Original subtitles

LAURA: Keep me immune!

(APPLAUSE) Ooh!

Look at them. (EXCLAIMING)

CALLUM: Hello, hello, hello. That's fun.

Oh, cloches! Ah, yes!

We love a good... Love this challenge.

Come on down, all.

It's like a birthday party,

letters glowing everywhere. (CHUCKLES)

Oh, a few cloches for good measure.

I got this sorted. I'm so ready. I'm... No, I'm...

This is so good.

I think it's going to be something about

pick a letter, get an ingredient,

and there's going to be a fair bit of luck involved here.

Great.

Morning, everyone. CONTESTANTS: Morning.

I'm sure I don't need to spell it out for you.

I hope you're feeling lucky

because this is a lucky dip.

Oh!

(LAURA LAUGHS)

We've got one taker.

Yeah. I'd like to play the game. (LAUGHS)

Are you in, Cal? Are you in?

OK, let me explain what these adorable luminous letters are about.

As you can see, there are 26 cloches labelled from A to Z.

Each cloche hides an ingredient

that starts with the corresponding letter.

You need to pick one

and use whatever's under it to cook an immunity-worthy dish.

Now, A could be anything from apples to abalone.

It can be super obvious or a little left-field.

DEPINDER: For sure.

But you do have some wriggle room here.

If you're not happy with the hand you've been dealt,

you can choose again.

Ooh. That's good.

How many times? Yeah. (LAUGHS)

We're all thinking it.

But be warned, because your next choice is final.

OK. Interesting.

So think carefully about how you're going to play this.

Do you stick to your guns with your first choice...

..or is it worth tempting fate?

(LAUGHTER)

The way you did it was like, "Oooh!"

We felt it.

Intrigue.

Right, let's decide who goes first.

(SINGS THE ALPHABET IN FRENCH)

(LAUGHTER)

LAURA: I have done a challenge like this before,

and I'm so excited.

Yes! That's a good one.

That was a good one.

You can try and be strategic in this game.

And good luck to Callum, I say. (LAUGHS)

Oh, I'll swap with you.

But this is going to be so much fun.

Righto, Snez, you're up first. What are you gonna pick first?

I actually have no idea.

Come and stand in front of whatever letter you want.

Oh, I'm not good at strategies, really.

What are you thinking?

So...I only believe in, like, positive energy.

OK. Bring it.

Positive energy. Positive vibes.

The M was the first thing that I saw.

Ooh. Are we going M? I think so.

Am I walking to M? Walking to M.

Let's walk to M. Oh, my. Let's go, Andy.

Is that positive energy?

It was like M for 'magnet' with the M.

Shall we see what's underneath? Let's see.

OK. M is for...

Oh, my God!

Mistake?

Miso! Yes!

(EXCLAIMING) Oh, I'll take it.

POH: That's pretty good. Yes!

(LAUGHTER)

DEPINDER: That's amazing.

I think she's happy. That's fantastic.

I mean, your reaction looks like you're pretty stoked.

But I have to ask -

do you want to keep it or do you want to pick again?

I'm 100% keeping it. Keeping miso?

Yeah, absolutely. Love miso on anything.

Pick the old miso up, and you can go back to where you came from.

M is officially done.

SOFIA: Nice one, Snez.

Well done, Snez. Well done, mate. Good guess.

I honestly love miso. It's an umami flavour bomb in a jar.

I'm so happy. It's a precious jar.

I feel like this positive energy I'm projecting here,

it came back to me.

Let's see what the old Calculator's got under his sleeve.

BEN: I can see Callum,

and I've never seen someone happier for a challenge than him.

He's Calculator Callum, so I know he's got a strategy.

He's going to execute it.

Callum, it's your turn to come on down and make your choice.

Alright, let's do it.

ANDY: Let's go, man. What have you got?

Are you going straight to...? (EXCLAIMING)

K, please. Hold on, hold on.

That was very fast.

Is there any strategy for the alphabet?

Of course. This is like Scrabble, right?

The higher the letter score,

the less iterations of ingredients it could be.

Yeah, but then you should have gone straight to X or Z.

I am very into Scrabble. No, no, no.

So, K's, like, a five, right? That's true.

So what I want is kangaroo,

but I realise there's a lot of other ingredients that start with K.

So if I don't get kangaroo, I've got a weirder...

..an even weirder letter as my backup.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: That's unbelievable. (CHUCKLES)

What a strategy.

Let's see if your strategy has paid off.

Is this cloche covering kangaroo?

I sure hope so.

Can't wait to see that kangaroo.

Kimchi. Kimchi!

That's not a bad one. Ooh.

It's not a bad one. SNEZ: Oh, that's good.

That's yum.

Callum, do you want this ingredient?

Do you want kimchi or do you want to use your second chance?

I might have some on my lunch,

but I'm going to use my second chance, please.

Alright, so I'm going to take K off the table.

Get it off the table. Get it out of here.

Alright, Callum. So you haven't gone with K.

What's the next letter? I'd like to lock in Q, please.

Ooh. Alright. Let's go to Q.

SARAH: Looking for quail?

