Best Egg Recipes | MasterChef Australia | MasterChef Australia

Just one? Just one egg. That's right. It's a single egg. Eggs are fragile little suckers. If you poach it, you can break it. You fry it, you can break it. You can crack it open, you can break it. Literally, there's no backup. That's it. You've got to treat that like the most precious little cargo, like ever. So today, I'm making a crab omelette with some chilli crab compound butter. The idea actually comes from a café in Darwin. They do a scrambled egg with crab. It's got some fermented hot sauce all over it and it is delicious. I've got enough time. It's definitely stretched, that's for sure. It's tight, but yeah, I can do it. Got to risk it for the biscuit. I've just got a lot to do in this 30 minutes. I have to cook the crab, pick the crab. But I just know that it's going to be delicious. So I've got my crab cooking ever so gently. Yep, cool. Got my compound butter on the rip. I've toasted off some chilli and coriander seeds. I've thrown some butter in there to melt and just get all friendly with each other. You guys good? We're having fun, Christina. Yeah, it's a good cook. Have fun with it. You'll be fine. I've got eight other really good cooks behind me working flat out. They're going to try and bring it today as well. So I need to try and do the best that I can. If I nail this, then I can save them. They trust me to do my job and I trust them. So that's what it's all about today. What's your 30-minute one-egg dish? I'm making a chawanmushi. And if Dan's got any crab to spare, I'm going to dress that as well. Teamwork makes the dream work. What are you doing with one egg and friends? I'm making oyakodon. Absolute seasoning, perfect balance, Japanese simplicity. That's the idea. 30 minutes, one egg? Yes, talk to me. I'm doing sun in law, so something simple. Mindy's doing a sort of Chinese version of a sun in law egg. So I'm doing like a Vietnamese. Yum. So chilli jam and some crispy sweet potato crisp. What are you doing with your single egg? It's going to be poached on top of a chilba. Similar to Montana, it's done in a more classic style, so garlic herb yoghurt. Are you doing a bread as well? Yeah, like a little flatbread. Trying to do one. You guys are, like, making me nervous. Ali. Hi, Mel. Oh, action stations and all of the scallops over here. All of the scallops, yeah. What are you doing with it? It's my daughter-in-law's scotch egg. Oh, OK. So it's like a teak and a scotch egg, but kind of with a son-in-law flavour. Oh, I love this. My mother-in-law is the one who taught me how to make scotch eggs, so it's kind of got a little bit of a family resonance for me. You know what? In a sea of egg dishes today, this is already standing out to me. So here's hoping you get picked. Thank you. I love a scotch egg. I can make them in my sleep. And son-in-law eggs are a classic kind of Asian dish. I think that kind of mash-up style is a lot about who I am as a cook. So while the egg's boiling, I'm going to get on to making the scallop farce. It's filled with coriander and ginger and garlic and chilli. And I just kind of pulse that together, and then I'm going to wrap that around the egg. Spicy. Make sure you've got time to do a second pick through. There's no little tiny bits. Remember what happened with Max? Yeah. Just do a second pick, just to make sure. I'm flat stick at the moment. I've got my crab just undercooked perfectly the way I wanted it. Sweating it off. Mate, not only have you got to pick crab for your dish, you've got to pick up Steph's as well. Do I? Just a little bit. How much do you need? Just a little bit. She needs 300 grams. Don't say that. I'm picking crab. I've already got enough on my plate here, but Steph said she wanted some for her char mochi. Need much? No, that's it, that's it. No, no, that was for me. Oh, I just need like a little bit. All right. I am bricking it. I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew. So I've got to really push through and hustle now because I'm starting to really run out of time. Might have to be crab scrambled eggs instead. So I'm going to do asparagus alla milanese. It is a classic milanese dish where you've got beautiful cooked asparagus with a fried egg on top. I'm not going to say with a fried egg, but I'm going to say with a poached egg on top. My goal today is just to give the judges another perfect Italian dish. I would love for them to imagine themselves sitting somewhere in Italy, having a perfect brunch, having a nice glass of wine on the side, and that's it. The sauce that I'm going to use to just dress the asparagus, salsa di alici, basically just garlic, anchovy, and capers, just to create a beautiful, fresh, vibrant and umami to the dish. Oh, perfect. Good sauce? Oh, yeah. It makes me feel much more confident delivering a simple but flavorful dish is the key to just pushing me to progress in this competition. I bring forza Napoli, forza Napoli, forza Napoli. Yeah. This precious little, my precious. Come on, let's get you ready. So in order to make the scotch egg, get the iced soft-boiled egg. I'm going to wrap that in the scallop farce that's filled with those Asian flavors. I'm going to pack that around really gently around this precious egg. Then I'm going to dip that in flour. Then I'm going to dip that in mayonnaise. And then cook that in breadcrumbs. And then I'm going to pop the egg into the oil. I've only got one egg, so I literally have everything crossed because we've got a lot riding on this scotch egg. Come on, baby. Do