Original subtitles

(JUDGES APPLAUD)

LAURA: Mystery box day! (LAUGHS)

Come on down the front.

Good morning. ALL: Good morning.

You're the top five of MasterChef: Back To Win 2025.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

How amazing.

Well done. Yeah, Deeps.

Huge!

Take stock of that for a moment.

With the five of you left,

the odds of winning are moving further and further in your favour.

You are so close to doing what you came back here to do.

Righto. Should we get this week started?

Yeah. Yep.

You've got a mystery box waiting for you at your benches.

Head on over.

BEN: Lot of running.

LAURA: I'm not doing that. I'm not.

I can't, I can't.

(ALL LAUGH)

Now we know you're gonna love what's under those mystery boxes,

but let me make this clear.

Our expectations have never been higher.

If you don't want to end up in tomorrow's elimination,

you are going to need to bring us

the best dish of your MasterChef career.

Because this mystery box is for immunity.

That's right. Whoever cooks the top dish today

will be safe from tomorrow's elimination.

The four remaining...

..will be cooking tomorrow and someone will be going home.

And that's not all.

Get ready for this.

God!

After this challenge,

there are no more chances for immunity.

Whoa.

So go all-out.

Go on. Lift your lids.

Oh, wow.

Hey!

Interesting.

Oh, my God, these are our ingredients.

At the start of this competition,

we asked you to put together your dream mystery box.

And surprise! Here it is.

I would have taken it way more seriously if I'd known.

(ALL LAUGH)

We outsmarted Callum!

Oh, shit.

Immediately know exactly what the contents of this box are

because I chose them,

but I thought I was choosing them for someone else.

I didn't realise I was choosing them for me. (LAUGHS)

Callum, what's in there?

Well, I've got a couple of things that grow at my house, actually.

I've got some beautiful three-cornered garlic,

or wild garlic.

I've got some pine mushrooms,

got some Jerusalem artichokes,

persimmons,

kangaroo,

mussels,

bonito,

and then a nice little tin of Milo.

Ben, true or false - were you drinking a Guinness

when putting these ingredients together?

I'm starting to think I might have

been drinking more than one Guinness.

(ALL LAUGH)

What have you got in there, mate?

Um, yeah, I've got a... I've got a nice dark beer.

Um, I've got some peanut butter.

(LAUGHS)

Shiso, oysters... (LAUGHTER)

..sweet potatoes,

finger limes,

sorrel, I think.

Is that sorrel? Yep.

And is this venison? Yep.

Oh, I love... I love all of these things.

I... I'm not sure I'm going to cook them all together

just to put you at ease.

So you just put your favourite eight ingredients in there?

That's what it sounds like. I'm guessing I was, like, in a rush.

Uh, I don't know. I don't remember.

My own ingredients...

My own ingredients are... Yeah.

What have I done?

I've chosen ingredients that I love,

but maybe that don't go together so well.

So this is going to be a struggle.

But, yeah, I mean, I'll do something with this.

I have to.

Laura, what are you seeing in your mystery box?

LAURA: Kangaroo tail,

King George whiting,

some Davidson plums,

turnips, pistachio paste,

warrigal greens, some Madeira,

and cinnamon myrtle.

Couldn't be a more Laura mystery box if it tried.

I know, right.

Depinder, what is in your mystery box?

DEPINDER: So there's actually some of my favourite ingredients.

We've got some prawns.

Um, a spatchcock.

I've got some peanut butter, some curry leaves,

some ginger, some pineapple, some pumpkin.

And there's, um, kokum.

It's used to, um,

increase the tartness or to add acid to dishes.

I've got some of that.

Jamie, your mystery box is such a Jamie mystery box.

Tell us what's in it.

JAMIE: So I've got some little potatoes.

I've got razor clams,

which is incredible. (GASPS)

Um, some coriander,

some heirloom tomatoes, some jamon, radish,

some bacalao, salt cod,

and a nice bottle of manzanilla sherry.

Oh!

It's a good box.

JAMIE: By all rights, I've picked my own ingredients,

this should be out of the park.

But everyone else in here

has also picked their own ingredients.

And all of a sudden,

it dawns just how hard this is going to be.

This is going to be tough.

You'll have 75 minutes.

You do have your under bench staples.

Cook anything you'd like

and make sure you use at least one of the ingredients

from your ultimate box.

Game faces on, people.

Your time starts now.

(APPLAUSE)

I'm going no chaotic energy today, mate.

The strategy today is definitely -

need to stay focused, clear thoughts.

