It's the battle for the ultimate culinary prize.
Oooh!
58 of the country's best home cooks...
I need to stop shaking!
..all with their hearts set...
Fingers crossed. Your sesame cracker's burning.
Oh, no.
..on the coveted MasterChef trophy.
That's a cracker of a dish.
Absolutely ace.
I'm so happy, I just want to dance.
Each week, 12 extraordinary amateur talents...
Come on, come on, come on.
..battle for a place in the quarterfinal.
I think it's exceptionally good. I can't fault it.
But only the best can earn their passport...
I think we need to kick it up a little bit.
..to the ultimate culinary showdown.
Upstairs, there is bow ties, there's ballgowns,
and there are Michelin stars.
This is where the wave of ambition hits the rock of reality.
Mr Wallace, welcome back. It's MasterChef time!
These six passionate home cooks all think they've got what it takes
to become MasterChef champion.
But at the end of today's heat, only three will make it through
to this week's quarterfinal.
It is really crazy to be here.
I feel like I need to pinch myself a little bit, to be honest!
The closest I thought I'd ever get to a MasterChef apron,
I bought one from a well-known retailer!
I hope John and Gregg are as lovely as they seem.
I had a dream that I met them and curtsied,
so I'm going to be trying really hard not to curtsy!
Wow.
A very warm welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.
We are looking for a cookery star.
Your first challenge we call Basics to Brilliant.
What we want you to do is take an everyday item,
but elevate that item into something spectacular.
At the end of this round, Gregg and I will choose
our two favourite dishes.
And the people who cook those will get themselves
a MasterChef apron and they will go straight through to the next round.
The other four will have to stay and fight it out
for two remaining aprons.
One hour, 20 minutes, ladies and gentlemen.
You know what you've got to do. Let's cook!
Let's do it.
43-year-old Louise grew up cooking with her Scottish grandmother.
Formerly in wine sales,
she now farms a five-acre smallholding in Exmoor.
There's always someone in the farmhouse kitchen
that I'm having to cook for. You know, if people have been
working on the farm, I love to give them a meal at the end of the day.
It's seasonal, it's simple, and I always cook with love.
Louise, what's your humble ingredient? Courgettes!
Why a courgette? At home, we always have a glut of courgettes.
We grow lots of things, and throughout the summer
we just have masses of courgettes. Do you live on a farm?
I AM the farmer. What do you farm?
Rare breed animals.
I've got pigs, sheep, goats, geese, turkeys.
Yeah, a whole menagerie.
So how are you planning to elevate the courgette?
Courgette puree with wild garlic.
I've got griddled courgettes that will be topped
with lamb fat crumb. And then I've got raw courgettes
with lamb, and I've got a Pommes Anna.
How much butter went into that Pommes Anna?
Oh, you know, enough!
Courgettes as a puree with wild garlic I think is inspired.
All that lamb fat running through on the breadcrumbs,
it sounds to me absolutely perfect.
The lamb can be cooked all the way through,
that's fine, as long as it's not dry.
If this dish works, it's going to be absolutely delicious.
33-year-old Jerome's food is influenced by his travels
around the world, working in musical theatre.
I think there is a similarity between
doing a performance and cooking
in the MasterChef kitchen.
Space, space, space.
Hopefully I'll be able to take the experience of being able
to perform under pressure and apply that to my cooking as well.
Great.
Jerome, what do you do for a living?
I'm a musical director, so I do music for musicals.
I love musical theatre!
John, Jerome's gone through to the quarterfinal!
What's your humble ingredient? What's your dish?
So my humble ingredient is chicken thighs.
I'm doing some pulled chicken and they're going to go
on top of panuchos.
So panuchos are Mexican, and they're tortillas.
And then I'm going to do like an Ancho chilli chocolate
and red wine sort of reduction. I went to Mexico not too long ago,
and the flavours there are amazing and the food's amazing.
I'm into it! Big fist bump!
I've never heard of panucho, so I'm really, really intrigued.
He's going to make a tortilla using masa flour,
which is a white cornflour, cook them,
then he's going to fill them with refried beans,
and then he's going to deep fry them.
Pulled chicken across the top of that,
this is a lot of skill on show.
If he gets it right, I'll be really, really happy.
It's actually more chilled than I thought it would be in here!
IT security consultant and proud Scotsman Peter
enjoys the challenge of recreating restaurant quality dishes at home
for his wife and daughter.
So the last night I watched some videos of the 50 most disastrous
events on MasterChef!
I've prepared myself for worst case scenario!
And watched how bad I need to get before I'm REALLY bad!
So anything above that, job's good!
Peter, where are you from in Scotland?
So I'm from a town called Irvine near Troon,
the famous Troon golf course. Stayed there all my days.
What's your ingredient?
I chose the cabbage because it's used in cuisines
throughout the world.
Going to make braised red cabbage and braised tenderloin of venison
with celeriac fondant, a beetroot puree,
Shiitake mushrooms and a red wine and chocolate sauce.
Why wouldn't you give yourself an easier time and take it simpler?
I've really dreamt about being in this kitchen for years,
and I really want, you know, to grab that apron.
Red cabbage, which is his star of the show,
venison, some celeriac on the side. Fantastic together.
But we don't need a beetroot puree
alongside creamed shiitake mushrooms.
Peter seems to be overcomplicating things.
HE SIGHS
And Peter's just burnt his red cabbage.
