In the beginning,
45 determined amateur cooks
set their sights on the MasterChef title.
Now, only the three most talented remain.
This is a massive, massive day.
The title is definitely in touching distance.
Without a doubt it's going to be the toughest cook yet.
I work extremely hard.
I challenge my creativity.
I come so far from day one.
I feel like I'm on a ladder
and the MasterChef trophy is at the top.
Going to give it everything I've got.
It's one last push now to the end.
They are going to really push it.
We are in for a massive show.
Hold on tight, Mr Wallace.
This is the final cook-off.
Through the doors of the MasterChef kitchen this year,
we have had dentists, head teachers...
It's the pressure.
...lawyers, university lecturers...
...firefighters...
A smile can mask a million feelings right now.
...all with a real burning desire to be the best cook they can be.
I love this. This is great, isn't it?
Come on! Let's get this done.
JOHN: The food has been amazing.
I like that. That's got style.
That is professional level.
It's big, it's hearty, it's world-class.
It's the kind of thing I adore. I love this.
It's been an extraordinary competition full of ups and downs.
Oh-ho! I think you might want to redo this toffee pudding
cos it's all scratched to bits.
The ice cream hasn't set, so I don't know what's happened.
Oh, no! I've burnt it a bit.
Earth to Eddie, bring the first two portions over, please.
I think what we've seen this year is a whole new level of creativity.
The creation of her plastic cheese — incredible.
Brilliant work, look at this!
I have never been served a kitchen sponge on MasterChef before.
Really fun, it's really kind of playful.
It's absolute genius.
Seven weeks of competition, 45 amateur cooks
down to our final three.
And now, it's showtime.
I was born in Bangkok, Thailand.
We have big families.
Growing up back then, don't have any worry in the world.
When Pookie was young she never cooked.
When I first found out she was on MasterChef,
I nearly passed out.
I said, "You what?!"
When I first come to the UK, I want to go study,
and most of my uni time, I probably liked to eat so much...
...pot noodle.
I met Pookie back in 2007.
Hit it off from the very get-go, really.
We married in 2011, so it's been ten years this year.
She's very unique. Pookie goes into a room and lights the room up.
She makes friends with just about everybody she meets.
She's the sort of person that nobody forgets.
Woo!
Who looks a million dollars?
Pookie and I love throwing parties.
We haven't got the responsibility of children so we can throw a party
whenever we like and we've got a great group of friends.
Hello.
Welcome.
I like my guests to come into my home
and then step into Pookie World.
It tastes of Pookie Land.
Do you want to suck that off?
THEY LAUGH
Most people, when they go round to people's houses,
they get a cup of tea. Oh, that's good.
They might get a biscuit.
When you come round here,
there's food in front of you straight away.
WQW!
We do know how to throw a party, I think — it's quite good fun.
Woo! OK.
This is my Tom Yum cocktail.
W000! Wow!
During this competition, I never seen her work so hard in her life.
She's really amazing.
ALL: Cheers.
MasterChef journey, it has been very emotional.
Hello.
How are you?
Oh, I couldn't do this without my loved ones to support me.
I got through to the last three.
Oh! Oh, my God. Wow!
So amazing.
OK.
I'm really so proud of Pookie.
Her love of food has basically increased through MasterChef.
Yeah, my pride in her has gone up as well — a lot.
This experience has given me the boost to be more confident...
...in every way.
If I won the competition, I don't know how would it change my life.
But I can't wait to see.
Pookie has landed in MasterChef kitchen!
We've been introduced to a world called Pookie Land.
I'm guessing you know your rice is blue?
Yes!
Her food is a fusion of Asia.
It's extraordinary.
It's exciting.
Putting Chinese and Thai food together is not easy. No.
I think you've done a great job.
These flavours are absolutely divine.
That is fantastic.
Pookie doesn't just cook brilliantly — Pookie creates.
Watch out!
And at its best, john, it is magical.
Ha-ha! What's that?
Welcome to Pookie Land.
When you put your technical ability with your imagination,
I am gobsmacked.
The only times I've been disappointed with Pookie...
Oh! ..is when she spent more time on the theatrical
than she has the dish itself.
You've got good flavours.
I'd like you to give me more food and less shells.
The salmon across the top of that rice is going a little bit dry.
That dish meant so much,
but I make a mistake.
Since then, I've been fighting back in every single challenge,
and I'm still here.
You have got to the stage where you understand how to have your fun,
but keep the heart, the soul and the flavour of a dish
true to what it should be, and that's what this is.
