Previously on MasterChef Australia,
it was the perfect setting...
How cool's this! Oh, wow!
...for a big, fat, Greek Service Challenge...
Opa!
...with a sophisticated twist.
Being at the NGV, we wanna plate up some art.
Come on, push.
I've gotta move now. Come on.
I feel like a bit of pressure because of my heritage,
being the resident Greek.
Watch out, Theo. This could be a winner.
They all put in a herculean effort.
Service, please! Whoo!
Ooh. This looks stunning.
That looks epic. I absolutely loved that.
Smashed it.
I'm stoked. I'm happy.
And the red team had the Midas touch.
Opa! Opa!
Tonight... all four are going for gold...
I just want this immunity so badly.
...because beat the chef is back.
Here we go.
Welcome.
Yes! Whoo!
Here we go, crew!
I'm feeling pumped today.
We have a white apron on and one of us
will get that immunity from Sunday night's elimination
and immunity is more important than ever
because there's only eight of us left.
I'm super excited.
Well, what an entrance that was, and look at you all.
All full of beans, huh?
And there's a reason to be excited
because Shannon Bennett is back in the kitchen.
Yes! Yes!
And another immunity day, which means immunity from Sunday's elimination,
and an immunity pin is up for grabs today.
In round 1 today, savoury is off the table.
Ooh.
You'll need to cook us something sweet
using whatever is under this cloche.
This ingredient
is consumed by billions of people around the world every single day.
It can be strong, it can be rich.
It can even be bitter.
Of course, I can only be talking about...
...coffee.
Yes!
Yay for coffee! Whoo!
I could use some of that. Yeah.
Oh, coffee. I mean, who doesn't love a 'coff' in the morning?
I love that bitterness,
I love a really strong espresso, so I'm excited.
We're gonna give you 60 minutes
to cook us something sweet that features coffee.
If you bring us the best dish in this round,
you'll win immunity from Sunday night's elimination
and have the chance to beat the chef in round 2 to win an immunity pin.
Jock, I've got one.
That one. This one.
That one.
Are you excited? Yes!
Good, 'cause your time starts now.
Go, guys! Go, guys!
Whoo! Thanks, Mal!
That's alright.
I love coffee, so I'm really looking forward to this challenge.
Straightaway, I'm thinking about, you know, when I drink a coffee,
what would I like to have it with - a biscuit or some beautiful fruit?
Oranges.
I'm thinking of flavour combinations that go really well with coffee.
Go, Malissa!
I think this challenge does play to my strengths a little bit.
You know, I'm quite comfortable making desserts.
I'm making a chocolate parfait with a burnt orange.
A coffee syrup and a chocolate par... crumble.
Sorry, I can't speak. I've already had too much coffee.
Oranges is a good combo with the coffee, I reckon.
So I'm currently working on my parfait.
The tricky thing about coffee is that it's really, really bitter
and if you don't balance the flavours really well,
it's either gonna be super sweet or super bitter.
Today with coffee, it's all about balance.
Oh, I can already smell coffee.
Did you get the intense ones?
I did.
That's what I like. Ooh!
Yeah, coffee!
Bloody hell, I tell you what, um,
I've never really done sweet things with coffee before.
I don't even put sugar in my coffee, so we're trying new things.
I'm not a dessert guy, so this is definitely new for me.
A couple of months ago, I was just another chippie
on a job site in Sydney
and now I'm down here in Melbourne in the MasterChef kitchen.
This whole experience has shown me what I can do
when I put my mind to it, so I really wanna push myself
and maybe do a couple of risky things today.
Um, so I'm making a coffee creme caramel.
Tempered chocolate and a coconut crumb and some coconut flakes.
Beautiful, Deccy.
Uh, so first thing I've got going on is just my caramel
that I'll be pouring on the bottom of my ramekins.
I just really wanna get it nice and golden.
How's the flavour in it, the coffee flavour?
Yeah, it's intense. I put two shots. Good. Awesome.
Good job, Declan.
Very nervous about getting this done in 60 minutes.
But I reckon I can do it,
so I've just gotta work hard and, uh, yeah, just try my best.
Beautiful.
Let's talk coffee.
Coffee chat - I think I'd try and challenge myself
and pull out a bombe alaska, coffee ice cream.
Ooh! Yeah.
You know how I love a little ristretto macchiato, right?
So I would make a ristretto macchiato,
thicken it just a touch,
so as it's, like, silky and velvety,
freeze it and then create a meringue around the outside,
dip it in it, into the liquid nitrogen and then serve it to you.
