Hello, hello! I’m writing this little bit right before the first episode of Celebrity MasterChef Aus season 2 airs.
I am keen as a bean!
If you’re a recurring reader, you’ll know that I missed MasterChef Australia season 13 because I had too much work to spend time and to focus on writing recaps, and in a wild twist of events, I’m currently in LockDown, with the expectation that end of next week we should be getting back to a bit more normal. In saying that, I don’t know what the plan is with my work.
At this stage, if I were to miss an episode, I will have significant time the next day to write it up. I’m also a little addicted to SAS Aus, so it’s almost handy that I’m not working a lot at the moment.
That’s enough about me; if I go on, I’m sure I’ll end up sounding bitter.
A Hot Tip came through from Jonson Leung – Emelia, winner of season 12, has had a baby!
Without further ado, here’s the recap.
The new season kicks off with Jock introducing the premise of the show, snippets of the season to come, and Andy lists off some of the careers our Celebrity contestants have.
Every single snippet, shows the contestants freaking out about cooking, and regretting their decision to join this season.
Mel walks about welcoming everyone to the MasterChef family.
The celebrities start rolling in.
In car #1 is Rebecca Gibney and Matt Le Nevez, commonly known from Offspring, and Rebecca Gibney, the mother from Packed to the Rafters.
They exit the car in a bit of rain, walking up the carpet, firework/sparklers going off either side, and walk into the kitchen, to see Jock, Andy, and Mel waiting at the front, all looking very daper.
They introduce themselves to each other.
“My heart is pounding!” Rebecca exclaims, taking a moment to try and catch her breath.
Next is car #2, Ian Thorpe (Thorpey), Olympic swimmer, and Collette Dinnigan, fashion designer.
Car #3 is Dilruk Jayasinha, a comedian, and Nick Riewoldt, AFL player.
“Couldn’t they have judged me on something else? Like my thick eyebrows?” Dilruk says in the car, telling us he only learnt to cook during the pandemic.
(“Hear that?” my partner says. “He couldn’t even cook last year! Hope for you yet!”)
#4 is Dami Im, singer and icon, and Archie Thompson, a footballer/soccer player.
Nick enthuses about the other celebrities here, and how excited he is to meet such incredible people.
Car #5 is my personal favourite, Tilly Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay’s daughter, and Chrissie Swan, television and radio personality.
“I’m a bit nervous, and I probably have a crush on her dad,” Chrissie says in her confessionals.
Everyone kind of freaks out a bit with Tilly there, given her culinary experience, realising this won’t be as easy as this could be.
Jock officially welcomes everyone to Celebrity MasterChef.
There’s the usual sort of banter that you can expect from judge and contestants before challenges, with the judges singling out a person and asking about their cooking experience and how keen they are.
It comes to light that Thorpey has his own published cookbook, and there’s a moment of uproar.
Andy gives us the stakes – $100,000 to the charity of their choice, and the title of MasterChef.
Their first challenge is to make the dish their famous for, with the winner receiving an immunity pin.
Andy says, “This pin can be played at any point in any challenge. It’s the only one up for grabs this entire competition.”
Jock tells them to take an apron, their name in gold, and told to leave and get changed.
They return in normal clothes and their fancy new aprons. A consolidation prize?
Jock says they have 90 minutes, full access to the panty, and all dishes will get tasted today.
Time starts, and they rush to the pantry for the first time.
Chrissie is very vocal in the pantry, going, “What do I put my chicken on? Where’s the dairy?”
A handful of celebrities cry out as they realise they don’t recognise many of the appliances.
Tilly, Dami and Thorpey seem to be the only ones who aren’t very worried about cooking.
Dilruk is the most relatable, as someone who is cooking challenged (see season 12 when I almost burnt down my apartment cooking noodles), but he’s out here doing his best. He’s following recipes to the T – even measuring salt.
What an icon, he put a pot on the ground to pour stuff into.
Tilly graced us with a few TikToks of her and her dad, and they’re very funny, would recommend watching.
Mel tells Dilruk that her mum makes the same dish that he’s cooking tonight, and now he’s more concerned than he was before. He’s also worried about how good Thorpey is, and is right next to him, so decides to disarm him with cute smiles.
Thorpey is getting very competitive, not phased of Dilruk’s smiles.
Oop, we’ve got our first sob story.
It’s Nick, talking about how his sister passed a few years ago.
Ugh, then there’s an ad for Dog House Australia, and I will not be watching that, because I watched an episode last night about a dog who has just had a hard life, and has been up for adoption for a year, and didn’t end up getting adopted in the episode, and I sobbed. It was very ugly.
Twenty minutes to go.
Matt’s getting his 10,000 steps in, running back and forth from the pantry.
Rebecca and Chrissie are bonding, and I’m sure they’re soon to be best friends
With 10 minutes to go, Thorpey finishes and has his dish plated up. Everyone’s a little salty, realising how competitive he’s going to be and worrying about their food and getting it happening. He then walks around, offering everyone help with their dishes. Focused, no-one accepts his help.
