ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - the eliminated contestants returned... Who wants it more? ..to fight their way back into the competition. Maybe try and redeem myself. Stephen won the right to cook against Jessie. Ooh, look at the old hands shake! But when his jelly didn't make the plate... Forgot all about them! ..his last chance went with it. Congratulations. You are our top 10. Tonight - it's a mystery box... You can lift your lids now. ..that will stay a mystery... Oh. ..even when the lid comes off. (CLEARS THROAT) Our mystery mystery box. Our contestants will work with ingredients... JESSIE: Why did it do that? I don't know! ..they've never even seen before. Oh, wow. I'm not out of my comfort zone. I'm out of my comfort universe. A-cha-cha! This challenge will inspire... You're onto something. Genius. ..some of the most creative cooking of the season. Gorgeously good. If you're not top three, I will eat George's hat. Just don't try putting a name to it. I have no idea what I just cooked! The grand prize in Australia's biggest cooking competition - the chance to work inside the country's best kitchens, a monthly column in Australia's leading premium food magazine, Delicious, a stunning Alfa Romeo Giulietta, a quarter of a million dollars to kick-start their food dream, and the title of Australia's next MasterChef. # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016 Hey. What can it be? Hey! MATTHEW: The start of a new week and I'm in the top 10, and I'm feeling really good about that. It was a goal of mine to try and get here. I didn't think I'd make it this far. But I know that I need to refocus now, and finals week is only a couple of weeks away. I've really got to work harder to make it that far. # Let's do this! # It's nice to officially be in the real top 10. I feel really focused about the competition at the moment and I actually feel really lucky to be here. ROSE: New week! Top 10! Let's go! Mystery box! AMY: Hey! Walking through the doors to the MasterChef kitchen, I'm thinking about the fact that I haven't had a mystery box tasting yet, but I really feel like today's the day. Look how short the benches are! BILLIE: I know! SARA: There really is 10 of us now, huh? I really need to start pushing myself, because I really do feel like people are overtaking me. Good morning. ALL: Hi. Welcome to a new week. Who said that when they came in? "Ooh, look how short the benches are!" That was me. That was you, Rose? Yeah, yeah. Yes, because there's only 10 of you! We've got to that point in the competition. Our favourite bit! But don't let the pressure get to you, honestly. You're gonna have a bit of fun today, I think. There is no doubt about it that this competition pushes you out of your comfort zone. Today's mystery box... ..is certainly gonna take you outside of your comfort zone 100%. Are you ready to find out what you've got to cook with? ALL: Yes. You can lift your lids... ..now. SEVERAL: Oh. REYNOLD: Whoa! BILLIE: So weird. ROSE: I lift the lid of the box and... ..I...don't know what I see. I don't really understand what's on this box. There looks like some sort of bird. Some black stuff. (CLEARS THROAT) Yeah, it's a really weird box. This is probably the strangest mystery box we've ever put together. It's something we like to call our mystery mystery box. Anyone able to name all eight of those ingredients? Not all of them. SARA: Is this intestine? Who can name all eight? No. No. No. No, it's not. The black one. Put your finger into that little black bowl. You have a taste. REYNOLD: Ooh. Have a close look at them. See if you can see all the tiny little legs. (WHISPERS) Oh, my God! They're ants! ROSE: Ants?! These are sugar ants. Eugh! MATTHEW: What?! GEORGIA: They're ants. Ants. Oh, God! What...?! (SARA LAUGHS) Hell, no, I've never cooked with ants before! Who's cooked with ants before?! ROSE: I don't feel great about cooking with ants. I feel like taking my shoe off and just squashing the whole bowl. It's probably wrong. I'm sure they're already dead. That beautiful bird is something Gary's eminently familiar with. It's a pheasant. Lean meat, though. Tricky to cook. This little grain here is sorghum. Fifth most eaten grain in the world. It's turned into a porridge in Africa. It can be puffed. It's a delicious ingredient. The beautifully named "A-cha-cha!" (CHUCKLES) Achacha. Which is a Bolivian fruit related to the mangosteen. The flesh has a flavour kind of akin to passionfruit, but slightly more vanilla-y. The stringy cheese is an Armenian cheese. It's soaked in brine, so when you taste it, it's very salty. You've got amchoor, which is dried green mango. New Zealand yam, which is actually a tuber. Cucamelon, or Mexican cucumbers. And finally, I think the most interesting ingredient of the whole lot is this powder here. Have a smell. A bit of hay, a bit of tobacco in there. That is a flour made from the outsides of the coffee berry. SARA: Oh, wow. So it's kind of like a cocoa, but it's got this lovely tobaccoey flavour. So, what you're gonna have to do with this box is taste everything and work out how you're gonna use it. It's tricky, but as we know, we grow far more outside our comfort zone than within it. (CHUCKLES) We can actually hear your brains ticking! It's hilarious. The looks on your faces. But you've got some fabulous ingredients there and you've got a little bit of experimentation, maybe, ahead of you. You have 60 minutes to give us a gorgeous dish, and you have to use at least one of those mystery ingredients. You've got a regular pantry of ingredients underneath the bench that include flour, milk, eggs, butter - the usual stuff. We're only gonna taste the three best dishes today, so you want to be up the top. And of course, the winner gets a great advantage in the next challenge - the invention test. Are you up for it? ALL: Yes! Good stuff. Your time starts...now. ROSE: I don't know what to make with these ingredients. (LAUGHS) I am literally racking my brain right now. Yam... I know I need to taste everything on this board, 'cause I have no idea what any of this tastes like and I'm kind of freaking out about tasting ants. Ooh! Yeah, I kind of like the ants. They're kind of cool. They're a little bit crunchy. They're quite...sour. I might use the ants. Yeah, I'd like to give it a go. Oh, wow. Yum. I love it, 'cause I think we're as bamboozled as they are. GEORGE: I'm looking at that box going, "Jeez, there's only a couple of things I've actually cooked with." I mean, the pheasant, the little Mexican cucumber. GARY: You know what I like? Because it's unknown - and it would be for us too - they're just playing around. Frying a bit of that, poaching a bit of this, toasting a bit of that and seeing how it all works, and it's really interesting looking at their faces while they're trying to figure out what goes with what. ASHLEIGH: What am I doing?! REYNOLD: (LAUGHS) I don't know as well. This is weird. What IS this stuff? I've never worked with any of these ingredients before. I don't even know what half of their names are, so...uh... (LAUGHS) I don't know what I'm doing here today! I can't think of a dessert, so I'm gonna use the pheasant. (SIGHS) OK. The structure of a pheasant, or any poultry, is very familiar. But cooking-wise, I don't know how to treat this. I'm hoping that it's gonna cook like duck. So, I'm gonna cut off the pheasant breast, cook it on the pan, and then afterwards into the oven, and hopefully, that's gonna cook nicely. I haven't 100% decided what I'm gonna cook today. I know I'm gonna try and cook this little pheasant leg. I'm gonna puff some sorghum. It's all just gonna come together as I figure out how things