. ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia - Christy Tania's marathon pressure test... Just keep moving. What?! ..stretched the contestants to the limit. It's a long way off, still. But it was Trent... You're going home. ..who bid his final farewell. One of the best experiences of my life, for sure. Tonight, it's a trip to the country for the top five. Please welcome, Alla Wolf-Tasker. But that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park. GARY: It's her restaurant, so she'll be watching you like a hawk. At this famous two-hatted restaurant each contestant will replicate one of Alla's signature dishes. Tell me you're going well. And she'll push them... They're all over the place. ..in ways they never knew possible. Move it. Move it. Move it. Fast. Fast. Not working. But, despite the blood, sweat and tears... It's finals week and you wanna make it. ..three will go into... MATT: Holy shit. ..elimination. I can't get myself out of this hole. # 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. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2017. ELENA: We've been driven out of Melbourne and we've arrived in Daylesford. It's a beautiful little country town. It's so beautiful. So gorgeous. There's the light shining through these beautiful trees. Then I realise... Oh, my God. Unbelievably, we're gonna be cooking in Alla Wolf-Tasker's restaurant today, Lake House. GEORGE: Come on. Let's go. Get a trot on. Wanna warm up? Wow. What a privilege to be here. Oh! Look at you lot, our culinary combatants. All very smart and chipper in their whites. It makes me feel all kind of warm and toasty inside, even though it's slightly freezing here. Welcome to Daylesford and, of course, the Lake House, one of the top culinary destinations in Australia. And, of course, fittingly so, because you are our top five for MasterChef 2016. GEORGE: Well done, guys. It feels good, doesn't it? I remember sitting at my dining table applying for MasterChef and I never even thought I would get to try out for the judges' auditions and I did that. To be top five is the biggest achievement I've probably had in my life. Exciting times indeed. And today, so much to play for. The top two dishes send their makers straight into our quarterfinal. Wow. Just two cooks away from the grand final. To get to the quarterfinals would be incredible. It's one step closer to winning it, and I do believe that I can win it. But the contestants who cook the three least impressive dishes, have to fight it out in tomorrow's elimination. And, obviously, from there, one of you is going to go home. There are two words that really sum up what MasterChef is all about, dishes and dreams. And few places really encapsulate the realisation of a food dream like the Lake House. 30 years ago this was an abandoned goldmine. Now it is a shining example of what can be achieved when you marry a clear vision with determination and hard work. None of this would have been possible without the energy and the tenacity of one woman. Please welcome a living legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival... ..a proud recipient of the Order of Australia, for food, hospitality and tourism - Alla Wolf-Tasker! ALLA: Morning. You been feeding my geese? (GEESE HONK) Alla... (CONTESTANTS LAUGH) ..give us a sense of what this was like back then. Well, ah, the lake was actually a swamp with a whole lot of old car wrecks in it. Denuded paddock filled with gorse and blackberry. But we were very young, ambitious and foolhardy. So, 31 years later, here we have Lake House. ELENA: Alla's story is so inspiring to me. She's taken a run-down property, built it into a beautiful restaurant, and I really feel like with a lot of hard work, I might be able to achieve my dreams the way she has. GEORGE: So, how's today gonna work? Oh. You're gonna be cooking five dishes from the Lake House's spectacular menu. Wow. You're each gonna be responsible for one course. We know they're Alla's dishes. They're gonna be delicate, precise and absolutely delicious. But I'm sure there's gonna be lots of technique within each dish. Alla, can you tell us what the main ingredient is for each course? So, today I've put together a menu that I think truly reflects both the season and the location. So, the first dish is smoked eel. The second course, beautiful local organic free-range chicken. The third course is kangaroo. And the fourth and fifth dish are both from the orchards. The first one is plums. And the final one is based around blackberries. How are we gonna decide who's cooking which course? A knife pull. All at once, please. Right. Let's have a look. Hold 'em up. (LAUGHS) Yes. OK. Right, let's go into order. Harry, eel. Number two, chicken, Mimi. Number three, Elise, kangaroo. Elena, plum. And