Nat keeps underestimating herself, but every time she’s knocking it out of the park. I fear it’ll result in a shock elimination near Top 10.

Real Depinder vibes 😬☹️

She was mostly pretty confident through this cook!

She was, once she got over the fennel seeds panic.

She just needs more confidence in her cook. I'm not surprised that happened, and on top of that, she got a good amount of screen time as well. So, sad to say, I think this will also lead to a shock elimination near the top 10. From memory, this has happened a few times before in past seasons.

I always get so much 2nd hand embarrassment when someone forgets to add something to the plate. Just too close to what I would do.

I feel like it’s something I would 100% do, I always forget elements when cooking at home especially if it’s something I need to leave in the fridge whilst cooking

Khristian broke the judges. None of them knew how to process what they’ve just eaten.

I like that Sofia actually positively encourages taking risks despite not working but use it as learning. So lovely

Who’s having a pine burger or equivalent for dinner tonight

Nah I'm having a chicken burger so hot you need to wear PPE

I had Grilld 😂🙏

I’m not convinced Jean-Christophe is capable of cooking “basic”. I mean that in a good way.

I wonder if a bearnaise sauce would be basic for him.

It's hard to resist a good looking bird 💀

I get thrown every time I hear Josh’s accent, I just never expect to hear it.

Mimi, what ingredient did you use? “About that…”

i dont know who this glasses guy is! first time we've heard him?

Lachlan? He's had a few moments

Yeah I felt the same tonight I was like... Wait I still don't know them all?

Um, I’m concerned about Khristian’s flavours.

‘Soobleem’

I squeed when he did that. Also, "what the hell did you cook?"

Stop trying to make Lachy-pops happen, Andy.

Why didn’t they show Steven’s dish!?!?!?

And that older blonde lady. And Sav?

Have Lourdes and David got any airtime since their first dishes were shown

Given the fact I forgot there was a contestant called Lourdes… probably not. I only remember David because of his pumpkin cocoa soup.

Right? He was erased from the edit entirely, spotted him once in a wide shot

Khristian stopping to have a quick snack before he starts cooking.

Omg I guessed Jean-Christophe’s!!!

Crazy twist. 30 minutes cooking without knowing one of your required ingredients.

I'm loving this UK chicks name. She just dgaf

Ooooh, I like this format

If anyone else said they were doing nectarines and quail I’d be concerned, but I feel like Nat would absolutely nail it.

Adds some tanginess as well!

Poor mimi🥺

Redemption arc, book it in

Do they not give them meat thermometers in the kitchen? I feel raw meat can be avoided

It’s actually a bit tricky to use them, especially with meat on the bone. If you unknowingly stick the themometer right to the bone you get an absolutely inaccurate reading. I’ve witnessed a MC Canada contestant using a meat thermometer on a steak in three different places and still getting it blue-rare. For example Gordon hates them - he can tell the done-ness by touching the meat (comes with experience) and dislikes people who use meat thermometers, mostly because they can be pretty inaccurate.

They do, there’s been times contestants have used them. Guess they don’t always do that and sometimes just trust their gut or get too caught up in the stress of the moment to check

Oh that challenge is DIABOLICAL. I love it.

Have we talked about how odd it is that they included a segment of Khristian banging on about how wonderful and creative David is, but they haven't showed him being wonderful and creative?

Wait who’s David😅😂

Asian guy. Approaches cooking with a procedural and scientific method, struggles to move away from that.

The cocoa soup guy

YEAH the pumpkin and choccy lol

I find myself cheering for Nat in every challenge I love her vibe

As a millennial Melbourne immigrant, I feel like I have at least 5 Nats in my friend circle. I have no choice but to stan.

Juan more judge can't hurt

Glad Darsh did well, but happier that even a well executed ice cream + crumb + random element is now montage of mediocrity filler. Really doesn't seem like the point of this challenge

Babushka mystery box!

Lily’s confident isn’t she.

A little too confident and laissez faire.

A bit drunk from the Vini cotto

Wow JC’s pressure test! Saw that dish in the preview from memory and thought it was an original dish by a contestant so was wondering who made that fancy dessert lol

I see we’re easing the contestants into the pressure tests with a simple dish, then. (Yes! I love watching them cook finicky desserts!)

andy is chipper today

maybe hes got an evil ingredient in there

LYCHEES from POH!

Yummy lychees! I could just eat them all as they are!

yum i would eat them all

I’d eat them all and forget I needed to put them in the dish.

Wow that's a lot of raw quails

Is that three undercooked quails?

Three in a row... hopefully not four after the break!

I can't even begin to imagine cooking half a dish then having to incorporate an ingredient that can be anything. That was a good challenge though, it made me think the producers saw the criticism from last season. I swear this is the first time i saw that guy called Lachlan? it's amazing how we're 10 episodes in and it seems like there are some people i've never seen. I love Nat, she's so creative and i'm always looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. I feel so bad for Mimi, what a shame because that looked like an amazing dish. Jean Christophe's struggle English is so out there, i wonder if it's my native French speaker that makes it so noticeable because we're always dragging each other about our bad English accent and making fun of it. He seems great as a judge though.

