Original subtitles

LAURA: Ooh, it's so dark. DEPINDER: Wow!

Oh, guys. CALLUM: What's going on here?

BEN: Wow. What is that?

It is like walking into an enchanted forest.

There's little trees and shrubbery and there's moss all over the floor.

Whoa! This is wild! BEN: What is this? Holy crap, this is beautiful.

Look at... Callum, it's a fish. God, it's a fish.

It's a fish eating a Cornetto. JAMIE: Far out.

(BOTH LAUGH)

And it looks like there's edible things

perched from a fish's mouth,

hanging from the tree...

What is that? BEN: I don't know, but it looks delicious.

..sitting on the rocks.

They can't be edible. Surely not.

This is, like, unbelievable.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my goodness. What the hell is that?

So beautiful.

Oop, here they are.

What about this? Huh? Mm.

Amazing. Impressive.

Morning, all.

ALL: Morning.

The kitchen is looking a little wild today.

We are definitely stepping into the great unknown

for this elimination.

These beautiful bites were made by a Kiwi legend.

Oh!

He made the Top 100 Chefs list this year.

His ethos around New Zealand ingredients

has earned his restaurant three-hat status.

It was awarded the Best Dining Experience in 2024,

and the third best restaurant in the world by Food & Wine.

Oh, my God. Holy shit.

But that ain't it.

This is insane.

It made the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants list this year.

I just got goose bumps.

Please welcome the mad genius of the South Island,

executive chef of Queenstown's Amisfield,

Vaughan Mabee!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Whoo!

Vaughan Mabee from New Zealand.

His food is some of the best in the world.

To see him in the flesh,

he's a little scary walking into the kitchen.

What's happening, guys?

JAMIE: Homie walked in like a boss.

Mohawk, just chillin'.

"What's up? Kia-ora." How good.

Chef. Chef Vaughan, how are you?

SOFIA: Vaughan, welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.

Thank you for having me.

Your approach to food really pushes boundaries.

What's your ethos with cooking?

Our restaurant, Amisfield, it's on an island.

Our ethos is just using what's around us.

I'm motivated in telling a true story of our land,

you know, Aotearoa,

and its cuisine in a different light to the world.

Vaughan's restaurant is famous for its tasting menu

of sensational snacks and one-bite wonders.

Up here are eight of his favourites.

These are all loaded

with world-class New Zealand ingredients,

flavours and technique

that you cannot experience anywhere else.

And, lucky you, you get to taste them...

Yes! ..right here, right now! Yes!

Oh...

That's an excellent start to the mission.

This is sick.

VAUGHAN: First up, Laura.

It kind of feels like I'm having snacks for free

and it's an absolute vibe.

Like, this is some of the best food in the world

and we get to have it in this kitchen.

This one is kind of

one of the most nostalgic flavours of New Zealand.

Growing up in New Zealand, we make whitebait fritters.

Inside is actually a aerated whitebait mousse

and it's encaptured inside the fritter around it.

That is so good. Oh, my God.

The weird and wacky ideas that he's come up with as dishes

is so inspiring.

This is what we call the duck foot.

I mean, there's duck feet,

like, literally duck feet as a snack.

We cook it in its own consomme

and the claws are made out of black truffle.

That is so cool.

There is fish heads that have got

almost Cornetto-like ice-creams hanging out of them.

I want to get into his brain and be like,

how the hell did you come up with this kind of stuff?

This is the New Zealand native greenbone.

Inside there is like a little aerated horseradish ice-cream.

BEN: The cone might be a tiny little thing, but...

Wow.

..as soon as I break that cone,

my mouth just fills with all this flavour.

It's so sour and so bright.

It was amazing.

It's like the ultimate palate-awakener.

This is the wing of the titi, also known as the muttonbird.

I think the thing with all of these dishes

is that they look really simple,

but so much thought and attention

has been given to how to pack all that flavour in.

It's quite amazing how much flavour

you can pack into such a small amount of food,

and to have those classic Kiwi flavours

makes them even more special, I think. Awesome, mate.

I think it's spectacular, and if we're gonna have to do this

in the challenge, it's going to be a bit of a worry.

Now, this is the same bird Ben just tasted.

This is the titi. This is the heart.

So the heart, you know, it's the purest part of any animal,

so we glaze it with a wild birch syrup,

the sap we take out of the trees.

So, sweet, salty and fatty.

You're just going to eat it like it's a lollipop.

Best lollipop ever.

DEPINDER: Oh, yum. That looks amazing.

I reckon Depinder has chosen

the worst mystery box to win yesterday

because this is very cool right now, getting to try all these dishes.

So this is the New Zealand paua. It's an endemic black abalone.

Both of these bites I've been lucky enough to try...

Wow.

..it's like that Willy Wonka thing

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

Like, there is, like, so much flavour going on

in these bites right now.

Have you ever seen this before? JAMIE: No.

It's called kaeo in the native tongue in New Zealand.

English name is a sea tulip.

We harvest them in some of the purest waters

down around the south of New Zealand.

That's delicious and totally unexpected.

Vaughn wants to use what's around him and celebrate

all of the things that are beautiful and unique

about the part of the world he's from.

This is the native New Zealand tawaka mushroom tart.

So when you eat this, it goes sweet, crispy, fresh,

and then you have this powerful mushroom flavour.

