Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: Previously on MasterChef Australia...

MINOLI: They make it look so simple.

..had to be recreated entirely from memory.

JENN: Details are what pressure tests come down to.

Harry played her immunity pin...

I don't want to go home,

but I don't want to go home with a pin even more than that.

..leaving only three to give it their all.

If this is going to be my last cook, going down with a bang,

I'm giving it everything.

And despite her incredible effort...

Come on, Minoli! Come on, Minoli! Come on!

..Minoli's MasterChef journey came to an end.

Give it up for Minoli, everybody! ANDY: Yeah!

Tonight, it's time to snuggle up...

I'm pretty excited about it. It's very romantic.

..because it's date night in the MasterChef kitchen.

# 'Cause you're hot, then you're cold

# You're yes, then you're no

# You're in, then you're out

# You're up, then you're down

# You're wrong when it's right

# It's black and it's white

# We fight, we break up

# We kiss, we make up

# You're hot, then you're cold

# You're yes, then you're no

# You're in, then you're out

# You're up, then you're down

# You're wrong when it's right

# It's black and it's white

# We fight, we break up

# We kiss, we make up

# You # You don't really wanna stay, no

# You # But you don't really wanna go-o

# You're hot, then you're cold

# You're yes, then you're no

# You're in, then you're out

# You're up, then you're down. #

Let's do it. It's gonna be fun, man.

There it is.

(ALL EXCLAIM)

It's very different in the kitchen today.

I'm seeing the benches opposite the kitchen.

I'm thinking this could potentially be a service challenge.

Oh, here we go.

JOCK: Morning, everybody. ALL: Morning.

Today is a team challenge.

(LAUGHS)

You're going to be cooking

in a delivery service in the MasterChef kitchen.

Real members of the public are going to be ordering your food

through Deliveroo in real time.

That is crazy.

We're going to split you into four teams of four.

Each team will need to create the perfect date night meal.

Ohh!

We want food that gets us in the mood for...love.

(LAUGHTER) Love, he says. Love!

So, that's entree, main and dessert, shared for two.

Each team will cook 25 date night meals,

plus one for the three of us to share.

Now, Tommy, being it's your first day back,

you must cook in the next elimination,

which means you won't be participating in today's service.

So you, my friend, can head up to the gantry.

Everyone else, it's time to pick your teams.

Fans. There's nine of you.

So one of you is going to join the Favourites.

You ready?

No looking.

ALDO: The luck of the draw. The luck of the draw.

Orange. That's very bright.

ANDY: Purple.

Ooh, pretty.

'Poiple'.

Ali! Oh!

Mixing it up!

Today I'm on the purple team and I'm working with the Favourites.

Excuse me. Hello, team. Hi!

Be really fun to cook with somebody different for a change.

So I'm really excited. I'm really pumped.

JOCK: Good teams. Interesting teams, huh?

OK, now, Ali, earlier in the week, you won an advantage for your team.

And your team today is Favourites!

(CONTESTANTS LAUGH)

And let me tell you, this advantage is an absolute game changer.

For 15 minutes of today's cook, you will have an extra set of hands.

Oh!

Not just any hands.

Joining your team for 15 minutes today is...

..Andy Allen! Heeeey!

Oh!

Let him do all the labour job.

Now, that's an advantage.

Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop. Huh?

Ali, are you happy with that advantage?

Who wouldn't be happy with winning Andy in a challenge, eh?

Oooohh!

Cooking love food and all!

Love is definitely in the air, eh? Yeah.

Well, you can call on Andy at any point during the cook.

And believe me, you're going to want every advantage

because the outcome of today's cook carries more weight than you know.

The two losing teams today will be cooking

in a shock elimination tomorrow.

Oh.

Holy hell.

ANDY: Righto. I'll keep it brief.

You got two and a half hours to complete your three-course meal.

It's got to be hot.

It's got to be designed to share.

And it's got to travel well to the diners.

So think about that.

We'll taste all your menus and we'll decide

on the least impressive two teams,

and they'll go into tomorrow's elimination.

So you're going to want to make sure

that us three fall in love with your food.

Good luck. Time starts now.

Let's go, guys.

Go, go, go!

Alright. So... Romantic. OK.

I'll put my hand up. Captain?

Yeah. Yeah.

Aldo for captain. That's good.

So mains...

I'm happy to be captain. I'm good.

So, any ideas, guys?

Things that travel well.

Vegies. Vegies travel well, especially for an entree.

Yeah. OK. Mains.

Lady and the Tramp, guys?

Meatball? That's really romantic. Meatballs, Lady and the Tramp.

I think something saucy,

because, you know, when things are travelling,

you want it to be nice and juicy.

MINDY: What do you think romantic for entree?

I...like, it's so tacky and it's so old-school,

but I think fondue is, like, really romantic.

Oh, God.

Fondue is a pretty retro dish.

It's...I mean, it's very '70s and '80s.

But this is my pimped-up, more interesting version.

