ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia...
..they walked straight into a work of art...
You aren't just cooks today - you're artists.
Oh, my God!
..and had to create their own masterpiece on a plate.
BILLIE: I cannot afford to make any mistakes.
The yellow team made the winning dessert.
JOCK: Dill in a dessert - beautiful.
Absolutely loved it.
But the green team's entree and main won the day.
(ALL LAUGH AND CHEER) ALVIN: Oh, my God!
Tonight, they cook for immunity in front of a living legend.
MICHAEL: Oh, my God.
One of, literally, the greatest chefs of all time
standing in our kitchen.
And later... JOCK: There he is!
..it's AFL superstar and Celebrity MasterChef winner Nick Riewoldt.
We've warmed up, we've stretched, we're ready to get into the game.
(LAUGHTER)
He's back in the kitchen,
kicking culinary goals
in a very special MasterClass.
# '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. #
ALVIN: (CHUCKLES) I'm just, like, this big ball of nerves.
MONTANA: Yeah.
Yesterday, our team won the team challenge, which is epic,
and now we're here cooking for immunity.
Hello. (MICHAEL CHUCKLES)
What up?
The judges say that, today's immunity challenge,
they are going to turn up the heat.
MINDY: Let's go! Let's do it.
And it sounds like it's going to be an epic cook,
so I'm looking forward to seeing what they have in store.
BILLIE: All will be revealed.
I can't see... Ah!
MONTANA: Oh, my God!
Oh, my God.
ALDO: Oh-ho-ho!
TOMMY: Far out.
Oh... BILLIE: Oh, my God.
(EXCITED LAUGHTER)
No way!
Oh, dear. What have we gotten ourselves into?
Uh-oh. (CHUCKLES)
Come closer.
(ALL LAUGH NERVOUSLY)
The nervous laugh.
Hello. ALL: Hi.
I think I've spent a little time with some of you before.
Oh, my God. Marco Pierre White's standing in our kitchen.
ALVIN: Oh, my God.
(CHUCKLES)
If you know anything about cooking,
you know that Marco Pierre White's
one of, literally, the greatest chefs of all time.
(EXHALES)
The youngest chef in the UK to ever win three Michelin stars.
And he gave them back!
He was so cool that he's like,
"I've had enough of these. Have 'em back. I don't want 'em."
Wow. This kitchen just heated up a little.
I see you've met my good friend, Mr White.
It's nice to be here.
So, for many of you,
this will be the first time that you've met Marco, right?
I remember my first time meeting Marco.
I had been sacked from a Michelin star restaurant for...
..various reasons.
Um... (LAUGHTER)
I packed up my chef's jacket and my knives in a plastic bag
and went down to London, because I'd heard of this amazing chef
who was regarded, not just in the UK, but globally,
as being THE best chef.
And I knocked on the door.
And the last person I expected to open it was him.
But, not only did he open it,
he invited me inside and gave me a chance.
He gave me a job.
And I've got to say, I don't think there's another man
who has had more influence, not just in my life,
but thousands of chefs all over the world.
And I hope that he'll have as positive an impact on your cooking
as he did on mine.
Marco Pierre White - I mean, he's such an icon.
He's trained some of the best chefs in the world -
Gordon Ramsay, Curtis Stone, Heston, Jock himself.
And I'm cooking for him today, like...is absolutely insane.
44 years ago, to the day,
I walked into the kitchens of the Hotel St George
as a young apprentice.
I suppose I was a little like yourself.
And I was looking back on my career and thinking, what's changed?
And the truth is...
..the cooks.
I worked with hundreds of chefs.
Very few of them were artists.
A person who works with their hands is a labourer.
A person who works with their hands and their brain
is a craftsman.
But a person who works with their hands, their brain, and their heart
is an artist.
So, ask yourself, who are you?
And ask yourself, what would I like to be?
(APPLAUSE)
ALVIN: Marco's words are so powerful.
They resonate in so many levels.
And that's because every word
you know comes from decades and decades of experience and skill.
So, only the winning team from yesterday is cooking today.
So, the rest of you, head on up to the gantry.
MINDY: Ooooh.
ALDO: Good luck, guys. Good luck.
Good luck, guys.
Well, this man here is one of the greatest living chefs,
and those photos behind you
are from one of the greatest ever culinary books - White Heat.
Every serious chef in the world owns a copy of this book,
and the recipes within it are iconic.
Today, your job is to recreate
one of the classic recipes from White Heat.
(SIGHS)
My mind is going crazy.
I know Marco Pierre White's style of cooking
is not my style of cooking.
I reckon he's got a massive, massive challenge for us -
something refined, something fancy, something French,
something out of my wheelhouse.
Are you ready to find out what it is?
ALL: Yes.
Marco, would you please do the honours?
TOMMY: Oh...
ALVIN: Oh, my God.
Today, you're cooking
panache of sea scallops and calamari with an ink sauce.
Come on up. Let's have a look.
God. MICHAEL: Oh, my God.
Now, don't be fooled by its visual simplicity.
Oh, no. It is a beautiful dish to look at.
It's a really beautiful plate.
It's kind of like yin and yang.
You've got a really deep, dark sauce that's black and glossy
and then beautifully white bits of lightly seared seafood.
I mean, to the layperson's eye, this would look simple and easy.
To me, knowing Marco, it's just terrifying.
Marco, do you want to talk us through it?
When you use amazing ingredients
like beautiful scallops, beautiful calamari,
timing is very important.
Allow food to present itself.
And the ink - be very careful.
It's quite salty.
So you will have to adjust.
Allow your palate to dictate.
Have the confidence to follow your instincts.
Follow your heart.
Taste. Taste. Taste.
Allow simplicity to inspire you,
not to confuse you.
Would you like to taste it?
HARRY: Absolutely. MINDY: Absolutely.
(LAUGHS) How cool.
Now...
..mangia.
ALVIN: Goodness gracious me.
Just set.
Harry, what are you tasting?
It's just perfect food.
The sauce is surprisingly buttery, but not oversalted.
The scallops are only just cooked through.
The pan maybe isn't as hot as what maybe I would do at home,
and just, like, scorch the hell out of the outside of them.
They taste of scallops, so perfectly.
This is what Marco did, and still does today,
which is to show produce off simply.
It is food at its peak
and it's been treated with respect
and it's always cooked perfectly.
Oh...
Unbelievable.
Alright, guys.
Righto, the seven of you have tasted Marco's dish.
I bet you want to know how long you've got to recreate it.
You've got 45 minutes... Oh, my God!
..to recreate Marco's panache of seared scallops and calamari.
JULIE: Whoa! (DANIEL CHUCKLES)
TOMMY: Of course we do.
Do not let the simplicity fool you.
Every element needs to be Marco Pierre White perfect.
Because Marco will be eating it.
Only the best dish will win its maker immunity today.
The recipe, the equipment and the ingredients are at your benches.
Marco, do you want to kick them off?
Good luck.
You have 45 minutes, and your time starts now.
(SPECTATORS APPLAUD) ALDO: Come on, guys!
Come on, guys! Come on!
Come on, guys! Whoo!
MINDY: It's a pretty exciting day today.
I didn't expect walking through those doors for an immunity challenge
we'd have Marco Pierre White here.
I kind of feel very overwhelmed, but in a really positive way.
My philosophy is, be inspired by people like Marco,
where you get amazing produce in front of you
and you try and let it shine.
MONTANA: I am definitely not
the strongest savoury cook in this competition,
so the fact that we're going to have to use our intuition is very scary,
and to be cooking something out of my comfort zone
for Marco Pierre White, it's a little bit daunting.
DANIEL: (WHISTLES) Hustle, Mon!
The competition is getting really tight now
and to take out that spot today and win that fast track into the top 12
would be the best thing ever.
Everyone who cooks professionally knows who Marco Pierre White is,
and it's just incredible to have him here
cooking one of his dishes from his cookbook, which I have at home.
I wish I'd brought it so I could get a signature.
But, um, yeah, it's...
Yeah, what a special day.
I've got to cook for Marco once before.
He expects perfection.
He's built his career and his livelihood on perfection.
So, yeah, anything short of that
and you're not going to go too well today.
The first thing I get started on is my fish veloute,
which is the base for our ink sauce.
I fry off some shallots in some butter without adding any colour.
So, it's a really gentle fry till they're softened,
add in my vermouth, then reduce that down till it's like a syrup.
Love it, Michael. Nice and clean.
Hey, guys, 40 minutes left, yeah?
I've made a veloute before,
a sauce of stock, usually with a bit of flour in it.
But Marco's doesn't have that. His is very delicate.
It's a really complex sauce with not a lot of ingredients.
So it's going to be a lot harder to balance
and a lot harder to stabilise at the end.
So, I think, really important to get this veloute right.
