Wicked Appetite S1E6: Eggs Benedict Chaos & Baddie Shompa's Redemption Slay

Nobody was ready for eggs benedict. Not the contestants, not the viewers, and honestly not even the eggs.

This week Heidi and Finley recap the first mystery box challenge of MasterChef Season 16 — and it was, in their words, a complete sh*t show. Every contestant had to put their own cultural spin on eggs benedict, which sounds fun until you remember that hollandaise sauce waits for no one and poached eggs have exactly zero chill. The results were... mixed.

The highs were genuinely stunning — Shompa's malai curry benedict with homemade poori bread had the whole room speechless, Heidi's peri peri hollandaise earned her the immunity pin AND saved her entire team, and Maria proved that leeks can absolutely be the main character. The lows, however, were spectacular. Nico called a croissant a bomboloni to Joe Bastianich's face, Foo overcomplicated himself right into the bottom, and Camilo's eggs benedict torta was described by Gordon Ramsay as the most unappetizing he'd ever seen—right before Camilo was sent home.

Also: Basia needs to trust herself more, and Finley and Heidi both give their wooden spoon to Nico. Unanimously. Without hesitation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome to Wicked Appetite. This is Finley Brown. I mean she's fine. She's Finley Brown.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

She's Heidi Stark.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

And this is what happens when you get two dark romance authors who also have a love of food and meet each other on Master Chef. Clearly, I don't even know who I am today, so that's a good start. And I actually am probably kicking this off in the right way given what a shit show this episode of MasterChef season 16 was.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

It was a total shit show.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

I feel like I've watched probably every season of this show over the years, and this was one of the ones where I was like, what is happening? How did you feel about it?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I felt like whenever I've watched this show in the past, eggs always stomp everybody. Because the timing on a perfectly cooked egg is so exact almost. And it's so hard to get technically right. It's such a simple ingredient, but technically it can be very difficult.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

And this is where I start to see differences between the format of Mastership Australia and MasterChif USA. So I do distinctly remember watching a fairly recent season of MasterChef Australia, and they did a mystery box. And I believe that Poe, who who's now in a judging role, um, you know, put it was like two ingredients, and you know, people were doing these amazing things with eggs, but they have 90 minutes, they get a lot of training and coaching. And I think here it was we'll get into it, but watch Gordon do something and suddenly run off and execute in 45 minutes, it's just a different level of stress and pressure, and maybe less focus on the technique that any technique that takes more than a couple of minutes.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yeah, well, you had two difficult things. You had the perfect cook on a poached egg, and then you had a Hollandaise sauce, which is not an easy sauce and can break and can turn into scrambled eggs if you're not careful. I mean, there's a lot of things that can go wrong.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Well, we should probably tell the listeners in case they haven't seen the episode what the challenge is, we're really good at this, you can tell. But okay, so this was the first mystery box challenge of the competition, and you know, sometimes mystery boxes have live creatures walking out of them, like lobsters and things, um, or you know, a variety of different options. Um, this time it was just a carton of eggs, and so the challenge for this it wasn't create whatever egg dish you want, it specifically was to create eggs Benedict, which is why we're talking about poached eggs and hollandays. Um, and so everyone was able to put their own spin on it and encouraged to use their heritage and culture to create so just to flash back to last time, Aishu had um won the challenge with her savory donuts, and so this week she has the immunity pin, so she'll be watching the whole challenge from the balcony, plus she gets to hand out a disadvantage. Finley, why don't you tell the audience what the disadvantage was?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

The disadvantage was a tiny whisk as compared to a big balloon whisk. So it was definitely gonna be more challenging. They were gonna have to whisk it faster and harder. They weren't gonna get as much air put into their sauce as you would with a bigger whisk. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

I believe that this was a similar challenge to one that was handed out in the um season where they did the generations on Master Shift because I remember people having to whip something together, maybe a meringue or something, without saying someone else had like a kitchen aid or something. But this was whisk versus whisk. I saw some comments on Reddit that these whisks weren't even really that tiny. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Um I mean, I think it's when you're the one whisking, it looked probably tinier than the big ones.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

