The MasterChef semi-finals continue.
Last time, Cliodhna...Thank you.
..and Tom went home. Great experience.
Thank you very much.
Now, this year's best six cooks remain.
Tonight they're sent into the wild
to cook with one of the world's most influential open-fire chefs...
..and a challenge to put on a show like no other.
Whoa! Wahey!
The smaller the numbers get, the more the pressure ramps up.
It's more intense than ever.
You go to sleep thinking about a dish,
and you're dreaming of the nightmares
that could happen in the kitchen.
It's totally all-encompassing.
I'm waking up still and having to pinch myself that I'm still here.
It's getting more and more challenging as time goes on.
GREGG: The curtain's going to come up to some amazing dishes
and come down for one unfortunate contestant.
It's show time!
What we want from you today
is to let your creative juices run wild.
Give us something theatrical,
give us something magical,
something that we will remember and talk about
for a long, long time.
At the end of this, sadly, one of you is going home.
One hour, 45 minutes.
Let's cook.
TENSE UPBEAT MUSIC
Some of the greatest chefs in the world
entertain through theatre as well as food,
and we want them to do just that.
I am expecting a show.
I've never, ever done anything theatrical, really, cooking-wise.
The only theatre I've ever done, really,
is when I've had too many to drink.
Mary, what do you think of this brief?
I was a bit baffled by this one.
I really had to search the depths of my imagination
to come up with something that was different.
So I decided to go for an illusional dish.
I'm making you a Scotch egg and piccalilli.
But it really isn't that.
She's taking a classic Scotch egg and piccalilli,
and she's turning it into a tropical dessert.
The white of the egg is going to be lychee,
and the egg yolk is going to be custard.
The sausage meat, that's going to be a coconut-flavoured rice pudding.
Around the outside of the Scotch egg,
where you'd normally get breadcrumbs, is going to be coconut.
We got piccalilli, which is made from fruit,
and then we've got a mayonnaise made from coconut.
So it really does look like a Scotch egg and piccalilli,
I think, anyway.
The point of it is to confuse the taste buds.
15 minutes gone already, guys.
Theatrical dining is becoming
a big thing at the moment.
It's all about that immersive experience,
so not only plating amazing food,
but getting people involved with the dish.
So today I want to take you both to work with me,
so I'm going to present a dish which will be your patient.
So we're going to have a pan-fried duck breast,
which will be the lungs, parsnip crisps for the ribs,
a salt-baked beetroot for the heart,
dauphinoise potatoes for the sternum,
and then a red wine and blackberry liqueur sauce as the blood.
Are you going to dress up in scrubs
like you're actually going to the theatre?
It's not just going to be me dressing up in scrubs,
I'm telling you that.
Uh-oh. GEORGE LAUGHS
This is wonderful and it's fun, but George has to remember
it's got to be an appealing dish that we want to eat.
If it looks too much like human anatomy,
we ain't going to go anywhere near it.
We ain't cannibals.
The theatrical brief
is certainly out of my comfort zone.
You know, I'm a farmer.
I'm a meat and two veg kind of girl,
so I really had to dig deep.
I enlisted my daughter's help with this one.
She reads the Beano,
and every week in the Beano they have prank of the week,
so we always do that on my dad or her daddy.
What's prank of the week?
So prank of the week is that you're going to get a pudding...
..but is it?
I think Louise's dish is fantastic.
We've got a bacon-flavoured panna cotta.
A tuile across the top, which is actually made from pork scratchings,
and then serve that with a lollipop, which we expect to be sweet,
it's actually going to be savoury, with vinegar and black pepper,
and a popping candy made from chorizo.
I mean, this is quite incredible.
Today I'm going to unleash
the fire-breathing person within me,
and really show them how theatrical I can be.
We know you as a creative cook. Yeah.
Where did your mind go to?
It went to kind of Victorian England,
very dark, sinister place.
You're going to have to be detectives
and you're going to have to look for the clues,
and you're going to have to solve where we're going.
And that's all done through visual effects,
theatre, and with the food as well.
It sounds intriguing, exciting...
..and maybe a little bit terrifying.
I don't know what the dish is,
but the story I'm fascinated by.
We're going into Victorian London in a detective who's done it.
Please work.
These have never worked at home.
You've got 25 minutes to go, everybody.
One of my weaknesses is probably desserts.
And I'm doing my first dessert today,
so that's pretty nerve-wracking.
Today I decided to make you a dog's dinner.
Bone marrow panna cotta is going to be served in a bone.
Ah.The rosemary panna cotta is going to hopefully
look like a tennis ball.
The shortbread's going to be a little dog treat,
and the soil is going to be burying the tennis ball as well.
So it's going to look like a dog's dinner...
Absolutely. ..but taste like a beautiful dessert?
Hopefully.
I think it's really creative.
I think it's really, really clever.
As long as it eats like a lovely dessert.
They're either going to love it,
or they're gonna absolutely hate the fact
that I'm treating them like dogs.
STEAMER HISSES
Sorry.
I'm focusing definitely on the food
rather than making it too over the top
that it overshadows the food, I think.
So I'll be making for you guys a dippy egg and soldiers,
but with a twist.
Fabulous!
Oh, and also with a bloody mary gazpacho on the side.
Why that?Just so it's a hangover breakfast, I suppose.
