1 # Burning up # in my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # In our souls, # we all know # our dreams make us who we are. # In my heart # like a flame, # like the brightest shooting star. # Able 2017 HARRY: This is it. Finals week. This week is all about proving to the judges that I deserve to win this. ELENA: I am so incredibly proud to be in the top six and I'm gonna give it everything that I've got. MATT: It's becoming a reality now that I could possibly win this competition. That is something that would completely change my life forever. TRENT: That grand finale is so close and I really want to show the judges what I can do and how good I can be. MIMI: By the end of these finals, someone's gonna be named MasterChef 2016. And I just think, "Why can't that be me?" ELISE: I want to be the person who's standing there at the end of this, holding that trophy above my head. Welcome back to the MasterChef kitchen. And more importantly, congratulations! You made it to finals week! Nerves? Who's nervous? You're nervous. OK, I get it. It's finals week. All we can say is, we are absolutely proud as punch. We are exactly where we wanna be right now. You are this country's top amateur cooks and you should be very proud of it. We are. And now, we are just a little over one week away from knowing who is gonna be crowned MasterChef for 2016. The question is, is it you? You all deserve to be here. You are all great cooks and on your day, any one of you can win the title of MasterChef 2016. On your benches is another familiar challenge to start this very different week, this finals week - the mystery box. I know you are all aching to cook. You ready to lift the lids? You can lift the lids...now. This box contains some of the hottest ingredients being used around the world and right here in Australia, right now. Some you'll be familiar with. Some of them will be a whole new world. OK, we've got local camel milk from Kyabram. Anyone here cooked with camel milk before? Nuh. MATT: I didn't even know camel's milk was fit for human consumption. But, why not? We've got pisco. Peruvian alcohol. Very fashionable in cocktails like a pisco sour. We've got matcha, green tea powder. Very fashionable. Gochujang which is a fermented chilli and bean paste. We've got kohlrabi and we've got this big chunk of fish is cobia or black kingfish. It's a really rich, meaty fish. It's got some of that monkfish quality in terms of the intensity of the flesh. We've got Kaiserfleisch. It's basically German bacon. Delicious, smoky. And then in this little bowl here we've got mushroom leaves. ELISE: These ingredients might be red-hot, but I'm struggling to figure out how to use them in a dish. You're gonna have 60 minutes to cook us a dish. A dish that blows our minds. You must use at least one of the ingredients out of your mystery box. Under your bench you've got a pantry of staples. But today, there's no milk. Why? 'Cause you've got camel's milk. The winner gets that all-important advantage in the invention test later on today. It's finals week, yes? CONTESTANTS: Yes, George. People talk about the sky being the limit. I think that's rubbish. The sky is only the start. You got it? CONTESTANTS: Yes, George. 60 minutes starts now! (DRAMATIC MUSIC) MATT: Now we are in finals week, top six, this is the time where I really need to push myself and get creative. I see the matcha green tea powder and there's a couple of other things there that are popping out, but 100% I wanna use the cobia. That's gonna be the one that I wanna build my dish around. I tasted the cobia and it's quite an oily fish, which I think is gonna suit it really well if I do it in a sugar and salt cure. The first thing I need to do is make the cure. The sugar, salt, and the matcha green tea powder. Get that onto the fish 'cause I need it to cure for as long as possible. I've got some of the rock salt in the little spice grinder. Blitz that up. Combine that with sugar of equal parts and then add some of the matcha powder to taste. I'm using a dry cure and it's gonna take some time, so I need to get moving. I want to sort of push myself and see how creative I can get with these ingredients. I think I'm gonna smoke some of the fish bones that I've got and incorporate that into the sauce to add a nice sort of fishy, smoky flavour. So I chop up the cobia bones nice and sort of small. And then get those into a bamboo steamer over the top of a pot. And inside the pot I put some wood chips in there and get them smoking. The kick in this fire sauce is gonna come from the gochujang paste. It's like creamy and spicy and hot and just...really, really good. Once my sauce has reduced down, the next step is to add the smoking bones. I wanna get as much flavour as I can into that pot. GEORGE: Smells good over here. Yeah, it does. Thank you. I'm just smoking the bones. Yum. I really like... I'm not gonna say anything, Harry. Good cooking, Harry. MIMI: I can see a dish in my head. I know that I want to use the cobia and I know that I want to drive some flavour into it by using the Kaiserfleisch. So my dish today is pan-fried cobia with a Kaiserfleisch oil mayonnaise and a roasted gochujang kohlrabi. Out of all the ingredients in this mystery box the camel's milk is really standing out. It's a pretty exotic ingredient, but I've got an idea for a sauce that I think will work. But right now I need to put all my energy into the fish. ELENA: Cobia is quite an oily fish, so it's crying out to be cured. I'm pretty experienced curing fish in alcohol but I would usually use a vodka or a gin. I'm less familiar with pisco. But as I taste it and I taste some of the raw fish, I think it's gonna work quite nicely. I want to cure the cobia in about half an hour so I wanna put equal parts sugar and salt in, and then just cover that to create sort of a slurry with the pisco. So lots going on and typically Elena using lots and lots of different techniques and lots of ingredients. Yep. Interesting to see how all these different preparations are gonna end up on the plate. Yes. In what guise. Yeah? Yeah. Go for it. ELISE: The competition is getting so hard and I really wanna stand out. I need to play to my strengths and my strengths are desserts. Everyone else is doing fish, so I'm going to go with a matcha parfait. I do that by putting the three eggs over a double boiler, add in a bit of sugar, whip that until it's gone a nice, pale, fluffy sort of colour and tripled in volume. I then whip some cream, place the matcha in with the egg mixture and then fold the cream through that. This is what the competition is about. You need to learn how to adapt with ingredients that you're not familiar with. I'm confident that the bitterness from this matcha powder could be perfect for my dessert. And I've got a few sort of different ideas to stand out with this Kaiserfleisch and kohlrabi. You've got some of the hottest ingredients in the world to work with. All we want is a hot dish to match. 