Short journey.

Alright, Callum, I need to remind you,

whatever's under here is your ingredient.

Can't wait.

What are you hoping is under here, Callum?

Uh, I'm hoping it's going to be quail or quince.

And I'm hoping that it's not going to be quark,

which, last time I did challenge like this,

I picked Q also and got quark,

and it was not a good time.

Oh, wow.

ANDY: What do you have?

What is that? Quark.

(LAUGHTER)

That has backfired.

Poh, you're not going to double quark me, surely.

There is nothing worse than being double-quarked.

I always say that. (LAUGHTER)

So your strategy is - the last time you did something like this,

it was quark. Therefore, we wouldn't possibly do quark again.

That is exactly my hope.

Well, Callum, for your sake, I hope it's quail or quince.

Under this cloche, we have Q for...

..quince!

Got him! (APPLAUSE)

Take my quince and get out of here. Thank you very much.

Pleasure doing business with you. Happy with that.

LAURA: Well done, Callum.

SARAH: Oh, I can smell it from here. Amazing. I can smell it. Gorgeous.

Sarah, it's your turn to step forward and choose a letter.

Oh. Obvious probably, I think, already.

I'm going to go P for Phoenix.

CALLUM: Aw. LAURA: Aw, Phoenix.

Are you hoping for any particular ingredient under of here, or was it an energetic thing?

Yeah, I just felt like I'm going to go for it.

Let fate send me in a direction.

I have... I have no i...no thoughts of what it might be.

It's P for...

Ooh. OK. DEPINDER: Ooh, that's a good one.

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah. Look, I haven't really cooked with it a lot,

but it is something that I think I could use, actually.

South-East Asian vanilla. Yeah.

Is that what it's like? Yeah.

I feel like I can do something with this.

Yeah? Yeah.

She loves a challenge. I do.

I do like a challenge. Well done.

Sarah, you're cooking with pandan.

OK. Thank you. (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

This is not an ingredient that I'm familiar with.

LAURA: Well done, Toddy.

But I like it because I think it's an opportunity

to push myself outside of my comfort zone.

It's good for, like, infusions, things like that.

Laura, you are next. OK.

So what are you thinking?

Uh...

What is in your mind? What is in my mind?

F.

Sarah's put the... F, why?

For Florence.

So Florence is your baby daughter? Yeah.

Let's go F. F.

Yeah.

Fish sauce. Fish sauce. Oh, hell no.

(LAUGHTER)

Let's go again, Jean-Christophe. Are you sure?

Absolutely.

Florence did not come through.

What is the alternative now?

What are you thinking of?

A. Wow.

So, Laura, the ingredient that you must cook with is...

OTHERS: Anchovies.

Yes! Anchovies!

ANDY: Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up.

Doesn't like fish sauce, loves anchovies. (LAUGHS)

Alphabet lucky dip - I don't know how I feel about this.

It's quite scary

because we have to cook with whatever's inside that cloche.

And it could be anything.

Um, let me see.

It could be something that we've potentially never seen

or never cooked with.

I'm going to try V. OTHERS: Ooh.

Wow.

Any reason why V?

A few things - venison, veal, Vegemite.

Uh... Oh, Vegemite?

Are you hoping for Vegemite?

Well, I wouldn't mind. There's worse things.

Your ingredient is...

..Vegemite. (CHEERING, LAUGHTER)

I have to take it now, I think, don't I?

First two letters that I would have picked are M and P.

They're both already taken.

Now I'm just thinking again.

I'm, like, I don't know what else to pick

that could have an ingredient that I'm familiar with.

Lucky last. Hopefully, they've left you some fun ingredients, Depinder.

Come on down. Ah.

I'm so nervous. Is she walking towards the D?

She's walking towards the D! Yeah.

No. No? What are you thinking?

I'm going to go with C.

OK.

Why C? Why C? I don't know.

Chilli, curry leaves... Ah.

..cloves, cardamom, cinnamon.

Everything, like, I'm just going... OK.

Your pantry. Yeah, my...

Ah. I'll go for it. OK.

You've chosen C for...

..coffee beans. OTHERS: Ooh.

Oh, that's pretty cool. Not bad.

LAURA: That's good.

What are your thoughts? Do you cook with coffee?

Yeah, I do, actually.

It's a really good one. ANDY: Yeah.

Sorry. That was loud.

(LAUGHTER)

You don't look 100% sure for somebody saying,

"That's a really good one."

It is. But, like, we do have another chance, as well.

Yeah, but you have to be locked in to your second chance.

The judges lift the cloche and there's coffee,

and I'm, like, happy with coffee.

But it wasn't what I was expecting.

What are you...? What are you pausing at?

G.

Why?

Because my husband's name starts with G.

You'd give up coffee for it. And so does ginger.

And so does galangal.

So does goat.

There is a second choice that I can make,

but you can't go back to the first one,

so you've got to cook with that second choice.

That is a huge risk.

Anything pulling you in? Any magnetism happening?

No, I'm going to go coffee. You're going to go with coffee?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, congratulations, Depinder.

You're cooking with coffee. (CHEERING)

Nice work.

