details on the website! Great to see you.
details on the website! Great to see you. Thanks
details on the website! Great to see you. Thanks guys!
Previously on MasterChef Australia...
..a massive three-round elimination.
TOMMY: I'm working like a madman.
..started with six cooks giving it their all.
ANDY: Wow. Chicken skin dessert.
MONTANA: This is definitely creative and out of the box.
But it came down to two titans.
Go, Alvin!
They both brought out the big guns...
Oh, I'm so happy with that.
Drunken chicken 2.0.
JOCK: This is a pearler. ANDY: dish that broke the internet.
..but Tommy was the one to say goodbye.
TOMMY: I'm leaving this competition with my head held up high.
I love you all.
Give it up for Tommy, everybody!
I'm so proud of what I've done on this show.
Tonight, it's a mega mystery box.
DANIEL: The pressure of the competition is incredible
because I'm so out of my depth.
But one tiny mistake could have huge consequences.
# '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. #
Good morning. Good morning, good morning!
Good morning, everybody.
Tommy went home last night.
It was an epic battle.
I mean, it's like going in a duel with your brother.
I'm still a bit scarred, but I survived it.
And I'm here to fight for another day.
ANDY: Here we go! ALDO: Huge boxes!
Good wine under there, maybe.
Come and find a big old box!
Any box! They're huge.
Ooh, it's a big box!
I'm going here. Alrighty.
Can basically fit a whole apartment in it.
It's a big one.
ANDY: Good morning, everybody. Good morning!
Mel, welcome back.
MELISSA: Thank you.
Morning, all.
Let's address the elephant in the room.
Or rather, the super-sized mystery box on your benches.
Today you'll need to showcase whatever is under there
in your finished dish.
And trust me, it's going to be a sizeable challenge.
Got one laugh. That was good.
It's all I need. I'll laugh.
I'm with you, man. I'm with you. It was funny.
Julie, what do you reckon's under there? Any guesses?
Oh, gosh. Maybe, like, it's a whole creature of some sort.
OK, nice. We'll see if that comes true.
Righto. Let's get to it.
You can lift your lids now.
Oh, they're miniature ingredients!
Yes!
There's teeny, tiny little prawns.
How cute.
Oh, my God! They're so tiny!
Little, itty-bitty ingredients.
Oh, it's so cute.
As you can see, everything in this box is teeny-weeny,
itty-bitty miniature.
So...
..we have school prawns.
So much flavour.
Baby cauliflower, quail, micro basil, chardonnay, baby mandarins.
Baby mandarins are sour and delicious.
Fresh garlic.
Mini Oreos - my favourite.
Oreo cookies are dark chocolate and have a nice bitterness.
Tiny tomatoes.
ALDO: The tomatoes. Seriously!
How are you going to cut those tomatoes?
And one pocket-sized plate.
ALVIN: Oh, my God.
A tiny plate as well.
Baby mandarins I've never seen before.
I'm not sure how baby mandarins are made.
Like, I'm not sure whether...
JULIE: Do we need to have the talk?
When a mummy mandarin and a daddy mandarin really love each other...
And that's where baby mandarins come from.
In this challenge, we want you to really use your skills
and bring us a hugely tasty dish with these teeny, tiny ingredients.
And it has to fit on a plate like the one that's in your box.
Make it delicious.
Focus on the details.
We might be looking for a small plate, but we're looking for food
that's got massive flavour.
At this stage of the competition,
anything you make will be put under the microscope.
So bring us something tiny but mighty.
You will have 60 minutes to cook us a dish
using at least one of these ingredients.
Cook one of the bottom three dishes today and you'll find yourselves
in tomorrow's pressure test, where one of you will be going home.
And of course, you will have access
to the usual underbench pantry as well.
But whatever you cook,
it must fit on one of those teeny, tiny, little plates.
Remember, good things come in small packages,
and your time starts now.
KEYMA: Oh, my God, mystery box, 60 minutes,
it's getting harder and harder.
All those tiny ingredients are amazing. They look beautiful.
So cute in the box!
The baby mandarins are kind of winking at me
and I want to make a dessert.
So I want to make a creme caramel with mandarin flavour,
some candied mandarin and some sort of Chantilly cream on top.
Infusing that creme caramel with mandarin peel
comes from the Spanish kind of desserts.
So all of them, they normally use cinnamon and orange peel
to infuse their creams and their pastries.
First thing I have to do is heat up the milk,
almost to simmer point so the mandarin can infuse
and then let it cook for 30 minutes in the oven
so I don't have much time to make it.
