katisha

Kaylee's kind of awesome. She is very sweary, known for dropping an F bomb during a post-race interview a couple of years ago. Her "nerdy" glasses remind me of myself at her age when I was as blind as a bat and had to squint to read anything far away like she does after a race! (I'd still be blind as a bat if I wasn't now old enough to have had cataract surgery!) And she's got a huge will to win, even if she no longer owns the WR. I'm Australian so, US folk, please forgive this comment but (small voice) I actually love that the swimming medals are being shared around many different countries at this Olympics. It's nowhere near as interesting watching a total cakewalk where one country wins everything. For me, part of the excitement of sport comes from uncertainty of outcome. I'd even prefer the medals to be shared around than for Australia to win everything (not that I'm displeased that our women in particular are doing so well, mind you!) And it's also great to see a new guard of great swimmers emerging like Leon Marchand. I never thought I'd see the equal of Michael Phelps in terms of dominance across multiple strokes, but in Leon Marchand that's exactly what we're seeing.

Well, blow me down - Nat won! 🤯🤯🤯 I did NOT see that coming at all. Not for a second did I ever believe she would be the one they chose. Not even when the first thing we saw in the first episode of the season was a long, loving montage of Nat doing skate-y things, Nat and her tatts, Nat talking about her alternative lifestyle and cultural confusion. Not even when she won the only immunity pin on offer for the season. Not even when she made mistakes and the judges turned themselves inside out trying to find ways to excuse them. No, this evening's episode was a massive shock from which it'll take me a while to recover. In all seriousness, the egregious favouritism from day dot actually got me to a point where I WANTED Pezza to win and was actually quite sad for him that he didn't. And I cannot believe I just typed that! Well, folks, whilst feeling nearly as disappointed with this season as I did with the last one and the pre-destined win of Brent Draper, I will miss chatting about the show with you lovely people and no doubt, being the masochist that I am, will line up again to go through it all next year when I hope they find a winner I LIKE. Man, it's been a while since that's happened!

Yes, it was hard not to notice the 🍈🍈 were out there again. 😂

I reckon as soon as she saw the second place in the finale was between her and Nat, Sav realised she was screwed. But fair enough, too. She started off seeming really organised and then the wheels fell off big time. I think the result was a little bit of karma, too, because when the judges were trying to tell her she needed to hurry up a bit she was quite rude to them. Coles Shill was trying to be warm and cuddly tonight as opposed to his last appearance on the show, but I'm not convinced. I hate to say it but Pezza's first two dishes actually did look good, especially the main. And even if he didn't exactly push the boat out with his dessert, at least it didn't have any errors in execution. I'm pretty sure that if anyone else but Nat had served up that dessert with the hard as a rock pie crust, the judges would have roundly condemned it as a terrible error but since they can't bear to criticise their pet, they were again trying so hard to be positive about it. It almost makes me want Pezza to win (I said almost!) but he won't - I'm still convinced of this.

Well, I'm not sure the recapper was a fan of tonight's episode but I didn't mind it. It's always quite fun if the contestants really get into it and these three did, although I think Darssh gets the prize for throwing the best shade at the judges! Jean-Christophe actually comes across as very eccentric a lot of the time but I love him for it. He's entertaining if nothing else. Poh has long been a master of seeming to be very disorganised whilst actually cooking really well. And Andy really has come a long way since his days as a contestant. I don't know how they ended up with any kind of decent dish in the relay challenge except to say that their experienced counted for a lot. I think Poh could have told Jean-Cristophe absolutely nothing about what was left on the bench for him to finish off and he still would have been able to produce a good dish out of it. As for what's going to happen tomorrow night, the judges do love a finale where they have a male and a female contestant so my prediction would be that Nat and Pezza end up final two but who knows.

I decided to watch episode 2 of Dancing With the Stars tonight instead of MCAU live (it features both Hayden Quinn and Julie Goodwin as contestants, by the way) so I'm about to watch tonight's ep on catch-up. Back soon!