We've got a steamed egg custard inside an egg shell.
She's hollowing out the centre
and in the middle she's putting a tomato and chilli sauce.
Chips cooked three times,
breadcrumb to make them even crispier,
and on top of that, a pulled pork Welsh rarebit.
It's going to have the textures of a dippy egg and soldiers,
but the flavours of something completely different.
Five minutes left.
Just a bit of a rush now to get it plated up
and looking really neat.
Just three minutes, please.
Three minutes.
It's really to the wire, as ever.
I'm just going to make sure that the presentation is on point now.
Last few seconds, everybody.
That's it! Time's up! Stop!
I've done it. Whether it tastes nice...
SHE HUFFS ..I don't know.
Chris, please, up you come.
SPOOKY MUSIC
You are now detectives,
and you have to work out who I am...
..by the clues inside the box.
ELECTRICITY WOOSHES
BELL TOLLS
TENSE SPOOKY MUSIC
Whoa!
GREGG LAUGHS Wahey!
Whoa!Whoa!
Whoa, mate.
1888.
Shall we open it?
This looks pretty cool.
NARRATOR: Circus performer Chris
has served a beef tartare
with roasted bone marrow,
smoked beetroot puree,
gin and tonic gel,
nasturtium and chlorophyll oil,
and pommes souffle.
GREGG: Think he's Jack the Ripper,
and that's Whitechapel in East London,
and the five would be the number of murders.
Yes.
This steak tartare,
a really powerful, strong flavour of mustard,
the egg yolk makes it lovely and creamy.
I love these pommes souffles,
they're absolutely perfect.
This is in your face, really good tasty food.
Inside there are little gels of gin and tonic.
It starts sweet and then you get the unmistakeable bitterness
of a good gin.
You took us back to Victorian East London,
but you brought us right up to date
with a very modern and lovely dish.
Thank you very much.Thank you.
I feel really good after that.
I wanted to come in and show off today,
and I definitely tried to do that.
NARRATOR: Next up is Doctor George.
Where do these go?
That goes on your head to try and stop hair going anywhere.
CONTESTANTS LAUGH
NARRATOR: He served a heart made of salt-baked beetroot
with a cherry centre,
duck breast to represent the lungs,
with dauphinoise sternum and a celeriac puree,
all encased in a crispy parsnip rib cage
with a blackberry sauce.
So in front of you is your patient.
You have to draw up the anaesthetic sauce into the syringe,
squirt the anaesthetic sauce into the heart,
slice into the heart,
remove the cherry and enjoy the spoils of your hard work.
Oh, there's something inside the actual heart.
There is. Oh!
Oh, he's haemorrhaging, he's haemorrhaging!
CONTESTANTS LAUGH
Oh...
This is more than mildly alarming.
And there it is.
This duck, the flesh itself is beautiful, juicy and pink.
The potatoes, nice little bit of garlic.
They are soft as well.
If I've got one complaint, it's that I would just
like a little bit more of this duck fat rendered down.
I love your beetroot and cherry together.
I think the two of them are absolutely fantastic.
Parsnips, crisp and wonderful.
However, that blackberry sauce,
you've used too many blood thinners.
It's a little bit too thin, which is a real shame.
I think the majority of that has gone down well.
I just hope that the theatrics matched up to it.
NARRATOR: Next up is farmer Louise.
She's served a bacon-flavoured panna cotta,
a chorizo and black pudding crumb,
a kale and hazelnut pesto cake,
a pork skin tuile,
and a sweet bag filled with chorizo,
with popping candy and a salt and vinegar lollipop.
It looks exactly like a dessert.
It is a creamy panna cotta
with a slight smoky, salty bacon running through it,
and it's actually really very nice.
But what I absolutely love is sweetened pork scratchings.
I'm really enjoying it.
Inside that bag is absolutely delicious.
With the little lollipop,
which is slightly salty and a bit sharp,
I think that's really, really good.
I like its technique. I love the way it looks.
I think it's really, really clever.
It is a bit of a challenge to eat a bacon panna cotta.
When I first came up with the idea,
my family thought I was utterly mad.
That's a relief.
NARRATOR: Salesperson Abi has served a play on dippy egg and soldiers.
Set white custard with the yolk made from a chilli and tomato sauce...
..chips topped with stout-flavoured Welsh rarebit and pulled pork,
and a bloody mary-flavoured gazpacho.
Potato chips covered in pulled pork with cheese.
Inspired.
The egg white, I mean, that is quite incredible
that you can make a steamed egg custard
and it still holds up like that.
That is absolutely fantastic.
I think it's delicious.
WHISPERS:Thank you.
That yolk is properly sweet,
and it's got a little bit of heat to it as well.
Your gazpacho is delightful, refreshing and finishing with heat.
It's good to eat.
It looks good. It's clever.
I'm feeling pretty good.
I think I pulled off the illusion.
The feedback was really positive on the whole.
So yeah, feeling pretty proud.
NARRATOR: Grandmother of five Mary
has made a sweet Scotch egg illusion dish...
Ooh!
..with the sausage meat made from coconut rice pudding,
a custard yolk, and the egg whites made from lychee fruit,
all coated in breadcrumbs and desiccated coconut.
