ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... Come on, Georgia. ..our contestants took a seat at the tasting table. Come on! Push, push, push! But when Jarrod served up mushy croquettes... This is a paste. ..his time in the MasterChef kitchen was over. Tonight, she's back. (CHEERING) Maggie Beer gets a rock star welcome. It's like Elvis Presley being in the building. (LAUGHS) I am over the moon. Her mystery box... Oh, my God. ..will take our contestants... Love that idea. ..back to basics. Oh, my God. I'm just so excited. (LAUGHS) Simple ingredients.... My gosh. ..will produce some sophisticated food. The ingenuity, the creativity - that's what I am blown away by. One of the best things I've tasted this season. But a not so sweet invention test... I'm having a meltdown. ..will send three of our favourites into elimination. # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like a brighter 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 a brighter shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # Captions by Red Bee Media Australia www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2015 Ready? MATTHEW: There's 19 of us left in the competition and it's important to really stand out from the crowd. And today, I really wanna put a great dish on the plate to show the judges that they made the right decision choosing me for MasterChef. I'm being nervy. Really nervy. I think I stand somewhere in the middle of the pack, and I'm just trying to edge my way closer, closer to feeling like maybe I'm, you know, close to the top. What could it be? What could it be? JESSICA: (GASPS) Mystery box! Oh, there it is. I've done really well in mystery boxes. I've been tasted a lot, and I think it's good because it makes the judges stand up and notice you and see that you're here. So I definitely wanna carry on that...that tradition. (LAUGHS) Look at you lot - fresh-faced, the start of a new week. We love it! It's good! The mystery box for us is always a window into exactly the kind of cook you are. There is no escape, and those of you that do the mystery box well should feel rightly good about yourselves. It is a test, and a good one. Who's had their mystery boxes tasted twice? Oh, there's a few of you. Jessica at the back there. Sara, you've done very well in the mystery boxes so far in this competition. I wonder if I can get fourth in a row. Fourth in a row? Yeah, four in a row. Hopefully. Yeah. KRISTINA: I've never been tasted before in a mystery box. It's a real fight to get up to that bench, so I'm really hoping that I can knock it out of the park. A brand-new week, a brand-new mystery box and a mystery box set by someone who is very special to us in the MasterChef kitchen. Once they had Australia's best restaurant. Now they're probably better known as an author, producer of some fantastic products. You could say that she is the matriarch of the MasterChef family. Oh, my God! We're delighted to have her back. Please give a warm welcome to Barossa and Australian culinary legend Maggie Beer! (CHEERING) (WHISTLES) I am over the moon when Maggie Beer is the guest judge today. I really love that she uses most of her ingredients from the earth, and a lot of Australian produce as well. She really does Australia proud. It's like Elvis Presley being in the building. (LAUGHS) It's amazing. Now, Maggie, what advice have you got for our talented home cooks here? Can I tell you, when you open this box, it's the very heart of everything I love, and that makes such a difference to everything I cook every day of my life. This is what it's all about. This... What's inside that box is going to make such a difference to you as it does to me. And I can't wait to see what you're going to do with it. SARA: Instantly I'm thinking, "There's gonna be a quince, there's gonna be some sort of game..." MATTHEW: Your mind starts ticking straightaway. "You know, what's in season now? "What fruits, what vegetables could be under there?" And I'm excited to lift the box and see what produce she's put on the plate for us. Alright, Maggie, let's see what you've got in store for them. Alright, guys. You can lift your lids...now. (CONTESTANTS EXCLAIM) (LAUGHTER) MAGGIE: How about that? (LAUGHS) That's so fun! (LAUGHS) I bet you weren't expecting that. No! No, you won't need to braise the shovel, we promise. It's very simple. What we've given you under your mystery boxes is some equipment so you can go out into the MasterChef garden and collect your own produce. Maggie, any advice? You're gonna have so much to choose from - be creative, but don't overcomplicate it. I am not much of a digger or a green thumb, but I absolutely love fresh produce, and I just want to put that onto a plate. So the rules are pretty simple. You can only use what's actually in the garden. The regular pantry of staples are under your bench - so, things like eggs, flour, sugar, cream, butter and oil. There's also a little bottle of verjuice from Maggie herself, so you can use that if you want. You've got 60 minutes to create one delicious dish. And we're only gonna taste the top five dishes. And the winner will get the advantage going into the next challenge - the invention test. Take care when you're running with those secateurs. Your time starts...now. . Oh, my God! This is awesome. Best thing ever. Oh, my God. I need everything. Oh, my goodness. Look at these. So pretty. Oh, it smells good out here, doesn't it? I love that. Gee, lots of choice, isn't there? Lots and lots of choice. And, yeah, you can smell some of the herbs and things just popping. Wonderful. I could get cooking too. (LAUGHS) Maggie, what would you cook? Well, I'd be going for the eggplant. But you could go in so many different ways. There is so much here. That's the secret of the challenge, right? That you've gotta hone in on a particular ingredient or two or three. I'd be concentrating on accentuating flavours. So roast the onions, sweet and sour. Then, always thinking about salt - there's no cheese. How are you gonna bring some salt to really enhance the flavour of those vegetables? Yeah. GEORGE: There's no excuses today, is there? They've gotta put up some great dishes. MELITA: (SOFTLY) Stuffed zucchini flower with that. I'm excited by the fact that I can go outside and have a play in the garden. I'm from Korumburra in country Victoria. It's a place of green, rolling hills, beautiful soil, and I just love to grow my own vegetables and have a lot of fruit trees there. So glad we're growing strawberries. Yeah, we're gonna have a lot this year. Going out into the garden outside just feels so natural for me. I want to make a dish that's pretty much just all vegetables with a stuffed zucchini flower as the hero of the dish. Well, that'll work for me. I'd only found one little zucchini flower, so I need to be very, very careful today. I think this is the first time I've actually, like, done this. I've tried to grow so many things on my balcony, and they all die. So, plants and I - not a good rapport. And I have no idea what I'm gonna cook today. I'm picking everything. Then suddenly I see a lot of people, like, crowding over to one area, so I'm like, "What are you guys doing?" (LAUGHS) Can you get me an eggplant, please, Johnny? I'm looking at it and I think to myself, "What is the thing that you love more than anything else that is vegetarian? "Pasta." So I'm gonna be making tortellini today. I wanna work with eggplant. Love eggplant. It's one of my favourite vegetables. But I also want to accompany it with a ricotta, which I'm gonna make with the milk and the verjuice under the bench. Get hot. I've been tasted in every mystery box so far, but I've never picked the core ingredient for the invention test, so I really wanna win today. GARY: Just so you know, and I know it's beautiful outside, but it's 10 minutes down already. So let's get a move on. Come on. Oh, my God, I love Maggie! Ooh, you've got beetroot. That's so fun! I'm really excited. Having Maggie here is, like, amazing. So I absolutely adore her and have admired her for a long time, so