NARRATOR: Previously on MasterChef Australia...
Murray River style.
..it was a battle of the highest bidders.
I'm gonna start off at 20 minutes.
Let's just go straight to 40.
Oh! ANDY AND RHI: Why would you do that?
Please don't send him to a house auction. (LAUGHS)
THEO: Come on, let's go!
Time... Come on, come on.
..and pantry items were not on their side.
This is madness!
But...
ANDY: It was unbelievable. JOCK: Gold standard. Mental.
It is absolutely perfect.
..Theo triumphed with the winning dish.
MELISSA: Congratulations.
Come Thursday, you'll be cooking for your spot
in Finals Week.
Yay!
Tonight, the top 5 travels continue...
..somewhere totally unexpected.
(MYSTICAL MUSIC)
You're kidding me. (LAUGHS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER) Wow.
Oh, my God.
What the hell?
This is so random.
What the hell.
CATH: Oh, look at the flowers.
Wow, we are in cactus country.
There is cactus everywhere.
Really, it's, like, a bit euphoric.
There's so many different varieties too. Look at them.
Feels like we're in Mexico, right?
Yes!
The road trip really has taken us to Mexico. I can't believe it.
I didn't expect this in regional Victoria, but here we are.
Hola!
Beautiful. Cactus Country.
And, you know, it's the last spot
for someone to get into that immunity cook,
and I feel like there's some prickly tension in the air.
Rarrr! Wow.
(DRAWLS) Oh, everyone got their hats on.
We're in Cactus Country.
Hola. You're all looking very... sharp this morning.
(CONTESTANTS LAUGH)
Welcome to Cactus Country! Yeah!
You are standing in the largest cactus garden
in the Southern Hemisphere.
What? Wait, what? Yeah.
(IMITATES EXPLOSIONS)
Right here in Strathmerton, in Victoria's Murray region.
Who would have known?
(COW MOOS)
This incredible 12-acre garden
is home to over 4,000 species of cacti from all over the world.
CATH: 4,000!
Declan, Cath,
one of you will join these gentlemen in tomorrow's Immunity Challenge.
Unfortunately, Rhiannon isn't feeling well today,
so she won't be joining us,
which, sadly, also means
she's out of running for the Immunity Challenge tomorrow.
Declan, what does this place evoke for you?
Look, I'm not that familiar with the old cacti,
but...but I know, like, some subspecies,
maybe aloe and agave.
I use aloe vera a bit after, you know,
having a bit too much sun.
And, of course, tequila.
I've had a couple of cheeky tequila shots in my life,
so I'm familiar with it in that sense.
Brent, you've travelled around the world.
Are you getting any inspiration from this environment,
what you see right now?
The only thing I've learnt this morning
is not to touch them, so my fingers are stinging, but...
How old are you? I know.
It took you that long to realise.
You look at something that's... They're just so inviting, like...
You were that kid, growing up. Yeah, I was that kid, yeah.
Onto the challenge at hand, eh?
We want you to cook us a dish
that takes us straight from the Murray to Mexico.
Yeah!
You good for take-out? We'll just get you to cook it.
Oh, this doesn't really play to my strengths, Mexican food.
And I know Declan loves Mexican food.
He cooks it a lot.
So it's gonna be a challenge for me today.
You will have 60 minutes to bring us a Mexican-inspired dish.
Amazing.
The pantry is full of fresh local produce
and Mexican flavours.
It has everything you need
to bring us a dish that is a fiesta, not a siesta.
Oh! Oh! That's actually good!
Hat-tip there. Yeah!
(ALL LAUGH)
Good luck.
Your time starts now.
THEO: Come on, guys. Arriba!
I'm gonna beat you! (CATH LAUGHS)
You gonna get ingredients or equipment?
I'm gonna get equipment first.
Alright. I'm gonna go up this way.
Yeah, you go.
It's right up my alley today, especially that we're outside.
We're cooking in the great outdoors.
OK.
And I absolutely love Mexican food.
Alright, tomatillo.
It's something I cook with my girlfriend on a weekly basis,
so I have so many ideas.
Let's get these going to start with.
When I think Mexican, straightaway I'm thinking margaritas,
and what goes well with margaritas?
