It's the battle for the ultimate culinary prize. Ooh!
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.
There is no doubt about it,
we are going to find some incredible talent.
Come in here, prove your worth and make your dreams come true.
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.
I'm saying I'm not competitive, but good luck to the rest of them!
SHE LAUGHS
I'm getting waves of emotion.
I feel very calm and collected one moment, and I feel very,
very jittery the next.
I want that MasterChef apron, game face, very serious.
Hiya.
Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.
Very excited about trying your food,
and we hope that you are excited to be here.
Your job right now is to get yourself a MasterChef apron.
This round, we want you to take a basic, everyday ingredient and turn
it into something brilliant.
At the end of this, Gregg and I will choose our two favourite
dishes, and the people who cook those will get themselves
a MasterChef apron and go straight through to the next round.
That does mean the remaining four will need to stay and cook again.
Ladies and gentlemen, you've got one hour, 20 minutes.
Let's cook.
Teaching assistant Lulu was born and raised in a city called
Tanga in Tanzania.
She fell in love with cooking when she was six,
learning from family and friends.
I grew up in a very diverse kind of a community.
So we had Arabs, we had Indians, we had African,
and that influenced me to just cook and I loved it.
So I've always been inquisitive when it comes to food and I've always
loved to learn more.
Lulu, what is your basic ingredient, please?
It's a chicken, it's a humble little chicken there.
So what is your dish, please?
I am making a Tanga chicken curry.
Chapatis...
served with rice.
Kachumbari salad, which I think
here they call it kachumber,
and onion bhaji in a Scotch bonnet sauce.
What makes your curry unique to you?
We always blend everything together and put in our
own secret spices. I'm not going to tell you, They're right there.
Have you brought your own spices in? Yes, I sure did!
Obviously, this is going to pack a punch, because we're not
just getting this curry, which has got spices and also chilli,
we're also getting a scotch bonnet sauce on the side.
Alongside the chicken, the rice and the chapati.
We also have onion bhaji and we also have a kachumber,
which is a chopped salad of cucumbers, tomatoes and onion.
Lulu's given herself a huge amount of work to do.
The frying pans are not doing well today.
WHISPERS: Excited about this. SHE LAUGHS
Vegetarian GP Dinta grew up in Kenya
before moving to the UK when she was 11.
She loves to cook the Indian Gujarati food of her heritage
and fuses it with cuisines from all over the world.
I am always experimental and I've always wanted to integrate
cuisines together, because that's how I feel people come together.
Dinta, what's your humble ingredient?
It's lentil.
So, dal, which is very much present in households in Gujarati.
Today I'm making something called dal dhokli ravioli.
So dal dhokli is a very Gujarati dish.
It's basically strips of dough, which is then put into dal and kind
of boiled, and the sauce is actually the dal, basically.
But I turned this into a ravioli.
The ravioli is going to be stuffed with peas, cumin, lots of ginger
and desiccated coconut.
Interesting. So you're a GP,
really busy, you like to cook. Any other creative hobbies?
I love dancing, so I'm a Bollywood dancer as well.
That's my other creative side.
Do you do twisting the light bulb?
Yes, shall we do it together? Yeah.
THEY LAUGH
I've been to a few Indian weddings.
She's taking the two places where vegetables are revered, Italy
and India, and she's bringing the two cultures together.
Raviolis can explode in water, the dal can be overspiced.
There's so much going on here.
And it's an unusual dish, it's her own invention.
Fascinating, but does it work?
42-year-old Scottish-born car sales manager Tom loves to cook classic
British dishes at home for his wife and three daughters.
I'm a low and slow cook, so cooking
in the MasterChef kitchen
will be like nothing that
I have prepared for at home.
It is literally now you're under the clock.
What's your humble ingredient?
My humble ingredient is pork fillet. Because we're a big roast
family, couldn't obviously do a roast pork here today
in the time allocated,
so I'm going to do a peppered pork, a cider-braised cabbage,
doing a home-made apple sauce, doing a very buttery mash.
And I'm going to do some roasted shallots with goose fat.
Are you the cook of the family?
So I naturally was, and my wife couldn't cook.
And now we've kind of...she's caught up.
But I quite like that because it means sometimes when I come home
the dinner's already there.
I hope there's enough seasoning on that pork, and I hope
that pork fillet doesn't go dry.
The mashed potato needs to be lump-free, nice and creamy,
but lots of butter in there.
If he can get every aspect right, fantastic.
Panicking, panicking, panicking.
You've got 45 minutes left, everybody.
Birmingham-born railway engineer Conor is recently engaged,
and likes to replicate and experiment with the Indian flavours
of his local restaurant.
I'm always talking about food, looking at food or critiquing food.
Very obsessed, probably to a stage that it might be quite annoying.
What's your basic ingredient, please, sir?
The lovely old chicken breast. What's your dish, please?
I'm doing a chicken curry with a pilau rice,
and I've got some chapatis.
I am doing a mint and coriander chutney.
I'm going to actually do the sauce separately.
