NARRATOR: Previously on MasterChef Australia...
..we kicked off Secrets to Success Week
with Poh's puzzling mystery box.
That's crazy.
My brain is going a bit all over the place.
ANDY: Let's go! Hustle, hustle!
Oh, no. What am I gonna do with this?
Make something out of... literally nothing.
And with only two extra ingredients, they made it magic...
JOCK: Waffles? This is good!
MELISSA: Yeah, savoury waffles. Bougie brunch.
Anyone who's capable of producing a cracking dish
with just the underbench staples
really holds themselves in good stead for the competition.
..with Malissa winning dish of the day
and the chance at immunity.
Holy cannoli! (LAUGHS)
I bloody loved it.
It was great. Oh, yay!
Really, really good.
Tonight, it's elimination number two...
CATH: I'm really worried because one of us is going home.
..and they're about to step up their pastry game
with a dessert queen.
DECLAN: Game day.
First time in the black apron.
ALICE: Oh, my gosh.
LARISSA: Ready to get back in the kitchen?
Yes, I am.
I am terrified going into this cook.
Do I have eyebrow frown?
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
The fact that it's an elimination, it's terrifying.
Such a small group too.
(SIGHS) I don't know what's about to happen.
(CONTESTANTS CLAP AND CHEER)
Whoo! Go, guys!
Morning, everyone, welcome back.
ALL: Morning!
It's good to see all your faces again,
fighting fit and ready to fight for your place in this competition.
While you were all recovering from COVID,
the guys in the gantry faced an elimination.
So, of course, to make it fair,
now it's your turn.
This is your first elimination.
Unfortunately, at the end of this challenge,
one of you will be going home.
Declan, you ready to get back in the saddle?
Yeah, yeah. Um...
Black apron feel a little bit different?
Yeah, matched with the outfit. I've gone all dark today.
Thought I'd keep it on point.
One thing's for sure -
you have to survive a lot of eliminations
if you want to win this competition.
Right.
So there's no time to get your head round it like right now.
This week is all about giving you
the secrets for success in the MasterChef kitchen.
So, naturally, today's challenge has been set by MasterChef royalty.
Known all over the country for her sweet recipes...
..her baking skills are second to none.
(WHISPERS) Emelia?
She's competed in this competition not once but twice
and the second time,
she took home the trophy.
Please welcome our dessert queen.
Emelia Jackson, everybody!
(CONTESTANTS CHEER AND EXCLAIM)
WOMAN: Whoo!
MALISSA: It's so great to see Emelia Jackson walk through those doors.
I follow her on social media.
She really is the dessert queen.
(CONTESTANTS CHEER)
How exciting!
Seeing her in the flesh is very, very awesome.
Emelia, welcome back. Thank you!
How's life - lives -
and all of the lives in your life?
They're good.
Wouldn't be a MasterChef appearance for me if I wasn't knocked up.
If you didn't have a bun in the oven.
(LAUGHS) Good one, Jock.
I'm trying, I'm trying. I'm trying.
Hey, you've won this competition before. You know how it goes.
We're talking secrets to success. What have you brought us?
I've brought you...
(ALL GASP)
..my eclair...
..which is made with my signature choux pastry.
(CHUCKLES)
(WHISPERS) Ah, dear.
Choux was my secret to success in MasterChef,
and today, it is the key to your challenge.
Oh, my goodness.
The only 'shoes' I've heard of in the past
are the ones you wear on your feet,
so I'm well out of my depth here.
Emelia has generously shared the recipe
and your challenge today is to make that very choux
and to put your own spin on it.
We're giving you 75 minutes.
Emelia's recipe is under each of your benches.
The pantry and the garden are open.
The three least impressive dishes in this round
will fall into round 2,
from where one of you will be going home.
The great thing about choux is that it can be sweet or even savoury.
However,
if you cook a sweet dish in round 1,
you'll need to cook savoury if you're in round 2
and vice versa.
Emelia, would you care to do the honours?
Always. Alright, guys, your time starts now.
ANDY: Come on!
(CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD)
MAN: Let's go, guys. CATH: Let's go. Good luck, guys.
Cream, where are you?
Excuse me, buddy.
I don't know how many I need.
Here, take it.
LARISSA: Uh, do I just go get my choux on or do I do this now?
(MUTTERS) Let's go.
WOMAN: Let's go Declan! MAN: Let's go, Dec.
We've got 75 minutes to make Emelia Jackson's choux pastry.
"In a saucepan, combine the water, butter..."
ROBBIE: Read through very slowly, Dec.
I'm very nervous about today.
Um, never...never made a choux pastry before.
Sugar, salt.
