It's finals week on MasterChef.
And the battle for the title is almost over.
This isn't the stage of the competition where you rest
on your laurels. You push and you push really hard.
To come this far and go home - well, no-one wants to do that.
I'm a determined person. Give it everything you've got.
You're completely living from cook to cook.
It's narrowing down and stays, like, crunch point, I think.
Don't mess up.
One mistake could send you home.
Tonight, they face their most daunting challenge yet -
Chef's Table.
OK, on the pass. Let's go.
Ah, I mean, hats off to them.
Before they cook off for a coveted place
in this year's MasterChef final.
That trophy is almost within reach.
It is crunch time.
In the heart of London's Mayfair
lies the country's most iconic restaurant. Le Gavroche.
Opened in 1967 by the legendary Roux brothers,
Michel and Albert,
their great classic French cuisine
was the beginning of a gastronomic revolution.
Great Britain was a culinary laughing stock around Europe
until the Roux brothers arrived from France
and completely changed British cuisine forever.
In 1982, it was the first UK restaurant to be awarded
three Michelin stars.
It's always been one of our wildest dreams
to achieve the third star, yes.
But its greatest legacy
is training some of the world's most influential and celebrated chefs,
including Marco Pierre White,
Gordon Ramsay
and Albert's son Michel Roux Jr.
All the food here is based on French classic technique.
It's not just about the food,
it is about the service, the buzz,
the atmosphere, the hospitality.
It's special. And that's something that we can be very proud of.
Now, after 35 years at the pass,
Michel has made the personal decision to close Le Gavroche.
And the four finalists
have the honour of cooking in one of its last-ever services.
This is a chance of a lifetime for the contestants,
to be able to walk in the footsteps of so many great chefs.
Welcome to Le Gavroche.
How does that sound? Amazing. Mind-blowing.
As part of the closing celebrations,
I've invited some close friends and family
for a really special lunch.
I'm going to give each of you
a classic Le Gavroche dish to cook.
My guests expect perfection,
so make sure you nail these recipes.
Let's go and do this. Come on, follow me.
This is all about classic food done with real style,
taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.
It's an absolute honour to walk through those doors.
I'm, like, shellshocked with all of this.
Wow! I mean, I can't believe
I'm going to actually work with Michel Roux.
Someone's going to have to pinch me.
This is an historic moment. This is a Chef's Table like no other.
A legacy being celebrated.
Salesperson Abi will be opening today's lunch
with one of the late Albert Roux's classic starters.
Poached scallop mousse on a julienne of vegetables and diced scallop,
served with a chartreuse liqueur veloute and a scallop coral tuile.
This particular dish was on the menu at Le Gavroche
during the '70s and '80s. It was almost a permanent fixture.
Take the scallop like this. Run the knife down it.
Full of technique.
Open up the scallop.
OK. So some of the scallops will go in the mousse.
The nice diced bit will be the garnish.
The difficulty in this dish is getting the mousse just right.
Not too heavy and not too light.
Too light, it's going to collapse.
Too heavy, it's going to be like a rubber ball.
The scallop mousse is lightly poached in fish stock...
Just nice and gently. If it boils, the textures won't be right.
Then the mousse may break up.
..before being served on a bed of leek, carrot and diced scallops.
See how delicate they are?
All finished with a classic chartreuse veloute sauce.
The sauce has to have that lovely velvety texture,
just the right amount of alcohol in it as well.
Heavenly on the palate.
You've got to be generous here.
There's one thing Dad and Uncle used to love, and that was sauces.
So that's it.
I'm feeling a little bit anxious, I think, about my dish.
Never made anything like this before.
It's all going to be challenging. Getting the consistency
of the mousse right, making sure everything's properly cooked.
I'm quite nervous.
Veterinary surgeon Brin will be in charge of a pasta dish.
Raviolo filled with lamb jus and a ricotta and mint mousse,
served with braised lamb, pumpkin and truffle.
Diego, my son-in-law, was the head chef here at the time
that this dish was created. Who's Italian.
You made pasta before? I have, yeah. Brilliant. Good.
So there's a pasta dough to make.
Pasta has to be so thin.
And in that pasta there's a set piece of lamb jus.
So it's lamb sauce reduced down.
OK. But we freeze it, which melts when it's hot.
So when you cut into it,
that lovely jus goes throughout the dish and onto the plate.
It's full of flavour.
Drop them into boiling water.
The raviolo is served on shredded lamb and pumpkin,
cooked in a rich lamb stock.
So your pasta is cooked.
Gently place it on the plate like so.
And then just before we go, truffle on top.
So there you have it. The Raviolo d'Agneau, Menthe et Truffes.
It's simple, it's elegant,
but it's all in the flavour. No hiding place with this dish.
Got it.
I've made pasta before, but this is nothing like that.
This is on a whole new level.
Chef's going to be expecting some high standards today.
So I need to make sure I kind of do it justice.
Circus performer Chris will be cooking the main course.
Confit de canard, poche et roti... Epices, et puree de tournesol.