Ginger syrup sponge? Yeah.

Oh, my God. That sounds great. With custard?

Let's bring on this spicy, romantic love. Why not?

This is what it's all about, right? Spicing Up Your Love Life.

OK, so now that we're onto this,

we need to just work out who's going to, like, obviously, oversee it

and put it together. Yep.

Jules, are you happy for that to be you?

Yeah. Why not? Amazing. Good on you. Thank you.

Captain Good-win for the win.

I think Julie is the best person for this job.

She is such a calm personality.

She's going to work on the dessert, but also just touch base with us,

but also trust all of us in the kitchen.

I'm the team captain of the purple team.

Today, we're going to have fun, cooking good food.

I'm on the team with Ali, Billie and Alvin.

Today we're starting as an entree with polenta chips

and a blue cheese dipping sauce.

As a main, we're going to have beef cheek with cauliflower puree.

And then we finish with a decadent whiskey sticky date pudding

with cardamom anglaise.

Ali, you got free hands?

In this challenge you want to have a strong team captain

because you must follow somebody's lead.

OK, Aldo, what else goes in here?

I'm doing the brunoise. OK.

Just keep stirring that. Will do.

As you may know, I'm Italian, which means that I'm loud.

But, you know, I'm very good at giving direction.

I'm going straightaway to the point, I need to get done,

and you must do it.

Not for the sake because I'm asking.

Because we need to save ourself from elimination for tomorrow.

Come on, guys. We got this.

Leading the teal team.

I'm the romantic one here, so I've taken control.

So today, for the entrees,

Keyma's going to be looking after the croquettes with a romesco sauce.

Montana is going to be taking the main driver's seat here

with the mains - the pork belly with a charred cabbage.

And Steph's going to go straight into the sticky date pudding

with an anglaise sauce.

So, the Spanish croquetas are a bit different than potato croquetas.

They're made with a roux, then that goes into an egg wash

and a crumb, and then we fry them.

So, for entrees, Keyma's confident,

and that makes my job as team leader easy,

that I can pretty much set that task for her

and she's just going to hum along and knock that out of the park.

So, five pressure cookers, I think, and five bellies.

Yeah, cool.

Today in particular, we haven't been in a situation

where we've had to do three courses with only four people

in two and a half hours.

So the workload is ramped right up.

Where'd you put the chillies? Where did you put them? Here.

I've never worked in a kitchen before,

and nor have I've taken leadership roles in any sort of thing

like this before either.

So this is for our romesco? Yes.

So I think decision making quickly and effective communication

is probably going to be the key that gets us through.

So that's probably what I'm going to try and focus on.

And, hopefully, any pivots that we might need to make,

we can do quite easily.

Let's go, guys! Fire up.

How are we going, team? We good?

Yeah.

I'm team captain today.

I like to think I'm quite organised.

Our menu is, for entree,

we've got our honey roasted carrots and bean dip.

Our main is pork and fennel meatballs,

cauliflower and fennel purees and a rich tomato kind of sauce.

And for dessert, we've got a chocolate brownie and a berry...

..what we're calling a berry hottie, as opposed to a berry coulis.

It's a sexy menu. A sexy menu.

It's not romantic. It's sexy.

On the meatballs today, I'm aiming for 200 grams per person,

so I'm doing about five kilos of pork.

I really like my meatballs to be an interesting flavour.

So, not just your standard, you know, beef and pork.

Today we're thinking of pork and fennel.

Do you reckon speck's good? Yeah.

In order to keep my meatballs nice and moist,

I'm going to add some speck in that I've minced,

as well as some olive oil.

JOCK: 15 minutes down, two hours 15 minutes to go!

ANDY: Come on, guys.

ALDO: Can we have our advantage to be played now?

We want Andy Allen!

Oh, straight up.

Mr Andy Allen!

Come on down, Andy!

Already? You're on.

Get ready, Andy.

It's going to be saucy.

Today we'd like to use Andy's skill.

He's been running restaurants now for some time.

We can give him something really hard.

Righto, purple team.

Talk to our captain.

OK. Aldo, you're the captain?

I am. Rightio.

I just got one task for you, sir.

Just one task. Beef cheek.

OK.

Find a spot to prep. Over there.

Oh, this is my whole bench? Yeah.

Wow. No, like, "Hey, how you going? Lovely to see you.

"Welcome to our team."

Just, "Here's your beef cheeks." I'm so sorry.

So the beef cheek is going to be braised in a pressure cooker. OK.

Then it's gonna be served with a cauliflower puree. Yeah.

And then salsa verde on top. So you're talking whole beef cheeks?

Whole beef cheeks. Correct. I want to keep it... Trim the sinew.

Trim the sin... So basically I'm manual labour.

That's it. OK.

It's actually very handy to have Andy to our advantage today.

I hope this is going to get through at least half of them

so I can finish the rest

when it's come down that the time will be up.