Yesterday was a super intense cook.

I feel like I held on by the skin of my teeth.

Sarah, you're going home.

(EXHALES)

That last challenge was pretty hectic for me.

Um, obviously didn't quite go to plan,

and little knocks of your confidence like that can really take a toll.

But I've come in here today.

I've been given this mystery box of ingredients

that I absolutely love.

And considering I have some delicious bacalao, salt cod,

it's pretty hard to go past a classic.

Today I'm making bacalao al pil pil

with some razor clams

and a few little accoutrements to make everything pop.

So bacalao is salt cod.

A beautiful taste of Spain.

Traditionally, you would be having

beautiful pieces of salt cod

that have been cooking down in some olive oil.

And as that gelatine starts to extract out of it,

you create this beautiful emulsion

that ends up dressing this amazing piece of fish.

So I'm doing a bit of a, say, modern version of that.

Get it into a sous vide

and just allow all of that collagen

and all of that deliciousness from the meat

to come out and really infuse that olive oil.

I think this dish gives an opportunity

to utilise all the things I love,

and is a perfect way

to really showcase a lot of technique.

Taking out this mystery box means automatic top four.

That puts me at my benchmark.

So I would love to hit it.

Probably mixed emotions when I saw the mystery box

that I'd chosen for myself.

You know, I love every single ingredient

in this mystery box.

They're all very me in different ways.

All these beautiful ingredients

that are honestly some of my favourite ingredients

to cook with.

From the kangaroo tail to turnips,

to the King George whiting.

I'm a lucky lady.

But my challenge is going to be creating something different

for the judges.

So the dish I'm going to make today

is a smoked cinnamon myrtle King George whiting with turnips.

So I'm going to use the King George whiting

as my main piece of protein.

I'm going to char down some turnips and I'm going to salt bake those.

I'm going to char up some of the stems

and then pickle those down in some Davidson plum.

And I'm going to juice the turnips and make a little sauce.

I know the flavours in my dish work together.

And now it's going to come down to presentation

and nailing the extra technique.

I think I can definitely, like, fall into the trap

of going back to things that I know work.

And I think you kind of need that a little bit,

but it's, you know,

just maybe adding new little techniques.

I've got one mission today,

and that's to make sure that my dish is the top dish.

POH: Right, only five contestants left.

And this mystery box is a really crucial one

'cause we're only looking for one person

that gets their immunity

and the other four are going into elimination.

Yeah, the odds are stacked up against 'em today.

And even though they do have their own mystery boxes

set by themselves,

there was a bit of a mixed reaction when they lifted the lids, hey?

Laura, she's like, you know,

if I put a mystery box together for Laura,

they would be her ingredients there...

Yeah.

..whereas Ben, he was, like, a bit...bewildered.

BEN: I would swap my mystery box with anyone today,

but I can't. Argh!

Yeah, I'm a little bit put out by my former self

for choosing this box. I don't... (LAUGHS)

I'm struggling a little bit

to think how I'm going to put many of these together.

So what I'm thinking is

I'm going to take a couple of routes on this.

Um, I'm going to try and make a sort of dumpling

out of the sweet potato.

With that, I think I can build a dish

and put the oyster cream and some sorrel on it,

but if I'm not happy with the dumplings,

I'm going to go for a single mouth oyster sort of snack

using the same components.

Because sweet potatoes aren't ideal

for making gnocchi-style dumplings,

but I'm going to give it a...give it a nudge,

and if it doesn't work out, I've got a plan B.

It's obviously not ideal that I'm cooking two dishes.

I wish I'd given myself some ingredients that went together

a little bit better than this,

but at the same time,

from adversity comes, you know, great things sometimes.

So if I can just get my head in this and figure it out,

I think I can come up with something excellent.

Yeah, I want to avoid every elimination.

I've been trying to avoid them all.

It seems to be I end up in most of them.

So, um, I don't need any more practice at them.

I just want to keep out of one for a change.

Only one top dish and only one hour to go.

(CHEERING)

Oh, golly, I'm very lucky

that this is not an all-in mystery box today,

because if I was using all this stuff,

I'd be in big trouble.

Because I've got kangaroo and mussels and persimmons,

Jerusalem artichokes,

pine mushrooms.

I've got a tin of Milo in there.

Lifting up that box, and I've realised

that this is a box of ingredients that I've chosen,

but it wasn't necessarily for myself.

Um, so I don't really have what you'd call a dish,

uh, in mind in its full entirety.

