However Kevin really has no one to blame but himself for his demise.

He was the first one up on the pasta identification challenge and he picked “lasagna” however it was actually lasagnette (I think) so he did have the first part right I guess.

Of course none of the others got it right and for the last six in line they should send Kevin a case of beer each, because they were automatically safe as only six people were to go into the next round.

The second round was to make pasta. They had to make 250 grams or more of fettucini. Mindy, Kevin, TK, Emma, Jules and Kylie were battling it out. Mindy was first through, she is starting to come across as nice but a little intense, then Kylie who went to the dark side and asked for a hug from the judges.

Jules admitted she had never made pasta so she was always going to be in trouble. But seriously if you are selected to go on Masterchef you need to have done some cooking basics and one of these is make pasta. Maybe they need to change the application form to not ask about their childhood but make them tick the boxes on what they can and can’t do cooking wise. Can you make mayonnaise, short crust pastry, cook a steak etc.

Kevin’s portion was too small so had to go back and make some more.

However in the end it was him and Jules who were the last two standing and in this situation it was not a positive thing.

The final challenge was to make Egg Yolk Raviolo. Kevin was confident because he thought Jules inexperience with pasta would make her be behind him, however she in fact managed to finish and sprinkle cheese on it, something Kevin left out.

The judges preferred Kevin’s presentation but they liked the flavour of Jules’s better. He was criticised for too much zest in the ricotta, and not enough lemon juice in the sauce.

Kevin in the end was eliminated – first person into the top 24 and first one out. It is a pity that considering the decision was line ball they did not keep the contestant with some personality in.

However he is going to use his new found fame for good rather than evil and his starting a campaign to improve the food at sporting stadiums. Can’t complain about that. Below is a clip that is the first step in that campaign or you can support it at www.stadiumgrub.com.au. Who do you think should have been eliminated?

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ATTENTION The Amazing Race Australia fans! Want to WIN 1 of 10 EXCLUSIVE double passes to The Amazing Race Australia launch event and after party in Melbourne on Wednesday May 23? To WIN email: win@seven.com.au and mention the The Amazing Race Australia Facebook page. You till 1pm (AEST) to email!

This show the best reality show on TV last year, not only did it stay true to the much loved US format, it actually bettered it with detours and roadblocks where the lead could change due to the difficulty of them.

Also casting was great as well and it looks just as good this season. A blog post of the cast will be up soon.

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Why didn’t they ring a corporate friend to come and present them with a big cheque… Oh hang on that is Celebrity Apprentice.

They were split into two teams with Andy and Emma told they were team captains because they had been the other cooks in the immunity challenge. Emma at 19 really drew the short straw, but again we had it flagged something like this was going to occur as she said earlier how she did not want to be the team captain.

At that point every contestant was crossing their fingers that she would not pick them. However if you were over 30 you had no fear at that. In fact both Andy and Emma picked the young ones first. Lydia was selected last, and from seeing her briefly on screen maybe it was because of her personality. She is bossy but looks like she has a good sense of fun. More of her please than Emma who has had more than her 15 minutes of fame in the first few weeks of the show.

She even took the piss out of herself when it was shown she missed the tiger prawns in the freezer, as she had expected to see peeled ones. However don’t expect her to win but hopefully she will give some quality TV moments. Maybe she needs to be stuck in a car with Filippo.

They had five hours to prep and plan their menu. There appeared to be two entrees, two mains, and two desserts. The red team ended up opening late as they had not finished their prep, I don’t get why they didn’t bring them in and feed them Filippo’s bread while they were waiting.

The problem for the cheftestants in restaurant wars is they get hit with a full restaurant as soon they open. They have pretty it full for the whole of service. This does not occur in the real world unless you are a top high profile chef.

