It was the first all in elimination since the Fans and Favourites combined.
Faced with an impressive green garden wall filled with leafy greens and vibrant herbs, Round 1 had contestants taking turns to identify one of the 73 ingredients lining the wall. The first five contestants to incorrectly guess an answer found themselves cooking in Round 2.
Ali, Daniel, Billie, Sarah and Matt were cooking in Round 2, and had to present a dish that celebrated the produce from the green wall.
For Daniel it was all about the redemption kale, after an earlier challenge saw him fail to feature this ingredient. He went with a braised kale with a Japanese broth, served with a clean green cucumber broth and lemon myrtle. Jock warned him that he was playing with a lot of flavours.
Matt was keen to remain vegetable focussed, leaning away from a protein that might overshadow the brief. He opted to char broccoli with a pistachio emulsion, lemon and cavolo nero oil, while Billie focused on a curry leaf parfait, spiced white chocolate with a passionfruit and coconut gel.
Ali’s dish felt a little confused, she cooked a cavolo nero gnocchi with a cavolo nero fennel puree, orange and bronze fennel dressing and a haggis crumb. Sarah went with mustard greens, bay leaf, coriander and spinach in Sarson Ka Saag but with 15 minutes left, she opted to play her immunity pin.
When it was time to taste, Daniel was thrilled with his braised kale with cucumber broth, and the judges were equally pleased with Matt’s brassicas with tarragon and pistachio calling it his best dish of the competition.
Ali was next, hopeful that the judges would be impressed by her experimental green gnocchi with haggis crumb. Jock said he loved Ali, loved haggis and loved gnocchi, but this wasn’t a dish that he loved. The gnocchi was pillowy soft and wonderfully cooked, but the orange on top was confusing and the vibrant green sauce was quite heavy.
Billie wondered if she had hit the brief, conscious that there needed to be enough curry leaf flavour to keep her safe, but she needed not worry, her curry leaf parfait was a 10.
On a day with three knockout dishes, there was little choice but to eliminate Ali, who became the 10th contestant sent home from the MasterChef kitchen.