Tacos.
Keeping it traditional, so I'd like to do a grilled flathead taco
with a tatemada, which is, like, a Mexican charred salsa.
Gonna have some fresh coriander and the white onion
for that fresh hit.
Bit of charred corn.
Gonna try and do two different types of tortillas.
With this dish today, there's these taco holders there,
and I'd love to have one yellow-corn tortilla
followed by a blue-corn tortilla.
I think it's just gonna look beautiful on the plate.
And yeah, that's sort of what I'm trying to do,
make my food look a bit prettier as well as taste amazing.
THEO: Are you mixing them, Deccy?
No, I just might do two different-coloured ones.
Now that I'm inside the top 5, I think my eyes are on the prize.
Bit ambitious, but I think I can do it.
And if I want any chance at taking out Cath...
Red onions!
..everything has to be up to that standard,
restaurant-worthy and spot-on.
Ah, there you go!
Alrighty.
Octopus. Mm.
There we go.
Mexican is something I'm not familiar with or comfortable with,
but I know, like, the basic sort of flavours.
So I just want to try and just keep it simple for me.
So today I'm gonna be cooking Mexican octopus
with a salsa and avocado cream.
Brent's not cooking today,
so I'm gonna rub it in and I'm gonna cook octopus on the hibachi.
(THEO LAUGHS)
I've cooked octopus before,
but I haven't cooked octopus on the hibachi,
so I'm actually excited about that.
So I've got all these Mexican spices,
and my plan is to add some oil and make it into, like, a little rub.
Ooh!
I've got some cumin, some paprika, some oregano.
I'm gonna go really simple Mexican flavours.
Alright, just boil.
I need to simmer the octopus for 45 minutes
before I kiss it with the smoke on the hibachi.
Unfortunately, the water's taking a long time to boil,
so I'm a little bit concerned about it actually cooking in time,
but we'll just see how we go.
I might just take a little bit out.
(CHUCKLES) That did a lot.
(LAUGHS)
OK. That'll boil in a sec now.
Yeah, I'm sure, sure it will. OK.
You've still got some in there.
Stop touching all the cacti.
Here we are in Cactus Country, and I mean, just look at it.
It's completely transportive.
We feel like we could be in Mexico.
So we're hoping for a little bit of that beautiful vibe today.
What would you cook if you were in this?
I think, like, I would go super-traditional.
I'd have to cook tacos, because when you go to Mexico,
it is what you remember.
You remember the tortilla. Yeah.
You remember the salsas.
The proteins, like, for me, it's not really about that.
Look, I would be with Andy. I'd be going for tacos.
Salsas and spices and flavours and aromas,
and loads of fresh herbs, do you know what I mean?
That's it.
There are so many different flavours all playing beautifully together.
It's exciting food.
BRENT: Ooh, I like those tomatillos up on that hibachi.
Yeah. (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
DECLAN: Put these on here.
I've got my dough resting to the side for my corn tortillas,
and now I'm gonna move onto charring my corn and capsicums
for my tatemada.
I'll be bashing it all up in a mortar and pestle
to give it that fresh, spicy, vibrant salsa feel.
Right on time, Declan. Right on time.
What's happening? Not much.
What have you got for us?
So I've got a bit, but I'm trying to keep it traditional.
I'm doing a flathead... grilled flathead taco
with a tatemada.
So, traditional sort of Mexican charred salsa.
Yep, love it.
Gonna be doing, like, a fresh sort of cilantro and the white onion.
Yep, beautiful.
And I've got my tortillas over here that are just resting,
ready to go in the press,
so I think it's gonna come down to the perfect tortilla.
You got two types?
Yeah.
And I think it'd just look beautiful having different colours,
so two of each.
Is it worth it?
As I'm talking about what I'm gonna be making to the judges,
I realise I'm definitely over-complicating it.
We all know how that ends. No, keep it simple, stupid.
Alright, buddy. Good luck. Thank you.
I... Yeah.
So, making a couple of adjustments.
I'm just gonna focus on doing one kind of tortilla,
and really just, you know,
make it punchy and vibrant
and give it that Mexican twist
that they're after.
You alright, Cath?
CATH: I'm just trying to get this water boiled,
and it's taking its time.
