1 ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia... ..after an emotional cook, Elise was eliminated. It's been the best experience of my life. But for Elena, Matt and Harry... You are in the semifinal. I'm speechless. (CHEERING) Tonight, one step away from the grand final... Are you ready? ..each contestant must create... Push! Push! ..two courses for 20 guests. ELENA: Absolutely feeling the pressure. I am so nervous. This challenge will test them mentally, physically and emotionally... It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. Do you want this or not? I'm dead serious. ..as they cook like their life depends on it. Don't slow down, speed up. But at the end of day... Oh, my God. Absolutely a restaurant quality dish. ..only two can make it through. Tough decision, isn't it? The question is which two will it be? I don't know if I'm gonna get it done. # 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 MATT: It's the morning of semifinals. And definitely...definitely feeling pretty nervous. I feel like there's a lot of twists and turns in life that set you off in different directions and everything that's happened in my life, whether it be good or bad, it's led me to here. I'm here now, and I'm pretty, pretty grateful for that. Winning the competition would help me achieve that food-truck business and build a career in the food industry. The judges have told us what this challenge is about today and we've had time to plan our menus. The dishes that I'm cooking today, they show where I've come from, everything that I've learnt to this point and where I want to go after this. ELENA: I'm beyond thrilled that I'm in the top three and I just can't wait to get back in that kitchen and put forward my dishes that I've planned. My main, it's very much modern Australian cooking and my dessert is an homage and reflection of my childhood. My grandparents are Dutch and Indonesian. I love food that is coming from a story or a memory and trying to evoke that experience in a diner. I want to take inspiration from my life and put that on a plate today. I really want to cook my best food and I want the judges to see that I've grown and developed. HARRY: A couple of months ago, I was just in a little town, bartending, and...I look back at...my old self and my old life and I think, like, everything's changed now for me. I really want to show the judges how far I've come. What I want to put up today is European cuisine or Italian cuisine, which is what I said at the start was the furthest thing from my liking. Today is not the day to play it safe 'cause there is a spot in the grand finale on the line. MATT: I feel like when we first walked into the kitchen, I feel like I was just a young boy, you know, that really had no idea what was about to happen to him. Now... ..I am one cook away from hitting the grand final. But at the same time... ..what's left are the two best cooks in the competition that I'm up against, you know, and they want it equally as bad. (CHEERING) ELENA: There's a massive amount of applause from the gantry, which is just so lovely. We can see the kitchens behind the judges. It's terrifying but it's exciting. GARY: Good morning! This is the semifinal of MasterChef 2016. (CHEERING) You should be grinning from ear to ear because this is the final hurdle. Make it through today and you are in the grand finale. And this is going to be the hardest day you've ever spent in the MasterChef kitchen. You've got to deal with that pressure, deal with your own nerves and it's on an entirely different level than anything else you've experienced so far. Palms are starting to sweat. Yep. I don't think we can say enough or too often how proud each of us is of what the three of you have achieved in this competition. And today, we want you to show us what you've got... ..to hit us with your best shot, and that's why we told you yesterday what today's challenge was going to be. You've all cooked good food, but today, good is not gonna be good enough and great is not gonna be great enough. Today, if you really want to get through to that grand finale, everything you do has to be perfect. You're each about to prepare a main and a dessert for 20 guests and the three of us. 46 plates of impeccable, intricate, delicious food that you three will have to make all by yourself. We hope you're ready 'cause this cook is going to decide your destiny. Alright, the rules. Open pantry and four hours to get everything ready for service. Gary, Matt and I are gonna be judging you on the most important criteria in the MasterChef kitchen. Deliciousness. Obviously, we want food on time, consistent and looks great. But ultimately, it's gonna come down to the dishes that we want to eat again, again and again. Shannon, he's been your mentor all year. Today, he's gonna guide you, support you and possibly kick you, in a good way, so you can achieve it. Today, you're all going to make mistakes. You realise that. It's going to be about emotion. How you control that emotion when you make that mistake is gonna see you succeed, OK? ALL: Yes, Shannon. For one of you, it all ends here today. The dream is over. For two of you... ..the chance to go for glory in tomorrow's grand finale. (CHEERING) This is your moment. This is time to cook for your life. Are you ready? Yes, George. Are you ready? Yes, George. Are...you...ready? Yes, George! Your time starts... ..now! (CHEERING) TRENT: Come on, Matty! MIMI: Go, Harry! Go, Elena! CHARLIE: Go, Matty! MATT: The first thing I wanted to do is just download everything that I've got in my head, my workflow. I've got the concept down pat. I'm really happy with the flavours and textures. Today I'm cooking a confit duck leg with harissa pumpkin, some roasted baby beets, some dukkah and a date reduction. And then I'm doing a brioche doughnut with some orange and coffee. So, I've just started with the base for the brioche doughnut. This is a time-consuming element. It needs to mix, prove, rest, prove again. It's gonna take up a lot of time, but the result should be well worth it. I want to show the judges technique and flavour and these dishes are loaded with technique that I've picked up throughout the competition. CHLOE: Good job, Matty. NICOLETTE: Go, Matt. The proving is key. It takes a lot of time. But when I knock it down, let them rise again, fry them off, it should be so light inside. BRETT: Looks great. We've got to produce 46 dishes in four hours and I think I'm gonna be using every single minute of that, but this is for a spot in the finale, so I'm gonna push it right to the end. ELISE: Go, Matty! BRETT: Go, Matty. ELENA: Today's the biggest cook of my life. I want to make it to that grand final, and to do that, I want to use some native Australian ingredients. I've got pretty much 16 elements between the two plates today. SHANNON: Wow, there is a mountain of ingredients for you to get to. Tells you what sort of mountain you've got to climb though. Wow. Tell me what you're doing. I am doing an Australian version of a nicoise salad. Mm. Bush tomato sauce, some tempura samphire and a lemon myrtle tuna. Sounds fantastic. Yep. And my next one is apples, bickies and cheese. It's sort of a bit of an homage to my mum and my childhood, having cheese and apple and bickies. So, you've got lemon myrtle native ingredient here. Yeah, and another one in here. OK. Good. Looks fantastic. Looks very intricate. Yep. So, just have a think how you can speed that process up 'cause