From across the UK...
...32 up-and-coming chefs...
...are putting their reputations on the line
in a battle to become
Professional MasterChef Champion.
Tonight, four new hopefuls compete to impress
MasterChef Judge Gregg Wallace,
renowned chef Monica Galetti,
and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing.
I'm going to smash it today.
I think I will. I hope I will.
I'm here to kill it.
I want to give my 200%.
The chef jacket's on,
so it's like, OK, this is real.
This is by far the biggest thing I've ever done.
It's absolutely huge for me.
Who has got the talent to rise to the top?
It's time to discover our next culinary superstar.
We have four new chefs to meet.
First up, they've got to face a Skills Test.
This test was set by you, Monica.
What are you going to get them to do?
I would like our chefs to prepare and cook the scallops,
served with carrots and a peanut sauce.
It's always interesting watching chefs open scallops.
It's not easy.
20 minutes, please, Chef - off you go.
What I want to do is to get my carrot on
and start the peanut sauce.
Beautifully coloured carrots, Monica.
What do you plan to do with them?
The first one I'm going to cook off
in an emulsion.
So a mix of vegetable stock, a bit of butter and some hard herbs.
And then the rest of the carrots I'm just going to use for
a little bit of texture. Completely up to them
how they use the carrot.
So into some ice, just to keep the shape.
And then I'm going to start the peanut sauce.
If they don't know how to make it, they're going to have to just work
it out with the ingredients in front of them.
Toasting the nuts, release the oils, get a bit of flavour into them.
So, we'll see,
How does your peanut sauce differ from a satay, for example?
It's very similar - I've got fish sauce,
I'm using also coconut milk in it,
but mine has ginger, garlic
and some chillies.
I'm going to add some honey,
a squeeze of lime juice.
That sauce is what, a four-minute job? Five minute job?
Yes, it really is a quick one.
It can be coarse, it could be smooth.
You've got to blitz it down.
All right, so sauce is done.
So, scallop prep.
I think a scallop is something that our chefs either
know how to open or they don't.
Slide the knife along the top.
What you don't want them to cut through the scallop,
you don't want to tear it.
And with the scallop, there's a lot of things still in it that you can
use. The skirting, for example, got to wash it out really well
and you can then cook it down almost like tripe
and it's wonderful.
And of course, the roe, you can dry it and then use it to sort of grate
over the scallop dish.
Saltwater, just quickly giving it a rinse.
You don't want to see them leave the scallops
sitting in a bowl of water.
That's just going to wash out all the flavours of the scallop.
Hot pan.
Little bit of oil.
Beautiful!
The key is always have a good hot pan with the scallop.
You want them really well sealed on the outside, so they don't
release all those juices and water.
You want to seal those flavours inside.
Turn the scallops over.
A bit of butter in there.
Very important with scallops you don't over-cook them.
They just become incredibly rubbery.
So into the same pan, some pak choi garnish.
Now I'm just going to start
to dress and finish.
Don't be shy with that peanut sauce, Mon. Don't be shy!
My carrot, a little bit of coconut and peanut crumb over it.
Lightly dress the sliced carrots
in a bit of white balsamic.
And there we have it, guys,
we have scallops with carrot and peanut sauce.
It's a beautiful dish.
And nothing that the chefs shouldn't be able to do.
There's a real opportunity for our chefs to show their flair,
their skill with these fabulous ingredients that you've chosen.
Whether they actually cook the same as this, well, we'll soon find out.
Marcus, you're going to keep a very watchful eye on proceedings
from the other room.
I will. See you in a bit. Yep.
Let's get 'em in! Let's get 'em in, Gregg.
First to take Monica's Skills Test is 28-year-old chef de partie Evelina.
Having moved to Scotland a decade ago,
she's worked in Michelin-starred restaurants for the last four years.
I grew up in Lithuania,
but my chef career started when I first came to Scotland.
So, I've been classically trained.
Well, to be honest with you, I don't have my style.
I'm hoping that this competition as well might bring me
the realisation where I'm going to find my style.
But, the Skills Test, I'm feeling great,
because I would put myself under pressure
and I think that's a great thing.
Evelina, I would like you to prepare and cook
the scallops, served with carrots and a peanut sauce.
Have you prepared scallops before? Yes. Amazing!
20 minutes, off you go. Thank you.
I'm going to make peanut sauce with some
ginger, garlic, chilli.
Cook it off.
And some coconut milk in and then blend it.
GREGG: Nice! Sounds good.
Good chopping skills.
I'm so nervous.
Where did your passion for cookery begin?
It's from back in Lithuania,
since I was a kid.
Half of our garden was a forest, so we always would go
foraging with my mum.
We would go and catch the crayfish with my parents as well.
I'm going to put a splash of...
...of lime in it as well.
She needs to get a bit of a move on now.
She looks like she's just stuttering a bit.
Next, I'm going to roast some peanuts as well.
I'm going to put some coconut
milk as well in it
and then add peanuts
and then blend it together.