My octopus is not even in the water yet.
It needs about 45 minutes to braise
before I finish it off on the hibachi.
Come on, water.
You have 45 minutes till fiesta. Come on!
Come on, guys.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
If I don't cook the octopus long enough,
it's just gonna be rubbery, it's just not gonna be palatable.
Come on, come on!
I have to make a decision right now.
Am I gonna risk it, or am I gonna pivot and change?
(MYSTICAL MUSIC)
(WHISPERS) Far out.
Only 45 minutes left in the cook,
and my octopus is not even in the water yet.
Come on, water.
I have to make a decision right now.
Am I gonna pivot and change my dish already?
Alright, let's just quickly...
The water's not even boiled.
I really don't think it's gonna work with the octopus.
Just coming through, buddy. Yep, you're alright.
I'm gonna have to think quickly now.
What have you got?
Oh, I've got some chicken wings. Alright.
You're alright, Cath. Let's do it.
I'm spewing.
Really wanted to use that octopus.
I've decided to go with chicken wings
because they're really quick to cook.
So plan is now
just to do the same thing with the chicken
that I was going to do with the octopus.
So I'm not gonna let it worry me.
I'm just gonna go and we'll just go with the chicken.
Love wings. Love wings? Love wings.
MELISSA: Where's my swipe?
(CHUCKLES) Those flies.
I'm just getting rid of them for you.
I appreciate it.
(CATH WHISPERS) OK.
Alright, we're halfway through, guys. Only 30 minutes to go!
Come on!
(URGENT MUSIC)
Flies. Get out!
Time is flying by
and I really need to start pulling this dish together,
cooking off the tortillas,
cook my fish and finish off this tatemada.
You know, you really want to get your back into it.
I want them to have a generous size to them so, you know,
the fish and all that beautiful tatemada and freshness sits in there.
I'm pretty happy with how the tortillas are looking.
Flip it, they're looking good.
They have a nice char on them.
That's warming up.
And, yeah, I think it's just all gonna come down to
the cook on the fish and how it looks on the plate.
How good's it being in Mexico? Oh, Mexico's great, isn't it?
(JOCK HUMS 'MEXICAN HAT DANCE')
(URGENT MUSIC)
Take us to Mexico in five minutes!
Yeah!
Yay! JOCK: Come on, Cath!
I feel like I've made the right decision to pivot with the chicken,
because I have all the ingredients aside for my salsa.
Yeah, smells nice.
Just gonna see how they are.
And chicken wings are ready to go on the hibachi
and I can smell those aromats, which is really lovely.
Ooh! Chilli.
It's quite spicy,
so I'm hoping the avocado cream cuts through that spiciness.
(SINGSONGS) # Oh-ho-ho! #
Right, now, it's just to kiss it.
The Cath who originally came into this MasterChef kitchen
would not have been able to do that,
even think about a different concept of cooking octopus
and then having to pivot to chicken.
I've developed. I'm always developing.
One minute to go! Come on!
Come on, guys! Come on, let's go.
Push, push, push, push.
Get 'em all on the plate, Deccy! Come on, plate it up.
DECLAN: I think I've definitely hit the Mexican brief today,
keeping it traditional with tortillas and grilled fish,
but I think the stand-out on my plate today
is that tatemada.
At this point in the competition,
presentation takes a huge part,
so I'm trying to piece this together
so it looks beautiful.
30 seconds! Come on, Cath! Come on, Declan!
JOCK: Push, push, push! Let's go! Come on!
THEO: Come on, let's go! Come on!
(CATH GASPS) ANDY: 10!
JUDGES, THEO AND BRENT: 9, 8, 7, 6,
5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
That's it! We're done!
Oh! Good job, Cath! Yay!
Well done, you two. Beautiful. Good job.
The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to Declan.
BRENT: Go, Dec.
Beautiful.
Declan, what did you make?
Today I've done grilled flathead tortillas
with a tatemada and a fresh coriander, onion, charred corn.
It looks...
..very nice.
Those flies are nasty, huh?
(MUMBLES) I'll do you. (LAUGHS)
You eat.
(CONTESTANTS CHUCKLE)
Can I get involved? (CATH LAUGHS)
(LAUGHS)
Declan, this guy here, this salsa...
