Original subtitles

VOICEOVER: Previously on MasterChef Australia...

Please welcome Reynold Poernomo!

..Reynold returned with a rigorous pressure test.

The recipe is full-on, so I'm nervous about everything.

John's extensive experience...

Chocolate can definitely smell fear.

If you're scared of it, chocolate won't work with you.

..saw him rise to the challenge, and...

It's delicious. ..kept him safe.

I put everything into this creation, and I'm so proud of myself.

And it was Max who made his final exit from the MasterChef kitchen.

Tonight, it's another service challenge showdown...

MINDY: The fans are really giving us a run for our money.

..with a superstar guest chef.

# 'Cause you're hot, then you're cold

# You're yes, then you're no

# You're in, then you're out

# You're up, then you're down

# You're wrong when it's right

# It's black and it's white

# We fight, we break up

# We kiss, we make up

# You're hot, then you're cold

# You're yes, then you're no

# You're in, then you're out

# You're up, then you're down

# You're wrong when it's right

# It's black and it's white

# We fight, we break up

# We kiss, we make up

# You # You don't really wanna stay, no

# You # But you don't really wanna go-o

# You're hot, then you're cold

# You're yes, then you're no

# You're in, then you're out

# You're up, then you're down. #

TOMMY: Oh, wow. Look at this. WOMAN: Wow.

JOCK: Here they are! Good morning! MELISSA: Hey!

ANDY: Yeah, guys! Good morning!

MINDY: It is vibing in the garden today.

Whoo!

We're ready for a fun day.

Morning. Good morning.

So summery.

Good morning, everyone.

ALL: Morning.

As you can see, we're set up here in the beautiful,

sunny MasterChef garden...

TOMMY: Hey, this looks fun. WOMAN: Oh, my God.

That's cool.

..and in the MasterChef kitchen.

JULIE: What does that... what does that mean?

I'm so confused.

It's a service challenge.

Oh, my God.

Unfortunately, Minoli can't be with us today.

That leaves us with 11 favourites and nine fans.

So, to make things fair, one of the favourites,

you'll need to volunteer to join the fans today.

Who's it going to be?

Volunteer? Surely we're not that bad.

(LAUGHTER) I'll do it.

Yes, Billie! (CHEERING)

Nice.

OK, Billie, jump on over. Oh, alright.

(LAUGHTER) Welcome!

I am absolutely thrilled it's Billie.

Let her in. Come on in here.

She's such a deadly weapon in this competition,

so I'm really looking forward to working with her.

Righto, gang, this... it's a big challenge.

And a big challenge needs a big guest chef.

(ALL EXCLAIM)

Now, this guy has cooked all over the world.

He's a great friend of ours and a MasterChef favourite.

Please welcome, all the way from LA,

it's Curtis Stone!

Whoo-hoo!

Oh, my God, I can't believe it.

We just had Reynold, and now we have Curtis.

So we're being really spoilt this week.

What's going on, guys?

Curtis...

Nice to meet you all.

..he's just a legend.

He's huge, blond, handsome.

Focus on the food, Aldo.

Just cut it all. Cut that off, please.

My husband is going to divorce me.

It's not a hologram! It's actually you!

Yay!

Oh, how are you, mate? Good to see you, mate.

You too. You too.

It's good to be able to touch you and feel you,

and you're here in the flesh!

(LAUGHTER)

What's been happening in the last two years?

Lots. Opening restaurants, closing restaurants, opening restaurants.

You know, it's just been a whirlwind.

But I'm happy to be back to meet lots of you

and see lots of familiar faces again.

It's awesome.

Well, you've had a sneaky little hand in this challenge.

I have.

Curtis has chosen the two ingredients

that are under these cloches.

(CONTESTANTS MURMUR)

OK.

So, Jenn, we'll start with you

because you smashed the pressure test yesterday.

OK.

Which cloche do you guys wanna take?

Any picks? You go, you go. Feel it.

Feel it, Jenn.

The one on the right. The one on the right.

Today you'll be heroing...

..pork. (ALL EXCLAIM)

TOMMY: That's a nice one. MAN: Yeah, sweet.

You know, one of the best things about cooking pork

is all Coles brand fresh pork is 100% Aussie grown

and sow stall-free, so you can feel good about cooking it.

Alright, favourites, are you ready to find out what your ingredient is?

Oh, yes. Yes, please.

OK.

I tried to talk them out of this, guys, but...

Oh, what?

You can cook with snails, can't you? (ALL LAUGH)

Favourites, today you'll be heroing...

..chicken. Oh, yeah, we love a good chooky!

Yeah!

Julie, you've got a smile on your face.

Well, it's probably my most used protein.

I love it.

Yeah, it is the ultimate all-rounder.

And of course my favourite thing

is that all Coles brand fresh chicken is 100% Aussie grown

and RSPCA approved.

Alright, you now have your ingredients,

so now it's time for some rules.

Half of your team will be cooking flavour-filled fast food out here...

..and the other half be cooking fine-dining fancy food

in the MasterChef kitchen.

That's cool.

That's brilliant. I love it.

(ALL CHATTER)

You will be competing against the other team

that's cooking the same style of food.

It's fast food versus fast food,

and fancy food versus fancy food.

If you beat the other team,

you're into tomorrow's immunity challenge.

You'll be cooking for 80 diners plus us.

Fast-food cooks...

..you'll need to prepare two different dishes for the diners.

