It's Knockout Week on MasterChef: The Professionals.
Last time, five of the remaining ten chefs manned the MasterChef
pop-up restaurant.
Running 'round like a headless chicken.
Yes, yes, yes!
James, with his reinvented prawn toast, came out on top.
Genuinely live like this.
In the final cook-off,
Molly was sent home.
Thank you.
Now, the second group of five must fight for their place
in the semifinals.
Every time you walk into the kitchen, you tell yourself,
this is your chance, it's now or never.
There's always little twists and turns, and you just
have to combat each stage.
I can't do a half job,
I have to put all of myself into it.
We're going to challenge our chefs
in a completely different environment.
They've got to perform.
Five great chefs.
But who is going to grab the spotlight?
Quite simply, the pressure is on.
It's early morning and Kyle...
...Cecily, Tom...
...Kasae...
...and Philippe are arriving in
Central London for their first challenge
outside the MasterChef kitchen.
Out of the MasterChef kitchen into the MasterChef
pop-up restaurant.
Pop-up restaurants are about great food, fun...
...in a fabulous, relaxed environment.
Chefs, good to see you.
Welcome to Market Halls, the MasterChef pop-up restaurant.
Look, Chefs, our first group cooked some sublime food.
We want you to raise the bar above what they did.
You are going to be presenting your food to 25 very,
very knowledgeable guests, people heavily involved in the success
of pop-ups.
We are going to let our guests vote for their favourite dish.
And the chef that created that dish will go straight
through to the semifinals.
Embrace the environment and impress.
Three hours. Chefs, off you go.
Sharing work space in tightly packed kitchens,
the chefs will have to adapt quickly to deliver their dishes
for the pop-up guests.
I've done a few, like, pop-ups, like, helping out.
I've never, like, sort of run one myself,
like, doing my own thing for like 25, 30 guests on my own.
I want to show a little bit of my fun side.
Posh, dirty food is what I'm going for.
Very excited with this one.
It's something a little bit different.
Still trying to use, like, restaurant techniques and skill.
But I've got a lot of work to do,
so just trying to smash
through it as fast as I can, really.
The fact that they're voting for their favourite dish
is quite scary.
I'm hoping that my dish will stand out,
but you just never know.
In the past, I've done a pop-up restaurant.
It was in France.
The kitchen was small, lot of people... But I think
it's going to be fun today.
I want new ideas.
I want to see new combinations.
I want to eat some great food.
Can they dare to be brave?
A faint heart never lifted
a MasterChef trophy, that's for sure.
Consistently impressing the judges with bold flavours
and classic cookery -
today, sous-chef Tom is stepping
outside his comfort zone
and using an ingredient
he has little experience with.
I've not cooked octopus a whole lot,
and I thought this would be, like,
the perfect opportunity to cook
an ingredient like this,
because it obviously tastes really nice.
I've always really enjoyed it.
He's got satay octopus.
Now, octopus has got to be cooked
quickly or slowly to make sure
it's not chewy.
That's probably the biggest risk
of the day, is just the octopus not being perfect.
How are you cooking it? I'm going to cook it in the pan
with some red wine because I heard
that there's tannin in the wine...
Yeah. ..sort of breaks it down a bit.
Have you got that Midas touch?
Hopefully, yeah, I'd like to think so.
Next, I'm going to do my satay sauce and peanut crumb.
Is that all dry-roasted peanuts? Yeah, all of it, yeah.
What, is it about a kilo? Yeah, it is a kilo.
Is it? Good guess.
It's not traditional satay.
Doesn't have any chilli in,
but the rest of the dish
has spice elements to it.
I did try it with the chilli
in the satay and it was a bit
strong, so I sort of changed it up a bit.
We've got mooli noodles flavoured with kimchi.
Well, mooli is a great big white radish - slightly peppery crunch.
Kimchi, a little bit fermented.
Chilli, I guess.
I don't know, just sort of powerful.
It doesn't stop there, either.
Sticky rice, peanut and rice crumb,
then deep-fried vermicelli noodles.
Tom's got a lot to do.
Not just many processes to go
through, but a lot to plate up.
I put a lot of pressure on myself
early doors because things have got
to be marinated and infused,
and cooked well and stuff.
Head chef Kasae has shown creative
flair, pairing unusual ingredients
and ideas from her time spent
in Japanese and Swedish kitchens.
Ever done a pop-up? Never.
I'll let you know how it goes!
But today her dish is inspired
by her love of comfort food
when growing up in Australia.
I do love putting some shellfish on the barbecue.
Today I'm making a prawn dog,
so, a lobster and prawn corn dog.
Ah! So, it's my take on the traditional American corn dog,
but mine is hopefully a bit more posh.
Traditionally corn dogs in America are sausages, but they've got
cornmeal batter and they're deep-fried.
Kasae has got a big sausage...
...but it's prawn and lobster.
I mean, that is just delicious
and highly luxurious.
She's going to put them into a
batter and then deep-fry them.
The corn batter around it,
she's going to colour, make it black.
It's going to look quite
basic - as a corn dog does.
It's not until you cut in or bite
into it, are you going to realise
the luxury ingredients underneath.
And so what am I going to be dipping this into?
So you've got a lobster head
hollandaise, you've got a black
garlic and dried plum, sort
of like ketchup-style thing,
and then you've got a sea herb tartare.
So lots of salty, crunchy sea herb.
I've set myself up with a lot of work to do.
But I guess this wasn't the challenge to
hold back and play it safe, was it?
