ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - in a team service challenge... Arggh! It's a nightmare. ..it was high stakes... Go, go, go! ..as the remaining eight contestants fought to stay out of elimination. Crazy! But for Elena, Chloe, Mimi and Matt, it wasn't to be. One of you will go home. Tonight... ..is 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... Put it on the plate! Does that taste like it's been made in the MasterChef kitchen? That definitely rattles the cage. ..that will send... Can't sugar-coat this one. ..one of the biggest contenders home. # 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 How are you going, Matty? Did you sleep alright? (CHUCKLES) Yeah. I was gone. Coming into MasterChef, this wasn't really all about me. This is about...setting myself up and, you know, my family up for the future. I recently married my beautiful wife, Jess. Unfortunately, the plans for the honeymoon, they've sort of been put on the back burner. And, you know, luckily enough for me, Jess was 100% supportive of that. I've made the decision that food and cooking is gonna be my life. It's really made me focus on the things that I want to achieve to build the best possible future for Jess and I. ALL: Good morning. ELISE: How are you guys feeling? I think this is my ninth or tenth...time in black. I think you learn a lot about yourself, and if you give it your all, you come out the other end and you go, "Oh, my gosh. I can't believe I just did that." My relationship with food started when I first met my husband. Just like this? Yeah. It looks perfect. He was kind of the first person that told me that my food was really good. My husband and I would love to run a restaurant on a block of land that we own. I don't want to let go of that. Good luck, guys. ELENA: Good luck, everyone. Good luck. Good luck. I absolutely still get nervous every time that you're in black. You feel it? Yeah, I'm feeling it. On the line today is going home, and home is a lovely place, but I'm not ready to be there yet. Let's do this. Let's do it. (APPLAUSE) Oh, the auction! As we walk in, I can see a bench and a gavel and a beautiful display of ingredients. It's got to be an auction today. The penny's dropped. MIMI: This is one of the toughest elims in MasterChef. The time auction is all about strategy and getting the right ingredients and the right amount of time, so I'm already SO nervous. Good morning. No doubt you've worked it out already, but today's challenge is the return of the famous MasterChef auction. It IS one of our toughest challenges to end a week of the toughest challenges. And today is an elimination, and at the end of today, one of you is going home. Right. The auction works like this. There's three categories of ingredients here and four choices in each category. We've got protein - beautiful duck, beef fillet with beef bones, eggs and red mullet. We've got fruit and vegetables - citrus, root vegetables, nightshades, the alliums - onions, garlic, spring onions, leeks. And then over here, we've got the miscellaneous category - herbs, dried spices, our spreads up the back, and then down the front here, loads of different beautiful sauces. You each start with 120 minutes, and you bid for the ingredients you want not with money but with time - cooking time - in lots of five minutes. The more you spend, the less time that you have to cook with. You got it? Yep. One last thing - what you win, you have to use... ..and that's all you have to cook with. No pantry, no garden - just a box of staples underneath your bench. First up - the protein. We shall start...with the beef. Now, who'll give me five minutes for the beef? Five. Five minutes from Mimi. 10. 10 from Elena. Mimi makes a play for the beef, and I'm pretty keen for the beef too, so I'm willing to spend a little bit of my time to get it. 15. 15. Beef - delicious. Matt? MATT: I'm not interested in the beef. I really want that duck, and I think that's what I'm gonna bid hard for. 20. 20 to Elena. The bid's with you. Mimi, you're thinkin'. You're lookin'. Are you bidding? 25. 25. Elena? Will you give me 30? I'm OK. Anyone else? Are we all done? Going once, going twice - sold to Mimi! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I've spent 25 minutes on the beef, which is quite a lot of time, but I'm willing to take that risk, because I can make beef work with anything. The next lot is... ..the duck. Ooh! Here comes the duck. This is the one that I want. This is the Swiss Army knife of protein. You can use it in any way you want. You can use the breast, you can use the legs, you can use the skin. I would love to work with duck, but I'm pretty sure Matt's gonna want to use the duck as well. So I might have a little bit of bidding competition. Who'll give me five minutes for the duck? Five minutes to Matt. 10 minutes to Elena. 15 to Matt. (ONLOOKERS EXCLAIM) Oooh! BRETT: He wants it. He wants it! Elena? 20 to Elena. 