ANNOUNCER: Previously, on MasterChef Australia... ..in Alla Wolf-Tasker's Lake House Challenge... Tell me you're going well. ..Mimi, Harry and Elise... I have no idea. I've got to get a move on. ..found themselves in the bottom three. You're in tomorrow's elimination. Tonight, the moment of truth. Who is going to be the one that goes home? To go further in the competition... ELISE: I want to be here at top four. ELENA: Go, go, go! ..these three will have to prove how far they've come. You're cooking for your place in the quarter-final. I really, really want to get there. They'll cook with all their heart. I want to show the judges how far I've come. GARY: You need to go, go, go. But in finals week... That ain't gonna melt. ..anything can happen. This 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. # 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 (ALARM BEEPS) HARRY: Yesterday was a pretty rough day. I can't really think about that at this point 'cause today's elimination. I just have to stay focused. I think winning MasterChef would just entirely change my life. I couldn't go back to the life that I had at all. Like, everything would change. Before coming to MasterChef, I was just a cocktail bartender, but that is not where I want to be anymore. Food is my passion, food is my life and now I feel like a totally different person. I just want to be involved in food forever. ELISE: You don't come to this point in the competition and throw it away. I want to be here at top four and again at top three. This is everything that I've worked for. I'm going to go in there with absolutely everything and just fight it out. A few months ago I was just a girl from Cairns working in a pharmacy department at the Cairns Hospital. Hi, how are you? I really enjoy working with patients. They melt my heart. WOMAN: Yum. Thank you. I really enjoy my job, I love who I work with but my dream is to open my own cake store. This is what I want to do. This is what I love to do. So I'm really motivated to just get in there and smash it. MIMI: I never pictured myself fighting for a place in the quarterfinals. This is amazing. There's more people in elimination now than there are safe, so it's definitely down to the pointy end of the competition. Ooh! (APPLAUSE) Whatever this challenge is, I don't know. I have no idea what it could be, but I'm going to throw myself there and I'm not going to give up. This is my day. Elise, you threw those doors open, strode in with purpose. Yep. Love it. This is the last cook before the quarterfinal, so it's a big day today. Matt and Elena safe because you cooked so brilliantly well yesterday at the Lake House, so you deserve your place in the quarterfinal. The question is who is going to join them in the top four? And I suppose, more importantly, who is going to be the one that goes home? HARRY: I think at this point to have come so far and to go home so close to the end, it's not something I've got in mind. Now one of the great joys about what we do is watching all of your progress. You come into this kitchen as home cooks with a love of food and some initial skills but as you go through these challenges, as you learn from each other, you progress to become something pretty special. Today's challenge is all about one thing. It's all about celebrating how far you've come from that very first cook. (LAUGHS) Yes. Since day one I've changed entirely. I'm definitely not the same cook that I was three months ago. I really want to show the judges how much I've grown as a cook. Ready to see what you've got to cook with? Yep. Are you ready? Oh my God! Familiar? Yeah. Do you suddenly fly back all that time to the auditions and the warehouse? How could we forget? The box on the end I immediately recognise. I used some of these ingredients the day I got my apron. What have you cooked? I've cooked a pan-fried snapper with a chilli and coriander salad and broth. If I were sitting in a restaurant and I saw that dish against any other, I'd order that. (APPLAUSE, CHEERING) Harry, do you remember what you cooked? Yeah, I cooked the grilled lobster with the chicken jus. I think it's delicious I think you've got some talent. What about you, Elise? I cooked pistachio and parmesan crusted lamb with a parsnip puree and some caramelised fennel. That's a top job. Great. That's awesome. They were three great dishes but that was three months ago. We want you to show us what you can do with them now. We want you to use these ingredients to prove to us that you deserve to stay in this competition. HARRY: I know the judges loved the original dish that I cooked with these ingredients but I definitely can't do that again. I really want to push myself today to sort of make my dish different to what I did at the start. ELISE: I'm rapt. I'm looking into my basket and I have so many sweet ingredients. I've got orange, I've got chocolate and I've got these beautiful berries. I