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ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia,

What you're about to embark on is no ordinary tiramisu.

What?!

..in a pressure test where they couldn't see or taste the dish first.

MONTANA: It's completely rattled my brain.

It was a modern take on a sweet Italian classic...

ALVIN: I'm up against three dessert queens,

and THE queen.

..and everyone was shocked when Steph had to leave the MasterChef kitchen.

Give it up for Steph, everybody!

Tonight, it's a restaurant takeover.

Upstairs versus downstairs.

..for a service challenge and a shot at immunity.

# '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. #

DANIEL: I can't believe I'm walking through the streets.

Sarah Todd's in front of me.

SARAH: Everyone's so excited for the team challenge.

I love team challenges. They're fun. I know. We can enjoy it today.

We're walking through the streets of Melbourne

and there's so many stunning restaurants around here.

Oh, what's this place?

So I'm interested to see where we're going to end up.

ALDO: Girls, where are we going?

You're about to find out.

Na Na. Wow.

Oh, my God. Here we go.

Japanese. Amazing.

Let's do it.

Oh, this is cool.

This space is amazing.

So cool.

So moody and vibey.

Really atmospheric.

WOMAN: This is sick.

MELISSA: Here we go. Here we go.

(CHEERING)

Good morning, everybody. ALL: Good morning.

Welcome to Hotel Fitzroy's Ichi Ni Na Na Izakaya

and Cappo Sociale.

Spanning two floors.

In this building, you get the best of both Italian and Japanese cuisine

under one roof,

which means this is the perfect setting for a restaurant battle.

Look at Aldo.

Will you be so happy when you pick Japanese?

Absolutely.

I did... My fusion dish was an Italian-Japanese dish.

So...tough day. True. That's true.

Which would you rather, though? I will love Japanese, actually.

Well, well, well.

Actually, you don't get a choice today, but someone does.

(ALL EXCLAIM AND LAUGH)

Sarah, you won the advantage,

you get to choose which cuisine you'll be cooking.

So, Sarah, do you choose Japanese or Italian?

Right now? Right now.

Straight into it. Right now. Straight into it.

I choose Japanese. You choose Japanese.

Yeah. Alright.

There you go. I like red.

You are on the Japanese team. Thank you.

OK, for the rest of you, it's your turn.

Random selection. Please don't look.

Red is Japanese,

and brown is Italian.

Whoo-hoo!

Yeah, I know, Aldo. I said the same thing.

Red, the Ferrari meant to be Italian.

Or green, at least, for Italy. Yeah, or blue.

Hey! Wouldn't like to beat the Italian.

TOMMY: Here we go.

(ALL LAUGH)

Does anybody want to change?

Whoo-hoo! Yes!

(ALL LAUGH)

If you're in a red apron, please join Sarah on the left,

and if you're in a brown apron please group to the right.

In your teams, you'll be curating a three-course menu

designed for the restaurant you're cooking in.

But let's talk numbers.

Because, red team, you've got six cooks,

and that means you're making Japanese for 40 diners.

OK.

Brown team, there's only five of you,

you'll be cooking Italian for 34 diners.

Fair's fair, right? Yeah.

You've got 2.5 hours until your entrees

need to start leaving the pass.

Of course, both teams, you've got access

to the freshest range of ingredients.

And today, the winning team will vie for immunity tomorrow.

If you want to be the first person

into the all-elusive top 10,

the first step is making sure

that you're in the immunity challenge tomorrow.

Go hard because that's where you want to be.

So good luck. Time starts now.

MAN: Good luck. Here we go, guys.

TOMMY: Ooh, watch out for that.

Alright, Italiano. Italiano.

KEYMA: Italiano. Yeah.

We've got to nominate a captain. Yeah.

Look, I think I'll be happy to help.

I've never been team captain in a service challenge before.

Captain Tomaso. Yeah. OK, let's do it.

Captain Tommy. Love it.

My team is so amazing, and I'm ready to do it. Let's do it.

Like is this first course just maybe something fresh?

Controversial opinion, guys. Yeah?

My suggestion might be risotto.

Mushroom, truffle... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's something I can crack out. OTHERS: Yeah.

I like that. Are you happy with that?

Mushroom and truffles? I love mushroom and truffles. Sounds good.

Straight off the bat, Julie, entree.

She wants to make a risotto.

And gremolata, maybe a burnt lemon butter

drizzled over the top for the acid.

Beautiful.

I can just get tucked away in a corner and do in the time.

Risottos are extremely hard to get perfect,

but done right you can't beat a good risotto.

We're thinking, like, the main course, secondo sort of thing.

We've got fish.

For our main, we're thinking some kind of protein,

some kind of seafood.

There's a dish called acqua pazza. It's crazy water.

OTHERS: Yeah.

Michael thinks about acqua pazza,

and I love it because it says it's "crazy water",

and I'm all into the crazy stuff.

