1 ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - the eliminated contestants returned for a second chance. It's a life-changer for one of you! Cecilia and Theresa outshone them all with their exceptional desserts. I really think it's fantastic. But there could only be one winner... Welcome back! ..and an ecstatic Theresa was back into the competition. Tonight - a beachside challenge and a very special guest. MATT: Curtis Stone! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) It's like a movie star. With Curtis at the helm... Come on, come on, come on. Go, go, go. ..they'll have to listen... Everything stops! ..and learn fast. Service starts now! We've got to go. I've got to get my trays. Move, move, move! ALL: Yes, Curtis! This world-class chef will inspire some phenomenal cooking. The perfect dish. Service! But not all will take on Curtis's advice... I think that's totally wrong. ..and it may be a lesson... In 10 minutes? Yeah! ..they'll never forget. Curtis doesn't look happy. What is going on?! # 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. # Able 2016 (DRAMATIC MUSIC) BRETT: Let's do it. I'm pumped this morning. We're at this beautiful beach location. The Sails on the Bay. It's overlooking Port Phillip Bay. MIMI: Look how beautiful it is! So, we're all thinking, "Team challenge today, for sure." ANASTASIA: It's always scary before a team challenge, because you don't know what's coming, and you don't have as much control over what you're about to go through compared to when you're cooking by yourself. I'm feeling a bit nervous. I don't know why you're so quiet! You know it's a team challenge day when you walk into a restaurant, don't you? Welcome to Sails on the Bay. Theresa, welcome back to the competition. I tell you what, you cooked up a storm yesterday. You deserve that power apron. It showed us that you haven't let your guard down since you left the competition, and that's a good thing, because since you've left the competition, this lot have improved out of sight. And today, we're gonna crank it up another level. You guys are gonna be preparing a six-course degustation. You'll be doing that in teams of two for 50 people. To cook 50 dishes with just two of us is a huge task. (INCREDULOUS LAUGHTER) This is gonna be hectic! Six courses, six teams of two - that's 12 cooks. But there's 13 of you. Theresa, that's where you come in. Oh! As wearer of the power apron, you get to choose one contestant to sit out of today's challenge. (ALL EXCLAIM) You know what that means? They can't be on a losing team. Which means they can't be in this week's elimination. BRETT: Massive, massive power. You know, if you get a free pass, you're gonna take it. Who's it gonna be? You can't choose yourself! (LAUGHTER) OK. Oh, my goodness. Yesterday, I think a lot of the reason why I'm standing here today was the helpful hand that was given to me by Anastasia by letting me have a second ingredient. I'm gonna choose Anastasia. I feel completely taken aback by this. I did not expect this kind of advantage at all. I'm so thankful for her. (APPLAUSE) She gets to have a day off and know that she's safe, and that makes me feel really, really good. Theresa, time to take that power apron off. OK. Please take Anastasia's place in the line. Alright. Enjoy. OK. Who's cooking with who? Easy. One, two. You're the first team. One, two. You're the second team... My partner in crime today is Theresa. She's just so excited to be back in this competition. I know she's gonna fight hard. One, two - fourth. One... Today, I'm working with Chloe, and I'm so excited. I'm not too sure what we're cooking yet, but we both really love making desserts, so I'd love to make a dessert with Chloe today. Now we know who's cooking with who, we've got to work out which course you're cooking in that six-course dego. One person from each team, come in and grab a knife. I pull out number one. And...I'm pretty happy. We've got the first course. Brilliant. Shall we do a little shuffle and put you in order? One through to six. Hold 'em up, guys. Look at that! Like a little rainbow of cooks. Really, you're one big team doing one menu, so it's really important that the menu runs in terms of weight, both of ingredients and in terms of flavours, from lighter to heavier. So much is about consideration for the other teams. TRENT: The first course of a degustation, you really need to set the tone for the rest of the meal. You want something nice and light that you can progress off, so there's a bit of pressure to make sure that we do the right thing. A degustation is all about giving the diner six little bursts of flavour, of excitement. It's got to be beautiful. Rather than send you in alone, we're going to give you someone to drive you, and just to amp up the pressure a little bit more, we're gonna give you one of the best degustation chefs in the world. His degustation-only restaurant has been named best restaurant in LA, it's been named one of the best restaurants in the world by Time magazine, by Eater, by Travel and Leisure. He's also one of MasterChef's favourite sons. Please welcome, from Maude in Beverly Hills, Curtis Stone! (ALL CHEER AND APPLAUD) MIMI: Curtis Stone is one of Australia's biggest exports in the culinary industry. He's also REALLY good-looking. The aura around him is like a movie star. So, Curtis, why degustation only? Look, I think what's so special about a degustation menu is it gives the chef an opportunity to actually think about the entire meal. It's such a beautiful experience for a diner to be able to sit down and just be wowed by the chef, course after course. I'm a huge believer in fresh, seasonal produce. When you get ingredients when they're at their absolute best, they taste fantastic. So, each month at Maude, we highlight one ingredient through every single course. We do a celebration of that ingredient. We cook it eight, nine, ten, fifteen