ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... Today you'll be re-creating my signature dish. ..Rose faced her eighth elimination challenge... There's no room for any errors. ..a pressure test devised by dessert whiz Janice Wong. Look at that! Whoo! Beautiful. But this time, her spheres didn't align... Got a split all the way around. ..and her MasterChef journey was done. Love you, guys! Tonight, it's the most critical immunity challenge yet. Everyone wants one of these pins. But to be in with a shot... Hoping, hoping, hoping! Hopefully a dish comes together. ..first they have to make the better batter. Oh, my arm's gonna fall off! I'm sort of winging it. At this stage of the competition... Please meet Ross Lusted. How are you? ..our guest chef will need to bring his A-game... What the hell am I gonna cook? ..because the MasterChef kitchen can rattle even the best cook. # 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 (JESSICA LAUGHS) SARA: Jessica, Jessie and I are all fighting for a chance to win an immunity pin. Whoever wins it would pretty much have a pass straight to finals week. I really want that pin. Like, really, really want it. I will be giving it everything I've got today. I wanna be in the finale. That would just be everything that we've worked towards. Everything's at stake. GARY: Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen. Today someone gets to cook against an amazing chef, and if we're very lucky, we'll give away an immunity pin. Everyone wants one of these pins. Billie, you loved wearing it, didn't you? It was great. You're still here, so it saved you. Yeah. Yep. Ashleigh, you've still got one. Yep. I would absolutely love that pin on my chest and a place in the finals. Don't think any of us are gonna be going easy. We all...we all really want it. And, Shannon, welcome back to the kitchen. You've given away two immunity pins in a row, so we could make it the trifecta, couldn't we? I'm feeling very positive. So how do you get to cook for the immunity pin today? It's very simple. You need to win round one and then you'll face off head-to-head against the top guest chef. Beat the chef, win the pin. Ready to see what round one is? SARA: Yep. It's a cracker. I'm looking at this mound of ingredients on the table and I have absolutely no idea what they all have in common. Look at these ingredients. What do you reckon you're gonna have to do? (GROANS) Round one is all about something we love - crispy and crunchy on the outside, steamy and moist inside. I have no idea. I really don't know what's going on. We want you... ..to build a dish that heroes batter. That is not what I was hoping to hear today. I can probably count on one hand the amount of batters that I've made in my lifetime, so...yeah, not great. It is an amazing technique... ..and if you get it right, it's golden and crispy on the outside and it is beautifully steamed on the inside. Get it wrong, and it's a squeezy mop of oil. I have many batter recipes. You can do a tempura, you could do a beer batter, you could do a soda water batter. But at the end of the day, it needs to be golden and crunchy and remain crunchy. That's the key. JESSIE: I'm good with batter, so, yeah, I'm feeling confident. Right - some rules. First one, 30 minutes. Plenty of time. SARA: 30 minutes is not exactly plenty of time to come up with a winning batter dish. Choosing the right ingredient will be absolutely crucial to winning that pin. So the pantry and the garden are off-limits. So you only get what's in front of you on this bench. The most delicious dish championing batter - whatever variety, whatever style, whatever flavour - gets the chance to compete for immunity. Are you ready? Your time starts now. GEORGE: We've all got our own batter recipe, haven't we? Yeah, absolutely. So what do you want? You want golden-brown, you want aerated, and you want super crunchy. 'Cause if it's not, it's just a let-down, and why would you want to eat all that fat if you don't get the crunch and the thrill from that? This is gonna show a lot of just natural cooking instinct and ability. Absolutely. JESSICA: It doesn't take that long to deep-fry something, but to put some finesse into a dish, uh...30 minutes is gonna be tight. I'm gonna do a Mexican spiced squid. I do not have a batter recipe off the top of my head. So I will be winging it. Hi. Kind of sidling in. So, batter. What are you gonna make? You make good batter? (LAUGHS) I'm sort of winging it. I've got a whole bunch of spices there. Um, I'm... One of the problems with using spices - can weigh your batter down and it can change the texture of it, for sure. Not feeling super confident at the moment, but... (LAUGHS) ..just see how I go. What's the temperature, George? On there? GEORGE: 180. 