Previously on MasterChef Australia...
This is a taste test,
but not as you know it.
Round 1 was a futuristic feast for the senses.
Mm.
That's on odd taste.
Lychee. Honey.
Cinnamon. Boom!
Then they stepped up the sensory stimulation.
Ooh-ee!
...and cooked with the colours of the rainbow.
That looks awesome!
Hello, green goddess.
A big yellow puzzle. I'm trying to put the pieces together.
You've caught me red-handed, so...
Brief ticked - a delicious bowl of food.
That is absolutely faultless.
The yellow salsa, a dream.
But everyone was feeling blue when Adi said goodbye
to the MasterChef kitchen.
I'm really proud of myself.
and I'm really grateful for this opportunity.
Tonight, our seven remaining cooks
know that everything rides on this mystery box.
One small mistake
can actually send you straight to elimination.
Alright, let's go!
Nervous? I wonder what it's gonna be.
Yeah. Wonder if there's a guest.
Maybe.
Yeah, whoo-hoo! Whoo!
Hey! Hi!
Let's do it! Good morning!
And today is a mystery.
Pick a bench, any bench.
Wow! Oh!
Whoo-hoo!
Oh, let's go here, Rue. Yeah, OK.
Good morning, everyone. Morning!
We are down to the business end of the competition now.
It is time to roll up your sleeves
and dig just that little bit deeper.
Brent, fresh off the not-playing-your-pin gamble,
you must be feeling pretty confident today.
Yeah, feeling good.
I'm glad I didn't throw it in.
Yeah, you know, obviously dwindling down now,
so there's nowhere to hide.
So just got to cook really good now.
Well, if that's your only option, then I guess...
Declan, how are you feeling? Yeah, really good.
Good feeling about this mystery box?
Yeah, love... love a surprise,
and, you know, yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery
and today's a gift.
That's why it's called the present.
Oh! Thanks, Shakespeare.
Declan's my name and riddles are my game.
Well, I hope you're all ready,
because today's mystery box is the toughest yet.
Oh!
It's a MasterChef classic
that has brought past contestants to their knees.
It is the dreaded...
...everything box.
♪ Bah-bah-bah! ♪
Whatever is under that mystery box lid,
every single ingredient must be used in your final dish.
Oh, my goodness. The everything box.
I have watched these episodes before
and thought, "How are they gonna put all of those things in a dish?"
So I'm a little bit frantic about this one already.
Are you ready to find out what's in there?
Yes.
You may lift your lids now.
Ooh!
OK.
What the heck is this?
OK, the everything box this year
has the following ingredients in it.
Lamb,
sugar snap peas,
labneh,
Pedro Ximenez sherry,
fenugreek,
parsley, flat-leaf variety,
and bacon.
I'm loving these ingredients.
They're just screaming to be cooked together.
I know that your minds are probably going a million miles an hour,
but before you lock in a dish,
there's one more ingredient to consider,
and that's fresh off the farm.
Please welcome... Farmer Nick!
Here he is! Whoo!
Great, we need a veggie.
In walks Farmer Nick with a big box there,
so I wonder what's under there.
I'm thinking it's got to be some sort of veggie
or aromat,
because I'm looking at the box as it is, and I think,
"Hm, there's something missing there."
Nick, you've brought with you a secret ingredient,
and it's the last ingredient that these contestants need to know,
so why don't you show us what you brought?
Today I brought you some garlic.
Ah, nice!
And, of course, there's garlic. Thank goodness.
Thank God Farmer Nick is here with his garlic,
because if my dad saw me cooking lamb without garlic,
he would be like,
"No, you can't cook this box.
"Tell them you're not cooking without garlic."
Tell us a little bit about your garlic, mate.
Well, we grow in several states in Australia.
We're based in Mildura.
And there's so many different varieties of garlic,
and they all have such different flavour profiles.
In fact, I've got over 300 garlic varieties in my collection.
What? For real? Wow!
For real. How about that?
Wow.
This one is an all-purpose garlic grown in the Robinvale region
in north-west Victoria.
It's one of my favourites. Amazing.
