It's the MasterChef quarterfinal,
and this week's four best cooks are back.
I didn't think I'd get this far, but now I just want
it more. Like, I want to stay in this competition.
I get goose bumps just thinking about where I'm at at the moment.
I can't wait to tell my dad to watch this.
It'll probably bring a tear to his eyes.
It's getting a bit more serious.
So, yeah, I feel like there's a bit more riding on today.
I keep pinching myself thinking I'm just dreaming.
I'm going to run in there and just attack this challenge.
This is an absolutely huge round.
A bit of Picasso, that is, mate.
I mean, I'm doing my happy dance.
I can't stop smiling.
I absolutely love it.
They have got to cook to impress.
This is a dinner party like no other.
I say bring it on.
This is a big day, no doubt about it.
You are not just going to serve your food to John and me today,
you are going to cook for the final three of last year's MasterChef.
That is Radha, Pookie and the champion, Eddie.
This is where pressure really starts.
What we want from you are two courses in one hour and 15 minutes.
We can only take the best cooks with us.
Deliver something delicious
and you get yourself a place in knockout week.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's cook.
Oh, yeah.
Rice, rice, rice.
Vanessa has got a slightly dangerous wild side,
like blueberries in pasta.
This is not a dish that I love.
But underneath that is a very passionate, very talented cook.
Biryani in the last round was an absolute knockout.
I've tried my best to try and find a balance between still being myself
and trying to please both judges with sort of
more crowd-pleasing dishes.
Today, I'm really toning it back.
There are no bells and whistles with this dish... OK.
..and I really hope that they like it.
What are you doing, Vanessa?
Goan fish curry, called a fish ambotik.
Some steamed rice and a Vanessa salad.
It's a traditional Goan curry.
And in the Konkani language, ambot means sour and tik means hot.
So it's quite an unusual curry.
It's tangy, it's a bit sour, but it's still got a kick to it.
You seem really passionate about this curry.
What are the links between you and Goa?
So my parents are from Goa and I want to showcase the heritage
that I'm from.
And this particular curry means a lot to me, because if I close my
eyes, I can literally smell my grandmother's house.
So, yeah, I hope I do it justice.
That is lovely!
Vanessa is cooking crowd-pleasers.
We've got a fish curry.
Now, that sauce has to be really powerful.
It's got to be spicy, but not too spicy you can't taste the fish.
It's a balancing act. On the side,
we've got a Vanessa salad.
Bombay mix with lots and lots of herbs,
including mint and coriander. Fantastic.
Where are my moulds?
We've got for dessert a chocolate
fondant with raspberries and some cream.
Chocolate! With my chocolate fondant, there's a hint of miso.
A fondant for me, personally, can be a bit sickly sweet.
The miso pulls it back a little bit with a tiny bit of saltiness.
What troubles me is not the fact that it's got miso in it,
just the fact that it's a fondant and I've seen
so many fail.
Everything's going to plan.
Terri loves classic technique.
We've seen her make a mille-feuilles.
The ice cream had basil, and the sauce was balsamic vinegar.
She's daring, she takes a classic idea and turns it on its head.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Let's fish those out.
Are you going that inventive way on these two courses as well?
A little bit. I'm cooking steamed
cod that's going to be dusted with nori powder,
with wasabi and creme fraiche sauce, baby turnips
and a Vietnamese rice cracker.
My dessert is going back to kind of that classic style that I do.
So I'm doing a passion fruit souffle.
Japanese flavours, is that something you love? I've been lucky enough to
visit Japan. We went for the Rugby World Cup. I could eat my way around
that country, I think, forever. So I like to bring those influences
in to the food that I cook.
We've got a main course of steamed cod, steamed all the way through,
so that when you touch it, it's translucent and falls apart.
Across the top, she's making a crumb from nori - sheets of seaweed,
which are already salty and quite well-flavoured.
With that we're getting
wasabi and creme fraiche sauce, so we're going to get fiery
horseradish with sour sharpness coming from the cream.
Well, that works quite nicely with a piece of fish
as long as it's not overpowering.
If she does manage to get the souffle
to rise, and fingers crossed, let's hope she does,
it's got to be light and fluffy throughout.
Risky.
There is room for things to go wrong.
My souffle, if that doesn't rise, then, yeah,
they're going to have a puddle on a plate.
Happy with that.