Pookie's dish in the egg is amazing!
Creativity has to be applauded.
Second time round, moving a lot faster. Well done.
That is a glorious plate of food. It's a top dish.
Now I'm here, of course, I would want to see it to the end.
I'm so close now.
I just want to dream high and go grab it.
I grew up in a very small village in Northamptonshire.
It was a very uncomplicated, carefree childhood.
I wish I could go back to that time.
He's the kindest boy you're ever going to meet.
He's funny, he's witty.
He had lots of interests.
He was a very happy child.
There was always lots of great food at home, and I would always
have these memories of watching my grandmother cook
amazing Indian food.
My mum always loved baking,
so she inspired and influenced me a huge amount.
My parents are both schoolteachers.
They would have the whole summer holiday off, so we'd all go in a
small Ford Fiesta and we'd fill it up with loads of camping equipment,
tents, cooking gear, and get the ferry to France.
They were great lovers of French food, and they passed that on to me.
On the ferry to France — I must have been about 12 —
we went up to the bridge and we saw a very smartly dressed captain.
And I thought, "Wow, he looks like James Bond."
And he said, "Would you like to steer the ship?"
So, from that day,
I decided that I wanted to become the pilot of the ship.
Essentially, I head out
onto a high-speed pilot boat
and that will take me out to sea.
I'll climb up a rope ladder onto the ship,
then I'll help the captain bring the ship into the port...
...and make sure that that ship gets alongside safely.
What have you got? Got some excellent plonk here.
MasterChef has just been the most incredible experience.
CORK POPS Wow!
Hooray.
Nanny, do you want some? A little bit.
He cooks from the heart and he cooks with love.
Cheers, Nanny. All the best.
I'm incredibly proud of Edie.
Oh, wow. He wants to work with food.
He wants that to be his career. It's his passion.
I think in life,
I don't like to just cruise on down the river.
I like to have some challenges thrown at me.
Cheers. Thanks a lot for cooking for us.
Future success. Well done.
And I think you get the best out of me when you throw me
in that kitchen.
Wahey! Good afternoon.
...and he's hardly put a foot wrong throughout the competition.
Strange thing to say, Eddie,
but I think I love you.
His love of classic French food blended with the spices of India
has made us really stand up and take notice.
As an invention test, I'm gobsmacked.
You know how to cook.
It's a succession of hugs —
it's like I'm giving you a hug-infused hug covered in hugs.
He's daring. He's adventurous.
He doesn't play it safe.
We've got gorgonzola in the cheesecake.
He is going for big, bold flavours.
It is just on the edge of being too much,
but somehow it all works.
I have a huge amount of fear —
every time I come to MasterChef — of failing.
Eddie, is it all going to plan? It's going to plan, john.
He's very calm under pressure.
Nice colour. Don't want to have a disaster with that, do we?
If Eddie's got a weakness,
sometimes he overcrowds the plate.
You have done a huge amount of work,
and this plate deserves to look better.
I think the toughest experience was the restaurant challenge.
Eddie, how long?
Three minutes on the fish.
I just found it extremely difficult.
I can't serve this table till I get your food, Eddie,
how are you getting on?
Yep, I've got the first one ready. First one now, please.
Personal highlight from the competition was cooking
at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.
Multitask now, Eddie, let's go. Show me what you've got. Let's go.
The consomme is ten out of ten.
A lot of chefs cannot do it as well as that, you know. Perfect.
It's just gorgeous.
I think everything in my life has been building up to doing
something in food.
Boom! Absolutely ace.
It's just delicious.
I'd love more than anything to be able to win.
I was born in Durham.
We're quite a close—knit family.
There's me, my brother, my mum and my dad,
and we do everything together.
When it was Christmas or Diwali or any large family gatherings,
you could guarantee that the amount of food there
would literally feed an army.
She's always been creative — on the stage, singing, acting,
and I think we see that passion now in her cooking.
Dying for a drink, Radha. I know.
Mum works for the NHS and Dad works for a university.
Thanks, Dad.
So when Covid hit, I could see that they were busy and stressed out.
The worst thing for me was them having to come home after a hard
days of work and then cook dinner,
so I started cooking dinner for them.
While we were looking after other people's mental health
and well being, she was looking after ours
by making sure that there was a really nice dinner on the table.
I became vegetarian when I was around nine or ten years old.
We, as a family, don't eat meat in the house.
How long is dinner, Radha? I'm rather peckish.
It'll be ready when it's ready!
THEY LAUGH
First met Radha at university.
