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, the last four hopefuls compete to impress...
...MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace,
renowned chef Monica Galetti,
and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing.
I'm naturally very competitive and I try and hide it a lot of the time,
but this is a place where I feel it can come out in full.
I'm still nervous, but I will be on fire later.
My sort of ethos is hit and hope most of the time.
It usually lands on its feet, so that's good, and that's
how I'm going to approach this.
Being here doesn't really feel real yet.
Obviously, it'll be a bit more real
when the judges are staring right at you.
Who has got the talent to rise to the top?
It's time to discover our next culinary superstar.
The last four chefs of this year's competition. How about that?
First up, of course, Skills Test.
Monica, what are you going to get them to do, please?
I would like our chefs to make us a cavatelli pasta dish
with chicken oysters, some cime di rapa and a chicken sauce.
Cavatelli is made by hand.
What shape is it, then? Like a little shell, pasta shells.
It means little cave.
The chicken oysters, that's the cook's little present,
because you only get two of them, don't you?
Prise them out with your thumb if you know where to find them.
Underneath the chicken, just before the legs.
Right. Monica, 20 minutes. Put it together, please.
The pasta dough is premade for our chefs.
The first thing is to make these little logs like this.
These are quite small, and we want enough for a portion.
Cut the pasta the same size.
At the moment, they look like little gnocchi.
You just sort of push it away from you. Brilliant!
That looks like a little clams hell.
So, this board has little ridges on it,
so if they can't do it with the fingers,
they can just push it up there.
And that's an easier way to do it.
Yay!
I'm going to cook off my chicken oysters.
There's always a fight in our household
because there's three of us and there's two oysters on the chicken!
Gently colour the chicken oysters, seal them off.
I'm adding my chopped shallots.
A little bit of garlic,
and I've just deglazed it with a touch of wine.
In goes my pasta.
Once the cookery starts, it's not going to take long
to cook the oysters. It doesn't take long to cook the pasta.
No, this will literally be minutes.
So, I've reduced the wine down.
Touch of Madeira on there, let that reduce down as well.
Touch of stock.
Wow.
You'll see the pasta starts to float to the top -
it means they've cooked.
I'm also making a little garnish with the Parmesan,
just a little tuile or a little crisp to go on my pasta.
They don't have to make that.
They'll probably just grate it over the top.
Completely up to our chefs.
The last thing I'm going to do is prepare our cime di rapa.
Rapeseed oil. That is the top of the plant.
It's beautiful. It's bitter.
It's a cross between a light cabbage and a chicory.
So, I'm just wilting the greens into the sauce.
Beautiful.
It's a one-pot wonder, isn't it, really? It's all about the process.
Flavour on top of flavour on top of flavour,
but it's understanding how to work them.
It's a bowl of pasta.
It's more than that!
Can't go wrong with a little bit of Parmesan, I think, on your pasta.
Hey, look at that!
And there we have it, guys.
My cavatelli pasta with chicken oysters,
cime di rapa and a chicken sauce to go with it.
Well, you know me, I love the food of Italy.
I think that's a beautiful dish.
I hope our chefs can work it out.
Pasta making, I think, is essential skills.
I think what's interesting is that there's no rolling pin.
Without the rolling pin,
it does sort of point towards the method that you use.
Marcus, you are going to watch the making of the cavatelli
from your own little telly and we will have you back
here for the tasting. I'm going to be watching this very closely.
Come on. I'm looking forward to this.
Let's get them in. Let's do it.
Here we go, the last heat.
NARRATOR: First to face Monica's Skills Test is 29-year-old Lindsay.
He grew up in Scotland but is now chef patron
of a restaurant in Newcastle.
During lockdown, I started doing some Sunday lunch
takeaways from home,
then proceeded to evolve into doing pop-ups.
Got great traction, kind of unexpected,
built up a little bit of money and managed to find our own place
which we opened last year.
My food style is definitely creative.
I'm trying to come up with something I've never seen before,
to keep it interesting.
My dream is to try and get a star.
I'm hopeful for the next couple of years, that's something
that could be attainable.
Hello, Lindsay. Hi.
This Skills Test was set by this incredible chef, Monica.
Hi. I would like you to make for us cavatelli pasta
served with chicken oysters and sauce and a garnish of cime di rapa.
OK. Have you seen the shape of cavatelli before?
I'll be honest with you, I can't quite picture it in my head.
It's not filled pasta.
As long as you can make us some little hollows
that will pick up the sauce. OK.
Right, Lindsay, 20 minutes.
Good luck. Thanks.
Where in Scotland are you from, Lindsay?
A little village just south of Edinburgh.
It's the middle of nowhere.
I lived up there until I was about 18 and then moved down to Newcastle.
Do you work in a restaurant? Yes.
So I was lucky enough to be able to open my own place last year.
How old are you, Lindsay? I'm 29.
That's impressive, my friend. Thank you.
Lindsay, what's the plan?
I need to get the sauce ready. Going to do the pasta after that.
And then I'm going to fry off the chicken. Brilliant.
Tell me what's in your sauce, please.
I've got some garlic and shallots, that I've lightly sweated off,
and I'm putting some wine in it and reducing that down.
Got a plan. Hopefully.
Poured a lot of stock into that saucepan.
He didn't really need to do that.
You've had 6 minutes, so you've got 14 minutes left.
So, your own restaurant before you're 30.
