Original subtitles

(CHEERING FROM GANTRY)

This is interesting.

PAT: I can kind of see the set up of the benches

could be like a mano a mano versus competition.

You ready? Ready.

Morning, Kings.

It's very intense, especially on elimination day.

Trying to cook up a dish

and knowing that you're going to go up against

one of your great mates.

When it comes down to my spot in the competition

or somebody else's spot in the competition,

you've got to put yourself first and do what you need to,

to get the win.

This is it. The final day of heat week.

All week, you've been fighting for top dish,

to stay out of elimination.

And now you four are left

fighting to keep your flame alive.

Today, one of you will be leaving the competition.

The fight for survival in this competition

has never been so intense.

Today, we're doing heat of a different kind.

Two heats, to be exact.

Because this...

..is MasterChef duels.

We're putting you into two pairs,

where you'll battle it out, head-to-head.

If you win your duel, you'll be safe.

If you lose, you'll be cooking again in a final duel...

..where someone will be eliminated.

MasterChef duels is crazy.

To go one on one against someone in the MasterChef kitchen,

that only really happens in the final.

So right now, we are all amazing cooks.

So to go head-to-head against anyone here

is really, really scary.

Matching tokens means you're in a duel.

Aaron. Hello.

Luke.

No-one's looking. No-one wants to know.

Oh, I love this.

That's new.

Make it interesting.

Let's see what tokens you've got.

Oh!

(ALL EXCLAIM)

Smoke and fire. That's cool.

Luke and Vinnie, you drew smoke tokens.

That means you're facing off

and you must incorporate smoke into your dish.

Aaron and Pat, you drew fire tokens.

You're cooking off against each other

and must use the flambe technique in your dishes.

(GANTRY EXCLAIMS)

LUKE: I just don't know what I would cook with smoke.

I've never used a smoking gun before.

Cogs are trying to turn in my mind,

but I've got nothing.

We are giving you 45 minutes.

You can cook anything you like.

But we will taste your dishes side by side

to determine the winner of the duel.

If you win, you will be safe.

If you don't win, you will be in the final showdown,

fighting to stay in the competition.

It's tough because this is your spot that you're fighting for.

You're literally fighting against someone right now

to keep your spot in this competition,

and I really have to bring myself into this dish today.

Otherwise, I feel like I don't really have a chance.

OK, guys.

If you are ready...

..your duels start now.

Come on.

(SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT)

ANNABEL: Pat's straight on in.

VINNIE: Patty already with the pan.

PAT: I've pulled out the fire token today.

I'm a little bit rattled with the technique I've been given.

Flambeing is not something I gravitate towards normally.

I much would have rather that nice smoke token.

I'm kind of racking my brain to come up with a dish

that I use flambe for.

So, yeah, it's not... it's not ideal.

VINNIE: I love cooking with smoke,

so I feel like this token is suited to me

really, really well.

Cooking over charcoal is kind of taking me to my happy place

because I love cooking outside.

I love cooking over fire. I love getting smoke into meat.

I'm really excited for this challenge.

So I'm up against Luke, which is wild

because Luke is always a wild cook.

He's been in so many eliminations.

My pastry's come out and it's burnt.

Mate, it's pretty scorched.

I need this off grill.

It was on grill?! Yeah.

Oh, mate.

SOFIA: Luke forgot to take the plastic off.

On all of them? All of them.

But this man just turns it on during elimination,

and he normally pulls it out of the bag and does really well.

So that is a little bit scary.

But I love cooking with smoke,

so I feel like getting this token is suited to me

really, really well.

And today I'm gonna cook the food that I want to cook.

I had a little bit of a wobble last night.

I felt like kind of I lost my way a little bit

and I don't like that.

So today I'm literally going to make something

that I would want to cook for my girlfriend at home or my family.

I'm at my absolute happiest cooking the food that I love,

for the people that I love.

I feel like if you cook with love and happiness,

it comes out in the plate and everyone can taste it.

Vinnie, you're in the smoke duel.

Yeah. What have you gone for?

So I'm making a steak. Yeah.

Nice... Got a nice scotch fillet here.

Looks beautiful.

I'm smoking it over a little bit of the hibachi.

I've got a bit of rosemary in there.

With that, I'm going to do just a light glaze of some miso,

just to extra punch it up. I've got some smoked vinegar

in there, too. Right.

Uh, and then I'm gonna do a salad, I think,

with some radicchio, fresh. Mm-hm.

Some chard figs and some smoked prosciutto.

It's at the end there.

And I was thinking I'm going to do a salsa

because I feel like I want the salsa to be the thing

that bridges the gap between the two smoked elements

and then freshness for the whole thing.

Smoke is a great superpower to have while you're cooking,

but it can also take over a dish if there's too much of it.

So I really need to be careful.

I don't know how I'm feeling about today.

Obviously, pretty rough coming up against Vin.

He's an absolute beast.

Getting that smoke token has thrown me for a bit of a loop.

First off, Vinnie against me, he is a gun.

He does not get flustered at all.

And he's had the pin. He's had top dishes.