DANIEL: Creme caramel, Keyma?
Yes. I love it.
Yummy! You've got it, girl.
Massive mystery box, tiny ingredients, huge consequences.
Bottom three dishes are going into a pressure test tomorrow.
They don't want to be a bottom dish today.
(CHORTLES) 'Cause we know what's coming.
You do not want to be there at all. MELISSA: No.
What do you reckon you do?
If I were in this competition today,
I'd probably do something with the quail
and maybe just cook it over coals.
Make sort of a sweet, sticky glaze with the charred baby mandarins
and the tomatoes and the chardonnay.
And then I would fry the school prawns until they're really crispy
and then blitz them up and make a little crumb over the top.
Maybe pickle the cauliflower. That's not bottom three.
Yes! That's top of the class.
Oh, thank you. Top of the class.
What's your top-of-the-class dish? I'm cooking...
..I look at the quail
and I'm thinking those baby mandarins are sour and delicious.
Some obviously chardonnay wine in there.
Mini bottle. Yeah.
Satay steaks, quail satay. Ooh!
Like a little plate and with a bunch of satay sticks,
reduction, sticky, jammy on the hibachi, everyone's happy.
Yeah. I'd be looking at that cauliflower,
and that thing roasted hard and blackened right up
with a reduction with a glaze of the baby mandarins
and the chardonnay as well.
And that would just be my centrepiece.
I think this is deceptively hard... It is.
..this challenge because we've asked for a... Delicate.
Yeah. A delicate plate of food with buckets of flavour.
(LAUGHS) That's the challenge on this one.
And I think it's a pretty hard one.
SARAH: They're so baby.
My nails aren't long enough to help me out here.
I am going to make a seared quail and a sauce vierge
using the mandarins, the cherry tomatoes and wine,
and making a really beautiful kind of dressing on top.
I am doing just a little roasted quail and a cauliflower cream.
Competition is definitely fierce so I'm gonna give today everything.
ALVIN: This is so bloody tiny!
I'm going to try and make a tiny cauliflower
and school prawns san choy bow.
Tiny box, big flavours -
that's what it's all about today.
I'm going to be doing a beautiful quail dumpling.
I'm gonna make a mandarin oil.
So it's all about just ramping up the flavour
of these tiny, little ingredients.
Are you alright there? Yeah, I'm good. How are you?
Good. What are you cooking?
Tomato salad. Oh, yeah? Great.
Look at this. Beautiful. Beautiful. Wrap and rest.
Never, never, ever in my life done anything so small,
nothing so delicate. It's like such not myself.
But, you know, it's MasterChef,
you've gotta do whatever gets asked to you, so bring it on.
Normally, my style of cooking, it's a very...
..rough, rustic, generous Italian food,
jampacked of flavour.
And having those little ingredients,
it's something that I will never consider to cook with in my life.
They're very tiny. I need to be very super careful
because sometimes I'm very rough as well.
I got big hands, I can squash them, everything so easily.
I'm gonna make a panzanella salad,
which, it's normally a classic tomato salad
but with a little bit of crunchy bits and pieces in.
Panzanella, for Tuscan people, it's the bread.
But for us, down to Naples, a panzanella is just a few croutons
to soak it up the juice of tomatoes but predominant has to be tomatoes.
Because I don't have bread to work with
to put in this little tomato salad,
I need to make a little crostini, which is just an olive oil bread.
Just toasted.
I just got to keep calm.
All of our crostini needs to add that crunch
that it's going to be missing from the bread.
It's gonna be baked in the oven, and then it's gonna be finish it off.
Definitely it's not my strength making something delicate,
but, you know, you've gotta push the boat.
We just at the pointy end of the competition
and everything needs to start to come all together.
Big box, little ingredients, huge expectations
and 45 minutes to go.
Today, I'm cooking with this little, little...
..dainty little thing.
I try to imagine cooking with quails for my sons,
how many quails I would have to cook.
We'd need, like, three flocks of them.
So this is not the size food I'm used to cooking.
Oh, poor little thing.
If anybody left my house, or my cooking school
and needed to swing through a drive-through on the way home
'cause they were still hungry,
I would consider that to be an epic personal fail.
Hey, Julie. Hello.
What's going on here?
I'm gonna do a quail mandarin with some cauliflower puree
and really nice sauce.
Instead of doing a duck a l'orange, you're doing a quail a l'mandarin.
Mandarin!
Baby mandarin. I mean, that's pretty cool.
BOTH: Keyma.
Hello, guys.
