Original subtitles

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Yes!

POH: Morning, morning!

LAURA: Oh, dear.

OK, guys, today is not going to be easy.

This one's a two-rounder.

It's going to force you to make some big decisions

that are going to make you or break you.

Right now, you're standing in front of the ingredients

that you're going to be cooking with today.

Do you want to find out what they are? Yeah.

(EXHALES)

Come on, duck!

Oh, no.

OK, Laura, your ingredient...

..is yuzu.

Ooh.

Jamie, your ingredient is dill.

Callum, your ingredient is...

..tahini.

Oh, OK.

Depinder, your ingredient...

..is green tea.

Ooh.

Now, before you start making any grand plans,

you have a couple of choices to make.

In round one, you need to decide

whether you're making a savoury dish or a sweet dish.

Either with what you can see...

..or the ingredient under the cloche you can't see.

Just so you know, for both rounds, you have 75 minutes.

And keep in mind, if you fall into round two,

whatever you don't pick now is what you'll be left to cook with.

What a pickle.

Do you cook with the ingredient you can see,

either sweet or savoury,

or do you have a gamble on what is the thing that you can't see,

and then save the one that you can see

for the second round if you need it?

So, Laura, you have yuzu.

Are you cooking sweet or savoury

with what you can see or what you can't?

Sweet with yuzu.

Jamie, you've got dill or a hidden ingredient.

I think better the devil you know,

so I'm going to cook savoury with dill.

Callum?

I would like to please make a savoury dish

with the tahini.

Depinder?

I'm going to cook sweet with green tea.

SOFIA: We're on the lookout for the two least impressive dishes,

and if you cook one of those, you'll be heading into round two,

where someone will be eliminated.

Do not let this cook be your undoing.

Your time starts now.

CALLUM: I've got to create

a challenge-winning savoury dish using this tahini.

Now, one of my favourite things about being in MasterChef

is seeing the challenge

and trying to kind of figure out the best way to move forward.

So far in this competition,

I've cooked some desserts with very savoury ingredients

and very sweet ingredients with good success,

so I'm kind of thinking that if I am in round two,

whatever's under that cloche that I can't see

I'll feel comfortable enough,

I think, to make a wacky dessert if necessary

to meet that flavour profile.

Ooh, what a workout!

So I do have that in the back of my mind.

(GROANS)

Tahini, for me, is so associated with,

like, comforting, homely meals.

I'm kind of thinking that if I'm thinking that,

that's probably what the judges are thinking as well.

So maybe if I can use it in a way that they haven't seen before

and use it in a really subtle or different way,

that could be my ticket through to that top three.

Lovely.

Uh...uh...uh...

The semifinal

has been a target of mine since day one in this competition.

This is where I went out last time.

It was a bit different, it was a pressure test,

but I don't want to come fourth again.

I think I'd cop it so much from my mates.

I have a photo from my mate saying - "Don't come fourth again."

The dish that knocked me out of the competition

was the Forest Floor by Martin Benn from Sepia.

GARY MEHIGAN: The lavender mousse was split

and you didn't temper your chocolate.

Sorry, Jamie, you are going home.

I can't go home from another dessert.

And, for me, the potential to go into the second round

and have to cook a dessert is a concern,

particularly at how strong all the other three competitors are

at both sweet and savoury.

I need to work as hard as I can

and put up a dish that's so good

they can't send me into the next round.

Jamie. Hello. POH: Hi, J.

How are you, guys? Mate, savoury with dill.

Yeah. Straight up.

Absolutely.

What are you making? Uh, yeah.

So I'm doing a beautiful rendered pork chop.

Render out all that fat.

I'm going to do that with a mustard, dill and clam sauce

with some trout roe folded through.

It's going to be super subtle, beautiful, rich,

creamy deliciousness.

That is the cooking that I enjoy doing.

It's the cooking that's given me

the most success while I've been here,

so why change it?

It's such a you dish.

Yeah. Such a you dish.

I wouldn't say that you have cooked an abundance of sweet dishes.

A-ha, yes.

So leaving that for round two... Yeah.

..and not knowing what is under that cloche...

..does that scare you? Because it scares me, for you.

Mate, it scares me, 100%.

All I can say is this has to be

the best savoury dish that you've cooked all competition.

Correct. You're talking the talk. Let's walk the walk.

Thank you, Chef. Good luck, mate.

I think this dish gives an opportunity to utilise the dill

to the best of its ability.

It's going to be fresh across the fennel.

It's also going to be mixed through the sauce

and provide a little bit of that herbaceousness

to balance out that mustard and clam dressing.

And then I'm also going to be utilising it within an oil.

I want as much aroma out of this dill as possible,

and utilising it three different ways

really highlights the key ingredient.

DEPINDER: I almost can't believe it that I'm still

in the competition

because I never expected to get this far,

especially for me,

because my cooking style is very traditional.

When it comes to really highlighting an ingredient,

I find that really difficult,

but getting to this stage of the competition,

I've had some really crazy ingredients

thrown at me -

you know, the green ants at Vue De Monde...

..Andy's Everything Mystery Box,

and I've learned how to pivot,

and the last couple of weeks have really shaped that for me.

