Derek cooked alongside Tessa, Tim and Simon in the infamous 'time auction' elimination challenge, where the contestants where each allocated 120 minutes to spend bidding on their ingredients.
"I don't know if you can see, I'm like 'What the hell am I doing?'" Derek said, laughing when 10daily asked if he had a strategy for the auction.
"After I got the eggs I was like, okay, maybe I should go sweet -- and then for some reason I didn't bid on the citrus box. If I had eggs, citrus and something else... I would have been fine, probably...I was a bit shook," Derek admitted.
The ex-contestant was left with three boxes containing eggs, alliums, and sauces with which he tried to make tortellini stuffed with ricotta and quail yolk.
Judges Gary Mehigan and George pointed out that Derek may have jumped the gun with the complexity of the dish.
"The degree of difficulty putting an egg yolk into a tortellini and wrapping it? Oh my god," George said.
Derek was a favourite amongst MasterChef viewers, and fans took to Twitter to voice their sadness at his elimination:
"Gonna miss you Derek! but top 8 - brilliant!" On user tweeted.
"Oh no Derek, he was my fave but at least he pushes himself and always challenges his cooking unlike some of the others," said another fan.
"Derek was not thought to be going, it was supposed to be Tim. Best of luck Derek, just don't cook the books lol," a disappointed viewer wrote.
Unfortunately for Derek, his failed tortellini dish sent him packing!