The two unhappiest camper teams from the camping challenge, Celine and Vicky and Annie and Lloyd, battle it out in the first Sudden Death Cook Off for 2015.
Both teams claim to be cooking with a theme of love. Vicky and Celine are cooking Greek food from the heart. High school sweethearts Annie and Lloyd are cooking the things that they love.
The challenge is a three course meal to be Judged by Manu and Pete, with Guy Grossi, Karen Martini, Liz Egan and Colin Fassnidge.
The MKR clock ticks over and entrée must be served in one and a half hours. Celine and Vicky are creating Lemon and Garlic Prawns Skewers with Chilli Mayonnaise.
Annie and Lloyd are creating Grilled Squid with Fennel and Pomegranate Salad. As entrée is the first meal to be served, Annie and Lloyd make the logical decision to both work on dessert.
Annie has been nominated as head chef, which she interprets as a supervisory role, while Lloyd runs around like a headless chicken. For the majority of the ninety minutes, Annie stands at the stove stirring the ice cream whilst stirring Lloyd into a panicked frenzy. These high school sweet hearts are quickly becoming high school sweat hearts in the kitchen. They are not working as a team, and it is more than obvious they did not study home economics together at school.
Meanwhile, Celine and Vicky get a ticking off from headmaster Pete, when Celine adds sweet chilli sauce to her mayonnaise. Apparently this is a big My Kitchen Rules no no, but it also begs the question as to why it is in the pantry in the first place.
Back in Mystic Hollow, with dessert finally out of the way, Annie and Lloyd decide to finally start on their entrée... no wait... main? They start marinating their salmon for main!?! Finally with only fifteen minutes remaining, they decide to start their entrée. In his stress, Lloyd puts the squid tubes straight onto the skillet without any oil. They quickly take on the consistency of tire tubes.
At blind tasting, the Judges find Vicky and Celine’s prawns cooked inconsistently. They agree that it is an ok dish, but it is not a wow dish. Pete asks, ‘where is the excitement?’. The Judges find Annie and Lloyd’s squid a let down, the majority of it is not cooked, but they think the salad is a winner. Colin refuses to eat the dish calling it a carcrash. Pete says it has the makings of a great dish, but the stress came out on the plate. The guest teams agree that the squid is a disaster.
After spending time back of house for the blind tasting, the teams are back in front for main. Vicky and Celine are preparing Beef Moussaka with Greek Salad. They had hoped to have the moussakas assembled during entrée time, but they ran out of time. Halfway through assembly, they run out of bechamel sauce, and Vicky has to make another batch, which puts them further behind.
Annie and Lloyd are preparing Miso Salmon with Tempura Mushroom. After marinating the salmon during entrée prep, Lloyd now spends a significant amount of time wiping the excess marinade off the salmon.
Annie spends most of the hour making avocado puree. After stirring for an hour and a half through entrée prep, and now one hour through main, she has the most highly toned triceps in the competition. She moves onto the batter, which she completely ruins, and Lloyd takes over while also keeping an eye on the salmon.
At the blind tasting the Judges think Annie and Lloyd’s salmon is perfect. Colin says their three elements are done well, and compared to their entrée it is as though another team has stepped into their kitchen. The guest teams agree, and would even like another plate each of the food.
As for the Moussaka, the Judges are disappointed that the potato is undercooked. Manu is surprised that it is not a lamb Moussaka, as that would have had more flavor. The guests agree that it is disappointing and undercooked and needed about ten more minutes in the oven.
Back in the kitchen, the teams have thirty minutes to serve dessert. Celine and Vicky are making Rosewater Rizogalo - a greek rice pudding. Annie and Lloyd are making Chocolate Pudding with Salted Caramel Icecream. After spending their entire entrée prep making the ice cream, Annie now decides to abandon it because it has not set, and instead turns it into a custard. As for the Chocolate Puddings, well they have not even started on them as yet.
Meanwhile, Vicky makes the catastrophic mistake of leaving the rosewater out of the rosewater rizogalo. She realizes this after she has served the dessert into the glasses. She proceeds to pour them all back into the pot, adds the rosewater and then serves again.
Back on the other side of the wall, Annie makes the profound comment that she ‘feels like she’s just waiting for the puddings to cook’. Probably because she is just waiting for the puddings to cook. The puddings do not cook in time. They have only one minute left. Manu screams ‘put something on the plate!’. They pull them out of the oven and shove them on the plate. When the horn blows, they look down at their dessert, and know that it resembles hot garbage.
At the blind tasting the Judges think the Rizogalo lacks flavor and is too sweet. They think it needs something on the side. The guest teams agree that it needs something extra – maybe some tangy citrus sorbet to cut through the sweetness?
The Judges think that Annie and Lloyd’s dessert flavors are good, but looking at the plate they see heartache. Pete says they are bad time managers. The guests agree that the flavours are good, and if it had cooked, it would have been a top pudding.
Time for the scores, Celine and Vicky scored from Colin 4, Guy 5, Liz 5, Karen 5, Manu 4, Pete 4 – for a grand total score of 27/60. Annie and Lloyd scored from Colin 3, Guy 4, Liz 4, Karen 4, Manu 4 and Pete 3 – for a grand total score of 22/60.
With those scores it appears both teams deserved to be in the first Sudden Death Cook Off, but unfortunately for Annie and Lloyd, they performed the worst and are eliminated from the competition. They bid a sad farewell to the other teams, and Annie says that it is the end of the road for ‘Pinkie and the brain’. Not sure out of the two of them which is which, but after that performance, Annie will probably not be getting that ring anytime soon.