can definitely make a dessert with this. So here are the rules. All the ingredients are at your bench. You also have a pantry of staples underneath your bench - butter, sugar, eggs, milk, cream, flour and vinegar. We are going to give you 90 minutes to take these ingredients and show us how far you've come in this competition. Best two dishes through to the quarterfinal. Unfortunately the worst dish sends their maker home, so close to the final. So let's hope the ideas are flowing and you're fired up because your place in the quarterfinal is at stake. Your 90 minutes starts now. ELENA: Go, go, go. MATT SINCLAIR: Go, guys. Come on. I got lobster. Lobster is one of my favourite ingredients, I love to cook with it. I know that I'm going to be able to do something with that. I'm still using the ingredient that I love, the lobster of course, but I'm going to do it in a totally different way and I'm going to make it so much better than how I started. I want to maximise that beautiful lobster flavour in my dish so I'm going to do a lobster bisque. And I'm going to poach the lobster tail in butter and also make a beautiful raviolo with the lobster meat. Usually to make the perfect bisque, I'd use heaps of different vegetables and also some sherry or white wine to give it some depth. I don't have any of those ingredients today. But I can caramelise these lobster shells to go into the stock and hopefully that gives it the depth of flavour that it needs. And I'm also using the ingredients that I do have in my box to put into the bisque to give it that kick it needs, using the coriander root and the ginger and the garlic. I really need to boost the flavour in this bisque otherwise it's just going to be like a watery seafood soup. For the butter poached lobster, all I have to do is blanch the lobster tail in some hot water for about 30 seconds to remove the flesh from the shell. ELENA: What are you sous-viding, Harry? The lobster. You've done it before? Yeah. OK. I have to get it into a sous-vide bag with some butter and a little bit of garlic and then get that into the sous-vide machine and sous-vide it at about 50 degrees for about 40 minutes. You good? Yeah, mate. Today is all about showing the judges how far we've come. I really, really, really want to make it to the quarterfinals. That's just, like, my biggest goal. I really, really want to get there. ELISE: This is crunch time. (SIGHS) ELENA: Go, Elise. Stay focused. This is top five and we have to show them how far we've come in this competition. Stick to me, stick to what I know. I tell myself, "Cook something that you're passionate about." Alright, let's write out a plan. I love chocolate, I love raspberries, I love pistachios. I'm going to do a chocolate, pistachio and orange brownie with an ice-cream. I want the brownie to sit really, really high on the plate so I'm going to bake in a deep tin. It's going to take longer to cook but I also need to make my orange ice-cream and that's going to take time for it to set. I've got a lot to get through and I've decided to make the orange ice-cream first so I get an ice-cream machine and get that started. I put some cream and milk, orange juice, orange zest into a saucepan and bring that up to boil. Nice job, Elise. Needs more zest. This is going to show them definitely how far I have come. So what are you doing? I'm doing a chocolate brownie and on top of the chocolate brownie, it's going to be a pistachio and orange brownie with a mousse on the top, with a chocolate glaze over the top. Nice. Orange ice-cream. You know what I'm loving? Like, your determination. Yep. Like, you're focused. I mean, compared to three months ago. Oh, yeah. You know, it's wonderful, isn't it? Oh, yeah. The growth is incredible. Yep, powerful today. So she's feeling strong. Go, Elise. Thanks, boys. Looking at the ingredients that I used to get in the competition, I could definitely go with savoury or dessert. Go, Mimi. Come on, Mims! I've got heaps of beautiful figs, prosciutto and some goat's cheese. It just reminds me of a dish that my grandma used to make for me. It's just so yum. It's got the sweetness of the figs and then that texture of goat's cheese inside and then the saltiness of the prosciutto. It's honestly one of the best things and my favourite things to eat. My grandma's had a huge influence on my cooking. It's wonderful. It's absolutely so exciting. She has been a big support and came to my MasterChef audition with me. MAN: Mimi! (CHEERING) I really want to do her and her dish proud today. My grandma's dish is a savoury starter. I really want to show the judges how far I've come so I want to turn it into a dessert. I'm going to serve it with fig ice-cream and some sweet goat's cheese inside. I absolutely love fig ice-cream. It's one of my favourite things to eat so I'm just going to start off by making a fig jam. I'm going to put some figs and some sugar into a saucepan