9 ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - four contestants cooked for the chance to fast-track to finals week. Food heaven. But it was Elena's quail that impressed and won her the prize. The super icing on the really awesome cake. Tonight, at Santa Monica Pier... You're going to be running your very own food trucks. ..a dream come true. This is what I want to do. They're cooking street food for 200 people... (ALL CHEER) Won't be long. Won't be long. ..and for a guaranteed place in finals week. GARY: This is make or break. Come on! But... We're in trouble here. ..when a dream becomes a nightmare... (GROANS) No-one wants to go near this chicken. ..it could land the entire team... You're not going to be able to get them done. We really are sinking here. ..in elimination. That's not something I want to have hanging over my head. # 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. # In my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # Able 2017 HARRY: This place is so cool. ELISE: I know. It's amazing. TRENT: Nice day. BRETT: It's a beautiful day in sunny California. We're down on Santa Monica Pier. I want to go on the Ferris wheel! Blue ocean, blue sky, the sun's shining and we've got a challenge in store, so can't wait to find out what it is. GARY: (LAUGHS) Come on. Good morning! ALL: Morning. Welcome to Santa Monica. And this is Santa Monica Pier, if you didn't recognise it. And this has been an icon for over 100 years and the playground of many Southern Californians. Today is a very special team challenge. A challenge that is quintessentially LA. You're going to be running your very own food trucks. Oh, Matty! Yep. This is your dream, right? It certainly is, yeah. This is what I want to do. But it also means that I've got everybody watching me today, so the pressure is on to make sure that our food truck's the best. Alright, guys. Elena, you won yesterday's challenge in Napa Valley. You're through to finals week. You're not cooking. You are suntanning, baby! Soak up the sunshine. So, guys, two teams today. Two teams of three. Stick your hand in, pick a disc. No peeking. Red. It's red and blue. Pretty simple. Blue. Red. Blue. Blue. BOTH: Blue. I think it's red. Red. I think so. (ALL LAUGH) Red team - Harry, Brett and Mimi. Blue team - Matt, Trent, Elise. ELISE: I feel really good being on a team with Matt. Matt has so much information in his head about how a food truck works, so I think he's the perfect person to be on a team with. Cooking in a food truck is a very different experience to cooking in a restaurant, so we don't want to send you into that territory alone. We also want you to be freed of any notions of just doing classic Mexican dishes. So we brought a chef who has a fine-dining pedigree but also runs one of LA's most successful fleet of food trucks. Please welcome, from Guerrilla Tacos, Wes Avila! MATT SINCLAIR: It's Wes Avila. This guy is, like, the king of street food and food trucks. To have the opportunity to access the knowledge of someone who has been there and done that. This is incredible. Good to see you. G'day, Wes. How are you? How are you doing? Good. So, Wes, what makes a great food truck? Well, the thing with food trucks is you need to be able to do something where it's easy to eat, it's fresh, it's new, using local ingredients. Being a little bit creative. It gives you the chance to see how far you can go inside a food truck. I mean, it's a much different game than it is in a regular kitchen. You want to kind of push yourself. It's, like, your kitchen, it's your thing. But it has to be street food. It has to be something we can stand around and eat off the bonnet of our car, which is kind of the traditional way. Each team must create two items for your menu. You have two and a half hours to prep, and each team, you must prepare enough for at least 200 people. BRETT: Today, we're going to be making street food for 200 people. I mean, that's huge. Today, we'll be judging your food. It's not about money. It's not about cash in the till. It's about how good that food is. The winning team is going to join Elena in finals week. The losing team is going into tomorrow's elimination, and from there, one of you is going home. So there's a lot at stake. So, your trucks are over there. Wes, do you want to kick them off? Good luck, guys. Your time starts now. Go! Good luck. Come on, guys. MATT SINCLAIR: The clock starts and we bolt down Santa Monica Pier, across the beach, straight to the food trucks and start planning our dishes. ELISE: Alright. TRENT: Tuna or pork fillet? 