when I'm gonna be calling the pass for you today... Yep. ..you've got to be ready. I get that Shannon thinks I'm being ambitious. I know it's a lot of work. I've calculated that I kind of need to complete one element every 15 minutes if I want to be ready for service. It's a massive challenge that I've set for myself. But if I can pull it off, I'm hoping it'll earn me a spot in the grand final. (CHEERING) Go, Matt! ELISE: Go, Elena! The first element that I tackle is an easy one. It's my green apple sorbet. The very last thing I'm gonna be putting on the plate, but I need it to be ready. I put some green apple puree, some lemon juice, water and sugar into the mixer. I'm pretty happy with my apple sorbet. It's got just the right amount of tartness and it just sings green apple. Get them into the churner. I'm happy that that's out of the way. I manage to complete the sorbet in 10 minutes, so I'm ahead of time. I put my eggs on to boil for my Aussie nicoise salad. The eggs need to be hard-boiled to be able to do the next step with them, so they're gonna need 12 minutes once it comes back to the boil. HARRY: Coming into the competition, pretty much everything I cooked was Asian influenced. So, I'm gonna totally flip that on its head. Hey, Harry. Hi, Shannon. OK, tell me what you're doing. Um, OK, so for main, I'm going to do a lobster cannelloni with a smoked corn custard and a beautiful lobster sauce to go with it. And then for dessert, I'm going to do, like, a take on a tiramisu. These two dishes are sort of Italian-European based and that was one of the biggest things that I came into this competition not being able to do. Couldn't cook Italian, didn't like eating Italian. So, I really want to show the judges how far I've actually come. Good on you. You confident? Yeah, yeah. Are you feeling calm? Yeah. Good. A lot to do, though. I'm gonna leave you to it. Thanks, mate. Believe. OK. Thank you. Whoo! There's a couple of elements on my dessert that need to freeze or bake, so I'm gonna get straight onto those first. Tiramisu is a classic Italian dessert, but mine is no ordinary tiramisu. This is something that I'd want to see at a three-hat restaurant. It's gonna be, like, a layered dessert, so I want to have this beautiful layer of Nespresso bavarois on the top. So, a bavarois is kind of like a set mousse, whisk some air through it to make it nice and light and fluffy. And it's the perfect, perfect texture. So, at the moment, I'm getting started on my dacquoise, which is gonna be the base for the dessert. So, a dacquoise is like an almond meal meringue and it's going to be sitting on the bottom of the bavarois. Looks good texture. Yeah. Got plenty there. It's gonna be really, really cool. I'm gonna have this beautiful, soft, chewy meringue base, then a soft-set mousse on top. (CHEERING) ZOE: Come on, Harry. While my brioche is proving, I need to get on to my ice-cream. I'm just making the base for my ice-cream. So, I'm just making an anglaise. I haven't been doing too bad with desserts and I'm hoping that I can absolutely nail it. And obviously using the coffee in the dessert, that's a bit of a nod to where I came from and what I was doing before I signed up for this competition - you know, roasting coffee, so I figure... ..what an opportunity to bring it out and see if I can nail it. The anglaise has come up to temperature and I've added my coffee flavour to the taste that I'm after. I can then strain that off, put that in the blast chiller to chill down and then put it in the ice-cream churners. (CHEERING) SHANNON: How you looking, Elena? I'd like to be a little bit further ahead, so I'll just have to pick up the pace. I've got 16 elements to complete for my dishes today. I need to hit one element every 15 minutes if I want to make service. I am boiling, peeling and Mouli-ing 30 eggs today - one per person, plus a few extra, should anything go...go wrong. I just need to get through all of these eggs so I can start on my tuna. I've got so much to do. I really need to push and stay focused. ELISE: Come on, guys. Pick up the pace. MIMI: Come on, guys. NICOLETTE: Looking good, Harry. Thank you. I feel like I made good headway on my dessert prep, so now it's time for me to get on to my main. And for main today, I'm gonna make a lobster cannelloni with roasted artichokes and a smoked corn custard. At the moment, I'm just getting on to the lobster stock... ..which I'm gonna reduce and use for a sauce. I really want to get this stock on 'cause I want heaps of time for those flavours to develop. To make the stock, I just have to separate the heads and the tails from the lobsters... ..chop up the heads into pieces and get them into a pan. Lobster has definitely been, like, my hero ingredient all throughout the competition, I think. It's such a beautiful protein and I've grown up with it so I'm familiar with it. I love eating it as well. This is gonna be the starter for my sauce. I'm gonna make it really, really nice and rich, get some wine, some bay leaves and some aromats in there, along with some pernod as well, and then reduce it to make a nice, thick sauce. Come on, Harry! Whoo! For me, when you've got a challenge like this, your planning is crucial. And if your idea is wrong, everything else from the get-go is just out of kilter, right? You're gonna be in trouble. That's what we told them yesterday. So, let's start with Harry. What's he...? SHANNON: Lobster, of course. He loves lobster. Yes. I can smell that, actually. I could smell it in the making, which smelt absolutely delicious. Harry thinks he's got it in the bag, actually. Has he? Does he? Yeah, he's very calm. So, Matt, for me, he's got exactly what this semifinal is about. The brioche dough in four hours is a bit challenging. I understand why. I mean, for Matt, there's a lot at stake here and his dough is excellent. And then he's got a cafe latte ice-cream. Doughnut with coffee ice-cream. I mean, yum. And it makes sense. He was a coffee roaster. Something you could do in a food van. Doughnuts with coffee ice-cream. Yeah. You'd be queuing up for it. Totally. And let's jump over to Elena. Hers has got to be complicated, hasn't it? MIMI: Come on, Ellie. Keep pushing. I mean, that nicoise is a great idea. It's Elena to put lots of things on a plate. And 99% of the time - that's why she's here - she gets it right. It's 'cause of her dishes. She's got to go, go, go, and leave herself plenty of time for both those plate-ups. Be interesting to see how she keeps her nerves under control. (CHEERING) ANASTASIA: Come on, Elena! CHLOE: Come on, Harry! Go! Whoo! ELENA: 45 minutes have gone and I've only just finished peeling my eggs. They took way longer than I anticipated and now I'm 15 minutes behind. I need to start cutting my tuna, but I'm a bit worried. This is the hero of my Aussie nicoise salad. I need to cut it into rectangular chunks. Far out. It's doing my head in, trying to get the shape I'm after with this tuna. I don't know why I'm so nervous about this. SHANNON: The tuna? Far out. Why? I don't know. The more I think about it, the more I doubt myself. How many portions are you going to achieve out of this piece of tuna? Hopefully four. Four. OK. Yeah. Hopefully four. All makes sense to me. OK. Hey, smile. You're looking way too stressed about that. It's OK. Stick with what you know. It'll be fine. OK? I get my first one done. But I've got seven more to do. I look up at the clock and I've lost another 15 minutes. I'm even further behind than before. Now I'm overthinking it, I think. You are overthinking it. Come on, Elena. At this stage, OK, don't let your emotions get in play. I can't help it. I'm finding it really hard. If I don't get back in control, there is no way that I'm gonna finish all 16 elements. 