Each of these bites is really succinct in its idea,

and it's packed full of unexpected technique and flavour.

I have a feeling we're going to be doing that today.

What you just tasted is your inspiration for today.

We want you to create your own spectacular one-bite wonder...

..and you've got your work cut out for you today,

because we want the perfect bite times five.

Oof! One morsel for each of us.

So we're giving you two hours.

The pantry and garden are open and, unfortunately,

the least impressive dish will send its maker home.

Take it away, Vaughn.

Your two hours starts now!

DEPINDER: Go, guys!

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Good luck! Bonne chance!

Come on, guys.

I'm definitely excited for this challenge,

but also 'nervous' is absolutely the right word to use.

These three guys are such creative, incredible cooks,

I know they're going to put up something super magical.

So it's trying to think,

"How the hell am I going to save myself today,

"and what is it going to take to put up an incredible dish?"

Know what? I'll get my fish last,

because that's going to be the smartest thing to do.

Honestly speaking, it's an honour meeting you.

And to go with your passion -

I mean, I love cooking - but this is another world.

ANDY: Vaughan, I can guarantee

we're going to get some exceptional food.

Like, we've got four of the best cooks

that this kitchen has EVER seen,

cooking right at the top of their game at the moment.

If it was you out there, where would you start?

I mean, for me, I start with, like, focusing on one ingredient

and then around that I would create something,

whether it's the way it's shown to you or the way it's given,

to make it more elaborate,

where they can stand out amongst the other chefs.

Love this.

JAMIE: If I was potato starch, where would I be?

You know what the beautiful thing is about these four, like, this challenge and why I love it?

I have no idea what they're going to cook right now.

I'm excited to eat. Yeah, same.

Are you OK, Ben? Good, Chef. Thank you.

How do you feel having another Kiwi in the kitchen?

It's always nice. Yeah? It's twice as hard for you, though.

Twice as hard for you to understand what we're saying, right?

(CHUCKLES)

I think Vaughan's food is amazing.

Great to have another Kiwi in the kitchen.

I'd love to know how he makes it, because it'd help me today,

but, um, really inspirational start to the morning

with some of that amazing food in there.

So just trying to think of what I can do

that's going to sort of pack the same punch.

I'm more of a cook-a-dish sort of person

than cook-a-mouthful sort of person.

Small bites isn't really my style,

so it's going to be a challenge, for sure.

But Vaughan talks about that connection with food,

and whitebait definitely makes me think of my childhood,

and I'm sort of thinking that if

I can get some whitebait into this dish,

it's going to help me form that connection

and hopefully cook a better dish.

Ben. Hello, hello. How are you, mate?

Pretty good, pretty good, yeah. Pretty good?

You're feeling the pressure a little bit, or what? 100%, yeah.

There's never been more pressure in this room than right now.

What are you feeling?

Um, you know, could be the last cook in here,

so I don't want that to be the case,

so I'm just going to try to make the most precise,

flavourful mouthful of food I can do.

I'm actually going to use, having seen the whitebait -

I didn't taste it up there, but I saw it -

and it just brought back my childhood memories of eating whitebait

and just pretty much whitebait and egg is all you need,

but I'm going to have to obviously do a bit more than that.

So I'm actually going to take a chicken wing

and I'm going to stuff it with a whitebait mousse.

I want to really get that sweetness from the whitebait when you eat it

and, uh, hopefully take you to my childhood

in New Zealand or your childhood as well, I imagine.

It sounds really cool. Sounds like something that, uh, interests me a lot.

Yeah! You know? Like, that's cool.

Yeah. Whitebait, chicken wings.

Yeah.

Obviously, I want to see the Kiwi wing...win.

Sorry. Wings on the mind!

But I will not be biased, no.

No, you won't be. Not while I'm around, anyway.

He's also bigger than you, Andy. I'm bigger than most.

Good luck, mate. Thank you, Andy. Appreciate it.

Good luck. Thanks, Chef.

The chicken wings, I want to stuff them,

and you can either pull the bones out raw

or pull them out em out cooked.

It's far easier to do when they're cooked.

So I'm frying the chicken first.

It gives it a bit of colour on the skin,

and then cooking it gently in the stock

is just going to make it cook through, without overdoing it.

Callum, are you excited?

I am, always, Chef.

Is it your forte?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm excited for it.

I'm normally pretty level-headed on these things,

but this is going to be one for my kids today.

So, um, emotions are going to be running high,

but, um, yeah, I'm really excited.

One of the things I love to do with my kids

is to educate them about all things food,

and so we'll often go out on little adventures.

We'll go and pick apples up in the Adelaide Hills where I'm from.

In the cooler months,

I've got wild mushrooms growing everywhere,

just near my house,

and seeing Vaughn's creations today

and how much it sort of spoke of, you know, sense of place,

I just thought that was really awesome.

And so I'm going to do a mushroom and chicken tart.

Something that I noticed with Vaughn's dishes were they were little works of art.

Like, they looked really interesting

before you even had a chance to eat it.

So I want to create a dish that essentially looks like

the judges are going to be going mushroom foraging themselves

to pick up a little mushroom-looking dish.

But the thing is,

when you commit to a dish,

like, looking like something like, if it doesn't look accurate,

then it sort of loses a bit of that magic.

So, um, yeah, that's the goal today,

make sure I execute everything

to the highest possible standard in terms of flavour,

but also in terms of getting that presentation aspect right.