But I hope it's going to push a little bit more than half.

I'd like to see him get 20 kilos of beef cheeks done in 15 minutes.

They just can't sit back and go, "Oh, that was Andy's fault,"

if the beef cheeks don't cook.

Don't worry, I won't blame you. It will happen.

Daniel. G'day.

What's happening?

We're flat out. We're making some pork belly.

Are you happy being team leader today?

Yeah. No, I'm... They're making my job easy for me, to be honest.

When we came to the idea,

everyone sort of jumped to what they sort of felt like,

and it was good because the romance was coming out of everyone.

Tell me the full menu. Entree?

So we are making croquetas with a romesco sauce,

a braised pork belly with, like, a sweet raisin jus

and a charred cabbage on the side.

Yep. And a sticky date pudding in, I think, brandy sauce.

Croquetas. Is it like jamon, potato, that kind of vibe, or...?

Yeah. So what we got in there, we got...

KEYMA: It's roux-based croquetas.

Thick bechamel. Yeah.

Do we not think it's a bit more bar snack than date night?

So the idea behind it is the tapas style,

when you go to a Spanish restaurant and then...

Yeah, no, I get it. I get it.

I just don't know if it's super romantic.

So is there potato in it, or not?

No, no potato. Bechamel. No potatoes. Just bechamel.

Yeah.

If it's heavy, it's not...

It's not an enjoyable experience on a date night.

Yeah. Something's too, like, you have...

..you know, three mouthfuls and you're like,

"Oh, it's too rich, I can't eat any more."

Yeah.

You're leading it, you're directing it, you're making the decisions.

Yep.

All this sort of stuff is what you should be doing

as a team captain, yeah?

I'm panicking.

I'm team captain. It's my responsibility.

So I make a wrong step here, I'm pretty much going to be in trouble.

I don't know.

DANIEL: What do you wanna do, Keyma?

Romesco and something lighter, maybe something like on top of...

Now you're thinking, yeah. Yeah. Something lighter...

And I have all the romesco elements in there.

So I'm thinking about doing, like, wedges, so...

..half an eggplant per couple.

MONTANA: You don't think broccolini?

So what are we actually doing with the eggplant?

I just don't think we'll get enough flavour into it.

Uh, we need to be all on the same page.

Yeah, I understand that but this is my...

..thoughts on it.

Being captain today, it's really gonna have to rely on me

to bring everyone back in again,

figure out which direction we're going, and execute it.

Broccolini would work but you have to peel the...

Stem. The stem.

Yeah, I like that. We'll do that. OK, so blanch and then...

Blanch and then, yep.

Pretty well based on prep time alone, I made the call

that I think broccolini is gonna be the decision that we go with today

because we'll char it on the grill, it won't take much time at all

and that decision's made.

You don't have to take too much off. Yeah, I'm just...

Some of them are quite thick, eh? Yeah, yeah.

JOCK: You've had 30 minutes, you've only got two hours to go.

You know what that means, Andy?

I'm out. (ALDO GROANS)

Good luck, purple team.

Purple team, you're on your own. Good luck.

What are you doing?

Put the knife down, son. Knife down, son!

Sorry, Chef.

(CHUCKLES) Thanks, Andy!

ALL: Thanks, Andy.

That felt like five minutes, not 15 minutes. What?!

But bless his heart, he's, like, smashed through the beef cheeks

and got them prepped and they're ready in the pan, getting browned off.

So, yeah, what a legend.

MEL: Aldo, how's it all going?

Uh, good so far. What's the menu?

So, today, we're going classic northern Italian.

We're gonna have beautiful polenta chips

with a creamy, saucy, blue cheese dipping sauce on the side.

And mains? Mains.

Beef cheek and serving with a nice cauliflower puree.

And then we're gonna have a beautiful sticky date pudding

with butterscotch and Anglaise.

OK, do you think the whole menu sounds maybe a little...heavy?

Where is the freshness and light?

'Cause it's date night, you know? Yeah.

You want to be able to not have a food coma straight after dessert.

It's something that you would never cook and you would never eat at home

so that's why we're going...

You're correct, probably things that people don't cook

every single night of the week,

but at the end of a date night meal, I still wanna be awake

and wanting to spend time and chatting with my partner,

not feeling like I'm in a bit of food coma

'cause the food was too rich.

The judges, they don't seem to like the idea of our menu,

because it's gonna be too rich, too heavy.

It makes me slightly worried, but it doesn't let me second-guess myself

because I know, if this dish, they're gonna be perfectly executed,

they're a winner.

ALI: I Think we should maybe consider doing a different sauce. No.

This is set. I'm confident.

You know, I'm doing what I told to do.

I brought it up, I was brave, I poked my head above the parapet!

No, but at least he knows what he wants.

At least he's very clear and gives very clear instruction.

And, you know, that's why we wanted him to be captain.

Guys, we got this, it's fine.

JULIE: Smells good, Sar. Yeah.

