1 ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... Reynold! ..2015's king of desserts returned with his finest and most complicated dish ever. The bottom three tried hard to re-create it. But Olivia fell short... ..sending her home. Now it's time to move on to my next adventure. Tonight, the battle for immunity. You want one. And they'll have to use what's under the box... Are you ready? ..to make their dish pop. I love everything about popcorn. It's what every contestant strives for. I really want that immunity pin. I don't eat popcorn. We want pop! But just one... Whoo-hoo! ..will get to the next round. YOU will be cooking for a pin! And it will come right down to the wire. That's cooked to perfection. What a clever dish. Absolutely textbook. # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # We got today. # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # So spin me round and... # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # ...show me the way... # Ooh, yeah, yeah. # ...back to... # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # Able 2016 The opportunity to cook off for an immunity pin is incredible. This is definitely the biggest achievement that I've made in this competition. Hey. You guys excited? Yeah. Yeah. Just a few more steps, and I can actually win an immunity pin. Let's get in there. I can do this. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Walking into the MasterChef kitchen, I feel really good about myself. I really want that immunity pin. I look at it as acknowledgement that you're a standout. Are you pumped up? Yeah. You pumped?! You should be! You know, you cooked brilliantly in the invention test, and that's why you're standing here with the chance today - and we have a brilliant day lined up for you - to win that immunity pin. The game-changer. Shannon, welcome back. Thanks, Gary. We're feeling good today, aren't we? Feeling very good. We're feeling like something's going to happen. Oh, yes. I've actually seen what you're going to be cooking with today, and for me, I'm very excited. You're all in with a really, really good chance, so congratulations to you all for being here. You want one. Don't you? Yes, George. Yeah? This is a beautiful thing. The confidence that this will give you is incredible. Yeah? Con? Yeah. Definitely want one. More than anything. Anastasia, how are you gonna get it? I'm gonna work hard. Gonna work really, really hard today. That's exactly right. Yeah? Nicolette, you want it? Yeah. I want that so badly. Competition's tough, though. Do you reckon you stand a chance today? Probably not. HEATHER: (LAUGHS) Nicolette! "Probably not". They're both really good cooks, and it's just, like... a lot of pressure, I guess. Being the youngest in the competition, I am the underdog of the three of us, so if I'm gonna win today, I need to believe in myself and trust myself. So. Two rounds today. The first round is a knockout, where the three of you go head to head. Win that round, you go on to face the top chef in a cook-off. Beat that chef, and you win the pin. The key to winning that pin lies under here. We can say with certainty it is either going to excite you... ..or confound you. I'm praying that it's a savoury challenge of some description, but it all depends on the ingredient. If it's a really weird ingredient that I...you know, I know nothing about, there's gonna be a problem. Right. Are you ready? Ah! (APPLAUSE) I love popcorn. I love going to the movies. I love buttered popcorn, I love lightly salted and sweet popcorn. I love everything about popcorn. So, bring us a dish that pops with popcorn. The rules - 60 minutes. Plenty of time to cook a delicious dish. Open pantry, garden's in play. Are you ready? Yeah! Yes! Yes, Gary. Your time starts...now. (CHEERING) I have no idea of what I'm gonna cook. It's not something that I expected, so it's a bit...thrown me off and... I'm just thinking, "What kind of dish can I make? "Should I do a dessert dish?" But then I'm thinking, "But desserts are not my strength, "and if I'm fighting for immunity, I wanna work with my strengths." How can I make a savoury dish full of popcorn? I need time to think. CHARLIE: Nicolette, you might need a bigger bowl. MILES: Popcorn alert. ELISE: Nicolette! (JIMMY LAUGHS) Put it in the bowl, put it in the sink. I just burnt my arm hair! (LAUGHS) How do I make it stop? Unplug it. Oh! (LAUGHS) I'd love to have a chance to win that immunity pin. I think it'd help me in, like, believing in myself - that I can do a good job. I've chosen a dessert today, because desserts are my strength. I'm doing a caramelised popcorn, a popcorn crumb and a popcorn parfait. The parfait's the star of the dish, so it's really important it's got as much popcorn flavour as possible. Whoa. A fire. (LAUGHTER) I taste the parfait, and it tastes like popcorn, and I'm really happy with it. So I sift my mixture, pour it into the siphon gun... ..and then in the blast chiller to set. In round one of today's immunity challenge, we have 60 minutes to make our dish pop with popcorn. Wa-hey. Lots going on over here, isn't there? Hi. Um... Con, what's the dish? So, I'm doing, like, a little