It's deceptively simple in that there's only three elements,
but they have to be cooked perfectly.
As Marco said, there's nowhere to hide behind this dish.
So I'm reading everything twice and just checking
and making sure that it matches Marco's.
I want the immunity,
but I also really just want to impress Marco, so...
I don't have time to feel anything. I'm practically numb.
45 minutes.
Talk about your speed pressure test.
You don't have time. You just cannot overthink things.
Which I tend to do.
Straightaway, I start making the fish veloute.
That ink sauce, it looks like oil you would put in a car.
It's just jet black and glossy and thick.
The taste - it's almost fishy, but not.
And it's so complex. I love it.
Alvin. Hi, Jock.
How are you, Alvin?
Are you feeling confident? Um...
No, not really.
Not helped by people like you being in the kitchen.
Are you scared of him? Oh, just a little bit.
Just remember, you do that to yourself, Alvin.
I know. I do. I do.
Any words of advice, Marco?
Allow your instinct and your palate to dictate
and to make your decisions.
Follow your heart.
Good luck. Thank you.
Marco comes to my bench, and he's got such a presence.
And I remember the words that he spoke today -
that I have to use my hands, my brain, and my heart to be an artist.
And that is something that I needed to hear.
For the longest time in my life,
I've been trained to use my brain - study, study, study.
It's almost like I'm forbidden to use my heart
and my passion, which is cooking.
So, to be back, and to be able to cook every day in this kitchen
is a gift.
It's a gift.
Uh... Brrrr.
ALDO: Come on, guys.
KEYMA: Of course I want to impress Marco today,
and show him my skills,
and let the judges know that I know how to cook seafood.
I grew up smelling seafood all the time,
eating seafood all the time.
We will go to the beach and my grandma will give us buckets
and we just take pipis out of the sand and then they will cook it.
So it represents family so much to me.
My cooking style is Latin/Caribbean styles.
It has to be rustic. It's on the rustic side.
It's the humble style of cooking.
I think the difficulty about this challenge
is that I don't think I have a similar style to Marco.
Hello. How are you? JOCK: Keyma.
He's very refined in the way he does things.
I'm good. How are you, Keyma?
Even though it's so simple,
I feel there's a lot more to this dish that I'm not seeing.
Is it too high? (CHUCKLES)
Did I say that?
I think it's going to be really hard, especially this sauce,
because I feel it has, like, a complexity of flavour in it.
And I cook a bit more rustic.
Allow Mother Nature to be the artist.
Yeah, yeah.
So I...I'm a bit concerned about the sauce.
Put your energies into the cooking.
Not the messing around.
It's so overwhelming.
(SIGHS) Oh, my God.
You have absolutely no time to waste.
15 minutes down, 30 minutes to go!
(SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT)
ALDO: Who's going to win these Greek games today? Come on, guys.
MAN: Let's go, guys! Come on!
We have the incredible Marco Pierre White in the house today.
JOCK: Mindy. Hey.
So nice to see you, Marco. Thanks for coming back.
It's nice to be with you. You love the dish, obviously.
Yeah. We say in our culture
that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors.
And I feel like cooking in this kitchen today,
a lot of us stand on the shoulders of people like you.
Well, you're very kind with your words.
My mother used to say something very similar -
a tree without roots is a piece of wood.
Continue what you're doing well.
Ooh, goose bumps.
With Marco, his presence really motivates and drives you.
This dish is older than you are. Is it?
Yeah. There you go. Didn't know that.
That's intimidating, but yes.
Or the other side, he brings a lot of nerves.
They're quite silenced, aren't they?
This would've been a nervous cook for them today, cooking for you.
They're bound to be nervous.
Is the butter not in the fridge?
WOMAN: What? Yeah.
Today is definitely not my style of food,
so I'm definitely worried about the cook.
15 minutes into the cook, and I'm struggling with the fish veloute.
(MUTTERS RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS)
Marco's style of cooking
is really, really classical French, super refined.
He knows his way around really simple flavours
and making them really, really fancy.
But that's so far from what I usually cook.
Vietnamese food, simple flavours,
but heaps of them that makes it, you know, really complex.
Tommy. Hello. Nice to meet you.
Tommy, how are you?
I'm just trying to crack on with this recipe,
making sure I do everything perfectly.
(SIGHS) This dish is so, you know, perfectly simple.
It definitely does make me nervous. I'm very, very nervous right now.
But I'm just...
You feel nervous, man. What's going on?
You know, it's such a simple dish
that even a slight difference will be obvious.
Don't panic. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You know, you have to be precise. Yeah.
Enjoy.
I can't let this stress take over
if I want any shot at winning this immunity.
I'm really going to rely on the recipe.
(MUTTERS RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS)
So to finish off my veloute,
the recipe says to reduce the fish stock by half.
I'm not taking any chances.
I'm going to weigh it at full, reduce it,
and then weigh it again till I get that perfect level.
Perfect.
"Pour in the cream and..." (MUTTERS)
I don't cook well when I'm stressed.
I'm trying to keep calm, follow the recipe
and just cook, cook, cook.
KEYMA: I have the first batch of the fish veloute.
I don't think I can say my style of cooking is very Marco style.
1.5mm.
Oh, my God, I'm so nervous about this challenge.
Time is just flying, and, yeah, I just need to move.
Next, I have to prepare the seafood.
I love cooking seafood all the time, so hopefully some of that knowledge
I have, it pays off into today's challenge.
To clean the calamari, I remove the tentacles slowly,
so all the entrails come with the tentacles.
Definitely very important part of the process,
to clean the calamari properly.
You don't want to leave any of the skin,
which is also like rubbery and sandy.
Calamari used to be a staple in my house, like, growing up,
because it was the most accessible seafood in Venezuela.
My mum used to just bring kilos and kilos of calamari
and taught me to clean them all.
When I started peeling the calamari,
it just brought me back home, in a way. I feel great.
ANDY: Look at it. It's perfect.
Ink sac's still in there.
I'm hoping to be able to tap into my memories
and my love for seafood and then just pour it all in that dish.
I'm feeling good at the moment. Keeping up to pace.
Just made the fish veloute.
Currently preparing my squid,
making sure that it's done properly.
This, I think, will take the most time
because we're given a whole calamari that we literally have to clean.
Beak is out.
Didn't break any ink sac, which is always a bonus.
Looking at what Keyma's doing, she's really clean and tidy.
Clearly, she's done this before, as opposed to me who hasn't.
Like, I'm all over the place.
On the front.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
On the front of the bench. Not even on the floor.
Like, look at this. Stop. Don't.
What I remember from Marco's dish
is everything so clean and precise.
It's worth spending that extra time in making them look perfect.
Come on, guys.
I'm feeling good at this point.
I'm just finishing off cleaning down the calamari.
I brushed the membrane off from the tentacles.
Michael. Hello, Jock. Marco.
How are you? I'm well. I'm having a good time.
This is an amazing dish. Yeah, deliciously simple.
Yeah. I mean, I remember we got to cook with you on our season
at Felix Restaurant.
We did a challenge. We were the losing team.
You were the losing team? You did stuffed quail, didn't you?
Stuffed quail... We had to do, like, 100 people.
We did and it took us way too long to get the quail to you, yeah.
How long for my quail? How long for my quail?
Four minutes, Marco. Four minutes.
Four minutes?! Are you crazy? I want it in one!
Such a small bird causes such a big disaster.
That's right, you went down terribly badly.
Yeah, I remember that. So you were on that ship that sunk?
I was, yeah.
That was a little glimpse into what it would have been like
to work for Marco.
I don't think he would have been as patient with us
had we been professionals.
So you've come back to win? I have.
But a lot's happened in those 11 years.
I've got a career in food
and I'm definitely a better cook than back then, that's for sure.
You've turned your dream almost into a reality.
Pinch myself every day.
I would love to make up for that quail a disaster
and win the immunity.
Thank you. Good luck.
Thanks, guys. Squid's done.
Here we go.
WOMAN: That's it, Harry. Give it a pull.
ALDO: Oh, look at the squid.
How's Montana going? She's a little dark horse.
This is madness.
20 minutes to go, and I'm still cleaning my calamari.
It's so finicky and sort of, like, fragile.
They're so difficult to clean.
And I realise I'm spending a lot of time in this
and people are moving on to their sauce.
With a pressure test that is 45 minutes long,
you really don't have time and you can't afford to fall behind.
I need to handle this better, I think.
I still have to cook these suckers
and make sure the ink sauce is properly balanced.
Far out.
I am very quickly running out of time.
Cooks!
Remember what I told you.
Taste, taste, taste.
15 minutes to go.
(ALL SHOUT ENCOURAGEMENT)
MINDY: OK, watch this for me, guys.
'Cause I need to bring that back to the boil, OK?
You're not allowing that calamari to get the better of you, are you?
