It's the MasterChef quarterfinal.
And this week's four best cooks are back.
Being in the quarterfinals, it's absolutely amazing.
It's kind of a blur of excitement and stress
and, you know, more excitement and a bit more stress.
It's just unbelievable to get this far.
| really enjoy cooking for John and Gregg.
It just feels unreal.
Everyone here is absolutely hungry for it.
I'm as ready as I can be.
Tonight, their toughest challenge so far...
Oh, God. Where's my tea towel? There it is.
...stands between them and a place in knockout week.
Rushing. I am rushing.
That is delicious.
The competition this quarterfinal is absolutely ferocious.
I'm loving this. I think this is going to be an absolute beauty.
Welcome to a MasterChef quarterfinal.
We want you today not just to impress us,
but to really impress guests we've invited into the dining room.
You have a finalist and two champions of MasterChef -
Alexina Anatole, Dhruv Baker and Thomas Frake.
I need to tell you, we can only take the best cooks with us.
You know what you've got to do - deliver, impress,
get yourself a place in knockout week.
Ladies and gentlemen, one hour and 15 minutes, two courses.
Your first course in one hour.
Let's cook.
We've seen a tart inspired by breakfast cereal.
I find that delicious, my friend.
We've seen a lemon tart, beautiful and elegant.
In between that, he gave us a savoury dish we weren't sure about.
Well, he's got two dishes today and they've both got to be perfect.
I am determined to stay in the competition
and do my dish proud today.
And I think most importantly,
put a little pinch of nostalgia in there.
Robin, happy to be in the quarterfinal? I'm incredibly happy.
What are you going to cook for us?
So today I'm cooking two courses with the theme of corn.
Fried chicken with a fondant potato
and then a corn veloute, which is split with some chorizo oil.
For my second course, I'm making a corn cereal steeped panna cotta
with a corn cereal crumb
and a little bit of butterscotch sauce.
You like breakfast cereal then, Robin?
I do like breakfast cereal.
I just realised it's a theme running through my dishes!
He's going to do buttermilk fried chicken.
It needs to be crispy on the outside and the flesh still needs to be lovely and moist.
Sweetcorn veloute, a lovely, velvety sauce rich with sweetcorn.
It could be delicious.
A fondant potato. John, we've seen loads of them fail in this competition.
When you put your knife through it, there shouldn't be any give at all.
Dessert's a panna cotta flavoured with a corn cereal.
Great idea.
We want a perfect, lovely, wobbly little tower.
Let's do this, guys.
Oh, go back in there.
Chart ya, our coffee roaster of Thai origin, is truly ambitious.
Oh, my God. This is really good.
She's really keen to show loads and loads of technique
and knowledge in every dish.
I still have a lot more to come.
There's a lot more in my pocket that I want to show them.
Today I'm bringing you to Bangkok, have some street food there.
We're going to the pork meatball stall.
You know the grilled pork meatballs on the skewer? Yeah.
Served with sweet chilli dipping sauce.
And then we're going to go for larb gai.
It's like a spicy chicken salad.
Why do you love these dishes?
This is the dish that I've been eating since I was young.
This is actually Thai food in another level,
in the MasterChef level.
I want to feel as though I'm being transported into Bangkok.
We have pork meatballs first.
That pork has to be wonderful and moist
and it's got to have a lovely charring on the outside.
Then she's making larb gai, a minced chicken salad.
A larb is ferociously hot.
Oh, it's going to be really hot..
...for sure.
She's serving it with fried rice, with chilli jam.
So we got chilli chicken on chilli jam.
I don't think these are dishes that Chariya's dreamed up for MasterChef.
I think these are dishes that she's been cooking for many, many years.
And that fills me with absolute confidence.
Chris is a performance artist
and there is the flamboyant and the theatrical in his dishes.
I think this is restaurant worthy. Oh, thank you.
Chris today has got to wow the guests as much as he has wowed us.
I'm going to make for you today
pan fried cod loin, crushed new potatoes with garlic chives,
a butter sauce with some chive oil going through the butter sauce.
And at the same time, you've got to do a dessert. What's your dessert?
Asian pear poached in mulled wine.
Because I'm a lover of Christmas.
These dishes seem pretty conservative for you.
