From across the UK...
..32 up-and-coming chefs...
..are putting their reputations on the line...
..in a battle to become Professional MasterChef Champion.
Tonight, the first four hopefuls compete to impress
MasterChef Judge Gregg Wallace,
renowned chef Monica Galetti,
and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing.
I have no fear.
Nothing in the kitchen really scares me, I'll attack anything.
I want to prove that I can do this.
The edge today is going to be that I am staying calm under pressure.
I'm actually here to show the world what they are missing
in their plate.
I want to prove to myself that I'm capable of doing everything.
This is a massive opportunity.
Who has got the talent to rise to the top?
It's time to discover our next culinary superstar.
The start of a brand-new professional MasterChef,
and now Monica's back! It's wonderful to be back.
I've missed you. I've missed you.
And I can't wait to see what talent we're going to uncover.
We've got to find our champion.
We've got a long way to go. We've got a lot of food to eat.
First up, they've got to face a Skills Test.
We have 32 chefs hungry to show us what they're made of.
We've got four of them waiting in the wings right now.
Marcus, two of them are going to do your Skills Test.
Monica, two of them up now are going to do yours.
What are you going to get them to do?
I am going to get our chefs to prepare and cook us a fillet
off this brill, served with a turnip garnish and a coconut sauce.
So the key skills that I want to see from our chefs is the preparing
of this beautiful fish.
I don't want to see any damage done to it.
They can use some of the bones
to start their sauce off as well, if they want.
Preparing the turnip for the garnish.
They can do that any way they want.
The coconut sauce, I want to taste coconut through it.
I can't wait to see the prep of the fish.
I really want to learn something here. Right, 20 minutes.
Monica, over to you.
Off we go. First thing we'll do is prep our beautiful brill here.
You can fillet it and keep the sides and everything on,
but I want to use the bones, so I'm going to trim them off.
So I've taken the first two fillets off,
and now I'm taking the two on the underside.
So what we don't want to see is big lumps of flesh left on the bones?
Nothing at all.
If you've never seen this fish,
or prepared a flatfish before,
that's going to be quite daunting.
Monica, could you take me through the technique of getting
the skin off, please? Knife on the angle,
and as long as that knife is sharp,
all you need to do is just pull the skin side-to-side.
You see a Skills Test, I see lunch.
Some things just don't change with you. Yeah.
Always hungry. Wow. Would you have me any other way?
So I've got my fillets. My portion is ready to be cooked.
I've got the bones and everything else on the tray here.
They shouldn't go to waste.
Are you expecting the chefs to use the bones for the sauce?
Well, we've given them stock,
but I think more flavour will come out of using the bones.
So, hot pan, I've got the bones in there, get a nice colour.
So I'm going to toast off some desiccated coconut.
The coconut goes in.
Wow.
In the coloured bones, I've just deglazed it
with the aniseed liqueur and I've reduced that down,
and now I've added a bit of fish stock.
And then I'm going to add the coconut milk.
So while the sauce is reducing down, I'm going to do my turnip garnish.
Keeping it really simple.
I'm making a brine. I've got salt, a bit of sugar, peppercorns,
and some hard herbs in there, bring it up to the boil.
I'm going to thinly slice the turnip,
and then just add the brine to it.
And it will just slowly sort of macerate in there. Mm!
You just pour that brine liquid on top of that, in that bowl,
so it can retain a bit of crunch, but also take on those flavours?
That's right. Nice.
So I've got some sea aster here,
and some various sea herbs to go with the garnish.
I don't think I've ever had sea aster.
Isn't that what the Spanish do after lunch?
LAUGHTER
Very good.
So, guys, my fish is ready to be cooked.
My turnip garnish is in the brine, ready to go.
I have my sauce, it's going to reduce a bit more.
And I'll just finish that with a squeeze of lemon at the end.
And my sea herbs,
I'm going to just sweat this off with the fish and serve.
This fish is only going to take a minute.
So my fish has come out the pan,
and I've just dropped in the sea aster, just to wilt it.
And then I start to plate.
Look at that! Wonderful.
It smells good.
And there we have it.
My brill with a turnip garnish and a coconut sauce.
I'm hoping that our chefs will be able to fillet
and cook the fish.
Yes. The sauce making, I don't know.
That looked quite complex to me.
And then the presentation,
can they get a dish that looks anywhere near as smart as that?
It looks simple,
but yet, it's full of complexity.
Let's get our first chef in and see what they can do. I'm ready.
Let's bring them in.
Marcus, you're going to leave us now.
You're going to watch things very closely from the back room.
We'll see you back here for the tasting, yes? OK, yeah.
Right. Here we go. First cook of the season.
First to face Monica's Skills Test is 25-year-old Cameron,
a head chef at a seafood restaurant
in the western highlands of Scotland.
