1 ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - Nicolette went up against one of Australia's best young chefs... Arggh! ..to win the first immunity pin of the season. Absolutely perfect. This is yours! Tonight, in the most 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. We're gonna start with ricotta dumplings... And they'll have to do it... 12 eggs, 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! This is absolutely mental. ..they'll be pushed beyond imagining. There's no time for mucking 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. Incredible effort. Or... There's something missing, isn't there? ..face 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. # 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. # Captions by Ericsson Access Services. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016 MAN: What the heck is this? HEATHER: Feels really nice to be out of the MasterChef kitchen today, so we're hoping we're gonna be cooking in the gardens. We don't know what yet, but it's nice to be out. WOMAN: Another day. MAN: Another cook. Ha-ha-ha. What will we be doing? Bring it. Team challenge. At this stage in the game, I think everyone's sort of leaning towards the possibility of a team challenge. But on MasterChef, we've learnt to expect the unexpected. Good morning. ALL: Morning. Welcome to the beautiful Carlton Gardens. No doubt you're wondering why we're starting today's challenge here. And the reason we're here is the garden is halfway between two of Melbourne's great restaurants - Huxtable and Pei Modern - and today, you're gonna be cooking dishes from both of those restaurants. (ALL LAUGH NERVOUSLY) Yeah, exciting, isn't it? CON: As soon as the word Huxtable is mentioned, it puts a smile on my face. I love Huxtable. I've been there numerous times. ELISE: They're both amazing restaurants. This is gonna be one very exciting, challenging challenge. But you're not gonna be doing it in their kitchens. You're gonna be doing it back at the MasterChef kitchen. First, let's get into teams. TRENT: It's a bit like a lucky dip. We all take a token out. We either get red or blue. Red. Blue. Blue. Right, blues on that side, reds on this side. THERESA: I think a lucky dip is pretty fair. There's no, you know, schoolyard picking and weirdness. So, I think that's actually a good way to do it. GARY: Matty boy! Yew! MATT PRESTON: So we've got our teams. Our next job is for each team to pick a captain and a vice-captain. But before you do, think very carefully about who you choose. Those captains, those vice-captains, have to have a unique skill - a really, REALLY good memory. What does that mean? Here's why. The chefs from each restaurant are gonna show the captain and the vice-captain how to make three dishes from the menu each. But...you're not getting a recipe. You can't write anything down. Ooh! You can't draw any pictures. (LAUGHS) You have to commit to memory everything you're told - how to make the dish, how to put it on the plate. Crazy. I couldn't even think about doing that. I don't want any part in that. 'Cause they've got to remember all the recipes and the quantities and everything. It'd be an absolute nightmare. MILES: Yeah, my memory's not that good. I'm getting a bit on. So, we'll leave...hopefully leave this up to some of the younger kids. Oh, yeah, just... You know when we talk about... there's always a kicker? There's a kicker here as well. You won't just be making one version of each of those courses. Each team must cook a three-course meal for 30 people. (CONTESTANTS CHUCKLE NERVOUSLY) So, choose very, very wisely. BRETT: Who's got the best memory? WOMAN: I think you, Nicolette. Have you got a really good memory? No. No? MATT SINCLAIR: I feel like I've got a pretty decent memory, but it's one of those things where you start to question yourself and you think, "Well, do I really?" Matt's quite strong in the house and I think he'd be a good captain. TRENT: I reckon I do. And Trent voices up and he says he's got a really good memory. He can be vice-captain. So, Matt and Trent. TRENT: Matty? MATT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm really good with numbers and remembering quantities and things like that. So, yeah, I think I can really excel today. Who's got a great memory here? THERESA: Whoever's got good recall. Karmen's one. I have a good memory. I've stated that I've got quite a good memory. I probably should step up to be either vice-captain or captain. Do you have a good memory? She's got a photographic memory. I'm pushing Chloe forward for the role, because I think she would be brilliant at this. Particularly with the memory part of this competition, I think she would do great. Right, captains, come and get your aprons. (CHEERS, APPLAUSE) GEORGE: Yeah. Matty. Thank you. Growing up, I've never been a leader, I've always been a follower. Yeah, I'm trying to develop myself and be more vocal and be more assertive. Right, blue team, you are replicating dishes from Pei Modern. The chef there, Anthony Hammel, is a really cool cat. The food? What can you expect? Technique, modern, and really, really delicious. CHLOE: I'm really excited. It's definitely the type of food that I would love to eat. Red team, you're heading over to Huxtable - one of the hippest restaurants in Melbourne. Head chef Daniel Wilson is serving delicious modern Australian food. MATT: I'm ecstatic that we've got Huxtable, but at the same time, there's some pretty intricate food in there. So...we're really gonna have to bring our A game. So, captains and vice-captains, listen up. You need to get to the restaurants and absorb all the information you need so you can translate it to your team members. Then hightail it back to the MasterChef kitchen, and once you're back, you have 15 minutes to download all of that information to your teammates. And then you've only got 30 minutes before you serve the entree. What?! The time frames are ridiculous! (LAUGHS) It gets worse. 