MasterChef Australia (2009–…): Season 14, Episode 43 - Episode #14.43 - full transcript
Contestants have been asked to write their own Pressure Test overnight. Now, they must handle their own pressure and exceed the high bar they have set for themselves and bring their best dish yet.
VOICEOVER: Previously
on MasterChef Australia...
It was a personalised pressure test.
MINDY: I'm throwing everything
at this dish today.
I want to blow the judges away.
They set the bar
as high as they could go...
DANIEL: I'm emptying the tank today
and it feels good.
..and lifted the lid
on their own special creations...
Wow!
ANDY: The flavours here are insane.
..with immunity-winning
dishes going to Daniel...
JOCK: It was a well-designed
roller-coaster of flavour.
..and Mindy.
ANDY: That is unbelievable.
I can't stop eating it.
Tonight, there's one more chance
for immunity.
SARAH: To win another pin
but also to be safe for this week
would be insane.
It's time to get inventive.
# '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. #
Thank you!
(LAUGHTER, CHATTER)
It's top 10 week
and it's all about top dishes.
Morning!
The people that get top dishes
get immunity
and a chance to win
the last immunity pin.
No Mel today.
Oh, Julie! (LAUGHS)
There's a pole there, Julie!
ALDO: Oh, they've got a cloche.
Morning, everyone.
ALL: Morning.
Unfortunately, Mel
can't be with us today,
but top 10 week continues.
Today is your last chance
to save yourself
from Sunday's elimination.
Cook the best dish
and you'll do just that.
You'll also earn a spot alongside
Billie, Daniel and Mindy
in tomorrow's immunity pin cook.
I hope your creative juices
are flowing
because we're bringing back
a MasterChef classic.
The invention test.
(ALL EXCLAIM)
ALDO: I love the invention test.
You think about things that are done
in a classic way, in different ways.
Alvin, you look concerned.
Oh, kind of depends
what we're inventing,
so that's why I'm sort of concerned.
What would you not like to see
under that cloche?
Offal.
Eugh.
That would be awful, wouldn't it?
No, no, that stinks.
Do you want to find out what it is?
ALL: Yes.
It's a classic
many of us grew up with.
TOMMY: Let's do it.
Fruit salad!
(JULIE LAUGHS)
TOMMY: Oh, OK.
JOCK: Tommy's not digging it.
He's walking.
(LAUGHTER)
What is going on?
It's yummy-yummy.
DANIEL: (CHUCKLES) Fruit salad.
Fruit salad for me,
very nostalgic.
You've had some great ones
and you've had some poor ones,
just like my nan used to give us
back in the day.
I can just remember the soup
at the bottom.
It had the flavour of
all the different fruits.
But then you think of
when you travel,
some of the fruit overseas,
when it's at its peak,
like in Peru or Mexico or Chile,
with some chilli salt on it,
that's money.
So, that's what it is for me.
For you, it might be something
totally different entirely.
And that's the beauty of
the invention test.
It's all up to how you interpret it.
Montana, what's fruit salad
mean to you?
My memory is definitely
little plastic containers,
the soggy juice at the bottom,
and sitting out for too long
and it's all warm.
Keyma, what about you?
Venezuelan fruit salad?
Does fruit punch count?
Fruit punch? 100% it counts.
It's something like that. Tizana.
It's more like juice than fruit,
but that's my memory of fruit salad.
Tommy, you were about to walk, mate.
Mustn't be much of a fan
of the old fruit salad.
Yeah, fruit salad isn't
very yummy-yummy for me.
(DANIEL LAUGHS)
I am... Just...the cogs
are just turning right now.
I have no idea what I'm going to do.
It's not an easy one,
but we are top 10.
Whatever fruit salad is to you,
draw on that inspiration
and bring us some juicy goodness.
We're going to give you 75 minutes
to reimagine and re-create
a humble fruit salad.
The best dish today will win immunity
from Sunday night's elimination
and a chance to win this shiny,
sparkly last immunity pin
in tomorrow's immunity cook.
JULIE: Oh, boy,
would I like an immunity pin.
I've never had that feeling
of that bling. I want it.
We want a fruit salad treat
that is different.
Reimagine, make it yummy.
Are you ready?
SOME: Yes.
Good, because your time starts...
..now!
(ALL CHATTER EXCITEDLY)
TOMMY: Alright!
MONTANA: Let's go.
Invention tests
are a funny challenge.
It has to be inventive,
but it has to work as well.
I'm literally just grabbing
every fruit avail...
Sorry.
Yeah, just make it up as you go.
I feel that sometimes some people
do really, really crazy ideas
that actually don't work.
Oh, my God, this is heavy.
ALVIN: I'll just take
the whole thing.
(JULIE LAUGHS)
As soon as I saw that fruit salad,
I thought it's playing right into
the hands of a dessert.
But as a fan, watching MasterChef,
my understanding of
an invention test
is to push the limits on the brief
as much as possible.
It's not a dessert today,
it is a cured kingfish with
charred fruit, aguachile,
some pickled grapes,
pickled cucumber.
An aguachile is essentially a
ceviche in a super-flavourful liquid
of limes, herbs, chilli, all those
really Mexican flavours.
BILLIE:
MINDY:
Yeah.
Cool. That's a cool idea.
Chillies and cucumbers
are fruit as well,
so I'm definitely taking
a little bit of an artistic
interpretation with it.
To be at this point
in the competition, top 10,
and to cook against these guys,
your dish not only needs
to be super tasty
but, like, I think they're
definitely looking for
that inventive sort of flair today.
So far in my cooks,
I've taken a couple of risks
and they haven't paid off.
They've put me in pressure tests
and nearly sent me home.
So today, everything
needs to be perfect.
Top dish gets us immunity
from Sunday's elimination,
so definitely gonna fight for it.
What about THIS fruit salad?
I can one-up you
on a neg front on that.
Really?
Ours was out of a tin.
It was called Fruit Cocktail.
Yeah.
And it had that syrupy stuff in it.
Everything was nasty.
Nasty fruit salad.
Fortunately, we're not asking them
to do that today, are we?
What we've asked them to do
is reimagine and reinvent.
And that's what I'm looking for.
I'm looking to see creativity.
I'm looking for them to
think outside the box today.
I'm hoping that some of them
look towards fruits
that some people don't imagine
as a fruit but actually is a fruit,
like eggplant or tomato or cucumber.
I'm looking for a dish today
that stands out from the crowd
because there's only one spot left
in tomorrow's challenge
that could win them one of these.
Yeah. And, like, the competition
is...we're at the pointy end.
You pin that on your apron,
you're sitting pretty.
I can't wait to see how
they're going to reinvent this.
Shall we look?
ALVIN: Oh, gosh. Gotta organise
this place a little bit more.
Alright, stay.
To meet the brief, you want to try
and be as inventive as possible,
so, looking forward to flexing
the creative muscles.
Ah!
My strategy today is to think
of something that's uniquely me.
It's so important, especially now
at this point of the competition,
to know what you're good at.
And in a challenge like this,
why not play to your strengths?
Hey, Alvin.
How are you going, Alvin?
Good. Good, yeah.
Savoury?
No, sweet.
Sweet?
So, I'm making a reimagined rojak
from Malaysia.
Ooh, yeah.
Essentially, it's a street snack.
It's packed with fruits, vegetables
and this really lovely, funky sauce
with sesame and peanuts.
So instead of the toasted peanuts,
I'm going to put glutinous
rice balls that I'm going to cook.
And there's going to be
a peanut filling to it.
I love it.
I also like your glasses today, man.
Looking good.
(LAUGHS)
Last spot.
Last chance to win the pin.
I really want it.
I really want it.
Everyone really wants it.
I know. Everyone wants it.
And I want it more.
I'm excited.
I'm excited too.
Good luck.
Today, I'm making my take
on Venezuelan fruit punch.
I'm thinking do a colour jelly,
so a fruit punch jelly with
a topping of condensed milk jelly,
compressed fruit.
So very tropical, punchy
take on fruit salad.
Have you got a whisk there, Sar?
I don't.
I do love invention tests. They
give you the chance to be creative.
It's gonna be a sauteed
coconut panna cotta
with a passionfruit syrup
and some pop of finger limes.
There are so many amazing cooks
around me
and, you know, it's getting to
the hard part of the competition
when everybody cooks great food.
You've got to bring it on.
Delicious.
You good?
I am. Are you?
Yeah.
I am excited about this
fruit salad challenge.
I've just got an idea of something
that, for me, is quite nostalgic.
Reinventing a dish means
turning it into something that...
..it really speaks of you,
your style,
but you still get
an essence of that dish.
I'm doing a version of a fruit salad
that reminds me
of my mum's pavlova growing up.
So it's all the flavours
that she would put in a pavlova
but inventive-style.
The only memories I have
of a fruit salad,
or the closest thing to it when
I was a kid, was my mum's pavlova.
She would load it with
passionfruit and strawberry,
and that's just about
all the fruit I ate.
I'm going to make,
like, a really beautiful
strawberry salad at the base
and small kind of meringues
with a kiwifruit sorbet on top.
I think when you connect
your emotions to food,
it's always a good thing.
My mum is known as
the pavlova queen.
Her pavlova has become
this infamous dish.
Even in my restaurant in India,
I brought in the big guns, my mum,
to teach the staff how to make it.
Oh, to win another pin
but also to be safe for this week
would be insane.
Very yum.
When the stakes are high, time flies
in the MasterChef kitchen.
You got one hour to go!
(CHEERING)
Whoo! Let's go, guys!
I nearly caught it. (LAUGHS)
BILLIE: What's Tommy up to
over there?
I'm going to do a...
I've got to figure it out.
15 minutes has gone
but I don't know what I'm doing
with this fruit salad.
I'm still kind of thinking about it.
I consider myself
quite a creative cook -
I like to, you know,
think on my feet with food -
but fruit salad is just fruit to me.
I don't have many of them.
I didn't grow up eating them.
In Vietnam, it was like,
"Oh, dragon fruits are good
this time of the year.
"Let's eat some dragon fruit
for dessert."
Or, "Watermelons are good
this time of the year,
"so let's eat some watermelon."
DANIEL: Hurry up, Tommy!
(APPLAUSE)
Where are all the limes at?
