It’s day two of Western Australia Week, but today there’s no pressure cook. Instead, Tim, Larissa, Simon, Nicole and Christina are in Chef Whites.
Waiting for them in standard outfits, are the trio of judges, Matt, George, and Gaz, as well as Matt Sartori, the head chef of Wildflower.
Matt Sartori tells them about Wildflower, how they like to use native ingredients.
They’ll be making five course degustation. Each contestant will be responsible for one of the courses. The first is the appetisers, the second is a bit more substantial, third is main, fourth is a transition one so it can be sweet, can be savoury, or cheese, whatever, before fifth course, dessert.
The contestants choose which course they’d like to do, and stand in order of their course.
First course: Nicole.
Second: Simon.
Third: Christina.
Fourth: Tim.
Fifth: Larissa.
It’s a staggered course that has 30 minutes between each course. Matt Sartori has chosen an ingredient for each course. They won’t know what the ingredient is until their time start. They’ll have two and a half hours to cook.
Each will cook for 20 diners, as well as the trio of judges – so total of 23. Best two dishes join Anushka and Tessa in the cook-off for a guaranteed spot in Finals Week.
Nicole heads into the kitchen with Matt Sartori first to get to her ingredient – beetroot.
Her time starts, and Nicole gets cooking.
It’s Simon’s turn, and he comes in as Nicole is cooking. He gets to his ingredient – Marron.
He gets cutting and chopping up the little Marrons. Gross.
Christina gets up and comes into the kitchen to get her ingredient. It’s duck.
From the get go, she’s having a hard time thinking of a dish.
It’s time for Tim to get cooking, and Matt Sartori runs him through what each contestant before him is doing. He’s got finger lime.
Tim gets cracking and grabbing several cheeses to plate with it.
Finally, it’s time for Larissa to get cooking. Matt Sartori takes her in and shows her the ingredient – plum.
She knows what she’s doing, and she’s off.
Simon and Nicole have the biggest time concerns.
It’s five minutes before service, and everyone’s worried for Nicole.
Service starts, and Nicole gets ready to plate, and she serves first.
The judges love it and say it’s a great combination of flavours.
It’s time for Simon to start serving. He scooped the Marron meat out of the shell because of time, and decided to put it back in the shells once cooked, however it isn’t fitting in the shell, so he has to chuck the shells and put the meat out as is. Looks kinda gross, to be honest.
The judges all agree that it’s gross and full of flaws.
“There’s nothing to go, ‘Wow’ about, nothing you go, ‘Bang’ about,” Matt says.
Christina is next for service.
The judges say it’s really tasty, and looks beautiful. Matt calls it a dish that makes you happy. They love everything.
Tim is up next.
They love the flavour combinations, very Tim, and very lovely.
It’s time for Larissa to serve, however, she doesn’t have a dish to serve up. Her meringue isn’t working properly.
The judges straight up say it’s missing something. Straight away, they’re quick to critique. The plum isn’t a hero, and she doesn’t mesh her original idea with this dish.
They know Christina is in, but it’s either Tim or Nicole joining her. Gaz says to flip a coin.
It’s time for the decision. Who will join Anushka and Tessa in the cook-off challenge?
First up is Christina for her duck dish. She’s thrilled to be the best of the five.
The last spot. George declares Nicole the winner, and she too is stoked.
ANUSHKA WATCH: Anushka, the 49 year old optical disributor, who sat out from today’s challenge because she’s a blessing, is wearing cream frames, something I’m not 100% sure we’ve seen before.
Matt tells everyone what’s happening tomorrow, and then that’s that!
As usual, this recap was written as I watched the episode, so there will be spelling and grammar mistakes.
I posted a MasterChef rant about Sandeep, and you can read it here. I also did a bigger rant about the rest of the season, and you can read that here.
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Felicity Feiner 
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