different ways - it depends how we're feeling. It's a challenge, because you have to constantly create, and that's the key to a great degustation - creativity. Today, what ingredient have you chosen for our contestants to build a menu around? Citrus. Each team is gonna be assigned a different citrus fruit. And here's the kicker - you're only gonna find out what citrus fruit you're gonna be cooking with when you go into the kitchen. Not knowing what citrus we're cooking with until we walk through those kitchen doors is so stressful. It means we can't start planning until we get straight into that kitchen. So, some rules. Today's cook is a staggered start. You've got two and a half hours to prep and cook 50 serves of that dish, and then you have half an hour to serve that course. ELISE: There's only two of us. It's gonna be a big day. Each course, as usual, is gonna be judged on deliciousness and creativity, and how well that course fits into the degustation as a whole. The top four teams are safe in this challenge. The bottom two teams go through to tomorrow's elimination. Right, Curtis. Do you want to kick 'em off? Absolutely. Good luck, everyone. Elise, Trent, your time starts now. Let's go. (LAUGHTER, CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ELISE: Citrus - it's such a great ingredient to work with. It's gonna be really interesting to see what sort of ingredient we get. Your ingredient is the incredible mandarin. I'm really happy with that. We're just trying to think what pairs well with mandarin. Now, this is the first course of a degustation. Mmm. 'Progression', it's a really important word, because if you start here, you've got to keep going up. You can't go down, right? So, what's...what's that mean? Any ideas? I think initially, we were thinking maybe some kind of light seafood. Like scallops or something like that. Something quite light and fresh. Exactly. Seafood's a great place to start. Curtis says mandarin works really, really well with seafood, so we run into the pantry together, and we're looking around. Prawns. Prawns. The prawns look really nice and fresh, and I think they're gonna be the best choice today. We're going to do a nice, fresh prawn salad. So, we're gonna do, like, a rocket with a bit of mandarin, a mandarin vinaigrette, and we're just gonna have a grilled prawn sitting on the side. Because we have the first dish, we want to keep it quite simple, very light, but fresh. So, Trent's onto peeling prawns and I'm segmenting the mandarins. It's crazy. We have Curtis Stone in here! (LAUGHS) (ALL CONVERSE QUIETLY) How are you doing, guys? ALL: Hey, Curtis. Alright, well, we're 30 minutes in, so it's time for the red team to come with me. Come on, guys. (ALL CHEER AND APPLAUD) HARRY: So, Curtis leads us into the kitchen, and I've really got my mind on seafood, so, lime, finger lime, even lemon would be really good for the second place. Karmen and Harry, this is what you're working with - some beautiful lemon. This is excellent. This is the second course of the degustation, right? So, you want it to flow course to course. I think we've got a good idea, actually. We're definitely gonna use seafood, maybe even a beautiful sashimi or carpaccio. I think it's a beautiful way to showcase the lemon. I like it. Right, get in the pantry, have a look. Thank you, Curtis. So, looking through all these beautiful fish, there's a really, really nice salmon down the bottom. Uh...salmon... So, today, Karmen and I are gonna do a beautiful salmon sashimi with a lemon zest cure to get a beautiful lemon flavour through the fish. Are you right with the filleting? Gonna do a beautiful little microherb salad and a nice dressing to go with it as well. Looking over at the green team with Elise and Trent, I think our course is gonna be a really great progression following from theirs, and it's gonna work really well in the degustation. So, we've got two hours, Harry. OK, guys. Heather and Matt. Come with me, maroon team. HEATHER: Meeting the brief is really gonna come down to how well we can hero that citrus, and we've got to make sure that the citrus is in there and in a couple of different ways as well. We really need to be creative. The orange! (LAUGHS) I think Heather and I are stoked that we've got orange, and I think the first thing that's coming to our mind is duck. Duck. Course three is the first main course, so it needs to be a lighter protein than course four. If we had duck with... like, real sticky, it's gonna be quite... quite heavy, quite rich. We don't want to go with that sort of traditional duck a l'orange, that real sticky glaze. So we really need to make sure our sauce is...light but complementing. So, today we're gonna serve a crispy-skin duck breast with some candied beetroot, roasted fennel and pickled orange. We're gonna finish that off with a nice madeira and duck jus. I think it's beautiful. We're gonna go half a breast? I think so. Yeah. I'm taking the breasts off and trimming them up, passing it to Heather... ..then she's using the rest of the carcass and roasting off the bones for the base of our sauce. In the duck and madeira jus, there's orange juice and orange peel, orange zest, cinnamon, some red wine, and we lock it away. Perfect. ELISE: Do you want to do a whole lot of juice? Do, like, a reduction? Yep. For the first course of the degustation, we're gonna make a grilled prawn with a rocket and mandarin salad. We've got about an hour till service. We've peeled the prawns, segmented the mandarins. We feel like everything's under control. I'm just gonna juice some of the mandarins to get a nice reduction, so the flavour's just a bit more pronounced throughout our dish. I think the flavours of this course will go really well, because being first up, we need to do something light and something that's not, sort of, too overpowering on the palate. OK. Now you're reducing. But I'm starting to think maybe this