So I'm definitely worried coming up against him.

On top of that,

how the heck do you get a dish to taste like smoke,

apart from just doing it on the hibachi?

So I'm gonna have to think outside the box

to make sure that I'm nowhere near that second round.

When I think of smoke, I think of like a camp fire.

I'm gonna do a s'mores-inspired dessert.

You know, when you have a s'more, it's really delicious.

And it's chocolatey. It's marshmallowy.

But it's also got that char and that smoky flavour.

If I can recreate a dish like that,

I think I could be in with a shot.

Hello, Luke. Tell me, what are you doing?

I'm gonna try and do a s'mores-plated dessert.

So a nice smoked, charred meringue,

a chocolate cremeux an almond crumb,

and, like, a raspberry coulis.

A smoked meringue? Yeah.

So how are you going to smoke the meringue?

So make my kind of mixture, dissolve the sugar

and then smoke that with a smoking gun.

Have you done this before? No.

No idea how it's going to taste, but...

Do you realise how not easy it is to get the smoke element

into the thickness of a meringue?

And especially with the content of the sugar.

Yeah. And you think you can do it?

It can't be that hard, is what I'm thinking.

But I do think if I can deliver,

then it's going to keep me safe from the second round.

Look in my eyes. If you do... (CHUCKLES)

I'll leave you alone. Honestly, good luck.

Thank you, Chef. I'm really excited.

OK. Thank you. Wow.

I haven't done this dish altogether before

and there is no room for error.

And in a challenge where my spot in the competition

is on the line and the dish needs to be, quite frankly,

perfect to keep me alive, I'm definitely nervous.

But I have to try something a bit different,

something a little bit risky if I'm going to beat Vinnie.

PETRO: Let's go, Aaron.

CASPER: What are you doing, Aaron?

AARON: This is a Malaysian dish. Is that condensed milk?

Yeah.

I feel pretty nervous. I'm up against Pat.

He's been so, so good and consistent

this whole competition. So, yeah, it is...

It is a bit stressful going up against Patty.

Pat is an incredible cook.

Strong with flavours, strong with technique.

He knows what to do, how to do it.

Pat's the one to beat.

So today I've got to play to my strengths

and I need to use that against Pat.

So I'm using the flames today

and my dish is a play on drunken prawns.

And I'm just gonna add an egg floss to it as well.

So like a Malaysian-style egg floss with some curry leaves

and all the aromats as well.

I'll make the prawns and kind of flambe them in some vodka,

a bit of Shaoxing wine

just to get that drunken flavour as well into it.

This dish elicits a lot of memory for me.

The egg floss is one of those dishes

that I look forward to the most when I go back to Malaysia.

My grandpa would take us out to big family dinners.

He would order this giant dish of prawns and egg floss

just for me.

It's one of those things that takes me right back to...

..to when he was still around.

When we lost my grandpa,

we felt an immense presence disappear.

The way I cook now emulates

the way my grandpa lived his life.

He lived large. He ate big.

He loved flavour, loved spice,

and he would be so generous with everything that he had.

He taught me so much about just living life to the fullest

and appreciating everything you got.

So not only do I not want to be in round two today,

I want to honour the memory of my grandpa through this dish.

Pat's pan's already smelling good.

He's going all out. ANNABEL: Oh, yeah.

Go, Patty boy.

Yum. Yeah, you can smell that prawn.

Today, I have to use the flambe technique.

It does rattle me a little bit.

Yeah, I don't use a huge amount of flambeing

in the cooking I do.

I'm just going to have to cook something that I believe

is going to keep me in the competition.

Oh, he put plenty...

Oh! Ey, Patty!

There he is.

Flambe. Yes.

Tick. What are you making?

Um, so I am doing a pan-seared barramundi

with a bisque sauce,

some charred leeks and some potatoes and shaved fennel.

Holy moly.

Have you ever made a bisque in 45 minutes before?

Uh, no, I haven't.

Mate, this is like a 90-minute cook.

I've always backed myself and pushed myself in the kitchen

to be able to cook at a really high pace,

but some alarm bells are going off in my head.

Can I pack enough flavour into that sauce with 45 minutes?

Have I picked the right dish to beat Aaron?

I don't know.

Smoke versus smoke, fire versus fire.

25 minutes to go.

(SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT) ANDY: Well done, guys. Come on.

CASPER: Hustle.

ANNABEL: Nice, Vin.

Ooh! It smells yum.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Luke against Vinnie.

Luke, he wants to smoke a meringue.

He wants to obviously use it around a chocolate cremeux,

a raspberry coulis,

and he wants to actually introduce the meringue

by a siphon gun. And guess what?

He's never done it before.

I should have known!

So smoking, doing a dessert, never did before.

SOFIA: That is going to be so difficult.

Vinnie on the other side.

He's obviously cooking with smoke.

He's got smoke pretty much everywhere in the dish.

Oh, really? Yes.

So it's all centred around a scotch fillet,

which he's cooking on the hibachi.

He's smoking that with some rosemary.

