‘MasterChef Australia’ Season 8 Episode 12 recap: Complicated dessert plate rattles contestants in pressure test; Olivia gets eliminated

Network Ten’s “MasterChef Australia” Season 8 aired its 12^th episode on Monday night, which put three amateur chefs on the chopping block. The women in black apron faced a nerve-wracking pressure test that challenged their kitchen savvy and time-management skills. In the end, Olivia Robinson served the least delectable dessert plate and was sent home.

The 26-year-old restaurant manager failed to satisfy the sweet tooth of judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston, as well as the evening’s special guest, season 7 contestant Reynold Poernomo. Dubbed the “king of desserts,” Reynold now owns KOI, a popular dessert bar in Sydney. He is described as a living proof that “MasterChef Australia” does change the lives of its contestants, leading them to achieving their dreams.

After serving the bottom three dishes on the invention challenge, Olivia were pitted against Karmen Lu and Chloe Bowles. For the pressure test, they were asked to recreate Reynold’s signature dessert, an earth-inspired dish called moss. A highly intimidating dish, it consists of 12 elements, including caramel-filled pistachio mousse covered in matcha coating, charred apple, aero yoghurt, dulce de leche, pistachio sponge and green-apple sorbet. The contestants had to cook all that within two and a half hours, plus 10 minutes to serve.

Early on the preparations, Olivia seemed to be in her element, effectively multi-tasking to ensure that each element of the dish was going well. The judges even commented that she was ahead of the other contestants. She was certainly having an easier time than Karmen, who ran around the “MasterChef Australia” kitchen like a headless chicken. She even had to make the pistachio mousse twice, and ran out of time to make the dulce de leche. Karmen shared that was feeling the extra pressure to impress Reynold, whom she idolises.

However, despite her momentum earlier, Olivia encountered difficulty towards the end of the preparation time. Her pistachio sponge cake turned out too dense and she was unable to get the matcha balls from the freezer before the time was up.

When the two-and-a-half hours were over, the contestants filed one by one to serve their plates to the judges and Reynold. Chloe managed to come up with a stellar dessert plate complete with all the elements. She was able to serve the closest dish to Reynold’s in terms of presentation and taste. Karmen, on the other hand, presented a dish that is lacking of one element. However, she earned praises for the taste, especially of her pistachio sponge and matcha ball. Lastly, Olivia’s plate included all the elements, yet, the taste was less than perfect.

The judges were left to decide between a complete but bland dish, versus one that is lacking of an ingredient but the flavours were great. In the end, they decided that taste held more weight, and sent Olivia home. She was sad to be eliminated, but was thankful for the skills she has learned from the competition. “I proved to myself that I’m good at cooking, and now it’s time to move on to my next adventure,” she said.

"MasterChef Australia" Season 8 spoilers

On Tuesday night, the top three home cooks from the previous invention challenge will battle it out for immunity. Anastasia Zolotarev, Nicolette Stathopoulos and Con Vailas are expected to pull out all the stops to earn the massive advantage.

Network Ten posted a sneak peek of Tuesday’s episode. In the preview video, the trio will make use of a core ingredient to make sure that their dishes will pop. The three amateur chefs have to come up with either savory or sweet plates incorporating a favourite snack: popcorn.

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.