I'm looking at the mussels and the kangaroo

and thinking what savoury dishes I can cook,

but because I don't have a lot

of kind of like aromatic ingredients or spices,

I think I can cook a good dish, but maybe not a great dish.

And there's a lot riding on today's challenge,

because whoever wins today is going to be in that top four.

I'm just trying to rack my brain.

Normally, I'm quite methodical and strategic

with how I normally tackle these MasterChef challenges.

But today...

..I have absolutely stitched myself up here.

Oh, yum.

Now we're talking.

I'm just stoked to be here.

Like, I cannot believe I'm in top five

and I get to cook

with some of my favourite ingredients.

I've got pumpkin, I've got some kokum,

which is like same family from the mangosteen.

I've got some ginger, some pineapple,

had some beautiful prawns, some peanut butter,

and I also had a spatchcock chicken and some curry leaves.

When I picked these ingredients,

I made sure I had ingredients that correspond to dishes

that can be both sweet and savoury.

POH: Depinder!

Hey, guys. I love that you're buzzing today.

You're, like, buzzing. It's top five.

I'm so happy to be here. I love curry leaves.

It's my favourite herb.

I'm actually dying to do a curry leaf ice-cream for you guys.

So I'm going to do a curry leaf ice-cream,

a pumpkin peanut butter puree,

caramelised pineapple slices

and kokum solkadhi granita.

Kokum is, like, really, really tasty.

Can we give it a nibble or you wouldn't...?

Yeah, for sure. I've got plenty.

This is... Depinder, this is very sour.

This is like sour plum. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's really tasty. Smells like it.

Yeah. So I'm obviously going to have to work around balancing

all of these flavours and stuff. Yeah, you are.

And salty. Oh, my God.

Yes. And the flavours are going to be really unique.

OK. Like, I promise you.

You wouldn't have tasted anything like this before.

I have done these elements before

and I've done a few savoury desserts in the past.

This dessert is going to be different.

There are a lot of unfamiliar flavours.

It's going to be best of both worlds,

sweet and savoury.

And then I need to get started with my kokum granita.

It's got this beautiful aroma, but it's also really sour.

It's almost, like, used instead of tamarind.

It's really hard to tame this down.

But if I get it right,

I think it's got a really good chance of being up the top.

It's really tasty.

OK, guys, you've got one chance.

45 minutes to go.

Come on! Allez!

CALLUM: So I've spent a bit of time

thinking about what is the best dish I can cook

with this random cluster of ingredients.

I don't think I've got necessarily enough

kind of aromatic-type ingredients to make, uh,

as good of a savoury as I can of sweet.

So I'm gonna go dessert today.

So the dish I'm gonna make

is a Jerusalem artichoke-stuffed choux.

I'm going to do it

with a smoked pine mushroom and Milo ice-cream...

..and persimmon.

I know that the judges will think that this is a wacky idea,

but that's kind of what I'm going for today.

Because Milo has that real kind of malty savouriness

that you find in, like, beer or whisky,

it actually ties together quite well with savoury flavours.

So as long as I get the balance and the ratios right,

I think it could be a lot of fun.

Whoa!

Sorry. Pine...pine mushroom anglaise.

JAMIE: Pine mushrooms anglaise? It's a thing.

Of course it's a thing. (LAUGHS)

It's a thing for you, Cal.

Jamie, how are you? Very good, Chef. How are you?

I can smell something Spanish there.

(CHUCKLES) Everything.

Pretty much. Everything Spanish.

So I've got the salt cod in with some olive oil

and a little bit of jamon in the sous vide.

Um, that is then going to be used to emulsify or to blend

with some of the jamon fat oil that I'm making,

essentially making MasterChef's version

of a little bacalao al pil pil.

I can't wait to see it!

And make sure it's not too salty, too.

Oui, Chef.

There's no doubt in my mind

there's a lot of salt happening on this plate,

but it's the acidity of the tomato water,

the sweetness of the jamon, and the charriness from the razor clams,

they're going to bring everything together.

I can hear a smoked mushroom and Milo ice-cream behind me,

and I'm sure Depinder's throwing everything

at the wall in big, bold flavours

in ice-creams and desserts.

That's fine.

I know that this is going to be a plate of food

that anyone in this kitchen is going to demolish.

LAURA: I'm going really well.

Um, I'm feeling quite in control at this point.

I've decided to use the King George whiting today.

I'm going to use some cinnamon myrtle.

I'm going to use lots of turnips.

The turnips are still in the oven. They've got a timer on.

I'm just juicing the turnips and some of the stems now.

