Ooh-hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo!
All this week, these four celebrities...
Bonsoir!
...have been battling...
Pffft!
...to reach the quarterfinal.
Going in.
Now they're back...
Look at the size of that gherkin!
...and the competition just got tougher.
How's your Melba toast? Melba toast!
I'm so excited about today,
but the judges did say it's going to get harder,
so what does that even mean?
It's already hard for me.
Juice de orange.
I wouldn't expect anything less than a podium performance in triathlon,
but when you put me into the world of cooking,
I don't have very high expectations of myself.
Tonight, two intense challenges...
What's that? What is it? Curdled.
...will decide who deserves a place in the semifinals...
Everything I touch turns to carbon.
...and who is going home.
Another day in the MasterChef kitchen. I'm still here.
Cooking!
I've got a bit of pep, a bit of zim, a bit of vip.
God, I'm going to need medication after this!
I've been amazed at how important it's become to me,
so I'd really like to stay in.
It's three minutes left!
We need serving.
This is pressure.
Oh, new layout!
Celebrities, welcome back to the MasterChef kitchen.
You are quarterfinalists.
So far, we've seen what you're like as individual cooks.
But now, we want to see how you work as a team.
I'm a team player. I enjoy working as a team.
If I know the most, I'll be the leader.
This challenge is called Service Is Up.
You will be cooking in our MasterChef restaurant,
because if you stay in the competition,
you will be cooking in a real-life kitchen.
Max and Lauren, you will be the Red team.
Paired up with Lauren, I mean, that is win-win for me.
Sue and Melvin, you will be the Green team.
Each team will be given an identical three-course menu
to prepare and serve.
Wow!
You'll have 30 minutes to prepare your starter,
30 minutes after that, your main,
and 30 minutes after that, the dessert must be ready.
We are looking for strong teamwork
and perfectly executed plates of food.
With only three places in the semifinals up for grabs,
at the end of today, one of you will be going home.
Let's cook!
OK...
All right, let's get going. Yeah.
Team name, I think, should be Sue Sous,
cos this is Sue and I'm the sous-chef.
Lauren is the head chef. I am also here.
This is a very important challenge because this is going to tell us
who is going to be ruling the kitchen,
and who is going to be just tagging along.
Both teams have the same ingredients and will make the same dishes.
We've given them a very classic French menu.
For their starter, they'll be preparing steak tartare -
raw beef, finely chopped,
mixed with capers and shallots,
then seasoned with mustard and Worcestershire sauce,
topped with a raw egg yolk and served with crispy Melba toast.
We've got to make our own Melba toast,
so really, really thin and grill it. OK.
How do you know all these? I don't know. Cos I cook.
Duck a l'orange.
Pan-fried, then seasoned with salt and pepper,
the duck a l'orange will be served with a creamy pomme puree,
green beans, and a decadent orange sauce.
With green beans and a mashed potato. No!
Mashed potato!
For dessert, a French classic, Iles Flottantes -
a French meringue poached in milk and vanilla,
topped with caramel, floating on a creme anglaise, a thin custard.
That is a floating island, but I don't know...
It says it underneath in English. Yeah!
I was hoping to be very impressive with my French!
I'm starting with the beef tartare,
which is going to take a lot of time.
A perfect steak tartare is finely chopped beef
mixed with capers and gherkins.
Look at the size of that gherkin!
You can chop the gherkin and everything together, Melvin.
Finely, yeah?
I've never cooked with half of these ingredients,
but I'm positive out here, you know?
I love steak tartare.
You're taking essentially raw meat and a couple of ingredients...
One gherkin, finely chopped.
...changing it into something that isn't just a raw beef burger.
I've never in my life chopped these.
It's just the flavour.
Really? I love gherkins. Do you? Ooh.
J'adore a gherk. I have changed my opinion about you.
Hello, Red Ream. You seem very organised.
This is Organisation Central Station, here we go, Grace.
I've actually never had steak tartare.
I normally like my food cooked. I mean, call me crazy.
But we've got a good plan and I'm excited to execute that plan.
Are you hoping to make Giorgio smile with this lunch?
That's the reason I'm here, Grace. I just want to make him smile once.
Cute little Italian sausage over there, look at him!
I think that's chopped up, Sue.
Great. Put that in the bowl.
Then add those other ingredients in.
Dijon mustard, one tablespoon.
I want the tartare to be lightly seasoned
with mustard and Worcester sauce.
One teaspoon. OK. So I'm doing the Worcestershire sauce.
Let's hope that can really balance it perfect.
Jesus Christ. Like a lot of Dijon in there?
One teaspoon of the Dijon, you used? Correct.
Tabasco. OK. A few drops. Go on, then. Bung them in.
Oh, that stinks!
Celebrities, you have ten minutes left
until your first course is served.
Ready? Yeah. Then we're going to mix this up.
Can you start on the melba toast? Yes, ma'am.
Melba toast - it has to be thin toast
that complements this lovely, juicy steak.
Toast is very simple. You get a hot pan, you put your bread in it.
Voila! Yeah!
Cooking!
To achieve the crispest toast,
the ideal way to cook it is to put it under the grill
or in the oven to really give it that crunch.
Still not brown. Turn it up?
I've never made Melba toast before.