layered glass dessert. A white chocolate mousse. I've got some Pedro Ximenez, some coffee, which I'm gonna do a jelly out of. Pedro Ximenez is one of my favourite nightcaps. It's... (LAUGHS) It's a sherry and it's just... ..it's got a really beautiful, sweet yet savoury note. And then I'm gonna try and, um... I don't know what I'm gonna do with the popcorn. It needs to be popcorn, obviously, so I'm just thinking as I'm going. I don't eat popcorn. I've just tried it today and it's pretty subtle... You don't eat popcorn? No. Never been to the pictures and... It's strange, isn't it? ..stuff a carton full of popcorn? I really want that immunity pin, but I really have no idea what to do with the popcorn. I need to get a wriggle on, and I need to think of something real quick. I'm going to infuse my jelly with popcorn. It's the only way that I can think to use it. ANASTASIA: I spent too much time in the pantry, but I've decided to do a savoury dish. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) I race back to the bench. 15 minutes down, and I'm thinking, "Oh, my gosh. I have so much to do." ELISE: What is it, Ana? I'm making honey miso popcorn-crusted chicken breast with a miso pumpkin mash and a popcorn jus. Yum! Love. Lot going on there. Yeah, you got a lot going on. I think the key to win the challenge is really heroing the popcorn flavour. Get angry with it. That's better! Go, Ana. Smash it! Whoo! Ah! So I'm gonna marinate the chicken breasts in some honey, miso and then coat in blended popcorn. I think the flavours will impress the judges. The biggest risk of my dish is that I don't have that much time to cook the elements perfectly. So I just have to push really hard now just to get through it and get everything, um...done. You only got 40 minutes, hey? All good. I can do it. NICOLETTE: My popcorn parfait is chilling in the blast chiller, and the popcorn crumb is in the oven. So I start getting onto my popcorn caramel. My instincts tell me that I need something else for my dish. But at this point, I'm a little bit flustered. Shannon, Shannon, I remember walking into the Vue de Monde kitchen in the early days and it...never looked like this. No! (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Yes. There's something about a clean bench that gives you that sort of calmness. Shannon's right. My bench is covered in pots and pans, and it's important to keep my bench clean so I can properly think through what I'm trying to make. We don't want snap! We don't want crackle! We want pop! 30 minutes to go! 30 minutes! CON: Today I'm making a layered glass dessert. with a white chocolate mousse and a coffee and Pedro Ximenez jelly. My Pedro Ximenez is reducing with both raw and cooked popcorn in there. So to finish the jelly, I strain out the Pedro Ximenez syrup, add some coffee... Coffee is a seriously strong ingredient. This could be a huge risk, but I'm excited about doing something different today. But time seems to be jumping away from me. I put my jelly in the blast chiller FINALLY... (CHEERING) ..but I'm praying that 20 minutes is enough time for that jelly to set. ANASTASIA: My pumpkin for the miso pumpkin mash is roasting in the oven. I need to reduce my, um...jus - my popcorn, sweet corn jus. And the key element's the chicken breast, which I'm marinating in some honey, miso, and then coated it in some blended popcorn. Can I just say, the clock is ticking, so you are actually running out of time. Yeah. Yep. I still have so much to do, and 15 minutes doesn't leave much time for the oven to cook it through. My chicken breast needs to be perfectly cooked. MILES: More heat, more heat. More heat? You cannot serve undercooked chicken to the judges. Soon it'll be time to 'pop' everything on the plate. 15 minutes to go. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Come on! Wow. Yeah, I'm pretty worried about the jelly. It's, um...it's not set at all. We've got 15 minutes to go. I think I'm literally going to have to leave it to the last three or four minutes until plate-up and just...you know, hope for the best at the moment. Next I'm gonna get my white chocolate mousse done. Popcorn is extremely mild in flavour, and things like white chocolate, Pedro Ximenez and coffee, they're all really prominent, so the only way that I can think to get popcorn in there is to pretty much infuse everything with popcorn. I've decided to blitz some popcorn and add that to my white chocolate mousse. HEATHER: Taste good, Con? Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that. And I'm gonna do a Pedro Ximenez syrup, which I'm also gonna infuse with the popcorn. (LAUGHS) Put popcorn in everything that I'm doing and surely something will come through! NICOLETTE: Got about 10 minutes to go. I'm ready with everything. So I'm thinking of making just, like, a butter gel. So I just toast off some salted butter and then make it into a gel. I'm really pushed for time, but butter and popcorn are, like, the best combination ever, and I really wanna have a chance to get through to that second round. Alright. So my mousse is now on my jelly in the blast chiller. I'm just wanting it to harden up. I'll give it till the last minute. I'm worried about this jelly, because if it's not set, I've got mousse, unset jelly, and then I've got a mess in a glass, essentially. ANASTASIA: With three minutes to go, I have everything under control. I've got my pumpkin mash and popcorn jus ready. So I need to start plating. I take the chicken out of the oven and I start slicing it up. THERESA: Two minutes. No, it's not. Oh, my gosh. It's still raw. Ana! This is a huge disaster. 