First impressions were how beautiful she was.
And shortly after meeting, how caring, how kind, how bubbly,
how energetic she was.
Throughout this entire process, he's been so, so supportive.
This is delicious, Radha. It's really nice.
So, me and my brother are super, super close.
He's three years younger than me.
Radha, as you know, Rahul can't be with us cos he's doing
his medical exams, but he sent you a message...
Aww.
It was really difficult for me to see him go abroad to university.
I'm so proud of you and everything that you've accomplished
in this competition — it's absolutely amazing.
I never knew you could cook like this because the last time you had
to cook for me was when you burnt my chicken casserole and dumplings.
Best of luck for the finals, I know you're going to smash it
and I'll see you soon. Bye. That's lovely.
It's really nice. Aww.
I'm so proud of how far I've come...
"but to be able to win it,
that would just be incredible.
Radha's food has just been getting better and better
as the competition developed.
Hello. Hey.
Think your food tastes absolutely lovely.
She's really nailed it.
It tastes great. It's fantastic.
What Radha can do with a bowl of rice and some dahl
is absolutely extraordinary.
And have total understanding of texture and flavour and technique,
it's really impressive.
What we've realised is she is a natural pastry chef.
Is this the first time you've made a pudding? Yeah, probably.
I absolutely love it.
You are a superstar.
For someone who is a chocolate orange sceptic,
I think this is fabulous.
Can't stop smiling!
It has been quite intense at times.
Oh, my God. I've got the shakes.
I'm the type of person who wears my heart on my sleeve.
I'm really, really nervous, but I'm just going to try and keep calm
and hopefully everything will go well.
So that's probably why at the beginning of the process
there was a load of tears.
I don't think I showed them the best of me.
All she's done is grown.
She's picked up little bits and pieces like a magpie along the way.
Guys, just tell me when you're all plating, please. 30 seconds!
Really, really happy. I think I was a bit stressed at the beginning,
but I've definitely calmed down a little bit now.
She's absorbed every single lesson...
There are treasures here, I'll tell you.
It's a little seaweed called carrageenan.
Here, have a little to taste.
...and just gathered more and more momentum.
It just makes me feel really happy. It's gorgeous.
On this plate there is some real majesty, I really like it.
I never, ever, ever thought that I'd be cooking the things
that I'm cooking now.
I think it's absolutely fantastic. I love the green in the wintertime.
Do you know what? I'd sell my soul for a pack of peas.
Well done. Go, go, go, go, go.
Those last three were beautiful. Well done.
Yes, Chef. Mm...
The pastry's gorgeous. It's a great dessert.
This is one ambitious contestant right here.
Do you think she's going to be happy with anything else but winning it?
Oh! I'm going to be putting in absolutely everything
into this final cook.
I'm just going to go in there and do my absolute best and hopefully
smash it out the park.
Weeks and weeks of preparation,
all leading up to this point.
Now, it's the final cook-off.
Bring it on.
For the very last time,
welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.
I hope you realise just how wonderful you are.
It's been an amazing journey,
and I'm really grateful that I've been with you
every single step of the way.
Don't leave anything in the tank,
give this absolutely everything you've got.
Ladies and gentlemen, you know what you've got to do.
This is going to be one extraordinary final,
because it is close as anything.
Three hours, three courses.
One trophy.
Let's cook.
What excites me here is the thought of how hard they're going to push
themselves. What dishes have they been dreaming up, John?
I'm ready to give it a go, Pookie style.
Feeling great.
Got a lot to do, though, so it'll be quite a stressful day, I think.
I never thought I'd be here, but I am, so I've just got
to keep focused and keep calm.
These three dishes stand between me and the trophy...
...so it is massive — massive.
The ingredients here are just beautiful.
I'm going to bring Thailand into this kitchen today.
It's some of my journey here — it's some of the story of my life.
Are we going to Pookie Land?
You're definitely going into Pookie Land today in all the courses.
I'm pushing myself extremely hard.
EXHALES DEEPLY
I'm doing a new thing that I never done before.
So, yeah, I've got a big challenge coming.
Pookie's starter is a Tom Yum soup.
I mean, an absolutely classic soup from Thailand.
A clear broth flavoured with lemongrass and lime
and loads and loads of chilli.
Aaah!
How many little chillies you got in there? I don't know!
It should be sharp, it should be sour, it should be hot,
and it should be really, really fragrant.
One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
Some dried, some fresh.
Wow.
And she's got bits of chicken going through that as well.