your thing. Make sure your egg is the best it can be. You've only got five minutes to go. Let's go, five minutes. Where did time go? I'm making sun in law. Nice and simple. Pre-boiled the egg and then deep fried. I've got a beautiful chili jam going and some crispy sweet potato crisp. My hands are shaking. How are you going, John? I'm good. I'm about to fry. You're frying. They'll put the egg in the oil and usually with this, you only need to deep fry it for about a minute. You just want a nice, beautiful golden color around the egg. I'm just hoping when the judges cut through it, it will still be jammy. We're only looking for the most excellent dish. Three minutes to go. Go, guys. 30-minute curry. It's so hectic. I've got a lot to do in the final minutes. I still have to get my egg into the curry. I've still got to finish my rice. I'm just hoping those last couple of minutes let the rice cook through. I've tried my curry. It's really beautiful. I think it works really well with that single boiled egg. And the seni sambal, the caramelized onions, is just the perfect accompaniment. I just need everything to now come together perfectly. What do you need? Grab it. I just need to squeeze it out, that's all. I take the chawanmushi out of the steamer. It looks like it's just set, which is perfect. I then put some of the dashi gel on and I top it up with the caviar and crab. I want the judges to taste this umami bomb. It's unexpectedly very punchy and I just want them to have that experience where the egg custard touches the tongue, it just disappears. One egg in two minutes. I've got one egg omelette here. I've got a little pan and I've thrown some of the compound butter in there to cook it. My plan is to have it almost like a crepe and it's going to fold over and be a nice thick center of crab. You can see the edges starting to bubble and wave. It's looking like it's going to hold itself quite nicely. Lovely, we can do this. Now it's all up to folding the egg and this is the bit that really terrifies me. Good work, man. Well done, brother. It looks pretty. It's folded, it looks super pretty and it's cooking well and I am so proud of this, I think it looks great. I feel like I haven't had a win yet. I want to really have a chance to impress the judges so I hope the judges pick it because I think it's going to be packed full of flavour. And here we go! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 3, 2, 1. Aldo, what's your dish, please? So we got asparagus alla milanese. It's basically a class from Milano and the sauce is an anchovy dipping sauce. And how would you like your egg poached? Of course, nice and runny. Beautiful, let's find out. Cut it open, Mel. Very brave, mate, very brave. It's a Milanese classic but I reckon you've just made it that little bit better. The texture of the white of a poached egg as opposed to when it's fried and a little bit squeaky is just, it's so good, Aldo. Thank you. That anchovy sauce, it had such life and depth. Nothing goes unnoticed when it's that perfect. Thank you. You should be very proud of yourself because we are. Well done, mate. It's made me feel so proud of myself, so happy with feedback and the judges, they just remind me what I need to do to succeed in this competition. Beautiful. Which is cook my true self. Good work. Next up, I am very excited to be calling for Daniel. Hello. Stop it. Get it, Dan. Yeah. Daniel, what have you made us, mate, with your one egg? I made a crab omelette with a nice compound chilli, herby butter. One egg crab omelette? Yeah. I'm impressed at how much work I did. I toasted spices, cooked the crab, picked the crab. The only scary thing, though, is because I only had one egg, I didn't get a chance to taste it, so I had to eyeball seasoning. We'll do it for you, mate. I was going to say, the only thing that can lie you down here is the taste, right? Yeah. Tell you what, you weren't skimpy on the crab either. Daniel, what we look for in a perfect omelette is that even, pale, golden, no sign of brown, the classic way, of course. And you've done that here. The ratio of egg to crab is sensational. From a flavour perspective, chilli and the herbs are just complementing it all. The omelette itself is cooked absolutely perfectly. You've nailed the egg. Cheers. Welcome to the party. Oh, I tell you what, it feels good to finally get invited. You've always had an invite, you just never showed up. Just never showed up, yeah. Fashionably late. Congratulations, brother. Thanks very much. Oh, stop it. Oh, stop it, Gemma, if you're going to make me big fella tear up. Next up, Steph. Steph cooked a Japanese chawanmushi. We've had a fair few versions over the years and that is right up there with one of the best. The flavour of you going to town and making your own dashi is just reeking throughout that whole dish. It was perfect. Well done. I've got my fingers and my toes crossed. So I've made for you a sun in law, served with a chilli jam and nests, which is made out of sweet potato. The egg is robbery, unfortunately. Everything else on there is brilliant and the flavour that is in your chilli jam is epic. Epic, mate. Thank you. Last spot up the front on the tasting bench goes to... Ali! Rightio, Ali, what did you cook? I have cooked a daughter-in-law scotch egg. How are you feeling about having no idea how that egg's cooked? Yeah, I'm terrified. I'm not sure whether I'm having a menopausal flush. Ali, do you want to cut it up? No, I'm not ready. Ah, come on! Come on! Stop it! That is perfect. Yes, Melissa? Yes, Andy. It's