If I'm gonna be making any choux pastry for the first time,
I want it to be Emelia Jackson's choux,
so, yeah, very grateful that I've got the recipe to follow.
I'm working backwards slightly.
I'm making sure I master this pastry first.
I haven't even thought of what's gonna complement it yet
or what I'm gonna fill it with.
I'm just gonna get the choux in the oven
and then try and think of something that will go nice with it.
It says, "Cook this roux for five to seven minutes
"until a thick crust forms."
Yeah. Perfect. That's it.
Gonna get that choux on.
(BOTH CHEER)
WOMAN: Come on, Alice. Thanks, guys.
Alright, you've given them your trusty choux recipe,
which is foolproof, pretty much?
Hopefully. Foolproof for me. (LAUGHS)
What is this?
We've got creme pat, a sour strawberry gel
and then a pistachio whipped ganache.
I feel as if we should try it. Yeah, come on. Like, carve it up.
If you were fresh in this kitchen again, what would you be doing?
You guys know me.
I would just do, like, a beautiful choux bun
with, like, a chocolate glaze and just keep it simple and pared back.
I would love to see that,
but I'd also love to see some creativity.
I think they should always play to their strengths out there.
Like, we're talking savoury stuff here.
Go, Larissa. Go, Cath.
I think I saw a chicken before.
So I'm excited about the savoury. Yeah, Larissa's got a chicken.
Yep.
OK, butter.
I think I'm gonna do something savoury.
Play to my strengths. I'm definitely...
Like, my catchcry at home is "I don't make sweets."
I need to nail round 1.
I don't want to cook in round 2
because I do not want to have to pull out
a sweet dish to save my life.
I'm gonna do some kind of fried chicken.
Haven't decided exactly what kind.
I'm either gonna do, like, a habanero hot honey chicken
or Korean fried chicken.
I haven't quite decided.
Come on, Larissa, you can do it.
Let's go, guys. Let's go.
WOMAN: Good job, Theo. Come on.
ANTONIO: How we going, Alice? Good.
I think I'm gonna do tea-flavoured choux.
Yum!
Being the nerd that I am,
I read a lot of books about the importance of
what the French call the panade process,
which is basically heating the dough so that you can get
as much water evaporating from it as possible.
80 degrees Celsius is the optimal temperature
at which you should then
begin to take the dough off the stove
and cool it down for the beating of the eggs.
Alice! Hi.
This, for you, you'd be geeking out on this...
I love baking. That's my... Yeah.
If I could write a cookbook, it'd be about baking, the science of baking.
Yeah. Alice is a thinker of food.
Very academic, very intelligent.
Harvard and...
Stanford. Stanford.
Like...like, full... Wild.
Wild. Crazy. (LAUGHS) Wild.
I think I'm the victim of my own success.
I have been very academically oriented throughout my life.
I am a director of China research
for a boutique advisory and consulting company.
At the same time, this need to do something creative around food
has been there for the last five or more years.
WOMAN: Thanks for cooking.
You only get one shot in life
and you should do the things that are meaningful to you.
And so MasterChef will give me this opportunity to do what I love to do,
which is cook.
I know it's been something you've been dreaming about for a long time.
WOMAN: We're so proud of you.
JOCK: What are you making?
I'm gonna make a cup of choux
in the sense that it's gonna be milky oolong creme pat.
'Cause I love tea.
Hopefully it'll be like drinking tea and choux.
EMELIA: Beautiful.
Don't think your way out today. I know.
I'm keeping it simple. Alright.
I tend to overcomplicate things and try to do too much,
use too many techniques.
So I need to pare back,
focus on making each element and technique
as perfect as possible.
Fingers crossed!
Your choux takes anywhere from 45 to 50 to cook.
You gotta cook 'em, cool 'em, fill 'em,
make 'em beautiful.
Let's go. You got one hour to go.
JOCK: Let's go!
Hey, get some noise going, guys!
Whoo! Come on! Let's go!
Come on, keep moving! Keep moving!
ROBBIE: Looks good, Antonio.
Ugh, no. My bag broke!
Gonna have to do that in another bag.
OK, so that's doing that.
Don't need that.
Cath. Hi!
How you going? I'm good, thank you.
Have you made much choux pastry?
Um, I wouldn't say a lot.
No? I've made some.
Looking at Emelia's recipe, any big differences you see there?
The one I used was sort of half-water, half-milk.
She's got a secret there.
What's the secret? Tell us the secret.
Extra steam. Also, I'm a very lazy baker.
It's one less thing to measure. Right. There you go.
I think that's smart.
I'm actually doing a lemon curd and mascarpone in a choux bun.
So I've got a crackle in the fridge now.