MATTHEW:# Very good, very nice! #
Matthew has mastered the art of really lovely
classic Caribbean flavours.
This is a dish that I'll remember, you know? I love it.
I'd like to see Matthew deliver some of the elegant presentation
he did in the first round.
I'm going to try a different cuisine today.
I'm just trying to showcase my versatility, to show it's not
just Caribbean food that I can cook.
It's a massive risk, but I always say big risk, big rewards.
I am making a chicken ballotine stuffed with truffle oil
and mushrooms, pomme mousseline and red wine sauce. And dessert?
A sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and rum caramel sauce.
Whoa! Hey, Caribbean,
I have to get it in somewhere. Is this the sort of food
you like to cook for your mates when they come around?
Or a date, you never know. Yeah!
If I want to show off a bit, then I'll cook this sort of dish.
HE LAUGHS
That should be enough.
Ballotine of chicken.
Oh, this is messy. Wrapping
the bacon around the outside.
He's going to poach it first, and then he's going to fry it.
The chicken breast, I hope, doesn't dry out.
I'm worried about the amount of work he's given himself.
We've got ballotine, red wine sauce, potato mousseline,
a sticky toffee pudding.
Ooh, hoo, hoo! And ice cream...
That's nice, that is. ..and a rum sauce.
Woo! Unless he sprouts another pair of arms, I think
he could be in trouble.
It's coming together.
Slowly but surely, it's coming together.
NICKOLAS:Right.
Nickolas has given us classic French cookery technique.
But I'd like to see some of those Latin flavours that he loves
that he gave us in the first round.
You grew up over here, so where did
you learn the flavours of South America?
From my mum. I grew up with a single mum.
She was out cleaning in the evenings and she taught me all the skills
cos I had to cook the dinner for her when she got back.
She didn't have a lot of money, but she always saved her pennies
together and took me to different countries and showed me the foods
of the world and I just fell in love with it.
What do you want from today, Nickolas?
I'm hungry, I'm passionate. I just want to keep going.
And a place in the next round, can you do it?
Fingers crossed.
What's inspired me today? I'm going back to my roots.
I've shown them I could do French technique,
now let's bring the Latin back and show where my passion lies
and bring some spice back into their life.
Oh, Nickolas, octopus, first of all, cooked inside a pressure cooker.
That's proper pressure, isn't it, Nickolas?
Definitely! HE LAUGHS
It all is about cooking that tentacle on that octopus properly.
Just get it nice and meaty.
That is being served on maize, like a soft corn porridge.
And then he's going to drizzle a smoky, peppery chilli
sauce over it.
It's spicy, though.
Bring it on!
And then we're having a tarte Tatin made with pears.
And he's serving it with Chantilly cream.
Mate, Greggy heaven.
20 minutes left before the first courses go out!
It's just feeling so unreal to be back here,
feeling like I'm home again.
Like I want to shout when I arrive,
like, "Honey, I'm home!"
SHE LAUGHS
Life since MasterChef has completely
changed, and it's changed for the better.
I'm a private chef,
I do private catering and dining.
MasterChef's allowed me to do that.
Yeah, it's phenomenal.
This challenge, eight plates of food in one hour, 15 minutes,
the contestants will be feeling the pressure.
I remember I was. I was sweating, I was thinking,
"How am I going to overcome this challenge?"
It's huge.
Guests have arrived, and they have a look of expectation
on their face.
I'm so pleased I'll be sitting on this side and not standing there.
Vanessa, you seem like in control.
Yeah, I'm good. Yeah.
Ready.
So, Vanessa for the main course is giving us
Goan fish ambotik served with rice and a herb salad.
What I'm going to look for, the Goan curry
not going to overpowering the fish.
That's how I wanted it, it's fine.
These look really pretty, but are we ready to go?
We've got two minutes. Yeah, I will be.
The herb salad, I think, should be really vibrant,
packed full of flavour, freshness.
You've got Eddie and Radha in there who know a thing or two
about the food of India. I know, it's what's terrifying.
HE LAUGHS
Rice is always a bit of a challenge in the MasterChef kitchen,
I think, isn't it? Oh, yes! SHE LAUGHS
It smells great!
That looks fantastic.
All right, good to go.
Yay! Come on! Whoa!
Beautiful!
Hello!
Thank you.
LAUGHS: Matches your outfit!
Today, I have cooked a traditional Goan fish ambotik served with some
steamed rice and a Vanessa salad.