But then he's got, like, smoked salt, smoked vinegar,

smoked pancetta as well.

So I think he's going to need to edit.

My concern with the smoking element

is I don't want to be left with some kind of burning...

Ashtray. ..flavours.

Ashtray. Yeah, an ashtray.

OK, to the fire duel. I went and visited Pat.

He is doing potatoes, a bisque, fillet of barramundi

and leeks on the hibachi.

All in 45 minutes.

And I tell you what, he is just locking in.

He knows he's short on time.

Aaron, I think, has picked the most perfect dish.

He's doing drunken prawns with a egg yolk floss.

Ah. So what booze is he using?

Shaoxing and vodka. Yum!

Vodka? Yeah, yeah.

It'll be interesting to see which one has the best flambe.

This is so... Yeah, I know.

AARON: This dish can seem quite simple

because it's only two elements,

but it is very technical.

Those prawns are ginormous. Yeah, I know.

The cook on the prawns has to be perfect

because I've got to cook them twice.

I first flash fry them in some hot butter and oil.

I can see them getting nice and crispy.

The colour is changing.

The prawns look really good from what I can tell.

So I'm just setting them aside to rest

before I flambe them in the Shaoxing wine and vodka.

Now it's time to work on the egg floss.

So the egg floss is basically just streams of egg

that's fried in butter.

The egg mixture needs to come out in a thin stream,

so I'm putting it into a piping bag

and poking holes in the piping bag

so I can squeeze the piping bag

and get an even pressure and continuous stream of egg

in the butter and the oil.

PETRO: That looks so cool.

ANNABEL: That's so cool! Go, Aaron!

The smell is amazing.

You've got curry leaves, chilli, garlic, shallots,

brown butter and it's just like a nice sort of texture

and a garnish to sit on top of the prawns.

A bisque in 45 is mental.

Reduction and everything as well.

He's mental.

I'm feeling absolutely under the pump.

Today, I've decided I'm going to cook a pan-seared barramundi

with some potatoes, some charred leeks,

shaved fennel with a prawn bisque.

This will definitely be a push to achieve in 45 minutes.

I've never really done a bisque in under 75 minutes.

So I have to try to amp up those flavours.

My bisque has been in the pan, reducing down,

developing with the mirepoix and the prawn shells.

I have been smashing those up

to extrude all the flavour I can.

Right now, I'm just gonna get my sauce blended and strained.

I love the taste of the bisque,

but I just want it to be a bit more intense.

It just needs to reduce down. It's got a good base.

I'm definitely giving this cook everything I've got.

I don't want to be in round two,

but Aaron's definitely a huge opponent

to go up against.

He's really sure of himself

when it comes to a lot of the Asian cuisine.

He's an amazing cook

and every dish he's cooked for me

inside and outside the kitchen, has just been delicious.

I just have to focus on what I'm doing.

I can't control what's happening over there.

I just have to back myself in my dish.

It is a very fierce battle today,

and I feel like I'm gonna give it everything I have.

Being in this MasterChef kitchen has been life-changing for me,

and I don't want that to end yet.

So my dish needs to be perfect.

I'm just trying to finish off the last components of my dish.

So far, I've caramelised a little bit of my figs,

so they're doing well.

I just want to give them a taste just to see how we go.

They're good. They're good.

You can definitely get that smoke on there.

I'm just wanting to balance this dish.

So that's why I'm cooking my steak now,

so I actually have time to get the balance

of every other component on the plate right.

Because I feel like with smoke,

it's actually like really delicate to balance

because too much smoke and it just tastes bitter.

I feel like with this dish,

I have a really strong foundation,

but I need to taste every single element together

to make sure they all work out

and form a really nice, cohesive dish.

I'm gonna have to edit this as I go.

I'm feeling that this is like, you know, how I like to cook now

and it's making me feel happy, so...!

Let's go, Vinnie!

Pretty simple.

Win this duel and you are safe from elimination.

Ten minutes to go.

Let's go, guys! ANNABEL: Let's go!

Go, Luke.

I was feeling a bit like a deer in headlights

when I first heard the assignment,

but I'm feeling a lot better.

I've done my chocolate cremeux.

It's in the fridge, just setting.

I want this cremeux to be the consistency of, like,

a super thick mousse.

Therefore, this cremeux needs as much time as possible to set.

I've got my crumb in the oven and it's looking good.

Cooking this dish, I'm in love with the concept of it,

but it's now time to smoke the meringue.

And I've never done a smoked meringue in my life.

I don't really know what I'm doing.

How long do I smoke it for?

I've got no idea.

Look, it smells exactly like a camp fire right now,

which is what I want my s'mores dish to smell like.

But I've never done it before,

and I just hope it doesn't affect the texture.

Otherwise, this whole dish will be stuffed.

When you have a small anomaly,

all the smoky flavour comes from the marshmallow.

So that's why my meringue is a main smoky element

on this dish.

So this has to taste like smoke.

PETRO: Just make sure when you whip it, Luke,

that you give it a taste 'cause...

Yeah.

It does actually smell good.

Go, Lukey.

Come on!

