ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia...
From Gelato Messina, Donato Toce!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
...it was an unbelievable Pressure Test...
ANDY: Yeah!
(LAUGHS) Oh!
RALPH: Are you serious? Oh, my God!
...re-creating a Viennetta from a visionary.
DECLAN: This is next level. This is MasterChef.
They gave this nostalgic dessert a good crack.
Shh!
(CRUNCH!)
ANDY: Yeah, baby.
JOCK: So impressed.
Flavour-wise, nailed it.
But it was the end of the journey for Alice.
(APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
Tonight, it's a classic Service Challenge.
THEO: It's so nostalgic to me. It's crazy.
And they're going old school.
(VIBRANT MUSIC)
PHIL: Here we are in the burbs. ADI: Yeah. This is exciting!
Where are we going?
What is it gonna be?
CATH: Today's a new day.
We know that it's an offsite Service Challenge.
So just wondering where we're going.
RHIANNON: Gonna be fun. CATH: I know.
I love Team Challenge. I know!
(SERENE MUSIC)
Oh, look! Oh, wow.
(LAUGHS) Oh, my gosh!
Mei Jing!
MALISSA: Chinese! BRENT: Yum!
Love Chinese! Yum!
Oh, wow.
This reminds me of where I used to go eat as a kid!
CATH: This is gonna be fun. RHIANNON: Yeah.
ANDY: Hello! JOCK: Hello.
Morning.
Ah, good morning! Good morning.
MALISSA: Wow! Look at this. How cool!
(THEO LAUGHS)
MALISSA: We're in this very nostalgic, old-school
Chinese restaurant.
This restaurant reminds me of a place where
my dad used to take us for takeout
and it looked exactly the same as this.
I think everyone has endless memories
of eating at local Chinese takeaway.
Morning, you lot. ALL: Morning!
Welcome to Mei Jing Chinese Restaurant
right here in the heart of suburban Melbourne.
Now, before we get any further,
I'd just like to apologise Mel can't be with us today.
Unfortunately, she's not feeling very well.
Hi! (LAUGHTER)
I didn't see you!
(ALL LAUGH)
Ta-da!
Ta-da! (LAUGHS)
This is my wardrobe for today, so thank you.
OK.
Can you believe that the first-ever Chinese restaurant in Australia
was in 1854?
Wow. Wow!
There are local restaurants like this
in pretty much every town across the country.
Theo, you been to a restaurant like this before?
I've been to this restaurant before.
Stop it! (LAUGHTER)
I grew up just across the road. I reckon I've been here 100 times.
(LAUGHTER) Legit. Legit.
It's hilarious.
This is your local? Yeah, yeah.
(MELISSA LAUGHS) What's your go-to?
Number 72.
Yeah. (ALL LAUGH)
We'd order everything. Yeah.
Mate, you've got a bit of an advantage today.
Technically, you're playing at home.
CONTESTANTS: Yeah! Home-ground advantage. Yeah.
And whatever today's challenge is, it's yours to lose, buddy.
Oh, no! Don't say that.
I'm getting hungry, so let's get into it, shall we?
It's a Team Challenge, OK?
Do you know how this works? CATH: Yeah.
Alright. Don't peek! Here we go.
Ladies first. OK. Yeah.
MELISSA: If you have the white apron,
that means you're not cooking today.
MALISSA: Ohh!
ADI: Oh! (JOCK LAUGHS)
Damn.
I'm bummed about that.
Love cooking Chinese.
(DECLAN LAUGHS)
Alright, guys, into your teams, please.
Red team!
Alright. Adi, you pulled the elusive white apron.
That means no cooking for you today. Yeah.
Instead, you'll be picking a team to back.
But first, let's describe today's challenge.
Yeah.
On the menu at Mei Jing are some tasty Chinese classics
that most of us know and love.
In your teams, you must choose three dishes from the menu -
an entree, a main and a dessert.
Oh! OK.
Oh, wow.
And then make them your own.
You have your teams
and for today you'll need to assign a team captain as well.
Now.
MALISSA: Right, who wants to be team captain?
Any volunteers? THEO: I'll go.
I'm glad you're my team. Hometown advantage.
OK. Yeah. You know the restaurant.
I do have a few. RALPH: Recipes?
Yeah. Yeah.
GRACE: Do you feel confident? OK. Yep.
OK, guys, who's it going to be?
Rue.
Wonderful. And red?
Theo. Excellent. CATH: Yeah!
The hometown advantage! Oh!
The prodigal son returns!
I know where the bathrooms are.
(ALL LAUGH)
Please come and grab a menu.
Thank you.
Righto, guys. This is how it's gonna play out.
You've got two and a half hours
before the service for your entree begins.
Each team, they'll be feeding 50 diners plus us.
Whoa!
The team who cooks us the best three-course meal,
they'll go into tomorrow's Immunity Challenge.
Right. Adi, decision time. You know all the details.
Which way are you gonna go?
Um...
...I'm gonna have to go with red team today.
Right! If they win, you go into immunity.
Yeah.
