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.
I'm super nervous but super, super-excited now.
I have so much belief and confidence in myself
that there's no other possibility that I cannot
win this whole competition.
This is definitely the most exciting and boldest thing
that I've ever done in my life.
I just want to smash my food, make sure it's epic,
it looks good and it tastes fantastic.
Who's got what it takes to set this competition alight?
It's time to uncover a new culinary superstar.
Welcome back.
We have four fresh-faced chefs to meet,
four chefs who are keen to come in here
and show us what they've got.
First up, of course, Skills Test.
Monica, what's your test, please?
I would like our chefs to come in here and make us
a mushroom-and-ricotta raviolo, or ravioli,
served with a hazelnut cream
and a wild garlic oil.
Oh! Monica, 20 minutes, off you go.
Thank you.
We've given them a ready-made wild garlic pasta dough.
I'm going to set that on the side for now, but I want to concentrate
first on the filling, cos that will need time to cook out
and, of course, to cool.
I've given our chefs girolles and ceps.
They can use either, or use both.
I'm going to go for the ceps here.
So, roughly chopping the mushrooms down so that, you know,
they're going to cook, but you also don't want it
to actually pierce through the pasta.
Yeah, OK.
So I've chopped some shallots in the pan.
In go my mushrooms.
Whilst the mushrooms are cooking down,
I'm going to start the hazelnut cream.
A little bit of butter.
Want to crush the hazelnuts down.
In go our hazelnuts.
I've got the mushroom trimmings,
and then we have some vegetable stock.
And you're just going to let that simmer.
The filling - the mushrooms are really cooked down.
It's dry. There's no liquid. OK?
I need this mix to cool.
If you use a hot mix or warm mix, it's going to distort
the shape of the pasta. It'll soften it.
It starts to melt the pasta?
It starts to change shape, yeah. Yeah.
I'm going to make the oil. So, very straightforward.
Just got some wild garlic.
Flat parsley.
It's always better just to leave them raw.
When you blanch wild garlic leaves, they lose their colour
And they lose their flavour.
And blitz away.
Beautiful colour.
Bit of muslin cloth.
I'm just going to let it sit and drain through that.
So I've got the reduction of the hazelnuts.
In goes the cream.
And we just let that reduce.
I'm going to roll the pasta out.
Don't force it into the machine.
You know it's got to be as thin as you can,
but it's still got to hold the inside. Mm.
The filling. Got the ricotta.
I'm not breaking the ricotta down.
I want to be able to taste the ricotta.
But you can see... Ah! Brilliant.
I want to press it down.
I'm making two. It's...it's, erm...
I think old habits die hard.
Even though I know it's going to be fine,
I've got an extra just in case.
So it's just a little bit of water to bind.
Pasta - it is a skill.
If they burst, it's pretty much game over.
The pasta itself, the ravioli, doesn't take...
It's a matter of minutes, right?
Only a couple of minutes, normally.
Right, I'm ready to plate up. I have my oil.
The cream here.
I didn't expect that.
I kind of expected the oil on the top.
That's very good.
Look at that. There we go.
This is my mushroom-and-ricotta raviolo
with the hazelnut cream and garlic oil.
Absolutely stunning. Yeah, a lot of skill,
a lot of flavour. Smells good.
Yes, they'll get the job done, I think.
Will they get it done as well as this?
Cos that's what we're after.
Marcus, you're leaving us, just for a moment. Mm-hm.
Come back for the tasting, please. I will.
Get the chefs in, come on. I want to see them do it.
You ready? Yeah, absolutely.
All righty, there we go. Here we go.
First up is 20-year-old Jordan,
a junior sous chef at a fine dining restaurant in Birmingham.
Food, for me, growing up, was a big thing, I guess,
because my mum's a chef.
You know, she was always cooking in the house.
A lot of Caribbean dishes.
Not to sound biased or anything, but, you know, her cooking
is the best I've ever tasted.
Going into the competition,
I'll be cooking French traditional food,
some dishes I can put my Caribbean twist on it.
But I just want to be interesting.
You know, no-one likes a boring chef.
Jordan, welcome to MasterChef. We're pleased you're here.
This Skills Test was set by Monica.
Jordan, I would like you to make for us
a mushroom-and-ricotta raviolo,
served with a hazelnut cream and a wild garlic oil.
Sounds terrific. You've got 20 minutes.
Good luck.
Hey-eh.
Have you formulated a plan?
Get the hot stuff on first so I can chill it down.
I can't put anything hot in a ravioli, so...
Oh, keep talking, chef. You're impressive. Keep going.
Then what? Get the wild garlic done,
the wild garlic oil made.
Just keep it cold and blitz it up.
Drizzle it over my raviolo to finish.
It's all sounding very positive there, Jordan.
Hopefully.
Straight into the mushrooms. Chopped up. Good start.
Chopped everything really nicely.
So, what sort of kitchen are you in right now?
It's a fine dining Michelin kitchen.
So what started you on this career? Why a chef?
I was in school, which wasn't that long ago,
deciding on my GCSEs, and I said, "Oh, I'll do Food Tech,"
and quite liked it.