The piccalilli is a tropical fruit compote,
while the mayo is a coconut cream,
salt and pepper made from ground black rice and popping candy,
all served with a beer that is actually a rum cocktail.
GREGG: I think this is great.
It looks every inch like half a lager and a Scotch egg.
I really like that Scotch egg.
I think that's really, really clever.
In that little mixture, which is supposed to be piccalilli,
made from all your tropical fruits,
sweet with passion fruit and mango mixed together. That's great.
And I like your little sort of so-called mayonnaise.
Thank you.
The main part, the egg,
that sweet lychee and then all the coconut,
that's really yummy.
But, in my opinion,
that rice needs a little bit more cooking.
OK. It's still a little bit chalky.
I thought the judges' comments were good, not perfect,
so I don't feel very safe.
NARRATOR: Next up is veterinary surgeon Brin.
It suits you.
And then what have we got in here?
We've got a dog's dinner.
You've got a dog's dinner.
Ta-da! Wow, I love it.
NARRATOR: His dog's dinner's made up
of a bone marrow panna cotta in a dog bone...
..whisky-poached peaches,
with a rosemary panna cotta tennis ball...
..buried in a nut chocolate soil,
a shortbread biscuit in the shape of a dog's treat,
and a blackberry sauce.
What a weirdo.
The bone marrow panna cotta is mildly sweet and creamy.
Your shortbread biscuit, perfectly made.
It's got a hint of rosemary to it.
I'm in awe of your creativity, your imagination.
I think it's just absolutely wonderful.
Peaches, which have been poached beautifully,
but there's a little bit of warmth coming from the booze.
You've got that little bit of rosemary in the panna cotta,
not too much. Lovely creamy texture.
Bingo, buddy.
This is absolutely top drawer, big banana, brilliant.
Thank you so much.
I was really nervous and just really surprised
how much they loved it.
Um, yeah, I couldn't be happier.
Oh, wasn't that a great deal of fun?
For me, there's a couple here who absolutely smashed out of the park.
How good is Brin right now? Incredible.
The vision to create all the dog's treats in a bowl.
Brin, straight through to the next round.
I thought Abi's dish today was absolutely brilliant.
It looks every inch an egg, clever design,
and it also tasted great.
She goes through.
I really like Louise.
Bacon panna cotta I thought was brilliant.
It's good work.
I loved Chris's theatre.
I mean, I wasn't expecting a fire breather
or tales of Jack the Ripper.
It was a really good looking dish to me, and a great tasting dish.
Mary made for us her take on a Scotch egg,
but turned it on its head and made it sweet.
The rice that was inside the Scotch egg needed more cooking,
but the design and the flavours
I thought were very, very good indeed.
Doctor George made for us his idea of an open-heart operation.
The heart was made out of a salt-baked beetroot
with a cherry in the centre of it.
That, for me, was the highlight of the dish.
The duck, the fat needed more rendering,
the sauce, It wasn't quite thick enough.
Mary...
..or George?
Who goes through to the next round
and who's going home?
If I was to stay in the competition, you know, it would mean a lot.
I just...I love this experience so much.
Yeah, I just hope I do.
MARY:I don't know whether I've done enough.
I do feel like mine was probably the most tame of all.
SOMBRE MUSIC
You six are absolutely phenomenal.
We are losing one of you.
The contestant leaving us...
SOMBRE MUSIC GAINS TEMPO
..is George.
Mate, honestly, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here.
Thanks so much.
Thank you very much indeed.
Sad to be going home.
I wasn't ready for this journey to end.
There's a lot of things that I've done in this experience,
and I've learned a lot and I will never forget them.
My family are going to be really proud that I've got this far.
My wife is going to be over the moon,
and she always is,
and I just can't wait to get back to her.
Congratulations, you are our final five.
We have got a challenge for you now like no other.
Be prepared to have your culinary minds expanded.
DRAMATIC MUSIC
Daybreak.
Deep in the forest of Buckinghamshire,
the contestants arrive...
..for their most extreme challenge yet.
Today it's about the great outdoors,
and we are going to take these guys
literally from the frying pan into the fire.
They will be cooking at Nomadic,
a wilderness dining experience set in an ancient English forest...
..and will be under the guidance of one of the world's leading experts
in live fire cooking,
Swedish Michelin-starred chef Niklas Ekstedt.
My cooking style is very rustic,
and it's based on the way that we used to cook
before electricity was introduced.
Growing up in a very rural area in Scandinavia,
you're very close to the forest and the wilderness.
My mom always used to cook food that was foraged locally,
or from the Sami community that we lived very close to as well.
He has dedicated his life to the art of live fire cooking,
resurrecting ancient techniques
and combining them with modern presentation.
Cooking with fire makes me different from everyone else.
What's really amazing is that young chefs want to learn the art of it.
His unique cooking style has resulted in a London restaurant
and three in Sweden,
and he's held a Michelin star for the past 12 years.
It gives me so much pleasure and energy
to work with people that are curious.
This is a great setup,
and I think it's going to be a good inspiration for the cooks
to be in this environment, not to be indoors.
This is going to be way better.
Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome.
Told me there were five amateurs, but you look so professional.
This will be our playground today.
Brilliant.
Your task will be to cook my five-course dinner. Wow.
You'll be cooking for bushcraft expert Ray Mears...
