Welcome to the Able And Game recap of the Masterchef Australia Monday Night Pressure Test.
The show starts at the Masterchef house with everyone waking up early packing their stuff. Lisa is in her first pressure test, as is Brendan. The newbies ask Jo for advice and she says it is the usual Masterchef caper: lots of pressure with no time and hard stuff.
Gary welcomes them in and tells them the team relay is one of the toughest tests in the competition, but as the competition goes on it gets tougher, making it seem that perhaps the team relay isn’t one of the toughest challenges in the competition.
Matt introduces tonight’s chef with lots of flounce, which I will summarise:
good at cake and desserts.
Darren Purchase is the rock star of the baking world. He takes the cloche off and reveals his Peach Melba Contraption.
It has SO MANY ELEMENTS with the stand out elements being coloured tuile and a dome of hovering sugar. But which one will be the hero ingredient?
All The Elements:
Darren tells them the dome is in fact a sugar cage.
The vanilla ice cream has a white chocolate collar. This is just a circle of chocolate, not a fancy shirt on the ice cream.
The striped tuile is flavoured with raspberry is the crunchy element.
Underneath there is a peach schnapps and peach poaching syrup jelly.
Darren also mentions a poached peach in there as well plus what looks like a few other elements that he hasn’t explained like a soft sponge.
Reece is gobsmacked by the dessert and he and Jessica are jealous, except for the colours of their outfits, black. They want to cook this, but not while wearing black.
Gary says he is looking forward to eating 4 serves of this in a few hours. They have three hours to recreate the dish, then Gary can eat the sugar cages.
Brendan has started, and he has sketched how the dessert looks, a smart move according to Kristen.
Jenny backstory: she is the director of a marketing company, so she is a perfectionist.
Lisa says this cook is out of her comfort zone, she likes to use intuition, so she wants to make sure she follows the recipe correctly.
They start making the sugar cage, which is made with boiled sugar, water and glucose. Not with wire covered in sugar.
Reece says Jo’s is one of the better sugar cages of the day but doesn’t say who the bad ones belong to. We realise the bad one must be Jenny’s because it crumbles in her hands. Darren says she has more time to make another batch of sugar, he doesn’t mention that time is ticking away.
Jo asks if she can drink some schnapps.
Jenny makes a second sugar cage, then she drops it and Gary makes a loud comment about it right in front of her bench. On the helpful scale it would be around a -4.
George tells Darren that we know from past cooks that Jo knows how to read a recipe, she is rocking and rolling.
Jenny’s third cage works. She has come out on top on the battle against the sugar cage.
An element they have not discussed is the peach terrine, which is basically fruit in jelly. But then this might be the poached peach?
The complicated looking tuile looks like it is surprisingly easy to make.
Gantry talk says Jo’s looks thicker than Brendan’s, but at least she is ahead of Lisa and Jenny.
I went and read the recipe because I, for a moment, considered making this. Then I saw the ingredient list and decided this was a stupid idea. After spreading out and combing the red tuile mix the tray goes into the freezer for 6 minutes, this prevents it from slopping everywhere when the yellow mix goes on. I wondered how they did this.
Jo’s tuile is bubbling and Darren tells her because it is too thick. She asks Darren how he can fix it and he said oh, make it again. EASY!
Jo enters Masterchef Stress Level: REAL TEARS!!!
She makes a second batch and says it looks okay. Darren says it is still too thick, but not to her, just to one of the judges.
Lisa is skipping past the chocolate collar, she is going to do it when the sponge is in the oven. People comment this will be a problem. We know it will be a problem because it has been commented on.
Brendan reveals the jelly is the hero of the dish. Not the sugar cage.
Lisa spills jelly all over the blast chiller. She doesn’t know what to do, it is a disaster. People in the gantry are shocked. Cut to add break. The ad break finishes and Darren lets her know she has plenty of jelly left, she can pour more into her moulds. It then shows a blast chiller covered in jelly and we realise the reason Lisa doesn't know what to do is because she needs to select which judge can do the honour of licking all the jelly off the top of the blast chiller. She knows they’ll have a fight over that one and this will be a big disaster.
We also learn the brand name for the blast chiller is FRIGINOX and a quick google search reveals they RRP for $13500.
7 minutes to go and everyone is frantic, and they are plating up and it is complicated.
Jenny is beyond stressed.
Jo isn’t happy with her tuile and she hasn’t been able to demould her white chocolate collar.
Lisa didn’t get the chocolate up either, but we all knew she wouldn’t because it was mentioned.
Brendan’s looks perfect. Like angels singing and everything in the universe is okay.
Tasting
Brendan
I suspect Brendan is an alien from outer space. He is too perfect.
The thing that pops for George is the texture. Darren says he didn’t want to stop eating, but you know, decorum. Gary laughs, have you not see us eat? There is no decorum in this kitchen.
Jo
Jo doesn’t have the chocolate collar and that could increase her chances of going home.
The sugar cage is the best looking one they’ve seen. They think the colour pops on the plate and looks fresh. The tuile doesn’t look crunchy, it looks like a fruit roll up. Wait, part of it crunched when someone snapped their spoon through it. They think the peaches were slightly over cooked.
Jenny
She is worried her plating is off, but the flavours are there as are all the elements.
George tells Jenny to put the ice cream on and lets get the party started.
Gary asks if it looks pretty and Matt says NOT AS.
Darren helps George dish up because he is worried they wont give him a good portion.
Darren didn’t give Matt enough ice cream and he is down the end snuffling it all, which is outstanding. The ice cream, not Matt's snuffling.
Lisa
Walking up she is feeling disappointed.
She doesn’t need to be top dish, she just needs to be safe.
Matt asks Lisa what her next step would be if she leaves the competition. She says (and I’m paraphrasing slightly here) food.
The judges say the dish looks good and they really like some of the elements. The uplifting music soon makes way for slightly negative music and the judges list the things they do not like.
Results
Top Dishes
Brendan from Planet Wonderful brought them an incredible version of Darren’s dessert, the flavour and textures were close to perfect. Brendan says he is physically and mentally drained and needs to return to the mothership (Masterchef House) to replenish his body functioning systems.
Jenny also produced an amazing dish and her ice cream was as good as Darren’s.
Bottom Dishes
Lisa and Jo
The both forgot the chocolate collar, but Jo's tuile was too thick and her peaches were overcooked.
Jo is going home. Sad face.
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