The BEST episodes of MasterChef Australia season 2

#1 - Masterclass 2

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/30/2010

The judges share their own food memories in this week's MasterClass. A good old English Sunday Roast was Gary's dish of the day while George cooked up lasagne with a twist.

#2 - Seafood Platter Pressure Test

Season 2 - Episode 37 - Aired 5/31/2010

Jake, Jimmy and Matthew faced off in the Pressure Test; to recreate a Rick Stein seafood platter worth $350.

#3 - Signature Dish

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/20/2010

The remaining contestants were asked to prepare their signature dish. In a first for MasterChef Australia the contestants did the judging, with the men voting for their favourite dish from the women, and vice versa. The top 7 vote-getters (4 women, 3 men) were then put into a beef wellington pressure test, with the best man and woman progressing directly to the top 24. The winners, Claire and Jimmy, were the first pair to advance to the Top 24.

#4 - Classic French Meal Team Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/12/2010

The two teams were tasked with preparing a Classic French 3-course meal for Matt Preston, Tetsuya Wakuda and Guillaume Brahimi. Michel Roux mentored the Red Team, Tony Bilson mentored the Blue Team.

#5 - Italian Restaurant Team Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 4/28/2010

The off site team challenge, to take over the running of two Italian restaurants, saw the Red Team conquer despite having a simpler menu. From the Blue Team, Jonathan and Devon were selected by the judges as the two worst performers and were up for elimination. Sarah withdrew from the competition to return to her family.

#6 - Grand Final - Welcome Masterchef 2010

Season 2 - Episode 84 - Aired 7/25/2010

Adam and Callum faced three rounds in the finale, worth 100 points in total. The first round involves basic skills tests. The second round is an invention test. The final round is a pressure test, cooking a Peter Gilmore dessert.

#7 - Kids Birthday Team Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/5/2010

In an unprecedented twist, Callum as winner of the weeks Invention Test was granted the power to pick his entire team first. The off site challenge was to put on a children's birthday party for 150 people, who would vote for their favourite dish. The Blue Team proved to have too great an advantage and won easily.

#8 - Mystery Box & Invention Test

Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/16/2010

"Around the world" theme. The Mystery Box challenge saw the contestants tackle a complex range of ingredients and a time of just 25 minutes. Peter took out the challenge and was given a significant advantage in the Invention Test, which for the first time would see the contestants competing in trios. Peter was given the power to not only pick the core ingredient for each country's cuisine, but also to pick the members of each team.

#9 - Oyster Terrine Pressure Test

Season 2 - Episode 43 - Aired 6/7/2010

Callum, Joanne, Peter and Skye faced off in the Pressure Test; to recreate George Calombaris' oyster terrine. Callum's terrine was described as a dog's breakfast but was closest to George's dish in flavour.

#10 - Normal Family Meal Team Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 27 - Aired 5/19/2010

The two teams were tasked with preparing a 3 course meal for a normal family and judges Matt Preston and Curtis Stone, on a tight budget and time limit. In the end, the families rated each team equally and the judges could not agree on a winner, so the challenge was ruled a tie. Therefore, a bottom 2 was selected from each team,

#11 - London Week Day 2: Heston Pressure Test

Season 2 - Episode 55 - Aired 6/21/2010

Contestants competed in pairs to recreate Heston Blumenthal's elaborate signature dishes. Heston praised the contestants' attempts at dishes he'd taken years to perfect with Alvin and Marion's recreation of "Sound of the Sea" deemed the most impressive.

#12 - Army Base Team Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 69 - Aired 7/7/2010

Teams were faced with preparing a hearty buffet lunch for 100 Australian soldiers. Starting at Holsworthy army base, contestants trekked to the field kitchen where they tackled creating a suitable menu. Teams came up with a few similar dishes and were forced to negotiate compromise in their menus. The Red Team struggled with their dessert, and Callum was chastised by the judges for his poor handling of the situation.

