. VOICEOVER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - Reynold's indulgent coconut dessert... I love this. ..earned him a place in MasterChef history. You have got the perfect score. But even that wasn't enough to win immunity. Tonight, seven contestants... Far out. ..seven courses... It's so stressful. ..and the toughest cook of their lives. Welcome to hell. Come on, let's go, go, go. They must each make... Not enough time. ..plate... Worst day of my life. ..and serve... Come on, come on! Come on! ..a degustation dish for 40 guests. That's clever cooking. Heaven. Really good. But fall behind... There's a lot to get done. Holy crap! ..and their next course will be elimination. # 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. # www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016 Today we're in St Kilda and we're walking into Circa. Everyone's really excited. SARA: Circa's a bit of an institution in Melbourne and some of Melbourne's best chefs have worked there. It's getting closer to finals week... Oh, my goodness. ..and the competition is getting harder and harder. It's gonna be tough today. Good morning. Welcome to Circa, the Prince - one of the finest dining rooms in Melbourne. As the competition progresses, we slowly but surely ramp up the pressure with each challenge. Every time you do a team challenge you come in and you do one course, two courses, three courses, four courses. But today... ..you're doing a seven-course degustation. Oh! REYNOLD: That's awesome. And here's the kicker - each of you is gonna be responsible for one course in its entirety. Ooh. (EXHALES) You each need to make and plate and serve 40 dishes. So do not underestimate this task. This is go, go, go. This challenge is ridiculous. We need to feed 40 people. One person cooking. It's mission impossible. Simple stuff. There's seven courses and seven of you. So, guys, on each knife is the number of which course you will cook. You pull number 1 you do the first course, and so on and so on and so on. Right, step up. Let's do it. Oh, that's all a little scary, isn't it? OK? Oh, look at that. Oh! Reynold, that's a fix! (SQUEALING) (LAUGHS) REYNOLD: I can't believe I got number 7. It has to be the dessert. What luck is that? Billie, you're number 1. BILLIE: Today I'm the first course. I'm kicking it off. There's a lot of pressure to start it well. Georgia, you're number 2. Matthew, you're number 3. Thanks. Sara, you're number 4. Jessie, you're number 5. Thank you. Jessica, you're number 6. And, Reynold, hey? 7. Unbelievable. (APPLAUSE) Anybody want to swap with Reynold? I can't believe it. How did he get dessert? Degustations are like the premier league of dining. If you go to any of the top restaurants around the world or Australia, it's invariably what you're gonna have. It allows the chef to show off a whole range of his skills and to show you his 'philosophy' in a number of courses. You need to think about balance. You need to be thinking about the size of your portions. You don't want your diners to get fatigued. GEORGIA: I really want to do well today. I'm excited about this challenge. Plating up for 40 people all on my own would be a huge achievement in this competition. Right, the rules. Today's cook is a staggered start. Each course is gonna be built around a single hero ingredient. But you'll only find out what that ingredient is when you go into the kitchen. "Oh, Gary!" He's joking, right? I'm afraid that's true. JESSICA: Not knowing what you're cooking until you run into that kitchen is so scary. You each have 2 hours and 15 minutes to prep and cook your dishes and then 30 minutes to plate and serve. When it's time to plate up - so service time - each of you will get another contestant to help plate up. That's plate up only, alright? The top four dishes are safe. The bottom three are into tomorrow's elimination. And here's one last thing you need to know. George and Matt are going to be tasting your food in the dining room. And... ..I'm gonna be running the pass. Oh, cool. MATTHEW: I'll be great to have Gary really sort of pushing us and maybe guiding us as well. Right, are you ready? We're gonna kick Billie off first. Are you pumped? Yes. You better be. Your time starts now. Go, Billie. Go, Billie! BILLIE: As I'm running in I see my bench and I see marron. Alright. Marron's similar to lobster. It's kind of exciting to be able to use such a beautiful ingredient. Hey, look - got my whites on and everything. Looks good, doesn't it? Yeah. What have you got? I've got marron. Oh, beautiful. I am responsible for the first course so I really want to make a good impression. It's got to be subtle. Yeah. You know, the first course is to get the palate going. I'm gonna cook 20 of the marron today for four minutes in boiling water. I want to do marron tail, I want to do an avocado and lime puree, fennel jam and basil oil. Cooking up the marron is really, really important. If I overcook it, then it'll be tough and stringy. I'm excited. Ooh, they're perfectly cooked, aren't they? And don't chuck the trimmings away just in case. You might have a brainwave. I reckon it's gonna go so quickly. It really is. 2 hours and 15 is not much. It's gonna go - bam! Don't freak out. You've got a stressed face on. Right, action stations. Georgia? Yes? You're in. She's under pressure. Love it. Hey, Billie! Hi, George. What am I cooking with? Celeriac! Oh, my gosh. Oh, dear. It's celeriac. OK. Celeriac is a root vegetable. It's kind of big and ugly but it's all white flesh with kind of a subtle celery flavour. It's not a vegetable that I like. Far out. I'm definitely