The chefs lifted the lids of their boxes to find lamb brains, apple, milk, parmesan cheese, spinach, bread, potato and bacon. George volunteered to cook first and Julie hollered “chop chop” at him as he began cooking.

George was making lamb brain cereal with his mystery box ingredients. He infused milk with parmesan and sea salt for a foam and made crispy parmesan pieces on a tray in the oven.

Potatoes were boiled for a puree and George put the brains into cold water to bring to the boil. He said when they start to boil, brains are cooked and shouldn’t be cooked further or they’ll be tough. George also added some bacon to the brains in the pot.

George put the cooked brains in the fridge to cool down. He sautéed mushrooms with diced bacon and garlic, and tossed the brains in flour and egg. These “nuggets” were then fried for 30 seconds. George drizzled apple batons with oil and made the parmesan foam using carbon dioxide bulbs.

When George’s time was up, Poh and Julie tasted his cereal of lamb brains with bacon crumble and parmesan foam and gave it the thumbs up.

Gary made fried lamb brains with bacon crumble and apple vinaigrette. He poached the lamb brains in water and vinegar to set them and placed the drained brains in the fridge.

He made parmesan crisps in the oven and flambéed finely diced bacon, which had been frying, with red wine vinegar. Gary wilted the spinach leaves and juiced the apple for a vinaigrette, which he made with olive oil.

The brains were then rolled in flour, milk, parmesan and breadcrumbs and fried quickly. Gary sieved boiled egg and placed it on the bottom of the plate. This was topped by the mushrooms and bacon vinaigrette, the lamb brains rolled in the crisp parmesan wafers and the apple vinaigrette.

Poh liked the fresh apple taste of the vinaigrette and Julie gave Gary a Matt-style rap on the table for his “good effort.”

The last masterclass dish was braised tomatoes with smoked chocolate mousse. George smoked dark chocolate in a bowl over a sugar, salt and Earl Grey tea mixture, which was placed on woodchips on foil in a wok over heat with the lid on.

The tomatoes were scored and blanched for ten seconds in boiling water and then plunged into iced water for 30 seconds. The flesh was removed from the tomato to make a cup.

Stuffing for the tomato was made from toasted flaked almonds, toasted walnuts, diced prunes and diced apricots. George had made a reduction of honey, sherry, vinegar, vanilla, star anise and cinnamon, which he flavoured the stuffing mixture with.

The tomatoes were stuffed and placed in a pan with their tops on, and the syrup was poured on top. They were cooked gently over a low heat for 20 minutes and basted often with the syrup throughout.

George had Kate make his chocolate mousse recipe using whipped cream, olive oil and the smoked chocolate. The smoked chocolate mousse was plated with the braised tomato, some syrup and a cinnamon stick and star anise.

Stay tuned as Julie and Poh battle it out to become Australia’s first MasterChef!