It's all the bits that I like from a salad, so no lettuce.
SHE LAUGHS I hope you enjoy!
Thank you. Thank you.Thank you.
It looks fantastic.
I love the idea of it being served in a tiffin tin.
I love the way she cooked the fish.
I think it's delicate enough, it's just, like, not too mushy,
so I'm impressed.
The fish curry. There's a nice, gentle warmth that builds
at the back of the palate, which I think is really nice.
I've not had the fish, being a vegetarian and all,
but the salad is genius.
It's so hot, that sauce,
but then you've got the cooling from the salad.
I'm really enjoying this dish from Vanessa,
I think it's amazing.
Yummy!
The fish is collapsing into nice slices.
This is a lovely, lovely dish.
The spice mix around the fish is beautiful.
It's creamy, but at the same time, it's really rich.
That's great!
You've got to get moving, you've got 14 minutes. OK.
How long have they got to be in the oven for? 12. OK.
The timing for the chocolate
fondant - got to be perfect, otherwise it's not oozing out,
and then we're going to end up with a flop.
OK.
Pfft.
Oh, yes! They're rising beautifully! They are. Oh, they've puffed up.
TIMER BEEPS
Oh! All right. Am I good to go?
Yeah. Come on!
Righty-o.
Oh-oh. We have to go.
We've got the raspberries soaked in that plum sort of liqueur.
So, yeah, it'll be really interesting to see
all those flavours working together.
You're doing all right, actually.
Hello.
Thank you.
Today, you have a chocolate fondant.
It has a hint of miso in,
so it should have a saltiness, and some raspberries soaked
in a Japanese plum liqueur.
Amazing!Hope you enjoy.
I just really hope that some of it was runny inside.
I didn't even get a chance to check.
Oh, I feel sorry for Vanessa because my one is no good.
I'm not tasting much of the miso. I know it only said a hint of miso,
but I would have wanted a little bit more.
It's a shame because the chocolate fondant itself tastes amazing.
You can't get any of that alcohol on the raspberries.
I think that would have brought another dimension.
Some really interesting ideas and flavour combinations,
but I don't think she's quite pulled it off.
It's the raspberries and miso I'm finding unusual.
Together with chocolate, there's a lot going on in that plate.
That's not cooked enough in there,
but it's a nice idea and it tastes good.
Terri, you've got about eight minutes.
Terri's doing a lot in this dish.
Very ambitious, but, hopefully, she'll pull it out the bag.
I really like the look of this, Terri, and it smells good.
I'm intrigued as to how she's going to balance the dish with the wasabi.
Some amazing-sounding Japanese flavours going on.
Make my mouth like water already, so I can't wait for this.
I say, I say, what a lovely dish.
Wow! It's like it's got a wedding veil on.
Splendid! Let's go!
Go, go, go. Thank you.
Thank you.
So today I've cooked for you steamed cod, dusted in nori
powder, on a bed of creme fraiche and wasabi sauce,
with poached baby turnips,
a Vietnamese rice cracker and samphire.
Looks fantastic, really does!
Enjoy, guys. Thank you.
Just beautiful visually, and the flavour just match.
We've got a little bit of the bitterness from the poached turnip,
that is beautiful as well.
The fish has been cooked perfectly. That nori powder on the top,
which really adds a lot of depth, almost like a seasoning.
And I'm coming to eat at Terri's house.
THEY LAUGH
The wasabi in the creme fraiche sauce getting the kick,
I absolutely love it.
She's steamed that piece of fish like an expert, and there's enough
of that wasabi to make it a little bit mustard-y.
I am in love with that. It's a fantastic dish.
Terri, you've got 15 minutes for your dessert.
Perfect.
Are you all right? I'm good, yes. Great.
Just to sugar my moulds.
Terri is definitely brave to give us a souffle, and pairing
it with the passion fruit,
I think that's genius, cos passion fruit is almost
a sour fruit.
It's going to be a tense few moments for Terri while she's staring
at that oven to make sure that her souffle's going to rise.
Yeah, fingers crossed they come out as planned.
Look at that! Come on!
Hey-hey!
Boom! Let's go!
OK.
Hey!
Thank you so much.
Breathe!
THEY LAUGH
It's a really technically well-made souffle, got that perfect rise.
You do get that intense passion fruit flavour.
I mean, I'm doing my happy dance. I can't stop smiling
every time I get my spoon and I go into this dessert.
