After failing the team challenge, Callan, Sarah and Tamara found themselves in the only Japan week elimination.
The theme of the challenge was merging old and new, and the trio had 75 minutes to cook a dish that celebrated where they had come from and where they want to be in the future. Sarah, who won an immunity pin just two days ago, decided to cook.
Tamara cooked dumplings, as they are her favourite dish to create with her husband at home in Broome.
Sarah used the flavours of her childhood and a steamboat hot pot as inspiration. She decided to cook pork with mushrooms, wombok, taro and miso dressing, but wanted to use a different cooking method and planned to steam the pork belly.
Callan decided on a sushi roll but wanted to recreate it as a dessert. He started prepping roasted rice ice cream, sweet nori crisp, yuzu syrup and salmon crumb.
With 30 minutes gone, Callan’s candied nori was in the oven and he was infusing roasted rice with the cream. He wanted a little more toastiness to the rice but he ran out of time and needed to get his ice cream into the churner. Callan was prepping his salmon crumb when Gary visited his bench, completely dumbfounded at what the 18-year-old was attempting to achieve. George loved the idea, but questioned how he was going to make sushi both sweet and delicious.
Sarah’s dish was first to be tasted and the judges were excited. Gary commented he could not fault her dish, which was packed with everything he loved. George said it was incredible and she absolutely hit the mark.
Tamara was next and Matt said her pork dumplings with spicy salty broth and soy quail eggs was delicious, showcasing a thick, intense broth.
Last to present his dish was Callan, who had taken a big risk with his dessert sushi. He got a thumbs up from Gary for his inventive plate. While all three judges admitted they had doubted the dish, Matt said there was lots about it that made it really tasty. The only fault was the lack of roast on the rice and that small element was enough to send Callan home.
Since leaving the MasterChef Australia kitchen, Callan has been working at Longrain in Sydney and organising a musical pop-up restaurant to open next year.