I'll probably put my sauce through a blender, get it nice and
smooth, then I'll add the chicken into that at the very end,
just to coat it. We have quite a few curries. I know, yeah.
Why have you gone for one?
Every Brummie loves a good curry,
and hopefully I can it do some justice.
The beauty of a curry is the protein sitting in all that
sauce gives both texture and flavour.
Now, by taking those two things apart, I hope it's full of flavour.
Cambridgeshire-based hairdresser Lora is a former professional
ballerina who was diagnosed with diabetes aged 12
and loves to bake.
Growing up as a diabetic and as a dancer, there was a lot
of restrictions on food.
It made it feel really negative.
When I left the dancing world and I kind of was able
to have the insulin pump
and all the technology that comes with it,
I was basically able to eat whatever I wanted.
And that then in turn made me cook, and it actually
made me enjoy eating.
Lora, what's your ingredient, please?
Eggs, which I hate.
I hate eggs, but you can turn it into so many delicious things.
So where are you using your eggs? What's your dish?
So I'm doing a lemon meringue tart with a basil ice cream.
So there is eggs in everything.
Wow! Oh, you properly are using eggs.
Yeah. Yeah. Who do you cook for now? My husband, Sam.
We've just got married, in Vegas. Congratulations. Thank you.
SHE LAUGHS
Did you have an Elvis chapel? Yes. Did you?
Yeah, he walked me down the aisle. Wow!
The ice cream needs to be lovely and creamy, pastry, nice and thin,
and that pastry case can't collapse,
otherwise we're going to end up with lemon curd and meringue
on a plate.
Actually, if she gets it right, fantastic.
I think we're OK.
66-year-old Londoner
Rawdon has owned his own architecture practice
for nearly 24 years.
He loves to cook classic British and French cuisine.
Being in the competition is incredibly nerve-racking.
I've got butterflies in my stomach, but it would say if I didn't
have butterflies that I'm not caring about it, and I care a heck
of a lot about it.
Rawdon, that's unusual to me. Where's it from, do you know?
Yeah, I know my mother was reading Vanity Fair by Thackeray,
and there's a character in it called Sir Rawdon Crawley.
Which one's he?
He's the absolute drunkard, vagabond, ruffian, gambler.
How did she know when I was born that that's how I'd turn out?
Right, OK, what's your ingredient, please?
So I'm using a scallop, which a lot of people would think,
Oh, that's not a real basic.
But if you walk down Deptford Market on a Saturday, I can buy a kilo
of frozen scallops for six quid.
That's cheaper than any other protein out there.
All right.
Rawdon's making coquilles Saint-Jacques,
a classic dish of a scallop which has been pan-fried, served
in a shell, with a sauce made from white wine and mushrooms.
And he's going to serve his version, which has got chopped-up scallops,
and he's put that through the sauce. That concerns me
they might be very tough rather than beautiful.
On the side of this, we've got a flatbread which is going
to be flavoured with black pudding.
Black pudding, nice and salty, I like that.
I hope the flatbread's nice and thin, not too thick.
And then we're going to be served the coral of the scallop
in a tempura batter.
That's a really nice way to cook the coral, but I don't know
if the coral in batter is going to go with the creamy sauce.
You have four minutes. Just four minutes, please.
Absolutely smells fantastic!
My hands don't work. Yeah!
Whoa! Fist bump, fist bump.
Oh, thank you. Boom!
I like this dish, it's one of my favourites, so I'm hoping
it will be for the judges, too.
OK, everybody stop!
Well done. Well done, everybody.
Done it! Looks good.
Architect Rawdon's
basic-to-brilliant ingredient was scallops.
He's made coquille Saint-Jacques -
scallops in a white wine cream sauce,
topped with Gruyere cheese and breadcrumbs,
served with deep-fried scallop roe and black pudding-stuffed flatbread.
I would have liked that scallop to be a lovely, big, plump scallop
in there, showing off that scallop.
That sauce could just be a little bit thicker, and your wine needs
to be cooked out a little bit more.
The salty roe is nice.
The peppery-ness of the cayenne is lovely.
I think your breads with a black pudding in them are fantastic.
The black pudding just gives a little almost meaty saltiness.
You've got some great ideas and you've shown good technique -
well done, you. Thank you.
I think the judges' comments were fair.
The way I serve a scallop, I actually like it the way
I cooked it, but you either like it or you don't.
GP Dinta has taken her basic ingredient, lentils,
and made her own Italian fusion take on a Gujarati dish
called dal dhokli. Ravioli made
with semolina and spinach stuffed with peas, chilli and coconut,
served in a bowl of ginger, cumin and coriander-spiced dal
with steamed cumin rice.
Your dal is lovely, smokiness in there, bitterness in there.
Inside your ravioli, it's almost sweet, like a coconut.
Really very, very good indeed.
But I've got two lots of carbs, so I've got the pasta feel
and the rice feel,
so the texture's just a little bit off for me. Sure.
The cumin rice is cooked really, really well.
The dough held together, using spinach... Mm-hm.
..I think's amazing.
But it is an unusual feeling in the mouth.
I quite like it. Thank you.
