ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... Will you be ready? ..Marco Pierre White took command of the kitchen... Three chowder. How long? ..in a gruelling restaurant team challenge. Push, push! Come on, Jessica. Come on! Yes, Marco. Jessica and Sara missed the mark with their menu. There is something not right with this dish in terms of flavour. And they joined Matthew and Reynold in elimination. Tonight, finals week is just one cook away. You are so close. But to get there... Be in touch with your childhood. ..they must take a trip down memory lane. It's going to have to come from the heart today. The special ingredient today is your childhood memory. They'll go back to where their food dream began, as they turn family favourites... It needs more cheese. It needs more thought. Marco! ..into dishes our judges will never forget. But one dish blew our mind. But for one contestant, it will be the end of the road. # 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. # Able 2016 MATTHEW: This has been a strange week, being in limbo for Reynold and I. We didn't get to cook yesterday. I'm really keen to get into the kitchen today and put up some great food. I really want to stay today. Every week that I'm in this competition, I'm learning more about how much I love food. It's time for me to move on from dentistry. REYNOLD: I've got to get used to wearing blacks at this stage of the competition, but I've got to hang in there. I want to make my mum proud. This is the home stretch now. Good luck, sweetie. Ugh. Let's go. I've come so far. Like, we've all come so far. To miss out now would just be such a shame because... ..yeah, it's finals week next week. REYNOLD: It will mean the world to me if I get to the top five. Top five is pretty much, like, an exclusive group where we all want to be in. MATTHEW: I have to fight as hard as I can. The end of the competition is getting so close now, so I have to give this everything, whatever the challenge is, and, you know, do the best that I can to stay in it. (QUIET APPLAUSE) JESSICA: I would be absolutely devastated going home today. This competition and getting to finals week has become pretty much the most important thing in my life right now. It's a rather different welcome, isn't it, when there's only two on the balcony, clapping and whoop-whooping? It's a little different from the top 24 and how far you have come. At this stage, none of you want to go home. You are so close to the finals. You are so close to winning this thing. Are you fired up? ALL: Yes, George. Excellent. Unfortunately, Matt can't join us today, so it's just the three of us. Today is all about getting yourself into the top five. And it's an incredible thing, isn't it? Who would have thought? Every contestant that walks through those doors has a unique set of references. Something that's made them fall in love with food. It could be a place you visited. It could be the first meal you had in a restaurant. Who knows what it is. But that's the thing that drives you as a passionate foodie. Today, we're going to ask you to do something that the greatest chefs in the world do. Draw on your childhood memories and use them as inspiration to put up a beautiful dish. Marco, how important is memory and emotion in your cooking? When I was a young man, I had that great privilege of working with great chefs. And what they showed me and what they taught me was something quite special and quite rare. They all took inspiration from their childhood. That was the foundation of their philosophy. That's where they took their inspiration. That's where their dreams were made, when they were young. And what do they do? They serve it on a plate. It's that simple. And so what you have to do is go way back and it's all about the emotional impact it has on you. If I go back into my childhood, as a little boy, I was on the River Wharfe in Yorkshire and I smelt this scent. I thought, "What is it?" I didn't know what it was. But I knew it took me back to Italy. I knew it took me back to my mother. So I put down my fishing tackle and I started smelling every individual flower and I found the flower which reminded me of my mother. But I didn't know what it was. Years later... ..someone made me a cup of chamomile. And what it told me was that my mother drank chamomile tea. That's where I take my inspiration. It's from the memories of my mother. From that day, my cooking changed. It became more simple, more like my mother's. So you've got to take yourself deep into your childhood. You really have. And take your inspiration from it and that's what your dream should be borne out of. Your childhoods. Sara. What's very obvious is that you're feeling rather emotional. Yeah. Um... ..I have a dish in my mind and it's everything, and everything you've been saying about...your childhood I'm thinking about mine, and the people that usually I'd surround myself with aren't