45 minutes to go! MATT: I'm looking at the matcha salt cure and I don't know if I'm on the right track here. I don't know if I can execute my idea in this 60-minute cook. I just hope that I've got enough time. What's the dish? So I'm gonna cure the fish in salt, sugar, and a little bit of the matcha. Lovely. Then I was going to make a little gochujang custard. Is that gonna cure in time? Yeah? Finals week. There's a lot at stake. George is...he's onto it. I'm gonna have to think of a way that's gonna cure it faster. If I don't nail this, I don't have a dish. 1 Is that gonna cure in time? MATT: I think they're right on the money with that call. The first thing that pops into my head is, how can I get as much surface area of that fish covered and, you know, really compact it and get that salt and drive it in there? And I think... ..vac seal it. To cure the fish, I'm gonna transfer it into a vacuum bag. So, I organise the bag, seal it up, remove all of the air... ..and then, hopefully, that will push as much salt and then draw as much moisture out in this amount of time. I'm feeling good. It's time to kick on with the rest of the dish. I'm gonna make a nice little savoury custard later on, but I think my next priority is to add a bit more of a textural element. I want to use some of the kohlrabi leaves, wash that in eggwhite and then self-raising flour, fry that off in hot oil, and season it up. Today I'm calling my dish textures of cobia and kohlrabi. The fish is in the pisco, salt and sugar. It'll create a really nice texture in the fish. And I want some crispy skin as well. I want the skin to be super crispy, so I want to remove all of the excess flesh and I want to dry it out as much as possible before I put it in the oven. So I just want to salt it, put it between two lined trays, get it in the oven for as long as possible. You know what? There's not one bad dish out there. GARY: Matt's doing cobia with matcha. Trent is doing cobia with gochujang. Harry's doing flame-grilled cobia with gochujang glaze. and at the back, Mimi's doing cobia with Kaiserfleisch mayo. Right? So, Elise is doing a dessert. She's gonna be the one dish that is different. It's gonna, I think, you know... (SNAPS FINGERS) ..pop our tastebuds. I want them to aim for the stars, but one thing we've seen in getting to this finals week, it's been simple dishes, it's been clean dishes... Yeah, absolutely. ..that have impressed us the most. HARRY: This is finals week. And there is so much pressure to perform well. I'm gonna flame-grill my cobia and I'm gonna make a really beautiful fire sauce to go with it. I check on my fish bones and they're nice and really, really smoky. So I'm gonna get those into a pot with some pisco, reduce that by half, and then add that to the sauce. And it's starting to smell really, really, really good. It's finals week! How much do you want it? 30 minutes down, 30 minutes to go! Come on! GARY: Come on, guys. (JUDGES CLAP) TRENT: I've got the cobia curing in the gochujang and now it's time to start experimenting with this camel's milk. Camel's milk's a bit out there, but this is finals week, so I've really got to take some risks. I've made a milk emulsion before for a fish dish, and it went really well together. So why not make it with camel's milk? First I'm gonna get some camel's milk into a pot, reduce it down to about half, and then I'll emulsify some butter through it. Do you like that flavour of camel milk? I don't mind it, actually. It sort of reminds me of fresh cow's milk. It's got that bit of a funky taste and little bit of acidity. Yeah. And I'm thinking, with the butter, it'll sort of dull that down a little bit. Have you cooked some fish and tried it? No, not yet. It's gotta cure for a few minutes, and then I'm gonna get it out and cook it. 'Cause I think, for you, tasting that cobia's gonna be crucial. 'Cause, really, everything has to support the cobia flavour. Yep. Just to taste and taste and taste and taste. OK. No worries. Thanks, Matt. Matt's definitely right. I really need to taste the camel's milk emulsion with the cobia, but I can't do that until the fish is fully cooked. Yeah, I feel like I'm on a good idea, but, yeah, I don't know until it sort of gets closer to the end, whether it works or not. MIMI: I've got my kohlrabi in the oven. And I've got some pickled kohlrabi in the fridge. I've also got my fish prepared and my leaves on. The next thing I need to do is make the Kaiserfleisch mayonnaise. ELISE: I finish doing my matcha parfait and get that into the blast chiller. My kaiserfleisch crumb is on the way. The next element I need to get onto is my kohlrabi. I've never incorporated kohlrabi in a dessert before, but, you know, at the moment the fashion is to have savoury ingredients in a dessert. So that's what I'm gonna do with it. I'm going to candy it, because it's gonna bring a sweet note. But I'm also gonna soak it in some pisco, just to bring that nice, strong alcohol flavour throughout the whole dish. Wow, man. That stuff's so strong! MATT: I've got the fish locked away in the vacuum bag, so that can just sit there and, hopefully, cure in time. Now I can move on to the next element. This dish today needs to be really special, so I want to complement the fish with a savoury custard, using the camel's milk and some of the gochujang. This custard is gonna be... a big trial and error for me. I've never used camel milk before. I don't know how it's