And then what are we thinking for... Dessert?

Dessert. I had a couple of ideas.

A semifreddo. There's pistachio.

Ooh.

A nice Italian beer somehow incorporated in that, as well.

Billie on dessert, Queen B, Billie.

Or maybe a caramel, or something like that.

For dessert we've got pistachio semifreddo, a beer-compressed jus.

Sounds sick already. Some berries and some chocolate sauce.

I like that.

Alright. OK, let's go to the pantry.

MINDY: Alright, here we are.

How are you feeling, guys? Are you excited?

First thing that we need to do is nominate a team captain.

Team captain, yeah. ALVIN: Montana.

I haven't done it before. Are you happy with that?

Happy. Fantastic.

I'm the only one on this team who hasn't been a team captain

in a service challenge so far,

so I've been delegated to do it.

I'm happy to do entree. Yeah, I'm happy.

Yeah, we'll do entree. Yeah.

I'm happy mains. Mains.

I'll go mains, yeah. Yeah.

We're dessert. OK, easy.

Cool.

So, for entree, Japanese cuisine, it's really clean and fresh,

so to have something quite light.

So, like a tuna, fresh tuna.

For entrees just a really simple tuna dish -

just raw, diced tuna with a ponzu dressing.

So, something a little bit heavier for mains, then?

I was thinking a beautiful miso-glazed pumpkin,

roast in the oven, finished on the hibachi over there.

Just basting with a marinade.

So we're doing vegetarian menu?

I was thinking on the other end of the spectrum,

we can sort of do yakitori-style stuff as well.

Like, we've got Wagyu. Yeah.

I vote for meat.

But for me, much more concerning, on the meat,

if you don't keeping constantly eye, you can just overcook.

Mon, do you want to pipe in and give them...

Um...

It's going to be a challenge being a team captain for this bunch today.

Um...I don't know.

It's, like, obviously it's up to you guys.

They're all such competent cooks, such strong leaders

that I don't really want to sort of tell them what to do.

So, but let's have a think about it. We got this idea.

I want them to work it out

and do something that they're most comfortable with.

Have you got any ideas for dessert?

Some great sort of, like, yuzu, you know, like, lime, ginger.

For dessert we're doing a yuzu and pineapple cake

with a yuzu sorbet, caramelised pineapple and a yuzu cream.

Let's go.

Alright, Coles truck's here, guys. I'm gonna go get... Let's go. Come on.

There's a lot of strong cooks today, so it's going to be interesting

to see how we come together as a team.

Thank you.

Thanks, mate. Cheers.

(GROANS)

I love it when you get stuff from the pantry, Julie.

I need a tall person. Yep.

Tommy...Tommy, not you. (ALL LAUGH)

The brown team today's such a good team.

We've got Julie on entree, season one winner, the OG.

And we've got Billie on dessert, another winner.

Michael, second place. I'm not over that yet.

We don't talk about it. Oh, yeah, let's not talk about it.

You know, a great team, and I'm just going to make sure

that everyone's doing their job today.

So, that's good. OK.

Good as gold, buddy, good as gold.

This is the immunity that everybody wants.

Jeez, a guaranteed ticket from here to top 10 -

that is something to strive for today.

Very happy that I got into the Italian kitchen.

I love Italian food.

MICHAEL: Did anyone order a fun guy?

Oh, you order a fun guy? Oh, my God.

One fun guy.

(LAUGHS)

I'm on entree and I'm making a mushroom risotto.

Let's make sure that texture's perfect, Jules.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, indeedy.

Risotto has been known on MasterChef as the death dish

for a number of years.

If it's not right, it's horrible.

If you don't cook the rice and it's chalky,

if you overcook it and it just becomes mush.

It really is a dish that's hard to do,

but that's what we're going to do.

When I make a risotto like this at home,

I make a big pan of it and that would easily feed six people.

I'm just going to pop it there, Billie. Thank you.

So to cook for 34 people,

it's a significant increase in the recipe.

Ooh, they smell nice.

When you bulk any recipe up, it takes a lot longer to cook.

So I think 2.5 hours is going to be spot-on,

the right amount of time for this dish.

(LAUGHS) Do the bump.

I'm just gonna grab a little bowl for stuff.

Where are big, like, tubs to grab things?

So, all our stuff is in the back corner.

Oh, yeah.

Actually, yeah, Montana, I reckon do the cucumber, like, long.

We'll do the rounds.

What do we reckon on sizing?

When you're eating it, you don't want it to be

more cucumber than tuna.

Yeah. Is that too big for the tuna?

Um... Did you grab the beef, Aldo?

No, get the beef.

So, we're working on main today.

It's going to be a plate of beef and mushroom.

We want to poach the mushroom in a classic Japanese flavour.