work. (LAUGHS) The first thing I'm gonna do is see if I can puff the sorghum. So I heat up some oil in a pan and I just chuck a couple of grains in just to see if it's gonna pop and create something crunchy and tasty. (GASPS, YELPS) It's lit itself on fire. Which is not a great start. (YELPS) JESSIE: Why did it do that? I don't know! (LAUGHS) It seems to have disappeared, though. (LAUGHS) I've obviously left it in there for way too long, 'cause the sorghum has disappeared from the pot. So, um...might stay away from that technique. Mine are doing it, Jess, and they're not disappearing. The sorghum puffs up really nicely and looks like mini popcorn. So I think I'll have a play with that and maybe make a sweet dish. Jessie, how do you feel back in the top 10? I'm super stoked. Right, come on, then. Dish. I'm going a dessert. I'm kind of playing on the idea of this being like popcorn. So, this is the sorghum? Yeah. How cool is that?! I love that. I love that! I really do. Can you do some extra? (CHUCKLES) I'm out. Oh, are you? You're out? Yeah. OK. Don't eat any more. So, we'll stop eating. Yeah. You're onto something. Yeah, you're onto something fascinating. Gary and George seem to really like the idea of the puffed sorghum, so I'm gonna take that as the hero of the dish and do a puffed sorghum parfait. I've only got half the dish in my head, so I'm just gonna make it up as I go along. I'm a little out of my element with these ingredients today, but...I think we all are, so... I'm not out of my comfort zone, I'm out of my comfort universe. I don't even know where I am right now. The zone is here and I'm somewhere out floating in the atmosphere going, "Oh, what's going on?" This is crazy. What are you cooking, Rose? Hi. I'm gonna use these, uh, lang...langoustines? BOTH: Langoustines?! No? Langoustines are... I got it wrong. Sorry, I'm confused. They're fish. What is it again? It's OK to be confused. This is achacha. That's right. How could I forget that? How could I forget 'achacha'? A-cha-cha! Yeah. I really like the bitterness and the sourness of them, so I'm gonna grate the zest and turn it into a bit of a curd. So, I've just made a pastry with, um... What was this again? The coffee flour. The coffee flour. I like the idea of the bitterness and... Yep. Good idea. ..and maybe meringue and just a few other bits and pieces. In the last invention test, you were in the top three, yeah? Yeah. I want to go there again. Yep. My biggest concern with making the tart today is balancing the flavours - the bitterness of the coffee flour pastry, the sourness of the achacha curd and the sweetness of the meringue. I want to play on that sweet and sour combination, and those ants are really quite sour, so I've decided to make a praline of ant. Yeah. Ant praline. Something I never thought I'd ever hear myself saying. There's no mystery to what we want. We just want delicious food. 45 minutes to go. Come on! Come on, guys. Wow! Popcorn for mice! How are they going? Crazy box, but they're going well. My worry is they're all grabbing the pheasant, but do they understand, you know, how that pheasant reacts to heat? If you don't cook those breasts on the crown, you know, it's... They go really dry. ..they shrink. Yeah, and they dry. AMY: I'm the only one left in the competition that hasn't been tasted for a mystery box, which is terrible, and I really, really want that tasting today. Amy, if you want to be inventive and creative, today is the day with these ingredients. I know. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) What are you most excited about as a combination of flavours? I love this powder. I think it's got a beautiful smoky flavour. The coffee flour, yep. The coffee flour. So, I'm going to use that to smoke the pheasant breast, which I've roasted on the crown, and hopefully it's still got lots of moisture in it, 'cause it obviously is quite lean. I really hope you're playing a strategic game. You're just sitting on the shoulder of the pack waiting to burst through. But now is the time to do it. Yep. Yep. Yep. But this sounds like a good dish. Thank you. I feel like I'm on track to get my dish tasted today. Smoking that pheasant breast in the coffee flour is something different. It's got a lovely, strong, smoky flavour. So, yeah, I'm really hoping that this is gonna make me stand out. OK. What's cookin'? Uh, I have no idea at the moment. I've got the, um, pheasant breast. Great. It's in the oven, and... On the bone, off the bone? Off the bone. Off the bone? OK. Yeah. Is that alright? Not a lot of fat, that's all. Yeah. And if you overcook it, it's like cardboard. Pull it out so we can have a look at it. Yeah. Ohhh! (MOANS) Oh, gosh. Can you see that liquid running out there now? Yeah. Can you see that? That's what happens when you take it off the bone. Yeah. Oooh! Alright. I feel embarrassed. I feel really embarrassed. It was... (GROANS) ..such a stupid idea to take it off the crown. I can't use my pheasant breast. I've got to start something else. I've got to think of something else. And I just can't think of anything. I really can't. What am I doing? I might be in a lot of trouble today. 2 REYNOLD: Today, we have a mystery mystery box, with ingredients that I've never seen before, let alone cooked before. I've cooked the pheasant breasts in the pan, and Gary and George said that I should have left it on the bone. It's a lean meat, so once you take it off the crown, it starts to lose its juices and it starts to become dry. I've got to think of something else. I've got to get something up on the plate. Now I'm just trying to do a backup plan. I've got the legs here, so I'm just going to fry those off, and I'm just gonna, you know, halve it up, divide it, and see how it can go on the plate. I'm gonna pan-fry the legs on the bone, and hopefully, they're gonna cook perfectly. Rolling pin. (SIGHS) JESSICA: I think what I'm gonna do today is take the pheasant leg and stuff it with some of this Armenian string cheese just to try and keep it nice and moist on the inside. I work in a fromagerie, but I have never come across an Armenian cheese before, so, yeah, I 100% want to try and play with that. Jessica. Hi. How are you going? Ooh, I like what you're doing there. How does that react under heat, that cheese? Um, I assume it's not gonna melt hugely, just by the texture of it. So, it might actually come out in the same way you put it in. I'm just thinking, how hot will it get inside that leg? Yeah, right. Probably not very if it's a lean meat. Not very. So... I don't know. I've never used that stringy cheese before. But what I'm asking is, if you're expecting it to melt, maybe it won't. Maybe it won't. Yep. So... OK, cool. Thank you. (LAUGHS) Gary has suggested to me that it might be a good idea to see how the string cheese cooks down and how it's gonna act inside the leg. So I chuck some of this string cheese into a dry pan and wait to see what happens. GEORGE: 30 minutes down! 30 minutes to go! Come on! (AMY YELPS) Whoa! Arggh! Got to get a wriggle on! My pheasant's going really good. I just really don't want to overcook it. I absolutely need that pheasant cooked perfectly, otherwise my dish definitely won't be tasted today. My biggest concern is absolutely how that pheasant is cooked, but I also need to be creative and inventive enough that it puts me in the top. So I decide to serve my pheasant with a veloute. My stock is looking really good, and to turn it into a veloute, I just need to mix that stock with a creamy roux. I need that beautiful creamy texture in the veloute to complement that pheasant, and it'll just complete the dish beautifully. BILLIE: The dish I'm making today is an ant semifreddo. The ants taste a little bit like Vegemite, but a little bit bitter and sour. Yeah, I... They're weird. But I quite like the flavour of them. To incorporate the ants in the semifreddo, I make a praline, blitz it up and then stir it through the parfait mixture. Something smells nice. Yeah, something DOES smell nice. What is it? This is burnt sugar with ants in it. 