It's the MasterChef semifinals.
Come on, come on.
After five weeks of intense competition...
Ooh!
..45 of the UK's bravest home cooks...
It's going to be a tight ride.
..have been whittled down to the best ten.
Now I've reached the semifinals,
I just have to pinch myself that this is actually happening
that I'm still here.
There's only ten of us left.
The person who's winning it is here.
Everything's going to have to be perfect.
I feel very excited,
slash scared, slash daunted
slash aargh!
Tonight they have their first taste
of life as a professional.
The chef whites definitely make you realise
that we've gone up a level.
Today they're going to face their biggest challenge so far
and we have got something quite extraordinary.
I feel like I'm authentic for the first time.
Right now is when they've got to start
cooking like they want to win it.
Feel like a Michelin chef.
Let the battle begin.
Welcome to the MasterChef semifinals.
You all look very smart in your chef's whites,
but more importantly,
you look very professional.
Today we will be running a restaurant service
in this kitchen. You'll be cooking
and I'll be running the pass.
You are going to be serving your food into our MasterChef
restaurant to 20 guests,
20 people that have stood in your shoes,
that did brilliantly well in this competition,
20 people that now are forging their own fantastic careers
in the food industry.
So if you're looking for inspiration,
it'll be in that dining room.
This is a restaurant service.
If it's not good enough, it will not be going to the dining room.
Everyone got that?
Yes, chef. Good.
Oh!
THEY LAUGH
Right, be at your absolute best
because at the end of this,
two of you will be leaving.
Semifinalists...
..off you go.
The ten semifinalists have each designed a dish
for today's three-course menu.
I'm really, really nervous.
Just the sheer mass of food
and how many portions we could potentially be plating up,
so, never done anything like this before.
The three starters are being made by Olayemi,
Pookie and Eddie.
It's going to be like a...like being in a real restaurant,
yeah, and John looks like an executive chef,
walking around, inspecting everyone's benches.
He'll run a tight ship, I'm sure, yeah.
GREGG: Olayemi leans very heavily
on the flavours of Nigeria, and she is wowing everybody.
For me, her food is exciting, vibrant
and has a point of difference.
She's exciting.
I'm absolutely delighted
to be bringing flavours of Nigeria to the restaurant
because I keep thinking Nigerian food isn't
mainstream food yet.
I want all of the diners to be blown away.
I want them to remember my food.
Olayemi, what does a semifinal mean to you?
It means the whole world to me, Greg,
I'm really excited to be here,
and just being able to get to the semifinals,
I feel like I'm in a daze.
What's your dish, please?
Beef cheek ravioli with a pepper soup broth.
So pepper soup is a special blend of spice in Nigeria,
with crispy chicken skin and a little bit of tomato chutney.
What do you want the diners to think of you?
One of the things I would love them to take away is
that there are other flavours and spices out there in the world.
Is your goal to be cultural attache from West Africa?
Maybe if they gave me the job I would take it.
SHE LAUGHS
Lovely thin ravioli with some unctuous
melting beef inside - wonderful.
Inside a broth - brilliant.
What I'm concerned about now is Olayemi
has to cook beef cheek until it's tender,
which takes a really long time,
and then get it inside a ravioli,
which will then need to be cooked to order.
This is a mammoth task.
A bit nervous to be working under John
because he has quite a stern face.
SHE LAUGHS
A lot to do.
SHE LAUGHS
I'm giving it my best shot,
not going down without a fight.
You've had 15 minutes, guys,
15 minutes gone already.
Eddie is a pilot on the Humber River.
He has had a really good competition so far,
he doesn't seem to have put a foot wrong.
He's fascinating because he seems
to have a mastery of French classics,
but he also loves Indian flavourings, and they often overlap.
At work, we stick to very tight parameters,
bringing the ships into ports,
so there's high level of precision,
so I'm always setting myself really high standards
when it comes to presentation
and timing, for instance.
So Eddie's giving us South Indian mussels
with brill.
The piece of brill, it needs to be cooked to order.
The vada dumplings - lentils which have been made into a little cake
and deep-fried, crispy on the outside
should be soft on the inside. And then right at the last minute
everything's going to come onto the plate. That is a big ask.
The guests you're feeding, how do you feel about them?
Yeah, it's really exciting, and we're cooking for
some amazing people who have made it in the food industry
as a result of being on MasterChef.
So it really shows us the doors that can be unlocked... Yeah.
..through being here.
Good luck. Thanks.
Every dish that Pookie's cooked for us in this competition
is completely original.
They're not out of cookbooks,
they're just lots of ideas that come together, Pookie style.
She loves Thai flavours and Chinese flavours,
but, John, what she loves is presentation.
Can I say she's got the wow factor?
I'm so happy to be one of the semifinalists.
I love every moment of it.
I love to bring all my creativity,
bring out my imagination.
My dish is called my bird nest.
It's like basil chicken
with confit egg yolk
in an egg shell.
What? Yeah.
I got eggshell
in my bird nest.
It's different kind of bird.
OK, so they're going to get an egg shell.
How are you going to make that sit up?
Oh, well, we'll have to put it in the egg cup.
It's like your head.
If you don't have the neck, it won't stand up, would it?
Fall.
Oh, Pookie, don't ever change.
Don't ever change.
Pookie's got her work cut out here, really, cos what she's giving us
is Thai basil-flavoured chicken with rice.
