Original subtitles

LAURA: Oh, Callum, we're back in the old stomping ground.

Hasn't changed a bit.

So today, Gordon has left us with a parting gift,

and anything from Gordon makes me nervous.

CALLUM: Here we go.

He is one of the toughest chefs in the world.

He's got this incredible reputation,

so there's going to be a lot on the line today.

ANDY: Come on, everybody, let's go.

A few benches.

Oh, my God, what a crew.

Oh, look at you guys.

Your heart never beats any less.

Morning, everybody.

ALL: Morning. It's great to see all those faces.

Now, before we kick things off, we've got some news.

Due to personal reasons,

Pete is unable to continue in the competition.

And we wish him nothing but the best.

Yeah.

Right.

First immunity challenge of the competition

and I am looking forward to this one.

Oh, my God.

You may be off the Ramsay roller-coaster...

..but Gordon's not done with you yet.

He's still haunting you.

(ALL LAUGH)

And he will forever. (ALL LAUGH)

Whatever is under that cloche,

that is going to help decide

who's safe from the first elimination.

We all want that, right?

Oh, man.

Should we take a peek at what's under Gordon's cloche?

It looks pretty special.

And I know it's something that's near and dear to his heart.

What is that? Oh.

This is Gordon's favourite late-night dish.

Oh.

Beans on toast.

Oh.

But it's not just any ordinary beans on toast.

It's got the Gordon flair.

Bit of gratinated cheese over the top.

Runny duck egg, as you do.

Very tasty.

You can smell it. Mm.

I'm sorry, but that yolk is kind of just calling me.

Of course it is.

Oh. Ooh.

Is there anything more beautiful than a runny yolk?

Oh, yum!

Just got really hungry.

Oh.

Wow. (LAUGHS)

We want to see your favourite late-night meal.

And we don't want to just see any ordinary snack.

It has to be elevated

if you want to get your hands on immunity.

And that's not all that's up for grabs.

Oh.

We have a huge surprise in store for you.

Whoever cooks the best dish will see their creation

featured in one of Gordon's London restaurants.

Oh, wow. Yes!

Oh, my goodness. That's incredible.

Wow. Damn, I need that.

Yeah.

I've accomplished a fair bit

in the last 16 years since series one,

but to have my dish on Gordon's menu

would be a phenomenal achievement.

Good luck.

We are seriously looking forward

to see different personalities

and different parts of yourself,

even down to a snack.

You will have 75 minutes.

The pantry and garden are both open.

Bring us something that we can really sink our teeth into

that will completely satisfy us.

Yep.

Your time starts now.

Alright. Oh, my goodness.

Quick, quick. Quick!

God, thank you. I work here now. Yeah.

I'll grab a chooky.

Honey.

(SING-SONG) Honey makes ya funny.

Parsley.

Is it all coming back? I think so, slowly. Yeah.

Good speed walking, Callum. CALLUM: Oh, you betcha.

Oh, we're neighbours. Hello.

That's nice. I like that.

I am pushing myself so hard today

because getting the opportunity to be on Gordon's menu,

that doesn't cross our paths all the time.

I love my desserts,

and I feel like today I'm going to play to my strength

and make something beautiful.

CALLUM: First time we've actually been in the kitchen by ourselves,

cooking whatever we want to cook,

so I'm gonna make sure that gets punchy umami.

Winning immunity today is such a massive advantage.

It's not just sitting out the first elimination.

It's also getting to study and check out everyone else's style,

which I think goes a long way in this competition.

I thought midnight snack, you know,

this is something I do with my eyes closed.

So now I'm making Serbian crepes.

and I'm making it with berry jam,

and I'm going to make hazelnut spread as well.

Midnight snack. I'm just thinking, you know,

rolling out of the pub and grabbing a kebab.

So I'm going

a lamb and harissa-spiced shish kebab.

Yum.

How are you going, Sarah? Yeah. Good. You?

Yeah. Good.

DARRSH: (WHISPERS) Stand mixer.

I'm looking around,

there's some really amazing chefs here.

Genuine chefs that have gone on to open restaurants,

cookbooks, they've done it all.

I'm fresh off the back of last season,

so I haven't really had a chance to get into the industry.

I'm feeling really out of my depth, but I have a secret weapon.

Since last season,

I've moved from Perth to Melbourne

and now live with Nat and Dave from my season.

Mm. It's actually not bad.

Living with David and Nat,

all day, every day, it's food.

We're cooking it. We're studying it.

We have every piece of equipment you could ever want.

Everything is labelled. Everything has its place.

Honestly, we just live and breathe food.

Do you remember that? Yeah, I do.