You bite into it, it explodes.
Pow!
I think you've gotta keep things simple today
and I think that that bitterness
is basically the force field of all other flavour.
Without bitterness, you don't have other flavours.
So I think that they've just gotta discover that today.
And there is a reason why when you have a coffee,
you normally eat it with something sweet
because it is on the bitter end.
Brent. G'day, Brent.
G'day, guys. How are you, mate?
Yeah, good. Tell us your dish.
So today - I know the flavours of cherry, chocolate, coffee
really well go together, so it's a chocolate ice cream,
macerated cherries, um, and a coffee caramel syrup that get poured over.
Texture of the ice cream. Yep.
What are you thinking? Talk to me.
Um... How you gonna make this amazing?
'Cause if you've only got ice cream and some macerated cherries,
it's gonna have to be pretty good.
Wanna be perfect, wouldn't it? Yeah. It would have to be perfect.
Yeah. Good luck.
Thank you.
After talking to Jock and Andy, I'm thinking
the dish probably actually needs a little bit of texture,
so I think I'm gonna do some tempered chocolate as well.
But it's a very simple dish, so it needs to be perfect.
Keep going. Come on.
Hope you had your coffee, because you need to work quick today.
45 minutes to go!
Come on! Go, guys.
Come on, guys! Go, guys. Come on.
You can do it!
Good job, Theo. Go, come on, Theo!
Go, Theo! Let's go, buddy!
I need coffee. Jesus!
Featuring the coffee is a really important part of this challenge.
You gotta hit the brief.
Delicious.
And I'm getting these images of when I used to drink coffee in Paris
and they would give me a little Biscoff biscuit
and I'd dip it in my coffee and that's what I'm going for today.
Um, I'm cooking a parfait with a coffee caramel,
then have biscuit just all around the outside of the parfait.
Replicating dipping your biscuit into a coffee but as a dessert.
Looking good.
How's it taste, Theo?
Ooh, yeah, good. Really good. "Ooh, yeah, good"?
Yeah.
Go, Theo! Yes! Do it. Come on!
Go!
Hey, Declan.
How are we? Shannon? Melissa? I'm fantastic.
There's a lot on the go, as there should be. What's the dish?
Um, so I'm doing a coffee creme caramel.
Um, so... Yeah. Uh, wow! Challenging.
It is very challenging. Um... Yeah.
Mm. Um...
It is. However, high risk, high reward.
If you manage to nail this, you could very well see yourself
with a pin back on that apron, and how good would that be?
It would be amazing.
Time is not on your side. Don't switch off.
OK. Thank you. OK.
Doing a creme caramel in this amount of time
is extremely risky
because you want to cook it at a low heat for a long amount of time,
but today I'm gonna have to be cooking it at a bit higher heat
in a shorter amount of time, so hopefully I can pull this off.
My creme caramels are in the oven, so I'm just motoring now.
There's no time for a coffee break. You've only got 30 minutes to go!
Come on, guys! 30 minutes!
Come on!
Ooh. Come on, Theo.
Go, Malissa.
Come on!
Come on, Declan! Let's go! Come on, Brent.
I am actually a little bit worried about Brent.
Because he's spent a lot of time preparing his anglaise,
so I am crossing my fingers
his chocolate ice cream has enough time to set.
Go, Mal. Come on, Mal.
Alright.
Oh, good job.
Malissa. Hello. How's it going?
How you going? I'm good. How are you?
Really good. Interested to know what you're cooking.
I am doing a coffee parfait with burnt orange
and a chocolate biscuit crumb.
Right. How hectic is the coffee parfait?
I didn't want to overpower the coffee flavour in the parfait.
I wanted it to be a bit more subtle.
I have a syrup that I'm gonna put with it as well.
Um... Ooh, man. That has got some...
Ooh! Yeah.
I did really try to think of all the elements,
how they're gonna work together and how they're gonna eat
when you have them and if they're gonna be balanced.
I'm excited about this one. So am I.
I think, if you can balance
the absolute living daylights out of this,
you win, you win.
Come on, Malissa! Alright. OK. I've got it. Thank you.
Check your syrup.
Oh, man.
Oh, what happened?
It's not supposed to look like that.
Oh, my gosh.
My syrup, it's crystallised and it's definitely not looking good.
'Cause it was on for a fair while, yeah?
Goodness!
It's getting a bit tense and whatever you've got to do,
you need to do it in 20 minutes.
