He’s been consistent - as have Harry or Trent, for example - I don’t think he’s been outstanding.
Mimi (I think) really annoys me. If things don’t go right she seems to give up or go ‘I don’t understand’ she seems quite stubborn and expects it handed on a platter.
Matt, Elena and Mimi teamed up to win tonight’s pressure test at Dominique Crenn’s San Francisco restaurant, Atelier Crenn. Although they had lots of problems in the kitchen, they were the better team with perfect re-creation of the beet dessert, although their version of walk in the forest mushroom dish was spoiled by too much meringue. I think one of them will win Tuesday’s fast-track challenge to gain a spot in finals week, but don’t underestimate Trent.
I have to say, Dominique looks like Halle Berry!
The beet dessert is certainly interesting, the main part is made of beetroot sorbet, piped into water balloon and frozen, then dipped into a glaze so it looks like actual beetroot.
California Week has been amazing so far 
So good to have the overseas week back! I last remember the Italy one in 2012, I think Deb (an older lady with short grey hair) was eliminated.
San Francisco is wonderful, one of my favs.
I am loving Elena & Matt.
How good was that Beetroot dessert. Ridiculous.
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Their last trip overseas trip was to Dubai but it wasn’t a full week from memory.
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Do you still think that after last night? She was a disaster from go to woe. I love seeing her in the kitchen, for pure entertainment value - she isn’t up to the standard of other contestants.
IMO Matt has been the stand out from the start but Elena has shown the most growth, especially when it comes to being able to deal with criticism and pressure. She was a snivelling mess for the first week or two whenever anyone dared look sideways at her but now takes it all in her stride and is the one most likely to take risks. Matt on the other hand, keeps everything pretty simple. He certainly has a very healthy ego.
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Well, I didn’t want to lose Mimi so she had me worried. When contestants get into trouble they don’t always get out of it. Would you rather they produce it in the bland BBC MasterChef style and halve their audience? MCA has always gone for maximum drama during challenges. That’s what keeps viewers glued to it.
Are you for real? She has been basically flawless the last couple of weeks. She avoided elimination during Heston week, had the top dish Sunday last week, the second best dish in the immunity cook off, won the team challenge on Wednesday and second best dish on Sunday. How is that a disaster? Nobody else has performed close to that lately. The only time she has slipped up recently was last night but Mimi was making similar mistakes early on and only got it under control once Elena was there to assist her. It was pretty clear with Elise doing 80% of such a complex dish on her own that she was set up to fail. Harry is to blame for that.
I think that’s editing more than anything. There’s so many times where they make it look like Mimi has slipped up or is going to fail but her dishes end up being a success. Example being the pressure test the other week with a number of stuff ups (like forgetting to turn the timer on) but pulled through, even Sunday they harped on about her meat not being cooked but it was fine and last night she seemed frazzled and making a lot of mistakes early in the cook but ended up with a perfect dish.
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You are probably right. Perhaps she gets eliminated doing something similar. I just got really annoyed at her in the pop up restaurant round with the old recipes. She basically gave up saying ‘I don’t get it’ and it seemed like she needed someone to get her out of it.
I was merely asking if you still thought that. No need to go on the attack.
She was a disaster LAST NIGHT. 'Basically flawless" is a big stretch considering she had a melt down on Sunday night after the 100% chocolate brownie and mousse flop.
Does anyone know when the finale of Masterchef is?I’m guessing there’s another week after they return from California .Enjoying this weeks eps so far,seeing all the locations in California they are travelling to and cooking at.Elena had the best dish tonight and goes straight into finals week,she could win now .All 4 contestants had great looking dishes tonight ,it was hard for the judges to pick a winner
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MasterChef finale must be shown by Tuesday July 26 as the new season of The Bachelor starts on the next night. Next week is finals week.
In tonight’s episode the judges were supposed to send the contestant who made the best grape dish into finals week, so it was strange to see they did not say a bad word about all four dishes. All were restaurant quality. And somehow they picked Elena as the winner. Given the producers asked the estate chef and the winemaker of Inglenook to pick the pantry, wouldn’t it be great if the two men were invited to be guest judges as well?
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How many times do we need to hear it’s ‘Finals Week’ next week? God. Think I heard the term about 50 times in tonight’s episode.
