Last night Masterchef handed out it’s first immunity pin here’s what happened.
Laura become the first amateur cook to win an immunity pin this season and the youngest ever to claim immunity victory in the history of the show.
After emerging victorious over Tracy and Ben in Marco Pierre White’s onion chopping challenge, Laura took on The Atlantic’s Michelin Star trained Donovan Cooke at his own game of cooking seafood.
With just 60 minutes on the clock, Laura prepared a crispy skinned snapper fillet with a caper, anchovy and
tomato vinaigrette – a Sicilian dish like her Nonna would have made.
Donovan, who was Marco’s right-hand man in the kitchen for four years, chose an ambitious dish: pan-fried barramundi with mussels, clams and prawns in a seafood broth. He pushed his timings to the edge. and plated up his barramundi and broth after time was called in a bid to ensure it was perfectly cooked to Marco’s standards, disaster for the accomplished chef.
In a blind tasting, the judges scored Laura’s dish an eight, nine and nine for a total of 26, the highest immunity challenge score by a contestant for the series so far. Breaking with tradition and shocking the judges, Donovan then walked in to personally present them with his dish. Explaining what had happened, Donovan asked when tasting they consider that both his fish and sauce were late on the plate.
When the results were revealed, the judges explained that due to the nature of Donovan’s dish and the late elements, they could not score any of it, handing victory to Laura.
Matt Preston reassured Laura that her dish was brilliant and in no way was her victory by default, but rather down to her great performance in the kitchen. In a touching moment, Donovan was the one to fix the pin to Laura’s chef whites as a sign of his respect and admiration for what she had achieved.
Masterchef Airs 7:30 PM Sunday – Thursday on Ten.
