ANNOUNCER: Previously, on MasterChef Australia... A simple salad challenge... We want what we would call an uber salad. ...forced four of our cooks into a tense sudden-death cook-off. Don't let the emotion of the moment get on top of you. Kha's Vietnamese quail didn't fly... I don't like the dish. ...and he ended up leaving the competition. These last few weeks - probably the best of my life. Tonight... Oh, my God! Yes! Hello. He's one of the world's greatest chefs. I'm glad you're smiling. The godfather of modern cooking. I think I've stopped breathing. Time starts now. And he's here to take on 21 new apprentices. You are the chosen ones. The pressure will be relentless... Yes, Marco! ALL: Yes, Marco! Push, push, push! Come on! ...the scrutiny intense... Apprentices! Balance, balance, balance! Oh, God, God, God. ...but Marco Pierre White gets results. What you've created was, without question, exceptional. You should be very proud of yourself. They just need to hold their nerve. Do you like it? # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like a brighter shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # We got today. # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # So spin me round and... # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # ...show me the way... # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # ...back to... # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like a brighter shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2015 MATTHEW: The start of the new week. You don't know what to expect. We think it's a mystery box day, but the judges are known to throw a few curveballs at us here and there. SARA: Beginning of the week - usually it's a mystery box. I feel like, "Alright, I can do this. I can do this." What if it wasn't a mystery box today? And then you kind of come around the corner and someone's standing there. And you freak out. Oh, yes! Yes! Whoo! (LAUGHS) Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Marco... Pierre... White. I was not expecting that. I see Marco and I just point at him and I'm like, "Oh, my God." Wow. Oh! Hello. (SQUEALS) (LAUGHS) Stephen. Hello, Stephen. Marco. Marco, nice to meet you. Sara, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Melita. Melita. Matt. Matt. Gather round. Are you surprised to see me? ALL: Yes! I'm glad you're smiling. (LAUGHTER) Let's go inside. Come on. (CHEERING) STEPHEN: It's unbelievable. It is only our third week in the MasterChef kitchen and the greatest chef on the planet is walking into the kitchen. Gather round. JESSICA: Holy-moley. Can you believe it? Oh, my God. I am afraid. MELITA: Oh, this is ridiculous. Look what I found. (CHUCKLES) How are you, Gary? Good morning. How are you? Marco. How are you? FIONA: I think I've just, like, stopped breathing. I just can't believe he's here. He's such a big presence of a man and I'm like, can almost, like, touch him. It's crazy. GARY: Wow. How does that feel? (CONTESTANTS EXCLAIM) SARA: Amazing. You see, you just wander in, it's going to be another day in the MasterChef kitchen and you bump into Marco Pierre White. I know how I feel, standing here, next to the great man, because he's inspired all of us chefs in some way, shape or form. But I'm just wondering how you feel. Matthew? Only a couple of weeks ago, you were a dentist. But now you're about to embark on cooking for Marco Pierre White. When we pulled up in the driveway, I think you probably could have heard us from couple of suburbs away. It was... None of us were expecting this, so for me, and I'm sure for everyone, you know, this is an absolute thrill and an honour. He is a very special guest, and he is, of course, a member of the MasterChef family. But he's here for a reason. I don't know if you know it, but this man here's inspired probably thousands of chefs around the world. He's had many titles in the past, some of them a little scary. The original devil in the kitchen, the godfather of modern cuisine, the original enfant terrible... as he was when I was working in London. But this week, it's not about scary Marco... it's about the mentor that is Marco. Yeah. The trainer, the guy that's going to pass on his knowledge to you, take you on as his apprentices. Before MasterChef, I was a sales rep driving around Brisbane and now, all of a sudden, I'm Marco Pierre White's apprentice. I feel like I'm in a dream. It's surreal. This isn't real life. And here's the thing - he's not here just today, but all week. SARA: Awesome, awesome, awesome. For a whole week, he's going to be our mentor. Oh, I couldn't have asked for anything better. This is so cool. So, Marco, you're going to take these guys on as your little trainees this week. What was it like when you were an apprentice? What did you take away from it? Well, I started in the late 70s. It was the hardest job I ever had. The one thing they instilled in me as a young man... was that fear of failure. When I was 17 years old... I went to work in a restaurant which had two stars in Michelin. In those days, there was only four restaurants in Britain with two stars. But my dream was three stars. That was the impossible. And everyone around me - they thought I was a dreamer. But I had my dream, and every day I pushed and got that little bit closer to my dream. Do any of you have a dream? Rose? My dream is to open up a business with my family. I want to work with them, I want to have a beautiful eatery. I want people to come and feel like they're part of my home when they walk into my space, and that's my dream. Stephen? Do you have a dream? I'm very passionate about produce and growing my own produce, so my dream is to combine that with a restaurant where I can showcase it in the best way possible. Dreams are, without question, the most important... because without them, you'll never achieve anything. I say to my little girl every week of her life... "Mirabelle, do you have a dream?" And she always says, "Yes, Daddy." And I ask her what her dream is, and she tells me. And then I say to her, "If you have a dream, Mirabelle, "then you have a duty and a responsibility to yourself... "to make it come true." "Because if you don't make your dreams come true, then you're just a dreamer." Marco talking about realising your dreams hits home with me a lot. It just really makes you want to cook for him today. Yeah, it's only on my back. MATT: A brand-new week, a brand-new mystery box set by someone who is very special to us in the MasterChef kitchen. Anyone who aspires to be a master chef, has to