I'm running back and forth
from the pantry,
but nothing's coming to my mind yet.
MINDY: Come on, Tommy!
Today's the last chance
to win immunity.
If I miss out today, I'll be in that
elimination at the end of the week.
Only six people. Terrible odds.
The time is just
tick, tick, ticking away.
I don't know what to do
with this fruit salad...
Ahhhh!
..but I'm thinking if I want to
do well in today's challenge,
I have to go back to my roots,
draw onto my heritage.
I've got lots of
South-East Asian fruit -
longan, dragon fruit,
mangosteen, star fruit.
These kind of flavours
are comfortable to me,
so hopefully having that little bit
of comfortability
is going to help me,
you know, invent something.
Then it gives me an idea.
Durian.
DANIEL: Yes, Tommy. (LAUGHS)
Go, mate.
Durian has a bad rep
for being pretty unpalatable.
Some people say it tastes
a little bit like onion and garlic,
a little bit like socks,
but I love it.
Durian, pomegranate, coconut oil.
When I was younger, my mum loved
durian, the kids not so much.
So she used to get a tub
of vanilla ice-cream, durian,
mix it through so that we
got used to that taste.
There is a dish
that I'm thinking of - che ba mau -
which is a three-coloured
Vietnamese dessert.
I'm trying to figure it out,
change it so that it's, like,
THESE fruits today.
I'm going to try a durian custard
and then I'm going to do this thing
which uses the water chestnut,
and I cut it up small
and then I wrap it in tapioca
and it looks like a pomegranate.
A coconut granita, and I'm just gonna
make a jelly out of the star fruit,
and it gives it that third colour.
I'm going really, really
out of the box today
because I really want to show
the judges that I can be creative.
I'm just going to play around with it
and make it really
kind of interesting.
DANIEL: Smells good, Tommy!
BILLIE: It smells great up here.
MINDY: Do you notice
Julie's necklace today?
JULIE: It's my new predictive
jewellery range.
It's funny how often it turns out
I'm wearing what the challenge
is going to be,
and I swear to God I'm not getting
emails or anything like that.
BOTH: Julie Goodwin.
Hello.
That was nice,
what we just did there.
Yeah, it was good, eh?
How are you going?
I'm good, thank you.
What are you making?
Thai fruit salad curry.
Thai fruit salad curry.
27 years ago,
I honeymooned in Thailand.
I fell in love with Thai cuisine.
It was the first time I realised
that there are parts of the world
where you can eat noodles
for breakfast.
I was stoked!
Let's hear about it.
It's a Thai curry paste.
But instead of getting, you know,
fish or seafood or whatever,
there'll be fruits.
So, star fruit, tomatoes, pineapple.
There's obviously...there's Kaffir
lime zest in the paste, lychees.
I've got seven or eight fruits.
(ALL LAUGH)
So I thought, well,
why not just go the whole hog
and make the whole thing
about the fruit?
Sure, go the whole hog,
without any pig.
That's one way of sticking out
from the rest of the crowd.
I'm assuming that you want that.
I have my eyes on that.
I've never had one.
You've never had one?
No. In my season,
there was no such thing.
Well, good luck, Julie.
Thank you. Cheers.
Every beautiful Thai curry
starts with a curry paste,
so that's what I'm making now.
Galangal, ginger.
Lemongrass, garlic, it's got
chillies. And that's about it.
Reinventing the fruit salad
ain't no easy feat.
You've only got 45 minutes to go.
Keyma.
Hello.
What's happening?
I'm planning to make, like,
a tropical fruit punch,
so a jelly cup with
fruit punch underneath
and condensed milk jelly on top.
Cool.
You need a few things to set.
You've got a bit of time pressure.
Yes, I have.
And I have to put... Yes, I have.
Have you set anything yet?
No.
Wouldn't the jelly be
the first thing you'd get on?
Oh, my God.
Thank you.
Aldo.
Hey, Aldo.
Hello.
What are you making?
A salted coconut panna cotta.
OK, so a panna cotta middle of
the plate, I'm guessing.
Correct. Then I'm going
to have the passionfruit syrup.
Then I'm going to have
the compressed pineapple
with finger lime and rum.
So you're compressing the lime
and the rum into the...
The lime is going to be
just the zest of the rum.
OK. The zest of the rum?
Uh...
(MAKES SCRAPING NOISE) You'd be
there for a while, wouldn't you?
The zest of the lime.
Zest of the lime, yeah.
Zest of the lime, just a little touch
to just balance it off
the sugar that I'm going to
put it in as well.
I'm building the sauce that
will sort of cook the rojak.
It's got all the things
that you wouldn't think would make
a sauce in a fruit salad.
So oyster sauce, shrimp paste
and some tamarind
and some chilli paste.
So, this will be quite a taste
sensation for the judges,
let's put it this way.
Ooh, yeah.
BOTH: Sarah.
Hi.
What are you cooking?
So, I'm making a version
of Mum's pavlova.
Ooh.
So, my mum's, like,
the pavlova queen.
She used to make it all the time.
I wanted to do a play on the fruits
that she used to use.
So kiwi fruit and strawberry.
Yep.
So I'm going to do kind of
a strawberry salad at the bottom
and then a small kind of meringue
just for the texture going through,
and then a kiwifruit sorbet on top.
OK.
What's Mum's name?
Lorraine.
Lorraine's Pavlova.
Can it be the top dish today?
I have my eye on being safe
for the week
because I got eliminated at top nine.
I at least want to get to top nine
in this year's competition,
so I'm definitely gunning for that.
I definitely feel the pressure to
beat where I came in my season.
Say 30.
MINDY: OK, I'll tell you in 30.
You want to show that you've grown.
ALDO: Sar?
Sorry?
Have you started the sorbet?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, not in yet.
When? When are you
putting it in, mate?
Two seconds.
The competition this season
has definitely been tougher.
Walking into the kitchen,
I very quickly realised
that everyone is very, very talented
and I really had to do a lot
of work to get to this point.
So today I need a dish to keep me
safe from the elimination.
MINDY: How's your sorbet going, Sar?
Getting there.
Slowly.
JULIE: Ooh! Sorry, Mon. (LAUGHS)
So I've got my cured kingfish
in the fridge.
I'm working on my aguachile base.
Hibachi.
Mm.
I'm charring these fruits
on the hibachi.
I wanna get a really nice sort of
smoky Mexican depth of flavour on it.
JOCK: Montana.
ANDY: Hey, Montana.
Hello, hello.
This looks like a very
interesting bench.
Yeah. What's going on here?
What are you making?
So I'm doing a sort
of kingfish ceviche.
Well, cured kingfish.
Yep.
Aguachile, sort of charred cucumber,
grapes.
Ooh, OK.
Chillies. Some pickled grapes,
pickled cucumber, coriander oil.
Yep.
It's a reinvented fruit salad
in the sense that I'm using
a whole bunch of different fruits
in the aguachile base.
So I've got cucumbers,
grapes, star fruit,
chillies technically are a fruit,
and then the pickled grapes on top
just visually cue the fruit as well.
Very different than what
we expect from you as well.
Yeah.
It's exciting.
Yeah, I love how you're
thinking about this.
I remember having this tiger's milk
ceviche before.
Tiger's milk is basically a bunch
of chillies and aromats blitzed up,
and they put fruit in theirs as well
and it was, like...totally flipped
my mind what I thought ceviche was
at the time. I'm excited too.
This is such a great idea.
I think it all comes down
to balance at the end of the day.
Good luck.
Far out.
Oh, God, doing a dish that's right up
Andy's alley is definitely a risk
because something they know
like the back of their hand,
always opens you up for critique.
I mean, I dunno, I just hope
I made the right decision.
You've already had 45 minutes,
you've just got 30 minutes to go.
Let's go, guys! 30 minutes!
(ALL CHEER)
Argh!
I'm making my version of che ba mau,
which is a Vietnamese
three-coloured dessert.
To reinvent that,
I'm gonna do four different elements
and just play on those South-East
Asian fruits that I love to eat.
I've made my star fruit jelly.
Time for me to move on
to my durian custard.
Durian, what do you reckon?
Mate, I reckon go for it.
Yeah.
Figure it out, right?
It'll certainly make you stick
out from the rest!
(BOTH LAUGH)
In lots of places, hotels, shops,
you can't bring durian into them
because they just stink up the place.
But I love it and I'm hoping to make
the judges love it as well today.
He's cutting the durian.
I've got a good durian here.
Keyma's gonna go, "Eugh!"
Anyone gonna have durian in this
kitchen, it has to be me, right?
Ugh!
It smells beautiful.
It's a good durian, actually.
Just gotta make it taste even better
with the custard, I'd say.
Durian isn't a very sweet fruit.
It's kind of got this mix
of sweet and savoury.
But I think
when it's added to the custard,
it gives it that little extra
sugary lift.
Oh, look at that!
Now, that's a durian.
That's probably all I need.
To make my durian custard,
I've got egg yolks, milk, sugar,
and durian in the mixer.
Blitz it up, heat it up.
It's kind of like onion plus beet
at the same time.
In a custard, it is amazing.
BILLIE: Danger, Tommy, danger.
DANIEL: Does it reek of durian,
Tommy?
Yeah, it does, bro.
Oh, it smells good, actually.
I can smell it from here.
I don't know how the judges react
to eating durian.
'Cause I love it,
but I know it's polarising.
Fruit salad for me -
not that interesting,
which is why this makes
the perfect invention test,
'cause we get to see
reimagined versions.
And there are some pretty
crazy ones out there.
Well, there's not one similar dish.
Like, they're all... (CHUCKLES)
..very, very different.
What are you liking?
I've gotta say Alvin.
Like, he's doing a rojak.
Yeah.
He's kind of doing a sort
of reimagined version of it.
Sweet-savoury, yeah.
And I love rojak.
Yeah.
Great concept, I reckon.
Same for Julie.
She's doing a fruit salad Thai curry.
Yeah!
Which I think is a great idea.
And she's totally in the zone.
Love it.
I think it'll be interesting as well
'cause she's thought outside
of what is normal.
Yeah.
As has Montana.
Yeah.
Gonna make 'em stick out.
Yeah, definitely.
I hope Montana can really bring home
the concept.
It's just gotta be balanced.
