‘MasterChef Australia’ Season 8 recap and spoilers: Anastasia rules viewer’s choice mystery box and invention test; dessert king returns for pressure test

It was another first for Network Ten’s “MasterChef Australia” Season 8, episode 11, wherein the viewers chose the ingredients for the mystery box challenge. The remaining home cooks were tasked to be courageous and creative with their dishes to get noticed by judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston. At the end of the challenge, Anastasia Zolotarev’s plate was picked the most impressive, earning her a massive advantage.

The 26-year-old marketing co-ordinator also established herself as a serious contender when she was named among the top three in the invention test. She and two other contestants received the opportunity to compete for the much-coveted immunity.

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

While the three home cooks can breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy being safe for another round, the fate of the three others are on the line on May 16. The women in black apron will battle it out to avoid being booted from the competition.

Network Ten posted a sneak peek of Monday’s episode. In the preview video, the trio were seen coming face to face with a returning hero, Reynold Poernomo, dubbed the “king of desserts” in “MasterChef Australia” Season 7. Since then, he has built a wildly popular Sydney dessert bar called KOI. On Tuesday, he returns to the MasterChef kitchen as a celebrated guest chef to set the contestants a devilishly difficult challenge. The three amateur chefs have to recreate an incredibly difficult dish and impress Reynold to live for the next episode. Fans are wondering who will measure up and who will be going home.

"MasterChef Australia" Season 8 recap

In the mystery box challenge, Anastasia bested four other amateur chefs with her torched maple syrup squid with roasted cauliflowers. As her prize, she was given the benefit of choosing the core ingredient for the invention challenge. Faced with the options peanut butter, marmalade and vegemite, Anastasia chose marmalade.

She continued to be on a roll, confidently cooking her heart out to put out another stunning plate. Matt Sinclair, Nicolette Stathopoulos and Con Vailas also breezed through the challenge with their own bold and inventive dishes. It was quite the opposite experience for Chloe Bowles, who also struggled during the mystery box challenge. She even slipped and fell to the floor on the first task, failing to include her nougat in time. Whilst Karmen Lu was deemed one of the top cooks in the mystery box challenge, she was out of her element on the invention test, with her plate ending up in a disaster.

When the time was up, the contestants filed one by one to serve their plates to the judges. Anastasia impressed the judges with her quail dish, and was the first one to be called on the top three. Following suit were Con with his orange and thyme pana cotta with marmalade poached peaches, and Nicolette with her orange marmalade and cardamom.

Despite her stellar performance on the first half, Karmen was the first one to be called in the bottom three. The judges criticised her ginger marmalade custard with ginger crumb and joconde sponge. Also earning a black apron for the upcoming pressure test are Chloe, who cooked toasted rice pudding with marmalade gel and macadamia, as well as Olivia who came up with almond sponge with blood orange jelly and chocolate ice cream.

Karme, Chloe and Olivia all face the dreaded pressure test on Tuesday, and one of them are up for elimination. 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.