and sort of let that cook down a bit. ELENA: I'm excited for all those figs, Mimi. Then I'm going to add a little bit of vinegar just to taste. It's so important to get the balance of a dish right and get the acidity right and the richness, saltiness and sweetness. What are you doing? I'm going to do, like, this dish that my grandma does. It's like a fig with goat's cheese wrapped in prosciutto but I'm doing a dessert version. Yum. Yeah. You've got to at some level push the envelope because I guarantee you these two guys are, right? Yep. So if you want a chance of ending up with these guys in the quarterfinal, you've got to put everything into it, right? Yes, I do so yeah. Because in the end you put yourself in the quarterfinal or you send yourself home. Well, you've got to push. You've got to push. Thanks. Thank you. You've got to push. Remember what we always say - you start as you mean to finish. So you need to go, go, go. 75 minutes to go. Come on. ELENA: What's that, Harry? Pasta dough. It's going to be a ravioli. What are you putting in the ravioli? Lobster. The way I envisage this dish is one big raviolo, which is going to be big enough for all three judges to share. I'm going to fill it with the poached lobster meat and serve it with the bisque, which will be like the sauce. I'm going to make a pretty simple pasta dough, but I'm gonna make it a little bit more interesting and add some shredded coriander to it to make it nice and green and vibrant. What's that, Haz? Coriander that's going to go through the pasta. The coriander in the pasta is going to make this dish really sing and make the raviolo really special. It looks really, really beautiful. It's a vibrant, bright green. It smells really cool too. Once my dough has finished kneading, just bring it into a ball and then let it rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes. How are we going? You're going to make a...? A lobster bisque and coriander dough ravioli. Ugh... Raviolo. Ohh. That's a bit... Is that a bit week three? One raviolo? You've done that before, haven't you? We want to see a pristine broth that's loaded with flavours. We want to see immaculate pasta. We want to see it perfectly cooked, and we want to see more than just a raviolo on the plate. What's the thing that we're gonna go, "This is the leap"? That's what this dish is about. It's no more than a calling card to tell Matt and to tell Elena that they need to watch their backs, 'cause you're coming for them. I definitely don't think Matt's very convinced with the idea of my dish. To be honest I don't think I am either. I'm really, really struggling here. I don't know what to do. I'm just trying to come up with... ..some more interesting things to put on the plate besides a ravioli. I have no idea. Matt's not really convinced with the idea of my dish. I don't think I am either. I've got to do something, but... ..what is it yet, I'm not sure. So, you've got broth, ravioli. He doesn't want me to do the ravioli. Why? He said it's week three. Listen to yourself. You know what I mean? You're the one that's gotta put it on the plate. This is true. I've just got to go with my gut instinct, so I'm thinking of the food that I really want to eat. I've got this beautiful coriander pasta dough and I'm thinking I might just scrap the idea of the raviolo and use the dough to make a coriander dumpling. I can flavour them with some of the Asian flavours that I've got in my box. I can also see the chicken, so I'm going to swap the filling for my dumpling. Instead of using the butter-poached lobster tail, I'm going to use the chicken instead. So I'm going to serve three of the chicken dumplings - one for each of the judges - along with the lobster bisque for my sauce. I've got a beautiful piece of lobster meat which is poaching in the sous-vide machine and I'll also put that on the plate along with the dumplings. Just working on the filling that's going to be inside the dumpling. I'm just mincing the chicken and putting some ginger through there and seasoning it with fish sauce. And just going to try and make it really special. Sort of make it that finals week dish as opposed to the dish that I got in on. Feeling a bit better, Harry? Actually, yeah. It's huge, 'cause you're cooking for your place in the quarterfinal. One hour to go. Come on, guys. GARY: Come on! Let's go! I've really got to finish this anglaise for my ice-cream and get it into the chiller so I can start on my brownie. I'm really confident with my anglaise. I've got the perfect consistency and the creaminess that I want. It's such a beautiful flavour. I'm about to...cool it. As long as I get that temperature down and place that into the ice-cream machine, it will set within 40 minutes. Now for the star of my dish, my chocolate brownie. Everything has to go right for me with this dish. I only have a short amount of time. I spent too long on my ice-cream. I should have