in. Oh, it's horrible. Take it away, take it away. What's going on today? It is crazy good. Not just is the bass crunchy on the outside, taste the coriander, you can taste the ginger, you can taste the chilli. It's all so well done and just humming right now in my mouth. I think the thing that makes me happiest is that this is an amalgamation of ideas from other places that you have made entirely your own. Well done, Ali. Thank you. Oh, don't drop them, Jess. Oh, no! Yeah, it's broken. A duck egg! They dropped an egg, babe. Egg, egg. Look at my ingredients. Eggs, rice, stone fruit and Middle Eastern spices. There are a couple of things that are like, what can I do with it? But overall, I'm pretty happy. Oh, my poor eggs. Oh, girl. Don't drop any more eggs, Jessie. Oh, Jess! Did she drop another egg? Another egg. Oh, no. Jess, be careful. They're so fragile. Yeah, they're eggs. Can we take this off? It doesn't come off, Jess. It doesn't come off? How do I get this? Today I'm going to be making a sous vide egg with turmeric noodles, fried rice crisps and a chilli oil. The first thing I get up to is my aromatic oil. I get oil onto the stovetop and I get some spices onto a pan. This aromatic oil is going to bind the whole dish together. We've got that mild turmeric noodle, you've got that soft egg and then you've got those rice crisps and they're all mellow flavours. So that chilli oil is going to bring everything together. Is she making chilli oil? Are you making chilli oil? I'm going to do an aromatic chilli oil. Nice. Yeah. This aromatic oil has to be full of flavour. It has to be really punchy but also balance out the dish beautifully. Today it's going to be really tough because we don't have an open pantry so we don't get to pick out different ingredients that we want to use. We have to stick with the four categories that we bought and cook with at least one ingredient from each category. So, Jess, 100 minutes. That's an hour and 40 minutes. That's a long time to do a cook. However, that's a bit of a tough box. I mean, rice, stone fruits, eggs and Middle Eastern spices. I mean, you're kind of limited to choices in a way. What would you cook out of that box? I mean, as soon as I saw the eggs and the rice, I was like, I don't want those two things in a dish unless I'm doing a Korean bibimbap or, you know, like... Fried rice, right? Yeah, but, like, she leans more into desserts and I'm like, a dessert? Yeah, there's a rice pudding in there, there's something there, but it doesn't come naturally to me. And, you know, we've seen Jess, when she's got too much time, she starts overthinking stuff. I think it actually suits Jess. Really? Because she does have that time. So I've actually got a lot of faith in Jess. Five minutes. Thank you. Hey, Jess. Hello, hello. How are you going? So far, OK, I think. Is it sweet or savoury? It's a savoury dish. Yay! Look at you go. Tell us what you're cooking. I'm making sort of like an aromatic chilli oil. I'm getting onto my turmeric noodles. I'm going to sous vide the eggs, so hopefully it'll have that really nice kind of shape. It's sort of poached but really soft in the centre. Jess, you've got 100 minutes. We want to see a 100-minute dish. Pressure. Thank you. She's so clever. So, so clever. After my oil is nice and aromatic, I get onto my turmeric noodle. Pressure is definitely on, but I'm feeling pretty good. I think I've got a couple of things that I want to get out of the way first before anything, but I'm feeling good. To make this rice crisp, I spurt rice out to a nice, low-fat mat and get it into an oven to dehydrate. Jess, are you doing sweet or savoury? I'm doing savoury. Oh, cool. It's a big risk doing savoury with this particular ingredient because all of them are perfect for a dessert, but I want it to come out of my comfort zone, so I'm going to go savoury. Hey, Jess. Hello, hello. Hey, Jess. So, noodles, rice crisp, punchy chilli oil. Because it's not sweet. No, no, no. Where? It's not sweet. You know what? I could do sweets, but I told myself that if by 40 minutes things go to shit, I'll make an ice cream. But if it doesn't, then I'm going to continue on. Listen, you know how important immunity is, right? Oh, yeah, of course. If you get this, you're safe. I have to cook savoury one day or another, so today's the day. Today's the day. There's a lot on the line here. I know, there's a lot on the line. I don't know why she's not playing to her strengths. Yeah. That's a perfect pantry for dessert. Eggs and fruit. If I don't win today, then I'm going to elimination, but I am definitely going to take a risk today regardless of the consequences. So, we'll see how things go. Well, wowzers. I hope I made the right decision. I've got my rice in the oven to make the rice crisp. Today, I'm going to be making a sous-vide egg with turmeric noodles and fried rice crisp. Now I need to pay attention to my eggs. It's a crucial element to this dish. I put my first batch of eggs into a water bath about 75 degrees, and I'm going to leave that there for 12 minutes. I want this egg to be set on the outside, but the yolk is still nice and runny because that's the sauce that's going to bind everything together when you mix it all together. She needs to cook her desserts. She would have absolutely nailed it. Not that she may still nail it. Yeah, I don't even know. That one's quite sweet. I don't have any vinegar or any citrus in my under-baked pantry. Although stone fruit is always used for desserts or juice, I think I want to make it into an