So what's the next stage of your ambitious life plan?
Things changed slightly.
I had a little boy three months ago now. Congratulations.
So now it's just a way of finding a nice life balance
in between running a restaurant and being able to spend some time
with my kid.
Work life balance...and you've entered MasterChef?! Yeah.
It doesn't really quite compute, does it?
Can you win the competition?
If I can work out how to do this pasta, then...! One step at time.
He's getting a little dense, but then he's sort of flattening them
out by touching it again afterwards.
He just needs to do it all in one go, on the board.
They don't look like they've got any uniformity whatsoever.
You must make pasta, don't you, in your own restaurant?
Yeah, it's something | enjoy making.
I'm kicking myself now for not making this before.
Your sauce is reducing, your cime di rapa is on,
but you still need to cook the oysters.
Yes, it should be OK. Should be OK.
Now, he needs to build the dish around that pan
because that's where your flavour is - right in there.
How's the pasta tasting? Needs a little bit more salt.
Probably about a minute off now. It's all coming together.
Fingers crossed.
Watch your oyster, the butter's burning.
Ugh-ugh. One side have burnt and the other side, they're fine.
That's not how you cook a chicken oyster.
Right, you done?
Yeah.
Hi, Lindsay. How are you? Good, thanks.
That was a good watch, until the last five minutes. Yeah.
You got it done, though. Well done. Thanks.
You didn't know what the pasta shape was.
It's sort of chewy and thick.
Yeah. The making of your sauce...
You deglazed it, reduced it, add garlic in there.
It was great to see.
It's a shame you took your eye off in the last five minutes
because your chicken oysters sort of cooked on one side,
raw on the other.
Stay focused. Not a bad start, though.
Have a plan before you start and try and stick to it,
because what you do have with your pasta is there's no uniformity.
OK.
Your pasta is quite firm, but looking at your processes,
I think you're OK.
I think you've proved you have a certain amount of knowledge.
Well done. Thank you.
Could have gone better.
Didn't mess up too badly,
so I'm going to take that as a positive.
Nothing seriously went wrong and nothing seriously went good,
so in the middle is OK for now.
Next to put his skills to the test
is 26-year-old private chef Tristan.
I work all around the world.
Some crazy places, which is great fun.
Cooking so many different houses for so many different clients.
It's one of the most rewarding jobs you can have, I think.
My ethos behind every plate I do
is never really to use any dairy.
I'm allergic to it.
I may use it in things that I have to.
I feel there are more delicate flavours to be had
from not using any dairy.
The dream for me is to have my own restaurant, cooking my own food,
hopefully back up in my home in Norfolk.
I feel like MasterChef is the next step, pushing towards my end goal.
How are you, Tristan?
Yeah, very, very well, thank you. Heartbeat's going, as always.
I would like you to make for us cavatelli pasta
with chicken oysters, cooked with a sauce and some cime di rapa.
Perfect. Thank you.
How does cavatelli sound for you?
I've heard of it. I've never made it before.
But I think I'll just use an instinct
and hope that I can get there.
That's all we can hope for.
We are aware of your dairy intolerance.
We've taken the butter and the cheese away. Thank you.
That's very kind. You've just got the olive oil.
Thank you.
Tristan, 20 minutes, good luck.
Good knife skills.
Ah, look at that.
Where are you from, Tristan? Where were you brought up?
I'm from West Norfolk.
A little bit south of King's Lynn if you know it.
Sort of seaside town.
We're farmers there.
Is this where your love of food comes from? Yes, massively so.
I think all the produce up there, the seafood especially,
it's definitely where my love comes from, for sure.
So what's your ambition now?
Really, to have a restaurant up in Norfolk.
So, Tristan, what's the plan?
Getting a sauce on. The chicken is going to go in, deglaze it,
get some flavour into it. Make sure it's cooked.
Move on to the pasta, get that cut.
Then I'm going to move on to the last element,
just blanch that and toss it over for a little garnish.
Tristan, that sounds like a very decent plan to me.
I hope so!
I've brought my own cheese to add later. Ha! Good.
It's just looking a bit rustic, a bit rough.
This dish is more sophisticated than that.
What you don't want to do is boil the chicken. That is boiling.
Just reducing down that Madeira.
Going to add the stock now
and then just let them slowly simmer in there.
You're coming up to halfway there.
If he leaves them in that pan for another ten minutes,
then, they are definitely going to be overcooked.
That's good.
Nice and thin.
So, what are you thinking with your pasta there?
Well, I think I'm just going to roll it onto the little tool there,
and hoping come out little small bits which have nice curves
and it'll sop up all that sauce.
Not what Monica did,
but he's got unity there.
He's got uniformity, which is good.
You've got to think about bringing this dish together.
You've got a minute. Yep.
He would have been better getting it into the pan
and wrapping everything together.
That's what pasta cookery is all about.
All done? All done.
That was going OK until you started to plate up.
Oh, no!
I hope it tastes better than it looks.
Tristan, I like that you tried to keep this pasta as uniform
as possible in size.
The making of your sauce, you had shallots in there, lots of garlic.
Quite rustic in the way that you were making it
and that's fine. You know, it tastes good. OK.
You watered your cime di rapa in one pan, and then the pasta
went on top of that.
Yet it would have been great to see it all fold into the pan
that you had the chicken oysters in.
But not a bad start, though, Tristan.
