It's Rishi's 10th elimination, so he's feeling nervous. Duh. The judges, too, take turns playing the role of Captain Obvious. “Put up great food, you'll survive, if you don't do that, you'll go home," offers George. Thankfully, tonight's twist is a little more interesting than what we've seen to date.

Four of Australia's “hottest chefs” – Matt Germanchis from Pei Modern, Ryan Flaherty from Estelle, Jason Jones from B'Stilla and Matt Stone from Perth's Greenhouse Café are here to mentor our contestants. “They're my rock stars, right there – who needs Mick Jagger?!” says Emma.

Matt Stone who runs a café is paired up with Christina who wants to run a café. She promptly bursts into tears, which surprises no one. Emma gets partnered up with Matt Germanchis, Lynton's “fine dining dream” is apparently a good match for Ryan Flaherty, and Adam d'Sylva of funky new Indian eatery Tonka is paired up with Rishi.

Christina hugs Matt, overcome with excitement. The others, including Samira, shake hands with their mentors. One gets the impression Samira is less enamoured than the rest with her match – she probably hasn't even heard of Jason Jones. S'alright love, neither have we.

They have 90 minutes to cook the dishes, inclusive of 15 minutes spent with their mentor prior to the prep. Samira's advantage is an extra five minutes consultation with Jason at a time of her choice during the cooking. Wow.

Jason encourages Samira to go for the spatchcock, a meat I feel we've seen her cook with 85 thousand times this season.

Lynton's doing some sort of sous vide lamb rack with celeriac puree and granola. Ryan instructs him to finish 15 minutes before everyone else and eat his own dish first to ensure it tastes right. Lynton looks as if he's positively shitting himself.

Christina too, is clearly nervous. She's worked with Matt Stone at Greenhouse earlier this season, where she didn't perform well. She's hoping she can impress him today.

By her own estimation, Emma's food is similar to Matt G's food. “He's my hero,” she says.

Christina's doing a cauliflower soup with seared scallops, which seems pretty basic, frankly. One wonders if her mentor is at the same level as the other chefs.

Emma's doing John Dory with fennel and leek in an olive brine.

She's never filleted Dory before, but after a little instruction from Matt, is handling it like a pro. The chefs watching from above give her an encouraging thumbs up.

“You guys are so nice,” she says.

Inspecting Lynton's dish, George comments that Ryan's influenced him slightly. We're not sure how.

“It looks amazing,” says Gary. It's a rare case in which Gary does not try to instil the fear of God into our chefs as they cook.

Samira's soft roasted spatchcock is going to be stuffed with cous cous, pistachio, and dates. I'd really like to see Samira try something other than Middle Eastern cuisine for a change.

Matt S admits that Christina's dish is probably the simplest of the lot, but hopes it can be equally as delicious as the others.

She asks Matt if he can catch, and throws him up a seared scallop. He does so and rolls his eyes appreciatively. This is about as exciting as it gets, sorry guys.

Rishi says that he cannot go home today. If I had a dollar for every time a contestant said that, I'd pay the judges out so as not to have to endure MasterChef next year.

Samira, meanwhile, is panicking – she's turned the oven on so that it cooks from the bottom (such a thing must be possible with these fancy MasterChef ovens).

The spatchcock is raw in the middle. She summons Jason for his bonus five minutes, during which time he tastes her duck crackling -- not too salty – and tells her not to overplate her dish. She's surprised he knows she has a habit of doing that. Jason Jones clearly knows a lot more about Samira than Samira knows about Jason Jones.

As instructed by Ryan, Lynton finishes his dish 15 minutes ahead of time up and starts tucking into his own serve.

In the process, he forgets that he needed to take the other serve of lamb out of the sous vide, you know, the one HE HAS TO SERVE TO THE ALL-IMPORTANT JUDGES. Onya Ryan. In making Lynton try his own dish he's buggered up the one that counted.

