To celebrate 20 years of MasterChef,
it's comeback week.
Ten previous contestants have been given a second chance
to compete for the MasterChef title.
Ten amateur cooks who had great style but made a little mistake
that pushed them out of the competition.
Only the best will join this year's quarterfinal winners...
Agh!
..in the later stages.
Boom! I've still got something to prove.
I can't wait to get back in that kitchen.
It's a dream come true, again.
It feels so strange to be back.
I just love the pressure of the kitchen, I don't know.
I must've done something bad in my past life.
I'm really looking forward to cooking for John and Gregg again.
I will show that I haven't lost my creative edge.
My family are super-proud of me for coming back to MasterChef.
I mean, they're my biggest fans.
I'd love to go further this time, if I'm good enough.
Have they learnt their lessons?
Have they moved on?
They've been here before.
They know the deal.
They're going to have to perform.
Great to see you five back here in the MasterChef kitchen.
We were really impressed with how you cooked last time.
That's why we've invited you back.
Get rid of any nerves.
You know what this is about.
You might go all the way.
This year, we've seen some great cooks so far in the competition,
but we are still looking for some more.
For your first challenge, we'd like you to cook us two courses -
a main course and a dessert.
Show Gregg and I what sort of cook you are
and how far you've come since you left us.
Ladies and gentlemen, one hour, 45 minutes.
Let's cook.
It's been a whirlwind of a year and I'm back again.
Taught to cook by his grandad, 34-year-old IT project coordinator
Matthew's classic Caribbean flavours...
This is the best ackee and saltfish I've ever eaten...
..ever. It's fantastic.
..won him a place in the quarterfinal in 2023.
Creamy mango, creamy coconut in pastry is really working for me.
What Matthew does do is beautiful-looking plates.
WILLIAM: Looks really appetising.
But he decided he wanted to show us some versatility
and went classic, not the flavours he knew,
and it didn't quite pay off.
I'd love a bit more filling and the sauce
is quite overpoweringly sweet.
I feel like I've got some unfinished business that I need to resolve.
I'm going to push myself to the limit and see how far I can go.
What have you been doing since we last saw you?
Getting better-looking by the look of it.
Oh, behave! What are you after?
I've been doing a few private dining events.
I've had a little one as well.
Aww! He's a month old.
No way! Yes.
No wonder you're here. To get away, yes.
Escape to the MasterChef kitchen.
So, what's your main course?
So, I'm doing a jerk chicken ballotine with callaloo foam,
a plantain crisp, pineapple gel and a butter bean puree.
Last time we saw you, you did a chicken ballotine. Mm-hm.
But it didn't have a load of flavour.
I didn't stick to my roots,
like the Caribbean flavours.
I'm hoping it's better than last time.
A chicken ballotine, filled with a mousse,
flavoured with jerk seasoning.
Spicy. Whew!
That mousse inside has to be like a torpedo of flavour.
It's got to be banging with jerk.
Woo! The kick's real.
A ballotine, a puree, a foam and a gel?
There's lots of process going on here.
Dessert? I'm doing a sticky toffee pudding, again,
with a ginger stem ice cream.
In the feedback, it was kind of too sweet
and not traditional in the way it looked.
The ginger stem is to kind of balance out that sweetness,
so I've taken the feedback on board and just incorporated that.
It is showing off the flavours of the Caribbean
and the redemption of a sticky toffee pudding. Exactly.
Matthew is most certainly revisiting old ground.
This time, he's using a miso caramel, Asian flavouring,
which is slightly spicy, slightly salty, which will act as a different
flavour to all the sweetness.
But we had a problem with him cutting up the sticky toffee before.
You want a sticky toffee in a beautiful mound.
Why it's been cut up into bits and made pretty patterns of,
I'm not quite sure. Leave a beautiful sticky toffee alone.
Ooh!
Let's hope I can cook up a storm and redeem myself from last year.
It feels amazing to be back.
It flits from being really excited to really nervous.
Retired company secretary and grandmother-of-five Mary
competed in 2018, and reached knockout week
with her accomplished family-favourite dishes.
Mary. MOUTHS: Yeah?
I love it.
Her touch is good, her palate is fantastic.
It's really tasty. It's a good plate of food.
She is a crowd-pleasing cook but has a problem with presentation.
She's so messy.
All I want from Mary is a little bit of style.
I've been practising like crazy with presentation,
because it's not my strongest point.
I really want to learn some more.
That's what I'd like to do.
You know, that's what I'm here for, really.
It's great to see you back. Thank you.
You've got two courses to cook for us.
What are those two courses?
Pork cheek, and I'm doing that with some celeriac,
some little black pudding and sausage meat stuffing balls,
and a nice sauce.
Have you developed, do you think?
Yes, I have.
I feed 13 people every Sunday, you know, for Sunday lunch.
It's a matter of getting it out hot.
I remember that sound of, "Mary's just thrown that at the plate."
MARY CHUCKLES
So I try not to do that.
I'm really focusing on trying to get the presentation right.
Mary cooks food that she loves to feed her family.
I love the sound of her main course.
Little pork cheeks, which she's braised - fabulous.
Time is my biggest issue.
Pork cheek normally takes a long time to cook.
Pressure cooker tenderises the meat,
but then you've got the sauce to contend to.
So you've got to do a lot of reduction
and put a lot of flavour into it.
For dessert, I'm doing a panna cotta which is flavoured with chai.
Last time she was here, Mary made us doughnuts
with a lovely chai-flavoured custard that we loved.