I don't think it's a good idea to drop the chicken oyster
into the pan with the sauce and just let it cook.
It's such a delicate thing.
You've got to really nurture them.
But there were some lovely knife skills on show,
lovely pasta work on show,
and you've got a lovely manner around the kitchen.
That's a pretty good start.
Let's hope for better presentation in the next round.
Thank you, Tristan. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
I think there's a lot more to come from him.
We may have found the non-dairy cream of the crop.
TRISTAN EXHALES
In hindsight, I definitely would have plated differently,
but everything else seemed to go OK and Gregg said it was a good start,
so I'll take that.
The last Skills Test of this year's competition.
Make it a good 'un, Marcus. What have we got?
I'd like our chefs to make a poached pineapple served with a sabayon
and a garnish of toffee popcorn.
Brilliant. I love that.
I think two out of three, they might manage.
20 minutes - not a lot of time.
Marcus, please, off you go.
Before we start to prep the pineapple, it's important
to get the cooking liquid on.
The reason for poaching it is to incorporate
some of these fabulous flavours.
In here we've got water, some brown sugar.
We've got our rum - lots of it.
Got some cinnamon sticks,
pink peppercorns - just crush those up in your hands.
And some star anise.
But they can use whatever it is that they want?
As long as it's poached
and as long as there is some added flavour, added value.
So, now I'm going to get to our pineapple, cut that down.
Taking off the skin.
I'm taking out the little eyes.
How they serve it and how much pineapple is entirely up to them.
Juicy pineapple is just so good.
Do you like pina colada?
Love pina colada.
Our stock syrup has come up to the boil
and then just drop in the pineapple.
That pineapple is just going to soak up all those flavours.
You're make a cartouche. Why not a saucepan lid?
That just helps the stock just roll underneath and just coat
any pineapple that's sticking up there.
Now, our sabayon, which is three egg yolks,
and just a couple of spoons of sugar.
Sabayon, is it a standard bit of the curriculum for a chef?
I think it's a little bit more specialist because a sabayon
lends itself to the base of quite a few desserts,
various different parfaits, different glazes, different dishes.
I agree.
It can be folded into mousses or into ganache, for example.
Sabayon can be any flavour, can't it? Absolutely.
You can add whatever liqueur you want to it.
Some almond liqueur there.
You can see Marcus is controlling the heat.
It's really important.
And if they walk away from that, it will start to scramble.
Right, ribbon stage.
You know when you get to the ribbon stage, just lift up your whisk
and you get a little ribbon sitting on top. Hey!
Now, popcorn.
I'm just going to put some of these kernels into the dry pan.
Lid on. Every now and again just give them a shake.
You don't want to catch too much on the bottom.
I love this, when you're showing kids.
It just makes you laugh.
Marcus, I've never seen you so happy.
When you say the kids enjoy it, Marcus,
did you mean kids with beards? Look at him!
THEY LAUGH
Now on to the toffee,
which the popcorn will go into,
which is butter, brown sugar...
...and a very good, generous glug of golden syrup.
Wow. Look at that.
You don't probe the temperature there, you just do it by eye?
Yep, that's it.
You're looking for the caramel to look really thick.
The colour's not going to change much unless it's burnt.
You should keep whisking it cos you don't want it to split.
You can start to see it's getting thicker, thicker, thicker.
We just put in our popcorn.
And there we have toffee popcorn.
Lovely.
And then we're pretty much ready to go.
Pineapple, rum, sugar.
That's the Caribbean.
Love the glaze of the sabayon.
It's an extra treat, isn't it? Hmm. A bit of fun on the plate.
Then we've got some little popcorn shoots here, too.
Poached pineapple, served with a sabayon
and a garnish of toffee popcorn.
That's fabulous. Come on!
That looks amazing.
Cor blimey! That is one boozy pineapple.
Not 'alf! Yeah, it's for mums and dads.
Wow. It's always good to end up on a bit of fun.
It's a beautiful, beautiful dessert, but it's going to take quite a bit
of skill to put that together, though.
I think the poaching, they can do.
The sabayon, they might not know so well, but they can try
and figure it out that it needs to be cooked on a bain-Marie.
And popcorn, it might not be exactly like you've made it,
but they could do a caramel and put the popcorn
through that as well. Yeah.
Monica, you're off to the observation room. All right,
we'll have you back in for the tasting.
Brilliant. We'll see you soon.
The last group of chefs, Marcus. Come on, let's get them in.
Yep. Let's do it.
NARRATOR: First to tackle Marcus's Skills Test is Tom...
Hello.
...a 24-year-old sous-chef who works in a luxury hotel in Sussex.
You all right? I'M all right.
You? Slightly terrified. CHUCKLES
I'm 24, so I'm still quite new into cooking.
I'm classically trained. I went to Westminster Kingsway in London.
I'm from a cooking background.
Sort of through my blood.
My mum works as a pastry chef.
My dad is an exec chef at a hotel.
Hopefully in a few years I'll be the better chef,
but it's definitely still him for now.
He's got a couple of hundred years on me.
So the best thing about being a chef is just the sort of constant
creativity you can sort of showcase.
My style is traditional food done well.
It'd be nice to cook for the judges.
My brother Charlie, he loves watching clips of Gregg reacting
to nice puddings, so if I could make one of them,
then, that'd be absolutely ideal.
I hope for the best,
but expect the worst.