So I've got green tea, which is the sencha tea.

I've never used green tea in a dessert setting,

but I think I can do something with this.

It looks and smells exactly like matcha,

so I'm going to go matcha vibes today.

I'm going to be doing kind of like a bit of a twist

on an Indian dessert.

So this is called ghevar.

It's a really cool dessert

because it looks like a bit of a honeycomb.

I'm actually trying

to infuse some sencha into the ghevar itself,

but I'm also going to do like

a sencha ice-cream and little bits of cake.

I'm going to pair this flavour with some lemon curd,

just to kind of accentuate the sencha

and kind of break it up as well a little bit.

I've made ghevar before.

It was my signature dish that got me

into this competition back in my season,

but what I'm doing today is different to that, because I made

a very traditional version of ghevar,

and this is a massive reinvention.

I just want to do it right. I want to do it justice.

I promised a honeycomb,

and I'm going to make sure it looks like one.

I have never been in a round two cook

so far in the competition,

so I'm going to try my best to get a top dish,

because at this point, if you're not a top dish,

you're automatically a bottom.

CALLUM: When I think of tahini,

all the things that come to mind are really big, bold flavours.

But I kind of think that if I can show the judges today,

maybe that you can use tahini in a way that's really, like, subtle

and elegant and fragrant,

it's going to put me in really good stead

for winning the challenge.

I'm going to be doing barbecued calamari.

I'm going to do it with potato noodles

that are tossed through a parsley puree,

and I'm going to make a chicken and ginger sauce

to kind of bring it all together.

This is not how most people use tahini,

so it's a risk, but a risk I'm willing to take.

I'm just gonna have to do my absolute best

to kind of wrangle that flavour profile,

make sure I can tame the beast.

Listen up! This is your ticket to the semifinal!

You have 45 minutes to go!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

POH: Hello, Laura. LAURA: Hi.

Laura. Hello.

Sweet yuzu. Sweet yuzu, yep.

Tell us what you're making. So I'm going to do a yuzu and coconut dessert.

It's going to be, like, the different textures

of both the yuzu and the coconut.

So there's going to be a coconut dacquoise

soaked in yuzu liqueur.

And then on top of that, I'm going to have, like,

almost like a whipped yuzu jam kind of cream,

some macerated fresh yuzu, fresh coconut, diced.

I want it to be like a super refreshing,

almost like palate cleanser-style dessert.

Right. Yep.

Ice-cream? Coconut sorbet.

So, like, more coconut water kind of sorbet,

so it's, like, super fresh.

How come you went sweet?

Um, I think usually I could have gone both ways,

and I just refused to think about what was under that second cloche,

so I was just kind of like, "Cool, let's go dessert."

I know that yuzu and coconut go together.

Yeah, yeah. We've seen these types of plated desserts before, right?

Yeah. Like, a cake base.

You're using a dacquoise and then, like, you know,

your little frozen elements. Yeah.

So, like, this needs to be perfect.

100%.

Top three is on the line today.

Poh and Andy seem concerned that I'm playing it safe,

and that's terrifying.

There's four of us in round one. Two need to go into round two.

Even if my dish is great, it may not be enough.

I still could go into round two off a great dish.

So all these things are playing in my head.

I'm thinking maybe I haven't made the right decision.

I love this, OK, for a couple of reasons,

the first one being three out of our four contestants

are not even thinking about round two.

Guess who that one person that's thinking about round two was?

Callum. Ding-ding, ding-ding!

(JUDGES LAUGH)

He's at least kind of strategized with himself...

Mm. ..whereas the other three...

Yeah.

..they're just like, "Round one or nothing."

It's a huge gamble.

Jamie ended up with dill.

Is it a good DILL or not? I don't know. Ha-ha!

He's using pork,

and he's going to try to match it with some clams,

and he's going to try to use or introduce the dill as a dressing.

The sauce has to be unbelievably balanced.

The whole dish has to be unbelievably balanced. Yeah.

He just can't afford to be in round two

cooking a dessert with an unknown ingredient.

We've seen maybe one or two desserts the whole season.

Yeah. That's tough.

I hope you made the right decision! 30 minutes to go!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CALLUM: Let's go.

I've got my tahini sauce in the pressure cooker.

I'm getting my potato noodles in as we speak.

I've got my chicken skin, it's almost done.

I've got my calamari just about to be cooked.

But right now I need

to focus on making this beautiful parsley puree.

Because tahini is such a savoury kind of flavour profile,

it needs freshness with it as well.

So the idea of having this parsley puree,

it's just going to refresh the whole dish.

I reckon doing something weird gives me a chance of hitting

that top two today and being safe from the next round.

(GROANS)

Ow. Old man noises. Ah!

Tracking pretty well at the moment.

My dill oil - finished.

I've got my clams and that's going to come in

to be part of my dill sauce as well.

I've got my stock reducing.

Cooking that pork perfectly

is the most difficult thing I need to do today.

Yum, yum.

I want to cook it nice and slowly,

really render down as much of that fat cap as possible,

which gives us a beautiful, sweet note.