My chicken liver parfait goes into the oven,

and now it's time to make the mandarin and thyme gel.

DEPINDER: Let's go, Cal. Smells great.

Thanks, mate.

Single-bite snacks is what we did at Alba for years,

and I feel like this whole journey in this competition

has been all about me, sort of gaining back some confidence

and sort of moving through that journey

that I had with that venue that I loved so much.

So, today, I want to pay homage to that memory and create something

that represents who I am now and what I'm about.

So I'm making anchovies on toast.

I feel like this is a nice little ode to my past

but, as well, it sort of represents where I'm going in my future,

and I'm confident in my cooking again.

I feel like it's a bit of a flex for me to be in an elimination,

at top five of MasterChef and say, "I'm putting anchovies on toast,"

but the toast is going to be crystal bread.

Crystal bread is essentially completely transparent starch toast.

It's completely hollow.

It's completely see through,

but somehow still tastes like bread.

Crystal bread takes a long time to cook,

so that's the first thing I need to get onto.

I take water, kuzu starch

and potato starch, and start whisking.

This needs to start boiling and come together

looking like a pretty gross paste,

but greatness will come.

DEPINDER: Jamie. Oui?

I'm so interested.

Yeah, me too. (LAUGHS)

I need at least 90 minutes for this to dry out in the oven.

Because the danger with crystal bread is,

if I don't cook it out properly,

the effect won't work and the texture will be gummy.

Jamie. Chef.

Sorry. No, you're alright.

How are you, mate? Very well.

I'm making anchovies on toast.

Right. Yum. Yeah.

You've got a smoked confit tomato,

a little anchovy custard.

I'm making crystal bread.

Oh, wow. So it'll be a crystal-clear wafer.

Shatters like glass, but still has that beautiful taste of bread.

So it may be anchovies on toast,

but it's definitely MasterChef-worthy.

Mate, crystal bread.

We've never seen that in the MasterChef kitchen.

I think you know you're way around crystal bread. What can go wrong?

I mean, to be honest, I've never made it myself. Wow.

I've eaten it in many restaurants around the world.

Um, I guess the only thing that can go wrong with it

is that it's not crispy. Mm.

You've got your work cut out for you.

Good luck. Thanks, guys.

There's no backup.

There is no backup for the crystal bread.

All my bread is in one basket,

um, and we're hoping that that is a clear vision

of us going into the top four.

Tiny dish! Huge stakes!

BOTH: 90 minutes to go!

Whoo! DEPINDER: Let's go, guys!

Keep going, Cal! Let's go, let's go! Run, run, run!

This is such a challenging challenge.

You've got one shot in one mouthful to win the judges over.

If this fish would just tame itself!

Stay on the chopping board.

Ah, look,

any day you're wearing a black apron in this kitchen

is a pretty terrifying day.

To be honest, I feel like these three boys

have been my biggest competitors since day one,

so today is going to be a huge elimination.

But I came back to win.

I did not come here to set different milestones.

It was to get to that final spot.

And I am trying to do everything in my power to get there

and to make sure I walk out of this kitchen a winner.

That look so fresh. It's beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

Today, I think it's all about sticking to my strengths,

and I want to play around

with Japanese flavours, as well as native Australian ingredients.

So today I'm making a seaweed tart.

Inside, that's going to have a native citrus gel,

a toasted nori jam, and a smoked fish head emulsion.

Babes, how long are you smoking that for?

Um, probably about 10. 10 minutes? Yep.

And then I'm going to have the fish, which I'm curing.

It's a traditional Japanese technique called kombujime.

So I slice up my coral trout, wrap it in the kombu,

and just allow that to pretty much cure

for as long as possible in this cook,

to really take on that beautiful kombu flavour.

Laura, that looks amazing.

Thank you.

So are you going to smoke it inside that?

Uh, no. So it's going to go into the Cryovac

so that it penetrates more flavour quicker.

Beautiful.

Showing some techniques, girlfriend.

We love a bit of technique.

I feel like I'm making dolmades!

(BOTH LAUGH)

There's definitely a lot of pressure today

to really make sure

both the Japanese and native Australian flavours,

um, sing, work cohesively,

and I think it's going to come down to,

not just the flavours of both the cuisines,

but also the textures as well.

And, you know, you want a really fun, textural,

explosive mouthful.

So, yeah, I'm ready to absolutely nail this challenge.

There's no other option but to nail it today.

You're working on your tart shells now?

Yep. Yep? Let's go, yeah?

40 down. Oh, yeah.

The stakes are so high today because whoever's going home today

is going to miss out on being in the top four,

and top five is good, but it's not top four,

and it's certainly not winning.

So I've decided to put as much technique as possible

into this dish

to prove that I should be the one to stay.

So I'm going to add a few extra elements

to go with my chicken wing stuffed with whitebait

to really stand out.

I'm adding a chicken liver parfait,

a chive oil emulsion, and a seaweed crisp.

When the judges bite into this snack,

I want to have a whole range of feelings,

from firstly the texture, the crunch,

right through to the big flavours from the parfait,

right through to the sweetness of the whitebait.

The chicken wings, the tuile and the parfait's in the oven.

Now it's time to make the mousse to stuff the chicken wings with when they're ready.

To make the mousse,

I basically blend up some whitebait with some eggs, salt,

and a little bit of cream, until it's really light and fluffy.