Emma's worried that her fish isn't cooked properly, but it looks pretty good from here.

Rishi tests his spatchcock (there it is again) which is, as always, cooked perfectly. He smiles that smug smile that makes you want to slap him with a raw spatchcock.

But it's shortlived – as he begins to plate up, mentor Adam has his head in his hands watching from above. “What are you doing?!” he calls out. It's too late. Time's up. Rishi's dish, for perhaps the first time ever, is the worst presented of the lot, a mass of colourful clumps and lumps all mixed in together. Even Rishi concedes. “It just looks horrible.”

Christina worries that her dish isn't as complex as the others, but is quite happy with the look of it. “Far out, it's a beautiful dish, “she says.

Like Rishi, Lynton's in trouble. The lamb, not given ample resting time, has oozed blood onto the celeriac puree. It's a bloody mess, or, as he puts it, an “absolute disaster.”

It's tasting time.

Samira's stuffed roast spatchcock with carrot puree and roast duck chips (I think that's what they were) are met with groans of approval. “Yummmm,” says George, eyes goggling.

Emma's buttered John Dory with brine-poached leek and fennel is similarly well-received. Her mentor, Matt G, says he's “blown away” and there are nods of appreciation all around.

Lynton strolls in with his lamb rack, which looks a bit gross, to be honest. The celeriac puree has been sullied with a ripple of blood. It also looks like he's forgotten to wipe the splashed juices off the plate.

There are no immediate groans of pleasure but Gary says he loves it. “It's lovely, very clean.”

Rishi's spatchcock is the second disappointment, and Rishi knows it.

“Gary can't even look at me anymore,” he laments.

“This is it, this is the end of the journey for me.”

But the execution of each individual ingredient is perfect, argues Adam.

“Can the flavours overcome the appearance?” asks Matt.

The appearance of Christina's dish is bang-on, but Matt Preston looks sceptical. He quizzes Christina on her technique – which involved blending, frying, cutting, and other pretty basic non MasterCheffy things – and asks if they're likely to find any surprises in her dish – he's hoping so.

But there are none. Matt doesn't look impressed. Mentor Matt Stone can't feel too great either about the judges turning their nose up at his dish.

Gary's not disappointed, he thinks the presentation is bang on. But Preston's not convinced. He says it's lacking in complexity and reckons there's too much of the puree.

It's decision time.

The contestants farewell their mentors awkwardly.

Samira wins dish of the day.

“Every time you cook, it's step after a step to another great dish,” says Matt.

Emma, too is praised for her “huge leap forward” tonight. Matt calls it “three hat cooking, amazing stuff.”

And so the bottom three are left. In spite of the whole blood thing, Lynton's dish had complexity and intricate flavours; for this it is saved.

Rishi and Christina remain – surely Rishi has never come this close to the end before? Still he smiles, infuriatingly, even when Matt tells him his dish looked pretty dreadful.

Christina is praised for her beautifully cooked scallops but her dish lacked the complexity and flavours of Rishi's. For this, she's going home.

There are, predictably tears, most of them Christina's.

“It's ok, I get to see my babies,” she says, in between sobs.

George makes a speech and the little man is clearly close to tears himself.

“You light up our lives, you makes us smile,” he says.

At this point Christina's crying so hard she's actually doubled over and it's almost as painful to watch.

“The three of you have changed my life forever,” she spits out, looking as if she might collapse.

“You can call us anytime,” says Gary, giving her a hug. Gary is by far the most genuine, normal, and down-to-earth judge.

George is close to blubbering himself. And even gruff old Matt looks touched. He gives Christina his cravat. Is this a first?!

“Now the judges will have to come judge my food at my café,” says Christina.

She doesn't want judgement though, “just a tip”.

Tomorrow night, The Atlantic's Donovan Cooke looks like he's up to some Gordon Ramsay-esque antics as the remaining four get a spraying in his kitchen. Now that's something to look forward to.