bitmoji. Thanks for the tip, Johnson!
Once that’s all decided and talked about, George gets into the deets.
Round one, they need to cook a dish which heros one of the garden ingredients, focusing on herbs. The three best dishes are safe, and the other three go into round two.
The montage starts, and time begins.
Abbey keeps getting monologues. Clearly, she’s a producers favourite, but her voice is annoying, and I’m sick of hearing her talk. I don’t dislike her, I’m just sick of hearing from her. They keep excluding people like Walleed so they we have to hear more from Abbey. In fact, anyone from a cultural and/or linguistically diverse background is heard less.
Yes, I’m still incredibly salty about Walleed.
Anyway, time finally ends, and it’s time to taste.
Ugh, I missed Simon’s dish. He made prawns with taragon and parsley.
Maggie calls it summery. Matt says he didn’t feature the herb, he heroed it.
Next is Anushka.
Maggie says it’s fantastic for the time she had. She had nothing but good things to say.
Up is Abbey.
The pork is a bit pink, Gaz calls it inconsistant and says some people would send it back to the kitchen. She’s on the edge and unless the others completely flop, she’ll probably be in, I reckon.
Christina is up.
George says the pastry is undercooked, and it’s not a good dessert. You can tell she’ll be in round two.
Up is Tati.
It sounds like it’s too hot for Maggie…
Gaz calls it yummy and a celebration of the garden. Maggie says that once the chilli hits, it’s too much, but she loves the flavours before then. Tati apologises, but Maggie has none of that.
Next is Larissa.
Larissa had a few dramas in the cook, and it ended up as a 10 minute challenge. The prawns are raw. George says you can see the panic in it.
It’s time for the verdict.
Gaz says there were two dishes they absolutely love: Tati and Simon. The final safe dish came down to Maggie’s love of the ice-cream – Anushka’s safe.
That means Abbey, Larissa and Christina are into round two. George tells them to follow the trio of judges and Maggie into the kitchen.
So it’s the same rules as last round, but they have to focus on spices. It’s a 60 minute cook, sweet or savoury.
While time starts, and the montage, it’s time for my favourite part of a MasterChef recap.
ANUSHKA WATCH: Anushka, the 49 year old optical distributor, who is safe for today, is wearing her elimination glasses.
All this cooking makes me want to create some instant chicken noodles. Unfortunately, I’m no longer trusted with noodles and the microwave anymore.
OMG, I just saw an ad about jaffles and I would throw my phone over the balcony for a jaffle right now.
Matt manages to link Spice Girls to the cook. Inspirational.
. @MattsCravat + Spice Girls reference = PERFECTION 🙌 #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/iDL8ZcKucI— #MasterChefAU (@masterchefau) June 13, 2019
Short Matt video with the Spice Girl sitch.
Finally, time is up, and we keep hearing from Abbey because she’s stressed and not sure if she’s done a good job.
Now, it’s time for the tasting.
First up is Christina, she said this is something she cooks at home, and it’s a happy cook.
Aww poor Maggie can’t handle her chilli.
Gaz calls it yum. George says it’s one of the best she’s cooked so far in the competition.
“She knew what she was doing, and she went for it,” Maggie said.
Matt talks about how she took so much care, and it was a delicious plate of food.
Next up is Larissa.
She confesses that she feels like she’s just surviving and not thriving, like everyone else, and so she’s a bit worried moving on. Maggie offers her advice – follow your intuition.
George plates up.
Maggie says she likes the ginger cake and the custard, but feels like it’s too little.
“There’s no joy on the plate,” Matt says. “It’s all a bit meagre.”
“At least it’s got some flavour,” Gaz says.
“If you didn’t know it was a ginger cake,” Matt says, “you wouldn’t have picked it.”
Finally, Abbey.
Abbey is shook by the idea of leaving MasterChef.
Like with Larissa, Maggie offers a bit of advice.
As George plates up, Maggie slides her glasses on.
“The spices aren’t showing through like I thought they would,” Maggie says.
“It’s very fat, and not clean and delicious,” George says.
They discuss how the food isn’t good, and what’s wrong with it.
“It’s sad,” Matt says.
All the tasting is done and dusted, and we’re ready for the verdict.
Matt says that Christina really knocked it out the park today, so she’s safe and into the top 12.
It’s down to Abbey and Larissa.
Larissa’s cake was light and moist, and the custard delicious, that means she’s safe.
Abbey is out. Honestly, I’m relieved.
Where are they now? Abbey has done work experience and is working on her own recipes.
As usual, this recap was written as I watched the episode, so there will be spelling and grammar mistakes.
If you have a Hot Tip, tweet me, leave a comment, or head over to my contact page, and let me know what’s good.
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Felicity Feiner 
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