Whitebait's got a very sweet, slightly salty flavour,

and I think that's going to go really well with the chicken.

Is that your mousse, babes? Yep. Beautiful.

It's almost all whitebait. Taste everything, yeah?

Yeah. Let's go, Jamie. Whoo!

(LAUGHS) Great energy, Deep.

Yeah, always. Here for it. (LAUGHS)

I'm working on my confit tomatoes for my anchovies on toast.

Did you put a bit of sugar on your tomato?

Sorry? Did you put a bit of sugar on your tomato?

No, no, not yet.

But now that you've said it,

it might bring out some more sweetness, huh?

75 minutes left,

and all the things that take a lot of time are in the oven.

So I've got my confit tomatoes in there.

The bread is the main thing

that needs time to, like, to just dry out.

Now I'm moving on to my anchovy cream,

which is almost like a custard.

So, a good time right there.

Alright, so...

I've got to infuse this cream with the anchovy flavour

and then mix it through some egg yolks,

essentially making a custard.

I want the fat from this to really cover

the mouth so that even

after the anchovy and the crystal bread's gone,

you're left with this unmistakable anchovy flavour that's

just sitting on the palate.

Do you want it to be really intense?

Um, not too intense.

You're still going to have an anchovy on the top.

Oh, OK.

How long is your crystal bread going to be in the oven for, Jamie?

Uh, till it's ready. You can't overcook it.

Oh, OK. Cool.

This needs to be in a 170 oven for a long time.

I need all of the water to cook out

and the starch to just solidify around the outside.

The slower you can do that, the clearer you can get the bread.

What we don't want is any of that moisture

to not have evaporated,

because then you're going to get something real gummy,

and it won't be nice.

So it's a waiting game.

I'm wearing a black apron,

and I'm resting my entire competition

on whether this one thing that's never been done

in this kitchen gets done on time.

But I came fourth on my last season of MasterChef,

and the further into this competition

I've gotten this year, the more and more confidence

I've had that I will be here at the end.

I just need to keep pushing.

You only have 75 minutes left to go.

Good luck, please.

Time goes so fast in this kitchen.

Wild.

CALLUM: My chicken liver parfait is cooking in the oven.

Now it's time to make my mushroom tart.

The pastry for my mushroom tart cases here is flour,

it's water, it's olive oil, and of course,

all those dried mushrooms in there, as well.

Callum. Hey, gents.

What's your one bite?

Mushroom and chicken liver tart is the dish.

So, actually, slightly inspired by your mushroom tart.

Cool.

Um, but, yeah, I guess as soon as I walked in today and just saw

the moss, and kind of felt like you were walking through a forest,

it's, um... It's, like, my favourite thing in the world,

showing my kids, like, food things.

So we go, like, picking apples or picking strawberries or going foraging for mushrooms.

So, I want you guys to do a little bit of a forage today.

So it's going to be little mushrooms on a plate,

and they're going to be stuffed with chicken liver parfait,

chicken skin and a little mandarin-thyme gel.

Wow.

And then, a little mushroom-stem meadow, like a mushroom butter, as well.

So it's gonna be a good time, I reckon.

This excites me because I know

that, like, Callum has the technique behind him...

Awesome.

..to be able to pull something like that off.

So, unfortunately, that means, Callum,

very high expectations over here.

Have your expectations as high as you like.

I can't wait. Let's do it! Wow. Good luck, mate.

Thank you. I wish you luck, Callum.

Thank you, Chef. DEPINDER: Is that your shell, Cal?

Yeah, beautiful.

My mushroom tart case dough is resting.

I'm now going to make a port-mushroom-dashi jelly.

The mushrooms and the dashi are going to give that real savoury,

umami flavour.

And the port in there just gives it a little bit of sweetness,

just to make sure it's not too earthy, as well.

I'm going to set this into a jelly, into little moulds.

And this is kind of going to be, if you can imagine,

an upside down mushroom with all the little gills in there,

all those kind of lines that join the mushroom together.

This is going to be that part.

That can boil, that'll be good. Um, alright.

My whitebait mousse is finished.

I now need to start stuffing the chicken wings.

I need to sort of pull the bones out, which is very fiddly task.

Come on! Far out!

I hold it by one end and just wiggle each

of the two bones that's inside the winglet...

(SIGHS)

..stuff it with the mousse, and then roll it up in cling film

so I can steam them and cook the mousse through.

Can't put too much in because they'll be too big to eat.

I've never cooked whitebait in this way.

I'm taking a bit of a risk.

But, hey, it's what you've got to do in this competition at this stage.

Hi, Ben. Hello, hello.

Benny.

Tell us, how are you going to wow us with one bite?

Wow you with one bite?

I've got these lovely little chicken wings,

stuffed with a whitebait mousse here, which is cooking through.

Almost done. Yeah.

They're gonna be sitting on top

of these lovely seaweed and chive tuiles.

That's already done? Yep. Chicken parfait.

Chicken liver parfait underneath that. Yep.

And on top, a little bit of a green oil emulsion

and caviar.

Wow. A lot of texture, a lot of flavour.

Strong flavour. Yep.

Yeah, and a lot of flavour.

Just make sure

that you're not just going for technical prowess.

Also make sure that it's carefully balanced.

Have I just royally screwed up here by adding so many big flavours?

I really hope I haven't committed to the wrong dish.

