VOICEOVER: Previously On MasterChef Australia...
..it was a David vs Goliath battle.
I just want the Favourites to win.
ALI: Sashi has his reputation to protect.
Um, and we don't, we've got nothing to lose.
Let's go, Faves. Yeah, I've got it.
Both teams pulled out all the stops...
Your dish was exceptional.
(ALL CHEER)
..and claimed a course each.
When you add Sashi's magic touch in there,
it just becomes extraordinary.
Well, we're at one-all.
And then...
Dessert. One team nailed the brief.
(ALL CHEER)
..the Fans flipped the game, winning 2-1.
Tonight, eight Fans and four Favourites...
JULIE: It feels like, you know, Nanny and the grandkids.
(LAUGHS)
..are facing a monumental battle - to get one step closer to immunity.
# 'Cause you're hot, then you're cold
# You're yes, then you're no
# You're in, then you're out
# You're up, then you're down
# You're wrong when it's right
# It's black and it's white
# We fight, we break up
# We kiss, we make up
# You're hot, then you're cold
# You're yes, then you're no
# You're in, then you're out
# You're up, then you're down
# You're wrong when it's right
# It's black and it's white
# We fight, we break up
# We kiss, we make up
# You # You don't really wanna stay, no
# You # But you don't really wanna go-o
# You're hot, then you're cold
# You're yes, then you're no
# You're in, then you're out
# You're up, then you're down. #
MICHAEL: Right, guys, let's do this.
As part of yesterday's team challenge,
myself, Julie, Sashi and Tommy won the main course.
Come on! Let's go!
And the Fans team are pumped
because they won the entree AND dessert courses.
Oh, here we go again!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
What is behind them?
What is this?
Good morning, everybody.
Morning. Hello.
Well done, everyone.
Another intense day in the MasterChef kitchen.
Winning yesterday with your team members - felt good?
ALL: Yes.
Amazing.
Today's challenge will decide which four of you
will progress onto tomorrow's immunity challenge.
MAX: Looking up and the most amazing cooks and chefs,
they're already in that first elimination.
So an opportunity
to get out of Sunday night's all-in elimination cook,
it's like gold in this kitchen.
Well, you've all been staring at this pyramid behind us.
So, allow me to formally introduce you to the MasterChef food pyramid.
Ooh.
We all grew up learning about how this pyramid
is the shining example of a balanced diet.
Fish and chips? Where does fish and chips fit in to the food pyramid?
(LAUGHS)
On the first layer, the bottom layer,
we've got fruits, vegetables, legumes.
This is what you're supposed to eat most of.
Yep. (ALL CHUCKLE)
The second layer - grains, nuts, seeds.
You're supposed to eat a little bit less of these
than you are the first layer.
Third layer - proteins.
Right? Dairy, eggs.
At the very top - fats, sweets and sugars.
Butter is also up there.
My memory of the food pyramid growing up
is that you're meant to eat all the things I liked the least
and you're not meant to eat all the things I liked the most.
Obviously, I love a bit of butter.
Don't mind a bit of sugar. I mean... (CHUCKLES)
..you don't get a body like this overnight.
(LAUGHS)
Today, this pyramid is your pantry.
But not everybody in your team will get to use the whole pyramid.
Oh.
One of you will get to cook with the entire pyramid -
bottom to top.
One of you will cook with the bottom three layers.
One of you will cook with the bottom two layers... Holy shit.
OK, I see.
And one of you will only be using the bottom layer.
Oh.
SARAH: You can do it, guys.
Right, now, the big decision is who is going to cook with each section?
That is up to you guys.
(ALL GROAN)
Have a little chitchat, work it out amongst yourselves.
HARRY: So the judges have asked us to all decide
how we're gonna cook from this food pyramid.
The idea of having to cook only from that bottom level,
so that's just fruit, vegies and legumes,
doesn't actually freak me out...
Like, I legit need nothing. I just don't need it at all.
..but Max is adamant that he needs to take the bottom level.
So I'm gonna go for the bottom two,
which is the grains, nuts and seeds and also the vegies.
JENN: It comes down to me and Chris, we've got the proteins
but who's gonna get the whole pyramid
and who's gonna miss out on the very top layer,
the fats and sugars?
And I think I'll be alright without that final layer so I told Chris,
"Look, you can have that whole pyramid if you think you need it,"
and he's happy to take that.
Don't leave me hanging.
So, cooking with the bottom layer only,
we have Montana, Michael and Max.
Cooking with the bottom TWO layers,
we have Keyma, Tommy and Harry.
Cooking with the three layers,
we have Melanie, Julie and Jenn.
And the lucky legends cooking with the whole thing, huh?
We've got Steph, Sashi and Chris.
The people who chose the same layers as you -
they're your competition today.
So you have to beat them to get into tomorrow's immunity.
CHRIS: Turn to my side and...
..I find out that I'm up against...
..Sashi,
a MasterChef legend.
