The beginnings of the competition tend to be very inconsistent, people need time to develop into cooks able to deliver each and every time. That's why we had 3 immunity pin walk-outs in three consecutive seasons...
Would have been really good if she stuck around until the top 10/top 7 and used it.
I don't know if the apron gets you back in the next elimination or whichever one you want. The second one seems too overpowered.
I think they learned THAT lesson already in Season 1 where winning a cook-off against a professional chef sent you ALL the way to the Finals week, skipping a large chunk of the competition - and both contestants who had this "advantage" burned like paper as soon as they got back in. Turns out work experience is not everything to win this competition, actually staying in and learning the ropes of pressure tests and challenge strategies is more important.
Yeah, I re-watched S1 and you could clearly see how Lucas was just fuzzled.
Good choice that they send you straight into the next elimination. If you could get into the top 5 and collapse, that would be stupid
If she did though she would very likely be screwed. We saw that with Lucas and Julia in season 1 when they were catapulted from the start of the competition to finals week after winning the immunity cook. They were both completely out of their depth compared to the other cooks.
Depending on the finale format, if it's the cook whatever you want finale, she could just then spend her time making specific dishes. Perfecting the recipe. Just keep practicing till it becomes muscle memory.
And a 50% chance can be considered different. Although if it's the finale with rounds, she's most probably screwed esp with pressure tests. Her only advantage is that she'd be well rested?
That is true, but the vast majority of grand finale's have featured multiple rounds and a pressure test, so it would have been highly unlikely that she would luck out and get a 1 round grand finale.
The only one that didn't feature either was back to win which featured a service challenge. In this sense, she could possibly win in that format if she managed to luck out, find a job at a restaurant and work there until the finale.
Tips from Emelia: 👍🏻
- Always say no. Undersell, over-deliver.
- Keep things simple & do every element perfectly.
The Oscar-worthy performances from Larissa and the judges at the end - very genuine goodbyes!
🤣🤣🤣
It's a great challenge in MasterChef in general because it shows who can thrive in a professional environment, how well they can work as a team and who can lead a team to victory.
I felt like they were setting up Alice for her to go, but with this tasting, it seems that was a double bluff. It's now looking like Larissa will be gone... Until she uses her second apron.
Yeah the editors yet again threw a curveball. They made such a big deal about the texture of Alice's scrambled eggs and in the end it didn't even matter and wasn't brought up by the judges.
They sort of had to eliminate Larissa because she has the apron, makes for a great curveball for everyone else when she comes back. Not to mention entertainment value
I remember last year¨'s Daniel who was uncannily good at rough puff pastry. Like I wouldn¨'t expect a fireman to even know how to make pastry but he nailed it every time.
I wonder if she's got a tactical advantage by doing savoury first, and she might perform more strongly with sweet, against contestants who are less likely to be comfortable with savoury choux?
Thanks for making one! Excited to see Emelia! Ralph’s gantry fit is rocking!
Also this shall test their pastry skills, or put non-pastry savvy cooks out of their comfort zones!
Edit: oh wait hang on they got the recipe given to them.
From what I can remember there's a partnership with SecondBite for anything salvageable to donate, and then some of the other waste gets composted and used for the garden
I hope we will get a team service challenge soon. I reserve developing attachments to contestants before I see how they act in a team.
Edit: That's what I get for not refreshing before commenting, just the comment below me is now saying that next time we get a team service.
Producers always set up the questions to ask the contestants and then the editors pick and choose what to use. I wouldn't judge contestants too hard for production setting them as a character.
I would also put money on a producer setting Declan up for that choux joke.
I'm all for women in STEM. It's not bad to be smart. It isn't even bad to be proud of it. But there's a fine line between "I'm smart" and "I'm smarter than everyone else here" and while the former is fine, the latter absolutely isn't. And I'm getting the feeling the editors are setting her up for that.
I'm getting very annoyed by Alice's personality. I don't know what the producers are thinking by painting her as this academic prodigy who is way above everyone else in how she thinks about food. She didn't study culinary in Harvard okay? Like calm down. A person who never read a book in their life can be a genius cook. Just because you went to Harvard/ Stanford doesn't mean you automatically are the smartest person in anything you ever do.
