ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... ..Brett cooked against Shannon Bennett... Here we go. ..in the most important immunity challenge yet. This actually looks pretty good. But Shannon proved too good... There's no mistakes. ..and the opportunity was lost. Tonight, the toughest week ever continues. This one is going to be a beauty. Four teams, four corners of the nation. North, south, east, west. In this cross-country service challenge... Aagh! ..they'll each be guided by a mentor. Go, go, go, go. You need to be faster. But... Fire up! ..it doesn't mean... It's a nightmare. ..it will be smooth sailing. Look behind me. ELENA: Bloody hell. I can feel my heart start to race. Two teams will navigate their way to success. Wow! That makes me so, so, so happy. And two will find themselves in elimination. You need to get it in. This could throw me under the bus. Oh, chaos! # 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. # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. Able 2016 It's been a tough week to this point - the toughest we've experienced on MasterChef. The boys weren't kidding when they said they were definitely gonna ramp it up for us. I've got a feeling today's gonna be no exception. We're not off-site. We're at the MasterChef kitchen. So, it's definitely something different today. At this point, I've got no idea what this challenge is gonna be. (CONTESTANTS EXCLAIM) (BRETT LAUGHS) We see all the kitchens up the back. There's a big empty room in the front, heap of produce to the side. I think I know what's going on. Oh, you see - the cogs are turning, aren't they? "I wonder what's happening?" Just a small matter of a team challenge - and this one, as I think you sense already, is going to be a beauty. Today, you're gonna be flying the flag for everything that is great about Australian produce. And...you're cooking a two-course meal for 80 diners. So, each team will be serving one main and one dessert to 20 guests. ELISE: Team challenges never work out well for me. I've been in so many eliminations off the back of a team challenge, but I'm not going to let that happen today. We've assembled four pantries of the finest ingredients. Each team gets one of those pantries to cook with. Maroon team, the north. Green, south. Blue, east. Yellow, the west of Australia. In my velvet bag here, I have aprons. Four different colours. Four teams of two. Whichever colour you get is your team. You got it? Yep. Don't look inside. Let's keep it fair. Fantastic. Blue. I'm really happy when Harry pulls out his blue apron. I think we'll work really well together. Hey, Bretters. Trent. Go and stand with Elise. MATT SINCLAIR: Hey, nice. (WHISPERS) Chloe! Both Chloe and I can cook savoury and sweet, so I think this is gonna work really well today. Maroon team, you are the north. MATT SINCLAIR: The produce looks incredible. Being from that neck of the woods, I'm absolutely stoked. Green, you're the south. Blue, the east. Which means yellow, you're the west. MATT: MasterChef means... all about opportunities, and today, you're going to have the opportunity to cook with some of the finest produce this land has to offer. But that's not at all - we're giving you another opportunity. We scoured the four corners of this wide brown land to bring you four amazing chefs to inspire you. Please welcome from Nu Nu in the north, Nick Holloway! (CONTESTANTS CHEER) From Ethos in Hobart, Iain Todd! From Restaurant Muse, Hunter Valley, Troy Rhoades-Brown... ..and from the west, Hadleigh Troy from Restaurant Amuse. Welcome, gentlemen. Thank you very much indeed for flying in to join us. It's fantastic to have you here, and I know our contestants are going to learn so much from working with you. To have a mentor with us for the whole entire cook is huge. Hi. How you going? Trent. Hadleigh. Nice to meet you. This is a massive advantage, but there's no excuses - we have to put up great food and make sure it's absolutely perfect. So...each team has two hours to prepare a main and a dessert. The top two teams are safe. The bottom two teams, however, are going into tomorrow's elimination. There's a lot on the line. Your two hours starts...now. ELENA: Eggs. TROY: Let's go. Let's go. HADLEIGH: So what have we got? Marron, prawns, lobster. TRENT: We've got the west pantry today. The first thing that sort of catches my eye is the marron, and to me, marron is Western Australia on a plate. I'm not familiar with marron, but I do use bugs and crayfish a lot, so I'm hoping the cooking technique's the same. I'm thinking to serve the marron tail whole, then making a bisque with the heads and the shells of the marron. We can get a lot of that marron flavour in there and really hero the marron as an ingredient. ELISE: Trent and I's plan of attack is that he's going to do the main dish and I'm going to do the dessert. When I think of Western Australia, I think of mining, and I want to do a take on their mining and produce, so I'm going to have a chocolate soil that's going to cover all these different elements underneath the chocolate. MATT SINCLAIR: With myself, Mimi and the