S13.W10 (45-49)

[Athena]

Starts June 20, 2021.

[katisha]

"I can't believe I chose to make curry ice-cream on an elimination day."  Pete, no matter what the judges said, I still feel that sentence is four words too long.  I'm starting to wonder if the contestants are in a competition to see who can make the most revolting ice-cream which the judges will be forced to eat and praise.  

Glad Aaron got the boot because he's been middle of the pack at best and as the weeks have gone by he's sunk further down.  Really, if he couldn't have made something more interesting with that lot of ingredients, he's clearly not that creative.  And with him gone, I feel less bugged that Tommy did so well in the challenge - his skill set may be limited but there's obviously not much wrong with his palate.

I knew Depinder was straight into round 2 the instant she started saying how good her palate is.  She didn't deal well with it, did she?  I think she's one of these people who's just usually brilliant at whatever they do so when things don't go to plan, it's quite disconcerting for them.

Here's the recap and Ben Pobjie agrees about Pete's ice-cream.

Quote

Nick and Andy visit Pete, who tells them he's making a curry ice-cream, and doesn't even apologise or promise to spend the rest of his life making amends for his horrible sins or anything. Nick is extremely unsure about the concept of a curry ice-cream, and fears it might go as badly as his attempt to take over Toon Town. Pete admits that if he ever saw curry ice-cream in a restaurant he wouldn't order it, but he's fairly sure that when the challenge was set the judges told him the dish should be inedible, so he's sticking with it.

 

Quote

Aaron serves his incredibly boring prawns. He tries to make it more interesting by arranging the elements so the prawns look like they have grown pubic hair, but it's fooling nobody. 

🤣

[displayname]

1 hour ago, katisha said:

I'm starting to wonder if the contestants are in a competition to see who can make the most revolting ice-cream which the judges will be forced to eat and praise.  

Oh my god, yes.

[ChicagoMe]

6 hours ago, katisha said:

I can't believe I chose to make curry ice-cream

That's all it took to make me skip this episode - Pete should have been gone with the slimy fish skin dish. The winner was decided in Week 1.

[dippydee]

7 hours ago, katisha said:

I'm starting to wonder if the contestants are in a competition to see who can make the most revolting ice-cream which the judges will be forced to eat and praise.

The judges deserve it at this point, they’re willing to encourage this foulness by praising every single ice cream abomination thrown their way. If they stopped proclaiming the ice creams to be the greatest thing ever people would stoP  using them as an out when they can’t think of anything else.

Can I also add there’s a special place in purgatory for the dreaded ice cream/granita combo. Two frozen things for the price of one. The cooking skills are just mind blowing 🙄

Edited June 20, 2021 by dippydee

[katisha]

3 hours ago, dippydee said:

The judges deserve it at this point, they’re willing to encourage this foulness by praising every single ice cream abomination thrown their way. If they stopped proclaiming the ice creams to be the greatest thing ever people would stoP  using them as an out when they can’t think of anything else.

What gets me is how they praise the contestants for the texture and creaminess of the ice-cream without a single shout-out to the thing which actually did that work, the ICE-CREAM MAKER.  I mean, surely it can't be that hard to get ice-cream right if you follow some basic principles when programming the thing?

Edited June 20, 2021 by katisha

[displayname]

Would anyone actually buy nonsense like curry ice cream and sriracha ice cream, or even dare to make it at home in case it turns out disgustingly?

You do eat with your eyes, and for me, before even looking at the dish or checking the price, if I read either of those things on a menu, I'd just skip past it, and probably would never come back to the place after that, just so I could never be subjected to whatever "whacky" idea the chef might dream up for next time.

OTOH, it would feel disingenuous if they opened a restaurant or wrote a cookbook or whatever else and didn't put in these recipes that were highly praised by the judges. They became famous off the show, but they don't want to put their amazing curry ice cream in their restaurant...? These aren't things they were forced to create; no one said "make an ice cream with unusual flavours". If they cooked it just to win a challenge and have no faith in the flavour, then in general that's a problem with this show for me. I already don't believe the judges talking about it's "amazing quality" or "cooking from the heart/soul/familial bond" whatever anyway.

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by displayname

[Aerobicidal]

Aaron: I'm definitely not done.

Me: Just like Depinder's rice.

Did any of you sick bros realize what a bodacious and dudalicious challenge it is to make curry ice cream? On an elimination episode? An ice cream so unique that it has never been made on Masterchef Australia just like no one has ever made a granita, a crumb, or any other flavor of ice cream? Wow, Pete really took a risk there.

I'll watch on Tuesday but I think that might be the end for me until the final episode. I can only take so many insults to my intelligence. At this point, I'm only rooting for Kishwar.