..that is where it's at.
That mixture of the char from the tomatillos and the onions
and the soaked dried chillies...
..with a good whack of lime juice, that's where it's at, mate.
Like, honestly. Awesome.
You've done it really, really well.
And it's your take on it, you know?
And then being as pared back and really just having the confidence
to put raw onion, charred corn
and a little bit of coriander chopped up.
These two things today is the most transportive
and what I wanted to see out of this challenge right there.
I really thought there was a lot of mastery
in how you've pulled together your side hustles,
because they're both contrasting in both flavours and textures,
so they gift the entire dish
complexity, texture.
Declan.
Good job on the tortillas. Really, really nice.
And the fish, perfectly cooked.
Well done, Declan. Thank you, Declan.
Thank you. Awesome. Awesome, Declan.
Righto, there's only one thing left to do. Cath.
MEN: Go, Cath.
CATH: I'm really nervous taking my dish up to the judges.
My biggest concern is,
am I taking these guys to Mexico today?
Have I hit that brief?
(TENSE MUSIC)
MEN: Go, Cath.
MELISSA: Cath, what did you make for us today?
I've made some Mexican chicken wings with a salsa
and an avocado cream.
Wonderful.
Cath, um, I think you did a decent effort.
I could tell that Mexican cuisine isn't, like, your go-to,
probably eating or cooking, am I right?
Yeah, you're right.
It kind of shows here on the dish.
The chicken wings themselves, they're tasty, they're delicious.
You've coated them in your signature Mexican spice mix.
Thinking you could have made this better
by maybe rolling them in smoky chipotle number after that,
I think that would have sent them to a full nother level.
The two sidekicks, they're good.
They're not, like, blowing me away.
True Mexican is something that needs practice, investigation...
Yeah. ..research.
It's not something you can pull out of the bag if you don't know it.
And that's OK. We all don't know everything about cuisine.
That's the wonderful thing about the world of food.
It's now opened a door for you, and if you choose to investigate it,
you will go down this wormhole of flavour,
and it is absolutely amazing.
OK, thank you. Thanks, Cath.
In this tasting, it came down to the dish
that took us all the way to Mexico,
and that was you, Declan.
Oh! Congratulations, mate.
Good boy.
Getting this spot in an immunity cook
gets me one step closer to a spot in Finals Week,
so it feels pretty awesome.
Three amigos, hey? (THEO AND CATH LAUGH)
And I'm ready to go home and have a taco and kick my feet up.
Oh.
So, we have our cooks for tomorrow's huge final Immunity Challenge.
But... (SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
..we also have a huge surprise for you.
Oh, yeah, of course.
Going to Mexico.
Oh!
The three of you, Declan, Brent, Theo...
..you're gonna cook for an all-important advantage
in tomorrow's challenge...
..right now.
Oh!
Surprise! Oh! (LAUGHS)
Still got it, don't we?
Bring it on!
Ah, look, I was knocking off, I was gonna have a nice cold beer
after a hot day in a cactus field,
and, yeah, well, now I've got to somehow gather the strength to cook.
So this is a surprise advantage round,
and we want you to cook with a surprising ingredient.
Well, probably not so surprising, given where we are.
Of course I'm talking about cactus.
Oh, yes! Oh!
Alright, yeah. OK.
Yeah, look,
to say it's gonna be a prickly challenge
is probably correct.
I don't think any of the boys have cooked too much with cactus,
so it's a pretty level playing field today.
Brent, Theo, Declan, you can cook whatever you like,
but you must use cactus in your dish.
We're giving you 60 minutes and a fully stocked cactus-friendly pantry.
And the top dish in this round will win a game-changing advantage
in tomorrow's Immunity Challenge.
Don't take this lightly. OK.
This advantage could be the reason why one of you
becomes our first contestant into Finals Week.
A lot to play for, lads.
Good luck. 60 minutes starts now. Oh!
Oh, he's over. Off track.
Ooh, let's have fun.
Let's go, fellas.
(BOTH MUTTER INDISTINCTLY)
DECLAN: I've never cooked with cactus,
but I'm always trying to do better than my last cook
and go one step ahead.
