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00:10All right, fellas, do it.
00:22So close to the semifinal, I'm actually feeling pretty good.
00:26I think I've hit my stride and I'm in a great mental space.
00:30I'm very proud that I made it to this point.
00:35Morning, guys.
00:36Morning.
00:37We're so happy for Andy because he's currently in his little newborn bubble
00:41and he can't be here, but he wishes all of you the best of luck today
00:44for the elimination.
00:46Petro, you won yesterday's challenge,
00:48which means you are the first person into our semifinals.
00:52Congratulations.
00:54Thank you so much.
00:59With only three of you in black aprons,
01:02the odds of going home today are high.
01:06But on the flip side,
01:09your odds of winning this competition are huge.
01:14You all came here with a dream and you've all left your lives at home.
01:19You've sacrificed time with loved ones and today those same loved ones will be your source of inspiration.
01:31On each bench is a parcel addressed to you.
01:35Inside is a special ingredient that will shape your dish today.
01:40One by one, we'll get you to lift your lids to reveal what's inside.
01:46Aaron, can you please open your package?
01:56Okay.
01:57What have you got there, Aaron?
01:58I've got garlic.
01:59Yeah, he does.
02:02Garlic and a scroll.
02:08It's from my partner, Crystal.
02:13Dear Aaron, you've done so well to get to this point in the competition.
02:18While it's been a whole lot of fun, I know it has also been really challenging for you.
02:23Pushing the boundaries of your comfort zone and constantly questioning yourself whether you're good enough to be here.
02:30You've always been a good cook, there's no question about it.
02:33But you've leveled up exponentially.
02:36I mean, you can even make dessert now.
02:41It's wild to think that life was so different, nearly months ago.
02:45I know that every day and every experience is a meaningful step towards becoming the person and chef you aspire
02:49to be.
02:51I want you to take a deep breath and look around the kitchen.
02:54This is real.
02:56And you are way more than good enough.
03:00Little Aaron will be in awe of you.
03:08Good luck for the rest of the competition.
03:10You're going to kill it and everyone's cheering for you.
03:14You've got this, of Crystal.
03:20It's pretty special.
03:23It's really special.
03:25She's the one who encouraged me to get here.
03:29Having someone like her behind me means that I've got someone to lean on and someone to keep pushing me
03:35forward.
03:37Very important.
03:39Having that permission to chase my dream because someone's there supporting me and supporting my dream has been so important.
03:49Now is the time to really pull out all the stops and just keep going.
03:56Why do you think Crystal put garlic in your parcel?
04:00Um...
04:02She knows I love garlic, so I use a lot of garlic when I cook.
04:05So I have a whole jar of garlic in the fridge that's like about this big that I cook with.
04:10And I do remember mentioning in the mystery boxes here that there's never any garlic.
04:15So that's probably why she's put garlic in here today.
04:19Vinnie!
04:21Can you please open your package?
04:26Ooh!
04:29What have you got there, Vinnie?
04:30I have sardines and a little note.
04:33Are you happy with the sardines?
04:35Yeah, yeah. I think they're a really cool ingredient.
04:38I haven't really cooked them very much, but...
04:42But you know, I've had them a lot and they're very close to like, you know, our family and our
04:47traditional to see in cooking.
04:49Here's a letter from Vinnie.
04:51My dad.
04:52Can I open it?
04:53Yeah.
04:55So my mum and my dad are separated.
04:59And growing up, me and my dad, we didn't really see each other every single day.
05:04So it was only on the weekends.
05:06We spent a lot of time together and I feel like we really bonded a lot then.
05:11To Vincent.
05:13The endless weekend drives to Ripe, playing the song The Summer Wind and BBQ dinners will always be a special
05:18time in my life.
05:23Whether it was 30 degrees or 10 degrees, you always wanted to go for a swim.
05:27Thinking the cold water would end your two hour swim, it never did.
05:31But me screaming out to you, let's go eat, would always do the trick.
05:36What do you want to eat part?
05:38Barbecue part, you would say.
05:41As time passed, even though my time spent with you was at a bare minimum.
05:48You still chose to sit at my restaurant to watch me cook and spend time with me.
05:54You ask me questions after questions.
05:57Looking back as I see it, it has made you the extremely smart and intelligent man you are today.
06:03And also very handsome just like your father.
06:08You're not just my son but my best mate.
06:10You are and have always been a winner in my eyes.
06:13If this is the last hit of advice I can give you, keep it simple.
06:20Love you yesterday, love you always Dad.
06:24Oh my goodness, Vinnie.
06:32Do those sardines make even more sense now?
06:34Yeah, they definitely do.
06:37Yeah, I'm already thinking about what to do with these sardines.
06:41If it was my dad, he'd probably do full sardines, cooked hull, on the barbie.
