LAST NIGHT, THE brand new season of Celebrity Masterchef Ireland kicked off.
This season boasts a rather illustrious line-up with the likes of Sonia O’Sullivan Evelyn Cusack, Niamh Kavanagh, Colm O’Gorman, Oisin McConville, Holly Carpenter, Mundy, Simon Delaney and Samantha Mumba (!) all taking part.
In other words, it’s reality show heaven.
Last night saw five celebrities — O’Gorman, Kavanagh, Cusack, McConville and Carpenter — take part in the first heat and vie for their place in the next
Firstly, they were tasked with making a dish based on one of their childhood food memories.
Colm O’Gorman’s childhood dish had people crying, “Notions!”
My take on my childhood dish is a breast of duck cooked in a red wine and pomegranate glaze with a pomegranate, molasses and walnut salsa, fondant potatoes and tender stem broccoli.
He later clarified that he did not in fact grow up eating pomegranates.
Elsewhere, GAA player Oisin McConville admitted to being a novice in the kitchen and summed up his relationship with food as thus:
She cooked and I ate.
Pound4Pound / Twitter
Pound4Pound / Twitter / Twitter
Everyone fell in love with Niamh Kavanagh and Evelyn Cusack
The two gals you’d most want to have a glass of wine with.
And Holly Carpenter’s cheesecake was a sight to behold
Yes, those are Maltesers dotted around the plate.
*swoon*
The pressure in the kitchen inspired some great one-liners
Like this gem from Oisin McConville.
Everyone made it through the first task relatively unscathed and next up was the palate test
The celebrity cooks had to taste and identify the ingredients of a cod dish, and recreate it.
*gulp*
It looked fierce difficult altogether.
GastroGays / Twitter
GastroGays / Twitter / Twitter
And Holly Carpenter confirmed as much.
After one instance of fish theft…
The celebrities managed to get their meals done in the allocated time. And it all went surprisingly well! Well, with one exception…
When the judges inspected Holly’s dish, they took one taste of what was supposed to be beurre blanc and winced.
This is the conversation that ensued.
Holly: “Why can’t…why aren’t you breathing?”
Daniel: “That’s just pure vinegar. Has that been reduced?”
Awkward.
(If you can’t see the video, please click here.)
Oisin McConville, who had bragged about never cooking, managed to acquit himself very well
Chancer.
And in the end, Holly was eliminated from the competition.
Tough break, girl.
Orla Aherne / Twitter
Orla Aherne / Twitter / Twitter
The consensus at home? That was a lot of fun
Karexia🍀 / Twitter
Karexia🍀 / Twitter / Twitter
Next week is Samantha Mumba Week. We can hardly wait.