But if they lose, you're obviously done.
Come on, guys.
Righto, guys, best of luck. Your time starts now.
Whoo! (APPLAUSE)
Go! Let's go! Let's go. Let's have a look.
Alright, guys, let's have a look. What have we got?
I've seen this kitchen, walked past it many times,
but I've never stepped foot in it, so this is quite daunting for me.
First off, let's go entree. OK. Alright.
I'm with Brent, Robbie, Malissa, Declan and Cath.
Red team, red emperor, you know? It's perfect for Chinese.
Who knows a chicken and sweet corn soup recipe?
Who knows a san choy bow recipe? I know san choy bow.
Maybe we go san choy bow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pork san choy bow for entree. OK. Yep.
The challenge today is to pick something off the menu,
which I'm quite familiar with,
and re-create an entree, main and dessert.
So, main, we've got sweet and sour pork or...
BOTH: Or beef and black bean.
What do you think, Robbie? The beef and black bean is easier.
Yeah! Oh, that's an oldie but a goodie.
Beef and black bean. Alright. Oh, I love that.
Nostalgia Week is hitting home now, you know.
Now, dessert. Lychee and ice cream, mango pancake...
There's a lot of things on this menu that resonate with me.
Pineapple fritter with ice cream.
Lychee and ice cream? Lychee and ice cream.
I reckon that looks good. Yeah.
This is where I would go for Chinese takeaway.
It's exactly this menu.
Lychee and ice cream.
I need to make sure we're picking the menu's best dishes.
We can do our own little spin on that.
Yeah! I reckon.
And working out what we can do to elevate them a little bit.
Guys, I'm gonna leave this with you.
I'm gonna go to Coles and get the pork mince.
Get that, come back. Yep.
Alright. Sweet. Alright. I'll see you soon. OK.
OK, so main. Who would do main? Ralph?
Yeah, I could do main. Sweet and sour pork.
And, Phil?
I put my hand up to be captain today.
Antonio and I would do, um, dessert.
I will have you and Grace doing entrees.
GRACE: Yeah. Yep.
Because I actually want to push myself outside of my comfort zone.
I am quite soft.
So I need to make sure that I step up and take charge today.
What are you thinking? Pineapple fritters with ice cream.
That's a good one. Yeah.
Straightaway when we open the menu,
the first thing to jump out to us
is the pineapple fritter with ice cream.
Entrees? We've got spring rolls.
RALPH: Spring rolls. Yeah.
Pork and prawn. Yeah. Pork and prawn.
OK. Absolutely. OK.
We do with spring rolls with a sweet and sour sauce.
And then you guys do a lemon chicken.
Yeah, but if we do lemon chicken, we'll do fried rice.
For our main, we're making, um, some lemon chicken with fried rice.
Would you want to get fried and fried?
What's your fresh element?
I'm just a little bit worried.
We're frying some spring rolls, frying some chicken,
frying a pineapple fritter.
Like, think about it, if you went to a restaurant,
would you be like, "I want fried spring rolls, I want fried chicken."
They didn't say we have to stick to the original.
They said our twist on it.
ANTONIO: We can just sear the chicken and still use the sauce.
It doesn't have to be deep-fried and, you know...
Yeah. Maybe we can get rid of the 'fried' on here.
OK. Yep. Alright. If you're happy, go with that.
Yep. Go with that.
As team captain, I have decided to drop the fried chicken
and instead adding our own twist to it
and do lemon chicken with grilled chicken.
So I'm going to Coles to pick up some proteins for us.
Oh, OK. We'll get prepping.
Thank you. Let's go.
OK. Come on, guys.
THEO: Alright.
So I run in.
I need to get all these proteins
and I quickly grab my chicken thigh for our lemon chicken.
OK.
Then I run to the deli.
Hi! How are you? Hello.
I am looking for some prawns.
I recommend our raw black tiger prawns.
Yeah?
They're 100% responsibly sourced
and they'll go delicious in your dish.
Alright. OK, that sounds perfect. We'll get about two kilos of that.
Two kilos? No problem. We'll get that ready for you.
THEO: So, for entree, we've chosen san choy bow.
I need to get some pork mince.
OK. Pork mince.
I found what I need and now I need to get back to my team
because they need me right now, so I need to move.
BRENT: Alrighty.
We need shallots, we need cabbage. GRACE: Lettuce!
Need oyster sauce.
Soy.
See what we can do with that.
THEO: Oh, look at that cos. It's beautiful. Looking good.
So I'm back with my team now and everyone seems organised.
I have Brent and Malissa chopping up ingredients for the entree.
Declan's cutting up the meat.
Keep it thin like that.
Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. Really nice.
Uh, Robbie's cutting up the vegetables for our main.
Cath is out the front working on her creme anglaise for her ice cream.
OK. Now...
The cos was a great idea, I think.
Yeah, I think they look a bit nicer.
Yeah. It's more fun to eat a long boat like that. Yeah.
San choy bow, it's a classic and we're gonna try and jazz it up.
We're working on that right now
to figure out exactly how we're gonna elevate it a little bit.
