It was an emotional quarter finale for Melbourne-based baker Theo Loizou, the 37-year-old falling short in a high-stakes pressure test and becoming the 15th contestant to be sent home on MasterChef.
Tasked with recreating a dish consisting of squid, scallops, and pipis without a recipe by Peter Gilmore, Executive Chef of Quay and Bennelong, our final four struggled to keep up with Peter’s pacing.
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For Theo, he admitted he felt “pretty confident” about the challenge, after surviving Luke Nguyen’s Pho Suon Bo cook-off earlier in the season.
But alas, it wasn’t meant to be, Theo, falling behind quickly after struggling to clean the squid and remove its membrane.
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Speaking with New Idea the morning after his on-screen departure, Theo admitted it was difficult to relive the experience on television, months after the episode was actually filmed.
“It was hard but I’m happy where I am now and I’ve made peace with it for sure.”
“I was watching [the episode] with my partner and she was crying while watching me do it because she saw how frustrated I was and knew what I was feeling at that moment,” he added.
“Yeah it was tough, but I still love squid, no hate on squid.
“[It’s just] frustrating that I felt like I could have won the whole thing and this one squid membrane ruined it for me.”
Surprisingly, Theo admits to having never watched a season of MasterChef prior to being cast and prepared by memorising a cohort of basic recipes that could be easily adapted to the use of the ingredients provided to him in the MasterChef kitchen.
“I didn’t really have many expectations [of the show] to be honest because I hadn’t really watched MasterChef before [apart from] maybe a little bit in the first season, it [had been] a long long time since I’d seen it.”
“I sorta went into it a bit blind and a lot of the contestants were saying ‘I reckon it’s going to be this, I reckon it’s going to be that’ but I just had no idea. It was cool, it was like I was getting a surprise for real every time they [the judges] revealed what the challenge was.”
So what’s next for Theo?
Prior to auditioning for MasterChef, he had big dreams of opening a bakery, something that is still at the front and centre of his plans for the future.
“100% the bakery will be happening. It’s just a matter of time and a little bit of money, so that would have helped if I’d won,” Theo jokes.
“Honestly, it’s just about taking my passion for it even further and I want my bread and pastries to be everywhere across Melbourne, I just want to take over the bakery world, I have so much drive to do it and I just can’t wait!”
As for who Theo thinks will win, well you’ll have to click here to find that one out.