'Cause I like the sourness of it. What is it? A burnt sugar? Like a praline. So, I've... Wow. ..made a caramel and then put ants in it. That's interesting, isn't it? It's in... Yeah. Yeah. So, what are you making? A dessert. So, I'm gonna do, like, a semifreddo... Is parfait and semifreddo the thing of 2015? It is the thing... It is, isn't it? Yeah, but not with ants in it! True. I'll be really interested to see how you integrate all of these unknowns and make something creative and stand out, isn't it? OK. Yeah. Hmm. Making your dish stand out is really, really important, so I want my dish to be all about ants. I just want to cook something that I've never done before. I want to try and come up with something interesting. JESSIE: I've got the puffed sorghum parfait in the freezer, but I definitely know that it's not a full dish. I'm just trying to make a few elements I think will work together so I might have something to plate at the end. Yeah. Not really too sure. (CHUCKLES) I would love to be tasted today. I definitely want to put up a dish that proves to the judges why I should be here, but currently, with my lack of ideas, I'm worried that I won't have a dish. # Making it up as I go along... # I definitely think it needs a sauce, so I'm gonna make a really bitter caramel and just hope that everything falls into place towards the end of the cook. It's a mystery mystery box, but here's a clue - only 15 minutes to go! Come on, guys! Ooh, I'd better hurry up. JESSICA: So I chuck some of this string cheese into a dry pan and...what happens is sort of incredible. (CHUCKLES) It holds its shape, but it still goes nice and crispy on one side, and it looks awesome. It kind of creates this really cool shape. SARA: That looks really cool. It's like a cheesy egg net. Can't go wrong with that! So, I'm not gonna stuff the cheese into the pheasant anymore. I think I'm gonna try and use it as a garnish instead and just roast the pheasant as is. MATT: Oh, my goodness! You are brilliant! I love it! (LAUGHS) I LOVE your fried... How good does that look?! What a clever idea! What does it taste like? 'Cause it's so salty. It just tastes like the bits on the edge of a toastie. (LAUGHS) Genius. (LAUGHS) Thanks, Matt. Matt seemed to think it's a really good idea, so I think I might be on the right track here. The only question mark for me today, really, is how that pheasant's gonna be cooked. ROSE: It's time to assemble my tart, but I haven't had a chance to taste all the elements together. Just need to make sure that the sweetness and bitterness are balanced out beautifully. I taste my coffee flour pastry and my achacha curd, and they actually taste really, really good. But I taste my meringue... Eugh! ..and it's just far too sweet. I'm just not happy with it. It's just not the right flavour. It's just too overpowering for the coffee flour, it's too overpowering for the achacha curd. I desperately need to think of another element that's gonna balance out the flavours of this tart. But I've only got seven minutes to go. I'm thinking, you know, I just need something soft and light and really delicate to go with it. I think I'm gonna whip up some cream. It's simple, but, you know, cream is always delicious. I'm really panicked. I just hope I can get this done in time. Remember, we're only tasting the top three dishes, so make your plate shine! Five minutes to go! (JUDGES APPLAUD) REYNOLD: I don't like today's cook, Matt. So much weirdness. There's five minutes to go and I finally have a dish. It's a version of an ice-cream sundae, and I've let my caramel get to a really nice, deep, bitter taste to complement the puffed sorghum parfait. BILLIE: I like pushing the boundaries with desserts, so this is one that I'm really happy with. I'm happy with the flavours of it, and you can tell that the dish is all about ants. AMY: The pheasant's looking beautiful. It's got a lovely, strong smoky flavour. And my veloute's a nice consistency, so I'm just gonna add the pan juices from the pheasant just to give it that little bit of extra flavour. Oh. The pan juices may have been a little bit too hot, and my veloute has started to split. I can't believe this is happening. I have never been tasted in a mystery box before and I really wanted to be tasted today. But a split veloute is inedible. It's not nice at all. And I look at the clock and I've got two minutes left to go. I don't have enough time to make another sauce, but I can't serve my pheasant without a creamy element. I don't know whether to serve the veloute or not to serve it. 3 AMY: With two minutes to go, my veloute has split. I don't have enough time to make another sauce, but I can't serve my pheasant without a creamy element. I really don't know what else I can do, so...I serve it anyway, just on the side. I really hope it doesn't ruin my chances of being tasted. No more time for experimentation! One minute to go! Come on! ROSE: My cream has worked out really well. I just need to sprinkle my ant praline over the top. I'm really hoping the flavours are all gonna work together. REYNOLD: The pheasant legs, they're looking quite good on the plate, but I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just chucking things on the plate, but I don't know how it's all gonna balance out. I'm not confident with this dish at all. I have zero confidence in this. Ten seconds! Nine! JUDGES: Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Time's up! Well done. I have no idea what I just cooked! (LAUGHS) JESSIE: Neither do I! Wow! (LAUGHS) That looks amazing! How fun would, like, that be to snack on? (LAUGHS) I think I'm probably up there with a chance to get tasted today. I have absolutely no idea how the pheasant is cooked, to be perfectly honest with you. But Matt called the cheese net "genius", so, yeah, I hope that's enough. (LAUGHS) Oh, wow! Look at you! That looks amazing! Oh, thanks. I can see other people around me, and their dishes look a lot more restauranty than mine. But I really like my dish and I think it's really delicious, so I really hope the judges want to taste it. SARA: How'd you go, sweetie? (SIGHS) Yeah. That was so average! My sauce split. It looks disgusting. Aw. I'm looking down at my dish and my sauce looks awful. I really feel like I've made the wrong decision in serving it. It's really gut-wrenching to know that I've swallowed all of my chances that I had of getting a dish tasted in the mystery box today. You've just competed in a mystery mystery box - I think the first one where you pop the lid and you don't know what half your ingredients are. But what we've seen is a great cook and some beautiful dishes. So, whose dishes ARE we gonna taste? First up... ..Billie. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) BILLIE: Taking my dish up to the judges is nerve-racking because it's a weird dish, but I think it's interesting, so, yeah, I hope they like it. Fantastic. The reason we picked that - 'cause that looks pretty as a picture. What did you cook? I cooked an ant caramel parfait, caramelised and pickled yams, buttered popped sorghum and an ant coffee tuile. My goodness. The presentation is fabulous. I think great choice of plate, 'cause it sort of references the black ant in a weird way. But it's... Yeah, it's really... It looks wonderful. The danger with insects is to hide them, yeah? To pound them up and to use them as flavouring. And this little tuile, where you can actually see the ants on it, is great, 'cause you know exactly what you're eating and you've shown us the ingredient in its natural form. I absolutely love that. That's pimped-up granola. I mean, regardless of all the strange ingredients that you've put in, or seemingly strange, it is just totally delicious, and I'm left with the flavour of what tastes like toffee apples. That is a really clever dish. It just goes to show, there's a reason why you guys are the top 10. You are clever, clever cats. I mean, to think of that by just lifting the lid on a mystery box and not being scared by what might look like foreign ingredients is a credit to you, Billie. Well done. Thank you! Well done. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Hearing their feedback is wonderful. I don't think I've had such good feedback like this in the competition so far. So, yeah, this is a really big lift for me. Well done! That's amazing! The next dish we'd like to taste... ..belongs to... ..Jessie. Ah! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Hmm. What's the dish called? I haven't figured up a short way of saying it, so, it's the puffed sorghum in a parfait, and then I've also made it in a praline with the ants, and used the green mango powder just sort of mixed through the caramel to make it nice and bitter and sour. Nice that you've been picked to be in the top three. Sort of, you know, validation that you belong in the top 10, yeah? Yeah, definitely. I wasn't expecting it. So, yeah, I'm really pleased. Excellent. Ooh, jeez. That's firing up, isn't it? Mmm. My brain is telling me, "Eat more. Eat more, George." 'Cause that is gorgeously good. Oh, good. It's so yummy. It's creamy, it's salty, it's sweet. It's what our palates love. It's...it's smart. Oh. What's clever about it is that on the surface, it's caramel popcorn. It's back row of the cinema, double feature. But you are developing a thing with pushing caramels where they become dark and bitter, and there's something really seductive about desserts like this. I love it. Great work. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) When George wants another spoonful of your dessert, you know you've done something good. So I actually feel really proud of myself. Thanks, my babe. All three of us can't wait to see the, um, face that goes with this announcement. JESSICA: I'm really hoping that I get tasted. The judges seemed really impressed with the little cheese net things that I've made, so I'm really hoping that that's gonna get me across the line. The last dish to be tasted... Looking around, I think my chances of being tasted out of 10 - hmm, probably about two. It's such a simple little tart, but, oh, my God! To get tasted today would be amazing. ..is... Hello. I'm afraid I have some bad news. And some good news! Do this. That furry feeling is harmful bacteria, and it's making harmful little bacteria babies in your mouth. I call it the 'fur factor'. Fortunately, there's good news - Colgate Total. VOICE-OVER: Its unique technology bonds to 100% providing superior Fight the fur factor with Colgate Total. For whole mouth health. 4 All three of us can't wait to see the, um, face that goes with this announcement. The last dish to be tasted... ..is Rose's! Oh! (LAUGHS) Oh, and good face, too! Look at that! I thought they were gonna pick Amy! (LAUGHS) OK. (CHUCKLES) I'm a little surprised. Um... Yeah, OK, sure! I'll bring you my ant tart! The perfect reaction! Oh, it's not The Price Is Right! Perfect reaction. (SINGS 'THE PRICE IS RIGHT' THEME) No, no, but it's funny, isn't it? If you look at that... I mean, you're happy with that, aren't you? Oh, I love it. I'm so proud. Because I, um...was really challenged by the ingredients today and I didn't let that get on top of me. Talk us through. Give us the menu description. So, it's a coffee flour tart with an achacha curd, some fresh cream and an ant praline. The reason I love it is because even though it looks like just a tart, it's not. So, high hopes indeed, but it has to be beautiful pastry, and that cream has to deliver in terms of being light and just this little foil for everything else. Mmm. Mmm. Rose! Rose! Have you had it? I had a little bit before. Here. Have some more. Yeah? OK. Mmm! I think it's OK. What do you mean, "it's OK"? I think it's bloody delicious! That's bloody delicious. (GIGGLES) Oh, I think I just got a shiver down my spine. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? Using an ingredient you've never seen before, you've knocked out one of the best pastries we've seen in the competition this year. Wow. What makes it special for me is the textures. It's that really soft, crumbly pastry and that sort of pasty curd, and then the soft cream, and then crunch, which is from the caramel. It's very, very... And the ant! Using odd ingredients and blending them together to make a kind of modern, bitsy dessert is hard, but it's not nearly as hard as taking something with which we're all very familiar and just tweaking it, and the idea of you making us a quintessential CWA tart with coffee flour and achacha and ants is kind of subversive and delicious, and I think this might be the best thing you've cooked in the whole competition. Yeah. Wow! Rose, well done. Rose, delicious. Thank you. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Go, ants! Everybody should go buy ants and just cook with them. I am so happy, and I'm really excited that I'm a chance for having the top dish, because it's one in three - my odds just got so much better. Well done. Oh, my God. I was NOT expecting them to say my name! We absolutely loved what the three of you did. I don't think we were expecting food of quite such stellar quality. Jessie, Billie, amazing-looking dishes that delivered on that promise. Rose, yours was a dessert by stealth. It looked kind of home-style, but, Rose, really, really loved it. You're the winner, Rose! Congratulations! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Well done, Rosie! (ALL LAUGH, SQUEAL) Yay! Well done, lady! Oh, my God! I won a mystery box! I am just so excited! The more we tasted it, the more we found stuff to love about it. The beautiful buttery shortness of the pastry. The flavour of the coffee flour. The use of the achacha skin to make the curd. And the billowiness of that cream. Then with the ants on top - delicious. Excellent cooking. Well done. Right. Rose. That means you win that fantastic advantage in this challenge, which is the invention test. Ready to find out what it is? Absolutely. Come on, then. Let's go have a look. Oooh! Never been in here, have you? No! Hey? (LAUGHS) First time for everything! Rose, you've heard of the power of three. Well, today, you get to choose three things. Oh. What you cook with, the style in which you're cooking, and the length of the cook, the time of the cook. Oooh. A lot of power, huh? That's a LOT of power. That's good. Yeah! Rose, your first choice is between... OK. ..meat, poultry and eggs... Mm-hm. ..or... ..dairy. OK. If you choose the meat, lamb, the poultry, the eggs, it means the dairy is removed from the pantry. OK. And vice versa. If you pick dairy, all the meat and poultry and eggs are removed. OK. Great. So, that was the first choice. The second choice is between... ..European and Asian. Ooh. Mmm. If you choose European, there'll be no Asian ingredients available. If you choose Asian, vice versa. Mm-hm. Ooh. I'm really comfortable with cooking European cuisine, but it's top 10 week and I really want to challenge myself. Maybe I should think about cooking Asian. This one's much more straightforward. Time. You can choose 30 minutes and have a quick cook, or 45 minutes and have a little bit longer. Up to you. OK. So, a nice little challenge, isn't it? It's a great little challenge. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not thinking about anyone else today. My intention was to come in and focus on what I would want to do for me, what would be the best outcome for me today. Um, and I want to have some fun with this as well. Come on! REYNOLD: Oh, she's happy. (GIGGLES) So, are you keen to see what you're in for? Or, what Rose put you into? ALL: Yes. Rose, tell them what your three choices were. I got to choose the style that we cook with today, the pantry that we cook with, as well as the time. BILLIE: That's not good. MATT: Uh-oh! That is such a good advantage! Right, Rose. Let's put them out of their misery. Show them what you picked. I picked Asian, meat, poultry and eggs, and 45 minutes. Because Rose has chosen Asian, in that pantry, all the European ingredients are off limits. Because Rose has chosen red meat, poultry, eggs, there is no dairy - no milk, no cream, no butter. That part of the fridge is bare. We're looking for the three best dishes to go forward to an immunity challenge. The three worst dishes find their maker in a pressure test, where one of them will go home. You have 45 minutes to bring us that dish. Are you ready? ALL: Yes. Your time starts now! REYNOLD: Wow. SARA: Whoa. Uh-oh! It looks like a nightclub! There are quite a few sections that have been blacked out with ingredients that we're not allowed to use. So I look around and I've got no idea what I'm gonna cook. A lot of Thai ingredients are jumping out at me. I see a lot of Thai herbs and I see ginger and lots of things that I feel like I can use. I just kind of grab things that I feel work together and... Ah, I see a duck. I'm just gonna use duck and build my dish around that. I love cooking with duck. Ah! Tamarind. There you are. I'm just so comfortable cooking with it. Today, I'm going to do my take on a chicken and sweet corn soup. I get back to my bench. I've got all my ingredients. I pull my chicken out... Dammit! It's a duck, not a chicken! I'm running frantically to the pantry like I'm holding a little baby underneath its wings! How else do you run frantically with a chicken or a duck? It's not an easy thing to do! (LAUGHS) OK, little chicken! I grab my chicken. I run straight back so I can get started on my soup. To make my chicken and sweet corn soup, I need to make a base stock. I'm gonna use lots of Asian flavours to do that and use the chicken bones. I don't even know what this is. I'm not a great Asian cuisine cook. This is something that's out of my comfort zone. So I'm just going to focus on getting the flavours right and putting up a dish that actually tastes good. SARA: I love Chinese food and I'm confident with the flavours with Chinese food. So that's what I'm doing. What's the dish? So, I'm going to do a poached chicken breast, um...that's in Chinese spices, probably. I'm gonna do a black sesame paste underneath with a spring onion oil. Yeah, love it. Good. Get some texture in there, gooey bits. Sweet and sour. You know, all that. Every dish is about balance of flavour, but in Chinese cooking, it's SO much about balance of flavour, so I really want to make sure that I have enough time up my sleeve to get the flavours right. So, I'm making a stock to poach my chicken breast in. It needs to be full of flavour, because, really, my chicken breast is only going to be in there for 20 minutes or so, so it needs to infuse as much flavour and aromats into that breast as possible. The chicken's poaching away. I don't need to worry about it for another 20 minutes. The next thing I move on to is my spring onion oil. Spring onions are used so much in Chinese cooking, so I figure it will give a really nice look to the dish, plus taste. ROSE: I'm nervous about having the advantage. I mean, I like that I had a good cook this morning, but there's no room to make mistakes today. I chose Asian over European because I want to be inventive. Asian's not my strength. I'm much more comfortable in the European space and I really want to push myself - it's top 10. So, today, I'm cooking a Thai-style Scotch egg with a mushroom salad and a dipping sauce. I've got one question... Which is? ..and one question only. (LAUGHS) I know where you're going. How many minutes will you boil the egg? I will put it in boiling water, um, and I will boil it for... Well, it depends on how cold the eggs are, but they're quite cold, so maybe close to five minutes. Depending on... Yeah. I want it nice and soft. The judges have put doubt in my mind now about how long I should cook my egg for. I've had trouble cooking eggs in the past. I think five minutes is right. But I have to get this right. The yolks have to be soft, or the dish will be ruined and I'll end up in the bottom three. Um, so, it's Asian, and 45 minutes to do this dish. I'm gonna be doing a...my sort of version of a beef rendang. So, pretty close to me, this dish, because my dad always makes this at home. And it's really delicious. It takes him about four to five hours. Doing this dish in 45 minutes is insane. Uh, bottom three - you know what? - doesn't cross my mind at the moment. Just cook well. There are so many ways this dish can go wrong. The beef can be tough. It needs about, like, 30 minutes or 35 minutes to cook in the pressure cooker. You've got to get the right sambal. The sauce has to be very dark and very reduced. And 45 minutes is literally pushing it. It's gonna be ridiculous. 5 I don't think you realise just how quick 45 minutes goes. You have 30 minutes left! Come on! GEORGE: Come on, guys. So, I'm gonna do a little, um, beef...beef dumpling in a, uh...in a...spicy beef broth. I know this is a big undertaking in 45 minutes, but I have to get this meat soft, shredded and into the dumpling dough before I cook the dumplings. It's a big risk, but I know I have to be inventive today to stay out of the bottom three. I want this meat to be beautiful and tender and falling apart so that it's delicious in a dumpling. I don't want it to be chewy. I'm putting the meat into the pressure cooker and I know that it needs to cook for about 30 minutes, and I'm looking up at the clock and there's only about 30 minutes left. So I know I'm really gonna be pushing this to the line. But I can get that meat out a few minutes early and it might be done in time. I'm just really hoping that it's going to work out OK. GEORGE: Hi, Georgia. GEORGIA: Hi. What's going on? I'm making a chicken and sweet corn soup. Oh, yeah! Yum. I love a chicken and sweet corn soup. Yeah, I really like it. I'm gonna drop in a raw egg at the end. I like that too. Like a... So you get that feathery effect through it. Beautiful. Yep. Breaking the raw egg into the soup during tasting is the inventive part of my dish. Everything rides on that working. Um, um, um, um, um...OK. I really need to wow them. Give yourself time. JESSIE: I love cooking Asian food, so this challenge is so up my alley. Quick, simple, delicious food. So, um, blow me away with the creative, brilliant dish that you've been storing in your arsenal for just this moment. Well, I'm doing a - hopefully - perfectly cooked duck breast and I'm just gonna glaze it in sort of, like, a spicy caramel. Mm-hm. Like, it's quite bitter. And then I'm just, like, playing with vegetables in different ways. Like, I've pickled some daikon, and I just want to, um, sort of keep it quite light and fresh with sort of, like, lots of citrus flavours. And, um... Yeah, I need to go back and...adjust it a little bit. (CHUCKLES) It's certainly bright! Yeah. I