‘MasterChef Australia’ Recap: Goodnight, Sweet Prince
It’s the MasterChef Australia season 11 semi-finals, and all of this season’s past contestants have returned to judge those remaining from above.
This year, instead of a Service Challenge, the MasterChef semi-final is taking the form of a Pressure Test. What’s more, it’s being set by chef Peter Gilmore, inventor of the infamously complicated Snow Egg.
“I’m sorry for what’s about to happen,” says Peter to the contestants. I do not believe he is sorry at all.
Larissa, Simon, Tessa and Prince Harry have two hours to recreate Peter’s White Coral, a dessert including frozen, aerated white chocolate mousse; prune jam and ice cream; and oloroso caramel. They also have 15 minutes to plate up at the end, and each has to make four servings.
That’s right — Peter and the judges get to eat four desserts each, while I have only ever been allowed to have one. There is no justice in this world.
The first element the contestants have to get on is the white chocolate mousse, which they basically blow bubbles in before freezing to make the white coral. Think Aero chocolate, except way lighter and less amenable to being carried around in your bag in case of emergency.
Prince Harry is working as though the hounds of Hell are snapping at his heels, speeding along so quickly that he gets his mousse in the blast chiller before the recommended 15-20 minute cutoff. “It’s good, because when something goes wrong he’ll have time,” says Steph from the gantry. At the speed he’s going, something probably will.
Something’s already gone wrong for Larissa, who has overwhipped her egg whites to create firm peaks instead of soft. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have time to make a new batch, so she has no choice but to use it.
Larissa mixes the egg whites through her chocolate, resulting in a very lumpy mixture. She tries to smoothen it, but the more she mixes, the more she risks knocking the air out of her mousse, which could cause the whole thing to deflate into a dense mousse rock.
She finally gets all the lumps out and puts her mousse into the blast chiller at 15 minutes down, but Larissa is falling behind.
Also needing to pick up the pace is Tessa. She somehow managed to altogether avoid Pressure Tests until now, and she’s struggling under the brutal pace. With 20 minutes down, she’s still working on her mousse mixture while everyone else moves on to the prune jam.
The judges watch as Tessa literally jumps up and down, shaking her mousse-filled siphon gun like it owes her money. She eventually gets her mix in the blast chiller; however she’s very behind and flustered, concerned it won’t set in time. There’s no time to marinate in the stress though — she has to keep moving.
“You can do it,” yells Derek from the gantry.
“Put your back into it,” sings Larissa to herself.
At one hour and 15 minutes to go, Prince Harry and Simon are working on the anglaise for their ice cream, and Tessa seems to be catching up to them. However Larissa is still behind, and it’s only made worse when she realises she’s made a sizeable mistake.
Not only has Larissa neglected to add her prune juice and cream to her anglaise mixture, she hasn’t even cooled down her juice. There are less than 45 minutes left on the clock, so there’s no time to let it cool now. Instead, she pours the hot prune juice and cream into the churner with her anglaise, watching helplessly as everything separates and forms her second lumpy mixture of the cook.
Whisking doesn’t improve the situation at all, so Larissa decides just to churn the whole thing and hope it combines. None of this is ideal, but there’s simply no time to try fixing anything.
Prince Harry’s lightning pace bites him with less than 15 minutes to go, when everyone is hand whisking their oloroso whip. HRH’s mixture splits, and it straight up looks like puke in a bowl. It looks like someone ate way more than the recommended daily dose of bananas.
He considers trying to fix it by heating it up, which is certainly an approach considering Peter thinks it may have split because it was too hot. “It’ll be really interesting to see if this actually works for you,” says Peter. At that, Prince Harry decides instead to start his whole whip all over again. It’s a good thing he’s been moving so quickly.
With 10 minutes to go, Simon also decides to remake his oloroso whip. His first batch is a bit grainy, which he puts down to having overwhipped it. I don’t understand how anyone could overwhip anything by hand, what with the arm pain accompanying the endeavour, but maybe Simon doesn’t have a nervous system.
To plate up, contestants have to dunk their mousse in liquid nitrogen, then shave it down so it looks like coral. Simon and Tessa both double dunk their mousse to ensure it doesn’t melt, and produce the top dishes of the night. The judges consider Tessa’s the closest to Peter’s, which she’s stoked about considering she just wanted not to be last.
Despite her troubles during the cook, Larissa’s White Coral has held up as well. The mousse is a little dense, but it’s held its shape, and her prune ice cream is delicious and smooth.
Sadly, this cook finally marks the end of the monarchy, as Prince Harry’s coral is denser than Larissa’s and slightly deflated. The flavour is good, and the judges deem his dish “not bad” overall. But at this level, even the most minor technical elements can send you home.
Larissa, Simon and Tessa thus earn their places in tonight’s MasterChef Australia grand final, where they will have to cook a three-course meal for 60 guests to win the title of MasterChef 2019. I’m not sure even a professional chef would attempt that solo, but I guess if they die from stress, MasterChef won’t have to pay out the $250,000 prize.
Amanda Yeo is a Sydney-based writer, lawyer and MasterChef enthusiast who still thinks Reynold should have gotten an immunity pin for his 30/30 dessert in season seven. Follow her on Twitter: @amandamyeo.