this is a very special day. Georgia, meet Maggie. Hello, Georgia. Hi, Maggie. It's so lovely to meet you. Good to meet you. My mum would be so jealous right now. (LAUGHS) I'm making a little ice-cream sandwich. I'm doing a lemon semifreddo and a thyme biscuit. OK. Gotta get that into the oven quickly. Yes. And some marigolds... Yeah, I'm gonna make a lemon thyme syrup and then put the little petals in and somehow jazz it up a little bit plating-wise. If everything works, that'll be delicious. It will be fantastic. And just think about this, but as a syrup, verjuice and sugar. Gives an acid to it rather just water and sugar. Yeah, that's a great idea. Ooh, what a tip! An unofficial Maggie Beer tip! (LAUGHS) We love those. Come away before you give them any more ideas. Come on. Sorry, sorry. (LAUGHS) The first thing I do is get the semifreddo happening. I don't have that much time to play around with, and I'm really nervous about it setting today. Oh, my gosh! I'm just frazzled Maggie Beer's here! So exciting. Maggie is definitely one of my biggest food crushes. She's a cook and proud of the fact that she's a cook, which I love, because, you know, I'm a cook too, so I guess we're, like, the same. Not really. (LAUGHS) Um... Rose, meet Maggie. Oh, my God! Hello, Rose! (LAUGHS) Hi. Oh, my God. I'm just so excited. Oh, my God. I'm an Adelaide girl. Oh, well! And I have gone up to Maggie's Farm I can't tell you how many times and I'm just thrilled. Fantastic. So, you're infusing your milk with rosemary? I am. I'm gonna make a rosemary-infused creme caramel. It's an amazing herb, and when you just pick it, there's nothing...nothing like it. Yeah, it's beautiful. And your caramel, are you into a light or a dark caramel? I like it a little bit darker. Thank you. Just a little bit of bitterness... Do you like it dark? Yes! You see, 'cause we're kindred spirits. Adelaide people, you know, we connect on some level. You've gotta go over that edge. It makes all the difference. Yeah! Just, I like that intensity of it, and I think it'll work with the rosemary really beautifully, so... Great. I do too. Sounds good. Thank you. Nice to meet you! Lovely to meet you. I really wanna impress Maggie, so I'd love to get tasted today. My biggest concern is the time. Creme caramel in 60 minutes is a big challenge. You need time to make the custard, to set it, bake it. Yeah, it's a risk. KRISTINA: In the garden, I've just picked all of the edible flowers and leaves that I thought looked beautiful. Presentation isn't my strong point. It hasn't been so far in the competition, but I know that a mystery box, to get tasted, the dish has to look beautiful. So today I decided to focus on plating. Isn't that just... That looks stunning. Just that. Automatically, to me, that's exciting. So beautiful. Yeah, yeah. So what's the dish? Today I'm making a pasta with some roasted baby carrots, a bed of smoked eggplant puree and some burnt butter over the top, and an array of garnishes. The garnishes are so beautiful! Just really wanna celebrate that summer garden. Well, you have just by doing that. If you can then put it into the dish... It's gonna look so spectacular. We're gonna have to taste this. If the pasta's great, though... Show us technique. The pasta will be good. Push on. Go for it! It's lovely to meet you. Thank you, Kristina. I had a little tear when you came in. (LAUGHS) Don't run, don't run. Reynold, I'm curious. I'm curious what you're doing. I know you're making something sweet. Um, that's gonna be an ice-cream. I've infused it with some pineapple sage. Lovely. Also I'm gonna make a granita. I'm not sure. I'm trying to find, like, a citrusy plant. I'm just trying to make an icy dessert. Alright. So, heart of the dish - is it the granita or the ice-cream? The ice-cream. Because you've got two things that are very similar there. If you've got an ice-cream and a granita together, where's the thing that kind of... What holds it together? Is it a bowl of ice-cream? It sounds like a bowl of ice-cream at the moment. That's right. I might do a meringue shard. Depends how long it's gonna take to dry out. I love the idea that you're making a dessert - great. Because that's your thing. But meringue shards, we've been there before. Yep. So I think your challenge here is to look at George's face. (LAUGHS) What's the interesting bit? Meringue shard again? Again? I'll try and switch it up. I wanna keep impressing the judges, so I've got no choice here. I've gotta change my dessert. I look at the clock, and I'm running out of time. I've gotta come up with something really quick or I'm not gonna have any dish at all. . REYNOLD: The judges weren't impressed with my dish, so I'm feeling a huge amount of pressure to come up with something new. The first thing that comes to mind is a bombe alaska. It's an ice-cream dome encased inside a marshmallow meringue. It's a spectacular-looking dessert. If I can pull this off, it's definitely gonna impress the judges. The ice-cream's taking its time. I'm a bit worried about that. The most crucial thing about this dish is the ice-cream, and I'm really worried it won't set in time, but I'm gonna work hard to put up something that's really good and that shows that I can do something that's different. STEPHEN: Today's mystery box is a little bit different than normal. We need to go out into the MasterChef garden and we can pick whatever we want. It's just about going out there and finding what looks the best and doing something special with it. We've got to impress Maggie, which is gonna be the hardest thing of all. Well, they're all so different. That's what's so fantastic. The ingenuity, the creativity and the individuality - that's what I am blown away by. MATT: They're using vegetables sweet, they're using them savoury. That's wonderful. For me, more exciting than meat, more exciting than seafood is the options you get with vegetables. The Mediterranean vegetables that were out the front really spoke to me today, so I'm kind of gonna go down that route. Little smoky eggplant, other bits and pieces. (LAUGHS) I've got all of these beautiful Mediterranean vegetables and the first thing that springs to me to kind of bring them all together is by making a little vegetable tart. Definitely biggest concern today is getting that pastry right. It's not a lot of time, and, you know, it's Maggie Beer - the pastry's gotta be perfect. SARA: (COUGHS) Chilli. MATTHEW: So I've grabbed chocolate mint from the garden and I'm going to try and infuse that into a parfait. I'd never seen chocolate mint until I'd come to the MasterChef kitchen. It's really just a variety of mint that just has a strong chocolate flavour that's quite unique. The judges like us to think outside the box, and I'm hoping that the idea will spark them to taste my dish. MAGGIE: Ho ho ho! MATT: Melita. Hi, Matt. Hi, Maggie. Green tomato. So what are we gonna make here? I'm making a zucchini flower stuffed with ricotta. So you're making your ricotta? Mm-hm. I've made it. Oh, good. I'd like to make a little vegetable mash, and then when I plate it, make it look like a little bit of a garden. OK. Exciting. Love that idea. Lots of stuff to do. If you put it all together, fantastic. Yeah, I'll try. Well, good luck with that. Thank you. I need to stuff the zucchini flower with a ricotta filling. That's done. I'd only found one little zucchini flower, and it's the centrepiece of the dish, so I have to get this right. I dip it in some batter that I've made and deep-fry it. And I'm watching it like a hawk so it doesn't burn, because that's, like... that's my only chance. If the zucchini flower doesn't work, I really don't know what I'm gonna do. REYNOLD: My meringue's been in the mixer for about 10 minutes on full speed, and it's not even aerating at all. It's still flat. (GROANS) I've gotta chuck it out. I can't waste any more time. I've gotta start my meringue again and I'm already worried that my ice-cream isn't churning properly. It's just problem after problem and I'm starting to feel the pressure. Uh, I've had to do my meringue