Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia...

..we kicked off Nostalgia Week with a bang.

Oh, my God, this is unbelievable.

Let's do it! Let's do it! Let's do it.

And the team relay challenge...

Oh, my God. This is wild.

..put everyone through their paces.

It's just, like, going in one ear, coming out the other.

Then... You're playing for...

..an immunity pin!

..a blind taste test of classic French cuisine...

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Incredible. C'est tres, tres bon.

..won a pin for Vinnie.

(CHEERING)

But the heartstrings were well and truly pulled...

..when we had to say goodbye to Miin.

I wouldn't still be here without Miin.

He'll be a best friend for life.

Tonight...

..are two mystery boxes better than one?

ALL: Ooh!

Another day in the kitchen. Ready, gang?

What is it at the front? Oh, no!

AARON: Walking into the kitchen,

there's two mystery boxes up front.

Wait. It's, like, different colours as well.

One is more metallic and the other one's

more typical of what we usually have -

the wooden box.

And it does say "home" on the side, actually.

And the other one says "restaurant".

Very intriguing.

Morning, all. ALL: Morning.

(LOUDER) Morning, all! Morning!

Welcome to a brand-new week.

And, uh...

Nah, you're not seeing double.

We've got two mystery boxes today.

This week is all about perfect pairings.

Ah!

In the kitchen,

there are lots of things that are just better together.

Think salt and pepper, fish and chips,

knife and fork.

The culinary world,

it just wouldn't be the same without it.

And the same goes for today's pair of mystery boxes.

We have a home mystery box

and a restaurant mystery box.

ALYONA: Naturally gravitating towards the restaurant box.

Because I love going to restaurants.

Recreating the dishes.

Inside the home mystery box

are ingredients that home cooks adore.

What you'll find in the restaurant mystery box

are ingredients that will excite your inner chef.

The good news is the choice is yours.

Please stand in front of the box that you'd like to cook with.

What have we got? What have we got? What have we got?

I don't know which way to go either!

Right now, I don't know what to think.

I know I'm quite a home cook,

but I do love fancy ingredients as well.

Alright, Petro, you can't stand in the middle.

Yeah. Oh! I'm having such a tough time with this.

I think the risk of choosing the restaurant mystery box is

I might not know the ingredients that are under there,

and I may have never used them before.

You know, it's a little bit of a gamble.

Come on, Petro, what's it gonna be?

That's it, my man.

But I'm here to have fun.

Well, this is interesting.

It's a little uneven.

We have ten of you that have gone for the home mystery box

and then six of you

who have gone for the restaurant mystery box.

What if I was to tell you... Are we gonna flip?

..that, today, we're looking for two top dishes.

And we'll award a winner to each mystery box.

(ALL EXCLAIM)

Does that change anyone's mind?

HANNAH: Yeah. It does?

Yep. You're not looking for a bottom dish.

But top from each box,

the odds are better on this side now.

Yeah. Exactly. Jump ship, can I?

So whoever wants to jump ship, go for it now.

(LAUGHTER)

So it's a white apron day,

and I kind of want to be challenged.

And maybe I won't even know the ingredients,

but I'm like - what's the worst thing that could happen?

Smart play, Hannah.

So now we've got nine on the home mystery box

and seven on the restaurant mystery box.

Both of these mystery boxes

contain fantastic ingredients,

but WE can't take credit for them.

CONTESTANTS: Ohhh!

In a week of great pairings,

the dynamic duo that put these two boxes together

are right up there.

One of them started out as a home cook

and went on to open a couple of very successful restaurants,

the other is his head chef at one of those restaurants.

Direct from Peli's on the Sunshine Coast,

please welcome MasterChef superstar Chef Matt Sinclair

and Chef Dobbers!

(CHEERING)

Oh, I love that!

ANNABEL: That's sick.

Huge. Like, huge!

I've, like, followed these blokes for years.

Matt Sinclair, I remember him coming second on his season,

which would have been, like, a decade ago.

And he's so talented.

And Dobber's food is, like, so refined.

And, like, I've watched his YouTube videos

where he puts the GoPro on his head and does the cooking.

They are both so talented.

This is going to be a good day.

Matt, welcome back, mate. Thank you. Thank you.

It's been a while since you've been in the MC kitchen!

Mate, it's crazy. We were talking about it the other day.

It's ten years since I wore that apron.

Wow!

So, amazing to be able to come back after a decade

and still get the same feeling

walking through that door, that's for sure.

What is that feeling, mate? Oh, ho-ho!

My palms are sweaty!

It's all good feelings! No joke, no joke!

I'm not even in trouble today.

And you brought a friend with you?

I did, Chef Dobbers! Welcome.

Hello, folks.

Tell us about Dobbers. How'd you guys meet?

What's your origin story?

It's kind of like...

It's a bit of a "slid into DMs" scenario.

Yeah, we pretty much struck up a friendship.

I was admiring his point-of-view cooking videos,

which really exploded.

Um, then he moved to the Sunny Coast,

and that's just sort of how the relationship

started to kick off.

And Peli's, mate, you guys are working hand in hand there.

How's it going? We are.

It's unbelievable to have Dobbers on board.

He's really, you know, stepped in and grabbed the reins

and doing some incredible things there.

So, um, yeah, the future is very exciting.

Nice.

SOFIA: Shall we see what the boys have got for you?

CONTESTANTS: Yeah!

Fellas, you can lift your lids...

..now!

CONTESTANTS: Whoa!

Prawns.

Sriracha. Yes.

CONTESTANTS: Ohhhhh!

Duck. That's black truffle.

And truffle.

Oh. Radicchio.

OK. So, very, very identifiable ingredients here.

Uh, we'll start at the front here.

So a beautiful chicken Maryland,

uh, some beautiful tiger prawns,

silverbeet,

nice, beautiful wedge of Jap pumpkin.

orange, instant coffee,

bit of spice, sriracha, coriander...

Love it or hate it? Love it.

Is there any haters? Surely not. What?

