MasterChef 2020: One of the big-time favourites has been eliminated
A MasterChef favourite has bowed out of the competition in a shock semi-final elimination after buckling under pressure in a dessert cook-off. The departure leaves just two contestants battling it out for the crown.
Confidential
Don't miss out on the headlines from Confidential. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Masterchef favourite Reynold Poernomo has been knocked out of the competition, leaving Emelia Jackson and Laura Sharrad to battle it out for the all-star series crown.
Sydney chef Poernomo was the firm favourite to win the 2020 reality cooking show but buckled under the pressure of his final cook off of a toffee apple dessert.
“I regret not following the recipe,” he told Confidential after his elimination. “I got a bit too over-confident half way through and didn’t want to read the recipe. I was a bit too stubborn. That is my bad characteristic. It was one of those things where I should have followed every single instruction and I didn’t. It is one of those characteristics where sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.”
The 26-year-old has been one of the standouts in the 2020 series, which saw well known faces from previous seasons return to the MasterChef kitchen. Poh Ling Yeow, who was eliminated earlier this month, was also a strong favourite.
“From walking through the doors the first time round, I just had a feeling I could win this,” Poernomo said. “I’ve been in the kitchen running a business for five years and I’ve learnt so much throughout those years and so I felt accomplished and ready and match fit and then on the day of the elimination, I had a feeling it was going to be my time.”
Poernomo first rose to fame as a contestant on MasterChef season seven in 2015 and went on to set up a small food empire with his family with Sydney’s Koi dessert eateries, TiNi artisan bakehouse and Monkey’s Corner bar.
One of the major controversies of the current season took place out of the kitchen when homophobic comments Poernomo made on an online blog in 2014 surfaced.
At the time, he said gay people are “freaks” that should be “captured and put on an island.
Commenting on the controversy for the first time outside of an official network statement, Poernomo said: “It has definitely impacted me in certain ways. I felt very heartbroken too. Everyone makes mistakes in their lives and the only way is to keep learning and move forward.”
MORE SYDCON
Hanson unleashes again after TV backlash
What chicken heiress Jess Ingham’s sparkler is really worth
Bachelor In Paradise: New batch of loveless hopefuls revealed
Poernomo revealed that he reached out to fellow contestants, a number of whom are gay, and others in his life when the story broke.
“I will be honest, I reached out to everyone I knew, even people I had lost touch with,” he explained. “They know who I am now, they have met me and know the person that I am and none of them have spoken out against me because they know what kind of person I am now. I am a completely transformed and changed person. No one can change their past except from learning from it.”
Originally published as MasterChef 2020: One of the big-time favourites has been eliminated