But of course, she wants to do more than that,
so she wants to bring some theatre to it.
Confit egg yolk worries me at the best of times.
And an egg white mouse?
I'm not sure about that either.
I mean, it's so creative,
it's so unusual.
Well, that's going to be interesting to see what
the dining room thinks of that.
Chefs on the starters, you've had 35 minutes.
All right?
Today's guests have all found taking part in MasterChef life-changing.
Many have gone on to become food writers,
including Hannah Miles,
who is MasterChef's most published cookbook author.
Since MasterChef, life has changed completely.
It was always my dream to, you know,
write a cookbook, and now I've written 37.
Rukmini Iyer has also seen success
by selling over a million copies
of her book series.
I used to be a trainee solicitor,
but now I'm a cookbook author and food stylist
and I wrote The Roasting Tin series.
Before I used to run a recruitment business and wear
a suit to work, and then I changed that for wearing an apron to work
and now published seven cookbooks,
exec chef for an events business,
so fully submerged in the world of food.
Both 2012 finalists, Andrew Kojima
and former ambulance dispatcher Anthony O'Shaughnessy
have used their skills to teach cookery.
I do pinch myself every day thinking,
"God, the job I do now is literally what I wished to do,
like, ten years ago.
MasterChef has been a very good stepping stone for that.
Former lawyer Shivi Ramoutar
has been a frequent guest on BBC's Saturday Kitchen...
..while ex-PA Stacie Stewart
has also found success as a television chef.
I've written two books.
I've had my own show on TV,
I've got four shops.
My life is just food.
The advice I'd give contestants today
is it's once in a lifetime, just enjoy yourself.
Main courses, you are under way.
Let's go.
The invited guests will have a choice of four mains
prepared by Sarah,
Radha,
Farokh and Holly.
I really like this dish,
so, yeah, I feel quite good. What am I doing?
Yeah, I feel quite good about this.
Holly's got a theatre background and she likes to be artistic.
She wants her food to stand out.
Right down to taking a classic, pommes dauphinoise,
and making it sweet for Grace Dent.
I love them and I'm just going to eat them.
What's your dish?
Scallop and prawn mousse Scotch egg
with a seared scallop,
a mimosa beurre blanc and charred asparagus.
Wow!
This sauce, a mimosa...
A mimosa beurre blanc, yeah.
So, an orange butter sauce?
Yeah, so orange and Prosecco.
What inspired that? A Bucks Fizz?
Pretty much, yeah.
Who doesn't like a mimosa with their brunch?
SHE LAUGHS
Holly's food sounds really interesting.
We've got a Scotch egg and, instead of having sausage meat
around the outside of it, we've got a scallop and prawn mousse.
If that prawn and scallop mousse is not cooked around
the outside of the egg, you're not going to be able to eat it.
I like to be inventive,
I like to challenge people,
and I like to present them
with food that they will go,
"I've never had anything like this before."
Sarah from Scotland loves classic technique,
and she also loves and champions
the wonderful flavours and produce of Scotland.
Her food is refined.
It's exciting and it looks brilliant.
I think when it first started,
my main goal was if I get an apron, I'll be happy.
And then when I got an apron, I thought, "Well, I want to carry on."
And now that I'm here and I've got these on
I want to be in the final.
Sarah is staying true to form,
and she is going very classic.
She's got pigeon, those pigeon breasts
have to be cooked to order
and she's got to make sure their timings are spot on.
She's serving it with a masala pigeon sauce.
It has to have a beautiful shine to it.
She's got black pudding, a celeriac fondant.
She's got beetroot crisps.
Now, that has to be crisp.
That's very difficult to get right.
Are we waving the flag of St Andrew with these ingredients?
Yeah, I suppose we are, yeah.
This would be a pretty standard,
well, a slightly posher Sunday lunch for us.
But, yeah, we eat pigeon a lot.
When the diners look through their menu,
how do you want your dish to be perceived?
You know, I care about feeding people.
I don't want to show,
oh, I've got 12 technical skills,
but the plate of food isn't something anybody wants to eat.
I just want to make something that is lovely.
FAROKH: This is one of my best dishes.
It's quite creative, quite impressive, I think.
And I hope I'm right.
Farokh, a drama lecturer from London
and, for me, he's an alchemist.
We have seen the most extraordinary creations from Farokh.
I have never been served a kitchen sponge on MasterChef before.
Farokh's dishes can be marvellously wild.
I wouldn't mind seeing a little bit of moderation
to that wildness.
Farokh, what are you making?
Pork tenderloin, black pudding meatballs,
pickled apples
and sweetcorn and hazelnut dumplings
with a mustard sauce.
This sounds pretty classic for somebody like you, tell me.
The flavours are what you would find in any pub menu.
What I think might surprise you,
everything on the plate looks like something you would see
in a biology textbook.
Wow.
Farokh, you are a very different sort of person.
Thank you, I hope.
I hope that's a compliment.
I call this dish Cell Cycle because
the first time I made it,
it was circle, circle, circle, circle all around a plate
and it looked like when a cell breaks into two
and I thought, "Oh, wow, I can work with that."
Listen, a pork tenderloin is an unforgiving piece of meat.
Don't dry it out and do not serve it raw.
Sweetcorn and hazelnut really could be quite delightful.
My concern right now is the amount of work
that Farokh has given himself.
I think this is a dish that comes together right at the last minute.
Right now you are almost an hour in.