Round 2 for me today.
Oh, I'm stoked that I've made it into the second round,
and a bit scary that we've got to cook with cactus.
But I know prickly pear, and I know it's sweet, it's tangy,
and I'm sticking today with the Mexican roots
and I'm going a Mexican rice with a steamed fish,
that tatemada salsa again,
and I'll be reducing this prickly pear glaze down
that will be going over my fish.
It's all about cacti today,
so I'm using prickly pear.
I'll chuck some agave syrup, which is made from cacti,
and I'm familiar with that.
And then some prickly pear, blood orange liqueur
that I found in the pantry.
It tastes a bit like Campari.
It's prickly pear and bitter orange,
so I think it would... that would make a nice negroni.
Yeah.
On a day like today, I could go for that.
Did you grab some of those dried chillies, fellas?
I did, mate. I've got some here, so if you need some...
I might have to share those. Yep.
I'm cooking pork tacos today,
with a prickly pear glaze.
I'm gonna pressure-cook some pork,
and then I'm gonna cook it on the hibachi after that
to get some char on it.
I'm using Berkshire pork belly today from the area.
I want that to come out and still have that texture to it
so that I can glaze that pork with a very sticky glaze.
I've got the prickly pears and the agave syrup in the glaze,
so I'm hoping that is enough for the judges.
At this point in the competition,
hitting the brief is really important.
Prickly pear, it does taste sweet but it is quite mild,
so hoping I can enhance the flavour with a lot of Mexican spices.
Oof! It's hot.
Hey, Brent. How are you, mate? Yeah, good, mate.
What do you want me to do? Oh, just peel some garlic for me.
Yeah, righto. If you get the chance.
Yeah, sweet, love to. Thanks.
You've had 15 minutes. You've only got 45 minutes to go.
Come on.
(DYNAMIC MUSIC)
Ooh, yeah. Yummy, yummy.
Brent. G'day, Brent.
G'day. What's going on, mate?
Oh, mate, just a bit of... Surprised?
Very surprised, actually. Yeah?
You said... Got me good.
I heard you say, "I have clocked off for the day."
What are you gonna do?
So, I'm doing a twice-cooked chicken -
doing it in the pressure cooker.
And I'm gonna fry it and then I'm gonna hibachi some cucumbers.
Yeah, as for the cactus,
I'm gonna make a sort of a sweet-and-sour glaze
for the chicken at the end with the agave and prickly pear.
It sounds like a good dish. Yeah.
What I'm thinking is I know cactus is quite soft
and the glaze will be sticky,
but that's why I've gone with the crispy twice-cooked chicken.
I want that crunch.
I want the glaze to just stick to that crispiness.
I want a sort of sweet-and-sour glaze,
so I think, you know,
I can sweeten them up with agave syrup,
and then with some vinegar.
I love the colour. It's good, isn't it?
It's amazing.
I've eaten prickly pear,
and I know that they're not bursting with flavour.
And I can hear that there's a few cactus glazes
going on next to me.
I'm picking that up.
To win today it's gonna be about the brief.
It's gonna be that you put enough cactus in there
to really feature it.
I need to stand out,
and I know that glaze is not gonna be enough.
I've got to come up really quick with a plan B.
My sweet-and-sour glaze is, you know, lacking in flavour.
I've got to somehow think
how to inject more cactus
so that when they eat it
they actually think of cactus.
I'm just tasting every single cactus there is
and I'm trying to think
what I can, you know, imagine it becoming,
or what other ingredient kind of tastes like
where I could sort of pretend I'm cooking with that ingredient,
'cause I haven't used these.
And then I'm tasting the strawberry cactus...
..and it kind of reminds me of little pomegranate seeds
that you put in a beautiful salad.
So I'm thinking I'm gonna make it a strawberry cactus salsa.
Really, those strawberry cactus are gonna do absolute wonders
in the little salsa
for a, like, a textural pop.
So across the board,
there's a lot of cactus going into this dish.
Hopefully, when I get to the end of it,
it all screams 'cactus'.
Brentles. Yo.
Can I take some of that agave? Yeah, bro.
Careful. (LAUGHS) What are you doing?
And hopefully all those needles aren't in the dish
and they're just in my hands.
