It’s yet another group challenge and contestants will have to move heaven and hell to avoid the next elimination. But what exactly will the final 13 have to do?
After we all celebrate Noelene’s birthday, we head to the kitchen for the next challenge. But not the MasterChef kitchen- the kitchen of a very prestigious building. It’s Ormond Cottage and this is the destination people are either going to love or hate. They will have to cook a seven course banquet for 70 students. It’s time to pick teams. The first name in the teams is the captains.
BLUE: NEHA, Noelene, Liliana, Kelty, Lucy, Jules, Samira
RED: RISHI, Vern, Daniel, Emma, Christina, Layton
The seven courses will be based on the seven deadly sins- greed, lust, pride, sloth, wrath, envy and gluttony.
The ingredients for each of the sins are:
LUST: Apple
ENVY: Chocolate
GREED: Saffron
SLOTH: Snails
WRATH: Chilli
PRIDE: Mirror Dory
GLUTTONY: Pork
These ingredients have to be the hero of each dish and they have two hours in this challenge. They all then hustle to the kitchen. The blue team’s Samira already plans saffron rice pilau with Lucy planning chocolate brownies. Jules will be in charge of the pork dish and plans a pork belly with a pumpkin puree. People disappear as they work out their dishes which annoys Kelty.
On the red team, they plan their mirror dory fish among other things. Off the bat, Rishi is the better captain. Neha is still trying to organise the fish dish. Noelene & Kelty want beurre blanc in their fish dish but Neha is concerned they won’t be able to get it right. She pushes to cook an Asian dish, but they end up going with the beurre blanc.
Today, Rishi is working with the chilli to make jalapeno poppers. Also on the red team, Christina is making snails with garlic sauce while Daniel is doing sticky pork ribs. Lynton is doing tarte tatin, incorporating the apple. Emma is doing the chocolate crème and some saffron sauce for scallops. Meanwhile, back on the blue team, Liliana is making a chili prawn pasta dish while Lucy is also doing an apple tart. When Neha tells the judges that the contestants are going with a French dish for the mirror dory, they are surprised and encourage the making of a Thai curry- which was the type of dish Neha was pushing for to begin with! Lastly, Kelty is doing something with the snails.
A little over an hour remains. Jules is getting onto the cooking of her crispy skin pork. Christina can’t help but see the irony in Daniel doing a gluttonous dish considering how lean he is. She is doing poached snails. Meanwhile, Emma is nervous about going up against the dessert queen Lucy in the chocolate sector with her orange chocolate cake. Only problem is, she’s missing ramekins to cook her chocolate custard. Hopefully her alternative, more complex method, will work.
The main problem with this challenge is the small size of the kitchen. Someone has turned off Jules’ oven and she’s worried her pork has overcooked.
45 minutes now remain in the battle for supremacy. Rishi is working on his chilli dish and is trying not to make it too spicy. On the blue team, Liliana has made her pasta black to represent the ‘hellish’ theme for the week. She is also supposed to be looking after the apple tart and his disappointed with the lack of help she is getting from Neha.
The red team are now having problems with Emma’s chocolate dish taking longer than expected. It means Rishi now has to help her with the scallops. Speaking of slow, Noelene on the blue team is still preparing her mirror dory for the fish dish and no one is working on the beurre blanc. This is bad. Neha decides to take the reins and changes the dish to an Asian dish. With potato? Kelty and Noelene are confused and annoyed, especially Kelty who doesn’t know how the Asian sauce will go with a galette.
25 minutes now remain. The pressure is on. Someone knocks over Christina’s cauliflower puree however luckily she is able to salvage a good proportion of it. Meanwhile, the fish is overcooked thanks to Neha. Luckily the blue team have some luck in Jules’ pork belly which cooks perfectly after all.
With time running low, the contestants begin plating as the students arrive. Matt welcomes the guests. As this happens, Neha begins plating her Asian fish dish but she feels bad for Kelty who spent so much time doing the galette. In literally the last minute, Neha changes her mind, gets rid of the Asian sauce and replaces it with the galette.
As time runs out, the food runs out…into the dining hall. The judges now taste each ‘sin’ dish. First up are the mirror dory dishes. They love the red team’s fish with Matt calling it perfect. To the blue dish and they find the fish is overcooked and the missing sauce is a no-no. One point for the red team.
To the greed dishes with the saffron. Another hit for the red team however Samira’s rice is clumsy for the blue team. Another point to red!
To lust and the apples. Both teams did tarts. Lynton’s dish didn’t work but Liliana’s tart is delicious. One point to the blue team! The good news continues for blue in the pork dish with Jules’ crackling. There’s not enough sticky glaze on the pork ribs.
To the snails for sloth and they start with Kelty’s snails. They love them! Will they love Christina’s? Not so much it would seem. From that, it seems blue are now in front with three dishes to two.
Onto the chilli dish cooked by the red team captain Rishi. The spices from Rishi’s poppers are controversial for the students and notable chili hater George. Luckily for him, they can’t taste the ‘wrath’ in Liliana’s dish. They’re tied again.
Last is the chocolate dessert dishes. This will be the deciding dish! From the sounds of it, the red team may have this one.
Let’s find out. As I thought, the red team plated the best dishes and hence the blue team will be heading into elimination tomorrow.