She's taking the chai flavours,
this time, turning it into a panna cotta.
Again, more technique.
On the side of this, we've got spiced plums,
and then we've got a rose and pistachio brittle.
Plums, I hope are slightly sharp and sour,
because that should work quite nicely
with the sweetness coming from that brittle.
Comeback contestants,
45 minutes gone, one hour left.
I have been dreaming of this moment.
This is a chance to see if I could have done any differently.
Let's hope, let's hope.
Iranian-born Farokh is a drama lecturer from London
and reached the semifinals in 2022 with his experimental creations.
I've never been served a kitchen sponge on MasterChef before.
Your original ideas are fascinating.
Oh, sorry.
Farokh's food's not just about eating,
it's about being immersive.
It's about an experience, about a sensation.
I just love dishes like this that just make you think a little bit.
Playful, exciting little dish.
But he was frantic.
I'm a bit behind on this one.
Then push - quick, quick, quick! Yes, Chef.
What he's got to do is prove that he's got a bit of order
alongside his creativity.
The last time I was on MasterChef, I got to the last ten standing,
and then, pew...
I made a pork tenderloin dish that I destroyed in a panic.
On paper it sounds great, but it's not coming together as a dish.
I'm going to bury some demons.
I'm cooking a revamped version of the dish I went out of -
pork, sage, apples, corn and black pudding.
It's called Porky Sisyphus Rides Again.
Sisyphus was the mythological character from ancient Greece
who was doomed to push a boulder up a hill
only for it to fall back down at the end.
The last time I was here, I called myself a porky Sisyphus.
He has got presa pork.
He's got to be careful he doesn't cool it too fast
or it curls up and goes really dry and it squeezes out all the juice.
He's serving that with a cornbread, which he's making in a corn mould,
which is going to be stuffed with black pudding.
He wants to challenge our palates, but let's just hope this Sisyphus
doesn't have to ride again - again.
Yeah, it's a very confusing thing.
It's a cross between, like, cornbread and custard.
It's very stodgy, which I like.
OK...
..that bit is done.
And then dessert?
A beetroot pot of chocolate.
So it's different textures of chocolate and beetroot,
some spices, some bay leaves in there.
It's one of those things where
you can't really see anything of the ingredients,
you just have to dig in and discover - which is the kind of food I like.
We have got his version of petits pots au chocolat -
a classic French dish.
Pot of rich chocolate, dried beetroot...
..little bits of chocolate sponge, a chocolate mousse,
a chocolate crumb.
He's being really ambitious.
As long as it works, I don't mind at all.
Continuous beetroot.
I'm going to wrap it into the shape of a...
Sort of like a rosy thing.
Chocolate and beetroot is a perfect, perfect combination.
FAROKH SIGHS
That's cold enough. How you doing, pumpkin?
CHRIS GROANS
Oh, I know!
Coming back into the competition
has really opened the floodgates for me for creativity.
Getting excited about ingredients again.
I have put in the work, so I do feel...
HIGH-PITCHED VOICE: ..confident.
DJ and mum-of-two Lyndsay...
..sailed through to the semifinals in 2017,
showcasing her technical know-how and complex flavours.
That's an outstanding plate of food.
Really?!
Attention to detail for an amateur cook -
you should be very, very proud.
Lyndsay can truly cook.
She's adventurous, she's exciting, she really pushed herself.
That balancing of crocodile, chicken and chicken mousse
is absolutely delicious.
Her closing dish, it had the ambition,
it had the technique, it just didn't have enough flavour.
There's nothing "wow" in it.
Lyndsay, really good to see you!
Bit terrified, I must confess.
Why are you putting yourself through it again?
Last time I was pregnant,
and was so tired by the time you finally kicked me out,
so I do feel that I didn't do myself justice.
And, yeah, now is the time to just go for it.
And what about your cookery? How's that changed?
Well, I've basically - since having kids -
made pasta and packed lunches.
What are you going to cook for us?
I am cooking you crocodile for my main -
don't know if you remember from last time... I do.
..with pea puree, asparagus and Parmesan gnocchi.
Crocodile is actually a really delicious meat
and it's very, very tender indeed.
But if you overcook it, it can go quite tough,
and undercooked, it's just a little bit chewy.
There's a little bit of fishiness about it,
so trying to balance that fishy flavour with Parmesan gnocchi,
I think, is going to be an interesting one.
Dessert is woodruff panna cotta, acorn tuiles, blackberries -
I've got blackcurrants, we've got redcurrants,
we've got cherries in there.
It's my homage to the British countryside,
foraging and picking blackberries for the kids.
The last time Lyndsay was here, she made for us a panna cotta.
This one is woodruff panna cotta.
Woodruff is a plum that you get all over the UK.
It's the kind of thing you'd see growing at the roadside verge.
It's almost sort of like a straw and hay flavour.
But the addition of plums and also cherries,
quite strong and quite sharp fruit.
I hope that sauce is not too sharp.
With the tuile, the flavour we've got there is acorn.
Yay!
Acorn's got a sweetness to it, most certainly nutty,
but it's also got a bitterness to it.
I think we've got classic cookery here...
Exciting - that's exciting.
..and I'm really, really looking forward to it.
How long have we got?
You've got 30 minutes left, guys!
30 minutes, please.
Look at that time.
After leaving MasterChef, I've had some great experiences
in some professional kitchens...
..and generally get recognised in the supermarket,
where they're trying to look in my trolley or basket
to see what I'm cooking.
