It's the penultimate Professional MasterChef.
After weeks of competition,
Tom, Kasae and Tommy
have made it to the final three.
Tonight...
...their culinary minds are blown,
cooking in the world's most daring and provocative restaurant.
I think this competition has to be
the biggest thing that I've ever done.
The amount of stress and anxiety and sweat.
Yeah, it's huge.
I've never won anything before.
So to be part of the final three on MasterChef,
you know, it's fantastic.
I've worked so hard to get here.
The fact that I am here, it's just a really good feeling.
It's just nice to know that my hard work has paid off.
These chefs have got determination.
They have passion and drive.
And they will need that in abundance
to deal with what's around the corner.
Copenhagen,
capital of Denmark.
Population, just 650,000.
With its vibrant and ever-growing food scene,
for the past 15 years, it has also been home
to some of the greatest restaurants in the world.
Now, joining this extraordinary lineage...
...is Alchemist...
...brainchild of 32-year-old visionary chef Rasmus Munk.
When Alchemist started, we wanted to do something that was different,
creating a space that's more than just a restaurant.
It's what could be the future of fine dining.
It could be the craziest restaurant, if everything was possible.
An old shipyard building in an industrial region of Copenhagen
became the unlikely location
for Rasmus to build his dream restaurant.
The colossal space was the perfect blank canvas to create an experience
that encompasses art, science and food
into what Rasmus calls holistic cuisine.
Holistic cuisine, it is to look at the whole thing
instead of just the food itself.
So we need to be very much beyond a food and restaurant experience.
In the process of doing that, I have a strong belief
that you can create a change in the world through gastronomy.
The main dining room is inspired by a giant planetarium
where guests are served up to 50 dishes, or impressions.
We call everything that we serve here impressions
because we wanted to show that it's possible to also do other things
than just food in the experience.
Each impression has a story to tell...
...and is designed to get the diner thinking
about everything from blood donation
to animal welfare...
...and the environment.
Food is a way to bring people together.
It's also a way to talk about the big problems in the world.
Within months of opening, it was awarded two Michelin stars
and was recently named the fifth best restaurant in the world.
I wanted to do something that I truly believe can go out
and have an impact in the world,
and hopefully one day we can look back
and say we actually did make a change.
Being in Copenhagen now is just really amazing.
I've always wanted to come here.
To get the experience to cook in this restaurant is mind-blowing.
It's like one of the best restaurants in the world.
The standard is going to be obviously really high.
I'm just going to sort of give it my all, try my hardest,
and try and soak up as much information as I can.
Definitely going to be unlike any other kitchen I've ever been in.
I can't even begin to think what we're going to experience
while we're there.
Strap yourselves in, ladies.
FEMALE VOICE: Who are you? Oh, wow.
Who are you, really?
How do you see yourself?
Who do you look up to?
To let three chefs in from outside, it's going to be exciting.
Normally when we have chefs here,
they may be here for three, four months, nearly a half year
to do some of the dishes.
I'm a little bit nervous. I hope they will succeed.
There are two ways of spreading light.
To be the candle
or the mirror that reflects it.
Good morning. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Rasmus.
Nice to meet you. Lovely to meet you. How are you?
Yeah. Wow, that was very cool. LAUGHTER
And welcome to Alchemist.
So you've just been through one of our artistic installations.
I hope the next couple of days will open your eyes
to what food also can be,
and that you can convey messages into our society
and have a great impact.
Let's get started.
The impressions on the menu
are developed in the test kitchen,
filled with state-of-the-art scientific equipment
from 3D printers to sound wave machines.
Some of our processes take one to two years to develop some dishes.
So there's dishes that have been ongoing for two years
and it's not on the menu yet.
To help the contestants understand his philosophy,
Rasmus has chosen three impressions to show them in a masterclass -
the first of which is the perfect omelette.
The omelette, and the idea about it, was we went to a lot of hotels,
got a lot of bad omelettes,
and wanted to try to see how we could make the perfect one.
A 3D printed mould is used to create an ice cube
in the shape of a small omelette and dipped into an egg mixture,
which, once set, becomes a thin membrane.
And then we defrost the ice cube, poke a little hole into it,
let the water run out, fill it up with this espuma of the eggs.
It's quite a hard technique.
The espuma foam filling, flavoured with Comte cheese,
must be piped into the delicate membrane without bursting it.
Perfect Omelette has been maybe the most challenging dish to make.
It is a dish that even here, like, with our stuff, is quite hard.
It looks like the membrane's very, very easy to break.
It's probably the most sensitive dish we have.
A wafer thin slice of pancetta dotted with black truffle
is placed on top.
And you need to manage to do this for a table of four
before this one is getting cold.
And then we have this small heat gun here.
So actually, through service, we heat it up a little bit,
the pancetta on the top.
The plate is heated to exactly 32 degrees
to maintain the perfect temperature of the omelette.
If it's too hot it will break,
but it will also melt the foam too much.
The viscosity will change
and you will not have the same kind of experience.
So many factors to get it to where it is now. Yes.
So this is it. This is our adaptation of a perfect omelette.
I remember when Ferran was here.
Didn't say anything for the first five appetisers,
and then he gets the omelette,
and then he takes my hand and says, "Perfecto”.
I went out to the kitchen and said, "At least there's one thing
"he really, really likes."