I'm focusing on the madras fish curry.

I know this dish inside out.

I've made it for so many different people

and I've always had a really good response.

It's really light, it's more fragrant, coconut-based.

So a really light, beautiful, tasty curry.

I'm tempering my spices.

I'm gonna add some of this into that coconut milk

for the base of the dish.

MINDY: Ooh, that looks amazing. Yeah, it's a good colour. Vibrant.

Good? My God, that is heaven.

There's a good amount of tamarind coming through?

Oh, my God. That's amazing! I'm happy with it. I'm happy.

Tasting these spices, I think it's so balanced and it tastes amazing.

So I'm simply gonna just gonna let this simmer

and focus on my side of coconut rice.

Coconut...

Hello, Julie.

Hello. How are you going?

Yeah, good, thank you.

OK, we are dying to know, what does date night look like to you?

Well, I mean, date night at home

is not the right rating for this television program.

Ooh! Alright. Oh!

To much info, Jules.

Dip me in chocolate! (CACKLES)

No, actually, our menu is Spice Up Your Love Life.

I love that. So we're starting...

How are we spicing up people's love lives?

Well, um...

..a 1970s-inspired spiced fondue

and then a beautiful coconut and tomato fish curry. Yep.

And then a spiced, um, ginger syrup pudding.

So retro South Asian vibes. Yeah.

I think it is kind of fun. What do you think?

I kind of like it. Yep.

Cautious about the fondue texture, making it there

and still being in a nice condition when it arrives,

but he's tested a million things in his career so...

He has. ..I'm hoping this one's a good one.

It's a risk.

We're gonna back ourselves today and cross everything.

Good luck. Sounds great. Good luck. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, your deliveries start in 60 minutes.

Ooh! (APPLAUSE)

TOMMY: Go, go, go, go, go.

MINDY: We've been going for an hour, yeah?

DANIEL: You're all good, Steph? Yep.

(CLANG!) BILLIE: Sorry!

You can take them right up to, like, here, yeah?

Montana's flat out going with the mains,

the pork belly with the charred cabbage.

I know that the pork belly is gonna sort of shrink and change its shape

so we wanna have more than enough

so we can give them nice, uniform cuts for the diners.

So we go with five pork bellies in five different pressure cookers.

And we halve the pork belly, stack it on top of one another

and fill it with braising liquid.

Yeah, we'll just top them up a bit. Yep.

45 minutes will enough to get it just before it gets too tender.

So then we'll be able to pull it out, cut it and portion it

and that's what we're after, to finish on the hotplate.

We're on a date. (CHUCKLES)

We are.

Chopping dates. Chopping dates.

We gotta hustle a little bit more, especially when we made a change.

Obviously, we've changed our entree practically entirely

so that's obviously requiring more work, so we're just...

I'm sort of bouncing around and filling any gaps I can.

Once I finish this, I'll be straight on the entrees as well.

HARRY: You right? MELANIE: Yep.

The brownie's going good.

Got my brownies cooking in the oven

and we decided as a team to make it gluten-free,

just so that I can taste it.

But, cakes, cookies, brownies, they're really not something I like

and therefore, I don't cook them.

My comfort zone is more, you know, ice-creams and parfaits

and so I just have to follow the recipe

and, hopefully, make it taste good.

Doing really well, guys.

ALDO: Alvin, is the last pressure cooker on?

Yep. Perfect!

Now, can you please, for me, grab mint, parsley, basil, anchovy,

olive oil, white Italian vinegar, Dijon mustard...

(LAUGHS)

Anything else?

I'm on the dessert section in our team, um,

so I've just done the sticky dates, they're all in the oven,

so now I'll move on to the sauce.

I've had a pretty... crappy record in team challenges.

Been on the dessert team in... ALL of the team challenges so far

and we've, sadly, lost.

Just gotta get the butter to dissolve into the sauce.

I hope I can make a good dish that the judges like.

Just taste this.

I haven't tasted it yet.

The butterscotch sauce is where it's at for me.

That's gotta be sort of dark and rich,

a little bit salty,

and then adding the cardamom custard should sort of lift everything

and make it less sweet.

OK, I'm happy with cardamom in that.

I think I wanna get more whiskey into that.

OK. TOMMY: Let's go!

MICHAEL: We'll get these potatoes on to steam.

JULIE: Got about an hour to go

and Michael's dealing with a thousand tonnes of potatoes.

Mindy's working on that as well.

Sarah's making this beautiful curry sauce

and I've got a batch of pudding in the oven.

(TIMER BEEPS) Jules, is that your timer?

Yeah.

Look, I'm feeling pretty good about my dessert today.

But my cake's cooked, feels right, it looks right, it smells right.

How are they, Jules?

Just finding out.

I go to get my little ginger puddings out of their moulds and...

Oh, shit.

..they're sticking.

I should have greased and floured them, not just greased them.

And so the batter has stuck to the bottom of these tall, narrow moulds.

