MasterChef Australia 2020 elimination: high stakes pressure test will send a favourite home – live | Television & radio

On a less depressing note: this means we have a top five: Emelia, Reynold, Reece, Laura and Callum. Presumably the remaining episodes will be… slightly less stressful?

Thanks for following along for another week! And a special thank you to Bridey for emailing her suggestion of getting Andy on Queer Eye for that green suit. I would absolutely watch that episode.

Feel free to email me your MasterChef takes any time of the week! I love to read them and I respond to what I can. I will be accepting loving odes to Poh for the next seven days. Or possibly forever.

Goodnight!

Callum says that when Australians think about MasterChef, they think about Poh. Mel says millions of people around the world love her.

Poh says that MasterChef made her understand how important food needs to be in her life the first time around, and it’s done it again. She tears up, along with the rest of Australia.

Goodbye Poh!! You have been the perfect contestant for MasterChef 2020: equal parts comforting and chaotic.

I will miss watching you stare intently into an oven every single night. I will miss marvelling at your ambition and skill: the whole cakes and feasts that no one really asked for. I will not miss the anxiety.

Everyone is clawing at their face in shock. Except for Poh who looks like this:

Melissa starts the eulogies: “Poh, you are a national treasure. Every day we could be guaranteed we would get all of your heart, all of our soul, all of your love and all of your commitment. You have been part of the MasterChef Australia family since day one, and it has been the greatest privilege to have you back in this kitchen.”

Poh says “I’m a risk-taker, and that’s what happened today. I met my demise – finally. But I’ve had such a fantastic time.”

Andy says the dishes that everyone presented “really reflected where your heads are at right now”.

“Callum, your dish was very centred and the brief was well and truly hit.”

“Reece, your dish: flat-out risk … but the way you edited it was very smart.”

“Poh…”

Andy loses the metaphor and just talks about the food: the pasta was raw and the sauce was rushed. She’s going home.

On the plus side, the dish looks beautiful.

Unfortunately the first feedback after tasting is: “she was constantly confused about what she was going to do … and that is reflected here”.

Phil says she wasted so much time trying to make a perfect beurre blanc that the rest of the dish has suffered. The burnt butter is very basic, and there’s some raw pasta dough… Poh is done.

“I think the only thing that got in the way of Poh today is Poh,” Jock says.

Oh god, it’s actually happening.

The judges are hosting a full intervention for Poh’s problem with chaos. “What is happening. What can we do.” Spiritually, we are all there with them. My heart can’t take this anymore!!!

Poh is not happy with her cook at all and pins it to her obsessive nature. She can’t shake a failure, and feels compelled to return to it and prove her worth. It’s so sad that she didn’t feel confident doing her Chinese mushroom dish.

You won’t see Laura or Reece or Reynold feeling this self-conscious about cooking what they know!

Callum and Reece have received nothing but effusive praise, and Poh is distraught with her dish. I don’t know if there’s a way out for her here. I feel sick.

Callum’s mushroom and noodle dish is next. He had a fantastic cook in terms of timing. He’s confident in the flavours. There is no bath water in the broth. Tick tick tick.

The judges love it from the outset. He’s filled the brief in terms of highlighting the mushrooms; it’s rich and complex in flavour. Andy goes so far as to say he’s put up a “near perfect plate of food”. Jock adds: “It’s going to be hard to see that one in the bottom today”.

Oh no.

Hey, what does it taste like though?? Mel says the dish has really thrown her. Andy says it’s an “…interesting plate of food”… but in a good way!!

Every judge is surprised by how much they like it. It’s “elegantly restrained” and smart and balanced. Reducing the amount of ice cream and granita was a great call. The beetroot in the granita really grounds the earthy flavour of the potato. They have nothing but praise for it!

If I were Reece, I’d be a little offended by how much surprise is in their voices but still!! Great news.

Reece’s ice cream and chippies is the first dish to be tasted. The big concern here is balance: will the other flavours over-power the potato?

The judges haven’t tasted the dish yet, but they’re taking a sec to reflect on Reece’s cook. Phil says that the dish has come together better than he expected. Also Reece’s restraint on the amount of ice cream and granita could play in his favour.

Andy tries to chime in with an inspirational speech, but he’s immediately and rightfully drowned out with laughter for trying to use the expression “bounce”. Dad!!!

To recap the cook: Callum seems confident, this could be his redemption. Reece is still a bit worried about the flavour balance in his potatoes and cream dish. Poh is having an absolute meltdown.

In the end, she got the butter sauce on the place but she’s really upset. This isn’t a dish that will get her redemption. “I think I’m going home,” she says.

The choral backing is starting up as if Poh has just been fatally shot in a Martin Scorsese film.

With seconds left on the clock, she is sprinting across the kitchen for a ramekin. She is a blur. She is The Flash. They could use the energy Poh generates in the last three minutes of every cook to power the MasterChef kitchen for weeks.

Poh is abandoning her butter emulsion: the exact thing that she ruined during the last round of cooking. THERE ARE 60 SECONDS LEFT. She’s now doing a make-shift brown butter sauce. This means she’s essentially serving the exact same dish she cooked earlier in the competition. Except now some of it is green?