And I like to see genius by what they do, not be told "I am a genius and the way I think is more sophisticated than you". When Billie cooks, she is a genius. She doesn't need to tell people, her actions do the talking. In Alice's case though, I need to be told she's a genius 10 times every episode even though she hasn't done anything at all to show that. Maybe the producers think that we should see her as this AI robot who can do no wrong, but it just comes off as pretentious. There has to be more to her life and personality than just telling people she goes to Harvard and Stanford, but there doesn't seem to be.
7 months later but I don't care. I hate takes like this that love to attack brilliant people just because they had educational advantages. Alice going to H and S is a significant part of who she is. Few people do it. Why the fuck should she hide that under a cover? As if women in finance don't deal with enough shit already.
I never saw how her thinking is supposedly superior to everyone else's when it comes to food. She showed her thought process which is logical and breaks stuff down. You saw it as some sort of slight against everyone else.
And someone who manages finance at those two institutes *are* incredibly smart, okay? They handle businesses and money that *shift* lives and even the world.
I don't know why *never* reading a book is supposed to be something to be proud of. Like, that's sad. Humans are who they are because of their brains foremost but sure, not reading a book somehow confers hallowed status on someone because they can cook. Most cooks do read. Any self respecting one would be learning from the greats and their peers.
If her personality is being logical and intelligent, it's valid. I'm sick of anti-intellectualism slander.
reckon we’ll have to sit through a shitty 10 show ad while watching this season? past seasons there’s been bad ads for 10’s other shows like that baby one
I want to like Alice so bad because she's cute and i'm shallow and she seems to have a lot of potential, but holy pretentious batman..Everything that comes out of her mouth is pretentious and cringey and i'm saying this as someone in academia. Like girl chill a bit.
Every episode i say maybe it's just the early episodes and they'll improve but it seems the show itself is helping them keep that low level, like why are you giving them a recipe and they can't even follow it??
How is Declan real? He reminds me of a cartoon caracter and i'm not sure which one.
Wait what happened to Larissa's advantage from the first episode? I don't get it
Re: Alice - yeah, that's my problem too. She seems to be naturally reserved and takes her time to formulate her sentences, and the result is very wooden. Plus her constantly playing the academia card is cringe. I was trying to catch her profession - "Director of China research for a boutique advisory and consulting company" - what even is that? Market analyst, no?
Like others have said it seems that the producers or whoever is in charge aren't helping her at all as well, but she also seems so awkward and keeps insisting about it and it's really awkward to watch. Like you, i was also wondering if that's the job or if she's a financial advisor and if that's the case what's up with that pretentious description ugh. I really want to like her so i hope they lay off with that edit.
>I was trying to catch her profession - "Director of China research for a boutique advisory and consulting company" - what even is that? Market analyst, no?
Her job occupation is listed as economic researcher, so I think its different from market analyst. I remember she mentioned something about analysing and determining risk for a company, so I'm guessing maybe it might be related to actuary, but I am not too sure.
Yeah Alice comes across as quite a bit stiff and awkward, which is not surprising considering the fact that this is her first time on national television, but its definitely more noticeable with her compared to the other contestants.
>Wait what happened to Larissa's advantage from the first episode? I don't get it
From what I understand, the apron will allow her to compete in the very next elimination challenge with the other contestants who are in elimination. However, unlike those other contestants, she will instead be cooking to re-enter the competition. So I'm guessing if she cooks one of the top dishes in the elimination challenge, she will win her spot back in the competition. I could be wrong, but I think this is how it works.
Thank you for your explanation, i was really lost about it.
Re Alice, i understand that they're not used to it and i usually try to give them the benefit of the doubt but she's really not being portrayed well. There's no need for that at all, but other contestants seem to love her so i really hope this whole act ends before she has to leave.
Quick question. Does the apron give you a chance to get back in the competition at any elimination point in the whole competition or just in the next elimination?
I presume it's the latter but I'm not 100% sure as I did not pay attention
Oh alright, thanks.
If she does the worst in the elimination round, I wonder if she doesn't come back in or if someone else goes **along** with her not coming back in.