'Cause this is my dream, there is that expectation from Trent and Elise that I'm going to have a few ideas floating around in my head. We get the chickens and then make a glaze with, like, the rum and the ginger beer. Yeah. Glaze it on the flat-top. Just sort of get that stickiness on it. One idea that I would love to execute today would be some bourbon and ginger beer-glazed barbecue chicken. Quarter it and then we can... cook it on the bone anyway. Being in America, I know that these guys love their barbecue chicken. I can see some bourbon and I can see some Bundaberg ginger beer, so I think that's a great combination. And then make, like, a little, sort of, pickled apple slaw. Might pickle the apples in the ginger beer, some apple cider vinegar. Yep. Sugar. Yeah. Sounds good, yep. Do you reckon it's easy enough for them to eat? Well, I reckon... It's like... Yeah. Pull it apart. Yep. Barbecue chicken, yeah. TRENT: I think it's a great idea. It's something you can eat with your hands, big, punchy flavours. I think it's going to go down well. Do you want to go and grab the chickens? To me, street food is such casual food but it's got such big flavours. Hey, Trent. Did you grab some of the ginger beer? Yeah, I grabbed a few. I'm really happy with the bourbon and ginger beer barbecued chicken and I'll let Trent and Elise decide on our second dish. HARRY: OK. MIMI: Alright. What are our ideas? Roadside food has got to be fresh and it's got to be easy to eat. Californians love that type of food. We'll be able to punch out something pretty good today. Dish one. Tacos. Tacos? Fennel and grapefruit, soft-shell crab. Yeah, that sounds good. Harry has taken the lead here and he's come up with a soft-shell crab taco, which I think is perfect. Are you good with cooking a soft-shell crab? It's easy. Pretty much all you have to do is roll it in flour and deep-fry it. Right. It's not too much fiddling around. You just need to fry the crab in some flour and make the tortillas. Sauce? You're going to have a sauce? We need a sauce. Um... Remember we had at dinner the other night, the burnt lemon sauce? The other night when we were in San Francisco, we actually got to go out for dinner and one of the things that I pick up from there was this burnt lemon puree that they used. You know the burnt lemon? Yeah. Yes! At that restaurant that time? How good would that be over the top of that? Yes. It was incredible. So I think I'm going to try and replicate that today, 'cause it's going to work really well with the soft-shell crab. So you want to use these, do you? We've got to serve 200 people today, and just quickly counting these crabs, we barely have 200. OK. Just take the whole thing. OK. Let's just take the whole thing. It's a super hot day here in Santa Monica Beach, so for this soft-shell crab taco, it's going to have this beautiful fennel slaw, which is going to be nice and crispy and fresh. I want this. I grab some fennel and I'm going to get all the prep ready. So... Then the first thing I do is get on to charring up these lemons for this burnt lemon sauce to go with my tacos. Just yell out if you need a hand with anything. Yeah, mate. This sauce is going to take a long time, so I'm going to get straight on to it. Oh, man, that's hot! TRENT: Matt's come up with a barbecued bourbon and ginger beer-glazed chicken. Now we need another dish as soon as we can. Hey, I was thinking that soft-shell crab. MATT: Yeah, that sounds good. The second dish that we're going to cook today is the soft-shell crabs that we've seen in the pantry. TRENT: This is like... What about the flour? Paprika? Like, spiced... Yeah, spice. With, like, a nice mayonnaise. To go with the soft-shell crabs, we're going to make a fresh and light fennel salad. Yep, sounds good. What are you on, Matty? The chicken. I'm going to start breaking them down. To win this challenge today, we need to be organised from the get-go, so we decide to work on our dishes one at a time. Soft-shell crab cooks quickly and it's nice and easy to prepare, so we decide to get started on the chicken. You going good, Trent, Matt? Yeah. MIMI: How long do the crabs take to cook? HARRY: Not very long. I think we could probably deep-fry it as we're up there. 20 minutes into the cook. Now, there's a few ideas floating around for our second dish today. Dish two. What are we thinking of? I think, like, a corn...salsa-y salad. Does that come with chips, like, tortillas? Yeah, well, we could do that. We could have, like... The corn salad, we could have, like, an avocado mousse or something like that on the side, add some chips. It's a hot day, so something refreshing, like a beautiful corn salsa, sounds fantastic. Sounds like a dish that I'd like to eat sitting by the seaside. So, how's it going, guys? Good, mate. So, for dish one, we're thinking soft-shell crab tacos. OK. Going to have a fennel and grapefruit slaw to go underneath. Yeah. That sounds like a... nice, solid dish. And on the second one, what are you guys thinking? Something like nachos. So, we're going to make our own corn chips. We're going to fry them up. OK. And we're going to do, like, a salsa guacamole. Do you feel that sounds like a solid dish or is that more of, like, a side dish? 'Cause these have to be two stand-alone dishes from your truck. I'm just... I would really think about that, really consider that. Wes isn't really convinced about the idea of our salsa dish, so we've got to come up with another idea. I think we do a protein, corn. We've got some prawns as well. First thing that comes to mind is we've got some really, really beautiful prawns here. OK, peel prawns. And we're going to add some grilled prawns to the salsa dish to finish it off and make it a little bit more complex. Grilled prawns. That sounds fantastic. Great. No worries. We'll do that. Good luck. Thank you. Thanks! What about that emulsion sauce of yours as well? Yeah, I can pull that out. Yeah? Yeah. Mimi's going to make her herb emulsion that'll go beautifully as well. Better go and check on my corn. Corn salsa underneath, nice and fresh, with some avocado smash. Beautiful grilled