I can't believe I forgot about it.
Yeah. It's like something for Halloween!
Also vying for an apron is 25-year-old Sidney...
Yeah!
..who aspires to use his passion for cookery to become
a food content creator.
Sidney, what do you do for a living? I model. I'm a model boy.
Mate! You're a good looking fella! Oh, stop, I'm blushing!
What cookery do you do?
It's a bit of a mishmash, like myself.
I mean, I was born in France, and I moved here when I was young.
You know, my family is Ivorian, so we've got that kind of culture.
So I'm a fusion boy. I like it.
What's your basic ingredient? So I've gone for flour.
Everyone's got it in the pantry. It's a basic.
And, yeah, I'm going to jazz it up and make it something tasty.
I am making my childhood favourite, lemon madeleines
with a white chocolate mousse, then a nice lemon tuile on top.
Sidney's made the only dessert in the room,
but it's a complicated dessert.
A madeleine is a shell-shaped cake from France,
which are fantastic when they're done right.
Mm! Smells good!
But mix the batter too much, they become rubbery
and they don't rise.
And you don't end up with that little tiny lump on top.
Oh, ho-ho!
My biggest worry is if I don't get that lovely signature madeleine bump
normally achieved by putting your
batter into the fridge overnight.
However, we don't have overnight.
I practised the recipe.
The first batch were awful, but now we're at a very good place.
That's too much batter.
You have 25 minutes to go. 25 minutes to go.
Inspired by her Middle Eastern heritage,
project manager Rana now cooks every day for her family.
I've been practising actually in the kitchen with having
my little ones around me.
Julia, who's five, and Isabella is four.
Every time they distract me, in my head, I'm like,
"This is the judges talking to me!"
Pomegranate? Yes.
I hope I make myself proud. And my girls.
Rana. That's an interesting name. Yeah. Where is that from?
I'm from the Middle East. I'm from Jordan.
Is Middle Eastern style your heart? Yes.
What's your ingredient? It's pomegranate.
I'm making pomegranate molasses.
I'm basting the lamb with the pomegranate molasses.
I'm using the pomegranate molasses into my muhammara,
and some of it into my jus. What is muhammara?
It's a Syrian dip that we use with barbecues.
It's made of red peppers, walnuts and olive oil.
How do I say good luck in Jordanian? Bil tawfiq. Bil tawfiq. Shukran!
Pomegranate to me seems to be the star of the show.
It's going everywhere. It's going in the rack of lamb.
It's going in the muhammara, and it's also inside her gremolata.
This is a really clever dish, but we don't want raw lamb.
Just worried about the lamb.
But I did test the temperature of it.
Fingers crossed.
At 21, bartender Olivia is the youngest contestant
in the kitchen today.
She was taught to cook by her mum, who is a food tech teacher.
My cooking style...
Hectic.
Oh, God!
It's like a hurricane just flew through the kitchen when I cook.
Oh!
It's fine.
Just need a bigger cheesecloth.
Cramming it all into an hour 20 might be a bit difficult,
but I'm sure, I'm sure I'll be able to do it.
I hope so. I might start again, though.
If not, oops!
Ah!
Oh, it's not my day!
Are you up against it? Yeah. I made too much potato mix.
And the potato mix went on the floor.
Then I had to start again, and then I cut my finger.
So what I'm doing today is kartacze, a Polish potato dumpling.
My mum's from Poland.
You have the potato batter and then a meatball inside.
And I'm doing Surowka, which is a cabbage and carrot salad,
and then a vegan sour cream. It's vegan because I can't have dairy.
All right. What do you do, if you don't mind me asking?
I'm a bartender.
I chose not to go to uni because I decided to move
to the Caribbean to become a scuba diver.
So you could become a chef. You could own a restaurant!
Exactly. Scuba diving and chef. Brilliant!
Olivia's making for us something I've never had before,
which she calls kartacze.
What should happen here is the potato casing
around the outside should become sealed.
Then, as the meat cooks, all the juice of the meat
will stay inside that little dumpling.
So when you open it up, it should almost have
like a meaty soup in the centre of it.
But right now, Olivia is having what I would call a shocker.
Why did I choose this out of everything?
She had to remake the potato dough, and that's put everything behind.
And those dumplings have only just gone into the water.
I hope they're cooked. How are we doing for time?
Guys, five minutes left.
Cool.
Deary me.
That is great.
We live to eat lamb in the Middle East!
Erm...
Time's up. Everybody stop.
Oh, my God.
Don't cry. Don't cry. I know!
First up is musical director Jerome.
His basic ingredient was chicken thighs, which he shredded
and served on top of Mexican panuchos,
a deep-fried tortilla stuffed with refried beans
with a chipotle chilli salsa, pickled onions and fennel
and a red wine, chocolate and Ancho chilli sauce.
The panuchos I think are really good.
The tortilla's crispy and has the flavour
almost of a corn chip.
The refried beans giving a little bit of moisture.
The actual salsa itself not too wet.
The chicken across the top has stayed lovely and moist.
You've done a lot of work here.
I like it very much.
But you were supposed to elevate a chicken.
And the chicken is very much a backing singer.
But I'm very much enjoying your Mexican flavour.
Thank you very much.
It looked like I wanted it to. It tasted like I wanted it to.
I'm really happy that they liked it, and I was able to give them
something they hadn't had before.