here. Um... ..and I think it's very poignant that we're doing this today, when I feel like this, so... Mmm. Yeah. I'm straight back at my grandparents' house in their garden, picking herbs and... ..when I think of herbs, I think of a dish and I can't think of anything else. Be in touch with your childhood, and your family. As my dear mother used to say, a tree without roots is a piece of wood. Today is going to be cooking on a bit of a deeper level. I think it's going to have to come from the heart today. GEORGE: Wow. That's...pretty emotional, and that's why I love food and I love what it means. So today's going to be a wonderful day. Now, we really want to see who you are. We want to see the emotion, 'cause you can feel it in the room right now. Yeah? The rules are simple. 90 minutes. One dish inspired by your childhood. Open pantry, and the garden's in play as well. We'll be judging your dishes on taste and how well they evoke that sense of nostalgia. Worst dish will send its maker home. Give this cook... ..everything you have got. Marco, would you like to send them off? Contestants, your time starts now. Well, a lot of emotion in the room, and when you were talking, you obviously just hit a little button there on Sara, because she just teared up straightaway. Yeah, she welled up, didn't she? Really emotional. So it'll be interesting to see what her dish is going to be. You know something? If I was in their position, I'd say this is about a moment with me and my past. It's about me being brave. It's about me making myself vulnerable and allowing what's in me to pour out. Come on, Sara! SARA: Today I am making some pasta. I'm doing pappardelle and I'm putting some parsley through it and I'm going to do a broccoli sauce with it. This dish has a couple of childhood memories in it. It's a pasta dish, but they come from different people, so the parsley that I want to incorporate into my pasta is a memory that I have for my nonna. She used to tell me to go into the garden and pick herbs for her. And then the broccoli so much reminds me of my mother and the way she used to prepare the stalk and give that to my little sister and I before a meal is such a vivid memory and I still do it as an adult, so I feel like she needs to be in that dish as well. And my nonno used to have chickens. I'd go pick eggs with him and so for me, I kind of feel like the eggs and the pasta - and he used to make pasta a lot. That kind of goes together. I need to get my pasta done because that needs time to rest. My pasta is made with 00 flour, some semolina and some eggs. It's a very simple recipe, but pasta is the dish. The brief today is talk about your childhood. Represent the fondest memories you have in your life on a plate. Food and enjoyment and family are also interwound, so...yeah. It's...pretty emotional. If I could get into the top five with a meal like this, it would mean the world to me. More than any other meal I could have cooked. REYNOLD: So I'm thinking to do something with chocolate. And with me growing up with cooking... ..I kind of grew up by myself, reading, um, cookbooks and stuff like that. I've never really had my mum, like, there for me as much. We came to Australia when I was about five years old. Mum had been a chef in Indonesia, but she had to start at the bottom again and work her way up. She was working really hard, so I was home alone a lot with my brother. We used to find Mum's cookbooks that were lying around the house and we'd just flick through them and started making stuff. And what really caught my eyes was, um, this dish. It's a pliable chocolate ganache, so it's quite soft and it's also flexible. And that really excited me because I'd never seen anything like it. But I've never really had the idea to complete it until...now. I've just got a picture in my head. Doing a pastry dish by any chance? Yeah. Uh, so...chocolate. So, I'm adding little things that I love to eat as well. Honeycomb and orange as well. And a rosemary ice-cream. So I'm just hoping they all go together. Wow. Because your parents were working so hard, you grow up in a different environment, don't you? Yeah. Everybody does, you know. It's amazing what references we do have. So if I can do it today in the MasterChef kitchen, it will be very special to me because I know my mum would just... ..just be proud of me. I really want to put some really big, bold flavours on the plate today. It's kind of what I've become known for in this competition and my parents gave it to me and I really want to pay homage to that today. I am an only child and I was fortunate enough that my parents used to take me to restaurants with them when I was a little kid, and I feel really lucky that I was blessed with such interesting food at a young age. It really sparked this love for food that's brought me to this stage in the competition. Um, today I am going to make quite a kind of spicy, full-flavoured, smoky sort