Amazing. Blown away just looking at it.
Let's see when you taste it. THEY LAUGH
That is so good. Yeah, it's really nice. Mm.
That's delicious. It's almost like cheesy.
I could have that for breakfast every day. Yeah!
That was just amazing.
The amount of technique gone into that dish.
My mind's blown already, so...!
While some impressions are devised to comfort the diner,
others are designed to be more challenging.
We call this one Plastic Fantastic.
The inspiration for the dish was this report from the Danish
Technology Institute that 29% of all Danish cod
was filled with micro plastic. It's a major problem.
It makes you wonder, like that's a fact that everyone's publishing
and talking about, it makes you wonder about the rest
of what we're eating and what's in it. Yeah, exactly.
In line with Rasmus's mission to minimise waste,
the cut of cod used for the dish is the jaw.
For me, this is quite a beautiful piece of meat, and it's so tender.
Do you serve it with the teeth on it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Very cool.
We are taking the sharp parts a little bit away,
cos we serve it also on the bone.
So you have this feeling of actually eating from the jaw itself.
You must get loads of cod heads in a week, then.
Yeah, we get a lot every week. Like, one week, we got a ton.
The jawbones are brined in salt,
then cooked at 62 degrees for two hours
before being brushed with bone marrow and cooked on the grill.
When you grill it, you just have to be super careful
that it doesn't get too much colour underneath
and it doesn't stick as well.
When they're sticking and you're trying to remove them,
they're just going to fall apart.
The jaw is topped with pickled shallots...
Get a little drop of acidity into it.
...as well as a gel flavoured with bay leaf,
and a slice of Comte cheese,
before being blow-torched.
It can easily begin to caramelise on the sides,
so it needs to be kind of gratinated without getting any colour.
The dish is finished with the most challenging element of all -
edible plastic.
There's two types of plastic. One is made of potato starch.
So this one is a little bit hard and more crunchy.
The other one is made of the collagen from the cod skin.
This one is more soft,
and will have this, like, plastic texture.
It feels like plastic when you get it in your mouth.
It will change and it will dissolve very slowly,
but you have a couple of seconds
where you feel like this is not pleasant,
and then it will turn into hopefully some good flavours and textures.
Getting the guests to eat this plastic,
maybe get shocked and a little bit surprised,
and hopefully get diners' attention
from around the world and generate some impact.
So that's our interpretation of what we call Plastic Fantastic.
It looks fantastic. Thank you.
And plastic!
Wow.
That's so nice.
When you go to eat it, it's quite like, "Oh, this is odd."
And then it sort of melts in the mouth and it's really pleasant.
It finishes like... It's just delicious, to be fair, yeah.
It's really cool.
I think the message that comes across with the dishes
is probably the most fascinating thing,
that 29% of the cod has plastic in it.
It's a very confronting and uncomfortable thought
to also be paired with a very comforting piece of food.
It's very bizarre.
The final impression of the masterclass
is possibly the most provocative dish on the menu.
The caged chicken is a dish
that we wanted to put focus on animal welfare
and how we treat animals.
70% of all living animals with wings is, in some way, trapped in cages.
So we wanted to illustrate that, so literally in front of the guests,
they need to kind of free this chicken from the cages.
The meat from the leg is turned into a farce,
combined with prawns and Thai basil,
and has to be carefully piped back into the skin
without tearing it.
This, of course, chicken had an amazing life
from a little farm in Denmark.
Once the feet are steamed at 80 degrees for ten minutes...
I've never seen a chicken foot look so attractive, almost.
LAUGHTER
...they are dipped in corn-starch, ready for frying.
And then we made this custom made chicken holder.
It almost looks a little bit funny with their feet sticking up.
The crispy chicken is then glazed
in a Korean style sweet and sour sauce.
A lot of the dishes we do here,
it's very temperature sensitive.
In the cooking process,
we are making sure that this is still cold,
so you still have this feeling of having something that's burning hot
on the top and then you're sitting with this cold, dead feet.
The final stage is to coat the sauce in a mixture of roasted potato,
vinegar powder, roasted shrimp powder and chives.
This is the dish where, like, a lot of people get a lot of reaction.
This is the thing that's getting a lot of people actually to cry
in the evening, but also to take action when they come home.
And I think that's quite interesting.
So this is our interpretation of the caged chicken.
It looks awesome. It does look very cool.
It tells a story just by looking at it, doesn't it?
I don't understand how it can be so confronting, but so tasty,
and so familiar, but so weird.
That dish was just gorgeous.
All the different contrasting flavours,
proper eye-opening experience, like, what you can actually do with food.
It's just so creative and exciting.
So now you've seen some of our dishes here at Alchemist,
and I would like you to cook one for me now.
I made a little surprise for you upstairs,
so let's take a look at it.
Yes, Chef. Let's go.
The guests at Alchemist spend most of the experience
in one of the most unique dining spaces
of any restaurant in the world.
So, welcome to the main dining room. So, this is the dome.
Ten state-of-the-art projectors
are perfectly aligned around the dome
to create three dimensional images above the diners' heads
throughout the meal...
That's so impressive.
...with each projection relating to one of the impressions on the menu.
Very, very cool.
I think the only cultural memory I have as a kid
was to go to the planetarium.
I was, like, from that day on, if I ever get my own restaurant
and become a millionaire, I will build this.