started on my brownie first. I want this brownie to wow the judges. I want it to be really high and extravagant. ELENA: Go, go, go, Elise. I am. Thanks, Elena. And going to layer it with a thick chocolate mousse and a chocolate glaze. I'm really happy with my brownie mix. Good batter, Elise? (LAUGHS) Tasting really good. I could eat it raw. I'm taking a risk using such a deep tin with the amount of time that I have left, but I want my brownie to be really high. I just hope it cooks in time. Elise is really pushing it. I hope she doesn't run out of time. MIMI: Harry and Elise are both incredible cooks, so if I'm going to get through to the quarterfinals, I need to put up something really special. One thing I've learnt throughout this competition is that you've got to cook from your heart and that's what I'm going to do today with my grandma's dish. I've finished the fig jam for my ice-cream and I combine it with the anglaise. I love eating figs, mainly because of the seeds inside. They just pop in your mouth. I'm going to leave them in the ice-cream today so when you eat the ice-cream, you can sort of taste the whole fig. ELENA: Good flavour, Mim? Yeah. Excellent. I'm happy with the flavour of my ice-cream anglaise. So I'm going to cool it down in the blast chiller. I'm going to do figs a couple of different ways. I've got fig ice-cream, I'm gonna serve some fresh ones and grill some as well. They're really going to complement the goat's cheese. Feeling good, Harry? Yeah. I'm really, really happy now with the new Asian-inspired concept of my dish. I've just got this niggling thought in the back of my head about this bisque. Whether not it has that depth of flavour that it really needs. But now it's time for me to get out this pasta dough, start rolling it out for these dumplings. I want to impress the judges and I want to show them how far I've come, so all my elements need to be really, really perfect. I'm taking a lot of care with this pasta. I want these dumplings to be really nice and soft, really moist on the inside so when you bite into them, you get heaps of flavour, so I'm just making sure to get it nice and thin. GEORGE: Harry. Gentlemen. How's that going? Good. Feels nice. Yep. And what are you going to do? Fill them with this mixture here? Yes. Exactly. OK. What's in that mixture? So I've got chicken, coconut milk, ginger, garlic and fish sauce. To be honest, the driver's this. And I think that needs more guts. So whatever flavour you can put into that now... ..then I'd do it. It's very one-dimensional. It is a little bit, isn't it? So just be careful. Gary reckons my broth needs more guts, and I totally agree with him. Just gonna bump it up with pretty much anything I can. Using garlic and ginger and galangal and see if I can get some more depth in there. This is really terrifying because this is finals week. This is top five. I want to make it to the quarterfinals. This bisque is make or break. ELISE: My brownie's cooking, my ice-cream is churning and now I need to get onto my chocolate mousse. It's going to sit on top of the brownie, just to give it some extra height. The first thing I do for my mousse is place the icing sugar and chocolate in a bain-marie and I melt that down. I also heat up some cream. I pour that over the chocolate mixture and then I combine it all together. I love chocolate brownies, especially with mousse and chocolate glaze. That's what I'm all about ` chocolate. I've got my mousse. I've just got to cool it down, so I place that into the blast chiller. This brownie and mousse is going to be quite rich, so I've really got to nail these flavours and balance it. So I'm going to get some orange segments, place them on the plate, and also put some fresh raspberries. Love raspberries. It's just everything's riding on that brownie to cook in time. And it's cooking, but... ..not as fast as what I wanted. It's still wobbly in the middle. I've got 30 minutes. Maybe a little bit more, and then I'll chill it down. I need this brownie to be cooked as soon as possible. I turn the oven up. This is going to make it cook a little bit faster. I usually cook it on 150, but I've put it up to 190 now. But I put it in quite a deep tin, so obviously that's gonna take a lot longer, but I wanted a pretty good brownie on the bottom. But I've still got to chill it, I've still got to put the mousse on top of it and chill that and then put the glaze, so... Yeah. Pushing time. I don't want to destroy that cooking calm and concentration, but you do realise what rides on the next 30 minutes, don't you? Come on. Let's move it. ELENA: Push, guys! Go, Elise. Go, Mimi. Go, Harry. My fig anglaise for the ice-cream has chilled, so I put it in the churner. That looks so delicious, Mimi. Yeah? The dish my grandma used to make me is so yum. I'm going to start on my goat's cheese curd to stuff in my fig. Goat's cheese is really rich and creamy and will tie my