..and eight other people who love the outdoors.
Wow. That's amazing.
So today the focus will be the fire,
the flames, the heat, the smoke.
And if you can control that, it's going to be epic.
That's amazing. Amazing.
Let's get started.
Fire it up.
UPBEAT AMBIENT MUSIC
Before they can start cooking,
Louise and Abi need to forage mushrooms for tonight's menu.
It's funny how easy they come out.
I'm really excited today.
This is right up my street.
Making a fire for cooking
is different than making a cosy fire in the house.
Always start very small with the bark like this,
it's like a natural fire starter.
It's like paper, so it's like... Ah, yes. ..nature's paper.
This is exciting.
What a chef to be cooking with,
and what a place to be cooking.
Yeah, absolutely great.
And then when you throw the first log on,
it's important to put the bark down,
because when you cook, you don't want this black smoke.
You want clean fire.
And you'll see that when the bark is gone,
you'll have a beautiful fire.
He's actually my food hero,
and I could not believe it when I knew it was him.
Oh my gosh, I just want to learn as much as I can from him.
You got it? Got it. Absolutely. Great. Good luck.
CHRIS:It's a dream to be cooking with fire because,
you know, we can barbecue at home,
but this is going to be something else today.
That looks good! Well done!
Beginner's luck or just a good teacher?
Shall we just put the whole wheelbarrow on now?
Yeah!
It's done. NIKLAS SHOUTS
Fires lit,
the contestants will now have four hours
to produce a dish for the specially-invited guests.
GREGG: What Niklas is doing
is bringing modern cookery style and technique
to the most ancient cookery art form of all.
Food and fire.
This is in our DNA.
We just don't know how to do it anymore.
We have got the best seats in the house,
haven't we, Mary? We definitely do.
It's so lovely and warm here, isn't it?
Keep warming the hands when they get cold.
NARRATOR: Mary has the pressure of the first course...
I really love this.
This is just awesome.
It's brilliant.
..birch-fired Arctic char with fermented gooseberries
and vegetable cream foam.
All right, Mary!
Finally cooking. Great. Thank you.
Here's the Arctic char.
Have you cooked this before?
No, I've never seen one before.
Oh, you've never seen one before? No.
So this dish itself, it's very nostalgic for me,
because I grew up in rural Sweden, up by the mountains... Yes.
..and we have a lot of Arctic char.
We used to grill it over the birch fire
when we were out fishing. Oh, wow. Yeah.
And this method is the way
that my dad used to cook fish for me. Oh, that's amazing.
During service, Mary will have to cook the fish
directly on a burning log of birch wood.
That's how you're going to cook the fish. That's amazing.
OK. Cos it's kind of hard to explain.
Yeah, I get that. Cooking it on the log you're like,
"What? What does it mean?" Yes.
This is what I mean. Amazing.
Mary's cooking an Arctic char, which is a pink-tinted fish,
and it's very, very delicate.
Over fire, I can't think of anything harder
than a flaky fish that falls apart,
that you have to handle quite a bit.
NARRATOR: Before she can cook the fish,
Mary needs to fillet the char into ten perfect portions.
Cleaning down a small fish like a char,
you need knife skills.
They only have one, right?
So see if they do it wrong, it's...
Yeah, it's not good.
Flip it over.
Way!
MARY LAUGHS
Oh, my God! Perfect!
This is my first time prepping a langoustine.
Brin will be in charge of the second course.
Langoustine with smoked celeriac puree,
celeriac petals,
and a sparkling wine beurre blanc, split with kelp oil.
It's fiddly, but also it's...
..it's freezing and they're really sharp,
so it's fiddly and painful too.
The langoustine tails need to be delicately removed from the shell
and will be cooked in the fire on top of seaweed.
People back in the days used to put seaweed on the fire,
to make the smoke go away,
and to get the saltiness in the fish and seafood
that they cook.
GREGG: It's like a natural seasoning.
What a beautiful idea!
NARRATOR: The heads are roasted over the fire
to flavour a stock for the sparkling wine beurre blanc.
It's a really exciting dish because we're using some
really amazing fresh ingredients
and cooking in a really exciting way.
He also has to master the wood oven,
which he'll be using to roast the celeriac
for his smoked celeriac puree.
Love it. Absolutely love it.
A wood oven is very hot,
but it can get cold quickly as well. OK.
So it's not like a regular oven where you throw your things in,
put it on 250 and then relax. Mm-hmm. Yep.
Here you need to go and watch it all the time.
Make sure that the heat is there. OK.
There's a lot of intricate things to get done in this dish,
so I just want to make sure that
I give everything the right time, do everything properly,
and get it looking like he wants it looking.
Do you feel confident? I feel OK at the moment, yeah.
I want you to deliver the best langoustine dish
you've ever done in your entire life.
It's the only langoustine dish I've ever delivered...
No, don't say that! ..so it could be the best,
but it could be the worst. OK.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's going to be the best. OK.
The best, the best, the best. Will do.
BONES CRUNCH
That wasn't a nice noise.
Abi is prepping duck for the main course.
I'm so weak.
The duck crowns will be smoked with hay
and served with roasted apple puree and mushrooms.
So, have you cooked a lot over open fire?
No, never. Never?! Never before.
First time? Yes.