I absolutely love it.
I think this is a little bowl of passion.
Absolutely stunning. Very light, airy.
Everything that I look for in souffle.
Love it! Yeah, I can't stop eating this now.
Oh, that's clever, that's skilful.
It is a delicious, delicious dessert.
Risen up beautifully,
it looks fantastic, it's a really bold statement.
They rose, my souffles rose!
Ooh. Ah, yeah.
That was...what a day! SHE LAUGHS
Pots on the floor, blenders on the floor.
Have you got mess everywhere else? LAUGHS:I know.
That's exactly what it is.
You've got about 23 minutes left.
23 minutes left?
Ballotine, a really technical dish, he's got to ensure that the chicken
has been stuffed nicely with a good amount of filling.
Some classic combinations here, so, looking forward to this.
Chicken's ready to go?
It should be... Happy?
Could be better, could be better.
Well, I'm amazed you've got this out, my friend.
Sauce to go? That red wine sauce,
it needs to have that nice depth of flavour.
You need to get these plates out now, Matthew. OK.
Yeah, there's a lot going on with this dish.
OK! Are we ready? Yep.
Well done, my friend. You got it out. Well done.
Thank you.No worries.
Today, I've made for you
chicken ballotine stuffed with truffle mushrooms, wilted
spinach, pomme mousseline potatoes,
crispy chicken skin and red wine sauce.
Thank you. Thank you.
Well, I think the ballotine's made well. It's tightly tight
and cut very nicely.
Pity the crispy chicken skin is not crispy any more.
The pomme mousseline, or as we call it up in Yorkshire, some mash,
it's got great flavour, but sadly, it just needed
to be a little bit smoother.
I'd love a bit more filling, a bit
more of that earthy mushroom flavour,
and the sauce is quite overpoweringly sweet.
It's not perfect, but I am really impressed that Matthew's
actually managed to get this all done.
That sticky toffee needs to be really indulgent.
There needs to be loads of rum in the sauce.
Smell that.
Aye!
I'm really going to look forward to try the rum caramel.
Phew! Phew!
Do you reckon that'll put hair on their chest?
LAUGHS:Yeah!
One more for good luck.
HE LAUGHS
OK.
It's a real far departure from your normal style, isn't it, Matthew?
It is, it is.
Normally, I don't eat sweet that much, but I actually want to try
all this and see whether he can change my mind.
Ice cream? We are now running behind.
They're ready, they're waiting.
Thank you. Thank you.
So I prepared for you a sticky toffee pudding served
with rum caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream.
Thank you, guys, hope you enjoy.
Thanks a lot. Thank you.
As far as the sponge goes, it's cooked really nicely.
It's moist, it's got a nice flavour.
I think the caramel sauce is spot on,
you've got that nice warmth of rum.
When you eat it all together, it's a good dessert.
It's very sweet for me. Wow.
I feel like I'm going to be hyper kid now, like running
around the room.
The ice cream, I would have liked
a little bit more vanilla in there, but it's brave
to do a sticky toffee pudding and not present
it in the traditional way.
A sticky toffee pudding is a beautiful thing.
Pudding, sauce, ice cream.
It's good.
Why it's been cut up into bits and made pretty patterns of,
I'm not quite sure.
HE BLOWS LIPS
My gosh! I'm just glad that it's all over and done with.
I can kind of...sigh. HE SIGHS
Just a horrible waiting game now
just to see if you done enough, really.
Oh, my gosh!
Nickolas's main course, grilled octopus.
I think cooking octopus within an hour,
that's a big challenge.
I don't want to be, like, chewing the tentacle.
So we shall wait and see how it's going to turn out.
Nice. Very artistic.
A bit of Picasso, that is, mate, bit of Picasso.
HE LAUGHS
I like this.
We've got flavours from South, Central America here.
Happy with the flavours? Flavours are bang on, yeah.
It's got to pack a punch.
Well done.
There you are. Thank you.
So we have chargrilled octopus with an ancho and chipotle
sauce with maize.
Amazing! Thank you. Thank you.
Octopus cooked to perfection.
It's got just the right amount of give, a really nice texture.
I love the bacon on the maize as well. Delicious!
Absolutely yummy.
A bit of smoky chilli,
a little bit of warmth in the sauce.
Some excellent skill and excellent, excellent cooking.