prawn on the top of that. Sounds like a real good dish now. MATT: The blue team is cracking along really well. Everyone is working on the first dish with the barbecue chicken. Just making the base for our glaze that we're going to finish the chicken with on the flat-top. So, there's some garlic, ginger, jalapenos, and then I'm going to hit it with some bourbon, reduce it to get, like, a nice sweetness to it. Wes comes over to check on how we're doing, and we haven't even started on our soft-shell crab dish. Blue team, what do you guys have planned for cooking? Um, one of the things that we're looking at is to do, like, a barbecued chicken, so, like, a quarter chicken on the bone... OK. ..with a hot and sour apple slaw. I like your idea. OK, yeah. And on the second one, what are you guys thinking? And I tell him we wanted to use the soft-shell crabs that we've seen in the pantry and a fennel salad. Just make sure you have enough soft-shell crabs to go around. Yep. Alright. Good luck, guys. Thank you. ELISE: Did we get the crab? Nah, haven't got it yet. Shall we go get them? (SIGHS) Oi, they've taken it. There's no crab. They've got it already? Yeah. Yep. This is an absolute nightmare. Without these soft-shell crabs, we don't have a second dish. 9 ELISE: Oi, there's no crab. MATT: 45 minutes into this challenge and the red team have taken all the soft-shell crab for their dish. We're pretty much back to square one. We've got about 200 people to serve and we've only got one dish, so we need to come up with something else. There's calamari, um... TRENT: Oi, Matty, there's tuna. Grab it. Yep. Oh, yeah. That'll be delicious. We're just gonna sear it super quick. Yeah. Slice it open. Do it with wasabi. Pineapple, capsicum. I reckon corn. Avocado. Avocado. Well, this is California, so, things like avocado. Yeah, corn, avocado, pineapple. Yeah. The second dish that we're going to cook today is a seared tuna with a charred corn, pineapple, jalapeno salsa and avocado puree. The seared tuna won't take that long to do, so we'll just cut that up. Yeah. It's quick to cook and it's definitely a favourite in this neck of the woods. I'm feeling relieved. Today is huge. At this stage, it's all about just cracking on as hard and fast as possible. Hey, you guys, I know you're not looking, but we're on beautiful Santa Monica Beach. 90 minutes to go! Come on! GEORGE: Come on, guys. BRETT: Come on, Reds. Let's go. Just keep pushing, guys. Today we're going to do a soft-shell crab. It'll be deep-fried and it'll be with a fennel and grapefruit salad all wrapped into a taco. The second dish we're doing today is beautiful grilled prawn and Mimi is doing the corn chips for the corn salsa. It'll go beautifully underneath. We've got a mountain of prep still to do, so Harry and I start off on the prawns. Harry. Yeah, mate? Poop chute removed from those? I think it has been, yeah? Yeah, mate. All good. They look clean, eh? Yeah, they are. We have a look at the prawns. It looks that these guys have been cleaned. They've definitely been de-veined. That is gold. That's great. That's more time that we'll have up our sleeve. Yeah. Good. Excellent. It's one more thing we don't have to do. Yep. I've cooked prawns plenty of times in the competition already and this is an idea that immediately comes to mind. Hey, Brett. Do you want the prawn on a stick? What for? So when we've got them on the grill, we can just put them straight on top of the salad. Like a kebab, but a prawn. So, what we're going to do with the prawns is just shell them, we're gonna put a little marinade over the top of them, get a skewer up the middle of them, and then we're going to grill them on the hotplate. Harry wants to put these prawns on the skewer. The problem is it takes time. We've got a lot to do, and at the forefront of all this is these tacos for the soft-shell crab dish. Skewering prawns - it's time we don't have. I'm not counting. Are you counting? No, we count them when we skewer them. MATT: OK, so you're going to crack on with the charred corn? ELISE: Yep, charred corn. Today, our second dish is seared tuna with a pineapple, jalapeno and charred corn salsa. The first thing I start working on is the corn. So nice and sweet. Love it. Charred corn in the salsa is going to give that charcoaly sort of flavour that's so delicious. You need a lot of char on it to get a lot of flavour. TRENT: They good? Yeah, they're so good. How are you travelling, Trent? Yeah, alright. I'm just pretty much done with the pineapple, I think. Smells so good. For the salsa, I finely chop plenty of pineapple, jalapenos, coriander, squeeze plenty of fresh lime juice. I think this salsa goes really well with the seared tuna. We just need to keep motoring so we can get enough made to serve 200 people. Is that too dark? No, it's alright. It's alright? So, how are we going, Mimi? You happy? MIMI: Yep. Just need to check the tortillas to see if they work as corn chips. Today, we're doing two different kinds of tortillas. I'm going to work on a corn tortilla for the corn chips and Harry's going to work on flour tortillas for the tacos. So, how many are you going to get out of one batch, Mimi? Uh, about 24. I've made the tortillas, so I just need to press out the dough before I cook it. 24 times four. We've got to make spares. It's not hard to make tortillas, but it's