It's the battle for the ultimate culinary prize.
Oh!
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 bowties, there's ballgowns,
and there are Michelin stars.
Who's got what it takes?
Who can hold on tight all the way to the end?
We are about to eat ourselves to an absolute standstill.
I'm ready. Let's go.
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 of them will go through to this week's quarterfinal.
I hope I can handle the pressure.
Although I'm not kidding myself.
I withhold the right to break down and cry.
I'm more excited than nervous, I would say, at this point,
although that might change as soon as I get in the kitchen
and start cooking.
I don't think I have a weakness in the kitchen,
If I'm being honest with you.
That might be big-headed, but I don't have one.
Welcome, all six of you, to the MasterChef kitchen.
This first round we call Basic To Brilliant.
Now, the idea of this is to take a basic, everyday ingredient
that you may put in your shopping basket every week
and turn that into something absolutely brilliant.
And your job today is to get yourself a MasterChef apron.
We will choose our two favourite dishes.
The cooks of those favourite dishes will grab themselves an apron,
go straight through.
The remaining four, you'll have to stay here and cook again.
One hour and 20 minutes. Show us your skill.
Off you go.
It feels pretty good to get started, you know?
The wheels are in motion, so there's no turning back.
Now we're cooking.
42-year-old Charlotte...
Feels weird to be in here, but good.
..works as an IT programme director
and gets inspiration for her plant-based cooking
from travelling with her husband.
What I get out of cooking...
..that I don't get out of my day job is a bit of therapy.
It's very relaxing.
It's my way to keep calm at the end of a stressful day.
Although I don't think this is exactly therapy today.
I'm trying to go as fast as I can so that I can do
all the stuff I need to.
What is your ingredient, please?
My ingredient is chilli, because we have chilli...
Well, I am forced to have chilli with everything because my husband
would have chilli on porridge if he could.
So the dish is potsticker dumplings with a fiery chilli sauce,
a Sichuan and green chilli oil, and then some crispy chilli peanuts.
Vegan food isn't just about hemp seeds, chickpeas,
and it can be really exciting and fresh and flavourful.
Charlotte, I think your food sounds exciting. Thank you.
Oh, sorry. I've just cut my finger.
Can I have a plaster? PRODUCER: Yeah, it's on its way.
OK, great. Thanks.
Quite a lump out.
I'm sorry to say you've taken the top of your finger off,
and that means you're probably going to need to go
and get it sorted out.
I was trying to go big or go home, and now I'm doing both.
LAUGHTER
Sadly, Charlotte has cut herself,
and she had to leave the MasterChef kitchen for medical attention,
so she won't be finishing off her dish.
20 minutes have gone, which means you've got an hour left,
all right?
31-year-old customer success manager Ecrin grew up watching her mother
cook traditional Turkish cuisine.
Being in this competition feels unreal.
So even if I don't get an apron, I will still be really happy
and proud of myself that I got to be here.
But we're going for the apron, of course.
Ecrin, what's your ingredient, please?
So my ingredient is lamb.
It's a meat that I really love.
And we use it a lot in our Turkish cuisine.
Tell me what the dish is, please. It's called sac kavurma.
It's a sauteed lamb dish, and then I'll make a cacik next to it -
it's similar to tzatziki - and an onion salsa with sumac
and pomegranate molasses.
Your accent is really interesting, because it doesn't sound
just quite Turkish. It's not, no. I'm from the Netherlands.
I was born and raised in the Netherlands.
What made you come to the UK?
My partner, we met each other in Tokyo.
He's half Angolan and half Portuguese.
You are truly international, aren't you? Yeah.
Four countries.
See, Ecrin right now fascinates me.
She's taking lamb pieces, dice them very, very small,
and soak them in milk and olive oil to tenderise them.
I've never heard of this before.
I love this dish. Every time I go to a Turkish restaurant,
I usually order this one.
This is a rich tomato chilli lamb stew with lots of peppers in.
It usually takes quite a while to cook,
but she's cooking it in one hour and 20 minutes.
It smells great.
I hope it looks pretty.
36-year-old admin officer Louise..
LOUISE LAUGHS
..loves to cook Caribbean food for her two children,
as well as volunteering at a community kitchen.
They are a charity that help people less fortunate.
I cook for the old people and I make a three-course restaurant-style
meal that they maybe can't afford to go out and buy.
I love seeing people happy when they eat my food.
What is your ingredient, please?
So my ingredient is prawns.
So I'm making Jamaican peppered prawns cooked with scotch bonnet
and tomatoes and peppers.
They're going with some home-made roti.
Why did you apply for MasterChef?
So I've got a 14-year-old daughter, and I'm always pushing her
to do all her dreams and telling her anything's possible.
And she said, "Well, you know, why don't you do your dreams?
"Why don't you apply for MasterChef?" So I said, "All right.
"I will."
I've never had Jamaican pepper prawns before.
Tomatoes and chillies and onions and loads and loads of garlic.
And she's going to serve the whole thing with roti.
A good roti should be flaky, but not greasy.
Do you like some bread with your butter, do you?
Love it.
SHE LAUGHS
Louise is just doing two things - roti and prawns.
Well, that means she's got to make sure they're absolutely fantastic.
They are going to have to be finger-licking good.
You're halfway!
31-year-old doctor George from Dorset...
