It's the last day of knockout week...
Incoming.
...and the ten remaining cooks...
...have all felt the heat of their first professional kitchen.
I feel like I've been in the sauna for about a week.
Now they're back to fight for their place in the semifinals.
To go into the restaurant, it's lit a fire in me!
Even there was nearly one!
I'm having the best time here.
I'm loving the stress.
I'm not sleeping.
It just takes over your life.
Final ten of MasterChef is just...
...beyond belief!
I want to go all the way now. The sky's the limit.
The competition just gets tougher.
The standard gets better and better.
I've missed the last couple of rounds.
I'm hoping you haven't made any silly decisions in my absence,
and I'm hoping that you have picked ten of the best contestants
we've ever seen.
Welcome back, all of you.
I was off, I was unwell, but I'm back and I am raring to go.
You, of course, are our final ten in this year's competition,
which means, for the first time ever,
the winner of this year's MasterChef is in here with us.
One dish separates you from a place in this year's semifinal.
You have a brief, and that brief is to cook for Gregg and |
a dish that you can pick up and eat with your hands.
And it can be whatever you like, sweet or savoury.
All we ask is we don't need any cutlery.
At the end of this, two of you will be going home.
Ladies and gentlemen, one hour and 45 minutes.
Let's cook.
Today, it's all about picking it up, eating it, and indulging.
Whether that be a sandwich, a burger, a slice of pizza, a pie,
food you eat with your hands has got to be
some of the most-loved food in the world.
Accountant Anurag has excited the judges
with the authentic flavours of his Indian heritage.
Eating with your hands,
I was thrilled to hear that brief because, coming from India,
80% of our food is supposed to be eaten by hand.
Today, I'm doing a Chicken Frankie.
It's kind of a chicken roll in a paratha wrap
with a layering of egg going through.
So it's a very common dish in Mumbai.
And to calm down the palate,
because Frankie is going to be very, very hot,
a bit of sweet doughy ball, served with saffron honey.
I've rarely seen you so happy, so animated.
I am loving... This is the best experience of my life so far.
Oh, mate!
We've got a chicken wrap, which is great.
It needs to be nice and tight,
the chicken cooked really, really well, the bread not too thick,
and that egg itself, by the sounds of it,
will be the seal inside the bread
to make sure, when he puts the chicken with the sauce inside,
it doesn't go soggy.
36-year-old Vanessa from south London has made it
this far successfully combining unusual flavours
inspired by her extensive travels.
I love the eating with your hands brief.
For me, I guess because I'm autistic and I have sensory sensitivities,
eating with my hands is something I love to do.
You know, it gives my brain a heads-up of what I'm having
before it hits my mouth.
Vanessa, what are you making for us today?
A thali, but it's a Vanessa's thali.
So there's an African chicken curry,
because my parents were born in East Africa and Kenya.
A Goan cabbage foogath, because my heritage is from Goa.
I am then making the salsa
that I learnt from Chef Peter in the restaurant.
So how do we eat those with our hands?
How every Indian eats a thali with their hands.
I've grown up eating rice and puris
and, yeah, everything with your hands.
You use these four fingers,
and then you leave your little pinky behind.
What we've got from Vanessa is lots of spice and lots of sweetness.
Chicken has to be lovely and moist and soft,
and that sauce around the outside to give a real luscious coating.
Tomatillo is like a tomato, but very, very sharp and sweet,
and she's going to make a salsa out of that.
And then this cabbage and coconut mixture.
Coconut's quite sweet.
I hope they all work together.
Originally from Northern Ireland,
Terri has stood out with her love of fine-dining classic dishes
fused with Japanese ingredients.
An eating-with-your-hands dish is something I wasn't expecting.
It's a little bit different from things you see on MasterChef.
It's all very high-end and refined.
With this dish, I think I'm showing John and Gregg
a different side to my cooking.
Terri, food you can eat with your hands.
What have you got for us?
Barbecue panko king prawn bao buns
with pickled veg and a side of karaage chicken.
It's a Japanese style of fried chicken with a spicy mayonnaise.
What is it about eating with our hands that we love,
do you think? Oh, it's just, it's moreish, isn't it?
This is the kind of food that I cook when nobody's watching.
Ooh! I like the sound of this.
Thank you.
Chicken, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside,
the marinade giving it lots and lots of flavour.
Bao buns, a soft flour-based bun
which is almost folded over like an envelope.