1 (CHEERING) ELISE: Come on, guys! Come on, Elena. ELENA: Today is the semifinals. We've got four hours to produce a main and a dessert for 20 diners, plus the judges. The pressure is on. Push! Push! I've got my dessert started. Now I need to get cracking on the main, which is a confit duck leg with harissa pumpkin, some roasted baby beets, dukkah and a date reduction. I want to prepare 14 of these ducks. The first thing I need to do is release both of the legs and then remove the lower half. And then individually take off both of the marylands. You know, I've had my fair share of cooking duck throughout the competition and I really want to produce a dish now that shows a lot of technique and skill and everything that I've learnt, and that's why I've chosen to do confit today. It's a three-stage process. I need to cook the duck leg slowly in the duck fat, cool it down and then fry them off to finish them. It's going to take a long time, but it'll be worth it. But before I do any of that, I need to get them all broken down. CHLOE: Go, Matty! ELENA: I'm an hour and 15 down. I've finally finished cutting all of my tuna, but I'm half an hour behind. I'm gonna have to really push to try and make up this time. I grab some cherry tomatoes and start preparing the sauce for my main. I sprinkle some ground bush tomato powder on, some olive oil, and get them into the oven. JIMMY: Oh, nice one! Elena, beautiful. I've had the base of my lobster sauce going for a while now. And it's really, really, really nice. But I want to let it reduce a little bit longer to really intensify those lobster flavours. Next, I have to get on to making the filling for this cannelloni. The main ingredient in the filling for the lobster cannelloni is going to be kingfish. Sweat off some shallots, finely dice up the lobster and fold those two together. I've used kingfish quite a few times throughout the competition in some Asian dishes. And I think it's gonna work perfectly in the cannelloni. Why did you choose kingfish, Harry? For your mousse. Um...because of the flesh. It's a nice white meat. It's just quite fatty, that's all. It's quite a fatty fish. From a mousse point of view, you've got that fattiness through it that can upset your setting agents and the cream. 'Cause don't forget, you're adding cream, which is a fat as well, to the mousse. Yeah. It's a little bit worrying when one of the best chefs in Australia starts questioning what you're doing. But I've chosen kingfish and I'm confident with the idea of my dish and I'm just gonna stick to that. Just to ease Shannon's mind, I'm going to bump up the lobster to kingfish ratio and with that beautiful lobster sauce, I think the dish is going to be perfectly balanced. TRENT: Come on, Harry! Elena, Harry, Matt, there is two and a half hours to go. Push. Matt, focus. (OTHER CONTESTANTS SHOUT) Come on, Elena. Yep. Harry. Your pasta - has it been made? Yeah. It's here. Good. Get it resting. ASHLEY: Oh, my God. How many more has he got to do? JIMMY: Oh, my gosh. ELENA: I'm way behind my target of 15 minutes per element and I'm just trying to catch up. I can quickly finish my bush tomato sauce. I grab the tomatoes out of the oven, extract as much juice as possible, blitz it... Now I'm just, um, putting some oil through there and seasoning it. ..and leave it to reduce on the stove. Done. ELISE: Good work, Elena. This is the tapenade. The tapenade, it's a classic combination with tuna. Good job, Elena. It will add another textural element to this dish. Every element that I get done and out of the way is a little bit more comfort, so I'm just gonna try and keep on powering to get some of the small ones out of the way. ELISE: Good work, Matt! I've got all of the legs lined up in two gastro trays. Duck fat straight over the top, into the ovens at 160. (CHEERING) Go, Matt! ELISE: Let's go, Matty! But I'm still not finished with this duck yet. I'm just taking the wings and the necks off the ducks. And that'll build the base of my sauce. I've got a load more of this duck to break down. And this is gonna take a lot of time. ELISE: Whoo! MIMI: Come on, Matt! ANASTASIA: Go, Matt! Elena, Matt, Harry, two hours down, two hours to go. Now it's really time to motor. Time to get serious. HEATHER: Keep it up! MIMI: Go, Harry! My pasta dough has been resting and it's really, really nice and soft. It's the perfect texture. So, all I have to do now is roll it out. Two hours to go. GARY: Yeah. And there's a few little concerns creeping in for me. Alright. Go on. Hit 'em with us. So, how's Harry? There's a thing here that I just don't quite get. He's using kingfish as a mousse, which, I love kingfish as a fish. Very oily. Very oily, very fatty. Normally prawn, you know, because it's got a really high protein content. Or even something like scallop or a clean white fish would be a good idea. Yeah. But he could serve you a beautiful crayfish sauce because that's made. So, spending a long time on the sauce, then that's, you know, for Harry, central to the dish. It's really got to mean something. CHARLIE: Come on, Harry! Come on, guys! Pump it! ELENA: I'm on to peeling my potatoes, but I should have finished eight elements by now and this is my fifth. I'm still playing catch up big-time. SHANNON: Are you OK? It's just timing of everything, I think. OK. And I want to push myself, but it is a lot. You're doing yourself no favours there with unwashed potatoes, aren't you? God, you'd think there's... I know! Far out. Peeling and slicing this many potatoes in 15 minutes is impossible. I can't see myself getting out of this hole and I'm just falling further and further behind. TRENT: Good stuff, Matty. Keep pushing, mate. Finally finished breaking down the ducks and that will be used to make the base of my sauce later on. I'm looking at my prep list up on the fridge. I realise I've really put myself under it here. This duck has taken me so much time and there's still so much left to do. Um...just got this constant running dialogue in my head of things that I've got to do and where I've got to be. All I can see is heaps of ingredients and so much to do. It just seems like it's never-ending. Oh, Jesus. This is gonna decide who goes through to the grand finale for MasterChef 2016. You right? Where's timers? I need to move fast. I need to start multi-tasking. Come on, Matty! For the dessert, still need to get this coffee crumb at least combined. So, I just want to get this coffee crumb sorted. Oh, was that... Metal, Matty! Metal! Metal, Matt! Matt! Metal bowl in the microwave. Oh. Matt, where are you? Tell me. Talk to me. I'm letting the pressure get to me and I'm making stupid mistakes. If I don't get my act together, I won't be in that grand finale. 