#Masterchef Recap 14 July: Sunrise, Sunset

We’re back. Apologies for no blog yesterday. Hayden and Dani lost last night, so they’ll be cooking off in an elimination death match along with Sun and Billy. Billy better win.

Sun, blank and emotionless, has no strong views on who will lose out tonight. Dani vaguely acknowledges how terribly she’s done this week, then cries. Billy is gearing up to smash it, and Hayden has bought himself a New York hat.

They’re wearing white rather than black! The better to see the Westpac logo, I guess.

Gail speaks, and Masterchef obeys

They arrive in the heart of Harlem. Matt Preston is wearing a white suit and a pink shirt.  Wow. Matt Moran is also here. What has he been doing the rest of the week? They’ll be cooking soul food at Sylvia’s, which has been run by three generations of the Woods family. The whole family will be coming to lunch! Apparently the main ingredient in every dish is love. Dani thinks that she knows how to cook with love, and is relieved. Dani, you can put in all the love you want, it won’t help if you do everything else wrong.

They’re cooking four dishes – three mains, and then a different side dish each. No recipes, which freaks Dani out. At least she knows about the love. They’re all making barbeque ribs, fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. So delicious.

Dani has only ever made macaroni from a box, which she feels the need to share to Matt Preston’s great embarrassment. He tries to recover by asking her to compare and contrast. She identifies cheese flavours. Just go home now, Dani.

Hey, it says 'the cheesiest' right there on the box

The side dishes are collard greens, candied yams, a crazy-looking potato salad, okra gumbo and black eyed peas. As Hayden’s cooked collard greens and candied yams already this week, he doesn’t get them – he’ll be making the gumbo. Sun gets stuck with the potato salad and Billy gets both collard greens and black eyed peas, which are apparently the easiest. Go Billy! This leaves Dani with the candied yams.

They only get ninety minutes. What? They’re off. Matt Moran starts unhelpfully yelling at them to hurry. Sun immediately panics. Meanwhile, Alana and Ellie are enjoying their reward lunch. They won? What is even happening this week? Alana is wearing some serious bling.

Back in the death kitchen. Sun and Dani helpfully recap everything that just happened. Hayden immediately realises there’s three friers for four fried batches of fried chicken. Smart man. Dani and Billy also work it out, and start gunning the chicken. Sun decides to do her potato salad first. I’m sure that will go well.

Dani asks Kenneth for help. Kenneth refuses to help her cheat. His face, however, reveals his opinion on her decision to use sugar syrup on her yams: it’s totally wrong. Kenneth should replace Matt Moran. He tells Hayden to put some love into his okra.

Love it good

Sun is struggling to break down her chicken. Matt eggs Kenneth into hassling the contestants. Sixty minutes to go! Kenneth is worried about the fact that everyone’s doing it completely wrong, particularly Dani. Uh oh, Billy’s chicken might also be wrong. Marinating in buttermilk does sound like a strange thing to do. No worries, though, because Sun’s done a terrible job.

Billy’s making three-cheese macaroni. Thirty minutes to go. This is so intense! Kenneth tests Billy’s collard greens, which are bland. Billy fixes it. Dani, meanwhile, is adding sugar to her sauce. Wait, no, she’s confused salt and sugar. Yep, Dani’s just dumped a cup of salt into her sauce. Adding that much sugar also seems really extreme.

Back from the ad break we replay Dani’s moment of triumph, with a different camera angle that reveals exactly how clearly labelled the salt container is. Hayden is being careful not to overcook his mush. Billy’s pretty happy with his black eyed peas.

Fair enough, they're very authentic

Dani is asking for even more help from Kenneth. He takes pity on her and tells her to season her macaroni. Fifteen minutes to go, and Sylvia’s family are arriving. Sun’s been struggling away in the background. She thinks she’s in trouble.

Matt does not want to eat raw chicken, so starts dropping hints about cooking time. Hayden and Billy get their chicken in pretty quickly. Dani sulks, but is aware of the number of fryers. She shoves her hand in the hot oil, then yelps in surprise.