I can do something with this. Nice one, Deeps.

POH: Can we see? Shall we see what's under G, just for fun?

Oh, yeah, can I?

If you had chosen G, you would have gotten...

Guanciale! Guanciale.

Oh! Coffee.

Happy? Coffee. So happy.

I'm actually really happy with coffee.

I think I can really utilise my skill

and the technique that I know

and do a really awesome dessert with coffee.

My brain is just like, "Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop!"

Yeah, I know. "Boop, boop, boop!" "Boop, boop, boop!"

Cook anything you like today,

but we really want to see those ingredients shine.

Yeah. Mmm.

We're giving you 75 minutes.

BEN: Awesome. Nice.

Pantry and garden are open.

And the best dish will win its maker immunity

from Sunday's elimination.

Your time...

..starts now!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

You always catch up. LAURA: Oh, my God.

Yeah. Go for it. There's no need to rush.

Yeah, Callum. There's no need to rush.

Oh, there's a need to rush, alright, Lozzy. Always room to rush.

I cook with miso a lot, and I have so many savoury dishes in my mind.

I'm thinking of these beautiful umami bowls, beautiful broth...

Oh, my goodness.

..grilled, marinated miso fish.

But I want to go outside the box.

Top seven - there's nowhere to hide.

Everyone is going to have a bang-on dish.

Is this yuzu?

So, today, I'm going to try and make a dessert with miso.

Whew!

What do we have in here?

LUARA: Oh, they're nice prawns. SARAH: Yeah, they are.

Go shopping.

Where's the anchovy water?

Alright, so they've smashed the first part of the challenge.

They know their ABCs.

They've all gotten amazing ingredients.

Now they've just got to cook an immunity-winning dish with them.

I think they've all got quite good ingredients.

I think you can do a lot with all of them.

If I was them, I would do anything to get immunity today.

The interesting thing is here,

like, we're down to the business end of the competition.

Yeah. All great cooks, all six of them.

How do you stick your head out from the pack?

I think, for me, this kind of suits Ben and Sarah

because they do have quite unique ingredients

with Vegemite and pandan.

Like, yes, quince might be unique,

but I feel like Callum is so familiar with quince.

Yes.

Like, how do you reinvent the wheel

when you're so familiar with an ingredient?

Also, Laura with anchovies.

I think they're really going to have to, like,

broaden their horizons today. Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Because we've said it before and I'll say it again -

good is not good enough...

Yeah. ..at this stage of the competition

because the standard of cooking is at a level I've never seen before.

BEN: Oh, are you doing pasta?

There is a bit of a pasta-off going on.

JAMIE: What are you making?

CALLUM: Going to do a dessert.

SNEZ: OK, let me think. OK.

POH: Depinder. ANDY: Hey.

Hi, guys. You stuck with the coffee.

What are you making?

I'm going with a coffee-raspberry baked alaska. Ooh!

So I'm gonna do coffee ice-cream, raspberry sorbet.

I want to fill the centre with a coffee caramel,

do a chocolate cake, like a sponge, on the base,

and then do a raspberry Italian meringue on the outside.

This is very, very ambitious, right? Yeah.

And you know that baked alaska has a notorious reputation in this kitchen?

I've seen way more many fails in this kitchen

than I have successes. You probably have.

No... I'm gonna... Like, good vibes.

Our fingers are crossed for you, Depinder,

because we really want this to be a success.

Break the curse! Thank you. Thank you.

Come on. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It's very difficult to construct a baked alaska in 75 minutes

because you've got multiple frozen elements

that need to be set together.

But we're top seven now.

I mean, if there is any chance I'm going to get immunity today,

it's not going to be playing safe.

Let's go, girl.

SNEZ: Go, girl. We got this.

210, eggwhites.

Top five would mean the world to me because it just reinstates

that I'm amongst that standard.

I'm cooking with these legends, and I deserve to be here.

I have always wanted to have a career in food,

and opening up my supper club really solidified my love

for Indian home-style cooking.

But coming back into this kitchen,

it's reignited that passion for desserts,

which for me has always been a creative outlet.

It's really lit that fire in me

to follow my food dream of growing my supper club

to include not only the Indian cuisine that I focus on

but also desserts.

The fact that I'm here and I know I can do this,

like, I can go right till the end, and I just need to keep going.

SNEZ: Are you good? Yeah. Thanks.

Trust your gut. You know what you're doing.

Yep.

I'm feeling so good. I'm very happy with anchovy.

I know we're going to probably have a giggle today

that it's pretty much the same thing as fish sauce,

but, um, it was a great fluke, a great fluke.

Even though anchovies and fish sauce are pretty much the same ingredient,

anchovies are like the Italian version of fish sauce.

So, I want to combine my love of Italian food, Japanese food,

but with native Australian ingredients all into one.

Laura. Hello.

So I'm pretty offended.

I mean, you chose solid funk over liquid funk.

What's the difference? Hey,

you can't take the anchovies out of an Italian girl, right?

What are you making? I felt like a gamble.

I'm gonna do a pasta dish.

So, like, a hand-cut tagliarini

with an anchovy-dashi butter emulsion...

