It was a big day in the MasterChef kitchen for Billie, Matt, Melanie and Harry who arrived knowing that for one of them, today would be their last day.
The judges wasted no time in welcoming the master of fish butchery, Josh Niland. This was not Josh’s first time in the kitchen, but it was his first time setting a pressure test, and this one was off the hook.
Under the cloche was Josh’s picture-perfect Tuna Wellington, a beautiful piece of blush tuna loin surrounded by intricate layers of mushroom duxelles, crepe, and encased in sour cream pastry.
With Melanie’s gluten intolerance, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to taste a lot of the elements of the dish, but was determined to do her best to stay in the competition.
At the half-way point of the cook, having not worked with glutenous pastry for more than five years, Melanie was feeling completely out of her depth, struggling to roll it out to the right thickness. Worrying she wouldn’t have enough time to get everything done, she pulled herself together and moved onto prepping her tuna loin.
With five minutes left on the clock, Matt and Harry took their wellingtons out of the oven and began to carve through, but Melanie and Billie opted to wait longer for their larger ones to cook through. It was down to the wire, but both managed to get it done in the final seconds.
First to the tasting room was Matt who did a fantastic job with each element of the tuna wellington. Despite failing to weigh her tuna, Billie also managed to put up a very good dish that impressed the judges.
While Harry’s dish had positives, the tuna gravy was fishy and did not resemble Josh’s, and Melanie’s pastry was too thick and undercooked.
Matt won the dish of the day with his impressive recreation, but after forgetting to weigh her tuna loin, the domino effect on the other components of the dish were enough to eliminate Melanie from the MasterChef kitchen.
