‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 recap and spoilers: Elena’s risk pays off as she serves ‘food heaven;’ she’s one step closer to being the potential winner

There seems to be something in California that’s inspiring the contestants to level up their game on “MasterChef Australia” Season 8. In episode 53 that aired on July 12, four budding chefs faced a monumental challenge with a highly coveted prize: a guaranteed spot in the finals week. At the end of the cook that’s all about grapes, Elena Duggan pulled out all the stops and managed to deliver a phenomenal dish yet again.

Judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston unanimously voted in favour of the 32-year-old teacher. For winning the challenge, she goes straight to finals week and get a little breathing room while the other “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls battle it out in the upcoming team challenge.

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 Wednesday’s episode, set at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, California. It’s a dream come true for the contestants, as they are given the chance to run their own food truck. At this stage of the competition, the challenge gets harder – each team has to cook street food for 200 people.

The successful team gets a guaranteed place in finals week. However, when a dream becomes a nightmare, it could land an entire team in elimination. The trailer shows Brett Carter, Mimi Baines and Harry Foster belonging in the red team, while Matt Sinclair, Elise Franciskovic and Trent Harvey form the blue team. It’s interesting to note that Elise now joins strong contenders Matt and Trent, who were both part of the fast track to finals challenge. The two men, in addition to her dessert skills, may possibly be Elise’s ticket to the finals week.

“MasterChef Australia” Season 8 recap

It’s another great day in California and the four “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls were stoked to see their next destination. They found themselves at Inglewood Estate in the Napa Valley. A famous California winery, the beautiful property is owned by legendary movie director Francis Ford Coppola.

The four contestants were presented with a table of beautiful local produce, including pork, lamb, chicken, quail, olive oil and vegetables and more. They were informed that the challenge is all about the grapes, in celebration of California’s produce. Each home cook, gunning for a ticket to finals week, had to cook one dish with grapes as the hero ingredient, in a span of 90 minutes.

When the clock started ticking, the budding chefs ran to the table and were immediately inspired by the quality of the ingredients they were asked to cook with. The judges came over each station to check on the contestants, and Elena and Trent breezed in the first round of questioning.

The two were not spared from kitchen struggles, however. Trent hit a snag while preparing his skordalia. He wasn’t happy with its texture and realised that he need to figure out something to salvage it. Trent tried adding some more cream and olive oil to his mixture and he was relieved when it finally developed the consistency that he’s looking for.

Elena, on the other hand, encountered a conflict between trusting herself and listening to the judges. While she was about to put some lavender in her goats cheese, Gary and George expressed their concern of her use of lavender, saying it has such a powerful flavour. Despite recognizing that it’s a big risk, Elena decided to go with her instincts and proceeded as planned.

It was Mimi and Matt who seemed to run into bigger troubles. When judge Matt approached Mimi at her station and learned that she’s making a sorbet from red wine, he advised that it might be difficult to pull off. Hearing this, Mimi began to feel stressed and started to second-guess herself. She came up with an idea to add grape juice to her sorbet. When she checked it a few minutes later, she was thrilled to see that her strategy seemed to have worked. However, when she tried to pop the sorbet out of the moulds later, she found out it’s still not set. Despite this setback, she started to plate up while giving her sorbet more time to work inside the freezer. Fortunately for her, it did and she was able to take the sorbet out to put on her plate.

Over to Matt’s, George and Gary warned him that his dish does not seem to hero grapes, which the challenge required. Matt admitted that he forgot the brief, and with a few minutes off the clock, he had to rethink his strategy and start again. To fix his dish, he decided to scrap the mushroom from his jus and replace it with red wine and dried fruits. He started feeling confident about his dish, so he moved on to prepping his lamb rack. However, when he took it out of the oven a few minutes later, he found out the lamb is still soft – it’s not ready at all. Matt put it back into the oven, hoping it would cook in time. With only a few minutes remaining, he checked the lamb again, but it’s underdone. To fix it, he seared it again on a hot pan in an attempt to cook it through.

Time was up and the contestants filed to serve their dishes to the judges. When Trent presented his grilled quail with cauliflower skordalia and agrodolce sauce, the judges were pleasantly surprised with how fabulous it looked. Each judge had their favourite elements: Gary commented that the quail was beautifully cooked; George loved the sauce; while Matt said the flavours were well-balanced. They all agreed that it’s a sophisticated plate of food, one that can be found in fine-dining restaurants.

A happy, yet nervous Matt was up next – he was concerned about his lamb. Looking at his roasted lamb rack with witlof, celeriac puree and red wine and muscatel jus, the judges raved about its fantastic presentation. It’s the moment of truth when George cut the lamb. Fortunately for Matt, it seemed the odds were in his favour – the meat was cooked perfectly. After taking a bite, judge Matt said the combination of lamb, puree and gravy were absolutely delicious. Gary agreed and commented, “This guys know how to cook.” George, on the other hand, was happy that Matt followed the brief with the sauce – it was indeed, all about the grapes.

Mimi walked in and she excitedly served the only dessert that evening: a red wine and grape sorbet with blue cheese cream. The judges tasted her great-looking dish and Matt said Mimi’s plate celebrated the wine from the winery they were in. Gary simply said she smashed it.

Elena was the last contestant to be called, and similar to the other three dishes, the judges raved about the mesmerising presentation of her quail, grapes and goat’s cheese. While they were amazed with how the plate looked – which even made George salivate – the judges were completely blown away by its taste. They all fell into silence as they take in all the flavours offered by the dish. Gary broke their reverie by asking, “How bloody good was that?” George described it as a food heaven, and he looked taken aback with the “smart” dish he just ate. Matt shared their sentiments and commented that it’s as good as any other dish he has eaten in California.

When it was time to announce the best dish, the judges said they were extremely impressed with all of the four plates presented to them. However, they had to pick a winner and one dish stood out above the rest. The verdict was in: the winner of the fast track to finals challenge, who will go straight through to the finals week was Elena.

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