1 ANASTASIA: With three minutes to go, I take the chicken out of the oven and I start slicing it up. WOMAN: Come on, guys! Two minutes. All of my worst nightmares come true. Oh, my God. It's still raw. This is a huge disaster. MAN: Annie, you've got two minutes. I put it on the highest heat possible. I really cannot serve undercooked chicken. I go over to the blast chiller so I can check on my parfait. It looks really, really good. I'm so happy. It's getting to that time now that I need to start plating up. I start off with the popcorn crumb. I dot around a bit of that popcorn caramel and the butter gel. I've tasted all the elements together and they taste great. With seconds to go, I need to finish my glass. My Pedro Ximenez reduction is done. I'm praying that my jelly is set. (SIGHS HEAVILY) But...we'll just see what happens. 30 seconds! (OTHERS CHEER AND APPLAUD) I look up to the clock and I literally have seconds to go. I check the slices of the chicken, and thank God they're cooked through. But then I realise there's barely any of the popcorn crust on there. It's disintegrated. How many seconds?! 10 seconds to go! ALL: Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! That's it! MATT: Well done! Nice work. Well done. (CON LAUGHS) Good work. Good work. What a fun challenge. You had 60 minutes to make your dish pop with popcorn. And one of you is about to earn the right to go head to head with a top chef. So, let's start the tasting, shall we? Con, up you come. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Con, what have you cooked? I've done a coffee, Pedro Ximenez and popcorn jelly, I've done a white chocolate and popcorn mousse, and a Pedro Ximenez reduction. Is there enough popcorn flavour in this dish? I'm really hoping so. I mean, it's a really subtle flavour, so it does slightly worry me, but...yeah. Let's find out. Well, Con, we were really worried your jelly was gonna set in time. The great news is, as you saw, that jelly is beautifully set. Look, if this was a coffee and Pedro Ximenez challenge, you just would have romped right to the front of the pack and we would have just been giving each other high fives and going, "Whoo-hoo! "Coffee champion, Pedro Ximenez champion." But it's not. It's a popcorn challenge. Yep. I don't taste any popcorn in the dish. Yep. Cool. Thanks, gents. Thanks, Con. Anastasia? Up you come. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Go, Ana! Right, what's the dish? The dish is a chicken breast with miso, popcorn and honey, a pumpkin mash with some miso, and a jus from popcorn, chicken and sweet corn. Did it all go to plan? No, it did not. (LAUGHS) Um...the core of the dish is a beautiful flavour combination. Pumpkin, miso, corn, chicken is a delicious flavour combination. And all those flavours are there. Anastasia, there's no doubt that you know how to extract flavour out of a dish. You know, the pumpkin puree is smooth, I mean, the jus, or this vinaigrette, is really good. And the chicken - delicious. But the question is whether there's enough popcorn in that chicken. Yep. Good job. Thanks. The final dish we'd like to pop up for the popcorn tasting is Nicolette's. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Oooh! Nicolette, tell us what the dish is. So, I've got popcorn parfait, a popcorn crumb, caramel popcorn and butter gel. (GARY LAUGHS) Is there enough popcorn on that plate? (LAUGHS) Definitely enough popcorn on the plate, yeah. Nice presentation. I like it. Yeah. I wanted a lot of... like, two pieces of parfait on there because you never go to the movies and get a small box of popcorn - you always get the jumbo popcorn. Story on the plate. Except Con. Con's never had popcorn before in his life. Yeah, Con... Yeah. Oh, poor old Con! We'll take you to the cinema, Con. You're on! (ALL LAUGH) What challenge was it again? (LAUGHS) I think it was a popcorn challenge. Well, that dessert is absolutely delicious. Well done. Yum. Thank you. Love the saltiness, too. It's nice control. Thank you. And I really loved the, um... that little worm of butter. It's absolutely beautiful. And I think it's pretty obvious that, one, you've nailed the brief and, two, that we LOVE, love this dessert. You know what that means, Nicolette? It means that YOU will be cooking for a pin! Well done. (OTHERS CHEER AND APPLAUD) Thank you! Right, Nicolette, there's only one thing left to do. Shannon? (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Putting on the chef whites, I'm so nervous. It's so early on in the competition. It's gonna be so tough cooking against a professional chef. But I also feel so proud of myself. Good feelings. Very good feelings about today. Thank you. I reckon that, um... today could be the day. Yep. OK, good luck. Thank you. Imagine waking up in paradise every day. The sun dancing on the river that runs past your dining room. Imagine working in a restaurant so loved that it's become synonymous with one of Australia's finest resort towns. Imagine being the executive chef of Rickys in Noosa. Please welcome the man who has one of the best jobs in the world - executive chef Braden White. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Living in Queensland, I've been to Rickys before, and the food is amazing. It definitely highlights local fresh produce and it's huge on seafood. Braden, welcome. What a beautiful place you work in. You're there a fair amount, though, aren't you? Yeah, I am. Absolutely. How many hours a week do you do? Oh, roughly about 80...ish. Ohh! Makes it hard for people to beat you, then, eh? Well, we'll see. So, Nicolette, here are the rules. You've got to cook one dish from the choice of two core ingredients. That's whatever you want. You'll have 75 minutes, because you're our amateur cook, and of course, the choice of core ingredient. Braden, you're our professional, so you only get 60 minutes, which we reckon's fair. And we'll be judging your dishes in a blind tasting. So, of course, Matt, George and I will have no idea who's cooked which dish. Braden, it's a little bit different this year. You don't get to see which core ingredient you're cooking with until your time starts. Hmm! Makes it a little harder, doesn't it? Yeah. A LOT harder! (LAUGHS) So you get the surprise. The rules are clear. Braden, off to the storeroom. Thank you. Thanks. Nicolette, ready to pick from one of these two core ingredients? Yep. Well, your choices are between... (ALL EXCLAIM) ..shell... And fish! Are you kidding?! Why? What do you mean, are we kidding? Dessert's my thing, and I don't think I can make a fish cake. Well, Nicolette, I tell you what, I mean, the four of us are looking at this, and I'm sure everyone on the balcony, just going, "How beautiful. Look at all these shellfish." Yeah, that's right, Gary. I mean, this beautiful crayfish, the blue swimmer crab, these gorgeous oysters. Pipis, which are beautiful. All this beautiful shellfish here, all this beautiful fish. And like all of our seafood that we use on MasterChef, it's all responsibly sourced. Salmon, ling, mulloway, sea bream, barramundi, rainbow trout, red emperor. I'm feeling terrible right now. I see fish everywhere. I'm really not confident with seafood. Seeing that Braden's from Queensland, he's obviously cooked with a lot of seafood. I'm really scared. So, Nicolette? Have you made a decision? Yep. What's it going to be? I'm going to go with the fish. Great. And why? I'm gonna do fish because I've got a dish in mind that I want to make for you guys. That's great. Good stuff. Good luck. Shannon, we'll leave Nicolette in your capable hands. Thank you very much, Gary. MATT: Good luck, Nicolette. Thank you. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Nicolette, you have 75 minutes. Your time starts now. I pick salmon because it's the fish I'm most confident with. Oh, God! The first thing that comes to mind is a confit salmon. I've made it once before for my family. They really liked it. It's a really hard technique to get right, but I'm just gonna stick with my instincts on this one. I think today's going to be about... ..testing yourself a little bit here in terms of technique. Yep. Just cut behind the fin and the head there. Yep. Nice line. And then start along the back. Great, yep. And then slowly just follow the bones and take it off. Excellent. WOMAN: You've got this, Nic. CON: Nicolette, you'll be fine. It's so important that I get this fillet right, so I'm gonna just spend a lot of time filleting it perfectly. Good. Nice and fluid. MAN: Beautiful. Nice job. I'm going up against a professional chef today. If any of my elements aren't perfect, I won't be getting that pin. HARRY: We're all really surprised at how well Nicolette's filleting this salmon, but it's taking SO long. Filleting that fish is such a slow and fiddly process. MAN: Nice. WOMAN: Wow. Good job. Beautiful. MAN 2: Well done. 15 minutes down and I'm just finished filleting that fish. It's taken me so long. SHANNON: She's really lost her 15 minutes. Dammit. And I still have to pin-bone my piece of salmon. Come with me, Braden. Let's go. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I'm so stressed out. I had a 15-minute head start on Braden and now that's totally gone. I really need to get a move on now if I have any chance to win that pin. 1 NICOLETTE: 15 minutes down, and I'm just finished filleting that fish, and I still have to pin-bone my piece of salmon. Come with me, Braden. Let's go. You're on. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) I am so stressed out. I had a 15-minute head start on Braden, and now that's totally gone. Braden, you've got 60 minutes. Nicolette chose fish. Perfect. Good luck, mate. Thank you. Your time starts now. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Get those bones out. Decisions, decisions. What are you thinking? At Rickys, we cook with fish a lot. Mulloway? Yeah, I might kick on with the mulloway, I think. How good are your fish filleting skills? Oh, they're pretty good. Pretty good. Mulloway - we get it off our boats up in Mooloolaba. It always cooks well and eats really well, so I feel pretty comfortable with using that. So, Nicolette's up against Braden White from Rickys in Noosa. You know, working on the side of the Noosa River, this guy knows a little bit about fish, so I think she's got her work cut out for her! CHLOE: Filleting knives are in the... Yep. Awesome. Thank you. You're going to have to help me. Hey, Braden, what's your plan? I'm just going to do a nice little piece of mulloway with a little bit of cultured cream, white onion puree, and then we'll just grab a few little leaves and flowers from the garden. You know, I'd like to keep it as simple and just as fresh as possible. So, it's Braden's story on a plate? I think so, yeah. We'll see how we go. Beautiful. I tell you what, your competition today is going to be pretty stiff. You're going to need every little bit of luck and every little bit of your experience today. Perfect. Thank you. Oh, he's just super clean, super fast. You know, I reckon it took him less than 30 seconds. I only have a short amount of time today, so instead of pin-boning the mulloway, what I'm doing is I'm just taking off the belly and just cutting those bones out so I'm left with these two beautiful, nice fillet pieces that I can pan-fry low and slow a little bit later. We'll do two pieces, just in case. (LAUGHTER) I think the pinch points today for me will be definitely cooking that fish perfectly. Everything hinges on that. I finally get one of the fillets off, and it looks great. But Nicolette's left these sort of little brown patches on the meat. When you're up against a professional chef, this is the time where you have to get everything perfect and everything has to be spot on. SHANNON: So, you're doing confit salmon. Now, tell us what else is in the dish. So that's cucumber and lime dressing. OK. And then it's, like, a little salad of, like, fennel and apple. OK. That confit salmon on the plate, with your beautiful salad you're talking about, it's going to be a winner. Next, I get started on my cucumber and lime dressing. I really want the dressing to add a really nice, fresh flavour to my dish. It's going to have some lime zest in there, so hopefully it's a bit sour and cuts through the oiliness and the heaviness of that fish. So, I finish off my dressing and pop it into the fridge to chill down. But I feel like I really need to push myself today. I want to win that pin so badly. So, I've decided to do a crispy skin. I take any bits of flesh off the skin, pop the skin onto a baking tray with a bit of salt and baking paper, and get that into the oven to crisp up. The crispy skin will be so important on my dish today. It'll ensure that I have that crispy, salty element on there. ANASTASIA: Nicolette really set herself back when she was filleting the fish, but now Nicolette is really pushing herself and she's looking really calm and doing something a little bit different. So, she could win this today. Nicolette, we want that immunity pin! 45 minutes to go! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) So, now I have my mulloway in the fridge, I can get on to my white onion puree. (INCREDULOUS LAUGHTER) JIMMY: Pfft! I can do that. (LAUGHS) Not! I can do that in slow-mo. (LAUGHTER) So, this is just white onion puree. So, we sweat it out really slowly. Just with a little bit of butter. OK. And then we finish it in cream, and then we just blitz it with some salt. Nice. Is there flaked salt? There is. In the pantry. (LAUGHTER) Nicolette's got some on her bench. Can I borrow some salt? Only if I win. (LAUGHTER) No, you can use it! You can use it! I'll get my own. Oh, OK. You all OK? Yeah, all good. Encountered any issues? Are you comfortable in the MasterChef kitchen? Pretty comfortable, yeah. The guys upstairs have been pretty helpful, so... What's going on here? You guys, you're getting a bit of a MasterClass? Yeah. So, this is starting to cook down nicely, as you can see. Obviously, no colour, so it's beautiful and white. So then all we just do with that, we just strain it off. Oh, wow. OK. We put it into the food processor and we blitz it up until it's nice and velvet. So then I get on to the cultured cream. So the cultured cream, that's just straight-up seasoned creme fraiche? Yeah. It's really delicious. That cultured cream should give the dish a really nice, creamy complexity. Braden! No pressure, but your reputation is on the line! There is 30 minutes to go! Arggh! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) A confit is when something's cooked in fat. So today, I'm cooking my salmon in olive oil. I need to get my oil on because it needs time to get up to temperature. The most important thing here is that your technique of that confiting now is good. Yeah. Right temperature. My concerns with the confiting is getting the temperature right. If it's not at the right temperature, my fish is ruined. I want to get that oil to about 55 degrees. It's so important that that salmon's cooked perfectly today or I won't be getting that pin. Make sure you put some effort into your salad, OK? Yep. Nice contrasts. Use some of those beautiful little leaves out there just to complement that salad at the last minute. You've got a winner of a dish. Yep. I leave the oil heating up in the oven... MILES: Go, girl. Go. Run, run, run! ..whilst I run out to the garden. 