Reynold Poernomo Desserts For Christmas Inspiration | MasterChef Australia | MasterChef World

MasterChef World
7 followers
2 Video Views·Aug 29, 2026
AI Generated·May contain errors
Video Summary
AI GeneratedReynold demonstrates mastery in pastry arts through a series of technically ambitious and visually stunning desserts. By blending advanced techniques like liquid nitrogen freezing and sugar blowing with sophisticated flavor profiles, he consistently earns high praise from judges for his ability to merge artistic storytelling with professional-grade culinary execution.
Today I'm cooking a dish called White Noise.
And now it's for the fun part.
I have to use liquid nitrogen to make the strawberry pebbles.
I want everything on the plate to look white.
But inside the pebbles, it will be red.
I just want to watch.
It's all very bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, isn't it?
I've got the concentrate gel.
And when I drop that in, liquid nitrogen,
it creates a natural form of a pebble.
What's happening, Reynold?
I'm making strawberry pebbles.
Strawberry pebbles?
This is probably a pretty important time in the video.
Yeah.
Do you want us to go away or are you good?
Nah, it's pretty okay.
Mate, you look like you're working like a demon over there.
It's been pretty...
I forgot how it feels like.
Just got to put it on the plate.
Nice.
Thanks, guys.
I just feel a bit nervous because
I've got a lot of pressure on my shoulders.
For me to come back into the competition,
I've got a reputation to maintain.
I have multiple businesses running with my brothers.
There's only one unity pin.
Alpha grabs for this whole entire season.
And I really want it.
I just need this dessert to be perfect.
Reynold, tell us your dish.
It's a dish that's revolving around the colour white.
Jasmine gelato.
Coconut frozen ganache.
White chocolate crumble.
Strawberry gum jelly.
Yogurt gel.
And little white pebbles
with a strawberry concentrate gel.
It is so elegant to the eye.
It's so technical.
It's almost like being in a science lab.
It looks breathtaking.
It makes you want to dive into the bowl.
It's very rare we see a dessert looking so beautiful
so early on in this competition.
Thank you.
Is there a particular element that you would invite us to break first?
Go for the little white pebbles.
Okay.
Absolutely gorgeous.
It's almost a shame to ruin it.
Wow.
It does taste as good as it looks.
In fact, it tastes actually better,
which is very hard for a dessert when so pleasing to the eye.
I have to pinch myself, Reynold,
because we're at the beginning of this competition.
Congrats, my man.
Thank you.
All of those flavours,
white chocolate, strawberries and coconut,
complementing each other beautifully.
Your technique throughout all the components is perfection.
Well done, mate.
Thank you.
Thanks, chef.
I'm going to dip it in the chocolate spray
and then spray it with chocolate to give that velvety effect
so I can brush it with some gold.
Is this like the body of the snitch?
Yes.
What's really important is I don't want a smooth surface
because when I'm brushing the gold,
if it's smooth, it's going to have condensation
and it's just going to melt off.
The body of my snitch is done.
It has the right texture, the layers are there,
and not only that,
I've brushed it gold and it's holding on.
The snitch looks really impressive.
The only thing left I need to do now is pair and use the sorbet
and yoghurt snow.
Once I have everything done,
the assembly is going to be so important
because that's what's going to make it look like the snitch.
I grab a scoopful of my pair and use the sorbet
in the middle of the plate
and make a little well, a bed for my snitch body to sit on.
Once I've got my snitch body,
I'm getting these really fragile feathered wheels.
That's going to be the wing for the snitch.
I pipe on some ganache and then stick the wheel together.
I've got to be really delicate with this dish
because it's so fragile
and also it's very temperature sensitive.
It looks so good.
The Harry Potter snitch has two wings,
but this is an inspiration dish.
I'm going to have four and it looks better with four.
No more time!
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...
Oh my God, look at that.
Stop it.
There you go.
What I think is incredible
is that these wings aren't just flat out of the mould,
they're twisted and manipulated so that they...
And crunchy.
So that they look like they're wings are flat and crunchy.
Gosh, it's almost a shame to break it.
It's special when Renald gets up here and he's beaming.
He's beaming for a reason
because to pull that off in here, that's next level.
Absolutely next level.