180. (LAUGHS) (EXHALES) Making this batter with no recipe in mind, it's definitely a huge amount of pressure. I've seen it done, I know what it should look like, so I'm just gonna hope for the best... ..'cause that's all I can do. SARA: I'm making a prawn and scallop mousse sandwiched between two pieces of eggplant, so like a seafood eggplant sandwich, and a mayonnaise to go with it. Hell yeah, I want immunity. I've made a few batter dishes before, but never with eggplant. I know the flavours will work, but I'm not sure how to keep the eggplant crispy on the inside and not oily. Make your batter matter - 20 minutes to go! (CONTESTANTS CHEER) GEORGIA: Let's go. JESSIE: Today I'm going to make a tempura egg with a beef tartare. The initial part of the dish, my beef tartare, is quite a quick dish to prepare. I feel it's perfect for eating raw. So I've got a little bit of mustard and some salt and pepper and I'm just gonna mix that through the beef. The next step is to get on to boiling an egg for my tempura batter. Hey, Jessie. Hi. What's the secret to a great batter? Well, I'm gonna do tempura, so not to mix it too much. Make sure it's nice and cold - with the soda water, use iced water and make it nice and light and crispy. Good on you. So what are you gonna do? I'm gonna do a tempura egg with a beef tartare. That's dangerous with a half-an-hour challenge. Yes. You need to push. Thank you. Hopefully a dish comes together. 15 minutes down, 15 minutes to go. Come on. (CONTESTANTS CHEER) I'm pretty flustered. This time is absolutely racing away from me. I've got the squid rolled into the spices and I'm really dreading doing that batter recipe because I still don't really know what's gonna go in there. I'm gonna just kind of do it by sight. First thing I do is just mix some soda and flour and egg together to see how it goes. It's quite a difficult technique to try and get something that's crispy and stays crispy. You know, nobody wants soggy batter. While my eggs are cooling down a little bit, I'm just gonna make my batter. For the tempura batter, I'm using rice flour and plain flour, and then I put some ice cubes in with some soda water just to keep the batter nice and cool. I don't wanna mix it too much because I want it to be nice and clumpy, and that way you get the nice, crispy sort of light bubbly bits of batter. MATTHEW: Jessie's tempura batter looks great. There's plenty of bubbles, and as long as she gets that egg cooked right, I reckon she's on to a winner. SARA: I'm made a few batter dishes before, but never with eggplant. I'm not sure how to keep the eggplant crispy on the inside and not oily. BILLIE: Just test it, Sara. Yeah, I will. I cut a piece of eggplant, dip it in, fry it... Hoping, hoping, hoping! What are you gonna serve it with, Sara? Oh, I haven't thought that far ahead. Let's just hope this works first. If this test isn't right, I can kiss that immunity pin goodbye. Ah! ASHLEIGH: You happy? Happy enough. Good girl. Good work, Sara. GEORGIA: Good work, Sara. I'm really relieved that the batter has gone golden and that it stayed onto the eggplant. So that's a big tick. My batter's looking pretty good - I just want it to maintain that crunch. BILLIE: Have to move fast, Sara. I need to get on to sandwiching my eggplant and just putting them in the fryer. Sara begins assembling her eggplant sandwich, and I'm worried. Getting a single slice of eggplant crispy is much easier than getting a double sandwich crispy. I just hope it works. Let's go. Get another one done quickly. Five minutes to go! (CHEERING) REYNOLD: Go, Jessie! GEORGIA: Let's go, Sara! JESSIE: It's time to get this egg deep-fried. These eggs are really, really soft, so I've gotta be really gentle with them. Dip them in the batter and hopefully just fry it off without it breaking. I need to be really gentle here. Get it in there. (SIZZLING) Oh! ASHLEIGH: Oh, God. The egg has exploded. Just get rid of that one. I need to get another egg in there. Be careful. If my second egg breaks, that's the immunity pin gone. Oh! ASHLEIGH: Oh, God. My first egg has just exploded in the deep fryer. GEORGIA: Be careful. I'm pinning all my hopes of winning the pin on my second egg. Please just stay together. It's holding. I think it's gonna be OK, so I'm gonna leave it until the batter's