I didn't become a millionaire - I found a partner -
but it's inspired by a planetarium.
I could look at it all day. Literally.
So, I've prepared some ingredients for you in the middle,
so let's go take a look at it.
Rasmus has selected ingredients
that are often considered waste animal products,
as well as some invasive species
for the contestants to use when designing their dish.
Oh, my God.
What's this? It's the windpipes of a pig. OK.
It's also amazing, like, texture-wise.
And this? This is a cow's udder,
kind of like cheesy in the flavour,
so we fry it up, or, like, steam it.
And this one is chicken blood.
You can use it maybe for emulsifying sauces.
There's a lamb brain,
which, for me, is, like, amazing if you just fry it on the pan.
All of this is actually discarded ingredients
they can't sell in the supermarket,
but it's still very, very beautiful things.
There's this invasive gig as oysters.
They attach to each other and become these big rocks
that you can't really sell this in a shop.
But there's like five, six, seven oysters in this one.
Then we have a little bit of moon jellyfish here.
A really amazing texture. So interesting.
Be bold, be creative.
Good luck. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chef.
You're welcome. See you soon.
This is like nothing that I've ever seen before. I'm lost.
It was never just going to be
a nice, perfect little cod loin on the bench.
I feel like it's so hard
to think of how you can be bold and brave for Rasmus. Mm.
Like, he must be one of the most bold and brave chefs.
That's very true.
I've never really eaten tongue before.
Hopefully it's nice.
I'm sure... I'm sure it is if it's on this table.
Rasmus is also asking the contestants to have a story
behind the dish they are creating.
I'm trying to really dig deep to figure something out here.
I really want to try and hit the story.
That's a big part of what he does,
so I kind of want to go down that route.
The chefs now have access to the service kitchen
and have one hour to create a dish for Rasmus.
How the hell does this work?
Tommy is starting off by prepping some of the more unusual
ingredients he's selected.
Yeah, I've never seen a windpipe before.
I'm thinking of just confiting them slowly in some oil.
It's a very weird texture. It's quite interesting.
So I'm quite keen to see how that goes, to be fair.
I've got my pig's ear,
which I'm going to get nice and crispy in a pan,
and then I've got my pig's tongue,
which has been braised.
It's almost like corned beef.
I've got the pig's windpipe and the tongue
and I'm sort of going to do, like,
a bit of a classic British combination
of, like, pork, celeriac and apple.
For his celeriac elements,
Tom is making a puree,
some thinly sliced fried celeriac...
This is very stressful.
...and in an attempt to reduce waste,
he's using the celeriac peelings to make his sauce.
I'm trying something new today.
I don't really have an option but try something new, to be fair.
Kasae has also decided to use the pig's windpipe
for her dish.
So, the concept is a croquette,
and I'm filling it with cheese and onion bechamel.
So, the story is I had someone very close to me that passed away
from oesophagus cancer.
And he never smoked,
he never drank alcohol.
But still, just from, like, the everyday things
that we're putting into our bodies,
we're still getting very sick, you know?
I'm going to panne these pig's tongue in an airbag,
which is kind of like crispy pork skin, basically.
Tommy's also been thinking about the story behind his dish.
The title of the dish is What Lies Beneath.
So it's kind of like things may look pretty on the outside, you know,
but as you dive in deeper and find out a bit more,
it's actually more revealing and could be quite, you know, ugly.
It's pig's ear, windpipe and tongue, you know?
It'L be under control in a few minutes.
Right now I'm stressed with a capital S.
Tom has been busy frying celeriac
and has chosen to smoke his celeriac puree...
I don't want to serve him anything rubbish,
so I'm just trying to make sure it's all nice.
...while Kasae is filling the windpipes
with a cheese and onion bechamel
and coating them in breadcrumbs.
What's even going on?
Nobody knows.
I'm very excited to see what they came up with
and to see what story they have behind and the creativity.
HE HUMS
But, of course, that's a big challenge.
Within one hour to then produce a dish
and a concept is quite challenging,
so, yeah, I look forward to seeing what they get on the plate.
Tommy's first up to serve Rasmus.
To cook for one of the best chefs on the planet,
he's just been ranked number five in the world,
I'm really feeling the pressure.
I just want to make sure everything is really nice.
I kind of want to cover the pig as much as possible,
so it kind of links to the story. Otherwise it doesn't really work.
Hopefully, it's OK.
If it's OK, I'll be happy.
So, the dish is called What Lies Beneath.
So it sort of looks very pretty and elegant, if you will,
but as you dig deeper, the more sort of gruesome things you may find.
Tommy has served pig's ears coated in a sticky chicken
and tamarind sauce,
crispy pig's tongue and con fit windpipe,
a burnt apple puree
and kohlrabi fondant,
all covered with fresh apple,
pickled shallots,
poached apricots,
and rose petals.
If you didn't know it was pig ears
and, like, windpipes and the tongue...
...you'd probably not notice, because it tastes really good.
It's quite nice with the pig ears, like, with the texture
and the glazing.
Really deep flavour.
And also the tongue,
you still have this very tender but have also the crispy outside
so it gives a lot of crispiness to it.
The windpipe's still a crunchy texture,
but with a salty bite to it.
The fresh apples and the kohlrabi, and then the pickled things,
the apricots, I think it's quite balanced.