Doesn't wanna come out.

And there is no time to start again.

Maybe, yeah.

They're gonna be taller than the mould anyway, so we can trim them.

Julie! Hey, Julie.

What's happening?

I'm just having a moment.

The cakes are sticking. So they're coming out like that.

Ooh, yeah.

I think you might get away with it, to be honest.

Yeah, I think so too.

I think if you just trim them up. Get them all out as best you can.

Yep.

And I think...I think one of those each is enough,

especially when you've got syrup, anglaise.

I think it's plenty.

So I think you're very, very lucky, to be honest.

The portions are a bit smaller.

It's actually going to fit better into the container.

I'll get it neat and tidy.

TOMMY: Are you just cutting off the bottom part

'cause it's not coming off properly?

Yeah, 'cause they're stuck.

So they're soaked in syrup, so that'll help it soak up anyway.

Do you mind chucking a butt up here? Hang on.

Really high and I'll just catch it.

Yes! (LAUGHS)

Hot dates want hot food. 30 minutes to go!

MATT: How are those meatballs? They're looking pretty good.

Do you want to start to cut the polenta?

Just doing that. On it, Chef.

Can you please give me a hand on getting the porks out?

We need to get this reducing. Yeah, cool.

So, 30 minutes to go. Time for the pressure cookers to come off.

Just test the meat.

It's got the jiggle.

They've got a bit of a wobble. We're happy.

So it means that they're cooking the way we want them to.

She's pretty good. She's pretty soft.

So all of the pork gets taken out of the braising liquid

and the braising liquid gets put in a pan to reduce.

That's going to be the body of our glaze and our jus.

Just putting some liquid in here.

Because the braising liquid's now been poured out

and put in the saucepan to reduce,

we have to grab some stock

so the pork can sit in there and reabsorb some moisture

so that it just doesn't go dry.

Otherwise, it's going to ruin the whole thing.

BILLIE: I think more whiskey.

And more salt.

More whiskey, more salt. Yep.

Although I can taste the whiskey.

You can? Mmm.

I can't because I've been slamming it.

I think more. More. Not drinking it, just tasting it.

Aldo. Gents.

How are you, mate? Good.

Any updates? Everything you've seen.

Everything looking great. Happy.

No changes? No.

OK.

"No!" Sticking to the guns.

The entrees, they're going good. Ali, she's cutting the polenta.

And then we're finishing off the sauce on the side.

That's the only thing that worries me, though.

With your menu, it's, like, cheese and heavy,

and then you go into rich beef cheeks.

We're just throwing it out there, buddy. I know you're all over it.

I know, "I no change a thing."

I get it. Ciao. Ciao.

Thank you. Ciao. Grazie.

BILLIE: Do we need to do a different sauce? Is that what they're saying?

They have said it's quite rich with the cheese.

Well, they've been asking us, and in team challenge situations

whenever we haven't listened to them, we've lost.

I think alarm bells start going off for me

when the judges keep visiting us and asking,

"Have you changed the menu? Have you improved the menu?"

So is there any other sauce that we can do

that is going to travel well, A,

and B, be less rich?

Ali and I think we need to change the sauce for the entree.

So, but what sauce do you want to do, then?

You need something contrasting... Red sauce?

..like a salsa verde or a red sauce or something like that?

But I think now that Ali and I are sort of pleading our case,

he might be coming around a little bit.

If you're going to do a red sauce, what we're going to do,

it's anchovy and garlic.

With team challenge, it's a team effort.

So if they're not gonna be happy with that sauce,

we need to change the sauce.

Just cook that and that's it. Any parsley or anything?

Just basil at the end.

Want to make sure that everybody is on the same page

and we must be all happy with what we're doing.

How are you going with that?

Just put in...just start to blitz those one.

Hustle! 10 minutes till service. Let's go!

JULIE: There she goes.

How many bags do we need? We need 33 bags. The drivers are here, guys.

I'm very conscious of the fact that the time is ticking down.

Service is looming really, really close.

So we just have to keep motoring.

Jenn has moved on from the carrots

and is working on the white bean puree.

Matt is still finishing the meatballs.

They look great.

And Harry is multitasking, pulling the other elements together,

working on the tomato sauce and the cauliflower fennel puree.

Just to keep everyone in the loop,

I need to still check the seasoning on the sauce,

and the puree needs to be seasoned after.

It is really stressful being captain in a situation like this,

but I think we're travelling at a good pace.

I'm very happy with how things are coming along

and I think we're on track to finish at the 2.5-hour mark.

TOMMY: Hey, champers!

It's a romantic dinner, Tommy. You need the champers.

DANIEL: Have you added any sugar to that yet? No.

Not yet. Nothing.

I want it thick, like...like a glaze, yeah.

I taste the jus for the pork,

and it just tastes like reduced braising liquid.

That needs more sweetness, Mon.

It's pork stock forward,

like a gelatin mouthfeel, and it's not good.