Prawns and barbecue sauce? An unusual combination.
Venezuelan-born delivery driver Nickolas has shown a passion
for both French technique and Latin American cuisine.
I love Latin food, and a lot of Latin food is hand food.
I'm proud of where I'm from, and this is my way of tipping my hat
to my people.
So I'm doing las tres manos,
so three different hand foods from Latin America.
So I've got a blue corn tostada
with king prawn ceviche and tiger's milk.
And then I've got an arepa, which is like a Venezuelan patty,
and then I'm going to fill that with crab and a hibiscus gel.
And then the third one, a plantain taco,
and then I'm going to fill that with pulled beef.
I'm used to you being passionate. You look extra excited about this.
I am, because I'm showcasing Latin America, you know?
I want to show people there's more than just burritos and tacos.
You know, like, there's other things that are just so delicious.
Nickolas' food sounds interesting,
but it's going to be all about the textures.
The tostada needs to be crispy but soft with the prawns.
Arepa needs to be soft on the inside but slightly crispy on the outside,
and with a crab running through it.
And then that taco with beef.
He's got a big chunk of beef, which he's boiling away in a pot.
And boiled beef usually goes tough.
50 minutes gone. You're almost halfway.
51-year-old gift shop owner Endang has blown the judges away
with the spicy Indonesian dishes of her homeland.
Unbelievable that I'm still here,
but somehow, John and Greqg, they love the food.
You know, when you're cooking for the family,
you're not even thinking, you just cook for them.
Yeah, it was lovely.
What do you think it is that you've got
that makes me and John love you?
I don't know. Maybe chilli?
Oh, what are you making?
It's based on the very traditional Java,
they call it jajan pasar,
that you will find in a traditional market.
If you go through the aisle, you will find an old lady,
sit down with array of the finger foods, savoury and sweet.
So, you go down to a market and eat sweet cake things?
Yeah. I'm coming. I'm coming!
I'll bring you to the market.
Endang is showing us techniques
that we've never seen on MasterChef before.
The rice cracker with a chocolate and chilli dipping sauce.
We're getting a little soft rice flour mixture
filled with lentils and sugar.
Then we've got an amazing cassava roll
flavoured with pandan,
which is bright green and tastes almost like tea.
And if she gets this right,
they could look absolutely brilliant.
That's an hour gone. 45 minutes left, please, everybody.
Cardiff-based Robin has a playful and nostalgic approach
to the classics, which has proved a hit with the judges.
I thought everyone was good, like, early on in the competition.
Everyone's excellent now, so just got to do the best I can,
be proud of it, see what happens.
Robin, tell us about your dish, please.
Today, I'm making choux craquelin.
They're going to be round, and hopefully I'll make them
look like little teapots, if I get everything done in time.
You putting anything in them?
Yeah. I'm putting two types of creme diplomate,
one flavoured by tea and one flavoured by biscuits.
Tea and biscuits. Brilliant!
Robin's trying to show off technique.
Choux pastry - if they don't rise enough,
we don't have ourselves a choux bun, we have a pancake.
Inside, he's promising us two flavours of creme diplomate.
And he wants to make little sugar teaspouts in the handles
to make these little buns look like teapots.
If he does that, it could be quite amazing.
Originally from northern Thailand,
master coffee roaster Chart ya has shown ambition, creativity,
and technical skill.
So today I'm making you Korean crispy chicken fry
in the bao bun with the gochujang sauce,
so it's very spicy Korean flavour.
Sweet potato chips as well.
My best friend, she's Korean.
The first dish she taught me is this one.
So I just want to keep that authentic flavour.
Chart ya, that smells fantastic. Thank you very much.
My fiance loves this dish.
I'd been cooking this dish about 20 times, maybe,
and one day... CHARIYA CHUCKLES
...and I said, "Would you like bao bun for dinner?"
He said, "Er, no! No more bao bun!"
He'd been eating too many of them.
Korean fried chicken, traditionally, is crispy, sweet bits of chicken
cooked all the way through.
Quite a spicy sauce on the outside.
Korean fried chicken is an extraordinary thing,
because it stays crispy even when it's got a sauce on it.
If she gets this right, brilliant.
Toy developer Omar loves to surprise the judges
with his adventurous and daring style.
Today, I'm doing a duck, parsnip and cherry gyros.
So it's like a Greek kind of kebab,
but I'm adding some of my Asian flavours into it.
Why do you want to put a French duck dish
with Asian flavours in a Greek pancake?