[katisha]

17 minutes ago, Aerobicidal said:

I'll watch on Tuesday but I think that might be the end for me until the final episode. I can only take so many insults to my intelligence. At this point, I'm only rooting for Kishwar.

I honestly haven't cared less about a season since the dreaded S5, but even that was more interesting because I was at least pretty damn invested in Emma NOT winning (so of course I wish I hadn't watched to the end!).  This season I don't actually feel that passionately about any of the remaining contestants so I think this is why I'm usually doing something else while Masterchef plays in the background. 

[displayname]

Good to know everything is sick. I think I'm out for this season, will check back when they hit Top 3.

[katisha]

2 hours ago, displayname said:

Good to know everything is sick.

If anyone decided to participate in a drinking game involving the words "sick", "asap" and especially EPIC tonight, I hope they've taken themselves off to the emergency room.  

I didn't mind the challenge and despite the fact that I still cringe over how tryhard Justin is with his "youth pastor" speak, he's (dare I say it) kind of growing on me.  If nothing else, he seems a nice guy and his reactions to winning immunity the other day were quite funny.

On the other hand, I'm surprised Scott resisted the tempation to throw a couple of prawn carcasses at Depinder tonight.  At one point he was lamenting how many more prawns he had to butterfly and clean (and let's face it, he probably had THE worst job of anyone in the kitchen today and he was mostly working alone) and Depinder said something like, "Don't be negative - just keep going."  I guess that's easy to say when you're doing a nice veggie rice dish with a bit of pineapple.  You can hardly put the two tasks on the same level in terms of effort and unpleasantness!

Here's tonight's recap for those who might not want to sit through the whole show.

 

 

[misgabi13]

12 minutes ago, katisha said:

On the other hand, I'm surprised Scott resisted the tempation to throw a couple of prawn carcasses at Depinder tonight.  At one point he was lamenting how many more prawns he had to butterfly and clean (and let's face it, he probably had THE worst job of anyone in the kitchen today and he was mostly working alone) and Depinder said something like, "Don't be negative - just keep going."  I guess that's easy to say when you're doing a nice veggie rice dish with a bit of pineapple.  You can hardly put the two tasks on the same level in terms of effort and unpleasantness!

I totally agree.  Depinder was so damn smug about it too!

However, Mr Bloody Scott at one point taking a minute and a half to simply cut a prawn in half and bend each side back is a joke (I did the math) but the look on Elise's face when she realised that '80 prawns done' only meant cut in half and not actually cleaned was priceless!  She was a terrible captain!

I'm wondering if the 'write your own pressure test' means that as the 'twist' they will hand off their recipes to each other and not actually cook their own.  Which would be super funny if you wrote a really simple one for yourself!

15 minutes ago, katisha said:

If anyone decided to participate in a drinking game involving the words "sick", "asap" and especially EPIC tonight, I hope they've taken themselves off to the emergency room.  

I'm pleased I didn't decide to participate - I'd be dead!  LOL

[displayname]

17 minutes ago, katisha said:

I didn't mind the challenge and despite the fact that I still cringe over how tryhard Justin is with his "youth pastor" speak, he's (dare I say it) kind of growing on me.  If nothing else, he seems a nice guy and his reactions to winning immunity the other day were quite funny.

LOL, the editors got you then! If he's winning, then they've done a good job, a lot of the redditors are falling for him, too.

[TVbitch]

17 hours ago, dippydee said:

Can I also add there’s a special place in purgatory for the dreaded ice cream/granita combo. 

I make this dish all the time. ...when I accidentally leave the carton of ice cream sitting on the counter and chuck it back in the freezer and it forms ice crystals. The texture is abhorrent! 

[dippydee]

19 hours ago, katisha said:

without a single shout-out to the thing which actually did that work, the ICE-CREAM MAKER

This actually reminds me of how lazy the contestants have become, remember a few years ago when it was all parfaits and semi freddos with some panna cottas thrown in there? Now it’s all ice cream all the way unless there’s some granita (which quite frankly is even lazier since you don’t need to heat up anything before freezing). At least those other desserts seemed a little more involved than just chucking things into the IceCream maker and letting it do its thing.

 

I agree with people about being close to done with this season, especially since Justing appears to be the chosen one. It’s just not interesting me anymore. It was kind of a chore to get through the episode but I’m glad Kishwar and Linda are safe at least. Since Tommy can’t go I’m hoping for a Scott elimination but Depinders been looking real shaky in these pressure tests so I’m worried for her.