of seafood broth with some prawns in there. So I'm really hoping to bring those big, bold flavours that hopefully the judges like. MATTHEW: I've really loved cooking pasta for a long time. You know, that evokes a special kind of memory for me. So I'm going to make lasagne today. Lasagne was one of the first dishes that I really remember Mum teaching me how to make. But when I left home, Mum gave me a little CWA cookbook and, you know, I was living away from home at university and it was like a go-to dish. And it was the first dish that I ever cooked for my wife, so it's got the childhood memories, but it's got that connection with my wife and, you know, my family now. And so we make this and the kids love lasagne and so it... ..you know, continues on. I start the pasta sauce. Ideally, this is the sort of thing that I'd simmer on the stove top for hours and develop lots and lots of flavour, so I just need to get this on straightaway. GEORGIA: Come on, Matty. Move quickly. I've got the base of my sauce caramelising. I need to add some tomatoes. I put maybe four tomatoes and a couple of cups of passata in there and some tomato paste. It's one of those dishes that benefits from longer cooking time, so I need to make sure that I do everything that I can to get as much flavour into this lasagne in 90 minutes. If I don't, then I'm going home on the eve of finals week and I don't want to go home. I'm thinking about my family and all of the different times that I've cooked this dish. They're there in the back of my mind, probably saying, you know, "Don't stuff it up, Matt. Don't stuff it up." GEORGIA: 90 minutes isn't a long time to do a really good lasagne. You've got to make a perfect meat sauce. You've got to leave it enough time in the oven to get all those beautiful layers cooking. I'm a little bit nervous for Matthew today. We might be looking back in time, but time's a-ticking. You have one hour to go. Come on. Let's go. SARA: Today I'm making a simple dish. Pasta and parsley and broccoli sauce. I now need to move on to blanching my parsley, draining it off and blitzing it, because what I'd love to do is have the parsley incorporated into the pasta so they're bright, vibrant green. I've incorporated the parsley once before, but I noticed in doing so, the moisture from the leaves can affect the dough, so I just have to be very careful with the way I make this today. My pasta has come together nicely. There's a nice infusion of beautiful parsley and it's got a gorgeous green colour. What are you making? Um, so today I'm going to be making some pappardelle with a broccoli pasta sauce. I love pappardelle. It's my favourite. The key is getting this absolutely spot-on. I love the simplicity, love broccoli and pasta, but the pasta has to be cracking. I must be honest, that feels very soft. Very wet. Very soft. Have you made this before? Yeah. Was it that soft? Gary is concerned that if I'm going to do pasta, it needs to be amazing. I'm making pasta and sauce. It's just so simple. So this dish is without a doubt the biggest, most riskiest dish I've done in this competition. And a part of me wonders if I can actually pull that off. JESSICA: Today I'm making a lovely spicy shellfish broth with whole prawns served in the shell. Just to give me a little bit more options, I'm going to split it over two pans. My dad was a real chilli fiend, so I'm going to make this hot, spicy broth as a tribute to him and serve it with grilled prawns. I am at the moment just packing as much flavour into this broth as I possibly can. Into one pan, I add some extra chilli, some extra paprika, some sherry and some lemon. I haven't done a whole lot except concentrate on the basis of this broth. This is an elimination cook and it needs to be perfect. Hello, Jessica. Hi. How is your broth? Um, definitely getting there. I've just turned the heat off it, just about. I'm very worried when I see Marco's reaction to the broth. I think I may have been a little bit too bold with my flavours in the broth. I really don't want to blow Marco's head off. I have to fix this... ..or I could be heading to elimination. 1 Marco has tasted my broth and had a terrible reaction to it. I think I may have been a little bit too bold with my flavours. You know something? If you make a prawn broth, you want to taste the prawn with the spice. This is spice and no prawn. I'm starting to panic now, for sure. I still have the pot of the original prawn broth that I made, so I'm gonna add some to the spicy broth to dilute it, and hopefully tone down the chilli. The special ingredient today is your childhood memory. 