Originates from Melbourne, which is where...
Are you watching it? Are you watching it? Sorry.
What is he doing down there? Just keeping an eye on the toast, Chef.
Is it nearly done? Yes. Yeah, it's done now.
You've got to cut those bits off and then go horizontal.
Yeah. Is it like cooking with your mum?
This is harder than cooking with my mum. Is she? Yeah.
Oh, he's lovely to work with. He's just a bit slow.
Sue... Yeah. ..in all honesty,
you think you could cook this faster without Melvin?
No, I'm not saying that!
I am not saying that.
Melba toast. How's your Melba toast? Melba toast!
It's so scary, chopping the toast.
Melba toast, they have to be wafer thin.
Knife skills, knife skills, knife skills.
Oh, wow, you got it in half!
Great job.
It's three minutes left!
That looks good.
Yes? No?
Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef.
Sue? Yes. It's not brown, but it looks nice.
More? 30 seconds more. Yeah.
Sue is definitely quietly calling the shots in that team.
Red Team, Lauren's in control.
All right, I'm going to plate these now.
That looks great.
One minute left! One minute!
Beautiful. Beautiful. Right, that's enough, that's enough! No more.
We are out of time.
Coming, Chef. Coming, Chef.
This is the top tartare.
Like, the other one's rubbish, so this is the top one. Oh!
Thank you. You're more than welcome.
Both teams have prepared a steak tartare with Melba toast,
topped with a raw egg yolk.
Melvin, what did they say? They looked impressed.
I'm really delighted by what our celebs have managed to do.
I don't think this is an easy thing to pull off.
They both look the part.
Let's tuck in on the Green Team first.
The Green team Melba toast is perfect,
absolutely beautiful
and a very good presentation.
I'm a bit disappointed with the meat
because I feel that they've ruined any complexity with so much mustard.
It almost feels like Melvin's put three times the amount.
It takes away the flavour from the actual meat.
You don't taste the meat, you just taste the mustard.
OK, let's taste the Red Team's. Yeah.
I think that the knife skills displayed here
are just a little bit more deft, a little bit more intricate.
However, I don't think there's any mustard in there.
What you have is just the meat,
and then it starts to taste really like a raw beef burger.
And unfortunately, this is not a Melba toast.
This is a fried bread. It's greasy in your mouth.
And that's not what you want from a Melba toast.
Right, so now I'm on to the orange sauce. You're on duck. Correct?
I'll do the duck. Mm-hm. So I might get you to peel some things. Mm-hm.
For their main, they're cooking us duck a l'orange.
They're going to serve that with pomme puree and green beans.
Duck a l'orange, a very, very classic French dish.
OK, pan time. Let's cook our duck.
The difficulty is getting that breast cooked absolutely perfect.
What they're looking for is rendered duck skin.
Looking nice, OK.
They need to keep the flesh blushing, moist, succulent.
Juice de orange.
The a l'orange comes from orange juice,
orange liqueur and stock
reduced down to make a silky, beautiful sauce.
I'm just trying to do the orange sauce, just reducing it.
You really need to obtain that sweet and sour flavour
with vinegar and the orange juice.
If it's unbalanced, it will show straight away.
I mean, it smells a little bit like mulled wine
and it reminds me of Christmas.
There's a real sense of teamwork with the Reds,
whereas the Greens?
That just looks like a spectator sport.
What would you like me to do?
Um, top and tail the green beans. Yep.
Can you put those on? Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it, Sue.
Thanks.
Do you want me to flip them? Yes, please.
Is it gold? Yeah. Happy? Yeah.
I'm currently just plopping the potatoes in to boil
so we can make those mashed patates.
Pomme puree is mashed potato
enriched with a lot of milk and a lot of butter.
You've got the duck going down there.
Got the duck going. OK.
I need him to peel the potatoes.
Oh, the potato for the puree? Yeah.
That should be on and go,
because, you know, the duck is on and the potatoes are not on.
There is a problem here, then? Yes, chef.
Come on, let's go. Go, go, go, go, go.
They're not all the same size, but, God, it'll have to do.
Let's do mashed potatoes with butter and milk.
A knob. Tell me, what's a knob? This is my knob.
But this is a MasterChef one. Let's do a MasterChef knob.
I mean, that's a BIG knob!
Sorry.
OK, so that's nine minutes until your next course is served.
This is pressure.
SHE GASPS
This is burning now.
I've got no sauce left, look.
Disaster.
I think Sue's had a problem with the sauce.
Messed it up. Can I make some more?
When she is flustered,
she just becomes very down on the things she's cooked.
I may as well try.
How are we doing with that orange sauce?
I think it's getting there slowly.
Red Team feel very ordered.
Lauren seems to be calling the shots,
and Max, he's very quiet, very compliant.
Max, you're in charge of the duck breast.
I'm in charge of the duck breast.
What temperature are you looking for inside?
Around the mid 60s.
It's 56, so it's going to keep coming up, which is good.
Lauren, he's leaving you the hardest job, isn't it?
Well, you had his previous mashed potato, Giorgio. Yeah.
The pomme puree is lumpy...
Yeah. ..and absolutely unseasoned.
Not ways you want your mash to be described, if I'm honest.
No lumps. I really hope so.
This is the second attempt at this sauce.