Almost an hour in?
You're 50 minutes in.
I'm really, really nervous, but I'm going to try and keep calm,
and hopefully everything will go well.
Radha, our youngest contestant in this year's competition.
For Radha to be cooking the way she is
after only cooking for about a year
is nothing short of incredible.
She has shown us lots of skill in her sweet dishes,
but also great flavours in the Indian food that she grew up with.
I mean, she is brilliant.
It's definitely my plan to stick to what I know, what I can cook.
My mum has taught me about Indian food and spicings,
so it's very close to home
and I hope that I can do my mum proud.
Did you expect to get here?
I think it's fair to say no.
It's so overwhelming,
but I'm so grateful as well to be here.
What would you dearly like from today?
I just want to show to myself that I can do this,
and I just need to believe, so that's what I want.
There might be a school of thought that suggests if you can make it
to the top ten, you can win it.
Maybe. I mean, we'll see. We'll see.
Radha's dishes of the moment - jackfruit, a large fruit
which is pulled apart.
Add some spice to that, turn that into a dumpling - fantastic.
We've got puri, which is a deep-fried Indian bread,
and onion masala tikka sauce.
I'm hoping we've got colour, we've got fragrance,
we've got vibrancy, and we've got flavour.
Oh, there's so much to do.
I think I'll feel all right when it's all done
and on the plate, but...
Main courses, you've had an hour. Don't lose sight of your time.
I've had quite a lot of pigeon to prep so, yeah, I'm feeling
a wee bit up against it, to be honest, right now.
You need to really start to motor.
Otherwise we've got a problem.
You're scaring me right now.
I will go into two more gears. Thank you very much.
I'm a little bit nervous because
this prep is taking a lot longer than usual.
I'm on the verge of panicking. We're not there yet.
We're not panicking just yet.
Taking part in MasterChef has prompted many ex-contestants
to become professional chefs.
Former plasterer Tom Reynolds now works as an executive chef
in a restaurant in his hometown of Leeds.
Cooking was a hobby, but
MasterChef gave me that ledge to sort of kick-start a career, and
it's very different to what I anticipated
and very, very challenging,
but I really do love it.
Brodie Williams went from lingerie shop designer
to cafe owner in Brixton.
And 2015 semifinalist Robert Parks is now head chef
at fellow contestant Tony Rodd's London restaurant.
Through the whole competition, I said,
"There's no way I'd like to be a professional chef."
I was fully aware of the long hours and the hard work,
and, yet, here I am, and I absolutely love it.
It was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me.
Cheers! Cheers. Lovely to meet you both. Lovely to meet you.
The dessert section is made up of James,
Ioan...
..and Thomas.
It's a great occasion.
It's great to showcase what we can do as a team as well,
so let's go and smash it.
Ioan from Wales, his dishes are ambitious,
and he's got an eye for detail.
His food's got a classic background, but he likes to add
a little twist into everything.
His chocolate spoon melting into an espresso Martini, John,
that is quality, quality work.
What else has he got up his sleeve?
What are you making, Ioan?
Sticky toffee apple pudding, with a compressed apple pecan crumb,
a celeriac ice cream.
Yeah! There's lots of discuss here.
There is. There's lots to... So, that's clever, isn't it?
Because you've got sticky toffee, toffee apple. Mm-hm.
And you look pleased with yourself about it.
Hopefully, hopefully.
Why are you making a celeriac ice cream?
Celeriac and apple goes well in terms of combinations.
Has anybody tried this celeriac ice cream?
IOAN LAUGHS I've tried it, Greg.
And also my partner. We both think it tastes great.
Hopefully, you and the judges today will.
The star of this show has got to be the celeriac ice cream.
I mean, celeriac is earthy and nutty,
so it could end up like a sort of caramel nut-flavoured ice cream.
I've got to be honest, I'm really looking forward to it.
Feeling very excited, pressurised as usual.
A lot of stuff to get done and cold.
James, PGA golfer from Kent, and he loves the classics.
He does food which is understated in its appearance
but really complex in its technique.
I think he is quietly very confident
and he knows what people want to order and eat.
So, my dish is a, er... It's like a semi chocolate sphere
with hazelnut ice cream, a hazelnut praline, chocolate hazelnut sauce.
Is it a sweet that you might get at the ambassador's residence?
It might be at the ambassador's residence.
It's my wife's favourite chocolate at Christmas.
I want it to stand out. I want to put a smile on everyone's face
and for them to say, "Yum," when they eat it.
Good for you, mate.
James is taking on a huge amount here.
That chocolate sphere has to be tempered chocolate
and beautifully shiny.
The ice cream has to be set but not too hard.
Served with a hazelnut sauce and hazelnut praline.
Tell you what, I hope it looks pretty.
I hope it looks skilful,
and then I'm going to smash it into lumps with me big spoon.
I'm ready to go.
I'm excited.
Thomas is an interior designer, lives in Windsor.
He was actually brought up in Singapore,
but he has worked all over the world.
He's got little bits of his life in every single dish.
He's an incredible fuser of flavours and ideas.
But, of course, that's what you'd expect from an interior designer.
This is actually a Chinese New Year celebration
dumpling that we usually have.
We will make hundreds of them on the eve of Chinese New Year
and everyone that comes through the house, they will have that.
It's an over 2,000-year-old Chinese tradition.
Mate, that's the sort of New Year celebration I want.