Your comment was that she wasn’t the standard of the other contestants. I was just highlighting how she has out performed most of the other contestants that last couple of weeks, so I disagree with that comment. The brownie - meh. Not everyone is perfect. It didn’t go on the plate and the judges still gave good feedback about the dish.
Enjoyed last nights episode. Elena is another contestant who has started to really shine the last couple of weeks.
Also really looking forward to tonight with the food truck challenge at Santa Monica Pier. I was there 3 weeks ago!
Me too! Exactly 3 weeks ago! Haha… I love that MasterChef is doing almost exactly the same trip I did, just in a different order.
I was glad Elena got through. I like it when contestants trust their own judgement and prove the judges wrong. 
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Lucky you,yes I can’t wait for tonight’s episode.They had a big crowd watching then when they were cooking outdoors in San Francisco ,Sunday nights episode
After tonight’s episode I went on Twitter to find other people’s tweets on the California Week outdoor challenges, and discovered that the San Francisco mystery box and invention test was filmed on April 5 local time (April 6 in Australia) and the Santa Monica food truck was filmed on April 10 (April 11 in Australia). Add the pressure test and the Napa Valley fasttrack to the finals challenge, that’s four cook-offs filmed in six days. It was a tight schedule. I notice that contestants recounted the first two challenges in the San Francisco hotel and the other two in the Los Angeles hotel.
Matt’s dream is to own a food truck so tonight’s challenge at Santa Monica was his first big test. He did quite well during the food preparation but underestimated the pressure in front of him. He wanted to serve 1/4 chicken each serve but was persuaded by fellow blue team member Elise to cut the chicken in smaller pieces. Even then it was hard for him to give away the chicken because people wanted to try the tuna dish instead.
The judges liked the red team’s prawn and soft-shell crab dishes, but Brett and Harry forgetting to properly check if the prawns were deveined came back to bite the team, as it proved to be the difference between winning and losing the challenge. The red team ran out of time making tortillas to serve with soft-shell crab, I could not imagine the chaos if they had to take the time to devein the 150 or so prawns as well!
Also, Matt said he noticed Bundaberg ginger beer on the shelves when brainstorming for the dishes. I thought the challenge was supposed to showcase ingredients from California? Why was ginger beer imported from Australia?
Another great episode and glad the blue team won! I think it’s time for Brett to head home now.
Exactly 3 weeks for me too. I was there the last weekend of May, and then again on 23rd June as had a few hours to kill before my flight home so did the walk from Venice beach down to Santa Monica Pier.
I agree with the judges that the red team had to face elimination after the food truck challenge.If I ate prawns (I don’t )and I received one with the ‘poop chute’still in it I wouldn’t want to eat it either.It’s mistakes like this that cause contestants to face elimination especially at the’ business end’ of the competition
Apparently Brett, Mimi and Harry had to walk from their LA hotel (InterContinental Century City) to Maude restaurant at Beverly Hills. According to Google Maps, such a walking trip takes around 30 minutes. Did they really walk all the way? I don’t think so. They might got into a van and got dropped off near Rodeo Drive before continuing the walk.
Mimi survived elimination after creating what the judges called one of the best desserts of the season: chocolate aero mousse, honey ice cream, whisky jelly, honeycomb, lemon curd and caramel whisky
sauce. But it would not have happened if Mimi had not discovered that she put the mousse, ice cream and jelly in the fridge instead of the deep freezer. I think this type of drawer style fridge is custom made.
Brett was eliminated because the sauce for his “meat and three veg” dish lacked flavour (he had to use pork offcuts because he could not find any bones in the fridge). But Harry’s burnt lemon sauce overpowered his lobster crudo and he could have gone as well. Which one is worse? I really don’t know. It also raises a question: was Brett unlucky that bones were not stocked at the time of the challenge, or did Curtis Stone not use bones at all at his restaurant?
The MasterClass at San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado was fascinating. Who would have thought you can make a savoury ice cream using oyster? The dishes featured some ingredients which could only be found in the US such as ramp (also called wild leek or wild garlic) and Mexican corn flour.
I really enjoyed California Week. I hope the producers consider another overseas trip next season. They can consider going to Japan or Canada.
Bring on finals week next week!