Matt, berries. Huh? Beautiful. Dessert. To be honest, I was hoping for savoury today. So, listen carefully. You're not just making one dish today. Today's challenge... is service for 40 guests, including us. (CONTESTANTS GROAN, LAUGH NERVOUSLY) OK, now your hearts are sinking. It is finals week, after all. You have 2.5 hours to prepare your dishes. (GASPS) MIMI: Oh, my gosh. 40 dishes from Alla Wolf-Tasker's menu in 2.5 hours. This challenge is going to be nuts. Today is a staggered start. Which means, obviously, Harry, you're gonna kick into the kitchen first. Yep. Then followed by Mimi, Elise, Elena and Matt. Alla will be running the kitchen and the pass. It's her restaurant and her reputation on the line, so she'll be watching you like a hawk. Alla, are you gonna do the honours and get us started? So, good luck, everyone. And, Harry, I don't expect you to actually catch the eels, but your time starts now. CONTESTANTS: Go, Harry. JUDGES: Go, Harry. HARRY: I'm pretty excited that I got eel. I love cooking eel. I love catching eels and I love eating it. It's a really, really nice fish. So I run straight into the kitchen and I lift up the cloche... ..and there's this beautiful, beautiful dish sitting in front of me. Immediately I'm drawn to the bright colours of the beetroot, and also this beautiful little segment of smoked eel. So, Harry, what do you think? Oh... This is incredible. Looks really, really beautiful. I wanna see perfection in the flavours. So, we have some rillettes with horseradish creme fraiche. We've got the rolled cylinder of smoked eel around sweet shallots. Yep. Wrapped in pancetta. So it's a lovely salty finish on that. So balance of flavours is really important. So, go ahead. Oh, my God. There's so much depth of flavour in this dish. There's this beautiful smoky eel and it's sweet from the shallots inside and it's also nice and fatty from the prosciutto on the outside. It's got a perfect balance of both texture and flavour. Now, that's what I need you to achieve. Yep. But, listen, the clock's ticking. So I suggest you really get into it right now. As soon as I finish tasting, I run over to my bench, and I start reading the recipe. My first step is to get onto the filling of the eel roulade. I start slicing up some shallots which I'm just gonna sweat in butter over a heat. The next thing I have to get on to is filleting these eels. I know that these eels are gonna take a lot of time, so I need to show some initiative, go off the recipe and just see how fast I can get these eels done. I've filleted millions of fish before, so I'm just gonna fillet these eels my way. I'm gonna cut along either side of the eel and cut along the spine so when I pull the spine out, bones should come out in one go. I'm gonna try and save myself a little bit of time and I'm gonna do it as fast as I can. Good luck. I'll be there soon. Good luck. Thanks. MIMI: I'm up second. It's my time to start. So I run into the kitchen. Lift up the cloche and... ..I just see this beautiful roll of chicken ballotine on a bed of barley and there's just so many little things in there that you can just automatically tell this is gonna be a technique-driven dish. This is all about the simplicity of the main protein - which is beautiful local organic free-range chicken. So, the chicken medallion's got fresh herbs in a salsa verde. So the salsa verde adds the piquancy. A little bit of salsa verde around in the barley. And a jus gras, which of course is built on rendered chicken fat. So it's got that absolute unctuous richness. So, how about a taste? Oh, my God. It looks incredible. Oh, it's so soft. Tasting this dish and I'm trying to figure out what's gonna be the hardest bit. I'm not even sure where to start. The chicken in particular is so perfectly rolled. And that jus gras is made from reduced chicken stock and chicken fat. It's really thick and it just ties the whole dish together. Now, this dish worries me. Just be careful of the timing. OK. Because you will be in trouble. So, best of luck. Thank you, Alla. The timing of this dish is gonna be the most important thing. So, yeah, I've gotta make sure that I get the salsa verde done before the chicken and then roll that and cook it, so there's a lot to do. I've gotta pick all the herbs and get the leaves off. It's gonna be so much labour. To cook for 40 people by myself is pretty nerve-racking, but I've just gotta keep going and, yeah, hopefully get through it. ELISE: It's my turn to cook and see what my dish is. Wow. It's the most petite, beautiful, colourful dish. There's this fillet of kangaroo standing up in the middle of the plate with this amazing pop of green puree underneath. I have never seen a kangaroo dish look like this before. What do you notice about