Tonight on MasterChef Dessert Masters, guest chef Curtis Stone played Santa and gave each of the 7 remaining contestants a Christmas gift - the ingredient they needed to create a dessert.

Each one was given a different fruit and made a dessert that featured that fruit with any other ingredients they liked.

Kirsten was given lemons and she made a lemon cake with lemon curd, cream and fabulous green holly decorations (edible of course).

Jess was given raspberries and made something that looked like a chocolate and raspberry bar decorated with powdered dried raspberries and tuile. She served it with a fabulous shiraz sorbet!

Kay-Lene was given bananas and made the most epic roasted banana cake, with banana palm sugar jam, frangelico syrup, salted caramel buttercream, gingerbread around the sides and banana fritters on top. Would you believe this dessert only took her 2 HOURS to make!

Anna was given blackberries and made Greek trifle with blackberry gel and a yoghurt panna cotta and fresh fruit. Sadly the judges thought her dessert was a little "ungenerous".

Gareth was given apples and made a "plum pudding" made out of apples, spices and calvados liqueur glaze.

Reynold was given passionfruit and tried to make a blown sugar "glass" bauble, sprayed with edible gold with a filling of passionfruit. Sadly, the sugar glass refused to stay intact and kept cracking, forcing him to play his pin.

Andy was given strawberries and made a rustic trifle with all the usual suspects, but the layering and cohesiveness were just not there.

Kay-Lene Tan's dessert was judged by Curtis, Melissa & Amaury as winning dish of the night!

Reynold Poernomo was forced to use his Immunity Pin to save himself from being eliminated.

Sadly, Anna Polyviou & Andy Bowdy were the ones who were eliminated, leaving 5 contestants to play in tomorrow night's Semi-Final. I am sure they will do miraculous things in the future.

However, there is yet another surprise - there will be another Double Elimination tomorrow night, leaving only 3 contestants to battle in the kitchens on Tuesday night to win one of the Top 3 prizes in the Grand Finale, the ultimate winner will receive the first Dessert Masters Trophy & $100,000!

I am very worried about Kirsten Tibballs tomorrow night, I've seen the preview, and it appears her dessert collapses and implodes. I hope she has a spare or a back-up plan as I DON'T want to see The Chocolate Queen eliminated seeing as she is so close to the final!

Best Wishes to tonight's Top 5 on MasterChef Dessert Masters (Reynold, Gareth, Jess, Kirsten & Kay-Lene). Two contestants will be eliminated tonight and the Top 3 will make it to tomorrow night's Grand Finale where the winner will win the first Dessert Masters Trophy & $100,000! 😀 

What does this air on bro?

@he-dad It airs on Channel 10 and on 10 Play

Tonight the 5 contestants had to make a dessert inspired by nature. The three best dishes will advance to tomorrow night's Grand Finale, and the winner will receive the first Dessert Masters Trophy & $100,000. I assume the second and third place winners will win a prize also, as is the usual custom. Sadly, it means the two least impressive dishes were sent home tonight.

We'll start with the sad news. Kirsten, who I had hoped so much to win the Semi-Final (at least) and the Grand Finale had a disaster. She was one of the two contestants who were eliminated. She tried to make a chocolate and pecan cake with passionfruit gel and she planned to top it with a chocolate twig birdcage and candy leaves and butterflies. Sadly, at the last moment her birdcage crumbled and fell apart, and although she gamely tried to present her beautiful looking cake with the candy leaves and butterflies, it wasn't enough to meet the challenge and save her. I am so devastated for her. 😪  

The other contestant who was sent home was Kay-Lene. She made a dessert that was supposed to depict Winter turning into Spring. She made a basil and lemon verbena sorbet, vanilla tuile leaves, apple and rhubarb mascarpone with coconut gel meant to depict frozen water beginning to melt. Her dessert looked lovely but was very dry and the many elements seemed to clash with each other.

Now for the happier news. The three contestants who have made it into the Grand Finale tomorrow night are Jess, Gareth & Reynold. Although Kirsten was eliminated, my new favourite contestant is Jess, and I hope she wins!

Jess made a bonsai tree! She made the pot and pebbles out of chocolate (coloured black with black sesame paste), chocolate soil and chocolate tree branches, and matcha (Green Tea) flavoured moss and foliage. She filled the pebbles with passionfruit sauce, and out of the three winning dishes, it was my clear and personal favourite! I've attached the photo.

Reynold made a chocolate log filled with Earl Grey Tea and chocolate filling, accompanied by a maple and bergamot ice cream and leaves made out of freeze dried raspberries and blackberries.