Wild.

It feels like so long ago. Yeah.

Nat obviously won season 16 of MasterChef.

So to have her bouncing ideas and seeing the way

that she thinks about food so closely

does give me an advantage.

I've learnt to work clean, be intentional, be methodical,

when to take risks and how far to take those risks.

I think that's what got her the win last year.

So I'm match fit. I'm ready.

I've got a game plan this year.

I think it's all about playing to your strengths

and my strengths are desserts, that's for sure.

I knew he was going to make a sweet.

I'm making a take on s'mores.

The dish I'm cooking today,

in terms of technique,

it's, like, right up there.

It's going to have your wafer,

it's going to have some meringue and cream,

a soil and a chocolate sauce.

And I'm using native Australian ingredients

to elevate it.

Going alright, Depinder? Yeah. How are you doing?

I'm good. You're OK?

Yeah. Lots to do.

I've seen what it takes to be a MasterChef winner

and now I want to go all the way.

POH: Sarah's going Indian.

Couldn't see a spice bag.

Should I go and get that?

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I'm just laughing that this is what happens when I don't eat.

Yeah.

Just goes, "Ting! Ting! What else do I want?"

Oh, no.

Chilli everywhere.

My main element is a pork mince Sri Lankan patty,

which is kind of like an empanada.

Yep. OK.

And it's going to get deep-fried and smashed.

And I'm going to have all sorts of condiments that go with it.

Perfect.

When the judges said midnight snack,

the place that I went to

is coming home drunk after a wine tour.

So the smash aspect actually has a few meanings.

You're obviously, you know, a bit smashed.

It's midnight. You've been on a wine tour.

There's also the smashing of the actual patty as well,

that you break the pastries open

so that it soaks up all the juicy bits

and all the sauce.

So I think I've got a good concept.

Maybe. We'll see.

(SINGSONGY) Yum!

ANDRE: Mamma mia!

Cooking solo for the first time in MasterChef kitchen,

there's no better time to break all the rules.

So soft,

my little flame.

I usually cook this for staff.

Definitely don't cook it for the kids

'cause it's really spicy.

Sizzle, sizzle.

But I will serve it to the MasterChef judges.

Yeah.

POH: Andre. Hey. Buongiorno.

Buongiorno, what are you making?

OK, so this is a southern Italian dish

called spaghetti all'assassina.

Assassin spaghetti.

So it breaks all the rules. Right?

Yeah, because... I'm burning your pasta today.

It's cooked in a risotto style, so I'm burning it.

It's charry, gooey, tomatoey,

anchovies,

and lots of spice.

So what's the texture of the pasta meant to be like?

Chewy, crunchy and burnt.

Chewy, crunchy and burnt. What?!

The story has it

that some southern Italian chefs in Puglia

made it for some northern Italian gentlemen who walked in.

To screw with them? To screw with them.

And then they walked out and said,

"You're trying to kill us with the spice and chewiness."

So it's a radical dish. Have you tried this before?

No. Neither have I.

No, I've never heard of it or tried it.

It's a cultural dish. This is the blood of the assassin.

This is midnight.

It breaks rules and it's real. We eat it.

Is there some symbolism here?

Are you the immunity assassin? Hopefully.

Hopefully. We'll see.

Proof in the pudding.

Proof in the...pasta. Pasta!

Right.

Guys, you've had 15 minutes, which means you have one hour left.

ANDY: Come on. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Allez!

Hour left! (LAUGHS)

(LAUGHS)

That sounded just like me.

Flavour bomb.

That's what we've got to do. Take 'em to Flavourtown.

ANDY: Oh, you're on the kebab train, too.

Battle of the kebabs. It is.

There's three so far.

It's quite nice being up the front here, isn't it?

Yeah. Quiet. Quite quiet. Nice and quiet.

Yeah.

I'm actually so excited to be in the MasterChef kitchen

and to showcase a big part of who I am.

I'm half-Indian, my husband is half-Japanese,

and I figured, you know, it's a nice blend of two cultures.

So I want to make the spiced prawn takoyaki,

which is a Japanese ball-shaped street food snack.

And they're essentially made with flour and eggs and dashi.

I want 'em to think it's all takoyaki on the outside,

but really, when you get stuck into it,

it's all Indian flavours.

Not hot.

So really, the name of this dish is

The Magic To A Happy Marriage.

Audra. Hey.

How you going? I'm good, I'm good.

I'm literally dying to know what you're gonna do.

'Cause I've seen you in this kitchen before.

Only when we were standing side-by-side.

That's what I mean. Right.

And I was always intrigued about what you were cooking, so...

OK. What's it gonna be today?