I'm just taking all the bones out to the fish.

Today I'm thinking about new and different techniques

to showcase to the judges,

and I'm salt baking these turnips.

I'm also thinking about using the marrow

from the kangaroo tail to dress those turnips in.

There's only a tiny bit,

but it's like a bit of marrow out of this kangaroo itself.

Like, some have got some, some don't.

And I want to make a little dressing to put over those turnips

when they come out.

But the thing that I'm loving is, like,

you can see your cogs turning on how you can up the ante.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Because, like, you want that top spot,

but you're also staying so true to yourself.

Which I don't think I can... I can't stray from that.

That's the wrong day to do that.

Remember, one top dish.

I know. I'm coming for it. (LAUGHS)

Thank you.

BEN: There's just under 35 minutes on the clock.

I don't have time to think if I'm stressed.

Right now, I'm making two dishes.

While the sweet potatoes are roasting in the oven,

the venison is curing.

Andy. Now...

Ben, how are you? Yeah. I've...

I must been quite a rush, I think, when I, uh,

responded to these questions. Stoked?

I'm not stoked at all. Um... OK.

I love the ingredients. Right.

Uh, struggling a little bit to find the best way

to put them together in a creative enough way

to win this challenge.

So what...what ideas have you got?

So basically, I'm going to take a couple of routes on this.

I'm going to use the sweet potato

to make a sort of dumpling, a potato dumpling

and put the oyster cream and some sorrel on it.

But I've also got some venison I'm curing in, like, salt and sugar

curing in the fridge already. Right.

So my fallback position... Yeah.

..is you're going to get an oyster with, um,

some venison tartare and the oyster cream.

So you're cooking two dishes?

I think you just need to find clarity quick.

Yeah, yeah...

I know this is a bit of, like, suck it and see.

Yeah. But like, yeah.

I think the quicker you decide on what's going to work

and what's not, the better.

Yeah... Because cooking two dishes...

Yeah. ..is probably not going to work.

I think, um...

I think Andy's dead right.

I don't have time to make two dishes.

I've got to put 100% into one of these dishes

and get rid of the other one.

Otherwise, I won't even have a dish.

ANDY: You're cooking your very own mystery box

and we are expecting greatness.

30 minutes to go.

(CLAPPING)

Is that my timer?

(TIMER BEEPS)

This is exciting me for the best cook we've had yet,

and that means the best tasting that we've had yet.

Are we feeling that everyone's going for that one spot,

that first spot in the top four or what?

Yeah, 100%. Absolutely.

Whoo! Man. I'll start with Laura.

She's got a beautiful King George whiting there,

which she's going to put over the hibachi, put some cinnamon myrtle.

Um, then turnips is like her favourite vegetable in the world.

She's going to salt bake them.

And she's got the kangaroo.

She's scooped out the marrow from the tail...

Oh! ..and she's going to make

a little kind of, um, vinaigrette or a sauce with the marrow.

Stunning. Wow.

She really knows how to pull

the flavour out of ingredients, doesn't she?

And I think, like, because we've seen Laura

use these ingredients so often in this kitchen,

she's now trying to take it to another level.

Yeah.

OK, Depinder.

She's doing a kokum granita.

She's also planning to use

the peanut butter and the pumpkin as a puree.

Whoa! And then a curry leaf ice-cream.

Whoa! So it sounds bangin'.

That is a serious combination of flavours.

Yeah, but if she can pull off these unusual flavour combinations,

that's what's going to pull her through today.

Oh, OK!

Jamie's doing a bacalao al pil pil.

Um, basically speaking, he's using the salted cod,

a vacuum water bath

with some Iberico ham.

But the only thing I'm worried with a dish like this - the saltiness.

How are you going to balance to make sure you got the right flavour?

What's going on with Ben? I would love to tell you.

He's cooking two dishes.

He mentioned an oyster cream.

He mentioned a Guinness caramel.

He mentioned a cooked venison.

He mentioned venison tartare.

He mentioned all of these things,

but he didn't have any clarity on which way he was going to go.

So it's a rough cook for him. I hope he can bring it together.

Would you be surprised if I told you Callum was making a Milo dessert?

Tell me that's not the exact Milo tin logo.

Not bad, eh? (CHUCKLES)

Uh, no.

(LAUGHS)

Would you be surprised if I told you he was making

a Milo dessert with Jerusalem artichoke

and mushroom and persimmon?

Look... Oh, my God.

..I want to say...I want to say yes, but no,

because it's Callum. I know, exactly.

