It's the professional MasterChef quarterfinal.
These four skilful chefs triumphed in their heats.
Tonight, they'll be judged on two tough challenges designed to push
them even further.
It's getting harder. Competition's getting bigger.
I need to step it up a little bit.
I wasn't expecting it to be quite so much pressure and quite so fast.
I've just got to go with the flow and move as fast as I can.
I want to be focused on myself, and I'm really happy to be here.
I think it's going to be a nice quarterfinal.
It feels pretty crazy to be a quarter finalist, to be honest.
I have found the competition pretty time-consuming and a little bit
stressful, but hopefully in a good way.
First, they will have to devise and cook a standout tart.
It's pushing boundaries.
That's exactly what we wanted. Well done.
Then go on to cook for three of the country's most
discerning food critics.
I love this because
it's why I bother to get out of bed in the morning.
Only the very best will earn a place in knockout week.
Quarterfinals means the kitchen gets that little bit hotter.
Our expectations get just a little bit higher.
Chefs, welcome back. Good to see you.
Welcome to your quarterfinal.
Today's an invention test. It's about you as chefs digging
into your repertoire, your experience, to come
up with something delicious, something that's going to wow us.
In front of you is a box with a great hint
of what this test is.
Chefs, please remove the box.
We would like you to create a tart.
Not any old tart.
The most beautiful tart you've yet created.
It can be savoury. It can be sweet.
It is completely up to you.
Not only that, we want a side dish to go with it.
The perfect accompaniment for your tart.
Show us some flair and creativity.
Chefs, you have ten minutes to come up with an idea...
...and select your ingredients.
A tart is about a pastry case that's got some delicious
ingredients inside it.
You can do anything you want. Your imagination,
you can just let it run wild.
I'm thinking something with goat's cheese and ricotta and cauliflower.
I'm definitely freestyling this one a little bit.
Go for gold, I hope.
To create their tart, the chefs have a selection of ingredients,
including lobster, salmon,
mushrooms, vegetables,
soft and citrus fruits,
chillies and spices.
In addition, there is ready-made puff and filo pastry available.
There's only 70 minutes for this challenge.
It's not enough time to make either filo or puff, and that is why
we're giving it to them.
I nearly went lobster, but I'm going to champion beetroot.
I might change my mind yet. I don't know.
We want textures with the tart. Beautiful, crispy pastry.
And then the filling to really Wow us.
And also a side to match.
It can be anything from an ice cream, a chutney.
It is up to them.
I like making tarts.
Everybody in France know how is a good tart.
Feeling good about this one.
I just love super-classic lemon tart.
Chefs, your ten minutes are now up.
You've got 70 minutes. Make it count, make it special.
Chefs...
...off you go.
Originally from Australia, 29-year-old Kasae spent a year
working in Sweden, and is now a head chef of a Japanese restaurant
in Bath.
So far, she's impressed the judges
with some exciting flavour combinations.
I hope that I can take some influences from my travels and kind
of use that to set myself apart a little bit.
I love experimenting with new things and new ingredients and seeing
how I can play that into the kind of food that I do.
Kasae...tarts. Do you like them?
Love them. So, what is your tart?
I'm doing a cauliflower, goat's cheese and ricotta tart.
I'm doing some apricot and vermouth cream on top.
It's going to have some pickled apples and some walnut
praline on it. You're making this up on the spot. Yeah.
Yeah. Now's the time to try it. What type of pastry are you using?
I'm using filo.
I want it to really have that crunch and be more about the filling.
What about your side dish? Is the side dish allowed to be a drink?
The side dish can be whatever you want it to be. OK.
If it's going to be a drink, I'm quite partial to a pink champagne.
Kasae, she's still trying to work all of this out.
The main elements she's got organised,
which I like the sound of. Goat's cheese, ricotta, cauliflower.
I think the most important thing is the acidity of the goat's cheese
and the ricotta comes through. Apricot vermouth cream,
a little bit different. I think the elephant in the room for me
is the apricot. Where does it fit? How does it work?
I've just discovered that Kasae is making a different style
of side dish.
She's making gazpacho of tomato.
She's adding strawberry, apple, chilli and fennel tops.
But does it work with a tart?
Is it going to have a place with the flavours
that she's already got?
31-year-old sous-chef Kyle struggled with his nerves and lack
of experience in the pastry section in his Skills Test,
but bounced back with two standout signature dishes.
It feels amazing to be a quarter finalist.
Wasn't something I was expecting.
I just thought, "Get through the day."
I know what got us here, so when I'm in there, I just need to do that.
I believe in myself.
Kyle, I saw you pick up a load of beetroot at the bench.
Where's it gone? |'ve changed my ingredients. Right.
Tell me what your tart is and what side order
you're going to serve with it. So I'm doing chocolate tart
with raspberries. And then for my little side order,
I'm just going to have a bit of fun with it
and do some chocolate soil, maybe some, like, candied nuts.
I get the feeling you're a little bit nervous.
I am a little bit nervous cos I don't know how
it's going to pan out. But I think at this stage in the competition,
you've got to take risks.