whole dish together. It's all about the goat's cheese. So, how's your fig dish coming on? Good, thanks. What are you going to stuff the figs with? Um, some goat's cheese curd. So, have you got goat's cheese and you've got... Yeah. Oh, (BLEEP). What's that? Ricotta. That looks like ricotta. That's a bit of an issue, isn't it? Yeah. I can't believe I thought that was goat's cheese and it's ricotta. I understand that goat's cheese is going to be deliciously creamy and it's going to melt. That ain't gonna melt. No. That's going to be like having cardboard under the fig. My heart sinks. I've just planned a dish on something that don't even have in my box. I have made a massive mistake. MATT: That ain't gonna melt. That's going to be like having cardboard under the fig. Yeah. I've just spent most of the cook working on my dish that I thought was going to be fig and goat's cheese. I don't have any goat's cheese. I've got ricotta instead. I honestly can't believe that I've just gotten ricotta and goat's cheese confused. Now my balance has just completely been thrown off. I don't know what to do. GARY: You're running out of time. 20 minutes to go. Come on! Let's go! Go, Mimi! Go, Harry! ELISE: My orange crumb in the oven. I'm getting on to making my chocolate glaze to sit over my chocolate mousse, but I'm worried. My brownie is just not cooking fast enough. Oh, yeah. It's starting to. Yeah, so stop fiddling with it. Keep it in. Yep. And then you're going to have to chill that, I presume. Yep. I don't know why you guys always insist on cooking everything deep. I know! But I have a picture on how I want to... Yep. Brilliant. You go for it. ..have it and... Far be it from us to compromise that picture. I really, really need this brownie to cook, otherwise I'm not going to have enough time to cool the brownie down before I put the chocolate mousse on top. This whole cook rides on my position in this competition, so I'm really worried. HARRY: I'm really super concerned about this bisque. I definitely know it's still got a lot of work. I'm just trying to think of, you know, ways that I can bump up the flavour as much as I can, but I really need to get onto my dumplings. I need to cut some nice little rings out of my pasta. Fill them with the dumpling filling, seal them up and then make a nice little wrap on them. I'm really happy with how my dumplings are coming together. MIMI: I don't really know what to do with the dish now. It was all about the goat's cheese and now I don't even have goat's cheese. I've got ricotta, but the big question is do I use the ricotta or do I just ditch it? Without the cheese, my dish is just figs and ice-cream. The ice-cream tastes great. ELENA: Taste good, Mim? Delicious. The grilled figs taste good. I've got prosciutto, but deep down, I feel like my grandma's dish needs cheese. So I decide to smoke the ricotta - I think maybe it could bring out a bit of flavour in it - and decide later if I'm gonna put it on the plate. ELISE: I'm so worried about this brownie. I'm starting to freak out. This is insane. I'm not in a good place anymore and I'm just... Everything's riding on that brownie. I'm gonna have to take it out, I reckon. Chill it. I check it again and it looks good, but I'm just running out of time. I've got to get it into that blast chiller now. How long on the brownie? Well, it's done. I've got to cool it and then I've got to put the mousse on top of it. Is it cooling now? Yeah. I've got the mousse cooling as well. So you've got brownie, then you put the mousse on the top, set that. Pour the glaze. And then pour the glaze over the top. I'm just praying that it cools in time and that it's cooked perfectly. HARRY: I've done whatever I can to pump up the flavour in this lobster bisque. I've burnt some ginger and some garlic. I put heaps of fish sauce in there, some coconut cream, some regular cream, but I don't know if it's enough. In the back of my head, I've just got Gary saying to me, "Flavour, depth of flavour." So put the bisque through the blender, blend up the shells to get as much flavour as I can out of there. So, at the moment, I'm straining off my broth to make sure it's nice and free of lobster. I strain it, get it back onto the heat, some more ginger, some more coriander into there. I'm so desperate to try and get as much flavour as I can in there. I'm not entirely convinced on the flavour. This bisque is probably the most important part of the dish and if I don't get it right, then I'm probably going home. Have to make sure the lobster is perfectly cooked, still need to poach the dumplings. There's still quite a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. I'm waiting for my brownie to cool. I think going to take the risk now and pour the mousse on top of the brownie and set it. But if it's too hot, it's going to melt. It's not what I want, but I don't have an option. ELENA: Look good? Yeah, I'm going to do