HE LAUGHS
..spends his spare time going on food adventures
with his wife in his camper van.
So being doctor, work is always busy.
Being in here, it's intense pressure.
Hopefully my pressure at work will help me in the MasterChef kitchen.
So today my ingredient is mushrooms.
Dish is going to be a mushroom-filled tortelloni
with a Parmesan and tarragon cream and some crispy wild rice
covered in mushroom powder. George, you look happy and smiley. Are you?
Because a lot of people get tense in here, but you look
like you're having the time of your life.
I am, to be honest, Gregg. I'm absolutely loving it already.
Bit tense under the carpet, but, you know,
feeling good on the outside. Bit tense under the carpet?
Yeah.
GEORGE LAUGHS
I should imagine you would be. Never said that before!
George, why are you under the carpet?
THEY LAUGH
We have got a tortelloni.
A mushroom-dusted crispy wild rice.
Never had anything like that before in my life.
This sounds fascinating.
And he's going to serve that with a cream and Parmesan sauce.
But George seems to be using more Parmesan cheese than mushrooms.
I'm concerned right now that that's going to be a little bit too much.
Belfast-born Rhys works as an actor.
He grew up on classic Irish dishes,
but also has a love for Italian and Asian cuisine.
I've been cooking since I was a kid, really, but probably only
took it a bit more seriously when I met my girlfriend.
I started to cook to impress her, and I think it worked,
because we're married now.
Rhys, what's your ingredient, please, sir? Mushrooms.
We always have loads of mushrooms left over,
so for me, they're a bit of a life-saver.
So what is your dish, please? Mushroom and chorizo tagliatelle.
You're making your own pasta? Yeah, that's the plan.
Any similarities between acting and cooking?
Chaos. I suppose a dish, like any piece of theatre,
isn't just one thing.
It's loads of different elements working together to create
something special, hopefully.
We've got another mushroom pasta. He's going to make us a tagliatelle.
I usually struggle with the machine.
Let's see. Here we go.
But thankfully, this machine is a lot better than the one
that I usually use, so we're laughing.
Yeah, I'm happy with that.
With the mushrooms, he's got white wine sauce, which is quite acidic...
..mustard, which is quite hot,
chorizo, which is slightly spicy.
He's going to have to be really careful here.
Really, really careful.
35-year-old lawyer Aman has developed his own cooking style
based on his mother's traditional Indian recipes.
I cook predominantly Punjabi, North Indian foods.
I've been brought up eating that food seven days a week
from a young age.
But now I try to explore into different cuisines
from different parts of the world.
My ingredient is paneer.
It's a family favourite, especially for my wife.
I call my wife my favourite vegetarian.
Are you making a vegetarian dish?
I am making a vegetarian dish.
Gochujang paneer with mango chutney, a mint coriander chutney,
and basmati rice.
That's a real fusion of different cultures and flavours.
Absolutely. I'm a big fan of Korean food, so I thought
I'd give this a go.
Aman is making for us what he calls gochujang paneer.
Gochujang - a Korean red pepper paste -
served with paneer being this Indian-style curd cheese.
That's going to be served with basmati rice.
We've got a mango chutney.
And then he's making us a classic green chilli chutney.
A lot of really big, powerful things on there.
I hope this works.
You have five minutes.
Just five minutes, please.
All under control, I hope.
Last-minute nerves, but we're doing all right.
You have just 60 seconds.
That's it. Stop, please.
It was a bit of stress, but we made it in the end.
Could have done a bit better on the plating, but hope it tastes good.
WHISPERS: I can touch it, I can feel it.
SHE LAUGHS
George, are you ready for us? Come on, please.
Doctor George's basic ingredient is mushrooms.
He's made wild-mushroom-filled tortellini with puffed wild rice
coated in a crispy mushroom powder and a Parmesan cream sauce.
This puffed wild rice around the outside,
sort of like I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.
Bushtucker trial? Bushtucker trial going on on the plate here.
Can I borrow some of these? I'm going fishing this afternoon.
Pasta work's fantastic. Really, really lovely
thin pasta there, ample filling inside.
What I love is the flavour of the almost yeast extract
from those dried mushrooms around the nuttiness
of that fried wild rice.
Inside your filled pasta, that mushroom is slightly sweet.
And the tang of that lovely Parmesan through that creamy sauce is great.
But that sauce, in my opinion, is too thick.
It should be a lot thinner. It almost needs spreading.
I'm feeling pretty tired, stressed out.
Fair feedback. I wasn't 100% happy with what I put up,
but, you know, I did my best.
Lawyer Aman's basic ingredient is paneer
coated in Chinese five spice and Korean gochujang sauce,
served with basmati rice,
a yoghurt, coriander and mint chutney, and a mango chutney.
The coating around the outside, the gochujang and the five spice,
I think they're clashing with each other.
The thing is for me is that paneer has become a bit dry
and a bit chewy. I'd like that paneer to be more succulent.
The rice is nicely cooked.
Your sauces, you've got some really good, fiery flavour in there,
but I shouldn't be scraping little droplets off a plate
with the back of a fork.
I gave it a good shot, but I'm generally happy.
Overall, I'm happy, but there's room for improvement.
Admin officer Louise's ingredient is prawns that she's cooked
in a Jamaican-style pepper sauce, flavoured with scotch bonnet,
paprika, and red and yellow peppers,
served with a roti.