So I need to make sure that not only is it flavourful,

but it's actually just cooked.

DEPINDER: Never been so stressed.

My sponge comes out of the oven. It looks beautiful.

OK, that's definitely worked.

Green tea ice-cream, it's in the churner.

JEANÐCHRISTOPHE: Do you like the colour?

Yes, yes. Well done.

Yeah, it looks like a green tea ice-cream.

Tasting the ice-cream,

it's got just the right amount of green tea.

But I'm actually feeling really stressed

because I need to get this ghevar started.

This is my main element, which is the ghevar itself.

So I'm just going to make the batter now.

As soon as the batter is chilled, I'm going to start frying it,

because that's literally the crux of my dish.

Without this element, I don't actually have a dish.

I call it the Indian honeycomb because it looks like a honeycomb.

It's literally just pastry, so it's beautiful, crispy, crunchy.

Very tricky to make.

The oil has to be really hot

and the actual batter has to be ice cold.

Add the chilled batter into the hot oil,

you get that splattering

and that's what builds that honeycomb texture.

Alright.

LAURA: I just need a sugar hit.

My coconut dacquoise is looking fantastic...

That's good.

..the coconut water sorbet is done...

That's very good.

..but I need to think of what else

could potentially add to this plate,

or I'm definitely going into round two.

I'm tasting the fresh yuzu segments

and it is intense!

It is SO sour.

How did you go with the super sour yuzu?

Yeah, it's so intense.

And I'm starting to think that less is going to be more on this dish.

To balance out that really sour yuzu and elevate this dish,

I'm going to add in some more citrus,

I think, using lots of different native citrus

is going to make this dish so much more complex.

I know that there's definitely a fine line

of trying to balance out all those flavours,

but also keeping that yuzu at the forefront.

This is, like, the one day I have to literally, like, save myself,

so hopefully I can turn this around.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: 15 minutes to go! Allez!

With 15 minutes to go, I've still got a lot to do.

That calamari has to get on to the hibachi now and start cooking,

getting really nice and charry.

I'm only now adding the tahini.

It's going to kind of emulsify the sauce and bring it together,

and, of course, hero that flavour that I need to.

Are you happy with it?

Yeah, I'm getting there.

Adding a little bit by little bit, A little pinch more salt,

a little bit of lemon, tiny bit of honey,

and I'm tasting, tasting, tasting.

I reckon I've used 40 spoons to taste this sauce,

trying to just get that balance of enough tahini,

but not so much it's overpowering the dish.

Yeah, I think it's really fun.

It's different to anything I've ever cooked before, that's for sure,

which hopefully means it's different to something the judges have tasted before.

JAMIE: So, the mustard, dill and clam sauce

is glossy, silky and rich.

How's your pork looking, Jamie? It's looking good.

It's just finishing over the charcoal.

Just finishing? Yep.

You don't want to cook dessert.

Hey, don't put that on me, Sofe.

Considering the calibre of the people around me,

I decide that, "Let's elevate it a little bit more."

To really highlight that beautiful seafood character,

I'm going to be adding a little bit of samphire and trout roe.

If you don't want to be in round two,

make this the best dish you've ever cooked!

10 minutes to go!

(APPLAUSE)

Alright.

As soon as my oil ticks over to 180, I start adding the batter...

..bit by bit.

It's looking beautiful. It's splattering.

It's creating those layers of the honeycomb...

..layers of texture that I want, and it looks amazing.

I'm so intrigued. So you just keep layering it?

Yeah, and it has to be, like, really, really hot.

It doesn't taste like honeycomb. It's like a pastry.

There is a lot that's riding on this one particular element.

How long does this take?

Like, five minutes for this one.

So you've got eight minutes left.

Yep, yep.

Yeah. So is this your only one?

Uh, yeah, yeah. So I'm having everything crossed.

If I don't get this one right,

I might not even have a chance to do a second one.

This is pretty stressful because I'm not going to find out

if it's worked or not until it's finished cooking.

OK, OK, OK. I'm really nervous.

DEPINDER: I can't even see anything.

OK.

About four minutes to go, and my ghevar is still on the stove.

Yeah, it's still cooking.

My place in the competition is riding on this dish.

I don't want to be in round two...

..and this is my main element.

I'm going to use it as a vessel to carry my dessert...

I'm really nervous.

..so I need to get everything right for this one element.

(SIGHS)

And it is looking beautiful.

And I am so relieved

because I do not have time to make another one.

This is perfect.

OK, that's definitely worked.

Oh, never been so scared in my life.

This ghevar is probably one of the nicest ones I've made.

OK.

That's beautiful.

You've got two minutes left to go! Come on!

CALLUM: I'm going to get that tahini sauce on the bottom of the plate.

I think it's got a really nice balance.

The barbecued calamari - I've sliced up

and popped that on top.

I'm now going to toss the parsley puree

through those potato noodles, make a big nest of that on top.

For texture, I've got that crispy chicken skin.

Yeah, I think the dish is starting to taste really good together.

JAMIE: I've carved my pork. It's beautiful and pink.

Plating up, there's a little slick of the turnip puree.