None of the flamboyance of previous dishes.
These are family favourites.
I've cooked these for family and they've loved them.
Crushed potatoes, butter sauce and a piece of cod.
The fish has got to be cooked so that the skin is crispy and then fall apart.
Crushed potatoes, you've got to get right.
They've got to have lots and lots of butter going through them.
I love an Asian pear, not as sweet as a standard Conference pear
that we would get, but much more juicy.
He's got mulled wine going on in there.
It should have the smell and possibly the flavour
of cinnamon and star anise, the flavours of Christmas.
Chantilly cream.
Mate, you can't go far wrong on a Gregg Wallace dish
if you put a great big dollop of Chantilly.
Delicious.
I'm ready for a new change. I'm ready to cook.
I really want it. It's there.
It's in my reach and I've just got to get it.
This means everything.
I can't fire breathe for the rest of my life,
so this is my other passion.
# We love your food. #
Thank you.
I think Josh has got a really good palate
and a really, really good touch.
He takes everyday ingredients and gives them real style.
Top marks for theatre, Josh.
All is going to plan.
This competition is the single most intense thing
I've ever done in my life.
Oh, God. Where's my tea towel? There it is.
You do it at home and you're well within time.
And then your challenge starts and you look at your timer
and 20 minutes is already gone and you've just peeled a potato.
Josh. Hello.
What are your two courses?
My starter is going to be an egg yolk and ricotta ravioli.
The idea is you cut into the ravioli and it almost kind of sauces itself.
Great. And then for my main, I'm doing a chicken breast,
carrot puree, king oyster mushroom
and some crispy chicken skin as well.
What's your backup if your ravioli doesn't work?
There is no backup. There's not time for a backup.
There's nothing that can be done. I just have to nail it.
Josh is playing with fire on that first course, an egg yolk ravioli.
He's got to make pasta first.
He's got to then fill the actual pasta and seal it without the egg yolk busting open.
I'm not overly happy with my pasta.
It's servable, but I'm not thrilled with it.
Chicken breast sous vide,
cooked in a water bath to keep the breast moist.
On top of a carrot puree. Very, very classic.
He's got to be absolutely bang-on with his cookery
because it's hardly a surprise to me, you and the guests in the dining room
and they are going to focus on the technique.
You are halfway on your first course.
Every year, the standard just gets higher and higher and higher.
And as such, we as judges keep luckily expecting more every year.
I do feel nervous for the contestants in this round.
It is a challenge trying to get the balance
between doing something impressive, but also giving yourself enough time
to really deliver to a high standard.
But I'm excited to see what they produce today.
I don't want to see plates that are trying too hard
and trying to over impress.
I just want to eat well today
and just taste some really well executed plates of food,
where you get an idea of what the cooks are about.
Cheers, guys. Good to see you all. Cheers. Cheers.
Here's to some cracking food.
Right, Robin, you've got four minutes.
Robin's main, Corn Meal Part 1.
I'm intrigued immediately.
Smelling good. Smelling really good.
We obviously want a lovely, crunchy,
almost crispy outside to that buttermilk chicken.
Hopefully, he's used something like thigh, so it's lovely and juicy in there.
Whoa, looking good.
Fondant potatoes, very risky.
Never tried them myself on MasterChef, because I've seen too many of them go wrong before.
Veloute. Where's that going? In between the middle to make a pool.
Veloute is kind of like a rich, smooth soup, buttery and kind of comforting in flavour,
but you also want plenty of corn flavour coming through.
Well done. Well done. Thank you.
They look spectacular. All right?
Hello there.
The first course is fried chicken with a fondant potato
topped with some roasted broccoli, bits of chorizo
and that's accompanied with a corn veloute,
which is split with chorizo oil.
I really hope you enjoy it. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
The flavours of this dish are really good.
They're really well balanced.
You've got the slight smokiness from the chorizo.
The chicken is well cooked, it's moist in there,
but you've got that really crunchy, crispy coating.
The fondant is soft, I think it perhaps could have done
with a little bit more butter and a little bit more seasoning to really bring it to life.
The veloute was creamy, it was packed full of that corn flavour.
It had sweetness. I love the thought process behind the dish and the execution.
