BBC Celebrity MasterChef fans were left appalled and outraged after Harry Aikines-Aryeetey was eliminated and didn’t make it to the final three – despite Craig Doyle making a huge mistake during the first task.
Doyle, Aikines-Aryeetey, Vito Coppola and Rochenda Sandall battled it out for a place in the final three and were asked by John Torode and Gregg Wallace to make a dish which was inspired by someone special to them.
The presenter’s dish was dedicated to his wife and children, serving a bruleed lemon curd tart, topped with Italian meringues, and served with lemon curd-filled raspberries, basil and candied mint.
After an hour and 45 minutes working away, Doyle soon realised that he had used salt instead of sugar on his meringues, later on owning up to his mistake when serving the dish to the judges.
He came clean and said: “Before you tuck in, I had an issue at the end. I couldn’t understand why the sugar wasn’t brûléeing… I put salt on it.”
The same thing happened to Doyle last week, with the same thing happening again and leaving Torode and Wallace stunned that he’d made the mistake at such a crucial point in the competition.
Torode cut the tart in half and moved the salted section to the side of his plate, unable to eat it and noted: “One side here which is the salt, the other side doesn’t have any salt on it. I’ve never had a salted lemon tart.
“I can’t ignore the fact you’ve got salt over the top of your lemon tart – but the salt is on one side. The other side of your tart is really good. Your pastry is beautifully soft and it’s got lovely butter to it. The lemon curd is sharp but sweet at the same time and has set beautifully.
“Those meringues representing your children, nice and soft but still got a little bit of crunch to them.”
Extending his sympathies, Torode added: “I’m sad for you because you’ve ‘assaulted’ your tart, but you’ve done a huge amount of work and it is probably the best-looking plate you’ve made in the competition so far.”
Walking away, Doyle expressed how annoyed he was to co-star Coppola before the judges went aside to make the decision of who would be making it through to the final three.
Wallace also tried to focus on the positive: “Those sharp raspberries with the little sharpness of the lemon curd with a bit of basil is beautiful. Well thought-out, well-designed, elegant, incredibly yummy sweet dish…
Addressing the stars, Torode delivered the verdict but found himself getting emotional and said: “You are truly a fabulous four. I am getting slightly emotional because we know how far you have all come.
“Whatever happens today, please continue to believe in yourselves because what you have achieved in this competition so far has been absolutely incredible and way beyond expectations. So from me… thank you. The person leaving us… is Harry. Harry, to watch you change has been amazing.”
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As Doyle managed to escape being booted once again, viewers at home were left outraged at the decision and took to their X accounts where they slammed the “wrong” decision.
“WHAT ARE U TALKING ABOUT. HE PUT SALT ON THE LEMON TART. #CelebrityMasterChef,” one fumed before another agreed: “Your man put salt on top of his dessert and they got rid of Harry. Absolute fix that.”
Someone else fumed: “I’m sorry….but that’s a bloody disgrace – so you can make a MASSIVE mistake and put salt over your food and not sugar but still get through. I feel so sorry for @HarryAA100m – he should’ve gone through. I’m disgusted with this appalling decision.”
“How can you put salt on a desert instead of sugar and not be eliminated from a cooking competition?? #celebritymasterchef,” a fourth penned before another expressed: “Very bad decision there craig should have gone #celebritymasterchef.”
A sixth quipped: “So you can fail to know the difference between sugar and salt yet still get voted thru. That decision absolutely stinks #CelebrityMasterChef.”
Discussing his time on the show, Aikines-Aryeetey expressed: “I have got to be proud of myself, I came into this competition with no expectations and I just wanted to do the best that I could possibly do, and I done that. It has been out of this world.”
