Team challenges always kill me to write. There’s always just so much going on that it’s hard to keep up. This episode calls on the most elaborate pastry skills of the season. I’ll try to keep up as best I can.
Kylie and Cupcake Barbie are packing their bags for this overnight challenge. Both of them have no idea what’s in store ahead. Kylie also packs a load of cookbooks. They seriously need to allow something like iPads or Kindles to hold their recipe books. It’s ridiculous how much weight they’d save.
The first challenge is to make a French-inspired dessert. The winner will skip the challenge and be safe until Finals Week. They also get to choose the teams for the team challenge.
The sixty minutes starts and the race is on. Being a dessert challenge the two Dessert Queens feel the pressure to come up with the goods.
Kylie is making a salted caramel parfait turned into a mille feuille. Gary says that her middle name should be “Salted Caramel”. True dat.
CB is making opera gateau. There’s a butt-load of processes that need to be done. She confidently/arrogantly says she’ll get all the elements done in an hour.
Alice is making a snow egg type meringue. Andy’s making a rosemary bavois, a panna cotta. Audra’s making a chocolate pan tart with poached pears. We aren’t shown what Ben or Mindy, so we know they’re not contenders.
Andy’s panna cotta come out of the fridge and he needs to figure out how he’ll take it out of the tray without ruining it. He flips it out and it’s stuck to his board. Gah! Gary flips it back onto his plate.
CB’s opera gateau is first up. Gary really likes it. Looks like she pulled it off.
The judges acknowledge the eternal bromance and call Bandy to come to the table together. Yes, they’ve become one unit. Andy’s dessert is first. He’s not happy with how it turned out. The flavour and texture, however, are great. Ben’s done a chipotle & chocolate parfait with croutons. Sounds Mexican-inspired to me with the chipotle but whatever. Gary says the best thing about his dish are the croutons.
Mindy’s made burnt custard. With “beautiful” lemongrass and galangal infusion. Again, this one sounds Asian-inspired to me. I don’t know how she got away with it. It’s messy and doesn’t win Matt’s approval.
Alice’s floating island is great. After Gary saying earlier that it was a tired, plain dessert, he eats his words and quite a bit of the dessert. It’s got great textures and tastes darn good.
Audra’s chocolate frangipane tart is presented beautifully and tastes fantastic.
Kylie’s mille feuille tastes and looks good but disappoints on texture. Tears trickle.
Top three dishes are Hipster, Audra and Cupcake Barbie. Audra wins the challenge! She’s secured a place in Finals Week and beat the Dessert Queens at their own game. We’re looking at the next MasterChef, folks. I’ve said it for a while now. She’s the most rounded of the cooks in the competition.
Before Audra chooses the teams, they need to bring everyone up to speed on what they’re about to face. Preston goes on to introduce the Patissier of Pain. Adriano Zumbo is in the house! The Dark Lord of Pastry wheels in a supremely complicated cake. It comprises of a Careme-inspired centrepiece. Marie-Antoine Careme was the first celebrity chef in France, who baked elaborate cakes for Napoleon, kings and dignitaries. They must make a Careme styled masterpiece. Their job is not to re-create the the dessert. It’s there for inspiration.
Audra says she’ll spread out the strengths across the teams. The first pairing is Cupcake Barbie and Hipster. Mindy and Andy are teamed up and finally Ben and Kylie.
They’re going to Le Cordon Bleu tonight to cook their cakes. They get until midnight. The following day, they get two hours to assemble the cake.
Their creations will be judged by the two Matts and six of the best pastry chefs in Australia.
They all dig into Adriano’s cake. It’s a stacked piece of art comprising of about six or seven tiers, including a small macaron tower.
They’re all getting creative with their sketch pads out. The two Dessert Queen teams look like they’ve got a handle on things but Mandy have writers’ block.
They arrive at Le Cordon Bleu and their six hours kicks off. CB’s inspiration for the dessert is a present for Marie Antoinette. Alice shows CB the placement of the baking paper in her tray and says, “I’m being anal because I know you are.”. Yep, sounds like CB to me. Her macron tower will include 100 macarons.