that kale puree? The colour of it. Iridescent. Yep. Anything less than that, I'm gonna make you do it twice. OK. Three times. Four times. Guests will sit outside and have their lunch tomorrow... OK. ..if that kale puree isn't like that. Alright. There's also native mint in the kale puree. Be very careful, because it's very strong. Oh, wow. So...that packs a wallop. Ooh, yeah. So watch the balance in the puree. That native mint is a seriously strong flavour. It really packs a punch, so, I've really gotta be careful with it. My strategy going into this cook is, I'm going to work as fast as I possibly can. Even though today is a massive challenge, I'm gonna be so excited to work with Alla. This is such an amazing experience. First thing I get on to is the kangaroo loin. GARY: Harry, Elise, Mimi, we know very clearly that the energy is not high enough in this kitchen. You have to go at this thing like a bat out of hell. Otherwise, you will not get your dishes up in time. Don't leave it to the last half hour, do it now. CONTESTANTS: Yes, Gary. Let's go. Move it. HARRY: So finally I've got my eels strips all set out, they're ready to go. Then all of a sudden I realise... ..it's full of bones. There is a lot of bones in this eel and I'm not 100% sure of the best way to get them out. What you've done is, you haven't held the blade on the right angle to actually avoid that happening. Alla says I filleted the eel wrong. When I've pulled the flesh away from the spine, it's left SO many pin bones in the fillet. I really should have followed the recipe more closely. This is such a huge mistake. So, Harry, this all needs to be pin boned. Yeah. . HARRY: We're cooking at Alla Wolf-Tasker's Lake House Restaurant. I'm cooking the first dish, which is smoked eel. I have a massive, massive problem. There is a lot of bones in this eel, and I'm not 100% sure of the best way to get them out. I've just finished filleting seven eels, and they're full of bones. You haven't held the blade on the right angle to actually avoid that happening, so this all needs to be pin-boned. This is such a huge mistake. This could really send me to the bottom three, for sure. I have to pin-bone all of these eels. I am going to run out of time. There is so many bones in the fillet, and I am not serving bones to these customers. I need to figure out a way that I can get as much meat off this fillet as I can without any bones. I decide to quarter the fillet of the eel and cut out the part which has all the bones. I'm losing quite a bit of meat, so I'm just hoping that I've got enough to make the eel roulade with. Behind, behind. I've got the fourth course today. It's plum dessert. Oh, wow. I lift up that cloche and see the most beautiful dessert. The first thing I notice is the little cannelloni-type thing in the middle of the plate. There's quite a lot of components. What are the pressure points, Alla? Well, probably the gel, when you're pouring that. Watch that it's really thin. You notice I've got a very, very thin layer on that. If it's thick and gluggy and blobby, it's not going to have that delicacy. I'm picking up a lovely hint of rosemary that goes so well with all of those sweet flavours. It's my kind of dessert. I want that kick of rosemary to be subtle. Amazing. Good luck with it. Thank you very much. The first element I'm working on today is the rosemary milk sorbet. I need to be careful when adding the rosemary. It's easy to get it wrong, and for it to be too overpowering. You do want to be able to taste it, though. It's such an awesome combination with the plums. So, I just need to make sure I've got the right amount. So, all of the frozen elements, I'm trying to get on as fast as possible so that they're all ready. And while they're freezing and doing their thing, I can move on to the other elements. Matt. Hello. I have been waiting for you. Oh, my God. I'm in charge of the final course today, and what I'm looking at... (CHUCKLES) (EXHALES) It's a masterpiece. It is absolutely stunning, and no doubt loaded with technique. So, this is one of our country rambles - if you were going for a ramble through the country, the kind of flavours that you would find. So, the ramble changes with the season. So, this is the season of blackberries and blueberries. There's some blackberry jelly, little bit of herbed moss, buttermilk panacotta. This dessert is ridiculous. We've got chocolate bark, which resembles the bark around the forest. We've got almonds, represented by the tuile. I can't even count all the elements on there. And honey also, represented by the honeycomb. She's giving me a run-down of the dish... Assembling 40 of these is going to be interesting. ..and most of it's barely registering. Do you want to have a taste? Yes, please. Are desserts