first become a master's apprentice. You have to learn the skills. And this week, you'll be learning skills from one of the great cooks this world has ever produced. Skills with a knife, skills with creating texture, and skills, above all, of balancing flavours. Flavour is what today's challenge is all about. FIONA: It's important for me that under this box that there's things that I recognise how to cook with, otherwise I'm going to be a frazzled mess. This mystery box contains 10 ingredients - two that each represent the five fundamental tastes on every human palate. Sweet, salty, sour, bitter and that elusive fifth taste which was only discovered in 1908, umami. JACQUI: Straight away, you start to worry, "Oh, my goodness. What are we in for?" It's not going to be easy, I can guarantee that. Marco, the honours. ROSE: Oh. MARCO: So, what do we have? For sweet, muscat wine and dates. ASHLEIGH: I feel so relieved when I see the dates and immediately have an idea come to mind. I know I can make a really nice dessert out of those. For sour, lemons and yoghurt. For bitter, endive and cumin seeds. For salty, anchovies and pig face. FIONA: It's definitely scary when I see something like pig face. I've never cook with it before, I don't know what it tastes like - I've never even seen it before. And for umami, pork chop... and Parmesan. Umami is this kind of crazy definition of savoury is what it's really after, so you get it in, you know, things like cheeses or meats. Yeah, I can work with that. OK, so here are the rules - there's lots of ingredients. You must use at least one of those, but what we're after is a perfectly balanced dish. You'll have the regular pantry of staples under your bench - sugar, olive oil, butter, cream, milk. The time? You'll have 60 minutes to give us that beautifully balanced dish. And what you also have to know is we're only tasting the top five dishes. So if you want to impress Marco, then pull out all the stops. Now, the winner gets the advantage in the invention test later on today. And you want that advantage. SARA: Of all the weeks, this is the most important so far. I need to get a top five dish today. One last piece of advice. Thousands and thousands of people wanted to stand where you're standing. You're the chosen ones. Make the most of it and don't forget what I said about dreams. Are you ready? ALL: Yes. You have one hour. Your time starts now. ASHLEIGH: Thermometers. Where are thermometers? I always want to put up a good dish when I walk into the kitchen, but there's just added extra pressure today having Marco here too. Oh, my God. Marco Pierre White. JAMIE: Yeah, with him there, it's an extra bit of pressure, but it's also an extra sort of motivator to put up a good dish. I really, really, really want to get my dish up there. To have Marco taste my food would just be incredible. Eugh! Today, I'm going to cook pork with a date puree, some braised endive, some of the pig's ch... pig's face. It's actually quite nice. It tastes very salty and there's a weird kind of aftertaste. Pig face isn't the nicest thing to eat. It's kind of this weird combination between saltwater and aloe vera. So, I decide to sort of do it a few different ways - I parboil one, I saute the other and I pickle some other stuff, so I'm doing it three ways to see which way's going to be best. I really, really hope I do well today. Today, I'm making a frozen nougat. I combine whipped cream and I fold through the dates, then I pop them into the moulds and stick them in the blast chiller. It can be really easy with desserts to make them too sweet, considering that the focus of the mystery box today is on balance. OK, what next, what next? Praline. To get my savoury element to the dish, I'm going to use the cumin seeds to make a cumin seed praline. I've cooked with cumin before, but only in savoury dishes. I've never used it in a sweet dish, so I'm taking it pretty big risk today including it in my dessert, but I'm confident that the flavours will work nicely together. MARCO: Hello, Sara. Hello, Marco. How are you? How's it going? Fabulously. You? So far. I'm enjoying watching. Really? But I'm looking forward to eating. Are you shaking, Sara, in the presence of Marco? Just a little bit? A little bit. I got a bit teary when you were like, "Have a dream - make sure, every day, you have a dream." What are you making? A date and muscat glazed pork chop with cumin salt, some pork crackling and a refreshing yoghurt. I like that. Good luck. Thank you. (GASPS) Oh, my God. He just gives you so much clarity and he excites you. So, I'm using that as my inspiration today. JAMIE: I'd love to impress Marco. Hopefully, I can cook something really good and show him and the judges what I am capable of doing. But I'm sort of having some issues with the flavours. I'm just trying to think about how I can balance the dish. Jamie, what's the dish? So, I'm just trying to muck around at the moment with working out some flavours to balance things, so I've got my pork chop, I've just toasted some cumin with yoghurt. Got to do a little sweet sort of hollandaise kind of thing with the muscat. Hollandaise and yoghurt? Don't reckon it's a good idea? Hollandaise yoghurt... It's too much fat. Hollandaise and roast pork chop? Oh, my God! Yeah. You're scaring me away. Yeah? Yeah. Start again. It's really turning into a bit of a disaster. I've got to try and come up with a new dish. I'm in real trouble. 1 SARA: Well, today's mystery box showcases the palate. It's all about balance of flavours. For me, it's important for Marco to taste my dish today, because the more I can impress him, I feel like the more he's going to want to invest in me. Remember, we say, "In life you have to have a little bitter "if you're going to taste the sweet." Or is it the umami or the salt or the sour? 30 minutes to go. Come on! Push, push, push! Come on! Move! Let's go. It's crunch time. I need to get things happening. The judges told me to scrap the yoghurt sauce and start again, pretty much. I've got to try and come up with a new dish. It occurs to me that I can salt the pork using the anchovies we've been given as sort of a marinade kind of rub on the pork. I get onto making some Parmesan crisps. I'm going to go with that for a crunchy element. It's starting to feel like I've got a bit of a dish here. I've got two elements now which I'm happy with. The challenge for me is going to be pulling it all together in the time frame. JESSICA: The judges are only going to taste the top five dishes today. I really, really, really