I think that's a really attractive dish.
I love the colours.
Louise, that's delicious.
Thank you.
Delicious with a capital D.
The prawns are cooked beautifully.
They've got a really nice texture to them.
They're sweet. That sauce - slightly sharp and sour.
The Scotch bonnet, there's enough in there for it to be fragrant
and slightly fruity, but it's still got enough heat.
I've got no complaint. Oh, thank you.
It looks great,
and it tastes every bit as good as it looks.
So that's a proper yummy dish.
And that bread is lovely.
That's it now. I feel like I've won already.
That was brilliant. So happy, I could scream.
SHE LAUGHS
Actor Rhys also chose to highlight mushrooms,
and has made a mushroom and chorizo tagliatelle
in a mustard and white wine sauce,
garnished with capers and a Parmesan crisp.
Nicely made pasta.
Your mushrooms - cooked really well.
They've still got a bit of bounce to them. They're still moist.
I just find the dish a little bit too sharp,
because you have got mustard in there,
you have got white wine in there, and then the capers as well.
It's just a little bit too much.
You've used lots of different types of mushrooms, and I think
you've cooked them all very, very well.
For me, the capers are very, very salty and really, really strong.
The mustard is quite sharp and sour.
The white wine and the cream would have been enough. OK.
I'm unhappy with how I balanced the flavours.
But to be honest, I was always intending to put
those big flavours in there.
So it was a gamble. It didn't pay off.
Last up is customer success manager Ecrin, and her ingredient was lamb.
She's made a Turkish sac kavurma - lamb cooked in its own juices
and Turkish peppers, served with vermicelli and basmati rice...
..cacik, a cucumber and mint yoghurt,
and an onion and pomegranate salsa seasoned with sumac.
That lamb is moist, soft.
There's a smokiness, a saltiness. That rice underneath is, like,
nutty. I've got the sharpness of yoghurt in there.
That is so yummy.
That is so ludicrously yummy.
I love that. Thank you.
Gregg likes it.
That makes two of us. Yay!
Thank you.
This onion relish of yours...
..can I please have the recipe?
Yes, of course. Because that is ace.
It's sweet but sharp with pomegranate molasses,
and delicious. I think you've hit the brief.
I'm very, very happy to be eating that.
Thank you so much indeed. Thank you.
How do you say "happy" in Turkish?
Mutlu. Mutlu?
Yeah. That's a great name! Mutlu!
We're all mutlu. Good. That's good to hear.
I'm feeling great.
They had nothing negative to say about it, so it's amazing.
Well done. That was a stonking first round.
As we said at the start of this,
two of you will be going straight through to the next round.
The first person getting their MasterChef apron is...
..Ecrin.
Congratulations. Thank you.
The second person is...
..Louise.
Thank you. Thank you.
Ecrin, Louise, come and get your aprons, please.
Fantastic. Fantastic. Congratulations.
Go on.
Oh, my God, I'm so excited. Yes. Me too.
I can't believe we did it. I know. Yes. Well done. Thank you.
Well done! Yay, well done.
Oh, wow.
I'm so excited. I can't believe I go an apron.
I've got an apron! I've made it.
I honestly cannot believe that I earned the apron.
The feeling is... It's just amazing.
That means I'm good.
You three need to dust off any disappointment.
There are still two aprons up for grabs.
This is what we call Thinking On Your Feet.
You all have a plate of prawns.
We would like from you a dish that highlights a little bit about you
as a cook, and whether you've got the potential to go further
in the competition. 45 minutes. At the end of this,
two of you are going to get an apron, one of you is going to leave.
Go! Let's go, let's go, let's go!
I'm torn between two ideas at the minute, so let's
have a little look at what we've got and then I'll come back to you.
They've only got 45 minutes, but I think that's plenty of time
to do a couple of things with the prawn.
I'm going to change tack.
And it only takes a matter of minutes to cook a prawn,
so all the bits around the outside is what they should be
concentrating on, and then the last minute, the prawns get cooked.
Don't usually cook prawns but, you know, they're a special ingredient
that I think you can do a lot with. So hopefully...
..I'll be able to.
AMAN: If it doesn't go according to plan, back to being a lawyer it is.
HE CHUCKLES
Do you have a firm plan, then?
I think I do now. I'm going to do an Asian broth with noodles,
and I'm going to fry the prawns separately and sit them on top.
OK. How are you going to get the prawn flavour through this broth?
I might use some of the prawn heads and add it to the broth
before I strain it off. Rhys, I like your form. Nice one.
Rhys is making for us an Asian-style noodle broth.
I think that's quite a nice idea.
Rhys has got to make sure he doesn't boil that broth too much,
otherwise it'll go cloudy and it'll go bitter.
The broth, I've put the prawn heads in, some ginger, some garlic,
some chilli, a little bit of soy and some sweet miso.
That works. As long as you get the cookery of the prawn right,
as long as you get plenty of flavour into the broth.
He's got a plan. And not only that, I like the plan.
You have 20 minutes left.
How you feeling, Aman? Nervous.
I've never cooked with prawn before, so... Oh, no!
So it should be interesting. So how do you approach it, then?
Just going to coat the prawns in chilli powder and make
it into a nice, fiery curry.
Are you not feeling particularly confident? Not overly, no.
Aman has never cooked a prawn before in his life...
First time for everything.
