They rallied valiantly to get their Beef Wellingtons on a plate, but Gary’s Pressure Test dish proved too hot for Aaron and Kumar to handle on last night’s MasterChef All Stars.

Despite the dish cutting a fairly unimposing figure when the cloche was lifted, closer inspection showed that there was far more to Gary’s creation than met the eye. As the contestants discovered, bringing together all the elements for the filling, wrap and crepes was a Herculean task with a pastry-thin margin for error.

Despite his best efforts, Aaron failed to sufficiently caramelise his beef and then struggled with wrapping it in the Iberico Ham. With a little help from George and Chris, however, he gamely forged ahead and countered his lack of sufficient cooking time by upping the oven temperature – a gamble that mostly paid off.

Kumar, too, struggled with the time constraints; spending a considerable portion of the Pressure Test trying to perfect his crepe mixture impacted upon the other stages of his dish’s construction, leading to a frantic dash to get his Wellington ready for the oven - which, with Jonathan’s help, he managed just in the nick of time.

Despite their troubles, Aaron and Kumar never let the Pressure Test defeat them. On this particular day their dishes may not have been the equal of their peers, but they more than justified their places on MasterChef All Stars, leaving the competition with heads held high and precious funds for their respective charities The Salvation Army and Doctors Without Borders.