want to get my dish up there. I really love the Parmesan, and that's going to go well with pork and I think that kind of salty umami-ness will be really nicely set off by the bitter flavours in the endive. Big, bold flavours is my thing. I love eating them, so I love to make them. I'm worried that Marco's refined palate might not enjoy a Parmesan crumb, but I need to just follow what, you know, my gut tells me. I need to stand out the crowd today. How's it going? Pretty good. What are you making? Pan-seared pork loin with Parmesan crumb and braised endive. Parmesan pork chop? Endive? Yep. Good. He likes the flavours in there. That is, you know, just a huge confidence boost. Good luck. GEORGIA: Today, I'm making endive cups with a sticky date pork filling. This dish is my take on san choy bao, and I'm going to use those perfectly-shaped little endive cups to serve the yummy sticky date and pork filling. I love cooking with endive. It's a beautiful vegetable. It has a very bitter flavour. Today, I'm using it fresh. It'll keep it nice, colourful and crispy. I really want to make a beautiful salty crackling for my dish. So, I rub salt into the cracks of the skin. It needs to be perfectly crackly and crunchy. I want this dish to be fully packed with so many different textures. I just hope I pull it off. Yum. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. JOHN: Today, I'm doing a choux pastry gnocchi. My main focus today is to impress Marco. I've made the choux pastry before, but not as a gnocchi. I am a little bit worried, serving gnocchi to Marco, having an Italian cuisine background, but I'm going to push it today. Hopefully I'll deliver to his expectations. John, how's it all going? A little birdie told me... Oh, there they are. You made some little choux pastry gnocchi. I did, yes. That's great. Can I taste one of these? Is that alright? Yeah, go for it. It's going to be hot. Mmm. Gary looks very pleased with what I'm doing today with the choux pastry, so I move on to my pork sausage. This needs a sweet element in the sausage, so I take the dates and macerate that with the muscat. And I use it as a filling inside the sausages. So, I'm hoping the sweetness will give it a more balanced flavour. Well, what a cook this is turning out to be. At the end of the day, we're only looking for the top five dishes, and what I've noticed out there is there's going to be a lot of pork chops. I like pork. Yeah. As long as it's cooked nicely. GARY: Yeah. I've got to say, I love the sound of Georgia's. Georgia's making little endive boats covered with crispy pork and various other bits of sweet/sour goodness. Could be delicious. I'm loving the sound of Ashleigh's dessert - a little date nougat. And she's doing... She's adding in the cumin. You know, there's salty elements there. Be really interesting. If she pulls it off it'll be a great dish. Apprentices, stop! 15 minutes to go. (CONTESTANTS CLAMOUR FRANTICALLY) I haven't even started my pork chop. Alright, get my head together, get my head together. I've spent far too long on this pig face. I am absolutely frantic. This pork has to be cooked to perfection, otherwise the whole dish is destroyed. I taste my sausages and they're tasting the way I wanted to right from the beginning. I haven't actually tasted the dish as a whole. I hope it is balanced. I'm making a frozen nougat and cumin seed praline. My frozen nougat has come out of the mould, so everything, I think, is coming together at this stage. I have made my cumin seed praline. I am a little bit concerned about the cumin at this point. I'm a little bit worried that the praline's got too much cumin in it and is a little bit too strong. Marco comes over to my bench... he picks up a piece of my praline... Scary. I'm getting pretty worried this point, but I'm just going to have to go with what I've got and hopefully the different elements will balance each other quite nicely. Apprentices, the secret of winning the advantage is balance, balance, balance! It's that simple. STEPHEN: Yes, Marco. Yes, Marco. Five minutes to go. GEORGIA: The pork's almost done and I've tossed through the dates. The next thing to do is add some muscat. My crackling comes out of the oven... and I tap it with a knife. And it is sensational. So delicious. I'm running out of time. I need to plate something up. (GASPS) A bit frantic at the moment. Um... So, I'm, like, multi-tasking. I've got, like, the pork, the endives and I go back to my pig face to try it in the pickle. I turn round, turn my pork over and... It's black, its charred. It's not what I wanted. And then I look up. MARCO: Fiona. Yes? Can I ask you a simple question? Yes. Did you scorch it or caramelise it? Caramelised it. OK. What am I saying? He knows it's charred. I know it's charred. Good luck. Thank you. My pork could be ruined. I'm totally devastated. Five flavours on the palate, five dishes being tasted. One minute to go. I'm plating, and I want the plate to look delicate and effortless, I guess. I hope that Marco sees it and it likes it. Final little touches - 10 seconds to go. JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... That's it, time's up. (APPLAUSE) Well done. Well done, Rosie. Well done. How did you go, buddy? Oh, alright. Oh! Oh, my God. Yeah, I'm feeling pretty happy, actually, to be honest. Look, I pulled it together in the end. It was all about balancing. So, I think I've done that. So I'm happy. I'm sure in the backs of all of your minds today, it was, "Please, Marco, taste my food and notice me." You had a mystery box and an hour to cook a delicious dish, but keeping in mind the balance of flavours. That umami, the sweet, the sour, the salt and the bitter. Our job is to pick five dishes that we're going to taste. First dish we'd like to taste belongs to... Georgia. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I can't believe I'm about to serve finger food to Marco Pierre White. He's going to taste my endive cups and I am gobsmacked. Is this actually about to happen to me? Today, I've made endive cups with pickled pig face, pork crackling, a pork and date sticky sauce and an anchovy mayonnaise. Are you pleased? I am. I really hope you like it. It's quite simple and free-form. Why don't you take a whole one? Because I've only got a little... It's designed to eat with your fingers. Yeah, I know. Is that designed to eat with your fingers? Yes, yeah. It's the pick up and... Why are you trying to be posh? There's no rules. You're trying to be posh? Well, there is. Marco's staring at me. He has this really serious kind of perplexed look on his face. (BREATHES DEEPLY) I don't know where to look. I just don't know what he's thinking right now. Do you like it? 1 GEORGIA: Marco's staring at me. I just don't know what he's thinking right now. Do you like it? I'm thinking about it. OK. I'll tell you what I do like. OK. I like that explosion of textures. You can pick up on those individual flavours, the bitterness, the sweetness, the saltiness, the pig, the crunch. Yeah. It's clever, it's tasty. There's creamy, there's crunchy, there's freshness. It's all in one little parcel. And you know, not many people could have created so many flavours and so many textures in one mouthful, like you have. I like that dish. Thank you. What an honour. Thank you so much. Thank you. I made the top 5 out of 21 cooks and he loves it. That's pretty amazing. (GASPS) The next dish we would like to taste... is Sara's. (APPLAUSE) SARA: Marco Pierre White called my name up. He wants to taste my dish. I could die now. Can you tell me what your dish is? A date and muscat glazed pork with cumin salt and pork crackling. It eats better than it looks. I like the date. I like the pig. I like what you've done with the crackling. The presentation, in my opinion, doesn't show off the true beauty of the dish and I think you've done a fantastic job. What I'm loving most is that the pig tastes like pig. It's not covered and swamped in sauce. Really well done. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Next up, Jessica. (APPLAUSE) JESSICA: My mind is racing as I'm walking up to the judges. I can feel my skin prickling all over and I just really hope I've got the balance of flavour right. I have done a pan-seared pork loin with butter-braised endive, Parmesan crumb and I made a jus with the muscat and the pork. GARY: I can't wait to get stuck in. I like the crispy, crumbly bits. That's what I'm looking forward to. You've cooked your pork so well. Thank you. The Parmesan crust is delicious and it works very well with the pig and the muscat sauce. I think you've done a really good job. Thank you. Look at that - grinning like a Cheshire cat, she is. This was about balance of flavours - so, bang, I get lots of salt, bang, I get lots of umami from that Parmesan and from that beautifully caramelised meat. It's really beautiful. I love that. And I'm a big fan of pork crackling, but now I've tasted that sort of Parmesan crackling as such, that's great. I'd be very happy to have that for my supper. Thank you. Pleasure. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Next up... we'd like to see John's dish. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) JOHN: So, what I've got is a choux pastry gnocchi and I've also done a pork sausage with a macerated dates filling. Now, John, tell me - choux pastry gnocchi, is that something you've made before? No, it's the first time. Good. I don't think... I don't think we've ever seen gnocchi made out of choux pastry in countless thousands of cooks. So, well done. It's always good to see something new in the kitchen. Making the gnocchi with choux pastry is very clever, it really is, but it's very sweet. What's interesting in your sausage - the dominant flavour is the sugar, not the pig. It's not a date sausage, it's a pork sausage. Sure. I think there are so many great elements there, and I think if you were going to look at this dish again, you'd pare it back. Just those gnocchi, on a plate, some fresh grated Parmesan, a little bit of that sausage meat in there and we'd have a dish we'd be raving about, because what tends to happen is that balance is far harder when you've got lots of things on the plate. It's a learning curve. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Next up to the tasting table... is Ashleigh. ASHLEIGH: I'm feeling so nervous. I'm really concerned that I've put too much of the cumin seeds in and that it's going to be really overpowering. Tell me about your dish. My dish today is a date frozen nougat with a cumin crumb, a lemon curd and a cumin praline. In the French kitchens, they call the dish a biscuit glace or a nougat glace and it's one of my very favourite puddings. I like your curd. I like the fact it's not too sweet, it's got that explosion of citron. Yep. But do you know what I do love? I do love the caramel with the cumin. Thank you. I think it's truly delicious. GEORGE: Who would have thought? You know, people are probably going, "Cumin in a dessert?" Why not? It's a spice. It's given us great insight into the way you think and the way you look at food. And I think you've been really, really, really intelligent. I think you've done a fantastic job. Thank you. Really good job. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) To hear Marco say that I've really got the flavour combination right and that he really is enjoying the dish is an amazing moment. It's completely surreal. Yeah, I can't quite believe what's happening. One of my favourite pastimes is watching people cook. And I've got to say, today I've really enjoyed watching you cook. I've enjoyed tasting your food. And every dish was delicious. But you know the rules - there can only be one winner. When we have such a close-run thing, we have a saying, as you know, "The dish that wins is the one that taste best." The winner of today's mystery box is... 1 We have saying, as you know - you know what it is. "The dish that wins is the one that tastes best." The winner of today's mystery box is... Ashleigh. Congratulations. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) What you created was, without question, exceptional. It was intelligent, it was thoughtful, it was delicious. I walked away from your plate of food wanting more. And that is the greatest compliment I can give you. Thank you. Well, Ashleigh, with that victory, you win the advantage in the invention test. Are you ready to find out what it is? Yes. Alright. Marco, let's go and show her. Come on, Ashleigh. There you are. Well done. Thank you. Come in, come in. Oh, look at those. You know, when Marco and I were youngsters, the top job in the kitchen was the saucier because it was all about the alchemy, the simmering little pots of beautiful things - those aromas. And it was that kind of creativity that we all kind of yearned to be part of. That magical creativity is drawn from five basic sauces. Five mother sauces from which all other sauces are created. The advantage in today's challenge for you is to choose the foundation sauce that everyone else must make from scratch and use in