Come on, guys! Come on!
Come on! Go, Malissa. Come on.
I'm just gonna make my syrup again
'cause I'm not happy with the first one.
My first batch didn't work, so I've just gotta shake it off
and do it again and hope that it works out.
How's it looking? Just need it to reduce.
OK. Yeah.
I've got some really tough competition
I'm going up against today
and I really, really want that immunity.
Yeah, I'm gonna work ex... Yeah, really hard.
I'm gonna push in these last few minutes
just to make sure I get everything done.
Yes, go, Malissa. Come on!
Go, Mal! Go!
Are you gonna temper some chocolate, Dec?
Yeah. Nice one.
My coconut crumb is done and my creme caramels are in the oven.
Alright, so...
Now I need to get started on my tempered chocolate.
So I've still got a bit to do.
Oh, far out.
I check on my creme caramels in the oven
and I realise most of the water's evaporated from my bain-marie.
What's happening? What's going... I dunno.
It's gonna affect the texture
of how this creme caramel cooks and the time.
Hoo!
Oh, sheesh!
My creme caramel is my only coffee element in this dish
and if it doesn't cook in time, I'm gonna have nothing to plate up.
Uh, it burns!
Stay calm.
God, look at Declan. He's sweating.
He's really pushing himself.
Yeah. You right, mate? Yeah.
What's your milk for?
In case the creme caramel doesn't work, I was gonna do an ice cream.
OK.
Plan B is liquid nitrogen coffee ice cream.
I don't want it to be a complete failure today.
So, yeah, we'll give the ice cream a shot
and I'll be relying on that liquid nitrogen.
Mm.
Oh, yeah.
Go, Theo. Move quicker, please.
Parfait's in the blast chiller and this is my coffee caramel.
Everything seems to be coming along nicely,
so, yeah, I'm... I'm happy.
I've got all my elements pretty much ready to go
and I've still got a few minutes before I need to plate up,
so I'm thinking about how I can elevate the dish
to emulate that froth of a cappuccino.
I'm just gonna experiment.
Um, 'cause it's a take on a coffee,
I'm gonna do some cream in an espuma gun
to create a foam on top of the parfait
and maybe that'll give that element of like a froth on a cappuccino.
Perfect.
Nice, Theo. Looking good.
Oh, go, Dec. Come on, Dec!
I've got toasted coconut flakes.
My crumb, my creme caramel's in the fridge.
But there's no time to get this in the ice-cream churner,
so the only option I have is to use the liquid nitrogen.
You're gonna need every drop of that.
Alright.
Surprise.
Good job. Hustle, hustle.
Keep going. Come on.
You've got one last shot at this. Five minutes to go!
Go, Brent! Come on, Brent!
Is it looking OK? BRENT: It's taking a while to set.
The ice cream, it's getting colder,
but it's not getting any closer to what I want it to be.
I don't know. It just didn't, um, come down to temp in time, I think.
I'm just gonna leave it in there for as long as I can
and hope for the best.
Your mix looks nice. I hope it sets. 'Cause the mix looks nice.
Go, Declan!
Yes!
It's working.
My coffee ice cream, it's looking good.
Get it into ya!
I'm pretty happy my plan B has worked
and now it's time to unmould my creme caramel
and I'm so nervous.
Ahh!
Come on. Let's go, Dec! Come on, mate.
Moment of truth. Let's go!
Well done! Well done!
Wow! Well done.
Looking at the creme caramel on the plate,
it's set, it's got that jiggle-jiggle to it.
Love your work!
That's awesome. Wow!
I'm so stoked.
I'm so happy with my parfait.
It set really nicely. Whoo-hoo!
Oh, nice, Theo!
I've got my Biscoff biscuit and I roll my parfait in that.
Come on! Come on!
Get it in there! You can do it.
I'm really happy with my concept.
I just hope that the balance of flavours is... is right.
Come on, Brent!
The cherries are great.
My chocolate's pretty good.
And my coffee caramel sauce is really delicious.
Come on, Brent. You're nearly there, buddy. Come on. Come on.
The ice cream is quite soft.
I don't have enough time to fix it with liquid nitrogen.
I have to just get it on the plate as it is.
Start getting your dishes together. You've only one minute to go!
Come on!
Quick, Mal. Quick.
I've torched my oranges. They're looking really delicious.
Come on. Go! Go, Mal!
I need to get my parfait out of the blast chiller and unmould it.
Parfait! Parfait!