northern pantry, I think we've got a really combination. To work to our strengths, Mimi will take on the sweet, and I'll do the main. I'm gonna be cooking wild barramundi with coconut, lemongrass and ginger, some barbecued pineapple, and then top that with some of the crispy taro. To me, that's... that's pretty Queensland. For dessert, I'm thinking about a ginger cake with some monkey bananas and yoghurt sorbet. I think our menu as a whole works really well together. We've got the ginger flowing throughout the menu. But today, it's all about the barramundi and the cake, and we really need to nail those. BRETT: Harry and I today were allotted east. So, the main today is gonna be pork fillet with polenta, and the dessert will be a honey blossom set custard with a pecan crumble. We decided to go with the pork fillet because I know it will cooked in time. You know, when you're against the clock, cooking for a lot of people, just gotta play safe. So, my first job is to trim up these pork fillets, get 'em in a 30cm length so they're good to go in a sous-vide bag. Perfect. Pork fillet's a real sort of delicate meat, so it's going to take some good cooking to get that right. I've just gotta really make sure I nail this dish today. Beautiful. Yep, beautiful. ELENA: Chloe and I are gonna be working together today, celebrating the south of Australian produce. What I'm thinking so far is to do a saltbush lamb... Yeah. ..in the pressure cooker. That sounds good to me. Get that lamb absolutely delicious. I'm gonna be cooking a lamb on celeriac puree with textures of kale. Chloe is looking after our dessert of goat's cheese and figs. Tasmania is a cooler climate in general, and I want this dish to be warming. I want there to be that luscious, fall-apart lamb, that beautiful celeriac, that idea of a winter meal. I need to get the meat on early so it's got plenty of time to develop some beautiful, rich, flavours. I want to celebrate the south of Australia as much as I can, so I'm doing a goat's cheese and honey mousse. Using goat's cheese as a base for a mousse is quite unusual. I just hope that my ingredients all complement each other. Have you made a goat's cheese mousse before? Um, not with goat's cheese, but I've done it with a quite a few... I've done it with yoghurt. Yep. But not with goat's cheese. So...hopefully... ..hopefully it's good. Cool. GARY: Teams, teams - 30 minutes down. 90 to go. Do not be complacent. Let's move it. Come on. Thank you. Today I'm gonna cook marron tail with a ginger cream bisque and serve that with some asparagus and fresh herbs. I'm taking a huge risk today cooking this marron - I've never cooked it before and I'm not 100% sure I know exactly how to do it. The marron is gonna be a centrepiece of the dish, so we have to cook with 100%. We've got the bisque, which is gonna be sort of all the flavour, but we want to have that marron tail in the centre of the dish perfectly cooked. I gotta cook 20 marron - I've got two pots of boiling water on, and I'm just gonna cook two in each pot at a time for four minutes. So, it's gonna take a while to get all these marron cooked and get 'em refreshed in some ice water and get 'em shelled. I'm using the shells and those heads in the bisque to just extract as much flavour as possible and just really showcase that as the main element of this dish. HADLEIGH: Get these marron finished. NICK: You've still got heaps of work to do. Time to hit the pedal. I need to get all of those barramundi fillets prepared for 20 diners. This is gonna take a bit of time. I'm gonna steam the barramundi. That's my favourite way to have barramundi. Keep in mind, Matt, that they're gonna cook in different times. This one is not gonna cook like that one 'cause it's thinner. Batch 'em up. So batch 'em up. Perfect. You want to have the same sort of fish in the same sort of tray. The fish is the hero of this dish, and to have to steam that many portions of fish and get them all absolutely perfect is gonna be my biggest challenge today, without doubt. Teams, listen up! Service is one hour! 80 guests! Come on! BRETT: I've trimmed up all these pork fillets. So, we're gonna put it in bags with a bit of grapeseed oil and submerge it in the sous-vide for up to an hour. This pork today has to be good. It's representing the east on the compass. TROY: Yep, let's go. Let's get 'em in. It's really gotta be just amazing. Right. Can I call you together? Just trying to find out what you're doing and what ingredients you've picked. I'm doing the main. We're doing a beautiful pork. We're gonna sous-vide it. We're gonna mix that with some polenta. I always freak out a little bit about using, like, tenderloin of pork - because if you're not careful, it can be cardboardy and eugh. Gary doesn't seem convinced. But we made the decision to use pork fillet with the time. If it's no good, we're going straight to elimination. You might only drive short distances to work each day. You might not drive your car to work at all. You might park securely at work. Or these days, everybody travels to you. Maybe you only do school runs. Or you work from home, so drive