IT consultant Peter's dish to showcase cabbage
is braised red cabbage, tenderloin of venison,
celeriac fondant, creamed shiitake mushrooms, beetroot puree,
and a red wine and chocolate sauce.
The star of the show is supposed to be the red cabbage,
and your red cabbage got over-reduced.
And sadly, it's going tough, a little bit dry,
and it's going bitter.
Your venison is cooked really, really nicely.
So is your celeriac fondant.
But then we get beetroot, we get chocolate, we get red wine,
all coming together and it's just too many things.
I like sweet with the game, but chocolate and the beetroot
can't survive with the strength of that cabbage.
And you know you've over-reduced that. 100%. Yeah.
Pretty devastated about the cabbage.
Just... Yeah, took my eye off it.
Project manager Rana's basic ingredient was pomegranate.
She's made a pomegranate and pistachio crusted
rack of lamb with Muhammara,
a dip made from pomegranate molasses, walnuts and peppers,
a mint gremolata, and a pomegranate lamb jus.
I stood on your shoulder as you were slicing through that lamb.
It is perfect. The pink meat itself is beautifully juicy.
You've got levels of sweet, sharp pomegranate
running through the whole dish.
I'm very, very happy with all of this.
You can afford to be a little bit bolder here.
The muhammara in the middle is absolutely delicious.
But I'm going to run out.
You've got a little tiny bit of the molasses,
but you can really afford to, like, douse it.
It's a very good dish, but it just needs a little bit more oomph.
I played it a bit safe this time.
But, yeah, there's a lot of room for improvement.
Bartender Olivia's ingredient was potato.
She's made kartacze, Polish potato dumplings stuffed with pork mince
with surowka, a carrot and cabbage salad, vegan sour cream,
and a crispy onion and bacon topping.
It's a big dish, isn't it?
I mean, you know, it's hearty. Yeah.
It's my first ever kartacze, and I quite like them.
The inside, the rich pork, the juices coming out of the pork
so you've almost got like a soup mixture in there,
and your salad underneath is really, really tasty.
Listen, it's got no finesse whatsoever.
I would eat that, but I would like the pork inside there
cooked a little bit more. Yeah.
If I had to cook again, I think it would give me an opportunity
to kind of redeem myself from the mess that was earlier!
Farmer Louise chose courgettes as her basic ingredient
and has served them three ways.
Pureed with wild garlic,
griddled and topped with a lamb fat crumb,
and raw in a lemon and mint dressing,
with a roast lamb fillet, Pommes Anna,
and a honey and feta dressing.
Your lamb is cooked to perfection.
Pink in the middle, lots of colour outside.
Your puree still tastes of courgettes,
but it's heavy with wild garlic.
The little baby courgette with the breadcrumbs
that have been in the lamb fat,
the flavour coming off of there is just wonderful.
Louise...
Boom!
Absolutely ace.
Texture, flavour, the way it's being cooked,
it's fantastic.
If that was served to me in a restaurant,
I'd be very, very happy indeed. Oh, my goodness!
See? Told you! Well done.
Thank you! So good.
I can't believe the comments.
I've watched MasterChef forever, and it's very rare that happens.
And I can't believe it's little old me!
It's just... Yeah.
I mean, I am going to take a while to come down from this!
Last up is model Sidney, who used flour to make lemon madeleines.
He served them with white chocolate mousse, raspberry compote,
orange-infused chocolate shavings and a lemon tuile.
Ooh, very good.
I'm really enjoying your madeleines. I really am. Thank you.
White chocolate and lemon. I didn't really consider,
but it works. Madeleines aren't easy to make,
especially in the amount of time you had.
Yeah. I really like them, actually. I think they're fluffy,
they're full of air, which is really, really good.
But your tuile, unfortunately, doesn't taste of lemon or anything.
It's just a bit unusual.
I want that apron so badly.
I think I have a chance. I wouldn't say number one,
but I'll take a second or third finish.
But, yeah, fingers crossed I've got an apron.
Well done. The standard of cookery right there was very high.
At the start of this, we did say we'd choose
our two favourite plates of food,
and the people who cooked those would get themselves
a MasterChef apron and go straight through to the next round.
There was one cook who we think absolutely nailed it.
Louise, congratulations. Congratulations.
There was one person today who, although their chosen ingredient
wasn't a star of the show, the food was absolutely delicious.
Jerome, congratulations. You've got the second.
Louise, Jerome, please come and collect your aprons.
Well done. Thank you. Thank you.
Well done!
I was very prepared to cook again.
So being able to relax now is very, very nice.
Prepare for the next round.
This is just the most exciting thing. Look! Wonderful.
Right. Put any disappointment behind you.
There are two aprons here.
We've got a challenge for you which will show us
your versatility and actually whether you can think on your feet.
In front of you you all have a trout.
We want you to create a dish where trout is the star of the show,
and you can then embellish that lovely trout with anything you like
from the ingredients that are over here on the bench.
At the end of this, two of you will be going home.
45 minutes, two aprons up for grabs.
Think on your feet. Let's cook.
What have we got here?
Oh, lush!
Haven't filleted a fish before, so it's going to be fun.
We're going to see a first!
I'm happy it's fish.
I'm just trying to figure out what am I going to make with it?
You can do whatever you like with a piece of fish,
could be a fillet, you could roll it up and poach it.