In this case, with the ginger wasabi

and then a little bit of soy and mirin as well.

There's lots to do, but I have proved to myself

that I can do as much as I can

to make sure that the mains is going to be out in time.

This one, yeah? Do you reckon that's him?

Looks like it. No. No, that's not it.

It's very marbled.

I think mains have not fully decided yet.

I know they're definitely doing a just mushroom sort of element,

some sort of like braised mushrooms.

And then I think they're deciding on the meat

that they're going to use.

So, yeah, I'll check on that in a moment.

We gotta move because we got lots to do.

Montana. Hello.

Team captain! Team captain on savoury.

Lovin' life. I know. How good.

Look at this set-up. Yeah, this is amazing.

I know. How cool. You can get very excited.

Are you using it? I think the mains will be using it.

They'll still decided on the beef, but yeah.

And what's the story with the beef?

Is there a story with the beef?

Oh, we were just a little bit confused.

We wanted to use Wagyu, but it was Wagyu brisket.

So what are you doing with it?

Is it going to be a steak or how is it?

Going to be, like, sort of strips, and then we're gonna...

ALDO: It's going to be steak. The steak, it's going to be roasted.

Then it's going to be finished on the hibachi,

glazed with a marinade.

And then it's going to be a play on beef and mushroom,

or will be Japanese style.

OK, my first thing is you're the team captain,

you pointed to Dan, Dan started talking.

Then you started... You knew the dish.

Like, already I'm worried about the cohesion of the team,

and that is the name of the game in team challenges.

You're team captain. Yeah.

Less than two hours to go

and you don't know what the protein is on the main course?

Are you serious? They're working on...

Don't take us down this road, Montana.

and that is the name of the game in team challenges.

MONTANA: Jock and Andy are a little bit concerned,

the fact that I'm team captain

and I don't know what's happening with mains,

but it's a bit of a struggle today trusting myself.

So, should we just trim it all the way back so it's lean?

Aldo and Dan found some sirloin they're happy with.

Seriously, like, that on the hibachi will...

Yeah, yeah. So, what's... ..could caramelise up.

What's the, like, final plate? Like, how are you guys plating?

So, the final plate, we need to have that one in the centre.

That's going to be the square or the rectangle of beef.

The mushroom plate around.

Underneath the mushroom, there's going to be the nashi pear.

The nashi pear. Yep. OK.

OK? Sick.

And it should have, like, a nice, thick sort of caramelisation

on the steak, as well. Yep.

Um... Yeah, cool.

As long as you guys, like, are fine. Yeah.

They know what they're doing.

I think I need to just let them sort of take the reins on it.

I've got to get this on the rev,

and then we'll start thinking about that other, yeah?

Yeah, yeah. Cool. Alright. Cool.

How about this? We're outside the MasterChef kitchen.

Italian on one level, Japanese on the other level.

I'm expecting big things.

Obviously, Red Team, they've got one extra team member,

they're cooking for 40.

It's quite a lot of people.

SARAH: So, 40 portions - it's pretty decent, isn't it?

Likewise, 34 people on the Italian team.

TOMMY: Good menu. I reckon.

Good group of people as well.

That's a fair whack of food to get out in a short amount of time

with limited cooks in the kitchen.

So I hope that these guys can wrangle that today

and produce the goods

'cause I want to see it like you do, and like you do.

JULIE: There's a lot to get through in a short amount of time.

You know, there's like seven types of mushrooms.

Um... (CHUCKLES) Onions and garlic done.

We've got chicken stock on the go.

Jules, is this water OK boiling over here?

Is it boiling? It's boiling.

I'm just trying to multi-task as best I can.

(LAUGHS) You're about to fry off some...?

I'm about to get on with the risotto itself. OK.

I've gotta get onto this rice.

I've got four pans on the go.

Smells good, Keyma.

And I'm doing that rather than trying to do it all in one pot.

One litre in each pot, one litre in each pot, one litre in each pot.

It's quite a delicate process, you know.

You don't want to traumatise the rice.

You want to be able to, you know, gently stir it

and give it a bit of love as you cook it.

Do you need any help or anything? I'm alright at the moment, Tommy.

It's just a dish where you cannot rush the process.

You can't go into it and go at it hammer and tongs,

because you'll ruin it.

Watch your tea towel, buddy. Yep.

(LAUGHS) I don't wanna set you on fire. (LAUGHS)

I know I've got a reputation, but...

We're on fire, though. We ARE on fire.

There's absolutely pressure now.

One hour to go!

Alright, let's do it, team! One hour!

MICHAEL: Go, Billie. TOMMY: Go, Billie!

BILLIE: The pressure's on today.

I'm on the dessert course, and I'm making a semifreddo...

I want to use flavours of pistachio, chocolate and beer.

..a compressed choux pastry...

It's compressed, so it'll be crispy, yeah.

..and some macerated blackberries.