#13 - Signature Dish Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 75 - Aired 7/14/2010

Contestants were tasked with creating a dish that represented themselves and their cooking philosophy. After planning overnight and shopping with a $250 budget, each contestant had two hours to cook their signature dishes on five plates for Matt Preston and four other guests: Alla Wolf-Tasker, Mark Best, Kylie Kwong and Jacques Reymond. Each contestant was determined to impress such an illustrious panel, and the intense pressure lead to some potentially fatal mistakes. Overall, the judges were very impressed with the calibre of the dishes put forward, but only four contestants would automatically win their spot in the final week and a reward at Marque restaurant.

#14 - London Week Day 2: Chef Challenge - Martin Blunos

Season 2 - Episode 56 - Aired 6/22/2010

#15 - Carrot Cake Elimination Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 52 - Aired 6/17/2010

In a taste test Elimination Challenge, all members of the Blue Team were asked to name the ingredients to a carrot cake.

#16 - Masterclass 9

Season 2 - Episode 53 - Aired 6/18/2010

Aaron and Marion are treated to a masterclass in artisan baking by Michael Klausen, while Gary and George cook up a dish of lamb backstrap fillet cooked in a Barramundi skin with flesh from the fish, along with a shiitake mushroom sauce and hash browns. Julie Goodwin then returns to the MasterChef kitchen and conjures up a dish of scallops with bacon crunch and cauliflower puree, and Gary and George round it off with an extravagant dessert of bitter chocolate ganache with peanut ice cream, peanut toffee caramel and a honeycomb.

#17 - Masterclass 11

Season 2 - Episode 65 - Aired 7/2/2010

#18 - Fix That Dish Elimination

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 5/6/2010

As the Blue Team enjoyed their reward at Sails on Lavender Bay with Nathan Darling, Jonathan and Adele faced off in a "fix the dish" challenge. They had to fix a poorly made dish (a bolognese sauce) in ten steps, each step adding their choice of a range of ingredients.

#19 - Mystery Box & Invention Test

Season 2 - Episode 72 - Aired 7/11/2010

"Seven Deadly Sins" theme. Contestants struggled to produce stand-out dishes from a simple Mystery Box, with the two women left in the competition emerging as the strongest performers. Claire was declared the winner and won two big advantages: the power to skip the Invention Test, which would only have a Bottom 3, and the chance to face off in the Celebrity Chef Challenge. The Invention Test was based around the "seven deadly sins," with each contestant creating a dish based on one of the sins.

#20 - Mystery Box & Invention Test

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 5/9/2010

Indian theme. The Mystery Box challenge saw the contestants choosing between a main and a dessert, with Skye's Crispy Duck winning her the challenge and picking goat as key ingredient in the Invention Test. Jimmy was the favourite to win but in the end it was Jonathan whose invention impressed the judges the most.

#21 - Masterclass 12

Season 2 - Episode 71 - Aired 7/9/2010

#22 - Chef Challenge - Luke Nguyen

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 4/27/2010

Luke Nguyen

#23 - Masterclass 1

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/23/2010

The six contestants who won Top 24 spots cooking against Matt Moran are treated to a Masterclass with him in ARIA’s kitchen. Matt shows them how to make seafood canapés. The other contestants learn how to cook a dish of baby vegetables and techniques for grilling meat by George and Gary. George also makes a raspberry dessert with jelly, granita and champagne.

#24 - Black Forest Cake Pressure Test

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/10/2010

Dominic, Joanne and Matthew faced off in the Pressure Test; to make a black forest cake. Joanne was able to put off a shaky start and finish strongly, leaving the judges to pick the least impressive of the two men. Dominic's cake only had three layers instead of the five in the recipe, while Matthew left a cherry pit in his cake.

#25 - Bottom 10 Elimination Challenge

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/21/2010

The 10 contestants who performed worst in Tuesday's signature dish challenge were split into 5 groups of 2 and given 7 hours to drive out to local farms, collect fresh produce, and return to the MasterChef kitchen to prepare a main and a dessert. One contestant, Andrea, found the challenge difficult, and realised that MasterChef was not for her; her withdrawal from the competition forced her partner in the challenge, Philip, to prepare both dishes on his own. Despite this setback, he and 4 others kept their spots in the competition, while 5 contestants were eliminated.