Kyle has given us one great dessert already, and he just needs
to control those nerves and clear his mind.
Ganache has got to be rich and smooth and beautifully set.
We've got raspberries, which he's going to freeze them,
and he's going to put some fresh on the chocolate tart as well.
He's using filo pastry.
I think the most important thing for Kyle is to make sure he gets
the pastry case perfectly lined.
Filo is a very delicate pastry.
The most important thing with filo is you can't just use one sheet.
You need to have layers of them.
It holds the ganache, but it's also a flavour.
You want to taste pastry. You want that lovely filo to crunch
in your mouth.
Chefs, 35 minutes have gone.
You are halfway.
Paris-born private chef Philippe has impressed with his original
and creative dishes, inspired by his West African French heritage.
I think the good feedback is confidence and it pushes you more.
It pushes you to do better and to evolve.
I really want to show more of my cuisine and I want to impress them.
Normally at this time we ask you what you're cooking, but I think
the question is - what have you cooked?
We're halfway and you're almost complete. Yeah.
So it's a salmon tartare quiche with almonds.
And your side dish is what? It's a fresh salad.
I think what we... Our expectations are something a little edgy,
something a little bit different. Sure.
Is there any improvements that you can make?
"What can I do to elevate it?"
Does that make sense? Sure.
Lucky for you, Philippe, you've still got another 35 minutes... Yeah.
...and you can maybe add something else to your salad there.
I hope he's going to look at the dish that he's plated,
realise there's a bit more work that he can still bring to this.
I'll try to do a tuile.
So it's a mix of olive oil, flour, salt and water.
I'm concerned that Philippe is working just a little bit too fast.
I'm not sure that Philippe's quiche is actually cooked properly.
We've got puff pastry. It takes quite a while
to get puff pastry cooked.
He's had 35 minutes, so he's cooked the pastry blind.
Then he's taken out the beans, he's poured the egg mix in and put
it back into the oven. In 35 minutes, you can't do that.
I've changed my side dishes.
It's a kind of salad revisited, I think, more creative.
We've got courgettes.
We've got apricots, pistachio and some herbs.
With her own private catering company,
32-year-old Verity stood out, showcasing ingredients
from the Scottish Highlands.
I am an inventive chef.
I'm used to getting baskets of vegetables and things in
and having to think on my feet.
I'm looking forward to this test.
Also quite nerve-racking.
Verity, what do you think of the invention test?
I think it's a great one. Tarts, yeah, can be anything.
My brain immediately went to citrus tart.
For me, it's just an absolute classic and my favourite dessert.
I love a citrus tart as well.
So you're making your own pastry? I am. Yep.
So I'm making a pastry that's really heavy in egg yolks,
so it should be super rich.
What are you going to do to elevate this,
to make it the most amazing lemon tart?
So I'm going to do some ginger honeycomb.
I've got a lovely rich, hopefully finished, thyme-infused
creme fraiche ice cream, which is heavy on the yolks.
All about the egg. All about the egg, yeah.
Eggy pastry and an eggy ice cream.
Yeah, yeah.
The lemon curd tart sounds delicious.
Lemon curd has to be rich in butter, sugar, eggs, and, of course,
lots of citrus flavour. Lots of lemon in there.
Lemon juice and grated lemon, too.
Great to see Verity make some pastry from scratch.
I'm curious to see how that comes out.
I love the sound of thyme-infused creme fraiche ice cream,
but she says she"s loading it with a lot of egg yolks,
which concerns me, because for me a creme fraiche ice cream
can be lost if there's too many egqg yolks.
I'm making a ginger honeycomb.
I've never used the syrup from stem ginger before.
Honeycomb is about having the correct recipe,
because when you add the bicarbonated soda, it has to work.
It needs to really bubble up.
Pour it onto a tray and set, so it's nice and light and crunchy.
You mustn't burn it, because if you do it'll become too bitter.
Chefs, you have five minutes left.
Let's start seeing this food getting finished.
So I've done a silly move and I've gone and put the curd
into the tart case whilst the tart case is still in.
Blast chill it now to set it.
One, two, three, go!
A couple of minutes left. Where's your tart?
My tart is currently in the blast chiller.
We've got just under two minutes, so you're going to have to be quick.
Right, that's it, chefs. Time's up.
Step back. Stop what you're doing.
Head chef Kasae has made a filo tart filled with cauliflower,
goat's cheese and ricotta, topped with an apricot and vermouth cream,
herbs and a dusting of toasted cumin,
garnished with a walnut praline and some fresh and marinated apple.
Her side is a strawberry and tomato gazpacho with chilli.
Very, very good. Appetising.
Just want to get stuck into it now.
Your tart case is very crispy because you've used the filo
on there, and it's held very well.
You've got textures of apple and cauliflower,
which bring the sweetness, and then you get some goat's cheese as well.
But you've made so many other things.
I wish I could taste, like, the walnut praline.
You did something with apricot as well, but it's so small
and so fine, it's sort of lost in there. Because they're there
and I'm excited about them, just make them a bit more evident.