mostly on the weekend. At Youi, we get that everyone's not the same, so we tailor your insurance premium to how you use or don't use your car. Call: Or go to youi.co.nz today. Just trying to find out what you're doing and what ingredients you've picked. I'm doing the main. We're doing a beautiful pork. We're gonna sous-vide it. I always freak out a little bit about using, like, tenderloin of pork... ..because if you're not careful, it can be dry and kind of at its worst, cardboardy and eugh. Gary doesn't seem convinced. But we know the path we're on now, and we're gonna stick to it. But I've gotta take it to the next level. I've got an idea. I'm gonna flash-fry it in the cultured butter just before service, and I guarantee it'll be spot-on. They're gonna love it. Interesting challenge, isn't it, huh? Lots of great produce. But, mate, menus thus far... Matt and Mimi. They've got the north. Steamed barramundi, curry sauce. I'm already thinking yum. And Mimi's doing dessert, so I think there's a nice little play here. Strong team. If we head down south, Elena's doing a saltbush lamb which is slow-cooked. Really southern, kind of cool-temperate, which is nice. Trent, Elise, they're in the west. Marron, ginger cream bisque. He's gonna champion that marron and then serve it with a really kind of powerful sauce. Brett and Harry, main course is a vacuum-packed slow-cooked pork fillet. I was like, "Really?" The pork...where's the joy on that? This is top eight. We're looking for finesse and flair on the plate. And there's a lot at stake today. Let's not forget that. You do not want to be in those two teams in the bottom. MATT SINCLAIR: We have two hours to prepare a main and a dessert for 20 diners per team. But... ..I've spent over an hour filleting this fish, and I'm still going. NICK: Where are we up to, Matt? How many portions? Um...so this one should probably give me close to 16, so I gotta do one more... I'll have to do one more side. So we need to get a move on with the fish so we can clean the bench down. Yep. He's absolutely right. I am falling behind. I need to get on top of this. Come on, Matt. Really have to get this fish done, mate. Yep. It's becoming a bit of a deal-breaker. I need to make sure that I nail that fish. It would be incredible to skip the elimination. MIMI: I've left Matt in charge of the fish, and for dessert, I'm making a ginger cake with monkey bananas and yoghurt sorbet. I've got my yoghurt sorbet base in the churner. While I'm waiting for that to chill, I'm gonna get on to making these ginger cakes. Pretty under pressure for time. Definitely taken on quite a lot. But, hopefully, I can get it done. Just trying to get some cakes into the oven. There's so much to do, and we just need to make sure that we keep this pace up. TRENT: Today, I'm on the yellow team with Elise, and we're using ingredients from Australia's west. My dish is marron with a ginger cream bisque for the main. As I'm prepping these marron, you need to really be careful that you don't damage them. You want the tail to be nice and intact. It's a really expensive ingredient and you don't want to ruin it, so I really gotta be on my game today. Once I de-shell all the marron, I need to briefly cook 'em in the sous-vide and then flash fry them right at the end. I'm flying blind, cooking this marron. I'm really hoping these techniques help maximise the flavour, but I've never done it before, so I hope it works. Alright. We need to get this sous-vide on, then. I've got about 10 minutes to leave this marron tails in the sous-vide... ..and I just really need to make sure that I don't overcook him. It has to be cooked absolutely perfect. ELENA: I'm on the south team today. We're gonna be doing a saltbush lamb on celeriac puree with kale. The lamb's in the pressure cooker, taking on flavours and tenderising and becoming all delicious. There's only half an hour to go. I'm just getting my celeriac on to the stove for my puree when I realise... ..I don't have a sauce for my dish. I can't believe that I've forgotten to do a lamb jus. This is a pretty big failure on my part, and I'm really disappointed in myself. I quickly decide to make a jus. A beautiful jus needs plenty of time to thicken and develop flavour. I just hope I haven't left it too late. CHLOE: For our dessert today, we're going to be doing a goat's cheese mousse with figs. The biggest thing that I'm concerned about is not getting the balance of the goat's cheese right. You want to be able to taste the goat's cheese in the dessert, but I don't want to take it too far, 'cause it won't taste good. It's really important that I get this mousse right. It is the hero of the dish. It's a pretty big move - I just hope it pays off. IAIN: Lovely. So we'll scratch that off the list. BRETT: Harry and I are working with our east pantry today. The whole concept of today is to really hero this pork fillet. The pork's in its water bath, and it'll just get happy in there. It's time for me to crack on with the polenta. We want this to be a good portion. One kilo, right? Yep. We've got 20 diners to feed - we've gotta make sure we've got