25 to Matt. What are we up to? The bid's at 25 minutes. I really want this duck... 30 minutes. ..but this duck is starting to cost a LOT of time. So, Matt... ..I need 35 if you want that duck. Yeah. 35? Yep. Oooh! He's a bold bidder. (LAUGHTER) MATT: I'm already 35 minutes in for it. Elena's definitely thinking about it. I can see her mind is ticking. If Elena kicks it up again, I reckon I could overspend on this. But I really want that duck. 40, Elena? You'd love the duck, wouldn't you? I'm OK. You're not gonna regret this? I'm OK. 35 minutes to Matt for the duck. Going once, going twice - sold to Matt! Now that I've got the duck, I'm stoked. However, I've only got 85 minutes for the rest of my cook, and I still need to bid on two other categories. Our next lot - the eggs. CHLOE: I'm definitely thinking that a dessert is going to be the way to go for me, so I would love the eggs. It's come down to the eggs and the fish. I've not worked with red mullet that much before, but I could do something with the eggs, so I'm gonna bid for them. How much am I bid? Chloe bids five. 10 from Elena. 15 to Chloe. Elena? Elena, will you give me 20? No, I'm happy. Right. I'm gonna knock down the eggs to Chloe for 15 minutes. Going once, going twice - sold to Chloe! I've got the eggs and I'm really happy. This is the first step for me to make an awesome dessert. And, Elena, that means that you may come and get the red mullet. For free! This is gonna be quite a challenge for me. It's quite a complex fish to cook with, but when you get it for free, who's complaining? So, Elena, you've got 120 minutes left and you've got the red mullet, Mimi, you've got 95 minutes left, you've got the beef, Chloe, you've got 105 minutes left, you've got the eggs, and, Matt, you've got the duck and 85 minutes left. Next up - fruit and veg. We are gonna start with the root vegetables. MIMI: Looking at the second category, I think I can do a lot with root vegetables and beef. There's so many different things in there, so that's what I'm gonna go for. Who'll give me five minutes for the root vegetables? Matty? MATT: I'm looking at the beetroot in particular. Duck and beetroot - classic combination. Five minutes to Matt. GEORGE: Go well with the beef. 10 minutes to Mimi. Chloe? I can see your hand twitching. You want to bid? I got the eggs cheaply. Maybe I can get these cheaply too. There's lots of options in the root vegetables for making an interesting dessert. 15 minutes to Chloe. Who will give me 20 minutes for the root vegetables? Who'll give me 20 minutes? The bid is with Chloe at 15 minutes. Nah, I'm alright. Yeah? You're right? Yep. 20 minutes to get it and they're yours. I'm gonna knock down the root vegetables to Chloe for 15 minutes. Going once, going twice... Oh! And it goes Mimi! A last-minute bid for 20 minutes for the root vegetables. Are we done? Going once, twice - gone! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) CHLOE: It was worth a try, but now I've got my eyes on that citrus basket. We are now going to the next lot, which is the nightshades. I've got the red mullet, so I think I want the nightshades basket. There's lots of beautiful flavours in there that are gonna complement this red mullet. Who's gonna give me five minutes for the nightshades? Five minutes to Matt. Elena, 10 minutes. Matt, you need 15 minutes if you want those nightshades. 15. Matt is raising my time on the nightshades, but I need them for my dish, so I need to make sure that I win this. 20 to Elena. Matt, 25? Matt? Nah. I'm good. Going once, going twice - sold to Elena for 20 minutes. So far in the time auction, I've only spent 20 minutes. I'm happy with that. I've still got 100 minutes left. The next lot we're going to bid on is the alliums. MATT: I've missed out on the nightshades and the root vegetables. I want alliums to bring this dish together. So, who'll give me five minutes for the alliums? Matt, five minutes. Chloe? All yours, Matt. All done? All finished? Going, going...gone. I feel like I'm off to a great start with the alliums. I want to use the white onions, some fresh shallots and some garlic. Good buy! Should be really nice with the duck. Chloe, come and get your free citrus. CHLOE: I'm pretty happy with citrus. I think it will work beautifully with the dessert that I have in mind. Well, at the end of the second round of bidding, Elena, you have the mullet and the nightshades and 100 minutes left, Chloe, you have the eggs and the citrus with 105 minutes left, Mimi, you have the beef and the root vegetables with 75 minutes left, Matt, you have the duck and the alliums for 80 minutes left. MATT: I've only got 80 minutes left and I still need to bid on a third category. I need to be careful that I leave myself enough time to cook my duck dish properly. Remember, you must use something from each category that you receive. So, these last four lots are crucial - the herbs, the spices, the sauces and the spreads. My strategy here is to get this category for free. So, the first lot is the herbs. ELENA: I really want the herbs for my dish. I've got the red mullet and the nightshades and I want the vibrancy and freshness that the herbs are gonna bring. Right, who's gonna start me off with five minutes for that amazing basket of herbs? Five minutes to Matt. MATT: I really want those fresh herbs. The possibilities are endless with herbs. 