My meringue is looking really good.

It's looking exactly like a meringue.

I'm absolutely pumped.

I'm just hoping that it's also got that, that smoky flavour.

It tastes really delicious, but it's not super smoky.

Far out.

I'm racking my brains to think about why the meringue

doesn't taste like smoke. It should.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm in serious strife.

It's got me a bit stumped.

LUKE: I give my meringue a taste and...

..it doesn't taste very smoky.

In fact, it doesn't even taste like smoke at all.

This is an absolute disaster.

I'm feeling pretty devastated.

My understanding of the smoke gun is

you smoke something with a smoke gun,

it tastes like smoke.

I don't understand, how could it not taste like smoke?

Time is running out and I can't make a new element in time.

So I'm gonna have to work out a fix really fast.

I think I'm gonna leave the meringue as it is

because it's delicious.

I'm gonna put it in the fridge.

I'm gonna smoke my cremeux,

and I'm hoping that will carry the smoke flavour.

PETRO: Remember, it's got to set as well, Luke.

Yeah, I know, brother.

OK, guys, if it's fire or smoke,

five minutes to go.

(SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT)

PETRO: Looks good, Vinnie.

Alright, let's go, Lukey.

AARON: There's literally five minutes left,

and I've just got enough time to flambe my prawns

and plate up.

ANNABEL: Yum, Aaron. That smells unreal.

So I'm happy with the cooking of the prawns.

Like, you can see it's like the flambe has actually gotten

it crispy, which is really cool as well.

So like the little legs will be like little prawn cracker-esque.

I want to make sure the dish looks appetising. It's inviting.

It's a celebration of the prawn and the egg floss,

and it's a way to celebrate my grandpa.

PAT: This is probably the hardest I've had to work

in the kitchen.

I'm going 100mph to get this thing on the plate.

I've got my charred leeks and potatoes

on the base of the plate.

The charred leeks are really good. They're smelling great.

The potatoes are crispy, golden brown and buttery.

The barramundi has a beautiful crispy skin.

It's nice and tender, and then I add shaved fennel.

At the last minute, I've got my bisque off the heat.

I pour it into my jug

and I just hope there's enough flavour in there.

ANNABEL: Wow. Oh, that looks good, Patty.

VINNIE: It's time to plate up.

I've got all my elements ready to go.

I lay my steak that's full of char, full of flavour,

on the plate.

I start to build my salad,

so I get some radicchio and I get some of my charred figs.

I taste it with the dressing

and the charred figs are way too much.

They take over the flavour of this whole salad.

They almost taste burnt.

I really need to balance this dish properly,

so I'm gonna leave it off the dish and use fresh figs instead.

Cool, cool.

I just hope that I've made the right decision

and this dish is perfectly balanced.

Keep fighting. One minute to go!

Come on, guys, wrap it up.

PETRO: Go, guys!

ANNABEL: Go, Luke.

LUKE: One minute to go and I'm trying to plate everything up.

This is absolute chaos.

I'm just throwing things on a plate.

The crumb, the coulis.

I take my cremeux out of the blast freezer.

It's not setting.

It's not fully set.

But I give it a taste and I'm pretty happy with the flavour.

It's not what I envisioned, but it's just going to have to do.

Time's up in ten...

ALL: Nine, eight, seven,

six, five, four,

three, two, one...

ANDY: That's it, everybody!

I think it'll be touch and go whether I'm in the second round.

Everything tastes good.

I don't think it's like blow your head off flavours.

But I do think it has the smoky element from the char

from the chocolate cremeux.

I mean, I feel good, but I just know Vin is like,

he's a beast and coming up against him,

always going to be in trouble.

OK, first up...

..we have the duel of Luke and Vinnie.

CASPER: Go, boys.

VINNIE: I'm walking my dish up to the judges,

and all of a sudden I'm wondering,

do I have enough smoke in this dish?

LUKE: I know my cremeux isn't set,

but I think if the judges could see my dish

is kind of creative, maybe a bit more smoky compared to Vinnie,

I might be safe.

So you both had to use smoke in your dish.

So, Luke, what have you made?

I've made a s'mores-inspired dessert.

I've done a smoked almond and wattleseed crumb,

a raspberry coulis, chocolate cremeux, and a charred meringue.

OK, we're going to taste your dish.

Luke, the idea of this dish was really cohesive.

I love all the flavour elements of your dish.

It eats really well, flavour-wise.

Where I feel it lets you down is the textures.

So I think the cremeux is a little under set

and the meringue definitely hasn't worked in the siphon.

Smoky s'mores, brilliant -

really tasty flavours, very well balanced.

But the meringue, it's watery.

It's, you know, it is really collapsing.

I think by toasting the meringue

you've sort of kept it all together,

but it's just holding on.

You were nearly there on this one.

I think if you separate it all out,

the cremeux, yes, it's a little bit loose

and you can taste the smoke by itself,

but as soon as it gets in and amongst the crumb, the meringue,

the raspberry, it just gets lost.

And I feel like if there was a bit of focus on

the cremeux from the first minute of the cook,

it would have been an absolute winner.