You've got to tell me, what's your favourite thing to use
with this kind of garlic?
Just keep it simple.
Garlic aioli with garlic prawns
soaked up with a little bit of garlic bread.
Perfect date-night meal.
Yeah!
Give it up for Nick, everybody! Whoo!
Thank you! 'Bye, Nick!
Now that everything's here, time for the rules.
You'll have 75 minutes to cook anything you like,
but you must use every single ingredient
in your dish in some way.
Of course, you've also got access to your under-bench staples as usual.
Whoever brings us the three least-impressive dishes,
they'll be cooking in tomorrow's Pressure Test.
And I'm sure I do not need to remind you,
whoever cooks the least-impressive dish in that Pressure Test,
unfortunately, they'll be going home.
Good luck. Your 75 minutes starts now!
How's my main man Brentles going? Yeah, going good.
You know, like, top 7 now.
Time to really get back-to-back good dishes.
I always try to cook to the absolute highest standard that I can,
and I'm going in today exactly like that
with comfortable ingredients and a clear mind.
So I am doing a bit of, like, a sort of a lamb kofta sort of vibe,
with the labneh on the bottom,
a little, you know, crunchy pancake thing to wrap everything up.
I'm gonna put some roasted garlic through that... that pancake,
and then a nice fresh parsley and pea salad
with the sherry.
This dish is just a good old Sunday afternoon.
You know, heaps of mates over,
everyone just grabs a flatbread, a bit of labneh,
the lamb kofta, eating, a few cold beers -
that's where the inspiration's come from today.
It's all coming together.
I mean, they're pretty... pretty great ingredients.
They sort of lean on each other pretty well.
So, yeah, it's a good one.
The biggest pressure point for this cook
is the kofta.
So many koftas you have are dry
because the fat content's just wrong.
I'm gonna put some bacon fat in there
to help prop up the fat content.
And then the fenugreek, I think, will go in there beautifully.
A little bit of parsley and garlic...
...we're talking a good lamb kofta.
I love the everything box 'cause it really challenges them.
What are you cooking?
I'd probably do a raw lamb tartare
with roasted hard fenugreek flatbread.
With the labneh, sugar snap peas and the parsley,
make a little salsa out of that.
What about you?
Parsley, sugar snap farce.
Bone out the lamb. Yeah.
Stuff the farce on the inside. Yeah.
Little flatbread on the side.
Yum.
How many desserts are we gonna see with the lamb today?
Zip. Zero. It's nada.
You'd have to be some kind of pasty alchemist
to really pull off those flavours in a sweet context,
but here's hoping for some really beautiful, generous flavours
of savoury dishes today.
This is kind of how you cook at home.
You get home from work, you're like, "What have I got in the fridge?
"Let's put something together."
So I'm taking that approach today.
It's gonna be kind of like a spring salad
with some charred lamb.
I'm going to get all my little peas,
I'm going to cook them in the bacon fat,
and then I'm gonna make a smooth labneh
to put on the bottom of the peas.
You know, you do make friends with salad,
So I'm hoping I can prove that today.
Hey, Rhiannon.
G'day.
What's the dish?
I'm doing lamb empanadas
with a bacon jam.
Are you just? Whoo!
I'm gonna use the lamb and the fat,
and I'm gonna use the peas and the parsley and some garlic in it,
and then I'm gonna use the fenugreek in the bacon jam with some garlic.
I'm guessing the sherry's going in the bacon jam.
Sure is. And the labneh?
The labneh's in the dough.
Oh, that was the most clear, concise idea
about where you're using every ingredient yet.
Smells nice.
I feel like this mystery box is made for me.
These ingredients to play to my strengths. I do love lamb.
Parsley, it speaks to me, and labneh as well,
you know, strained yoghurt.
So I'm happy, yeah.
Theo. Hello.
Give me a one-sentence elevator pitch.
It is a...
It is lamb skewers marinated in labneh,
a flatbread that's gonna be basted in the fat from the bacon
with a parsley sauce.
Bread, skewer... Sauce on top. Delicious.
I think, for me, this hangs on proportions, right?