44-year-old Chris performs at the circus as a fire-breathing pig,
and made it to the quarterfinal in 2023,
impressing the judges with his love of British classics
and the flavours of Asia.
Your sauce is great.
Sharp with red wine, sweet with port,
love that Chinese five spice.
I really like it.
His food is flamboyant.
He wants it to be a show.
It's outrageously good.
This has exceeded all expectations.
He takes classic cookery and adds a twist, but made a silly mistake.
My pear isn't cooked.
We know he's a great cook.
What he's got to do now is make sure
there's no more of these mistakes.
This time I'm going to approach the competition slightly differently.
I'm going to look for more unique ingredients,
become a little bit more adventurous with the dishes
that I design myself - not just classic dishes.
So, what are you making for us?
Today I'm going to make for you a pan-seared tuna
wrapped in black and white sesame, served as a tatataki.
So, like, a sauce with ponzu, soy sauce, sesame.
Still going back to my love of Asian flavours,
but also I'm a lover of raw fish.
Tuna cooked well is absolutely delicious.
Overcooked, it's dry and horrible.
We've got deep-fried tempura shiso leaves -
quite peppery, quite strong.
Very, very thin batter, I hope.
But it's got to be absolutely crispy and vibrantly green inside.
With that, we've got some crispy, deep-fried rice noodles
giving us texture.
Asbestos hands.
For the dessert,
I'm going to make for you a limoncello tiramisu
with Aztec herb basil oil.
Aztec's just got this great, strange taste that I love.
Strong smell. Yeah.
Almost like...feet.
Feet or petrol.
Yes, it is!
Yeah, it's quite gassy.
Yeah, well, I love petrol, right, so, yes...
CHRIS CHUCKLES
The dessert - flavours are lovely.
Limoncello, that lemon liqueur, with cream.
CHRIS SNIGGERS
That's a bit of a mess.
He's made his own biscuits as well.
Wonderful!
What is slightly troubling me is the amount of herbs
you've got going on there -
that Aztec mint and the basil oil, lemon verbena.
Very, very strong in citrus.
You don't see a lot of leaves across a desert.
No!
I knew it. It's gone.
My sauce is gone.
Mary's sauce reduced down so much, it started to burn.
OK.
Yeah, I mean, that is unusable.
So what are you going to do now?
I'm going to see what I can salvage from this,
see if I can get a bit more chicken stock
and try and make some sauce out of what I've got.
And the pig cheeks themselves?
I think they'll be fine.
I think they seem fine.
So try and make a sauce in a pan, right? Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
You can rescue that, Mary. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, yeah, certainly.
I'll trim those off.
She's rescued the pork cheeks.
I really hope they haven't picked up any of that bitter burnt flavour.
Lord!
MARY SIGHS
You all right, Mary? You can do this.
Right, how long have we got?
15 minutes left, please!
I am fairly confident,
as long as I can get the dish out in the allocated time.
FAROKH YAWNS
Flappy, flappy, flap-flap!
FAROKH GROANS, SIGHS
What's the sauce now?
Because it was going to come from the pressure cooker.
Some chicken stock, some Madeira wine, some herbs, some onions
and some bacon.
Go, go, go, go!
MARY EXHALES
Don't run out of time.
Guys, you've got to think about your plates!
You need to think hard, you need to think fast.
Yeah, really up against it, the plating's the kind of thing at home
you never practise.
You've got 90 seconds.
I'm really pushed.
It's to the wire. Cutting it close.
My station's absolute carnage!
Time's up. Ha!
Well done.
I just want to lie down.
HE SIGHS
Put it all on a plate, so, happy days.
HE LAUGHS
Don't think I've worked so hard, ever,
so fingers crossed it pays off.
You ready, Mary? Yep.
Come and join us.
Hoping to impress again with
a crowd-pleasing family favourite, Mary has served braised pork cheeks
with sausage meat, black pudding,
apple and fennel stuffing balls, crispy crackling, celeriac puree,
sauteed rainbow chard and a Madeira red wine and chicken sauce.
Those pig's cheeks are properly unctuous.
Your puree is as smooth as butter.
Love the crackling with loads of salt on it as well,
can't stay out of there.
I think it's a terrific dish.
I think it's ace. Thank you.
The sauce is really lovely and rich, and you get the flavour
of the Madeira in the background.
It's got real body, and these little stuffing balls,
delicious, peppery with the black pudding and a little bit
of sweetness of the apple coming through.
Your ability to stay calm under pressure I think is admirable,
and you rescued the sauce.
I think that's absolutely fantastic.
Inspired by her previous chai doughnuts and custard, Mary has made
a masala chai panna cotta with rose water, orange lime
and star anise-spiced plums and a rose and pistachio nut brittle.
Your plums could probably be cooked a little bit more,
they've still got a bit of a bite on them. OK.
But your flavours are really good.
The syrup that's going into that panna cotta, it's so beautiful
with the orange and the rose water mixed together,
I want to get a straw and just slurp the whole lot up.
Then on the side, you've got this brittle, which is really nicely
made with rose petals.
Really good. Brilliant. Thank you so much.
You get a little bit of the spicing from the chai tea,
but it's a perfectly set panna cotta.
You are showing all the touches of classic cookery which made us
fall in love with you last time.
Just, you have now crowned it
with really good, smart presentation.
Well done, you.
I've really practised making sauces, and also plating,
and I was really pleased that they appreciated that.
Really chuffed.