06:46Pretty rustic, like a lot of Sicilian dishes are.
06:52Gaspar.
07:00Yep, the grapes.
07:02As a family, there's a lot of like just memories around grapes.
07:08There's probably a few years like when I was living back at home where like every night we would just
07:13hook into a bag of grapes.
07:15So we'd go through like a bag of grapes a day and we'd have to like duck down to the
07:20shops at like 7 o'clock just to get some grapes.
07:26Dear Gaspar, as the final weeks of MasterChef approach, we have been reflecting on your passion and flair for cooking
07:32and where that may have come from.
07:34We knew from a young age that you loved creating things and making people happy.
07:39Little did we know it would lead to where you are today.
07:42So what a journey you had.
07:47We encourage you to follow your dreams.
07:49Don't feel constrained on what you think are the expectations of others.
07:56You got this bro.
08:00Take time to breathe and reflect on your goals and ambitions.
08:04At this moment you have an opportunity like no other.
08:07We wish you all the best.
08:09Lots of love, mum and dad.
08:12It's really nice to reflect on all these memories that we hold like so close.
08:17It's like the best motivation to just smash this cook and get through.
08:25Hey Petro.
08:26We haven't forgotten about you.
08:28You've got a letter too.
08:29Oh!
08:38My letter is from my dad Gus and my mum Georgia.
08:42Dear Petro, as they would call me, cooking shows were always a staple in our household and the conversation was
08:50often imagined being on MasterChef.
08:52How amazing would that be?
08:55Look at you now living that very dream.
08:59From when you were a little boy, it was clear that food would be such a big part of your
09:04life.
09:06And learning alongside your Yaya Sofia.
09:10She would be so incredibly proud of you and how far you've come in this competition.
09:16And we're sure she's watching over you.
09:19Um.
09:20Sorry.
09:22We could not be prouder that your journey has led you to the MasterChef kitchen.
09:28No matter the outcome, you have already done something truly amazing with lots of love, Baba and Mum.
09:34Um.
09:37Got quite emotional hearing about Yaya Sofia.
09:40Cause yeah, um.
09:42Quite sadly she passed away whilst I've been in here.
09:45Um.
09:48But I did get to cook that dish in the family tree challenge.
09:51And that was honestly probably the most special cook cause I got to call her and say that, you know,
09:59I cooked that dish.
10:01And she was so happy.
10:04Um.
10:05And then a week later she'd passed away.
10:07And I.
10:11So yeah.
10:12Family means everything and a big part of why I'm here.
10:17Oh.
10:18When boys cry, like it just like, it gets you, it gets you in the heart.
10:25So lovely to be a part of someone's story like that.
10:28Everyone standing up here.
10:30We're all feeling it.
10:33We're all feeling it.
10:34Those messages from home should give you the motivation to do your absolute best.
10:40You will have 75 minutes.
10:43The pantry and the gardens are open.
10:47But you must make your ingredients from your package the star of your dish.
10:56Dig deep.
10:59Because your time.
11:01Start.
11:03Now.
11:03Come on.
11:04Good job.
11:05Good job.
11:09It is so tense down there.
11:13You know, this is to get into the 70s.
11:15Let's go.
11:16Unfortunately it's an elimination.
11:18What's poppin'?
11:20Just hopped in mate.
11:22Try a different way.
11:23Okay, feel as though everyone right now is just so zoned in.
11:27Let's go maybe a bit of that.
11:29A bit of this.
11:30Um.
11:32Sardines is not an ingredient that I know back to front very well.
11:37But I really want to pay homage to those memories with my dad.
11:41So I'm going to do the sardines barbecue today.
11:50I'm feeling very motivated to get one of those last two spots in the semis.
11:54And then I've got everybody back home.
11:56Really like cheering me on and supporting me.
11:58It's like that final push before it's really on.
12:01I really am feeling inspired by that letter.
12:04Like hearing just what my family has to say about me and how proud they are.
12:08At this point in the community it's really important to have like a good support network.
12:12The three other boys that are in this top four, they're all from Melbourne.
12:14So they're in their hometown.
12:16Why?
12:17Family.
12:18Yeah, they're a long way away.
12:20I, um.
12:23I do.
12:27Yeah.
12:28I really miss my family.
12:29Like they are a massive part of my life.
12:32Both my friends are in the Navy.
12:34And in a defence family we were like posted away.
12:37We're used to being separated from each other for like long periods of time.
12:41But we're really, really close.
12:43We couldn't ask for better parents.
12:45And getting letters from home and hearing like all the nice words in those memories with food.
12:51It reminds me why I'm here.
12:54But it is a really hard ingredient to like hero.
12:57Like I love eating them by themselves.
12:59But then yeah, how do you turn that into some like cohesive sort of dish?