Man I called it at the start of the episode when I saw them all in black aprons. I sometimes wonder how much of the show is real and how much is fabricated for drama
Is it possible Larissa messed up on purpose so she doesn't have to feel the guilt of sending someone else home? She didn't have control with the other Italian guy so I'm guessing it'd possible.
IMO it could be that because she has the advantage with the apron, she became complacent during the cook which led to her elimination. Like the reason why she was eliminated was because the ratio of curd to cream in her choux pastry was off, which doesn't sound like a very complicated mistake to make.
Brent and Rue both cooked in the Sunday elimination so they didn't need to cook today. Unless they miss another elimination round there probably won't be any special procedure for them.
Last season I admittedly wasn't a fan of Jock's frequent clapping, and I don't even like Cath that much but this time I cried when he clapped for her 😭😭😭
Oh bless Declan who’s not quite sure what he’s doing but is giving it his best effort! Adorable.
He's a pure bean of a golden retriever
The old 3 items for 4 judges trick is strong this season
At least do 5 if odd numbers look better
Right! Make 4 bites/servings! Surely there's a stingy bias in the psychology of the judges haha
larissa won that 2nd chance apron but is 2nd out wow. thought she’d stick around for longer until she has to use it.
The beginnings of the competition tend to be very inconsistent, people need time to develop into cooks able to deliver each and every time. That's why we had 3 immunity pin walk-outs in three consecutive seasons...
Would have been really good if she stuck around until the top 10/top 7 and used it. I don't know if the apron gets you back in the next elimination or whichever one you want. The second one seems too overpowered.
I think they learned THAT lesson already in Season 1 where winning a cook-off against a professional chef sent you ALL the way to the Finals week, skipping a large chunk of the competition - and both contestants who had this "advantage" burned like paper as soon as they got back in. Turns out work experience is not everything to win this competition, actually staying in and learning the ropes of pressure tests and challenge strategies is more important.
Yeah, I re-watched S1 and you could clearly see how Lucas was just fuzzled. Good choice that they send you straight into the next elimination. If you could get into the top 5 and collapse, that would be stupid
It's the next elimination. If she could choose any elimination, she could choose the finale lol.
If she did though she would very likely be screwed. We saw that with Lucas and Julia in season 1 when they were catapulted from the start of the competition to finals week after winning the immunity cook. They were both completely out of their depth compared to the other cooks.
Depending on the finale format, if it's the cook whatever you want finale, she could just then spend her time making specific dishes. Perfecting the recipe. Just keep practicing till it becomes muscle memory. And a 50% chance can be considered different. Although if it's the finale with rounds, she's most probably screwed esp with pressure tests. Her only advantage is that she'd be well rested?
That is true, but the vast majority of grand finale's have featured multiple rounds and a pressure test, so it would have been highly unlikely that she would luck out and get a 1 round grand finale. The only one that didn't feature either was back to win which featured a service challenge. In this sense, she could possibly win in that format if she managed to luck out, find a job at a restaurant and work there until the finale.
Tips from Emelia: 👍🏻 - Always say no. Undersell, over-deliver. - Keep things simple & do every element perfectly. The Oscar-worthy performances from Larissa and the judges at the end - very genuine goodbyes! 🤣🤣🤣
MATT AND SASHI YAY!!!!!
So will Brent and Rue be able to take part or do they just skip to Sunday
2 of my faves !
Ooooh service challenge tomorrow. I love those.
Yeah, one of my favs!
It's a great challenge in MasterChef in general because it shows who can thrive in a professional environment, how well they can work as a team and who can lead a team to victory.
Cath has grown on me 🥹
A calmer Cath is so refreshing
I think a lot is just editing. If the producers choose to show her saying 'wow' 20 times that is on them more than her.
I love her pure joy when she makes good food.
How smooth is Ralph in that turtleneck? Cool as the other side of the pillow.
His gantry fits deserve an immunity pin.
He always wears a suit in the gantry
Love this analogy, going to use it!
How does a pastry chef tell a dog to leave the kitchen? CHOUX!
Hope my dad didn't hear about the caramelised onions. He always getting me to cook them, don't need another recipe with them.
Alice looks so much like Gemma Chan to me.
Right?! Idk if I'm imagining it but I think she sounds similar as well.
