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It’s episode 18 of MasterChef Australia 2023 and Nostalgia Week continues.

During the May 31 episode, it was all about evoking childhood memories with dinner from a Chinese restaurant and the home cooks were delivering just that. Literally.

For this week’s Service Challenge, the contestants took over a suburban Melbourne Chinese restaurant, Mei Jing, where, in two teams, they were required to create “everything we love about Aussie Chinese restaurants in a three-course meal”. I.e. A menu of entrée, main plus a side and dessert.

Tasked with feeding 50 diners, there were 2.5 hours of prep and cooking on the clock, before the first meals needed to be served!. Plus whoever took out the sweet (and sour) win would be placed in June 1’s Immunity Challenge for a shot at a coveted Immunity Pin.

Now you’re all caught up, it’s time for SERVICE!

The Teams

After judges Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen announced the task at hand, it was revealed that Theo had been to Mei Jing at least “100 times”, given that he used to live across the road.

“Technically, you have an advantage tonight, you’re playing at home!” Jock said.

Choosing randomly from the apron bag, the teams were set as follows:

Red Team: Theo (Team Captain), Brent, Cath, Declan, Robbie, Malissa

Purple Team: Rue (Team Captain), Grace, Rhiannon, Ralph, Antonio, Phil

White Apron: Adi (she chose the red team to back)

Prep and Cook Time

The Red team chose to recreate San Choy Bow, Beef and Black Bean and Lychee and Ice Cream, while the Purple team chose Pork and Prawn Spring Rolls, Lemon Chicken with Fried Rice and Pineapple Fritters with Ice Cream.

In the perfect product placement, both Theo and Rue then legged it to Coles to pick up their proteins. Rue grabbed the Black Tiger Prawns while Theo grabbed the Pork Mince.

On the Red team, Declan was in charge of slicing meat, Robbie began chopping veggies and Brent began to prep peanuts, ginger, garlic and Sichuan chilli oil for the San Choy Bow.

On the Purple team, Rhiannon took charge of the Spring Rolls, mentoring Grace.

The judges were concerned by Rue’s choice to grill the Lemon Chicken and serve it with steamed rice as the classic is all fried, baby!

Rue began feeling “stressed”, deciding to go back to the classic, complete with Fried Rice.

With only two hours to go, Brent reveals he’s been cutting garlic for half-an-hour, while Declan continued slicing the meat before getting onto the Black Bean Sauce, which he was feeling confident about.

“I’m with my number one teammate, Robbie,” he said. “We work well together.”

While Antonio was in a good place with his ice cream with only one hour left until service, Cath began stressing out, particularly because she forgot about the cream.

Crisis averted! Cath and Theo were able to save the dish by adding the component, with Theo remaining calm under pressure.

“We’re a team, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

Over on the Purple team, Phil began to worry that Ralph hadn’t made the lemon sauce for the Lemon Chicken and the entire group began to freak out.

It was “all hands on deck” for the Red team as they began to create their “elevated” San Choy Bow, before Cath realised they’d be feeding “real people”! LOL!

Rhiannon then took charge of the chaotic Purple team, feeling that they were “in trouble” before Mel came over with under 30 minutes to go, and was shocked to see not one Spring Roll had been rolled.

“It’s just a matter of charging ahead,” Rhiannon said, while admitting she’s never been more stressed in her life.

Meanwhile, Theo was thrilled by their San Choy Bow.

The Judging — Entree

The Red team were up first with their Pork San Choy Bow.

“[It’s a] Nice generous portion,” Jock said while saying it was “packed” full of flavour. Andy said it was “nice juicy pork”, while Jock and Mel liked the addition of “duck fat”.

While the judges were being served, the Purple team struggled to get their Spring Rolls out; however, managed to serve the dish.

“I’m so happy for them,” Mel said, adding that it was a “miracle” they got something on the plate.

Mel also said they had a “nice golden fry” and that the filling “contained a nice perfume of ginger”, while Andy said he was: “Happy on the fry, super crispy and delicious.”

The Judging — Mains

Back in the kitchen, sweet Declan was “bloody happy” with his Beef and Black Bean Sauce, which was then sent to the judges.

“They’ve done a pretty good job,” Jock said of the beef, “That’s Declan. I’m telling you.”

Andy then said that the velveting on the meat was “epic” plus there was a great amount of black beans in the sauce.

Over on the Purple team, stress levels were at an all-time high because the lemon sauce still hadn’t been completed.

