In Sunday night’s episode, MasterChef Australia’s top eight contestants were put through their paces in a two-tiered culinary challenge, which ultimately resulted in Adi Nevgi’s departure from the competition.
The gruelling episode saw all but one contestant, Malissa, who had previously secured immunity, partake in a pair of demanding cooking trials.
The initial round of the challenge transported the participants into a seemingly scientific environment, where they were presented with vibrant petri dishes, each holding a distilled ingredient encapsulated within a flavourful pearl. Bereft of any visual, olfactory, or textural cues, the competitors were tasked to identify these core flavours using solely their taste buds.
The challenge proved to be more daunting than it appeared, with Adi being the first contestant to misstep, erroneously identifying rosemary as thyme. Following closely behind were Declan, who confused cucumber for coriander, Rue who mistook wasabi for jalapeno, and finally Brent, who selected turmeric instead of saffron.
The subsequent round centred around the theme of colour palettes, with Adi, Declan, Rue, and Brent being randomly assigned a colour to serve as the inspiration for their dishes. Adi was allotted green, the one shade she hoped to avoid, which led to her losing valuable time due to indecision.
She eventually opted to prepare a dish of kingfish sashimi, accompanied by a Middle Eastern-inspired, green zhug sauce and tapioca crackers. Regrettably, her struggle to balance the dish’s complex flavour profile was evident in the final product.
In contrast, Rue, Declan, and Brent managed to effectively incorporate their assigned colours of orange, red, and yellow respectively into their dishes. Despite the evident pressure, each remained focused and delivered dishes that were largely praised by the judges. However, Rue’s parfait was criticised for its consistency and the plum liqueur in her coulis that hadn’t fully cooked off.
The judges commended Declan’s khao moo daeng and Brent’s octopus yellow curry. However, the unbalanced and underwhelming zhug sauce in Adi’s dish was deemed to be her downfall. Before her exit, Jock commended Adi for her deep understanding of cooking and cuisines, noting her progress as a newcomer to the kitchen.