pretty time-consuming. I have to fry all these off before I can start deep-frying them, so I need to get them on now. TRENT: So, Matty, are you going to cook that chicken now? MATT: Yeah, I'm just going to make, like, a dry rub. Coriander, fennel, cumin, pepper. To cook all the chicken, I take it into the truck and I've got that plancha roaring hot. (LAUGHS) This is what I want to do and I get the chance to do it where it all started, so it's... Yeah, it's ridiculous, ridiculous. From day one, my dream has been to pursue this kind of food, you know, with a food truck. It's the greatest feeling on the planet, that's for sure. To be able to, I guess, get a taste of what life is going to be like after I leave this competition is just... ..yeah, it's incredible. I want to get a nice colour on the skin and then transfer that to the oven to finish cooking it. It's just to get that burn and caramelisation before we serve it. GEORGE: Guys, wakey, wakey! Hundreds are about to come... ELISE: Oh, no! ..in 60 minutes! You got it?! Oh, my God! Come on! Go! Come on! Mimi, how are you going? Yeah, good! Did I just hear one hour? One hour, yeah. Ooh! You almost done? 'Cause we're really getting snowed under out here. I've got 24, so, times four... I don't know. They're tasty. Yeah. Do you like it? Yeah, it'll work. They're just taking their time. I'm trying to move as quickly as possible, but I'm feeling really nervous. We have to serve 200 people, and I can't stop thinking that we're not going to get everything done in time. TRENT: Finally finished with this pineapple salsa. ELISE: Smells so good. Now we get on to the tuna. The tuna is beautiful. It's really nice and fresh, and I think it's going to be delicious with the pineapple salsa. For this tuna, it just needs to be cooked super, super quick. You just want to sear the outside and have it nice and red and raw in the middle still. This tuna dish is definitely super simple, but we're happy to keep it simple and just let the flavours do all the talking. BRETT: Alright, guys, we really need to think about things that are taking a lot of time, yeah? Under an hour to go, we don't have much to show. We've got a lot of knife work to do with this salsa, chopping up all this veg. Harry's been peeling the prawns for a while now. No tortillas are made for the crab dish. We really are sinking here. Alright, how many have you got to do? Have you counted them? HARRY: I'm going to do two per person and I'm going to do 80 serves, so about 160 prawns. So, you've got to motor. Yep. So, what have you got to do with those prawns afterwards? Just skewer them, then we're going to finish them on the hotplate. OK. Ooh, gee. I'm just worried about slow jobs, especially if you've got to skewer 160 prawns. It's a lot of work to do. Isn't it? Yes, it is. Yeah, yeah. MIMI: Gary is really not keen on this prawn-on-a-skewer idea. I don't think Harry's really grasping how much time it's going to take. He hasn't even started on his tortilla dough yet. I hope that Harry leaves enough time to get it all done. I'm going to start skewering inside. BRETT: OK. MATT: The perfect result on this chicken is to have a nice charred, smoky, spicy, sweet, sticky skin, and to do that, I need to get the glaze over it before and after I put it in the oven. Are these ones ready to go in the oven? Yeah, but I want to hit them with the glaze first. I finish searing the chicken. Now I need to put them into the oven to cook. Once that's done, they need to be grilled and finished with the glaze. It's going to be hard to beat. ELISE: Matt's doing the chicken and we knew all along that was going to take a lot of time, so I need to get on to doing this hot and sour slaw to go with it. It's Matt's recipe. It's a little bit different. He puts the ginger beer in a bowl with some ice. I'm going to flavour it with a bit of vinegar and just slice the apple in there. Soaking the apples in ginger beer and chardonnay vinegar is just going to give this extra ginger flavour throughout the apple that's absolutely delicious. You guys travelling good? Yeah. Awesome. You alright? Yeah, done the apple, I'll get on to the slaw dressing. I look at where we are and we're in a pretty good place, but we still have so much to do before service. Argh! Come on, guys! Come on, blue team! MATT: Come on, Blue. We can do this! BRETT: We've barely started on this prawn and salsa dish. Harry is skewering prawns inside the truck. I'm still peeling shells, and I've got to chop a mountain of ingredients to get this salsa together, and we really need to crack on with these tortillas. Harry, how are you doing in there? Yeah, I'm alright, mate. How are you? Good. I've got another 50 just about to come in. How many have you got, Harry? This is 50. That's 50, that's gonna be another 50. There's probably another 50, close to 50, out here. These prawns are taking up too much time. We really need to crack on with it. We've got to get started chopping up with the salsa, yeah? Yes, mate. Looking around our bench, there's not a lot that's really happening. There's going to be a couple of hundred here tasting our food and I don't know if we'll be ready to go before service starts. Just keep pushing, guys. We're in trouble. You might only drive short distances to work each day. You might park securely at work. You may not drive your car to work