katisha

Tonight's challenge was quite fun because at least it was a straight out choice between time or ingredients without the usual auction thing they do (although no doubt that will be back later in the season). A few thoughts... Is it just me or has Andy actually become a proper judge this year now that he's the only one left out of the original "new" three (albeit for a really sad reason in Jock's case)? He's making sense, his critiques are more coherent and he's being helpful. I much prefer the 2024 Andy. I'm hoping the contestants see that the hibachi use is a bad omen. It wrecked Alex's chances last night and this time Sumeet lost 100 Kishwar cool points by using the bloody thing - and, see, she didn't win immunity! Now, an unknown person is using it on Sunday night and maybe if they get kicked off, nobody else will use one this season? Sav sure knows how to make a plate of food look good, doesn't she? Hell, I HATE seafood with a passion but what she plated up looked so yummy that it would almost tempt me into having a taste. Well-deserved immunity because, yes, she strategised it out well. Clever as well as artistic. Poh's performance improved tonight too. It was cool when she showed Steve the pan-lining trick. I think she just has to stop mentioning her own time on Masterchef as much as she does because it was so long ago and it gives the impression that she thinks it's all about her rather than the new hamsters, even if that's not truly how she feels. Andy actually won but he hardly ever mentions his season. My hope for Sunday is that we get to meet the 10 or so contestants who haven't had a second of air time yet, poor buggers!

It would be hard to replicate the awesomeness that was Kishwar, but I have to say I like both Sav (for her sense of humour) and Sumeet (who seems really kind and gentle). Lily is irritating me as well and Alex automatically put me off side when she used that bloody hibachi! Agree re Mimi. In that challenge the other day she sort of acted like her decisions re the main course on Team Purple saved the day, but they clearly didn't!

Just when you thought it was safe to keep watching Masterchef AU...IT'S BAAAAAACK! I knew it was too good to last! The only saving grace was that aside from nearly setting the kitchen on fire, Alex didn't cook her prawns properly so maybe that will put some of the others off. Mind you, I don't even blame her for using it because, let's face it, that bloody grill pretty much won the competition for Brent Draper (and Coles) last season. And we saw the reappearance of another old MC AU cliche tonight - the magical nonna is back! I wonder how often Jonathan is going to play that card? (Although, if you're going to talk about your nonna, it tends to be confusing if your last name is Hooper and the "nonna" in question is called Sandra!) Because I'm nearly as old as he is, I naturally would love to see Steve do OK this year. We've had a large variety of winners over the years but regrettably the old chook/old dude box hasn't been ticked yet. Julie is still the oldest ever winner of the show in S1 and even then she was "only" 38! I'm still really shocked how few of these contestants this year seem interested in making desserts. I wonder why there's so many cooks who favour making savoury dishes this year?

Is it just me or was it rather a waste bringing back 40 former hamsters to be the diners at the service challenge, and then hardly use any of them (except for those who currently star in, or used to star in, Channel 10 cooking shows, and that number unfortunately includes the dreaded Emma Dean 😵‍💫). Anyway, I'm going to have to do a re-watch with a lot of freeze-framing because some of the faces were really familiar but I could not recall their specific season or name! Andy made a valiant attempt to suggest that after Team Burgundy clearly won the first two rounds that Team Purple could still win the challenge they served up a truly spectacular dessert. Nah, it's never worked in the past so why should it now? I have a feeling Sav will be quite a polarising character but I like her and she's hilarious. "Everything clenched"... 🤣 And she certainly did a much better job of leading her team than Mimi did. Like @Snazzy Daisy, I continue to be pleased that nobody has brought out a &^%$* hibachi (yet) and that nobody's making endless frozen desserts (yet). So far the editing is really zeroing in on some of the contestants while others are right in the background and I don't even know their names, but I suspect some of them did a great job in that challenge. Off the top of my head, whoever the guy is who cooked the lamb for Team Purple obviously did a good job but so far I have no clue about him. Finally, and randomly, I realised that Darrsh, from certain angles, reminds me of Peter Andre (although whether he looks like this shirtless, I'm only guessing!)

Then you'll be happy to hear that there are no auditions and we have a full bunch of cheftestants. :)

Aaaand we're back with all-new hamsters and apart from Andy, a fresh new panel of judges! I wasn't expecting to enjoy this first episode as much as I did. The new judges...I love them so far! Sofia Levin is delightful (and comes across as a lot nicer than Melissa) and while Jean-Christophe is a little difficult to understand, he's very genuine and obviously extremely qualified. I can see how Poh would rub some people the wrong way but I have always liked her (and her dress tonight was gorgeous). As for the cheftestants, I do not know anyone's names but it was pretty obvious who the top two were tonight because the edit gibbons have developed a habit of showcasing winners either first or last. I wish they'd stop! And while I think it's a touching story, I hope we don't have to hear the Jamie Oliver fan boy tale too many more times! Edit - that is not really a spoiler below, but I can't get it to go away!