It's an absolute paradise for food.
A lot of the seafood that's landed in Mallaig is heading
to the likes of London,
and the langoustines are probably going to Paris.
Food's been involved in my life since I was extremely young.
You know, when we were, you know, ten and 11,
we were down fishing for mackerel.
And I finished school in the summer holidays,
and for six weeks, we just went fishing every single day.
The Skills Test is a mix of emotions.
I think it's very exciting,
but there's quite a lot of fear there cos you just have no idea
what you're getting yourself into.
Let's just hope it's fish.
Welcome to Professional MasterChef.
This is the Skills Test.
So what I would like you to do, Cameron,
is to prepare and cook us a portion of this lovely brill,
served with a turnip garnish and a coconut sauce.
How does that sound?
I'm very excited to see fish in front of me,
I won't lie to you. Great to see that you're excited.
You have 20 minutes. Off you go. Thank you very much.
Cameron, it looks like you've prepared fish before.
I work at a seafood restaurant.
Amazing. Yeah.
It's obviously much easier at home
without you guys watching.
But, no, I love working with fish.
I love eating fish. We're so lucky.
You know, the restaurant that our family own,
it looks out onto the pier where all the boats come in with all the fish.
So it's a family restaurant? My mum is the owner.
My brother is the restaurant manager and I'm the head chef.
Just cooking fantastic local fresh seafood.
What are the chances of your first Skills Test on MasterChef being fish
when you actually work in a fish restaurant?
Get the sauce on now.
What have you got there?
I've just put some coconut milk in.
I'm going to reduce it slightly.
Erm... You're halfway, Cameron.
I'm just going with the flow right now, I'm afraid.
I've not really got much of a plan.
He's got the fish carcass at the back.
I hope he brings it back and uses it for his sauce.
Just think through this, what you need to serve.
This is...
He seems a little bit flustered.
Yeah, I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing with the sauce, I'm afraid.
I think the coconut sauce is throwing him a little bit.
Use the bones. You've got some fish stock there.
You've got the coconut, you've got a bit of alcohol.
It should be pretty straightforward.
All chefs should know that.
I'm going to reduce down the aniseed liquor,
and then I'm going to add a little bit of fish stock,
and add the coconut milk and then reduce that down,
and maybe finish it with some nice herbs.
I'm going to cook the piece of fish,
and I'm just going to work on the turnip whilst I'm doing that.
So you've got a plan.
I'm a man with a plan.
Going to add some fish stock now.
Reduce that down as well.
What are you going to do with those turnips?
I'm going to just blanch them in water.
Then once the fish is resting,
I'm just going to toss the turnips through the pan.
Just get a bit more flavour into the turnip.
He's not tasted that sauce.
I don't think I've seen him season anything yet.
I'm curious, what made you enter MasterChef?
I've always been a huge fan of the show,
and it's a fantastic opportunity to be able to cook for you guys,
and to see where I'm at with my cooking, you know.
You've got a minute, so let's get it together, Chef.
Thank you. It goes quick, doesn't it?
HE EXHALES
All right. Here we go.
There we go. Well done.
You OK? Wow. Thank goodness.
MONICA CHUCKLES
It's over. Thanks for giving me fish, guys.
Appreciate it.
MONICA LAUGHS
How did you find that?
The pressure is crazy.
The way you were filleting the fish,
it clearly shows you've worked with fish before.
However, the sauce is wishy-washy.
I think you got flustered.
What you could have done to really give this coconut sauce
lots of flavour was use the bones of the fish there.
I really enjoyed watching you approach the fish.
The skinning - great job.
I can certainly taste turnip.
Sauce making is all about making the ingredients sing and dance.
Nice fish cookery, though.
The brill tastes delicious.
I think we'd call that a game of two halves, if we were football pundits.
Great fish prep. Look forward to seeing you in the next round.
Thank you, Chef.
Getting that fish filleted was fantastic to watch.
Great potential.
It could have went a lot worse.
But it was just rookie mistakes, things you don't do.
Cos just under the pressure, you don't think.
And, erm... Yeah, it's done now.
Next up is 24-year-old Dara, born in Limerick.
He's now a sous-chef in a fine dining restaurant
on the south coast near Portsmouth.
Cheffing is not for everyone.
So you need to want to be a chef to be a chef.
I started as a KP, just in a pub in the New Forest.
Worked my way up, and I kind of flourished from there.
I'm quite proud to say what I've done,
cos I've kind of come up from not knowing anything
to kind of going, "Oh, I know quite a bit."
Doing this, there's like a massive thing of, like,
"Am I good enough to do it? Is my confidence there?
"Is my skill set ready? Am I ready?"
Am I ready? Yes.
Dara, welcome to Professional MasterChef.
This Skills Test was set by Monica.
