MasterChef Australia Season Five – Grand Finale

MasterChef Australia Season Five – Grand Finale

It’s all come down to this- the MasterChef Australia Grand Finale for 2013! Who will win? Samira? Emma? Lynton? Only one way to find out!

They all win a book deal, a round the world cooking trip, a car and some cash. The contestants get ready for the biggest day of their lives! In the kitchen, three different spaces have been set up. They are the dreams of the finalists- mock-ups of the restaurants the contestants would want to ideally open after MasterChef. A market garden feel restaurant for Emma. A Middle-Eastern paradise for Samira. A high-end-top-end restaurant for Lynton.

There are three rounds tonight- and the contestant with the lowest score in round two will drop out. The winner after three rounds will be crowned MasterChef Australia.

For each challenge, the judges will score the contestants out of ten. For each challenge, there is a maximum of 30 points up for grabs. Overall, there are 90.

For the first challenge, they have to create a perfect dish. They have been able to practice it in the MasterChef house, so they have no excuse. I didn’t quite hear how much time they have. Lynton is doing an eye fillet with cauliflower puree; Samira is doing confit salmon while Emma is doing a roast chook.

Disaster strikes when Emma forgot to turn her oven on- or turned it off sometime throughout the challenge. With an hour left, she cannot use the cabbage she wanted to roast. Lynton has so much to do as he falls behind with so many elements still left untouched. 30 minutes remain!

Samira is also having trouble making a Remoulade. Can she make a perfect one again? Her crispy salmon skin she needed for crunch in her dish has also been ripped apart because the pan she used wasn’t oiled! It’s all going balls up!

She at least gets the Remoulade right. Can she do the crispy skin again? With 15 minutes to go, this is where contestants usually say ‘there’s just not enough time- I can’t plate it up’ before they usually get scolded. Samira will be trying the alternative to that method- actually TRYING to do a new batch! She fillets the skin within 30 seconds. At this point, the other contestants follow suit and fix their mistakes. Emma decides to plate the cabbage, but steamed.

Everything seems to be going OK with Samira even finding time to go to the garden and pick some herbs.

Plating begins before time runs out! And Samira’s gamble of doing more salmon skin paid off- she got it on the plate perfectly! Emma is a bit disappointed about her plating.

Samira is first to have her dish tasted. She has Confit Salmon Tarator. The consistency between the three dishes is a treat. George calls it spectacular and beautiful. Gary loves the crispy skin. He wonders if the Remoulade was needed. Matt calls it great cooking and the pinnacle of what she has done so far.

Lynton Is next with his Beef eye fillet. The presentation is wonderful. It may be the dish of the day, according to Matt.

Emma is last for tasting. Again, she has made roast chicken with black truffles. Gary calls it beautiful cooking. He thinks it is heavenly.

Overall, Samira gets 9 from George, an 8 from Gary and a 9 from Matt. That’s a total score of 26/30.

Emma gets a 9 from Gary, an 8 from George and a 9 from Matt. That’s an equal score of 26/30.

Lynton gets a 10 from everyone- 30/30!

For round 2, they will be going into their ‘dream restaurant’ set ups for a service round with 20 guests. They have to come up with a dish that is quintessentially them and must feature… CHICKEN! They have 3 hours of prep time. The cook with the lowest score after this round (points from this round are added on to the last challenge’s scores) will be eliminated.

Lynton is cooking Sambal chicken on BBQ. We only just find out he can cook SE Asian cuisines. He is doing a cold dish- which would be typical of an NT cuisine.

Samira is doing spiced chicken breast with pumpkin puree. Emma is doing a chicken gratin with potato. She’s leaving the chicken on the bone but the judges think it may be risky if the chicken doesn’t fall off the bone afterwards.

It seems this competition is heating up between Lynton and Samira. Emma is starting to freak out. The kitchen fills with smoke once Lynton’s BBQ fires up. The customers begin to file in. The dockets arrive with them.

Samira encounters a problem with her chicken coming out raw to begin with. It slows her service a bit.

Emma’s gratin is first for tasting. The bones don’t seem to be a problem after all as the chicken is cooked perfectly. The salt crust on her potato is a bit tough though.

Lynton, of course, is cruising through service. His Sambal chicken is next for tasting. Gary loves the simple layout and the textures. The chicken isn’t the star of the dish, however.

Samira begins to prep the plate as the chicken cooks but it makes her puree go a bit cold. The chicken is beautifully cooked but the puree is cold so the judges pick up on this.

It’s time for the results.

SAMIRA: 26 + 7 (Gary) + 8 (Matt) + 7 (George) = 48

LYNTON: 30 + 7 (Gary) + 7 (Matt) + 7 (George) = 51

EMMA: 26 + 8 (Gary) + 8 (Matt) + 7 (George) = 49

With that, Samira has placed third in MasterChef 2013. Lynton and Emma move on to round 3.

The final round is a pressure test of course! It will be set by Ben Shewry, owner of Attica restaurant. The dish is…a honey comb looking dish. Underneath there are about 700 layers, but they’re not straight! They’re like jagged elements all collapsed together. There’s a lot of fruits and herbs in there.

We’re told that there is actually 40 points up for grabs in this final round- so it’s all out of 100 overall points. Sounds fair. They have 1 hours and 45 minutes of prep and 15 minutes to assemble the dishes.

Lynton immediately jumps ahead while Emma concentrates on creating a thin meringue. The first 45 minutes runs up quickly.

By the time Lynton reaches his granita, Emma is still behind but feels she is in a better position to catch Lynton. Ben wonders if she could make it taste right if she starts rushing. Emma makes her granita wrong by blending lemon in the granita before sifting it. This could be it for her!

Lynton begins slicing up his pumpkins but he does it too thick. He now has to wait until Emma has done hers before she can have the slicer back. All of a sudden, Emma and Lynton have caught up to one another.

Lynton also manages to over whip his cream. This is not looking good for him. Emma could make the same mistake. She does.

5 minutes remain. I’m sure Emma manages to smash some bowls in the rush. When time comes to take the meringue out of the oven, Lynton’s come out thick. Emma’s is perfect. That time she spent at the start of the challenge thinning it out was worth it.

Emma forgets to fork her granita. It’s not good at all. 30 seconds remain.

Time runs out and it is time to start mise en place!

Lynton does his plating up first. It’s then time for judging. The honeycomb stamp looks a bit dull to Ben. The flavours are good. The pumpkin was cooked well. The granita was great. The crunch of the meringue is missing. The curd is also a little grainy in one of the two desserts he had to plate up.

It’s now time for Emma to follow suit. She does damage her pumpkin a bit but it’s time for the judging. The pumpkin tear is disappointing but the crunch brings music to their ears. The meringue was excellent. The curd is brilliant as well. The presentation, like Lynton, was a bit of a problem. The granita is obviously a problem as well- but it’s not a huge detraction.

Here are the results:

LYNTON

Previous challenges: 51

Gary – 7, George – 8, Matt – 8, Ben – 7 = 30

TOTAL: 81/ 100

EMMA

Previous challenges: 49

Gary – 9, George – 9, Matt – 9, Ben – 9= 36

TOTAL: 85/100

 

EMMA DEAN WINS MASTERCHEF 2013!!

And with that, I’m signing off doing recaps! Hope you all enjoyed them, and the series of MasterChef 2013! Take care!! xx

 

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