We watched this one today and loved it too. What an amazing, talented lady Doreen is!

Oh this episode hit me right where it hurts when we learned right at the end that What an amazing guy Tim was to have stepped up and done so much for his brother over all those years.

The plot thickens!

Have either of the two newbs who aren't Poh ever been on the show before? And why has Melissa been ousted? So many questions...

Wait...what?

I just binge-watched Season 9 with my mum during the past couple of days and was thrilled with the result. Asmaa - what an amazing lady she is, and so talented. I myself went through breast cancer in 2015 and the thought of having a surgeon who would also make bespoke bras for her patients just blows my mind. A very worthy winner! Mia, meanwhile, is very talented and what a trajectory for someone who hasn't been sewing all that long, but was obviously born to do it. And did anybody show more growth than Tony, who started off his sewing life making his own postal delivery accessories for his bike and ended up making transforming evening wear? Love this show and can't wait for the next season!

Hmmm! Big changes to judging format?

True to my word I didn't watch the finale, but according to Facebook Brent won. Needless to say I'm so astonished by this news that I need a good lie-down to recover from the shock. So I'll await your comments with interest, those of you who are going to sit through it. Oh, and vale, Mr Zonfrillo. Even though the season didn't crown the winner I wanted, I'm still gutted at the thought that it was your last. 😭

Deccy admits that he bit off more than he could chew.

I do too, @Aerobicidal. Despite his linguistic mangling and gift for inappropriate statements, he's an immensely likeable young guy and very hard-working. I reckon someone will snap him up for a cooking show, maybe with Uncle Robbie!

You chose not to watch last night's episode, @Snazzy Daisy, and I've just chosen not to watch the finale. What a lot of complete and utter bollocks tonight's episode was. 🤬 I suppose I didn't realise how much in Deccy's corner I was until it became clear within about the first 30 minutes that he was going to be booted out. I started fast-forwarding from that point because I couldn't listen to one more second of smug-arse Brent doing everything as perfectly as ever and Rhiannon's squawking. What a total waste of time this season has been, and it really hit me tonight that it's a pity Jock's final season has gone out with a whimper, not a bang (although I suppose he would have been pleased that his favourite won). These are the rules in seasons such as this. Favoured contestant cooks the same thing over and over again. Judges: Wow, he does it so well. I would know instantly that Favourite Contestant cooked that dish. Non-favoured contestant cooks the same thing over and over again. Judges: Can't you do anything else? Favoured contestant tries something different. Judges rather obviously help them, and also push them through anyway because they're so proud that their favourite went briefly outside their lane. Non-favoured contestant tries something different. Judges come over to the bench more and mess with the contestants' head, saying stuff like, is this REALLY the time you should have thought about doing this different dish? Why aren't you doing what you're best at? I think Declan should be proud that even though it wasn't a wise choice in retrospect, at least he left the competition trying to push the boat out further. Maybe it was his way of acknowledging that no matter what he did, he didn't fit the bloke with sad backstory and redemption arc vs the old chook finally making a finale edit so he might as well go out swinging. I'm out - I'll be back to read what happened after the episode is over on Sunday.

No, he's not, @Mellowyellow. They were competing for the advantage of 30 extra minutes in the service challenge, and of course Brent won it.

It's one thing to have an extremely favoured contestant working for the show's major sponsor. It's another entire level of inappropriate to have someone else who works for the show's major sponsor setting and taking part in the judging for a challenge in which one of the three contestants is the extremely favoured one who also works for the show's major sponsor. Jeez, show, just give Brent the trophy already and be done with it. I was pretty sure he was going to win the advantage before they even started. I suppose we'll just have to trust that Curtis didn't send Brent an internal Coles memo with some hints and tips about what he'd be cooking on the day. I just wish Declan hadn't had one of his space cadet days where he isn't as focused as he can be and does stupid things. When he's on song, he works in a much more calm and sensible way but on his bad days, he's rivalling Rhi-Rhi in the chaos stakes. I hope that whatever dessert Brent attempts to make in the three course challenge brings his whole attempt undone but unfortunately, I reckon he could choose to make an ice-cream flavoured with his own bodily fluids and the judges would pronounce him the new Heston Blumenthal. Sigh...

