From across the UK...
..32 up-and-coming chefs...
..are putting their reputations on the line
in a battle to become Professional MasterChef Champion.
Tonight, four new hopefuls compete to impress
MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace,
renowned chef Monica Galetti,
and culinary legend Marcus Wareing.
Today is one of the most important days of my life.
I just want to prove that I've got what it takes.
I'm very, very competitive.
Love the pressure, love the tension.
Very excited.
I want to go as far as I can
and enjoy the process, definitely.
I just want to show my love of food.
If the people who I'm cooking for enjoy it just as much as me,
then, yeah, I'm happy.
Who's got what it takes to set this competition alight?
It's time to uncover a new culinary superstar.
Right. We have got exciting talent to meet. First of all,
they are going to face a Skills Test.
Marcus, your Skills Test.
What are you going to get them to do?
I would like our chefs to cook for us
a aubergine steak glazed with miso and soy,
and served with a spicy peanut sauce.
I think this is a great challenge!
It's quite out there - aubergine, miso.
This has almost become a classic dish to enjoy dining out.
This sounds like another great example of the versatility
of plant-based cooking.
20 minutes. Go on, Marcus, show us how.
Right. So first thing we need to do is to get this aubergine cooking.
Straight in half. You've got to keep the skin on,
because it just holds it all together,
otherwise it's just going to fall to pieces.
By scoring it, that just allows all the flavours
and the juices to get into the heart of the aubergine.
A little bit of oil.
I'm just going to put that straight down into the pan.
Aubergine is a very watery vegetable
and you need to cook it the perfect way
that you can still retain some of that moisture
and not completely dry it up.
What I wanted to do at this particular stage
was just get that colour.
So, now I can put into my pan a little bit of stock.
Miso.
A bit of mirin, rice wine,
and the soy sauce.
The aubergine's going to steam in all of the flavours
and that's going to become the glaze
that's going to finish the dish.
It's the miso that gives it real body
and it gives it that sort of meaty flavour.
Just going to cover this, a little cartouche,
a little bit of greaseproof,
and that's just going to gently just cook away.
What you'll notice is the aubergine will start to just gently sink down,
become a little bit flat.
Once you get to that soft stage,
then that's pretty much when you're there.
I'd like to think our chefs
give the aubergine time to cook.
I don't want rare aubergine.
Well... Or it'll cook too much, it'll just go to mush.
We'll have an aubergine sauce.
So, now I'm going to start to make my spicy peanut sauce.
So I've got a head of ginger, which I've peeled and chopped up.
A couple of cloves of garlic.
Chilli.
I'm going to make a paste.
Ginger, garlic, chilli - I mean, it's a base
of some great flavoured sauces and dishes, isn't it?
So, curries... Mm!
My pan is warming up and so into that I'm going to put chilli, cumin,
cinnamon, ground coriander...
Lovely! ..and a little bit of turmeric.
Spices into a dry pan and let the oils come out of them, right?
That's how you get the best flavour out of them.
There's no point in sprinkling them in at the end.
In there, peanut butter.
Good spoon of that.
So, the peanuts, the chefs can put them in the satay sauce
if they wish.
But I've just used the peanut butter,
which I think is perfect for that type of sauce.
Your ginger garlic mix.
Now you can start to smell it.
Beautiful.
Now in with some coconut milk.
We've got a little bit of sweet soy sauce as well.
There's enough flavourings and spices on that bench
for the chefs to go in many directions.
Yeah. I'm excited by this.
Yeah, very true. Very true.
Aubergine, as you can see, is nice and soft.
Lift that out.
So, just take this beautiful sauce, I'm just going to reduce that down,
just becomes a nice glaze.
I think we're ready to dress.
Absolutely yummy.
Aubergine on.
Look at that! That is big and it's lovely!
And I've just chopped up a few little peanuts.
I've got some little curry leaves here,
which I've just gently deep-fried for a bit of garnish.
I'm just going to finish the dish off with just a little bit of glaze.
There we have it.
Soy and miso-glazed aubergine steak with a spicy peanut sauce.
This is the kind of dish that just makes me so happy.
Cooking of the aubergine,
it's soft.
Still a bit of firmness there.
I loved how you reduced the glaze down,
because if it was too thick in that pan,
this could be very salty. Mm.
The peanut sauce, so many spices in there.
Yeah, good luck to our chefs.
Monica, we've got to get the chefs in.
You're going to watch from the monitor with your expert eye.
We'll see you back for the tasting. See you in a bit.
This is going to be great.
Are you ready for them? I am ready.
Let's get them in.
NARRATOR: First up is 33-year-old chef patron Ritchie,
who runs his own plant-based restaurant
in the heart of Nottingham.
Food was, you know,
a massive part of my childhood.
I was always fed well and everything was always cooked from the heart.
Mum and Dad taught me what they knew and then went on to start cooking
for the family quite young.
I always knew I was going to be a chef,
I just had to get there.
I feel like what might set me apart is my ability
to do awesome stuff with plants.
I feel like you really have to earn your flavour with fruit and veg.
I've been cooking for around about 11 years now.
I'm still learning every day.
I want to better myself.
I'm absolutely buzzing and I can't wait to show the judges
what I can do.
Hello, Ritchie. Welcome to MasterChef.
This particular Skills Test was set by none other
than my mate Marcus Wareing.
What I'd like you to cook for us is an aubergine steak
glazed with miso and soy, served with a spicy peanut sauce.