10 minutes to Elena. 15 minutes to Matt. The bid's at 15 minutes and it's with Matt. Matt wants the herbs. But I want them too. Oh! 20 minutes to Elena. Well done, Elena! Here we go. Right. This is gonna get ridiculous. Matt? If I spend 25 minutes on the herbs, that leaves me with less than an hour to bring this dish together. 25? (SIGHS) But... it's a whole basket of herbs. You can't walk away with that cheaply. Do you really want to end up with the spreads? He's right. I can't imagine how I would use peanut butter with my duck dish. I'm in a dilemma. I really need these fresh herbs. This final ingredient could be the difference between putting up an amazing dish and going home. * Right, we're gonna knock it down for 20 minutes. 20 minutes to Elena. MATT: I'm in a real dilemma about these herbs, but I've got to make a decision. If I spend 25 minutes, that leaves me with less than an hour. It's just not enough. I...I have to pull out. Matt, all finished, all done? Yep. Going once, going twice - sold to Elena for 20 minutes. ELENA: I'm so glad I've got these herbs. It was really worth the 20 minutes. I don't know how I'm gonna fit it on! Right. Next lot - the sauces. Five minutes to Matt for the sauces. I'm starting to think that I want to take this dish down a Chinese route. Mimi? MIMI: I'm really worried. I don't want to have less time than everybody else, so I don't want to bid for them. Are you sure? Going once, going twice - sold to Matt. I've got 75 minutes to cook. I haven't got that much time, but I'm really happy with my combinations. I'm looking forward to putting these flavours together. Next up - spreads. CHLOE: Right now on my bench, I have eggs and citrus. I'm still unsure as to what I want to cook exactly, but I know I want it to be sweet, and the honey would definitely help. How much am I bid? Five minutes to Chloe. Mimi? You don't want it? You want the spices? My plan was to not spend any more money, so I'm just not gonna bid. If that's the way it goes, spreads are with Chloe. Going once, going twice - sold to Chloe! I've ended up with 20 minutes extra on top of everybody else's time. So I know I have a lot of time to plan a good dish. Mimi, come and get those lovely free spices. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Nice work! Well done. I cannot believe it. My strategy's worked and I've picked up spices for nothing. HARRY: Good job, Mimi. Well done. Well, let's look at where you stand after the auction. Chloe, you have the spreads, the citrus and the eggs with 100 minutes to cook - the most time of any contestant. Elena, you have the herbs, the nightshades, the red mullet and 80 minutes to cook. Mimi, you have the root vegetables, the spices and the beef with 75 minutes to cook. And, Matt, you have the sauces, the alliums and the duck with 75 minutes. So, the rules are simple. Bring us one dish using at least one ingredient from each of those categories. Worst dish will send its maker home. It's gonna be a serious battle out there today, no doubt. Everyone is determined to make sure that they're a part of top seven. Chloe, you have 100 minutes. Your time starts now. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) CHLOE: I'm the first to start cooking. It's so weird. It's so quiet and everyone's...watching. (CHUCKLES) I can just feel eyes on me like a hawk. I have the gantry looking at me, the other contestants that are in elimination are looking at me, and the judges are as well, and it's definitely putting the pressure on. (CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY) And I'm feeling flustered already. It's so weird! Don't know if I like it! I just need to focus and get started. The ingredients I want to work with are the honey, citrus, the blackberry jam and the eggs, and I start off by making a mousse using the eggwhites. Normally I would use a setting agent, but I don't have any in my pantry. But I do have 100 minutes, so I have got time to allow the mousse to set in the fridge. I start making a really lovely aerated meringue mixture using the eggs. I just really want to stay, so I'm really pushing myself today. I incorporate thickened cream to make my meringue base. When this sets in the fridge, it'll be nice and light. How are you making the mousse? Um, so, I'm gonna fold...honey... ..um, whipped cream and eggwhites. 'Cause you've got no setting agent, have you? The judges aren't convinced, but I have done a mousse this way before, but it's been with chocolate. So I'm gonna keep going, and I have the time. HARRY: Chloe's taking a big risk making this mousse without a setting agent. She's got more than 80 minutes left, but that still might not be enough time for it to set. Elena, your 80 minutes starts now! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I've got 80 minutes to cook a beautiful dish with red mullet, nightshades and herbs. I've got to think of a really special dish to bring all of these ingredients together. Chloe's already been cooking for 20 minutes by the time I start, but I'm really focused on what my first steps are gonna be. I need to fillet my fish. I'm fairly confident working with fish. I'm just gonna have to take my time, because red mullet is a really delicate fish. Right, Mimi, Matt - 75 minutes starts now! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I have 75 minutes. I've got the beef, the root vegetables and the spices. Today, I'm making eye fillet with roasted beetroot, pickled radishes, charred beetroot leaf butter, and I really want to make a really nice, rich sauce with the bones. BRETT: They look great, Mimi. Once they've caramelised enough, I'm gonna put them into a pot with my parsnips and carrots. I'm gonna use fennel and mustard today. I really like the aniseed flavour of fennel, and mustard goes perfectly with beef. I'm gonna season and oil my beef, then wrap it up in cling film just to get a nice round shape, and put it aside in the fridge for a little bit. MATT: To make my dish today, I've got a whole duck, I've got a basket full of alliums and a basket full of sauces, with 75 minutes to cook it. The first thing I do is break down the duck. I want to do the duck in two different ways - crispy skin on the breast and braise a duck leg. So I remove both the duck breasts and the legs. I'm gonna use the duck bones to caramelise them in a hot pan. All of this beautiful caramelisation from the bones will become the base of my sauce. The pressure cooker's up to temperature, so I deglaze with some soy out of my basket of sauces. Add a little bit of sugar, some garlic, top it up with water, and then put my duck leg in and lock it away. And now my duck bones for the sauce, they're at a point where they're really, really dark and caramelised, so now I want to introduce the char siu. Char siu is a Chinese barbecue sauce. So, it's got that sort of sweet, rich smokiness to it, and that's the sort of flavour that I want to introduce to the sauce to finish off that duck. I usually make my sauces from scratch and I need to be careful with using something out of a jar, because the flavours can be quite strong. So I dilute that through some water and glaze that over the top... ..and then let that reduce. I have to say, across the four of them, there's this certain... energy that is... They're terrified of going home, George! They're terrified of going home, and they're thinking about every single thing that they're doing. MATT: Matt, he's got a lovely pot of bones bubbling away for a stock. Stuff in jars is tricky. I'm just hoping he can balance that sauce. I'm liking Elena's dish. I mean, she's filleting the red mullet beautifully. It's very soft fish. It's like tissue paper. Mimi? It's beef, with a sauce. You know, which is inherently a little boring. Her challenge is to make it MasterCheffy and interesting. Chloe up the front, she's got the mousse. And you know what? She's got some nice little elements happening. Yeah, yeah. I think so too. My mousse is in the fridge setting naturally, so I zest all the citrus fruit and I also segment some of the oranges and the finger lime cells and I put it all into the dehydrator. ELISE: Oh, they're amazing. I really want to get that citrus hit. That's the thing I want to highlight today. So I want to make sure I get enough of the citrus elements in my dish. TRENT: Come on, Matty. Boldness and balance! That's what we're looking for! One hour to go! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ELENA: Filleting this fish is taking a lot longer than I thought. I have not filleted a red mullet before. They are a lot softer and smaller than I had imagined. So I'm being careful removing the fillets. I can smell all these delicious aromas from everyone else's dishes, but I still don't really know what my dish is gonna be. MATT: I've got the jus to the consistency that I'm after, so I strain that off into a smaller saucepan, and then I'll just keep reducing it. I'm confident. You know, it looks good. I've tasted it - it tastes great. Can I just try that sauce? Does that taste like it's been made in the MasterChef kitchen? I think it's got good depth to it. You might want to have a little backup plan. Yep. That definitely rattles the cage. I was happy with it. Like, I thought, "Yeah, this'll be really nice with the duck." But now I'm really thinking, "I need to fix this." But how? * * Does that taste like it's been made in the MasterChef kitchen? I think it's got good depth to it. You might want to have a little backup plan. That definitely rattles the cage. With 45 minutes to go, Matt Preston has just questioned my sauce. I don't want to leave it off the plate. I think it needs a sauce. So I just need to take some time to think about how I can improve it to give it that MasterChef touch. If I can't save this sauce, it could send me home. There is some great combinations of ingredients, but the question is, can you make them work? 45 minutes to go. Come on. GARY: Come on! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ELENA: Finally, I've finished filleting these fish. It's taken me a full 35 minutes. They just look so delicate. And the skin's really beautiful too, so I'm really pleased to be working with these gorgeous fillets. And I've finally got some inspiration for my dish. I'm gonna use the fishbones to create a sauce. And I really want to hero the nightshades in this sauce as well, so I decide to char up some chilli, char up some eggplant, I'm roasting some cherry tomatoes on the vine to get those smoky flavours in those ingredients into that sauce. Not going home today. I want to be here too bad. CHLOE: Knowing that I'm up against three really good cooks, I'm feeling a little bit flustered, but I just want to keep cooking and hopefully put up a good dish. Today, I'm going to make a honey mousse with a citrus curd and a blackberry lemon sauce. My mousse is in the fridge setting naturally and hopefully that's OK, so right now, I'm going to move straight on to my orange curd. I really need to nail this curd. It's super important that it's perfect on the plate. I want it to be piped onto the plate, and if it's too runny, it's obviously not going to be able to do that. I combine eggs, butter, sugar and juice, and I need to heat my curd mixture to make it nice and thick. Normally I would whisk it over the heat on a stove top, but I don't have time. So I put it in the microwave for 30-second bursts and whisk it between heating. I'm gonna try and make, like, a blueberry syrup out of the jam. While I'm doing the curd, I want to get straight into making my sauce, and obviously, because the jam has such a high sugar content already, I want to make sure that I get the balance right, so I need to bring some acidic hit. ELISE: Come on, Chloe. So I've got my sauce on my saucepan, and while I'm concentrating on that, I also have my curd in the microwave, and I'm literally multi-tasking, running back and forth, because I need to get my curd on but I need to make sure my sauce doesn't burn and I need to whisk my curd and check back on my sauce. It's crazy. I'm getting really flustered. My curd is not working. It's not thickening up. So I put my curd in the fridge with my mousse, and hopefully that will help it set a bit and it will thicken up. I had 20 minutes extra on top of everybody else's time, but things aren't working the way I wanted them to with this dish. BRETT: Come on, Chloe. Let's move, girl. MIMI: Today, I'm making eye fillet with roasted beetroot, pickled radishes and charred beetroot leaf butter. So, to make my charred beetroot leaf butter, once my beetroot leaves are really nice and crunchy, I get them out of the oven. They're looking awesome - just what I wanted. Then I need to blitz them through with some burnt butter. I'm gonna have it under the beef, and it's just gonna reinforce the beetroot and hopefully tie everything in together. MATT: Today, I'm doing duck two ways with a sauce on the side, but Matt Preston doesn't think my sauce is good enough. I need to fix this sauce, and I'm racking my brain for how I'm gonna do that. Maybe I might finish it with a little bit of butter. Actually, I might finish it with a little bit of... ..a little bit of burnt butter. I think adding some burnt butter to it and then trying to balance it out with a little bit of sugar, a little bit of vinegar - that's gonna help to round it off and give it a bit of body. Fingers crossed it pays off. And with about 20 minutes to go, I want to get this duck breast on. I want to spend a lot of time on that skin, render out all of that fat, flip it over to seal it, and then in the oven. ELENA: I want to bring this sauce together, so I take the fishbones out of the oven, deglaze with a little bit of vinegar, remove all of the sediment from the bottom of the pan - 'cause all of that flavour in there is delicious - and then put all of the bones into the pot. Then I keep reducing it to get this beautiful, rich and luscious sauce that just ties all of those other elements together. Cooks! 15 minutes to bring it all together! You got it?! Yes. You got it?! Yes, George. You got it?! Yes, George. Come on, then! Fire up! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) CHLOE: I'm bringing all the elements together for my honey mousse and orange curd dish. My orange curd is in the fridge along with my honey mousse, which is setting naturally, and I decide to make a wafer, which will help bring that crunch element. GARY: Yeah, that looks good, doesn't it? The mousse is a good texture? 'Cause you've got no setting agent, have you? Can we have a look? Is that alright? Yeah, yeah. It's still really soft. You're gonna have to be careful. I can't believe this is happening to me! I've got 15 minutes to go and my mousse isn't setting. I'm really desperate for this mousse to work, because it's the big thing in my dish. At this point, I'm definitely feeling the pressure. If this doesn't set, see you later - I'm basically walking myself out the door. * GARY: The mousse is a good texture? 'Cause you've got no setting agent, have you? It's still really soft. You're gonna have to be careful. CHLOE: With less than 15 minutes to go, I'm really desperate for this mousse to work. I need to think of a way to make it set. There's only one thing left to do - I take my mousse out of the fridge and I put it in the blast chiller and hope that that's enough to help it set. HARRY: If it was me, I probably wouldn't put that into the blast chiller. By freezing it, the texture's not really gonna be like a mousse, but more like an ice-cream. MATT: We don't need to remind you, you're cooking for your place in this competition! 