ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - in the Chinese New Year challenge,... Come on, Red! ..Chloe's yellow team struggled,... Go, go, go! Come on. ..sending them to elimination. I really feel like I've let the team down. Tonight, seven will arrive... ..but just six will survive. If you make one wrong move, you're gone. It's a lucky dip. What have you got? Spanish and pork. Some will hit the jackpot. Fish. And? Japanese. (CHEERING) For others, not so fortunate. Lamb and Thai. Oh! What the heck? I have no idea what to do. But these contestants... Let's go! ..will need more than luck. Don't let this be the cook that sends you home. At this stage of the competition... What are you doing there? ..they'll have to give it everything they've got. You need to nail this. For one contestant, it won't be enough. But for another, they'll serve up a dish so exceptional... Oh, my God. This is one of the best things we've eaten. ..it will blow the judges away. This is a contestant that could win 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. # We got today. # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # So spin me round and... # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # ...show me the way... # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # ...back to... # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016 HARRY: Wakey, wakey, Miley. It's time to get up and play. God. Another elimination day, eh? Chloe has got the immunity pin today. Whether she plays the pin or not, it's a big decision. Do you reckon Chloe is gonna use that pin? It's good odds, isn't it? 7:1. It's probably her only decent opportunity to not play it. Don't play the pin. How'd you sleep, Chloe? I woke up quite a bit. Just thinking about yesterday and today. I have such a huge decision to make. If I use my immunity pin, it means that one of my friends is going home. But I'd be so gutted to leave at this point. I'm really worried about not making the right decision. How are you feeling, Elly? First one. Definitely a different energy. I can feel myself just slightly on edge. First time in blacks. I'm putting on a brave face. Black suits you, by the way. Thanks. But I don't plan on getting used to it. (LAUGHS) But I am terrified of going home. There's definitely a lot of things that I've left behind to be here. My teaching career, my family, my partner. I'm not ready to let them down. MIMI: The competition is so fierce at this point. There are so many strong cooks. And if you make one wrong move, you're gone. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) HARRY: We walk in and there's seven benches. This is unlike any elimination we've had so far. Good luck, guys. Usually we walk in and there's a bench up the front and we would do a blind tasting or something like that. But today, everybody is cooking. I know that for sure. Morning. ALL: Morning. Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen. Make no mistake. This competition only gets tougher. Chloe, a big decision for you today, isn't it? The question is are you going to use the immunity pin to save yourself? It's OK. ZOE: It's fine. It's fine, Chlo. It's fine. It's alright, Chloe. You won that pin fair and square and you can do what you want to do with it. CHLOE: I'm used to making decisions that are better for everybody else instead of what's going to be best for me. This is a really tough call. Chloe, what's your decision? I'm going to play it. You're going to play the pin? Yep. Good girl. Good job. George. I definitely feel like I made the right decision. You earned it. Come here. You earned it. You hear me? Yep. MIMI: Chloe is really honourable to even think about staying with her team. But after a team challenge, there's no more team. You just have to fend for yourself. I think she definitely made the right decision. I really want to be here and I want to fight to be here and me fighting is using the pin. It's a big weight off my shoulders. As the competition progresses, you guys build up a bank of experience and knowledge. Today, you're going to have to put all of that into practice. Plus, you're also going to need to be a little bit lucky. Cos today's challenge is a lucky dip. In this bag is the name of seven different ingredients. In Matt's bag is the name of seven different cuisines. You each take it in turns to pick one from each bag. Cuisine, ingredient. Connect the two together. Cook. That gets the heart racing a bit. I'm just hoping that I get a cuisine that I can work with. I'd love to get Japanese. Let's start with Elena. Good luck. What'd you get? Pork. Fantastic. So that's your ingredient. Now, cuisine. What have you got? Spanish and pork. Fantastic. That's good. Pork and Spanish, it actually is a great combination. Shaking a little bit. Back into line. There's only one problem with trying to create a Spanish pork dish when you haven't been there. To replicate something from only books and magazines, it will be really tough. Miles, your turn, man. Fish. Fish. And? Japanese. (CHEERING) Happy days. I've gotten trifecta there. Miles, fish, Japanese. It's win, win, win. Arigatou gozaimashita. Harry. (LAUGHS) Shellfish. Good one. That's great. Indian, shellfish. Match made in heaven. Alright, Zoe. Fruit. American. Ooh. Mimi. Lamb. Brilliant. Excellent. Brilliant. Good