In a bid to redeem himself, Matthew has recreated his closing menu
and cooked a chicken ballotine stuffed with jerk chicken mousse
in a jerk and barbecue sauce with a butter bean puree,
callaloo foam, pineapple gel infused with Caribbean rum,
and a plantain crisp.
Chicken is moist, and inside there you've got a jerk mousse,
which is perfectly smooth. Absolutely delightful.
And that sauce that it's sitting in, that is really nice,
like a really rich, thick barbecue sauce that starts off sweet, goes
a little bit smoky and finishes with chilli.
The technical work in there is admirable.
I'm impressed.
Pineapple sweetness against that
heat that's coming from that barbecue sauce is really good.
Bean puree's perfectly smooth, well-seasoned.
I love these crispy plantain, I think they're really, really good.
Callaloo foam, it's there, it disappears.
If you're going to do all that work, Matthew, show
it off, cos the flavours are great
and it's all working really, really nicely.
Matthew's dessert is a sticky toffee pudding topped with a ginger biscuit
crumb in a miso and caramel sauce,
served with stem ginger ice cream.
That's a cracker of a dessert there, Chef.
Lovely light sponge.
You've added a little bit of miso into your caramel to give
it saltiness, a little bit of spiciness,
and that ice cream is thick and creamy.
Last time you made us a sticky toffee pudding, you cut
it up into bite-sized chunks as if we were kids.
You've learnt the lesson there.
I think the ginger nuts across the top are inspired,
cos you get texture and you get the flavour of the ginger nuts.
I could do with a little bit more stem ginger in my ice cream,
but it's extraordinary how far you've come in such a short
period of time. It's great to see.
Tastier. WHISPERS: Oh, well done!
I felt like I've grown as a chef, personally.
So thrilled for you, darling.
And to see them see the changes,
I'm proud of myself, I really am proud of myself.
NARRATOR: Farokh's Porky Sisyphus Rides Again is pan-fried pork presa
fillets on a smoked apple and sage puree
with pickled compressed apples,
cornbread stuffed with black pudding and crispy sage leaves served
with a pickled mustard seed and cider sauce.
What I love about this dish is the complexity
of flavours and textures.
There's notes of bitterness coming from those pickled mustard seeds
inside your sauce and sharpness coming from the compressed apple.
There's sweetness coming from the corn, and then there's
the rich pepperiness coming from your black pudding.
I think it's just delicious.
Thank you.
I want that pork cooked a little more, but around the edge,
it's delicious. It is slightly nutty, it's also slightly sweet,
and you've seasoned it well. Underneath,
you've got, like, an old-fashioned apple sauce that's got smoke running
through it, which is quite delightful.
I have an issue with your presentation, cos it looks
rushed, it looks messy.
You haven't changed there.
Farokh's chocolate pot dessert
is rose water and sugar-poached beetroots
on cardamom and fennel chocolate soil, with a chocolate and cream
mousse, chocolate and bay leaf ganache, chocolate sponge, beetroot
and pomegranate jam, and a rose water syrup.
It looks a sight.
FAROKH LAUGHS
It tastes great! Underneath here, right at the bottom,
you've got this syrup which has got pomegranate jam and rose water
through it, which tastes like Turkish delight, and that lovely
crispiness that comes from the chocolate soil.
Then there's a little bit of beetroot running
through the whole thing.
Those beetroot roses are too big. Trying to eat those roses,
it's really difficult, but I admire all the work.
Your combination of flavours is absolutely wonderful,
but the textures are wrong.
It's just too wet in there, which is a real shame.
You'd assume that it would be easier the second time around.
It was actually more difficult, I think.
HE SIGHS
CHUCKLES: Now I've got more mistakes, for next time,
MasterChef Series 40.
Back to put crocodile in the spotlight once again,
Lyndsay has served it pan-fried with Parmesan gnocchi, pea puree,
chorizo crisps, asparagus, and sweetpea flowers.
I love your pea puree, a treat around the outside,
giving me a bit of spice and smokiness, paprika.
Everything just goes together really nicely.
But that croc could be a little bit moister.
Probably just needs to be bathed in a little bit more butter,
it's just going a little bit dry.
Your gnocchi are light enough
for me, little potato pillows, that's great.
And then, of course, you've got the creamy Parmesan in there as well,
which is undoubtedly salty tanginess.
You show classic cookery and you just introduce fabulous
flavours.
Lyndsay's foraged dessert is a woodruff panna cotta, topped
with acorn tuiles, and served with poached blackberries,
redcurrants, plums and cherries, and a hazelnut creme.
The woodruff doesn't quite come through.
You get a slight bit of hay, but then the fruit comes up
and gives you a little slap on the face,
and I love the surprise of that.
It's lovely and sharp.
There's the plumpness of the blackberries, the bits of plum
that go through it as well, and I quite like the contrast.
Great technical work there,
those tuiles are beautiful, and that hazelnut cream has got
so much hazelnut in it,
it's almost getting bitter after the sweet.
I love that you've been foraging with the kids,
cos I think it's delightful.
Thanks.
WHISPERS: Well done, babes!
I think that went quite well, actually.
I'm quite surprised. I didn't know how it was going to go.
Yeah, I'm really pleased!
Last up is circus performer Chris, with his Asian-inspired main course,
seared tuna steaks in a sesame seed crust with crispy noodles, shiso
leaf tempura, crispy fried shallots, ice lettuce, and a sesame ponzu
and soy sauce.
Your tuna is perfect. There's pink on there,
you can see it quite clearly.
Your sesame seeds around the outside are giving
it a slight nuttiness.