“The sauce is going to need a hell of a lot of work and no time to do it,” Phil said. After an ad break, they were still going until finally it was served to the judges.

“Nice marination on it, good fry on it,” Andy said, but added that there wasn’t enough lemon in the sauce.

Mel said it was “ok but not quite there”, while Jock said it “didn’t live up to its namesake”.

The Judging — Dessert

The Red team was in trouble with their dessert, with Cath “snowballing” and the lychee syrup sauce not even completed, while some of the ice creams weren’t even in the freezer.

Antonio then checked the Purple team’s ice cream, which…did not look like ice cream.

When placed in front of the judges, they were disappointed.

“The ice cream is not set,” Andy said before Jock said that the “organisation” was the most challenging thing for the team.

Cath was “really worried” about their dessert, given that their ice cream also failed miserably; however, they just had to serve it.

“What happened? The ice cream is not set,” Jock said before Andy called Cath “chaotic and frantic”, before Mel said she was “disappointed” for them.

The Verdict

The judges revealed that neither of the desserts was executed well, so they were taking them off the table.

The Red team won the entree with their delicious filling while also winning the main, meaning that they were heading into the Immunity Challenge (alongside Adi) on Thursday!

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It’s MasterChef Australia 2023 episode 17 and last night’s Mystery Box challenge sent three cooks into the kitchen to battle it out in a Pressure Test.

The stakes were high because either Declan, Alice, or Grace was being sent packing from the competition.

The three cooks are greeted by judges Melissa Leong, Jock Zonrillo, and Andy Allen and are introduced to the legendary chef behind the beloved gelato brand Messina, Donato Toce.

In a nod towards Nostalgia Week, the cooks were tasked with creating a Vienetta-looking ice cream cake called Messinetta, which looked surprisingly simple.

However, the catch was revealed when Donato cut into the ice cream cake and revealed the complicated internal structure.

Inside the dessert was a strawberry gel that was set inside a vanilla gelato square, which was inside a chocolate gelato square and covered in vanilla crème chantilly waves with multiple tempered chocolate layers for the classic Viennetta crunch.

Declan, Alice, and Grace all looked slightly overwhelmed by the task at hand; however, were ready to fight for their lives place in the competition.

The Cook

The entire cook section of the Pressure Test was nothing short of shambles and all three contestants had problems throughout the elimination round. This made for great viewing, but it was a bit of a rough trot for Declan, Alice, and Grace.

When the task was revealed, Alice started with a not-so-quiet confidence.

“I love science, and I love baking. So, I’m excited about this,” she said with a smile.

However, moments after saying she felt “pretty organised” her upbeat mood quickly shift as she made her first blunder, forgetting to clean out her ice-cream churner between making her vanilla and chocolate gelato.

The lapse had devastating consequences and left some of the vanilla gelato frozen to the base of the machine.

As a result, she had to chip away the leftover frozen vanilla gelato, which cost her valuable time and seemingly left her feeling frazzled. She faced more problems down the track when she discovered that both her vanilla and chocolate gelato was overset.

Meanwhile, Declan started the competition off very strong and quickly took the lead; something he said he wasn’t paying too much attention to.

“Hopefully I’m going at a good steady pace, but I’m not turning around and looking where the girls are up to,” he admitted.

Despite having his Immunity Pin proudly gleaming on his chest, he decided early on that he wouldn’t be using it in the challenge.

“Game plan for my pin today is to not use it, I’d love to take it with me in the competition for when numbers get a bit smaller,” he said.

However, like Alice, he hit a speedbump when he misread an element of his recipe and his tempered chocolate ended up bowed, which risked the entire structure of the Messinetta.

The mistake meant that he had to go back and re-do the element, which deducted a large chunk of time for him at the assembly stage.

While Alice and Declan certainly faced some obstacles, it was Grace who struggled throughout the entire cook. She fell behind when she was unable to get the brix levels right in her first component, the strawberry gel element.

After she completed the first step, Grace’s stress levels peaked when Andy tasted her vanilla ice cream and suggested that something had gone wrong. She made the ballsy move of tasting Alice’s gelato for guidance.

“I’m tasting it, and it’s not as sweet as Alice’s gelato. So, all I can do at this point is bring some more sugar into this gelato to hopefully save it,” she explained.

The Judging

Declan was first up to the judge’s bench, and Andy questioned why he decided not to use his Immunity Pin in the Pressure Test challenge.