45 minutes to go. Come on. Let's go, guys. REYNOLD: Today I'm going to try and finish a chocolate ganache dessert that I've never been able to finish before. I've got my ganache setting in the fridge but I'm also making a rosemary-flavoured ice-cream to get a savoury flavour onto the plate. To make it extra special, I'm going to add some other elements, including some honeycomb. I'm worried about making my honeycomb today 'cause I haven't got a good history with honeycomb. In the Asian restaurant challenge, I stuffed up the honeycomb twice. Yeah, it's burnt. Once I've got the honeycomb mixture into the pot, I bring that up to a temperature which is I think about 160 degrees, whisk it and put it onto the silicone mat. And it's looking quite pale. I'm just hoping that it's gonna get darker. There's consequences to today's cook, so...I'm gonna be the one going home if it doesn't go right. MATTHEW: This lasagne has to be, you know, the best lasagne that I've ever made. I've got the meat cooked. I add some red wine to that and then I add all of that back to the tomato and onion mixture. The biggest concern for me for this whole dish is making sure that that ragout has enough flavour in there, and the longer that this sauce cooks, the more intensity of flavour it will get. Marco's not giving anything away. I don't know if he likes it, but I hope he likes it. REYNOLD: I've got my honeycomb cooling. The next thing I do is start working on the chocolate crumb. I add an egg yolk, some almond meal, cocoa powder, flour and butter, and blitz it up. I'm hoping that I don't fall behind. This is my childhood dish. If I go home on this dish, it'll feel...it'll be devastating. SARA: My pasta's resting in the fridge. I need to get on to making my broccoli sauce. The way I'm going to make the sauce is using the florets of the broccoli only and blanching that in a bit of chicken stock. I've blanched my broccoli. Once I've got that, I can then begin blending it and adding stock gradually to get the consistency I need. Sara here - pasta with broccoli sauce, basically. Well, look, it's simple. Yeah. It's simple. But simple should be delicious. If she makes the most delicious pappardelle and then she makes the most delicious broccoli sauce, cooks it to perfection, she's into finals week. It may be a stroll down memory lane, but you need to hurry. 30 minutes to go. GEORGE: Come on, guys. BILLIE: Come on, guys. (EXHALES HEAVILY) I'm feeling a bit of pressure. Check my honeycomb. Um, it's cooled down but it's just not setting. And it's just so soft. What happened to the honeycomb? Uh... I didn't take the sugar far enough, so it's really soft. I gotta start that again. You've got 30 minutes to go. Yeah. Will you be ready? Um, hopefully. I've just gotta... Hopefully? Yeah. I...I will. I will. Yeah. I hope so too. I've only got 30 minutes to get this right. This is a dish pretty much what I love to cook, and it's... so I don't want to fail today. I'm gonna try again, try again, try again until I get it right. MATTHEW: I've got my sauce on. The pasta dough's made and I'm moving on to the bechamel now. The first thing I do to make the bechamel sauce is to melt some butter. Once the butter's melted, I add some flour, and I need to cook that out until the flour has cooked through, And then I add some warm milk that I've infused some bay leaf in. The bechamel's looking pretty good. Just need to add some flavour. I always add some grated cheese. So, I grate some pecorino, get that into the bechamel. Tastes delicious. Bechamel? Yeah. OK. What's in there? Um...milk, flour, water, bay, pepper, salt, pecorino. I try to read the judges' faces sometimes when they taste your food, and it's impossible. Do you think that's right, Matthew? It needs more cheese. Needs more cheese. Needs more thought. I'm not sure whether Marco likes this bechamel or not. I know that Marco can make a great bechamel. But I have to trust my own instincts now, so I put some more pecorino in it. I'm really worried about Matt. Yeah. Why is he adding more cheese? I got the impression from Marco tasting his sauce that adding more cheese wouldn't be a good idea. You know something? White sauce - it's bechamel. It's not a cheese sauce, it's bechamel. When you make a lasagne, in with your bolognaise, over your bechamel, sprinkle with cheese. Pasta. Then we're going to repeat, repeat, repeat. 1 Do you think that's right, Matthew? It needs more cheese. Needs more cheese. Needs more thought. I'm not sure what he means by that. I know I need to do something to this bechamel, so I put some more pecorino in it. This is one of those things about making it the way that sort of evokes childhood memories, and, uh... ..that's what it's doing, so... ..I'm gonna go with it. Last time I did honeycomb was an absolute disaster. I've gotta make the honeycomb again. Just hopefully I can get it all done. Second batch of honeycomb, I'm gonna be using a thermometer this time. I'm gonna make sure it comes up to the right temperature. Pour out my second lot of honeycomb. And it looks good, so I'm pretty happy about it. JESSICA: Today I'm gonna make a lovely spicy shellfish broth with whole prawns served in the shell. Just tasted my broth and it's much better. It's