A really interesting dish.
Thank you.
It's been a really amazing experience
just cooking in this kitchen for you. I felt the pressure.
You know, obviously a chef of your calibre is quite scary,
so I really didn't want to look silly.
Not at all. But thank you for trying my food.
I really appreciate it. It was a pleasure.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you, Chef.
That was cool.
Yeah, it was definitely an overwhelming experience
sitting down one-on-one with him,
but I feel like he enjoyed the dish,
which is amazing.
Next to serve is Tom.
It's quite hard to come up with a dish in an hour.
I'm the sort of person that likes to, like, meticulously plan
and just do everything, like, a hundred times before I confirm it,
so it's been quite tricky for me.
I'm shaking like a leaf.
Oh, my God.
I'm just finishing it with a little parsley oil
and then just a bit of fresh apple.
Yeah, it looks OK. It looks a bit messy,
but it all tastes really nice.
Hopefully he likes it, but you never know.
How are you? Yeah, I was a bit stressed in there.
A bit stressed in there.
Tom has served diced pig's tongue fried in thyme butter
on a smoked celeriac puree with crispy celeriac,
pickled and fresh apple,
a parsley oil and a celeriac skin sauce.
I wanted to do a little bit of a take on sort of an English classic,
which is, like, celeriac, apple and pork.
When I was younger, I used to love, like, a Sunday dinner,
but I'm not the biggest fan of, like, chicken and turkey.
I'd rather the pork. OK, cool.
So I used to smother it with apple sauce, you know.
Yeah. I'd probably have more apple sauce than pork.
It's quite tasty, yeah. Is it?
Yeah. Really? It's very good.
The tongue is so tender.
Really, really nice.
It's a nice way to use the whole ingredient, to use the celeriac,
the caramelised skin for the sauce, and to use the peel here
that you've cut very fine and then fried,
you get another very good texture to it.
I think the story for me, it's nice to have some memories within.
You can taste that and feel that.
It's a very good Sunday roast, this one.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
I've always, like, struggled with confidence with all of this,
but I should really open my eyes and see where I am right now.
The food is quite delicious.
You don't need to be nervous.
Thank you.
That was a pretty dramatic moment.
Sitting down next to him, having a little chat
and him trying my food is pretty epic.
I just can't wait to see what else we learn here.
Last to serve Rasmus is Kasae.
I'm not going to lie to you,
I've never, ever cooked windpipe before.
Her final job is to deep-fry her croquettes.
I thought they might split, but they haven't split.
Yeah, I'm happy with the look of it.
I can feel my legs literally shaking.
So, yeah, I'd say my body knows that I'm nervous,
but I'm hoping that I'm having a bit of a tough exterior.
Kasae chose to make a pig's windpipe croquette
filled with a cheese and onion bechamel,
topped with a burnt onion gel,
pickled windpipe and cucumber,
with a mixed berry compote
and a chicken butter jus.
I had someone very close to me a few years ago pass away
from oesophagus cancer.
He was a very healthy guy, but yet just every day lifestyle choices
still contributed in the end.
That's a really good dish. I like this.
The windpipe, the texture is quite challenging
and it tastes really, really good.
The cheese and onion, the bechamel,
to get that texture right, it's a very good skill.
It's very interesting. Also very daring.
I really also love the story of it.
I think that's very personal and very touching
and it tastes really, really good.
Thank you for sort of showing us what's happening here
and what you're about.
To actually be here and see it
and to hear the story behind what you're doing
and why you're doing it,
it's so much more powerful.
Thank you. Pleasure to have you. Thank you. Thank you, Chef.
I feel really good.
I'm definitely proud of myself for what I put up.
He's always been someone that I've looked up to in my career
as a chef, what he does, but now that I've met him,
I think it just makes me look up to him even more,
which I didn't know was possible,
because I was already a bit of a fan, to be honest!
The first day is over,
but tomorrow the contestants will return
to face the biggest challenge of their careers.
It's been a whirlwind of a day.
What these guys are trying to achieve
and the way they're looking at food is completely different
to how I've just worked in any other kitchen before.
It's opened up sort of another dimension into my food knowledge,
if you will.
Today was way more than what I expected it could have been.
I think definitely today I'm going to go and get an early night
and be ready for what's going to be thrown our way.
This has been a really big day for me.
It was just, like, full of new experiences.
Coming to places like this,
is just, like, just a massive eye-opener
and I've taken a lot from today.
They have bigger challenges ahead.
I think it's going to be very interesting to see
how they will deliver some of these dishes.
It's going to be a very exciting day tomorrow.
It's day two...
...and Kasae, Tom, and Tommy
are back at the two Michelin-starred Alchemist.
They have been invited to join Rasmus's elite brigade...
...of 50 front-of-house staff...
...and 25 chefs...
...for a once-in-a-lifetime service.
This is definitely intimidating.
I don't know what to expect.
Feels like a bit of an out-of-body experience, but I'm really excited.
I think it'll be a great day.
There really is nothing else like this.
This is probably one of the most exciting things
that I've done in a very, very long time.
The finalists will each be responsible
for two impressions on the menu.
Tom will be tasked with the perfect omelette
from yesterday's masterclass.
He's also taking charge of one of the seafood courses...
It's spiky, innit?
...the king crab tail.