We could make a real nice chilli crunch...
Yeah?
...thing to go on with the san choy bow to top it off.
Szechuan peppers, chillis, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds...
Yep. ..peanuts all the way through it.
OK. Pour it over the top.
Great. That sounds good. JOCK: Alright, boys.
Hey. Howdy. How are we?
What's happening?
We have san choy bow for our entree. Yep.
Ohh! That was my pick! Yeah.
Oh, yeah? Yeah!
What's the mince? Pork mince.
We're gonna put some mushrooms in there, spring onion,
some ginger, garlic.
Make that a rich, rich san choy bow.
If you're gonna do san choy bow, let's jack it.
Load it, yeah. Like, what are you amping up?
Maybe like a Szechuan chilli oil crunch, peanut...
Now we're talking. Jack it up a bit.
This is your local? 100%.
You're also probably gonna be cooking for people
that you're normally eating with.
(LAUGHS) I agree. Don't let them down.
Alright. Thanks, mate.
Good luck. Thanks, guys. Cheers.
Behind you, Gracie.
We need to chop garlic and ginger. Yeah, let's get that.
I'll prep this, then process it all at the same time.
Yeah. We've got a fair bit to do. Yeah.
So today for entree, purple team are cooking
spring rolls with a sweet and sour dipping sauce.
We're gonna have to cook the pork. Prawns as well.
Put the veggies in. Then we put the oyster and soy.
Wrap the wrappers and then they need to get deep-fried.
Yep.
One of my aunties used to love making spring rolls
and now I make spring rolls quite a lot.
Yeah, perfect. That's good?
Yeah, I don't want it mince-mince. Yep.
I still want to have texture. Alright.
And I can do it in bulk.
Five kids, a husband, everyone's hungry.
So hopefully I can use that to help cook for 50 diners.
Ralph's going to do the sauce for us.
But there's still so much to do until service.
We need to roll over 100 spring rolls.
Rhi, like that?
Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. Yep. Ready.
But... you know what? I'm also optimistic that we can get it done.
Like, Grace and I are running around like mad things,
so I'm hoping that we can actually push it out.
Purple team. Rue, menu, let's go!
OK. So, for entree, we're doing pork and prawn spring rolls.
Pork and prawn? With a sweet and sour dipping sauce.
A classic. Yep.
Main course?
For our main course, we're doing lemon chicken.
We were hoping that was gonna come into play.
(LAUGHS) Love it!
We were actually going to do, um, the classic, which is deep-fried,
but, um, we just had to have a chat about
how already have deep-fried spring rolls
and then we'd have deep-fried chicken
and we have a deep-fried element in the dessert as well.
So we're thinking maybe we could get rid of the frying
and just do a normal chicken
with steamed rice.
Right. Yeah.
What?
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
Lemon chicken, you have to deep-fry it.
Yeah, I...I would say there is no other way.
I just see you leaving yourself vulnerable
if you just serve steamed rice and chicken, that's it.
Oh, shit.
So we're thinking maybe we could get rid of the frying
and just do a normal chicken
with steamed rice.
What?
I just see you leaving yourself vulnerable
if you just serve steamed rice and chicken, that's it.
I am feeling so stressed!
I've made this decision to grill the chicken instead
and it's starting to look like it's not a good idea.
I'm all for the deep-friend stuff, man.
I'd think about that if I were you. OK.
So we're going back to classic lemon chicken and fried rice.
Perfect! Yeah, yeah.
That's right.
Bring it home! Yeah. OK.
Organisation, execution.
Yeah. Absolutely. Let's start prepping.
Good luck. OK.
OK, Ralph.
The judges' feedback has shaken my confidence.
I feel like I made the wrong decision for my team.
But as team captain,
I have to make sure that everything gets right on track.
We're going to deep-fry our chicken.
Yep. Alright. RALPH: That's OK.
We'll get onto it. Yeah? Yeah.
Thinking, OK, we have to deep-fry and then do the sauce,
that's extra work on top of the work that we already have to do.
Red team, purple team, you've already had half an hour.
You've only got two hours to go. Come on!
Come on, guys. Keep going.
Oh, I've been, um, cutting the garlic for half an hour now,
but I'm here for the win, so I'll do whatever.
We're really gonna have to motor
because once we get this spring roll mix, we need to cook it
and we need to cool it before we can wrap it.
Yeah. OK. So that's a big thing.
Alright, alright, alright.
Alright, where are we at, team?
So, yeah, so this will get tossed in the cornflour
and then, you know, we'll fry it off and it will be, you know...
Yeah, beautiful. Yeah. Perfect. ...30 seconds to a minute.
Today, our menu items are inspired from the Mei Jing menu.
Careful you don't injure yourself! I won't!
We choose to go for beef and black bean sauce for main
with a side of fried rice.
I'm gonna be looking after the beef.
All the beef has to be sliced, then it has to be velveted to tenderise
before I get on to my black bean sauce.
I'm confident in my black bean sauce.
BRENT: Nice, bro.