I am worried about the textures that they commented on.
But I'm hopeful that I've delivered on the flavours at least.
Teaching assistant Lulu chose to showcase chicken with a dish
from her Tanzanian heritage -
chicken curry made with Tangan spices, tomatoes and garlic,
served with chapati bread, onion bhaji,
basmati rice, Kachumbari salad, and a scotch bonnet sauce.
Whoa!
Your chicken is really lovely because it falls off the bone.
Your bhajis are nothing like an onion bhaji I've ever had before,
they've got sweetcorn and peppers in them, they are crispy
on the outside. That's great.
There's a lot of chilli inside your scotch bonnet sauce,
which I think is actually really well-balanced.
Chapatis are well-made.
I think there's a lot of work here because you took a whole
chicken, you butchered it yourself
and put it in a great sauce. Thank you.
That creamy sauce is sweet, and I like sweet food.
And there are definite layers of spicing. Nice ideas here.
It was amazing. I got a bit emotional, but it was amazing.
That was the best thing ever.
Car sales manager Tom took his basic ingredient of pork fillet,
pan-roasted it and served it
with mashed potato, cider-braised cabbage with pancetta,
shallots cooked in goose fat,
apple sauce, and a cider cream sauce.
The loin of pork, it's very easy to go dry.
Yours is still a hint of pink, it's lovely,
got good seasoning around it.
And the cabbage, loving that with a tickle of apple running through it.
You've got lumps in your mash, quite a lot of them.
So much so that you can actually see them.
I've got apple sauce, then I've got a cream sauce, then I've got
a mashed potato and it's becoming all very sort of soft and pureed,
and I've still got my teeth.
I quite like to be able to get a bit of chew.
Yeah.
I feel good, to be honest, because I really thought
that the judges may go to town on me,
but happy with their comments today.
Birmingham-born Conor is serving a deconstructed chicken curry -
roasted chicken breast and a sauce made from tomatoes, chilli
and garam masala, served with pilau rice, chapati bread
and a mint and coriander chutney.
That is a very, very big piece of chicken,
and you've cooked it brilliantly.
That is really moist.
Very, very nice indeed.
Your chutney is lovely, but your breads need more cookery.
Something like a curry, one of the things that happens
when you cook something in a sauce,
the juice of the chicken goes into the sauce, the sauce goes
into the chicken, and they become this wonderful united front.
And presently what's happened is they've been divorced
from each other.
It just doesn't come together.
I'm a bit disappointed in myself.
I was not very happy with what I had done.
Hopefully I've done enough to get an apron but, yeah, we'll see.
Hairdresser Lora has taken eggs as her basic ingredient and made
a lemon meringue tart, with a basil ice cream.
You've got buttery pastry.
You've got proper sharp lemon in there.
And then, of course, the lovely meringue brings you back
down into the world of sweetness again.
I think that's great work. Thank you.
Lora, you have a really good amount of skill on show here.
You've got a lovely lemon tart.
Your meringue is nicely made, soft like marshmallows,
a little bit of colour on the outside.
Making Italian meringue is, again, more skill.
Your ice cream's nice and smooth.
It's very good.
It couldn't have gone any better.
That's, like, top five moments of life,
and that's fully, like, number one right now.
I think that all of you have got potential, but there were two people
today who we felt really did stand out.
The first person getting an apron is...
..Lora.
The second person getting an apron is...
..Lulu.
Congratulations.
Lora, Lulu, come and get your aprons, please.
Oh! Oh!
Oh, my god.
Oh! I can't believe it.
Getting this apron today is like Christmas.
It's just exciting
and I can't wait to mess it up with food.
I feel amazing.
Got an apron.
Yes, everything...
Everything I wanted.
You're going to have to shrug the disappointment off
because you've got a job to do.
There are still two aprons up for grabs.
Make sure you get one.
In this round, you are going to have to think on your feet.
So, we want you to make for us a salad.
You can use any of the ingredients over there on the bench next to you.
However, on your bench, you all have a recipe
for Caesar salad dressing.
And we would like that to be the dressing for your salad.
45 minutes.
Off you go.
I like Caesar salads, yeah.
I'd normally order them rather than make them myself.
Very excited. Let's do this.
The great Caesar salad is a basic salad of lettuce, croutons
and a dressing flavoured with anchovies and Parmesan cheese.
You get a Caesar with different accompaniments.
Do they add fish to it?
Do they add chicken to it?
They might not all necessarily work.
They do have to make a plan.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
Conor. Hello, John.
Going to use the chicken breast and cover it with lemon and garlic,
some charred baby gem, crispy bacon bits, crispy croutons.
Charring the lettuce is very daring.
Oh, is it?
Don't tell me that!
Conor is going to char the lettuce, and cooked lettuce goes limp.
For me, a great Caesar has a wonderful crunch.
When you eat it, you can hear it in your ears
and it makes you feel wonderful and fresh and light.
You're vegetarian, right? I am, yes.
Does that mean you're not using anchovies?
I'm not, no, I'm going to use the capers instead.
I think I'm going to make spicy chickpeas
with some chillies with it.
