Last night Chloe, Karmen, and Olivia faced elimination in a massive pressure test set by 2015 MasterChef favourite and dessert king, Reynold Poernomo.
The challenge was to replicate Reynold’s signature dessert, Moss. With 12 elements and many pages of the recipe to follow, the contestants had two-and-a-half hours plus 10 minutes playing time to complete this difficult dish, one that the judges deemed worthy of a MasterChef finale.
Karmen was the first to stumble, losing precious time when she had to remake her mousse, before having issues caramalising the chocolate, and making the decision to leave it off the plate.
Olivia struggled with the sponge, producing one which was dense and heavy. In the rush, she forgot to add gelatin to her foam and didn’t take her mousse out of the fridge to thaw, a crucial stage of the recipe.
Chloe took a risk by making just one mousse sphere, without a backup option. The judges thought Chloe had done an outstanding job. They commented that all of the elements on Karmen’s plate were cooked beautifully, but noticed the missing chocolate.
The judges were impressed that Olivia managed to plate every element, but agreed that there were flaws. Her caramel was too blonde, her mousse frozen, and her sponge dense. The errors in Olivia’s dish outweighed Karmen’s missing element, and Olivia became the fourth 2016 contestant to leave the kitchen.
Olivia is now working full-time at a restaurant called The Cooks Garden on Sydney’s North Shore, where she heads up the pastry and larder section. In future, she hopes to launch a cooking program for high school and university students.