I think that's just how my brain works.
I wish I had an answer for that.
But it's just this was the first thing that came to me for the brief.
My mum was trying to nag me to make vol-au-vents to make my nan proud,
but that wasn't going to happen.
So when I was 18, I finished my A-levels
and had, like, a big party holiday with my friends.
And every night kind of at 4.00am, we'd go to this one place
and have these gyros.
It was amazing. It's usually just beautiful meat and chips.
So I've put my own spin on it with some of the flavours I love.
I want really lovely, moist duck with crispy skin,
really well seasoned,
vibrant cherries, sharp and sour, with crispy parsnips.
This is Omar all over.
He's taking a couple of ideas, putting them all together,
and bringing up something completely new.
Now, every so often, they just work. This is a risk.
60-year-old Linda's experience and love of the Middle East
has resulted in some knockout food.
Coming this far, it's been totally amazing.
It's given me the boost in life to think that I can be in MasterChef
on my 60th. Oh, my God, who could ask for more than that?
Linda, great to see you here.
What are you making for us?
So I'm making chermoula sardines on toast.
Chermoula's like a Moroccan sauce, with a past ill a.
It's got prawns, squid, olives.
I'm guessing this has been inspired by your husband.
Well, it has, yeah, cos I've spent lots of time with my husband's
family, and we all eat off the same plate, really,
so it is very familiar to me.
Sardines on toast. She would have had to clean those really well,
so I don't want any bones.
The chermoula mixture, which is going to be lots and lots of herbs.
And then a past ill a,
prawns, squid, and olives together in filo pastry.
Never had anything like that before in my life.
Sports journalist Jack has consistently delivered
crowd-pleasing dishes with great flavour.
I feel like I am getting better,
but I still feel like there's more to learn and more to give,
so hopefully I can plate something that I really like the look of.
And then you get some more good comments from the judges.
What's not to like? It's great.
Jack, what are you making now? Tacos, two ways.
Beef taco with avocado and chimichurri, like, mousse,
and then I've got a sea bass taco, which has got pineapple
and habanero salsa and a lime and coriander slaw.
I've just been to Mexico. There's a Caribbean coast there.
I had tacos every day,
so when I was looking for ideas for this one,
it just jumped to mind. I love that kind of food.
You are coming on leaps and bounds. A little bit, yeah!
Jack is making us two types of tacos.
Sea bass and pineapple - not something I've had before.
Saying that, sweet and sour prawns, you get pineapple with that.
Maybe it could work.
The beef one, I hope that beef is nice and tender,
because picking up a taco and having something tough inside
means it's going to pull out,
and all the fillings are going to fall over my shirt.
Eight minutes left!
Just eight minutes left!
OK, this is the hardest one.
Got to have some steady hands for this bit.
You have 90 seconds.
Please, 90 seconds, everybody.
That's it. Time's up.
Stop.
Everybody stop. Well done.
Anurag has cooked Chicken Frankie,
a paratha lined with a layer of egg,
filled with chicken spiced with chilli, turmeric, and mango powder,
served with a mint chutney,
and gulgula dough balls with a honey and saffron dip.
That paratha is all flaky and crispy.
I can taste the chicken in the centre,
tasting to me like I've got a curry wrap.
The egg is there so that the bread doesn't go soggy
when you put the filling in. Yeah. That's genius.
I'm loving these little dough balls.
They are like a dense doughnut.
And dipped into honey and saffron is just delicious.
I couldn't have asked for more.
Hearing all those positive comments,
I'm over the moon today.
I'm really feeling very happy.
Terri has prepared steamed bao buns filled with panko prawns
and barbecue sauce,
with a cucumber and radish pickle
served with Japanese karaage chicken
and Sriracha mayonnaise.
The chicken strips inside are perfectly cooked.
I imagined that this coating would be crispier.
But I like the well-made mayo.
Your bun is good.
I like the crunchiness of your prawns,
but the prawns themselves and barbecue sauce, both sweet.
I think your combination of flavours is a little bit unusual,
but I like it.
I'm happy with the comments.
I agree with most of the things they said.
I disagree slightly about the prawns and barbecue sauce.
I think they work, but, you know...
Vanessa has put together a thali,
an African chicken curry,
a tomatillo green tomato salsa,
a Goan cabbage and coconut stir-fry,
pilau rice, and puri bread.
Your chicken hasn't dried out at all.
It's covered with a creamy sauce.