And then I've got a variety of salad.
I'm going to chop up some of the avocado and marinate it
with some olive oil and chilies,
so hopefully a chilli Caesar salad.
Dinta, she's cooking some chickpeas and spices, which is great.
But will that work with a Caesar salad dressing?
Creamy dressing with lots of spices? Could do.
But that balance will be really difficult to get right.
You are halfway.
It's going fast.
Do that one again.
Tell me, do you like a Caesar salad? I do like a Caesar salad.
What do you like about it? I like the freshness.
My Caesar salad is normally a chicken Caesar salad... OK.
..just with the bacon through it as well.
Are you doing that with this one? Yes.
I've got my bacon, a little bit of maple through that.
And I'm doing crispy chicken skin with it.
Right. I can see bread. Does that mean croutons?
Croutons as well. What lettuce are you using?
I've not decided on the lettuce yet.
I'm going to go back to that.
He's making bacon with maple syrup.
Sweet maple syrup with a cheesy dressing
with anchovies in it - very American.
But he's yet to choose a lettuce leaf for himself.
And, if there's one thing you most certainly need in a salad,
it's a lettuce leaf.
There's something burning in here, obviously.
There's something very acrid.
Oh, it's me. Sorry.
Whoa!
Done it again.
Second set of croutons burnt.
Sorry.
It needs something.
Are you a Caesar salad fan?
Yeah, but I'm doing something a bit different,
so I'm going to do a warm endive Caesar salad.
So that'll be the base, with a cold fennel, spring onion and chilli
element on it, with the dressing.
I'm going to redo my croutons.
And then two little strips of salmon on the top.
This is a really strong salad - bitter endive, really sharp fennel,
the richness of salmon and then the Caesar dressing all together.
That's a flavour explosion.
I'm not sure about these combinations.
He has burnt croutons twice.
That is a man under pressure.
How long is left?
Three minutes. You've got three minutes.
Nearly there. Plating up.
Phew!
I might pick a couple out, but that's it. Yeah, you can. You can.
Ladies and gentlemen, time's up, please.
Not so good, that one.
Tom's salad is pan-fried chicken breast, cos lettuce, avocado,
bacon coated with maple syrup, served with a Caesar dressing
and topped with crispy chicken skin.
I'm happy with the chicken.
I also don't mind the bit of sweetness on the bacon. Yeah.
I think the star of that is the chicken skin.
That was a very clever thing to do, take the skin off,
cook it separately and crisp it up over the salad.
I like the crispy croutons.
The avocado gives sweetness. The dressing is a bit strong.
Saying that, I think your flavours are good.
I am pleased with the dish I made.
All I could do was make it how I would eat it and I would enjoy.
Dinta's vegetarian Caesar dressing is made with capers
instead of anchovies and served with cayenne and garlic-spiced chickpeas
and a salad of fried red onions and avocado with chilli,
cayenne croutons and tomatoes.
That's a really good dressing.
You've got real saltiness, caper.
There's real acidity in there as well. It's lovely.
And the creamy texture is perfect.
I like the cayenne on your croutons. It's really spicy.
I like the amount of garlic and chilli in there.
That is powerful.
I really like that smoky cayenne and the richness of the garlic
with the chickpeas, which is really hot and strong, and then you get
a nice bit of relief from that lettuce on the side.
It's tasty.
Thank you.
I hope I've shown some level of skill,
even if it's through flavours,
and I've created a dish that's palatable and tasty.
Conor's Caesar dressing is served with a salad of pan-fried garlic
and lemon chicken breast, charred gem lettuce, crispy bacon
and smoked paprika croutons.
Your chicken breasts are starting to go a little bit dry.
The lettuce in the middle of the plate has become a vegetable
rather than actually being a salad leaf.
It's a braised piece of lettuce.
The croutons, I think they're overdone and they're too hard.
But it's a really nicely made dressing.
I think cooking that lettuce was a mistake because it makes
it juicier and not crisp.
I'm not a salad person.
I'm more meat and potatoes.
So it was definitely challenging for me, yeah.
Rawdon is serving his Caesar dressing with pan-fried salmon
and a salad of fennel, roasted endive or chicory, spring onion
and crispy croutons.
Your salmon's going a little bit dry.
I don't really want to eat the skin because it's not crispy.
And, because you're chosen two things with lots of liquid in them,
fennel and the chicory,
your dressing is being completely diluted. Right.
But we've got some croutons, which was good,
considering you used a whole loaf of bread.
Your dressing is too salty
and it's just getting a little bit wet and soggy down there.
I wanted to use different ingredients,
different flavour profiles, really try and make it interesting,
and I think some of it worked,
some of it didn't.
Two of them are getting an apron and joining Lulu and Lora
in the next round and two of them are going home.
Ooh, tricky.
Dinta gave us a very, very tasty salad
and her dressing was perfect.
There was nothing shy about that salad at all.
Rawdon burnt his croutons twice. Couldn't even taste the dressing.
It sort of all got completely lost and it became a wishy-washy mixture
in the bottom of the bowl.