The fact is, it's a versatile thing,
but they're going to have to build a dish in their mind really quickly.
And if they don't, it could all go wrong.
You know what you're going to cook with? We'll make it up!
This is not looking good.
Rana, you now look incredibly nervous?
Because I don't have a solid plan in my head,
but I have a feeling it's going to come through while I'm cooking.
It's going to be beans, too, with the fish on top.
But I still don't have... You're not quite sure, are you?
No. No, I'm not.
Rana's filleted the fish OK,
and besides that, there's a few ingredients on her bench,
but she hasn't quite decided.
She's got a tin of cannellini beans, but she's not sure
what she's going to do with it.
Right now, I am very nervous for her.
It's very spicy. Is that OK?
Butterflying the spine.
That's one side, let's have a look at the other side.
Sidney, first time you've ever filleted a fish?
Indeedy! How do you think you've done?
I mean, I've got a fish fillet. Right.
I had a plan of cooking some red pepper sauce,
and I was going to either do a mash, something quick,
or potentially a gratin potato, but I don't know if I have enough time.
But we will be sure by the end of it.
Yeah, you will be sure by the end of it because you'll be on a plate!
Sidney has got some peppers in the oven.
That's not a bad idea, trout and the peppers.
He's still relaxed and he's managed to get two decent fillets on.
He's halfway there.
Oooh! The pressure's on. How long we got here?
You've got 25 minutes left.
Ah! 25 minutes left.
Olivia, you actually filleted your fish fairly well.
My boyfriend actually taught me how to fillet a fish,
when we used to fillet lionfish together in the Caribbean.
So what's the plan?
Pan-searing the fish, then we're doing a pea and asparagus puree,
pickled radish and boiled baby potatoes.
You're on time? Yeah. You're sure? For now!
We have got a pea and asparagus puree with dill going through it.
We've got some capers on the plate, some pickled radishes,
some trout and a little tiny potato. Great.
If that works, fantastic.
More finesse than last time!
Well, that wouldn't be hard, would it?!
Peter was really struggling filleting that fish,
and it looks ripped.
It's not done very well at all.
How did you feel, Peter, when you saw the trout?
OK. Although that's taken quite a bit of time,
just to debone it properly.
I've taken your advice, I've reined it back in,
I'll try and keep it simple. Going to bake it with
some coriander, some lemon juice, some parsley.
Going to fry up some roast vegetables and chillies as well.
And I'm going to make a lemon veloute.
What do you need from this competition now, my friend?
What I came for - an apron.
I'm a little bit concerned about Peter's combinations.
We've got trout in foil with lots of different things.
He's doing some roasted vegetables, which seem to be mainly carrots.
And he says he's going to make a veloute as well.
Once I've got everything in I'm going to add a touch a cream to it.
Peter said he's paring back. I don't think he is.
I think he's actually getting himself in a tizz.
I hope everything's to taste. Fingers crossed.
You've got just three minutes.
Get whatever it is on a plate, please.
Sidney, come on. Yes, sir.
OK. Time's up.
That'll do me.
Aahhh. My legs are shaking now!
I feel happy it's over!
To secure one of the last two aprons,
Olivia has made pan-fried trout fillet with a pea, asparagus,
and dill puree, pickled radish, steamed asparagus,
boiled baby potatoes and capers.
You cooked the fish very, very well indeed.
Your potatoes are cooked well.
You pickled radishes, which is demonstrating some skill.
Your nice puree around the outside.
You've shown us a completely different side to you
than you did in the first round.
I've actually got no complaints about it at all.
You've done good presentation, nice flavours.
I mean, it's kind of what we wanted, Olivia!
I feel like I've experienced every emotion today!
It makes me feel a lot better in myself that I can actually cook.
Peter oven-baked his trout with coriander, parsley and chilli.
He served it with butter and sugar roasted carrots
and a white wine, lemon, and bacon veloute.
Whoa!
What's the acidic heat on the carrots?
There was none, that was just butter and sugar.
I think you may have mistaken the sugar for salt.
Yeah, you have.
The fish actually is cooked quite nicely.
But the carrots, unfortunately, instead of being caramelised,
are very, very salty indeed.
That sauce is not working. OK.
It's far too acidic and it's got tons and tons of chilli in it.
It's too harsh.
Nerves really got hold of me in that dish there.
So they say it's not over until the fat lady sings.
But I can hear her in the distance!
Sidney has served pan-fried trout fillet with a red pepper sauce,
grilled asparagus, and a potato and cream gratin.
Your trout is cooked really nicely.
I've got lovely big flaky pieces of fish there.
Your potatoes are cooked all the way through.
They've got a bit of cream on them.
But do they really go with peppers and fish?
I like the sweet smokiness of the pepper sauce underneath.
I really, really do.
The potatoes, I don't know what they are. Yeah. They're just cooked,
and they're covered in cream. Yeah.
Oof! They don't lie about the pressure challenge.
That was pressure!
But considering the circumstances, never filleted a fish before,
so, yeah, happy.
Finally it's Rana, who made her own fish stock and used it to make
a spicy bean stew which accompanies her pan-fried trout fillet,
samphire and chive oil.
You have prepped the fish nicely.
You've cooked it very sympathetically.
You have made decent stock that you have cooked the beans in
and pureed them brilliantly smoothly,
AND you've made a herb oil as well.
This is showing lots of process.