Fancy-food cooks,

you'll concentrate all your energy into just one world-class dish.

OK. OK.

It will be a staggered start,

but all cooks will have 2.5 hours

to prepare your fast or fancy dishes.

You can use whatever you would like

from the beautiful MasterChef kitchen garden and pantry.

But all of your dishes must hero your chosen ingredient.

That's pork for the fans, and chicken for the favourites.

Guys, be creative, work fast and have fun. Are you ready?

ALL: Yes. Good.

'Cause your time starts now.

Come on, let's go.

Alright, let's do it.

Chicken. Chicken, yeah.

Chicken. Spread it out. There you go.

It's going to be fun.

I'm on the fast-food team, for the fans.

Street food. So, what are you guys thinking?

We can go sliders, we can go Mexican, we can go south.

HARRY: The hardest thing about today's challenge -

doing two fast-food dishes for 40 people heroing pork.

Let's just do a bunch of ribs.

So, like, a sticky... Sticky barbecue pork ribs.

Hey, we're going ribs. Yeah? Oh, yum.

HARRY: The boys are going to take one dish

and us girls are going to take the other.

Mmm. Thai flavours. Mmm. Thai's yum.

Thai food. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. Like a larb.

Larb. Larb with lettuce. Yep.

Larb is, like, a really awesome, yummy diced meat-type salad.

Limes. Lots of yummy acidity. Shallots.

You serve it in lettuce.

Dude, that's my favourite. I love that!

That sounds fantastic. It sounds sick.

Pantry! Pantry! Ooh, pantry!

Come on! Let's go! Let's go! Pantry.

(ALL CHEER)

Yay, Harry!

Yay! Oink, oink!

Ooh, watch out!

Great team, guys. We're gonna have a lot of fun today.

It's gotta be tasty, wanna be crowd pleasing.

What do we reckon? Finger lickin' good fried chicken.

Ooh, fried chicken.

Wings. Chicken wings, yeah. Korean-style?

Great. Let's do it. Yummy.

What about some kind of a kebab, shawarma...?

And I think a really good marinated chicken.

You know, really charred, lots of caramelisation, lots of spices.

SARAH: There's a lot of strengths in this team for fast food.

Yeah. Anything that goes with the lemony, minty...

Yeah.

SARAH: Mindy, Julie and I are going to work on chicken shawarma,

and Alvin and John are going to work on spicy Korean chicken wings.

Ooh, nice. Yeah, we trust you.

Wow. Well, let's go.

Well, this should be pretty fun.

Two different styles of cooking today,

two favourite proteins to work with.

Fast food, to me, has got to, like, appeal to all the senses, right?

It's got to be crunchy and salty and sweet,

it's gotta have a little bit of everything.

Yep.

Which makes it quite an exciting thing to be able to cook, actually.

ANDY: Yeah.

I just hope that they pick the right dish for the amount of time

that they've got, especially the fast-food guys,

because they've got to bring two.

Right.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Whoo! Run!

So I hope they choose the dishes wisely today.

Watch out! Lettuce coming through!

(LAUGHS)

We'll move all of the pork here.

Have we got dried chillies?

Alright, can you get me a bowl, Jenn? A bowl? OK. How big?

Do we need to count ribs?

Matt and I working on the sticky pork ribs today.

30, you reckon? Three eights, 24.

240.

The biggest challenge today is we've got to cook for 44 people.

We've got 2.5 hours to whip up a lot of ribs.

45 times five. What's that? 225?

Sorry, I've missed all of that. I've no idea what you're saying.

I asked the commerce teacher here to do the math for me

because I couldn't figure it out myself. (LAUGHS)

(ALI LAUGHS)

Yeah, the boys are getting the sinew off the pork ribs.

That's going to be quite a time-consuming job,

so they're going to really have to power through that.

DANIEL: The way I normally cook ribs is slapping on some rub,

putting it in a smoker and letting it sit for hours on end

while I have a beer and listen to music.

That's a lot of fun.

I need help with these fibres, eh,

because they're quite tricky to get off.

But I don't have time to do that.

The time pressure is pretty much the preparation.

It's getting everything in the pressure cooker.

The only way we can do it is by pressure-cooking it

and then oven-roasting it at the end with a nice sauce.

Are we gonna have time to do this, though?

This is really, really risky, but as long as we nail that

and we get the cook perfect on the ribs, I think we're going to be fine.

SASHI: This is one good dough.

This will be really light and fluffy,

so it's not going to make people feel heavy.

SARAH: Mindy's working on the flatbread,

and Julie and I are working on a beautiful shawarma,

marinated chicken for the fast-food service challenge.

I mean, I love spices. I'm always playing around with them.

I'm familiar with all spices.

Nice colours going on in there, isn't there?

I've been learning from the most incredible cooks and chefs in India

for the past eight years.

This is what I love to do.

So I was, straightaway, like,

"I need to do the marinade, it's my thing."

So, my marinade, I'm going for smoked paprika,

Kashmiri chilli, olive oil.

I've got cumin seeds, lemon zest and a bit of oregano.

So, going for a bit of those flavours.

Whoo! It is getting hot today. I know. (LAUGHS)

Hey, Sarah. Hi.

How are you going? How are you, Sarah?

Good. How are you? Good. Good to see you.

Yeah, good to see you, too.

We did a challenge together my season.

I remember. I remember.

I have to admit, I had a bit of a crush on him last time.

Did we win? Of course we won!