Oh, good job, Malissa.
I'm really, really happy with how it's looking.
Come on, Malissa. Yeah, go!
Nice, Mal. Looks beautiful.
Make the girls proud.
Plate with that beautiful crumb around there.
Drizzle of the syrup on top.
My plan A and my plan B worked,
so I plate them both up together.
This is risky.
Serving the judges both because I'm giving them more things to critique.
10, 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
That's it!
Good job, matey!
That's OK. Good job!
Good job.
Well done, guys, nice work!
Well done, guys.
I worked hard to really balance the dish,
but I am feeling nervous about my coffee syrup after having to redo it.
We'll just have to wait and see what the judges think.
Righto, guys, a little coffee-themed cook
to put a pep in your step this morning.
The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to Declan.
Go, Declan. Good one, mate.
I'm quite proud of my creme caramel,
as well as the ice cream.
Yum! Look at that!
I'm just hoping that it wasn't a mistake
putting them both on the plate.
Declan, what do we have here?
I have done a coffee creme caramel.
Tempered chocolate.
Some coconut crumb, with coffee ice cream.
Declan.
I thought it was a really fantastic dish,
and I think that it's really great
that you put both the ice cream and the creme caramel on the one dish
because I think the creme caramel on its own presented really nicely,
decent texture,
but the coffee ice cream reinforced the coffee in the dish,
the flavour that we really, really wanted to pick up the most
and then the crumb
just added a little bit of coconutty,
biscuity kind of caramelisation to everything.
Really nicely executed. Well done. Thanks, Mel.
I really like it.
I think the right amount of caramel.
The technique. Very brave with the oven.
So, for me, congratulations.
Just the creme caramel, though,
I just wanna say, epic work.
I'm telling you, it was that good. Yep.
Well done, buddy.
Thank you, Declan.
Good job, buddy.
Good job, Declan. Well done. Thank you.
The next dish we'd like to taste belongs to Brent.
Yes!
Wow!
Look at that!
A few things went wrong today.
That actually looks better now.
The ice cream, it's not looking amazing.
Brent... Yep.
Other than a, uh, chocolate puddle,
what have you made us?
Chocolate ice cream, a coffee caramel syrup
and macerated cherries.
Look, we've just gotta taste it for what it is...
Yeah, oh, yeah, I know. OK.
Mate, the flavours are nice.
It's actually surprised me
how much that coffee syrup actually permeates the ice cream.
It's really tasty.
But if you had some sort of crumb to put your ice cream on,
I'm not saying you would have got away with it
but it would have helped the situation.
Yep.
Another five minutes and it would have been fine
and we would have been having a different conversation.
Yeah. Yep.
In summation, a Cherry Ripe puddle pop?
But delicious flavours.
A tasty combination of the cherry,
the chocolate and the coffee, of course.
Thank you. Thanks, Brent.
Next up is Theo.
Theo, what have you made us?
It's a coffee parfait, Biscoff around the outside
with a coffee caramel and a cream on top.
OK, beautiful. Thank you. Iced cappuccino.
Theo.
The texture of the parfait is beautiful.
Light and airy.
Velvety smooth that melts beautifully in your palate.
Overall, though, it's very, very sweet.
OK.
And I don't feel as if you've used coffee
to the best of its ability here.
You know what I mean? Yep.
To dial down that sweetness and the sugariness.
OK.
The only thing that it missed out on
was a couple of extra shots of coffee in that parfait.
Yeah.
'Cause all the technique was there, Theo,
and I really like that foam on top.
'Cause that didn't have any sweetness to it at all,
which I liked, it was just cream and milk, which contrasted nicely.
Thanks. Well done. See ya.
Damn the coffee.
Next up to the tasting table, Malissa.
I'm feeling pretty proud of what I made.
It looks beautiful, Malissa.
I worked hard to really balance the dish.
I just hope that it's enough to win.
Malissa. What's the dish?
A coffee parfait with a chocolate biscuit crumb,
some burnt orange and a coffee syrup.
Malissa. Yes?
The texture of your parfait was fantastic.
The beautiful flavour of coffee running through that as well.
Perfectly balanced.
It was very, very, very well done.
Thank you.
The syrup, it is supercharged.
It just carried that beautiful coffee aroma all the way throughout.
That was dynamite on its own.
You've really considered the balance of everything.
I'm so thrilled for you. I think you smashed it.
Thank you.
Biscuit, really nice texture.
It all worked really nicely all together.
