It's comeback week on MasterChef...
..and this week's six best cooks are back for the last quarterfinal.
It means everything to do well today.
You get the itch again cos you've come this far,
so now it's like, "What's next?"
I think knowing how good everybody else is,
I've really got to smash this one.
I just want to go the extra mile.
I want to prove that I am good enough
for the knockout stages.
Tonight, they face just one challenge -
to cook an exceptional dish
from a brief set by renowned food critic Jimi Famurewa.
I think this quarterfinal is a culinary clash of the titans.
If they want to win the trophy,
they've got to get through this.
You are cooking for a place now in Knockout Week.
You've been brilliant. We want you to get even better.
You are not just going to cook for John and I,
you are going to cook for a special guest.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Jimi Famurewa.
Yay, Big Jim!
Tell us the brief, please.
I would like you to make me a fusion feast
by taking two seemingly unrelated food cultures or cuisines
that mean a lot to you, and combining them
in one beautiful, harmonious dish.
There are just three places in Knockout Week.
That does mean that three of you will be going home.
90 minutes.
Let's cook.
I think fusion is one of those terms
that can be a bit of a dirty word.
When it's done well,
there's something absolutely beautiful, vivid, memorable
and thrilling about combining different food cultures.
I really want fireworks,
and something that could become an iconic future dish.
So I really want to see them go for it.
Who's that? Is that me or Gregg?
Uh...no comment.
Cliodhna's food is tasty,
it's got style,
and it takes on lots of technique.
I love it. Oh, thank God.
Just hold your nerve, Cliodhna.
More of the same.
Weirdly, today, I don't feel half as nervous
as I have done in the previous days.
I've done what I've come here to do,
but I'm not going to stop now.
So, for you today, I'm doing a Scottish-Italian fusion.
So I'm making for you a chicken Braemar in Parma ham.
But instead of haggis on the inside, we've got black pudding.
I've then done a garlic and truffle mash,
whisky-nduja cream.
Scottish and Italian, what's the personal connection for you?
Every time there's a big family event,
it's always Italian food that we go for.
I also go to Scotland all the time with my family,
we've literally gone every summer up there.
So obviously, as you asked, bring two things that you love
together, and that is what I've done.
The chicken sounds great,
needs be crispy on the outside and cooked all the way through.
Yeah! Meat, meat, meat!
Then we've got a sauce being made from whisky and cream,
which is quite normal...
Whoa-ho, look at you!
..but then into that, she's putting nduja.
Nduja, a spreadable salami, that's quite strong and spicy.
Time, time, time, time, time.
It flies too quickly here.
If there's anybody that has mastered fusion,
it's our Natasha.
She takes cultures and brings them together.
Really well-made,
beautiful textures, beautiful flavours.
Well done, you. Thank you.
So last time I cooked for a food critic,
it was actually, I think,
probably one of my strongest rounds.
Still remember your mille-feuille, beautiful.
The fruit salad mille-feuille.
So I just need to go in full force and give him a flavour hit.
Good to see you again. Yes. You too, Jimi.
What are you cooking for us?
So today I am cooking a mix between Italian and Chinese.
So it's going to be a beef, mushroom,
ginger lasagne, essentially... Wow!
..with a mushroom broth.
The only Italian thing on there is the pasta, right? Yes.
You look at it and you think of a lasagne,
but not in your typical way, with Chinese flavours.
We're going to have layers of blanched cabbage
and stir-fried beef with mushrooms.
In the stir-fry, we've got fish sauce,
a bit of vinegar, all happening.
Lovely.
Instead of having noodles with our beef stir-fry,
we've just got a couple of sheets of pasta.
How these come together, I'm not quite sure.
What am I going to do first? The beef.
30 minutes gone. You've got an hour left.
SHE HUFFS
Let's get hot in the kitchen.
Matthew, we know, loves the flavours of the Caribbean
and he's come back in here and wowed us with his technique.
The technical work in there is admirable.
I'm impressed.
Matthew's food is already fusion.
I've never seen fish and chips like it, that's for sure.
We've loved it so far,
he's just got to keep going.