And also my mum's a chef as well, so... Ah! Great chef.
So, I was like, "Oh, I might as well follow suit
"and carry on the legacy."
I've got to ask you, is mum really proud of you?
Yeah, really proud of me. Yeah.
You've had seven minutes.
Can I ask you what you're up to now, please?
So I'm just chilling the mushroom and shallot down
so I can mix it with the ricotta before it goes into the raviolo.
I've just roasted off the hazelnuts,
and I'm going to just put the cream back inside it now.
Just get this going.
So, Jordan, pasta-making -
is it something you do quite a bit where you're working?
A little bit, yeah. I do like making pasta.
Well, it's not... I wouldn't say it's like a massive part
of our restaurant or anything like that.
It looks too thick, that pasta.
Right, he's moving on to his...garlic oil.
Jordan... Weh.
..your career seems to be going very well.
I feel like I can go very far.
I've got that much confidence in myself as a chef
that I feel like I can achieve anything.
I think it's just a bit of a self-belief, really.
So, nut cream is under way.
The filling for the ravioli is there.
Your oil's made.
He's got good skills for his age.
He knows all the key things, which is really good to see.
You can see, he's rolled the pasta out nicely.
You've got about three minutes, Chef. Oui.
Wow, garlic oil's in the cream.
Pasta's gone in the cream.
I think that's quite nice.
That's going to taste pretty good.
You've got about a minute.
Are you done, my friend? Yes.
Well done. Thank you.
Jordan, good to meet you.
That's some good skills on show there.
A really good watch back there. Thank you.
You understood what we wanted.
Straight on with the mushrooms to saute in a pan
to get the filling done.
Cooled the mix, which is what I did as well.
It's a nice-tasting filling, but the pasta's a bit thick.
Really, really good skills on show for a 20-year-old.
Calm, cool, very much together.
Taste of garlic, and I can taste all the ingredients.
I can taste everything that I want to,
which is really good.
Well done. We are all looking forward
to seeing you in the next round.
Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.
It's the hardest thing in the whole competition.
No, it's just straight ahead, you know,
just cook my own dishes and, you know, come out on top.
Next to face Monica's Skills Test...
Hi, guys. Hey.
..is 38-year-old South African-born catering business owner Kirsty.
So I own a catering company in London, and I do events,
both corporate and private clients.
We can do anything from, you know, dinner for two people
all the way up to about 1,000 people.
Competing against other people just gives you, like,
you know, a bit of a firecracker to, like, do something different.
I grew up with four siblings.
Competitive is my second name.
Righto.
How are you, Kirsty?
I'm nervous but, looking in front of me,
pretty excited. Wonderful ingredients.
Right. Kirsty, 20 minutes. Good luck.
Thank you very much.
Has your chef's brain formulated a plan? It has.
So, I want to saute off some mushrooms and some shallots.
She could have cut the mushrooms down a little bit more.
Probably should do the pasta. I want to just roll the pasta out.
Not good.
You've got to roll it out first with a rolling pin
before you put that in the machine.
Come on.
What's happening with all that oil in the pan.
For the herb oil, really.
I want to blanch those first as well,
put them into the oil, heat it up very slightly,
and then just blend it so it's nice and vibrant.
You've had seven, you've got 13 minutes.
Perfect.
This is only a little bit nerve-racking, hey?
Yeah.
Come on, you can do this.
Sorry, I will talk to myself quite often.
Calms the nerves.
She's blanched her wild garlic
and now she's dropping it into hot oil.
She's deep-frying it.
Guarantee it will lack flavour.
So, Kirsty, just over halfway now, OK? Thank you.
So your oil is on,
you're filling your raviolo down there?
Yep.
And just the hazelnut cream to go.
That's it. Amazing.
You got your own business, you're doing well -
why MasterChef? Why not MasterChef?
Why not push yourself?
This is the...the biggest thing that I think any chef could do.
And I think, for me, I just don't see the point in why not.
So you've got your garlic in some warmed-up oil.
Yes. And you're going to blitz the life out of it?
That's the plan.
You've got about five minutes left. The oil, you're passing it. Yep.
The ravioli have got to be cooked. Yep.
And you need to make the nut cream.
That's what I'm doing now. Add some double cream.
She needs to get that hazelnut cream a really nice consistency
so that the raviolis can sit on it.
That's a little bit thick.
It's not the way that I necessarily want it to look.
Garlic oil does not have enough colour,
and I guarantee it doesn't have enough flavour.
Your time's up, Kirsty. Are you done? Yes.
THEY LAUGH
Was that the quickest 20 minutes?
Yeah, that's the fastest 20 minutes of my life, actually.
THEY CHUCKLE
You looked a little bit nervous.
Oh! A lot of bit nervous.
SHE LAUGHS
Your pasta-making is not the tidiest of raviolis.
You had the time to cut them down nicely.
When you're doing a filling, ideally chop the mushrooms up first.
And it needs more filling inside of it.
The word that's missing, for me, is refinement.
The nut cream - the nuts are still quite coarse,
and they're still really quite crunchy.
