MasterChef recap: A chaotic delivery challenge has the contestants cranking out curries, again
The emotional rollercoaster of last night's elimination is behind them, and though it will never be forgotten, tonight there is business to attend to, as MasterChef presents a tribute to underpayment. Three teams of four will compete in their own mini pop-up restaurant to create a three-course home delivery menu, which will be delivered to diners who order through the Deliveroo app. Deliveroo: the app you need when you want food but don't want the hassle of using one of several basically identical services. The least impressive team – or at least, the one that cooks the worst food – will compete in tomorrow's pressure test.
The seriousness of the challenge is emphasised by Melissa, who has come dressed as the angel of death. "Remember that your food will travel to the paying public, who will expect it to be high quality," says Melissa, which seems a bit a unfair: nobody expects anything else they order on Deliveroo to be high quality, why burden these poor amateurs with such an expectation?
The orange team's captain is Scott, which immediately raises the possibility of this episode ending like a Kim Hughes press conference. Still, he seems quite happy for the moment, still blissfully unaware of the cruelty the world can bring. The green team's captain is Aaron, who has pulled a power move by putting Justin on onion duty. This doesn't just mean Justin will be unable to influence the flavour of any dishes, it also means Justin will be crying all day.
"I'm really pumped about this challenge, I can't wait to try one of Depinder's curries," says Pete, apparently under the impression that this is an eat-your-teammates' dish challenge. Depinder has taken a vicelike grip on the purple team and will not be argued with. The team's progress is hindered early as Tommy begins wandering the kitchen asking people to do sums for him. If he doesn't find out what 120 times 60 is he could sabotage the whole thing.
The orange team is taking longer than they expected to break down the ducks, who have proven surprisingly mentally resilient. They are using just one duck leg per serve, causing Andy to lift a duck into the air and berate Scott and Sabina for wasting such vast quantities of duck flesh. "We're in a lot of trouble here," says Sabina as Jock sends them out onto the playground to pick up rubbish. It's clear that if this challenge ends and there are still almost-complete duck corpses lying about the place, orange heads will roll like it's the 80 Years' War. Elise starts to panic as ducks take a really long time to dismember and nobody is asking her to make pasta.
Suddenly there is a violent outbreak of trash talk in the kitchen. When Andy notes that the purple and green teams will be going head-to-head on curries, Depinder declares that it's not a problem "when you know you're the best". This declaration of contempt for her opponents fires up the green team, where Minoli swears bloody vengeance on Depinder and her curry dictatorship.
Meanwhile the orange team is refraining from sledging because they are too busy being incredibly slow at everything. Sabina is trying to calculate how many fish cakes she can get out of each snapper, and has come up with the answer "too many". It wouldn't be so bad but she accidentally chose the kind of snapper that has bones.
Jock and Andy visit the green team to check whether their confidence has been undermined properly. They tell Minoli she has a long way to go. Minoli tells them to leave her alone. "We're not trying to scare you," Andy lies. Minoli has 180 balls to roll, and nowhere near enough time to roll them in, but if she's lucky nobody will want them anyway.
Jock uses a set of scales to demonstrate that the purple team has about half as much curry as they're going to need. Depinder has a sudden brainwave: what if she put in a whole bunch of capsicum, so only half as many people will eat it? The purples are so lucky to have her quicksilver brain on their side.
On the orange team, Sabina and Linda have a discussion about what qualifies as "a lot of fish". They decide that scrapping the fish cakes is a good idea, and they're right. On the green team, Justin is making tomato chutney, but refuses to tell anyone why. He and Tommy engage in some lighthearted banter to disguise the fact they hate each other's guts.
Andy tells Depinder she doesn't have enough for her side dish. Depinder orders Tommy to chop some more cauliflower, because giving pointless orders to men helps her relax. Meanwhile on the green team nothing is finished and Deliveroo is threatening legal action.
It suddenly becomes frighteningly clear that Andy is dressed in chef whites. Why?
The Deliveroo riders will be arriving in ten minutes to distribute the three teams' dishes to disappointed diners all over Melbourne. As seems to happen approximately every single time contestants are racing against the clock, miraculously they make it and bags start going out.
Scott brings the orange team's bag to the judges' table. Melissa calls the duck curry "absolute luxury", justifying Scott's decision to serve it as a jacuzzi. The entrée though is full of dry mince, in a bad way.
Aaron serves the green team's bag to the judges. "My mouth is pinging!" Andy exclaims disturbingly. All judges are delighted and Melissa even says she'd order it again, if she were the kind of person who got their food from Deliveroo, which, come on, she is absolutely not.
Maja seems depressed as she brings the purple team's bag to the table. The entrée and the side are successes, but the curry tastes like green capsicum, the most damning thing you can say about anything.
It's all over, and everyone hugs in flagrant breach of COVID-safe protocols. "You've all done yourself really proud," says Jock, before going to on to let them know who actually hasn't. The green team were perfect and the orange team's duck curry was dish of the day, which means the purple team goes into the pressure test and Depinder's arms are very still.
We never do find out why Andy is wearing that shirt.
Tune in tomorrow, when nobody will know happiness.
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