OK, need to get those done. Yeah.

How big do we want it?

So I go to check on the pork...

What do you think?

My gut sinks.

The pork looks greyer and plainer-looking than we expected.

Alright, don't worry, don't worry. It's OK.

This is really bad.

Um... You alright?

Yep. Just feeling it a bit, mate.

MONTANA: What do you think?

I can tell straightaway looking at this pork

that there's no flavour through the middle of it.

We've put too much in the pressure cooker,

and because of that, there's just no seasoning through it

and it's just bland, tasteless meat.

We can just shred it.

I don't know if it's gonna shred, though.

It will shred. But we can just use...we'll just use the good bits.

Just pull all this apart.

So we go for a shred on top of our slaw, essentially,

with the glaze through it. Yeah.

There's no way we can serve it the way we initially intended.

So the only option now is just seasoning it a little bit,

and going for a pulled pork sort of style.

We need to get this reducing. Get it in one pot.

No, no, because it'll take longer to reduce.

Yeah, I know, but I don't want to balance them separately.

The fact that we need to shred this pork, then reduce that liquid

into some form of consistency to put on top, we're... (LAUGHS)

..we're so far behind right now.

But it's just about motoring on.

We have to still finish it and finish strong and not give up.

OK, guys, we've got a couple of minutes.

The Deliveroo drivers are waiting.

Your food should be hot and ready.

You've only got one minute to go.

Come on, guys! Let's go!

Let's move!

ALDO: Thanks, Ali. Have you got anchovy in there?

Yeah.

You all good now? We in a good space?

Now it's time that we start serving as well.

So we are getting ready on everything.

All the sweets will be done.

And then we got to finish it off, the polenta chip,

which they're getting already in the fryer.

And I've got to glaze, now, these beef cheeks.

Ali, you gonna help us to plate, OK? Yep.

TOMMY: Oh! Very nice!

Righto, pink team. Yes.

Melanie, how are we travelling? We are travelling pretty well.

I'm about to start glad-wrapping the coulis.

What I'm worried about is you need to start now talking about

how this is all going to play out for service,

because you're approaching it and there's, like,

I would say that's going to be one of your passes,

that's going to be one of your passes,

and there's stuff all over them.

Yeah. You've got a lot done.

Yeah. But it means nothing if you're not set.

Our kitchen is a bombsite.

There is stuff everywhere.

We need to start preparing for a very unconventional service,

and the pressure is really starting to mount.

Are we going to get flatbreads on this side as well, Matt?

I don't really want to do this, but here it is.

10...

JUDGES: Nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one.

That's it! Service has started!

Whoo!

TOMMY: Menu's great, guys. Amazing.

Alright, there's one.

Service starts and we are organised.

Four. Four.

Hey, there's my first four potatoes there, guys.

I'm so pleased with how my team did today.

In terms of the fondue sauce being made of potato

as well as the potato being to dip in it,

is actually really clever.

It makes the fondue sauce lighter than it would be

if it was just a bechamel cheese sauce.

It smells good, Sar.

The fish in Sarah's curry looks great.

We try it. It has held beautifully.

Great, once we've got dessert, we can go with our next four. This is great.

I've got my cakes cooked.

They're drenched in this beautiful syrup

and I'm just calmly serving these meals

to people who are going to enjoy them.

I'm pretty happy.

I've got to go. I've got to go.

We're going, team! We're going with our first bags!

Go, Jules! Go, Julie!

MEL: The orange team is sending their first bags out.

Hustle, hustle, hustle!

I'm so happy to run out with the first four bags.

The food is done, it's packaged, it's great.

And there's my little Deliveroo driver

ready to whisk it off to where it needs to be.

Thank you.

Safe travels.

Behind, behind, behind.

Keep an eye on the beef cheek!

Orange and purple have got some of their bags out already,

and that's terrifying.

I need to chop flatbreads.

How many have we got cooked, Matt? Four.

Nearing eight. Four, is that all?

Yeah, they take a little while.

Alright, guys, we're going to need a half a flatbread per serve.

Two of the bottom teams are going into elimination,

and we don't want that to be us.

Alright, are we going to do eight at a time, like I said?

Four lots of eight. Yes, we are.

Of course the two teams of the Favourites get their bags out.

I'm not surprised, but it just makes you realise

we need to work harder, faster.

I've got the first eight bags. Let's go. Come on.

You want eight ready or four?

I'm feeling so good about service.

SARAH: Alright, so we need one more.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the dream team.

I'm pretty happy. Good.

It's coming. Good, good, good, good.

Given my team and the experience that they have

and the thought that we've put into it...

Hello, Julie. It's Julie! Julie!

..we all pulled together.

We all brought our best effort.

And we are all hoping that that's enough.

What have we got?

So, you've got a potato fondue,

you got a beautiful spiced fish curry

and a ginger syrup cake.

Happy with how everything turned out?

Yeah, I really am. I think it's all really tasty.

