Hands up who went straight out after last night’s episode and booked a meal at Amisfield. (It’s me. I’ve got my hand up.)
Tonight, the six entrants will undergo a pressure test designed by another Kiwi cooking superstar, Michael Meredith, the multi-award winning, proven New York chef behind Meredith’s restaurant in Auckland.
Meredith has given them the task of recreating his legendary whole bone with mushroom and stock dish. They have 90 minutes to take out this bad boy, so someone is going to mess it up and that person is going home.
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The judges will be joined by award-winning Auckland chef Michael Meredith.
The dish – a whole fish fillet, stuffed with a fish mousse, which should be perfectly boneless, resting in an aromatic broth surrounded by a forest area of raw and pickled mushrooms – is deceptively complex. The gang knows exactly how tough it’s going to be.
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Naomi is already on the back foot – she hurt her leg, so staying agile for 90 pressed minutes will be terrible.
Everyone is afraid to fill the bot. They’re all sweaty bullets.
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Chef Meredith gives Amberley some guidance while cooking.
Full disclosure, I’ve never stuffed a fish because, ew. I’ve eaten a bone before, so while I can’t really say how hard it would be to knock them all out, I’m glad they do. I think so?
It’s the quietest I’ve ever heard in the kitchen as they pick out every little bit of fish bone – some of these things are as thin as a lock of hair. As Sam says, “any noise would have been terrible.”
Meredith lands a hammer on Rudi from the gate and calls his fillet “a little rough”. Rudi answers those criticisms in classic Rudi style, with love, and goes further.
To be fair, Rudi’s bot looks like it came all the way out of the sea. I can see guts… I don’t want to see guts. I am not happy that this knowledge of offal is forced upon me.
Things aren’t going well for the Rud-meister General, and we know this because Dearth just asked him if he’d checked the recipe and measured out the ingredients. Rudi says yes. Rudy lied. I just threw it all in. This could be Rudi’s last episode.
Amberley chose to make the whole fillet test 10 times harder by using the biggest knife in the kitchen. Like… maybe use a filleting knife? Just an idea.
However, the whole cook is strict with her. She burns the coriander and decides to put it away and go without, until Meredith talks her off that culinary ledge by suggesting that she replace the coriander stalks in the stock. Amberley is back in the game.
Back at the front of the house, Meredith says he’s genuinely concerned about them all. That’s how I am mate, they make a good pig’s ear as far as I can tell.
The recipe has so many elements – about seven or eight – and they are all precise in terms of weight and amounts. Everything is timed so it all comes together in the end. Turn one element up and the whole can fall over. A lot of elements are messed up.
Naomi is far, far off course, and she knows it. When Judge Death comes to give her a rattle, she can’t look at him. It’s unbearable TV and I don’t like it.
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The hero dish – deceptively simple, with many tricky elements.
I know the show is all about adding drama, but there are limits. If someone doesn’t look you in the eye, it’s not because they don’t respect you or agree with you, it’s because they’re ashamed. I think that’s when you need to back off, not shove a camera in their face and yell at them about broth.
Meanwhile, Elliot and Sam up front exchange a chat about their fried bone skins. It’s all very Maverick and Iceman, with less oily beach volleyball and more oily fish.
Elliot, who some people think is a bit boring, actually proves why methodical and steadfast is king in the kitchen. Yes, he’s under pressure, yes, it’s tough, but he’s on schedule and may not make it look easy, but at least achievable.
As an aside, can you imagine what Sam’s lattes are like? I bet he makes the best flat whites in the country.
Up in the gods, Hana and Alice try to pretend they don’t mind not cooking this dish, when clearly they can both tie a rope to it. They are both excellent with details and multitasking so it would have been nice to see them handle all the tricky elements.
And finally they are done, this is the first time people have not completed a dish. Everyone has something on the board, but kind of like when you put together a flat bookshelf and there are four bolts and a washer left at the end and the bookshelf has a bit of a slope, there are literally half-cooked mushrooms everywhere.
“If I’m the one going home, I actually walk out today with a smile,” Amberley says. “I don’t think I could have done better today.”
Dude, you could have used a knife smaller than the piece of fish you were cutting it with just to get started.
And then we get to the judging.
Sam is the first. He undercooked the gnocchi (rice cake) but they are usually OK with his dish. Amberley is next. She was missing a whole element, they love her fish, but not much else.
Jason gets a lot of love from Meredith and Mabee for his dish, purely on looks, but the detail isn’t there. There are bones in the fish, the gnocchi is undercooked and the stock lacks flavour. Mabee calls them technical problems. I call them “finally home” issues.
stuff
Sam and Elliot make it look easy as usual. These guys are so relaxed that they even have time to have some light-hearted chats.
(No, I haven’t forgiven him for putting cooked food on the same cutting board as raw chicken.)
Naomi is next and she just looks crushed already. Her dish isn’t as vibrant as some of the others and the flavors weren’t great, but Dearth calls her “tenacious” and she really is.
My boy Rudi is next, and… it’s not good. Half of the dish is still on the counter. He just ran out of time. Judge Nadia Lim tells him the taste is there, but the presentation, texture and the dish in general is “sloppy”.
This is terrible news for Rudi. He is crying.
Then in waltzes Elegant Elliot, which is sooooooooo perfect. Pfft. Mabee and Meredith love his dish, it’s absolutely perfect and they both ask him to be their best friend forever. They are actually looking for something to criticize. It’s actually a 10. Nobody likes to suck, Elliot.
Anyway, Sam, Jason, Elliot and Naomi are safe. Rudi and Amberley are on the chopping block. I think we all know how this is going to end, and it’s Rudi who’s going home.
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Goodbye Rudi.
‘Cooking brings happiness’, says Rudi, and he is not wrong. Good luck for the future, mate.
And then there were seven.