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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!
31:26Semi-final!
31:28Semi-final!
31:30Semi-final!
31:32I'm starting to ask myself all these questions.
31:34Like, what is grape?
31:37Can I really pick it out in 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.
32:20At the end of the day, if I make my parents proud with this dish, job done.
32:27All done in ten!
32:30Nine!
32:32Eight!
32:33Seven!
32:35Six!
32:36Five!
32:37Four!
32:39Three!
32:40Two!
32:41One!
32:42Two!
32:43Two!
32:48One!
32:54Good job, guys!
33:06Good job!
33:07Good job guys!
33:08Good job guys!
33:08Thanks
33:13Walking my dish up, you know, 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
33:25The balance of everything whether I've given enough of the garlic flavor, but not too much
33:32Aaron your partner Crystal sent you garlic today. What'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 put into the sauce. I've got a garlic oil
33:45Garlic chips and finally just those garlic flowers to really accentuate that flavor
33:48What was it like getting that letter from Crystal today and being reminded how much she believes in you?
33:54It was very special so much of my strength comes from her belief and I think you know, so
34:00So beautiful having that at the start of today. I think it really
34:03It did make me feel very emotional so I had to try and you know, keep that in check while
34:08cooking
34:08But it was also a good booster, you know, I helped to encourage me and show me that I have
34:13come a long way
34:14And now after going through this entire journey after all these months, you know
34:19I can finally see a little bit of what she saw in me
34:22We're gonna taste your dish now. Thanks guys. Thanks, Aaron. Thanks, Aaron
34:29I can definitely smell the guy whoo garlic
34:58And you love garlic because I'm French so I should know better than anybody else. I'm glad he did
35:03Because the garlic is phenomenal in all the sense the cream garlic was fantastically well introduced
35:11The coffee is coffee perfectly you can see and also lovely color of the coffee. I like that
35:17The the crisp of garlic is impeccable equally easily mess up. Yeah, I really loved that
35:24I thought that was delicious. I think Aaron's pasta work was really beautiful and fine
35:29Cooked perfectly. It'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
35:39But somehow I don't find it's overpowering anything. I'm even the crab
35:43I was really worried. We weren't going to be able to taste that crab meat because the garlic would overpower
35:49it
35:50But the little pockets of sweetness and slipperiness that I got from the pieces of crab he chose were beautiful
35:57I think it really added to the elegance of the dish if I was served this dish in a restaurant.
36:03I would be very happy
36:09I'm feeling excited. I'm feeling nostalgic. You know, this is a very close to my heart dish
36:15But I've also got that little feeling of nervousness
36:18Is the flavor and the technique in my cooking gonna shine through as much as I think it actually is?
36:24Or is this dish the one that does send me home?
36:36Moodle
36:36VINNY
36:37Your dad and j
36:38sent you sardines?
36:40Yes, he did
36:41What'd you make with them?
36:43Dad and Vinny sardines
36:44So it butterfied and barbecued sardines and then on the bottom
36:48I've just got a base of some white beans and caramelized zucchini
36:51grilled artichokes there's some quick pickled currants and then I've done a
36:56agridulce sauce nice what are your memories of sardines with your dad oh
37:00you know lots of fishing lots of barbecue dinners I'd often have like
37:07pasta con le sarde which is like pasta with sardines um it was like a real
37:12rustic dish where they'd all break apart and like flake and stuff like that so I
37:16really was channeling a lot of my family today this dish is me yeah you've
37:21stayed very honest and true to yourself yeah we're going to taste your dish now
37:24mm-hmm thank you very very dish rustic and I think it looks beautiful it looks
37:34like it's packed full of flavor yeah it's very traditionally Sicilian very much the
37:39kind of thing that you would serve a family all right
38:02um it's a really delicious dish and I think he has balanced all the flavors really
38:06beautifully fish beautifully grilled nice char marks really nice and smoky
38:13beautifully caramelized zucchini all beautifully balanced it smell lovely it's
38:19delicious it's very tasty mixing beans artichoke hearts oregano
38:24carrots over there the courgettes the ways cook them up I can see he kept the
38:30principle and the integrity once again and be very faithful to what has been passed on
38:35to him that's great because half of me is Italian and I was brought up with us I
38:42think it's needed I love the flavors in this dish it's those classic Italian
38:47Sicilian flavors that he's drawn on that is what I'm loving so much in this plate
38:53even something as subtle but as powerful as the currents which just add those
38:59little bursts of sweetness when you're having a fish that is quite salty and oily that said I'm
39:07putting my restaurant critic hat on now I have had sardines and restaurants where they are you know
39:14maybe not better in flavor but there's something about the way he's prepared them whether it's
39:19decision to leave the scales on because he wanted that blistering whatever it is I found my train of