I only started cooking a couple of years ago.
I used to love taking food
from different cultures
and just bringing them together,
so I'm going to love today's challenge.
So today I'm doing East meets West Indies.
So I'm doing pani puri balls
that's going to be filled with Trinidad double,
so that's a chickpea curry,
and that's going to be finished off with some cucumber salsa.
And then you move on to the Caribbean curried mutton,
and it's got coconut and lime rice at the bottom as well.
You have changed so much as a cook. Thank you very much.
Where have you now set your sights in this competition?
Well, I want to get to Knockout rounds,
I didn't get there before,
then after that, re-evaluate and see if I can push on.
Are they prawn crackers?
MATTHEW LAUGHS
Yeah. Are they?
No, they're pani puri balls.
I never knew you could buy them like that. Yeah.
He's actually using a pre-made pani cut mixture...
..you drop it in the deep-fryer and it puffs up automatically.
It's completely fail-safe.
There you go. Rise to the top.
It's like hooking a duck.
We're getting what he calls a Trini double.
A Trini double is like a chickpea curry,
and then instead of getting the spiced water you get in India,
we're getting a West Indian curry flavour.
We're also getting ourselves a mutton curry
and a coconut and lime rice.
Mutton is an older lamb, that means it's quite tough.
He's cooked it in a pressure cooker,
I hope it's nice and soft and juicy, and not in any way dry.
My concern is, with all the technique I've seen from Matthew
throughout the competition, there's not a lot of technique here.
Come on!
That's it.
Mary's food is so good because it's straight from the heart.
It's got so much love in it!
You are showing all the touches of classic cookery,
which made us fall in love with you last time.
I see Mary as a very, very classic cook.
No fusion at all.
I wonder how difficult Mary is going to find this.
I am out of my comfort zone because it's an extremely famous dish.
Everybody knows what it tastes like.
And with this twist, it could divide the crowd.
Most Sundays of the year, I do a roast for about 13 people.
Amazing. I've got a big family. 13?!
Yeah.
Most Sundays.
I love Middle Eastern food and Middle Eastern flavours,
so I thought a fusion of the two was worth a try.
We have, from Mary, this lovely loin of lamb,
which is going to be pan fried,
and on the outside it's got cumin and sumac.
Sumac, a berry which is sharp, almost like lemon.
Then we have roast potatoes which are being covered in za'atar,
slightly bitter and sharp.
Then we've got cauliflower cheese, which has got feta cheese,
really salty, and then tahini, which is sesame seed paste.
This is a really interesting idea.
One of the beauties of Middle Eastern food
is the wonderment that comes with spice,
and Mary can't be bashful about using them.
Ajay has made a massive impression in this comeback week.
That scallop dish, I think,
is probably one of the best scallop dishes I've ever eaten in my life.
Wow.
He does already have a style of fusion.
It is spiced right to the hilt,
and I love you for it.
I think that's just absolutely fantastic. Thank you.
I just hope that Ajay can keep this momentum going.
I grew up in India, but I left India 24 years ago
and I've been travelling across the world.
My cooking is now influenced by all these wonderful experiences,
and I love fusion cooking.
I'm bringing together Japanese and South Indian cuisine.
I'm making a pudding today,
that's a South Indian dish called thengai poli.
Thengai is coconut with jaggery,
and I'm going to layer it between coffee brandy snaps.
I'm going to serve that with a black sesame and miso ice cream,
a matcha and raspberry cake, and a raspberry whipped cream.
Are you feeling confident about getting all of this done in time?
It feels like a lot of things.
I wanted to try and bring the five taste senses,
so bitter, salt, sweet, sour and umami, into this dish.
There is a lot going on here.
Crispy brandy snaps, that jam, the cake, the ice cream.
But for me, it's about the danger of the combination.
You have 20 minutes left, everybody.
All right? Time is flying.
Nope, that's not good.
Going to have to get rid of that.
Chris's food is elegant,
sophisticated,
and it draws on different cultures from around the world.
I've never seen a dessert like it.
I think it's really clever.
For me, Chris is a very, very strong contender.
Last time in the competition, I cooked for Jimi Famurewa
and he loved my food.