Now, Vinnie, tell me, what have you made?

Um, I did a scotch fillet on the hibachi

with a radicchio salad and a green sauce.

Um, there was a few concerns for me,

whether there'd be too much smoke

in too many places across the dish,

but I feel like you've got the balance just right.

For me, the salad is where it's at, which surprised me so much.

Like, when you've got that 400g scotch fillet,

you know, brushing over the hibachi,

I'm like, that's got to be the winner.

But the salad is dynamite.

Serving the radicchio just dressed

in that slightly smoky dressing was really beautiful.

The figs were lovely and sweet.

And I also love that smoked pancetta as well.

I agree.

I am so into the sneaky smoked salad attack,

because the obvious thing to do would be to inject all the smoke

into your meat and rely on that completely.

And while you've done a beautiful job on the steak,

it's the salad and those leaves

that really catch you by surprise.

And I think that's extremely clever cooking

because not everybody would think,

I'm going to smoke my salad.

A very clever move.

Thank you.

Vinnie, I absolutely adore your steak.

The smokiness with that rosemary

in your excellent green sauce.

Smoking was the theme and I think you've delivered.

Thank you.

Well done.

Well done, mate. Thank you.

Alright. It's time to taste the fire duel dishes.

Pat and Aaron, come on down.

PAT: Taking my dish up to the judges,

I can see Aaron's dish as well.

They're very different.

I just really hope that I've been able

to pack enough flavour into my bisque,

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

Pat, I've got to say, it doesn't look like a 45-minute dish.

It looks lovely. Thank you.

What have you made?

I've made a pan-seared barramundi

with prawn bisque sauce, some charred leeks, potatoes

and a bit of shaved fennel.

Jean-Christophe, have you ever made a bisque in 45 minutes?

Never.

Would you ever make a bisque in 45 minutes?

If I have to save my life, yes.

Pat, I think you've wrangled the time that you had

so beautifully.

The barramundi is cooked to perfection.

And I love the texture of all the elements.

I love the crunch of the pickled fennel.

Your potatoes are beautiful and buttery.

And then the leeks also are just so nice and slippery and satiny.

Your fish is impeccable. Absolutely perfect.

But for me, what interests me the most is the sauce.

And I think you've done an excellent job.

The sauce is beautiful and especially in 45 minutes,

but clearly it's missing a bit of depth.

I love how much flavour you've got into that bisque.

It's got complexity, a bit of acidity in there.

Would this dish have been better if you had longer? Yes.

For a 45-minute bisque, I don't think it gets any better.

But is it just the wrong sauce to try and achieve

in 45 minutes?

Aaron, what did you make?

I've made my play on drunken prawns with an egg floss on top.

Aaron, I think it looks stunning.

I really do. It's so inviting.

Thank you.

That is so fantastically good.

The prawns themselves are beautifully cooked.

Then I picked that up,

and then I sucked every little bit of juice

out of that head.

And that is where it is on.

That is where you get that beautiful hum

of the Shaoxing with all of the coral

and beautiful juice from the head of the prawn.

And that, for me, was like, "We're on." Well done.

I think this is an amazing dish, mate.

Thank you. The egg floss is so interesting

because the texture is beautiful and light,

but it's still crispy.

It's so technical and it's so unique.

But it also is a direct link to your heritage.

And it's the thing that has sort of bridged the gap

for me between your style of cheffy cooking

and something that requires finesse and practice.

Thank you.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Very well done. Well done.

Vinnie and Luke, you were the smoke duel.

You had to incorporate smoke into your dish.

One dish had the better use of smoke.

It was a little surprising and perfectly balanced.

It was yours...

..Vinnie.

Pat and Aaron, the fire duel.

You had to flambe an element in your dish.

The winning dish used flambe to infuse their elements

with bags of flavour.

And that was you...

..Aaron.

Congratulations, Vinnie and Aaron.

You live to fight another day in the MasterChef kitchen.

And then there were two.

You both showed real grit during that cook.

But, unfortunately, Pat and Luke,

you are through to the final duel

where you'll cook head-to-head.

We're giving you 60 minutes...

..and you'll be cooking...

..whatever you like.

Cook like it's the last time

that you'll ever cook in this kitchen.

Because if you don't win this duel, it will be.

For the two of you, the competition,

it's all boiled down to this, fellas.

We wish you the best of luck.

Your time starts now.

This is unreal, the elimination.

It's, uh, it's actually insane.

Like, the energy in here is, like, palpable.

You've got Patty on one hand.

Pat's so good. He's got flavours, he's got technique,

he's got ideas, he's got skills.

So it's hard for Luke to come up against that.

Far out! I can't think!

But Luke is, you know, a budding cook and everything,

and has so much potential and raw talent.

ANDY: Come on, Lukey! Eh-eh-eh!

It's, yeah, it's tough today.

It's going to be a tough battle.

Patty! Come on, Pat.

It's such a big head-to-head.

So, very tense right now.

I don't know what's gonna happen.

This is it, lads. The final showdown.