So the idea and the concept about this dish is to put focus
on things that's normally just discarded.
When we started to separate the king crab,
we found this, like, flap.
And inside this flap it has a beautiful piece of meat.
So it actually looks like this when you take it out.
Oh, wow.
Once carefully removed from the shell,
the tail meat is filled with scallop,
langoustine and king crab farce...
I didn't even know they had, like, a tail like that, to be honest. No.
So it's really eye-opening to see.
...and placed on a slice of white bread.
After that, we will trim it down.
In service, Tom will have to master frying the bread to perfection
without over or under cooking the tail meat.
The meat is very sensitive, so if you get too much heat,
it will be not edible at all.
It'll be a kind of chewy and very unpleasant experience.
If you're too rough with it, you will break the skin
and then we cannot use it.
Should be ready now.
The bread is super nice, quite dark caramelisation.
Each tail is two portions
and will have to be perfectly cut in half.
So you kind of go slow.
When you can feel that you hit the bread...
Yeah.
The tail is finished with a tomato and saffron glaze
and served with a Chinese XO sauce made from the king crab shells.
This is like a very umami-filled, rich XO sauce.
And finally,
an espuma of tomato and saffron mayonnaise.
Looks lovely. It smells amazing, as well.
Oh, thank you.
Poshest crab on toast I've ever had.
That's delicious.
I've got the omelette, as well, so if they keep going wrong,
I've just got to sort of crack on, carry on trying,
but hopefully it's not too much of a mess.
Am I allowed to finish it? RASMUS LAUGHS
Tom's first task is to prepare 15 crab tails ready for service.
I think it's really clever how he sort of figured out
how to, like, use such, like, an off-cut piece of the crab.
You, like, snip away this flap,
and then there's, like, a thin layer of stuff
that you've got to take off, and then after that,
you, like, peel the meat off the shell. It's really cool.
Is that all right? Yeah, it's beautiful.
Tommy will be tasked with the caged chicken,
as well as Rasmus's version of an Asian dumpling.
It's inspired by my travels to Asia.
We wanted to create this dumpling,
but of course not make it traditional.
In an unusual twist, Tommy will be making the dumpling wrappers
out of candyfloss.
Have you ever made cotton candy before?
No. No? I've never seen this done, so... OK.
...I'm quite excited to try this. Yeah.
Bit nervous, as well.
A jelly with the flavours of a classic Thai dipping sauce
called nam jim is wrapped in thinly sliced kohlrabi and bok choy.
This protects the dumpling itself.
When shaping the dumpling...
Fold it over.
...Tommy will have to work fast and handle the candyfloss carefully,
or it will begin to dissolve in his fingers.
It's very important to get it, like, cut very nice and beautiful.
All right. So you kind of fold it like a dumpling.
Very cool. Not too much. And you can't have any wet fingers,
because if you get too hot, you can't fold this one.
And then we have a little bit of fresh lime zest
and it's just for the aroma.
And you check before it goes out that there's not any, like, holes
on the back side.
So that's our interpretation of a little Asian-inspired dumpling.
Very cool.
I can see how difficult that candyfloss is going to be,
with the humidity and the temperatures.
I'm scared.
First thing on Tommy's prep list...
Chicken foot time.
...is to prepare the chicken feet ready for stuffing.
So, just keeping the skin all intact is quite a challenge.
You've got to be careful, because you need to kind of like pull it
with tension, but not enough so that it rips.
This is definitely very fiddly.
The skin's very difficult to handle,
so I just want to make sure it's perfect.
It's a lot harder than it looks, for sure.
Kasae will be in charge of the Plastic Fantastic dish,
but she's starting with her prep for the dessert course,
the Andy Warhol Banana.
The dish itself is inspired by my culinary teacher.
He was quite a big fan of rock music
and had this album standing in the kitchen with this banana.
Later on I found out it was Andy Warhol
that made this beautiful art piece
for The Velvet Underground & Nico,
so we wanted to bring a little homage to him.
A screen-printing technique favoured by Andy Warhol himself
is used to create a crispy, edible banana skin.
It's a very sensitive dish
regarding touching it,
and it can easily break.
Kasae will have to gently heat the fragile banana skin
over a 3D-printed mould...
It's important when you do this, don't get too much heat,
so you don't get any, like, folds you don't want.
...50 it can be pressed into shape.
We're going to show you how to fill up the banana,
which is also a little bit tricky
because its walls are sensitive and thin. Mm-hm.
So I need to have not any shaking hands when you do it in service.
The first filling is a banana ice cream.
You don't want to overfill it.
Followed by five other condiments,
including jasmine-flavoured Italian meringue...
You just want to pipe carefully.
...an eqgg yolk caramel...
Pipe that in a nice zigzag pattern.
...and three different flavoured gels - con fit lemon,
tonka bean, and cachaca, a Brazilian alcoholic spirit.
If you overfill it
you will see, like, things coming out from the sides
and, like, that's not good and then we will send it back.
You can turn the plate a little bit
and then we need to place it as the same way
that the banana is showed on the album.
I mean, the technique from all of that,
of everything that goes into it,
to the plating of it is pretty intense.
Yeah, for a little banana, it's a lot of work.
Kasae is kicking off with the banana skins...
...50 they can set in time for service.
The black layer is screen-printed first...