(LAUGHS) Billie, can you...?

Absolutely, Jules.

Sorry.

Jugs? Short alert. Yes, please.

Let's keep the vibes up today, guys.

We've gotta have fun. It's a team challenge.

ALVIN: Let's go, girl.

I'm working with the beautiful Alvin today on dessert,

doing a yuzu and pineapple cake

with a beautiful glazed pineapple on top and a yuzu sorbet.

It's all about having fun when you're in a team,

so we're bouncing off each other,

we're going to help each other out the whole cook.

And if we get ahead of things,

we might be able to jump in and help our other teammates.

Um, can you chuck me the bowl?

Thank you.

She's doing a great job, and we're gonna coach her through it.

Today is a baptism of fire for Montana.

Take a breath. She just needs to take it in.

This is actually what being in service is like every single day.

You've just gotta actually control it. There's no use panicking.

It is not easy leading a team,

it's really not easy leading a kitchen team,

with such lack of experience.

This is what we live for, Mon. Come on!

But I hope Mon realises that we've all got her back today.

It's all good.

Have a look at these, Tommy.

Far out! Unreal, right?

Look at that beautiful colour. Far out. Beautiful produce, man.

Michael and I are at the back of the kitchen,

prepping for the main, acqua pazza.

Keep it really, really delicate. Really, really delicate.

We're doing, I think, a really fun Italian menu.

Yeah. I want to do well.

I'm going to get myself into the immunity

and then beat my team in the immunity.

(LAUGHS)

To be the winning team today would mean the world to me.

Still fish sauce.

So, I think, any time you cook with fish sauce, you dominate. Exactly.

Bring us home today, brother. Yeah, that's it.

Tomorrow's immunity cook - I would love to be in it.

Oh, these scampis are beautiful as well, man.

Because that would give me a chance to get one step closer to top ten -

the holy grail of MasterChef.

Just so we're set, I'm thinking, I'd love to test that it's cooking,

'cause I want to poach it in the liquid. Yeah, yeah.

But we just need to test it, so we need quite a lot of the liquid.

Yeah.

But I'm thinking about our Italian menu.

We've got risotto for entree,

and we've got acqua pazza for main,

which is so fresh.

Maybe we've got the order of the dishes wrong.

Hey, Julie.

JULIE: Sorry?

It just makes more sense to have our broth as the entree,

because it's lighter, and our risotto as the main.

Do you reckon we could switch this as the main?

This is a big decision to make

because we'll have less time to prep for our entree.

So it could be a decision that either makes or breaks our team.

JULIE: Um...

We've really gotta weigh this decision

on swapping our main and entree,

'cause we have less time to prep for entree service.

I don't mind that. I don't mind it at all.

It's lighter. We can go lighter, fresh.

Yeah, I don't mind that either.

This change is going to put us under a lot of pressure.

I actually think it works better. Yeah.

OK, cool. Let's do that.

So, smaller serves... Yeah, smaller serves. ..of the entree.

Alright, well... Let's do that.

'Cause if you're comfortable with the risotto...

100%. 100% happy with that?

Happy with that. Let's do that for main, then.

So let's do that for main.

Nice work, lads. Alright, cool. Perfect.

I was going to be chucking a me

and serving an entree that was too big anyway,

so there's plenty.

I've got probably half an hour extra to get my dish done,

so I just make sure I turn it down and cook it low and slow.

MINDY: We're going to get this on here, right? Yeah.

So you want to give this a little bit of a dab.

You want to keep this by your side,

because when you actually get this on the grill,

you want these flavours to go through.

I've been struggling with confidence in this cook.

OK. Yeah?

Am I grilling them? OK. Yep, you are going to.

OK. But let's work smart.

Because I'm having to captain people

who have done this experience before.

They've had years of cooking experience on top of what I have.

So it's intimidating.

MEL: Hey, Montana. Hello, Mel.

I hear you've been saddled with team captain.

Yes. How are you feeling about that?

Um, lots of strong cooks,

lots of people who have run kitchens and stuff.

What I'm reading here is... is a little bit of self-doubt.

The captain's job is to lead the team

and to curate this menu to make it a winner.

Yep.

Rip that band-aid off, get decisive, and curate.

I know you have it in you to do it. Yep.

And if you do, your team gets a shot at being in the top 10.

Yep.

Now, you all want that, OK?

You can do this. Thanks, Mel. Alright.

Mel's right. OK.

I mean, I know I can cook.

I think it's a bit salty. It's a bit salty.

I really just need to find that confidence in myself.

I'll look after this. Don't worry about this.

I feel very inspired to take leadership so we can win this cook.

That's heaps. Thanks, Mon.

Hey, if you guys weren't worried, you should be now

'cause you've got half an hour till service.

(ALL SHOUT AND CHEER) JOCK: 30 minutes! Yeah! Come on!

