Australian chef and restaurateur, Luke Mangan was the guest judge at the challenge. In the mystery box were eggs, butter, icing sugar and flour. The contestants were given recipes for sweet and savoury pastry and their pick of ingredients for their pie fillings. They had two hours to make their pies. The two worst pies would mean elimination for the contestant who cooked them.

Julie threw away one of her pie fillings that she was making using beer because it tasted “horrible” and started over. Lucas was having trouble with his sweet pastry while Julia made a mistake with her butterscotch when she added sugar to cream instead of the other way around, and the sugar crystallized.

When Julie took her sweet pastry out of the flan tin, a piece of its edge broke off and upset, she removed all of the edge and was just left with a base. She then covered this with custard which hadn’t set properly.

Gary said Lucas’ chicken and leek pie with bacon and mushrooms looked rough and the pastry wasn’t quite cooked in the middle. He thought the chicken mixture was bland. George told Lucas it lacked salt and Matt also said his sweet apple pie could have done with some seasoning and sugar. Luke said it just tasted like stewed apples.

Julia had made a duck and red wine pie and a chocolate pie with warm salted caramel. Gary said the duck pie filling was good but the pastry wasn’t cooked. Matt told Julia her chocolate pie was a great dessert, while Luke said it wasn’t a pretty pie but it tasted “very sexy”.

Matt thought the pastry of Justine’s beef bourguignon pie was too fine for such robust flavours. Luke told Justine she’d done a good job with her apple and rhubarb pie with almond crumble, which he said was “giddy up material.”

Matt said Chris’ fish pie was delicious, while George thought his Tahitian lime tart was full of “zing.”

Gary wasn’t sure about the blue cheese flavour dominating Poh’s four cheese and vegetable pie but Luke said he really liked it. Matt thought Poh’s rhubarb open pie with hazelnut and chocolate pastry was a wonderful combination and perhaps the best dish of the day.

Julie said she was embarrassed to place her passionfruit puddle pie in front of the judges. Gary commented that Julie had presented a pie and “something.” Luke told Julie her chicken and mushroom pie was tender, juicy and the pastry was great. He said he hoped her savoury pie would save her from elimination.

Julia, Lucas and Julie were the bottom three. Matt told Julia the undercooked pastry of her duck pie was unacceptable but her delicious dessert saved her. He told Julie her “puddle” summed up the catalogue of disasters she’d had that day.

Matt told Lucas both his pies needed more seasoning and oomph in terms of filling, but his pastry had been pretty good. Lucas was judged to have made the two worst pies, however, and was eliminated. Poh was the winner of the pie challenge.

Stay tuned for the next challenge and elimination.