Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: Previously, on MasterChef Australia...

(APPLAUSE)

..it was a pressure test from a seafood legend.

Today, you'll be making my...

..tuna Wellington with mashed potato and tuna gravy.

They all tried to scale new heights.

Breathe, Mel, it's all good.

BILLIE: This recipe is...huge.

Yes, Billie!

HARRY: It needs to be absolutely spot-on.

But despite Melanie's best efforts...

Oh, Mel.

..she was the one that got away.

BILLIE: Wow, stunning. ALDO: It's so green.

Tonight, a fabulous location...

DANIEL: I've never seen anything like this in person before.

..will inspire a whole menu of five-star food.

Ooh.

# '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. #

BILLIE: Wow. ALDO: It's so green.

So beautiful. It's stunning.

SARAH: We are at Werribee Mansion today,

and it's such a beautiful location.

How cool is that?

Ooh. Wow.

ALI: Totally Jane Austen, isn't it?

(LAUGHS)

Seeing this grand building in front of us...

Look at this place.

..it's just really nice to be outside the MasterChef kitchen.

Oh, my God. Wow.

DANIEL: I've never seen anything like this in person before.

It's awesome to be here.

Now all I'm thinking is

it's gonna be some really hard challenge thrown at us.

MINDY: Maybe it's a nice high tea?

Maybe? Wedding? High tea. Yep.

I'm excited, but now I'm nervous as well. (CHUCKLES)

Morning. Morning.

MEL: How good is this?

Welcome to Jock Zonfrillo's house.

(ALL LAUGH)

No? No.

Welcome to the magnificent Werribee Mansion.

Built in 1877,

this mansion is one of the largest and most opulent properties

in Victoria.

Wow. Cool.

Today, it is the backdrop for a MasterChef team challenge.

(ALL EXCLAIM)

Team, team, team.

It's the first team challenge

since we've combined both Fans and Favourites.

We're going to split you into three teams of five.

Everyone please take an apron out of this bag

and then stand with your new teammates.

Yellow. That's pretty.

No peeking. Pink!

TOMMY: I think the dynamic's gonna be really interesting.

We've got Fans and Favourites and we've all got different skill sets

that we can really, you know, put together.

We got three Fans and two Faves, yes!

Yellow!

Nice colour on you. Thanks.

(GIGGLES)

Righto, on the yellow team, we've got Harry, Steph, Billie, Tommy and Aldo.

The pink team... (CHUCKLES) ..Alvin, Keyma, Montana, Sarah and Daniel.

And on the orange team, Julie, Michael, Mindy, Matt and Ali.

Daniel, mate, that pink is pinging off you.

You look great. It's good, hey?

Brings out my eyes, I think. What do you think of the team?

You've got a couple of Fans in there, got a couple of Favourites in there.

Yeah, nah, it's a good team, good line-up. Stoked?

Kind of excited to finally be working with a few of the Favourites

so yeah, I'm keen as.

I'm ready to give it a crack.

Nice one. Red pink crack.

(LAUGHTER)

And Julie? I'm stoked. Couple of Fans, couple of Favourites.

I swear we didn't mean for that to happen but it's worked out perfectly!

(LAUGHTER) There's a nice old even spread.

Yep, absolutely great.

I'm thrilled with my team.

Well, today, you'll be feeding diners

and they'll be expecting extraordinary things.

When you dine at a mansion like this...

..you'd expect the kind of food that you'd find

at Australia's best restaurants.

But...

..today, you'll only have access to a pantry of ordinary ingredients.

Think fruit and veg... Yes!

..and secondary cuts of meat.

Beautiful. Great.

Yes. Cool.

We want you to turn ordinary ingredients

into an extraordinary two-course meal.

Cool.

Two-course meal, OK.

Two-course meal. Two-course meal.

I reckon planning, it'll be absolutely critical in this cook.

I reckon you guys need a team captain.

Please choose one.

I vote one of you guys.

(ALL CHATTER) Come on, Billie.

Rightio. Done.

I haven't been it yet. Go for it, mate.

Yep, done. Cool.

Righto, captains, hands up.

Billie, Sarah and Michael.

Interesting. All former Favourites.

See how that goes.

OK, you're gonna have 2.5 hours

to prepare both an entree and a main ready for service for the guests.

There's a total of 60 diners and each team will serve 20 of them.

Your ordinary pantry full of ordinary ingredients is open.

The team that cooks the most extraordinary menu

will go into tomorrow's immunity challenge.

OK.

Guys, have a look around you.

This place oozes grandeur.

We wanna see that grandeur on a plate and in your menu.