nice and golden. Rapidly running out of time. SARA: I take the first eggplant sandwich out of the deep fryer. Just need to leave my eggplant sandwiches on that napkin just to drain. If it's dripping in oil, I can kiss that immunity pin goodbye. BILLIE: Sara's eggplant sandwich is looking really crispy on the outside. I just hope it's crispy on the inside and not soggy and oily. Come on. Time to hurry. Three minutes to go. Come on, Sara. GEORGIA: Quick, quick. Mayo, mayo. JESSICA: I've got three minutes left and my squid's only just going in. It's really not as much time as I would like. Keep it going. Just make sure you get everything on the plate. I have no idea how the batter I've made is gonna work because I've made it by feel. Jessica's big problem here is she might not have it in the fryer long enough, so it'll just soak up all the oil and not be crispy. JESSIE: My second egg's been frying for a couple of minutes now. The batter's not quite turned the right colour, but if I leave it in for much longer, I'm gonna be in danger of overcooking my egg. But I think it's more important to have the batter right in a batter challenge, so I'm just gonna have to take that risk. If you wanna be the leader of the crunch bunch, you've gotta get it on the plate. One minute to go! Come on, guys! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Go, Jessica! REYNOLD: Keep going, keep going. MATTHEW: Bit thicker. Whisk a bit more. SARA: Desperately running out of time and I just need to get this mayonnaise on the plate. Whisk, whisk, whisk. JESSICA: I have no more time to leave the squid in the deep fryer, so it just has to come out, um... ..'cause I need to get everything I've got on the plate. Come on, Jessica. Get it on the plate. 30 seconds to go! GARY: Come on! GEORGIA: Whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk. Oh, my arm's gonna fall off! MATTHEW: Come on, Jessie. Come on, Jessie. JESSIE: I'm just taking my egg out of the deep fryer. The batter looks terrific. Now I've gotta get straight on with plating it all up with the steak tartare. Beautiful, Sara. GARY: 10 seconds. 9. JUDGES AND CONTESTANTS: 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Time's up! I was sort of, like, flying by the seat of my pants there. (LAUGHS) The squid actually looks really good. I'm quite surprised by how nice it looks. I'm really hoping that they'll put the pin on my chest. I'm pretty happy with the dish. It's the batter I'm worried about. I know today's all about batter, so... JESSIE: Just a little bit worried that my egg's gonna be overcooked. The fact that it was in the oil for so long to get the batter nice and crispy... So I'm feeling not so confident. Let's taste Sara's first. I've done a deep-fried eggplant sandwich with a prawn and scallop mousse inside. Interesting to see how crispy and crunchy that batter is and if that eggplant has made the batter soggy, which is generally what happens. There's a lot of moisture in eggplant. Ooh, yeah. Oh, bit soggy there - look. Oh, my Lord. Oh, no. MATT: The flavours are brilliant. The problem is it's a batter challenge and the batter's flannelly and oily and it's let you down. Unfortunately, yeah, the batter just doesn't work with it. (SIGHS) MATTHEW: Good work, Sara. Pretty clear that my batter ain't great. Feel like I've just missed out. Jessica, you're next. Good work, Jessica. Hey! MATT: That looks good. Wow. Now that's a tumble of what looks like crispy things. That is definitely a batter challenge, isn't it? (LAUGHS) Hey? There's batter-y stuff there. Yep. I love the flavours. I love the spice in the batter. But this is a batter challenge... That batter has soaked up way too much oil. Yeah, my only criticism is the batter. Everything else about the dish I really like. (LAUGHS) So it's very, very frustrating. Jessie, come on down. JESSIE: Thank you. GARY: Does look good, doesn't it? Great idea. Yeah. I'm happy with the idea. I'm pretty...99% sure that the egg's not gonna be oozy. Ah. Um...yeah. Yeah. Chop it up. Let's have a look. Oh, this is embarrassing. I'm churning up inside. If it's not runny, I could be in big trouble. JESSIE: I'm just worried that my egg's gonna be overcooked. If it's not runny, I could be in big trouble. Ah... Oh, that's a shame. That's a shame. Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame. It is a batter challenge. I just hope that they can see that the batter is nice and crispy. Hopefully that's enough just to get me over the line. The core idea of almost making like a tartare with an egg that when you cut and the yolk dresses the beef is a brilliant one. Um... The combination of hard-boiled egg and raw beef isn't the greatest. Yeah. But this is not a hard-boiled egg challenge, this is a batter challenge. And that batter is thin, it's lightly golden, and... (CRUNCH!) ..it's super crunchy. Crispy. I have to say that the hero has been the hero. I like it. Thank you. Where you got the batter right was the aeration. And obviously the quantity of water and the flour that you used, because it's just super crispy. Now, it leaves us a question. Do we give the win to the better dish... ..or do we give the win to the better batter? (JUDGES CONFER) GARY: And even though the egg was hard... It was really good batter. It was really good batter. SHANNON: The challenge was pretty clear. Done. Yes. Better batter. Better batter. Jessie...you hit the brief. Yay! The challenge was, give us a great, crispy batter, and you've done it. So, well done, Jessie. Congratulations. That means you've got a shot at the pin. Great work, Jessie. Whoo! JESSIE: I can't believe it. Feels like I'm one step closer to winning the pin and a chance to go all the way to finals. There are certain chefs that we target. That we say, "Oh, it would be great to have them in." Because we've eaten at their restaurant, we know how good they are. And the bloke that's gonna walk through those doors is one at the very top of our list. He started out working with David Thompson at Darley Street Thai, with Neil Perry at Rockpool. He then went travelling around the world. He opened places in Montenegro, Croatia, Bhutan, Delhi, the US. Then he came back to Australia four years ago and opened his own place. And the rise of his reputation has been meteoric. Last year he was named Sydney Chef of the Year and also the Hottest Chef in Australia by The Australian. Jeez. Oh, yeah. (LAUGHS) "Jeez" would be the word. (GARY CHUCKLES) Please meet, from The Bridge Room in Sydney, Ross Lusted. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) GEORGIA: Ross Lusted, I've heard of him. He's got two hats, he's an amazing chef... ROSS: Hi, guys. ..and he's really into Asian food. He's a bit of an Asian food guru. How are you? JESSIE: Hi. How you going? Nice to meet you. Congratulations. Ross, welcome. It's fantastic to be here. Give us a sense of the way you cook at The Bridge Room in Sydney. I've lived in a lot of places and the one thing that I came back to was cooking on timber and cooking on charcoal. The flavours where I grew up as a kid, and we literally built my restaurant around the robata grill that we put in there. So once you have that as a tool, everything comes from that. It's not an Asian restaurant, but my mind is in Asia all the time. We know that you are a mighty challenge for Jessie to overcome in order to get that pin. However... ..don't take Jessie lightly. She may be an amateur cook, but she's very strong on Asian. She's put up some spectacular dishes. She is a fearsome competitor. GARY: Are you ready to see what choices you've got? Can't wait. Mm-hm. Let's go and have a look. Your choices are between... ..sweet... Oh. ..and savoury. Oh, my God. Yeah, look, there's a lot on the table. But there's just not the Asian ingredients that I'm used to. I'm starting to feel a little bit out of my comfort zone here. Because Jessie's the amateur, she gets to choose which pantry you're both gonna cook from. That sounds fair. So, Jessie, this is a really important decision. On this sweet table we've got some gorgeous stuff. Every sugar you can imagine. Also syrups, things like Prosecco - anything that is vaguely sweet. MATT: Oh, they may have all that, but we have got a whole array of beautiful ingredients. Whether you want some beef, whether you want duck, whether you want cheese, whether you want some blue swimmers. SHANNON: Dried porcini, calamari, an array of nuts. JESSIE: Ross is a two-hat chef. I have to be really careful about which way I go. Whatever you choose to cook with, the other ingredients are off the table. You choose sweet, all those savoury gone, you don't get access to them. And vice versa. Alright? OK. Jessie? I'm going to go... ..ssssavoury. Brilliant. Yep. Jessie, you get 75 minutes to cook. Ross, you get 60. So it's a 15-minute advantage. Matt, Gary and I will be judging your dishes in a blind tasting - so we won't be watching you cook. Good luck to you both. Shannon, the kitchen's all yours. Thank you, George. MATT: Good luck, Jessie. Thank you. Jessie, you've got 75 minutes. Your time starts