I've got bloody prickly pears in me. Look sharp!
30 minutes to go! Come on, gentlemen!
THEO: Let's go.
DECLAN: Get it in the fridge.
You right, buddy? Yeah, I'm good.
THEO: You weren't lying about those flies, were you? Jeez.
30 minutes to go, I've got my glaze on.
It's starting to reduce.
(STEAM HISSES)
My pork is in the pressure cooker.
That's good, that's good, that's good.
So I move onto my corn tortillas.
Man, it is hot.
Hoo-hoo! Ow.
Alright, now I'm in my happy place.
I feel like, you know,
this is gonna come together really nicely.
You know, a beautiful pork belly with that prickly pear,
your sticky glaze and your beautiful corn tortilla,
got a little salsa on top,
it's gonna be a really nice bite of food.
JOCK AND ANDY: Theo. Hey, guys.
What's happening? Loving the flies.
Loving it. Yeah, loving it.
What's happening? What are you cooking?
I'm cooking, um, pork belly.
I've got it in the pressure cooker with a bunch of chillies
and I'm gonna take it out and glaze it with this prickly pear glaze.
What's in here? Prickly pear juice and...
Agave, bit of chicken stock,
a bit of cumin and a bit of coriander.
Have you tried that? Yeah, I have.
Taste like? Not much. Just... Not much.
I... You need to turbocharge that, mate.
Today we have to use cactus in our dish,
and the judges want to be able to taste that cactus,
and I don't think I'm hitting the brief.
We know what the advantage is for tomorrow.
You want it, trust me. OK, alright.
Every advantage right now is gold. Sweet as. Thanks, guys. Cheers.
I'm sort of spinning right now.
They're telling me that, you know,
there's not much cactus there in my glaze,
so I need to turbocharge this.
Just a...
..bit of a worry that I need some, you know, something more.
It just tasted like prickly pear and chicken stock.
I've really got to think today. I've got to think on my feet.
And I will take any sort of advantage over these two cooks,
'cause they're great cooks.
I've just amped it up with a few more aromats, a few chillies.
I've just got to make sure
that it's got all the flavour in there that I want.
(TAPS SPOON)
Righto, this is bubbling away.
But...fish time.
I'm feeling good.
My Mexican rice is on the go,
my prickly pear reduction's simmering away,
now I need to get started on this fish.
Alrighty.
It's a big bloody fish.
This time I'm gonna be doing a steamed fish,
and kingfish is a thicker, more versatile white-flesh fish,
and that's gonna steam perfectly with some Mexican aromats.
I'm massaging this glaze into my kingfish
and they're going beautiful, pink and vibrant.
And it's tasting so nice and sweet.
Mm, yummy.
And I'm thinking
maybe I can incorporate this prickly pear reduction
into my tatemada.
Yeah.
Alright, the cactus is going in that, yeah.
Tasting beautiful.
It's balanced out, and there is that sweet element in there.
I think I'm onto something new here.
Oh, I like it.
And I'm trying to stick to this Mexican vibe.
I see there's corn husks there,
so why not steam my fish in the corn husks?
My steaming basket's ready to go.
I'm just gonna treat it as cooking it, you know,
in my baking paper and foil.
CATH: Nice, Declan.
Oh! Look at that.
Awesome!
So, the chicken's out of the pressure cooker,
so it's straight into the deep-fry.
It's now time to get that chicken stock into a nice big pan,
start reducing that.
It is quite a sauce, and full of flavour.
The more it reduces, the better it's gonna get.
And as I'm tasting the prickly pear glaze...
Mm.
..it's now just screaming 'sweet-and-sour'.
I think I'm onto a winner here.
The chicken, you know, is gonna be super-crunchy,
and then this sticky reduced glaze painted over the top of it.
Feel like I'm at the beach.
And then comes the smokiness with the cucumbers,
putting them on the bottom underneath the chicken,
and this beautiful, you know, dark, rich sauce,
cucumbers are just gonna suck that up.
The sweetness in the glaze,
acidity in the strawberry cactus salsa,
yeah, I think the guys should just pack up and go have a beer
while I finish this dish off.
Not gonna play it down.
Huge advantage on the line for tomorrow,
and you have 10 minutes to go.