Thickness of the bread... Absolutely.
...the brightness and freshness in the salad,
and obviously the texture and the flavour of the skewer.
Could be killer or it could be a bit 'eh'.
Yep. OK?
Don't make it 'eh'. I definitely don't want to do that.
There's a lot of good cooks here,
but I want to stand out.
I want to be at the top.
I want to be hitting my straps.
I want to show the judges what I'm capable of.
I want to win.
Give us everything you've got. 60 minutes to go!
I'd definitely say this is my kind of mystery box.
It's all produce that I love,
so a bit of lamb and fresh parsley,
sugar snap peas,
beautiful fenugreek.
Today I'm gonna be using
all these beautiful fresh ingredients
and stuffing it inside a lamb rosetta.
Rolling up my lamb, it's quite tricky,
because it is, like, relatively small,
but I want to push myself and show how much I've progressed
and learnt in this competition.
Declan. Gents, how are we?
Good mate, you? Yeah, really good, thank you.
What's the plan, mate?
Um, so, had this beautiful saddle, and I'm gonna roll it.
I've really got to work fast.
I'm gonna brown it off and then get it in the oven.
Gonna be serving it with a labneh and bread side.
Are you gonna slice it... Yeah, exactly.
...when you get beautiful rose lamb?
Rose. That's the word. Be able to see the stuffing.
Correct, and then... Ooh, yum!
...this goes inside. You gotta go!
Yeah, thanks, guys.
The two biggest worries for me here
is that my beautiful lamb roll is just gonna fall apart
as well as being well overcooked
and not a nice medium-rare.
Just want to get a good... good bit of gold on these,
and get them in the oven and check on them later on.
I... I can tell that my face is a bit like,
"OK, you guys have stitched me up."
This has to be the hardest mystery box
in MasterChef history
because these are flavours that I do not cook with normally.
Damn!
Like, I love lamb.
I don't like parsley that much.
And I've never used fenugreek. I used to use it to make my hair oil.
That's as far as I know.
I really love making desserts,
but I can't do that today.
I...I don't know what to do.
Hey, Rue.
Whoa. Whoa!
There's some butchery going on here.
Look, I'm actually quite nervous.
I'm not gonna lie.
What's the dish?
Um, to be honest, I'm not sure.
God! So what are you...
Are you vibing anything?
To be honest, I'm only vibing these two.
Well, you have to vibe everything,
'cause that's the name of the game today.
You've used 25 minutes and you don't have a dish yet.
I know, I know.
Like, I'm worried for you. Yeah.
I'm worried for me too.
What's the dish?
I'm not sure.
You've used 25 minutes and you don't have a dish yet.
I know. I know. Like, I'm worried for you.
Yeah, I'm worried for me too. OK, come on.
OK, yeah. You got this.
I'm struggling to back myself today
because I'm trying to cook with something
that I do not cook with normally.
My mind is about to blow.
I have to come up with a dish.
Don't forget anything. You've got to use everything.
45 minutes to go. Come on, top 7!
I'm feeling pretty good about the dish, actually.
Got to cook the bacon, form the empanadas,
get the bacon jam done
and then get them deep-fried.
I'm happy. I think.
But I hate being happy in this kitchen
'cause it doesn't last.
The dish is definitely starting to come together,
which is really good.
I've got my salad going, my lamb's almost ready to cook,
and then my sauce is still in the pressure cooker.
It's gonna be salad, like, an epic salad,
so that's what I'm gonna deliver today.
I'm doing grilled lamb with a beautiful jus,
with a parsley oil,
a roasted garlic labneh,
and then with the sugar snaps three ways.
My approach today is to try and use everything out of my mystery box
to go into that jus,
so I'm using my sugar snap shells,
I'm using the parsley stalks,
I've got a bit of garlic in there.
Of course I'm gonna put some sherry in there.
Putting the fat from the bacon and the bone and some of the fat
and some meat from the lamb as well.
The jus is the hero of this dish today.
Yeah, I'm really happy with my sauce so far,
so just got to make sure.
I'll just keep working on it.
