TV

‘MasterChef Australia’ Recap: Bad Apples, Laura’s Free Assist And Reynold Going Way Off Recipe

by Michelle Rennex  20 July 2020
masterchef recap reynold

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After a very long-winded intro about why each top three contestant deserved to win, we finally got into last night’s Pressure Test.

Walking into the MasterChef kitchen, Emelia, Laura and Reynold were greeted by the judges dressed in their best — and then Andy, looking like a fashionable four-year-old wearing a striped T-shirt and blazer combo. Bruno Mars, who?

Anyway, after yet another long, boring and unnecessary chat about everyones journeys in the competition and desire to win — as we’ve heard about three times in every episode from the last few weeks — in walked three-hatted guest chef, Martin Benn.

Presenting his 113-step Pressure Test dish, which was essentially a 10-element toffee apple on crack, the top three were expected to whip up a whole apple turned into 2.5 metre continuous strip, three different types of edible leaves, and a chocolate stem in three hours and 45 minutes.

But because the judges were feeling a lil’ generous, they decided to give Reynold, Laura and Emelia an extra five minutes to plate. Lucky, lucky!

Before any cooking even took place, Martin started to list off all the ~pressure points~ of the cook, like slicing the apple, the caramel being taken to the right level of bitterness, the leaves all getting cooked at the correct temperatures, which was basically every fucking element of the dessert.

All determined to make it to the finale, Laura started to freak out being up against technical powerhouses, Choux Lover Emelia and Dessert King Reynold — as anyone with a brain would be. But all following each step of the recipe, everyone was on track with their three flavoured leaf sheets and toffees.

As Mel and Martin visited Reynold, the Dessert King was happier and more confident than ever, and so decided to deviate from the recipe and caramelise his toffee differently to the rest. It was hard to tell whether Martin was impressed or in pain over Reynold’s choice to toss the recipe aside, but he sure was feeling… something.

Moving onto slicing the apples, Emelia wasn’t happy with how much her long-ass apple sheet was cracking — which was one of the very many pressure points that Martin noted at the start. Visiting at the worst time possible, Andy swapped fellow Bench Demon Jock for Martin, and just watched Emelia fuck up yet another apple that couldn’t quite make it to the necessary length.

But after relaxing for a hot minute, Emelia figured it out and nailed it by the third attempt. Also starting on his apple, Reynold, of course, got it on the first go. But because he’s a technical monster, he decided made an extra for shits and giggles.

Meanwhile, Laura couldn’t figure out how to make her apple move in the machine at all and after about five attempts, she started to sob and was ready to pack it all in. Deciding to help out her bestie and prove that Back To Win is truly the most wholesome season ever, MILEZZYYYY stepped up to teach Laura how to get her apple right, as Reynold yelled out some helpful tips too.

Wiping away her tears, Laura was finally able to get herself a good apple after about six attempts at totally butchering the fruit.

After all the apple tears dried up, everyone managed to tightly roll up their little buttholes toffee apples, and threw them into their moulds. But checking on the progress of their rolled fruits, Reynold realised that his rolls had become big, swollen balls, which to me is a huge sign to not help people mid-competition, tbh.

Meanwhile Laura and Emelia’s were perfect, of course. But with no extra time, Reynold decided to just try and salvage his soggy lumps in the hopes of passing it off as an apple at the end.

Moving onto the world’s most finicky task, Emelia started to form her muscovado leaves with ease and then her raspberry ones, which just wouldn’t stop snapping. But instead of crying, the Choux Queen™️ just continued trying and after four batches managed to whip out some perfect ones. And that’s on resilience, baby.

Also working on his, Reynold begun to fry his off his pumpkin and persimmon leaves and spent almost all his time making sure his fake foliage was perfect. Realising that his fried leaves were more oily than Martin’s, the Dessert King decided to go off recipe, again, and chucked his fried leaves into the oven to dry out.

Happy with all his elements — besides the apple, which was the main element and didn’t really look like an apple at all — Reynold totally lost track of his leaves in the oven. Finally noticing that he had left them in the oven for far too long, Reynold realised he fucked up majorly as the leaves lost their shape and print.

To try and fix it, the Dessert King attempted to re-press his leaves and just hoped for the best.

Proving this was her challenge to lose, Emelia pulled her perfect little apple out of its perfect little mould and brushed it with her perfect little caramel. Trying to do the same for his, Reynold’s apple was simply beyond repair and couldn’t even stand up on its own. Falling over with each stroke of caramel, Reynold’s bright-red apple had a massive hole in its centre and begun to look a lot like, well, to be frank, a literal asshole.

Deciding to go off recipe again, because that plan had worked so well throughout the cook, Reynold begun to freestyle his chocolate stems, as Laura did hers by Martin’s short novel 113-step recipe. A bench away, miles ahead of everyone else, Emelia finally hit a stumble and ended up burning the isomalt for her choccy stems. But instead of having a lil’ cry, she decided to just start it all over again with five minutes to go.

With mere minutes left, everyone begun prepping their 10 elements for plating, including Emelia who somehow managed to form her apple stem with just 30 seconds on the clock. Iconic, honestly.

Starting with the picture-perfect copy of Martin’s dish, Emelia presented her version first. Right away, the judges were impressed with how similar the dish looked, and Martin felt that the flavours were so good that he’d be happy to serve it at his restaurant.

Also frothing the dish, Jock liked the crunch in the apple, and thought it was within 10% of the original in flavour. Andy, of course, agreed with papa Jock and shared that Emelia nailed it with the bitterness of the caramel and balance of umami flavours.

Up next, Laura assembled her attempt and acknowledged the helping hand she received from the other contestants. Tearing into Laura’s attempt the second she walked away, Martin gave no fucks and said her apple didn’t look like his at all. Beyond the apple being pear-shape and having far too many layers, Martin wasn’t happy with the minimal amount of detail each leaf had. But after tasting, the shapes didn’t really matter because everyone felt that the flavours slapped.

Saving the worst ’til last, Reynold shook and stressed as he snapped stem after stem, before finally manage to salvage something with literal seconds to go. Almost as if he could sense the end was near, Reynold started to get teary while talking about his MasterChef journey and the fact that he was doing the competition for his family, not the fame.

After tearfully chatting about his struggles as an immigrant trying to make it in an already difficult industry, Reynold left so the judges could taste his dish. Upon first glance, they noted that beyond the apple being smaller than Martin’s, the rest of it all looked pretty damn good.

But after tasting it, it was clear that Reynold didn’t follow the recipe considering his pumpkin leaves were wobbly, and not crunchy like the rest. Plus, the caramel Reynold whipped up wasn’t bitter enough and ended up being too sweet, overpowering the entire dish.

Absolutely breaking down in tears over the news of placing third, Reynold’s reaction was probably the saddest moment all season — and possibly even all series. I truly still haven’t recovered yet.

So if you need me, I’ll be crying until I have to hear “MILEZZYY” and “LOZZZAAAA” be shouted all night as the Series 6 besties compete in tonight’s grand final together.

On the final episode of MasterChef: Back To Win, Emelia and Laura battle out in the grand finale to see who will be crowned this season’s winner.

MasterChef: Back To Win returns tonight for the final time at 7.30pm on Channel Ten. 

Michelle Rennex is a Senior Writer at Junkee who can’t cook, but enjoys judging people like she can. You can follow her on Twitter at @michellerennex.