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Sun, May 1, 2016
Contestants started Series 8 with a challenge to cook their signature dish in one hour, vying for automatic entry into the Top 24. Gary, Matt and George judged the competitors with either "yes" or "no", with their votes deciding whether the contestant should stay in the competition. Nineteen contestants received three yes votes and won their way through to the main competition. Eleven other contestants, who received either one or two yes votes, were given a second chance and cooked again in the next episode.
Mon, May 2, 2016
Eleven contestants, who were given a second chance to secure the five remaining spots in the Top 24, competed in the first challenge round to cook a dish with one of ten ingredients from their individual basket in 90 minutes. Mimi was praised for her snapper dish and immediately received an apron and joined the Top 24. The other three contestants receiving an apron were Elise, Harry and Adam.
Tue, May 3, 2016
The remaining seven contestants faced the Pressure Test in the second round to recreate Shannon Bennett's chocolate peanut bar to secure the last apron into the Top 24. Between the chosen three contestants who delivered the best dishes, Miles won the last apron after earning high praise from the judges with his dish.
Thu, May 5, 2016
The bottom three contestants faced their first elimination challenge. Each had to pick one of twelve cloches that contained twelve mystery ingredients on display and create a dish based on the chosen cloche in 75 minutes. They had the option to choose again if they didn't like their first pick but would be stuck with their second selection. Ashley's choice was mushrooms, Charlie's pick was ginger and Theresa chose prawns. The judges were impressed with Theresa's prawn salad and Charlie's chocolate ginger cremeux, despite the lack of ginger in his dish. As a result, both were declared safe. Ashley, who tried to recreate a pasta dish and was criticised for his overcooked egg and frying the ravioli, became the first contestant to be eliminated from the competition.
Sun, May 8, 2016
Marco Pierre White presents his ingredients from the Mystery Box (cinnamon, chicken, extra virgin olive oil, ham, honey, lemon, parsley and potatoes) to the contestants. After 75 minutes of cooking time, five standout dishes were cooked by Cecilia, Charlie, Matt, Mimi and Nidhi. Charlie, who won the challenge with his Honey Semifreddo, had to pick a choice of meat and three vegetables for their first Invention Test. He chose lamb for protein and parsnips, onions and carrots for three vegetables. They have 90 minutes to cook a dish with these ingredients. Nidhi, Olivia and Zoe receive praises from the judges with their dishes where they will compete for the first Immunity Challenge. Matt receives special mention with his dish of lamb koftas. Con, Nathaniel and Cecilia receive negative feedback from the judges on their dishes. They will be competing in the first Pressure Test for elimination.
Mon, May 9, 2016
Nathaniel, Con and Cecilia had to copy and recreate a dish Marco was cooking with no set time limit. All their instructions came from Marco and they had 10 seconds to prepare the dish after Marco finished cooking. Cecilia managed to follow Marco's instructions carefully and took the lead in the challenge. Meanwhile, Nathaniel and Con fell behind after the latter accidentally cut himself while skinning his fish. All three managed to complete the dish. Cecilia thrived with her approach similar to Marco's and was saved. It was between Con and Nathaniel who both had issues with the presentation of their dishes. Due to his overcooked fish, Nathaniel was eliminated.
Wed, May 11, 2016
The 22 contestants traveled to Footscray at the Plough Hotel for their first team challenge. The team captains, Brett (Red Team) and Nicolette (Blue Team), each picked a card from three jars representing a three-course meal that would describe the traits of each meal. The teams had three hours of prep time to cook enough food for 70 people, before service began. The Blue Team fell behind the Red Team after they took a lot of time to prep the dishes. The Red Team's entrée, skewered prawns, received praises from George and Gary who declared them the winners. The Blue Team were sent to elimination after serving the judges under-cooked scallops and that also missed the mark on the theme (pub-lunch) as their entrée.