Bring us something bougie.

Your time starts...

..now.

Run, run, run, run.

Jog on! Jog on!

Run, Dan.

Run, Dan. Run, Dan. Run!

(ALL LAUGH)

BILLIE: OK, what have we got?

Eyes peeled, everyone.

MINDY: Oh, there's some good stuff here, guys.

Yum.

This is such a great challenge.

TOMMY: Mm, lots of vegies.

Did you see beef shin in there, 'cause there's like...

Yeah, there is. Yep.

I love secondary cuts.

They've got loads of flavour

and they've got so much that they could bring to a dish.

But look at the location.

The expectation from the diners and from the judges

on how we create these amazing dishes is gonna be super high today.

ALDO: Mushrooms.

JULIE: Is there chicken there, Michael? Yeah, there's chicken.

For the first dish, lamb.

BILLIE: Yeah, like pressed... Yeah.

..meat.

There's actually some very, you know, beautiful produce in the pantry

though they might be basic.

There's some mussels there. TOMMY: Mussels are nice.

ALDO: OK.

We can see in the fridge that there's some beautiful black mussels.

What do you think stuffed mussels?

That would be nice. Stuffed mussels.

Aldo has an idea for it, so fantastic,

we're already on our way for the entree.

So, the mussels are beautiful. Mussels.

Could do something with mussels.

I'm leaning towards the mussels for the entree today.

They're really quick to cook and I think everyone loves mussels.

I believe we both want the mussels. Um...

So it seems that we weren't the only ones eyeing off those mussels,

which is hard because there's only enough mussels for one team,

one course - there's not enough to go between two teams.

One, two, three? OK, we'll go scissors, paper, rock.

OK, cool. BOTH: Scissors, paper, rock.

Yours. Well done. Thank you, Billie.

Good luck, guys. No worries, OK. Good luck.

Evidently, I'm not very good at scissors, paper, rock.

It's a real bugger, isn't it? Yep.

(LAUGHS) So bad.

Anyway, we have to find something else.

Well, look at that whitebait on the bottom. It's beautiful.

Whitebait is known to be pretty plain,

so we need to work out how we can really make it extraordinary,

now that we've missed out on the mussels.

Alright, Captain, what are we thinking?

We could probably, maybe split up into two, kind of, like...

..two focusing on the entree and three focusing on the main.

I didn't put my hand up to be captain,

but the Fans and Alvin pushed me forward.

We'd go for some sort of slow-braised meat

which we can easily portion.

I was trained in classical French techniques at Le Cordon Bleu

so I feel like I have a responsibility today,

because I do have three Fans on my team.

Bit of, like...a small amount of cinnamon.

Peppercorns, definitely.

Pink? White.

Or any? White or black. Yeah.

This is chuck.

I think in terms of a fine dining kind of setting and meal,

there is a lot of guidance definitely needed with the team today

because this is probably

something that is pulling people out of their comfort zone.

So, Montana, you're good to work on the entree as well? Yeah.

So, beetroot tartare. Yeah.

So if we cut down the beetroot into really fine cubes like this,

that'll be perfect. Yes.

We can do a beet... We can do an oil with the beetroot leaves. Yeah.

And then a beetroot consomme on the outside.

Beetroots are beautiful roasted and nice in their natural state,

but I think it's important to really add in lots of flavour

to enhance these beetroots as well.

For the beef main, I reckon shredded. Yeah.

I think we do a mushroom and beef stock

that we turn into a, um...jus.

The braising liquid? Yeah. Yeah.

So, braise and then use it as the jus. Yep.

I think our menu hits the brief

when it comes to taking ordinary ingredients to extraordinary,

but it's going to come down to the execution.

Team captain today. So, captain of the orange team.

I've got a very capable team - Julie, Matt, Ali and Mindy -

so, very excited to cook with these guys.

First time in a team challenge with Matt and Ali,

so it's pretty awesome for us.

So hopefully it goes well.

Me too.

We won the mussels the fair way - with a good old-fashioned rock-off

against Billie, the captain from the yellow team.

So, Mindy and Ali will get started on the entree.

We're making a cold mussels dish,

but they're going to pipe some tarragon emulsion

into the little gaps inside the mussels

and then hide that from our diners, so when they dig in, they find it.

To bring it all together, we're gonna make

a really vibrant, flavourful summer vegetable broth.

Pressure point for the entree

is getting these mussels right, for sure.

These mussels...

You can see I'm just ripping these beards out at the moment.

And it's the cook on the mussels.

You cook these too far,

they'll be like rubbery little bullets.

We want them to be really sweet. We want them to be really tender.