Well done.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Well done, Malissa.
Yay! Good job!
Today, one of you had the best use of coffee.
And that's why...
...Malissa... you've won immunity.
Ahh!
Not just that, you now get the chance to play for this shiny pin.
Wow! I need it.
Yeah!
Lads, solid effort today, but you know the drill,
up to the gantry for the cheer squad.
Thank you. Yeah, good luck. Thank you.
I'm on cloud nine right now.
Oh, that's amazing.
I get the chance to go against a chef to win that immunity pin.
Yeah, the girls!
Yes, girl!
Mal, it's the moment of truth.
You have won immunity, but to secure your pin,
you'll need to beat the chef that's about to walk through those doors.
Oh, gosh! Ooh!
Mentored by the master himself, Joel Robuchon,
she landed in Melbourne and became head pastry chef
at hatted restaurants Tonka and Coda.
Recently she's been named executive pastry chef
at the brand-new Ritz-Carlton hotel in Melbourne
and is a master of flavour and fusion.
Please put your hands together for Kay-Lene Tan!
Kay-Lene Tan!
She is an incredible pastry chef and she's an incredibly talented woman.
Lovely to meet you. And you.
It's quite intimidating, but bring it on.
Kay-Lene, how are you? I am doing well, thank you.
How's it going at the Ritz?
Uh, the Ritz-Carlton has been, um, amazing.
Such an incredible experience and beautiful hotel.
Can't wait for you guys to come visit.
Everyone. Yeah, thank you.
Executive pastry chefs rarely come this young and this talented.
Wow.
And she's gonna be really hard to beat today.
Yeah.
Ooh.
Nervous? Yes, so nervous.
You'll be right.
Well, let's get to the challenge.
Oh, God.
The key ingredient that you need to feature in your dish
is hiding just under here.
Malissa. Yes.
You will have first choice of what's under here
and a head start with 75 minutes on the clock.
Kay-Lene, you will have to choose from the remaining options
and you'll just have 60 minutes.
The good news is the pantry and the garden are open today.
And this round, you can cook sweet or savoury.
Kay-Lene, I reckon I know what you're gonna do.
We'll taste both your dishes blind.
And we're gonna score them out of 30.
Malissa, if you score higher than Kay-Lene,
you win the pin.
Yay. Simple as that.
Kay-Lene, it's time to head on out the back while we do the reveal.
Alright? Alright.
Off you go. Good luck.
Thank you so much. You'll do great.
Malissa.
In round 1, we gave you coffee. Yep.
So naturally, in round 2, you're cooking with...
...tea!
I've come in today really excited
but I've never cooked with tea before.
This is where we leave you in Shannon's very capable hands.
Good luck.
Thank you. I need it. We'll see you the other side.
Malissa, good luck. Thank you so much.
Come on. Bring it on!
I wanna see a badge at the end. OK.
Alright.
There are so many different teas lined up here.
Teas that I've never seen before.
Ones I've never tasted.
Take a deep breath.
Do I look stressed?
Yes. You look a little bit nervous.
I am very nervous.
I just want to win that immunity pin so badly.
Ooh.
This is an ingredient that I have no idea how to use in a dish
and I'm going up against a head pastry chef,
so this is like worst-case scenario for me right now.
I need to go with a tea that I know the flavour of really well.
I've had it before and I can use it in a savoury dish
because I honestly think it would not be a good idea
to be making a dessert
going up against someone as experienced as Kay-Lene.
Um...
So which tea are you leaning towards?
Ooh, I'm leaning towards jasmine tea.
Jasmine? Yep. OK.
I'm thinking that tea can be commonly used in smoking,
and I know that jasmine tea has a floral base
but it's also quite smoky as well.
I think I'm gonna go jasmine tea. OK. Jasmine it is.
Alright, Malissa. Alright.
You've got 75 minutes and your time starts now.
Straightaway, I'm thinking I'm gonna make a smoked-tea chicken.
Alright.
You going Asian theme here? Yes.
I want to make a sauce to go with it. You wanna make that beautiful glaze.
And I'm gonna really stick to that Asian profile,
those Asian flavours and serve a veggie san choy bow on the side
just to really add a bit of freshness,
a bit of lightness to this dish.
Yeah, nice.
OK, let's get going and then I can keep adding.
Let's go, Malissa!
Let's do it!
Oh, my God.
It's gonna be probably the slowest 15 minutes of my life.
Talking to myself.
This room will make you go crazy.
I kind of wonder what she's cooking.
