Welcome to the Able And Game Masterchef Recap for last night's episode. Episode 20 was the Mystery Box and Team Relay Challenge.

It’s Post Gordon Comedown Week.
Gary asks if they’ve recovered and the contestants look relieved.

Gary asks Sashi and Reece how they are feeling because they have the shiny object. Reece says not only does he have a shiny object, but he also has confidence.

The contestants lift the lids of their mystery box and they all have $20 hovering there.
This is the season of surprises, and surprise, this is how much they get paid working on Masterchef!
Turns out they have to spend their pay at Coles to make a meal for the judges. It’s all okay, they get paid in EXPOSURE!





I’m wondering if they’ll get to go to Melbourne’s most fancy show pony Coles. This will not be the Coles in Coburg, which is known as double Coles because when you walk out of one Coles you are greeted with another Coles of lesser quality across the car park.

They run around Coles and nobody seems to be in that supermarket daze where you wander round for 45 minutes with no clue what you feel like having for dinner. You're hangry, you want to pick something somewhat healthy but you know it will end up being frozen pizza.
The Coles is free from the general public, there are no bewildered looking retirees wondering what the Jimbo Jones is going on this morning.

They have 75 minutes to cook their dish.
I know what you’re wondering? Who got some bargs at Coles? Who found the discount fridge section and got 5kg of bacon, some chocolate protein milk with added guarana, a kids yoghurt pouch and 4 pots of deluxe dessert in a clay pot for $20?

Samira spent $18 (and a bit) and I’m confused as to why she didn’t spend her last $1 on a half price Snickers?
She got pork mince, carrot, garlic, onion and chilli flakes.

Aldo spend his bucks on ingredients to make peanut butter ice cream and mixed berry compote and we never see his dish again.

Gina is making meatballs and fettuccini, then we never see her dish again.

Lisa spent $10 on mussels, and the remaining on coriander, oyster sauce and ginger.
She is cleaning her mussels and she tells Matt the only beard she wants to see is his.

Genene spent $17.15 and purchased pear, ricotta, prosciutto, sage, and parsley.
She is attempting a dish she has not made before, pear and ricotta ravioli.
She says she needs to make sure her pasta is made well, especially when competing against people with Italian heritage. Or actual Italians.

Sarah is going vego. This means no protein will be on the plate and as we know protein is the most important thing in the Masterchef kitchen.
She is doing carrot a few ways, not one way, not four ways but seven ways. With Carrot.

These are the ways of the carrot:
roast carrot puree way
cooking the Dutch carrots in carrot juice way
a carrot biscuit way
roasted carrot tops way
fresh carrot tops way
fresh carrot way
carrot and caramel whey way no way

The judges come by and tell her cream washes the carrot flavour away. Will this mean it will only be 6 ways, if the cream makes the carrot go away?

Brendan has king prawns, leeks, white glutinous rice, sweet soy and mixed exotic mushrooms.

 

There is a subtle plug for Coles being cheap: Ben got 10 good looking prawns for under $20!

The judges have started asking Genene questions: how will the pear react when you grate it?
Gary then tells Genene she needs to think about how she wants them to eat it and she is like I dunno, put it in your mouth? And chew?

Sarah tells us, with a straight face, because she is only using carrot she needs to make sure everything tastes like carrot.

Kristen is making a gorgonzola and white chocolate mousse.

Aldo screams and scares Jo.

 

Genene is in strife because she bought ricotta and Samira is making hers and the judges tell her she is a ricotta buying loser. Why can’t she make it from scratch like Samira. Samira apologies and Genene tells her it’s not your fault. It’s Gary and George’s fault for comparing their children in front of each other.

Sashi is making Roti stuffed with banana. This is the language the judges speak. We never see this dish again.

Jess is making thyme mousse, we never even see this.

Khanh is making Mum's steak. We see this on the plate, in a flash of about 10 dishes during a tense “clocks ticking down” moment.

Lisa’s hero is her coriander noodle and Gary plays with them in his palm.

Samira decides she wants to try and trick the judges into eating vegetables by sneaking in some carrot. She feels Gary might discover that carrot can make him weak at the knees when surrounded by pork mince and dough.

Brendan’s back up rice cakes are needed because the other rice cakes fail.

Kristen’s jelly is too firm, but she couldn’t get it off the plate in time, so it is still there.

 

 

Tasting

Samira
Pelmeni, a Russian dish.
George: right mouth texture
It’s the best ricotta we’ve ever had in the Masterchef kitchen.
Mum will be proud.

Genene
Pear and Ricotta Ravioli, burnt butter and sage sauce.
George makes a weird face to display pleasure. George says he thinks it must be an Aldo or a Gina dish because it is a cracking bowl of pasta.
Gary: If I had the choice I’d eat the whole lot.

Kristen
White chocolate and blue cheese mousse with peach and crumb and white peach jelly.
The jelly, it’s just like boing boing! But don’t punish yourself because it is yum.

Sarah
Carrot’s day out!
No protein, but she loves it.
Their eye sight will get better LOL
The judges love it, it’s a potentially a winning dish.
You ran to Coles and grabbed a bag of food (carrots) and it is restaurant quality

Lisa
Mussels and coriander noodles.
She’s never been tasted in a mystery box.
Too much chilli, it’s getting on top of George.

 

 

Verdict:
Carrot salad from Sarah is the winner, she is now through to Tuesday night’s Immunity Pin Challenge.




Invention test: The team relay

Face Palms from everyone
This challenge is INFAMOUS!