OK, so, you know, my husband Carl's half-Japanese.

Yes. You know, I'm half-Indian.

Yes.

So this is when you try and convince your half-Japanese husband

that you're embracing his culture.

Yeah.

So this is going to be a morph

between a takoyaki and a South Indian vadai,

which is like an Indian doughnut.

Right.

It's all Japanese-y on the outside, but it's fully Indian on the inside.

So it's gonna look like a little sphere.

A little sphere, and I've got these little pans.

And it's going to be soft on the inside.

Lots of fresh fried curry leaves,

but also tamarind. OK.

Like a sweet, spicy tamarind kind of sauce.

This is going to be a very interesting one

'cause I've eaten both the Japanese version

and, you know, the Indian version. Yes.

Merging those two together, I am excited.

Excellent. It's something you've done before?

Uh, twice.

Twice? And I did them separately.

So I'm just putting it together now.

In my mind, it works.

In my mind, it works.

Oh, gosh.

I've never made the fusion before.

Like, is it going to work? Is it going to work?

This is the first immunity of the season.

The pressure is on to not be the first one out.

The competition this year is so intense.

There's such incredible cooks around me.

To get immunity for this challenge would be gold.

So I want to win.

I love the fact that I'm giving the judges

something they've never tasted before.

This is what cooking is all about.

I'm thinking the takoyaki batter would be a brilliant canvas

to then incorporate all those beautiful spices -

chillies, onions, ginger, curry leaves.

So it's so important

to get the batter up and running first,

just so it has time to rest.

Ooh!

Now I'm just chopping the prawns.

This will be the filling for the little morsels.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Oh, my God.

There's going to be a lot of differences.

(ANDY HUMS EXCITEDLY)

I like the way you're excited.

Oh, my God, we're gonna have some surprises.

Some things never change.

SAVI: Some things never change.

Could not be more of an eyesore.

There's nothing more satisfying than opening a jar of Vegemite.

The top layer, heaven.

(LOUD GRINDING)

That noise, Steph. Loud noise.

I'm making a take on Vegemite and butter on toast.

For me, when I first started in the hospital industry as a chef,

I would come home and wouldn't have time

to make anything for dinner, and this was my go-to.

So I'm going to have fun

and make a little cheeky dessert with it.

So my twist on Vegemite on toast

is that I'm going to be basically replicating

every layer of Vegemite on toast.

So, down the bottom, we're going to have the toast element -

a nice caramelised crumb.

We're going to have our butter in a brown-butter ice-cream...

..and then sitting on top, the hero, the Vegemite ice-cream.

God, I hope the judges like Vegemite.

Didn't think about that one.

I mean, it is a very controversial dish.

Vegemite is such a polarising ingredient,

so I'm a little bit concerned that the judges might not like it.

What am I doing here?

You're not only cooking for immunity,

but a spot on Gordon Ramsay's menu.

45 minutes to go.

Oh, my stars!

What are you making, Callum?

Main's a little, uh, ginger noodles, mate.

Nice. Um, some confit chicken wings.

Beautiful. Nice little sauce.

What about yourself?

Uh, tortilla de patatas.

Nice. Yeah.

For a lot of people, a midnight snack is something

after a celebratory night, it's like something greasy.

For me, it's when I finish work.

Hey, there we go.

Like, it's not this dirty thing. It's something delicious.

I see lots of my favourite things. I see mussels, I see potato.

What's going on here?

Uh, I'm doing tortilla de patatas.

So beautiful, late-night San Sebastian snack.

Gooey, eggy caramelised onion,

potato in the middle.

Break it open and then I cook some mussels.

Then I've got a little escabeche.

That is textbook to the brief.

No-one really does a better late-night snack than Spain.

I think so.

I just hope that it tastes as good as it sounds.

Yeah. Me too. POH: It sounds very chic, actually.

OK. Good luck, Jamie. Thank you so much.

Take me there. Oh. Feel like an icy cold beer.

Mate, very rarely would this food happen without a beer.

It doesn't taste balanced. It's missing something.

No, no, no.

CATH: Oh, I am so hot. OK.

Well, what a change

to kick off their first individual cook in this kitchen.

SOFIA: Oh, my God. Yum.

Late-night snack is all about the ultimate satisfaction

when eating something.

Like, you have to feel just fulfilled.

What are you loving?

Jamie is doing a Spanish tortilla. I hope it is oozy in the middle!

That's a good choice!

POH: I'm really intrigued with Andre's.

I've never seen this one before. Assassin's pasta.

Oh, is that when you cook it in the sauce?

Yeah, yeah.

And then Laura's doing Vegemite on toast in a dessert.

