Masterchef Recap Episode 20: A lack of cheese-knowledge sees one contestant eliminated

Suddenly, we're craving a cheese platter.
Contestants in the MasterChef elimination

It’s MasterChef Australia 2023 episode 20 and it’s that time of the week where one contestant must leave the competition.

Episode 19 saw Brent not only win immunity from the elimination challenge but also earn an Immunity Pin after beating internationally-renowned chef Gabriel Gate in a cook-off.

All of the other remaining contestants were greeted by judges Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen and informed that they’d be participating in a challenge that would see five of them head into an elimination cook-off.

Round 1

The first order of the day was a cheese challenge. All of the contestants – except for Brent – were presented with a table full of 31 different types of cheese.

“One by one, you will choose a cheese to test. You’ll have to tell us exactly what it is. If you guess it correctly, you get to keep playing,” Jock explained. “But the first five to guess wrong with fall into round two. Where someone, of course, will be eliminated.”

Upon first glance, the exercise appeared simple enough, as there were some very obvious cheeses sticking out, like cheddar, feta, and ricotta.

The cheese challenge. Ten.

First up to the cheese table was Declan who picked a crumbly cheese that he guessed correctly as ricotta. Seven more contestants completed the taste test and delivered seven correct answers.

Ralph was up ninth and was clearly very worried about the challenge. He said in a producer-led interview that he wouldn’t “eat a block of parmesan”. And, we’re not actually sure that anyone would do that, but here we are.

Fortunately for Ralph, parmesan was still on the table as an option and he guessed it correctly.

There were no mistakes made in the first round, which had us wondering if all the cheese was going to be correctly identified before five mistakes were made. However, as the challenge got further along, contestants began to slip up.

Melissa Leong. Tne.

The first mistake was made in round two by Malissa, who correctly guessed that the cheese she picked was Swiss cheese, but couldn’t give the specific name which saw her sent to the elimination round. In the same round, Robbie also wrongly identified his cheese was sent to join her.

Round three saw Rue, Rhiannon, and Ralph all incorrectly identify their cheese, meaning that they’d be competing against Malissa and Robbie in the elimination cook.

Round 2

In a final nod to Nostalgia Week, Melissa revealed that the contestants were tasked with turning a classic dish into something unique.

“On the table in front of us are ten nostalgic dishes, for many people each of them carries with it a memory of times past. In round two we want you to choose one of these nostalgic dishes and use it as inspiration for your cook,” she told Malissa, Robbie, Rue, Rhiannon and Ralph.

The dishes the contestant could choose between were prawn cocktail, spaghetti bolognese, matzo ball soup, moussaka, bread and butter pudding, apricot chicken, congee, curried sausages, pavlova and trifle.

Some of the nostalgic dishes. Ten.

Malissa decided to create a Spaghetti Bolognese Ravioli with pesto on the side. Rue opted for a Trifle-Inspired Swiss Roll Cake while Ralph chose a similar path with the trifle and swapped the sponge out for a sticky date cake.

Robbie took his time in the ingredients room and had a little hum to himself while he slowly selected his produce.

“Going back to old fashioned days so I’m feeling relaxed, I’m not in a hurry,” he said. “I guess I’m getting used to wearing the black apron.”

Robbie originally decided on curried sausages. However, after a chat with the judges, he decided to push himself out of his comfort zone and pivoted to a prawn cocktail, which meant that he lost even more cooking time.

Meanwhile, Rhiannon decided to cook a Moussaka and was noticeably stressed that she only had 75 minutes to do so.

The first part of the cook appeared to go quite smoothly for all of the contestants, but Malissa faced a big problem when her bolognese didn’t cool down enough before she had to start filling the ravioli. This caused the fresh pasta sheets to stick to the bench from the heat. When she got down to her last sheet of pasta, she decided to change things up and cut the pasta into fettuccine and stirred it into the remaining Bolognese sauce.

The Judging

Rhiannon was pleased with the dish that she presented to the judge’s panel.

“I don’t think I ever feel confident that I’m staying but I’m really pleased with what I put up,” she said.

Jock called Rhiannon’s Moussaka “proper mum cooking” as he polished off a massive portion of the dish and said that it was great, which the other judges agreed with.

Rhiannon’s Moussaka. Ten.

Rue’s Trifle Swiss Roll with Strawberry and Vanilla and Ralph’s Sticky Date Trifle both scored positive feedback from the judges.

Malissa said that she felt “so deflated” about her Spaghetti Bolognese Ravioli dish (that didn’t have any ravioli).

“It’s not what I wanted to serve to the judges” she explained. Regardless, the judges agreed that her sauce was well-balanced but her pasta lacked structure.

Robbie’s change in dish direction appeared to affect his final product. Jock said that his prawns were overcooked and Andy said that his mayonnaise wasn’t “pleasant at all”.

Robbie’s Prawn Cocktail. Ten.

The Verdict

The judges declared that both Malissa and Robbie’s dishes were flawed, which saw them in the bottom two.

With his overcooked prawns, Robbie’s nostalgic dish was ultimately deemed the least impressive, and he was eliminated from the competition.

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

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Tagged: Featured, Reality TV, Recap, TV, MasterChef Australia

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Danica Baker

Danica is our deputy editor who followed her parent’s career advice of “do what you love”, which for her, involves watching a whole lot of reality TV. You'll find her bylines on Rolling Stone, W...
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