I don't want to stay up till midnight,
drunk and can't get a taxi home.
I want to go to people's houses and have a dumpling.
Yes? Well, you're welcome any time.
Two sweet dumplings from Thomas
with lovely Chinese flavours.
I'm really looking forward to this.
One's got black sesame seeds, coconut and then yuzu,
which is a cross between Mandarin and lime.
The other one has got peanut butter with more coconut.
This is a very, very sweet dish.
The only thing that's sharp is that yuzu.
Over the course of this competition,
lots of things reminded me of my father
that already passed since I was seven.
My father said, "You have to learn to make this."
This definitely is more than just a dumpling.
The guests have arrived. They're all very excited.
Starters, five minutes.
I'm going to start calling the orders.
Completing today's guest list are diners who have all gone on
to work in the world of private catering.
I went from pulling pints to a head chef on superyachts now.
So you get to travel the world, cook for the elite.
So, it's been a bit of a...
..a bit of a difference over the last six years.
2006 finalist Daksha Mistry has been running her own
catering company for 15 years.
The only advice I would give, cook from your heart,
not from your head.
Semifinalists, you know, obviously, they've come up quite far.
Yeah, really excited to look forward to the food.
And after leaving behind a career in corporate banking,
Nisha Parmar is now a private chef catering celebrity events.
Oh, my goodness. They've got this challenge.
Just fills me with so much nerves,
even though I'm not cooking, cos I know how tough it is.
But I think, looking at this menu, I think this is going to be amazing.
Can I have My Bird's Nest Thai basil chicken for starter?
Yeah, please can I have the mussels?
Beef cheek ravioli.
It's a bit of me.
Starters. Your checks are on.
Pookie. Yes? Two bird's nest. OK.
Eddie, one mussels.
Olayemi, two ravioli.
Yes, Chef.
You should be then working straight off that. One ravioli,
one mussels, and then, please, one more mussels, one more ravioli,
one more nest.
You don't expect that it's ever going to start
and then, all of a sudden, it's showtime.
If those starters are late, or they're not up to scratch,
that is going to taint the whole meal.
It has got a bit real - very, very real.
SHE LAUGHS
With eight orders of her West African spiced beef cheek,
Olayemi's starter is the most popular,
but, with service fast approaching,
she still hasn't filled all her ravioli.
How are we doing, Olayemi? I'm just doing the next 12.
You're going to have to really move because you've got to get yourself
organised, wipe your bench down and get your plates ready
and check your broth and your seasoning. OK.
Beef cheek ravioli - it sounds like the chef is ambitious.
You know, the fact that there is the crispy chicken skin in there.
The ravioli, making pasta.
The beef cheek, it has to be tender and melting away,
so there are a lot of technical elements to it.
You've got five minutes to pass, all of you, yeah?
Yes, Chef.
Eddie's brill in a South Indian mussel broth
is also proving popular, with seven orders.
Yeah, I'm going to be on time.
I'm going to get my fish in a second. I've got a system, I think.
So we've just got to hold it together.
In service, he'll have to cook all of his fish to order,
as well as deep-fry his spiced lentil vada dumplings.
I think brill's a beautiful fish.
If it's cooked wonderfully, it should just flake,
and I'm hoping, with the promise of Indian mussels,
that we're going to get some spice.
But the vada dumpling, I have never had them before,
so it's going to be an experience, something new for me,
and hopefully it will tie the dish together.
Pookie only has five orders for her complex take on
Thai basil chicken.
Her confit eggs are ready but must be individually placed
in egg shells, with butterfly pea rice, basil chicken
and egg-white mousse.
So, this is the base, so it's confit yolk.
Oh! Just broke one.
Never mind.
I've got plenty.
Breathe, breathe, breathe.
I don't really know how it's going to look, so this is up my street,
and I like the ambiguity.
I'm guessing you know your rice is blue.
Yes. It...
THEY LAUGH
Well, it's My Bird's Nest, so it can't be normal, can it?
THEY LAUGH
Are you three all talking to each other?
How many minutes have we got, guys?
We got three minute and a half left.
My ravioli is almost cooked.
My sauce is ready.
For the first time, we've got to work together as a team,
so that's going to be crucial to the success of all of our dishes.
One of each should be coming up in two minutes.
Pookie, you need to talk to them.
Go back and tell them you put their plate on the pass,
and tell them, cos you just what's commonly known as
dropped them in the shit.
Guys, I just dropped my plate off.
What, the first one?
Eddie, how long? Three minutes on the fish.
Three minutes. OK, I'm going to have to get you to take that back,
Pookie. Sorry.
Pookie has served her dish.
Olayemi and Eddie aren't ready,
and that means that I can't serve the table.
Very difficult, very intense because I have to work with the team
as well, and listening to what the head chef tells us.
So I'm just like, "What's that order?" Just like, "Ooh!"
We're coming to the pass in 30 seconds, please.
First check out.
Thank you, Olayemi. Are you happy with it?
Yes, I am. OK.
Happy with that? Yes, Chef.
Fantastic.
I can't serve this table till I get your food, Eddie.
How are you getting on?
First one now, please.
Great. Oh, looks beautiful.
OK, service here, guys.
Table number seven, please.
The hardest thing we've done here so far.
As soon as John starts calling the orders, it's really hard.
I'm waiting on these two ravioli, Olayemi, please.
Yes, Chef.
Service, please.