So, I'm doing creme caramel with a mandarin peel
and, um, I'm thinking some candied mandarin to go on top of that,
to just decorate that beautiful creme caramel.
Massive pressure. Mm.
Like, there's a lot of work in a creme caramel
and then by the time you get that cooled down,
you've got to plate up, you're gonna be... I'm gonna be on the edge.
It's a risk. Yes.
You...you love a risk! I like that. I love risking it!
Yeah. Risk it for the biscuit.
You know me now. Guess what.
Guess when we're going to come back. When?
When you're just about to turn it out. Good luck.
Stop it, you guys! Oh, my God. Go away.
45 minutes to go.
I check on my creme caramel mixture.
Oh, my God, this is not working.
(SIGHS)
My creme caramel has curdled.
I'm freaking out.
I just curdled the... the whole thing.
Oh, I'm so stressed.
I'm just running out of time.
KEYMA: I'm a bit stressed because I've lost, like, 20 minutes
because my first creme caramel failed.
Obviously, the citrus from the mandarin
just curdled the whole thing so I'm...
..I'm just thinking what to do.
I have to start all over again
and I have to make this as fast as I can
so it can go in the oven at least 30 minutes.
Oh, my God, I'm so nervous.
But in my life, I've learned that as a mum, I have to keep going.
Even if the house is falling apart,
you have to make yourself strong enough to keep going
and...and fix things...
..and not really show the kids that you are actually freaking out.
Billie! Billie. Hi, hello.
She's got her famous mixer out. (CHUCKLES)
What could that mean for today?
I'm doing cookies and cream choux buns with a...
Ooh. Yeah.
..adding in the mandarin, making a bit of a jam out of that as well.
Ooh! So...
OK. I'm into that. Yeah!
Inside, there's gonna be a mandarin caramel
and cookies-and-cream mixture as well.
Such a great idea. Yeah. That is a doozy.
Yeah, well, I saw the Oreos and...
Yeah, I knew you would go to the Oreos!
..and these to chocolate orange. And choux pastry in 60 minutes.
Confident? Happy?
I think if I move quickly, I can do it in 60.
It's more important than ever to stay safe.
You don't want to be bottom three, I'm guessing. No, I don't want to be bottom three.
Especially with only three contestants.
Yeah. So, yeah.
Planning to stay safe today. BOTH: We'll be back.
I've done the pastry for my tiny, little choux buns
and now I'm going to make the Oreo craquelin
that goes on top of the choux pastry.
It gives it a nice crisp layer on the outside
but also makes them cook really evenly.
DANIEL: Alrighty.
Start with you.
I'm gonna be making, like, a fancy quail breast
and I'm gonna serve it on, like, a roasted little cherry tomato sauce,
which I've got the school prawns and the quail bones and everything,
and I'm just gonna get, like, a sauce-type thing going.
I suppose like a jus, I just don't know what to call it.
And I'm gonna put, obviously, the basil and the garlic
and all that sort of thing and it's gonna make it really pungent.
And I'm gonna do some charred cauliflower florets as well.
It's gonna be served just next to the quail breast.
Very kind of refined Melbourne bar, sort of...
..you know, wine-bar-type thing,
which is a little bit different for me.
If someone told me a few months ago that I would be on MasterChef,
making dainty, little delicate food,
like, I would not have believed them.
I'm a firefighter from Darwin.
Look at you go! (CHUCKLES)
You're like the... You're in the top 10
and you're getting all fancy, I really, really like it.
It makes my hands look huge, this little leg.
(BOTH LAUGH)
I'm just as shocked as anyone that I'm here in the top nine.
But at the same time, I've been working my...
..stubby fingers to the bone.
I just feel like you've got other contestants who are just experts
at what they do.
You've got Aldo, who knows his food back to front.
Julie is Julie. We don't need to go into that.
Billie, who is incredible at desserts,
er, you feel that imposter syndrome.
Why am I here? What is it that I am good at?
The pressure of the competition is incredible
because you are constantly being tested.
Just sort of push myself on these sort of days
and...push myself out of my comfort zones.
Oh, so good.
Tiny, tiny, tiny ingredients. MINDY: Oh, my God. (LAUGHS)
Tiny ingredients. Hopefully, loads of flavour.
Alvin. Hi, Mel.
(LAUGHS) These ingredients make me look fat.
(LAUGHS)
(KEYMA HUFFS)
Oh, my God.
You started with a little bit, we are asking a lot.
30 minutes to go!
30 minutes! Let's go!
MINDY: I am getting into this quail super fast.