Gotta cut that out to go on top. So I'm mindful of time.
So today I have made some crackling to go on top of my choux pastry.
Goodness me.
Crackling is just a little disc
that you put on top of your choux pastry
before baking it in the oven.
And it just melts and cooks over the choux bun
so it makes them all very uniform, dome-shaped,
and it's got this really golden, crisp crackling on top.
RALPH: Go, Cath! Go!
Am I stirring it too much? Just let it sit, just let it sit.
I'm doing a mango curd filled choux.
I'm just going mango 'cause tropical North Queensland, that's me.
Rhiannon, Rhiannon. How long have you had it on for?
I don't know. It's really wet.
I'm really worried.
Emelia's recipe says five to seven minutes
and I'm stirring away for longer than that.
It needs to be a bit drier than this, does it?
A bit drier, yeah.
You wanna see, like, a nice film on the bottom of the pan.
There's 48 minutes to go.
These choux need 45 to 50 to cook.
Everyone is putting their choux in the oven.
WOMAN: Go, Theo.
MAN: Go, Theo. MAN: You've got this, Jess.
Oh, my God, I'm going straight into round 2, seriously.
Am I stirring it too much?
Just let it sit. Just let it sit.
There's 48 minutes to go.
These choux need 45 to 50 minutes to cook.
RALPH: It's a bit wet. You might need to cook it a bit more.
Cook it more?
You should get, like, a film on the bottom.
I don't wanna go home. I feel like I'm just getting started here.
I've got so much more to give.
I have to keep pushing and hoping for the best.
It's getting there. Bit more, bit more, bit more.
I just keep cooking longer, longer,
until I am semi-happy.
I wouldn't say I'm happy. I am semi-happy.
JOCK: Rhiannon. Hey!
It's gonna be 45 minutes by the time you get them in the oven.
So are you thinking about the size of these?
Because they've gotta cook and cool down.
No, I'm doing smaller.
You don't wanna be in round 2.
Bloody oath I don't.
Good luck. Get them in the oven, come on.
Let's go. You've got 45 minutes to go.
Let's go!
(CONTESTANTS CHEER) Let's go!
Hello, Theo. Hi. How you doing?
JOCK: What's the dish, mate?
I'm making lemon curd filled choux with a meringue on top.
That sounds great. Yeah.
Have you made much choux pastry before?
I have, actually, yeah. Well, alright, then!
First lesson, Theo - always say no.
Yeah, I've never done this before and I'm really worried.
Undersell, over-deliver. Hopefully I can do it.
Oh. Thank you.
(CHUCKLES)
Thank you so much.
What's going on?
I'm doing a Paris-Brest
with hazelnut praline
and then mix it with creme pat.
I hope I can make the choux fit. Yes, we do too.
That's what it's about today.
Hi! Hello, Jessica.
My neighbour is such a huge fan of yours, Emelia.
She went to your cooking classes,
she brought me home the choux pastry she made.
Yeah, so it's an honour to be here.
What are you making? Yeah, what are you doing?
PB&J. It's my favourite combo.
Nice. I'm making a strawberry jam.
And peanut butter whipped cream. Nice.
JOCK: That's it. Keep going, keep moving.
Let's go. Whoo-hoo!
Let's go, let's go!
Less than 35 minutes to go. The choux are in the oven.
Now I'm just gonna try and bring all the other elements together.
Hello, Declan. Hey, how are we going?
We're going great. How are you going?
Yeah, you tell us. What are you making?
So I'm gonna do caramelised bananas
with a cream... butterscotch cream sauce.
Banoffee pie. Banoffee vibes. Yeah, beautiful.
I like the sound of that. Just think of the textures.
Be nice if there was something crunchy
or something going on in there.
(CHUCKLES) Thank you.
EMELIA: Alright, guys, you've got 30 minutes to go.
ANDY: Come on, let's go! Lift it!
(ONLOOKERS CHEER AND APPLAUD)
WOMAN: Good job, Theo.
MAN: Looks good, Antonio.
WOMAN: You're doing great.
Done that. Well done. OK.
Oh, they're puffing up really nicely.
Now is the drying-out stage.
You want it to be basically empty on the inside
but crunchy on the outside.
Baking, for me, is that marriage of science and creativity.
My dish today is a cup of choux
in the sense that I'm gonna make tea-flavoured choux.
MAN: Go, Alice. Come on. WOMAN: Come on, Alice!
I'm making the filling that I steep with milky oolong tea
and I add a little bit of matcha just for colour.
Is the taste OK? Um, how do you want it?
Not too green tea, not too bitter.
Make sure you keep having a taste. OK. Yeah.
Tea's naturally quite bitter and astringent.
