Welcome to the Able And Game recap of last night's Masterchef Australia Monday Night Pressure Test, episode 26.

But firstly, last night there was a shot of Jess holding a drink bottle for Gina as she swigged from it, arms and hands obviously occupied with a worthier job. I didn’t mention this, and I feel, when seeing it in the recap montage just now, that this was a huge oversight on my part.


Who could be going home tonight?
Hoda? Ben? Genene? Chloe? It cuts to them packing their suitcases. Who will be sent home from Adelaide? Have they packed everything from the Masterchef house, or will they have to go back there to get some more toiletries they left behind?

Surprisingly, they are not staying at the Hilton. I thought they might be purely because I once saw Maggie Beer walk across the foyer of the Adelaide Hilton so I just assumed they were staying there. When I saw Maggie I was pretty excited. Not old fashion tractors in the city excited, but remarkably close.

Hoda and Genene are learner drivers in the pressure test, Ben has his Ps and Chloe has her full licence.

Ben wants the full Masterchef experience, which includes getting to the end. And doing every pressure test.


Ben, Hoda, Genene and Chloe walk towards an odd looking square shaped building surrounded by vineyards. Hoda says it looks like it’s been dropped from another planet.
They are The Cube restaurant in McLaren Vale. Brendan Wessels is the chef they will be working with, and he likes to push the boundaries.

Matt starts confusing Ben by telling him this dish will bake their noodles.




It’s a lemon merengue pie, but a hipster hexagon version.

Hoda says it looks out of this world. It also looks tiny.
Brendan explains what everything is and even by Masterchef standards, this dish is EXTRA.
For starters, Brendan owns a 3D food printer. Everyone is amazed by this amazing technology. He is the only chef in Australia using a 3D printer. This might not be something that is actually that impressive, chefs might find them a bit ..... pointless?
The dish has disks and gels and spheres and balls and fronds and everyone says it tastes amazing.

They have 3 hours to recreate Brendan’s Lemon Merengue Pie, then 10 minutes to plate it up. Then 12 hours to lie in their room at the Pullman Hotel wondering if Channel 10’s accounts department will know they hit the minibar.

Hoda has her game face on today.
Genene is off to a shaky start and has covered half the kitchen in liqiud glucose.
Chloe says it is all about the hustle. And pushing herself outside of her comfort zone. This means no noodles and no mince.

Ben is using the 3D printer first. It is rather underwhelming, it pipes chocolate out in a neat hexagon. It looks easy to use, you press a button and get your shape. There is no splattering everywhere that Ben promised.

Genene’s caramel white chocolate mix is not the right consistency to use in the 3D printer. We discover this is how they stop the splattering everywhere, they don’t give you a shot unless your mix is okay. Gary tells her to fix it or make it again. Genene can’t make it again because she doesn’t have enough chocolate. The recipe doesn’t include how to fix this mistake. Genene is getting frazzled.
Gary asks her what she could do to thicken it up. She adds gelatine.

Gary feels this is an appropriate time to again question Genene on her palm on head gesture. Seriously.




Genene’s fix on the chocolate caramel gloop works and she gets a shot at the 3D printer.
Suddenly they are half way through and all anyone had done is the 3D printing.

Feuilletine are fried bits of crepe. They look like cornflakes, but a fancy French version. They are added to the coconut rocher.

Keeping up? Well, if it makes you feel any better they did use a microwave to melt some chocolate. Weirdly, nobody is amazed by a microwave, something that channels heat energy directly to the molecules inside food. But a automated steady hand with a piping bag is OH MY GHAHAHAHAHAHAHD AMAZING.

I know what you’re thinking? How much would a 3D food printer cost? $5000 clams!
What would be the first thing I would print if I got to use a 3D food printer?  The words CRUNCHY ELEMENT, but in an element that isn’t crunchy.



Hoda has not added the feuilletine to her rocher. This is a big whoopsadonkey. She could be going home. Brendan and Matt start telling her they need the feuilletine for complete mouth feel. She says she is going to not worry about their personal mouth feels, she is going to power on without the feuilletine in her rocher. She needs to do all the elements.

Ben is fennel fronding, for the fennel shots. They go in liquid nitrogen and turn into perfect spheres that I secretly think are frozen peas.
They are now making ginger snow, it is a sugar, ginger and ginger beer mix that goes into the liquid nitrogen. Genene has minutes to go and if there is something I love to see on TV it is stressed people with liquid nitrogen.

Hoda realises she has totally missed an element. They are called crispearls. This is the first time they have been mentioned. What are crispearls?

Genene screams at Gary and George GET OUT OF MY WAY as she runs past. Gary makes a mock running motion.

Chloe didn’t put her fennel shots in her freezer, they are on the bench. Gary looks at them and says BUGGER. Chloe looks broken and says it is a huge concern.


Tasting

Ben
Ben was focused in the kitchen and the judges really noticed.
He missed no elements.
The judges are wowed by Ben’s plating. Brendan says it is bang on. Brendan says that Ben is twice the cook he is, because he could come into a professional kitchen and cook this dish in three hours even though he is just a home cook.


Genene
Genene says it is obvious she has missing elements. Ginger, fennel flowers, and she doesn’t have ginger snow, she has ginger snowballs. Gary says the snowball isn’t too bad.
Her lemon curd parfait balls are beautiful. The snow, despite is being balls, is lovely. The rocher is lovely. She hasn’t cooked her caramel white chocolate for long enough to get the flavour out. It isn’t as herbaceous as Brendan’s; the dish is too sweet.







Chloe
Chloe is still putting the fennel balls on the plate even though they’ve not been in the freezer.
Gary tells her she was emotional at the end of the cook.
Brendan says this dish looks better than Genene’s and they comment that when your frazzled in the kitchen it’s frazzled on the plate.
The judges love her dish.


Hoda
Hoda is proud, but also worried that the forgotten elements could cost her.
Matt laments the lack of crunchy elements.
She has great depth of flavour in the caramel white chocolate.
But the lack of crispy element means it doesn’t feel like a true lemon merengue pie.

Results

More gushing over the 3D printer. No gushing over the microwave.

Two dishes were fantastic, they were Chloe and Ben.

Two dishes were not fantastic, they were Hoda and Genene.

Genene missed out on too many elements and is going home. They show a montage of the judges describing her food as cracking. As she says goodbye to the judges Gary again mentions the palm on forehead and wants to find out what it means. Genene tells him nothing, because he doesn’t deserve to know.

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