‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 recap and spoilers: Elena cracks under pressure; Zoe’s disastrous syrup sends her home

It’s another daunting and emotional day on “MasterChef Australia” Season 8, as three contestants fight for a spot in the culinary competition. In episode 32 that aired on June 13, the home cooks on the firing line cooked their hearts out to convince judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston that they deserve to stay. In the end, Zoe Konikkos failed to measure up to the challenge and was promptly eliminated.

The remaining “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls have not seen the last of the 31-year-old sales manager, however. In the upcoming episode, Zoe returns along with the other eliminated contestants for a chance to cook their way back to the competition.

Spoiler Alert! This article contains "MasterChef Australia" Season 8 spoilers. Read only if you want to know more about it.

Network Ten posted a sneak peek of Tuesday’s episode, which centres on the comeback of the 12 eliminated home cooks this season. Zoe, along with the other contestants who were sent home in previous episodes, will be given a second chance. They will pull out all the stops to deliver stunning dishes, but only one can return to the “MasterChef Australia” kitchen.

Fans are wondering whether it would be Cecilia Vuong, who’ll be able to redeem herself. In the trailer, the 31-year-old teacher says to the cameras, “This is my only shot.” Cecilia was sent home on episode 25 after failing to make ham the hero of her dish. That was her second time to leave the competition, after first joining in 2014. Back then, she was forced to do an early exit for her health’s sake.

[READ: “‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 recap and spoilers: Cecilia Vuong exits the competition for the second time”]

“MasterChef Australia” Season 8 recap

At the beginning of the pressure test, the judges called on the special guest for the evening – award-winning chef Ross Lusted. He walked into the “MasterChef Australia” kitchen bringing in two cloches that covered one savory plate and one dessert dish. For wearing the power apron, Anastasia Zolotarev was given the advantage to choose which Zoe, Elena Duggan and Elise Franciskovic are going to cook between chicken duckling with ginger fried rice and perfumed stone fruit with elderflower. Anastasia chose the sweet dish, much to the delight of Elise.

Chef Ross gathered the three ladies and explained to them what they’re going to recreate. The complex dish consisted of nectarine sorbet, burnt peach butter, Indonesian layer cake biscuits and fruit syrup.

Elena, who was deemed to have made one of the best dishes in “MasterChef” history in a previous episode, had a slow start as she attempted to follow the recipe judiciously. She managed to make a perfect cake batter, but spent too much time with it that she quickly fell behind Zoe and Elise. With multi-tasking not her strong suit, Elena then paced listlessly on her bench, confused on what to do. The other contestants up at the gantry encouraged her to work faster and not second-guess herself, but the pressure became too much for her and she broke down. “Just give me a second,” she cried and walked away from her bench.

A few minutes later, she picked herself up after thinking about her family, which inspired and powered her through the rest of the cook. Fortunately, she was able to catch up nicely with the other two ladies and went through the process efficiently and smoothly. However, she went overboard with her newfound energy that she over-prepared her fruits, cutting them up way ahead of the plating time.

Elise, whose expertise is on desserts, was expected to breeze in through the challenge. However, she also got overwhelmed with the task ahead. She admitted that she started cutting corners and not doing the preparations properly. For one, she mixed the cake batter for the biscuits too fast, and it resulted to a lumpy mess. Chef Ross came over and advised her to start over, but Elise decided she doesn’t have enough time to do another one, so she just strained the lumps before putting in into the oven. As a result, the cake did not turn out the way it should, as Chef Ross predicted.

Her troubles did not end there, and George observed that she was out of her element. He even told her, “Come on, snap out of it!” However, Elise made another mistake, as she rushed making the burnt peach butter. While cutting them, she did not measure properly into one centimetre as the recipe required. The peaches were not cooked evenly, ending up with an unpleasant ashy taste.

Zoe, on the other hand, perfected the burnt peaches butter. During the preparation, it seemed like Zoe was the one doing everything right, including the cake batter for the biscuit. However, she decided to halve the recipe for the nectarine sorbet. She also over-reduced the syrup, which is one of the key elements of the dish. Elise said it ties all the elements together, so right consistency is important. While plating the dish, Zoe knew she was in trouble when she caught sight of her thick syrup. She tried to salvage it, but she had no choice to serve it to the judges.

At the judges’ table, Elena nailed every element of Chef Ross’ dish, except the fresh fruits. Despite this, she was the only one, according to the judges, who was able to bring elegance to the dessert. As a result, Elena was sent to safety. It boiled down to Zoe and Elise, and whose mistakes were more crucial. In the end, Matt said that the sorbet and the syrup – which Zoe failed to recreate – were more essential to the dish. They then announced Zoe as the latest contestant to be eliminated from the competition.

Find out what happens next week to “MasterChef Australia,” and stay tuned for episode spoilers. “MasterChef Australia” Season 8 airs every Sunday to Thursday at 7.30pm on Ten.