Are you sure you don't wanna change your mind, Sashi?
(LAUGHS) Uh...
..you should be thinking about that. (ALL LAUGH)
Ooh-hoo-hoo. Spicy.
All of you, you've got 75 minutes to cook your dish.
And your time starts now.
(ALL CHEER)
Go, guys! Come on!
JULIE: We're only allowed to choose ingredients
from our allocated spots on the food pyramid.
Ah! I think I stretched a muscle.
There's no pantry today, there's no garden,
it's that little stack of shelves or nothin'.
Sashi's got all the spices.
So we're all hunting around for the things that we want
to make a really nice dish.
All that hard work destroyed in a matter of seconds.
(CHUCKLES) (MEL IMITATES WHIRLWIND)
It's pretty chaotic in the kitchen right now.
Sorry. Sorry! (LAUGHS)
Did I get you? (LAUGHS) Yes.
It's fine. Just some mild sabotage. Sorry.
Grapes.
I can only use the two bottom layers from the pyramid,
so the fruit and veg and grains.
The way that I eat, usually, at home is more vegie-based because,
you know, we're all on a budget.
I just feel super comfortable working with vegies.
I see a bowl of strawberries and I think strawberry and tomato
could be a really interesting combo and I'm gonna run with that today.
(EXHALES)
Today, I'm cooking up against Tommy and Keyma
and whoever wins out of the three of us today
will go through to tomorrow's immunity cook.
And I couldn't have been put with a group that's more difficult.
I'm gonna make arepas, which is like a flatbread made out of cornflour.
From Venezuela.
Oh, what! Oh! (LAUGHS JOYFULLY)
This is great!
Keyma has some incredible Latin flavours
that she brings through in her food
and Tommy is an absolute wiz in the kitchen.
TOMMY: I am making a vegetable dumpling.
I'm gonna use daikon, I'm gonna finely slice it.
Then I'm gonna make a mushroom-spring onion pate
and a little mushroom soy to go right on top as well.
Tommy is somebody who has absolutely killed this game before
and his flavours are just...awesome,
so I don't know how I'm gonna come up against that today.
Hello, Harry. Harry.
Hello. What are you doing?
So, I'm doing a strawberry, tomato and pickled grape salad.
There'll be a coriander and cucumber granita
over the top of the whole thing. Ah.
Interesting. I mean, it sounds conceptually inspiring
but you have over an hour to bring this into realisation.
Do you think you have it? Yeah, definitely.
No risk, potentially so much reward, so enjoy it.
Thank you. Thanks. Good luck.
That's a balanced diet, right there. (LAUGHS)
MONTANA: Oh, that way.
How cute is this?
So cute. Yep. (CHUCKLES)
Sorry, back to cooking.
JULIE: There are 12 people cooking in this kitchen
but I only have to worry about the one on either side of me.
On my bench, using the three layers of fresh fruit and vegetables,
pulses and grains, protein.
I'm up against Mel and Jenn.
I'm gonna make a home dish that we really enjoy at home
which is mapo tofu.
And if I've got time, I wanna do a little pipi stir-fry as well.
DULAN: What are you making, Mel? I'm making double-stuffed ravioli.
Ooh.
So it feels like, you know, Nanny and the grandkids. (LAUGHS)
I'm frankly terrified of the Fans.
So the idea of being safe from the first elimination is...
It's just... It sounds like heaven to me.
I know I make a really nice cauliflower soup
and I think to make cauliflower soup really special,
it needs to have a lot of butter.
I realise after I've decided what dish I'm going to do
that butter isn't sitting in with the proteins,
butter's up with the fats and oils, up at the pointy end of the pyramid
and I don't have access to that. What I do have is cream.
MINOLI: Is she making butter? So she's making her own butter.
Oh!
Because she doesn't have access to the top. Can't have butter.
Yep. Yep.
That's smart.
To make butter, you essentially whip cream too hard and you over-whip it
and it splits into butter and buttermilk.
Split, goddammit.
STEPH: Chris, are you using your oven?
Oven? No, I'm not. Are you using your oven?
Cool, can I use it? Yeah, yeah, go for it.
Legend.
I'm cooking against Sashi and Chris
and we have access to the whole pyramid.
I'm thinking chocolate mud cake, peanut butter, cream and jam
then layering up with cake, cream and jam again.
For this dish, I'm gonna be top-heavy.
Lots of sugar, lots of chocolate.
All the good stuff.
I am a banking analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
But, you know, I've realised that
I don't have to be this financial analyst.
There's another part of me who loves cooking and who loves feeding people.
I love making cakes.
I love making desserts.
I love how it brings joy to people.
You know, life is so hard as it is
and when there's a cake at the end of the day,
you know your day is going to be better.
If it's not cake, it's chocolate,
so, like, what's better than chocolate and cake? (CHUCKLES)
Yeah, cake's pretty much... That's me.
What's not to like?
