Nicole’s timer rings
MASTERCHEF’S PRESSURE-COOKER ATMOSPHERE STARTED TO TELL ON BRISBANE MEDICAL SECRETARY
Brisbane’s Nicole Stevenson has narrowly missed out on making the top 10 of MasterChef Australia — but she didn’t go home disappointed.
BRISBANE’S Nicole Stevenson has narrowly missed out on making the top 10 of MasterChef Australia – but she didn’t go home disappointed.
The 24-year-old medical secretary and amateur cook, who was eliminated on last night’s episode of the Channel 10 reality show, said she felt it was her time to go.
“If you told me six months ago that I would make the top 11, I would have laughed in your face,” she said.
“I was stoked for the opportunity to even get an apron (to make the top 24 in the beginning) so I was just happy for everyone else that was still there.”
Stevenson, who left behind Brisbane’s Ben Ungermann as the only Queenslander to make the top 10, said that while some of the contestants excelled under the intense pressure as it got down to the pointy end of the competition, she struggled.
“I had started to crack,” she said. “I was homesick and I didn’t have anymore to give.”
Stevenson said it wasn’t the first time the stress of the show had gotten to her, with Sweet Week also proving hard to recover from.
“I was really exhausted and it really took it out of me but then I snapped out of it,” she said.
Stevenson, who has a passion for healthy eating, said she one day hopes to open her own restaurant in Brisbane but will focus on opening a market stall specialising in croquettes and creating a recipe book aimed at those who have had gastric sleeve surgery in the near future.
“I have a few locations for the stall in mind and I’m hoping to do it by August,” she said.
“It’s hard not to come out of the show more passionate because we lived and breathed cooking every day among likeminded people.”
She was sent home after a pressure test to recreate a three-course meal by Paul Carmichael, the executive chef of Sydney’s two-hatted Momofuku Seiobo, in four hours.
“That was definitely the most full on four hours of my life,” she said.
“It was my first pressure test and a lot of the advice was to follow the recipe and don’t rush it because there is time to finish but time just slipped away from me.”