20 minutes to go and I'm going to start cooking my fish. So, we're just going to pan-fry the mulloway. Low and slow, as they say. The fish is definitely the hero, absolutely. So, if we don't... if we don't do that correctly, we're in all sorts. I need this fish to be perfect. If I win today, I get to walk out of this kitchen with my head held high. Come on, Nicolette. Go, Nicolette. Arggh! (APPLAUSE) BRETT: When's the fish going in? I want it to cook for 15 minutes. MILES: You want to give yourself some time. So, with less than 20 minutes to go, I check on my oil. What temp's the oil going to be? 55 for 15. OK. I know the salmon needs at least 15 minutes in the oil. I'm checking the temperature of the oil... Oh! ..and it's about 75 degrees. It's way too hot for what I need it for. I'm just trying to bring it down in temperature, otherwise it'll just ruin the fish. I really hope I can cool it down quickly enough. So, I take the oil and pour it into a cool pan, just to bring that temperature right down. It's too hot still. So, I decant some of the hot oil out of it... How hot is it, Nic? 60, 70. ..and replace it with some room-temperature oil. Don't panic too much. I check the oil again... ..and it's gone under. It's about 30 degrees. This whole dish rides on that salmon. If that salmon isn't cooked perfectly, there's no way I'm getting that pin. 1 NICOLETTE: I check the oil again. Now it's too cold. It's about 30 degrees. I need it around 55 degrees. This whole dish rides on that salmon. If that salmon isn't cooked perfectly, there's no way I'm getting that pin. I need to heat it back up again. So, I pour in some of the hot oil to try to bring it back up to temperature. SHANNON: Nicolette? Yep? Got to get that fish in. Got to get the fish in. Yeah. Yeah? It's still not hot enough, but it's getting closer. I'm running out of time now, so I decide to put the salmon into the oil and then I pop the oil back into the oven to continue to cook. I'm really worried there's not going to be enough time to cook the salmon. BRADEN: Look at that. CONTESTANTS: Whoa! Happy days. Beautiful. We've cooked it for about six minutes on that skin side, so then when we turn it over, we're actually not going to give it too much heat. Six minutes sounds like a long time to me. But Braden's frying it low and slow, so it's interesting to me how this is going to turn out. Nicolette, is there enough time to cook your fish? Braden, did you put yours on too soon? There is 10 minutes to go! Come on! (APPLAUSE) I'm very happy with the dish at this point, but I know that it needs some fresh leaves and flowers from the garden. I'll be back. Oh! He's going to the garden! At this point, I go to the oven and check on my fish skin. MAN: Beautiful. WOMAN: Good job. How is it? It's really crispy. (APPLAUSE) OK. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. That looks stunning. So, this is what you're up against so far. Very nice. This is the sort of techniques we're throwing together over there. Very good. Yeah. I say "we" - Nicolette. OK? The crispy skin looks great. She's done a fantastic job on it. I'm a little bit worried about the crispy skin. So, I'm questioning myself with whether I have done enough. Might get a little dust happening just for the top of the cultured cream, just so...a little bit of... You know, I'm up against crispy skin. (LAUGHTER) BRETT: Braden runs over to the pantry. He's taken his pan off the heat, but he hasn't taken his fish out of the pan. Might just do these carrot tops... I think it's going to continue to cook very easily. With the dust, I put the fennel fronds and carrot tops in the oven on a really high heat. We just want to get a nice, dehydrated product that's not burnt, but it starts to get that little funkiness about it. Five minutes to go! Time to start getting it on the plate! Let's go! (APPLAUSE) Nicolette, focus! You're going great, Nic. You've got him worried. Keep going. I'm really short on time, so I need to get on to making my salad. My fish is really oily, so I decide to make an acidic salad to go with it. I start slicing my radishes, apples and fennel. I'm also going to add some of the fresh mint from the garden, and I mix it in with the dressing... ..and it tastes amazing. How are you going over there, Nicolette? Good, thanks. How are you? You all under control? Yeah. I hope so. Any pressure points over there? None. None? No. Wow. (LAUGHTER) Braden. Have we done enough here? I think so. I hope so. Looks lovely. I think it's going to be a very close battle today, I am suspecting, but I can tell you what, that's beautiful. I think I might plate up. I know that fresh vegies, salad and fish and cream is always good. We've got some nice little creme fraiche on the side. A little smear of the white onion puree for the fish to rest on, and the fennel dust will add that little bit