(LAUGHS) OK, we won. OK, you were good luck.

(ALL LAUGH)

I was in a relationship.

(LAUGHS)

But I'm single now.

(LAUGHS)

Now, speaking of this challenge at hand today,

this looks very promising.

I love, you know, the tones going on here.

What are you making today? So, we're making a chicken shawarma.

So really strongly marinated chicken.

You want to pick it up in one hand, you know,

not have to use any cutlery of any sort.

Talk to us about the spices going on in your marinade.

Yeah, so, I want a little bit of a kick,

so I want a bit of that chilliness, you know, coming through,

some smoked paprika going on in there,

citrus, bit of garlic that I've kept kind of chunky,

so that as it sits, it will, you know, kind of flavour the oil.

Did you get the kick?

Did you toast the spice before you put it in?

So, these are whole spices, so I didn't want to toast...

You know, whole spices don't need to be toasted.

Yeah.

Interesting strategy.

I'm a bit taken aback by the judges' comment

why I'm not toasting my spices.

Thank you. Alright.

Good luck.

When you're known for something, there's really high expectations.

You know, you really do have to bring it.

So, he just said did I toast off the spices.

Ground spices you don't need to toast off.

I mean, because he said it, I don't know.

You know, if I'm really confident

and then the flavour doesn't come through beautifully,

then, I don't know.

I'm so unsure of myself right now.

It's scary.

SARAH: I am so unsure of myself right now.

Curtis tasted my marinade and he just said did I toast off the spices.

But ground spices, you don't need to toast off.

In my restaurant,

I never doubt myself like I am in this MasterChef kitchen.

Whenever there's a comment or feedback, there's obviously...

You know, he's looking for something.

So...I'm gonna add some tempered spices on top as well.

I'm going to...

..roast off some black peppercorns and cumin seeds.

I really want to go to the immunity cook

because there's so many bloody pins out there. (CHUCKLES)

And if I go into an elimination, I'm pretty screwed, so... (LAUGHS)

I need to win it.

Fast cooks, you've had one hour. 90 minutes to go!

Let's go. (APPLAUSE)

MATT: Just lay 'em down.

Just stock to cover and we should be sweet, eh?

DANIEL: Yep.

Salt. You've got enough salt? Chilli.

And don't forget that sauce of yours.

All of the favourites wanted to be on fast food. (LAUGHS)

Like, everyone's hands went up.

Start with marinading the chicken first.

Now, we're all just standing there, waiting to cook fancy food.

Oh, God, I just wanna help you guys. (SIGHS) Yeah. Please jump in.

(LAUGHS)

We're up against Harry, Mel, Jenn, Matt and Daniel, cooking fast food.

MINDY: How you guys going over there?

Gotta have fun. Holding on. Holding on.

Hanging in there? Bit hot, huh?

The fans have so far just basically kicked our butts

with service challenges.

So they're the one to watch.

So you're Korean fried chicken, right?

So the sauce is mine, yeah. The fried chicken is John's creation.

Nice. So it should work. Yum.

John's preparing the marinade for the Korean fried chicken

and I'm working on the gochujang sauce.

Nice, simple street food.

Perfect.

The gochujang sauce has gochujang paste, brown sugar, lemon juice,

bit of fish sauce and a bit of ginger as well.

Yeah, I think the sauce is gonna be good.

Like, I'm confident with that one. Nice.

I think we're due for a win. (CHUCKLES)

I'm hoping to turn things around today!

Yum. Can't go wrong with fried chicken.

Yeah. It should work.

Yum! Famous last words.

(APPLAUSE)

I don't even know what I'm doing.

I've no idea. (LAUGHS) I'm lost.

The boys are cooking their ribs.

Are you good to still cook the pork?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm doing the pork larb with Mel and Jenn.

We've only been given 2.5 hours to cook for 40 people,

so to save time, I'm gonna use mince pork for the larb.

It's a bit risky, the way that we're doing it.

Especially for somebody like Mel.

She knows that stuff like the back of her hand.

Hey, Harry. Hello.

Harry, meet Curtis. How are you, Harry.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet ya.

I'd shake your hands but... Inquiring minds wish to know.

Yes. What are you cooking?

The girls are gonna be tackling some pork larb

and the boys are gonna do some Southern style barbecue pork ribs.

Wonderful. Mm. Yeah, yeah.

What cut of pork are you using for the larb?

We're just gonna the mince.

We're going Bobby basic. We're gonna use the mince...

So you're not gonna hand chop to create? Nup.

You're just gonna go straight in with mince.

Yep. What I don't like about larb...

Yes.

..is when the protein is dry, it's dried out.

'Cause you get that kind of squeaky feeling.

We wanna see you honour the protein today.

Yep.

I like this double-handed stirring that Jenn's got going on over here.

Yeah, she's a boss. (LAUGHS)

She's in focus mode.

Sounds fantastic. Best of luck. Alright.

Good luck. Thanks, guys.

Curtis and Mel, they're worried we're gonna serve up some squeaky larb,

which would mean the pork is too dry.

It's really beautiful fresh mince but it's quite low on the fat quantity.

MELANIE: How are we gonna add more fat to it? What do we wanna do?

Yeah, I'm coming.

I've gotta think of how I'm gonna make sure

that the mince doesn't dry out.

Fast food cooks, you've got one hour till service

and that means, fancy food cooks, your 2.5 hours starts now!

(APPLAUSE) Good luck, guys!