gonna react. So, you know, I don't know if this is gonna change the outcome of the custard. So, I've got my egg yolks, gochujang, a little bit of sugar and some flour in a bowl. Whisk that to form a paste. I've got my camel milk in a saucepan, bring that up to a heat, combine the two... Let's see what happens. ..and then basically stir it until it thickens. This is definitely my first experience with camel milk. Um, yeah, not something that I usually stock at home. I honestly have absolutely no idea how it's gonna turn out, and the last thing I want to be doing is wasting time on something that's gonna be a complete flop. Does it taste good? I still have to pass it. It's sweet, isn't it? Is that gonna work with the sauciness of the fish? He might be right in terms of the sweetness. I'm thinking, how can I fix it? And then I remember, there's vinegar in our under-bench staples. So I hit it with a little bit of vinegar. I taste it, and I think... .."That's alright!" It's working. I'm...I'm gonna go with it. HARRY: There's 15 minutes to go, and I'm really happy with my fire sauce, but I need to start getting onto this fish. I have to fry it perfectly. Once that's done, I'm gonna put it on top of a flame grill to make sure I've got a nice char on the skin. It's got quite a dense flesh, so I don't really know how long it's gonna take the cook. Five out of six of us are using this fish and I have to make the best one if I want to win the advantage. TRENT: My fish has been curing in the gochujang for plenty of time now, so I think it's ready to cook. I'm gonna quickly sear it in the pan, just to brown the edges off, and then I'm gonna taste some of it with that camel's milk emulsion. Finals week, beautiful people! 10 minutes to go! GARY: Come on! (CLAPS) MATT: The fish has been curing for about half an hour, so I need to take it out of the vacuum bag and see what I'm dealing with. If it hasn't cured properly, I'm in real trouble. I remove all of the cure from around it, take it over to my board, take a slice off it and it just...it runs through like butter, so that's a good sign. But I need to taste it. It's spot-on. ELENA: I'm calling my dish textures of cobia and kohlrabi. I'm quite happy with all of my elements so far, but I really need something to tie it all together - that's gonna be my gochujang caramel sauce. So I'm just gonna use equal parts sugar and water, and about a tablespoon of gochujang. TRENT: I've finished cooking this fish. Now it's time to taste it with the camel's milk emulsion to see how it goes. Yeah, it's not too bad, actually. My main concern with this dish was how that camel milk emulsion was gonna taste and how it was gonna go with the fish. I like it, but I just really hope the judges agree, 'cause this might not be to everyone's taste. There's just five minutes left! Five minutes to get everything on the plate! Five minutes to go! Oh! HARRY: I take my cobia out of the pan and it's just a little bit under. 'Cause I'm put it on top of a flame grill to make sure I've got a nice char on the skin, and that's gonna cook it a little bit further. I'm painting some of the gochujang glaze over the top, make sure it's nice and sort of coated, and then, when it's charring, it's gonna give that nice sort of burnt flavour to it. And it starts charring up really nicely. You can hear the fat sort of sizzling from underneath the skin, which is really good. 'Cause, you know, the judges love crispy skin. ELISE: My parfaits have set, so I now need to get them out of the blast chiller, and I'm placing them on top of the plate. I've got my candied kohlrabi, my pisco-soaked kohlrabi, and to top it all off, I've got my jug of caramel sauce off to the side. We have turned the heat up. But what did you expect? It's finals week. Three minutes to go. Come on. GEORGE: Come on, guys. MATT: Now I can start to build this dish. So I grab one of the crispy kohlrabi leaves, place that on the base, then I take out the fish, place that around, dress it with some of the gochujang custard, some of the pickled kohlrabi, and the mushroom leaves. I'm stoked. That rich colour of the custard, it really pops on the plate. ELENA: I'm ready to plate. But I'm really disappointed with my gochujang caramel sauce. I wanted a nice slick on the plate so that I could hold the other elements in place, but I've taken it too far and it's gone hard. I need this sauce to tie all of my elements together, so I can't afford to leave it off. I place my pickled kohlrabi discs over the caramel, then I mirror that with a row of pisco-cured fish, scatter over all my other elements, and then top it off with my crispy fish skin. GARY: Come on, guys! This is where it counts! Two minutes to go! HARRY: My cobia is beautifully charred on the outside, so I take it off the grill, but I'm really, really worried - I'm not sure if it's perfectly cooked on the inside. The only way to check that it is is to get the internal temperature over 50 degrees. I put a thermometer in and then I start plating. To plate up, I've got this nice little mound of the grated kohlrabi. I've got some sliced kohlrabi that's been pickled in the pisco. And I'm gonna use some of the leaves as well. Now all I need is the fish. It's down to the wire time! One minute to go! One minute! GEORGE: Come on, guys. (JUDGES CLAP) I check on the temperature. Ugh! It's only at 48.5 degrees. That's absolutely terrifying, so I quickly get my fish back into the pan, 'cause it needs to be at 50 degrees before it's cooked perfectly. If this cobia isn't cooked perfectly in the middle, then I'm done. 1 GEORGE: 30 seconds! Come on. Come on. HARRY: I've got my fish back in the pan. I'm just really, really praying that I can get it up to temperature in time. Right. This is it. It's going to be a great finals week. 10 seconds to go. Nine... I've just got to get it on to the plate and hope for the best. JUDGES: Five, four, three, two, one. That's it! Time's up. (LAUGHS) (SIGHS) Well, we said we were going to turn up the heat in the kitchen, rack up the pressure, and I think we've done that. We gave you some of the hottest ingredients in your mystery box. Let's hope your ideas have come to fruition and it matches our expectation