dish is not complicated enough. It's just a little bit too simple to be part of a degustation menu. You want to start on the vinaigrette? Are you...? Yep. Yellow team, you can come with me. BRETT: We've got number four course to look after today, so we're gonna have to prepare some citrus with probably a red meat. I do have some limes for you. How do you feel about that? Yeah, we can work with that. I love lime. You know, I love that zingy taste of lime. Alright. You want to do beef? Yeah. Most people would think that beef and lime don't really go together, but I kind of like the combination of them. That means lots of flavour. Yep. So, we're going to be making eye fillet with beetroot and lime. I've got to start breaking this down, then. Yep. And I'll get started on the jus. Like... Mimi and I have worked out our roles and Mimi's gonna do all of the sides, if you like. She's gonna do a beautiful lime emulsion, she's gonna do crispy kale, she's gonna do pickled radishes, she's gonna do a nice roasted beetroot, she's gonna do a nice sauce. Whereas my role is I'm gonna be all about the protein today. I've got to make sure this beef is bang-on. To get a perfect eye fillet, you wrap it really tight in Glad wrap, put it in the fridge for a while, let it set up, and when you slice it through, you take the plastic off the outside and you'll have a beautiful round shape. Mimi. Yep? Jus is on? Almost. Are you gonna portion them now? Uh...I'll cure them first and then portion. For our second course of the degustation, we're doing lemon-cured salmon sashimi. I've got these fillets off perfectly, and now I have to get them curing. I get them into the fridge with some salt, a bit of brown sugar, some lemon zest, and also some lemon verbena in there as well. Lemon verbena's another way that we can hero lemon in the dish. I want to leave these salmon fillets in the fridge for about an hour to cure. I usually like to cure the salmon fillet for longer than an hour, but we can't really afford that time, so I'm just hoping that there's gonna be enough lemon flavour through the fish. ELISE: Alright, so, your prawn's ready? Prawn's ready, yep. Do you want to do a full test run? Yep. We've got just over half an hour to go, and we need to try and get a bit more of a clearer idea of how this dish is gonna be plated up. We could have the prawn off to the side. That way? Or that way? But we look at the dish and we think, "This is way too simple." I don't know how to do this. What's going on, green team? It's very quiet in here. Um, we're just figuring out, like, a plating option for the salad. Does it look like a first course in a six-course degustation to you? No. It doesn't to me either. Hey, Curtis. How are they going? These guys are on their first course. They're going in the way of a salad with a prawn on top. They've played it a bit safe, in my mind. I'm looking at rocket. That's not very inspiring. I think our flavours are all there, but we just can't make it look really sophisticated. This is a degustation. You need to ask yourself, is that good enough? 20 minutes till service, and Trent and I don't even have a dish. We're the first course. If we can't pull this together, we're in elimination tomorrow. 2 This is a degustation. You need to ask yourself, is that good enough? TRENT: We've only got about half an hour to go, and George, Gary and Curtis are just not happy with our idea one bit. I'm looking at rocket. That's not very inspiring. They think it's too simple, so we just really need to completely rethink it. I think there's a way to make that prawn even more interesting that still celebrates the mandarin in an incredible light. I tell you what - with 50 covers coming in and two people to make one course, whatever you decide to do, you need to move it. Yeah, OK. We need to think of something quickly. If I was you, I'd think about the rocket. What else can you do with that? You can turn it into a pesto. You've got pine nuts there, so you're already halfway to a pesto. Pesto! Who would have thought? It works so well with prawns! You know, he's such a genius. Trent's doing the pesto, but we've got to think of something else interesting for this dish. Mandarin's got to be the hero and we've really got to highlight that ingredient. HEATHER: How are you guys travelling? Just trying to get it done as fast as we can. The whole dish changed. (LAUGHS) Really? Yeah. You guys want to do cakes? Maybe you can... Yeah. So, we'll do the warm dessert and then you guys finish off with a palate-cleanser. Yep. Nicolette and I would love to do a sorbet and keep it really light and fresh, and the blue team are really happy with that, because they want to do a warm dish that's comforting, hearty, so that it all ties in together. OK. It's fast and furious in there, blue team. Are you ready? We're ready. Come with me. Good luck, guys! Thanks. There are two ingredients left. Your ingredient is... (LAUGHS) ..the tangelo! When he says it's tangelo, we're so excited. We're like, "OK. This can work in our dessert plan. "We're gonna do a nice, warm syrup cake with it, a nice ice-cream or a cream." So, obviously, there's two sweet courses. Any sort of strategy into...? Yeah, we spoke with the other team, and we were thinking, because there are two, we were gonna go with a warm dessert, like a sticky cake, and they were gonna do a cold dessert, like a sorbet or something. Normally we'd do what's called a pre-dessert to transition you from savoury food to something sweet. That's more in the line of a sorbet or something light. Ohhh, OK. And the dessert follows that, which would be something richer. Oh. We had it reversed in our head. Curtis shakes his and says, "That's not how it works." So that throws us for a loop. I would be looking for something nice and light. But we have to take his advice on board and go with that. Well, let's get our thinking caps on and we'll lighten it up. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks, Curtis. Alright, so, what have we got there? Have we got a crumb? Yep. We definitely have to reconceptualise our idea. And then...we could have a granita? A granita's usually on top, 'cause it's light. So now we're going to have a star-anise crumble, creme fraiche cream, fresh tangelo segments and tangelo granita, and then we could even put that chocolate thing on top if you want - that little tangelo juice-filled chocolate surprise on top. To add a little bit of extra glamour to our dish, I decide to do a tangelo chocolate explosion. This is tangelo juice inside little chocolate bursts. The idea of it is when you pop them in your mouth and you bite into them, the juice just explodes, and they're just wonderful. So, we need lots of bowls and we need a lot more of the tangelos. I'm so excited, 'cause it's gonna be something really, really special. And we are back on track. Above and behind. BRETT: Above AND behind? (LAUGHS) The fillets are in the fridge curing and now I have to get onto making a beautiful smoked creme fraiche. So, you've smoked the creme fraiche? Yep. I like that. OK. Very good. Karmen's shelling all these fresh sweet peas that we're gonna use as a garnish for our dish. Um, so, today we're gonna do a crispy-skin duck breast. We're gonna do it with some roasted fennel, some pickled orange segments and some candied beetroot. What do you think of this? Gonna go, like... I like it a lot. I'm really happy with this dish. Yeah, I'm SO happy with it. I think it's a great idea. Green team, you are running out of time, guys. What is the plan? Um, so, we've changed it up a bit. We've diced up the prawns. We're not gonna grill them on the barbecue. 15 minutes to go and we've come up with a far better idea to showcase the mandarin. We're going to cure the prawns in the mandarin juice. And then it's a completely cold dish if we do it like that. Now our dish is mandarin-cured prawns with a rocket pesto and a mandarin reduction. We had the mandarin juice and, you know, we've had these beautiful prawns, and it all works. Why didn't we think of this earlier? Do you think that the citrus in the mandarin's enough? The thing you are gonna have to do is really punch it full of acid, right? Ideally, we'd like these prawns in there for half an hour just to have them a nice, firmer texture. But there's only 15 minutes to service, so I've added more mandarin juice to help the curing process. We still can do it. You can still do it, but you have to move! You never know, this could be enough to save us. Come on, stir, stir, stir, stir! Move, move, move! Yep. HEATHER: Fennel? We need to check that. MATT: Yep. 15 minutes, Karmen. Um...oh, I'm just wondering how much liquid to make, yeah. (NOISY CHATTER) Can you hear that noise? That's our guests arriving! ELISE: Oh, shit! We have to be serving plates in about 15 minutes. Move, move, move, move, move! We're going! Yes, Curtis! I can hear the diners, and Trent and I have 50 people to feed, and we've really got to get a move on. These dishes are gonna fly out the door. We've got to start getting ready. TRENT: We really need to start pushing. We've got diners sitting there waiting. We just really need to get into gear. Guys, everything has to be fast. You've got to figure out your plating faster. We have to get ready for service. Yes, Curtis. I want this whole pass cleaned down. I'm going to get the purple team and get them started. When I get back, we're about to start our service. Quick, let's get ready. Yes, Curtis. We'll work...this way. KARMEN: Good luck, guys. Thank you! Now I'm so excited! Nicolette and I have quite a lot of time to wait because we are last, so we're definitely running through a lot of ideas, and we want to keep it light and fresh. Purple team, lucky last. Yep. Come with me. OK. (GASPS) Your ingredient ruby grapefruit. Yes! I love it. It's one of my favourite winter fruits. So, you guys are the last cog in the wheel. When the team before you came in, they said they wanted to do a hot dessert and you guys were gonna do something light to finish the meal. I told them I think that's totally wrong. To me, you want something rich. Curtis kind of says that the sixth course should be something heavy, hearty and warming, and it throws us. I don't want to see just a little bit of sorbet. That's what they're having before. I want to see something fantastic. Good luck. Thank you. Alright. Um, what do you think? Well... I think... I'm stumped now. I think just leave it. Leave it, yeah. I really like it how it is. We're gonna stick with our original plan and do something light and refreshing incorporating that grapefruit. So, we've got the freshness of the cells, we've got the creaminess of the meringue and the mousse. That'll be really fresh as well. The gel. Yep. And then the sorbet will go beautifully. Yep. I'm really happy. It's a risk to go against what Curtis said, but this dessert's gonna be beautiful. We're sure everyone's gonna love it. Are you feeling good? Yep. Awesome. How's it gonna go on the plate? Just on the bottom. Just, like, one little... Alright. So, you're gonna do it on the bottom? Harry, move it. HARRY: I'm coming, I'm coming. Heated plates, Matty. Eh? Heated plates. Chefs! Everybody listen. Everything stops! Service starts now! OK, chefs, let's have a great service. I'll grab another bowl, and we'll get some prawns out. It's time to face the music with these prawns. We would have loved to leave them in the cure for a little bit longer, but service is here, and we just need to get them out now. Show me one. When I see the prawns on the plate, I'm pretty happy with how they look. How much better does that look than a prawn on a wimpy rocket salad?! Thank you, Chef! It looks beautiful. Thanks, Curtis. Service, please! TRENT: Presentation-wise, the dish looks really good. I'm really happy with it. But I've just got a