The really bright sorbet of the yuzu and the pear
fills your mouth straight away.
But then I was just like searching
for that Tonka bean brown butter caramel.
Because that's just what sort of coats your mouth
and makes you want to go,
hang on, I want to go back for yuzu.
So I think it's just...
I mean, technically, we don't even need to talk about it,
but it is the hardest of hardest
when we talk about technique in this very kitchen.
He's absolutely nailed it.
This dish is a game changer.
It is technical.
Those beautiful honey-twill feathers
that I loved the way they sort of bent
as if they were in mid-flight.
And then just everything inside the ball itself,
you know, the Tonka bean caramel, that brown butter mousse,
everything worked in terms of richness, refreshment.
It's triumphant.
This is exactly what we live for.
It's absolutely inspired cooking.
A1 first class, you know, presentation.
But I've got to say, flavour, texture, balance,
everything is also A1.
It's first class.
I agree with him.
It's the best dish he's ever made.
As soon as I hear George say
he wants something that's seductive
and he wants something that's a guilty pleasure,
the first thing that came to mind was the forbidden apple.
Something that's like to tempt you.
Adam and Eve, forbidden fruit.
It just makes sense.
The idea I have in my head is an apple.
It's got to be something that's going to be wow to the judges.
So I was like, I've got to go all out.
Reynolds, you dream of being a high-end pastry chef, don't you?
Yeah.
Why are you confident?
I wouldn't put you together.
Yes, this is a challenge.
I am happy it's going to be chocolate,
but I'm really gambling on this.
So what are you going to make?
I just want to try and recreate something
that's like a forbidden fruit in a way.
Try and make something that's like an apple.
Spice.
Okay.
So you're going to use a mould
that's going to be frozen and stuffed in the middle.
Is that the idea?
Yeah, I've got hemisphere moulds just freezing at the moment.
I'm just going to dip them into ganache
and then into the red cocoa butter.
I love it.
It's fantastic.
It's like watching someone work in a pressure test
with a recipe set by a top chef.
So if you do pull it off,
it'll be massive kudos to you.
Massive.
It's ridiculous 90 minutes to think of this dish.
It's got a lot of elements.
It's got a lot of techniques that I need to keep right.
I feel really scared that it's going to fall apart,
it's going to break.
It's a make-or-break dish.
Today I've decided to make a difficult dish.
It's going to represent the forbidden fruit.
It's a frozen mousse coated with ganache and cocoa butter.
Yeah, I'm freaking out because I've got so many elements,
I'm really pushing this to the limit.
I'm really worried about the coating of the apple
because that's what's going to make it look like the apple.
I want it to be smooth.
What are you doing?
I'm just trying to get everything together.
Yeah, I'm just a bit stressed.
Are we disturbing you at the moment?
Yeah, sorry.
I'm just going to wash. Come on, keep going.
It's got edges, it's got bumps, and it's just not coating evenly.
I think that one's just gone.
You've just got to stop, take a deep breath,
take away the hurry because you're going to stuff it up.
And your dessert relies on that visual representation, doesn't it?
Come on, Reynolds.
Don't stuff it up, mate. Come on.
I'm pretty scared at the moment.
In my mind, this dish looks absolutely amazing.
I'm just trying to execute that well.
I can't screw this up now.
Good, man. Looks really good.
Reynolds, what's the dish?
I call it the Forbidden Fruit.
It's a chocolate mousse inside with a raspberry coulis
coated with ganache and cocoa butter.
And I've plated it up around with some raspberries and strawberries
on a chocolate soil and a raspberry sorbet.
It looks spectacular.
Like, honestly, mate, that looks wonderful.
Yeah.
You've done it before?
No.
No, I was hoping to make it look more like an apple.
I tried my best.
Yeah, I'm quite happy with that.
Quite.
Smash it open because I can't wait.
Yeah, that is ridiculously good.
Start of week two.
Not finals week next week, the beginning of week two
and you're putting up food like this.
Unbelievable.
Thank you.
Unbelievable.
Everything is right about it.
The intensity of the raspberry sorbet,
the smoothness, the lightness of the mousse,
the chocolatey richness, the cocoa butter coating,
the right amount of crumb for the dish,
the way it looks.
Yeah.