OK. You all right with a bit of veg cookery?
Absolutely. Yeah, it's... It's what I do...
Is it? ..day-to-day.
So, I'm a fully plant-based chef.
Ah, that's great! Good.
I think this will be fine, then.
20 minutes. Off you go.
I don't understand why Ritchie has just cut the edge
of the aubergine off.
You need the skin around it to hold it together.
Explain to me what's going on.
I'm going to get my aubergine on.
Just get a nice bit of colour on it.
And I'm going to make a nice spicy dressing.
I just want to keep a bit of texture,
similar to pesto sort of vibe.
I know you're a plant-based chef, but is this your style, this?
Absolutely. So a lot of the things that I do
is focused around Asian cookery,
so a lot of Japanese, Korean influences.
A lot of spice he just threw on there.
It's just a bit careless.
He's got to be quick, because that aubergine will just soak up
the flavours of the soy sauce.
It will get more and more salty.
So I'm just reducing down for my glaze.
I'm going to keep the aubergine in the pan,
because it's like a sponge.
It's going to soak up as much flavour as possible.
Add some miso.
I'm going to add a bit of ginger into that.
It's a bit rough, Ritchie, the way he's working.
It's just so rough.
I mean, the ginger is so thick.
It's rough.
Slightly a little bit too salty.
So I've just let that down with a bit of water.
Of course it's salty.
He threw a whole lot of soy sauce in there.
Coming up to halfway.
So you've got ten minutes left.
Tell me what you've got to go, please.
OK, so I've roasted some salted peanuts up
and with a little bit of olive oil,
and some fresh chilli in there,
I'm going to make a nice spicy dressing.
Have you been a chef since you left school?
I haven't, actually. So the first thing that I did is I ventured
into the realms of music.
So I've been in a variety of different bands.
I've had a variety of different haircuts.
You look like a 19th-century composer.
HE LAUGHS
I'll take that.
Or not very composed today, pardon the pun. Wahey!
Thank you very much.
You've got five minutes.
I've kept some texture in there from the crunchy peanuts.
I'm going to add a little bit of chilli powder,
as we want it nice and spicy.
He keeps adding the spices cold.
You need to bring some heat to it to really open them up
and get the best flavour out of those spices.
How's that glaze?
It's great. It's got a little bit of heat to it.
It's nice and umami coming through with the miso in there.
You've got a minute, all right, my friend?
Let's finish this off. Thank you.
Oh, my goodness, this poor aubergine.
That's it. Time's up.
Well done. Thank you.
Ritchie.
Hi, Chef.
I actually thought the aubergine would be overcooked.
It's actually not. Very salty, though.
Your peanut sauce could have been a little bit smoother.
There was some coconut milk there,
and you were throwing in quite a lot of the spices raw,
and they do need heating up in the pan
to get the flavours out.
So I think it could be better, but overall it's not a bad start.
Thank you. Well done, Ritchie.
The way you cut that aubergine,
you need to keep the skin on to hold it together.
And the way you cooked it, it was just so rough.
Threw spices on it,
slices of garlic onto it, in went soy
and just let it soak up all the soy sauce.
That's why it's so salty.
I thought the appearance wasn't particularly good.
I thought you could have made a much smarter, not so wet dish.
Consider the comments.
There's another round coming up.
We'll see you then. Thank you, Ritchie.
Thank you very much.
Nerves got the better of me, unfortunately.
The judges certainly haven't seen the best of what I can do,
but the next round is my food
and hopefully I can show that, you know, I can cook.
NARRATOR: Next to face Marcus's Skills Test is 29-year-old Dan.
Working in kitchens for the past 12 years,
he is now a senior sous-chef at a Lancashire pub.
My food style is very modern,
but also keeps the core of classical techniques.
The dishes you'll see from me are very elegant,
trying to get as much flavour as I can out of the ingredients,
what I've been given.
The best thing about being a chef is you get to be very, very creative
and everything what you put on the plate
is mirroring your personality.
So if it's a messy plate, nine times out of ten, you're a messy person.
I really want to test my skills in front of the main stage
and I'm not only doing it for me, but I'm doing it for my family.
I know how far I can go and how far I can push myself,
so this is really big.
Welcome to MasterChef. Thank you.
This particular Skills Test was set by Marcus. Hi, Dan.
I'd like you to make for us an aubergine steak,
glazed with miso and soy,
served with a spicy peanut sauce.
OK. 20 minutes, Dan.
Over to you. Thank you.
I like the way that Dan is preparing his aubergine,
and it's nice and thick as well.
Dan, tell us your plan.
Where are you going with this?
So I'm just rubbing some spices over the top of the aubergine
and then I'll fire that off on the pan.
I think it needs a bit of oil in that pan, Dan.
Oh, he's got some red onion.
I guess this is for his peanut sauce.
So, why MasterChef?
There was always quite a few people
who said I should give it a go
and I never really had the confidence
within myself to do it.
And then, this year, my partner's just given birth to a baby boy.
I feel like that probably gave me a bit more motivation
to give it a go.
What's his name? Ernest.
Is there an Ernest in your family? Yeah.
So my partner named him after my grandad.
What have you got in that pan?
So this is just a little base for a peanut sauce -
red onions, garlic and a little bit of chilli.
You've had eight minutes, Chef.
Yep.
So, you put spices on the aubergine, put it in the pan.
Now what's gone in there?