30 minutes after the entree, you have to serve the main course. So, it's all about speed, all about efficiency. Because guess what's after main course? Dessert! 30 minutes after the main. So, an hour and a half to push out three courses. Sounds hectic. It sounds intense. It's gonna be a great challenge. This is gonna be tough. The secret to today's challenge is communication. Your success today depends on how well the captain and the vice-captain listen and watch to start off with, and then how the information is translated, how well you listen and then deliver the food. Losing team, the whole team goes into elimination tomorrow, where one of you goes home. Right. Are you ready? Yes. Yes. Chloe, Karmen, you're going that way. Trent, Matt, off to Fitzroy. Go on! (CONTESTANTS CHEER) Right. (BOTH LAUGH) Signed ourselves up here, mate. I am nervous, but at the same time, I am absolutely pumped. This is a great time to get in there and see what I'm made of personally. KARMEN: Rather than ask who's good at what, I think we just give them their positions, and if they're super unhappy with it, then we change them around. I just really want to do well and really want to deliver as a captain. (BOTH LAUGH) I'm really confident having Chloe as a vice-captain. She's quite vocal with her opinions and I know she has an amazing memory. Hello. I'm Karmen. Anthony. Chloe. Anthony. Welcome to Pei Modern. Anthony seems really relaxed and not intimidating at all. So, we're gonna be doing three dishes today. We're gonna start with ricotta dumplings. For entree, we'll be doing ricotta dumplings with a 'lazy man' pesto, a spinach sauce and zucchini flowers. Essentially, it's buffalo ricotta. We season with nutmeg. Zucchini flowers cut in half. And then straight down, so you get that nice sort of charred... ..look and flavour. And to bring this dish together, we have a spinach and tarragon puree. Can we taste that? Yeah, of course. We definitely need to make sure that we remember exact quantities. We need to remember how everything tastes and we need to remember how everything looks. That's really light. Mmm, REALLY light. Yeah. The zucchini flower's quite crunchy. Alright, so the next dish is duck. So, Con's really good at duck. We'll be serving it with a compressed witlof and compressed radicchio as well, and with some fresh cherries. So, you also do a radicchio puree, which should be a beautiful dark purple. If you overcook it, you'll lose the colour. I know that radicchio is quite bitter, so I wasn't sure how it was all going to work together. A little smear. It's such an amazing colour. Yeah, it's really lovely. But when I taste the duck, it is so beautiful. The cherries and the sauce bring such a sweetness to the dish that just completely balances out the bitterness of the radicchio. We'll jump into the dessert side of things now. So, we're doing a sauterne custard with crostoli. Crostoli is like a little biscuit. You need to make your little caramel. The caramel needs to be dark and bitter. It looks really, really simple. It shouldn't be too hard to do. So, just again, the sauterne is 480 sugar, 1.6 booze. Yeah. 12 eggs, 36 yolks. Four t...teaspoons of sugar. 900 of each plain flour, self-raising flour. 2.8 of cream. Mm-hm. Is that it? Yeah, that's it. Yeah. These numbers are really sticking in our brains and it's making us feel really confident. Alright, mate, you ready? Yep. Let's do it. The red team is gonna be mirroring Huxtable's menu today. We're gonna learn how to make an entree, a main and a dessert in an hour, but we can't write anything down. Hey, mate. Welcome. How you going? Trent. Daniel. Matt. Nice to meet you. Thanks for having us. Are you ready to get started? Dan's ready to rock'n'roll. He's there in his chef's whites. He's got everything laid out. It's time to just take it all in. First one, the entree, is a lightly smoked kingfish with horseradish cream, pickled baby beets, shaved kombu and pear. So now I'm gonna show you how to clean up this kingfish. So, just go underneath the bone, like so. Around. Take the skin off. Easy as that. Piece of cake, right? I'll fire up the old smoking gun. Maybe leave it for five minutes and then give it another go. So, two hits of smoke. Yeah. Then we've got some fresh horseradish. Over here, we've got some quark. Got the pear. We've got some red sorrel cress, which is gonna be the garnish. As he's rattling off the elements of it, I'm just thinking, "Stop. That's enough. That's enough!" (LAUGHS) "No more!" Sorry, what was that called? Quack? Quark. Quark. I'll keep talking while you're trying that, OK? OK. Oh, that beet is epic. Daniel's moving so quick with this menu today. He's gone from the entree to the main, and I'm not even sure that the entree has sunk in yet. Next one is a charcoal-grilled wagyu beef with a shiitake and oyster tempura fritter, sesame broccolini and a little bit of ponzu as well. I'm just trying to take in as much information as I can, but it's pretty overwhelming. We're gonna have to move fast now, OK? Beef. How does that look? Pretty good. You can always cook it more, but you can't uncook it. That's like butter! Yeah. Dessert is the favourite classic Huxtable dessert - dark chocolate delice with Jaffa sauce, raspberry sorbet and a little pistachio kind of number. This dessert's got it all. There's quite a few ingredients, as you can see here. So, yeah, there's a few processes. (LAUGHS) So, we've got some milk. That was 55. We've got some glucose. Dan's grabbing ingredients and sort of just pouring them all in, and we're standing there going, "Wait, what was that? "What was that? How much was in that?" And it's like a runaway train. We're trying to keep up, but he's just full steam ahead. And if these quantities aren't spot-on, it won't work? You'll find out. (LAUGHS) I think we're starting to sweat a little bit. All we have to do now is plate the dessert. It's quick and easy. I don't believe you. Yeah. (LAUGHS) It's like...come on, man! Like, this is...really, really starting to hit home that we've got a big job on today. 