Across the kitchen, sous-chef Kyle is de-boning
and prepping chicken thighs...
Probably only got about 20 minutes to do 35 thighs.
...for a crispy chicken dish combining his fine-dining style
and love of Asian flavours.
So I'm doing shit take-stuffed chicken with..
.Nam jim - like, a Thai dipping sauce.
I'm going to make a shiitake and chicken mousse to pipe
into the thighs, roll them
into a ballotine, steam 'em, rest 'em
cook 'em, carve 'em.
Cucumber and fennel sort of Asian salad, and some,
like, little microgreens as well.
He's going to take the bone out of the chicken thigh.
But he's making a shiitake mushroom mousse -
shiitake mushrooms, strong, salty, almost beefy.
He can't afford for that mousse to be split.
He can't afford for it to be grainy.
And I certainly want to taste
the shiitake mushrooms, too.
Is this pop-up food?
Is this top-end fine dining?
Where is it? It's food that excites me.
And I would love to eat that
if I was to be out there.
Kyle, good luck, my friend. Thank you, mate, see you later.
Private chef Cecily has grown in confidence throughout
the competition, and has planned
a risky and ambitious pop-up recipe.
Today I really want to show them
a different side to my cooking,
just maybe something a little bit more exciting.
Cecily's attempting a goat curry, which I think is very brave
because she's got three hours
and the goat can take hours and hours
and hours of cookery.
Super important for me to try
and get this into the pressure cooker
really quickly, just so it starts to break down
and so it's soft when I serve it.
What's inspired this?
It's based on my one of my best
friend's grandma's recipes, and she's Caribbean.
You've done this goat curry a number of times?
Yes, so...
...I'm a co-founder of a community kitchen.
We do pop-ups and we feed the community.
So we do refugees, asylum seekers and people in food poverty.
So, this is the kind of dishes we do in the pop-ups.
What flavours have you got in with the goat?
Because it's a gamey meat, itself. Yeah.
So, I've put some turmeric and some
cumin, and then I've also got some
Scotch bonnet in there.
That's wonderful.
We've also got roti.
Making the roti is probably the thing that's
going to take the longest.
It's just it's quite a lot
of, like, portioning and rolling.
And because I have to do
So many por...so many of them,
it's just a bit time-consuming.
And what's this here?
That is the charred pineapple
that I'm going to blitz up to make
into chutney to go on the side. Right.
I just need to blitz it with the mangoes.
And then there's thyme, a little bit of Scotch bonnet in there.
We've got a big, gamey meat in a curry.
We've got fruity flavours and we've most certainly got chilli heat.
Just for a little bit more heat,
we've got a hot pepper pickle going on there, too.
She only really needs just a little smidgen of the
Scotch bonnet. What you don't need is a whole bowl.
You would be so unpopular if someone
had a bite on one of those things.
They look so enticing, though,
I think that's the thing. They do.
But I need to make sure I don't
put too much in it, so it blows
people's brains out!
Originally from Paris, private chef Philippe has made
it this far with food inspired
by his West African heritage and some
daring flavour combinations.
Today he's making a dessert
which takes inspiration
from a popular street food
he ate as a child.
Yovo doko. Yeah.
What is it? What is it? Yeah.
So... So, yovo doko is a...is a doughnut.
I like say it's an African doughnut.
It remind me when I was kid
and I was in Benin, so we used
to have yovo doko as a snack.
And I'm really happy to reproduce
this recipe and maybe elevate this.
You fry them, right? Yeah.
What are you going to serve with them?
It's a mascarpone cream
with dried lime...and papaya,
ginger and lemongrass jam.
And some meringue.
He's making a little salad of papaya to go with it.
He calls it a tartare - just means raw.
And he's putting lemon verbena.
It's a lovely herb, but it's very, very strong.
Handle it with care
because it will take over.
When I was in Benin, I try, er...
...beautiful and delicious papaya.
So, yeah, I say, OK, I have to
make something with this, yeah.
You've got a lot of sweetness going on there.
But then when you've got this lovely
tropical fruit, it all balances out.
Because he's also made a
French meringue - nice and dry and crunchy -
and then he's going to be breaking it over the top of the dish.
I need to do the meringue right the first time,
because it takes one hour to bake.
He's got some really clever little things going on there, things
that people may not have tried before.
OK.
An hour of prep time has already gone.
Tom has been juggling two of his seven accompaniments
for his satay octopus -
the sauce and sticky rice.
You've already got noodles with kimchi, slightly peppery,
so, that sticky rice, hope he doesn't flavour that as well
because I wouldn't mind a little bit of starchy, bland relief
from the other flavours.
His octopus has also finished
braising in red wine, and he now
has the arduous task of prepping
the tentacles for 25 portions,
which he will pan-fry.
I'm now going to just peel the back
skin off because it can be a bit,
like. gelatinous and horrible.
Just trying to get a hustle on now.
Make sure I get everything done.
Kasae is working on the all-important lobster and prawn
mousse, which she'll shape into a
sausage, coat in batter,
and deep-fry.
I'm adding quite a lot of aonori,
blended nori sheets, to it,
as well as some different types
of yuzu and a little bit of fresh
lemon zest as well.
Must have eaten a fair amount of
pop-ups and street foods? For sure.
I've never participated in one, though.
Do you prefer a fine-dining style to this?
More what I'm used to.
I'll let you know if I prefer it at the end.
I've just got to get it in the water bath and get
it kicked off, get it really,
really cold and really dry afterwards,
so the batter sticks.