It's not a complicated dish,
but it has to have bags and bags of flavour.
I will serve you in a way
that I hope you haven't seen it before.
She's promising us a surprise,
but what is that surprise going to be?
I'm infusing my Tom Yum soup
using the coffee machine.
Bring it on. It's the final.
If she's not going to run wild in the final,
when is she going to run wild?
And that's going to boil up...
And then that's going to...
Into the flavourings on the top.
How wonderful.
Oh, Pookie, you clever cook.
My main course, I'm doing Pookie-style surf and turf.
Oh, you make me laugh. Come on.
What is Pookie-style surf and turf?
To celebrate the final,
it's going to be fillet steak covered with gold.
In Thailand, we celebrate with gold.
This MasterChef kitchen
has been a golden time of my life.
That's what inspired me.
That fillet of beef, I'd like it to be rare, but not too rare.
Got big tiger prawns on that bench.
She's making a tamarind sauce.
I'm still doing Thai dish, but it won't look Thai.
I really like the idea of a broccoli stem salad...
Mm.
...served with Thai flavours.
You just caught me in the action.
Pookie's dessert — sticky rice and mango.
It's the dish that's been in Thailand for such a long time.
People love the flavour of mango and sticky rice.
She's going to flavour with her rice with pea flowers.
Purple rice? Purple rice...
Love purple rice. Haven't had purple rice...
...ever! Yeah!
She's going to serve it with a mango mousse.
That needs to be soft and light and delicate.
And then she's going to add a bit of Pookie style to it.
This is a stratification.
Hope that it's going to work.
These three dishes represent me so well.
This is Thailand.
This is Pookie in her element.
It's a flavour that I was born with.
It's a flavour I miss.
I haven't been back home for two years,
so that's why...
...with the thing that's going on in the world right now, it's quite...
Brings me back home a bit.
At least I can cook and I can transport myself there.
Going to cook my heart, my soul, my everything out for this.
And I'm just thankful I have this chance to share it
with MasterChef kitchen.
Finalists! You've had 40 minutes. 40 minutes gone.
I definitely want to show john and Gregg the difference in the cook
I am now to who I was when I first walked through the doors.
I want to show them the complexity,
the flavours, the spicing, the balance.
Basically, everything I've learned on this journey.
Did you ever expect to make it to the MasterChef final?
Never, ever, ever, ever.
I can't put it into words. I started this competition
with no confidence in myself or my cooking ability,
and then the more I've cooked,
the more confidence I've got and more belief I've got,
and, yeah, it's incredible to see that, really.
The starter's definitely a celebration of vegetables.
I'm going to be doing what I like to call Scallops of the Forest.
Scallops...
Which is basically an oyster mushroom stem.
You cut it into little rounds so they look like scallops,
and you pan-fry them and, actually,
they have a lovely texture, not dissimilar to a scallop.
She's also going to flavour that with some spices.
I want to show people that you can use vegetables in weird
and wonderful ways.
I don't eat fish, but I think the oyster mushroom represents
scallops quite well.
I'm going to be serving it with parsnips,
which have been done three ways.
We've got a parsnip puree, which needs to be absolutely smooth
and creamy and rich.
We've got parsnip crisps going across the top.
We've also got some pickled parsnip.
This is vegetarian cooking at its best.
I'm very, very much looking forward to this.
I'm trying to breathe as much as possible, probably forgotten!
Main course — paneer.
Paneer, for me, I love it.
It's a cheese and I love cheese.
So why wouldn't I love it?
I'm going to be doing that two ways.
Some of the pane-er is going to be stuffed with a masala mix.
You can't get it in the whole way,
otherwise the paneer will just burst open when you try and fry it.
And then the other paneer is going to be in a makhani sauce.
That's the first sauce that I ever served as my first dish,
and I thought, it's nice just to bring that — the first ever
dish that I do — in the last ever cook that I'm in.
And then that's going to be served with a Peshwari rice.
Paneer doesn't have any flavour.
It's a flavour vehicle.
So we're going to have to have lots of spice inside that paneer.
We always have pane-er curry.
That's just like a nod to my family
because of all of the support they've given me throughout
this entire competition.
Then dessert is my take on an Eton mess.
Eton mess was one of the things we always used to have in summer,
but I've sort of refined it a little bit.
She's making meringues,
which she's flavouring with fennel pollen.
Then she's making Chantilly cream.
I hope there's loads of vanilla in there.
We are then going to be given a berry coulis and some olive oil.
I'm really, really pushing myself with all of these dishes.