It sounds good, Evelina.
Why did you move to Scotland?
I took a gap year and I thought, I'm just going to work
and find out what I want to do in life.
And that's how I ended up working in kitchens.
No regrets?
No regrets.
Not yet, at least!
You're halfway. You've got ten minutes left. Yeah.
Right, OK, nuts in.
She's spent half of her time making the sauce, and she's still
not finished it.
I'm just going to remind you that you're over halfway. OK.
I'm going to put a little bit of soy sauce,
just for some extra flavour.
Evelina, you've got just six minutes,
so you're going to have to get a shift on now.
I don't think I've ever seen a chef in a Skills Test spend three
quarters at the time making one sauce.
Right next, I'm going to do this.
She knows how to open them, which is good.
You've now got three minutes.
You've got to cook the scallops, give us some carrot to go
with it and plate it up.
All right.
Get those scallops in the pan!
Season my scallops.
I mean, they're going to take a good five minutes,
if she leaves them whole.
I'm going to make a...
SIGHS ..quick...
...two seconds... quick dressing.
The... balsamic.
Just a few...
...Chopped...
Chef, you're kind of over time now.
I'm sorry.
Let's get it on a plate, please.
Stop. Stop! OK.
I'm sorry.
Oh, my God!
You're very lucky you've got that on the plate.
Evelina, your scallops
aren't quite cooked through.
I like... You started to get the colour on it,
but you just ran out of time.
The carrot salad,
I like that you added some peanuts to it, but it was a bit rushed.
I've seen your skills on show here today.
You open scallops beautifully.
You made the peanut sauce with layer upon layer of detail.
But, you took 14 minutes.
Your sauce, although too thick, has got a nice freshness of lime.
It's got chill, it's got salt from soy and fish sauce.
But you can't take this much time over it.
See you in the next round. Thank you.
Thank you, Chef.
Whoever was in that room on the Skills Test,
I don't think that it was me.
I think the nerves kicked in
and I was pretty slow.
Next into the MasterChef kitchen is 29-year old sous-chef Lauren.
With 11 years' experience across the industry,
she now works for a catering company in London.
I love it just because it's just something new every day,
keeps me on my toes.
So I was originally going to go to uni and study law.
Then I changed my mind.
Parents weren't too happy, but they've seen how much I love
it and how much it works for them -
the chef in the family!
I would like to believe I'm an all-rounded chef.
Throw me in the deep end, I'll try and figure it out.
My brain's like little tabs of information that always pop up.
So, I may not know something straight away and give me a minute,
I've tapped in, "Oh, I remember that from when I learnt
"this and I did this," and it all comes together.
You have 20 minutes. Good luck.
That's not the right knife to use.
She's digging the knife into the scallop.
How long you been a chef, Lauren?
I'm like 11 years now, since I was 18.
So, a little while now.
She's got the first scallop just sitting in the water there,
she needs to get it out.
It's slightly damaged as well.
We are motoring. Well done. Yeah.
So, I'll get my peanut sauce on
and then do my carrot garnish after.
That's too much soy.
It's always better to warm nuts up, to release the oils
to get them going.
So I've got fish sauce, soy,
peanuts and some coconut milk.
So, I'm going to blend this up first,
then give it a taste and see if I need to...
...I might add some of the chilli
in it just to give it a bit of a hit and garlic.
Salty, probably!
What do you think?
A little bit salty!
Well, there's a surprise!
LAUGHTER
How are you going to balance the salt?
I'm going to add some honey into it.
It's probably the easiest way - I haven't got any sugar.
Better! Much better.
So I'm going to do some carrot ribbons.
What food do you love?
I come from a Jamaican background, so that's just what I know and love.
But I also really love Chinese and Japanese food.
So going forward in the competition, can we expect a fusion style of you?
Yeah, 100%. I think those are what the flavours
I like to combine.
So I've just put some lime zest,
lime juice and a little bit of olive oil,
and I've got some chillies in there just to give
it a bit of kick.
You are half halfway Lauren, and I think you're doing quite well.
LAUREN SIGHS
What's wrong, Lauren?
I would have preferred to have prepped my scallops better,
but I'll cook them nicely, so we'll make up for it.
Have you torn them a little bit?
Yeah, just a little.
You can see the heat coming off the pan.
That's far too hot.
Lauren, are you done?
Yeah, I think so.
Finished with thee minutes to go.
Yeah.
Hey, how are you? I'm good. You? Very well.
I'm curious, is that sauce still salty?
No! Did you fix it?
Yes, I did. Good!
The preparation of the scallops for me is a cause of concern.
And it just shows a bit of lack of practice.
The cooking of them as well, for me,
the pan was just way too hot.
Carrot garnish,
love how you've seasoned that with so much lime
all over it and it works and really well with your peanut sauce.
So, the scallop, which is a shame, you know, you used the iced
water, left them in there just a little bit too long.
Peanut sauce has got good flavour.