BEN: I know I have some big flavours in my dish,

but with a small bite of food, a single mouthful,

it's the proportions and the quantities

and the way it's put together

that's actually going to control how it eats.

Finally.

I'm confident with the concept of the dish,

and if I can get the balance right,

I think I can do something really special with it.

DEPINDER: How's that, Benny? Beautiful.

Beautiful, mate.

My parfait is in the oven, which is good.

My mushroom tart case dough is resting.

Um, my gills gel is, uh... (CHUCKLES) ..is, uh, cooling down

in the blast chiller.

I'm just working on a little, uh, thyme and mandarin sauce

I'm going to make, as well.

I've chosen to use mandarin as one of the flavour profiles

in today with my mushroom and my chicken liver.

And where that idea comes from is all the way back in season two,

I was in London and I got to cook a challenge with Heston,

and I got to make his meat fruit, which is chicken liver and mandarin.

And I remember eating that, that day, and just having a similar

kind of magical food experience,

like we've just had with Vaughan here.

And so, when I thought of something to kind of break through

the earthiness of that mushroom

and that sort of silky saltiness of the chicken liver parfait,

mandarin just seems like the obvious choice

to link those two things together.

What's that for, Cal?

Just a little sauce, like, puree thing.

Beautiful.

Is that going to go inside the mushroom?

Yeah.

That now goes into the blast chiller.

Time to start rolling out my dough for the tart shells.

No pressure. You have 30 minutes to go, guys.

ANDY: Come on! SOFIA: Let's do it!

DEPINDER: Come on, guys. Bring it home.

(APPLAUSE)

LAURA: There's 30 minutes to go. My fish is still curing.

My smoked, fish head stock is reducing down.

My nori jam is still bubbling away.

The next thing I'm going to get onto

is making my native citrus gel.

I'm using lemon aspen and desert lime today.

I feel like, with Japanese cooking,

you'd use lots of yuzu within the dish to bring out

that really nice acidic flare.

And these flavours are going

to really complement that yuzu style of flavour.

Oh!

She needed 100 mils and she got it.

Now that my citrus gel is on the stove,

I crack on to rolling out my seaweed dough.

Oh, my heart is racing so fast.

Laura, did I just hear you say

that your heart is beating so fast?

So fast. Yeah? You're feeling it, aren't you?

Definitely. Yeah.

So nerve-racking, like... Yeah.

..there's so much at stake today. I can see it in your eyes.

So much at stake.

Have you got confidence in your idea?

Yes. Like, at first, I feel like you're going to get hit

with all the native citrus because I feel like it's so prominent.

And then, you flip to the Japanese side.

Then, I want you to get the smokiness

from the head emulsion.

So it's really a two-part journey in a single mouthful.

Yeah, yeah. Sounds amazing.

If you can pull it off, it's genius.

That's what you need with, like, any little snack.

Like, you just want to be blown away,

and you've only got one mouthful to do it,

so that's what I'm trying to do. Yeah.

Yeah. Blow your socks off in one mouthful.

Well, we don't need to tell you what's riding on this,

so we're wishing you all the best. Oh, God. Thank you so much.

Thank you, ladies. Blow our socks off!

I will. Are you wearing socks?

I'm not wearing socks. I'm not wearing socks.

Put some socks on, Sof.

Just one bite between you and the top four -

15 minutes to go!

That's perfect. DEPINDER: Stunning.

Oh, my God. That's perfect. Perfect. Perfect. (SIGHS)

Wow. Yes!

I just got goose bumps. Ah!

So...

How are you going? CALLUM: Good man. Having fun?

Yeah, always. How are you travelling?

Good. Nice, mate.

Usually, when you have chicken liver parfait,

it'll be covered with, like, a jelly

or, like, a clarified butter or something like that.

And today, I'm kind of doing both of those things.

So, I've got my jelly setting away,

and I'm now going to make a little stem for the mushroom

that's going to be butter, black garlic

and Slippery Jack mushrooms.

DEPINDER: Nice, Cal.

Even though the little stem I'm making here is quite

a small part of the dish, I think it's a really important part,

because that sort of fat from the butter,

as it melts in your mouth, is going to offset some

of that sweetness from the mandarin gel

and that kind of savoury earthiness of the mushroom-dashi jelly

that goes on the top, as well.

So, it's going to be a really important sort of balancing act.

How long till the crystal bread comes out, Jamie?

Um...

I'm pushing it a little bit.

The crystal bread's going to come out,

and I'm probably going to have minutes to plate.

It's not a lot of time, but it's going to have to be.

Oh, that smells incredible, Jamie.

Tomatoes look amazing. Yeah, they do.

Take my confit tomatoes out.

They're still just holding together.

And although they look beautiful,

top four is on the line here.

So, a little bit of smoke is just going to elevate them

that little bit more and take it to the next level.

My anchovy cream is now done.

It all comes down to this crystal bread.

POH: Look like ice cubes.

They actually looked like ice cubes.

Andy, have you had it before? What's that?

No, I've never eaten it. No.

I can't push it any longer.

They need to come out of the oven right now.

If this doesn't work, there's no redos.

I'm going to be putting an anchovy on a spoon.

This snack needs to be your saviour.

Five minutes to go!

DEPINDER: Come on, guys.

I'm praying it's worked.

Ooh.

JAMIE: No, not that one.