it. It's still a little bit warm, but I'm going to take the risk. I pour my mousse on top of my brownie. I just hope that it has time for it to set. I then place that into the blast chiller, and I'm not going to open it until a few minutes till time is called because I need this brownie to have every opportunity to cool and the mousse to set. Um, yeah. It's going to be fine. MIMI: I'm really concerned about my dish. I've got ricotta smoking in a bowl, but I'm really unsure whether I'm going to use it or not. I was going to wrap the prosciutto around the figs, but without the goat's cheese, that's just not going to work, so I'm gonna make prosciutto shards instead. My grandma's fig dish was really rich and creamy. I've got my ice-cream, but without the goat's cheese, I think I need another creamy element to balance my dish. I don't have much time, but I'm going to make chilli chocolate caramel sauce. How thick do you want that caramel? Ah! Legend. Um, I'm just making, like, a chocolate sauce with the chilli and cream, which is hopefully going to tie the dish together quite nicely. I think the chocolate sauce will work with the other flavours, but I'm just not sure about this ricotta. 5 minutes to go! 5 minutes! Come on! Five minutes to go and I've got to start plating, and I put my orange crumb on my plate. I quickly grab my brownie and mousse out of the blast chiller. It's not set! What is happening? Argh! HARRY: Less than five minutes to go. Once my dumplings are cooking, I take the lobster out of the sous-vide machine and chill it in an ice bath to stop it from cooking any longer. What are you doing with the lobbie? Um, I'm just about to slice it up now. I slice open the lobster... Oh, my God. ..and it's perfect. The lobster is absolutely perfect. I'm so happy. I'm really happy with the lobster and I'm pretty happy with the dumplings as well. But I'm just worried about the depth of flavour in this bisque. But I don't have a lot of time. Really need to get everything onto the plate and make it beautiful. You need to dig deep and find that final bit of inspiration for the plate-up. 3 minutes to go. Come on! MATT: Come on, guys. ELENA: Push, guys. 3 minutes. Go, Mimi. Come on, Elise. Go, Harry! I'm going to have to start. I'm gonna have to risk it and cut it and see what's happening. Three minutes to go, I have no option. I need to put something on the plate to give me some sort of chance to stay in this competition. Watch it...fall everywhere. I have no idea what's going to happen when I cut into it. I heat up a knife... Argh! All a need is just one good slice to put on the plate. Make it beautiful. I slice through the middle of the brownie. Ugggh! Take your time. Gentle. Yeah, it's holding. Nup. It's sinking. It's a no go. The mousse is melting and it's sinking in the middle. Nup. It's not cooked. I'm just disheartened. I'm upset. I'm... Yeah, I'm just broken. You're retired, so these days, everybody travels to you. Maybe you only do school runs. You work from home, so drive mostly on the weekend. At Youi, we tailor your insurance premium to how you use or don't use your car. It could save you lots. Call: MATT: Gentle... Yeah, it's holding. Nuh. It's sinking. It's a no-go. It's my worst nightmare. I've just got to get one good slice out of it. It's going to be delicious, so think how you can plate it. Yeah. Just get it on there. Nuh. Oh, my God... Nuh. It's not cooked properly. Both slices have completely collapsed. I don't know what to do. I have nothing else to serve the judges. It's a mess. It looks like a deflated lilo. It looks absolutely terrible and it's not me. This feels like I've stepped back 10 steps. GARY: You have two minutes to make those last little touches on the plates! Hey. No. Not giving up. Cut it out. Just hasn't set. Just fudgy, that's all. It's fudgy. Just change the way you're plating it. I've got to put something on the plate, and the only piece worth using is my first slice. Come on, Elise. Push, push, push, push, push, push, push. It looks bad. The only thing keeping me going is the hope that the flavours are good enough. MIMI: Time's running out. I get my fresh figs on first, then my grilled figs. The pressure is really getting to me and I need to make a decision about this smoked ricotta. I've got ice-cream, figs, chocolate sauce. I think I need the cheese. I know it's out there but it's my grandma's dish. It has to have cheese. So I'm going to push myself and I'm going to risk it all. I'm putting the smoked ricotta on the plate. I just hope that it works with all the other flavours. Final touches! Everything on the plate! One minute to go! Come on, Elise. Come on, Mim. Go, Haz. HARRY: There's a minute to go and I really need to make a decision about this bisque. It's really going to come down to the finesse of the flavours really today. I don't want to put my bisque onto the plate but I can't go without it, otherwise it'll be dry. So I pour it into a serving jug, ready to take to the judges. This is the biggest risk I've ever taken in the competition. But I've got to do it. 30 seconds! Get it on the plate. Get it on the plate. ELISE: I'm not going to give up. I haven't come this far just to walk out those doors and to throw in the towel. Get it on there. This could be or is my last cook in the MasterChef kitchen. Even if I am to go home off the back of this dish, I'm not going to give up. Come on, Mim. Come on! 10 seconds! ELENA: Looking beautiful, Elise! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! That's it. Your time's up. Well done. MATT PRESTON: Well done, guys. Tough cook. (GROANS) Nice knowing you, Harry. Nice knowing you too, guys. Far out. Time is up. This is not who I am. This is not how far I've come. I'm just so devastated. I don't know. Just got to have a look. I made it top five and that's massive. Like, that's huge for me. (SNIFFS) Especially coming into this competition I didn't think I'd make the first week, and, you know, I made it this far, so just proud of myself. Stop crying, stop being a wuss and, yeah, just think of all the great memories I have. I think there's something really, really tough about that challenge. Yeah. This challenge is all about our three contestants showing us how far they've come and I really felt the pressure of doing that seemed to get to them, across all three of them. None of them had an easy cook, did they? There was a lot of focus out there and I'm sure there's a lot of focus in here for us, because there's a lot on the line for these guys. Let's get the first dish in. Yeah. HARRY: I'm not sure if this dish is really expressive of, you know, how far I've come. I've put so much effort into this bisque but if I'm honest, I don't think it's enough. Hi. Hello. This could be my last tasting in this competition and that's really scaring me. . 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. MATT: So, Harry, what's the dish? Today I've made a butter poached lobster with a coriander and chicken dumpling, and also a lobster bisque. It's a funny cook, that. I don't know what happened. It was just not a good cook for me. If you leave today, what are you going to go off and do? Probably the first thing I'll do when I get out of here is go start work in a resort kitchen and focus on food. I want to be the best cook that I can be. Yeah. Food is such a weird thing. It makes you think differently. It makes you feel differently inside. It's changed me entirely. I'm not the person I was 12 weeks ago. I think you should be really excited. You know, you're 22 years old. Whether you go or whether you stay the mere fact now you understand how far you can go, how deep your resources run and how many skills that you've got to rely on... That's so exciting. Harry, off you go. We'll taste. Thank you. Well, look, it's a nice-looking dish. Yeah. You can see what he was thinking. He was thinking that he should've done something more than dumplings. The dish should've been more intense. He wants to do more. He wants to be in that top four, that's for sure. Beautiful dumpling. They are. They're really meaty. The chicken, the coriander, it's got some real flavour. And that pasta... I mean, we saw it at the bench. Silky smooth, nice and green and vibrant. I think he's done a great job with that. The lobster is simple. And that combination is great. That's delicious. But what it's fighting against is this kind of murky sauce that doesn't have the complexity and balance that we've got so used to seeing from him. I feel for him, because the pressure's on. It puts Harry in a very vulnerable position. Shall we get the next one in? MIMI: Walking my dish up to the judges, I'm really nervous. I just know it's missing that goat's cheese on it and I just don't think that the ricotta's going to cut it. Let's first chat about the dish. It's a fig ice-cream with lots of figs and some smoked ricotta. A lot different to the original concept. Yes. I was really worried and I really had to turn myself around. That shows real development. For most cooks, they've mistaken one cheese for another. Can't believe that happened. You know, and that's easy to do. Is this dish going to be enough to get you to the quarterfinal? I really hope so. I'd love to get to the quarterfinals and just want to fight all the way to the end. Well, there's only one way to find out. Let us taste. But you can't be here. Off you go. Thanks. Guys, it looks pretty good, huh? You like that kind of rubble of bits and pieces... Yeah, I do. I mean, it looks interesting. Yeah, but I'm more interested to see how... I mean, ricotta can be quite dry, you know, and she smoked it, so it could be a little rubble of dryness. On the positive side, wonderfully glossy, shiny chocolate sauce. Really good ice-cream. Super creamy. And the flavour of the fig jam in the ice-cream is lovely. Absolutely delicious. And