I love the fact that you tasted it, you adjusted it.
But to get the flavour out of any nut, to activate that flavour,
you need to get it toasting in the pan.
You completed with three minutes to go!
You could probably have afforded to just slow
down just a little bit.
I'm very much looking forward to your food in the next round.
Thank you.
I knew where I messed up.
My flavours were there and that was the main like positive comment.
So now it's just to show that I do have skills,
I know what I'm doing,
and it was just the nerves that got the better of me.
Woo!
Two chefs have undergone your Skills Test.
Marcus, now it's your turn. What are you going to get them to do?
I would like them to take the flavours of the classic
Poire belle Helene dessert
and serve it with layered pastry.
Poire belle Helene is a poached pear,
often poached in dessert wine, with a chocolate sauce
and Chantilly cream.
It's a classic. It's an Escoffier dish.
But this is going to be a take on the classic.
But we're going to layer it with pastry, so I want to see
a little bit of creative thinking when it comes to the dressing of it.
I have to confess, one of my favourite,
favourite ever desserts. OK.
20 minutes, chef.
Poire belle Helene with a bit of pastry. Alrighty.
The first thing is to get the poaching liquid on.
A combination of water, sugar
some star anise...
So just looking for some flavours that are just going to bring out
the flavour of the pear.
Cinnamon.
A good glug of pear liqueur.
Oh!
And some vanilla.
We're going to need some vanilla for the Chantilly.
Ah!
So we're bringing the water up to the boil to infuse to bring out
those beautiful flavours.
Escoffier is the godfather of modern cuisine.
It's so many of his recipes.
I mean, Poire belle Helene, Peach Melba,
and 5,000 other recipes.
The word "scoffed" - to have a scoff - comes from Escoffier.
And because these are ready to eat,
what you don't want to do is boil them.
You don't want the chefs to overcook them.
Beautiful, beautiful smell.
The pastry element just brings a different dimension to the dish.
It's about the texture and the crunch.
And I want them to just layer pears between the pastry.
A little bit of melted butter.
Sugar it, so you get a nice crunchy filo pastry.
Filo pastry is a great one to use because it will crisp up
very quickly, if they know how to handle it.
A little grating of nutmeg on top.
It'd be great to see if our chefs cut it to the size that they want
before it goes in the oven because, you know, it's very fragile
once it comes out. Ah!
Now it's straight into the oven at 180 degrees until
it's nice and crispy and cooked, nice and brown.
We're going to make a little bit of chocolate sauce with
some double cream.
Bring your cream up to the boil and then just sprinkle in
your chocolate and mix it up until the consistency you want.
Right, I'm going to take my pears out.
I'm just going to put them on some ice.
It's got to cool down because you can't put Chantilly
on a hot pear or hot pastry.
You'd just have a puddle.
So cream's come up to the boil.
Sprinkle some chocolate in there,
so bring the temperature down.
I'm just going to put a little bit of the pear liqueur in there too.
Wow.
That's good to go.
The filo pastry look lovely and golden, don't they?
Cream - just going to whip that up. We've got double cream,
sugar and some vanilla seeds.
Poire belle Helene, it's got such a grand name,
but actually it's very doable.
Now to plate up.
Beautiful.
Whoa!
That's my sort of quenelle, that is.
There's my dessert,
a take on a Poire belle Helene with layered pastry.
These are classic, classic skills, but that is a very elegant,
smart and delicious dessert.
It's cooked perfectly.
I'd expect nothing less from you, Marcus,
but I say good luck to our chefs!
Monica, see you soon. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Marcus.
I'll take that away with me.
Shall we get them in, chef?
I'm looking forward to this. Me too.
First to face Marcus's Skills Test is 28-year-old sous-chef Joaquin.
Originally from Venezuela, he was bit with the cooking bug
at a young age.
The first time that I came into a professional kitchen
I was just a little boy.
There was a lot of emotion, a lot of adrenaline.
The shouting, the smashing something on the floor...
It was so exciting that I really fell in love at that time
and that's why I'm still here.
I worked in a first Michelin Star restaurant.
My food style, well, I have a little mix.
I've been working also in a Spanish restaurant for a long time.
My family is Italian.
That's my cooking style.
That's what I want for me, you know, to mix all of these cultures.
The only place in the kitchen that I don't feel
that confident is in pastry.
Joaquin, I'd like you to make for us a take on a Poire belle Helene,
served with layers of pastry. OK.
How are you with pastry?
Well, pastry is my weakness, I can say.
Do you know what a Pear belle Helene is?
I'm not sure about it.
It is poached pears, a chocolate sauce,
Chantilly cream.
And we would like it served with layers of pastry.
Oui, chef.
20 minutes. Off you go.
I'm going to go with some of this,
some cinnamon. OK.
MONICA: He's made the stock syrup.
He's got some spices there. He's got cinnamon and star anise.
But he's put all the vanilla into his poaching liquid.
When was the last time you were working in a pastry?
I never worked in a pastry section.