at all. At Youi, we tailor your insurance premium to how you use or don't use your car. It could save you lots. Call: 9 TRENT: You all good, Matty? Yeah, mate. Got that and those and then it will be the tuna. Yep. I feel like we're working really well as a team today. Matty has cracked on with the chicken. He's starting to cook it off on the grill before finishing it in the oven. ELISE: These are amazing avocados. They're good? Yeah, they're so good. And Elise and I are working on the tuna dish. I'm cutting up tuna steaks and she's making the avocado puree. But we know as soon as this service starts, it's going to be intense. It's going to be full-on. To be able to feed 200-plus people in this short amount of time, we need to get a move on. Red team, blue team, you have 30 minutes to go and you really do need to put a razzle on. You are not going to be ready. Let's go. Come on. 30 minutes. Oh, my God. MIMI: Alright, guys, just power. Power, power, power. HARRY: So there's 30 minutes to go. We've got the prawn skewers for the corn salsa, got my burnt lemon sauce. I'm just going to make a quick little marinade for these prawns, so when we grill them on the barbecue, they've got a nice sort of char and stickiness to them. And I'm going to use tequila as well, which is going to give it something interesting and hopefully entice the people. This marinade is going to add flavour, finish it off and make it a little bit more complex. For the crab dish, we've got the fennel salad coming along and it's gonna work really, really well with the soft-shell crab. But I still have to do my tacos. So, this is just going to be the flour dough that we're going to make the tortillas with. I'm just going to knead it for a couple of minutes. This tortilla is just going to be a basic tortilla mix. Essentially, it's just flour, fat, water and a bit of salt as well. When do you want to start pressing out all these things? I don't know if we thought our dishes through properly at the start. All of these things take quite a lot of time and there's only three of us between two dishes. We've got to feed 200 people. These tortillas are really, really time-consuming. It's taken me a lot of time to mix them. They need time to rest. So we're really pressed for time if we're going to get all these tortillas out to all these people. Right, listen up, you lot! Starting to get very, very real. People arriving. 20 minutes to go. This is make or break. Oh, my God. The people are coming! MATT: Alright, so we want to head in there soon, right? Yep. Start getting everything ready. I'm just finishing off this. TRENT: Hi. How are you? Hi. 20 minutes to go before service and the crowd is well and truly there. Won't be long. Won't be long. These people are hungry. So today, we're going to serve a quarter-chicken per serve and a side of the slaw. OK, I'm going to start. Can I take a side? Yeah. To cook all the chicken, I've got that plancha roaring hot. It's already seasoned up ready to go. Then finish the chicken with the bourbon and ginger beer glaze. It's just to get that last-minute char and that last-minute burn and caramelisation before we serve it. Do you want to get ready to plate up, Elise? Yep. I'm getting some out now. What else do we need to do, Harry? Hey? What else do we need to do? Uh...I don't know. BRETT: So, we've got about 15 minutes to go and we've got to get all this prep done. Right now, we won't be ready for service. We're not working as a team. I've let these guys run far enough. This team needs a leader, and it's time to step up. We're in trouble here, alright? We've got to get it sorted out. Let's only do one thing at a time, OK? And we're all gonna do the same thing until we get it done. OK? Yep. We're really not getting anywhere and Brett can see that. We need the salsa all done. So we need these chopped, we need the onions chopped, we need tomatoes chopped. We all need to focus together, guys, and get this done, 'cause we're really in the woods. We all get straight on to the vegetables. We're all just working as fast as we can, but time is slipping away. I can't see how I'm going to get all these tortillas out ready for service. We need some herbs picked as well. Jeez, we've got a lot to do, haven't we? Yes, we do. Wow, it's so fresh, the coriander. I'm really happy with the seared tuna and the pineapple salsa, but I'm looking at the chicken and the boys say that they want to serve a whole quarter. My biggest concern with the chicken is the size of it. When you come to a food truck, you want, you know, food that you can eat standing up and not have to worry about being really dirty. If I was going to a food truck and that was given to me, it's quite hard to eat and I wouldn't feel comfortable eating it. Matt? Yo? That's quite...quite hard to, like, eat in your mouth. What is? So I was wondering... The chicken. ..if it can be cut up a little bit. Oh, wow. It's pretty generous, hey? I guess my thinking was coming from a generosity. But now, I guess we need to scale it back as a way of being practical. Chicken is good. Just chop them up into more appropriate finger food size. To have that switch-up in our plan, we've still got so much to do and the last thing we need at this point is to throw in another process before we serve. I am definitely feeling the pressure. BRETT: And when we start plating, it's