..but he's going to make a curry with ginger and tomatoes...
..then he's going to cook the prawns in the sauce.
That will work as long as he doesn't put them in there too soon,
because otherwise they'll just go really, really pappy.
The thing is, we've got nothing to go with this at the moment.
I was thinking maybe some rice.
You've only got 15 minutes left. Will rice cook in 15?
Yes.
So I'm going to do you a Vietnamese summer roll.
So prawns cooked in a bit of chilli sauce,
inside a Vietnamese spring roll, with some noodles through there.
Have you done many summer rolls before?
I went to Vietnam, actually, four years ago,
worked in a hospital there for a short while,
and learned how to cook them when I was over there.
Whereabouts in Vietnam were you? I was in Ho Chi Minh Hospital.
Wow.
George is making for us summer rolls.
Hopefully some mint in there and maybe some coriander
to give it some freshness.
But that rice paper is really fiddly.
If it's too wet, it goes soggy and falls apart.
If it's too dry, it cracks.
I'm really impressed with George making those rolls.
We do need a dip.
What dipping sauces are we going to get?
Spring onion and chilli dipping sauce.
So what else have we got now with our summer rolls?
Yeah, so done some deep-fried sesame-seed-covered prawns.
Good. Go, go, go. I'm loving this.
You have just five minutes.
It's going to be very close.
AMAN: Curry's done. I'm waiting on the rice,
and hopefully I can plate soon.
Final 60 seconds. That's it.
And...stop!
GEORGE EXHALES
Stressful.
George has prepared the prawns two ways. Vietnamese summer rolls -
rice paper wrappers filled with prawns,
vermicelli rice noodles, coriander and mint...
..and deep-fried prawns coated in sesame seeds
with a spring onion and chilli dipping sauce
and a peanut soy and honey dipping sauce.
Prawns are cooked really nicely.
I like the little crispy coating around the outside,
almost like a sesame prawn toast.
Your summer rolls - prawns, you cleaned them very, very well.
It just needs some more vegetables.
More, like, shredded carrot, a lot more herbs.
It will just make it more vibrant.
I think it all works really nicely together.
These two dips are lovely.
One of them is really sharp and really hot,
and the other one is really, really sweet and salty.
I'm very, very much enjoying your flavours, George.
After that, I feel absolutely shattered, but got through it.
The comments were fair.
I think most of them were positive,
so fingers crossed.
Rhys has butterflied the prawns and served them on noodles
with pak choi and spring onions,
and an Asian miso and ginger broth flavoured with the prawn heads.
Your prawns are slightly overcooked... OK. ..but you've
prepped those prawns really well.
I think the crunch of the pak choi with the sesame seeds
is a nice idea. Noodles are nicely done.
Your broth - what I get from that is mostly ginger.
A little bit of meaty miso.
But I'm impressed that you've made this broth.
Not bad at all.
Rhys, I admire that you've used all the prawn.
You've taken the shells, including the heads, and you roasted them off
and you made your broth. I think you've got some really nice ideas.
Prawns, unfortunately, are slightly over.
I feel OK after that.
I think I did my best in the circumstances.
Can always do a bit better, but, yeah, I'm happy enough.
Aman has served a tomato-based prawn curry spiced with ginger and cumin
on basmati rice.
Your sauce is really rich with ginger.
There's almost a caramel sweetness coming from all those tomatoes.
I think that's really good.
The little bits of prawn, because you've cut them up so small,
are just starting to go dry, but they're still moist enough.
Your rice could do with a little bit more cooking.
So prawns, just a little bit over.
Rice, a little bit under.
Your sauce is lovely. Sweet going into smoky.
But the prawns are slightly overcooked.
They're going a little bit mushy.
I think I feel somewhat relieved that it's done now.
Could have done better, but I'm happy with the comments,
and especially cooking prawns for the first time.
So, yeah, generally OK.
Charlotte cut herself in the first round, and that means we've only
got three of them fighting for those two aprons.
Rhys decided to take the prawns apart, took the shells,
and he roasted the shells to make a broth with some miso.
The prawns - slightly over.
But the flavour of the broth - really good.
I didn't expect anybody to attempt a broth.
I stand impressed.
George, in this round, he made a summer roll
and then we had little deep-fried prawns on the side.
The actual summer rolls, I felt, could have had more vegetables
going through it and more herbs going through it.
But the prawns were done nicely. I liked both dips.
Aman had never cooked a prawn before.
He never eaten a prawn before. Good on him for keeping on going.
That sauce was really good.
However, the rice could have done with a little bit more cooking.
He overcooked the prawns. That's hardly surprising.
This isn't just the first time he's cooked one,
it's the first time he's ever touched one or eaten one.
I want to stay more than anything. I've had the taste for it
and fingers crossed I get the apron.
I'm not sure if I've done enough to stay in the competition.
I'd love to, but the other lads are really strong
and my dish wasn't without its faults.
So, you know, it's a waiting game now.
I love it in there. There's a deep, passionate burning inside me,
really competitive nature,
so I'd be over the moon if I stayed, in all honesty.
Some high points and some low points...
..and we have made a decision.
The first person going through, joining Louise and Ecrin...
..is George.
Congratulations, George. Great job.
Rhys, Aman, one apron left.
The last person getting an apron is...
..Rhys.
Aman, thank you so very much for everything.