(ALL SHOUT ENCOURAGEMENT)

Good luck, fancies.

CHRISTINA: Oh, how pretty does this all look!

SASHI: Oh, my God, it's so good!

BILLIE: Oh, yes. Fancy.

Jeez, nice table.

It looks like a wedding.

We've been watching the fast food team cook outside for 1.5 hours

so we've had plenty of time to plan.

Alright.

Gonna get the aromats.

OK, let's go.

MICHAEL: Yeah, we're gonna need 14-15 chickens.

Oh, my God.

So what am I...? I'm grabbing the veg? Uh, kaffir lime.

BILLIE: Ali, they do have bones. Perfect.

ALI: OK, great, let's use that. Fantastic.

Let's go. Start breaking down.

Have you seen some red chillies? No?

Have you seen ginger? Ginger? Ginger? Ginger?

I'm with the fans today, um, which is changing it up a little bit.

We're making pork belly.

We're doing it with a spiced carrot and apricot puree.

Belly's a good choice for fine dining 'cause it's decadent.

We're gonna have to make sure that the pork is moist

and the crackling on the top is crackle.

Just gonna use this dish, Billie, to roast some bones.

Perfect. Perfect.

I'm absolutely thrilled that Billie's on my team.

Do trim that down a little bit.

Trim all this off?

She's kind of like that typical kind of swan

that kind of glides along the surface

and she's so busy underneath.

Yeah, so I reckon just that bit.

I really hope that she can help us

to produce something that's a winning dish today.

Perfect. Perfect.

How are you going... Oh, flying.

CHRISTINA: How many more do we need? One, two, three, four, five, six.

We're gonna cook a fancy roast chicken today.

We're gonna use a bit of Sashi's influence.

Gonna add some rendang flavours

to what's a pretty classic roast chicken.

So chicken with a jus

but we're gonna put some rendang flavours into the jus.

Let's see how it goes.

Curtis said to make it a bit interesting and a bit creative

so we're sort of East meets West

and we've got a bit of a mix here in our group.

We've got sort of cultures going on everywhere.

If we can get it right, I think we've got very good chance

of cooking for immunity tomorrow.

JOHN: Do you wanna try the chicken?

How's the seasoning?

That's very good.

Mm? That's really good.

You want these for topping, yeah?

And a little through the mince.

We chose to do larb today using the mince pork.

Just because...

..there's a bit of a time crunch today

and there's a lot of things to do.

Do you think the mince is too lean? Yep. OK.

Mel and Curtis, they're worried about our mince being squeaky.

There's not enough fat in it.

Jenn? Yeah? We've gotta put fat in the meat.

I just think the next thing we need to do is,

like, get back in that pantry.

I think it's real important that we up the fat content.

Do you know how to use a mincer?

MELANIE: Uh, no, I haven't used it. I've used it before.

It's real easy, though, you just push it in, it'll come out.

Alright.

So what we're gonna do is cut the fat off some other cuts of pork

and run that through the mincer.

And then mix it through the mince.

Hopefully, the mince stays really nice and moist

when we're cooking it on the hot plate.

So fat in the pork, and we've gotta put some chilli powder in the pork.

Yep. Can you make our chilli powder?

Do they need to be toasted?

I think so. OK.

We have dried Thai chillies.

To get the most flavour out of those, you need to toast them off

and then we'll grind that into our own Thai chilli powder.

(COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING) Something's burning.

Chillis. The chilli's burning.

(COUGHING) Ooh, that's burning.

We have to... No, no, no, we need... (COUGHING)

(LAUGHTER)

The whole tent just filled with chilli tear gas.

Matt, get me some tongs! (LAUGHS)

Where are the tongs?

(COUGHING)

I'm dying.

I basically gassed out the entire team.

(COUGHS) Oh, my God!

Just put it... (COUGHS)

ALVIN: Stop killing us, Harry!

(COUGHING AND SPLUTTERING)

(LAUGHS)

Sabotage! I give up. I give up.

Sabotage!

Fast food cooks, you better speed up,

you've only got 30 minutes to go.

JOCK: 30 minutes! Let's go, guys.

ANDY: C'mon!

30 minutes until service starts and Matt and I,

we've prepped up pork ribs in the pressure cooker.

That one's ready too to go? The other one?

Yep.

We've got a braising liquid with a beef stock, bit of pineapple juice

and some fried-off onion and garlic.

It's a very plain, basic braising liquid.

Daniel. Andy.

How are you going, mate? Good, mate. You?

I'm good. JOCK: What's cooking, mate?

Yeah, where are you at?

So we've got our pork in the pressure cooker, braising, now.

What's in that? Just pork ribs.

We've got some stock, some onion, sort of a braising liquid, basic.

And then...

So you've got no aromats or anything in there?

Yeah, so we've got onion and garlic in there at the moment

but no other herbs. Oh, really.

Yeah. No spices, no nothing

Just onion and garlic?

Yep.

Once they're done, we're gonna pull 'em out and use that liquid in here,

we're gonna reduce it and make a barbecue sauce.

And what kind of stock?

Uh, a beef stock.

Oh, you don't want it to taste like pork anymore?

Beef stock? Beef stock. Yeah.

I'm confused.

Uh, a beef stock.

Oh, you don't want it to taste like pork anymore?

Beef stock? Beef stock. Yep.

I'm confused.

Did you not rub it with spices or... Nothing?

No.

We want that sort of sauce to come from the glaze at the end.