13:04Semi-finals are on the line.
13:07And if I'm going to find myself there, I need to dig deep and do what I do best in
13:13this kitchen.
13:14Get creative.
13:17I'm feeling good under the pump.
13:20Um, great challenge.
13:21Just hoping that I can deliver on the brief today.
13:25Crystal has sent me garlic.
13:26I have to find a way to make that the star of a dish.
13:30So I'm making a garlic spanner crab spaghetti.
13:34Um, and I'll have a garlic sauce, a confit garlic oil.
13:38We'll have some garlic chips as garnish and also the wild garlic flowers.
13:42Um, the reason why I've decided to make a pasta is because the garlic flavour has to shine through.
13:47And especially with the spanner crab.
13:49The spanner crab is quite a delicate flavour.
13:52More like a sweetness and it won't actually overtake and play the main protagonist of my dish.
13:56So that's why I've gone with that today.
14:00There's a lot riding on today's cook.
14:02And I've been quite strategic with what I'm making today.
14:07Because I want that place in the top three.
14:09And I want to make a dish that would make my partner proud.
14:13My partner, Crystal, she's the most important person to me.
14:17She and I have been together for a decade now.
14:21She's always wanted me to go out there and chase what I wanted to do.
14:24She's my number one supporter.
14:26If I didn't have Crystal, I would have never applied for MasterChef.
14:32I wouldn't have left my job.
14:34I wouldn't be here at all.
14:37And by being here, I've gotten more and more confident in my ability, my, you know, skills or my instinct.
14:49And I think I can, I can finally see what Crystal sees in me.
14:53I have so much self-belief now.
14:55And I'm ready to push myself into the semi-final.
15:09My dad's letter was really lovely.
15:11It's pretty cool to have my dad as one of my best mates.
15:14We share a lot of good times together and a lot of them do involve cooking.
15:18My dad is the chef in an Italian restaurant.
15:21I learnt so much about food and cooking from him.
15:25And the food that he cooks is very rustic, old school.
15:29So I'm gonna really channel that today and keep it really traditional and really close to my heart.
15:34I'm gonna have the butterflied sardines and cook them on the hibachi to get that barbecue memories of us going.
15:40And then some really quick like braised beans, some caramelised zucchini and some like artichokes.
15:45With a sweet and sour agrodulce.
15:46And a really nice fresh herb sauce just to really tie it all back together.
15:51So the first thing I need to work out is how I'm gonna prepare these sardines.
15:56Traditional Sicilian recipes that I've grown up with sometimes serve them with scales on them.
16:01These are just a couple of testar sardines just to see whether or not I need to take the scales
16:06off.
16:09But I think when an ingredient is as good as these, you don't really need to do too much to
16:14them.
16:15So just a really nice sear on the hibachi, really crispy skin. You can see those little blisters.
16:24Are they salty?
16:26A bit.
16:27Yeah, yeah. Try how salty they are.
16:30They're pretty salty, but they're really good and I don't think I need to scale them. So, awesome.
16:35It's a bit of me and a bit of my dad both in this, you know.
16:37And if I just pour my heart into this dish like I do when I'm cooking at home with my
16:41dad, I'm gonna make a really good dish.
16:48I've got a good creme-o recipe if you need it, Casper.
16:52Can you tell me?
16:54Today, my family have picked green grapes. So, I'm going to do a dessert.
17:01So, that's why you've been Saint Louisville, yeah?
17:03Yep.
17:07Sweet, floral, but they also have like a little bit of acid to them. They're really nice at the moment
17:10and they're crunchy as.
17:12For this grape dessert, I'm gonna draw on a lot of things that I've learned and done well across the
17:17season.
17:17I'm thinking about balance of flavours and textures and temperatures.
17:25So, for the base of this dessert, I'm gonna have a little almond biscuit. I know almond goes really well
17:31with grape.
17:32On top of that, I'm gonna have a little white chocolate creme-o made with the juice of the grapes.
17:37To top the dessert off, I'm gonna do a granita.
17:42Every single element that I'm putting on this plate, besides my little almond thing at the bottom, is gonna have
17:48grape in it.
17:49If I have five grape elements on the plate, it is just going to sing grape, but now I'm gonna
17:53make sure that they are distinct enough so that they all just don't mellow together when you eat it.
17:57I've just put the granita mix in the freezer. I added in some verju, which is acidic, just to sort
18:03of help cut through the sweetness.
18:05This granita is gonna provide a lot of relief to this dish that is inherently gonna be pretty sweet.
18:10I'm feeling pretty good about it, yeah. So, now I'm packed down, get started on my almond cookie.
18:17I've had quite a few good desserts in this kitchen, so I'm feeling reasonably confident.
18:20If I'm cooking something that I think I'm good at, usually the outcome is pretty good.