CATH: Come on, 10 minutes! Come on, finish it off!
Come on, Brent!
Go, Theo!
THEO: 10 minutes to go, I am pushing.
I've got to finish my pork on the hibachi.
I've got to do a quick salsa as well.
So I've got a lot to do.
I'm happy with the cook on the pork.
Now I need to make sure that the glaze is where it needs to be
so I can hit it with some heat from the hibach.
But I'm looking at my glaze...
Man!
..and it's just not there at all.
This is meant to be my cactus element.
I needed this to really reduce.
But it looks more like a stock now.
Nah.
I'm worried that I might have to kiss goodbye to that advantage.
Come on.
Applications for contestants are now open.
Head to the link and apply.
Five minutes to go!
CATH: Come on, Dec. Finish it off, buddy!
Come on, Theo!
Come on, Brent! Yeah, get into 'em, Cath!
Yeah! Come on!
Come on! Come on, guys! Come on! You need to bring your food over.
Come on! THEO: Thank you, Cath.
Yes!
I needed my glaze to get to that sticky stage,
but it hasn't reduced enough.
But I'm running out of time and I've got to use it,
so I've got to hope that it still permeates that prickly pear flavour.
It's crunch time now.
It's all got to come together on the plate
and look bloody beautiful.
So I check my fish, and it's beautiful and flaky.
Of course I'm thinking about presentation in this round
and at this end of the competition.
Gorgeous, Dec.
So I grab a cookie cutter,
and I'm placing my rice in that so I can de-mould it.
This is what I live for.
Oh, it's beautiful.
As well as my tatemada in a beautiful jug
and my steamed fish wrapped up in that corn husk.
Looking at my dish, I think this advantage could be mine today.
It looks bang-on and I hope I've hit the brief.
One minute to go. Come on! Whoo!
Where's he going? 'Bye!
BRENT: Yeah, the last minute is absolutely frantic.
I haven't even started plating up.
I'm trying to get the glaze on the chicken, you know?
If I don't get that on there,
then all the work gone into that glaze is just thrown out the window.
I've got to get the sauce in the little jug.
I'm just pouring it all over the sink, all over my hand.
Oh, sugar! Oh, no, Brent.
But what I envisioned at the start of the cook
is what's on the plate right now.
I tell you what, I'll be a wounded little soldier
if I don't get the win today.
10...
(OTHERS JOIN IN) 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4,
3, 2, 1!
That's it! Whoo!
(SIGHS) CATH: Whoo!
Well done, guys!
Yeah, go, Theo. Good job, fellas.
Good job, mate. Whew.
Lost 30 kilos. Needed it. Yeah.
Good job, mate.
What a great surprise, eh?
We threw a cactus challenge at you.
(LAUGHS)
OK, obviously, the winner of that
will get an advantage in tomorrow's Immunity Challenge,
which, believe you me, you want.
the first dish we'd like to taste belongs to...
..Declan.
Let's go, son. Come on, Dec. Looks gorgeous.
Looking at my dish today,
I definitely think I've got a shot at this advantage.
It looks bang-on and I hope the judges love it.
Declan.
Hey. What have you cooked?
I've stuck with the Mexican vibe.
I've done steamed kingfish
with Mexican rice and a prickly pear tatemada.
Where have you featured the cactus?
So, I've featured my cactus in the tatemada.
I made the glaze and rolled the fish in it before I steamed it,
and I've got the agave, the prickly pear
and that cactus bitter.
Declan, picking up a lot of good Mexican vibes, right,
in terms of flavour.
You gave us absolutely perfect fish...
..permeated with that sort of corn husk flavour
and the prickly pear glaze.
Loved the presentation.
It came up and I was like,
"That is exactly what I was looking forward to."
There's definitely some technique stuff there.
Tatemada really did kind of add to the dish
with the sweetness of the prickly pear.
And you really nailed it both in round 1 and round 2, so good stuff.
I hope that you can be so proud of yourself
thinking about your journey through the competition,
because day 1 Declan would not even have conceived of this,
and look at what you're doing.
It's really beautiful stuff.
Thank you. Thanks, Declan.
Next up, it's Theo. Yes, Theo.
