MasterChef Australia Season 8 Episode 16 Recap
Nigella Week!
Nigella Lawson comes walking in looking the bomb in her amazing purple dress. She has the best voice too. Low and throaty.
Also I love how she dives into the food. She puts huge bites in mouth and just goes for it.
The first round of the mystery box, is full of items Nigella loves.
Mimi is a huge fan and tries to make a cake with ice cream, but it flops.
“Whose heading to immunity heaven, and whose heading to pressure test hell?”.
The Top Three Are:
Week 4 Episode 16 Top three MasterChef Au Season 8
Harry- White Chocolate and Rose Royale -recipe here
Mimi-Salted Chocolate Tart with Beetroot Sorbet-recipe here
Karmen-Chocolate Decadence with Miso-recipe here
Bottom 3 MasterChef Au Season 8 Episode 16 Week Four
Bottom Three
Chloe
Miles
Jimmy
Jimmy seems like he just cannot bring the flavor when needed. Then his chocolate dome seized up.
They could not even crack it!
Chloe is now in her 3rd elimination and it is only week four, so that does not bode well.
I like her but she seems a bit too green. In this show if you fail while learning, you usually go out.
Miles always seem like he is on the edge of disaster and pulls it out about half of the time.
Watching many cooking shows, not just MasterChef, I have notice that the cooks who try to many things at one time, tend to fail more often.
Miles needs to bring his focus down a bit to less items per cook.
He made a good tea cream and Nigella said if had just made his cake and the cream it would been good.
Side note- last week I mentioned that Eleana might of been somewhat of a dark horse, since we have learned zero about her.
Well this week they opened right up with the little profiles they do.
Unfortunately her cooking seems uninspired. I think she will stay in the middle and then be eliminated when more people go.
People the stay in the middle usually do not make it past the halfway mark.
MasterChef Australia Season 8 Episode 17 Recap
First Elimination Pressure Test of the Week- May 23, 2016
Nigella gives them a very difficult pressure test. They have to prepare three courses in an hour!
I thought this was too hard myself. It stressed me out watching it, it really did.
Chloe has seemed to have shook off her self doubt and she motors through the cook, all the while giving herself pep talks, which is great.
She has the best set of food by far for this challenge. She is safe!
Miles is fast but he says there is no time to read the recipes so he wings it part of the time. Somehow you just know that is not a good idea.
His comes out okay though. His panacotta was sandy because he did not let it cool down all the way, so that was not good, but it seemed the rest of his food was enough to get by.
He cries at the end of his cook, thinking about his kids. He has two kids who look who live out of the country and they never mention a wife so I assume he is single. His son wants to open a restaurant with him and is a chef in training. Miles dream is to do that with his son, and possibly his daughter? I am not clear on that part.
Jimmy had a difficult cook. He said he does not like to follow recipes and this cook looks like it is all about following the recipes.
When the cooking part of this episode is done, Nigella calls for a group hug and says she was a nervous wreck watching them. She seems fun and kind but pulls no punches.
She reminds me of a female version of Marco Pierre White. Their accent is quite similar too.
Nigella Group Hug after a hard cook MasterChef Australia
Jimmy just never got into the groove and was unable to catch up enough to take more care with the food. He made numerous mistakes in flavor and preparation.
When they bring out the food, the starter is the crab salad and Gary’s face says it all.
He says it looks bad and tastes like sesame oil.
Gary says, “Gee that’s really under-cooked, isn’t it?”
Jimmy’s lamb looks like it is still cold with the color of RAW.
George puts down his utensils, and says, “I put my fork down for the simple reason that this is just not a good plate of food.”
Ouch.
I think we know who is going home before his sister. Wow. I seriously thought the sister
would be gone before Jimmy. I do not hold out much hope for dessert next, and even though Gary says it looks comatose, they all agree it is the best one. But is that enough to save him? Come on guys, no way.
I would of been mad if they sent Miles home after that mess of a meal. So long Jimmy, we barely knew ya.
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Jimmy is eliminated.
Nigella is great, she says, “You know Jimmy, you can’t keep a good cook down.”
That belongs on a tee shirt!