You are right on the border here with saltiness,
because samphire is a salty vegetable anyway.
It's a good dish. Just be careful of that seasoning.
That test was tough.
The comments I got from the judges were very constructive,
and I'm pleased with that.
I was really impressed with that.
They all cooked their fish pretty well.
Olivia really impressed me by making a plan.
The cookery of the fish and the making of the puree,
there's a real contrast between her dish in the first round
and the second round. For me, she's got herself an apron.
Peter cooked the fish itself very, very well.
But the big mistake were the carrots that were supposed to have
sugar on to sweeten them were covered in salt.
And then we had lots of acidity in the sauce.
Rana gave us far too much samphire because it's so salty.
But she made her own fish stock.
She made a herb oil, and she pureed those beans and flavoured them
very, very well.
Sidney had never filleted a fish before and he just kept on going.
We had a nice, rich, sweet pepper puree,
and his fish was lovely and soft.
It wasn't a beautiful dish.
The potatoes were unusual, but for a first time ever
filleting a fish, that is impressive.
I want to stay really badly.
You can't even imagine.
After running around on my knees, filleting a fish on national TV,
I want it very badly!
I'd love to stay, but within myself,
for this moment, I know I haven't done enough.
We both want to say to all four of you, well done.
We've made a decision.
Two of you are going through the next round,
and two of you will be leaving us.
The first person getting their apron is...
..Olivia.
Oh, my God!
Well done.
Oh, thank you.
The second person getting their apron is...
..Rana.
Well done!
Thank you!
Sidney, Peter, what can I say? Thanks very much indeed.
You're leaving us. Thank you. Gentlemen. Glad to have met you.
Thank you. Thank you. Cheers.
I'm a little bit gutted.
It's been an emotional roller-coaster.
There's been loads of ups and downs.
But I think you can take things from this into,
I don't know, later life.
I feel disappointed. I can't hide that.
Anybody, I think, would.
I'll maybe have a small chuckle to myself that I nearly poisoned
John and Gregg with salt rather than sugar!
Olivia, Rana, congratulations.
Come and get your aprons. Yay! Well done.
I'm feeling very, very happy.
I came for this, and I got it.
It's got caught on my earring!
I still want to go further. I feel like now I've started,
I feel like I should keep pushing.
Welcome back and very well done for getting your aprons.
If you want to stay in this competition,
you have to impress with every round.
You are going to be serving your food not just to me and John,
but to three MasterChef champions.
Jane Devonshire,
Irini Tzortzoglou,
and Ping Coombes.
We have just three quarterfinal places.
That does mean at the end of this round,
one of you will be leaving the competition.
Two courses, one hour, 15 minutes.
Impress them.
Let's cook.
Come on, now. Get on.
Producing eight plates of food in an hour and 15 minutes
is an incredibly daunting task.
However, my family are constantly bringing people into the house,
so I'm quite used to having to tuck out lots of plates of food.
Louise, you did amazing in that last round.
What are your two courses?
A loin of pork with sort of a crackling crumb.
We've got cabbage with bacon, which is based on a choucroute.
I used to work in France for a wine company doing a bit of marketing.
Dessert? What's dessert?
Creme fraiche and honey panna cotta with the lavender biscuits
and then blueberries.
How did you go from marketing French wines to farming?
I had to stop work when my daughter was born,
and when she was 18-months-old, I was diagnosed with cancer.
And I was at home on the first day of my chemo, feeling wretched,
and looked at my husband and went, "What's the point in doing this?"
Our retirement plan was always to go and have a little smallholding,
so we put the house on the market and the day after I finished
radiotherapy, after chemo and surgery, we moved.
Brilliant. Well done, you.
She is basing the cabbage upon choucroute,
a classic French dish where you take lots of different types of pork
and you cook them really slowly with lots and lots of cabbage.
And we have got a fillet of pork, which has very little fat on it,
and who doesn't like crackling with their pork?
I love a panna cotta.
Enough setting agent, so it's wobbly, not too firm.
The unusual thing here is lavender biscuit.
Lavender's strong.
My Auntie Shirley used to use it in her underwear drawer!
The comment I got from John was he wanted more oomph.
And this is what I'm bringing today.
This is done.
I'm bringing more technique into the round,
more flavours and more oomph!
You're going to see more oomph!
Rana, tell us what your two courses are?
Duck kibbeh for my starter
with a date-infused labneh.
The duck kibbeh casing is made with bulgur,
and we stuff it with duck meat and we fry it.
Labneh is basically yoghurt, you strain it,
all the moisture comes out and it becomes like a nice soft cheese.
Main course? Shish barak gyoza.
We make our own dough and we fill it up with lamb
and we cook it with yoghurt, with garlic sauce.
So we've got a duck stuff, and we've got a bigger lamb stuff.
How much do you like stuffed stuff?
Oh, I love stuffing stuff!
First off, we're getting a kibbeh, a little tiny parcel,
crispy on the outside.
She's got to cook the duck legs, get all the meat off them,
and then actually make these kibbeh up in under an hour.
The main course, those little dumplings.
Dough has to be cooked all the way through.
Cook it too long, it becomes wishy washy and all soggy.
Not cooked enough, and you've got a tough dough on the outside.
In the MasterChef kitchen, there's no relaxing, ever!
They've kind of seen the two extremes of my cooking.
So hopefully I can kind of narrow it down to a more
kind of constant, you know, plate of food.