In desserts, not everyone is a fan,
so I have to make sure that the creme diplomat is perfectly balanced.
20 minutes.
WOMAN: Yum, Larissa!
I'm making fried chicken sliders on choux buns.
Probably should check the choux buns. Good.
Everybody loves fried ch...
(LAUGHS)
Everybody loves fried chicken!
So I'm really banking on saving myself in this first round.
WOMAN: Oh, Larissa, that smells good!
I usually serve the fried chicken
with a gochujang Korean fried chicken sauce,
but today, I want to bring something creative.
On my fried chicken sliders,
I'm gonna do, like, a hot chipotle honey sauce.
Shit, shit, shit.
MELISSA: How you going, Larissa? I'm OK!
Just hit it with too much honey.
Well, what do you do? Fix it.
You can do it. Fix it. OK, thank you.
Little bit of lemon juice, I reckon.
I don't wanna leave today.
Hmm...
I need that sauce to be balanced.
Can I ask you a question?
You can ask me as many questions as you want.
Do you want the choux to be, like, golden brown or...
Let's have a look.
They've been in there for about 35 minutes.
It feels very light and cooked.
I need time for 'em to cool. Exactly right.
Thank you, guys.
How's everything else going?
Yeah, I've got butterscotch sauce,
toasted almond cream.
You're on the banoffee pie train, aren't ya?
(LAUGHS) Yeah.
I'm scrapping the caramelised banana.
I've already got enough elements to focus on.
It would be shambles if I threw in another element.
I hope your choux buns are cooked. You've got 10 minutes to go!
Come on! Let's go!
Come on. Cook.
Come on, you're nearly there. You're nearly there!
Oh, this is your recipe. Look at that!
Very happy, Emelia!
Looking good. Looking really good.
I'm really happy with the crackling. Nice and crispy.
Actually, do you reckon I've done that enough?
Should I cook it more?
It's a curd? Yeah.
Is it thick? No, it's not.
I'm thinking I need to cook it more.
Today I'm making a mango curd filled choux with a meringue top.
My brain is just not there.
RALPH: It'll be too hot, won't it?
WOMAN: Can you put it straight in the freezer?
Yeah. Thanks.
I just can't believe it's all going wrong.
I was totally thrown by the choux
and then it's just a snowball effect.
Hopefully, that'll be enough time
to get it set and cool enough,
ready for me to put in a piping bag, yeah.
How long we got?
Five minutes.
How are we going?
I like it when I can't feel anything...
(LAUGHS) Yeah!
..in the choux 'cause then...
I thought you meant in your arms.
I was like, "Perfectly natural response to being on MasterChef."
In the choux. Yeah, right. (LAUGHS)
The choux turn out to be even greater than my recipe,
so I'm definitely gonna keep this one in my books.
CATH: Oh, look at mine, hey?
There is only just enough lemon curd, actually.
WOMAN: Oh, they look good!
MAN: Let's go, guys. You guys are doing great.
(SIGHS) Come on, Larissa.
I am not 100% sure I've nailed the balance of the sauce.
Acidity...
But I'm hoping that the sauce on the chicken,
with the flavour of the chicken
might sort of balance the sauce a little bit more.
Hopefully my choux saves me.
One minute to go, guys.
Whoo! Come on, guys!
Let's go, guys! Let's go, guys. Come on, man.
Fingers crossed, Cath. You've done a really good job.
RHIANNON: I'm most worried about the curd.
You know, that it has set, that it's not too runny,
that it doesn't make the choux buns soggy.
But there's always that little bit of hope
that my flavours will be OK.
I'm going for the ugly duckling.
10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5,
4, 3, 2, 1.
That's it!
Whoo! Yeah!
That was awesome!
Good onya! First time!
Well done!
I did it!
WOMAN: Well done, Alice!
They look amazing!
We have choux queen Emelia Jackson in the house,
which means it's all about choux pastry perfection.
And the first dish we'd like to taste belongs to...Declan.
(CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD)
This is nervous Declan.
Declan, what did you do with Emelia's choux recipe today?
Um, I've done a profiterole filled with
a vanilla almond cream
and butterscotch sauce with toasted almonds.
EMELIA: Let's taste it.
Your Highness. (LAUGHS) Thank you.
JOCK: There you go.
What happened to the banana, banoffee vibes?
Um, I...
What happened to that? Um...
What happened to the banana, banoffee vibes?
What happened to that?
Um, I...
I was stressed, I was nervous.
I just wanted to stick to what I knew I could do in the time frame.
Considering it's your first time,
you've done a brilliant job.
The choux's light, it's airy,
it's perfectly cooked.
The cream is...is lovely.