We've got to really get that cook right.

Julie and Matt will work on the mains...

..which is chicken ballotine with some charred cos lettuce

and we're gonna serve it with smoked eggplant puree and a little chicken jus.

So, pretty classic, but flavours that all work really well together.

(TO THE TUNE OF 'RAWHIDE') # Boning, boning, boning. #

That's what we're doing.

Boning a lot of chicken.

2.5 hours to deliver 20 entrees and 20 mains for our diners -

it's not going to be a walk in the park.

Or a cook in the park. Pardon the pun.

But I'm really confident in these four other cooks

and they've just gone straight out of the gates and are flying,

so this is epic.

We hope you have grand plans for a delicious menu.

You have two hours to go!

Oh, everybody's excited, apparently!

Great work, guys.

Alright, let's do this.

Sarah, do you still want it to be like a braise thing, hey?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

What a nice pantry, huh?

Beautiful ingredients.

But it is an ordinary pantry.

It's not like the MasterChef pantry back in the kitchen

where there's lobster or, you know, there's caviar.

Yeah. All of those... Truffles.

Yeah, truffles. Exactly.

I mean, there's none of that here today.

And while this is beautiful, it takes more work, right?

It's about using inspiration

to create that added level of luxury and specialness.

Yeah, and this will be interesting

to see what techniques these guys apply to these ordinary ingredients

to really heighten them

into something that's, like, worthy for this location.

Yeah.

In order to make an extraordinary dish, you've got to work at it.

We need to weigh them out.

We need 25 portion, right? Yeah.

BILLIE: Aldo and Harry are working on the entree.

We had a bit of a rough start with our entree ingredient,

but we finally settled on whitebait.

Whitebait is pretty plain.

Just a mix of corn and rice flour? Corn and rice.

It's usually just deep-fried with flour and salt,

but we're adding spices.

We're doing a lovely tahini yoghurt puree on the bottom

and a little fancy herb salad.

Crumb it up with the sumac.

Steph, Tommy and I are working on the main.

We're doing slow-cooked lamb with a swede puree and a lamb jus.

We're also going to do a pickled swede,

as well as a little anchovy and fresh herb salsa.

Might do a bit of onion and garlic in the swede puree?

Yeah.

Rumour has it you guys lost rock, paper, scissors for some mussels.

Yeah. I started with rock,

which I think is a rookie error, right?

You should always start with scissors. He got you with paper.

Yeah, he got me. He got me. But that's alright.

We pivoted. What are you doing? Tell me.

So, entree we're doing whitebait. Yeah.

So that's going to be nice, crunchy fried

with a lovely little herby salad.

So, our mains, we're doing a... We spoke about...

What, just... What...what... Yeah.

Did... "Whoa!" with the whitebait. What?

How is it elevated?

Um...

That tarragon emulsion looks nice, Mindy.

MINDY: Let's do this.

So, entree we're doing whitebait.

So that's going to be nice, crunchy fried

with a lovely little herby salad.

So our mains, we're doing a...

We spoke about...

What... Just... (MUTTERS) Yeah.

"Whoa!" with the whitebait?

How is it elevated?

Um...

So Harry's got paprika,

but it looks like cumin.

Yeah. Sumac.

Lemon zest.

Lemon zest. ALDO: Garlic and onion powder.

Garlic and onion powder.

We're doing, like, a lovely watercress, herby salad.

We're melting down some lamb fat to dress that with as well,

so it's a bit more flavourful.

Um... Yeah. What about your main?

We chose to use the lamb.

We're doing slow-cooked lamb in a, like, a red wine maple spice stock.

JOCK: Yeah.

That's going to be served with a swede puree and pickled swedes

and a little anchovy, herby, salsa-y, crumby thing to go on top.

Yeah. Swedes?

Love... Love that. Absolutely love that.

I would, as a team captain... Mm-hm.

..get some tasting on that done,

and make sure it's not just a lightly seasoned flour,

because there's nothing worse.

You can make it bougie with the flavour,

but it has to be literally spot on.

Alrighty, then. Good luck, Billie.

Thank you. Thanks.

The winning team today gets a chance at immunity.

I want to impress the judges, so definitely taking on their advice.

So this has to be super, super, super, super-charged spices,

loads of lemon.

We might do a couple of...

Testers. ..testers and we'll check them.

Yeah. OK?

And I really want to lead my team to a victory today.

(LAUGHS)

ALDO: Julie! (LAUGHS)

Julie? Yeah.

How are ya?

Oh, good, Aldo. How are you doing?

I'm laughing, buddy.

Gotta laugh or you cry, right?