much more rounded, not as hot. I'm much happier with it. I'm gonna serve this with whole grilled prawns. For as long as I can remember, every single Christmas, we always have a big couple of kilos of prawns just on the table. It's about getting in there, getting messy with your hands. This is, yeah, definitely giving me flashbacks. You know, the soup is the flavour and the prawns in the shell is the connection to my parents. I really want to take them back to this memory of mine, so I'm hoping that the judges are gonna see that. It's time for me to make the lasagne now, get it into the baking dish and get this into the oven. I put some of the meat sauce in the bottom, some of the bechamel, pasta sheet, and just repeat the process. It's coming up quite nicely. I'm really excited about this dish. I'm fascinated. (LAUGHS) Can I say something? Please. A classic lasagne construction is the ragout of beef, yes? Then the bechamel, then you sprinkle the parmesan, then the pasta and then repeat and repeat. I'm just telling you what the classical is. I've always done it the other way. (QUIETLY) Marco! Marco said he puts the bechamel on and then sprinkles cheese on top instead, so... I mean, I've already put cheese in...in the bechamel. But I'm starting to run out of time, so I need to get it in the oven. REYNOLD: I know I've bitten off a lot than what I could chew, but I want to keep pushing. I want to just get things done. It's not over until it's over. So, I'm gonna add another chocolate element. I'm gonna try and temper chocolate, because I remember the first time when I got it wrong, over and over and over again, really made me really frustrated and there was one point when I got it right, and that was probably one of the best days of my life. Today's elimination day. There's consequences. One of us could be going home. But, you know, this is childhood. I'm evoking my memories. So, I want to temper chocolate. I take out the chocolate and I pour it over the acetate and I spread it very thinly and I'm hoping it's gonna set. The chocolate seems to be working. Check on my honeycomb. Oh, that's alright. Snap it. And it works. It's looking like what I want it to look like. (LAUGHS) Ah! This is finally in the MasterChef kitchen that I've got honeycomb down. Finally! Everything's slowly coming together. I'm just hoping that I can just keep it together. Cooks! Don't forget what's at stake - a place in the finals week. 15 minutes to go! SARA: Now's a good time to start rolling out my pasta and making my pappardelle. So I take it out of the fridge, roll it out, dust it with a load of flour, because that's gonna make it a lot easier to go through the pasta machine. When I see the tear, I instantly look at the time. I think putting the parsley inside the pappardelle could have been a mistake. And I'll be honest - I don't like it when people put herbs inside the pasta. It changes the texture of the pasta. Yeah. So I think Sara may be in trouble. Yeah. The entire competition rests on this pasta. How am I gonna turn this around to make me safe today? All I can do is incorporate more flour and semolina. I just hope that I can get the moisture out of it. I'm anxious about how it's gonna work. Time to start tying this all together. 10 minutes to go. Come on! Come on! REYNOLD: Less than 10 minutes to go and I've got to start plating up. I cut a circle out of the ganache and a hole in the middle. I cube up the orange jelly and put that in the centre. Next thing to do is to put the chocolate crumb on top. What is that? Oh, it's just the crumble. Of what? Uh... Is it burnt? So I taste the crumb and...something's really missing. Oh, my God. Forgot to put sugar. I can't believe it. That is such a stupid mistake. It just flew over my head. Can't really do much. Just gonna coat this in caster sugar and hopefully that...it will cover the sweetness. Yes, I'm taking quite a bit of risk. Um...but, you know, it's all or nothing. High emotion, high stakes, but it's all about getting into finals week. Five minutes to go. Come on. Come on. I've perfected my prawn broth. Now it's not too hot, so it's time to move on to the grilled prawns so I can incorporate them into the dish. I have definitely left it very late to cook my prawns. So I get my bowl... Yes. With my prawns... Yes. What else? Capsicum and then fried garlic actually... Can I ask you a very simple question? Yes. So I've got my bowl in front of me, yes? Yes. I've got my prawn shell on. Yes. How do I eat them? 