Morgan Hipworth is one of Melbourne’s premium dessert masters, as well as a longtime MasterChef fan. In fact, the show has been a cornerstone of his life since he was a child.
Chatting to The Latch after his MasterChef: Dessert Masters elimination, Morgan said that MasterChef was the series that first inspired him to get into cooking.
“I was about seven, and I was watching MasterChef on the TV. Actually, it was the first ever season,” Morgan recalled. “Mum and Dad were renovating our house at the time, and I needed something to do on the weekend. So I just started cooking in the kitchen.”
“I loved it. Every weekend I would spend my time cooking three-course meals. Our front dining room would become a restaurant, and I called it Bistro Morgan.”
Since then, Morgan has swung from stride to success. At 15, he opened his first bakery in Windsor, Melbourne. In honour of his childhood dreams, he called it Bistro Morgan. Soon after this bakery opened, it became famous for its baked donuts, cookies, and scrolls.
Now 22, Morgan finally got a chance to compete on the series that inspired him all those years ago.
However, Morgan’s MasterChef reality deviated from his MasterChef dreams when he became the second person to get eliminated from this series.
Here’s why Morgan’s MasterChef journey was cut short.
Morgan Hipworth’s MasterChef: Dessert Masters Journey
In the fifth episode of MasterChef: Dessert Masters, all the contestants were presented with giant slabs of ice. In these slabs were four ingredients: Beetroot, red chilli, rosella, and berry liqueur. Each contestant had two hours to create a dessert that featured their chosen ingredient.
Morgan went with the berry liqueur, using it to create a raspberry-peach sorbet.
“I’ve made a very mature sort of sorbet before, and everything went fine. These flavours combine quite nicely,” Morgan explained.
“I think the other cooks on the show have a lot more experience. Savoury experience. When it comes to deserts, someone like Andy Bowdy always uses savoury flavours. For me, I don’t come from that school, so I thought something like a beetroot or a chilli would be riskier. I was playing it safe by going the raspberry-peach route.”
What’s more, Morgan believed that he was crushing it. However, his dish fell apart when the judges, Melissa Leong and Amaury Guichon, questioned the amount of berry liqueur he was using.
“I think it really threw me when Mel and Amaury came up, and they were sort of questioning me,” Morgan said. “They were like, ‘Are you gonna be able to taste the liqueur enough?’ And that sort of threw me.”
Morgan added more liqueur to his dish, but tragically, this extra splash of alcohol prevented his sorbet from setting.
“If I was to have my time again, I’d definitely back myself. I’d stick to my guns,” Morgan noted.
“I think, honestly, serving it up, I was still on the fence about whether it was set or not. But I didn’t really see the sorbet melt. It only melted sort of as they were tasting it.”
And with that, Morgan was eliminated from the MasterChef: Dessert Masters kitchen.
Morgan Hipworth: MasterChef Reflections and What’s Next
According to Morgan Hipworth, his time on MasterChef: Dessert Masters was a complete and utter joy.
“I loved the amazing sort of bonds that you get with your co-stars,” Morgan said. “You spend a lot of time with them whilst not filming, you know, in the green room and at dinners. You have a relationship, build a rapport. I think that is something that you don’t see on TV.”
“It was one of my favourite things in this experience. We’ve still got a group chat to this day, we all keep in touch. Even last night I got some amazing messages from some of the other contestants.”
So, what is next for Morgan? Well, he’s opening a new restaurant called Maven. It’ll be opening in Fitzroy, Melbourne, sometime in the next month or so.
“I’m excited to serve more than just desserts,” Morgan said. “I started off cooking everything and just sort of fell into the desert space.”
“We’re going to be doing modern Australian cuisine. It’s going to be amazing stuff like slow roast lambs and steaks with chimichurri, things like that.”
So, while Morgan Hipworth’s MasterChef: Dessert Masters journey may have come to a close, this is far from the last we’ll see of him.
MasterChef Australia: Dessert Masters airs Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays at 7.30PM Channel 10 and 10 Play.
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