For us, you've kind of missed a trick massively...

..by not putting, like, a gnarly rub on the ribs before they go in.

So you have to make sure that this glaze is the most loaded glaze

that you've ever made in your life.

'Cause otherwise, it's gonna be so mellow.

Yeah. And fast food, it ain't mellow.

This competition...

..really does things to your brain.

How do we... how do we work on this glaze?

What about...? So...

You don't make those mistakes at home but when you're under this pump

and you've got 40 people coming to eat

and four of those people are gonna judge you critically on something...

Let's put some of the aromats and stuff in, eh?

You miss such important little steps that make all the difference.

We don't want it too beefy. So we want...

We want the pork to still sing so do we try not to use too much of this

and then get this on the rib now, really reduce it.

We're gonna try our best to really have a crack at this

and, you know, have a shot at immunity. That's what we want.

MELANIE: We're mincing some pork fat because the mince that we get,

it's not very high in fat, and larb, we need a lot of fat to keep it moist

otherwise you're gonna end up with dry, squeaky mince.

Normally, lean mince meat of any kind is pretty good for you

but larb's not sort of supposed to be super healthy,

it's supposed to taste really good

and that means a bit of extra fat's needed.

ALDO: I don't know why I need to always get the wobbly table.

Always.

TOMMY: You always get the what? (LAUGHS)

The wobbly table! (LAUGHS)

Look there. It's like a Saturday night dancing.

(ALL LAUGH)

MEL: Hey, Michael.

Hello, Mel. How are you? Good, thank you.

Talk to us about...fancy chicken.

We're gonna do a classic roast chicken

with a bit of elements of all of us in our team.

So we're gonna do the classic roast chicken,

which Christina and Aldo and I...

And we're gonna add some of Tommy and Sashi's funk and flavour and spice.

We're gonna do a rendang jus to go with it.

So, roast chicken, rendang jus, carrot puree.

Talk to me about the crown then.

How are you gonna make that unbelievable?

Just...

Uh, well, cook, it perfectly, really.

Chicken breast is obviously a pressure point

'cause it is easy to dry out. Yep.

So brush the skin with some clarified butter to get it nice and golden

and then just cook it perfectly. (BILLIE BANGS CLEAVER)

Nothing under the skin, no rendang sauce?

I... We've got a lot going on. (BANGING)

OK, so the aromats are in the jus,

the jus's going around the chicken. Exactly.

But not through the chicken itself. Not through the chicken, yes.

I'm just... Is it fancy enough?

Is that fancy enough? I don't know.

I guess that's a pressure point. It's a huge pressure point.

You're gonna have to actually nail that.

(BANG!)

Billie! Hey, Billie, are you angry?!

Like, what's going on? Are you angry 'cause you're over there not here?

(LAUGHS) Do you wish you were back here?

Have you made a bad decision?

No. I'm sorry. I just have to get this done.

Get it all out, honey.

(LAUGHTER) It's actually really satisfying.

It really is.

Um, listen, this sounds...it sounds good but the pressure is on you,

I think, on this one. I feel it. Yep.

Alright, good luck.

Simple is great as long as it's perfect. Yes.

Easy. Right? Good luck, guys. Thanks.

Jock's a little bit concerned about the chicken being fancy enough.

Is there enough of that rendang flavour throughout the chicken?

Jock said because we're not putting any of the flavours of the rendang

into the chicken... TOMMY: Yep.

..he's worried about that, we could put the rendang paste underneath.

CHRISTINA: Put a little bit in the butter.

Put a little bit into the butter. Yeah, mix it into the butter.

Make a compound butter. With the rendang paste.

We'll put it under the skin. Under the skin?

Yep. Give it a little bit extra flavour.

Right, let's do that. Fine. Easy.

Blitz some butter in with some rendang paste,

you've already got it. Yep.

Rendang compound butter, flavour bomb under the skin.

Fancy?

Just enough to... get a layer in, right?

Perfectly cooked chicken, perfect rendang sauce, I mean, it...

Yeah. It makes perfect sense.

ANDY: Ali? Hi.

Fancy food. Yeah. Hi, Curtis. How are you?

How are you, Ali? What are you gonna do?

Erm, we are going with the pork belly.

Yep.

We are going to roast it with a salt crust on.

OK. Just get that really nice and crispy. Righto.

Ali, are you planning on scoring the pork belly?

Well, we weren't going to. We were just going to pierce it

and then salt crust and kind of...

What do you think? Do you think...?

You'd rather score it?

To me, the most incredible thing about slow-cooked pork belly...

Yeah. ..is the crispy skin.

As long as you can get it.

So whatever your little tricks and secrets are to get that crispy skin,

use them. Yeah.

Because if it's NOT crisp, it kind of ruins the whole dish. It does, yeah.

It sounds wonderful, but that one little thing can change everything. Yep.

Just make sure you have enough pork, make sure it's crispy.

I think the dish sounds really simple

but quite interesting as well.

So if you pull it off, should be spot-on.

Excellent. Thank you.

Score the pork. Score the pork, right. Ha!

Think I'll...

Billie, I think we'll score the pork.

Hey? I think we'll score the pork.

Do you think? Yeah.

If the skin is not crisp, it's not gonna be great.

So if he's saying score the pork, we're gonna do that.

Takes a while. OK.

Pork is gonna take 1.5 hours to cook and it needs to rest.

Salt, star anise, cinnamon, coriander seeds, all blitzed in.