And I think, by blanching the garlic leaf,
you've lost the flavour of it, which is such a shame.
The ravioli - they're rolled, they're sealed.
Is there room for improvement? Yes, 100%. I hope so.
But you did OK.
We'll see you and your own dishes
in the next round. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Kirsty.
That was so intense.
I'm definitely not taking my foot off the pedal.
This just puts more fire, like, under me
to do better next round and really bring it.
Second set of skills tests, Marcus.
This is yours. Yes. What are you going to get them to do, please?
I'd like our chefs to do steamed courgette flower with prawn mousse,
red pepper compote and a prawn oil.
Does the mousse cook inside the flower?
Yes, it does. Wow!
Right, 20 minutes, stuffed courgette flower.
A lot of work to do. Show us how it's done.
First thing we need to do is prawn head oil.
So, rather than throw the prawn heads away, I'm just going to peel
the prawns down first, to get that oil infused.
You just need to get these heads and the shells into a pan.
They'll colour pretty much straightaway.
I like that - not waste a drop of flavour.
Pinch of salt.
You've got dill and you've got basil? Yeah.
All we need to do then is just basically put a good helping of oil.
The smell is unbelievable.
So, now, onto the prawn mousse.
Just chop up these prawns.
The key to making a mousse
is just getting it all the right consistency,
get it really beautifully blitzed down.
So, prawn meat is in the blender.
Egg white.
So, it's there as a binding agent, but it also aerates the mousse
at the same time.
Little splash of cream.
Squeeze of lemon.
Salt.
There we go.
Yeah, we're good to go.
A bit of dill.
And then we're ready to pipe.
I think, between Monica and I, we've probably made
quite a lot of this over the years.
Here we have it. That's the mousse ready to go.
Courgette flower.
We've just got to take the stamen out of the centre.
You don't really want to eat that.
We're just going to nick off the end.
So, I've just put a slice through,
just to the courgette, just to help it cook.
It is a salad so, if it's got a bit of bite,
it's absolutely fine.
So, open it up and pipe away and fill it up.
Twisting the little ends like that is just sealing it up,
turning it into a parcel?
It's just closing the ends, yeah.
I'll be steaming them for about five or six minutes.
So, now, I'm going to get on with my red pepper compote.
I'm just going to slice these up.
I'd like to see a little bit of imagination with this,
just do something really nice,
really tasty.
Straight into the pan.
Mix them up. Add garlic.
A little bit of sherry vinegar.
A touch of smoky paprika.
Peppers, of course,
and it's just making something really delicious to sit underneath
the courgettes themselves. A little bit of tomato juice.
Have a taste.
Mmm. Going to let that just gently cook away.
It's time to pass off my oil.
Look, yeah.
Beautiful. You're just extracting all that delicious flavour.
Just let it drip through.
I love that rust colour.
It's ready to go.
Love the vivid colours against the black background.
I also want the oil just to soak into the pepper as well.
It looks great.
There we go. Red pepper compote,
courgette flowers stuffed with prawn mousse and a little prawn oil
just to finish it off.
It's delicate. It's classic skill, with this mousse, but it's beautiful.
Fingers crossed.
I'd love to see that recreated, I really would.
Monica, we've got chefs coming in with a job to do.
We'll get you back in later.
Come on. Let's see what they've got. Mm. Let's get them in.
First to take on Marcus's skills test is 35-year-old Chinese-born
senior chef de partie Gail.
I grew up in Shanghai.
I currently work in a Japanese and modern European
fusion restaurant in central London.
Life as a chef is absolutely crazy.
The skills test - I admit, it's a bit scary.
I would say that's also exciting.
I wish I can get something I'm familiar with.
Hello, Gail. Hello.
This is a skills test.
This skills test was set by my friend, Marcus.
What I'd like you to make is a steamed courgette flower
with prawn mousse, red pepper compote and a prawn-head oil.
I'm going to give you 20 minutes.
Over to you.
Gail, tell me your plan.
I will start with the prawn-head oil,
so by using the head of the prawn,
and I will get it roasted.
Good, good, good, good, good.
Good. That's what you want.
Then I will get my mousse.
Do you know how to make the mousse? Yes.
So, you will get the meat with some egg whites and you blend it.
You're doing OK, you know.
She's forgotten to add the cream to her mousse.
Why the change of pan? Sorry, cos it's not big enough.
It's much easier for the shells, to roast it nicely.
Good thinking.
Right, Gail, you're halfway. Yes, chef.
So, your oil is under way.
Your mousse is finished? Almost.
I'm going to put a tiny bit of double cream inside.
The cream! Well done.
What is your food style?
My cooking is inspired a lot from my home city, Shanghai,
and also I've trained in European, in French,
and I really want to bring, like, something which is European
but also has Chinese elements in the dish.
So, what are you doing next? What are your next steps?
So, I'm going to stuff my courgette flower.
You've got seven minutes left. Yes, chef.
She's filling it with a spoon, instead of a piping bag,
so it might seep out everywhere.
OK.
Ooh! What was that you just put in your prawn oil?
Tomato? Yes, chef.
She just put tomato juice into her oil.