In a dessert?! Yeah, in dessert form.

OK. I'm so intrigued with both.

OK, let's do this.

But I'm so excited about Audra,

who's doing this amalgamation of Japanese with Indian flavours.

She's got these beautiful little savoury doughnuts

with Indian spices and aromats inside.

That sounds amazing.

I think we are in for a cracker 'cause there's so many good dishes.

Get ready to unbutton. (LAUGHS)

I'm wearing the perfect dress for this.

Oh, perfect. Yeah.

Looks beautiful, mate. Good colour.

Thanks, bro. Coming from you, mate, means a lot.

We have the midnight munchies!

30 minutes to go. ANDY: 30 minutes!

Oh! I haven't checked seasoning yet. That's alright.

Just getting the... Getting the gist.

DEPINDER: Where's the time?

Being back in the kitchen,

I'm feeling the panic, the stress, the anxiety and the excitement.

But I'm also nervous at the same time.

Last time I was in a MasterChef kitchen was about four years ago,

and I was able to showcase that I can do Indian food,

but I can also do desserts at the same time.

JOCK ZONFRILLO: You absolutely bloody nailed it. Well done.

It is so good!

I've come a really long way in the last four years.

I have done a little bit more cooking

around Indian regional food,

and I launched my beautiful supper club called Ghar,

which means 'home' in Hindi...

Good evening, everyone. CLIENTS: Hello.

..where we expose diners to Indian home-style cooking.

They're dishes that you won't see at a restaurant.

And there is a story about every single dish that I'm serving.

We've got some beetroot pulao on each table,

a very home-style pulao, and I've got some dal makhani,

which is cooked over two days, pretty much.

For me to be able to educate people on what I've grown up eating,

it's the biggest reward of all time.

When I think about a late-night snack,

I can only think of Indian street food.

So there is a dish that I tried on the streets of Old Delhi

called Aslam butter chicken.

It is not your standard butter chicken

with the deep orange gravy.

It is literally butter and chicken

marinated with light spices and cashews for a long time.

It's delicious.

Oh. This looks interesting.

Hello, guys. What are you doing?

So I'm doing Aslam's butter chicken.

So basically this dish is called butter chicken,

but it's not actually butter chicken.

It's like a chicken tikka. And it's doused in butter.

And it's got like a really nice tangy sauce that goes on top of it.

And I'm going to be serving it with a green chutney, an onion salad.

And I'm going to do some rotis as well,

because that's the only way to have a kebab

or like a kebab-style butter chicken.

Yeah. Can I say something?

Yes, please.

You've got 22 minutes left, yeah? Yeah.

Do you think your chicken is going to be cooked?

I think so.

Like, it's already kind of started.

I'm picking up what you're putting down.

Not just, not just the chicken. You've got breads to make.

You've got to bring this whole thing together.

20 minutes is going to fly. I'm under the pump.

Make sure you've got enough time. Yeah. Thanks, guys.

Good luck. Thank you.

I'm actually panic city right now

because if I cook the chicken super fast on a hibachi,

I will have undercooked bits on the inside.

I don't want to rush the cook on this chicken,

I really don't.

So I'm still going to do what I want to do.

Oh, my God.

But at the same time, I'm freaking out.

Oh, that smoke's burning my eyes.

JEANÐCHRISTOPHE: It won't be cooked on time.

On the homestretch now, baby.

That's going to work.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

I think I'm good. Oh, my gosh!

Mm. Yum.

DARRSH: Alright. How much time we got?

When you're cooking confident in the kitchen,

it does so much for your mental game.

And I've committed 100% to this vision that I've got

of this native Australian s'mores.

POH: Where's the burrata?

The biggest trick up my sleeve is definitely having

that knowledge of native Australian ingredients.

I'm using two native Australian ingredients -

leatherwood honey and wattle seed, which will be going into my wafers.

Wattle seed is a flavour that is just so savoury,

that has such a perfect place in desserts

to, like, tie things down.

And then leatherwood honey is kind of like aniseedy flavour,

but it's like nice and sweet.

SOFIA: Oh, have you ever eaten a burrata like an apple?

POH: I guess I'm about to.

(LAUGHS)

I don't think that's a good shot.

It's a completely original dessert.

If I can pull it off,

it's something that I hope would end up on a menu somewhere -

maybe in Gordon Ramsay's restaurant.

What? What? What?

POH: She made me eat it like an apple.

Here. Wash it down with a tomato. There you go, guys.

Uh, enjoy. I'll just be out here working.

We're working. I'm testing the goods.

ANDRE: My pasta has been sizzling away in the tomato-based stock

for the last 45 minutes,

and it's beginning to look burnt.

