It’s Heaven and Hell week on MasterChef and it all kicks off with a traditional mystery box! Actually, scrap the ‘traditional’ out of that sentence- there’s never anything traditional about a dish from a mystery box challenge!
Today, they have a choice of two mystery boxes; a ‘heavenly’ mystery box, or an ‘evil’ mystery box that takes three hours to complete but comes with a recipe. They will also be working in pairs. Emma and Christina, Samira and Liliana and Daniel and Kelty are just some of the pairs. Jules and Noelene will also be working together, which isn’t good for Noelene.
Here is what the pairs will be cooking:
LUCY & PIP: Heaven
KELTY & DANIEL: Heaven
NEHA & LYNTON: Hell
RISHI & VERN: Hell
JULES & NOELENE: Heaven
LILIANA & SAMIRA: Hell
EMMA & CHRISTINA: Hell
The contestants cooking in heaven will be cooking with quite a few ingredients, including some meats, prawns and cheeses and vegetables. Those on the hell side get ingredients and a recipe for… an Adrian Zumbo macarons tower!
The heaven lot will be spending the first hour and a half up in the ‘wings of heaven’ while the hell people start on their huge challenge. Liliana has done a macaron tower before so she will work on the shells, which can be difficult. Everyone works well to begin with. No major disasters. However, soon into whipping the meringue, Lynton finds out he’s put the wrong food colouring into the mixture and there’s no time to start again. Even this mistake could cost him. He puts the right food colouring in and hopes for the best.
Neha also has problems piping mixture because the mixture was stiff as they added too much colouring! Team Neha & Lynton are running out of time quick! The other teams remain on track as the half-way point is reached and the heavenly contestants begin their dishes. Lucy & Pip are doing a wagyu fillet and want to keep their dish simple. Jules & Noelene are a bit undecided, as are Daniel & Kelty. They end up planning a wagyu dish as well.
Samira and Liliana are the ones to beat tonight as their macarons begin coming out of the oven perfect. Luckily, Lynton is also having luck with his macarons. Hopefully the red batch (the ones he stuffed earlier) will cook properly. They don’t and they decide to scrap them.
Emma & Christina are also doing well, however their purple macarons are weird looking but hopefully they taste nice!
As time runs out, the major problem is in the plating. Some contestants have only half stacked their tower of macarons by the 30-second mark. Emma & Christina don’t even finish. And with Lynton & Neha’s half-baked attempt…literally… when compared to the attempts made by the contestants from the past, this batch are really hopeless at these sorts of challenges.
It’s time for tasting.
Jules & Noelene’s seared wagyu beef and scampi is first for tasting. It’s a hit despite the two bickering.
Kelty & Dan have Wagyu beef and Roasted Jamon. Gary thinks the dish is too simple and thinks it could be thrown together in fifteen minutes.
Lucy & Pip are next with their Wagyu beef and crispy jamon. The wagyu was wrapped around blobs of butter for goodness sake. Same problem as Dan & Kelty- too simple.
Now for the hell teams. Samira & Liliana are first and are obviously heralded heroes for this challenge.
Christina & Emma are next. Their olive macarons were a bit of a failure and the tower was incomplete.
Vern & Rishi’s tower was delightful.
Last is Neha & Lynton. Obviously the tower’s…size is a letdown. And the fact it’s missing half of the components. Luckily the olive macarons were the best of the day!
The contestants going into elimination tomorrow will be…Daniel & Kelty…and…Pip & Lucy!
