So, here’s the situation, I missed the first fifteen or so minutes because my dad made butter chicken and it was really good. Of course, I couldn’t walk away from that.
I also can’t do any photos tonight, so let’s hope I learnt something in my creative writing degree and can describe the dishes.
Anyway, here’s what I know: Today is a team challenge, and the contestants are in the Margaret River area. The teams are serving thirty guests each with three courses – entree, main, dessert. The guests are dining outside in the forest, surrounded by fairy lights, and sitting by a roaring fire. The contestants are using some Indigenous and local ingredients.
Time wise, I think they have about 3 hours, like other team challenges, before service starts.
The teams are:
Green: Larissa, Simon and Christina. Larissa has said that if they get into the pressure cook, she will be using her pin.
Yellow: Tessa, Tim, Anushka.
Both teams decide to use scallops for entree, and George is like, “Are you sure you want to risk it with that?” and the contestants just say yes and keep going, even though he’s really like “Really?“
As the time ticks down, the diners start to arrive, and Matt yells at them about it. Green are falling behind, but yellow seem to be on top of it.
It’s time to taste the entrees, and first up is the yellow team.
They’ve served two scallops on a bed of cauliflower puree, decorated with water chestnuts, and a green sauce circled around the dish.
The judges think it delivered flavour wise, however felt that the water chestnuts should have been a bit more prominant.
Next is green.
Simialry, they’ve served three scallops on an artichoke puree and decorated with bits of crispy saltbush.
The judges say it needs more salt – even the saltbush didn’t cut it. Nonetheless, they really enjoy the dish.
It’s mains and yellow starts.
The main is chockas with lamb, pumpkin, mushroom, warrigal greens and jujubes, however the judges say it doesn’t all work as one dish, and they did too much.
The green main is lamb and pumpkin with chilli. It’s a much smaller plate, but it’s decorated nicely, and looks good.
The judges really enjoy the flavours and say the lamb is the hero and is cooked and seasoned well. The guest judge wants more black barley, though.
It’s time for desserts.
As the green team start with dessert, Gaz comes in to say 12 people haven’t been served their mains. The trio are freaking out, and find 12 plates stored in the oven. They’re so disappointed and are behind again.
Straight away, they’re trying to rectify and pull something together for the 12 diners.
Yellow start serving their desserts.
It’s a Forest Floor, and it looks amazing. There’s a large chocolate tuilles type thing that looks a bit like a log, a chocolate dirt and crumb with sandalwood nuts, and a raspberry sorbet – bright red to brighten up the dish.
George feels like it’s inspired by the surroundings, and loves it.
Yellow team have sent their last dish, and they hug.
It’s time for green teams dessert, but they’re still doing the last mains. Larissa runs out to apologise to the diners for the delay.
Once the last of their mains are out, they realise Larissa had over stuffed the ice-cream churners, and says it’ll take another 20ish minutes, so they rush to make a plan.
They chuck what they can into the blast chiller.
Finally, they start service.
It’s a watleseed milk cookie with smoked ice-cream and lilly pilly sauce.
Gaz hates everything about it, and says the smoke isn’t good. All around, they agree it’s not nice. Then he says he thought it would be a tough decision, but it’s not.
It’s decision time, and Gaz doesn’t sugar coat it. Green team didn’t send out half their mains, and the dessert wasn’t good as a result of the time issues. Therefore, they’re in the elimination. Tomorrow, Larissa, Christina and Simon will be battling to get into Finals Week.
They thank the guest chef, Dan, and wish green team luck for tomorrow.
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 
Lots to say about this episode. Can Simon be so daft as to not notice lamb that he has cooked for 30 portions is still leftover and service went so quickly? What happened to the other 12 portions of pumkin he made? Surely it should have made alarm bells ring. He does not deserve to be here. I feel like Anushka should have been praised for her dessert and Larissa told the truth about hers. I’m sure youve watched this ages ago and have no idea what I’m on about lol. We are so behind in South Africa!!!
P.s. how beautiful is the location. I’ve never seen that side of Margaret River!
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