Kyle is working fast to finish
the chicken and shiitake mousse
and get it piped into the chicken thighs.
That should be nicer.
He's boned the chicken thighs.
He's batted them out nice and thin.
Mousse down the centre.
I need to fill them, roll them,
press them, tie them.
Steam them, roast them, carve them.
It's a lot.
Just need to get these chicken in that steamer.
Or no-one's going to be eating nowt.
Cecily also has a lot to do.
She's got her goat meat into the pressure cooker, but she now
has the lengthy job of cooking
the 25 roti to serve the curry on.
I haven't done it like that before
on a plancha.
And how's the goat?
I don't know yet.
Cecily's quite stressed because she's got the goat
in a pressure cooker and of course you can't see
in the pressure cooker.
She's worried about it - and I quite understand it.
I think I'm going to leave you alone.
You look a little bit stressed. Thank you!
On dessert, Philippe is racing
to get his papaya and ginger jam
blended and then cooled
in time for service.
I blend it, I try it...
.| like it.
I love a papaya.
But making that into a jam, adding all that sugar,
and then still managing to keep
the mellow flavour of the papaya,
might be difficult.
Amazing.
So you're going to do a tester now of the yovo doko?
Yeah. OK.
Oh, great technique.
Happy? Has it worked?
Yeah, I'm really happy.
I like the shape.
OIL SIZZLES
It's big enough.
Philippe has grown up with this dish,
and not only that - he loves it.
It's a very, very dense doughnut,
but that makes it very versatile.
Philippe, of course, is making it sweet.
I'm going to put some sugar on top
on one face and blowtorch
like a creme brulee.
That's quite time-consuming.
Are you going to be able to get these done?
I think I'm going to cook the doughnuts now.
I would.
I'm just going to nick this little bit here!
With 45 minutes of prep time remaining,
today's specially invited guests
from across the pop-up industry
have started to arrive.
We turned an abandoned substation
into a kitchen, and now
we have a thriving pizzeria.
What's special about starting
as a pop-up is it means the focus
isn't just about running a restaurant.
It's a lot more personal.
So you've got to be really up for embracing it and letting people
in to see who we really are.
I think the pop-up scene has been so important for me
because as a person that wasn't a trained chef,
I didn't really have any contacts within food.
It was just going into smaller cafes
and asking if I could rent out
that space for an evening.
You can actually learn and grow
without having to just put bricks
and mortar straight away.
what we like to do is combine our
traditional Caribbean flavours
with contemporary British dining.
It can be fast-paced at times and just, like, keeping
the consistency, always be just solid and keep
that vibe and flavour.
We've really found a passion for seeing people eat our food.
Yeah. I don't think there's a better feeling than seeing people
enjoy your food like that.
This challenge is a tough one.
In a new kitchen, you don't know
the set-up and there's a time limit.
I'm just looking for one thing - flavour.
With just 30 minutes to go...
Are you sure time doesn't move differently in this kitchen?
...all five chefs need to focus
and work fast in order
to be ready for service.
With a total of eight components to plate,
Tom is under pressure to make
sure they are all ready.
I've got to fry off my noodles,
like, sort of for service.
Ball up some of my kimchi noodles,
just to make sure it's quick to put on because otherwise
it's going to be a right stitch-up.
He also has the all-important task
of perfectly pan-frying
25 portions of octopus.
I don't really want to, like,
char it because it toughens it up.
Bit of colour would be nice,
that's all I'm really looking for here.
Kasae still needs to finish
all three dips that will accompany
her lobster corn dog.
We've got her take on a ho is in sauce
with black garlic and plum,
a hollandaise that's flavoured
with the lobster head...
I put a little bit of tomato paste
in there to kind of make it feel
a little bit bisque-like.
...and we have also got a tartare.
She's going to put sea herbs through it,
so it should be slightly salty.
As well as make the batter to coat
them, which she's colouring black
using squid ink.
You should get the black outer crust
and then you should get a vivid
pink-orange inside.
That's a beautiful thing.
Cecily is still feeling the pressure,
and with time running out,
she's concerned about her
hot pepper pickle.
It's, like, a bit spicier than I want it to be.
Can you add anything to it to numb it down? I don't know.
I think I need to just, like,
see if I can balance it.
I'm just going to make sure
that the chutney is sweeter,
rather than have two tangy things.
Kyle's managed to get his stuffed
chicken ballotine steamed,
and is finishing off his
herb garnishes.
Feeling like I'm washing me hair,
and I haven't got any.
His last job is the Thai nam jim sauce.
You've got heat, you've got sweet,
you've got sour, you've got salty.
I love the sound of this.
Is that enough?
Yeah, I think so.
Cos I'm not going to put one whole doughnut.
I'm going to cut it in half.
His yovo doko fried,
Philippe now has to slice them
in half to make 25 portions.
Some are not cooked in the middle,
because some are bigger.
But to be honest, it can bring something nice,
even it's not cooked in the middle,
so it's good to make mistakes.
Got some chefs here who are really pushing boundaries.
Brilliant to see, but the proof
will always be in the eating.
There's just ten minutes left.
Kasae and Tom will be the first to serve.
I don't want to fry them off
too early and then have to
flash them in the oven.
I'd rather just go straight from there to the plate.
They don't take too long.
Only a couple of minutes per batch.
What did you use to make the corn black?
I used some squid ink.
I've been really busy in my mind.
Maybe I don't show it as much as I think I do,
but I'm definitely not relaxed,
I can assure you of that.