Need to kind of debone it, get all of that flesh away.
You know, you have to be really careful
with those tiny, little quail bones.
JULIE: I've got the sauce under way for my quail a l'mandarin.
And I taste the sauce.
And it's quite sour, even bitter.
And I taste the mandarin on its own
and they are a sour little number.
But that's good because actually the sourness
gives another level to this sauce
but I will need to sweeten it up,
so I tip in some of that itty-bitty bottle of wine.
Mon. Yeah.
You got a little bit of extra bench space.
Do I? No. Joking. No?!
(CHUCKLES) I'm just teasing you.
I got all the components to make a panzanella salad,
except the bread
so I made olive oil crostini.
# Whoa-oh-oh-oh. #
The crostini, once they're coming out of the oven,
they need to be deep-fried.
So deep-frying, they will puff and add that crunch,
that it's going to be missing from the bread.
Oh, no.
But they're actually not puffing.
Oh... (SIGHS)
This crostini, they're not going the way that I wanted.
Oh, my God, I'm getting stressed out.
So I really don't know what to do.
But I said that there was gonna be crunchy element
in this tomato salad,
so I've got no other option than praying.
SARAH: For the quail, it's, like, 60 degrees, right?
Like chicken? MINDY: Low, yep.
Get some!
Whoo! Alvin!
Yeah!
Oh, it's hard enough trying to debone this little thing,
it's like microsurgery.
I'm in there and my hands are shaking.
I've deboned the quail and I'm gonna sear that off later.
And I've got my sauce thing on the go here.
The tomatoes, being so small, they are very acidic and very sweet,
but you char them and really roast them down,
it just brings a different level of sweetness out.
Daniel. G'day, guys. How are we?
What's going on? I'm doing a pan-seared quail breast.
Cool. OK.
I've got, like, a real mean sauce-broth type thing going,
it's gonna be quite thick.
What are you calling the sauce? It's a jus or it's a butter...
A beurre blanc or it's a... What is it?
Yeah. Tomato butter sauce?
Um, the thing is, is if you don't know what you're cooking,
then, how are you gonna get to the point of what it is?
Oh, I mean, I know...
I know...how...how to cook it and everything...
Um... (STAMMERS)
..the thing is, if you don't know what you're cooking,
then how are you gonna get
to the end point of what it is? I mean, I know...
I know...how I've cooked... How to cook it and everything...
I'm trying to explain the sauce.
I want, like, this nice pan-seared quail breast
and some sort of sauce thing.
It's a sauce, a jus, essentially, I suppose.
A jus or a... beurre blanc-esque thing.
It's really hard, particularly for me, to articulate it.
You've got 20 minutes to condense what it is.
Yep.
Good luck. Thank you.
(SIGHS)
Now I don't really quite know if what I'm doing is...right.
Oh, I must sound like a bloody goose.
It's like, oh, my God, I'm so out of my depth.
I don't know what I did wrong!
Sometimes, I struggle trying to explain what I mean
when it comes to food and I need to learn the food language and the...
..and the terminologies of things because I...I struggle with that.
But I'm not gonna worry about the classification of what the sauce is.
So I decide I'm gonna thicken it with equal parts flour and butter.
And on the heat, I'm gonna drop these little bits in at a time and whisk it
and it'll emulsify the butter and it will thicken with the flour
and it should be like a beautiful glossy coating of a sauce.
But I'm gonna have to trust my gut here and hope for the damn best.
And nail the cook on the quail.
KEYMA: Time is running out
and I'm trying to work through all the elements
to go with my creme caramel.
I've done a mandarin syrup and I have candied mandarin
and everything is very, very sweet
so I need to kind of balance the whole dish with something
and I'm thinking mini Oreos.
I mean, that's dark chocolate
and it will just cut through the richness of the creme caramel.
I'm gonna use all the little biscuits to create kind of a soil
with the Oreos
and that will add some of that... bitterness to the dish.
But, meanwhile, time is slipping away
and I need to get these creme caramels out of the oven.
One of them is jiggly and the other one looks a bit sad.
So I'm just thinking I can't risk it,
I need to put them in the freezer.
Let's hope that they set.
JULIE: The sauce is going, puree's done, quail's cooked
and I've got my little garnishes just about ready to go.
I think I'm giving myself enough time to balance that sauce,
which is gonna be, I think, probably the most essential ingredient
on the plate.
How are you going, Jules? Alright, I think.
Quail a l'orange, uh, quail a l'mandarin.
(LAUGHS) Quail a l'mandarin.
Happy?