I pop some of the pickled fennel

on top of that with a couple of little bits of samphire,

and take it to the next level.

It's got this lovely pop of saline character.

It's really going to round out and season everything nicely.

LAURA: When I'm plating this dish,

I've got my coconut dacquoise, soaked in that beautiful yuzu syrup.

On top of that, I'm piping my creme fraiche

that's got all that yuzu and finger lime through it.

Next, I start placing on all that native citrus.

The coconut sorbet goes on top.

A really good lick of that Geraldton wax oil...

..a little touch more yuzu...

..and I'm finishing it off with those black ants.

Sitting so proud in that coconut bowl,

but in the back of my head, I'm thinking,

"Will the judges think this dish is being creative enough?

"Am I pushing myself enough?

"God, what have I done?"

DEPINDER: I place a little bit of lemon curd on the base.

I put my beautiful ghevar on top.

I'm going to place bits of that green tea

and white chocolate sponge and the lemon curd,

place my rocher of the green-tea ice-cream on top.

I've made a white chocolate and lemon curd foam.

I'm going to serve it to the judges right on top of my dessert.

Time's up in 10...

JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one.

Well done.

SOFIA: Well done.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Well done. LAURA: Wowee! Well done.

ANDY: The first dish we'd like to taste belongs to you...

..Depinder.

DEPINDER: I don't even know what's going to happen here.

There it is. POH: Ooh, perfect!

Oh, that is really satisfying.

I can't help myself. Oh, Poh!

Sorry! (LAUGHS)

So, Depinder, you chose to cook a sweet dish

with the ingredient you could see which was green tea.

Yeah, yeah. So, tell us what you made.

Um, so I've made ghevar today with a green-tea ice-cream,

a green-tea sponge,

and then I've kind of mixed that with flavours of lemon curd.

Then I've done, like, a lemon white chocolate foam.

We're going to taste. OK.

Depinder...

..I was quite mesmerised to try to understand the textures...

..because you've got this ghevar as the base of your dessert,

and I can see clearly with the ice-cream,

it's just a good match.

The green tea into your ice-cream,

that was superb with the sweetness.

There is a small little issue.

The problem, the sponge was too dry.

My complete surprise to say that to you because you are phenomenal.

Tiny little mistakes could be an issue to you,

I'm afraid to say that.

Depinder, we know that you know how to work with flavour,

like, you're a master at that.

You had the perfect amount of green tea in there.

I loved the Indian honeycomb,

but the sponge,

I do feel like green tea has just sucked up all

the moisture in that, so it's not as velvety and moist.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I am so gutted.

I've put everything into this today,

and I know little errors or mistakes

can send you into the second round, so I'm so nervous.

Callum.

CALLUM: This is intense right now.

Such an unusual way of using tahini.

Like, this is the dish that's either going to send me into the top three,

or potentially send me home if I end up in round two.

So there's a lot riding on it.

Callum, you chose the ingredient you could see - which was tahini -

and then you chose to cook savoury. What did you make?

So I've done grilled calamari

with potato noodles in a parsley puree.

Add tahini and chicken sauce,

crispy chicken skin,

And then there's Aleppo za'atar on the top.

Shall we dig in? Please.

Callum...

..you chose to go really subtle with the tahini,

and I think...

..you've totally owned this challenge.

(APPLAUSE)

It was such an ambitious cook,

that verdant green and brightness of the parsley,

that quite strong flavour of the chicken skin.

You know, that really deep savouriness.

I can still taste that nuttiness and creaminess of the tahini.

And you've really tamed it well.

Everything is shining through.

I think it's such a beautiful, balanced dish.

And I think you've invented something

that I don't think you even thought you would come up with today.

So, congrats. Definitely not. Thank you.

Callum, this is why you are the ultimate competitor.

You know, any contestant that has walked through these doors

would have just gone, "Tahini, I know,

"I know I can get it in there.

"I know the judges are going to be able to taste it."

You make us work for it, you know, in such a good way.

Yeah. Thanks, Andy. Thanks, everyone.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Well done, mate. Well done.

What a dish! Ha!

(SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Jamie.

Jamie, a savoury dish using dill.

What have you made?

JAMIE: So I made pork chop, a mustard, dill and clam sauce

with a little bit of trout roe,

turnip puree, some samphire

and a little pickled fennel and a dill oil.

Jamie...

..building flavour is your strength.

In every single component, everything is peaking.

The pork, mate, it is, like, out-of-this-world good.

The dill oil is like, mate, it's greener than green.

And it is absolutely dill-forward.

My only but. I hate to do this to you.

Oh, my God.

When you combine that sauce with the trout roe,

with the samphire, with that puree

that is seasoned to the absolute max,

I feel like it just tips it a little bit over the edge

in saltiness for me.

But, mate, it is one criticism on a plateful

of really, really, really solid food.

Samin Nosrat, she says salt is there

to make ingredients taste more like themselves,

and I feel like when there's so much,

it ends up, like, sticking them all together again...

But still a very well-crafted plate of food.

You still should be really proud of it. Thank you.

Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, mate.

JAMIE: Thanks, guys. Good luck.

