Original subtitles

Previously on MasterChef Australia It's Mary and Grant!

Heat Week was a battle to keep their flame alive in the

competition. That is banging.

Are we bringing it?

I feel you. They all had a burning desire to reach the top six.

That is bold. It's a bold move.

You have to do whatever you can to stand out from the pack because everyone is

such a good cook.

And show their passion to progress.

It makes your tongue dart.

It is so, so, so perfect.

We said hibachi challenge and you said dessert.

I love it, but I wouldn't have tried something new.

Uh-oh.

Yay!

But we had to say farewell to Pat.

My MasterChef journey has been one of the best things I think I've ever done

in my life. I've came way further than I thought I ever would, so there's no

regrets, and I've had a blast.

Tonight, the judges up the ante.

This is hard.

As simple must become extraordinary.

It's a good test, really, to see how far we've come.

Get on in there.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

This is eerie.

Weird.

Walking into the MasterChef kitchen, I don't see much at the moment. Why is it

so dark?

It's very eerie, I would say. I'm a little unsettled.

I've never seen this before.

And I don't know what it means.

Good night on MasterChef Australia.

What?

Judges will drive you harder than ever before.

Every challenge is designed to push you to new heights.

It's time to ride to the occasion.

Hearing the voice of a man has got me, it's got me pumped up. It reminded me

that this is game on. No looking back, no looking 45 either side, just straight

at the finish line.

That's right, MasterChef voiceover man.

Each challenge this week has been individually tailored by one of us to

prepare you for the business end of the competition.

Starting with today's mystery box, which has been set by me.

I'm very intrigued, actually. Sophia has such a wealth of knowledge when it comes

to food. There could be a plethora of ingredients under there.

I've created four mystery boxes for you to choose from.

However, there is only one ingredient in each.

This is kind of the complete opposite of what I thought Sophia's mystery box

would be like. It's going to be really tough.

Here's what I've chosen.

Onion.

Yuzu.

Beetroot.

Almond.

Usually in a mystery box.

There is just, like, a plethora of options. Like, this is hard.

There is literally one ingredient in this mystery box. That's all we can use.

They're, like, fairly one-dimensional as an ingredient on their own, so, like,

we're going to have to get really creative.

To do well in this challenge, you'll need to harness what you've learnt

throughout the competition.

Think about ways of extracting flavour using texture and applying technique to

get the most out of your ingredient.

And use your underbench staples wisely to make that ingredient shine.

This is a really difficult challenge, but when there's not too much to work

with, it forces me to think strategically about what dish I'm

making.

Righto, you'll have 75 minutes to create a dish using one of Sophia's chosen

ingredients. Can use as much...

or as little of that ingredient as you like.

Of course, the pantry and the garden, they are closed.

But you will have access to your underbench staples today. They are very

important.

The top dish will win its maker immunity from tomorrow's elimination.

And you become the first person into our top five.

You just need to shoot for the stars.

This is your moment, guys. You've been training for this for months now.

So just use everything that's gotten you to top six, and it might just get you to

top five.

Good luck.

Your time starts now. Come on, everybody.

I like Be Truth. I think there's a lot of things you can do to be truth.

That's what's appealing to me the most.

I've got no idea what to do.

I'm looking at the four ingredients and none of them are screaming out to me

that they'd be great on their own.

A one ingredient mystery box is really tough.

Balance, flavour, technique, texture and just a cohesive dish with only one

ingredient and your staples.

Just feels like there's a lot more you can do with sweet in terms of the

underbench staples.

Oh, this one has.

I'm going with the yuzu.

I'm feeling pretty good about this victory box.

Yuzu is one of the OG citrus.

Favourite ingredient of mine. I don't, like, get them too often, so I actually

have them today. I really want to make the most of that.

Single ingredient cook, I like really hard.

I really need to break this yuzu down.

Almost like yuzu butchery.

So I'm going to juice up a whole bunch of yuzus, get that juice, and then the

leftover frames, take off a bit of the rind from some, and then I've just the

first layer of skin with no pith, and all of a sudden one ingredient becomes

like five ingredients.

The annoying thing with yuzu is because they are like that ancient fruit. They

haven't really been like cultivated like lemons are these days, so you don't get

a huge amount of juice out of them. They're full of seeds.

Today I'm going to be making a yuzu cruller, which is sort of like a donut.

And I'm going to try to use the yuzu, like, in every single way possible.

So I'm going to do a salted yuzu glaze.

Then we're going to candy some of the peels, make a jam with some of the peel

as well, and then do, like, a charred milk and pepper on glaze to go with it

as well.

My greatest strength in this kitchen, I would probably say it's pulling out

stuff that they haven't really seen before.

I hear only... Oh, actually, that's an insult to me. I was going to say, only

losers do crellas. Only losers do crellas, so it makes sense.

Checked out.