Oh, my God!
The duck is cooked over the fire,
and then we add an element with smoked hay on it,
almost looks burnt.
But then when you rub the hay off,
it gets a delicate flavour of smoked hay.
She's taking the crown of a duck, so the two breasts still on the bone,
and she's going to hang them over fire,
and she has to work out how they're cooked by just hanging them.
GREGG LAUGHS
I'm dying! It's following me.
You kind of don't know where the wind's going to blow.
Tell me what's happening. Um, so I've just hung the duck,
so the smoke is going to heat up the duck
to the bone to the right temperature internally,
and then we're going to grill it after,
so it smokes it slowly.
Am I right in thinking you've got to put that duck
in a pot with hay and set light to it?Yes.
Well done you. You're loving it. Yeah. Well done.
Right.
What a great piece of meat to be cutting.
NARRATOR: Chris is butchering down a whole saddle of Highland red deer.
We want to have all ten fingers left after. Yes.
He'll be serving loin of juniper-smoked venison
with a reindeer blood pudding,
fire-roasted beetroot and a venison sauce.
The venison is going to be cooked over the fire,
but with a lot of juniper branches.
That gives it almost like a gin flavour to the game.
I'm really keen with Scandinavian cooking,
my boyfriend being from Denmark.
We do have an obsession with Nordic food.
Chris has a very big challenge with the deer.
Like, if you overcook game, it's not even edible.
Perfect. You got it. Well done, Chris.
With the loins prepped, he can move on to the beetroots,
which are roasted directly in the embers of the fire.
I thought I did quite good barbecuing at home,
but this is the next level.
Oh, the fire.
Louise will be finishing off the meal with Niklas's signature dessert.
Porcini mushroom souffle with a blueberry creme diplomate
and a woodruff ice cream.
This is by far the most difficult dish today,
because making a souffle is difficult,
and doing it outdoors with no electricity in a wood oven,
very hard.
I'm slightly terrified, but hopefully I can do it
and make the guests and the judges happy.
Her first priority is the ice cream.
The base is made with milk and cream that's infused
with a foraged flowering plant called woodruff.
GREGG: I love woodruff.
Tastes almost like vanilla.
It's really quite strong.
There's almost a coconut quality about it.
So a woodruff ice cream I've never had,
but I'm really, really looking forward to that.
Really unusual, really unusual.
But you know, mushroom souffle for a pudding
is also highly unusual.
Louise, have you made souffles before?
I've made a souffle,
but never in a wood oven or over a fire.
But, you know, you don't really know what the temperature is,
so you've got to use your cook's instinct, I think.
If anyone can do this, you can.
You can do this.I hope so. I really want to make a good job.
Thank you.
OK, we got 90 minutes
then the first dish goes out... OK. ..and we need more fire.
OK. So heat it up. More logs.
You can't relax one second.
Always just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
And I think we need to kick it up a little bit.
NARRATOR: Back on the first course...
This is, like, unreal.
The heat is absolutely tremendous in here.
..Mary's Arctic char is filleted,
and she now needs to roast a variety of vegetables
to make the stock base for her sauce.
That's hot.
To create the sauce, the stock is combined with cream...
OK.
..which is flavoured using an unusual technique.
And I need to put this on straight away? Yep, put that on.
So I'm putting some burning embers into the cream,
and then...to make a really burnt... Yeah. ..wood flavour.
And then... Yeah. ..trapping the smoke in with the foil.
This is celeriac puree.
And now I'm going to blend it
and put some smoked oil through it as well.
How are you finding it, Brin? I'm absolutely loving this.
It's fantastic. Are you?Yeah.
Do you think it's a new technique?
This is totally a new technique. There's not a hob in sight,
so even though we're cooking, I'm having to think about putting
things on the fire and making sure it's still going,
because if we don't,
then all the dishes are kind of done.
Tell you what, it's a big challenge.
Yeah, it's a great challenge.
NARRATOR: Abi has been roasting apples for her apple puree...
I'm definitely enjoying the whole energy,
but I'm just really cold.
..and has moved on to the second stage of cooking her duck,
rendering the skin over a raging hot grill.
I mean, cooking bird is always difficult over fire,
especially a duck, which has a lot of fat,
because the dripping fat gets a lot of flames on it.
I think it looks OK.
In service, she'll also have to master
a mediaeval French cooking technique using a tool called a flambadou.
The flambadou is a tool that you collected fat from the rotisserie
and added it onto your food.
So you take beef fat through a hot funnel,
and then the beef fat drips down on the mushrooms
and creates a great flavour, hopefully.
It's a dangerous job as the flambadou reaches a temperature of 600 degrees.
Put some more fat there. More fat in? Yeah.
NIKLAS LAUGHS
Oh, it's boiling!
The key is to have it clean and hot.
Got it? OK.
It's time for Chris to see if his roasted beetroots
are up to chef Standard.
So let's see. One, two, three.
Let's see.
Ooh! Look at that.
Perfect!
Nailed it.
He can now concentrate on the most complex element of his dish...
..a black pudding made with reindeer blood.
The reindeer blood pudding
is a dish that I learned from my Sami friends,
and that they make on the mountain when they take a reindeer down.
You take the blood out of the reindeer
and then immediately make a blood pudding over the fire.
