It's the last of the MasterChef semifinals.
I never expected for a minute to be in the final five.
It's a dream, really.
Who knows what's going to happen?
I'll be proud of myself, no matter what,
but I want to be in that final four so badly.
Winning is in sight. Four other cooks, they are amazing cooks,
but let's knock them out one by one.
Tonight, just one unique challenge stands between these five
exceptional home cooks and a place in finals week.
Today, it's make or break.
One tiny mistake could cost them the competition.
Massive challenge, massive test.
And one step closer to the MasterChef trophy.
Well done, all of you,
our final five.
One dish separates you from a place in finals week.
Every great cook in the world takes inspiration from somewhere.
And today we want you to take inspiration
from a past MasterChef contestant.
Now, that could be a dish that they cooked
whilst on MasterChef.
It could be the style they now cook in.
90 minutes, four places up for grabs.
That does mean that one of you is going home.
Let's cook.
What they've got to do for me in this round is give me
a bit of surprise.
I don't want a replica.
I want to see their style actually coming together
with the inspiration.
Who were they watching?
Who inspired them to become better cooks?
Who inspired them to come on this competition?
Feeling good. My dish is hopefully going to go to plan, I think.
Abi, for a contestant so young,
incredible knowledge, real great technique.
She takes inspiration from Asian flavours.
How are you feeling about being so close to touching the trophy?
I'm obviously feeling really proud of myself for getting this far.
But, when you get this far, you just need to get further.
My inspiration is Tim Anderson.
I was 11 when he won.
Wow! I think we're quite similar in that we like Japanese food.
It is really clever.
Your food is exciting.
So today, I'm going to be making a butter and ginger-baked haddock,
a smoked haddock, scallop mousse and potted prawn ballotine,
yuzu pickled vegetables, a miso beurre blanc
and some sake-steamed mussels.
Abi wants to use French technique, which she knows she's good at,
and she's going to pair that with the flavours of Japan.
We have got haddock two different ways,
a piece of smoked haddock turned into a ballotine,
scallop mousse with brown shrimps in the centre of it.
That smoked haddock can't be dry.
The mousse in the middle has to be set all the way through.
Then a butter-baked piece of haddock,
which has to be lovely and soft.
A beurre blanc, classic French butter sauce -
make sure it doesn't split - flavoured with miso, miso paste,
that gives it almost a little bit of meatiness.
Tell you what, that's a very, very ambitious dish.
So much could go wrong today.
But the aim of the game is focus and not too much pressure
because, if I put pressure on myself, that's when I crumble.
Mary, a comeback contestant.
We love the way she cooks.
Her flavours are brilliant,
the food she cooks for her family.
She has great knowledge and real heart and passion.
My dish today is inspired by somebody
that I was in the competition with before, called David Crichton.
He made a pineapple tarte Tatin.
That's a really nice, light, sweet, beautifully flavoured dish.
This was the dish he cooked
on the day that I went out of the competition.
So... And I remember thinking, "I wish I'd have done that."
What is it about David's food that you love?
I thought that David had such amazing imagination.
I loved his dishes.
So I'm making a pineapple tarte Tatin.
And I'm serving that with a coconut and rum ice cream,
and a ginger and coconut tuille
and some passion fruit gel.
A huge amount of work to do. It is, yeah.
Can you actually deliver the perfect dish you want to deliver?
Yes, I can deliver it today.
Traditionally, a tarte Tatin is apple.
She's using pineapple.
A pineapple is a lot juicier than an apple.
So she's going to have to be very, very careful
cos that would spoil the pastry.
The concerns for me right now on Mary
are getting the pastry done in time, cos she's making rough puff.
That's going to take about 20 minutes to cook in the oven.
So she's going to have to really push with that pastry.
She's got to make ice cream, which means making a custard,
but the ice cream's got alcohol in it and alcohol doesn't freeze,
so she's got to be careful the alcohol proportion to coconut
is absolutely right.