1 ZOE: Come on, guys! Keep pushing! There's about two hours until service and we've got to serve main and dessert to 20 guests, plus the judges. MIMI: Come on, Matt! I want to give myself every opportunity to get a spot in that finale. You'll get there. You can see the urgency on you. Thanks, Shannon. No worries. If I want to have any chance of getting all of this prep done, I need to find another gear and work harder and faster than I've ever done before. TRENT: Come on, Matty! I've got my pumpkin organised to puree. I just need to sweat that off in a pan. Now I need to prepare all of these baby beets. I'm looking down the barrel of about 100 that I need to make sure I've got ready to go. Duck and beetroot - classic, classic combination and I really want the beetroots on there for that...that earthiness. ELISE: Go, Matty. Work faster. (LAUGHS) Yeah. Sure thing, pal. Elena, Matt, Harry, it's time to really dig deep, OK? At the end of today, one of you is going home. Don't let it be you. Yes, Shannon. Come on! 90 minutes to go. ELISE: Come on, Matt! BRETT: Push! Come on, Harry! Go, Elena! With 90 minutes to go, I should have completed 10 elements and I've only done eight. I've finished peeling the potatoes and I've got them into the saffron broth. I've also done a wattle-seed crumb. SHANNON: Happy with it? Come out OK? Yep. And a fennel gel, ready for piping. MILES: Looks great, Elena. Keep it up. But I'm still half an hour behind and that worries me. So, I've got a lot to do. Absolutely feeling the pressure. Today, I'm making a layered dessert based on the tiramisu. So, my bavarois has been sitting on the bench now. I've been aerating it heaps and it's almost set. So, a bavarois is kind of like a set mousse and I'm gonna put it on top of a dacquoise, which is like a chewy almond meal meringue. I'm really excited about this dessert. It's got all the classic flavours of tiramisu, but it's gonna be taken up another level with all these different layers of texture. Can you open the blast chiller for me, please? Now I've got to let that set and get back on to my main. Time is ticking and I have a lot to do before the guests arrive. (CHEERING) MIMI: Go, Harry! Come on, Harry! ELENA: There's just over an hour till service and my potatoes are done. But my time system has completely failed. I have to keep multi-tasking if I want to get all of these elements done. OK. Sanity check number one. Bush tomato sauce? Um, it's on its way. It's nearly done. Tapenade done? Tapenade done. Tomatoes? I need to still cut those. How long do you need? 10. 10 minutes? Saffron potatoes? Done. Done. Tempura samphire? I'm just picking it now. How long do you need? 5 minutes, hopefully. Tempura batter. I haven't done that. 5 minutes? Hopefully, yeah. You've got your egg Moulied? No. Haven't done it Moulied yet. Another 10 minutes. Yep. The longer we go through the list... Cheese mousse? I haven't done it yet. ..the more I realise how much I'm up against it. Fennel caramel? Haven't done it. Apple matchsticks? 10 minutes? Putting it into perspective, you've got to motor. Yep. It's time to ramp it up. OK. You with me? Yes, Shannon. Good. Shannon has rattled off about 80 minutes worth of work and I've only got 60 minutes till service. I just don't know how I'm going to get it all done in time. It's... It's a mammoth task ahead of me and I just have to stay focused. This is going to be the most intense hour, I reckon. HEATHER: You can do it! Come on! Go, Elena! Come on! Come on, Matt! Keep focused. MATT: I've finally finished preparing all of these beets. I've got them on a couple of baking trays, season them up and then just drizzle a little bit of the duck fat over the top and pop them in the oven to roast off. Good work, Matty! Whoo! To make the date reduction today, I begin by roasting off all of the duck wings. The reason for the date reduction is to add that... ..richness and sweetness. I think duck absolutely loves that sweetness and that stickiness in the sauce. It's a key element that I really want to have on there. Now I need to deglaze it with Madeira. (CHEERING) And...up she goes. You can just tell that it's gonna be locked and loaded, full of flavour. Yeah, a little bit warm in here today. Don't know why. (LAUGHTER) Mmm. It just goes. Yeah. HEATHER: It's just amazing to watch. I think that if he can keep the pace up throughout the cook, he's gonna, yeah, really make it hard for the other two. The bones have roasted off to a point that I'm happy with. I put that into a pressure cooker with chicken stock for about 25 minutes. CHARLIE: Well done, Matty! HARRY: So far, everything's gone to plan, but now I have to prep load of artichokes. Got to get those artichokes done. Yes, Shannon. Come on, Harry. Come on. Get onto it, Harry! Come on, Harry! I know that these artichokes are going to take a long time to prepare. They're a really important part of the main course. So, I just have to move as fast as I can to make sure I get them done. Head down. Head down. You can do it. And just try and go a little bit faster. I hope your plan is taking shape because there's only 30 minutes to go. You need to motor! Push! Go, Harry! Go, Matty! Come on, Elena. ELENA: 30 minutes to go. I'm feeling scared by how much I've got to do. I know that I just have to keep pushing. What is that? Dutch spiced cookie. I've managed to make a batter for my samphire and a caramel sauce for my dessert and now I have to get my Dutch bickies into the oven. Come on, Elena. Too slow. You've got to get them in. You're taking too long. Get them in the oven. I still have so much to do for my main and my dessert. It's freaking me out. Go, go, go. If they're not quite smooth enough, that's fine. You have to go. The ducks have finished confiting in the oven. I take them out. CHARLIE: Yum, Matty. HEATHER: Great work, Matt. The duck is obviously the key element, so it needs to be falling apart. You should be able to pretty much break it apart with a spoon. Yeah, the duck's... the duck's beautiful. The flesh is just falling apart. I'm happy with it. I need to chill the duck down and then I can fry it off just before service. This confiting process is full-on, but if I execute it properly, it'll be worth it. I should have perfect, tender duck and a crispy duck skin. Go. Push! Aagh! I feel like I'm doing well. I'm on top of everything and I feel like I've got a vision of where I'm gonna be. (CHEERING AND SHOUTING) TRENT: Come on, Matty! TERESE: Come on, Harry. Get it done. Pull your finger out, mate. Get a move on. HARRY: These artichokes are taking forever. SHANNON: Come on, Harry. Keep going on those artichokes. Don't slow down. Speed up. Come on. Hurry. I haven't taken into account how fiddly these things are to prep in this quantity, for so many dishes. What do you need to do? I think I need to ditch the artichokes. You need to ditch the artichokes? Why? Why? Because I don't have time to do them all. I'm dead serious. Is there artichokes on the menu? Yeah. It says it on the menu? Just get the artichokes done. Don't do anything. Get the artichokes done. Get the artichokes done. OK? Yes, Shannon. Come on. You can do them. Shannon's right. They're on the menu. I have to serve them. But this is taking so long. I have no idea how I'm going to get them done. MILES: Faster, Harry. Yeah, mate. Elena, Matt, Harry... Yes. Stop. Look behind me. There is 15 minutes to go. The cyclone is about to hit. 1 Elena, Matt, Harry! Yes? Stop. Look behind me. The cyclone is about to hit. That's awesome. 