18:28Allez, to the floppy! 56 minutes to go! Allez! Keep going!
18:34Woo!
18:36I love this challenge.
18:43When the families show their support, it's just, it's one of my favourite every season.
18:48And it's an interesting one because all the ingredients that the loved ones have chosen for are contested.
18:53They're all amazing, but they're actually really difficult in their own way.
18:58Aaron's got garlic, and the problem with that is that garlic is so powerful as an ingredient.
19:03He's gonna make a pasta with a garlic sauce. He's making an emulsion and he's gonna just stir that through
19:08his pasta.
19:09He's got spanner crab and place it on top of the garlic pasta.
19:15It's a really simple dish with really big flavours.
19:19He is going to have to do his absolute best work to make sure that this is an immaculate bowl
19:24of food.
19:24Yeah, yeah.
19:26So Vinny, he's got grilled sardines, he's got grilled artichoke, white bean agrodolce, caramelized zucchinis.
19:34So there's lots of hard-hitting flavours there.
19:36My concern is, is he showing enough technical elements to justify us taking him through to the next round?
19:44So he needs to be an absolute wizard with flavour.
19:49Casper, I'm using grapes.
19:53I think grapes are a very tricky ingredient because there's not that much you can do with it.
19:59To be able to get flavour and texture and interest out of grapes, he's gonna have to work really hard.
20:04He's gonna be doing a grape cremeux, an almond biscuit, garnitif.
20:09When I realised that he's chosen to make a dessert, knowing that he had grapes, I was a little bit
20:15concerned.
20:16Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.
20:19He's gonna have to adjust sugar, for sure.
20:22Are we gonna be lost not getting the grapes element into the dish?
20:25So that's the big, big question.
20:32I need garlic, mate.
20:34It's the hero.
20:36Right now, I'm just, uh, peeling my crab.
20:39I'm just slowly working my way through that, making sure there's no shell.
20:43I'm just setting myself up well for the next steps.
20:46Hi, Aaron. Have you recovered from reading that beautiful letter from Crystal?
20:50Uh, not really. No.
20:51But how did you meet?
20:52Uh, we met in uni, actually. Oh my gosh.
20:54So we had the same class together.
20:55I saw her walk in late to an electric theatre, and I was with my friends at the time,
21:00and I was just jokingly saying, I'm gonna make her wifey one day.
21:03Oh my god.
21:05Alright, okay, so she chose garlic for you.
21:07She did, yes.
21:08The key for you in doing this justice is gonna be all about balance and all about seasoning.
21:14Yes.
21:14And making sure that this is the best pasta we've had in this kitchen.
21:20The challenge with garlic is, you can use it in a subtle way, or it goes the complete opposite and
21:29it's completely overpowering.
21:31So, for it to be the star of the dish, it has to stand out in a way that isn't
21:38offensive.
21:39Aaron, that's the best garlic peeling I've ever seen.
21:43So, I've decided to boil the garlic, which is the blueprint of my sauce.
21:48With the boiling garlic, I'm just trying to boil off the harshness from the garlic itself.
21:52Um, so it actually retains the garlic flavour and sweetness without there being any of the harshness of it.
21:58So, I wanna make sure that everything, just singing with its own natural flavour.
22:07So, just went and checked on my granita, it's like going pretty well.
22:10So, I'm gonna get started on doing my grape cremeaux.
22:14So, to make my cremeaux, I'm heating up equal parts of cream and grape juice, just to drive home that
22:20grape flavour.
22:22Then I will add some gelatin, white chocolate and a bit of butter, and then I can just let that
22:26set.
22:28This cremeaux is going to be a little bit of the body for the dish.
22:33I think it'll be, like, a nice contrast to the granita and the biscuit.
22:38I'm hoping it's gonna bring a lot of that, like, honey floral flavour of the grape.
22:43Is that your cremeaux? Yep.
22:52Mixing it around and I'm, like, tasting a little bit and I'm thinking...
22:57I think it is, like, just a bit too sweet.
23:01And I can't really taste the grape flavour in the cremeaux.
23:04The cremeaux is not very gravy.
23:05Let's go.
23:08I knew from the outset of this that grape was going to be a hard ingredient.
23:12But it's really starting to dawn on me now how hard this is going to be.
23:32White chocolate is such a dangerous ingredient, isn't it?
23:35My cremeaux doesn't have a whole lot of grape flavour.
23:38White chocolate is a bit too intense.
23:40I can't afford to remake the cremeaux.
23:43Right now, I've really got to try and temper the sweetness that the white chocolate brings.
23:48So I'm gonna be putting in some of the grape pulp into my cremeaux just to let that infuse a
23:53bit and hopefully get some of the tannin out of the skins and bring a bit of balance.