😭 😭 😭 😭 Oh, Harry, my heart just broke for you tonight. Not only did you bow out of the competition, but you did it on a challenge set by your food hero. How absolutely sucky. I didn't actually realise how much I liked Harry until tonight but I'm so bummed now that there are three contestants left and he's not one of them. And watching everyone genuinely tearing up to see him go made me realise how much he's liked and appreciated. But in a way, we probably could have foreseen this happening back in the early days of team challenges when Harry was acting so laid back that he didn't seem conscious of how quickly the time was going to go before service time. That's partly what brought him undone today. Now I have to try and find a favourite amongst Sav, who I used to like, and then didn't like so much (but like a bit more after reading her very on point post above); Pezza, who's turned me off with his ocker sexism and who the judges have turned me off through constantly pumping up his tyres when he cooks basic, average food; and Nat, who is sooooo obviously the favourite that I think she knows it herself and it makes her come across as cocky and arrogant, two characteristics I can't stand in a person. But I'm going to say it right now, and this isn't based on spoilers - they want a female contestant to win, and it's going to be Nat. I can feel it in my bones! You could almost see the judges, after seeing the mess she made of that fish belly, PRAYING that Harry had stuffed up worse so they didn't have to get rid of their chosen one. And by the way, I thought it was incredibly nice how Josh Niland tried to encourage Harry by mentioning that he himself has been so intimidated by having mentors around watching him cook that it's led him to make bad decisions and not cook his best. I'm sure that would have helped Harry more than most feedback he got.

Well, as it turns out, Ben did a recap of last night too but it was posted late. More on that later but my mind's kind of blown after tonight's episode. I'm wondering if the outcomes I was so sure were going to take place aren't going to actually happen this week after all. I'm wondering now if there's a real possibility that either Pezza or Nat might not make it to the final three after all? Or are the powers that be mean enough to have this season's fish guy, Harry, go home in a challenge set by the ultimate fish guy, Josh Niland? First surprise of the night - Sav ending up in the final three. I didn't see that coming but if the final three consisted of her, Pezza and Nat, I probably WOULD be forced to be Team Sav, @Snazzy Daisy, if only because I couldn't possibly be Team Pezza or Team Nat! 😆 Second surprise of the night - Nat's oh-so-arrogant plan to cook not one, but two dishes coming badly unstuck (and I'm not gonna lie - I found it rather schadenfreudelicious!), and for once she actually got real criticism from the judges. Unfortunately, I can't say that Pezza getting good feedback from the judges for yet another hunk of meat with a puree, a croquette (really? in top 4?) and a jus was a surprise at all. Again, he's a bloody butcher! If he can't cook meat properly, then who can? He came up with such a charming comment tonight, too: "This croquette would put a horn on a jellyfish." 🤮 Harking back to last night's recap...

Well, I'm just going to stop looking at the spoilers this year because they're so off the mark. Sav was supposed to be the next boot and not only did that not pan out, but she went and cooked the best dish into the bargain. Again, I hate to say positive stuff about Sav but it was quite ballsy of her to try making a consomme today after she stuffed it up so badly in the pressure test last week. And the edit monkeys did try and make us think that she'd be going purely because she added a tiny bit more California Reaper to the consomme (although a tiny bit more could have meant a huge amount more heat). Mimi, as I've felt lately with every contestant Pezza outlasts, you were ROBBED. Is it just that even though his dish was incredibly basic, on some level it actually worked in terms of how he handled that difficult ingredient, and that because of the failure of Mimi's brioche the bitter gourd was just TOO bitter? It's hard to imagine because Pezza only pivoted because Andy tried so hard to telegraph to his favourite that a steak sanga wasn't going to cut it in this challenge. But I'm now resigned to Pezza being top three at the very least. Sigh. I can't help wondering if Mimi shot herself in the foot just one too many times, trying to do too much. I don't have a single favourite left now so I'm going to have to join you on the Harry bandwagon, @Snazzy Daisy, even though I don't think he has a hope in hell of winning because he's not Nat or Pezza. 🙄

Well, for whatever it's worth, here are the odds for the top five from Sportsbet: I can't say I'm surprised that

That "river" still looks like blue Play-Doh to me!