So And Aishu did make a funny comment to Nico about that. I didn't know how to take it. In that sense as well, so Aishu did pick Team Europe. She said she was going to take out some threats. Um, Europe obviously being a strong team, so she wanted to disadvantage them as much as possible. She did later say she gave it to the fittest team, saying they're gonna have to make up for it with their arm strength. Um but in any case, Europe had a tiny whisk to use each, and everyone else had a regular balloon whisk. Um, so we got to see Gordon demonstrate cooking for the first time, which is pretty cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, no, and it made me think like he obviously was using Scottish roots with Scottish lobster. Um and it made me think like, oh my gosh, what would I done after watching him do something like that? Had I made a on and gotten an apron, I was a little worried.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

I was like And how French, how French was his uh sorry, how Scottish was his French croissant with uh what did he put, caviar with lobster?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, you know, if he had a potato scone on there, I would have been really impressed, but the time would be of the yeses.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

And it looked really good to me. Um, I know people like to make fun of um the way he does eggs in general. Obviously, poach is a little bit different from the feedback he gets on his scrambled ones, but I thought that the dish looked incredible and I was very hungry watching it.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

All right, so um I don't even know how to describe this other than complete chaos and kind of a disaster. I have never seen so many, like if we thought that Nora was frazzled in last week's episode, everyone looked completely frazzled, even the people who did quite well this episode, not that there were many of them, but did you find the same thing? Like everyone was just kind of like very overwhelmed by eggs benefits.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

I I think and and I think it comes down to it's a technical dish. So you can't really fake your way through a Hollandaise sauce. It's either gonna be correct or it's not gonna be correct. Where I think some other dishes you maybe have some wiggle room to, and then same with the poached egg. Your eggs either going to not be cooked like the whites completely or the yolk's gonna start to go hard, and you've got a very thin, tiny margin. So I think that did throw everybody. I think this was definitely a technical test and to see who knew their stuff, and it was nerve-wracking.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

Fair enough. Okay, well, do you want to do the first one? Shampa.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Okay, so we'll start with the top, the top four. So we pick one from each team. So Shampa representing Asia Pacific, she did a Malai Curry Eggs Benedict with a curry hollandaise served on pourry bread, and she made her own bread, which I think she was that I could tell of the people they featured, the only one to actually make their own bread. Am I correct, or did we see somebody else?

SPEAKER_02 6:54

I believe it was just her. I thought it looked so delicious while it was cooking. Her protein was shrimp, which I thought was innovative. I thought her dish sounded amazing. I sent her a message to tell her that I I would have eaten that. Like, if that was on a menu, I would have ordered that in a heartbeat.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Me too. I agree. Like, she I think she like was on redemption from the week before. So she was gonna come out very strong, and she did. She came out strong. Gordon praised the risk of incorporating on the molly curk uh curry and making the bread and said it was a great effort, and and there was a risk in doing that, so she didn't hold back. Tiffany called the Hollandaise the star of the night, so that was awesome. And Joe said incredibly balanced and delicate, and she definitely deserved to win for Asia Pacific. Her dish looked amazing.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Yes, and I I thought the same, I thought very, very well deserved. Um, and all all four of the ladies who were called out for the best dishes. I thought that they, you know, there weren't many strong performers of the evening. I thought these four were very well deserved. Yes. The second person we had was Basha from Teen Europe. Um, and so Basha did Carpester Eggs Benedict with a dill Hollandaise sauce and pork sausage. Again, I think you know, I am a big savory brunch person, so you don't have to sell me too hard on an eggs benedict. It's a classic, but uh you know, the dill in the Hollandaise, I thought that that sounded delicious. I know she's played with dill before, pork sausage just giving that savouriness with maybe a hinted sweetness. I just thought it sounded delicious.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Um I think she had sauerkraut on there too, which is so unusual, but like what a brilliant idea to give it that little bit of a pickly flavor to cut the rich Hollandaise.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Almost like that, yeah, that fermented kind of browniness. Um I think that was really cool. I do have to say, so Varsha was in complete panic mode, like everyone wasn't this challenge, but she was almost in tears a couple of times that we saw, and based on her performance, it felt to me like she was a student in school freaking out over the possibility of getting a B when everyone else was worried about failing.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Yes, and she really struggled with that tiny whisk. She was not happy about the tiny whisk.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

