‘MasterChef Australia’ Season 9, Episode 7: Gary Mehigan’s pressure test leads to Lee Behan’s exit; Undercooked chicken to blame

“MasterChef Australia” has had its second elimination, and this time it is Lee Behan. He broke the golden rule of the hit cooking reality show, which is not to cook undercooked chicken. The 29-year-old Irish-born Hospitality Manager from Western Australia was eliminated from the Channel TEN show after he failed miserably in a pressure test designed by judge Gary Mehigan.

Contestants Lee, Pete Morgan and Ray Silva were given the task of following and recreating Mehigan’s roasted chicken dish with peas and potatoes. Even though this sounds simple, the challenge came with a twist. The three contestants were provided with no recipe and no dish to taste. They basically had to mirror Mehigan’s move as he was preparing the dish. The challenge ended 10 seconds after Mehigan finished. Ray started struggling from the beginning and committed a series of mistakes.

He accidentally burnt the chicken skin, poured too much cream in the pea custard, and his fondant potatoes were inconsistently cooked. Pete too fell behind when he tried to prepare his vegetable jus. However, his dish was declared safe and received overall praise. Lee’s dish impressed the judges thoroughly and he was clearly ahead of the competition. However, it was the chicken that let him down finally. He failed to sear the fleshy sides of each protein in the end, which drove him out of the competition.

Lee in fact cooked the chicken skin side perfectly but forgot to flip it over to sear the other side properly. His plate looked superb but the chicken was pink and raw on the bottom.

“That little piece on the bottom of the breast is absolutely not cooked. That would have been the bit that was right against the bone and he should have seen it,” Mehigan said.

The judges said that just 30 seconds of searing that uncooked part of the chicken would have made all the difference. Preston was quick to point out that undercooked chicken always sends contestants home. The same happened to contestant Sarah Todd in 2014, where she plated up undercooked chicken and was eliminated instantly, reports Herald Sun. However, Lee is confident of his cooking skills, and wants to open his own gastro-pub. He has previously worked with Aria restaurants, The Dolphin Hotel and Sydney’s 4 fourteen.

The first contestant to be eliminated from “MasterChef Australia” was Rashedul Hasan after an unfortunate cooking session, where the 35-year-old IT program director dropped one of his dishes on the floor. Then he had a "brain-fade" for 15 minutes in the pantry. [READ MORE: ‘MasterChef Australia 2017’ update: 'Brain-fade' and plate smash eliminate first Season 9 contestant]