Tom, welcome to MasterChef. Thanks for having me.
This Skills Test was set by the incomparable Marcus Wareing.
OK.
This is a dessert. Nice.
How's that? Yeah, sounds good.
You're good with pudding? I love pastry, so... Good man.
Nice one, Tom. I think that's the first one who's ever said that,
walking into pastry.
Poached pineapple, serve it with a sabayon, toffee popcorn.
20 minutes. Let's go.
Tom, what's your plan?
I'm just getting the poaching liquid on. OK.
Muscovado sugar.
Nice mix of rum, spices in there.
I'm just going to get the pineapple in, cos I think that'll probably
take the longest. Sabayon, I know what that is -
it's just whipped-up egg yolks, sugar, and then a bit of alcohol.
I assume you want it glazed because you've got a blowtorch there.
Good man. Tom knows what a sabayon is.
I'm really liking the sound of his plan.
His pineapple is poaching.
Pineapple's under way. Yeah. Poaching liquor is done.
You've got everything in there? Yeah. Tom, you're doing very well.
Now, a lot of chefs really hate pastry challenges.
I just think it's great to sort of know a bit of everything.
I'm not going to lie, I've not made popcorn in a pan
in quite a long time. I always use Chef Mike.
Who's Chef Mike?
Microwave. THEY LAUGH
I've never heard it called that before!
You've never heard that? Chef Mike!
There's not many chefs making us laugh like that.
Come on.
It will pop, I'm just being impatient.
You've got 12 minutes left.
Your sabayon's now under way,
your pineapple's poaching, popcorn's cooking. Yeah.
Popping now.
Sabayon's thickening up nicely.
Why have you come onto MasterChef?
My grandad passed away a few months ago, and my grandma quite likes
the show and I think she would love to see me on it.
Did Grandad manage to eat your food in the restaurant?
He was a pie and mash man, so it's not really his thing, you know?
How's it going, Tom? A bit behind this toffee popcorn, to be honest.
I should've got this on sooner. That's my mistake.
There was some syrup or some honey that he can put into it.
I didn't see that. There we go.
Finally got there.
Start to think about your presentation, OK?
Oh, his pineapple looks nice.
I've got the jitters here. Look at this.
Got about a minute.
It looks good, Tom.
Hey!
All done? Yeah. Sorry. I'm not quite happy with that.
It's sort of oozing out a little bit.
WE'LL tell you if it's right or wrong.
MARCUS LAUGHS
Hello.
Tom.
That was a good start.
You think? It didn't feel it.
Yeah, you need to be a little bit kinder to yourself. OK.
We'll tell you when it's going bad. OK, yeah.
Tom, that was a really good start.
Very calm, a really professional approach to the kitchen,
which I do like. I love the way you cut down the pineapple.
Poaching liquid - absolutely delicious.
Your sabayon - the reason why it is thin like that is because you didn't
cook it enough. Yeah. But this was a fantastic Skills Test to watch.
Poaching of your pineapple - beautifully done.
And also understood that with a cartouche over the top,
it was going to gently continue to poach.
And you got a good kick of rum in that. Fantastic.
Loved your working methods.
Tidy, under control.
And I'm excited to see what you've got in store for us.
Pastry challenges have a lot of chefs in big wobbles
and you knew exactly what you were doing.
See in the next round. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Considering it's my first time in there, like, cooking,
and I had all those eyes over me,
I'm pretty happy. Like, 70% happy.
NARRATOR: Last to face Marcus's Skills Test...
Hello, Chefs.
...is 29-year-old I-Lin.
She's a chef de partie in a central London restaurant.
I'm from Taiwan.
My hometown is the oldest city, and with a lot
of lovely street foods.
I work in the restaurant in a five-star luxury hotel.
We focus on British classics such as handmade pies.
We do all the dough by ourselves.
I majored in biology, but I've found my
passion in cooking and baking,
so I like my life now.
I love to cook contemporary cuisine inspired by my hometown in Taiwan,
and also some Western cuisine techniques.
I'm doing MasterChef because I can show my family
how I learned from my work in Europe.
I hope there's a good Skills Test for me, and I will try my best.
I-Lin, welcome to MasterChef.
Thank you. How are you with pastry?
I have some experience in pastry.
I would like you to make poached pineapple served with a sabayon
and toffee popcorn.
Yeah, it sounds delicious!
20 minutes, over to you.
She's rushing, and she has cut off a lot of that pineapple.
You're comfortable with this challenge?
Erm, I hope so. I will do my best.
Can you tell me what your plans are?
Poach the pineapple first and do the sabayon and do the popcorn.
Great!
She's got everything going on at the same time.
You made a sabayon before?
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
What have you got in there, just egg yolks?
Yeah, egg yolk, and whisk until ribbon stage.
She hasn't got any sugar
in those egg yolks, they're going to scramble.
She's used the wrong pan.
She'll have to put a tray or something on that popcorn.
Erm, the lid's for this?
Yeah, the pan for the popcorn
was the one that you've got your poaching liquid in,
that's what the lid was for.
There. Yes. Seven minutes gone,
you're whisking up the yolk for your sabayon,
you got the pineapple poaching,
you got your popcorn on.
And this is for sabayons?
No. Basically, you've used the butter for your toffee...
Yeah, yeah. ..in with your kernels. Yes, yes. We're going to grab you
some more butter for your toffee sauce, OK?