I'm gonna be serving lamb rosetta with whipped labneh,
flaky bread and a nice parsley oil.
Yeah, going good.
I just want these in the oven sort of about now
so I can bring them out and give them enough time to rest.
My lamb roll
is looking and smelling really good,
and I think, most importantly,
it's holding its shape,
my ties aren't coming undone,
so I'm pretty proud of myself a this point.
It's crazy to think I can even put a dish like this together.
Just a few months ago I was... I was onsite,
out in the weather,
I was digging trenches and throwing up wall frames.
And then you look at it now,
and I'm having fun, I'm tossing my dough around.
Mum says to me, like, "Aren't you bloody sick of cooking by now?"
And I'm not, like, I love it.
When we say 'everything', we mean everything.
30 minutes to go.
Let's go.
How you going?
Oh, OK. Yeah?
I have finally decided what I'm making.
It's just about bringing it to life.
So, my dish is a pan sauce,
and I have a lamb loin that's going to be pan seared.
the labneh is a fresh element.
I'm going to do fresh sugar snap peas
and some crispy bacon.
I have my lamb bone, garlic, parsley,
and sugar snap peas reducing.
And then next, I need to sear my lamb.
OK.
I know time is not on my side.
But I just have to bring it together in a seamless way
that's still delicious.
Yeah, really happy.
It's heaven for me in the kitchen,
and I'm working with ingredients that I love.
I've marinated my lamb in that labneh
and garlic and a little bit of that fenugreek.
I feel like when you do something that you love to eat,
then it translates on the plate.
This is a dish that I'm definitely comfortable with,
I've done it before,
it's bringing back memories of my childhood,
so I'm in a happy place right now.
Only 20 minutes to go! Come on! Bring it home!
I'm just onto the little pancakes.
There's a nice soft roasted garlic inside of them,
so should be really, really yummy.
I'm doing lamb koftas on a garlic pancake with labneh,
and pea and parsley vinaigrette.
Time-wise, yeah, I'm feeling pretty good.
I've got my koftas onto a nice hot pan,
and then I'm going to finish them on the hibachi.
I've reduced my sherry. That's gonna be my glaze.
I want a sweet glaze so I can glaze it
when I'm cooking over the hibachi, the koftas, and spinning them.
The danger here is just overcooking these koftas,
all the fat coming out, and then you're just left with this,
like, chalky mince.
Look at those koftas. Yeah, they're coming along nicely.
They'll get finished on the hibachi with a glaze.
Hm.
You know, I love kofta,
you know, there are so many great versions of it
all around the world,
but you know what unifies them in their awfulness...
...is if they are dry.
Yeah.
I have a question.
Are you confident that these will not be dry?
Um...
I don't want to be in the bottom three today.
If I bring dry koftas up to the judges, I'm done.
Look at those koftas. Yeah, they're coming along nicely.
They'll get finished on the hibachi with a glaze.
Hm.
With the time that you have left,
are you confident that these will not be dry?
Um... yeah.
Even the best idea, if it's not well executed,
can see you in the bottom three today.
Yeah, OK. OK?
Yeah.
I feel you, Mel, I know what you're saying,
and I don't want dry koftas either.
But I have a game plan.
What I want to do here
is basically cook them, I would say, three-quarters of the way through
on the pan, and plus I'm finishing them on the hibachi
with that glaze
and that's what's going to keep it nice and moist.
Gonna glaze them in a second
and just finish them over some smoke,
and then work on the labneh.
Relax and enjoy it.
My dish is grilled lamb with a jus,
a roasted garlic labneh with a parsley oil.
I've got all my elements on the go at the moment.
My jus is juicy.
I've got everything from the all-in mystery box in here today.
I've definitely hit the brief.
Cath. Hi!
There are rarely firsts in this kitchen after a while,
especially when we're getting to top 7,
but I hear that you're cooking with the hibachi
for the first time today.
Oh, yes, with the hibachi! Are you excited?
So I'm really excited.
Speaking of which, look at that. There it is.
Yeah, so I'm gonna get it on super quick.