We are going to start our date night right now.

So thank you very much, Julie.

JOCK: Thanks, Julie. No worries. Enjoy.

Well, I think as far as presentation goes, it looks pretty good.

Lots of nice vibrant colours and textures.

Shall we?

I reckon they've really nailed this.

The fondue, I mean, it doesn't get more retro than that.

And I think that Michael did a good job.

The sauce itself was...was really sort of rich in texture

and smooth and flowing.

And it has a lovely gloss to it as well.

Michael's probably got to be commended on that.

It's something that's probably outside the box in terms of concept,

and I think he's done a good job to bring it all together

and it be that creative, fun sort of stuff that you want on a date night.

The curry - absolute cracker.

I think Sarah's got to be commended.

It is silky. It is smooth.

It is luxury when it hits your palate.

My piece of fish was beautifully cooked, very, very glossy, just set,

nice tender flakes of the fish.

Overall, I'm super impressed by the menu,

but I'm also super impressed by how they worked as a team,

how they got ready for service,

and how service, like, actually played out for them.

Very smart, very well executed.

Beep, beep! Let's do it.

ALDO: Go, go, go, go, people.

My idea is to just get four bags at a time,

because if we're keeping the number of bags going out very steady,

it's going to set up to succeed ourselves,

so we can keep an eye on everything.

Get me one more and then that'll be it.

Done. Yeah.

Oh, um...

Jesus.

One of my worst nightmare is just came to light.

Billie, I'm concerned about the puree.

Not enough? No.

We don't have enough cauliflower purees.

What do you think?

Oh, what you've done to yourself? Seriously?

That's it. That much?

I don't think it's going to be enough.

Um...

ALI: I've got four. I've got four. BILLIE: So we're doing four, right?

ALDO: Yep. Have we got more?

We need somebody just doing these. Yeah, I know but I'm also wrapping.

I reckon we need to be generous with it

'cause they're already questioning us on the romanticism of it.

So...about halfway through service,

it looks like we don't have enough cauliflower puree

for the rest of the dishes we have to send out.

We're gonna have to do something here to bulk it up

otherwise, we'll just be sending out beef cheek.

I think if we got cans of white beans, blitzed them into that,

get the nice flavour, just bulk it up. Yep.

I suggest cannellini beans.

They're nice as a puree, so mixing them both together,

we should hopefully get a nice-tasting puree.

I just need one now and that's it. One now? One now? Take one now.

Needs more salt.

JENN: So that's 16. That's two... Yep.

I'm really happy with our team.

Killing it, guys! Good job!

I think everything tastes great, but the brownie and raspberry dessert,

they're looking a bit flat.

But I hope they taste good.

Hi, guys. Hello.

OK.

OK, Melanie, please take us through your menu.

So, to start tonight, we have roasted spiced carrots

with a white bean dip and flatbread.

Then our main is a pork and fennel meatball

with a cauliflower and fennel puree.

And then our dessert, we have a chocolate brownie

with a raspberry and champagne coulis.

Thank you very much. Thanks, guys.

Look, date night,

if I'm being served carrots and dip,

I'm probably not calling them back.

If I'm honest.

It's not a sexy dish to me at all.

And then, with the flatbread, it's not a crispbread

and it's not a fluffy cloud-like dippy-type thing either. JOCK: No.

It's somewhere in between

and because it is neither here nor there,

I feel neither here nor there about it.

I like the spice on the carrots.

There's a nice sort of heat going on in the spice.

They're beautifully cooked, there's still a bit of a crunch to them.

The white bean dip on the side, I also quite enjoyed.

The meatball itself was really lovely.

You know, it had a lovely, chunky texture to it.

I thought the puree was really smooth and nicely done as well

and the tomato sauce did have some lightness as well as the richness.

But this brownie is highly problematic

for a lot of different reasons.

It's just not a pleasure to eat.

I don't know if this is a coeliac-friendly brownie.

It still held together but it tastes split.

That could very well put them in trouble today.

Awesome, guys. Let's go!

Finish this off. (CHUCKLES)

We've only got five bags left and everything's going on.

I'm like an octopus - I've got arms going flat out everywhere.

So many changes to today's menu,

tyres are definitely a little deflated

but it's just about motoring on,

getting the last of it out and just...just finishing strong.

Done. Well done, guys.

Good work. Good work.

That was mammoth. Oh, my god.

(CHUCKLES)

ANDY: Here he comes.

Daniel! G'day, guys. How are you, mate?

Daniel, do you wanna run us through what we've got first?

For entrees, we have charred broccolini in a romesco sauce.

For mains, we have pulled pork with some charred cabbage slaw

and some pickled daikon radish.

And for dessert, we have a sticky date pudding

with an orange Anglaise sauce.

Cheers, thank you. Thanks, Daniel.

On a whole, pretty disappointing, I gotta say.

There's a lot of things that went wrong

throughout that 2.5-hour prep time

and it very much shows here.