Thu, May 12, 2016
Alphabet Elimination Challenge - The Blue Team faced the first round of elimination. Each contestant must name an ingredient correctly according to the first letter. Cecilia, Adam, Matt and Harry made mistakes and were in the second round of the challenge where they had to cook a dish in 60 minutes. They get to use all of the ingredients they chose correctly in the first round and the usual pantry staples. Both Matt and Harry produced exemplary dishes and were declared safe. Cecilia impressed the judges with the flavours of her tuna dish, but it was simplistic and the consistency of her mayonnaise was criticised. Adam, on the other hand, presented his bland dish with underseasoned lamb that left him eliminated. MasterClass: Marco Pierre White, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan - The judges (minus George) and Marco treated the contestants to their first MasterClass. Marco made the contestants his risotto milanese. Matt taught the contestants how to cook his baked cheesecake. Gary shows how to cook his Vietnamese duck pho, which had been chosen by viewers. Lastly, Marco taught the contestants how to cook his saffron arancini using his leftover risotto milanese.
Sun, May 15, 2016
The remaining 21 contestants faced their next Mystery Box Challenge with 75 minutes to cook with ingredients chosen by the viewers: cauliflower, maple syrup, coconut, goat cheese, okra, lemon myrtle, beef mince and squid. Karmen, Con, Heather, Matt and Anastasia stood out with their dishes. The judges picked Anastasia's dish as the winner of the challenge with the advantage for the Invention Test. She chose marmalade (over peanut butter and vegemite) which everyone then had to cook a dish with in 75 minutes. Anastasia won the second round of the competition with her orange quail dish and received a chance to compete in the Immunity Challenge, along with Con and Nicolette, who also impressed the judges with their inventive dishes. Karmen, Chloe and Olivia all faced serious technical issues on their desserts, and were sent into the Pressure Test, facing elimination.
Mon, May 16, 2016
Chloe, Olivia and Karmen were tasked to recreate season 7 alumnus Reynold Poernomo's dessert "Moss" in two and a half hours. Chloe received praise for creating a very similar dish to Reynold's, making her the first contestant to pass the Pressure Test. Several of Karmen's elements were liked by the judges but she didn't allow time to finish her dulce crémeux so didn't serve it, which was criticised. Olivia completed all the elements of the dish but despite of this, each have notable errors - a dense pistachio sponge, a lime yoghurt foam without gelatine and a matcha sphere that left too long in the blast chiller. Those flaws were too much to keep her safe over Karmen and consequently, it was enough to eliminate Olivia.
Tue, May 17, 2016
Anastasia, Con and Nicolette faced the first round for immunity pin with 60 minutes to make a dish using popcorn. Both Con and Anastasia lacked popcorn in their dishes, handing Nicolette the win with her popcorn parfait, earning a chance to cook against guest chef Braden White in the second round. She decided they would both cook fish. She had 75 minutes and cooked a confit salmon with crispy skin. In his 60 minutes, Braden cooked a mulloway dish but the judges found his fish over-cooked and declared Nicolette the winner of the season's first immunity pin with the score of 26 to Braden's 25.
Wed, May 18, 2016
Contestants were split randomly into two teams to replicate a three-course meal for 30 guests from two restaurants in Melbourne: Huxtable and Pei Modern. The Blue Team were assigned to Pei Modern while the Red Team were assigned to Huxtable. The captains (Blue Team's Karmen and Red Team's Matt) and vice-captains (Blue Team's Chloe and Red Team's Trent) arrive at the restaurants to memorise the directions of the recipes from the chef of each restaurant (Anthony Hammel of Pei and Daniel Wilson of Huxtable) before returning to the MasterChef kitchen, relaying instructions to their other team members to be able to mirror the dishes before service in 90 minutes. The Blue Team failed to replicate all of the dishes of Pei Modern's three-course meal after a series of technical issues on each dish: zucchini flowers for the entrée were under-cooked, the main's radicchio puree lack colour and they left off the hot caramel topping for the dessert. As a result, they were at risk of elimination after the Red Team won the challenge.