suspicion that the prawns haven't been cured for long enough. Describe it with real confidence. Be really proud of it, guys. Be really proud of it. Our prawns will still be edible, but the texture just might not be nice and firm. Hi, guys. And if the judges don't like it, that could send us into elimination. So, you know, I'm just hoping that they're not slippery. Right. That's a little different, isn't it? 3 TRENT: Hi, guys. That's a little different, isn't it? (LAUGHS) MATT: Wow. That looks really pretty. So, what is it? Mandarin-cured prawns with a rocket pesto and a mandarin reduction. Wow. Go on! That's it. Oh. Thanks, guys. Get out of here. You've got 50 covers to serve! That's a very different dish to the one we went in to. Does it look delicate and pretty? Does it look like the first dish in a degustation? Absolutely. You know, not overstated. I tell you what - look at how those colours just pop off the plate. I mean, it's fantastic. GEORGE: Let's taste. Hmm. My question mark I have is the feeling of the prawn on my palate. I don't know. Is it personal? I'm sitting in a restaurant, I'd do exactly what I've just done. And I suspect we're gonna see a lot of customers do the same thing. These are very jellied. This is like jellied prawn. I just think that the flavours they've put together there - the pesto particularly - just adds a whole different savoury dimension to the dish. I love the flavour of mandarin. They've certainly heroed that wonderfully. It's ticked the box in terms of mandarin. Come on, guys. Pick it up. You've done seven, you've got 43 to go,... Yes, Curtis. ..and we're nearly a third of the way through our time. Let's move, move, move! Can we get service? TRENT: Curtis is really pushing us. We just need to get plated up as fast as we possibly can. Pick it up. Pick it up. To try and get 50 dishes up with just two of us is a huge task. Step it up, guys. Step it up. Yep. I don't think the prawns were marinated enough. The pesto was nice. WOMAN: Whilst it was beautiful and delicate, I felt that the prawn could have been cooked a little bit more in the citrus. We're running out of time. We're down to our last five minutes. Red team, as we're running out of time here, your time is next. HARRY AND KARMEN: Yes, Curtis. Karmen and I are doing really, really well. I've almost got all our elements, and all we have to do is just get this fish prepped, and then we can get onto plating. HEATHER: OK, so, what's next? MATT: I'm just making the syrup now. So, I'm just gonna boil that, reduce it. ELENA: At the moment, I'm working on a crumb to go at the bottom of our dessert, with a little bit of star-anise in it. MIMI: Today's challenge is all about citrus, and we're not just gonna add lime to this dish - we're gonna infuse it in a few different ways. We're making a lime emulsion. It's gonna be really nice and green on the plate, and it will really sing lime. We're also gonna add some lime in by pickling the radishes with some lime juice and making a lime salt. Yeah. That's good. Over there. Just plug 'em in. We're doing course number six, and Curtis says that this course should be something heavy and rich, but we want to do a light and refreshing dessert that will really hero that grapefruit. We've come up with a grapefruit sorbet, a meringue shard, a grapefruit gel and zested grapefruit to go onto the top. I've juiced a bunch of grapefruits, so I get onto making that grapefruit sorbet, whilst Chloe gets onto making the meringue. How much longer do you need to whisk that one for? Not much longer. Guys, your last plates are leaving the pass right now. Thanks, Curtis. Great job. Well done. We've been working so hard, and the plates are just flying off the pass. Guys, you did it with two minutes to spare. Perfect timing. ELISE: Whoo-hoo! Right, get it out. Well done! Great job. Great job. Thank you so much. Now, clean down, because you need to make room for the red team, who are about to go straight onto our second dish. Come on, Harry. You've got to do that fish. HARRY: I'm coming, I'm coming. We're just about to start service. We need to work really, really quick if we want to get this food out to the diners. We have 30 minutes on the dot. Let's start. OK, Karmen, I'll do the salmon, and I'll pipe the creme fraiche. We're starting to get plates out, getting on the salmon, the creme fraiche, the radish, the beautiful microherbs. Come on, guys. Move faster. You saw how fast the green team had to move. You have to go even faster, 'cause you've got even more components on your plate. There's a lot of pressure. It's like Curtis standing on your head and if you fail, he's just gonna... Come on, guys. This is my kitchen today. You're not gonna let me down, alright? No, Curtis. I'm really happy with the dish. It looks really, really beautiful. Come on, come on, come on. So we've got a winner here. G'day, gentlemen. How are we going? Good, Harry. We have a lemon-cured salmon with smoked creme fraiche and a beautiful lemon verbena vinaigrette. Cheers. Thank you. Quick, quick, quick, go, go. Run, run. I tell you what... GEORGE: It looks beautiful. MATT: Let's see how it tastes. It looks beautiful. It looks refined, and when you eat it, you get that lovely little pop of the pea, smoky creme fraiche, you know, slightly oily salmon, which is delicious, and then this big hit of lemon verbena. Love all those things. And I think that combination of the creaminess of the salmon flesh with the creaminess of the creme fraiche is really lovely. I think it's a really assured dish and the perfect dish to feature in a degustation. CURTIS: Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go! Service! We just had the salmon. It was beautiful. It had a lemony overtone. It was lovely. The cured salmon, I found absolutely delicious, and the smoked creme fraiche was just amazing. How many plates to go, Harry? HARRY: I think about 21. Matt, are you on with