How it will work:
Teams of 4
Each contestant cooks for 15 minutes
They have 45 seconds to hand over to team mate
No pens, no paper
You wont know what team you’re on, or what you’re cooking or who you are cooking with until you’re up.

A special ingredient must be used in a significant way: HONEY!

Khanh mentions the elephant in the room: White Chocolate Volute from season 7.

Genene, Samira, Kristen and Lisa are starting the cook due to being tasted in the last challenge, they put on coloured aprons and Matt says they look like the Wiggles.

Teams:
Lisa Green Wiggle
Kirsten Red Wiggle
Genene Yellow Wiggle
Samira Blue Wiggle

Genene has been dreading this. Everyone is dreading this.

Lisa wants to cook savoury but second guesses herself because everyone can cook dessert in the kitchen. (except Khanh and Ben and Sashi and probably a few more people).

Genene starts on a honey chocolate ganache tart. She has blitzed bickies and put the tart shell in the oven.

Lisa is making a honey ice cream, and figures if everyone make an element it should be okay.

Samira is making a cheese board, honey roasted figs and a crumb and something with mascarpone.

Kristen is making honeycomb, honey tuile and ice cream. Unlike Lisa, her plan is to plan out all the elements that will end up on the plate.

15 minutes is up, and the new lot of contestants come in.

Blue
Sashi -> Samira

Yellow
Reece -> Genene

Red
Gina -> Kristen

Green
Jenny -> Lisa


Sashi says Samira has pretty much done everything. Happy times at team blue!

Gina says everything is a blur!

Jenny has no idea what is going on, has no idea what to make, they only have one element (the ice cream) and no dish (but what about the ice cream?)

Reece is excited and loves the idea of Genene’s dish!

Genene, Samira, Kristen and Lisa are locked in a store cupboard and forced to watch the next lot of people stuff up their dishes.

Sashi shows us that that the crumb elements sounds weird when you call it ‘crumbs’.

Gina is like WHAT THE WHAT!

The judges come to have a friendly chat to Gina and she becomes a malfunctioning cooking robot. They ask her, if you’re confused then won’t you pass that onto the next chef?
She YESes them. They look confused by her behaviour. She then yells SPOONS and they walk off shaking their heads.

Jenny is making a crumb and the judges are not impressed by anything she has done.

Sashi has over stirred the mascarpone, he doesn’t like it. Samira grimaces, he is not a dessert man.



New arrivals are here to save the day!

Blue
Aldo -> Sashi -> Samira

Green
Jo -> Jenny - Lisa

Yellow
Chloe -> Reece -> Genene

Red
Khanh -> Gina -> Kristen


Khanh calls this HECTIC.

Khanh doesn’t know what the hero ingredient is.

Aldo gets blue cheese out and Samira loves him. He gets her vision.

George and Gary look for Aldo and he is running like a train to get stuff and they look a little put out that they’ve come to visit and nobody is home.

Chloe is making a mascarpone mousse.

Khanh is confused. Gina realises she didn’t tell Khanh honey is the hero ingredient. But maybe Kristen didn’t tell Gina? No Kristen told Gina the ingredient is honey, but everything was a BLUR. Khanh goes to the pantry and there is a small shrine made out to honey so he realised this is the HERO ingredient. He decides to make a honey tuile.


Jo is making a basil and raspberry jelly. The plate needs something fresh and tart.

The final four come in:

Green
Brendan -> Jo -> Jenny -> Lisa

Blue
Jess -> Aldo -> Sashi -> Samira

Yellow
Ben -> Chloe -> Reece -> Genene

Red
Hoda -> Khanh-> Gina -> Kristen


Hoda asks how long Khanh’s tuile needs in the oven, Khanh doesn’t offer a time, he just says not long at all.

Brendan is worried because the ice cream is really sweet, and he needs something sour.

Why is everyone using figs like they are a hero ingredient?

Ben’s worst nightmare has come true: dessert. His sturdy builder’s hands can’t plate up anything delicate. He is not a decorator.

Chloe says she isn’t going to tell Ben about the chocolate ganache, but he finds it. Everyone locked up in the viewing area scream NOOOOOOOOOO!

Frantic string music plays

Hoda decides she is just going to chuck everything, including the huge round tuile thing, on the plate.

Ben is forgetting to put the mousse on and everyone is getting frantic.

Hoda, all she can think is I am so sorry.

Ben forgot the mousse!


Tasting
Yellow Team
Genene -> Reece - > Chloe -> Ben
Deconstructed tart with no mousse
Ganache has no reason to be there

Blue Team,
Samira -> Sashi -> Aldo -> Jess
Cheese Board
Judges love it, the blue cheese stops it all being too sweet.

Green Team
Lisa -> Jenny -> Jo -> Brendan
Honey ice cream and a macadamia crumb
Lisa’s idea of everyone doing an element seems to have failed. The honey is only in the ice cream. Ice cream isn’t creamy enough. The jelly didn’t set. This dish is a quarter as good as what they could normally plate up.

Red Team
Kristen -> Gina -> Khanh -> Hoda
The judges tell Hoda they’ve never seen anyone plate up with less conviction.
Hoda had an internal battle, what if everything was meant to be on the plate?
The judges are not wasting tummy space on tuile, which looks flaccid.
The honey ice cream is good.
The whole dish is too sweet and it needed editing.



Results
Blue Team are the clear winners – they go through to Tuesday night immunity pin cook.

Loser Town – everyone else.

Biggest Loser Town Dish: Green Team (Lisa, Jenny, Jo, Brendan)