Tonight’s challenge was set by Peter Gilmore, a chef renowned for creating some of MasterChef’s most difficult challenge dishes. With Brent having already secured his spot in the semi-final, Declan, Theo and Rhiannon were left to battle it out for a place in the top three.
The challenge began when contestants learned there would be no recipe in this pressure test, and they flew to Peter’s restaurant, Bennelong at the Sydney Opera House, to see Peter and his team make the dish they would have to recreate by memory alone. Back in the MasterChef kitchen, they had two hours and 15 minutes to recreate four plates of Peter’s dish, which consisted of squid, scallops and pipis on crispy eggplant with XO sauce.
Declan felt most comfortable with a seafood heavy dish. He began by multitasking to get ahead, but after making a few simple mistakes, he refocused and stepped carefully through the remainder of the cook.
Rhiannon remained calm throughout and successfully balanced her XO sauce before accomplishing all other elements. In the last few seconds, as she poured her XO sauce into the jugs, she saw that her sauce had split.
Theo struggled throughout his cook, beginning with the delicate task of removing the squid membrane. He grew increasingly frustrated after multiple attempts and quickly lost his patience. He looked to Brent on the gantry for advice and listened as Rhiannon talked him through the steps while she multitasked on her own dish, but to no avail. Andy recommended he move onto something else and come back to the squid, but Theo was still so frustrated that he made an error cooking his pipis and had to begin again, costing him more time.
It wasn’t until Declan left his bench to help coach Theo through the membrane removal that he finally completed this step. Theo persevered throughout the cook at top pace to get through the rest of the elements, but it was clear that after a rushed plate up, Theo’s dish lacked finesse and missed some garnish elements.
When tasting Rhiannon’s dish, the judges noted that her sauce had split, but the taste and smell was just like Peter’s. As Theo’s dish was tasted, Peter and the judges noted that his seafood and eggplant were undercooked and his problems during prep affected the final dish. Peter complimented Declan’s dish saying every component was lovely and the sauce and seafood were well executed. As Declan’s dish was closest to Peter’s, he secured his spot in the semi-final.
While both Theo and Rhiannon had flaws with their dish, the judges agreed that Theo’s had suffered after he spent too much time on his squid. As a result, he was ultimately eliminated from the competition.
The judges reflected on the amazing dishes Theo had brought them throughout the competition and he left the kitchen with so much passion and drive to succeed in the food industry.