I'm going to do a cruller, and my friend Casper here, I believe, is also doing a

cruller.

But that's okay.

I'm using beetroot.

A cruller is just choux pastry that you treat like a donut.

So you make your choux dough and then fry it up.

I've never thought beetroot dessert. Yeah, great idea.

But I really want to stand out today, and I think in order to get top dish,

that's what it's going to take.

I'm going to do a beetroot caramel. I'm going to hibachi some beetroot.

and make it into a jam and, like, ripple that through a buttermilk ice cream.

I'm going to try and dehydrate some of the leaves, beetroot leaves.

I'm going to pickle some of the stems.

And I think that should do me.

First things first, I need to get onto my onglaze, my buttermilk ice cream.

Egg yolk, sugar.

I've made some buttermilk using the vinegar and the milk from the underbench

staples, and then some dipping cream.

I want to use the hibachi today because I think that it can add like a smoky

element, which is just another way to get a bit more of a multiple dimensions

into this beetroot donut.

Did you hear that, Casper? Next door?

So donut against donut.

Sorry, I'm not calling you donut, by the way. I'm just saying donut using a

beetroot. Yeah.

Oh, I love it. Good luck. Thank you, Chef.

So I'm going to be in the semi-final. I can imagine Casper will probably also be

in the semi-final because he's just been so consistently good the entire time.

Casper, you're good with numbers. What's 300 divided by 4?

Is it 75?

75.

That's the last bit of advice I'll be giving you.

If I don't win top dish, I at least want to beat Casper today.

I was about to grab your bowl.

Yeah, you would.

Do you want my egg while you're at it?

I'm really excited about this challenge. It's not just because I said it. It's

because it kind of feels like the culmination of everything our

contestants have learned today.

Spot the top fives on the line. Like, it is all to play for. And when you give

them one ingredient, that's when you need to really peel the layers back, no

pun intended, of the ingredient and manipulate that to be a balanced dish.

I think for me, all of them are capable of using any of these ingredients and

producing a decent dish. It's about how industriously you use those staples to

highlight your ingredient.

Hey, Aaron, what are you cooking, mate?

Pasta. Hey, I like it.

Make sure once you're almost done, you give me a bite, please.

You bet.

Yeah, I'm feeling really good today. Pretty hectic week last night, getting

so close to being eliminated, but somehow sticking around. A bit like a

cockroach, you just can't get rid of me.

It does just feel like this dream might actually come true.

Honestly, I can't really believe I'm still here. I've taken a few risks where

it's paid off, especially in elimination.

But I've also taken a fair few risks where it hasn't paid off and it's kind

of ended pretty badly.

What's going on here?

He's got the flower like an idiot.

Oh, Luke.

Oh, no, they're really bad, man. They are so bad.

Loose. It just went.

Okay, melted.

It feels like I'm being in every elimination so far.

Fortunately, that means Luke.

Luke. Luke, tomorrow you will be fighting to stay in a competition.

I've still got something to prove.

I'm going for top dish more than ever.

Today I'm going to be cooking a yuzu meringue crepe cake.

The vision for the cake is that I stack quite a few of the crepes up. I usually

cut in between when I get a decent height and then a really nice big pipe

of the meringue on top.

And so you get kind of this grand design, but it also has a lot of

sophistication and a lot of technique and flavour in it.

I've never used yuzu before, but I do feel like it's yellow and it looks a lot

like a lemon, so it can't be that different.

The first thing I get started on is my crepe mixture.

I want to make sure this mixture is in the fridge as soon as possible so I can

chill and make sure it's right.

Keep pushing, eh?

To get that immunity today and a challenge like today, I need to cook a

dish that's pretty much perfect at this stage.

I've got no idea what you're using it with, so we'll just punt.

Just punt, mate. Just punt.

Small ones like that.

I've gone for beetroot.

I feel like it can be used quite a few different ways.

Taking Andy's words and shooting for the stars today.

The basic dish of one ingredient is so hard.

To be able to do that, you've got to think creatively.

No mucking around.

I'm a chartered accountant, so not too much creativity going on there.

Look at that, I'm drenching it, mate. I'm drenching it. How can this go wrong?

If you put enough olive oil in it, it'll taste good. But I'm a creative person,

so definitely outside of work, I need to fill the rest of my life with

creativity, and that's mostly with food and my music.

I don't want to go this way. I don't want to be on and on this way.

I don't want to be okay.

I've always said that there's a really strong connection between trying to

balance out a meal and trying to write a song.

It's all about balance, textures.

All right, let's get this in the oven.

It's made me want to show that I am able to balance out a dish and think

creatively as I would writing a song.

Petro? Sophia. You've gone for beetroot?

Yes. What are you doing?

I'm making beetroot a few ways.

