OK that had to be one of the better send offs for a MasterChef elimination, but I am going to temper that against my rising bitterness at the continual appearance of chocolate orange desserts.
Yes, I am taking a stand and going one step further than columnist Ben Pobjie in my call to specifically end the allowance of more than one chocolate orange dessert on the show in any one season.
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Tamara's Masterchef cafe
Facing elimination, judges write a menu for Tamara's Broome cafe. Masterchef vision courtesy Channel Ten
I have lost count how many times chocolate and orange have been "heroed" together this season, with the main offender being 19-year-old Michelle Lukman, quickly followed by finalist Tamara Graffen.
When Michelle wasn't suggesting chocolate orange on Heston road trips, she was hunting it out in practically every Mystery Box challenge or slipping it into team cooks where she could.
Tamara has cooked two chocolate orange desserts in quick succession during Finals Week, only broken up by her near-disasterous turn at a cod dish served at Dinner by Heston in Melbourne's Crown Casino.
Don't get me wrong, I am a Terry's Chocolate Orange player from wayback. My wedding cake was chocolate orange (not that I got to eat it), but I swore to my husband that if I saw one more chocolate orange dish on the screen I would have to call it out – which is a pity as Tamara genuinely had a heart-warming idea and one that I would love to eat on the beaches of Broome by a campfire.
"But you know what, chocolate, orange and a really good ice cream, it's going to be a tough call," I could hear judge Matt Preston almost directing at my protestations, albeit he was addressing the fact that Diana Chan and Karlie Verkerk had already delivered "two incredible dishes that are worthy to go straight into the semi-final."
And it almost was a tough call for judges, if it wasn't for the one chocolate bleedingly orange fact that Tamara's brownies weren't set after she baked them in orange peel shells rather than ramekins.
![Tamara displaying her mad science skills acquired on MasterChef.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170722203014im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/f/i/h/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxfifp.png/1500561688182.jpg)
"How do you get around that fact that it could look a little kitsch?" judge Gary Mehigan asked Tamara at the start of her cook.
"I think that's me Gary, I don't know if I can avoid it," Tamara responded before telling viewers: "I'm owning this dish, kitsch, quirky or not.
![Not another chocolate orange dessert!](http://web.archive.org./web/20170722203014im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/f/i/h/f/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxfifp.png/1500561688182.jpg)
"This is my type of food: something simple, delicious and fun. And if this is the best goddamn brownie they've ever had then I know that spot in the semi-final is mine."
And it was a delicious tasting brownie by all accounts, only it poured out.
![Tamara took her MasterChef elimination well.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170722203014im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/f/i/g/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxfifp.png/1500561688182.jpg)
"That sauce and that ice cream is sensational," said Mehigan in his lovable piggy fashion. "There's a mixture of spice and then chilli that is just absolutely intoxicating.
"If you put a litre tub of that ice cream and sauce in front of me I'm not sure I'd be able to stop."
![Tamara Graffen' cafe brought to you by MasterChef.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170722203014im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/f/i/g/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxfifp.png/1500561688182.jpg)
For fellow judge George Calombaris, "it's a shame 'cause the flavour is delicious but the fudge mixture is raw."
In fact if it had set, it may well have been Diana going home just because Karlie delivered one of the "best XO sauces ever tasted in this competition."
"It is happiness, upon happiness, upon happiness," said a grinning Calombaris about Karlie's Chinese street food inspired pork belly dish. "It's delicious. I'll sweat every day of the week for that."
But praise be to Preston, who made the call that should have been made on MasterChef a millennia ago: "For me, you can keep your fluid gels, your foams and your dust, if you can cook pork like that, if you can make an XO like that in time, I mean it's a delicious dish of food."
Still Diana's grand finals dream remains alive.
"If I win MasterChef 2017 it would change my life completely, I would be able to pursue my dream of opening my own restaurant," she told viewers.
For Tamara, her dream of opening a Broome cafe is also still taking shape after having completed work experience at Om Nom Dessert Bar, Lune Croissanterie and Peter Gilmore's Quay.
But the judges decided that they couldn't wait and already compiled her cafe's blackboard menu of all her best food creations.
"You know what George is right, let's have everything," said an animated Preston.
"Tamara we can't wait to queue up and ... while I'm here can I please make a booking for Peter Gilmore? Can I make a booking for Shannon Bennett? Can I make a booking for Ross Lusted? And definitely can I make a booking for Alla Wolf-Tasker? She wants to come all three nights."
For someone eliminated a second time from MasterChef, Tamara was positively beaming.
"Yeah it's the end of the MasterChef journey but it's just the start of my adventure in food and I've got your orders so ... they'll be ready soon," she said with a laugh.
And to be frank, her unpretentious cooking will be missed.
"This is personal, this is my food dream," she said earlier. "It's not the Michelin star refined food; it's the fun, simple, delicious."
Amen sister!
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