Ooh.

..yuzu kosho,

and green ants.

Oh! Wow! (LAUGHS)

I love it! (LAUGHS)

Love the sound of that.

I'm just trying to push myself with everything I love...

Yeah. ..everything that makes me happy when I'm cooking.

I love Japanese cooking.

I love native Australian ingredients.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm kind of blending all three cultures into one

and just put up something that is, like, so weird and wacky

but should theoretically all work.

So balancing act, as per uzh. Oh, my God. As per uzh.

Alright. Thank you.

Good luck, Laura. Thank you.

Last week was not a good week for me.

I was in the bottom two, and it was a horrible place to be.

Loz, it's the fat content. Yeah. It's wrong.

Are you alright?

I think, for me, like, getting my head back in the game,

this is the week that I need to pull it out.

So I've come into this kitchen today with a mission,

and I am so determined to take immunity.

I want a top dish.

Tell me it's a Laura dish without telling me it's a Laura dish.

I want to make sure I'm putting up something

that just blows the judges away.

I can see, Laura, you're going for it.

You've got the eyes of the tiger. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I feel, like, so in the zone.

(SINGS ALPHABET IN FRENCH)

45 minutes to go! Allez!

(APPLAUSE)

SNEZ: Heard you made veloute. Did I hear well?

BEN: Yeah. Got to beat the white chocolate veloute somehow. Oh. (LAUGHS)

I'm watching you. Yes, Chef.

(LAUGHS)

So today I picked P for Phoenix,

my beautiful son.

And I got pandan,

which is an ingredient I've never used before.

So it's a risk today,

but I want to have a bit of fun with the judges.

I'm not regretting choosing pandan

because I think when ingredients are familiar,

it's harder to actually experiment with them

because you instantly kind of go the way it's used naturally.

So because this is something that's unfamiliar,

I think it's really forcing me to think outside the box.

I actually did get inspired by the cloches.

So, I'm doing little puri with squid ink,

and I'm making a filling,

which is kind of like, um, these beautiful prawns,

different kind of spices,

those sort of South-East Asian flavours.

And I'm going to stuff it inside the puri.

And then I'm going to make a couple

of different kind of, like, chutneys to add inside.

So, a little coconut-pandan pani,

a little bit of a prawn pani.

I've never really done a dish like this before either.

So I think there's a lot of experimentation

in getting this right.

(LAUGHS) Oh, my God, how much of this do I use?

I think that, through this competition,

I have been experimental.

And in doing so,

it means that there are going to be times where I fall short

and I have been.

I think when you look at this dish,

you can see someone is quite genius behind it,

but sadly it's entirely unbalanced.

POH: The steak is blue.

We've got the oyster and it's got that really slippery texture

a lot of people would find, yeah, kind of difficult.

I think that I've created dishes

that are so unique and new and different,

and they're the first time I've ever created it,

it's hard to nail it on the first time.

CALLUM: All good, Sare?

Yeah, I don't know. I'm just gonna try.

Nice.

I look around and I see other people cooking dishes

that they're very comfortable with cooking,

and I'm here, I'm taking a risk.

I'm creating a dish

that I've never made quite like this before,

and I'm using an ingredient that I've never cooked with before.

This could definitely go very wrong.

Immunity at this point in the competition is everything.

Is today the day to take such a big risk?

Because if I do, I really have to nail it.

Alright, guys, let's do something fun.

If you are on the other side, which letters would you have picked?

Oh. Quick, quick!

J. J, let's go for J. J?

Oh, no way! J for jackfruit.

I prefer vegemite!

L. L, Andy.

For no apparent reason... For no apparent reason.

What have you got? ..you're cooking with licorice.

Whoa! Yeah, I like that.

Because it's one that you could stand out with.

Sweet. Yeah.

Duck, for sure. Duck and licorice. Yeah.

Ooh, what were you? Um... T.

T. For little Timmy.

Why did you pick T, Poh? Little Timmy, my son.

Oh, my little turnip!

Poh, you're cooking with turnips! It's me, it's me.

I would have hated that.

Sofia, what would you choose?

Um, ooh, ah, ooh...

I don't know.

Y. I think you're gonna like this.

Yeah, I know what it is. It's...

(GASPS) ..yuzu!

Yeah, I would yuzu, I would yuzu.

This is your last chance at immunity!

You've only got 30 minutes to go!

(APPLAUSE)

Let's go, guys!

Snez, you've got an umami bomb.

What are you making? I've got it all to hammer home.

What did you do? But I make savoury all the...

Yeah, there's sweet stuff here. Yes, I'm making a dessert.

Miso and milk chocolate ganache.

So this is going to be a big swirl in the centre of my plate,

a beautiful little sponge that's going to sit on the bottom. Yep.

And I'm gonna make a black sesame anglaise around it. Yeah.

I'm going to have this beautiful miso tuile.

I kind of think it's going to be like a moody, salty dessert.

Ooh, moody. Um, I'm pretty excited, actually.

Ben, you stuck to your guns and you stayed with Vegemite.

Yeah, I love Vegemite. Who doesn't?