acidic sort of condiment. They're all sweet, but the plums do give it a little bit of acidity. I'm just hoping that that should be enough to give off a little bit of a vinegar acidity taste. Although the judge is not going to taste the stone fruit in the sauce, it's going to bring that beautiful punch of acidity to balance out the flavour. I hate that it has to be one by one. Open the flap. Ah! On the other side. No, no, no, on the other side. On the other side, where the juice comes out. The tap, the tap. Ah. Oh, thank you. What do you think? I reckon Jess has missed a trick. Yeah? If she can make parsley, parsnip, and all those crazy ingredients that she made so successful yesterday, she can make a successful dessert out of that. It could be really good, though. What would you make? What would I make? I would definitely do a dessert. Yeah. Like, no doubt. Yeah. So I've got my chilli oats, and then I'm making sort of like, sort of similar to a plum sauce, but I'm trying to get some acidity. My rice crisps are still drying up in the oven. My eggs have just come out. And I have to roll out my noodles, so there's a couple of things on the go. I'm feeling really confident cracking into my first batch of eggs. I want this egg to be nice and runny. It's too overcooked. I've just made boiled eggs. I'm really gutted. I still have time to make a new batch, but I'm just praying that the next batch is going to be OK. I think I'm going to do it for a shorter time. I've put in the next lot of eggs for about nine minutes, and I'm just praying that they're going to be perfect and not overcooked. Time is definitely slipping away from me today, and without this egg, that's it for my dish. There's a lot at stake in an immunity challenge, and I so badly want to win this today. I cracked the second batch of eggs. Please be OK. And it's under. No, needs more time. I'm feeling really devastated. The one simple element for this dish was the eggs, and I'm having so much trouble making it. What's your temperature at, Jade? I want to put it at 65. I think that's pretty safe. Yeah. I've gone through so many eggs, and all of them are either overcooked, undercooked, or just nearly cooked. Better? Better. Just needs longer. I need to put an extra one just in case. There's a lot riding on this one egg because we're all here to cook an immunity, and I want to make it look perfect. I'm rolling out the dough, and I'm really happy. It's nice and soft, but I know I'm going to have to work it to get that consistency right. Nice one, Jess. Oh, nice, Jess. Yes, Jess. That looks beautiful. They look good. You happy? Yeah. I will know once I cook them. We'll have to see. As long as they don't stick together. This is the moment of truth. Cracking into this egg. This has to be perfect. I'm feeling really nervous inside because this is the element I truly, truly wanted to work out. I'm happy. After so many eggs, one of them worked out. And I think inside should be okay, but I won't know until the judges crack into it. That's it, Jess. Good nest, good nest. Take your time. Don't crack that egg. Yes, Jessie! Yay! I'm a little worried that the egg yolk has set, but I'm just trying to be hopeful today. Most amount of time and most anticipated dish, I reckon. How'd you go? So I've cooked a 65-degree egg with turmeric egg noodle, rice crisp and a chilli oil dressing with some stone fruit. Looks good. Smells good. Well, immunity on the line. So let's test it. Thank you, Jess. Thank you. Ooh. How's the egg look? Please say perfect. It looks perfect. What do you think? I think it looks good. I'm more interested in the noodles, to be honest. Do you think they're cooked nicely? I think they look beautiful. Oh, yeah. Nailed it. Look at the way that yolk's just coating all of those beautiful noodles. There's this gorgeous glossy finish on it. Curtis, as guest of honour, I feel it only right that you have the first crack at that. Well, my mother will be screaming at the television, saying, no, Curtis, ladies first, but I'm going to do it. Look at that. I've got it all onto the cracker. I like the idea that she's handmade the noodles. I like the idea of, you know, she was struggling with the need for acid. Went through the fruit, tasted, just made the sauce there, made a crack in chilli oil. But the actual noodles themselves with the egg, it's almost luxurious, you know? Look, I think, as a chef, it's quite difficult to imagine how the dish is going to eat when all the components come together. And to put an egg in the middle of noodles, well, it's a bold thing to do, frankly, because you're not getting to taste it yourself as the chef. And I think the richness of the egg yolk and that aggressive spice of the chilli oil work really nicely together. I think it's a really nice dish of noodles and lots of skill shown, for sure. I mean, let's give it up for the fact that Jess cooked us a savoury dish. She's a dessert queen. And to produce this bowl of slurpy, slippery, textural noodles and the rice cracker, I think it adds a lovely extra dimension of crunch and crisp as well. So, very nicely done. Oh, spicy! Whoa! In round one, my rice was undercooked. This time around, I really need to work on my timing. I've committed to making Sri Lankan pan rolls. They're just morsels filled with so many yummy fillings wrapped in this beautiful crepe, crumbed and then deep-fried. And it's just... Oh, it's so good. It's so good. Manoli! Hello. Smells pretty good. Have you recovered from round one? I just, like, bit off a little bit more than I could