Oh! Ho-ho-ho!

..Chardonnay,

and then we've got a white onion,

and then, last but not least, Parmesan.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: So, Chef Dobbers, tell us.

Talk me through your ingredients, please.

OK. We've got this beautiful little black truffle.

Oh, my God. Stunning.

We have whole sardines.

Nugget of goat cheese that was hiding.

Got this gorgeous dry-aged duck breast.

Now, dry-ageing them, they start to break down,

they start to lose moisture,

but what that does is eases the cooking

and makes them more tender.

We've got some lovely du Puy lentils,

a bit of tarragon.

Got a lovely little bottle of Pedro Ximenez,

a lovely little sweet fortified wine,

radicchio, kipfler potatoes, figs.

And I'm going to save the most interesting one

till the very end.

Now, this, here, not many people have probably seen,

this is mustard fruits.

Uh, comes from northern Italy.

Now, mustard fruits traditionally

is all the unripe fruit

that's left on the tree at the end of the season.

They don't throw it away. What they do is they pick it.

They then candy it in a sugar syrup

with flavourings like mustard, cinnamon, star-anise.

And so this is a candied spicy pickled fruit.

A little bit goes a long way.

VINNIE: I'm looking at the home box,

and, yeah, very much buyer's remorse on this one.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: What a box, huh?

That restaurant box just looks so, so good.

It's just like ten million times better.

If you have any regrets of your choice of mystery box...

..too bad!

As with all mystery boxes,

you must use at least one of these ingredients

from the box that you chose.

And don't forget, you've got

your under-bench pantry staples as well.

We're giving you 75 minutes

to make us a delicious dish.

Together with Matt and Dobbers,

we'll select the best dish from each box

to win immunity from tomorrow's elimination.

Boys, you want to kick them off?

Ready?

Are we doing it together? Oh, that's cute.

Let's do it. BOTH: Three, two, one.

Your time starts now!

Gonna have you, you, you.

Dot! Hello?

What are you doing? Eating some cheese?

I don't know!

So I chose the home mystery box.

And, yeah, I think, to be honest,

when I saw what was underneath the restaurant one,

I was kind of devastated I chose this one.

But I think that's just kind of something

I'm gonna have to live with now because it's too late.

I'm really happy with the restaurant box today.

I haven't really used too much of these.

Like, I've used figs a bit.

I haven't really used black truffle.

I've cooked duck once or twice

and the fruits, I've never seen before.

But they're flavours that excite me.

Yeah, I am happy with the home box.

Um, although those sardines,

they really belong on the home cooked side.

Wow. I think this is a MasterChef first.

Two mystery boxes!

Matty, let's start with you first.

What do you think is the secret

to using your ingredients most effectively?

On the surface, it does look pretty straightforward.

But I guess, in that sense, there's nowhere to hide.

And this will reveal everyone's basic understanding of cooking.

Yeah.

Dobbers, what do you think is the secret to your mystery box?

DOBBERS: There's a great margin to really mess these up.

You know, if you try and put five or six of these ingredients

all on one plate, it's going to end up like a train wreck.

SOFIA: There really is a paradox happening where you, Matt,

it's about standing out with simpler ingredients.

And it's all about simplicity with the ingredients

that are arguably more complicated.

It's going to take a little bit of skill

and a little bit of expertise.

The results they can get from these ingredients,

like, hand over fist, I'm not saying...

(LAUGHTER)

Hey, we'll see. We'll see.

It's very quickly turned into a competition.

AARON: I want to be a chef.

So, today, I picked the restaurant box.

And what better day to push yourself

and see if you can utilise restaurant ingredients

with both Matt and Dobbers in this kitchen?

There's a lot of different fruits in here, though.

Yeah, I know.

So I'm thinking

and I'm tasting everything to see what I can do

and what I can use

and what flavour pairings I can go with.

It's tasting a bit spicy.

It's, like, got that, um,

horseradishy sort of flavour to it,

but it's coated by sugar as well.

It's a bit like wasabi-esque. Yeah.

I see the figs.

I see the duck.

Duck goes well with fruit.

So I'm thinking a beautifully roasted piece

of duck breast glazed with a mixture of mustard fruit,

and the Pedro Ximenez with some caramelised fig,

because I feel as though the sweetness of

the mustard fruit syrup goes really nicely with the duck.

Might actually add a bit of bitterness with the radicchio,

maybe, like, some sort of like, sauce on the bottom as well.

Just something really simple, delicious.

And, yeah, hopefully, it all comes together.

PAT: Today, I chose the homestyle box.

I just think it fits within my style of cooking a bit more.

Um, I like to do kind of hearty, homely cooking.

I think it gives a lot of options and versatility.

So just trying to keep it simple and do the simple really well.

ANDY: Hey, Pat. Hey, guys. How are we going?

How are you doing? Good, mate. How are you?

Good. What's happening?

So I've deboned the thigh part of the Maryland.

That's cool.

I'm going to stuff it with some spinach and cheese.

I'm going to do a roasted piece of pumpkin,

chicken jus and an onion puree as well.

It's kind of like homely flavours...

Yeah, very homely.

..with a bit of technique, like, jotted it in there as well.

So, I love what you've got going on.

It's all there. Any coriander featuring?

Just some roots in there.

Hello! I can smell it!

Hang on a minute! Coriander!

Just some aromatics.

I figure that's a good option to get it into the jus.

So I'm learning to eat it. Yep.

So I don't say no coriander on my banh mi anymore.

So you know that...

Oh, no. That's a nice little step.

That's the first step. But, yeah, no, getting there.

Good man. Pat, I'm loving it.

Good luck, mate. Plenty of opportunity. Awesome.

Thanks, lads. Have a good one.

This week, I'm really wanting

to focus on restraining myself a bit,

and I've been known to put one or two too many elements

on a plate, especially in a mystery box.

I've made my take on ice-cream and jelly.

There is some balance there, but then there's just too much.

Yeah. You know, so...

You're a lot closer than I thought you'd be,

but you're still a little bit away.