Well, I can think of one man in the room who doesn't.

Yeah, I should have thought of that, shouldn't I? What are you gonna do?!

I'm going do an agnolotti stuffed with mushroom and ricotta,

and oyster cream on the bottom.

And then a Vegemite veloute over the top.

Whoa-ho-ho!

I know. Yesterday was weird, but things are getting weirder.

Vegemite veloute! Yeah, yeah. It just sounds right, doesn't it?

Wow!

They are two words that may never, in the history of all time,

be said together again.

Callum, how are you, very quickly? Yeah, good, thank you.

So, quince, a lot of people don't use quince.

In France, we use it a lot.

How do you normally use it - in sweet or savoury?

Well, the first time I was introduced to make tarts,

believe it or not. Ah, beautiful.

I love quince.

I think that most people have probably only eaten quince

in paste form on a cheese board,

but you actually can use it in savoury cooking.

It works beautifully with things like pork or duck,

but it makes for great desserts as well.

Once I had quince as my ingredient, I knew I wanted to poach it

and make a really beautiful dessert with panna cotta.

But panna cotta is pretty boring.

How can I make panna cotta interesting?

Potato panna cotta.

I'm having a fun cook.

This is always good when you're doing something

a little bit left of centre and a bit weird.

The concept of a potato panna cotta is a strange one.

Um, I think if you googled it,

I don't think many things are coming up,

but I think it's going to take something

that maybe the judges haven't seen before

in order to win this challenge today.

I'm tasting my potato panna cotta mixture

before I get into the freezer, and I really like it.

It's quite subtle and not as punchy, but that's quite deliberate.

I feel like if I'd roasted the potatoes first,

it would taste more potato-y,

and very much in a quince challenge

I think I need to get that balance right.

Panna cotta is in the freezer.

I've got my beautiful poached quinces cooking away,

with a few different kinds of booze here.

I'm now getting ready to fry some little potato chips.

Both my poached quince and the panna cotta

are gonna have really soft textures,

so I need something in this dish

that's gonna have a bit of kind of crispy-crunchy going on.

So it makes sense for it to be potato chips.

If I fry them up really nicely, get them super crisp,

a little bit of vinegar powder, a little bit of icing sugar,

so they still kind of taste like dessert.

Well, I think there's gonna be enough potato

that it kind of is like an even kilter

with the flavour of the quince.

How's it going, Callum? Good, mate.

Good. I'm really excited to try your potato panna cotta.

I am too. Never had one before.

One thing about this kitchen, you get pushed into doing weird shit. Good time.

How are you, Sarah? Yeah, I'm good.

So I want to play a bit of a trick on your mind.

I can't wait.

And I know you will. I can see you are... Trying, trying. I'm hoping.

I think I'm so far past that point of the old Sarah,

of falling back on comfortable dishes

that I know I can do easily,

so I'm just going to go for it with the pandan.

I just really do believe in fate, and whenever I second guess myself,

I feel like I just get sent off in another direction,

so I'm just going to go for it.

With pandan,

I'm having a little nibble and it's very mild in flavour,

so I know I need to use this in a way where it's an infusion.

So I'm thinking I can blitz it into my coconut milk,

with mint and a little bit of cumin,

which I can use as my pani element -

the liquid that is poured into the puris.

Okey dokey.

I'm just setting this aside

to warm it up so it can start to infuse.

Just trying to power through as quickly as possible.

I've got quite a few of my elements on the go,

and I want to leave myself a lot of time to work on the puris,

because I've never done them like this before,

definitely not squid ink...

I just want to make sure I get that right.

We can't wait to A-B-SEE what you make!

15 minutes to go!

I broke. (LAUGHS)

When do you start assembly? Um... Soon.

Yeah. (CHUCKLES) I've got, um...

I've got my ice-cream and the sorbet. Yep.

I just have to cut it out

and then chuck it on top of the cake.

Everything's in the blast freezer cooling.

You've only got 15 to go. OK. Yep. Thank you.

I don't have long to go,

so I need to actually start constructing this baked alaska.

JAMIE: Come on, Depinder.

The first layer of my baked alaska is my chocolate sponge.

I layer it with a ring of my coffee ice-cream.

I've got another ring of the raspberry sorbet on top.

Fill the gap with some coffee caramel.

Ooh, yum.

I top it off with the last layer of coffee ice-cream,

and I put it straight into the chiller.

Don't move it, don't move it, don't move it, don't move it.

I'm actually really worried it won't set in time,

because I added in the coffee caramel.

God.

This could potentially melt all those layers,

and it's not going to be a baked alaska anymore.

It'll be cake with an ice-cream soup.

All I can do now is just pray.

Oh, my God.

LAURA: 10 minutes to go. Pasta is ready to go.

That's on my little pasta board there.

I've made a really intense anchovy dashi Japanese stock.

I want to cook the pasta in that

so that pasta starts to take on that flavour,

emulsify that stock with the butter.

If I don't balance this dish perfectly,

essentially this whole bowl of pasta

is just going to taste like super salty, buttery, overly rich anchovy.