think it's gonna be OK. You don't want to be back... I know. ..with one foot out the door. No, I don't. I don't. Matt tries my caramel and he's like, "Oh!" I think he kind of was a bit surprised at maybe how funky it was. But I'm not really too worried, because I know that it will work with the duck, and it needs to have everything with it to balance it out. It's where I want it to be. So I'm just gonna pretend like I didn't see his face. I was very disappointed that I didn't get tasted this morning in the mystery box. But Japanese is my absolute favourite Asian cuisine, so I'm really, really hoping to get top three today. That would be a massive, massive thing. Jessica. Hi. How are you? What are you doing? I am gonna do a little Japanese beef dish. So, a little black sesame tare on the beef, chargrilled, like, black on the outside. I'm also doing a little shichimi togarashi to sprinkle over the top. What's that? Uh, it's, like, a little Japanese spice mix. Gary and George, it sounds like they aren't sure about the flavours that I've put together. I'm not worried. Flavour is definitely not my weak point. (LAUGHS) Where's my little brush? The flavours are there, so, um, hopefully, the judges understand my dish and love it. Wow. It smells wonderful in the kitchen. We just hope it's wonderful on the plate. You don't want to be in that bottom three. 20 minutes to go. Come on! Oh, my God! MATTHEW: G'day. What's in the pressure cooker? Uh, I've got some beef in there. So, I'm gonna make a little, um... What does the timer say? Uh... ..20. But you've only got 20 minutes. Yeah, I know. Spot on. (LAUGHS) I'm gonna pull it out a little bit before. Right. I'm doing a little spicy Asian broth with some beef dumplings. What do you mean by beef dumplings? What are you gonna...? So, I'm gonna make a little rice flour and tapioca starch dumpling... So, what, like a pastry... Yeah, like... ..with a filling inside kind of dumpling? Yes. So, wait - you've got to cook the beef, take the beef out... Yep. ..like, mince it up, obviously... Yes! ..make dough... Yes. ..and you've got... Yes. You are... Mad! Yes. ..mad, my friend. Would you be changing your idea? Now. Yeah, me too. The judges think that I'm crazy, and they're probably right. But there's still 20 minutes to go, and I think there's still a chance for me to get this dish right. I'm having trouble making this dough for the dumplings, but if I can get that right, if I can get that meat out of the pressure cooker with, you know, five or six minutes to go, I might actually be able to get this dish up the way that I'm planning. Oh! Something I really love about Asian soups is that hum of chilli that you get when you drink the soup. It's hot, and I love that. Hi, Matt. Chicken and sweet corn soup. A fair amount of chilli. Yes. (COUGHS) Sorry! (CHUCKLES) Whoa! Too much chilli? (STRAINS) No, no! It's absolutely just right! (LAUGHS) Oh! Just right! What do you think? Too much? Um... I've got a reasonably good chilli tolerance, but that catches right at the back of the throat. OK. I will take that into... OK. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Matt. Whoa! OK. I think I caught Matt off guard with the chilli I've got in my broth. But that's just the stock that I'm going to...cook the stock in, so I'm hoping that by the time I put the corn and the stock together, that it's still spicy but not like that. My dish is really coming together and I'm feeling confident, but it all comes down to that raw egg threading in front of the judges. 10 minutes to go, I release the pressure from the pressure cooker, and I'm just hoping the meat is cooked. If it's not, it's gonna be tough and it's not gonna be nice to eat. I hope that's done. Oh, that looks OK. Yeah, yeah. Um... Just check that, right? 'Cause you've still got 10 minutes. Uh, beef is not done. (CHUCKLES) So, I'm stressing out at the moment. I'm just hoping that I can get it done very soon, otherwise I'm screwed! Ingredients picked by a rose, but can you bloom under this pressure? 10 minutes to go! Come on, guys! Come on! Ouch! I've taken the eggs out in that five-minute mark. I peel the eggs and they feel like they're cooked well enough. A Scotch egg is basically a soft-boiled egg with a nice, runny centre or a soft centre, it's encased in a flavoured mince, which is crumbed and then deep-fried. By the time I fry them up, they should be cooked beautifully. I put my egg in the oil and I've got it frying away, and I need to start looking at this Thai-style dressing to go with them. You know, Scotch eggs are absolutely now, now, now. The essence of this Scotch egg is... Well, you know all the tedious stuff - crunchy, cooked. Egg - you know, it needs to have a bit of ooze about it. But more importantly, the sauce. Yes. The dipping sauce that goes with the Scotch egg has to be unbelievable. Is the sauce what's going on here? Yep. I want to have a really nice, spicy paste to get the sauce going. Oh, my goodness. You haven't got much time, have you? I know. I'm pushing it. You've got a lot to do. Push, push. I am running out of time. I started the cook off really well. I had the advantage. I knew what I wanted to make. I got my elements started really quickly. But I haven't even looked at my mushrooms. I've still got to fry them. Yeah, there's just a lot to do. And I'm sort of losing control a little bit of my cook today. That was not intentional, by the way. I wish I could say it was. The chicken's cooking. The onion oil is done. I now have time to get this sesame paste tasting absolutely perfect. My black sesame paste is very close. I'm just trying to balance it out now. It needs a bit more acidity, just 'cause the sesame seeds are so creamy and... ..got that really savoury note. I want to prove to myself more than anything that I do understand flavour and I do understand balancing things. ROSE: My first Scotch egg has been frying away. Um, I take it out and, um, yeah, it's quite brown. I'm a little concerned that the egg yolk's not gonna be runny. And I'm just worried that that heat has just penetrated through the meat and cooked the egg yolk a little bit more. Ooh, it's a bit dark, innit? A little bit, yeah. Yeah. Well, get rid of half that oil and put fresh, cold oil in. My oil, it's gotten quite hot. It's just burned the outside. So I need to bring the temperature down so I can fry my second egg. I'm trying to be really careful not to overcook this one. I don't want that outside to be too brown. MATTHEW: I've realised I have to give up on this dumpling idea. I just don't have enough time. No, I really, really need to sort of jettison the pastry and come up with a plan B. As with all these challenges, it's about choosing wisely. The dish, the plate - everything. Five minutes to go! Come on! I'm just worried that without the dumplings, this dish isn't gonna be inventive enough to keep me out of the bottom three. I'm gonna serve up a beef broth with beef in it. This isn't a top 10 dish. It's probably not even a top 24 dish. I'm in all sorts of trouble. 