MasterChef Australia

- Season 9

(2017)

The heat is on as MasterChef Australia returns for 2017. A fresh group of home cooks from around the country will eagerly tackle challenges that will see one of them take home the title and $250,000.

Maggie Beer set a challenge to choose from the twelve home cooks who got a second chance, in order to fill three positions in the top24. The three least impressive cooks will be eliminated, and the remaining six will go on to a pressure test to fight for the last apron.

Pressure test set up by pastry chef Anna Polyviou, in a fight for the last apron, heading to the top 24.

First cook of the year for the top24 contestants, in a mystery box set-up by the 2016 winner - Elena Duggan.

Benita, Benjamin, Lee and Rashedul competed in the first elimination challenge. Each had to pick an ingredient of their choice next to a cloche that contained a hidden paired ingredient and make a dish in 75 minutes.

Home cooking week. Without any fancy equipment, the contestants have 75 minutes to cook with ingredients chosen by the judges. Eloise won the advantage and choose halloumi as the key ingredient for the invention test.

The three contestants with the least impressive dishes from the invention test face off in the pressure test. To survive they must keep up with Gary Mehigan as he prepares his classic roast chicken.

In the 32-minute first round, Eliza, Sarah and Karlie had to make a savoury dinner plate with just one trip to the pantry. Sarah's Pan Friend Barramundi with Bok Choy and Vinaigrette won the round and she advanced to the Immunity Challenge against Jarrod Di Blasi, who was the Victorian Young Chef of the Year. She chose one of the judges' home fridges (Gary's which contained Asian Ingredients) and with 75 minutes, prepped a XO Marinated Steak with Pickled Mushrooms and Potato Mash while Jarrod made a Sashimi of Whiting with Roast Bone Dressing and Avocado Puree in 60 ...

The contestants arrived at the 400 Gradi Pizzeria headed by World Pizza Champion Johnny Di Francesco for a team challenge cooking for 250 guests. The two teams: Green Team (Diana, Karlie, Sarah, Benita, Eliza, Bryan, Ben, Trent, Callan, Pete and Ray) and Red Team (Eloise, Tamara, Nicole, Michelle, Jess, Pia, Samuel, Sam, Josh, Arum and Benjamin) had three hours preparation and service time to cook and plate an Italian three-course meal: two pizzas, a pasta dish and a dessert. During their first challenge, both teams struggled in prepping their respective pizza dough ...

The losing team members faced a two-round elimination challenge featuring the core ingredient: potatoes. The first round was to cook a classic side dish of chips and dip in 60 minutes. Samuel, Arum and Eloise had the Top 3 chip dishes while Benjamin, Jess, Josh and Michelle served soggy chips, sending them to the second round. After 60 minutes to cook a dish with potatoes, Jess and Michelle delivered exemplary dishes. While one of Benjamin's sweet potato doughnuts was mushy, Josh's undercooking of his potato resulted in his gnocchi being lumpy and made him the third ...

The judges individually presented their respective simple dishes to the contestants in their MasterClass: George demonstrated the cooking of broccoli on a grill, Gary presented a dessert that featured chocolate and beetroot, and Matt cooked nuggets and chips. Gary helped George make his Lamb Tortellini with Butter Sauce and Yoghurt Dressing.

Ben Shewry showcased his Mystery Box that contained Australian ingredients for the contestants. After 75 minutes, the top five were Jess, Tamara, Trent, Nicole and Ray, with the latter winning the challenge. Ray's advantage for the Invention Test was to choose one of the three cooking techniques that had to be highlighted in the contestants' dishes. Throughout the second challenge, Ray, despite choosing smoking as the highlight of the dish, was responsible for under-cooked crayfish and under-smoked broth, while Pia failed to plate up all of her elements. Sarah, Sam ...

Pete, Pia and Ray had four-and-a-half hours to recreate pastry chef Andy Bowdy's signature twelve-element intricate layered cake. The judges were impressed with Pete's dish overall, despite him burning his second batch of candied pecans, and he was declared safe. Ray lost points in the presentation of his cake layers but was praised on the tasting apart from his thick biscuit base. Although Pia's dish had the best presentation, her meringue was soft and sugary and her bavarois was too dense. The errors in Pia's dessert outweighed Ray's bulging cake appearance and her ...