No worries.

Restraint, restraint, restraint is kind of my mantra for today.

So, I'm going to try and still be creative with my ideas,

but, you know, control my urges

and make sure everything that's on the plate is perfect.

You get what you get

and there's no time to get upset.

60 minutes to go.

Hey, Grace. Hello.

You had classic buyer's regret.

So I chose the home mystery box.

Having a little bit of buyer's remorse.

Only because I love radicchio, I love figs.

This is the sort of stuff that's always in my pantry,

so I'm just gonna do a prawn pasta.

Well, you don't have to say it like that.

Prawn pastas can be incredible. I hope so!

It's not "just" a prawn pasta. Yeah. We'll see.

Hi, Poh!

How are we surviving without the sour cream and the dill?

You know, I love the ingredients in the restaurant box today.

Love the duck. Love the fig.

So I'm gonna make a pureed lentils

with a duck breast.

I'm gonna make jus with some figs.

And then I will also crisp up some lentils

for a bit of a crunch element.

I don't know, Alyona, it sounds like you could be up there

if you get it right.

Ooh! Thank you. Good luck.

Vinnie. Andy!

How are you? How are you?

Good, good. How are you? He's on top of the world.

He won this little thing yesterday.

Oh, nice little bit of... I did, I did, yes.

As soon as I saw that other box,

I looked down and I go, "Am I an idiot?"

Yes!

I'm like, "I should have just gone with that one

"and blown it out of the park."

But there's plenty of stuff to do here.

I'm gonna make a chou farci,

and wrap layers of chicken with some compound butter,

and I'm gonna wrap it in some silverbeets

to keep it all enclosed.

OK. Alright.

I'll see if I can make this look restaurant-like.

Good luck. Thank you.

Kipflers... Kip-flers. That can go.

I chose the restaurant box today because we're all home cooks,

myself included.

And so I'm really familiar with home ingredients

and I'm really comfortable cooking with them.

But I'm here to level up

and I'm here to learn to cook like a chef.

And chefs use restaurant ingredients.

Argh!

These things scare me.

These ingredients are not stuff

that I've really cooked with before.

I mean, I've cooked with potatoes.

So, I'm pretty intimidated.

I know I want to use the duck -

that is definitely going to be the centre of my dish,

but I'm just staring at that duck

and I'm like, "Dry-aged duck...

"I actually don't know what to do."

I don't know what to do with this duck!

Argh!

I have wanted to try mustard fruits for ages.

What have we got in there?

Like, what different fruits have we got?

So, there's pear. That looks like a bit of melon.

I'll try the melon. Fig.

How hard am I going, like...? You should go for it.

So mustardy. Yeah.

It's like someone's dipped it in hot English.

MATT: You've got to have a light touch with it.

She says, eating a whole pear.

It's a bit of a mind twister. Oh, whoa!

Yeah, I'm roasting it on the crown.

That's what they'd do in a restaurant.

I've gone down the restaurant route.

I want to make something that is restaurant-worthy

with this dry-aged duck.

I reckon I'm going to roast the breasts on the crown.

How are you?

I'm going to roast the duck on the crown.

Good luck. Yeah? All of you. Thank you, I need it.

I've heard about it, you know,

at these really fancy Michelin star restaurants

all over the world.

So, it's still on the bone.

Roasting meat on the bone just gives it so much more flavour.

It's a little trial and error today.

I've never done it before.

It's quite technical,

but I'm watching a lot of people around me,

you know, really locking in

and just, like, improving exponentially.

And I'm thinking today is the day to take a risk.

I'm very familiar with potatoes,

so I'm gonna do a truffle and goat's cheese gratin

with the potatoes and then make, like,

just a zingy fresh salad with some of the figs

and the radicchio and then the mustard fruits,

I might turn into a vinaigrette.

I have no idea how long this duck is going to take.

I have a look at it and just sort of gauge.

I'm like, "It's not too big," and I'm just gonna keep

taking it out and temperature-checking it.

A little bit more creme.

Today, I've have chosen the home box

and I am making a sweet roti.

Sweet roti is a big part of some South-East Asian cultures.

I've eaten sweet roti in Thailand before,

and it's one of my favourite snacks to get.

And it is all about using that flaky, buttery pastry

and then filling it with caramel, condensed milk,

with coconut, with a lot of tropical flavours.

Just a little bit more... (FRENCH PRONUNCIATION) ..orange.

So, without access to a lot of those ingredients,

I want to do something a little bit different.

Jackie. Hi.

Pretty obvious what direction you're going. Sweet, I feel!

So I'm gonna make a sweet roti today

and make a caramel with your sriracha

and an orange ice-cream.

I'm loving where this is going. Alright!

Have you made much roti before?

Um, a couple times. A couple times?

But not sweet. OK.

How many do you go through a day?

Ho-ho-ho. I think we're up to well over half a million.

So... (LAUGHTER)

Alright! So...

Have you ever done a sweet one or just...?

No, no, just, like, supplying the savoury is enough.

If you can pull this off,

like, there's no reason why that can't be the top...

Bring this home. Good luck. I like it. I like it.

Thanks, Andy. Thanks, Matt.

Matt definitely knows his rotis.

That makes me nervous.

OK, no pressure.

But the sweet roti is obviously a little bit different from

what Matt usually makes,

so, hopefully, I can bring this together

and really surprise the judges.

They like it, Jackie. Alright! Let's get it done.

Keep up the momentum. 45 minutes to go.

I stayed in my lane today, and I picked the home box.

And I'm just making a deconstructed spanakopita

and prawns.

I'm using the restaurant box today,

so I'm doing roast duck with the mustard fruit glaze

with some blitzed up lentils on the outside.

So I went for the home mystery box.

You know, my cooking is a bit more rustic than restaurant,

so I'm gonna make an olive oil ice-cream sandwich

with an orange curd.

So from the home mystery box, I'm going to feature the orange,

that's like my star today.

So I chose the home mystery box.

