‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 recap and spoilers: Trent's freestyle approach on a mystifying dessert leads to a cake mess and his elimination

Three strong contenders faced the longest, toughest and most intricate dish so far in “MasterChef Australia” Season 8, but one failed to measure up. In episode 57 that aired on July 18, Trent Harvey crumbled under pressure while replicating pastry chef Christy Tania’s complicated dessert called Mistique.

The 29-year-old electrician failed to impress Christy and judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston, and his disappointing dish sent him home. With only five “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls remaining, the stakes are even higher and they are set to cook what could be their last dish in this year’s contest.

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. In the trailer, the top five contestants take a trip to the countryside. However, they soon find out that it’s not a walk in the park. Each contestant is tasked to replicate one of Lake House’s signature dishes while the restaurant’s executive chef and co-owner Alla Wolf-Tasker watches over them like a hawk. Amid the chaotic cook, she pushes them in ways they never knew was possible.

The teaser video shows Mimi Baines reduced to tears as she deals with the mammoth challenge. She managed to breeze in through the previous tasks in a cool and calm manner, but the upcoming cook seems to unnerve her and leave her flustered. It’s interesting to find out whether Mimi would end up in another pressure test this final’s week, and if she’d be able to survive it once again.

“MasterChef Australia” Season 8 recap

It’s the first elimination challenge during finals week, and the contestants on the firing line knew they’d be facing a monster pressure test. They recognise it even more when Chef Christy walked in the “MasterChef Australia” kitchen, holding a tall dish covered in black cloth. Trent, Mimi and Matt Sinclair were floored when Christy revealed what they had to replicate that night: a dessert called Mistique.

It’s just cake, George kept repeating, but the dessert was anything but simple. The complex dish was composed of a cake made of several layers of vanilla marshmallow, passionfruit curd, orange cocoa sablé, banana milk chocolate brownie, caramel milk chocolate mousse, covered in neutral and dark glaze and milk chocolate hazelnut glaze. On top of the cake was a striped white chocolate disc, blue chocolate half sphere, tempered chocolate twigs, tempered chocolate swirl half sphere and garnished with gold dust.

The judges informed the contestants in the firing line that they had only four and a half hours to replicate the dish. Right off the bat, things did not go as smoothly for Matt. It’s his first pressure test, and having it during finals week made it even tougher. What’s more, his expertise lies more on savoury dishes, not desserts. As a result, he ran into several types of trouble throughout the cook. He made his major mistake on the first step of the recipe, prepping the marshmallow. After whipping it, he noticed it didn’t look right and he wasn’t happy at all with the outcome. Christy came over and told him that his meringue was too cold when he put the gelatin leaves in. To salvage his meringue, he put it on a double broiler to dissolve the chunks of gelatin. He was relieved when his strategy worked. His next issue popped up with his passionfruit curd, which was super thin and runny. However, since he lacked time to make another batch, he decided to use what he’s got.

It seemed it’s just one mistake after another for Matt. He ran into another problem when it was time to make his vanilla chocolate cream. He found out he didn’t follow the instruction properly and had to do it all over again. He’s three for three and couldn’t help but claim, “It’s not my day.” He looked absolutely flustered and Christy and George had to come over to his bench and give him a pep talk. Matt took a deep breath and regained his composure. He made a second batch of the vanilla chocolate cream and thankfully, it looked right this time. He began to catch up with the other two contestants and proceeded to the next steps smoothly. His cake was looking sensational, but it seemed his nightmares weren’t over yet. While his blue domes popped out perfectly, he couldn’t get his dark chocolate lace ones out of the mould. With the time ticking, he decided to improvise and use his leftover blue dome.

Despite being confident throughout the cook, Trent became a subject of worry from the “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls at the gantry. It looked like Trent was doing a freestyle and was not measuring the proportions of the cake’s layers properly. Soon enough, he made his first mistake through the cook: when he checked on his brownie, he found out it was still soggy. He was clueless why it didn’t cook properly. Christy informed him that he made the layers too thick, which meant it should have longer time to cook. Trent put his brownie back to the oven, but it still didn’t cook properly. He decided to use it anyway since he didn’t have time to fix it. He’s in for more troubles ahead – when he took his cake out of the freezer, he discovered that his cake did not set. It looked terrible, even though he tried to patch it up the best way he could. What’s more, he also had trouble getting the blue domes from the mould.

The blue domes proved to be one of the only two mistakes that Mimi made throughout the cook. She was completely in her element, following the recipe to a tee and gracefully moving from step to the next. However, when she began to assemble her cake, Christie came over and pointed out that the brownie was missing. Mimi seemed to have forgotten one important element of the cake, so she had to repeat the assembly.

Time was up and Trent was the first contestant to serve his dessert. He knew he was in trouble with the way his cake looked. When the judges cut into his cake, they immediately saw that there were a lot of marshmallow but not enough of the passionfruit curd. Christy said that the curd was the key to balance the flavours of that particular dessert. Upon taking a bite, Christy commented that the individual flavours of the components are good but they are not balanced all together. Matt said Trent failed to get the top and the bottom elements, which threw the balance of the whole dish.

Mimi came up next, and Christy raved about how good the dish looked, except for the blue dome, which was missing. The judges were also blown away about how “bloody great” the layers looked inside. When they tasted the dish, Christy said the chocolate was tempered well. It appeared that Mimi nailed the cake’s texture and flavour. George quite enjoyed it eating Mimi’s dessert.

It was Matt’s turn, and he was worried about some of the elements of his dish. Christy said she liked the look of the dish but noticed that he doesn’t have the lace dome. When they cut his cake open, they observed that the layers were good but his passion fruit curd was not set. While there were obvious mistakes, especially the passionfruit curd, George said the flavours were good. Christie claimed that the biggest surprise was that Matt nailed the brownie the best, and the glaze was the finest among the three plates that night.

Christy and the judges unanimously agreed that one dish did not capture the essence of the original dish. It didn’t come as a surprise when Trent’s name was called, and he was promptly eliminated from this season’s competition.

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