39:25thought interrupted when I was biting down on them you know sort of fossicking around in my teeth to try
39:31and remove little bits and pieces so all of that is to say while the flavor in this dish is
39:36phenomenal
39:37the eating of it isn't effortless
39:39good luck that's me it's a very like sombre walk up to the judges knowing how high stakes this cook
39:53is I
39:55worked hard to balance my dish today but grape is really subtle
40:01is it still really present in the dish I don't know
40:08so tell us what is your dish so on the bottom is an almond biscuit on top of the biscuit
40:15is pickled grapes in a
40:19chardonnay version on the top of that is a white chocolate cremeaux made with grape juice as well I've got
40:26the
40:26thinly sliced grapes so nothing's been done to them I 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 and
40:37some more
40:37of virtue as well like I've taken some steps along the way to try and add a bit of balance
40:43Casper how was it to receive later from your your parents um yeah it was great I think that's like
40:50motivation for me going into hopefully finals week um and probably something that made me dig a lot
40:56deeper just that little extra boost of energy and motivation is exactly what I needed yeah so how did
41:03you feel when you open your package and you saw the grapes um there's so many memories that we have
41:10um with
41:11grapes in the house which sounds so funny to say um just a good memory is like um we're all
41:17like night
41:18hours so we'd be up like you know 11 at night 12 in the morning just sitting around the kitchen
41:22bench
41:23eating grapes like debriefing from the week and that so um because most of people in the world they
41:31will have a drink or they'll have a coffee no you're having grapes so surely when you saw the grapes
41:40you
41:40must have think oh no um and they know I love a challenge in my mind if I can tick
41:47this off then
41:48I'm ready for the finals thank you so much thank you and good luck thank you thank you
42:09very pretty dish yeah should we dive in yeah let's do it before it melts
42:17nice generous amount of granita yes
42:37I'm actually quite amazed it's a lot of work there's a biscuit there's a cremo there's different
42:47style of grapes presentations is that granita the the freshness of the granita is amazing and I really
42:55love this little almond biscuit which deliver the crunch I enjoyed it for sure the biscuit on the
43:03bottom is nice and chewy you're ringing with almond flavor I think the cremo is lovely love the little
43:11pickled grapes but what I'm grappling with is the flavor of the grape is very subtle I think that white
43:20chocolate is just punching so hard and I don't know if I had known that the grape was in there
43:27I would
43:28have been able to identify as grape I'm not getting any of the verju in there which by its very
43:34nature is
43:35quite quite a delicate grape flavored product and that chocolate because there's such a mass of it
43:42around the pickle I was struggling to even get the acidity I don't think this is a balanced dessert and
43:50I
43:50do not think it's a dessert that heroes grape it is so clear to us how much you all want
44:07this
44:09and your dishes prove just how far the three of you have come Aaron garlic is a powerful and challenging
44:19ingredient but you harnessed it beautifully creating layered flavors 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 but unfortunately the white chocolate
45:03cremeaux made your dish too sweet and overpowered the flavor of grape
45:11Vinnie your dish was full of heavy-hitting flavors with the distinctly savory flavor of sardines coming
45:18out on top however 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 I'm very sad to say
45:51your time in the competition has come to an end
45:57Casper
46:13Casper
46:15you've done so well to come to this point
46:17you should be very proud of yourself
46:20because we definitely are
46:22how do you feel?
46:24it's disappointing but I'm just equally as proud for these guys
46:27it's been like such a magical journey
46:31probably the most like 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
47:07really magical affinity with ingredients
47:09it's also very clear you're 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
47:29I'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
47:46I think it's only just up from here
48:08next week on MasterChef Australia
48:12I'm a completely different person than the Vinny that walked in here on day one
48:16our top three have their eyes on the prize
48:20it is a privilege to wear the MasterChef chef whites
48:25feels surreal
48:26they'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
48:38but first
48:40you won't be cooking
48:42a chance to let their hair down
48:46time to whip off those aprons and swap places
48:49today my friends
48:50Po and John Christophe will be cooking
48:52and you three will be joining me to judge them
48:55your time starts now
48:57your time starts now
48:57your time starts now
48:58your time starts now
48:58your time starts now
49:01your time starts now
49:02your time starts now
49:02your time starts now
49:03your time starts now
49:04your time starts now
49:05your time starts now
49:05your time starts now
49:07your time starts now
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