chew. It got you just a few minutes ago. And the thing is, the curry was banging. What is going on here? Because that smells ridiculous. What are you making? Just a tomato and tamarind chutney for some egg pan rolls. I'm into it. Normally, it's got potato and fish and meat, but I'm just going to chuck eggs in there. Only egg? Oh, egg, a little bit of potato, leek, carrot. You've got to cook them all the way down first. Yeah. Are you getting off time? I have to. Manoli, you know you do this thing where you, like, run out of time? Yeah. Please don't do it. I know that this smells amazing, but this is an egg component, and you've got a fair way to go. Yes, I do. Good luck. Grace. Honestly, I bit off more than I can chew in round one, and I was like, I'm not going to do that in round two. I've done that in round two. Oh, my God, so many things. So I'm sick and nervous inside. If anything goes wrong, I could be going home. Greta, oh, my God, so many things. Sarah, bubble, bubble, toil and trouble happening over here. What is the dish? So I'm actually making omurice today. Love it. So you have that perfect football shape over the top of the rice. Slip down the centre, it unzips and reveals a silky interior. That looks good, Sashi. Sashi. Yes. What are you making? I'm making an egg sambal. Yeah. With coconut and egg netted crepe. Yum. So, yeah. Playing to the strings. Yeah, going back to my roots. Very smart. Yeah. That's so good. In round one, I cooked such a great dish because I cooked a dish that's important for me, food from the heart and from the soul. Because I want to showcase one more time what food from a small country village could bring to the MasterChef kitchen. I'm going to cook filoso. It's a dish that Nonna, she makes on a Sunday. It's just basically egg, bread and pasta in the Neapolitan sauce. Just a pleasant dish, actually, because that's what they used to eat when they were very poor. Like, my family wasn't very wealthy. So that's... I'm bringing back. This dish is simple and it's got just two components. The egg part and the rich Neapolitan ragout. Oh. Home sweet home. This dish has been created by my Nonna. My last trip back home, I started to record my Nonna cooking for me on my phone. She does the same thing that I'm about to do. The bread, it's like a bread frittata. Egg mixture. It's going to be fried off and then the bread's going to be like a sponge absorbing all the sauce into it. Beautiful. Yes, Alvin. Alvin. Oh, beautiful eggs. Feeling good, so I'm cooking something that I really love. I'm making an onion curry. It's an emotional dish to me because it's my mum's recipe and I want to do it justice. She's the reason why I know how to cook. So, yeah, a lot from here. I'm making Sri Lankan pan rolls with a tomato and tamarind chutney. I've got the pancake batter. It's looking good. Yep. So I'm just going to do a few and then start deep frying them. I think I hit the nail on the head with the crepe batter. Now I've got to get these pan rolls rolled. I add the soft-boiled eggs and veggie mixture into the crepe, roll it up. I need to crumb them, deep fry them and I'm just going to pick my best ones to serve the judges. How many more minutes? Just over seven. Oh, my God, seven minutes. Seven minutes! Like, in my brain, my brain was like, that's not enough time. And my other brain's like... You don't have a choice. I don't want to serve the judges undercooked pan rolls. This is really, really, really tight. Oh, my Lordy. Great work, man. If I'm going to go home today on a dish that I'm proud of and a dish that I love too, I'm going to be fine with that. All right, Aldo, what do you cook, mate? The real name is Ofilos, which is a dish that my mum makes basically every Sunday. And it's just egg fried. Lots of parmesan and then sauce. What I did, it's what you keep telling me all the time that I'm cooking. Say it to yourself. I had fun, I was relaxed, I was in the zone and I cooked what I love to do. Perfect. Aldo, I've never tried this before and I'm so glad that I've tried it now. Mate, that is two from two from you today. When you can do a Neapolitan sauce that good, it is luxury. Aldo, with this dish, you've taken us to your nonna's home and I feel like I'm sitting in her kitchen and I feel surrounded by love with a dish like this. Even if it's not from my heritage, I feel your family and your history and I'm deeply respectful of that. Thank you. That's the best compliment, actually. Every component of it is perfection. Yes, it's simple, but there is no more fitting a dish that proves how good a cook you are and why you should be in this kitchen. Mate, well done. Took a piece of manonna and I put it into this kitchen. It's just overwhelming. It's good. It's feeling good. The next dish we'd like to taste belongs to Sarah. Good job, girl. Beautiful. Today I've made omurice with a nice sauce to pour over the top. Rice beautifully cooked, chicken lovely and tender. It was silky, it was creamy. It is exactly what you promised us. Well done. Thank you. Next up is Sashi. I've made an egg sambal with roti jala. That is just beautiful family food. This roti, it was exactly the right texture that you want to go into that gnarly, rich, complex sambal. Oh, yeah, I'm jealous of your kids, man. Next up, it's Alvin. Let's go, Alvin. I made a nyonya egg curry. This might be your mother's curry, but this is entirely you. It's refined, it's elegant, it's soulful, it's intelligent and it's beautiful. Thanks, bro. Next up, Mindy. It's a Chinese omelette. Even with everything that