His sister cries a little, but you know what I think? I think she is relieved.
They have not even lived in the same country for the last 15 years. She is the youngest and family stuff is hard enough.
Then throw in being on a show like this together? I never got the feeling she was into it as much as he was.
I have a sneaking suspicion we are going to see a more relaxed and freer Theresa. What do you think?
According to Sunshine Coast Daily, after his “MasterChef Australia” stint, Wong is still on his food journey. He grabbed work experience from some of Sydney’s top eateries including Quay, Icebergs, Marque and Flour, and Stone. Starting tomorrow, he will start on his new paid job at the Chippendale dessert bar Koi with another MasterChef alum, Reynold Poernomo.
MasterChef Australia Season 8 Episode 18 Recap
Immunity Challenge. I have to say I am not really into these. They are the least interesting episodes to me.
Matt and Nigella surprise the contestants with a nighttime visit and cook challenge.
“Nigella is famous for those midnight fridge raids… Nigella, what do you hope to see?”
“Well you have to be bold”, says Lawson “… Obviously nothing too delicate. It has to feel like a party and it has to feel like a snatched pleasure.”
Harry prepared a … Brookie? Oh, a mix between a brownie and a cookie.
Mimi chose brioche French toast with maple bacon, which she “nailed” and was considered a “worth contender”.
Karmen’s fried chicken with waffles and maple chilli syrup elicited a “make sure the waffles are good” comment from Lawson, which they were.
“It’s so crunchy it would wake up the whole house,” guffawed Preston while the remaining bleary-eyed MasterChef residents watched on.
It turned out to be a top job if only it had salt.
In the end the domestic goddess nearly turned to domestic violence as her stress levels heightened for Harry’s dish. “I nearly came to hit you over the head with a spatula,” she scolded.
And even though the trio delivered “every single thing that I would want”, Lawson admitted her favourite: “Despite nearly giving me a nervous breakdown, Harry.” The Brookie Wins.
Unfortunately Harry fails to beat South Australian chef Lachlan Colwill to a Christmas dessert challenge, but it still looks like all of MasterChef‘s Christmases have come at once in Nigella Week.
CON Vailas isn’t crying over the cake that sent him home from MasterChef last night.
The musician and food enthusiast was the second victim of the reality cooking show’s Nigella week, tripping up on a cake quiz set by ‘domestic goddess’ Nigella Lawson.
He then served up a dense and unevenly cooked pound cake to the judges; it was enough of a misstep to get him eliminated.
“I’m pretty new to cooking for someone who decided to go on MasterChef. I haven’t been cooking as long as people might think,” Con told APN.
“I love cake and I love eating cake… but it’s something I did not know much about cooking.
“You’ll never catch me cooking a cake at home.”
The 31-year-old only started experimenting in the kitchen after moving to Melbourne with his fiancé Sarah two years ago. They put their wedding on hold so he could go on the show.
“I applied the night before auditions closed and the only reason I did was because of my fiancé,” he said.
“I jumped to the fun end of cooking. I love people like Heston (Blumenthal). I love new-age cooking, so for me I think it was probably a lack of going back and cooking the basics (that sent me home).”
Con also quit his job as a restaurant supervisor to go on the show.
“Our attitude was if I’m going to do this, then I’m actually going to give it a go,” he said.
“I was not going to be thinking about other things and luckily she was happy for me not to be at work.”
Since leaving MasterChef, Con and Sarah tied the knot and moved back to his home state of Tasmania to open a cafe.
“My time on MasterChef made me really driven to go out there and do something,” he said.
“We want to bring Hobart a little piece of Melbourne with food that’s a bit upmarket but not too scary. We also want to locally source all our produce and be as self sufficient as possible. We’ve got a herb garden out the back and we’re thinking about starting a communal garden next door.”
Con tips Noosa coffee roaster Matt Sinclair as a serious contender for the show’s title.
“I’ve honestly never seen someone of his calibre in what you’d call a home cook. I hope he wins,” he said.
“There are a few dark horses, though, who will grow throughout the series. I reckon Harry (Foster) could be one of them. He’s very creative and loves that modern style of cooking.”
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