of bitterness to the dish. Two minutes to go! Come on, Nicolette! Let's go! Come on, Nic! I'm really worried that there hasn't been enough time to cook the salmon, but I need to start plating up. You have now got two minutes. Two minutes. I take my salmon out of the confit and drain it off. OK, beautiful. OK. I'm not going to cut into the fish. I'm just really hoping that that salmon is cooked through. If it's not perfect, there's no way I'm getting that pin. I pop a little bundle of the salmon ingredients on the side. 30 seconds to go! Come on, Nicolette! I just need to make this dish look appealing, with some leaves and flowers from the garden. The nasturtium will add that little pepperiness, and violet flowers will add, like, a nice perfume to the dish. 10 seconds! Nine! Eight! Seven! Six! Five! Four! Don't forget the skin, Nic! Skin! Three! Two! One! That's it! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Hey. Well done to both of you. Good job. Fantastic. That looks great! Thanks. Nicolette's dish looks amazing. She's done a fantastic job. She's got a lot of technical skill in there that's she done. Well done. What did you make? Wow. Braden's dish looks perfect. It's just simple. Yep. Simple. Fresh. Clean. I was really happy with my dish, but then I look over at Braden's dish and I'm really worried now. GARY: I'm looking forward to this, because I think, number one, Nicolette's hitting her straps, but, two, great choices of core ingredients. She chose fish. Mmm. Let's get the first dish in. Beautiful. Thank you. Gee, that's a pretty little dish, isn't it? It is pretty. I love that little wafer of the skin on top. That looks absolutely smashing. Golden and perfect and crispy. What else have you got there? Little bit of fennel there, and radish? Yeah, we've got a little... Let's just, uh... Oh, but that looks wonderful, doesn't it? A bit of apple. It looks good. How do you think the salmon is cooked? Let's find out. 1 MATT: Gee. That's a pretty little dish, isn't it? It is pretty. How do you think the salmon is cooked? GEORGE: Let's find out. Can't wait to see how that...that pulls apart. That looks wonderful. That salmon, that is absolutely perfect. That's cooked to perfection. (SNAP!) It's good. It's like glass, isn't it? (SNAP!) (SKIN CRUNCHES) I'm mightily impressed. That is just absolutely gorgeous. There's not many faults I can pick at. You know, it's salmon that's confited, which...turns up the volume of the richness. And you need something to cut through it. You need acidity, you need freshness. And you get that with the apple. You get that with the fennel. You get that with that lovely, sort of, acidic salad on the side. And that confit's cooked beautifully. And I love there's a little bit of pickly relief in there, you know? Is it lime, is it? It's nice. Yeah. Look, I also love the acidity in the dressing, but the freshness of the mint really lifts it. And the way that salmon peels apart with those coral leaves, those coral leaves of the most juicy flesh is delicious. And this crispy skin... (CHUCKLES) ..absolutely textbook. The only thing I'm picking up is the fact that they've left a little bit of the brown fat on the salmon. Yeah. You normally take it all off, because it doesn't always look the most attractive. Shall we score this one? Yep. Right. Let's get the next dish in. (INHALES SHARPLY) Ooh! WAITER: It's mulloway, white onion puree, cultured cream, fennel dust and leaves and flowers. Wow. Thank you. (CHUCKLES) Wow. That looks absolutely... Yeah! ..gorgeous. Like, REALLY gorgeous. I love that presentation. Someone's been out in our garden, haven't they? And it's looking amazing. (LAUGHS) Look at those nasturtiums. They look fantastic. Little radish. Are they little bits of brussels sprout leaf in there as well? This fennel dust. Alright, come on, then. It looks amazing, so does it taste amazing too? Jeez. Um, what a clever dish. You know, that's about taking the best ingredients you can possibly get from the garden and celebrating that. Gee, there's some lovely fresh flavours there. And, you know, nasturtium is such a beautiful flavour... Mmm. ..with fish. I love the pickliness of that radish, that crunch. And, you know, good colour on the skin of the mulloway. Lovely flavour at the edge, where it's kind of golden and pan-burnished. However, the fish is overcooked. But, I mean, it's literally a minute overcooked. I mean, I think it's delicious. And I thought that little garden of vegetables and leaves was just gorgeous. This is going to be really tight. I'm going to not say much, but I think it's time... You're just going to score it? ..we score... Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I love it. ..and, uh, go and let them know. Wow. What a fabulous day. An immunity pin up for grabs, Nicolette? Huh? Facing off against a professional - Braden White, from Rickys in Noosa. It's no small task - for YOU, an immunity pin up for grabs, for YOU, your professional reputation. (INHALES SHARPLY) Ooh! Nicolette, you had the choice of core ingredient and you chose fish. Shannon, how did they go in the kitchen? It was a real tussle. And there was a lovely chemistry between you both too, which I thought was great. (LAUGHTER) And I think there was also some really good camaraderie, Braden, about the way that you were teaching the rest of the contestants. And I think that was commendable to you, particularly under a huge amount of stress being in the MasterChef kitchen for the first time. So well done. Thank you. So, what WE need to know, the three of us, 'cause we've scored them in a blind tasting, is who cooked which dish. Nicolette, what did you cook? I made the confit salmon with the crispy skin. And? I did the mulloway. OK. So, you want to find out what we scored? Yeah. Yes, please. So, Braden, I loved that golden brown crispy skin on the mulloway. And I also loved that onion puree. I scored your dish... ..eight out of ten. That was clever cooking. I mean, the use of the ingredients - those beautiful flowers, those leaves from the garden were gorgeous. That's why I scored your dish... ..a nine out of ten. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Braden, that was a stunning-looking dish, and there was so much that you did so well. But this was a fish challenge, and your mulloway was overcooked, and that's why I could only score you, I'm sorry to say, eight out of ten. Now I'm nervous. Oh, yeah! (LAUGHS) So, Braden, you've got 25 points out of a possible 30. Nicolette, that means you need 26 points or more if you're going to win that immunity pin. Right, Nicolette, let's look at your dish. It was a simple dish, it was a beautiful dish, and that confit salmon was beautifully cooked. Nine out of ten. (WILD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I loved the salad. I loved the crispy textures, the pickled radish. I scored your dish... ..eight out of ten. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Well done. Thank you. So, Nicolette, that means you need at least nine points or more if you're going to win that immunity pin. Nicolette... ..I scored your dish... 1 So, Nicolette, that means you need at least nine points or more if you're going to win that immunity pin. Nicolette... ..I scored your dish... ..a nine out of ten. (LAUGHS) (WILD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Are you kidding?! Well done. That's awesome! Nicolette, congratulations. That means you've beaten the chef. And it means you get the pin! Whoa! (WILD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Braden, thank you so much. You put yourself out there. And more than that, you give your time to teach both Nicolette and also our contestants on the gantry what you know, and you share that. And so from all of us, and I think all of them, thank you so much. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. I feel a little bit sad that I've lost. But I'm also super happy and super proud of Nicolette. She did a fantastic job today. She's a great cook. You know, the sky's the limits for her. (EXHALES) (LAUGHTER) You should be laughing, smiling and happy, because this...ooh! Cos this is yours! Yeah! Yeah? We said at the start of today that you don't understand the power of this pin until you're wearing it, yeah? Yep. You deserve it. You won it fair and square. And now you're going to learn about how powerful this pin really is. Yes, George. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) How does that make you feel? Helping a contestant win a pin? Brilliant. It was a great day. It was great fun. Brilliant job. Listening, learning, adapting a few of the skills you already had. Well done, Nicolette. Thank you, Chef. Is Shannon Bennett getting slightly weak at the knees? A bit emotional about it. I think he is. You're right. These guys, I've known them too long. (LAUGHTER) As he wipes a little tear away from his eye! (LAUGHS) Guys, come on, give her a big, big hug. (ALL CHEER) That's a great day, huh? You know, you should be very proud of your fellow contestant, cos she won that fair and square. So the possibilities are endless here in the MasterChef kitchen. You work hard... ..anything can happen. Guys, go home, get rest, cos you're going to need lots of it. (LAUGHTER) See you later. Thank you. Well done, Nicolette. MATT: Well done, Nicolette. NICOLETTE: I'm so happy right now. I never in a million years ever thought I'd win an immunity pin. I just really feel like now I deserve to be here in the competition. ANNOUNCER: Next time, in the mot gruelling team challenge yet... Welcome. How you going? ..they'll have to mirror the menu... We're gonna have to move fast now. ..from two of Melbourne's top chefs. I'm going to start with ricotta dumplings. And they'll have to do it... 12 egg, 36 yolks? ..from memory. Sorry, what was that called? I think we're starting to sweat a little bit. Let's go! Come on! With no time for pleasantries... Blue team, I need you to work quick! Oh, this is absolutely mental. ..they'll be pushed beyond imagining. There's no time to muck around. It is absolute mayhem out there. We could be in trouble. They must deliver three courses for 30 guests... Pretty bloody good. ..that stack up against the best. An incredible effort. Or... There's something missing, isn't there? ..face elimination. 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