'Cause you're gonna get your fingers in the soup, aren't you? Alright. I really need to think about how I'm serving this in the next... five minutes, and I don't know how at the moment. I'm starting to panic now. This is a complete nightmare. I need to rethink this dish but I'm rapidly running out of time. 1 I've got my prawn shell on. Yes. How do I eat them? You're going to get your fingers in the soup, aren't you? Marco's just thrown a giant spanner in the works about the actual way I'm going to serve this dish. I'm really worried. It's definitely a massive risk serving these prawns in the shell, but for me I really want to take them back to this memory of mine, so I think I'm just going to take the risk and do it because this is what feels right. You know, this is connected to my family this way. In two minutes we'll find out who's in finals week. Come on! (APPLAUSE) GARY: Come on. Let's go. Final little push. SARA: Pasta's definitely firmer and less moist than it was, and I'm just, like, "Just cook, just cook, just cook, just cook." That's 20 seconds. Take it out. I've incorporated the sauce into my pasta and now it's coming down to seconds whether I actually get it up or not. It looks awesome, Matt. That looks fantastic. Great job, Matthew. Matthew. It looks good on the outside. Thank you. Let's hope it's as good on the inside. I'm hoping. I'm hoping. REYNOLD: This whole idea and the picture's finally come together. It looks amazing, Reynold. I'm actually really proud of actually putting something like this up. I've done dishes before in the competition that I've been happy with but never a dish like this. Final little touches. One minute. Let's go! GEORGE: Come on! (APPLAUSE) JESSICA: This is absolute crunch time. So to plate up the dish, I've got fresh fennel that I've cut into the little fan shapes, dressed just with a little bit of olive oil and parsley. Final seconds. 10 seconds to go. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That's it. Time's up. (APPLAUSE) Blah! REYNOLD: I think I've done more than justice to my childhood memory. I think my mum and my brother would be very surprised that I could pull this dish off. If I put this dish in front of them, I know my mum would go, you know, "Wow. So proud of you." MATTHEW: I think I've got a lot of flavour in this lasagne. I think it meets the brief, and I'm hoping that the judges really like it. I think it's going to be tasty but I'm worried about the prawns. That's a massive risk serving the whole prawns in the shell with the broth. I don't know whether that's going to be an issue or not but I'm worried. SARA: Time's up and I'm just overcome with emotional exhaustion. I think I've done my memories justice. When I see that, I see my family, so I think that's all you can ask for. Because it is so simple, it is by far the most riskiest thing I've done in this competition yet. I feel incredibly terrified. Jeez, the day doesn't get any more emotional, really. Our four amateur cooks battling it out for a spot in the top five and more importantly them cooking a dish that reflects their past, reflects their childhood. When someone can put their emotions on a plate, you know... ..the greatest ingredient is the heart. Well, it's going to be a truly interesting tasting and I can't wait. Let's get the first dish in. Yeah. I'm really proud of myself to put up a dish like this. I think I've done more than justice to my childhood memory. Wow. Well, I tell you what, it looks absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. So, what's the dish? So it's a chocolate ganache with orange jelly, tempered chocolate, honeycomb and rosemary ice-cream. You've had a very different upbringing. You know, working parents. For me, where food came from was self-learning, reading those books that Mum had. I was just like a 15-, 14-year-old kid reading through a three Michelin-star book and I was just so amazed. Does your mum inspire you? Oh, yeah. She's a hard worker. She definitely... She's a hard worker. She's run the business, supporting you guys, right? Yeah. She had to start from the bottom, so, as a kitchenhand, and then worked her way back up, very, very slowly. My mum's a very tough person but she's a lovable person as well. She's very caring and... when I was young, I didn't really understand that. Can I ask you a question? Would you love to put this in front of your mum now? Oh, yeah. Definitely. Would you? Yeah. And what would you say to her? I'd say...I wouldn't have my childhood any other way. So to put up a dish like that and having a childhood where my mum's worked bloody hard, and for me to focus on food and find my own way is... Yeah, that's what I would tell her. That you want to forge your own way? Yeah. I listened to your story. What was very obvious is that your mother made great sacrifices for you and your brothers. I understand your mother didn't want you to walk into the kitchen. Yep. I really understand why as well. 