Like, I...I make pretty good black bean sauce!
I'm just gonna brown this and then I'll brown the veggies separate.
Then I'll put them into that pot, get it on.
I need to do a beef stock.
Big beef bones - I just want lots of flavour.
And I can focus on balancing out that black bean sauce.
And I'm with my number one teammate, Robbie.
How many things did I cut up today, bro?
I know. Proud of you. Cruising, son. We're right.
We work really well together.
So we'll just make the base of it first.
Yep. Brown sugar, soy, vinegar, stock.
We've been on every Team Challenge together
and we've won every one so far.
ANTONIO: You guys have timers?
ROBBIE: No, we don't need timers, mate.
We just do it by natural feelings, mate.
(LAUGHS) Alright?
So, the odds aren't looking too good for the purple team today.
Just a heads-up! You have one hour and a half until service begins!
So, keep on slaying! Come on!
Backs, backs, backs, backs, backs.
Whoo!
Can you save this one for me? I'll be back.
OK. No worries. (LAUGHS)
Who needs a burner? Hey!
(LAUGHS)
Keep pushing through!
How many more cabbages have you got?
Rhiannon and Grace are prepping for the entree.
Ralph is working on the sweet and sour sauce for our entree as well.
Phil is prepping and deboning seven kilos of chicken.
PHIL: Guys, we've got to start moving quicker, guys.
And Antonio and I are doing desserts
'cause we are the dessert king and queen.
Antonio, once we have this going, I think we should jump onto entrees.
Yeah. Yeah.
So we need... we need to...
I'm gonna get some ice bath. Yep. OK.
We're gonna be doing pineapple fritters with vanilla ice cream
and I think I'm just gonna do a really creamy caramel sauce.
After we have our anglaise thickened,
we need to chill it down pretty quickly.
Two and a half hours, 50 diners, that's a big, big task.
It's a lot of ice cream to serve.
Hopefully, it would be ready for service.
OK. That's done.
CATH: Oh, my God. They've already got their ice cream in.
I'm freaking out. No, it's alright, Cath.
Don't freak out. OK.
Don't freak out. Alright.
So the dessert is a vanilla ice cream
with a lychee syrup, fresh lychees and freeze-dried lychees on top.
I need a big bowl like this. Yep.
On top of it with a strainer. Yep. No worries. Done.
I pop out to see Cath. Oh, my God.
I can see she's starting to get a bit stressed out.
OK, and then, um, some milk.
So I'm gonna help with her anglaise just to clear her mind a little bit.
Yep. That's awesome. OK. Thank you.
I can feel the chaos rising
and you've only got one hour till entree!
Till service?! Oh, shit!
THEO: The main concern when there's an ice cream on the table
is that it needs to set.
Otherwise, the dessert's gone.
Oh, man! Alright.
Now, do we need to put it into a couple of ones? I'm not sure.
I'm watching Cath and I'm nervous for her
because she's stressing out a bit now.
We need to get this ice cream going in the freezer.
Oh, no, Theo, got to put the cream in!
I'll get the cream out the fridge. Excuse me, excuse me!
Take... take control here.
Oh, man! Theo, we can't have ice cream without the cream!
Coming through, coming through.
Theo, we gotta put the cream in! Oh!
You right? OK. Yeah.
Gotta put it all back into one. OK.
Yep. Oh, man!
Nearly forgot the bloody cream!
(SIGHS) Ohhh! It wouldn't have been good.
Thank goodness I've actually remembered to put that cream in.
Just go in? Yep.
Thanks, bud.
Phew! Ahh!
Normally, in the kitchen, I'm a bit frantic,
but Theo is super-cool.
It's alright, Cath. Don't freak out. Sorry, bub.
Spatula? Yeah.
He's got this real calm presence about him.
Alright? Are you happy? Yeah.
So even though I'm out there by myself, I'm not feeling alone.
Oh, my God! Honestly!
These are ready to go. I need to get the ice cream on.
So, quick sticks, eh?
I went over and gave Cath a hand with the ice cream
because she was a bit overwhelmed,
So now Malissa's gone over to help her out also.
We're a team. That's what it's about.
You know, if someone's struggling, we'll go over and help.
So, yeah, that's it. Well said, Theo.
Yeah. You're a legend, Theo.
(THEO LAUGHS)
OK. Alright, then. That's on. We'll just put this down here.
High-five, eh? Well done. Well done. Good job!
(EXCITING MUSIC)
Has your chilli oil come together? BRENT: Yeah.
Sweet as.
(WHIRRS)
Rhiannon, how fine? A bit more? Yeah, a bit more.
(WHIRRS)
(LAUGHS)
PHIL: Guys, we've gotta start moving quicker, guys.
Oh, I'm still prepping the chicken.
Still a lot of chicken to prep.
And Ralph is doing our lemon sauce that we'll toss through at the end.
Grace. Sweet and sour dipping sauce.
When I cook it down, it'll get sweeter
because I've got sugar in it.
GRACE: Yeah, it needs to be sweeter. And it needs vinegar.
