One of the MasterChef kitchen’s most prestigious challenge prizes returned this week when the 11 chefs were tasked with turning their winter faves into an ice cream. The winning dish would not only earn them immunity, but also the opportunity to see their ice cream flavour stocked in national Coles stores until it sells out, available on shelves from Thursday, June 26.
Laura, who has already had success with her ice cream inventions earlier in the season when she plated up her spin on Vegemite on Toast, knew exactly what she wanted to create.
“My first idea when they said ‘winter warmers’ was, oh my god, yes, sticky date pudding,” Laura told 10 Play. “It’s the nostalgia of it. My mum makes the best sticky date pudding and it’s just such a winter warmer,” she continued.
“It’s the kind of dish that you have after a big roast, you’re sitting on the couch, there’s a bottle of red wine open, the footy is on or you’re watching a chick flick and you have this exorbitant slice of sticky date pudding with copious amounts of butterscotch,” Laura said.
“Everybody loves butterscotch and caramel flavours, and everyone loves a warm pudding, so I thought this has to work, surely this has to work!”
Realising that this challenge would not only guarantee her a spot in the Top 10, but also give her the opportunity to see her food in Coles stores across the country, Laura knew that this was an opportunity too good to miss.
“I absolutely love this challenge, I’ve seen it before obviously when Rue won it with her BarbeRue sauce and last year Sumeet and her simmer sauce, so I was excited to have this opportunity and to have something so big on offer,” Laura said.
“It’s such a huge prize, people spend years developing products and putting them through recipe development, trial and error, and… to have that opportunity, I feel like people at home maybe don’t realise how big it is! It’s incredible to be part of.”
An amazing prize for Laura, it’s also a rare opportunity for fans of MasterChef to actually taste the food that the contestants are serving to the judges. “I feel like you never really get this opportunity unless you’re putting a dish on your menu at a restaurant, and not everyone has a restaurant – and not everyone can come to Adelaide and visit our venues,” she explained.
“To have something that is so widely available across the country is just so cool. The day after the challenge, you can literally go out and grab this ice cream. It’s actually crazy that people are going to be having my food in that sense,” she continued.
In the past, Laura has dreamed of seeing her own products available in supermarkets, but she always imagined her first product would be a dried or fresh pasta product.
“To have it in an ice cream form is insane, but now that it’s about to happen, I may get the bug where once the ice cream hits the shelves, I’ll be like, okay, I need to start planning something else,” she laughed.
“Maybe this might ignite a spark in me to do something else, which would be really exciting… this could be my ice cream era, I like it!”
Laura’s Sticky Date Pudding and Butterscotch sauce ice cream will be available for you to purchase at national Coles stores from Thursday, 26 June, for a limited time. Don’t miss out!
MasterChef Australia: Back to Win continues Sundays at 7pm and Monday - Wednesday at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play