start. Ooh. Thai. I've got lamb and Thai. What the heck do I do with lamb and Thai flavours? You happy about that? It's a bit random. But I'll see if we can make it work. I've never really had a Thai dish with lamb before. Back in line. Right now, I feel like a bit of a sheep in Thailand. I have no idea what to do. Alright, Matt. Beef. That's familiar. Lebanese. You're going to have 75 minutes to bring us a dish that not only heroes your chosen ingredient, but also the cuisine. But above all, it's got to be delicious. Open pantry. The garden is open. There's some amazing stuff in there at the moment. Least impressive dish sends its maker home. You ready? Time starts now. (CHEERING) MATT SINCLAIR: Time starts and everyone runs into the pantry. Come on, Matty. Go, Matty. But the first thing I do is grab myself a pressure cooker, plug it in and set it for browning. BRETT: What's he got? Beef? Yeah. TRENT: Lebanese. I want to give myself every opportunity to have the time to braise this meat correctly. Brown it, caramelise it, get that intense flavour in there. Good idea. Smart choice. Yeah. (CHEERING) In a challenge like this, every second counts. I'm looking for some seaweed. Because I lived in Japan, because I've cooked fish in a Japanese style before, everyone expects me to do well. Wakame. That's what I want. I'm really confident with that cuisine and I should be able to do something really good today. I spent five years in Japan off and on. My daughter lives in Japan. My son's a Japanese chef in a Japanese restaurant. My whole reason for being in this competition is cos the kids and I have got this dream of starting a restaurant together. HARRY: Look at this beautiful fish! If I can nail this dish, my dream will be one step closer. SEVERAL: Go, Miles! BRETT: He's picked salmon. Go, Zoe! There's some lovely combinations. I particularly love pork and Spanish. Go, Elena! The one I don't like is lamb and Thai. What lamb dish have I eaten that's Thai? GEORGE: Yeah, it is difficult, but it's achievable. We shall see very soon. MIMI: Where's the lemongrass? 75 minutes could definitely be enough time to create an amazing dish, but right now, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Uh... I'm grabbing lots of different ingredients, but I can't seem to rack my brain around how I'm gonna incorporate the lamb into the Thai. ALL: Go, Mimi! If I can't think of a dish really quickly, then I'm going home. CHLOE: Good job, Zoe. ZOE: Today, I've picked American and fruit. The first thing that I think of is pumpkin pie. I don't know. I studied biological science at uni, and one of the things that we learnt was how to classify a fruit and a vegetable, and one of the ways to classify a fruit is that it has seeds. Pumpkin, scientifically, is a fruit. It does have seeds. So I'm gonna go with it. What's more American than a pumpkin pie? So today, I'm making a cold pumpkin tart with maple and bacon ice-cream and a pecan crumble. I spent about a month in America last year. It's somewhere that I love. Even though it wasn't a huge amount of time, that's enough to inspire me to create something really delicious. TRENT: Definitely American. Good choice. Today, I'm gonna do, um, some braised beef shin on a smoked eggplant yoghurt with a parsley, coriander, mint tabouli and some little flatbreads. To me, Lebanese cuisine is a lot of spices and a lot of freshness - a lot of beautiful, big flavours that I'm looking forward to working with. BRETT: Got a good plan, Matt? Yeah. Smells good up here, mate. I'm just browning off the beef shin. I'm just gonna add some tomatoes, put that on the pressure cooker for about 40 minutes. Beef shin's used a lot in slow braising. It hasn't got a lot of fat on it, so you really need to break it down very similar to what you would do with, like, a lamb shank, so I have to get it on first. CHLOE: Good job, Matty. HEATHER: Yeah. Looks good, Matt. TRENT: Spine he got out of there. MILES: Today, I've got salmon here, and I've got Japanese cuisine, so I'm going to do salmon a couple of different ways, along with some miso soup and tempura vegetables and a nice dipping sauce. ELISE: Yum. They've all got good ideas, hey? The first thing I've got to do is start to fillet this salmon. I desperately want to showcase my skills in Japanese cuisine. But I've got this overwhelming pressure building upon me. Getting Japanese and fish, there's a lot of pressure. There's big expectations on me to do something special with this. There's pressure from everywhere. The judges' expectations, the kids, friends on the gantry, they all know that I can cook Japanese food, and I just can't get clarity here at the moment. CHLOE: Jeez, Miles is hacking that fish away. Yeah. Hacking it apart. Take your time with it. Miles. George. Gary. What are you doing there? Uh...trying to get a nice fillet off this piece of salmon. Can you just lift it up for me to have a look at? It's something, I don't know, as a cook, you learn. Just, it's like, 'Eeeeh!' It's cringe-worthy. I know. There's more nerves than anything that are getting to me at this stage. Your filleting scares me. You need to sort that out quickly and you need to nail this. This is not how I wanted to start this elimination challenge. I've really got