[katisha]

4 hours ago, dippydee said:

This actually reminds me of how lazy the contestants have become, remember a few years ago when it was all parfaits and semi freddos with some panna cottas thrown in there?

At least Elise (the main panna cotta offender) made them with actually edible flavours.  The season must be in trouble when the guy making the disgusting ice-cream (Pete) says, "If I saw curry ice-cream on a menu, I wouldn't order it."  Well, who bloody would?  So why make it in the first place? 

[katisha]

Wow, I'm almost shocked to say that I actually enjoyed this episode.  Maybe they need to set this challenge more often.  I will say I was half-expecting everyone to make ice-cream which featured, for instance, vanilla and fish sauce, or vanilla and sumac, but even though we had a couple of ice-creams and granitas, at least they were relatively innocuous.

Kishwar's dessert looked stunning so it's a pity it didn't meet the brief.  Tommy's, well, it probably was really nice to eat but visually it was pretty meh.  But if Linda's dessert tasted as good as it looked, she was definitely a worthy winner.  

It was good to see the contestants forced out of their comfort zones for once and the results spoke for themselves.

Recap. I missed Justin calling Darren Purchese "Dazza". 😏

[displayname]

I'm only here to snark and say maybe the desserts made everyone sick yesterday.

Also, Kishwar posted that dessert on IG, and I'm calling bs on it losing to Tommy's. Same for Justin losing to Tommy's. Tommy's and Minoli's are the bottom of the table in terms of looks... and that's a part of pressure tests, isn't it? Difficult technique and plating. Whatever.

[ChicagoMe]

I continue to read the recaps but I can't yet bring myself to watch another episode. I feel this season has been manipulated from the top down from the get go. What makes this season so damn disappointing is that last season was so damn good. It helped that it was during early lockdown which made me particularly grateful for entertaining cooking programs. But, since I"m in India, I've been in lockdown - still am - and perhaps the sheer boredom of my life is attributed to the boring meter registering so high on S13 of MC. Thanks for the recaps. But I've reached a point where I no longer care who wins. Seriously, Pete's slimy fish skin did me in - that he received praise for that dish leaves me in a state of suspended disbelief in the veracity of this show.

[akr]

3 hours ago, displayname said:

I'm only here to snark and say maybe the desserts made everyone sick yesterday.

Also, Kishwar posted that dessert on IG, and I'm calling bs on it losing to Tommy's. Same for Justin losing to Tommy's. Tommy's and Minoli's are the bottom of the table in terms of looks... and that's a part of pressure tests, isn't it? Difficult technique and plating. Whatever.

I disagree that "wow" has to be difficult technique & plating - and, for that matter, that there wasn't difficult technique & Minoli's or Tommy's dishes. When they prioritize technique over flavor, you end up with something that's just not that interesting to eat. I was surprised Kishwar had the issue with flavor, though, but she must not have wanted the vanilla to disrupt the traditional flavor profiles she was highlighting. (I'm used to kulfi either featuring condensed milk as the dominant flavor, or with the addition of mango, saffron, cardamom, or pistachio.) I wasn't sure about the critique of the texture, as the texture of kulfi is always different from that of ice cream, and pleasing in its own way. Perhaps it was off, but their description seemed to be complaining about things that are normal for kulfi.)

I thought Tommy's actually looked very inviting once Jock had divvied it up and poured the syrup-y component over it. 

But agree about the "sick" comment!  Pete & Justin can cook, but they're wearing on me, & technique for technique's sake bores me. Show me something I'd like to eat - which would be all of them except for Justin's. 

[displayname]

1 minute ago, akr said:

I disagree that "wow" has to be difficult technique & plating - and, for that matter, that there wasn't difficult technique & Minoli's or Tommy's dishes. When they prioritize technique over flavor, you end up with something that's just not that interesting to eat. I was surprised Kishwar had the issue with flavor, though, but she must not have wanted the vanilla to disrupt the traditional flavor profiles she was highlighting. (I'm used to kulfi either featuring condensed milk as the dominant flavor, or with the addition of mango, saffron, cardamom, or pistachio.) I wasn't sure about the critique of the texture, as the texture of kulfi is always different from that of ice cream, and pleasing in its own way. Perhaps it was off, but their description seemed to be complaining about things that are normal for kulfi.)

I did not say "wow" has to be difficult technique and plating - rather that a "pressure test" is usually difficult technique and plating. This has been true whenever I've seen a pressure test on Masterchef Australia - just this season we saw a Kristen Tibball pressure test which exemplified that.

I did not say there wasn't any difficult technique in Minoli's or Tommy's dishes - rather that they were simpler than the other three's.