I just need more chocolate and more butter.
I'm taking a bit of a risk to make this cake work in 75 minutes.
This would usually take me a couple of days.
I do it over a couple of days. Um...
So yeah, I'm just gonna see how I go.
Making this cake in the time, it's a high risk
but if it works, I'm hoping the judges will love it.
Making dessert? Yeah.
No. (CHUCKLES)
I'm making my mum's home-style chicken curry.
I'm serving it with roti.
I love a good roti to be mopped up by the curry.
It's yummy.
He said he was doing dessert, but what's with the chicken?
(ALL LAUGH) He's lying.
I'm just like, "What's going on?" (LAUGHS)
For the marination, I'm having Kashmiri chilli,
turmeric, coriander,
cumin and garam masala.
It has a lot of yoghurt, tomato,
some potatoes, mix all of them together,
let it sit for a good 10 to 15 minutes.
It will just absorb all the moisture inside
and just be...yum.
Hey, Chris, what are you making, mate?
Doing steamed fish.
Oh. With spring onion and ginger.
Lovely, mate.
My cooking style is very much a South-East Asian influence.
It's great having access to the whole pyramid
because I've got so much more to play with.
Knowing that I can use a protein,
I'm going to make steamed snapper with spring onion and ginger oil
with a side of Chinese broccoli and jasmine rice.
I'm just gonna give it my best shot today.
I don't know what my chances are.
I know I'm up against two amazing cooks.
I've had Steph's cake before and it is incredible.
And up against a veteran, a past winner of MasterChef.
Sorry, Sashi, I might need some of that space.
Sashi's looking confident.
Sashi is like a MasterChef god.
Go easy on me, Sashi. Huh?
Go easy on me now. (CHUCKLES MISCHIEVOUSLY)
Sashi, what are you making? I'm making chicken curry.
Oh, Jesus. Oh.
When I look over and I see that Sashi's doing a curry...
..we know that he does amazing curries.
I'm ready to pack my bags.
Cooking next to Sashi is just...
I'm shaking. Like, you can't see me underneath the bench right now
but my legs are shaking.
It's bloody intimidating.
you've only got one hour to go.
Arrgh! One hour!
Go, guys! Let's go!
God, it smells so good here. Yeah. It does, eh?
JULIE: I'm up against Mel and Jenn today.
Oh, I want so much to compete
in the immunity challenge tomorrow
because up on the gantry there are all these wonderful cooks and chefs
and I've seen them on television and I know how good they are.
Putting up my food against them, it's a scary one.
So, the idea that I might be safe from the first elimination
is very appealing.
Hi, Julie. Hey, Julie. Hello.
Tell us about what you're cooking.
So, I'm going to make a cauliflower soup with some roasted pumpkin
with the butter and sage.
What makes your cauliflower soup, like, just the best?
Lots of butter. Lots of butter.
Which of course, wasn't on my tier. So I'm making it.
MEL AND ANDY: Oh...
There we go. Clever.
No, no, that's clever. I love that.
This is silly.
I was going to say, why is this not in one of those?
I realised that next to me, Mel is also making butter.
She has very cleverly put hers into the bowl of a stand mixer.
So, both of her hands are free to go about other things for her dish.
I was watching you stirring the cauliflower and the milk
and holding your whisk at the same time.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. That's OK.
This is going to make your life so much easier.
I feel silly.
Yes, Andy! Whoo!
The good news is, Jules, the cooking equipment budget
has gone up since season one.
So...make this your friend. Excellent. I will. I will.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Leave you to it.
Go, Julie! Go, Julie! Go, Jules.
How are you going, Keyma? Happy? I think I'm going OK.
Yeah? Yes.
Nice.
Your happy dance. Yes.
Tommy, what are you making?
I'm making a mushroom soya right now.
Nice.
I'm on the bottom two layers
and I'm really happy about that
because I really want to try to experiment today.
I want to kind of push myself out of my boundaries.
For the mushroom soy sauce, I chop up the mushrooms quite finely
and add salt, mix together, sit and forget.
Now I need to get on to my mushroom and spring onion pate.
Tommy. Tommy. Hello. Hello. How are we going?
Do you have mushroom on your bench to work with?
Tommy...
(LAUGHS)
Ladies to both your sides
known for being super-tasty cooks.
Yeah. They're amazing cooks. And, you know, I'm scared.
Harry. She's won a pin. I've won a pin.
We've both got, you know, pretty good cooks under our belts.
So, who knows, you know,
she could really just knock it out of the ballpark today.
Go, Harry.
HARRY: My culinary strength is definitely veg.
Living on minimum wage,
I've just spent years working on
how I can take really simple vegies,
something that somebody else might just, like, steam or boil
and turn them into something extraordinary on the plate.
My tomatoes are in the oven roasting.
I'm now making my coriander and cucumber granita.
I've put a big bunch of coriander, half of a cucumber,
some salt and some lemon juice.