now. (CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD) There's no lemongrass or anything on there, I don't think. There's actually not a lot of Asian ingredients. No. JESSIE: I see a beautiful piece of beef sitting there. That's a really good starting point. I think that beef and beetroot will go really nicely together. GEORGIA: You love beetroot. I love it. I'm just gonna go with gut instinct. MATT: Go, Jessie. Whoo! I've got this beautiful piece of eye fillet and lots of beetroot. I'll figure out the beetroot later, but right now I'm going to make a great sauce to tie this dish together. I start getting my sauce a really nice base and have all the vegetables sweated down. I have the bones nice and caramelised with a bit of vinegar so I get a really nice flavour for my sauce. And all the flavour goes into the pressure cooker. I would really like to win the pin because I feel like at this time of the competition the pin is extra valuable and, I don't know, I really would like to make it to finals week, so if I could do that then that would be amazing. MATT: Come on, Jessie. SHANNON: Ross, your time starts now. (CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD) Alright. What have we got? I cook a lot with Asian ingredients, and in front of me, it's not what I'm getting. Ah... What the hell am I gonna cook with these groups of food? You feel the pressure. There's no doubt. SHANNON: You've got your plan now? No. Ross has been fully distracted. He doesn't know what he's cooking yet, so... JESSIE: Alright. Good job, Shannon. Got an extra five minutes up our sleeve. ROSS: Definitely a lot to choose from here, but I'm not really sure where I'm going at the moment. I'll put a whole bunch of stuff in my basket... Hmm. I've got to think of something. ..and I'm gonna head back to my bench and start figuring something out. Do you know what you're cooking yet? No idea. OK. The problem is, I'm actually a really bad procrastinator. (LAUGHTER) MATT: Ross is looking actually a little bit flustered in the kitchen at the moment. He's got all these different ingredients, but I can't figure out how it's going to all come together. Alright, squid, corn... I am probably the worst at adding too much. And I don't have any time. I don't have time to build my dish. You know, normally I spend a lot of time doing that. You don't want to present a dish that you haven't completely thought through. JESSIE: I'm doing three beetroot elements on my dish today. I'm doing a beetroot glaze with the reduced beetroot juice. I've got the boiled beetroots in the pressure cooker and I'm also pickling some beetroot. SHANNON: So, have you worked out what you're doing? I'm going to serve eye fillet with some pickled beetroot, maybe some beetroot glaze. I kind of like the idea of keeping them in, like... Nice little` Few little chunks. Little bits. Yeah. Then you could have a little bit of raw. Pretty...sliced thinly. That could be the pickled, to complement it. Yep. Cool. Thanks, Shannon. I like that. I feel like I'm really on top of everything and I'm feeling really good about where I am in the cook. 45 minutes to go! (CONTESTANTS CHEER AND APPLAUD) GEORGIA: Ross hasn't figured out what he's cooking yet and I'm watching the clock ticking down and I'm starting to get worried for him. I really need a little bit more time for this dish, which I don't have. I'm still not actually getting the picture in my head of what I'm gonna be cooking. I can see Ross is struggling and one part of me feels for him. We've all been there in this kitchen, but... I want this pin, and right now, it's never felt closer. ROSS: Um,... paper towels. MATT: Ross still doesn't know what he's doing. Thinking. Contemplating. You've gotta think about the end result. I look up at the clock and... It's alright. ..wow, just 35 minutes left in this challenge. Alright, squid, corn... I don't have my Asian ingredients here, but what I do have in front of me is some of the most fantastic, great seasonal and fresh ingredients, and I can definitely work with that. I really noticed how beautiful the ginger was. This time of year - fantastic. And this squid looks like it's just come out of the ocean. I can kind of see a dish formulating. I think the corn is fantastic at the moment. Corn and squid. OK, the three heroes of the dish, I've worked it out. It's really gonna be the corn, the squid and the ginger. How you going, chief? Well, Ross. You are one of the most respected cooks in Australia, and you've got two chefs hats, and you're putting it all on the