I'm trying to get this crystal bread out of the pan,

but these round ones just aren't demoulding.

How are they? Yeah.

Good...

'Good' isn't filling me with heaps of confidence.

Can't remake it.

I move over to my squares,

and I can see them retracted from the edges.

We could be on here.

Pretty clear.

DEPINDER: Happy, Jamie? Yep.

These are so fragile.

But it's holding form. It's clear.

It's worked.

ANDY: Are they super delicate?

They are right now. They firm up.

Yeah, but what happens when... Stuff gets put on them?

(CHUCKLES) Yeah, things go on it. Um...

Not sure.

DEPINDER: Nice one, Cal.

CALLUM: I take my mushroom, dashi and port jelly out of the fridge

and turn it out,

and they look exactly like little mushroom gills.

They look really good, mate. Thank you.

My porcini tart cases come out of the oven,

and they're looking good, and they're nice and crunchy.

The next thing that goes in is that chicken liver parfait.

Around that, I'm going to pipe some of that mandarin and thyme gel,

and top each with a little doughnut of chicken skin.

Chicken-skin doughnuts, baby.

I've punched out my little circles of chicken skin

so I can put the stem through the skin.

Next up, it's the mushroom, dashi and port jelly that make up

kind of the gills of the mushroom.

And finally, that black garlic and Slippery Jack mushroom butter

that forms the stem.

SOFIA: Two minutes to go!

DEPINDER: Oh, my God, they look so perfect.

LAURA: The last little thing I need to do

is make a little Geraldton wax powder

to dress the coral trout with.

By pouring liquid nitrogen over the actual Geraldton wax,

it's going to keep its colour

and also the freshness of flavour

that I want to accentuate in this dish.

I've got my tart shells, and I start to pipe in

my three different emulsions.

The balance of these is so crucial.

There's a little bit more of that citrus gel,

a good amount of that smoked, fish head emulsion

and three little dots of that nori jam.

(EXHALES HEAVILY)

I feel like my heart rate has intensified so much

in the last, like, half an hour because I just...I...

(SIGHS) Because this means so much to me,

and, like, obviously, it means so much to everyone else.

It's just make sure that every single thing

I'm putting in this tart is the most incredible version of itself.

JAMIE: The crystal bread holds unto itself,

but now I'm piling stuff on top of it.

The last thing I want to do

is weigh it down so much that it collapses.

The flavours are all there.

The anchovy comes through in the cream.

Obviously, you get the beautiful anchovy on top,

so hopefully the crystal bread stays nice and crisp.

It works.

One minute to go!

BEN: Oh, my God, that was bad.

Thank God that dribbled.

I'm trying to get this on the plate as fast as I can.

I've fried off my chicken wings.

Chop the end off, and then divide that into two.

It's only a small mouthful but any more than that,

and it won't fit in anyone's mouth.

Slice some thin slices of parfait and put that on top of the twirl.

It's not as refined and pretty as I would like it,

but it's still going to taste amazing, I hope.

Time to serve your snacks in 10...

JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one!

(APPLAUSE)

DEPINDER: Epic. ANDY: Epic work, everybody.

BEN: Hey, bro.

Well done, mate. Same to you, mate.

Well done.

Mm.

All good? Yeah.

Nice work, boys.

So hard.

One bite has to explain everything that you want to say today.

Can I see, can I see, can I see?

Whoa!

Um, you know, this could be my last cook and...

..if I don't go, one of them is.

Well done, mate.

Yeah. Oof!

ANDY: Hey, Laura. Hi.

SOFIA: Hey, Loz.

POH: Wow.

(CHUCKLES)

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Wow, look at that!

This is my seaweed tart

with cured coral trout and native citrus.

When we pop this one bite in our mouths,

what do you want us to experience?

I think that contrast of Japanese flavours and the really wild,

intense citrus that the natives have given to this dish.

Do you think you've balanced the intensity of your ingredients?

I think I have. I still...

I think it's got enough punch, but it's also still really clean.

I think, when you're, like, sitting down having lots of snacks,

you want it to kind of have that intense impact,

but you want to be left going, "I could have another one."

You know, it wasn't too much.

So hopefully I've hit that.

Thanks, Laura. Thank you so much.

POH: Thanks, Laura.

OK. What do we think of Laura's snacks?

Beautiful. Looks, like, deceptively simple.

OTHERS: Yes.

I know how much work has gone into that.

Yeah. Completely agree. Yeah.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Alright, let's have a try.

Thank you.

I think Laura's created something here that's really special,

highlighting the native Australian citrus.

I'm not really familiar with it, but I love the Geraldton wax.

It kind of got that pine-like, like, almost like a conifer finish.

I think, all in all, it's a really good dish.

Yeah.

What she set out to do was really highlight

Australian native citrus in here.

And what she's done really beautifully is pair it

with Japanese ingredients that really scream umami.

Like, that nori jam, for instance,

combined with that really kind of rich fish head emulsion.

Those two things are just, like, holding everything at bay

and then letting the finger lime, the desert lime jam,

just zing on zing on zing on zing.

The Japanese do simplicity and clean so, so well.

And I feel like they are two adjectives for what I would describe

Laura's dish today. That was...that was delicious.

She just layered every single ingredient with so much technique.

Like, I love the way she cured that fish,

wrapped it in the kombu, and it just left it having

the most beautiful texture and was just seasoned perfectly.