But, as far as flavour's concerned,
I think this sounds absolutely wonderful.
Louise has always done food throughout this competition
where she takes a few ingredients and does them in different ways.
She's got a really good understanding of the classics
as well, and she seems to be getting stronger
as the competition develops.
Louise, what's your dish, please?
We've got cod with peas, broad beans, a lemon gel and parsley oil.
And then I've made curds and whey.
So, with the curds, I'm making sort of a brown crab fritter,
and a whey butter sauce.
Who on MasterChef inspired this dish?
It was Adam Handling from MasterChef: The Professionals.
Wow!
If a waiter brings this to my table, I'm just grinning.
Brilliant chef, made the final three.
Didn't actually win it but went on to win a star. Absolutely.
So the dish that's inspired you from Adam is his fish
with the whey butter sauce? Yeah.
He makes things look very simple
but you know, behind the scenes, it's not at all simple.
His presentation is beautiful and he hates waste.
And I feel like, you know, I'm, in a tiny way,
a vaguely similar chef.
I've eaten at his restaurants.
I went to a supper club in the summer.
So I went and begged him for a shameless selfie.
He was very kind about it and he did tell me
that he didn't get asked for selfies very often at all,
so it was quite nice.
It's a really fascinating dish.
That fish is paramount.
If that piece of fish, which is a big piece of cod, which she's
first brining, isn't cooked properly or it's dry, we have a problem.
She's taking milk
and she's separating it into the curds and whey.
The curds is the creamy, cheesy, yoghurty-looking stuff.
She's using that to make a brown crab meat fritter.
Delicious!
The liquid that's left, that's the whey.
Now, that should be really sour, like yoghurt.
And she's using that to make a sauce.
She's got to nail it. Got to nail it.
You're halfway. 45 minutes gone.
Brin throughout the competition has shown that he loves process
and that he's daring.
Some of his ingredient matches are right out there,
but he makes them work.
He's a very, very exciting cook.
My dish today is inspired by Omar Foster,
who was in last year's competition.
Lamb, chocolate, cheese, grapes.
I love it.
I was always really intrigued by how Omar was able to get flavours
that shouldn't really go together, on paper,
and produce these amazing dishes.
He was just so creative with everything he did.
And the one thing that always comes to my mind is the dish that he made
for the chocolate round that you set.
So I've used that dish
and tried to make it my own a little bit today.
You're going to take all the ideas of Omar
and then pair it with all the ideas of Brin?
Yeah. So we've got a lamb loin coated in cocoa powder
and served with a lamb shank bonbon,
butternut squash puree, Romanesco broccoli,
crunchy grapes, pickled shimeji mushrooms,
pickled chillies, whipped feta,
and miso and gochujang spring onions,
all served with a lamb, chocolate and chilli sauce.
Like many of your dishes, it sounds right out there.
I hope, like many of your dishes, it tastes fantastic.
Cheers.
Brin's got lamb loin coated with chilli and chocolate.
We want colour on the outside of that lamb loin,
but pink in the middle.
It's the lamb that I'm nervous about.
Then sharp, hot spring onions. Butternut squash puree.
He's got lamb shank bonbons!
You need to keep the lovely moisture of that lamb shank,
because that's what's beautiful about a lamb shank.
A crunchy grape!
He's coated the grape in a nut mixture.
But it sounds great, doesn't it?
And he's making a sauce from the lamb shanks
with some chocolate in it and some more chilli.
We've got big flavours. That really concerns me.
It's pink, it's pink.
It's good. I think it's good.
Chris, we know, has a theatrical side to his food.
He himself is a performer
and you can clearly see it in his dishes.
I think he's exciting.
He takes a classic idea
and he adds something to it to make it
completely new and surprising.
The inspiration for the dish today is Thomasina Miers from 2005...
..with her Mexican-style street food.
I'm really going to focus on bringing in
some of the flavours from various different Mexican desserts
and putting them all together on the plate,
and hopefully they should work together.