Okay. I'm going to roast until they're nice and tender. I'm really showcasing

beetroot, and I'm going to make a vinaigrette out of the juices that come

out of that and dress a salad out of the leaves. I'm not sure what sort of creamy

element I'm going to have on the bottom. I'm going to make a beetroot cream, but

I'm also going to make a beetroot and ricotta base. I'm going to do some

spiralised beetroot, which are going to be cooked on the hibachi and glaze.

And then I'm going to do a rough-up shard.

You're making a lot.

I think that was seven elements.

I'm going to say how it all works together.

Okay. There may be elements I leave off the plate because it might be over

beetroot.

All right. Have you thought about any that you like the least?

I think the spiralized beetroot will probably be the one I maybe leave off.

The one you're doing right now?

Yeah.

Yeah,

I'm not sure yet.

If you're making this many elements, we're going to have to decide how it all

goes together.

Yes, I agree. Okay, I'll leave you to it then. Thanks. Thank you.

As I'm saying them out loud to Sophia, I realise how confusing this idea is and

it's kind of concerning me a bit.

All right.

Oh, boy.

What are you making, Petra?

I actually couldn't even tell you.

What are you making, Patrick?

I actually couldn't even tell you.

Sounds good.

Yeah, I'm working it out.

I'm working it out.

Usually I love having a limited amount of ingredients and being able to create

something from those, but today I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

I'm making my rough pass.

My recorder turned out nicely, but everything else, I'm not sure what I'm

going to do.

I don't know.

I've just strained my ricotta, and I'm about to throw away my whey liquid, and

then an idea comes to me.

Oh, maybe I can use that.

It'll go really nicely with the beetroot.

How about I make a sauce out of the whey?

Maybe I can use the whey in that.

All right, come on.

I have never made this sauce before, but I'm thinking of mixing the whey with

some of my reduced beetroot juice. I don't need all these.

So it's really sweet and it's got that acidity.

I've got no idea what this beetroot dish is going to be.

Ooh! But we're going to find out here.

Andy said food for the stars, so I decided to shoot for the stars and...

Yes, I did, Petra.

At the moment, it looks like I'm going for the sun.

One ingredient, one dish, and just one winner.

45 minutes to go.

Trophy 11.

Aaron, mate, probably got the answer.

Have you noticed that Aaron has

got really amazing, nice skills?

Feeling pretty good.

Positive. Always good when it's a white apron day.

And, yeah, I like how we're kind of using one ingredient and really, like,

trying to be creative with it. It's a good test, really, to see how far we've

come. In the competition, I've learned so much. I mean, I've made an entremet

in a pressure test. I've never made an entremet before.

Tempered chocolate, I've made.

Ice creams, never made ice creams before. Even handmade pasta.

At this point of the competition, I want to be able to...

Utilize everything I've learned in terms of knowledge, in terms of really

understand technique and flavor now, and make a dish.

I'm planning on making a plate on a filled tortellini type situation, but I

want to do it with a creamy onion filling, make a caramelized onion broth.

We'll see what else I add to it in the time that I'm given.

Aaron, are we making the same dish?

I think I'm doing tortellini.

And then I want to do like a broth as well.

Yeah, I'm doing broth.

You're doing broth?

Yeah. Good dish, mate.

Sounds like a good dish.

An onion really, especially a brown onion, has a lot going for it. If you

treat it right, you can really get a wide range of flavour profiles from

sweet to bitter to raw and acidic.

And then... Pasta, I think, is just the perfect vessel to encapsulate that.

So I'm going to make a filled pasta, either agnolotti or tortellini today,

and I'm going to do some caramelised onion and some ricotta in the filling so

it's got, like, that sweet creaminess.

And then I'm also thinking about making a charred onion rodo.

I definitely have a clear idea of how I want this dish to look at the end, but

in the MasterChef kitchen, when the judges are presented with two very

similar dishes...

It's very difficult because now they have a comparison.

It's definitely a bit intimidating going up against Aaron.

Aaron is much more refined, much more chef-y.

I've tried a few different strategies to make myself stand out in this

competition, many of which haven't really worked.

Flavors and layering flavors is what I am good at, so I feel like I need to

focus on that. I've got my pasta that I'm about to work on. I'm caramelizing

my onions down, and then...

I just need to make my ricotta.

Oops.

And then get my filling actually done. Once the filling's done, I can really

start everything else in motion.

I've got to give it to these guys. We've put them through the absolute ringer,

right? They've still got so much energy about them. They've still got so much

will to win. I feel like we are just about to see these guys launch.

How's Luke going over there with his YouTube?

We're going to do crepe cake and he's going to have a yuzu curd and a Swiss

meringue. Flavors-wise, I think it's great. I think lovely, you know, lovely

silken crepes and then, you know, nice sharp yuzu with lots of that yuzu

perfume. How about the height?

Mate, that's what I'm worried about.

Crepe cakes are really hard.