You have good ideas.
Your tart tastes delicious.
The cauliflower with the two cheeses, love the fresh apple,
the ricotta. You've got the walnut praline.
A little bit more of that would have been great.
Love the little gazpacho on the side. It really works.
Why not throw in some strawberries? Why not?
It's pushing boundaries.
You've come in and you've invented something a little bit different
with your twist. And that's exactly what we wanted.
Well done. Keep that going.
Show our critics what you're all about. Thank you.
What a whirlwind.
That was a massive roller-coaster.
I was convinced that they weren't going to like it.
So I'm buzzing. I'm buzzing.
THEY WHISPER: Sorry, my hands are very sweaty. Good?
I think that was good. I'm going to get roasted.
Nah, man, you're going to be good.
Sous-chef Kyle has cooked a caramelised filo chocolate tart
with chocolate soil and toasted almonds,
a raspberry compote,
and raspberries dressed in their own juice, with a side
of white chocolate and thyme espuma.
I don't think I've ever had a tart in an earthenware dish before.
It's great.
For a chef that really didn't know what he was doing
for an invention test,
that's very, very impressive.
I can't work you out.
You don't know what you're doing.
You're not sure where you're going, and then you produce
a piece of magic. I love the compote at the bottom of the dish.
The chocolate soil's bitterness just sitting on top there.
Love the filo pastry.
Chocolate ganache is like silk, and bitter and sweet and delicious,
topped with more fresh raspberries and a lovely little raspberry jus
just to finish the dish. It's great fun. I love it.
Flavours of raspberry singing everywhere. That chocolate soil,
yet with more raspberry compote underneath it,
it's got the texture. And then the white chocolate
espuma, or mousse, on top.
I'm impressed with what you've done.
Keep this going.
Judges, I think they loved it.
All round, happy...I think.
WHISPERING: You weren't expecting that.
Private chef Philippe has cooked a salmon quiche
in a puff pastry case,
dressed with a herb mousse, salmon tartare,
grated lemon and shallots.
His side is a salad with courgette and apricots,
served with a tuile.
So it looks like you have been back to the bench and you've rethought
some of the processes and some of your ideas, which is always
good to see. Good. Thank you.
Great presentation. Very, very nice.
But your tart is not cooked.
I know sometimes in France that they do tend to slightly
possibly under cook the tart case, but not to this extent.
What you do have, though, are some really good flavours.
The quiche has got great flavour.
The salmon, the herb mousse on the side.
The seasoning, the colour, the finishing. Great.
I like the way you've dressed this side salad.
I like the fact you've got a bit of apricot in there, too.
Philippe, the texture of the quiche filling itself,
the egg mix with the cream, is beautifully cooked.
I really like the flavours of the herb mousse
that you have sitting on top. The salmon tartare has
got citrus flavours running through it. I'd like more of that tartare.
There's only a hint of it.
You have skills, you have talent.
Just don't rush through it. Thank you.
So I can do better, I think.
I had bad feedback about my puff pastry.
And I think I don't understand properly
the time for the competition. It was my mistake.
I think I have 17 minutes instead of 70,
so I rush everything in 17 minutes and the pastry was not cooked.
Chef patron Verity has made her own shortcrust pastry for a lemon
and lime tart, topped with a pistachio tuile, and served
with a side of creme fraiche and thyme ice cream,
garnished with ginger honeycomb.
It is, it's rough, it's rustic and delicious.
We've got a beautiful lemon curd.
It's sharp, it's tangy.
The pastry is beautiful. Light, crumbly. Delicious.
It's fantastic.
The pastry is just crumbling away.
Your filling, the lemon curd, it's just set.
The ice cream, for me, is too heavy in the eggs.
I'm wanting some freshness of that creme fraiche
to cut through the citrus flavours. The ginger honeycomb on top,
it's very light in the ginger.
So I want to taste more of that ginger through that as well.
But it's a good lemon tart.
Good job. Good job, good job.
Happy? Could have been better.
It's a lot to get done.
Pastry and ice cream in the time limit.
I'm glad that's done, and the feedback,
I'll take that on board.
Quarterfinal - no-one said it was going to be easy.
Chefs, next up, you're cooking for our critics.
Now, you think we're tough judges,
it doesn't get much harder than them.
Grab it with both hands and give it everything you've got.
Go and take a break and we'll see you back in here.
Off you go.
That was good. I enjoyed that.
They were inventive and creative.
I'm looking forward to the critics' round.
They need to really hold it together, our four here.
I'm anxious and excited.
It's going to be good.
If there's a round I'm most looking forward to throughout
this whole journey, this is it.
I think it's a good test, and it's nice to have other critics.
So that's good.
There's some really big names coming in and we've got to make sure
that we have our A-game on.
Chefs, welcome back.
This is all about your food.
You are cooking for three of the leading restaurant critics
in the country.
Grace Dent,
Tom Parker Bowles
and Jimi Famurewa.
Not only are you cooking for the critics today, you are also
fighting for a place in our final 12.
You have 1 hour and 15 minutes, chefs.
Two courses.
