We swoon for Steph Woon, but no amount of brownie points was going to save her from Tuesday night’s sweet elimination.
Following their bottom four performance in yesterday’s mystery box, Steph, Alvin, Montana and Billie arrived at the MasterChef kitchen knowing for one, it would be their last day.
At the forefront of modern Italian cuisine, the room was thrilled to welcome Andreas Papadakis from Tipo 00 and Osteria Ilaria. Andreas’ tiramisu is so renowned, it has been on the menu since its inception in 2014. In tonight’s twist, the contestants weren’t able to see or taste the tiramisu, and instead had to make the dish from a review written by Melissa.
Without a traditional recipe, Steph took her time to read through the review and plot out the steps.
With 15 minutes on the clock, she was concerned to see her brownie still needed more time in the oven. Steph worked from instinct and powered through the remainder of the elements, but as she neared the end, she realised she’d forgotten to add vanilla to her brownie.
When it was time to taste, Billie was hopeful she’d done enough to stay in the competition. Presented with Andreas’ tiramisu, she was happy to see how similar the dishes looked. The judges agreed, they said the flavour of the brownie and sauce was near identical to the hero dish.
Next was Montana, and while her dish looked different, Melissa said it wasn’t too far a departure from the original. Alvin’s tiramisu was nearly identical in texture and flavour to Andreas’, with Andreas adding that despite the brownie being a tad off, the remainder of the dish was really impressive.
Steph was last to the tasting table, she was already nervous about the missing vanilla and noticed the obvious differences between her dish and Andreas’. Steph’s fears were realised when Jock said the lack of vanilla made the brownie quite eggy in flavour, and that there wasn’t enough cream within the dessert.
Andy added that she had done some reasonable work on the remainder of the elements, but the ratio and cook on the brownie was off.
The tasting left little doubt, and Steph was announced as the 13th contestant eliminated from the MasterChef kitchen.