23:58I'm hoping that this works.
24:03I actually have no idea what my family would send me.
24:06Maybe passion fruit?
24:08Well, I would have had potatoes and I would have done my jacket potato.
24:12He's grilling some artichoke.
24:15Yeah, nice, Vinnie. Good job.
24:18The next thing for my sardines is my agrodolce dressing.
24:23Agrodolce is the Italian word for sweet and sour.
24:26And it goes really, really well with fish.
24:29In here, I've got some currants and some white lime vinegar.
24:32So this is gonna be the start of my agrodolce, which is gonna season my salad.
24:35I really want it to be really well-rounded and hold up to that really nice, oily, salty sardines.
24:40Because I need to make sure that my dish absolutely shines in flavours and is just true to me and
24:45what I like to cook and my family as well.
24:47Cook with your heart, you have 20 minutes to go!
24:55I've got most of my dish ready to go and it's time for the main event.
25:00I need to fill it and prepare four perfect sardines.
25:06So you left the scales on but you took all the bones out?
25:09Yes, correct, correct, correct.
25:10Have you cooked sardines?
25:12Yeah, yeah.
25:12Are the scales edible?
25:14I've never scaled a sardine.
25:16I don't know whether the fish hunger has done that.
25:20Sardines don't take very long at all to cook, but I want to make sure I get a beautiful crispy
25:24skin.
25:25So I'm gonna cook my fish two different ways.
25:28On one hand, I'm flipping them over and cooking on both sides.
25:31On the other hand, I'm only cooking them on that skin side.
25:34Careful on the flesh side.
25:36Yep.
25:38Any wrong move and they could stick to the grill, they could tear apart.
25:42And I need to make sure with these sardines the heat is hot enough to crisp up the skin but
25:46not too hot that it burns before it cooks all the way through.
25:50If I give myself back to when I was a kid and I'd watch my dad cook on the barbecue,
25:54he'd always be moving things around, he'd always be managing that fire.
25:56So I'm really making sure that I'm taking that much care today to cook these sardines like my dad did
26:02when I was a kid.
26:10Amazing work, Aaron.
26:14Time is of the essence.
26:15But all in all, I'm feeling pretty good.
26:18I've got the passers resting on the bench.
26:22Pinguini.
26:22Oh, it looks beautiful, Aaron.
26:25And my crab's prepped.
26:26Now it's time to build the sauce.
26:29I get the boiled garlic into a blender and I add some cream, a bit of butter just to get
26:34a nice base.
26:37Good, Aaron?
26:38Yeah.
26:39This dish is such a balancing act.
26:42The difficult thing with garlic is that it's harsh, it's strong.
26:46It takes a lot of understanding and technique and leaning on instinct to take away the harshness without taking away
26:54its perfume.
26:55I can smell the garlic.
26:57It's the hero.
27:00I'm tasting the sauce.
27:02And there is a nice sweetness to it, a nice roundness, but I feel like it needs a bit more
27:07complexity.
27:08The garlic sauce is the star of the show.
27:11So I decide to add some confit garlic.
27:15The mashed confit garlic has gone into the sauce to give it another kind of like element of garlic flavour.
27:25Don't let this be your last cook in the MasterChef kitchen!
27:29Ten minutes left!
27:30Woo!
27:31Come on, guys!
27:32You got this!
27:33Woo!
27:34Come on, Benny!
27:36Come on, Aaron!
27:37Come on, Caspar!
27:39Woo!
27:41Ten minutes ago, my granita can be scraped and fluffed up and my cremeaux is at the temperature now where
27:49I can put in the piping bag.
27:50Good job, Cas.
27:53And as I'm starting to taste them, I'm realising even ingredients that were like singing grape, now that they've cooled
28:00down, it's a lot more subtle.
28:05Yeah, I'm starting to feel like maybe a little bit nervous that I need more grape flavour.
28:12It's not easy to hear out grapes in a dessert.
28:17But it's too late in the cook to really pivot hard right now.
28:22So I'm really sort of racking my brain and trying to figure out the solution.
28:36My challenge today is to hero grapes.
28:39And I really need more grape flavour.
28:43But it's too late in the cook to really pivot hard right now.
28:47My brain is sort of racing, you know, what can I add to this to fix it?
28:52Maybe, like, some pickled grapes.
28:55Hopefully, it will bolster the grape flavour.
28:58Put a bit of Chardonnay vinegar in there too, just to add a little bit more complexity.
29:02Run, Casper, run!
29:06Making this dish is a bit like solving a puzzle in my mind.
29:09Is he doing a pickle mix?
29:11Such a pickle.
29:12I just want, like, little cubes of pickled grape.
29:15I don't know if it's going to be enough, but if I can solve this puzzle today, I'm making my
29:20mark in the kitchen and I'm going to find myself in the sandwich.