We've asked them to really warp their
brains and reinvent that fruit salad.
I think they've done just that.
I'm looking forward to it.
It's just about execution.
Yeah. Can't wait.
MINDY: Keep going, girl.
MONTANA: I'm making
a fruit salad-inspired aguachile
with a cured kingfish
and coriander oil.
There's a massive risk in doing
something that the judges love
and I'm definitely
feeling the pressure.
The aguachile itself
is a pretty simple element -
fruits that have been charred
on a hibachi
and blitzed together and strained.
So it really comes down to
getting the balance on it
absolutely spot-on.
Balance is all about
having that perfect ratio
between sweetness, saltiness,
acidity, a little bit of bitterness.
Trying to figure it out.
You can have
one of the most creative ideas
but if the balance is off,
it doesn't mean anything
and I've come undone on a few cooks
where my balance has been off.
Is this the dressing?
Uh, yeah. It's not finished yet.
What are you...? What have you got?
Um, so...
..grapes, chillies, cucumber,
star fruit.
Nothing?
I can't tell you anything.
I know you can't. (CHUCKLES)
DANIEL: Everything taste good, Mon?
Uh, yeah, it's not finished yet.
Still needs a little bit of work.
I'm gonna boost the acidity,
get a bit more salt in that broth.
Straight up in fruit salads
in 15 minutes!
(APPLAUSE)
JOCK: Let's go!
(LAUGHS) 15 minutes?!
I may need to change my pants!
(LAUGHS)
The glutinous rice balls
are in there now
so it needs to be kind of squidgy.
Kind of like mochi.
Um, and with this lovely
sort of peanut filling.
So I hope it works.
Good!
ALDO: What is he doing?
How wobbly is it gonna be?
Wobbly, of course.
When are you popping?
Got time.
Stop, you two.
(LAUGHS)
Oh, God, actual can openers.
Hang on.
Top 10 and I can't open a can.
I'm used to ring-pulls these days,
people!
What is this?
The curry paste is cooked, which
is the base of the fruit salad curry.
OK, more is more
when it comes to cooking.
None of this less-is-more rubbish.
I've shredded up kaffir lime leaf
really finely
and the fragrance of that
is just something else.
Hoo-hoo!
I think that thinking
outside the square
is one of the most beautiful things
about this whole competition.
I really like the opportunity to go
somewhere really left of field.
(BLOWS RASPBERRY)
What I want from this curry
is to hit the brief
of a reimagined fruit salad,
but I also want it to just be
a stand-alone great dish.
I have to find a way to do that
that is heroing fruit.
Oh, I can't open the fish sauce.
Originally, I thought about
putting protein in it
but then I was worried
that might detract
from the idea of a reimagined
fruit salad.
Jackfruit, it's kind of got
a meaty texture to it
that I think will go well
as a substitute.
Looks good, Jules.
Lychee juice and fish sauce,
it tastes good. Tastes good.
I'm cooking that in the lychee syrup
instead of using sugar,
and a bit of fish sauce,
so a bit of sweet and a bit of salt
that will go into the jackfruit.
Ooh, it's fruity!
Make sure it's not too sweet.
I'm gonna cook the jackfruit until
it's really tender and really dark.
I wanna give it a lot of flavour,
a little bit of bitterness,
so that it's a bold ingredient
in that dish.
Yum.
Oof!
Yeah, worried about that.
That was the jackfruit
that was in it.
Yeah.
Does that burning pan at the end
have the jackfruit in it?
Yeah. Yeah.
Is it alright?
Ye-ah!
Ye-eah?!
It's great.
Alright.
I'm really happy with it. It's yummy.
The only way to win in these
challenges is to hit the brief
and to do it in a delicious way.
Julie, Julie, Julie.
She jumped then.
No need to... Leave her alone.
10 minutes to go!
(YELPS)
(SPECTATORS CLAP)
Think, Alvin, think. So you need...
Yeah.
DANIEL: Let's go, Sarah!
Hustle, mate.
(CHUCKLES)
You've got it.
I'm going alright.
I, um...
Yep, I've got everything kind of
on the go at the moment.
I've got my sorbet churning
and now just moving on
to that bottom salad part.
So today, I wanna take
all those elements
from my mum's classic pavlova
and flip it on its head.
I'm creating the fruit salad
at the base,
pavlova and then finishing off
with a kiwifruit sorbet on top.
How's it looking?
It's not really turning out
as good as I envisioned it.
I mean, it's...
The kiwi's not working.
I check my sorbet and...
it just doesn't taste great.
Now that it's cooled down,
it's really lost a lot of that
fresh kiwifruit flavour.
I don't know what to do.
It's just not turning out
as exciting as I thought.
Just... Just...
You better keep going. Quickly.
Like, seriously. How?
You know what to do.
You adjust in... Come on. Just...
I don't know. It's not working.
I'm pretty worried.
I really thought that element was
going to be the part that elevated it
to being inventive.
Yeah.
Without this sorbet,
it's just gonna be a classic pavlova.
Can't think of anything inventive.
My brain's just stuck.
I'm just trying to think.
I'm not, like, in love
with my dish now.
The kiwifruit sorbet's
not working out.
I'm not sure what to do to fix this.
I just can't think right now,
for some reason.
I don't know why.
MINDY: Come on, Sar.
I can't change my mind.
I really can't.
What's wrong with me?
Like, my pavlovas are good.
But it's just pavlova.
Sarah is, like,
losing her mind down there
and it's so hard to watch.
ALDO: Come on, Sarah.
You gotta back yourself, babe.
You know how to cook.
Think of what's in that pantry.
Freeze-dried fruit.
Go and have a look.
Come on, girl, you can do this.
Pick it up, babe!
I don't know what to do.
ANDY: What do you mean
you don't know what to do?
Stick with it and try and amp it up
or have you got a belter
that you can just fully pivot on?
I need to just snap out of it
and pull this dish together.
JULIE: Come on, Sar.
Yeah.
ANDY: Tommy is the messiest cook.
TOMMY: Hey,
stop bagging me out, bro!
Like, I'll say it to your face.
Like, look at this!
I'm making a dessert today, brother.
I'm taking the idea
of fruit salad, che ba mau,
and kind of fusing them together
and making it my own.
I'm reinventing this to make it
MasterChef fruit-salad-worthy.
The final element for my dish,
I did tapioca water-chestnut balls.
They're super chewy on the outside,
crispy on the inside.
But they look like pomegranate.
The brief is to be creative
and I think
it's really, really interesting
to make something
look like a fruit.
I've got water chestnuts chopped up,
tapioca flour, some red dye.
I give them a quick squeeze,
put them into boiling water.
DANIEL: Tommy, are they little
tapioca pearls or something?
So, it's, like,
water chestnuts covered in tapioca.
It forms a layer on the outside.
It's an illusion.
I definitely think
I've been inventive today.
I'm pretty excited
to serve the judges my dish.
Looking forward to tasting
your reinvention
of the old fruit salad!
Five minutes to go.
(ONLOOKERS APPLAUD AND CHEER)
MINDY: Five minutes to go!
No, no, not gonna work.
Five minutes to show off
the fruits of your labour, Jules.
Hoo-hoo-hoo! Thank you, Dan!
Five minutes to go
and I'm just gonna add in
all the pineapple and the lychees
and all the beautiful star fruit
to the curry sauce,
just so that that's got time
to warm through.
I want them to remain whole
and I want everything to maintain
its shape and its flavour.
MINDY: Smells great, Julie!
Ah!
OK.
I've got, like, nine or ten
different kinds of fruit
in this one little dish,
including all the tomatoes
and the chillies and the eggplant.
So, I am really happy with
how the flavour and the texture
work together.
DANIEL: Yes, Julie,
that's a 'rice' effort.
(JULIE LAUGHS)
(CHUCKLES)
MONTANA: Did he say,
"That's a rice effort?"
JULIE: It's a rice effort.
Go home! Honestly!
Julie likes them.
I'll see what else
I can come up with.
I would love that immunity pin.
I've never worn one.
I just can't even imagine
the kind of peace and confidence
that must give you.
I mean, I aspire to that. Yes, I do.
Three minutes, gang! Three minutes!
MINDY: Go, guys!
DANIEL: Let's go! Let's go, guys!
BILLIE: What are they, Alvin?
Um, bean-curd skins.
It'll be a good, like...
Crunchy.
Yeah.
How you eat rojak at home
is you wrapped it in a newspaper.
And, so, I thought
what would be good,
if I put little bits of
crunchy bean-curd skins over it
that looks like newspaper.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
It's so good,
it jumped out on my tastebuds.
Genius!
ALDO: I'm actually good.
Just finishing my last things,
then I need to get myself organised
for the plating
and...that's my hope,
that I've done something good.
ANDY: What?
Why you coming here? Don't come.
I'm just lookin'! I'm just lookin'!
What's this? Is this candied chilli?
Yeah, he's about to do
his panna cotta.
You've got beautiful eyes,
both of you, actually.
For the first time,
I can look into your eyes...
Don't try and suck up.
Let's see this panna cotta.
Yeah, I got the wobble.
Getting there.
BILLIE: It's fine. It's perfect.
(LAUGHS)
What did she put in the pot?
She's gonna do a balsamic reduction.
SARAH: I am creating
a balsamic glaze
and I'm gonna finish with
the freeze-dried strawberries,
to bring that tartness to the dish
that I wanted from
the kiwifruit sorbet.
Sarah, where's the sorbet?
I got rid of it.
So, I'm just gonna finish
with freeze-dried strawberries...
Where's the meringue going?
Just on top?
Yeah.
With cream, and then
a drizzle of the reduction?
Yeah, and, uh...
What now?
You're still frowning at me.
I'm not frowning.
It's just not...
It's not helping the situation here.
Like, come on!
I'm hoping that
with these two elements,
it's gonna be
a really beautiful dish.
But I feel pretty disappointed.
My dish just isn't inventive enough
for this challenge.
One minute to go! Come on!
ANDY: One minute!
I still have to unmould my jelly!
Oh, my God!
Come on!
Let's go, guys!
Let's go, Keyma!
(WHISTLES)
Come on, gantry. Give us a hand.
BILLIE: Come on!
ALL: Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five...
MONTANA: Done.