I really enjoy it, but I feel like I'm better with meat and fish.
I'm curious if he's going to dust it with some sugar.
Right, you're halfway.
Your pears are poaching.
Your filo pastry's in the oven.
You've got some cream on there for your chocolate sauce,
and you've started the Chantilly.
And you haven't worked in pastry.
So you're doing all right.
Thank you so much, chef.
Where did you first fall in love with food?
With my mum. I was, like, 10, 12 years old
when I first started cooking.
Where was this?
In Caracas, Venezuela.
Ah. So Venezuela is...
We have a mix of cultures, basically.
At some point I would like to take some of my roots into my kitchen.
Chantilly cream - so, what's normally in that?
Chantilly cream is normally a sugar and cream.
Where's the vanilla? And...
In your pot with the poaching pear? Yeah.
I should take some?
No. Not now, no. A bit late now.
That's it, off the heat.
Chocolate sauce is done.
You've got five minutes.
How's your pastry?
Pastry is almost ready.
Oh.
You'll have to take those pears out to cool,
otherwise it can all sort of melt together.
Joaquin, you've got two minutes.
You've got to finish this dish.
What's happening to that cream?
It's too hot. It's too hot.
Your pears are hot. Can I swap?
Yeah, do it again.
You can do this.
Keeping the hot pears away from the cold cream.
Yes.
Chocolate sauce to go. I like your style.
All done? JOAQUIN SIGHS
Well done.
Got to love a pastry challenge, huh?
Yeah!
You haven't trained in the pastry department,
but you really found your way around this challenge.
The pear's beautifully poached.
The chocolate sauce is delicious.
The pastry is crunchy and crispy. It's layered.
So there's a lot to like about this dish.
The whipped cream - you used all the vanilla in
your poaching liquid, so not quite a Chantilly cream.
The pear, it was good.
So almost there.
Joaquin, honestly, that's a decent start.
We'll see you in the next round. Thank you very much.
It wasn't my area.
So for me it's like, "Oops."
But I think that I did pretty well.
I can do much better, for sure,
but I'm happy with what I did just now.
Last to try and impress the judges is private chef Molly from Leeds.
Hello. Hello. Yo.
You all right?
Yeah.
After being classically trained in French restaurants,
during lockdown Molly started her own business.
Since starting private chef business,
I've really kind of found that the reason why I was meant to
be a chef. It's not just a career,
like, it's a way of life.
I just love what I do!
The power that food has, it blows my mind.
It brings people together.
It makes people happy.
And it is why I was put here, I think, just to cook food
and make people happy.
I chose MasterChef because I want to see what I'm capable of.
I'm bricking it, to be honest.
But I'll see how well I do, really.
Molly, you look a little nervous.
Try and relax. Yeah, I will.
I would like you to make for us a take on a Poire belle Helene
with layered pastry.
Right.
Do you know what that is?
No.
So it is poached pears. Yeah.
And it's with chocolate sauce, a Chantilly cream
and layers of pastry.
20 minutes. Over to you.
I can't stop my hand shaking - sorry!
So what is the plan?
I'm going to poach my pears first just so they've got plenty of time
to poach down,
and get it infused with the star anise and cinnamon now.
I've got a bit of sugar in it.
I'm going to add a bit of this too, just to give it a bit more.
Taste if you're not sure.
Wow,
Do you feel better now?
Oh, yeah, I do, actually, as it goes. Thank you.
She's got a cartouche going into her pears.
Good to see.
Where did your passion for cookery start, Molly?
In kitchens in a French bistro when I was 12.
127!
I wrote a letter to the owner of the restaurant
and the rest is history.
I worked there for just under ten years and then as much
as I possibly could.
Ah, goo do. She's got some nutmeg.
Do you work in a French-type restaurant now?
I have my own business with my partner Charlotte now.
It's like a private chef company.
What's the biggest party you've done?
We did a barbecue last year for 120.
And was it just you on the barbecue?
I had my mum with me.
Your mum helps out as well?
Yeah, yeah.
Molly, you're doing well, but you're almost halfway.
You've got 10 minutes left.
Got you. Thank you.
I'm going to get on with my chocolate sauce now.
Molly's doing really well.
How do you make Chantilly cream, please?
Just whip it up with vanilla and a bit of sugar.
Your partner, has she given you any advice about MasterChef?
She said, "Just believe in yourself and just let what you do
"each day come through."
Molly, you've got five minutes left, OK?
Cool. Thank you.
Plenty of time, that, innit?
Yeah.
Pastry OK?
Golden brown.
Oh, careful. You've dropped one.
Oh, sorry.
Molly, you've got your pastry cooked,
you've got your Chantilly done, you've got chocolate sauce,
you've got your pears out cooling down.
All you've got to do now is just put it together. OK. Right.
It's coming together nicely.
Whoa.
It's looking good.
Will the cream take the weight?
It will.
Molly, are you done?
I'm done, yeah.
Well done. In time.
Good effort.
Thank you.