you got packed in there, I still got egg. Every bite, I got a beautifully, perfectly cooked omelette. Thanks so much. Next up, Minoli. No, it just hit me that I was here in a limb. What hit you about it? This is something that's very close to my heart. Because literally any Sri Lankan person will froth over it. It's the cheapest thing in the whole country. It's just the best. All right, come on. Take a deep breath and introduce your dish. I have made egg pan rolls with a tomato and tamarind chutney. Minoli? Yes. I must have like a little smidge of Sri Lankan in me because I'm frothing on that. Seriously, like it is goose bump stuff. They're everything you want in one bite. It has that gorgeous, crunchy outer, golden shell, the beautiful, tender pancake. And then all of those wonderful flavours singing and melding together. And then you dip it into something as explosive as that and you have joy. Minoli, I don't think you've gone anywhere today. Well done. Thanks. That's good. It's so good. I'm so worried that if any of these break or fall or anything, I could be in strife. I have never cradled eggs so desperately in my life. None of these bad boys have fallen today. Come on, Carly. Nice one, Samuel. Got the eggs. I can't believe you forgot the eggs. I'll have a challenge like this. I mean, every cook uses eggs, but I'd love to see a slow-cooked egg with this beautiful blue swimmer crab in there. You know, something like that where I go absolutely yum, you know, and the egg's central to the dish. I have two strategies today. First is get out first round. Second is to only use one egg. I'm going to be making a huzzahed salad. The Dutch potato salad is something that my Emma makes at home all the time. It's really important to me because my food dream is to put a new spin on Dutch food. I want to get it out to the people here in Australia. That's it, Ben. That's it. To feature the egg prominently in the dish, I'm going to sous vide an egg yolk, which is going to add to the creaminess of the potato salad. I'm going to cook the egg yolk for 20 minutes. It just means that when I put it onto the plate, it'll just hold its shape, but it'll still be really nice and runny on the inside. Keep pushing, Ben. So much to do in 45 minutes, but I've just really got to push through it. I'm not going to leave anything in the tank. That's it. Good, man. Come on, Mish. Come on, Mishy. Keep up the pace. Good work. I'm just making my version of mi goreng with sunny-side-up egg. My strategy today is to cook something that I know very well, but also something that represents me on the plate. I'm just using one egg just in case I'm going to second round. What's going to take you from home cooking into Michelle Heavenland? The flavours. And I think if the sunny-side-up egg is beautiful, it's just going to make the whole dish shine. This is an egg elimination, so it's crucial for my sunny-side-up egg to cook perfectly. Come on, Mishy. The time is ticking so quickly, and I'm just finishing off my mi goreng, and it has to be perfect. Good pace, Mish. Once the chopped elements are sautéed perfectly, I add the seasonings into the vermicelli noodles, toss them around, and taste, taste, taste. And it tastes great. This dish just represents something that I love to eat. The egg is definitely 100% of me on the plate. An egg without salt is like a tirana without fluffy diced, so seasoned. One minute to go! Taking the potatoes off, they're really lightly crisp on the outside, still really fluffy on the inside, really happy with it, but it's time to plate up. I take my pickled beetroots, and they're the base. I place them down. Then I roll up some cucumbers, just so we can get some of them to stand and some of them to lay down. I've only got one egg element. This egg yolk is so precious to me. I haven't had it back up. This one has to work. I let it slide off my fingers. It lands on the potatoes, but it's picked up a bit of momentum, and I can see it going over the edge. Oh, God. Oh, no. But it keeps its shape. Man, I've escaped. Come on, guys! What have you cooked, Michelle? I made my own version of migoreng. It looks bright, colourful, generous, delicious. So I'm excited about this dish. How many eggs did you use? Just one. Smart move. I love that. I think it's really tasty and really delicious. And I think, you know, what's lovely about it is that when it arrived, we had that beautiful sunny-side-up egg looking bright, colourful and wonderful. Exactly. It's an egg challenge. We asked for an egg to be prominent and there, and you gave it to us, and then you backed it up with yummy flavour. Delicious. Love it. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. So, righto, Ben, what did you cook? Today I did a Dutch potato salad. So we've got some fondant potatoes, but I only lightly crisped them so they're still fluffy. There's a dill mustard cream mousse, there's pickled vegetables, and then an egg yolk and some egg white discs. It's a lot of work, isn't it? I moated today as hard as I could. The flavours of the dill, the lightness of the dressing, the potatoes, the pickles, which are just delicious. And I love it, love it, love it. If you're not safe, I'm a Dutch uncle. Are you a little bit emotional there, Ben? Yeah. Just today I cooked something Dutch and I know my husband will be proud, so... That's really good. Well done. Well done, mate. Well done, Ben. Carly, what's the dish? I'm making a Caesar salad, but I'm making it with some chorizo. I'm going to use an egg in the mayonnaise and I'm also going