Oh, @Snazzy Daisy, so sorry that you read Theo's facial expressions in the previews all too well. From very early in the piece Declan was in cruise mode so it was always going to be between Theo and Rhiannon as to who'd be going home, but I suppose I can buy that Rhiannon's split sauce was less offensive than undercooked seafood and missing elements. But when they were recapping some of Theo's best dishes, it made me realise all over again that he's not one-dimensional like Brent and has made so much more of a variety of dishes and for that reason alone, in my view he deserved a top 3 spot. So wrong. 😡 Whilst I think it'd serve the producers right if Rhiannon did "do an Emma Dean" and manage to win whilst being manifestly unqualified to do so, I'm now 100% on Team Declan if I can't also be on Team Theo. I just wish Declan had helped Theo earlier than he did because it would have given him a better chance to sneak into the finals and pip Rhiannon at the post, but the fact that he helped him at all, something which would never have happened on a show like Survivor or other more mean-spirited reality shows, is one of the reasons I keep watching this show. Actually, I'm officially Team ABB as well (Anyone But Brent). Not because I dislike him, mind you (although the cocky version of him is pretty obnoxious), but because his winning has seemed so inevitable for so many weeks now. I suppose we can only hope that that incredibly mega complicated dessert he's dodged all season is part of the finale, giving Declan at least a chance to beat him. I'm old enough to remember 'The Lord's Prayer' by Sister Janet Mead, so when this was on K&K in this context I found it absolutely hilarious!

This may well be a rhetorical question, but did Brent really cook the best dish on tonight's episode or did he win extra points for the best sob story? I suppose we have no choice but to take the word of our esteemed judges that every repetitive protein on hibachi/glaze/adobo sauce/sambal/fresh salad is something bold and revolutionary but I remain unconvinced because they even look identical as per @Snazzy Daisy's pics last night of two Brent dishes side by side from different weeks showing how far (?!) he has come. I'm sure everyone's already noticed this but the order in which the food gets tasted has been especially significant this season. If you are tasted first or last, you'll either win or come close to winning. Tomorrow night looks interesting - a Peter Gilmour dish where you don't get a recipe. Was I mistaken or was it a savoury dish as opposed to the usual mega complicated dessert?

Precisely! Henry Higgins would have had a field day with both Caths, I think. 🤣

Waaaoooowwww! That felt like it was a long time coming, didn't it? I really feel like the producers missed a big opportunity here because whilst they tried to milk every last drop of pathos from the episode, it would have been so much sadder if Cath's BFF Rhiannon had been the one to eliminate her rather than Brent. I suppose I'm happy for Cath that she has lasted much longer in the competition than any person her age ever has before but it doesn't sit well with me because there was so much producer manipulation to make it happen IMHO. But we were treated to the full Cath show today, with the pep talks of "you got this, sweetie" and even patting herself on the back. It's starting to feel like we're in Groundhog Day when Brent cooks, in all honesty. The second he goes outside of his tried and true formula he usually falls on his face, so we end up with, yet again: protein cooked on hibachi glaze on the protein which was cooked on the hibachi sauce which is reduced from a pressure cooker stock to serve with the protein which was cooked on the hibachi a salsa full of freshness and herbs to accompany the protein which was cooked on the hibachi. Honestly, can the man do anything else? It's for this reason that I honestly believe the final two should actually be Deccy and Theo, because even though they too have their favourite lanes (Deccy - fish fish and more fish, Theo - lamb and Greek dishes in general), at least they are willing to venture outside of those lanes and more often than not succeed when they try new things. It's manifestly wrong that Rhiannon has ended up as the last woman standing but much as I hate to say it, she probably deserves that spot more than Cath did. @Aerobicidal, it's time for another lesson on Aussie accents. 🙃 A whole episode of Cath talking was pretty tortuous but especially the way she pronounced "Dijon". Now, when I say it, I say "dee-jon". When Cath says it, she displays the bogan inflection that we see in New South Wales and Victoria on this particular vowel sound, the one you would hear in "key" or "see" or, well, "Dijon"! The closest approximation I can make of how it would be spelled is "duyyyyjon". Ouch, it's bloody painful because with that accent, a simple one sound vowel turns into an awful dipthong!

I am not 100% positive but pretty close. I think the producers are telegraphing very heavily that it's a bloke year!

Well, even though the producers probably told him to say it, the minute Brent came out with, "I'm not gonna let these other two wallies win this challenge," I began hoping not only that he wouldn't win it, but that it'd be because he left a bone or two in the fish. And as it turned out, he didn't, but the main thing is he didn't win the challenge either, so yay! I can't say I care much for "cocky edit Brent". Meanwhile, there's probably nothing terribly revoluntionary about what Declan did with his barley dessert, because barley is the blandest of bland grains and out of all the ones that were left, he picked the right one. But I honestly don't think that Brent or possibly even Theo would have been able to do as well had they had to make a dessert featuring a grain so I'm really happy for Declan. But for once I felt like all three dishes, whilst probably not top 5-worthy in many, many other seasons, were of a high standard for this season and none of them were inedible, probably because Cath and Rhi weren't cooking! Roll on Sunday where we're saying bye-bye to either Cath or Rhiannon, since we know the blokes are not going anywhere.