Victorian-based lawyer Elise Pulbrook has just missed out on being in the top three of MasterChef Australia 2021 after her lentil agrodolce, venison, blackberries, beetroot and herb oil and pistachio semifreddo were ranked the bottom meal by the judges in Sunday night’s elimination.
Pulbrook, who became known for her incredible pasta and ability to plate up rustic Italian feasts with an Australian native twist, now has her sights set on working on various pop-ups around Victoria while continuing to advocate for sustainable food systems.
“There’s actually an Italian chef named Cristina Bowerman. She studied law at a top tier law school in the US before becoming a chef, and she is now a Michelin star chef in Rome,” Pulbrook told POPSUGAR Australia following her elimination.
Explaining why she so deeply admires Bowerman, Pulbrook said, “She went into cooking later in life. And she’s not only someone who cooks within the restaurant setting, but she’s also an advocate for our food system, and eating locally and paying attention to where our food comes from. She’s someone that I have a massive, massive amount of respect for.”
Seeing as the judges loved to stop by Pulbrook’s bench to playfully tease her about her time management, we had to ask the talented cook if it ever got difficult to keep a smile on her face and not (lovingly) tell them to shoo!
“Look, it’s hard, it’s hard,” she laughed. “And what I realised my biggest learning curve has been is acknowledging that where I love to cook is away from people standing in front of you telling you that you have ten minutes to go.
“I like cooking slowly, in a meditative way. And I love making food that nourishes people. Where my prerogative is, is connecting with nature and eating with people sitting, down with them. So the competition is a very, very distant experience to what I love most about food.”
The fact that Pulbrook loves to cook thoughtfully should come as no surprise given she is a lawyer and she revealed that she actually used this training when it came to her strategy in the competition.
“I am a lover of strategy and I approached preparing for the competition by making notes that were very similarly formatted to my law school exam notes, with a booklet that has sections with different types of recipes to memorise or product sections, a history book, staple ingredients — it became quite a comprehensive booklet throughout the competition,” she revealed.
With the big finale just over 24 hours away we, of course, had to ask Pulbrook who she has her money on to take home the $250,000 prize money.
“I feel like Pete is the most prepared in terms of having gone through the most stressful cooks in the competition — he found himself in more eliminations and more pressure tests than the other two,” she said.
“But, I hope Kish wins. I really respect Kishwars’s approach to cooking. She really cares about where her food comes from and about the provenance of the food and the cultural connections that food has.
“And I just want to wish Kishwar the best of luck and girl power all the way!.”
We could not have said it better ourselves.
You can follow Elise’s food journey at @elise_foodperson. MasterChef Australia continues tonight at 7:30pm and be sure to watch the 2021 finale tomorrow night on Tuesday 13 July at 7.30pm on Network Ten and 10Play.