..four, three, two, one!
JOCK: That's it!
MONTANA: Oh, my God! (LAUGHS)
Look at your bench!
Oh, you're so good!
(KISSES AND MUTTERS)
(SARAH LAUGHS)
(APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING)
The first dish we'd like to taste
is yours, Tommy.
KEYMA: Go, Tommy. Good luck.
Hey, boys. There you go.
ANDY: Tommy, what is it?
Today, I've made
a fruit salad che ba mau.
What are your layers?
The bottom layer
is star fruit jelly.
The second layer is tapioca-chestnut
pomegranate pearls.
The next layer is durian custard.
And then just icy coconut.
ANDY: Tommy, I'll start.
The star fruit jelly,
I thought you could have
gone harder with the acidity.
Next layer up...
..those little chestnut
tapioca balls,
they are epic.
They look like pomegranate seeds
but once you get through
the bounce of the tapioca,
you hit the water chestnut,
it's like the texture of
a pomegranate seed, it's unreal.
The durian custard -
look, got to be honest,
not the biggest fan of durian.
But that's just personal preference.
Controversially,
I loved the durian.
That's all I needed to hear.
I think it's such
a beautiful savoury custard
that just died down the sugar
everywhere else.
I think those little things
are better than pomegranate seeds.
They're so beautiful to eat.
They're interesting,
they're crunchy in the middle.
They've got that really nice,
gelatinous bounce on the outside,
they're colourful.
The whole thing looked fantastic.
I really liked it.
Great job. Well done.
Thanks, guys.
(APPLAUSE)
He did a challenge
really well today.
Good job.
The next reimagined dish
we'd like to taste
belongs to Montana.
MONTANA: I'm so nervous,
walking my dish up to the judges.
I have definitely
pushed the boundaries on this brief.
You don't typically find fish
in a fruit salad.
My fear is that I know
I've had issues with balance
with savoury cooks
in this competition so far.
Montana, what have you made us?
Fruit-salad inspired aguachile
with kingfish and pickled grapes.
Do you think
that pushing yourself
out of your comfort zone
inevitably means a savoury dish?
Desserts are my comfort zone.
But I wanted to do something
different, push myself a little bit.
Is this a top, winning dish today?
(SIGHS)
Enjoy another taste of MasterChef
with full masterclasses, best bits
and delicious exclusives at:
Montana, what have you made us?
A fruit-salad-inspired aguachile
with kingfish, pickled grapes
and coriander.
Do you think that pushing yourself
out of your comfort zone
inevitably means a savoury dish?
Desserts are what I feel
most comfortable in
but I wanted to do something
different, push myself a little bit.
Is this a top, winning dish today?
I don't know. I hope it is.
I just... I don't know.
Alright.
Montana...
Awesome!
Very, very good.
Very good.
All the hard work
is in the agua, right?
Everything is in there -
the balance, the aromas.
Stick your nose in there.
You've got that sort of
hibachi, smoky...
Cucumber, when it goes on a hibachi,
turns into something magical.
If you then juice that
and it's kind of hidden in amongst
the chilli and grape juice,
it is just bloody delicious.
It's definitely a very different take
on a fruit salad.
Well done.
Thank you.
Montana...
Yes!
Yes!
I know how much you want THIS,
you know?
And it is - it is so important
for your growth.
Yeah.
And I feel like you've just been
battling and battling and battling
in this savoury land.
You've hit it, right here, you know?
Yep.
The fish was beautifully treated.
I loved how it's got
a bit of thickness about it
because you do get the texture
and the flavour of the kingfish.
Really, really good stuff.
And I would...I'd pay good money
for that at a restaurant.
Take a lot of confidence
from this cook.
Well done, Montana.
Ahh! Thank you!
(APPLAUSE)
The next fruit salad we'd like
to taste is yours, Aldo.
What have you made us, mate?
Coconut panna cotta
with passionfruit syrup.
Aldo, panna cotta - beautifully set.
Nice amount of balance in there
in terms of sweetness.
The syrup is very sugary.
The dish itself is too sweet
because of the syrup.
I love all the flavours
that are going on, though.
I just think the balance
is slightly out.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Next up, Keyma.
KEYMA: A fruit punch jelly
and condensed milk jelly.
Yum.
I'm gutted for you,
because it's super tasty.
In terms of flavour, balance,
conception of a dish,
you are onto something
really, really good here.
You just didn't quite
get it done in time.
Thank you, Jock.
Alvin.
(APPLAUSE)
So, what's the dish?
It's a reimagined Malaysian rojak.
Alvin, you drew on a nostalgia
and you drew on experience as well,
and it shows on that plate.
You've got the palate of dreams.
It is singing, right there.
The sweet, the sour, the funk,
the rice balls with the chew,
with the peanut butter.
And it's just a riot, mate,
in, like, the best way.
That is topnotch.
Well done, buddy.
Nice one, Alvin.
Very, very good.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
That is tasty.
Next up, Sarah!
SARAH: I definitely went through
a lot of thoughts and emotions
in this cook
but I'm happy
that I turned this around
and managed to plate a dish.
The flavours are there.
I feel like I would have my mum
proud when it comes to the pavlova.
It's just not the most inventive.
Went through a few evolutions.
(LAUGHS)
What did you finish on?
It is a strawberry and kiwi salad
with Mum's pavlova.
Lorraine's pavlova.
Lorraine's pavlova.
Beauty.
It was a bit of a tough one
for you, wasn't it?
Yeah.
How come? What was going on?
Just the kiwifruit
just wasn't working for me.
You get stuck on an idea
and it's, like, so hard to pivot.
And...
Sent you for a spin.
Yes.
Like, I was happy with the meringue
and it was trying to work out,
"How can I bring it together
where it's not just,
"you know, a pavlova on a plate?"
It was...it was nice enough.
It wasn't amazing.
The best part about it
was the pavlova.
Mum's happy. Yes!
Um, good move with the balsamic.
Ties in well with the acidity
in the coulis.
But...
..I think you just got caught out
with the kiwifruit, really.
Yeah.
And then you didn't know
where to go from there.
So, it's just not standing out
amongst the crowd,
which was the biggest thing
I said to everyone today.
You haven't reinvented
the wheel here
but it's good.
The fruit salad component,
I feel like you could have really
gone in there and picked
some very interesting things
to really make our minds go,
"Ooh, yeah."
Because, as it stands,
you've got a great pavlova -
the rest of it was just a bit, like,
"Give me something!"
Like, "Give me something
on an invention test day!"
Thank you.
Well done.
Thanks.
(APPLAUSE)
It's all good.
Next up, Julie Goodwin.
DANIEL: Go, Julie!
I definitely think I've done justice
to my memories of Thailand.
I don't know where my dish is going
to stand amongst everybody else
but I've tried really, really hard
'cause I really want this.
I want this more than
I've wanted immunity
ever, in this competition.
Julie, you didn't win an immunity
pin in your season, did you?
There was no such thing.
No such thing?
Yeah.
Tough to win it, then.
(LAUGHS)
This cook, to get into
the immunity cook,
this is your last shot.
Maybe ever.
You reckon this can do it for you?
(SIGHS)
Julie...
This cook, to get into
the immunity cook,
this is your last shot.
Maybe ever.
You reckon this can do it for you?
I hope so. I...
I really want it.
I can't even tell you
how much I would love
a chance to cook for that pin.
It's the last chance.
I...really want this.
You're never coming back after this?
I don't know.
I'll need to come in on a bloody
Zimmer frame if you have me back.
(LAUGHTER)
Julie... What did you make?
It's a Thai fruit salad curry.
I think there's nine, or something,
fruits in there.
I just started thinking about
the fruit in a red duck curry
and the lychees and pineapple,
and I just built it from there.
Red duck curry is, like,
one of my favourite things.
So, I was, like...
.."A fruit version?"
It's better. It is better.
There are so many interesting,
different fruits in there
that, like, get away, duck!
Go away. Don't come back.
Give me this version
all the time now.
You've got so much body and so much
power in that curry sauce.
So, you've ticked that box.
Then you get a piece of pineapple -
sweet-and-sour goodness.
Same as the lychee.
And your palate just goes way back
to the start.
You just go for another ride again
and you find yourself
in star fruit land.
Like, it's...it's just a bowl
of adventure.
But the hero for me
is definitely the jackfruit.
There's just
this dark caramelisation
on the jackfruit wedges.
And folded into that curry sauce...
Hallelujah, Julie. Like...
..fruit salad just taken to
another level.
Julie Goodwin,
this is where you excel.
You excel in the generosity.
You excel in this rustic
yet refined in flavour.
It is SO good.
We all immediately
think of fruit salad
as nothing other than just
some chopped fruit,
maybe a bit of juice or whatever.
You know, like, it's either
on an aeroplane, a room-service menu
or at your nan's house.
This is something else.
I just loved the roller-coaster and
the depth of flavour you got in this.
So, not only did you come up with
probably one of
the most creative ideas,
but you've executed it
in such a brilliant way, Julie.
Well done.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Well done, my love.
This is a tough decision, eh?
Well...
..you guys came into this challenge
locked and loaded.
Boy, oh, boy, we were spoilt
for choice today.
Julie, Alvin, Montana,
can we get a round of applause
for your three dishes, please?
DANIEL: Good one, guys.
(APPLAUSE)
All of your dishes were inventive,
they were tasty
and, without a doubt,
worthy of that top spot today.
We landed on a dish that truly
reinvented the fruit salad
in an original way.
And that dish belonged to...
..Julie Goodwin.
(GASPS)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Thank you!
Oh!
Oh, my God!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE)
Fruit salad curry?
Who would have thought?
Congratulations.
You did it!
Thank you! (LAUGHS)
Billie, Mindy, Daniel and Julie,
we are in for
one heck of a show tomorrow.
If you want that shiny gold pin,
don't stop pushing
until it is planted on your apron.
Go home, rest up, see you tomorrow.
Well done, everybody.
Well done, everyone.
ALDO: Thank you.
(LAUGHS)
JULIE: This competition
has just gone from
one huge moment to another.
I am SO thrilled!
VOICEOVER: Tomorrow night
on MasterChef Australia,
it's their last chance to win a pin.
BILLIE: I cannot afford to lose.