I did not say that they should prioritize technique over flavour. It takes skill to make a dish look pretty while still maintaining a high degree of flavour.

I've caved in since I'd made that post and watched the episode - and stand by what I said.

[akr]

2 hours ago, ChicagoMe said:

I've reached a point where I no longer care who wins. Seriously, Pete's slimy fish skin did me in - that he received praise for that dish leaves me in a state of suspended disbelief in the veracity of this show.

I was skeptical of it too, but he borrowed the recipe from one of the world's top restaurants. I'd try it there, but not if a friend or neighbor cooked it for me. (It's one of the many recipes Pete took from Christian Puglisi's book).

So, I don't see manipulation, just an editing failure that leaves us unconvinced. Honestly, that still really sounds like a technique to allow you to eat every last bit of the fish if you're in a starvation situation, though, and I don't know how they expect us to believe otherwise if they're not going to just acknowledge where Pete is getting so many of his ideas; the only reason I trust them is that they don't come from him but from someone with an incredible track record, who does a better job of explaining why they work. "That's sick, dude!" doesn't cut it. (Or, "epic," "wow", etc.) 

[akr]

1 minute ago, displayname said:

I did not say "wow" has to be difficult technique and plating - rather that a "pressure test" is usually difficult technique and plating. This has been true whenever I've seen a pressure test on Masterchef Australia - just this season we saw a Kristen Tibball pressure test which exemplified that.

I did not say there wasn't any difficult technique in Minoli's or Tommy's dishes - rather that they were simpler than the other three's.

I did not say that they should prioritize technique over flavour. It takes skill to make a dish look pretty while still maintaining a high degree of flavour.

I've caved in since I'd made that post and watched the episode - and stand by what I said.

Sorry, @displayname, I probably should have tried to make my points without quoting you. Your comment was a good takeoff point for something I was wanting to say, and we do have some different points of view, I think, but I wasn't intending to disagree with you so much as to make a counterpoint. I get bored when (especially with desserts) fanciness is prized over taste - I think it actually gets in the way of doing certain things well. Minoli's wow point would have been pulling that off in the time allotted. Tommy's was flavor & texture & inspiration. Far better that than isomalt cellophane in my book, and I think Kishwar's, though lovely, may have suffered a bit from the time spent focused on decoration. On reflection, those very pretty cookies added a lot in visual impact but probably not much in flavor; in a longer cook where you can also work hard on the non-presentation aspects of the dish, they're a wonderful thing, but lots of pretty things on a plate is not more difficult, it's just a different focus on how to spend your time.   

[babs1226]

I think that Kishwar wanted to use the flavors she wanted to use, and added the vanilla.  I thought the biggest issue the judges had with her dish was that they lost the vanilla because of the other flavors.  Her plating was lovely, but she didn't produce a vanilla forward dish.   Justin's plating was creative, but he didn't produce a vanilla forward dish.  Linda definitely produced the best dish all around.  So the other two choices were Minoli and Tommy.  Minoli's dish was raw, and Tommy's was delicious and definitely vanilla forward.   I think the right two won their spots in the next immunity challenge.  

[Aerobicidal]

So it turns out there are no more eliminations until Sunday, apparently. I don't even know at this point.

Dessert flanilla sick bro flavor bomb hero wicked.

I'm done punishing myself with this show. Thanks for the insightful and funny commentary here. I'll be back for the final episode, assuming I don't die of passive infliction of insults to the intelligence in the meantime.

[ChicagoMe]

Do you think the producers of this show read the threads? Reddit has a lot more to say but pretty much along the same lines as this one with the exception of an anti-Andy influence.

[katisha]

Ironically, as the show drives away a lot of the little group of fans in this thread, the episodes have actually improved marginally this week.  Again, I honestly did enjoy tonight's show.  OK, call me a sap but some of those family snippets had me feeling a bit teary, especially Kishwar's and even Pete's and Sabina's, and I found Scott's hissy cat hilarious! Very happy for Sabina and Kishwar to be up for whatever this supposed huge immunity power is because I want anyone to get it except Tommy.  (By the way, after watching the previews for tomorrow night, I hope poor Kishwar doesn't cut her finger too badly!)

 

[akr]

I'm not sure why people have been so down on this group - I'm interested in what almost all of them cook, even though I'm not likely to attempt to reproduce the 40+-ingredient recipes that some of them put out. (I'd go to their restaurants instead, and let them do the cooking.) It took me a while to warm up to most of the crew (aside from Depinder, who was obviously a star from early on), but by mid-season a lot of them were looking very strong. (It helps that my top 6 are in the top 10.)