Easy for me to say, isn't it? Yes. How's your French?
Probably awful. Yeah.
Poached and roasted spiced duck breast
served with crispy duck leg, sunflower seed puree,
mooli glazed in port, with kale and a duck jus.
I worked in Hong Kong back in the '80s.
Take the wings off.
And this particular way of poaching and then roasting
was something that I took back with me.
Take the legs off as well.
And the legs we're going to bone out and cook them separately.
Because it is such a great, delicious way of cooking duck.
So there you have that crown. Beautiful.
The crown is poached with spices.
Chilli, ginger, star anise, cinnamon
and allspice.
But you mustn't cook it fully.
It's just enough to infuse those lovely flavours in.
When you come to the roasting part, I want you to use your instincts.
Yeah.
It should be beautiful and pink and moist and juicy,
and the skin lovely and golden.
You're drooling. I know. Anything with meat, I'm all over it.
This is going to test our chef.
Half of a supreme of duck, like so.
And then finally a really rich duck sauce to go with it.
One big spoonful in the middle.
There you have it. It's amazing.
So good.
Michel is an absolute icon in food.
Oh, that's heavy.
So it'll be a huge test today with precision.
Right, Louise, you've got the dessert to make.
How comfortable are you with patisserie?
Um, my husband has a terribly sweet tooth, so, you know,
but nothing on this level.
For dessert, sables aux poires et myrtilles.
This is a great Gavroche classic.
I think it was first on the menu back in the late '60s, early '70s.
I've tweaked it a little bit,
but it is definitely a dish that my father would recognise.
And it will be a race against time in the first 20, 30 minutes.
Most important is that you get this sabayon made and moulded.
The sabayon needs to set. If it's not set,
I mean, this whole dessert is a disaster.
You also have to get the blueberry sorbet set as well,
otherwise you're never going to serve this up.
I expect artistry, I expect the dessert to look wonderful.
So you've got a shortbread biscuit to make.
Nice and thin, beautifully cooked all the way through like that. Yeah.
Then we have a blueberry cremeux.
The colours are beautiful already.
Half a shortbread biscuit that we can put on here.
You've got some poached pears in a vanilla syrup.
Very much the last second you have to put these in. OK.
Cos you don't want a soggy shortbread biscuit. Absolutely.
Got the sorbet.
That's the pear sable with blueberries and blueberry sorbet.
OK? LOUISE LAUGHS
Wow. That's incredible. I'm terrified.
The dish is exquisite. It's beautiful and it's delicate.
There's a hell of a lot of process involved in it.
So it's going to be a challenge and a half
to make it anywhere near what Chef has just done.
The finalists have just three hours
to bring together their legendary Roux classics.
On the starter,
Abi's first task is to make the all-important scallop mousse.
Made by blending the scallops with egg whites,
before adding double cream.
The mousse is the most difficult to get right cos it needs to be
the right consistency, and they're not exact measurements,
so I just need to concentrate.
The scallop mousse is done by eye.
It's not a weight.
So I'll be looking for specific skills
and knowing when to stop adding that cream.
I've been working on this for about, like, half an hour,
but I can't mess up the mousse.
That's not going to set, that's not going to set like that.
You're not going to get it out of it like that. OK.
You have to really mix it before you add too much cream.
While Abi attempts to rescue her mousse,
Brin is making a start on his pasta dough.
This dough is tough.
Got the forearms for it.
Your pasta dough? Yeah, that needs a bit of work.
Just need to really work it. Yeah, it looks a tiny bit dry.
Maybe a drop of water in there. OK. But it needs working. Yes, Chef.
Everything needs to be done meticulously and basically by hand.
Right. How are you doing here, Chris? Boning out the legs.
Um, something I've never done before.
So I think I'm getting better as I go along.
You've not done anything else yet, have you? No. That's the last leg?
That's the last leg. You need to get cracking. Yeah.
Get that poaching liquor on, that stock, for the duck, yeah?
Yes, Chef. Good.
Chris has been working really methodically but not very fast.
He's just got the butchery done now.
Now, that's a little bit on the slow side for my liking.
And that's a bit of a worry because he needs to get those ducks poached
and rested in that poaching stock.
On pastry, farmer Louise also needs to work quickly
to get the core elements of her dessert set on time.
With the blueberry sorbet ready for freezing...Blast chiller.
..she's moving on to the dessert centrepiece,
the pear sabayon.
Oh! Absolutely bang-on.
So I've got eggs and sugar in here,
making it into a mousse by adding cream and gelatine.
I've got to be really scientific today, really focused.
The sabayon is flavoured with pear liqueur
and must be whisked to the perfect consistency.
It wants to be nice and lovely and fluffy.
So if I can get it in within the next minute or so,
then I'll be happy.
But it hasn't turned out exactly as Louise had hoped.
It's slightly runnier than I expected it to be.
Saw Louise making the mix of the sabayon.
It didn't look quite whisked enough.
My fear is it's not going to be as light and fluffy as it should be.
Right, 90 minutes to go, guys. OK?
Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef.