Today, I'm going to make for you a tres leches cake,
a corn cremeux,
mangonada sorbet sort of ice lolly,
which I'm making you.
And that's based on a spicy chilli drink from Mexico.
And crickets, with meringue flavoured with horchata.
What's an horchata?
It's a drink made from rice and almonds, sugar,
cinnamon, star anise and things like that.
Prickly pear gel, bring a really nice
bubble gum-kiwi kind of flavour.
And you've also got some deep-fried tequila.
How do you deep-fry alcohol? What do you mean?
Oh, I should leave it as a surprise.
It's really amazing.
All I can say is wow and the very best of luck.
Thank you.
He's got a collection of Mexican flavours,
some sweet, some savoury,
and he's combining them all together in a dessert.
I mean, it's right out there.
A three-milk cake is like a sponge.
You use evaporated milk, which is quite bland.
Condensed milk - very, very sweet.
Jersey milk, which is really, really rich.
It soaks into the sponge and becomes a lovely soft, milky-flavoured cake.
And deep-fried tequila.
Mr Wallace, this is extraordinary.
The corn-flavoured chocolate cremeux,
but he's using white chocolate.
Corn is a strong flavour,
but it's not as strong as white chocolate,
so that balance is not easy.
Honey-roasted crickets.
Well, of course, everybody's favourite pub snack, that is.
The thing is with invention,
it can be an absolutely wonderful surprise,
but it can quite as easily fall flat on its face.
You've got just three minutes, everybody.
Three minutes.
Hopefully, on time.
Those ballotines I'm a little bit worried about.
Oh, it's boiling hot!
Just got to keep pushing now.
At this stage, who the heck knows?
Final touches, please.
That's it. Stop!
Everybody stop. Well done, well done.
I think I'm happy. I think I'm happy.
I pushed it.
I'm... Let's hope it worked.
First up, inspired by 2011 winner Tim Anderson
and his love of Japanese flavours,
Abi has cooked haddock two ways - butter-baked,
and a scallop mousse,
brown shrimp and smoked haddock ballotine
topped with caviar, served with sweet potato puree,
sake-steamed mussels,
yuzu-pickled cucumber,
and a miso beurre blanc.
The cookery of the main piece of haddock is good.
That ballotine is really, really well done.
Inside there you've got a scallop mousse,
which is smooth and rich.
Brown shrimp, as well as the caviar,
giving a little bit of natural saltiness.
Well done.
I love those mussels.
You've done them in sake.
They almost have a finish of apple cider.
Really lovely.
I think Tim Anderson would be really proud of a dish
like this if he did it. Thank you.
Your miso beurre blanc, I think it's delicious.
It's velvety smooth.
Got the lovely savoury note.
That pickled cucumber adds a really different dimension to it.
I love the sweetness of the sweet potato amongst the pickle
and the sake of the mussels.
I think it's a great dish.
Big day, feeling happy that it's over
and just anxiously waiting for the results, I think.
Farmer Louise has been inspired by MasterChef: The Professionals 2013
runner-up Adam Handling's renowned cod and whey dish.
She's pan-fried a kombu and chervil-brined cod
topped with lemon gel and caviar,
served with pea puree, pea and broad bean salad,
curd and brown crab fritters,
finished with a whey butter sauce and parsley oil.
I love the sauce and I love the parsley oil.
I think that's really, really beautiful.
The pea puree, wonderful.
The curd fritter is really nicely made
and there's almost a cheesiness about it,
and it goes with the crab, being salty.
But for me, the disappointment's my fish is a little bit over.
It's starting to fall apart, which is a real shame.
I haven't got a problem with my fish.
Our fish are different sizes.
I got a great big piece and it is cooked perfect.
And on top of that is a little bit of sharp lemon gel, which is clever.
The sweetness inside the pea puree is delightful.
I think this is a dish of the highest quality.
I think if I'd have put Gregg's plate in front of Adam Handling,
he would have hopefully eaten it and said, "Eh, not bad."