It looks good, mate.

Just hanging out, frying some spaghetti.

I just want to hang out with the pan as the pasta fries.

That's it. It's getting...

When I cook dishes that I'm passionate about,

I tend to talk to the dish.

Yes. That's it. That's it.

You start with your thing.

And then if it's an Italian dish, which a lot of the time it is,

I sometimes hear Pavarotti singing O Sole Mio.

Oh, yeah. Crackle, crackle.

I'm just sort of dropping in and out of consciousness,

thinking about a southern Italian holiday

and being by the oceanside.

15 minutes to go! ANDY: 15!

And then I opened my eyes up

and I realised I was back in the MasterChef kitchen,

and there was craziness going on around me.

Whoo! Oh, Snez!

There goes my fringe! (LAUGHS)

It's very frantic at this point.

I got a haircut.

I have my jam ready. I got my hazelnut spread ready.

And now I started cooking my crepes. Oh, come on.

And I have two pans at the same time.

Oh, my God!

Because I just want to have a proper midnight snack.

I want to have pile on side. I don't want to just serve two.

I want to have a lot.

I've been flipping this in my dreams like this.

Yeah, I've tried to do quite a lot in the time.

The gingery noodles. Churri's almost done.

My bang bang sauce is nice and fresh and sour.

It's not too much chilli.

And then I've got my confit chicken wings cooking away.

10 minutes-ish to go. I reckon I can just get it done.

It'll be a push, though.

I don't like doing desserts. You just have to wait.

So much waiting, Steph.

I can get you on the tools.

Come on, give me, give me. Let's go.

Man, time goes fast in this kitchen.

This is like crunch time.

Wahey!

Nervous hands.

This is always fun. Right...

Way!

Whoo!

There's a huge amount of relief

as I get this tortilla back into the pan.

Yeah. There we go.

I start to roll and I get that perfect shape.

It's worked. Thank God.

It's looking good.

It's a nice texture.

I've spent five years as a restaurateur,

so this is my first chance to show the judges

how much flavour I can pack into things.

I know that the key element to get right

in this dish is the balance of bold flavours,

but understanding texture.

The tortilla will be gooey, rich and salty.

And the escabeche,

it's beautiful and sharp,

and it's a fantastic foil to promote the sweetness of these mussels.

Excellent.

AUDRA: I'm cooking my takoyaki and I'm really feeling the pressure.

I need to tuck all the fillings into the inside of my takoyaki batter.

Literally turning it on itself

until it's this beautiful round ball.

In Japan, takoyaki makers make hundreds of them every single day,

so it's going to be hard.

Culinary gladiators...

..10 minutes to go.

Allez!

OK, let's do this.

I'm about to turn my takoyaki over,

and I'm praying I can get everything on the inside.

Oh, jeez!

I'm holding my breath

because if I don't get these spheres perfectly round,

I'm gonna have a scrambled mess.

Ah, ha-ha!

What the hell!

Oh!

Ah, jeez! Jeez! Jeez! (EXCLAIMS)

AUDRA: Ah, jeez! Jeez! Jeez! (EXCLAIMS)

I'm turning these spheres,

and I'm struggling to create these nice round spheres.

It just seems a lot softer today,

but you don't know until it's done.

You know, it's a bit challenging,

but I've got to back myself

because I know the flavours are going to be great.

This blend of sort of a Japanese and Indian concept

and all Indian flavours, which is who I am.

So, got to keep rolling them around until it's really perfectly nice

and crisp on the outside.

Hallelujah. One round. Whoo-hoo! Woo!

Oh, my God, I love what I see, Darrsh!

DARRSH: Alright.

How much time we got?

Can you hear our stomachs rumbling?

Three minutes to go.

Oh, my Lordy-wordy.

CALLUM: Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Oh, my God!

Ah! It would be cool if they could stand up.

Whoo! I've had my holiday in southern Italy.

I've sung Pavarotti in my head.

The pasta has spoken to me.

I'm ready to plate.

Looking down at the plate, it's a little bit gnarly.

And that's how it's meant to be.

It's meant to be spicy, crunchy, chewy.

And I think I've hit all the marks of this dish.

Are you making pasta, Andre? Yeah, yeah.

It's called assassin's pasta.

You're meant to burn it and make it so hot that you kill the person.

Oh, OK. I like it.

Just in case it's too spicy for the judges,

I've added burrata on top

because killer pasta has a history in southern Italian cuisine.

I don't know if I want to kill the judges today.

(LAUGHS)

Ooh, hoo-hoo-hoo!

Looking good.

I just want toast to smear it on. That is so yummy.