That sauce is as salty as it is citrusy. I love that.
And the ice lettuce I haven't had in a long, long while.
Very, very refreshing.
It's absolutely stunning.
I like the fact that there's
lots of different crispy things here.
There's sweet crispiness coming from the shallots.
And then the shiso itself, you get the crunch on the outside,
which is completely bland, but then your lovely pepperiness
that comes from the leaf. I like it a lot.
Chris's citrus and herb-themed dessert is a limoncello tiramisu
with a lemon curd and mascarpone cream, vanilla sponge biscuits,
limoncello gel, and a basil and Aztec herb oil,
topped with lemon verbena and candied lemons.
I don't get the flavour of the petrol from the Aztec mint,
but I do actually get a really nice minty flavour from it.
Yeah, it's a pungent herb.
I'm sad about the mascarpone lemon curd cream,
cos it has started to turn a little bit,
but I love these little sharp bits of candied citrus on the side.
They are bold!
Those biscuits are so light.
Absolutely delightful.
Love the limoncello gel and I love it when I get to munch down on a bit
of lemon verbena, cos that's more citrus sharpness.
I've never seen a dessert like it.
I think it's really clever.
This time, I really think I stepped it up in terms of flavours
and bringing something unique to the table.
That's exactly what I wanted.
A great start to comeback week.
We thank you very much for all your hard work and for your bravery.
The ambition, the skill,
it's just been an absolute joy.
Now we do have a cracker of a challenge coming up.
Now you are cooking for a place in a quarterfinal.
Your brief is to cook for us a classic dish, of any origin.
And we don't mind a little bit of twist, that's fine,
but it's got to capture the essence and the heart of that classic.
You have to impress not just Gregg and I,
but also a specially invited guest.
Somebody who's built their life and career around French
classics, who's going to come in and taste your food and help us
make a very tough decision.
At the end of this,
two of you will be leaving the competition.
One hour and 30 minutes,
please pull out all the stops.
Off you go.
No stress at all, calm and collected.
The serious face on.
I don't think you can ever relax in the MasterChef kitchen,
you always have to be on your A-game.
I believe I've shown John and Gregg how much I've come on in the last
year or so in terms of technique, flavour profiles.
I'm hoping I can deliver something spectacular on a plate
for them to enjoy.
I'm doing my take on a classic fish and chips.
Why fish and chips?
Because it brings back a childhood memory of mine
when I used to be at my grandad's. If I wasn't eating the traditional
Caribbean food, I was having
the British traditional fish and chips.
We'd sit around the television, watching TV together and eat
it with his kind of home-made curry sauce that we have.
Woo.
We're not getting fish and chips like we would know it.
We are having a piece of pan-fried cod that's been seasoned
with the flavours of jerk.
Woo, yes! Batter, which is going to be made
with some Caribbean stout, with curry flavours, and that's
going to be used as a crumb across the top to give us texture.
It's 180. Oh, 180.
What the...? Chris.
Whoever created this mess...
We've got a curry sauce which is going to be made
with coconut milk, the sharpness and spice coming from scotch bonnet
chillies, the flavour of meat and fish and curry all together.
There's a lot going on here.
He wants to show us technique.
I hope we keep those Caribbean flavours
and they are really prominent.
Double fish and chips, table five!
You've had 15 minutes, guys.
Quarter of an hour gone.
I am absolutely loving taking part in this competition.
It's been so nice to just rediscover that creativity, but I have shown
quite a lot of experimental techniques and ingredients,
so now is my chance to show them that I can just cook classically.
What's your classic?
My classic is the classic of all the classics, I'm doing roast
pork. Fabulous.
Crackling, apple sauce, black pudding bon bons,
hispi cabbage, fondant potatoes.
It's what my mum always used to do,
and my nan also, the combination of fruit and meat, you know,
and just Sunday lunch, and that's just what I love to cook.
Where's my tissue?
What Lyndsay's got to do now is take the Sunday roast
to restaurant level.
I was just going to make it look chef-y.
We've got lots and lots of massive flavours here.
Hispi cabbage which is being cooked with butter,
but the butter's got miso in it.
Fondant potatoes cooked with rosemary,
a sauce which is going to be made
from the juice from the pork and added to that crab-apple jelly.
Crab-apples are tiny, really sharp, really sour.
I hope the pork can survive all those big flavours.
Oh, God.
Ow! Ooh, oh, oh, ooh!
Are you OK?
Ow! Ow, ow, ow!
The whole of my right hand,
I've just burnt it.
Oh!
Argh!
45 minutes gone.
Halfway to a quarterfinal.
Classic,
whether it's in drama or in food,
is a really good language
with your audience that you can then speak in but say different
and new things.
My food challenges people, and that is absolutely true,
but I'm going to try and prove my experiments don't always fail.
SIGHS: OK.
I am making you tartiflette,
a classic French alpine dish.
It's potatoes, onions and shallots, bacon and Reblochon cheese.
Bake it in the oven until it's golden.
What are we going to get as a take on this?
You will get the individual ingredients
as they would look separately.
If you're fortunate to go skiing or go into the Alps,
tartiflette is one of those dishes full of layered potatoes, cheese,
bacon and shallots. It's delicious.
HE SIGHS
But I tell you what, Farokh, I think, is being really brave.
He is doing us a jacket potato, and taking out all the potato flesh.
Inside that jacket potato,
he's going to make a Reblochon mousse, which needs to be lovely
and creamy and light.
