‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 recap and spoilers: Chloe cooks a spoon-banging dish, goes straight to immunity challenge

Network Ten’s “MasterChef Australia” Season 8 had a lot of surprises in store for the remaining home cooks for episode 20. On May 29, the amateur chefs faced two culinary tasks to impress judges Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston. Chloe Baines dominated the mystery box challenge, earning for herself a game-changing advantage.

Before she gets a chance to win the immunity pin, however, three other “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls need to fight for a spot in the competition. Brett Carter, Charlie Sartori and Theresa Visintin are up for a tough elimination round, and one of them will be cooking his or her last dish in the kitchen.

Spoiler Alert! This article contains "MasterChef Australia" Season 8 spoilers. Read only if you want to know more about it.

Network Ten posted a sneak peek of Monday’s episode, featuring the pressure test for the evening. Out comes world-famous Michelin-starred chef Jason Atherton, who asks the contestants to recreate his quail afternoon tea. While it sounds simple enough, the complicated dish is certainly no picnic to prepare.

The three undoubtedly feel the pressure at a whole new level. Chef Jason is seen calming down Charlie, telling him to stop shaking. Brett, meanwhile, claims he is paralysed while cooking the dish, and becomes emotional as he says, “I didn’t think it would be this hard.”

“MasterChef Australia” Season 8 recap

Following an exciting week with special guest chef Nigella Lawson, the contestants are pumped for upcoming challenges. They should be, especially since “MasterChef Australia” turned the competition up a notch to find out who deserve to be in the kitchen and who need to be booted out.

In the mystery box challenge, the contestants found themselves with an array of ingredients that include: sweet corn, baby barramundi, pork belly, miso, beetroot, lime, vanilla and coriander. The top five dishes were called out by the judges. Brett and Trent Harvey were ecstatic to be among the best for the first time. However, it’s Chloe’s smoked lime and vanilla nougat with beetroot caramel that won over the three gentlemen, sending her straight to the gallery and getting an automatic spot in the immunity challenge.

The rest of the home cooks had to go head-to-head again to make sure they won’t end up in the bottom three, who will face the dreaded pressure test. In this particular invention test, the contestants had to think outside the box since they’d be cooking with whatever was left on the mystery box challenge. There was no pantry, no core ingredient and only scraps to work with. Some of the “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls rose to the challenge, putting out tastefully done dishes that earned the nod of the judges.

Matt Sinclair was praised for consistently serving excellent plates. He was also driven to redeem himself after landing in the bottom three the last time. The judges deemed his san choy bau with barramundi a cracking dish, and added that he has set the bar really high for the other contestants. Karmen certainly shined with her barramundi with pickled beetroot scales and corn puree. The judges, who absolutely loved her dish, said it’s her most complete plate that she has served so far. Mimi, meanwhile, decided to take the judges’ advice to heart, which is to serve something simple and do it well. Her coriander ice cream with a lime syrup cake was deemed simply delicious, proving that she’s a serious contender this season. At the end of the cook, Matt, Karmen and Mimi were named the top three for the night. They will compete for the highly coveted immunity pin against Chloe.

Three other home cooks were not so lucky that night. Despite being called out for having one of the top dishes in the mystery box challenge, Brett lost his steam and put out a bland roasted pork in a coriander flatbread. Meanwhile, Charlie Sartori encountered problems early on the invention test, and served an embarrassing miso ice cream with sweet corn crumb. The judges told him that his dish had too many flaws, from his wrong plating right down to his disastrous caramel sauce. Speaking of embarrassing plates, Theresa Visintin also served one, which she called sweetcorn milk tart with miso ice cream. Walking up to the judges, she knew that she failed on this particular task. For serving the least impressive dishes, Charlie, Brett and Theresa have to battle it out to survive another day in the competition. Brett dusted himself off quickly, saying that he’s so excited for the pressure test, he might not be able to sleep that night.

Find out what happens next week to “MasterChef Australia,” and stay tuned for episode spoilers. “MasterChef Australia” Season 8 airs every Sunday to Thursday at 7.30pm on Ten.