MasterChef Ireland was served hot and cold this week with a flavour test and a battle of the icy desserts, Patrick Hanlon muses on the culinary competitors as the final few weeks kick in.
As opposed to last week’s impressive visual account of the daily life of chef Giles Clark kicking off the episode, where he whizzed around Dublin on a bike akin to Duffy’s beautiful performance in her ill-fated Diet Coke adverts, this week we just got a good ‘ol fashioned look back at the series.
The group is beginning to look bare..
After last week’s shock loss of experienced frontrunner Andy Spencer, it was anyone’s game to take this week. Tamarin has seemed to slowly gain her confidence back, while Sinéad managed to squeeze through amidst countless near-misses. Nicha is still steamrolling ahead, while Brian, Jacinta, Terry and Fidelma have all been coasting throug, some gaining momentum and some taking knocks here and there.
Delving right into it, this week was all set in the MasterChef kitchen. Molecular gastronomy was introduced at the top of the episode, before we got a fast look at famed gastronomist Dr Juan Valverde and top chef Karl Whelan, never to be told much about them again! Obviously they needed as much time as possible to go through the flavour challenge, and boy did this bunch need time.
With thirteen different flavours to figure out across ten different dishes, the seven remaining contestants were challenged with identifying “tastes you know”, disguised under unusual colours, textures and presentations. Possibly one of my favourite tasks this season, only because it’s one where every single person at home is thinking “Jesus, I could do that!”, forgetting we all have already been told what tastes they are trying to identify. “Come on, it’s obviously beetroot!” and “How can you not taste dill from that?!” I shrieked.
Fidelma may have been written off or forgotten about before, but she has certainly held her own
Up first was Fidelma who gave a lacking performance, before being sent to the naughty chair, as the contestant with the lowest correct guesses, so far. Fidelma has been, until now, quietly shining brighter than her competitors from out of the blue. Next up was Sinéad, the clear underdog this season, who protested she has a great sense of flavour and name checked dining in El Bulli as criteria for doing well. Oh, how we all howled at those famous last words, if ever we heard them, but Considine surprised everyone by getting the most flavours right.
Sinéad surprised by emerging as the leader of the pack this week
Next up, Nicha, Tamarin, and Brian all inched level to Fidelma and stood beside her as the new supergroup, The Power of 5, all with matching scores. Nicha showed weakness in this challenge, even though you all probably thought with her exotic flavours in past dishes that she would guess everything, I did too! Brian and Tamarin also impressed by guessing some of the harder flavours, including smoked salmon, thyme, dill and rose.
Now for Jacinta, who I personally thought would ace this task, being an organic farmer. But she proved dismal at flavours, only managing to get one guess correct, the easiest flavour – apple. She saved her four competitors and took to the naughty step, before Terry scraped a score of four with odd guesses and a bit of an I-give-up attitude.
Terry had signed out of the challenge before it even began
Straight to the next order of business, with smiley yet scathing Kieran Murphy of Murphy’s Ice Cream giving a quick class in sorbet and ice-cream, along with how to challenge and combine flavours. I could just feel Tamarin’s nerves shatter upon hearing the challenge was to create a dessert, using either a sorbet or ice cream, and marry unique flavours together. Lest we forget Tamarin’s shaky pancake and ice cream recipe a few weeks back which only just about redeemed her spot in the competition.
Tamarin managed to redeem her previous ice cream attempt on this week's episode
She, thankfully, managed to impress the panel with her pineapple cake, the judges all being impressed at her marrying of pineapple, pepper and ginger. Nicha shone similarly, with a gorgeous looking mango ripple coconut ice cream and pear and frangipane tart.
Nicha's looked and tasted good, one of the best this time around
Jacinta's basil and lime sorbet sounded amazing paired with her passionfruit tart but the judges had no time for it and felt it didn't work together on the plate.
Terry’s effort proved a bit wanting, as he made a very simple chocolate raspberry tart with vanilla ice cream, choosing to impress only with salt and olive oil drizzled on top and crystalised jellies on the side. On a similar footing, Sinéad’s dish tasted good but she knew it looked “like a child’s painting”. At least Dylan didn’t comment about her amount of sauce this week!
Brian's dish looked top notch, but the judges didn't all agree
Brian got a lukewarm reception to his treacle and orange pudding with lemon honey ice cream, getting a bit of a scolding from the judges but it’s obvious they still want him around, a shoo-in for the final).
Finally Fidelma presented her peach and frangipane tart with honey, rosemary ice cream. A brave choice that let her down as her tart was undercooked, inedible and unable to be judged, while her almost-melted ice cream was slated as Murphy warned that honey is one of the toughest products to work with.
Jacinta's offering was panned, as it didn't work together
Again, it was a week of a cut to the chase elimination and from the start this week it looked like Fidelma’s time was up in the competition. She took it like a trooper but was soon shocked when Jacinta also got her papers and joined her. An unexpected double elimination, but both had two bad weeks in a row and wouldn’t have lasted until the final.
Speaking of, there’s just three weeks to go! Will super troopers Nicha and Brian keep up momentum? Will Sinéad flap about twice as hard now, or impress with a new found calm in the kitchen? Terry and Tamarin may be on shaky ground. I don’t know about all of you but I’m off for some ice cream....