We'd love to taste your dish, Laura.

LAURA: I am so nervous.

If my dish is great, it may not be enough.

I still could go into round two off a great dish,

and that's terrifying.

Laura, you cooked sweet with yuzu. What have you made?

So I've made a fun take on a native splice.

Um, so I've got a coconut dacquoise, which has been soaked

in a yuzu jus and fresh yuzu juice.

There's, like, a little whipped yuzu

and finger lime creme fraiche,

salted coconut crunch, desert lime, finger lime, fresh yuzu,

and then a coconut sorbet with black ants.

So, do you think this dessert is enough to keep you from round two?

Yes.

(EXHALES)

It's not the usual "yes" from Laura. What was that big exhale?

Because I'm so nervous.

Oh, I just want to get to semifinals so badly.

I just want to get there.

(EXHALES)

You look petrified.

(GROANS)

I actually can't even find the right words to speak right now.

Um, I just want to get to semifinals so badly.

I don't think you need to be worried, Laura. That's delicious.

It's like...

..I don't know whether you're smart

or make things really hard for yourself.

Make things very hard for myself. That's me.

Yeah, because going, "OK, yuzu's a citrus, very acidic,

"very prominent citrus.

"What I'm going to do to temper that flavour is add more citrus."

And when I say, "more citrus",

how many citruses are there on that dish?

I think four. Four?

Yeah.

But the one that is the most lasting is yuzu.

That is, that's really, really, really smart, intelligent cooking.

And then the dacquoise itself that provides

a beautiful chewy texture to the dish,

but just calms the farm in terms of,

well, the citrus farm, really, it's really delicious.

Someone can punch me right after I say this,

but that was a party in my mouth.

(LAUGHTER)

I hate that phrase so much, but it really was.

What you've done is you've made yuzu taste

how I want yuzu to taste.

And with all those other layers of citrus perfume,

you've just tempered it down

to this really beautiful, harmonious flavour.

And I love the texture,

the little pop of the finger lime, the crunch of the ants.

It's an amazing dish. It's really, really good.

Thank you. Well done.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Well, you all decided to cook with the ingredients that you could see,

which was definitely a gamble.

But, for two of you, sadly, it's landed you in the bottom.

And it came down to the smallest of errors.

If I call your name, you are cooking in round two.

Depinder.

Unfortunately, your cake is a little bit dry.

Yeah.

And...

..Jamie, I hate to say it, mate,

your dish, it was slightly too salty.

Laura, Callum, congratulations,

you have just made it to the semifinal.

You can go and watch the next round from the gantry.

Well done.

LAURA: Good luck. Thank you.

CALLUM: Good luck. DEPINDER: Thank you.

Well done, mate.

Going into round two, I've just got to shake it off.

I'm going to have to cook a dessert

with an ingredient I'm not sure about yet.

It's not looking good.

ANDY: Depinder, Jamie...

..this is the final round.

Your last chance to save yourselves comes down to you,

whatever you didn't cook with in round one.

Depinder, you chose sweet in round one,

which means you'll be cooking something savoury...

..with...

..cinnamon.

Holy shit.

Jamie, you chose savoury in round one,

which means you'll be cooking something sweet...

..with...

..pine nuts.

Not only have I been given a nut,

it's a nut that I solely attribute to savoury dishes.

This has just got a lot harder.

We are giving you another 75 minutes.

Whoever cooks the least impressive dish will be going home.

Don't let the pressure get to you in this round.

Are we ready? Yep.

Your time starts now.

LAURA: Come on, guys! Go, Jamie, come on, Deps.

DEPINDER: I have never been in a round two cook.

It can be quite confronting...

..but cinnamon is one of the best ingredients

that I could have asked for.

It's a beautiful spice that I've grown up eating

and cooking my entire life.

So I could play it so safe today.

Jaggery and panko.

But I don't think that would be good enough

at this point.

CALLUM: Let's go, Deeps. I need to take risks.

I need to show the judges how much I've grown as a cook

'cause that's the only way

I'm going to make it to the semifinal.

JAMIE: I've already come fourth in this competition.

I don't want that to happen again.

This is my last chance to fight for my spot,

beat my milestone.

But you always cook best when you cook what you love.

So the fact that I don't love sweets

obviously puts a bit of a spanner into the works.

SOFIA: Come on, Jamie.

(JUDGES CHEER)

So I need to figure out how to play into my strengths.

I've been within the bar world for about 18 years.

Half of the cocktails I've ever made in my life

have literally come from desserts.

So let's go backwards

and build a dessert out of a cocktail instead.

Let's go, Jamie. Go, Jamie.

Pine nuts, first thing I thought of,

went straight to Italy.

Woo!

What I'm making today is essentially a pine nut and blood orange Negroni.

LAURA: Ooh, yum!

I may not be super comfortable

with making desserts in this kitchen,

but I am confident with flavour.

A Negroni is a delicious cocktail that is bitter orange,

it's robust, with aromatics from gin

and beautiful and sweet from sweet vermouth.

Whole bar over here.

DEPINDER: I'm not ready to go home,

so I'm going to give it my all today

and really make that cinnamon shine.