feeling the pressure right now. This is an intense challenge. I can't get soup out of my head and I just keep thinking soup, soup, soup. I'm doing a buttermilk and celeriac soup. I'm so relieved that I've come up with an idea and that it can be made really quickly. But it's not that inventive, it's not that creative. What's the clever element? Um... You know, like, what's the thing? What's the thing? Where is the thing? Yeah. Otherwise it's a bowl of soup. Gary questions whether soup is exciting enough. It's gotta be fantastic, it's gotta be exciting. It's gotta make people want to eat it. So I better come up with something. Are you ready? MATTHEW: I think degustation is such a great way of eating food. It allows you to have a lot of different courses and explore different tastes, different flavours and have a theme running through a menu. So I have tuna. Excellent. We've got 40 guests coming in, so that's a lot of food. Not much time to prepare. I want to keep things as simple as I can. Tuna looks really good. Billie's got marron and she's gonna have a cold dish. Georgia's got celeriac and she's making a soup, so I need to make sure that my dish kind of tries to fit in with what they're doing. Rightio. How's it going, Gary? I'm good. I get the good job, don't I? Yes. (LAUGHS) So, what's the dish? So I've got tuna and I've got... I'm gonna make a little ceviche, so just dice the tuna, have a little dressing, some vinegar, olive oil, crush some garlic, some anchovy, with a little salad of macerated rhubarb and orange segments. Nice. Right. Loving this. I'm next! (SQUEALS) Oh, my worst nightmare - what would that be? I hope it's not a poultry, just 'cause it's quite fiddly. I'd almost want to just, like, walk straight out if that was it. Come on, Sara. You're up here. Do you want to know what you're cooking with? Yes. I really do. (GROANS) Oh, no! Quail. No! Why? Oh, I'm not happy about quail. I didn't want a poultry and the quail is probably the most fiddly of them all. Oh, well, there's nothing I can do. I just have to suck it up and deal with it. It is incredibly important to keep things simple but it needs to be punchy with flavour. Today I'm going to be making a roasted quail with a miso and sweet corn puree. Oh, I do not have enough hands. There's corn as far as the eye can see. I need to get their husks off ASAP so I can begin making my puree. Literally, it's gonna be a two-hour workout. It is incredibly difficult to cook for 40 people, let alone 40 people on your own. Massively worried about time. Two hours. It's not a lot of time at all to do anything. It takes me two hours to make dinner for my friends of maybe four people. So, yeah. I'm feeding 40 friends today. (BOWL CLATTERS ON FLOOR) Oh, my God. Today I'm making a celeriac and buttermilk soup. I just need to come up with that creative element on my dish. I have an idea in mind of something sitting on top of the soup. Almost like a bridge across the plate. And I'm thinking I could make a little tuile. If I put some little fresh apple and parsley salad on top I think that would make it really special. Salt, salt, salt, salt, salt, salt, salt. I definitely don't feel like myself in the kitchen today. I feel riddled with worry. I know that I'm flapping about. I've got a lot of soup to go through and to sieve it a couple of times is definitely time-consuming. I'm also trying to make tuiles. These tuiles have to be perfect. I'm stressed about the amount of time that I have left. Time wise, I'm in trouble. I really need to move it. Far out. I've worked out I need 40mls of soup per person. How much do you need? How many portions have you got? 45 serves? So you need about two litres... Two litres. ..of finished soup. I'll have that. Because once... Thank goodness. Yes. I've got a big pot of soup which is easily over two litres. So I think I should be fine. I really don't want to lose today. I really want to be in the top four. I don't want to be in the bottom three. Marron is my hero ingredient today. I'm also doing a avocado and lime puree and a fennel jam. This is a really tough challenge. The time is just flying. It's going so fast. Pressure is on. I need to get a dish up. So I just need to move really fast. My biggest concern is not having everything ready for service. I've added some pear cider and some sugar to my fennel on the stove to turn it into a jam. While I'm doing my marron and my avocado puree, I totally forget about it and turn around... Oh, nuts! ..and it's burnt. The smell of it is just not good so I can't use it. I have to think of something else. If I totally ruin this first course, I'm likely in elimination. Billie, 18 minutes before your service starts. I'm feeling the pressure. I really want to do well today. I'm just trying to sort of get back on track and, you know, do what's gonna work. Whoo. There's a lot. There's a lot to get done. It's really fiddly to prepare quail. Today I'm only gonna be using the breast so I need to remove the legs and the neck and then deal with the breast right at the end. Just go like the wind. You can't stop. You just have to go, go, go. This quail is taking forever. I'm like a machine. It's, like, bang, bang, bang, bang, done. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, done. You can do it, girl. Come on. Before I know it, I look up at the clock. I only have one hour left to pull this whole dish together for 40 people. I still haven't even cooked any of these elements yet. I don't physically see how this is possible. . We're in such a beautiful place, Circa. Today we're cooking one course of a degustation menu. Each course will be built around a core ingredient and we have to make 40 plates. We have two hours and 15 minutes to prepare the dish and only 30 minutes to serve the dish. Let's hurry...and worry a little. Go. Go. Go. Where are pans? JESSIE: I'm course number five and I'll be cooking lamb. And I'm feeling really positive about the cook. I see Billie's face and she looks really stressed. Are you two feeling the pressure? Yes. It feels really manic in here and, yeah, I feel instantly really stressed for everybody. I'm having fun. Where are you? We're having fun too. I like it... The dining room's set. And it looks absolutely beautiful. We've got a lovely corner, a lovely table. And the glassware is really sparkly, Gary. I need company sometimes. We've got, what, five minutes before Billie's course goes out. This is compression time. So, Billie's done a little poached marron. Georgia, difficult one because she wanted to make a soup. So how do you make that soup stand out after you've had that gorgeous marron? Matthew, he's gone with tuna ceviche. He's got a rhubarb pickle. Interested to see how that rhubarb stands up to the tuna. Individually, the elements are really good. Sara, she's got quail. She hated the idea of that because now she's got to deploy some butchery skills which she's not particularly confident with. Yeah, but if she nails that quail, people will love it. So far so good. I think we should go and sit down, maybe have a little glass of sparkling water. Enjoy. (MATT CACKLES) BILLIE: My fennel jam is burnt and I can't use it anymore, so I have to think of something else to put on the dish and I'm running out of time. And I see that I have some leftover marron meat that I could chop up and turn into a fresh marron salad. It's so stressful. There's so much pressure on, but I love it. Right, listen up, everybody. Diners are being loaded, alright? If this doesn't focus your mind, I don't know what will. Billie, you've got two minutes to go. Get your stuff up on the pass, plates counted and ready. I'm feeling under a lot of pressure. Good afternoon. And thank you very much indeed for joining us for this very special seven-course degustation lunch. Shall we start? ALL: Yes. GARY: Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. BILLIE: We have half an hour to plate our 40 dishes. And we have help from one of the other contestants. We might do... Hi. I am called up to start my help time. And Billie has got her mise en plus set up all beautifully. Billie... Yep. Let's go. Perfection. Let's see what we can do. Service begins and I want to get these meals out and I want to impress Gary. Come on, Billie. Come on, Billie. Come on. Service is all about firing yourself up, getting the adrenaline going, feeling good about the food you're plating up, getting that thrill. Billie is not a flapper, she's not a stresser. And her dish looks beautiful. She's just amazing. I'm in awe of her. BILLIE: I really love the pressure. I love how it works with me. It makes me sort of push on harder. Service, please. Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? I'm actually surprised at how nice it looks. You're doing well. It's a beautiful-looking dish. MATT: Well, George, here's the first dish. This is Billie's. What a great way to start a degustation - delicate, light. Perfect size, I think, as well. You want to start with something - it's a warm day out there - something nice and fresh. And that looks beautiful. Obviously marron. It looks like it's cooked beautifully. A little avocado puree there. And what I love is that all the trimmings of the marron have been used up to make a little salad. That's clever cooking. We asked Billie to get her first dish out by noon, 12 o'clock. We're already eating food. Fantastic. Good to see. Tasty. I really like that little bit of soy on the avocado that just gives it some savouriness. There's a little bit of a, like, a sweet citrus hit there as well. Yeah. At the end of the day, it's about one thing and one thing only, and that's... it's all about the marron. Yeah, good start. Great start. It was really light, beautiful and fresh. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I really loved the first course, so I think it's going to be a really high standard of food today. That's it. Done. Great. Brilliant stuff. Billie has sent her first course with three minutes to spare. MATTHEW: Well done, Billie. That was amazing. That was seriously so much fun. It was so much pressure in the prep time but that part there I loved. It was great. Right, Jessica, your time starts now. OK. You start cooking. Oi, Jess, welcome to hell. (CHUCKLES) Six, six, six plums. JESSIE: My core ingredient is lamb. I've got an idea for the lamb so I'm not feeling too worried. I think I'm going to do sort of more of a main style of dish. So I'm going to do some lentils. The lentils I'm using today take about 30 minutes to 40 minutes to cook. I'm going to err towards the side of 30 minutes because I want them to be a little bit al dente. What are you doing? I picked the lamb backstrap because I've got some lentils on. I've got a puree on as well. What's the puree? It's a carrot puree. OK. Today, the top four dishes are safe and the bottom three dishes go through to elimination so I really have to get every element on the dish right. So, I'm going to hopefully do that today. Come on, let's go. Everybody needs to lift their pace 'cause I'm feeling, Georgia, you're not going to be ready. I have no time. My goodness, this could tumble down. My core ingredient today is plums. I'm really happy with that. It's got to be something that plays into the