Get that chicken straight on. OK.
Start toasting those off.
I need to get my spice rub going,
so I need to toast off some beautiful spices.
I've got Szechuan pepper, I've got white pepper, salt,
I've got star anise and cinnamon.
And then I need to steam that for at least 40 minutes
before I pop that in a wok and really smoke that chicken
to infuse all of that jasmine tea flavour throughout the meat.
I was gonna put some ginger in there as well.
Yeah, great. I can smell the spices.
The star of the show is the chicken. That is the main thing.
That is where the tea element is
and that's what's gonna help me hit the brief and hopefully get that pin.
Alright, starting to be confident now.
Yes. Yeah. We got this. Yeah? The plan's there?
Yep. Got a plan. Yeah, good, good.
I'm going to get Kay-Lene. Time. OK.
What, already? Yeah, hurry.
Hurry. That's too quick.
Good job! Yay!
Is my timeout over? Kay-Lene. Yes.
Thank God! Let's go. Follow me.
Nervous? Uh, just a little bit.
KAY-LENE: I have been super nervous,
spending the first 15 minutes
sitting in what I now will deem "the panic room".
I've got a reveal for you.
I'm just hoping that there's something in there
that I can somehow swim into a dessert.
That would be perfect.
Is that tea? Mm.
Kay-Lene, today you get to choose from different types of tea.
Just so you know, Malissa chose jasmine, so that is out of play.
You cannot choose jasmine.
I wanna go with the bai hao yinzhen tea, the white tea.
White tea? Yep. At the end, yeah.
What would you do with it? Mm.
Um...
Keeping it close to your chest there?
More because I don't know what I'm doing.
Not so much keeping it close to my chest. I don't know yet.
I'm still a bit all over the place.
But try and figure out something I can do in an hour.
OK, Kay-Lene, well, your one hour starts now.
Yeah! Go, Kay-Lene!
Uh, she's walking. Oh, right.
Oh, my God.
Walking into the pantry after I've chosen my tea,
I have no idea what I'm making.
So many choices!
All I'm thinking to myself
is that I need to get all those key ingredients I need.
I wanna make a cake. I need to infuse cream. I need to infuse milk.
I know I need sugar. I'm gonna need eggs.
Amazing.
I know that I wanna make something
that celebrates the flavour of that tea
but I also know that I gotta get out of that pantry quick.
I need to start steeping this tea.
Go, Kay-Lene! Come on! Whoo!
OK. Let's go.
I am doing a...
I actually don't know what I'm doing.
At this point, I'm still, uh, kind of just trying
to get my bearings a little bit
'cause it's always hard working in a new kitchen.
You don't know where everything is.
You don't have all your things.
So I'm just trying my best to get my bearings right now, actually.
I'm doing a jasmine tea smoked chicken.
So I've got that on. That needs to steam for about 40 minutes.
Whilst my chicken is steaming, I need to get my sauce ready.
Dark soy.
And I need to get started
on making the little smoking tray for my chicken
and then bring that up to temp so it's starting to smoke
for when I pop my chicken in.
I really wanna give myself the best shot at winning this immunity pin,
so I wanna see how far I can push myself today.
I really want you to start concentrating on the garnish now.
There is no time really at all to just relax in this cook.
Malissa, you've had 30 minutes.
Kay-Lene, you've had 15 minutes.
There is now 45 minutes to go.
Come on!
Time has gone super quick.
Come on, Kay-Lene! Come on. Come on, Kay-Lene!
Whoo!
KAY-LENE: Oh, my God, it smells so good!
Malissa, what are you cooking?
I'm cooking a jasmine tea smoked chicken.
Oh! That sounds yummy. Yeah, I hope it's yummy.
What are you cooking?
Um, I'm gonna make a teacake with some pears in the tea syrup.
Oh, beautiful.
And then I am also gonna make a tea ice cream.
Sounds delicious. Thank you.
I finally made a decision for my dish.
And for me, the white tea holds a very dear place in my heart
and I love creating desserts and food
that tell stories and evoke memories.
We always used to have tea and fruit
during mooncake festival in Singapore
and I'm gonna try to evoke those memories with this dessert.
Fruit and tea.
So right now I've got my sponge in the oven.
I'm working on an ice cream and a tea syrup for the pears.
Just multitasking as best I can right now.
I am feeling a little bit all over the place at this current moment.
Oh, God.
Watching Kay-Lene...
Oh, my God!
That is really difficult for a pro chef.