I think the biggest one for me is the pork.

They've decided to braise pork belly whole, skin on,

in some sort of liquid.

Take it out and let it sit there

while they reduce the sauce into some sort of glaze.

I think this is where their inexperience

has really just shown here.

MEL: In the haste of tearing up that pork belly, um,

it hasn't even been trimmed properly

so you can see bits of sinew and skin,

which are not pleasurable at all to eat.

There's no discernible flavour.

They just haven't been able to get the wheels back on,

not just their dish, but the entree and, somewhat, the dessert as well.

The texture was fine of the cake itself, it's quite light and fluffy.

And then the entree, a nice little bit of char in there

and a nice flavour of broccolini

but not enough broccolini to really taste it.

Nup.

I credit Daniel for taking the responsibility

but he needed to step up earlier and really pull the guys together,

make solid decisions and then move forward.

You know, I think he learned something today.

He learnt what it takes to be a leader

and he's got a way to go to get there.

And that's OK. Do you know what I mean?

But what we're seeing here

is a guaranteed place down the bottom today.

There is no question in that.

The question for us is who's gonna join them?

DANIEL: Thanks, guys.

BILLIE: How you going? Enough?

It's plenty.

We got the new puree on the run

and I'm very impressed with the way we come up with a backup plan.

Just gotta pray that it's gonna be just enough

until the last variables.

Can you run, those full, when they're ready?

Yep.

I'm very happy with the dishes.

The only thing I'm concerned of is the puree for the main.

Hi.

ANDY: Here he is. Look at this delivery boy. Express delivery.

I'm thinking that we're gonna be in the bottom.

Hello. Hello.

Because...the cauliflower puree and also the bean puree,

it wasn't the right way to finish the beef cheek

but it was just something to finish that dish.

We really do hope that it's gonna be enough to push us through

and to not find ourself in the bottom.

So, we've got polenta chips with beautiful salsa la pizzaiola.

Then we got beef cheek with cauliflower and bean puree.

To finish it off, a beautiful whiskey sticky date

with a cardamon custard.

Enjoy. Thanks, mate.

Thank you. MEL: Thank you.

Purple team.

Overall, I thought this was gonna be so, so heavy

and it was, to a point.

The polenta chips to start -

I wasn't rushing back for a second bite, do you know what I mean?

The pizzaiola sauce, it was fine.

It tasted a bit rushed.

Main course, um, beautifully trim...

Andy. Sorry, what?

Amazing. Beautifully trimmed. Ah!

It was cooked so beautifully.

It just melted, which I thought was fantastic.

I think there was a bit of argy bargy around the cauliflower

and did they have enough and what they've ended up with

is a pretty saggy, heavy, white bean puree, which was underwhelming.

The puree on the bottom didn't taste like cauliflower.

It tasted just like a cannellini bean puree.

I think, you know, if they go into the bottom two,

that could have something to do with it.

Moving on to the dessert.

I think the dessert was probably the strongest

in terms of achieving that date night delivery brief

that we set for them.

Not only was it a very generous portion of it

but having had the time for the cake to sit in that syrup

while it's been delivered out there,

it was a really good use of its time

because it was really rich and decadent,

perfectly soaked in that syrup.

Classic Billie. Classic Billie.

She's really showing that she is such a solid, dependable cook

and it looks like it might save the team today.

We'll start with the team whose food was the ideal backdrop to a hot date.

One team brought us a menu that was delicious,

well cooked and well executed.

One date night diner, Kel from Kensington,

described it as, "All really solid dishes, each unique and tasty."

We couldn't agree more.

So we wanna say, "Well done, you're safe,"

to the orange team.

Yes! Yes! (ALL CHEER)

Well done, guys.

Ohhhhh, my God.

Happy with that one, Julie, or what?

Yes.

Now, for some not-so-good news.

One team, the leadership was lacking

and your menu, it was poorly designed and executed.

And that's why the teal team,

sorry, but you're in tomorrow's elimination.

Knew it. No worries. Cheers.

JOCK: So, pink team, purple team...

..one of you is safe

and one of you is gonna join the teal team in elimination.

One team brought us the best dessert of the day.

The team that is safe from tomorrow's elimination is...

..the purple team.

(ALL CHEER) ALDO: Yes! Yes! Yes!

I'm sorry, pink,

but you will be in tomorrow's elimination alongside teal.

MEL: You need to go home and shake off this service.

Come back clear-headed and focused

for whatever tomorrow's elimination holds for you.

See ya. See you, guys.

Thanks, guys.

(MOUTHS) Well done today.

Unlucky, hey?

Shame.

ANNOUNCER: Tomorrow night on MasterChef Australia...

MEL: You can never predict

what's around the corner in this competition.

..times are changing...

MELANIE: Today's supposed to be

a immunity challenge

and instead, we all have black aprons on.

..and time is ticking.

(CLOCK TICKS OMINOUSLY)

Captions by Red Bee Media