OK. Thank you.
You OK? Yeah.
Feeling the pressure? Yes.
Did you always want to be a chef?
Before, I was majoring in biology and studied with cancer research.
What? You were studying medicine?
Yes, yes. You're amazing! So how long have you been a chef?
Two years. Just two years? Yes.
I graduated from culinary school in 2019.
What does your family think of you becoming a chef
when you've studied biology and you've worked in medicine?
My mum always supports me, and my father,
he changed a lot. At the beginning,
he didn't like me to do this,
but now he's very proud of me.
Good. Aw!
All right, we're under way.
Well, the toffee looks good, but the popcorn needs to be ready now.
Just remember, it's toffee popcorn, OK? Yes.
So you've got to wrap the popcorn with toffee.
OK.
Sabayon, I'm not sure it's cooked through.
Are you finished? Yes.
Well done. Thank you.
MONICA SIGHS
My message to you is slow down. Yes, OK.
You're rushing at such a speed, you're making really big mistakes.
Yes. First of all, we as chefs will always look at this.
Yeah, the trimmings.
There's quite a lot of the pineapple still left over.
Look, that's not good.
Yes, yes. Your sabayon is not cooked, your popcorn is burnt.
Yes. You've got it up, but you've not got it done well.
Yeah.
Sabayon-making, it needed sugar in there.
The alcohol didn't even make it in,
it went into the caramel,
the butter ended up in the popcorn.
Allow yourself time to breathe and think
about what you're presenting.
No more waste.
Yes.
It seems to me that you understand how to do these processes,
but you won't be able to do them properly if you keep racing.
Yes, OK.
Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you.
It was quite challenging.
Everything just came in to my mind at the same time.
I need to slow down and calm down, to be more organised.
That was a really good Skills Test.
Tom was my pick of the bunch.
I agree. I think we've got some good chefs in today.
I think we're in for a good round.
You are our last batch of chefs in this year's competition,
and we don't know, we may well have saved the best till last.
This year's champion may well be standing in front of us right now.
Here we are, the exciting part of
the competition when you get to cook your own food.
It's your Signature two-course menu.
One main, one dessert
to absolutely wow.
At the end of this, two of you go through,
two of you leave the competition.
Chefs, an hour and a half, over to you.
I think I've started with a good base.
Wasn't amazing, but it wasn't rubbish.
I think the judges' impression of me
is I'm a slightly uncut diamond, almost, where you've
just got something that's not quite there yet,
which I agree with completely.
Tristan, you got off to a good start.
What's your menu, please, Chef?
My menu today is wild garlic-wrapped quail breast with charred
pear, a little quail bone jus.
And for pudding, I've got a twice-risen doughnut,
some elderflower-poached strawberries
which are in a St-Germain liquor,
with a basil and lime meringue sorbet.
Why do you want to do a doughnut?
Cos I love them. HE LAUGHS
I think they're slightly underrated. I think you can really do something
really cool with doughnuts, and they're slightly sort of
underrated in the fine dining scene, is my view on it.
Talk to me about your sorbet. You said basil and lime meringue?
So it's a French meringue, which is whipped really, really stiff,
basil and lime juice all whipped through it,
and it's served, basically, frozen.
I don't know if you've heard of it.
I believe I sort of randomly made it up.
Tristan's menu sounds delicious.
Wild garlic quail ballotine.
So he's taking the breast,
wrapping that in garlic leaves, gently poached,
so it's going to be very, very delicate in flavour.
Quail egg yolk that he's curing with the salt
has to be timed just right,
you don't want the quail eggs to be over-seasoned.
The garnish is asparagus and morels,
ingredients that work wonderfully together.
These are charred pears, do with a little bit of sherry vinegar.
I'm just going to blowtorch them ever so slightly.
It sounds like a great dish, but it's all about getting
the balance and, of course, the execution of the different parts
of the quail that he's using.
Yeah, just searing them off and then popping them in the oven,
just to get a little bit of colour on the bottom.
His dessert, he's doing doughnuts because he wants to serve
something that he enjoys.
You can't not love a doughnut.
He's making a dough,
he's rising it, knocking it back and then letting it rise again.
I actually look at a doughnut as a piece of batter.
I think it's what you put with it that counts.
An elderflower liqueur, which he's poaching the strawberries in,
that will be delicious.
We have a basil and lime French meringue, which he's freezing.
I can't see much lime zest in there.
He's calling it a sorbet, but it's not really a sorbet.
There's no syrup going in this.
I don't think I've had that before.
Getting there.
In the Signature round, I would like
to show the judges that I'm a very organised person,
but I'm too nervous,
so maybe I need to calm down,
and then I can present the best side of myself.
I-Lin, a bit more settled, now you're cooking your own menu?
Yeah, more confidence now. Good to see. Tell us,
what are your two dishes?
So the main course is Taiwanese beef noodle consomme.
So this is my favourite dish in my life,
and it's from my family recipe,
and I make it into the French traditional style,
so it's consomme, clear soup. That is exciting.
I have to say, this is the first time I've had a take
on Taiwanese food the way you're doing it.
Yes. And what is your dessert?
The dessert is a strawberry-based dessert.
So fresh strawberry and balsamic-compressed strawberry
with lemon thyme and pink peppercorn.
And also there's a pistachio and match a sponge cake,
a round, with jellies on top of the cake.