Because I've got cinnamon, like, everyone's expecting me to do curry.

I am doing curry, but at the same time,

I'm really pushing myself.

Depinder! Depinder.

Guys.

You're cooking a savoury dish with cinnamon?

Yeah. What are you making?

Um, so I'm going to do a gravy,

which is traditionally a cinnamon-heavy gravy.

Cinnamon rice.

And on top I'm going to do, like, a Scotch egg today with...

BOTH: A Scotch egg?!

Yeah, I'm going to do a Scotch egg.

So every element of this Scotch egg

is going to have cinnamon through it.

ANDY: Scotch egg? Yeah, I know.

Tell me what can go wrong with a Scotch egg?

Um, a lot. Yeah.

I think the biggest pressure point for me would be the cook on the egg.

All of your familiarity with spice, with cinnamon...

Yeah.

..that counts for nothing if you've got a hard yolk.

I know it's risky.

Risking your place in the competition on a Scotch egg.

ANDY: What do you think about a perfect Scotch egg?

Hard to beat? (GASPS)

Hard to beat, but hard to get perfect.

Oh, you took the words from me, mate.

Oh, sorry. (LAUGHS)

I'm loving this, but you have taken a monster risk.

Yeah. It's gonna be crazy.

Good luck. Yeah, you've got this.

LAURA: Come on, Deep. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, guys. Get it, girl. Smells good.

I think I'm going mad today

'cause Scotch egg is one of those dishes

that if you don't get it right, you're going straight home.

But I think the risk-taking behaviour

is the person that I've become in this competition.

SOFIA & POH: Ooh!

SOFIA: You got layers, you got ooze.

I never thought I would do this.

ANDY: Depinder, it is magic.

When you put shrimp paste in there, I was like, "This is madness."

But I also never thought I'd come this far.

Well done.

I need to make sure these eggs are boiled to perfection

for the right amount of time.

I can't over or under this.

It has to be perfect.

LAURA: Smelling lovely, Depinder.

With a Scotch egg,

the boiling time,

as well as the deep-frying time together,

it can't be over or under

'cause the egg won't be cooked perfectly.

They're going to go in the boiling water

for about five minutes, 15,

and then I'm going to rest them in ice.

I just need to make sure

that they're really, really nice and soft.

So when the judges cut open,

they're like nice and gooey on the inside.

JAMIE: The pressure is palpable.

I'm trying to stay calm

because this whole dish

hinges on getting a few things done really early.

A little bit of sweetness, a little bit of bitterness there.

He just did that Campari by eyeball. That's bad.

What are you making, Jamie?

This is a basil and ginger granita. Mmm.

Does that smell homely or what?

The gin? No!

(LAUGHS)

G'day, Jamie. Jamie. Hello!

Mate, probably not where you wanted to be,

but you're up for the fight, right? Absolutely.

You look locked in. You got the pen behind the ear.

You are on dessert with pine nuts. What are you making?

Well, I saw pine nuts, the first thing I thought was Italy.

It's like what's quintessentially Italian?

Negronis. So...

Can't help yourself! We're making Negronis.

What are the components?

We're going to have an olive oil and pine nut cake.

A blood orange sorbet with a little bit of Campari.

Yeah. Basil and gin granita.

I've got some black walnut liqueur that I'm infusing

with toasted pine nuts to give a little bit more texture.

That's going to be whipped through some mascarpone

and then a little pine nut brittle for a little bit of a textural note.

Whoa. It sounds delicious.

Back you on the flavours,

but there is a lot of components

to get this kind of Negroni-esque dessert out

and a lot of techniques that if they don't work,

it's kind of hard to come back from.

You know, sorbets, granitas, cakes.

We all know what the perfect texture is... Yep.

..and we expect that for you to get into the semifinal.

Absolutely. As you were. Thank you, Chef.

For someone that doesn't do a lot of desserts in this kitchen,

I'm doing a lot of different elements

that all have textures that need to be spot-on,

but being ambitious and shooting for greatness

is what I wanted to do.

I'm going to be chasing the clock.

Get that cake in, Jamie. Come on, mate.

Come on. Cake in the oven.

I need to get my cake in the oven as quickly as possible,

because I need to take it out and cool it afterwards.

If the cake's not cool, my sorbet,

my granita and my cream will all melt

and it'll be a puddle on the plate.

Alright.

OK, guys, this is for a spot in a semifinal.

42 minutes to go. Come on.

Running out of time.

My eggs have been resting in the ice bath.

Now it's time for me to peel them, wrap them and deep-fry them.

You've got to be really careful when you're peeling these eggs

because it's a soft set egg.

It's barely just come together. I don't want to break it.

LAURA: Depinder, take a big, deep breath, babe.

I grab some of that lamb mince, I lay it flat.

I place my egg in the centre super gently.

I wrap it,

I'm going to make at least three or four eggs

just to have that backup.

SOFIA: 30 minutes.

It all comes down to encasing it perfectly.

I'm going to toss it in some flour...

..some egg...

..panko breadcrumbs

before I put it in the deep fryer.

Cinnamon versus pine nuts.

