A burnt paella base has spelt the end of Leah’s time in the MasterChef kitchen, making the 22-year-old Theatre Manager the first casualty from Secrets Week.
After failing to impress in the Invention Test, Leah, Kyle and Anushka arrived at the kitchen to find Leno Lattarulo from Simply Spanish standing proudly next to his paella, which has twice been awarded the best paella outside of Spain.
The paella recipe remained a closely guarded secret today, so the contestants had only their instincts and ability with flavours to call on when making their own version of Leno’s masterpiece.
This was Leah’s third Pressure Test but she was confident that she would come out a survivor from elimination as she thrived when working under pressure.
Unfortunately, Leah struggled early in the cook, deciding to use rockling as the base of her stock while the other two contestants used seafood shells. When Gary and Leno visited Leah’s bench, they questioned her stock flavour and worried it didn’t have the same depth as Leno’s stock.
Leah tasted Leno’s stock again and realised she was missing the kick of sweetness. Finally working out that her stock was missing crab, Leah resurrected the important element and moved onto preparing her seafood and toasting off her rice.
The gantry began to smell something burning in the kitchen, but each of the contestants were sure it wasn’t their dish.
It wasn’t until the judges tasted that they found the culprit – despite being proud of her paella, when the judges took their first spoon of Leah’s dish they found a blackened and burnt crusty base. It was completely dry, and it was no surprise that Leah was announced as the eighth contestant eliminated from the MasterChef kitchen.
Since leaving the MasterChef kitchen, Leah has completed work experience at Om Nom Kitchen and has launched her grazing business, Tables and Cheese. She promises to deliver her theatre-restaurant to Melbourne soon