Toasted almonds on the end just help actually bring that together.
Just that little bit of tszuj, and it's so simple as well,
made all the difference.
Thank you.
100% agree, Jock. Really great job.
The choux is light, and it is a choux challenge.
So you've nailed the choux.
And the crunch of the almonds really brought it all together,
so I think you did an amazing job.
Thank you.
I think you edited the right things
getting rid of the banana element of it
and just sticking to simplicity.
The textures were great, the flavours were awesome.
You did the right thing.
Well done, Declan.
I'm blushing.
I'm absolutely over the moon that
first time cooking choux pastry
and I'm getting these kind of compliments.
Thanks, Cath. Happy with that, buddy?
Yeah. Thank you. Well done on the banana.
Thank you.
Next up, it's our only savoury choux today. Larissa.
(ONLOOKERS CHEER)
Hello! What have you made us?
I made fried chicken chipotle honey choux buns.
Shall we? Please. Yeah!
Great work on the choux.
It's light, fluffy, it's got a nice crust on the outside.
They were all really uniform as well.
So, massive props there.
It's the sauce that I feel like you're in trouble with.
I just feel like it should have been on the savoury end of fried chicken
because the honey is, like, really, really prominent in that.
OK.
Great idea.
I think maybe even if you didn't coat the chicken in the sauce,
and it was underneath the chicken,
we might have had a bit less of that cloying sort of soft batter.
Because when you eat it as a bite,
the choux kind of disintegrates into the same texture as the soggy batter.
Yeah.
I think you just needed to make a few tweaks.
And MasterChef's all about learning,
so it's a great opportunity for you to learn.
Thank you, guys.
WOMAN: All good, Larissa!
Thank you. Good job.
You tried hard, though. Thank you.
The next dish we'd like to taste belongs to Theo!
MAN: Yeah, Theo! What do you call this?
THEO: Lemon meringue eclair.
I love that it's packed to the rafters in the inside.
The curd in the middle, I love everything about it.
The texture, the zinginess. Well done, Theo.
Next up, Antonio.
I made you guys a hazelnut Paris-Brest.
Loved the flavours.
Really strong in hazelnut praline, which is a beautiful flavour.
Gorgeous cream. Really nice.
ANDY: Jessica.
I made PB&J choux.
Perfectly cooked choux.
Well-made jam.
Delicious cream.
It's perfect. Well done. Thank you!
Thank you.
Whoo!
The next dish we'd like to taste belongs to...
..Cath.
(ONLOOKERS CHEER)
What's the dish, please?
I've made lemon mascarpone choux buns.
What do you think? I'm very happy.
Very, very happy? Yeah, I am. Very happy.
I have practised a couple of times at home
and I have had a fair few fails.
So this was a different recipe.
And I was just thinking, "OK, well, I'm just gonna go with
"exactly what Emelia said."
I think they're the best choux bun I've made.
Perfection. Like, seriously.
From the texture of the light, fluffy, crispy choux bun
to the balance of that zingy, fresh, rich mascarpone curd...
It doesn't get any better. I don't know what else you could have done.
You rolled the crackling to the perfect thickness.
You can see it has created this beautiful thick covering
that has just given this beautiful texture in your mouth.
Keeping things simple like this and doing every element perfectly
is gonna see you go a long way.
Oh, that's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you.
The only thing that hasn't been said
is first of all, you get one of these.
And secondly, get up to the gantry.
Oh! Yay!
I am absolutely gobsmacked.
Oh, yeah!
To come into an elimination and do that...
Oh!
It's just amazing.
I'm just so proud.
Well done, Cath. Amazing.
Next up, choux buns from Alice.
(ONLOOKERS CHEER)
OK, Alice. What are they?
I made a milky oolong tea creme diplomat choux with caramel syrup.
Loved the concept. Really, really great choux.
Everything that you want in terms of texture.
But you have very dominant forces going on here.
When you have the bitterness of the matcha
and then you have the headiness of the oolong,
strip it back.
Yeah. Strip it back.
Matcha and oolong are just fighting each other.
It could have been so good.
OK, thanks so much.
Thanks, Alice. WOMAN: Good job, Alice.
Next up, Rhiannon.
(ONLOOKERS CHEER)
I am so bloody embarrassed
to put this in front of Emelia Jackson, the choux queen.
Please let this little ugly choux be good enough.
I have made mango curd and lime meringue choux buns.
Rhiannon, what's going on with the curd?
I just did the normal recipe that I do,
but I don't know why it's not thick.
It's a little bit curdled. Yeah.
So, parts of it have cooked
and obviously those parts are clumped together,
which has meant it's not spread throughout
and then been able to thicken it.
