‘MasterChef Australia’ 2016 recap and spoilers: Matt is literally on fire in the kitchen, but fails to make history with second immunity pin

Another heart-stopping cook-off between a professional chef and a home cook took centre stage on “MasterChef Australia” Season 8. In episode 38 that aired on June 21, Matt Sinclair got his game face in one of the closest battles that ever happened in the competition. While he put on a good fight, Matt just could not measure up against the perfect scores received by his contender.

The 27-year-old coffee roaster was not able to snag his second immunity pin, but was deemed a frontrunner this season by judges George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston. Fans wonder whether Matt could keep his momentum going, especially with the upcoming team challenge that would determine this year’s top 10.

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, featuring a MasterChef Gourmet Cinema challenge. As the judges and some guests view the most extraordinary dishes made in the competition’s history, this year’s contenders are trying to measure up. The contestants, who are divided into teams, will have to prepare three courses of gourmet finger food. They have to work furiously to win a ticket to top 10. However, a simple miscalculation from one of the teams could add up to elimination.

The trailer hints that it could be the blue team, led by Brett Carter, which could be making the massive mistake. After the first team challenge, he seems to have taken the backset in the competition, not really stepping up to the plate. It would be interesting to see the 43-year-old airline captain take the helm again, and whether he would lead his team to soar to the top like he did the last time.

“MasterChef Australia” Season 8 recap

Round 1 was a skills test, but a fast and furious one. Three stations, three tasks centred on desserts. Matt, along with Trent Harvey, Karmen Lu and Elena Duggan had to separate 12 egg yolks on the first station, make five perfect rochers of ice cream on the next and spin a 30-centimetre conical tower on the last bench.

Karen breezed in through the first two stations, beating her competitors in separating the egg yolks and scooping the ice cream. While Matt quickly followed suit to the second station, he rushed through the rochers of ice cream and had to repeatedly do it until he got all five right. As a result, he was the third contestant to spin the sugar, while Trent was the last.

When everybody was at the last station, Karen grew impatient seeing that the others have caught up with her. She looked agitated as she waited for her sugar to caramelise, that Shannon had to go to her bench and remind her to be patient. Soon enough, she maintained her lead and was the first one to spin the sugar. Despite being the last one to spin, Matt shortly took over Karmen’s lead. Flipping away like his life depended on it was worth it – he was deemed the winner of round one.

Matt was overjoyed but he couldn’t savour his glory for too long – he was informed that standing on his way for the immunity pin was Le Ho Fook’s Chef Victor Liong. For being the amateur chef, Matt got an extra 15 minutes to cook and the opportunity to choose the ingredients. He was given two options: ingredients A to M or N to Z. After mulling over it, Matt picked the first set after seeing a Kingfish at that particular bench. He immediately grabbed the Kingfish and quickly got to work.

Minutes after, a nervous Chef Victor followed suit and was a bit flummoxed when he could not find core ingredients for Chinese cuisine. He clearly had a dish in mind, but all of those were thrown out the window when some of the elements were not included in Matt’s chosen bench. He scrambled for ideas and looked for familiar ingredients that would work together. He soon got back on track and went over to his bench to start his preparations.

However, he hit another snag – his sauce was unbalanced and definitely missing the flavour and punch of soy sauce. He then went back to the pantry to look for inspiration and shortly after, he saw what he was looking for: coconut cream. Once he added it to his sauce, he knew he made the right decision.

Meanwhile, Matt was counting to replicate his previous immunity victory with another winning broth, this time using blue swimmer crab. While he was clearly on his element, he started feeling the time pressure. Worse, while he was straining his broth, the muslin cloth he was using was caught in fire. Shannon advised him to put it out on the sink. Victor even came over his bench to give him encouragement. Matt took a deep breath and started over again. Over on Victor’s, Shannon was skeptical about his dish and asked whether he has done enough. As a result, Victor decided to add a new element on his plate: cauliflower and mushrooms. Despite this extra touch, he still got worried that his dish might be deemed too simple by the judges.

When it’s time to serve their dishes, Victor’s plate came first. The judges raved about his roasted crayfish with coconut and armagnac sauce, going “cray cray” about the dish. Gary even said that he could have it again and again. Matt’s plate, crispy skin kingfish with a blue swimmer crab broth, was equally praised by the judges. While the presence of crab on his dish was questioned, Matt was able to come up with another excellent broth. With both dishes showing great skills and complexity, the judges had an extremely difficult time deciding which is better. “We have a big problem,” George said.

In the end, each judge scored Matt’s dish a nine or a total of 27 out of a possible 30. While Matt looked confident on his grades, Victor became really worried that he hadn’t done enough. However, it seemed that he did – he received perfect scores from all the judges, making him the winner of the cook-off. Despite his loss, Matt was told by the judges that he came incredibly close to victory, which means he’s on the right track. Gary even warned the other “MasterChef Australia” hopefuls to watch out for Matt, who has proven himself a worthy contender this season.

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.