Like, you're coming into a kitchen you don't know,
equipment you're not used to.
There's that time limit that they're not used to.
She's got her anglaise.
She's about to put it into the ice-cream machine
and she's putting it in hot.
Argh! I made a mess.
There's no way that it's gonna cool down in time and churn
and I'm worried for her.
Normally it has to be cool before it goes in there.
I don't know if that's any different.
That's OK... It's alright.
It will be... What will be will be, I reckon, at this point.
I don't have time to cool it.
I'm just gonna take a chance.
I'm just gonna put that mix into the ice-cream machine
and hope for the best.
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Malissa, Kay-Lene, 20 minutes to go.
Come on, let's start getting this together.
Come on, guys! Go!
Go, go, go! It's gone so quick.
Come on, Malissa. Come on, Malissa!
Smells beautiful, Malissa. Come on.
My chicken is looking perfectly cooked.
Beautiful colour, Mal. Yeah, it looks nice.
Gorgeous.
So it's ready to start smoking.
Alright, there we go. Starting to get some smoke.
Oh, that's... I can smell it.
I need to put the lid on and let it do its thing for as long as I can
because I really wanna infuse all that flavour.
Alright.
That tea-smoked chicken,
that's the only element that she has using the tea.
So that tea flavour has to come through.
Otherwise she doesn't hit the brief
and there's no chance at that pin.
Yep.
Alright, now I've got my sponge in the oven.
I've got a syrup that I'm just cooling down,
'cause I'm gonna vac-seal my pears in the tea liquid,
and then I've got my ice cream in the churner.
This is not cooling as quick as I want it.
I've got less than 10 minutes left.
I've got this ice-cream machine going
and I keep looking in there and I'm like,
"It's still liquid. What am I gonna do?"
This is a nightmare.
Hey, Kay-Lene.
Hey, Chef. How's the ice cream going?
Uh, it's going.
I've gone... I'm working on my plan B now.
What's plan B?
I'm gonna use liquid nitrogen.
Um, I've decided to go in a different direction.
Life is very unexpected. This is not working out.
Time to bring out the big guns. Let's go.
It's either I use liquid nitrogen right now and get this going
or I'm not gonna end up with this component on my plate.
I'm gonna drip that liquid into the liquid nitrogen.
I'm gonna make dippin' dots.
It's like Nutty Professor, hey?
I have so little time left
and I'm trying to make sure that these dippin' dots
are perfect.
Looks really good.
Thank you. Yeah.
I was worried for you.
I was worried for me. I was worried for me.
Ooh, yeah, nice.
My chicken has been smoking for just over 10 minutes now.
I need to get the chicken out
because I need to break it down and on the plate.
I'm trying to give myself the best shot at winning this pin.
I need to make sure that my plating is perfect.
OK.
You know, using those Asian flavours.
I think I wanna serve the chicken on the banana leaf
on a beautiful plate
and bring a bit of colour into this as well.
OK.
OK, both of you, start thinking about your plating up.
There's only five minutes to go.
Come on! Five minutes to go, Malissa!
Oh, my gosh. Five minutes? What the heck?
You've got five minutes.
Who knew an hour could go by so fast?
In the MasterChef kitchen,
there's surprise, intrigue, mystery, something else.
And, you know, it's full of so many unexpected things.
But I feel that I've really brought the memory
of those times spent with my parents onto a plate
with the dish that I've created.
Have you tasted your sponge? I did.
Does it taste good? Tastes good.
Mm.
I've tasted all the components of the dish together.
The tea flavour really rings out true
and I think that is exactly what I wanted to achieve.
Pears.
Dippin' dots.
I think I'm done, actually.
The one thing that I'm most concerned about
with the dippin' dots
is that might change, you know, the texture of the sponge,
but at this point, I have no idea what's gonna happen.
Praying to the culinary gods tonight, I think.
That's it, Mal.
I'm plating up my san choy bow. Beautiful.
It's got all those beautiful vegetables in there
that add a bit of freshness, a bit of lightness to this dish.
Alright.
But the chicken's the highlight.
Ooh, gosh.
That's it, Mal. Look at that!
Come on, Mal. Oh! Imagine if I dropped it.
You can do it. Come on.
I've tried the chicken. It tastes really good.
Ooh, it's so hot.
And I just hope that I've done enough to hit the brief today.
Look at that. Come on, Malissa. Come on! Come on!
Come on. Malissa, it looks beautiful.
OK, let's do this, gantry.