With half the prep time gone,
Chris is feeling the pressure.
There's a lot going on all at once.
His sauce is reducing,
but he's behind getting his poached ducks on to roast.
I'm just trying to put some even colour on the crown of the duck.
Once I've got the right colour on, I'll put it into the oven.
I'm hoping for about 30 minutes and then I'll just give it a check.
You know, just like I would at home with a bit of chicken.
Michel isn't giving him any instruction at all on the cooking
of that duck. He's leaving it entirely up to Chris.
That's an honour and a huge risk.
And how long are you going to roast the duck legs?
That, I was trying to work out.
Because they need to be fully cooked and crispy. Yeah.
Believe in your instincts. Yeah. Yeah? And cross fingers.
I will.
I think Chris is just a little bit behind.
He really should be roasting those legs and reducing that sauce
a little bit quicker.
On the pasta course,
Brin's ricotta, mint and lamb jus fillings are made.
You need to work really, really quickly. It'll dry out
and you won't be able to seal it. OK. Got it.
It's really tense in here. Really tense in here. They're all focused.
Happy with everything? Is that holding?
Oh, that one's not, no. No? Mm.
Brin is having trouble with his pasta.
He hasn't been quick enough to fill them and fold them.
And the pasta is cracking,
which means that the filling is going to seep out.
This is so fiddly, and I've got to work quick,
but it's hard to work quick when things are so fiddly.
The pasta just keeps tearing.
Oh! Um...
It's tough, this.
See, that's gone again. That one's gone. Fine. Let's not panic. OK.
Roll another batch out. OK. And this time, work really quickly. OK.
Abi did have a little problem with the scallops.
That mousse wasn't setting.
Thankfully, we had a few extra scallops there
so she could puree them up and add it to her mousse.
It looks like it's the right consistency or you're not...
Yeah, that's... That's not bad. Let's see once it's cooked.
She's still got the sauce to make, the garnish and those tuiles.
So there's a fair bit of work to go, yeah.
First course out in one hour. Yeah? Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef.
Over on dessert, Louise is in a race against time
to get the five main elements of her prep completed.
You need to get that in the chiller,
cos that's got a lot of butter in that shortbread biscuit.
Her shortbread sable biscuits need to be rolled out wafer thin
before they can be cut into identical rounds.
The biscuits can only be as thick as this.
So if you lay these down
and then you put your rolling pin over the top,
and that's how thick they should be.
But the heat of the kitchen is working against her.
They're so delicate.
You see how you can't pick it up?
So they just need to chill, chill, chill, chill, chill, chill,
chill, chill, chill.
Louise has got her biscuits out, but they're too soft.
It's really hot in here so I'm just in and out of the chiller.
Now she's put them in the blast chiller,
hoping to crisp them up a little bit.
My biggest problem is the heat, with these biscuits.
Right now, she seems a bit nervous to me.
Today's guests for Chef's Table all intimately understand
the standards required to succeed in the Roux kitchen.
I was a young man when I came here.
London was very, very poor on food.
If you wanted to eat well, you had to go to Gavroche.
It was hard work, but we enjoyed it.
Le Gavroche, my husband and I met here. As a young chef, it was like
drinking from a fountain of knowledge.
The fact that Le Gavroche is closing after so many years
is definitely an emotional time.
I've spent many years here peeling potatoes, chopping tomatoes.
So, beautiful memories.
I never thought, as a young chef, that I'd get a chance to actually
step in the kitchen and actually cook.
It was beyond my wildest dreams.
So the Gavroche for me is the most iconic restaurant
in British gastronomy. The contestants
are so lucky to be working with Michel,
one of the best in the world,
and to understand what it takes to be at that level,
they'll live off that forever.
My standards are pretty high.
ALL: Cheers.
But my guests' standards, I reckon, are probably even higher.
Right, guys.
Pierre Koffmann's here, Sat Bains is here,
Freddy Forster, my daughter Emily. Yeah?
And they are all hungry and expecting...fireworks.
Yes, Chef. Yeah, let's go. Come on, guys.
With service fast approaching,
Abi has to multitask to get all of her dish ready.
While her veloute reduces,
she makes a start poaching the 18 quenelles of scallop mousse.
So I'll put half the batch in, but it does take quite a while
to julienne the carrots and things, so I'm just trying to get it done
as quick as possible.
Oh...ah!
Oi! Oh, no!
What did I say? What did I say? Don't boil them. Come on,
get it off. Oh, no. Sorry.
Shouldn't boil. Yeah. Texture will be completely wrong.
Yeah? Keep an eye on that.
This is squeaky bum time.
Abi's still got some julienne to cut and cook
and the quenelles poached, so it's going to be tight.
I didn't even think I had the heat on that high,
but it must be so delicate that it just boiled them.
After rerolling his pasta dough,
Brin is on his second attempt at filling the raviolo.
It's not that the mix is wetter,
it's more the fact that I've worked a bit faster
to not allow it to dry out, because it was all quite new to me before.
I think I was a bit too slow.