I'm really enjoying it.
Tomatillo, it's like the crunch of a green, raw tomato.
And you've got a very sharp little peppery vinaigrette in there.
I'm really enjoying it.
I really like your puris,
because I can fold them up and then use them as a spoon.
Your rice has cooked really nicely.
Your cabbage with coconut, fascinating.
Almost sort of a heat of coleslaw,
then sweet coconut running through it.
I think that's really, really lovely.
I thought all the feedback was really, really good.
I think I've done my best and, yeah,
they liked the flavours, and I think that's the most important thing.
Jack is serving two Mexican tacos,
one with a blue corn tortilla
with beef and avocado chimichurri
topped with pickled onions, toasted corn, and feta,
and a white tortilla filled with sea bass
with pineapple and habanero sauce and a coriander and lime slaw.
Your fish is cooked well, and that sauce is great.
Pineapple with chilli heat is great.
A big hunk of beef across the top of that lovely blue taco,
the chimichurri with the flavour of pickles, smokiness, bits of corn.
I really like the fact you kept the honesty of a taco,
but made it elegant and actually just taken it up a step.
Yeah, it was good.
Judges said they tasted really nice, so can't ask for any more than that.
Can't ask for any more than that.
Chart ya has made bao buns
with traditional Korean crispy fried chicken
and a spicy gochujang sauce,
sweet potato fries, and Sriracha mayonnaise.
Your bun - really lovely and light and fluffy.
Chicken's nice and moist,
but I love the fact you've got a crispy coating
underneath that sauce.
I think it's a great example of proper finger food.
I'd pay for that.
You made perfect sweet potato fries.
Really nice thick, creamy mayonnaise.
Absolutely delicious.
Thank you.
I don't know what... I can't believe it.
I can't believe it! I just can't believe it.
I have no idea how I don't scream!
Omar has served his interpretation of gyros,
a flatbread with Asian spiced duck breast,
a cherry salad,
parsnip crisps,
a smoked yoghurt,
and a cherry chilli sauce.
Ooh! That's very, very rare duck.
Yeah.
That's a nice big fluffy flatbread there, my friend.
Cherry sweetness, parsnip sweetness, with chilli as well.
This works for me,
but I would have to pick through these bits of duck.
There are some bits I wouldn't eat.
I like the moist duck. Mine's all right.
Mine's not undercooked at all.
Your yoghurt - lashings of cumin.
I really like that.
Even the cherry sauce I quite like.
I'm really amazed that you made this work.
There was some really positive feedback there.
I'm a bit disappointed that Gregg's meat was a bit undercooked.
Some of it was fine, some of it wasn't. Bloody duck!
Nickolas has made three Latin American street food snacks,
a blue corn tostada with prawn ceviche,
dressed in a citrus marinade of tiger's milk,
an arepa with crab and hibiscus gel,
and a Mexican plantain tortilla
with pulled beef and Venezuelan guacamole.
Love your crab arepa.
Lots of really good crab flavour.
A little bit of saltiness as well from the hibiscus.
But plantain taco's fallen apart,
and the pulled beef is a little bit chewy.
Prawn flavour with the tiger's milk, I think that's really lovely.
But your beef taco with the plantain,
it actually has fallen apart, which is a real shame.
I feel like I should be eating this with a knife and fork.
I felt like I could cry.
I know that there was elements that I could have done better.
Just, like, don't want stupid mistakes to hold me back.
Linda has cooked sardines on toast
with a Moroccan garlic and herb chermoula sauce,
pickled red onions and tomatoes,
and her take on past ill a,
filled with squid, prawns, and olives.
I really like your sardines,
but I'm not a fan of these past ill as. I'm sorry, Linda. OK.
I'm finding them really strong with prawn and squid.
I find the texture unusual. OK.
I've got the past ill a.
I can see, like, the effort going into there.
But to me, this is just sardines on toast
that I might have on a Saturday afternoon
while the rugby's on. OK.
I wasn't really happy with my plate.
I'm just having a bad day in the kitchen, I think.
Robin has created a choux bun teapot
with a sweet, crunchy craquelin coating
with a handle and spout made from shortbread biscuits,
filled with both tea- and biscuit-flavoured creme diplomate.
I admire the skill.
Your choux pastry has worked brilliantly well.
That's technically very, very challenging.
Your cream inside could be a little thicker.
It's perfectly yummy,
but I don't think you can eat that with your hands,
unless that cream was a lot, lot thicker.