We've still got so much to do for the main.

Like, you know, wrap these chicken parcels up.

We've got to poach them.

We've got to chill them down so they don't fall apart,

and then we've got to brown them.

But in my head, I'm trying to do the math,

which is not my strong suit, so I may be getting it wrong,

but it feels like we're going to be alright.

MICHAEL: Yeah. Feeling really good at this point.

I'm really happy with my team and...and the trust they put in me

and just the way they're working.

I haven't given them fun dishes to prep...by no means.

But I think we're just having fun.

Once you guys are finished tying those,

Matt, can you jump on the eggplant puree?

MATT: Yes.

I'll get you guys to keep working while we plate up.

We don't need five people on plate up. Cool with that? No, no. Absolutely.

So you want all the glory? I'm here for the glory, man.

You probably deserve it, seeing as you're captain.

(LAUGHS)

There's a good bit of banter going on,

which is always a good sign before a service at a restaurant.

No, I think everything's going to plan,

apart from Matt taking so long...

(LAUGHS) ..on those ballotines.

No. I'm just joking. He's on the last one now. We're flying.

So for us now it's all about bringing it all together.

Your job is to turn boring into bougie,

and you've only got one hour to do it.

Let's go. Come on!

OK. We've got an hour, guys.

Oh, it's hot.

Just have a taste? I've seasoned it. Yum.

Yeah, it's good. Yum, yum, yum,

Beautiful. Yeah.

Not heard the word 'bougie' before. (LAUGHS)

You've not heard 'bougie'? No.

I feel like you would be a bougie person.

Until today.

I would love to be a bougie person.

For our main, we have decided to take our secondary cut, chuck steak,

and turn it into a slow-cooked meat,

which we've got a beautiful jus, and that creamy mash,

and, you know, the oils,

and bringing it all together

to hopefully elevate this into a very fine dining dish.

Check what herbs are there and just pick one that works.

Yeah. How do we want to do this?

There's various styles of cooks in my team.

So, Sarah is obviously French trained,

and very skilled in, you know, spices.

Montana, Daniel and Keyma, meanwhile,

they're sort of just sort of started this sort of cooking journey,

so their strength lies elsewhere.

And my strength is obviously a lot of South-East Asian sort of cooking.

So the ideas of this dish are mainly coming from Sarah,

and as team captain,

she is directing us and instructing us what to do.

That's done. You're finished. You're done.

DANIEL: Do you reckon that's more than enough?

Yeah. Do you want to get started on the jus?

Yeah, I can do that.

But I have to trust Sarah at the helm.

And she is...

I mean, look at her. She's bougie.

Sarah, Alvin and myself are working very closely together for the mains.

Just because it's not really anyone's one dish,

we're all sort of working where we need to,

and we all have the one idea on roughly where it's going to go.

I've been tasked with roasting the bones and getting the jus on.

So if you want to just get some onions and celery and...

Yeah. ..that ready.

But it's a little chaotic,

because Sarah is having to give me instructions.

Just water in the bones?

I reckon do water in the bones.

Separately you can do this.

We'll just take the stock from the bones

and we'll start the red wine jus here in a separate one.

OK.

Aha!

Yeah. Lovely. Done.

It's not a bad place to be, at the back of the kitchen.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's a little bit cheeky up here.

So our main dish today is slow-cooked lamb

with a swede puree and a lamb jus.

We're also going to do a pickled swede,

as well as a little anchovy and fresh herb salsa.

We're pressing the, sort of, shredded lamb into some trays.

We'll get it into the blast. It'll firm up.

All the fat will sort of hold it together.

And then just at service,

we'll take it out, cut it into some nice even squares,

fry them off on the grill and serve them.

Today, the brief is to turn ordinary food into something extraordinary.

TOMMY: Oh, there's some pretty good pieces in here.

Our main dish is essentially lamb and vegetables.

But I'm hoping that the way

we've treated that lamb and treated the swede

shows that we can take those ordinary ingredients

and turn them into something really fancy.

I'll just go and get another couple of trays

and we can put one on top and a weight

and then we can chuck them in the blast.

MINDY: Today, I'm working on entrees with Ali,

and we're doing a beautiful steamed mussels,

lightly pickled with a summer broth.

And we're going to sneak in a little bit of a tarragon emulsion in there

to bring an element of surprise.

Open for Mama.

But we have to serve 20 diners, plus the three judges.

We've got to steam these mussels. We're to clean the mussels.

We've gotta de-beard them.

It would be the worst thing in the world for us to actually serve

mussels with beard in it to the judges or to our guests.

And I'm going to do five mussels per person.