And even though I'm all about anchovy flavour,

too much anchovy is not pleasant.

Use your brain, use your brain, use your brain, use your brain.

So I'm going to start to balance it out

with more of the Japanese seasoning

to make sure that you can taste sweetness,

a little bit of acidity, a bit of saltiness...

Sugar and spice!

..and that really earthy seaweed flavour.

Oh, yeah.

And I've just made fish sauce from scratch.

The smell of that, this reminds me of fish sauce.

Yeah, it's like Italian fish sauce.

But you just got the fish sauce out of your dish.

I know. I felt like being risky today. Ha!

I like going the hard way around,

the long way, hard way, scenic route,

whatever you want to call it!

SOFIA: Loz. Hey, Sofe.

This whole scene makes me so happy.

This is just a little me serve. A little me serve?

A little me serve.

I think it's a little us serve.

Ooh!

(EXHALES)

Was that a gag?

Oh, dear.

Uh...

Sofia's reaction has made me a little nervous.

I feel like the balance of this sauce is not quite right.

I'm tasting my dish,

and that umami-rich Japanese flavours

are so strong and prominent.

If you can't taste those anchovies

with those Japanese flavours and those green ants,

it's all off.

So I sprinkle some more green ants on top

and add an extra squeeze of lemon.

I'm tasting this sauce.

I'm finding that the balance is perfect.

Yep. We're good. We're on.

You're getting that anchovy.

You're getting those little pops of those green ants,

which is just making this dish go to a wow factor.

You have five minutes to go! Come on, guys, bring it together!

Come on, guys.

Stop eating lunch. Finish.

I'm so hungry! Is it good? Mm.

Come on. I just need at least four.

There's five minutes to go, and I've got my pandan infusion,

my prawns and my gravy ready to go.

So now I need to get my puris into the fryer.

I'm definitely nervous that my puris are not going to puff

because I added the squid ink.

I really need these to puff up,

so that I can have these beautiful little shells

that are actually

going to enable me to fill it with all of that goodness.

Come on, give me four good ones.

Are they puffing?

Yep, she's puffing. Sweet.

I was definitely worried that the squid ink

would stop them from puffing.

They are definitely puffing, which is amazing.

So, for my puris, I squeeze in

a little dollop of that beautiful gravy,

a little teaspoon of that garlic prawn,

and a little drizzle of that prawn head oil.

And just before the judges eat,

I'm going to add a generous amount of that pandan pani

for this beautiful explosion of flavours.

My vision has come to life.

I wanted these to be these little elements of surprise,

just like the cloches, and it's worked.

I've got these pockets

that are filled with lots of bold flavours,

really incredible ingredients and I'm happy with this.

I really think it's a great dish.

Honestly, I feel like I've been getting close sometimes

and never actually getting there, so it would mean the world to me

if I could actually win immunity today.

Oh, gosh, that's so yummy.

Three minutes to go! SOFIA: Yeah!

JAMIE: How's it tasting, Ben?

I'm pretty happy with it, to be honest.

SNEZ: Oh, my God, look at me. I'm a pro!

Oh, my God, look at you.

You alright, Snez?

Yep.

I take the inside of my baked alaska out of the blast freezer,

and I need to keep

this dish as cool as possible, so I'm actually, like,

encasing it with the meringue standing by the freezer

because it's cooler there than it is at my bench.

You know, it might only be, like, a few degrees difference,

but that is the difference between

a perfectly constructed dish and a soupy mess.

So I'm going to do whatever I can

to keep it frozen for as long as possible,

because I still need to torch it right at the last minute.

I'm saying this in all caps - one minute to go!

CALLUM: I'm starting to plate up

and my panna cotta has set beautifully.

It's got a really nice sort of wibble and a wobble to it.

And the quince smells absolutely divine.

And then that beautiful passionfruit syrup

with the bay oil, which is going to sort of lighten and freshen it up.

Looking at my dish, and I feel pretty happy with it

because I think it's a really fun flavour combination.

I've never had quince, potato and passionfruit together before.

I just hope it works.

Don't make me spell it out! Ten...

JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one!

Well done! Hey, pasta buddy.

Aw.. Oh, honestly... (APPLAUSE DROWNS OUT SPEECH)

This is gonna be good. I'm so excited. I'm so excited!

This is gonna be good!

Alrighty, we can't wait to E-A-T what you came up with.

Let's taste your dish, Depinder.

I'm really, really happy

with the way it looks on the outside,

but I can't see it on the inside.

Wow, look at that.

My biggest concern right now is the beautiful layers,

and I just hope that's set perfectly.

Chhhhhh...

So you stuck with coffee? Yeah. And what's your dish?

So I've made a coffee and a raspberry baked alaska.

Inside I've got a chocolate sponge, a layer of coffee ice-cream,

raspberry sorbet, another layer of coffee ice-cream.

And then I actually tried to pour

a little bit of the coffee caramel inside.

And then I've got

a raspberry Italian meringue on the outside.

I think the best way to judge a baked alaska

is always going to be through that cross section.

And it sounds like we should have three pretty clear layers from you,

plus an ooze of that coffee caramel in the middle as well.