enough. There's lots of things that can go wrong with polenta, you know. It can be bland. If it's boring and just dull and overcooked or undercooked, it's no good. Nice low heat. And now all we're doing is mothering it now, OK? Every couple of minutes. OK. So I'm going to have to keep an eye on it while I prep all the other elements. It's good. Let's go. Alright. Corn. Corn. Let's go, let's go. Nick, Troy, Hadleigh, Iain - you have 20 minutes to go before service. Come on, team. Come on - we gotta get a move on. How are we going with this fish, Matt? Yep. Nearly done. Finally finished off with all of the barramundi fillets, but it has taken me so much longer than what I initially planned. I need to move on with the curry sauce. I want that to be really sort of bright with the lemongrass, the ginger, garlic, little bit of green chilli, some coriander root. I'll blitz that up into a paste... ..fry that off and then introduce some coconut milk, and season. Chefs, cooks - look behind me. Your diners are here. ELENA: Bloody hell. Aaagh! Service starts in 15 minutes. 15 minutes to go. GARY: Come on. Let's give it a push. This is crazy! Reality sinks in. We have to feed these people. It's gonna be hard work. Time has just evaporated. NICK: Come on, Matty. Yep. Nick's not just looking concerned - he's vocalising his concerns. Come on, guys. Matt, we need to fire right up to do all the other garnishes. And I'm not joking - we have a lot to do. Yeah, mate. Still need to prepare the pineapple, prepare the taro, fry off the taro, get all of those barramundi fillets steamed and then plate. Right now, I'm just prepping the pineapple and frying off these taro chips at the same time. Just trying to multi-task as much as possible now to make sure that we're not behind the eight-ball when service hits. I need to split myself into two at this stage. So, I'm frying off the taro, going back, finishing off the pineapple, checking on the taro, taking that out. Get back to the pineapple, slice up more of that, put that on the barbecue. And I'm sort of just moving in this triangle between barbecue pineapple, fresh pineapple, taro. Barbecue pineapple, fresh pineapple, taro. It's not looking good. Ah, it's a nightmare. Oh, chaos! Time has just evaporated. I'm definitely feeling the pressure at this point. I'm trying to finish up all these garnishes, and then I know I need all these barramundi steamed. Let's get those steamers back on. Gonna show me a fish. It takes eight minutes to cook a piece of fish - you need to get it in. (GROANS) Oh, no. Right. Are all the cakes in? Yep. I'm racing to get my ginger cakes out of the moulds because they need to get soaking in that ginger syrup as soon as possible. But... I might need to get you to give me a hand, Mim, when you've got a chance. ..Matt's under the pump, big-time. The syrup's gonna have to wait. Matty? Yep? You good? No? Yeah, I'm gonna put the pineapple on. I'm stopping this. I'll do this. Yeah. Do you want to do the pineapple? I'm gonna start on the fish. Put it on. If Mimi can take over the pineapple and then get the taro and everything prepped, then we might be able to get everything up to the bench in time. So just take the inside out. Cooks, chefs! 10 minutes to go! 10 more minutes! (GASPS) Keep stirring this bad boy. You want to start plating in...? TRENT: Very soon. Now that I've got the marron tails in the sous-vide, I need to get everything else ready so I can start to plate up. CHLOE: Come on, guys. Let's go. I'm out of my comfort zone with the marron. I've definitely taken a risk. I want to strain this, yeah? The bisque is finished in the pressure cooker. I'll strain it off, get it on the pan to sort of reduce and really concentrate. I just hope it works out. Let's go, Haz. Knock it out of the park, son. All my mise en place is ready to go, but it's time to check on this pork. The pork's been in the sous-vide machine for almost an hour now. It's one of those magic boxes. You really don't know what's going on inside there until you pull it out. There's just a real nervousness now, 'cause this is it. This is New South Wales pork that's to die for. It's gotta be bang-on. I'm gonna get a pan smoking hot, chuck in a heap of this cultured butter, throw in the pork, get a nice colour on it... ..hope it doesn't overcook. Are you good, Elena? ELENA: My jus hasn't thickened yet. It needs more time. IAIN: We need to get it right. If it needs longer, it needs longer. OK. We've got until the last second to get that on the plate. I'm gonna leave it simmering on the stove right to the last second. I'm starting to sort of feel the pressure that I don't know if I'm going to get all this done in time. Alright. Let's keep pushing, El. We're almost there. I have to cook these kale chips and puree my celeriac. Each of these elements needs to be perfect because I don't have a lot going on the plate. So, they really need to be heroed and celebrated well. I'm getting so stressed. Alright, bud. I need a piece of fish in the steamer. MATT: Yep. Or we're not gonna know what we're doing. The nerves are definitely starting to ramp up. Gotta nail