I think it's lovely.
The coating on the chicken is really crispy.
The fondant potato is soft, buttery.
It's a great way of taking a crowd pleaser
and turning it into something very modern and quite interesting.
15 minutes until panna cotta. Yeah. I'm going to check them now.
So part two of Robin's corn meal journey is a cereal milk panna cotta
served with cereal crumb and butterscotch sauce.
I quite like the sound of this.
Two and a half minutes, Robin.
Pana cottas, you know, it has to be light, it has to be wobbly.
Oh! That's a relief, isn't it?!
I think this is panna cotta where it's been infused with the cereal.
It's like the milk that you'd get at the bottom of your cereal bowl, which is always delicious.
I think the cereal crumb sounds great. It's going to bring texture.
There you go.
And then the butterscotch sauce, the risk is that it could become very sweet.
Look at that!
Beautiful thing! Well done, Robin.
Thank you very much, guys. Yes!
Yum!
So for your second course, I've made you a cornflake steeped panna cotta
with a cornflake crumb and a tiny drizzle of butterscotch sauce.
I hope you enjoy it. Yeah. Thank you.
It's perfect. It's absolutely perfect.
That is delicious.
Perfect wobble, not too sweet.
And then the sauce and the crumb just give it that texture.
There is maltiness and creaminess.
I love it.
I'm going to be dreaming about this pudding
for probably at least the next few weeks.
I'm slightly speechless about this.
It's probably one of the most memorable dishes
I've had in this dining room.
It's just a sensational, sensational pud.
This is an example of a perfect panna cotta.
It's creamy, it's light, it's delicious. He is on fire.
It was mega stressful, but I think I got it to an acceptable standard.
I'm really happy with it.
Everything's so far, so good.
Still on time and stressed.
Cooking and tasting at the same time to make sure the flavour's right.
Chariya's starter, Thai pork meatballs
served with a sweet chilli dipping sauce and pickled cucumber salad.
I love the sound of this.
I kind of want this to have that balance between all those wonderful flavours.
Chilli, salty, sweet, sour.
I think the key for this really is just going to be about maximising and amplifying those flavours.
I think a little bit of sugar and a little bit of salt.
We want it hot, we want it sour, we want it sweet.
And it's all got to be dialled in for this to really sing.
Are you happy with that, Chart ya?
Yeah, I think it's as good as I practise at home.
Great, fresh, clean looking plate. Are we ready to go?
Yes, ready. Chart ya! Come on, kid!
Show them your food. Show them your food, be proud.
Thank you.
I'm bringing you to Thailand.
This is my favourite street food.
Thai pork meatball with chilli dipping sauce
and then the cucumber pickle salads.
Hope you enjoy. Thank you. Thank you.
I think this is a very authentic, honest Thai dish.
Sweet chilli sauce is lovely and spicy and sweet.
And that pickled cucumber on the side helps cut through that heat.
The meatballs have been cooked well.
There's a almost ferocious heat from that chilli sauce.
This actually kicks like it means it.
It's sort of a moreish start to a meal.
That sauce is beautiful, it starts sweet
and it's really quite peppery, quite hot.
It tastes great.
15 minutes to the main course.
I've got all confidence in you, you know that? Yeah.
Chariya's main is the Thai larb gai
and I absolutely love a hot and spicy larb.
Lovely chicken mince that's full of hot, spicy chilli.
I've had ones that have made my mouth go numb
and I really hope that this does the same.
The mint yoghurt should cool things down.
Rushing. I am rushing.
What's that?
This is the rice paper boat.
Lovely!
Finishing touches now, please.
Well done, Chart ya.
Well done. Thank you.
So I have cooked you larb gai.
It's the Thai spicy chicken salad with the chilli jam fried rice,
and then some charred baby gem and a little bit
of a mint yoghurt sauce.
And I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
I can't do any better than that.
Really happy. I love it, as you can see.
Can you see me smile? Yeah, exactly. Really happy.
I quite like the larb.
You've got the depth and the savoury note from the fish sauce.
There's heat. The rice I just don't get.
That sort of sweet chilli fried rice is just a bit heavy and cloying.
The larb itself is really good.
It's got a really good hit of chilli heat.
We didn't need these tomatoes.