Have you got time to do all of these things?
Yes. I will bring it to you.
I can't wait to try it, and I hope you manage to do it all.
Yeah, thank you.
I hope the judges will like my main course because this is my favourite
dish in my life and it reminds me of all the memories in my life.
I can't wait to taste this dish.
She's making her handmade egg noodles.
I'm excited about your menu, I won't lie.
So please, please, make sure you get it all done.
Yes, yes.
Got compressed leek and spring onions, she's got beef fillet
and Taiwanese beef consomme.
In that, we've got different spices,
got a little bit of liquorice in there.
She's bringing all those ingredients together with the egg whites
and just allowing that liquid to clarify.
It's got to be packed full of flavour, and crystal-clear.
Dessert, we've got a pistachio and match a cake, which she's cooked
in the microwave, so it's going to be incredibly light.
We have honey and lemon Chantilly,
fresh and balsamic-marinated strawberries,
and a tuile decoration which is going to sit
on the top, and on the bottom
of all this is an elderflower and lemon gel.
This sounds very complex.
There's a lot of different parts going on this dessert.
I just hope she manages to deliver everything on time.
I don't think the judges have seen me at my best yet,
but the motivation is now there
to show them in the Signature dish that I can do a lot better.
Lindsay, how are you feeling? The Skills Test is out of the way now,
so I'm feeling a lot more comfortable and relaxed.
Right, what are you cooking? For the main course,
stone bass with asparagus, mussel sauce, dill oil.
And then for dessert, I'm doing a set custard with poached rhubarb,
macerated rhubarb, shortbread on the side,
and a rhubarb consomme as well, split with a tangerine marigold oil.
Set custard. So is it literally custard?
Literally custard. Did you say tangerine marigold?
Yeah. It's got like a really nice citrus, orangey taste to it.
For me, it works really well with rhubarb.
What are you hoping to demonstrate through these dishes?
Just to get through this round,
that's all I'm seeing it as. Just want to take one round at a time.
And, yeah, hopefully not mess anything up.
Lindsay, still looking very calm and under control.
His main course is pan-fried stone bass.
Beautiful fish.
The skin, if he's keeping it on, lovely and crispy.
Cooking the mussels - make sure they're nice and clean.
Using that stock to make that lovely mussel sauce.
It's going to be split with dill oil.
Dill oil, beautiful and flavoursome, nice and green.
There's nothing here that we haven't had before.
This dish has to be completely on point for us to be wowed.
It's definitely not the most wild
| could go with the food, so I've kind of tamed myself
in a little bit here.
Dessert, it's a bit of a fun take on rhubarb and custard, which is one
of my favourite flavour combinations.
Lindsay says it's a set custard, but it's thickened with egg yolks only,
so he needs a high ratio of egg yolk to make sure this is thick enough.
We've got some poached macerated rhubarb, and we've also got
a tangerine marigold.
He's need to be careful of how much of the green of that he puts
on this dish. The flower is delicious.
The green is just a little bit too grassy for my liking.
Shortbread has got to be perfectly made,
nice and delicate and beautiful and light.
It's short. It's supposed to melt in the mouth.
Chefs, you're halfway!
You have half an hour left.
I think the Skills Test went pretty good.
I think the judges might think I slightly know what I'm doing.
I mean, obviously I'm young and I don't know everything,
but I feel like I showed them a nice bit of me.
Tom, how are we doing?
I'm good, thanks. Just a little...a little nervous, because obviously
I want to give the best to you guys.
You got off to a good start in the Skills.
It's nice to hear that you think that.
Tom, tell us about your menu.
So I've got a seared lamb loin with lamb tartare, broccoli puree,
a lamb sauce, sheep's curd, and then strawberry tart with, like,
a cream cheese base.
And then I'm just finishing it with a yoghurt parfait on top.
Whoa!
Tom, why are you a chef?
Mainly because my dad was trying to make me not be a chef,
I'd say is probably the biggest reason.
Because he's a chef himself. Is he still a chef, your dad?
Yeah. We're currently working at the same place.
Does Mum forbid any chef talk around the kitchen table?
No, because she's a chef as well. That's amazing!
Tom, if you go on to win, will your dad give you a promotion?
No.
Tom... Main course, seared lamb loin and lamb tartare.
Beautiful saddle of lamb. He's left the fat on, which is always
a good thing.
I love a lamb tartare.
I'm curious if it'll be served separately, on its own, on the side,
as opposed to on a plate with a hot lamb loin.
Tom is putting sheep's curd with his dish
so it'll have some sharpness through it. I like this.
We've got broccoli three different ways. We've got a puree.
We've got sprouting purple broccoli.
And we've also got some broccoli stalks, which he's pickling
for acidity and for bite.
Tom's got some red wine going into his lamb jus.
But you've got to use it sparingly.
You don't want a deep red wine sauce with such beautiful,
delicate, light ingredients.
Watch your backs.
We've got a strawberry and mascarpone tart.
I just love a tart dish.
Anything to do with a tart, I'm all over it.
The mascarpone, of course, can actually soften the pastry case.
So Tom's got to make sure he just gets the right
cooking on this.
We've got beautifully sliced strawberries.
We've got a yoghurt and honey parfait.
He's going to rocher it and sit that on top.
This dessert needs to be executed to perfection for it to work.
How long have we got? How long have I got?
Chefs, you've got 15 minutes left. 15.