Just get the oven ready.

We need to get the pork scored, covered in salt and in the oven.

Perfect.

MATT: Are the porks done? Yep.

There's no rub on this meat, the braising liquid's pretty plain,

but the pork is practically cooked

so we can't really impart any flavour in the meat anymore.

How soft are they? They're pretty soft.

I reckon they're good.

We're gonna have to layer and build up as much flavour

to make this the most kick-arse barbecue sauce we can.

I'm just reducing the pork glaze down so it's nice and sticky.

We've got all of our spices in here, we've got our sugar in here,

our vinegar, our pineapple juice.

So, really, all the flavour is coming from the glaze.

The glaze is going to bring out the pork.

It's gonna... It's gonna celebrate the pork.

That's what it's about, you know?

Otherwise it's just a dry piece of plain pork

but the glaze is really going to enlighten the pork.

What do you want the oven on? Uh, 200, please.

Yep.

Fans, favourites, you've got five minutes to service

and that means we've got diners in the house.

(APPLAUSE)

ALVIN: Smile!

(LAUGHS)

Hello. Hello.

MELANIE: We haven't toasted our peanuts yet, have we?

HARRY: Come on! Come on! (CHUCKLES)

Diners start coming through the gates

and we are nowhere near ready, in my mind.

Start getting ready for service, yeah?

Yep.

SARAH: Oh, my God.

Pressure is on. I'm finishing off a little bit of the cooking

but need to get everything ready to go.

Alright. This tastes really lovely, guys.

So Dan, you do that? Go, go. Go on that. I'll do this.

Just start putting plates up.

MELANIE: The herbs are not chopped.

Start dishing up salad, bro.

Come on, girls. Look at that.

That food looks good, it smells good.

Crispy, sticky, delicious chicken wings...

It is hot!

..it's a chicken shawarma...

Chick-chick-chicken.

..fluffy, light flatbread...

Beautiful.

..beautiful garlic sauce.

It's got grilled chicken in there.

So, is this half the chicken?

Loads and loads of flavour.

Look at this - they beautiful.

ALVIN: Do that. I'll do the sesame.

I hope you're plating. Service starts in one minute.

ANDY: Ooh, one minute! MEL: Come on! One minute!

You can do it!

Wait, where are all the herbs for the toppings?

HARRY: Here, here, here.

We are really, really not in the best place

to be going into service right now.

Haz, can you grab the iceberg lettuce?

Let's go, let's go. Doesn't matter, let's go.

Righto, diners, here's where you earn your lunch! 10...

ALL: 9, 8, 7,

6, 5, 4,

3, 2, 1!

Ho-ho! That's it! Let's go.

(APPLAUSE) Dinner time.

We've only got one. Come round and help us do this.

Wait, more? We've only got one cooked.

More salad? JOCK: Come on, guys, hustle.

Yep, mate. SARAH: Hi.

So this is our chicken shawarma.

JENN: Mel's doing more lettuce cups,

we don't have enough so can you help me do this as well?

HARRY: Service has started and we are nowhere near ready.

JOCK: Come on, guys, hustle.

Plates need to start actually going, so...

Yep.

We are really not in the best place to be going into service right now.

You gotta move.

SARAH: How you going, guys? JOHN: How are you? Enjoy these.

Thank you. You're welcome.

So nice having you guys here to cook for you.

HARRY: Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

Alright. Just get 'em out. OK.

Service has started and everybody's ready to eat, and we are way behind.

JOCK: Come on, guys, hustle.

Plates need to start actually going.

So...you gotta move. JENN: Yep.

Aagh!

(THUNDER RUMBLES)

Well, service has started and right on cue, the heavens have opened.

But you know what, we can't let the weather interrupt the snacks

so should we start? Yeah. Bring on the 'shnacks'.

ALVIN: Hi. Spicy chicken wings?

With pickled vegetables. Two more coming.

Enjoy.

This is our chicken shawarma.

So, there's a garlic sauce underneath

and then there's a fresh herb salad as well.

OK, so, from the favourites, a little bit of a yoghurt flatbread

with chicken shawarma and a garlic sauce.

And also, Korean fried chicken wings.

What do you think?

They look great. ANDY: Yeah, they look awesome.

Are we getting into that, or what? Let's do it.

If you walked past a street vendor and they were making this,

you'd be like, "Ooh, I want one of them."

Totally. "I'll have one of them, thank you."

Does look very good.

So, shawarma, the flatbread,

actually, is perfect.

It's soft, pillowy.

The garlic sauce is really good.

And the chicken is tender and juicy as.

The garlic sauce being not too strong

means you can really liberally slather it in there.

Yeah.

And it's absolutely perfectly balanced with garlic.

I dug it, hard.

The chicken's good. I would have liked a little bit more spice.

I agree. I think spice level-wise,

I think it could have had a little bit more flavour.

So, the wings.

They're crispy, the coating is great.

Yeah. It is crunchy and gnarly and it grabs onto that sauce.

The sauce had a nice gochujang sweetness about it.

I think the flavour of these wings is really quite good.

It's a really pleasant mouthful of food.

Yeah. Mm.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God!

Do you want me to start plating? HARRY: Yep, yep, yep.

We have to hustle, but because things have been so frantic...

Are you ready?

..we just don't have time to make this dish pretty.

Just keep making. Just keep making.

We got this.

I'm hoping that, because it's fast food, then it won't matter so much.

OK, that's ready.

