Renowned pastry chef Steven He from Le Yeahllow challenged Jimmy, Rue, Ben and Tim to recreate his Balloon Puppy cake, an entremet topped with a white chocolate balloon puppy.
For Jimmy, it had been almost a decade since his last pressure test in Season 8, when he was eliminated in a Nigella Lawson challenge in which chefs attempted to make three of her dishes in just one hour.
"I was in my head, I wasn't able to get past the stress and the anxiety over following recipes in that time frame," Jimmy told 10 Play. "I have a little bit of PTSD from that experience," he laughed.
"Coming in this time, I said, look, just believe in yourself, sit into the process and trust your gut. try to be as calm as possible because I know I've had enough experience in between the two seasons to believe in the fact that I can do this."
When Steven revealed the dish, Jimmy said he was in absolute awe. "At first I thought it was just the puppy, then we looked down and oh my god, there's an entremet at the bottom as well. I didn't panic, but awe turned to, wow, can I do this? There was going to be a lot that I needed to get through."
Starting off well, Jimmy's goal was to be as methodical as possible, keeping on track and sticking to the recipe.
"The thing I needed to work on was when I stumble, to be able to pick myself up and get back on track," he said. "There were a few moments in the cook where I fell a little behind."
"I did my best," Jimmy continued, "There was a point in the cook where I thought, oh my goodness, I don't know if I'm going to be able to get anything up. There were a few technical issues that happened."
In tempering his white chocolate for the puppy, Jimmy made his shells very thin, and while they came out of the moulds after some energetic smacking from a wooden spoon, the heat from his hands began to melt the fragile chocolate shapes before he could construct the puppy resulting in a more abstract interpretation of the balloon animal.
"I was happy with what I put up [but] I don't know if it looked like the puppy it was supposed to. I called it a little bit of roadkill rather than a puppy, but I was still very happy," he said, laughing.
During tasting, the judges also noted that there were a few issues throughout the dish, his cherry compote had over-reduced, and his whipped ganache lacked the tea flavour of Steven's original.
Though his time on Back To Win has come to an end, Jimmy was overwhelmingly grateful for his second chance to be in the MasterChef kitchen.
"There has been a lot of time for some of us between our first season and now, there are reputations we've built, jobs and clients we've built, but also there's a style of who we are.
"In coming back here, I wanted to be as true to myself as possible, so there wasn't much to lose in being able to express who it was that we are," Jimmy explained.
Having established himself as a creator and food photographer, Jimmy said this time around, there wasn't so much dread that being eliminated would be the end of the road for him and his fellow chefs. Instead, Back To Win only reinvigorated his love for the industry, and working alongside the other chefs gave him more inspiration.
"It was just the most glorious feeling," he said. "Some of them have amazing shows, cookbooks, and experiences which are different to my own, but I almost had that feeling of coming in here and having this amazing opportunity to learn from these incredible people that are now my peers.
"Coming into the competition, having the years in between, I really figured out what it is about food that I love, and it’s basically the stories behind food," Jimmy said.
"Food is more than just what’s on a plate, there are memories of childhood, people that you’ve met, from growers to providers to all sorts of things. What’s even nicer when you’re in a group of people like the MasterChef family, I’m enriched by their stories as well, their cultures and experiences. That in itself was a big bonus that I didn’t necessarily expect."
During his time in the competition, Jimmy had several dishes that really wowed the judges, including his Asian Scampi Salad and his miso-glazed toothfish 'Toothtisse'.
"It was great because it gave me permission to say I belong here," he said, adding that, although he doesn't love the term 'imposter syndrome', it is exactly how he felt at first.
"I felt like such a teeny tiny fish in a very big ocean, and to be quite honest, I was happy swimming amongst the coral. But it wasn't until I got some of that positive feedback that I felt like I belonged in that ocean.
"I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to be back; this has been probably one of the best personal development programs I could have ever gone on, to know I could push the boundaries," Jimmy said.
"Food and photography is my way of being able to visually tell the story, not only my own story but also to help others tell their story so, to be able to have the opportunity to explore that even more, to solidify some of the things that means a lot to me was something I will always take away from MasterChef.
"But going behind that, that has definitely now validated that is the direction I want to keep going with."
MasterChef Australia: Back to Win continues Sundays at 7pm and Monday - Wednesday at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play