their dish. Yeah. Shall we show you? Yes please. Let's see what the choices are. Marco? Veal jus. Sauce hollandaise. Veloute of chicken. Bechamel. The great white sauce. Mm-hm. Vegetable nage. Have you ever made any of these from scratch before? I have. Which ones? Yes. I've made bechamel, I've made the hollandaise, I've made... I haven't made veal jus, but I've made jus before. If I had to make a decision... I'd make something very simple, which would show off my strengths. See, strategy will compensate for talent, but talent will never compensate for strategy. There are three of the five sauces that I'm quite familiar with. I know that whichever one of those sauces I pick can really send the cook off in completely different directions, so it's a really heavy responsibility. CONTESTANTS: Ooh. This week, it's all about the basics. In classic French cooking, there's five basic, fundamental sauces. And we asked Ashleigh to pick one of them. Ashleigh? Yes? Which one did you choose? I picked... the veal jus. (WHISPERS) OK. GEORGIA: Veal jus is a beautiful, rich sauce. It can take ages. You've got to think about the aromatics. You've got to get the meat nice and caramelised, make sure that it's reduced nicely. I'm actually quite nervous. There's more to this challenge than just making an absolute knockout veal jus. We want to see a whole dish. We want to see a whole dish where that jus underpins the dish. You're going to have 90 minutes to blow us away. All the ingredients you need are in the pantry. Top three dishes, a chance for immunity. The bottom three will find themselves in a pressure test tomorrow. ASHLEIGH: I'm really nervous. I've picked the sauce today, so the pressure's really on me to do a great job. I do not want end up in that bottom three. MARCO: It's very simple. Make it delicious. Make it classical. Are you ready? ALL: Yes. Your time starts now. GEORGIA: Thyme, thyme. Where are you? JESSICA: Over there, babe. WOMAN: Oh, my gosh! Sorry! With 21 people in the pantry, it is absolute chaos. Orange. Apples. Everyone's grabbing at stuff. GEORGIA: Anyone seen eggs? I need flour. It's a madhouse. Make sure you pick up your veal stock from the fridge. That's your base. JACQUI: Alright. The dish I decide to cook today is in an osso-bucco-filled tortellini with roast tomatoes, pesto and goat's cheese. Tortellini is something that I love to eat. It's something that I love to cook. My aim is to use the juices from the pressure cooker to make my sauce that will go onto the pasta. I'm thinking that I can use the veal stock to cook the meat that will fill the tortellini. I'm showing Marco that I can use that sauce in a non-traditional way. MATTHEW: I haven't really cooked a great dish since the judges' auditions, and it's time for me now to really show what I can do, and this is an opportunity for me to do that today. The key, I think, to making the good veal jus is just making sure that we reduce it a lot. I'm getting some red wine, some malmsey in there. Really reducing it down, get it to a nice, strong, thick, syrupy consistency. Hopefully, that'll be enough to impress Marco today. Whoops. GEORGIA: Far out. I've never used a cleaver this vigorously before. It's a bit... intense. FIONA: I had a really bad cook this morning, so it's really important for me that I redeem myself and show Marco and the judges that I can cook. I've just decided to make a fillet of beef with a pomme puree, some roasted baby carrots and button mushrooms. Very simple, with a rosemary jus. Meat's a big part of Scotland, and, you know, mashed potatoes and vegetables - that's like a family staple. And I've also decided to add some whiskey to my jus just to give it that that nice, earthy, sort of kick, and also it's very Scottish. I've got to get back to that. Today, I'm going to cook duck breast. I'm going to do a sweet potato puree and some pickled onions with a raspberry jus. I'm pretty nervous just because it's a bit risky, but I guess I want to prove that I can cook and that I can put something up that's worthy of a top dish. Getting the sauce right is the most crucial thing. So, front bench, Billie - duck breast, sweet potato puree, maybe some little roasted onions and the sauce, at the moment, it's just a straight red-wine duck sauce, but what's interesting is she's talking about raspberry. But what she should do with the raspberries, in my opinion, is add them at the end, so you retain that freshness. Yeah. GEORGE: Well, it smells wonderful in this kitchen. GARY: It does, doesn't it? There are lots of sauces being made and some of them are doing a great job. Yeah. Absolutely. I think what's very nice is a lot of them are showing that they have technical ability when it comes to sauce making. They are creating some amazing flavours. 30 minutes down! One hour to go! And if your veal jus's not on by now, you're in trouble. ANDREA: I'm making a herb-crusted lamb rack with a herb mash potato and veal jus. I know that the veal jus is best when cooked for a long amount of time, so it's been just reducing for a while. Is that your sauce? Yeah, yeah. There's not much. Do you think I need more? Well, it's a lot of bones but not a lot of sauce. Yeah. I realised that I didn't put all the stock in. Andrea, I think you could be in trouble. I don't think at this point I've over-reduced the stock. I've tasted the sauce and I'm really happy with it, it's more just that there's not very much. As long as I keep a close eye on it, this could be one of the best jus I've made, but I have to be super-careful because of how little I have. I won the advantage today and I've picked the veal jus, but the pressure's starting to get to me and I'm starting to panic. Um... Decisions, decisions. I have picked quail, but I have got no idea what I want to do with it. I've got a million ideas running through my mind, and I cannot settle on how I want to cook this quail. Stop staring, stop staring. OK, what am I doing? I am starting to be completely overwhelmed by the pressure. Alright. Think, think, think. What am I going to do with this quail? I really do not want to be the person who goes from being on top of the pack to the bottom three. Oh, God. 1 Apprentices! Yes, Marco? FIONA: Yes? 45 minutes remaining. Yes, Marco! ALL: Yes, Marco! Thank you. MELITA: Today's invention test challenge is to make a veal jus the best that we possibly can. It needs to be showcased in the dish. Making a mushroom and veal jus. I'm marinating a lamb backstrap. That'll just be served on a bed of mushrooms and hazelnut. I'm pretty