A little bit of a hiccup, but I still feel good.
Just got to keep going. Can't let that change anything.
On the main course, Chris has moved on to cooking his garnishes.
Got the mooli braising.
Got the jus reducing down.
I've got an amazing sunflower puree.
But he can't afford to take his eye off the main event.
If Chris gets this duck wrong when he roasts it,
all the good work has gone -
the boning out, the pulling the duck apart, the poaching.
And that is a timing thing.
Do we have a time, anyone?
Devils, aren't they?
Louise looks as if she's well in control.
The shortbread biscuits are now being cut.
They chilled down. I was able to move them
without breaking any, so they're now in the oven.
So I shall be watching that like a hawk.
I just hope that everything is set
and she leaves enough time
to dress all those plates beautifully.
Having a poke and a prod.
There's only 15 minutes to go before service,
and Abi is still poaching her scallop mousse quenelles.
Abi, you're going to be ready? Uh, maybe. No, no, no, I don't want
to hear "maybe", I want a "Yes, Chef." I'll be on time.
I'm doing my best. Quick as possible.
For me, the key thing will be the scallop mousse.
I think it's got to be very light. Can't be too tough and rubbery.
Also it's got to be cooked very delicately.
The veloute sauce done?
I just need to season it again and pass it through a sieve.
But it'll be ready.
The sauce is very strong, so if you put too much chartreuse,
you are going to kill the taste of the scallop.
So it should be a nice balance.
Abi, time. Yeah. Come on, let's go.
I think this dish for an amateur, you know,
is going to be very difficult. It's a technical dish.
Make sure that everybody gets a little bit of everything.
It's got to have the impact as the first course
to set the tone for the rest of it. Keep it going now. Keep it going.
Cos this is hot, yeah, but it's going to not stay hot very long.
Yeah? Yeah. OK, scallop mousse.
Be very careful cos they are very delicate.
That's very good. That's it.
You're trembling.
I know. Stress.
You're happy with the sauce? Yeah.
Poker face. I'm not saying anything.
Be generous. One of my old man's favourite dishes,
and he absolutely loved it when it was drowned in sauce.
OK. Service, please.
That's it. Well done, well done. Thank you.
That was not easy. No, it was not easy.
The quenelles were so stressful.
I just managed to get a new set out, so hopefully the texture is perfect.
That is delicious. I thought the mousse is incredible.
It's like velvet. The sauce is very nice, you know, very light.
I really enjoy it.
I love the little addition of the diced scallops
to give a lovely, different balance of texture.
And the vegetables underneath, the julienne really well executed.
I mean, super thin strands.
It just melts in your mouth.
Ah, I mean, hats off to them.
That mousse is rich, smooth and creamy.
I think Abi's done a great job here. That's a fantastic dish.
Brin, how are we doing?
Pasta's rolled and shaped. Water on?
Uh, water's there. I'll get it on now.
To make the perfect raviolo filled properly, cooked properly,
without it sort of seeping or opening, is technical.
Right. Are we off, Chef? Yes, Chef. Brilliant.
Pasta's in. You reckon it takes about four minutes? Yes, Chef.
So you've got about four minutes to dress your plates.
Is it going to be thin enough? Is it going to be cooked properly?
Is it going to be al dente?
And then has the lamb been really nicely braised,
lots of flavour in there?
Lovely. You tasted it? Yes, Chef. Happy with it? yes, Chef.
It looks nice. Smells nice, I must say. Thank you.
How are we doing, Brin? Doing well. Just trying to keep the pace up.
Happy with that? Happy. Good.
It looks as if the pasta, none of them have split open yet.
So you're testing them?
I'm happy that that's done.
The proof is in the raviolo.
Go, go, go. Come on.
I must say, they look the part. Thank you.
And not a single one of them burst.
That was well worth doing them again, wasn't it? Absolutely.
That's a thing of absolute deliciousness there.
Service, please.
Good with that?
I'm good. You look worried. Well done. Thank you so much.
Yeah, I was pretty worried. Yeah.
Is that OK? Yeah... Bit under or...?
Ooh, maybe. A LITTLE bit al dente.
The pasta might be a little bit too al dente,
but I'm really happy with the flavours.
Oh, wow, look at that oozing through there.
It was such a high-pressured environment,
but I loved every moment. I just hope they like it out there.
You have this...really surprise of the sauce actually bursting out
of the ravioli and the shredded lamb neck, which is cooked very well.
Pretty delicious, actually.
The addition of the ricotta cheese inside
brought a lovely sort of creaminess.
And, you know, the mint wasn't overpowering.
The pasta-making was on point because it's held together,
the filling didn't seep out,
it didn't get waterlogged at all.
I think if I just had one tiny remark would be that
potentially there was a generous bite to it. But it was amazing.
And I think for an amateur chef, this is pretty mind-blowing.
It's the flavours of a roast dinner, isn't it? It's pumpkin, lamb
and mint all together with gravy.
It's delicious. I'm a happy, happy boy.
My first experience of cooking whole birds and ducks was at Le Gavroche.