At the end of this, one of you will be going home.
We wish you the best of luck. Off you go.
It's a massive day, I have the chance to prove
I am a good cook.
I'm feeling really relieved that the invention test is over.
Knowing that if I get through today
that I'm in the final 12, it really puts
it into massive, massive perspective.
Kasae, what are you cooking?
So today I'm doing an asparagus royale
with some sorrel mixed through it,
some pickled asparagus, and some dentelle crisps around the outside.
What do you call it? A dentelle? Dentelle.
That's what we call it in Australia. I think you guys call it
a lace tuile? That's going to go
with a truffle and almond foam on top.
I've not had a royale for a long time.
It's a set flavoured cream with egg, and rich and absolutely delicious.
How are you cooking the asparagus royale?
I'm going to blend it,
put the eggs in while it's still pretty warm to let the eggs temper.
And then I'll cook it in a bain-Marie in the oven at 100.
Royale cooked in a water bath has to be gentle.
You don't want those eggs to scramble. I like the sound
of her sauce that's going with it. It's like a foam.
She's using an espuma gun or a cream whipper,
so that will have a bit more body
as opposed to foaming sauce by hand.
For the main course I'm doing
char-grilled rainbow trout.
It's something that we grew up eating a lot in Australia.
We have a lot of fresh lakes and stuff like that there.
And then I'll have a cabbage that's stuffed with Jerusalem artichoke
and pumpkin seed risotto, and then that will be smoked at the table.
I like the idea, she's curing the trout and she's going
to be finishing that under the salamander.
Love hispi cabbage. It's very, very delicate. Light in flavour.
That's going to be stuffed with risotto.
Kasae is using Jerusalem artichoke in place of the rice,
and of course with the pumpkin seeds, so it will have texture.
It will be cooked in the style of a risotto, but not with rice.
Kasae, you've impressed with the flavours that you bring
to your food.
Are you bringing more of that to the critics today?
Yeah, I think these two dishes very much are my inspiration
from my travels, from my journeys and stuff.
So like even the royale has a little bit of kombu dashi in it.
They do a lot of smoking in Sweden, so I'm hoping that it's sort of
as much of me as I can combine together on a plate.
You've got a lot to do. I do!
I've only practised this once.
I think I can just get it done on time.
So, yeah, I'm definitely pushing myself today.
Judges have asked who I am as a chef, and I think my food
is so tied down into kind of Scottish produce
and the landscape and the area around there.
I'm bringing a lot of Scotland today.
What are you cooking for the critics?
So my starter is langoustine.
So I'm going to do the tails two ways.
One's poached, the other is a tartare.
And that will be dressed with the brains
from inside the langoustine.
And then that's going with carrots, a puree and ribbons,
a burnt garlic oil, and a butter bisque sauce.
Why langoustines?
It's inspired by a friend that I lost a couple of years ago
who passed away.
He would... Every time the sun shined, he'd take us out in the boat
and we'd go and find a secret beach and barbecue them up.
And we'd always have a kind of slaw and stuff with it,
so that's where the carrots come in.
Very nice. Lovely food memory.
Langoustines tails two different ways.
You want to poach them gently. Too much heat can cause it to curl up,
toughen, also give a sort of floury texture.
The tartare, she's just quickly dropped into the hot boiling water.
She's taking them out, refreshing them, and that'll just loosen
the shell away from the flesh.
She's taking the brains, the equivalent of the brown crab meat
from a crab. That'll make it more fishy, which is,
I think, a great idea.
My main course is loin of venison,
and that's with some king oyster mushrooms, a shit take mushroom
sauce, charred shallots, a garlic puree.
Anyone tried these dishes?
Yeah. My wife gave me some excellent feedback.
Is your wife someone who tells you what she thinks?
Or is she someone that tells you what you want to hear?
My wife absolutely tells me what she thinks, yeah.
To get the colourisation of venison,
you've got to have a medium-heat pan. Venison gently sealed,
add in your butter, your hard herbs, then just baste it.
Let the colour come from the basting.
Don't hit venison with hard heat because it will dry out
very, very quickly.
Garlic puree, for me, is always best when the garlic has been roasted,
and then you squeeze the little garlic out and blend it
with some cream.
Bonjour, Philippe. Bonjour. How are you?
Tres bien. Et vous? Well, not too bad, thank you.
Depends if I get some nice food.
What is your menu?
So, my starter is a scallops tartare.
Banana and avocado guacamole, and plantain crisp.
Banana and avocado guacamole?
Get out of here! No way.
No. Really? Yeah.
Why? I like banana. I like avocado.
That's it. Stupid question, I suppose.
I don't know where this dish is going to take me,
but I have to say, Philippe, it's intriguing.
It's a guacamole, so he's going to be crushing the avocado
and the banana together.
Adding banana into it, which is effectively a sweetener,
and I'm not too sure how a sweetener would work with avocado.
We've got plantain crisps.
I hope there's enough of them that you can dip it into that avocado
and some of that tartare.
I think it's very interesting to find a new combination.
It can be dangerous, but if we don't try, we don't know.