God, that were hard, that!
That were proper hard.
Hi, Molly. You all right?
Nothing like a bit of Dutch courage in a bottle, is there?
THEY LAUGH
Watching that, I was really impressed with how
you found your way around each part of this task.
Well done. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
You've absolutely nailed it.
We've got the poached pears.
Great flavouring to your poaching liquid.
You've got the chocolate sauce.
Vanilla in the Chantilly - great.
And we've got beautiful shards of pastry.
They're buttery, they're crunchy, they've got sugar
running through them.
You didn't understand what you were making, but you worked your way
around it and you did a great job. Well done.
Thank you.
MONICA: Molly, believe in yourself because that takes some doing.
So I hope you realise that you've impressed us
on the Skills Test.
It's as good a start as I've seen on MasterChef.
Keep it up, Molly.
We'll see you soon.
Thank you. Off you go.
What they just said,
it's unbelievable.
I'm so happy.
Inside, I'm like dancing.
That was a strong Skills Test.
We've got chefs of proper quality.
Maybe the odd timing issue, but proper quality and knowledge.
Evelina ran out of time but showed great working technique.
Lauren had three minutes left at the end of it -
could've used those three minutes, shown a bit more care in her work.
Joaquin on your Skills Test, he was very unsure of the pastry
but he delivered it.
However, Molly...
Molly came in here and owned it.
For me, Molly is out front at the moment.
Next up, the Signature Dish round.
Main course, dessert.
There's a lot of pressure when it comes to their own food.
This is going to be interesting.
Let their personalities shine through.
Chefs, this is your signature two-course menu,
to show us what you are all about.
Main and dessert in an hour and 30 minutes.
We only have two places in the next round.
Chefs...
...off you go.
So the Skills Test... SHE EXHALES
I'm so annoyed.
One of the worries after the Skills Test yesterday is time, you know?
But I'm just going to move a bit faster on the next round.
Evelina, it looks like you've got a lot to do. You've been rushing
around quite a lot. Yes.
Hopefully I can manage.
My main course is a venison loin, a kvass sauce -
which is a fermented rye bread drink - also a wild garlic mash,
the boudin noir, salt-baked beetroots
and raw beetroots as well.
Wow. And tell me about this fermented drink.
I've never heard of this.
It's called kvass. It's an Eastern European drink.
It has loads of seeds in it,
quite a molassy taste. Fascinating.
And dessert from you, chef?
I've got creme brulee which is spiced with tonka bean,
cardamom and nutmeg.
And on the side we'll have a rhubarb compote
spiced with whisky as well.
So in one of your dishes you've got a famous Scottish drink.
In another one of your dishes you've got
an Eastern European drink. Yes.
Are you Lithuania? Are you Scotland?
Are you somewhere in the middle? Where are you?
I think I'm somewhere in the middle, probably.
I've lived in Scotland for ten years,
so it does have an influence on me and the way I cook
and what kind of chef I am as well.
Evelina, whoa!
She is buzzing around that kitchen.
After the Skills Test she does not want to be out of time.
There's no fat on venison loin.
She has to be very careful that you don't give it too much heat,
basically, because if you do it'll dry out very, very quickly.
Potato puree, make sure it's nice and smooth.
The wild garlic flavour needs to come singing through.
The spiced creme brulee is cardamom and tonka bean.
Tonka bean is quite a unique flavour.
It's almost a sweet spice and it works beautifully well
with the creme brulee.
Good creme brulee...
Too much heat and you get curdling around the outside.
Too little heat and it will not cook and it will not be set
and panic will set in.
I'm excited, for sure,
but hopefully I can just get everything done in time.
Molly, how are you feeling after a cracking Skills Test?
Feeling good.
I made sure that I've kept myself level-headed
and get my dishes ready and make sure that they're excellent.
Molly's main course, she's got a lamb loin.
We've got wild garlic wrapped around the lamb loin and then
Parma ham. Into the water bath to cook.
I am a little bit concerned that she's not sealing the lamb loin
before she's wrapping it in the wild garlic.
I think getting a little bit of colour, it would add more flavour.
Potato rostis, it's about grating the potato down, salting it,
squeezing out all the extra water,
beautifully cooked with lots of butter,
nice and crunchy and delicious.
A spring pea, wild garlic puree.
It's got to be smooth, of course.
And the lamb sauce.
For my signature dessert I'm making rhubarb and custard.
The rhubarb is sourced from Yorkshire,
cos that's where I'm from.
The custard, so it's going to be like a creme brulee.
And the rhubarb, I'm going to roast it with orange zest
and fresh ginger.
And then I'm also going to make a rhubarb gel with fresh
orange segments just to cut through everything.
Molly's dessert is a set creme brulee, but she's cooking
that in a mould and she's going to be turning that out.
Very dangerous turning out a creme brulee because
if it's not quite cooked it will not be set and it could be a disaster.
Do you have any other passions outside of cookery?
I used to play football.
I was a winger, left-wing.