to use a poached egg to put on top of the dish, so two eggs. Sounds great, don't mind that. Balance in this dish is going to be crucial. It is a bit of a risk making something so classic and it's crucial that I make it perfectly. I have to make sure I have enough crispy elements, make sure the lettuce is still fresh. I want to give my Caesar salad a bit of a modern spin today. We've got five eggs remaining to create a dish that's good enough to get me safe back on that gantry. Round two, I'm going to do my take on a niçoise salad. I'm going to do some beautifully seared tuna, soft-boiled egg on the plate, which is classic niçoise salad style, and then I'm going to do a brown butter emulsion sauce. Samuel. Hey, how you doing? I love that you want to make something you want to eat. You've got tuna, you've got beautiful, you know, gems of lettuce. The only advice I'm going to give you, just make sure it's... I will, I will. ...delicious. I will. There's only two people going up to the gantry after this cook, so my salad's got to look beautiful and taste on point. I'm hoping this is the dish that's going to keep me out of elimination today. I'm trying everything that I've got. In my mayonnaise, I add some anchovies and chives to give it that classic Caesar salad taste. I have my dressing ready, my croutons are crunchy, my chorizo crumb is ready to go, and I've fried off some capers. The main concern with this dish is that I over-poached the egg. I crack my egg into a bowl and carefully lower it into the water. I look into the water and my egg is split. It's just coming apart. My heart sinks. I can't serve this Caesar salad without the egg. It's not looking good at all. Might do a boiled egg. Do you have time? Do a soft-boiled egg, Carl. Yeah, come on, Carl. It's got to get on right now. Yep. There's no time to dwell on this egg. I have to get another one into the water, so I decide to do a soft-boiled egg instead of a poached egg. But now I only have two eggs left. That is a lot less than I wanted if I have to go into round three. I was on track for my Caesar salad up until my poached egg completely split. I can't serve this Caesar salad without the egg. Get that egg, Carly! I'm feeling quite stressed because I have to get my egg out of the water and peel it and get it onto the plate. Come on! Come on, guys! One minute to go! I've got some nice blushed tuna on the plate and then I've got my brown butter sauce and my bright egg yolks shining through that. I think it looks really nice. Keep pushing! Come on, get everything on! There's only two people going up to the gantry after this cook, so all those flavours, they just have to work together. Ten seconds! Nine, six, five, four, three, two, one. That's it! Time's up. Taking my dish up, I'm really, really happy with what I've been able to achieve in the 45 minutes. I just really hope those flavours work well together and the judges agree. I've cooked seared tuna with fennel and a soft-boiled egg emulsion. And let's hope it tastes as good as it looks. Great, thank you. Pretty's a picture and I love the fact you've walked up to this tasting in round two with confidence and it resonates in the dish because, for me, that tuna is perfectly paired with that emulsion that has that lovely little background flavour of burnt butter. The pickled fennel, that relieves you of all that butteriness that's happening from both that dressing and the egg. That is a great plate of food. Good stuff. A Caesar salad with a soft-boiled egg, chorizo and grilled lettuce. I like the way the chorizo has replaced the bacon. You've got a lot of lettuce in there and you've kept it chunky. It's very hard not to go back for a second spoonful. Thank you. Come on, Cullen. Round three, I have two eggs left to keep me in this competition. First thing I do is separate the egg. I want to keep the yolk and smoke the yolk so that the yolk adds a really nice smoky flavour. What are you cooking? I'm going all out. I'm going to do a lamb tartare. I'm going to serve it with a smoked yolk. I'm going to do some caramel popcorn. I'm going to do raspberry granita and a bit of a passion fruit vinaigrette. Wow. I get raspberry and lamb, I do. Yeah. But popcorn, yeah, that's the bit where you're starting to confuse me. Then you go passion fruit and I go... Yeah, weird. Anyway, you're the wild child. You can do anything you want. You can prove me wrong. If anyone's going to make that work ever, it's Cullen. The dish I'm going to put up for round three is going to have weird and unusual flavour combinations and I'm just going to hope it works. We get on to the lamb tartare. There's a lot of different elements and flavours and textures coming together in this tartare, so I really need to make sure that they're all well balanced and work together. I really want to focus on the size of the dice. Tartare's got to be able to be eaten nicely, so it needs to be a small, fine dice. I start with a ring of tartare on the bottom of the plate. I'm just trying to think through the combination of flavours and how much of each thing there should be. A combination of lamb and raspberry granita paired together is a really nice combination. Top that with the popcorn, the smoky egg yolk. I'm going to leave off the passion fruit. When I think about it again, it doesn't really 100% make sense. What is it? Lamb tartare with a raspberry granita, some popcorn and a smoked egg yolk. Well, look, it's certainly unlike any other dish I think we've ever seen in the Marcia kitchen. And that could be a very good