What about your main course?
So the main course, it's a corn-fed chicken chachenga
with soft yam, hollandaise sauce and okra.
Can you explain the dish, please?
So chachenga, it's a kind of spices.
It's groundnuts with ginger powder, cloves powder, chilli powder
and salt. We use it to rub the meat and do barbecue in west of Africa.
And I've got a coffee jus. A coffee jus? Really? Yeah.
I drink coffee, but I wouldn't put it with my chicken.
Good luck. Thank you, chefs.
We've got sous vide chicken breast, and then we've got chachenga,
which is a seasoning that he's putting over the chicken.
Philippe is using chicken bones to make a stock,
and then he's adding five shots of espresso into there
and reducing it down to make his coffee jus.
As long as he doesn't put too much of that on there,
it might be all right.
I've just seen him cut some thick rounds of yam.
He's going to cook that off, and then he's going to spoon some
hollandaise over the top of the yam.
I'm really excited about Philippe's food.
This course is a combination of African flavour
and French technique.
To get good feedback for these dishes,
it will be very personal.
It's my culture, it's my journey as a chef.
I think everybody's in danger.
I feel I've got a strong position, given the feedback that I've had.
So I'm just going to do what I do.
I'm here to take risks.
Cracking dish in your last round.
Can you do it again?
Yeah, I can.
What are you making, Kyle? So I'm doing raw scallop
brushed with some yuzu kosho. Yuzu and what?
Yuzu kosho is a fermented green chilli and yuzu lemon paste.
Some dill oil.
I'm going to pickle some celery,
some white strawberries, some apple.
And then to finish the dish, I'm just going to pour over some
apple verjus, just to clear the palate.
Doing the scallop raw is quite a unique way of eating it.
A bit of Japanese roots in there. It's flavours that I like to eat
and that I like to play with.
I'm not sure if it's going to be incredibly hot
or whether it's going to be sort of fruity or acidic with the yuzu.
Scallops can hold big flavours, but you do want to be able
to taste the scallop. So...curious.
We have pickled apple, celery and white strawberries.
White strawberries are sharp,
they're not sweet, and should work well.
My main course is a sous vide - then roasted - Iberico presa,
peppered pineapple.
I'm going to do a roast apple puree.
I've got a celeriac puree and glazed maitake.
Iberico presa, it's a cut, isn't it? Yeah.
It's from the shoulder of black pig.
I hope you deliver it all because it sounds fantastic.
Iberico presa is the Wagyu of pork.
It's absolutely delicious. It has got a fabulous marbling.
So it's a delicacy and it needs to be treated with delicate hands.
He's going to water bath it, and then sear it in a hot pan,
and rest it before he cuts into it.
We've got the maitake mushrooms,
similar to the hen-of-the-woods, the little mushroom.
He's cooking those whole, he's going to grill them so you're going to get
a lovely charring on those. And a pork jus gras,
which is a split meat sauce.
That pork has to be cooked to perfection and melt-in-the-mouth.
I'm not frightened to cook for the critics.
It's a customer that gives you true, honest feedback
on where your food is.
I'm excited to cook for them.
What pleases me is someone that can deliver
what they've actually promised.
Anyone can put a highfalutin list of ingredients on a menu,
but it has to sing as an actual dish.
And that is harder than you think.
Give me a rather more simple dish that tastes astounding
than something with 42 ingredients,
the flavour of the week, that will just disappear from the memory
like a puff of smoke.
So today what I'm looking for is the sort of thing that's
going to make us all stop in our tracks,
stop being kind of cynical and miserable,
and smile and want to follow the chef who's
cooked it wherever they go.
Cheers. Cheers.
Kasae, you've got seven minutes before your first course is due
to be served.
Is everything ready? Yes, Chef.
Kasae's starter is asparagus and sorrel royale,
with pickled asparagus, almond and truffle cream,
and toasted almonds.
It sounds fresh, it sounds bright.
Kasae. Yes? You need to start dressing.
Yes, Chef.
I have one worry about this truffle cream.
My heart sinks. If all this beautiful, delicate spring-like
beauty is all put together,
and then that great, galumphing truffle oil comes along and sort of
plods all over it, that's what I'm worried about.
Right, your time is up now. Let's go.
The foam wasn't quite as firm as she wanted it to, but she's got
the flavours on the plate. That's the most important thing.
Hi.
So today for your starter, you have an asparagus
and sorrel royale, some pickled asparagus,
almond and truffle foam,
and then a little tuile for some texture on top.
Enjoy. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you.
It looks really gorgeous.
I'm really impressed. And it smells fantastic.
Beautiful, delicate, perfectly set mousse
with a delightfully tasty
cream over the top.
There's real biting pickle on that asparagus.
The tuile and the almonds gave that bit of crunch and contrast.
The truffle is the tiniest nudge.
That's one of the nicest things I've eaten for a long time.
The royale's smooth, it's creamy. Tastes of asparagus.
It is delicious.
This is a lovely way to start the menu.
It is light and delicate.
Kasae, listen, you've got 15 minutes before your next course.