to get a move on. If I don't get a motor on, I won't have anything to plate up and I'll be going home. Miles is still cutting fish. He seems flustered, huh? Yeah. I think he's really under the pump. MILES: Today's elimination is all about a lucky dip. We've picked an ingredient and then a cuisine, and we've got 75 minutes to hero the ingredient in that style of cuisine, and the worst dish of the day will end up going home. I've just got to make sure that I stay on top of things and leave myself enough time at the end to get this looking pretty on the plate. Today, I'm making salmon three ways, along with some miso soup, tempura vegetables and a nice dipping sauce. Go, Miley! BRETT: Come on! With the salmon, I'll cure a piece, I'll pickle a piece and I'll do some sashimi. Ideally, you'd want to cure a piece of fish for at least an hour. I've only got an hour left on the clock now. Hopefully, that'll be enough for it to develop some flavours and firm it up a bit so the texture's nice as well. Miles, are you gonna do a dashi, or...? Nah, I'm just gonna pickle this fillet. Stick with that, yep. Pickling and curing are new techniques to me, skills that I've developed since I've actually been in this competition. But, you know, I'm keen to give it a go and I'm pretty confident that I can produce delicate flavours that will taste good. Don't let this be the cook that sends you home! One hour to go! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ANASTASIA: What's that, Elena? Is that sherry vinegar? That's Pedro Ximenez sherry. Nice. Today, I have to hero pork and Spanish. TRENT: Ohh! Ellie's smells so yum! ELISE: That's really good. I haven't been to Spain, so this is forcing me to be really creative. I've cooked similar flavours and similar elements and textures. Not this specific dish, though. As an art teacher, I love this challenge. What I enjoy doing is mentoring students. You're very welcome. I want to be mentoring young people and getting them inspired by food and help them take their hospitality skills into the real world. I've got my pork in the pressure cooker. I'm feeling OK at this point in time. Today, I'm doing a Spanish pork and rice with three textures of pork. So, we're gonna have that pressure-cooked pork, pork floss, and I've got pork chorizo in the rice. NICOLETTE: Elena, are you making paella? Uh, no. It'll be a pork and rice dish, but not with that crusty bottom. The idea of pork and rice sounds so simple. I need to push the flavours in both as much as possible for this to not come across as some homely little simple dish. Everything's at stake today. HEATHER: Come on, Elena. KARMEN: Come on. You've got this. What are you doing, Harry? HARRY: A prawn curry and a flatbread and pilaf rice. Nice. I couldn't be happier with the cards that I chose today. Shellfish is my favourite protein and I love Indian food, so I couldn't be happier. I've got this really beautiful recipe for a prawn curry from Kerala, from India. I've wanted to cook this dish for so long in this kitchen. It's time. Kerala is a city in the south of India, and 'Kerala' actually means 'land of the coconut'. Down in the south, they use heaps of coconut milk in their curries, and that's what I'm gonna replicate today. I'm feeling pretty confident today. I'm really glad I got these ingredients. You picked the ingredient and the cuisine - now bring us a delicious dish! 45 minutes to go! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Keep going! Keep pushing! ELISE: Go, Mimi. Come on, Mims. MIMI: Time is not my friend today. It feels like everybody around me is halfway through their dish and I am just as confused. I've got all the different Thai ingredients, but I still have no idea what I'm gonna make today. Interesting combination, isn't it? It is very random. Lamb and Thai. So, how are you gonna make it beautiful? I haven't decided yet, um, so... What do you mean? (CHUCKLES) I'm actually not sure. Um, I'm still really undecided. If you went out to a little cafe and you ordered a Thai BEEF something, like, what would make you go, 'Ooh, yum. I'm gonna have that'? OK. Yep. What would you have? A light bulb goes off. I would have probably a vermicelli salad. Put it together. Alright. Thank you. Good luck, Mimi. Thanks. Wow. I've finally decided on a dish. Come on, Mimi! Go! TRENT: Come on, Mimi! Now that I know what I'm going to be making, it's all about getting this dish up and getting it done in time. I'm just trying to calm myself down so I can choose wisely and really get the ingredients that I want. BRETT: Go, Mimi. ELISE: Go, Mimi! Come on, Mimi! That smoke smells good. Good job, Zoe. Yeah. ZOE: I'm doing a cold pumpkin tart and a smoked bacon and maple ice-cream. My ice-cream's on. I'm toasting my pecans now. I've got the sugar syrup on for my praline. Pumpkin's roasting - that'll come out in 10, and I'll puree that with... fold it through the cream. The only component I haven't started is my pastry. Come on, Zoe! You can do it! I really need to get on with it. Zoe! (CHUCKLES) Hello. Have you made the pastry yet for the pie? No, I'm doing that now. 40 minutes to go. It won't take long. (CHUCKLES) Heather, how long does it take to make a pastry, rest a pastry, line a tart tin, cool it? Over 60 minutes. Heather, how long does it