Thank you very much indeed. You're leaving us.
Thank you. Cheers, Aman. RHYS: Take care. GEORGE: See you.
Disappointed.
Could have done better.
But I have had an amazing time, albeit a short time,
but a memory which will live with me for the rest of my life.
Well done. Well done, you two.
George, Rhys, congratulations. Come and get your aprons.
Thank you. Thank you.
Well done. Well done.
I feel so good.
HE LAUGHS
Over the moon.
Now this is M is on my chest, I feel like I'm here,
feel like I've arrived.
It feels great. Delighted to get an apron today.
It certainly wasn't the path of least resistance,
but we got there in the end.
Today is a big round.
You are cooking for a place in the quarterfinals.
You are going to present your food to three previous MasterChef
contestants, two runners-up and a winner...
..Alexina Anatole,
Dean Edwards, and past champion Steven Wallis.
It's going to be really tough.
And at the end of this, one of you will be going home.
Ladies and gentlemen, one hour and 15 minutes, two courses.
Make it fantastic.
Let's cook.
Just because I got my apron does not mean I can relax.
I definitely have to make sure that I work hard still and get
further in the competition, of course.
What are your dishes, please?
So for the starter, I'll be making a Turkish lentil soup with a twist,
and the twist will be coconut with a burnt butter and some garlic
croutons on top. And what's your main course, please?
It's a Portuguese dish. It's bacalhau a bras.
But instead of the bacalhau, which is salt fish,
I'll be using prawns. So it's potatoes with egg and then prawns.
Where did you learn about the dish from Portugal?
So my husband is half Portuguese, and when I met him, he said
that this dish is his favourite Portuguese dish.
Our first course is a lentil soup.
But she's got a base of onions, ginger and garlic
and carrots and potatoes.
Hopefully, the coconut will enrich it.
But there is only one way of presenting a bowl of soup,
so it relies on its texture and flavour.
Main course - based upon a classic Portuguese dish.
We've got little straw potatoes cut very, very thinly, which are first
fried. Hopefully, those potatoes are a little bit crispy.
Scrambled eggs mixed through it.
And then with that, we're getting a tapenade - a puree of olives
with anchovies. Quite a strong paste.
Bacalhau is salt cod, but she's changing it for prawns.
It could work, but at the moment, it's a bit of a mystery tour
for me, and that's leaving me slightly uncomfortable.
You've had 15 minutes, all right? 15 minutes gone.
I am so nervous about producing eight plates of food
in an hour and 15 minutes.
I just hope I can do it and stick to the times and just don't panic.
So I am doing a pumpkin veloute served with pan-fried coley fish
with crispy okra and a side of Scotch bonnet sambal.
And for dessert, I'm doing a pineapple upside down cake
with a rum caramel, condensed milk ice cream.
What do you want the dining room to think of your dishes?
I want to transport them to the Caribbean.
Flavours of the Caribbean. We could do with some sunshine in here.
LOUISE LAUGHS
We have got pumpkin and fish together. Piece of pan-fried coley,
a larger fish, and it's got big, thick, meaty pieces in it.
Pumpkin is quite a sort of sweet vegetable.
It can be quite fibrous, but what she's going to do is
make it a veloute. Veloute simply means "velvet in texture,"
so it's going to be nice and smooth.
On the side of that, we've got a Scotch bonnet sambal.
With that, she's going to put lots and lots of onions
and make it really quite fiery.
Woo! Woo!
Spicy. Sorry!
Dessert - an upside down cake.
And then she's going to serve that with an ice cream
made from condensed milk. How wonderful.
So those sponges are going into individual little moulds.
She's got to make sure she greases those really, really well.
And if they catch on the side, they're going to tear,
so you won't get perfectly full domes.
Halfway there. Halfway on your first course.
I think I still have a lot to prove to John and Gregg.
Neither of my first two dishes really blew them away...
..and I really want to just serve them a plate of food
that they're happy with.
Rhys, it looks like you're taking us on a journey
somewhere towards Asia. What are your two courses?
Steamed prawn dumplings in a red chilli coconut broth.
And then I'm going to be serving a rhubarb and ginger creme brulee.
A man from Ireland cooking a dish from somewhere in Asia and finishing
off in classical France. What does that say about you, Chef?
A little bit about my personality and character, which is kind of beg,
borrow, and steal. So I'm taking a little bit from everywhere
and hoping it'll all come together.
He's promising us steam dumpling with prawns inside of them.
He's got to make sure that he shapes them properly
and doesn't over-steam them.
All the flavour needs to come into that broth.
So he's got to get lemongrass in there.
He's got to get chilli heat as well.
And then galangal. That is like a mild ginger flavour.
The balance of all three of those - fan...tastic.
Dessert - we've got rhubarb and ginger, which he's stewing down
first, and then a creme brulee across the top.
A burnt cream.
We want a thick, creamy vanilla custard set firm.
We want a nice, crisp texture of sugar that you have to break through
to get at the richness of the vanilla inside.
If that custard curdles, though, we've got a problem.
Producing eight plates of food is going to be tough in the hour
and 15 minutes we've got. But I've practised it lots at home.
Never got it in the timeframe, but hopefully today,
with a little bit more get up and go,
I should be able to produce all eight plates of food
for the judges.
What are you making, George?