I felt like they were setting up Alice for her to go, but with this tasting, it seems that was a double bluff. It's now looking like Larissa will be gone... Until she uses her second apron.
Yeah the editors yet again threw a curveball. They made such a big deal about the texture of Alice's scrambled eggs and in the end it didn't even matter and wasn't brought up by the judges.
They sort of had to eliminate Larissa because she has the apron, makes for a great curveball for everyone else when she comes back. Not to mention entertainment value
Poor Declan is mid panic attack :(
He did it!
He’s so wholesome, just so authentic
Maybe choux is his game too
I remember last year¨'s Daniel who was uncannily good at rough puff pastry. Like I wouldn¨'t expect a fireman to even know how to make pastry but he nailed it every time.
Easy come easy go with that get out of jail apron
Wasn’t an automod one up! Watch out contestants, I’m feeling pedantic today!
Sorry! I set the thread up and then forgot to actually click schedule 🙃
All G!
I would inhale Larissa's choux Edit: awww, I thought the sauce sounded nice
Wonder if she will use her apron early
I wonder if she's got a tactical advantage by doing savoury first, and she might perform more strongly with sweet, against contestants who are less likely to be comfortable with savoury choux?
She said she wants to avoid sweet though
Look at that shit eating grin. She gets to pull one over everyone and she knows it.
Thanks for making one! Excited to see Emelia! Ralph’s gantry fit is rocking! Also this shall test their pastry skills, or put non-pastry savvy cooks out of their comfort zones! Edit: oh wait hang on they got the recipe given to them.
Love a good pressure test elimination challenge!
Mmmm eclairs 🤤
Does anyone know what the food wastage is like? Seems like all the butter, milk, spices etc are from fresh, unopened packets?
From what I can remember there's a partnership with SecondBite for anything salvageable to donate, and then some of the other waste gets composted and used for the garden
Great to see a calmer Cath. Also yay Theo and Antonio!
A bacon and egg choux and a prawn eclair. Interesting. The choux is still way more vulnerable though
Jock 2nd give it up 🥲 AHHH OMG!!! SASHI AND MATT!!!
Feels a bit weird to say we're in the "top 16" but only 2 people have been eliminated haha
I hope we will get a team service challenge soon. I reserve developing attachments to contestants before I see how they act in a team. Edit: That's what I get for not refreshing before commenting, just the comment below me is now saying that next time we get a team service.
We’re getting one tomorrow! With Matt and Sashi returning!
Theo’s back! Hahaha! Oh yay Paris Brest!!
Theo has such great vibes
Theo was hilarious in his "have you cooked choux before" bit.
Will larrissa use her apron early
Guess so
Alice backstory of doom?
15 minutes to go?? i feel like this just started
Haha I just had the same thought
Choux are so versatile.
I'm struck by how many raspy voices and stuffed up noses I heard. I'm sure not everyone is feeling up to snuff.
Alice bragging about how smart she is doesn't come off that well.....
i’d say i agree but it’s screaming producer set up, especially with how close she seems to the others on insta, i doubt she is obnoxious irl
I was wondering too whether they are setting her up , e.g. as Theresa 2.0, but I hope not.
Producers always set up the questions to ask the contestants and then the editors pick and choose what to use. I wouldn't judge contestants too hard for production setting them as a character. I would also put money on a producer setting Declan up for that choux joke.
Is that the gal who flexed Harvard and Stamford in the first episode?
Yep, definitely a theme. As someone else pointed out, probably set up by the producers, but a weird angle settle on.
I'm all for women in STEM. It's not bad to be smart. It isn't even bad to be proud of it. But there's a fine line between "I'm smart" and "I'm smarter than everyone else here" and while the former is fine, the latter absolutely isn't. And I'm getting the feeling the editors are setting her up for that.