No.
Taking my time on it while obviously managing everything else.
Just teach yourself to absorb pressure.
Yes.
WOMAN: Beautiful, Alvin. (ALVIN GROANS)
Marco, everyone's talking about the sauce
and how it's so perfectly balanced.
What is the balance mean to the man who created it?
Well, firstly, there's no real recipe for the ink.
You stop putting the ink in once you've got the desired colour.
And once you've got the desired colour,
you should have the desired texture.
But because this ink's quite salty,
they're going to have to readjust a little bit of fish stock,
maybe a little bit of cream, a little lemon, a little sliver of ginger
to knock back the fishiness.
The one thing that you should dictate
is your instinct, your palate.
Yes, they've only got a few scallops to cook and a little bit of calamari,
but it will be interesting to see how well they do it.
You should treat the pan like a clock.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
When you place your last one in,
then you turn the first, so they all cook evenly.
And just watch them now,
you can start to see their pace is picking up.
KEYMA: The seafood's done and ready to go. I just leave it aside.
And now I have to get back into my ink sauce.
The ink sauce was such an important element in the dish.
It needs to be balanced perfectly.
Marco's sauce, it's amazing.
It's very subtle, very elegant.
Have you ever used ink before? I've tried it.
Just remember there's a lot of salt,
so you have to be prepared to sort of adjust.
Yeah. Good luck.
It's going to be really hard because in the recipe,
there's no specific amount for ink.
(MUTTERS RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS)
The first thing I do is just to try a little bit of the ink.
And it's, whoa, super salty.
So I just do, like, half a teaspoon first,
then I just go bit by bit until it has a colour.
I'm adding some ginger.
1.5mm.
And I'm just trying to remember what was the flavour
of Marco's sauce compared to mine.
It's nice. I think it was a bit more acidic.
So yeah.
Mmm.
I've got my seafood prepped,
so now I'm just going to read through the finishing element of the sauce.
I've done everything right to this point by following Marco's recipe.
"Small amounts to start with."
But on following the recipe,
the sauce, and there's no measurement.
ALDO: Come on, Michael.
Marco says to use your instincts,
which is not a good sign for me in a pressure test.
I think I've got good instincts when it comes to cooking dishes,
but mainly when they're my dishes,
not three-Michelin-starred Marco dishes.
So, yeah, I'm not sure about this one.
I'm just going to have to taste and taste and taste along the way
to make sure my sauce is as close to Marco's as possible,
because that's the goal today - to match his.
MELISSA: 10 minutes to go!
ANDY: Let's go, guys! Come on!
Stop squidding around!
JULIE: God, that was bad.
You're a shocker, mate.
Just finish up prepping my scallops and my squid.
Cleaning the seafood took longer than I wanted.
And because I've fallen behind, the panic's setting in.
I need to move on to the ink sauce.
As I'm cooking, Marco's words that he spoke today really echoes.
I have to use my heart because I am an artist.
Now it's time to follow my heart
and to actually do the thing that I love.
I just need to breathe and then cook the sauce with my heart.
Balancing flavour is the one thing that I can do.
So, you know, I'm going to try and do this well.
Working quickly, I add some ink in there and I start whisking it in.
Also trying to remember the colour of this sauce
was actually quite dark.
It needs to be adjusted a bit.
JULIE: The sauce is a nice colour, Alvin.
Thank you, Julie.
Looks amazing.
(MUTTERS)
It's looking good. I'm just sort of now playing with the flavour.
I'm not even looking at the recipe.
I use my judgement and trust my palate.
Oh, my God, that tastes amazing.
I am fighting my way back and catching up.
I would love to win immunity today.
You automatically get into the top 12,
which is halfway through the competition.
HARRY: It's so good.
DANIEL: Guys, you've got about six minutes, eh?
Harry, how's the sauce going?
It's good. It's good.
Marco's advice was to cook with confidence,
which is often what the judges tell me, as it is.
To finish off the sauce, I check that I'm getting the ingredients
in there that I need.
Quantity-wise, I'm working by taste, and that's what makes a good chef.
And that's what I'm trying to
reiterate to myself over and over again,
is to trust this and not get stuck in this.
MINDY: Seasoning, lemon, squid, ginger.
I like it.
Squid ink sauce, I'm actually really happy.
I'm going to use this sauce moving forward.
I love the flavour of it.
It's slick, it's smooth, it's got so much flavour.
SARAH: Oh, you have to wipe your mouth again.
It's like you turned into a goth.
(LAUGHTER)
Don't let me have black teeth on telly, babe, come on.
Pretty damn intimidating having Marco at my bench.
Don't even remember what happened or what I said.
So far I have got my fish veloute on the go.
I've got my scallops and calamari prepped
and I'm just working on my sauce at the moment.
I'm behind, but I need to do this properly.
How is it, Mon? Oh, very salty.
Hey, I just wanted to gauge. No, it's good.
I've never really worked with squid ink.
Are you happy with it, Mon? Who knows?
So it's definitely an unfamiliar ingredient for me.
Six minutes left, and I've only just finished cleaning up the seafood
and I've hit a big roadblock.
Ah! (READS) "Put the cuttlefish into..."
It doesn't have, like, grams or anything for it.
There's no actual measurements on the recipe.
Yeah, I don't understand...
I was following this recipe to the T,
and I feel like I don't have the intuition
to balance such a delicate sauce.
Oh, what the hell?
Three elements today, that means it has to be perfect.
How much ginger?
If I don't get this right, then I might as well just forget immunity.
and you got five minutes to do it.
(CONTESTANTS CHEER FROM THE GANTRY)
TOMMY: The ink sauce is so important to this dish.
It binds the flavours of the scallop and the calamari all together.
It has to be perfect.
I'm definitely worried about it, but I'm just going to hope
that I can do really well and just knock it out of the park.
But I've got to really shake this off.
You're almost done, man. Keep going.
Time is running out, and I've got to trust my gut.
And I've gotta trust my cooking skills.
This isn't even close to flat.
I'm moving like crazy in this kitchen.
I need to prove to Marco and the judges that I've grown
and win the immunity.
Yes. OK, that's good.
KEYMA: I finish my sauce.
Tastes just like the one in my memories.
Delicious.
I'm pretty pleased with it
and I need to move on cooking my calamari and my scallops,
so I have to start heating the pan and then cooking this to perfection.
Marco's seafood was barely caramelised.
So different from what I've tasted before.
So pure.
It's like if you're having a scallop from the sea
and put it in your mouth.
I know calamari and I know scallops and I can go even by feel,
but I'm still going to count the 30 seconds.
Don't worry, Marco.
Put the scallops first, then the calamari,
then the tentacle.
I'm watching it like a hawk.
And I'm counting in my head like, one, two, three.
28, 29, 30.
Flip.
They're looking amazing.
MELISSA: You can see the heat. JOCK: Mm.
Shimmers.
That pan looks over-hot, doesn't it?
You need the experience to have the knowledge to know how hot
the pan is.
I remember you getting the scallop pan
and putting it close to your face.
You could feel the heat radiating.
You know how hot it is.
But if it's too hot, you're cooked.
Who's going to overcook the scallops or over caramelise them?
MICHAEL: My sauce definitely isn't similar to Marco's.
So, time to cook my seafood.
I cook squid quite a lot at home. Cook with scallops a lot too.
Usually throw them on the barbie, though.
There's not a lot of finesse to that.
Marco's didn't have a lot of caramelisation,
so I'm going to make sure I don't have too much on mine either.
It's really just about watching it and making sure
I'm as focused as possible.
It's going to come down to the tiniest little bits
of how well you've reproduced Marco's recipe.
Marco's scallops and calamari, they're just kissed by the pan.
It's a beautiful way of cooking it, but hard.
I cook each them for 30 seconds on each side.
It's so hard to know if...
Like, I can't remember exactly what Marco's looked like.
I don't know.
I would usually cook seafood for longer, but if I overcook them,
they're dry and they're chewy.
So I'm now questioning myself.
No, I think that was how Marco had his.
I'm going to take them off and hope and hope and hope.
ALVIN: Happy with the sauce. I've caught up.
Now I need to actually cook the calamari and scallops.
You have to go with touch and feel.
Sure there's a timing in the guide of the recipe, but that's really it.
I use my judgement.
I touch and feel to make sure there's still enough give
in the scallops and it's not too tough.
And then I make sure I do the same with the calamari.
Cooks, two minutes remaining!
(CHEERING) ALDO: Come on, guys!
Come on! Two minutes to go. Come on!
JULIE: It's all happening now.
How long do the squid need to cook for, Min?
"Cook the scallops and calamari for approximately 30 seconds."
Happy with the cook. It's definitely 30 seconds, 20 seconds...
Just seconds in it.
You can see it's just there.
Beautiful, Mindy.