1 DANIEL: OK, so, that's your hour up, and I hope you've listened a lot and you can remember it all when you get back. TRENT: Matt and I have just been briefed on a three-course meal from Huxtable without taking any notes, and it's blown our minds. Good luck. Thanks heaps, mate. On your bike. And remember all those numbers - 200, 100... (BOTH LAUGH) ..55... My head is just all over the place. So, there's a lot of pressure for Matt and I to try and remember every single step. Alright. A lot to take in, mate. As soon as we jump back in the car, it's all out - like, ingredients, ratios, textures. Radish. Radish leaves. Radish cress. Radish cress, yep. We're going to smash it. Exciting. Yeah. We're going to smash it. Chloe and I are really feeling confident. I feel like we've got this. (CHEERING) You have 15 minutes for your debrief! Your time starts now. Good luck. So, we've already decided to divide you into entree, mains, desserts. In the first 15 minutes, you're not allowed to cook. It's literally only so that you can brief your team. So, entree, we've got ricotta dumplings with spinach puree, basically, zucchini flowers. Imagine that dish. Theresa, I'm going to get you to do all the small things, and Nidhi and I are going to do the dumplings. We only half an hour to do it, and although it's quite a simple dish, there are a lot of elements to it. So timing is definitely an issue. I'm going to brief the mains. For main, we have a duck breast with a radicchio puree and cherries. So, we need to fillet the ducks. Use those duck bones to make the sauce. I'm most concerned about the duck being cooked medium-rare, and that radicchio puree has to have that vibrancy in it. WOMAN: Will drawing it help? Yeah, so... I draw a couple of sketches of what these plates are going to look like at the end. I just need to get the team across how the finished dish is going to look, because it's so important that we replicate Huxtable's dish perfectly. For entree, we've got the kingfish sashimi. So, where's Harry? Kingfish. Yeah, mate. We get Harry, Anastasia and Elena on the entree. OK, so you're going to take care of the kingfish. We need to fillet the fish, clean it and smoke it and get 36 plates out within half an hour. If we get this wrong, it's going to put us out for the whole rest of the service. Main. ZOE: Am I on main? We're going to get you two on main to start with. For the main, we're cooking charcoal-grilled wagyu, Otway shiitake and oyster tempura and soy daikon. So, the shiitake's a whole shiitake, and then we just shuck some oysters. Keep the oyster on the shiitake. It gets a wrapped with a slice of nori sheet. GARY: Right, listen up, red team, blue team. You've got five minutes and the debrief will be over. The three of you are going to take care of desserts. Are you cool with that? The dessert is probably the most intricate and the most detailed out of the three courses, and we think that's gonna take the most time and be the most critical. It's a choc delice, Jaffa sauce, isomalt praline, raspberry sorbet. So, the key things to get kicked off straightaway is the chocolate shells and the dehydrated orange. It was pretty obvious that we were going to put Cecilia and Nicolette on desserts. They know what they're doing when it comes to the sweet stuff. I'm pretty confident with the sorbet. If I can get started on that when we need to, whatever. Bang. I'm really confident in what they're going to produce today. Dessert - quite simple, but it's really complex in flavour. We've got a sauternes baked custard, pouring caramel on top, and crostoli. So, Elise and Charlie, it's a really simple dish. ELISE: I'm over the moon to have Charlie as my sidekick. He's another dessert king in the kitchen, so we'll work well today. Simple. Just a caramel? OK. A bit bitter. Not too bitter. Yep. It has to be pouring consistency. Yep. Don't take it too far. It's quite runny. Yeah, quite runny. Red team, blue team! Your 15-minute debrief is over. Your 30 minutes starts now. Those entrees must be on the table in 30 minutes. You got it? GARY: Wow, wow, wow. Can you do it? Let's go. Let's go. Harry is taking the kingfish? MATT: Yeah, Harry's got the kingfish. CHLOE: What have you got? You got the parsley? We need mint, tarragon. So, this is the mint. Honestly, my biggest concern would be forgetting an ingredient. There's so many ingredients to remember today. I want to avoid going to elimination SO bad. I don't want to be there again. We need 12� egg yolks. Yep. Karmen and I are so confident we've remembered everything. We're keeping the energy really high and we've got a really good attitude today. One dish probably has this much, yeah? Definitely play to people's strengths. Everyone's really happy with what they've got, so we're on to a good start. Today for entree, we'll be re-creating Pei Modern's ricotta dumplings with spinach puree and lazy man's pesto. Now we need to put in the yolks. In our plan, entree seemed pretty simple - make the ricotta dumplings, the vinaigrette, the puree, and chop the herbs. Alright, so we're going to need 400ml of lemon juice, Nidhi. NIDHI: 400ml or 500? Four. There's two sizes of the pine nuts. Is that right? So I'm blitzing and I'm going to blitz it again. Two different shapes? Is that right? Yep. Lightly toasted. Alright. Karmen has definitely stepped up. She's doing such a good job, and we're all on track... The only seasoning that goes in it is white soy. You can hear her. HARRY: But check with Trent what size the portions are. He said he's just going to cut it real thin, sashimi-style, you know? TRENT: So today for entree, we're cooking lightly smoked kingfish with horseradish cream, baby beetroots, pear and kombu. Carve that bone. So, that's where you portion it - straight down that