your game? They're not? Yesterday, I came very, very close to going home on a dessert. I've realised at this stage of the competition, I need to be able to handle a dessert like this. It looks seriously intimidating. Holy shit. MIMI: I'm in charge of the second course - organic chicken, jus gras, and a salsa verde. I really need to get this salsa verde done so I can get it into the chicken and start rolling it. But for some reason, I just can't seem to get a move on. GARY: Mimi, you know, right? That salsa verde, you've got to get it blitzed, because you've got to get that chicken butterflied, evenly spread, rolled, and into the water bath. I know. Alright. So, you've just got to motor, and use a bit of your cooking nous. I'm trying as fast as I can. I'm running out of time now, so I really need to get all my ingredients into the blender and blend it up. The salsa verde has taken up so much of my time, and I still have 14 chicken ballotines to roll. I'm going to be so pushed for time to get all my other elements done. Move it. Move it, move it, move it, move it. HARRY: Time is running out really, really quick. Got my beetroot paint done, I've got my beetroot crisps done, my horseradish cream, and now I still have to get on to my eel roulade. So, I've got my eel strips all set out. They're ready to go. I just have to get those on to the pancetta, fill them with shallots and then roll up the roulade. Twist them up quickly as you can. So because I don't have quite enough eel, I'm gonna have to make a compromise here - make these eel rolls a little bit smaller than what I first got on Alla's dish. I really hope that doesn't affect the balance of the dish too much. Hurry, hurry, hurry. ELISE: Today I'm doing the kangaroo loin with native mint and kale puree. I've gotta wrap 40 of these kangaroo loins. And I've gotta make sure that they're nice and tight and place that into the sous-vide machine. The next step I need to do is my kale puree. It's gotta be vibrant, fresh and just have that pop of colour on the plate. I'm just about to blanch my kale. This is a really important part because Alla said that if it's not the light green, she's going to send it back, and I can't afford that. Just be careful of that kale - it needs to be bright green. I'm just doing it in batches. Yeah, absolutely, because the amount of water that you've got it boiling in will keep the colour. OK. So if you have a big pot with just a little bit of kale at the time, you will get a better result. OK. I know that it's gonna take a lot of time to do it in small batches. I've really gotta focus on this - this is one of the most important parts of the dish. so I'm gonna make sure I do it perfectly. MATT: I'm in charge of the final course today, which is called A Country Ramble. The first thing I wanna do is tempering chocolate, which is gonna be used to resemble twigs. Once the chocolate has reached the correct temperature, I take it over to my bench and then lay it out with a palette knife. But, like, pretty much as soon as it hits the bench and I've spread it out, it sets. Yeah, it looks like it's starting to set already. I get a paint scraper and I start scraping it off, and it's just tumbling bark, which is exactly what I'm after. Whoo! ELENA: Good? (LAUGHS) Yeah. The chocolate decided to be my friend today. So you can temper? Oh...yeah. Go, Matty. I can finish up this element, put it in an airtight container and move on to the next one. Yep. Did it. Harry, 10 minutes to go before your first course goes out. HARRY: Yes, George. 10 minutes. Yes, George. Customers are in there, their glasses are full of wine and they're ready to rock'n'roll. You got it? Yes, George. I think I'm gonna be ready. I should be ready. Mimi, how you going? Mimi? Um...I don't know. Tell me you're going well, please, Mimi. You're next. Harry's about to start serving the first course and that means I'm next, but I'm nowhere near ready. I'm just drowning in this. I have no idea if I'm gonna get anything up. I've never felt so snowed under before. I feel like I've got so much to do and there's not enough time to do it. Get those mushrooms starting to sweat. Get your barley in and warm. I get through one thing and then I realise there's a million other things to do. I just keep ticking them off. There's just more and more and more to do. You need to get 40 pieces. Mm-hm. 40 decent pieces. All I can see is heaps of ingredients and heaps of elements. I just can't see a full dish, and it's really overwhelming me. Give your mushrooms a quick saute. Bit of salt and a quick saute. And you need to get your skin crisp and the jus gras. Where's the stock for the jus gras? Oh, no. I haven't got my chicken stock for my jus gras reducing. I can't believe I haven't done that yet. That takes about an hour to cook properly and I have 40 minutes left. You are going to have to think about what you're doing because you're all over the place. I feel like I can't get myself out of this hole. That jus gras was a key element and I feel like getting it right is just impossible. . (INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS) ALLA: Where's your stock for the jus gras? Oh... That jus gras was a key element and I've forgotten to start reducing the stock. That takes about an hour to reduce properly, and I have 40 minutes left. I just don't think this can be done. Everything's just coming in on me and I can't see a way out. I'm so snowed under. Right. Talk to me, you. Where you at? 