Yes, hopefully.

Should we get a hot knife going? Mm.

OK.

Layer me up.

You're killing me, Andy.

Andy, hurry up.

Oh-ho-ho!

Whoa! OK, are you ready?

Ooh-la-la-la-la. You want a reveal?

Oh, my God.

Have a go at that thing.

You got layers, you got ooze!

Depinder...

..as a Frenchman, I know what I expect

from a real baked alaska.

I don't...think I like it...

..because I love it.

He got me hard! It's like... He got me, too!

(LAUGHS) Oh, my God.

First there is no alcohol, which is not easy.

And you've managed to substitute alcohol with depth.

The raspberry is just... Sorry, I can't swear.

It is very good.

But the coffee,

the way you've actually introduced the coffee in the caramel...

..is the substance.

You use the caramel to expose the coffee.

Meringue tends to really over-sweeten things,

but you have just got the perfect amount of everything.

That sponge is so perfect.

It's really light and moist, full of that chocolate flavour,

and the caramel has got quite a lot of coffee in it,

so it's got just the perfect amount of bitterness.

Not too sweet.

Really smart move to have that acidity in the raspberry

and that lovely bit of perfume to just add some relief

to all that smokiness of the coffee flavour.

The fact that you constructed it in a baked alaska, such respect,

because the level of difficulty, just, like, times that by four.

A great move at this point in the competition.

You needed to step it up and you did.

(EXHALES) Well done.

We'd like to taste your dish, Sarah.

SARAH: Walking up to the judges.

I'm always a bit nervous.

It's a very creative dish idea and concept.

(JUDGES GASP)

They do look like the cloches!

SOFIA: They really do!

And I think, conceptually, it's unique.

And I think it's very interesting flavours on the plate.

You lifted that cloche, you found fresh pandan leaves.

You'd never cooked with pandan leaf either.

Yeah, no, look, I think pandan,

it's one of those ingredients that I just...

You know, I've eaten it in restaurants

and it's something that I've seen so many ways it's been used,

but I've never cooked with it myself.

So it was, yeah, mixed messages.

And then you got some inspo from a cloche.

That is so funny. I don't know why.

Oh, my God. Run us through what's going on.

So, basically, it's pandan pani puris,

and then inside is scarlet prawns.

I can't wait to taste it.

Do you want to come and sauce them up?

You have to go quickly once I do this.

Cool.

Shall we? Yeah, let's.

It's like a little shot. Are we ready?

Yeah, you have to go in one shot.

Three, two, one... Bottoms up.

Um, that beautiful gravy you've got going on

is like you at your best.

Love the scarlet prawns with that.

Um, I can see this in one of your restaurants, for sure.

I think it just needs a little bit of work.

Yeah, I feel like the pandan, uh...

This was your problem in the end.

I feel like it needed to be more, like, light and fresh,

but it is a little bit, like, it kind of pulls everything down.

I could taste this lovely perfume and infusion of the pandan

through the prawn,

and then it kind of went through this more cheesy flavour...

..and I feel like it overpowers the prawns a little bit.

And I think, though, you needed to apply a little bit more heat...

Mm. ..I think just so

it wasn't quite as grassy.

Yeah, I blitzed it so it was probably a lot.

Yeah, so you're going to get a lot more of that chlorophyll flavour

rather than the perfume.

Yeah, yeah.

But I still think it's a very interesting use of pandan.

Do not let this get you down.

It is so refreshing to have you come up and present dish after dish

that is extremely creative and unique.

Yeah. So we want that, Sarah, every time you walk in that kitchen.

That's great advice. So much courage.

Thanks, Sarah. Thanks. Thanks.

(CLAPPING)

Every day I step into this kitchen, I am pushing myself.

Well done.

And it's frustrating when it just doesn't quite get there.

Oh, God.

DEPINDER: Sarah, you did well. I know.

But I know that there is magic in the dishes that I'm creating.

And once I get to that point where this is my new normal,

then those little misses will no longer be misses.

Right, the next dish we want to taste belongs to Snez.

(CLAPPING)

SNEZ: This is a miso and chocolate ganache,

black sesame creme anglaise, a bit of yuzu gel.

And there's a chocolate and miso cake on the bottom.

'Miso' happy.

(LAUGHTER)

I really liked the flavour of your miso chocolate ganache.

Each individual element is doing its thing.

Like, you've gone quite hard, you know, on the black sesame,

quite hard on the miso, quite hard on the yuzu.

Like, that was a stunner.

You're really stepping the game up and I'm loving where it's going.

Thank you. Ben!

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

BEN: Mushroom ricotta agnolotti with oyster cream and Vegemite veloute.

I had a bit of a reservation about your dish.

Obviously, you know why.

And guess what?

Hup!

Vegemite!

It's great!

This is a stroke of genius.

Ha-ha, yes.

What is amazing is how condensed the reduction,

and that is strong enough to take on in marriage the Vegemite.

Well done. Thank you.

Next dish belongs to Callum.

CALLUM: I'm walking my dish up to the judges

and I'm feeling a little bit nervous about what they are going to say.