line. Need this side? Yeah. You need both sides. Our biggest concern with the entree is the kingfish. It needs to be sliced and then smoked twice. It takes quite a lot of time, and that's something we don't have. Some more chips in this, eh? Yep. Know where the chips are? Yep, right here. With the smoking, you have to make sure that you get the perfect amount of smoke flavour in the meat. So, you have to make sure it's smoked for the right time. Harry, how far on that kingfish, mate? Here's another fillet, mate. Righto. Happy? Yep. So, we only need five minutes, then we need to do it again. OK. I'll get a timer and start it right now. Matt, just quickly, are you happy with the size of all this? Yep. Guys, stop for a second! You have 15 minutes to go before your entree's being served. And look who's coming through the doors. MATT SINCLAIR: As if there isn't enough pressure! The chefs that have created these dishes are walking through the doors with 30 guests each. (SIGHS) There's so many people. G'day. How's it going? (CHUCKLES) Yeah, alright. Oh, dear! There's nowhere to hide today. The head chef of Huxtable is at the front of the pack, leading these guys into the dining room. He's got big smiles on his face. We've really got to do him proud. MAN: This is real. THERESA: When chef Anthony walks through the kitchen, it's... Oh, it's always daunting, because you're trying to make his dish. Quick. It's quick. Find a plate. Few minutes. I need to get the zucchini flowers cut, Chloe. HEATHER: It's really daunting when the diners arrive. These are real-life customers. I'm used to cooking for four or five people at home, not a whole dining room full of guests. The pressure is huge. Anthony Hammel, Daniel Wilson, welcome. Gee, you've set them to task, haven't you? (CHUCKLES) Simple dishes, but when they've got so little time, it is absolute mayhem out there. So, I think we should go and check up on them. Shall we? Alright, guys, let's keep pushing. All good? How are you doing? Good, thanks. Very focused. Hey. How are you? Not too bad. It's got to go in with that. How much, do you reckon? To taste. To taste? And salt and pepper. GEORGE: Guys, listen up! 10 minutes before the first course. You got it?! ALL: Yes, George! Alright, guys, all hands on entrees, please! KARMEN: Chop faster. Chop faster. We're nowhere near plating up, so we're really pushing it. But once these get cooking, it's basically right straight onto the plate. There's no fiddling around. So, that will be good. Righto, let's get the kingfish out. MATT: We're going to need to absolutely hammer. Get those beets chopped, boys. We got to get the kingfish up front and then we can start plating. BRETT: Come on, red team! Push! GEORGE: They should go straight in the pickle. Straight in the pickle, straight in the pickle. Come on. Where do you want to chop it? Here? Yep. WOMAN: Let's push, Red! Come on, guys! Oh, mate, I tell you what, bit of a love-hate relationship with the captaincy at the moment, but I tell you what, you can't beat the buzz. Oh, this is absolutely mental. How are you going, Bretters? Hammer it. HARRY: Is that how thick they need to be? BRETT: Yeah. Yeah, you can probably go a touch thinner, to be honest. Obviously, we haven't seen the dish in the restaurant, but I've eaten plenty of sashimi. I know what I'm doing. So, Harry's doing some slicing with me as well. I look over to his. They're not exactly the same. His are a little bit thinner than mine, and it's not right. But it's too late. HARRY: This whole team challenge is about finesse and replicating that dish perfectly. We could be in trouble. Just chuck them in, Jimmy. You know how to make dumplings, Jimmy. CHLOE: Two minutes, guys. Yep? I'm going to start dressing the plate. Have you got a timer, Jimmy? So, we're all rushing around doing our jobs, and I realise the zucchini flowers have not been touched. MILES: Karmen, do you want to show me how you want these on the plate? Oh, no, no. You need to char them. Oh, they haven't been charred yet? No. I can't believe we've forgotten the zucchini flowers. The zucchini flowers just need a little bit of a light char on them, then they go straight on the plate. It's hard to determine how far they were supposed to be taken. The girls said there's a light char supposed to be on them, but hopefully we'll get enough heat through them so that they colour up a little bit. Are these all the beetroots? Yep. That's every single plate. I'm just starting to plate up the entree at the moment. So, I'm just getting the horseradish cream on the plate. Get it on the plate, mate. You know how it's got to look, OK? You're going to follow him. Seven on each plate. Three of each beet, shaved kombu, pear. Move it! ZOE: Are you happy, Matty? Yep. I think these look stunning. Every dish needs to be perfect. It has to mirror Huxtable's dishes to the T. Come on, keep pushing. This looks stunning. KARMEN: Let's go, Blue! CHLOE: That's not big enough. Not thick enough. Red team, blue team, entrees need to be served now! Let's go. Who do you want to take it out? You come with me, Ellie. OK. It's the moment of truth. It's time to deliver these entrees to the judges. Here you go, boys. Thank you. GARY: Gee! Hope you enjoy. Thank you. I place the entree next to the cloche in front of Daniel. Yeah, it's... it's really nerve-racking. There's always those things in the back of your head - was the kingfish sliced properly? Was it consistent? Well, Matt, you want to see how you've done? It's tricky, that memory - how did it work? Yep. Ready? Yep. 1 Well, Matt, you want to see how you've done. It's tricky, that memory. How did it work? Yep. Ready? Yep. Little bit more clunky on this side, I dare say, but everything's there. A little bit of bleeding on the beetroot. But it's not bad. Let's see how it tastes. GARY: Wow. Thanks, boys. Enjoy. Thanks. Shall we? I'm so intrigued if it's got enough smoke. Mmm. The red beets are perhaps a little