Never poached before and then roasted after,
but I can understand why it would be done -
so it's very, very crisp on the outside and it's succulent inside.
OK. Right. How are we looking? Yeah, that's nice and warm.
Great. Cooking-wise, I like that. That's really, really moist.
Thanks, Chef. Come on, Chris. Yes.
I would expect we can see crispy legs.
If you leave it on the side too much,
the crispiness is just going to go away.
OK, on the pass. Let's go. Well done.
Poor guy who is cooking that. Must be sweating at the moment, you know?
How's he doing, Michel?
Good. Puree could have been slightly smoother.
Yeah, probably agree with that. But we're good. Come on.
I love the sound of a sunflower seed puree,
so I think that could be really nice with the duck.
The braised mooli.
Never seen you so quiet in the kitchen, Chris.
So much concentration.
OK. Duck on and legs on.
Looking fantastic.
OK. Nearly there. Doing well.
OK. Little drizzle of sauce. Yes, Chef.
The shake helps with this. He is shaking.
Beautiful job, beautiful job.
OK. Service. Thank you.
Right, off we go.
Oops.
Well done, Chris. Thank you so much. Thanks.
I've learned so much and I'm so proud to be in your kitchen.
Now - tidy up, Chef. Yeah?
Even Gordon Ramsay cleaned up behind him!
I was really pleased with the cooking of the duck in the end,
but there's a very critical dining room out there, so we'll see.
My duck breast is beautifully cooked. Nice and pink.
The sunflower puree brought a great earthiness to the whole dish itself,
so it was very beautiful and autumnal.
I tasted a very subtle hint of the spicing,
like the star anise and five spice. Delicious.
Because otherwise it could have been overwhelming.
Uh, the sauce is so rich.
And the mooli there is beautifully cooked, great flavours.
I think it was beautiful, I think...perfect.
Ten out of ten for that dish.
That duck is perfection. Absolute perfection.
It's melting on my tongue like butter. Well done, Chris.
That's really difficult to get absolutely right. It's amazing.
It's the moment of truth for Louise's pear sabayons.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, God, this is horrible, isn't it?
The sabayon, the idea is to get this really voluminous mousse
and light and not grainy.
Please don't ask me to breathe for a short time.
The sabayon, I think, is a little bit low. Yeah.
Don't think you whisked it up quite enough.
Sable biscuits, it's got to be perfectly cooked.
Quite crumbly. Crumbly, yeah. Yeah, very crumbly.
The biscuits have turned out really well.
Um, I had to hold my nerve because it's quite a soft biscuit.
She looks incredibly calm.
Which frightens me.
Whoa!
There's a lot of elements on there. Great balance is very important.
Go, Louise. Go, go, go.
So you need to really keep up that pace,
cos the longer this takes, the more that shortbread biscuit
is going to get soggy, yeah? Yes, Chef.
That's a thing of beauty.Great.
You missed one. Oh! Good grief.
Right. Nearly there? Yeah. OK.
The sorbet has to be the smoothest sorbet.
You want to taste the flavour of the blueberries.
Doing sorbet quenelles to order is a bit of a stress.
No, not quite... Is that...?
Whoa! It's slipping.
That's it. Come on. Cos they are starting to melt.
Come on.
Sisters are like a coiled spring.
Last one? Last one.
Well done, Louise. So much work.
Service, please.
Very good. Pleased with that?
I think so. I'd like you to taste and tell me.
Well done. Oh, thank you so much, Chef.
It's been an absolute joy to be here. That is a fine effort.
That is a fine... So grateful. Thank you.
Absolutely, completely and utterly amazing.
The fact that some of the best chefs in the entire universe
are tasting my food right now is absolutely terrifying.
I just hope that it's good feedback.
I thought the sabayon mousse was very light and very creamy,
so I thought they had a lovely texture too.
Sometimes these things can be a little bit too hard
and too rubbery, but I think they got the right balance correct.
Oh, my God, bring it on, these shortbread, all the time.
It's delicious.
The pears were nicely poached. You'd still have a bit of a bite.
Not too soft. Full of vanilla.
The sorbet, just beautiful and silky.
And then the flavour of it is so intense.
It's much better than 50 years ago. Far more technique.
I really enjoyed the dish, it's beautiful.
I think the technical work is fantastic.
I personally would quite easily eat about a dozen of those.
It's quite incredible.
What an outstanding meal to deliver in this restaurant
of all restaurants. From the scallop dish through to the raviolo
to the duck to the dessert, you should all be very proud
of what you accomplished here today.
Absolutely on cloud nine at the moment.
Those six incredible cooks enjoyed my food.
Blown away. Yeah. I can't believe it. Did I cook that?
I'm not sure.
It's not easy to come into this kitchen and deliver,
but they all did really well.
The passion and the drive that they've got,
it's absolutely fabulous.
The cook was one of the most stressful things I've ever done
in my entire life, but I'm feeling really good,
erm, really proud of myself.
It's like I'm in a dream at the moment.
It was unreal.
What an incredible experience.