Your sauce, what's happening with the sauce?
My sauce, I've had to make it twice.
And I'm trying so hard because of... Giorgio frightens me.
He can be a grump, but he has a heart of gold.
I know he has!
It's three minutes left! We need serving.
Yeah, got that skin lovely and crispy.
Is this your duck ready?
It needs to rest.
Max was in charge of cooking the meat,
and it looks a little bit undercooked.
What's going on with the mashed potato?
Pomme puree, sorry.
Nice. It's smooth, I hope. No lumps.
The sauce? Yes, we're getting there.
Oh, it's very liquid.
Come on, we have to reduce, reduce, reduce, reduce. Yes. Come on.
The green beans. Is it al dente?
Well, yeah. I mean, it's al dente but not raw.
Yeah. And if you toss them in butter... Yes, ma'am.
You need to get it on the plate.
One minute left!
One minute!
That duck's worked out fine.
That's lovely, Sue, that's beautiful.
Sue's cooked up a storm here.
This dish was made with love. Looks pretty good to me.
Toss those over here. Just put them on there. Yes, ma'am.
No, no, no. Just... just...
THEY LAUGH Oh!
S-Sorry.
Red Team!
Are you taking it? I'll take this.
Green Team! That - here, now!
I present to you... You're walk... ...the Sue Sous duck a l'orange.
What do you mean, Sue duck a l'orange? The Sue Sous.
Sue and sous-chef.
Ah, Sue and sous-chef. Sue Sous.
For the main course,
they've cooked a duck a l'orange
with pommes puree and green beans.
Let's taste. Red one first.
Come on.
Giorgio, this is definitely a rare piece of duck.
That'd be a lot to stomach for many diners.
However, the sauce - silky, it's buttery.
It's got citrus, sharp notes,
but it's also got depth.
Pommes puree is very nice. It's really, really light.
I love the beans. Nice and snappy. A little bit crispy like that.
Should we try the Green Team?
I'm really enjoying this. Mm.
The duck is very nicely done.
It's got a gorgeous skin.
It's medium rare.
Pommes puree is nice and light,
but it could be a bit richer with butter. You know?
Sue made that sauce a couple of times.
She wasn't going to serve something she wasn't happy with.
It's got such a lovely pungent citrus... depth.
I am sure that Sue has served
more than one duck a l'orange in the '90s.
Right. Just dessert to go.
Next. Come on. Vamos. We're off.
OK. I'm on meringue. You'll be then doing the creme anglaise.
Two egg whites.
We've given them a very classic French dessert.
Iles flottantes is French meringue,
poached in milk and vanilla,
served on top of a creme anglaise,
which is a slightly thinner custard.
They are such an amazing dish.
I'm looking forward to this dessert.
The team's first task is to make
the technically challenging French meringue mix...
You are going to whisk this until it gives peaks.
...by blending egg whites...
No peaks yet.
Just keep going.
Well done.
...and slowly adding sugar.
That's it. Well done. Good job.
So if it's done, it won't come out.
Yes!
Phew!
Ah...
So now I need to make the quenelles. Is that right? Yes.
The next bit is really technical.
So it's kind of a two-handed jobbie, so it's on Max.
Cos you've got to do this, and bam.
To make the floating islands, they must delicately
scoop out the meringue mix to avoid it breaking
and add it to the hot milk and vanilla.
It's hard to get them off the spoons.
You have to be really, really careful when you poach the meringue.
Your milk should never boil.
It has to float on top of that, and you have to turn it.
So how it's cooked is very, very important.
A raw one is not nice.
I'm not going to win any prizes for my quenelles.
Oh, that's a bit messy.
Sue, are you enjoying yourself? Oh, I'm having a ball.
CLATTERING
THEY LAUGH
The problem is, is that these quenelles
are incredibly hard to keep a good structure.
Would you like me to have a go? Yeah.
OK. Well, then can you take over creme anglaise? Yeah.
The Red Team, they've come up with some of the iles flottantes
but they didn't look right.
Lauren is making them again. Reshape them.
I'm not sure how this is going to go with one hand.
Is that how you do it?
A turn over jobbie now? Yeah.
You need to watch that like a hawk. Yeah.
Till it boils?
I don't want it to boil, but I want it to be almost boiling.
OK, so that's nine minutes until your next course is served.
This is the creme anglaise.
I've made this before, but I haven't made floating islands before.
So that's going to be a first.
The creme anglaise, a light custard,
is made by whisking egg yolks and sugar...
OK, it's bubbling now.
It's bubbling. Let's take it off for now.
Thank you, that's great. Yeah.
...and then slowly adding hot milk infused with vanilla.
Thank you.
Just assisting Sue with her custard making.
Holding the bowl. Yeah, but look at the way you're holding it.
We need the creme anglaise to be silky and smooth.
Definitely not scrambled egg.
This is what you're going to stir. Until it curdles.
No! Not curdles. I mean, like...
...thickens. Until it thickens. Yeah.
It needs to be like the consistency of double cream.
Not like custard.
NOT like custard? Not like thick custard.
Like double cream.
And I'm bringing the energy.
I'm keeping the positive vibes going.
How's that? That's quite thick now.
SHE GASPS Is that...
What's that? What is it? It's curdled.