in finals week. First up, Matt. (OTHERS APPLAUD) MATT: Taking my dish up to the judges, I'm really happy with everything that's on the plate. I know there's a few fish dishes in the building. I just hope that mine's got enough to get me over the line. Right, Matt. What did you cook? It's a cured and smoked cobia with a little gochujang custard, some fried kohlrabi leaves and some pickled mushroom leaves. Looks great. Looks great. Thank you. Love it. Love the look of it. Wow. There's more than a few things I love about it. Number one, the tempura-like crunch on that kohlrabi leaf with that little hit of salt. The beautiful way you've handled that fish in terms of the sugar and salt. It's subtle, it's delicious and I love that gochujang custard. That is absolutely smashing. Put those three things together and there's an absolute riot in my mouth. Love it. Yeah, and, you know, it's the little things, Matt, and that's what finals week's all about. It's all about the fine detail, you know, the stuff you look at with a microscope, and curing is not just about the flavour that you introduce but it's also about the texture that you adjust on the fish and, for me, that is like, wow! I think the custard works beautifully with the fish and I love the fact that there's not a dish like this on an Australian menu, as far as I know, anywhere using that combination, so that makes you a true original, Matt. But above all what I love is how far you've come and wondering how far you'll go. It's going to be a good week, boys. What a great way to start finals week. I'm feeling like I could be a chance today. Elena, you're up next. (OTHERS APPLAUD) What have you cooked, Elena? ELENA: It's textures of cobia and kohlrabi. Looks great. Good stuff. Right. What's great about this dish is texture. So, I love that kohlrabi. And of course then you've got the soft textural elements which are the fish itself and then the kohlrabi discs. Love the dressing but I think the mistake you've made obviously is that you've got very hard caramelised items underneath there, which really should be looser. Yeah. Gee, you've done so much so well. It's a really, really good dish and it's just that, you know what, three minutes on the heat for too long with the caramel. Good job, though, Elena. All in all the feedback sort of confirms what I was feeling already. 'Cause I actually like a lot of the flavours that are on there but it's kind of a first draft. Well done. Trent, it's your turn. TRENT: I'm really happy with how this dish turned out. I think the flavours go together really well, but I really hope the judges agree with me. It might not be everyone's cup of tea. So, Trent, what have you cooked? It's a gochujang-cured cobia with kohlrabi and a camel's milk emulsion. I think that is yum. You've been very clever with the camel milk butter. Yeah. But the pleasure in the dish for me is the texture. It's the crispy skin. It's the baked kohlrabi leaf. It's clever, no doubt about it, you know, and there's a delicious dish there that you'd happily enjoy in any good restaurant. I think bizarrely that camel's milk butter goes really, really well with the cobia. That those two things are great. Well done, Trent. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Mimi, you're next. MIMI: There's heaps of different flavours on this dish. I really like them but I just hope the judges do too. Mimi, what have you cooked? I've made pan-fried cobia with some braised kohlrabi leaves, some gochujang kohlrabi and a Kaiserfleisch mayonnaise. I love the way you cooked the fish. It's beautiful, it's tender, it's soft. And I love the Kaiserfleisch mayonnaise. For me, it's about a ratio issue. I think the flavours are right but a bit more of that chilliness and a little bit less fish, suddenly you would've got something really interesting. Thanks, Mimi. Thanks. Elise. (OTHERS APPLAUD) ELISE: I'm glad I did a dessert. I did what I know and I know the flavours work really well, so I'm proud of myself. Elise, what's the dish? It's a matcha parfait with kohlrabi and Kaiserfleisch crumb. What do you reckon about the look, George? Looks wonderful. Yeah. I think it's delicious. I love it. I think, you know, you're a master of parfait so why not exploit the fact in finals week? It's delicious texture. You can't fault it. And I love the fact that you then get salty, crispy crunchiness and some freshness too. Some brightness in there, which is the kohlrabi. The whole idea of fruit and savoury and vegetables and dessert is absolutely on the trend. Hot ingredients, hot dish. (LAUGHS) Thank you. I knew the flavours worked really well together and it was an inventive, sort of creative dish, so I'm happy. Thank you. Aw! The last dish we'd like to taste belongs to... ..Harry. HARRY: I'm walking my plate up to the judges and I think the fish is cooked perfectly but I'm not 100% sure. That makes me really, really worried. Can I ask a question? Are you concerned about the cooking of the fish? 1 Harry, what's the dish? This is my flame-grilled cobia with fire sauce, Kaiserfleisch and kohlrabi. Can I ask a question? Are you concerned about the cooking of the fish? We worry when there's that kind of char. Mmm, we do. Let's see. You know what? That's cooked to perfection. Mmm. Mm. Mmm! Mmm! The way that you used smoke to tie together the elements in this dish is inspired, especially when you've got that big char on the skin of the cobia. I love it. I love it for its sweetness, I love it for its heat and I love it especially for that layer of fat just under the cobia skin that is absolutely like... ..it's like the underside of pork crackling, that really jellified fat. If we were looking at the other two boys' dishes compared to yours, theirs are all finesse and elegance and cleanness, and this is a dirty streetfighter of a dish and I like it. Yeah, but an elegant dirty streetfighter. I mean, this is... (LAUGHS) You know, this has got golden gloves on. Do I really need to say anything else? No. Wow! My lips are tingling and it's one of those things where you go specifically to a restaurant because there's one dish you want. That's one of those dishes. I love it. This is one of those tastings of the tastiest