Tom, what I did like was the chicken that he cooked
and the use of the chicken skin.
We had a very, very strong dressing from Tom, but I thought
there were some good flavours in there.
Conor turned his Caesar dressing into more of a sauce
and I liked the sharpness of it.
But I think it was a mistake to cook the lettuce.
We asked for a salad.
What we got was a chicken breast
with a piece of hot lettuce in the middle.
That's not a salad.
I'd be devastated if I went home now, like.
I've been a bag of nerves all day, and I think now that it's over
is the only time I feel settled and want to carry on and doing more.
Now, I would just want to prove to the judges
that I have got what it takes to stay another round.
If I had to go, I would be really disappointed
because that's just given me a flavour - excuse the pun -
to want to take it even further.
Thanks very much for all your hard work.
We've had quite a tough decision.
The first contestant getting a MasterChef apron is...
..Dinta.
Congratulations.
SHE MOUTHS
The second apron goes to...
..Tom.
Congratulations.
Rawdon, Conor, loved having you here in the competition.
Sorry to see you go. Thank you very, very much indeed.
Oh, I'm devastated to be going home, yeah.
But I really enjoyed myself.
It just makes you want to cook more, really,
to try and practise and get better at things.
Totally gutted to be going home at this stage,
but cooking's a passion and I'll keep on cooking.
That's the whole thing.
This is just an incredible thing to achieve.
I had my nerves about getting the apron, but very happy.
It feels amazing to put this on.
I'd mentally prepared myself for this not to happen,
but it's finally here. I feel really good.
You are now cooking for a place in the quarterfinal.
You aren't just going to present your food to me and John -
you are going to be taking your food in
to three specially invited guests in the dining room.
The final three from 2010.
Runners-up Alex Rushmer,
Dr Tim Kinnaird
and the champion, Dhruv Baker.
Three people that now work in the food industry.
At the end of this, three of you will be quarterfinalists.
That does mean that, sadly, one of you will be leaving the competition.
Ladies and gentlemen, 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Two courses, eight plates of food.
Let's cook.
There's been so many times where I've tried to make something
and I would taste it and be like, "Oh, that's awful."
But I'm hoping today's dish will be better.
What are you making for us, please? I've always missed out
when you go out with your friends and everyone has a Turkish kebab
and I just have chips because I'm vegetarian,
So you're going to get spiced vegetarian kebabs
that are made of kidney beans,
a nice salad with mango and tomatoes,
a yoghurt mint chutney
and some grilled halloumi with it. And then... And a naan bread.
Are we getting chips with our kebab?
No. Oh, what?!
DINTA LAUGHS
What, no chips? No.
Just wrap it yourself and I want you to just eat it
like you would a normal kebab.
OK, so it's interactive in its own little way. Absolutely.
What's the next course? Next course is gajar halwa trifle,
so it's sweetened carrots which are sauteed
I'm flavouring it with nutmeg and cardamom
and serving it with pistachio cream in layers.
Dinta, good luck. Thank you.
A bean kebab. I like the idea and I love the spicing on there.
I think that's great. I'm worried about the texture.
Dessert, carrot halwa. Oh!
It should be almost the texture of a sponge cake,
and then she's got to do pistachio cream.
You've got to make sure the halwa is absolutely fridge cold
when you put that cream on, otherwise it's going to cook it.
Come on, baby.
There's such a difference from cooking in your own kitchen
to the MasterChef kitchen.
It seems to be some time warp that just...
The time just goes a lot quicker.
So, today, I have to get everything right first time.
What are your two courses? So, my first course is pan-seared scallops,
cauliflower puree, Stornoway black pudding with a bacon crumb.
For my a main dish, I'm doing a ribeye steak.
Pommes Anna potato, bearnaise sauce
with some asparagus and some vine-roasted tomatoes.
Tell me about this love of classics.
The time the family was all around the table
would generally have been on a Sunday, so that, to me,
Sunday, Christmas dinners, all those sort of things, it was...
It's something that I've always enjoyed.
Kids love it, so that's a big drive.
With those scallops, what we want is a really hot pan and lots of colour
on the outside of that scallop.
Cauliflower puree - you can't have grainy bits of the cauliflower.
Really smooth and creamy.
Main course, ribeye steak.
If it's undercooked, it's jelly-like beef and it's white fat.
Nobody wants to eat that.
With that, we've got a bearnaise sauce with lots of tarragon.
It should be nice and sharp with vinegar.
If he gets the cookery right,
I think these are two wonderful dishes.
The idea of doing eight plates in an hour and 15,
it's a lot of pressure.
Like, I panic if there's, like, one extra person in my house for dinner.
Lora seems to be going really classic.
We've got a stuffed fillet of pork, and she's making a classic apple
stuffing with sage in it.
She's wrapping the whole thing in ham.
That means it's going to be crispy on the outside - I hope -
and that ham should season it as well.
With that parsnip puree.
Cider sauce, cider and pork, we know that works.
Make sure your sauce is well made, rich and reduced.
Can't have a watery sauce.
Dessert - chocolate fondant served with whipped vanilla cream
and almond brittle.