This is top five days of my whole entire life.
I thought the food was exceptional. I'm absolutely chuffed for them.
This was big, but what comes up next is enormous.
One more cook-off and we'll have our final three.
Welcome back.
Just one dish separates you from a place in the final cook-off.
That trophy is so close, you can almost touch it.
What we would like from you today
is a dish dedicated to somebody very special to you.
We want you to cook from the heart.
1 hour 45 minutes, ladies and gentlemen.
Deliver something truly exceptional. Let's cook.
This is really the big one. Just has to be perfect.
I'm feeling more anxious today than I've ever felt.
More of a crunch time thing.
My mum is just, like, my best friend, like, she really is.
We do everything together and she's been through so much,
losing a daughter, my sister passing away this time last year.
Sticking together was obviously what kept us going through
everything, and my mum really helped out with all of that.
She is an inspiration to me and to everyone who knows her,
so I just had to dedicate this whole thing to her.
I could definitely not have done any of this without my mum.
My mum is known by everyone as just picky bits.
She loves to eat seafood picky bits at night, so what I've tried to make
is her three favourite picky bits into one dish.
So I've done a sous vide salmon, a red Argentinian shrimp ceviche,
black puffed rice and a lime and cucumber sorbet.
She's tried all my food throughout this whole thing.
She's come down with me every time I've had a challenge.
Where is she when you're in here?
Just waiting at the end of the phone at King's Cross for me to call her.
Oh, mate! Yeah. Really? Yeah. Oh, that's fabulous.
We have got a cured piece of salmon,
which is done in a water bath with lime oil.
Got a ceviche of prawns,
a lovely limey, sharp-flavoured cured piece of prawn
in-between the bits of salmon.
There's definitely a lot of technique on show here,
but there's not a huge amount of cooking.
It's going to have to taste absolutely amazing.
This dish is dedicated to Kim, my partner,
who's wonderful and really supportive throughout this process
and throughout the last time as well.
So, naturally, I headed to Japan, came up with some Japanese classics,
and then put my twist on them.
There's a way of eating in Japan, which is omakase.
You let the chef decide what you're eating
and you're presented with a few dishes.
This is what I do every night at home with Kim.
We sit down and we just nibble and pick, and this is exactly
what we would eat at home.
Chris is giving us ikayaki, a skewer of grilled fish,
and he's going to use squid,
and he's going to smoke it in a box over fir. Then we've got takoyaki,
almost like a savoury doughnut,
classically with octopus in the centre,
but he's using pork and Wagyu fat.
That should be delicious. Cooking them is quite difficult
cos they've got to be turned quickly so that they puff up.
Then we've got ceviche of black cod
with a wasabi ice cream and crispy shiso leaves,
a katsu curry pork chop,
and then some pickles made from apricots, plums and radish.
I mean, it's just extraordinary what he's going to do.
45 minutes gone.
One hour left. Thank you.
This dish means a lot to me,
and I'm just going to cook the best I can do.
This challenge is really important
because being here has had an effect on my life.
I feel like I've changed. I feel like I've got my confidence back.
I feel more like myself than I have done in a long time.
But also it's a special dish for a very special person.
Who is your dish dedicated to, please?
This is dedicated to my husband Ally today.
We had a fairly difficult few years with, um, deaths in the family
and illnesses, and we struggled in our marriage enormously,
and we moved to the farm to get a new start.
But, actually, I feel like our new start has now really arrived.
It's been like marriage counselling, this.
He's got an intense job,
but at the same time he's been looking after the daughter,
looking after the farm. So this is all for him.
That is lovely. Is Ally proud of your achievements here?
Yeah, I think he is. I think I've surprised him.
Um, which is really nice to do after, you know,
ten years of marriage, that I can still surprise him.
Louise is cooking hogget. One of my favourite meats.
It's grown-up lamb, which means its flavour is stronger,
which is great, but its meat is slightly tougher,
which makes it harder to cook. That is risky.
She's making a jus with the juices from the hogget,
but she's adding yeast to that.
That should make it really lovely and meaty.
Ally's favourite thing, apparently, is hogget nuggets.
So I've just got to get this chopped up finely and pressed,
and that will form the hogget nuggets.
A bit of meat which has been braised really slowly
then pulled apart, then deep-fried after it's been crumbed.
So it should be nice and crispy on the outside
and lovely and moist on the inside.
We've also got hen-of-the-wood, a mushroom.
Look at the meatiness of that. She's cutting it in half
and grilling it like she would on a barbecue.
She's taking the other bit and she's going to turn it to a puree.
This could taste absolutely delicious.
You guys have just 35 minutes left. 35 minutes to go.
OK. What's next? What's next?
Who are you dedicating your dish to? It's my fiancee, Anna.
She's been my biggest fan cooking-wise forever.
It's just really nice to have someone in your life
who just wants you to succeed in something you love to do,
and that just keeps me kind of going.
So I 100% have to dedicate this to her today.
That sounds like a man in love to me, Brin.
Yeah, maybe, some might say that.