What I like very much, too, is she used most of everything.

I mean, using the fish heads

to get the gelatine to make it to the emulsion...

I mean, it's a lot of work.

It's phenomenal.

BEN: Walking my dish up to the judges...

..I'm definitely concerned that this dish won't be good enough

to keep me in the competition.

I know it's a delicious dish,

but it doesn't look amazing.

(EXHALES FORCEFULLY)

Hi, Ben. Hi, Ben.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: How are you, mate?

BEN: I've put all of my heart into this dish,

and I just hope it keeps me safe.

Ben, what have you made?

I've made a whitebait-stuffed chicken wing

with a chicken liver parfait,

a Parmesan and seaweed tuile,

and a chive oil emulsion.

At the start of the day, you were pretty inspired by Vaughan.

How did that shape this dish?

I think a few things.

Seeing some of the ingredients from home,

which I haven't seen for a while,

particularly whitebait being one of them.

But I think, more than anything,

those dishes had layers of flavour in them and texture in them.

And so, I wanted to try to create something leaning into that a bit,

where I've got plenty of texture, plenty of flavour

and plenty of layers.

I'm sensing you're a little bit worried with this one.

Yeah, I'm worried every time I cook in here.

This one, um... You know, this isn't the way I typically cook.

I do know it's delicious.

And I do know I gave it my best,

so I can't really do much more than that.

We're looking forward to tasting it. Thanks, mate.

Thank you. SOFIA AND POH: Thanks, Ben.

VAUGHAN: Awesome, bro. Thank you.

Trying to see that whitebait. Yeah, I'm trying as well.

Mousse.

Maybe... Is that what this is? Those little ones there?

Yeah, there's a sliver of it in there.

I mean, it tastes good. OTHERS: Mm.

I just feel like the end result, the execution of it,

there's just too many things going on there.

Like, even the kind of...the caviar gets lost

because there's just so many things. Yeah.

And I get it. There's all these things that I love,

but I just feel like if he had have just taken a few

of those things out,

it would have been a more well-executed dish.

And I hate to say that 'cause he's a Kiwi.

Yeah.

But, yeah. Um...

Uh, man.

It's definitely a tasty little tower.

I love the layering of those really savoury flavours

that he's put in there.

Parmesan and seaweed, chicken and caviar.

They're all flavours

that we know work together really well.

And I think Ben's used that to his advantage.

I wanted more whitebait, you know.

For me, that was the story when we went up to Ben's bench and...

(SIGHS) ..mate, I wouldn't even know there was whitebait in there.

Yeah. Um, because there is

so much flavour going on with the Parmesan crisp,

with the parfait.

The only thing I've got in my palate and still know is the Parmesan.

POH: Yeah. Yeah. Same. SOFIA: Strong.

I think you can definitely see potential in Ben's dish,

and you can understand what he's trying to achieve here

'cause there's some solid flavours in the individual elements.

I just feel like they struggled

to really come together and it's fallen short a bit.

Mm.

ANDY: Callum. Hello, everyone.

Hi, Callum. (GASPS)

Wow. Oh, my God.

They are adorable.

Oh, wow. VAUGHAN: Get it all in there.

Oh, you can smell the mushroom. CALLUM: Yeah.

There's a little mushroom stock just to finish.

These are mushroom and chicken liver tarts.

From the tart shell up, it's a porcini tart case.

There's then a chicken liver parfait,

mandarin and thyme puree around that.

On top of that is a little doughnut of crispy chicken skin.

Mushroom dashi and port gel is the little gills.

And then the stem is made from black garlic,

Slippery Jack mushrooms and butter.

Were you thinking of your family

while you were cooking this dish today, Callum?

Yeah, I think today it was literally

walking through those doors of the MasterChef kitchen

and just seeing, um,

the trees and the moss and the rocks,

and it just instantly took me back to, uh,

to that moment with my family

that in the colder months we get, you know,

chuck a jacket on and go for a little explore.

Yeah, I've actually, um, I've got my phone in my pocket.

Can I show you a little photo of...?

SOFIA: I would love to see a little photo.

Uh, this is...

This is my daughter, Elle,

helping me grab some little pine mushrooms.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Wow, look at that!

She's the same size as the mushroom!

CALLUM: Literally. I reckon it's bigger than her head.

Um, and so that's kind of the idea of the plating.

You find like 100 of these for every porcini you find.

So it's a... Wow.

That's the real magic, when you get one of those.

That's really amazing that you can walk in

and have that memory

and have it power an idea like this.

Callum, thank you very much. We're going to taste your dish now.

Thanks, Callum. Thank you.

CALLUM: Thanks, everyone.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Wow, look at this.

Oh, my gosh! I am gobsmacked by this.

Smells so much like mushrooms. It smells like Porcini.

VAUGHAN: It's really cool.

I don't want to break one of these things.

I reckon they'll be alright. ANDY: Look at that!

(LAUGHS) Oh, it's so good! Even with the cup...

POH: It's so adorable.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

That's yum. That is so yum.

So good.

I actually really like the kind of citrus mandarin...

POH: It's amazing.

You can taste a little bit of the thyme... It's thyme in there?

Yeah. Yeah.

The only thing that would make this better

is if a fairy popped out of my mouth right now.

That was so delicious.

I think when something looks so perfect, it's difficult

because it can kind of really go downhill.

But the way it looked completely matched the flavour.