again. The other one, I think it had a bit of egg yolk in there, because it wasn't rising up. Right. Oh. What's the role of the meringue within the dish? Um, I'm making a bombe alaska. Brilliant. Wow. If he pulls it off, it'll be spectacular. It'll be fantastic. But if the meringue doesn't work... Doesn't work, yeah... The meringue's there to insulate the ice-cream, isn't it? That fails, the whole thing... Yeah. That's what I'm most worried about, especially with the ice-cream not setting. How's the ice-cream going? Taking its time. Ooh, good luck, Reynold. Good luck. Fingers crossed! I'm running out of time and I really don't have a second to spare. I'm really hoping that my ice-cream's gonna set. If it doesn't, I've got no bombe alaska and I've got no dish. The problem about a great challenge like this is there's never enough time. 30 minutes to go! GARY: Come on! Let's go. (GROANS) OK. The challenge today is only 60 minutes, and I'm making ice-cream sandwiches. That's crazy. I'm not using a recipe today. I'm just kind of going by what I know inside my head. So it could be a disaster. I'm really nervous. I just...I'm pushing it. I don't have much time and I really need to get the semifreddo in the blast chiller. The semifreddo is the make-or-break of this dish. If that ice-cream's not set, it's just gonna be biscuits on a plate. Ooh! It's a terrifying thought, to serve that to Maggie Beer. OK. Go. Don't drop that. I really don't wanna mess it up. OK. SARA: Before I fill my tortellini, I need to make sure that pasta is wafer-thin. And that takes time, because you have go through once, change the knob, again, change the knob. Before I know it, 10 minutes has gone and I'm still rolling this pasta out. Oh, my God. Time is quickly, quickly slipping away. I have to move on to filling my tortellini or I'm not gonna have a dish. (CREAKING) Need some grease, Krissy! (GROANS) I know! (LAUGHS) It's the worst! I'm fully aware of the fact that I am the only person standing in the MasterChef kitchen with a completely empty bench, and it looks like I'm doing nothing. I am doing a lot of standing around. I'm just waiting for my creme caramels to cook now. It's just a waiting game. And I'm hoping they're setting. They're looking pretty wobbly, so I'm... Yeah, I don't think they're gonna set it in time. I can see that it's not quite setting. Not really sure what to do. I'm really worried, yeah. I really want to put up a dish for Maggie and I really want it to get tasted. I haven't been tasted in a mystery box yet. It's really starting to dawn on me that, yeah, I probably should have had a plan B. If they don't cook, I'm plating nothing. GARY: What we're telling you to do is go for glory on this glorious garden pantry. 10 minutes to go. GEORGE: Come on! Come on! REYNOLD: I'm quite relieved. I actually got the meringue to work. But my ice-cream's not ready. It's still quite liquidy. But I can't afford to waste any more time. Not working. I'm just gonna freeze it. MATT: Get it in there, get it in there, get in there. I'm gonna put it into the blast chiller and hope it's gonna set rock hard, 'cause that's what's gonna make the dish work. Ah! I've got minutes left and I'm only just filling my tortellini. Panic kicks in. I haven't even put them in the water. Don't know if they're gonna stay together. There's so many things that could go wrong and I've left myself no time. For the first time, I think to myself, "I actually might not get anything on a plate in a mystery box." (GROANS) Right, this is it! Five minutes to go! The decisions you make now - make or break. Come on. Let's move it. GEORGIA: So, the time's come. I really can't wait any longer. I have to get the semifreddo out of the blast chiller. If that semifreddo hasn't set, I am in really, really big trouble. Oh. It's amazing. It's set. I'm so happy and I'm so excited to now plate my dish up. I'm just hoping that Maggie loves it. My one zucchini flower is perfectly cooked, so I'm really happy with it. REYNOLD: I've gotta assemble my bombe alaska, and I've got no time to spare. I'm just gonna hope when I take this out of the mould, it's gonna hold its shape. Ah! It's not set properly. The ice-cream just melts on my plate. This is a disaster. I'm feeling quite devastated. I know the judges won't taste a puddle of melted ice-cream. . REYNOLD: I grab my ice-cream out of the blast chiller and I'm just gonna hope it's gonna hold its shape. It's not set properly. The ice-cream just melts on my plate. I'm not gonna give up just yet. I'm determined to get something on the plate because it's better than nothing. I'm gonna try and assemble it, I'm gonna try and garnish it even though this dish is falling apart. MATT: You've dipped into the cornucopia of the garden. But will you win the hunger games? Two minutes to go. KRISTINA: The aim of the dish is to represent that beautiful garden and I think that I've done that today. MATTHEW: Oh, it looks great. This could be a dish that does stand out and maybe gets to be tasted. ROSE: I'm really worried that my creme caramels haven't set but I've got to put it on the plate or else I'll have nothing to present to the judges. Dammit! It's basically a puddle of custard right now. It is absolutely the worst thing that can happen to a creme caramel. I'm panicked. GARY: That's it. 30 seconds. Come on. I'm running out of time. I decide to take the last creme caramel out of the oven, pop it on the plate without turning it out. 10 seconds to go. JUDGES: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That's it! Time's up. Yay! It looks so pretty. Thank you. Oh, you have ice-cream sandwiches. I did. Very nice. Look at that. Oh, wow! I'm really proud of myself. Hopefully my gamble of infusing that chocolate mint into the parfait pays off. SARA: I am feeling so relieved. There was a point where I did not think I would get that pasta up at all. I think it's a nice-looking dish and hopefully it tastes good, so...it's up to the judges. REYNOLD: It's all melted. Ice-cream didn't work, so that's not really a dish at all. Definitely not enough to be in the top. How did you go? Didn't set. Mine either. I'm not so happy that it didn't set but it's gorgeous. Like, I'm really happy with the caramel underneath. I'm happy with the flavour of the custard. I'm really hoping that by some stroke of miracle they might taste it today. GARY: Right. What a great cook. Maggie obviously does good things to you lot when she steps in the kitchen, because there's some fabulous food. There's no doubt about it. So, remember - whoever wins this challenge gets a great advantage going into the next challenge, which is the invention test. Ready to find out who they are? Yes. Yes. First one... ..Georgia. Well done, George. MATT: Oh, you clever girl! Ohhhh! Hold...hold on! Hold on! Georgia, what have you cooked? Because we really want to... we really want to taste it! Quickly! What is it?! What is it?! I made a lemon and thyme ice-cream sandwich with a verjuice, thyme and lemon syrup. Do we get one each? There's five. There's five! Georgia, you'd better grab one. (CHUCKLES) MAGGIE: Mm. Mm. These are OK, aren't they? (GIGGLES) Every bit of this, the ice-cream, the biscuit, the syrup, the flowers... My gosh. At the moment, there is a room full of people going, "Oh, why didn't I make an ice-cream sandwich?" It's a really cracking dish, and you look at it and you go, "Gee, that's an awful lot to do in one hour and do it well." Really impressive. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Maggie Beer eating my ice-cream sandwiches and absolutely loving it. I'm blown away. I am having the time of my life. Thank you. Mwah. Next up... ..Kristina. Yeah. Kristina. Yay, Kristy! "What, me? What, me?" I know. "Are you sure?" Actually, no, it's the wrong dish, take it back. (LAUGHS) No, no, it's the right dish. We're not joking. It looks beautiful. What did you pick in the garden? Um, everything. No... I picked some lovely baby carrots and a little eggplant and a whole bunch of flowers - zucchini flowers and some nasturtiums and a little chive flower in there. You've nailed the pasta. Absolutely nailed it. And the burnt butter, doesn't that leave that lingering taste? It's a really simple idea. You haven't done too much to it and so it just tastes really beautiful and looks really beautiful. Well done, Kristina. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Next dish that we would like to taste... ..is Matthew's. So the dish is a chocolate mint parfait with baked rhubarb. Mm. That chocolate mint. That's so clever. Yes. The chocolate mint is absolutely delicious. I am absolutely amazed that that herb has given so much to that. It taste like choc mint ice-cream and you've just used herb. Beautiful. Really restaurant quality, and that's a huge step forward, Matt. That's really, really great cooking. Thank you. Thanks, Maggie. (APPLAUSE) The next dish to be tasted belongs to... ..Jessica. So it's a Mediterranean vegetable tart. I've got a smokey eggplant and spring onion puree, cavolo nero, roast tomato and a herb and chilli salad. You've got lots of lovely, bright, crisp, herbaceous flavours. You've got richness, you've got smokiness. I like the smokiness of the eggplant and you've got that lift of flavour at the end. The pastry... ..I'm not sure. I like the idea of doing a pastry disc on the bottom, but I think the pastry is... ..the pastry is a little bit flawed. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Right. Who's gonna be next? Sara. Hello. Four out of four. Yes! Pleased? Yeah. I'm really happy. I made eggplant and ricotta tortellini with a purple sage butter sauce. And you made ricotta, didn't you? Yes. Excellent. How much chilli did you use? (GIGGLES) Can I ask? Yeah, I tasted it and, um, it has a little bit of heat but not too much. OK. The heat is coming a little for me. And that's because I'm a wimp. No other reason. The pasta is really good. Nothing is worse when the pasta is too thick in the mouth. And I really like it. Good flavour balance in there, and you pushed yourself for one hour. So, credit. Well done. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) Thanks, Sara. My feedback is positive, but I'm not getting rave reviews. So I'm crossing my fingers I'm gonna get the advantage today. We were gonna pick five, but actually, because the food has been so good, we're now gonna taste six dishes. Ooh. Next dish we'd love to taste... ..Melita. I'm completely surprised. I'm just so happy that I get a chance to get my dish tasted. Hey, how's that? I'm pretty excited. First time mystery box. Yeah, yeah. It's very cool. And on a good day, when Maggie's in the kitchen. I know, yeah. It's awesome. What have you cooked? It looks very pretty. Oh, very good. Thank you. Very delicate. I have stuffed a zucchini flower with ricotta and basil. I made a ragu with the capsicum, green tomato and an onion I found. And a purple carrot curd. You didn't have ricotta? I made the ricotta with the milk and lemon juice. Excellent stuff. MAGGIE: Excellent. Go. You taste. Well... Can I take the really stuffed end? Just take the best bit. Just take the best bit. It's your privilege. Did you call that a ragu of the vegetables? Yep. A lovely buttery flavour there. That's got bags and bags of flavour. And what lovely about it is that you've kept the main element, the heart of the dish, which is that zucchini flower - you've plucked it straight off a vine in the garden and it looks like you've done nothing to it, but it's clever. But what makes it for me is just the power, the flavour that you've got behind all that. It looks a little, tiny dish but it packs a punch. Thanks very much. Good stuff. Well done, Melita. I'm really thrilled to hear that sort of feedback. I would love to win this challenge just for something for myself to hang on to to go, "Yeah, OK, so maybe I do deserve to be here." An interesting tasting as usual and some beautiful dishes. Really beautiful. If we tasted your dish, please step up to the front. We've got a decision to make. MATTHEW: Well done, Mel. Yeah. Well done, you! Good stuff, Jess. I'm loving the fact at this stage in the competition the food's so really very good. I just was blown away. GEORGIA: Everyone has done so well today. I really don't know if I've made the dish of the day. I think I could be within a chance. They were all so different. Yeah. Incredibly creative. Tasty, clever. MELITA: Maggie is definitely one of my food heroes. I've been trying my guts out to impress her, so it would be wonderful to win this challenge. But it's got to be an expression of that garden, so I'm dropping that one out of my top couple. SARA: To get tasted for a fourth time is a really wonderful feeling. But I really want to win today. You know what? I think we know. I think we do. Do we? Don't we all agree? I don't think we all agree either. But there has to be a winner, doesn't there? Well, we love those debates when we're discussing really good dishes, all of which have so much to recommend them. But... ..we have decided on one dish that we feel really expressed the garden and the beauty of the garden on a plate. The winner of today's mystery box is... . Well, we love those debates when we're discussing really good dishes, all of which had so much to recommend them. But... ..we have decided on one dish that we feel really expressed the garden, and the beauty of the garden on a plate. The winner of today's mystery box is... ..Melita. Well done. I win. (CHUCKLES) I'm so completely shocked. And really happy. Oh, my God. Oh, Melita, you did so much to such huge effect. Every element on that dish was delicious and brought alive every one of those vegetables that you picked from the garden. To do that in front of one of your heroes, Maggie Beer - good? Yeah. It's amazing. I'm in shock, actually. I had no idea. I didn't even think I'd get into the top five, let alone winning the thing. So I'm very excited. Melita, first time you've won the mystery box. Now you get that advantage. But you have to come into the pantry and the three of us - come on, let's find out what it is. I've got to say, I think each one of you - the pasta was great, the sandwich was wonderful. Really. It was a pleasure meeting you. Come on, Maggie. Come on. (LAUGHTER) I just love her! Melita. Go on. Jump through. Thank you. Ooh. I'm actually hoping that the next round I can do desserts because I love desserts. Melita. Congratulations. Thank you. You did really well out there with that mystery box challenge. How does it feel? Oh, it's phenomenal. I... I'm sort of having a bit of an out-of-body experience at the moment because I just still don't believe I'm here. Well, you are. You're in the MasterChef pantry. Maggie Beer's here and she's picked three really awesome core ingredients. Alright. You have the advantage going into the invention test by picking the core ingredient that everyone else must cook with. Maggie, will you do the honours? Well, today, Melita, you get to choose from... ..apples. Ooh. Or... ..stone fruit. Oh, my goodness. Or... ..berries. Wow. You couldn't have made it harder. How could it be harder? Look at that. It's beautiful! Because all three are my favourite. Are they? Oh, fruit... I just love cooking with fruit. What do you love cooking with fruit? Just, desserts. Like, any dessert that features fruit in it is just... It's my favourite. Oh, my goodness. How am I gonna pick? I am kind of a bit overwhelmed by the fact that they've just thrown at my feet exactly what I want. All of them would be wonderful to work with. And on the face of it, you'd be thinking dessert, wouldn't you? Looking at all these gorgeous ingredients. Yep. Yep. But... ..this challenge is all about taking one of these core ingredients and making something savoury or pairing it with something that is savoury. Oh, no. OK. Alright. That changes things a bit. There is always a twist, isn't there? Yeah. Savoury. To go from thinking about sweets to then jumping to a savoury dish is messing with my head. I know that I've gone from something that I feel really confident about to, "Oh, no. I don't know how this is gonna go." Right. Look at her smile. She's smiling. Put them out of their misery. What were the three choices? Um, my three choices were apples, stone fruit and berries. Yay! OK. Pick stone fruit. Pick stone fruit. I've got an amazing dessert for stone fruit. And I chose... Please be berries. Yay! ..stone fruit. Beautiful. Stone fruits and desserts, no problems. Now, stop what you're thinking right now. Because I bet you're thinking of some amazing desserts to make with stone fruit. But that isn't this invention test. This invention test is using the stone fruit in a savoury dish. OK. FIONA: I'm like, "Oh, no." I don't know. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Oh, Georgia, don't look so upset. Sorry. (GIGGLES) It's really bad. There are so many beautiful ways that you can use this stone fruit in a savoury dish that's gonna impress us. Think of Australian country cooking, think of the relishes, the chutneys, the pickles. Think of Middle East cuisine - the tagines. Think of Chinese food. Where would suckling pork be without a little bit of plum sauce on it? Keep in the front of your mind that this is an invention test, so we don't want you just to knock out your grandmother's apricot chicken from the 1970s. OK? You need to hero the stone fruit in the dish. Right. The rules are pretty simple. First of all, we need to know - open pantry. Second of all, you have 60 minutes to give us a delicious dish that uses the best of those fruits with something savoury. Remember, savoury is the key word. Blow us away. Because the consequences are this - if you're in the top three, then you get a chance at immunity. If you're in the bottom three, then you find yourself in that uncomfortable position of being in a pressure test. And you know what? You might end up going home. So, Maggie. Do want to kick us off? Well, your time starts now! WOMAN: I'm gonna have to stand back and just have a think. Yeah. Just have a think. FIONA: I'm a little bit confused. I got myself in that headspace where I was like, "Yay, desserts." Like, happy, and then it's like bam! Alright, think. I'm, like, "Oh, God. What am I gonna cook savoury with stone fruits?" And I'm like, "What am I gonna do now?" I think if you look at all of those, you know, the Greeks, the Middle East and the British, the Chinese - everybody uses fruit in their cooking. When you start thinking about it, you go, "Oh, yeah. That's right." What you've got to think about is what other flavours are gonna go with that stone fruit. You can use almonds in there, which is a lovely combination. Well, lobster with peach and a bit of vanilla in a poaching liquid, you know, it's very classic French. JACQUI: Today, I'm cooking quail with a plum glaze on a bed of farro as a warm salad. I have quite a bit of experience using the stone fruit, because we get a good crop from our own trees in our backyard. The stone fruit's gotta be the hero. But clearly, I need to cook that quail perfectly. I think if I can get those quails the way I have them in my mind, beautifully glazed and nicely cooked, I think this could be a top-three dish. JESSIE: I'm looking around the pantry and I'm clearly one of the last people in there. And when I run out, I look at the clock and it's already 10 minutes gone. And I just can't believe I've already wasted 10 minutes. Every minute counts in a 60-minute challenge and I really didn't want to cook a dish that I wasn't happy with today. I feel like I haven't been cooking my best and I'm just really nervous about, actually, um, putting up something that's actually, like, nice. Because I wasn't one of the original 24, I feel like I've been focusing on not going rather than trying to win. And I feel like I've just been trying to play catch up a little bit. So I've decided to go with duck. It's really important for me today to put a dish up that shows why I'm here and I'm not just gonna keep doing middle-of-the-road dishes. Plums, cherries, apricots - oh, my! 45 minutes left. Keep going, guys. I'm having a meltdown, is what I'm having. Uh... I'm still not sure about my dish, but I know that I just need to start doing something. So I just start, like, chopping up some peaches. I'm gonna do chicken with peaches, I think. But I might change my mind. I'm tasting the peaches with the herbs. I taste it with some parsley. It's disgusting. I taste it with some, like, rosemary, it's disgusting. Like... I'm just trying to figure out what flavour combinations are gonna go well and what I can...cook. Not good. Hello, John. Hey, Maggie. How are you? Good. Ooh. What have we got here? I'm doing a Chinese-style beef with plum sauce. And I'm gonna serve, like, a fresh coriander salad to go with it and some fried vermicelli rice as well. OK. That's good. So a bit of invention there. You're taking kind of number 72 and you're turning it into a restaurant-quality MasterChef dish. Yes. Definitely. You know, there's one thing you do know, John? Yep? You don't want to be in another pressure test. No. I don't. I've been in elimination the last three eliminations and...I need a break from that. I want to stay in the competition. I'm just gonna keep it simple. I'm gonna stick to, I guess, food that I love cooking. Beef with plum sauce. It's one of my favourite dishes whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant. So what I'm doing today is I'm turning that into a dish that is restaurant-quality and not something that comes out of a takeaway box. . GEORGE: Hey, Jamie. How are you? How are you going? Good. I'm doing a stuffed quail with a fairly savoury filling and then a, um, fairly sweet spiced plum sauce. OK. Is that your stuffing? That is the stuffing, yeah. What's in there? I'm gonna add, um, I've got chives, walnuts... Yum. ..breadcrumbs, shallots. Good job. You could just eat a big bowl of that. Yeah. That's yummy. I know the crumb is really nice and the judges have expressed that they think it's really nice. So, you know, I'm thinking that will become a bit more of a hero in the dish and I think it should be a good dish. It will come together nicely. On the face of it, a simple challenge, but as always, it never really is, is it? 30 minutes to go. Come on! . GEORGE: Hey, Jamie. How are you? How are you going? Good. I'm doing a stuffed quail with a fairly savoury filling and then a, um, fairly sweet spiced plum sauce. OK. Is that your stuffing? That is the stuffing, yeah. What's in there? I'm gonna add, um, I've got chives, walnuts... Yum. ..breadcrumbs, shallots. Good job. You could just eat a big bowl of that. Yeah. That's yummy. I know the crumb is really nice and the judges have expressed that they think it's really nice. So, you know, I'm thinking that will become a bit more of a hero in the dish and I think it should be a good dish. It will come together nicely. On the face of it, a simple challenge, but as always, it never really is, is it? 30 minutes to go. Come on! I'm getting on with this dish. I've kinda got an idea of what I want to do. I think, "Right, I'm gonna stuff the chicken." (GROANS IN FRUSTRATION) That's a mess. But it's just not working. Like, it's all falling out. It just looks a mess. It's not staying inside the chicken. It's just a nightmare, and now I'm thinking, "What am I gonna do? "This isn't working." Start again. Start again. And I'm just, like, back to where I was, like, five minutes ago. Yay! Oh, what? Yay? Because I'm struggling. I don't know what I'm doing. What's the idea? Uh, chicken thighs stuffed with, like, peach puree. Mate, you haven't got time to do that now. You've got 25 minutes. So... I literally... It's a 25-minute challenge now. Yeah. Right, so let's forget stuffing it, shall we? Alright. Chicken and peaches. Is that what you want to do? Yeah. OK. Chicken and peaches. Chicken with peaches, goat's cheese. Now, chicken and peaches work well together. Alright. I'll get it done. I work good under pressure. Are you better now? Thank you. So we've got a chicken and peach dish. Chicken and peach and goat's cheese. Looking forward to it. OK. Yeah, good luck. (CHUCKLES) I could still do a good dish in 25 minutes. I've done it before. Yeah, I could still pull this out of the bag. I went straight to dessert. I was like, "Ooh, dessert!" Me too. I was like, "Whoo!" And then he's like, "Savoury now." It's like...aarrgh! I know. Total brain fart. JACQUI: 25 minutes to go. I've got my quail in the pan in some nice butter to brown. From there, I want to shift them to the oven to finish off and that will ensure that they're cooked through. 