Looking good, Harry.
The granita will hopefully add the crunch to the dish.
I know where I'm going and I... and I trust my flavour profile.
I should be able to create a really delicate, beautiful dish.
Four spots in tomorrow's immunity.
You've only got 45 minutes to go.
JULIE: I hate it when they do that.
Come on, guys!
Oh, my goodness. Go!
(JOCK WHISTLES)
Mmm...
What about this layer?
(SMACKS LIPS)
Um... Happy. Hello there, sir.
I'm making myself a balanced sandwich.
Can I snag one? Can I snag one more, mate?
Yeah. go for it. Thanks, mate. Thanks, mate. All good.
Today, I'm cooking with the bottom layer
of the MasterChef food pyramid.
Just the fruits, the vegies, the spices and the vinegars.
Cooking against Max and Montana from the Fans team.
So lots of pressure on me because I've cooked in this kitchen before.
GARY MEHIGAN: A nine out of ten.
I came second...
You are Australia's MasterChef.
..in season three of MasterChef.
Standing in front of the judges and not winning
was...it was pretty hard.
You know, you put a lot of time, a lot of effort into it
and to get that close and be pipped at the post at the final hurdle,
it's a tough feeling and it's...it didn't feel nice.
I haven't forgotten that feeling. Yeah.
But, yeah, hopefully that will change this time.
Go, Michael.
Our bench probably has the hardest cook today,
the bottom of the food pyramid, the least amount of ingredients,
so head down and focus, I think.
My dish will be called carrots and passionfruit
with a lightly smoked coconut milk.
Sorry, Max, I'll move over. I'm taking up your bench.
Get off my bench. Sorry, brother.
I know you're a Favourite, but come on.
I'm making a carrot and passionfruit sauce.
I've got some carrots to go into the oven to roast,
just nice big pieces of carrot
and little chunks, so you've got different textures of carrot.
I'm going to make a little carrot top oil.
So, hopefully that'll make it a little bit more savoury.
The guys next to me, they're both moving very fast.
They're both working very cleanly.
If you look at the standard of food those Fans are cooking...
I'm making a garden broth.
..I mean, it's ridiculous.
Right. Mon, what are you doing?
So, I'm doing, like, shallots with date, cauliflower, parsnip.
All that stuff.
I'm kind of confident with today's cook.
I'm thinking of using the dates and shallots and sort of heroing them.
Montana. Yes.
What's cooking? What's cooking?
I've got a cauliflower and parsnip puree.
Yeah.
Then I'm doing a shallot and date, like, stuffed shallot.
And then I've got a broth and a fennel and dill oil.
Yum!
Cool. I love that.
I love it. That sounds great. Thank you.
You got enough time? I think so.
Hopefully, we'll see.
Good luck. Thanks, Jock.
I think Jock definitely understood my dish,
but using the dates,
I'm definitely worried about my dish being too sweet.
So, I'm hoping that I can balance everything out,
get a good hit of salt and acid into some other elements
to balance out that sweetness.
And I think if I pull off everything,
I'll be in a good chance to win that immunity cook.
Just remember to breathe. Remember to breathe.
Thank you.
So well balanced. Yeah.
What are we thinking out there?
Who are you liking so far?
Sashi's making his mum's curry.
I'm excited about that, because it's his mum's, right?
And then Tommy with his ravioli thing.
So, I'm liking the sound of that,
but I'm loving the sound of Harry's clean, crunchy granita,
strawberry, tomato, roast tomato. Strawberries. Fresh.
Like, all that sounds amazing to me.
And then on the front bench, I'm intrigued by Michael's. Yes.
Because it's, like, passionfruit, carrot.
How is the carrot going to get a voice over the passionfruit?
I'm not sure. That's full-on.
There are some good little battles going on out there, like bench to bench.
Yeah. It's exciting.
So, this is the sauce that goes over the fish.
Just ginger, scallions, oil and soy sauce.
There was a light soy sauce in there, wasn't there?
I've got access to the full pyramid, but it's not a full pantry.
Light soy...
I can't find the soy sauce that I usually use.
White soy. White.
Oh... Oh, man.
And all I see is white soy sauce.
I'll probably have to use it if there's no other soy.
I've never used white soy sauce in my life.
OK, let's taste this.
What is this thing? Like, this is really strong.
Is this too risky using a condiment that I've never used before?
Oh, man.
Arrgh.
I'll just take the whole thing.
75 minutes to make a cake is not a long time.
It's just easier.
But, you know, some risks pay off.
Fingers crossed.
Steph. Hi.
It smells incredible already. What are you doing?
I'm doing... I reckon I know.
Can you smell it? There's a cake in the oven.
Cake in the oven. Love it.
So, the only question really is what kind of cake? Yeah. Yeah.
Lots of chocolate. Yeah.
Lots of peanut butter. Yeah.
And some jam. Stack it up. Love it.
But I've got to see how fast I can cook the cake.