'Cause how long have you got? Not long. Have you got everything else being cooked? Nah, not yet. Just get it in a pot and start cooking it. Look at me. Look at me and listen to me - get it together. You hear me? No more crying. Yeah? Yeah. You're cooking food. It's finals week, and you wanna make it. Yeah? Imagine if you had no recipe and you had to cook that, yeah? Now's the time to start using your intuition and everything that you've learned so far. That thing just kicks in, and you just don't wanna give up because I wanna put up something that I'm proud of. And you've just gotta overcome these bad moments. You are on that tightrope and you're gonna fall off. I know. But you can pull it together. You hear me? Yes, George. Yes? Yes. So come on - just cook it now. If I follow the recipe word for word, I'm not gonna get these dishes out, so I really need to think about this and use my instincts. You should be throwing that away. You should understand the dish and you should know where you're up to. And we're cutting a few corners. Now, is this for your jus gras? Yeah. OK. Good. For the jus gras, I'm gonna have to go off the recipe. I don't have enough time to follow it. I'm just gonna crank the heat up and hope that it reduces really quickly. OK. HARRY: I get the eel roulades out of the pan. It's beautifully cooked on the inside. Harry, sorry to interrupt you, but your service starts now, and the question is, when are you gonna get something on those plates? Come on - let's go. Alla's dish was plated beautifully and there was a perfect balance of flavour. ALLA: Paint, paint, paint, paint, paint. So I'm hoping there's gonna be a perfect balance throughout the dish - the acidity from the beetroot paint, creaminess from the rillettes. Quickly, quickly. There's diners waiting for my food out there. So I really need to get this done as fast as I can. Come on. Quick, quick, quick. I'm pretty happy with all my elements, but I'm not sure about the eel. Because my eel roulades are smaller than they should have been... Waiters, waiters, please. ..I'm just worried that it's gonna throw out the balance of the dish. Service, please. That could send me in the bottom three. Right. First course. Thank you. Harry, first course. Everything's there, but there's a few little detail issues. And size issues as well. I mean, you know, the barrel of eel's supposed to be bigger. But, you know, overall, does that look like a beautiful dish from a top restaurant? Absolutely. It looks great. And he's done 40 of them. (CHUCKLES) Look, I actually think he's done... ..a pretty good job. I think, um... I'm really surprised by that little eel roll. It's really tasty, it's delicious. Then when you drag it through that very intense beetroot glaze on the bottom, it's a lovely addition. It's a beautiful sweetness. I'm quite pleased. I didn't think he was actually gonna get this far. So I'm happy for him. That eel is beautiful, because you can overcook it. Yeah. If there's a shortfall, I think there's such a small little barrel of eel, and the eel is beautifully cooked. There's not enough eel in the dish to carry all those beetroot flavours. It starts becoming a beetroot dish rather than an eel dish. It's a great job, but we're talking about a place in the quarterfinals, and little things like that can be the difference between whether you make it or whether you go forward to tomorrow's elimination. Yeah, absolutely. ALLA: Mimi, you're next. How close are we? What's it looking like over there? I would love you to come and help me check my chicken if possible. I'm still doing kale. Gotta get a move on. I wanna make sure that this kale puree is perfect, and it's taken me so long to blanch so many leaves. Now I need to get all my ingredients for my kale puree into the blender. I chuck everything in there. Are these native mint leaves? They taste minty and native. I really hope that it turns out that same vibrant green colour. Is that a nice vibrant colour? That should be alright? It's looking pretty damn good considering how much kale you had to deal with. Thank