So a little bit of soy, a little bit of mirin,
and just some vegetable stock.
Then I'll just brush it with a little bit of miso
and get it in the oven to roast.
Fine to put it in the oven,
but he should have just kept it in the pan so that the heat
was already there in the pan.
That's going to slow the cooking down,
putting it onto a cold tray.
What are you thinking?
So, I'm just going to give it a blend,
mix some crunchy peanut butter through it.
That's a lot of coconut milk.
It's looking more like a soup.
How's that? It tastes of peanuts,
but not as much as I would like it to.
The consistency isn't what I want.
You've got time, you've got the pans,
you've got the cooker. You've got plenty of time.
Fix it. Take it out. Put it in a pan.
Where's your chef's instinct, Dan?
You know, switch into it.
What you've got to do is you've got to think about, right,
how am I going to make this sauce?
You've got five minutes. Yeah. All right?
Dan's starting again.
He just needed to fix the sauce he's put into the jug there.
He could have added more peanut through it, get the consistency up.
You've got a couple of minutes. Yep. So be quick.
All done? Yes. Do you want to take a breath, Chef?
Yes. You OK?
DAN CHUCKLES
All right, Dan?
Yes.
Cutting of the aubergine was nice,
a nice big steak, which is what we were looking for.
But putting on the dry spices and then frying it
isn't really the way to do that.
You've put it in the oven and it's dried out.
The peanut sauce needed big flavours, big energy.
It's bland.
Dan, I thought you got off to a good start.
I don't mind the spices like that, but, you know, make sure
that it's in oil and you really sort of push it through.
It's a coconut sauce.
Personally, I quite like coconut,
but that's not what we were asking for.
You just needed to fix that sauce you had in the blender.
Got a nicely cooked aubergine that's holding together.
It's soft, but firm enough so it's not falling apart.
There's no miso flavour coming through there,
because there's so much chilli.
And then we've got a really lovely sauce that's slightly peanutty,
but mostly coconut.
I'm telling you, it tastes good,
but it ain't the dish we thought you would do.
Dan, see you in the next round.
Thank you very much.
Oh, dear.
HE LAUGHS
I just had tunnel vision and forgot how to cook.
I want to forget about that round.
It's not a representation of me.
Monica, we have two more chefs waiting to do their Skills Test.
This one is yours.
What are you going to get them to do, please?
I'd like our chefs to come in and give us a lemon meringue tart
and a lemon zest garnish to go with it.
So we're giving them the tart case already made, nice and golden.
There's a lot here you've got to get right.
You've got to get the lemon curd made, set, cooled.
You've got the making of an Italian meringue,
which is always a test.
And, of course, a lemon garnish as well.
This is brilliant. 20 minutes.
Let's see how an expert does it, please.
First thing I want to get on is the lemon curd.
Juice two lemons,
and I'm going to use two of the egg yolks.
I want this to set quite quick,
so a little bit of cornflour into there.
In goes the lemon juice, as well.
What texture are you looking for there?
It's going to be like a very thick custard.
Anything with eggs and heat, if you're not careful,
of course, you can end up with scrambled eggs in there.
I'm going to cool it slightly in the ice bath.
And then sort of around room temperature,
you whisk in the butter.
So, cold butter is going in and I'm just whisking it through,
and you're just going to see it's even getting thicker.
What happens if you whisk in the butter if it's too hot?
If the butter melts into it, you're going to get this greasy
finish to the curd and it won't thicken.
So they've got to get the temperature just right.
Wow! There's a lot to this.
I'm going to put my mix into the tart case
and get that into the fridge to cool, as well.
So, the lemon curd is done.
I'm going to make the Italian meringue.
I've got the sugar and the water to make the syrup.
I'm bringing that up to the boil.
I take it up to 110.
Once it gets to 110, I turn the egg whites on... Uh-huh.
..and then it should go to 120.
Italian meringue, you take the hot sugar
and you put that into the egg whites, whisked,
and it cooks it in there.
The most important thing is you've got to get the egg whites
starting to raise up a little bit before you add the cooked sugar.
If you put the cooked sugar onto just the eggs themselves,
it'll literally cook them straight away.
You need to get a bit of air into there.
This is classic pastry work,
so we'll see who's worked in the pastry section very quickly.
Yeah.
So I'm just letting that cool gently before it's ready to be used.
So, what are you thinking for the garnish?
I'm just making the lemon zest
and I'm candying it in a bit of syrup.
So, all that I've had in this pan - some sugar, some water -
a simple syrup.
In go the lemon zest,
and then I've squeezed in some fresh lemon juice to it.
That's what we want. Nice, glossy, and we want a stiff peak, yeah?
Ta-da!
Mm! Lovely.
I've got my lemon tart,
I've got the Italian meringue,
and now I'm just going to pipe over the top.
Look at that. That's absolutely beautiful.
You're creating waves.
So, I've got lemon zest garnish there with the syrup.
Hey. Beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
So, there we have it.
My lemon meringue tart with lemon curd inside,
an Italian meringue,
and a lemon zest garnish.
That's incredible!
It's a great challenge.
It's full of skill.
It's going to take a good cook to get anywhere near this.
Marcus, of course,
please watch with a professional eye in the back room.
Come back for the tasting. I will.
Are we ready?
Almost. As we'll ever be.
NARRATOR: First to face Monica's Skills Test is 23-year-old Alin.
He moved to the UK from Romania ten years ago
and is now head chef at a luxury hotel
in the West Midlands countryside.