Two minutes. Perfect timing for service.
Happy with it? Yeah. Yeah.
The thing that really jumped out at me when we were tasting it
was how sort of blonde and how little colour they had.
(SETS TIMER)
TOMMY: I've only got two minutes left.
I need to cook my seafood.
30 seconds each side.
I just need to move on and make sure I get this right.
I'm definitely feeling the pressure.
Far out.
I fry them in the pan.
I've used a timer to check 30 seconds each side.
(TIMER BEEPS)
Yeah, good work, Tommy.
And they're cooked really, really well.
That's good.
One minute to go!
Come on, Harry! Come on, guys! Push!
But I was so focused on getting the scallops perfect.
But I've forgotten about my calamari.
There's only one minute left to get this perfect.
Tommy. Oh, my God.
Chuck the calamari in the pan.
Tommy!
Turn around for one second.
I look at the timer and it's not on.
So I've got to go back to instincts, you know.
I'm counting in the back of my mind.
I think I've counted pretty correctly in my head,
but I had to wing it and that's worrying me.
DAN: Keyma! You've got to plate up.
Come on, Keyma! Plate up! Let's go.
KEYMA: Last 30 seconds, putting the sauce in the jug.
WOMAN: Come on, guys!
I plate it up.
I tried to make it as close as Marco's.
I was even thinking about the centimetres between the scallops
and the calamari, and I thought it was like, two fingers.
It looks amazing.
I'm so proud of it.
Come on, Harry. Come on, Michael.
MICHAEL: My seafood is ready to go.
Just caramelised, which is the opposite of what I would do at home.
So I'm just hoping it replicates Marco's.
Come on, guys. Come on.
Make it look pretty.
Beautiful, Alvin.
Glossy as.
Let's go.
Alright, here it is.
10!
ALL: 9! 8! 7! 6!
5! 4! 3! 2! 1!
That's it!
Yes, Mindy!
MONTANA: How'd you go?
Oh, I don't know. So, like, I have no idea.
No idea.
I'm surprised I got it done. It's a bit of a mad scramble at the end.
Took a bit of time and care
because I want to give it the attention that it deserves.
Tasting Marco's sauce earlier today.
I think I've done it justice. Hopefully.
It was hard. I was definitely vigilant,
definitely worked hard and fast.
I worked tidy. I did all the things I wanted to do.
But who knows?
Maybe the pressure got to me a little bit today.
Well, Marco, you have set a simple dish
with absolutely nowhere to hide.
There is nowhere to hide, is there?
I reckon we get the first one in.
In the caramelisation, mine is a bit darker.
Good luck, Tommy. Good luck.
Go, Tommy.
Thanks, guys. Go, Tommy!
Hello, hello. JOCK: Hi, Tommy.
How are we? MELISSA: Hey, hey.
Just got to place this here.
Hello, Tommy.
Hey there. How are you?
So,
how are you feeling?
Coming in, I was terrified.
I don't think I've ever felt as terrified
in front of any of the judges before in the...
See, I'm really losing my words.
I think it was knowing that I'm going to have to cook
something for you was terrifying for me.
Stylistically, what you do is just so different.
It's exuberant, it's full on, it's rustic. Yep.
And this is sort of the antithesis of that.
Definitely. I was like, oh, this is going to really test me.
And I think at first I used the recipe as a basis,
and then once I started tasting everything,
I was like, OK, it's time for me to really kind of use my instincts.
And the cook on the seafood?
Um...
I was really worried about getting the colour right.
I think maybe, maybe I've gone a little bit too far.
That cook was crazy.
Three elements.
All perfect.
There's nowhere to hide.
I'm worried about the caramelisation.
I really want to impress Marco.
What do you think, Marco?
Could you be Australia's next MasterChef?
Applications for next season are now open.
Go on, get on it!
MELISSA: And the cook on the seafood?
I think maybe, maybe I've gone a little bit too far.
What do you think, Marco?
I think Tommy's done a very good job.
Oh, thank you.
I like that little bit of caramelisation.
That means a lot, to hear from you.
OK.
Please sauce.
Beautiful texture.
Oh, thank you so much. Thank you, Tommy.
Please enjoy your meal. Thank you.
I think this plate of food looks very promising.
How come you got this job?
I actually don't know. Sometimes I wonder.
How'd you go, Tom? He stumps you, doesn't he?
It's just his aura. Yeah. There's something about...
ALVIN: Yes. What is that?
Someone who's just so well in tune with what they do.
ANDY: Thank you.
MELISSA: Thank you.
MARCO: That's very good. Well, well, well.
The scallops cooked beautifully.
That little caramelisation just lifts the scent of the sea.
The calamari is cooked beautifully.
The sauce, just delicious.
The young man, well, I think he has something special.
I'm thrilled for Tommy. Yeah.
He could have been a little bit insecure that his style
is very different to this style of cooking.
The caramelisation, it is like another ingredient.
If we put this challenge in front of him last year,
there's no way he's putting this plate of food up.
He's really gone away and he's realised what he needs
to get better at in order to become more of a complete cook.
JOCK: I can't find too many faults in this at all.
This is well and truly out of his comfort zone,
and I think it's because he has natural talent.
As you say, you can see something. He's a cook.
Hello, Harry.
Hello.
Beautiful texture.
Thank you, Harry. Thank you.
She's made a very, very, very good sauce.
A really good sauce.
The scallop, cooked nicely.
I think she did an amazing job, actually.
ANDY: Mindy. Hello.
There you are. Take care. Thank you.
The pan should have been a little hotter.
Very little blond.
Hello, Montana. Hello.
How do you think Montana went?
Let me show you something. Come closer.
When it comes to presentation, you have to understand the graphics.
And let's look at these scallops.
Let's look at the shape of them.
Allow the plate to dictate.
No caramelisation on the scallops or the calamari.
The sauce, she's put too many shallots.
It's quite sweet.
Thank you. Good luck!
I put my heart into this cook and I just don't know
whether I've done enough to show Marco I am an artist.
Alvin.
Hello, Alvin. Hello.
We meet again.
MELISSA: Are you shaking?
Oh, yes.
Bit shaken, and shaking.
It's...it's quite... it's indescribable.
I've heard so much about you. I've seen, I've read.
They always say that you shouldn't meet your idols.
But in this case, I'm glad that I did,
because there's so much more to you than meets the eye.
And, you know, you don't even have to say much, like now,
and you're making me shake my hands.
It's...it's great to meet you.
And thank you for saying the difference between a labourer,
a craftsman and an artist.
Because for the longest time, it's all about working with my head.
Lots of people cook...
And when I say this, I mean it.
I can count on one hand...
..the amount of artists I cooked with.
It's as simple as that.
ANNOUNCER: Ahead, a very special masterclass.
It's none other than Nick Riewoldt, everybody!
Celebrity MasterChef winner and AFL superstar Nick Riewoldt...
This is gonna be fun. This is gonna be fun.
..returns to the kitchen and cooks his signature dish...
I mean, health and taste is a pretty good combo, right?
..fried eggplant with salsa verde...
I'll look after these for you.
..assisted by his able sous-chef.
Careful, though, 'cause that oil's hot.
Don't burn. Don't burn yourself.
(LAUGHTER)
What I am looking forward to, Alvin...
..is eating your food.
Would you like to sauce?
I would like to sauce, yes.
The texture looks beautiful.
It looks like the most delicious oil slick on a plate.
Thank you, Alvin. ANDY: Thanks, Alvin.
MEL: Thank you.
He's made a very good sauce.
And then he's added the correct amount of ink.
That little sliver of ginger to knock back the fishiness of the ink.
And the texture is beautiful.
He's more confident on the stove than he is standing in front of me.
But I think he's a very good cook.
Alvin's known as being the guy who has an amazing palate.
He was using his own natural ability to cook and to balance.
Would that sauce be a sauce that would come to you at the pass,
on the plate, and leave the pass?
I'd have allowed that to pass.
That shows how good it is.
TOMMY: Good luck, man.
MICHAEL: I don't know how I feel about this cook.
I so desperately want to impress Marco
but I just think the pressure got to me a little bit today.
In that it made me doubt my instincts.
Michael? Hello, guys.
Ah, Michael.
It's been a decade since you were standing in a kitchen
and a lot's happened in that time.
Yeah, it's been a great decade. MasterChef's changed my life.
Little bit different pressure with this guy in the kitchen today?
A lot more pressure, yeah.
Do you want to sauce? (CHUCKLES) Yeah.
There you are.
Thank you, Michael. Thanks very much, guys.
Thanks, mate. God bless, Michael. Thank you.
Thank you.
I think he's done a really good job. Mm.
I think...
..if I've one criticism, you could say his calamari's a tad under.
The scallops need that little bit more caramelisation.
The scallop itself, it could have been taken a little bit further.