line. What are you doing? OK, squid, corn and definitely a lot of ginger. Mm. The ginger looks really fresh. It's beautiful. Well, reluctantly, it sounds all fresh and delicious and I'm sure it's gonna be appealing. Good luck, Ross. Thanks, mate. BILLIE: Ross has finally started cooking. OK, I'm not quite sure what the actual dish is, but I'm sure he'll figure out quickly what his dish is. MATT: Come on, Jessie. Keep it going. SHANNON: There's a nice calmness on your bench. Yep. Just make sure towards the end, taste everything together. Taste a bit of the pickle, taste a bit of how you were gonna prepare it. Thank you. My dish is coming together. I'm gonna get on with my pickling liquid for the other elements of beetroot. I'm just gonna put a bit of the red wine vinegar in the saucepan with some spices, and reduce it a little to make it nice and pungent. And then pour it hot onto my thin, shaved beetroot and get it pickling in the fridge. To get this chance to make it through to finals, I really don't want to stuff this up. I guess I'm a little bit intimidated by the calibre of the chef I'm cooking against. So, I'm just gonna try and block that out. Ross, all our eyes are on you. You got your reputation to protect. There is 30 minutes to go. Let's go, Jessie. Come on, Jessie. Come on, Jessie. BILLIE: Ross is moving really quickly now. The master is at work. We're all excited to see what he's going to come up with. OK, so the corn is slow poached in here. I'm gonna put some tomato, some chicken fat to add flavour into the corn. I've got to put some onions in the stock with the corn. Maybe I'll just cut these onions in a way that may be similar to the way I'm gonna end up cutting the squid. It might give the judges something to think about. What looks like squid on the plate is actually gonna be onions. Ross's dish sounds really interesting. Ross is cooking like a man possessed. He's catching up. REYNOLD: Whoa, smell that. Smells amazing. Are you only plating up one dish? No, I was cooking for you guys. Two, four, six. I can hear the other contestants getting excited over Ross's dish. (LAUGHS) I'm worried now. The beetroots have finished cooking in the pressure cooker, so I'm just gonna take them out and save them for plating. How are they? Like butter? They're nice and soft, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Beautiful. It's time to move on to the beef. It's really the hero of my dish. I'm just gonna put it onto a really hot frypan. I'm gonna go for medium-rare and make sure it's perfectly cooked. MATT: Come on, Jessie. WOMAN: Come on, Jessie. WOMAN: Go, Jessie. WOMAN: Doing an amazing job, babe. Make it look beautiful. ROSS: Alright, let's go. So I'm looking at my ginger, going, "Wow, this is gonna be great to deep fry." I'm just gonna peel it, julienne it, deep-fry it quickly. This young ginger is beautiful, there's so much sugar in it. And by deep-frying it, it's gonna give me a little bit of the Asian texture that I'm used to. It's really interesting, what Ross is doing. Ross, how come you're doing that movement with the slotted spoons? Just by bringing it all together I'm making like a wafer out of it. He is a genius. He made like a ginger wafer, that looks really cool and something that we've never seen before, so definitely picking up some tips watching him. Listen up, guys! Ross, Jessie, 15 minutes to go. I've taken my steak off the frypan and it feels like it's a little too rare. I'm just gonna use a thermometer just to double-check that it is cooked OK. The thermometer seems to be stuck around 43, not quite high enough for my liking. The beef is the hero of my dish. If I don't get this right, the pin will be gone for good. I need my steak to be medium-rare to have a chance at the immunity pin. The thermometer seems to be stuck around 43. Not quite high enough for my liking. Looking at it, I think the best chance of getting the temperature up is to put it in the oven for a few minutes. Hopefully that will do the trick. MATTHEW: Come on, Jessie. Come on, Jessie. 10 minutes. Home stretch. 