However, she seemed to yeah, she was really worried about her holidays and was so scared when Gordon was like cutting into the egg and everything. But he said it was delicious. Uh her eggs were just that perfect gooey yolk that um he told her to stop second guessing herself, which I agreed watching that. He said the flavors are exquisite. Um, Tiffany really enjoyed the way that the eggs looked too and the consistency of the other holidays she described as inviting. And Joe, to your point around the sauerkraut said he never would have thought putting sauerkraut and pork in a Benedict. Um, but he thought that she was being really honest to her roots, which is what made it work. And I think that's the essence of what the season is about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yeah, I think she rose to the challenge for that. She did stay true to her roots and it worked. Amazing. On to the next person who was Okay, we have Maria with the Americas, and she did an eggs benedict with alloporo cremoso, eggs benedict with creamy leeks. So um, and she was the only one who decided to just go vegetarian and not put a protein on there, which was definitely a risk, but it was a risk that paid off. And I have to say, I love leeks, so I was so excited to see her cooking with leeks and making them the star, and knowing that she could that it could work to be the star. Gordon said it was delicious, thought the leeks would be too rich, but it wasn't. And it said humble cooking at its best. And I think that's a good reminder because culturally, some of you know, uh, I can speak for Scottish food, it is kind of can be humble food. And when you can elevate it to that level, that's really good cooking. Um, Tiffany said there was a lot of great flavors and depth, and Joe said it was a great example of less is more because some people try to put too many things on their plate. She was very restrained and it worked.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

It shows a sense of confidence. I totally agree. And you know, leeks are interesting. I love leeks now. When I was growing up, a little bit like cooked onions, like when you get them and people cook them and they're a bit slimy, and it's a textural component. Now I adore them. If I see leeks on a menu, I will basically order the thing. Obviously, I love a good leek and potato. So the fact that she did this so creatively with eggs benedict, I'd love to try that because it sounds really, really interesting to me.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

It does. It her dish was one of those where I thought I have to try and make this.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

100%. And then our fourth top dish of the evening for Africa was Haiti. And so Haiti did a crawfish eggs benedict with a periperry hollandaise sauce. I thought that was very, very clever. I love periperry. That said, anything that's on the spicy, super flavorful side, I will, I will, but I I would have struggled between these dishes if they were all on a brunch menu. And I'm very picky, but these all sounded incredible. Um what did you think about this dish?

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Well, one, I thought it was beautifully presented. Once again, Haiti, we know, knows how to plate gorgeous. And I'm with you, I love a spicy periperry. So as soon as I thought of how well that would work in a Hollandaise to kind of lift it, I was like, this, I I had a feeling she was gonna do very well.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yes. Oh my goodness. And Gordon agreed with us. Um, he loved the idea of the periperi infusion across the Hollandaise. He thought it looked good. Um, Tiffany said, and I thought this was interesting, it was the lightest eggedict that she'd ever seen uh and she and ever experienced, and she thought it was really good too. Um, Joe thought the use of seasoning was smart, and he described it as restaurant quality, which is a big compliment coming from Joe, who's eaten at many, many restaurants.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Extremely big compliment.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Awesome. So the winner of the challenge was Haiti for Africa. So she earned she earned herself the immunity pin, um, but she also saved everybody in her team. Um, so she'll go into the next challenge with the immunity pin, and everyone from Africa is safe from tonight's elimination. Yes. Um, that takes us to the bottom dishes.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

That does take us to the bottom, and we will start with Asia Pacific and with Foo. And Foo made a shaking beef eggs benedict with a Thai basil Hollandaise. And I'm Foo looked rattled cooking. I thought he didn't he seemed so composed the the last few times we've seen him cook, and today I think eggs benedict rattled him a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

And he said it was like he'd maybe poached an egg or made a holiday. I'm not sure which one, one time before, but brand new for him.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yes, yes, and that's that's exactly it. I think this was a new kind of well, not ingredients, but new techniques for him. So with the Hollandaise and with the poaching of the egg. Um so I'm sure it smelled delicious because his food always just has like when he's cooking, just it's such a beautiful aroma. But Gordon said he overcomplicated the dish and said the idea of shaking beef with a Benedict is a nightmare. It's messy, it was confusing, and it lacked elegance. And it did kind of look messy on the plate. So that was um Gordon's Tiffany said the plate was messy, and the Thai basil didn't hit the right profile for the for the Holanda. And Joe said it didn't show mastery of basic techniques, which is again what I think that that they were trying to do is this was definitely a technique challenge over a flavor. I mean, the flavors had to be there, but it was definitely a technique challenge. And he said, when you focus too much on being clever, you lose the foundational skill required to stay in this kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

