Masterchef Recap – 25 May 2011
We begin as is customary in the Masterchef House. Hayden after swimming laps in his boardies appears to be eating his toast and vegemite in the pool. The other contestants are lazing around eating and reading the paper except for Dani who is mopping the floor in her pink slippers.
The contestants quickly realise something is up when they discover nothing is set up in the Masterchef Kitchen. Danielle observes it’s “like the quiet before the storm.” Sure enough we quickly learn tomorrow will bring a team challenge cooking a sausage sizzle with gelato on the side for 500 hungry little nippers at Cronulla beach. The team that makes the most money by 11.30 will win. Jay clearly doesn’t get about much – he’s “never seen 500 kids in one spot before, let alone cooked for them!”
These nippers must be keen. Even though the competition isn’t until tomorrow in the cut away shot they already appear to be at the beach! Craig volunteers to be one captain and selects the blue apron. He is asked to pick his opponent and chooses Michael whom he considers a worthy adversary. The captains then take turns to select their teams. First chosen is Professional Lifesaver Hayden. Craig rationalises that if Hayden takes his shirt off they’ll sell more sausages. We suspect we’ll be hearing more about this.
Menu’s are designed. Shopping with the $1,000 allocated to each team is done and two members of each team head off to make gelato overnight.
The camera crew also appears to be working all night capturing the moment when Hayden’s alarm goes off at 5.14 am. The convoy of SUV’s whisk the contestants to the beach and as the sun rises they set up.
The Red Team (trading as Li’l Red Sharks) has a surprise up its sleeve with a sausage patty and egg sandwich targeted at the early punter. Jay utilising his Used Car Salesman skills is soon spruiking these at $4.50, without much luck, complaining – “mate this is a struggle.” He resorts to discounting, offering the first five for $2 each and soon has $8 in the till.
We cut back to the teams making gelato to discover they are still stabilising the mix, the first step in the process. Hang on a minute, didn’t they start this about 8 hours ago? Ellie and Kate discover they have mixed their ingredients in pounds not kg’s and just bung the extra in right at the end wondering whether “this could cost them the challenge?”
Back at the beach prepping continues. The Red Team has a sausage machine snafu with the mixture not coming out quickly enough. With only one sausage produced in 15 minutes Danielle realises it’s “just not good enough, if we keep going at this pace no way will we win this challenge.” This seems a sound conclusion - with a target of 700 sausages they would be about 7 days late.
The Blue Team (trading as Blue Wave) has a 600 sausage target. Peter is revelling as he “pumps out the sausages” noting how rewarding it is “to turn out something that looks like a sausage.”
Hungry nippers are soon gathering but as yet no snags. Sun correctly observes “we just need the sausages if we’re ever going to make any money.” Both teams start selling at about 8.30 as two Pure Gelato delivery vans arrive with their precious cargo.
The Red Team in another initiative quickly has two mobile selling trays doing the rounds of the beach.
Gelato sales are also underway. Each team with the same offerings – chocolate, vanilla and lemon sorbet. The Blue Team offers an innovation of its own with a “Blue Wave Special” topped with lollies. Dani calculates that one point they were selling 30 scoops a minute – that’s one scoop every 2 seconds! - pretty good going for a team of two.
The judges take some time out to sample the fare. The Red Team sausages are a little dry, but the Blue Teams “Big Ozzie Dog” with onion jam, bacon and cheese gets the big thumbs up. Onto ice-cream with the natural flavourings of the Red Team giving it the edge.
Time for Hayden to step it up and launch his plan. Calling in a favour he is soon on the PA in the surf club extolling the virtues of the Blue Team over the airwaves. This has a pretty dramatic effect with Peter looking over and seeing “Mat’s head blow off!” The playing field is soon levelled with Kate negotiating equal loudspeaker time.
But Hayden isn’t finished. A lady has kindly given him a new pair of Cronulla emblazoned Speedo’s and he’s soon stepped into these, whipped off his apron and shirt and is off chasing kids back to the blue ice-cream cart. This has some members of the Red Team worried, but Jay maintains his cool noting that he’s “never bought a sausage sandwich because of a dude in his swimmers.” The last we see of Hayden is him diving into the surf and swimming out to sea.
Time is running out. It won’t be long until the money is counted and “one team will sizzle and one will burn.” The last fifteen minutes fly past with frenetic discounting continuing right up to the last second with the challenge ending right on 11.30.
The teams assemble for the decision. They must have called in the auditors to count the money because it now appears to be late afternoon and the beach is almost deserted. Rachel reminds us that “no one wants to be in an elimination - no one wants to go home.”
Matt Moran recaps and we learn that “the Blue Team had the secret weapon – Hayden.” Craig’s biggest mistake was not deploying him until 9.45. Will this cost them the win? The money has been tallied with a total of $4,547 raised for the surf club. It only remains to announce the winner with $2,434. It’s the Red Team.
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