45 minutes to go.

I don't think words can really express.

how keen I am to stay here.

I think actions speak louder than words

and my actions today are going to speak pretty loud.

Taking on Pat one-to-one feels like a mammoth task.

So I'm trying to be quite strategic in the second round.

Pat's game is definitely flavour

and I just feel like, today,

I don't think I can beat him in his own game.

I've come up with this dish to show the judges something

that I haven't shown them before.

A dish that's going to separate the two of us.

This is a dish that gives me a different type of edge,

and if I can pull it off, I might be safe.

AARON: Come on, Lukey, get that fish filleted.

ANNABEL: That's a kingfish, right?

Yeah, yeah, it is kingfish. A yellowtail.

PETRO: Yeah, it is a kingfish.

LUKE: I'm a little bit nervous, obviously.

It's my spot on the line and I don't want to go home.

Today, I'm going to be making a kingfish mosaic.

A mosaic is a dish where you slice up

individual pieces of fish,

roll each individual piece of fish in the seasoning.

I'm using Japanese flavours nori, yuzu,

sesame seeds, some wasabi, some black sesame seeds,

and then you kind of stack them all on top of each other.

You roll it up like a roulade,

really nice and tight, and cook it in a sous vide.

And then once you slice it at the end and have a look at it,

you get this beautiful pattern and it looks like a mosaic.

I think there's actually a chance this dish could win,

and I'm hoping that it'll be a dish

that looks really good, but tastes even better.

ANNABEL: Nice, Pat. VINNIE: Come on, Pat!

I love the smell of roasting capsicums.

Same. And I don't even like capsicums.

It's not ideal to be in round two.

I love it here.

I've gone further than I thought I ever would.

My MasterChef journey has been one of the best things

I think I've ever done in my life.

I've loved what I've been able to achieve here

and the feeling I get walking into the kitchen.

But it's really big time to be away from home.

Obviously, I've got my beautiful daughter, Frankie.

She had her second birthday last week

and my fiancee, she's six and a half months pregnant

with our next child,

so she's just carrying the load back home.

That's what's driving me in the competition.

I want to make sure I go as far as I can for them

and change my family's life.

Hey, Pat. Andy, how are you going?

Good. How are you feeling, one-on-one?

I'm not trying to focus too much on

what's happening down that end.

I just want to get my dish done.

Love that, mate. What is that dish?

Today I'm doing a chargrilled octopus

on a romesco sauce and some pickled kohlrabi.

The romesco, the octopus and the pickled kohlrabi...

Yeah.

..it seems like a nice kind of refined, bold-flavours dish.

Where's the inspiration from the dish come from?

Well, I remember always thinking

octopus was such a great protein.

Yeah, I agree.

I was a bit worried on cooking it.

And then once I started to delve into it,

like, I found it's really beautiful to cook,

and, like, when you get it right, it's amazing.

Push on, mate. Good luck.

Usually I braise my octopus on a stove top,

but with a 60-minute cook,

I just don't have time for the slow braise.

So, today, I'm going to cook my octopus

in the pressure cooker for 15 minutes.

Once it comes out of the pressure cooker,

I'm going to get it into a marinade

with some beautiful herbs and spices and olive oil,

and then onto the hibachi to char.

I believe this dish is definitely enough

to get me through to the top six

and safe from elimination.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: One last dish, one last chance.

30 minutes to go.

Come on, let's go.

Good stuff, Pat! Good stuff, Luke!

VINNIE: Go, Lukey!

This is it. The duel. The duel.

They are going to be cooking the dish of the dish.

OK. Luke's doing a kingfish mosaic,

and then he's making a beurre blanc.

And his whole intention for the dish

is just to show refinement.

So I don't mind this. I don't mind it either.

There is nowhere to hide.

But if he can focus on those two elements

and making them perfect... Yeah.

..then I feel like he's got a chance.

Well, he is learning from everything to this point

and that's what we want to see. Yeah.

What do you think about Pat?

So he's doing a romesco sauce.

Oh, and a kohlrabi pickle.

And he's got octopus in the pressure cooker.

Having it in the pressure cooker is such a risk

because you can go over so easily.

So it's all about how this octopus

is going to be - overcooked or just perfect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

PAT: Just taking my capsicums off from the hibachi to...

For the romesco.

A romesco sauce is a Spanish-style sauce

made from charred capsicums,

and it also has roasted tomatoes, garlic.

I add chilli in with mine.

I really love all those strong flavours.

Nice, Patty!

How is it, Patty?

I think it's a bit over. Do you reckon?

My heart's going 100mph.

This octopus., it's really a bad texture.

It's super mushy and not very nice to eat.

It was still sitting at pretty high pressure,

so I think it's caused it to be overcooked.

Mm. I'm going to get some more.

You got it, Patty. Come on.

I look up at the clock

and there's just under 20 minutes to go.

They need about 15 minutes to cook,

so I'll be cutting it fine.

AARON: How's the reduction going?

Yeah, good. It does need to go slow,

so I'm just letting it have that time.

I'm currently just working on my miso beurre blanc.