In Michael's effort to show restraint,
he hasn't relied on that intuition we were talking about.
Think he's just a little bit fearful of overcooking it.
Fear. Fear, exactly.
He was a bit scared of... Of you.
He's scared of you. No, nothing to do with me.
100% he's scared of you. (LAUGHS)
I'm only a visitor. You're here fulltime.
Can I just say that when I worked in your kitchens,
I put up a piece of calamari
or a scallop that was undercooked like that,
it would have came back airborne.
I've got soft in my old age. (CHUCKLES)
TOMMY: Good luck, Keyma. KEYMA: Thank you, guys.
Enjoy.
Hello. Good smile there. Hello, Keyma.
Hi. How are you? I'm very good.
How did it feel, cooking for Marco today?
It was such a privilege to have that recipe and follow it.
The ocean has been a big part of you cooking, right?
Look. (LAUGHS) She's got the seashells on.
Yeah, it has been a big part of my life.
And when you get to the beach and, you know, you smell the sea,
that's that dish in there.
How do you think you went today?
It's really, really hard to go that elegant.
At some point, I was like, "Well, I have to trust my gut feeling."
But I'm proud of it.
Do you really want immunity?
For me, getting immunity is just a reassurance
that you're actually getting better and better.
Would you like to sauce?
There you are. Thank you, Keyma. Thank you.
Thanks, Keyma. Thanks, guys. Enjoy.
Look, that's very good.
I've gotta say, your presentation has improved as we've come along.
(ALL LAUGH) But you have had seven goes.
This is the best sauce. Mm.
I'll tell you why,
because of the balance.
But also because of the texture.
I like the richness of the ink. I like that texture.
And then...
..the ginger, the lemon,
I think she's a very clever young lady.
Just leaning into instinct, tasting something once and recreating this,
is deeply impressive.
Three elements here. She nails each and every element.
The scallops, they're beautiful and opaque in the centre.
You can tell that she's cooked squid back with her mum in Venezuela
over and over and over again.
She cleaned them like a pro and she's cooked them like a pro.
She was smiling the whole way through.
And she was proud.
And what she's done is as close to yours as we've see all day.
You do that Marco thing where you just, like, open up people's chests
and, like, give the heart a bit of a massage and off they go
and they're a better cook for it.
We can see that in Keyma's cook today.
Mm. Yeah.
Well, this challenge was over in a flash
but that does not mean that it was a walk in the park.
You only had 45 minutes
to recreate a dish from one of the world's most influential chefs.
Whatever Marco's done in this kitchen,
he is definitely inspired you guys to new heights.
So, let's give it up for Marco Pierre White.
(APPLAUSE)
No, no, no, no. I don't want any of that.
Marco, how do you think they went today?
I have to confess...
..that I was shocked.
I was shocked by how good you all cook.
Out of all the MasterChefs I've ever done,
you are the strongest chefs they've ever fed me.
You each made a considered effort
but only one of you can win immunity.
The dish that best resembled Marco's...
..and the winner of immunity today...
..was cooked by...
..Keyma. No!
(ALL EXCLAIM AND CLAP)
Shimmy! Shimmy! Shimmy!
Well done.
MEL: Keyma, you nailed each and every element.
It was a real triumph. Well done.
It's amazing. It's an amazing feeling.
When that dish came in, it was so beautiful,
I was so excited to replicate it.
Congratulations. Thank you.
Everyone else, unfortunately, no such comfort.
There's elimination on Sunday and one of you will be going home.
It's not just any elimination
because the good news is
Marco will be joining us again on Sunday.
(LAUGHS) (ALL EXCLAIM)
Whether you like it or not! (LAUGHTER)
But...don't think about the elimination on Sunday
because we have a very special masterclass for you, right now.
Thank you.
Hey!
Hello! Here we go.
Welcome.
Welcome, everybody,
to another masterclass.
We love masterclass days just as much as you guys do
because we get to see you do a bit of cooking,
you get to see us do a bit of cooking, it's a win-win, right?
Definitely. Love it. Everyone gets to learn something new.
Earlier in the week, you showed us your rainy-day dishes
and now, Andy and I are gonna show you ours.
How's that sound? Sounds good. ALL: Great.
You guys sound stoked.
Enthusiastic. Yes.
"What are they?" I hear them asking, Andy. I'm sure they're asking.
What's cooking?!
What are you cooking? What are they?
I'm gonna be making butter chicken.
ALL: Oh!
Yum. Yeah.
And you?
Uh, I'm going to do a fish curry.
Ooh. With coconut sambal.
I'm also gonna be making some naan bread.
And I'm gonna steal some.
(ALL LAUGH)
I'm actually gonna be cooking... with this.
ALL: Oh! Oh, wow.
Right? So cool.
That is so cool. This is a tandoor oven.
I've never used one of these before so this could be quite funny.
Excellent. It will be very funny.
It's been a funny day.
Burn the arm hairs off.
Exactly. I'm gonna have no hair left on my tattooed arm.
It'll be fine.
Righto, I'm gonna swing around, let's get started.
Let's do it.
Alright, butter chicken. Let's go.
With butter chicken, there's two parts to the marinade for the chicken
so we're making the first part.
I've got 40 grams of ginger.
Kashmiri chilli.
Paprika.
Some salt.
And then I'm gonna throw in the juice of one lemon.
How about these things?
My wife showed me how to use them.
I had no idea.
I laughed at her for years.
And then I did it and I was like, "Oh, my God. How good."
You can see the colour.
Nice and red.
Chicken goes in.
And we're just gonna leave this at least 30 minutes.
An hour if you can, if you've got time,
and that really gets into the chicken.
So, fish curry-wise, I'm gonna do a fish wing curry,
we've got the fish wings that are marinading just in fish sauce
to season them up.
Then I'm gonna barbecue the wings.
What else I've got going on is
we're gonna make a super fresh and sweet-and-sour curry paste.
I've got two tablespoons of sesame oil.
Galangal, ginger, lemongrass, garlic, in they go.
Get a fair old heat going on here.
I'm also gonna go in with about 10 long red chillies.
I've deseeded about half and then left the other half with seeds in.
Three sprigs of coriander.
They can go in.
And now, we're just gonna cook that down
and get some really good colour on these guys
before we start to add the sweetness into the curry paste.
Zonfrillo, how you travelling?
So I've just put together the yoghurt marinade.
So two marinades.
Second one is more spices but with yoghurt.
In this bowl is green cardamom, turmeric, ground cumin,
ground coriander, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli powder, grapeseed oil
and some salt to taste.
So that's ready for my chicken so now I'm gonna get on to my naan bread.
Flour, straight into the bowl.
400 grams.
Then we've got yoghurt, 180 grams.
150 grams of water.
Just stick your yeast in there.
Sugar in along with that.
We stick it in.
Once I incorporate it all, then the salt goes in.
So I've sweated down, caramelised all of my aromats in there now,
hit it with some tomato paste.
Once that's caramelised down, I've got more sweetness.
So tomatoes, 400 grams.
I've got 2 tablespoons of kecap manis.
And then 50 grams palm sugar.
So we can go quite hard on the sweetness now,
knowing that we're gonna break it down later on when we season it up.
So now I'm gonna crank the heat up, bring it to a boil,
reduce to a simmer.
And then that's gonna tick for probably an hour.
OK, so the dough is ready to go.
Grease the inside of your bowl.
Dough in, covered, let it prove.
In the meantime, we gotta make the gravy.
A really good butter chicken is all about the gravy.
So start off with some oil in the pan.
Then we're gonna add 40 grams of ginger, 40 grams of garlic.
Then tomato, triple concentrate, 200 grams.
And then spices.
We've got cayenne pepper, turmeric,
Kashmiri chilli, cumin, coriander.
And I wanna let it cook for about 20 minutes.
what are you up to?
So, this is my curry paste.
So most of that liquid has evaporated
so now, we can go into our blender and blitz it up so it's a paste.
And now, we're gonna get the tandoor.
Naan bread first.
Do you reckon you're gonna... Get lost in the coals of the tandoor?
Listen, it's probable. You know? Right.
I'm not a tandoor oven expert, by any means.
Some might call me a novice.
Naan bread dough, proved. Ooh.
So just get it into a rough naan shape.
If you don't have a tandoor oven at home...
(LAUGHTER)
I mean, like, who doesn't have a tandoor oven?
Um, you can use like a cast iron pan on the stove.
You can get, like, a reasonable flavour.
Then we've got a bunch of tea towels, right, strung up together.
Stretch your dough...
..and you'll get a much better product.
Are we ready?
And...in.
Without burning your hand.
So immediately, in a tandoor oven, you'll see these bubbles happen
because there's a huge amount of heat hitting it on both sides.
ALVIN: Oh, wow.
(ALL EXCLAIM)
So if you look at that, pretty nice.