10 minutes to go! Make it great! Come on! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) BRETT: Mimi, how's your beef? How does it feel? MIMI: It feels good. ELENA: The sauce has reduced down beautifully, so I can put it in a jug. I'll cook my fish at the last minute, but I need some freshness in my dish, so I'm gonna make a little salad out of the nightshades and the herbs. So, I've got some chilli, some capsicum, some tomato and eggplant, and also some roast tomatoes. Looking good, Elena! MATT: Today, I'm doing duck two ways with a sauce. I take the duck leg that has been braising in soy and garlic out of the pressure cooker, and I want to finish it in the pan. I take the duck breast... (SIGHS) ..top and tail it - it looks good. Yeah, I'm happy with that breast. It's good. It's got a pink blush the whole way through. The skin's really crispy. Um...so, yeah, it's good. Just got to get it on there. MIMI: The sauce is tasting so nice, but I just need to finish it off with a little bit of butter and a bit of ground mustard, and then that's that element done. I've rested my beef and it's cooked perfectly. ELISE: Looks good, Mimi. I'm so happy. Great. Cool. I have everything done. All I need to do is plate up. Good work! Come on, guys! Come on, Matt! Come on! Contestants! Five minutes to go! Come on! GARY: Come on! Let's go! ELENA: It's time to cook my fish. I want to have different textures, so I'm gonna deep-fry my red mullet wings. I'll coat them in a little bit of flour and deep-fry them until they're golden and crispy. ELISE: Yum. It's a beautiful textural element to add to this dish. This red mullet is a really delicate fish, so I put them into the pan skin side down for literally 30 seconds, flip them over, and they're done. It looks so beautiful. The skin has got this gorgeous pink and white pattern on it, and I'm really excited about how this is coming together. MIMI: I have everything done. All I need to do is plate up. I've got my beautiful sauce in a jug. I put my burnt beetroot leaf butter on the bottom, place a beef fillet on each dollop, rest up some roasted beetroot and radishes. I have some charred beetroot leaves left over from when I made my burnt beetroot leaf butter, so to finish it off, I'm gonna prop one on each fillet. This is a last-minute special touch, so I really hope the judges like it. You took a chance at the beginning of this challenge, but no chances now! Three minutes to go! GEORGE: Come on, guys! Come on! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Quick, Elena! Put it on the plate! ELENA: I'm ready to plate. I've got all my elements ready. I want this dish to look elegant AND delicious. So I'm gonna start with the salad. Now I can plate these gorgeous fillets and the red mullet wings. It looks beautiful on the plate. Elena, that looks stunning. Good, good job. Yeah, I'm really happy with how it's looking. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) CHLOE: With a few minutes to go now, it's time to plate up. I blowtorch my nougat to get this really nice toasty flavour through it. My curd should be beautiful and thick and it should be able to pipe and hold its shape, but it's just not the right consistency to be able to pipe, so I'm gonna have to smear it on the plate. This is my...citrus peel. It's dehydrated really well. I really want to leave my mousse in the blast chiller for as long as possible, because I want that to be set. At this point, it all comes down to my mousse. MATT: I need to start plating up this dish. So I start with a couple of little dollops of the white onion puree, I put the duck leg on, some of the leeks and shallots, position the breast. It's all coming together and I'm absolutely loving the way that it looks. My sauce has reduced right down. It smells good, but I still don't know if they're gonna absolutely hate this. (ONLOOKERS SHOUT) Come on, Elena! Come on! THIRTY SECOOONNNDS! CHLOE: There's no more time to wait for that mousse. I need to get it out. I really hope that mousse is set. But when I finally get it out of the blast chiller... ..I can hardly quenelle it. I don't know what it is anymore. But I've just got to put it on the plate and hope for the best. Come on, Chloe! Ten seconds to go! HARRY: Come on, Mimi! Come on! Nine! Eight! ALL: Seven! Six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Your time's up! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Well done. Good job. MATT: I'm so nervous walking this plate in. The question is hanging over that sauce. I don't want to go home because of a bad sauce that could completely destroy the whole dish. Matt, what's the dish? It is: How do you think you've been cooking over the last couple of weeks? Up and down. Had some average cooks. Bit of a roller-coaster at the moment. You've come from a place of a succession of highs. Why do you think you've had this wobble? I don't know. I start to question what you're doing - um, are you good enough? You start fighting a bit of a battle with yourself. Um... What element of this dish gave you the most trouble? What I was questioning the most was the sauce. Let's hope this is a great dish. Let's hope it keeps you in the competition. Thank you. GEORGE: Thanks, Matt. What do you reckon, guys? I think it all looks very, kind of, golden and tanned and...and quite delicious. I love the dish. I think it looks great. I'm worried about the sauce. * GEORGE: What do you reckon, guys? I love the dish. I think it looks great. I'm worried about the sauce. How juicy does that look?! Mmm. He said two variations on duck, and he's given us that. It's beautiful in flavour. He's put up a delicious braised piece of duck, and also a beautiful breast of duck. I think the braise is delicious. It's soft, and then he's caramelised it, which has made it really, really delicious. And then the duck breast - he's rendered the fat down perfectly. And look at how gorgeous and pink it is. Um, negatives - oh, I don't know if that sweety, very salty sauce is...that good. Is this plate of food better without the sauce? Absolutely. Mm. It'd be frustrating if something you could have left off the dish sent you home, but this has happened before. ELENA: I'm so proud of this plate of food. I think I was a little bit scared of using the red mullet, but I really feel like... it should keep me safe. What have you cooked? I've got a mullet and nightshade sauce and a mullet and nightshade salad and fillets and crispy wings. Can you visualise that three, four, five months ago? Sitting at home marking off papers, going, "I'm gonna be cooking a dish like this"? I love the sculptural element of it. The art teacher in me is so excited that there's complementary colours on there, and textures, and those sorts of things. Do you believe this is you now? I don't think my family will, 'cause it was all about generosity and good, hearty, nutritious food - and fuel. This is a different kind of fuel. It fuels...yeah, your soul. Well, let's see how you've gone. We'll taste now. Thank you, Elena. OK. Thank you. Wow. How far has she come? Yeah. The dish looks spectacular. The mullet just sings off the plate. Look at the colour of that skin! And the sauce, that almost dark orange colour - looks like that there is BAGS and bags of flavour. I don't want to talk anymore. Shall we just...? Let's just eat. Ooh, look at the fillet, though. Looks good, doesn't it? Yeah, it looks good. Look at the colour of that sauce. Ohhh! Oh, wow! Wow! Um... Can't fault it. Like, I cannot fault that dish. There's one word. It's called incredible. Yeah. Such clever cooking, isn't it? And the cleverness comes from things like... You know, that is a wonderfully rich, kind of halfway between the best creamy tomato soup and the best bisque - that, kind of, wonderful combination of those two flavours. But then that addition of that smoky eggplant at the bottom is another supercharge of flavour that works so well and is so in keeping with the whole dish. Balance and boldness. This is the sort of cooking that wins people this competition. Yeah, rock star cooking, that's for sure. Walking this plate up to the judges, I'm really proud of this dish. I know that the beef is cooked perfectly and the sauce tastes incredible. Tell us what you've cooked. I've cooked an eye fillet with roast beetroot, charred beetroot leaves and mustard pickled radish. You happy? I am, yes. I tried to think outside the square. I love beetroot, so I wanted to incorporate that, and then I didn't, sort of, want to do a beetroot puree on the bottom, so I've tried to use the leaves as that, sort of, thing that ties everything together. Mimi, we'll taste. Thank you so much. Thank you. I think it looks really good. The use of beet leaves is great, isn't it? Yeah. It's very clever, yeah. Bang on trend. Very now. Yeah. Let's taste. They do look good, those leaves, don't they? Mm. Mm. What she's done to that leaf is sort of turned it into seaweed. Sort of like a nori sheet. Yeah. It's given the beef a really interesting flavour. I love the crispy leaves. The caramelisation on the beef, the cooking of the beef, is perfect. I love the jus. Everyone is developing really fast, and that's great to see. (WHISPERS) Thanks, guys. I'm so nervous. I've never been this nervous since being in this competition. I'm really worried about my mousse. Putting it in the blast chiller really changed the texture and I don't know what it is anymore. Well, Chloe, tell us what the dish is. So, it's a... ..honey mousse with an orange curd, butter wafer, a blackberry citrus sauce, and then I've dehydrated the zest and the segments of some of the citrus fruit as well. Is that a mousse, is that an ice-cream or is that a parfait? * Is that a mousse, is that an ice-cream or is that a parfait? What's on your plate right now? I think it's a mousse. You froze it, didn't you? I was just worried about the consistency of it. It was really soft. Fingers crossed. Oh, yeah. THEY'RE good. (CRACK!) What a shame. Can't sugar-coat this one. That mousse is an absolute disaster. Yeah. She's obviously panicked and put it in the freezer, and now it's gone from being a mousse that you eat from the fridge, it's gone into the freezer to become an...ice-cream, then it's come out and it's collapsed. Yeah, yeah. It's lost its form. The success is that...that filo, which is delicious. But everything else, it's just not good enough. The curd is too loose - it's undercooked and eggy. Ohhh! It's a real pity. Sometimes in this competition, people have a wobble. Yeah. Yep. Let's do it. This is crunch time. The four of you were cooking for your place in this competition. We saw some great cooking. There was one dish that exemplified everything that we're looking for, and the person that cooked that dish was... ..Elena. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) You... ..absolutely... ..nailed it. That was beautiful - in fact, one of the best dishes we've eaten this year. Thank you. That is really cool. I think getting positive feedback from the judges is huge, because I love that they see something in me, because sometimes you can't always see it yourself. However... ..we also tasted a dish that we knew straightaway was gonna send their maker home. And, I'm sorry... ..that was you, Chloe. Wow. You know, we're gonna miss you, because you're a wonderful soul. And that's what it's all about. We've loved having you here. You gave us one of the greatest jaffles we've ever eaten in the world. (GARY LAUGHS) (CONTESTANTS EXCLAIM) WOMAN: Yummmm! How bloody good is that? There's something here really, really special. Two immunity pins. Well done. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) That is incredible. 'Cause that's just...turned everything on. Wonderful. This is a yum dessert that I've never tasted before. Your food made us smile. And that's a great thing. Tell us, what have you enjoyed the most? Ohh! (SIGHS) I think these guys. They're awesome. They're such good cooks. They deserve to be here. And...the three of you are just such an inspiration to me, and to get feedback like I've been getting from the three of you is...huge. Yeah, it's just been fun. I've never done anything like this in my life. (CHUCKLES) It's been a joy watching you progress, and you've grown so much. Now you've just got to step out there and go and do it. You hear me? Yep. "Yes, George"? (LAUGHS) Yes, George! Yes, George. (LAUGHS) You know what it's done? (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) ..and given you confidence, and you know that. Very proud of you. Yeah? Thank you. Go and get 'em, hey? Yes? Yep. I think the person that came into the competition was Chloe who was scared and not confident and nervous. And I think I'm leaving the competition very happy. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) I think I've learnt so much about who I am and I'm really proud of how far I've come. I'm gonna one day look back on this moment and I'm gonna be happy about how far I came and how far I'm gonna keep going. We've been teasing you all week. There's a big announcement. Are you ready? HARRY: Yeah! MIMI: Yes. When George reveals a cloche, I'm thinking, "Surely we're not gonna have to cook. "They can't possibly be that cruel. They said it's a big ANNOUNCEMENT." It's got to be something good, right? Next week... ..we're going on a trip. (LAUGHS) Oh, no! We're going to... ..Sydney! (ALL LAUGH) Just one word of advice. MIMI: I see Matt pull out a second cloche, and I know that Sydney's a bit of a gateway to going elsewhere. You'd better pack your passports, 'cause you're going from Sydney to San Francisco with Qantas! (ALL LAUGH, CHEER) San Francisco, baby! Yeeow! Oh, and, Trent, Elise, you know how you won the team challenge yesterday? We said there was a really special prize? You'll be flying business class. (ALL LAUGH, EXCLAIM) That's right - all next week, we'll be ranging across California looking for the most amazing produce for you to cook with, finding the most amazing chefs to inspire you. This is going to be a week that you will never, EVER forget. Go home, don't get TOO much rest, pack your bags, and we'll see you in San Francisco. (ALL LAUGH, EXCLAIM) Off you go. GARY: See you, guys. ELISE: Thank you! MIMI: I'm just so proud to have gotten to this point. Top seven, we're going overseas for a trip, and we're gonna be cooking with some of the most amazing chefs over there. Oh, my God! I'm just so excited. I can't wait to get there. Jeez! (ALL LAUGH) You guys can take my turn now. (OTHERS SCREAM) ANNOUNCER: Next week - California, here they come! Welcome to San Francisco. It's a week they'll never forget. (CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS) Starting in front of an excited Californian crowd, the top seven will use the most amazing local ingredients... Oh! You've got to bring your A game today. ..to produce simply sensational food. That's delicious cooking. This is what we're talking about! And one contestant will be rewarded with a massive opportunity. A game-changing advantage. I mean, who doesn't want a shot at that? Well, good evening, and a hearty welcome. Biscuit? Sorry, they're mine. Now, previously in my life, my mother puts me under pressure to get a proper job. So, we're signing Miranda to the Royal Navy. What?