take to make a pastry, rest a pastry, line a tart tin, cool it? Over 60 minutes. Prove us wrong, Zoe. NICOLETTE: Come on, Zoe! You can do it! Come on, Zoe! You can do it! Push! ZOE: I hear what Gary and George are saying, but I really need to prove the judges wrong today. I'm only making one serve, so it's gonna be a small tart. Because I'm making a cold pumpkin tart, all I need to bake is the tart shell itself. Once it's baked, I'll cool it and fill it with my pumpkin mixture. BRETT: She's given herself no time. TRENT: She's leaving it way, way too late, I reckon. At this point, I think Zoe's just gonna cut it really fine. Come on, Zoe! ELISE: What's Matty doing? Eggplant yoghurt. MATT: Today, I'm making a slow-braised beef shin with a smoked eggplant yoghurt, a fennel and pomegranate tabouli and some flatbreads. Have you got the fan on? Yeah. Yeah? I've just smoked the eggplant yoghurt, so I'm just gonna let it sit there and infuse. The style of this dish today is quite communal, where everyone can sort of dip in, you know, pile up little bits and pieces and enjoy it. So, I'm just dressing it with some olive oil, sea salt, some sesame seeds and some toasted fennel. Put it in between two trays and bake it. Another tray on top should create that heat to dry it out and crisp it up. Contestants, listen up! You're stirring, you're cooking, you're chopping, but you need to be faster. 30 minutes to go! Come on, guys! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Go, Miley! MILES: At the start, I got flustered. I felt so much pressure. But I'm channelling that pressure and using it in a positive way, and it's really helping me push myself even harder. BRETT: Come on, Miles. Push on, brother. My dish is a salmon three ways. As an accompaniment to this fish today, I'm gonna make some tempura vegetables. I'm trying to impress the judges by showcasing as many Japanese techniques as possible. Tempura looks really good. I'm really happy with that. It's crispy, it's light - it's exactly how tempura should be. Have you got a clear idea about what the plate's gonna look like? A large plate with some pickled fish on one side, some cured fish on the other, tempura vegies... So, we're talking about little pile, little pile, little pile? Yeah. Just think about how George might do it. Might give you more clarity there. Some interest on the plate, spread out. Not little piles. OK. Thank you, Matt. Has Mimi started her lamb yet? No. I think she changed it, didn't she? MIMI: I've wasted so much time not knowing what to do with lamb and Thai flavours. I just really need to start rushing now, and... I've got absolutely no time for dawdling around. There's 20 minutes to go. I'm frantically trying to get this lamb on so it can rest in time. I'm just gonna pan-fry the lamb until it's, like, rare to medium. I'm making a Thai lamb salad. It's a massive risk to be replacing the beef in a Thai beef salad with lamb, but I've got to do it. At this stage, I have no other ideas. I'm just gonna try my hardest to make it taste like Thailand. (CHUCKLES) I've never used a green mango before, so... I know it's a Thai ingredient, so I'm gonna give it a go today. From here, it's all about putting up the best Thai lamb salad these judges have never tasted. NICOLETTE: Oh, yum! (ELISE EXCLAIMS) How cool's that? (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Today, I'm doing a Spanish pork and rice. I've had the pork in the pressure cooker for 35 minutes. Elena, how's the pork? It looks delicious. (CHUCKLES) Yum! Now I can really start to put the dish together. I might just caramelise some of the pork. I want to be inventive, so I want to have three textures of pork in this dish. I want the gooey, soft pork that's coming out of that pressure cooker... I'm really happy with this. It's, um...being able to be forked apart, which is great. ..and I want to pull apart fibres of the pork and deep-fry that and make a floss. Looks good, Elena! Looks so good, Elena. Amazing! And the third texture of the pork is actually a chorizo in the rice. As I continue to taste the rice, I'm so happy with it. It's got that beautiful saffronny, sunshiny flavour with all of those spices and capsicum and onion. I really love it and I could probably eat a bowl just of that rice. What do you REALLY think about Elena's dish? GEORGE: It looks wonderful and it smells so good. Yum! Yum. I'm loving her dish. Look, she's clever. Ideas are good. Flavours are good. Harry's shellfish Indian? Love it. That curry smells wonderful. Yeah. BRETT: Harry, have you broken into a sweat yet? HARRY: Never break into a sweat in here, mate. What about Zoe and the... and the pumpkin dessert? She's got all the right flavours and all the right components, BUT pastry - it needs time. She's gonna struggle. Mimi's got one of the hardest dishes, I think. Just lamb and Thai, it's not an immediate fit. The problem with lamb loin is it always tends to kind of drag you into conformity where you go, 'Right, how long does it take? 'Eight to ten minutes. I'm gonna slice it. 