Like, wow.
Yeah, absolutely.
Perfect dish. Perfect.
Perfect.
Absolutely gobsmacked, mate.
Thank you.
Wow, Randall.
Top five this morning.
Let's not kid ourselves.
It's top three dish, man.
Thank you.
And it deserves one of these.
It deserves one of these.
Come here.
Respect.
I'm going to be making a salted caramel ice cream
with some macadamia crumble.
The ingredients today, I'm going to be using the
kwandongs, lemon myrtle and the macadamia.
So I'm just going to keep it simple
and just work my way with those three ingredients.
I just feel like at this point in the competition,
you want to do something that you're comfortable with,
but also something that can get you the advantage.
So I'm going to do something that's my strength
and that's going to be dessert.
My ice cream's in the churner.
Checking up on time and I'm still not sure
what else I need.
I'm kind of missing something.
And I'm playing around with whether or not
I should candy some kwandongs.
I don't know if I should use it.
I don't know.
So I'm just going to, just last minute thing.
Going to put some kwandongs into a pan
with some sugar and some water and let that reduce.
To be in the top three, I'm taking my dish up to the judges.
The only thing I'm worried about is the kwandongs.
I don't know if I like the kwandongs with the other stuff.
So I've made a macadamia with salted caramel ice cream.
You pleased?
Not really.
Oh.
It's the kwandongs.
I just, I could have left them off.
The kwandongs?
Yeah.
Did you doubt them?
Yeah.
Nice toasty, crumbly things with dark caramel.
You're playing into our hands.
Cooking's a really wonderful thing, isn't it?
You create a dish and it plays in your mind.
Will they like it?
And doubt comes in.
Yeah.
The kwandongs.
You doubted them.
I love them.
I love the kwandongs.
I think they actually make the dish.
And I like the dish because it's not sweet.
Well done, Reynolds.
Thank you.
Thanks, Reynolds.
My dish today is called Down the Rabbit Hole.
And it has a Deutsche Diplomat white chocolate tempera disc,
a chocolate spray, chocolate tree, chocolate tree branch,
pistachio sponge, matcha soil, a yogurt foam,
and a golden vanilla caramel.
There's a lot going on in this idea that I have,
but if I can really pull it off,
I think it's not only going to hit the brief,
but the flavor's going to be on point,
and it will take you to Down the Rabbit Hole.
20 minutes to go, and I've made my Deutsche Diplomat cream,
and I have my dark chocolate choux that's been tempered,
vanilla caramel.
Next thing I start working on is the chocolate branch for the tree.
I've got my tempered chocolate in a small piping bag,
and I pipe it into ice-cold water.
And what that's going to do is it's going to set,
and as it's setting, I'm going to keep piping into the branches
and kind of create this 3D effect of a chocolate tree.
There's not much time left.
I'm going to spray the whole inside of the bowl
to kind of give that dark chocolate forest floor effect.
Now it's time to plate up.
I've got my white chocolate disc,
I've got my chocolate tree, my chocolate branch,
I've got pistachio sponge,
and I'm piping some Deutsche on top of the forest floor.
The aesthetics of this dish is to draw you into Alice in Wonderland.
To make it more special,
I put a little bit of Deutsche cream on the chocolate tree branches.
I've got some shiso flowers from the garden,
and I start placing them onto the tree branch,
and it's looking really cool.
And it's really fun to kind of cook with inspiration from a fairy tale.
I've got my yogurt foam cooked in nitrogen,
and I think it looks incredible.
It's a caramelised white chocolate diplomat
with pistachio sponge, matcha crumble, dark chocolate,
and a vanilla caramel with lime yogurt.
Ready?
Yeah, take your slice.
We're ready.
I've got my hot caramel.
It needs to be hot enough to melt through that chocolate
and give that rabbit hole effect.
I'm looking down at my plate,
I'm looking at the judges,
I'm looking back at my plate,
and I'm just thinking to myself,
please, it needs to melt in.
And there it is.
There's the rabbit hole.
My dish is there, right there.
It's down the rabbit hole.
I'm just really stoked that I pulled this off.
Well, as per your usual specifications,
it is beautiful to look at.
However, let's hope it tastes the same.
Yeah, thanks guys.
Thank you.