With less than ten minutes to go, Sun finally realises that there are only three fryers. She whinges, and demands a fryer. Hayden has no sympathy, and in fact winds her up, telling her she needed to work faster. Sun nearly stabs him. Get stuffed, Sun, you had as much time as everyone else.  She complains that he’s not being gentlemanly. You are in a competition, Sun, harden up.

There is no place in Masterchef for gentlemen

Sun finally gets her chicken in, with minutes to go. Dani wastes time complaining about her hand, and burns her chicken. She cries, and Matt Moran calls it creole. Two minutes to go, and Sun doesn’t even have a potato salad. She’s in full sulk mode. Sadly she is not as cute as Dani so no judges appear to help her out.

Time’s up! Sun or Dani are going home. What a result. Three generations of cooks are about to judge them.

Sun’s up first. The chicken and potato salad look and taste awful. The macaroni doesn’t have enough cheese or seasoning. The chicken is raw. There are no redeeming features of the dish. No wait, the ribs are kind of edible. Wow. Bleak.

Hayden’s food is next. His ribs look really weird, but the macaroni and the chicken looks good. His macaroni is delicious, but the ribs are terrible. The gumbo is undercooked and has used the wrong bits of the okra. An average performance from the lifeguard chef.

Dani’s up. She likes the way her food smells. I also like the smell of burnt chicken. The judges are considerably less impressed than she is with the way it looks. Story of Dani’s life. She hopes her poor performance in the kitchen hasn’t translated onto the plate. That is ludicrous. The chicken’s surprise perfect inside, though, and her ribs are delicious.

Billy’s next. His plate is the first one that I want to eat. Everything looks how it should, according to Kenneth. The black eyed peas are perfect, as is the fried chicken and the macaroni. So much victory music. He has also included love! This is why Billy is the best. The Woods nearly offer him a job.

Decision time! Billy is clearly safe, so I no longer really care about the outcome. Worst elimination ever – not only do you get booted, you also have to get on a special failure flight right back to Australia.

Hope the pilot makes an announcement

Hayden is so competitive. Sun, asked if she’d like to be the next masterchef, says ‘I guess’. Matt asks why Dani has started to suck so much this week. She explains that she has zero coping or problem solving skills. Billy is just having a rad time exploring New York, and talks about his dessert bar again. I am stoked about this dessert bar.

Sun pretends to be surprised that her chicken was raw. We see another shot of Dani’s candied yams, which are totally wrong. Matt reiterates that everything about Billy’s dish was great. He is safe! He’s so pleased. What a lovely guy.

Dani is also safe, through no fault of her own. It’s down to Hayden and Sun, much to Hayden’s surprise. Flameball! It’s got to be Sun.

We’re back. Hayden is safe. Sun loses! Finally. Will Matt Preston go a ‘today the Sun sets’ joke? No. Too harsh. She’s feeling strangely calm. That is because you do not have the ability to display human emotion. Her highlight reel does not feature any dishes she’s actually cooked. Amazing how far middle of the pack will take you.

Billy says something nice. Dani says they’ve had highs and lows. Full on. She hugs the judges and leaves, claiming to feel happy. As usual, absolutely no expression shows on her face. Is this a Hare Krishna thing?

Nah, they look pretty stoked

Everyone is enjoying awesome-looking bar food waiting for the survivors. Michael is anxious about Hayden. Nobody looks like they’re missing Sun. Kate asks after her, out of obligation.

Sun is greeted by family and friends on her return home. She wants to work in food media, whatever that is. Since leaving Masterchef she has started a blog: sunetheridge.com. Billy had a blog before starting Masterchef. Hell, Goth Matt had a blog. UPDATE: Sun’s blog is lame.

See you tomorrow as Matt Moran makes everyone feel slightly uncomfortable. Dali Lama on Sunday! No, really.