Now only three remain but who is left?
With Laura already through to the Semi Final, nerves ran high as Emelia, Brent and Jamie battled it out in the fiercest pressure test yet, knowing that the loser would leave the competition.
Award-winning chef Martin Benn from Sydney’s restaurant of the year, Sepia, revealed the dish they would replicate: a dessert called chocolate forest floor, with 14 intricate elements and about 40 very complicated steps. They had three hours to recreate it.
Brent and Emelia started well, while Jamie revealed his strategy was to not read the entire recipe but skip a few steps ahead and power through tasks in the hope of making up time early in the piece. It was not long before he had slipped behind the others, and Martin and Gary noted his lavender cream was not firm enough.
Jamie struggled with the preparation for his tempered chocolate. His chocolate mixture was too hot and he struggled to bring it down. He had lost a lot of time once it finally cooled.
During tasting the judges were blown away by Emelia’s eye for detail and her perfect balance of flavours. They found few faults and her dish had set the benchmark.
Jamie struggled through the cook but his sorbet looked beautiful and was refreshing. His chocolate wasn’t tempered – missing the all-important “crack” – and his lavender cream was split. His jelly was great, but he left off the finger lime.
Brent’s dish lacked finesse in its plating, but his sorbet was good and his tempered chocolate cracked as it should. His jelly didn’t work, but his chocolate mousse was perfect.
It came down to who had plated the better sorbet, chocolate mousse and tempered chocolate, and who had the least mistakes. In the end, Jamie’s slip-ups meant it was his time to leave.
Since leaving the MasterChef Australia kitchen, Jamie has taken on the role of head chef at soon-to-open Sydney venue Wilhelmina’s, where the focus will be on local and seasonal produce.