That's now going to emulsify into a sauce.
Gail, you've got to give some thought
to bringing this plate together now.
Yes, chef. You're running out of time.
I think she's just realised
that she should have cut the peppers down.
I think she's going to chop it up now.
Right, you've probably got about a minute.
Let's start bringing this dish together, OK? Yes, chef.
Oh!
Come on, come on, get it on the plate.
We've got the oil next, please.
You got it on. It's all done. Time's up. Well done.
You OK?
GREGG CHUCKLES
Gail. Hello.
Yours started to unravel there, didn't it?
You obviously know how to make a prawn mousse.
It's a little bit on the grainy side.
That's probably because you've just left it in the steamer too long.
I wasn't too sure why you put tomato juice into your oil,
and your pepper compote, it should have been cut up
and then put into the pan,
and then add in all the delicious flavours on your table,
your paprika, your salt, so more flavour into your compote.
You know, I'd like to think you can do a little bit better.
I thought you started off well,
getting the prawn heads into the pan, got the oil on.
But the prawn mousse does need seasoning.
You have shown you've got the training of a chef,
but you unravelled,
so you need to hold it together, like you did in the beginning
and stay focused on your cooking. Yes, chef.
I have a strong suspicion you actually know what you're doing.
Gail, see you in the next round.
Thank you. Thank you.
I did imagine me standing there for, like, 100 times
but, when I was really standing there, it was totally different.
I wasn't aware of what I was doing, actually.
Last to face the skills test is Steve,
a 33-year-old chef patron from York.
So, the restaurant is a relaxed, fine-dining bistro.
Once you've got a full restaurant and everybody's happy
and everyone's smiling and you're smashing out the food,
there's nothing beats that buzz and that feeling.
I personally believe, if you're coming into this competition
and you're not daunted by the skills test, you're lying to yourself
and you're lying to everybody you tell, because that is daunting.
Hi, Steve. Hiya. How are you feeling?
Yeah, I'm definitely nervous, but I'm excited.
Shall we get going? No.
Not yet! It's fine, it's fine.
I'm not getting out of this room until I do it, so...
That's right, yes.
Let's crack on. Well said. Good point.
20 minutes, off you go.
OK, cool.
Come on, Steve, you've got this.
Yeah. Let's just do this.
I really don't think I should have started with this,
but I have. Why?
I just feel like I should get my compote on,
just to get it cooking down.
So, I'm going with that. I'm going with that.
Righto!
So, how are you going to make your compote?
I'm going to get the peppers. I'm going to put some garlic in it.
I'm going to season it.
I'm probably going to add a little bit of tomato juice,
and then a little bit of vinegar at the end,
because I don't want it to be too sweet.
Peppers are sweet.
Peppers in the pan.
He's still to put the oil on.
Where are you from, Steve? I'm from York.
I'm being biased, but it's definitely
the best city in the UK.
It is beautiful.
So, what are you doing now, sweating down some garlic first?
I'm going to sweat down the garlic first for the compote,
just because I don't want that raw garlic flavour in it.
That's a lot of garlic.
It's really chunky garlic.
What position do you hold right now?
I don't want to say it, because I'll be embarrassed if I mess up,
but I own my restaurant.
Do you? Yeah.
I'm there for every service, so I'd class myself as a head chef.
What's happened there? I burnt my garlic. OK.
And now I'm like, I need to crack on a little bit more,
a little bit faster.
Oh, my goodness!
He's just worked himself up to a right mess.
How are you going to make the mousse?
Prawn, I'm going to bang in the blender,
egg white, spices, cream.
Blend it up. Pipe it.
Go faster than I'm going now.
Is your little pot doing OK?
Yeah. I just wanted to take a little bit of the moisture out of it first,
and then I'm going to put the tomato puree in it.
Just be careful. Those peppers are going to burn soon.
Has that burnt? It's caught a little bit on the bottom, yeah.
I can smell that from here.
Yeah, I know.
Oh, my goodness!
He's not paying attention.
It's just silly. It's just me being silly.
Right, just take a breath, calm down.
Because you've just been ridiculous.
Don't let yourself get into a panic, because it will all fall apart.
Yeah.
So, I'm going to just take this little fiddly bit out of the centre.
Pipe my mousse.
Tie it.
You still haven't got a prawn-head oil.
I still haven't got a prawn-head oil, which I'm still thinking
of how I'm going to do it.
Them first. There we go.
And we're under way.
Come on.
So, you've got seven and a half minutes to go. Yeah.
Your mousse is in the flower. Yeah. They're steaming. Yeah.
Your compote is well under way. Yeah.
Now, you've got your prawn heads cooking.
Yeah.
How did you become a chef, Steve? What was it?
So, I was general manager of a bar-restaurant in the centre of York
and essentially a few chefs left so, as general manager, you jump in.
So, I ended up in the kitchen
and I absolutely loved it.
So, your prawn oil -
you're taking the juice out of the heads. Yeah.
They might be a bit raw in the middle.
What have you got in that bowl? Oil.
Oil. Er, garlic,
and a little bit of vinegar so far.