Ralph, how is the, um, lemon chicken sauce? How's it coming on?
Um, I haven't started.
I'm doing the soy for the first meal
and then I'll get on to the second one.
Yeah, I'm quite worried at the moment.
It seems like Ralph is working on the sweet and sour sauce
for the spring roll.
It's off.
We also still need that lemon chicken sauce before the service.
What are you on, Rue?
RUE: I am currently doing dessert.
If we could possibly get someone to come and help me with the mains.
Well, we need the sauce for the spring rolls.
We also need the sauce for the lemon chicken.
Yeah, no, so with the lemon chicken, that won't take too long
'cause we'll cook the chicken first, then coat it in the sauce.
Can you free someone up to do that? Yep.
'Cause I've got all the chicken to keep prepping.
It's OK, I think we need to finish this
and someone needs to come to you.
I'm having, like, a little internal panic.
We're probably gonna need all hands on deck for rolling.
OK. Yep. Absolutely. Yep.
Our dishes are falling so behind.
We have too much to do, if you ask me,
but we're actually, um, going to get everyone hands on deck.
RHIANNON: Just don't forget, we've still got to deep-fry these.
Yep. They gotta be rolled and deep-fried.
Yeah. So there's a lot to do.
OK. So we really need to motor with it.
I'm feeling under pressure.
I'm the team captain. I want to do right by my team.
And I just feel like we have too much to do.
Thanks, mate.
Theo, I'll get on the chestnuts? Yeah, get on the chestnuts. Yeah.
I need everyone working on the entree.
Alright, alright. Let's go, let's go!
BRENT: This is for the san choy bow just to drizzle on top.
San choy bow, it's delicious,
but it's a Monday to Friday kind of at-home dish.
So, I'm just gonna jack it up.
This is duck fat I've rendered down, poured into it so it's umami.
It's got dried mushrooms, peanuts, sesame seeds, chilli sort of crunch.
Mmm.
Whoo!
Oh, yeah. That's got a kick to it.
THEO: So, for entree, we've chosen san choy bow.
We're pretty much all hands on deck to get the entree out.
So, we have to think about the seasoning for it.
Yep.
You know, you've got a ginger and garlic.
Yep, yep.
And we've swapped out the iceberg lettuce and going with cos lettuce
to try to elevate this dish.
And then we're adding, like, a really nice chilli oil on top,
which I think is a great addition.
And then spring onions will go on.
Duck fat chilli oil and then we'll just sauce it up as we go.
Alright.
CATH: Oh, no!
There's real people coming!
I forgot about that.
We're actually feeding real people!
Um, yes, now, the pressure's on now.
Ahhh!
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
Excuse me. Can I have some of your garlic?
Get away! (LAUGHS)
We've got to get cracking.
ROBBIE: Look at that rice, Dec. That's how you cook rice, brother!
Good stuff, Rob.
OK, so this is... this is pretty priority
to get this entree happening.
There's now a roomful of diners and I'm thinking,
"Oh, my God, where's the time gone?"
Get onto the mince on the other wok.
Please. Thanks, Gracie.
I've got one lot of pork cooked.
But I need to have way more than that
because I've got to be able to have the veggies in
and I've got to get the sauces in.
OK, we're gonna have to get all hands on deck for this.
Phil, do you wanna get over and get on this wok?
There's people sitting down and we're not even close.
It's just chaos.
Once you're done, we're gonna need to deep-fry the spring rolls, OK?
So that's gonna need to get oil on as well.
OK. Yep. OK!
It's just focusing on getting this dish out.
That's all I'm thinking about.
Just get it out. Just don't fall apart now.
OK, we've gotta get this happening.
We are in trouble.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
I hate to break it to you,
but you have 30 minutes till service!
PHIL: We need to move. Come on!
RHIANNON: I'm just more worried about not having our diners fed.
We're gonna have to clean down and start that one.
It's definitely not where I wanna be right now.
OK, we're gonna need everyone on rolling.
Are you telling me, at this point,
not one single spring roll has been rolled?
We're doing it now. Not one?
Not one. You have less than 30 minutes.
(PEOPLE CHAT)
MELISSA: Are you telling me, at this point,
not one single spring roll has been rolled?
You have less than 30 minutes.
My stress levels are in... as high as the roof.
We need to be rolling and we need to be getting them fried.
It's like a matter of just charging ahead.
We need to really move.
We're rolling. We're rolling. And we're rolling.
Quickly get these rolled, filled. We just have to get done.
So we're not even close. We're gonna need more on rolling.
We've gotta crack hard. OK.
OK, what do you need from me now?
Um... I need you to... Well, you're gonna work on assembly.
We're gonna assemble in a minute? Alright.
Our entree will be ready on time.
We're frantic right now, but we'll get it done.
San choy bow, it's eating with your hands.
I don't want to be doing anything fancy.
So, lettuce cups. You've got your... your mince.
Taste it.
BRENT: What do you think? That's good.
Good? You happy?
Yeah. That's good. Start serving?
You happy? Start serving.
I taste the elements all together and I really like it.