dishes ever on MasterChef. Thank you. Amazing. (APPLAUSE) This is so cool! Having a good review like that is the best start to finals week that I could ever ask for. Oh! I'm so happy. What a wonderful tasting, and a perfect tasting to kick off finals week. You should all take this as a little bit of a momentum boost, 'cause you've all done some cracking stuff with weird ingredients that are distinctly outside of the box. There was one dish, though, that we felt used those ingredients to absolute maximum impact. That dish belonged to... ..Harry. I've never won one of these before and to win this one, that's so cool! Great dish, Harry. You know what that means? That means you win the advantage going into probably the most important invention test any of you have taken part in. Are you ready to see what your advantage is? Absolutely. Off you go for your first time in the pantry with George and Gary. Good luck, Haz. Right. Aw, no. Mmm! So, Harry, with the mystery box challenge first up this morning, it was all about the hottest ingredients. In the invention test, it's all about the hottest cooking techniques right now. So, shall we have a little look, see what you've got to choose from? Alright, Harry, the choices today are between... ..smoking. Using the smoking gun. The second piece of equipment... ..is a low-temperature water bath. And the last one... ..liquid nitrogen! This could actually be a tough decision because I like all three of these cooking techniques, but one's particularly sort of screaming at me. So, have you made a decision? I think I have. OK, brilliant. Let's go and let them know what you've chosen. Ooh! So, Harry, tell us what your choices were. So, I got to choose between smoking, sous-vide and using liquid nitrogen. Harry, show 'em. So, today... ..I chose... ..liquid nitrogen. Oh, my God. I'm not looking forward to it at all. Matt, what do you think? I think it's going to be tough. No, don't be scared by it. Embrace it. Remove the mystery, the science and the myth of liquid nitrogen. This day and age, we use it to cook with in modern-day kitchens. It's an invention test. Remember, there's consequences. (SIGHS) The top three dishes are safe and they guarantee their makers a place in the top five. The bottom three will go forward to a pressure test tomorrow... ..where one of you will go home. You will have 60 minutes to make a dish that is delicious and also inventive. Ready? Your time starts...now. I'm nervous from the beginning with this cook. I think the first thing that using a technique like liquid nitrogen would suggest is something sweet. There's not a great deal that's popping into my mind. I don't want to just make an anglaise and put it in a stand mixer and whisk it up because I know that's what everyone's going to do. I'm going to try to do something a little bit different - a frozen coconut mousse. The first thing I want to do is to make a raspberry and rosemary frangipane to go with it. I think, you know, it really works well together. HARRY: I feel like I'm on a roll today and I want to do something really, really special, but it's 60 minutes on the clock and I've got a dish in mind, but it's going to be a slog to get it done in this time. Jeez, you've got everyone in this little pickle, haven't you? (GARY LAUGHS) Huh? I love it. What is it? What's the dish? I'm going to do a black sesame bavarois with a black sesame dacquoise. What are you going to cook using liquid nitrogen? I'm going to do a fennel sorbet, I'm going to do a strawberry granita. OK, I like it. Good idea. Great. Tell you what - you got your work cut out. Plenty to do. First thing I need to get onto is making the dacquoise, so I get some eggwhites and sugar, whisk those in a bowl together to make a meringue, then fold through some almond meal and black sesame. After my dacquoise mix is ready, I spread it out into a baking tray and bake that into the oven. I think the interesting thing is that Harry knows exactly what he's going to cook. I think he's taken his advantage very, very seriously indeed. And the rest of them seem to be a bit taken aback by his choice. But really, it's all about the three that are going to end up in the pressure test. One of them is going to go home. And this challenge is going to test them. ELENA: I think most of us would sort of be leaning towards desserts, but I'm hoping that maybe by cooking savoury and playing to my strengths, that'll play to my advantage today. I've decided to call it Cool As A Cucumber because I really want to celebrate the cucumber today. I'm going to have gin-soaked cucumbers, I'm going to have some scorched ribbons, some fresh ribbons, and I'm going to arrange them all in a beautiful chilled cucumber soup with little pops of mint, dill and apple. On top of this dish, I want to create kind of a frozen yoghurt snow and that's where my liquid nitrogen is going to come into play. I was definitely very terrified at the beginning of the cook. Now that I've sort of got a clear idea of what I want to be doing, I'm feeling a little bit more confident. Mimi, what's the dish? Hey. I'm going to make a 'forage' mint slice. 'Forage' mint slice? Yes. So, there's a mint slice but it's in something, so you've got to go looking for it? Yes. That's a great idea. I like it. It's cool. So, there's going to be a biscuit at the bottom and then a chocolate dome filled with mint ice-cream. The crumbs on the top is like dirt and all the herbs will just be like little plants. I really want the diner to forage through and to have to find the dessert through all leaves and the chocolate. The main part of this dish is the minty flavour, so I need to get this mint ice-cream perfect. Loving the energy at the beginning of this challenge. Let's keep it going. 