those duck, hon? MATT: Yep. They're going on now. The red team are into their service, and that means that we're next. We've got our sauces reducing, the fennel's roasting away in the oven, the beetroot's candied, Heather's finished off pickling the orange. I think we're in a good spot. So, I'm thinking at this stage, we've got 30 minutes until service starts, so now I want to get the duck on. That should give me enough time to cook it properly and rest it. Is this the duck breast? Yes. That we're about to serve? In 10 minutes' time? In 10 minutes? Yeah. I thought we had longer than that. You're the next course. Yeah. Well, they're supposed to be finished in 10 minutes. What?! I thought we'd got... (SIGHS) ..a good half an hour! Oh, my goodness! I don't know what's happened. Curtis, he doesn't look happy. That takes 12 minutes to cook and the same time to rest, and you haven't even got it all in the pan! You guys had better PRAY that these guys are slow. I'm putting all these duck breasts into these pans. I'm starting to lose track of which ones have been on the longest. It's absolutely chaos. They all look the same. Hey? They all look the same. There is absolutely no chance in hell that this duck's gonna be ready to start plating in 10 minutes. We're in huge trouble. CURTIS: Service! HARRY: Quick. Guys, the last dish is about to walk with seconds to spare. Well done. KARMEN: Well done! (LAUGHS) MATT: Harry and Karmen have finished their service, and we're supposed to be next. Matt! Heather! What is going on? But we've realised that our timing is completely out with the cooking of this duck... Our first plate should be walking right now. OK. Right? ..and all we can do is get this duck cooked and rested as fast as possible. When I say "now", I mean now, now, now, now, now. Behind! Hot! The diners are just gonna have to wait a few minutes. BRETT: We're looking good, Mimi. Our dish is number four in the degustation menu today, and we've decided to call it 'beef, lime, beetroot'. The beetroot might take a bit longer, so they'll be nice and chunky and roasted. I reckon we just put them in the oven. We're doing this crispy kale, and it's Mimi's recipe. Basically, it's just a bit of oil, salt and pepper on a tray, get it in the oven. Um, we've just had the beef in the freezer just for a little while, just to set the proteins up, and as you can see, it's got a nice shape to it now. I've just got to quickly carve this beef up in nice, thick steaks. The beef's ready to cook. We're in a good place. We're gonna do extra juices here, and hopefully we can freeze them. If we can freeze them, I'd like to dip little chocolates. Today, our dish is tangelo refresher with a tangelo explosion. Because tangelo is our hero ingredient, we're gonna make these little tangelo juice bombs, where you freeze the juice, and once it's frozen, you dip it in chocolate, and when you eat them, they just pop in your mouth, and it is just so much flavour that explodes in there. But it does take a while for it to freeze, so I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that that's gonna freeze in time for me to dip into the chocolate. If it works, it's going to be just something special. Like little treats on top of our dessert. I'm gonna be so sick of grapefruit by the end of this. I've got a whole trough of grapefruit skins in there, and...yeah, there's a lot of grapefruit to juice right now. Move, move, move! Pull the plates down. Get the fennel on. Get the beets on. Get the orange on. We're 15 minutes into our allocated half an hour of service, and we can finally start plating up. You guys have a responsibility to make up the time and get this food out. BOTH: Yes, Curtis. So we really need to start ramping it up. However, in all of the confusion, I've lost track of which duck went in first, came out last, rested the longest. You know, I'm just hoping that there's not a lot of inconsistencies across the board. But I think at this stage we're starting to get some momentum. Hallelujah! Who would have known you can pull yourself out of this? Nice work, Matty. I think it's looking beautiful. The beetroot, the roasted fennel, the orange, and then just dressed over the top with the sauce. Oh, my gosh. I'm really happy with the way that we've heroed orange in the dish. I'm just worried about the duck. Beautiful. What have we got? We have a crispy-skin duck breast with some roasted fennel, a pickled orange segment and some candied beetroot. Are you happy with the way that's cooked? Um, yeah. Yep. Alright. Cool. Good stuff. BOTH: Thank you. I love the presentation. It's kind of understated and instantly attractive. Those rounds of beetroot, that lovely trimmed bit of orange you've got there. It smells delicious. It's a great combination of flavours. It's really aromatic. And they've certainly championed the citrus. This definitely tells me they've used orange in it. You know, I love the idea that they've pickled it slightly. And the combination of fennel, beetroot and orange is beautiful. I love everything about that dish apart from the duck. It's overcooked. I think it's rested through. It's completely washed out. There's no pink in there at all. If they'd left the duck off... Oh, it would have been a winner. It would have been a winner. Just crispy duck skin? Yeah. We're going to stick with our original plan to do a fresh and light dessert. So, we've got our grapefruit sorbet in the churner, we have our meringues in the oven, and we're incorporating the grapefruit into quite a few light elements. At the moment, I'm zesting the grapefruit. We're gonna dehydrate the grapefruit skin and then make it into a sugar that we're gonna sprinkle over the top of our dish at the end. But Curtis said that it needs to be rich and heavy, so we've decided to add in a chocolate element to kind of bring a bit of richness to the dish. We both think that a dark chocolate ganache is the right