TV

‘MasterChef Australia Recap’: Stories About Pepper, “Lucky” Laura And A Very Confused Ben

Tag yourself: I'm Ben in a cooking competition not being able to tell the difference between chicken and fish.

by Michelle Rennex  24 April 2020
masterchef recap immunity ben

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You know the drill, let’s recap the week that was.

Since we last saw each other, it’s been a hell of a week. Kicking off on Monday with the first off-site challenge of the season, the cooks had to split into three teams for a BBQ challenge that fed 1200 hungry park-goers.

Despite the judges pressuring the Orange Team to change their “too simple” menu, they ended up victorious with a perfectly balanced lamb, prawn and banana combo. Repeating it approximately 29 times a minute so no one could forget, the Orange Team had one less member yet still managed to beat out the Purple and Yellow teams.

Sadly for them, this season of MasterChef makes very little sense, so they won… well, nothing really. Simply safe from the next day’s elimination cook-off along with the second-best team (Purple), the remaining contestants had to fight for their spot in the competition by cooking three dishes from the Orana menu — yep, Jock’s restaurant.

Isn’t it lucky that Laura, who was up for elimination and previously worked at this exact restaurant, blitzed through this Orana Pressure Test and cooked to see another day? Crazy coincidence, that!

Anyway, following some debacles with prawns with the shit line still in it, we said ta-ta to fan-fave Courtney after she failed to plate her final dish with all components at the hands of a faulty $2 squeeze bottle. Tough!

Jumping into the first Mystery Box of the Back To Win season, a lot of the (white) contestants had to jump out of their comfort zone thanks to Melissa’s pick of more Asian-skewed ingredients. Featuring items like black vinegar, galangal and chicken feet, the contestants learned that the judges would be tasting every dish — not just select few like previous seasons.

As a result, chefs like Brendan and Khanh were pitted against each other in “broth offs” to fit as many tastings on air as possible. And while Andy and Jock were skeptical and kinda (pretty) racist about the chosen ingredients, a heap of the cooks rose to the occasion including Ice Cream Ben, who somehow managed to turn chicken feet into a caramel.

At the end of the cook, five contestants ended up securing the coveted spots for this week’s immunity cook-off: Sarah and her taro dish, Reynold and his savoury fish, Ice Cream Ben and his bonkers chicken feet dessert, Khanh and his “broth off” winning soup, and Teacher’s Pet Laura with her basic-ass whiting that Jock, of course, frothed over.

Jumping into last night’s immunity cook-off, the five reigning champs from the previous episode entered the MasterChef kitchen and were greeted by the judges each standing in front of a golden cloche.

Quickly, the top five learned that they would, once again, be participating in a two-part challenge. Bringing back an old fave, the contestants were faced with a Taste Challenge, which left each tasked with identifying the 24 ingredients in whichever dish they chose.

From there, the person with the most correct guesses would have the longest cooking time in round two, ranging from 40 to 75 minutes total. The gag was that the contestants had to choose a judge without even seeing the dish underneath.

In a shock to quite literally no one in the world, Teacher’s Pet Laura went straight for her ex-boss Jock’s cloche. Explaining her choice, Laura said that she picked Jock’s dish simply because he has “an Italian background”. Of course! Silly us! It must be the Italian background and hmmm, I don’t know? Not the fact that you literally worked at his restaurant and know his exact palate and style of cooking!

Meanwhile, Ice Cream Ben and Reynold chose Andy, while Sarah and Khanh went for Melissa’s dish. After the choices were made, Melissa revealed a beef pie as her dish in a huge shock to Sarah and Khanh, Jock unsurprisingly unveiled a pasta, and Andy uncovered a bowl of curry.

Ice Cream Ben, apparently absolutely fucking clueless about what goes into a curry at all, was pretty peeved at his choice — as were Sarah and Khanh who we’re expecting some sort of South-East Asian dish. Lucky for them, once they cracked into the pastry, they realised it was actually a beef rendang pie, not the basic-ass meat pie they both expected it to be.