“There are two ways it’s going to go. One, we taste the dish, it’s epic, you keep the pin on your apron. The second is, we cut this open, something’s wrong with it [and] you get sent home,” the Judge warned.

“It looks a little rough around the edges,” he added after Declan left the room.

However, it seems Andy’s worries were unfounded, as all three judges raved about Messinetta and Jock said he “can’t pick holes in it”.

Alice was next and her earlier confidence had all but disappeared.

“My main concerns are the form, it doesn’t look exactly like the original, and then that gelato that melted on the counter,” she said.

Alice was right, her overset – and consequently melted – gelato was her undoing. The judges found that the issue caused Messinetta’s texture to be icy and dense which widened the gap between her version and Donato’s original.

At this point, it looked like Alice’s only saving grace was the fact that Grace was up next. The 24-year-old was feeling very nervous about her final dish but said she “didn’t want to give up”.

Jock had similar doubts, saying that he didn’t “think this was going to be great”. Fortunately for Grace, her spontaneous choices through the challenge managed to save her dish.

“The strawberry in the centre is delicious, the gelato is beautiful, it’s creamy,” Jock said with surprise.

The Verdict

Declan won the best Messinetta of the day, and Jock declared that it was “so similar to Donato’s in taste”.

The judges said that the texture of Alice’s gelato was a “little bit off”, and she was eliminated from the competition.

MasterChef Australia continues at 7.30 pm on Wednesday, May 31 on 10 and 10Play.

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It’s MasterChef Australia 2023 episode 16 and this week the contestants are transported back in time with Nostalgia Week.

Each cook is presented with a Mystery Box which contains five different – noticeably unbranded – cereals, one of which they must include in their dish of choice.

We’ve got choc pops instead of Coco Pops, weetbrix instead of Weetbix, rice puffs instead of Rice Bubbles and some vaguely branded cornflakes and fruit loops.

Before diving into the cook, the contestants reminisce on the memories the cereals bring back for them.

“Every now and again this was our treat, and honestly, I would eat the whole box,” Rhiannon said about the choc pops/Coco Pops.

The revelation leaves Judge Andy Allen fairly shocked.

“No wonder you weren’t allowed it,” he laughed.

Like the other Mystery Box tasks, the contestants were informed that the cooks of the bottom three dishes will find themselves in the elimination Pressure Test on May 30.

The Cook

As the contestants rack their brains about what to make with their unbranded cereals, a heartwrenching moment is shown as the late Jock Zonfrillo tenderly shares an anecdote about his now five-year-old son.

“If I was in this challenge today, I think [I’d choose] Weetbix [because they are] big with my son Alfie. He’s not five yet and he’s already on four Weetbix [a day]. As a little tribute to my son, I would make an Onion Tatin, but I would use the Weetbix to make flour to make a rough puff,” he told fellow judges Melissa Leong and Andy.

Back on the cooking side of things, Antonio picked coco puffs as his cereal of choice, for his Coco Pop Eclair.

“That’s my childhood in a bowl,” he said.

As has been made abundantly clear in previous weeks, Cath was stoked about the nostalgic challenge, as she likes to focus on past experiences when it comes to her cooking. She chose to do a Cornflake-infused ice cream dessert with a salted caramel element.

The cook continues

Everyone’s favourite jokester Declan pointed out that at age 24 he’s still a “spring chicken” and that he doesn’t have to think too far back for a nostalgic dish. He picks Weetbix – a product he says he still eats for dinner today.

When Declan revealed that he planned to make three different types of muffins; a banoffee cornflake muffin, a chocolate coco pops muffin with berry compote and a weetbrix raising muffin, the judges are questioning if they might be a bit dry because of the cereal element. When they share their concern with Declan, he looks equally as baffled.

It appears as though ice cream is the dish of choice for Nostalgia Week. Cath, Rhiannon, Brent and Theo all decided to make some variation of the frozen dessert.

On the savoury side of things, we had Melissa with Spicy Fried Chicken Crumbed in Rice Puffs, and Ralph with a Cornflake Pork Chop with Mashed Potato and Mint Sauce.

While the cook looked to be going quite smoothly for most contestants, Robbie couldn’t find a potato masher which he called “that thing you push potatoes with”.

Thankfully, Declan headed to the utensil room to help him find it.

Grace seemed quite confident about her choice to create a cereal with a bunch of tiny pop tarts with froot loops in them, which she called a “bowl of fun”. However, the judges were very confused about her dish and their faces truly say what words can’t.

