Masterchef Recap – 29 May 2011
Morning in the Masterchef House. Craig is sitting in a darkened room playing a cello. Hayden is out for his morning run. Everyone else seems to be waiting in the kitchen. On his return Hayden spots an envelope by the front door. Only half an hour to pack before heading to the airport. As the contestants frantically throw clothes into suitcases we think it was lucky Hayden went for that run!
At the departure gate they discover they are off to Perth, but we already know this is not the final destination. Transferring to a chartered flight, they find themselves in "the middle of nowhere." Onto a bus and we are fortunate there is a helicopter standing by to track them as they head to a big hole in the ground – the Sunrise Dam goldmine.
Waiting at the bottom of the pit are the judges. Matt Preston in jeans, workshirt and cravat looking like an actor in a bad western. The “hardest Masterchef Challenge ever set” is then explained – two teams, 24 hours and 1,350 meals for 450 hungry miners who will decide the winner. The successful team will be off to Margaret River for two days of pampering. The losers are condemned to another shift in the mines kitchen before a dreaded Elimination Challenge.
Teams are divided. Blue to the left, Red to the right. Finally the moment we are waiting for: Mining Theme Rev Up #1. Gary obliges – “Guys, we have dug you a great blooming hole. Your job is to dig your way out!”
Leadership groups are selected. Blue captain Jay chooses Dani as his deputy. Red team captain Danielle appoints Kate as vice-captain. Jay soon has some white board action going as each team member gets 2 minutes to pitch their ideas. Potatoes – gratin or mashed? As menu planning continues we discover “food is important to the miners – they wouldn’t be happy if there was no food.”
By now we have heard (more than once) that Rachel is from W.A. and her hubby was a miner at this very mine for 10 years. She’s even eaten in the canteen before. She’s very excited to discover a photo of him on the wall – but why is he standing in a rubbish bin?
Kumar has started on a big Curry – 35 kg’s of meat has gone in. Danielle is completely stressed but using it in a good way. Time for Mining Theme Rev Up #2. This time from George – “You guys need to work faster or this mine isn’t going to get blasted with your food!” Hmmm – we think perhaps not the greatest effort from the scriptwriters there.
Stress is building. Someone turned off the curry. Sun suspects Danielle, but we learn it was Kumar. Meanwhile Danielle burns her chicken cacciatore, and she just wants to get out of the kitchen. Gary suggests a solution – pulling out the burnt bits. Dani’s broccoli gets the thumbs down. Gary thinks it’s only suitable for giraffes at the zoo. Jay makes the decision that it has to go.
10 minutes after the doors open for dinner (like the gates at the MCG) the blue team is out of spuds and the hungry miners are “motoring through the pork.” Both teams race to supplement their menu’s with barramundi out of the freezer. The Blue Team elects to serve theirs fried in batter, whilst the Red Team is grilling to order. The miners are however getting sashimi, with both teams putting out raw fish. As service comes to an end Matt Preston thinks the voting is daunting “they could be voting for red or for blue.”
Jay discovers no one is rostered to clean up. This was Dani’s job so he heads off to wake her up. Dani decides Rachel should do it. Rachel tells us that when she learned she had to clean the kitchen by herself she was “so angry at Dani” – perhaps because there is no one to listen to her stories about how she comes from W.A. and her hubby was a miner.
Prepping for breakfast starts at 11.30 pm. Ellie feels that the Blue Team is not very organised, they don’t know what’s on the menu. After a while it dawns on everyone that there is no menu. They’d obviously run out of room on the white board to decide on this earlier. It’s then Dani’s turn to go and wake Jay up, whose “face is all scrunched up” and Dani thinks he’s delirious. This does not diminish his inspirational leadership as he instructs Dani to “look at the Red Teams board and match it”. Dani thinks they are in “deep trouble.” This is hardly surprising when they’ve “been thrown a million hurdles.”
Breakfast is scheduled for 4.30 am but miners start arriving at 4.00. As well as eating breakfast they will make their own lunches from ingredients provided. The Blue Team gets food into the bain marie’s but the Red Team is lagging. Kate forgets to dress her salads, but we know that’s not all shes’s forgotten as miners search in vain for the advertised porridge. Discovering her error Kate is not concerned – she doesn’t think it will be a “big game changer.”
Jay returns and does what he normally does – gets busy with some pig meat, experimenting with deep fried bacon. Normally calm Gary is not impressed, mistaking Jay for Matt and calling him a cowboy! We then get shots of Jay’s sad curled up bacon contrasted against Mat’s delicious oven roasted alternative.
Suddenly we are back at the air strip. On one side the chartered plane awaits. On the other the bus back to the mine. Matt tells us 1,350 votes have been cast (obviously voting is compulsory at W.A. mine sites) and the contestants “hopes are on a knife’s edge” – there is only 20 votes in it. Voting differentials between the teams was 40 for dinner, 124 for breakfast and 64 for lunch. Quickly digesting these numbers we can calculate that the team that won breakfast also won the challenge. It’s the Blue Team. We leave them sipping champagne in Margaret River.
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