(TENSE MUSIC)
Hey, everyone. Hi.
What have you made for us today?
I have made prickly-pear-glazed pork tacos.
Is there enough prickly pear
in this dish
to suffice the challenge?
Look, I hope there is.
I hope that the prickly pear is in there
and it has a nice flavour to it.
In the sauce only? Nowhere else? Yeah, in the sauce.
Nowhere else. It's in the sauce.
It's, you know, agave syrup as well.
And, yeah, that's...that's where I went with it.
OK.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
Good job on the tortillas.
Nice flexibility. They're not cracking.
Very good.
But I don't taste the cactus.
And whether or not that's...
..a twofold thing here.
How can you expect the flavour of the prickly pear juice
to be more than the chilli?
Yeah.
Which is a shame,
because that could have been brilliant,
'cause you set it up magic with the perfectly cooked piece of pork.
I wanted it so much to be glaze-y and sticky and cactus-y,
do you know what I mean?
And it would have been perfect. You were so close, mate.
Just execution, Theo. Yeah.
Prickly pears, man, they're, like,
on the flavour scale, they're a 0.5 out of 10.
So it was also a bit of a trip hazard
for everyone out there today.
Thanks, mate. Theo.
Thanks, yeah.
Brent, let's go, mate.
BRENT: I think overall the dish looks good.
Tasted everything together besides the chicken,
and, you know, it tasted really yummy.
I could taste cactus in there.
Get after it. Drown it.
Hopefully it's enough to hit the brief and I get the win.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)
Brent, what's the dish, mate?
Today you've got twice-cooked chicken,
a prickly pear glaze,
then there's strawberry cactus salsa.
Gotcha.
MELISSA: Nice amount of heat in those chillies.
Brent...
..I'll start with the sauce.
Loved the sauce, like,
you know, you're getting stronger and stronger
in your...in your sauce section.
Every cook that you are, whether in the kitchen or out in the elements.
Big tick there.
Out of all of the glazes that we've had today...
..yours was the tastiest.
Out of the use of the cactus in the dish,
yours was probably the best.
The salsa was delicious,
like, I really loved the use of that,
um, the little strawberry cactus in there.
The salsa had a really lovely dimension of flavour
that the heat, the savoury qualities of the coriander and the onion,
and then the little... the little pops
of the strawberry cactus,
I thought was a really smart way to use it.
And that's what we were talking about earlier,
is you may not have used these ingredients before,
and we certainly don't expect you to,
but try it,
get the idea of what the qualities are of it
and then find something familiar in your repertoire
to integrate that into,
and I think you did that really, really well.
Yeah, thank you.
The funny thing about that fruit is there isn't a huge amount of flavour.
There's more aroma than flavour.
And of course we can taste more with aroma,
so when you're eating it,
as you're eating it, you're getting the aroma.
Yeah. And that's the bit...
That, for me, the brief was filled.
Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, mate.
Nice one, Brent.
CATH: Hey? You and Declan, hey? Well done, hey?
(TENSE MUSIC)
Here in the largest cactus garden in the Southern Hemisphere,
we wanted you to bring us a captivating cactus dish.
Declan...
..loved the concept of your dish.
But, Brent, your dish,
it featured cactus in the way that we were looking for,
which is why, Brent,
congratulations, you got the advantage.
Oh, thank you!
It feels really good to go into immunity cook-off
at the best of times.
Oh-ho! God!
But to go in with a really big advantage
is everything right now.
(HEROIC MUSIC)
Get ready to battle it out for the very first spot
in Finals Week, you three.
We'll see you all tomorrow for that last location on our road trip,
and trust me, it's a big one!
A big one. OK. Get out of here.
'Bye.
'Bye!
Adios.
NARRATOR: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...
BRENT: Holy dooley.
Wow!
RHIANNON: I've never seen anything like it.
..it's a phenomenal finish for the top 5 road trip.
BRENT: It's all been leading up to this.
With the final immunity cook
and a Service Challenge
all rolled into one...
THEO: There's never a dull moment.
DECLAN: This is gonna be very, very tough.
BRENT: Oh, my God.
I am going like a one-armed bricklayer.
..it's an ending of epic proportions.
Captions by Red Bee Media