thing or a very bad thing. It could be a ticket home or it could be one of those great MasterChef dishes. Lamb and raspberry, that flavour goes well. The capers add some sourness and some acidity. And for me, I like that smoked egg yolk. And the popcorn kind of fits into that strangely dessert, raw meat kind of territory. For the invention test today, I'm cooking Spanish-baked eggs with salted churros. The first time I had this was in the Canary Islands in Spain. Churros that I've seen in Australia are generally sweet. The ones I've done today are savoury. For me, it's crunch time. You know, I've put up some dishes I wasn't proud of, and now I really need to put my head down and come up with something special. Today I've decided to cook Scotch eggs with a salmon tartare. Ooh, look at this, George. Look at this, look at this, look at this, look. Little tiny quail eggs. Oh, they're soft. What are you doing, Sarah? I'm going to do some Scotch quail eggs. Yeah! Love it. Have you made these before? Yep, lots of times. Sounds great. Great. Amazingness. Come on. This is it. You want to win. Yeah. OK. I'm going to boil my eggs for two minutes and ten seconds, wrap in the sausage meat, crumb them, and then deep fry at 180 degrees for three minutes. It has to be runny when it's cut open, so that's my main concern. If you do any of those processes for too long, the egg's going to be cooked through in the middle. I'm excited because I've got my wish, which is Scotch egg. We've got Sarah making little quail Scotch eggs. What a great idea. I'm worried about these baked egg dishes. I really am. There are a lot of them. I like baked eggs, but where's the interest? It's your ask to dunk into your baked eggs. Now I've got salty doughnuts. Now I'm excited. You made the dough nice and early, so it should be just right. He might have a problem getting the oil to temperature, but if he pulls that off, delicious. I love that. To get a really crispy coating, you need to fry the churros at 180 degrees. It's taking a long time to heat up, longer than what I thought it would. This oil just isn't coming up to temperature. Time's ticking away, and I've really got to get these fried. It's going to be tough, I'll tell you what. If I don't get these cooked, all I'm going to be serving is boring baked eggs. My egg dish is looking great, but I really want to add an extra element. I decide not to go with the flatbread. The judges tell me to be true to myself, so I'm going to take their advice. This is a dish that's close to my heart because we eat it as a family a lot. We always have a green smoothie with it, so I guess that's our little added extra. This is exactly how I prepare food at home. This is me on a plate, and I'm really proud to present this to the judges. It depends what egg you're cooking, but you have to have the timings right, especially with a Scotch egg. So I decide to do a test egg to make sure I've got all my cooking times right. Yay! It's runny. Looks good. Fingers crossed I can get another perfect egg for the judges. Are they working? Yeah, they're coming out. Not that we're interested or anything. Hey, they're pretty good. They're pretty good. Keep it loose and light. You've got some lovely ingredients here. Make more of them because we'll be needing those. OK, cool. My dish is a chipotle black bean salsa with eggs, jalapeno guacamole and lime salt. And the drink? Is a coriander and lime green smoothie. Mmm. Looks delicious. You cooked this for your partner? Yeah. I think he's a lucky bloke, honestly, because I got this for brekkie. He'll be a happy bloke. He does love me a lot. Traditionally, the winner of the mystery box who picks the core ingredient or the core theme flames out. You certainly haven't done that. I reckon you may well go two in a row. Beautiful work, Kira. Thank you so much. Thanks, Kira. Sam, your turn. Egg cooked perfectly. This was an egg challenge, so well done. Renee. Creative, inventive, well done. Next up, Sarah. So tell us what you cooked. I've done scotch quail eggs with sausage meat and a little salmon and creme fraiche underneath. Looks good. Thank you. The question is, is it gooey inside? I hope so. I hope so too. There's not one problem there. That is delicious, delicious, delicious, delicious. Thank you. Sean, you're up next. I think the mistake is not honestly in the frying, it's just the way you cooked the eggs beforehand. Shell. That's gutting. Amy, time to taste your dish. I like it and I'll tell you why I like it. There's so much flavour in it. Tash. I love that dish. I love everything about it. For me, a top three dish again. Thank you. We went to clap because we're excited about the savoury churros. Exactly. Can we all go up on this one? Because I'm really excited about this dish. When you talked about this dish, we both just had that moment where you just stepped back and go, oh yeah, that's a great idea. Really yummy. Great idea. I've got some Spanish churros with chilli salt, baked eggs with a hot paprika coming and some coriander seed. I love that. I think it's a really smart idea. I'd order it if it was on a menu. What I really like is the lime and the avocado. And then you smash it into the gooey eggs and the chorizo. I love it. I think it's certainly up there with Sarah's dish. So you are now, you and Sarah, toe-to-toe for first place. Well done. Thank you so much, guys. Well done, Byron. Cheers. I think that I finally got it right, but I'm just proud to get some really great responses from them and to give them some food that I actually love.