Food was always a big thing.
I'm originally from Romania. Gatherings are always massive fun.
I was always helping out,
just making the mayonnaise or cutting the tomatoes,
and that showed me that that's a good feeling,
like, making people happy with food.
I would say I'm really passionate.
My wife was mad at me for having more pictures of food
on my phone than of her.
I just consider myself a bit of a nerd, I guess.
I'm most excited about the skill test.
I really hope it's going to be pastry.
This is one of my strengths.
I honestly can't wait.
So, Alin, lemon meringue tart filled with lemon curd
and an Italian meringue with a lemon garnish of your choice.
20 minutes. Good luck.
Lovely. Thank you.
Putting sugar in his water in his pan,
so he's obviously starting off with the meringue.
Egg whites.
What's your plan with the curd?
I'm just going to beat the egg yolks with the sugar and the cornflour.
Then I'm going to reduce down the lemon juice
just until it extracts more flavour,
then I'm going to mix the two.
And then slowly fold in the butter,
just so it gets nice and creamy.
So, he's got the two jobs working at the same time.
He's got his sugar cooking, thermometer's going in.
What temperature are you looking for?
119-120 degrees.
He has a really good idea of what to do.
That sugar's going into the egg whites.
He's pouring that pretty quickly.
It's not split, so that's a good sign,
but we'll see how it goes once it starts to cool down.
Coming up to halfway.
So I'm just checking for it to be room temperature.
That's when you know it's done,
it's ready to be piped.
Happy with your meringue?
Yes. Yeah, it looks great.
Got the meringue done.
So, getting on with his curd. What is he going to do?
Put it on a bain-marie?
So, he's got his eggs, his sugar and his cornflour
over a bain-marie to thicken it.
How do you know when to put the butter in?
Now I can see that the sugar is melted
and it's starting to slightly thicken.
Just a few cubes at a time until it starts thickening
and gets a nice consistency.
It's not going to thicken,
because he's...keep putting it back on the heat.
He needs to take it off the heat.
You've got just over seven minutes left.
Sweet. You doing all right?
Yep.
So, you're just cooling it quickly?
Yeah, just trying to get it cooled down.
OK. So hopefully it thickens a little bit.
Hmm, that doesn't look thick enough.
But he's got it done. It might set.
Is this for your lemon garnish?
Yeah. I'm going to make a quick syrup with a bit of sugar
and just a bit of water,
and then going to get crystallised.
You've got four minutes, Alin.
Sweet.
GREGG SNIGGERS
Yeah, not set.
And he knows it's not set.
Oh! Did you break it?
A little bit, yeah.
HE CHUCKLES
All that work and you just stick your finger through the pastry case.
Are you done? I'm done.
Hey, Alin. How are you?
Good. It was going so well.
I think you got lost on the lemon curd a little bit there.
And then just to top it off, you stick your finger in it.
What a shame.
Alin, with the meringue,
you knew you had to take the sugar up to 120.
If anything, just slow down the sugar going into it.
It does sort of make it drop a bit, but the meringue is fine.
My concern is the lemon curd.
It didn't get to that ribbon stage.
It's got to get so thick before you add the butter.
Great garnish, the lemon peel. Beautifully cooked.
Presentation, brilliant.
But then you decided to put your finger through the pastry case.
Which was a shame, because it's all about the little points of detail.
I'll tell you what, though,
I bet if you had another go at this,
you'd probably get it absolutely spot-on.
Oh, you're so close!
Lovely, sharp lemon.
Lovely, sugary Italian meringue.
Alin, not bad at all.
See you in the next round.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
I like to think that I did quite well, but I broke the tart.
Silly mistake, but it happens.
Last up is 37-year-old Paule.
Originally from the Ivory Coast in West Africa,
she moved to Paris to train as a chef
and now works as a private catering chef in London.
My dad was a chef and my mum was a really good cook.
She's the one who taught me to do traditional African food
and my dad was doing European food.
I can describe my cooking style as a fusion,
because I've done French cookery
and I always grew up with African spices,
food and techniques,
and I want people to know more about that wonderful cuisine.
When I will walk through the doors of MasterChef: The Professionals,
it will be a big excitement.
Give up is not an option,
so it's a real saying in Ivory Coast.
Paule, how are you?
I'm fine, thank you.
Have you had some experience in the pastry?
A little bit. OK. 20 minutes. Good luck.
So, it looks like she's starting with the lemon curd first,
which is a good start.
Lemon juice in, sugar in.
Would you mind telling me the processes
that you're going to go through?
Yes, so first I will do the lemon curd,
so I mix the cold ingredients, and then I will do the meringue.
I will just cool down the cream.
Great.
My butter.
That was a bit heavy handed with the butter,
on a very hot liquid.
The butter's not going to thicken it when it's too hot.
It's just going to melt and become a liquid.
She could have just cooled the liquid down
and then slowly introduced the cold butter
and it'll get rich and thick and just delicious.
It's just too quick.
You've had five minutes.
You've got 15 to go. Oh, OK. Good.
What sort of kitchen are you working in now?
I just opened my own restaurant in France.
But here, I am a freelance chef,
because I'm doing consultancy
and I'm also working in kitchens.
And who's looking after your restaurant in France?
I have a partner, a business partner.
Now that it's cooling down, I will do my...Italian meringue?
Yes. Yes.
MONICA CHUCKLES
Sugar's in the pan,
water's in for the Italian meringue.