Go, everybody.

As the team captain,

I've decided to, you know, swap the entree and main around,

so acqua pazza is now the entree.

There's no more mussel liquid, is there? Is this it?

Yeah, that's the mussel liquid there, yeah.

There's a little bit in it. Splash that in, man.

Acqua pazza is 'crazy water', a traditional Italian dish.

Michael and I are going to put our own spin on it.

We're using scampi bones, the fish bones

and, you know, some of that mussel juice

for the base of our broth,

add some tomatoes into it.

OK, beautiful. That's good now.

You reckon? Yep.

I can smell and taste those seafoody flavours.

I'm just going to freshen them up with some lemons.

Loads of lemon.

And it's tasting really, really good.

I'm worried... I don't want it too acidic,

because that flavour of everything else is so good, right?

It'll need a bit of your fish sauce now. I've got to be crazy.

Have you? Yeah. (CHUCKLES)

Just a dash.

Alright.

And then I'm going to take some out to get poaching anyway.

OK, let's go.

The plan to cooking the seafood is cook to order at service time.

And it's probably the best strategy for us to get a good dish.

Two, four, six, eight...

But, by swapping our main to entree,

we've lost 30 minutes

and we're still prepping the seafood.

We've just gotta keep moving.

SARAH: Oh, my God, that's so good.

I feel a lot more confident.

I'm taking control of this cook.

Happy with that? Mm-hm.

Sarah's pretty comfortable on entrees.

Are you compressing that? Yeah.

Main is all comfortable and on track.

Dan, put one on the grill.

DAN: Yeah, I'm doing it now.

I'm setting you a timer, just for the, um, glaze. Yep.

For mains, we're doing a marinated glazed beef

just finished on the hibachi

with some sauteed mushrooms...

Beautiful, Montana, the mushrooms. Thanks.

..some pickled nashi pear...

Soy. Ginger, wasabi, soy, sake, mirin...

OK, so it just needs... it just needs acid and sugar.

It's definitely a good feeling to be able to trust myself

that I know what I'm doing.

Are you doing a soak or anything on the cake?

Finally, I'm back in my happy place.

I think, just 'cause you don't have anything, like, creamy,

I think something like...like, to make that nice and moist

will tie it all together. Mm-hm.

It's all coming together nicely.

(BILLIE GRUNTS) The guns are getting a work-out today, Keyma!

Yes. (LAUGHS)

I'm on the dessert section.

Getting a bit experimental today with the flavour combinations.

Pairing beer with, like, pistachio and berries

and something creamy and then chocolate as well,

it could be a bit of a risk

but I guess that's just where we're at.

We have to try new things in the kitchen

and yeah, I'm just sort of drawn to using all these flavours together.

Ooh.

So hopefully, I can pull it off.

OK, now, please freeze.

Better get a move on, 10 minutes to go!

JOCK: 10 minutes!

Come on, Julie. (JULIE LAUGHS)

TOMMY: # When the moon hits your eye... #

MONTANA: Ooh! That's cool.

I like it.

SARAH: 10 minutes until entree service starts

and I've added in beautiful bonito on top of those tuna pieces.

It just gives that kind of salty umaminess

to really elevate this dish.

This is also going in a bowl, not a plate.

I want this dish to be quite delicate in its presentation

and to be able to just scoop it up with the spoon

and get, you know, lots of different elements in one bite.

Um...

..it's going good at the moment. Entree is very on track.

Sarah's just making me up a little taster now

so I can a final sort of verdict on it.

I've had a taste of everything before it goes out to service...

Happy? Yeah, it's nice.

..and I'm happy with it.

I think I just need to back myself today...

Do you think a bit more mayo on the plate?

..have confidence in the fact that

I have made some good dishes in this competition before...

I just think maybe like tiny blob more.

Slightly bigger. Yeah, just tiny, tiny.

OK, I'll do a bigger blob on the cucumber. Yep.

But I think it's really good.

Happy? Really nice. Yep.

..and if I think it tastes good, it's enough for the diners.

Yeah?

(LAUGHS) We got this. We got this.

Diners have arrived and we are nowhere near ready for entree.

No, no, no. Not even!

We've completely lost time in this cook.

Moving from main to entree, we've lost 30 minutes.

We've got to prep so much harder to get this service done.

MICHAEL: That can't be right. I counted them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

We don't have enough scampi.

I can go cut some more. They're in the sink. In the sink.

Need to prep more scampi.

I need six. I need six.

Uh, do eight more, Tommy!

Michael, split from the top, right?

Yeah, just bring 'em here, I'll show you. OK.

Time is running out

but you know, we still have to cook the seafood to order.

JULIE: Let me know as soon as you got them, Tommy.

The main and the entree switch has really ruined us.

Here's the scampi. I don't know what happened.

Tommy. I got it.