this fish, mate. Yep. The fact that I want to steam the barramundi, it's definitely putting me in a tough spot. It's very hard to measure, especially doing it in batches and having multiple fillets in a basket. You want the steam to be able to come up around, OK? The amount of steam that's coming through, very hard to measure and very hard to control. If you guys fail the fish, we're gonna be in the shit for the rest of the service. Go. More in. More fish in. Teams! Five minutes! Five minutes for that first course! Come on! Fire up! Let's go. HADLEIGH: Alright, mate. You gotta get this on. You gotta start going. Yep. I need to get these marron tails out of the sous-vide, into some melted butter. Need to really concentrate. Really want to make sure everything is 100% done when service starts. NICK: That's it. Right. Got another layer. Two minutes! You've got two minutes to go, guys! Yes? Yes! Let's go. Go, go, go, go, go. IAIN: Let's get it on the plate. We've got to move now, please. CHLOE: Let's keep pushing. I'm running out of time. My jus is nowhere near as thick as I would like. I'm just really hoping that the flavour's there. So, remember, you've gotta get 20 out of this. Yep. Let go, let go, let go. GEORGE: One minute to go! I got it, I got it. Yeah, yep. One minute! Come on! Let's go. I'm plating up while Brett's flash-frying the pork. He's made an absolute mountain of polenta, and it seems like a lot, but least the diners are not gonna go hungry. NICK: Quick. Start plating. Go! We get this first batch of the fish up to the front bench. You good? Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Problem being there's only four fillets. There's eight still left on the steamer plus I've got another... at least dozen in the fridge that I need to get back in there straightaway as soon as these steamers are available. More in. More fish in. More in. Go. More in. Come on, buddy. Let's go. We are...under it. Come on, guys. There's everything happening. It's that last-minute scramble. You want this? You want to win this? You need to be faster. One, two, three. Let's go. HARRY: I'm ready. Come on, Matt. Let's go, mate. Team, service starts in 10 seconds. MIMI: Yes, George! Come on. 10 seconds! Come on, guys. Let's go. IAIN: Come on, guys. Five, four, three, two, one... Let's go! Come on. Fire 'em up, Nick! Service starts and we're just frantically plating up the main. Come on! That's hot. Yep, yep, yep. We want to get 10 plates out as quick as we possibly can. HADLEIGH: That's about half, OK, Trent? Looking at this bisque as we're plating up, I'm so happy with the colour and the texture. The flavours are all there, and I think everything's just come together really well. ELISE: And the watercress is just gonna sit on top? Yeah, watercress and marjoram. Alright, waiters. Thank you. Service. Service! And, hopefully, the judges agree that it's cooked perfectly. GARY: Ho-ho! Ooh! Look at that! Happiness is... Oh, yeah. How good does that look? Wow. This is the west, and it truly is - marron, asparagus... We've all got smiles on our face. Pretty simple, but it looks spectacular. Just, like, bang - straight out of the plate. It looks like one of those sunsets that you get on Smiths Beach, or one of those great Western Australian beaches. Well, there's not much room to manoeuvre here, is there? No. I mean, if the marron's overcooked and the bisque is underseasoned, overseasoned, it's gonna be a disaster. Shall we try? Yeah. You! Look at you two! You've smashed it! Oh, look. I've got really not much to say bar when food's that good, you know, you sort of... ..it makes you happy. And that makes me so, so, so happy. The marron is just singing. You couldn't cook that any better. It absolutely perfectly cooked. I love it. In terms of the flavour, that slight saltiness of that ginger cream bisque is beautiful. It accentuates the sweetness of the marron. I think that is a stand-out dish in any part of the competition. The yellow team have done an amazingly good job. We had the marron, which was absolutely fantastic. Beautiful. We would love to have at least another two or three of those. They were just amazing. TRENT: Happy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You? Yeah. Yep. Looks amazing. Well done. Harry, how are you doing? HARRY: Got some more pork for me, Brett? So, we're midway through the service. Harry's up the front, making the plates look all beautiful and sending them out. I'm still down the back, searing off the pork. TROY: Let's go, guys. Faster. The other teams are in front. We need to keep moving. Flash-frying this pork is a risk. I don't want to get this wrong. So if it's overcooked, it's no good. It's really gotta be just amazing. Two more bits? Two more pieces on here, and I'll take it up-front. We're on the run. The plates are going out. I'm worried. Hopefully it's cooked perfectly. So, look at this one. This is the blue team. This was Brett and Harry. Pork fillet with cultured butter, sweet corn and polenta. Isn't that lovely? MATT: It looks amazing. GEORGE: Beautiful. I thought this was gonna be the weakest dish. I had this idea