45 minutes to go. Come on! MATT: I'm nervous for this cook. Desserts are definitely not my thing, it's not a strength of mine. But I haven't sacrificed everything and worked this hard to get to this point to throw it all away, so I'll give it everything I've got. To make the base of this frangipane I began by creaming equal quantities of butter and sugar and then add eggs one by one, fold through almond meal and a little bit of plain flour. Oh, dear. Little split? (SHUDDERS) . All right, so, this is Tim. 34-year-old male. RTC. Multi-vehicle... VOICES OVERLAP I think about the car crash a lot. I know he caused it and I reacted the best way possible. But it's hard to let it go. SOMBRE MUSIC When I asked what had happened to him, the doctors said he really wore the impact ` any more and things would've been much worse. They said he was lucky ` lucky I wasn't going any faster. Thank you. SOMBRE MUSIC CONTINUES It's OK. MUSIC CONTINUES It's OK. 1 GARY: Oh, dear. A little split? MATT: When Gary and George come to my bench they seem worried that the batter for the frangipane cake has split. I look at the clock. I don't have enough time to make another batch. I've gotta move on. I stir some flour through it, and I'm hoping that's gonna fix it... ..and put it in the oven and...move on. Today I'm gonna make a coconut three milk cake with a Chinese five spice ice-cream and a confit pineapple. I know my cake's really sweet, and I've got the sweet pineapple, so I'm gonna try and balance it out by really pushing that savoury flavour in the ice-cream. I've got my cake batter made. Um, I'm happy with it. I just need to get it into the oven. ELISE: Today I'm going to do saffron mousse domes with a date and pecan crumb and an orange blossom ice-cream. My anglaise for my mousse is ready, and I add a pinch of saffron and it turns this beautiful yellow colour. Wow. Look at the colour of that! What's cooking? Is that really strong? Is that very saffrony? Depends how you like your saffron, doesn't it? You know, when it's really strong, you've gotta be careful. I get what Gary's saying, but I really like it so I'm just gonna back myself. ELENA: I want the main components of my dish today to be all celebrating the cucumber. I've got my cucumber soup on the go. And I want to use gin for my next element. I want to make some gin-soaked cucumbers. I want to trim the outside of the cucumber and then cut out the seeds, so the gin has got more of a chance to soak into the flesh of the cucumber but it's still gonna stay crisp. You need to test your elements. You need to do that now. 30 minutes to go. Come on. MIMI: Today I'm gonna create a 'forage' mint slice. I've got my chocolate domes in the freezer, I've got my chocolate biscuits in the oven, and my chocolate crumb and my mint sugar are ready to go. Now all I need to do is get onto this mint ice-cream. The mint ice-cream is the main element on my dish. To make the anglaise, I'm gonna infuse the mint into the milk and just heat it up before I start putting the eggs and sugar in. Hopefully, it transfers a really nice minty flavour. I have a taste, and it's just not tasting very minty. So I just keep adding some more fresh mint in. But it's just not tasting right. The flavour of the mint is just not coming through. I'm not sure if the mint leaves are gonna give me enough flavour or not. I need to think of something quickly. So I decide I'm just gonna puree them. I just hope I made the right decision. HARRY: There's 20 minutes to go, and...I have a lot to do. I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew. The next thing I've gotta do is make sure I've got a perfect dacquoise to go with the bavarois. So I pull the dacquoise out. It feels really nice. It's soft, which you want. It's sort of nice and chewy. And all I need to do now is pour my bavarois mix on top of that and get that into the blast freezer. Hopefully, that's gonna set in time. Cake's in the oven, cooking, and I move on to the anglaise for the ice-cream. I add the Chinese five spice. It's a really different flavour that you wouldn't expect to be in an ice-cream, and it goes together really well with the pineapple and the coconut. I know my cake's gonna be really sweet, so I'm gonna try and balance it out by really pushing that savoury flavour in the ice-cream. MATT: 15 minutes! 15 minutes to go! Come on, guys! Let's go! Let's go! A bit nerve-racking, isn't it? I know! (LAUGHS) Ooh! I'm just hoping and praying that it's gonna work. Give it a blow - see what's going on. And I'm slowly pouring it in, and... Yeah, it's thickening up. ..it's working! Look at that! There we go. There you are. Done! Now you're getting ice-cream. That's awesome. It's beautiful. It's perfect. It's so creamy and smooth and it's a beautiful consistency. I wish we had liquid nitrogen all the time to set my ice-creams. I'm hoping that I can shape this aerated mousse into beautiful little frozen quenelles. Dropping the spoonfuls of the coconut mousse into the liquid nitrogen... ..but it's just not working. It's just looking nothing like the picture I had in my head. They're a mess. They're not neat. They're falling apart. And there's nothing I can do about it. 1 I've tried to do something different today by using the liquid nitrogen to set a mousse, but it's come undone. It's just looking nothing like the picture I had in my head. I'm not happy with it. Now I've got a frozen coconut mousse that looks like a blobby mess and a cake in the oven that the judges were questioning. It's not looking good. By the look of it, some of you are on thin ice. 10 minutes to go! Come on. GEORGE: Come on, guys. HARRY: I've got my bavarois and my dacquoise mix in the freezer. It's time for me to start playing with the liquid nitrogen. I'm happy. I'm excited. Ready to have fun. My mission is to turn this sweetened fennel juice into a fennel sorbet. I start whisking that and pouring in the liquid nitrogen nice and slow. I can't see anything 'cause there's so much smoke coming out of the mixer, but I can hear it slowly starting together... The sorbet looks like it's working and I'm really happy with it. ELENA: I'm fairly happy with the elements that I've got organised for my cucumber dish, but I want to create kind of a frozen yoghurt snow on top of this dish. I start spraying my frozen yoghurt into the liquid nitrogen and... ..it seems to be working. Time to get a shuffle on. Five minutes to go. Come on, guys. GARY: Come on. Five minutes. I'm pouring the milk soak over the cake. It's got condensed milk, evaporated milk, coconut milk. I haven't got too much to do. I just really need to finish all the elements off. Don't want to be in