Masterchef: The Wash-up

And then there were two.

The highly anticipated ‘Grand Finale’ of Mastechef this Sunday night will be a battle of the boys, after Melbourne lawyer, and sometimes ice-queen, Clare Winton Burn made her exit last night on overcooked lamb and late served main dishes.

Apart from the fact the tag ‘grand final’ doesn’t seem to be spectacular enough to describe the final episode, the show does look like it will live up to the hype generated by the tousle over the 7.30pm time slot with the televised federal election debate, and break ratings records for Channel 10.

Although I didn’t expect the emotion of the Marion Elimination (yes, I cried in mourning for Marion), I have to admit I did feel a little sorry for Claire. She herself has admitted she doesn’t like the tearful admissions, which have plagued the show ALL season; she likes to keep her emotions to herself. But what we saw last night at the business end of the show, was a very upset Claire, lamenting how close she came to making ‘the cut’ (as Gary put it) for the grand finale. And while we’re talking emotion – I have to say (and I will be struck down for admitting this) that I might have missed Jimmy ‘The Curry King’ Seervai a little last night. None of the three remaining contestants stirred dislike or emotion the way Jimmy used to. No one caused me to scream at the TV screen – ‘but all you cook is curry!!!’

So what’s next for Claire? No, she won’t be bringing out her own line of sauces. (Thank you Claire, the world can only handle so much sauce). She says she’s not sure if she can make a viable living out of cooking just yet, but her practicing certificate expired last month – so it seems law is not a career option at the moment. She says she still wants to eventually open her own pub/restaurant and cook Sunday lunches in people's homes. WTF? I heard Courtney mention this one too. Is it just me? Or is this a weird business goal? I get the idea of building a reputation etc etc but it sounds a bit odd to me. I guess I would pay to have my favourite Masterchef contestant cook in my kitchen, but I might be a bit embarrassed about the fact that my kitchen is the size of a linen cupboard.

The response on Twitter last night was mixed in the minutes after Claire was sent packing – some tweets were pretty harsh, probably in the wake of Claire being labelled a ‘home wrecker’ (what does that have to do with her cooking??) and an ice-queen. But most of the tweets were about Adam or Callum and who they thought should take out the title.

Perhaps the big question of the night was not, ‘did Claire deserve to go?’ But ‘did the GG actually eat something?’ I think comedian and Channel 10 personality Dave Hughes (@DHughsey) summed it perfectly when he tweeted:

Must have been a lot of pressure cooking for the Governor General. She looked like she'd been waiting 5 years for a meal.

So who is your money on – Adam or Callum??

Do you think Callum has fudged his way through or is the skilled and worldly Adam the most deserving?