Ouch. And that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

An ouch, but Fu wasn't the only one who struggled.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

No, and he he took it very far away from the spirit of the ex Benedict. I have seen ones done with steak. Um, you know, usually they're that item on the menu that no one really orders because it's yeah way more expensive than everything else on the menu is just kind of there. Um, I think I tried it once when I was working in restaurants and it was an interesting idea, but I think they're taking it even further into a shaking bit. I get that he was being creative, but as you say, this was really a sneaky test design to test your technical.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

It was definitely all right.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Well, onto the word of the evening with Nico and his bombelone ex Benedict with tomato jam, braised artichokes, and basil hollandaise sauce. So Nico's was, dare I say, the most controversial dish of the evening. He got a very hard time about this dish, and he said that he was trying to base it off a bombelone, which apparently is some kind of Italian donut. Yeah, it's a beasty donut, kind of.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Or one of those light race raised yeasty donuts.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

And maybe he was, you know, I know uh cronuts and and what have you have been on trend, and people try and play with those and cropples and all these kind of hybrid things, and then obviously watching Gordon do it with a croissant, maybe that's what inspired him. But this is one of those ideas that fell very, very flat across the board and kind of earned Nico a bit of a reputation for um being a donut, as Gordon likes to say. Um, Gordon said it looked like a mess, that it was rushed and unfinished. It's kind of like, what are you doing? Um, he thought that the eggs and the tomato jam actually tasted really good, but that's probably what uh led to Nico not automatically being eliminated, I would say. Um Tiffany said that the Hollandaise itself was tasty, but it was a weird texture. I've experienced that too. Someone once made that for me and it was like a curdled Hollandaise, but it tasted quite good.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

I'm going to say that while he was cooking and Tiffany came up to speak to him, she told him twice to add more butter to his Hollandaise. So I think when he was tasting, if she wasn't, she was looking for something specific, and I think looking to see if he listened to her.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

And if he didn't do, but maybe didn't enough to save himself. Um, and in this was quite an altercation between him and Joe. Joe straight up says, So you think we're stupid. Bombolone is a donut, this is a croissant. You're not fooling anyone in the room. What did you think of that?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

I think this is a case of misnaming your dish. Yeah. And he should definitely not have called it a bombelone if it was not a donut. Like I think that is just, and I think that irritated Joe. Yes, who is Italian, you know, who it was expecting a donut and got a croissant. And I think it was just a classic case of we misnamed our dish. And he shouldn't have used the word bombelone.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

I wouldn't mess with Italian verbiage around Joe Bastiano, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

No, exactly. I think the fact that he called it that bothered Joe more than the actual dish did. I'm wondering. So, yes, so that was Nico. And so going on, we're going to Camillo from the Americas, and he did an ex Benedict torta with chorizo beans, which I'm gonna say right off the bat, I thought what probably could work. I mean, if you're going to have to incorporate, you know, let's do an ex Benedict um with South American flavors, Mexican flavors, maybe this is exactly you know what I would think of. But um, Gordon said visually it looked unappetizing. He described it as a heavy, messy hangover cure, and that he lost a lot. And I will say one of um Tamil's eggs fell off his dish and broke, so he was kind of already at it, a loss with the eggs and the poaching of the eggs. Um he said the egg was blown out and couldn't see the poach under all the heavy beans and chorizo and refinement wasn't there. And then Joe just said the technique was missing and the beans lacked that punch of flavor and that the Hollandaise split. So he definitely just had a lot of technical errors.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, that definitely was a um a tricky one. And you know, Gordon saying it was one of the most unappetizing expedits he's ever seen as um not a compliment. I felt really bad for him because it looked like it tasted good, it was just like very, very messy plating. And if it had been a Wednesday night meal at home with the family, like I don't think that they would have minded because the flavors were there, but we're in a competition. Exactly. So each of them struggled. It felt like you know, I feel like for Fu and Nico, it was more like the conceptualization of the dish with Camilo. I think it was more the execution. Um but this was the first real well, second, if we don't, if we can't Band-Aid Gate, of course, how can I forget? Um, this is a second elimination of the competition, and unfortunately, Camilo was chosen to go home. Yes. So the way that Gordon summed it up, he said that tonight the entire dish felt a million miles away from the challenge. So Camilo, I thought his his parting words were really great. He said he felt disappointed, um, but he really thought that the opportunity to be on Mastership was amazing, and that he came to Mastership on a dare from his daughter, which is so cool. Yes, and it became so much more than that. And he said it made him proud to be Latin American, getting to represent the Americas and specifically Mexican culture. So I don't think that this is the end of uh Camilo's cooking journey by any means.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Oh goodness, no. Uh he's got such a beautiful family and he's got such a wonderful like outlook on life and taking risks and and and doing this for his daughter challenged him. I love that. No, I definitely it's not the last we'll see of him. And I know his flavors were there. It was the execution of the technique, and I he's got a thousand great things still to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