Emma looked liked she was losing it, and was getting dirty looks from her team mates at times. But to be fair she was given the responsibility of being at the pass and even if she had watched season upon season of Hell’s Kitchen this was not going to help her. Though she did use Gordon Ramsay’s tone at times…

“Service please is what we normally say” advises Gary Mehigan and she screamed “Service!”. However towards the end she did appear to have it under control but this might have been because Kylie was pumping out her desserts with great efficiency.

Kylie deserved to be praised by Gary, as she was smart in what she had made and it was all pre-prepped. She did Creme Brulee, and a Paris Mess, and both looked great. Whereas on the blue team Julia made chocolate fondant which meant it had to be cooked at the time of the order which meant there was a time lag in getting them served.

Also Kevin was being a tad naughty getting flirty with the girls when drumming up business for the restaurant. They must have been disappointed when they found out he was gay, I know I was.

The stand out dishes were Kylie’s desserts, the blue teams entrees, and Ben, who was cooking for the red team, scallops and fennel dish. Conversely Mario’s pasta looked like it could choke someone it was so dry, and the croquettes on the red team just looked ordinary. Unfortunately there was no feedback on what Filippo’s bread was like.

Red team made $2232, and the blue team made $2738.  The blue team deservedly won and props must go Andy who led the team beautifully both in prep and when service began.

And of course Emma cried when she realised she was up for elimination. I note the first elimination is different from last year where only two of the team were up. And it was Kumar and the team captain Tom who had to duke it out then with Tom going. Thankfully the whole of the red team are going to have to participate in the elimination challenge which is all about pasta.

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WTF? Chris Sebastian is Guy Sebastian brother, and he is allowed to stay.

The Voice producers made a big deal about looking for professionals and working musicians for the show, and this has meant some great talent has been found. They said they can continue to work whilst they are on the show but now it looks like you can be too professional.

It is unclear if Joel Madden will be bringing back another singer from his team to perform.

Channel NINE’s Press Release states:

In a move determined to be in the spirit of the show, Joel Madden’s team member Carmen Smith, will leave The Voice prior to the live shows on Monday.

Carmen has a significant role in the new music video from Guy Sebastian and as such would be deemed to have an unfair advantage as the show moves into the public voting stage as the video is on current release and highly visible.

Nine Network Director of Development Adrian Swift said:  “This was not a decision we and Team Joel took lightly.  Our priority as we move into the voting period toward the finale is that all of the artists are on a level playing field.  In our business we are often confronted by these tough decisions and unfortunately at this time it’s been decided that it isn’t appropriate for her to remain in our competition. We wish Carmen well and thank her for a wonderful contribution to the show thus far.”

“It saddens me that I am leaving The Voice much earlier than I had hoped. However, I’ve loved every minute of it and respect the decision that has been made by Joel and his team,” Carmen said. “I’ve sung on Guy’s albums and been part of his band for many years so I’m thrilled to be in the clip and am looking forward to getting back to work and also working on my solo career.”

Who would you like to see brought back? And do you think it was fair that Carmen Smith has to leave The Voice?

UPDATE: The font of all TV information Michael Idato from the SMH has told me that there will be no one brought back and only one of Joel’s singers will be eliminated. Also he has written an article where he think perhaps her having to leave came because Guy Sebastian’s record company is Sony NOT Universal.

Also Channel NINE are getting a bit of a backlash on the decision if The Voice’s Facebook page is anything to go by. The only winner out of this is Guy Sebastian who now has all The Voice fans watching the clip to see what all the fuss is about.

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Natalie Gauci who won Australian Idol in 2007, has a new single out with her new collaboration with Paul Brandoli called Tune In Tokyo.

She is currently residing in Sweden. It is quite a catchy dance song, and I am loving the hair.

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It is amusing but in fact it really is a major cockup.

NINE MSN has now removed clip of the winner of Celebrity Apprentice Australia.  Of course it has gone viral with people tweeting all about it. TV Tonight gives a good run down on what happened. Don’t worry if you are one of the few people who don’t know and don’t want to, as he has no spoilers on his post, and I won’t be putting one up here either. However for the curious just google or look at other Network publicists twitter feeds.