It's like 140 I have to prep just to have a few backups up my sleeve.

I hope these mussels aren't a stitch-up.

Bloody mussels. Whose idea was this?

Can't believe people were fighting over this.

I want my mussels.

Let's see how fast we can do it. Go.

Ah! Come on.

Aldo, come and take the mussels!

You can have them back!

I'm going, I'm going.

MEL: 30 minutes!

(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)

HARRY: OK. 30 minutes, guys. I reckon we're going well. We can do this.

Today we are doing two courses - entree and main.

Thank God there is no dessert because it's so hot.

You're doing great.

Sorry, I'm sweating like a pig. I love it.

(LAUGHS)

Can I have some ice, please?

Or an ice-cream.

The judges today, they're expecting extraordinary.

And the plan, it's tasting everything along the side,

and even if we've got to make 10,000 tastes of whitebait

until when they got the right bougie-ness,

that will be my way to go today.

And then a little bit more seasoning, more salt.

And I want more sumac coming through.

More? More sumac.

Yeah, I think more of all of the spices.

All of them. They said it has to be...

Bang on. It can't be plain.

The sumac will make it nice and like... Yeah.

..acidic. Yeah. I reckon.

I reckon a bit more of everything.

It is very important to have the whitebait singing onto the plate

and they've got to be fried perfectly to start,

and the flavour has to be bang on.

Mon, are you OK with the oil?

Yeah. Need any help?

Nah, all good. OK, cool.

So on entree, it is Montana and Keyma,

and we have decided to take the humble beetroot

and we're doing roasted beetroot

that's going to be in the centre of the plate,

then this kind of elegant consomme around the outside

and then beetroot oil from the leaves on top.

A consomme is basically a clarified broth,

and Keyma is working on that.

But she's never done it before.

It's not ready. We have to balance and we...we need to clarify it.

Once we strain this, if we mix it together with eggwhites

and bring back up to the simmer,

you basically strain off

all the impurities. Yeah.

It is a bit challenging instructing my team members

on doing all of these French techniques,

but I'm really hoping we can bring it all together.

We're getting closer to service and...

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

Damn.

The beetroot has come out of the oven.

How soft do we want it?

I mean, even the outer edges aren't very, like, soft.

Yeah, I mean, it is beetroot.

Yeah.

It's still pretty firm. Yeah, it's pretty firm.

Do you want to just chuck it in for longer?

Yeah. Cool.

They're still not cooked through.

I just hope that we have enough time to really balance this beetroot

because it is a hero part of the dish.

So just hoping we can get that done in time.

Just strain it one more time.

I will be dreaming about mussels tonight.

I will smell like a mussel. I will look like a mussel.

There are so many mussels.

Oh, the mussels, they're finally prepped

and now we are going to add the tarragon emulsion.

I have to pipe the emulsion into every single mussel,

but I feel like, actually, I probably excel

when I'm under a little bit of pressure with time and stress.

So this is what I live for.

I love cooking under this kind of pressure

because I know it brings out the best in me.

ANDY: Well, the diners are arriving, and that can only mean one thing.

Time's a-running out.

15 minutes to go.

Let's go, guys.

Look at the colour of that broth.

Beautiful. Yes!

Can't be happier!

They're so good.

That's so beautiful.

Has the whitebait gone brown?

So for our entree, the tahini and yoghurt cream is ready,

as well as the beautiful herbal salad.

The herb salad, you got the pepper in,

there's the sweetness and the freshness of the mint.

So we need something very sharp to dress this salad.

And I made a beautiful lemon dressing with a little bit of...

Aldo's secret - love.

No, no. It is love, from Naples.

Limone. Lemon juice reduction.

Whitebait, it's not a bougie ingredient.

It's a normal ingredient.

So the second batch needs to just be screaming again

Middle Eastern flavour.

So does this have extra seasoning on the outside?

Extra seasoning. Yeah.

Yeah, I reckon that's heaps better.

Good. Heaps better.

What do you think with that?

That's really nice.

The whitebaits, they're on point and they're tasting great.

They're Middle Eastern flavoured.

They're like, yes, it is the way to go for me,

and for sure we made it bougie.

But now we got to try it all together.

TOMMY: Are we doing it?

We gotta adjust...

I think it's just too...too acidic.

Too acidic?

I think so. Try, try.

I tried it.

BILLIE: We're tasting our entree and it is quite acidic

from the lemon dressing.

It feels like it needs some sort of relief from that.

You're thinking something sweet like that?

Yeah, try one, try one.

I'll slice 'em really thin.

Like, really thin.

Try it with a bit of grape.