We'll see how we go.
You seem sort of a little bit nervous.
I'm like, "This cake has got to bake."
People are starting to call me the cake queen. And it's terrifying.
Good luck. Thank you.
Because you've got to bake it,
you've got to cool it and then you've got to build it
and it's still not cooked.
This is so scary.
Come on, guys.
Go, Julie!
JULIE: The energy in the kitchen is great.
It's like a whole bunch of people just doing what they love to do,
fully focused, fully in the moment, just loving food.
Yes, Julie!
I know how I want my dish to look when it's finished,
I can see it in my mind.
So, I'll have a cauliflower soup
and building a little pile of yummy things on top of it.
Roasted pumpkin...
Looking good, Jules.
..pine nuts and then that crispy sage
and the nutty burnt butter will go sort of all over that.
I look over and see that Jenn has this big board
with all these dishes on it.
And Mel has made this amazing gluten-free pasta,
so technical, and it looks beautiful.
I think, "Oh, yeah. Protein."
Like, I could have done chicken, I could have done a steak,
I could have done anything.
(SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE GANTRY)
I wonder if I've made the best use of my tiers of the pyramid today.
JULIE: I only realised sort of towards the end of the cook,
that Jenn has got a whole bunch of things on the go,
using all three tiers that we have.
I'm only using two.
I don't have protein.
I guess my strategy for choosing something so simple today
is just that I don't want to overload myself with things to do
because that is where things fall apart.
But I think I'm going pretty well.
My pumpkin looks like it's going to come together in time.
My cauliflower soup is cooking down.
I do have time to add a protein.
I've decided to go with speck.
This is going to be really crunchy, salty and savoury.
It smells good, Jules. Thank you.
It's just a flavour bomb that lifts everything.
It's bacon. Always smells good, eh? (LAUGHS)
So, this is just the sauce that goes over the fish.
For the ginger and spring onion oil,
what gives that flavour at the end is soy sauce.
There's no regular soy sauce in the pyramid,
so I need to use this white soy, and it is pungent.
Salty.
It is really salty.
Definitely needs a little bit more sweetness.
I use sugar to balance out the saltiness of the white soy.
And keep tasting until it resembles something
that I know will work for this fish.
(SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE GANTRY)
That will be so beautiful.
I'm so hungry. Same.
STEPH: I've taken the cake out of the oven, I've let it rest,
so I'm going to chuck it into the freezer to get it cooled down.
Good girl, Steph.
To make the peanut butter cream,
I'm going to loosen it up with some fresh cream
and then fold through some whipped cream as well.
The concern for me in this challenge is the limited amount of time
because I need this cake to cool down
so that I can assemble it in the way that I want to do.
To actually get something up and assembled
and presented to the judges as a cake in just 75 minutes,
that's a little bit of pressure, so I'm kind of terrified.
Looks good, Steph. You've got this.
If you want to get into tomorrow's immunity challenge,
all you've got to do is beat your bench
15 minutes to go. Yep!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE FROM THE GANTRY)
Come on!
Getting your step count up, Harry? Yeah.
Carrots and passionfruit, yeah? Yeah.
Just the flavour I've always liked. Very nice.
Carrot and passionfruit are the stars of my dish,
and I've brought in some coconut milk for a little bit of richness.
You're always looking for that little edge in MasterChef
and a step or a cooking technique
that can add extra flavour and also wow the judges.
So, if I can add a little bit of smoke to my coconut milk as well,
I think it would help lift the dish.
Oh, Michael's got the smoker going. Look out. Yeah.
I'm just trying to keep myself in with a chance against these Fans
because up on the gantry, you've got people
that have won this competition
who are cooking in Sunday night's elimination,
and I don't want to be the first to go home.
ANDY: Smoking there, mate. Yeah.
Hopefully, I'll get in that immunity cook tomorrow.
Oh, sorry if I splashed you. Nah. It's all good.
Rogue puree.
With my dish, I'm worried that it is quite heavy.
The dates are a really sweet, strong flavour,
so I'm hoping that I can balance everything out.
Middle Eastern works really well with dates.
It's featured a lot in the cuisine,
so I've decided to get some Middle Eastern spices in there.
I'm going to use some cumin seeds,
coriander, fennel seeds...
..and ground cinnamon
and also use citrus fruits...
..just to get that hit of acid to balance out that sweetness.
I really want to make those vegetables sing
and hero them as best as I possibly can.
And I think if I can pull it off as I'm hoping to,
it'll be a potential immunity-cook-worthy dish.
Sashi, that looks amazing. Amazing. Thank you, guys.
Chuck one up here.
Please.
They look good, Keyma.
Oh, thank you.
Make extra.
You can put Vegemite in there.
Oh, yes. Yeah, that's mine.
Tommy, how are you making your dumplings?
So, I'm layering it,
and then I'm putting the pate in between
and I'm going to layer it and then I'm just going to fry it.
