Wagyu beef cheeks

This series was won by Larissa Takchi in the grand finale against Tessa Boersma and Simon Toohey, broadcast on 23 July 2019. The finale featured three wagyu beef cheeks instead of two.

Tessa Boersma and Simon Toohey appeared on Series 12. Simon was eliminated on 7 June 2020, finishing 11th and Tessa was eliminated on 28 June 2020, finishing 7th. Auditionees had one hour to cook their signature dish to secure their spot in the Top 24. Eighteen hopefuls received aprons with three votes from the judges, and thirteen contestants with one or two “yes” votes had another chance to win the six remaining spots in the competition. Each dish was tasted blindly by the judges.

During the judging, Dee was the first to advance with her Sri Lankan crab curry. In the first cook in the competition, the Top 24 had 75 minutes to prep a dish they would cook if they were on a ‘Desert Island’. This week, there were no elimination challenges and the four contestants with standout dishes competed in the first immunity challenge. The cooks who succeeded in that challenge were Dee, Mandy, Joe and Tim. To win the first immunity pin, Dee, Mandy, Joe and Tim had to follow steps from Curtis Stone in cooking his steak and chips with broccolini and béarnaise sauce. In the judging, all four impressed but Dee’s béarnaise was fatty and lacked mustard seeds while both Joe’s and Mandy’s steaks were slightly undercooked.

The Top 24 faced the first Mystery Box Challenge, in which they had 75 minutes to make a dish using at least one of nine ingredients selected by the judges. The Top 5 were Tessa, Tim, Steph, Abbey and Anushka and Abbey was the first to compete for immunity. The other contestants faced another Mystery Box containing black ingredients with 75 minutes to cook. Dee, Nicole and Yossra had to recreate the recipe of Darren Purchese’s Bombe Alaska in 45 steps. Nicole impressed despite the lack of tempered chocolate in her caramel ice cream. Yossra won praise for her dish despite her meringue coating being uneven. In the first round, Abbey, Derek, Kyle and Tessa had 45 minutes to cook a fried chicken dish.

Both Tessa’s buffalo wings and Derek’s Korean chicken wings impressed the judges and for the first time, they advanced to the second round, in which they cooked against Max Sharrad, the Young Chef of the Year. In 75 minutes, they chose the orange as the core ingredient for their dishes. During the cook, both teams struggled early. After Tessa used her immunity pin to avoid elimination, the other members of the Blue Team had to cook with either their favourite or least favourite ingredient, with the Bottom 4 being sent to the second round. In the second round, Christina, Kyle, Walleed and Yossra had 60 minutes to cook with their remaining ingredient.