Oh, yeah.

So Harry suggests that we put some fresh grape on the plate as well.

And I think it does bring that acidity level down a little bit.

So hopefully that's going to fix this dish.

It is delicious.

Bougie.

We are bougie here. Let's get some more.

JOCK: It doesn't matter if you're ready or not.

Service starts in five minutes.

ANDY: Come on, guys! Let's go!

(CLAPS)

SARAH: Guys, I think...yeah, we really need a hand on this, guys.

The beetroot took a lot longer than we expected

to be cooked, so it's...

Yeah, I can feel the pressure building up now.

More like...that? Is that what we're after?

Yeah, a bit smaller. Bit smaller. Alright.

And I've got, like, the fattest fingers for this.

I think just do it a lot neater than that.

I really just...I wanted to be ahead of the game

and, you know, be really ready for this.

But unfortunately, we're really pushed for time now.

ALVIN: How are we going?

MINDY: We're still peeling and cutting beetroot.

Here it is. Ten...

ALL: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one!

That's it! Service has started.

DANIEL: Can we have a few more jugs down here, guys?

They're almost all done. Amazing.

MINDY: I am so proud of this dish.

I'm plating each of those mussels in the centre of our plate.

We're putting our little pickled radish on there.

I've got a little consomme broth on the side

and dressing that crispy tarragon on top.

Every dish has to look picture perfect.

Every dish has to look the same.

I'm really happy with this plate.

Yeah. I think our plates look amazing.

The mussels are great. The tarragon is good.

It all works together, that little broth.

Think this dish will be right up there.

Service, guys.

Beautiful.

Just give the sauce a little swirl before you pour it.

And then...happy days.

And try and pour it all at the same time.

Thanks very much. Thanks, guys.

Ooh.

Thank you very much.

OK. So this is the entree from the orange team.

JOCK: It looks great.

We have mussels and tomato broth.

What a cracking dish to start.

It was beautiful to look at and it was beautiful to eat.

Wow.

The mussels, perfectly cooked.

They were tender, soft.

What was super clever was that tarragon emulsion.

And then when you got some of the broth -

tomato, cucumber, herbs, a little bit of mussel,

it just sort of washed over your palate.

There's nothing ordinary about this plate of food.

And I've got to hand it to Mindy.

She worked so hard to make sure that all those mussels

were shucked perfectly,

all the beards were out, then piped with that tarragon emulsion.

And I think this dish shows how succinct they were as a team.

And when you are so succinct, you produce plates of food like that.

I think on a warm, humid day like this, this is the perfect dish.

It was really elegant.

Do we want some lemon in that? Or vinegar?

Yeah, you can put a little bit of lemon.

Entree service has started and we're not quite there.

Lemon or white wine vinegar?

Yeah, white wine vinegar. Yep.

We're racing to balance the beetroot and plate up.

KEYMA: From that end to this end...

Ten.

OK, guys. Ten.

Let's do this.

Alright. Is there another ring mould?

We'll do ten to start with. Yep.

And we're running behind right now.

(SIGHS)

ALDO: We are boujie here.

No matter what everybody says, I'm happy because I love it.

No matter what anyone says about you, we all love you.

Oh, thank you.

Whitebait's usually, you know, just flour, salt, fried, really plain.

We added a bit of flair to it, I think.

So we're putting the tahini yoghurt on the bottom of the plate.

We're adding to that

the nice little herb salad with the dressing on top

and then finishing off with the whitebait.

And I think the fresh grape adds a nice sweetness

to quite an acidic dish.

It's not your standard little cone of whitebait

from the beach, you know?

It's a lot nicer.

Thank you very much.

From the yellow team,

an entree of whitebait with Middle Eastern flavours.

Sliced grapes.

Nicely seasoned, heavily spiced, fried whitebait.

Generous herb salad.

Nice tahini dressing, some sweetness from the grapes.

Sound in terms of flavours.

I quite enjoyed it.

I'm glad that they loaded the whitebait up with...with spices.

The tahini dressing was, like, full bodied.

Until you get to the grapes.

And then it's like, "Hang on."

When was the last time either of you two have seen a sliced grape?

Like, yeah.

Sliced grapes. What?

I think a tiny bit more salt, actually.

Yeah. OK, let's plate.

We were running behind because the beetroot

took a lot longer to cook in the oven than expected.

But finally we're ready for service.

I want the boys to stay on the main

and make sure that we're not running behind with that one.

We have that beautiful roasted beetroot bulb

in the centre of the plate.

We've got this beautiful beetroot stem consomme,

and then we have the beetroot leaf oil going on top.