Oh, it's all right, it's fine!
Just got to stay focused.
Hm-mm. Lot to do. Lot to do.
Be on my toes, be prepared,
and, hopefully, everything will just work out.
Guys, you're halfway, please, halfway.
My final three dishes would be my death row meal.
Perfect.
I'm cooking food that I would eat bucket loads of.
You've had a great competition.
Can you go one step further and actually win it?
I would love to win it.
This is the culmination of all of my cooking
from my childhood through to today.
This has been the most fantastic journey.
We have as a starter, turbot, which he's going to pan-fry.
Champagne beurre blanc.
He's going to serve that with a crispy oyster.
He's going to drop it in the deep fryer.
When you bite into it, you get the explosion of that oyster flavour.
We've also got caviar.
Oysters — expensive.
Turbot, Champagne and caviar all on one plate.
This is a bold statement.
"This is the final, and I'm going to absolutely go for it."
As a child,
me and my family would always go to Brittany,
the home of the famous beurre blanc sauce.
It just evokes wonderful, nostalgic memories for me.
Couldn't get many more expensive starters than that, where do we go
to with the main?
I'm cooking you my absolute favourite dish,
my Hyderabadi chicken biryani — Hyderabadi dum.
Dum means cooking in steam.
The biryani is a really difficult thing to get right.
There's no correcting it once it goes into the oven and there's no
telling that it's going to be perfectly cooked or not.
He has got chicken,
which he's marinated with yoghurt and loads of spices,
steamed in its own juices,
underneath the layer of rice.
Think it's probably the bravest dish he's done in the competition so far,
because there is nowhere to hide.
It is chicken and rice,
and I think that's a big gamble.
So, for my final dessert,
I'm making St—Emilion au chocolat
with prunes in Armagnac.
You don't get much more French and much more classic than that.
Dessert — the richest chocolate cake in all of France.
It's a rich chocolate mousse, almost like a ganache.
The chocolate mousse needs to be set perfectly.
But prunes have been soaked and then boiled in Armagnac —
really lovely, rich, brandy sweetness.
That is rich — really, really, really rich.
I want to win this for all of my family.
My mum taught me how to cook.
Erm...
All of our best memories were cooking together,
travelling, eating together.
So, to do it for them would be amazing.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have just ten minutes, please.
Pookie, you're rushing, aren't you?
Yes. Why are you rushed?
I got a lotto do, Gregg, what do you think?
I'm worried about Pookie.
Oh, please...
...because Pookie looks almost panicky already.
I'm doing many things at the same time at the moment.
Eddie, are these the biryanis?
They're done — just coming out now. They've been in 45 minutes.
You've done them so many times that you know that's absolutely right?
Oh, well, yeah, we'll pray to the biryani gods.
Eddie looks in control, but probably the most important part
of all of his dish is yet to happen, and that's the cookery of that fish.
The smile has gone from Radha's face.
She looks very, very much under pressure.
Come on.
It's no longer flowing and happy.
SPOOnQ
That is one stressed bench.
I've not even scooped my ice cream yet.
CORK POPS No.
We have five minutes.
Your last five minutes.
Are we in control here or not?
No. You are slightly worrying me, you know that?
I know — I'm worrying myself.
Are you? Yep.
OK. All right.
There's nerves everywhere.
Oh, where are my peas?
I mean, this is a final. A proper final.
Oh...
How many minutes we got left?
90 seconds! Come on!
Done!
Radha, we're on borrowed time now.
Yeah, I know, I'm just serving my ice cream. Is that the last thing?
It's going to have to be, isn't it?
Stop! Time's up.
We done it, guys. Well done, guys. That's it. We're all done.
We done it. That was so quick.
It just went like a flash.
Rad ha, come on.
Bit of a push towards the end? Yes.
But if you look down at this table and you consider
what you've achieved in this competition so far, you've got
to be pretty excited about it, don't you?
Thank you. It looks incredible!
For her starter, Radha has served Scallop of the Forest —
king oyster mushrooms stems cooked in a curry butter,
with a parsnip puree, parsnip crisps,
pickled parsnip and a pomegranate dressing.
It looks like a dish that could be served in a restaurant.
I think that's wonderful.
You've got a lovely slight bounce to the texture of those mushrooms,
cut to look like scallops, flavoured with it — it's like a mild curry.
The sweetness of the parsnip really comes through in that puree
and the sharpness of the pickled one — very, very good.
Nice way to start a meal. Thank you.