little dishes, guys, yeah? MIMI: Yep. Gotta go a long way with this. With five minutes to go, we haven't got two whole dishes. I can see things coming together but feeling really nervous that we're not gonna have stuff ready in time. It certainly is looking beautifully fresh. That looks fantastic. Um, how are you going? The prawns, they're cooked? No. And how are your tacos going? Uh... Have you made your taco shells? We're just about to start on those. So you've got 100 tacos to make. Yep. At what point do you make the decision you're not going to be able to get them done? We've got a mountain of prep still to do. I'm going to take these... all the produce in here. Get a start, eh? Right now, we've got to move inside the trucks to prep for service. Bring in your sauces, bring in the salad, start... These crabs need to be paned. (GROANS) I've got a lot to do! I have to cook the crab by coating them with flour, then deep-frying them. I still have to finish the fennel salad. Got prawns on the go. I can't see any way that I'm going to make enough tacos before service. So something's got to give. Sauces? Salsa? OK. We've only got minutes to go. I need to run out and write our menu. Hey, boys, what am I calling this second one? Um... So, soft-shell crab taco? Hey, boys, what are we calling it? Mim, don't write 'taco'. I don't believe what Harry is telling me. We're serving soft-shell crab tacos without the taco. 9 Hey, boys, what are we calling it? Soft-shell crab taco? HARRY: Mim, don't write 'taco'. We're serving soft-shell crab tacos without the taco. "Soft-shell crab and fennel with burnt lemon". You're just going to have to go really light on that salad, mate. Yeah, I know. So I've scrapped the idea of my tacos for the crab. It's still going to be just as tasty. The only difference is it's not going to be wrapped in a tortilla. (CHANTING) I have to forget about that and channel all my energy into having a great service. Listen up, blue team, red team! Three minutes to go! Come on! (CHEERING) TRENT: That's all ready to go. ELISE: Alright. MATT: The crowd, they start chanting. It really kicks up that pressure because they're here, they want this food. We need to start rolling it out. Righto, start plating up. Yep. We're looking at these finished plates of food and they look so good. Pretty good. Fresh tuna and the pineapple salsa on a hot day like today and then the barbecue, bourbon and ginger beer-glazed chicken. I think the flavours go together really well. Brace yourselves! Get ready! One minute to go! (CHEERING) Come on, guys! Come on, guys! BRETT: The atmosphere is really starting to rise now. Come on, Red. Let's push now, yeah? It's almost game time. There's lots of people standing outside of our truck. Alright, are you guys all set up to go? It's madness at the moment. It's really, really frantic. ALL: Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! (CHEERING) MIMI: Season and then let's go. Service starts and we're plating. There you go. Thanks. And we start to get dishes out and it feels so good. There you go. There's two soft-shell crabs. Enjoy. See ya! ELISE: Go, blue team! Working in that space in the truck is absolutely electric. Anyone wants the tuna, come down this line! Sorry, boys, for my yelling. TRENT: (LAUGHS) You're alright. It's good, Elise. It is hot, it's intense, it's loud, it's noisy. There's so much energy in there. (CHEERING) This is Matt. He... (LAUGHS) How are you doing? This is his dream. This is what he wants to do. He wants to have a food truck just like this one. (CHEERING) HARRY: I'm glad we scrapped the idea of the tortilla, because it just wouldn't look as good as the salad and the crab on the plate. It's just going to be really interesting to see what the judges think. Enjoy. Thank you. Here is the red team. It's probably the most controversial dish. This was the dish that was supposed to be a soft-shell crab taco. They've pulled the plug and swapped over to a fennel salad. I would have liked to see the taco, because it would have been something very interesting to see the whole thing kind of, like, sticking out. Mmm. What I love is the fact that the crab is golden, you know, it's crispy, it's well cooked. Absolutely delicious. And I think that that black lemon sauce is delicious. What a great idea. That crab is so delicate and they've cooked that beautifully. For me, I like the crunch. All in all, I like the crab, I like the sauce. Because someone said "taco", I just want a taco. MAN: I'm eating the soft-shell crab. It is, basically, cooked perfectly and the fennel is really, really good. MAN: I had red team's crab. I loved the flavour, I loved the texture of it. I feel like it pairs well with the sun of California. Yeah. Definitely, definitely the crab. Tuna. Thank you! MATT: There's absolutely no shortage of people today. Tuna? There we go. We're powering through this food. The demand for the tuna and the salsa is above and beyond what we thought it was going to be. Everyone wants it. Well, here's the blue team's tuna with a pineapple and corn salsa. Is it the most exhilarating new-style dish? No. It's absolutely not. It's kind of slightly old school. I think if you come to the beach on a beautiful sunny day like this, you want something that's fresh and light and zinging with flavour. As a dish, you know, they've got some nice