I was really hoping for

a lot more spices and punchy flavours in the beetroot dish,

but we've just run out of time

and it's a lot more subtle than I would've liked.

Alright, guys. Service.

Let's go.

JOCK: I was looking for a fantastic, vibrant, brilliant dish.

Just...I'm underwhelmed by it.

The more I ate it, the more underwhelmed I got.

And this feels very, very flat.

I think there's potential in this dish, that's the thing.

Like, if the beetroots were roasted early, chopped beautifully,

soaked in something,

instead of just being lightly dressed in something,

there is a good dish here.

Yeah, I'm disappointed for Sarah being the leader

because this is not a winning dish.

There's four more.

The entrees may have all gone out,

but we've still got a lamb dish to complete,

so we have to keep moving.

So for the mains,

we've got all of the lamb pressed and chilled.

It just needs to be fried off now.

At service, the sauce is done, the puree is done and heating up.

Pickle is done as well.

So we just have to set everything up ready for service.

Beautiful!

Thanks, guys. Well done.

Alright, guys, so that's entrees done.

JULIE: Nice work, team.

We'll clean down, and we'll start on the...on the mains.

Entree service has gone off without a hitch.

It was super smooth.

And it's time to start our mains.

The jus is ready,

the eggplant puree is made, and we've already charred the lettuce.

It's trayed up and it's ready to go.

And because we're so far ahead, we've got Julie, Ali and Mindy

searing and browning our ballotines, which is awesome,

and that's why you work so hard at the start.

But the risk of the ballotine

is that we won't know how it's cooked until we cut into it.

It's really critical that the chicken's cooked correctly inside.

If it's overcooked, it'll be dry.

If it's undercooked, it'll be deadly.

So we just want to make sure... that we get it nice.

These are coming out, so we can start carving, guys.

Behind. Just be careful, guys. Hot tray, guys.

Do not drop it, Chef. No, no, I won't.

We need to check the cook on the ballotines.

The thing about, I guess, a ballotine,

it's such a perfect little roll,

it has to be perfectly cooked chicken.

Is this my carving knife?

So if that chicken's over, that's, uh...that's dish over today.

Enjoy another serving or savour past seasons at:

MICHAEL: How are they, Matt? Um...

If that chicken's over, that's... that's dish over today.

Can you check this, please?

That's beautiful.

You happy with that? Yeah.

Cool. Yep.

It's cooked perfectly, which is such a relief.

Golden on the outside,

just set in the centre, so it's really tender,

moist and juicy.

So it'll work perfectly with our other elements.

So, very happy as captain.

Once again, my team's done an incredible job,

and we can start playing up.

Alright, guys, let's do this.

So we're going to plate two plates at a time.

Make sure they look really pretty.

Matt, you're carving, pass over to Mindy here.

Mindy, you're here with me.

Do you want me to lettuce? You can lettuce and sauce.

JULIE: And I'll just run things to people.

Yeah.

To plate our main,

what I'm doing is just laying a line at the eggplant puree,

similar shape to our lettuce,

and then covering the puree with the lettuce so it's hidden.

And next to the lettuce, three pieces of our ballotine,

and that beautiful, meaty chicken jus.

I think we nailed the brief today with both entrees and main.

Service.

And hopefully this should be a winning dish.

Could be a winning dish.

There you go.

Thank you, guys. Good on you, Michael.

Two sets of chicken, please, guys.

Thank you.

JOCK: Beautiful. Thanks.

OK, so the main from the orange team

is a chicken ballotine eggplant puree,

charred cross lettuce and chicken jus.

I think it looks quite elegant. It does. It's very...

It's old-school modern. ANDY: Yeah.

But it fits this place, you know?

The smell coming off that chicken jus is insane.

How good is charred lettuce?

Love it.

I really enjoyed the dish. I thought it was a cracker.

We'll start with the ballotine.

Beautiful caramelisation on the outside.

Loved the charred lettuce. No complaints at all there.

And it actually went really beautifully with that jus.

I think that's just something very elegant

about the way everything was sort of plated

in a very linear sort of fashion.

The jus was rich and glossy and had a lovely flavour,

perfectly seasoned.

An impressive dish all in all.

It was delicious.

The cooking of the ballotine, the butchery work was fantastic.

And the rolling of it was beautiful.

I mean, if you look at it, it's tight.

There's no air pockets and it's beautifully cooked.

I thought it was a well-conceptualised dish.

It definitely ticked the brief in being

taking ordinary ingredients

and making a visually an extraordinary plate of food.

With the main, I think this is difficult to plate

because, you know, it's a pulled meat, so it's naturally not elegant,

so, you know, in its natural form.