15 minutes to go. Come on! BRETT: Come on, guys! Push! (CHEERING) SHANNON: Come on, Harry! Do you want this or not? I'm trying to prep these artichokes as quick as I can, but it's just taking me too long. I need to find a plan B. You're gonna have to push, Harry. ASHLEY: Go, Harry! ELISE: Go, Harry! I'm running around the pantry and I'm looking at all these vegetables and I see brussels sprouts. It's a perfect solution. They're gonna be a great addition to the dish. Go, Harry! Whoo! This has really set me behind, and I need to move. MATT: At this stage, I'm feeling like I'm on track, and it's time for me to just bring it together. I still need to fry off all of the duck legs to crisp up that skin. MILES: Come on, Matt! Come on! TRENT: Yes, Matty! To finish it in the pan with hot duck fat and to have that contrast between that melt-in-your-mouth dark flesh and then the crispy skin, if I nail that, I'm pretty confident the boys are gonna love it. Elena, Matt, Harry, it's crunch time! There's 10 minutes to go. Push! Push! (CHEERING) Go, Harry! MIMI: Come on, Harry! Go, Matty! Come on, Elena! ELENA: The diners have arrived, and I am nowhere near ready for service. Behind you. I've got so many elements left to make. SHANNON: You've got to find an extra 10% in your speed. Come on. My priority right now is to make sure I can get a main and a dessert up. I am so stressed, and having the diners here, it makes it even worse, because I don't have anything to serve them. SHANNON: Come on, come on. Keep pushing. Keep pushing. HARRY: I get my first batch of cannelloni into the oven to start cooking. These cannelloni are gonna take about eight minutes, I reckon. I'm putting them in in two different batches so I can get one ready for service and then halfway through service, I'll have the second batch ready. TRENT: Come on, Harry! Push! Then I need to finish cooking the artichokes and the sprouts, which I've added to the dish. Go, Harry! Elena, Matt, Harry, come on! Five minutes to go. I'm begging you, hurry. MATT: Five minutes until service and I've still got my duck legs frying off. And now I need to combine the spices for my dukkah. I want to have the dukkah for texture, the nuttiness, to really relate to the Middle Eastern palate that I'm going for today as well in the harissa in the pumpkin puree. TRENT: Come on, Matty! Whoo! I need to finish off the date reduction, which will bring the richness and the sweetness. Duck absolutely loves that, that sweetness and that stickiness in a sauce. I need to transfer the puree into bottles for service, get everything up to the front bench. This is total madness. MIMI: Come on, Matty! You've got to spread all your plates out. Yep. Yeah? I really want you to be starting to plate in two minutes. I want the potatoes on the plates. I'm freaking out - I have to slice tomatoes, cook the tuna, fry the samphire, before I can even think about plating. SHANNON: There is hungry customers waiting. Come on! NICOLETTE: What is that, Elena? Lemon myrtle. Yum! Don't listen to them now. No time, Elena. You gonna cook them all and rest them? What are you thinking? Uh, this tuna is gonna be seared on the outside and rare in the middle. OK. (SIGHS) Let's hurry. Come on, come on. I get my cannelloni, my smoked corn custard, my sprouts and my artichokes and get them up to the pass so they're ready for plating. CHLOE: Good work, Harry! This lobster reduction that I've made tastes really, really beautiful but I realise that I don't have that much and we need to serve 23 guests. So, I'll have to be really careful about how much I'm gonna put on the plate. ASHLEY: Well done, Harry. Two minutes to go. Two minutes till we've got food on the pass. Come on! There is hungry customers waiting. Come on! ELISE: Come on, Elena! Come on, Harry! TRENT: Come on, Matty! ELISE: Come on, Matt! ELENA: I finally get my tuna onto the grill... SHANNON: Go! Come on! ..and my samphire into the fryer. But they're gonna take 5 to 10 minutes to cook. The potatoes are all delicate or are the potatoes one spoon on the plate? I wanted it to be delicate, but I don't know if I'm gonna have time to do it how I want to do it. Just keep pushing. I'm in big trouble, and I still have to slice tomatoes and get all of my dessert elements ready. I'm feeling so overwhelmed. This is not how I wanted to be. ZOE: Come on, Elena! ASHLEY: Go, Elena! NICOLETTE: Come on, Elena! I want to be in the grand final so badly, but I can just feel it slipping away. I don't know if I'm gonna get it done. It seems unachievable. . 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 I don't know if I'm gonna get it done. You are going to get it done. I'm in big trouble. I've only just put my fish on the grill and service is about to start. I want the potatoes on the plates. It's possible to get the potatoes on the plates but I also have to do 100 things here. OK, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Come on. I've got so much left to do, and the longer the tuna takes to cook, the more trouble I'm in. Service starts now! Let's go! TRENT: Come on, guys! Push, Harry! SHANNON: Elena, come on. You need to get at least four plates out now, OK? Yeah. Just get some food out. Come on. JIMMY: Go, Elena! MIMI: Come on, Elena! HEATHER: Come on, Matty! Bring it home. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. It's... Yeah, it's absolutely mental. SHANNON: OK, let's get these first few plates out. I'm liking the presentation. I'm really liking this presentation. Good. It's nice. I like it. I'm absolutely rapt with how these plates look. Yeah, that's four. Service. Well done, Matty! Whoo! CHLOE: Good job, Matty! When I look at these plates, I'm pleased with my dish. I'm proud of it. CHARLIE; Good stuff, Matty! TRENT: Good work, Matty! That confit duck was a mission, but I just hope all that hard work has paid off. Oh. GARY: That looks good, doesn't it? Oh! Hello. Right, so here we've got Matt's confit duck leg with harissa pumpkin, beets, dukkah and a date reduction. Look how consistent it is. Instantly appetising, 'cause it's golden-brown and lots of... You can... My mouth is absolutely salivating. Mmm. Look at that - that's...that's... GEORGE: Listen, listen, listen. (DUCK SKIN CRACKS) But, also, even better, your knife just sinks into it. Oh, that's the way you want it. Oh! (CHEERING) Go, Matty! Go, Matty! That is absolutely yum. What's not to like? I've got nothing negative about this dish but... ..thank you...thank you, Matt, for being in this competition because he brings us so much joy every time he cooks, and now, when it's crunch time, you know, he's got to cook for not just the three of us, but a room full of people, he delivered, and he delivers because that confit duck is yum. Yeah. It is yum. Yeah, food...food like this really reminds me of why I love French food, you know - the complexity, the sophistication, and even though he's put a little twist in there and put harissa, and he's got a little dukkah on, at its heart, it's just the technique I admire. It's everything you want. You want the flesh to fall off the bone but you want it still to be really moist. You want the skin to be super-crispy, the fat rendered away, so it's like this little crunchy, golden veil over the top, and then you want everything else just to, you know, sing praises to the duck. I'll jump in a car and drive 20 k's, 30 k's, 100 k's, to go and eat a dish like this. HEATHER: Looks amazing, Matt. Well done. TRENT: So good, Matty. OK, service, please. Service, please. Come on, Ellie. You can do it, Elena! (CHEERING) ELENA: The diners are hungry and I should be serving them, but my tuna's not cooked. I'm gonna have to start plating up my saffron potatoes. SHANNON: Come on, Elena. Elena, you need to push. Just keep going. Just get some food out. Come on. I put on the tapenade. The tomatoes. SHANNON: OK, what have you got? I've got to do the egg