So the main is a pan-seared lamb steak,
bulgur, parsley and mint salad with pomegranate seeds.
Dessert is a fig "tartatatine".
Is that different sort of tarte tatin? Or is it just...?
Yes, different pronunciation!
You're not using butter in the pastry
because you're dairy intolerant? Yes, I'm doing pastry
with buckwheat flour, ground almonds, coconut sugar.
Wow. We saw kartacze in the first round. Yeah.
Now we've got Middle Eastern flavours and we got a tarte tatin.
You haven't got a style yet, have you?
No, I'm still starting out. It's fine!
Lamb steak, pan-fried. Nice colour on the outside.
Should be pink in the middle. Served with bulgur wheat.
And then we've also got muhammara. Muhammara, a red pepper dip.
I hope it's going to be enough moisture with that lamb.
The tarte tatin troubles me slightly.
I think enough flavoured pastry with lovely soft figs
is a wonderful thing.
But it's got to work.
Melted, so it's in chunks.
But listen, life goes on.
Yeah.
Is this the way that the floor of the theatre looks pre-rehearsal?
Or is this...?
You work in absolute chaos, Jerome!
It's chaos, but there's a plan!
I'm making suppli, which is a Roman street food,
which is risotto, and you stuff that with some mozzarella.
And then with that I'm doing seared sirloin steak,
serving that with a miso hollandaise sauce.
and it's got a lovely tomato relish. And then the next course?
Chocolate cremeux with a cherry compote and some pickled cherries
and a hazelnut brittle and an almond tuile. Wow.
Hang on a minute. Have you timed this?
I have timed it, and it worked.
Wow. Jerome's main course, I'm not quite sure what it is.
We've got a fried rice ball. It's called a suppli.
Normally a street food.
Sirloin steak? Where does that sit with street food?
It's very unusual.
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Dessert. Cremeux is like a mousse,
but you have to make a custard first.
And it is technically demanding.
Moment of truth!
A cherry jam like a compote, I like the idea of that.
And then he says a pickled cherry.
Well, I don't really want something which is pickled.
Not in my dessert!
I think I've gone for what I think works well together.
Ah! So good.
And it just so happens that saying it out loud,
there's a lot of elements, but it should be fine.
TAPS SURFACE
It's not wood!
There's no wood in here!
This is my cremeux. It would be a bit thicker in an ideal world,
but I'm just going to... Do you know what?
I'm just going to put it back in the chiller for a bit.
I do remember life before MasterChef.
Of course, it's not as exciting as life AFTER MasterChef!
It is life-changing.
And for me, definitely it's for the better.
Every year that passes by since I won
brings new experiences,
I have a regular magazine feature.
I do a lot of cooking for private diners and restaurants,
so nonstop.
This round is completely nerve-racking for the contestants.
If it starts going wrong, it's horrible.
So I'm wishing them all the best of luck and let's hope
we have some nice food to eat!
Cheers! Cheers!
Right, Louise, you've got 15 minutes on your first course. OK.
Roast loin of pork with sage and crackling crumb,
pork crackling, Hispy cabbage, mustard mash and sherry sauce.
Pork is difficult to cook. It is difficult.
Very difficult.
If Louise cooks this pork dish well, I'll be thrilled.
And please, give me some proper crackling!
It's the most extraordinary stress, but, gosh, isn't it wonderful?
OK. You've got just two-and-a-half minutes.
I love this. I absolutely love this.
OK, we are up. Time up now.
Go.
Oh, my goodness! Hello!
So I've made pork and it's got crispy sage crackling on the top.
A Hispi cabbage with bacon and juniper.
And we've got a mustard mash.
I hope you enjoy.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
I think she's nailed it on the flavour front.
The pork is very enjoyable to eat
and I love the cabbage.
I could just eat the cabbage.
I think the mash - it's so full of mustardy flavour and it's beautiful
and creamy and I love the sherry balance with the dish.
For me, the hero in this dish is the crackling.
If you left me alone with this right now, I would demolish
the whole thing.
Mm!
Oh, goodness.
Oh, that's so good.
The pork is cooked perfectly.
That's quality cookery.
It tastes fantastic.
All happy, Louise?
Happy? Yep.
You've got four minutes.
Four minutes on your dessert. Thank you. You all right? Oh, right.
So, Louise is making a honey and creme fraiche panna cotta.
Oh, it's all about the wobble, isn't it?
It's got to be about the wobble.
On this round, I used lavender in my dessert,
so the right amount really brings out the honey.
And hopefully it doesn't actually smell like an old lady's closet!
Can I say that?! Granny's knicker drawer!
There we go. Right.
Got it.
60 seconds.
OK.
That's the finishing touch. Yes.
OK. Let's go.
Well done, Louise. Just on time.
Well done.
So, I've made a creme fraiche and honey panna cotta,
then we've got a little lavender biscuit crumb
and some blueberries and a little bit of lavender, too.
Enjoy your day. Thank you.
I can forgive her slightly over set panna cotta
because I think it tastes delicious.
I love the floral notes.
I love the crunch that you get from the crumb.
And these wild blueberries are just stunning.
The lavender is just enough.
And, actually, there was an overwhelming smell of honey,
but it wasn't that sweet.
Heavenly...
..but for the over setting of the panna cotta.
The honey in that panna cotta is almost peach-like.