With moments to go,
Kasae is ready to deep-fry the corn dogs.
No!
Oh, BLEEP!
What's going on?
Er...the timer on the fryer's gone off,
so the fryer wasn't on.
Is it actually just stone-cold?
Yeah, I just tried to put a dog in there, and it wasn't...
It was on before, but not any more.
You're not ready.
Don't lose it now. Yeah. Yep.
You've done all the hard work.
So what we need to do now is get a plan.
We've got guests out there waiting right now.
So what I'm going to suggest...
...is that we go with your dish first
on your own, and then you're going
to have to follow, hopefully
straight after, but you're going
to have to work at speed to get
everything that you can done -
get it done.
That's embarrassing.
Right, Tom, let's go.
Service begins now.
While Kasae waits for the fryer
to get up to temperature...
Ten minutes to heat up.
...the pressure is now on Tom
to keep the service on track.
Tom's dish - satay octopus,
kimchi mooli noodles, cucumber-sesame salad,
sticky rice,
crispy vermicelli noodles...
...and a peanut and rice crumb.
Quite a few things going on there.
The octopus is a key element here.
It needs to be nice and tender.
Not overcooked, not rubbery.
Just a nice little bite left on it.
Happy with the octopus?
Erm, yeah. Not too chewy?
No, no, it's good.
How's that fryer?
No, not quite ready. Not there yet, no?
Not quite ready.
In terms of the garnishes,
it seems really bright and fresh,
which I think is welcome to offset
the sweetness and richness of the satay.
What's the orange one, the mooli?
Yeah, that's the mooli.
What's made it orange?
The kimchi.
Noodles twice, rice...
I think managing all those textures
and making sure that they're all
precise and it's not too heavy,
is going to be a challenge with this.
You've got about eight or nine
steps, every single plate.
Did you take that into consideration?
Erm, I did... Because you're going to have to speed up.
I thought I put barely anything on these.
I've shot myself in the foot a bit here, it seems.
Service, please. What about the spring onion?
Sorry, Chef. Forgot about that. Come on.
Right, ready. Let's go.
I think that went well. I gave
myself a bit too much to do in terms of plating,
but I think it was nice.
I mean, hopefully everyone enjoyed it.
The octopus is amazing. It's really tender.
You can get some of that kind of satay flavour through.
You can taste soy sauce, you can taste sesame.
Really good.
The sticky rice was perfect.
I love the kimchi.
I love the fact that you had the kimchi and the cucumber together.
Really enjoyed the cucumber-sesame salad.
And very clever, these vermicelli noodles on top.
Give you flavour.
There were a lot of different flavours in there,
but I don't think any of them were too overpowering.
When you put everything together in one forkful
it actually tasted brilliant.
GREGG: That octopus is cooked to perfection.
There is a saltiness to it, a mild fishiness to it,
and just the right amount of give.
The satay sauce is lovely, creamy, sweet, almost.
I love the rice. Beautifully steamed.
I love this little pickled cucumber on the side here too.
The kimchi mooli is delicious.
It's got a bit of kick to it, though. It's not half bad.
Lots of big flavours on Tom's dish and I'm very, very much enjoying it.
Tom's about to send his last table.
Yep. How are you doing? How's your fryer?
We're, we're good now.
Delayed while her fryer heated back up,
Kasae is finally ready to start service.
Yeah, the first one should be on the plate in,
you know, a couple of minutes.
CHEF READING: Kasae is making a lobster and prawn corn dog
in a black cornmeal batter.
I think maybe some people might find it a little bit
sort of unappetizing, but I think I'm up for it.
There's a hollandaise,
there's the plum sauce and the tartare sauce.
CHUCKLING: I guess it could be very saucy.
You're going to have to work a little bit faster now.
Yes, Chef. Try and catch up.
So, maybe get Tom to help you out a little bit.
We just need to put one of each sauce
on the plate. Let's go, come on. TOM: OK, I can do that.
Whoa.
That's good-looking.
Service, please!
CHEF: You're going to have lobster, you're going to have prawn.
You don't want to feel you haven't got your money's worth,
so it needs to look generous.
Particularly the way the batter's cooked - can't be soft.
It's got to have that real crispness to it.
Service, please.
Well done for keeping it together.
Steady hand, cool head.
Well done, you. Thank you.
It was good up until I realised that my fryer was off.
Er, bit of a rookie mistake.
Unfortunately, I didn't get time to try it all together.
I just have to hope it tastes how it did in my trials,
and that they all enjoy it as much as I do.
It could be visually a bit more appealing.
However, once you bite into it,
you get the flavour of the lobster
and the prawn, that really came through.
I felt the batter could be a bit crispier.
Had it been, you'd have then had the textural contrast
with that soft rich inside and it would have been perfect.
But all in all, the proof is in the empty plate.
I thought the dips were absolutely delicious.
Particularly the tartare, I think it's really well made.
The sea herbs gave it a lovely bit of aroma.
I loved that I was able to dip it in each one
and have a different experience each time.
So, like, ten out of ten in terms of kind of my engagement.
Absolutely loved that.
I really love this.
We've wanted Kasae to step it up in terms of flavour,
give us a burst of flavour.
Mate, she's come out swinging with this one.
I think the three sauces are fantastic.
I love the corn batter with the squid ink in it.
This is delicious.
Next up to the pass are Kyle and Cecily.
Right, remember, you two,
you're doing service together. Yep.
Kyle needs to fry off his ballotines
to make the chicken crispy.
I'm just worried about it sticking.