Almond brittle, she's burnt the sugar already. So I hope she gets
the almond brittle out, otherwise we've got a chocolate fondant
and vanilla cream, which doesn't show off a lot of skill.
Can I have some more caster sugar and some more almonds?
What's the inspiration for the pork?
I don't really like big meals, so I've gone really minimal,
really simple, really classic,
basically so there's room for dessert.
What is it that you love about desserts?
So I'm a type 1 diabetic.
So there's just an obsession with sugar that, I suppose,
because for a while I wasn't allowed it.
But now I'm in a better place with it all and I'm able
to manage it. I love it.
I just think the science behind it all, I think
it's really clever and I think, yeah,
you can do anything with sugar.
I love cooking. You cut me in pieces, cooking is in my heart.
It's in my sleep.
I see me do nothing in the world but cooking.
What are your two courses?
Crispy fried anchovies with coconut peas, garlic rice, warm carrot
salad, and green mango chilli sauce.
My pudding will be sticky toffee pudding with masala chai ice cream.
Two very different styles.
I thought I'd put West and Africa together because I love
sticky toffee pudding. I've loved it since I was little, and I've always
used to watch people cooking.
Delia Smith and... I couldn't make it at home
because we don't have treacle.
Nobody knows what treacle is in Africa,
so when I got in this country, it's my kids' favourite and my
family favourite and friends', so I have cooked it since.
Lulu's two courses, I think, sound really exciting.
The main course - crispy bits of anchovies, tiny, tiny, little
fish. Going to coat them in semolina and deep fry them.
They can't be greasy. They've got to be nice and crispy.
We're serving it with peas flavoured with coconut.
We are definitely staying subtropics.
I like this.
Dessert - sticky toffee pudding.
We know what we want. A little bit of crispiness on the outside,
nice and soft on the inside.
And a chai ice cream.
Chai, a mixture of spices, including lots and lots of cardamom.
Too much spice, and it's going to be overpowering.
Not enough spice,
and we're not going to get the spice that will give us the joy
with the pudding.
Hmm.
Love it.
Not used to inductions.
You have ten minutes. Good luck, everybody.
I want to see confident cooking, but I think ambition can be a bit
of a stumbling block at this stage.
I think their nerves will be high in the kitchen.
That extra pressure to be better, because the standard just gets
higher and higher and higher, doesn't it?
It's a tightrope job, this, so if they can look and just see
that little glint of light ahead of them
that is their life completely turned upside
down in the most wonderful way.
And if they don't look down, they'll be fine.
To be here again. 14 years on, and we're still here.
Cheers. I'll drink to that. Cheers.
You've only got three minutes.
Oh!
So Tom's starter will be all about cooking the scallops well.
I do not want them bouncy.
Nice, smooth cauliflower puree.
JOHN: Oh, wow. Quite a bit. There we go.
OK. Go, Tom.
He's got to watch out on his salt levels here because black pudding
can be quite salty.
Bacon adds salt. It is a bit of a balancing act.
Parsley oil - you want it completely clear.
You want that vibrancy of that beautiful green colour.
But I'll be impressed if he does.
Go, Tom!
Very good.
Hi, Tom. Hello.
Today, I've made you pan-seared scallops with a cauliflower puree,
with Stornoway black pudding, a bacon crumb and a parsley oil.
I hope you enjoy it. Smells amazing. Thank you. Thank you.
This is quite straightforwardly absolutely bloomin' delicious.
He's cooked the scallops ever so well.
The cauliflower puree is beautiful.
The balance of seasoning in this, across the dish,
is absolutely faultless.
I wouldn't add or take away a grain of salt from this.
Also, the oil, it's completely clear.
It's got that lovely kick of that herbaceous green note
from the parsley. And everything has a place.
There's nothing extraneous to it.
Scallops, I think, are cooked really nicely. Nice colour on the outside.
I like it.
Mm!
15 minutes, yeah? You've got 15 minutes left.
Beautiful piece of beef.
Pressure getting to you? Oh, of course.
Wow! Look at them.
I'm intrigued to see how he treats that ribeye.
It's a beautiful piece of meat.
You want to make sure that that central seam of fat
has rendered down.
Yay, yay! Look at that.
Nice.
Pommes Anna - you've got to cut them to the right thickness and lots of lots of butter
and salt and pepper and cook it really, really well.
Bearnaise sauce...
I'm hoping to see a sauce that's properly emulsified,
that's not split. That's the big danger.
Great work.
OK.
Right. You're out of time. Let's go.
Well done.
Hello again, guys. Hello.
So my main dish I made you is ribeye beef with a pommes Anna
potato. I've done a bearnaise sauce.
I've done asparagus with butter and lemon and some
vine roasted tomatoes.
Cheers. Thank you.
Oh, wow.
HE LAUGHS
I feel sick, but I feel I could jump up and down and dance
at the same time. Mixed emotions.
Oh, I don't know how I done that.
I admire how bold he's been with the caramelisation
on the beef. I think that's really good.
The pommes Anna is delicious.
I love the crunchy bit on the top. He's really cooked that well.