that tenderloin, because it has no fat, the risk of it being dry was high. Wow. You know what? I want to kick off. Because what I'm gonna say is this plate of food is very true in terms of its flavour. The corn tastes corn, the pork tastes like pork. The sugar snaps are fresh and clean and crisp. I actually don't mind it. I think the pork has been cooked absolutely beautifully. And I'm gonna say probably the most beautifully cooked pork I've probably eaten this year. It is... ..pink and tender to a tee. But the polenta spoils it for me. Just flattens the whole dish. I think there's just too much of it. I'd rather have a corn puree, which would make the whole dish a little sweeter and probably more to my taste. BRETT: Harry, how you doing, mate? Yeah, good, mate. Got some more pork for me, Brett? TROY: Go, go, go. Let's go. MIMI: Ready for service. NICK: More fish is here. How many more? Just two? There's only two up there. MATT: Huh? It's come to crunch time. 11 plates have gone out. We've got nine to go. Come on, Matt. Let's go, mate. Have we got a piece there that's ready? Yep. Let's go. Come on. Go, Matty. You right? I've still got about half the fish fillets still steaming. Mimi, how is it? Coming. Oh, is that... Yep. That's good? Are they cooked? Think so. No. Borderline. That one's not. That one's not. You can't serve raw fish. How is it? We've got one ready. Come on. Just quickly get one. To basically be steaming these to order... So close, bud. ..it has to happen now. Come on, mate. Let's go. We don't want to keep anyone waiting. We're going to have to get all of these plates out as soon as possible. CHLOE: You all good, El? It's gonna be a push. I've got my celeriac puree there. Got that fall-apart lamb and the crispy kale. But...my jus is nowhere near as thick as I would like. I can feel my heart start to race. I'm just really hoping that the flavour's there. IAIN: Service, please. MATT: Here's the green team's main course: Immediate, impressions, George? The sauce and the meat look really sort of pale and watery to me. The flavour might be there, so let's see how we go. That celeriac puree is...really good. I mean, it's very light. It's pure celeriac. It's delicious. Does it taste better than it looks? Yes. Yes, it does. But...the sauce is a let-down. Just needs a bit more time. You know? Bit more reduction. And sadly, the lamb, which should be the headline moment of the dish, it is what we suspected - it's a little bit bland, a little bit school dinners. Yeah. There are some faults, aren't they? There are. Come on, guys. Come on, let's go. Steaming the fish is definitely putting me in a tough spot. How's the fish looking? MIMI: Good. Cooked? Yep. Yes, this could potentially throw me under the bus. One of you load it up. You go. I'll reload. But I want to send them out at optimum. To steam that fish to order was probably not the wisest decision, but to me, that's the best way to have it. I just hope the judges love it. There we go. Service. Cool. Oh... GARY: OK. Matt and Mimi, they've got the north, and they're doing: I'm assuming that's gonna be beautifully cooked. Look at that. Mine is beautiful. Perfectly cooked. Yeah, beautiful. I think in terms of representation of the north, this is spot-on. It takes you there straightaway. Grilled pineapple - I love the sourness and the sweetness of it. That curry sauce - I would love more curry sauce to go with the fish as it's going along, 'cause I've ran out already. Yep. And the fish cooked perfectly. Balance of that with that curry sauce is absolutely delicious. Taro chips - crispy, crunchy, salty, all you want. The fish, beautiful. WOMAN: We had the barramundi. It was lovely, really nice. So nice textures. Yeah, lovely. Got enough fish? Come on, let's go. TROY: Need to start plating desserts, guys, so let's finish these off. Call service, and we'll get started. Wipe the sweat off your brow, crack on now with dessert. It's your dessert, Harry - it's your dessert. Yes, Chef. So, today I'm taking care of the blue team's dessert. And I'm making an orange blossom and honey cold-set custard with a pecan crumble and pomegranate. There is so much pressure on me to perform today. I'm not that good with desserts, so I need to make sure that all of my elements are working perfectly. So, at the moment, what I'm making is a pecan crumble. It's gonna have a really nice sort of crunchy texture. It's gonna work really well with the custard. NICK: Alright, Where are we up to with these desserts, guys? Come on, we gotta split all these bananas. How's that praline going, Matt? Yeah, it's going in now. It's time for Mimi and I to dig deep and just absolutely push it to the end. MIMI: I put the sorbet into the freezer until I have to serve dessert at the very last minute. Come on, mate. I really need to get on the syrup for the cakes. I had to stop to help Matt, and I've left it a bit too late. So, ginger - it's gotta be gingery. How's this taste? Nice. Gonna need a lot of syrup, mate. I need to get it on the cakes as soon as possible. Come on. Let's go. Let's go. Come on, Mimi. ELISE: Oh! The whole challenge is that we