Why has it done that? Because it got too hot.
Right. Um... Do you know what I'm going to do?
Make sure... It's just curdled. Make sure he's not looking.
Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue.
Hello, Chef.
Sue, don't keep running away from me.
You look like one of my chefs. Turn around here.
Show me what you got there.
Got scrambled eggs, don't you? Yes, Chef.
Come on, let's do another one. You got the time. I've got the time?
I'm sure you've got the time.
Right. OK. I need more eggs.
Sue's just trying to remake the custard again.
Creme anglaise.
Right. Put that on the highest one and just watch it.
Put it on nine. Yeah.
But look - she seems to have come around with it.
It's on its way. Sue's really taking the lead.
God, I'm going to need medication after this.
Three minutes left!
Three minutes!
I'm going to turn. I'm going to flip.
These are not quenelles. They're puffed up. They're huge.
Wow. I've never even seen this before.
One minute left!
One minute!
Get those floating meringues. Yeah.
Sue, are you ready? Um... Sorry, I couldn't hear you.
Are you ready?
What?
Maybe. Nearly.
You happy? Things in threes, no?
I've got one if you want. Yeah, if you've got one, yeah.
You can go. Go, go, go.
Judges, we would like to present to you iles flottantes.
This is Melvin and Sue's creme anglaise
with a sprinkling of vanilla plods... pods.
Celebrities, thank you for all of your hard work
in the MasterChef restaurant.
We're going to enjoy these desserts in peace.
Please take a well-earned break.
Oof!
Ugh!
I don't think I'm going to open a French restaurant any time soon.
Dessert is iles flottantes -
French meringue poached in milk and vanilla,
floating on a creme anglaise.
Red one first.
Come on.
Pudding.
Ouch! Oh.
This custard has got quite lumpy pieces of egg in it.
Yeah, it's scrambled eggs.
Sweet scrambled eggs.
The only redeeming quality of this dish
is that the meringue is properly cooked
and so has the right consistency and the right flavour.
The rest is all a bit of a disaster.
This is the Green Team.
You were very, very laid-back... I wished I could help you.
...to the point of horizontal.
They had a terrible problem as well with the creme anglaise,
but they did save it.
Look.
Mm.
I think that the creme anglaise is really lovely.
Hints of vanilla, it's sweet, it's creamy.
What I found is that the iles flottantes are very eggy.
It means hasn't cooked enough.
The MasterChef restaurant was full of excitement today.
Undeniably, there was some bumpy things happening behind the stoves.
I like this "bumpy".
Well done, everyone.
There was huge effort going on behind those stoves.
We had two steak tartare presented very nicely.
The tartare of the Red Team
really showed some unbelievable knife skills.
But the Melba toast,
Giorgio, your little Italian sausage,
he was not happy.
It was heavy, it was oily.
You know, that Melba toast should bring that dish up.
And that's exactly what happened with your Melba toast.
A lot of elegance on the presentation.
The only problem is the amount of mustard in that.
You know, sometimes it's nice to have a bit of flavour.
Sometimes no. Sometimes no. No.
But because of that Melba toast,
the Green Team is the best starter.
Let's move on to the main.
The Green Team produced a perfect cooking onto that breast.
That sauce was brilliant.
So the Green Team again
made the best dish.
Red Team, if you would have cooked that breast correctly,
you would have done the best dish.
So the two things that I was in charge of,
which was the Melba toast and the duck...
It's looking pretty good for old Maxie boy.
Mm.
Let's move on to dessert.
Red Team, your iles flottantes
was actually very, very good.
But you cannot serve me that creme anglaise.
It cancels the dish.
Who was responsible of the creme anglaise?
It will really actually surprise you that it was... it was me.
Three out of three.
The best iles flottantes, they were the one of the Green Team.
But there is another observation.
The Red Team did actually work like a team.
At all points,
it felt as if there was two of you working equally,
sharing the roles.
The Green Team worked more like a...
...benevolent dictatorship.
Now, I would like you to go and have a very good rest,
because the next challenge is going to be big.
Big.
Big challenge.
THEY LAUGH
After you, Mel.
He definitely didn't enjoy you calling him a little sausage.
I call him my little Italian sausage.
We smashed it. We won every single round.
Yeah, we did actually. Without you, I would have been so lost.
We just needed a bit better toast, a bit more cooking on a duck.
Yeah. And better creme anglaise.
Mm. But that's for next time.
Oh, I see a masher.
Welcome back, celebrities.
For your next challenge,
we are pushing you to your culinary limits.
To do that, we invited someone very, very special.
His bold flavour makes him
one of the most influential people in the UK food scene.
Please welcome...
...Big Zuu.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Good to see you.
How are you doing? All right? Yes, Zuu.
ZUU LAUGHS
Rapper, TV personality and self-taught chef Big Zuu
took the country by storm
with his two-time Bafta-award-winning show,
Big Zuu's Big Eats.
Food is my life.
Food is my job and it's what brings me most joy.
Honestly, food is everything to me.
My mum's from Sierra Leone. Dad's from Lebanon.
I grew up in West London, where there's, like, heavy influences,
from Jamaicans, North Africans.
There's so many different sides of the world just in one little place.
I would say I'm a global chef.