I like working under pressure, so the whole process
of trying to keep to time, listen to him, listen to her -
challenging but fun.
One mussels, one ravioli, one bird's nest.
Yep, OK. Yes, Chef.
Yes, Chef.
How many more minutes? One minute, one minute.
I need a minute and a half, please.
OK. They're doing really well.
They're finally talking to each other.
30 seconds, Chef. Right. 20 seconds.
I'm loving you so much.
Good man. Right, let's go. Go, go, go. Thank you.
Lovely. Thank you very much indeed.
That's great.
Service.
I'm enjoying it. It's scary, but it's a buzz.
Yeah.
OK. How are we doing on this final order, starters?
Yeah, I'm just about... just about there.
All right, are we going, guys?
Well done, all three of you. The food looks fantastic.
Thank you very much for listening. Well done.
Thank you very much. Well done.
Service, please.
Oh, my God.
It was intense.
It was just nonstop.
Yeah, guys, that was definitely the toughest challenge for me
since the start of this competition.
Blanket for me.
SHE LAUGHS
It really smells good. It smells really good.
Olayemi's starter proved popular with the diners.
There were eight orders for her beef cheek ravioli
topped with tomato chutney, crispy chicken skin,
and served with a West African pepper broth.
It smells great.
Lots of, like, lovely textural things on it.
Yeah, I'm really excited.
I love the originality of it, to take,
you know, that ox cheek
and sort of shred it down, put it in the ravioli.
It's really good, really clever.
The pasta's absolutely perfect and the beef's cooked to perfection.
It's so, so, so tender.
There's a sweet scotch bonnet thing in that broth, and it is...
This is my kind of food. I love it.
That chutney is sweet and that peppery broth is proper
peppery. Lovely dish.
There were seven takers of Eddie's pan-fried brill with mussels, served
in a South Indian broth, a vada dumpling and a mango salad.
That sauce is beautiful. A little bit of heat,
but not too much to overpower the fish. That is... Yeah, I like it.
I'll tell you what, the seasoning... The sauce is smooth. Quite creamy.
It was well spiced.
The mango is quite nice.
Just sort of cut through a bit of the spice, a bit of the heat.
Overall, really tasty plate of food.
Eddie's dish is delightful. Fish is cooked beautifully, mussels
are prepared beautifully. It's lovely.
Pookie had five orders of My Bird's Nest,
her take on the street food
Thai basil chicken.
Layers of confit egg yolk,
butterfly pea rice and chicken infused with chilli and basil.
The same is served in an egg shell topped with egg white mousse
with wasabi and yellow roe.
It's quite... It's quite hot.
Maybe I just got a bit of chilli.
I really love the spiciness of it.
You get the really punchy... And I can taste the basil.
It's really great street food flavour,
but presented really well in fine dining.
The egg really bound it together.
The heat for me was just right.
It was, like, punchy.
I thought it was really tasty.
Pookie's dish in the egg is amazing.
I mean, it looks fantastic and it tastes even better.
That's incredible.
I'll go for the pork on the main course.
Being a game bird myself
I'm going to go for the pigeon for my main.
Jackfruit dumplings. I'll take the risk.
Can I get the scallop and prawn mousse Scotch egg?
Main courses.
Your first check.
One pork, two jackfruit,
one pigeon, one scallop.
Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef.
Straight after that, please, one scallop, one pigeon.
You need to get working. Yes, Chef.
Radha, I can't hear you. Yes, Chef.
You doing stuff through service scares me, properly scares me.
I can't see that you're ready in any way, shape or form.
Push. Move, move, move, move.
Sorry. Don't be sorry. Just get on with it.
So I'm going to go for scallop, Scotch egg.
Orders for Holly's seafood Scotch egg and scallop main
are flooding in.
Haven't done my beurre blanc.
I still need to shuck four scallops, and four more of these to do.
I am pushing it.
Scotch egg for a main course.
Not really normal. It's normally a bar snack
so how do you dress it to make it look good enough
for MasterChef? Beurre blanc, it can split, it can just taste
horrible, and the flavour of mimosa through it, who knows?
So, really looking forward to trying it.
Guys, how are we getting on? Probably about seven minutes.
Seven minutes? Yeah.
So close.
So ready to never see a bloody Scotch egg again.
Are you happy with these? They're very rare.
OK, I'll maybe do them another minute?
Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.
Sarah's roasted pigeon all needs to be cooked to order and rested
before she can carve.
I think pigeon is a cracking meat, but it is really tricky.
Marsala sauce has got to be rich,
it's got to really taste like pigeon.
The fondant, that's got to be really lovely and soft.
Yeah, they've got to nail every single element.
Really, really happy. I think I was a bit stressed at the beginning,
but I've definitely calmed down a little bit now, so, happy.
Radha has all her elements prepped for her jackfruit dumpling,
masala chips and onion tikki main.
How are you going to make that jackfruit really tasty?
Because on its own, it's extremely bland.
There is a lot going on, but hopefully it all comes together
in one beautiful dish.
JOHN: OK, guys, three minutes to pass, please.
First, check. Holly, how long until you plate up? Plating now.
Plating now? All right. Who else is it? Is it pork, Farokh?
Two minutes away.
The final main is Farokh's pork and apple Cell Cycle.
Oh, no. What's wrong?
Sorry, I've fallen behind.
I burnt it a bit. Just get it...
Just go, go, go, go, go. Working two pork.