10 minutes to go. (CHEERING) ROSS: I have the main three ingredients for my dish - corn, ginger and incredibly fresh squid. With the squid, I'm just going to score it lightly and cook it very fast on the grill. Ross's knife skills are amazing. Watching him score that calamari is just amazing to watch. This squid is beautiful and thick, so you don't want to be cooking it too much. It's going to remain really nice and glassy on the inside. GEORGIA: This is like MasterClass. JESSIE: It's been a few minutes since I put my steak in the oven. So now I take it out and I leave it to rest. I've just got to hope it's medium-rare. There's less than 10 minutes left to go. I'm thinking I just need one more element to this dish. I've seen some spinach over there and I'm going to puree that with a bit of butter. All you need is spinach and butter. That's it. I'm a little bit worried about time. Hopefully my spinach is going to set. I really hope I'm not overcomplicating this dish. MATTHEW: The two dishes today are very different. Ross has got a dish with more complexity in there. He's got a lot more elements. Jessie's dish is quite simple. She's got beetroot and she's got beef, with a sauce. It's about doing a few things perfectly. The closer I get to the finish line, the more worried I'm getting about my idea. It's pretty simple. Is it going to be enough against Ross Lusted? My steak is resting and I've got a few extra minutes on my hands. So I'm going to use that to push my sauce to another level. All you're doing now is you're refining your dish. Yeah. I hope so. I've been keeping my eye on the duck in the pantry. I'm just going to quickly grab a duck, take off one of the duck breasts and just leave it in the hot pan I've been cooking the steak in and let the duck fat render off with all the steak juice. The duck fat is going to make my sauce amazing. Jessie, Ross, there is five minutes to go. It's time to plate up. Come on! Home stretch. ROSS: I've only left myself five minutes, so I've got to get it on a plate. I've got to get that corn out of the water. I want the corn to come straight off the cob. You know, with a very sharp knife, you can just run it down. It should just fall off like you're slicing a piece of cheese. You don't know until you put the knife in it. This whole lot could just go to a big pile of corn kernels on the board. So I'm hoping it's all going to stick together. Wow. That's so cool. That's when you really know you have fresh corn. OK, I've got the corn on the plate. I've sliced the squid. Next thing to go on is the spinach puree. I'm really not happy with the texture. I only had two bunches of spinach to work with. You need more in the machine to get it to the consistency that I wanted. I've had my eye fillet resting. I've got to cut it and pray that it's medium-rare. Thank God. It's perfect. Gorgeous. So relieved. It looks like a really nice piece of meat. Colours look amazing, Jessie. If it's not on the plate, it doesn't get tasted. 90 seconds. So these onions that came out of the poaching liquor, it looks like squid. GEORGIA: It does look like squid. REYNOLD: They're tentacles. I'm definitely feeling the pressure. It's just have I done enough or have I done too much? Guys, this is it. 10 seconds to go. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Step away. That looks delicious. Beautiful colours, textures, everything. I'm not really worried that it's too simple 'cause I know that it's not going to be simple in flavour. I do think I have a shot here. Look, Jessie might have put in too little and I might have put in too much. But great competition and she's a great cook, great talent. You can see it there. Here we have beef with beetroot. GEORGE: Thank you. That looks smashing, doesn't it? It looks really good. Very simple. So much is going to depend on the quality of that sauce, isn't it? That's going to bind the whole dish together. But a beautiful-looking dish. Yeah, gorgeous. Oh, lovely. Oh, that's good. Yeah, really lovely. Wow. Ooh, they're nice and tender, aren't they? That simplicity is absolutely beautiful. I mean, there's really three things on the plate there. And that crimson kind of tide of a sauce, once that sort of brushed beetroot on the side there, it's a sauce. It's fabulous. If you ate the pickle on its own, you go, "Oh, pickle." If you eat the beetroot on its own, "Oh, beetroot." It's when you combine everything that, for me, takes this dish from something being deceptively simple to something that is so complex and so yummy. I'm all for simplicity. And it's a delicious dish of beetroot and beef. But... ..I want more. I want some spice. I want something else there. Let's score. Right. Let's get the next dish in. There's a lot at stake if I'm not successful against Jessie. It's your reputation. It's your pride. It looks beautiful, but curious. It does look very curious. It does, doesn't it? It looks like weird vegetable banana split. Yeah. It does, doesn't it? Right out of left-field. If it