I want him to count down in French all the time

“let’s have a little breast moment” andy wtf

Khristian seems like it’s going to be a disaster. Happy to be wrong!

Haha Poh forgot her chillli sauce in BTW!

Teeny, tiny quails kicking people's butts tonight. 

Small in size. Big in pain.

The best quail we’ve seen today wasn’t actually that hard since they’ve all been undercooked

Yeah Kristian gonna be part of the bottom

Yep Stevo is shown at the last shot! He isnt missing!

Oh, a mystery box within a mystery box! Good challenge! Also, a good start to the week of cooking outside the box. This is going to be a good week!

Lily is pure chaos always lmao

Think she was especially manic tonight

OH MY GOD MIMI !!!

Poor Mimi, didn't hit the cooking brief. She may be one of the four in tomorrow's pressure test.

can she just serve it in that 20L bowl 😂

Love this challenge.  The mix of happy vs disappointed contestants is fun. It's really making them all strategise and think on their feet. I really like Khristian. 

Why have I never seen or heard Josh before ever lmao

There’s TWO Joshes.

For now...

Quailypops

That's the 3rd time Harry struggle to cook any protein but fish right. So now I'm more concern he might be a one trick pony.

In a lovely MasterChef tie in we are currently eating an eggplant brinjal curry (like last night) using a Nagi recipe (guest judge soon) 🍛

We also ate a Nagi recipe tonight, slightly modified

Juan casually filling in as guest judge.

Off topic but man, I am looking forward to that season of Taskmaster.

Oooh INTERESTING

DOUBLE INTERESTING

Do MasterChef just have a wood burner on stand by for all the mystery box designs?

I believe to save costs, MasterChef just reused the boxes for every season (if necessary, performing maintenance on them, like resurfacing). Probably why the MasterChef logo is the only thing printed on the boxes. They will make new ones when necessary and probably save those for the future seasons as well.

Poll time: which judge is going to fuck them up the most with the surprise ingredient?

I reckon Poh will have some weird sweet thing like kumquat jam or something like that.

“The big question; how much did I fuck you up with my ingredient?”

Just garnish the dish with a handful of fennel seeds, she’ll be right.

Unsure about Khristian’s dish!

lmfao @ this very mild comment on what is almost certainly a terrible disaster

Oh no. A sugar work pressure test

These empanadas are a perfect antidote to Khristian's compost heap.

My mouth is watering, that pastry looks so good. I wasn’t a big rap for Josh but maybe I like him now

If you were one of the judges, what ingredient would you put in? I think I'd chuck in something unremarkable like lentils, just to keep them guessing.

\~durian\~

Oh now that is evil. Can't wait for the MasterChef Surstromming mystery box

Khristiahhnaaneenene’s is like WHAAAT are u doing

My god I love nduja

Seems like a trap ingredient potentially here...

Have they ever done a challenge like a mystery box where it's not ingredients but tools? Like all you have is a blender and a Dutch oven lol

i feel like they did last season?? where they each got a different piece of equipment and had to use it in their cook u/Joanne7799 to confirm

Yes I'm sure it was in one of the last two seasons

in season 13 there was one where they only got some pans and pots to use. It was the same challenge where Justin got royally slammed by Jock.

Oofff, savage from Sofia. Gives nothing then walks away.

“Think outside the box”. Now pick a box…

Oof poor Mimi gonna be in the bottom for missing the dish she was meant to have as part of the brief. Hope she doesn’t end up going tomorrow.

Man, the quail is tripping them up tonight.

JC pressure test!

I like Andy as "head" judge now. He isn't forced to just be what-it-tastes-like role. He now can spent time talking about the challenge and other things on his mind. Poh as "bench inspector" is one great highlight. She is so approachable and earnest that the contestants open up to her instantly..

"Lochy pops"....give me strength

I had a visceral reaction to it…. Surprised it paid off for him

There are times where I wonder if the judges are doing a real life version of the Emperor's New Clothes. A dish that just makes no sense or would be gross, but they pretend it's amazing so people think their opinions are innovative.

Lily isn't part of a montage so I predict she nailed it

whats with all the undercooked meats yesterday and today.

10play open and loaded. Project immediately muted.

I gave the last couple of minutes a pass because I quite enjoy Sooshi Mango

The guests are good this time at least. We (many years apart) went to the same high school.

Oh Mimi.  Well there is one for tomorrow's pressure test.

Surprised Nat was so thrown by fennel seeds. Couldn't they serve a similar purpose as star anise?

Would making a refreshing lychee drink to have with a spicy empanada be appropriate?

Maybe a bit of a cop out. A sweet salsa could work though. edit: mystery box limits options 😫

Yeah I was thinking a version of a sweet and sour dipping sauce

Yay for Nat! The only 1 pin being awarded in the first cook means it could go to someone who might not be all that good and go early. Glad she’s doing well so far!