First one up, then one straight after, please.
Yes, Chef.
I'm really intrigued as to what they mean by Cell Cycle.
I've sort of got this vision of something to do
with cycling or something scientific.
You know, it's a really traditional dish, pork and apple.
But I'm expecting to see something quite scientific on the plate.
Watch that frying pan. It's burning on the stove. Sorry?
Your fry pan. Oh, no. Sorry.
Thank you, Chef.
Guys, just tell me when you're plating, please.
Are you ready, Sarah?
Sure am.
30 seconds. It's brilliant.
I'm just loving this. It's fantastic.
Are you ready? I'm about 30 seconds away.
Four people on mains and the three girls are actually
communicating really well.
Farokh is holding the others up. He's causing problems.
Sorry... Are you burning something else?
Yes, it burnt.
How long are we going to be?
30 seconds. Literally 30 seconds, Chef.
Looks like we're doing OK. Wee bit worried about Farokh.
I need this pork. Everything else is on the pass.
Yes, Chef. We'll be with you in... If you say 30 seconds,
you've said it to me four times so far.
Sorry, Chef.
This will never end. This is me now, forever.
Like a porky Sisyphus.
Service, please.
Thank you. Looks lovely, that.
I'll take them.
Thank you very much indeed.
Ladies and gentlemen, main courses, final check.
Six minutes to pass, please.
I think it will be seven minutes, Chef.
Why? Because I'm a bit behind on this one.
Then push. Quick, quick, quick.
Yes, Chef.
This is the last one. Try and just get it perfect.
Guys, don't give up, honestly.
We're almost there. Keep the energy going.
You're fine. Come on.
I'm feeling great. I'm loving this.
It's brilliant.
I think I've got two more to plate and then I'm good to go.
Waiting on you, Sarah. Two pigeon, please. Yes, Chef.
Radha. 30 seconds, please, Chef.
Thank you very much.
Fantastic.
Don't sacrifice the colour on your scallop for speed.
OK? I would put that back in the pan for a second.
OK. OK?
The scallop's not cooked enough.
We're just giving it a little bit more colour.
Thank you.
I really need these two pork, my friend.
Yes, Chef.
Sarah, go, go, go, go.
Thank you.
Main courses. Well done. You are done. Service is over.
Can you clean down your benches, please? Yes.
Sparkly kitchen's a happy kitchen.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I feel totally pumped, actually.
Yeah? I really do! Oh, good. I don't know how it went, though.
I've got no idea.
I think we synchronised well. That was the word - synchronised.
Synchronised chaos.
That's what it was.
Holly received six orders for her scallop and prawn mousse Scotch egg
with a seared scallop, charred asparagus,
and a mimosa beurre blanc.
The egg itself is done very well.
My only complaint is that I'm not happy with my mousse.
If I was served this in a restaurant,
I would send it back because the mousse itself is undercooked.
The asparagus is cooked really well.
My only little criticism is that
the scallop itself is just slightly over.
And I like the mimosa beurre blanc a lot more than I thought I would.
That egg's not cooked. It's prawns and scallop.
You don't really ever have that with an egg,
and it might work, but the egg needs to be cooked.
Radha received five orders
for her jackfruit dumplings with an onion masala tikki sauce,
crispy masala chips,
saffron, almond, and cracked black pepper rice,
and puri bread.
HUMMING That's really nice.
Do the happy dance.
The jackfruit dumpling is really meaty.
It's got a really nice texture.
And the sauce has got really nice spices.
I really enjoyed it. It just tasted like a very good -
actually, brilliant - butter chicken, but meat-free.
Didn't miss the meat at all.
The puri was nice - nice and thin.
The rice was gorgeous. It was just so pleasant.
I'm really loving the jackfruit dumplings.
The sauce is nicely spiced. It's got a nice consistency, as well.
This is stunning. So many textures, flavours.
It just makes me feel really happy. It's gorgeous.
I like Radha's flavours.
The saffron in the rice is absolutely delicious.
And those little jackfruit balls - I like those.
She's made those really well.
Farokh's dish is Cell Cycle.
There were five orders for his pork tenderloin
served with sage pickled apples, black pudding,
sweetcorn and hazelnut dumplings, and a cider and mustard sauce.
I'm not quite sure why the dish was called Cell Cycle,
unless it was to do with all the things being spherical.
I was expecting something slightly more dramatic.
The pork's nice. It's tender.
But the black pudding's ever so slightly burnt,
so it's giving quite a bitter taste.
The sauce is far too sharp.
On paper, it sounds great,
but it's not coming together as a dish.
I like that apple and mustard combination.
I think that's perfect for pork.
But, for me, that pork is undercooked.
Sarah had four takers for her roasted breast of pigeon
with a celeriac fondant, topped with black pudding crumb,
Brussels sprouts, bramble gel,
beetroot game chips and a Marsala sauce.
It's really, really difficult to get the skin crispy on pigeon,
but it would have been nice to have maybe a little bit more crisp on it.
But I have to say that it's so nice and pink, I don't think...
It literally couldn't be more perfect.
The celeriac fondant's cooked really well.
The sprouts especially - almost my favourite piece, actually.
To be able to put all this together in the time they've been given
is pretty damn impressive, to be honest.
The pigeon flesh is beautiful and pink,
and the sauce is deep and rich, but there are a couple of errors.
The beetroot crisps aren't crisp. They're soggy.
