Facing elimination , Amy, Georgia and Stephen hoped to redeem themselves and secure a coveted spot in the MasterChef Australia Top 10 but who succeeded?.
The chef behind this evening’s pressure test, Guillaume Brahimi, had the contestants in awe when he revealed his Jewel of the Sea dish. Made up of a sea urchin shell packed with mussels, oysters, lobster, squid tagliatelle, clams, sea urchin tongues and ocean trout roe, the dish is brought together with corn custard, squid ink tapioca crisps and a rich sea urchin sauce. With two-and-a-half hours on the clock,
Georgia skimmed the five-page recipe leaving the others in her wake. At home with seafood, she was straight onto her lobster stock and carefully prepared her squid to get it into the freezer as soon as possible. Stephen soon caught up to Georgia and appeared to be in control until he realised he had forgotten to put his squid in the freezer.
As a result he was unable to cut it finely for the tagliatelle, making it uneven and chewy. Frantic towards the end, Stephen didn’t make enough sauce, leaving his dish dry and not quite right.
Amy was determined to get everything on the plate after missing various elements on Sunday. While she burnt her lobster stock early, she salvaged it and managed to serve the best lobster of the day. But she realised too late that she had forgotten to save the sea urchin tongues to garnish.
Georgia accidentally whisked butter into her corn custard mixture. The custard was ruined and, with no more corn, she salvaged it by scraping every last drop from her mixing bowls. Having lost valuable time, the rest of her cook was frantic.
In the tasting, Guillaume was impressed with Georgia’s ability to keep going. While her dish looked flat, its flavours were well-balanced and her squid tagliatelle was the best. Stephen’s squid was too thick and it lacked the all-important sauce to bring it together, while Amy had a delicious sauce but the dish missed the extra tongues. Guillaume said they should all be very proud of pulling off such a complex dish. While none of them were perfect, ultimately it was the lack of sauce in Stephen’s dish that was his downfall.
Since leaving the MasterChef Australia kitchen, Stephen has done work experience at Sydney’s Hotel Centennial and is now planning dinners at a regional NSW winery. He is also developing a podcast series with fellow contestant Jarrod Trigg