Bits of guanciale, a cured piece of bacon from Italy,
which is very, very strong.
And next to that, we're going to get a piece of cured pork belly,
which is going to be flavoured with honey and maple syrup, a whole
shallot, which he's going to pickle in white wine.
He's going to take the rind of the Reblochon and he's going
to bake it till it goes really crispy and very, very salty.
It's fascinating, absolutely fascinating.
Oops!
Argh!
I don't cook many classics,
it's usually my own invention, so I'm pushing it today.
Back for a second time round,
this means the world to me, because it could open doors
to a new direction and career path.
I can't eat fire forever,
it has to come to an end at some point,
it's just not healthy for your body.
I just want to fight for it, and at least I can walk
away with that I've done my absolute best.
For me, a classic dish is chicken liver pate,
it's on every menu, usually, when you go out,
but I'm going to change the bread,
I'm going to do a Gruyere-filled choux pastry, like a savoury choux.
The pate's going to be piped inside.
And then we're going to have some baby turnips, pickled shallots,
crispy chicken skin.
Fabulous. You seem almost Zen-like, am I wrong?
Yeah, this is how I'd cook at home now. I feel, like, relaxed.
Are you telling me MasterChef kitchen is beginning
to feel like home?
It is. I love it in here!
THEY LAUGH
It's a great place.
I think it's a lovely, lovely idea.
Gougere, which is a choux pastry puff.
Instead of being sweet,
it's savoury, cos it's got cheese in it...
..and pate.
Great chicken liver pate is cooked with onions and bacon,
chicken livers, brandy, and as much butter as there are chicken livers,
so it's nice and smooth.
I want lots of flavour.
With this, we're also getting a spiced fig jam.
The big concern for me right now is his gougeres,
they are huge.
INDISTINCT
They haven't been this big at home.
The size of a big pasty? Yeah, a big bun.
I thought it was a safe recipe, but I realise choux pastry
can be temperamental.
You have just 20 minutes left, everybody.
Just three quarterfinal places up for grabs.
Good Lord!
I was really, really thrilled and surprised by the comments that I got
from the last challenge...
..so I feel quite happy with my performance so far, apart
from the burning episode.
Oh, Mary, a pressure cooker?
I know. In the last round we had an almost disaster.
Yes. What's going to be different?
I'm not going to burn it.
SHE LAUGHS
What's your classic dish, Mary?
My classic dish is boeuf bourguignon.
Oh! But as a sort of twist, I'm using fillet steak.
Anything on the side of your sauce and beef?
Yes, I'm doing a really buttery mashed potato.
And all then the classics that make up the stew, some baby onions, some
carrots and some mushrooms.
My family seem to really love this, and they're the main inspiration.
Beef bourguignon, doesn't get more classic than that, does it?
No, not really.
She's taking the heart and soul of a beef bourguignon,
but Mary's not doing sous stew.
This is steak, mashed potato and sauce.
Wow, that's hot.
Now, if that steak's not cooked properly,
then the dish doesn't work.
I could do with a bit more.
If that sauce doesn't work out,
and we don't have enough garnish in there,
it's no longer a beef bourguignon,
it's actually just going to be beef with gravy and mushrooms.
Not yet.
I could take it another ten minutes, I think.
Ten minutes left. Think about your plates, please.
Our guest is coming in very soon.
How's that pork, Chef?
I am happy with how it looks.
It's looking good, but there is a lot of plating to do.
Right.
That's not bad. Oh, thank you.
You have just five minutes, guys, please, five minutes!
Woo!
Oh! We still have a couple more things to do.
Got to get something on a plate.
I would have expected to see Farokh running up and down in a panic.
Everything's turned out all right.
Famous last words.
HE CHUCKLES
Very nice. Right, OK.
That's it, lovely.
FAROKH GROANS
Farokh, you've got nothing
on your plate.
You've got two minutes, my friend.
Come on, come on!
Argh!
You've got 30 seconds.
Almost done. Almost.
That's it, time's up. Stop, everybody.
Yes!
And breathe!
SHE INHALES
HE SIGHS
I think my bun could be more structured.
HE EXHALES
We promised you a guest.
Someone that really does properly understand the classics.
A finalist on MasterChef Professionals, and executive chef
of restaurant Maison Francois, chef Matthew Ryle.
Welcome, Matthew. How you doing? All right?
Very, very good.
Matthew Ryle is one of the country's most exciting young cookery talents.
I started at culinary school when I was 16.
We were basically taught French classics from the get-go, everything
built from French classics,
so sauces and stocks.
Once you've learnt the techniques, you can input it into so many
different kinds of cuisines.
After making the final four
of Professional MasterChef in 2018...
It's a dish of skill, it shows intelligent cookery,
it's an absolute delight, Matthew.
Magic. Well done, you.
..he became executive chef at the all-day brasserie Maison
Francois in Mayfair.
Table 35, sharing. BOTH: Oui!
Really very classic French food,
which we put a little twist on, but it still has the essence
of the dish.
More recently, he's taken his classics online, rapidly
building a huge audience of over 1.3 million people.
People think the classic dishes are way more complicated
than they are. To see them in a short, snappy format,
people can sort of understand that they can do them at home.
I think it's a great brief, and I think it'd be a tricky one
for professional chefs to pull off.
So the fact that, you know, these guys are giving it a go,
I think it's a really good idea.
Service.
If you learn the classics, you know, you're not far off becoming
a half-decent cook.
I'm looking forward to seeing your creations.