Yeah, yeah.
To assemble my daikon dumpling wrappers,
it's super intricate kind of work.
I get the daikon wrappers, fold it in with a little bit of pate...
It's, like, a mushroom and spring onion pate.
..and a slice of spring onion,
fold it up and just continue that same layering.
Daikon wrapper, spring onion pate.
Just keep going and going until I get about six layers.
This is not gonna work.
I'm making a tomato, strawberry and grape salad
and a cucumber and coriander granita.
Go, Harry. Come on.
The next element on my dish is a tomato oil.
It's a bit of a last-minute add-on to the dish.
I would love to be in the immunity cook for tomorrow,
so I've put a lot of pressure on myself today
to really bring out a dish that is the next level of what I can do.
And I think adding the tomato oil might do that.
I have caramelised some cherry tomatoes off in a pan.
And then I blitz them with some olive oil
and strain it through a muslin cloth.
Hopefully, this has given me a really creamy, rich tomato oil,
which I'll just add dots of throughout the salad.
God, I hope this tastes good.
From the top to the bottom, from the back to the front,
you've only got five minutes to go.
Let's go! Five minutes.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE FROM THE GANTRY)
I want to see this cake.
STEPH: I'm running out of time.
Everything has got to come out of the fridge now.
Go, Steph.
That looks beautiful.
Thank you.
But my cake, it hasn't been in the fridge for as long as I would like
and I'm just wishing, I'm hoping
that this cooled down enough.
The cream is looking a little bit loose, so I'm a little bit worried.
All good? We'll see. I hope this holds.
Oh, yes.
Come on, Steph. Get the hustle on. Yeah.
As I'm piping it, the peanut butter cream looks like it's holding shape.
Go, Steph. That looks so good.
I'm on the final layer
and I'm putting my strawberries and raspberries on top.
But I have to get the acetate off.
Well done, Steph. Come on. You can do it. You can do this.
(GASPS) No!
(GASPS) Oh, no. What has she done?
Oh, God.
So, the mud cake has done a mudslide.
Oh, my God. You got it, Steph.
You'll be right, mate.
The cake's collapsing. The cake's collapsing.
My chances of winning today against these two next to me
have just kind of slid away with the mudslide.
(SIGHS)
ANDY: You've only got five minutes to go!
ALVIN: Oh, my God. SARAH: Oh, no! What has she done?
So the mud cake has done a mudslide...
Oh, God.
She took it off too soon.
..but I've just gotta power on and save what I can.
Well done, Steph. Come on. You got it, Steph.
You can do it. You can do this. You'll be right, mate.
Ooh.
Oh, that looks great, Chris.
DULAN: Chris, you good?
Yeah, I'm good, I'm good. I think I'm almost ready.
Mate, looks good, man.
Is there chilli?
Uh-oh, that's a late pantry run.
Just chilli. MEL: Oop! Oop.
This is for you. Holy moly.
You're gonna need a few more than that.
(APPLAUSE) (LAUGHS)
Heads up - three minutes to go!
JOCK: Let's go! Three minutes! Come on, guys!
(APPLAUSE)
Come on.
MICHAEL: You forget about the pressure of walking back into the MasterChef kitchen.
As soon as that clock starts ticking, it just changes everything.
So I'm trying to focus on these carrots,
just have to make sure they all taste perfect.
Ooh, sexy.
Let's hope so. (LAUGHS)
HARRY: The execution of this dish
is super, super integral to it really working in the end.
I wanna make sure that everything is really perfectly placed
and there's enough of each element on the dish
so that it all marries together and I'm not gonna end up with something
that's too sweet, too salty or too tomatoey.
I start with my tomatoes
as they're kind of the beautiful focal piece of the dish.
And then nestling in around that, the strawberry and kohlrabi,
making sure it's all really delicately placed within the bowl.
It has to be just right.
I've got absolutely no time to be looking over
at what Tommy and Keyma are doing.
Beautiful, Tommy!
I need to stay really, really focused.
Because balance is the key to this dish.
Oh, I need to get that granita into a bloody bowl.
Eeew!
One minute to go! Let's go! Come on, guys.
(APPLAUSE) WOMAN: Guys, one minute, let's go!
Keep pushing.
Plating this dish, I'm super happy with how the flavours came together.
Just really well balanced, so I hope the judges think the same.
TOMMY: They're looking really good.
I'm really happy with the way these are looking right now.
Let's just see if everything else is gonna work together with it.
30 seconds!
There it is! (CHEERING)
(ALL CALL ENCOURAGEMENT)
JULIE: My biggest doubt coming back has been this level of competition,
this level of stress, whether or not the cooking that I did 13 years ago
and what I've been doing since,
if that's enough in this MasterChef kitchen anymore.
Is my cauliflower soup too simple?
Come on, guys.
Looks beautiful! Let's go, Mel!
10... ALL: 9, 8, 7,
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
That's it! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Good job, man. Well done.