on the firm side. The cream's delicious. Well seasoned. GARY: It's pretty good. I've only eaten your dish once, but the balance of flavours is actually pretty damn close. The lightly smoked was really good. There's a light smoke on there, which is great. You know, the major difference for me is the way the kingfish is cut. You did yours a lot thinner and curled it over, and these are a bit chunky. Doesn't affect the flavour, but it changes slightly how it is. Absolutely. Right. Let's see how the blue team went. I think we're behind with entrees and we're really pushing it to get it out in time. We really need to hurry up. Diners are waiting and our dishes are not close to being served. I really need to motivate the team. Come on, guys! I don't know what the problem is... Guys, we gotta really... Guys. I think everyone... Everyone's not moving fast enough. Everyone, please, can you move faster?! We need the entrees out! Karmen just comes out of nowhere with this scream. It's wonderful to see that. Blue team, I need you to work quick! Some of you aren't working quick enough! SEVERAL: Yes, Karmen! CHLOE: Do we have more dumplings? Yes, we do! NIDHI: Add the zucchini flowers. Come on, blue team! Let's go, guys! One, two, three, four. I'm walking the entree up to the judges. I think the taste is there. I'm really happy with this entree. Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh! Here we go. (CHUCKLES) Wow! So, Karmen, ready to see how it compares? Yeah. Ah. What do you think? The zucchini flowers look definitely undercooked. Yeah. We'll taste, shall we? You look really nervous. Yeah. Don't worry about it, because you've got main course to crack on with. So, go on, off you go. We'll taste. OK. Thank you. Yeah, definitely the zucchini flowers aren't nearly cooked enough. Yours have got all this lovely kind of charry caramelisation on, which looks delicious, sets the dish off. And it just lacks a little bit of finesse. Maybe it makes up for it in flavour. What do you reckon? Fingers crossed. The difference between, I think, your dish and this dish is that your dish is all toasty, roasty, burny, buttery flavours. This dish is much greener. The most obvious thing are those little zucchini flowers. But I love that little green sauce. It's delicious. And seasoning... Seasoned beautifully. As far as the flavour and everything, they've nailed it. The customers would be happy with either of those dishes. I think they're two great plates of food cooked by amateur cooks in 30 minutes for that first course. But now it's time for main course and, uh...things are going to get very interesting. MATT SINCLAIR: So, main. Ponzu. Ponzu. Shiitake mushrooms. Oysters. Yep. I'll start shucking. Jump on and start shucking oysters. For the main, we have a wagyu rump cut with shiitake, oyster and tempura fritter that goes on the braised daikon. WOMAN: Is that the daikon? Are these done? Yeah. Yep. The girls that were on entree, they've sort of slid across and they're going to help the girls with desserts and mains. We've got Trent shucking oysters. Me and Harry are starting to portion up these steaks. Brett's on the grill. It's all stations go. There's no time to be mucking around. Right, steaks are going on, Matt. Yep. Come on, guys. Let's regroup, refocus. We've got this, yeah? MAN: Let's go! One, two, three! (ALL CHEER) Come on, Blue! Let's go, Blue! KARMEN: The main is duck breast with radicchio puree, compressed witlof and cherries. CON: Loving the ducky duck today. How many have we got? So, this will be 30, 31, 32. We need another 8. OK. So, four ducks. MAN: Duck! HEATHER: I'm working on the jus today. I do actually love sauces, so, yeah, it's kind of handy and I want to get this right today. We're just cooking off the beef. It's really thin, so we just need it, sort of, 1cm slices and with the ponzu on the top at the end. The main is the centrepiece of the meal. It's the piece de resistance, right? It's wagyu. It's aged beef. It's expensive. We've got to get this right. MATT: Come on. It's a bit smoky, isn't it? Don't want to overdo 'em, man. We won't. We won't. Don't worry, don't stress. These have only been on a few seconds. Alright. We've got Brett on the steaks. I've really made it clear, it's one of those things - you don't overdo it. It looks alright. Yeah, it looks alright. I got faith in you, mate. TRENT: There's flames and smoke everywhere. It smells great, but it's just smoking out the whole room. MATT PRESTON: Look at that smoke, hey? God, these ones are getting way too hot. HARRY: Look what you've done to the place, Brett. You've turned it into a bloody smoke house, not a kitchen. Over here! (LAUGHS) The smoke from the coal and the searing beef and the fat burning is hurting my eyes. I look up and there's just smoke everywhere. MILES: What are you burning there, Brett? I can't... I don't know. I can't see. CON: Salted ducks. Duck's going beautifully. It's so crispy, the skin. There's beautiful caramelisation on it. Needs about five minutes, and then in the oven, cook it again for another five. KARMEN: Just lightly, just lightly, I reckon. THERESA: Yep. Theresa is on the radicchio puree. The first batch she puts in looks nothing like Anthony's radicchio puree. The puree's not looking great at all. It's going brown. And it was a very vibrant purple colour on Anthony's dish. It's losing its colour. It's cooked too long. Is it? Yep. I really want this to run smoothly and this puree's not working. Yeah, it's totally stressing me out. CHLOE: I remember when Karmen and I tried the radicchio puree, it was very vibrant in its colour, and it's not, which means that we've obviously taken it too far. So I've just asked the girls to redo it again, because we need to make sure it's perfect on the plate. I don't want that to burn. That's perfect. Get that radicchio in right now. That is a really high heat. That needs to be turned down, yep? OK, yep. Otherwise you're going to