They're hard to assemble.

They take so much time.

So, yeah, I hope he's thinking about all that now. It's the same for Petro. So

he's going beetroot many ways.

I counted about seven ways.

By focusing on so many different elements, I just wonder if it's going to

have enough time at the end to be able to assemble it all in a way that is

balanced. There is absolutely no doubt that that guy is an amazing cook, has an

amazing palate. Let's just hope he keeps an eye on the spot.

Guys, you won't believe what's happening on the back bench. What is happening on

the back bench? It's a battle of the donut.

Wow! So one is with Yuzu, which is Casper.

And one is with beetroot, which is Annabelle.

And they are both going to take the whole lot.

They're going to trim the yuzu to pieces and use every element. And the same with

Annabelle, with the beetroot, even to the leaves.

Oh, wow.

It's amazing.

Interesting.

Make sure it's the best donuts ever.

Thank you. Yes, chef.

No, I'm feeling good.

Right now, I'm making my choux pastry, and I've got some Yuzu Peels candy.

Then the next thing is this glaze. I want it to be, like, tart, really thin,

but then, like, a good hit of salt there too.

When you have, like, a good Cruella, it's, like, life-changing.

So, like, it's going to be interesting to see what Annabelle can do to, you

know, turn the screws a little bit.

If we can both put up a Cruella, we'll be at the top.

We're going to know who's going to come out on the top top.

Everyone here is a strong cook, but Annabelle is definitely, in my mind, one

of the strongest cooks still in the competition to date.

What have you got for me to taste, mate?

Nothing for you. Not yet.

Nothing yummy. Not yet.

We'll be pulling no punches for Annabelle today because I know that she

can take it.

Ooh.

So I was trying to dehydrate some leaves in the microwave, but it caught a light.

Did you say you set something on fire in the microwave?

Oh, my God.

My leaves! I'm just really concerned that I have had zero idea what's gone on

inside this microwave while I've had my back turned. Did everyone else see that?

However, my ice cream tastes really good. I think it'll go really, really

nicely with the flavour of the beetroot.

I'm in a good spot, I think.

My ice cream's churning. I'm getting onto my jam. I've got my pickle going.

And I'm just going on to my choux dough.

And then my camel.

And then I want to do something with the leaves. I just don't know what yet.

You're charring your choux dough as well.

Yeah.

I've got about 30 minutes left. I've got my meringue done. My crepe is still in

the fridge.

I'm just hanging out this pan.

Just currently working on my curd still.

This curd is going to go throughout each layer of the crepe cake, and I'm hoping

that it will have a lot of yuzu flavour, but will also be quite tart.

But I'm realising that the yuzu, it's not exactly like a lemon like I thought.

Whoa.

I'm using so many yuzus into this curd, and it's only given me like an eighth of

a cup of juice.

It's not quite what I expected. It's not as lemony as I thought. It's a lot

sweeter.

There's like no juice in it.

I haven't started cooking my crepe.

My curd is nowhere near where it needs to be.

And I still need 10 to 15 minutes to construct this thing.

I have my curd on the stove top and I take my eyes off of it for a minute.

I look back and...

That is not right, looks like scrambled eggs.

If I ruin the only yuzu element on my dish, there's yuzu curd, my whole dish

will be in shambles.

Ah.

Well, good starter pack.

How are we? Good, how are you? Good. Are we sending it?

I'm trying. Yeah.

What are we going to do?

I'm planning on making something like a sous-vide filled tortellini with a

caramelised onion broth.

I want to know the flavour of the filling. Like, what are you doing for

that? So this is just going to be split down until it's translucent almost, not

caramelised. It's basically just really sweet onion fillings. That's what I

want. Seasoned really well.

So if that's sweet, then what's the broth going to be? So the broth's going

to have a bit of that caramelized sweetness, but also a bit of brightness

from the vinegar. Okay. And then that's where you've got the char, so a bit of

bitterness in it as well. Yep. So I think that's going to be your challenge,

is to really make an obvious difference between the filling and the broth.

That's what I'm getting at.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together.

Good luck. Good luck, Aaron.

After that bench visit from Poe and Andy, I feel quite concerned about being

able to...

distinguish between the filling of my tortellini and the broth.

But also, Vinny's in front of me doing an onion pasta.

You've just got to love onions.

He's such a strong cook, knows flavors so well, and he's Italian.

It could very well come down to the battle of the pastas and onions here

with the top dish.

I need to think of a way to incorporate

Something in the filling or maybe the broth that can really make it stand

apart.

I mean, winning immunity will be huge. So I'm making sure that I'm adding a lot

of different elements to the broth. So I've got white pepper, I've got charred

onion, caramelized onion. I'm using the skins as well to give it a bit of a

color difference and make sure that that's highlighted.

And I'm thinking of doing some sort of pickled onion petal and charred onion

petal just on the top.

