A passion for garlic proved the downfall for Samantha Mumba on Masterchef Ireland on Thursday night and she was given the chop.
Samantha’s overly garlic-y spuds turned out to be her Vindaloo, sorry, Waterloo on the quarter final. She cooked up a Porcini Mushroom and rosemary-crusted beef tenderloin with an onion and tarragon cream sauce and red wine jus.
But the judges thought she overdid the garlic on her sweet potatoes. Hanging up her apron, Mumba said: "What I was as a cook has 100% been elevated and I’m just braver now and have a much higher respect for food and birds amongst other things!"
Sorry Im so late,just wanted to say a HUGE thanks to evryone for the amazing support!Replying to you all in the am!❤#celebritymasterchefIRL
— Samantha Mumba (@samanthamumba1) February 24, 2017
Four celebrity contestants now head into next week’s Masterchef semi-final following Daniel’s masterclass on Thursday night’s show - cooking celeriac baked on open coals with hazelnut Hollandaise, which is a dish from his own restaurant.
The cooking celebs had just two hours to complete the task but none of them managed to complete the dish in the allotted time, much to the annoyance of the judges.
The pressure was on for the second challenge - the celebs had to prepare their own dish of choice for six members of the panel; food critics Gilian Nelis and Katy McGuinness, restaurateur Sandy Wyer, food historian Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and former master chef winner David Gillick.
Niamh Kavanagh kicked off the challenge with a rack of lamb with plum sauce, potato dauphinoise and cauliflower puree, which caused mixed opinions from the panel.
Colm O'Gorman’s attempt was seen as a “trying too hard”. His venison fillet on date Labneh with peanut crumb and a blackberry sauce served with smoked potato was described as “too many competing flavours”.
Oisin served up a pistachio duck with pickled beets and cherries in a cherry juice and it went down a treat and he is particularly praised for his progress in the competition by Daniel and Robin.
The dish was described by the panel as “Remarkable, perfectly cooked” and “Definitely restaurant standard cooking of the duck”. However, Simon Delaney took the lead with Robin describing his dish as the ‘dish of the competition’.
The panel were somewhat apprehensive of his choice of a simple dish such as risotto, however they were proven wrong with Simon's leek and smoked haddock risotto topped with a poached egg, served with a sourdough garlic bread crusted haddock and a cream and grain mustard sauce.
The panel describe the dish as “blowing everybody out of the water” and “on every level, the dish is excellent”.