I'm just kind of emulsifying it together.
All right, come on. A minute and a half.
Nice colour.
You've got about 30 seconds. Oui, chef.
Are you going to put that oil on the plate?
Yeah. Can I make a suggestion?
Yeah. Can you just leave it on the side?
I'm just a little bit concerned
of the cooking of what you've just done inside that. I will put it
on the side because I don't want to give you something
and then you say you're not going to eat any of it, and that's...
..that's the worst thing. Good plan.
Right. That's it.
Your time is up. Are you done?
I'm as done as I can be.
Wow, Steve, that was a tough watch.
You got yourself so flustered.
Yeah.
Your mousse is split and you've overcooked it.
Your pepper compote has got not a lot of flavour to it.
Your courgette flower is completely overcooked.
That was difficult to watch.
Really, really difficult, Steve. Yeah.
I don't want to touch that dressing.
Squeezing the prawn heads out into the oil was really scaring me.
This doesn't tell me anything about you, other than sheer panic
and just lost control of everything.
Steve, your own food comes next.
I think it's fair to say you have a point to prove to yourself
and to us. Thank you, Steve.
Cheers. Thank you.
STEVE SIGHS
Yeah. I don't think there's much going through my brain right now
other than that...was not good at all.
I thought I was all right at handling pressure,
and I've just crumbled so ridiculously much.
Skills test, I think, with very, very mixed results.
Out of the four chefs,
there is one standout.
And that, of course, is Jordan.
After that, I think you've got three chefs who have got a point to prove.
Everything can change in the next round, guys,
we've seen it happen before, and that's exactly
what we need to see from these chefs.
This is your signature two-course menu.
An hour and a half to present to us an absolutely outstanding
main course and dessert.
At the end of today, two of you will be leaving the competition.
Two of you will be going through to a quarterfinal.
Off you go.
I don't feel like the judges have seen the best of me yet.
I think it was, you know, a small 20-minute cameo.
I think I can excite them and impress them in the next round.
So, my main course is cod, Jersey Royals, asparagus
and a citrus beurre blanc.
Is that a dish that you would choose in a restaurant?
Yeah, I think it works very well.
Is there ever a difference between food you might like to cook
and food you might like to eat?
If I'm at home, then, you know I'll cook more comforting foods.
But when I'm in a professional kitchen, I like to, you know, stick
to French cooking and expand on that.
And what do you want from this competition now?
I want to win and I need to win.
Jordan is a young chef cooking simple classical food.
Of course, the cod has got to be perfectly cooked.
Overcooked, of course, it just breaks away.
Then the water starts to seep out of the cod as well.
Citrus beurre blanc - perfect.
You want that with a fish dish.
I hope there's herbs running through this.
Asparagus - it's about retaining the green.
And of course, new potatoes, very simple.
Cook them until they're cooked.
My dessert is white chocolate cremeux, raspberries
and roasted marzipan.
Grate it up, put it in the oven at 180 degrees,
so it's nice and golden all over, so it's almost like a crumb.
I like the sound of your dishes. Good luck. Thank you.
White chocolate cremeux has got to be beautifully set.
It should not feel like rubber at all, especially as Jordan's
recipe is set with gelatine.
Do like the idea of the roasted marzipan.
Curious as to what this is.
Is this just a marzipan crumble, which could be very, very strong
in the flavour of almond.
I hope it's going to knock us out when it comes to
the flavour combination.
Definitely haven't proved who I am, what I can do.
They're going to see the true cook in me.
And we can put the skills test behind us.
Who's supporting you through this, Steve?
So, at home, I've got my wife.
She's, like, my rock. She keeps me grounded.
She's definitely there. She's supporting me.
And I've also got my 18-month-old son.
I'm super happy to be here to show him, like... You've just got to...
You've got to put your passion into something and you've got
to focus it. If that's something I can instil into my son
when he gets older, then that's me, winner.
Tell us, what are you doing?
Pan-fried halibut.
Celeriac puree.
Anchovy puree.
A caper and parsley puree.
There's a lot of purees going on here.
The offcuts from the halibut I'm making into a cracker.
You've got celeriac fondant.
And you've got a Vincent's sauce -
for me, similarity to, like, tartare sauce,
so it's like a warm tartare. That's the idea for this one.
Steve's got halibut. Pan-frying the halibut,
got to be very careful that you keep the moisture,
you don't overcook it. A little bit of colour on the outside.
Steve's taken some of the fish skin,
so he's going to turn that into a cracker.
I like that. But he's got a lot of purees.
Maybe he's gone one too many.
Dessert is chocolate mousse with a chocolate ganache,
and the white chocolate and coffee ganache as well.
I've also got some black olive puree running through the dessert as well.
And a buckwheat tuile that sits on top of it.
You owe it to yourself to deliver this well.
Huge amount of risk involved in the dessert.
Two ganaches - they've got to both work.
Ganache is something that if you're not keeping an eye on it,
it can become incredibly heavy and set very, very hard.
Is the black olive going to dominate the dessert?
You know, this is the point of difference.
This is the point of interest.
This is the bit that can make or break a dessert.