burn on the corn. It's delicious. They've treated the tuna well. And it's really well seasoned as well, which I think is a key with tuna when you cut it this thick and give this much. I mean, I do love this... You know, I'm a big fan of pineapple. But you're right, Matt. It's a bit old school, but maybe a little bit simple. WES: Yeah, I think the star of this is probably the salsa, and I think a little bit more consistent cuts on the pineapple might have been a little nicer on the palate. I'm sure people are gonna be loving this dish. It's pretty good. The pineapple corn salsa, pretty refreshing. Love the tuna. The tuna is amazing. WOMAN: The blue team chefs are gorgeous. So, you know, gives them a little edge. It's true! (LAUGHS) ELISE: Tuna, guys? You're waiting on the tuna? I'm doing the tuna, but we can't plate up fast enough to be able to serve all these customers. Chicken? Anybody? Chicken? Nup, no chicken? Everyone wants the tuna. Sorry, guys. Won't be much longer. Just want to keep it nice and fresh for you. MATT: I'm starting to stress a little bit at this stage. No-one wants to go near this chicken. I love this style of food, but it's not appealing to people. You want people to look at your food and want to eat it. There we go. Two tuna. This could potentially backfire and send the whole blue team into elimination, and that's not something I want to have hanging over my head. 9 ELISE: Chicken, guys? Anyone want some chicken?! TRENT: Chicken? Chicken? Nuh? No chicken? Anybody? WOMAN: I'm good. Everyone wants the tuna. Oh, really? Sorry, guys! I'm doing the tuna, but we can't plate up fast enough to be able to serve all these customers. Tuna, guys? You waiting on the tuna? Sorry, guys. Won't be much longer. MATT SINCLAIR: We need to figure out what's gone wrong with this chicken. No-one wants to have it. TRENT: There's chicken ready as well, if anyone wants chicken. I've made the portions much smaller now, but it's still a pretty decent size. Does anyone want some chicken? Chicken's ready now. I don't know what's going on. I can't explain it. All I know is that it tastes good. So we just need to make sure that we let everyone know it's good to go. So, there's chicken ready if anyone wants chicken. Yeah? Chicken, anyone? Chicken. Two? Finally, we get an order. All of a sudden, bang! ELISE: There we go. Thank you. Chicken. Two more chicken. Everyone wants it. There we go, guys. Chicken there. It looks like we're in the clear. I'm back on track. Yeah, I'm...I'm pumped. Chicken. There we go. It's absolutely incredible. It's the best feeling in the world. I don't want to be anywhere else right now. What would you like, bud? Chicken. There we go. GEORGE: Blue team's chicken? Looks good. It's massive! Look at it! It's huge! You'd be rapt if you got that! I didn't say I wasn't rapt. I just said it's a massive chunk of chicken. But one issue, right? How many other people have brought a clever little table like we have? GARY: Oh, yeah. That's my only concern, is that's hard to... You have to kind of pick it up. And I wonder whether that's a... An easy thing to do. Oh! Ho ho! Tastes good, though, doesn't it? Oh, yeah. That crust's great. WES: It's nice and juicy. The great thing about this chicken is that is beautifully cooked. I mean, that is super juicy. I do love the bourbon flavour. I love the char on that chicken. Look at the colour! Yeah, it's great. Got a nice sear on there. Yeah, burnishy and brown and... Lookin' good! For me, like, it's excellent. A little hard to eat, but it's really, really good. You've always...you've always said that whatever you put out of a food truck has to be as good as it would be in a restaurant. Oh, yeah. The food truck should not be an excuse for average food. And that chicken is delicious. And that coleslaw - just a bit of relief, because this dish is all about that humungous hunk of chook. Mm-hm. Well, you know what? Two great dishes from the blue team. I think they've done a brilliant job so far. They've set the bar high, haven't they? TRENT: Thank you. Sorry about the...the wait. WOMAN: I'm eating the blue team's chicken. It's delicious. The skin was nice and crispy. I like that bourbon sauce. Is this the winning team here, or what? Yeah, always. Elise for president! ELISE: Whoo! (CHEERING) I'm having so much fun on this food truck. Come and support the blue team! We've got chicken! We've got tuna! I'm moving as fast as I can, but the line just keeps getting longer and longer. But, you know, yeah, it's such a buzz. MATT SINCLAIR: I never thought that I would have my first food truck service in the MasterChef competition. But here I am, we're in the thick of it now, and the energy is absolutely through the roof. MIMI: What were you after? Prawn? There you go. Thanks. BRETT: Prawns and the soft-shell crabs are just goin' out the door. It's goin' so fast. We've completely run out of skewered prawns. But we have plenty more prawns ready to go on the plancha. MIMI: There you go. Enjoy. Thanks, Brett. BRETT: This dish is coming together. I really hope the judges like it. I like the look of this dish. Yeah, I do too. Beautiful charred prawn. Lovely colour. Uh, a really bright salsa. Those little tortilla chips look fantastic, don't they? GARY: Yeah. Also, when we talked to him about this, we thought it was just gonna be, kind of, chips with salsa, which