I just hope that, you know, if I was to shut my eyes,
I can still feel the essence of the original classic in the dish.
Matthew, come on in, my friend.
For a place in the quarterfinal,
Matthew has cooked pan-fried cod, glazed in curry sauce, and topped
with a Jamaican stout beer-battered crumb, with fondant potatoes, pea
and mint puree, scotch bonnet emulsion, charred, pickled shallots,
and a dill herb oil.
I've never seen fish and chips like it, that's for sure.
Very creative.
I thought the fish was cooked perfectly. Fried, pickled
shallots have a really nice sort of acidity to help cut the sort
of sweetness of the pea puree, which I think was really,
really nicely made.
I'd eat it all happily.
Your scotch bonnet emulsion,
I think that's quite vibrant and lovely, and almost delivers to me
the sharpness that I get with tartare sauce with a little bit
of chilli as well.
I'd definitely like more of that crispy batter, cos it tastes
really, really good, but I don't get the flavour of the stout,
but it's nicely made.
The curry sauce starts off sweet and then grows in heat,
goes salty and then hot.
Fondant potatoes, they are buttery,
and they finish with, like, a hint of chilli and a lot of garlic.
I find your cookery to be really clever and your flavours
to be really exciting and really quite lovely.
WHISPERS: Well done, Matthew!
When a top chef critiques your food, gives you positive feedback,
it feels amazing to cook for Matt and just hear his comments
and what he thinks. I am very pleased with the dish I made.
Fingers crossed, and my toes. HE LAUGHS
Lyndsay's classic is roast pork
with rosemary fondant potatoes, black pudding bonbon,
salty crackling, miso-buttered hispi cabbage,
apple puree, and a crab apple jelly and chicken sauce.
Your pork is good. Your bonbon -
a nice little firm crust around the outside, quite thin.
I like the fact that there's lots of black pudding on show.
You promised me miso through the cabbage. I don't get any miso.
You get the sharpness of the crab apple in the sauce,
but it just needs to be a little bit more luscious
with the flavour of pork.
I've got one small issue,
I would be tempted to slice that pork in thinner slices.
You're getting into the world of a pork chop here.
Everything else on here is lovely.
I've not actually had a sauce like that on my roast before.
Perhaps a porky sauce would have been slightly better,
but the crackling is delicious.
The fondants are beautiful and soft.
Just a little touch of salt here and there,
you wouldn't be far off a great roast. Thank you.
Well done, babes.
It was just really frustrating, cos...
the last bits of seasoning,
it's what you do just before you're sort of plating up.
I don't remember it being this high-pressure, but it really is.
Inspired by a French tartiflette,
Farokh has served a crispy potato skin
filled with guanciale Italian cured meat,
Reblochon cheese mousse,
mini fried potatoes, and a shallot puree
with pork belly glazed in maple syrup and honey,
a Reblochon cheese rind crisp,
and pickled shallots
finished with a white wine gel.
Your presentation suffered again, because you were out of time again!
I love the cheese with the bits of potato,
that mild cheese, slightly salty, gooey,
I mean, everything that we like about any cheese,
you've got it in there.
Your wine gel is very, very sharp with wine - good.
It's fine, because you've got so much other richness on the plate.
Incredible ideas. I love the ingredients.
I think it's great that you've actually found a use for Reblochon
rind, cos it does work and I quite like it.
But I'm bouncing around the plate here a bit, Farokh, I've got to say.
I have maybe a little bit of flavour of tartiflette
with potatoes and the shallots and the bacon.
But, then, I'm suddenly in a Chinese restaurant,
cos I've got the flavour of rice wine and maple syrup and honey.
The sweetness doesn't work for me
with the richness of the Reblochon and the potato.
You want the dish to transport you to the Alps.
There's not enough potato and cheese for me on there.
It's just missing that richness and indulgence
that you need with tartiflette.
With classics, especially, sometimes less is more.
What I wanted to do was to have the classic on the plate
but take it in unusual directions.
You're not going to be transferred to the Alps.
You're going to be transferred into my head.
Chris has made chicken liver pate on a Gruyere cheese gougere
with crispy chicken skin, baby turnips and pickled shallots
served with a balsamic-soaked fig, fig and orange jam
and a dusting of beetroot powder.
I think that's quite magnificent.
I hope it tastes all right.
A great big choux pastry, light and fluffy,
a bit of a crust on the outside, hints of cheese,
which is almost like a salty seasoning.
Crispy little bit of salted chicken skin,
perfectly crisped on there as well,
and turnips giving a mild bite.
And I love the flavour of the pate.
It's not perfect, is it? You can see it's slightly grainy.
Yeah. But what a fabulous idea.
This, like, balsamic-marinated fig was really delicious,
especially like with the cheese and the butter and the chicken liver.
You need that, like, a little bit of acidity to cut it.
The choux bun could potentially have been slightly smaller,
just allowing it to dry out.
You can see it's sort of a little bit soft on the inside still.
But, you know, around the outside, the flavour,
they're nice-tasting gougeres.
If you shrunk it for me and gave me a glass of Champagne,
I'd happily enjoy it.
There's some really nice elegance here.
I love the flavour of your pate.
Good quantities of butter and chicken livers. Fantastic.
The fig jam, I think, is delicious with it.
I think you're really brave coming in here and doing choux pastry
and doing pate, because you really don't have anywhere to hide.
Thank you.
Well done, babes. Well done, Chris.
I'm happy with the pate sandwich myself.
But...it is MasterChef.
I knew it was too big.
Hmm.