Anna and I went travelling to South America.
We went to Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Brazil.
So I want to take something from each country and create a dish
based on that, cos it was the best three months of our lives.
The dish is based on a Brazilian fish stew, moqueca.
And with that, we're going to have a coffee coated fillet of beef
that's going to represent Argentina.
A langoustine chimichurri ceviche
represents both Peru and Colombia.
Seared langoustine, mussels, seared scallop.
Everything will be served together with the sauce on the side.
Surf and turf. Surf and turf. Heavier on the surf.
Brin is really focused,
and he's given himself a huge amount of work to do.
We've got a dish which has been inspired by his travels
around South America. Come back to you in a second.
There's a lot of different things on the plate.
This is Brin's style. Very, very ambitious.
Got so much to do. What have you got to do?Everything.
You have ten minutes.
Massively important ten minutes.
I think I'm a little crunched for time, so I'm just going to go
as quick as poss.
I've got five plates to get ready, so quite a lot to do.
It's a rush, but I always knew it was going to be.
Please. Please. Please.
It's OK. Come on.
Just five minutes left.
I'm really up against it now.
30 seconds.
That's it. Your time is up. Please stop.
Oh, it was probably the toughest one yet.
I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack, to be honest.
That was stressful at the end.
Chris, we are ready for you, please.
Dedicated to his partner, Kim...
Wow. Absolutely fabulous. Look at that.
..Chris has served fir-smoked ikayaki grilled squid...
Shall I open the door for you, Mr Wallace? Please.
..breaded suckling pig pork chops with katsu curry sauce,
pork mince and Wagyu fat takoyaki balls topped with white truffle,
black cod belly and wasabi ceviche with crispy shiso leaves
and a wasabi ice cream
and pickled plums, radishes and apricots.
Your squid is perfectly cooked,
you can clearly taste the bitter smoke that gives way to saltiness,
like soy saltiness, and a little bit of almost honey sweetness.
Your pickled bits of vegetables are very, very sharp indeed.
Really good. The little dumplings giving meatiness -
really lovely morsel after little morsel after little morsel.
I'm slightly emotional about this. It's so clever.
And I think Kim's a lucky, lucky man.
The ceviche, that lovely sharpness from lime juice with that cod belly,
then with the creaminess of the wasabi, and your pork katsu,
crispy as you like, so you get heat and sharpness and cold all together,
which just fills you with joy.
All these different processes coming together
and it's just bang on the money.
Oh, I feel emotional.
I pulled out as much as I could today but, yeah, they loved it.
Dedicated to her husband Ally,
Louise has cooked sous vide hogget neck fillet,
with a seeded celeriac fondant,
hen-of-the-woods mushroom char-grilled and pureed
with a roasted yeast hogget and plum sauce,
and a side of deep-fried hogget nuggets with a spiced plum ketchup.
I love your choice of ingredients. I really like hogget.
I think it's really well cooked here.
Your hen-of-the-woods mushroom as well,
giving real proper earthiness.
Hogget nuggets. Crispy on the outside, soft meat inside.
I love your spiced plum sauce with that.
Grey mushroom never, ever makes a good-looking puree.
Almost looks like cement. Yeah.
But I'm enjoying your flavours and textures. I really, really am.
The celeriac fondant is absolutely fantastic, beautifully cooked,
nutty and rich with the butter going through it.
The yeast sauce as well also has that flavour,
almost of meatiness, but nuttiness that comes from roasting that yeast,
which is great. For me, things on here are made very, very well.
It needs a bit more seasoning
because it could be a little bit more robust,
but with 1 hour and 45 minutes, cooking hogget is really brave.
I'm surprised you got it done in the time
cos it's very, very tender and it's well-flavoured.
It wasn't terrible. It wasn't glowing.
I wish I'd have taken the mushroom puree off
because that's what Ally told me to do.
But I'm really pleased that they enjoyed the hogget because,
you know, it was raised at home. It means a lot.
Dedicated to his fiancee Anna,
Brin's South American-inspired dish
is pan-fried fillet of beef coated in Colombian coffee,
poached langoustine tails,
steamed mussels, seared scallops in butter,
a langoustine and chimichurri ceviche,
cassava chips and tempura samphire
served on mashed potato
with a caipirinha gel,
chorizo crumb
and a langoustine chilli and coconut moqueca sauce.
You, my fine friend, have an incredible talent.
Thank you.
Your fillet steak, perfectly cooked with a bitterness around the edge
that comes from that coffee.
Your scallop has beautiful caramelisation on the outside.
Your langoustine are perfect.
The moqueca sauce is like the finest of French prawn bisques.
There's almost a coconut sweetness there, and it's delicious.
And it is a perfect demonstration of great cookery
from someone with a perfect touch and timing.
Thank you so much.
Boom.
In this plate here, I've sat at a bar and drank huge amounts
of really strong liquor, like tequila cachaca.
I've gone to the seaside and had ceviche rich with lime
and a little bit of chilli.