My partner, I met her on the same football team, actually.
I tackled her and asked if she wanted to go out with me.
I'm absolutely pushing myself
because the way I see it is you get one shot and I've got to
make sure that I shoot my shot right.
Chefs, you are halfway!
Anyone got any marshmallows?
Joaquin, I'm interested.
How many languages do you speak? English, Spanish...
I speak English, Spanish, Italian a little bit.
I like to learn idioms and to be able to communicate with people.
So, Joaquin, tell us, what are you cooking for us?
So I'm doing a smoked venison loin with onions.
It's a dish that I always used to have when I was a kid.
The venison loin is a croquette,
but it's made from cassava with liver.
This is something that we made in Venezuela.
So with wild garlic oil and venison sauce
with onions and herbs.
Loving the sound of the smoked venison loin.
No fat to protect that lovely meat
so you need to be very careful when cooking that in the pan.
Joaquin is making a croquette.
Instead of using potato he's using cassava.
Cassava is quite powdery, similar to a potato
so same texture.
I like the sound of that.
It's a dish that absolutely is based on my childhood.
That is the first dish I used to do even before I started
my professional career.
And, as for dessert, I'm doing a tropical tart that is made with
passion fruit, pineapple and coconut.
On top, a coriander gelatin.
So basically it's a pina colada.
With coriander?
Yeah. Coriander is going to give you just a little bit of freshness
on the dish.
Fabulous.
Coriander gel, like the sound of that.
Coriander is a herb that is quite versatile and it does
work in desserts.
Passion fruit curd has to be made and nice and rich and velvety,
but the balance of sweet and tartness just needs to be right.
And of course the sable tart,
you need the tart case nicely made, cooked to perfection -
it should be melt-in-the-mouth.
Before we go, are you sure you want to do coriander and fruit?
100% sure.
OK. Good on you.
I'm going to go all out.
The Skills Test was just like a snippet of me.
Now we're going to see everything.
Tell me, what are your two dishes, Lauren?
Main course, I've got lamb rump with curried butter bean puree,
a plantain crumble and fried curry leaves and a potato fondant.
Initially I didn't have a sauce.
I realised I had a really nice sauce that came from my potato fondant
and the juices from the lamb.
So I'm going to combine the two and emulsify some butter through.
And for your dessert?
So, ironically, the dessert is based on a Caribbean or
Jamaican breakfast that I couldn't stand as a child.
It's a porridge made of corn kernels, but we always got fed it
on a Sunday, so I've got a lemon cornmeal cake with sweetcorn
and a salted caramel sauce with a thyme mousseline.
So, again, adding flavours that are prominent
in Jamaican cooking.
Has your Jamaican family tried these dishes?
No. Only my boyfriend but he's not Caribbean.
But he said it was great!
I love the sound of Lauren's menu.
The flavours of her childhood, the Caribbean.
We've got a curried butter bean puree.
So curry flavours, blitzed nice and smooth.
Delicious.
She got the lamb in the oven within no time, and it's out
and it's resting - and I think that's a very good move.
Lauren's dessert, I love cake but this one sounds like
it's going to have texture because of the cornmeal and of course
the sweetcorn through it.
Vanilla mousseline with the addition of the thyme - touch of
the Caribbean. Great idea.
I think that'll work a treat.
Lauren, looking under control. How are we?
Yeah, I'm OK.
So you're just now thinking about serving?
Putting it together, Yeah.
OK. Nice.
Chefs, listen, you have six minutes!
I'm OK, I think. It's not all yet ready.
I'm just going to finish off this.
I'm just a bit worried about my creme brulees being set.
So you've got two dishes still to plate, right?
Yes. Main and dessert. You going to be all right?
Is everything cooked?
Everything is OK. OK, brilliant. Let's go, let's go, let's go.
Quick, quick, quick.
Joaquin, you're going to have to move it.
You've got about three minutes left, yeah?
Final touches. Joaquin, OK?
You've got about 30 seconds, yes?
Yes, Chef.
Time's up. Well done, everybody.
And breathe.
Well done.
You happy?
Yeah, I think so. Good.
We're done now.
For her signature main, chef de partie Evelina
has roasted her venison loin and served it with
a rye bread crouton topped with black pudding,
wild garlic pomme puree,
blackberries, salt-baked beetroot, raw beetroot
and finished with a rye bread and molasses kvass sauce.
That kind of forest thing you've made there
I think is brilliantly attractive.
The venison is beautifully cooked and sealed around the outside,
and that sauce is absolutely fabulous.
The rye brings a dark, rich, sweet, bitter treacle flavour to this dish.
You've brought something really interesting to venison
that I've never had before.
Very good cookery.
Thank you. With a real twist.
I love your little crouton,
to pick out the earthy sweetness of the slices of beetroot
and the more heightened, sharp sweetness of
the blackberry is lovely.
And this sauce is something else.
That fermented drink tastes meaty but fruity,
like a good red wine should.