Are you going to be all right? Uh, yep,
if I move my butt. Move your butt? Yep. OK.
I quite like the sound of Kasae's main, grilled trout.
It's a lovely fish.
Just got to judge it perfectly. Get it on the button.
I love Jerusalem artichoke.
I don't know why this needs pumpkin seeds.
Pumpkin seeds are always a little bit Kumbaya to me.
I eat pumpkin seeds on my day off.
What are you smoking that with?
I'm smoking that with some almond wood chips.
Thank you so much. OK. Off you go.
Definitely smoking.
I'm smoking.
Ooh.
KASAE LAUGHS
For today, for your main course, I have cooked rainbow trout.
Next to it, you've got a hispi cabbage with some
Jerusalem artichoke risotto, a little bit of chicken stock,
and some pumpkin seeds.
And then in the jar, you have a sake and cream sauce
with three different types of fish roe.
Thank you. Fantastic. Thanks, Kasae.
I love the theatre of this.
That was an adrenaline rush.
I think that was one of the most stressful and toughest
things that I've ever done.
The smokiness wasn't just in the theatre of the cloche,
it was in the fish.
And it worked really nicely for me. That char had sort of
done its magic.
So we begin with this beautifully cooked trout.
The sauce, which is creamy and chivey,
and it's so delicious and playful.
And then you get to the stuffed cabbage, which I also absolutely
love, but pumpkin seeds, you really shouldn't eat three
or four tablespoons of them at the same time.
I can't stop eating it. Yeah.
I've never seen anything like this before in my life.
But there's no doubt she gets the flavour right. Yeah.
The rainbow trout, I do like the crispy skin.
The hispi, I like that filling.
Slightly too much pumpkin seeds for me
because there's a lot of crunch in there.
What else have you got left to do for your starter?
Just got to season my langoustine tartare.
So you're pretty much OK to go? Mm.
Verity's starter is poached langoustine tails, langoustine
tartare with brain dressing,
bisque butter, carrot puree, carrot ribbons
and burnt garlic oil.
I mean, you got me at langoustine.
They have to be just undercooked.
A little bit sort of bouncy.
Put brain dressing on a menu in MasterChef: The Professionals
just really tells us the sort of personality
behind it, and I kind of love that she's really going for that.
What's that? So this is the burnt garlic oil.
So, Verity, when you're ready. Yep. The critics are waiting.
Here you have a taste of my home.
So it's langoustine.
A langoustine butter bisque, a langoustine tail tartare,
some carrot puree, carrot ribbons,
wild garlic flowers,
and a burnt garlic oil.
Please enjoy. Thank you so much. Thank you.
The tartare is a little bit under seasoned,
I'm not tasting the brain at all, sadly, which is something I love.
It's not there and I miss it.
We've got overcooked langoustine, not particularly delicious tartare.
Not a great deal to love about this.
I've got to say, though, the carrot puree,
it's really lovely. I kind of like that it's quite unusual.
And matching that sweetness with the sweetness of the shellfish
is a really, really good idea.
It adds something to it.
The carrot puree is lovely and smooth. The poached
langoustine tail, for me, just needs a little bit of seasoning.
It tastes watery.
Verity's bisque butter sauce is very light, and there's not a lot
of it because she has just taken the foam off the top.
I'm disappointed because this dish could be so much better.
Good to see you've got a spring back in your step.
Yeah. You've worked so hard to be here. Make it count.
Verity's main is venison loin, king oyster mushrooms,
garlic puree, charred shallots, and a mushroom sauce.
Venison loin, we know that it's got to be blushing pink
and, you know, not seeping onto the plate.
King oyster mushrooms,
I'm hoping that they've got some nice colour on them, that will add
an earthiness and depth.
A very difficult thing to get right with finesse.
Couple of minutes left.
The venison looks good.
You ready to go? Yep.
So here you have loin of venison,
with king oyster mushrooms, a cep tuile,
some foraged ingredients from my village,
so some rosemary flowers and some spruce tip,
and that's with a garlic puree,
and a veal and venison shiitake jus.
OK. Please enjoy. Thank you. Thanks, Verity.
So we have a very, very pared back roast dinner of sorts.
I think the meat has got a lovely colour to it.
She's cooked the venison in a professional manner.
But then after that, we have mushrooms which are kind of raw.
The shallots are quite nice.
The jus is OK, although it feels a little thin to me.
To put garlic puree of that strength,
I do feel that I could take on the army of the undead
with no problem whatsoever now.
It's just meat and over-strong garlic and mushrooms.
The venison is lovely and pink.
The shallot is charred,
and I do like the little crisp on there.
The sauce, a bit bland. Doesn't really have much flavour
to it at all. There's no earthy venison flavour in that sauce.
That was... Yeah, so much more challenging
than I was expecting it to be.
I didn't quite hit where I wanted to with those dishes.
Philippe, it's looking very, very modern,
your tartare dish here. Are you happy?
I'm happy.
Philippe's starter is scallop tartare,
avocado and banana guacamole,
plantain crisps, and an orange, lime and chilli dressing.