those shards of crisp prosciutto are fantastic. There's lots of technical skill there that shows how far she's come, but the ricotta just derails the whole dish. I looked at the dishes when they finished the plating up and I went, "I think Mimi's safe." Now I'm tasting the dish, I'm going, "I don't think she's safe at all." It's interesting. Can't wait to get the next dish in. ELISE: My heart is going a million miles an hour. And when you put so much on the line to be here... To think that you're going out on something that you're not proud of is the worst thing ever, but I've just got to pray that those flavours save me. Elise, what's the dish? A chocolate pistachio and orange brownie with a chocolate mousse, then orange ice-cream and an orange crumb. You think you're going home? Yep. What has frustrated you most about this dish? (SIGHS) I knew what I had to do today but it was just stupid, little errors that I shouldn't be doing. Yeah. Soon as I saw you put that brownie in the tin, I thought, "OK, we're in trouble." Yep. Is there something that we can look forward to here? I like the flavour of a brownie. It's got chocolate. It's got pistachio in there. I'm really happy with my ice-cream. You've got a bit of a crunch from the crumb. So I'm happy with the flavours but just didn't execute it well. Tell us why you should stay. I can't see my life without food in it. I love food. I love cooking food. I love making desserts. And this is my dream. This is what I've always wanted to do. Well, for us we've gotta taste. Thank you. Sorry. (SNIFFS) It's all about the slump in the middle, isn't it? Yeah. That brownie hasn't slumped - that's collapsed in the corner. When she plated up I went, "Boom. She's going home." That brownie hasn't slumped - that's collapsed in the corner. Never know. Ignore how it looks. It's all about how it tastes. Let's find out. Flavour wins, Gary. Yeah. When she put it down, I just went, "What a disaster." But now it's making me smile. Because it's delicious. The orange ice-cream just absolutely pops. It's unmistakable for anything else. The texture, it's smooth and beautiful. And I particularly love chocolate mousse on top of the gooey brownie. GEORGE: Ah, it's yum. We all know that this is undercooked but an undercooked brownie is not a sort of disaster... No. ..like undercooked chicken. It's actually preferable, isn't it? Well... To have a slightly gooey brownie. Yeah. I don't care how it looks anymore. I'm in dessert heaven and it tastes wonderful and it's yum. Harry, Mimi, Elise, you were cooking for your place in the quarterfinal today. And I think it's fair to say that the pressure got to you. I think it's also fair to say it may be one of those rare times where you may all think you might be the one that's going home. Elise, we know and you know that dish was nowhere near what you are capable of. One thing has always been self-evident in the MasterChef kitchen - flavour wins. And that combination of orange segments, orange ice-cream and chocolate with that wonderfully rich chocolate mousse... ..meant your dish tasted better than Harry or Mimi's and that is why you are safe. (LAUGHS) Told you. Well done. Congratulations. Go and join Matt and Elena. Good luck. (ALL APPLAUD) (LAUGHS) Harry, Mimi, it then comes down to the two of you. Harry... ..we loved that flavour of coriander in the pasta and we loved the texture and filling of that dumpling. However, that sauce just lacked the complexity and the flavour that we've come to expect from you. Mimi. Great flavour in your fig ice-cream, and all the different techniques on the plate, it shows us how much you've learned throughout this competition. But... .the ricotta was dry. There were flaws on both of your dishes. But... ..Mimi... ..while there was so much technique on display, the problem was the elements just did not work together. And that's why I'm sorry to say, Mimi... ..you're going home. Oh, Mimi! We've loved having you here, honestly. You know, your big smile and your presence is wonderful and really there's one dish that for me was the most exciting dish of the entire competition and that was the dish you cooked at Maude. That was really one of the best desserts we've seen in eight years of MasterChef. It was delicious. Best dish of the day for me. Oh! That was beautiful. NIGELLA LAWSON: This is my comment. Thank you! Oh! Mwah! (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) Thank you! Mimi, but unfortunately now it's time to say goodbye. Thank you. Oh, Mimi. Nearly but really close. Thanks, Gary. Good luck. Thanks. I'm really proud of myself. I actually can't believe that I've gotten into the top five of MasterChef. I don't think that I really found myself in anything I did before. (CHEERING, APPLAUSE) To come through this experience and realise that you can have a career out of it... ..is just amazing. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Able 2017