Yeah, look, I think this little one will rest to a nice temp.
I had a thermometer in it and then I realised
I got no idea what temperature you're meant to do it to!
(ALL LAUGH)
So it's pretty pointless information. (LAUGHS)
So what did you do?
Took it straight off, realised it needed a bit longer.
I'm back to me muffin-top quadricep theory.
This is the sauce. I'm excited. I'm excited, Jules.
Yeah. Oh, boy.
Just the classics are great.
When the judges love your idea, you've set the bar
and they have an expectation and you better deliver.
Some big ideas out there but just a little bit of time to go!
10 minutes!
Billie, I heard rumours about Oreo craquelin.
How is it?
BILLIE: 10 minutes to go, my choux buns are cooked.
You have to be happy with that.
I'm pretty happy with them. Yep.
They've come out nicely. They look absolutely amazing!
Thanks, Mel.
I've got the Oreo cream in the fridge
and the mandarin caramel done as well.
It's all coming together, which is a nice feeling.
ALVIN: I look up and, you know, Queen Bee Billie is in front of me
and the girl made choux pastry and...
(CHUCKLES WRYLY) God, she's so clever.
I love her.
Oh, yes. Smells good.
Got my sauce done.
It's thickened up, it's beautifully glossy,
it's got a really nice consistency.
I've tasted it, it needs a touch of balancing but I've lost a bit of time
and I really need to get the quail breast on.
I'm stressed about cooking quail breast because...I don't know
the correct way of cooking quail, at what level of that's done.
Oh, man.
And I'm nervous as hell because I don't know what the correct way is.
I don't know what Jock, Mel and Andy want.
But I'm just sort of imagining treat it like pork
where it can have that little bit of blushiness
and it's quite juicy and succulent.
You know, I've just gotta give it a crack and see what happens.
Cool.
ALDO: Time is ticking away
and these crostini, they're not going the way that I wanted.
But I say there was gonna be a panzanella salad
so they need the crunchy element in there,
so I really don't wanna leave it out.
And my tomato salad's still there, infusing the flavour
into the beautiful olive oil.
I need to fry quickly the school prawns.
They just take two minutes and I've got, seriously, 10 school prawns,
which is...
..unbearable. Gimme more.
I know it's a tiny box but they're just 10 school prawns.
I can seriously pick up the school prawns with just one scoop!
Oh, yes.
Got my dumpling done. Got my mandarin oil, I've just gotta strain that.
I've got my broth, that's strained. I'm happy with the flavours.
Every single bit of that quail has gone into this dish.
Just gotta plate it up. It looks so lonely!
Dumplings aren't meant to be served as one!
SARAH: Looks amazing.
The quail is cooked now and resting.
I've got my cauliflower cream,
finishing off with that sauce vierge.
I just need to plate now.
This quail needs to be perfect.
I mean, there's no backup here and if the cook on that's wrong,
I don't have a dish to plate up.
You don't wanna find yourself in the bottom three!
Three minutes to go! ANDY: Come on!
It's the tiniest plate I've ever done. (LAUGHS)
KEYMA: There's only a few minutes to go
and it's time to turn out my creme caramel...
Mister. What do you want! (LAUGHS)
Have you come just to terrify me?!
..and I have Andy hovering around and trying to see if it's gonna work
and it's making me so nervous.
Should we have a look at one?
Hopefully...
Hey! JOCK: Oh, God.
Not set. Not set.
It's still very, very... Like, raw. Basically.
(SIGHS)
I'm just freaking out.
There's only one left.
MELISSA: Oh.
If the last creme caramel doesn't work,
I think I'm pretty much straight in the bottom.
Straight into the pressure test.
I need it to work!
If you've gotta bang it, that's terrible.
Oh, God.
Don't know where I'm going with this but you've got one minute to go!
Let's go! Whoo!
One minute, guys. Come on! One minute.
(KEYMA GROANS)
(TAPS RAPIDLY)
I'm just trying to take the creme caramel off.
Just trying to tap on the ramekin
and trying to just kind of shake it.
Oh, no.
If this creme caramel doesn't come out of the ramekin,
I might have to serve nothing.
(EXHALES)
Yep. Out.
Finally. Finally drops in the plate.
And it's set. Oh, my God, it's set! (LAUGHS)
I can't believe it's set.
I don't have much time to plate up so I just grab quickly all my mandarins
and I start just arranging it on the top.
30 seconds!
Yes, it is!
ALDO: I plate tomatoes on one plate and the prawns on the side.