Octopus is absolutely perfect.
Meaty, not slippery, not too dry, not too bouncy.
That chilli sticky jam is lovely.
It's smoky and slightly sharp and sour and really, really rich.
That's great!
So, after the octopus, now we're going to have pear tarte Tatin
served with Chantilly cream.
What is Nickolas going to present here to us?
I want something that's going to wow me.
I'm sure it's going to be a nervous moment for Nickolas
when he's in that kitchen, turning out that pear tarte Tatin.
Woo, woo, woo, woo, that was hot!
Hopefully, it will come out the way he wants it to come out.
Happy with that? I wish it was a little bit more brown on the top,
but if the taste's there, that's the main thing as well, so...
The pears should be beautifully tender,
the caramel should be really dark but not bitter.
You're on time, your food's cooked, it looks good.
You're doing well.
Hey, they're ready for us now.
Flower! Pretty flower!
Hello again. HE CHUCKLES
You seem quite relaxed.
Not inside! THEY LAUGH
I've got a pear tarte Tatin for you with some Chantilly cream.
Amazing, thank you!Thank you.
The tart is quite thin, but I quite like it that way as well,
so I really enjoyed this.
The Chantilly cream,
I'm happy that it's not been over-whipped and I love
that addition of that lemon zest on top because it sort of gives
the mouth a bit of respite from all of that sweetness.
The caramel, I think, could have been taken a little bit further,
a little bit darker, but I still happily ate it.
It's a really tall order to get a tarte Tatin perfectly cooked
in an hour and 15 minutes.
It's not the smartest tarte Tatin I've ever seen, but it's comforting,
it's soft, the fruit is cooked, it's nice.
Yeah, a bit emotional.
I, like, I did my best, but I just think I could have done better.
I thought that was a great quarterfinal.
I have feasted today on some brilliant dishes.
It has to be said that on a day of great cooks, there was one person
who stood out,
and that was Terri.
Her food was great. It was daring, it was exciting.
The dining room loved it, we loved it.
Ah, Terri's going through.
The other three did some good cooking, but there are also
a few issues. We really liked
Vanessa's Goan curry, the guests in the dining room enjoyed
it as well. If there was any issue at all, it was probably
the chocolate fondant.
Matthew did a huge amount of work, but, for me, that main course
didn't turn out the way it really should have.
I really enjoyed Matthew's sticky toffee pudding, but Pookie thought
Matthew's dessert was a little too sweet.
And the way in which it was all put together on the plate,
I found that quite challenging.
Nickolas has shown lots of Latin American passion, and we got
those lovely chilli, hot, delicious sauce with the octopus
and the maize.
Nickolas's tarte Tatin,
all right, I have to admit, there were some technical issues with it,
but I enjoyed eating it, John.
And so did the guests in the dining room.
We said at the start of this, we can only take the best cooks
with us. Who goes through to knockout week with Terri
and who's going home?
I just hope they can see the passion that I have inside of me.
I'm very competitive and ambitious and I want it to go further.
I really hope I can.
I'm just going to sit with my fingers and toes crossed.
I'm not ready to go home, I want to go into the next round.
Competition's really tough at this stage,
and a small mistake or a big mistake can send you home.
Yeah. I can't do much more now,
just hope for the best,
prepare for the worst, right?
Well done, you four.
We've got the thoughts and the critique of the guests
in the dining room.
By and large, pretty impressed.
We said we can only take the best cooks through.
One of you is leaving the competition.
The person leaving us is...
..Matthew.
Thank you so much, guys. Well done, bro.
Thank you, thank you.
I'm a bit gutted, I'm not going to lie,
but it's been an amazing experience from the very first day to the last.
I will never forget, the years to come, it's just been fantastic.
Congratulations, you're through to knockout week.
Oh, my God, well done!
Brilliant.
Shaking like a leaf.
I really thought I was going.
I didn't think I was going through.
It just feels like a dream.
Now I'm here, I just want it more and more.
I came here with the attitude
of I just want to see how far I can get.
But then once you get a taste of that kitchen, I just want to do
it till the very end.
I feel on top of the world.
Yeah, I'm ready for the next round now, bring it on.
Next time, nine new hopefuls...
Spice, spice,
I love my spice. ..audition for the right to wear a coveted
MasterChef apron...
Double-handed, wow! ..and secure their place in the competition.
The young fellow's got talent.
I think it's banging!