Just add a little differential and different flavour of the onion.

I haven't tasted it all. I've tasted the individual parts, but I will try and see

if all of it works together.

Coming along.

Just need to let it reduce as long as possible, I think.

I've got my pasta done. My ricotta has just finished.

The broth now, I think...

I'm getting to the point where I need to actually start seasoning it up and

tasting it and balancing.

There is a lot to do here all at the same time.

I'm putting together all the elements of my caramelised onion agnolotti with my

charred onion broth.

I have a clear vision of what I want to do, and I'm actually taking the time to

think about each individual element and how they're going to taste.

The broth has a nice charred bitterness to it, so I'm just going to balance that

with a little bit of brightness, a little bit of sugar.

Mmm. Okay. The flavours of the onion really come out and the chardness is

really, really cool.

That is banging.

I'm really, really happy, but I feel like it needs a little bit more.

Something that's going to give it that wow factor.

I'm going to do some burnt onion petals.

The chard petals are kind of the bridging element between my broth and my

pasta.

They're going to be sweet from a sweet and sour glaze, but also have a little

edge of char, which is going to bridge together the charred broth with the

sweet filling.

I definitely feel like I'm onto a good dish here today.

I hope that I've done enough in terms of flavors here to make the better onion

pasta. So now I'll roll out my pasta, get it filled.

I've got my onions, which are cooked perfectly, and plate up.

Yuzu every second.

15 minutes to go.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

That's better.

This challenge is definitely proving a lot harder than I originally thought.

I'm just working on my yuzu curd.

It's going to go in the fret cake.

And because I couldn't get much juice out of the yuzu, I'm trying to just use

this. but I really need the juice to make sure that eggs don't curdle in my

curd. It's a lot kind of thicker and a bit scrambled eggy. I don't have any

more eggs in the mystery box, and I've used the juice of like 10 yuzu.

I can't start this thing again. I just have to make do with what I got.

All right, let's do this.

I've just sieved it, got it to the right texture, and in terms of flavor, I'm

going to adjust the fresh yuzu zest once it's cooled down so I get as much of a

kind of zesty fragrance because I just can't seem to get much flavor out of

them. To be honest, I've had a gulf of elimination.

I'm going to pick myself back up and think about the dish in front of me.

And I'm hoping that today's the day where it can all just come together at

the right time onto the plate and I can get my spot up and again.

Keep pushing, eh?

I spiralised the beetroot, but I'm thinking there's no point having roasted

beetroot and spiralised beetroot on the plate.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

All right, come on. So I heat up some oil and put spiralized beetroot in the

oil to fry.

Um, I don't have a whole lot of time.

I'm pretty nervous.

Oh, boy.

My rough part isn't done.

I don't know how this plate's going to come together yet because I'm still

testing all my elements. I'm not sure how they're all going to taste.

Tell me you've got a plan. Don't make that face. Tell me you've got a plan.

I still don't fully have a plan.

I'll be honest.

I've got a dressing from the roasted beetroot juices. For what?

That's going to go on top.

Of what?

That's going to go on... Well, I'm going to dress the plate with it.

I think you've got to...

You've got to focus on the things you know are definitely going to be there.

Yes. Because you need to allow time to plate and balance. Yeah.

Yeah, this is true.

I know there's going to be ricotta.

I know there's going to be beef.

All right. You got this. You're good, Pedro. You're good. You can do it.

All righty.

Go. Remember the stars that you're shooting for?

Yes. Yeah, the stars are feeling far, far away. I don't know, but I'm

experimenting until the bitter end.

five minutes, and I'm just about to start frying my crullers.

It's going to get a little tight, I think.

We'll be glazing for the last second.

It is hectic right now.

I love a cruller, but I think I like learning that they're really hard to

make. Yeah, I'm feeling stressed for sure.

Finally, I've got my piping bag set up properly and the dough is coming out

really nicely, but time is ticking away and I'm starting to feel a bit stressed.

Bye. I still have to fry my doughnuts.

Yes, you're concerned. I'm concerned.

What are the chances that neither of them have cooked their doughnuts? Yeah.

Five minutes ago.

Crazy.

They are at the exact same point in their quest.

Where did all that time go?

I'm trying to jump between cruller making and caramel making. My caramel

is, like, in the process, so it does need a little bit of TLC.

Annabelle is just not even... She hasn't even piped yet.

Oh, no.

She has.

Has she? Yeah, but I don't know what she's doing. She's just sitting there.

She's firing her head.

Get the doughnuts in the oil.

Yeah.

Four minutes to go in my experience, crullers need a low temperature at about

150 degrees for a couple of minutes.

Crank the oil up and then fry them at about 180.

And I'm like, I don't have time for this.

Potato bell.

Nay.

Oh, my God.

This is a crawler catastrophe.

I'm freaking out.