The crostini, it looks quite flat
but I still think that it's gonna be fine to add to the dish.
And then a glass of wine, so I'm gonna use the chardonnay.
I'm gonna let them drink a glass of chardonnay as well.
It doesn't suit me at all, cooking with these little, tiny things.
But I hope that the flavours are there
so I hope that I've done just enough to avoid the bottom three.
DANIEL: Oh, man!
Plating up, I'm happy with that being the end result, but...
..I just don't know what to think right now, to be honest.
The quail breast alone,
I don't even know if that's the way it's supposed to be cooked.
Hope to God that it's right.
Alright, guys, bring it home!
10!
JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one!
That's it! (JUDGES CLAP)
Ah. BILLIE: How'd you go, Jules?
What a beautiful plate! ALDO: Well done.
Oh.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Go! Whoo!
Look at that little plate. Amazing.
Good luck, girls. Oh, wow.
BILLIE: I think whenever you make choux buns,
you have to make sure the pastry is good.
If it's not, then that's probably a ticket
straight into the bottom three.
But I'm really happy with how they turned out.
They're crispy and light, so, here's hoping that's enough to keep me safe.
Well, you started with a big mystery box
which revealed itty-bitty ingredients.
And the first dish we'd like to taste belongs to Julie Goodwin.
JULIE: I take my dish up to the judges
and what I really want is to have nailed the idea
that I've reinvented a classic French dish.
And I just hope that I've executed it.
(EXHALES)
Julie, what have you made us?
Quail a l'mandarin.
(LAUGHS)
Perfect. Classic combination.
Duck a l'orange, obviously, a favourite of yours?
Yeah. Love it. Love it.
I don't cook it very often, you know?
And I certainly have never done THIS before.
Um, quail's just not an economic way to feed my family. (LAUGHS)
That's understandable. (LAUGHS)
Julie, the sauce...
..is bloody perfect.
Like, it is bloody perfect.
Anyone who wants to know how to make a sauce needs to come to you
because you have just knocked that out of the park.
It's got the right body, the right sweetness,
but the overriding amount of mandarin,
which is right at the forefront, is where it's at
and it does remind you of duck a l'orange.
The breasts were cooked really nicely.
I was a bit worried when you said, "I put the thermometer in
"and then I realised that I have no idea
"what the temperature's meant to read so I went back to my..."
What was it? What do you do again?
Muffin-top is underdone, quadriceps are overdone.
OK. Somewhere in the middle is perfect. Somewhere in the middle.
So it was beautiful and medium rare.
The quail was absolutely gorgeous.
It just had that beautiful, tender pink kind of hue
that is so pleasing to look at but just even better to eat.
And then this smooth, rich coating sauce
that just carried the bitterness of the citrus through
in just such a lovely way.
There was nothing tiny about the flavours in that dish.
It was beautiful. Thanks, Mel.
Julie, do you remember what I said to you on the first cook?
Classics.
When you're able to mine
the knowledge of classic French cuisine,
you are at an advantage because, as I said to you on the first cook,
it never goes out of fashion
and if you know how to do it and do it well, as you do...
..you can easily have your name on that trophy.
It is dishes like that that are executed with the perfection
that you've shown us today,
that win this competition.
Well done. Thank you, Jock.
Yes, Julie. Yeah, Julie!
Can I just say...
I'd like to just say that...
..the comments that you made to me on my very first cook here, um,
were incredibly kind but also have given me permission
to cook the way that I really love to cook, so thank you.
We love it. We do. Thanks, Julie.
Well done, Julie. (APPLAUSE)
MINDY: Good on you, Jules.
Next up, Billie.
Ooh. Hello. MELISSA: Wow!
Billie, what did you do?
I did cookies & cream choux buns.
Nice.
You don't give a lot away,
but I can tell that you're pretty chuffed with this, I reckon.
Yeah. I'm happy with them.
They turned out how I wanted them to, so...
Can you run us through the layers that we're all looking at here.
Yeah. So it's just a choux bun with an Oreo craquelin on top
and then inside, there's a mandarin caramel
and a cookies & cream mixture.
Billie...
(LAUGHS)
Oh!
I think you knew it anyway. No, I didn't!
Like, those choux pastry looked magic
and they were light, they were delicate,
they were beautifully cooked, the craquelin on top, also fantastic.
Cookie & cream centre, epic.
And then your candied baby mandarin was crunchy and beautifully...
The caramel taken to the edge.
That was a bite of perfection.
Thank you. Thanks.
The flavours are nostalgic.
To have that cookies & cream goodness
that just makes you feel like a little kid, this is amazing.