Give me the larb - lettuce, the mint and the herbs.
Delicious! Absolutely nailed it.
Everything else just detracted from this dish.
I think that Chart ya has really captured the flavours of Thailand,
absolutely.
That larb is really delicious.
I'm not a fan of its presentation, but it's a lovely thing to eat.
It's addictive.
Keep your nerve here, Chris. You're doing really well.
I like the sound of this main.
This sounds like classic bistro/brasserie fare, in a way.
Perfectly cooked, flaky cod with a lovely, decadent,
rich butter sauce.
Cook on the cod. If it's over, it sort of becomes very dry.
If it's under, the flakes don't come apart.
Well done.
The butter sauce can split.
As simple as that reads, there's a lot that can go wrong here.
Look at that! That's a pretty thing.
Anything else? No, that's great. Good.
Knock 'em dead. The show must... Go on!
Today, I've made for you pan-fried cod loin with wilted samphire,
crushed new potatoes, a butter sauce and a chive oil.
Thank you. Thanks. Thank you.
It's such a big bit of cod, it's difficult to cook to perfection.
The cod itself feels slightly over.
What's slightly off is the potato's a little bit underdone.
The sauce is very good. There's depth of flavour.
There's a hint of sweetness, which I'm guessing is from shallots.
Great effort, just fell short of it being very well executed.
That sauce is joyous - lots and lots of rich, salty butter -
and it goes perfectly with that piece of cod.
I've got two issues. I've got slightly overcooked cod.
I've got slightly undercooked potatoes.
15 minutes for this pear. Yeah.
You chilled? Absolutely. I got it.
That pear has got to be poached to perfection.
Too far and it's mushy.
Under and it's hard and difficult to get the spoon through.
For me, I think this is going to live and die on the execution
of those poached pears.
Oh, mate!
That is very festive.
That's very Christmassy.
For dessert today, I've made for you a nashi pear,
poached in mulled wine, a lemon thyme Chantilly cream
and a shortbread crumb.
Thank you. Thanks, Chris.
I feel good about what I cooked today.
I really tried to keep it in check and keep calm.
So, I mean, there's some great flavours in there.
I hope they got it.
Unfortunately, my pear isn't cooked.
Not even vaguely cooked, is it?
The crumble was delicious.
The cream wasn't overwhelming with that lemon thyme flavour.
Sweet, heavy with that spice
but I think, unfortunately, the dish hasn't worked
because of the firmness of that pear.
I really wanted to love this because the poaching liquor
is Christmas and, you know, it's delicious and spiced.
Some lovely flavours running through here,
but that is a firm pear.
I'm chasing my pear around the plate because it's not cooked enough.
That cream is sweetened
and I like the lemon thyme going through it.
The pear is still hard.
Seven-and-a-half minutes, young man.
My first pasta was too thin, so I kept some spare dough
for this exact purpose.
Josh, right now, he's struggling.
He's now decided to make a second batch, and that worries me.
He's panicking.
I don't want raw pasta.
Josh's starter is an egg yolk ravioli
filled with truffle oil and ricotta,
served with caramelised onions, lardons and a Parmesan crisp.
There's plenty of rich Italian flavours going on in here.
With an egg yolk ravioli, there's not a lot of room to hide.
That's got to be absolutely perfect and hopefully will give way
to a lovely, rich, delicate egg yolk that will coat the dish.
I like Josh's level of ambition here.
He's kind of going all guns blazing.
Second lot - you're happy with those?
Happy with them.
Josh, you've done brilliantly well.
Mm! Done. Off you go, then.
Back for your chicken. Thank you. Seriously, well done. Thank you.
I've made you a raviolo, which is filled with ricotta
that's been flavoured with some truffle oil and lemon zest
and an egg yolk, which should hopefully be runny,
bacon and caramelised onions and a Parmesan crisp.
Hope you guys enjoy. Thank you.
This is a very refined, presentable plate of food, I think.
We cut in and there's a perfectly runny egg yolk to give us our sauce.
Oh, look at that!
There's technique here insofar as he's made his own pasta.
It's held that lovely egg yolk well, and the egg yolk was perfect.
And you've got delicate flavours of ricotta and truffle.
The pasta was super-thin.