For Cecily, everything rests
on her goat being tender enough.
Yeah, perfect.
It's just hard to know cos it's, like, it's locked in.
And you just never know. KYLE: You good?
Yeah, yeah, I'm good. You all right? Yep.
Basting it with a little bit of nam jim, bit of brown butter.
Nearly there.
MARCUS: You've got this beautiful stuffed chicken thigh,
so it's going to have lovely caramelization around the outside.
Right, guys. Let's get this going.
First table, we need to get under way.
Oui.
CHEF: Crispy chicken stuffed with shiitake,
cucumber, fennel and yuzu kosho salad.
And a nam jim sauce.
Very bold ingredients.
You've got the yuzu, which is very fragrant.
Fennel as well.
Yeah, I'm excited.
Obviously it's called crispy chicken, right?
So, like, is this going to be, like, crispy skin
that's falling off, or a crunch
that's going to, like, actually stay in my mouth
that I'm going to enjoy?
Definitely, the shiitake has got to come through
along with the crisp.
Not overpower it too much,
but definitely have a bit of the flavour in there.
I love chicken thigh.
GREGG: What's that sauce, Kyle?
It's nam jim jus.
Oh, I like that, Kyle.
KYLE AND CECILY: Service, please.
Really, really happy with how that went.
A pop-up's new to me, I've never done one.
I cooked what I liked, and I can only do that for them.
This chicken was cooked perfectly.
Nice and tender.
And the flavours worked really well together with the shiitake,
and I definitely got that coming through, through the dish.
But yeah, not so crispy.
I quite like the cucumber and fennel salad
and there was a little bit of that sort of citrusy yuzu flavour
coming through. It looked really fantastic when it came out
and it was sort of... Looked bright and zingy.
Everything just got a little bit lost with all these different herbs,
and possibly the chef could have focused on one or two
of these elements and maybe let those really shine.
It's slightly underwhelming.
The thigh doesn't really have that lovely chicken thigh flavour
that I was looking for.
GREGG: But that cucumber with the nam jim sauce is fantastic.
That is a great, great balance.
Right. First table of five is gone.
Two tables of four going next.
OK? KYLE: Oui.
How long will you be on that, do you think?
Two minutes. If that.
Curried goat and roti with charred pineapple
and a mango and Scotch bonnet chutney,
and a hot pepper pickle.
Sounds good.
Sounds like it could be tasty.
GREGG: Rotis good?
Yes.
I just hope that the roti is nice and soft as well,
with that nice crisp outside
that you could just, like, pick up and eat to go with.
Charred pineapple, that caramelised, that smoky, sweet flavour
to offset the spice of the curry.
Same with the mango and the Scotch bonnet.
Yep, hot pepper pickle as well.
It's a real winner.
I love spicy, so I...
...I hope they don't hold back.
I think the hot pepper pickle is nice. It's quite hot.
It is hot, but it's supposed to be hot.
Happy with the dish?
Yeah. It looks good, looks vibrant.
It looks how I wanted it to.
Service.
You were worried about your goat.
Yeah. And now?
It was really soft, it was really nice.
I hope they like it.
I mean, everyone else's dishes are so good,
but I hope some people like it enough to vote for it.
CHEF: So this is, like, straight-up Caribbean? Wrap it up.
The goat curry was cooked very well.
It had a lot of flavours.
The roti was cooked well.
It had a bit of flakes, so it was very soft as well.
So I'd say it's a good combination.
When you cook a curry,
you need to be bold with your spices.
It could have been a bit more spicier.
The mango chutney was absolutely delicious
and it had this incredible slightly smoky pineapple flavour in there,
which worked really, really well with the goat.
And the hot pepper pickle,
that Scotch bonnet was just at the right level.
It wasn't too overpoweringly hot.
Definitely getting the flavour of the goat, which is really nice.
It's a good, strong flavour.
Love the crunchiness of the pickle.
Love the heat of the pickle.
Really enjoying this fabulous little chutney on the side here.
GREGG: It's cooked well and it tastes good.
Last up, is Philippe with his West African-inspired dessert.
Happy, Philippe?
Yeah, I'm happy.
So, Philippe is making yovo doko
with lemon verbena and papaya tartare,
mascarpone, ginger papaya jam and meringue.
Sounds really interesting.
Right. Philippe, it's your turn.
Customers are waiting. Let's get your plates out there.
This is a papaya jam.
Is it a yovo doko if you cut it in half, or is it just a yovo?
THEY CHUCKLE Or just a doko?
CHEF: This is very different for me.
I've never heard of that.
So I'm really looking forward to it.
Cream goes on. What's after that, Philippe?
More jam.
Ginger and papaya.
It's very difficult to imagine how that would be together.
Hmm. It's...
It's a very interesting combination.
PHILIPPE: I'm going to put some meringue and the leaves.
MARCUS: Let's go, Philippe.
You're spending about two, three, four, five minutes on these.
You've got about, well, at least about five, six more tables. OK.
Yes, Chef. Come on.
Service.
After that, we've got two tables of four.
Look at that.
Man's a machine, he's a cooking machine. PHILIPPE CHUCKLES
The doughnut was texturally sensational.
The ginger papaya jam was just so good.
I thought that was absolutely mega.
My ultimate favourite ingredient, lemon verbena,
which was through the fruit, was really nice.
Yeah, I think it just worked all together.
The little bit of creaminess, richness from the mascarpone
wasn't overly sweet.
It was, like, really well-balanced.
At first I was like, "Is it sweet enough?
"I don't know."