The sauce is... It's well made.
It's just falling a little bit short in terms of acidity and seasoning.
I think the good thing to take from it is that the harder bits
were done well.
I think the steak has been cooked quite nice. It's a ribeye.
It's got a bit of texture. It's got a decent amount of flavour.
The pommes Anna is beautiful and crispy, soft underneath.
It's really nice.
You're supposed to be going in four minutes, Dinta.
Yeah, I'm going for it. Are you going to be ready? Nearly.
You're running out of time here.
Dinta's main - My Indian take on a Turkish Kebab.
Spiced vegetarian kebabs.
And I'm hoping there's loads of texture, loads of flavour,
some heat running through it.
The halloumi has got to have a really nice caramelisation
on the outside.
If they get the bread right, it will be...delicious.
GREGG: Nice! We like this.
Quickly. Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly.
Can we go? Chutney and we can go.
Hi. Hello.
Thank you. Wow.
So I've cooked a spiced vegetarian kebab, served with some mint
chutney, some grilled halloumi, and some mango and spinach salad.
Thank you. Thank you.
The kebab tastes like a little shish kebab.
It's perfectly spiced, a little bit of heat.
And there's some kidney beans through it.
I think it's great. You want that kind of brave caramelisation
on the halloumi, which she's given us, and the rest
of it just sort of falls into place.
And the naan is so lovely.
Hooray for Dinta!
I think that's quite yummy.
Lots and lots of spices, beans, spinach, tomatoes.
What's not to like?
Are you happy with that, Dinta?
Yeah, I think so. Go on, then. Yeah.
I love halwa. I love pistachios.
I mean, the combination sounds fantastic.
Texturally, it can become a bit stodgy.
You've got the halwa, which is quite soft, cooked-down carrots,
then you've got the cream.
So you'd want the pistachio, ideally, to deliver some crunch.
Lovely!
Come on, let's go. There we go.
Yay! Thank you.
This is a gajar halwa trifle, and I've infused it with nutmeg
and cardamom, and the cream has pistachios in it,
and it's garnished with some edible flowers.
Enjoy. Thank you. Thank you.
That was nerve-racking, and I just can't believe
that all happened - because it felt like this.
But it's done.
I think there's a temperature issue here.
I think the carrot hadn't cooled down enough.
And that in turn has meant that the cream has melted.
It is what it said it would be.
But now I'm not certain about it, really.
It's a bit mono-textural.
This just needed maybe one layer of sponge, just to help divide
it and turn it into a proper trifle.
I like the flavours. But the textures...
Well, there is no texture.
OK, Lulu, you're doing really well.
You've got four minutes, please.
Lulu's main course sounds intriguing.
Crispy fried anchovies. Wow.
I think if you're billing something as crispy fried on a menu,
then they've got to hit the table and be crispy.
Distinct kind of Caribbean influence, point of references,
that coconut peas and rice as a dish.
Then you've got that wonderful mango chilli sauce.
I'm hoping that'll be quite a sweet sauce, cos you've got that sweetness
to lift it.
I think it sounds fantastic.
Lulu, take that beautiful food into the dining room.
Go, go, go, go, go.
Hello. Hello. Hi.
I've made you crispy fried anchovies, coconut cream peas,
garlic rice and warm carrot salad served with a condiment of green
mango chilli sauce.
So hope you enjoy it. Thank you.
It's sensationally good.
There's heat level sort of sitting here
from that green mango hot sauce.
And these fresh anchovies, floured and then deep-fried to give
that crunch, are just...delicious.
You've got perfectly cooked rice, the peas still have some
texture to them. They're not mushy and overcooked.
I feel like I'm a better human being for having eaten this.
It's really, really so exciting.
It makes your toes tingle.
The fish are good with that sweet chilli sauce, and you can taste the
green mango in the background. I like her style.
I like her flavours.
Lulu. Yes? Everything under control? Yes, sir.
Sticky toffee pudding is delicious as long as there's enough
lightness to it.
And then stickiness of dates, which is what gives it the sort
of the heft and the comfort.
Happy with your toffee sauce?
Yes, I am.
14 years ago, I cooked a masala chai ice cream in this very kitchen,
and if I recall correctly, it worked out pretty well.
Look at that. Lovely.
Here we go. Yeah! Well done.
Lulu. Let's go, let's go!
Oh! Don't run! For crying out loud.
Oh, they're melting, melting, they're melting.
Hello again. Hello.
I've made you a sticky toffee pudding with masala chai ice cream.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm feeling so happy that I managed to do it on time and produce
good food. I didn't burn anything.
I'm feeling amazing on top of all that.
Each component is delicious. The sauce, I thought, was great.
It's sweet. It's got the right amount of salt to it.
So they've got that balance.
It's kind of like a date muffin with caramel sauce on it,
which is a nice thing, and it's delicious.
But then there's this ice cream on the side, which is fresh,
and it's exactly what you need with the sticky toffee pudding.
It just makes me very happy indeed.
That, in my mind, is a perfect dessert.
I mean, the whole thing together is yummy.
