After a week traveling the suburbs of Melbourne, the contestants were back in the MasterChef kitchen.
The pressure was on for everyone except Amina who won immunity and watched on from the gantry.
As the contestants entered the MasterChef kitchen, they were greeted by the judges standing behind 25 cloches and discovered the challenge was all about take-away food, to be determined across two rounds.
Revealed one by one, the contestants had to guess the name of the take-away dish and the country that put it on the culinary map. Once guessed correctly the contestants played on while the first four to get the wrong answer, went on to round two’s elimination challenge.
From an obvious pizza from Italy and pho from Vietnam, all the contestants guessed correctly. However, the third cloche of Peking duck stumped Ben U seeing him become the first contestant into round two.
The fourth cloche was revealed to be laksa from Malaysia or Singapore, which saw Chris, Tracy and Tessa all with incorrect answers completing the bottom four.
For round two Ben U, Chris, Tracy and Tessa had to make a take-away dish which was both MasterChef standard, and that could withstand the test of delivery. To judge the dishes on their delivery standards, Melissa was sent home to await the Deliveroo drivers who transported the dishes on the 20-minute journey.
Ben U impressed with his nasi goreng that saw the judge’s label it as the perfect dish, while Tessa’s South Indian fish curry with lachha paratha, coriander chutney and rice also impressed.
It came down to a curry-off between Tracy and Chris.
Having come so close to winning immunity in the last episode, Tracy was not feeling confident. With limited takeaway options in the Barossa, her mind jumped to fried chicken but early on realised that wouldn’t travel well to Melissa’s house. After a chat with the judges an emotional Tracy gathered her thoughts and changed her mind starting again with a Thai green chicken curry with herb salad and rice.
For Chris, he cooked saag paneer, a curry featuring spinach and paneer cheese with rice and flatbread. While this might have seemed unusual for Chris to cook a vegetarian dish, it was a dish he made a lot at home with his wife Julia, who he met when they were both contestants on series one.
In the end, Tracy’s dish was deemed to have had the perfect seasoning and great depth of flavour keeping her safe.
Unfortunately for Chris, the judges said his dish lacked flavour, complexity and spice and he was the seventh contestant to leave the MasterChef kitchen.