The crispy parsnips across the top, there's your texture,
and then amongst that, little jewels of your pomegranate and they explode
into your mouth with a little sharpness — I love that as well.
Great textures, great flavour, great combination.
It's a brilliant dish. Thank you.
For her main course,
Radha has made paneer deep-fried in a turmeric batter,
stuffed with mango pickle, cashew nuts and chilli.
Peshwari rice flavoured with flaked almonds,
raisins, cardamom and saffron,
coriander and mint oil,
deep-fried tomato skins and pickled onions,
with paneer makhani, a mild, buttery tomato based sauce.
It looks good and it smells good.
Actually, it smells fantastic.
Your sauce is fabulous.
It's creamy, slightly sweet.
Very, very good indeed.
Loving this rice, this saffron, little bits of nuts,
and then sweet raisins inside.
My one worry here is that in the big bits of fried paneer,
which are lovely, I can't taste that filling.
But I love this sauce — that is super yum.
I mean, honestly, I would dip anything in to that.
I'm with Gregg here on the spicing on that little paneer.
The actual centre of the stuffed paneer, there's not enough of it.
Saying that, the sauce is sharp with tomatoes and spice.
It's well cooked. It's really well presented.
It's a great dish.
For dessert, Radha has made her take on an Eton mess.
Fennel pollen and lemon verbena meringues,
Chantilly cream,
finished with extra virgin olive oil,
a mixed berry coulis,
and a raspberry and rose sorbet
with a berry-flavoured Bellini cocktail.
Oh, yeah! Cor, that's tropical.
We need an umbrella and one of those curly straws!
That's fantastic.
It has all the qualities of an Eton mess, crispy meringue,
which are really lovely.
The sorbet, beautiful and smooth,
rich with rose and also the sharpness of raspberries.
And then you get the flavour of fennel and fennel pollen
and the addition of the olive oil I really like.
Really like — it's fascinating.
Those meringues are fabulous, absolutely fabulous.
We've all had sugar meringues,
but I can't remember having one tasting of fennel —
that is beautiful.
And they work perfectly with your sharp, fruity flavours.
Watching you and your food developing in this competition
has been, honestly, extraordinary.
Cos you had talent, but you were so nervous, but as you developed
through the competition, so your confidence grew.
The self-belief grew, and as the self-belief grew
so did the majesty of your food.
Thank YOU, cos it's been wonderful to watch.
I just want to say thank you cos I've learned so much.
All of the advice and everything you've given me, I've taken on board
and it's helped me, not just with my food,
but with the confidence, so, thank you.
Hey! JOHN LAUGHS
Don't you start me off.
That's not fair.
It has been an incredible journey for you,
it really has, and you've got to be really proud of yourself.
Definitely. Thank you.
I'm really, really pleased with my performance
and what I put out today.
EDDIE: Well done. Thanks.
Nice job. Amazing. Brilliant.
Yeah, it was amazing.
I mean, yeah, it was an emotional one,
but it was always going to be.
WHISPERS: Thank you.
Pookie, we are ready for you.
Yes. Sawasdee kha.
Sawasdee kha.
So, just a little sawasdee kha drink.
They're going to be the cocktails for you.
Thank you.
The cocktail is a flavour of Thailand.
So, got lychee, got ginger, got lime, vodka and gin in.
Welcome to Pookie Land.
POOKIE LAUGHS
I love that.
That's really, really lovely. I like that.
For her starter, Pookie has made chicken breast cooked sous vide
with fish sauce, coconut milk and galangal,
shimeji mushrooms,
and a coffee pot filled with a Tom Yum soup,
flavoured with lemongrass, coriander and chilli.
Cor!
That's serious chilli, isn't it?
Your Tom Yum is delicious.
Look at my learned friend and what he's doing with that bowl —
literally taking every single last drop.
Beautiful bits of chicken cooked perfectly, beautifully flavoured,
but it's well balanced and well rounded.
I can't find fault with this.
Thank you, john.
This is a great-flavoured soup.
It's light in texture, but no way is it light in flavour.
My lips are now buzzing.
I thought that was great.
For main, Pookie has served soy—marinated fillet steak
coated in gold leaf,
and topped with wasabi tobiko roe.
King prawns and broccoli stems in a chilli, fish sauce,
lime and palm sugar dressing,
decorated with gold dust and chilli powder
with a lemongrass oil and oak chip smoke.
That is wonderful, Pookie.
All finished with a tamarind sauce.
Look at that — gold-wrapped steak, MasterChef emblem.