You got it? Yep.

And then we just need two more of them.

Two more? Two more sets of...? No, just two more.

I am so worried.

How many scampi you got coming? Four?

We've got two more coming.

Four more! Sorry, Tommy.

Why...why did I put us in this position?

Have I completely stuffed up this whole challenge for our team?

TOMMY: Two more? Two more sets...?

Nope, just two more.

We've come down to the wire today for our entree.

I'm prepping more scampi.

We have to cook the seafood to order.

Four more! Sorry, Tommy.

The main and the entree switch has really, you know, ruined us.

Julie, are you good to do that AND watch the risotto?

Uh...Yeah? Yep. (LAUGHS)

Pry it back up when it's nearly my service time.

It's all hands on deck.

Everybody's gotta drop what they're doing.

Tommy, can you just put a bit more of your fish sauce on there? Yep.

So Michael and Tommy, they've set themselves three different seafoods

to deal with, which is ...

..mad.

My risotto's cooking away

so at the moment, I'm just helping to get ready for the entree.

It's the final minutes. There's so much to get done.

More fish? Yeah, all of it. More of all of it.

Another whole batch? Yep.

As small as possible, basically.

Time is running out.

Hey, kitchen, you've only got one minute to go!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Lucky we've got an audience.

ALDO: Come on.

OK, diners, give it to me.

We've got 10!

ALL: 9! 8! 7!

6! 5! 4!

3! 2! 1!

That's it! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Um, it's time for service so we've gotta get the entrees out

but we've got our first on the go

so, yeah, we're just gonna have to push it.

SARAH: Starting off with our little cucumber shiso rounds

then placing the hibachi-grilled cucumber hearts

with a dollop of that wasabi aioli.

Little bit of spring onion.

Cube of tuna on top.

Three per person.

A little bit extra shiso

and then just finishing off with a little puddle of ponzu in the centre.

I'll keep going on these.

It's a small portion.

But I want this to be set out in a way where you can scoop up

one of those cubes of tuna and get some of those additions as well.

So you can eat it all in one mouthful.

Happy, guys? MONTANA: You put fresh wasabi on?

Yep. Yeah, cool. OK, service.

Thank you.

Thank you.

JOCK: Thank you. MEL: Thank you very much.

Alright, so from the red team,

their entree of tuna and cucumber with ponzu and wasabi.

What do we think about the presentation?

It looks nice. Yeah.

It smells lovely too. Yeah.

Mm.

Not a bad entree.

Katsuobushi on the top

gives that nice sort of complex flavour to the tuna,

which I thought was great.

I just feel as if there wasn't enough.

While the flavours are inherently Japanese,

I feel like if this was one of 20 courses,

I could understand the size of the portion. Yep.

But as it is for an entree, for a three-course meal...

Especially for you and for you, growing young men, not enough.

Billie, there's a broth. There's a pot of the broth over there.

Can you bring that over here for me?

TOMMY: We've completely lost time in this cook and now in a real rush.

Put it down, Keyma, all good.

Let's go, team!

The biggest risks for seafood to order for entree is we're rushing,

could overcook some of our fish, we could undercook our fish.

One second, yeah? Have you got a plate to put them on?

Yo. There's some back there, Billie.

Just need to hustle and get things done.

No, just bring it over here. Yeah, um...

Plating up, we've got a spoonful

of each of the different coloured capsicums,

you know, a medley of the different tomato brunoise as well.

Basil and parsley oil over that.

All our seafoods on top, then our broth, just to pour on top.

Soon as we've got the soup in here, guys, we can go.

Yeah, OK.

Cool.

I'd love another half hour, but... I don't have it.

Making that decision to, you know, swap the entree and main around,

as a team captain, the responsibility falls on me so...

..I'm definitely annoyed with myself.

Thank you, guys.

MEL: Thank you very much. JOCK AND ANDY: Thank you.

Thank you very much.

The entree from the Italian team -

seafood acqua pazza.

It smells pretty amazing. ANDY: Smells really good.

Mm.

Ohhh, mama.

That is not cooked. Nup.

I even wanted to eat just an edge of the fish. Yeah.

And it's that raw, I can't even take it off.

I'm the same.

I got a bit. I got a tiny bit.

Yeah, I got a tiny bit.

The edges of it is cooked but...

The broth is really, really good.

Just sings of those scampi shells, fish stock

and the oil just rounds everything off

and makes your palate really want more and more and more.

I am really devastated for them.

I was lucky that my scampi was done enough, so that was delicious.

Yeah.

But I've got raw fish on my plate and that's not a good thing.

I love the flavour of the broth.

It has a real depth to it. Yeah.

It's perfectly seasoned but it's also really light and comforting as well.

So it's sort of a very multidimensional thing.

I am heartbroken, though, for them, in terms of the full result,

because you do want perfectly cooked seafood

when you have a broth that good. Yeah.