The craquelin is really very, very good indeed.
It's like a fashioned teapot. I think that's really great.
I really admire the work, but I think you need more flavour
in that cream. Hmm.
I can taste the biscuits, but I would like to taste tea.
There was a few errors,
but there were a lot of things that went well.
If I was to make hundreds of them, hopefully I'd get it down,
so, yeah.
Endang has presented a selection of Indonesian street food,
a cassava Swiss roll cake
flavoured with pandan coated in coconut,
rice bonbons filled with sweet lentil mash,
and rice crackers with a sweet chilli chocolate dip.
This cassava roulade, it's absolutely perfect.
Look at that.
Those rice crackers are thin as you like,
and they are absolutely brilliant.
You brought it all together
with a really interesting chilli chocolate sauce.
Here,
I've got something that is the texture of a cube of jelly.
And on there, you've got the mild flavour of pandan,
which is almost like a hint of banana kind of flavour.
These balls, you kind of get a sweet and almost vanilla chew bar.
Mate, I'm delighted by the food you're serving me, again!
Thank you.
Went very well.
I could cry again, but I said no.
This is humble food and they love it. It takes me emotional.
It's just... I am so, so, so, so happy.
You've got a really good standard of cookery here.
I'm loving it. Really loving it.
Eight places in the semifinals.
That does mean that two of them are going to leave the competition.
My dish of the day was Chart ya.
That crispy chicken in the bao bun with the Korean sauce,
John, it was fantastic.
Chart ya is going through to the semifinal.
Anurag, that bread roll with spiced chicken inside,
and then almost dense little doughnuts.
The man's food is just delicious! GREGG CHUCKLES
We need to see more of him.
Jack is gaining momentum.
Two tacos, they looked smart, they tasted really good.
Jack's got himself a place in the semifinals.
Right now, I want to see Endang in a semifinal,
but more than that, I want to walk around a market in Indonesia
with her, because that lady is incredible.
Vanessa gave us tasty dishes.
I can't see any reason why she shouldn't go through.
That leaves us five people to talk about.
Terri's bao bun with the prawns and the barbecue sauce,
I thought that was great.
The barbecue sauce and prawn thing, I'm not quite sure.
Omar continues to be inventive.
We got a gyros with duck, cherries, and parsnips.
It was an interesting combination.
You had an issue with the duck. My duck was really nice.
I like Nickolas' passion, but he made a tortilla with plantain
that just went soggy, and the pulled beef was tough.
Linda's past ill a was quite strong with that squid.
And two sardines on toast - there wasn't a lot of skill on show.
Robin made fantastic choux buns.
There is no denying the man's ability.
I still argue
whether that was actually food you can eat with your hands!
It's getting so tough.
Everyone's at the top of their game.
You want everyone to do well,
but you kind of want them to fall on their face at the same time.
It's a very odd dynamic.
There were quite a lot of positive comments.
I think I have average chances of staying in the competition.
If 1 go out, then I'll be upset.
But if I did stay in the competition,
I'd have to do much better, because it'd be the semifinals.
I'm not sure how confident I'm feeling.
I think it just depends whether they think I've peaked.
I really want to get past this and get into the semis,
and I just don't want stupid mistakes to hold me back.
Some of you absolutely nailed the brief
and did extraordinarily beautiful food.
Thank you very much. It was brilliant.
The first contestant leaving us is...
...Linda.
Thank you.
Linda, lovely to have met you. You've been great fun.
Thank you.
The second person leaving the competition is...
...Nickolas.
We wish you the best of luck.
Thank you, Nickolas.
I'm really gutted it's come to an end.
I loved the adventure.
I got to the final ten of MasterChef,
and I think that shows I've got something,
so I need to make the most of that.
Quite upset. More upset than I thought I was going to be.
When it's time, it's time,
but you don't realise how much it does mean when it does happen.
Well done.
You eight are MasterChef semifinalists,
and the adventure continues, right?
We made it!
I'm in the semifinal!
Oh!
Wicked!
I'm elated. Semifinals, baby!
So chuffed. There will definitely be a bottle of wine consumed tonight,
I can tell you that for sure.
Competition is getting tougher and tougher.
Like, these guys are phenomenal. They make my life so hard, honestly.
Next time, it's the semifinals...
Where's the switch?
...and the contestants will be pushed
beyond anything they've experienced before.
Wow!
I'm really quite wowed.