Sarah was given an apron for her beetroot risotto. A vegetarian and a recovered anorexic, she hopes this is the beginning of a new life for her.

The salt and pepper calamari cooked by Brent, a food photographer, was enough to get him into the Sydney semi-finals. Country boy Nick fell short when Gary found a long hair in his Chicken Jolie (named after the actress and featuring, yes, a chicken breast).

Linda's sublime presentation of blueberry rice pudding with violet reduction (she candied the violets herself) scored Melbourne another MasterChef apron. Kate, an engineer who has quit her job to follow her cooking dream, fell down in her attempt when her fish was undercooked.

Nic's alio olio with cherry tomatoes and pancetta led Matt to declare that his spaghetti was perfectly cooked. After Nic told them he runs a wine store with his wife and cooks with her, Gary had Nic bring her into the audition room.

As they did everything together, Gary wanted to check that Nic was indeed the cook and not his wife. Satisfied, Gary had Nic's wife bestow an apron on him. .

Auditions over, the Top 50 landed in Sydney where the first challenge tested their knife skills. The contestants had to slice and dice onions as Gary and George watched. Nerves and knifes proved a bloody combination for more than one contestant and many fingers were bandaged by the challenge’s end.

A tap on the shoulder meant the contestant could stand back from their chopping board - they were into the next round. The 12 contestants left at the end will now have to face an elimination round, which only six of them will make it through to stay in the competition.

Stay tuned as 12 contestants cook for their lives.