Welcome to the Able And Game recap of the Masterchef Australia Wednesday Night Team Challenge.

It's Team Challenge day. The contestants are in a park wondering ‘what are we doing out here?’ Fun Run? Nope.

Four of them will be heading off into the wide blue yonder. A chopper bears down.


George says how good is that and they all applaud, and Jess looks a little underwhelmed and stops clapping. That’s because they are applauding a helicopter.

They are going to be recreating food from The Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld, which is 3 hours by car, or one hour by helicopter. Channel 10 have decided to spend their budget on the chopper.

Only the team captain and vice-captain are going in the chopper and they’ll going to learn how to make a main and a dessert from the Royal Mail Hotel, which they must memorise, then fly back and tell the rest of the team how to make the dishes. They will then cook these dishes for 30 diners. George tells them they need to select people with photographic memories. What do you think the odds are of finding 1 let alone 4 people with this ability amongst 18 people?

Lisa puts her hand up to captain because she needs to remember data in her job.

Jess is not wanting anything to do with leading or memorising and puts her head down, until Aldo suggests her because she is good at puds.




The teams are:

Blue Team
Sarah Captain
Jess Vice Captain
Ben
Brendan
Khanh
Chloe
Aldo
Jenny

Red Team
Lisa Captain
Reece Vice Captain
Gina
Samira
Hoda
Sashi
Genene
Kristen

Jess, Sarah, Reece and Lisa set off in the helicopter. They land and run towards the restaurant.

Lisa and Reece have a game plan: Lisa is going to focus on main and Reece is going to focus on dessert.

They are making Barbequed lamb, zucchini puree, zucchini flower gel and dehydrated goat’s cheese.
Lisa says it is Australia on a plate; lamb and green and gold.

Dessert is Meadowsweet mousse, poached apricots and apricot clusters. It used canned apricots which seems a little odd for a fancy restaurant. Maybe they have their own artisan cannery and forge the aluminium in a contraption they shipped from Switzerland? Or It’s just some awesome SPC?

Blue team are making a Blue eye, blue mussel and blue devil dish. GO BLUE!
Blue devil is something that is picked and dried.

Dessert is smoked cherries with a chocolate ganache and a cherry pit ice cream.
The cherry pit ice cream looks like lamb’s balls. I didn’t believe it until I googled it.

They’ve seen Robin and Dave cook the dishes, now It’s time to run back to the chopper to get back to Masterchef HQ.

They have two hours to prep main and dessert before the 30 diners arrive.

Jess and Sara require total silence when writing down their recipe. Jess tells us total silence means DON’T EVEN LOOK AM ME.

Lisa and Reece chat to people and tell them about the dishes and start giving people jobs. Sashi is pleased, Lisa knows what she is doing.

15 minutes in Sarah and Jess are still writing. Talk to me Sarah. NO SHUT UP AND LET US WRITE!

Sarah and Jess finally finish writing War and Peace and set people on task.

Reece has never tasted or even heard of meadowsweet. It tastes like earthy Australia.

Sarah is shoving thistles into a pressure cooker with mussel broth. This is the blue devil and it requires a homely looking basket and huge gloves.




The amount of cherry pits that are sitting in the bowl doesn’t seem to be increasing, despite an hour going by.
All hands-on deck, everyone is pitting cherries.

I now take the time to google which fruit pits are poisonous.

Cyanide! They’re making cyanide ice cream. Things just got interesting.

Sarah needs to make a raft for her consume. They don’t show this because it always looks gross.

Brendan starts a fire and Sarah is like WTF you’ve already cut your hand, no injuries on my watch!



Lisa says the atmosphere in the kitchen is great and every element is where it needs to be.

Blue team’s Sous Vide bags have broken into the pot. Why do the carrots need to sit inside plastic inside boiling water? Does this mean the flavour doesn’t leave? Or is it just a bunch of fuss for nothing?

The diners are entering the kitchen including the chefs, Robin and Dave, from The Royal Mail Hotel. They stride in confidently, ready to taste poorer version of their dishes they’ve spent months perfecting. As if these home cooks can recreate their dishes after seeing them cooked once. That would never ever happen.

Genene has done good and her zucchini is worthy of The Exorcist.

The carrot puree is as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Lisa isn’t sure about her quantities of puree and gel in the plating, so she wings it.


MAINS TASTING

RED TEAM
They have a version of the Royal Mail’s dish under a cloche and people behind Lisa are gawking to see if she has stuffed it up. Ad Break!

The Masterchef version looks SO MUCH BETTER. Maybe the Royal Mail’s dish had to come in the helicopter, thus why it looks a little ruffled? Will this be awkward? Will Gary inadvertently call them out on it and pretend one is the other. Robin looks slightly frustrated they have recreated his dish so well.

They taste the dish and it is good, but they have stuffed up the ratios of gels and purees.

BLUE TEAM
They plate up and Aldo, Khanh and Brendan tell each other their plating looks amazing.

Robin lifts their cloche and they are identical and his face says HOW THE TWO BOB ARE THESE AMATEURS DOING THIS?
Gary says straight off the bat the fish is perfectly cooked.





One of the judges, probably Gary or George says BRING ON DESSERT!

Reece is taking full ownership of this dessert show.

Samira is making the cluster thing and Reece thinks the cluster ratio is wrong, but the ratios are what they remembered so they decide to see how it cooks.

Jess is stressed because her ice cream isn’t churning, it’s still liquid.

Reece’s clusters are not working., he going to make it again but do it by instinct rather than his foggy helicopter memory.

Jessie! Jessie! The ice cream is CHURNING!

Jessie uses the phrase ‘on point’ and Ben nods at her and thinks GEN Z is so weird, there’s no points in this dish.

DESSERT TASTING

BLUE TEAM
They ask Sarah how close she is and she thinks very close, they lift the cloche and they are identical.
They ask Robin what he thinks and he is again, a touch frosty.

The ice cream isn’t as good, they didn’t get enough cyanide out of the pits. Matt says that it’s only because they are side by side they can find these little errors. RUB IT IN MATT!

Reece’s cluster redo was a good idea because it is perfect. Clusterf***s avoided.

RED TEAM
Robin and Dave are desponded; red team’s dessert looks just like the original.
George does the side head shake/eyebrows up/ shocked eyes face that means I’M SHOCKED THESE FOOLS CAN ACTUALLY COOK, LIKE SERIOUSLY.




George says how good is that?
Robin says the meadow whatever is an ingredient they would have never tried. Because it is probably a weed only found in the southern end of the Grampians National Park.

George says he is proud as it is so close. Robin and Dave look weary and contemplate their life’s work.

RESULTS

It was almost an insurmountable task, but they DID it. They said Robin was mesmerised. I think this is code for shocked, disappointed and questioning his skill as a chef.

Round one (mains) goes to Blue Team.
Round two (dessert) goes to Red Team. It was note perfect.

This is the tightest decision they’ve made, but it came down to which dish Robin would be happy to put across the pass. Red team win because of Reece’s dessert.

George tells Blue Team they did a great job and it was close, so go into elimination pumped.

Voice over promo for tomorrow says a competition favourite is going home. I’m wondering who isn’t a competition favourite? Riddle me that channel 10 voice over man. They are ALL MY FAVOURITE!

Do you have any comments on this episode or do you just want to nerd out on Masterchef? You can leave a comment on our Instagram or Facebook page. Or if you're after some fun greeting cards, check out our online shop.