hands of all the other dishes. OK. Sara, what's your dish? I really like the idea today of kind of working in a team with the other contestants but being judged on your own performance. I know that I want to do a dessert that kind of bridges the gap between sweet and savoury. I'm thinking about pairing the plums with some goat's cheese and a little kind of sable biscuit. I'm not sure how it's going to look yet, but I think the flavour's going to work really well. GEORGIA: The soup is tasting beautiful. It's definitely subtle. But unless I get the other elements right, it's just soup. I pull a batch of tuiles out of the oven... Ow. ..and they're completely burnt. I overcooked them. I overcooked the tuiles. I can't use them. They've been in there way too long and that's, like, nine tuiles that I'm down. This is...so bad. GARY: Georgia! Yes. You have one minute before service. What are you trying to get ready? Tuiles. What? You don't have enough? Um, I'm going to have enough once I've made enough. I can't believe that I thought I could make 40-plus tuiles in this challenge. They are a terrible idea. And the worst thing is is that I can't not have them on my dish. They have to go on. Today I'm making a tuna ceviche with rhubarb and rhubarb puree. It's time for me to start cutting up the tuna. I've never cooked with tuna quite like this before, so this is a new experience for me. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to plate this dish up. I know plating's not one of my strengths. Um... Gary offers me some advice on cutting up the tuna. Use the very heart of that. Yep. You want the most beautiful tuna out of this that you can. And get rock and rolling. Thank you. So, I start playing around with some different ideas. If I can get this dish looking really nice, then that might help me today. Georgia, get in the pass. Come on. My God. Worst day of my life. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on, Georgia. I'm not ready. This is horrible. It's time for me to help Georgia plate up. Georgia looks super, super stressed. I just really want to help her. I don't know what to do. Georgia, five minutes of your half an hour of service is down. JESSICA: Let's go, Georgia! I'm under so much pressure. I have no idea how on earth I'm going to have plated up 40 dishes. They're really delicate. I've got diners out there that are just waiting now. So, we've had to wait quite a while for the celeriac soup. This dish is way too complicated. It's actually just ridiculous. Georgia, if you don't start sending this, you are not going to send your course. It needs to go now. Like, now. (GROANS) I'm totally drowning today. Burning my tuiles has put me behind. I've redone them, but putting the topping on 40 of them is taking forever. My God, I'm so not that happy with this. I'm so worked up about my tuiles I'm not thinking about my portion sizes. I'm just haphazardly pouring soup into the bowl. Oh, my gosh. You need momentum now. Momentum. Yeah. OK. All of a sudden there's trays with bowls going out. And I'm just relieved that it's starting to move. Thank you. Alright. How many have you got to plate up? Oh, 16 more. 16. Where's my soup? Have you got enough for 16? No. No. I haven't. I'm in such big trouble. Have you got more soup? Oh, my God. I don't know. . So, we've had to wait quite a while for the celeriac soup. GARY: Have you got more soup? I don't know. If... The situation couldn't get any worse. Oh, my God. I've run out of soup. I mustn't have been considering the 40 mils that I measured at the start and have put too much in each bowl. Get a little bit of milk, yeah? Yeah. Gary just says that I need to put what's in the bowls back into the pot, strain what I had left and add some more milk to it and get those bowls moving again. You've got some milk? Gary, I'm not going to be able to do this. You can do it. You can do it. This is what service is all about. This is the bit I love. Is it? Keep it together, yeah? Keep it together. I cannot believe that there's potentially 10 people that aren't going to get their second course. Right, just enough. Just enough, yeah? You've only got that amount of soup. Let's get the crouton on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on! You can do it. You've just got to go. Come on. Come on. There we go. Thank you. Have you done it? Georgia, you did it. Is that it? Yeah. It's... It's alright. It's OK. (SOBS) I think you did a good job, alright? (SOBS LOUDLY) OK. Yeah? It's OK. WAITRESS: Buttermilk and celeriac soup. Thank you. Thank you. Wow, that's pushing it. Celeriac soup, it's a warm soup. With buttermilk. I think that's a really nice idea, a little apple and parsley slaw on the top. Obviously it's going to come down to flavour. I think, you know, she's done a good job. I mean, it's... I taste celeriac, I taste the sourness of buttermilk. I think it's a good little effort. I love the saltiness of the biscuit, but the fresh stuff on top kind of interferes with the acidity of the buttermilk. Has it blown me away, this dish? No. Do I like it? Is it warming? Yes. Yeah. WOMAN: Yeah, the tuile was interesting. It was quite sweet, really sweet. And then it had the saltiness. The saltiness through it was nice but the sweet flavour, um, just a little bit unsure to go with the soup. GARY: Listen up. Commercial kitchen, be careful. Shut that fridge door. Reynold? Yeah. Your time starts now. Don't you want to know what you've got? Chocolate. Enjoy. Sweet. JESSICA: Oh, Reynold got chocolate. That's awesome. Well, what do you know? What have you got? SARA: I've finally prepped the quail. I need to get them onto