In terms of setting this brief, this has, you know,
exceeded all expectations.
This dish has to be top, kind of, restaurant quality.
It has to look good, taste good
and I think it should do it.
Chris... Hi.
..me old mate, how are you?
I'm back. Good to see you again. And you're back. Yeah.
So, what are you doing today?
So we've got a Danish risalamande,
which is a Danish rice pudding...
OK. ..and that's going to be fused with a gulab jamun,
which is a sweet dough ball from India.
Why the combination of... Yeah. ..an Indian dessert
combined with Danish pudding?
Well, my partner is from Denmark, so we've adopted now, in our family,
to have Danish rice pudding for Christmas, for our dessert.
And then the Indian influence
comes from travelling around the south of India.
Put any sugar in there?
That rice needs to be cooked all the way through.
It can't be thick and gluggy.
Love that machine.
Then the other cuisine coming in is Indian -
gulab jamun. Little tiny doughnuts made from milk powder,
usually cooked in lots and lots of syrup.
They can't be hard and they can't be too bouncy.
This is really fascinating.
Quarterfinalists, you've got just 10 minutes left.
Ten minutes left!
CLIODHNA WHISTLES
Perfect.
SHE GROANS
It's looking good.
Fingers crossed.
That might be a bit too raw for them.
You have just two and a half minutes,
that's all you got. That went fast.
OK, I just need to start plating up now.
Almost doing the finishing touches now.
I think it looks OK.
90 seconds!
Come on, focus! 90 seconds.
We just got to garnish the plate now.
CHRIS IMITATES WOOSHING
Hey, hey, hey, I'm missing something here.
Where's my gravy? Where's my gravy gone?
That's it! Time is up!
GREGG HUFFS
And breathe!
SHE EXHALES SHARPLY
Oh, that is brilliant!
Thank you.
Cliodhna, up you come, please.
Cliodhna's Scottish-Italian fusion dish...
..is chicken breast stuffed with black pudding and porcini mushroom,
wrapped in Parma ham,
with truffle and garlic mash,
a Parmesan and Lancashire cheese crisp,
sun-blush tomatoes,
served with an nduja and whisky cream.
Putting those mushrooms into your black pudding
has softened them and given them even more pepperiness.
That's really clever!
The mashed potato makes no apology
for being absolutely bursting full of truffle!
The chicken is...
..really nicely done.
The crisp you've got on the Parma ham is gorgeous.
You've absolutely delivered.
It is cranked to 11.
It's...opera playing the bagpipes.
That's a good one.
I doubted this dish completely.
Nduja, cream and whisky?!
Uh...it's fabulous.
Thank you.
I love these little crisps of yours,
the Parmesan cheese and Lancashire cheese.
I love the fact that everything you've cooked so far
in the competition, there's been a bit of where you grew up.
You're so proud of your food,
and don't ever stop doing that.
I'm... Really good. I'm amazed.
I'm absolutely amazed. Yeah, I'm amazed. Mm!
Amazed. Wow.
Natasha's fusion creation...
..is a Chinese five-spice beef, cabbage and mushroom lasagne,
topped with a deep-fried enoki mushroom
and a mushroom broth.
The beef is cooked nicely.
There's a little bit of five spice, a little bit of sweetness,
there's ginger.
But it tastes to me, and looks to me,
almost every inch a Chinese dish
rather than a fusion between Italy and China.
QUIETLY: OK.
For me, though, right now,
the bits of the actual stir-fry have been chopped up so small,
it looks to me like the filling of my dumpling
has just exploded into my soup.
I think your steak is cooked very, very well...
..but I don't think it quite gets the brief.
In flavour terms, Natasha,
you've done fantastically well.
That mushroom broth is heady and rich
and fantastically well done.
I can see your skill in abundance,
but I just think this hasn't quite hung together.
I'm feeling a little bit deflated.
Most of my dishes are a risk that I cook in the MasterChef kitchen,
to be honest. And I did struggle with this brief, I can't admit that.
Yeah.
Matthew's East-West Indian dish is pani puri,
one filled with curried mutton and coconut and lime rice...