thing to do. A chocolate ganache would be perfect to kind of cut through all the sweet-sourness of the rest of the grapefruit dish. It's gonna be very nice and rich and heavy. In here, I'm just whisking together the chocolate and the egg mixture before I add in the whipped cream. It's a bit thick to begin with, but it'll loosen up shortly. How are you doing, guys? Good, thank you. I know I threw you a curve ball. So, what are we doing? So, we've decided to do grapefruit and chocolate. So, we're gonna do a dark chocolate mousse with grapefruit sorbet, and then we've got fresh grapefruit cells, meringue shards. You're the last course. It has to be a rich dish. Cook to win. It's a risk going against what Curtis has just said, but we're gonna stick to our guns and do a light, refreshing dessert that we think will really highlight that beautiful grapefruit. But if we're wrong about this, we could be going into elimination. 5 Looking good. NICOLETTE: Can you bring a couple of sieves, please? CHLOE: Hang on. It's really tight in here! It's pretty crazy. We're kind of all on top of each other. Right, we've got to start... we've got to go. Alright, guys! Yellow team, it's your turn! Alright. We're ready. If the pressure wasn't on before, it certainly is now. It looks great, and I think you're in good shape. We've got 50 people to serve food to. We're plating up beetroot, beef, pickles. We're smashing it out. Mimi, they look beautiful. We need to make sure that every dish is perfectly portioned and looks beautiful. Service, please! Come on, move your hands faster, please. Come on, come on, come on. Come on, Mimi. Brett and I are taking out the judges' plates. I feel so happy with what we've plated up. It looks beautiful. And I really hope this is a winning combination with the beef, the lime, the radishes and the beetroot. GARY: Alright. What have you cooked, guys? We've cooked beef, lime and beetroot. Thank you. Cheers. Thank you. Enjoy. The idea of having such a green dish after such a reddy-brown dish is a lovely idea. Smells great. Nicely cooked beef. That combination of that beautifully cooked beef, that lime salt, which is really good with the beef, and then that kind of... almost like a lime salsa verde with the kale chips... really lovely. Yeah. And just the right size. I think it heroes the lime. I think that is absolutely delicious. That beef, those kale crisps over the top, and that little sauce. Yum. I think it's a great dish. Well, we had the beef with the lime and the lime salt, and it was absolutely delicious. It was the standout dish. Yes! Well done. Good job. Good job. THERESA: I've got to get my trays. ELENA: There they are. NICOLETTE: We can pipe it, yeah? I think piping would be quicker. Yeah. OK. Alright. Piping bags. CURTIS: Blue team, are you ready? THERESA AND ELENA: Yes, Chef! THERESA: So, with only minutes to go, I'm finishing off my tangelo juice spheres. They're just gonna be something special, and I am so excited. They aren't fully frozen, but they are hard enough for me to dip into the melted chocolate, and they are holding together. If they were frozen earlier, I think I could have done them a little bit easier. Blue team! ELENA: Yes! It's time for service. I've got my star-anise crumb, I've got my creme fraiche, I've got my tangelo segments and my tangelo granita, and I'm ready to plate up. OK. Try it. You're more important than me. (CHUCKLES) It's your dish. Mmm. Pretty good, isn't it? I love the refreshing, cooling sensation that it brings to your palate, and I'm thinking it's serving its purpose exactly as Curtis had intended. We just need to bring it all together. Theresa! Yeah? How long until those spheres are done? Uh...I'm coming, Elena! Thank you. Time for me to bring out my little chocolates. I'm really happy with them. They are packed with flavour. Mmm! They're great. Theresa's little chocolate tangelo explosions are ready for plating, and along with all of the other elements that we've created, I know that this dessert is gonna be something really special. Service, please! Service, please. Can these start going? Yep. And the waiters start to take out the dish, and yeah, it's surreal to think, "Wow, we are serving people "in a degustation restaurant with an item that we made." Like, it's... You have to be really proud. Go, go, go. Alright, let's go. Alright, Elena. Good luck, guys. Thank you! Hello! Ohhh! Oh! GARY: Ooh. It's got a little chocolate in there. Oh, I love that. Yes, we have, um, a tangelo refresher with a tangelo explosion. And there's a little star-anise crumb. So, the explosion is the little chocolate ball there? Yeah, literally exploding. Are you super happy with the dish? I'm so happy with how it went. Aw! Beautiful. Thanks, guys. Can't wait to taste. BOTH: Thank you. I reckon that that looks kind of pretty. It's the colour that stands out, isn't it? Mmm. It certainly champions the citrus. Ooh. Hello. Oh, my! Oh, that is very fine. Obviously a dish that highlights that tangelo in a massive way. And a thoughtful dish. And I say "thoughtful" because we're about to have a second dessert, and this isn't cloying. It's not..."Like, OK, I'm done now." My palate feels alive now. It's just really yum. But there's SO much going on there. Oh! Salty. Sweet. Sour. Fresh. Acidic. The tangelo flavour front and centre. The chocolate is, I think, a really good addition. I absolutely love it. And I love the flavour of star-anise in that crunch. It's kind of gingerbready, which is really yummy. But it's the texture that kicks it off for me. I love it. I'm SUPER happy to be back in the kitchen! I love this dish so much, I would order it again, and I'd like the recipe, please! (LAUGHS) Thank you. That was lovely. Alright. Let's clear all this. Let's wipe all this down. 