Chris needs to blend the blood with flour, port and Madeira
before adding the melted butter,
all under the watchful eye of Niklas's head chef, Baxter.
Starting off nice and slow.
Like you're making hollandaise or... Yeah, like a mayo.
Any... Exactly, just like a mayo.
You go too fast and it's going to split.
For it to set, the blood pudding needs to be cooked
to exactly 58 degrees...
This on top? That in, grill in.
..over coal seasoned with juniper.
Wow.
Smells great.
Looks like a...
..blood brownie, doesn't it? Yeah.
On to the next. On to the next.
Are you expecting the juniper...
..the juniper flavour to go from the branches into the meat?
Yeah, I'm expecting the juniper flavour,
a bit of the smoke is going to be really unique.
I'm looking forward to tasting that one.
I mean, cooking with fire is amazing, and smoking it.
This is...this is heaven.
If I could have this set up in my garden, I'd be so happy.
NARRATOR: Louise's ice cream base has finished infusing with the woodruff.
Oh, yes.
Boom! You got it, Louise.
Thank you.
She's also made her blueberry creme diplomate
and has moved on to the souffle base,
which is flavoured with porcini mushroom powder.
I'm happy with my souffle mix.
The base tasted really good. Really mushroomy.
She has to gently fold in the egg whites,
keeping it as aerated as possible
to give the souffles the best chance of rising.
There's lots of volume in there,
so as long as I can keep the temperature of the oven going,
it should work.
But the famous last words.
OK, we got 60 minutes.
Everyone comfortable? MARY AND BRIN:Yes, chef!
Let's go!
I came in here this morning
and thought that it was going to be cool,
and I was just going to be relaxed.
I'm not at all.
I feel for them, all of them.
I just want them to deliver on a high level.
Hosting tonight's dinner is survival and bushcraft expert Ray Mears.
Fire is a wonderful tool for cooking...
..but in Britain, it can be a challenge
because of the weather.
You can't take your eye off the ball for a second.
When we cook on a fire, it's fundamental to being human.
It's very easy to stick a piece of meat over a fire and char it,
but to cook it to perfection, that is an art.
But I'm sure they'll come up to the mark
and I can't wait to taste their wares.
With service fast approaching,
the heat in the tent is rising.
We're going to be smoked, I think, by the end of day.
And the smoke is starting to get at the contestants.
MARY BLOWS HARSHLY
It's really bad.
It's like choking, but it's also...
..so hot it's sort of melting your face.
Yeah, all of a sudden it's just got quite intense in the kitchen.
We all need to get a move on, I think, to be honest with you.
They're also having to get to grips
with Niklas's Michelin-starred presentation.
I've had to cut the celeriac to exactly five centimetres,
and then shaping them to make these lovely petals.
It's such an intricate little thing.
There's just so much to do,
and it has to be done to such a high standard.
How are we doing down here?
We are just getting the petals ready. Yeah.
There's quite a lot of them to do. How many are in here?
200. How many have you done?
Ten? About 15.
Got to get going. You only have 185 left. Yeah.
Brin is doing the celeriac...
..and he's behind, so he needs to push a little bit.
Brin isn't the only one who's up against it.
Not on track at all.
Chris also has a job on his hands,
making individual roses out of his roasted beetroot.
CHRIS LAUGHS
Massacring these beetroots right now.
No, they're really tricky to make and I'm up against it.
I think my eyelashes are stuck together as well.
I'm just making a fermented gooseberry paste.
I'm blending some herbs and some shallots and some oils
before adding the gooseberries.
It's not one bit straightforward. There's a lot to it.
The biggest bit now I've got all of this done and managed
is actually cooking the souffles.
That's going to be really stressful.
Abi's now on the third and final stage of cooking the duck.
You're going to take some embers out of the fire now
and throw them straight on the hay.
And then we're going to put the duck in on top.
There you go. In. Thank you.
You look warmer now than you did before.
Much warmer now than before.
JOHN: What was once a calm tent now seems to be really hotting up.
Our five are now understanding the intensity
of what's truly going on here.
STIRRING PIANO
NARRATOR: Joining Ray Mears at tonight's dinner
are leading conservationists from the World Land Trust...
..an organisation dedicated to protecting
endangered habitats across the globe.
And Nomadic Dinners founder, Noah Ellis.
I am beyond excited.
Niklas is a chef that every single fire chef looks up to...
..and I can't wait to see what he's got in store.
I'm expecting good food,
I'm expecting to enjoy the meal,
and I'm expecting different flavours.
And, uh, yeah, it's a good experience to look forward to it.
Cheers, everyone. ALL:Cheers.
NARRATOR: There's now just moments till service.
UPBEAT MUSIC We need to move,
we need to focus,
we need to make this beautiful,
and most importantly, delicious.
OK? Yes, chef.
Let's go.
First up is Mary.
Flipping fantastic.
I never thought I'd be doing summat like this.
And it's time for her to face her greatest challenge...
It's really getting to my eyes.
..cooking the delicate Arctic char directly on a burning log.
Looks like for the first course
we're going to be having birch-fired Arctic char.
Come on, Mary.
You can do it.
To make sure that it's not overcooked
is going to be quite hard,
especially on a fire where you can't determine the temperatures.
I think this one looks good.
They're done. They're done. They're done. They're great.