And, today, I'm doing a crispy skin chicken.

I want to do a prawn-head oil.

I saw this guy and I thought - beurre blanc's on with orange.

I want to do some kind of crispy pumpkin,

maybe deep-fried.

And we'll kind of see where we end up.

I've got a few ideas,

but, uh, we're gonna have to actually execute today.

Exciting times. Exciting.

Whoa-ho, Hannah, look at that.

Oh, yeah!

That's sick.

I'm happy with the restaurant box today.

I'm happy I switched over.

Don't see a lot of truffles in Esperance.

Don't even get the kipfler potatoes

in Esperance, really, I think.

At this point, I don't know if my dish is savoury or sweet,

just because I want to play with truffle.

So I'm making a truffle tart with tarragon potato,

goat's cheese mousse,

figs that have been poached in a reduction of Pedro Ximenez.

And to top it all off,

I think I've got this awesome duck here.

Maybe I should do some crispy duck skin.

I'm hoping that my truffle flavour

comes through in the crust.

These are not the flavours I'd normally make

with creme pat and figs.

That would be an easy option.

Today, I'm just like,

"Ah, let's just try, see if I can balance this thing."

There's always a risk

when you don't have a clear direction to go.

But it's really nice to be at a point

in the MasterChef kitchen where I'm comfortable enough

to just have a bit of fun and wing it

and just kind of let go of the fear of failing

if that happens today.

It smells like duck in here.

Yeah, it does. That's the only smell.

I chose the restaurant mystery box set by Chef Dobbers.

And I'm looking around the kitchen,

and I can see a lot of people using the dry-aged duck.

So I've decided to separate myself and do a dessert.

Desserts aren't really my forte, so, yeah,

it is a little bit nerve-racking,

but it is exciting.

Petro. Hello.

Meet Chef Dobbers. Hi.

Pleasure to meet you. How are you?

Good and you? Nice to meet you. I'm so good.

OK. Tell us what you're making today.

I'm going a bit off brand for me.

I'm making a fig tarte Tatin with a goat's cheese ice-cream.

Wow! Wow. This is great.

And I'm thinking of making a tarragon oil as well.

How's the pastry? Like, have you done a rough puff or...?

Yeah. Rough puff.

Yeah. I've got one more, uh, fold to do,

and then it'll be pretty much ready.

How many turns have you done? Probably at least six by now.

Six? Yeah, at least six.

Just think about it. OK?

I'm just going to tell you, if you just keep laminating it,

right, you're kind of squashing all that butter

into the pastry so it mixes.

So just think about that.

I understand what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.

Otherwise you lose the butter layers.

Perhaps. OK.

Good luck.

Yeah. OK.

(LAUGHS) Thank you.

A great tarte Tatin should have

a beautiful puff pastry.

I have made it before, but I'm no rough puff expert,

so I've just got my fingers crossed

that I haven't over laminated this dough.

I'm a bit worried about his pastry.

I think he's laminated it too many times.

Oh, well, time will tell. Yeah, yeah.

Hustle, guys! 30 minutes to go.

I don't understand where the time goes.

What the heck, people?

SOFIA: A lot of good smells. A lot of people cooking.

What's going on out there, guys?

Jackie's roti sounded pretty sick.

MATT: Yeah.

So she's doing a sweet roti. Yeah.

Orange ice-cream, sriracha caramel.

OK. Nice. Nice.

Pat up the front here. Yeah.

I think that's a really good, clear concept.

Maryland boned out, stuffed with silverbeet and Parmesan.

He's got a beautiful chicken sauce there.

POH: Simple. That sounds good.

My eyes are on Petro.

He's making a fig tarte Tatin.

I really like the sound of this.

And not to downgrade everything,

but everyone here is doing duck,

and it's nice to see something different.

Aaron. Chef. How are you?

How are you? I'm good, thank you.

Are you pleased you are choosing the restaurant mystery box?

Oh, 100%. It's like just seeing, you know... Yeah.

Like, chefs in the kitchen and, you know, follow that path,

and that's what I want to do.

So I'm very happy that I chose this mystery box.

So, tell me, what is your dish?

I'm making a roasted duck breast on the crown.

Caramelised figs and roasted radicchio.

OK, so you've cooked your duck well in advance.

I can see that. Yes.

Do you think that was a good move?

I think so, yeah.

'Cause it gives it time to rest and actually cook evenly

all the way through.

So I've given it plenty of time to rest on the crown there.

Um, I've got potatoes on the go,

so I'm thinking of editing.

I'm looking forward to taste your food.

Thanks, Chef. Thank you.

All the best. Thank you, Chef.

I'm really trying to think like a chef

and feel like it just needs a carb element.

So I'm thinking of duck frites.

And then season them and finish them with the truffles.

I hope I can get one of the top dishes today.

It's always a... It's always risky.

And, you know, with everyone having the same ingredients,

it's hard to see where you're going to land.

But, you know, I can only hope and pray.

For my stuffed chicken Maryland,

it's definitely the type of cooking that I like to present.

I do love home-style cooking.

So, yeah, I'm pretty comfortable at the moment

in getting everything done.

Oh, that's so good.

The strengths of the dish are known flavours.

Literally pumpkin, chicken, onion on a plate with a sauce.

And I've been known to put one or two too many elements

on a plate, especially in a mystery box.

So I'm trying to pare it back a bit.

Just getting this pumpkin in to roast nice and slowly.

I've got my onion puree nearly caramelised

to the point I want it.

Just getting my sauce reduced down

to a good intensity of flavour.

And chicken - I'm really happy with how it rolled.

It is just in the oven at the moment, roasting away.

I want that leg beautiful and crispy

and fall off the bone

and the thigh nice and juicy with that spinach filling.

Grab the chicken out of the oven and it's looking really good.

I'm happy with how the cook on it is coming along,

but I really want to get that chicken fried off.

It's just to get that really golden colour.

So it is a very basic dish but hopefully it's enough.

For my deconstructed spanakopita,

I'm going to fry this pastry.