She's got her eggs in. Turn it on.
She's getting on with it.
Paule, feeling quite chilled out?
I'm feeling well.
It's a beautiful day today, so... GREGG CHUCKLES
What temperature do you want
your sugar before you pour it into the mix?
121.
You seem very confident with that.
I know a bit of, like, lemon tart, meringue, so...
Allez, allez, allez.
So, Paule, you've had ten minutes.
Ten minutes? You've got ten minutes to go. OK.
She's pouring that sugar a little bit too fast.
Turn it up. Quick, quick, quick.
Get some air into it
or it's going to be too runny.
And what are you thinking for your lemon garnish?
I will do a caramel with candied lemon.
You have five minutes left.
How's it looking, Paule?
It's looking good.
That's not whisked enough.
That's a pouring consistency.
Not how Italian meringue should be.
You should be able to tip that bowl upside down
and that meringue shouldn't move.
You've got a couple of minutes.
That curd's far too runny.
Right, meringue time.
It's holding better than I thought.
Still not quite the consistency it should be.
That's it. Time's up.
All done? Thank you.
Hi, Paule. Hello.
The making of the curd,
it looked thick enough, but then you added all the butter
while it was still hot and it just melted all the way through.
On the Italian meringue, you got the syrup
up to the right temperature,
but then you put all the syrup in.
Straight away, when you took the whisk up,
that...it was still quite soft, the meringue.
It needs to be a stiff peak.
I think what I noticed was that you were under control,
which was really good.
You've just done things just a little bit too fast.
The lemon curd's delicious. Yeah, it's a bit runny.
The meringue's got the right sweetness.
Could have been a bit thicker.
Leave it on the machine, just let it sit there.
Good flavours.
Not a bad start at all.
Thank you, Paule. Thank you very much. Thank you.
I think I rushed a bit, but they liked the taste.
I think that's the most important.
In the next round, I have more to show -
who I am and the cuisine I'm doing.
Out of the two skills tests,
I thought the pastry challenge would be by far the toughest.
And, actually, the two chefs that did that seemed
the most confident.
Overall, yeah, good.
And I'm really excited to see what they're going to do next.
I think we're going to get some very distinctive, unique styles.
Absolutely.
That's what I want to see.
Chefs, welcome back to our kitchen.
Set aside any issues you've had in the Skills Test.
This is your signature two-course menu.
Show off what you're able to do and cement your place
in this competition.
Take this opportunity.
Show us what it is you are all about.
At the end of this,
two of you will be leaving the competition,
but two of you will be going through to a quarterfinal.
One main, one dessert in an hour and a half.
Off you go.
I'm really, really excited to be cooking our dishes now.
Hopefully the judges will see what I can do.
Today is a big day.
I need to showcase what my cuisine is about.
Paule, what are you making for us, please?
Guinea fowl roasted with a glaze over palm wine.
African ratatouille with cassava couscous.
What's palm wine?
This is alcohol.
It's kind of the milk of the palm tree.
I notice over there you've got some incredibly hot chillies.
Yes. Is that going in our ratatouille?
It is, but not to heat up too much.
For the dessert, chocolate ganache
and hibiscus cream,
with caramelised cashew nut in a shell of filo pastry.
Does this reflect the story of your culinary life, do you think?
It does, because I'm coming from Ivory Coast
and my signature dishes are made out of all my memories.
I'm intrigued about Paule's food.
I love the point of difference in bringing her culture into it.
The guinea fowl,
I will pan-fry it and then finish it off in the oven.
Guinea fowl dries up very, very quickly.
There's not a lot of fat underneath the skin.
Paule is making an African ratatouille.
She's got aubergines and Scotch bonnets in it.
Ooh, hopefully not too hot,
but I do like a bit of spice in food.
Paule's dessert is a filo tart
and it's going to be filled with a hibiscus mousse.
It's very floral, can be very sweet,
so she's got to be very careful with it.
Paule is also using some Penja peppercorns from Africa
and she's putting it with caramelised cashew nuts.
Clever touch. I like that.
Chocolate ganache is chocolate and cream.
She's got to make sure that it's smooth and textured,
and that she gets it in the fridge to set on time.
I'm pushing myself with a lot of elements in such a short time,
but it should be OK.
RITCHIE: The dishes I've been practising night and day.
I really, really want to impress Monica now.
I need to knock it out the park in this next round.
Ritchie, tell us about your two dishes.
I'm going to be cooking plant-based.
My main course, it's called The Pumpkin Family.
Butternut squash fondant, a pumpkin seed puree,
braised baby gem lettuce,
quick-pickled cucumber hearts
and plant-based croquette.
My dessert - a vanilla sponge with a whipped,
plant-based mascarpone,
pickled blackberries,
finished with a vanilla and black sesame ice cream.
Why the passion for plants?
When I was a kid, I was asked to do a project in school
and I thought, "Well, I'll do that on veganism."
A week later I was like, "Mum, I'm not eating meat any more,"
and the whole house was just in uproar.
We're a classic, you know, meat and two veg family.
I'm excited about Ritchie's main course.
The squash is being cooked as a fondant,
so it's got to be lovely and soft.
He's using pumpkin seeds for a puree.
That's got to be smooth.
There's braised baby gem,
even a croquette made from gram flour,
which is sort of chickpea.
So it's going to be a lot of different elements
coming into this dish.
How it all comes together is what I'm trying to see here.