you very much. I'm so relieved. Elise? Yes? How long before you're ready? The next step I've gotta do after this is my sausages. I haven't even started to make them yet. Hurry. Yep, I am hurrying. Mimi? Service. Service has started and I'm nowhere near ready. I've still gotta get my chicken ballotines out and cut them, then I've gotta put them in the butter emulsion and get everything ready for plating. I check on the stock for the jus gras... It just hasn't reduced enough yet. Usually I would need a couple more hours than this just to make it nice and thick... ..but I don't have that time. I'm hoping the flavour's there and it's not too thin on the plate. OK. We really need to push now. Got it in you to push? Yes. Let's do service. Quick, quick. Fast. Fast. Alright, put it in the middle. It feels pretty crappy to know that I might be going to elimination tomorrow. MAN: So we're going four to table four. GEORGE: Here we go. So, this is Mimi's organic chicken with the black barley, the foraged mushrooms. I'm really impressed. She managed to get it all plated up. Alright. Well, certainly the wheels have fallen off the wagon. I mean, it's a different dish to Alla's completely. It's more of a poached chicken on a little broth with pearl barley, which if that was the description, and that was the intention, perfectly tasty and you'd kind of think, "Wow." And the jus-gras-iness of the sauce is not there. You know, jus gras is that delicious equal quantities of reduced down stock and fat, and it's yum. And, you know, look - in terms of the good things, the chicken is well cooked, the pearl barley isn't overly nutty and it is creamy. But I think the lack of jus gras kind of throws the balance of the dish out. Takes the dish into a totally kind of salty, acidic salsa verde world, rather than this lovely, rich combination that makes this dish so delicious. And two and a half hours to prep 40 pax at a two-hat restaurant. It's...it's mind-blowing. Yeah, it's tough. It's OK. It's OK. (TIMER BEEPS) Alright. That's my kangaroo ready. Where are your sausage rolls? Right. Sausage rolls are done. I'm in a good place at the moment. I just need to get my kangaroo loins out. My kangaroo sausage is done and I need to get my kale puree on to the plate. Yep. We're almost there. I'm looking at my kale puree and it's absolutely perfect. It's got this beautiful consistency. The colour just pops off the plate. Did you taste your seasoning? No. I haven't even tasted the kale puree yet. It's a little bit peppery. It actually tastes quite bitter. Oh, Elise. I'm just worried it's gonna overpower the entire dish. I've spent so much time on this kale puree, and it's not right. I'm going into elimination tomorrow. 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It actually tastes quite bitter. I can taste that there's way too much native mint in there. I'm just worried it's gonna overpower the entire dish. Oh, I'm going into elimination tomorrow. OK, Elise, come on, quick. Move it, move it, move it! My kangaroo is ready. I've taken them out of the sous vide bag. I cut into one and... Oh! Thank God. They're cooked perfectly. Alright, they're ready to go. Start with the puree. I'm placing the kale puree in the middle of the plate, putting the kangaroo sausage on, then the kangaroo. Now pepper. Muntries. Muntries. We are placing the little apple chutney, garnish. Quick, quick, quick. It still looks very similar to her dish and I'm proud that I'm actually serving something to the customers. Come on, boys. Come on. Quick. Move it, move it, move it! Mmm! Thank you. Well, this is Elise's kangaroo with native mint and muntries. On the positive side, nice, bright puree, good crust around the kangaroo. The thing I loved about this dish - the kangaroo and the muntries were just absolutely delicious and of course that slightly gamy kangaroo crusted with the native pepper, which I love. So those two elements on the plate are the big success. And the filling of these kind of mini sausage rolls is tasty. But there is a massive, massive bitterness in that kale puree that is super intense. The bitterness in the puree. Yeah. It's not good. Mmm! My caramel is tasting quite a bit like Alla's, which is awesome. (LAUGHS) I know that there's a lot of pressure on us today but I'm feeling like I'm in an OK position. I'm happy with the elements that I've got setting or freezing but I'm going to need to move a lot faster if I'm going to get those beautiful jelly rolls completed in time. The plum jelly is one of the elements that scares me a little bit. It wraps around the mousse. It needs to be of the perfect consistency to hold the mousse. It needs to be of the exact right thickness. I pour the jelly onto the tray. It looks like the right thickness but it's