And then I kept going deeper and deeper and uncovering
more and more juice!
It was delicious.
Normally, the dessert is the forgotten course,
but this was actually one of the best courses that we've had today.
I'm really happy because it's street food,
and I tried just to elevate a little bit in terms of plating.
I did my best. I enjoyed this challenge, so let's see.
Philippe has taken a humble doughnut
and he's turned it into something quite elegant and quite classic here.
The doughnut is absolutely fantastic.
Crunchy and chewy on the outside.
Soft and delicious in the centre.
Wow. That is sensational.
APPLAUSE
After a challenging day in the kitchen,
the MasterChef pop-up is now over.
As far as I'm concerned, we had five very, very good dishes.
And I should imagine right now they are all absolutely chuffed.
Today was a whirlwind, for sure.
You hear two and a half hours cooking, half an hour plating,
you're like, "Easy."
It's not easy.
It was fun, but not easy.
I was pleased with the dish.
I think maybe it wasn't quite as refined as some of the other guys'
dishes, but I suppose that's like the pop-up vibe
and that's the vibe of the food.
So I am happy, and I think the flavours were good.
It was a good experience for me.
I like doing something different as well,
and it was a different type of cuisine.
Am I pleased with my performance? Yes and no.
I think in this environment and this pressure,
my dish lucked something,
but just got to keep moving forward and on to the next step.
There's nothing you can do about it now,
it's either the favourite or not, but I'm proud of what I put up.
Either way, I'm happy.
Our chefs are heading back to the MasterChef kitchen.
One of them is going to be sailing straight through to our semifinals.
It's really down to the guests now.
Chefs. Welcome back to our kitchen.
I've got to say, I've heard great reviews from these two
about the pop-up.
I hope you've brought some of that enthusiasm,
some of that excitement back in here,
because you are fighting to stay in this competition.
As you know, we asked our guests to vote for their favourite dish.
The chef with the most votes will go straight through to our semifinal.
We have counted up the votes,
and the chef going straight through is...
...Philippe.
Well done.
They really enjoyed your dessert, and so did Gregg and I.
We will see you in the semifinals. Off you go.
See you there.
Well done. Congratulations.
That's amazing.
Yeah, amazing feelings.
I'm very happy. I'm glad!
Now, you four.
You've got a job to do.
We've set you a brief.
That brief is to give us your last ever dish on Earth.
What are you cooking?
Who are you eating it with?
Three of you will be going through with Philippe.
One of you, of course, will be leaving the competition.
One hour, 45 minutes.
Chefs, off you go.
I think Philippe fully deserves his place in the semis.
I wanted to cook today.
So I just want to, like, smash it in, really.
I didn't really expect to get this far, to be honest.
So semifinal sounds insane.
I love the dish that I'm doing today.
I just hope that I can push that emotion through to the judges
and get them to love it as well.
So my last dish on Earth is a take on my nan's lemon slice.
Very humble, very simple.
We didn't have a lot growing up,
so she would always make sure we had a dessert in our lunch boxes.
I'm making a lemon parfait,
and then on the outside, it's going to have brown butter
and lemon myrtle biscuit.
Lemon myrtle is, like, a lemony herb from Australia.
On top of it, you're going to have a coriander
and preserved lemon gel,
and then you're going to have a coconut meringue on top of that.
Whoa!
OK. Why this?
I thought, because I live so far away from home,
I would want my last dish on Earth to remind me of,
you know, some of my fondest younger memories.
It's going to be quite emotional.
It's someone that's very far away but someone I'm still very close to.
Lemon parfait needs to be nice and smooth.
Lemon flavour has to come through nicely,
but also needs to be very rich and creamy.
Just got to make sure that parfait is set beautifully.
The last thing she wants is to take that onto the plate
and have it melt everywhere.
Coconut and brown butter, lemon myrtle biscuit.
The flavour of the lemon myrtle, it's almost a floral lemon flavour.
I like the sound of that.
Kasae is also putting some lemon through her coconut meringue.
For me, if a dessert says lemon, pour lemon all over it.
So I'm doing scallops three ways.
It's my favourite food to eat.
I'm really proud of this dish and what it sort of means to me.
I really do understand why Tom has chosen the scallop.
It is a very, very special ingredient,
and when it's treated beautifully and correctly, it is fabulous.
Scallop and mango ceviche.
The juice and the flavour of the ceviche
is what's going to bring these two fabulous ingredients together.
We've got roasted scallop and a Jerusalem artichoke puree.
The roasted scallops are going to be beautiful and golden,
and a very smooth artichoke puree to go with it.
We have a pastry tube filled with a buttermilk mousse
that's got charred artichokes and raw, diced scallops through it.
I think the biggest concern for me is probably the pastry tube.
If that cracks or breaks, because they're very brittle and delicate,
so if I were to get a bit heavy-handed with it,
be a bit of a nightmare.
What is it that you love about a scallop so much?
Often they're just a gift from God.
They're just soft and full of flavour. I love them.
What was your first ever scallop? Do you remember?
My dad's a chef. He did me and my friend Josh a little tasting menu
where he did us like frogs' legs and loads of different stuff,
and he did a scallop.
Oh, mate!
Who would you be sharing this last dish with?
So I'll be sharing it with my grandad.
He passed away, so I'd love to be able to tell him
how the competition is going and stuff.
Did Grandad watch you become a chef?
Yeah, he did. Yeah.
Was he proud of you, Tom?
Yeah, I think he was. Yeah.
He was a man of few words, so he wouldn't often tell you.