My dish is going to come down to the balance of it.

So I want a good amount of the crumb.

The brown-butter ice-cream will be a little bit bigger,

because you definitely need more butter than Vegemite on toast.

And then just the right amount of that Vegemite ice-cream

will sit on top.

Go, go, go!

Got my rotis done.

I've also got my chutney ready to go.

I've got my onion salad ready to go.

I am just waiting for this chicken to come off.

Where's the time gone?

I am panicking right now because I'm just staring at it.

I've got nothing better to do right now

but to stare at this chicken.

Where's the time?

One minute to go!

Alright, let's start plating. I've got a minute to go.

I've got no choice but to take that chicken off the hibachi.

I think the chicken is cooked

so I can quickly toss it up in that sauce.

But I just hope the flavours had time to come together.

We need Ramsay-ready dishes in 10, nine...

JUDGES: Eight, seven, six, five,

four, three, two, one!

Oh! Well done.

Well done, girls.

It was epic. It was so much fun.

It's exactly what I wanted to put up on the plate.

Wouldn't it be interesting if this was on Gordon's menu?

Well, I don't think we've ever been more excited for a tasting.

These are your go-to late-night dishes, but better.

The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to...

..Andre.

ANDRE: My dish. It hits the marks for me.

It's unique, and it's culturally significant.

This dish is meant to look burnt, which is strange.

It's not really about presentation, it's about mouthfeel.

So I'm really intrigued to see

how they interpret this wacky, crazy dish.

SOFIA: What have you cooked?

OK, so this is Spaghetti all'Assassina,

which is basically a southern Italian dish.

Yeah. Assassin's pasta, a killer pasta.

It looks so the antithesis of

what we get told to look for in pasta.

It looks gummy. Yeah.

It's meant to be, right? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Andre, the bird's nest that came up here,

I was like, "How is this going to go?"

But what is so interesting is, firstly, the texture.

Like, the texture has that chew.

You wouldn't even call that al dente.

And then it mellows out with the burrata.

Weirdly, the burrata cleans everything up.

It's very cohesive to the story that you told us

when we came to the bench

that the first diners that ate this were confused.

And I love that you served a thought-provoking dish

as your first dish because it's a risk.

But, luckily, you backed it up with flavour.

(LAUGHS)

Andre. Yeah.

I think you are mad. (LAUGHS)

That makes two of us, man.

You know what? I love it! I've found my person!

I love your way of doing something quirky,

bizarre.

It's a tangled mess.

That's me, I reckon. A tangled mess?

He's here to try and untangle the mess.

Well, I don't think you should untangle the mess.

I think you should stay just the way you are

and keep cooking fun, interesting dishes like this pasta.

Nice one, Andre.

Wow.

It's been a long time between kitchens.

Good job.

The next one is Darrsh.

(APPLAUSE)

Alright.

Oh.

Mm! Saucy.

Looks great.

DARRSH: This is a Native Australian S'mores.

It's going to be very quick with me.

It's a celebration.

Well done. Absolutely fantastic.

(APPLAUSE)

This is very special.

At first, you might think it's quite sweet,

like the Swiss meringue, but the balance with the spice,

it is very smart. Well done.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.

I think the big win for you here is that all of those elements

go really, really well together.

But when the sort of bitterness of that chocolate sauce

comes together with the softness and plainness of the meringue

with the spice of that soil,

it's just so great.

POH: I loved all those Australian flavours.

They were actually very warming.

I think you've definitely taken your dessert game up a notch.

So, well done. Thank you, guys.

(APPLAUSE)

Thanks, thanks, thanks. Good job.

Killed it. Thank you.

This is absolutely a contender for the top dish.

Jimmy, we'd love to taste your dish. ANDY: Come on, Jimmy!

Hello.

I've made you guotie.

These are Taiwanese dumplings.

Jimmy, pretty bold move

making dumplings for the dumpling queen.

I know! (LAUGHTER)

Jimmy, whenever I bite into a dumpling,

I always test to see if the filling is really balanced,

and yours really was.

It was really, really tasty.

So I really enjoyed it.

Callum!

CALLUM: So I've done ginger noodles with chicken wings

and a bang bang sauce.

Oh, yeah.

It's the sauce for me. Love it.

Sarah.

Leftover chicken curry with nei parotta.

The flavour was amazing.

It's just the type of curry

that I just would keep going back for.

Thank you. Steph!

STEPH: This is a Mumbai frankie.

So there's a masala.

The chat masala was beautiful. Zingy, like, bright and delicious.

Thank you. Here we go, Sav.

JUDGES: Oh!

Like proper smash. Oh, now I get it!