I love the flavours, though.
You were going for something epic there.
Yeah.
I actually think your choux is a bit underbaked.
It's a bit blond in parts.
So, I think good concept, not so good execution.
Yeah, thank you.
I'm crapping myself because I'm not ready to go cook in round 2.
Oh, dear! Thanks.
Yeah.
There were some delicious
and well-executed dishes out there today.
But not all your choux were the right fit
If I call your name,
unfortunately you are in round 2.
Rhiannon.
Larissa.
And...
..Alice.
Round 2.
The rest of you, head on up to the gantry. You're safe.
Good luck. (CONTESTANTS MURMUR)
I'm so bloody worried about who I'm against.
Alice and Larissa are both amazing.
Here we are. I know.
At the end of the cook one of us is going home.
I don't want to go. I'm gonna fight to stay here.
round 2 and one last chance.
You know, practice makes perfect, which is why this round
you'll have a chance to make Emelia's choux one more time.
But if you made savoury in round 1,
you're making a sweet dish in this round and vice versa.
We're giving you another 75 minutes on the clock.
And this time make sure it's delicious
because whoever cooks the least impressive dish here,
unfortunately, they'll be going home.
(TENSE MUSIC)
Emelia, wanna kick them off?
Alright, ladies, your time starts now.
(ONLOOKERS CHEER) Go, ladies! Come on!
Whoo! Heavy door.
Just gonna get lemons.
LARISSA: Round 1, I tried to go a little bit creative
and I got a little bit too creative and wasn't able to come back from it.
(CONTESTANTS CLAP) WOMAN: Come on, Larissa! Whoo!
PHIL: Lemon curd. Yeah, she's gonna do that.
So, this time I'm going to go really, really classic clean flavours.
I'm just gonna go with some lemon meringue choux buns.
It's actually the only time I ever made lemon curd
was when I made lemon meringue choux buns for my babies.
So I'm going to do that today.
I'm OK.
I'd rather not be here, but...
(CHUCKLES) ..it is what it is.
I'm just gonna do my best, try and keep calm.
I do have the Second Chance Apron that I won in the first cook.
Whew! But I don't want to use it now.
I'd rather use it later in the competition, when things get tougher.
Yes, ma'am!
And I want to show my kids that you can go out there
and challenge yourself and do hard things.
You know, give it a really good crack.
This could be interesting. Simple dishes done well are winning.
Come on, Alice. That's it, Alice.
I'm gonna go all simple and do a breakfast bacon-and-egg choux.
So just soft scrambled eggs, bacon, caramelised onions.
WOMAN: Bacon and egg.
There you go! Can't go wrong with bacon and egg.
My advice to myself is to "keep it simple, stupid".
So I'm going to adhere to the KISS principle from now on.
I have a habit of overcomplicating things
and it's not served me well.
So I need to keep things as simple as possible.
Everyone wants to stay in the competition.
No-one's ready to go home.
I'm just really stressed out
about what's gonna happen at the end of this cook.
ANTONIO: Go, Alice. RALPH: Alice.
Let's go! (ONLOOKERS APPLAUD AND CHEER)
Let's go, guys!
Oh, helps to turn it on, eh?
(LAUGHS)
Yeah, that looks good, Rhi.
The choux took me so long in round 1.
That is my focus.
"Get that in and then you can think about everything else after that."
That's good, Rhi. Looks good.
Yeah, it's better than this morning.
Well done, Rhi! Yay, good job!
RHIANNON: We need to decide what my filling should be.
Um...
Chipotle. Chipotle.
Mexican.
Oh! Just had a thought.
I'm gonna do a Mexican prawn.
Prawns and Mexican, like, that's me. You know, spicy chilli.
I know I can get this done.
Go, Rhiannon! (ONLOOKERS CHEER)
You got the prawns! There you go, Queenslander!
This dish is me on a plate, and I can't do any more than that.
Go! Go!
ANDY: Larissa. Hello.
Ooh, this is looking a little different.
You noticed! Step one, clean bench.
Step two. You doing lemon meringue? I am.
Yes, honestly, I feel like I'm not the strongest of sweet cooks,
but I made this for my boys
and if this is the dish that saves me, then...
You're all good. You just need to take a deep breath and execute this.
(GASPS) (JOCK CHUCKLES)
Oh, my God, Mel.
What a different cook to this morning. I'm stoked.
Look at me 'desserting'. You're on fire!
I'm so happy with that.
15 minutes to go!
You can do it, Rhi! You've got this!
Yum! (CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD)
Ahh! Love a bacon smell.
So, I'm making a bacon-and-egg choux
because I wanted to stick to something simple,
but the thing with doing simple things
is you have to make them goddamn perfect.