It had that lovely elasticity.
There's a little bit of bite to it.
I'd happily eat that again.
I've finished my plate.
I think it was a really delicious plate of food.
Rich, slippery egg yolk, definite smack of truffle around the lips,
salty bacon, technically challenging.
I think he's pulled it off.
15 minutes till the next course.
Good lad.
Josh's main - chicken, carrots and mushrooms.
What's not to love?
The puree needs to be smooth and silky and well seasoned.
The chicken needs to be perfectly cooked.
That's probably the biggest risk here, because chicken breast
has a tendency to go dry.
Everything has got to be cooked to perfection for this dish
to really work.
Right, you've got two minutes.
Wahey! Go the Josh!
Good job. Right, yeah.
It's done? Done.
Good lad. well done. Well done. See you later.
I have prepared for you a chicken breast, caramelised carrot puree,
king oyster mushroom, which I've basted in some sage butter,
and some crispy chicken skin
with a chicken gravy to drizzle over the top.
It smells great. Thank you.
The flavour on this dish for me is outstanding.
The chicken that's been cooked to perfection...
By itself, that caramelised carrot puree is quite sweet
but then, against the smokiness, it kind of balances.
I think it's really delicious and everything's seasoned properly
and I really enjoy it.
The chicken's moist.
The seasoning reminds me of good old-fashioned roast chicken.
I like that carrot puree, I really do.
It's buttery and it's sweet.
Crispy, salted chicken skin across that mushroom,
of course, that gives texture and seasoning.
That's great.
It's done.
Little bits here and there that, you know, I wish maybe with a bit
of extra time could have gone better.
However, I've got everything I wanted on the plate
and I was pretty happy with every element,
so in their hands now.
We were both excited for this quarterfinal.
Quite honestly, John, it lived up to its billing.
We got extraordinary food.
We've got a big call to make, mate. We have.
Robin today, I've got to say, truly impressed.
The first course, absolutely delicious - crispy chicken,
fondant cooked beautifully.
Then a panna cotta that you and I were in raptures about.
Not just us, but the dining room as well.
As far as I can see, he's got himself a place in knockout week.
I have to fly the flag for one other cook.
Josh has done himself a great service.
An egg yolk raviolo, really difficult, and he got it right.
The chicken and the quality of the carrot puree
actually added up to a pretty decent dish.
He goes through.
We know there's two cooks going through to knockout week.
Do we take one more?
Chart ya - those flavours of Thai street food, absolutely wonderful.
Those little tiny meatballs,
it looked quite simple, but it had lots of complex flavour.
The larb - wasn't keen on the presentation,
but it was good to eat.
Chris decided to go really classic.
That butter sauce was really luxurious.
That piece of cod, slightly over.
We had potatoes, really well seasoned.
Some of them were not cooked enough.
That was a bit of a shame.
The dessert tasted great, but the pear wasn't poached enough.
What are we going to do?
I'm really worried about whether my dish is good enough
to get me through to knockout.
I don't want to go home, though.
Not going home today.
Don't want to.
I did my very best. I can't do it any better than that.
I'm loving every second in that kitchen.
I'm not making it up.
I'm loving it.
It's been an absolute honour to have you guys in here.
Your food has been delicious,
and I thank you very much indeed.
We did say that we would only take the best cooks with us.
We have made a decision.
One of you is leaving the competition.
The contestant leaving us is...
...Chris.
You walk out of here with your head held high and believe in yourself
because your food is great.
I've loved my time at MasterChef.
It's been an amazing experience.
But to lose out against those other three cooks, it's absolutely fine.
I'm in knockout week, really?
I couldn't believe it.
You put a lot of pressure on yourself to get quite far
and, um...I'm just really thankful.
I'm so ecstatic.
I am going to try and allow myself a bit of time to celebrate
before I go to knockout week
but I'm straight back in the office tomorrow,
so that's going to be a bit surreal after doing all of this.
Next time, nine new hopefuls...
Now it feels real.
...audition for the right to wear a coveted MasterChef apron.
Argh, chronic!
Let's go to the fire.
That's good.
That is gross.
A bit brown, but everyone knows brown food tastes better.
I could bury myself in that really happily and have it all afternoon.