6 As with all these challenges, it's about choosing wisely. The dish, the plate - everything. Five minutes to go! Come on! MATTHEW: I've realised I have to give up on this dumpling idea. I just don't have enough time. I'm gonna serve up a beef broth with beef in it. I'm just worried that without the dumplings, this dish isn't gonna be inventive enough to keep me out of the bottom three. Five minutes. The black sesame paste is looking really nice. I'm really happy with the way it looks. It's glossy, it's thick, it's kind of, like, mysterious, and I know the flavour's a killer, so I'm really, really happy with this component. I've taken the chicken breast out. It's resting. If it's not cooked perfectly, I could very well be bottom three on that alone. Perfect. It's perfect. I'm so relieved. I actually think it's the best poached chicken I've ever cooked in my life. I taste the poaching liquid and it tastes unbelievable. So I'm thinking, why can't this be part of my dish as well? Chinese. Tea. Tea ceremony. Why not? Let's serve the judges some tea. Three minutes to go! Come on! There's hardly enough time. Hardly enough time. Three minutes to go and my beef isn't cooked properly. How can I cook this beef further? I don't know how. Um, pan-fry? I don't know. I really don't know. I'm just really flustered at the moment. Top three - it's not my concern at the moment. Bottom three is, and I don't want to be there. ROSE: My sauteed mushrooms are cooked. I just whack them straight on the plate. I slice up some raw mushrooms, get them on the plate. So, then I remember that I still have my second egg frying. I now have two eggs, both of which are overcooked. I have to make a decision. I still need to do a little bit more to my elements, so I'm gonna have to go with a darker egg. 30 seconds! Come on! Come on! Come on, guys! GEORGIA: Today, I'm going to have an egg that I whisk through the hot soup in front of the judges and then garnish it with my other garnishes. Ooh! No, it's OK. A raw egg in front of the judges is definitely a big risk, but I feel like this is an invention test - you need to push yourself. I want them to be impressed with me. I want to see that egg thread through into my chicken and sweet corn soup. OK, ten seconds! Nine! JUDGES: Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Time is up. Well done. Oh, my, oh, my! (GROANS) Holy crap! ASHLEIGH: Yep. Um, I think everything I got on the plate is pretty tasty. I am happy with the dish. It's tasty. It's something I've been thinking about for a while. So, yeah, I'm never gonna not be nervous, but I am happy with how it turned out. REYNOLD: Looking down at the dish, I'm disappointed, to be honest. I don't think it's as good as my dad's at all. It's not what I want it to be. MATTHEW: Yeah, I'm a little bit flat. I mean, it wasn't the dish that I wanted to put up. I think that, you know, one of the problems with this dish is that it's probably not inventive enough for an invention test. Um...you know, there's some nice flavours in there, but there's nothing super creative about it. Invention, but there are some parameters, as always. You had 45 minutes. It had to be Asian. And of course, you had to cook with beef, lamb, chicken or eggs. Rose, you had the advantage. Question is, how have you done? We'll find out shortly. But first up - Jessie. JESSIE: At my bench, Matt was very concerned, but I think the caramel really needs the strong fish sauce flavour. I'm pretty happy with my dish. Ooh! Mmm. Oh, it DOES look good. What have you cooked? I've done pan-seared duck with a sour and bitter caramel, mandarin and pickled daikon, and just a herb salad. Oh, it's very pretty. Mmm. It's a great dish. It really is. I love it. The duck's cooked beautifully. That caramel fish sauce is... I like it, 'cause it's bitter, and then it's salty on top of that, then you get fresh relief from the mandarin, you get crunch and sweetness from the daikon pickles. So, all in all, I think it's fantastic. Thanks, Gary. This combination of the freshness of the mandarin and the herbs with the fish sauce caramel-like dressing and then that big chunk of duck is just great cooking. Well done. Thank you! (APPLAUSE) Right. The one person responsible... (GARY LAUGHS) ..for this challenge. Let's see how Rose has gone. Rose? (APPLAUSE) ROSE: Carrying my dish up to the tasting, and I'm a little concerned that the egg yolk's not gonna be runny. I'm just hoping I've done enough to keep myself out of the bottom three. You know what they say, Rose. You are the queen of this invention test, and heavy is the head that wears the crown. How does your head feel? Heavy. Rose, what is the dish? The dish is a Thai-style Scotch egg with some mushrooms and a dipping sauce. What are we gonna expect when we cut open that egg? I'm hoping for a runny egg. Egg's great. Yeah. A bit of relief. Well done for keeping it runny. You've got this beautiful, subtle flavour in the chicken mince. It's really lovely. And then you've got the egg, which, again, is quite a subtle flavour. And then we're bombarded with the same flavours blown out really big in the sauce, and they just kill everything. And so we lose the subtlety. So, what it is is this kind of... ..very noisy collection of sweet, sticky, coarse aromatics that's dominating what's really quite a pretty Scotch egg. Thanks, Rose. (APPLAUSE) You know, having the advantage and really pushing myself to be inventive and creative and do something different, it didn't pay off. So I just know that it's gonna be me in that bottom three today. Next up, Ashleigh. ASHLEIGH: I have cooked a glazed quail egg with a miso broccolini puree and fried broccolini. I love the broccoli and the miso, actually, and I love the roasted, crispy broccoli. MATT: Billie. BILLIE: I've done beef tataki-style with a Thai salad, poached egg and a chilli, mandarin, ginger dressing. I like it, and the reason I like it is because it's cool and a salad, and then it's suddenly really burnies! And that combination is so, so more-ish. Amy. AMY: It's a poached chicken breast with a Vietnamese herb salad and a nuoc cham dressing. It's really fresh. I mean, the chicken's cooked beautifully. I love the fact that you poached it in coconut, which I actually really love. Next up - Georgia. (APPLAUSE) GEORGIA: There's a big risk associated with using a raw egg into my soup. Is it actually going to thread through when I add the egg? Uh...I have never done this before. So I really have no idea if it's going to work. (INHALES SHARPLY) Wow. Go? Finish. Curious. So, I've made a chicken and sweet corn soup with an egg, crispy chicken skin and some fresh herbs. Great. It's crunch time. I add my egg to my soup, and I'm really, really nervous. I'm whisking it into the soup... ..and I'm not seeing it setting or cooking yet. And I'm wondering if I've made a really bad decision. 7 MATT: Why the egg? Um, I just think of Chinese sweet corn and chicken soup... ..and it... Didn't quite do what you wanted it to do, did it? No. 'Cause you want the egg to thread straightaway. Yeah, I thought it would. I'm sorry. The best intentions. Such a pity. GEORGE: I'm a bit like you, Georgia. My skill in the whole Asian side of cooking is not amazing. So you try and hang your hat on things that you know. You know, chicken and sweet corn soup's a great one. And that's got great flavour, but that threading of the egg... Look, it's very wholesome, but it's very midweek. I mean, I could make that soup really, really quickly when I got home from work. And I think that egg has done something very odd to the texture. Like, really odd. Yep. Thank you. Thanks, Georgia. I had a beautiful bowl of flavoursome, hearty sweet corn soup, and now I've completely ruined it stirring through a raw egg. I'm feeling very concerned that I've put myself in the bottom three again. Next up - Jessica. BILLIE: Go, Jess. (APPLAUSE) JESSICA: I'm quite nervous, but also quite excited to get tasted today. I'm really happy with my dish, so, um, yeah, excited. It looks pretty. I like how you've plated it up. What is it? We've got a black sesame tare-glazed sirloin, a little spicy nori salt underneath, a wasabi and spring onion relish on there, some puffed sushi rice, toasted nori. What do you mean by 'tare'? What do you mean by that? Uh, so, like, a soy... Like, so, reduced-down soy, mirin, rice wine vinegar, black