..the other a Trini double -
spiced chickpeas topped with cucumber chutney and pomegranate seeds.
That mutton curry is fantastic.
It is buttery soft,
it's a more mellow spice,
and there's lovely cooked rice underneath.
I'm very much enjoying eating them,
but it's leaving me wanting more.
It's leaving me wanting a whole bowl of food.
What you've got here is a couple of snacks,
and...
..I would like more food.
I would have thought for a quarterfinal,
we would have got you making the actual puri themselves.
I'm not seeing a huge amount of skill.
Your Trini double,
I really like the flavour of the chickpeas
with the pomegranate.
The sauce, the actual mixture across the top,
I'm finding ferocious with turmeric...
..really quite almost dusty and strong.
And I'm sort of losing the lovely freshness.
I think there's maybe just some kind of technical niggles here...
..but the flavours are, by and large, absolutely fantastic.
John did mention that I could have made the pani puri,
like he said, it is the quarterfinals.
Could I have showed more skill?
I believe I showed enough, personally,
but it's what they think.
Mary's Middle Eastern-fused Sunday roast
is sumac-spiced lamb,
za'atar-spiced roast potatoes,
halloumi, feta and tahini cauliflower cheese...
..honey carrots,
baby courgettes in preserved lemon,
and parsnip crisps...
..served with a mint and pistachio sauce
and a date gravy.
I really like the way you've cooked everything.
The lamb cooked perfectly and crisp on the outside.
The potatoes, I think, are good,
but there's only a small amount of za'atar,
I think you could probably do with some more. OK.
Those little courgettes, char-grilled, slightly bitter,
but also sweet, then with that saltiness from the preserved lemon,
I think it's absolutely inspired.
I haven't got a problem with any of your cooking at all.
Mint sauce! Get in there! Lovely.
Really, really lovely sharp mint,
and the gravy as well, really, really well made.
The cauliflower cheese in the tahini
might be one of the best cauliflower cheeses I've had, like.
Oh, wow. Certainly...
..I agree with John that you could have maybe pushed it
a little bit further in some instances. Right, OK.
More za'atar on the potatoes,
more heat in the gravy,
but beautifully put together,
an absolute joy to eat. Well done.
I'm blown away that Jimi said
that my cauliflower cheese was that good.
I feel that maybe I could have been
a little bit more daring with the flavours,
but because I had so many,
I didn't want to overdo it.
For his dessert,
Ajay is fusing South India with Japan.
Coffee brandy snaps filled with coconut and jaggery jam,
dusted with raspberry powder.
And matcha cake topped with raspberry cream,
served with miso creme fraiche
and a black sesame and miso ice cream,
topped with raspberry coulis.
I like this disc with the red on it,
because I've got quite strong sweetened coffee flavour
and then that finishes in almost sharp raspberry.
I like the sesame nutty flavour in the ice cream,
but the ice cream is too sweet, even for me.
QUIETLY: OK.
That coffee is on the verge of almost being burnt,
it's quite bitter.
The miso creme fraiche underneath,
I feel that's almost like cheese.
It's so salty with the miso.
I almost feel like I've got a green biscuit
with my cheese underneath.
You said to us you wanted to attack all our senses.
You've done that,
but I'm finding the balance a little bit out.
I think there's a lot going on here.
The South Indian aspect has got a little bit lost.
It's a quarterfinal, you have to take risks.
I took some. Some worked, some didn't.
That's life.
I had fun.
AJAY LAUGHS
Chris's dessert fuses Denmark with India.
He's made rice pudding flavoured with vanilla and cardamom,
served with gulab jamun -
a rose water and cherry doughnut,
cherry sauce and almond brittle.
That doughnut is absolutely dripping in syrup,
and I'm picking up the lovely, almost bubble gum
flavour of cherries and a little bit of rose water as well...
Mm. Yeah. ..giving it a little bit of Eastern promise.
I mean, it's absolutely delicious.
I mean, I could demolish half a bucket.
I honestly could.
The joy of this that makes me smile so much
is that it has all the familiarity of things as a kid growing up,
the safety of rice pudding from my grandmother,
then the grown-up flavours of cherries and almonds
that are in there as well. It's really well made.