Pan-fried sea bass with a cauliflower veloute,
crunchy new potatoes, chorizo oil, baked hazelnuts, pickled cauliflower
and buttered samphire. George, what's dessert?
Dessert is a whisky and honey creme brulee with a shortbread biscuit.
Are you and Rhys mates?
Because in the first round, you both did pasta and mushrooms. Yeah.
And now you're both doing creme brulees. Indeed.
I mean, it sounds like we've just copied each other,
but I don't know him.
Hopefully he doesn't know me. Battle of the brulees.
Battle of the brulees. Battle of the brulee. A creme-off.
Main course, we've got cauliflower, potatoes, chorizo,
cheese, sea bass, nuts, samphire.
There's a lot going on.
George is attempting a classic creme brulee with a slight
point of difference. He's got whisky and honey in it.
Yummy, yummy flavours.
There are two creme brulees in the room.
Yours has got to be better than your mate's.
With the creme brulees, you get to cook them once,
so they've got to be right first time.
And if not, then disaster.
I've eaten extremely well at this table.
There's also been some horror stories.
So keep it simple,
keep it beautiful, and cook from the souls.
Since MasterChef, I'm now a published cookbook author,
which is incredibly exciting.
That definitely wouldn't have been possible without MasterChef
and the platform it gave me.
When I see some of the food that's created on MasterChef these days,
it just blows my mind.
So I'm actually looking forward to some really exciting food.
First course, 17 minutes.
Yeah? Everything under control?
Yes. So far.
Ecrin's starter is a spiced lentil and coconut soup
with garlic croutons.
Nice-looking soup. Tastes good, too.
It better be the best soup I've ever had.
Because if you're backing yourself on a soup, it needs to deliver.
GREGG: That's thick and creamy. I like the look of that.
The consistency has to be perfect.
The spicing has to be spot-on.
JOHN: This is burnt butter and cayenne pepper?
Yeah, and a bit of smoked paprika.
And I'll be interested to see how it's presented to sort of elevate
a humble soup.
Got to work quick now.
Let's go! Come on. Come on, come on.
Come on, let's go.
Well done. They look great. They look really good.
Hello. Good afternoon.
I have made for you today a Turkish lentil soup with a twist.
So I added coconut and spices to it with a burnt butter and some
coconut drizzle with some croutons.
I hope you enjoy. Thank you.
It looks scrumptious. I just want to dive in and eat it.
The level of spicing is absolutely great.
The croutons are lush.
I mean, what more can I say? This is absolutely banging.
That browned butter with the paprika through it
is giving you toasty, delicious notes.
Ecrin has nailed it.
Damn, girl can cook.
I find that deliciously yummy, because it's creamy and it's rich,
and the coconut's added to the richness.
It's really delicious.
Ecrin, well done. Well done.
Got 15 minutes now before the main course, right?
So Ecrin is doing a Portuguese egg.
The egg needs to cook a bit more. I cannot have it raw.
The fried potato with onion and prawn sounds delicious.
I'm just intrigued to know how that all fits together.
You've got three minutes left.
You've got to speed up now, Ecrin. Yeah.
The black olive tapenade seems slightly odd there.
It's a kind of southern French thing and it's in with a Portuguese egg.
Oh. It's blocked, isn't it?
Yeah, it is. The nozzle's blocked.
There's a lot of different flavours going on, and lots of strong
flavours, but I'm always in a position to be surprised, and that's
what I love in the MasterChef kitchen - we get surprised.
Well done, you.
For her main, Ecrin has served her version of a traditional
Portuguese dish - fried potatoes with scrambled egg and prawns
topped with a raw egg yolk and an olive tapenade.
It's well-seasoned, there's a good punch of garlic in there,
the prawns aren't overcooked.
That's great. The tapenade is a nice, punchy flavour that cuts
through all the richness going on. But it's quite wet,
and then when you break the egg yolk over it, it gets even wetter.
I love the creaminess of the egg yolk, but I think there
could have been more crunchiness in the potatoes.
I think this dish is a tale of two halves.
It absolutely delivers on flavour, but it doesn't deliver on texture.
Texture, I've got an issue with. It's a predominantly wet dish.
I quite like the flavours. The prawns - nice and crunchy.
For me, that egg yolk's just overpowering everything.
Overall, I'm feeling really great, and I'm happy it's done.
I feel relieved and I'm ready for the next round.
Louise, you've got three minutes on your main course.
Louise's main course - I'm excited about this one because it's got
a lot of my favourite ingredients on it.
I love okra. I love Scotch bonnet.
I like these colours.
I'm kind of getting Caribbean vibes here.
Rich pumpkin veloute. So I want that to be beautifully smooth.
Coley is quite a bland fish.
It's not the sexiest of fish, but I think actually if she cooks
this well, I think it will hold up to all the other elements.
OK, you've got 60 seconds. You ready to go? Yeah.
Well done, and on time. Congratulations.
Pretty simple, but that appeals to me. I like it.
So I've made a pumpkin veloute with coley fish and okra
with a Scotch bonnet sambal.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
I think the fish is cooked really well, actually.
She's not overcooked it. Love the okra.
And the Scotch bonnet sambal is beautiful.
I love it. It's fiery, it's bold, it's...it's delicious.
That Scotch bonnet sambal - jar it up, and I'll take it home.
Thanks very much.
But what I want is this veloute to be thicker, to give some
more substance to the dish.