sesame. Just...those flavours. OK. The brief today was Asia. I eat that and I go, "Japanese." Beef's cooked perfectly, and I taste Japan. The things that I love about the dish - I think it looked great coming up. It looked really refined. When you place it in a procession of dishes, that one had some vision to it. Really love the enoki mushroom that actually delivers some flavour and texture. The beef's beautifully cooked. Nori's great. Spring onion's delicious. Jessica, I think this dish is... is nudging you into the top three. (GARY LAUGHS) Thank you! (CHUCKLES) (APPLAUSE) The next dish up is Reynold's. (APPLAUSE) REYNOLD: I'm feeling nervous and disappointed and worried, really worried, to take this dish up to the judges, because... I'm just trying to prepare myself for the bad feedback. Reynold, you had a few, um... traumas today, didn't you? Yeah. I really wanted to do an Indonesian dish. So, what...what is this dish aspiring to be? Uh, it's just hopefully... ..you know, it's my take on a beef rendang, which my dad, you know, always cooks, since I was a child, and it's really close to me. It's just one of those things that I needed more time with. When your dad cooks a rendang, how long does it take? Quite a while. How many hours? Probably about three or four. Hmm. How long did you have? 45 minutes. (CHUCKLES) Oh, the eggplant looks alright. What about the beef? Did you... Is it tender? Uh-oh! No. Well, number one - you know, the beef is really dry and undercooked, let's be honest. The sambal - and I love sambals - just needs to be more complex and the balance isn't quite right. I'm trying to find a positive. The garlic is crispy and delicious. It's a bad day for you, Reynold, in this kitchen. (APPLAUSE) Doing an Indonesian dish and stuffing it up is frustrating, it's disappointing, it's embarrassing, and, um... ..I feel bad for putting up this dish in front of them. Next up - Sara. SARA: It doesn't matter how confident you feel, the moment you put that plate down and you take a couple of steps back, anything can happen, and the judges can shut you down like that. I've done a poached chicken with a black sesame paste and a spring onion oil. And I've also paired it with the poaching stock so we can have a tea ceremony. Cheers, boys. Cheers. Cheers. Ooh, yeah. Mmm. Yum. Delicious. Genius. Wow. That's perfect. It's cooked REALLY well. Really moist. It's so dramatic, isn't it? That black sesame against the spring onion? I love it. Oi, oi! (SNIGGERS) (GARY CHUCKLES) Put it down! Put it down! (GEORGE GIGGLES) I like it. I like it a lot. Oh, yeah. It's so good. I absolutely love that. I love it because, um, we don't see a lot of black sesame and we don't see a lot of black sesame paste, but it's absolutely delicious. You see it a lot in Asia in desserts and savoury dishes. So, I love that beautifully white, perfectly cooked chicken against that very strong kind of black sesame paste. And you get a kick of heat. And this broth is SO aromatic. All the flavours of...China in there. Gorgeous. The spring onion oil - those flavoured oils often just taste like oil. That tastes like the best, freshest spring onion you've ever tasted. And that sesame, black sesame paste is delicious. But then you get this earthy, hot broth that bounces almost diametrically opposite the sophistication of the poached chicken. It's a really beautiful combination. What are we gonna say? I reckon you're top three, and if you're not top three... Oh, wow. ..I will eat George's hat. The big one. Oh! Thank you so much. Well done. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I'm feeling amazing hearing the judges' comments. Gary said that the chicken was perfectly cooked, and once you hear that... They cleaned the plate! ..you're just like... .."Like, whatever you say on top of this is a bonus." Next up - Matthew. I'm really disappointed in how I've cooked, and I know there's a very real chance that I'll be in a pressure test tomorrow. What's the dish, Matthew? So, it's a beef in a beef broth. (LAUGHS) Which is not what it WAS gonna be, was it? What was it gonna be? Not what it started. I wanted to do the beef in a little...in a little, uh, dumpling. You know what? You've got to be realistic. There is no way Gary or I could pull off - make gyoza skin, cook that in a pressure cooker, get it flaked down, adjusted and fixed in 45 minutes. You are throwing yourself on the sword. Yep. The beef... ..is not quite as cardboardy and hard as Reynold's. And it ain't a dumpling. Which would have been nice. (APPLAUSE) I mean, I'm embarrassed with myself for putting up such a terrible dish. And I'm supposed to be in the top 10, and this dish just doesn't live up to that. So I feel pretty bad. 8 Today has been, I think, the oddest day in the MasterChef kitchen this year. From the brilliance of your cooking in the mystery box to that maelstrom of an invention test. Yet out of that mayhem, three dishes take their makers to the immunity challenge. If I call your name, please step forward. Sara. GEORGIA: Well done, Sara. Sara, that dish was a ray of sunshine on a stormy, stormy day. Perfectly poached chicken. The earthiness of that black sesame. The brightness of that spring onion oil. Perfectly balanced by that warming, nourishing and wonderfully aromatic broth. We loved your dish. Congratulations. Our second ray of sunshine... ..came from Jessie. Jessie, you had one of your feet outside of those double doors last week, and you have just jumped back into this competition. That dish was alive with flavour, with texture, and that duck yet again brilliantly cooked. Welcome back. Thank you. The final person to be cooking for immunity later this week... ..is Jessica. JESSIE: Yes! Well done. Big cuddles. This is gonna be a fun one! (LAUGHS) Yep. Jessica, you didn't just bring us a dish that looked beautiful, you brought us a dish that spoke loudly with a Japanese accent. And we loved it. Well done. Thank you. Congratulations. The three of you will go head to head in our next immunity challenge. Well done. Please step back into line. Good stuff. So, that was the good news. And now for the bad news. For three of you, it wasn't just a moment of madness, it was 45 minutes of madness, and the problems started, to be honest, we think, right at the start of the cook, really in the inception of those dishes. If I call your name, please step forward. Reynold. Matthew. The third person cooking in tomorrow's pressure test... ..Rose. It's OK. I knew. Reynold, Rose, Matthew, you know the situation. Tomorrow's a pressure test. You've been here long enough now. You know what's gonna happen, alright? So, go home and prepare yourselves. Get some rest, and we'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning with all guns blazing. You hear me? ALL: Yes, George. Off you go. MATTHEW: Thank you. See you later, guys. ROSE: I'm gone from having an amazing morning today - in mystery box, I had dish of the day, which is so exciting - to getting to the end of this invention test thinking, "I can't believe that I am gonna be facing elimination "over a dish that I should have completely nailed." I'm not feeling great. It's not good. ANNOUNCER: Next time - it's her eighth time wearing the black. Let's do it. But can the Eliminator... Today, you'll be re-creating my signature dish. ..survive a spectacular Janice Wong pressure test? Oooh! Wow! It is beautiful. With dessert on the menu... Yep. Just gonna keep pushing. ..this should be Reynold's challenge to win. (GLASS BREAKS) Ooh! Oh, no. What do I do? But he didn't count... I'm nervous. I can't breathe. ..on a crippling case of stage fright. A whole list of times when the favourite goes home on the thing they love.