It's rich,
it's indulgent.
There's such balance to it.
It's absolutely at the core of what I wanted people to do.
It is fusion,
but it's fantastic.
To impress Jimi again means everything
because, I mean, he's liked the dishes twice now,
so I've got to be doing something right.
Jimi, your briefs are always a surprise and a pleasure.
Thank you very much indeed. Jimi, thanks. Thank you so much.
Take care. Good luck. Well done, Jimi.
Tough decision. I know.
Thank you very much, my friend. See you next time. Thank you.
That was an extraordinary quarterfinal.
The last quarterfinal of this year's competition.
Three people going to Knockout Week, three of them going home.
There was one contestant in here that absolutely smashed it,
and that was Cliodhna.
The fusion between Scotland and Italy there was amazing.
It seems to me that Cliodhna's got a place in Knockout Week.
For me, the most delicious dish in the room actually was Chris's.
That rice pudding with that little doughnut seeped in syrup
was absolutely knockout, bang, delicious.
There was today one dish that for me just did not work out at all,
and that came from Natasha.
It was like my wonton had exploded in a bowl.
As a creation,
I can't criticise the cookery of it,
but the design of it,
it just didn't fulfil the brief.
There is another person for me today
who actually hasn't quite done enough.
We've seen Ajay put the flavours of Southern India in front of us,
and we have delighted,
and I have to say that dessert today was all over the place.
His idea of fusion today, bringing India and Japan together,
just did not work for me.
No, they didn't mix, and sadly, Ajay's gone.
Just one place left in this year's Knockout Week,
Mary or Matthew?
My biggest disappointment for Matthew in this round
was he didn't make the puris.
They're completely fail-safe.
We had great flavours from that mutton curry with the rice,
but for me, the Trini double,
there was just way too much turmeric.
Did enjoy it, but it left me wanting more.
Mary took the idea of a roast dinner,
but with the subtle flavours of the Middle East.
For me, my favourite bit were those courgettes and preserved lemon,
and the cauliflower cheese was delicious.
It didn't burst with the flavours of the Middle East,
and I think it could have done more.
In saying that, she did show a perfect touch
throughout every element of her dish.
Whose food do you want to eat again?
I don't know whether I've done enough to stay in the competition.
I hope I have,
but I've seen everybody else's food,
it's amazing.
I would feel upset if I went home at this stage.
A lot of commitment and sacrifice has gone into this.
I really do want to get through to Knockout Week.
WHISPERS: Oh, my God.
Our first contestant going through to Knockout Week is...
..Cliodhna.
Thank you so much.
Our second contestant going through is...
..Chris. Thank you so much.
Appreciate that.
Natasha,
Ajay,
I'm so sorry, you're leaving us.
Guys, I hope you've enjoyed it. We've loved having you back.
I'm so sorry. Thank you so much for having us.
I will look back at this experience really fondly.
I got phenomenal feedback.
I believe I know what I want to do when it comes to food.
Hopefully one day I could be a cookbook writer.
Let's see.
I know I cooked really well,
and it's just the standards are so high.
I'm really proud of what I've done
and what I've achieved in my time back here.
Our third and final contestant going through to Knockout Week is...
It's Mary.
Matthew, I'm sure you know, mate, it is the finest of margins.
So, coming back to MasterChef for a second time,
just gave me more belief,
and just made me realise that I need to stay true to myself,
which I think I've shown this time around.
I am disappointed, but...
..I'll be back...
..next year.
I feel in disbelief, but I feel so happy.
I can't believe it.
I can't believe I've got through.
This is the furthest I've ever got in MasterChef,
so just got to believe in the food and the flavours
and keep going.
It's monumental.
I just need to keep my head down and keep focused
and keep smashing it, I think.
Come here, you.
THEY LAUGH
Aw man, I'm proud of us.
Next time it's Knockout Week.
The best 16 from the heats fight to stay in the competition...
Extraordinary.
I love it.
..and experience the pressure of their first professional kitchen.
Four more lamb, four more chicken.