Competitive me
is coming out to play.
I just want to see
what I can achieve here.
But what lengths will they go to
to get it?
Oh, my God.
Oh, my lord.
Captions by Red Bee Media
on MasterChef Australia...
It was a personalised pressure test.
MINDY: I'm throwing everything
at this dish today.
I want to blow the judges away.
They set the bar
as high as they could go...
DANIEL: I'm emptying the tank today
and it feels good.
..and lifted the lid
on their own special creations...
Wow!
ANDY: The flavours here are insane.
..with immunity-winning
dishes going to Daniel...
JOCK: It was a well-designed
roller-coaster of flavour.
..and Mindy.
ANDY: That is unbelievable.
I can't stop eating it.
Tonight, there's one more chance
for immunity.
SARAH: To win another pin
but also to be safe for this week
would be insane.
It's time to get inventive.
# '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. #
Thank you!
(LAUGHTER, CHATTER)
It's top 10 week
and it's all about top dishes.
Morning!
The people that get top dishes
get immunity
and a chance to win
the last immunity pin.
No Mel today.
Oh, Julie! (LAUGHS)
There's a pole there, Julie!
ALDO: Oh, they've got a cloche.
Morning, everyone.
ALL: Morning.
Unfortunately, Mel
can't be with us today,
but top 10 week continues.
Today is your last chance
to save yourself
from Sunday's elimination.
Cook the best dish
and you'll do just that.
You'll also earn a spot alongside
Billie, Daniel and Mindy
in tomorrow's immunity pin cook.
I hope your creative juices
are flowing
because we're bringing back
a MasterChef classic.
The invention test.
(ALL EXCLAIM)
ALDO: I love the invention test.
You think about things that are done
in a classic way, in different ways.
Alvin, you look concerned.
Oh, kind of depends
what we're inventing,
so that's why I'm sort of concerned.
What would you not like to see
under that cloche?
Offal.
Eugh.
That would be awful, wouldn't it?
No, no, that stinks.
Do you want to find out what it is?
ALL: Yes.
It's a classic
many of us grew up with.
TOMMY: Let's do it.
Fruit salad!
(JULIE LAUGHS)
TOMMY: Oh, OK.
JOCK: Tommy's not digging it.
He's walking.
(LAUGHTER)
What is going on?
It's yummy-yummy.
DANIEL: (CHUCKLES) Fruit salad.
Fruit salad for me,
very nostalgic.
You've had some great ones
and you've had some poor ones,
just like my nan used to give us
back in the day.
I can just remember the soup
at the bottom.
It had the flavour of
all the different fruits.
But then you think of
when you travel,
some of the fruit overseas,
when it's at its peak,
like in Peru or Mexico or Chile,
with some chilli salt on it,
that's money.
So, that's what it is for me.
For you, it might be something
totally different entirely.
And that's the beauty of
the invention test.
It's all up to how you interpret it.
Montana, what's fruit salad
mean to you?
My memory is definitely
little plastic containers,
the soggy juice at the bottom,
and sitting out for too long
and it's all warm.
Keyma, what about you?
Venezuelan fruit salad?
Does fruit punch count?
Fruit punch? 100% it counts.
It's something like that. Tizana.
It's more like juice than fruit,
but that's my memory of fruit salad.
Tommy, you were about to walk, mate.
Mustn't be much of a fan
of the old fruit salad.
Yeah, fruit salad isn't
very yummy-yummy for me.
(DANIEL LAUGHS)
I am... Just...the cogs
are just turning right now.
I have no idea what I'm going to do.
It's not an easy one,
but we are top 10.
Whatever fruit salad is to you,
draw on that inspiration
and bring us some juicy goodness.
We're going to give you 75 minutes
to reimagine and re-create
a humble fruit salad.
The best dish today will win immunity
from Sunday night's elimination
and a chance to win this shiny,
sparkly last immunity pin
in tomorrow's immunity cook.
JULIE: Oh, boy,
would I like an immunity pin.
I've never had that feeling
of that bling. I want it.
We want a fruit salad treat
that is different.
Reimagine, make it yummy.
Are you ready?
SOME: Yes.
Good, because your time starts...
..now!
(ALL CHATTER EXCITEDLY)
TOMMY: Alright!
MONTANA: Let's go.
Invention tests
are a funny challenge.
It has to be inventive,
but it has to work as well.
I'm literally just grabbing
every fruit avail...
Sorry.
Yeah, just make it up as you go.
I feel that sometimes some people
do really, really crazy ideas
that actually don't work.
Oh, my God, this is heavy.
ALVIN: I'll just take
the whole thing.
(JULIE LAUGHS)
As soon as I saw that fruit salad,
I thought it's playing right into
the hands of a dessert.
But as a fan, watching MasterChef,
my understanding of
an invention test
is to push the limits on the brief
as much as possible.
It's not a dessert today,
it is a cured kingfish with
charred fruit, aguachile,
some pickled grapes,
pickled cucumber.
An aguachile is essentially a
ceviche in a super-flavourful liquid
of limes, herbs, chilli, all those
really Mexican flavours.
BILLIE:
MINDY:
Yeah.
Cool. That's a cool idea.
Chillies and cucumbers
are fruit as well,
so I'm definitely taking
a little bit of an artistic
interpretation with it.
To be at this point
in the competition, top 10,
and to cook against these guys,
your dish not only needs
to be super tasty
but, like, I think they're
definitely looking for
that inventive sort of flair today.
So far in my cooks,
I've taken a couple of risks
and they haven't paid off.
They've put me in pressure tests
and nearly sent me home.
So today, everything
needs to be perfect.
Top dish gets us immunity
from Sunday's elimination,
so definitely gonna fight for it.
What about THIS fruit salad?
I can one-up you
on a neg front on that.
Really?
Ours was out of a tin.
It was called Fruit Cocktail.
Yeah.
And it had that syrupy stuff in it.
Everything was nasty.
Nasty fruit salad.
Fortunately, we're not asking them
to do that today, are we?
What we've asked them to do
is reimagine and reinvent.
And that's what I'm looking for.
I'm looking to see creativity.
I'm looking for them to
think outside the box today.
I'm hoping that some of them
look towards fruits
that some people don't imagine
as a fruit but actually is a fruit,
like eggplant or tomato or cucumber.
I'm looking for a dish today
that stands out from the crowd
because there's only one spot left
in tomorrow's challenge
that could win them one of these.
Yeah. And, like, the competition
is...we're at the pointy end.
You pin that on your apron,
you're sitting pretty.
I can't wait to see how
they're going to reinvent this.
Shall we look?
ALVIN: Oh, gosh. Gotta organise
this place a little bit more.
Alright, stay.
To meet the brief, you want to try
and be as inventive as possible,
so, looking forward to flexing
the creative muscles.
Ah!
My strategy today is to think
of something that's uniquely me.
It's so important, especially now
at this point of the competition,
to know what you're good at.
And in a challenge like this,
why not play to your strengths?
Hey, Alvin.
How are you going, Alvin?
Good. Good, yeah.
Savoury?
No, sweet.
Sweet?
So, I'm making a reimagined rojak
from Malaysia.
Ooh, yeah.
Essentially, it's a street snack.
It's packed with fruits, vegetables
and this really lovely, funky sauce
with sesame and peanuts.
So instead of the toasted peanuts,
I'm going to put glutinous
rice balls that I'm going to cook.
And there's going to be
a peanut filling to it.
I love it.
I also like your glasses today, man.
Looking good.
(LAUGHS)
Last spot.
Last chance to win the pin.
I really want it.
I really want it.
Everyone really wants it.
I know. Everyone wants it.
And I want it more.
I'm excited.
I'm excited too.
Good luck.
Today, I'm making my take
on Venezuelan fruit punch.
I'm thinking do a colour jelly,
so a fruit punch jelly with
a topping of condensed milk jelly,
compressed fruit.
So very tropical, punchy
take on fruit salad.
Have you got a whisk there, Sar?
I don't.
I do love invention tests. They
give you the chance to be creative.
It's gonna be a sauteed
coconut panna cotta
with a passionfruit syrup
and some pop of finger limes.
There are so many amazing cooks
around me
and, you know, it's getting to
the hard part of the competition
when everybody cooks great food.
You've got to bring it on.
Delicious.
You good?
I am. Are you?
Yeah.
I am excited about this
fruit salad challenge.
I've just got an idea of something
that, for me, is quite nostalgic.
Reinventing a dish means
turning it into something that...
..it really speaks of you,
your style,
but you still get
an essence of that dish.
I'm doing a version of a fruit salad
that reminds me
of my mum's pavlova growing up.
So it's all the flavours
that she would put in a pavlova
but inventive-style.
The only memories I have
of a fruit salad,
or the closest thing to it when
I was a kid, was my mum's pavlova.
She would load it with
passionfruit and strawberry,
and that's just about
all the fruit I ate.
I'm going to make,
like, a really beautiful
strawberry salad at the base
and small kind of meringues
with a kiwifruit sorbet on top.
I think when you connect
your emotions to food,
it's always a good thing.
My mum is known as
the pavlova queen.
Her pavlova has become
this infamous dish.
Even in my restaurant in India,
I brought in the big guns, my mum,
to teach the staff how to make it.
Oh, to win another pin
but also to be safe for this week
would be insane.
Very yum.
When the stakes are high, time flies
in the MasterChef kitchen.
You got one hour to go!
(CHEERING)
Whoo! Let's go, guys!
I nearly caught it. (LAUGHS)
BILLIE: What's Tommy up to
over there?
I'm going to do a...
I've got to figure it out.
15 minutes has gone
but I don't know what I'm doing
with this fruit salad.
I'm still kind of thinking about it.
I consider myself
quite a creative cook -
I like to, you know,
think on my feet with food -
but fruit salad is just fruit to me.
I don't have many of them.
I didn't grow up eating them.
In Vietnam, it was like,
"Oh, dragon fruits are good
this time of the year.
"Let's eat some dragon fruit
for dessert."
Or, "Watermelons are good
this time of the year,
"so let's eat some watermelon."
DANIEL: Hurry up, Tommy!
(APPLAUSE)
Where are all the limes at?
I'm running back and forth
from the pantry,
but nothing's coming to my mind yet.
MINDY: Come on, Tommy!