But, you know, you know deep down he was.
Chefs, you have one hour left.
My last dish on Earth is fried chicken.
It's one of those things that was always, like, a treat
when I was little.
My dad loved it.
I also had a really big operation last year,
and I remember being in the an aesthetic.
"What are you looking forward to?" And I was like, "Fried chicken!"
So I'm doing a deboned chicken wing,
which is stuffed with like a chicken mousse with chipotle,
marinating it in buttermilk, and then got a southern fried mix.
Then I've got mashed potatoes, I've got a corn puree,
some roasted corn and some, like, cucumber pickle.
Why such an American-styled dish?
My mum and dad went around America, after they got married,
for like six months, like around the Southern states,
and it just, like, influenced them so much.
I won't lie, I read your menu and got quite excited.
I thought, "Yes. Here's someone who's going out with a bang
"on her last meal on Earth."
Cecily has made a chicken mousse to stuff her little chicken wings with.
There's garlic, there's cayenne pepper as well.
We've got chilli.
I hope there'll be a bit of heat coming through.
Corn puree. Nice and sweet, nice and smooth.
I'll want to taste the corn, beautifully seasoned.
Looking forward to that charred corn just for a little bit of texture.
But then this is a take on a takeaway dish.
You now have to elevate it,
and that is a very, very, very difficult thing to do.
It's CFC - Cecily's Fried Chicken.
Kyle, what's your dish, please?
So I'm doing a version of crab on toast with Nan.
Crab, ajo blanco, pickled kohlrabi, pickled grapes.
Ajo blanco is like an almond sauce.
Always go on holiday with Nan.
She always used to take us to, like, Gran Canaria.
It's something that we've had with shellfish before.
On the side, I'm going to do a little pot of apple jelly.
Brown crab emulsion, top that with caviar.
Wonderful.
What's inspired this dish?
During lockdown, my gran died of a brain tumour.
Since she just wanted to eat crab down by the beach,
something that we used to do, like, when I was a kid.
She always, like, pushed us to do the show.
I'm a bit sad that I've left it too late, but...
It's all right, she's watching.
This is not just picking crab on the beach,
this is crab elevated to new heights.
We've got ajo blanco.
It's a white version of a tomato gazpacho.
Almonds, grapes, vinegar. It's absolutely delicious.
I think it works really well with crab.
Little bit more acidic than I would normally do,
just to cut through everything.
Cos there's a lot of sweet flavours as well.
Got pickled kohlrabi.
Kohlrabi is the texture of a radish.
It's also got the flavour of a radish.
In fact, it's just a little bit hotter.
He's got that blanched in a little pickling liquid,
so you get the heat and the sourness working together.
If you love crab, you're onto a winner.
We've got brown crab emulsion with caviar.
We want to taste the brown crab,
so it's almost like a thick mayonnaise.
And also toasted flatbread.
I mean, this just sounds delicious, doesn't it?
Tomorrow's not promised,
so today, I want my dish to stand out.
I want my dish and her memory to be the best in the room.
You've got ten minutes left.
Ten minutes, please.
Just cooking the scallops, that's really the last piece of cooking I've got to do.
And then sort of moving on to all the plating up business.
Gregg, Marcus...
...Mon, Mon, Mon, Mon, Mon!
I don't want to scare anybody, two minutes.
So I'm leaving the most delicate job to last - filling the pastry tubes.
Don't want the pastry to go soft.
60 seconds.
Wait...
OK, Chefs, stop! Time's up.
Well done, everybody.
Kasae's nan is the inspiration for her
lemon parfait, served
in a brown butter and lemon myrtle biscuit,
with a limoncello curd,
a coriander and preserved lemon gel,
topped with torched
Italian coconut meringue.
It's designed to be eaten with your hands, so go for it.
I've got a real issue with this right now, I have a bit of a problem.
And that's I've got to put it down!
That is stunning!
Beautiful parfait.
It's smooth,
it's citrusy,
it's got a little bit of booze in there,
it's got a touch of meringue.
The biscuit is melt in the mouth.
I'd say that's probably your best dish so far in this competition.
KASAE LAUGHS
That gel you've put across there is really strong lemon with coriander.
It's almost getting into a savoury stripe.
That is a delightful, clever, but also elegant dish.
Well done, you. Thank you.
To take something as simple as a lemon slice and to elevate it,
put your twist on it and then sell us that story,
can be very hard to achieve, but you've nailed it.
Delightful!
I'd like a second one, please!
And say hi to Nan next time you speak to her!
Thank you.
When Marcus said that he had a real problem with this dessert,
I was like, "Oh, my God, here it comes, get ready!"
And then he loved it.
And then Monica finished it.
And that was just
a 180 on emotions.
Tom's last dish on Earth is scallop cooked three ways.
A ceviche with mango, finger lime,
pickled shallots,
garnished with chilli
and salmon roe.
A roasted scallop served with Jerusalem artichoke puree,
lime-infused artichoke crisps
and marigold oil.
And a crispy pastry cylinder filled
with buttermilk mousse,
charred Jerusalem artichoke
and raw scallop.
Your cooked scallop, beautifully pan-roasted there.
It's just right.
Such a smooth Jerusalem artichoke puree in there.
You've got a bit of lime juice on the crispy artichoke there.
It is a bit like a salt and vinegar crisp.
Ceviche, I like the execution of it.
I like the finger lime, I like the pickled little shallots
and the chilli as well.
And it all works.