What I wanna do is just keep them in a 50-degree oven,
just so they can stay nice and warm, ready for your curry.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up...
You can see how rich and delicious that looks.
..Andy and Jock finish off their rainy-day dishes.
Have I done alright? You nailed it. I'm amazed.
You did really well.
Then...
Today with me is someone really special,
she has mastered Australian-Vietnamese cuisine.
..Chef Thi Le makes her delicious turmeric chicken banh mi.
And later,
it's Mindy from the Favourites
up against Celebrity MasterChef winner...
JOCK: There he is!
..and AFL superstar Nick Riewoldt.
What do we need to do? I'm your apprentice. Let's go.
Oh, really? What do you want?
Oh, this is gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun? This is gonna be fun.
Today I'm making butter chicken with naan bread.
And I over here am making a fish curry.
You right, tandoor man?
Yeah. I was just hanging around, cooking naan bread, you know?
So, curry paste is blended.
It's full of aromats, it's full of sweetness.
Oh, my God. That's lovely.
Yeah.
I've sweated down some onions.
Now we can go in with our curry paste,
and then we can hit it with our coconut milk.
You can see already, it's got a pretty epic colour on it.
Reduce to a simmer.
And now I'm going to start my coconut sambal.
So we're going to go in with about a tablespoon and a half
of dried anchovies, and we'll just start to pound them up.
We want them to be pretty fine.
Then in with lime juice, four cherry tomatoes,
and we're going to really smash this up.
Chilli powder, probably one teaspoon worth in.
I've got shredded coconut here.
We really want the coconut to suck all of the goodness up
and just start to work all this together.
Smells super funky.
And then we'll leave this for about 20 minutes.
It just gets better and better.
I've got the naan mix ready for you, mate.
Are we on? Are you going to cook it?
Yeah, I'll have a crack.
(CHUCKLES)
Righto, Naan 101. Hit me.
So you just want to try and get it to hit and stick, right.
So, flat you can get it. Righto.
Without burning yourself.
WOMAN: Go!
Uh...
It's like when it's cold in the swimming pool
and you're on the blocks.
MONTANA: Shall we count you in?
Yeah, count me in. OK.
Three, two, one - go!
ALVIN: Yeah!
Did it stick?
Did it work?
It's hot! It's hot, isn't it?
Yeah.
Where's the tongs?
(LAUGHTER)
It's a bit high.
I can't move it now, though.
I got here. Relax.
Just at the top, it's just probably going to be a little bit blond.
Mate, I saw a few of yours when you first did it
when we were in the kitchen out there.
That's not that bad, like, for a first go.
We going in here. I like it, do one more. Yeah.
One more? Yes.
No feeling in my left hand, but that's OK.
There you go. Conviction.
That's better. look at it.
And you got the... It's going hard.
Meanwhile, the chicken's been in its first marinade
with the lemon juice and the chilli for about half an hour.
I've made my yoghurt marinade.
I'm now going to incorporate the two of these together
and mix it thoroughly.
Make sure you do the double marinade.
Then we'll skewer them up so we can get them on the tandoor.
Whoa, whoa!
Righto.
Fish wings. So these guys smell epic now.
Super funky from that fish sauce.
We're going to go on skin side down to, like, a medium grill.
I don't want this super hot, because if we go too hard, too fast,
we're going to get caramelisation and char on the outside.
It's still going to be raw in the middle.
I'm just buttering my chicken that's been sitting on the skewer
and that butter is just going to help caramelise.
They're ready.
I like to sort of load the coals up on one side.
And that's it.
All we got to do is just keep moving it.
You know? You're a human rotisserie.
So, fish has been cooking skin side down.
And then we'll just flip him over.
I've just got a little bit of the curry paste here,
which I'm just going to brush all over.
It's just going to add another layer.
I have also got about 150 grams of butter.
That's what we're going to brush my naan bread with.
I've put in three cloves of garlic,
which I've just really finely sliced,
and then once it starts to caramelise
I'm going to throw some curry leaves in at the end.
So now the chicken is ready.
I'm just going to let them rest there for a hot minute.
Meanwhile, we've got browned butter,
which has had our toasted spices in it.
And so I'm going to get my naan bread,
brush the top of them with that spiced butter.
Seeds toasted on the top.
Be generous.
We've got our garlic naan with curry leaves,
which I've just drowned in my butter.
I've obviously got a nice little layer of the curry sauce.
Transfer my sambal into a little bowl,
and then I've got my wing here.
It's just been chilling.
That can go in.
So, get the chicken in. You can see how rich and delicious that looks.
This has got so much flavour packed in in the early stages
through the double marination
that you've got flavour for days.
So, straight into a dish, beautiful chunks.
And so there it is. It's my butter chicken with naan bread.
(APPLAUSE)
So, serving up now.
Fish wing curry, garlic naan and coconut sambal.
(APPLAUSE)
Alright, this is the important bit.
Who wants to taste it?
Harry. Yes!
And Sarah. How could you not taste it?
Let's go. I cannot go past this.
Come on, Sez. Oh, my God.
So fluffy. Yeah.
Oh!
With the nigella seed.
Andy, are you gonna taste it or what? Yeah, man. Coming.
Come on, mate. I just needed an invitation.
That smokiness, the char just makes it.
And the double marinade, it's so juicy and yum.
Have I done alright?
You nailed it. I'm amazed.
You did really well.
(LAUGHTER)
Andy left me hanging. Thanks for that. Amazing.
I didn't want to splat you with butter chicken.
Harry, what do you think?
It's really bloody good.
It's really... It's really, really good.
Nigella seeds on the naan is awesome.
The butter chicken's just, like, spot on.
It's exactly what you want to eat when it's cold outside.
A rainy day. Exactly.
It's perfect.
Alright, ladies, let's go and taste Andy's.
Fish curry time.
Yum, yum. Go your hardest.
I'm so intrigued by this.
Wow, that fish is cooked beautifully, mate.
I wouldn't expect anything less from a masterchef.
Yum. That's actually really nice.
Really balanced.
Mate, that's delicious.
The fish curry is just so many layers of flavour,
and I really like the sweet, sour vibe.
Yeah. That's very up my alley.
So all about it. Really, really good.
Glad you girls liked it.
Amazing. Thank you.
Yeah!
Couple of tips and tricks there for you guys
and a couple of delicious curries.
Now you have to see Mel and her very special guest.
They're waiting for you guys in the restaurant.
Thank you. See ya!
See ya, guys. Thank you.
Give him a round of applause. Yes!
Oh-ayyy!
Hello. ALL: Hi!
Looking very studious with your notepads and pens.
Today with me is someone very special - an incredible chef.
She has mastered Australian-Vietnamese cuisine.
Her own restaurant sells a diverse range of delicious
and delectable banh mi.
Please welcome owner and head chef of Anchovy in Richmond
and Ca Com Banh Mi Bar, Thi Le!
Thi, welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Is it cool to be in the MasterChef kitchen?
Yeah, it is.
It's like a chef's dream come true.
I've been walking around the back going,
"Oh, God. I wish I had this at the restaurant."
OK. So, Thi, what are we cooking today?
Today we'll be making the turmeric chicken banh mi from Ca Com.
Turmeric chicken has kind of been a staple at Ca Com.
We decided to do this banh mi without any pate.
And I think a lot of Vietnamese will be like,
"Oh, my God, what's going on?" you know.
I just feel like you put so much effort into making the curry paste,
to putting the herbs in,
and then to have something so rich and heavy to mask all that...
It's complete without that particular aspect.
Yeah. So where do we get started today?
So I think first of all, we'll make the marinade.
So you've some garlic ginger, coriander root, dill root,
some chilli,
some fresh and dried turmeric,
some coconut cream and fish sauce.
Pop everything in.
Yeah. Alright.
So what are we looking for in terms of texture here?
Are you looking to completely obliterate everything?
No, I love texture.
We all have teeth. We don't need to puree everything.
(LAUGHTER)
Quote of the day.
That marinade already smells amazing.
So we have some chicken thigh with skin on here?
Yeah, about 200 grams or so.
And then we're going to mix.
How long would you usually marinate this chicken for?
Anywhere between 24 to 48 hours.
Alright, put that in the fridge.
So this is the chicken we've been marinating the last two days.
The magic of television.
Smells incredible already.
So we're going to be cooking it on the binchotan today,
also known as charcoal.
Would you always leave the skin on for something like this?
Yeah, it's very cliche, but fat is flavour and especially...
Especially when you're cooking on charcoal
and the fat's gonna drip down
and it's gonna create little smoky sparks
and it's just going to impart more flavour into the meat.
How hot do the coals need to be in order for this to be perfect?
You're looking at a medium heat.
You don't want it to be too high where it's just going to char
everything straightaway.