The fish is drastically under-seasoned.
The Scotch bonnet sambal, actually, for me,
has rescued this dish.
Really well-cooked piece of fish. That coley is lovely.
The veloute - not a great deal of flavour to it,
but I like this dish.
It definitely needs a thicker pumpkin veloute underneath it,
but that sambal really makes the dish come alive.
Right, Louise... Mm-hm?
..how long are those puddings going to take?
About five minutes.
Louise's dessert.
"Pineapple and rum upside down cake
"with condensed milk vanilla ice cream."
I mean, that's a bit of me, to be honest.
No pressure.
It could be quite cloying,
and I think, what with the condensed milk vanilla ice cream as well,
there's a lot of sweetness.
GREGG: Oh!
You've got this very kind of '80s, almost nursery-school type vibe,
but then you've got rum in there.
I hope she does not skimp on that rum.
Let's go, then.
So I've made a pineapple upside down cake with some rum,
with a condensed milk ice cream.
Thank you. Thank you.
I don't know. Honestly, I really don't.
They smiled, so that's a good thing.
SHE CHUCKLES
I love that she has used fresh pineapple, not tinned.
That elevates it.
I think the condensed milk ice cream is very rich and it's very sweet,
but it's delicious and creamy.
The thing I loved, actually, was the nutmeg, and I just love
that sort of grating of spice, which has lifted everything.
Yes, it's sweet. Yes, it's massive.
But do you know what? It tastes really good.
That is seriously sweet, that dessert. I mean, seriously sweet.
The pineapple itself could be softer and juicier, and the ice cream
needs to be firmer, yet it remains a sweet, yummy little morsel.
I've got to say, in all my years of MasterChef, I've never seen
anybody plate the dish through a colander.
I'm not sure I should be doing this, to be honest.
No. I just had a look at it and thought that it might...
How are you going to get it off there without making a mess?
It's not the right plan. Abandon ship, I think.
I'll just use a sieve.
So Rhys is doing prawn dumplings in a red chilli and coconut broth.
It smells good. Thanks, lads.
Perfect prawn dumpling - I think it's mainly about the seasoning.
How many do you get each? Five.
Wow. Good on you for making all that. Yeah.
Rhys is going to be reliant on that beautiful balance -
hot, sweet, salty and sour.
And most of all, I hope it's really nice and spicy.
OK. You're on time, Rhys. 30 seconds left.
Well done. Amazing.
Go, go. OK. Thank you, both, very much.
I thought it was going to be a broth. It's more like a curry sauce.
Hi. Hello, mate.
I've cooked for you today
some steamed prawn dumplings on a Thai red coconut broth.
Cheers, Rhys. Cheers. Take care.
Thank you, mate.
There's no getting away from the fact that this is a lot
of work and these dumplings, he's made them really well.
I think the sauce is far too creamy.
And I would have loved to have just seen a really,
really simple fish broth.
This is tasty, but this sauce, it's too thick,
and the coconut is too overpowering
that it's overwhelming the delicate prawn dumplings.
The prawns inside were cooked perfectly for me.
I'm quite enjoying it and I think,
yeah, Rhys, he's done a pretty decent job there for me.
The dumplings themselves - nicely made.
I find that broth a little too rich.
I would take the dumplings out.
There's no way I'd finish that broth.
Rhys' dessert is a rhubarb and ginger creme brulee.
Hello. That is my kind of dessert.
You've got to get those glazed and ready to go in three minutes.
Can you do that? I think so.
Rhubarb and ginger is a classic pairing combination. It works.
It's going to take longer than three minutes, isn't it?
I think it is. I probably should have taken...
I should have started them earlier.
Hoping for a little bit of tartness with that rhubarb.
Beautiful, smooth, creamy, sweet custard...
..and the bitterness of that...that little kind of sugar crisp on top.
Boom!
Good. Happy?
Not as happy as I could be, but let's give it a go.
Well done, you. Thanks, guys.
I've made for you a rhubarb and ginger creme brulee.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
The rhubarb, through that little tartness, is just so nice at
cutting through the rich vanilla custard.
But what's letting him down is that the custard's slightly curdled.
I mean, it's a little curdled, but I like the fact that also
it's not too sweet.
It did state there was ginger on the menu.
I'm not getting it.
Rhys may have missed it, but do you know what?
It is what it is.
Ooh, John.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Look at that. That is well and truly eggy and splitting.
Disappointing.
I'm relieved it's over.
That's...that's...that's the toughest cook that I've done yet.
But I'm glad that I was able to have fun while I was doing it.
Three minutes, George. Thanks.
George's main - sea bass.
I need that skin to be beautiful and crisp.
Cauliflower veloute will bring some sweetness.
That's a nice, creamy-looking veloute, George.
Chorizo oil is going to bring some saltiness and spice.
Nice. Well done.
If George can make all of these elements work, then fair play.
Should be serving now.
Come on. We can do this.
There we go. Well done, George. Off you go. Thank you.
So I've made you today a pan-fried sea bass on a bed of
crunchy new potatoes, cauliflower veloute with a chorizo oil,
baked hazelnuts, pickled cauliflower, and then just a little
bit of samphire on top.
Brilliant. Thank you. Enjoy.
It looks like something you'd get in a restaurant.
I hope it's going to taste as good as it looks.
Fish was cooked perfectly.