the pan, get a really lovely golden exterior before I put it in the oven and finish cooking it. Everything starts in the same direction. Oh, OK. And then you can choose when that's ready and go, "Right, I'll turn that one over, that one over, that one over." Thank you. It makes utter sense. Complete sense. Oh, no, come on. Just got to think about stuff really wisely here. Who's next on the chopping block? MATTHEW: Me. How are we doing? Have we portioned so we know...? I've portioned everything. I'm pretty organised and ready for service before service starts. I've got everything portioned out. I've counted out my plates and I'm ready to go. Chocolate and dessert, you know, that's just... I've struck gold. Yeah, nice. Top seven, dish number seven, lucky seven maybe. I like my desserts to be an array of different ingredients that goes well together - different temperatures and textures. But with 40 people, I've got to restrict that. Today I'm going to be cooking a chocolate cremeux with a crumble and some fresh berries. So, the sable and the chocolate cremeux won't be too heavy. It won't be too rich. It's just going to be nice and light. I want to be in the top four so I've got to make sure my dish is going to be good. I'm really worried about the time for this challenge. I think the quantities is a little bit hard to fathom. I am trying to make sure that every element will be consistent for 40 plates. I'm glad that my carrot puree's done. But it's important the lentils are cooked consistently. I think they're cooked enough. I'm going to drain them off and then flavour them at the end. I've got to get my lamb cooked. I'm just going to put some spices on the lamb. Hey-ho. Matthew, let's go. Move your bum. Behind. Behind. Behind. I'm ready for service and, you know, very pumped. Have you got spoons? Right. Are we starting our little production? I'm obviously in charge of my service today. And I've got Billie to help me. It's just a matter of one element at a time and just get a system going. This is the best bit, plating up. It is. Next lot, Billie. Next lot. Let's go, go, go. You've got to get those hands going faster. If you go direct from above, you know, it's not going to squidge everywhere. That's great, Billie. I want all of these dishes to look exactly the same - seven squares of tuna, pipe the rhubarb puree, pipe the creme fraiche, finish it off with the fennel fronds ready to send out. Gary, I've got 10 ready. Do you want me to send them out? Yeah, if you're happy. Yeah, I'm happy. You go, big fella. Right, Sara, you've got 10 minutes, yeah? Yep. I'm rapidly running out of time. And I'm only just starting to take the breasts off my quail. It's perfectly cooked. Yay. Really relieved but now I've got to actually cut them all. Time has absolutely gotten away from me. What have you gotta do? You've got to get these off the bone. Got to get meat off the bone. And then what have you got? You've got to get the corn off. Corn off the cob. And what's the dressing? Is there a dressing? At this point in time, I only have two elements to put on this plate - quail and corn. I know that the miso sweet corn is both sweet and salty so I find some blackberries. The blackberries are already quite sharp. What if I make a vinaigrette out of them? Something that's sweet and sour at the same time will really cut the fat that's in this dish. So quicker than ever I make a blackberry vinaigrette. Thank you. Good stuff. Service is over. All of the plates have gone out. Hey. Well done. And I'm just relieved that I got everything out on time. Thanks, Gary. Gents. Tuna ceviche with rhubarb. Thank you. Beautiful presentation. Yeah, really beautiful presentation. Really, I think, the most elegant thing we've seen so far. Funny dish, isn't it? Everything sort of works. This is massive. This is Matthew that plates, you know, stack, stack, stack, and suddenly we've got this beautiful, elegant plate of food. That is degustation to a tee. Heaven. Really good. Great job. WOMAN: The tuna was absolutely divine. It was my favourite meal so far. (BLOWS RASPBERRY) Look at all this mess. Arggh! Almost lost it. Sara, hurry up. It's sounding pretty manic out there. We are getting pushed today, big time. I really don't have much time but the blackberries look beautiful. They're glossy and there's just this really beautiful colour that I can just see really dressing the dish nicely. Today I'm going to make some roast plums on a little goat's cheese mousse and a hazelnut sable. This is a kind of nice little bridge between main and dessert. I've got my sable dough resting in the fridge and now it's time to move on to my plums. I'm starting to cut them out into kind of little wedges. I cover them with just a little bit of sugar on there, some coriander seed, lots of thyme leaves. And I found some really delicious white port. Alright. My core ingredient is chocolate. This can't be any better. I can't ask for any more. So, my dish is going to have a chocolate cremeux. I really want the cremeux to have a nice body to it, just, like, thick and creamy. I take the chocolate off the heat... Whoa. ..my chocolate, the edges of it is burnt. Oh, jeez. I think that it was exposed to the naked flame. I didn't watch it. I'm not 100% focused. I know that it could have ruined it. What am I going to do? I might have blown it. . REYNOLD: So, the chocolate's burned. I think it's because it was exposed to that naked flame. Arggh! Chocolate's a problem if it's burned because it's going to have that weird taste to it, so I've got to scoop it out. I was lucky enough to see it before it actually scorched the whole thing. So, yeah, I have to remove the burnt bits. I'm just worried that it's going to affect the flavours of the cremeux. Fingers crossed that everything will go to plan. SARA: This is the hardest challenge I've had to do. Duh-duh-duh. GARY: Jessie? You need to hurry, hurry. Lots of caramelisation, please. Yeah. I'm really pushing it for time. Once I finish searing I'm just going to chuck them in the oven briefly just to finish cooking and hopefully it's done in time. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Sara? Yep. This is your service time starting now. Service starts and my bench looks like 40 quails just stood on a landmine and there's quails everywhere. I honestly thought it was impossible to butcher and cook 40 quail. Feeling pretty electric. Alright, Georgia, we can do this. Let's go. Thankfully I have my trusty Georgia next to me and she's going to help me plate. We're just moving like clockwork. We need to do it quickly, precisely and beautifully. Thank God I did this vinaigrette. Georgia and I are making these plates fly out of the kitchen. Whoo. Before I know it, we're done. Thank you so much. I think it's just these two. Jessie, Jessica, Reynold, just so you know, this is how you do it. 10 minutes to spare on service. That's not bad. Well done, Sara. If I'm safe today, I will go absolutely bonkers. Gentlemen. Beautiful. Thank you. Roasted quail. It's done with a miso corn puree and blackberry vinaigrette. I've got to say, there's something rather pretty about that. There is. Well, that's what degustation is about, it's about all that accuracy. It's about everyone consistently getting the same plate. Look at that. Look at that. Yeah. Two blackberries. Same amount of corn. Shall we? Yeah. Mmm. Yum. That is...delicious. Yeah. That's the best dish we've tasted today. Quail cooked perfectly, the idea of the little corn kernels there add a little pop, a little textural pop and some sweetness. The meatiness of that miso corn puree. And then those blackberries that have slightly been warmed, slightly got a nice little heat through them, just give you this acidity and freshness. It's such a delicious, clever, yummy dish. Sara's done a brilliant job. That is a top plate of food. There have been some amazing degustations served in this dining room. For me this dish can stand quite happily in that kind of company. 100%. WOMAN: The quail was beautiful. The corn and the puree was just delicious. I would never have thought of that combination to put together. It was magnificent. The blackberries were absolutely superb with the quail. And it was just beautiful. A beautiful dish. REYNOLD: This is my chocolate sable. Beautiful. Coming along there. Oh, I'm feeling really frazzled at this point. I'm so far behind. I'm still sealing my lamb. I haven't finished seasoning my lentils, a hugely important part of the dish. I'm looking at my lentils. Oh, my God. They're bad colour. These look so bad. And I just realise that I've stupidly left them draining in the pan for too long. So the bottom part's still cooking and quite soft whereas the top part's still al dente. So they're just, like, mooshy and hard at the same time. They're a complete disaster. Jessie. Yes. You've got five minutes before service time for you. Oh, my God. There's five minutes to service. It's just a complete nightmare. I'm really under the pump. I'm not really happy with the lentils. They're really overcooked. Jessie, are you going to be ready? I hope so. I'm going to still use the lentils but I decide quickly to pickle some carrots. I need something to freshen up the plate. I can't see any other option. I know I'm running out of time. So, we're waiting. I've got 40 diners out there waiting for my course. Come on, Jessie, we're waiting, yeah? I'm just really chaotic. Nothing's ready. I've got to slice my meat. I've got to finish my pickle. What about your plates? My God, where are they? MATTHEW: Jessie's not ready for service. If you start service late, there's a real risk that you don't get all of your plates out. Course five is taking a little longer than we expected, yeah. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Carving station. Carving station. How you gonna cut...? Where's your board? Where's your knife? I think we're good to go, Matt. I want to go. Come on, let's plate up. I'm really feeling the pressure. I'm carving the lamb... What about your lamb? Is it cooked? ..and it's undercooked. I'm worried about this meat, Jess, I really am. This is really worst-case scenario for me. There's not a single element on my dish that is perfect. I've just lost the plot. We're in big trouble. . I'm carving the lamb and it's just a little bit too underdone. GARY: That's mooey. That is really mooey. It's cooked through enough but it's just not rested enough. It really should sit there and rest through a little bit more, but I'm out of time. Come on. Let's start going. So I'm really worried that it's going to weep over the plate by the time it gets to the customers' table. Come on! What do you want? What do you want? Where's the carrot. Come on! Come on. Twice as fast, Jessie. Twice as fast. I'm absolutely drowning in this service and Matthew is 100% saving me. MATTHEW: Come on, Jessie, we can do this. It's just really chaotic. Come on! That's it. That's it. Now we're getting some energy, yeah? You feel good when you have this energy. Are you happy? OK. Go. We need to motor, yeah? You need to motor. MATTHEW: Keep it going, Jessie, keep it going. Keep it going. That's it, Jessie. Now you're getting a bit of pace on. I like it. I've seen the food that's gone out