With the larb, the texture of the meat is really awesome.

I don't think it's dry.

Just watch the portion on the salad, yeah?

As in more or less? Less.

Less? OK.

I think the boys are done with their ribs.

DANIEL: It's all good. We're nearly there.

We've got sticky pork ribs here.

I'm a little worried but we worked our butts off

to put more flavour in our barbecue sauce.

I reckon it's all good. They're sweet and sticky.

Load me up.

But it's gonna be quite interesting to see what the judges think.

Here we go. So, we've got some really yummy pork ribs with pineapple salsa

and then this is larb.

OK, so here we go, the dishes from the fans.

We have a pork larb with a little side salad

and sticky pork ribs with chargrilled pineapple.

It looks great, but is it style over substance?

I think we should just dig straight in. Yeah.

For me, a dish like larb is really all about big, punchy spikes

and a lot of dynamics

and I'm getting, um, yes, sure, succulent pork

but it's salty, but I'm not really tasting much acidity.

Even just the heat in there, it's really not doing it for me.

CURTIS: Mm.

Mel, you're tough.

I think you probably know more about larb than I do.

But I like it.

I mean, to me, it has a nice balance.

I'm just used to it being a lot spicier than that.

I was a bit worried it was gonna be dry. But it's not.

Their choice to add pork fat into the larb and mix it through there

has done wonders, 'cause it's kept it moist and delicious.

Pork ribs, unfortunately, totally underwhelming.

You can tell that they missed a trick without loading up the dry rub

'cause they're just lacking any type of flavour.

And the sauce on there is pretty tame itself.

Yeah, losing the opportunity to kind of really layer lots of flavour,

add caramelisation, that's a bit of a shame.

I think the pork is reasonably succulent.

The cook on the pork is fantastic. Yep.

I think it's better than I was expecting. Yeah.

The sauce isn't horrible, but...

..you can tell that the two things just haven't really melded together.

We've had a fill of all the fast food,

I reckon we should hop inside and get around some of the fancy stuff.

What do you reckon? I agree. Let's go.

There's a few more in here. No, this is it. This is the last one.

John, last four. Last four.

We're done.

I just need one more for this round.

How's it all tasting? Beautiful.

Excellent. Enjoy.

Thanks, guys. One more is coming.

We've done quite well to feed 40 people in 2.5 hours.

(ALL CHEER)

DANIEL: But I don't know if this is going to be good enough

for us to all have a shot at immunity.

Once that chicken's cooked, we do a plate-up.

Yeah.

How far off's the sauce, Sash? Let me reduce...

I'm straining now.

Christina, can you strain me that one?

Yeah.

We need to season it, and we're good.

(LAUGHS) Whoopsie!

The street food stalls are closed,

our diners are ready for fancy food.

15 minutes to go!

CURTIS: Let's go, guys! JOCK: Let's go!

Here they come.

MICHAEL: I love when the diners walk through the door.

It's the exciting time.

It's when you start feeling alive as a cook.

Alright, guys, let's go. We've gotta cook now. Alright.

Hopefully, we've cooked something fancy and amazing.

That's what you're going to need today in this kitchen,

because across from us, there's five amazing cooks

cooking something pretty exceptional.

Oh, yeah. Flambe, Ali!

I think it's all coming together really nicely.

Mmm. That's beautiful. More salt. More garlic?

ALI: Billie's made a lovely, silky vegetable puree.

The pressure cooker is going with the pork stock for the jus.

Just take the bottom one. Just careful, it's super heavy.

We're going to check the pork belly.

We've got a bit of an issue with the pork.

It's not really cooked through.

Alright, can we pop it down there? Yep.

OK, we'll just get him back in the oven.

We're gonna have to crank the oven up a little bit.

Where's the other pork? Ali, what are you doing?

Yeah, we're just getting this pork back in the oven now.

Are we going to get crispy skin? I'll say yes.

Curtis said this whole dish hangs on the crispy skin.

I know, I know.

I hate to burden you with that right now, but...

I know, though. I know.

Man, I'm worried about that. We'll cross fingers for the pork.

How's the rest of the dish looking? Everything else is great.

OK.

I've got a horrible feeling in my stomach.

I'm gonna try and get it really crispy, because if it's not,

then we might as well pack up and go home now, quite frankly.

You want to try this? Yeah. How is it?

Good.

The puree's done, the rendang jus is done.

I can get a chicken out.

Just not sure about the cook on the chicken.

Yeah, take one out and we can... Just what's good.

Final touches on your fancy dishes!

You have just five minutes left!

(CHEERING)

Do you need help taking them out?

Yeah, do you wanna grab this side, Tom?

I go to help Michael take the chicken out of the oven...

We're taking them all out now, yeah? Yeah, man. Yeah.

They hit the temp.

..the tray is kind of buckled from the heat...

(LOUD CLATTERING)

best bits and delicious exclusives at:

Do you need help taking them out?

Yeah. Do you wanna grab this side, Tom?

(LOUD CLATTERING)

The chicken has dropped on the floor.

Tommy, how many did you lose?

Did they hit the floor or not?

WOMAN: No!

How many did you lose?

Oh, my God.

That one hit the floor, this one hit the floor.

I've completely stuffed up this whole challenge for our team.

(COUNTS IN OWN LANGUAGE)

So, we got 36 here.

Lucky for Tommy, I think I've done a couple of extra chickens.

36 and 8, it's 44.

It's going to be tight.