A beurre blanc is always a pretty technical sauce.

It's quite easy to make, but it's quite easy to mess up.

I need to make sure the flavour in this is spot-on.

It needs to be perfect. It needs to be miso-forward,

but not too strong that it's overpowering.

It needs to have the right amount of butter

so that it just kind of balances the dish,

and it needs to have the right amount of acidity.

It just needs to be perfect, to be frank.

You know these flavours, you know the sauce. Come on.

What's the dashi taste like?

I just want a drop.

By adding shiro dashi, sake, rice-wine vinegar,

I'm building the depth of flavour.

I'm just trying to bolster this sauce

to make sure that it's as a beurre blanc should be,

a really subtle sauce,

but it also has a really nice flavour underneath.

My fish is out of the sous vide.

I want the fish when I cut through to have...

There's a little sheen it has when it's perfectly cooked.

I've got my garnish ready for plating

and I think this dish could come together.

Mate, first mate, five minutes to go.

AARON: Last five minutes. Come on, Patty, come on, Lukey!

Come on, Luke! Come on, Pat!

PAT: Time's running out

and I have to get the octopus out of the pressure cooker.

My entire spot in this competition

is lying in this pressure cooker.

If that second batch of octopus is overcooked

or undercooked, my time at the competition is done.

Good? Yeah!

Come on, Patty!

Gotta get this char on. Get it on the plate.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Only three minutes left to go. Come on.

AARON: Three minutes. Come on.

LUKE: I'm running out of time.

I need to slice my kingfish and get it on the plate.

It's meant to be translucent in the middle.

I'm really nervous.

I'm not sure if the kingfish is cooked perfectly.

It looks perfect.

How's she looking, Lukey? It's got the sheen.

Nice.

If I can plate this dish up how I envisioned,

I might be keeping my spot in the competition.

Finish strong. One minute to go!

(THEY SHOUT ENCOURAGEMENT)

Come on!

Is he happy with that? Yeah.

He was really happy with it when he came out.

Come on, Patty! Come on. Stay focused.

Beautiful, Pat.

PAT: Right now is where it all comes down to.

I get the beautiful orange romesco sauce

down on the base of the plate.

I then lay on my chargrilled tentacle,

place on some of the roasted hazelnuts,

the pickled kohlrabi... Beautiful, Pat.

The dish actually looks really beautiful.

Good stuff, Luke. Nice, finesse. Finesse.

Go on, Lukey.

LUKE: I place my kingfish mosaic in a ring on the plate.

It looks incredible.

I add the shiso leaves,

the bits of salmon roe and my beurre blanc.

It looks delicious.

Ten...

JUDGES: Nine, eight,

seven, six, five, four,

three, two, one!

That's it, guys!

Good job, mate!

Good work, fellas!

Today was a big one.

The highs of building up for a cook, then not winning,

and then having to get yourself up again for another cook.

Put up two dishes I'm proud of.

But, you know, just never know

what that nifty little fella Luke's going to pull out

of the bag, so we'll see what happens.

LUKE: Looking at this plate,

I'd be devastated if I went home on this dish.

It's something that I would never, ever, ever

think of cooking before MasterChef.

I feel like this dish summarises

how far I've come in this competition,

and I hope the judges will be able to see that.

Here he is.

Hi, Luke. Hey, Luke.

ANDY: Here he is. SOFIA: Hi, Luke.

Hey, Luke.

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE: Luke, what have you made?

LUKE: I made a kingfish mosaic with a miso beurre blanc.

Luke, you've got a little bit of that larrikin in you.

It doesn't seem like you put a lot of pressure on yourself.

Is that a true observation, do you think?

I think I've probably come across as

like I don't care, but I definitely care a lot.

And I definitely feel a lot of pressure in the competition.

I'm definitely not here just having a bit of fun.

I still have a lot more to give to this competition.

OK.

Good luck, Luke. Cheers, mate.

Good luck, Luke. Good luck.

I think visually, he's absolutely pulled it off.

I think if, maybe, you know, a month ago,

you saw this dish in front of you,

you wouldn't guess that Luke made it.

I don't think it's cooked.

But, like, that's what you're looking for.

Yeah. See the pieces on the outside?

There, that. Yeah.

Whereas the middle ones, they're just not cooked.

I do really enjoy the flavours.

I think that beurre blanc is gorgeous.

It's really rich and velvety, um, you know, buttery.

It's got all that fat in there.

You can't really taste the kingfish.

And I'm trying to decide how I feel about that.

So I'm sort of treating the fish as a carrier

and maybe a textural element

more than it being about highlighting the fish.

For me, the presentation was beautiful.

It was elegant, you know?

It was really elegant.

I don't think it ate as elegant as it looked.

The fish isn't cooked enough, you know.

And, for me, the fish shouldn't be a carrier.

That fish should be the hero of that plate.

I really enjoyed the flavours.

I think he seasoned that

really beautifully and sensitively.

I get what you're saying, Andy,

in terms of honouring the ingredients,

but I still think there is so much about the dish

that is really very sophisticated.