In the 45-minute first round, Eloise, Sam and Sarah were tasked to cook a dish with the use of a waffle maker. While Sam and Sarah opted for the sweet option for their waffle dishes, Eloise's savoury take on chicken and waffles with chilli soy caramel won her the opportunity to cook against chef Charlie Carrington of Atlas Dining in Melbourne. Eloise had the advantage to beat the chef by choosing the indulgent pantry that had sweet ingredients and, with 75 minutes, cooked a dessert of chocolate and peanut butter. The judges applaud Eloise's dish over Charlie's ...

Four teams: Yellow Team (Benjamin, Sam, Eloise, Eliza, and Bryan), Red Team (Diana, Trent, Samuel, Callan, and Ray), Blue Team (Tamara, Sarah, Karlie, Jess, and Michelle), and Green Team (Benita, Ben, Arum, Pete, and Nicole) competed in a relay challenge where each member had 15 minutes of cooking time and 45 seconds to pass their instructions to the next cook. The captains Diana (Red Team), Benjamin (Yellow), Tamara (Blue) and Benita (Green) were tasked with choosing a dish that featured maple syrup. Benita and Tamara chose the savoury option for their dishes (...

Contestants have 90 minutes to create a delicious dessert from the mystery box ingredients however, only five dishes will be tasted and only three will move on to the immunity challenge.

Christy Tania showed Bryan, Samuel and Trent her gravity-defying ice cream dessert for them to replicate in three hours, with thirty minutes to make their sugar balloons. The time pressure proved too much for the contestants as they had flaws in their dishes: Trent's balloon was too small as it dispersed when he presented his dish to the judges, Samuel used excess chocolate to cover the crevice of his cone after he poured his hot chocolate sauce during the cook, and Bryan's semifreddo was icy, too dense and contained dollops of meringue in the mixture, while he ran ...

As a team, Callan, Diana and Sam individually competed against one of the three guest pastry chefs for immunity. By knife draw: Sam was pitted against pastry chef Lauren Eldridge, Diana faced chef Angélique Pereto and Callan cooked against KOI Dessert Bar's Reynold Poernomo (from season 7). In 75 minutes, Diana made a dark chocolate sorbet with orange sauce, Sam cooked a deconstructed black forest gateaux and Callan baked a layered sponge cake with fruits, jelly, toffee and chocolate ganache. In 60 minutes, Reynold made a mango cream with spiced pineapple and ...

Two teams: Red Team (Sam, Trent, Ben, Arum, Karlie, Diana, Sarah, Pete, and Eliza) and Blue Team (Nicole, Tamara, Eloise, Benjamin, Ray, Jess, Samuel, Callan and Michelle) were tasked by Darren Purchese to construct edible dessert art installations in their respective stations for public viewing in seven hours. Sarah's Red Team chose a Japanese zen garden concept while Tamara's Blue Team took inspiration of a beehive. During prep time, the Red Team overcooked their first batch of dehydrated strawberry cherry blossoms and forced them to only make 300 blossoms while the...

The losing contestants (except Eloise, who used her Immunity Pin) had to correctly guess each sphere of a dessert ingredient such as liquorice, coconut, milk chocolate, ginger, macadamia nuts and dried dates while blindfolded, to avoid landing in one of three places for the second elimination round. The bottom three: Ray (who mistook grapes for watermelon), Benjamin (banana instead of rockmelon) and Tamara (cucumber rather than rockmelon) had 75 minutes to cook their desserts with the ingredient they guessed incorrectly. Both Tamara and Ray impressed with their dishes...

Thai cuisine expert and chef David Thompson set up a Mystery Box Challenge for the contestants to cook their dishes with his chosen Thai ingredients, with Tamara, Diana, Michelle, Karlie and Samuel selected as the top five. Karlie won the advantage in the Invention Test which was the choice between two of Thompson's dishes to cook an inventive dish with the ingredients of the chosen dish. She chose his pineapple and crab curry (over his tom yum soup) and several contestants prospered with their dishes to compete for three places in the Immunity Challenge. Tamara, Ben ...

Jess, Sam and Trent had three hours to replicate "After the Eucalypt Fire", a 14-element emu dish cooked by Brisbane's Chef of the Year Josue Lopez. Despite his beetroot leaf puree being grainy, Sam was first to be declared safe. Jess' puree was bitter and lacked vibrance while Trent was praised for the cooking of his emu, his plating was unorganized and the lack of the essential crispy elements in his dish sent him home.