Look at that.
We asked for fairy tale,
and if that's not fairy tale in a bowl,
my goodness.
I mean, it just looks so magical.
Alright, we're on.
Thank you.
I mean, even the twigs are brushed in gold dust.
Right, from the top,
theatre,
big take for me.
Like, really got the idea of the challenge.
But actually, going into the dessert,
the diplomat is so rich.
The dark chocolate's got that bitter edge to it.
The yoghurt snow's got the acidity.
And the caramel sauce is just rich
and at an edge of saltiness.
Just, it's hard to fault as an overall dish.
Today I'm going to be making a three creme blanc,
which is a vanilla, coffee and hazelnut cream.
It's three different flavours,
so when you take a spoonful,
it's different every time.
That will be covered with a coffee and hazelnut crumble,
and on top will be a couple of moose rocks.
This whole concept of the dish looks like earth.
It'll take you to a feel, it's earthy,
but at the same time,
it'll be amazing and delicious.
So, Reynold, what did you make?
A pile of dirt and a couple of rocks.
Brilliant. Love it.
So what flavour is your pile of dirt and couple of rocks?
So it's chocolate, hazelnut, coffee and vanilla.
I've got that as a creme on the bottom,
and I've got hazelnut and coffee crumble on top,
and a frozen chocolate moose.
Cool.
I love it.
I really love it.
I felt like I was in a little, you know,
pile of dirt.
It's wonderful.
He's done well again, hasn't he?
He's good.
The apple pie filling is going to have spices,
it's caramelised, it's kind of like a stewed apple
and a cinnamon parfait.
I want texture through this dessert, like a crunch.
I want something where you can chew on as well,
which is going to be the ginger snap.
I also wanted to do something that's very theatrical
to finish off my apple pie.
I'm just working so hard.
I'm running, I'm sprinting actually,
and I've got everything everywhere.
Sarah Claire, she's calm, she's cool and collected,
and my brain is in 50 different places.
Apple pie, flavour-wise, is very simple.
Something in about three, four components,
but since it's a very simple dish on its own,
how can I elevate it?
I really want to do something that's very theatrical,
something more unique, and that's blowing sugar.
Reynolds blowing bubbles.
What's he doing?
Blowing bubbles.
What's happening?
I'm going down too.
I've never seen a sugar ball blown live!
Why are you all here?
No pressure.
It's a lot of pressure.
No pressure.
You guys are killing me.
This is my first live sugar ball experience.
This is too...
This is a lot of pressure.
Come on, mate.
I'm feeling really stressed.
Wow.
They're watching me.
I'm still just pumping away.
I'm trying to ignore them.
I'm just trying to stay calm.
I'm feeling a lot of pressure.
This dome has to be perfectly done.
There's no room for error.
I don't feel any pressure at all.
I've got to get the sides right
so it can fit over the cinnamon parfait.
It has to be beautifully shiny.
It's got to be see-through,
and it can't be too thick.
That's it.
I'm going to cut it,
and then cut a hole,
and it's going to sit above the parfait.
You made that look very easy, didn't you?
Didn't we?
Amazing.
It works.
It finally freaking works.
I've got one beautiful sugar dome,
and now I set that aside,
and I'm going to be really, really gentle with it.
Yeah!
Zero waste!
Holy moly.
Reynolds, I cannot believe
what you've got done in an hour.
What have you made?
This is my take on an American apple pie.
Spiced apples with cinnamon parfait
and brown sugar snap.
That looks absolutely incredible.
I mean, guys.
I can't do that kind of sugar work.
I don't have it in me.
I don't have the patience.
Reynolds, and I admire you,
not only for doing it,
but for doing it here in the MasterChef kitchen.
It's a credit to you.
Well done, mate.
It's almost a shame to demolish this.
Oh, don't act like you don't want to do it.
There you go.
When you put that down,
you can't help but just be amazed.
Like, what you did then was amazing.
You've done a Reynolds of the apple pie.
It tastes like an apple pie.
The flavours are there.
It's a wow of a dessert, that's for sure.
Yeah.
You've managed to distill the soul of an apple pie
into something that is just ephemeral art.
It was absolutely gorgeous to behold.