And then inside of the chicken, it's going to be raw.
Yeah.
And do you always start skin side down?
Yeah, always skin side down.
Yep.
You can smell the transformation of fat and protein happening
right in front of you.
I think that's one of the most magical things.
Ohh! Getting so excited.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up...
My mouth is watering.
..chef Thi Le assembles her stunning banh mi.
WOMAN: So good.
MAN: It looks so good.
Everyone's like, "How many leftovers are there going to be?"
And later...
JOCK: Here he is!
..AFL superstar Nick Riewoldt returns to the kitchen.
Still shorter than you.
I just feel really sick all of a sudden.
Flashbacks?
That chicken is cooking away.
And now what else can we be doing?
Next step, we're going to make a red curry spice.
So we've got some fresh chilies, dried chilies, lemongrass,
more coriander root, some garlic and shallots.
Wonderful. So we just pop everything in.
Talk to me about sort of the nuances of what the dried rehydrated chilies
do to this paste in addition to the fresh bird's eye chilies here.
It's going to help you add colour and it's not as raw.
I don't know about you guys, but sometimes you eat banh mi
and everything's fine and all of a sudden, bang!
It just hits you and you're like,
"Oh, some auntie decided to kill me."
That's your favourite bit.
That's my favourite bit.
I double chilli.
You just...you just want to hurt just a little bit.
That's what you do.
By doing it this way, you're actually giving
just a bit more of an equitable distribution of heat.
Yeah, just a bit more rounded.
But you could add some fresh chilies if you enjoy the pain.
(LAUGHS)
The thing with a banh mi, it's up to you. You know?
It's what you like.
There's no rules.
It's about being able to take the essence of a dish.
Paying homage to the history
and just trying to do your take.
Tommy, listening to the way Thi sort of talks about her approach
to cuisine,
is that in a similar vein to the way that you look at
what you're doing in your current MasterChef journey?
Yeah, definitely.
I always try to look at the history of it
and how it kind of originally ate
and what I really love about it,
but just kind of change it in a way
that makes it more interesting and more fun to eat.
Alright. OK. So, blitz.
Do the shake. Do the shake.
(LAUGHTER) Yeah!
Every home cook can relate to that.
Now you have a beautiful red curry paste.
What's the next step?
The next, just make the herb salad.
Yeah.
In the mix, we've got some dill,
and then you've got the coriander
and then we're going to chop some cilantro through there as well.
And I never cut my herbs raw.
I always cut it rough.
The reason why I do it is because you it will make you chew
and so then flavour starts to come out.
Just becomes a bit more interesting.
I think the golden advice today is we have teeth,
we should use them, right?
OK, so we've essentially made all of the elements and now it's time
to build this banh mi.
Yeah.
Isn't it just a tray of happiness?
Can you talk me through what's on this tray here?
So you've got the banh mi itself.
We've got the pickled carrot and daikon.
Yeah. We've got the red curry paste that we made earlier.
Our fresh curry paste.
A couple of other things.
I love the seasoning.
I think it's the best thing ever.
And some crispy chilli oil.
OK. I mean, that chicken -
how good does that chicken smell?
The smoke, the charcoal.
You can see the fat just sizzling away on top.
So we'll put that aside.
And then obviously the all important toast over the...
Yeah. So we toast all our rolls over the wood grill.
You're doing banh mi at home.
Just toast it open on the gas
or put it in the oven for a minute.
It's one of those key things in a banh mi,
like, it should be crispy.
OK, so let's do it. Alright.
(BREAD CRUNCHES) Ohhh!
Great sound.
A very generous amount of mayo.
Yeah.
Now your beautiful red curry paste.
Yeah.
A very healthy amount of pickled daikon and carrot.
I love pickles. Cucumber.
The beautiful herb salad in next.
It's gotta be generous. Yep.
This is a fully loaded banh mi.
And then we're going to chop some chicken.
Rough chop. Rough chops.
Toss it through the marinade a bit more.
This gets pretty fun.
That's so lovely and glossy and coated.
You can smell it.
Alright. We're on the homestretch.
Everyone's like, "How many leftovers are there going to be?"
The crispy chilli oil.
Yeah.
And we've got spring onion in the foil.
My mouth is watering.
And nuts.
So good. It looks so good.
So here you go - it's my turmeric chicken banh mi.
(APPLAUSE)
Wow.
Well, I know that 100% of you want to try this banh mi,
but I think today...
..it has to be you, right?
Tommy. Yes, I hope so.
Come on down. Sorry, guys.
Oh, this looks amazing.
This is the real test.
Amazing. Yeah? Alright.
Look at this layer.
(ALL EXCLAIM)
Alright. Here we go, alright.
(BREAD CRUNCHES)
MAN: Like an expert!
Oh, my God. Mmm...
Chew first, Tommy.
So, Tommy.
Talk to me about what's happening right now.
Mmm. Um...
Oh, it's so interesting.
The spring onion oil and the peanut really remind me of cha ca la vong,
which is so cool.
Chicken perfectly cooked with that smokiness.
The mayonnaise and the pickles.
So amazing. It's just a really, really good banh mi.
So, guys, so good. Sorry.
Thi Le, thank you so much.
That was incredible.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up...
We're going to do one of my signature dishes.
(LAUGHTER)
AFL superstar and reigning celebrity MasterChef Nick Riewoldt
shows us his deep-fried eggplant.
You've got some impressionable people here, mate, you know.
Oh! (ALL GROAN)
Oh, what? Come on!
Far out - this place!
ANDY: Here they are. Hello, hello.
Hello. Looking spritely.
(LAUGHTER)
Righto, guys, we cooked for you this morning...
..now it's your turn to cook for us.
Today, we wanna see a dish that showcases extra virgin olive oil.
Mm.
And Mindy, we know you've got something up your sleeve
so come on up. (LAUGHS)
Now, we thought we'd invite a special guest to cook alongside Mindy today.
Ooh.
This man is just like you in that
he was once a contestant in this competition.
Oh.
After a bit of dedication and elbow grease,
he walked away with a trophy.
10 out of 10.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
That makes you the winner of Celebrity MasterChef 2021!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Please welcome...
..the reigning Celebrity MasterChef,
St Kilda superstar and Fox Footy commentator...
Yes!
..it's none other than Nick Riewoldt, everybody!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
There he is!
He's ready to go, with his apron on!
How are you, mate? NICK: What's happening?
Still shorter than you. Oh.
I just feel really sick all of a sudden.
(LAUGHS)
Flashbacks? Gosh, flashbacks everywhere.
You guys are crazy, for coming back.
What are you doing? (LAUGHTER)
DANIEL: Nick Riewoldt walks in the door
and he is a giant. (CHUCKLES)
He's this massive god of a man.
He's the reigning Celebrity MasterChef,
so pretty awesome to have him come into the kitchen today.
So what have you been doing?
Spending much time in the kitchen since you left?
Uh, I have.
I mean, part of the deal of coming onto the show
was that my wife would never have to cook again.
(LAUGHTER)
Um, so she's held me to that and I've loved it, really.
It's reinvigorated my passion for it.
My reputation preceded me a little bit after MasterChef.
Right, Nick, Mindy, should we get stuck in?
Let's do it. Come on!
Yeah! Give it up.
Righto, Mindy, what's on the menu over here?
We're gonna do one of our signature dishes at Karkalla,
which is crispy saltbush. Yum.
We're gonna fry it in some extra virgin olive oil today.
We're gonna do a little bush tomato and chilli dipping sauce,
kind of just brings out those really yummy flavours of the desert.
Amazing. What ae you two lads doing over there?
We're gonna do one of MY signature dishes...
(ALL LAUGH)
Own it. Own it.
We're doing fried eggplants with salsa verde and walnuts.
That sounds delicious.
Should we get into it? Yeah, let's do it.
We'll start up a light batter for the saltbush.
Plain flour, super easy,
and some soda water. Yep.
Soda water just brightens it up, makes it a little bit lighter.
Pinch of salt.
Keep it nice and simple.
We just want it to lightly coat the leaf.
I mean, this is such a beautiful plant
and it actually absorbs a lot of the salt out of the soil
that it grows in. Yep.
So it's got these beautiful natural saline kind of flavour.
There's a few different varieties, right?
There's actually 60 different types. 60?! 60. (LAUGHS)
Wow. What variety is this? This is Old Man.
Gotcha. Old Man Saltbush.
Dan, that one's for you. (SHOCKED LAUGHTER)
Shade thrown!
Yeah, that's definitely Old Man's. I know that one.
What do we need to do? I'm your apprentice. Let's go.
Oh, really? What do you want?
Oh, this is gonna be fun. This is gonna be fun? Gonna be fun.
Alright.
Heat some oil up for me, champion.
How much do you want? A good amount, please.
We're gonna just cut our eggplant
and then bathe them in some milk for a bit.