Ben, Samuel and Tamara had 45 minutes to recreate a classic macaroni and cheese in the first round. Tamara's chilli mac 'n' cheese won her the chance to cook off against Melbourne chef Clinton McIver of Amaru. From a choice of herbs, she chose rosemary and cooked Chicken Rosemary Garlic Dumplings with Chicken Broth in 75 minutes while Clinton made a Rosemary Lamb with Pickled Vegetables and Pear in 60 minutes. Both of their dishes were praised on simplicity but Clinton's modern flavours of his dish beat Tamara's overall quality presentation by 27 points to 26.

Four teams: Yellow Team (Ben, Karlie, Callan and Michelle), Blue Team (Diana, Eliza, Ray, and Sam), Green Team (Tamara, Sarah, Eloise, and Arum), and Red Team (Pete, Jess, Samuel, and Nicole) competed at the South Melbourne Market to cook two snacks (savoury and sweet) and sell them to 1000 people, with only two teams to be pronounced safe after they delivered the best dishes and earned the most money from the public, the bottom 2 teams will go into tomorrow's elimination and from there someone will be their last cook in the MasterChef Kitchen. All the teams struggled...

The eight losing contestants faced a three-round elimination challenge to cook dishes in 45 minutes with only six eggs available. Ben, Michelle and Nicole had the top dishes in the first round. Karlie and Samuel thrived in the second round, sending Callan, Jess and Pete in the final elimination round. The judges doubted Pete's choice of cooking a simple steak and chips with a fried egg but they applauded his dish in the tasting. Callan was also safe with the creativity of his smoked egg yolk. Jess' flavours of her dish were flat while her egg cracked in the cooking ...

Celebrity chef and writer Yotam Ottolenghi made his first appearance as this week's guest judge. His Mystery Box had ingredients that are used in Middle-Eastern cuisine: freekeh, tahini paste, lamb, date syrup, parsley, eggplant, rose water and sumac. After 75 minutes against Michelle, Eliza, Sarah and Ben, Karlie won the challenge for the second time, gaining the advantage of a 30-minute head start to cook a stuffed dish in 60 minutes. She then won the Invention Test, and joined Diana and Tamara with immunity. Pete and Ray, facing their third Pressure Test, were ...

Eloise, Pete and Ray had one hour to recreate five dishes from Yotam's mezze feast: flatbreads, lamb koftas, deep fried olives, butter bean hummus and roasted ricotta with broad bean spread. Eloise won praise for the overall taste and quality of her dishes. Ray also won praise with his feast but served large chunks of onions in the koftas and some of his dishes were under-seasoned. Pete's disorganized plating failed in presentation while his flatbreads and fried olives received praise in the tasting, but overcooking his lamb and pomegranate jam was enough to send him ...

Karlie, Tamara and Diana compete in the first round where each of them take turns to name one of the 25 ingredients of Yotam's pastilla. Diana and Tamara were eliminated in consecutive guesses which left Karlie to cook up against O.MY head chef Blayne Bertoncello. Both of them had to feature the ingredients from the first round to cook their dishes. In 75 minutes, Karlie cooked Braised Chicken with Onion Sauce, Chipotle and Tomato while Blayne made a Tomato Salad with Chicken in 60 minutes. Karlie was praised for the cooking of her dish but received mixed reviews on ...

Two Teams: Green Team (Sarah, Karlie, Diana, Arum, Tamara, Samuel and Sam) and Blue Team (Nicole, Eloise, Callan, Ben, Ray, Michelle, and Eliza) had to cook a feast with vegetable-based dishes to impress 10 meat-eating guests and the judges. In the two-hour prep time, Callan's poor leadership and decisions pushed the Blue Team over the edge while both teams had issues in cooking their flatbreads. In the tasting, both teams' dishes were praised for highlighting the brief but their flatbreads were undercooked, and it was the Green Team's overuse of the sour plum compote...

The seven contestants took turns identifying a chosen sliced cross-section of an ingredient. Incorrect guesses led to three contestants being sent to the elimination round. Arum, Samuel, and Tamara had 75 minutes to cook their dishes from the pantry of ingredients that were guessed correctly in the first round. Arum's apple dessert was applauded, saving him from elimination. The verdict came down to Tamara's fruit tart with unusual flavour combinations and Samuel's vegetable tart with disproportionate quantities. As a result, Samuel was eliminated. Yotam, with ...