It's very, very unusual and really quite lovely.
The potato in wild garlic puree is wonderful and works so well
with the sauce.
Great flavours.
I like how you've taken things that we are familiar with
and put your own twist on it.
For dessert, Evelina is serving a tonka bean, cardamom and nutmeg
spiced creme brulee with a whisky rhubarb compote.
This is not a dish for the faint-hearted.
This packs real punch and power.
You have to love tonka bean and cardamom and whisky
and rhubarb because they are massive flavours
all working together in harmony.
I think it's great.
My brulee is perfectly cooked.
The tonka bean is just like extra vanilla, and cardamom in there
gives it a kind of Eastern flavour.
Yeah, I really like that.
I love the whisky flavour through the rhubarb compote
because it gives it a little bit of warmth,
but at the same time.. floral.
Good work.
It's very clever to take a creme brulee that everyone knows
and pretending to serve us something that's very simple,
yet smack you with beautiful flavours.
Thank you.
Those level of comments to hear, it was...
It was something out of this world, to be honest with you.
It's absolutely amazing.
Private chef Molly's main is sous vide lamb loin,
wrapped in wild garlic and Parma ham
served with potato rosti, pea and wild garlic puree,
Vichy carrots, asparagus and a lamb sauce.
I think the lamb is beautifully cooked, perfectly pink
all the way through.
Love the wild garlic on the outside. Parma ham.
I was a little bit concerned that you hadn't sealed the lamb
before you'd wrapped it.
It's worked.
There's nothing unusual here.
It's about good cookery and very well presented food,
and that's exactly what you've done.
Thank you.
I really like this lamb.
It's beautiful, tender and pink.
And the sauce is shiny and it has depth.
Molly, my rosti, it's well made, it's cooked through.
It's very crispy.
Asparagus and carrots, yes, they're lovely,
and they're cooked well.
The pea and wild garlic puree is very smooth.
You are very capable of cooking this.
Molly's dessert is her take on rhubarb and custard.
Vanilla creme brulee,
roasted rhubarb flavoured with ginger and orange juice,
rhubarb and ginger gel and orange segments.
Turning out a creme brulee is a very risky thing to do.
It is perfectly cooked.
The richness and the thickness of it, it works really well with
the lovely, sweet and sour rhubarb on the side.
I love that.
I've got to tell you, chef, that is absolutely banging.
What I love about this rhubarb is it's really still quite sour
and the sweetness on there is coming from orange juice and that gel.
But then the gel has got ginger in it, which is giving heat
again as well.
That is a very sophisticated balance of flavours.
The texture of your creme brulee, which is just so smooth,
and it's holding up here really well.
Beautifully caramelised sugar on the top.
Still got the crunch.
Delightful flavours.
Well done.
Thank you very much.
I feel amazing, yeah.
I don't think I've ever felt this feeling before.
I'm just... I'm proper buzzing!
Sous-chef Joaquin's signature main is rosemary-smoked
venison loin served with a cassava and liver croquette,
wild garlic and avocado puree, onion petals,
wild garlic oil, finished with a venison sauce.
You were running out of time.
This wasn't the presentation you wanted - we know that.
You didn't have time for the venison to rest.
It's now bleeding onto the plate.
The venison, you've seared it so hard on one side that
it actually taste burnt and bitter.
The puree is also bitter.
This hasn't turned out the way I think you planned.
100%.
The croquette, it's not the texture I was expecting.
It's almost like a dumpling.
I like the avocado with the wild garlic.
It's got that avocado tang to it with still, like,
an undercurrent of garlic.
The venison isn't cooked well.
It's just been rushed and it's bleeding.
The sauce doesn't have the body that you should have.
I expect something that's got some real power flavour to it.
What a shame.
Joaquin's dessert is a tropical sable tart
filled with passion fruit curd, pineapple tartare and coriander gel,
served with compressed pineapple and coconut gel.
The curd's not quite cooked through with the egg yolk
and that's why it stayed so liquid.
This is disappointing because the flavours on this plate
are brilliant.
Passion fruit, it shines through.
Pineapple, it works with your gel made from coriander.
Wonderful flavours of coconut, pineapple, passion fruit.
I even like the coriander gel.
It does work, against all that sweetness.
I think it's a great idea.
But that curd isn't working.
It's not finished great, because my tart case was broken.
The coconut gel, the coconut flavour, it's not too sweet -
more of it.
I really wish that you had executed this better because I think
this is a really interesting idea.
Chef.
Today was a tough day because I just didn't manage my time properly.
I think that it wasn't my best day today.
For her main, sous-chef Lauren is serving roast lamb rump,
curried butter bean puree and fondant potatoes,
topped with plantain crumble, fried curry leaves and corn shoots
finished with a lamb sauce.
Great ideas, Lauren.
The sauce, which you made from the cooking juices of the lamb
and the fondants, great flavours.
Your lamb rump, you've seared it - nice and pink.
The puree, the curry, is light and delicate, great colour.