burn the heck out of the radicchio. That needs to be turned down. When Anthony was describing the radicchio puree to us at Pei Modern, he couldn't stress enough that it was really important to not take the radicchio too far, because you will lose its colour. How is the radicchio puree going, guys? Um... Not looking good. The colour is not staying red, so... This is definitely concerning. There's no more radicchio left after this and this element has to be right on the plate. Take it off the heat. GARY: Red team, blue team, you have five minutes before main courses have to be on the table. Come on. Guys, we really need to keep working hard, yeah? It's not working. It's not working. What do you want to do with it? They're just doing the puree, but it's just taking so long. Karmen is freaking out. I'm not sure if I'd even serve that. If we serve anything that's not quite right, we could be going into elimination tomorrow. 1 Are you sure it's OK if I get a ride? Yeah, yeah. Dad said it's fine. I'm putting on some music. OK. BOTH CHUCKLE, CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS Dad! OK, I'm gonna change it. Sorry, but... Yeah. OK. Ooh yeah. Yeah. Turn it up. DUB MUSIC PLAYS, PHONE PINGS Hey, the others wanna hang out. Um... Hey! BOTH LAUGH ALL: # It's time to cut and run. It's time to... TYRES SCREECH # It's time to cut and run. It's time to cut and run. # Oh my God. Get off! Yeah! It's so obvious. So wasted. TRUCK HORN BLARES, GIRLS SCREAM, LAUGH (LAUGHS) TV BEEPS I'll probably drop Libby home after dance so she doesn't have to walk home in the dark. Thanks, Dad. I'll be home a little bit after 10, not too late. I love you guys. Yeah, all good, love. 1 GARY: Red team, blue team, You have five minutes before main courses have to be on the table. Come on. Everyone, listen! As soon as we're ready, we need to get a production line happening, get these mushrooms pumped out, get 'em in the fryer. OK? Good. Those mushrooms are a nightmare. They're probably the smallest element on the plate but they are the most time-consuming. The stem needs to be taken out of the shiitakes. They need to be grilled on the hibachi. Trent's shucking oysters like a madman, so the oyster needs to go inside of the mushroom cup. Have you got oysters there ready, Trent? Ana is cutting little ribbons of nori to tie that parcel together, glue it with some tempura batter, dunk it in the tempura batter. The tempura flour is over at the fryer. OK. Dip it in, in it goes. Brett, are you nearly done with the grill? BRETT: Yep. OK, you keep feeding them to Harry. As soon as you've got a portion, you bring it up the front. I want to start plating. Come on, guys, move it! We need to get it on the plate! To plate the main, put the little braised daikon disc, oyster and shiitake tempura fritter on top of the daikon... Six slices per piece. ..fan the wagyu around the plate... And the fat needs to face in. We've got some of the broccolini tips. They are tossed through the sesame dressing and gently dotted in between the wagyu and the daikon. And to finish it off, radish cress. Make sure everything's, like, centred. WOMAN: That looks amazing. Guys, you've done a cracking job yet again. I think the main's looking OK. You right? Yep. All the elements are definitely there. It's going to come down to the details and the technique of everything. And here is your wagyu. Thank you. One of the things that we were worried about the most was the cooking of the wagyu. We're just going to have to wait and see. Well, Matt, how do you think you've gone? I'm really proud of what we've put on the plate. Ready to see how you go? Yep. GEORGE: Wow. Wow! Pretty bloody close. Gee. You know, I reckon you could shuffle 'em... Yeah. ..and we'd be hard picked. That's a really good job. Yeah. Well done. Thank you. You'd better get back and get dessert going. Thank you. Thank you. That's great. I'm blown away. It was about mirroring the dish, and I think they've done a great job. GARY: Yeah, really good. Let's taste. I thought they were going to overcook it. You know, there was a lot of flame, a lot of smoke over those charcoal grills and I thought, "Yeah, for sure, they've cooked it too much." But... ..that's absolutely smashing. And look at George. He's just smashing the plate. I love it. I love it. Pretty bloody good. Daniel, if one of your chefs put this dish up from the red team on the pass, would you let it go to the customer? Yeah, I would. I don't reckon there can be a more flattering thing for the chef to say than, "I'll put it up on the pass of my restaurant." That means that the red team have put up an amazing dish. Yeah. Agreed. Keep talking, boys. Yeah, keep eating. Maybe they don't need to see it, is what I'm saying. You know, like, it'd just be there for the flavour. It doesn't even smear right. What do you think? I don't know what else to do with this puree. Just not the right colour. The taste is there, though, so I have this conflict of whether I should serve it or not. It's got the taste, but I don't know about the look. What do you think, Karmen? You've got to really tell me. I feel really strongly that this radicchio puree needs to go on the plate for the flavour. I think just a small smear like that. Yeah, yeah. That looks great. And here is your wagyu. So, the blue team is really behind. I feel like I've got to bring the energy back to the team. Blue team, I need you to MOVE IT! ALL: Yes, Karmen! We can do this! I need two bits of duck on that one. Yep, I'm coming in with duck. I'm putting the duck down after Heather has smeared the puree and the witlof... You're doing cherries, Nidhi. ..then somebody's coming behind me with the cherries and the compressed radicchio. HEATHER: It looks awesome, guys. Well done. Keep up the good work. Come on, Blue! Let's go, Blue! I know the judges always tell us, if something isn't perfect, to not put it on the plate. The flavour's there, though, which I'm happy