'Cause then we can actually start plating. Oh, what's happening over here?! Guys! Purple team! BOTH: Yes, Curtis? Sorbet is going all over the floor! Nicolette, can you please... I'll come grab it! Thank you, Nicolette. Don't overchurn it. Service is about to start, and the sorbet is now really fluffy and really aerated. It's really strange. I've never seen sorbet like this. Oh, my God. I'm really worried about it. What should we do? It's going over the churner. OK, then stop it. There's literally nothing we can do about this sorbet. I have to get ready for plating. Do you think just one dot, Nic? Yeah. What do you reckon? Yep. With this ganache, there's not too much of it, because it is quite rich. We just want to pipe a small amount on the plate so that it doesn't overpower the grapefruit flavour. Purple team, you are on! Let's go! BOTH: Yes, Curtis! I want to see some plates! Service starts. Fast hands. I want to see fast hands. As the dish comes together, it's looking really nice and we're feeling really good about it. Service! This is the last dish. The last dish is always the most memorable dish. It all comes down to this plate. It's a beautiful dessert, but we know it's not the dish that Curtis wanted us to make. We've got this tangy grapefruit gel and this beautiful shard of meringue to go with the sorbet. But by the time the plates are ready, you can't see the chocolate ganache under the meringue shard. Alright, I'm back on the meringue. Yep. Alright, these are the last ones. These are the last ones. Let's go. We made the dessert we wanted, even though it was a risk. We just really hope it pays off. There we go. So, here we have... ..a grapefruit sorbet, a chocolate ganache, a grapefruit gel, a meringue shard and a dehydrated grapefruit zest. OK. Good stuff. BOTH: Thank you! What do you think? Looks wonderful... but... ..you're going from granita to sorbet? Yeah. What, you want two sorbet granita desserts in a row? No. 6 You're going from granita to sorbet? GARY: Yeah. What, you want two sorbet granita desserts in a row? No. Let's see how it tastes. It's really refreshing, and there's no doubt that grapefruit is absolutely the hero in there. The question is whether or not this is in the right order. You know, the big finish that you'd want in a degustation so that you remember the meal always, you know? This is a bit of a...let-down. In a degustation, that last dessert is chocolatey or rich or warm. GEORGE: There is some issues with this dessert. The sorbet's aerated and soft, but if you don't eat it quickly, you're gonna lose it, because it's overchurned. Yeah. This degustation ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. What we tell you as the competition progresses - that we're gonna turn the screws, apply the pressure, and today wasn't any different. We set you to task with a degustation for 50 people. So, how did you go in the kitchen? Curtis? Every one of these teams gave it their absolute all, dived in, and they did a really good job. We had tangelo explosions. We had sorbets. We had sauces. What you served was restaurant-quality. With every great meal, there's always one dish that stands out. Today was no exception. The dish of the day... ..belonged to... ..Theresa and Elena! Oh, my...! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Wow! You look a little surprised, but can we tell you, it was brimming full of tangelo flavour. It had a delicious contrast between all of those elements and that star-anise crunch. Theresa, what a way to mark your way back into this competition! Absolutely! (LAUGHS) Congratulations. Thank you. Great work, Theresa. Great work, Elena. But this challenge isn't about the dish of the day. It's about which two teams go forward into tomorrow's elimination. If I call your name, please step forward - you are in tomorrow's elimination. Trent and Elise. It was a really brave decision to try and cure those prawns with only 15 minutes to go, but for many in the dining room, including us, they still felt undercooked. Joining them in tomorrow's elimination are... ..Chloe and Nicolette. CHLOE: I'm kicking myself because we were stubborn on this one. I think we had an idea and we were so passionate about running with it. Chloe, Nicolette, your sorbet was fluffy, but above all, that dessert was too light to close that degustation. Obviously, that feeling of doom and gloom - get it, understand it. But you know what, I think stop for a second and go, "Wow. Another day in my MasterChef life," and this time around, you got to cook with an Aussie legend, Curtis Stone. Curtis, thank you so much for popping back into your home town and driving and pushing the contestants. I'm sure they'll never forget this day in their life. You know what, I was proud of all of you today, and you should keep your head really high. You did an amazing job. Good luck, guys. (ALL APPLAUD) You four, you know what it is. It's gonna be a big day tomorrow and you're gonna have to fight, fight, fight, alright? In saying that, go home, get your heads together, and we'll see you back in the MasterChef kitchen tomorrow. Off you go. ALL: Thank you. ELISE: Ohhh! I didn't want to be here! But I need to forget about today and rock up in my blacks tomorrow and fight it out against these guys. I just want to make sure that I regroup myself and refocus and come in fighting tomorrow. ANNOUNCER: Next time, four of the top contestants... I'm gonna fight as hard as I possibly can. ..will face the chopping block. You're cooking for your life. It will be one of the toughest eliminations in MasterChef history. It's head to head to save yourself! But they won't be going... I want this so bad. ..without a fight. The pressure's on now! Through inspiration... Come on, Trent! I really need to push the limits. ..and perspiration... You need to set this kitchen on fire! ..they'll create dishes so remarkable... Yummy to its absolute core. This is one of the best things I've eaten. ..it will be one of the toughest decisions our judges have ever faced. We've got a serious issue on our hands.