That looks good.
I'm hoping that the fish is cooked perfectly and that the flavours work.
I...I don't know.
I'm happy that I plated up.
So any good feedback that I get from the judges would be awesome.
I don't know how this will go.
Pretty simple here - all you've gotta do is beat the people at your bench
to win a spot in tomorrow's immunity.
First up, second bench, it's Keyma, Tommy and Harry, let's go.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRY: I would love to be in the immunity cook for tomorrow.
Cooking up against Tommy and Keyma has really pushed me.
Going up against their flavours and how they cook,
I really knew that I had to be something a little bit more
than what I've done before.
Hopefully, I'm in with a chance.
So, Keyma, what have you cooked?
I've made vegan arepas.
Tommy?
Daikon dumplings with a mushroom and spring onion pate inside.
Harry?
Uh, it's a strawberry and slow-roasted tomato salad
with a coriander granita.
Yum. Shall we?
This is gonna be messy, isn't it?
Yes, that's the way it is! (CHUCKLES)
I actually just scratched my head a little bit
'cause this is a tough one.
Keyma, we'll start with you.
There's a lot of good things going on here.
The filling - a lot of guts,
but I just feel like there's 5% of it which is not there.
MEL: I agree. There is a really great show of skill
but you are holding back.
Yep.
Tommy...
..great work, mate.
Stunning-looking dish and great bold, strong flavours.
Tommy, you are always able to bring great flavours
but it makes us so happy to see your techniques continue to build.
The shape, the cooking of the actual dumpling itself,
everything about it was absolutely gorgeous.
Very pleasing dish all in all. TOMMY: Thank you.
Harry. (EXHALES AND CLICKS TONGUE)
Two from two hits in this kitchen. Um...
..the hits keep on running.
The hits well and truly keep on running with that dish.
That was the ultimate display of sweet-and-sour for me
in such a good way.
Like, roasting those tomatoes, you already get sweet-and-sour.
But then backing it up with that cucumber-coriander granita
and the strawberries
is like sweet-and-sour again.
That is unbelievable cooking.
Well done. Thank you.
With most of the pyramid to play with, it's row three.
(APPLAUSE)
JULIE: Melanie and Jenn and I take our dishes up to the front.
It would mean so much to me
to be in the very first immunity challenge tomorrow.
It affirms that I've come back with some skills
that I have to offer.
Because I'm still so unsure.
Um, and I'm...I'm nervous as.
These guys are really good cooks.
I don't know if this cauliflower soup is enough.
enjoy another serving or savour past seasons at:
OK. Melanie, what have you made us?
I've made a gluten-free roast pumpkin
and goat's cheese double-stuffed ravioli.
Thank you. And, Julie?
It's a cauliflower soup with roast pumpkin and burnt butter.
Jenn?
Uh, I've made a family meal.
So there's mapo tofu, stir-fried pipis
and a salad of kohlrabi and lotus root.
Alright. Shall we?
Alright. I'll start with the soup.
It's gutsy, ballsy, bringing a cauliflower soup.
One of the best cauliflower soups I've ever eaten.
It's a pure expression of cauliflower,
and the texture is magical.
Then you've gone next level with the burnt butter, with the herbs
and that speck! Yessss! Speck. (LAUGHS)
I think that might be hard to beat today.
Thank you.
Melanie, gluten-free pasta.
The goat's cheese and the roast pumpkin...
..it's like Jules, it's perfect, wouldn't change a thing.
The pasta work is awesome.
That is right up there. That is really well done.
Thank you.
Jenn.
Your mapo tofu was fantastic.
You worked with what you had, and what you produced
was something that had that gorgeous home-style, soulful,
really nourishing food.
Everything about it was just delicious and more-ish
and I'm so happy for you.
Thank you. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Well done, mate.
Next up, we've got the guys that had ONLY fruit and veg to work with.
Let's go, front bench.
Go, Michael.
Wow.
Montana. Yes.
I cooked a date and shallot stuffed shallot
with a cauliflower and parsnip puree.
I really enjoyed that. I enjoyed the flavours.
I love the balance. Yay.
The flavour combination is really well done,
I'm not missing meat at all. (APPLAUSE)
JOHN: Well done.
Max.
I made a garden broth with different textured fruit and veg.
That is a sexy bowl of food
and I did not expect to see dishes that look like this
so early on in the competition.
Well done, mate. Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
Michael?
So we've got carrots and passionfruit
with some carrot top oil.
The passionfruit-carrot guy.
Brilliant, I love it.
This sauce, it's got loads of flavour.
You excite me in this kitchen. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE) Well done.
Last but not least, the guys who had no excuses
'cause they had the full pyramid - bring it on, the back row.
(APPLAUSE)
I'm walking up with Sashi and Steph next to me,
and Sashi's curry just looks like...
I mean, that's textbook.
(WHISTLES) Hey, hey.
Steph, what have you cooked?