🤣 So cynical, and yet so accurate! Just realised there was a recap last night. He's getting increasingly snarky about the very obvious Nat favouritism.

Why am I not even slightly surprised that the two contestants remaining who we know one judge particularly favours (Pezza/Andy, Nat/Poh) ended up with the top two dishes? I'm no fan of Nat's but I'd still prefer her over Pezza to win a challenge. I personally think Harry's dish probably should have been top two but of course Pezza had to be there because he cooked a big hunk of meat well (I hate to sound like a broken record but we knew he could do that from week 1), he cut some starchy vegetables into cubes (doesn't he have any other plating ideas?) and he added a jus. Big deal. 😵 I have a feeling Sav will be the next one booted because the judges, who have soft-soaped her up until now, were quite harsh about her dish tonight. On a sad note, I'm wondering what Sofia meant by her dad not being able to eat anymore. Is he sick with some kind of mouth/oesophageal cancer where he has to be fed through a tube or something awful like that? I'm very intrigued by the episode on Sunday - is it a taste test featuring absolutely disgusting ingredients?

But she did say in one episode that she came out as gay to her parents whilst at school still. I could certainly understand being attracted to Darrsh, though, aka Peter Andre II 😂 I guess I am now Team Mimi and Team Harry. 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Well, I never got to find out why the others kept calling him Darrsh-ayyy but either way, I'm sorry to see Darrsh go. He is a talented cook and did some excellent desserts this year, most of which were not made in the blast chiller for which I give him a lot of kudos. I just think because he's not really a savoury cook, the sort of care and attention he would give to a dessert was missing tonight for this savoury dish. Whereas Harry, the fish guy, was able to use his expertise to catch up huge amounts of time when he was behind as well as understanding exactly what that consomme needed and prepping all the different seafood elements to a high standard. Sav, well, aside from working out that hack for peeling peas, she didn't have a good day at the office but was just lucky Darrsh had a worse one. Nice exit interview from Darrsh, who never wants to see another pea. 😂

Welcome to the Episode of Egregious Favouritism, brought to you by the good people at Harvey Norman ™️ I absolutely call bullshit on Pezza's little cabbage rolls being a better dish than Mimi's okonomiyaki. Look at what she got done in her 75 minutes and it looked incredibly tasty, and he walks up with four cabbage rolls and a tiny jug of sauce. Andy has never made his personal favouritism more obvious than tonight when he said that Pezza reminds him of himself when HE was in the competition. And as for telling him, "If you keep cooking like this, you could be the one lifting that trophy!" do NOT get me started. I don't want Nat to win either but if he does it would be as bad as last year with Brent. Mimi, you were totally robbed. Speaking of favouritism, I think Nat should actually have been in the bottom three instead of Darrsh but if you're Nat, unevenly cooked spatchcock (which was the main part of her dish) is apparently less of a problem than a too-sweet puree. Yeah, OK, whatever. 😏 I'm OK with Sav being bottom three because a nearly raw egg along with overcooked poultry are two quite bad errors (the overcooked poultry actually causing Jean-Cristophe to be mega critical for once). I'm sorry to say Harry also should be there because tonight was not the night to be making a chicken wrap and he should have realised that. It's a shame he is so absolutely in the "fish guy" lane because in a competition like this, he just isn't going to be able to make it every single time (although he's certainly tried) and it will likely stop him from getting much further. I don't want Darrsh to go and I'd rather Harry didn't, so with a bit of luck it's bye-bye Sav tomorrow night.