You're running out of time. 15 minutes to go!

(CLAPPING)

Oh!

LAURA: Beautiful. We love to see it.

I think the flavours are really interesting.

They haven't really tried these flavours before.

It's really wacky, It's, like, really different,

so I'm actually quite excited.

This dessert will be both sweet and savoury.

So my curry leaf ice-cream looks beautiful, it looks green.

Texturally, it's smooth, silky.

At the same time, I'm also making some white pepper meringue.

It's going to add a pop of heat to it,

but it's also going to elevate how I plate it up.

I'm going to make white pepper meringue twigs

and I want them to be really fine so they actually melt in your mouth.

BEN: I don't have time to make two dishes.

I don't have time to make gnocchi, make whatever, make a dumpling.

It's...it's...

I should just choose the best thing and run with it and do it 100%.

I was going to make, like, a sweet potato dumpling,

but I can't see it working in time.

So you're going to get, like, a one 'mouth-er' of, um,

cured venison tartare, fried oyster, oyster cream.

Yeah, I think that's where we're going.

We're not getting dumplings? You're not getting dumplings.

It's not going to happen.

I've got to focus on just making that single,

delicious fried oyster and venison dish the best I can.

So I've got oyster cream done.

I've shucked a lot of oysters,

but I've got to do something more than that to elevate it

and give it some real interest.

A Guinness caramel would be just what this dish needs.

So I've caramelised some sugar in a pan,

and then I start adding the Guinness to it and a tiny bit of cream.

I don't want it to be sweet and I don't want it to be bitter,

but just getting that balance right.

There's a number of textures and flavours.

So the oyster is going to be crunchy

and the caramel is going to be sweet,

and then they'll be left with chew of the venison that's cured.

So a nice salty finish.

A little bit of salt from oyster cream and a little bit

of the high notes from the sorrel on top.

Five minutes to go!

(CLAPPING)

Five? Yeah, five.

(EXHALES SHARPLY)

Five minutes to go, I've got

all of my elements pretty much where they need to be.

I'm feeling pretty good at this stage.

I've got the razor clams on the hibachi.

I've had my bacalao in the sous vide for about 45 minutes.

I take it out and drain off all of the liquid from inside.

That cooking liquid is perfectly seasoned

because of the salt cod itself,

and you get this beautiful white gelatine

that started to come out of the fish.

This is what's key to start the emulsion of this sauce.

So you're going to emulsify the...

..this which was from the bacalao with...

A little bit of this. ..the charred stock.

Yeah.

I get it into a pan.

I've got my razor clam and sherry stock.

And I've also got my tomato water, which is seasoned.

The most challenging part of this dish is without doubt -

the salt balance,

but it's the acidity from the tomato water.

There's a little bit of smokiness from the shellfish

and the beautiful salty goodness that comes from that pil pil.

You're going to be ready on time, yeah?

Yes, Chef.

All of the elements are done so I can have a taste.

It's too salty.

I taste some of the cooked salt cod.

That's also too salty.

(GROANS)

JAMIE: Today I'm making bacalao al pil pil

but when I taste it...

..it's too salty.

I'm pretty disappointed,

but at the same time,

I'm not going to give up my opportunity at immunity.

The jamon is not salty at all. It's beautiful and sweet.

I've got the freshness of the tomatoes.

I can add in more of the potatoes in to balance out all of the saltiness.

It's going to provide a little foil

for all of the other big flavours to work.

So I'm confident I can fix this.

Three minutes to go!

Coming together? Yeah.

I just need to cook my fish and I'm almost there.

My salt baked turnips are done.

My pickled stems are in the pickling liquid.

I've got the bone broth onto my sauce,

and pretty much the last thing I need to crack onto

is cooking my fish.

I love cooking over fire and I love using a hibachi in this kitchen.

I want to get a really nice smokiness

and dark charcoal kind of colour.

But I need to be really careful

because this fish won't take long at all to cook.

They're so small and delicate.

DEPINDER: These are so delicate.

Oh, my God, they are so bloody delicate.

All of my elements are ready to go.

I've tasted everything together and I really like the flavours.

Now it all comes down to how I plate it up.

And I have to be really concise about how much of each element

I'm going to put on this plate.

I just need to make sure the flavours are balanced

with both sweet and savoury.

I put my pumpkin and peanut butter puree

on the base of the bowl.

I put some of those charred pineapple slices on top.

On top of the ice-cream, I put some of that solkadhi granita...

..and it's looking amazing.

And the meringue twigs on top.