I can't say I know a lot of Andy Warhol,
but I think I'm becoming more of a fan as I go through.
...followed by the banana-flavoured yellow layer.
The banana needs to look like a banana.
It needs to look identical to the album cover.
Nice, you're doing a good job. When can you start?
On the other side of the kitchen,
Tom is filling the last of his crab tails with the seafood farce.
So I've piped my farce into the crab tail
that's been, like, butterflied out,
and now I'm just flapping my flaps back over
to keep all the mousse in.
They're quite literally bum flaps, aren't they?
He can now concentrate on one of the most technically challenging
elements on the menu -
the perfect omelette.
It's quite scary.
You're sort of pushing your hand right into a spike,
so I'm a bit terrified right now.
TOM GASPS
That was close.
The dangers of two Michelin.
Once the frozen moulds are coated in egg yolk,
they can be transferred into filtered water to set.
It's really clever.
I hope it's exactly the same as Rasmus's.
"Rasmus's" is a hard one to say.
Tommy's chicken feet are wrapped and ready for steaming,
but he still has to make his nam jim jelly for the candyfloss dumpling.
I'm smashing all of my coriander root,
basil, garlic and chilli.
It's quite satisfying. Smells amazing.
He also needs to make his Korean sweet and sour sauce.
So this is the coating around the chicken leg.
There's definitely a lot to do,
so I feel like I need to move a little bit, to be fair.
I have not done anything with a fish head before,
so I'm a little bit scared. This side.
Go in here first? Yes.
It's a little bit fiddly.
The teeth are quite sharp.
It's pretty messy, but it's good fun.
It's not an easy thing to do the job for the first time. Yeah.
When people start on my section,
it takes maybe a month before they, like, really crack the code.
Exactly.
Super good.
Then you just cut it off.
Yes.
Perfect.
There's just one hour before service begins,
and, outside, the specially invited guests are beginning to arrive.
Oh.
This is the ultimate dream of a young chef,
to even set foot in a kitchen like this.
My mind is blown just walking through the entrance.
Now my expectations have been set.
Rasmus is still a young chef, but he's brave and he's a visionary,
and he is daring to push boundaries.
What are our chefs going through right now?
I mean, what a brilliant opportunity to learn
from somebody completely original.
Which one of our chefs is going to take the most
out of this experience?
Who can lift their food up to the next level?
And there's no better place to learn than a restaurant like this.
While Rasmus's team serve the first impressions of the evening
from the test kitchen,
upstairs in the service kitchen,
the contestants are making their final preparations.
The moulds have melted and all that's left is this, like, membrane
on the outside.
This is a delicate job.
You don't want to squeeze it too hard
and then it obviously will explode.
It's like popping a big spot.
Now I'm prepping the kohlrabi,
so this is sort of what holds everything together
within the candyfloss.
So it's really important that it's all consistently
the same thickness.
So I'm just taking my time, making sure they're all exactly the same.
I'm making the cheese gel
that's going to go with the cod jaw.
It just feels like a lot of pressure in this kitchen,
that's for sure.
Prep time is over.
Oh! Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
Ooh!
No way!
We're in a rock pool.
An aquarium. We are in a rock pool.
You feel like you really are underneath the ocean, don't you?
And it's time for the contestants to get ready for service.
OK, we have the first order in. It's table 16.
We've got three omelettes, Tom. Yeah?
Oui. Oh, yes, tak.
Tom's first hurdle is to fill the delicate omelette membranes
with a cheese and egg espuma.
Oh. Already.
What do I do with the broken ones?
It's a shaky start as his first attempt has burst.
I've got pretty bad eyes as it is, so this is tricky,
finding where the hole is.
Is that right?
It looks good, huh?
He needs to work fast.
If the temperature drops too much,
it won't be the perfect consistency inside.
How long on the three omelettes, Tom?
Coming up in 20 seconds.
It's a good one, hey? Thank you so much.
Service. 16.
I think it went all right. I mean, it took me ages,
but I think it's never going to be quick.
It's a very challenging dish to make.
It may seem simple, that you just need to fill up this membrane,
but it's quite tough.
Tommy, we go with the first dumplings,
there's three dumplings on table 16, yeah? Yes, tak.
Tommy is next in the spotlight.
This is definitely a first for me. I've never done this before,
so I'm just trying to figure it all out as I'm going.
His biggest challenge will be handling the delicate candyfloss.
So, I'm going to punch like this. Punch.
And sealing a perfect pattern around the edge.
Pinch, pinch, pinch.
Like this? Try and close it all the way,
so you don't see the filling.
Compress, pinch, compress, pinch, compress, pinch.
They're very soft and fragile.
This one's really messy.
So I think unfortunately, Tommy,
you need to make three new ones. OK. Press a little bit more down
when you have made the sugar. So spin three more.
We discard these three and we make three new ones. Yes.
Thank you so much.
They weren't clean enough,
so I just need to get the technique down, make sure they're really nice.
They weren't quite up to par.
OK, Kasae, we're going three cod jaw on table 16, yeah?
To cook the cod jaw,
Kasae will be faced with the fierce heat of the charcoal grill.
So these guys can't get any colour on them at all.
But at the same time, they still have to be very, very hot.
I feel like my hands have been too much over the fire now.
I can't tell what's hot and what's not.
