It's been a rough couple of days – her husband was cheating on her, her career wasn't working now she's taking five in Florence where she will eventually buy a lovely-yet-dilapidated villa.

Oh, hang on I'm talking about Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane, not Cooking Furry Animals under the Tuscan Sun with Mindy and Alice.

Back to "reality" and we're in Florence at the crack of dawn as the aforementioned Mindy and Alice prepare to dual it out gladiator style for "guaranteed immunity".

Tonight one of the aspiring chefs will get the gold pin but not before they eat the innards of a cow... or a sheep... or a pig... or all three barn yard favourites, then channel their inner Glenn Close and bake a bunny.

After the girls flick listlessly through cook books and the viewers are treated to sweeping promo shots of Tuscany accompanied by a booming rip-off of a Mendelssohn symphony, the ladies exchange "ciaos" with the judges.

Alice, modelling the latest in Eurotrash chic with giant red framed glasses, a lurid green novelty tee and knee-high socks complete with snowflakes patterns and Mindy dressed in demure monochromatic leather and cotton basics, exchange passive aggressive smiles as they answer questions about the challenge ahead.

"Mindy's a giant. She's the Goliath and I'm in the city of David," Alice says.

"I'm not feeling the pressure I just want it on my chest," wannabe twin-pin Mindy retorts.

By "it" I think she means the immunity pin.

Matt channels his inner Cardinal and waxes lyrical about being reborn in the city of renaissance. His sermon goes unnoticed though as the peanut gallery is catatonic under the Tuscan sun following last night's carb heavy challenge.

Round one of the in-the-fight-for-immunity is a food tour of Florence with a bubbly, blonde ex-pat called Freya who, according to Alice, has massive "specs appeal" thanks to her Delta G inspired frames.

We learn that Freya has moved to Italy because she loves the place and she really likes to roll her "r's" to sounds like a contented kitten.

"We'll start with the Tuscan Crrrostini!" Freya says and off they go to eat chicken livers on slabs of fresh bread and a hearty soup called ribollita made by local cafe owner "Frrrancesca".

Matt reminds them to look for clues for what the next stage of the challenge may hold.

The next street vendor is challenging enough for Mindy who's new to the Mediterranean diet.

Offal sandwiches for everyone!

While it reminds Alice of her childhood, Mindy sums up the experience for the camera: "I'm eating the full stomach of a cow and it just tastes rank."

Having insulted the cuisine and consuming more calories than a KFC menu the ladies are escorted to Villa Corsini – which is, informs Matt, the home of broken hearts, built by Prince Giovan Carlo de' Medici in the 1600s for his fiancée before she ditched him at the altar.

There will be no love lost for rounds two and three of this challenge though as Alice and Mindy discover they'll be cooking for the Godfather of Italian cuisine, the original "Greedy Italian" – no, not Tony Soprano – the inimitable Antonio Carluccio.

Alice laughs nervously considering she couldn't even cook peas the last time she was up for immunity, while Mindy is just happy that she knows who Carluccio is.

Matt asks him what the essence of Italian cooking is, he responds with a Berlusconi type joke while looking around for Lara Bingle (silently cursing the language barrier and his people for booking him for the wrong Australian reality TV show).

George informs the ladies that they'll taste and guess the 28 ingredients of a "complex" ribollita in order to gain an advantage in the final round.

"Let the battle of the tastebuds begin," booms Chef Carluccio.

They guess the usual suspects found in a "hearty tinned soup" before Alice picks up a chuck of non-descript cheese, chews it and declares "pepper is in the dish". Mindy nails it by correctly naming two type of cabbage.

Alas, victory isn't meant to be for Mindy when she calls barley.

Alice now has the benefit of deciding whether they cook three sweet or three savoury dishes from Chef Carluccio's Greedy Italians cook book.

Option one, sweet: apple strudel, ricotta tart and zabaglione. Option two, savoury: Artichoke soup with chicken dumplings, stuffed calamari and roast rabbit with potatoes, onion and artichoke.

"Are you a sweet girl Alice?" Matt coos.

"I'll take savoury," she snaps.

"Great choice, now hurry up and cook because I'm hungry," Carluccio bellows.

Having risen from their stupor the peanut gallery starts placing bets that Mindy's speed and agility in the kitchen will see her achieve a MasterChef first – two immunity pins.

Mindy is busy smashing chicken bones and using words like "caramelise", "don't", "follow" and "recipe" when Gary – today's mentor in the al fresco kitchen – steps in to knock some wind out of her sails.

"Be careful of starting to think you know better than Antonio Carluccio."

Meanwhile, as she olive oils the "crapola" out of the "wabbit", Alice points out the pressure point of the rabbit dish is the rabbit.

As she gets to work on her dumplings – of which Beau approves of by yelling "nice balls Alice!" – Mindy is pretty cut up about having to cut up a rabbit and also a squid in 24-hours.

With 30 minutes to go Gaz wanders over and discovers Alice's oven isn't working – while he's busy beating a show runner off camera and she rushes over to borrow Mindy's fan-forced heat, Beau gives us an insight into the situation.

"Something's wrong with her oven, I don't know what she's done or what she was thinking but I'm pretty sure the rabbit's not cooked."

Time is up and George, Chef Carluccio and Matt take their seats at the judging table.

"How good is this? Three dishes by the Godfather of Italian cooking," George says hoping to impress Carluccio with his marvellous use of inflections and adjectives.

"What you want more?" the cheeky Carluccio adds.

Mindy's soup is a clear winner as Alice's balls were too hard (clearly jinxed by Beau).

As George serves up dish number two – the stuffed calamari – and makes an inane comment about olive oil, Carluccio's facial expression changes from amused to confused.

"You are a really good waiter," he says while trying to understand what and who George is.

While they salivate over Alice's stuffing they are miffed by Mindy who served naked and rubbery squid.

A dark cloud moves into the villa of heart break for the final dish as one plate arrives sans onions and the other has no artichoke. The Godfather is not happy.

"She forgot the artichoke. That's extraordinary," he says.

It all comes down the rabbit decides Matt.

Even though she thought it was game over when her oven broke, Alice achieves a thumping victory thanks to her succulent serving of Bambi's best friend.

As Lane, who played Frances in the 2003 rom-com, said: "Unthinkably good things can happen even late in the game. It's such a surprise."

"This just reaffirms to me I have to start believing in myself and my cooking," the contests third immunity pin winner Alice says, holding back tears as the sun sets on their Tuscan adventure.