I'll do the sauce right at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amped up by the chilli oil on top.
That's our spin on it and I'm backing it.
I can't believe this has come together.
I know! How good! Crazy.
ANDY: Everyone, I want these guys in there to hear all of us.
Let's start the countdown. 10...
ALL: ..9, 8...
...7, 6, 5...
...4, 3,
2, 1!
Let's go! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
We're good to go. OK, service!
Handing the dishes to the waitresses, it's... it's so nostalgic to me.
I was eating out there, you know, years ago
and now someone is eating my food.
It's crazy. It's... I never thought this would happen.
They taste great, they look good. I'm happy, yeah.
Happy days. Thank you.
It's not ready.
Thank you. ANDY: Thank you.
Red team - pork san choy bow.
A nice generous portion as well, actually.
Thank you. Thank you.
I've got to say, they did pack it full of flavour.
Yeah.
For them to get, you know, something that is as flavourful as this out,
that's kind of what san choy bow's all about.
Yeah.
Nice juicy pork mince which I think is a good... great plus in there.
Choosing that sort of cos lettuce, it's just different.
Yeah.
I like that they added duck fat. Yes!
You know what I mean? It's a bit boujie.
Yep. You know?
Like, it's got a real nice mouthfeel to it.
Mmm. I really liked that.
I agree. I think the luxury feeling comes from the duck fat
in contrast with that beautifully seasoned filling,
and the dressing in terms of the seasoning,
the vinegars in there give this a bit of a lift
and a brightness to it, which I really like.
So, this is pretty good.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
PHIL: Let's go, guys, come on!
RHIANNON: We need someone else. I'm putting them out.
Ralph needs to be counting.
The whole team helped me out on entree.
Do you want to, um, take this tray and we can start working on plating?
We're trying to get these spring rolls done.
The mix... the mix is sitting too long on this.
It's just... chaos.
Um, we probably need more rolling.
Ralph, you get on fryer, I'll roll.
I've tried the mix.
I'm really confident with the flavours I'm bringing.
The corn still have a bit of textures.
Just don't overcook them, Ralph.
We just need to get them out.
I am not stopping until every spring roll has left that pass.
RALPH: I've got it this colour brown.
They're looking good, mate, they're looking good.
(COUNTS)
Are you happy to serve them? Yep.
PHIL: Can we get service, please?
Thank you.
We are on.
Thank you. Thank you.
From the purple team - pork and prawn spring rolls.
Sweet and sour dipping sauce.
We'll just have a little, uh... Gander?
...little gander in the middle.
They don't look too bad, guys.
It doesn't look too bad.
Ooh, she's nod... She's nodding.
MELISSA: I'm so happy for them.
I was really worried
given the fact that they had not started rolling
30 minutes before service.
Yeah.
The fact that there are spring rolls rolling on through this restaurant
is a bit of a miracle.
Yeah.
They have a nice golden fry on them.
There's a nice mixture of, um, a variety within the filling itself.
The filling, it does contain a really beautiful perfume of ginger.
Which I think is great. Yeah.
I thought they had no chance of getting these out.
So it must have been a full team effort to actually get them out.
I was happy on the fry on mine. Um, super crispy and delicious.
Little crispy on the outside, but it's juicy on the inside.
Yeah.
Crispy is good. The filling tasted nice.
But the sauce... Just...
They needed something in there just to make it more... more delicious
and carry some of those, uh, flavours through, which is a shame.
Know what I mean? Yeah.
'Cause this could've been really, really good.
Yeah. Mmm.
THEO: Service. Thank you.
The, um, first course is out
and now we're doing the main.
How are you doing over here?
DECLAN: Good, bro. I'm just reducing these sauces down.
OK. Good.
There's 50 hungry customers out there.
How's it taste? Nice, bro.
I'm pretty happy with how the sauce is coming along.
It's nice and glossy and thick and full of flavour.
Mate, I like working on the wok with you.
BRENT: Yeah, good. It's good fun.
I love a bit of fryer.
Bit of hot, bit of heat. Bit of heat.
I'm with Brent and he's helping me just sear off the meat.
I browned off my capsicum, set them aside.
All my elements are ready,
so I've just got to bring it together and put it on the plate.
Alright. Let's do it.
It's time for service
and in goes a portion of beef, a portion of capsicum,
a portion of my black bean sauce and a handful of, like, spring onions.
Look at this, bro. It's looking good, eh?
I'm really happy with this. Yeah?
Quick, quick. We can start serving now.
DECLAN: We're plating up and I'm happy to see it going
because, you know,
this is what I've been working for the last three hours.
That's queued for service.
Make sure you get bits of everything in there.
Yeah, I'm bloody happy with is, so... let's do it.
Service, please!
MALISSA: These two are ready. Thank you.
Hello! Thank you very much.
OK, so from the red team,
a main of beef with black bean and a side of fried rice.
Excuse me!
Thank you.
A few extra black beans there for you, mate,
The beef, I think the skirt, they've done a pretty good job
and I can see they velveted that and just enough.
