MasterChef's Andrew Henderson says he was 'savaged' by judge Gary Mehigan

By Alison Stephenson CONTESTANT says he was "borderline bullied" after his dish was labelled "gag-material".

ELIMINATED MasterChef contestant Andrew Henderson says he was "borderline bullied" on Wednesday night's episode of the show after his dish made from tinned ingredients was canned by a judge and described as "gag-material".

Contestants were challenged to make a dish using only preserved and frozen ingredients but Henderson’s clam and crab mousse tart with matching sausage left a particularly bad taste in judge Gary Mehigan's mouth.

"I'm not really looking forward to tasting it," said a visibly squeamish Mehigan "Because I know what’s gone in it and just watching you manipulate all that food and over-handle it. Urgh.

"That mousse is ghastly. Gag-material," he said, before refusing to try the matching tart.

Henderson, who was eliminated last night after facing-off against Kumar, says he felt “hammered” by the judges in their stinging assessment of his dish.

"I though they borderline bullied me actually, I thought they were far too savage, they could have been a bit more constructive with their criticism," Henderson told news.com.au

"It does nothing for the confidence, especially if you’re going into an elimination the next day, so they gave me a pretty severe beating."

But, Henderson says, he can understand that being on the other side of the judging table is no easy job.

"They seemed pretty grumpy on the day to be honest, but … if I was a judge I'd be feeling pretty cranky too if I had to taste a whole bunch of people's food made prepared from canned and frozen food,” he said, “I'd probably understand them being grumps."

The challenge took such a toll on the youth worker that he said he could not watch the emotional episode.

"I knew I got a hammering so why relive that? I'll probably watch it a bit later when I'm a bit more mentally prepared to, and actually be able to dig out the actual proper constructive criticism, if there was any."

Henderson says he was “a mess” after getting the chop from the show in last night’s elimination episode, but the experience hasn’t put paid to his food dream, with the South Australian now planning on training to become a qualified chef.