katisha

😭 😭 😭 😭 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. 🤔🙄

Well, after seeing the episode I know that Sav hasn't made it to Hong Kong for unknown personal reasons but will be back for the elimination episode. So that at least meant there was one less annoying person to deal with in the episode! Even though they were looking for a top 3 dishes today so we didn't really have "a" winner, I think Mimi can count that as a moral victory over teachers' pet Nat because the judges clearly loved her dish the most. And my God, it looked bloody delicious! Also, was Nat trying to out-Pezza Pezza by claiming to have never made those type of rice paper rolls or noodles before? I may be doing her a disservice but it sort of sounded like bull to me! Speaking of Pezza, protected species time again tonight. First, when he told Jean-Christophe that the pork mince was too salty, Jean-Christophe hinted to him, "So what do you usually do when something is too salty?" Pezza says he doesn't know. And then, just in case that wasn't enough of a reminder, Andy came over and reinforced the messages. Jeez, I'm not a contestant on the show and even I know you can balance out excessive salt with acid, something fatty or even a bit of sugar. I'm a bit worried about Lochie that he didn't seem to have many ideas for tonight's cook and the finished dish indicated this. Darrsh too because if this week is going to be focusing on the local cuisine, that's not quite in his wheelhouse. Here's Ben's take on the episode.

New thread! Meanwhile, did Sav take this photo, or doesn't she want to hang around the other contestants? Hmmm...

Well, thanks to what turned out to be completely inaccurate spoilers I didn't think I had to worry about Sumeet, but unfortunately I should have. ☹️ (Now that she's gone I'll reveal that in the latest Sportsbet market she was actually supposed to finish runner-up!) And it's not that I don't think she deserved to go, because that frozen raw egg thing never sounded like a good idea and I hate blue cheese, so I can understand why the judges had to boot her. It just sucks that people like Pezza and Sav are still there while she's gone. Oh, well, at least she got her Coles sauce prize and I'm happy for her that she did. Things I enjoyed about this episode: Harry winning dish of the day, finally. And he didn't have to cook fish to do it! Enjoy that business class seat! Mimi continuing to be very creative and mostly getting the balance right. Things that made me want to rip my hair out: Pezza. STOP REFERRING TO YOURSELF AS PEZZA! And he might have thought his dish was incredibly innovative, but if he's using himself as a measuring stick, let's fact it, we're not talking about a very high bar. Nat apparently served up eggs with both a runny yolk AND a runny white but that wasn't enough of a sin to put her in danger, of course. Meanwhile, the stupid bows are back along with some little flowers. It's a shame she doesn't seem to know how to clip that hair away from her face when she's cooking. If Sav wonders why people think she's quite a one dimensional cook, perhaps it's because the only way she seems to be able to add a novel twist to anything is to combine it with Sri Lankan flavours. Not necessarily wrong but not at all innovative in my opinion. With Sumeet gone my loyalties now lie with Mimi and Darrsh. But really, I'm OK with anyone winning as long as it's not Pezza or Nat. This post was brought to you by Primo ™️

Maybe, but not quite in the right way! Things we learnt from this episode: Pezza might not have any creativity to speak of but I'll say this much for him - he can follow a recipe (also making me think his many "I've never done xxx before in my life!" statements aren't quite accurate.) Unfortunately, he had a really good day today. Godammit! Sav's hubris came very close to bringing her undone today. She was actually quite rude to Andy when he asked her whether she had enough ingredients to re-make the mousse, and she snapped that she had the ingredients but not enough time. And trying to fix the mousse HER way probably took three times longer than re-making it would have, which is what I think Andy was trying to suggest to her. She's just lucky that Alex stuffed up that coffee gel so badly. She needs to learn a lesson here but I can't see it happening, unfortunately. The Disney Prince still looks like, well, a Disney Prince! Nat could probably tell us which one. 🤣

First up, I really enjoyed Nagi as a guest and would be happy to have her back. She's got a lovely, positive energy and was generous with praise when it was deserved. Well done, show, for actually providing a suitable bottom 3 for once! Even though they tried to make it seem as though Nat might end up there, I knew overcooked rice wasn't enough of a food crime for the judges to do this to her in particular. Let's face it, she could probably have served them raw rice and she would have still evaded the bottom 3. Meanwhile, Mimi's dish looked absolutely delicious and I'm glad it was the best today. Sumeet was excellent too and I don't know why they keep doubting her ability to produce quite a few dishes in a short amount of time because she's done it a number of times now. Even in putting Pezza in the bottom four, Poh actually felt she had to apologise to him for her comments about not liking the sauce. I mean, he's a business owner and farmer in his 40s, a dad and a grand-dad. He really should be handle a few critical words. Why do they believe he's so fragile? And I don't like sweet peanut sauce either. If I wanted to eat something sweet and peanut-flavoured I'd get peanut brittle. Alex should definitely be where she is (although had Pezza cooked what she did, they probably would have compared him to Heston Blumenthal). And Sav isn't the cook she first appeared to be (and still seems to think she is). But out of the three, I hope she lasts a bit longer than both Pezza or "Crispy". Recap time!

And sure enough... 😂 Now that I've got that out of the way, GRRRRRRRR! With the lack of a female relative or two to reference, instead we got the Pezza sob story side about missing "the wife and kids". I could probably have looked past that but even though I can understand why grainy creme caramel might not eat as well as whatever Pezza plated up, is nobody EVER going to say anything about his appalling plating? I mean, why did that chocolate cake have to be cut into unattractive chunks of irregular size? Before he decided to cover them up, the custard thingies which didn't set properly looked like runny dog turds. The whole thing was a mess but the judges were speaking about it as if it was some kind of miraculous advancement in how the guy makes desserts. Enough already with the favouritism! Poor Gill. You deserved better but you don't fit the agenda of the producers so bye-bye. Article about Gill's booting here. You might enjoy the really sweet things Gill wrote about working with Lochie on the twinning challenge last week, @Snazzy Daisy. Darssh knocked it out of the park. He's really, really good and I love that he mostly cooks his desserts and isn't only able to make frozen things with moulds in a blast chiller (hello, Reynold!). I'm not going to post any spoilers on this thread at all about what I've seen on the Sportsbet page. The only comment I'm going to make is that it's all over the place! In past years they've had things pretty much bang on from the top 10 onwards and it's absolutely not the case this season. 🤐