After tackling Steven He's Balloon Puppy last week, Rue felt like her luck may have run out and the next dish to be revealed would be savoury. Breathing a sigh of relief, Rue was thrilled to see Blayne Bertoncello from Victoria’s O.MY restaurant walk through the MasterChef kitchen doors.

"I do not like pressure tests," Rue told 10 play. "They do exactly what they say they do, they put pressure on you, and I feel like, usually, I'm a very laid-back cook. I love to move slowly. If they could give me a glass of wine, then I'd really move slowly.

"Coming into this pressure test I thought okay, the last few have been desserts so it's probably a savoury dish and damn, I'm probably going to go home. Little did I know, it would be a dessert.... and the outcome would still be the same," she laughed.

Revealing his Variations of Sourdough and Strawberry with Elderflower and Balsamic dessert, Blayne and the judges tasked Rue, Tim, Sarah and Audra to not only perfectly recreate the dish once, but to bring them five perfect plates.

"When [Blayne] revealed the dish, I was actually really happy because these are things I've made multiple times individually or together," Rue continued. "I was like, you know what? This should be really good.

"But the time pressure and making multiple plates just got to me, and I feel like I was overthinking things," she continued. "These are things I could have done based on intuition and moved quicker, but I was taking my time and reading the recipe."

The dish was made up of a strawberry sorbet sitting on top of a sourdough-infused crème pâtissière, a strawberry gum emulsion, macerated strawberries, sourdough tuilles, fried elderflower crisps, and a balsamic gel.

"I really felt like this was a cook that I was supposed to shine in, and I didn't," Rue said. "I had done all these elements over a thousand times, and somehow that didn't show. You couldn't see that on the plate."

Knowing that there was added pressure for her to shine in a dessert challenge, Rue felt like she began self-sabotaging and getting in her own way.

With a grainy crème pat and not enough time to re-do the element, Rue forged on and came up against the strawberry gum emulsion.

While Rue, Audra and Tim all found their emulsion split and was too runny when compared to Blayne's, Rue was unable to find a fix in time, and it was practically missing from her final dish. Unfortunately, the combination of those two elements was enough to affect the flavour and texture of the overall dish.

"It kills me because a few weeks ago, when we did the French challenge, I did the mouseline, I did the praline, and the crème pat for 30 Paris brest. I know how to make crème pat, but somehow I'm in a pressure test and going home on a bad crème pat!"

Looking back at her time in the kitchen, Rue said there was part of her that felt like maybe she should have taken another year or two to get more experience before coming back to the competition.

"But I also feel like the experience you get from being in the MasterChef kitchen really surpasses working in a regular kitchen," she continued.

"It's like a baptism by fire, you're forced to grow, pivot, and recalibrate quicker than you would in a normal kitchen, and I'm really glad I did come back," Rue added.

"Being surrounded by people who love food reinforces your love for food as well," Rue said. While Season 15 was full of budding home cooks looking to dive into the food world, this Back To Win season features former contestants who have just left the competition, to some who have been working in the industry for over a decade.

"In my original season, everyone was on an even playing field, we were all passionate food lovers, and there was an element of comparison, but not too much.

"This time around, the people who are back are all great. Whether they've been out one year, five years, or twelve years, they're all really great at what they do," Rue said.

"But the actual thing you should be doing in the competition is just focusing on yourself and not looking left or right... But you can't help it, it's human nature to look at what people are capable of and think whether you are as good as those people."

After appearing on Season 15, Rue spent some time working in a patisserie in Perth, but circumstances changed, and she found herself back in the dental industry. Now, with plans to head to Paris before the end of the year to dive into the world of French patisserie, Rue will be perfecting her signature macarons and

"When they asked me to come back on the show, I honestly felt like it was a second chance for me to really flourish in the food world. This time around, it felt like everything was aligned," she said.

MasterChef Australia: Back to Win continues Sundays at 7pm and Monday - Wednesday at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play