Lindsay, what is that? Shortbread.
Is it supposed to be that flat? Not at all.
So I'm currently going to remake it.
You're from Scotland, aren't you? LINDSAY CHUCKLES
And your shortbread recipe is not working? Apparently not.
Good beef. I love beef. I love beef.
I've got the shakes a bit, but I'm all right. Are you all right?
Just got to carve the meat.
But I'm going to try and leave that as last minute as I can.
This is the last minute. OK. All right?
How long have we got? You've got about six or seven minutes left.
Yeah.
Yeah, tight, tight.
Make sure you don't run out of time, OK? Come on!
Sorbet to plate up.
Lindsay, did we get to make some more shortbread?
I had to decide to leave it and just focus on everything else.
Use it as a tuile. Make something. Don't give up.
How many minutes left, Chef? You've got a minute.
That's it. Time's up.
Stop.
For his Signature main,
private chef Tristan has cooked quail breast wrapped
in wild garlic, poached asparagus tips, sauteed morel mushrooms,
charred pear, crispy quail skin and a quail bone jus.
That looks like an autumnal walk through a forest. I love that.
Quail, I love that idea. Taking the breast off, wrapping
it in the garlic leaf. Great idea. I've not seen that before.
I really enjoyed that.
Thank you.
Tristan, the pear, the way you've used it and cleverly sat
the con fit quail yolk on it.
So you have the saltiness with the slight sweetness
of that pear, and it's just going off.
Good start, Tristan. Thank you.
Looks really smart.
And there are little, elegant, beautiful pieces of deliciousness
across this plate.
Your sauce has got meatiness and a little bit of saltiness,
and it feels like half a ton of butter has been put in there.
It's absolutely delightful.
What can I say, Tristan?
That's a great dish.
Thank you.
Tristan's dessert is a twice-risen doughnut, elderflower-marinated
strawberries, salted pistachio crumb, basil cress
and a basil and lime meringue sorbet.
It's got a lovely, rich flavour.
But your doughnut, it's very tight. It's not aerated enough.
I don't think you've given it enough time to rise.
That's a shame, because I was really looking forward to this.
What we have here is cold meringue.
It's just whipped-up egg whites with some basil and lime chopped
through it, and it's unpleasant. I'm not enjoying it.
The pistachio, you've salted these, haven't you?
And I just can't get on with the salted nuts and doughnut.
It shocked me.
I'm loving having the macerated strawberry with the doughnut,
but the meringue and the salted nut is not helping at all.
It was a bit of a tale of two halves.
Obviously, the main was very well received...
...and the pudding was not.
I think we've still got a chance, but who knows?
Chef de partie I-Lin has cooked roast beef fillets, served with
grilled bok choy, compressed spring onion and leeks,
five-spiced egg noodles,
and a Taiwanese-beef-flavoured consomme.
The beef is lovely and pink, with a little bit of seasoning.
And because you've charred the bok choy, there's a slight bitterness
that comes with all that crunch.
I'm really enjoying this.
I think these noodles, this beef and this bok choy need a much
bigger-flavoured broth.
It's just a little bit flat, if I'm really honest with you.
I'm looking for a bigger flavour with all those spices in it.
I think this dish would come to life. OK.
I would like to taste more of the spices that were used in it.
Also more of the wonderful spring onion that you've compressed
on the top.
You know, loads of spring onion and a broth like this, for me,
and I'm in consomme heaven.
For her Signature dessert, I-Lin has made a match a and pistachio
sponge cake, balsamic vinegar compressed strawberries,
Chantilly cream with mascarpone, honey and lemon,
elderflower and lemon gel,
pink peppercorns and a tuile.
I-Lin, I like the ideas that you're trying to bring
to your dessert, but I think
the issue is the execution.
A sponge cake like this, when it's done in the microwave,
it should aerate.
So something's happened and it's become dense.
And so the bitterness of the match a has intensified, and some
of the strawberries have diluted with the balsamic and become watery
because of that ice you sat on top of it.
The elderflower and lime jelly, I like the flavours of it.
However, the texture is too thick.
It's too dense.
You haven't got the texture of the sponge right.
You haven't got the texture of the jelly right.
It's a shame, because I like all your thinking.
But there's just another idea and another idea
and another idea and another idea,
and it just keeps going on and on and on.
Until you don't really know what it is.
I'm sorry, I'm not enjoying this.
They like my ideas.
But I can do better, to be honest.
Chef patron Lindsay's Signature main is pan-fried stone bass
with asparagus, potatoes cooked in lemon and pine oil,
a mussel sauce and dill oil.
You have a good touch. Everything is nicely cooked.
The Jersey potato is cooked all the way through.
The mussels are sweet.
The asparagus still has a little bit of give to it. It's a very small
dish, for me, but I can't question
your cooking, and it tastes great.
Thank you.
The sauce is beautifully made. Really nice.
Love the flavour of the mussel. Love the dill oil.
Everything about this dish is cooked just right, and very, very tasty.
It's a good start, it's a solid start,
but I am going to need some bells and whistles somewhere
down the line. Cool.
The stone bass has been cooked beautifully.
The little pieces of potato and the mussels are well executed.
What it shows to me is a strong chef who hasn't overcomplicated anything.
What else you have up your sleeve...
Well, if you go through, we'll find out, won't we?
Thank you.