Obviously, with the backstrap, with very little fat on it,
it won't take much time at all,
but whatever you do, when you start to use the hibachi,
do not take your eyes off it.
OK, yeah, OK.
OK? Yep, OK.
Good luck. Thanks.
Oh. Oh, OK.
So I have to have everything else organised
before I've got my lamb on.
OK. Right.
I'm... um, I'm really nervous.
Just relax. Just relax.
Everything's on the line today. Make sure everything is on the plate.
15 minutes to go!
Go! Get it together! Come on, guys!
These on there.
They're alright.
Get three each? Three each?
If they're good, give us more.
They're gonna be good.
My empanadas are going really good.
It's taken three minutes to get to that.
So, yeah, I'll just keep moving with them.
Malissa.
Whoa! We had a fenugreek explosion.
You want us to clean it up for you?
Oh, I would love that!
While we're doing your dirty work, let's go through the dish.
Got my salad going, marinated the lamb in the fenugreek
and the parsley and the garlic.
It's gonna be sweet, salty, acidic, umami, all the things.
Let some butter ooze out of that.
The flatbread, I'm rolling it really thin,
just gonna give it that beautiful flaky texture.
My lamb rosetta, it's in the oven roasting away.
Now I'm just making my parsley...
...my parsley oil.
Today I want the judges to be able to see
that, you know, I've incorporated all of these ingredients
from the everything mystery box...
It tastes pretty bloody good.
...as well as being able to put together
a beautiful piece of food.
Just over 10 minutes to go
and it's coming along nicely.
I've just really got to motor.
I have my lamb marinating.
I'm just working on my roti bread now.
And then, yeah, it's all gonna come together pretty... pretty quickly.
I want my flatbread to be just a little vessel
for this lamb and sauce.
That's all I want. I want the lamb to be the star.
So, the lamb's been marinating for nearly an hour now,
with that garlic, a little bit of that fenugreek,
and then that beautiful labneh around the outside.
It's gonna get that nice char from the open fire,
kind of like a yakitori Japanese bar.
Mmm!
OK.
I feel like this dish
is starting to come together.
My lamb is done
and my sugar snap peas are ready.
That last thing that I'm going to do
is spice up my jus with the fenugreek powder.
I put a little bit of fenugreek, I stir it together,
I taste it...
Ohhh, that is bitter.
Oh, my gosh, that fenugreek is strong.
That's all I can taste in my mouth.
Talk to me, Rue.
So, I wanted to do a sauce... Yep, right.
But I've tasted it, and I just think it's a little bit bitter.
OK, so if this is bitter, how do you correct it?
Sweetness.
Yep, so I'd be correcting that. OK.
Using your palate, using your balance,
and then think about the rest of the dish,
how it can counteract the bitterness in the sauce...
OK. OK. ...and bring it together.
Come on, you can do this. Thanks. Thank you, Andy.
Because today is an everything box,
I cannot leave that sauce off.
I've incorporated probably three-quarters of the ingredients
into that sauce.
I could be in real trouble today.
I really could.
Let's just try with this on, eh?
First time using the hibachi.
Mel says to me, "When you use it,
"do not do anything else."
So I've made sure
I've finished my parsley oil, sugar snap peas and my jus.
Now I go to the hibachi,
and I literally stand there...
First time. Whoo-hoo!
I am so nervous about the hibachi.
How's that? Oh, man.
Oh! Oh!
It's like she's at, like, the Sunday barbecue.
You've just got to keep pushing it.
Cath, you don't need to keep prodding it.
Oh. Oh! Oh, my God.
Oh, man, man. OK.
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Oh, no!
I've strained my sauce and the flame is on.
Shit, shit.
So it's reduced even more.
This sauce has actually turned into... a gel.
Oh, shit. Ooh!
Oh! Oh, my God.
Come on, Cath, just chillax.
OK.
Oh, no!
I've strained my sauce and the flame is on.
So it's reduced even more.
Shit, shit.
This sauce has actually turned into... a gel.
Oh, my goodness.
I cannot leave it off the plate because it's got the fenugreek,
it's got the sherry.