'Now what else am I gonna put on the plate?' Totally concerned about Miles. Trying to do three different applications to that salmon. Just keep it simple. Cure it, make, you know, a beautiful little dressing - job done. MILES: I've got the miso soup, I've got the tempura, I've got a beautiful sauce to go with it, and I'm onto the salmon three ways. I don't get how it's all gonna work. There's just so much going on. My biggest problem is that I still haven't done anything about the sashimi. I'm hoping that I don't run out of time. 15 minutes to go! GARY AND GEORGE: Come on! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) CHLOE: Come on, guys! Keep working hard! HEATHER: Come on, push, guys! Come on, Miles! The clock's got 15 minutes. I've really run out of time. The presentation and the plating of this dish will be paramount. I've got to spend time focusing on that. On top of that, I haven't left myself any nice cuts of fish, because I made such a mess of it earlier on in the piece. So, we'll scrap the sashimi - we'll go with salmon two ways. I'll really focus on making sure that the presentation is Mickey Mouse. Plating's imperative here, especially with Japanese food. I've got to try and somehow make it look delicate. I just hope I haven't undermined the hero of the dish, which is the salmon, by bringing those other elements in. I'm a bit worried about Miles. Yeah. Cos if I have and the hero doesn't stand out, then that's the one thing that'll send me home. 10 more minutes! You don't want to go home! Come on! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Come on, let's go! Push, guys! Come on, Miles! ZOE: I can't run in these shoes! The last 10 minutes of this cook, and I'm running like a madwoman. Arggh! My pastry's out of the oven just in time. I put it straight in the blast chiller. Zo, do you want your pie to be hot? No. That tart shell needs to be cool, otherwise my pumpkin filling is just going to melt. Good job, Zo. I've got my pumpkin. The cream's whipped. I'm just gonna fold it through. Perfect. I fold the pureed pumpkin through the cream. I'm hoping that'll give it a light and creamy texture. It tastes like spiced pumpkin. I'm really happy with the flavour. But I just want to mix a little bit more cream just to get it a little bit lighter. It tastes good, but I'm not quite sure about the consistency. It's not as smooth as I want it. But I don't have time to do something different with it. I just have to go with it. MATT SINCLAIR: There's seven minutes to go. I'm so glad that I cooked the beef shin in the pressure cooker for this long. TRENT: Has Matt got his meat out? That's all I can smell. I take out a little sample. The beef shin is lush. Absolutely stoked with it. BRETT: Happy with it, Matt? It's tender. That's how I wanted it. And I just want to finish it in the pan now - so, get a nice caramelisation on it. And then I can look at starting to get everything together. I want to start plating up. The plating is something that I'm really conscious of, and I want to make sure that what I put up entices people to eat. I know how I want it to look. I want to have a nice, generous base of the eggplant yoghurt and basically build it on top from there. You should be getting used to this by now - the pressure of time! Five minutes to go! GEORGE: Come on! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) There's five minutes to go and I've got everything under control. ANASTASIA: Looks great, Harry. I've got my rice. I've got my curry. It looks really, really nice. I've got my bread. Harry's all over it, hey? The judges are always telling us to put our heart and soul onto the plate, and I feel like I've really done that today. I'm just so happy. Everything's perfect. Looks great, Harry. Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Got to keep pushing. MILES: I've cut the cured fish into larger chunks and the pickled fish into thinner slices. It's gonna be hard to make everything cohesive with clumpy tempura and delicate fish. It's a big ask to try and make something rustic-looking turn up pretty. So I've covered the Japanese perspective by doing a nice dipping sauce, the miso soup and the tempura vegetables. The fish is the one thing that's starting to concern me. Have I got enough of that there, and have I made the right decision to scrap the sashimi and go with salmon two ways instead of salmon three ways? KARMEN: What has he got? Tempura? HEATHER: Yeah. And salmon two ways? BRETT: I'm watching Miles plate up his dish. There doesn't seem to be a lot of fish. Fish is the hero here. I hope he's got enough. Final touches! Make that dish look beautiful! One minute to go! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Time's ticking. I need to make a decision about how this pork's gonna go on the plate. You've got time. Just start with your first instinct. I definitely don't want to be serving an average-looking dish. I know the flavours are there, but I need to get them to want to eat it by making it look beautiful to start with. My plating ideas are not always what the judges want, so I just want to take a moment to consider this. Looks good, Elena. So good, Elena. It does, doesn't it? Elena's dish looks incredible. If it tastes as good as it looks, she's on an absolute winner. 30 seconds! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) The lamb's looking perfect. I'm really, really happy with it. Plating my dish, it's such a mad rush. I don't have much time. I didn't really know where I was going at the start of the cook, but I think the flavours are there and I'm really hoping it's the dish that saves me today. Mimi's Thai lamb salad doesn't seem to have that crunchy element on there. When I think of Thai food, I think of crunchy peanuts or crunchy fried shallots. I'm worried about her. Not much more you can do! Ten seconds! Nine! JUDGES: Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! That's it! Your time is up! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) (LAUGHS) Look! They're all running everywhere! ELENA: Grrr! (HARRY LAUGHS) Well done, guys! Well done, guys! (LAUGHS) I feel so happy with how that went, and I know that this should be a more sombre occasion - someone's going home today - but I'm just so thrilled with how I cooked. MILES: It didn't quite go to plan. Started off a bit jittery, a bit nervy, and, yeah, you feel there's, um... (CLEARS THROAT) ..heightened expectations and a bit more pressure dealing with something that I'm... ..supposed to be so familiar with. (CHUCKLES) So, uh... I desperately want to stay here, and hopefully, I've done enough today to make sure I do. I love this time of the competition. Confidence improves, the cooking improves, I enjoy the tasting. Well, let's get the first dish in. ALL: Good luck, Harry. Thanks, guys. This curry tastes absolutely awesome. It's me on a plate. Gentlemen. It's the food that I love eating. I hope the judges like it. So, Harry, when you found out you had shellfish and Indian, how did you feel? Absolutely stoked. I couldn't be happier with what I got. Shellfish is my favourite protein. I love cooking Indian. Love Indian food. Describe to us, what are we gonna taste when we eat this? It's a beautiful, rich, really rich coconut curry. It looks good. It's time for us to taste. Thank you. Enjoy. I have to say, the curry does look pretty good. It looks brilliant! The whole thing looks great. LOVE those. Looks brilliant. Fried legs - they look cracking. Yeah. Little pilaf over there. I love the combination of nuts, and it looks like there's whole cardamom in there for flavour. Let's see how we go. It does look good, doesn't it? That's great. When you eat it all together, it's lovely, cos there's lots of sweetness in the rice. There's nuts and there's raisins, like, you get a kick of heat, and you get that earthy turmeric. I think that's delicious. And those crispy prawn heads are smashing, aren't they? This is a sophisticated all-round dish. I mean, everything plays a part and everything makes sense. I love it. The prawns are beautifully cooked. They've been well prepared. Delicious, Indian, shellfish - tick, tick, tick. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. Absolutely. MIMI: I know I could have done a lot better, but my brain just wasn't there today and my creative side just left me. I was thrown by the combination of lamb and Thai. I'm just hoping that this dish is enough to save me. I've got to say, I'm worried about this dish. INDICATOR CLICKS RHYTHMICALLY (GASPS) SILENCE (EXHALES SLOWLY) Mate, I'm so sorry. I thought there was time. You just pulled out. I don't have time to stop. It was a simple mistake. LOUD RUMBLING Please. (VOICE TREMBLES) I've got my boy in the back. I'm going too fast. I'm sorry. (SOBS) SEAT BELT CLICKS EERIE CREAKING HARSH WHOOSHING MIMI: My brain just wasn't there today. My creative side just left me. I'm just hoping that this dish is enough to save me. What's the dish, Mimi? ...with a Thai chilli sauce. I looked at you halfway through and just thought, 'You've just lost the plot there a little bit.' You were all over the place. Yep. Not the confident Mimi cooking that we normally see. I was really sort of thrown by the combination of lamb and Thai, and I think I was overthinking it a bit too much at the start. I've got to say, I'm worried about this dish. Yep. Shall we? Yep. Thanks, Mimi. Thanks, Mimi. What do you think? I don't know if she's got some of the crunchy textural elements that I'd be looking for in a Thai salad. Yeah. She's up against some tough competition, so it's got to stand up, hasn't it? What I like about it - it's clean and fresh. There's lot of mint in it, and coriander, which is delicious. The lamb is beautifully cooked. Yeah. Like, absolutely spot-on. The balance of the dressing is good. You know, the use of mango brings some sweetness, the green mango gives a wet texture. But at the end of the day, the overall sense is of wet. The things that you want to be crispy - you know, the little bits of rice paper roll she's... ..the little bits of rice paper she's fried - immediately disappear. She's missing the opportunity of something crispy or crunchy, like more shallots, more garlic, crispy lamb. MATT: I'm absolutely stoked with this dish. It's got all of the flavours that I love... ..and easily something I could serve out of my food truck. So, Matt, you had beef and Lebanese. ...a fennel and pomegranate tabouli, and some fennel and sesame flatbreads. I'm happy with the dish. That's what I visualised. I'm happy with the flavours. And how does that play into your idea of having a food truck? Are you starting to put down ideas that you're gonna roll out? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It was almost like I was practising. Yeah. I believe it. I want it to happen. I'm with you. I'm gonna be the first guy in the queue. Are you safe today? I think so. Well, let's see, shall we? Matt, thank you. What do you think, guys? Idea, integral flavours - delicious. It smells wonderful. This is true Lebanese cooking. Oh, look at all that lovely, nutty rubble underneath. Ooh, it smells good. There's some great flavours for me going on in there, and I do like that eggplant yoghurt on the bottom. Yeah, it's beautiful. The real success for me is that smoked eggplant, the yoghurt and the bulgur together at the bottom is delicious! If your mouth isn't singing after a dish like this, it's tone-deaf! This guy seasons correctly. He's a true cook. He needs to bag this fennel crispbread up as well. (LAUGHS) Cos it's great! Matt, do me a favour and make me a couple of packets of this up. I'll take it home. ZOE: I'm so nervous. I know that my ice-cream is delicious, but it all rests on that pumpkin tart. I hope my version of pumpkin pie will win the judges over. Zoe, you pulled out American and fruit. What's the dish? A pumpkin tart with maple bacon, pecan praline and maple ice-cream. How have you tried to balance the sweetness? I've put spices in the pumpkin. I thought you were gonna put, like, a pillow of cream or something on top of the pumpkin pie. I thought about it. I wanted it to be more about the pumpkin than about the cream. Zoe, thank you. Thanks, George. Thanks, Zoe. Thanks, Gary. Thanks, Matt. What do you reckon, guys? Assuming it's not too sweet... Yeah. ..this could be absolutely delicious. So, cut it, and let's eat it. Pastry cooked? It looks blond on the bottom. She only had 40 minutes from when she started to the end of the challenge, so that's pushing it, really. I'm nervous. My stomach is...doing backflips. Pastry's a little clumsy. You know what? Well, you can see - look at the corners there. It's really thick. Yeah. You knew it wasn't gonna be amazing, cos it was rushed. It's a shame, because that ice-cream is so delicious. I love the smoky ice-cream and I LOVE that bacon praline crumble. That sweet-salt hit that you get is perfect with that pumpkin. BUT...I'm not sure if I love the texture of that pumpkin. Yeah, no, it doesn't have that, kind of, lovely, warm, custardy, nutmeggy... Yeah. ..which is kind of where I think a pumpkin pie goes, rather than it being mashed pumpkin in a tart shell. Well, that's the problem - the texture's wrong. ELENA: My heart is racing. I really want to show the judges that I deserve to be here. I want to make them proud. But it feels like you're serving up your soul. Is this dish the best thing you've cooked? I'm...I'm really proud of it, and I, sort of, pulled out all the stops and really thought about how I wanted to present it and what I would want to eat. It's colourful, lots of textures, lots of flavours. I'm happy with the flavours. I would like to eat it and I'd be happy to serve it to my family, so... Do you love it? (LAUGHS) Yeah, I love it. Yeah. I think I was happy with all of the elements, and that's why they all went on the plate, so... Are you telling us you're not going home? I'm not ready to go home. Is it good to be here? This is your time! It's amazing. This is fantastic! Getting to fully indulge a passion, it's truly joyful. Off you go. Thank you. Well, Elena's theme was pork and Spanish. There's... (CHUCKLES) ..definitely pork on the plate! And... (SNIFFS) ..it looks and smells Spanish. It looks brilliant, as far as I'm concerned! (LAUGHS) Is that not the sort of... That's the sort of food I want to go out and eat out. Oh, absolutely! Isn't it? You know, the colour, the slippery softness of that meat, the brightness of the capsicum, the rice. If I put that in front of you and said, 'What's this dish, Gary?' you'd go, 'Well, that's pork and Spanish!' Absolutely. Without a doubt. And the promise is bold. It's telling you that that tastes amazing. Wow. Oh! My God! That is an assault on the palate in the most delicious way. It's beautiful. Oh! There's orange. There's saffron. There's sweetness from the capsicum. The rice is just beautifully cooked. And then you smash it home with the... ..you know, that beautifully tender piece of pork. I'm completely distracted by it. It's beautiful! It really is beautiful. We talk about memorable dishes that contestants give us. This is gonna be something I'll never forget. It's Barcelona - Real Madrid on one plate. (LAUGHS) It's the best football teams in the world at the Bernabeu battling it out, and you're just...mesmerised. I reckon this is one of the best things we've ever eaten on MasterChef. This is a contestant that could win MasterChef. Let's get the last dish in. MILES: I've got mixed emotions at the moment. I'm feeling nervous. The hero of the dish has got to be salmon, and I've got salmon two different ways, but I've also incorporated various Japanese elements to enhance the Japanese factor of the dish. Come on. What's the dish, Miles? Your day, yeah? It should have been my day. What do you mean, 'should'? Well...yeah, I spent five years living in Japan. My kids are Japanese. One of them's a Japanese chef. It should be second nature to me, but I... (SIGHS) ..felt a little bit overwhelmed. There was a bit of pressure today. Can I ask you a question? As this dish is all about heroing the fish, is there fish in