For my prawn pasta, my sauce is nice.

I'm using the prawn shell to bulk up the sauce,

um, the beautiful prawn meat as well.

I'm hoping to really celebrate the prawns today.

(SQUEALS)

So, at the moment, what's happening is

I've got my stuffed silverbeets.

I've got my pumpkin in the oven, that's roasting.

I've got my chicken that I'm frying off,

and I've also got my silverbeet leaves

that I am steaming in here.

I'm gonna use them to wrap layers of chicken

and the butter to keep it all enclosed.

We are giving away two immunities today.

15 minutes to go!

We've got 15 minutes to go,

and I'm just throwing together my salad.

I'm playing around with the figs with some fresh or some cooked.

My gratin is bubbling away in the oven,

but I'm watching my duck like a hawk.

Yeah, nice. It's fine.

A lot is riding on this duck and I can't mess it up.

I've got a timer set for three minutes.

Timer goes off. I get it out.

I temp-check it, I glaze it, I put it back in,

and we're just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

Oh! 52. It's going to come up. I'm just gonna rest it

and hopefully it comes up to perfect temp.

I'm really happy with the colour of the skin.

My only concern, I guess, is just

whether it's cooked perfectly inside.

I've never done this before,

so I just don't really know what I'm looking for.

I'm just praying that residual heat doesn't overcook the meat.

What's its temperature?

It's now... I've taken it out, and it's risen up to 60.

OK.

Alright. I'm gonna start rolling this out.

The sriracha caramel is done.

I need to get the orange ice-cream out.

Yummy.

Tasting the ice-cream now that it's set, I am loving it.

It's so creamy, it is sweet,

but it's also a little bit zesty as well.

And I know the sriracha has a little bit of sweetness as well,

so you get the sweetness first,

but then you get the heat at the end.

I'm currently on the rotis

just trying to get these cooking.

To make the roti,

it has to be super, super thin

and pressure's definitely on to get these right

because Matt definitely knows his rotis.

I get the first one on the pan,

and I'm just really hoping

that the layers get puffy and crunchy.

I turn over and...

..it's looking really good.

It's getting nice and golden, so it's such a relief.

What have we got?

SOFIA: Ten minutes to go!

Ten minutes to go,

and I've got my goat cheese ice-cream

and my tarragon oil ready to go.

But my tarte Tatin still isn't cooked.

Cook away! Cook away!

Oh, ho-ho, I love my tarte tatin!

I'm absolutely crazy about tarte Tatin...

..so make sure you do it well. Fingers crossed!

I thought this should have been cooked through,

like, five minutes ago.

So I am feeling stressed

because this is the main element of my dish.

Come on, brown!

And I think the added pressure of Jean-Christophe being

so excited for this dessert,

yeah, it's really tough to watch.

But I never like to back down, so I crank up the oven

and I'm just gonna leave it as long as I can.

For my truffle and potato tart,

I've got my truffle tart cooling down,

and I'm kind of pulling elements and putting them aside,

ready to construct my tart.

Hannah... Hello.

You are the only one that jumped ship

into the restaurant mystery box. I totally jumped ship!

So tell us what you're making.

It's a wide open. So I'm just like, heh!

(LAUGHTER)

I'm gonna try and balance out a goat's cheese tart.

Yeah.

I've got some potatoes, goat's cheese mousse, figs.

I've got some duck-skin crisping in the oven as well.

And I've got a truffle tart base.

Ooh, nice! I've never used truffle before.

Wow!

Yeah. I don't often get truffles in Esperance.

Did you just say Esperance? Yeah.

That's my hometown. No way!

Wow! That's wicked.

That is a tiny, small world. Yeah.

Are we representing here? Oh, look, I'm still here.

So that's a good sign, right?

Absolutely. It is a good sign.

So, this dish, is this a sweet or a savoury dish?

It's sort of savoury-sweet, a little bit, I don't know.

Yeah. Just keep that in mind.

Keep it simple.

It's a lot to do to make it perfect.

OK. So this could be a disaster.

Dobbers has just questioned my tart,

whether it's sweet or savoury.

And, to be honest,

I actually haven't really decided myself yet.

I'm getting a little bit worried

because by the time it hits the plate,

it could end up just being really confusing

and I could be in trouble.

Everybody! Move your arse! You've got five minutes.

I'm actually feeling, for the first time in a while,

quite good for my crispy skin chicken thigh

with a beurre blanc.

I think the chicken is crispy,

it's tender, it's juicy.

The chips are, like, knockout.

I'm just tasting my orange sauce.

I mean, personally, I really like it.

I think it's delicious. I hope the judges do.

Come on. For my pureed lentils with a duck breast,

it all came together in the end, surprisingly.

I've managed to make my puree,

the crisp element with lentils, I caramelised the radicchio.

The duck looks amazing.

Yeah, I think I'm happy with it.

I'm really happy with this.

The crispy lentils, I'm really, really happy with

that crunch on the outside and the flavour of them, too.

And the duck for me is cooked pretty perfectly.

It's like nice and rosy pink.

So now I'm just going to figure out how I want to plate it.

Who wants that elusive immunity?

You've only got three minutes to go!

That looks beautiful.

OK, let's stack you up.

That looks good. Pretty dang crisp.

It's time to assemble my tart,

and I've made the call to just go for it.

I know this is a weird mix of sweet and savoury flavours,

but I hope when the judges taste it,

they get sweetness of the fig

with the creaminess of the goat's cheese mousse,

earthiness from the tarragon potatoes

and the truffle pastry,

and then the saltiness from the crispy duck skin.

I don't hate it.

Tasting it together, I think it could work.

I just hope I've got the right balance.

I don't hate it.

Keep pushing. Two minutes to go. Yeah!

ANDY: Couple of the crowns look good.

Oh, look at that lacquered up!

Whose is that? ANNABEL: Mine.

You were pretty quick to claim that.

Are you proud of it or what?

I will be once I cut into it and see that it's cooked well.

What's your internal temp?