This goes down with the TEN putting up five episodes in advance of Masterchef on their website last year, which I kindly informed them of just as I pressed play on the upcoming elimination episode.

However TV Tonight also points out that this is similar to this year’s Gold Logie winner, Hamish Blake, being announced in the media before it actually occurred onstage.

I expect NINE MSN did not have Channel Nine’s legal team contact them as they did the lady who had pictures of The Block, but expect the internal phone conversations were quite terse.

Thankfully Mark Bouris doesn’t work for NINE MSN or someone could have gotten FIRED!

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Firstly it is not really Ben just fighting it out for immunity pin he has to pick two other contestants to help him win it. As regular commenter Miss Petal wrote yesterday, why would two other contestants want to cook well to let someone else get an immunity pin. This will be particularly true as the competition toughens up and they realise there are weekly eliminations.

The three amateurs cooks have to front up against a reputed chef and two of their sous chefs to make a three course meal. After the main ingredient is selected both teams can cook what they want. In this challenge the fabulous Dan Hong from Ms G’s was the chef. This guy is great TV so hope this is not the last time we see him on our screens this season. In fact maybe Masterchef should do what Top Chef does to keep things fresh and mix up key personnel each season.

The “advantages” given to the amateur team was Matt Moran as mentor, however it could be good if he was more hands on and not in a Seal way. Also in this challenge Ben and co had an extra 30 minutes to cook. Ben gave Andy the entree to do, and Emma the dessert.

The blind tasting needs to occur, but in this case it was obvious who the dishes were cooked by. All asian dishes had to be Dan’s, and then there were tortillas again….

The other obvious issue was the editing, we have Andy and Emma at the beginning sitting in the Masterchef house repetitively saying “so glad we are watching from the sidelines”, and fast forward to Ben being told he could pick two contestants to help.

At this stage my seven year old pipes up “I know who he picks the two from the beginning”. I now know how Yoda must have felt when he realised Luke has taking onboard all his knowledge he has to impart. “I have taught you well my child”.

But seriously if a seven year old can pick it and she does not watch the show that much maybe they need to think about how much they are flagging the up coming plot lines.

Dan Hong got to select the ingredient from either honey and lemons, he picked lemons. After this it was then Ben was told to select two people to assist.

When Ben saw the ingredients he said “Baked lemon cheesecake was the first thing that popped into  my head”  well if that is the case he should have picked Kevin whose favourite dish to cook is this.

Ben cooked:

Snapper Taco Cerviche – Is this going to be Ben’s trademark the home made tortilla? However this time Andy made them. George picked apart his whilst Matt Preston ate his the way it was meant to – wrapped up. The judges did say they would have just preferred the ceviche.

Prawn Ravioli with Lemon Butter Sauce the downside was the prawns were under cooked and again they would have preferred just the ravioli. But the plus side it did showcase the ingredient. This was the dish Ben made.

For dessert the Lemon Cheesecake came with a sperm like garnish, though none of the judges described it as such. In fact they made no comment on the semi collapsed dessert at all.

Dan Hong and team made:

Sashimi with Lemon Ponzu – all the judges loved it but George who made sure he did not get any chilli in his mouth and also complained about the sinew. Seriously it is an issue when you have a judge who is not partial to anything with a bit of fire in it.

Prawn and Duck Sang Choy Bow – again the judges loved the dish however they could not taste lemon only lemongrass.

Then came the Deconstructed Lemon Tart which was greeted with moans and groans by the judges – yes very Harry Met Sally and comments like ”that’s alright we know each other well enough.” and “I don’t mind being last” did not help remove that image from my mind.

No surprise the only dish that won for the contestants was Ben’s and that was only because Dan did not showcase the ingredient in the main. Will this make him bitter and twisted and thinking he might have won if he was running solo?