Thu, May 19, 2016
After losing the team challenge, the Blue Team faced a two-round elimination. The first round was to prepare a raw dish with one ingredient from the pantry without cooking in 30 minutes. The rest of the team were safe while Miles, Nidhi and Theresa (after they fell behind with their dishes) had to compete in the second round. They had to cook with the ingredient they had chosen from the first round (cauliflower for Nidhi, pear for Theresa and tuna for Miles). While Miles was safe after impressing the judges with his tuna tataki, Theresa and Nidhi were left to await the final verdict. Theresa forgot the syrup on her poached pear before she could present it to the judges. Despite being an early front runner of the competition, when Nidhi served the judges her cauliflower paratha and mint chutney, her bhajis suffered from serious technical issues that resulted in her elimination.
Sun, May 22, 2016
International celebrity chef Nigella Lawson appeared as a guest chef for the week. She presented her chosen ingredients (butternut pumpkin, chestnut, chicken thighs, pippis, ginger, pancetta, feta cheese and cumin) in a Mystery Box for the contestants to cook with in 75 minutes. Heather won the challenge over Charlie, Elena, Jimmy and Zoe with her open filo pumpkin pie. She chose chocolate as the core ingredient for the Invention Test, with 60 minutes to cook. Harry, Karmen and Mimi were named as the Top 3 with their inventive chocolate desserts. Chloe, Jimmy and Miles were sent to the Pressure Test after each suffer technical issues with their respective desserts.
Mon, May 23, 2016
The bottom three performers from the Invention Test faced a Pressure Test featuring three dishes from Nigella: crab avocado salad, lamb with radishes and peas, and coffee pannacotta with chocolate coffee sauce. The contestants had only 60 minutes to plate up all the dishes. Chloe was praised for her dishes and was declared safe. All of Miles' dishes had notable flaws (salad that lacked dressing, sauce for the lamb that was burnt and pannacotta's texture was grainy) which would be enough to send him home. However, the judges were more disappointed with Jimmy, despite the positive feedback on his pannacotta, his salad missed some ingredients which lacked presentation and his lamb was under-cooked, sealing his elimination.
Tue, May 24, 2016
Having landed in the top 3 of the Invention Test, Harry, Karmen and Mimi were surprised in the middle of the night by Nigella and Matt as the preliminary round for the Immunity Challenge was creating a midnight snack, something Nigella is well known for. Harry's brookies, a combination of brownies and cookies, were deemed the best dish and he won the right to challenge chef Lachlan Colwill for immunity in the second round . Harry chose "Christmas sweet" (over "Christmas savoury") as the pantry but his Christmas Pavlova wasn't enough to beat Colwill's Australian summer Christmas pudding and the professional won the challenge with a score of 27 over Harry's 26.
Wed, May 25, 2016
The 18 contestants were randomly divided into three teams. They had to cook three dishes (one savoury, two sweet with one of these containing jam) for a crowd of 1000-2000 people who would turn up for a fete. The judges declared that the money that the teams made by selling their food would be donated to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. The two teams who made the most money would be safe and the winning team would therefore be decided by the guests. The teams were given four hours to cook before service would start after two hours. The yellow team's rocky road popcorn and blondies, the blue's team chocolate cupcakes with jam and buttercream and the red team's chocolate-chip cookies were the hits of the day. The yellow team were declared the winners with an amount of $6326. The red team were safe with an amount of $5892, leaving the blue team to face elimination.
Sun, May 29, 2016
In the Mystery Box Challenge, the contestants found themselves cooking with a mix of ingredients including barramundi, vanilla beans and miso, as well as with instructions to keep every discarded piece of food stored with a "waste not, want not" principle in mind. Chloe won the challenge and her advantage was a pass straight through to the week's Immunity Challenge. The remaining cooks were tasked to create an inventive dish with no pantry or garden available, just what was left of the mystery box items including the scraps. Matt, Karmen and Mimi impressed the judges and they joined Chloe in the Immunity Challenge while Theresa, Charlie and Brett missed the mark and ended up in the Pressure Test.