Erm, but apparently John's plate was not quite as good.
Veterinary surgeon Brin has taken inspiration
from 2023's finalist Omar Foster's risky flavour pairings
and created a chocolate and lamb dish -
sous-vide lamb loin coated in Korean chilli paste
and cocoa powder, served with lamb shank bonbons,
butternut squash puree,
Romanesco broccoli,
pickled shimeji mushrooms,
crunchy grapes, pickled chilli,
whipped feta,
miso and gochujang spring onions,
finished with a chocolate and chilli red wine sauce
split with coriander oil.
Your lamb loin is cooked beautifully
and there is a cocoa bitterness around the outside.
Quite delightful.
That grape is a revelation.
It's like a honey-roasted nut with a grape juice.
Very, very good.
Your spring onions, full of sticky saltiness,
is delightful.
It's very exciting.
Highly enjoyable.
Very daring.
Thank you.
I'm going Greece with feta cheese and lamb.
I get that together.
But at the same time, I'm having a bonbon,
which tastes to me almost like a roast dinner.
Your lovely rich chocolate sauce from Mexico,
coriander oil giving it a real flavour of Asia.
I'm bamboozled, but I really enjoy it.
Omar was always taking a risk.
You've taken a risk throughout the competition and, for me,
your risk has just paid off.
Thank you so much.
I think I'm really happy and I am proud of the dish,
but I just really hope it's enough.
Inspired by MasterChef's first-ever winner, Thomasina Miers,
circus performer Chris has made a three-milk cake
topped with a corn cremeux and honey-roasted crickets,
with prickly pear jelly, dragon fruit cubes,
meringue shard flavoured with horchata,
deep-fried tequila churros,
and a Tajin-spiced mango sorbet.
You are one original cook.
It is really right out there.
Totally alarming.
And totally wonderful.
The most shocking thing is the chilli and salt
across a mango lolly.
Doesn't feel right at first taste.
You're very quickly,
as soon as that mango starts to melt on your tongue,
brought back to tropical comfort again.
Absolutely lovely.
I really like that three-milk cake.
And you have successfully made a corn cremeux
using white chocolate.
There's enough corn going through there to give it corn sweetness.
The cricket, when you bite down on it,
it's honey with a little bit of pepperiness to follow.
I shouldn't expect anything less than shocking,
but you do make shocking work
and I'm a fan.
Thank you.
Chris, I can't believe what you've achieved.
This meringue, I think, is inspired.
And it tastes to me almost like a milky iced coffee.
The doughnuts with the tequila are fantastic,
because they taste of that smokiness
that comes from tequila.
It's playful, it's exciting, and it's...it's fascinating.
Exhausted. That was a very quick cook.
I think the big risk did pay off today.
I don't want to put a boring plate of food up
in front of John and Gregg.
Retired company secretary Mary has created her version of a dish
by 2018 finalist David Crichton.
A pineapple tarte Tatin served with passion fruit gel,
coconut and rum ice cream,
and a coconut and ginger tuile.
The pastry is a little bit softer under the layer of toffee
than you would want.
Pineapple, lovely, juicy going into that caramel.
It's wonderful.
They are good tried-and-tested flavours.
This tuile, you'd want a little bit of snap to that
rather than bend, wouldn't you?
Mary, you decided to do a dessert.
Well, it's definitely sweet, that's for sure.
I've got sweet pineapple in caramel, which is really sweet.
And I've got a very, very sweet coconut and rum ice cream.
Your ice cream's fabulous, I love it.
I've got the taste of the rum
and it's really, really very good indeed.
I would like a bit more sharpness from that passion fruit,
just to give me a little bit more relief from all the sweetness.
OK. Because that's a really sweet dessert.
Yeah, I feel OK.
I'd originally made a lime and yoghurt ice cream,
but I felt that was too sour, so I did change it last minute.
Maybe I shouldn't have.