was a little bit too simple, I think, for this challenge. But they did a really good job with the prawn. I mean, it's a really nice colour. It's a nice, big piece. GARY: Yeah. It looks good. What a lovely light and fresh dish. I mean, I think the salsa is beautiful. Love the avocados. Right amount of chilli in there. It's just absolutely really fresh. My prawn looks good, but for some reason, boys, you're not eating yours. Uh-uh. I'm not eating mine... 9 For some reason, boys, you're not eating yours. Uh-uh. I'm not eating mine 'cause... ..they've left a... the poo vein in there. Right. Yeah? Don't like that. Puts me off. So, you've got your... Yeah, mine also has the... Poop chute in there too. Mine also has the poop chute. Uh, yeah, so, other than that, I...I enjoyed it. I thought it was cooked well. And, um...but, then, that's kind of a... Puts you off, doesn't it? Yeah, it puts me off. And that's a problem because it...it trips up this dish. 'Cause it's beautifully fresh. I love the use of capsicum, the colour of the corn there. It's really fresh and poppy. And the corn chips are absolutely delicious. So, for all those reasons, it's a really nice dish, but...you know, I mean, it's just a detail thing. It's a shame 'cause this has got the bones of a good dish. Yeah, it's a great dish. But, uh, little things have let it down. MIMI: Thanks. We've had people come back for seconds and even thirds, and we've just served so many people! We're coming down to our last few plates. HARRY: I've got one crab left. Beautiful. We've put out so much food and actually a lot more than I thought we would, because I counted almost 150 crabs and we've sold out of those. And we peeled over 200 prawns and we sold out of those as well. MIMI: Last one! BRETT: Last one! HARRY: Thank you. Whoo! Well done. HARRY: The last dish goes out. Well done. Yes! Well done, guys. I'm so, so stoked. And...I just couldn't be happier. Last chicken. ELISE: Last chicken! That's the last one! Whoo! We did it! MATT SINCLAIR: The opportunity to cook in these classic food trucks today was just phenomenal. You know, and to have all of the expectation and the pressure and still love every minute of it, it's got me hooked instantly. It just makes me even hungrier to get there. You know what? There are some days you really do have to kick yourself and go, "What an amazing experience. Look where we are." Santa Monica, the sun's shining. A couple of food trucks to play in. Huh? That's what we're talkin' about on MasterChef! And not only that, you got Wes Avila to mentor you today. So, a little inspiration. So, Wes, thank you very much. WES: Thanks for having us. Right. Lots at stake too. The winning team, three of you, will join Elena in finals week of MasterChef. One step closer to that elusive prize. But, unfortunately, three of you will find yourselves in tomorrow's elimination. Let's have a look at your dishes. Blue team, your tuna. We loved that pineapple salsa and the tuna itself was beautifully cooked, but we asked ourselves, "Could you have done more with it?" But overall, still a great food-truck dish. And we loved your chicken. Super juicy. The bourbon and ginger flavour shone through. We all thought it was amazing. Red team - we loved the way that crab was cooked - crunchy, golden, delicious. And we also loved the creativity of that burnt lemon puree. Well done. But, you know, the dish would have been so much better in a taco. We also loved the presentation of your prawn dish - the wonderful char on that prawn. And we loved the freshness of that corn salad. But at this stage of the competition, detail is the difference between winning and losing. There are three things that so often bring people undone in the MasterChef kitchen. Bones in fish... ..undercooked chicken... ..and leaving poop chutes in prawns. And that's why I'm sorry, red team, you're going through to the elimination. Blue team, you three are through to the finals week. Well done. (ELISE LAUGHS AND SCREAMS) Ohh! MATT SINCLAIR: There is absolutely no doubt this is a competition highlight for me. To have a snapshot of what life is gonna be like after this competition and, at the end of that, get a ticket through to finals week of MasterChef 2016... ..that's as good as it gets. Red team, I know it's devastating to be on the losing team, but as always in MasterChef, you get another chance to cook right. So, come on. Chins up. Off you go, and we'll see you tomorrow. HARRY: I am shattered. I've just got to think about tomorrow and the things that I need to do. I want to show the judges that I really, really want to be here and I deserve to be in finals week. ANNOUNCER: Next time, on the final day in sunny California, the dark cloud of elimination has rolled in. MIMI: It's time to stop dreaming and fight for my place in this competition. I love the way that's coming together. At Curtis Stone's Beverly Hills restaurant... There's a lot to do. ..dreams are on the line. Push, push. And Mimi, Brett and Harry... Fire up, man. ..must deliver theirs on a plate. Come on, Harry! This challenge is about keeping your dreams alive. Come on! With the intense pressure... I need to get this through. ..all three will falter. What's in there? And for one, the dream will be over. Captions by Ericsson Access Services. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air.