already and I'm just... I feel like I'm the let-down course. Faster. Faster. You're running for the line here. Make it look amazing. It looks great. I'm barely surviving service, but I've managed to pull through. Yes! One minute to spare. And Jessie does it. Oh, well done, my darling. Well done. I feel really, really disappointed in myself. I'm so embarrassed. Hey, you say that every single time. I know. And you put up delicious food. Pull it together. Let's tidy it up. OK. Let's go. Lamb for you here with lentils and a carrot and orange puree. GEORGE: Thank you. Well, very pretty, but also very late. Do you like the dish? Um, little things. You know, there's... Oh, yeah, hate that. You know, the lamb hasn't been rested through so there's blood on the plate. Lentils look slightly overcooked. And I'll be interested to see how the combination of flavour goes. If you're going to put a pickled carrot on the plate, make it pickled, don't make it just like a, you know, flavourless carrot strip. Just little details - resting the lamb correctly, cooking those lentils where some of them are crunchy, some of them are overcooked. Do I love the dish? Do I feel the same way about this dish as say I feel about Sara's quail or Matthew's tuna? No. And there's my concern. To be safe, to be one of those top four, the food you're putting up has to be absolutely top-notch. WOMAN: Course five with the lamb, it probably just needed to be rested a little bit longer. WOMAN: I thought the carrot strips were garnish and didn't realise they were pickled. Hot coming through. Whoo, that's hot. REYNOLD: I'm feeling the pressure now. I thought I was going cruisy, but this cremeux is looking really runny. It's supposed to hold its shape. My cremeux is not that set. It's supposed to be nice and thick and not loose. I'm going to put it into containers and then put it into the fridge. GARY: Reynold. Yep. I'm crossing my fingers. You've got half an hour. I'm just going to put the cremeux into the coolroom and just hope that it's going to set. If it doesn't set, then, I don't know, I'm stuffed. There's not enough time. Jessica. Yes. You've got eight minutes before I want to see you on the pass. (SING-SONG) Holy crap. I mean, "Yes, Gary, no problem, Gary." (CHUCKLES) I've got eight minutes. I'm probably honestly a few minutes longer than that. I'm still making this goat's cheese cream. I still need to cut all of my biscuits and get them into containers. I need to strain off my syrup that I haven't done yet. Oh, I'm getting messy now. No. I'm getting really stressed at this stage. I am getting ready to get yelled at. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. What am I doing? Everything's going wrong. I'm pretty nervous now because pressure is really getting on to me. That cremeux's still runny and I've got nothing else to thicken it up with. I've just got a lot of things to do. I'm just waiting for my cremeux to set. If it's not set, I've got to go with it. I'm definitely stressed. Jessica. Yeah. You've got about two minutes. OK. I want you up on the pass here. I'm in an absolute manic rush. I'm still cutting out biscuits. And I've still got to get my, you know, goat's cheese mousse into a piping bag. Just moving as fast as I can. I'm really, really glad that I only decided to do four elements. So, Jessica, this is dessert time. Right. How long? I'm a few minutes late to service but it's all ready to rock. Just do a tiny dot on the bottom to keep it still, otherwise it's going to slide around the plate. SARA: How much time you got? Not enough! Yes? Yeah, go. Go. It does look like a really simple dish but I'm really happy with the flavour. So, are we happy? Yep. Happy. Thank you, Gary. Alright. Let's roll. It's really nerve-racking plating up and having your dish taken out. Alright, come on. We need to push it. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. I'm really hoping that the judges get that kind of savoury idea that I've gone for. If anybody's going to, it'll be those guys. (CHUCKLES) But, you know, there's always that little doubt in the back of your mind that goes, "Ooh, have you been a bit weird?" Is that it? Lovely. Four minutes to spare. Well done. (LAUGHS) Gents, black plum with goat's curd and thyme. Wow. Pretty little roast plum. A bit of thyme. Nice herbaceous freshness will work well with plum. Obviously this is the bridge between savoury into sweet. Love it. Why? 'Cause it's biscuity, buttery, sweet and slightly savoury. And for me it's a perfect bridge into dessert. Does it show much technique? No. My only question would be the plum's a little bit over-roasted. It's a little bit... It's becoming a little bit jammy. Where does it sit in that order? I don't know. You know what? We've got one last dish to come. We've got Reynold's dish to come. If Reynold does a good dish, who knows what could happen? Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. REYNOLD: I'm feeling pretty stressed. I've got all my stuff ready to go for service. Alright, Jessie, come on. Need you on the pass. Come on. Let's go. The cremeux's too runny. It's like a sauce. What's next? The soil. Right. Come on, Reynold, soil. Chase her. Let's go. I'm happy with the sable and the lime fraiche. I know that I could impress them with the flavours and the plating. Ooh, look at that. Quickly. Quickly. Quickly. Get the crumble on. Fork the strawberries, put the cream on. It's really nerve-racking. You look like a professional team there at the moment. I don't know. If the flavours taste great, maybe I've got a chance here. Come on, Jess. Come on, Jess. Let's go. You've done this already. You know how fast you've got to go, right? Service, please. Yep. It's good. Yep. These two are ready to go. Yep. Ready to go. Yep. Let's come on. Come on. Come on, Reynold, let's go! Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Alright, let's go. 10 more. Move it. Last little push, Reynold. All that hard work, huh? Nearly there. Nearly there. Last few seconds. Boom. Done. Well done. It was a dream pick that I got dessert. Chocolate - struck gold. But I think the pressure really got to me. I might be in a lot of trouble today. If my dish is not good enough, it's going to send me to elimination tomorrow. Every element counts. High expectations. . . Well, this is obviously Reynold's effort - dessert, final dish of a degustation. High expectations. Shall we taste? I'm happy that there's only three or four items on the plate. I love that. And that's what I love about a degustation, right? But... ..each of those items need to be thought about. That custard on the bottom's a bit too loose. The crumb - there's so much crumb. I want cremeux to be a real, like... really superlight and superintense, and it's a bit... It all tastes a bit nursery. It says nursery pudding to me. This is a bit... This is a bit kind of... It's a bit flat as a dessert. Look, I think we know who's done the best job in terms of the dishes we've tasted. Four people safe, three into elimination. The first thing that comes to mind on a day like this after a big challenge like that, is how far have you all come. It's extraordinary. I mean, big day - 40 covers, a seven-course degustation menu and the seven of you, honestly, nailed it. But at the end of the day, it comes down to the results. Gary, how'd they go in the kitchen? Well, overall, you know, it was a real pleasure to work with you guys in the kitchen and see how far you've progressed. You know, your organisational skills et cetera have just gone through the roof. Chalk and cheese from the start of the competition. But when I talk about successes, there were some great performers in the kitchen. Billie, you were just organised and calm from the get-go. And it was a real pleasure to watch. Just your, you know, handling ingredients and cooking and cleaning up and all that. So brilliant job. Thank you. Sara, I really thought that you weren't going to make service at all. I mean, it was a massive task to take 40 quail, butcher them, seal them, get them roasted, get them off the bone and then crack on with all the other jobs that you had to do to make that dish work. Well done. And, Sara, thank goodness you did because in the dining room for George and myself, that was the dish of the day. No way! Absolutely way, way, way. Ah! No way! Oh, my God. Good job. Look, you know that we think miso and corn is a terrific combination. But I don't think we could have imagined it would have worked so well as it did with that blackberry vinaigrette and that beautifully cooked quail. That was a really elegant, beautiful dish. Thank you so much. Congratulations. That means you're safe. I'm ecstatic. I'm just so happy and really proud of myself. Wow. Right, let's look at the rest of your courses in order of service. Billie, your marron - fresh, bright, the perfect way to start a degustation. And that's why you're safe. Congratulations. (APPLAUSE) Thanks, guys. Next course, Georgia. That combination of celeriac and buttermilk was a great idea. But the execution was lacking. Georgia, I'm sorry, but you're in that elimination. Yep. I knew it. Matthew, that rhubarb puree looked and ate, to use George's words, beautiful. (LAUGHS) Well done. You're safe. Congratulations. (APPLAUSE) Thanks. Jessie, your lentils were unevenly cooked, your lamb wasn't rested enough and that's why I'm sorry to say you're also in the elimination with Georgia. So it comes down to the two desserts. And sadly only one of you can be safe - Jessica or Reynold. One of those two dishes really stood out for us. We loved that simple combination of fruit, biscuit and cream. Congratulations, Jessica, you're safe. Sorry. Reynold, too much crumb. But you know what the real problem was? That cremeux didn't have any body to it, it had kind of collapsed on itself, so it ended up being a bit like a chocolate sauce. And that's why I'm sorry to say you take that last place in the elimination tomorrow. It's alright. I'm a bit devastated that it's between myself, Georgia and Jessie. We were in the top three in the invention test, but then now we're going to... the bottom. You know what? Whatever the result today, I think the seven of you should be proud and be upbeat because you've done some great stuff today. Georgia, Jessie, Reynold, we don't want any of you guys to go home. But it's time to focus and focus now. The fact that three of us can be at the top of our game a couple of days before and now today we're at the total bottom of our game, is terrifying. It really does go to show that anyone can win this. Rest up. Put that determination into play and we'll see you in the kitchen tomorrow. Off you go, guys. Well done today. ALL: Thank you. Good job. Well done. MATT: Well done, guys. VOICEOVER: Next time ` it's one of MasterChef's most feared challenges... Five minutes for the chicken. 5. 15. Herbs. 20. ..where careless bidding... The sardines? Oh, no. Sold. ..can bring a contestant undone. No, I thought you... I'm totally freaked out. Recipes that have worked before... There is so much at stake. Oh, crap. ..won't be enough this time. Oh, no. Stupid of me. And one of our favourites... ..faces elimination. I just don't want to go home today. Supertext captions by Ericsson