I don't think, like, my food could be put in a box.
Today's challenge is big on flavour.
Each recipe has a different reason why it's special to me.
Whether it's a family recipe, whether it's a recipe from a friend,
or whether it's something I've cooked on telly before.
What would impress me the most today
is consistency throughout the dishes,
not just one element of the dish being good, but everything.
Well-roundedness.
Zuu, that's the happiest we've seen these people for a long time.
Love it, love it.
Today you'll be making four of my dishes.
These are recipes that I cherish and love.
Please don't let me down.
HE LAUGHS
With only three places left for the semifinal,
you're cooking for your survival in this competition.
Right.
Celebrities, you have 90 minutes to recreate Big Zuu's recipes.
Zuu, do you want to do it? I'm going to do it. Go on. Ready?
Let's cook.
GRACE LAUGHS
Yes!
Lebanese lamb skewers with vermicelli rice and toum.
Tofu laksa and Zuudle balls.
Big drip chocolate cake.
I've made chocolate cake.
I don't know what the big drip is.
Iranian chicken.
"Kashk Benjamin"?
"Bid..."
Bademjan.
I don't know what half these words mean.
Ha-ha!
I'm so excited to see what they're going to come out with.
I think each one has got a dish
that'll really challenge their capability.
Isn't laska, like, spicy?
I really like to get into the semifinals.
It'd be an achievement for me,
so I'm going to give it my best shot.
Oh, there's so many things here I don't understand.
Zuu, you have instilled joy and fear into the celebs.
Never heard the kitchen so silent.
Everyone is in serious cooking mode today,
which is terrifying.
These are called barberries going in here.
And this is, again, something I've never cooked before,
never seen before.
So, it's going to be fun.
Mine's smoking quite a lot.
During his cookalong...
Don't let it burn.
...the joke was on YouTube prankster Max Fosh...
Max just needs to get that fish onto the plate.
Before the fire brigade get here.
...and his mackerel didn't get any likes from the judges.
When you get to that burnt bit, it's slightly bitter.
But when he made fresh pasta in the invention test...
I think I really need to go large or go home,
and so I'm going large.
...he finally got the thumbs up.
Pasta is cooked perfectly.
It really has the right thickness.
It's a nice dish.
I've never cooked chicken thighs before.
I normally always, like, just cook the breast
or just done a whole chicken.
Max has been tasked with one of Big Zuu's childhood favourites,
Iranian chicken,
accompanied by barberry-flavoured rice,
a smoky aubergine dip called kashke bademjan,
and flatbreads.
This dish is from my friend, Ali, one of my best friends growing up.
His mum used to make this for us for lunch.
Now I have to ask a question. What makes chicken Iranian?
Ha-ha! Well, Iranian chicken
is just covered in Iranian spices and flavours.
You've got the saffron element in there...
...and then the rice is filled with these lovely berries as well.
Barberries. Yes, the barberries, which is quite different.
People don't normally use that in rice,
but they do and it's beautiful. Adds a little balance to the dish.
Now we need the old spices. Cumin, cardamom.
This is probably going to end in disaster.
Max, Max, Max. Hello. How are you doing, Giorgio?
Look who I brought with me. It's Zuu! How are you doing, bro?
Hello, mate. Good to see you.
Are you feeling confident?
I've had a bit of bluster in this kitchen,
but now I really don't know what I'm doing.
What were we saying about the spices? The cardamom...
Oh, I just, you know, you know, they said like one teaspoon,
two teaspoon. Oh. It was just like, "Yeah, here we go."
So... You can't put too much, cos it might overpower it.
Hey, we'll see. We'll see.
It's a lottery in this life, isn't it?
Nice. Yeah, it is a life lottery, yes. Yeah.
Max cooking Iranian food -
I'm interested how he's going to deal with these flavours.
Well, he told us straight away. He just threw all the spices in.
If it's too overpowering, it will just take over the entire dish
and you won't have any harmony.
Chicken is in.
Chicken. How do you like chicken to be?
Can't be overcooked. Can't be dry. Need to get it just right.
Oh, no. It's brown on the bottom of the pan.
I don't think it's meant to look like that.
I definitely think that this dish
is going to put Max out of his comfort zone.
I want to cry.
Does anyone here know a good therapist?
Celebrities, 30 minutes gone. 30 minutes.
Yes, chef. Thank you, Sue.
You're welcome, chef.
Peanut butter cups.
How much?
150.
I've heard said that baking is a science
and I was rubbish at science,
so I don't know whether this will have an impact or not.
I can't even get this on.
Oh, plaster. Already. Cut myself.
Didn't take long, did it?
Corrie legend Sue Cleaver...
Great!
...had a nervous start to the competition
but as her confidence grew...
Congratulations, Sue, your dish was the best.
SHE GASPS Oh.
APPLAUSE
I always wanted a Blue Peter badge, but this is better.
...her experience shone through.
I'm not sure if I can do filthy, but... give it my best shot.
There's some brilliant, brilliant things here.
Thank you.
I'm just going to try not to panic
and be a bit calmer than I normally am.
Today she is making dessert.
Big Zuu, big drip cake.
A rich chocolate sponge covered in buttercream,
dripping in ganache and topped with crushed honeycomb chocolate
and pretzels, served with a moreish peanut butter ice cream.