need to do Western Australian produce proud. What reminds me of WA is the mining, so when you dig underneath the soil, you find all these elements and textures. My chocolate soil's going to cover some pannacotta and some saffron oil, pistachio biscuits, chocolate mousse. Oh, it's dead, my arm. I've got so many different elements to my dessert. Have I got enough for three? I've gotta make sure that I have enough for 20 plates. There will be three pannacotta, two pistachio biscuit, three drops of chocolate mousse covered in a bit of a saffron oil, also with the chocolate soil over the top. Little bits of thyme just to help break through that sweetness. CHLOE: I'm taking a risk today with my combination of ingredients. I'm doing a goat's cheese mousse with figs. I feel pretty good about doing a goat's cheese mousse. I just want to make sure that the balance of the flavour is right. My figs have finished poaching in Tasmanian red wine and vinegar with some cinnamon. I'm really happy with how they're looking. I decide to use the poaching liquid from the figs to garnish as a sauce. I'll just bring it down. IAIN: You just need to balance it. How's that? What do you reckon? Let me try it. I just hope the bold red wine flavour in our sauce is gonna kind of just work really well with the goat's cheese. Ooh. We might need to let it develop a bit, which is gonna cost more time, but I want to get it right. NICK: Start plating. Go. Go, go, go, go. Need to move now. TROY: Let's go, let's go. Mate, gotta move. Don't work over the top of each other. Dessert service time starts...now. Ah... Let's go, guys. Come on. HARRY: Oh, my God. Slow down. Alright. After this, we'll just go straight with the next 10. TRENT: Yep. We're in a really good space. We've already got 10 already set up. Service. Sure we've definitely got enough? Don't know yet. We're plating up the last pannacotta and... Is there any more? ..Trent's like, "We don't have enough." One two, three. Far out! (GROANS) This is my fault. BRETT AND HARRY: Service, please! MIMI: Four for service. Service north! Nuh. I thought we had enough. I can't believe I let that happen. Far out. Do I have any more pannacotta liquid left? Things like that could cost me the competition. BRETT AND HARRY: Service, please. That? Is there any more? Trent and I don't have enough pannacottas left. This is my fault. How long do they take in the blast chiller, Elise? I race over to the bench, and, thank God, I didn't chuck out the pannacotta mixture. About another 10, I think. My dish is quite rich and the pannacotta's going to help cut through that chocolateness. I know the blast chiller doesn't take long to set them, but... ..if the pannacotta's not set, every other element's gonna be too rich. Yeah. 12. 14. HARRY: We've got half our plates out by this point, and we just need to keep smashing them out. Move, Haz! This custard looks incredible. Perfect, Brett. I'm not that good with desserts. Today, I'm hoping that everything's going to work out perfectly. GEORGE: Dessert from the east, and it's an orange blossom, honey custard with mandarin, pecan crumble, pomegranate and white balsamic. Looks fantastic. Yeah, looks amazing, doesn't it? GARY: Yeah. Love the combination of the bronze of the mandarin and the garnet-red of those pomegranate seeds. Fantastic. Hello, Harry. Hello, Harry. I love this little biscuit. I think it's delicious. The texture of the custard is lovely. Balance of the fruit, the custard, the biscuit... I love the fact you can taste the honey in the custard and the orange blossom is kind of there as a second flavour. And lots of fruit, so lots of textural difference. I'm gonna start from this end. I have everything that I need to get our desserts plated. I'm really happy with the goat's cheese mousse, but... The syrup's looking a little bit thinner than I would like. I'd rather it be a little bit more thick. But I need to serve. I don't have time. Here we have the representation of the south - green team's figs and goat's cheese dessert. Interesting to see how it tastes. It's a little bit...clumsy. And that's 'cause that syrup is just a fraction too loose. I don't like that kind of weak, red wine, watery syrup and how it plays with that mousse. I fear for the green team that this dish is a miss. IAIN: Service, please, guys. Service, please. Four for service there. Four. Service to us. We're pumping out these plates and we're just back on track now. Go, go, go, go. Matt and I have a bit of a production line going on. We're putting the cake, then the banana, praline... ..and finishing it off with the sorbet. Come on, let's go, dude. Looking at my ginger cakes, I'm just worried that the syrup hasn't soaked through enough. But I'm hoping that the ginger flavour still packs a punch. They can go. So, this is Mimi and Matt, representing north, and we've got a: It's a big dessert, isn't it? MATT PRESTON: It's a lot of a cake. It's a lot of cake. GEORGE: That yoghurt sorbet, that banana - it's delicious. But... ..that cake is dry and not nice at all. I don't like it. The cake is clunky, which is such a pity, 'cause that yoghurt