It's a really elegant looking dish, Pookie, I've got to say.
Your fillet of beef is cooked beautifully, it's got a lovely
crispy outside and still medium rare in the centre.
Your prawns have a lovely crunch and a bounce to them,
and on top of that, we've got flying fish roe —
pop in your mouth and add another sensation.
And there's these amazing flavours of Thailand,
of fish sauce and palm sugar, chillies and lime.
I think this is a great display of real cooking talent.
I think it's delightful.
Delightful. Thank you.
I really love the crunch of the broccoli stems,
but what is fantastic is the quality of this sauce.
Slightly sharp. There's almost a hint of fruitiness about it.
Well done.
For dessert, Pookie has made a dome of mango mousse
topped with gold leaf and edible flowers,
spheres of mango gel,
fresh mango,
purple Thai sticky rice with coconut milk and sesame seeds,
and a coconut cream — all finished with a sprinkle of gold dust.
I've never had purple rice. Hmm.
I only had blue rice a couple of weeks ago, and that was you!
I love mango,
and I've got mango in different forms of intensity here.
The dome is quite mild.
Then, the slices of mango themselves,
more sunshine, more juiciness,
until you get the proper intense mango flavour
inside that gel.
The coconut milk is a surprise because there's a slight saltiness
to it, which is a lovely contrast to all of that tropical fruit mango.
I think that is lovely.
This dome of mango mousse cloaked in this gold leaf
is light as a feather.
Mix that up with the salty coconut milk — wonderful.
The rice is cooked beautifully.
The purple — I know you want to be different, but I don't know
if you really need to be that different
because your cooking is so good.
I've never met a cook like you, Pookie.
You want to serve good food,
but you want to do more than that.
I think you just want to give to people,
you want your guests to feel special.
And I'm really impressed, and I'm really thankful.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for understanding
what I try to do and achieve.
And thank you so much for enjoying
my food from the bottom of my heart.
This competition has been such a tremendous...
...challenge for me.
Thank you. Khaawp khun ka.
I feel like on cloud nine in a way.
I mean, the comment, it just made me feel like
I'm floating at the moment, so...
Yep, just bring me down to the ground.
Landed from the spaceship.
Eddie, please, come and take a seat.
Right, thank you.
Great-looking food, Eddie, really great-looking food.
For his starter, Eddie has served turbot topped with caviar,
tempura oyster,
cucumber compressed in dill oil,
and a champagne beurre blanc.
Good cookery on the turbot.
You've got a nice colour on the outside of it.
Your sauce, your creamy,
buttery beurre blanc with a hint of Champagne,
giving it a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of sharpness.
Those little bits of cucumber with the dill oil,
they offer relief from the butter.
You are cooking to a standard here
that many professional chefs haven't reached.
Very, very impressive.
Boom!
That is stupendous.
Your turbot has got a lovely crispy outside,
salty caviar across the top
as a seasoning.
The oyster perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside,
soft on the inside.
You've taken the finest of ingredients,
treated them with real care
and got absolute perfection and balance.
That's a great dish.
Grace the table of any restaurant, Eddie.
Absolutely wonderful. Thank you.
For his main, Eddie has made a Hyderabadi dum,
a caraway and nigella seed pastry-topped chicken biryani,
spiced basmati rice with crispy onions,
chicken thigh cooked on the bone,
all flavoured with saffron, Kashmiri chilli powder and cardamom,
with a cucumber raita.
I have a problem with this dish...
...in the fact I just want to keep on shovelling it into my mouth!
EDDIE GUFFAWS
It's so extraordinarily addictive and delicious.
Every single mouthful, there's something completely different.
The chicken underneath is cooked beautifully, really richly spiced,
loads and loads of cardamom and cumin.
The pastry with nigella seeds and caraway seeds across the top.
I want to wrap the rice in pastry, give myself a double carb hit.
It's a dish which you've obviously worked very, very hard on.
It's great!
Your chicken I took for granted would be perfectly cooked and it is,
but it's the ability to conjure up
those wonderful flavours
inside that pot of rice that I'm so impressed with.
It's a richly flavoured,
incredibly moreish dish.
It's absolutely delightful.
Finally, for dessert, Eddie has served his take on the classic
French dish St-Emilion au chocolat —
chocolate mousse with a prune puree centre,
prunes soaked in Armagnac,
almond frangipane,
and an almond and Armagnac cream.
Cocoa-rich chocolaty mousse. In the middle of there
is a prune puree — absolutely delicious.