This cake represents who I am,
and coming from West Africa, we love peanut butter,
so I wanted to use that in the ice cream.
So we've got peanut butter ice cream.
Can't believe I'm making ice cream.
If this works out, this might become... a thing.
For me, getting the ice cream on point is the main thing.
Timing for her is so important.
Look, I'm going to let you into the secret, Sue.
I love chocolate cake. Having a little dance?
- That's how excited you are. - She's very happy today.
Got little pots of chocolate. There's little pretzely things here.
- Very dangerous bench. - Are you much of a baker?
No. Not really. When my son was little,
he always demanded a home-made cake, bless him.
So I sort of... I made a cake probably once a year.
Nice.
So I'm no expert at cakes, but I'm determined.
I want it to be nice for you.
I know you'll be sad to see us go, but we're off.
Yeah, devastated. Bye!
Bye-bye. Bye.
God! Is it meant to be like cement?
I don't know whether that's too solid.
I feel like it needs a bit more liquid. I don't know.
Sue's cake batter is looking quite stiff.
Even though this is quite a mighty looking cake,
in the eating, it's light, it's fluffy.
Yeah, you want your fork to go right through.
You don't want to have any tense, stiff bit of cake.
We're not going to enjoy that.
Be nice. Don't let me down.
You're going to make the sponge
but then a very thick chocolate ganache,
and the ganache does that, going right round...
Goes around, and that's what makes the drip. Drip.
It's a very technical dish,
so she's going to be up against it today.
I can't make any mistakes today after my Dijon situation.
So I have to measure everything to a T,
which is not how I like to work.
Not too much. Don't want to overpower it.
Radio DJ Melvin Odoom...
This is my mum's dish. I can't mess around.
...had a subtle start to the competition...
This whole dish just needs a little bit more welly.
...but he came back fighting.
Oh-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Melvin O-Boom.
Yeah? I love it. Really?
You can really taste the mint.
It's not a shy burger. It's a big burger.
It's willing to come out and say hello.
And that's what I like in burgers.
I'm terrible. I need to start on that meat.
There's a million stages to this. So many different layers to it.
I mean, I'm sure it'll be a lovely dish once it's done.
Zuu's complex Lebanese classic
requires Melvin to cook lamb two ways -
minced as a spiced kofta and grilled leg meat on skewers.
The lamb is served with vermicelli rice
and a Lebanese dip called toum.
My dad is Lebanese, so this dish is very close to my heart.
In Lebanon, we love lamb,
so the main thing is making sure that lamb is cooked right.
And then the toum is a very, very punchy garlic sauce.
Ingredients are garlic... Yes. ..oil... Yes.
It's about the balance of how much garlic you use
and how you get that consistency in the sauce.
It's not a simple thing to do.
We're going to toumland.
Melvin, Zuu. Hello.
How you doin', bro? What's going on, guys? You OK?
Do you two know each other? Yeah. Used to work with Zuu.
Doing what? Radio. DJ. And Zuu used to get everyone food,
like, you used to get the chicken and stuff. I did, I did.
But today it's you. Yeah, yeah. I've got you.
The cooking of the lamb's super important. We want that smokiness.
That's why the griddle pan helps. You want nice grill markings,
but you want it cooked all the way through.
Melvin, you're looking very worried. Yeah, I'm not worried.
This is my excited face.
Is it? THEY LAUGH
Oh, that looks all right. That looks all right, baby.
The rice I'm not too sure about. But rice is rice. Surely.
Melvin's making vermicelli rice.
Yes. So noodles and rice? Yes.
This is a traditional way of crushing vermicelli -
with your fingers. I just made it. I have no idea how you...
Another alternative way of doing it.
I'm guessing you must with your fingers, no?
Getting that vermicelli right, you have to fry it off first
and then get it steamed with the rice.
So you don't want it to be too overcooked
or otherwise it's going to be mushy.
Cake, cake, cake. Dare I take them out?
Dare I take them out?
13 minutes left.
OK.
They need to cool in their tins for 30 minutes.
Oh, I could put them in the blast chiller.
Come on.
Never made any sort of flatbread before.
See how this does.
Oh, that does not look good at all.
Oh! Why are the barberries black?
Oh, no.
Everything I touch turns to carbon.
Oh, my gosh.
Tamarind. I know this stuff for making you poop.
With the chillies and tamarind, we're going to be in trouble.
Gold Medal-winning Paralympian Lauren Steadman...
I wanted to present it like a podium.
The dish looks really, really fantastic.
...was straight out of the blocks with her signature sushi trio...
The precision that you use on your cutting and your making it,
I really can't fault it. Thank you.
...and has showcased some impressive basic skills.
You had a very nice pasta. The thickness is perfect.
SHE COUGHS
Christ almighty.
Her dish is spicy tofu laksa,
a fragrant noodle soup,
served with Big Zuu's signature Zuudle balls.
I'd never had a laksa before I made this dish.
But once I made it, I realised how beautiful is that spicy paste,
the coconut broth, all the noodles, the tofu, all coming together.
God, the punch that one with your booming...
Christ almighty.
Mmm!
What is that? What are you making? A laska.
Oh, Christ. That's nice. I know you'd like it.