'Cause it's a hard life. What this dish highlights... ..is your ability to organise and to achieve a lot within a very small time. The amount of work that you have done in 90 minutes is extraordinary. I'd employ you. I'd be very grateful. To hear that is... ..it's amazing. I never expected to achieve this much. I've always been so shy about serving food to people because I don't know how good it is or how bad it is, and to put food in front of you guys and especially to Marco, it's just amazing to hear those comments. I feel stunned but proud as well. I'm proud of myself. We're proud of you. Thank you. But now it's time for us to taste. Thanks, Marco. Thanks, guys. Yeah. That is the best dessert, for me, that we've had all season. It's absolutely beautiful. The chocolate mousse is delicious. The rosemary ice-cream is just an inspired idea. The little tumble of ingredients which includes, what, that lovely light crunchy honeycomb, those little pebbles which was a mistake but in fact worked out brilliantly, and the little shards of chocolate, are all just on the money. He's 21 years of age. He's just phenomenal. But what's interesting is that explosion of flavours. Most pastry chefs have a sweet tooth. That's why they make pastry. He's got a sour chef's palate, which he's taken into the pastry, which is rare, and that's what will define him apart from every other pastry chef in this country, his palate. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Let's get the next dish in. It's the most I've felt connected to a dish throughout this whole thing. I think if you ate it, you would love it and it would be very comforting. But I'm extremely worried that the dish is too simple. Is it enough to secure me a spot in finals week? I'm not entirely sure. 1 1 Sara. Yes, Marco? It was an emotional cook-off today for you. When it's family... Doing this cook made me realise how significant, where I've come from, what I've learnt and what I want to do in the future - how much they're a part of every step along the way. Tell me about your nonna. My mother's mum is deaf and I guess because she was deaf, when I was little, the way we communicated was through the food. It's a very beautiful way of communicating, is through food. It is. Whether it's this meal or any meal, when you put it in front of the people you love, you're telling them that you love them. I think, this dish, more than any, would say that. I wouldn't have to say it - the dish would say it all. OK. We'll taste your dish now, then. Thanks, guys. Thank you. What do we think about presentation? I like the fact that it's not messed around with. It's pappardelle with broccoli. That's what I'm looking at. I think it's delicious. I really do. I struggle finding great little Italian restaurants that serve pasta as good as this. I just think that the flavour of the broccoli sings - it's garlic and lots of parsley. Very, very simple, but good flavours. It may be the simplest dish Sara has cooked to date in this competition. But pasta should be simple. The more you do to it, the more you take away from it. But the MasterChef hat that I have to wear goes into play, and I go, "Jeez, is there a way you could've got more flavour out of that broccoli?" Little flurries that could have made this something that's going to truly knock it out of the park and go, "You're safe." So the question is is whether pasta in its simplest form is going to be enough to keep her in the competition. Let's get the next dish in. MATTHEW: The judges are about to taste this dish that decides whether I stay or go home and, you know, I really want to stay. But I'm worried because Marco didn't seem to like my bechamel sauce. Well, we know what it is. It's a lasagne, huh? Yes. A little side salad. Why? Why lasagne? It's got the childhood memories and the very first meal that I had with my wife, Erica. I made lasagne. Did she love it, that first time she ate it? I like to think that there was probably a little bit of me that she actually fell in love with as well. It wasn't just the lasagne. Are you happy with your lasagne? I am. I am. I think it's got a lot of flavour in there. I like it. It represents, you know, what Mum taught me about cooking. I've put a lot of myself into this dish. Matthew, thank you. Thank you, Marco. Matthew, we'll taste. And good story. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's got a crunch on it. Mmm. And you know what was beautiful, is when it came out of the oven, that lovely kind of cheesy, bubbly top. And that's what you want in a lasagne, isn't it? Let's see the construction. There is no doubt that it's got a lot of flavour. But I just reckon the balance is out. I'm always inquisitive how something is constructed. And I watched the way Matthew constructed his dish. He incorporates the cheese inside the bechamel. Which is not the way to do it. We've got two dishes in trouble. Definitely. Let's get the final dish in. I know that I could make this any day of the week for my parents and they would absolutely love it. It's got our family and the food that we eat written all over it. But Marco definitely told me about serving these prawns whole in the shell and serving the broth, and I've kind of gone against what he suggested. So I'm worried. I have made some grilled prawns with a paprika and prawn broth