about. MATT PRESTON: Thank you. Shall we pop this lid off and have a look at the real one, Anthony? OK. It's a little different, isn't it? Little bit of refinement. KARMEN: Yep. It's just refinement. Well, time for us to taste now. You'd better crack on with dessert, hey? Thank you. What do you reckon they've done wrong with the puree? Because obviously yours is... it still looks like radicchio. It's got that beautiful kind of deep purple colour. This one's more of a light brown, isn't it? They've probably cooked it too long. We'll have a taste. Shall we taste? Yeah. I think they've gone a great job. Yeah. The skin of the duck is... is really yummy. It's crisp and, you know, there's a good amount of flaked salt on there. And even though the radicchio puree underneath is off colour, it's got a nice flavour. To get it to where they did in the amount of time they had is an incredible effort. Right. Dessert time, boys. 1 NICOLETTE: It's going to be a bit tough getting the dessert up as quickly as we can. We really want to make sure our cold elements are as cold as possible before plating them up. Everyone can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but there's absolutely no way that we can take the foot off the pedal. Come on, Red! Go, red team! That's the sauce. Jaffa sauce. It needs to be runny. For the dessert, there is a chocolate delice with a Jaffa sauce, raspberry sorbet, dehydrated orange dust and isomalt praline. Cecilia and Nicolette, they're both dessert queens, so we feel really confident in putting that in their hands. My sorbet's looking amazing at the moment. I love it. It looks just as good as the icy poles on my top. My biggest concern with this sorbet today is that it doesn't come down in temperature, so it's really important that those fridges stay closed today so my sorbet is cold. That thin? With the delice, the chocolate has to be thin enough so that the customer can tap on their mousse and crack it open, but it also has to be thick enough so that I can demould these things. Can you free up some space in the blast freezer for me? Every time she opens that door, that blast chiller gets 10 degrees warmer. They can go in the blast freezer. I reckon we start getting some of these in the, um... In the oven? Can you open it for me, please? Yeah, pretty happy with where we are. You always want to be a little bit faster than what you're doing but, yeah, moving at a good pace. For dessert, we will be doing a sauterne custard with a caramel and lemon crostoli. Charlie, myself, Jimmy and Theresa are all cutting out the crostoli. JIMMY: There's a lot of these twizzly things to do. There's five per plate, so we've really got to get motoring. Once we have finished a whole tray, we then give them to Chloe and Nidhi to deep-fry. CHLOE: I can rely on you, I know that. Let's keep working fast. Well done, guys. Good job. I make crostoli all the time. I have an Italian mother-in-law. I love it. It's just one of my favourite desserts. Baking paper, isomalt... Isomalt already melted, or I melt it together? No. All together. OK. I'll get started on that. Next I move on to making the isomalt praline. So I've just toasted off some pistachio nuts and then I melt down the isomalt with the crushed pistachio nuts and then melt that down in the oven till it's a nice, even praline. I'm filling the delice up with the mousse. It's looking really, really good. Blast freezer. Blast freezer. It's heating up heaps. It's only at zero. Yum! Yeah, I know. It's terrible. But it's OK. Backs, backs, backs, backs, backs. The custard's looking great. The first batch is out of the oven. And the second batch is not too far away. ELISE: For the custard, it needs to have a beautiful thin layer of caramel on the top. That caramel is boiling on the stove. Blue team, we've got this! (ALL SHOUT ENCOURAGEMENT) Let's go, Blue. Come on, guys. We're plating up. Let's go! How's the caramel going, guys? Only about three minutes, so... Everything's ready. We're just waiting for this. Yep. This is the last component of the dessert, so we need this to be ready before we can send any desserts out. Everything else is done. How do you like that, Karmen? Yep, that's good. Good? Yeah. Pour it in. We also have to wait for it to cool down before we can pour it into the custard. CECILIA: It's time to take the choc delice out of this mould. I really, really need to be careful with these. If I don't get them out nicely... ..the whole team is in trouble. Yes! Oh, my God! Good job. They look so good. Good job. MATT SINCLAIR: Cecilia, honestly, she did a PHENOMENAL job on those spheres. They were perfect. I'm happy with the ones that came out. Yes, very happy. CON: Caramel is there. KARMEN: I'm running out of time, so I'm trying to cool the caramel down on an ice bath. Um, the caramel just needs to be cooled down a little bit before we can pour it onto the custard. It's not cooling fast enough and the diners are waiting, so I test on the first one. I think the caramel is too hot and it's just melting the custard underneath. CHLOE: This is a huge disaster. We had all the custards ready on the pass with the crostoli on the side. All it needed was that caramel. This is really setting us back. Red team, blue team! Desserts should be on the table now! Hurry up! Is this enough pistachio, Matt? Yep, yep. Alright. It looks beautiful. I couldn't be... I couldn't be any happier. Let's go, Trento. I feel...damn proud taking these out to the judges. (GARY CHORTLES) GEORGE: Hey? Looks good. Yeah, it's good. Happy? Oh, yeah. Pretty happy. Yep. Are they gonna look the same? That's all I care about. I'm pretty confident in the plating. Shall we see? Yep. Oh! Hey? Well, I reckon you can probably go about now, "Bam!" I'm happy. I'm really happy with that. Daniel? Yeah. You know, I can't really complain. I'd like to... Great stuff, Matt. Well done. Thank you. Well done. Wow, guys. It looks amazing. GARY: Let's see if it