There's a lot of soft textures here.
I hope there's a big cracker of a tuile because it needs it.
If I'm going to be completely honest, I do not like desserts.
Like, point blank, chocolate is not my thing.
I don't really eat desserts.
If I had my way, they would just have two main courses.
So...
Chefs, you are halfway.
I really need to bring my main signature dishes
forward and elevate them,
and they need to scream refinement, especially after the skills test.
I'm going to try.
Kirsty, how are you feeling now?
I'm definitely in between nervous, yeah, and buzzing.
So I want to bring it this round and show you my food.
What are your two dishes?
I've done spring lamb loin with a pea and mint puree,
honey and hazelnut roasted carrots,
feta and potato croquette,
and then a pea salad with just a nice red wine jus.
And then my dessert is a lavender panna cotta
with a honey tuile and macerated berries.
Where are these two ideas from?
I love the seasons changing in this country.
The sight of lamb, you know, coming back into season,
it just fills me with joy,
and this is where these dishes come from.
They are trying to use the best of what's in season
and celebrate those.
Kirsty is looking really confident cooking her own food
and that's exactly what you want to see.
Kirsty's main course is lamb loin, which is going to sear off,
so it needs beautiful golden colour
and, of course, resting is going to be very important.
A good sauce is about the flavour.
If she's making a red wine sauce, I want to taste red wine.
I want to see consistency, I want to see a clean sauce,
I want to see it work with the dish.
We've had many takes on pea with lamb,
with asparagus and lamb sauce,
so everything's got to be spot on.
Kirsty is making a lavender panna cotta.
The infusion of the lavender into the milk,
really, really important.
Like making a cup of tea.
It's got to bring out the flavour.
That's the whole point of the infusion.
She's going to set it and then pour it out on the plate.
I hope that it's one that's been tried and tested.
A wobble? Yes. A melt? No, no.
For my dishes,
I got a lot of inspiration from all the flavours
from my home city, Shanghai.
If they are nicely cooked, I'm sure they will be very, very delicious.
Gail, tell us about your dishes.
My main is steamed sea bream with ham and turnip greens,
and the sauce will be soya and a Chinese Shaoxing wine sauce.
The side will be the steamed Eight Treasure Rice.
The reason why it is called Eight Treasure Rice
is because it contains eight elements in the rice.
What are the eight treasures in the rice?
Goji berries, ginkgo seeds,
shiitake and chestnut mushrooms
and peas.
Wow!
That's exciting.
My dessert will be egg tofu.
You said egg tofu?
Yes. It is a steamed egg custard.
It's like a soya milk custard?
Yes. Serving it with Osmanthus lime syrup,
Oolong tea Chantilly
and a seaweed pistachio crunch.
What's Osmanthus?
It is a unique flower from Shanghai.
It has a very honey, apricot flavour.
I think your food is really exciting and I can't wait.
Thank you, Chef.
I'm excited about Gail's two dishes.
I love the food from Shanghai.
She's bringing some of that heritage of hers to her European style
of cooking that she's learned.
Exciting.
Gail has taken her sea bream, she's rolling it,
she's then going to cook it in the water bath for about 30 minutes,
and then finishing it in the steamer.
Served with a Chinese wine sauce,
and it's got mirin through, it's got soy sauce and fish stock.
Already, you can see how that would work with steamed fish.
Mm, delicious.
It's being served with a rice dish that she calls,
it's got eight treasures in it
because it's got eight different ingredients running through it.
Rice is served many different ways all over the world.
What I do want, though, is a cooked rice.
Gail's dessert is like an egg custard, she says,
but it's almost the texture of tofu.
There's some syrup she's made from a flower that grows
abundantly from Shanghai.
It smells of peaches, and it has a citrus-like taste to it,
so I'm so curious on this dessert.
And just to finish this dish, a little touch of seaweed sugar.
So a real lovely twist there going in at the end.
She's intriguing, she's interesting,
she's exciting.
I hope it all comes together.
Can I just make an observation?
Your plastic is melted.
Yes. That's slightly concerning, I have to say.
Look. So, that melting there is your plastic... Right.
..and that's going into your pudding,
which is not good for us to consume.
Unfortunately, that's not going to be edible.
Your main course looks done.
Let's just try and maybe rustle up something.
Yes.
You have just ten minutes, please.
Chefs, ten minutes. Goes quick.
Well done, Gail.
It's a little bit overset,
but I think once it comes up to temperature,
it should do what it needs to do.
One minute. Finishing touches.
Right. How's your rice? It's cooked?
Yes.
OK. That's it! Stop.
Time's up.
NARRATOR: First up is junior sous chef Jordan.
His main is pan roasted cod,
blanched asparagus and boiled Jersey Royal potatoes,
finished with a citrus beurre blanc.
GREGG: Very smart, very elegant.
The sort of dish you see
in fashionable food magazines.
Thank you.
The cod is nicely cooked.
Beurre blanc, lovely, creamy and smooth.
I'm sorry to say my potatoes are undercooked.
Your asparagus, beautifully peeled, beautifully coloured.
Your potatoes...