It was good to see more screen time from Matt Preston last night, his evocative description of what an entree is brought back memories of why we love him on the show.

What did you think of the immunity challenge? Will it work?

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You would think it is a joke? It is not. Clearly Sophie Monk is struggling to find a date as it looks like she is going to be one of the contestants on the show. Also it would be confirmed that Tyson Beckford and Shanina Shaik are kaput as his name is on the list on who is participating on the show.

Because I could not describe the show any better Dlisted gives his rundown on it:

Fox’s The Choice is just like The Voice, but instead instead of the four “celebrities” looking for singing voices, they’ll be looking for possible genitals to hump on. The four celebrities will be put in swivel chairs with their backs against the stage and a bunch of “sexy singles” describe themselves. If the piece’s descriptions makes the celebrity’s ears tingle, he or she will pull a “love handle” (I can’t with that either) and find themselves face-to-face with their possible date. If more than one celebrity turns around, the trick will get to pick who they want to get with. Once each celebrity has three possible dates on their team, all teams will move to the“Speed Choice” round. In the second round, each contestant will have a few seconds to tell the celebrity why they should be picked. At the end of that round, each celebrity will get rid of one ho. In the final round, the show’s host Cat Deeley will ask each trick a question and afterward the celebrity will pick which trick they want to go on a date with. And that’s how true love is born!

Dlisted also gives the list of “celebrities” on the show:

Joe Jonas - Former purity ring wearer, sometime yodeler and current blind item star
Pauly D - Jersey Shore whore and #3 on the Health Department’s Most Wanted list
Romeo - Child rapper, child actor and the trick who confuses my nipples since he sort of looks like Webster on roids
Dean Cain - Rick Perry supporter and the Superman to Teri Snatcher’s Lois
Tyson Beckford - Supermodel and one of the biggest advocates of theBushy Pubes for Men Club
Rima Fakih - Noted drunk driver and Miss USA 2010
Carmen Electra - A flower from Prince’s garden
Sophie Monk - Australian pop something and fellow Wonky McValtrex hater
Rob Kardashian - Ugh
Rocco DiSpirito - Part-time chef, full-time reality whore
Warren Sapp - Football player
Finesse Mitchell - Comedian and former SNL cast member
Jeremy Bloom - Olympic freestyle skier
Jason Cook - Soap opera actor
Michael Catherwood - Co-host of Loveline, former DWTS contestant and the trick whose last name sounds like the medical name for getting a boner while a catheter’s up on your peen
Seth Wescott - Olympic snowboarder
Parker Young - The hot but dumb jock son of Ana Gasteyer on Suburgatory
Ndamukong Suh - Football player
Dr. Robert Nettles - Plastic surgeon
Taylor Hicks - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
The Situation - Jersey Shore whore and #1 on the Health Department’s Most Wanted list
Rob Gronkowski - Football player
Steven López - Olympic martial arts fighter
Hope Dworaczyk - Playboy Playmate of 2010

The only thing that may give this show a little bit of dignity is Cat Deeley hosting it. Hopefully this will be one format Australian Networks won’t pick up.

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Even though there were twelve contestants singing last night it was really six competing within their six. After the public vote next week there will be two from each team eliminated. They only really compete with singers in other teams in the finale. This is advantageous if you are in a weak team for example team Delta but it is a negative thing if you are in a team of strong voices like Team Seal.

In theory the top four voices in the competition may not be the final four. I could be wrong as I am still getting my head around the format.

The first live show had its highlights and lowlights, however Seal was feeling the love for everything. I would love to know what is on his rider as I think that particular brand of vodka looks like a lot of fun. He was swivelling his hips in his group live performance and saying he was on the best show ever in a great country etc etc. His gushing did not stop there he also stated his admiration for not only  his singers but for the others as well, and maybe he was a bit too touchy with the girls in his group. Fatai V in particular received a lingering kiss on the cheek and she did look a bit uncomfortable. He has to remember there is a power relationship at play as he gets to decide two of his singers he can keep.