Curtis Stone presented the ingredients for the Mystery Box challenge. Sam beat Diana and Ray to secure the advantage for the Invention Test. He chose three core ingredients (kingfish, capers and turnips) from farmers' produce. This season introduces the Power Pin that grants the wearer 15 minutes extra time in any individual challenge until the finals. The best dish in this Invention Test will win the pin. Diana, Karlie and Michelle were named the Top 3 with Karlie delivering the winning dish for the pin. The four cooks facing elimination are Arum, Ray, Sam and Tamara.

The bottom four contestants from the invention test must now cook-off in the Pressure Test set by one of the world's top chocolatiers to avoid elimination. Who will be next to leave the competition?

The previously eliminated contestants returned for a second chance to cook for a place back in the competition. In two rounds, they could only choose one core ingredient from the given pantry to cook a first-round savoury dish and a second-round dessert dish. Jess, Samuel, Bryan, Tamara, Pete and Lee had the top savoury dishes and advanced to the next round. The top three in the second round were Bryan, Tamara and Jess. After her elimination in the previous episode, Tamara returned to the competition after producing the best dish.

MasterChef Australia Season 8 runner-up Matt Sinclair mentored two teams of contestants: Red Team (Callan, Diana, Sarah, Karlie, Eliza and Nicole) and Blue Team (Ben, Arum, Michelle, Tamara, Sam and Ray) to create pop-up restaurants and cook a four-course meal to be served to 100 customers in three hours. Tamara, having an advantage after earning back her place in the competition, chose to spare Eloise from the team challenge. Karlie's Red Team were assigned to cook dishes with meat and Ben's Blue Team cooked seafood dishes. Both teams struggled early in the prep time...

The contestants chose a covered bench of their choice with different ingredients and kitchen equipment, to make a dish without the use of the pantry. Ben received praise for the cooking of his Moreton Bay bug bisque. Tamara's use of the hibachi grill for her duck dish met with acclaim. Sam succeeded in the cooking of his lamb apart from his use of fruit. Michelle's crepe dessert was applauded for the use of apple in three different ways. Ray tried to think of a dish with the use of a fryer and an oven, and he decided to cook a simple fish and chips dish, of which the ...

Heston Blumenthal took the Top 12 contestants on a road trip around Victoria for the week's challenges inspired by the four classical elements: earth, air, fire, water. They arrive at Swan Hill on the Murray River for their first challenge based on water. Contestants were given 75 minutes to cook a dish with Heston's Mystery Box ingredients: corn, olives, oranges, Murray cod, currants, saltbush, oats and snails. Diana, Karlie and Sarah produced the top dishes, with Diana gaining the advantage of extra time and mentoring by Heston in the second round. The ...

The remaining 10 contestants arrived at the silo mill in Brim, Victoria for their second challenge. They were divided into pairs: Green Team (Eloise and Michelle), Red Team (Tamara and Eliza) Blue Team (Callan and Sam), Yellow Team (Arum and Ben) and Purple Team (Karlie and Nicole) had 75 minutes to cook a main dish and dessert inspired by the earth. The Purple Team (Karlie and Nicole) were first to be declared safe after impressing with their saltbush lamb dish, and grapes and grains dessert. While the Blue Team's (Callan and Sam) dessert pleased the judges, their ...

The remaining 8 contestants arrive at the salt pans of Mildura for their air element-based challenge. They split into two teams: Red Team (Tamara, Karlie, Nicole and Michelle) and Blue Team (Ben, Arum, Eloise, and Eliza) had two hours to cook a three-course meal, including a salt element dessert, to be served to the guests and the judges. The progress of Eliza's Blue Team strive in the captain's poor leadership, composing a small underseasoned entrée. While Nicole's Red Team were fascinated with their entrée and main dishes, they struggled to cope their team member ...

Arum, Ben, Eliza and Eloise faced off in their last challenge inside Jack's Magazine from Maribyrnong, Victoria. The challenge was a two-round Invention Test cooking dishes (savoury and sweet) with the element of fire as inspiration. Ben's dish met with acclaim from the judges with Arum also declared safe while Eliza and Eloise, both had technical issues with their dishes, were sent to the second round to compete and avoid landing the last place of the Elimination Round with Eliza's Peach Ember dessert beat Eloise's Rhubarb Sorbet with Smoked Italian Meringue to join ...