So the best caramelised onions you'll ever have,
the best crispy bacon you'll ever have,
the best scrambled eggs you'll ever have. (CHUCKLES)
Honestly, there's something about
being in the pressure of this kitchen.
My self-critical voice is really kicking in
and I'm looking at these eggs,
thinking they are by no means the best eggs I've ever made.
I don't know if I'm gonna do it.
I just...I don't love the texture of that.
I'm starting to doubt myself.
It's not the right texture. Yeah.
I think it's going to be Alice. Yeah, me too.
If this doesn't work, that could very much see me going home.
So, I'm going to fry an egg.
I know that I'm approaching that point of mania
where I might be overthinking and going down a rabbit hole again.
NARRATOR: In the mood to cook?
delicious MasterChef-approved recipes on 10 play.
Let's go, guys! Come on! (ONLOOKERS APPLAUD)
Let's go, guys! It's looking good!
ALICE: My mind is pretty scrambled.
I'm my worst critic,
so I'm getting all kinds of egg ideas,
overthinking, overcomplicating.
What's up with the fried egg, Alice? I don't know if I'm gonna do it.
All I'm going to say at this point
is don't get fixed on an idea you can't make happen.
You have eight minutes. Yeah.
What does your gut tell you about just the presentation?
It's not great.
I cannot serve fried eggs. They're too big.
Maybe I stick with the scrambled eggs
and hopefully the flavours are actually really good.
Go, Alice! Come on, everybody!
Go, guys! Go, guys!
Whoo! Perfect.
My choux buns, I think that these are better
than round 1 choux buns.
MAN: Nice, Larissa! Thanks, guys.
They're not Emelia Jackson cute, but they're Larissa cute.
So nerve-racking. I have to make a decision.
What's the decision?
I want to decide whether
I'm putting the curd in straight with cream on top
or whether I mix curd in with the cream.
Why don't you do a test with the curd?
Taste if it comes through. It's pretty punchy.
Lemon curd on its own is very sour and tart.
So I'm just trying to work out
whether to mix the curd with the cream
or layer the curd in the cream.
Mmm!
I've decided to go with the layering
rather than mixing the curd with the cream.
My curd is quite sharp, but I like it like that.
I'm trying to balance it with the cream
and hopefully get the balance right.
Three minutes, ladies!
(ONLOOKERS APPLAUD AND CHEER)
RHIANNON: The prawns are out of the pan.
Oh, yes! (ONLOOKERS CHEER)
They're perfectly cooked.
I'm cooking in my zone.
I'm cooking what I love. I'm happy.
I'm just thinking about how I want to present it.
You gotta move, ladies. We're nearly there.
Guys, gotta go! Gotta go!
ALICE: I put all the elements,
the caramelised onion, the bacon, the egg
into the choux.
And then on top, I put some cheese
and put them back in the oven for the cheese to melt on the top.
One minute to go! Let's go!
(CONTESTANTS CHEER)
LARISSA: I'm layering the curd,
except it becomes apparent to me that the choux buns are small
and I don't know how much curd and cream to put in there.
But I wing it. I just start layering cream on top and hope for the best.
You're just about out of time. 10...
ONLOOKERS: 9, 8, 7,
6, 5,
4, 3,
2, 1.
That's it! (ALL CHEER)
(ONLOOKERS CHEER)
Good job. Good job.
Good job! Well done, guys.
Well done.
So, round 2.
Three cooks that have shown great food in the competition already.
I think their aim was to really simplify everything.
Yeah, I agree.
You can be a little bit shook
by finding yourself in that second round.
But I think it's the cooks that execute it simply and well
that's going to keep them from leaving today.
Shall we get the first one in? Mm-hm.
Good luck. Thank you.
I would be absolutely devastated if I left today.
I would be crushed.
Rhiannon. Hello.
Hopefully the flavours are there and they enjoy it.
What is the dish?
It is a Mexican spice prawn and avocado cream choux.
This is me. I love flavours.
I love bold chilli. I'm stoked, yeah.
I hope this dish reflects how you feel right now,
because you're super happy and upbeat.
I'm loving it.
We're going to taste it now. Excellent. Thank you, guys.
Enjoy. Thanks, Rhiannon.
What do we think of the look of it? Nice-looking eclairs.
I like it because it looks like a bun.
ANDY: It does. OK, friends of Mexico.
Mmm. Thank you.
That's what happens when you stay true to yourself.
Yeah! Like, it is delicious.
The choux is perfect.
And I'm glad that they're big boys
because I had about three prawns, I reckon, in my half an eclair.
I never thought I'd experience
a fully loaded choux in its savoury form.
