We know that after a sugar high, comes a sugar low.
And tonight, after a brave battle during a desert-themed elimination challenge, pint-sized promising cooks Ben and Ruby were eliminated from Junior MasterChef Australia.
With Vienna and Dev safe after winning Immunity in the previous cook, Carter, Ben, Filo, Georgia, Tiffany, Ruby and Laura entered the MasterChef kitchen to discover it had been transformed into a magical winter wonderland, with snow falling inside.
Behind the judges, the contestants soon spotted a cabinet filled with different flavoured ice creams and immediately they realised that round one would be the infamous taste test.
The rules were simple, the first four cooks to incorrectly identify their chosen flavour of ice cream would be sent to round two, while the remaining three would join Vienna and Dev on the gantry.
Georgia was the first cook sent into round two when she failed to correctly identify black sesame ice cream, and Ruby soon followed when she mistook cherry for raspberry. As the flavours got wackier and trickier to identify, Filo incorrectly guessed corn ice cream instead of honey and Ben soon followed, mistaking apple for bubblegum.
In round two, Filo, Ben, Ruby and Georgia were terrified to discover they would be competing in the first pressure test of the season, set by none other than pastry chef extraordinaire, Darren Purchese.
The cloche was lifted, and with mouths agape, the contestants looked on as Darren set a fairy floss cover alight to reveal a perfect, edible snow globe.
The contestants then learnt that their task was to recreate Darren’s infamous dish, Snow, in just 90 minutes. The two dishes that were least like Darren’s in terms of flavour, texture and presentation, would send their makers home at the end of the day.
Filo entered round two eager to impress. His focus was impressive, and the judges marvelled at his clean bench and precision. He nailed all four elements of Darren’s dish and was safe.
Georgia delivered both the flavour and texture of Darren’s coconut cake and her white chocolate and mint cream, with both elements deemed the best out of the four aspiring cooks, so she lived to fight another day in the Junior MasterChef Australia kitchen.
Ben’s red glaze was perfect and he did the best job at recreating the look of Darren’s dish. But he failed to adequately mix his cake batter, which affected its texture when baked, and resulted in him being sent home.
While Ruby’s sugar dome was crystal clear and the best of the day, her white chocolate mint cream was too minty and there was not enough gelatine in her red glaze, making it so thin it soaked into her cake, so she too was sent home.
In the end, it was an emotionally charged farewell to two of Junior MasterChef Australia’s favourite young cooks.