29:25Five minutes to go!
29:27Come on, guys, let's go!
29:29Come on, guys!
29:31Final push!
29:35The cook on these sardines is the most important part of this whole dish.
29:38Tested the ones that I cooked on both sides and they go a little bit too dry, so I'm going
29:43to use the ones that I've only cooked on one side now.
29:45Yes, Vinny!
29:47Nice!
29:48My sardines today are cooking really quickly.
29:51They're only on my hibachi for about five minutes and that's just enough to get them perfectly cooked through.
29:57It's time for me to start tasting everything together.
30:05And it is banging.
30:07Every single flavour is absolutely popping in there.
30:11And it's turned up to ten, but the sardines aren't overshadowed, you still get that beautiful fish and that crispy
30:17skin.
30:18I'm definitely feeling the pressure because how I've prepared my sardines is a little bit more on the rustic side.
30:25I have poured my heart into this dish. I just hope that's enough to get me through today.
30:31Use your emotions! Three minutes to go!
30:34Come on, guys! Come on!
30:37Let's push, guys!
30:41How's it tasting, Aaron?
30:44Like garlic. Nice.
30:46Three minutes to go, I'm tasting everything together and this is exactly what I was after.
30:51The sauce, it's now got nuttiness and sweetness and an unctuousness.
30:55I wanted to bring out different notes of the garlic and I think I've achieved that.
30:58So, yeah, I'm really happy with it.
31:00Having an ingredient from Crystal, a letter from Crystal, it's made the cook feel quite light.
31:09Regardless of what I do, I've done so well.
31:13I think to see how far I've come, to see where I'm going with how I'm thinking about food and
31:18how I'm creating and cooking now,
31:21she'd be over the moon.
31:23Semi-final is on the line! One minute to go!
31:26Go!
31:27Go, guys!
31:32I'm starting to ask myself all these questions, like, what is grape?
31:37Can I really pick it out and the components that I'm tasting right now?
31:40Are the judges going to be able to do that?
31:43Try to put the doubts to the back of my mind and make sure that I put the proportions of
31:48the ingredients on the plate that will bring balance to the dish and really highlight the grape flavour.
31:55To construct my dessert, I'm going to cut out little rounds of my almond biscuit, put that on the base
32:01and then pipe my cremeau around the biscuit.
32:05Leave myself a little bit of a pocket for some pickled grapes.
32:10Cap it off with some of the cremeau and then really neatly shingle sliced grapes around the outside.
32:19I'm really happy with how it's looking.
32:21At the end of the day, if I make my parents proud with this dish, job done.
32:25All done in ten!
32:30Nine!
32:31Eight!
32:33Seven!
32:34Six!
32:36Five!
32:37Four!
32:39Three!
32:40Two!
32:41One!
32:42Three!
32:43One!
32:45Two!
32:46Three!
32:47One!
32:49Three!
32:51Three!
32:52Both!
32:54Two!
32:56One!
33:13Walking my dish up, I think I would have made Crystal very proud.
33:18I've come so far from when I first started.
33:23The main thing I'm worried about is the balance of everything, whether I've given enough of
33:29the garlic flavour but not too much.
33:32Aaron, your partner Crystal sent you garlic today.
33:35What's the dish?
33:36So I've made a garlic pasta with spanner crab and the garlic is done four ways.
33:41I've got confit garlic that I've put into the sauce, I've got a garlic oil, garlic chips
33:45and finally just those garlic flowers to really accentuate that flavour.
33:49What was it like getting that letter from Crystal today and being reminded how much she believes
33:53in you?
33:54It was very special.
33:55So much of my strength comes from her belief and I think it was so beautiful having that
34:01at the start of today.
34:02I think it really, it did make me feel very emotional so I had to try and keep that in
34:07check while cooking but it was also a good booster.
34:10It helped to encourage me and show me that I have come a long way and now after going
34:16through this entire journey after all these months, I can finally see a little bit of
34:20what she saw in me.
34:22We're going to taste your dish now.
34:23Thanks guys.
34:24Thanks Aaron.
34:25Thanks Aaron.
34:25Thanks Aaron.
34:29I can definitely smell the garlic.
34:31Garlic.
34:33Garlic.
34:56And you love garlic.
35:00I'm French so I should know better than anybody else.
35:02I'm glad he did because the garlic is phenomenal in all the sense.
35:08The cream garlic was fantastically well introduced.
35:12The confit is confit perfectly.
35:14You can see and also lovely colour of the confit.
35:17I like that.
35:18The crisp of garlic is impeccable.
35:21It could have easily mess up.
35:23Yeah, I really love that.
35:24I thought that was delicious.
35:25I think Aaron's pasta work was really beautiful and fine, cooked perfectly.
