Sushil Ravikumar Leaves Masterchef New Zealand

Sushil Ravikumar Leaves Masterchef New Zealand

Sushil Ravikumar became the eleventh contestant from the Top 16 to leave MasterChef New Zealand on Sunday 5th May 2013 (7.30 pm – 8.30 pm) on TV ONE.

In tonight’s show the Top Six contestants faced a barbeque and wine matching challenge at the Wither Hills vineyard in Marlborough.

Aaron Brunet's and Ella Krauts’ dishes sizzled, and they won the challenge with cumin rubbed butterfish on clam panzanella, and pan fried butterfish with a saffron and lemon risotto respectively.

Sushil Ravikumar was thrilled to be cooking with Wither Hills pinot noir, which he matched with wild venison, red cabbage, steamed vegetables and a honey vinaigrette.

“Today it’s all about going hard or going home," he declared.

In the blazing Marborough sunshine he set to making a pine nut herb crust for the venison, sealing the crust to the meat with Dijon mustard.

Circling Sushil’s work station, MasterChef judges Ray McVinnie and Simon Gault observed.

“I’m worried about what Sushil’s doing,” said Ray. “He’s put a mustard coating on the outside of the seared venison and then put a breadcrumb herb crust on it.”

“That’s a bit scary,” agreed Simon. “Chances are that the crust won’t stick to it. By the time he moves it around on the barbeque he might be serving us a bit of a mess.”

As if on cue, Sushil threw the meat on the piping hot barbeque, and the crumbed crust blackened and burnt.

With just 10 minutes to go, he reverted to Plan B, pan cooking the venison and then slicing it for tasting.

“Presentation wise I’m not going to go fine dining or something that I’m not comfortable with,” he said.

“I’m going to go with how I would like my plate to be and how I would like to eat it.”

Simon wasn’t impressed by his efforts.

“This looks like something out of the 80s,” he declared. “Red cabbage with some sliced up meat on top and some vegetables jammed up the other side of the plate – do you think this is really good enough to keep you in the competition today?” he asked Sushil.

“It’s dead boring,” said Ray.

“The vegetables don’t belong there, covered in honey in a bizarre combination. This is not my dish of the day.”

“There’s a bunch of components in this dish and not one of them has been well executed,” said Josh Emett.

“Nothing works to even remotely match the wine.

“I think this is the worst dish Sushil has ever cooked for us!”

In the Bottom Two alongside Vanessa Baxter, Sushil braced himself for more bad news.

“Sushil, we’ve been down this road before,” said Ray.

“You have so much passion but you need to need to find your own style and stop imitating. It just doesn’t work.

“The venison was of such high quality that you could eat it as rare as you served it,” he continued.

“But everything else on the plate was a disaster. Bread crumbs, flavourless cabbage…”

“It is fair to say you had an absolute shocker,” said Josh.

“But we’ve decided that Vanessa has more to give in this competition, which means you haven’t made it through.”

“I’m really disappointed in myself,” Sushil gulped through tears.

“Getting so close yet so far is really heart breaking.”

“Sushil, we applaud you,” said Simon. “You have been one of, if not the most polite, humble, conscientious and respectful contestants in the history of MasterChef New Zealand," he said.

“This journey has been absolutely amazing,” said Sushil. “It has been just delightful to be surrounded by people who love food.

“I’m obsessed about food and this is what I want to do. So I just have to go and fight for it until I achieve my goals!”

ENDS

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