Tonight on MasterChef Australia we farewelled one of the good eggs, as Amina’s eggs in her meringue let her down.
As twist week continued, the losing team from yesterday’s service challenge were up for elimination – Poh, Laura, Hayden, Callum, Jess, Reynold, Sarah C, Tracy and Amina.
The judges were joined by guest judge Darren Purchese who revealed the contestants would be making his complex mango passionfruit pavlova – a meringue shell encasing an intricate mango and passionfruit entremet.
With three hours to complete the dish, whoever’s pavlova was least like Darren’s, would be sent home.
When the countdown began the contestants read the complex recipe and got started on the first element, the passionfruit curd. Amina didn’t feel confident with the meringue element and decided to start that first. A risky decision as she was already falling behind the others.
And then came the twist no one saw coming. Bye, bye recipes. With one-hour left of the cook, the judges took away the recipes leaving the contestants on their own.
Poh was floored and Reynold was clearly stressed. But for Laura and Jess, although shaken, they got on with the job. Without the recipe and already far behind, Amina was struggling.
With 30 minutes to go, it was time to assemble the cake. With most moving forward, Poh was still spiralling from the twist. She had three incomplete elements and had to drop one to get something on the plate.
As the contestants started to turn out their cakes to finish off the final elements, Amina discovered her mango mouse hadn’t set and Poh’s cake separated leaving a mad rush to the finish line.
When it came time for tasting, the judges were enormously impressed with Jess’s near perfect dish. Laura also impressed.
For Callum, Sarah C, Tracy, Hayden and Reynold, with something not quite right about each of their dishes, they were all still good enough to see them safe.
When Poh presented the judge’s first impressions were that the shell looked great, but there was no glaze, and upon tasting, found it overall unbalanced and very different to Darren’s.
Amina’s cake was tasted last, and with her meringue too thin, it fell apart and the judges noted faults in every element.
The verdict was in and in an emotional farewell, it was time to say goodbye to Amina.
