TV

‘MasterChef Australia’ Recap: Burnt Hands, Open Freezers, Icy Ice Cream & “Milezy” For The Win

"I really am going to miss Emelia basically telling the judges to fuck off any time they offer her advice."

by Michelle Rennex  21 July 2020
masterchef recap finale emelia

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Last night was the final MILEZY and LOZZA-off of the season, as besties Emelia and Laura battled it out for the MasterChef: Back To Win crown.

Dramatically driving into the MasterChef kitchen for the final time, in separate cars despite them staying in the same accomodation together all season, Emelia and Laura were greeted by the eliminated contestants and judges all dressed to the nines — including Andy, who was actually wearing a real suit and bowtie like a big boy and Fedora Chris, who swapped out his fancy fedora for an even fancier *checks notes* baseball cap???

Crying before even starting the cook, Emelia and Laura were forced to chat about their journeys for about the 11th time in the last two days. After the necessary tears were shed, the top two learned that their final challenge would be a three-course service challenge for the judges and past contestants, with only four hours to cook.

Sprinting into it, the besties started to plan their menus and Emelia begun freaking out, again, because she didn’t have the service experience restauranteur Laura had, despite having blitzed through all the service challenges this season.

Deciding to stick to her classic guns, Emelia settled on an entree of seared scallop with celeriac, turnips and apple, and a main of beef short rib with onions and sweet and sour Szechuan sauce. To finish off her menu with a bang, Emelia decided on a dessert of classic pistachio financier with meringue and a Davidson plum and raspberry sorbet.

On the other side of the kitchen, Laura begun to motor through her more modern Native ingredient menu of a seared bonito with lilly pilly and saltbush entree, pork with a trio of sauces, turnips and muntries for main, and a Jerusalem artichoke, kumquat and caramel dessert.

In a shock to the nation, and even Papa Jock, this meant that Laura was not cooking pasta at all for her final menu. But to make sure she kept it all Jock palate-approved, Laura made sure to highlight Native ingredients throughout her menu.

Starting on cooking her short ribs first, Emelia set up four pressure cookers to be on the go at once. But after checking her meat after 50 minutes had elapsed, Emelia noticed that her ribs hadn’t cooked down enough yet, which stressed her the fuck out. Unsure of what to do, Milezy decided to just chuck her beef back in for another 20 minutes, despite that throwing her sauce timing all out of wack.

After another 20 minutes, her ribs still weren’t cooked. Offering some advice she didn’t ask for, Andy tried to convince Emelia to think of a Plan B meat dish. In response, Emelia basically told him to fuck off as she explained she doesn’t do Plan B’s. As she should.

Meanwhile, Laura started to carve the fat off her pork, and begun to cook her huge slabs of meat. As that fried away, Laura was simultaneously working on her dessert and unknowingly grabbed the burning caramel pan handle that was sitting over the sizzling pork pans. But instead of stopping for a medical assist, in an act of pure dedication and insanity, Laura decided to pull her slabs of meat out first, so that it didn’t overcook.

Finally seeing the nurse, Laura tried to cook through the building pain and pretend nothing happened, so Bench Demon Jock decided to tone down his demon tendencies to give his fave a pep talk about calming down and refocusing, which seemed to do the trick. Really weird how not giving shitty advice just for the sake of drama and actually helping the contestants can be beneficial, right?

Anyway, as Laura’s hand continued to burn, Emelia started to churn her Davidson plum and raspberry sorbet and prepared her beef crumb, as she just prayed that her meat had finally cooked. After the third de-pressuring, in some sort of miracle, the ribs had finally cooked and Emelia had no choice but to use the beef stock to make her sauce, which left her protein open to drying out.

Getting her hand bandaged up, Laura continued her cook one-handed as the pair had 30 minutes until their entrees had to be served. Shifting focus to her entree, Emelia started to lathe her apple, as the ex-contestants sat down in preparation for service. Also frying off her saltbush for her entree and preparing all her herbs for service, Laura carved up her fish with her bandaged hand, which definitely soaked up all those funky-ass fish juices.

Both presenting their entrees on time, the judges tasted Milezy’s bright and simple scallop dish first. Andy, of course, just described the dish as “a ripper” with “bright vibes”. Agreeing, but dipping into the dictionary a little more, Jock shared that the dish was probably one of his fave entrees of the season, while Mel called it a “gorgeous, elegant-looking nest”.

Sending out her bonito starter, the judges felt Laura’s dish looked sophisticated and Andy described it as very ~Laura-esque~, whatever the hell that means. Getting a little more specific, Jock thought the oil was genius and called the entree a classic Aussie dish, while Andy loved Laura’s use of the hibachi — the real winner of MasterChef this season, if we’re being honest.

Moving onto their meaty mains, Emelia took her ribs out of the blast chiller, sliced them and started to coat the meat for frying. Getting another hand bandage touch up, Laura worriedly pulled her pork out of the oven and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she realised that it was bang on her ideal 52°C medium-rare temperature.

As Milezy started to fry up her beef, Lozzaaaaa cut into the perfectly pink pork — that was somehow more important than her own burning limbs — and begun to assemble all her plates with her one good hand. Slicing into Laura’s sauce-slathered pork first, Andy started to use big words, and called the dish “challenging, but in such a good way”.

Tasting Emelia’s beef next, the judges thought the meat was pretty damn moist, despite all of the Choux Queen™️’s worries. Plus, Mel reckoned Emelia made the right choice by sticking to her guns and not listening to Andy at all. Again, as she should.

Moving on to their desserts, Emelia started to have war-like flashbacks thinking back to Season 6 when she was booted out on a dessert aka her forte. But after the cheeky moment of self-doubt, Milezy kicked back into gear and started prepping her pistachio financier, determined to redeem herself.

Also working on her dessert, Lozza finalised all her savoury dessert elements, which then injected some self-doubt into her own mind too. Having her own tearful moment about her MasterChef journey, Laura’s tears were cut short by an unidentifiable beeping sound, which, sadly, ended up being the open freezer where Laura’s gelato was sitting.

Sending out her savoury dessert first, Laura’s freezer door fears came true as Jock and Melissa noted that the gelato was pretty icy and that the wattleseed in the chocolate crumb kinda felt like gritty-ass sand. But Andy did share that he enjoyed the artichoke and kumquat flavour profiles, to which Melissa and Jock agreed.

Presenting the last dish of the season, Emelia’s financier looked damn impressive on the plate, and thankfully tasted even better. Absolutely frothing the bright and zingy sorbet, balance of the dish and the ~reinforced flavours~, it was clear that Emelia’s dessert was the superior one.

And even after judging the challenge on Laura and Emelia’s entire menus instead of by singular dishes, Emelia managed to bag the win and was finally crowned winner of MasterChef: Back To Win. While it was tearful for everyone involved, Emelia went out with one last bang by breaking COVID-19 restrictions to apologise to Laura about winning and to give her bestie a huge, unlawful hug.

But lucky for Laura, these tears of disappointment were wiped away by the news that she was receiving $30,000 as a consolation prize, along with Reynold bagging himself  $20,000 for placing third. Honestly, just think of all the pasta supplies one can get with 30 racks.

And that’s it! No more MasterChef:Back To Win, it’s been fun y’all!

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.