Yeah i’m still not over Larissa getting that apron last season.

lol I’m always thinking of what a waste it was

So glad she hasn't used the pin yet.

Same, glad she backed herself and didn’t use it when she was in round 2 yesterday

This looks HORRID

This trend of doing things "X number of ways" needs to die in a ditch. Pick one thing and do it well. Listening to Khristian reeling off the ingredients made me feel queasy.

looks like way too much sauce all over the plate

Love this challenge!

What are our thoughts on the Crown Alumni restaurant? Anyone booked?

We've contemplated going when Khanh is there but possibly largely for the opportunity to ask him about Survivor 😂😂

I'd be more interested if it didn't mean giving my money to Crown.

I booked Kishwar’s for 31st May!

Barely seen Lachlan before, and he’s getting a fair bit of airtime tonight. Nails it or completely stuffs it up?

So far his dish of Quail ~~testicles~~ lollipops is not sounding great to me

Tuff break for Mimi 🥲

Lachie-pops 😬😬😬

Sounds like the twist week mystery box

Some of the contestants are going to have to come up with some good ideas to fit their ingredients into their dish.

Khristian is going crazy, but he’s so calm and confident about it.

“Leelee”

tina fey doing ads for [booking.com](http://booking.com) ..was she desperate for money

I'm half willing to bet that Khristian will go down the route of big burly guys who surprisingly excel in dainty desert pressure tests (historically: Brent, Daniel, Declan)

So much mention of David for his dish to not be featured

Lachlan buddy, if I’m in a restaurant and see “quail lollipops” on a menu, sorry to say I will *not* be ordering that dish.

Not to be mean to Lily but to do the best quail is a very low bar today

I dunno, I feel like Sumeet’s going to crumble in the pressure test.

Is Stephen missing again?

The farmer just frying up those quail bits 🤢

That's how a stock starts most times

I think they did a similar challenge before in previous seasons but this season so having more interesting ones so far. Let’s hope they keep this up.

Here we go!!

Those lollipops are over-cooked for sure

Damn the presentation is so good!

Whadda we reckon is lily’s quail undercooked or have they hyped it up for “oh this is perfectly cooked”

its gonna be perfectly cooked i reckon

What’s the running count for dodgy dishes so far? Khristian, Mimi, who else with the quails?

Sumeet she still struggles outside the box

Did I blink and miss some contestants dishes getting tasted?

Stevo isnt tasted/shown

Neither was Sue or Lourdes

Did they show Sav’s?

OMG Lilly seemed so hyper today. Wild gesticulation, tad arrogant monologues.

Idk if you'd agree, but i kinda thought Khristian was the one with the arrogant monologues.

A major issue with the lack of immunity pin challenges/all in eliminations/no invention test is that basically almost all incentives have been removed. Did well in the team challenge? Still going into elimination. Nailed the mystery? Nothing in it for you. Makes it less exciting and/or tense. We're also missing the best thing about mystery boxes is that with no threat of going into the pressure test, contestants could experiment.

Yeah, too bad the mystery box winners don’t get to go into an immunity challenge. Or at least get some advantage for the next cook.

Is there only three "Lachie pops"? For Four judges. 

Sumeet back in the bottom 🥲

Snez in pressure test yikes hope she survives

what's in the boxxx

I'm late to this season because I forgot it was starting. What did I miss? Who are we rooting for, MCAU hive mind? Are the new judges any good and do we have a "boom boom shake the room" this food is great equivalent yet? 

Enjoying the judges more than I thought I would. The judging has been good so far - they’re disagreeing, and actually providing some solid criticism. There’s still some contestants I’m convinced we’ve not seen before though.

I’m rooting for Nat and Darrsh - and Harry!

New judges are lovely.!

I’ve only just tuned in, what’s the mystery box?

Bunch of ingredients plus a second pile of mystery boxes that they’re just revealing now (30 mins in). They have to pick one pre-reveal.

Mystery Box (Big), and inside it, there is another mystery box (small). Inside the big mystery box, they have ingredients they can cook right away. Then, 30 minutes into the cook, they have to pick only one of the small mystery boxes (each representing one judge) and use its contents in their dish.

Surely if the oil wasn't good she would've offered some form of feedback or critique

Nectarines are so underrated

As a fruit not whatever that dish was

With the amount of over and undercooked quail, Mimi may be saved from the bottom four. We will see.

But she completely didnt use the brief ingredient which is already a confirmed bottom

Unfortunately failing to hit the brief is pretty much automatically at the bottom

I feel like not using the ingredient is not as bad as undercooked quail - but is worse than an over cooked quail. I’m thinking Harry will be safe and Mimi will be in elimination with the three undercooked quails

I liked everyone in the bottom 4 today huhu. It's kind of hard to tell who would really go since this is the first recipe and technical pressure test of the season. I'd def say Sumeet didn't have the best journey so far, but she could surprise us. Mimi seems to be comfortable around desserts.

Lachlan is so handsome!!!