And the skin on that pigeon needs more cookery.
Desserts! Checks on!
ALL: Yes, Chef!
I'll have the chocolate semi sphere and hazelnut ice cream, please.
Don't know if I can resist a sticky toffee pudding for dessert,
so I think I'll just have one of those.
I'll finish with the Chinese sweet dumplings.
I'm going to get the Chinese sweet dumplings as well, please.
One toffee, one dumpling, one sphere. How long?
Four minutes. Four minutes, Chef. Beautiful.
I've got a nice little treat for you, Thomas.
Table three - they all want your dumplings.
Can I have three portions, please, as quickly as possible?
Thank you very much.
I think John is going to be a good guiding force for us.
We're going to need that.
With the most orders, Thomas is under pressure
to quickly mould the peanut butter and black sesame fillings
into his Chinese dumplings.
They then need to be poached before they can be served.
Dumplings - wow! And it's done two ways, as well.
So, I'm very intrigued to find out
exactly what the flavours are going to be.
How long am I going to be waiting, please?
I have three almost ready in two minutes.
So, these are my sticky toffee apple puddings.
Yeah, happy with them.
They're going to be tidied up, ready for service.
The sticky toffee apple pudding is obviously traditional.
You know what you're going to get.
So, I think it's genius putting celeriac ice cream with it.
It's one of my favourite vegetables, so I'm excited
and a little bit terrified. We'll see what happens.
James's tempered chocolate spheres are set.
Happy with the spheres.
A little bit rugged on the edges, but there's been a lot to do.
They now need to be rolled in hazelnuts
and filled with a hazelnut ice cream.
I love chocolate and hazelnut.
I think they are literally a match made in heaven.
I did think it might be too rich,
but, I think, if they balance it right
and have that nice little refreshment with the ice cream,
I think it'll work quite well.
How long till you guys go?
Cos this ice cream is melting. It's not set enough.
Thomas! Yes? I need two dumplings straight away, please.
One minute. It's cooking.
The ice cream hasn't set particularly well in the freezer,
so I don't know what's happened. Yeah, not ideal.
So, it's going to be a little bit on the runny side, unfortunately.
OK, thank you.
Ioan, I think you might want to redo this toffee pudding
cos it's all scratched to bits.
I'm struggling with the toffee puddings here.
HE SIGHS Yeah, it's very warm in here.
The ice cream's melting for all of us,
and the pressure's on.
Do you want another ice cream, John? Hmm?
Do you want another ice cream? No, it's fine. Thank you.
HE EXHALES
OK, Thomas, how are we doing on those dumplings, my friend?
Two minutes. That was two minutes ago, as well.
What's going on?
What the hecky-decky is going on?
When Thomas says he's going to finish in a minute,
everybody believes him, so they're plating up.
Then Thomas is taking five minutes,
which means the ice creams on the other plates are melting.
So, I'm just keeping the spheres in the fridge
so that they don't start to melt
cos we've got a few minutes before the next plating.
John is having kittens over there.
Just give me the desserts. Guys, I need these desserts.
I need them! OK? I've got ice cream melting.
I need them. I need a sphere,
I need two toffees, and I need three dumplings.
Please! Yes, Chef. Please, please, please! Are we ready?
Guys, how long are we going to be? I'm going to be 20 seconds.
Just getting this...
Ice cream's going on now. I say ice cream...
Bit of gold-leaf touch. Why not?
OK, this one is ready.
Oh, yeah, Thomas is coming. Yay! Hey, hey, hey! Here we go!
Beautiful. All right, thank you so much.
Service, please. Table three. Let's go.
OK, Thomas, how long on three dumplings?
These three dumplings will be ready in two minutes.
Two minutes, please, guys. Two minutes. Can we please do this?
Sure. Thank you.
How far away are you, Thomas?
Cos I'm going to get my ice cream out
at the last possible... One minute. One minute.
Ooh, we've got one minute! We're on a countdown.
Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Thomas, is there anything I can do to help?
Do you want me to take them to the pass? Yes, please.
Bit of teamwork. Thank you.
Thank you.
Table seven.
Come on, then. Quick, quick, quick! Let's go, go, go, go, go!
Gentlemen, you are done.
Thank you, Chef. That was agonising. Thank you, Chef. Agonising.
OK, thank you very much.
Who picked chocolate?
My apology to both of you for the delay.
No apology necessary, Thomas.
Just make sure that you haven't got us voted off.
THEY LAUGH
Thomas's dish was the most popular on today's menu.
He served nine of his Chinese sweet dumplings two ways,
one with a black sesame filling in yuzu and coconut cream,
the second filled with peanut butter,
coated with toasted coconut,
served with a sesame caramel, candied peanuts and a coconut tuile.
The coconut flavours are nice.
You've got the black sesame coming through.
The crispy tuile is lovely.
The coconut and the yuzu, peanut - that works nice together.
Really impressed, actually. I think it's elegant,
it's really refined.
I'd imagine there's a ton of work that's gone in this,
which belies the simplicity of how it looks,
and so I respect it and I thoroughly enjoy it, as well.
His dumplings are beautifully flavoured,
but, mate, his timing is well off.
Ioan received six orders for his sticky toffee apple pudding
with compressed apple, pecan crumb,
celeriac ice cream and a caramel sauce.
So good. SHE GIGGLES
This is, hands-down, my favourite course of the whole day.