So we use a cookie cutter to get that meat into a beautiful round.

We want to put those pickled turnips on top

so that you get a little bit with each bite

and a beautiful kind of quenelle of mash

and a little drizzle of both the jus and the oil.

I think that's nice.

But looking at the main has made me realise

maybe pulled meat wasn't necessarily the best choice

for a fine dining dish...

..but we are working with a limited pantry,

so hopefully the flavour will pull us through.

OK. service. Yeah, look at that.

OK. (LAUGHS)

We got there, guys. We got there. (SIGHS)

Thank you. MELISSA: Thank you.

We have from the pink team braised beef with pickled turnip.

Tough day in the kitchen for the pink team, I reckon.

Putting turnip pickles into a ring mould

and putting these little dots on top of pulled beef...

It's just not how you turn ordinary ingredients into extraordinary food.

It's a tough day for them.

This is unfortunately far from extraordinary food.

Yes, the beef looks glossy,

but there's no real flavour going on.

The turnips don't feel...

..like they have really any place going on here.

I feel sorry for them,

because I was hoping Sarah was going to really lead that team,

you know, to victory today,

and it's a shame.

This is so far away from what we are looking for today, it's not funny.

BILLIE: Let's go, team. Nearly there.

20 plates left to go.

We've got it. Whoo-hoo!

You sound like a judge. Yeah, I know.

It's not my natural state.

So, Aldo's flying off the lamb

just to get that nice caramelised crust.

And Tommy, Steph, Harry and I

are just in a bit of a production line.

The lamb's cooked really nicely

and it has a nice caramelised crust on top.

Whoo! Let's go!

The sauce is really quite lamby and really rich.

Then the swede puree, very, very smooth and nicely seasoned.

And the addition of the anchovy herb salsa

plus the pickled swede

just lifts the whole dish.

ALVIN: Are you trying to get some height on the pickles or no?

I can do, yeah. Yeah, a little bit of height?

I feel like we've worked pretty well today

and we've sent out dishes that I think hit the brief.

So, hoping that the judges like the dishes enough

and give us a chance at immunity.

MEL: Thank you.

Thank you.

MEL: Thank you.

From the yellow team, a main of slow cooked lamb

with swede and lamb jus.

It looks...it looks pretty good.

Yeah.

I really liked that.

The lamb, the main event, but it was...it was delicious.

Cooked really nicely.

Obviously compressed and then caramelised.

That caramelisation, just... I loved that.

And then that little anchovy guy that they put on top...

Oh, my goodness.

That just made the dish for me.

It definitely looks the part.

And the pickle's a nice, bright, sort of crunchy contrast

to what was going on.

I loved the swede puree.

So glad they went there instead of mash,

just to...just to switch it up a notch.

Epic dish. Yeah.

Like, fits the surroundings.

They've turned ordinary ingredients into an extraordinary plate of food.

So, brief ticked.

BILLIE: Nice one, team.

(TEAM CHEERS) TOMMY: We're done! Well done!

ALDO: Awesome work, team captain. Well done.

Love it. Love it. Thank you, everyone.

That was really nice.

Today, we asked for decadence on a dime.

You had to serve up a two-course meal to 60 diners.

A two-course meal worthy of the atmosphere it's cooked in.

There's a shot at immunity up for grabs for the winning team,

so let's see who won.

Honestly, there was one team that elevated their dishes

from basic to bougie.

Their entree was clean,

sophisticated and simple.

Not only that, the main was tasty and full of technique.

Overall, the whole menu was clear from the offset,

which allowed the team to function at the highest level

under solid leadership.

It was brilliance on a budget.

The team that's going into immunity tomorrow...

..is the orange team.

(ALL CHEER)

MICHAEL: Oh, it's so good. I'm so happy for my team.

JULIE: Legend! Legend!

Well done, guys.

They worked so hard today.

They made my job of being captain so easy.

I'm so proud of them.

Bloody beautiful menu.

Ah, yeah.

A superb effort, guys,

backed with unwavering leadership from you, Michael.

Well done, team. That was a good one.

ALL: Thank you.

Good stuff, guys. Well done, everyone.

Nice!

Julie Goodwin, you're my lucky charm.

JULIE: Oh, you're mine.

Seriously. So good. This is great.

Beautiful work. That was awesome feedback. Awesome.

VOICEOVER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...

Oh-ho!

..they put air fryers

and deep fryers to the test.

I've never used this machine before.

Who can produce enough crispy... (CRUNCH!)

..crunchy goodness to win immunity?

Captions by Red Bee Media