Ritchie's dessert, everything again based around vegan ingredients.
It sounds interesting.
I think sugar is going to be the key to this dish,
because there are certain ingredients
that will lack in flavour
that you need to bring out.
So we've got our sponge that's just come out of the oven
and I've made a pickled blackberry mix
to soak the sponges so they're nice and soft,
almost like a golden syrup sort of sponge cake vibe going on.
The mascarpone cream has got tonka bean and miso paste
running through.
Tonka bean, it's quite mild and bland.
You've got to cook it to bring out its lovely flavour.
I'm battling with time a little bit at the moment.
It's a bit hectic, I'm not going to lie,
but I'm enjoying myself and that's part of it, surely.
It's not all pain.
HE LAUGHS
You've got one hour left, chefs.
60 minutes to go. I know, rapid.
I'm really pushing myself with this dish just because,
being young, I feel like it shows that I've got good initiative.
I can do great things even though I don't have that much experience
as maybe other chefs that are older.
For the main course, I have duck breast,
smoked carrot puree and a duck leg cabbage roll.
It's one of the dishes that I firstly cooked for my wife
before we got married.
Where did you meet your wife?
I met her at school.
So we grew up together, basically, yeah.
She's one of your biggest fans, is she?
Yes, definitely. Biggest critic as well, so...
Alin's got a lot of work going on here.
He's taken the duck breasts off the crown.
I think it's fine as long as he cooks them gently
and makes sure the fat's beautifully rendered down.
We've got duck leg mousseline wrapped in cabbage,
and mousseline is about blitzing up the meat
and making sure that it's not split.
The cabbage has to be perfectly cooked,
otherwise it's just going to be too chewy.
This is one of the classic Romanian things that you would have
at Christmas or Easter.
Normally they're filled with pork and rice and spices and stuff.
I've just made a duck one.
Alin's also serving carrots, which he's smoking.
Hopefully he's using a strong bark,
because sometimes the flavour of the smoke just evaporates.
We have a pancetta and apricot sauce.
Fruit works beautifully with duck, so I'm happy with that.
Alin, what's your dessert?
Hazelnut mousse,
hazelnut sponge and a thyme ice cream.
Alin's dessert,
the hazelnut mousse has got to be smooth.
Also got a lovely nut liqueur in the sponge.
Hopefully, big in flavour, but very, very light.
I like the sound of the thyme ice cream.
It's a point of difference in Alin's dessert,
because it'll bring a sort of savoury
and sort of floral note to it.
I've got so much to do.
I'm a bit behind, so hopefully we'll get time enough
to push everything out.
Dan's a classical cook.
He's cooking roast venison loin.
He's trimmed it really nicely.
He's caramelised it lovely.
There's three different types of cooking on the venison,
so if I overcook it in the oven then it's game over.
Beautiful-looking beetroot.
He's made long, thin ribbons and then rolled it back up
and he's going to soak that beetroot using verjus,
which is like a really tart grape juice.
Very important to make sure the beetroot's not too acidic
with the verjus.
Beetroot ketchup,
it's got to be beautiful and smooth, bright and vibrant in its colour.
Got some freshness on the plate with the pear and with the garlic.
There's no fuss about it.
It's minimalistic, and with all good classical cookery,
the ingredients should just sing for themselves.
Dan's dessert is about chocolate and calamansi lime.
He's making a salted chocolate ganache.
It's dense, it's bitter, it's rich.
We've also got a calamansi lime syrup.
It's an interesting-sounding dish.
I think it's exciting.
The bitterness of the chocolate,
the sharpness of the calamansi lime -
there's got to be the right balance.
People who know me know I'm not the most confident person.
I definitely think that this competition is a massive step
out of my comfort zone.
Yeah.
HE LAUGHS
Are you a humble man?
Do you hide your light under a bushel?
I don't have the masses of confidence in myself,
but I try and let my food speak for myself.
Since I left school, I've just been in hospitality,
so no official college training.
You learnt on the job from a very young age? Yeah.
No, a lot of great chefs have done that.
Chefs, you've got ten minutes.
There's a couple of you here
look like you've got quite a bit to do.
At the moment,
I need to do my whisk for the ganache.
Let's go, let's go.
You on time?
Good man.
Wish it was a bit more rare, but I'm happy.
You have just five minutes. Five minutes.
Paule? Yes, Chef.
Is that the last touch on the main? Yes, Chef.
You can do this, Paule. You can do this.
That's it. Time's up.
Everybody stop.
WHISPERS: That went quick!
Head chef Alin's signature main course is roasted duck breast
with a cabbage-wrapped duck leg mousseline,
alongside a smoked carrot puree,
baby carrots dressed in duck fat,
and a soy maple glaze,
with an apricot, pancetta and coriander duck sauce.
The duck is nice and pink,
but you can see that the fat needs
to be rendered down much more than that.
The baby carrot is nicely cooked.
I love the crispy duck bits.
They're really nice on here.
What you've got here is a nicely cooked duck breast
with sweet flavours that work.
You've got apricot in the sauce.
I like that carrot puree with the smokiness, but it's subtle.
I think the puree's great,
but I'm really struggling with your mousseline.
You know, it's just not cooked enough.
I'm not enjoying your sauce.
It's cooked too heavily.
It's just been boiled and boiled and boiled.
It's almost gravy-esque in a way,
rather than actually a really refined sauce.