It's a shame because this has got the bones of a great dish in it.

Let's go, guys! Come on!

Is that cooked, Aldo?

It's perfect. Yep.

All the entrees are finished, they're out, done

and now it's time to get started on mains service.

Mains are definitely starting to come together.

It took a little bit but I think everyone's sort of jumping on it now

and giving them a hand so I think we're on a good track.

MINDY: Let's go. Oh, alright.

That's amazing. Yum, that's what I'm talking about.

That's what I'm talking about.

That is what I'm talking ABOUT!

I'm really happy with the mains.

Both Dan and Aldo have done a great job

and now it's time to start plating up.

Beef looks beautiful. I'm really happy with it.

Tastes great, it's got a nice smokiness and charred flavour.

The mushrooms are delicious as well.

And little pickled pears, they're really nice.

Everything kind of synergises really well.

Just leave these last ones, I gotta glaze them, OK? Yep.

From where we were an hour ago to now...

..huge improvement and I'm stoked for that.

Service!

The main does look good. I'm pretty happy, as a whole, and...

I'm just hoping the judges agree with what we've done.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you. Thanks, very much.

Alright, main from the red team -

glazed beef with mushroom and pickled nashi.

Looks quite nice.

How does it taste, though?

If you look at the cuisson, it's like beautiful rare colour.

Flavour's fantastic, seasoning's great.

Char on the glaze on the outside is brilliant, I love it.

From the questions that we had early on with this dish,

with how it was all going to come together...

..it's actually a decent dish. Yeah.

Beef and mushrooms in any culture works for a reason.

And that reason is deep, savoury flavour. Good job.

TOMMY: Yep. Yep. Two minutes for mains, fam! Let's do this!

JULIE: Two minutes!?

Ahh!

(LAUGHS)

I had to leave my risotto to help with the entrees.

So it's been cooking away.

I'm giving it a really nice, vigorous stir now

to get sort of all the starch out so that it's creamy.

But with a risotto, there's a short period of time in which your rice

is correctly cooked.

Ah, yeah. Truffle tastes good.

As time goes on,

it continues to absorb the moisture that it was cooked in,

and it cooks more and more and more.

And that doesn't stop.

I just hope it hasn't gone over.

Thank you, guys.

So now I'm starting to worry.

This is why we don't do risotto on MasterChef.

Applications for next season are now open.

Go on, get on it!

JOCK: Thank you. ANDY: Thank you.

MEL: Thank you very much. Wow. Holy mackerel.

Look at that.

It's a mushroom risotto with truffle from the Italian team.

Flavour's great.

Mushrooms - proud, fantastic.

Gremolata on top to sort of give you a little bit of an acidic edge,

which is really nice.

The trouble is, is the rice is overcooked.

The thing about risotto,

wasn't it called the death dish in the MasterChef kitchen

for such a long time? Totally.

There's a reason for that.

It's notoriously hard to pull off in volume because cooking risotto

and getting it at the perfect service point when it is perfect

is actually quite difficult.

Yeah.

I'm gutted because I know that Julie would have seen this food going out

and been disappointed in herself

because she loves to feed people good food.

It has everything going for it.

But the foundation, which is the risotto,

which is the rice is overcooked.

It's such a shame.

It is.

TOMMY: Mains service is all done.

It is that time and it's like, "Yo, Billie, are we good?

"We good for dessert?"

I think I'm done, Tommy. You think you're done?

Yep.

I'm happy.

You OK? Yeah.

You need any help from me? No, I'm OK.

Oh, you guys are freakin' legends. I love you all.

So happy. Billie's on the ball.

She knows exactly what she's doing.

It's just time for us to plate up.

Here we go.

Oh, and a bit of salt.

We haven't got long till dessert service.

We're doing a yuzu and pineapple cake with a yuzu sorbet,

caramelised pineapple and a yuzu cream.

ALVIN: Yuzu, cream, lemon rind and sour cream.

There you go.

love your work, Alvin. Thank you.

We've done a test plate.

Here.

Oh, yeah. It's yum.

And Alvin and Mindy have done such an awesome job.

Had the dessert. It is like it's got beautiful elements on it.

The cake's lovely and moist.

You know, it's Japanese flavours, and that's what it's all about today.

So I'm happy.

I really hope that we get through with this, with the glaze.

Yeah.

The idea itself was amazing.

And then they've executed it perfectly.

ALDO: Pineapple, it's beautiful. How did you do it?

ALVIN: I made that. Poached it.

Alvin's like, "I did it!"

The cake is amazing.

The pineapple is, like, perfection.

And then the sorbet is looking great, too.

There's no such thing as too many people on the pass.

We're a team.

We've got a full assembly line of people

plating this dessert together.

And yeah, it's a good feeling to sort of boost morale

and bring everyone together as a team to send out the plates.