It's rich, it's sweet, it's dense, but in the right way.
The celeriac ice cream, even though it hadn't set,
I thought it was delicious.
Just all around a really good dish for me.
I'm sorry for them that it wasn't perfect-looking, but you know what?
It tastes gorgeous.
These compressed apples are so clever
because it cuts through a lot of the sweetness.
Good dessert. I just want to wear a bib
and just eat the whole lot of it!
I think it's a great-tasting dessert, actually.
I really do. And very clever.
But it deserves to be tidied up a little bit.
There were five orders for James's chocolate semi spheres
with hazelnut ice cream, gold leaf,
hazelnut chocolate sauce and a hazelnut praline.
It's a little bit of a disaster, presentation-wise, unfortunately.
Looks like it's been rushed a little bit, I think. Yeah.
LOUD SNAP Oh, no!
LAUGHTER
It's quite a bit of a surprise, actually.
I mean, yeah, the ice cream's melted.
Inside is like a really soft sort of hazelnut and chocolate ganache,
which tastes amazing. Yeah, it actually really does.
It actually tastes like
what the ambassador serves on them silver trays.
It tastes fantastic.
Listen, we've got an issue with this appearance, right?
That's because his ice cream's melting all over the place.
I've tried some really beautiful dishes,
things I've tried for the first time.
I think there was a couple of tiny mistakes but, on the whole,
like, it was absolutely banging.
I think there's been a really good display
of cookery skills all around.
I hope it's been a good experience for them, as well as us,
and I hope it's the start of a really good journey for them.
Everything I've eaten, I've devoured,
so I think they can all be proud of themselves.
MasterChef semifinals, we said we were going to turn up the heat.
Two of them are leaving the competition,
and we now have to work out who stays and who goes.
Interesting. I think the top three performers
are the three guys that made the starters.
As far as main courses go, I think Radha performed very, very well.
Those little jackfruit balls were lovely.
John, it was delicious. Absolutely.
That's four gone through.
That means we've now got to discuss the other six.
The dining room wasn't sure about Holly's dish at all.
Now, I had a fish mousse around an undercooked egg.
Farokh, in service - trying to get him to understand
that everybody else was working together was very, very difficult.
I have an issue with the cookery of that pork.
It was too under for me.
Sarah - I liked the flesh of the pigeon.
However, the skin on that pigeon needed more cooking.
What happened in the dessert section, John?
You got two melted ice creams and very late dumplings.
The whole pastry section was reliant upon Thomas,
and he couldn't work out his timings.
What made it more difficult for Thomas was he got the most orders.
He got, what we call in the kitchen, slammed.
I think Ioan's dish could have looked a lot better,
but I think the sticky toffee apple really worked for me.
I liked James's flavours. It was nutty and it was chocolate.
It was lovely. But his ice cream didn't work.
If you haven't got ice cream, you've got a very nice-tasting cold puddle.
Right, who stays and who goes? Cos two of them are leaving.
I've got no regret that I managed to cook something
my father taught me since I was seven,
so I think this is good enough.
It was a really hard day in there.
Yeah, made mistakes. We'll see what happens.
Honestly, if I went home today, I would probably be sadder
than if I'd gone home in any of the previous rounds.
It's so hard, it's so tough, but, like, every time you come out,
it's like, "Oh, I want it a little bit more now."
I'm really on the fence in terms of chances today.
This is a competition. There can only be one winner.
I'd be devastated to leave now. Yeah.
I would like to be here till the end.
What a massive challenge, and what a huge effort by you ten.
Well done.
Four of you were outstanding
and you're going through to the next round.
Pookie...
..Eddie...
..Olayemi...
..Radha...
..well done, you four.
You absolutely deserve your place in the competition.
There were two other people
who performed really well during service...
..and that means they deserve a place in the competition.
Sarah...
..Ioan, well done.
That now leaves us with you four -
Holly, James,
Thomas, Farokh.
The first person leaving us?
Holly.
Holly, you've always dared to be different.
Your food's been theatrical.
It didn't quite work out in this round.
Thank you. Thank you guys so much. Best of luck, guys.
Thank you. Thanks, Holly.
The second person leaving us is...
..Farokh.
It's been absolutely wonderful having you.
Your imagination is incredible. Thank you so very much indeed.
Great to meet you.
SHE EXHALES
I will look back at my time on MasterChef with fondness and love.
I'm going to cherish this my entire life.
Like, it's been amazing. It's been so much fun.
I don't want to go! SHE GROANS
Ultimately, I feel like I've had my fun,
I've done my best, and got to the last ten,
so that's good. That's good, isn't it? That's good.
We've now got our final eight, and there is lots more to come.
So unreal! I cannot believe I'm still here!
I think I've dodged a massive bullet with this challenge.
Yes, I feel quite privileged to still be here, to be honest.
I honestly... I thought I was about to faint.
I'm so glad to be in the final eight.
Very excited for the next challenge. It'll be great.
I'm feeling totally blown away.
I think Pookie and I are going to go out and celebrate tonight.
Cocktail time!
SHE LAUGHS Definitely a cocktail!
Next time, the pressure is on...
How many minutes left now?
..as the final eight fight for their place...
..and the chance to cook under a Michelin-starred chef
at a celebration 100 years in the making.
Another six, guys. Go, go, go! Let's go!
I kind of feel like I'm just missing some soldiers
and maybe some brown sauce.