That parfait was so incredible.

And it's when food is really good,

we all end up shaking our heads because it's just like

we just don't know what to do.

I'm kind of speechless.

That is such an amazing bite of food.

Yeah, for me, um, that's going to be hard to beat.

You know, it almost looks like

that's something a chef would be thinking about

for quite a long time before they made it.

Not something that someone's just gonna come in here

and say, "We're doing snacks," and bust that out in two hours. Yeah.

You can see he just loves cooking. He's like a machine.

He has thought of everything.

From the thinness of that porcini shell,

he went to the effort

of taking that little disc of chicken skin

and drilling a hole in it

so that he could place it on top of the parfait,

but under the veil,

so it would be hidden but wouldn't get soggy.

So it still had that salty crispness to it.

That was incredible.

I think there's been times

where Callum's been on the cusp of, like,

just stamping his authority on this competition and going,

"I'm the one to beat."

This is it.

He's just said, if he hasn't before, "I am the one to beat."

And I couldn't be more proud of him.

This is huge.

It doesn't matter how confident you are in your dish,

there's still thoughts in the back of your head.

Jamie. Hey, Jamie.

Hello. Ho-ho!

If this isn't absolutely spot-on,

there's every chance I'm walking out those doors.

POH: Jamie, what have you made?

So I've made anchovies on toast.

This is like no anchovies on toast I've ever seen.

Where did you come up with the idea?

Um, it was certainly one of the things

that represents Alba very well,

and I think that the tongue-in-cheek nature

of coming in here in top five and saying,

"I've made anchovies on toast,"

is probably about as big a tip of the hat

to not only my old venue,

but myself as a cook that I could possibly do. So...

I love that. We're going to taste your dish now.

Cheers, mate. Thanks, Jamie.

Thank you.

Gentle, gentle.

POH: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I mean, for me, that's super yum.

Yeah, like, it is. It's like...

It's like Spain in one bite, you know?

That was a one-bite wonder.

I loved how that crystal bread just shattered in my mouth.

And then it was just this familiar flavour

that we all love.

And there was nothing mysterious about it.

It was just delicious.

Yeah. I felt like he definitely met the brief.

Absolutely.

The answer to my question - would I miss the bread?

I didn't at all.

You know, and I think it's just 'cause he's gone so hard

in the smoked tomato

and the fat of the olive oil,

that he confited those tomatoes in...

Yeah.

..topped off with a very simple anchovy.

Ooh! Man, it packed a punch.

That that belongs on a fine-dining menu in Spain.

And the reason I know that is not just because of the taste,

it's because of what it's doing to my mouth afterwards.

Like, all the saliva is rushing to the front.

It's really setting me up to eat more.

I would smash 10 more of those with a glass of sherry.

Yeah. No problem.

Same. I was like, I would just like a little line of those things in front of me,

and I'll just be like... You'll go like this.

..boop, boop, boop.

As one bite... Yeah.

..knocked it out of the park.

SOFIA: Vaughan, how do you think

these guys handled today's challenge?

I thought everyone had their own cool thing going on.

Some of it was super exciting for me, and I honestly,

I was like, wow,

how does someone bust something like that out in two hours?

And I think you guys are all awesome.

Give it up for Vaughn Mabee.

(APPLAUSE)

Before we get down to it,

we just have to commend one of you

for plating up one of the most interesting,

well-executed, masterful dishes of the competition so far.

Well done...Callum.

Wahey! (APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Callum's dish wasn't the only one that impressed us.

All of your dishes today showed us exactly why you're here,

but sadly, one had a few minor problems.

And up against perfection, it just fell short,

which is why I'm so sorry,

you're going home, Ben.

(GASPS)

Ben, you proved early on to us that you're a fighter.

And you've absolutely lived up to the Eliminator name.

Almost. (ALL LAUGH)

I'm so glad I came back.

And I'm so glad what I've got out of it.

You think what we've done on the season, you know,

got to cook along with Gordon Ramsay, Curtis Stone.

Been to Doha, cooked in a Michelin-star kitchen there.

Cooked in Vue de Monde here.

Like, it was just an absolute dream come true.

And to do it with such an amazing group of people

was just... It was just unforgettable.

So, you know, I feel like I've won

even though I haven't won the competition.

And I just want to wish these guys the best of luck

'cause, you know, anyone can win this.

Thank you. CALLUM: Thanks, mate.

Thank you, Andy. It's been awesome.

Your kids'll be proud. Good to see you.

Yeah, I'm pretty gutted that I'm going home today.

Chef. Huge, brother.

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

But at the same time,

I've gained so much from being in it.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER) Thank you, Chef.

I had a couple of years out of professional kitchens

and sort of almost lost my love of food a little bit.

And being back in this competition has really lit that fire again.

Give it up for Ben, everybody.

Good luck, Ben!

Good luck.

ANNOUNCER: Want 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.

Sunday night...

..four contestants,

four judges,

and four cloches.

SOFIA: You'll pick whose ingredient you want to cook with today,

but you're not going to know what the ingredient is

until after you've made your choice.

(GASPS)

What the hell is that?

(ALL LAUGH)

It's a tussle for top dish...

I'm, like, trying everything in my power to get that win.

..and a massive prize.

ANDY: Trust me, gang,

it is one that you are not going to want to miss out on.

Oh, yes.

Captions by Red Bee Media