It nearly blew my socks off. That's nice.
I got the approval of "The Boom."
"Fold noodles and mix until it becomes a sticky ball.
"Roll into eight balls and then chill in the fridge."
Then the Zuudle balls are a nice side
where you make instant noodles become quite decadent.
It's quite inventive, really, noodle balls.
Like little noodle meatballs.
Did you invent these? I did invent these, yes.
Instead of making, like, arancini, getting the inspiration from that,
but I used instant noodles,
and we made these deep-fried Zuudle balls with a lovely sauce.
They go well with the laksa. You dip them in the laksa.
Lauren, if there is any bits of this recipe that, you know, scares you,
what is it? I don't cook with heat or chillies. OK.
Yeah, and tofu, I've fried before, but I don't really cook with tofu.
And then you have those pasta balls. Yeah, the Zuudle balls.
You want those Zuudle balls to be crispy, full of flavour.
OK. Yeah? Yes. OK. I'm there for this.
I'd be proud if I pull this off and you say you enjoy it,
but I feel the pressure this time. My legs are a little jelly for this.
HE LAUGHS
Want nice and crispy tofu. There's the noodles,
there's different elements that go into the soup on the top,
so we want to make sure it's presented well. Has to look nice.
A laksa, you almost eat it with your eyes first.
Celebrities, ten minutes left! Ten minutes.
Come on.
You want to Big Zuu a very happy boy.
Meat needs to get cooked, bro. What's going on?
You waiting till the end? Yeah. You might have raw meat.
Get on it. Get in it. Just cos I've never done this dish before.
I don't know what I'm doing. And if I don't know what I'm doing...
Well, you gotta do something. Yeah. Yeah? I'll see you in a bit, bro.
Get the kofta in now. Otherwise it's never going to be cooked.
It's on six... More? No, more, more, more. Nine.
No, I'll burn it. I'll burn it. No, you're not burning, I'm telling you.
I'm going to turn it down.
Come on, Sue! Five minutes.
Right, I'm going to check the cakes.
Still hot in the middle. I'm going to risk it.
Three minutes to go!
It's falling apart.
Come on! No time to give up now.
Going to make some more lamb koftas. Cos I don't like those.
It does not smell good. It doesn't look good.
I think I'll going to have to make a personal apology to Zuu.
30 seconds left. Oh!
Get it on the plates now, please, chefs!
Stop! I want to see those hands in the air now!
Max, come.
Oh, it's a letter.
It's a letter. "Dear Mr Zuu,
"I'm so sorry for what I did to your recipe.
"Best, Max."
Max has prepared Iranian chicken,
seasoned with turmeric, cumin, cardamom and saffron,
accompanied by a barberry flavoured rice
and a yogurty aubergine dip called kashke bademjan,
infused with garlic, onion and mint,
with flatbreads on the side.
It's been served like
we're at a buffet...
...and you're trying to maximise the plate.
There's not a lot of elegance.
The chicken has overcooked a little bit
and in some areas it is a bit burnt.
I like the spicing.
It could have done with a little bit more salt, for me.
Your rice is fluffy. I think it's nicely seasoned.
It's nice, buttery ghee flavours.
The lack of barberries in your rice, why is there only one?
Is it cos you burnt them? Yeah.
Chicken, I feel like you went a bit heavy on the saffron,
but it does have the flavours of Iranian chicken.
The kashke bademjan - honestly, it tastes good to me.
Thank you, judges.
Not as bad as I was expecting.
Mm-hm. Hmm.
I don't know what the Iranian is for "gobsmacked"
but that's what I was.
Melvin, come on up.
Judges, this is my Melvin O-Toum.
ZUU LAUGHS
Melvin has made a dish
inspired by Big Zuu's Lebanese heritage -
a grilled lamb skewer,
seasoned with Baharat and pomegranate molasses,
and a spiced lamb kofta,
served with vermicelli rice containing pine nuts and parsley
and a garlic sauce called toum.
The plate looks a little bit bland. Mm-hm.
But I'm here for the flavour. OK.
I'm going to go for your kofta straight away.
It does look... It might be raw in the middle. Yep.
It's pink. Yeah.
The lamb is cooked well. It's still soft.
But I can't see the vermicelli in the rice.
The rice does have a nice little buttery flavour.
You've had garlic sauce. Yeah.
I feel like you've maybe added too much oil, it split,
you didn't get the consistency right.
Your pine nuts aren't toasted.
Toasting the pine nuts gives them the depth.
When you don't toast them, they're just a bit spongy. Yeah.
That sauce, calling it sauce
would be an offence to every other sauce. It's a garlic oil.
Overall, it's not amazing, bro.
Oh, Zuu, I let you down. I've got your book at home as well.
Have you ever opened it?
I've had a look. I just haven't made this.
Great effort. The result is not so great.
Sorry, judges.
I feel like I let myself down, to be honest.
I feel like I let Zuu down. It's one of his family dishes.
Lauren, come on up.
Lauren has cooked Zuu's tofu laksa,
with tamarind, lemongrass, ginger, garlic and packed with chilli...
...served with Big Zuu's signature Zuudle balls,
deep-fried instant noodles combined with a spicy mixture
containing curry powder, chilli and coriander.
Presentation is wonderful.