I bounced around in the finest restaurants,
eating scallops and langoustine,
and then I've gone to an Argentina barbecue and eaten steak
which has been charred across flame.
You captured every single essence of those flavours of South America.
I think it's fantastic. It gives me shivers.
Just blown away by the judges' comments.
Every time you go in there, you have to show them that you've improved,
you've learned and you've grown. And all of that's gone into that today.
I think Anna will be really proud of me and I cannot wait to tell her.
Last up is Abi, who has dedicated her dish to her mum,
and served sous vide salmon in lime oil,
with a red shrimp, cucumber and tomato ceviche
topped with black puffed rice
served with a cucumber, lime and coriander sorbet,
and a mayonnaise, lime and chilli dressing split with a coriander oil.
Your seafood is cured really beautifully.
Slippery but soft, but still melts in your mouth.
I think the flavour of your sorbet with that puffed rice is fantastic.
When you add the sorbet, which is quite rich, onto the actual dish,
the prawn survives, but the salmon doesn't.
The salmon flavour disappears and you just get a texture.
The predominant flavour on here is one of freshness
and citrus zinginess,
and the fish is a lovely cool texture in a creamy sauce
with a really sharp citrus dressing. I think it's great.
In saying that, it's not as ambitious in its processes
as other contestants, and I don't think you have got the presentation
as smart as you normally do.
But I'm very much enjoying eating it.
Oh, annoyed. I just wanted to show a different range of techniques
and different ideas, so maybe it looked a little less ambitious
than normal, but I didn't feel like I was being less ambitious.
You OK?Yeah. Good.Yeah.
What an extraordinary round.
Some food today was just absolutely exceptional, of the highest order.
That was a judging of two halves, I think. Well done, boys.
It's just so tough, though, isn't it?
That pressure of that kitchen.
We now have, I think, the toughest judging of the competition.
For one of these right now, they do not get a shot at the trophy.
I mean, that's heartbreaking.
Brin is cooking like a celebrated fine-dining chef.
I totally agree. It was a fantastic plate of food,
a story of his travels through South America,
full of vibrancy and full of flavour.
Brin has definitely got himself a place in the final.
For me, there's one other,
and that's Chris.
Chris didn't give us one dish.
Chris gave us at least five,
and all of them exceptional. He's a showman.
We expect a show, but the food and the flavours,
the textures and the sensations were fantastic.
He has got to go through to the final cook-off.
That leaves a conversation about Abi and Louise.
Whew! Who stays and who goes?
I liked the flavours of Abi's dish.
Very, very refreshing. Not as ambitious as others in the room.
I think Abi's food was addictive. There's no two ways about it.
The sorbet with the lime and the cucumber, the coriander
working really nice with the prawns. For me,
the salmon got lost amongst that great combination of flavours.
Louise showed a great deal of ambition AND use of ingredients
you don't often see. Hen-of-the-wood mushroom and, of course, the hogget.
The flavours on the plate were woody and nutty
with a little bit of sharp sour plum.
It was a really nice addition, but it needed some more seasoning.
It just needed a bit more oomph.
Abi or Louise - who goes through to our final?
It would mean the world to get into the final three. It's obvious, like,
when you go into this competition, you want to get to the end.
So, a little nervous for the results.
I'm not sure what they're going to do.
If I leave today, I've had an absolute blast.
It's been an incredible journey. I've changed as a cook and a person.
It would be a shame if I didn't go through.
What wonderful talent we have in this kitchen right now.
All four of you are exceptional.
I hope you are very, very proud of your achievements
cos we are incredibly proud of you. Well done.
But, as you know, we've only got three places in the final.
Two of you today
have been absolutely exceptional.
Chris.
Brin.
Congratulations.
You're through to the final. Thank you.
Abi and Louise.
One of you is going through to the final. One of you is leaving us.
The contestant leaving us...
..is Abi.
Abi, thank you. It's been an incredible journey for you.
I would really like to see what happens to you next,
cos you are an amazing talent for somebody so young. Well done.
Thank you.
Obviously a little bit gutting to be going home at this stage, so close,
but the whole competition has been a challenge
from start to finish.
I'm definitely really proud of what I've achieved.
One of the best experiences of my life. Just really grateful.
You're in the final three. Boys... Well done,
all three of you. Please keep pushing.
Keep reaching for the skies. One of you is going to lift that trophy.
Final three is just unbelievable.
Just got to do that one more time. If I'm not trying to win it,
then there's no point in me being here.
It means the world.
Oh, dear. I'm not going to cry today. Um...
It means an awful, awful lot. Um...
I feel like I'm regaining myself.
I'm, you know, I'm coming back. It's great.
I cannot believe it.
I'm going to have, uh, Kim on the phone screaming,
and the rest of my family. And I can't wait to go and tell them.
It'll be unbelievable and out of this world
if I get to hold that trophy.
Next time...
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
..it's the MasterChef final.
Whoa! Oh, no!
The show must go on. Wow!
Yay! Now, that's fun.
I think it's magical.
I think this is just brilliantly clever.
Our MasterChef Champion 2024 is...