It's like a pancake.
Mary's take on a boeuf bourguignon is pan-fried fillet steak
topped with crispy fried parsley, thyme, rosemary and shallots
in a beef, burgundy red wine, mushroom and bacon sauce
with buttery mash, carrots and onions.
My favourite - boeuf bourguignon.
Yeah. Oh, no pressure! Yeah.
There's really good flavour in the sauce,
I'm getting that nice beefy, red wine, mushroom.
There's real, like, richness and depth. Well done.
I think you've captured the essence of boeuf bourguignon really nicely.
I could definitely shut my eyes
and imagine myself in a brasserie in Paris or something.
You've done a really good job.
Your fillet steak I find joyous.
The parsley and the shallots across the top,
adding a bit of texture and crunch.
Your mash - smooth as silk, loads of butter,
really nicely-seasoned.
Sweet, lovely carrots, cooked very, very well indeed.
A good-looking plate of food. I like it a lot.
Thank you.
I'm very taken with that.
I think you've got that homeliness and that smartness well-blended here.
Well done. Thank you.
I'm so shocked, because you don't really think you're as good as that.
It's really touched me and I'm so happy with it.
I would really love a place in the quarterfinal.
That would be absolutely brilliant.
Guys, really enjoyed tasting your food today.
There was some amazing creativity.
Definitely didn't expect to see that level of cookery. So, well done.
Is it more difficult to be here giving commentary
or is it more difficult being there cooking for judges?
I think I'd rather be back over there.
CONTESTANTS LAUGH
I think it's been a brilliant start to the comeback week.
Five incredible cooks showing off so much technique.
They've all got to be applauded.
And I think they have shown here now, across two rounds,
their real quality.
But we've only got three quarterfinal places.
We've got a really tough decision to make.
Matthew has come back in here to show off technique
and I think he's done a great, great job.
He understands the food he loves,
which is the flavour of the Caribbean.
The more he brings that together, I think the more exciting he gets.
I'm impressed by him.
The quality of the cookery was exceptional.
We have got to put him through.
There's one other cook I think
really deserves a quarterfinal place.
Mary's strong.
She is, at heart, a very, very solid cook.
Mary's going great guns and she's loving the competition.
Her technique and her flavours have always been very strong.
Now it's allied with presentation
and we're seeing some very good food.
Farokh's a very, very individual cook.
He likes to take process and equipment
and create something completely different.
The inspiration for the classic in this round was tartiflette.
It didn't quite hit the mark, but I admire the work he does.
In the last round, he really redeemed himself
with the pork dish. It tasted very, very good.
He's got great ideas.
I just wish he would get his timing under control.
Lyndsay, at heart, I think is a classic cook.
A roast dinner -
well, I mean, if you're British, it doesn't come more classic than that.
A sharp apple sauce, little black pudding bonbons.
A decent dish.
Her food is quite eclectic and very, very interesting.
But the crocodile was overdone.
Chris has come back into this competition
with a real point to prove.
I'm loving his style. These plates look fantastic.
But little errors.
Last round, the dessert, the cream had curdled.
In this round - lovely flavoured pate, a little bit grainy.
He actually, I thought, was very daring.
Making pate and choux pastry, putting them together,
there's a huge amount of work in it.
It would be amazing to get through.
I've really loved being back.
If you love cooking, it's a really fun challenge to give yourself.
It's not like anything else.
We've got another chance.
I'd be very happy, but the other contestants are amazing.
And don't try to shock!
HE LAUGHS
I really, really, really want a place in that quarterfinal.
You know, it's a big goal.
Thank you very much for all your hard work.
Coming back in the MasterChef kitchen, second go,
is really, really brave.
The food has been joyous.
Our first quarterfinalist is...
Mary.
Oh.
Congratulations.
Wow.
Our second quarterfinalist...
is Matthew.
Wow, you've changed.
Coming here with buckets of technique! Where have you been?
Right, Chris, Lyndsay, Farokh -
we only have one more quarterfinal place.
Our final quarterfinalist is...
..Chris. Wow.
Thank you.
Hey! Brilliant cookery. I'm happy.
Lyndsay, Farokh, thank you so, so much.
Take care, guys. Thank you so much. Thank you, bye.
Second time around doing MasterChef was much more challenging.
Ah...
Everyone had made a lot of progress, so the competition was fierce.
I am who I am.
I will never be a chef,
but I will always be an experimental cook.
It does feel bitter-sweet to go home, but I had great feedback.
And that's the only thing I'm sad about,
is I had so many more ideas that I didn't get to show.
But it doesn't mean I can't cook them at home
and then I get to eat them!
You are again MasterChef quarterfinalists.
Go! Yes!
The butterflies in my belly are going like crazy.
These line-ups, they don't get any easier.
I've got goose bumps, look... It's madness.
I was absolutely gobsmacked to hear my name.
It made me cry. I felt so emotional. It's brilliant.
I can't wait to go home and see the family
and have a glass of champers.
I don't think a cup of tea will cut it tonight.
I'm lost for words. I cannot believe I'm in the quarterfinals again.
Ah.
It's a massive achievement.
This is one for the boy when he watches.
Because he's there, his dad is doing well!
A dream come true, honestly, it's a dream come true.
Next time -
comeback week continues...
What the hell am I doing?
..and five more past contestants return to the MasterChef kitchen...
Oh! You're joking me!
..to face two tough challenges...
Nightmare.
..and their chance at culinary redemption.
I feel like crying.
I think that's just absolutely fantastic.