kind of hard to tell. Yeah. It makes me a little bit nervous. Alright. MATT: I'm in charge of the final course today, which is called a Country Ramble. Beauty! The ice-cream, the chocolate bark and the blackberry soup for my blackberry jelly - they're done. So I'm just moving on to the microwave pistachio sponge. To make the pistachio sponge, I combine eggs, sugar, flour and pistachio paste, blitz it until it's smooth. Put them into a microwave. I need to do 50 of these sponges and I can only put four in a microwave at a time. I realise there's another microwave available on the other side of the kitchen, so I decide to set up a little bit of a relay, I guess. I lock some in, go back to my bench, pipe a few, put them in the other microwave. By that time, these ones are done. So I can pick them up, take them over to my tray, release them, pipe a few more, head back to the other microwave, take them out, put four more in and repeat. (LAUGHS) It's just... This is bonkers! Got to jump back to the almond tuile, finish them off, finish off the blackberry jelly and then the almond praline. I need to roll all of my mousse into the jelly. It makes me a little bit nervous. I'm definitely gonna be under the pump but I really wanna do it today. I think I'm in a good position. This is the key visual component on this dish so it has to be perfect. This is very time-consuming, which is not what I need. It's making me nervous but they are also gonna look incredible so it's going to be worth it. As I start to roll the jelly around the mousse... Far out! ..I think it's too thick. It's not working! It's not working. Oh, this one thing, it might put me into elimination. . . So, Elena, this is actually your official set-up and plating time. Serious? Yes. So you're running a little bit behind so let's get these happening as quickly as you can. As I'm rolling the jelly, it sometimes splits, it sometimes stays together. Like, one in five kind of half works for me but they just don't look as beautiful as Alla's. Done a couple but they're still not perfect. I know that this dish isn't gonna look how hers looks and I'm so disappointed. I'm sorry, Alla. Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh! No sorry. There's no sorry in this. My service has started. I have to get plates out. I'm gonna have to let rolling this jelly go. I start cutting squares or rectangles from this jelly so that we can just drape it over the mousse. How many plates you got down? Got 20 down. Looking good and I get the scent of rosemary coming off that gelato. It's rather good. I'm happy with the flavours and everything else on the plate. They taste good. I'm hoping that there's a little bit of forgiveness in the way they look. Go, go, go! The granita is not going to wait, OK, guys. Well, here's our first dessert. It's Elena's take on plum, rosemary and sheep's milk yoghurt, The Lake House dessert. It looks bright and there looks like there's a real tenderness in both the mousse and also the gel around the mousse. And you can certainly smell the rosemary. Yeah. Everything is there. Yeah. Yeah. Everything is on the plate, which is great. Mmm. First up, I'm gonna say the rosemary sorbet is just absolutely fantastic. The texture of it, the flavour is just beautiful. So light, so well balanced. I think that is absolutely delicious. The crumb is beautiful and blonde. There's a wonderful fragrance of rosemary through the milk sorbet. I think there's strengths through everything but the cannelloni. The plum gel around the cannelloni is too thick. Yeah. OK. Thank you for your help. God! Right. (SIGHS) My time starts and I'm ready. Your mise en place is fantastic. Thank you, Alla. Clean bench, organised. Everything in its place. This dessert has so many elements on it and somehow I have managed to get them all up. But if I want to get one of those spots in the quarterfinals, my presentation needs to be spot-on. Plating this dish and I start off with the almond praline followed by the pistachio sponge then the buttermilk pannacotta, honeycomb then the blackberry jelly. This feels incredible. I'm really happy with the way it's looking. I can't believe I'm plating up an Alla Wolf-Tasker dessert and I think I've nailed it. ALLA: Walk in the park, Matt. (LAUGHS) Waiters, please. Service. You're a champion, Matt. It's looking sensational. Thank you. Ooh, hey. Look at that. How good does that look? Wow, look at that. So that's Matthew's Country Ramble... ..with buttermilk, honey almond and chocolate bark. Oh... I love this. Why? Because everything is done correctly. MATT: Yeah, it's beautiful. Ice-cream, silky smooth, tasty, delicious, yummy. Aerated sponge, which is light, it's fluffy and yummy. Tempered chocolate - little shards. Classic but delicious. Jelly. Everything