It's so subtle, but really, really lovely.
The creme fraiche is giving it a sourness.
The flavours are divine.
I liked the food I put out.
I thought it was yummy.
I hope they think it was yummy, too.
I'm just buzzing.
Rana, you've got 15 minutes on your first course.
Rana is making duck kibbeh
with date, labneh, and coriander oil.
I think Rana has dived into my mind and find out what I like.
I really hope she doesn't get any disasters with the kibbeh.
If they're over fried or if they are too dry...
But it's got the makings for a great dish for me.
Four minutes, Rana.
Four minutes.
Time just goes fast!
Very good.
I'm ready. Come on. Let's go. Well done.
So, today I made duck kibbeh
with date-infused labneh
and coriander oil.
Enjoy. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Rana.
I love the acidity of the labneh.
I get wonderful, warm Middle-Eastern spicing,
but I'm not so sure using duck
has come across as a really strong flavour in there.
The kibbeh is not as crispy as we wanted,
and I don't taste any date in that labneh at all.
If the coriander came through the oil more,
that would add a bit of freshness.
Crispy outside, that duck flesh is soft.
I want more flavour.
It's pleasant, but it's not vibrant.
Rana. Yes?
Five minutes on your course.
Five minutes.
Her main - shish barak Lebanese dumpling
on an aubergine yoghurt sauce.
I'm a bit of a dumpling fanatic.
You're definitely the expert, there! I'm looking forward to her dumpling.
I would love the dumplings to have
a little bit of charring,
just to balance the textures.
RANA GASPS
Oh, no, no, no, no, no!
Rana's cooking her dumplings right now and some of them
have exploded in the water. Salvaged a couple of them.
I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.
Rana, what's left to do?
A lot.
Minute-and-a-half.
We ready to go? One more thing.
Right, that's it. Off you go, Rana.
I made shish barak,
filled with minced lamb,
with aubergine yoghurt
and topped with red pepper sauce.
Enjoy. Delicious. Thank you.
So, you know how I said I wish
that the dumplings come with a bit of crispy edging... Yeah.
..and caramelisation?
They didn't.
The yoghurt sauce could be... Have a little bit more garlic in it,
more aubergine, more smokiness,
and it needs more salt in that lamb
to bring it together.
I don't do spice very well,
so, for me, it was the right level.
But I really wish there was a little bit more seasoning
to give it that... To give it a burst.
I want more chilli, I want more aubergine, I want more lamb!
And it's just not quite delivered.
GREGG: I like the flavour of the filling inside the dumpling.
It's the texture of the dumpling itself that I'm not enjoying.
That challenge was very tough.
I'm worried about my main, because I didn't get a chance
to taste it.
I didn't taste any of it.
OLIVIA: What is the time?
15 minutes till the first course.
Olivia is making us pan seared lamb steak with Muhammara.
I love the idea of pomegranate and lamb.
I just hope the lamb steak is beautiful and pink and succulent,
not over seared.
Ergh, moment of truth.
Is that how you wanted it?
Yeah.
Three minutes.
You've got to move.
How much time did you spend in the Caribbean?
A year and a half.
Is that where you learnt your chilled-out approach, do you think?
I guess so.
That's it?
Yeah.
On time. Let's go.
OLIVIA SIGHS
I've made pan seared lamb steak
with Muhammara,
a herby salad with bulgur, pomegranate seeds,
pickled sumac, onions.
I hope you all enjoy. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I love it!
This Muhammara is SO good!
It's seasoned well.
It's well balanced.
I love the use of garlic
and it's just so punchy.
Now, that's a main course and a half for me.
Really amazing.
The lamb is cooked beautifully.
It's got a lovely caramelisation on it.
It really is a delightful thing to eat.
And I think she's really pulled it off.
GREGG: Mm.
It's really tasty.
That lamb, on the outside, she's basted it with pomegranate molasses,
so it's going slightly sweet, but also a little bit bitter.
These are GOOD flavours.
Olivia. Yes? 15 minutes for your dessert.
Yep.
For dessert, Olivia is giving us fig tarte tatin.
It's a very risky dessert.
Definitely no soggy bottom,
because nobody likes soggy bottom pastry.
WHISPERS: Oh, you're joking!
We all want it glossy.
We all want it well caramelised.
If executed well, I think we will love this.
Aaaaah!
How's the pastry?
It could be better.
OK. You've got just two-and-a-half minutes.
Oh!
Why?!
If this show was just about appearance,
me and John would never have a job.
Come on!
Are we done? Yeah. Hooray!
HUMS NERVOUSLY
Today I've cooked a fig tarte tatin with coconut cream
and edible flowers.
Ohhhh...!
LAUGHS
Oh, my legs are shaking.
Cooking for champions is...
I'm sweating, thinking about it.
I know they're going to judge my food
and they're going to have very high standards.
So I just hope it meets them.
I was really looking forward to tarte tatin,
but it's fallen apart.
So it all stands in the flavour here.
I think she's made a mistake in classing it as a tarte tatin
because it isn't a tarte tatin.
So therefore your expectations are something and you're not getting it.
Kudos to Olivia because she made her own pastry,
but she ended up having a rock hard pastry and stewed figs.
And that's not what, unfortunately, a tarte tatin is.
It's cooked. It tastes nice. It's nutty, it's figgy.
It could do with looking better.
But I'll tell you what it ain't, it ain't a tarte tatin.