25 minutes is definitely enough time to cook my quail properly. They don't need that long. MATT: Oh, nice colour. Thank you. Beautiful colour. So I'm going to do a warm quail and farro salad with thyme and I've got a plum glaze here. What, you're going to apply the plum glaze, then roast the bird? In the last 15 or so? Yeah, don't over... Yeah. They don't need a lot of cooking. If you're putting them in the oven... Yeah. Yeah. This is that nervous, worried Maggie face... Yeah. ..that you don't see too often. I don't want that. That you don't want to see. I definitely don't want to overcook those quails, so I'm thinking maybe I will not put them in the oven. Maybe the cooking in the pan will be enough. Jessie. Hello. How are you going? I'm good. I think I've got a bit more clarity now. I started off being a little bit frazzled. I instantly had a million ideas for desserts, which I guess is the idea. Yes, absolutely. So I'm going to do a pan-fried duck breast with chargrilled peaches, a mint oil, fresh mint and sort of, like, a creamy goat's cheese. Mint and peach is a great combination. OK. Big smile on Maggie's face. If she was worried about it, you'd see it on her face. Alright. That's great. Thanks, Maggie. ROSE: This morning's mystery box - it's shaken my confidence a little bit. Maggie's here and it's great to be able to impress her, but I feel like I'm stuck. Like I'm not being true to myself and who I am. I came into this competition and I thought, "Yep, I'm going to cook Lebanese food "and I'm going to be myself," and then the second I got in, it was just, "Whoa, hang on a second. "You can't just cook the food that you make at home. "It's not MasterChef quality." What's cooking, Rose? Hi, George and Gary. Today I'm just going to do a twice-cooked chicken maryland, chargrill some stone fruit. I'm going to savoury-poach a couple with some chargrilled eggplant and an apricot and peach puree. Maybe pumpkin. I think pumpkin might be too sweet with the fruit, so... I can't picture it at all. It sounds really... You've got honey there as well. Yeah. There's loads of stuff going on. Just a little bit. Yeah. Where's the inspiration in the dish come from? What's your cultural background? Lebanese. Lebanese. Which... Don't they use a lot of fruit in...? Yeah, yeah. All I'm saying is you've gotta knock this out of the park. You've been in a few pressure tests so far. Rose, come on! The judges think this is the perfect opportunity for me to cook a Lebanese dish, but this is an invention test and I really don't want to risk doing anything too simple, so I'm going to stick with my chicken and apricot puree and I just hope this dish keeps me out of the bottom three. This invention test is ripe for the picking, but you've only got 15 minutes to go. Come on. Come on. BILLIE: Today I'm cooking duck with peaches three ways - some roasted peaches, fresh peaches and peach and carrot puree. If peaches and carrots together doesn't work, then that'll just throw out the whole balance of the dish. MAGGIE: Have you tasted it? Not yet. I tasted the peaches when they cooked, but... Give nothing away, Maggie. No, no. I won't. I'll turn my back. Thank you. I can't really tell if they're happy with that combination. But I think it's nice, so I'm just gonna keep going with it. JOHN: I've let the beef rest as long as I can and I start cutting the beef up. And it's perfect. It's just the way I wanted to serve it to Maggie Beer. It looks good. I just need to put a crust around it. It's supposed to be a crispy beef in plum sauce. Hopefully, I will redeem myself today and I'm hoping I won't be in elimination again. JACQUI: Time's running out and I'm so busy making my salad at the moment, I'm not thinking about anything else. I'm checking the clock. There's five minutes to go and I realise I haven't actually checked to see whether my quail's cooked. I'm sort of having a feel of the quail and I'm thinking they really weren't in the pan that long. The first cut I make, I can see that the quail is raw. It's undercooked. It's not cooked at all. Oh, far out. This is a disaster. In an absolute panic, I throw them into a pan, which hasn't got time to heat up. There's no way I'm going to get this quail cooked in time. Now's the time to push yourself. Five minutes to go. Come on. GARY: Come on. Whoa! Sorry, Jamie. I've got some good elements that I'm going to bring together. I know the breadcrumb is really good. I've cooked the quail nicely. Butterflied. I'm just thinking about how I'm going to tie it all together and plate it nicely. I turn my back for a second... Oh, no! I just burnt my bloody stuffing, which they said was nice. So...I'm a bit worried that that's going to be too bitter. The biggest positive the judges had about my dish was the breadcrumbs and I've burnt it. It's...pretty much cactus. What am I going to do? How am I going to pull myself out of this? I could have had a really good dish. Now what have I got? I've got quail and nothing to go with it. . JAMIE: Oh, no! The biggest positive the judges had about my dish was the breadcrumbs and I've burnt it. I could have had a really good dish. Now I've got to somehow salvage this breadcrumb and hopefully it's enough to keep me out of the bottom three. There's really no time left. Just 90 seconds. You need to be blazing. Come on, guys! GARY: Come on! BILLIE: So, I've got my puree on the plate and the duck's cut and ready. I decide to crumble a little bit of blue cheese over my puree, so I'm hoping that that element will really tie everything together. FIONA: So, now my dish is a pan-seared chicken thigh with peaches three ways, with a goat's cheese, tarragon vinaigrette. I'm just praying that I've done enough to stay out of the bottom three. 30 seconds! Dress! Dress! Dress! Come on! MATT: Come on! Ow! JACQUI: Go, go, go, go! A couple of pieces of quail in the pan have got some colour on the raw side, so I choose the bits that I think may have a chance of being cooked. 10 seconds to go! JUDGES: Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! That's it! Time's up. Where did that last two minutes go? ROSE: I'm really unhappy with this dish. I should have just made a really beautiful Lebanese dish. JESSIE: I lost a lot of time at the start not thinking straight and not coming up with an idea, but I think the flavours are nice and I really want to be safe today. SARA: That looks sick! Thanks. Beautiful. So pretty. Peach and carrot, I think are a nice combination, but I won't know until the judges taste it. JACQUI: Oh, my God. Urrgh! This is a nightmare for me. I had time. I had plenty of time. I've rested that quail for so long. Why did I not cut one open to see how it was cooked with 10 minutes to go? And now it's too late. If I've served raw quail, I am definitely into the pressure test tomorrow. No doubt about it. Love the energy in the cook so far this week. Must be Maggie Beer, that's for sure. So, we're looking for the top three dishes - that's where you want to be - but also the bottom three. So, cook beware. The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to John. JOHN: I'm feeling good about this dish. I've been in the last three eliminations and being a top three would just make my day. What I've done for you today is beef with plum sauce and a salad of coriander, fennel and the plums. Good stuff. We're curious about this one. Matt's like... You just want to come up. Come on. Come up. Come on. I'm kind of excited. I... Deep-fried beef is one of those... Deep-fried beef and crispy something. It's one of those ultimate sins, isn't it? And yet it's kind of... it's kind of good. So if it works, it'll be