Tue, May 31, 2016
The winners of the Mystery Box Challenge and Invention Test were split in pairs for the first round of the Immunity Challenge. Chloe, as the winner of the Mystery Box Challenge, had a second advantage of picking one of the Invention Test winners as her partner. She chose Matt and in the first round, they had to cook two jaffles (sweet and savoury) in 75 minutes. Matt and Chloe beat Mimi and Karmen with his spiced mince jaffle and her apple pie jaffle. As a team, they then competed against Woodland House chefs Thomas Woods and Hayden McFarland from Melbourne in the second round with a chance for both of them to win Immunity pins. With 75 minutes, they were given the option to choose two ingredients: one sweet and one savoury, for them to cook their dishes. Matt chose prawns and Chloe picked raspberries. Thomas and Hayden had 60 minutes to cook their dishes with the same ingredients. While Thomas' raspberry vinegar jelly scored 28 points to Chloe's rosewater bavarois with 21, Hayden's miso glazed prawns was criticised for the use of bitter melon in the dish and given a score of 18 points to Matt's 27 for his hot n' sour prawn head broth. The professionals' final score was 46 while Chloe and Matt, for the first time, won an Immunity pin each with their total score of 48.
Sun, Jun 5, 2016
Each contestant picked one of three ingredients - abalone, silken tofu and lemongrass - to cook a dish within 60 minutes in the Invention Test by Maggie Beer. The top three dishes were named and Zoe won with the use of silken tofu for her cheesecake. Her advantage was to choose the eight ingredients in the Mystery Box Challenge for everyone to cook with in 60 minutes. She chose basil, chilli, garlic, pancetta, pork mince, ricotta, thyme and tomatoes. The top three dishes were cooked by Chloe, Trent and Brett while Charlie, Elise, Harry and Nicolette were at risk of elimination after presenting the least-impressive dishes.
Tue, Jun 7, 2016
In the first round, Brett, Chloe and Trent had 60 minutes to bake an éclair for an advantage in the second round. Both Trent and Chloe impressed the judges, who voted Chloe as the winner with her chocolate éclair with toasted pecan praline. Hoping for a second Immunity pin, Chloe chose coffee over tea as the core ingredient to cook against guest chef Morgan McGlone of Belles Hot Chicken in Barangaroo. She presented her coffee bombe dessert but an issue with the meringue failed to win her another pin, scoring 18 to Morgan's 22 for his coffee crusted quail.
Thu, Jun 9, 2016
Chloe opted to use her Immunity pin and skipped the challenge while her remaining team members faced elimination. They had to pick a core ingredient and a cuisine from lucky dip bags to cook a dish within 75 minutes. Elena, Harry and Matt cooked the best dishes and were declared safe. Mimi's Thai lamb dish lacked a crunchy element and Zoe was criticised for the texture of the pumpkin filling to her American tart. But it was Miles' salmon dish that lacked focus on the fish itself, eliminating him from the competition.
Sun, Jun 12, 2016
For the contestants to gain a Power Apron, Luke Nguyen presented his Mystery Box (with ingredients including crickets) for them to cook an exemplary dish. Beating Matt and Heather in the challenge was Elise with the use of crickets for her parfait. After earning the power apron, Elise had 90 minutes to prepare her dish, choosing the method of frying (over steaming), while the others had 60 minutes to prepare their fried dishes. Despite this advantage, Elise fell behind after wasting her 30-minute advantage due to choosing a dish that would require an element that could not be fried. Anastasia, Chloe and Harry received praise for their inventive dishes. The winner of the Power Apron was Anastasia with her tarragon prawns and fried fennel pesto. Elise was sent into the Pressure Test along with Elena and Zoe to face elimination.
Tue, Jun 14, 2016
Previously eliminated contestants returned to the MasterChef Kitchen to compete for a place back in the competition. They had 60 minutes to cook a dish with the use of the following ingredients: wine, rosemary, raspberries, dark chocolate, cardamon pods, lemon, Greek yoghurt, lamb and beetroot. The returning contestant would also receive a Power Apron for the winning dish. In possession of the Power Apron, Anastasia got a second advantage to choose one of the eliminated contestants who would add another ingredient. She chose Theresa who added desiccated coconut in order to make a yoghurt rosemary snowball which highly impressed the judges over Cecilia's yoghurt sorbet and earned Theresa her place back in the competition, winning the Power Apron.