It's 60. After a rest.

OK.

It's time to carve this duck.

I'm cutting into it.

And part of the meat's grey.

Those parts are over.

But as I keep cutting down

the thicker part of the breast...

Oh, I think it's over.

Ah...

I don't actually know, eh?

There is no time left.

I need to get this duck on the plate,

so I just need to choose out the best pieces.

I get my potato gratin out of the oven,

and it looks so good and brown,

and I'm pretty sure it should be cooked inside.

It was in that oven for legitimately ever.

And my salad's beautiful and zingy and fresh,

and the little flecks of the tarragon in it are so pretty.

Oh, yum. I want it to look beautiful.

And I just hope that my duck's OK.

I'm really happy with the cook on the duck.

It's perfectly edge-to-edge pink

and the skin is crispy.

I have a vision of how I want it to sit.

I've got the duck breast just cut down the middle,

one showing how perfectly it's cooked,

and the other one just having the skin showing,

so it's nice and crisp.

Have the sauce on as well,

just at the bottom, just to bring it all together.

Yeah. Looking down at my dish,

I'm really happy with how I've plated it.

I'm just really hoping that, you know,

when they take that bite, it's just full of flavour.

One minute to go!

I am so happy.

Everything's cooked how I wanted it

for my stuffed chicken Maryland

with roast pumpkin.

My onion puree is looking great

and my pumpkin's roasted up beautifully.

It's really tender.

My chicken's really nice and golden brown

and my sauce tastes like a beautiful rich chicken gravy

with lots of depth and umami saltiness.

I've shown some really good technique

making a great sauce, de-boning the chicken and stuffing it.

Way more restrained than I've been in the past,

so I'm hoping that everything tastes as good as it looks.

30 seconds!

I can't wait any longer to get this tart out.

It's actually browned pretty nicely on top,

so it's time to flip it over.

Damn.

I am so disappointed.

A great tarte Tatin should have a beautiful puff pastry,

and I've got no idea what's gone wrong here,

but it just doesn't look right.

Ten...

JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one.

That's it, everybody!

Nice work!

Oh! Well done.

I'm not happy. I had it in with plenty of time.

And my base is...

..the undercarriage of my pastry is cooked.

So, yeah, I don't understand. I don't know why.

Well, a bit of a doozy this morning!

You had two mystery boxes to choose from.

We are looking to give immunity to one cook with Matt's box

and one cook with Dobber's box.

Let's see how you went.

First dish we'd like to taste belongs to...

..Pat.

Walking up to the judges, there's always nerves.

Seeing all the other dishes today, they look so incredible.

It definitely makes me nervous looking at my dish.

It's such a simplistic dish.

I'm hoping I haven't gone too far backwards

and just made it way too simple.

Pat, tell me, what have you made?

Um, so I've made a deboned Maryland

and stuffed it with the silverbeet and Parmesan...

..some roast pumpkin, onion puree and a chicken jus.

MATT: Ooh! Plenty of it. Hell, yeah.

Everything there is beautiful.

Like, no joke. That's like an incredible elevated roast.

I love the pumpkin like that.

You know, when it just sort of hits

that peak sweet mushiness

where it doesn't need to be a puree.

It's just a really well-roasted piece of pumpkin.

Everything that you put on there was so well executed,

beautifully cooked chicken.

Like, it's just so more-ish.

When we're dealing with home ingredients,

it's OK to go with familiar flavour profiles

that we all know and love.

There's nostalgia in that.

The sauce - the texture, the flavour, the amount -

absolutely perfect.

Beautifully rich-flavoured but also nice and light.

Phenomenal.

I thought,

"What's the keys to success

"with the home ingredients mystery box?"

And I feel like it was treating everything quite simply,

but then give it a little flex.

And that's exactly what you've done

by showing the technique behind de-boning that thigh

and really beautifully stuffing it

with the silverbeet and the Parmesan.

And this type of food is

where you need to be right now in the competition.

That is magnificent.

And you're like blase, like,

"I've done this, I've done that."

I will be jumping up and down if I was you.

This is just remarkable.

Great job. Well done, mate.

Thanks, guys.

Well done.

Next one we want to try is...

..Petro!

Looking down at my dish,

this is not the way I thought my tarte Tatin would look.

Oh, God. That's a long walk.

I know the flavours are there, but the look of it isn't right.

And it doesn't look like a restaurant dish.

And I've picked the restaurant box,

so, yeah, I'm a little bit embarrassed taking this up.

Petro...

..what did you make?

Well, I attempted to make a tarte Tatin with figs.

Uh...

Yeah, there's no sugar coating it.

Um...

..yeah.

I attempted to make a tarte Tatin with figs.

Um...

..yeah, there's no sugar coating it.

Um...

Yeah.

Alright.

Let's finish it. Yeah? Thank you.

No offence, it looked like trash,

but it absolutely did not taste like trash.

The figs were cooked. They weren't mushy.

The goat's cheese ice-cream, delicious.

The only issue is just your finishing,

so you should pat yourself on the back.

Petro, this has surprised me.

The pastry is perfect. It's still crunchy.

I can taste the caramelisation of the pastry.

It's really well done.

There's still some sort of lovely gooeyness

from that caramel on the edges.

I really liked it.

What is wrong is nothing.

It's just the step by step

to understand how tarte Tatin is done.

Just keep thinking the same way.

You were really, really trying and very willing.

And I think that has value.

So just keep on going.

Thank you so much, guys. Thank you.

That's the most surprising tasting yet. It's like...

I'm shocked how much the judges loved my dish

and I think details, especially in desserts,

where absolutely everything has to be executed perfectly

and with the correct technique,

I think is what I'm going to take out of today's cook.

Good job. Thanks, Casper.

Next up, it's Jackie.

I think I made a dish that they probably weren't expecting

to see come from the mystery box today.

Yes! Why not?

Get it in there. It's there.

It is quite funky,

but I hope when the judges eat my dish,

they get this really crisp, buttery roti.