Less than five minutes to go.

My crawlers are still in the fryer and I will not be taking them out until there

are two seconds to go.

But my ice cream tastes really good.

My jam is ready to be rippled through.

My beetroot caramel is like this beautiful sort of maroon colour.

I've got my pickled beetroot. All right.

The one thing that makes me feel better about the fact that I don't have my

crullers fried is that neither does Caspar.

At this point, I've just got to cross my fingers and hope that one of the

crullers is cooked enough for me to serve today.

It's going to get a little tight, I think.

Yeah, I'm feeling stressed for sure. Yeah.

Oh, my God.

My broth is turning out beautifully.

Every other element is in its place.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty good.

What I need to do now is hone in and focus on the tortellini.

It's very fiddly work, actually, working with pasta and then a wet filling and

making sure that everything's sealed.

I'm being really careful to pinch everything to make sure it's all sealed,

have it all not leak out and burst.

Looks really good.

Hot, hot, hot.

There's two minutes to go. I'm putting together all the elements of my

caramelized onion agnolotti with my charred onion golem.

I'm feeling really, really good about this dish. I love the clarity of the

broth. I love the shape of the pasta.

I test my pasta. They're starting to float, and I'm happy with how they look.

Next, I check on my onion petals, and they are looking pretty perfect.

They'll give a little pop of sweetness and sourness to my dish.

Let's get this done.

Last push, two minutes to go.

I haven't had time to decide which are my best elements, so I've just got to

throw what I have on the plate.

I've got ricotta, I've got some crispy beetroot, I've got my sauce.

Put my roasted beetroots around.

And then my dress beetroot leaves.

I think it looks good.

But the reality is, this whole cook, I have had no clear idea.

And when I have no clear idea, I don't cook well.

Bring it home.

One minute to go.

Let's do this. The biggest issue at the moment is definitely time.

I'm just starting to construct this cake.

I want it to be nice and tall and fluffy and you get the taste of the crepe and

the beautiful meringue on top.

I'm piping on this curd and it's nowhere near as thick as it needs to be.

And as I'm trying to hold it together, it's just getting squished and smushed

either side like a leaning tower of pizza.

All right.

I'm so disappointed because it's not going to win me immunity. It's not even

going to win me over in the eyes of the judges. It's just going to remind them

why I've been in every elimination so far.

How did you go? I forgot to put my pickle on. Where'd it go?

Damn it.

It's there.

You alright?

Yeah, I'm fine.

What happened?

What's wrong?

What's wrong?

What happened?

I embarrassed myself.

Nah, man.

You didn't embarrass anyone.

You're top six.

Today,

I gave you four single-ingredient mystery boxes, and all you had to do was

cook the top dish.

The first dish we'd love to taste is yours.

Aaron.

I'm feeling pretty good. I think I've done pretty well with the onion today.

I hope I've done enough to get me to that top spot.

Ooh.

That looks stunning, Aaron. It does.

What is it?

An onion tortellini with a charred onion broth.

I've got some lightly pickled onion petals.

I've also got some lightly charred onion petals.

And I've made like a tiny twill with the onion water.

Wow. Okay.

You're not the only onion pasta out there, are you? No, I'm not.

Stare him down.

The Italian or the Chinese?

Do you want to finish it off, mate? Sure.

Okay, okay, let's do that

I can feel you're hitting your stride.

I think the big question today was whether you could get that contrast

between the sweetness of the filling with your broth, which you wanted to be

sort of deep and rich. And you absolutely have done that. That broth,

you've definitely nursed that really carefully and you can taste it.

And I love that little hint of bitterness as well in there.

You're thinking like a chef now. And I really love seeing that.

I thought your pasta work was great.

Mine was cooked perfectly.

The texture of your sous-vide-esque filling was really light and fluffy and

creamy. It's so clear the progression from even just two to four weeks

ago through to the technique in this dish.

It's really beautiful to watch.

You've done an amazing job, mate.

Your broth is very concentrated. I love the colors. I like the fact that you

kept the skin. That's very smart.

Your pasta were impeccable. Thank you. Thank you.

It's such a validating thing for them to say that I'm thinking like a chef. I'm

getting closer to the ideal chef I want to be.

You're up next.

Vinny!

Vinny!

Hearing the feedback from the judges and Aaron's dish, it's definitely a bit

intimidating. I've also made onion pasta with a broth.

Now they have a comparison.

If my dish doesn't deliver on flavour, I don't think I'll be in with a chance at

top dish.

Vinny!

You had four ingredients to choose from and you went with the humble onion.

Yep. Why?

Every time we have a mystery box challenge, I'm always like, where's the

onion? And I feel like it was there today, so we've got to go for it.

And what did you do with them?

I did a caramelised onion agnolotti with a charred onion brodo.

I'm loving these. I kind of really caramelised, glazed up petals on top.