now. But I'm still waiting on that tuna. Come on, Elena. Let's go. Come on! ZOE: It looks great, Harry. Thank you. Well done. I've sent out a few plates now, and I'm pretty happy with everything, but I'm just not sure if I'm going to have enough lobster sauce so I'm being really diligent with how much I'm putting on the plate, to make sure that I've got enough throughout service. Service, please! TRENT: Well done, Harry! (ALL CHEER) CHLOE: Looks awesome, Harry. Good job. TRENT: Well done, Harry. Thank you. GEORGE: Kingfish and lobster cannelloni with smoked corn custard and lobster sauce. He's added on some brussels sprouts as well. You don't taste lobster. Like, I really don't taste lobster. I thought he was making a sauce. I thought he was making a crustacean sauce. Yeah. What is in that other squeezy bottle over there? HARRY: George walks over... ..and he's tasting my sauce. And I have no idea what's going on. Wow. 1 What is in that other squeezy bottle over there? HARRY: George gets up from the table and comes over to my bench. When he's starts tasting the sauce, my heart totally sinks, and then he walks away. GEORGE: And it's delicious too. Can we have a little bit on our plate? I always love to know what I missed out on. MATT PRESTON: Mm. Shannon, can we get three little...? HARRY: Oh, my God. What is going on? I could be in serious trouble here. Chuck it on. Oh! Now, that changes the dish totally, doesn't it? Changes the dish so much. It changes this dish completely. MATT PRESTON: Yeah. Because what it does, it adds a beautiful crustacean-y richness to the whole thing. Now you can taste lobster. Lobster and crustacean. You know, it's a real shame that he went to all that effort, and we know he makes great crustacean sauce... Yeah. ..that he didn't put enough on there. Well, well, that's a big mistake. Well, that's a shame, isn't it? I love the idea of lobster inside a cannelloni. Yeah. I think he's used the wrong fish. Kingfish is not a good moussing fish, and it's too oily. You know what I love, actually? The artichokes. They are absolutely perfect, and I love the smoked corn puree. There's lots to love - I love... I love the amount of lobster, I got big chunks of lobster, crayfish in there. But he has avoided that real danger of making a filling like this, of the fish mousse being rubbery. I mean, you know, it is kind of chunky and it's about the fish. A good dish, but just a pity about all that work for this crustacean sauce to have a negative impact on the dish. That's a sad thing. Yeah. CHLOE: Looks awesome, Harry. Good job. JIMMY: Beautiful. Great. Good, good. Continue that pace. ELENA: My tuna is finally ready. ELISE: Good job, Ellie! Looks great, Ellie. Come on, Elena. Elena, you have to push. Come on. Yep. I'm really happy with the shape and how it looks, and it's cooked perfectly. I get it onto the plate and finish it off with bush tomato sauce... OK, beautiful. ..and my samphire. Plate as if you're going to eat it, OK? I want to have more sauce, but I can't keep the diners waiting any longer. Service, please. These plates just have to go out. (CHEERING) Come on, Elena! I really hope it's worthy of a spot in that grand finale. Here we go. Look at this one. Oh! Certainly looks impressive, doesn't it? That looks great. So this is Elena's Oz-Meets-Nice tuna salad. So, a twist on the nicoise salad, but using some Aussie ingredients. Yeah, yeah, love the colour of the saffron on the kipflers. We've got some nice, little crispy bits here which look like they might have samphire in them. Yeah, the only thing for me is that it doesn't look moist enough, I'll be honest. I mean, the sauce that she's put on is right, smack, on top of that lovely, rare tuna. We'll see how it eats. Yeah. I love the fact that Elena's brought us this classic French nicoise salad and Aussified it - why not? Fantastic, and also shown to us techniques she learned along the way. Tuna - she's cooked that beautifully. Yeah, really well. I think she's prepared it beautifully in terms of the lovely little square chunk of beautiful tuna. And look at that, Gary. I mean, that's wonderful cooking. Yeah, it's fantastic. Takes a bit of skill to do that, doesn't it? And it's really nice to see that, um, you know, you don't ruin an absolutely gorgeous piece of fish by overcooking it. And, jeez, I love that sort of tomato-y glazing. Bush tomatoes. It's yum. The bush tomato sauce with that crust, that lemon myrtle crust together, and the freshness of those Australian-grown tomatoes, beautiful. And that tempura of samphire. It's really clever. I could have a bag of them. They are so delicious. Yeah, that's really clever. A really nice, fresh, modern dish. I think what it needs is just more of that sauce, because it ties the whole thing together. Oh, yeah. I need you to send four plates quickly. OK. HEATHER: Come on, Ellie! TRENT: Good work, Matty! ASHLEY: That's it, Matty. Keep pushing, mate. MATT: Yeah, so I've sent out all my mains. Now I just need to get everything ready for, uh...for dessert, get in the right head space. The brioche has risen to the state that I want it to be in, so I can start frying them off. Yeah, I'm really happy with the doughnuts. They're, um... They should be super, super light inside, hopefully. I'll then get these doughnuts filled with the curd, glazed, topped with the nuts, on the plate, ice-cream. This is far from over. ANASTASIA: Go, Matt! Service, please. My final plate goes out, but I still have so much to do. CHARLIE: Well done, Harry. I need to get on to desserts, and then start plating up. My anglaise has been resting for a while now, so it's time for me to start making my ice-cream, using the dry ice. (CHEERING) NICOLETTE: Go, Harry! Service on the... Service, please. Service, please. These four. Elena, that's the last of your mains gone. Thank you. Well done. (CHEERING) Come on, Elena! Go, Harry! I really need to focus on my dessert. As quickly as possible, I need to mandolin these apple slices and then slice them into matchsticks. I need to break up my tuile, and I really need to work on my goat's cheese mousse. This is gonna define whether you get into the finale or not, OK? That mousse is the hero of that dish. My spot in the grand final rests on getting this dessert out. I just want to be here so much. Good job, Elena. Push, push, push. I'm definitely feeling under the pump, but I really want to plate this. I just... I want to see it how I visualised it. I'm just going to have to find a new gear and push even harder. Come on, Elena. ZOE: Good job, Matt! Go, Matty! MATT: I've got the first batch of doughnuts out of the fryer. I open one up, it looks really light, really fluffy. It's bang-on! They look good, those doughnuts. Now, did you test one to make sure they're cooked, though? Yeah. Great. I think they look perfect, and Shannon agrees. Now I just need to do that curd and bring it all together. One of the elements for my dessert is an orange and lemon curd and that's gonna be piped inside the doughnut for that...that acidity, that...that freshness that it's going to bring to the dessert. A little trick that we've picked up along the way is how to make curds in the microwave. Just got to heat that at 30-second intervals, just to sort of emulsify the egg yolks and bring it together. This should be really...really quick, really simple. Yeah, it's heating up, it's starting to emulsify. I just need to keep thickening it. It's starting to thicken a little bit, but