Rebecca takes a moment to breathe, lying on the ground.
Everyone starts to get thinking about plating, and I’m honestly getting a bit bored.
With two minutes to go, Matt is freaking out.
One minute to go, and the scramble is real – everyone is frantically getting things plated and looking nice, and doing last minute touches.
Mel, Jock and Andy start the count down, and then time runs out.
The foods look amazing! A few of the contestants express a moment of worry that it’s going to work, but proud of themselves nonetheless for giving it a go and having fun.
Andy says, “Well, good news gang, you’ve finished your first cook in the MasterChef kitchen.”
The first dish to be tasted is Chrissie. She’s cooked Roast Chicken Maryland with Mascarpone Potato Bake. She tells a little story about how at 5:30pm, the street smells of dinner from a neighbour family, and her mum didn’t really cook. Chrissie always wanted to cook and have her kids smell dinner.
Jock is just going in eating the chicken leg with his fingers.
Mel calls it a dish of love, perfectly cooked. She calls it, “a raging success.”
Andy says the food is cooked to perfection, and Jock agrees, saying everything was great together.
Next up is Matt. He picks up his food and turns to walk out of the kitchen. After being reassured he won’t be killed off, he brings his food to the front for the judges.
Matt has cooed Blackened Fish Tacos with Pineapple Cabbage Slaw and Homemade Tortillas.
They said it was delicious and he did a good job, which seemed to be a relief given how hard the cook had been for him.
Next is Dami with her Dolsot Bibimbap and Doenjang Soup
Andy describes it as phenomenal, and everything worked great together.
Collette brings her Roast Chicken and Corn, and Radicchio Salad, and Mel calls it perfection.
Thorpey brings out Veal Saltimbocca with Fennel and Mandarin Salad. Jock says it’s beautiful, and all the elements are fantastic, however there’s a slight imbalance.
Nick brings Crayfish Tagliatelle. The say his pasta is great, and for a first dish, a wonderful effort.
Archie’s next, with Beef Wellington. It is cooked perfectly, and everyone cheers for him. Archie even gets a hug from the judges.
Andy gives him lots of ticks, however he pastry is a bit under. Mel commends him for giving it a go, and says it’s a tricky dish.
“Well done, mate, that was really delicious,” Jock says.
Rebecca brings her dish up, Whitebait Fritters with Chips and Jam. She gives us a sob story of how whitebait was a treat growing up.
Jock starts the critique. “The whitebait, ten out of ten.”
Andy likes that the crust is cut off her bread. Jock says the fritter was delicious. No-one has a bad thing to say. Mel calls it, “pure, unadulterated joy.”
Time for my fave, Dilruk. He’s worried that Mel’s standard will be too high for his cooking.
He’s made Beef Rendang wth Kiribath and Luna Miris.
Mel says she was really excited that he was cooking this, and it was wonderful. Everyone really enjoys it, and likes the two cultures together. Andy calls it a perfect dish.
It’s Tilly Time. SHe’s made Salmon and Prawn Gyoza with brown butter soy sauce and sweet corn puree.
They look really cute, and I wish I had a plateful of them right now.
Jock kicks it off talking about her technique and how well her cooking is. Mel commends her for the filling, and how she has physically cooked the gyoza. Andy’s only thing was that the filling was a bit dry.
It’s time for the decision.
“That was an incredible first day in the kitchen,” Jock says, before reminding them of the stakes. “Four stood out.”
The top four are:
– Dami
– Collette
– Dilruk
– Chrissie
But there can only be one winner, one immunity pin.
The winner of the first competition and the only immunity pin is Dilruk.
Aww well done Dilruk! How good!
Unfortunately, his win will encourage my family to make me do more cooking.
Andy tells them to bugger off, and they all give each other hugs, before walking out the door.
“Did anyone see that coming?! I won the immunity pin! Like, what?” Dilruk says. “I’m like Golem from Lord of the Rings!“
Tomorrow night, immunity is on the line, with elimination coming next Sunday.
I’m so excited to be back to recaps. I’m honestly not 100% sure how I feel about this season, but we’ll see how it goes. I’ll be back tomorrow with episode two!
Time allowing, I’m also considering doing recaps for The Bachelorette this season, as she’s bisexual, and I’m always up for some LGBTQIA+ content. Let me know if that’s something you’d be interested in or not.
Next month, November, I am aiming to be doing NaNoWriMo. If you’d like updates on how it goes, etc, let me know. I’m considering doing like a Patreon with my bigger pieces of writing and drafts and the like.
Anyway, see you tomorrow!
As usual, this recap was written as I watched the episode, so there will be spelling and grammar mistakes.
You can read season 12 recaps here, and catch up on this season here.
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Felicity Feiner 
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