They get the freshness and the sweetness

of the orange ice-cream...

Here she comes! It's coming! It's coming!

..balanced with some of that chilli caramel

and some of the saltiness from the chicken-skin crumb.

So I hope I've executed enough to get me immunity.

Jackie, what have you made?

Today, I've made a sweet roti,

which I'm serving with a sriracha caramel,

an orange ice-cream,

and some chicken-skin crumb.

Matt, did you think we were going to get

something like this from your box?

No, absolutely not.

Well, let's do it. Get into it.

(PLATES RATTLE)

ALL: Whoa! He's keen!

I got excited. Whoa, Nelly!

(LAUGHTER)

Easy there, cowboy.

It eats exactly how it looks like. It's just a lot of fun.

It was inviting.

The roti is flaky, ice-cream beautiful.

Definitely a truckload of orange in there

balanced out the sweetness.

Even the addition of the caramel,

adding the heat in there curbs that as well.

It's exactly what I expected it to be and more.

Nice. Thanks.

That is an unbelievable dessert.

Thanks.

The chicken skin,

it adds this beautiful, deep savoury, salty umami.

And then the sriracha caramel,

you've put the perfect amount in there,

so it's got this slight, slight funk

and that's sort of the intrigue, I think,

that makes you want to dive back into the dish.

All I can say is that's absolutely red-hot.

Never in a million years would I have thought

to do something like that.

Never would I go to a restaurant and order something like that.

So to taste something like this,

it's just completely blown me out of the water.

Fantastic work. Well done.

(APPLAUSE)

Next up, we've got Luke.

LUKE: I've done chicken thigh with an orange beurre blanc

and some crispy pumpkin.

Your little pumpkin crisps, lovely.

And the sharpness on your sauce is great.

ANDY: Grace! GRACE: I made prawn pasta.

POH: Perfectly good dish.

My prawns were perfectly cooked

and the pasta work is very fine.

Thank you. (APPLAUSE)

Lydia!

LYDIA: Just like a fried pastry

with a spinach and ricotta filling

and some prawns.

DOBBERS: If the pastry wasn't as fried,

it was more of a traditional spanakopita pastry,

this could have been something truly special.

Dot.

DOT: We have a larb salad, so Thai flavours.

SOFIA: Whether you're talking about a larb or a chicken salad,

there are always layers of flavour

and that freshness is what's missing from your dish.

Vinnie!

VINNIE: So I've made a stuffed silverbeet...

..with chicken, pumpkin puree and a compound butter.

I know it can be tough when you lift the lid

and you go, "Oh, man, I don't know what to do,

"so I'm just going to do elements."

But whatever elements you do,

they need to kind of have clarity in the end.

And I just don't think this one has.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

OK, next one.

Hannah, please.

I'm walking my dish up and I'm thinking,

"I don't know if this is sweet or savoury."

This is a little bit weird. It could go either way.

Um...

(LAUGHS) I don't know.

OK, Hannah, tell us, what is your dish?

Today I made you

a goat's cheese mousse tart

with figs, duck skin, and tarragon potatoes.

To be honest, when I was cooking,

I was just pulling out elements that I thought might work.

I didn't even know if I was going to sway sweet or savoury.

Um... I was just tasting as I went.

Shall we have a look at it?

Go for it. See what's inside.

See what's inside.

DOBBERS: Doesn't look too bad. No.

My reaction when I tasted it was, "I don't hate it."

(LAUGHS) JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: I love it.

Um, yeah. I'm intrigued. Very intrigued.

It felt like this was in the crossroads.

It could have either been sweet or savoury.

In my opinion,

if the potato wasn't there and the chicken skin wasn't there,

you could have said this is a fig and goat cheese tart.

It's a sweet. Yeah.

There was enough sweetness from the figs

which would have been able to carry that.

The fact the potato and the duck skin was there

just made everything a bit confusing.

SOFIA: Hannah, I can just imagine being served this

in your home as dessert

and being like, "Did I just have a roast?"

Because that's the last flavour that I get.

I feel like I've eaten duck and potatoes,

so, you know, you're getting those roasty flavours,

but the initial taste is that sweetness of the fig.

But to quote you...

I don't hate it.

(LAUGHS) Meh.

Do you have any mystery box regret

because you were kind of...? You started in Matt's box

and then jumped to the dark side.

No regrets, no regrets jumping over.

I got to play with truffle and I got to like, you know,

when you've got the white apron on

and we're not going for bottoms, we're going for tops.

I think that's the day that you take a risk.

"I participated in a race" ribbon today.

(ALL LAUGH)

You get the participation medal for sure.

As much as this is a little confusing,

I think it's a huge step forward.

Yeah. Yeah, there's tweaks,

but they're very minor tweaks

and you've got to keep doing that.

I feel like you are on the rise

with the conception of the dishes

and the execution of them.

Just keep working at it. Keep working at it.

You'll get there. Cool. Thank you, guys.

I'll take my little ribbon. Always.

It was better than I thought it would be.

Next dish we'd like to taste is Aaron's.

AARON: Looking down at my dish,

I'm really happy with how the dish turned out.

I'm very happy with the ingredients I got to use today.

Ooh, hello, hello.

Wow.

I do believe this dish is restaurant worthy.

And bringing this dish up to the judges,

especially to Matt and Chef Dobbers,

people that I want to be one day,

I'm hoping it shows that I can be a great chef one day.

What have you made us?

Dry-aged duck on the crown.

Caramelised figs,

potatoes and radicchio.

I think the display of simple technique

done really well is why this dish is so good.

I love that you roasted the duck on the crown.

I feel like you get that flavour of roasting it on the crown

throughout both those pieces of duck breast,

which was really nice.

I understand that you understand

that the radicchio just needed to be treated simply.

You know, giving it a little bit of colour

and just having that there

just to pull everything back and tie everything together,

that's the smarts that I'm really loving

that you're getting now.

The ingredients were that good,

that you needed to treat them simply,

and you were destined to put a great dish up.