Thank you, Mel. Thank you.
Billie, that's crazy! Like, that is crazy!
I just can't believe 60 minutes and you can do that!
Again, I'm frustrated with you, Billie! 'Cause it's so damn good!
Like, the perfect choux with the perfect Oreo craquelin.
It's just... It shouldn't happen in 60 minutes.
(LAUGHS) Like, that right there, it shouldn't!
Shouldn't happen in 60 minutes! Sorry.
And that's why you will NOT be in the pressure test tomorrow.
Yay! Well done.
(APPLAUSE) Well done, Billie. Thank you.
Ah.
That was just...
..mic drop.
No pressure test, thank God.
OK, next up, Daniel.
Bloody Billie goes up and goes,
"I just whipped up a choux pastry in 60 minutes."
Like, I just don't even feel like I bloody belong here.
If I can't even name a sauce, like, probably shouldn't be here.
Daniel, what did you end up on?
Uh, I made a pan-seared quail breast,
some charred cauliflower florets and, um, a jus.
(CHUCKLES) A sauce. You happy?
Um...I was really happy, now I'm...not so sure.
Why?
Like... I dunno, I just...
(CHUCKLES) I don't...
Um...
I, um...
(CLEARS THROAT)
Sorry, guys. (CLEARS THROAT)
Applications for next season are now open.
Go on, get on it.
What's up?
I just don't know what I'm doing half the time. (CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY)
I don't think that's right.
I think you don't know
how to ARTICULATE what you're doing sometimes.
Yeah, I know that for damn sure.
So, I don't think...
I don't think it's a question of you don't know what you're doing.
You find it hard to be able to put into words
what you're trying to achieve in the dish.
Is that where you're at? Yeah, a lot. Yeah.
I mean, you know, man,
this part of the competition just gets pretty hard.
Um...
And I'm feeling it.
I, um...
It is a lot, man. Like, I'm telling you it is a lot.
I've been in the exact same situation.
You know, for me, I didn't feel worthy of being in the competition
for a long, long time.
Exactly, man. Yeah.
But I've got to say, from us three, mate, we're so proud of you.
Thanks, guys.
I think if there was a prize for the biggest progression,
Daniel would win it.
Yeah. I can honestly say out of everyone that's in the room,
I think you've moved the dial the furthest,
and that's why you're still in the competition, mate.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah.
Daniel...
..tasty plate of food.
Here's the good news, the quail was cooked absolutely perfectly.
Oh, good.
Alright, feel better? Yeah, that's a good start.
The sauce, you packed a good amount of flavour in there.
It just needed balancing. Yeah.
The cauliflower, you know, had a nice char on it,
added a little bit of bitterness into the dish.
Happy days. Good plate of food.
Thank you.
Daniel, at such an early stage in your food life,
you don't need to know all of the technical terms
as long as you know the technical term for a dish like this
is 'tasty'.
(CHUCKLES)
That was a perfectly cooked piece of quail.
That's hard to do sometimes.
The sauce had lots of flavour,
small amount of balance, but great texture.
So, you did consider
what was on that small, nicely formed plate of food.
You just need to keep going.
Daniel, you have to power on
because there's still so much to learn.
The finish line is near,
and you just never know where you can end up.
Thanks very much, guys. Appreciate it.
(APPLAUSE)
I think I need to stop comparing myself to other contestants.
I don't want to shoot too high for the stars
but I've fantasised about the idea of potentially making a final.
And I think about how incredibly proud I would be if I made the final
and be a guy from Darwin that's done it.
KEYMA: Cheer up. I'm crying. (LAUGHS)
Yeah. Mwah.
Next up, it's Keyma.
Keyma, what's the dish, please?
Today I've made a creme caramel with some candied baby mandarins,
chardonnay and baby mandarin syrup
and some crushed Oreos.
Keyma, you're a madwoman.
I am.
Like, creme caramel in 60 minutes.
The first one that you turned out there,
it was just like it was liquid in the middle.
It just wasn't set.
And I think the only reason that was set
is because it had three millimetres
probably less than the other one had.
As a result of that it is set, it's rich,
it's really beautifully flavoured.
That mandarin syrup just takes it to another level.
Like I say, you're a madwoman
because everything said to me this is not going to work.
And then also I was looking at the Oreo going,
"Like, it's such a beautiful thing, a creme caramel,"
and then you dumped a load of Oreo soil on the side.
Shame on me for looking at it
going, "Why did she dump the Oreo soil on the side?"
Well done. Thank you.