The potatoes were lovely, crisp, buttery.
Veloute - nice and smooth.
There's absolutely no doubt George can cook.
The pickled cauliflower is nice because it adds
a little bit of crunch.
And I think it's very smart and I think it's very competent.
It's a very technically accomplished plate of food.
Sea bass flesh is cooked really, really nicely.
The potatoes are nice and crisp.
There's a lovely flavour of the chorizo all running through it.
All in all, he's done a pretty decent job.
George. Creme brulees - how are they looking?
Looking good.
I had a bit of an accident with one. I dipped my tea towel in it.
What did you do that for? Good question.
George's dessert is a whisky and honey creme brulee
with a shortbread biscuit.
Creme brulee is quite sweet,
and I like the idea that that whisky would cut through.
What's in the cocktail shaker?
So I've just got some lemon, some rosemary, a little bit of honey,
lots of whisky. What, you're making a cocktail?
I'm going to make a cocktail as well.
It's not on the menu for the dining room.
It's not. Just a little surprise today.
Whoa! There's a surprise. Woohoo!
HE LAUGHS
The perfect shortbread biscuit...
..it needs to be beautifully light, buttery, you know,
almost falling apart in terms of texture.
Come on, let's go. Let's go.
Thanks, guys. Well done, Doctor.
They're not bad. Well, that smells like a bribe to me.
Are you bribing us now, George? Oh!
No comment.
LAUGHTER
So I've made you a whisky and honey creme brulee
with a shortbread biscuit on the side.
And I've served it up with a lemony, rosemary honey
whiskey-based cocktails.
Thanks, guys. Thank you. See you later.
Oh, that looks good.
The brulee's lovely, I think.
It's taken to a really good level.
It's got a lovely crunch.
I'm really impressed.
I'm really, really impressed by this.
It's creamy and unctuous and has that perfectly thin
shot of caramel on top.
George must have a Scottish grandmother somewhere,
because that shortbread is absolutely perfect. Phenomenal.
Yeah, this is a really good dessert.
It's got the smoky peatiness of a good whisky,
but it's also got the warmth.
It's one of the best brulees I've ever tasted.
Really lovely shortbread biscuit.
I think it's a very good dessert from George.
Absolute shattered.
I'm absolutely shattered.
That was a tough challenge, a long challenge,
but I think I did my best.
I'm really impressed by these four.
I really am. I'm impressed by their ambition.
Look, all of them have really gone for it, I think.
Well, there was one stand-out cook for the dining room,
and that was Ecrin.
For me, Ecrin's soup was dish of the day.
I thought it was superb.
For the main course, good flavours. Textures? I'm not sure.
But the dining room picked her as their cook of the day.
Ecrin's got herself a place in the quarterfinal.
I'll tell you who did impress me,
and that was George.
That main course of sea bass I thought was really quite impressive.
But his creme brulee, I thought, was an absolute knockout.
In a room full of good cooks, he stands out from the crowd.
This means it's a discussion now between Louise and Rhys.
Rhys' dumplings I liked.
I did. The dining room liked them.
But we all feel it was a little too rich, a little too thick,
to be a broth.
Dessert - creme brulee with rhubarb and ginger -
well, I thought that sounded fantastic.
However, the custard started to curdle.
He ran out of time. He didn't quite put the brulee across the top.
It didn't work out.
Louise - I thought the cookery of the coley was great.
The flavour of the pumpkin,
that was a little disappointing.
We all enjoyed the chilli sambal.
That upside down pineapple cake with the rum caramel -
no rum in the caramel, which was a bit of a shame.
The sponge I liked.
The ice cream, she just got away with it.
But, wow, was that one sweet dessert.
I want a place in the quarterfinals so much that I would even
trade in my favourite chocolate for a whole year.
That's how much I want it.
I'm having so much fun in the kitchen.
I'd love to stay and just keep going and keep going further
in the competition and keep enjoying myself out there.
Thank you for all your hard work.
We have made a decision.
Our first quarterfinalist is...
..Ecrin.
Oh, thank you. Very, very well done.
The dining room absolutely loved you.
I can't believe it.
Thank you.
Our second quarterfinalist is...
..George.
Whoa.
Very, very well done.
Our third and final quarterfinalist is...
..Louise.
Congratulations.
Rhys, very, very close decision.
It was good to have met you.
You too, and all of you. Well done.
You've had a great competition. Cheers, my friend. Cheers.
I'm a little disappointed to be going home.
Obviously I would prefer to still be in the competition,
but I feel OK. I had a lot of fun.
And, yeah, time to go.
Congratulations, you three.
You are MasterChef quarterfinalists.
I thought I was going home!
Just being honest.
But I'm proud that I've done it, you know, because it takes
a lot to put yourself forward, so, yeah.
Not much makes me speechless,
but to be a MasterChef quarterfinalist is...
I'm absolutely over the moon.
It's... It's amazing.
Really... Oh, close to tears!
I'm feeling great. I just cannot believe it.
Being the first name to be called out, I was not expecting it, but
I know I can do more, so I cannot wait to show that in the next round.
Next time -
six new hopefuls compete for the right to wear
a coveted MasterChef apron.
Could've been better, for sure, but could've been worse as well.
I think I did it.
That is hot!
..before battling for a place in the quarterfinal.
10 out of 10.
11 out of 10.