confident about cooking this dish today, because I've cooked it so many times at home, for myself and for my family. We live on a farm in Korumburra and we grow as much produce as we possibly can, and that impacts a lot on what I cook in the kitchen on a daily basis. Right, who's first? Me. Alright. The idea of going into an elimination round just after I've been in one - I... I dread it. I'll do anything to try and avoid that. JOHN: Today, I'm creating 'sea meets land'. I just love experimenting. I've never followed recipes. I like pushing myself. I love pushing boundaries. John... You're not going in the direction I thought. Everybody else has got, you know, meaty things on their bench and you picked lobster. Yeah, seafood. So, it's lobster, scallops, red wine sauce... What else is on there? I'm using the sushi wrappings... You mean nori sheets, or.... Nori sheets, yeah. Right. OK. And I'm roasting that and powderising it. Wow. Wow. How the hell are you going to bring that all together? I guess I am doing a lot today, but I want to prove what I'm capable of. I'm just going to hope that the flavours are there. MATT: 30 minutes! Come on, guys! Oh, God, hurry up! I've rolled out my pasta and I'm making my tortellini. Putting the filling on and the goat's cheese on and forming the tortellini is taking me forever. For the jus, got the juices from the pressure cooker into a pot and I'm reducing them on the stove top. I look around - everybody else has been reducing down the sauce for a really long time. I'm really worried about the pressure cooker juices not reducing in time, but at the same time, I've got so much else to do, I can't really spend too long on it. I've got to get moving. MATTHEW: I have the eye fillet, some potatoes, some brussels sprouts with some prosciutto and the stuffed mushrooms. And I'm really just focused on my red wine sauce. You know, that's the key element to this dish. Yum. Have you been in the top three yet? No. Gee, if you can nurse that sauce from where it is now, to where it could be, you could definitely be top three. GEORGE: You've got all the building blocks here. It's about assembling that house. And this sounds like we could see the real Matthew. I'm excited by this dish. OK. Thank you. Thank you. They both seemed to really like the sauce. It puts a little bit more added pressure on me now to make sure that I don't do anything wrong. You know, there's a risk, if I don't keep watching it, it over-reduces and then it's gone. Today, I'm cooking a raviolo which is a single ravioli. I don't want to overcomplicate it with multiple little pasta pillows. The dish is all about the sauce. MARCO: Georgia. Hi, Marco. Tell me about your sauce. You cooked it? Cooked it. Passed it? Twice. Drained off your fat? Um... No. Look at your sauce. Can you see it's milky? What's happened is, in the cooking, the olive oil and the red wine and the veal stock has emulsified. The shininess that's sitting on top of the sauce - I need to skim it off. I get it resting in a clear jug and skim the fat off. I've taken the fat off. I now have got my heat back. I'm about to finish off the jus, so I'm just going to let it bring up to temperature, add the butter and then taste it, season, hopefully it's perfect. MELITA: It feels like there's extra pressure on the floor with Marco being there. Melita, how are you? Hi, Marco. I'm good, thank you. I'm sure that everyone's in the same headspace as me. We just want to do the best that we possibly can. What are you making? I'm making... I'm marinating a lamb backstrap, hazelnuts with mushrooms baked in the oven. Mushrooms and hazelnuts without question is a magical combination. Great. How are you enjoying the competition? I'm loving it. I'm absolutely loving it. It's an enormous sacrifice, isn't it? It is a huge sacrifice. To walk away from your family, your home... Yeah. Do you miss them? (SOBS) Yeah, I do. Yeah. Come on, Melita. Come on. Thanks, Marco. Hold it together. Yeah. Can I tell you... It's the greatest compliment you can give, 'cause you're giving yourself. But you have to find that inner strength... Yeah. ...to push on through. When you go home, you go home a winner. Yeah. At whatever stage you go home. Yeah, I know. And just remember one thing, they're missing you as much. Can I tell you one little secret? Sure. If you don't have emotion, you can't cook. Thanks, Marco. I'm an old romanticist. You bring tears to me. Take care. Thank you. Thank you, Marco. Pleasure. Marco's really sparked something in me at this point. I just really want to give this everything I've got. I know flavour. I just want to nail this. I want to do everyone proud. OK, plate. GARY: This challenge is all about the alchemy of sauce, so we'd love to see that little jug on the side. 15 minutes to go. GEORGE: Come on, guys. JACQUI: Come on. I have got 15 minutes to go and I'm starting to lose it a little bit. Focus, focus, focus. I have finally made a decision on how I'm going to cook this quail. I'm going to pan fry the legs and I'm going to roast the breasts in the oven. It's really important that I don't overcook it. The quail is such a delicate bird and there's a huge margin for error. Oh, God, God, God. BILLIE: I'm just doing the final touches to my sauce. I add the fresh raspberry and taste it again. The flavour of the sauce now has many more levels. I just hope that the raspberry works well with the other components on my dish. Oh my God. I'll have a heart attack. I'm frantic at the moment. I've got potatoes still boiling. Ah! Watch out. I take my pan to strain the potatoes, bring the pan back over. I want to season them with salt, so I grab the salt grinder, twist... (GASPS) ...and all the rock salt comes out into the potatoes. Thanks. ANNA: Are you alright? I don't have time to make any potatoes again. Ah! I think I've just destroyed this dish. 1 FIONA: Ah... There's rock salt all over my potatoes. I don't have time to make any potatoes again. But I look down and there's a section that might actually be safe. I manage to scoop that out of the bowl, get it through a drum sieve. I'm just hoping it's not too salty. I've got enough to plate up with. I think I'm cursed today. Never before has a sauce meant so much. Only five minutes to go. Come on. Come on. Let's go. Holy-dooley. The pressure is on. Time's just flown by. Pretty crazy in here right now, but I'm staying focused. I've got my filling ready to pop onto the pasta that I've rolled out. I am moving as fast as I can, but also being really, really careful at the same time. I've got