Speed is now of the essence
to finish the dish without the cod jaw going cold.
How long on the jaw, Kasae?
Two minutes, Chef. Two minutes?
She needs to melt the cheese without discolouring it...
When you see it starts to bubble,
then it's going to start to caramelise.
This looks very good, yeah?
...and quickly top the dish with the two types of edible plastic.
And then, Kasae, after these three cod jaw,
we're going four by four cod jaw, yeah?
Oui, Chef.
This looks very good.
Temperature is good, but let's get it a little bit faster now
so we can get them out very hot.
I think I'm slowly getting into the swing of it.
It definitely feels weird to be cooking one of his iconic dishes.
With dumplings being rejected...
This is so hard.
...Tommy needs to make sure his next attempt is up to scratch.
It's quite a tough technique.
It is quite a sensitive dish.
Ah!
And when you have not done it before,
you have the pressure, as well.
TOMMY CHUCKLES It's super fragile.
It can be quite intense.
It's literally melting in my hand,
so every touch is really changing the shape of it.
We need to take the cutter here... Mm-hm.
...and get it a little bit more sharpened... OK.
...on the edges.
I need you to send it out now, so it doesn't melt in the sides.
Yes, Chef.
Then we go with four more now. Yeah, OK. Thank you so much.
Getting the technique down,
it's very difficult, very sensitive.
I'm trying to get my head around it.
Oh, man, this is going bad.
So, Tom, you have four by four by two omelettes.
Yes, tak.
Tom is now in the thick of service.
I've got the shakes big time.
And the pressure is starting to show.
I can't do it. My hands are shaking.
It's even better than last time, yeah? OK. Keep up that. OK.
There's just a few omelettes left to serve,
and it's the final chance to master the dish.
I'm just starting to understand how you wiggle your finger
in the hole.
You can get a job here. Thank you, Chef.
That's very good.
That's two omelettes for table 11, two omelettes for table 12.
And then we have two omelettes for table 18, yeah, you know?
Very good job. Thank you. It looked very great.
Thank you. You nailed one of the hardest ones to do
here at Alchemist.
Now get ready for the king crab, yeah? Yeah, oui. Fantastic.
I think it went all right. I was a bit shaky at the start.
I think I popped, like, three,
so I mean, for them, that's probably quite a few.
But I think for me that's pretty good going, I'd say.
That's amazing. The merest touch and it'll burst.
When you bite into it, you get almost like a custard feel
and it's salty and cheesy.
Technically, it's full of complexity that I'm sure has tested Tom
to his maximum.
What a way to start a service.
Tommy, we're going on four dumpling on 21
followed by four dumpling on 18. Yes, Chef.
I've got one of my guys, Ivan,
he will come and help you with preparing eight dumplings.
Yes, Chef.
Tommy now has to keep up with Ivan
as they each have a table of four to complete.
I'm not getting any better at this, which is a worry.
It's pretty tough, I'm not going to lie.
Well, I got a hole in one of these.
Maybe it was too thin. I'm not really too sure.
It feels like it's just melting as I'm doing it.
I can't get my head around it.
Yeah, he's done that beautifully.
He's made it look too easy.
It's very annoying.
THEY LAUGH
Tommy, these two dumplings you make now
is the last dumpling for tonight.
Give it a good push, yeah? Make the best one you can.
Yes, tak.
Slowly getting my head around the technique a little bit.
I'm happy with that.
It's just if Chef's happy with it, that's the main thing.
It's very nice. It's the best one.
It's very good, this one. Thank you.
Very good job. Thanks, Chef. Thank you.
That was hard.
I think I need to do this for, like, six days at least
to get any good at it.
Extraordinary.
Biting into candyfloss and then Thai green curry?
That is as delicious as it is clever.
There's no two ways about it,
he's had a job on his hands to get this right.
The complexity of it is scary.
How Rasmus dreams this stuff up,
I honestly can't imagine.
It's been a solid start for Kasae,
but she now has multiple tables to juggle.
She's quite a fast learner.
It seems like she's very focused on it. That's the key.
And it's a good pace on it, so it's a very good job, yeah.
I'm trying to be fast,
otherwise the ones on the grill might burn
and the ones that are here will be too cold to serve.
Service here, thank you.
That's the last job. Last job. Very good job, yeah?
Thank you, Chef. Good. Cheers.
Let's get ready for the banana. Oui. Thank you.
When you first put that plastic in your mouth, it feels like that,
like you're chewing on a plastic bag.
It tastes great at the end, but that is uncomfortable to eat
at the start. And it's supposed to be, isn't it?
Rasmus has used the jaw.
It's again showcasing
that there's so much more that can be used that shouldn't be wasted.
That is genius.
It's halfway through service,
and while the contestants get ready for their next impressions,
Rasmus has a special surprise in store for the judges.
It's me! What?! Hang on, what have we got here?
Hold on, hold on, are we eating ourselves?
RASMUS: You're eating yourself now, yeah.
And so you just take the chips of the Jerusalem artichokes
and dip it into yourself.
No?! MARCUS: Chips and then dip, yeah?
How do you taste? I taste like a Jerusalem artichoke, actually.
What a bit of fun that is.
Back in the kitchen,
service is in full swing...
...and Tom is working multiple king crab dishes at once.
You've got to get the heat into the farce, but not burn the toast.