After five minutes of scribbling down ingredients — and Ice Cream Ben absolutely fucking bombing in the guessing game — Khanh was ruled victor with 16 correct guesses and was given the full 75 minutes. Second, with 15 ingredients and 60 minutes was Sarah, followed closely by both Reynold and Laura tied on 14 with 50 minutes.

Last, of course, was Ice Cream Ben who, in a real Jessica Simpson moment, mistook chicken for fish and landed himself 40 minutes cooking time and a grand score of an abysmal 8 out of 24.

Struggling to think of an actual recipe idea thanks to an ingredient list full of aromatics and not much else, Khanh blew his lead. Again mentioning the dreaded word “off”, Sarah shouted that her and Khanh we’re going to have a “beef off” and, honestly? Just off me at this point.

Finally deciding on a pressure-cooked beef finished on this season’s favourite tool, the hibachi grill, Khanh was up against Sarah’s lemongrass and coriander beef with a spicy coconut sambal.

Discussing what each would do with the challenge themselves, Andy shared that he’d use Mel’s ingredients to cook a cured beef with a “hectic” sweet soy glaze, while Jock explained he’d go for a white pepper beef.

Then, in the most boring, first world sob story ever, Jock reminisced on his hardships surrounding *checks notes to be absolutely certain this wasn’t a fever dream* black and white pepper growing up? I don’t really know why the Great Pepper Crisis of the Zonfrillo family had so much air time, but I guess Jock can have his own lil’ personal story this one time, as a treat.

Back to the cooking, Khanh decided pair his beef with a curry paste, essentially transforming the dish into a coconut beef curry. Almost as if he was planning to serve up exactly what was given to him in the pie, but fancier. Lucky this was an immunity cook-off and not an elimination, because sheesh.

At the 40-minute mark, Reynold and Laura jumped right in with a solid plan. Going for something he’s never cooked before, the Dessert Savoury King™️ decided to whip up a red curry with confit blue eye and red onions. Meanwhile, Laura went for a green garganelli pasta — a dish that she has on her pasta bar menu back home.

Ten minutes later, when they finally let him start his cook, Ice Cream Ben surprised everyone by dipping into his Asian heritage with an Indonesian sambal oelek with steamed blue eye.

As the judges and cooks on the gantry watched the top five cooking away, they voiced their concerns over what they were seeing. The judges urged Khanh to ramp up the “mellow” flavours of his curry, while the safe cooks winced at Khanh potentially drying out his pressure-cooked beef by finishing it off on the hibachi.

Meanwhile, watching his shining star Laura finish off her dish, Jock stood by like a proud dad. And because no episode is complete without a Laura-Jock excessive compliment sesh, Jock beamed that Laura’s pasta “might even be better than his own”.

When it came to tasting, Ben’s 40-minute sambal dish was up first. And it was a success, with the judges loving his “perfectly cooked” fish and wonderfully balanced chilli sauce. Similarly, the judges found Laura’s dish a “textbook garganelli” that was cooked perfectly al dente. As the music and all of Jock’s high praises suggested, Laura was a good contender to bag immunity for the week.

Unfortunately for Reynold, while the judges thought his fish was cooked amazingly, they felt the curry sauce itself was a little too sweet in combination with the onions. And in the “beef off” of the night, Khanh’s beef was surprisingly not actually cooked enough despite his pressure-cooker and hibachi combo. Andy explained that he “loved the idea” but felt the sauce was “too mellow” and the oyster blade beef was sinewy and not cooked right.

On the other hand, they found Sarah’s take on Melissa’s beef to be juicy and well-cooked, calling each and every component of the dish “perfect, sophisticated and flawless”.

It was actually so perfect that they decided then and there — without any unnecessary cliffhangers or ad breaks — that Sarah’s dish was the clear winner of the night, making her immune in the next elimination cook.

In the next episode of MasterChef: Back To Win, 21 contestants enter an elimination battle based on what the judges eat in a day.

‘MasterChef: Back To Win’ returns on Sunday night at 7.30pm on Channel 10

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.