100%. Okay. Well, um, I know that you have got some exciting book things going on. So, what what's going on? With uh perfect pairing.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

The perfect pairing is is getting ready to go out to some ARC readers, which are some advanced readers. So it's this is a fun project. I have a I've had a lot of fun writing it. Um, and I say it's loosely based on a cooking competition, and it's very loosely based because it is a stalker romance. So it's a great setting. And I'm actually it's fun because I made it on a private island, and the island is actually an island from a book that is one of my different series called Circle of Kings. So it's an island that is mentioned in different books. So I just kind of rebrought it back for this cooking competition.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

I love that that using the same universe in different books. I think that's really good. Awesome. Well, for me, I'm busy working on the book two of my Scar Souls duet, which is Scar So Vicious. Um, and for now, Scar So Lovely is out there as well. So we're kind of that you're not too far behind where I was a couple of weeks ago. So I'm always exciting releasing new ones. Um, okay, and now the way that we like to wrap these up, who is your rose going to?

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Okay, let's see. My I think my rose is going to Shampa. I love a redemption. I love that she went from the bottom straight to the top because I know she had it in her. I know she is an amazing cook. So I am gonna give Shampa my rose for like an absolute great um comeback.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Me too. I I I picked Shampa as well. And similar reason I thought not just the comeback, but the fact that she was able to take a classic French dish and turn it into something that had that big valley uh background to it, like just being brave enough to choose shrimp, putting a curry infusion in there in the Hollandaise. She was clearly like doing this on the fly. It's not something she whips up every weekend and making her own bread. I just thought it was a very, very impressive um challenge that was like just her result, was what this this season is all about.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah, I totally agree. Now, hmm, wooden spoon. Hmm. I'm giving I and we might be giving this to the same person too, maybe different. I'm giving it to Nico. Oh my god. Only because Nico, when somebody asks you to, and this could be an editing thing, because maybe he did add more butter and they just didn't show it. But when somebody says twice to put more butter into your holidays and they are Tiffany, you put more butter and get your holidays right. I'm gonna okay, I'm gonna change. And that 100% could be editing, and maybe he did, but it could be, it could be.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

I I'm gonna I'm gonna give two. I'm gonna give one to Nico as well because the bombelone yes, go the way it was described, it was gonna piss Joe off. Like, come on, read the room, it's Joe in Italian stuff. But I would also say I'm gonna give it lightheartedly to Basha because she was so hard on herself and so suspending, and it's like everyone else sucked so much worse than her, who was in the bottom, and they were trying really hard, and that was really stressful. But hers was beautiful, and that was just the case of her holding her standard so high as she should and coming through with an amazing dish, but like the panic she clearly was feeling. I feel like she could have avoided that and just trusted herself more.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah, I'm gonna tell you, she could be a little bit of a dark horse in this competition. I think she is going to do much better than she gives hers. Like, like you said, I think she is probably a perfectionist and is really hard on herself. I think she's gonna do pretty well, though.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Awesome. Well, I'm excited. Um, we are a little behind on getting this episode out, which is totally fine. Life was lifing. Um, but the next episode will be a team challenge, the first of the season. And the top 18 home cooks are gonna prepare meals for 100 soccer players who are young children who we know who have opinions and lots of energy and thoughts about food. Um, and so we're gonna have captains and people doing different things, and I know it's always like chaos in these challenges. I can't wait to.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

No, I'm so excited. I love a team challenge.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Awesome. Well, we will see you all next episode. Okay for listening. Bye bye.