Things are heating up in the MasterChef Australia 2025 kitchen, with just nine contestants left in the running for the grand prize. Andre Ursini was sent home during episode 38, after a dessert Pressure Test set by Philip Khoury proved to be extremely challenging.
The contestants were presented with a delicate and intricate dessert called Dawn of a Tropical New Day which they had two hours and 15 minutes to complete. In the end, both Alana and Snez’s recreations were better than Andre, and he was asked to hang up his apron.
Andre tells Chattr that desserts simply aren’t his “thing”, and he knew he had his “work cut out for [him]” when going up against two talented cooks. “They’re powerful, powerful players in MasterChef… I find it really hard to cook authentically when I’m not passionate about something. And this was one of the big challenges. Masterchef for me, you have to be good at everything, Pressure Tests, individual dishes, team challenges and so forth. [So] when it was revealed that it was a plant-based dessert… oh my god,” he laughs. “[I knew] this [was] going to be a struggle for me.”
The cook has launched five restaurants since his first appearance on MasterChef Australia, but plant-based or vegan cuisine isn’t part of his repertoire. No wonder it was the recipe that sent him home. “What happens in my restaurants is I delegate that to the other chefs. Okay, there’s a vegan on table five? [Another chef can] sort that one out. It’s not in my wheelhouse, but I’ve got a newfound respect for it,” he laughs.
“I think Philip Khoury is a very talented pastry chef, and his creation was not superfluous. It had purpose, it was very real and very tricky.”
The MasterChef Australia contestant seemed to be doing well in the challenge, as his strategy was to read the recipe closely and follow it “step by step”. However, it was the final page of the recipe that really pushed him over the edge.
“I got to this last page, and I just couldn’t piece together the creation,” he laments. “I was close, and all the elements were beautiful, except for the sponge [was] a little bit too thick [and] I just couldn’t grasp that last page… it was just beyond my skill set in the competition at that moment.”
Where can you eat Andre’s MasterChef Australia dishes in real life?
One of the best parts of MasterChef Australia is watching all the drool-worthy dishes and wishing you could reach out and grab the food to taste. Andre tells Chattr he actually carefully planned all his dishes on MasterChef Australia 2025 to make sure they were able to be recreated at one of his restaurants.
Yes, that’s right — you’ll be able to taste some of Andre’s iconic MasterChef Australia dishes! “I wanted to carry through in one of my special restaurants called Villetta Porcini, a little hut hidden in Adelaide Hills… a real fairyland experience. And the dishes that I came up with in MasterChef will live in that little space there,” Andre spills.
“Every dish that I created on MasterChef, I wanted to have a commercial application to it as well. And that’s why I would never go down the road or spend time doing 12 element desserts, because that doesn’t translate really into a commercial restaurant nowadays, especially casual fine dining. I wanted [my dishes] to be practical… that was part of my goal.”
It’s a “sought after dining experience” so if you aren’t able to snag a seat at Viletta Porcini, Andre is also planning to replicate his dishes for social media. What a delicious way to have the MasterChef Australia legacy live on in the real world.
MasterChef Australia airs on Sunday at 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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