it...it's taking longer than what I thought. Yeah, I've just got to keep at it and wait for it to come together. On the bottom of this, I've got a coffee dacquoise, and then on top an espresso bavarois. I need to cut out squares of the layered dacquoise and bavarois. Looks great, you can see the two layers. That's exactly what I want. Really good. They taste really, really good. (CHEERING) NICOLETTE: Well done. Looks amazing! I need this dessert to be a winner if I've got any hope of making it through to the grand finale. ANASTASIA: Beautiful, Harry. Absolutely beautiful. Matt, Harry... Yes. ..Elena, I want to see desserts leaving from this pass. Harry? Yes, Shannon. TRENT: Go, Matty! Come on, Matty. MATT: I've been taking the curd in and out and doing, like, even 20-second, 30-second intervals and I'm noticing it's getting really, really hot but it's not thickening. So, I start whisking a little bit of butter, thinking maybe that's gonna thicken it, and it's just not doing anything. And at this point, I'm starting to freak out a little bit, because it is so close to service. I just tried to put a bit of butter in there. Do you reckon I should just keep just giving it little zaps in the... No, don't add any butter yet, just keep it cooking, get... It's in there. You already have? Yeah. 'Cause that'll stop it thickening. Right. At the moment, you want that thick. You want that to be able to pipe inside a doughnut. Yep. OK? Right. Start again. Right. Come on, Matty. Push. Come on, Matty. I don't have time for this, but I can't ignore the curd. That is one of the key elements of this dessert and if I don't have that and don't get it sorted ASAP, I'm going to lose massive marks on that dessert. Right. Hail Mary. 1 Alright. Hail Mary. When I start making the second batch of curd, there's a lot of self-doubt... ..because I'm basically repeating what I just did. All I can do is cook it for just a little bit longer and pray that it works. If this one doesn't work, I'm in a fair bit of trouble. CHLOE: You've got this, Matt. NICOLETTE: Come on, guys. Keep pushing! Um, at the moment, I'm just mixing up a quick spray that's gonna go over the top of my bavarois. SHANNON: Come on, Harry. Coming, Shannon. Let's go! I want this bavarois to be, like, a nice little surprise and I want a nice shell on the outside. So, I'm mixing up some dark chocolate, some cocoa butter, melting those together and then spraying the bavarois with the spray gun and the mixture to give it a nice sort of shell on the outside. TRENT: Oh, nice one, Harry. Harry's spraying the bavarois with the chocolate and this sort of really lifts this dish. This is the kind of cooking that we expect to see in this finals week. I am so, so happy, and I think I'm ready to plate. That's...that's... It has thickened up beautifully. It looks like I'm back in the game. Oh! (CHEERING) ZOE: Go, Matty! NICOLETTE: Come on, Matt! I can't even explain what happened then, but it's come together. It's just one of those things. Man, I'm... I can't tell you how relieved I am 'cause I really, really wanted this to be a part of the dessert. Yeah, I'm really happy with the doughnut. Pipe them with the curd, glaze them, top with the roasted hazelnuts and pistachios. Then I can take them up to the front bench and start plating. CHARLIE: Looks great, Matty. BRETT: Beautiful. I think if you were to line all of our dishes up in a room, I truly feel like the judges would know that these were mine. OK, service, please. First desserts away. (CHEERING) MIMI: Good job, Matty! Do you know how happy that makes me feel? It's a doughnut, Gary. It's a doughnut. It's a doughnut. But look how good it looks. I haven't seen a doughnut look that good for as long as I can remember. So, what he's actually named the dish is a brioche doughnut with orange and coffee. That...that colour is so good, isn't it? Oh, my God. GARY: That is insanely good. I absolutely love that. I think Matt's done an absolutely brilliant job and it's from the moment it arrives at the table, when it looks absolutely brilliant and, like, sophisticated, taken your idea of doughnut and ice-cream and doing something entirely different and surprising. Love the coffee ice-cream and love the texture, particularly, of that doughnut. Like, I mean, it's just golden-brown on the outside. It's lovely, it's soft, it's sweet. It's all familiar. But it's all just so restaurant quality and wonderful. Yeah, but also, I love the fact that absolutely a restaurant-quality dish, but those doughnuts could be coming out of a food truck with people queuing around the block to get them. So, it kind of speaks directly to what his food dream is. I love that. Normally, a doughnut or loukoumades dessert is an overload of sugar and your teeth start to ache, but this doesn't have any of that. Great cooking. Yeah. If I was actually in his restaurant, I'd go, "Can I get another one of those?" (LAUGHS) (CHEERING) JIMMY: Come on, Elena. You can do this. The main got out and I'm gonna get the dessert out. How many did you get on there, Elena? 12. 12? I'm just gonna give it everything that I've got. I really want to be here till the end. Come on, Elena. Let's go. I get my cheese mousse piped. Hurry, Elena. Push now, please. I'm just powering through at this point in time and just making sure that I'm not stopping. Come on, push, push, push. Push, push. ZOE: Ellie, what crumb is it? Wattle seed. Keep going. Light at the end of the tunnel here. This little Dutch bickie really reminds me of my oma and opa. Let's do it. Come on. I'd be really proud to serve this to my family. They would be so excited to see how far I've come. Service, please. Service. OK, so, we're taking three. Ooh. Very complex. Wow. How modern and exciting does this dish look from Elena? Apple, cheese and bickies. Jeez, I'm pumped. Yeah, it's great. I love it. How refreshing does that apple sorbet look and how rich does that crumble and mousse underneath look? Yeah. Really good. Really, really good. Mmm. You know what's lovely about this is the dish description - apple, cheese and bickies. I was expecting something more savoury. But, in fact, this is fair and squarely in dessert territory and I think it's wonderful. It's lovely, it's soft, it's textural, it's crunchy. That apple sorbet against that soft, goat's cheese mousse is just delicious. And then, of course, as you draw your spoon in, you find that salty caramel in the middle. That is just absolutely yum. That's got that little fennel flavour in there as well. Oh, beautiful! I've not tasted anything like this before. So, it's interesting. My brain is trying to calculate all the flavours and go, "Do I love it?" And do I? Yes, I do, in a big way. Yeah, and these little Dutch ginger biscuits, just off the charts. I love the fact it's real, nothing mucked around with. The apple tastes of apple, the goat's cheese mousse tastes of goat's cheese mousse. It's not overloaded with the spice. For me, that's a really top dessert and if I was asked to choose between the doughnut and the apple, I'd be going the apple. Wow. Well, let's get the last dessert in. Well, this is a make or break for Harry, really, isn't it? If Harry's dessert isn't great... That means he's in real trouble. ..he's in real trouble. JIMMY: Harry, that looks awesome. CHLOE: Yeah, seriously. HARRY: Thanks, guys. Looking at the dish, it looks really, really nice and I love the fact that the bavarois has this nice sort of dark chocolate coating on the