In tonight’s elimination challenge, the contestants arrived to an empty MasterChef kitchen to find video messages from Jock, Melissa and Andy.
With a list of ingredients from the judges, the contestants had to cook a delicious meal they would treat themselves to.
For Ben Milbourne, presenting overcooked salmon and an unbalanced dish sent him home in an emotional farewell.
The contestants had 75 minutes to cook anything they liked, sweet or savoury, and whoever cooked the least impressive dish would be sent home.
Reynold, Brendan and Tessa were judged as the top three best dishes of the day.
Reynold returned to his strength – desserts. Making a whipped ganache with a walnut brown butter crumble, coffee-steeped vanilla ice-cream and burnt vanilla meringue with lemon jam. It even sounds great on paper!
Brendan impressed making “biangbiang” or put more simply, hand-smacked noodles with cumin beef. His grandmother taught him how to make noodles, so he had a strong connection to this dish.
Tessa was inspired by Mexican flavours and cooked flathead with a brown butter sauce and anchovies.
For the bottom two, Rose joined Ben with a play on “peaches and cream” – citrus panna cotta, crumb and peach puree.
Ben’s glazed salmon with charred spring onions and walnut cream came down to the cut – fillet or collar. Preferring to use salmon collar, Ben cooked the fillet as backup.
But when taking the fillet off the hibachi and seeing the skin cooked perfectly, he decided to serve that instead of the collar.
For Rose, the judges didn’t like her crumb, but for Ben, his salmon was overcooked and the walnut cream was too sour.
A devastated Ben left the competition regretting his chosen cut of salmon.