The fondant potatoes are absolutely delicious,
cooked to perfection.
The curry leaf that's been deep-fried, and of course
the plantain, it just brings a little bit of
tropical magic to the plate.
This is a beautiful plate of food, Lauren. Thank you.
I really like the little shards of plantain -
that's really clever - making it tropical along with the curry leaf.
I've gone beyond tasting it. I'm now eating it,
which is a sure sign that I'm enjoying it.
Thank you.
Lauren's dessert is a corn meal and lemon cake,
topped with thyme and vanilla mousseline,
popcorn and thyme crumb and a salted caramel sauce.
I've got a bit of a problem with this.
And it's I want to eat all of it.
That's one of the loveliest cakes I've had here.
The cornmeal that you've used is perfect for this.
Lovely colour on the outside, beautiful and soft.
The thyme mousseline on top.
You've brought that Caribbean flavour and it's full of vanilla
and it works a treat.
That's a delicious piece of work.
That corn cake is like a polenta cake, but it's not gritty.
It's moist inside there as well.
Really quite subtle with the lemon and the thyme,
which I didn't expect.
Very good.
It is like the best steamed pudding, with the textures
of the cornmeal there.
Caramel. You've even got sweetcorn through it.
It is so moreish.
Well, Lauren, you have set the bar high.
Well done.
I just want to cry of happiness because it was just so good.
And those dishes mean so much to me,
and the memories that they bring, all the flavours.
So I couldn't be happier.
I'm buzzing.
Wow. We've got some talent in here.
What a great cook-off.
First things first.
The chef that'll be really disappointed right now,
of course, is Joaquin.
The venison wasn't cooked properly and a sauce that didn't work.
I'm disappointed for him.
His dessert, I loved the flavours on the plate,
but the passion fruit curd just... It was just running out onto
the plate, and the pastry was so short it all cracked.
Joaquin is leaving us.
But that leaves us with three incredibly talented chefs.
Lauren cooked, I think, probably the finest lamb rump
I've had in the MasterChef kitchen.
She cooked it slowly and she rested it for a very long time.
Loved the twist of the butter beans with the curries and spice running
through there, which I think was great.
The cornmeal cake with the caramel, with sweetcorn through it,
and then the thyme through the mousseline was just delightful.
This is clever cookery.
Molly's lamb was perfectly pink.
Wrapping it with wild garlic was a fantastic idea.
She delivered it beautifully well.
That rhubarb and custard was stratospheric.
The custard element was a firm brulee that she'd turned out
packed full of vanilla.
That's a quality bit of work.
There are no bells and whistles in Molly's cooking.
It is on sheer execution of great ingredients
and great technique.
I'm really, really impressed with Evelina.
The beautifully seared cooked venison I thought was excellent.
The sauce, with the kvass in there, the fermented rye drink,
was very clever.
Creme brulee, which we all know,
and then the delightful surprises of these strong flavours
in there - cardamom, the tonka beans.
The chilled rhubarb compote had more cardamom and it had
Scottish whisky in it as well.
These are big flavours to balance and I thought she balanced
the flavours beautifully.
It would not be easy to go home, I think.
It is such an experience,
and I'm actually quite wanting, like, more of it.
I want to just keep going.
I don't think I've shown what I'm about fully yet.
Hopefully I'll get the chance to fully find my feet and just
kind of let my chef's brain run wild.
Cooking is literally everything.
Food and everything that surrounds it is everything to me.
So to be able to continue on into the competition
would mean so much.
So we have three chefs here that we really like.
But only two places in the next round.
What a great cook-off.
It's very rare at this stage of the competition
we see such quality and great flavours.
Well done, all four of you.
As we said when you first came in here,
two of you are unfortunately leaving us.
The first chef, leaving the competition...
...Joaquin.
Thank you so much.
At the moment, I'm feeling a bit down because I'm out.
But it's all an experience that makes me stronger
and then makes me bigger.
I'm capable of doing things, big things.
And this time I wasn't lucky enough.
Tomorrow is another day.
You caused us all sorts of problems as judges.
Molly, Lauren, Evelina,
the three of you are seriously talented chefs.
We have, however, reached a decision.
We are taking all three of you...
...through to the next round.
Well done.
I am so happy. Because the dishes were so close to home and my heart,
it just made it even better
because it's memories, everything, so...
...I'm so happy.
Oh, my God, man!
I don't think it's sunk in - do you know what I mean?
Oh, I can't stop my voice from going.
Yeah, I'm over the moon.
I'm chuffed. I'm happy.
Oh, my God.
To be here, to cook here, to be able to cook my food,
feels absolutely amazing.
I feel buzzed.
I'm ready for more!
Next time...
...it's the quarterfinal.
Wow.
And this week's most talented chefs return to face two tough challenges.
It's a clever move.
That's not half bad.
Only the best will earn a place in Knockout Week.
Inspiring. Thrilling.
It makes life worth living.
Oh, oh...
whoa.
Whoa. Whoa.