It's A Culinary Auction! | MasterChef Australia | MasterChef World

Right, three distinct categories. Let's start with the protein. First up, ribeye. Easy to cook. Then, let's move on to the pork belly. And don't we love pork belly? I love a bit of crispy crackling, George. Move on to the pigeon. We love cooking with pigeon, but do you? And then finally, oh, mackerel. Don't overcook it, but disaster. I'm not going to pick fish today. I know mackerel is a finicky, finicky fish. It's an oily fish and you can bruise it terribly easy if you do not know how to handle it. Now, what you need to think about is what's going to go with that protein. So you've got some vegetables here. First up, root vegetables. Then over here, some Asian ingredients. Then the nightshade category of fishes, tomatoes, capsicums, eggplant. And then over here, Gary's been busy foraging for you this morning. We've got some saltbush, sea blight, some sandfire. And finally, your pantry ingredients. First up, some sauces. Things to give your dish some pep. And then over here, some basics. Flour, Dijon mustard, vinegar, sugar. Over here, some dairy. And then finally, spices. You've got oil, salt and pepper on your bench and that's it. I'm absolutely nervous. I'm just going to keep an eye out for the stuff that other people don't necessarily want and I can get cheap. Right, let's fire up this auction. Our first bid is on the proteins. I am thinking what the others will want to choose. I'm thinking that Rachel and Tash will probably want the pork. Brent will definitely want the beef, which leaves me quite happy because I'd be quite happy with the pigeon or the mackerel. We're going to start with everyone's favourite, ribeye. And think about this, that ribeye pretty much goes with anything else. I wouldn't want to spend more than 30 minutes on this beef, but I really, really want it. So who will give me five minutes? Five minutes to Brent. Ben, do you want to go 10? I do. 10 to 10. I actually don't even want the beef, but I can see that Brent really wants it. So strategically, I'm going to bid so that I can whittle his cooking time down. Brent to 15. Yeah, I'll go 20. 20 to Ben. All right, so it's a battle of the men. I want them to fight this out. There's still three proteins up there. Sold to Brent for 25 minutes. Brent spends 25 minutes of the 100 just on the ribeye. I think it's a good buy. That goes with anything now. I didn't want pigeon, did I? Rachel, Tash didn't bid at all. Not interested in the red meat. Maybe the pork belly is more your speed. You know how much we love pork belly. Crispy crackling, that's Gary's tagline on Twitter. He loves it that much. I know the judges love their crackle. Who doesn't? Everyone thinks on the fish girl or the seafood girl. I want to make sure I get an ingredient that nobody's seen me cook before. Five to Rachel. There's a lot I can do with pork belly. I'm just going to put the feelers out there to see who really wants this pork belly and what they're willing to pay for it. 10 to Tash. 15 to Ben. 20 to Tash. 25 to Rachel. Any other bids? All clear? All done? Sold to Rachel for 25 minutes. I'm very, very happy with this. I've spent 25 minutes very wisely. So the mackerel and the pigeon. The other guys are so keen to pay for the pork and the ribeye that, you know, the last two were possibly going to go cheap. We're going to walk to the pigeon. We'll start with five minutes for the pigeon. I'll take five. Five to Ben. Tash, do you already want the mackerel? Yep. Well that means Tash, you'll be keeping all your hundred minutes. You'll be cooking the mackerel. Ben, pigeon show to you in five minutes. My strategy with picking the pigeon is that it's something difficult to cook. If I can do it well, it'll impress the judges and, you know, pigeon for five minutes when you pay 25 minutes for a steak. It's really a win-win for me. I've picked up the mackerel for absolutely nothing and I still have 100 minutes to play with. Right, let's move on to these beautiful baskets of grown produce. We'll start with the nightshades. There's a lot of things I can do with each of those and I really want that basket and I really want it cheap. I'm in a bidding war with Rachel but when I get it for 15 minutes, I'm really happy. Right, our next basket. Root vegetables. I've got a dish in mind and I need those root vegetables. I don't want a bar of anything else and I'm willing to pay a fair bit for them. I look at the parsley. Parsley puree, parsley chips, roasted parsley. Right, give me five minutes for the basket. Five minutes to Brent. 10 minutes ready. 15 minutes to Brent. I really have no interest in these root vegetables but I want to get in the game. I want to make sure that we keep things looking like it's wanted because somebody always wants something that somebody else has. 20 minutes to Rachel. 25 minutes to Brent. No. All done. All silent. Sold to Brent for 25 minutes. I end up winning the root vegetables and I've got 50 minutes to cook. I'm pretty happy with that. Oh Gary, the next basket. The Asian basket. Have a look at the mackerel. Have a look at the pork berry. How much would you want that Asian basket? Oh absolutely. This is brilliant because someone's going to pay a lot for them. I think Tash wants the Asian vegetables the most. Tash, look at that. She's got 100 minutes. Mackerel, which would work brilliantly with those Asian ingredients. Got to be honest, my eyes on the Asian greens basket. There's lots of flavour combinations in there. There's ginger, there's choy sum, there's mushrooms. So much to build your dish with. You'd have plenty of time, wouldn't you? Plenty of time to pick off your competition. I see that the Asian vegetables are a perfect, perfect complement to my pork belly. Who's going to give me five minutes for that basket of Asian ingredients? Tash, five minutes. Rachel, 10 minutes. 20. 20 minutes to Tash. 25 to Rachel. 35. 35 minutes. Rachel. Gee, I could still leave you. 35 minutes. I do not want to go under 45 minutes. So anything under 45 minutes, and especially with pork belly, if I spend too much of my time, I may not be able to get that protein out. 40 minutes. 45 minutes for Tash. Rachel. You can play it safe. Another part of me is thinking, holy heck, hang on to your britches. We're going for it. It's great seeing how strategic these girls are being in this time auction. If Rachel goes ahead with this bid for these Asian vegetables, she'll only have 25 minutes to cook her pork belly. That's crazy. Rachel, you've bought the Asian ingredients for 45. Tash finishes up paying 45 minutes for the Asian vegetables. That's a massive amount of time. You've ended up with the forage ingredients for no time at all. The forage native greens could be a little bit tricky. I'm not sure what I would do with them if they were mine. I've got the foraging. I don't want them. And I don't think anybody else will want them. I'm not impressed.