They're not so uniform, but my gosh, if that doesn't taste good, I'd be very

surprised.

Looks really like a very comforting bowl of food.

So Vinny.

We've actually opened up the different personality of what onion can offer.

It's translucent.

It's very tasty. It's concentrated.

It's sweet.

I'm very pleased.

I love it.

Well done. Thank you.

The filling was lovely, and I think the thinness of the pasta was really lovely.

Your brodo has this really deep onion flavour, and you've really played with

that agrodolce and kind of pushed it right to the edge, which is really

lovely. You've gotten a lot of flavour into that dish. There is a beautiful

sweetness across all of your elements.

Lovely umami and brownness in that broth.

And those little bits that Andy was looking forward to, definitely the

highlight. Nearly all bloody gone.

Well, if Duwanda can play.

Love the little char on there. I actually, I like the smoothness of the

filling as well.

I really feel like this bowl of food displays how far you've come in the

competition, right?

For you to do that with one ingredient, I just don't feel like that's something

that you could have done at the start of the competition, not even close.

It would have been hard and fast, caramelized, like really rough around

the edges, but that's just got a real...

smoothness, like in terms of flavour about that puree inside.

And then I love the addition of those chard and glaze with the onions with the

brown butter. Pretty epic, mate. Well done. Thank you.

I feel really proud of the dish that I've made today. It's just a reflection

of everything I've learnt and how far I've actually come in this competition.

I do feel like I'm in with a chance at top dish.

Petro!

Today I just experimented with everything.

Looking a little more rustic than refined as I would have liked.

But sometimes you do have to do something maybe more basic but with

amazing flavour.

I just hope that it tastes good.

You've got a beautiful colour out of that sauce.

chose beetroot and this dish is called beetroot and whey.

So I've got some roasted beetroots, some ricotta, fried beetroot chips, some of

the beetroot leaves that are dressed in a beetroot vinaigrette and I've got a

beetroot and whey sauce.

I think you've done a pretty good job, mate. Well done.

You made your own cheese.

The color of your reduction is just perfect. It's not bitter. And what

you've done with tact is to retain the balance

between the earthiness and the sweetness of the beetroot.

Your best element is the sauce.

That's beautiful. That's amazing that you got that purity of the beetroot

sweetness in that sauce, but I don't feel like you got the best out of all

the ingredients on the plate.

It does taste a little bit lackluster.

The flavor overall is just very mellow. You're not getting the full earthiness

or sweetness out of the beetroot in any of your elements.

Had you started off the cook with a really clear idea, I think you would

have got there because we know how good you are, but definitely wasn't your best

day.

I went to shoot for the stars today, but Mr Mark, I think I'm going to take all

my learnings into the next cook and really try to knock that one out of the

park. Next up, please, Annabelle.

I am pretty stressed.

I don't know if my crawler is hooked. I know I cranked that oil temp up.

Regardless.

I'm very determined to meet Casper today.

Camel, darling. Yeah, it's intense.

You don't want to put the two little bits of pickle on top anyway?

Oh, not too much.

Nailed it.

Finger nailed it. Oh, my God.

Annabelle, you've chosen beetroot.

What did you make?

I made a beetroot cruller.

So I've done a choux pastry that I fried.

A buttermilk ice cream with some roasted beetroot jam swirled through it. And

then I've made a beetroot caramel. And then I think there's two pieces of

pickled beetroot stem that made it all right.

And then one of the beetroot leaves that I fried.

Fabulous.

I think that this had potential for top dish.

I bloody loved the ice cream. The texture was so delicious.

But then I feel like the biggest mistake was what the dish was based around, and

that's the cruller.

It's just that oily flavour. It just really got in the road of the genius

that you had in the bowl.

And that for me was sourness, earthiness, sweetness and bitterness.

all kind of doing their thing at the same time.

Your color, I'm very satisfied.

It's light, crispy, colored.

Your creme anglaise is cooked perfectly.

The caramel to start, perfect.

The sweetness, the rawness, the earthiness of the beetroot and convert

it to a dessert is a big job.

And what you produce is just an harmony of beetroots.

Thank you. Well done.

Well done.

Okay, next one, please.

Casper.

Today,

I think maybe Annabelle and I were having a little bit too much fun.

I'm just a bit worried that my acrylics still pour inside.

Nice.

So can I ask you, Casper, can you give us all the elements on your dish,

please?

So Cruella is just like a plain one. And then we've got candied yuzu peel, then a

yuzu jam, and then I did like a salted yuzu glaze on the Cruella too.

And then on the side, the anglaise is a like really heavy toasted white pepper.

White pepper.

Interesting.

Kaspar, that yuzu jam, like dynamite, such a clever idea. And it fits so well

with yuzu, that technique.

They learnt the pressure test.

The texture of the onglaze is like dialed. The cruller is raw.

