MasterChef detail goes unnoticed by majority of fans: 'Wonder what the story is there?'

MasterChef Australia's redemption cook saw the return of the previously eliminated contestants with sassy Sav earning her place back in the kitchen just one day after her shock exit. While many fans noticed that beloved shark-tooth-wearing Steve was absent from the challenge, it would seem that only a handful of viewers realised that another competitor was suspiciously missing.

22-year-old Lourdes Leschen was not present for the redemption cook, following her contentious elimination a couple of weeks earlier. The Victorian native was sent home after a challenge set by Liam Downes of Black Cat Truffles with fans being outraged that it was Lourdes sent home because of her overcooked egg yolk raviolo, instead of Gillian who had failed to get all of her elements on the plate.

While her absence went unnoticed by many viewers, a few did take to social media to ponder where she was.

"No Lourdes? Any other contestants that didn’t come back for this cook?" one person wrote on X.

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"No Steve, and no Lourdes. Wonder what the story is there?" another wondered.

"Sucks to not see Lourdes and Steveo back for redemption," a third said.

Why was Lourdes missing from the redemption cook?

Over on Reddit some fans were also confused about Lourdes not being there with one fan appearing genuinely heartbroken about the fact.

"Why no Lourdes? 🥲💔," they wrote.

"Any reason to why Lourdes wasn't in this episode?" another asked.

In an exclusive statement to Yahoo Lifestyle, Lourdes explained her absence saying, "I had an important surgery that was unable to be missed.”

Sad reason Steve was also absent

Fan favourite Stephen Dennis was also missing from the challenge with viewers flooding social media with questions about his whereabouts.

“Is Steve there?” one person asked in relation to the promo for the episode, while another added, “Where is Steve!?”.

“Why is Steve not back?” a third wrote, followed by someone else who said, “Guessing Steve declined unless I’m blind”.

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“Hope Snez [Calic] gets back in but super gutted about Stephen,” a different user replied.

In a statement to Yahoo Lifestyle on Wednesday, Steve revealed that he decided not to return to the kitchen for the second-chance cook because he needed to take care of his mother Dahlas.

“My mother is in hospital and is very unwell,” he said. “My father passed away during Covid, so I need to support my mother and it would be unfair on my family to return to filming with this in mind.”

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