ppl

GOAT Billie! What an amazing end to a horrible season. I hope the producers realize that the Season 5-esque x vs. x format doesn't work. Billie received very generous scores in round 1. Does it make up for all the crap that the judges put her through this entire season? No. Maybe next time they shouldn't break people down and reduce them to tears to level the playing field. Disgusting tactics from them. Billie showed why she is the Masterchef. Perseverance, attention to detail, accuracy and quickness was what led to her 2nd title. Not to mention her humanistic qualities with her kindness and humbleness shining through each challenge. She embodies what a true Masterchef is. I had an inkling that Jock preferred Sarah over Billie and that was confirmed today. Jock gave Billie a 9 while Sarah got an 8 for the Heston finale dish and 17 points vs. 16 in favour of Sarah over the two courses. Heston looked like he had a stroke or COVID or even COVID-induced stroke. Poor guy. I hope he is ok.

Finally! Dan is out!!!!!!!! You just knew that if Daniel had an edible sorbet on the plate, Billie would have went home. The judges were already starting to spin Daniel's main as being a good course minus the fish skin. Not Billie's finest work. She was lucky Daniel made two rookie errors. Her time management was off this time. She self-sabotaged by trying to do too many elements for dessert and that impacted the rest of her dishes. If she had maybe one or two less elements on dessert, she would have the time to cook the duck perfectly and perhaps balance the entree with more time. Her Lamington dish looked really good though. Sarah sacrificed being late in making sure her dishes were presentable and balanced. She chose the right strategy because every time, being late doesn't count in a service challenge. I liked her scampi dish. Seeing Billie and Sarah book their places in the top 2 is a nice feeling after all of the questionable judging this season. I'm really happy that 2 of my top 3 actually made it to the finale. Onto Heston!

Why did they give Daniel dish of the day with Peter's savoury course when they explicitly said his plating wasn't as nice as Sarah's and her savoury flavours were identical to Peter's? Wtf. Andy helping Daniel peel his walnut. WTF?! Andy looking at Sarah putting in her second batch of cocoa tuiles into the oven and not saying anything about the plastic film on top. WTF! Loved Billie tonight. She was supportive and gave meaningful tips to everyone like telling Sarah about the plastic on top of her tuiles. Not barking out the meaningless "You GOT THIS!!" phrase over and over. Extra content: The judges were asked to reminisce about their favourite moments of the top 3 and Andy's favourite moment of Billie's was when she did the Kirsten Tibballs' pressure test because he saw how stressed and pushed to the extreme she was that he thought she deserved a semi-final place for that alone. FUCK OFF. Top 3 service challenge. I love this challenge. Can't wait to see who crumbles tomorrow.

Once again, the judging is biased in favour of Daniel and against Billie. Seriously, the judges are nitpicking every little thing that Billie does wrong and using a 3 Michelin Star standard to judge her dishes while helping Daniel and ignoring flaws in his dishes while using kindergarten standards to prop up his dishes. Telling Daniel to check on his fish after already giving him a big hint with the cured salmon is inexcusable at this stage. It is top 5. They should be able to stand on their own with their ideas and time management. If you really want to know how biased these judges are, Billie has never won immunity in a winner-takes-all against the other Masterchef contestants this season. Meanwhile, Daniel has never been in the bottom 3 besides Marco Pierre White's elimination (probably because they don't dare to go against Marco's opinion).

The judges' decision to send Michael home was the wrong one. If Montana didn't meet the brief then she should have been sent home. I remember the old judges kicking people out for not following the rules of the challenge. There were lots of social media engagement today from Facebook, Twitter and other places that vilified the decision or posted sad tributes to Michael's departure. It's these decisions that people will remember and end up changing the channel. It might not happen in the short term but next year, when people decide on whether to watch it again, they might think twice about watching Masterchef.

I don't know which one is the bigger travesty: Michael not making the top 10 or Aldo and Daniel both making the top 10. Nice to see that Rick remembered Billie! Her Spanish stew looked divine.

