Hearts collectively broke across the nation when fan-favourite Juan De La Cruz was eliminated from MasterChef.

While it was obvious that he struggled with his given ingredient; salted soy beans, Juan revealed that the pulse caused an issue behind the scenes which set him back a lot.

During an interview with Chattr, he admitted that he spent a large amount of his cooking time just trying to figure out what dish to make.

“You have those split seconds to basically think of an idea, put it together and then think of a whole shopping list in your head because you have to run to that pantry and pick up all the ingredients,” he said.

“I got into that pantry and I couldn’t find ingredients because I didn’t know what I was looking for. So I think this cook for me was totally different from the rest.”

“The others I was sure of my dish, I would run and just go ‘I know where the meat is ‘the cheese is here and I’d be sorted out in about five minutes,” the board game designer added. “This time it took me 15 minutes just to find the ingredients.”

Juan added that he regretted not paying more attention to the judge’s advice.

“Yesterday was such a stressful cook because I think I didn’t properly pay attention to the brief,” he said.

Juan on his emotional elimination

Juan’s elimination was one of the most emotional moments of the MasterChef season so far. His Chicken Empanadas saw him in the bottom two with Stephen.

The Argentinian cook explained the raw reality of realising that he would no longer be competing on MasterChef Australia.

“It’s that second when the bubble explodes and you realize it’s over,” he said.

“And I looked around and I had one of my best friends Stephen next to me, and I didn’t want him to go either it was like, ‘Wow, it’s between him or me.’

“So I was sad anyway, because staying would mean that he was going and going means I’m going! I didn’t want to cry. But I’m extremely emotional. You can see me super happy, but I get sad. I’m so thankful and it’s been such a lovely experience I didn’t want it to end.”

Watch MasterChef Australia from Sunday – Wednesday on Channel 10 and 10 Play.

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