Heads up, everybody! One minute to go!

(ALL CHEER)

Let's start carving chicken.

WOMAN: She looks crunchy. Are you happy with that?

ALI: Yeah, I think we're gonna have to be.

It's all coming together really nicely.

We've got the charred apricot and spiced carrot puree

on the plate.

Oh, my God. Look at the crackling on that.

And a spiced jus. With the fennel?

I am a little bit worried about the pork.

It tastes really nice and the fat's really rendered very thin, but...

..I'm hoping it's enough.

Alright, are we ready, Sash? Yep, we're all good to go.

Are you guys jumping in?

MICHAEL: We've got less than a minute till service.

ALDO: Try to get on one line.

I think we've got enough chicken.

I've been slicing like a madman.

Aldo starts plating coconut and carrot puree...

ALDO: It looks good.

..Sashi will put the chicken on and garnish it.

SASHI: Yeah, I need carrots now.

But it's not the fanciest plate-up ever.

I think the more we plate up, the better you get.

TOMMY: Sauce? We need sauce on this one.

MICHAEL: I think, if it's delicious, though, with that rendang butter,

we'll have a very good shot at cooking for immunity tomorrow.

We want fancy food on the pass in 10...

ALL: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one.

Let's go! (ALL CHEER)

Service, please.

Service.

So, fancy food, eh? CURTIS: Oh, yes.

ANDY: Let's do it.

It's fair to say that they've both had

their fair share of problems today during the cook.

But you know what?

Both of them look as if they've got a good dish on the pass at the end.

So shall we get the first one in? CURTIS AND ANDY: Let's do it.

ALI: Alright, salted. One, two, three. One, two, three.

Alright. Service!

MELISSA: Hello. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

So, we have pork belly with a spiced carrot and charred apricot puree,

grilled baby fennel served with fennel oil and a spiced jus.

Enjoy. JOCK: It looks fancy.

I'm going to tick that box. MELISSA: Yeah. Let's do it.

That sauce has, like, got so much power.

It is full-on, but in a good way.

And the puree is silky smooth, isn't it?

I mean, it's really velvety.

It's just delicious, you know? Mm.

But the pork belly, there's no getting around it,

it is chewy.

By stacking the trays on top of each other,

it just didn't get the heat through the pork for long enough.

That's right. And then the skin suffered.

But bones of a great dish.

Carrots, Christina. More chicken.

Service, please.

OK, good. Nice.

Thank you.

So, we have roasted chicken with a rendang-flavoured jus,

coconut and carrot puree, roasted carrots and crispy chicken skin.

Enjoy.

Well, I think the presentation, um...

Do you think it's fine? Do you think it's fancy?

Um...

..yes and no.

MELISSA: Wow.

It might not look super fancy,

but in terms of flavours and how it was cooked,

that's, you know, any fine dining standard, for sure.

Mm. The chicken's cooked to perfection.

To keep a breast that moist shows some real skill.

The rendang sauce maintained its humble soul

yet was elevated to elegant heights, which I was really happy to see.

Very skilful, very clever.

And its dish of the day by an absolute country mile.

Hear, hear. Hear, hear.

ALL: Service!

(ALL CHEER)

Service, please!

Chicken Man. We had two extra, so we were right.

There's so many of you, still.

(ALL LAUGH)

Sorry. It's alright, I'll go.

Waiting for your cull. (CHATTER AND LAUGHTER)

There were some pleasant surprises today.

But there were also some simple mistakes

that absolutely cost some of you.

So, we'll start with the fast cooks.

Fans, your larb was pretty tasty...

..but without a dry rub,

your pork ribs, they were in trouble from the start.

While they were cooked perfectly,

they were pretty light-on with flavour.

Favourites...

..we were so excited by the sound of your wings.

I think you hit the spot.

Sarah, Mindy and Julie,

we all doubted that chicken shawarma...

..but it was delicious.

In fact, favourites, if we walked past your dish

at a street food vendor, we would have bought the lot.

And that's why you won the fast-food course.

Yes! Yes!

(CHEERING)

Yes!

I'm going to replay that over and over and over again, Jules.

Yes!

So, it's one-nil to the favourites.

Now let's move on to our fancy course.

Fans, your plate looked every part an elegant, fine-dining dish,

but your pork was chewy.

Undercooked.

Favourites, your plate looked less fancy than the fans',

but when it came to flavour and execution,

it was about as fancy as it gets.

Perfectly cooked chicken paired with elegant rendang jus

and the silkiest of purees.

We were blown away. It was dish of the day.

And that's why, favourites, you also won!

Yes! Yes!

Alright.

You'll be back here tomorrow to battle out amongst yourselves

for that all-important immunity from Sunday night's elimination.

The good news is, Curtis is going to be here too.

(CHEERING) Yes! Yes!

(ALL LAUGH)

So, listen, well done, all of you, today. It was a huge day.

Go home, make yourselves a cup of tea, put your feet up,

be kind to each other, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.

See ya. Great job, guys.

Good stuff. Well done. See ya later. (APPLAUSE)

SARAH: OK, maybe my crush is back now.

(LAUGHTER)

VOICEOVER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia,

it's a delicate balance as the favourites fight for immunity.

As your pantry increases, your time decreases.

Let's do it! Whoo!

Who will beat the clock...

I've never felt this kind of pressure.

Oh, what am I doing?

..and who will make the best dish?

I need every single minute I can get.

Captions by Red Bee Media