35:31It's amazing how all those layers of garlic he's used has resulted in quite a delicate result.
35:37The garlic is definitely the hero but somehow I don't find it's overpowering anything, even
35:43the crab.
35:43I was really worried we weren't going to be able to taste that crab meat because the garlic
35:49would overpower it.
35:50But the little pockets of sweetness and slipperiness that I got from the pieces of crab he chose
35:56were beautiful.
35:57I think it really added to the elegance of the dish.
36:00If I was served this dish in a restaurant, I would be very happy.
36:09I'm feeling excited.
36:11I'm feeling nostalgic.
36:12You know, this is a very close to my heart dish.
36:15But I've also got that little feeling of nervousness.
36:19Is the flavour and the technique in my cooking going to shine through as much as I think it
36:23actually is?
36:24Or is this dish the one that does send me home?
36:37Vinnie, your dad Ange sent you sardines?
36:40Yes, he did.
36:41What did you make with them?
36:43Dad and Vinnie sardines.
36:45So butterfied and barbecued sardines.
36:47And then on the bottom, I've just got a base of some white beans, some caramelised zucchini,
36:52grilled artichokes.
36:52There's some quick pickled currants.
36:54And then I've done an agridulce sauce.
36:57Nice.
36:58What are your memories of sardines with your dad?
37:00Oh, you know, lots of fishing, lots of barbecue dinners.
37:06I'd often have pasta con le sarde, which is pasta with sardines.
37:11It was a real rustic dish where they'd all break apart and flake and stuff like that.
37:15So I really was channelling a lot of my family today.
37:19This dish is me.
37:21Yeah, you've stayed very honest and true to yourself.
37:23Yeah.
37:23We're going to taste your dish now.
37:25Mm-hmm.
37:25Thank you very much.
37:27Good luck.
37:30Very Vinnie dish.
37:32Rustic.
37:32And I think it looks beautiful.
37:34It looks like it's packed full of flavour.
37:35Yeah.
37:36It's very traditionally Sicilian.
37:38Very much the kind of thing that you would serve family.
37:43All right.
38:03It's a really delicious dish.
38:04And I think he has balanced all the flavours really beautifully.
38:08Fish, beautifully grilled, nice char marks, really nice and smoky, beautifully caramelised
38:15zucchini, all beautifully balanced.
38:17It smells lovely.
38:18It's delicious.
38:19It's very tasty.
38:20Mixing beans, artichoke hearts, oregano, carrots over there.
38:26The courgettes, the way he cooks them up, I can see he kept the principle and the integrity
38:31once again and been very faithful to what has been passed on to him.
38:36That's great.
38:37Because half of me is Italian and I was brought up with that.
38:41I think he's nailed it.
38:44I love the flavours in this dish.
38:46It's those classic Italian Sicilian flavours that he's drawn on that is what I'm loving so
38:52much in this plate.
38:53Even something as subtle but as powerful as the currants, which just add those little bursts
39:00of sweetness when you're having a fish that is quite salty and oily.
39:04That said, I'm putting my restaurant critic hat on now.
39:10I have had sardines in restaurants where they are, you know, maybe not better in flavour,
39:15but there's something about the way he's prepared them, whether it's decision to leave the scales
39:20on because he wanted that blistering, whatever it is.
39:23I found my train of thought interrupted when I was biting down on them.
39:28You know, I was sort of fossicking around in my teeth to try and remove little bits and
39:32pieces.
39:33So all of that is to say, while the flavour in this dish is phenomenal, the eating of it
39:38isn't effortless.
39:47It's a very sombre walk up to the judges knowing how high stakes this cook is.
39:54I worked hard to balance my dish today, but grape is really subtle.
40:02Is it still really present in the dish?
40:05I don't know.
40:09So tell us, what is your dish?
40:11So on the bottom is an almond biscuit.
40:14On top of the biscuit is pickled grapes in a Chardonnay verjus.
40:20On the top of that is a white chocolate cremeux made with grape juice as well.
40:25I've got the thinly sliced grapes, so nothing's been done to them.
40:29I really wanted to have that fresh element in there.
40:31And then to sort of be a bit of a refresher, I've got a granita made with grape juice.
40:36And some more verju as well.
40:39Like I've taken some steps along the way to try and add a bit of balance.
40:43Caspar, how was it to receive a letter from your parents?
40:48Yeah, it was great.
40:49I think that's like motivation for me going into hopefully finals week and probably something
40:55that made me dig a lot deeper.
40:57Just that little extra boost of energy and motivation is exactly what I needed.
41:02Yeah.
41:03So how did you feel when you opened your package and you saw the grapes?
41:08There's so many memories that we have with grapes in the house, which sounds so funny
41:13to say.
41:15Just a good memory.