Oh, I thought you meant,

like, you get smashed. Yeah.

SAV: So Slosh And Smash is Sri Lankan patty,

which is kind of like our version of an empanada.

And I've done a pork mince version of it with potatoes through it.

And all the sauces are in compliment to kind of like make it craveable.

Fireworks in that mouthful.

And it was a big mouthful,

but it's just you straight off the bat with your control of flavour

and balance and different textures.

I could totally come to kick ons with you,

get there and go, "Sav, I want my Slosh Smash thing,"

and then that'd come out.

And it is just delicious.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

This is fantastic!

I'm just really...

Next stop, Depinder.

(CHEERING)

DEPINDER: I'm so scared right now

because I actually don't know if my chicken is perfect.

I'm just praying to all the MasterChef lords right now

that it's cooked to perfection.

(EXHALES)

Uh, tell us what is your dish, please.

DEPINDER: So this is Aslam butter chicken.

It is like total Delhi street food. You'd find this at 12am.

It's not your typical butter chicken

because it's literally butter and chicken.

Ah...

Well, Depinder...

..I love it.

It is de-li-cious.

You get so much out of the bread, out of the chicken,

even down to the onions, your chutney.

Everything together when you eat, when you have that bite,

it's unbelievable.

Thank you.

You just don't expect how much flavour is in that chicken.

It really actually shocked me.

And that smoke is doing so much of that work

for carrying that really minimal spice work through.

ANDY: It's really, really exciting.

It's exactly what I would go for if I was like,

stumbling through Delhi at 12am.

Like, I'd just be sniffing.

Like, because I could smell that a mile away.

I'd just be following my nose.

I really, really love it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Well done, Depinder!

You see?!

I was not expecting that. Well done.

Snez, get your snacks out!

SNEZ: So, crepes and spreads.

In Serbia, we call them palacinke.

So it's differently made than the usual French crepes.

The perfect mouthful for me was a big lump of that cream

with a huge spoonful of your hazelnut spread

wrapped up in this thin but pliable palacinke.

Really, really, really delicious.

You're up next, Rue.

RUE: I've made a peanut butter and chocolate mousse

with a popcorn ice-cream.

I just thought of what I would always have in the house.

Chocolate, popcorn and ice-cream.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Your little biscuit is just perfect.

The popcorn are great too,

and I like the way they all stuck together.

Alana.

ALANA: So we have a jalapeno popper dip

with some crispy potato skins.

Oh, hello.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDY: The potato skins are boss!

Like, they're so good.

I think they're the best potato skins I've ever had.

Next up, Audra!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Oh! Gorgeous presentation.

Hello! Hello!

Very, very pretty.

OK, Audra,

for your first individual cook in the kitchen,

what have you made?

AUDRA: I call this The Magic To A Happy Marriage.

(LAUGHTER)

So it's when a half-Indian woman, a very clever one,

marries a half-Japanese man.

A very clever one? A very...not very clever one.

Not very clever one!

And it looks so much like a takoyaki.

Yeah. Yeah.

But it's fully South Indian on the inside.

Ah! Yeah.

Looks pretty epic, eh? Yeah.

Audra...

..that is...

..perfection.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

I was so worried when I tried that

because there is so much going on, like sweet, sour, cooling, chilli,

mustard seeds.

And then it's like you've crammed as many aromats

as you possibly could inside of that.

And then just that beautiful nugget of prawn,

it just provides this beautiful sweetness.

The fact that you haven't cooked that before is scary.

Amazing. Wow.

What's really special about food is when you can draw from experience

and different cultures and transform that into your own story.

Yeah. So in creating this dish today,

it is not just uniquely you,

but all the pieces that have made you you

up until this point.

Thank you. It's super special.

It's absolutely one of the top dishes today.

You're going to make me cry, mate.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

I've been so blessed.

I've cooked for the most incredible people

over the last 13 years

and, oh, my God, I said I was not going to do this.

Oh, you're making me cry now. I'm nearly gone, too.

You know, I love these guys.

I know we've only just met,

but everyone's up here cooking their heart out,

and what's so special to them and what's so delicious to them,

all sorts of cuisine,

and I'm just grateful to be around everyone.

And this is so special to be back here.

It's a privilege for me to be able to taste your food.

You're amazing, Audra. Thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Well done, Audra.

Thank you.

Oh, my God.

Nice one!

Thank you.

Aww!

Jamie.

SOFIA: Hey, Jamie.

I feel like we stopped the clap a bit early, like...

JAMIE: Yeah, thank you. I'll take the last bit.

Ooh! There we go.

So, Jamie, tell us, what is your dish?