Jerome, you have 15 minutes till your first course. Yes, chef.
We're doing a little bit of a way around the world here, aren't we?
I had the tomato suppli in Rome and I loved it.
It's like arancini,
it's packed with tomatoes and flavours inside.
Deep fry... Anything deep fry, I love!
I wouldn't be brave enough to put miso hollandaise
and basil and tomato relish together, but good luck to Jerome.
Let's see.
How long have I got?
Three minutes. Oh!
OK. There we go.
You've got 30 seconds to go.
That's perfect.
Chilli powder, there we go.
Yes. Done.
Let's go.
JEROME GASPS
No! You're all right, you're all right.
You've got a reverse seared sirloin steak,
and a tomato and chilli suppli.
In the middle of that, it's a miso hollandaise sauce.
Hope you enjoy.
Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
I mean, I think the suppli is really well made,
but I feel like I'm eating a dish of two halves.
The hollandaise, I don't mind it with the steak,
but I find when I put the rice in there, it just doesn't blend.
Hollandaise is really well made.
Can't necessarily taste the miso.
This feels like if it was split in two dishes,
it would have worked much, much better for him. Yes.
GREGG: The rice ball itself is lovely.
The beef itself is nicely cooked.
Where beef fits in with tomato, cheese, rice,
I don't know.
There's a huge amount of work in here,
but it doesn't work as a combination.
Jerome? Yes.
15 minutes on your dessert.
Wow. He's going for it!
Seems like he has a lot of things to do. Yes.
I have had bad cremeux.
And if it's not glossy, if it's not sliding off my spoon and so on,
I'll be upset.
Jerome, two minutes.
Where is he going? Getting my cremeux.
Where's he gone?
Good, right. Lovely.
You got 60 seconds.
Great.
A bit of salt and a little bit of olive oil as well.
OK, anything else to go on there, Jerome? No, there we go.
Thank you very much. Done.
Thank you very much.
So we've got a chocolate cremeux on top of cherry compote.
Then on top of that, there's some pickled cherries,
some hazelnut brittle and an almond tuile.
Enjoy. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
That pickle... It's like malt vinegar!
So the flavours are good, deep chocolate flavour,
but it's not a cremeux.
It hasn't set.
I love the cherry compote.
Tuile very well made.
But that pickled cherry for me
is just like putting malt vinegar in your mouth.
Oh, I'll tell you what I don't want, ever, ever again,
cherry and vinegar.
What's going on there?
The tuile was delicious, that's really good.
The flavour of the chocolate is very good indeed.
I like sour red cherries, but that's ridiculous.
Yeah, that was a lot.
It was a lot. Yeah, very glad it's done.
It's a tough one for the judges today.
But if I had to pick an overall chef, it would probably be Louise.
Because she delivered two good plates of food.
We got really interesting food in this round.
There was one person today who I thought did two courses,
which was pretty close to as good as it gets.
Louise's main course of the pork with the cabbage
I thought was delicious.
Those flavours on the dessert,
and there's cooking skill throughout both dishes.
The dining room feels exactly the same.
John, she needs to go through.
Rana, the starter of the kibbeh stuffed inside with duck meat
was really well done.
It was actually lacking a little bit of flavour.
The main course, those dumplings did not work.
There's one word to describe Jerome, and that is brave.
His main course, he technically did a lot of work.
However, it didn't quite belong together.
The dessert, the tuile was absolutely perfect
and the cherry compote in the centre
I thought was absolutely delicious.
But the pickled cherries on the top were just like tasting malt vinegar.
It was wrong, wasn't it?
It was just wrong.
Olivia's lamb tasted really, really good and a great combination.
The dessert, I didn't mind it,
it tasted to me like a figgy roll.
It disappointed the dining room, but actually,
that nut pastry with the figs, I could eat it.
It means so much to stay
just so I can prove that I can cook in a way.
This is what I came to do.
And this is what I want to keep doing.
I really want to stay.
It's really tough.
So I've done what I can do.
And whatever happens now, happens now.
Well done, all four of you.
At the start of this, we did say that we have
three quarterfinal places to give.
That does mean that one of you will be leaving the competition.
Our first quarterfinalist is...
..Louise. Congratulations.
WHISPERS: Well done. Thank you!
Our second quarterfinalist is...
..Olivia.
Oh, gosh!
Congratulations.
Rana, Jerome,
obviously, one of you is leaving the competition.
Our last quarterfinalist is...
..Jerome.
Congratulations.
Rana, thank you very much indeed.
Thanks, Rana. Thank you.
No regrets. I went and did my best.
Enjoyed it, and that's it. That's all that matters.
I feel gutted, but I get to go home and see my little ones.
ALL CHEER
Oh, my God!
Well done! Oh, my God.
It doesn't sound real, MasterChef quarterfinalist.
It doesn't sound real!
Relieved, shocked.
I took some bold risks,
and they just about paid off, I think.
Right now, I feel shocked.
My brain is just fuzzing, my fingers are fuzzing,
my legs are shaky. It's wonderful.
Next time, it's the quarterfinal.
And Louise, Olivia and Jerome...
Sorry about the raw turkey on the floor!
..will be joining Brin, Hope and Fateha...
Too early?
..cooking for one of the country's top restaurant critics.
It could all go so wrong.
Oh, this is sad.
I think it's exceptionally good. I can't fault it.