Let's go, Mon! Finish it off.

I feel a lot more confident.

I found my voice towards the end of the cook.

Hang on, guys. Service, please.

Not done yet.

So I am hoping with everything that I've got

we can win the service challenge.

Service, please! Let's go!

Ooh, hello.

Thank you. MEL: Thank you very much.

This is the dessert from Team Japan. What is it, Mel?

It's a yuzu and pineapple cake

with yuzu sorbet and caramelised pineapple.

I think it looks quite sweet.

I think it looks good as well, yeah.

Beautiful char on the glossy pineapple.

Alvin, I believe, drove this one.

Sorbet is nice.

Mmm!

Super refreshing.

Innit? Really nice texture.

I thought it was a really solid dessert from these guys.

Yuzu sorbet was delicious.

Great texture, amazing hum of the yuzu juice throughout.

Look, cake sorbet and a really delicious piece

of caramelised fruit on top -

can't really go wrong with that, especially when it's bound

in this really lovely, vibrant syrup.

A really strong finish from the Japanese kitchen.

It screams yuzu.

Japanese cuisine, a lot of citrus.

A lot of sharp, on point flavours.

And this was, for me, an on point dessert.

Service, please.

Oh, yeah! Whoo-hoo!

Service!

Good job!

Oh, done.

It was an interesting experience, first time being team captain.

These guys know service and running kitchens

like the back of their hand.

We have been running through Shinkansen, haven't we?

I'm happy with how I was in the end,

but I just wish I did that in the start a bit more.

If we don't win today, then that's on my shoulders.

BILLIE: Why don't we line them all up here and then can count them up?

I've made a pistachio semifreddo with a beer and chocolate sauce.

TOMMY: That stuff is beautiful.

A compressed choux pastry.

Tastes amazing.

And some macerated blackberries.

Getting a bit experimental today in the kitchen.

I think maybe the flavour combinations of the dessert,

they're certainly different.

Pairing beer with, like, pistachio and berries and something creamy

and then chocolate as well.

Yeah. Alright, let's go. Let's go.

I don't know if that's a risk or a good thing.

Just that fear of...

..are they going to like it?

Service, please.

JOCK: Here we go.

Thank you.

MEL: Oh, spectacular.

Thank you very much.

ANDY: Thank you. Thank you.

By the Italian team,

pistachio semifreddo with chocolate and beer crisp.

Semifreddo - beautiful texture,

lovely flavour of pistachio

all the way through it.

Individually, they're nice components,

but together it feels too busy.

I think that would have been nice on its own,

but the beer-chocolate sauce

and the pickled blackberries, everything together,

it just doesn't feel cohesive.

The technique there is good.

The chocolate sauce is silky.

I actually don't mind the beer flavour in it.

Probably because I love beer.

Love beer.

The chew on that compressed choux is delicious.

It's got a beautiful caramelised flavour about it as well.

I never thought I'd say this about Billie,

but I think the balance is just...just way out on this one.

JULIE: Bit more of everything for the last plate. (LAUGHS)

ALDO: Guys, well done.

ALL: Last one!

Thank you! Thank you! (ALL CHEER)

Team Italy!

First time as team captain.

We had a speed bump, but we just pushed and pushed and pushed.

And we just kind of flowed with it.

It was a classic restaurant battle upstairs versus downstairs.

Half of you inspired by Japanese cuisine

and the other half by Italian cuisine.

We wanted the best of both worlds.

So let's break it down dish by dish.

ANDY: Japanese team. Entree had some nice flavours in it.

The beef on the main was beautifully cooked.

The dessert, it was fresh and delicious.

And that was actually dish of the day.

So well done.

Italian team.

The broth in the entree was everything

that we wanted in an acqua pazza.

But the coral trout and the scampi were well undercooked.

When it came to the main,

risotto has got a reputation of being a really tough dish

in this competition, and with good reason.

Because while your flavours were broad, balanced and bold,

the rice was well overcooked.

And unfortunately, the dessert was the final straw.

It was a bold idea, but it just didn't come together.

The flavours didn't balance and the dish just didn't succeed.

And it's for those reasons

that the team heading into tomorrow's immunity cook

is the Japanese team.

(JAPANESE TEAM CELEBRATES) Well done, guys.

OK, don't worry.

Japanese team, one of the six of you is one step closer

to being the first guaranteed member of the top ten.

Never in this competition has immunity been so important.

I think for all the people that have stood here before,

that's when the competition really begins.

So fight for it because you're going to need it.

See you, guys. Well done today.

Well done, everyone.

ANNOUNCER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...

ALDO: Popcorn!

It's a blockbuster night of immunity...

MINDY: To have the opportunity

to secure a spot in the top ten,

the pressure is insane.

..with an ending that's worthy

of the big screen.

Captions by Red Bee Media