outside, hiding what it really is. Service, please! (CHEERING) Harry! I really hope the judges love this dish as much as I do. This is the last hurdle between me and the grand finale. GARY: Ooh. That does look... That's not what I expected at all. Well, Harry's espresso bavarois with marsala ice-cream. That is not what I expected at all and I think the fact that he sprayed the outside of that lovely espresso bavarois with a chocolate coating, you dig into it and go, "That's not what I thought. "I thought it was, like, a dense, you know, chocolate marquise." It's just so light, so beautiful and a lovely espresso flavour. And I love that chewy dacquoise on the bottom, you know, which is like a meringue. It's like a dense kind of crusty meringue. So, you get this lovely contrast between, you know, soft and delicate and sophisticated and then that little bit of chewiness. It puts a smile on my face. It tastes like tiramisu. Yeah. It tastes like tiramisu, but... but it's got some real bonuses. It's got the marsala toffee flavour, chocolate, it's a great combination. I think it's a really sophisticated and fun dessert. I love it. Exactly that. I think it's tiramisu, and it takes you there straightaway, but at another level. Um, jeez, he had to pull out all the stops with dessert... Absolutely. ..and we know that, to stay in the...in the game. Yeah. He's in the game. Yeah, absolutely. This dessert is absolutely up there with the best desserts you've ever had. Service, please. (CHEERING) MATT: Oh-ho! How was that?! (LAUGHS) That is the last of your desserts. Well done, buddy. Huh? Well done. That is desserts complete! Desserts complete. Get in here, you. Come on! Well done! HARRY: Oh, my God. You should be proud. Well done. Well done. How the hell we're gonna split these contestants, I really don't know. It's gonna be a tough decision, isn't it? I think it's time for us to clear the dining room, put the chairs on the tables and let our contestants know which two are going forward to the grand final of MasterChef 2016, and which one of them goes home. 1 1 We have to say, we're all very proud of you. Much respect. Because it's not easy, keeping it together, when you're under that kind of pressure. But all of you managed to do that today, which was wonderful. To put it into perspective, you cooked 46 plates of food...each. You would all be worthy finalists. Unfortunately, though, only two of you will go into the grand finale. It is such a joyful moment when we get to that point in the competition when someone puts a plate of food down in front of you that could have so easily been prepared by a professional with many years experience. One of you did exactly that. One of you put up two dishes that could only be described in one word. Flawless. And that's why, you are in tomorrow's grand finale... ..Matt. (CHEERING) Whoo! Whoo! "Flawless". (CHEERING CONTINUES) That's so good! HARRY: Well done, buddy. Well done. SO good! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUES) Matt, absolutely...wow. I mean, you can tell, with those two plates of food, that was an accumulation of every moment of experience that you've had in this competition thus far. That duck - the crisp, rendered skin, that beautifully tender meat... ..it was absolutely falling off the bone and we, all three of us, polished our plates. And it doesn't stop there. 'Cause when the doughnuts... (LAUGHTER) ..arrived at the table - and the balcony can attest to this - we all just let out a gasp. And what we felt was that they were as good in the restaurant as they would be - or will be - in your food truck one day. Absolutely delicious. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Ohh! My God. How do you feel, Matt? Oh... Pfff! To get to this point of the competition... (EXHALES) ..I would never have dreamed it. Never! And, um... Ohh! (SNIFFS) To get feedback like that... (SIGHS) ..I'm...I'm blown away. Thank you. Thank you for everything you've taught me. Matt, so are we. And you deserve that spot, 100%. And I think everybody that was watching would absolutely agree as well. Agreed? OTHER CONTESTANTS: Yes! Thank you. Well done. Absolutely well done. Thank you. (SIGHS) Harry... ..Elena... ..it comes down to you two. The awful truth is only one of you can join Matt in the grand finale. Let's start with your desserts. Both were worthy of a place in the grand finale. Both were restaurant quality. Harry, yours was a surprise. You made us think we were about to eat a brownie. But what we got was the lightest, most delicate bavarois and a dish that was all about tiramisu. Clever cooking. Thank you. Elena... ..refreshing, soft, textural, crunchy - everything we look for in a modern dessert. It was hard to pick between those two dishes. So...it came down to your main courses. Elena... Nicoise salad's such a classic dish. But you brought it bang up to date, using lemon myrtle in the crust, and the bush tomato sauce was delicious. But... ..I felt it was slightly dry. It needed some more of that tomato sauce. Harry, loved the artichokes. So, thank you for working hard to get them done. And that smoked corn puree, we loved it. But your dish was also too dry. The lobster sauce was super-tasty, but we wanted more on the plate. So, guys, the deciding factor was the core element. Harry, the kingfish just overpowered that lobster flavour. Elena...your tuna... ..was perfectly cooked... ..and that's why you're in the grand finale... (CHEERING) HARRY: Well done. Whoo! GEORGE: Elena, how do you feel about being in the grand finale? (LAUGHS) Pretty bloody stoked. Matt and I sat at the first table on the first day of auditions and, so, it's...it's especially cool to be there with him. (LAUGHS) Harry, I think you know that we have loved having you here. We've enjoyed your fantastic attitude to hard work... Come on, yellow team, let's go! ..your belief in yourself... I couldn't be happier. CHLOE: Come on, Harry. Keep pushing. ..and the food you've put up. Wow. Great. I loved the flavours. Thank you. I'm feeling very divinely indulged. GEORGE: That looks amazing, doesn't it? (CHEERING) HARRY: I don't have words to explain this experience. (LAUGHS) It's so incredible. Well done, mate. Well done. Honestly, brilliant job. Thank you so much. This competition has changed my life for the better. (APPLAUSE) It's something I'll never forget. Elena, Matt... ..well done. You are our grand finalists for 2016. Yeah! Whoo! (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) ELENA: Ohh! HARRY: Whoo! Get outta here. Well done. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Hey? Oh, my God! (SCREAMS) Matty! (LAUGHS) Oh, my God! We got there! Oh! (LAUGHS) I think we might get to see our families. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) Whoo! What more can they do to us? Yoo! (LAUGHS) ANNOUNCER: Next time... This is it. ..the day that could change their lives forever. It's a bit dream-like. They'll fight for their future. There we go. But it will all come down to one man... Heston Blumenthal! ..and one dish that will leave them speechless. It doesn't really get any harder than this. My heart is in my throat. Previously on Blindspot... (Borden): She can't remember who she is, where she came from, nothing. When I was ten, our next-door neighbour went missing. I think Jane Doe is Taylor Shaw. You were never Taylor Shaw. - Who the hell are you? - I don't know, but` Get on your knees, put your hands on your head. Jane Doe, you're under arrest.