To dig into the flavours,
apple, cinnamon, ginger,
you've kept a lot of fun in it as well,
which I think is a wonderful thing.
Well done.
Great texture on that parfait.
Apples cooked beautifully,
great level of flavour.
I'm not a cinnamon lover by any means,
but I actually really enjoyed that.
And the sugar work,
it's just visually unbelievable.
Well done.
Thank you.
Berries and cream?
Berries and cream.
Berries?
Yeah, berries and cream.
How many trays?
Grab it, two.
It's obvious who the dessert master is
in this competition, which is Reynolds.
I've got meringue shards.
We've got two types of frozen cream.
He's my lieutenant on desserts.
I really want to make a special dessert today
with berries and cream and an Anzac crumble.
My plan is to use meringue shards
to pull it all together.
If that's the best produce,
that's the best of Australia.
I'm happy with it.
I've got a great team here with me.
I'm going to do my absolute best,
we're going to do our absolute best,
and I think it's going to be in Crackerfish.
What are these doing on dessert, mate?
Everything is done.
I'm not sure.
I might need more meringue, so...
I'm not worried.
You know, we've got Reynolds,
and he's our secret weapon.
He's my boy.
Our dessert today is a berry melba,
which is Reynolds' version of a classic Aussie puff.
Loads of berries and cream
to go with crispy meringue shards.
Christina, okay, you're going to do this.
You're going to do the crumble.
Okay, two big spoonfuls.
Keep it tight.
Presentation is really important.
Just over on the top.
The main elements on the plate are the lemon cream,
some crumble, and the berries and some meringue.
Just break them apart.
Make sure you can try to cover it just a little bit.
That's enough.
That looks awesome.
That looks amazing.
The meringue is a key part of the dessert.
We're going to use it to pull all the key elements all together.
Gentlemen, this is our take on a berry melba.
So it's fresh berries, meringue shards,
and a crumble, yeah.
Hope you enjoy it.
Brilliant.
Done.
Thank you.
Looks great.
It is fresh.
It smells amazing.
It looks spectacular,
and, you know, Reynolds had a big play in this dish,
and you can just tell he's got the touch, hasn't he?
It just smells beautiful.
I want to eat it.
Go on, then, let's.
Forget just the way it's been plated up,
which looks super modern and super beautiful,
but just that idea of not just throwing berries and cream on a plate,
but adding that little bit of passion fruit
that's going to bring some savoury note to it.
The fresh mint, the little bit of lime zest on the meringue,
they've given us a dish where native produce is as it should be,
and everything else just, you know, enhances it.
Wonderful.
Very happy with that.
What's that, Reynolds?
This is for the dacquoise.
I am doing a lot of elements in my dessert.
And I'm whipping up my ganache for the cherry ripe.
Oh, my God, you're crazy, Reynolds.
Did you just whip the ganache?
Yeah.
I didn't even know you could whip ganache.
Whipped ganache, it's a really light consistency in flavour.
It's kind of like chocolate mousse.
What's the red syrup?
It's cherries and blood limes.
I have to churn my gelato using nitrogen,
and it makes a really silky smooth ice cream,
and also make a yoghurt snow.
So this is really going to be very tight.
But I always want to push further and further
because as the competition gets harder,
I need to put up dishes that are more impressive.
Nice, Reynolds.
This is my first time in round two elimination to cook.
And if I was to go home today, I'd be devastated.
So right now, it's crunch time.
I take my meringue out of the oven,
and it is cracking and breaking.
It was meant to look like the Sydney Opera House.
So it's not looking like what I want it to be.
It's not bending.
I'm going to try my best to get this meringue off the silicone mat
because I want to still get that onto the plate.
I'm going to plate up my dish in front of the judges,
so I will try my best to make it look like the Sydney Opera House.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, guys. Thanks, Reynolds.
Well, from this angle, I can see
maybe a deconstructed artistic interpretation
of the Opera House sails.
Opera House or no Opera House,
it looks very, very delectable.
There's no need to talk about the technique here
because it is all flawless,
from the wafer shards to the coconut ice cream.
It's all how it is exactly meant to be,
the flavour composition.
And it's all exactly how it's meant to be.
That coconut ice cream is, like,
just give you that in a cone and it's happy days.
I mean, the texture of that ice cream is the bomb.