Jordan, potato.
They're not cooked.
Attention to detail, my friend.
Attention to detail.
MONICA: The asparagus is lovely.
I like the citrus and the sauce.
But your potato?
It's hard.
NARRATOR: For his dessert, Jordan has made
a white chocolate cremeux,
roasted marzipan with fresh raspberries
and a raspberry sauce.
The cremeux is beautiful in texture.
I can taste the white chocolate.
The raspberry coulis is delicious.
I particularly like that roasted marzipan.
I never had that before.
So first of all, you get a sugar and a crunch
and then it's finished with the almond flavour.
I love the flavour of the white chocolate running through it.
The coulis, which is so sharp, actually, it balances out
with the sweetness of the marzipan that you've got here.
And together, it's delightful.
I think you're doing great things.
At 20 years old?
Can't wait to see you when you're hitting it at 25.
JORDAN: Not what I was expecting.
I was happy with my dessert.
Main course, it's got to be 100% perfect.
And maybe it was, I don't know, 85%,
which might be enough, might not be enough.
NARRATOR: Catering business owner Kirsty's main
is roasted lamb loin served with a pea and mint puree,
a potato and feta croquette,
honey roasted carrots,
toasted hazelnuts,
peas and a lamb jus.
There is a lot going on here.
But I am loving the colours.
Thank you.
GREGG: Lamb cooked well. Rested.
Lacks a little bit of seasoning in places across the lamb.
And the croquette, I can understand you not seasoning it
because it's got feta in it and the feta should be salty,
although there's not a great deal of feta in there.
Peas are nice, but they're frozen peas.
Spring season. Get some fresh ones on there.
Croquette, I would have liked the filling to have been
broken down a bit more,
because I've just got, like, a chunk of potato in the middle of it.
So for me, you've got to really start to refine your cooking.
But your red wine sauce, I'm actually quite enjoying.
It's sort of a luxury roast dinner going on here
and a lovely sauce to go with it.
But you've got to hone in on detail here.
Absolutely. Your carrots are slightly on the overcooked side,
croquettes a bit rough.
There's everything that you want.
I just want it elevating.
Yes, Chef. Oui.
NARRATOR: For dessert, Kirsty has made a lavender panna cotta
with a honey tuile, pickled strawberries,
blueberries and micro mint.
GREGG: Love the honey richness through your little tuile here.
Thank you. Love that.
There is, without doubt, far too much setting agent
in your panna cotta, which is not wobbling.
That's very, very firm indeed.
The heart and soul of the dessert, which is a panna cotta... Yep.
..not good. No.
Not enough sugar, not enough lavender
and too much setting agent.
Kirsty, panna cotta, the way you've taken it out of the mould,
you can see it's stuck, it was so set.
Yep. It's not right.
So it's a disappointing dessert from you.
Absolutely.
KIRSTY: Being in that kitchen is super overwhelming.
I think they looked pretty, they looked elegant
and overall, like, I did my best.
NARRATOR: Senior chef de partie Gail's main course
is a ballotine of steamed sea bream
with turnip greens, wrapped in ham,
crispy leeks, broccoli, fresh ginger
and spring onion...
..Eight Treasure Rice, containing goji berries, peas, ginkgo seeds,
shiitake mushrooms, chestnut mushrooms,
shrimps and yeast flakes...
..served with a soy and Chinese wine sauce.
Gail, I like the way your main course looks here.
The Chinese wine sauce has got the flavours of the soy.
I like the saltiness of the ham with fish.
So I'm loving those flavours together.
And the rice is almost a bit sticky.
The eight treasures, I can't name them all.
It's definitely delicious.
I love how unique your style of food is.
It is delicious.
You have wonderful flavours.
The ginger and the spring onion
with the bitterness of the turnip top,
they are familiar flavours.
I love your sauce.
It's got, like, a haunt of tea, but it's slightly sweet,
like a little bit of caramel.
I believe you have wonderful ideas.
Absolutely lovely.
I'm really enjoying the thinking,
the flavours and where this dish is from.
Good job.
Unable to use her egg tofu,
Gail is serving Oolong tea Chantilly
with a pistachio and seaweed crunch
and osmanthus lime syrup.
It's interesting. You haven't got the main elements of your dessert,
but what you have put up here is absolutely delicious.
The syrup with the flowers running through it is fantastic.
It's like a cooked marmalade flavour
with an essence of a flower.
It's lingering like a fine wine.
That's delicious.
If I didn't really know about your tofu custard,
and you put that in front of me,
I'd be very happy with this.
The Oolong tea Chantilly,
I love the bitterness and earthiness of the tea that runs through that.
This is a bowl of delight.
Your dessert is absolutely delicious.
But it's also very new.
You've got a cold cream in there
that is the texture of a soft custard.
It's absolutely lovely.
But it's got Oolong tea flavour, which is bitter.
Your food is really exciting.
Thank you.
They loved my dessert.
I've, I'm...
I feel I have enough to take away with me.
I'm just so happy.
NARRATOR: Finally, it's the turn of chef patron, Steve.