They've also got a really nice flavour from that white pepper.

And it kind of just brings the dish together.

One minute to go!

(CLAPPING)

CALLUM: Today I've stitched myself up,

but actually, looking at the dish,

I think it's the kind of dish

I never would have come up with outside of this competition.

Have a beautiful little kind of hockey puck

of the choux stuffed with that Jerusalem artichoke.

I'm going to pop that smoked mushroom and Milo ice-cream on top,

decorate the whole plate with a little bit of extra diplomate cream.

And finally, those Milo biscuits go on.

Please be as gentle, as gentle can be.

30 seconds to go!

(CLAPPING)

Mm, I like it.

Looking down on all these elements,

I'm actually really excited about this dish.

I'm not quite as upset with past Ben as I was before.

I think, um, I think we've sort of settled our differences.

And now I'm just trying to make this absolute perfection

in a single mouthful.

So I'm going to put the oyster cream on the bottom,

the venison on top of that.

I'm going to brush some of the Guinness caramel on there,

fried oyster and then some fresh sorrel on top.

It actually tastes pretty good. Yeah, I like it. (CHUCKLES)

This is it! 10...

ALL: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one!

We're done here!

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Bravo!

How did you go, mate? Oh, good, mate, I think. Yeah.

We gave each of you a mystery box full of your favourite ingredients.

You had to bring us a dish that saves you from tomorrow's elimination.

With the final immunity up for grabs,

we are looking for perfection.

Let's see who's done it.

The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to Callum.

CALLUM: If this was a black apron day, if this was elimination,

I'd probably be feeling very nervous.

Because there's no way around it, this dish is risky as.

Like, it's a very unusual flavour profile.

And I just hope that the judges are on board

with sort of how savoury this dessert is.

Wow.

Oh-ha! It's growing wheat. Oh, wow.

What... Is that biscuit?

The wheat thing?

Yeah, that's the Milo...Milo biscuits.

Tell us what it is.

It's a Jerusalem artichoke stuffed choux

with pine mushroom Chantilly...

..smoked Milo ice-cream and persimmon.

Callum, when you sort of have a quick look at the dish,

you go, "Oh, yeah."

And then there's just so much detail in there

and it's very different plating

to any other dessert you've brought up here.

Yeah. I was really, um, I guess, aware when I lifted that box

that, A, I'd slightly stitched myself up.

Um, and I guess I knew that to beat

the very solid techniques that were going to be behind me,

there had to be a level of intrigue with the flavour combination

and then enough technique to back it up.

So Milo and mushrooms...

..does it work?

Yes, it does. (CHUCKLES)

This is such a lovely autumnal dessert,

and I love that it's just inspired

this really unusual combination of flavours.

Love the way you use the persimmons.

It's just got this really lovely, kind of slippery, um, mild crunch.

And then, um, I love that combo

of the sweetness of the Jerusalem artichokes

and the pine mushroom Chantilly.

Yeah, love the savouriness of it. Thanks, Poh.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Callum.

Your sense of coordination and executions

is like you've got a brigade next to you.

There's so many details.

And your mix of ingredients,

to sample everything that your brain is giving you.

And this is what is fantastic about you, Callum.

I agree with everything.

Creativity off the charts, technique is all solid.

I just think the ice-cream is a little bit too smoky.

That's my only critique on this...this whole plate.

OK. Thanks, Callum.

Thanks, guys.

(MOUTHS SILENTLY)

Thanks, pal.

The next dish is yours, Depinder!

(CLAPPING)

DEPINDER: I'm really happy with my dish.

But I can't shake off the fact

I've used really wacky flavours, like the kokum.

So I just hope that the judges understand

what I've tried to do with this dessert here.

So today I've made...

..curry leaf ice-cream with a solkadhi granita...

..a pumpkin peanut butter puree

and white pepper meringue twigs.

Are you confident this is top dish?

It's a really good dish. I hope, yeah, you guys love it.

Yep, yep. Let's go for it.

(LAUGHTER)

You don't sound confident, Depinder! Um, yeah.

I'm confident that this will be the top dish.

(GRUFFLY) That a girl! Let's taste!

Depinder...

..this is what we call in French, 'un phenomene d'osmose'.

Osmosis assemblage, basically speaking.

Everything there, it is, all together,

react to something unique.

And this, again, is another dish

that I was not expecting even myself to try to dare

to mix white pepper, the pumpkin,

I can go on and on and on.

Everything in your dish is so well balanced, so well...

And the sugar - which is very important -

because it's a dessert, and the saltiness, too,

together, they are very combined, is excellent.