The chocolate mousse is super rich
and with those pitted cherries in there,
it just makes it even richer again.
But then, that's a yoghurt, popcorn, frozen number,
cuts across your palate.
I loved everything about it.
I'm a big fan of the Cherry Rive.
The dark chocolate, the cherry, the coconut,
all faithfully represented,
but just in a way, you know, we could never have conceived it
because it's come out of Reynolds' amazing brain.
There's a new menu item at his restaurant.
Easily.
This must be your dream challenge.
If the last round was Jessica's dream challenge,
this must be your dream challenge.
Take one ingredient and just do it three ways for you.
This is heaven, isn't it?
Oh, this is definitely heaven for me because I love chocolate.
You know I love my chocolate, so I'm going to do chocolate three ways.
One's going to be with the raspberry ganache.
It's going to be tempered into a log for another element.
And it's going to be chocolate soil.
So inside's going to be raspberry gel, which is just from this one.
And when you crack it open,
you should just ooze out with the raspberry.
Oh, you are pushing yourself. You want that apron, don't you?
Now, this dish, this could be the one.
I hope so.
I wish I had more time for this dish.
That advantage would have been great, but I'm going to push myself.
I'm going to push myself really hard.
I'm running out of time. This is ridiculous.
I've still got a lot to do.
I've got to assemble the log, so I've got to move really fast.
It's a really tricky dish, because if I melt the chocolate in my hand,
it's not going to work out.
What's really important is to get the shape right.
Oh, this is the most stressful cook I've ever done.
This is insane. I've got no time here. I'm really stretching it.
Hey, look at that.
I love that. It looks, ooh, interesting but weird.
So I've done the chocolate three ways.
It's a chocolate log with a raspberry liquid centre,
chocolate raspberry ganache, and chocolate soil.
Ooh. So is there something in the middle?
Yeah, just crack it open.
Ooh, it is crackable too, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Fun.
That looks great. Doesn't it look good?
This is unbelievable.
Yeah, really good.
And in terms of interpreting the challenge,
three ways, three stairways to heaven.
Three chocolate stairways to heaven.
Absolutely.
I'm just smiling because it's one of those little moments, isn't it,
when you smack that thing in half
and it oozes that lovely red centre.
Really gorgeous.
You're an amateur cook.
You're putting up food.
It is as spectacular and as restaurant quality as this.
You could be in The Running, The Parrot
and that guaranteed immunity pin.
Thanks for that.
I'm really stoked. I'm really surprised.
I haven't had this good feedback in a really long time.
Oh, my God. They finished it.
I'm cooking a sweet dish utilising Tahitian lime.
I've made my gelato, my curd, my granita.
It's a three-component dish.
I usually do about, what, six, seven components on a dessert.
This time it's only three very simple things.
Simple, it can be amazing,
but each component has to be perfectly balanced.
There's no room for error.
My granita is very acidic
and I'm not sure about the balance.
I'm thinking of another component to do to have some sweetness.
Just do, like, a sugar-blown lime or something.
Yeah, blow a sugar lime. Yeah, blow a lime.
I might do that, actually.
If he actually does.
I'm going to add in another component to this dish,
a feijoa whipped ganache with mangosteen.
Freeze-dried feijoa. Yum.
Feijoa is a green fruit.
It's in the same family of the guava family.
The flavour is a cross between guava, strawberry and pineapple.
It's going to add in some creaminess
to cut the acidity of the limes
and the mangosteens can add some texture
and some more sweetness.
I really hope that it's enough to get to round two.
How's it going, Randall? Doing all right.
You're all right. Just all right. What's happening?
I just need to taste everything.
I'm just hoping that I've used enough acidity
without it being too sour.
The feijoa is quite acidic, the curd as well,
but I've got some creamy components
to kind of mellow everything out.
You've normally got eight or nine elements.
Today you've only got four.
I'm really hoping I've done enough.
Let's hope you're not playing it too safe, mate.
Thanks.
OK, Randall, tell us about your lime dish.
I've got a lime curd,
feijoa and lime ganache
with lime granita,
mangosteens and a lime zest ginger gelato.
Are you happy with how much lime is in it?
Well, it's definitely limey,
but in terms of balance,
yeah, it comes down to that.