delicious. Yeah. Let's eat it. Yeah, let's try it. It is crispy. Mmm. Yeah. I like the dish. It delivers in terms of crunchy, crispy, tender, and I like that blood plum sauce. Salty. And it's interesting. I think the real strength is there's a fair amount of coriander there, so it actually makes the plum very savoury in the sauce, which is delicious. And I think you've taken a kind of, you know, one of those Mandarin beef-style dishes from, like, the takeaway and you've actually turned it into something that looks like it could sit on a good restaurant table. I really like the dish. It's nice. Thank you. Well done. Thank you. I'm just over the moon. It was just amazing. I feel like I've actually proven to myself that I don't need to worry because I can cook and I can put up a great dish. Next up is Amy. AMY: Baked quail with lavender honey and thyme and caramelised peaches and brussels sprouts. GEORGE: I do love that colour. I love the peach. Just beautiful. Those peaches... Oh, look at that. ..are spectacular. Stunning. Next dish up, Sara's. SARA: I've cooked a pan-seared duck breast with red wine poached peaches along with a cauliflower puree. The duck and those pickled peaches, that is really beautiful. Kristina. KRISTINA: It's a crumbed pork medallion with thyme-roasted apricots, onion petals with a apricot and pork sauce. I love the fact you've roasted the apricots. You really have brought out the flavour of the apricots. And what you've done there with the gravy is a great combination. GEORGE: Reynold, you're next. REYNOLD: I've made chicken and cherries with some fennel salad and crispy skin. Jeez, you're such a... you're a very good cook, Reynold. The presentation is immaculate. And perfectly cooked chicken. Yeah. GARY: Jamie. So, I've got a crispy pan-seared quail with a walnut and breadcrumb crumb and some fresh plums with a little bit of white wine vinegar. Are you happy with what you've made? Everything was sort of going wrong, but I brought it together and I think it should taste really nice. Oh, gee. That looks super dry. It is, Jamie. It's overcooked. I don't mind the breadcrumb mixture. You know, it's garlicky and tasty and buttery. But you've overcooked the quail, and then I've got raw nectarine. It's just not enough, Jamie. And you're hanging on by your fingernails in this competition. How long can you hang on for? Next up is Fiona. FIONA: I'm a mixture of things. I'm probably just frustrated and angry at myself because I can cook better than this. I know I can. I've done it before. It's just...I need to stop letting pressure get to me. So, how was your 25-minute challenge? Um... 'Cause that's what it was, wasn't it, in the end? Yeah, I knew I was doing chicken and peaches and goat's cheese, but I hadn't had... ..like, I didn't have that clarity of thought for what a final dish would be. So what has it ended up as? What's the dish? Well, it's a peach, goat's cheese and tarragon... ..salad, probably, for want of a word, with a pan-seared chicken thigh. There's a lot of peaches in there, isn't there? I kind of took the whole hero of the dish maybe a bit too literally and I thought I'll poach them, I'll make them raw... "I'll combine a small amount of protein "with a large amount of fruit." Right. Let's... Shall we tuck in? Is that a little pink, that chicken? FIONA: Gary tells me the chicken looks undercooked. I'm flabbergasted. I thought I'd finally put a good dish up and now I'm like, "Oh, God. Raw chicken. "You're gone. You're done. You can't serve raw chicken." . Is that a little pink, that chicken? I'll be honest with you, that is, um... Just that bit there. MAGGIE: Oh, is that lot, then? Don't touch that bit on the side there. I'm so sorry about that. That's terrible. I'm sorry. This piece I have, I find fine. The tarragon, the peaches and the goat's cheese - delicious. Love it. Unfortunately, that chicken and the way you've cooked it, or not cooked it, it just doesn't work. That's your confusion in a bowl. Yep. I know. (APPLAUSE) I do not want to enter a pressure test, especially just off the back of the last elimination. I definitely don't wanna be in the bottom three today. Next up, Billie. BILLIE: The earthiness of the carrot and the sweetness of the peach should go well together. I think it's OK. I just hope they do too. GEORGE: Wow. Whoa! Why? OK. I think you just stop. Don't do anything. George, Gary, come forward. 'Cause you need to look at that. GARY: Amazing. Wow. Absolutely amazing. Thank you. Wow, wow, wow. What's the dish? It's a warm duck salad with peaches three ways. Some roasted peaches, fresh peaches, peach and carrot puree and a vinaigrette. Stop it. I'm just saying... You're having a moment. It looks good from every angle. But does it taste good from top to toe? That's what I wanna know. I hope so. MAGGIE: Oh, the duck is perfect. Mmm! Puree's fantastic. Ooh, that's... Actually, before you taste it, give it back. MATT: No, no. Sorry. Too late. (LAUGHS) I think the peach with the carrot was the most beautiful surprise. A real surprise. Ooh. Absolutely, absolutely delicious. So look at it and you go, "Beautiful," you taste it and it is beautiful. And it's that white peach and carrot puree, the vinaigrette that kind of softens it and loosens it down, and the fact the duck is cooked absolutely... I love it when they talk a lot. It's spot-on. You are greedy...! I've lost all the prosciutto! One of the best things I've tasted this season. Oh, wow. Thank you. That is cracking. Wow. What I love... what I love about it is that...not just that puree's something I've never seen before... I don't think any of you have seen that. No, never. But it's an inspired idea. Those little tiny dollops of blue cheese in there, and the oil you've used in your dressing, those are the little touches that take this dish from being a great idea from a home cook to the sort of stuff I'd expect to see in a top restaurant. That is amazing cooking, and if anyone beats you today, we'll be very, very happy. (BILLIE LAUGHS) I tell you what, well done! Thanks so much. Can't believe that I put something up that impresses all of the judges. And there hasn't been any negative feedback, so that's a really great feeling and I think that's something I'll take with me, you know, for a long time. Melita, you're next. So, you had the advantage. What have you cooked? Pork dumplings, plum sauce and pickled salad. Really tasty. Delicious. But you've got one problem. Not enough sauce? I wanna dunk... (SLURPS) ..and slurp. Next up, Georgia. I've made a pan-seared duck breast with a cucumber and plum salad. The duck's a bit over for me. Mm-hm. But I love the freshness of this. Really, really good. MATT: Stephen - your turn at the table. So it's a fillet of beef with red fruits. So it's cherries and plums. That combination - cherries, plums and nasturtiums - is absolutely knockout. And the beef is a really clever partner with it. I think that's very close to being a winning dish. It's delicious. Next up, Rose. You alright? No. Knowing you... Oh! Yes, I'm OK. No, I'm not OK. (SIGHS) It's a twice-cooked chicken with chargrilled eggplant and a peach and apricot...puree. I've got a funny feeling... about this. Oh! (SIGHS) Oh, you're gonna leave it me, aren't you? Yes, I am. Um... I know what's coming. I think the chicken's overcooked. Yep. I think it's very poorly prepared and poorly cooked, honestly. And the apricot and peach puree... you're in trouble. You could have introduced all sorts of Lebanese or Middle Eastern flavours to make it your own. Oh, Rose. What would have...I don't know, your mum, your grandmother, cooked if you gave her chicken, apricots and some almonds? Um...oh, she probably would have done maybe, like, a rice and chicken pilaf with some apricots going through it and some almonds on the top. Fresh yoghurt? Yeah, some fresh yoghurt. And...I guess I feel like the food that I would want to cook is not MasterChef. Why? What?! It's just the food we eat every day. Are you kidding me?! Do you know? And this is what I do to myself. I go, "Who would want to eat