Lindsay's dessert is a set custard, served with poached rhubarb,
a shortbread tuile and a rhubarb consomme split
with tangerine marigold oil.
Is this supposed to be set?
Yeah, it is looking a bit runny.
Look, it's not set, but it does taste good.
It's rich, it's full of vanilla, but it needs more rhubarb in there.
The consomme is a really nice, sharp rhubarb flavour, but I don't get
any of the flavour of the herb.
I'm not sure what it's showing me about you, other than you can
make great custard.
I'm a bit disappointed. I didn't think you were going to come
and show off on a Signature round a bowl of custard.
And it's not a set custard.
The shortbread didn't work out, and you kind of just lost
all your energy after that.
It threw you.
And for me, I just find that you should not give up so soon.
You came here to fight for something.
It starts right now.
Quite disappointed with myself.
The dessert could have been a lot better.
I just didn't execute it properly, and I'm sure that's going to haunt
me for a very long time.
Finally, it's sous-chef Tom.
His Signature main is seared lamb loin,
lamb tartare wrapped in pickled broccoli stem,
broccoli puree,
purple-sprouting broccoli, sheep curd,
and a lamb sauce.
GREGG: I think this looks great.
Very smart. Thank you.
There's some lovely skill here.
You have cooked your lamb very, very well.
You've got a beautiful puree.
I love the fact you've taken the stem of the broccoli.
You haven't thrown it away. You've pickled it.
That brings a bit of freshness to the dish.
That really does give us a reflection of what you're all
about right now, Tom. Very good.
I love the tartare. I could have more of that.
Slippery, nicely diced bits of meat.
But you've got that pickled crunch of that broccoli around it.
This is singing to me, this plate of food.
I absolutely love it.
Thank you.
You get a little sharpness from the sheep's curd, and it's a nice
surprise that cuts through this dish.
It's a delightful plate of food.
Good start for you, Tom.
Thank you.
Tom's dessert is a strawberry tart, white balsamic strawberries,
mascarpone cream and a honey and yoghurt parfait.
Tom, the tart case is beautifully made.
It's crisp. It's just falling apart.
I like that it hasn't gone too soggy with the mix of strawberries
that you have in there, and then the mascarpone
cream as well.
That is a lovely, lovely tart.
You've got macerated strawberries on the bottom that are almost sharp,
and then you've got that lovely mascarpone, which is slightly sour,
but it's packed full of vanilla.
And then you've got fresh cut strawberries across the top.
That's a lovely, lovely tart.
The quantity of cream and indulgence on this is perfect for me.
Your pastry making is spot-on.
The jam at the bottom is fresh and tangy.
Thank you. I think this is great.
Thank you.
Well done, mate.
That was good. Really good. Thank you.
Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good after that.
It would be quite nice to carry on through this competition and keep
getting good feedback.
We had a good Skills Test. OK?
Our expectation was high.
We were expecting great dishes, and we did get great dishes.
There was one standout chef, wasn't there?
A complete standout chef. And that's Tom. Hmm.
Absolutely smashed the main.
Came in here and gave a very, very good dessert as well.
I think he definitely deserves a place in our next round.
Absolutely. Tom is the strongest chef of the four.
On reading I-Lin's menu, it sounded really exciting.
It just didn't pack the excitement that I'd hoped it would deliver.
The take on her Taiwanese dish... The beef was beautifully pink.
But I would have enjoyed a bigger flavour of spice
through that beef broth.
Now, the dessert, for me, just didn't work on all fronts.
It was lots of individual things that just weren't singing
with each other. So I-Lin leaves the competition.
That means we've now got a really tough decision, I think,
between Lindsay and Tristan.
We've got two chefs here who have got real talent and skill.
Both their savoury dishes were fantastic.
But BOTH their desserts were very disappointing.
It's the main hurdle of the competition.
Anything past this kind of feels like a bit of a weight
off your shoulders, so, yeah, I would be gutted
if I went out at this point.
Yeah, it's hard to know whether you've done enough.
The other chefs are so brilliant.
So if I have, then I'd be proud,
if I haven't, then, good luck to them.
The first chef leaving the competition
is I-Lin.
Nice to have met you. Thank you. Thank you.
It's maybe the toughest day in my career so far.
Disappointed, but I thought I can do better, but maybe I need
some more experience.
Tristan, Lindsay, one of you is leaving us.
The chef leaving...
...is Lindsay.
Lindsay, that was the tightest of margins. You can leave
here with your head held high, mate. Cheers.
I'm disappointed, obviously.
I didn't push myself enough. Yeah, I just came at this with the wrong
approach and, yeah,
just got myself to blame.
When I go home, I'm looking forward to seeing my wee boy.
I've missed him the last couple of days.
Well done, the pair of you. All right? That was quality.
It was nerve-racking, awesome, and just relief in the end.
I know I didn't produce my best, so I think I need to understand
the judges' comments a bit, learn on them and not produce
that pudding again.
Cooking under this sort of pressure is tough.
I'm still feeling a little bit nervous going into future rounds,
but I signed up for this.
I just want to sort of get as far as I can, give it my best.
Next time, it's the last of the quarterfinals.
Come on!
And this week's strongest chefs return to face two tough challenges.
There's nothing about this dish that I can fault.
Mm-mm-mm!
Only the best will make it through to knockout week.
This is so freaking clever.
You just can't stop eating it.
Oow! SIGHS