Good luck taking a plantain from its natural form to a crisp
with so much pressure on you.
If this is a ripe banana
from the supermarket just mashed in, because, "Hey, the critics
"are going to say this is wacky," well, you know, count me out.
Taste good, Chef?
That's it. Your time is up.
Go and serve your dishes to the critics. Sure.
Thank you.
Looks great. I'd say that's the best-looking dish we've seen so far.
So I make a scallops tartare,
with banana and avocado guacamole,
plantain crisp, orange gel,
and an orange and lime dressing.
Thank you. Thank you, Philippe. You're welcome.
I love this competition, when people bring in dishes
which is just artwork.
The fact that he's not just given us two or three lonely crisps
of plantain, it just looks fun.
I'm desperate to tuck in.
I love this because it sums up why
I bother to get out of bed in the morning.
I love the plantain chips.
I'm scooping them through the scallop, through the guacamole.
He's a clever chef. Wow.
Philippe has no problems in giving us big flavour.
The citrus and chilli dressing,
it's got a lot of citrus, it's got a lot of chilli.
I don't know why the banana's in there. It doesn't kill it.
This dish is too good.
The scallop tartare really works.
That citrus gel is incredible.
It's like all caps, exclamation mark cooking, isn't it?
It's kind of just like, "What a cook!"
Wow.
Who would have ever thought that avocado and banana
would go together?
But in the hands of Philippe, they do.
Marcus, I honestly don't want to stop eating that.
Hats off to Philippe. I think this is a triumph.
Right, Philippe. 15 minutes now.
Are you going to be OK? Yes, Chef.
Philippe's main course is chicken dusted with chachenga, yam and okra,
hollandaise and a coffee jus.
Chachenga, a West African spice rub
that's kind of given the sweetness of nuts.
You want it to have that barrelling heat. The yam,
you don't want it to be overcooked or too fibrous.
Coffee jus. Now, people have flirted with adding coffee.
They don't generally make a gravy and just put it on the side
of the dish. And for that reason, I'm excited.
What's next? The okra? Okra. Raw okra.
Yeah. I've not had this before.
Can you hurry up? Because I want to try this! Yeah.
I think he's very different to what I've seen
in this kitchen before.
The dish is corn-fed chicken with chachenga,
so it's a mix of spice
we use to rub on the meat.
With stuffed yam, with hollandaise sauce, coffee jus, okra.
Bon appetit. Merci beaucoup.
Thank you so much, Philippe.
It's quite hard to maintain a kind of professional poker face
when you're presented with a plate of food like this.
It's just an absolute riot.
I've done the best I can,
so I don't know if it's enough or not.
Let's see the critics and the judges.
Wow.
I mean, the hollandaise is about as rich and yolky
an hollandaise-y as you can get.
The okra is one of the nicest pieces of okra I've ever tasted.
It's clean and crisp.
The yam is just comfort.
This is a joyous plate of food.
It's incredible.
The chachenga is hot, but not too hot.
There's sweetness and lovely kind of like spiced fragrance
coming through it.
And also the chicken, it's amazing chicken.
There's blistered, crisp skin. And he's kept it nice and tender.
I love the clove and the nuttiness.
And then there's this kind of thick gravy,
which is unmistakably coffee.
I love it when dishes make you question why we haven't
been doing that before anyway.
I genuinely think this might be one of the best things I've ever eaten
in my history of doing this show.
What a massive flavour sensation.
The coffee sauce is molasses-like.
It's almost liquorice.
Chachenga spice - I want the recipe.
It's fantastic.
He challenges you to think the way that he thinks.
And I like that challenge. I accept it.
Kyle, how are we doing?
Got a few little things to do.
Just trying to push, so I can get it on time. Come on.
You've got this.
So, Kyle's starter is raw scallop brushed with yuzu kosho,
pickled apple, celery and white strawberry,
with clarified raw apple juice
and dill oil.
It sounds very technical.
It sounds high level, Japanese-influenced.
I'm expecting real elegance.
I want to see pickled apple, and I want to see what he's done
with the white strawberries.
The raw scallop has to be absolutely beautifully presented.
Kyle, you're almost... In fact, you are out of time for your starter,
so let's get a move on. Right, going now.
Kyle's starter is raw scallops brushed with yuzu kosho,
with pickled apple, white strawberry and celery,
served with an apple verjus, split with dill oil.
The smell of it is really, really enticing.
The raw scallops in the yuzu kosho,
they're quite meaty.
I think the heat in the yuzu kosho really works, actually.
You really appreciate it, particularly
against that delicate shellfish.
You get every flavour profile there is.
You don't just get the sweet, the salty, the hot and the sour.
You get a bit of umami.
When you think it's going too vinegary, it suddenly
gets sweet again.
This is a man who understands flavour.
That's got a kick.
That looks delicate and light, but my goodness.
Well, you've got 15 minutes for the next course.
Are you going to be OK for that?
I'm pretty much done. I'm just letting that rest now, so...
Kyle's main is Iberico presa, with maitake mushrooms,
celeriac and miso puree,
a roast apple puree, peppered pineapple,
and a pork jus gras.