Today's the last chance
to win immunity.
If I miss out today, I'll be in that
elimination at the end of the week.
Only six people. Terrible odds.
The time is just
tick, tick, ticking away.
I don't know what to do
with this fruit salad...
Ahhhh!
..but I'm thinking if I want to
do well in today's challenge,
I have to go back to my roots,
draw onto my heritage.
I've got lots of
South-East Asian fruit -
longan, dragon fruit,
mangosteen, star fruit.
These kind of flavours
are comfortable to me,
so hopefully having that little bit
of comfortability
is going to help me,
you know, invent something.
Then it gives me an idea.
Durian.
DANIEL: Yes, Tommy. (LAUGHS)
Go, mate.
Durian has a bad rep
for being pretty unpalatable.
Some people say it tastes
a little bit like onion and garlic,
a little bit like socks,
but I love it.
Durian, pomegranate, coconut oil.
When I was younger, my mum loved
durian, the kids not so much.
So she used to get a tub
of vanilla ice-cream, durian,
mix it through so that we
got used to that taste.
There is a dish
that I'm thinking of - che ba mau -
which is a three-coloured
Vietnamese dessert.
I'm trying to figure it out,
change it so that it's, like,
THESE fruits today.
I'm going to try a durian custard
and then I'm going to do this thing
which uses the water chestnut,
and I cut it up small
and then I wrap it in tapioca
and it looks like a pomegranate.
A coconut granita, and I'm just gonna
make a jelly out of the star fruit,
and it gives it that third colour.
I'm going really, really
out of the box today
because I really want to show
the judges that I can be creative.
I'm just going to play around with it
and make it really
kind of interesting.
DANIEL: Smells good, Tommy!
BILLIE: It smells great up here.
MINDY: Do you notice
Julie's necklace today?
JULIE: It's my new predictive
jewellery range.
It's funny how often it turns out
I'm wearing what the challenge
is going to be,
and I swear to God I'm not getting
emails or anything like that.
BOTH: Julie Goodwin.
Hello.
That was nice,
what we just did there.
Yeah, it was good, eh?
How are you going?
I'm good, thank you.
What are you making?
Thai fruit salad curry.
Thai fruit salad curry.
27 years ago,
I honeymooned in Thailand.
I fell in love with Thai cuisine.
It was the first time I realised
that there are parts of the world
where you can eat noodles
for breakfast.
I was stoked!
Let's hear about it.
It's a Thai curry paste.
But instead of getting, you know,
fish or seafood or whatever,
there'll be fruits.
So, star fruit, tomatoes, pineapple.
There's obviously...there's Kaffir
lime zest in the paste, lychees.
I've got seven or eight fruits.
(ALL LAUGH)
So I thought, well,
why not just go the whole hog
and make the whole thing
about the fruit?
Sure, go the whole hog,
without any pig.
That's one way of sticking out
from the rest of the crowd.
I'm assuming that you want that.
I have my eyes on that.
I've never had one.
You've never had one?
No. In my season,
there was no such thing.
Well, good luck, Julie.
Thank you. Cheers.
Every beautiful Thai curry
starts with a curry paste,
so that's what I'm making now.
Galangal, ginger.
Lemongrass, garlic, it's got
chillies. And that's about it.
Reinventing the fruit salad
ain't no easy feat.
You've only got 45 minutes to go.
Keyma.
Hello.
What's happening?
I'm planning to make, like,
a tropical fruit punch,
so a jelly cup with
fruit punch underneath
and condensed milk jelly on top.
Cool.
You need a few things to set.
You've got a bit of time pressure.
Yes, I have.
And I have to put... Yes, I have.
Have you set anything yet?
No.
Wouldn't the jelly be
the first thing you'd get on?
Oh, my God.
Thank you.
Aldo.
Hey, Aldo.
Hello.
What are you making?
A salted coconut panna cotta.
OK, so a panna cotta middle of
the plate, I'm guessing.
Correct. Then I'm going
to have the passionfruit syrup.
Then I'm going to have
the compressed pineapple
with finger lime and rum.
So you're compressing the lime
and the rum into the...
The lime is going to be
just the zest of the rum.
OK. The zest of the rum?
Uh...
(MAKES SCRAPING NOISE) You'd be
there for a while, wouldn't you?
The zest of the lime.
Zest of the lime, yeah.
Zest of the lime, just a little touch
to just balance it off
the sugar that I'm going to
put it in as well.
I'm building the sauce that
will sort of cook the rojak.
It's got all the things
that you wouldn't think would make
a sauce in a fruit salad.
So oyster sauce, shrimp paste
and some tamarind
and some chilli paste.
So, this will be quite a taste
sensation for the judges,
let's put it this way.
Ooh, yeah.
BOTH: Sarah.
Hi.
What are you cooking?
So, I'm making a version
of Mum's pavlova.
Ooh.
So, my mum's, like,
the pavlova queen.
She used to make it all the time.
I wanted to do a play on the fruits
that she used to use.
So kiwi fruit and strawberry.
Yep.
So I'm going to do kind of
a strawberry salad at the bottom
and then a small kind of meringue
just for the texture going through,
and then a kiwifruit sorbet on top.
OK.
What's Mum's name?
Lorraine.
Lorraine's Pavlova.
Can it be the top dish today?
I have my eye on being safe
for the week
because I got eliminated at top nine.
I at least want to get to top nine
in this year's competition,
so I'm definitely gunning for that.
I definitely feel the pressure to
beat where I came in my season.
Say 30.
MINDY: OK, I'll tell you in 30.
You want to show that you've grown.
ALDO: Sar?
Sorry?
Have you started the sorbet?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, not in yet.
When? When are you
putting it in, mate?
Two seconds.
The competition this season
has definitely been tougher.
Walking into the kitchen,
I very quickly realised
that everyone is very, very talented
and I really had to do a lot
of work to get to this point.
So today I need a dish to keep me
safe from the elimination.
MINDY: How's your sorbet going, Sar?
Getting there.
Slowly.
JULIE: Ooh! Sorry, Mon. (LAUGHS)
So I've got my cured kingfish
in the fridge.
I'm working on my aguachile base.
Hibachi.
Mm.
I'm charring these fruits
on the hibachi.
I wanna get a really nice sort of
smoky Mexican depth of flavour on it.
JOCK: Montana.
ANDY: Hey, Montana.
Hello, hello.
This looks like a very
interesting bench.
Yeah. What's going on here?
What are you making?
So I'm doing a sort
of kingfish ceviche.
Well, cured kingfish.
Yep.
Aguachile, sort of charred cucumber,
grapes.
Ooh, OK.
Chillies. Some pickled grapes,
pickled cucumber, coriander oil.
Yep.
It's a reinvented fruit salad
in the sense that I'm using
a whole bunch of different fruits
in the aguachile base.
So I've got cucumbers,
grapes, star fruit,
chillies technically are a fruit,
and then the pickled grapes on top
just visually cue the fruit as well.
Very different than what
we expect from you as well.
Yeah.
It's exciting.
Yeah, I love how you're
thinking about this.
I remember having this tiger's milk
ceviche before.
Tiger's milk is basically a bunch
of chillies and aromats blitzed up,
and they put fruit in theirs as well
and it was, like...totally flipped
my mind what I thought ceviche was
at the time. I'm excited too.
This is such a great idea.
I think it all comes down
to balance at the end of the day.
Good luck.
Far out.
Oh, God, doing a dish that's right up
Andy's alley is definitely a risk
because something they know
like the back of their hand,
always opens you up for critique.
I mean, I dunno, I just hope
I made the right decision.
You've already had 45 minutes,
you've just got 30 minutes to go.
Let's go, guys! 30 minutes!
(ALL CHEER)
Argh!
I'm making my version of che ba mau,
which is a Vietnamese
three-coloured dessert.
To reinvent that,
I'm gonna do four different elements
and just play on those South-East
Asian fruits that I love to eat.
I've made my star fruit jelly.
Time for me to move on
to my durian custard.
Durian, what do you reckon?
Mate, I reckon go for it.
Yeah.
Figure it out, right?
It'll certainly make you stick
out from the rest!
(BOTH LAUGH)
In lots of places, hotels, shops,
you can't bring durian into them
because they just stink up the place.
But I love it and I'm hoping to make
the judges love it as well today.
He's cutting the durian.
I've got a good durian here.
Keyma's gonna go, "Eugh!"
Anyone gonna have durian in this
kitchen, it has to be me, right?
Ugh!
It smells beautiful.
It's a good durian, actually.
Just gotta make it taste even better
with the custard, I'd say.
Durian isn't a very sweet fruit.
It's kind of got this mix
of sweet and savoury.
But I think
when it's added to the custard,
it gives it that little extra
sugary lift.
Oh, look at that!
Now, that's a durian.
That's probably all I need.
To make my durian custard,
I've got egg yolks, milk, sugar,
and durian in the mixer.
Blitz it up, heat it up.
It's kind of like onion plus beet
at the same time.
In a custard, it is amazing.
BILLIE: Danger, Tommy, danger.
DANIEL: Does it reek of durian,
Tommy?
Yeah, it does, bro.
Oh, it smells good, actually.
I can smell it from here.
I don't know how the judges react
to eating durian.
'Cause I love it,
but I know it's polarising.
Fruit salad for me -
not that interesting,
which is why this makes
the perfect invention test,
'cause we get to see
reimagined versions.
And there are some pretty
crazy ones out there.
Well, there's not one similar dish.
Like, they're all... (CHUCKLES)
..very, very different.
What are you liking?
I've gotta say Alvin.
Like, he's doing a rojak.
Yeah.
He's kind of doing a sort
of reimagined version of it.
Sweet-savoury, yeah.
And I love rojak.
Yeah.
Great concept, I reckon.
Same for Julie.
She's doing a fruit salad Thai curry.
Yeah!
Which I think is a great idea.
And she's totally in the zone.
Love it.
I think it'll be interesting as well
'cause she's thought outside
of what is normal.
Yeah.
As has Montana.
Yeah.
Gonna make 'em stick out.
Yeah, definitely.
I hope Montana can really bring home
the concept.
It's just gotta be balanced.
We've asked them to really warp their
brains and reinvent that fruit salad.
I think they've done just that.