The first – and only – major cooking disaster hit when Adi realised that she forgot to steep her cake in milk “which was the whole point of this bloody cake” so she had to scrape the creme off and pour the milk on with a spoon.

“I just hope the flavour of the Froot Loop milk is strong enough,” she said.

The Judging

First up was Antonio with his Coco Pops Eclair. TBH, it was one of the most attractive-looking dishes and the judges d-eclaired (pun intended) that it tasted as good as it looked, with Jock giving it a round of applause.

“That’s flawless mate. It’s really good,” he told him.

Next up was Cath with her Corn Flake Icecream with Salted Caramel and Strawberry Pickle. She received good feedback from the judges, and Jock said that he can see her progression.

Malissa headed to the judging bench with her Rice Bubble Fried Chicken. The response from the judges was lukewarm, and Andy told her that the chicken was “really oily”.

Alice’s (giant) Tropical Fruit Loop Parfait with Passionfruit Caramel looked and sounded amazing, but did the taste stack up? According to the judges, it, unfortunately, didn’t.

“Your parfait is split, it might have been too much-powdered fruit loop in there,” Andy said.

Grace headed up to the bench with her bowl of Pop-Tart Cereal and, erm, an entire plastic jug of milk which is… questionable. Rather than popping it in a pouring jug, Grace glugged the dairy into the homemade cereal herself at the judge’s table.

“I think this is what happens when you have too much sugar… it just tastes like shortbread that’s been soaked in milk,” Jock told Grace with a grimace. Andy agreed, “Sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”

Theo’s “Mum-I-Dropped-My-Ice-Cream-Sandwich” description of his dish was on point, as he presented a plateful of ice cream with thin cookie cakes on top. The cake and ice cream concoction won glowing reviews from the judges.

Despite Adi’s milk-steeping cake troubles, the judges loved her Froot Loop Cake and Jock called it “genius”.

Declan – who had dubbed himself “the muffin man” – had a fall from grace when the judges said that his dish had the exact problem they were worried about; his muffins were dry.

“Not excited about your muffin mix,” Jock told him.

Last up was Ralph, who had made a Cornflake Pork chop with Mashed Potato and Mint sauce. He was worried that the pork wasn’t cooked fully through. Turns out, he needn’t be. “The pork is cooked beautifully mate,” Jock told him.

The Verdict

Antonio and Ralph were congratulated for having the two best dishes in the episode and, Grace, Declan and Alice were declared the bottom three.

MasterChef Australia continues on Tuesday, May 30 at 7.30 pm.

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It’s MasterChef Australia 2023 episode 15 and it’s that time of the week where one contestant must leave the competition.

All of the remaining competitors, except for Declan, were up to cook; however, unlike previous eliminations, this one wasn’t an intense race against the clock, it was actually a two-day event!

The cooks were allotted 45 minutes to prepare their dishes before returning the following day with 60 minutes to finish.

Elimination cook

Brent decided to utilise the extra time by using the sous vide technique on some duck legs for his Bebek Goreng dish, while Malissa too chose an Indonesian flavour with her Beef Redang.

Meanwhile, Robbie used a slow cooker for the first time in his life and whipped up Asian Style Poached Duck while Theo prepared a Slow-Cooked Lamb Shoulder with Slow-Proofing Bread in the hope to make his dad proud.

While the overnight portion was beneficial for some of the contestants, others faced huge problems as time went on.

Rhiannon was upset when she discovered that her Beef Rendang had dried out and was overcooked, while Malissa’s ragu was unbalanced and Robbie’s broth lost all of its flavour.

Amy also found herself in a disappointing situation when she discovered that her pork was overcooked and she had limited time to perfect her blue tortillas.

But, it wasn’t all grim. Brent’s duck legs looked great and Theo’s lamb cooked just as he’d hoped.

Elimination judging

Amongst some of the best dishes were Theo’s Lamb and Flatbreads which the judges loved, and Brent’s duck was called the best dish he’s cooked in the competition so far. Both men made the cut.

The elimination came down to the worst three dishes – which were Malissa’s unbalanced Ragu paired with Pasta that wasn’t cooked al dente, Rhiannon’s Beef Rendang which was considered dry with an acidic sauce and Amy’s Mexican Japanese fusion also had dried out.

Who was sent home?

The judges declared that Amy’s Mexican dish had dry meat, sauce that didn’t belong, and tortillas that were too thick, so she was sent home.

MasterChef Australia continues at 7:30pm on 10 and 10Play.

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