The positives about the first live show were Fatai V, Karise Eden and Emma Louise Birdsall who positively hit it out of the ball park, and I was intrigued by Viktoria’s rendition of Bang Bang. However there was some dodgy performances and it would have been great to hear the coaches (yes that is what you are meant to do) to give some constructive criticism.

They have to remember there are two million arm chair critics at home who might be thinking was the performance was off key most of the song, or that was ordinary real judgements from them helps validate or invalidate the views of the person at home.

Also a shout out should be given to Gabe Robinson whois the shows stylist. There was not one dud outfit.

Tonight it was Team Seal and Team Delta singing with Fatai V starting the show.

Team Seal – Fatai  V -  New York.

It was a fantastic start to the show, and it is hard to believe she is only 16 years old.Her voice is amazing and as Keith said she has set the bar so high. Seal however killed the moment with a long lingering kiss on her cheek, with even Joel commenting that  ”loved the hug”. He appeared to have his tongue planted in his cheek with that comment.

Team Delta – Matt Hethrington - White Noise

Not sure it was the best song choice if he is trying to ditch his musical theatre background as the arrangement sounded a bit rock musicalish.  However am considering flicking him a vote as he is great eye candy and there is not much in that age bracket on reality TV shows at them moment. Yes I know sometimes it is not all about “the voice”.

Team Seal – Karise Eden sang Nothing’s Real But Love

Seal is all about feeling the love, but he can also coach. He told her he wanted her to pull back her voice. She did so with great effect, and she is one singer who would be great to see sing live. The coaches deservedly gave her a standing ovation.

Team Delta – Ben Button sang One Thing

He better hope all the One Direction fans start hitting the phones as he was dreadfully out of tune just about the whole song, however Keith Urban said he knocked it out of the park!

Team Seal – Michael Duchesne –  Got To Get You Into My Life

He also seemed to be hit with first night nerves with even Delta looked a tad bored during his performance. Joel just avoided talking about the actual performance at all, and  Seal was talking about Michael being a red light performer, which meant when the light comes on he just goes. So didn’t he mean green light?

Team Delta – Danni Da Ros – Alone

There is no doubt she has chops particularly in her higher register, but have heard her sing better. But the coaches gave her a standing ovation. So maybe it sounded like she was spot on in the auditorium. I hope she gets through as I would like to see her sing again.

Team Seal – Sam Ludeman – Summer Paradise

He did a pop cute song which which meant the girls will love him. Was it the greatest rendition? No, but he did enough. As Joel said “if he had any problems getting laid you definitely won’t after tonight.”   Probably the strongest guy in Team Seal.

Team Delta Viktoria Bolonina – Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

This performance intrigued me and for the first time thought maybe Delta was right in picking her over Peta Jeffress.  She is stunning on stage.  The last 30 seconds were great, maybe because she was so dramatic.

Team Seal – Chris Sebastian – Without You

Not sure playing an instrument first performance is a good idea particularly if you are only playing the piano for eight bars before you get up and sing. His higher register was good. Seal said some people have star quality and others don’t.  Seal thinks he does I don’t. I am curious to know what the public think of him.

Team Delta – Glen Cunningham – Heaven Knows

As they said being a backing vocalists means you have to blend in, and that is what he still did in this performance. Cannot fault his voice but he lacks the looks and charisma to take it all the way.

Team Seal Emma-Louise Birdsall – Never Loved a Man

She put her money where her mouth is and Australia did sit up and take notice of her last night. Her voice was amazing as was her sultry performance. She oozed sex appeal.Seal was looking like he wanted ot pounce on her, but just gyrated a chair instead, and Joel commented on how he was in her line of sight the whole performance, he did appear to be a bit flummoxed.