Keyma, keep pushing and having fun and risking it
because it really, really does work.
What's beautiful about that
is that perfumed light citrus fragrance of the mandarin.
It just imbues the entire dish with this delicacy.
And then that's offset
by how rich and luscious and fatty and coating
that creme caramel is.
And, so, well done. Thank you, guys.
On ya, mate. I'm great.
You are. Thank you.
Next up, Alvin.
I made a cauliflower and school prawns san choy bow.
I think what I liked
was that it really traversed sweet, sour and savoury
really, really nicely.
You know how to produce flavour really well.
It's a tasty bite of food.
Thanks.
Sarah.
I made quail with mandarin sauce vierge.
I think it was a great dish.
The only fault here that leaves you vulnerable
is the cook on the quail.
Leg perfect, breast slightly over.
Montana.
Quail with cauliflower and a little tomato and basil salad.
That's a beast.
The dish was really tasty.
The quail was cooked so nicely. It was perfect medium-rare.
But in top nine, that can hurt you. OK. (SUCKS IN AIR)
And me. Sorry.
Mindy.
I have made for you a quail won ton with a quail broth
and crispy school prawns.
Mindy, loved the flavour of the broth. Um...
Like, that's a good hunk of bone.
Have you got bone in it? It's like...
And it's a solid... It's a solid bit, too.
It's not, like, a little bit. Oh, no.
Great flavour in the broth,
but, like, that's hectic in terms of bones.
That's not that great. That might well see you in trouble today.
Yeah.
Next up, Aldo.
I'm walking my dish up to the judges,
mixed emotions and feelings.
I'm not happy with these crostini now.
And it's my first time that I feel actually not sure
about what I've done in the cook.
Aldo, what have you made, mate?
So, it is a panzanella salad with school prawns.
Question, could be controversial.
Is panzanella salad
a bread salad with tomato,
or is it a tomato salad with bread?
Well, for me, it's tomato salad, it's all about the tomatoes.
And there are so many different versions all around.
But for me, it's all about the tomatoes.
Panzanella is all about tomatoes. For myself, yes.
Panzanella is for the best part, mostly all about the bread.
Righto, you two. Let's not go there, eh?
Don't make me step in.
Don't make me step in. I'm ready.
Aldo, I'm struggling here.
I'm struggling for a couple of reasons.
The school prawns, they were nice without being exceptional.
I did want something to dip it in,
like a mayonnaise or even a squeeze of lemon or something.
I know you don't have lemon, but mandarin would have done the job.
I know it's not traditional, but it just needed something.
And to top it off the little olive oil crisps, they kind of go to sand.
So, they're not a beautiful texture,
like a beautiful crouton would be in a panzanella salad
that soaks up all of the delicious juices and olive oil and seasoning
that's left in the bottom of your serving tray.
So, it just missed the mark a little bit for me today.
Poor choice of dish today.
I love your food.
I love you're so vulnerable
in the way that you bring unashamedly brilliant Italian food
to the MasterChef kitchen.
I love it.
This was the wrong choice for today.
I just want to translate into that kind of dish,
and it didn't translate.
The execution was a mistake, but that's fine.
I need to have that downfall, and fine it's now tomorrow.
Bring it on and I'm ready. Yeah.
Excellent attitude. There he is.
Ciao.
Look, today's challenge was a tall order.
And Billie, Julie, you both produced
small but fantastically formed bites of perfection.
We couldn't fault them. Well done.
ANDY: Nice one, ladies.
JOCK: Beautiful. JULIE: Thank you.
ALDO: Well done, Billie. Thank you.
If I call your name, you're cooking in tomorrow's pressure test.
Mindy, there was quail bones in the dumpling.
I'm sorry, you're in tomorrow's pressure test.
Montana, same goes.
Bones in a dish cannot be overlooked at this stage in the competition.
We are in the top 10.
Aldo, plain and simple, you made the wrong choice today.
Well, the smallest things make the biggest difference.
Mindy, Montana, Aldo, the three of you are in tomorrow's pressure test.
If you don't want to go anywhere, dig your heels in.
Head on out. We'll see you all tomorrow.
Thanks, guys. Cheers.
ANNOUNCER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia,
it's a pressure test that packs a punch.
JOCK: 99 ingredients. Oh, my God.
143 steps.
13 pages.
It's like a bloody fiction novel.
It's game on.
And with only three cooks in the kitchen...
MINDY: This could be the dish
that makes me or breaks me in this competition.
..there's nowhere to hide.
Captions by Red Bee Media