Chloe Carroll

The amateur cooks have one hour to recreate their signature dishes for the judges' first auditions, as the judges and nine past winners offer their support.

It is the start of royal week and the contestants have one hour to use all of the ingredients from the mystery box, including kalette, lemon, coriander seeds, gin and mint, to make a dish.

The top nine head for Darwin and a royal reception for Prince Charles, where prepping 450 canapes with native Australian ingredients and local produce is the order of the day.

The top 24 try to stand the heat in the kitchen, with 90 minutes and an open pantry to cook their dishes and impress the judges, focusing on hospitality.

Three contestants have to recreate a dish of tandoori chicken in a butter sauce with coriander mint chutney, pickled onions and roomali bread, made by guest chef Saransh Goila.

Cake artist Katherine Sabbath is welcomed as the guest judge, and introduces one of her cake designs, a raspberry white vanilla layered cake with tempered white chocolate raspberry bark.