Gareth's dessert was the most unusual, he made a hazelnut cake with Jerusalem artichoke glaze, black truffle pebbles and apple sorbet. His idea was to combine sweet and savoury and the vegetables/fungi were his "nature ingredients".

I can't wait for the regular series of MasterChef (Season 16) and Dessert Masters (Season 2) in 2024!

Here are Reynold Poernomo, Gareth Whitton & Jess Liemantara who will face off in the Grand Finale!

Here are Kirsten Tibballs & Kay-Lene Tan, who were sadly sent home tonight.

Farewell & Best Wishes Kirsten & Kay-Lene, you are both still talented legends!

Kirsten will always be The Chocolate Queen to me, and I will still watch her show!

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/the-chocolate-queen

I saw lovely and talented MasterChef alumnus Kishwar Chowdhury (from Season 13 in 2021) with the amazing vegetarian/vegan chef Simon Toohey on his cooking show Freshly Picked today!❤️

Both are absolutely awesome legends!😊

I wish another one of my favourite former MasterChef contestants Depinder Chhibber (also from Season 13) would return to TV! ❤️

Another of my favourite former MasterChef contestants is Daniel Lamble from last year, he came third and won $20,000! 😀 

Posted by: @michaelholloway

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@he-dad It airs on Channel 10 and on 10 Play

Australia TV. Gotcha thanks.

Tonight on MasterChef: Dessert Masters was the Grand Finale and the end of the first season of a show I hope will air for many years to come.

Three weeks ago, 10 contestants started this journey, but in the end it was Jess Liemantara, Gareth Whitton & Reynold Poernomo who made it to the finals.

The three finalists had to make a two course dessert meal for the judges Melissa Leong & Amaury Guichon and 15 surprise diners in a Service Challenge.

Each dish would be given a mark out of 10 from each judge and whoever won the highest mark out of 40 would be crowned Australia's first official Dessert Master, and they would win $100,000 and have their name etched on the Trophy.

I'll break down the proceedings as thus:

Jess (First Course): a strawberry and balsamic vinegar flavoured mascarpone with strawberry flowers and coconut sorbet. The flavours were a little uneven. This earned her 6/10 from both Amaury & Melissa. Score - 12/20.

Jess (Second Course): a chocolate sponge ensconced within a strawberry chiboust (meringue) with strawberry mousse and blackcurrant sorbet (which she left in the blast chiller too long and it froze completely which made it very grainy). It was decorated with ruby chocolate flowers. This earned her 7 from Amaury and 8 from Melissa. Score - 15/20.

Jess (Total Score - 27/40)

Reynold (First Course): frijoa mousse with elderberry snow and strawberry snow, and jasmine tea ice cream. This earned him 7/10 from Amaury and 8/10 from Melissa. Score - 15/20.

Reynold (Second Course): citrus cream with orange blossom gel with milk and honey honeycomb. However, this dish was too frozen in texture and the honeycombs kept cracking resulting in an uneven recipe with textural issues. This earned him 6/10 from Amaury and 7/10 from Melissa. Score - 13/20.

Reynold (Total Score - 28/40)

Gareth (First Course): olive oil biscuit with white chocolate cream, pepperberry ice cream and poached rhubarb. This dish was near perfect which earned him 8/10 from Amaury and 9/10 from Melissa. Score - 17/20.

Gareth (Second Course): wattle seed chocolate biscuit, armagnac brandy cream, apricot jam and pistachio mousse cream. This dish was also near perfect, earning him 9/10 from both Amaury & Melissa. Score - 18/20.

Gareth (Total Score - 35/40)

Based on these scores, the standings are as follows:

Jess Liemantara came in THIRD PLACE.

Reynold Poernomo came in SECOND PLACE.

The winner of MasterChef: Dessert Masters 2023 is GARETH WHITTON! He is Australia's first official Dessert Master, winning $100,000 and his name will be etched on the first ever MasterChef Dessert Masters Trophy. See photo.😀 

Usually the second and third place winners in regular MasterChef win a smaller prize each but this has not been addressed as yet on Dessert Masters, so I don't know what's happening with that in this series. I can't wait for MasterChef Season 16 and Dessert Masters Season 2 in 2024! 😀 

This is Gareth Whitton's first prize winning dish!

An olive oil biscuit with white chocolate cream, pepperberry ice cream and poached rhubarb. 

This is Gareth Whitton's second prize winning dish!

A wattle seed chocolate biscuit, armagnac brandy cream, apricot jam and pistachio mousse cream.