Shall we taste it? Let's do it.
You had a short amount of time,
but your ability as a chef
to balance is what is
the most striking part of this dish.
You start off and you get that full zing.
You get the burst. You get the granita.
And then it just goes silky smooth.
Pairing it back doesn't mean
that it's going to be boring,
and that right there is a testament to that.
My mouth is still pinging from the lime.
It's really, really bright and fresh and zesty.
And it really,
this dessert really did benefit
from the richer elements,
because you've been thinking about balance.
Nicely done.
Thanks, Randall.
So smooth, Randall.
If desserts don't work out, you can be a plasterer.
Once I've coated the meringue with the beautiful vanilla ash,
I pop it into the oven at a very low temperature.
I'm looking at my lemon jam.
It's caramelized. It's got this beautiful texture.
I've done a ice cream mix
where I've steeped the coffee beans in the milk.
It's got a beautiful balance of vanilla and coffee.
So I gave my ice cream to the churner.
The next thing to do is the whipped chocolate ganache,
which is a dark chocolate.
I was told by a chef
that you won't be able to do
a beautiful whipped ganache
within two hours.
I kind of want to challenge that.
I soak gelatin in water,
pop it in the fridge,
melt my chocolate and cream in the pot,
and then blend in some cold cream.
It has this beautiful velvety texture without any eggs.
So basically it's like an eggless mousse.
It needs to set, because if I try to whip it
and it's not set, it's just going to split,
and that's just going to ruin my whole dish.
Usually with the whipped ganache, it's best to set overnight.
It takes a long time.
The gelatin structure
is definitely going to be super ambitious,
but I love the challenge.
I just love this adrenaline.
Reynolds, wow.
Yeah, I've got my whipped ganache.
I was pretty surprised it set in time.
My ice cream is done with 20 minutes to go,
which is pretty awesome.
I've got these meringues done as well.
I'm yet to make a salted caramel sauce,
so that's going to take a little bit of time.
We haven't looked up the entire time I've been standing here.
Such is the focus of you,
and I really appreciate that.
Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.
It's not just that. I don't want to go home yet.
I want to go all the way.
I'm here back to win.
Just got to stay focused,
head strong in the game.
I want this dish to be played in a way
how they eat it.
Getting that whipped ganache,
getting the ice cream, which is cold,
and the different textures that crumble.
Meringue.
This lemon jam,
it's random.
Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't.
And when you do, it's a surprise of this intensity.
Oh my word.
Okay.
Firstly, the dish name.
It's chocolate with
a coffee-steeped ice cream,
burnt vanilla meringue and lemon jam.
What are the elements that we've got
going on here?
On the bottom is a whipped chocolate ganache
and a lemon jam,
brown butter walnut crumble, walnut crumble on top
with a coffee-steeped ice cream
and a burnt vanilla meringue.
Wowzers, eh?
And what are the little
batten...
Those are little whipped cream
with creme fraiche folded through as well
and just frozen little bits.
Oh, there's a whole other element.
I forgot to tell you.
Wow.
Hey.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Don't understand how you can do it
in the time. You know, not everything
you do is perfect, but
God, when it is,
it's incredible.
That coffee ice cream
smooth ass.
The whipped chocolate is to die for.
I got a hit of the jam.
Wow. Just made me smile.
It's just
so good and the balance
is so good. The elements are
so good. It is
so good. Well done, mate.
Thank you.
That was about as close to
transcendental dessert magic I've
ever seen. It's not too sweet.
The coffee balances with the lemon
balances with everything else.
The textures are distinct
and cohesive.
You have play of temperature and texture.
It's just so
highly conceived.
It blows my little noggin.
I feel privileged
to eat it, so thank you.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
When I knew that I was going to be one of the people to stand
here, I was like,
I was excited.
It's probably right up there with the dish
in the competition.
It's technically sound, but overall
it tastes bloody
fantastic, man.
I'm like, I'm so glad
that I got to be here to eat it.
Today, I'm going to try
and finish a chocolate ganache dessert that I've never
been able to finish before. I've got my
ganache sitting in the fridge.
I'm also making a rosemary flavoured ice cream
to get a savoury flavour onto the plate.