the raviolo in the boiling water and so far, so good. It's staying together and it looks beautiful and plump and the pasta looks delicious. I think it's going to be OK. ASHLEIGH: Ah! I pull my quail breasts out of the oven... They're not cooked through enough. They still look quite raw in the middle, and I do not want to serve raw quail to the judges. So, I'm going to have to finish them off in the pan. Oh, this is not good. ANDREA: I'm finishing off my dish, mashing the mash and finishing off the lamb and I've just completely neglected the jus. It's Vegemite. Its thick and gluey and just completely unpleasant. Once you over-reduce it, there's no real going back. You can add water to it, but it's very obvious. It could very possibly mean that I'm in the bottom three. One minute to go. Come on. It's time to finish. Dress your plates. JACQUI: I throw my tortellini onto the plate, I quickly chuck some roast tomatoes on. So I've tasted my jus. It tastes watery, I can taste the fat in it. But it's all I've got at the moment. Nothing I can do about it. At the last minute, I just tip a bit of the veal jus at the bottom. JOHN: As I'm plating up, I want to remind the judges that they're actually looking at a beach. I've got my scallops which look like rocks, I've got the sourdough which represents the sand and I've got the jus which will represent the sea. I've made quite a lot of components. And I'm thinking to myself, "Maybe I've overcomplicated my dish again," but I'm hoping that the elements that I have will save me from the bottom three. Last few seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Tools down. That's it. Well done. Jolly good work. MATTHEW: I think this is probably the best cook that I've had in the competition so far. You know, I'm pretty happy with the way everything went. Everything came together. I got some good feedback from the judges as they came around, so hopefully I've done enough at the end to make it all work. ASHLEIGH: I'm worried about how I've cooked the quail. I think maybe the breasts are a bit overcooked and they're not as caramelised I would have liked them to be. I don't think I'll be in the top three today. I just hope I'm not in the bottom three. This invention test was all about sauce. Question is how well have you balanced that sauce? We're looking for the best three and the worst three. First one up... Matthew. (APPLAUSE) MATTHEW: I've created a dish that I'm happy with. I'm hoping that beef is cooked beautifully. I look at the plate and I think, you know, this is the sort of plate that I'm really happy serving to Marco today. What is the dish? Beef fillet, pommes mille feuille, brussels sprouts with prosciutto, stuffed mushroom with goats cheese, with a red wine sauce. Happy? I'm happy. The beef's impeccable, sauce is impeccable. The salty hit of the prosciutto with the freshness of those just blanched brussels sprout leaves is wonderful. Your ratio... to wine to stock is perfect. Thank you. The clarity is perfect. Well done, Matthew. This sauce is going to take some beating today. Thank you. Thank you. Good work. Thanks. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) It's a real buzz when Marco says, you know, "I love your sauce." That was the main point of the dish today. I'm feeling on top of the world at the moment. Whoo! Melita, you're next. (APPLAUSE) MARCO: Sauce looks good. I'm happy with your sauce. Nice flavour. Really nice. Thank you. Your children will be very proud of you. Trust me. They really will. Thank you. Thanks. (APPLAUSE) All that emotion, all of the struggle to get through the cook was really worth it today. Jacqui. JACQUI: Walking up to the judges, I'm starting to doubt what I've done. It was about the sauce and really what I've done is create a pasta with a runny sauce. Today I've got an osso bucco tortellini, roasted tomatoes, pesto and a mushroom and veal sauce. The problem for me is I can't taste the jus. Yeah. Yeah, look, agreed. Sauce is a little thin and it's not a great dish at all. This could well possibly put you in the bottom three. Ta. (APPLAUSE) I disappointed them and, mostly, I disappointed myself. Next up, Andrea. ANDREA: I'm really nervous. I know that this is a jus challenge and that's going to be the number one thing and the decider. It's a herb crusted lamb rack with a herb mash and a veal jus. Where's the veal jus? Yeah, I way over-reduced it. I reckon there's a teaspoon, if that. Oh, my goodness, it's thick. What was the struggle? I was way too focused on the lamb and I kind of forgot it a little bit. You take your eye off the pan for a few seconds and look what happens. Even at my age, I over-reduce things. I just hide them better. (LAUGHS) You have to stay focused on the job in hand. (APPLAUSE) I'm really unfortunately hoping there's some other really weak ones to come... Vegemite. ...otherwise I'm definitely going to be in the bottom three. Fiona, it's your turn to have your dish tasted. (APPLAUSE) FIONA: I've got a fillet of beef with potato puree and some carrots and mushrooms. I'm worried about the potatoes if they've absorbed that salt. I'm really now worried that I'm going to end up in the bottom three. 1 FIONA: I'm a little bit worried about the potatoes, if they've absorbed that salt. I'm really now worried that I'm going to end up in the bottom three. It's honest, it's true - the roast carrot, the little hint of the whiskey in the sauce, the mash, the beef - it's really, really tasty. Oh, good. What you've achieved... it's quite classical which is rather beautiful. Thank you, Fiona. You fed us well. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I've done a lot of things right and they like it. I'm over the moon. Up you come, Billie. (APPLAUSE) BILLIE: I've cooked a spiced duck breast with sweet potato puree and a raspberry jus. You know what? What you've put up is a really pretty little dish. It looks good. Even the way you've cut the duck, I've gone, "Hmm. You taste it, you get one layer of flavours, you taste it again, all of a sudden, the raspberry starts coming through, the veal jus is still there, it's still meaty. It takes the raspberry for its fragrance and savouriness, not for its sweetness, and I think that's really clever. GARY: The flavour just, hands down, I think, is the nicest sauce I've tasted today. Its complex, it's got lovely acidity and it's fresh. Don't look so worried. Can't you see we're all enjoying it? BILLIE: I know, I know. We're all happy. Not one ounce of criticism. OK. Billie, you've arrived. You are here in the competition, right now, here, and what a week to do that in, with the great man standing with us. Yeah, I know. Amazing. Dishes like that are the reason why we eat out. Well done. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) That's a huge step for me. Hearing George welcome me to the competition because I cooked a good dish is really great. I'm so happy. Thank you. Next up, John. (APPLAUSE) John, what have you cooked? This is my concept of 'the sea meets land'. I've done seared scallop with nori and black salt, seared lobster, a fennel puree and also a sourdough crumble. There's a couple of dishes here. You've got so much going on on that plate that my mouth is just in a riot. I don't know where I am. You need to edit what you do, John. Edit, edit, edit. What you've shown us is that you work very hard. You've also shown us that you enjoy cooking. I do. You love experimenting. But you know something? You've got to know when to stop. Thank you. Thank you, John. GARY: Fingers crossed, John. (APPLAUSE) Next up, Jessica. That sauce by itself is too strong in rosemary, it's too thick, it's over-reduced, it's too salty. However, on that dish, with the leeks and with the veal and with the mushrooms is delicious. Jamie, it's your turn. That really dark sauce and the light sort of parsnips and chicken, it's quite cool, actually. GEORGE: Next up, Ava. Perfectly cooked. Great job. Christina. I love the consistency of the sauce. I think it's got the right viscosity. GARY: Amy. MARCO: Your sauce is very delicate. So, it's not too strong. So, you've put a lot of understanding into what you've done, and I think you've done a really good job. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Ashleigh. (APPLAUSE) ASHLEIGH: I am feeling extra pressure because I had the advantage today. I think the judges will be expecting a lot from me. GARY: Right, tell us what it is. It is quail with a pumpkin puree and mushroom crumb, a red wine and orange jus. Have you blown it or have you nailed it? Um... I'm not sure. What have you done that's not quite right? Um, I'm worried about the quail. I'm worried it's a bit over. I just think... Um... (SOBS) I let the pressure get to me today. Yeah. It is a little, isn't it? Yeah. You know what I love? I love the colour, but the quail is overcooked and that sauce... it's almost too strong, like it dominates everything else on the plate. You allowed pressure to get to you because you tried too hard. And that's what let you down. Not your ability as a cook. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) I have definitely not done enough to be in the top three today and I'm still really worried that I might be in the bottom three. Next up, Georgia. (APPLAUSE) GEORGIA: My stomach in my throat. I feel so nauseous. This is definitely one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life. Today, I've made a mushroom raviolo with a hazelnut crumb and a mushroom and veal jus. I like the flavour. Thank you. I do, and I love the combination of hazelnuts with mushrooms. OK. I'll tell you what I like about the jus. I can taste the veal and I can taste the thyme, but most importantly, I can taste the mushroom. I think you've done really well and the texture's perfect. Wow. It really is. Thank you so much, Marco. And it's very clear. Thank you. You should be very proud of yourself. Thank you. I'm so overwhelmed. Thank you so much. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I am gobsmacked. I can't believe that those words are coming out of Marco Pierre White's mouth about my food and my sauce. He loves it. (SOBS) Yay. GARY: Today was all about the sauce. It was about that alchemy. It was about developing flavour. In essence, what cooking is all about, all wrapped up nicely in that word, sauce. And we love it. It was also about identifying the top three dishes, and for those three people, the chance of immunity, but also identifying the three worst, and for those three people, a pressure test and a very real chance... of going home. 1 Three dishes really wowed us today. If I say your name, please step forward. Billie. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Billie, you didn't just bring us the best sauce of the day, but you brought us a dish that looked good from every angle in terms of flavour, in terms of texture and in terms of elegance and subtlety. Well done. Thank you. The next dish that wowed us... was Matthew's. APPLAUSE) Oh, Matthew. Long overdue. Well done. That was delicious. That moment George and I tasted the base of your sauce at your bench, early on in the cook, we knew you had a winner on your hands. And you delivered in every element of your dish. Well done. Thank you. And the final person joining Matthew and Billie is Georgia. (APPLAUSE) Georgia, like the perfect engine, your sauce was the oil that made your dish run smoothly. But we also loved your raviolo, and that hazelnut crumb, delicious. Perfect. Good work. Thank you. Well done. Step back in line. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Some of you were inspired to do some of your best cooking since you've entered this competition. But some of you did your worst. If I call you name, please step forward. Andrea. Jacqui. And the third person joining you in tomorrow's pressure test is... John. Andrea, Jacqui and John, you three will be going through to tomorrow's pressure test. From there, one of you will go home. I've got a lot more to show and I just need to forget what happened today and focus on tomorrow. Going forward, you have to focus. You have to stay disciplined with yourself. Allow your emotions to be your inspiration, but suppress them, because let's not forget we have a job to do. Question everything you do. You are fighting for your place in the MasterChef kitchen. Go get some rest. See you tomorrow. MATTHEW: Thanks, Marco. Tomorrow, I need to try and move past the disappointment of today. I need to get my head in the game for doing a much better job. I need to be focused. I need to be confident. ANNOUNCER: Next time, they're cooking a Marco Pierre White masterpiece for the man himself. This dish is a wolf in sheep's clothing. But first, they have to butcher it. JACQUI: There's nothing simple about this. Come on. Quickly, quickly, quickly. Faced with the toughest challenge yet... Mushroom! It's on fire. Read the recipe. Read the recipe. Read the recipe. ...one contestant will achieve beyond all expectations. Cooked to perfection. But for another... You know your mistake, don't you? ...the MasterChef journey will be over. Able 2015