Which I didn't expect.

Yeah. Did you know that?

I had. So I think where Annabelle and I might have differed.

I think I got mine in just a bit earlier, but I did mine at a lower temp.

Ah. Yeah. So I was like, I wanted to give it a bit more time to hopefully dry

up and not puff up. Yeah, to get that.

Yeah. Yeah. So then it ends up being a bit raw.

Kath Barb, when I closed my eyes and I tasted that dish, flavour-wise, I found

it really delicious.

But I did love that, yeah, beautiful floral perfume that you get from white

pepper. But texturally, there were some strange things happening.

I was like, what does this make me think of? And it's a bread and butter pudding.

Yeah, that too.

Yeah, which is not what you want.

Everything but the cooler.

Thank you.

Next dish we'd love to taste is Loops.

Go, Loopy. Go, mate.

I just had a shocker today.

Everything went wrong from the start.

Every single cook, I'm trying to prove to the judges why I should still be

here.

And putting up a dish like that today.

It's just devastating.

No.

You look super upset.

I just had an absolute disaster today.

I feel like I worked so hard today wearing a white apron and to still be

here last week.

And then to prove you guys right that you made the right decision, I'm just

going to put that up, which is just disgraceful.

I was definitely pretty stuck today.

And the yuzu, I just treat it like a lemon.

Yeah.

The more I use it, I just realise it's not really like one.

Yeah. And it also has, like, zero juice.

You couldn't get enough yuzu?

Like, there was plenty out the front of the room, no?

I used, like, ten.

And then everything just fell apart.

It's meant to be a yuzu meringue crepe cake.

Shall we taste?

a good friend of mine who used to stand next to me on this panel used to say, do

you want it soft and fluffy or do you want it hard and real?

Feedback.

Maybe no.

I was hoping you'd say that because I know that you're really upset and

I'm just giving you some tough love.

There were 50 users.

And I just feel to say that you used 10 and didn't get enough juice, I just feel

like that's not taking the responsibility.

Like, you know, when you make mistakes in this kitchen, the only thing that you

can do is own up, assess what you did, and then move forward.

And so I just want you to be real about this and know where you went wrong.

That's why I asked you.

And just take it on the chin.

But then what will make me really upset is if you walk back in here tomorrow

with a black apron on and you're not yourself again.

Because when you're like this, you do not cook well. So that was a tough day.

I've had tough days in here. Poe's had tough days in here. You are only judged

on how you return through those doors the next day. So head up.

Thanks, Andy.

Luke, you won't believe this, but actually take quite nice.

There's a nice little chew on the crepe.

You can definitely taste the yuzu.

Not as sharp as it should be, as a curd should be.

Obviously the meringue has collapsed, so there's not much going on there, but it

does add a nice sweetness that was needed because the yuzu's not punching

very hard.

I guess, like, the thing about a mystery box is the whole point of it is you have

to make do, maximise the use of your staples.

So you do have to, like, calculate quite precisely when you only have a certain

amount, like, of the eggs, to know where to put it.

And I think that is an experience thing.

Yeah. Yeah.

He really got me down flat, and I'm hoping that I can just pick myself up

and be ready to go for tomorrow.

All right.

This week, it's the sprint to the final.

And each day, us judges are taking it in turns to set the challenge.

Today, I got to have a little fun.

You had four ingredients to choose from.

and had to bring one to life with your trusty underbench staple.

Take out top dish, and you'll earn yourself a one-way ticket straight into

the top five.

Winning would be unreal. To be the first in the top five is no small feat

whatsoever. Came down.

The Battle of the Onion Pastas.

V versus Aaron. Let's go.

Sitting. You're feeling it was smooth.

full of caramelised onion sweetness.

While Aaron, your broth, full of depth, celebrated the complexity of onion.

They're all hinged on which dish each of us would eat again.

Which means, Vinnie, you interview!

I couldn't keep eating the Italian.

I wouldn't have been able to go home, mate.

Vinny, you are claiming the first place on the top five.

Well done.

This is honestly a dream come true.

With an onion.

Can you believe that?

Now that... We're in the top five. The next goal is MasterChef winner of 2026.

Right. Let me remind you that tomorrow is an elimination.

I can't tell you what it is, but what I can say,

it's been set by a real dapper gentleman.

Have a rest, and we see you tomorrow.

Au revoir. Salut.

Don't beat you.

Don't beat you.

Couldn't beat you again.

Who's the dapper gentleman?

Him? Could be either.

Tomorrow night, the dapper gentleman.

Oh, yeah.

So, are you ready?

That's a difficult challenge.

My final, final, final touch.

I knew he was good. I didn't know he was this good.

Who will impress the Frenchman? I am, like, breaking a few rules here, but

rules have made me broken.

Or say au revoir to the MasterChef kitchen?

I love this competition, and I really don't want to be going home today.