Episode 8

It’s time for the second heat of the week, with six more home cooks putting themselves in the culinary spotlight, ready to show judges Anna Haugh and Grace Dent that they have what it takes to take this year’s title. All will be vying for the right to wear a MasterChef apron, but only the best three on the night will live to fight another day and head into the week’s quarter-final. Amongst those hoping for success are a GP receptionist, an aviation executive and a builder.

Anna and Grace waste no time in getting the competition started with the Signature Dish round. This is the dish that the contestants go to when they are out to impress. The judges want to see personality flood the plates and get some indication that these cooks know how to pack a punch with flavour. Global influences are in abundance and include Polish, Mexican and Brazilian flavours, which should make for an exciting tasting. The best two cooks will win the first two aprons of the night.

The other four cooks will have one more shot to trade in their aprons from home, but they will only have a fifty-fifty chance of success, as two will be out of the competition. Grace and Anna have set a daunting Classic Recipe test, which requires the cooks to follow a recipe for an egg yolk and ricotta-filled raviolo, served with a sage and mushroom burnt butter. The judges have been kind enough to provide them with ready-made pasta dough, but not so kind as to include measurements or timings in the recipe. It will take a decent amount of skill and technique to deliver thin pasta with a nicely seasoned filling and oozy yolk in just 45 minutes.

The two pasta dishes that fail to excite the judges will send their cooks packing, leaving two more in with a chance at becoming quarter-finalists.

Next, the four apron winners face an even tougher challenge. Anna and Grace have invited three guests to taste the two best courses these amateurs can create in just 75 minutes. The guests are former 2010 champion Dhruv Baker, 2013 champ Natalie Coleman and 2022 finalist Pookie Tredell. All three diners will have one thing on their mind: the desire to taste the food of a future MasterChef champion. The amateurs will need to throw everything they have in the tank at this, as it’s a tall order in normal circumstances, never mind under this kind of pressure. Food that has technique, skill, and an abundance of flavour that excites both the diners and judges will be required to succeed.

All that’s left is for Anna and Grace to pick three cooks who have shown enough potential to head into this week’s quarter-final. One more cook will be back in their home kitchen before they know it, with their MasterChef dream already over.