on there is spot-on. Yeah. And puts a big smile on our face is that that is as close to Alla's dish. Everything is in balance, and technically, from a very cheffy perspective, everything's perfect. That is... ..a dish that's good enough to sit in this dining room on a normal service on a normal day. Yeah, I think so too. That does double... double the credit to Matt. What a great dish. And, um... ..he's gonna make a great quarterfinalist. Yeah, absolutely. (LAUGHS) MATT: Thank you very much. Well done. I'm so proud of you. I'm sorry about your kitchen! I am so proud of you. I am so, so very proud of you. That was a really challenging dish, and you nailed it. Really, congratulations. Thank you very much. Absolutely fabulous. Well done. Thank you. Thank you for everything, Alla. That challenge was insane. 40 desserts with all of those elements at a two-hatted restaurant standard. I'm smashed. (LAUGHS) Wow. What a massive day. We can see it in your faces. But you have to agree - what a fitting challenge for finals week here at the Lake House. Alla, how did they go in the kitchen? It was a difficult day, but I also see a really good day. I can also see on your faces the way I have felt through services in my early years, and that never changes. Keep that, because what it means is that you really wanna get better than you are now, and that's a very special feeling. Keep that forever. Today was all about looking for the best two cooks that are going to go straight through to the quarterfinal... ..and the three cooks that will fight it out in tomorrow's elimination. . Today was all about looking for the best two cooks that are going to go straight through to the quarterfinal. One dish absolutely stood out from the crowd. Every single thing on the plate absolutely pinged. And that dish belonged to... ..Matthew. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) Good job, Matt. Absolutely brilliant. It put smiles on our faces. Well done. ALLA: Awesome. Awesome. Feels good. It makes me think... ..I've got a pretty good shot at winning this competition now. So it comes down to you four. Mimi, Elise, you both struggled today. Ultimately your dishes just didn't match up to Alla's. Mimi, Elise, you're in tomorrow's elimination. Deep down, I knew that I was gonna be in elimination, in the bottom three, but I'm just gonna make sure that I take all the mistakes that I made today and turn them around tomorrow. MATT PRESTON: So Harry and Elena, it comes down to the two of you. One of you will be joining Matt in that quarterfinal, the other into the elimination. So let's look at your dishes. Harry... ..you had all those elements on the plate, and that eel was beautifully cooked, wonderfully tender. However...the size of the barrel impacted on the balance of flavour. Elena, there were textural issues with your dish. The gel was too thick. However, your sorbet was delicious. And right across the dish, the flavour of plum, sheep's milk and rosemary was bang-on. In the end, we always say one thing - flavour comes first. And that's why, Elena, you are joining Matt in the quarterfinal. Well done. Well done. Good job. ELENA: I am...I'm so relieved. Over the moon. I feel like surviving this challenge in Alla Wolf-Tasker's kitchen today is just a huge achievement for me. Harry, you'll be going through to the elimination tomorrow. You were so close. I know a lot of people in that dining room loved the dish you put up, but we felt you just needed more eel on the dish. I think before we run off to the big smoke, I think we should thank Alla for opening up her beautiful place for you guys, and of course for us to sit in and enjoy. We love it here, Alla. Thank you so, so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Off you go. Thank you. I think the most positive thing I can take out of today is the fact that I didn't give up... Thanks, Alla. Thanks, Alla. ..and I really pushed myself as hard as I could. I just have to go forward and think about tomorrow and winning a spot in the quarterfinals. ANNOUNCER: Next time - the moment of truth. Who is gonna be the one that goes home? To go further in the competition... ELISE: I wanna be here in top four. ..these three will have to prove how far they've come. You're cooking for your place in the quarterfinal. I really, really wanna get there. They'll cook with all their heart. I wanna show the judges how far I've come. GARY: We need to go, go, go. But...in finals week... That ain't gonna melt. ..anything can happen. Just hasn't set. You've got to push the envelope. And for one contestant... Listen to yourself. ..the pressure... No. Not giving up. ..will be too much. HARRY: I don't know what to do. Captions by Ericsson Access Services Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air.