The Zuudle balls, I don't think I could make it look that good myself.
OK.
I like the flavour of the laksa. The tofu, cooked well.
The noodles, lovely. They soak up all that laksa flavour.
The noodle balls, so nice, I had to get in there twice. Yeah?
You've added great little bits of spring onion
with the kewpie mayo with the hot sauce.
I feel like there's a lot of attention to detail and I love that.
Thank you. Zuudle balls. Zuudle balls.
Those Zuudle balls are absolutely a delight to look at and to eat.
Very well done, Lauren.
To get in there and get those layers
of garlic, lemongrass and tamarind and coconut,
gosh, it's hot. But I do like it.
It's a really lovely version. I think you've done yourself proud.
Thank you. Well done. Thank you.
I feel pretty satisfied with that. Being able to stay calm,
get the flavour in there, work a bit better on presentation.
So spicy!
I really did outdo myself
and I was actually really proud of what I just produced.
Big Sue, please get up here with your plate.
Sue has baked Big Zuu's decadent big drip chocolate cake
with chocolate buttercream
topped with peanuts, pretzels and honeycomb chocolate.
Do you also have an ice cream?
I do have an ice cream, but I didn't have time to plate it.
We'd love to see the ice cream. Go and get it. I'll be right back.
I love ice cream. Let's get the entire tub.
This is my peanut butter chocolate ice cream.
There's no drip, which is upsetting,
but the cake, I enjoy it.
It's got a nice bit of chocolatiness in there.
It's balanced with the salty pretzel and the peanuts.
You present it very well.
Unfortunately, the cooking of the cake, it's a little bit dry.
Ice cream - fabulous.
So many different crunchy, silky, buttery bits to it. Creamy bits.
It's just a shame we didn't get it on the plate.
It could have been better. My cake was dry.
Big Zuu was calling me Big Sue, but I let him down.
I was kind of like Very Mediocre Sue today.
Celebrities, that was a very tough challenge.
Zuu, what are you thinking?
I'm proud of what you lot have done with my recipes.
Thank you, celebrities. I think now you need a little break
because we got a difficult decision to take,
as we only have three places on the semifinal.
Thank you very much.
Well done, you guys.
Giorgio, we're down to four. We've got to send someone home.
There's never a day where it's just, "This is nice."
Do a bit of cooking, jig about in your kitchen.
Lauren's first time making laksa.
This was a really good dish.
It was very spicy, but Big Zuu loved it.
I think that she absolutely nailed that brief.
We must keep her in.
Melvin struggled with so many parts of that dish.
I think that's probably the worst dish I've done.
It tasted lovely when I tasted it.
Uncooked food is never... the key on here.
That toum, it's just oil and garlic.
But it ended up having separated. I'm really sad and disappointed
because everyone in this kitchen loves Melvin.
The kofta was absolutely raw.
I thought I burnt every single item.
You were so surprised.
But tasting yours, yours tasted amazing.
Max was a shambles during the team challenge,
but in this round,
even though the chicken was maybe a little bit well done,
I thought there was some really nice moments on that plate.
The cake, I knew it was dry. I'd like to know what I did wrong.
It looked incredible, though. It looked so nice.
Sue. That cake was not perfectly baked,
and she presented the cake without the ice cream.
She had a stinking time in the kitchen during this round.
She was out of her comfort zone. That was a difficult cake.
Can we overlook that things were missing?
It's a big step, huh?
I would be sad to leave the competition
because I feel like I've worked really hard. Genuinely.
I'd be really gutted to go out.
My plan was always to get into the semifinals,
so I'd like to carry on.
I really do think I've done enough to get through to the semifinals,
and that's because Melvin didn't cook his kofta.
Well, it doesn't make me happy, but we've got to do it.
OK, bring them in.
We've seen bold choices and flashes of brilliance from you,
but we only have three places in the semifinals.
Lauren,
congratulations. You're the first semifinalist.
Thank you.
The rest of you have all had some highs and some lows.
The person leaving us today is...
...Melvin.
To see you cooking is incredible.
Those Melba toast were memorable!
Melvin, thank you. Your time in the MasterChef kitchen is now over.
Thank you. Thank you. Good luck, guys.
You got this, you got this. I know.
Oh, that's sad.
I have had a great time.
I've learnt loads, I've laughed loads.
It has been an absolute blast.
Melvin O-Boom is out.
Congratulations, you are our semifinalists.
Well done, team.
I would like to remind you it's going to get tougher from here,
so prepare yourself.
LAUREN LAUGHS
Oh! Yeah. Well done, team.
Oh! Wowzers trousers!
I'm the most undeserved semifinalist in the history of this competition.
I've got through by the seat of my pants.
I'm going to miss Melvin so much.
Maybe not as a sous-chef.
I'm so excited. So happy. Pretty proud.
This is a good place to get to -
you feel proud of yourself being a semifinalist.
Semifinals. New faces, new cooks. New friends.
But you don't forget your old friends. No.
THEY LAUGH
Next time,
it's the Celebrity MasterChef semifinals.
Cooking for 120 people isn't what I expected to be doing this morning.
I am stressed right now. Phwoar!
We told them that the competition was going to get tougher.
It really has.
At the end of this, one of you will be leaving us.
That's not fair!