41:16It's like, we're all like night hours.
41:18So we'd be up like, you know, 11 at night, 12 in the morning, just sitting around the
41:22kitchen bench, eating grapes, like debriefing from the week and that.
41:25So around grapes.
41:27I swear I need to laugh because most of the people in the world, they will have a drink
41:31or they'll have a coffee.
41:33No, you're having grapes.
41:34Yeah.
41:38So surely when you saw the grapes, you must have think, oh no.
41:42Um, I know I love a challenge.
41:45In my mind, if I can tick this off, then I'm ready for the finals.
41:51Thank you so much.
41:53And good luck.
42:09Very pretty dish.
42:10Yeah.
42:11Should we dive in?
42:12Yeah, let's do it.
42:13Before it melts.
42:17Nice generous amount of granita.
42:19Yes.
42:37I'm actually quite amazed.
42:41It's a lot of work.
42:43There's a biscuit.
42:45There's a cremo.
42:46There's different style of grapes presentation.
42:49There's that granita.
42:50The freshness of the granita is amazing.
42:53And I really love this little almond biscuit, which deliver the crunch.
43:01I enjoyed it for sure.
43:03The biscuit on the bottom is nice and chewy.
43:06You're ringing with almond flavour.
43:07I think the cremeux is lovely.
43:10Love the little pickled grapes.
43:12But what I'm grappling with is the flavour of the grape is very subtle.
43:19I think that white chocolate is just punching so hard.
43:23And I don't know if I had known that the grape was in there,
43:27I would have been able to identify it as grape.
43:31I'm not getting any of the verju in there,
43:34which by its very nature is quite a delicate grape flavoured product.
43:39And that chocolate, because there's such a mass of it around the pickle,
43:43I was struggling to even get the acidity.
43:47I don't think this is a balanced dessert.
43:50And I do not think it's a dessert that heroes grape.
44:04It is so clear to us how much you all want this.
44:09And your dishes prove just how far the three of you have come.
44:15Aaron, garlic is a powerful and challenging ingredient.
44:20But you harnessed it beautifully,
44:23creating layered flavours of garlicky goodness.
44:29And that's why you're in our final three!
44:45So Casper and Vinnie, it came down to your dishes.
44:51Casper.
44:55The technique in your dish was obvious.
44:58And you had several elements that showcased green grapes.
45:01But unfortunately, the white chocolate cremeaux made your dish too sweet
45:06and overpowered the flavour of grape.
45:09Vinnie.
45:11Your dish was full of heavy-hitting flavours,
45:14with the distinctly savoury flavour of sardines coming out on top.
45:19However, the cook on the fish lacked technical finesse.
45:25You both cooked with so much heart today.
45:30This was our most difficult decision yet.
45:35And it wasn't unanimous.
45:38Our decision came back to the challenge of heroing your ingredient.
45:44Which is why...
45:48I'm very sad to say...
45:51Your time in the competition has come to an end.
45:57Casper.
46:15You've done so well to come to this point.
46:18You should be very proud of yourself.
46:20Because we definitely are.
46:22How do you feel?
46:24It's disappointing.
46:25But I'm just equally as proud for these guys.
46:28It's been like such a magical journey.
46:31Probably the most special thing I've done in my life so far.
46:35All good things come to an end though.
46:38No, you're just getting started.
46:40I just can't wait to see what you do in the future,
46:43because you are honestly one of the best cooks here, I think.
46:46And your mind is just genius level that I could not even begin to comprehend.
46:52He's a food genius and also beyond that he's such a good guy.
47:00We spotted that talent from way back.
47:03Like it was so clear to us that you've just got this really magical affinity with ingredients.
47:10It's also very clear, very loved by all your fellow contestants.
47:13And I really hope you're incredibly proud of how far you've come along.
47:17You are brilliant and we cannot wait to see what you are doing next.
47:22But sadly for now, it's time to say goodbye.
47:30I'm really proud of what I've been able to do and showcase.
47:33I've shown everybody maybe a different perspective on food.
47:37And I've loved every minute of it.
47:42I think I've learned how much potential I have.
47:45The journey isn't over yet.
47:47I think it's only just up from here.
48:12I'm a completely different person than the Vinnie that walked in here on day one.
48:16Our top three have their eyes on the prize.
48:21It is a privilege to wear the MasterChef chef whites.
48:26Feels surreal.
48:27They're counting down the hours to the semi-final service challenge.
48:32I can't believe I'm here.
48:35About to run a service in a professional kitchen.
48:39But first...
48:40You won't be cooking.
48:43A chance to let their hair down.
48:46Time to whip off those aprons and swap places.
48:49Today, my friends, Poe and John Christophe will be cooking.
48:52And you three will be joining me to judge them.
48:56Your time starts now!