the miso? No. Is there fish in the tempura? No. Shouldn't you have just concentrated on bringing us a beautiful salmon plate? MATT: Can I ask you a question? As this dish is all about heroing the fish, shouldn't you have just concentrated on bringing us a beautiful salmon plate? Possibly, but...I think it's more of a complete dish if there's additional elements there. Probably should have spent a bit more time taking care of those salmon and cut that a little bit neater, and probably work on the presentation, as always. Miles, we'll taste. Enjoy. Jeez, he likes to make it hard for himself, doesn't he? Yeah. Mmm. Three things to concentrate on, including two different styles on the fish. I do want to see the salmon as the hero. He's certainly nailed the Japanese part of the brief. That's... Yeah, absolutely. And that batter looks crispy as, doesn't it? Yeah. Alright, let's find out. I like the tempura. Yeah, I love it too. I love that dipping sauce. It's got some punch and it's gutsy and yummy, and I want to keep going back to that. I tend to agree. I think this dish is all about the tempura. It's absolutely the hero. I could sit there and munch a whole big bowl of those and not feel one ounce of guilt, cos it's wonderful. But the salmons, after I've had the tempura and the sauce, I can't really taste the salmon at all. There's not enough curing going on with the salmon, so that for me is the real... the real drawback. But...you know, is it a tasty dish? Yes, it's certainly a tasty dish. But then...we've eaten a lot of tasty dishes today. Yeah. And now we're in this uncomfortable position where we have to make the decision to send, you know, one of those...cooks home. I reckon you can make a case for three people. I think you can make a case for Miles, you can make a case for Mimi, you can make a case for Zoe. Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right, actually. It's been an absolutely great tasting. And it's very rare that all three of us absolutely wipe our plates clean, and that happened today. Not once, not twice... ..but three times. So, let's cut to the chase and take the people that are safe off the table. Harry! Ohh! (LAUGHS) Harry, Harry, Harry! Matt. The third safe contestant cooked one of the best dishes we have ever tasted... HEATHER: Wow. ..on MasterChef. TRENT: (WHISPERS) It's gonna be El. And that dish belonged to... ..Elena. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Elena, that was just absolutely the taste of sunshine and Spain in a bowl. And, honestly, even as a chef, I was trying to think, how could you jam MORE flavour into that rice? Absolutely impossible. Nothing to be done. Wonderful. Thank you. I loved the dish, but I didn't expect them to love it that much. It just...it doesn't feel real. Well done, you three. Step over and join the others. Mimi... Zoe, Miles, it comes down to the three of you and it comes down to the dish you cooked today. You all put up dishes with loads to love, but each was marred by one crucial flaw. Mimi, where was the crunch? Where were the peanuts, where were the crispy shallots that would give your dish the complexity that it needed? Zoe, your problem was the texture of that pumpkin filling. It was more pumpkin mash than pumpkin pie. Miles, you spent all that time on that delicious tempura and that soup when you should have taken more care with your hero ingredient. Miles... ..we felt that the salmon hadn't had enough time to cure properly. And that's why, I'm sorry... ..you're going home. Oh, Miles, we've loved having you here. I'm gonna miss you. Because... (GARY LAUGHS) ..you're my mate with, uh... that cool haircut! What an absolute inspiration you are to fathers out there going out and doing something not only for themselves, but for their kids. It's just been an amazing learning experience, and for me to get to where I want to be and develop that way, it's been phenomenal. The tuna tataki in that raw-and-cooked challenge... It was DEEE-licious! You made me so proud when you captained the winning team at that Hellenic Republic challenge. We're really, really proud. Cheers. But, Miles, now, I'm sorry, it's time to say goodbye. Cheers. Thanks, Gary. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) All the best. I think you're gonna do brilliantly. Putting food in front of people and seeing them smile because they're enjoying something that you've created with your hands, that really floats my boat, and I just want to keep doing that for as long as I can. (ALL CHEER) I think the kids will be really proud of me. Yeah, not bad for a boy from the bush that's blown into the big smoke, yeah! (LAUGHS) ANNOUNCER: Next time - the power apron is back. (CHORTLES) Wear that beautiful thing and you've got the power to change this competition. I would love that power apron. It's game on now. With a prize so big... I need the power! I love the power! ..they'll have to work hard for it... Fire up! ..challenged by one of the country's top chefs. MATT: Luke Nguyen! ELISE: Far out! They'll push the boundaries like never before... Have you ever done anything like this before? No. It looks a bit thin. Push! ..and produce some phenomenal cooking. Boom! This is the one. Who will win the power that could change the entire game? It's just so damn good! Able 2016