Team Delta – Rachael Leahcar – Hands

Rachael got the last spot known as the pimp spot as it gives you a better chance of being seen by the viewers and obtaining their vote as it is the last one they hear. She looked like a gorgeous dresden doll but I thought her voice was all over shop and have heard her sing much better. She is going to have to step up to grab the limelight back from those other girls.

Predictions on who will be eliminated:

Team Seal: Michael Duchesne and Chris Sebastian.

Team Delta: Ben Button and  Glen Cunningham.

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The mystery box challenge was not that difficult. When it was revealed there was a mirror there and nothing else this meant they had to showcase themselves on a plate. They probably did not even have to quickly think on their feet as Alice cooked tongue and I doubt that is a pantry staple.

They had 75 minutes to cook and the person with the  best dish would have the chance to cook for immunity. As is always the case in the early episodes we did not get to see all the dishes.

Debra who is the series mother earth figure was nervous and teary  and when asked by Gary about what she saw in the mirror said “How courageous I am to be here, and how courageous  we all are to be here.” said Debra.  Thankfully she held back from asking for a group hug. If she can hold it together she might go far in this series.

She was making lime syrup cakes, however she was rattled and used the wrong sugar and left half her flour out. She basically turned them into a collapsed souffle, but the cake’s flavour was good enough to make it top three.

As was Emma’s whose Five Spice Chocolate Cake with Chai ice cream. This sounded like an interesting flavour combination however her ice cream did not set,  and she turned it into creme anglaise. Also her cake did not rise and she stacked it up b she got into the top three.

As did Ben with a Beef Taco and some Tuna Tostadas. Ok he did make his own tortillas which could be a Masterchef first, but there did not appear to be enough for the beef to be encased by one. Gary also criticised him for using porterhouse steak not a secondary cut. However would a secondary cut  have soften in the 75 minute time frame?

Gary Mehigan appears to be the hard-arsed judge this season. He was particularly rude to Melbourne hipster Alice about her tongue she was cooking. George was concerned the tongue would not be able to cook in the time frame. She responded “It is a big risk to take”. George retorted  ”There’s risk and then there is stupidity”. I note there was no suggestions on what she could do to save the dish.

Alice responded with a thank you which I hope is hipster speak for “Get stuffed”. The lecture continued at the tasting before Gary had even tasted it, and I hope she got a small glimmer of pleasure that Gary had to taste something unpleasant. Props to her for not breaking down completely by the way she was treated.

However Gary’s attitude towards Sam who was roasting a duck was completely different. After pointing out that he would have difficulty cooking it in time, Gary suggested he chop it up and in fact even helped him to do so. Sam appears to sweat so much it needed to be addressed in a talk to camera. It is not the heat of the kitchen but just something he always does. Maybe he needs to invest in those tennis head and wrist bands to stop it dripping into his dishes.

In fact this is a perfect branded TV opportunity to have a sponsors name emblazoned across them. Seriously I hope series four is not remembered as the year of the sweat. Sam is not alone in this, Wade, Filippo and Kevin are guilty of the drip.

It was ironic that after Gary’s help Sam was told he had actually over cooked the duck. However Sam’s potato rosti looked good.

Beau the labourer stuck with a simple steak with red wine jus. Not a bad strategy to keep it simple. I note in the continuing saga of stockgate he used a pre-made one.

Even though he cooked the steak perfectly medium rare he was told he needs to step it up a bit or he will hit a roadblock.

I note they did not say the same thing to Julia who made cupcakes which was a cop out.  This was well and truly in her comfort zone as she makes them for the markets at the weekends. At one stage it looked like she might make top three. Let us hope  she is not going to make these at every opportunity. We get it you want to open a shop, now show us some other things you can cook.

Ben ended up wining the opportunity to cook for immunity, and Debra must be kicking herself because if she had not stuffed up her dish she probably would have won.

Do you think the right person won?

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