In milk? Yes.
Cool. Gets rid of a bit of the bitterness.
So it's quite nice having a little selection. Yeah.
Different shapes, different colours. Different shapes, different colours.
So we got the graffiti, we got the baby
and we got the Lebanese. Brilliant.
What about the top of the eggplant? Is that no good?
Do you wanna use it? I was just asking.
No, do you wanna use it? I just quite love eggplant.
Well, hey, sometimes a sous chef's actually allowed to step up and make suggestions.
OK. So feel free.
Can you use the whole eggplant? Sure. Let's do it.
Awesome. Alright.
Got some impressionable people here, mate, you know?
Oh, my God. (CONTESTANTS GROAN)
Oh, come on! (ALL LAUGH)
That bit was no good.
Alright, mate, what is the dry coating for the outside of them?
So we've got semolina. Yep.
It's just a little bit crispier than the normal flour.
Oregano. Thyme, bit of salt.
Beautiful.
Yeah, it will all come together pretty nicely.
Let's get into it.
We're gonna do our bush tomato mayo.
Take out the idea that it's anything like a European tomato,
they have a totally different flavour profile.
Caramel notes, they're almost like honey. Yeah.
They grow in a really arid desert region so they're intense.
That takes a lot to grow that tiny little fruit there.
A little bit is a lot.
OK, how are we putting together this mayo?
Pretty standard - eggs, grapeseed oil and blend away.
How do you make your mayos, Andy?
Yeah, like that but in a 20-litre bucket.
(LAUGHTER) With a big old stick blender.
This technique is like, once you nail it...
I know, you don't go back. You don't go back. Don't go back. Yeah.
We're gonna add some sriracha into it.
Gotcha. Bit of chilli sauce.
Love this spice and it actually brings out
a lot of that amazing bush tomato flavours.
Would you like to stir that through?
We're gonna give it a good sprinkle of some ground-up bush tomato.
Kutjera, traditional name.
Put a touch of salt.
Perfect. We'll put that into a little serving bowl.
Then we're gonna deep-fry.
You guys ready to go?
We're waiting for you. Gosh. What?
We're warmed up, we've stretched. We're ready to get into the game.
(LAUGHTER)
You look at the clock!
Far out. This place!
Anyone wanna give him a time call?
(LAUGHTER)
Cooking for us, we have our very own Mindy
and Celebrity MasterChef winner Nick Riewoldt.
Nick is making fried eggplant, salsa verde,
candied walnuts and goat's cheese.
It's a very clever dish and the flavours, in theory, to me,
works really well.
Mindy's making fried saltbush with bush tomato mayonnaise.
She's always championing Indigenous ingredients
and I can't wait to taste it.
So we've basically got our batter, our saltbush.
MINDY: Yep. We're gonna fry up, ready to go.
Exactly. Love it.
So we'll put in extra virgin olive oil
that actually lends itself to this really well because it seasons it.
Yeah, right.
And it'll actually highlight the notes of the saltbush.
Love it.
I think everyone's been afraid of deep-frying extra virgin olive oil
because they normally get the temperatures so high...
Yeah! There's this kind of misconception
that it's got a low burning temp and it actually ruins a quality oil.
It's actually not the case. Yep. What have you got it at?
About 180. Nice.
Which is fine. It actually holds.
Particularly for vegies, when you're deep-frying them, I find. Yep.
And doesn't over-dominate, which is really nice.
We're ready to rock'n'roll.
Do you cook much with saltbush? Not a great deal.
The natives have such a strong flavour
so the best thing is to go kind of light-handed with them.
So we just very, very gently dipping that in.
You wanna get all those leaves covered.
Little bit of a shake-off.
What we're gonna do is just gently dance it in here.
Once it's in there, just dance it around a little bit
so those leaves open out. Oh, we're dancing!
We're dancing, girl. This is what we do.
And it's literally seconds in there, like, less than a minute,
which is great.
Beautiful. You can see it. That looks cool. Yeah.
So we'll get this out to a paper towel.
Look how bright it goes.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
You can see all those flavours are gonna start to come out of it.
Salt? Touch of salt. Doesn't need much.
Called 'saltbush' for a reason. (CHUCKLES)
Can I dance? Yeah, please.
(LAUGHTER) Get your groove on.
Disco. I love it.
So, we've had some eggplants in milk for 10-15 minutes. Yep.
And then they go in the semolina herb mixture as the coating.
Right, shall we get 'em in? Alright, let's get them in.
So I like cooking with extra virgin olive oil.
It's a healthier option. I just think tastes better.
I mean, health and taste is a pretty good combo, right? That's it.
Alright, so are we looking for
caramelised, light golden-brown, dark golden-brown, what are we thinking?
Nah, light. Light.
What else do we need to get?
Let's start getting onto the salsa verde.
Got some basil, got some capers and we've got some salt.
I'll look after these for ya.
Careful, though. 'Cause that oil's hot in there.
Don't burn yourself. (LAUGHTER)
Alright.
Let's get into plating up.
I love to serve it on the stem. Yep.
Because it just highlights how incredibly beautiful that is.
And the idea is then just to pick off those beautiful leaves,
dip it into the sauce and just enjoy it for what it is.
I'm in.
Create a little stand for it so it stands up.
Let's do it. This is kind of our version of chips.
Snack on it.
Icy cold beer, glass of champagne.
Look at this! Cheeky lemon.
Can I start taking these out now?
If you think they've reached the point they're ready... Mate, you're the chef.
I'm... Hey! A good chef delegates from time to time
and I'm happy for you to make the call.
(ALL LAUGH)
And am I seasoning them again when they come out?
Yeah. We'll give them a little sprinkle.
Season and taste. Season and taste.
So eggplants ready.
Salsa verde's ready.
How are we putting this together?
Eggplant down the bottom.
And then salsa verde onto the eggplant.
You can use two hands if you want.
There's no clock, so I can take my time.
(CHORTLES)
I think you've forgotten what it's like to cook under pressure.
I've just been dealing with an inadequate sous-chef.
That's been my issue. Ooh! Burnt.
(LAUGHTER)
These are candied walnuts. Candied walnuts.
Yum.
And the salad.
I think it looks lovely. There we go.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Let's go, guys.
Mindy, what's the rush? Come on.
Good food takes time.
Nick takes a little bit longer.
(LAUGHS)
There is no time in this kitchen.
Come on.
OK.
That looks epic! Love it. Yeah.
Let's do it. Here we go, guys.
So this is our crispy saltbush cooked in extra virgin olive oil
with a bush tomato mayo.
So good. (APPLAUSE)
Beautiful.
We're done. So there's our fried eggplant with salsa verde,
candied walnuts and goat's cheese.
Cooked in extra virgin olive oil.
(APPLAUSE) Look at that!
Well done, mate. Thanks, mate.
Don't leave me hanging. Don't leave me hanging.
Fellas, do you wanna come over and taste?
Yeah! Yes, please. Come on over.
Let's get into it. Crispy saltbush.
Squeeze some lemon juice. Yep.
Can I touch now? You can.
OK. Please proceed. Oh, no!
Just pick off the little leaves. Yeah, OK.
Yeah, just enjoy it.
Crunchy. Crunchy.
Yeah. Delicious.
Wow. That's really good.
It's yummy, isn't it?
Couple of beers, happy days. Oh, out on the beach.
Alright, do you wanna taste Nick's?
Yeah, let's do it. Course you do.
C'mon, Nick, what have you cooked me?
Can I finish? (LAUGHS) Yeah, take it with you.
I'll bring it with me.
Fancy! Huh?
As we're used to with you, mate, it's a beautiful-looking dish.
Fancy. Get in there, Mindy.
Yeah. I will.
Mm.
Candied walnuts - genius. Yeah.
Bit of crunch. Yeah, love it.
It's beautiful because it hasn't soaked up too much of that oil.
Yep. That little crust on there.
And those candied walnuts are incredible.
Oregano in there is really good.
Lovely with the salsa verde. Beautiful.
Very smart, Nick. Thanks, Jock.
You learned a lot in the MasterChef kitchen.
I had great teachers. (LAUGHTER)
You guys are the best! I miss you. (LAUGHTER)
Still trying to score brownie points, huh?
Well...
Mindy, thanks for that. Take a seat. Yeah, no worries.
Thanks, Mindy. That was delicious.
Alright, what a great day we've had.
So, go home, get some rest
'cause you are gonna need every bit of it as the competition ramps up.
Thanks, guys. See you, guys. Thank you.
ANNOUNCER: Sunday night on MasterChef Australia -
Marco Pierre White may be intimidating...
SARAH: He's all about perfection.
..but wait until they cook for him...
JULIE: Whoa!
..on elimination day.
MARCO: Be very careful. God, he's dangerous.
Captions by Red Bee Media