For his dessert,
Alin has made a hazelnut and chocolate mousse
with chocolate praline and thyme crumb,
a hazelnut liqueur-flavoured sponge,
and a thyme ice cream.
That nut mousse I really like.
Not too sweet.
Finishes with a proper hazelnut finish.
Your chocolaty crumb is too sweet.
It's more like a crushed sugar cube than it is chocolate crumb.
The ice cream with the thyme is my favourite thing on this plate,
but the mousse itself is not right.
It's got the texture of a creme pat before you whip the cream into it
to make it a lighter mousse.
The texture of the ice cream is fabulous.
It's smooth and silky, tastes of thyme,
but your sponge doesn't have any flavour of anything,
which is a shame.
Great ice cream, though.
I'm a bit frustrated.
Not the best results that I was hoping for.
I'm definitely kicking myself for the stupid mistakes.
HE SIGHS
It is what it is, I guess.
Private catering chef Paule's menu
is inspired by the Ivory Coast.
For her main course,
she's made roasted guinea fowl,
a ratatouille made from tomato, onion, aubergine,
and Scotch bonnet chillies,
cassava couscous,
and a palm wine glaze.
The guinea fowl, though beautiful and golden and crispy on the skin,
mine is slightly dry.
It's over.
The ratatouille is delicious,
but I didn't get any chilli in mine.
The guinea fowl's beautifully coloured.
I love the trimming of the bone.
Your couscous, I love the neutral element of it.
It's sticky, like steamed rice.
And the ratatouille has got great flavour to it too.
What I get here from you is the flavour of home.
What's missing in this is just that little bit of that chilli.
You are giving me textures and flavours I haven't had before
and I think they're great.
That ratatouille with that slightly bitter aubergine
and the sweetness of onions I find divine.
This sauce here is finished with palm wine.
It's almost honey sweet and then sharp at the end,
and it's really lovely.
For her dessert,
Paule has served a filo tart
filled with hibiscus mousse
and topped with chocolate ganache,
caramelised cashew nut
and Penja peppercorn brittle,
accompanied by hibiscus and mint syrup.
This looks rushed, which is no surprise.
With three minutes to go,
you had nothing on the plate at all.
The hibiscus syrup,
that's the nice, floral, slightly sweet finish.
The hibiscus mousse,
I find it too sweet, and then your chocolate has split.
I do like the notes of the pepper through the dessert.
There is the bitter chocolate,
but the hibiscus, for me, is so sickly sweet.
The syrup here is also sickly sweet.
I like the shape of your filo pastry.
The chocolate ganache is just a little bit on the grainy side,
but it's still got a lovely, delicious chocolate flavour,
which is really beautifully counterbalancing the floral essence
of the hibiscus flower.
There's some lovely ideas here,
but I think the magic here for me is the floral essence
of the hibiscus and the heat of that pepper.
Good work, well done.
Paule, you've split the judges.
OK. Thank you very much indeed.
I am feeling a bit disappointed
of my performance,
because I didn't make it taste
and look how I wanted to.
I know that I could have done better.
Chef patron Ritchie's plant-based menu
starts with a butternut squash fondant,
topped with braised baby gem lettuce
on a roasted pumpkin seed and truffle puree,
alongside a chickpea, gram flour
and yeast croquette,
fresh cucumber ribbons, diced cucumber,
pickled mustard seeds,
and crispy fennel and shiso leaves,
finished with a cucumber and tomato consomme,
split with mint oil.
Good-looking dish here, Ritchie,
the way you've got the fennel
and the herbs over the top of it.
The pumpkin is nicely cooked,
and when the pumpkin seed gets into that sauce,
it gives it a nice body.
The flavours of the croquette,
I love it with the chickpeas running through this.
That croquette made out of yeast
is like a mild Cheddar cheese.
I really like that.
I like the crunchiness of the gem
and the puree that's across it
has got like a little hint of truffle.
You've got some great flavours.
This consomme, the cucumber, and, of course, the tomato,
I think it's great.
One of the hardest things to impress people is plant-based cookery.
This is quality cookery, this, Ritchie,
because you've got beautiful little elements
singing all the way through this.
This is balanced.
It's got harmony.
Very, very good indeed.
For his second course,
Ritchie has served a vanilla sponge
on a blackberry coulis,
topped with pickled fresh blackberries,
whipped tonka mascarpone,
and served with a black sesame ice cream made from soy milk.
It's quite a firm vanilla sponge.
Lovely vanilla flavour.
The blackberries are sharp and sweet.
It's a very sweet dish.
I'd love to see more of that tonka mascarpone, please.
I just think that would be a contrast to all the sweetness.
It's a dinky little dessert,
but boy does it pack flavour.
MONICA CHUCKLES
The blackberries,
I really like that you've put some yuzu throughout this,
bit of vinegar through it, and red wine as well.
I enjoyed that.
The blackberry on the bottom is delicious.
I love the sweet and sharpness of it too.
I think the sponge is great as well.
I love the vanilla essence of it.
But what I'm really enjoying is the ice cream.
You know, the sesame flavour, the dark colour of it.
It's unusual, it's different. It's a point of contrast.
Very nice. It's really good.
Thank you so much.
That feels amazing.
I'm really proud of what I've done.
RITCHIE LAUGHS
I'm not going to lie,
I was just dreading, like, going to Monica.
Seeing a smile on her face was just, like,
it's made my year.
Senior sous-chef Dan has made roasted venison loin
with a beetroot ribbon roll,
poached pear, wild garlic,
beetroot ketchup,
and a verjus venison sauce.