Michael with the dad jokes. Julie with her best Marco Pierre White impersonation. Tommy teasing Michael. Brown team is ready for a comedy tour. The Brown team switching the entree and main course was a disaster. I think, if they had kept the order of dishes the same, they would have scraped out a victory in the end. Beer and chocolate do go well together. It's been done before on Masterchef. Pistachio is a common dessert flavour so I can see how it all worked together. Maybe she put too much beer in the crisp or the blackberries didn't work together with the rest of the dessert?

I don't believe that. I think they knew what was coming and wanted to save Daniel from doing the pressure test. They knew that he would have to cook a dessert with only a review against people who have made desserts before. He even said himself that the review is hard to decipher. The way the judges talk about Billie is the same way people talk about bringing down Goliath. They don't really like her and want to send her home but can't do it. It's those biases that some viewers can see through and be turned off by when someone is being unfairly criticized or conversely praised for their dish. This season is critical for these judges. The ratings are way down even with the return of the favourites. People are up in arms about almost every judging decision already. If they choose an "unworthy" winner, it will accelerate the decline of Masterchef. At least Billie had the top dish once again.

How the fuck did Daniel escape the bottom 4? His lamb fat wasn't rendered down properly aka. not enough char on his lamb. He didn't execute the brief properly. Meanwhile, they put Billie into the bottom 4 when her peaches were considered the best use of fire of all the dishes and stunningly delicious. Absolute fail on the judges' part.

Hey look, Aldo is cooking from his heart and soul once again. If only the other contestants were as respectful and humble with their cooking as he is, maybe they would cook a beautiful dish too. The editing sucked once again. I wish they would have cut out Aldo completely or Julie-Marco bonding time and have it spent on more reunion time with Marco and Billie. Billie and Tommy's dishes looked mouthwatering and scrumptious. Aldo's dish was hideous. It looked like tongues licking half cut lemons. I liked Alvin's dish but prawns with egg floss and a sauce in 75 minutes seems like poor time management.

I'm glad to see Marco back in the Masterchef kitchen again but that dish looked awful. At least put some micro herbs and flowers to make it more appealing to look at. Nice to see Keyma step up and win immunity. Maybe this will be the start of her plating up more fine dining dishes. I'm glad they kept screentime on Harry and Mindy to a minimum and we got to see some other cooks for a change. Marco's back on Sunday so we get to see the reunion between Billie and Marco. I'm waiting for her to knock his socks off after his comment about these Masterchef contestants being the strongest cooks that ever fed him.

Michael is a force of nature in team challenges. He has won every portion of his team's service challenges. I would kill for a Michael-Billie pairing team up in the future. Billie's dessert far and away looked the best in concept and look. I am loving that she is revisiting past dishes and updating them in new and inventive ways. I'm happy that she had Dish of the Day. I really wish that the rules were broken this once and she got to cook off for immunity tomorrow. I would love to see her keeping up with Marco again or at least do one of his pressure test dishes. Aldo is not that great in team challenges and also really bossy. Sarah has had clashing flavours in a few of her team challenge dishes so far. Steph disappeared into the forest after deciding on the Yellow Team's menu only to reappear for Billie's dessert. I hope she charges the editors for that. Finally some real acknowledgement from the judges on Billie. It only took her making the dessert by herself to get it.

Don't know why people are so up in arms about Matt being eliminated. It was a gelato challenge set by a gelato making chef. It should have been obvious to everyone that gelato is the most important part of the dessert. Not enough gelato = instant elimination. Good on Montana for not giving up and reconstructing the beehive dessert upside down. Who is editing this season because the editing in this episode was so shitty that Michael was practically montaged even in a pressure test. Have to give Daniel props for blowing sugar perfectly twice. Maybe he can teach this to future contestants so they can add that to their Masterchef audition checklist.

Hmmm...