Basically, he's made pork with apple sauce with a pineapple ring.
Iberico presa, a beautiful premium piece of pork.
We'll be hoping that Kyle really looks after that.
MONICA: Get out there, sell it and good luck.
So I've made lberico presa. We've got the caramelised celeriac
and miso puree, peppered sous vide pineapple, roast maitake,
hazelnut condiment,
and then a nice tart apple puree. And we have some
pickled shimejis on top. To finish the dish, I've done a pork
jus gras. Cheers, Kyle. Thank you, Kyle.
I really like the look of this.
I think that jus, which smells fantastic, by the way,
it's just going to bring it all together.
So let's start with the pork.
Sadly, it's just kind of had a little bit too much cooking time.
That deeply caramelised, almost toffeed apple puree is gorgeous.
I love the peppery, sweet, very retro taste of the pineapple.
I love the sear and the softness that he has on the mushroom.
I think the jus is very rich.
It's got real, proper, punchy depth.
The miso paste has a sort of smooth umami-ness.
Putting the slightly overcooked pork aside,
there's a cohesiveness with the whole dish,
and it all comes together.
Like the pineapple. I love the apple puree.
I love the celeriac puree with the miso going through that.
If Kyle had got the pork right, we'd be onto a winning dish here.
Just a bit gutted with the cooking of that
because it could have been banging.
Another quarterfinal done. Phew!
And what a day. Some of our chefs really flourished.
One or two,
they definitely felt the pressure. For me,
Philippe is the chef of the day.
His menu! Banana guacamole with the scallop tartare -
I finished the whole plate.
He blew my mind.
Then we had the chicken with the beautiful spice.
And, of course, this fabulous, fabulous coffee sauce.
The critics loved him. We loved him. Absolutely.
Philippe has earned his place in our final 12.
And the rest of that chachenga is coming home with me.
The next three chefs, well, there's a lot to discuss.
But we've only got two places left.
Verity came back into this kitchen with a menu that she sounded
very confident about.
The tartare was great.
The poached langoustine just lacked a bit
of texture and seasoning.
I just felt the dish could have been bigger and maybe
just a little bit more sauce on the plate.
Verity's main course, the loin of venison,
it was wonderful the way she cooked it.
The sauce didn't pack a lot of flavour in there.
It was watery, didn't have enough body to it,
and I just felt that the dish was quite flat.
Kasae's starter was a little flavour of the past,
an asparagus royale.
I quite liked the foam on top that had a little hint of truffle
running through it. And of course, it was beautifully cooked.
Kasae's main course was the rainbow trout, which she had put
under the grill and sort of crisped up the skin. It was lovely.
I really liked the flavours of the Jerusalem artichoke
that was wrapped in the hispi with the pumpkin seed.
But there was too many pumpkin seeds for me.
The sauce was beautifully made.
It was rich, it was delicate, it was velvety, and it did bring
something to the plate.
Kyle's menu - we ask our chefs to push themselves
and take the cookery to another level. Kyle did that.
The scallop was almost ceviche-like, in a sense.
The pickling of the celery and the white strawberries, it was fresh,
it was delicious.
Kyle's main course - |berico presa.
Unfortunately, that pork was overcooked.
However, around this dish we had a beautiful baked apple puree.
There was even the pineapple with peppers in it.
There's a lot about this chef I do like.
Three very different chefs here, Marcus. This is a tough one.
We can only take two through.
Genuinely, if I went home now, I'd be devastated. To go home
at this point, when I'm so close to being in the final 12,
would be... Yeah, gutted.
Hoping I've done enough to stay, and I'd love to.
But that was hard, and I don't know
if I've quite done enough.
I've got a lot more to give.
I've got a lot more dishes planned.
I've kind of got a road map now to the final if I get
through this stage.
Great job, chefs.
You were cooking for a place to become part of our final 12.
There is one chef today that not only impressed me and Marcus
in here, but you also wowed the critics.
The chef that is straight through to our final 12 is...
...Philippe.
Congratulations.
What a menu. Thank you.
Kasae, Kyle and Verity,
we can only take two of you through.
The chef that is leaving us is...
.Verity.
Verity, thank you so much.
I'm definitely proud of myself.
It's been an amazing journey.
All the feedback I've had throughout the competition, it's been great.
And I'll be taking all of it back with me.
Chefs, congratulations.
You have just become part of our final 12.
Well done.
I'm very happy. I'm very happy to be part of the final 12.
I'm looking forward to telling my mum. She will be very happy.
I don't think whirlwind even describes what this is.
This is like the most intense roller-coaster in the world.
I'm buzzing. It's a tough, tough competition, man.
I made some silly little errors today that I never make
and it nearly cost us today, but happy to be in the final 12.
Just want to get to work.
Next time, four new hopefuls...
I get distracted and chat too much.
...fight for their place in the quarterfinal.
So I don't know whether this is the right thing to do.
That doesn't make sense.
This is absolutely delicious.
It's so delicious.
You are going to be bad for my waistline.