Take a look underneath.
You can turn it up a little bit.
I don't think you can really relax in a kitchen like this.
Just got to try and not muck it up.
Tommy is getting ready with the caged chicken.
It's definitely a first for me, you know, working with chicken feet.
I'm cooking half of it and then half of it is sort of creeping out.
Four banana on table 21, Kasae, yeah? Yes, tak.
Kasae is attempting her first banana skin...
It's cracked.
I was doing so well and now I'm stressing.
This looks very sharp.
...while Tom's king crab is flying out of the kitchen.
It seems like you've got the rhythm now, Tom, yeah?
Yeah, I think I've got there now.
So, it's, like, crispy on the bottom side.
It's a beautiful glaze, it's a very hot temperature
and the sauce looks beautiful, yeah. Thank you.
Overall, it was, like, very nice to see your work
with the last omelette, and you nailed it
and got your head around how to do it.
With the king crab, like, you just completely smashed it.
So it was very nice to see. Thank you.
It's almost a pity it's over, cos it was just so enjoyable.
It was a massive eye-opener and I'm glad I did all right.
I don't know about you two, but after the first bite
I was thinking prawn toast.
It's got fishy, crabby flavour.
I love the crunchy bread.
I think the XO sauce is delicious - salty, sweet, sour.
What Tom will have got from this is precision.
After a tough start with the candyfloss dumpling,
Tommy has found his stride with the chicken dish.
Fantastic. Ready to go. There we go. Four by two, yeah?
Yes, Chef. Thank you.
I'm definitely preferring this one to the dumpling.
It's going very well. It looks very nice.
It's sharp when they come up and he seems more in control,
but also a little bit more belief in himself.
Last table now, so I'll make sure these are perfect.
Yeah, it's been fun. I've learnt a lot.
Last four chicken, yeah?
They look nice.
Two for table 11. Two for table four.
Last chicken out. All good.
Thank you so much. Thank you, Chef.
Chicken, I did the chicken.
That's good. I feel better now. HE LAUGHS
Oh!
That's a hellish vision, isn't it?
It's a prison.
It's an absolute prison.
This is a reality check of what we've been eating
for so many years.
Wow,
That's powerful.
This is now quite uncomfortable.
But that's the point, right?
That's the whole point, is to consider it.
You don't want to eat that now, do you? You're uncomfortable.
I am uncomfortable eating it, yeah.
But I appreciate what Rasmus is doing.
People need to be more aware of their food sources,
whether it be plastic in your fish or the way your meat is produced.
This is cooked and full of flavour.
Yet in my hand, I feel like I'm touching the raw claw
of a chicken.
That's the most thought-provoking thing
I've ever eaten in my life.
Service has almost come to an end,
and back on pastry...
So far, I've got two.
...Kasae is still struggling with the banana skins.
This one is very good.
This one, unfortunately, you can see the top here.
It's not good, so we're going to discard this one. Yes, Chef.
With so many not up to standard,
she's in danger of running out.
Be very careful when you take them up so it doesn't break. Oui.
And then we fill it up with the ice cream
and all the other condiments, yeah? Yes, Chef.
Kasae has to work fast to fill them...
I'm just really scared to break the banana, to be honest.
...before the dish starts to melt.
I thought I might find this one a little bit easier,
but I can't say that I am.
And we go with four more. Perfect. Yeah?
Fantastic.
It's your last banana?
Last banana.
Good job. Thank you, Chef.
The jaw you had, like, completely under control,
like, a little bit more struggling on the banana skin.
Yes. Yeah.
Honestly, it was so intimidating walking into the kitchen.
Hopefully you'll have me back one day.
You're more than welcome, more than welcome.
That was such an emotional roller-coaster.
Oh, my word.
The texture, caramel, sweetness, hint of banana.
Mm!
The skill is on a completely different level.
It's class, pure class.
I feel a bit weird now. I feel a bit sad.
I kind of don't want to go home now.
Just have a little glass of very good champagne to finish the day.
I was quite surprised, actually.
They managed it so well.
I definitely hope they got some inspiration from this experience.
I'm quite happy to see that this is a young generation
of chefs that's coming.
So cheers, everyone. ALL: Cheers!
And thank you.
This is, without doubt, the most amazing and creative
and thought-provoking restaurant I've ever been in.
I want some of this brilliance to have seeped into the DNA
of our chefs.
It was just, like, mind-blowing.
I feel like opportunities like this don't come around very often,
so I really tried to, like, seize the moment,
and I really feel like I did that.
I've come away with a lot more knowledge than I had
when I walked through the doors.
Being able to work with Rasmus and seeing how confident
he is at delivering his story...
...I think it's definitely given me a little bit more confidence.
It's just been the most amazing experience
and I want to finish on a high,
so the trophy is what I'm after.
I want that trophy more than anything.
One more challenge.
That's what we've got left before we crown our winner.
Who's got that star quality?
Who's got that magic?
KASAE: Did that actually just happen?
THEY LAUGH
Next time, it's the final of MasterChef: The Professionals.
This food has got to go beyond marvellous.
It has got to be mind-blowing.
This is it. I'm scared.
This is proper crunch time. Now focus.
Great.
Your attention to detail is exquisite.
I love it. Love it, love it, love it.
That is delicious.
MasterChef: The Professionals 2023 winner is...