Like, it's... it's tender, it's nice,
it's got a bit of bounce in it, I quite like it.
The sauce is really nice. It's tasty.
And I like that they've gone fully loaded on the beans
because that is nostalgic.
Yeah.
That's Declan, that. I'm telling you now.
The loaded black beans is epic for me.
The cook on the meat and the velveting of the meat,
of the skirt steak, is unbelievable.
Like, it's really tender
and not... not easy to do when you're doing, you know, bulk numbers either.
The beef, I think, is glossy.
It has a real hint of breath of wok, or wok hei, to it.
It's nicely seasoned. The sauce has balance to it.
And that slightly bicarbed... the velveted beef,
it has a really nice texture.
It's soft, it's delicate.
A solid effort for a main.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
(BELL RINGS) Service, please!
I think that was the last one.
Phil, do you want to start thinking about the main?
RUE: So, our entree service has finished
and we absolutely have no time to celebrate.
Where do you want me? We need hands on frying chicken.
Because I pulled everyone from what they were doing,
the other two courses are nowhere near ready.
PHIL: Please start frying chicken.
Yeah, I did try to flag this happening
with everyone focusing so much on one course
that things were gonna start getting missed for the other courses.
The only sauce Ralph got done during the whole prep
was the sweet and sour.
And that lemon sauce hasn't even been started.
Gracie, you'd better start working on the lemon sauce.
Yep.
The fact that this sauce was started so late,
we just don't have time to cook it through thoroughly,
allow the flavours to develop
and reduce to that point where it needs to be.
Alright, it needs work.
I reckon more sugar and more lemon.
Sweeten it up.
Crank the heat. Get it in.
The sauce needs a lot of work. We have no time to do it.
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PHIL: We need to get that sauce going, man.
Alright, it needs work.
I reckon more sugar and more lemon.
Sweeten it up.
Crank the heat. Get it in.
We need to get cracking and getting moving with this main.
We need to start frying this chicken.
Gotta get that chicken fried. Need to get it moving.
While Grace focuses on that sauce,
chicken needs to be fried nice and crispy brown on the outside
but still cooked and juicy in the centre.
Our first one's gone out now. Come on!
Can we get sauce? Done.
We get the fried chicken and toss it through the lemon sauce.
Thank you. And get them out to the diners.
Let's pick it up, guys. Let's go!
Service, please!
Thank you.
Mmm! ANDY: Ooh!
Thank you. OK. Thank you.
From the purple team -
lemon chicken.
I'm excited by that.
How much chicken do you want?
Nice marination on it. Good fry on it.
It's crispy, it's glossy. Nicely velveted.
Um, but then the sauce,
as much as it's got a great consistency
and clings to that chicken, there's not enough of it
and there's nowhere near the amount of lemon
that needs to be in there, unfortunately.
It could have been epic with a few tweaks, but it wasn't.
It looked the business.
I don't think it could look any better.
I do like that the meat's really nice and tender.
The sauce lacked the lemon supercharged kind of vibe
that you want in a dish like this.
For what it could be and what it should be,
it's OK but not quite there.
Yeah. It didn't make me feel nostalgic...
No. ...this one, to be honest.
It was nice, but it didn't live up to its namesake.
THEO: Last one going out. MALISSA: Service!
ROBBIE: We're done, are we? We're finished?
For the... for the main, yeah. Yeah. Good work, mate. Good job.
There's an element of "Phew!" with the last main that goes out.
We've done it. It's time to regroup and check on Cath.
CATH: Yeah, I'm falling apart now. DECLAN: You're all good.
Don't fall apart. You've got this, alright?
Yeah, if you... Oh! My biscuits!
Oh. Excuse me. Oh!
No, they're out! Oh!
Ohhh! Oh. OK. Hang on. Have I got enough? I've gotta put some more on.
OK, OK.
Cath, I've noticed, has kind of snowballed now
and is stressing out quite a lot.
Check the ice cream. It's not... It's not great.
It's not great? Yeah.
Brent's doing the syrup. Yeah.
At this stage, I would have like to have dessert ready to go,
you know, but we're still reducing the lychee syrup,
we're, you know, cutting up lychees.
ROBBIE: This going in the freezer? Yeah, buddy.
There's even still batches of ice cream going in the freezer,
which scares me.
Now, we've gotta move now, guys. Come on. Come on, guys!
Yep, I'm just gonna get one more batch of biscuits on just in case.
So, I wanna rally my team,
feel better about everything and just get this done.
Excusez-moi! Coming through.
PHIL: Service, please!
That's the last of our main going out, guys. Well done.
Good job! Keep pushing. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
ANTONIO: We're motoring, we're motoring. We can get it done.
It's all hands on deck for our dessert.
GRACE: Whoever on our team has a minute, we need more eggs cracked.
It's a little bit of mayhem, like, really.
Good job, Grace.
Trying to get all our desserts ready,
basically going through all our pineapples and the breading
in our assembly line.
RHIANNON: Righto, you happy for me to start frying?
Yep.
I go ahead and... and check what the caramel sauce was actually doing.