Wed, Jun 15, 2016
Curtis Stone mentored the contestants at the restaurant Sails by the Bay in their team challenge. They were randomly chosen in pairs and each team had to cook and serve a 6 course degustation dish with the use of citruses for 50 people. The thirteenth contestant could sit out of the challenge to avoid elimination if Theresa used her Power Apron. Returning the favour for giving her the advantage to earn her place back in the competition, she chose Anastasia. The green team (Elise and Trent) attempted to come up with another element to improve their dish at the last minute, while the purple team (Chloe and Nicolette) ignored Curtis' advice for improvements on their dish. By the time the teams presented their dishes during service time, the green team's mandarin prawn salad had a technical issue on the prawns and the purple team's grapefruit sorbet received negative remarks on its presentation. Those dishes sent the two teams into the elimination round. The other teams won the challenge with the blue team's (Elena and Theresa) tangelo refresher named the dish of the day.
Thu, Jun 16, 2016
The contestants faced each other in pairs in a two-round elimination. For the first round, Elise and Nicolette had to cook a dish inspired by seashells while Trent and Chloe took the inspiration from autumn leaves. Elise and Trent produced the best dishes and were saved while Chloe and Nicolette then had 60 minutes to compete with a dish inspired by fire in the second round. It was a close decision, with one of them declared safe based on presentation. Although she was praised for the flavours of her dish, Nicolette was eliminated by judges' decision.
Mon, Jun 20, 2016
The four members of the Blue Team had two and a half hours to recreate Flynn McGarry's "Beet Wellington." Heather and Theresa impressed the judges, but both Anastasia and Chloe had a couple of serious flaws on their dishes. Chloe's beet bordelaise sauce was diluted after she accidentally spilled half of her smoked beetroot water and her beet leaf balls lacked smoothness. However, despite her impressive run throughout the competition, Anastasia's first Pressure Test saw her struggling the most. Though she was praised in the cooking of her wellington, the dish lacked balance itself due to the filling of her beet balls being too salty and her under-smoked dates for the roulade. These were not enough for the judges to disregard her rough plating of the dish and Anastasia was eliminated from the competition.
Thu, Jun 23, 2016
Elise, Karmen, Matt, Mimi and Trent competed in an elimination challenge to secure the last remaining spots in the Top 10. They had up to 100 minutes to gather their ingredients from between one and five small different hidden pantries. Karmen, Matt and Trent chose 75 minutes to cook with herbs and vegetables while Elise and Mimi waited another 15 minutes and had 60 minutes to cook with the addition of fruit. Trent, Matt and Mimi had amazing results, joining the Top 10. Karmen showed the judges her ambition and creativity on her Mille-Feuille which has sweet tomatoes, soft ricotta, very clever and Elise's charred apricot was well flavoured and the texture of the parfait and the saltiness and the flavour of the thyme in the crumb. While Karmen and Elise impressed the judges with their dishes, Karmen's basil ice cream lacked the brightness and the depth of flavour which made her dish out of balance. In the end, it's enough to send Karmen home.
Sun, Jun 26, 2016
Heston Blumenthal mentored the Top 10 home cooks for the week's challenges, which involved a pop-up restaurant each night, with contestants from each challenge sent straight into the Elimination Round. For their first challenge, contestants were divided into teams of two, with each team preparing a main dish and a dessert for 20 diners in pods on the revolving Melbourne Star, which for one night would become the world's largest pop-up restaurant. Heston set the theme of the night: outer space. A number of teams struggled with timing, but all managed to get the dishes to their diners in time before the pods moved on. Highlights included the Yellow Team's (Matt and Theresa) "black hole" dessert, the Blue Team's (Mimi and Elena) "sea stars" main, and the Red Team's (Chloe and Harry) "big bang" dessert. Trent and Heather from the Maroon Team had overcooked duck on their main and a heavy sponge cake in their dessert, making them the first two contestants sent into the elimination.