That's good. OK.
With the fish cooked to chef's standard...
Mary... Yes. Go!
..it's a race to plate the dish as fast as possible
in the ever-dropping temperature of the tent.
Gooseberry will be lovely and sharp,
and then I think so will the sorrel.
Bit of a delicate operation, this one.
Grilled vegetable foam sauce.
Smell is just incredible.
This is going to be really exciting.
This looks very good, Mary.
Let's hope they put it off. Really looking forward to trying it.
It's going to be great.
Service, please.
It looks very nice, doesn't it?
Thank you so much for everything.
You're a sweetheart. Aw, well done, Mary.
I loved every second of that. Yeah.
I loved it so much. That was beautiful food.
Wonderful, thank you. That was really high-end cuisine.
Wow, that smells absolutely wonderful,
and I really like the way that the foam sits there.
Almost like it sets off the fish as in its natural environment,
in the sea.
That was just amazing.
I loved it so much.
It was just great.
The Arctic char is beautifully cooked.
It's very delicate. The foam is delightful.
I particularly like the gooseberry
and the tartness that came through.
Really enjoyed that overall.
I thought it was a fabulous dish.
All of the elements complemented each other perfectly.
Really, really delicate, well-cooked piece of fish
with some very, very good flavours.
I think Mary's done a great job here, I really do.
I think it's simple elegance with this dish
and flavours that come together which are really quite different.
Brin is next to serve,
but he still hasn't finished shaping his celeriac petals.
I would like him to be ready with the mise en place,
but he's still prepping.
And with so little time he's having to draft in some help.
Go end to end, twist,
and then you want to become corner to corner at the top.
Seaweed in. Boom, boom, boom.
This is the most important part of this cooking.
OK.
For the second course, seaweed-baked langoustine.
Quicker, Brin. Quicker. Yep.
The langoustine, you don't want to overcook it.
Carry on the plate
and keep an eye on the langoustines at the same time.
I'm expecting something that is
retaining the full flavour of the sea.
Petals on plate in the puree.
Yes, chef.
Fiddly work. It's hard to do it very quickly because it's so precise.
Nearly there, Brin. Come on.
You're doing great.
20 seconds!
Faster. Faster.
Go, you go, you go, you go, you go.
Service, please.
Aw, I love the presentation of this dish.
Thank you. That was not an easy dish, huh? No.
Is that the most difficult one you've done in your life?
Yes. That was tough. Yeah...yeah.
Brin has served seaweed-baked langoustine
with smoked celeriac puree,
celeriac petals and a sparkling wine beurre blanc
split with a sugar kelp oil.
Started off fine, but those celeriac petals
just really, really pushed me back.
It was a great experience. but intense.
It was a really interesting way to cook the langoustine.
I haven't had it like that before.
I really enjoyed the different textures,
like the celeriac puree.
It was quite smooth
and also the petals that brought in the crunchiness.
The beurre blanc's wonderful
and I thought the langoustine was cooked very delicately
and it had very nice flavour.
The star of it has to be, and is of course, the langoustine,
which is slightly mildly saltier than you would expect
because of the seaweed.
The smokiness coming from that celeriac puree is really good.
I think that's a really delicious dish.
Abi is next in line.
That's not petrifying at all,
"Just put a towel just in case it burns you first."
Before she can carve her duck to see if it's cooked,
there's one last dangerous task to complete.
Shake it like a Polaroid picture!
Shake it! Shake it!
Back in the heat! Back in the heat! Back in the heat!
Boom!
Oh, yeah. That was about to burn me.
A hay-smoked duck should be lovely.
I want my duck cooked to perfection.
There you go. Quack, quack.
Absolutely perfect.
Grilled wild apple puree
with a sloe berry glaze.
That's a lovely mixture as well.
Looking forward to that.
OK, it's good, but we need to work a little faster.
Service, please.
Last two plates! Service, please.
Wow!
Well done!
So proud of you. Ah!
Let's hope it tastes as good as it looks.
I've never been so freezing cold
whilst I've been doing my first round of cooking,
and so boiling hot whilst doing my second round.
But I loved it all,
it was a great experience.
The hay-smoked duck,
I definitely got the smokiness.
It was tender.
I thought the glaze was really good on the duck,
but I really liked the puree.
Wonderful texture, real sweetness.
You could really taste the apple in that.
The sloe berries, they really came out.
And the mushrooms were really lovely.
It was amazing.
Favourite so far, I'm sad that it's over.
Really lovely saltiness on top of that skin
coming from that sloe berry glaze.
That smoked apple puree is absolutely fantastic.
There is a taste of meatiness across the mushroom, actually,
and that must be that flambadou style of cooking it.
Really lovely. Really lovely.
NARRATOR: With the sun setting,
the temperature in the tent is plummeting to near freezing...
..and Baxter has noticed a problem with Louise's souffle mix.
So, Louise, the mix feels a little bit loose,
like too much air has been knocked out. OK.
So we're just going to have to give one of these
a bit of a test cook before we go into the service with them.
Yeah. Sure.
I have no idea what's happened.
The egg white was whipped. It was really stiff.
I put it through really, really gently with a spoon.
So I don't know whether it's the temperature, maybe.
I'm really confused.
Louise, just come have a look here.