I love the scallop with the artichoke,
I love the ceviche. I'm not sure about this crispy pastry tube.
Me, like you, I'm a scallop lover, so I can admire the work.
I don't taste scallop in there at all.
I think that's a bit of a shame.
I sort of did it as I practised it.
I think the feedback was definitely correct.
You know, I think my grandad would be proud.
Inspired by his nan's love of crab,
Kyle has served white crab under a dome
of pickled kohlrabi,
ajo blanco sauce,
pickled grapes, garnished with caviar and creme fraiche.
His pot of brown crab emulsion
is sitting on a layer of apple jelly
and is topped with caviar and creme fraiche,
served with a yoghurt flatbread.
It's without doubt, a celebration of crab. Wow!
I really like the way you've done this beautiful play of the white
crab meat with the pickled kohlrabi.
The ajo blanco is fantastic.
Love the vinegar in it,
the bread, the almonds.
Delicious.
Love, the sweet acidity of it.
I like it - I like it a lot.
I love seeing chefs use the brown crab meat.
Yes, the apple jelly has melted a bit, but it's got the sweetness
which it needs so much, because it's a very salty little pot.
And then, of course, you can use the bread to dip into either one of them.
The dishes work well together.
I can't keep my spoon out of either bowl.
Quite different and delicious.
You said it was important to you that you got
this right today. Yeah.
Did you get it right? I think so, yeah.
Inspired by her passion for Southern fried chicken,
Cecily's cooked crispy spiced buttermilk chicken wings
stuffed with a chicken and chipotle mousse,
served with creamy mashed potato,
charred corn, corn puree,
a cucumber pickle
and a chicken gravy.
Wonderful chicken.
It's really lovely and moist.
It's a crispy skin - that's highly seasoned.
Love the chipotle in the middle, because it leaves you with heat,
but it starts almost with a sweetness to it.
A word of caution,
if you put crispy on top of wet mashed potato,
you're going to lose the crisp.
Love the crunchy sweetcorn - been slightly charred.
Gravy, it sits on the side as a secondary flavour.
It's not too strong,
it's not too bold, but it works.
The pickling of the cucumbers, a bit of sharpness that cuts
through all the richness on this plate.
But the sweetcorn puree,
it's sort of a bit lost under the sauce.
It looked good on the plate and it looked how I wanted it to.
I think my dad would have enjoyed that dish,
so that's good.
Just how good are these four?
Getting rid of one of them - that's hard.
There seemed to be one dish that all three of us
couldn't get enough of.
Kasae and her lemon parfait sandwich.
The limoncello and coriander gel over the top and then
the charred meringue - delightful.
It was a brilliant dish, it was a point of genius,
it was fantastic. Point of genius?
See, that's a stamp of approval.
Kasae, brilliant today, goes through to the semifinal with Philippe.
Now, of course, we've got to discuss the merits of Cecily, Kyle and Tom.
Kyle gave us two crab dishes - one of white crab meat,
one of brown crab meat.
Incredibly creative.
He had the ajo blanco,
the Spanish soup made from almonds.
It was lovely.
So the brown crab with the apple jelly and the caviar on top
was a delight and a luxury.
The execution and the presentation of both dishes were fantastic.
Can we put Kyle through? Sure, absolutely.
I'm happy for Kyle to go through.
Tom was trying hard.
I thought the star of the three plates were, without doubt,
the artichoke puree with the scallop on top.
That was delicious - the puree was so smooth as well.
I also enjoyed the ceviche. I like that he had the finger lime
that cut through the sweetness of the mango really well.
The pastry tube was delicious, the artichoke puree was fantastic.
But the raw scallop he put into it was completely lost.
Cecily and her fried chicken?
She gave us a really tasty, crispy chicken wing,
but the corn puree was completely lost on there.
And maybe I want my fried chicken dry,
not sitting on top of mashed potato.
It's now Tom or Cecily.
Whose dish did you enjoy eating?
But also, who's showing the skill?
Well, I mean, that's a big question.
The more I do, the more I want to get further.
But, yeah, let's see.
I do want to get through, it's been my life obsession
right now, it's all I'm doing.
But no-one has a smooth run at it, so I guess
we'll just have to wait and see.
What we saw today was four chefs
that had a meaning and a real place in the MasterChef kitchen,
and it is really sad to have to say goodbye to one of you.
All four of you should be incredibly proud of what you've achieved.
There was one standout, one standout
that we actually almost licked
the plate clean.
The first chef joining Philippe
in the semifinal is Kasae.
Congratulations.
Just a wonderful dish!
There is room for two more of you to go through to the semifinal,
and, of course, one of you is leaving us.
The chef leaving the competition is...
...Cecily. Thank you very much.
Cecily, you are a great chef
and I wish you the best of luck
in all that you do.
Thank you very much.
I've felt like I've learned a lot and I feel like I've
got better as a chef.
I think it's just given me a little bit more confidence
to really push myself out there.
Congratulations! Semifinals, well done! Semifinals!
Hey! Thank you.
The fact I'm in the semis now is just a massive deal to me.
I just didn't expect to be here, and now I am,
I just, I just want more.
This was the uplift and spark I needed, so I just want
to keep pushing forward.
It only gets harder from here,
so I'm going to have to bring my A-plus plus game!
Next time, it's the semifinals...
...and the best eight chefs are back...
Unusual. whoa!
It's like a blue cheese!
...to battle for the chance to work under some
of the country's most inspirational chefs.
Just make sure they're the best you can do, yeah?
I am so here for it, this is fire!
BANG Oh!