the pressure test tomorrow at all. Just need to really concentrate and, yeah, try and stay out of that bottom three. To plate up this dish, I start with the cake. I pipe on some coconut mascarpone cream, another layer of cake, some more cream, finish it off with the confit pineapple and then just a nice big dollop of that five spice ice-cream on the side. I get the bavarois out of the fridge... ..and it's perfectly set. I unwrap it, slice it up, taste it and it is so good. I taste the sorbet. It's really, really nice as well. I'm starting to think that I might have a chance here. I take the frangipane out of the oven, It's cooked. And now I've just got to start plating up. I put a little bit of raspberry curd on the base, cake on top. And I'm just not buying it. It's quite large. I just decide to cut it in half. Immediately, I regret it. I know this is gonna look rubbish. Presentation is really important with this dish. I've got the biscuit on the plate. I need to flip out the dome on there. I'm still worried that there's not enough mint in my ice-cream. So, at the last minute, I decide to fry off some mint leaves and I just hope that it gives my dish that extra minty flavour. What I want from this dish is sort of like a forest floor. So I've got some deep-fried mint leaves, some chocolate mint leaves, some fresh mint leaves and a bit of thyme. Let's hope all these good ideas are coming together with three minutes to go. You do not want to be in that pressure test. Come on. GEORGE: Come on, guys. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. ELENA: I'm having quite a bit of fun with the plating, so when I get those main gin-soaked cucumbers, they're sort of that main sculptural and height element on there. I want to use some apple, fresh mint leaves, and some fresh dill fronds throughout the dish, so you can discover these little flavour bombs as you're eating. I'm putting the final little touches and the garnishes on my plate and... ..I'm looking down and it's just so happy. MATT: Make it pretty, make it perfect. One minute to go! Come on, guys! GEORGE: Come on. ELISE: The balance of this dish is really important. As I'm plating up, I'm going through all the flavours in my head. I've got a crunch, I've got, you know, the savoury note of the saffron, I've got the sweet note from the ice-cream, but...I know my dish is missing something. GARY: OK. This is it. 10 seconds. ALL: Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. That's it. Your time is up. MATT: Well done. Holy sh... I'm so sorry. ELISE: Well done. How'd you go? ELENA: It was interesting. Well, Harry chose a cooking technique which is one of the hottest things around. The consequences of this challenge - three people safe but three people into tomorrow's pressure test. First dish we'd like to taste belongs to Elena. (ALL CHEER) I want to show growth to myself and to the judges and I feel like I've done that today. I'm hoping that they see it, too. And I'm pretty happy walking my dish up today. Wa-hey. Elena, what have you cooked? I've decided to call it Cool as a Cucumber because that's the opposite of how I was feeling at the beginning of the cook. I love it. It's refreshing. It's interesting and you had to use liquid nitrogen and you used that in a really smart way. This is really what so much modern cooking is all about. Take one ingredient and just explore it in lots of different ways, both texturally and in terms of your flavour pairings. And I love the fact that every mouthful is different. Sometimes you get a little hint of apple at the back of the cucumber. Sometimes you get a little hint of dill. This style of cooking, this kind of level of complexity becomes you. It's wonderful. Well done, Elena. Cracking. Thank you. (CHEERING) I am over the moon with the feedback from the three judges today. Good job, darling. Thank you. It's time for Mimi's dish. I'm feeling really happy with how my plate looks. I'm just hoping that my ice-cream has enough mint punch in it to make it seem like a mint slice. Can I ask a question? Your ice-cream, did you puree mint leaves in order to infuse the cream? 1 Mimi, what's the dish? MIMI: A 'forage' mint slice - so, you've got to forage for it yourself. Can I ask a question? Did you puree mint leaves in order to infuse the cream? Yes, I did. OK. Matt's questioned the technique that I've used to infuse the mint, and now I'm really worried. It needs to be mintier. You know, like, more obviously like, "Boom, mint!" It's a weird thing I find with mint, if you puree it, it turns dark and bitter. And you lose that real freshness of mint. And for me, that lets down what could be, in the future, a really brilliant signature dish. I love the idea. I love how thin and crisp that chocolate dome is. Conceptually, fantastic. Great idea. Cracking idea. It needs tweaking. The judges really liked the look and the concept, but they're not mad on the flavours. I'm just hoping I'm not in the bottom three. Trent, your turn. TRENT: I know that my cake and my pineapple are really sweet, but I just really hope there's enough spice in this ice-cream to really balance out that sweetness. Trent, what's the dish? It's a three milk coconut cake with confit pineapple and five spice ice-cream. Ah. See, that's interesting. I'm hoping that's going to taste great. Me too. This dessert sort of plays with your head. The cake tastes 1960s Australian country. I think you're then looking for an ice-cream that's really sweet, but it's just not there. For me, it's not quite right. There's something that I don't quite get about it. And that doesn't mean that the ice-cream's not right, because the texture of the ice-cream is fantastic. The texture of the sponge is fantastic - it's soft - and, you know, the cream...it's all very edible. Unfortunately, for me, that strong five spice flavour just does not go with the coconut and pineapple. When it comes down to pressure into the bottom three, I'm applying it. Thanks. Next up, Elise. ELISE: It's saffron mousse with date and pecan. The ice-cream is? An orange blossom. The dessert's delicious. I love that combination of saffron, of orange blossom, of date. You know, they remind me of Christmas flavours for me, and