So you see the one in the oven is, uh, it hasn't worked. Yeah.
So we're gonna have to make another batch and start again. OK.
Louise has done a test souffle and it's flopped.
That means she's had to start the whole souffle mixture again.
She's going to be late, by the looks of it.
NIKLAS:OK, Louise, these things happen, OK?
LOUISE GROANS So it's no point
bothering about it now.
Please keep your mood up. It'll be good. OK?
OK.
While Louise races to make another batch,
it's time for Chris to serve his venison dish.
His blood pudding is finally set...
Really good job, Chris. That's an amazing texture.
..and his final task is to perfectly cook the venison loin.
This is the fun bit.
I love venison.
It is one of the most sustainable meats that you can have in the UK.
So we've now put some juniper underneath,
which is going to smoulder and smoke, and infuse it
with that really strong kind of foresty pine smell.
Venison on a campfire,
you really shouldn't go far wrong with that.
I like my venison kind of medium rare.
I'd be happy with that if I got that, I'm sure.
we're going to have reindeer blood pudding...
Delicate things.
RAY:I mean, that's intriguing.
..birch-fired beetroots...
..with shallots and truffle puree...
OK, you need to move a little quicker, Chris.
..fresh truffle and a venison sauce.
That sounds amazing.
Look at that, Chris! Looks beautiful!
Service.
You did it, Chris! In a tent.
You did it in a tent, man. Well, thanks for your help.
That was awesome. You did it in a tent, man.
I loved the venison.
It was really good. It melted in the mouth.
The flavour of the venison just came through there.
The blood pudding, that was really buttery,
and I really enjoyed that.
It was kind of something very different
to what I was expecting.
The beetroot was a very interesting combination with the venison,
which I think worked really well.
I thought the sauce was rich
and it really complemented the dish very well.
Good job to the chef.
This has all been done over fire by Chris.
I think he's done a really, really good job.
It looks fabulous, tastes fabulous, absolutely love it.
Who came up with making a souffle in a wood oven in a tent in England?
NARRATOR: It's Louise's final chance to get the souffles right.
It is looking exactly like it did last time.
If that first batch didn't work,
what's she done to actually make that go wrong?
There's no point crying over ruined souffles.
Does that mean she's going to do the same thing to the second batch?
I am feeling incredibly nervy.
Porcini mushroom souffle for dessert,
and my brain is whirring trying to compute
how mushrooms can be served as a dessert.
GROANING:Oh, my God!
They just look like not-cooked batter.
In a desperate attempt to increase the oven temperature,
Niklas resorts to shovelling in hot coals.
A miracle can happen.
I'm just really sad.
I've come and had the opportunity to work with brilliant chefs
and it's all gone horribly wrong.
I wouldn't be brave enough to cook a souffle in a normal kitchen.
HE MUMBLES
Uh, they're rising, they're rising.
With the souffles beginning to rise...
OK, let's go.
..Louise must quickly plate the blueberry creme diplomate
and woodruff ice cream.
Look at it! We made it! We've got a souffle.
Slow-smoked souffle.
Service, please. Ooh, at last! Service.
We did it! Thank you so much, chef.
LOUISE LAUGHS
That was like a marathon.
I love you. It has been a joyous day.
Oh, I don't know about that.
THEY LAUGH
That was hard.
So hard.
Wow, that is probably...
..one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten.
Getting that on a plate, still hot, still standing,
I think it's an amazing feat.
To me, that's my course of the day.
I've never had mushroom in a souffle and it was, like, innovative for me.
I did really enjoy the woodruff ice cream.
I've not had that before
and the herbal flavour was phenomenal.
The blueberry creme diplomate was wonderful with that.
This was a big ask and it was a bold step for this chef.
And I take my hat off to them because they've done really well.
Mm-hmm.
It's got a very strong aroma,
and just a little hint of smoky mushroom going through it.
Very clever.
I think Louise has done a really good job.
I think this is very good, actually.
In fact, I'd go as far to say it's my dish of the day.
Well done, Louise
After a gruelling day over the fire,
service is finally over for the semi-finalists.
Feels like we're the band of brothers now, doesn't it?
Been through war!
It was like D-Day.
Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you.
I mean, it was a pleasure working with you.
THEY CHATTER Aw!
THEY LAUGH
Fire MasterChef. Thank you! Thank you!
I mean, that is just extraordinary.
Chef Niklas cooks in a way that I've never seen
anybody else cooking, ever.
DINERS APPLAUD
What they attempted today and what they carried out, I think,
was nothing short of miraculous!
Oh, working with Niklas was awesome.
He's such a nice man.
To cook his food was a complete honour.
There are things I'll take away from today
that I didn't dream of learning.
Definitely been worth it.
But yeah, very cold now.
Can you see that?
I was determined to get my head down and smash it.
Definitely take a lot away from this.
Next it's back to the MasterChef kitchen...
..cos we're looking for our finalists.
It would be incredible to be in the final four,
but there's a big competition now with lots of amazing people.
Next time,
it's the last of the semi-finals...
Ooh, it's boiling hot.
..and the five remaining contestants are pushed to their limits...
At this stage, who the heck knows?
..as they battle for a place in Finals Week.
I'm bamboozled, but I really enjoy it.
Totally alarming...
..and totally wonderful.