Well, even though I'm sad Lochie was the one to go, if we can believe the feedback from the judges (and let's face it, we probably can't!) he was the logical choice. I must admit, I do agree with Poh that perhaps having that much time didn't actually help Lochie because he just kept on randomly adding things to his dish that it didn't need. Yet Harry, with only 25 minutes due to his inability to "maths" 😂, came up with a cohesive and tasty dish, even doing a couple of pivots in his plan when he realised he didn't have eggs in the under bench staples for an egg wash. I'm prepared to concede that Pezza would have cooked the duck really well but we knew he was good at cooking huge hunks of meat in week 1. And (much as it pains me to say something positive about Sav these days) Sav, against all my predictions, didn't just bid for spices and grains and actually made something different for once. Only took her 10 weeks but I partly blame the judges for that because she's been getting away with it every week, just like Harry has with the fish. They didn't even say anything too critical when he made fish ice-cream 🤮 Anyway, best of luck to Lochie and I hope he gets to go down a food career path now. Tonight's recap.

So, who's going home? I bet it's NOT Nat. Probably not Pezza either.

How about this one from earlier in the week? I found it somewhat disturbing 😂

Woohoo - go, Mimi! You might have left it till the very last minute but you finally got your Hong Kong "week" redemption immunity! Glad Sav didn't win it, because it wouldn't have seemed fair given she missed all the other episodes this week, but to her credit at least she didn't cook Sri Lankan food for once. Lochie's chicken looked scrummy through my TV screen but obviously didn't wow the judges enough and Harry's looked delicious - I think he'd have been a worthy winner too. And Pezza is so far out of his depth with anything except his very narrow lane that it's kind of embarrassing at this point. The ingredient/time auction on Sunday should be interesting. Harry will bet too much to get the seafood. Hopefully Pezza will do the same to get the red meat and not have enough time to make anything except a slab of steak as big as his head, thereby getting booted out. Sav should be able to get hold of veggies and spices pretty cheaply and that would give her plenty of time to do a vegetarian curry. I'm just glad that the two contestants I want to do well, Mimi and Darrsh, are safe on the gantry!

Someone up there must have been listening, @Snazzy Daisy, because mission accomplished. I felt exactly the same way. Nat already has immunity so nothing can be done about that. I would have been happy for Harry and Lochie to have immunity but I did NOT want Pezza getting it, especially as he would have been riding on Mimi's coat-tails to an extent. Thankfully, in his own words, "Pezza never uses a wok". Especially happy for Darrsh to finally get immunity and, as they said, great timing too. To be fair, though, I think he and Nat got really lucky with being able to use the deep fryer, and she actually cooked the dish the judges liked the most. But after knocking the poor guy's front tooth out, seems the least she could do! Is it just me or did the locals at the market look quite scared by Jean-Christophe grabbing their umbrella and dancing around with it? And Poh actually looked embarrassed 😂 Let's see what Ben has to say.

I just had a thought - after you win immunity you don't normally participate in subsequent challenges that week so presumably, to keep the teams even, Nat had to cook in tonight's episode because of Sav not being in HK?

Ugh, the Nat-centric episodes roll on and on. From the very second she decided to do things her own way, thereby creating unnecessary fake drama, I knew she was going to get immunity. So there was no suspense other than wondering how many extra hairs from her tentacles blew into her finished dish in that strong wind. 🤮 So become a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant by all means, Nat, but just be aware that a) you won't get to come in and be the star right from the beginning as you probably expect and b) they might actually expect you to get your freaking hair out of your eyes for hygiene reasons. I think Mimi overthought herself out of that challenge and it's a shame because she seemed so organised, too. And Harry, much as I like him, always seems a bit lost when he's not being the fish guy so it's not surprising that he forgot an important step. The team challenge looks interesting tomorrow so hopefully the episode won't be as much of a snoozefest as tonight's, although Chef Vicky was a bright spot.

Unfortunately, I had a feeling during the very first episode of the season that Nat and her tentacles 🤣 would be around for a loooong time this season and nothing has changed my mind about this. Sigh.

She wouldn't have to touch it if she didn't leave half of it hanging over her face when she "styles" it. 🤔🙄