and some fresh fennel. What will this dish tell me about you and your family? My parents exposed me to the most amazing food from when I was a little kid and my dad is an absolute chilli fiend. This was just trying to show that deep, rich, spicy flavour that you guys know that that's how I cook now, and I just wanted to show that that's where it came from. Why did you leave the shells on and then pour the broth around? When I think about my family eating prawns, you only get as many prawns as you can shell as fast as you can. Like, if I was in a restaurant, how do I eat that? 1 Like, if I was in a restaurant, how do I eat that? I know it's going to be messy, but that's kind of my memory of it. Jessica, thank you. Off you go. We'll taste now. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Jessica. Thank you. Wow, that does look super fiery, super tasty... It looks amazing. I'm filleting a prawn. I think that broth, that crustacean broth, is one of the best we've had all season. It's absolutely rock'n'roll. I love the heat in it, I love the flavour in the broth... I think it's really tasty. It's very typically Jessica. I know you love big, bold flavours like that. So do I. But obviously we know there's shells around the prawns. Marco, have you got an issue with that? This is rather messy. A little thing like that could cost you a place in the final week. We're not here to fill our stomachs. We're here to fill our hearts and souls. And that is done with what you tell us and then what you tell us on the plate. And today was all that and more. The stakes were high, no doubt about it - a place in the top five and, of course, finals week. All four of you rose to the occasion. But one dish blew our mind. Reynold, we loved your dessert. (ALL CONGRATULATE) Thank you. Great combination of chocolate, orange, rosemary. The presentation was beautiful. So much technique at such a young age - 21. And you've developed so much in this competition. My gosh! The best dessert of the season, as far as we're concerned. Wow. Wow. Thank you. Reynold, congratulations. You're safe. You can join the others. I cannot get this smile off my face. I'm in the finals week. All the little things that I wanted to do today, it all paid off, even though things went wrong. But not giving up really does pay off. So it comes down to the three of you. Sara, we loved that beautiful herby pappardelle. But that sauce needed more complexity and we asked whether or not that was too simple. Matthew, Marco loved that golden bubbly top. But what he didn't like was the balance of the white sauce. Jessica, that broth was absolutely smashing. We think the best of the season. Absolutely beautiful. But the shells made it difficult to eat. Two of your dishes were both delicious and well-balanced. But one dish wasn't, and that dish belonged to Matthew. I'm sorry, that's why you're going home. Don't make me cry. It's pretty ironic that you're leaving on a pasta dish, because we think about all the pasta dishes that you've given us - they've been incredible. The tortellini that got you into the competition, that I know you sit at home and you make with your daughter. That is absolutely delicious. The blue cheese tortellini with walnuts. Matthew, you make tortellini like you're an Italian grandmother who loves Gianni Versace dresses. Hang on a minute - don't forget the pie. It's the best pie I've ever eaten on this show in seven years. What are your favourite moments? I think all of the team challenges I just loved. I think Puckapunyal was special for me. Because you're an army boy, of course. You know, for us to be able to give back, I think, to those guys, that meant a lot to me personally. It's a thrill of a ride but it's equally as fascinating for us to see the growth. And yours has been incredible. Reynold, you're gonna miss Matthew? Oh, I'm shattered. He's always so positive. No matter if it was a bad day or a good day, he's always going to support everyone. Really, you're... You're a good man, mate. So, Matthew, I'm sorry, though - it's time to leave the bubble and get back into the outside world. Good luck. Getting this far in the competition has been amazing. Good luck, hey? And he goes for another one! Thank you. I've loved every minute of it. I've got a lot to be proud of. I can't wait now to see how I can change my life outside of the MasterChef kitchen. ANNOUNCER: Next time - they're our top five of 2015. It is game on. Now, in finals week... I could win this. ..they will face the challenge of their lives. Going to give it my best shot. With the intensity building... I'm pretty lost at the moment. Nuh. ..and the trophy within reach... You want to be in that top two. ..they will deliver the best food... Absolutely delicious. ..we've seen this season. What we're tasting today is incredible. But even with cooking this good, only two can be safe. If I call your name, you're in tomorrow's pressure test.