Classic Bilbao tortilla de patatas,

a little saffron emulsion, and then some mussels in escabeche.

Welcome. I'll say welcome...

..because it's food like this

that takes you deep in the competition.

The tortilla is perfect, mate, and that ain't easy.

You know, it's not easy.

It would have taken you a long time to be able to perfect that,

and you have right there.

This is a winning dish.

This is perfect wine bar food.

It's really succinct, sophisticated.

Potatoes - beautiful, tender all the way through.

And, oh, the mussels were delicious.

It was just such a lovely hit of acidity

to just cut through all that richness.

Beautiful. Thank you. Stunning.

Well done, Jamie.

Theo, let's go.

THEO: I have a not-so-dirty kebab.

I went oyster mushrooms, I went sunflower.

POH: The mushrooms, you managed those so beautifully.

You've maintained that beautiful smokiness.

And I'm a carb monster. I thought the bread was sublime.

I couldn't get enough of it.

Declan!

DECLAN: This is my fully tabouli shish kebab.

Fully tabouli sick shish kebab. And he's back!

(LAUGHTER) He's back.

Um... Can you say that, please?

It's called a fully sick tabouli.

(LAUGHTER)

Fully... Fully...

A fully what? Sick.

Yeah. Tabouli.

A fully sick tabouli.

Yeah, baby! Yeah!

The breads - tick.

Fully sick tabouli - tick. Declan's your name.

If only cooking shish kebabs was your game,

'cause they're a little bit under.

Tim Bone!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

This is my mixed kebab.

That is like a step up from anything that you get in, you know,

a kebab shop, for sure,

but I got a bloody lamb bone.

What's that? Ah!

What's your last name? Bone.

(LAUGHTER)

Sorry about that.

Next up, Laura!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Aww! A little baby dessert.

You love little bowls. I do.

Wow. Speckled.

OK, what have you got?

Vegemite on toast.

So it's a salted malt Vegemite ice-cream,

so it's not just like

the scream-in-your-face Vegemite flavour.

So it's, like, a little bit salty.

Then you've got the brown butter ice-cream

underneath that,

and then that's sitting on the toast,

which is like a caramelised bread crumb.

I'm pretty keen to know what the Frenchman thinks of Vegemite.

Do you like Vegemite? Have you tried it?

No, never. Obviously not.

It's wonderful.

For every technicality, the crunch, the sweet, the saltiness,

everything is just sublime, and I think you are a threat.

Ooh.

It's, like, very intelligent cooking.

The umami that the Vegemite gave to the dish was so beguiling.

Like, you know, it has that slight yum-yuck effect

where you want to go back for more. Yeah.

It's more-ish because you want to keep testing

whether you did love it and you do, and then are you, do you?

(LAUGHTER)

Your bowl is too small!

There's so much left back there, I promise.

Very rarely does a dessert come up that balances sweet,

salty, savoury and umami.

That's very unique.

And you pack so much complexity

into those three elements that it's just like,

how is there three things in this bowl?

Thank you so much. Thank you, Laura. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Argh! Awesome!

Oh, I'm so proud. Thank you.

Good job. Thank you. Thanks, ladies.

For a spot on the gantry tomorrow and on Gordon Ramsay's menu,

we wanted no-frills, all-thrills kind of food.

We say your names, step forward.

Darrsh.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Audra.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Depinder.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Sav.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Well done. Well done.

Laura.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Now, there can only be one winner...

..so we've singled out the dish

that managed to kerb our cravings and completely satisfy us.

It was ridiculously tasty

and it taught us all something very important.

The key to winning immunity is also...

..The Key To A Happy Marriage.

Audra, you did it!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Yes! Well done!

Thank you.

(CHEERING DROWNS OUT SPEECH)

So good. Oh, wow.

You must be absolutely delighted.

Your dish is going to be on Gordon Ramsay's menu in London

in his brand-new restaurant.

Well done.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Audra, you may be safe, but come Sunday,

the rest of you are headed into

the first elimination of this competition.

So go home, rest up, and get ready to fight for your spot.

Goodnight. Good luck.

Well done, everybody! ANDY: Cracker day, everybody!

ANNOUNCER: Sunday night on MasterChef Australia...

(TEARFULLY) It's been the best time of my life.

I really can't believe it. An amazing experience to be able to cook for one of my heroes.

..their first elimination for 2025...

RUE: I did not want to be the first person to go home.

..is a tear-jerker.

But it's also a triumph.

ANDY: That is exceptional cooking.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: It's just brilliant.

SOFIA: Delicious. Popping off the plate.

POH: That is a perfect dish.

You smashed it.

Captions by Red Bee Media