Wow, that is elegant and beautiful
and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed
that tastes halfway near as good as it looks.
Beautiful piece of cooked venison. Lovely sauce.
Your ketchup, beetroot - delicious.
Not too sharp, not too sweet, just right.
And complementing the dish wholly.
I'm really, really impressed with you. Well done.
I love the little pear slivers on the side.
Venison can take that sweetness,
and the hints of the wild garlic, because you've blanched it,
it's not as harsh and it's not as strong.
Venison - colour on the outside, pink in the middle.
The venison sauce just enhances the venison flavour
and makes it meatier.
Earthy beetroot, beautiful.
I love it, I absolutely love it.
For his dessert, Dan has served salted chocolate ganache,
topped with a chocolate meringue mousse,
mascarpone, calamansi syrup,
sugared hazelnuts,
and a black sesame tuile.
I've got an absolutely stunning chocolate ganache.
Cold, really quite bitter,
and as smooth as you like.
And then I've got that calamansi -
really sharp, like a very sharp marmalade -
is stunning.
Dan, I like the presentation of your dessert.
I like the mousse on the top with the Italian meringue.
The mascarpone,
I like the freshness from it,
and your sesame tuiles got a lovely little crunch on them.
Your Italian meringue on top is sweet,
on top of a very delicious chocolate ganache,
which has got the bitter elements of it.
And, of course, the hazelnuts, which have been candied as well.
And your tuile is a little neutral flavour.
It's skills.
There's lots of them on show here in many, many different ways,
so you've really done a great job, Dan.
Both dishes for me has gone to show that you are someone
to reckon with in this competition.
Welcome on board.
Thank you.
I'm really happy with the comments I got.
Today, I feel like the emotions have been all the way to the bottom,
and now they're real sky-high.
I'm really... Yeah, wow.
Some really interesting flavours
and I think definitely some talent starting to peek out
with our four chefs here.
Can I sing Dan's praises?
Cos he is a cookery force to be reckoned with.
Beautifully cooked venison, great sauce
and the beetroot that went with it.
To have the confidence to put so little on the plate
with so much impact, thoroughly enjoyable.
Dessert - rich, full of flavour, sugar, acidity, everything you need.
I thought it was delicious.
Can you see any reason why Dan shouldn't become a quarterfinalist?
Dan, welcome to the club.
You're a MasterChef quarterfinalist.
I thought Alin had some great ideas, but not all of it worked out.
Alin's main course was the duck.
I loved the crunchy duck fat
that was over that baby carrot.
However, the duck cooking, though the protein itself was fine,
the fat needed more rendering and the skin more crispy.
The duck leg cooked in the cabbage leaf I wasn't sure of at all,
but the carrot puree I thought was great.
The dessert, there were bits of it that were great.
Ice cream was delicious, but the mousse didn't set.
The sponge, very sweet.
No other flavour to it.
Ritchie cooked two plant-based dishes.
I liked his main course.
The pumpkin, I really liked the way it was cooked.
I loved the mustard seeds on it.
That dessert was too sweet for me.
Just a little bit more mascarpone in that dessert
and I think we would have been on a winner.
The flavours that Paule brought to that guinea fowl dish
I thought were fantastic.
That sauce, I thought that was delicious.
The guinea fowl, it had just dried out
and the aubergine-style ratatouille, I enjoyed it,
just didn't get any of the chilli through that.
Dessert I thought was delicious.
Chocolate mousse was not quite smooth enough, but crispy pastry,
beautiful hibiscus cream.
The pastry was nice and crispy,
but it was also sweet with hibiscus.
We've got good cooks.
We can't take them all through to the next round.
We can only take two.
I love the idea of actually getting through
and cooking for the judges again.
This is not good enough,
so basically I just want to show them that I've got way more.
All the adrenaline is on and I'm in the starting blocks.
I hope I make it.
I hope.
I feel like I've done the best that I could possibly do.
If there's somebody better, then so be it,
but I gave it my all so I can be proud of that.
Chefs, I want to start by congratulating you.
Great personality shone through today
and that's what we want to see.
We have made a decision.
Two of you are going through to a quarterfinal.
Two of you, sadly, are leaving the competition.
The first chef going through to a quarterfinal is
Dan.
Congratulations, Dan.
That was solid.
The second chef going through to a quarterfinal is...
..Ritchie.
Congratulations, Ritchie.
Thank you so much.
Alin, Paule, sorry to see you go.
Thank you so much for your efforts.
Thank you, both.
It's been great being in the MasterChef kitchen.
It's hard leaving now, just cos obviously I wanted to go further.
I feel a bit sad.
The most difficult part of leaving the competition now is that
I didn't have a chance to showcase what I'm really capable of.
Well done, brother. Yes!
Congratulations.
You are quarterfinalists.
I'm massively proud of what I've achieved.
I'm super happy.
I can't wait to tell my partner the good news.
I'm absolutely buzzing.
MasterChef quarterfinalist.
Well, it's one of the best days of my life.
I'm absolutely hungry for more.
It's going to be super, super tough,
but bring it on.
Next time, it's the quarterfinal... CORK POPS
..and this heat's most talented chefs
return to face two tough challenges.
Oops. Oh.
I'm not going to let it go until I've eaten it all.
That's how good this is.
Only the best will earn their place in knockout week.
This is one of those dishes that can change minds.