Elimination Challenge: Deception - The contestants return to the kitchen after their four-day road trip for the Elimination Challenge. From MasterChef Australia (series 6), the contestants got 75 minutes to cook a dish that focused on culinary deception what they've never seen. While she struggled with her caramel element, Eloise was safe after delivering the dish of the day. Ultimately, Sam and Nicole (both of their dishes had less deceptive creativity) were among the Bottom 3 while Michelle presented a frigid parfait when she took a risk of using cream cheese for ...

Peter Gilmore's choice of ingredients from his Mystery Box tasked the contestants to cook a dish in 75 minutes. After winning the advantage for the Invention Test over Arum and Diana, Tamara was given the choice to pick one of Peter's three technical dessert dishes that were used in Pressure Tests of previous seasons: Guava and Custard Apple Snow Egg (from MasterChef Australia (series 2)), Eight Texture Chocolate Cake (from MasterChef Australia (series 4)) and Cherry Jam Lamington (from MasterChef Australia (series 8)). She chose his series 8 Pressure Test dish, ...

Arum, Callan and Nicole had three hours and forty five minutes to replicate a Bajan three-course meal - a fried snapper, a charred pumpkin with salted cod, a black pudding with cucumber and a spiced cucumber juice by guest chef Paul Carmichael. None of them managed to complete all the elements in their dishes, particularly in their pumpkin. Arum's cooking of the fish damaged the presentation, but his dishes stood out in the tasting. After Callan struggled throughout the challenge and won praise for his fish, his accompanying dishes were let down by lots of little ...

Eliza, Eloise and Sarah were given 60 minutes to cook a stuffed dish in the first round. The judges loved Sarah's chicken wings with mushroom filling and she competed in round two against chef Ben Devlin of the Paper Daisy restaurant. From a choice of similar paired ingredients, Sarah picked prawns and shrimp paste for her 75-minute cook. Both she and Ben received overall praise on their grilled prawn dishes but the professional won the challenge by one point over Sarah (28-27).

The Top 10 were divided in pairs for the team challenge: Green Team (Tamara and Sarah), Yellow Team (Diana and Sam), Red Team (Karlie and Ben), Blue Team (Callan and Eloise) and Purple Team (Arum and Eliza). Through the use of communication, they had to cook two plates of the same dish while each member was separated by a divider. None of the teams' dishes matched completely, but all won praise in the tasting. The split decision came down to the Green Team (Tamara and Sarah) and the Purple Team (Arum and Eliza) with the judges voting the Green Team as the winners. ...

Callan, Diana, Eloise and Sam competed in the time displacement elimination challenge from series 8 where they had to gather their ingredients from one of the following four different hidden pantries on the prescribed time limit. Eloise, Sam and Callan had 60 minutes to cook with herbs, fruits and vegetables while Diana waited for the last pantry (protein) with 30 minutes left to cook. Her risk paid off when her dish was praised by the judges, along with Eloise's ice cream dessert. The difficult decision was between Callan and Sam as their dishes did not impress. ...

After arriving in Japan with the judges, the Top 9 contestants each bought one ingredient around Tokyo for the Mystery Box: scallops (by Tamara), lily root (Sarah), soya beans (Callan), honey yams (Arum), cherry blossom radish (Eloise), wagyu (Karlie), sesame dressing (Diana), miso (Eliza) and sake (Ben). After 60 minutes, the three best dishes were cooked by Karlie, Eloise and Diana, who was the winner for the Invention Test's advantage. She chose wasabi (over ginger and soy sauce). The contestants then had 60 minutes and an open pantry to cook their dishes. Beating ...

The other contestants arrive at the Michelin-starred restaurant of chef Tsutomo Kodama where each must cook a dish of a Japanese eight-course degustation menu under mentorship by George. The two contestants who produce the best dishes will join Ben in the Immunity Challenge. Tamara had the first course of shiso with crab and yuzu. Eliza was assigned to cook white asparagus accompanied with a quail egg for the second course. Diana's assigned core ingredient for the third course were clams, producing a clam broth with spring onions and ginger floss. Mackerel was ...