It's meant to look a bit thicker, but, yeah, it's looking good.
I go to the freezer, grab the ice cream.
Yeah, it's not... it's not...
Uy!
Not looking like ice cream.
It churned OK. It was actually really glossy and, you know, thick.
But when we put it in the freezer, it didn't set properly.
We said we were gonna be serving ice cream with fritters
and we just need to do it.
OK, get a... get a spoon and start.
We start portioning our ice cream, serving it into the cup dishes.
We get our fritters and then we just get a little bit of the sauce
on top of the fritter.
It's not ideal
'cause the consistency of the ice cream
is not what we wanted it to be.
But I think we hit the brief with the nostalgia.
We went pretty classic. Service, please!
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
Oy-ah! Thank you.
From the purple team,
a dessert of pineapple fritter, ice cream and dulce de leche.
I was hoping for a strong finish.
Um... the ice cream is not set.
Yeah. Time.
If you think of the challenge they were under
to get the spring rolls out,
this is why this is not as good as it could have been.
Team challenges, I think it's more the organisation part of this
is so challenging for them, you know?
And unless you've got a team captain that is really driving and leading,
then you're gonna struggle to... to... to do this.
Especially with 50 punters in a restaurant.
Let's start serving, guys. Let's move, let's move.
They're waiting. Come on. Let's go! Get the ice cream out.
My vision is that we had these beautiful plump lychees
with the ice cream, with the syrup, with the tuile on top.
It's not gonna be that today.
This is really soft. We've gotta go... We've gotta go so quick, OK?
So I'm doing the ice cream, OK?
I notice as soon as I'm putting the ice cream in,
it's just starting to melt.
Stop, stop, stop, stop.
The last thing you do is put that on and dust.
'Cause we don't want that going soggy, OK?
There's nothing I can do about it now.
We just have to forge on.
OK, this ice cream has gotta go out now, OK?
We're already behind. Come on, guys.
Let's go, guys. Keep moving. Come on!
I'm just devastated.
MALISSA: Quick! Keep them coming. Let's go, let's go.
It's been panic stations.
Service!
Thank you.
Let's move, let's move, let's move.
You know, perhaps... you know,
I've lost where it was going because of the panic.
So, I'm... I'm really worried about our dessert now.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
Thank you.
Thank you! Thank you.
MELISSA: From the red team,
a dessert of lychee and ice cream.
What happened?
The ice cream is not set.
Cath was on that the whole time. I just wonder what happened.
You know, I was in the kitchen with Cath last week in the Team Challenge
and she is pretty chaotic and frantic.
This kind of resulted in chaotic Cath, unfortunately.
Yeah. It's a real shame.
We all know Cath can produce something that is fun
and that is delicious and is balanced,
and it's none of these things.
So, um, I'm very sad for them and I'm... I'm rather disappointed.
Last one going out. Ohh.
Well done, guys! Whoo-hoo!
Good job.
Good job, Robbie! Hang on.
Ahhh!
RUE: Service. That's it! That's the end, guys.
Well done, guys. Well done. Whoo! Oh, thank gosh. Thank you.
Good job. Well done, Rue. Well done. Oh, my gosh.
That was really tough.
Well done, Rhi. Well done. Thank you.
Today, you had to capture everything we love about
Aussie Chinese restaurants in a three-course meal.
Let's go through your dishes, starting with dessert.
Despite your best intentions,
neither of your desserts were well executed,
so we're taking them both off the table entirely.
Entrees.
Purple team, your spring rolls were nice and golden,
but the sauce didn't pay off in the final dish.
Red team,
the san choy bow,
the filling was... juicy and beautifully dressed,
and that filling is the reason why you won the entree.
Well done. Yay!
JOCK: Well done, guys.
Now to mains. (DRAMATIC MUSIC)
Purple team, your main was tasty enough.
The chicken was succulent and aromatic,
and there was a nice hum of ginger throughout the dish.
But the lemon the lemon chicken was MIA.
Red team... (DRAMATIC MUSIC)
...your main was fully loaded.
The beef was gorgeously tender and glossy,
and it's the reason why
you're headed into tomorrow's Immunity Challenge.
(APPLAUSE)
THEO: Good job. Oh, my God.
Oh, good job!
THEO: I'm really happy we won.
We worked so hard. Um, we didn't stop all day.
I'm really proud of my team. I really am.
Adi, of course this means you chose correctly.
You will be cooking in Immunity as well.
Great. Thank you. ANDY: See you later.
Bye-bye! Thank you! 'Bye!
Good, guys.
ANNOUNCER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...
JOCK: It's Gabriel Gate!
...there's a living legend in the house.
GABRIEL: I am really thrilled to compete in the MasterChef challenge.
But to face him,
they'll have to tame the flame.
SHANNON: There's nothing more nostalgic
that flambeing.
ADI: I've never flambeed before.
Aargh!
Watch your beard, mate!
And make a dish worthy of immunity.
Let's face it,
who doesn't love a big flame going up?
Captions by Red Bee Media