But that's what it felt like. It felt generous.
It's done its job,
which is to deliver a full-on Mexican experience.
Yeah. I love that.
It all clicks for her.
And that's the type of learning experience
that you come out of eliminations being so much better for.
Let's get the next dish in. Mmm.
Go, Alice. You've got this. Go, Alice.
I've seen Rhiannon's amazing Mexican choux
and I've also seen Larissa's lemon curd.
They both look incredible, so I'm pretty nervous.
Hey. Hi.
Talk us through what's there.
Breakfast bacon-and-egg choux.
So, just soft scrambled eggs,
bacon, caramelised onions.
Do you think you've done enough to keep yourself safe today?
I'm not sure,
but this has been an incredible experience, whatever happens.
I'm gonna keep cooking.
Thank you. We'll taste now. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
And thank you for the recipe.
OK.
Yeah, she went light on the egg, didn't she?
Yeah. It's more of an onion jam choux.
I'm just gonna put it out there - I quite like this.
The onion really is the star of the show.
It's caramelised beautifully.
There's a great depth of flavour in there.
And together with a well-fired choux bun,
it's actually really tasty.
The choux was beautifully cooked, really beautifully cooked,
and it's really surprised me.
It may be a case of good editing right at the end,
knowing how much of what to put in.
The choux, for me, is one of the best of the day.
I think so. The colour on that.
That little shaving of cheese over the top.
My only fault is I just wanted a sauce
because mine was a bit dry.
Shall we get our next one in? Let's do it.
Go, Larissa. Thank you.
Lots of luck. Thanks. Thanks, guys.
You got this.
I did not want to be in the bottom three
and I did not want to have to cook a sweet dish.
So I'm feeling pretty terrified.
Larissa. Hello.
I'm just hoping that it's enough to get me through.
(SIGHS)
I made a lemon meringue
curd choux pastry.
How are you feeling? I'm OK.
Just OK? I'm OK, yeah.
It's just been a day, hasn't it?
It's been a roller-coaster of a day.
Despite sweet not being my strength, I gave it my best shot.
Is this a dish that can save you? I hope so.
I hope I was able to balance it enough
and I hope you just like it.
We'll taste the dish now, thank you. Thank you.
Thanks so much. See you.
A lot of cream-to-curd ratio.
There's hardly any lemon curd in mine.
The choux itself, great recipe.
I don't know where she got it from! Wonderful.
It was cooked lovely. Really beautifully cooked.
But...mine had,
like, maybe half a teaspoon of lemon curd in it, that's it.
And so it was just like whipped cream choux.
It just doesn't have
the right balance of flavours and textures going on.
It all sort of just feels fine. Yeah.
But 'fine' on an elimination day, I don't know.
Yeah.
Emelia, thank you so much for making the time
to go back into the MasterChef kitchen.
Everybody give it up for Emelia Jackson!
There's something to be said to sticking to your roots.
Rhiannon, zingy avo cream, perfect prawns
inside those light choux buns.
You are staying right where you are! Well done.
(ONLOOKERS CHEER)
Well done, Rhi.
We got this. You got it.
That leaves you two.
Larissa. Yeah.
Your choux was well cooked,
but the ratio of curd to cream,
it was completely off.
OK.
Alice, you promised us bacon and eggs.
The flavours of your dish...
..they worked really well together.
But more than that, your choux,
it was the best we've seen all day.
Well done, Alice. Oh, my gosh.
Which is why, I'm sorry,
Larissa, you're going home.
OK. Thank you.
Oh, it's been...it's been a ride.
Definitely meeting these amazing people
and cooking with these guys, I think that I've made friends for life,
so that's, like, by far one of the biggest highlights.
Everybody thinks I'm going home, but...
(SINGSONGS) ..I'm not!
I do have the Second Chance Apron.
We know you have amazing things in front of you.
Thank you.
But for now, it's time to say goodbye.
(LAUGHS)
Oh! Thank you! Well done.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Your choux's great.
Thanks for cooking for us. Thank you so much.
Good luck. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
Oh, sweetie! Oh, it was so nice to meet you!
I have to keep it a secret for now...
Give it up for Larissa, everybody! (ALL CHEER)
..but I'll be back in the next elimination...
..to fight my way back in.
NARRATOR: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia,
two favourites return.
Yeah, boys! (CONTESTANTS CHEER)
(GASPS) Ohh.
This is a real fangirl moment for me.
..to guide our home cooks
through their first Service Challenge.
We now have 30 plates to put together.
It's team versus team.
This is gonna be really tough.
It's insane.
Who will come out on top?
Let's go!
Service, please! Service, please!
Captions by Red Bee Media