Ben, Karlie and Sarah arrive at the Obuchi Tea Plantation in the foothills of Mount Fuji for the two-round immunity challenge. In the first round, each must cook a dish with one of the three Japanese fruits of their choice (fuji apple, shiranui and yuzu) to land two places in the second round. Karlie and Sarah had 60 minutes to make a dish that featured tea as the main ingredient. Sarah managed to claim the immunity pin after beating Karlie's Tea Poached Chicken Broth with her Tea Braised Pork Belly, Vegetables and Bean Curd.

The contestants arrive at the food stalls of Shinjuku where they were divided into teams of three: Blue Team (Tamara, Sarah, and Callan), Yellow Team (Karlie, Eloise, and Diana) an Red Team (Arum, Ben, and Eliza) to cook three Japanese street foods to be served to 100 diners. The Yellow Team won the challenge with the prize of a private MasterClass and they were first to be declared safe. The Red Team's beef skewer dish lacked sauce but otherwise, they were also safe. Although the judges applauded the prawn dish of Blue Team member Sarah, it was the technical flaws of...

Sarah decided to participate in the elimination round by not using her immunity pin. She, Callan and Tamara had 75 minutes to make a dish inspired by their personal past and future at the Akagi Shrine. Callan made a sushi-inspired dessert, Sarah made a dish called "steamboat" (pork with mushrooms, taro and wombok), and Tamara made pork dumplings with a spicy broth. Both Tamara and Sarah had outstanding dishes and they were both safe, whereupon Callan was eliminated when his dessert lacked flavour in its roasted rice ice cream.

On the last day in Japan, the judges along with local Japanese chefs gave the contestants a MasterClass before the finals. Yesterday, Gary took the Yellow Team members to the Soba restaurant Kanda Matsuya for their private MasterClass with chef Odaka Takayuki who explained the history and demonstrated the making of Soba noodles. The next day, the Yellow Team rejoined their fellow contestants in the next MasterClasses at the Tateyama Castle. George made a modern Japanese seafood salad, Matt made three Japanese dessert slices and sushi chef Kagehisa Imada presented the ...

Shannon's Mystery Box contained four special ingredients: Moreton bay bugs, porcini, Yukon gold potatoes and sunrise lime, for the contestants to cook a dish and after 60 minutes; Eloise, Karlie and Arum delivered the top dishes. Arum won the advantage which is to pick a random dish from the knife block to re-invent the core dish in 60 minutes. Beef Wellington was chosen and he also got an extra 30 minutes to make his dish. Karlie used her Power Pin that she won in her previous Invention test, with an extra 15 minutes to re-invent a dessert version of a wellington. ...

Kylie Millar set up a challenging Pressure Test in three hours for Ben, Diana and Eloise to recreate her elaborate 10-element dessert: "The Nest" with 15 minutes to plate it. Both Eloise and Ben struggled in making the honeycomb as well as plating the dish (the cured egg yolk in particular). In the tasting, Diana manage to interpret the dish while Eloise's panna cotta was grainy while both her honeycomb and parsnip bark were overcooked which made the dish too bitter and Ben's honeycomb was too chewy. Between the both of them in which their dishes did not score in ...

Before Finals Week instead of winning an immunity pin in the second round, a Top 3 contestant from the Invention Test will cook against a guest chef to win an automatic pass to the Finals. In the first round; Arum, Eliza and Tamara had 45 minutes to make a soufflé to advance. It was Arum who won with his vanilla soufflé despite missing out his prune puree. He compete against New South Wales' Chef of the Year Federico Zanellato with the advantage of choosing 10 ingredients of his choice from the available pantry of 20. It was his use of strategy of cooking his seared ...

The other contestants faced an individual three-hour service challenge on a commercial kitchen with three-starred Michelin chef Clare Smyth as their mentor. Each had a responsibility to cook a dish of a six-course meal to be served to 50 diners and the judges. Clare assigned the pair of ingredients for each contestant to highlight their dishes. By knife pull; Tamara (with marron and ras el hanout) and Eliza (mushrooms and spruce) were assigned to cook entrées, Diana (who had venison and pear) and Karlie (duck and Tasmanian mountain pepper) do the mains and desserts ...