So if I leave it off the plate,
I haven't used everything in the mystery box.
I have to put it on the plate
and I have to suffer the consequences.
Being in the bottom three is looking more realistic
than what it ever has before in the competition.
I feel really good.
This is my happy place.
It's smelling good, the smoke is coming through the meat,
the glaze is, like, going all caramel-y.
There's definitely potential
that my twice-cooked method has, you know, overcooked them,
but, you know, too late now, just got to hope for the best.
Five minutes to go! Come on. Come on!
Come on.
I feel like I've absolutely smashed the brief today.
I've really thought about this mystery box,
and I've showcased all the ingredients
to the best of its ability.
The final element is the green sauce.
I have my parsley, garlic, I've used my sherry that I've cooked down
to add some sweetness to this parsley sauce.
It's just such a good accompaniment for the lamb skewer,
just give it some freshness.
Really good.
I have tried so hard to balance this sauce.
I have added sugar and water.
I'm just hoping it's good enough to save me.
At this stage of the competition,
everyone's such a great cook
and one small mistake can actually send you straight to elimination.
Three minutes to go! Bring it on!
I've really enjoyed this cook today,
and it's all coming down to these final moments.
For my labneh, I'm gonna be whipping it up
with a bit of that bacon fat,
gonna be topping it with crispy bacon
and parsley oil.
And now all I need to worry about
is my lamb rosetta.
Are you on the slice? Pardon?
Are you on the slice? No, no. No, you do you.
It was a question, it wasn't a statement.
Thank you.
I don't know why I'm saying thank you.
Biggest worries for me here
are slicing my lamb roll and it all falling apart,
and it being well overcooked
and not a nice medium-rare that I was going for.
Look at that. That's amazing.
And it's beautiful and pink and juicy, just the way I wanted it.
Looks nice. Pink.
The last couple of weeks, I've picked up my mojo,
I'm really enjoying my cooking.
It's just been a really intense training camp for me
where I'm refining my skills.
I'm learning so much,
and I think it shows with every dish
that I plate up to the judges.
10!
9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1...
That's it! Yes! Well done.
Ooh! Well done.
Oh!
I think I've come in this cook a little bit frazzled.
Oh, sweetie! Oh, darling.
Come on. Hey? Come on.
If you take deep breaths.
I think I just put myself in, like, a little head boo-boo,
and I just could not get out.
Yeah.
I'm so close to the end,
and, you know, initially when I came here,
I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I'm just so lucky to be here."
And then I got to, like, top 12, top 10, top 7,
and I'm like, "Wow, I never saw that coming for me."
And the more like, you know, you kick those little goals,
the more you want more.
And I really want to be here.
I know I could have done better with that plate.
Like, I actually don't know if it's enough today.
The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to...
Theo!
Whoo!
Hey, hey. Hey, hey.
Theo, what's the dish, please?
It is lamb skewer with a green sauce.
Theo...
Alright, awesome.
Whoo-hoo! First up, presentation.
Very bold, bringing it up still on the skewer.
I just thought it was fantastic in terms of presentation.
The cooking, fantastic, on the hibachi.
You know, you came up with a great idea,
but your execution was fantastic.
The marination of the lamb with the yoghurt,
just so good, you know?
And then your green sauce, as you called it,
I can taste everything that's in the box here.
It was a very clever way
to use every single ingredient in that box
in a style that suited you.
Well done. Thank you.
There's this thing that happens with the lamb
when you tend to it beautifully
and you understand how to coax the best out of it,
and it becomes this toothsome, juicy, smoky,
intoxicating bite of food,
and that is exactly what you've achieved here.
It's magical.
You're magical. Thank you.
Theo, restaurant-worthy,
you know, top-7-worthy,
you know, finale-worthy.
It's a perfect plate of food.
So well done, man, like, honestly, well done.
Thank you very much. Thanks. Yeah!
Whoo!
Next up, Cath.
Whoo! Go, Cath.
So disappointed with the jus,
but I'm hoping all the flavours in my dish
keep me out of that bottom three today.
Cath, what did you make us?
So, lamb with a sherry jus
and sugar snap peas.