I've cooked a chocolate mud cake with peanut butter cream and jam.
Sashi, you?
I've made a home-style, yoghurt-based chicken curry
with some roti.
And, Chris? Steamed snapper with ginger and spring onion oil
with a side of Chinese broccoli in garlic oil, and jasmine rice.
Steph...
..what happened? It's a bit hot in the kitchen,
everything kind of collapsed.
But I think I saved it. Um, I've got the top slice.
And, Chris, how did you go?
I found out that I didn't have light soy and I had white soy instead
and it tastes completely different. Yep.
So I'm hoping the flavours work, fingers crossed.
Rightio, we might dig in. Do you want to do the honours
with the fish. Lucky us.
Steph.
Promised us a mud cake and you gave us a mudslide.
(LAUGHS)
That peanut butter cream, however, is spectacular
and I would eat it out of the bowl just by itself
and probably call it a win.
Sashi. Yes.
Mum's curry.
I love nothing more than a family recipe
and particularly if it's your mum's.
The flavour was epic, chicken cooked beautifully.
The bread - that's...
..easily one of the best rotis we've seen in the kitchen. Yep.
Crispy, still beautifully pliable in the middle.
The bread is epic.
You went so far in terms of being able to bring us
to your family kitchen
and experience the chicken curry the way your mum makes it.
It was absolutely gorgeous.
It really makes me smile when I can experience food like that.
Well done. (APPLAUSE)
Chris. Yep.
This is definitely David vs Goliath.
I mean, I know who I'm up against.
This competition has just ramped up.
I just hope everything I've got is enough.
MEL: Chris. Yep.
I mean, you had to know with a dish like this
that I was going to be extremely opinionated about it.
You were in reasonably unfamiliar territory there,
using a condiment that you're not overly confident with.
I'm really happy with it. I think you did a very, very good job.
I think you did quite some justice
in achieving a beautiful salty-savoury balance there
and still allowing the ginger and the spring onions to kind of sing.
Beautifully cooked piece of fish as well.
I think you did an amazing job.
Thank you.
I know you were super worried,
standing next to Sashi was, like, playing into your head a little bit.
Yep.
But instead of that, you did exactly what you set out to do.
Everything is so bloody delicious.
(APPLAUSE)
Fantastic. Thank you.
Today, we challenged you to work with a limited pantry
based on the classic food pyramid.
We were so impressed that you used these restrictions to your advantage
and put up some truly inspired dishes.
However, only the best dish on each bench
will progress to tomorrow's immunity challenge.
So let's find out who cooked them.
Max, Michael, Montana, you had the toughest assignment
with the most restricted pantry, that bottom level,
using just fruit and veg.
But the dish at the top of the class from the bottom of the pantry...
..was cooked by...
..Montana.
(APPLAUSE)
Montana, that was a deceptively well-balanced and delicious dish
that showed considerable technique.
Well done. Thank you. (GIGGLES)
Thank you.
Righto, the second bench.
Keyma, Tommy and Harry, it was another tricky cook
'cause you didn't have much more at your disposal.
But...
..there was one clear standout.
And that was cooked by you, Harry.
(APPLAUSE)
Well done. My first hat-trick ever.
(ALL LAUGH)
At the third bench, it was Melanie, Julie and Jenn.
You had the added bonus of proteins, eggs and milk to play with
and all of your dishes were comforting in their own special way.
But there was one that was flawless.
Aw.
And that belonged to you, Julie. (APPLAUSE)
And to the back bench,
Steph, Sashi, Chris, you guys had all the ingredients and no excuses.
Yes.
It was a tough decision for us.
But the best dish on this bench...
..was cooked by you, Chris. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Serious? Oh, my God.
I don't believe it.
I gotta call my mum and dad.
I don't think Mum and Dad will believe it either.
Well done, Chris, beautifully cooked dish. Lovely sauce.
And you know what? All that worry and concern standing next to Sashi,
you needn't have bothered, mate, because you've taken it out.
Well done, mate. Thanks.
Good job. (APPLAUSE)
ANDY: Montana, Harry, Julie and Chris,
one of you will win immunity from Sunday night's all-in elimination.
So go home and do whatever you gotta do
to come back here, ready and raring for a big one tomorrow.
See you, guys. Well done. JOCK: Well done.
JULIE: Alright. Home we go.
I've got a shot at immunity.
I'm proud to be representing the Favourites
but I'll be up against the young guns.
Tonight you're my friend. (LAUGHS)
They have come in with mad skills and mad ideas.
Well done, Jules. Thank you.
I'm gonna have to really fight for immunity.
What a day. What a day.
VOICEOVER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...
MONTANA: Ooh, whatever is under this cloche right now
could be the thing that stands between me
and winning immunity.
It's 3 vs 1...
JULIE: It's excruciating.
..will the pressure...
Oh, there's no way this is a wining dish.
..rain over the original
MasterChef queen?
Captions by Red Bee Media