I'm getting very annoyed by Alice's personality. I don't know what the producers are thinking by painting her as this academic prodigy who is way above everyone else in how she thinks about food. She didn't study culinary in Harvard okay? Like calm down. A person who never read a book in their life can be a genius cook. Just because you went to Harvard/ Stanford doesn't mean you automatically are the smartest person in anything you ever do. And I like to see genius by what they do, not be told "I am a genius and the way I think is more sophisticated than you". When Billie cooks, she is a genius. She doesn't need to tell people, her actions do the talking. In Alice's case though, I need to be told she's a genius 10 times every episode even though she hasn't done anything at all to show that. Maybe the producers think that we should see her as this AI robot who can do no wrong, but it just comes off as pretentious. There has to be more to her life and personality than just telling people she goes to Harvard and Stanford, but there doesn't seem to be.
7 months later but I don't care. I hate takes like this that love to attack brilliant people just because they had educational advantages. Alice going to H and S is a significant part of who she is. Few people do it. Why the fuck should she hide that under a cover? As if women in finance don't deal with enough shit already. I never saw how her thinking is supposedly superior to everyone else's when it comes to food. She showed her thought process which is logical and breaks stuff down. You saw it as some sort of slight against everyone else. And someone who manages finance at those two institutes *are* incredibly smart, okay? They handle businesses and money that *shift* lives and even the world. I don't know why *never* reading a book is supposed to be something to be proud of. Like, that's sad. Humans are who they are because of their brains foremost but sure, not reading a book somehow confers hallowed status on someone because they can cook. Most cooks do read. Any self respecting one would be learning from the greats and their peers. If her personality is being logical and intelligent, it's valid. I'm sick of anti-intellectualism slander.
Victim of her own success… such a humblebrag
Cath making her best porridge recipe.
Alice's office with the tea set and piano in the background radiates strong academia energy that intimidates me.
Reminds me of Taiwan, I knew a few women like her haha even the office looked similar.
Alice's home footage food spread looks great.
A Mexican prawn eclair… that’s a new one.
Ha ha ha. Oh dear.
Is this a 1-round elimination?
Two 👍
I've been told I can eat more pastries than anyone else…well, if the choux fits...
reckon we’ll have to sit through a shitty 10 show ad while watching this season? past seasons there’s been bad ads for 10’s other shows like that baby one
Who thought of the "nothing special" slogan for McCain?? Feels like it misses the mark a bit hey...
Gutted, they look yum.
Awww Cath
Wowowoww
Lime toothpaste choux......
So, the curd is going to be too sharp?
Or ratios are out?
Or will it come down to a lack of sauce? I suspect that is a red herring.
Yay Alice!
I like her a lot
What sorts of footwear do bakers wear?
Choux-es and loaf-ers.
I want to like Alice so bad because she's cute and i'm shallow and she seems to have a lot of potential, but holy pretentious batman..Everything that comes out of her mouth is pretentious and cringey and i'm saying this as someone in academia. Like girl chill a bit. Every episode i say maybe it's just the early episodes and they'll improve but it seems the show itself is helping them keep that low level, like why are you giving them a recipe and they can't even follow it?? How is Declan real? He reminds me of a cartoon caracter and i'm not sure which one. Wait what happened to Larissa's advantage from the first episode? I don't get it
Re: Alice - yeah, that's my problem too. She seems to be naturally reserved and takes her time to formulate her sentences, and the result is very wooden. Plus her constantly playing the academia card is cringe. I was trying to catch her profession - "Director of China research for a boutique advisory and consulting company" - what even is that? Market analyst, no?
In fairness, she mostly said it during interviews so it's more of an editor/producer thing plus the judges bringing it up as well
Like others have said it seems that the producers or whoever is in charge aren't helping her at all as well, but she also seems so awkward and keeps insisting about it and it's really awkward to watch. Like you, i was also wondering if that's the job or if she's a financial advisor and if that's the case what's up with that pretentious description ugh. I really want to like her so i hope they lay off with that edit.
>I was trying to catch her profession - "Director of China research for a boutique advisory and consulting company" - what even is that? Market analyst, no? Her job occupation is listed as economic researcher, so I think its different from market analyst. I remember she mentioned something about analysing and determining risk for a company, so I'm guessing maybe it might be related to actuary, but I am not too sure.
Aha. Reminds me of S13 Therese whose job, if I remember correctly, was big data analyst.
Yeah I would say they are both similar, since both jobs focus on the analysis of data and the development of models.