At this point, are Scott & Elise the weak links? I have liked (what little we've seen of) Scott all along, but his braciole seemed a little unambitious, and simultaneously something that couldn't properly be done in the time allotted (so, he changed the cut of beef, but the dish suffered from it).  He seems a solid middle of the pack guy. I like his soft spoken manner, but the fact he couldn't pronounce (or spell - see his instagram re his "bricole") - his partner's favorite dish, makes me wonder if perhaps he's not great at talking about his dishes, either. When we suddenly get a lot of focus on Scott, I suppose it will be a dead giveaway that he's a goner. Elise has been hit or miss for a while now (peaked early? already accomplished so hasn't had the room for growth?), but succeeding, or not, with the cannoli doesn't mean that much. I'm glad she got to give it a go, even if it didn't work, but even if it had I just wouldn't have been that impressed compared to some of the others, even though I love cannoli, & it's an undertaking.

I've had a soft spot for Sabina all along so I'm glad she did so well this time! And I've also been a big fan of Depinder, Kishwar, Minoli, Linda & Tommy for quite some time, so obviously I'm pretty happy with who's left. (I can respect what Pete & Justin are doing even if I find the bromance & the over-reliance on concept a bit wearing. I do not need high concept PB&J, and frankly think the moment for that sort of thing may have passed anyway. It's useful to work on the techniques, though, I suppose.) I guess if people were tuning in for fancy desserts, it makes sense that they miss the people who were inclined towards that sort of cooking, but that's never been what I enjoy about Masterchef, so I don't miss it at all. 

Usually I spoil myself with the twitter thread but yesterday (for the vanilla challenge) I went in completely unspoiled & was surprised at how much more I enjoyed it. I'm going to try to exercise a little more self-control & do that more often as the season winds down. (who am I kidding? I will not pull this off.)

 

[katisha]

11 hours ago, akr said:

Usually I spoil myself with the twitter thread but yesterday (for the vanilla challenge) I went in completely unspoiled & was surprised at how much more I enjoyed it. I'm going to try to exercise a little more self-control & do that more often as the season winds down. (who am I kidding? I will not pull this off.)

Haha, I feel your pain!  Every season I just can't help checking out those Sportsbet odds even though I know they're extremely likely to spoil me for who won.

Go, Sabina!  She was a star in that challenge today, the only one who even came close to keeping up, and not only didn't she need extra help (all of the others got some), she was sensible enough to ignore the peanut gallery upstairs when they tried to tell her to put something in the oven when she knew it wasn't ready to go.  Kudos to her.  I felt a bit sorry for Kishwar because that was really a bad time to sustain a severe cut to your finger, but I doubt she'd have beaten "Beens" anyway.  Tommy has this knack of seeming to fall to pieces whilst somehow doing something right, and Linda was just hopeless but I don't hold that against her.  I have a friend who is an excellent cook, especially with baking, but she's always said she'd crack under the pressure of having to meet a deadline because for her, cooking is kind of a therapy and she enjoys the pottering part of it!

The HUGE OMG!!!! BIGGEST IMMUNITY EVAH!!! was a bit of a fizzer, though.  I was expecting maybe two full weeks of being safe, not immunity from a double elimination plus 10K of groceries from Coles and a recipe featuring in the Coles magazine.  But I certainly wouldn't say no to that prize!

[ChicagoMe]

Well, that was actually a quite interesting and telling episode. All chefs started out on a level playing field. Once Curtis started Beenz was the only one able to keep up - without any help. I was shocked that Linda could not break down a chicken. Tommy relied upon the rest of the bunch to carry him through - he would have had virtually no chance of finishing the challenge without them. Same for Linda and Kishwar (she was already behind when she sliced her finger). It's clear Beenz should be in the top 2 but, IMO, she should win it all after watching this episode. She's been creative and original throughout the entire season and I"m not sure I can even say what's in her wheelhouse - except everything. I'm rooting for her now. 

[babs1226]

I do believe this was the first time they have given away a prize during the competition.  I did not see that coming.  Nice, though!  Two people are leaving, so winning that immunity puts Sabina into top 8.  That's a nice leap.  I really have enjoyed the changes I've seen in this season.  They are definitely refreshing.  I wouldn't mind a Sabina/Pete final.  I would be happy with either one winning.

 

[TVbitch]

The show seems to be over Depinder. I think she knows it too, cuz she's had that end-stage Brent look on her face lately. Could a "shocking" elimination be coming up?

[SnideAsides]

They've done the "winner's recipe gets published" thing before and a couple of the early seasons gave away prizes as a way of doing non-eliminations (I think a private masterclass in Jamie Oliver's house was one of them in the season that had the UK trip?), but I don't remember cash being done before.