I'm looking forward to it.
It's just about execution.
Yeah. Can't wait.
MINDY: Keep going, girl.
MONTANA: I'm making
a fruit salad-inspired aguachile
with a cured kingfish
and coriander oil.
There's a massive risk in doing
something that the judges love
and I'm definitely
feeling the pressure.
The aguachile itself
is a pretty simple element -
fruits that have been charred
on a hibachi
and blitzed together and strained.
So it really comes down to
getting the balance on it
absolutely spot-on.
Balance is all about
having that perfect ratio
between sweetness, saltiness,
acidity, a little bit of bitterness.
Trying to figure it out.
You can have
one of the most creative ideas
but if the balance is off,
it doesn't mean anything
and I've come undone on a few cooks
where my balance has been off.
Is this the dressing?
Uh, yeah. It's not finished yet.
What are you...? What have you got?
Um, so...
..grapes, chillies, cucumber,
star fruit.
Nothing?
I can't tell you anything.
I know you can't. (CHUCKLES)
DANIEL: Everything taste good, Mon?
Uh, yeah, it's not finished yet.
Still needs a little bit of work.
I'm gonna boost the acidity,
get a bit more salt in that broth.
Straight up in fruit salads
in 15 minutes!
(APPLAUSE)
JOCK: Let's go!
(LAUGHS) 15 minutes?!
I may need to change my pants!
(LAUGHS)
The glutinous rice balls
are in there now
so it needs to be kind of squidgy.
Kind of like mochi.
Um, and with this lovely
sort of peanut filling.
So I hope it works.
Good!
ALDO: What is he doing?
How wobbly is it gonna be?
Wobbly, of course.
When are you popping?
Got time.
Stop, you two.
(LAUGHS)
Oh, God, actual can openers.
Hang on.
Top 10 and I can't open a can.
I'm used to ring-pulls these days,
people!
What is this?
The curry paste is cooked, which
is the base of the fruit salad curry.
OK, more is more
when it comes to cooking.
None of this less-is-more rubbish.
I've shredded up kaffir lime leaf
really finely
and the fragrance of that
is just something else.
Hoo-hoo!
I think that thinking
outside the square
is one of the most beautiful things
about this whole competition.
I really like the opportunity to go
somewhere really left of field.
(BLOWS RASPBERRY)
What I want from this curry
is to hit the brief
of a reimagined fruit salad,
but I also want it to just be
a stand-alone great dish.
I have to find a way to do that
that is heroing fruit.
Oh, I can't open the fish sauce.
Originally, I thought about
putting protein in it
but then I was worried
that might detract
from the idea of a reimagined
fruit salad.
Jackfruit, it's kind of got
a meaty texture to it
that I think will go well
as a substitute.
Looks good, Jules.
Lychee juice and fish sauce,
it tastes good. Tastes good.
I'm cooking that in the lychee syrup
instead of using sugar,
and a bit of fish sauce,
so a bit of sweet and a bit of salt
that will go into the jackfruit.
Ooh, it's fruity!
Make sure it's not too sweet.
I'm gonna cook the jackfruit until
it's really tender and really dark.
I wanna give it a lot of flavour,
a little bit of bitterness,
so that it's a bold ingredient
in that dish.
Yum.
Oof!
Yeah, worried about that.
That was the jackfruit
that was in it.
Yeah.
Does that burning pan at the end
have the jackfruit in it?
Yeah. Yeah.
Is it alright?
Ye-ah!
Ye-eah?!
It's great.
Alright.
I'm really happy with it. It's yummy.
The only way to win in these
challenges is to hit the brief
and to do it in a delicious way.
Julie, Julie, Julie.
She jumped then.
No need to... Leave her alone.
10 minutes to go!
(YELPS)
(SPECTATORS CLAP)
Think, Alvin, think. So you need...
Yeah.
DANIEL: Let's go, Sarah!
Hustle, mate.
(CHUCKLES)
You've got it.
I'm going alright.
I, um...
Yep, I've got everything kind of
on the go at the moment.
I've got my sorbet churning
and now just moving on
to that bottom salad part.
So today, I wanna take
all those elements
from my mum's classic pavlova
and flip it on its head.
I'm creating the fruit salad
at the base,
pavlova and then finishing off
with a kiwifruit sorbet on top.
How's it looking?
It's not really turning out
as good as I envisioned it.
I mean, it's...
The kiwi's not working.
I check my sorbet and...
it just doesn't taste great.
Now that it's cooled down,
it's really lost a lot of that
fresh kiwifruit flavour.
I don't know what to do.
It's just not turning out
as exciting as I thought.
Just... Just...
You better keep going. Quickly.
Like, seriously. How?
You know what to do.
You adjust in... Come on. Just...
I don't know. It's not working.
I'm pretty worried.
I really thought that element was
going to be the part that elevated it
to being inventive.
Yeah.
Without this sorbet,
it's just gonna be a classic pavlova.
Can't think of anything inventive.
My brain's just stuck.
I'm just trying to think.
I'm not, like, in love
with my dish now.
The kiwifruit sorbet's
not working out.
I'm not sure what to do to fix this.
I just can't think right now,
for some reason.
I don't know why.
MINDY: Come on, Sar.
I can't change my mind.
I really can't.
What's wrong with me?
Like, my pavlovas are good.
But it's just pavlova.
Sarah is, like,
losing her mind down there
and it's so hard to watch.
ALDO: Come on, Sarah.
You gotta back yourself, babe.
You know how to cook.
Think of what's in that pantry.
Freeze-dried fruit.
Go and have a look.
Come on, girl, you can do this.
Pick it up, babe!
I don't know what to do.
ANDY: What do you mean
you don't know what to do?
Stick with it and try and amp it up
or have you got a belter
that you can just fully pivot on?
I need to just snap out of it
and pull this dish together.
JULIE: Come on, Sar.
Yeah.
ANDY: Tommy is the messiest cook.
TOMMY: Hey,
stop bagging me out, bro!
Like, I'll say it to your face.
Like, look at this!
I'm making a dessert today, brother.
I'm taking the idea
of fruit salad, che ba mau,
and kind of fusing them together
and making it my own.
I'm reinventing this to make it
MasterChef fruit-salad-worthy.
The final element for my dish,
I did tapioca water-chestnut balls.
They're super chewy on the outside,
crispy on the inside.
But they look like pomegranate.
The brief is to be creative
and I think
it's really, really interesting
to make something
look like a fruit.
I've got water chestnuts chopped up,
tapioca flour, some red dye.
I give them a quick squeeze,
put them into boiling water.
DANIEL: Tommy, are they little
tapioca pearls or something?
So, it's, like,
water chestnuts covered in tapioca.
It forms a layer on the outside.
It's an illusion.
I definitely think
I've been inventive today.
I'm pretty excited
to serve the judges my dish.
Looking forward to tasting
your reinvention
of the old fruit salad!
Five minutes to go.
(ONLOOKERS APPLAUD AND CHEER)
MINDY: Five minutes to go!
No, no, not gonna work.
Five minutes to show off
the fruits of your labour, Jules.
Hoo-hoo-hoo! Thank you, Dan!
Five minutes to go
and I'm just gonna add in
all the pineapple and the lychees
and all the beautiful star fruit
to the curry sauce,
just so that that's got time
to warm through.
I want them to remain whole
and I want everything to maintain
its shape and its flavour.
MINDY: Smells great, Julie!
Ah!
OK.
I've got, like, nine or ten
different kinds of fruit
in this one little dish,
including all the tomatoes
and the chillies and the eggplant.
So, I am really happy with
how the flavour and the texture
work together.
DANIEL: Yes, Julie,
that's a 'rice' effort.
(JULIE LAUGHS)
(CHUCKLES)
MONTANA: Did he say,
"That's a rice effort?"
JULIE: It's a rice effort.
Go home! Honestly!
Julie likes them.
I'll see what else
I can come up with.
I would love that immunity pin.
I've never worn one.
I just can't even imagine
the kind of peace and confidence
that must give you.
I mean, I aspire to that. Yes, I do.
Three minutes, gang! Three minutes!
MINDY: Go, guys!
DANIEL: Let's go! Let's go, guys!
BILLIE: What are they, Alvin?
Um, bean-curd skins.
It'll be a good, like...
Crunchy.
Yeah.
How you eat rojak at home
is you wrapped it in a newspaper.
And, so, I thought
what would be good,
if I put little bits of
crunchy bean-curd skins over it
that looks like newspaper.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
It's so good,
it jumped out on my tastebuds.
Genius!
ALDO: I'm actually good.
Just finishing my last things,
then I need to get myself organised
for the plating
and...that's my hope,
that I've done something good.
ANDY: What?
Why you coming here? Don't come.
I'm just lookin'! I'm just lookin'!
What's this? Is this candied chilli?
Yeah, he's about to do
his panna cotta.
You've got beautiful eyes,
both of you, actually.
For the first time,
I can look into your eyes...
Don't try and suck up.
Let's see this panna cotta.
Yeah, I got the wobble.
Getting there.
BILLIE: It's fine. It's perfect.
(LAUGHS)
What did she put in the pot?
She's gonna do a balsamic reduction.
SARAH: I am creating
a balsamic glaze
and I'm gonna finish with
the freeze-dried strawberries,
to bring that tartness to the dish
that I wanted from
the kiwifruit sorbet.
Sarah, where's the sorbet?
I got rid of it.
So, I'm just gonna finish
with freeze-dried strawberries...
Where's the meringue going?
Just on top?
Yeah.
With cream, and then
a drizzle of the reduction?
Yeah, and, uh...
What now?
You're still frowning at me.
I'm not frowning.
It's just not...
It's not helping the situation here.
Like, come on!
I'm hoping that
with these two elements,
it's gonna be
a really beautiful dish.
But I feel pretty disappointed.
My dish just isn't inventive enough
for this challenge.
One minute to go! Come on!
ANDY: One minute!
I still have to unmould my jelly!
Oh, my God!
Come on!
Let's go, guys!
Let's go, Keyma!
(WHISTLES)
Come on, gantry. Give us a hand.
BILLIE: Come on!
ALL: Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five...
MONTANA: Done.
..four, three, two, one!
JOCK: That's it!
MONTANA: Oh, my God! (LAUGHS)
Look at your bench!