Wed, Jun 29, 2016
Harry, Elise, Mimi and Theresa competed in the last pop-up challenge at the restaurant of Rippon Lea Estate. It was a service challenge where each received an envelope containing a recipe of an historical-themed dish. They had two hours to cook their assigned dishes to serve for 10 diners plus the judges. Theresa fell behind the others after panicking when preparing her dish during service time. Her poor presentation of the dish and inconsistent plating put her in the last spot in elimination as Harry, Elise and Mimi were safe. Elise's fennel nougat tart was praised by the judges and declared a "signature dish."
Thu, Jun 30, 2016
Rainbow Affinity Elimination Challenge - The losing contestants from each pop-up challenge faced an elimination set by Heston and the judges. Each contestant randomly picked a knife with a colour of the rainbow (Red for Theresa, Orange for Elena, Yellow for Heather, Green for Brett, Blue for Matt, Indigo for Chloe and Violet for Trent) and they had 75 minutes to present a dish inspired by their assigned colour. Theresa, Elena and Brett had the top three dishes. They were safe from elimination, along with Trent, while Chloe, Heather and Matt all missed the mark, each having noticeable errors on their dishes. While Chloe and Matt's dishes failed to adequately incorporate their colours, the judges were not impressed with Heather's Lemon Delicious dessert which collapsed on the plate and also criticised her combination of flavours. Ultimately, that dish became her downfall and Heather was eliminated. MasterClass: Heston Blumenthal, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan - Heston and the judges presented their recipes to the contestants in their Masterclass: Heston's roast chicken, Matt's steak sandwich, Gary's French squab and truffles and Heston's chocolate mousse.
Sun, Jul 3, 2016
The contestants' Mystery Box Challenge was more difficult than usual as they had to cook a dish using all of the ingredients from the box (corn, dates, pork belly, onion, apples, cinnamon, rum and condensed milk). Harry and Mimi delivered the best dishes, but it was Brett who won the advantage with his sticky pork and smoked corn puree. His advantage was to choose one of three difficult Invention Tests from previous seasons: cactus and prickly pear (chosen by Julia Taylor from series 4), 70s' Apricot Chicken (chosen by Amy Shields from series 6) and earth (chosen by Billie McKay from series 7). Brett chose re-inventing apricot chicken and the contestants had 60 minutes. Brett won a place to compete for Immunity along with Elise and Harry. Theresa, Mimi and Trent on the other hand failed to impress the judges. Their dishes were not well received, sending them to elimination.
Mon, Jul 4, 2016
Peter Gilmore presented his acclaimed dessert, "Cherry Jam Lamington" to the contestants to replicate within two hours. Trent didn't receive any negative feedback from the judges on his dish and was safe. Mimi, despite struggles and mistakes in her preparation time, also impressed the judges although she was criticised for the lack of coconut shards on her dish. Theresa's dish lacked tartness in the cherry jam and her ice cream was too sweet. The imbalance of the dish resulted in Theresa being re-eliminated from the competition.
Tue, Jul 5, 2016
Brett, Harry and Elise competed in the first round of the Immunity, which was another Mystery Box. They could choose to cook with one or more of the first four ingredients in twenty minutes, or open a smaller box inside to gain 20 minutes cooking time but then have to cook with whatever ingredient was inside. Brett chose the 20 minute cooking time with venison, bay leaves, cauliflower and elderflower oil. Harry and Elise opened the smaller box which contained quandongs and another smaller box. For a further 20 minutes cooking time, they both also opened this, meaning they had 60 minutes to cook with mastic, quandongs and at least one of the original ingredients. Harry struggled to incorporate the mastic into his dessert and his meringues didn't work. Elise's quandong tart and mastic ice cream was praised by the judges, but Brett won the challenge with his perfectly cooked venison. Brett then competed for Immunity against MasterChef mentor Shannon Bennett with Gary running the kitchen for the challenge. Due to the week's theme of difficult challenges, he had no time advantage. Both had 60 minutes and an open pantry. Brett's lamb cutlets with smoked parsnip puree scored 17 points but lost to Shannon's lamb two ways and mustard foam with a score of 18 points.