tastes as good as it looks. Look at that! Oh, wow. Good crunch on the chocolate. All the textures, the flavours. Yeah. I can't stop eating it. I know. I'm really, really impressed. They seem to have nailed every element. You can see your sorbet is sitting there and hasn't melted at all, whereas this sorbet has started to go a bit. But really, in terms of flavour... I just can't believe that... Are you sure they weren't writing notes on their hands? Or they didn't have a little camera in their pocket? Amazing effort. I'm speechless. I really am. CON: Let's go, guys! CECILIA: The caramel is just too thick and too hot and it's melting the custard. It's just a mess on a plate. I just can't wait any longer for the caramel to cool, so I make the call to leave it off. Just leave it off! We're leaving it off! Leave it off! Leave it off! It's scary, but I know it's the right decision. Come on. We've got to go. WOMAN: Yep. I know the custard and the crostoli are delicious. I just hope that's enough. GARY: Where's the... where's the syrup? So, Karmen, there's something missing, isn't there? Shall we have a look at the dish? Oh. As Anthony's dessert is revealed, there's an obvious difference. The caramel gives it a nice, amber, golden colour, whereas ours just looks yellow. Wow. What a difference that caramel makes, doesn't it? Alright. I suppose we'd better taste, huh? Taste. Off you go. Thank you. Look, I respect the fact that they weren't comfortable putting it on. I think that takes a lot of guts. Yeah. And not sending something they're not happy with. On the positive side, a good flavour of sauterne, really nice, crisp crostoli. One of the challenges for our amateurs is to show finesse, and these crostoli definitely show finesse. I think the crostoli are delicious. It's just a real shame they didn't pop the caramel on. Obviously time has been an issue. Time management. Yeah. Overall, a really impressive performance, I think. It's such a hard job, to not have a recipe, to not have a photograph, to kind of go from your memory of two people with a team of 10. Very tricky. There you go, sir. One for you. Please enjoy. And the young fella. There you go, mate. Enjoy. I head into the dining room, I've got the last two desserts. I put them down on the plate and I turn around and the whole team is just lined up at the plating bench and I'm looking at them going, "Are we done?" Oh! I just lose it. (CHEERING) Ha ha! Whoo! Yeah! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! There's no way I'm gonna stand here and say every dish is perfect. Absolutely not. All I can say is that I am so damn proud of everything that we put on the plate today. You know, and if we get done, they deserve to beat us, because we absolutely flogged ourselves. Come here. Well done! (CHEERING) Good job, guys. Thank you, Karmen. You had a hard job. CHLOE: I honestly... I know that the flavours were there. I know that we nailed it. I think we definitely came back and worked as a team. But everyone here is up for elimination if we didn't pull through. It'd be horrible if we went through to a group elimination, but that's what's on the line today. 1 What a fabulous challenge! How exciting! You should be absolutely pumped. Because it's not normal to go into someone's kitchen and memorise a dish. And I don't mean anybody's kitchen. I'm talking about two top restaurants, Pei Modern and Huxtable. So, no small feat at all. Both teams struggled with time, but you managed to push through. Really, really, really well done. Blue team, let's start with you. Your entree. The spinach was great. Awesome flavour. But the zucchini flowers - undercooked. Duck. It was beautifully cooked. The skin was crunchy. Really well seasoned with flaked salt. But your radicchio puree lacked the vibrance of the original. The dessert. The crostoli - delicate, fine and really, really yum. The flavour of the custard was great. But where was the caramel? Right, let's look at the red team. Every one of your courses hit the dining room before the blue team's. And your entree was great. But... ..your main course... ..and your dessert... ..were amazing! And that is why, red team, you've won! (RED TEAM CHEER WILDLY) MATT: I couldn't be any happier or prouder of what we've achieved today. We were this morning, you know, deep in it with that entree. To come out and finish like that - unbelievable. Blue team, such a tough challenge, and I think, you know, what you did wasn't bad. It was amazing, really, when you consider the challenges. But today, you came up against a team who did something I think we all would feel was quite amazing. The bottom line, sadly, is that tomorrow's an elimination. You'll all go into that elimination not as a team but fighting head to head for your place in this competition. One of you will go home. HEATHER: I feel pretty bad for Karmen and Chloe, but on the other hand, I think they did an amazing job with what they had today. What we did was pretty amazing, you know. You have to look at that at the end of the day, and next time we'll do it better. Well done, red team. Blue team, you've got to refocus. Go home, get rest. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you, boys. Cheers. (APPLAUSE) KARMEN: I felt like I tried really hard today to push myself and stand up and have a voice. See you, guys! GARY: See ya. I know I deserve to be here. I just really, really have to fight for it. ANNOUNCER: Next time - they were a team. Now... Don't know about you, but I'd have my game face on today. ..they're going head to head. I want to wow these judges. And for Jimmy and Theresa... Being in an elimination against my brother is not good. ..it's their worst nightmare. It's going to be a terrible day. Come on! You need to push now! These contestants will do what they have to... Let's go! Come on! ..to avoid going home. Quick! Run, Nidhi! I'm freaking out right now. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2016