Cath, the final dish, is it what you imagined?
Uh...
Get inspired
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Stream full episodes of MasterChef Australia now
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Cath, what did you make us?
So, lamb with a sherry jus
and sugar snap peas.
The final dish, is it what you imagined?
Uh...
No, not exactly.
I put so much love and I was nurturing my jus,
and then I had balanced it,
and then I had it on the stovetop and it was actually still on.
It's actually reduced more, so I'm a bit disappointed.
Alright, let's have a taste.
Cath...
...the lamb, it's nice,
the sugar snaps, yeah,
they're nice and sweet and textural and delicious,
but the sauce,
it's not your best work.
No. And...
Honestly, a dish like this lives and dies by the sauce.
Yeah, yeah.
Unfortunately, it's fallen really short,
and it could end you up in trouble because of that.
Sure.
You're such a good cook, Cath, and you understand good flavours.
Fresh sugar snap salad, some raw, some blanched,
plenty of seasoning, really good.
And I think you managed to pull off the hibachi really well.
You cooked it fantastically.
But I think a big part of it is the jus.
Definitely not your best today.
Which you know.
Yeah, OK. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Cath.
All good. Thanks.
Oh! That's alright.
Sweetie.
Declan.
Let's go, mate.
Everything mystery box, what have you got for us?
I've got a lamb rosetta with some flaky bread
and a pork fat bacon parsley labneh.
Nice.
How do you think you went?
Look, I've... I've never done lamb like that before,
but I sort of had an idea,
and, yeah, just wanted to
plate you guys up a nice plate of food today.
Declan...
Flavours, absolutely fantastic.
The cook on the lamb, fantastic.
The construction in the way you boned it out,
stuffed it and rolled it.
The stuffing itself also brilliant.
Pastry, brilliant.
It's delicious, it's flaky, it's gorgeous.
Today you worked like a chef.
Your head in the game,
you knew exactly what you were gonna do and you executed it.
Well done. Thank you.
The lamb itself was beautiful.
You knew exactly what you were doing down to how much care you took
to cook the lamb and rest it
so that it was perfectly tender and beautiful.
Declan, I'm gonna give you mad props, mate.
That is not easy, the lamb rosetta, to get right,
as an amateur cook,
and you've done that really, really well.
Thank you.
So it's like all of the practice and all of the learning
that you... that you've been doing
over the last X amount of time
has just led to this kind of perfection in technique.
Take confidence, mate. It's a good plate of food.
Well done, mate. Thank you.
Whoo!
Thanks, Brenty.
Next up, Rhiannon.
I've made lamb empanadas with a bacon relish.
The empanada pastry is epic.
Just have a look at how beautiful the pastry is.
Fantastic work.
That's gold.
Next up, Malissa.
I've made a lamb spring salad with a labneh puree.
Perfectly cooked lamb that was beautifully seasoned.
The fresh sugar snaps, like, it's all going on.
It's just so much whipped labneh,
and it just throws all the hard work just in the bin.
Because it is so thick and rich and sour,
it's too much of that for the amount of lamb that's on the plate,
and you lose the sweetness of the peas
and even the saltiness in the bacon.
Damn! Good luck.
Thanks, Malissa.
The next dish we'd like to taste belongs to Rue.
I am taking my dish to the judges,
and it's a mixture of emotions.
I'm disappointed.
Feeling like I haven't done enough.
Whew.
Rue, what did you make us today?
So, I made a pan-seared lamb loin
with labneh, sugar snap peas
and a fenugreek pan sauce.
Now, Rue, I'm sensing a little bit of self-doubt.
Little bit of self-doubt. Yeah, well, this little.
Talk to me.
When I started cooking, I was just, like,
really second-guessing everything I was going,
and when I tasted it all together,
eventually, I was like, "The flavours are sort of there,"
but I could have done better.
Rue.
We love having you here. Don't shoot yourself in your foot, OK?
Yeah.
Rue...
The sauce is unbalanced, it's very bitter.
And, of course, we need bitterness,
but not quite as much as that.
Definitely not your best today.