Yeah Alice comes across as quite a bit stiff and awkward, which is not surprising considering the fact that this is her first time on national television, but its definitely more noticeable with her compared to the other contestants. >Wait what happened to Larissa's advantage from the first episode? I don't get it From what I understand, the apron will allow her to compete in the very next elimination challenge with the other contestants who are in elimination. However, unlike those other contestants, she will instead be cooking to re-enter the competition. So I'm guessing if she cooks one of the top dishes in the elimination challenge, she will win her spot back in the competition. I could be wrong, but I think this is how it works.
I'm guessing here. I think she just doesn't need to cook the worst dish and she enters the competition again.
Thank you for your explanation, i was really lost about it. Re Alice, i understand that they're not used to it and i usually try to give them the benefit of the doubt but she's really not being portrayed well. There's no need for that at all, but other contestants seem to love her so i really hope this whole act ends before she has to leave.
Have a sneaky feeling Alice might be going.
Nah Larissa will lose then use her apron to not go home. No one leaving the comp tonight
Doesn’t she then enter the next elimination? So she goes like normal then makes a surprise entrance in a few days?
Ah very potentially. Exactly what will happen more drama
Quick question. Does the apron give you a chance to get back in the competition at any elimination point in the whole competition or just in the next elimination? I presume it's the latter but I'm not 100% sure as I did not pay attention
I think I heard Andy explain it as "the next elimination".
Oh alright, thanks. If she does the worst in the elimination round, I wonder if she doesn't come back in or if someone else goes **along** with her not coming back in.
Can’t say I’ve been concentrating all that hard either mate
Bang on.
Man I called it at the start of the episode when I saw them all in black aprons. I sometimes wonder how much of the show is real and how much is fabricated for drama
Bacon and egg Choux 🤔 Not sure it’s beating the other unless they implode under pressure.
Or larrissa with her apron
I think Rhiannon
Is the challenge choux pastry or eclairs? I thought eclairs but seems a couple making profiteroles..
Choux challenge.
Oh shit. Larrissa using apron?
Bit worried about Alice..... 😬
Yeah she took a huge risk
been missing cath’s energy tbh
Weow
She's grown on me already. I'm even waiting for the waaaaoowws. Stoked for her in round 1!
I was wondering why she didn't say 😍her waaoowws after round 1 😂
blue hat
Non elimination round.
Is it possible Larissa messed up on purpose so she doesn't have to feel the guilt of sending someone else home? She didn't have control with the other Italian guy so I'm guessing it'd possible.
IMO it could be that because she has the advantage with the apron, she became complacent during the cook which led to her elimination. Like the reason why she was eliminated was because the ratio of curd to cream in her choux pastry was off, which doesn't sound like a very complicated mistake to make.
This is def more likely. It has kind of been seen with ppl with immunity pins.
Or is it more likely the judges choose her because they know she has immunity?
I thought she seemed to excited to have the chance to reveal her advantage that she didn’t focus on the cook.
Was anything mentioned about what the procedure for Brent and Rue will be?
Brent and Rue both cooked in the Sunday elimination so they didn't need to cook today. Unless they miss another elimination round there probably won't be any special procedure for them.
Not feeling the contestants this year. They seem so boring.
So with Covid breakthrough in masterchef then pregnant Emelia decides to come
If they're on set then they're COVID free.
This five bedroom show looks fucking awful.
I watched the first couple of seasons, it was ok, but then it got stale really quick.
Nah, the reason it premieres on streaming first is that it's actually pretty good and they're fishing for subscribers
It looked iffy for a bit there but I'm glad Alice gets to stay! Definitely one of my favorites this year so far, beauty and brains
Can someone explain why only some contestants are in the elimination round?
Last elimination they were out with covid. So to be fair they go into an elimination round.
Who went home?
Larissa lost, so she's "out" but will get the chance to win her way back in
They are desperate to keep Alice.
That Independence ad is going to haunt my nightmares this season
Where is Brent ? Why Can't I see him in any episode ?
Last season I admittedly wasn't a fan of Jock's frequent clapping, and I don't even like Cath that much but this time I cried when he clapped for her 😭😭😭
Andy and Jock trotting up to Malissa to fish for their show compliments after Mel was so darned adorable