that? "Because I eat that all the time and that's just boring." I'm not even gonna taste it. Come closer. Let's have a chat. It's what MasterChef is all about. MasterChef Australia is all about who we are as Australians. It's our cultural backgrounds. It's the differences, it's the things that excite us - that's the reason why we love living here, 'cause you can go onto any high street, you can try a Lebanese, a Korean thing you've never had before. We want you to bring that to us. Yeah? We know you can cook great food. Cue the Maggie hug. Oh. Thank you. And you've got all that within you! All that culture that, you know, so many Anglo-Saxons don't have. (LAUGHS) You've got something. We DO wanna eat it. That's what we wanna eat. From there, that then is a building block for us to assist and tweak, right? But that there is not...that, we've gotta start from the beginning. Yeah. You get it? I do. I get it. Come on. Thank you. (APPLAUSE) It's a revelation standing there talking to the judges today. I think I just need to put all that crap aside, cook my Lebanese food, do what I know how to do well and grow and develop and learn, because that's what I'm here to do. Next up is Jessie. GARY: Really pretty. Really pretty. Oh, nice. Can we come up? Yeah. 'Cause I think this looks really pretty. JESSIE: Oh, good. Yeah. MATT: So, Jessie, dish? What is it? I made pan-seared duck with chargrilled peaches, goat's cheese, mint and black lentils tossed through with a peach and duck fat vinaigrette. Ooh! That sounds good, doesn't it? Peach and duck fat. I'd just order that. If it said "tossed through with duck fat and peaches", I'd just order it. (CHUCKLES) How's the duck cooked? Um, I think it's cooked well. Ooh. Ooh, look. Ooh! Lovely cook. Beautifully cooked. Yeah. Mmm. (HUMS) GEORGE: The peach makes the duck. Yeah, really good. Without it... We're just...we're just saying that to taste the duck, the lentils and the curd all together without the peach, it's quite...it's quite hard to eat. But this peach does this brilliant job of bringing sweetness and bringing juiciness and bringing freshness to what's a very earthy dish. So if you wanted to show us how to use stone fruit in a savoury manner, which is what the challenge is about, you've absolutely nailed it. Well done. Oh, good. I'm relieved. And your use of the duck fat as well, that not wasting anything of that flavour. I think it's great. Yeah. There are some dishes that you cook in this kitchen that you should be absolutely and rightly pleased with. Feel proud as punch, 'cause that is absolutely delicious. Well done. GEORGE: Jess! I'm so relieved! Jess! I was worried. You're here. Good on you. Well done. You should be very pleased. Thank you so much. Proud of yourself. A big wave of relief and kind of, I guess, happiness comes over me. I think what today's made me realise is that I should feel more confident and trust in myself a lot more. I just wanna keep cooking well. Jacqui, you're next. JACQUI: I'm very confident that this is in no way a good dish. If that quail is raw, as I think it is, then I'll be in the bottom three. What have you cooked? Uh, I've done some quail with a plum glaze and a farro salad with some grilled nectarine and bacon and a grilled nectarine cheek. Where's this dish gonna put you in the pack? Uh, I have my concerns about the quail, so it will probably depend a lot on that. Is that a fail? Oh... Is it? Yeah, the breast is fine. It's fine. Yeah. Wow. That's great. The leg's under. Yep. That's the problem. GARY: Oh, gee! I know you said it was undercooked, but I didn't realise that much. (CLEARS THROAT) Obviously the quail's undercooked. Yeah. We know that. And, I mean, "send it back" undercooked. Nectarine's delicious. Maybe if the dish was based around the nectarines, you would have been on a winner. But even the farro salad, it's just...it's not doing anything for me. OK. So I'm sorry. It's not a good dish. Yeah. Thanks. The feedback from the judges is not good. As suspected, my quail is not cooked. I'm under no illusions - I am definitely in the pressure test tomorrow. Today's challenge was about taking the sweet and turning it into something savoury. So many possibilities with that fabulous stone fruit. And for some of you, it was a great challenge. And let's be honest - there's a fair amount of competition to get into the top three and the chance to cook for immunity. But for some of you, it wasn't such a great cook. There's also some competition for the bottom three places and tomorrow's pressure test. And of course, from there, someone is going home. If Maggie calls your name, please step forward, 'cause you'll be having the chance to cook for immunity. John. You come forward. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) (LAUGHS) I loved the balance of texture and flavour, that sweet and salty plum. Well done. Thank you. Thanks, Maggie. FIONA: Well done, John. Billie. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Your puree of the peach and the carrot was such a beautiful surprise, and you know something - that's something I will take away with me. Well done. Thank you. And the third person to cook for immunity is... ..Jessie. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) It was a simple, beautifully balanced dish. You had the lusciousness of the baked peach, and it really married... oh, with the duck fat. Oh. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) The duck fat. Well done. Congratulations, the three of you. Getting in the top three today has abolished all my doubts about being number 24, and I just feel really happy that I kind of do deserve to be here and that I'm not just here because someone else had to leave. GEORGE: Unfortunately, four of you didn't do so well. If I call your name, please step forward. Jacqui. Rose. Jamie. Fiona. You let yourselves down today. We know you're better cooks than that. YOU know you're better cooks than this. Fortunately, we're only looking for the worst three dishes. Jacqui, your quail was raw in places, and that's why you're in tomorrow's pressure test. Yeah. Fiona, your chicken was also raw in places, and why you're also through to the pressure test. And joining you... ..in tomorrow's pressure test is... ..Rose. Rose, your chicken was overcooked and the sauce really didn't work with that dish. Jamie, that is a very narrow escape. You can all step back into line. It's not where I wanted to be, obviously. It's frustrating and annoying. Silly mistakes. But I'm gonna fight with everything I've got to stay in the competition. The start to today in the garden was absolutely amazing. Each and every one of you made the garden alive on the plate. It was a bit harder this afternoon, but you're learning every step of the way. Even the bad days, you can pick yourself up the next day and go on. And each and every one of you has shown me you have the potential to be great cooks. Go for it! Thanks, Maggie. Thank you. Maggie Beer, thank you so much. We say it every time - you walk into the MasterChef kitchen, you inspire our contestants, you inspire us and we love you dearly. Thank you so, so much. Thank you. Thanks, Maggie. (APPLAUSE) ROSE: Tonight, I'm just gonna really have a think about why I'm here. I'm here because I wanna be here and I wanna prove to myself that I can do this. And I wanna make myself proud and my family proud and...yeah. I just need to remind myself that I'm good enough. ANNOUNCER: Tomorrow night... Your worst nightmare. ..Anna Polyviou, the punk princess of pastry... ..lifts the lid on Australia's Dessert of the Year. I'm not gonna finish this. 12 elements... I would be scared. ..40 steps... It's just insane. ..and one tough taskmaster. Splash! I wanna see you guys not running - sprinting! I'm moving. I'm hustling. That looks sick! They'll need to cook like never before... MATT: Very good. Oh, look at that. She's done a really good job. ..because even the slightest mistake... It's amazing that someone's future is gonna be set by how this cuts in half. ..could mean elimination. Captions by Red Bee Media Australia