And that's exactly what you've done.

Yeah, I think it's a great effort, the whole lot.

Thought it was just about to turn the corner

and be too sweet.

Then I had some radicchio and it just went bang

and it all balanced it out perfectly.

This is fantastic.

There's two words that come to mind - simplicity and restraint.

It's all well and good to have all these steps

leading up to what's going to make the dish.

But when the dish comes onto the plate

and it just looks like a simple dish

with a roasted duck breast,

some vegetable garnishes

and a nice sauce and everything tastes nice,

that's like ten out of ten.

So you should be very proud.

Fantastic work. Thank you.

What was clear and lovely

is the way you've glazed the duck, that technique -

you took time and love -

and it was remarkable.

And the addition of the fig

corresponded with the dish, was just perfect

because it goes with the sweetness of your sauce.

You are going somewhere.

Good luck, Aaron, and thank you!

Next dish we would like to try belongs to Jack.

I made a prawn tortellini

with a prawn-infused soubise.

Pasta work - fantastic.

And equally very well balanced

with the prawns and the chicken.

Appreciate it.

Olaolu! An olive oil ice-cream sandwich

with an orange curd.

POH: Your orange curd, I think,

is one of the nicest I've had in this kitchen.

It is like a butter

and you've packed so much zest into it.

Just enough salt and not too sweet.

And for me it's just enough olive oil.

You're next, Casper.

I've done a roast duck with grilled figs

and pickled radicchio.

DOBBERS: You have, without a doubt,

pulled the duck off.

Cooked well, the glaze...

What you've done with the lentils,

that you toast them off on the outside of the duck,

I've never seen that before.

Such a beautiful, unique, original idea.

Thank you. Emily.

I made a pan-seared aged duck breast,

caramelised figs and radicchio pickle

and duck-fat potato crisps.

The way you took the supreme of the duck away as a magret

and cook it straight on the skin very slowly,

and it demonstrates you've done a very good job.

Thank you so much, guys. Thank you so much.

Can't wait to taste your dish, Alyona.

So I made a pan-seared duck breast

with lentil puree,

charred radicchio,

figs

and butter sauce.

Beautifully cooked duck.

I think it's been my favourite one so far

and I love the sweetness of the sauce.

It's got just enough of that sherry

and it's enough acidity there as well.

It's very balanced.

Alrighty, the next dish we would like to taste

belongs to Annabel.

I'm so nervous right now.

The duck is the star of the show today,

and I am so worried that I've overcooked this duck.

Annabel.

Top dish gets immunity from tomorrow's elimination,

and everybody who's put up duck today has, like, nailed it.

So I'm just hoping it's cooked perfectly.

So what have you made for us?

I have made a duck breast

that I cooked on the crown...

..with a potato gratin.

And then a radicchio and fig salad.

Let's do it. Go for it.

Annabel...

..duck me!

(ALL LAUGH)

Good cooking!

ANNABEL: That's so good. Seriously good cooking.

That duck breast, it is juicy

and so tender and supple.

I couldn't believe how my teeth were gliding through it

as I took every bite.

Amazing work on that lacquered finish.

It added that extra stickiness

which you wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Loved the radicchio salad with that tarragon in there.

Just that little bit of anise,

just was such a wonderful little accent

against the fattiness of the duck.

This is phenomenal.

When I talk about restraint and when I talk about simplicity,

it's a beautifully roasted piece of meat.

It's a tasty salad and it's a delicious potato.

Potato gratin is one of the simplest things to cook.

When it's done well, it matches

any level of super-fine or high-end cuisine ever.

You should be super proud. Thank you.

It's fantastic. Thank you.

It is fantastic. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Lucky you're a nurse, 'cause I reckon

he just broke about four bones in his hand.

(LAUGHTER)

Well done. Thanks, guys, thank you.

She's such a legend. Let's go!

MATT: Honestly, all in all,

at this stage of the competition,

incredible effort.

DOBBERS: It's so good to see,

in this early stage of the competition,

just the sheer creativity

that some of you guys are coming up with.

So all I can say is go with your gut,

do what you know, do what you feel.

And the possibilities of greatness are endless.

Hands together for Peli's powerhouse duo

Matt Sinclair and Dobbers!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

SOFIA: Now, the top dish from each box

will be immune from tomorrow's elimination.

First the restaurant box.

The two standouts were...

Aaron...

..you showed great technique with the duck

and made each ingredient shine.

It was a fantastic dish. Well done.

Thank you.

And...

..Annabel.

Your duck was roasted perfectly.

And combined with that truffle potato gratin,

we just couldn't get enough.

In fact, it was dish of the day.

Congratulations, Annabel! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Annabel, finally got your spot up on that gantry, eh?

It feels good. Feels good?

I've been chasing this feeling. Nice.

Don't let it be the last. Yeah, hope not.

Now, to the home mystery box.

Pat, mate, your stuffed chicken Maryland, it was delicious.

It showed great technique

but, most importantly,

great restraint.

Jackie.

Your sweet roti dish,

it was surprising and perfectly crafted.

Loved that sriracha caramel,

smooth ice-cream and the flaky roti.

The top dish...

..from the home mystery box is...

Pat! Congratulations! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Yeah, buddy!

PAT: I can't believe my simple dish

came out on top.

In my head I was worried it was too simple

and the judges were kind of like,

"This is exactly what we want."

So it's given me a bit of a level to go towards.

So happy with everything that's happened.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Pat and Annabel, congratulations.

You two will be safe up on the gantry tomorrow.

For the rest of you,

tomorrow is elimination.

So go and get some rest and we'll see you then.

(EXCITED CHATTER)

NARRATOR: Tomorrow night, compare the pairs.

LYDIA: They're very, very different.

So any of those combos is a risk today in a black apron.

Which of these classic flavour combinations

will save them from elimination?

I feel like this one's like on the edge.

Ooh. What's going on here?

I don't even know the name of the dish,

let alone how to cook it.

If I screw up, I'm going home.

Captions by Red Bee Media