MasterChef Australia has been rocked by another shock elimination as Perth’s Joe Ahern was given his marching orders after struggling with an ocean-based entree in Thursday night’s episode.
This week, as part of the Queensland themed challenge, contestants were tested on their peeling, filleting, deveining and detailing skills – all in the beautiful setting of Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast.
But the fishy competition proved a little too slippery for 22-year-old Joe who found himself in round two alongside Ben, Nicole and Simon.
WATCH to see Joe’s shock elimination…
It was the second phase of Queensland week which sealed the digital production assistant’s fate when he “came undone” cooking the snapper for his Australian platter featuring seven types of local seafood, TV Black Box reports.
Joe’s rivals Ben, Nicole and Simon simply out-flavoured him with their tasty creations inspired by Japanese, Mexican and South East Asian cuisines.
Judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan, Matt Preston and guest critic James Brady decided the Western Australian had “failed to think on his feet” in the kitchen last night.
Ever the optimist, Joe told 10Daily he was “happy to have made it that far” in the iconic cooking show, adding “it was a bit different as well, a bit of a nicer view [in Queensland] to go out on rather than just walking out of the MasterChef kitchen”.
Joe walked away with the accolade of making “one of the best-filled pastas of the entire series”, according to culinary expert George Calombaris, and he has no plans to give up his gourmet dreams any time soon.
Since leaving the reality TV kitchen, Joe has been training at upscale Italian eatery Post in his hometown of Perth and is even planning a culinary tour of Italy!
Earlier this week, MasterChef viewers were outraged when hot favourite Tim Bone was ousted from the reality show in a surprise elimination challenge.
Fans were left reeling after the ‘Prince Harry’ lookalike’s attempt to recreate chef Shannon Kellam’s signature Chocolate de Passion dessert left the judges unimpressed, and Tim out on his ear.
This week’s shock eliminations come as viewers continue to slam one of MasterChef‘s best cooks on social media for ‘only cooking one dish’.
Sandeep Pandit has been blasted by MasterChef fans for whipping up “too many Indian curries” on the reality TV show.
MasterChef Australia Season 11 continues Sunday to Thursday at 7.30pm on Network Ten.