works, delicious. If it doesn't... (INHALES) It looks beautiful, but curious. Right out of left-field. Yeah. WOMAN: This is squid with sweetcorn, ginger and spinach. What can you see in there? Squid? And you've got fennel, is it? Or is it onion? Slow-cooked onions. Green sauce. Interesting. This is a wonderful dish 'cause it's got so much technique and it's got so much thought. I mean, the onions are cut similar to the squid to reference the squid. And I want to focus in on the way that squid is cooked. It's wonderful cooking. Yeah. It's colourful, it's beautiful. It's textural. There's no doubt it's absolutely delicious. But I always hope that I come into these tastings and go, "You know what? There's the clear winner. "There's the dish that I can hang my hat on and go, 'Yeah, love that.'" Not sure I can. Every mouthful of that dish I had was different. That ginger... And, you know, we see a lot of shredded ginger around over the years, but very seldom is it that crispy. I think it's... It's the heat to the dish, isn't it? Are you not searching for more flavour in that green sauce? Are you not going, "What else could you put in there?" Well, let's score. Jessie, what did you cook? I did the beef with beetroot. OK, so, Ross, that meant you cooked? Some corn with squid and some poached onions as well. Beautiful. So do you want to find out what's on the scorecards? Jessie... ..I scored that dish... ..8 out of 10. I did not expect that. (APPLAUSE) Well done. Thanks, Gary. Jessie, I scored your dish... ..a 9 out of 10. What?! Oh, my God. She's so surprised. Oh, my gosh. Jessie, that dish was so striking. You know what? It delivered. I scored it... ..8 out of 10. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Jessie, that means you've got 25 points out of a possible 30. That's a pretty good score. There's a real chance that Jessie could win. Ross, you need 26 points to win. I'm more nervous now. Gary? Ooh. The pressure is on now, isn't it? Ross, I scored your dish... ..8 out of 10. Well done. The first time I've given a score like this this year. Ross, I scored your dish... ..10 out of 10. (APPLAUSE) Thank you. What cooking is all about right now. Simplicity, elegance, technique. But above all, delicious. Thank you, Ross. Thank you. Well, Ross, you need 8 or more from me to win. For me, there was a clear winner. It was you. Thank you. Thank you. Well done. Well done. That amazing ginger. How you did that, that is brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. It was a really great modern dish. Really clever. I loved it. Ross, thank you so much, you know. It takes a certain professional to come in and put themselves up against an amateur cook in this MasterChef kitchen. Well, I can honestly say it was amazing produce, great competitor. And to be able to cook in this environment, it was good fun. We hope you come back. And obviously, if we're up in Sydney, we're coming to The Bridge Room to your restaurant because your food today was absolutely sensational. So thank you. I'm glad. Thank you so much. See you. Bye, guys. Thank you. It was really great working closely with Jessie. She really nailed her dish. And what is really nice to see is the enthusiasm and the talent, the raw talent, so I'm stoked. See you, guys. Take care. GEORGE: Jessie, how you feeling? I feel really...I'm honestly a bit surprised by the scores. I was kicking myself. I totally thought I had blown it. What I'm going to take away from this cook is to not be so hard on myself. While I didn't get the immunity pin, I'm just going to have to keep cooking well. Hard luck, but, hey, you know what? It's all about experience. Definitely. 'Cause it's experience that will help you win this competition. You're the one that's got the momentum at the moment. Keep it going. Thank you. Right, guys. Usual spiel. Go home, get rest, cos you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. GARY: You never do, do you? Next time ` we're sparking up the barbie for a low-and-slow pit master challenge. So, essentially, if you're looking, you're not cooking. ..headed by the world champion himself... They look a little tight. Come on, let's go! ..with only the winning team safe from elimination. There's no middle team. You're either in the bottom or you've won. The race is on... I'm completely overwhelmed. Ow! Ow! ..to produce perfect ribs... They're amazing. ..for a few hundred meat-loving guests. Sorry, dude. Won't be long. So which team will flame out... Oh, my God. ...under the pressure? I can't do this right now. Able 2016