It is a weird flavour combination, no doubt about it.

But sometimes the weirdest dishes, if you can pull them off,

can be some of the best dishes, so here goes.

Callum, what have you made?

Poached quince with a potato panna cotta,

a bay oil and passionfruit syrup.

Did you say panna cotta?

Potato panna cotta?!

Indeed I did.

(CHUCKLING) Potato panna cotta?

(CHUCKLING)

There is a terrible echo here.

Wow.

CALLUM: So it's poached quince with a potato panna cotta,

a bay oil and passionfruit syrup.

Callum, quince is a knockout, mate.

Like, absolute knockout.

Firstly, like, the stain on the outside,

it did look like a piece of meat

that had just been caramelised after cooking.

And then the flavour on it is just like...

You've got those three different types of alcohol,

but then the ginger just is doing its thing,

which lightens everything up.

I LOVE the quince.

I could have had a bowl of that and some ice-cream and I'd be a happy man.

The panna cotta - beautiful texture.

I would say, yes, you can taste the potato

right at the end of your palate...

..like, for a small bit.

Rosemary is the dominant flavour.

And then, for me, you couldn't really once...

..once you got everything in

because there's a lot of heavy hitters going on.

I believe the passionfruit fruit was a little bit too much on the plate.

It was a little bit intense with all the delicate flavours.

It's all so much and so powerful,

and the passionfruit really took over a little bit.

It's not a big fault,

but just to be perfect because it is delicious.

Sure. Thanks. Thanks, mate.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Appreciate it.

Let's taste your dish, Laura!

LAURA: My biggest thing today was the balancing act of this dish.

When the judges dig into this dish,

they should be absolutely hit with an anchovy bomb.

Oh, my goodness!

That is a picture of perfection.

But I hope that the lemon cuts through

all those big, strong flavours,

and then those pops of green ants with every mouthful

to make sure you get those little explosions of lime.

Choosing your ingredient wasn't so straightforward.

(CHUCKLES) No, it wasn't.

So you started off with fish sauce,

and then you swapped to anchovy. Yep.

And then you made a fish sauce from your anchovy.

Pretty much. Yeah.

So what dish did you end up with?

So we ended up with hand-cut tagliarini

with an anchovy dashi emulsion,

yuzu kosho and green ants.

Laura...

..that's your best pasta I've ever eaten.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Yeah.

Yes.

And I have been fortunate enough to stand in this very position

and consume banger after banger after banger

with your name written all over it

in a pasta dish. Wow.

And it is, that's unbelievable.

Combining the anchovies and the dashi,

and then the shio koji -

firstly, you get a good amount of umami from the anchovies.

Then in your middle palate,

it does this weird thing where it tastes

like Parmesan cheese with the reaction of the dashi,

the anchovy and the yuzu kosho.

It is unlike anything I've experienced before in my life.

Thank you.

Well done.

I can feel this little electric currant

running from you to the dish to Andy...

..and it's Jock.

I can really feel it.

Um... (SNIFFLES)

I'm completely right, aren't I?

I can actually feel it. Um...

(EXHALES SHARPLY)

This dish is so clever because...

(CLEARS THROAT)

..it's such a demonstration of you working smarter, not harder,

'cause you've actually used these kinds of ingredients

quite a few times in this competition.

And every time you deliver something very different.

You would never think to layer fish on fish.

Yep. Bottarga and anchovy, yeah.

Yeah, it just seems like too much.

And just the fact that you've done it, it just builds

all these really complex layers of the same flavour.

And then the ants were so similar

to the pops of finger lime that you love to use.

But, again, showing us how you can find that flavour

in this other new exciting ingredient.

Such a clever dish. You should be really proud of yourself.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

You alright? Yeah.

CALLUM: Well done, Lozzie. Thank you.

To win immunity when every single competitor here is this elite,

your dishes have got to be pretty close to perfect.

And after seeing you cook today,

I've got a few choice letters for you lot -

OMG!

(LAUGHTER)

That was some ace cooking from every single one of you.

But there can only be one winner.

Laura! Yes!

Yes!

Thank you.

Well, Laura, on Sunday, you'll be up on the gantry with Jamie.

Fabulous.

Unfortunately, for the rest of you guys,

you are at risk of going home.

You've all got the skills.

It's how you use them on the day that will mean the difference

between you going all the way or going home.

Get ready. We'll see you on Sunday. Goodnight.

See you, everyone! Great day. Epic day.

Well done! Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: Sunday night on MasterChef Australia...

DEPINDER: Oh, gosh.

It is time!

This challenge is strategy on steroids.

If you cook one of the three least impressive dishes,

you'll find yourself cooking in round two,

with whatever time you have left.

(ALL GASP)

They need to keep time

on their side.

I need to move super fast. I've got a lot to do.

I do not want to cook in round two.

This is hectic. I'm trying to do things so quickly

without making mistakes.

I can't afford to take my eyes off the prize here otherwise.

Otherwise... Oh, my God.

..it could be time...

LAURA: Snez, just breathe.

..to go home.

You don't have a lot of time.

No, I do not.

Captions by Red Bee Media