Sweet versus savoury.

You've got 15 minutes to go.

15 minutes. You need to bite the bullet now.

CALLUM: Let's go, Deeps. Come on, hurry up. Let's go.

My first test strip, the Scotch egg goes in.

I only really need to cook this in less than five minutes,

and then I'll check it.

If it's not done, I can adjust the frying time.

Come on, Depinder.

There's a lot that rides on this dish.

(EXHALES)

Oh, my God, I'm so nervous.

CALLUM: How's the cake travelling?

We've got five minutes. Does it need to chill?

LAURA: Is the granita freezing yet? Not yet.

Get it in the freezer, mate. Come on. In the freezer.

Let's go, let's go.

With the amount of elements on his dish,

Jamie's definitely taking a risk.

There's hot elements, there's cold elements.

There's a lot of technique

and a lot of balancing of different flavours,

all of which are essential to the dish.

That's in there. That's in there.

Come on, Jamie.

Jamie really has to hustle if he wants to make this top three.

Come on.

ANDY: Jamie, Depinder, 10 minutes to go.

Let's go.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

JAMIE: I pull the cake out.

It's out.

It feels good.

The skewers come out clean and I taste a little bit.

It's delicious.

It just needs to cool now.

Beautiful. Nice one, mate.

Are you silver serving your granita?

(BOTH GIGGLE)

Yeah.

DEPINDER: My apple and caramelised onion chutney

looks amazing.

It smells so good.

My chilli cinnamon gravy is going to be delicious.

Oh, yeah. Definitely taste the cinnamon.

I've literally got all my elements ready.

I'm just waiting on the perfect Scotch egg.

ANDY: Depinder, how are the Scotch eggs coming along?

I've got only three. OK.

I'm just gonna wait till this one comes out.

So this is the first one? Yeah.

Oh, wow. And only nine minutes to go.

I'm going to take it out. Yeah, I'm going to take it out.

It needs to be absolutely perfect. Come on, Depinder. You got this.

Yeah. Come on.

I'm really nervous.

My tester is out of the oil... (SIGHS)

..and straightaway

I'm going to add another batch in there

because I don't have much time left.

LAURA: Put both.

We've got two. Cooking them both. What if one falls apart?

Yeah. That's true.

ANDY: I'm super worried about these eggs.

She's got one that's come out of the oil.

She's got one that just went in,

but I just don't know

how she's going to get the perfect one.

Like, what happens if the one that she cuts now is wrong?

She needed to put two in at once

so that she could cut it open

and so that she had less or more time.

Yeah.

LAURA: Make sure you test it.

I'm too scared to test it. No, you just have to.

You just... You need to bite the bullet now.

Oh...

It's a little bit under.

For sure.

I'm feeling quite stressed at this point.

My first batch of Scotch egg hasn't worked.

And now I need to rely on my second egg.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Only five minutes to go. Come on.

Let's go, guys.

I need to cook this egg for a bit longer than before,

but I don't know how much longer to do.

LAURA: Come on, Depinder.

Back yourself, girl.

SOFIA: Three minutes.

JAMIE: Wow. I can't believe I've got all my elements done.

And I think that the cake is just about cool enough

to get plated.

I need to make sure this looks beautiful

to keep me in this competition.

I start with a small piece of this beautiful olive oil cake

with plenty of those roasted pine nuts on the top.

I then pipe pine nut nocino mascarpone

around and over the top.

That's going to provide a nice nest

that I add some of the brittle and the blood orange sorbet into.

LAURA: Wow, that looks so good, Jamie.

The freshness from the basil granita,

the bitterness of the sorbet

and the intensity from that mascarpone,

all of these things are tasting exactly like a Negroni,

but desserts aren't my thing, so I'm nervous.

DEPINDER: My Scotch egg looks perfect,

like, it's that beautiful golden brown colour,

but I'm not going to know how it's cooked

until the judges cut through.

Alright.

I've got my beautiful cinnamon rice on the base of the plate.

I place the Scotch egg on top.

I just hope it doesn't fall or something.

It all comes down to this.

Time's up in 10...

JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five,

four, three, two,

one.

ANDY: That's it. LAURA: Wow! Well done, guys.

JAMIE: It's all good?

I don't know, babes.

(LAUGHS)

Hey, Jamie. G'day.

Hi, Jamie. Jamie.

Ooh.

I love the colour of that sorbet.

Jamie, you ended up

where you didn't want to be -

in round two, cooking a dessert with pine nuts.

What did you make?

I made a pine nut and blood orange Negroni.

So olive oil and pine nut cake,

pine nut, nocino mascarpone,

a blood orange and Campari sorbet.

And a little gin and basil granita.

How important is the semifinal to you?

To making it there?

Oh, my God.

Uh, last time I was on the show in season six,

I was up on the gantry, shed a little tear

when I watched the other three cooking away.

Um...

It is such a unique experience

and it's something I really want to do,

and it's something that I think I can do.

How gutted would you be if you fell short again?

Oh-ho...

This is where you made it to in your season the last time.

Yeah, I would be... I would be phenomenally gutted.