Kylie and Ben have five layers in their cake. Taco Boy will be making the cake elements and Kylie will look after the more taxing macarons, choux pastry and fillings.
Mandy’s cake will have three tiers. They know they can’t compete with the others, so keep it simple and have some fun with it.
At this point, Adriano’s favourites are CB and HA. They look in control, have a great idea and CB is breaking Alice’s balls to get it done.
The top piece of CB’s cake will be a clear present box which is edible. She cracks one of the sides of the box when she attempts to cut a hole in it. To fix it, she blowtorches the two sides together and reassembles it. The perfectionist decides to make another one just before midnight, otherwise it’ll keep her up. It’s perfect.
It’s the next day and they arrive a Curzon Hall and start assembly.
Kylie is trying to cover fondant icing on her tower. It’s a nightmare to handle and keeps cracking. She eventually scraps it. The final element of their creation is a great looking croque en bouche.
Mandy know they’re the underdogs so they have a bit of fun. Mindy makes little Gary, George and Matt figurines from fondant. Adriano is concerned with their vegetable shortening icing. It’s a very greasy ingredient and not pleasant to eat. Gary sees the little men and wants Mindy to abs on his figurine.
CB and Alice place drive dowels through the macaron tower to sit atop their cake base. Goes off without a hitch. Then, CB is onto constructing her sugar present box. It’s the biggest pressure point by far. Being made of sugar, it sets quickly, so mistakes can’t be corrected easily. A cracking is also a massive risk. When they get the box on the tower and it stays, Alice does a childish little dance. I can’t help but be enamoured.
Time’s up and all cakes are assembled. The cooks get to meet all the judges first. We learn that Matt Moran got his start as a pastry chef.
CB and HA are first up. It’s a nerve-wracking walk to the judges as they ensure that it doesn’t topple or crack.
The first feedback is that Marie Antoinette would love the colour. Judge, Vincent Gadan goes on to say, “What the hell do pubes doing on top there?”. I choke on my drink. Oh, he said “cubes”! Crazy thick French accent. The box is a bit out of place but the fact that it’s on an angle saves it from being a complete eyesore. Her macarons a luscious and the chefs warm to the idea of the box. It allows them to interact with it, digging in for a little treat and brings people together around the centrepiece. The butter cake base is also very good. They’re seriously impressed with the number of elements executed within the six hours.
Mandy are next. They love the little men on the front. It’s just so damn whimsical. The Moran lop off Georges head guillotine style. Preston bites his own head off. Something, I’m sure, many would love to do. Their first cake is horrible. It’s the one made with the thick vegetable shortening. They say it’s construction material. They find paper and a toothpick in the middle of the second cake. It’s also too dry and tastes like it came from a packet.
Kylie and Ben present a beautiful cake. Kylie is in the presence of her idols and turns into a pastry groupie. The judges feel it’s been the closest execution to the brief. Gadan is impressed they made a croque en bouche, a Careme invention. they say it’s very Marie Antoinette. The spun sugar looks like her hair. The choux pastry rocks. The only let down is the base cake. It’s a bit too dense.
The cooks gather for the results. Audra’s also there, decked out in mummy chic attire.
Preston tells Mandy the judges loved the little men. However, not surprisingly, they’re not the winners today.
Cupcake Barbie and Hipster’s centrepiece had two beautiful elements. However the box on top didn’t look as good as the rest of the cake.
Kylie and Ben’s was the most impressive looking. But the bottom two layers needed more finesse.
It was a close decision but in the end it’s Kylie and Ben that go into the finals. Kylie can’t believe her luck and struggles to express how grateful she is, being in the presence of her heroes and impressing them.
Cupcake Barbie engages her emotion chip and cries because she didn’t win.
Kylie and Ben join Audra on the side. Tomorrow’s the elimination, with someone going home.
MasterChef Australia Reheated 