I've got to say, I'm absolutely blown away by the talent
in this room.
The daring nature of some of the cookery
I think is just fabulous.
Brin, he put together a dish that probably shouldn't have worked,
including crunchy grapes, butternut squash puree, chocolate.
The dish tasted great.
It was different, it was dangerous,
but it worked.
And it did show a lot of technique.
Chris, inspired by Thomasina Miers.
The flavours of Mexico.
Well, we got the flavours of Mexico and beyond in a dessert.
I sort of can't get over how original he really is
and he gets it right.
He doesn't stop pushing the boundaries.
He's just very exciting.
Abi, a completely original plate of food inspired by Tim Anderson.
The cookery was incredible.
That ballotine of the smoked haddock,
that was really challenging.
It was a great dish.
So, Brin, Abi and Chris are through to finals week.
Now we've got a conversation about Mary
and Louise.
The issue for Louise is I had really good cooked fish,
you had a piece of fish that was half the size
and was falling apart, and they were very, very different.
Mine was overdone,
but I love the fact that actually she made her own curds and whey,
and she turned that into a crab fritter.
I thought that was very clever.
Mary cooked us a pineapple tarte Tatin.
The passion fruit gel wasn't there
and that dish needed something like passion fruit gel.
It was really sweet.
Mary was very brave, I think, making her own puff pastry.
But when you scraped underneath that caramel,
you could clearly see the pastry was a little white.
The tuile itself did not work.
Lovely flavour of coconut and ginger - that didn't snap.
That was bendy.
If I go home today, I will feel disappointed.
Mainly because I would feel that I've not gone out
on my best dish
and that would infuriate me for evermore.
Eternity.
I think I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth,
and that feels really annoying, because I want it to be,
"Yeah, we really like that,"
and feel a little bit more sure about things.
Who's it going to be?
Who goes through to finals week?
Who leaves the competition?
An absolutely incredible and formidable five.
We only have four places in finals week
and that does mean, sadly, one of you is leaving us.
In a room packed with culinary talent,
we feel there were two absolutely standout cooks.
Chris...
..Brin, congratulations.
You are going through to finals week.
One more contestant we feel did more than enough
to show their real MasterChef credentials.
Abi, congratulations.
Finals week it is.
Well done, Abi.
Mary, Louise,
one of you, sadly, is leaving the competition.
The contestant leaving us is...
It's Mary.
Mary... Thank you so much for everything.
You've had a marvellous competition.
I've really loved it.
Thanks so much for the opportunity. It's been amazing.
Mary, you've been absolutely brilliant. Thank you. Thanks.
You go and smash it now.
Honestly, it's been amazing.
You all deserve it, absolutely.
Definitely.
I feel really proud of myself.
I did so much better than I thought I would.
But I have had the time of my life.
It's just been beyond anything I thought I would experience.
You are our final four.
Oh, my God! Come here.
Oh, flipping heck!
It's unbelievable.
I feel like I've dodged a bullet.
This is... It's just beyond dreamy now.
It's amazing.
Gosh, I'm shaking like a leaf.
Mum's going to be so proud.
I know she's going to burst out crying as soon as I call her.
She's done it every round,
but I think this one will just top it all.
I feel a bit emotional.
I feel really strange.
I feel sick, dizzy.
I want to pee myself...with excitement.
I don't know, it's wild.
Not in a million years did I think I'd be here.
I am just over the moon.
I don't think I can get happier than this.
We now want to introduce you to a city
with one of THE most exciting food scenes in the world.
John and I will see you
in Singapore.
What?!
That's amazing.
That's perfect.
Next time...
Can everyone move faster?
It's the MasterChef finals.
I think we're all a bit behind.
It's just absolute chaos now.
I won't be able to use that.
It's burnt.
OK, on the pass. Let's go.
It just melts in your mouth.
Hats off to them.
I think it's fantastic. It gives me shivers.
At the end, one of these four exceptional cooks
will be crowned this year's champion.