I think that I've come a long way in this comp,

but I'm not ready to go.

Thanks, mate. Thanks, guys.

Thanks, Jamie. Thank you.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Good luck.

Sorbet is good. SOFIA: The sorbet is good.

I'm so happy for Jamie.

That dessert is just pinging with all those Negroni flavours.

I loved the beautiful blood orange sorbet,

that little hit of the gin and basil granita.

I thought he did a great job with the olive oil cake as well.

What I liked the most is the fact that

he's actually managed to convert something modest,

which is the pine nut,

to something absolutely phenomenal.

This dish is remarkable.

Look, I had high hopes, and I was not disappointed.

Um, it was so beautifully balanced, you know,

with him wanting to get to the semifinal,

this is a cracker.

Mm.

DEPINDER: With the Scotch egg,

the unknown is the biggest, biggest risk

because I don't know how it's cooked until the judges cut through it.

It all comes down to that reveal.

I've got this dish in front of me.

It's either going to take me to the semifinals

or it's going to send me home.

Hey, Depinder. Hey, guys.

Hey. Hi, Depinder.

You had cinnamon, and you cooked a savoury dish.

What have you made?

I've made a Scotch egg, yoghurt, chilli-based gravy

and apple and the caramelised onion chutney.

I could have done, like,

a really awesome goat curry in 75 minutes with that gravy,

and it would have been amazing,

but I think I need to show growth.

I need to do something more progressive and more, um...

..that is not the stock standard kind of stuff that I do.

The cook and the person you were in your first season

to the cook and the person you are now,

it is chalk and cheese.

Yeah. You have so much more courage.

You back yourself more.

It's been amazing to see you grow.

Really amazing. Thank you.

We're going to taste now.

OK, good. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Good luck.

Thank you.

Moment of truth.

Oh!

Moment of truth.

Oh!

Ooh.

Ah, it's under.

I'm so gutted for her

because those whites are definitely under.

It's a shame because I feel like she thought

that the fry was going to cook the egg more,

and it just hasn't ended up like that.

OK. Get that one there. Yep.

That's yours.

No surprises Depinder's used that cinnamon

to her full advantage.

I think it does touch on every part of the palate.

And I actually think she's done a really brilliant job,

flavour-wise.

There's some lovely flavour going on.

The gravy, the chutney with that Scotch egg.

Some beautiful sweetness going on.

Um, the hum of cinnamon

is just running through that whole dish.

And I really love the spice work in the...in the farce

which is around the...around the egg.

There are some negatives. Um...

One is being that the egg is undercooked.

The yolk, when you burst through that,

it gives a lovely, beautiful, creamy nature to the dish.

And then when you have those bits of white in there,

it just kind of waters everything down.

Um, so it really does play not just on the texture

but on the flavours as well.

I'm afraid to say

doing a Scotch egg on a day like today,

I think that was really crazy. Really.

Mm. Mm-hm.

Today was full of big decisions and even bigger consequences.

Someone is going into the semifinal.

Someone is going home.

Depinder, Jamie,

neither of you have ever made it beyond this point.

Both of you definitely have the potential to.

But when deciding who to send home,

we have to look at today's cook and today's cook alone.

And the reality is, one of you nailed it.

The other bought us a dish with a technical issue

we just couldn't get past.

Undercooked egg.

(LAURA GROANS)

Depinder, I'm so sorry...

That's OK. ..you're going home.

That's OK.

It's OK. Thank you.

Well done. Congrats.

How are you feeling? Um, like...

I'm a little bit, like, devo

'cause I really wanted to go to the semifinal,

but I'm happy to have made it to top four.

Like, that is amazing. It is amazing.

You're alright? Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not crying because I'm leaving.

I'm just crying because I've made so many memories.

Like, countless memories.

That's what I'm going to take back with me.

All of those memories and love from these guys.

You should just be so incredibly proud of how far you've come.

It's incredible. Like, you've done so beautifully.

Thank you.

Well, Depinder, for now,

it's time to say goodbye, babes.

(ALL LAUGH)

You should be so proud of yourself. Thank you.

Well done. Thank you.

Oh, yeah, open the curry ice-cream shop, please.

Yeah... (ALL LAUGH)

I did not expect to come fourth on MasterChef: Back To Win.

That is, like, huge.

I will savour every bit of that. (APPLAUSE)

Thanks, guys.

You just smashed it. Smash it, girl.

(MUFFLED SPEECH)

Well done, babe. Thank you.

I'm so proud of myself.

Kind of gives me goose bumps because I realise

how much I've grown as a cook.

Give it up for Depinder, everybody.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

It's been an unreal journey.

ANNOUNCER: Still to come on MasterChef Australia...

Welcome to finals week.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

..strap in for a roller-coaster ride to the finale.

It's auction day.

Going once.

Going twice.

Yes. 30.

(BOTH SHRIEK)

I was not expecting that.

It's semifinalists versus the judges.

(CHEERING)

These judges are hungry.

It's a fist-pumping...

It's bloody delicious.

..breathtaking...

(ALL GASP)

No!

..heart pounding lead-up to the semifinal.

Captions by Red Bee Media