10, 9, 8,
7, 6, 5,
4, 3, 2, 1.
That's it! Yeah, Malissa!
Oh, wow! Yay!
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Give me a heart attack.
Bloody hell.
You did well, Malissa. I'm happy with it.
Good job. How did you go? Ooh, good job.
Look at you. Oh, my God! It's like an Asian feast over here.
Yeah. Looks beautiful.
Thank you. Oh, wowee.
I'm really proud with what I've put up at the end.
And I'm really hoping it's enough,
because to have an immunity pin at the end of today would be amazing.
Amazing!
Well, tea's the name of the game in the old Immunity Challenge.
Hopefully Malissa can get one of these.
But who knows what they cooked?
Tea. There's a lot of trip hazards.
Definitely requires a fair amount of delicacy
in order to tame and bring balance to a dish.
Let's hope they did. The first dish?
Let's do it. Do it.
Hello. Hello.
Jasmine tea smoked chicken.
What do we think?
I wanna eat it. Yeah, same.
Yeah, smells great.
Thank you.
I love the glaze.
The little side hustle, it was crunchy,
it was full of flavour.
But the chicken for me...
...the tea flavour is infused all the way through the chicken.
Winner. Very good.
You have beautiful, succulent chicken.
It's not only attractive to look at but it's attractive to eat.
And you kind of almost get, like, a soy braised idea...
But tea. ...but tea.
Tea vibes. Yeah.
It was delicious.
Really smart to use a tea like that
'cause it's really tasty, it's cooked perfectly.
I thought it was epic.
Let's score.
Hello.
Fruit and tea.
Interesting. Yeah, curious.
Certain components on that dish came out really well,
but also with the ice-cream machine, that really threw me.
So I can only hope for the best at this point.
The cake...
...I think it suffered from having the ice-cream pearls sitting on top
and some of them melted.
So it's kind of, like, wet on the top.
It's a shame because I think the texture of the sponge
would have been nice had it not been for the ice cream leeching into it.
The cake itself, there is a light perfume of tea throughout it.
Of course, conceptually, it's quite clever.
I think there have been some flaws in the execution
and whoever cooked this didn't have the best cook in this kitchen today.
Shall we score? Let's do it.
Well, it's time to spill the tea.
Oh, my goodness.
Malissa, what did you cook?
I cooked the tea-smoked chicken.
Ooh, righto!
That means, Kay-Lene, you made your teacake, so we'll start with you.
Kay-Lene.
Tea was definitely present in your cake.
But the finished product showed that even the most accomplished chefs
can struggle here in the MasterChef kitchen.
I scored your dish
a 7 out of 10.
I scored it
a 6 out of 10.
I scored it
6 out of 10.
Malissa...
...you definitely met the brief.
That chicken was beautifully cooked. Had a great flavour of tea.
I scored you
8 out of 10.
Malissa.
I also gave it a score
of 8 out of 10.
Alright, Malissa.
I thought the chicken was an absolute winner.
So I scored it an 8 out of 10.
Congratulations, you win the pin!
You want it?
Yes! It's all yours.
Thank you! Oh, my God! Congratulations.
Thanks, Shannon!
There you go.
Congratulations.
Oh, wow!
I have won an immunity pin.
I've beaten a chef in the MasterChef kitchen.
This is just the best. I'm so proud.
Kay-Lene, commiserations.
In an unfamiliar kitchen with only 60 minutes,
you were set a difficult task, for sure.
But we love your food and we can't wait to see you here
back again in the kitchen and at the Ritz-Carlton.
Everybody, give it up for Kay-Lene!
Yeah, Kay-Lene!
KAY-LENE: Thank you.
Malissa, congratulations once again.
Not only do you have that pin,
you are also immune from Sunday's elimination.
The rest of you, Sunday's make or break.
So go home, get some rest
and come back ready to fight for your place in the top 7.
See you then.
'Bye, guys, see you later. Thank you.
My God! Oh, my God!
What the heck? Oh, that's the best.
Oh, I'm so happy.
Sunday night on MasterChef Australia...
Wait till you see what we've got in store for you.
Is it a taste test?
I don't have a clue what it is.
What the heck is it?
Or is it a scene from a sci-fi film?
Ooh! Ooh, that face isn't good.
One thing's for sure...
It's just gonna keep getting harder and harder.
Oh, my goodness.
You don't want to miss
Sunday's incredible elimination.
Bloody hell.
Boom!
Captions by Red Bee Media