sorbet is so fresh, so bright. You want that amount of cake to that amount of sorbet to that amount of banana. And then it makes sense. The cake could work drenched in a stickier syrup so it kind of brought the whole thing together. But the problem is that the syrup's really light - it hasn't penetrated the whole cake. NICK: Come on, guys. We're nearly there. HADLEIGH: How's that pannacotta going? I need to get these pannacottas out. Thank God, they've set. Pop it out. TRENT: Beautiful. With my dessert, it should just look like chocolate soil and these little bits of thyme sticking up, so you can't see any elements underneath until you start digging around. I'm just praying that everything tastes amazing. This is from Elise and Trent. "West Australian soil". That's what you call a minimal description, isn't it? So, I think there's things in there to discover, isn't there? Straightaway, you get a wonderful connection between the soil that so much of that amazing produce comes from over in the west, but also the gold that underpins the wealth of the west of our great country. I just love the fact that they can just hang their hat on a description of "Western Australian soil" and deliver that on a plate. There's lots of different textures - there's the chocolate crumb, there's pannacotta, a chocolate mousse, which is light, and then there's grated chocolate and almost like a little chocolate sauce. Yeah. And the fact the thyme's there. For me, the thyme is what makes the dish. It brings this kind of herbaceousness to the dessert. Yum. TRENT: Thank you very much. (SIGHS) ELISE: Whoo! Thanks, mate. Well done. Thank you very much. Well done, Trent. You know what I'm most pleased about is just how well they've done. I mean, look at this. You know, all I can hear is happy chatter. And that tells me, at this point in the competition, that we're in a good place, a really, really good place. Great food. MATT: A good place. Well, two teams have definitely knocked it out of the park, the other two, I think they're heading towards elimination. (EXHALES) What a super challenge. And as the chairs are up on the table, we can sort of stand here for a second and go, "Well done," 'cause you cooked for lots of people using Australia's best produce. And alongside each team, you had an incredible chef from that respected region. A lot on the line today, guys. Bottom two teams go through to tomorrow's elimination. From there, one of you will go home. But on the flip-side of it... ..a big prize for the winning team. MATT: The first team safe... ..and the winner of today's special prize is... ..the yellow team! (ELISE LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Oh, Trent. Trent, your marron couldn't have been cooked any better, and you took it to a special place. Oh, Elise, West Australian soil - a dish that was conceptual and it brought all this kind of chocolatey deliciousness into the soil, but then that little herbaceous hit of the thyme - inspired. To get that win really means a lot at this point in this competition. It just sort of really boosts your confidence and just reassures you that you deserve to be here going forward. Well done, yellow team. You've won that special prize. But...because we're teases, we're not gonna tell you what that is until tomorrow. But you are going to love it. The second team that's safe... ..is... ..Brett and Harry. Ooh. Harry, what a textural ride of meringue and biscuit and custard. We loved that whisper of honey and the whisper of orange blossom. Thank you. Brett, we were worried about your choice of pork fillet, but it was beautifully cooked, and that was a wonderful, clean plate of food. We've done a cracking job today. I'm smiling from ear to ear. Green team, maroon team, I'm sorry - you're through to tomorrow's elimination. Matt, Mimi, Elena, Chloe, this is the bit where you really have to dig deep. Fight. Fight hard. Yeah, today was a team challenge - tomorrow you come in on your own and you fight. You got it? MATT SINCLAIR: Yes, George. So, get rest. We'll see you tomorrow. Off you go, guys. HARRY: Thank you. To have to go into elimination, it's definitely disappointing. We're getting so close to the finish line now, and you can taste it. ANNOUNCER: Tomorrow night... It's the return of the famous MasterChef auction. Here we go. We shall start... ..they'll bid for ingredients... ..with the beef. Five! 10 from Elena. 25. I can see your hand twitching. ..and pay... Going once, going twice. ..with time. Sold! So nervous. With the competition so tight... Come on, guys. ..they'll take huge risks. Not going home today. You're gonna have to be careful. And it's a gamble... Get it on the plate! Does that taste like it's been made in the MasterChef kitchen? That definitely rattles the cage. ..that will send... We can't sugar-coat this one. ..one of the biggest contenders... ..home. Able 2016 Tonight we look back at some of the most inspiring and innovative builds we've ever covered on Amazing Spaces as we rediscover the childhood wonder of the glorious treehouse. In Sweden, a forest full of incredible retreats hidden amongst the trees.