Oh, you're so good!
(KISSES AND MUTTERS)
(SARAH LAUGHS)
(APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING)
The first dish we'd like to taste
is yours, Tommy.
KEYMA: Go, Tommy. Good luck.
Hey, boys. There you go.
ANDY: Tommy, what is it?
Today, I've made
a fruit salad che ba mau.
What are your layers?
The bottom layer
is star fruit jelly.
The second layer is tapioca-chestnut
pomegranate pearls.
The next layer is durian custard.
And then just icy coconut.
ANDY: Tommy, I'll start.
The star fruit jelly,
I thought you could have
gone harder with the acidity.
Next layer up...
..those little chestnut
tapioca balls,
they are epic.
They look like pomegranate seeds
but once you get through
the bounce of the tapioca,
you hit the water chestnut,
it's like the texture of
a pomegranate seed, it's unreal.
The durian custard -
look, got to be honest,
not the biggest fan of durian.
But that's just personal preference.
Controversially,
I loved the durian.
That's all I needed to hear.
I think it's such
a beautiful savoury custard
that just died down the sugar
everywhere else.
I think those little things
are better than pomegranate seeds.
They're so beautiful to eat.
They're interesting,
they're crunchy in the middle.
They've got that really nice,
gelatinous bounce on the outside,
they're colourful.
The whole thing looked fantastic.
I really liked it.
Great job. Well done.
Thanks, guys.
(APPLAUSE)
He did a challenge
really well today.
Good job.
The next reimagined dish
we'd like to taste
belongs to Montana.
MONTANA: I'm so nervous,
walking my dish up to the judges.
I have definitely
pushed the boundaries on this brief.
You don't typically find fish
in a fruit salad.
My fear is that I know
I've had issues with balance
with savoury cooks
in this competition so far.
Montana, what have you made us?
Fruit-salad inspired aguachile
with kingfish and pickled grapes.
Do you think
that pushing yourself
out of your comfort zone
inevitably means a savoury dish?
Desserts are my comfort zone.
But I wanted to do something
different, push myself a little bit.
Is this a top, winning dish today?
(SIGHS)
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Montana, what have you made us?
A fruit-salad-inspired aguachile
with kingfish, pickled grapes
and coriander.
Do you think that pushing yourself
out of your comfort zone
inevitably means a savoury dish?
Desserts are what I feel
most comfortable in
but I wanted to do something
different, push myself a little bit.
Is this a top, winning dish today?
I don't know. I hope it is.
I just... I don't know.
Alright.
Montana...
Awesome!
Very, very good.
Very good.
All the hard work
is in the agua, right?
Everything is in there -
the balance, the aromas.
Stick your nose in there.
You've got that sort of
hibachi, smoky...
Cucumber, when it goes on a hibachi,
turns into something magical.
If you then juice that
and it's kind of hidden in amongst
the chilli and grape juice,
it is just bloody delicious.
It's definitely a very different take
on a fruit salad.
Well done.
Thank you.
Montana...
Yes!
Yes!
I know how much you want THIS,
you know?
And it is - it is so important
for your growth.
Yeah.
And I feel like you've just been
battling and battling and battling
in this savoury land.
You've hit it, right here, you know?
Yep.
The fish was beautifully treated.
I loved how it's got
a bit of thickness about it
because you do get the texture
and the flavour of the kingfish.
Really, really good stuff.
And I would...I'd pay good money
for that at a restaurant.
Take a lot of confidence
from this cook.
Well done, Montana.
Ahh! Thank you!
(APPLAUSE)
The next fruit salad we'd like
to taste is yours, Aldo.
What have you made us, mate?
Coconut panna cotta
with passionfruit syrup.
Aldo, panna cotta - beautifully set.
Nice amount of balance in there
in terms of sweetness.
The syrup is very sugary.
The dish itself is too sweet
because of the syrup.
I love all the flavours
that are going on, though.
I just think the balance
is slightly out.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Next up, Keyma.
KEYMA: A fruit punch jelly
and condensed milk jelly.
Yum.
I'm gutted for you,
because it's super tasty.
In terms of flavour, balance,
conception of a dish,
you are onto something
really, really good here.
You just didn't quite
get it done in time.
Thank you, Jock.
Alvin.
(APPLAUSE)
So, what's the dish?
It's a reimagined Malaysian rojak.
Alvin, you drew on a nostalgia
and you drew on experience as well,
and it shows on that plate.
You've got the palate of dreams.
It is singing, right there.
The sweet, the sour, the funk,
the rice balls with the chew,
with the peanut butter.
And it's just a riot, mate,
in, like, the best way.
That is topnotch.
Well done, buddy.
Nice one, Alvin.
Very, very good.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
That is tasty.
Next up, Sarah!
SARAH: I definitely went through
a lot of thoughts and emotions
in this cook
but I'm happy
that I turned this around
and managed to plate a dish.
The flavours are there.
I feel like I would have my mum
proud when it comes to the pavlova.
It's just not the most inventive.
Went through a few evolutions.
(LAUGHS)
What did you finish on?
It is a strawberry and kiwi salad
with Mum's pavlova.
Lorraine's pavlova.
Lorraine's pavlova.
Beauty.
It was a bit of a tough one
for you, wasn't it?
Yeah.
How come? What was going on?
Just the kiwifruit
just wasn't working for me.
You get stuck on an idea
and it's, like, so hard to pivot.
And...
Sent you for a spin.
Yes.
Like, I was happy with the meringue
and it was trying to work out,
"How can I bring it together
where it's not just,
"you know, a pavlova on a plate?"
It was...it was nice enough.
It wasn't amazing.
The best part about it
was the pavlova.
Mum's happy. Yes!
Um, good move with the balsamic.
Ties in well with the acidity
in the coulis.
But...
..I think you just got caught out
with the kiwifruit, really.
Yeah.
And then you didn't know
where to go from there.
So, it's just not standing out
amongst the crowd,
which was the biggest thing
I said to everyone today.
You haven't reinvented
the wheel here
but it's good.
The fruit salad component,
I feel like you could have really
gone in there and picked
some very interesting things
to really make our minds go,
"Ooh, yeah."
Because, as it stands,
you've got a great pavlova -
the rest of it was just a bit, like,
"Give me something!"
Like, "Give me something
on an invention test day!"
Thank you.
Well done.
Thanks.
(APPLAUSE)
It's all good.
Next up, Julie Goodwin.
DANIEL: Go, Julie!
I definitely think I've done justice
to my memories of Thailand.
I don't know where my dish is going
to stand amongst everybody else
but I've tried really, really hard
'cause I really want this.
I want this more than
I've wanted immunity
ever, in this competition.
Julie, you didn't win an immunity
pin in your season, did you?
There was no such thing.
No such thing?
Yeah.
Tough to win it, then.
(LAUGHS)
This cook, to get into
the immunity cook,
this is your last shot.
Maybe ever.
You reckon this can do it for you?
(SIGHS)
Julie...
This cook, to get into
the immunity cook,
this is your last shot.
Maybe ever.
You reckon this can do it for you?
I hope so. I...
I really want it.
I can't even tell you
how much I would love
a chance to cook for that pin.
It's the last chance.
I...really want this.
You're never coming back after this?
I don't know.
I'll need to come in on a bloody
Zimmer frame if you have me back.
(LAUGHTER)
Julie... What did you make?
It's a Thai fruit salad curry.
I think there's nine, or something,
fruits in there.
I just started thinking about
the fruit in a red duck curry
and the lychees and pineapple,
and I just built it from there.
Red duck curry is, like,
one of my favourite things.
So, I was, like...
.."A fruit version?"
It's better. It is better.
There are so many interesting,
different fruits in there
that, like, get away, duck!
Go away. Don't come back.
Give me this version
all the time now.
You've got so much body and so much
power in that curry sauce.
So, you've ticked that box.
Then you get a piece of pineapple -
sweet-and-sour goodness.
Same as the lychee.
And your palate just goes way back
to the start.
You just go for another ride again
and you find yourself
in star fruit land.
Like, it's...it's just a bowl
of adventure.
But the hero for me
is definitely the jackfruit.
There's just
this dark caramelisation
on the jackfruit wedges.
And folded into that curry sauce...
Hallelujah, Julie. Like...
..fruit salad just taken to
another level.
Julie Goodwin,
this is where you excel.
You excel in the generosity.
You excel in this rustic
yet refined in flavour.
It is SO good.
We all immediately
think of fruit salad
as nothing other than just
some chopped fruit,
maybe a bit of juice or whatever.
You know, like, it's either
on an aeroplane, a room-service menu
or at your nan's house.
This is something else.
I just loved the roller-coaster and
the depth of flavour you got in this.
So, not only did you come up with
probably one of
the most creative ideas,
but you've executed it
in such a brilliant way, Julie.
Well done.
Thank you.
Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Well done, my love.
This is a tough decision, eh?
Well...
..you guys came into this challenge
locked and loaded.
Boy, oh, boy, we were spoilt
for choice today.
Julie, Alvin, Montana,
can we get a round of applause
for your three dishes, please?
DANIEL: Good one, guys.
(APPLAUSE)
All of your dishes were inventive,
they were tasty
and, without a doubt,
worthy of that top spot today.
We landed on a dish that truly
reinvented the fruit salad
in an original way.
And that dish belonged to...
..Julie Goodwin.
(GASPS)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
Thank you!
Oh!
Oh, my God!
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE)
Fruit salad curry?
Who would have thought?
Congratulations.
You did it!
Thank you! (LAUGHS)
Billie, Mindy, Daniel and Julie,
we are in for
one heck of a show tomorrow.
If you want that shiny gold pin,
don't stop pushing
until it is planted on your apron.
Go home, rest up, see you tomorrow.
Well done, everybody.
Well done, everyone.
ALDO: Thank you.
(LAUGHS)
JULIE: This competition
has just gone from
one huge moment to another.
I am SO thrilled!
VOICEOVER: Tomorrow night
on MasterChef Australia,
it's their last chance to win a pin.
BILLIE: I cannot afford to lose.
Competitive me
is coming out to play.
I just want to see
what I can achieve here.
But what lengths will they go to
to get it?
Oh, my God.
Oh, my lord.
Captions by Red Bee Media