Yes, it's good. It's just very sweet.
Pork tenderloin is difficult to cook.
Moment of truth, right?
It goes from slightly raw pink to chewy,
overcooked within about 30 seconds.
How's it looking? How's it looking? I'll take it. Yeah.
Look at that.
Lovely. Anything else besides the sauce? No.
And then the cider and cream sauce,
you want that depth of flavour without it being too creamy
or too cidery.
There's that balance she's got to get right, but sounds good.
OK. You ready to go? Yeah. Off you go, then. Go, Lora.
Hi, guys. Hello. Hello.
Got a pork tenderloin stuffed with apples and sage with pine nuts
wrapped in prosciutto.
And then we've got a parsnip puree, buttered leeks and a cider
and cream sauce.
I hope you enjoy it. Thank you.
The pork tenderloin is a little bit overdone for me, and we were
promised stuffing, but I can't really taste it or see it.
Unfortunately, the sauce is fairly thin, just kind of washed away
any flavour for me. The leeks, in particular, are delicious.
The puree... I actually struggled to taste parsnip in it.
Some nice things, but that sauce has not worked at all.
Lots of sweet things here.
Apple, which I like. Cider sauce...
There's a lot of sweet going on.
Have you...have you done a spare one? No.
So we won't know until the diners break into it?
No. Oh! You are brave, aren't you?
Melt in the Middle Chocolate Fondant.
So they actually specified "melt in the middle".
And for it not to be, you've kind of really set your stall out.
So she must be super confident.
I just won't know that they're done - if they're not done.
It's fine. Good luck, Lora. I hope you get it right.
To make a chocolate fondant, I would practise this, like, five
times at home if I was doing it for a dinner party, so why?!
But if she gets it right, ten out of ten.
Fingers crossed.
GREGG EXHALES
Hello again. Hi.
It is soft in the middle. You can't argue with that.
But it's unusual, isn't it, to eat a chocolate fondant
and think, "Oh, it could do with being a bit sweeter."
For me, the brittle just adds to the issue because there is
this kind of background bitterness creeping in.
But unfortunately, that bitterness just kind of enhances
the lack of sugar.
I think that's a lovely fondant, really well made.
You can clearly see the liquid centre.
The brittle is slightly bitter because she's taking it a bit
too far and it's not that sweet.
In actual fact, her main course is sweeter than her dessert.
GREGG LAUGHS
I'm never cooking for that many people again.
It's going to be a two-person dinner only for my house
for a very long time.
I think we've got really strong cooks in here. But we've now got
a decision to make.
There are only three quarterfinal places, and that does mean that one
of them is leaving us.
Lulu's food, I liked it.
The dining room loved it, too.
It was lovely.
Sticky toffee pudding, chai ice cream.
Nice spice going with that sticky toffee pudding.
Good caramel sauce.
Lulu's got herself a place in the quarterfinal.
Tom impressed, didn't he?
Those scallops were very lovely indeed.
The flavour of the dish, as a whole, very good.
Main course - ribeye, pommes Anna, hollandaise sauce. All together.
Lots of process, lots of things going on.
Tom's in.
We've now got a discussion about Loa and Dinta.
Dinta...
Really good flavours of India wrapped up in a flatbread.
Dessert - we had hot carrot with cream and pistachio.
The carrot started to melt the cream.
It became one of texture.
But flavours - brilliant.
Lora - pork cooked quite nicely, but the whole thing was very sweet.
And the cider sauce, we know, did not work.
I personally have not got an issue with that chocolate fondant.
It oozed. I mean, what do you want from a fondant?
But the issue was with the sweetness of the dish.
I really want a place in the quarterfinal.
I hope that I've done enough that they can see my potential.
I've worked hard. If I get through, amazing.
And if I don't, I gave it my all.
GREGG: Well done.
I thought it was a day full of great ambition and some fantastic food.
Our first quarterfinalist is...
..Lulu.
Lulu, congratulations. Thank you.
Our second quarterfinalist...
..is Tom.
Well done.
Our third quarter finalist is...
..Dinta.
Lora, thank you very much for everything.
Sadly, you're leaving us. Thank you. See you later. Bye, guys.
I'm gutted to be going home.
But to have Gregg Wallace say that my dessert was fantastic, like,
that's been a life achievement, so I'll take it.
You are, MasterChef quarterfinalists.
Congratulations. Congratulations!
TOM: Oh, my God!
Who is this person? It's not me.
I'm just so proud of myself that I can do it.
I never thought I could, but I think I can.
I mean, who would have thought it? It's an absolute dream come true.
Quarterfinalist.
Really happy.
I'm absolutely buzzing.
Absolute roller-coaster of emotions.
But, like, one of the best things I've ever done in my life.
Oh! I'm shaking.
Next time, it's the quarterfinal...
..and Tom, Lulu and Dinta...
I need to stop shaking.
..will be joining Abi, Max and Tatiana...
We can do this. ..cooking for one of the country's
top restaurant critics.
Come on, come on, come on.
I feel elated by it.
It's just been like a whole wonderful voyage across your plate.