I love that. I think it's absolutely delicious. It's yum, and I love how the sugar's really low on it, and, you know, you can taste saffron. And you can definitely taste saffron. Definitely taste saffron. I know what Matt's going to say. OK. It is chronically crying out for something fresh. It's crying out for some fresh orange on there, because otherwise, everything... everything's quite confected. So, it needs some brightness. Not a bad dish. And there's some amazing... That ice-cream is absolutely beautiful. Best ice-cream. Yeah. Thanks, Elise. Thank you. The judges loved the ice-cream, but it's definitely missing the freshness. How did I forget that? Next up to the tasting table is Matt. Matt, what have you cooked? MATT: It's a raspberry and rosemary frangipane, with raspberry curds and frozen coconut mousse. GARY: I think you're in a bit of trouble. It's a cake you might find in a shop and buy to take home to have with tea. The cake itself, I watched you make it. That mixture was separated when you were adding in the almond meal. It's not 100%. You cooked so well in the previous cooks. This is not what we've come to expect from you. It's not the thoughtful cooking. It's not the beautiful plating. It's you on an off day. There's really not a lot that will act as a safety raft for you going into the bottom three. Thanks, boys. It's pretty tough for me to accept the fact that, you know, I've had an off day in the kitchen. But it's come at a time where you can't afford to have them. The last dish we'd like to taste... ..Harry. HARRY: I'm really proud. I feel like I've really used my advantage well. So, Harry, you had all the advantage. Have you delivered? Are you happy? I'm really happy with it. Looks pretty impressive. What's the dish? This is a black sesame bavarois with fennel sorbet and strawberry granita. Tell you what, you seem to have taken it up a notch. Honestly. Like, presentation and just the contrast of colours, for me, just looks amazing. Looks amazing. Spectacular. Really, really good. I love it. Absolutely delicious. It's beyond delicious, because it's sophisticated. It's really well thought out. And the technique, you know, from a chefy perspective, is very, very impressive. It is just... That is on the money. I love it. I'm...I'm mesmerised in the presentation. It just goes to show why you are in the top six. Thank you. And the restraint of sugar is fantastic. The black sesame bavarois really works as a beautiful foil against that combination of the anise flavour of the fennel with the strawberries. So, really elegant, modern dessert, and I think you've used the nitrogen in a restrained manner, rather than as kind of like a PT Barnum, you know, dat-dat-dat-dat-dah type moment, which I love. Well done. Hang on. There's one more thing that needs to be done. Oh, dear. (CHUCKLES) Thank you, guys. (CHUCKLES) Whoo. That feels cool. To come back to the MasterChef Kitchen at the start of finals week, have two good cooks in one day - it's all I could ask for. I'm just...I'm blown away. At this stage in the competition, in finals week, you need to be cooking at your absolute best. Today, two of you clearly demonstrated that you absolutely are. Harry. Yes! That dessert was absolutely delicious, and I would almost say inspired. Black sesame. And you have brought back the bavarois, baby. We love you for it. Well done. And... ..Elena. Absolutely brilliant. A classic combination of cucumber, dill, and yoghurt, but in an entirely modern and beautiful way, and exactly your style, and exactly at the right moment. Your timing is perfect. Well done. Both of you are safe and through to our top five. Well done. (APPLAUSE) Well, there's only one more place of safety today. So, it comes down to the four of you - Matt, Trent, Elise, and Mimi. One of you is safe. The other three are going through to tomorrow's pressure test. 1 1 Well, there's only one more place of safety today. So it comes down to the four of you - Matt, Trent, Elise and Mimi. One of you is safe, the other three are going through to tomorrow's pressure test. Matt, we think that you know you're already in the bottom three. You are. I'm sorry, it's just not your day. What we were looking for today was invention, was flavour, and above all, an inspired use of liquid nitrogen. And one of you three used it brilliantly. That was you, Elise. And that's why you're safe. Congratulations. (APPLAUSE) Which means, I'm sorry to say, that Matt, Trent, Mimi, you are in tomorrow's pressure test, where two of you will make it through to the top five. You know what happens to the other one. It's not good. Not in finals week. You'll go home. Oh... Mimi, Trent, Matt. You deserve to be here. The three of you deserve to win this thing. Can you do it? Ask yourself the question. Can you cook? 100%. Have you grown? 100%. Do you know who you are as a cook? 100%. So it's up to you now. Go home, rest, think about how much you want it. Come in tomorrow, no fancy quotes, no inspiration. Just cook. Cook with everything you've got. You got it? CONTESTANTS: Yes, George. Get out of here. MATT SINCLAIR: I think if there's one thing I'm looking for tomorrow heading into this pressure test, it's probably a little bit of redemption. I've gotta go in there and cook as hard as I can cook. 'Cause that's what it's gonna take to get me over the line. ANNOUNCER: Next time, internationally acclaimed chef and princess of pressure tests... MATT PRESTON: Christy Tania. Oh, my God. ..is back. You will be re-creating my Mystique. With a dessert... (GASPS) What is that? ..to end all desserts. You want to turn around and run out the door. For 4.5 stressful hours... So much more to do. ..Trent, Matt and Mimi will endure the toughest challenge ever. This is not my day. And in their fight for survival... Keep moving. Keep moving. ..will make mistakes... What?! ..that will send one of them home. You can do this, Matt. I feel like today is gonna be a disaster. Why didn't you tell him, Mum? Why didn't you tell Frank? Frank's dead. Doesn't mean they've got no-one looking out for them. You're Frank's cop. I needed money. My mum - her care home, it's expensive. How long have we known each other? They got anything on you?