And the way you are, you're like this.

You're so humble and it's scary

because if you produce this all the time,

every time you manage to knock something epic

and you are the way you are...

I tell you what, just keep doing what you do

as long as you can because you are fantastic.

Thank you, Depinder.

I just loved it. It's all these really unfamiliar flavours

that you find in a dessert,

but they just kind of keep morphing into one another on the palate.

And I love those little matchstick meringues

that really did add something to the dish, not just textural.

Yeah. You should be so proud of yourself.

(WHISPERS) Thank you.

Uh, Depinder, will you give me a little happy dance?

If I get a little, a little, a little beat going for you?

Come on, everybody!

(LAUGHTER)

Everybody, come on!

You should be dancing the night away.

'Cause that's your best one yet for me.

Oh, my God! That, that...

The difficulty in that one is through the absolute roof.

Like, you're playing with fire here.

For me, the granita was the highlight.

Um, tasting it by itself, it is so salty.

But then you put that on the plate with all of the sweetness,

the herbaceousness from the curry-leaf ice-cream,

the tingle of the white pepper,

and then that beautiful kind of nutty peanut butter pumpkin flavour

that is just like grounding everything.

Whoo-hoo! Bye-bye.

That is like, honestly, that is the best dessert

that you've put up, for me.

You pulled this out at the right time.

Well done.

POH: Well done, Depinder!

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Huh?

That was great. Oh, my God!

I didn't think that was going to happen. Brilliant.

We'd like to taste your dish, Ben.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Yeah!

I can't wait to taste this one.

This cook's been like a metaphor for my journey in this competition.

It's been quite up and down,

but I finally settled on an idea for this dish.

And the judges are just going to have a single mouthful.

It's all or nothing. In it goes.

I'm just hoping I've got it right.

Ben, what did you finally land on?

Beer-battered oysters with cured venison,

oyster cream, Guinness, caramel and sorrel.

That was an adventure. It was.

Long and windy road to get to here, wasn't it?

It was a little bit. Yeah. I tried a few things out,

ditched a few things, but, um, yeah, I think this was the best use of the ingredients,

given the mystery box I managed to stitch myself up with.

I'm really interested to see what it tastes like

because it looks very simple.

I think we're just going to take one each. Yeah?

Right, Ben, first, I would like to congratulate you

for having this sense of creativity.

It makes sense. I like that.

The Guinness, the venisons, oyster, sorrel.

It is good.

It's very good, actually. In fact, it is superb.

The only thing I'm on the line missing

is a little bit of this.

Or a little bit of vinegar with the venison.

Otherwise, I think it's great.

Ben, it's a really intelligent dish.

The way you use the Guinness as a sauce with the venison

gave it this really chocolatey kind of flavour,

which was really lovely against the salinity of the oysters.

And I think deep-frying was a great idea as well,

because it kind of married the two together.

Shame about the acidity... Yeah, yeah.

..just to give it that little bit of brightness,

I think that would have been perfect. I agree.

I think you can just get the balance a little bit more dialled.

But, um, mate, for how confused your face was,

I'm surprised that you got anything close to that.

Cheers, mate.

Next one we want to taste belongs to...

..Laura.

LAURA: I'm so happy with the dish that I've put up today.

It looks beautiful, but my biggest concern is -

is this enough?

Have I done everything in my power

to elevate my ingredients and to win immunity?

Like, all my fingers and toes are crossed.

JEAN-CRISTOPHE: What is your dish?

LAURA: Smoked King George whiting,

salt-baked turnips and a turnip broth.

Laura, knowing it is the last immunity of the competition,

do you want this one even more? Definitely.

To be the first person to get into top four would be huge.

Um, I think that would be so good for my mind space.

I think we're about to find out. Let's go.

Laura, the question always with this dish is,

have you been able to take the ingredients to another level?

Um, I think you're going to be up there.

I think you're definitely going to be up there.

For me, the cinnamon myrtle oil

combined with your pickled turnip stems,

which you've put the ooray plums in there,

it's giving off like rhubarb, pickled rhubarb.

And it's really delicious.

It's got a beautiful acidity to it,

a nice amount of tartness and some great crunch.

So, massive tick.

Um, the fish is dynamite.

The skin is really beautiful and crispy,

and, combined with that cinnamon, myrtle oil and smoke throughout it -

also haven't seen that from you before.

A very, very solid dish.

I think you've definitely upped your ante with technique.

Um, but you just don't lose your soul.