To make it extra special, I'm going to
add some other elements, including some honeycomb.
I'm worried
about making my honeycomb today because
I haven't got a good history with honeycomb.
In the
Asian Restaurant Challenge, I stuffed up
the honeycomb twice.
It's bad.
Once I've got the honeycomb
mixture to the pot, I bring that up to
a temperature which is, I think,
about 160 degrees.
Whisk it and put it into the silicon
mat.
And it's looking quite pale.
I'm just hoping that it's going to get
darker.
There's consequences to today's cook, so
I'm going to be the one going home if it doesn't
go right.
I'm feeling a bit
of pressure. Check my
honeycomb.
It's cooled down,
but it's just not setting.
And it's just so
soft.
What happened to the honeycomb?
I didn't take the
sugar far enough, so it's really soft. I've got to
start that again. You've got 30
minutes to go. Yeah.
Will you be ready? Hopefully. I've just got
to... Hopefully? Yeah. I will.
I will.
I hope so too.
I've only got 30 minutes to get this right.
This is a dish
pretty much what I love to cook, and it's...
So I don't want to fail today.
I'm going to try again, try again, try again until I get it right.
Last time I did honeycomb
was an absolute disaster.
I've got to make the honeycomb again.
Just hopefully I can get it all done.
Second batch of honeycomb.
I'm going to be using a thermometer this time.
I'm going to make sure it comes up to the right temperature.
Pour out
my second lot of honeycomb.
And it looks good, so
I'm pretty happy about it.
I know I've bitten off a lot
than what I could chew, but I want to keep
pushing. I want to just get things done.
It's not over until it's over.
I'm going to add another chocolate element.
I'm going to try and temper chocolate, because
I remember the first time when I got it wrong
over and over and over again.
It really made me really frustrated, and
there's one point when I got it right, and that
was probably one of the best days of my life.
Today's elimination
day. There's consequences.
One of us could be going home, but
this is childhood. I'm evoking my
memories, so I want to temper
chocolate. I take out
the chocolate, and I pour over the acetate, and I
spread it very thinly, and I'm hoping it's going to set.
The chocolate
seems to be working. Check on my honeycomb.
That's alright.
Snap it.
And it works. It's
looking like what I want it to look like.
This is finally
in the MasterChef kitchen that I've got
honeycomb down. Finally.
Everything's slowly coming together.
I'm just hoping that I can just keep it together.
Less than
10 minutes to go, and I've got to start plating up.
I cut a circle out of the ganache
and a hole in the middle.
I cube up the orange jelly and put that in the centre.
Next thing to do is
put the chocolate crumb on top.
What is that?
It's just the crumble.
Of what?
Uh, to burn?
So I taste the crumb,
and something's really
missing. Oh my god.
I've got to put sugar.
I can't believe it.
That is such a stupid mistake. It just flew
over my head.
I'm just going to coat this in caster sugar, and hopefully
that it will cover the sweetness.
Yes, I've taken quite a bit of risk.
You know, it's all in or nothing.
This whole
idea and the pictures finally
coming together.
Looks amazing, Reynold.
I'm actually really proud of
actually putting something like this up.
I've done dishes
before in a competition that I've been happy with,
but never a dish like this.
I'm really
proud of myself to put up a dish like this.
I think I've done
more than justice to my childhood memory.
Wow.
Well, I tell you what, it looks absolutely
drop dead gorgeous.
So what's the dish?
So it's a chocolate ganache with
orange jelly, tempered chocolate,
honeycomb, and rosemary ice cream.
That is the best
dessert for me
that we've had all season.
It is absolutely
beautiful. The chocolate
mousse is delicious. The rosemary
ice cream is just an inspired idea.
The little tumble of ingredients, which
includes that lovely, light, crunchy honeycomb.
Those little pebbles, which
was a mistake, but in fact
worked out brilliantly. And the little shards
of chocolate are all just on the money.
He's 21 years of age. This is
phenomenal.
But what's interesting is
that explosion of flavours.
Most pastry chefs have a sweet
tooth. That's why they make
pastry. He's got
a sour chef's palate, which
is taken into the pastry, which
is rare. And that's what will
define him apart from every other pastry
chef in this country, his palate.
Brilliant. Absolutely
brilliant.