Around the outside, we've got these little bits of sponge
that have been soaked in brandy.
It's like a rum baba meets chocolate mousse.
It's naughty, but it's absolutely delicious.
It's so rich, I'd like it just to be a bit smaller.
But chocolate and prunes,
you've married them together beautifully.
Really like the cake that you've made, I think that's great.
The texture is very, very good.
It tastes great. No two ways about it.
Thank you so much.
I can't honestly, when I look at you,
imagine you doing anything else but cooking.
Eddie, you are a born cook. What can I say?
I can't pay you any better compliment than that.
It's just been life's greatest pleasure to sit here
and cook for you both the food that I love.
It's the best thing I've ever done.
Eddie, thank you very much. Thank you.
Receiving those comments for food
that really, really, really meant a huge amount to me,
and to cook those for the judges,
it just felt fantastic.
WHISPERS: Well done, guys. Well done.
Well done.
Wonderful cooks, all three of them.
Honestly, I just love their cookery. I think they're fantastic.
POOKIE: We've done it, yes.
Now we have to make a decision because only one of them
can be our champion.
Radha's confidence has grown and she now believes in herself,
and I think those three dishes said that about her as a cook.
We know what Radha is all about — the highlighting of vegetables,
the use of Indian spices and some quite knockout desserts.
And that's what we saw today in this final cook-off.
It was the fennel in the meringue that gave that dessert a point
of difference that took it from good to magical.
She's young, she's full of energy.
She's a talent to watch.
Eddie has really stamped his style on this competition,
and he delivers extraordinary food.
Eddie's starter today was majestic.
It was plate-lickingly divine.
That biryani was superb.
He wants to indulge people in the food that he loves, and that's
what he's doing, and that's what he's done in this competition.
Eddie makes the difficult look easy,
and that is the mark of any skilled person in any walk of life.
Pookie, throughout the competition, has given us some extraordinary
and magical dishes.
She wants you to walk away from the table
and everything to be memorable.
We had a soup brewing at the table.
We had smoke under a cloche.
We got gold dust
and I had to swallow a cocktail sphere off a flower.
Now, who does that?!
It's not just about the theatre, the music and the sparkles.
It's got to be about the food and that's what Pookie has got.
She's got the heart and soul.
She understands what good food tastes like.
I'll tell you what, that lady is special.
I'm feeling sad that it is over
because I fall in love with MasterChef.
I think I did myself proud today.
We've all cooked flawlessly today.
I couldn't have given any more.
The whole process, it's just been the greatest.
It's been the greatest fun that life's ever offered me.
I don't know if I've done enough to win the competition,
but if I could lift that trophy,
it would honestly mean the absolute world, it will be life-changing.
But, yeah, we'll just have to wait and see.
Three incredible cooks.
Three completely different styles.
Who's it going to be?
What I really admire about the three of you is how much in love
you are and how strongly you feel about your own individual cuisines.
We didn't just see good cookery from you today, we saw passion,
emotion, food that you really believed in.
And I'll tell you what, today was magical.
Our MasterChef champion is...
...Eddie.
MUSIC: Heroes by David Bowie
Well done.
Tears of joy, Eddie. Yeah.
Congratulations.
Pookie, Rad ha,
absolute hon our.
Thank you very much for all that you've done.
Well done, guys. It's been an hon our.
RADHA: You deserve it. Well done.
# I, I will be king... #
Oh, mate, what a brilliant achievement.
I'm really, really proud of myself and how far I've come.
I'm a completely different person to who I was when I first
started this competition.
# And nothing will drive them away... #
You've definitely got a lot more to see from me.
This is not going to be the last time you see my face, by no means.
# just for one day... #
I am very proud of my achievement.
# We can be heroes... #
It's been a blast throughout the competition.
It would be nice if I hold a trophy,
but there is only one winner.
Eddie is well-deserved for this trophy.
It's everything.
I mean, my whole life,
it feels like it's been building up to this...this moment.
There you are.
You are our MasterChef champion.
THEY CHEER
Cheers. Cheers!
I can't believe that I'm standing here right now
as the MasterChef champion. Wow.
Eddie is nothing short of a culinary powerhouse.
And those three courses — delicious, exciting and opulent,
full of spice and full of love.
I think we've just seen the birth of a future great chef.
All of my family will be so pleased and proud.
It's just been the most stressful, but most enjoyable.
I think I've really discovered who I am as a cook.
It's just the best feeling ever.
# Then we could be heroes
# just for one day
# We can be heroes
# just for one day... #