Absolutely.
Yeah, Rue, I've got to agree,
like, I think if you had just belief in the dish,
it would have been better.
Yeah. Um, sure the lamb is cooked nicely.
The sugar snaps are great.
I just want something more interesting,
and it could have been that sauce
if you just knew how to get it to where it needed to be
to complement the dish.
And it's not because of your skill. It's all up here.
Absolutely.
Rue, you are a brilliant person with a beautiful heart
who creates wonderful things on the plate
when she believes in herself.
This is the space that you thrive in.
This one. Yeah. Yeah.
Bring us back to what makes you happy on this plate.
Yeah, thank you, guys. Thanks, Rue.
Next up, Brent.
I'm definitely feeling the nerves.
I'm just looking at the koftas and I'm just telling them,
"Don't be dry."
Just be perfectly cooked.
And, yeah, if that's the case,
then we'll be... we'll be cheering, I reckon.
Brent, I am dying to know what this is.
So you've got lamb koftas,
labneh, and then you've got a reduced sherry glaze,
and some little garlic pancakes.
You happy with the idea?
Yeah, happy with the idea.
The ingredients, they all sort of just, like...
Spoke to you.
Yeah, they spoke to me, and... What were they saying?
They were saying, like, "Put me with a stick of lamb."
OK.
Yeah.
I actually think it's a really fun mystery box.
It's almost like you open the fridge and you've got a few things left.
Yeah, you've just got to use it all. But you've got to use it all, yeah.
Well, it looks pretty happy. I hope it looks up to the vision.
Yes, please. Thought you might.
Um, perfect.
I mean, really perfect.
Coming to your bench and seeing your mince, I...
I've made enough farces in my life to look at it
and go, "There is enough fat in that."
We were excited from the second I've seen it.
But then when you started putting that lacquer on it,
on the hibachi, and I've seen you just brushing it on,
I'm like, "Oh, get after it. Just get after it."
Look at it.
It just makes something that is good even better.
And that's what you did.
And then the labneh, just enough garlic in there.
Like, Farmer Nick would be loving this.
Like, he would be smashing a couple of these, no doubt,
and feeling very proud that he'd picked the variety of garlic
and this is what it was being used for,
because it's pleasing to so many people, mate.
Cook after cook, you're showing us how good you are at flavour.
It's impressive stuff, mate.
Well done.
Brent, the kofta, it's beautifully done.
It has a really wonderfully tender texture to it.
This is wonderfully considerate food.
This is your food.
And if I were you, I'd be pretty bloody happy about it.
Thanks, Mel.
Brent, I could tell that this was gonna be good.
Lamb, right amount of fat content, right amount of seasoning.
It was interesting.
And then that little sugar snap pea salsa over the top,
it looked epic,
but it packed a punch, it gave texture, brightness,
but you're just so at peace with the cook that you are at the moment,
and it's really showing.
Thanks, guys.
Good job, brother.
How good!
Today you had to bring us a dish with the whole shebang.
And two of your brought us everything we could possibly want.
Theo and Brent...
Whoo, dishes like those,
you are well on your way to finals week.
Gents, well done.
It's clear that cooking within the limitations
of the everything box did stump a few of you today.
If I call your name, you are cooking in tomorrow's Pressure Test.
Rue.
Cath.
The cook of the final dish going into tomorrow's Pressure Test...
...Malissa.
Rue, Cath, Melissa, with top 6 on the line,
the only things that stands in the way
is tomorrow's Pressure Test.
And I'm telling you, it's a tough one.
So make sure you get plenty of rest tonight.
You are going to need all of your energy and your wits about you
to conquer.
We'll see you then.
'Bye. Well done, guys.
At least you've got a pin.
And if you need to play it, you'll be able to play that pin.
Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...
The legendary Clare Smyth!
...our cooks have their work cut out for them.
When you set a Pressure Test,
it is going to come with
a three-star level of skill attached.
Because what's under that cloche...
Oh, wow.
...is about to blow their minds.
Oh, my God.
I'm so emotional.
That is so beautiful.
Captions by Red Bee Media