The chefs had to celebrate meat, while creating a completely plant-based dish, meaning there was no eggs, butter, milk or proteins available. Josh Clarke pushed himself out of his comfort zone and attempted to re-imagine the classic steak and jus using just carrots.

"Honestly, this was probably my least favourite challenge of all the challenges up until this point," Josh told 10 Play. "I get my veg in because I have to, and there are definitely times where you can showcase veg because some of them are really beautiful to use as a main component to the dish.

"But trying to use vegetables to replace a meat, to me... it'll never come close to that," Josh continued.

"I wanted to push myself and try and expand my repertoire of tricks, so it was a difficult one but, looking back, would I change it? No. Could I have executed it better? One hundred percent."

Using a mandolin to thinly slice carrots and rolling them into a roulade, Josh fried off his 'steak', charring it with a blowtorch as a finishing touch to add more flavour and caremelisation.

Bringing his plant-based steak up to the judges, Josh said he loved the way it looked. "But I wasn't very confident in it," he added. "It was something out of my comfort zone and not something I had ever tried before either, so I didn't even know if it was truly going to equate to how I thought it should.

"There was a niggling feeling in me from the very beginning, before the time on the clock started, that I wasn't very confident about this dish," Josh added.

For the last few weeks Josh had been nailing his dishes and was on a great run, "I felt like I was overdue one that wasn't so great," he laughed. "It was unfortunate that it happened to be on a black apron elimination day."

Unfortunately, the dish didn't come together as he had hoped, and the judges revealed that he would be going home, narrowly missing out on a spot in the Top 10 for 2024.

"To be quite honest, I wasn't surprised," Josh said of his elimination. "I was hoping, based on the aesthetic of the dish and the direction I was trying to go with it, that would be enough to come out a little bit scraped and bruised but just survive the elimination.

"At the same time, I think I knew in the back of my head, because there was such a lack of confidence delivering it. I was turning that into acceptance that this might be my time," he continued.

While the dish didn't work out for Josh, he said he would "one hundred percent" do it all again exactly the same if he had his time over.

"I wanted to learn as much as I could and show a diversity of skills, showcase that I was learning and trying to apply it," he explained.

"I think the idea and the concept is there, and I know for a fact now that I just didn't execute it... I think, with more knowledge and more skill that can be maximised to its full potential and could be a dish that works really well. You won't miss your classic steak and jus and you're getting your greens -- or your orange -- in as well."

While he only really began his journey with food during COVID, it's been in his blood all his life. "Mum was a chef growing up, and my dad is Jamaican. I've never been to Jamaica myself so the way he would share our heritage with us was by cooking," Josh said.

"I think that's where the seed was sowed all the way back then, but when I started having a family of my own and I was cooking dinner every night for them, it was something I enjoyed doing.

"The versatility, trying different things to see what your kids like and don't like, trying to get as much veggies as possible in there as well, it was fun and I started enjoying it more and more."

As a dad to three young kids, Josh joked that if the plant-based challenge was in reverse he would have been more than prepared to take out the top prize.

"Try to sneak in ten different vegetables, ten different ways without them knowing they are there? That would have been a walk in the park, I could have done that with my eyes closed," he laughed.

Without him knowing, Josh's wife applied for the show on his behalf, and soon he found himself in MasterChef kitchen. " I felt like I was living in some type of dream," he said, adding, "being thrown straight into the deep end is what the show is about, so I was pretty keen and ready to take on whatever challenge they were going to lay on me.

"Being pushed out of your comfort zone forces you to either fight or flight... I think, initially I would have been keen to start running," he laughed, "but I wanted to make the most of the experience. Leaving three kids behind and my wife to run the show while I'm gone, I wanted to make the most of it and I was ready to put up a fight and do the best I could."

While many contestants come into the kitchen with a concrete food dream, Josh admits his main goal was to just learn as much as possible.

"What I love about food is the fact that it is a language everyone speaks. To be able to cook a meal with all of your TLC and give it to someone [and] just seeing them enjoy it.

"Being able to cook and share my food, how I think about food and share that with others is all I really care about. It can be a restaurant, a food truck, whatever! It doesn't matter to me, as long as I'm creating tasty food, continue to learn, to try new things and satisfy people's needs I'm a happy man."

Leaving with his head held high, Josh was content with how far he was able to push himself out of his comfort zone and try new things throughout the competition. "Being able to share with the judges my Jamaican heritage and my mum's love of cooking that was passed down onto me... I think I accomplished all I set out to accomplish and, at the same time, learned a lot about myself that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

"Even though $250,000 would have been nice, the fact that I found that gold in myself by pursuing this, that to me is more worthwhile."

MasterChef Australia continues Sunday - Wednesday at 7.30 on 10 and 10 Play