Eliza took Sarah's place in the Bottom 3 after the latter decided to use the pin. She, Karlie and Tamara had 75 minutes to inspire their dishes with the memories of their respective vacation with their loved ones for the last two places to advance in Finals Week. Karlie cooked Oysters with Oyster Cream, Cucumber Granita, Gin and Fennel which reflected in her beach living. Eliza's trip to Sorrento inspired her Beetroot and Gin Cured Trout with Horseradish Crème Fraiche, Fennel Crackers and Beetroot Butter. Tamara's Macaron Parfait Sandwiches with Strawberries ...

The top 6 finalists must use all of the ingredients from their Mystery Box to make a dish in 60 minutes. All of the finalists chose to make a dessert with these ingredients and three of them (Karlie, Ben and Tamara) stood out in the judging. It was Ben's unique ice cream dessert that won him the Invention Test's advantage. The advantage was that he got to choose any ingredient of his choice from the pantry to be a main feature in the dish. Relying to strategy, Ben chose liquorice and despite serving his second ice cream dish that was too soft, it was Diana, Karlie and...

Diana, Karlie and Sarah had three and a half hours to recreate "Pearl on the Ocean Floor" - one of the very intriguing signature dishes of the Lûmé restaurant by chef Shaun Quade. The dish is composed of various seafood and lemon marmalade concealed with flavoured sand, mussel foam and a miso pine nut ice cream encased in a small sugar pearl and chocolate. Karlie was the only contestant who manage to have all the elements in her dish while Diana, who discarded the marmalade, and Sarah, who missed out the foam, are named the Bottom 2. However, Sarah's ice cream was ...

The Top 5 compete in their places for the Top 4 in the Surprise Elimination Challenge. They each had to cook a dish of a five-course meal (3 savoury and 2 desserts) in two hours of service to impress the judges, Shannon, returning chef Peter Gilmore and other popular chefs: Ross Lusted and Alla Wolf-Tasker. Diana, Arum and Karlie were assigned to mains while Ben and Tamara did desserts. In judging, Diana's Charred Squid with Peas, Mint and Cucumber and Tamara's Chocolate Mousse with Orange and Fennel delivered the dishes of the day with Karlie also declared safe with ...

Ashley Palmer-Watts instructs the Top 4 finalists to recreate four signature dishes of the menu at the restaurant Dinner by Heston in Melbourne to be served to 40 diners in 5 hours. Karlie got the Frumenty octopus dish, Tamara recreate the Roast Groper and Green Sauce but she discarded the onion element when she ran out of time to make it and her dish was imbalanced. Diana cut the sirloin for the Beef Royale incorrectly. Ben was tasked to replicate the complexed 105 step Lamington Cake. After being affected and struggled with the recipe, he took control to produce the...

In the last MasterClass of 2017, the semifinalists and Matt set a Mystery Box Challenge with their chosen ingredients for Gary, George and Shannon to cook a dish in 60 minutes. The winning dish was Gary's roti with pepper and tea pork which earned him the title 'Flavour Elevator' from Diana. Curtis Stone returns to join George and Gary to pit against Ben, Diana and Karlie to cook a dish featuring coral perch in a team relay challenge in 60 minutes. In a split decision verdict, the finalists were declared the winners with their Steamed Coral Perch with Spiced Tamarind ...

The semifinalists compete in a four-hour service challenge where they had to cook one main dish and a dessert to be served to 25 diners and to the judges. Diana's dishes of Wagyu with Mushrooms and Lemon Verbena with Whey Caramel met with overall acclaim in its complexity. Despite struggling in the challenge to prep his dishes, Ben also won praise with his main (Cinder Fillet, Tulip Bulbs, Port Jus and Greens) and dessert (Pumpkin Galette with Dutch Spices, Cream Cheese Mousse and Vanilla Bay Leaf Ice Cream) on his bold flavours. Karlie also struggled throughout in ...

The finale took place over three rounds: In the first round, the finalists had to choose at least one ingredient from a selection of every mystery box they had in 60 minutes from which Ben picked Elena's mystery box and Diana picked Peter Gilmore's mystery box. Ben's Lemon Myrtle Ice Cream with Macadamia Shortbread received 26 points out of 30, while Diana's Abalone with Chinese Broccoli, Mushroom and Green Juice received raved reviews from the judges and got a perfect score of 30 points. For the second round, there were no rules, with contestants cooking three ...