Elimination Number One-Part One: The winner from last year, Billie McKay was our guest judge. Okay seriously how much do we love her?
She is the best. Life is going well for her. She works for Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck. She seems very happy.
The contestants were thrilled to meet her, and none more than Nidhi Mahajan. Every year there is a cute and sweet Indian cook who usually get pretty far. This year we have the adorable Nidhi. I love Indian Cuisine and always enjoy seeing all the marvelous Indian dishes people cook up each year on MasterChef Au. Here in American, Indian Cuisine is still relatively unknown. I first discovered it when I traveled to Scotland and England, where having an Indian meal after a pub drink up is a weekly affair. I instantly fell in love with the food.
Billie choose all foods they would be cooking with and she used fennel, a favorite of hers when she was competing, duck, and 
her love of corn flakes, ginger beer , beets and mushrooms.
Everyone seems fairly confident with the ingredients. I did not hear much worrysome talk in the talking clips with the chefs.
Nidhi was pretty funny when she fan girled out on Billie and talked too long when it was her turn to explain her dish.
Matt told her to wrap it up and get cooking. I can imagine talking to her too long
as a customer service rep on the phone. I happen to enjoy the friendly ones so I am sure I would be talking too long with her. It was sweet and funny and made me smile.
Billie McKay, Matt and Nihdi
An interesting dynamic is the brother and sister set who both made it onto the show. Jimmy Wong and Theresa Visintin.
I realize this show brings out deep emotions in people, but I worry when someone always has tears in their eyes like Theresa seems too.
She seems full of self doubt and ready to crack. Her brother Jimmy on the other hand seems calm and confident and very even keeled.
Those types tend to do well. Billie McKay was like that. I was amazed at how she never got flustered.
Sometimes these types seem to calm down as time goes on and they get their MasterChef sea legs. I cannot imagine the pressure and heightened feelings you have when doing this show. Remember this? MasterChef contestant Jules Allen reveals highs and lows of reality television. She talks about how tramatic it can be when you leave the show and go back to real life.
I am not going to go over all the dishes, because 24 people is just too many for that much detail at this point.
The three that ended up on the bottom were:
Theresa Visintin- cooked
Ashley McConnell-cooked
Charlie Sartori-cooked
This brought them all to the first pressure test.
Next day we open with Theresa and an injured arm. She fell down the night before and injured herself.
Nerves, tears and now falling down. She needs to steady herself inside.
When we actually get there and they reveal they will be lifting up those cloches for what to cook, she is worried it will be shellfish.
She feels unsure and nervous about cooking shellfish. Wow. How do you go on this show and not practice something so basic first? It is like on Amazing Race when they are afraid of heights, water and do not know how to drive a stick! Do you even watch the shows people? Anyway of course what does she get? Prawns.
Ashley McConnell has looked like he is not a fit from the start. He seems weak as a cook and unsure of himself. Yesterday he really blew his dish big time.
When you get to this point you cannot be cooking like you have a do over at home.
He quit his job and has his girlfriends support and super duper wants to be a chef. Just not memorable.
He is in software sales.
He drew the mushrooms and decided to make a second go of the ravioli.
Charlie Sartori- I am worried about immediately. He is a dessert guy and is nervous cooking other foods. Those kind of skill sets do not win MasterChef.
Georgia was a dessert person but wow, she really could cook anything. Most of the men who come in saying they do desserts leave by midway. They only give Charlie a second when they are walking in. He says ” I am a fighter and won’t give up”.
I guess he is a professional golfer? Not much listed for his career online. He is quite young.
He got ginger and was relieved because he knew he could make a dessert that featured ginger.
In the end it was Ashley McConnell is the first home cook to be eliminated from the TV show after having dished a disappointing mushroom pasta to the judges. The twenty-nine-year-old Australian guy cooked a mushroom ravioli with asparagus, slow egg, a mushroom sauce, and crispy mushroom.
Ashley McConnel said that he quit his job to become a chef and change his life, adding that he didn’t want to be the first to leave the Top 24. According to his statements, Ashley chose ravioli to redeem himself from the other ravioli he made on Wednesday.
Chef Matt Preston particularly criticized the choice to fry the pasta before serving it, adding that the egg was slightly overcooked. The real problem, said Preston, was the frying of the ravioli: the outside was pretty tough and it impacted across the dish.George Calombaris agreed on the issue: frying the ravioli was “a shame,” in his opinion.
After his elimination during MasterChef Australia 2016, season 8 episode 5, Ashley McConnell told the other cooks and the judges that it was a great experience, a good journey. He looked moved by the judges’ verdict. “I had to go back and grovel for my job,” he joked, but then suggested every cook that was watching to fill the form and apply to have a chance to participate in Masterchef Australia.
After McConnell’s elimination, Theresa Visintin and Charlie Sartori celebrated their victories. Both George Calombaris and Matt Preston loved their dishes. Theresa created tarragon butter prawns with oil vinaigrette and a prawn oil salted crisp dish, “delicious” according to Matt Preston. Charlie Sartori created a complex chocolate ginger cremeux dish that was “beautiful on the plate” and “delicious” as well, according to Preston.