And I think that's very, very important

because that's what has made you so successful

in this competition over and over and over again.

Thanks, Andy.

I feel, I don't know how to explain it.

I think I feel cleansed after eating that dish.

It's interesting, like, it's a struggle cook

when you don't have aromatics to,

you know, make things sweet and lift things,

and you have to really rely on drawing out

all the natural characteristics of every ingredient.

And you have done that to the max.

Laura, the turnips are heaven, said almost no-one ever.

(LAUGHTER)

Oh, you're so good at bringing out the best of those root vegies.

They've just got this absolutely divine juiciness to them.

And I think when you add that little touch of the bone marrow,

even though it IS a little touch,

it's about that kind of

entire mouthfeel, richness, experience.

Thank you. Well done.

CALLUM: Well done, mate.

OK. Next up, please,

we want to try Jamie.

JAMIE: Walking my dish up, I think it looks beautiful.

It smells absolutely amazing.

But I am worried about all of the salty goodness

that's on the plate.

I hope I balanced it well enough for the judges.

So, tell us exactly what is your dish.

JAMIE: Charred razor clams. Bacalao al pil pil.

Jamon, roasted potatoes and tomato.

I...

I think you took a risk to do a dish like this using the salted cod.

It's really, really risky.

Um, how confident are you to think this dish is going to work?

These are all things that work together in my head.

And putting them together in a way that utilises each of them

for their different qualities, I think all the flavours work.

I'm really happy with this plate of food.

The pil pil itself, when you taste it,

it has such character and a beautiful dimension about it.

You literally get all of the characteristics of that protein

and that gelatine from the cod.

And then you get tomato and then you get jamon.

It's all in there.

I loved it with the tomatoes.

I thought that was beautiful

because there was a great contrast

between, you know, sweetness of tomato and then umami,

and then all the stuff that goes really well

with the pil pil.

This had the hallmarks of being a winning dish.

(EXHALES)

And there's so much great technique in there.

But then, just at the back end, it just goes a little bit too far.

Because then you taste the salt cod.

It's really salty as well.

Jamie, it's one of those dishes that you want to dive into.

It has all, you know, my favourite things in it -

tomatoes, potatoes, um, razor clams.

I think as soon as I saw the bacalao and the...

..and the jamon, I was like,

he's going to have to control those if he's using those together.

I think you did get a little bit carried away.

If you had had just, um, like, just boiled potatoes...

Sometimes something really simple like that

can just help get relief,

'cause everything is very enriched on the dish

and just gave it that little bit of respite

so that that sauce could breathe and you could have gotten away with it.

But I'm sure you were just wanting to show more technique,

and, you know... Yeah.

So sometimes, like, yeah, think about

whether you're thinking technique before

whether it makes sense for the dish. Yeah.

Thank you.

You had the best chance of success today

with your personalised mystery boxes.

And with the final immunity at stake for the win,

we were looking for a dish that we couldn't fault.

Even though a few of you got close,

one of you took perfection to new heights.

Imaginative flavours,

intriguing textures and the technique of a master chef.

It was definitely worthy of that...

(SHOUTS) ..happy dish, Depinder!

Congratulations!

Uh, thank you. Thank you.

Well done, mate. Oh, thanks, guys.

It feels unreal.

I did not expect that this morning when I walked through the doors.

And I'm just...

Probably the happiest day I've had so far in this kitchen.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

Well, Depinder, amazing work.

You'll be watching tomorrow's elimination from the gantry.

Laura, Ben, Jamie, Callum,

you're going to need every wink of sleep you can get tonight.

Because when you walk back into the kitchen tomorrow,

you're going to need to face one of your biggest challenges to date.

Goodnight, guys. Thank you.

And well done. Epic day, group! Well done!

Well done, mate! Thank you.

Very good. Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: Love what you see in the MasterChef kitchen?

Now you can do it yourself with the MasterChef At Home cookbook.

Head to the website or scan the QR code.

Tomorrow night...

Please welcome the mad genius of the South Island,

Vaughan Mabee!

..he's created a wonderland of more-ish morsels.

CALLUM: This is unbelievable.

It's like that Willy Wonka thing

where you cram a three-course meal into a tablet.

Now...

We want your own spectacular one-bite wonder.

..it comes down to one bite

that blows their minds...

You've got one shot in one mouthful...

Ah! ..to save them from elimination.

I'm wearing a black apron

and I'm resting my entire competition

on one bite.

If this is my last cook,

I'm going to be swinging for the fences,

as simple as that.

Captions by Red Bee Media