He's cooked pan-fried halibut,
a halibut cracker,
a celeriac fondant,
celeriac puree, parsley and caper puree...
..and anchovy puree,
finished with a Sauce Vincent.
Steve, sadly, my fish, I find, is overcooked.
And you can see it's gone dry
and it's a shame because I love halibut.
So, you've got the parsley and the capers on the side,
and you've got the anchovy puree there, which are nice,
but when you mix that through the sauce it is all very strong.
Steve, you've got some really good flavours here.
I love the little salsa verde-style sauce,
that's got the acidity in there and the freshness of the herbs.
And celery puree, the puree is beautifully made.
Your Sauce Vincent, it's got lovely flavour to it,
it's got the shallots at the bottom, some herbs.
It's just slightly...
Everything's working against each other.
The cracker on the side,
I don't get any fish flavour from it.
It has a nice artistic value,
but it doesn't bring any eating value to the dish.
Although it's not without small errors,
you definitely are a different chef to the shaking wreck
that walked into the skills test.
I think you've made a point to us and to yourself as well.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
NARRATOR: For dessert, Steve is serving a chocolate mousse
with a burnt white chocolate crumble,
white chocolate and coffee ganache,
burnt butter chocolate ganache,
a buckwheat tuile,
olive oil and black olives.
GREGG: Was it supposed to be an olive puree or just olives?
It was supposed to be an olive puree.
Time got a little bit away from me, but I didn't want to not put
it on the dish, so I've diced up the olives instead.
I've got deep, rich chocolate with a little sprinkling of salt,
which is very, very familiar.
The olives, it could work as a little bit of saltiness,
but I think halving them isn't right
because that means you get a great big olive flavour
with one mouthful.
It's sweet, it's chocolatey,
we've got some nuts on the plate and we've got some chopped up olives.
Doesn't really resemble a dessert.
The coffee white chocolate ganache is like a sauce.
Grainy, it's not right.
Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm not enjoying this.
Take the positives, learn from the negatives.
Just be better.
1% every day is what I say.
But this was definitely, like, a 50-60% day.
What an unusual day.
A day of some fantastic ideas and some silly mistakes.
For me, Gail's menu was the one that excited me the most
and I loved the Chinese wine sauce with the soy running through it.
The dessert wasn't all complete, but I'll tell you what, though.
What she put up didn't half taste good.
Steve's main course, the halibut,
really nice ideas of the different purees, but my fish was overcooked.
When you go to the dessert, chopped up olives, ganache.
All wrong.
We are agreed that Gail is going through to a quarterfinal...
Yep. ..and Steve is leaving the competition.
That leaves us with Jordan and Kirsty.
Jordan had an amazing skills test.
Full of confidence, really knew what he was doing.
Impressed all three of us.
We were all of us slightly disappointed with his main course.
Undercooked potatoes.
Just not good news when it comes to his main course.
His desserts, beautiful presentation.
Loved that roasted marzipan. That was new to me.
And then, of course, with the very, very sharp raspberry coulis.
That worked.
If Jordan is the chef we think he is,
he will learn a very valuable lesson.
Kirsty had lamb, a lot of work going on the plate.
Red wine sauce was nice.
I liked the vegetables, but a lot happening
and her food needs refinement.
And then her dessert,
the panna cotta was bouncy and not well done at all.
I'd like to think that I've done enough to go through,
but it's hard to tell.
Like, it's 50-50.
It is anyone's game.
I feel like I've got more to give.
Everyone's still finding their feet, and if I did go home today,
I'd be very, very disappointed.
Jordan and Kirsty.
Whose errors can you forgive?
Chefs, that was a tough day in our kitchen.
GREGG: We have made a decision.
Two of you are leaving the competition,
but two of you are going through to a quarterfinal.
The first chef leaving us is...
TENSE STRINGS PLAY PIANO CHORDS PLAY
..Steve.
Appreciate it.
Sorry. You're leaving us.
Thank you. Thank you. MONICA: Thanks, Steve.
The second chef leaving us is...
TENSE SYNTH TICKS POIGNANT PIANO CHORDS CHIME
..Kirsty.
Kirsty, it was a tough call.
You're a great chef. Thank you.
I loved it. I really loved it. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Good luck, guys. Thanks.
No-one wants to go home on the first day, but...
Gutted, for sure. But I gave it my all.
I can walk out of this day with my head held high.
It didn't go the way I wanted it to today.
It's happened.
I just think maybe the day got on top of us a little bit.
Congratulations. The pair of you are through to a quarterfinal.
Sigh of relief after that decision.
So, you know, going forward,
I definitely need to, you know,
show thanks, really, for putting me through
and, you know, step up my game.
I'm so happy and I'm so proud of I bring some of my home flavours.
The judges loved them and I feel it's all worth it.
GAIL CHUCKLES
Next time, four new hopefuls...
GREGG: Oh. MONICA: Did you break it?
..fight for their place in the quarterfinal.
I'm enjoying myself and that's part of it, surely?
It's not all pain.
CONTESTANT CHUCKLES
It's skills.
And lots of them on show here, in many, many different ways.
I'm really, really impressed with you.