Like, I really admire him

for choosing this moment to raise the bar.

Yeah.

You know, like, it's quite a scary thing to do.

For sure.

What was very clever is that sauce,

I think he learned from the lessons,

is to have the right amount of cream

to take on enough, but not too much.

And this is where we end up with this splendour.

Look at that.

The question is, is the kingfish

supposed to be more cooked or less?

I actually love it the way it is.

But the fact is, the outside of the fish is more cooked

than the inside of the fish, and so it's inconsistent.

PAT: It's starting to dawn on me that my fate in this competition

is all going to come down to this dish.

But I'm really happy with the flavour of the dish.

So it probably all comes down to

what Luke's put on his plate as well.

G'day.

I think it'll be really tight.

Pat, what have you made?

A charred octopus with a romesco sauce.

Pretty deep in the competition now.

Um, and I feel like you've left a lot.

Great job, great family, young family.

But it's really hard.

(EMOTIONALLY) But that's...

But that's something that is really a big driver.

After the first cook, I really...

It hit big. You miss a lot.

I just tried to reset and go again,

so I just hope I've done enough.

We see you in this place.

You light up in here.

And to risk all that for a dream.

You just love this stuff.

Yeah, I do.

It's worth it, so...

Thank you. Cheers, mate.

Good luck, Pat. Thank you.

I could definitely see this

at his little casual eatery by the sea.

For sure. Frankie's, yeah.

I was thinking of that, yeah.

I hope it eats the perfect version, though,

because there were some struggles.

He had trouble with his octopus.

That's the final tentacle, isn't it?

That's the final tentacle that came out of the pressure cooker.

Whoa! Yeah.

It looks like it's cutting nicely.

Yeah, maybe too nicely? Maybe too nicely.

It's an interesting one because it's a yummy dish.

I love those little discs of pickled kohlrabi.

Love the crunch, the freshness,

and also the garnish of those hazelnuts

just adding that extra element of texture.

My piece of octopus was cooked really nicely,

but I didn't get heaps of char.

I found myself looking for that.

Everywhere your knife or fork goes,

there is punch and flavour. Yeah.

I think the octopus - kind of mixed emotions for me.

You know that thicker end? It was cooked nicely.

As soon as I got towards

the tip of the tentacle, it was...

It was just a tad overcooked.

I feel like the romesco is a little bit hollow, you know?

It just doesn't have that kind of, like, richness.

With a little bit more seasoning

and the balance, if the balance was right,

it could have just paired with the occy next level.

Yeah, I did feel like the romesco wasn't quite there.

I wanted more hit of, like, the charred capsicum.

I wanted more sweetness.

The pickled kohlrabi added a little bit of acidity

and a point of interest there.

I was quite seduced by the way the dish was presented,

the colours, the size of the tentacle.

But my concern is the octopus.

One part was a little bit soft and one was too chewy.

I can't even cut it.

And that is a serious problem. Mm.

To round out heat week, we threw dual duels at you.

Pat and Luke, you found yourselves cooking head-to-head.

That's about as intense as it gets in the MasterChef kitchen.

And both of your dishes reflect just how hard you fought

to stay in this competition. Luke...

..your dish was strikingly elegant,

and that beurre blanc was absolutely gorgeous.

Unfortunately, we felt the kingfish

should have been the star of the show,

but it was overshadowed by the nori.

Pat...

..your dish was classic Pat,

rustic, generous and packed with flavour.

But your octopus was unevenly cooked.

One dish...

..it missed the mark more than the other.

Very sad to say,

your time in the competition has come to an end...

..Pat.

Pat...

..what are you going to be taking away

from this experience?

What I can do.

These legends...

..you guys.

(EMOTIONALLY) But I'm ready to go, get home to my girls.

I'm glad you get to go home, but we'll miss you.

He's just, like, been so much fun to have around

and I've learnt a lot from him

and he's obviously an awesome dad and an awesome partner.

We're going to miss you, but I think, for sure,

your family are going to be more than delighted

and so proud of you and so pleased to have you back.

Well done, mate. Enjoy the family time now.

Well done.

Being here, I've achieved way more

than I thought I ever would.

Learnt so much about myself and my skills

and what I can do in the kitchen.

I could not be more thankful for having this experience,

but I'm excited to go home

because that's my favourite place on Earth.

Give it up for Pat, everybody.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

ANNOUNCER: Next week on MasterChef Australia...

Each challenge this week

has been individually tailored by one of us

to prepare you for the business end of the competition.

Are we ready to roll?

ANNOUNCER: Four intense challenges...

ANDY: There's a bit going on, hence why we've got to keep up.

..to level up our contestants...

My final, final of the final touch.

Today, you'll be making my...

CONTESTANTS: Ohhhhh!

..and with two eliminations,

the battle to reach finals week

is gonna be huge.

ANNABEL: I have this insane hunger

to make it to the semifinals.

It's all within reach now, which is crazy.

LUKE: This is game on. No looking back.

No looking 45 either side.

Just straight at the finish line.

Captions by Red Bee Media