You all right, Dara? Yes.
The nerves are starting to kick in,
but I'll try and channel them.
And hopefully I'll be well on this, so... That's the spirit.
What I would like you to do, Dara, is to prepare the brill
and cook us a portion,
served with a turnip garnish of your choice
and a coconut sauce.
When you're ready, you have 20 minutes.
Perfect. Thank you, Chef.
Do you want to take it out the tray, on the board?
Yes, Chef.
Come on, get your chef's head on, Dara. Yes, Chef.
So, Dara, lots of fish prep where you work?
Yeah, so I'm actually lucky with where I work.
It's a little town down the south coast.
Just don't want the nerves
to overtake, but I'm sure
I'll be OK.
He's cutting through the bone a little bit there,
so he just needs to be a bit more gentle.
Steady. Steady.
It's interesting. He's left the skin on the brill
and he's going to pan fry it.
I've never seen a pan-fried piece of brill with skin on before.
Do you have a plan for your coconut sauce?
So I'm going to cook out some bay leaves.
Put the sauce... Get it ready into the pan.
You've had five minutes. You're doing all right.
You've got 15 minutes left. The nerves are settling in,
and I just don't want them to overtake me. Take a breath.
Take a breath.
He just needs to keep himself together now.
Careful with that pot. That pot.
Thank you, Chef.
How did you get to being a chef, Dara?
My dad's been a chef. Recently retired. 52 years.
I hope he's got his feet up.
He deserves it.
He deserves a rest, after 52 years in hospitality.
Pretty much my whole family came up through hospitality.
Hopefully I'll do them proud today. It's in your DNA, Dara.
Well, that's what I'm hopefully trying to prove.
So I'm just going to reduce my stock down for the sauce.
I'm going to get my fish on cooking moment... Momentarily.
Turn the hob down.
Turn it down. Turn it down. Turn it down!
You're halfway. I don't know why I'm getting so... So nervous.
I hope he's remembered that this is a coconut sauce
because he's got no coconut anywhere near those pans yet.
So, Dara, you've trimmed up some turnips.
You've got some stock reducing.
Is that right? Yeah. So I'm just reducing the stock
a little bit more.
I'm going to add my coconut into this
and then I'm going to season it,
and then I'm going to cook my brill with some herbs.
So a bit of rosemary, a bit of thyme, a bit of bay leaf.
Dara, now you're here feeling the pressure,
are you wondering why you entered the competition?
Yes. Definitely much so.
Do you know, Dara, I think it takes a brave chef even to walk
through these doors. So well done.
I appreciate that. Thank you.
You have five minutes.
Yes, Chef. Are you going to serve the turnip batons raw?
So I'm going to serve the turnip batons raw just to give it
a texture on the plate, so it's not just fish and sauce.
I don't mind vegetables with a bit of bite,
but I just think raw turnip on the plate,
I'm not sure this will work.
Go on, then. You've got a minute or so.
Let's get it on a plate, Chef.
Yes, Chef. Stop shaking.
Are you done, Chef? Yes.
Good. Well done.
I bet you're glad that's over, Dara.
Yeah, but the pressure was on there.
Dara, you left the skin on.
I don't mind. But not a gram of seasoning on there.
The turnip garnish, I quite like them raw as batons like this.
But your coconut sauce is just missing that body
and so much more that could have gone into it.
You need to get those nerves under control.
Dara, you got off to a good start.
But as you started to fillet the fish, you started to hack away.
The sauce making,
I have to question whether you can make a sauce or not.
The turnip, raw. Quite an unusual thing to do.
But having said that, it's nice. It's fresh.
Dara, your nerves.
I didn't know whether to stand in and help you or give you a hug.
You've got the next round to put things right.
Thank you.
His hands were visibly shaking, weren't they?
You can't work like that.
As he continued, it just got worse and worse. Yeah.
He's going to be fine,
as long as he calms down a little bit. Mm.
That was really, really intense.
Once I finished, I realised how much ingredients was left on the bench
that I could have used.
And, yeah, I just let myself down.
But I need to pull it back now in the second round.
Now, Marcus, your Skills Test.
What are you going to get them to do?
I would like our chefs to poach and pan fry
a portion of this guinea fowl,
make a sherry hollandaise
and serve it with a bitter salad.
Butchery. Tough Skills Test, I think, for any chef.
But let's hope they've practised.
Poaching, it's a delicate way of cooking it
so that it doesn't dry out.
And just finishing it in the pan at the end
is just to gently colour the skin, nothing more.
Lots of classic chef skills to master here.
20 minutes, Marcus. Please, show us.
First thing you need to do is get the poaching liquid on,
because I'm going to be poaching the breast.
So I've got some brown chicken stock here.
I've got shallots, peppercorns,
bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and a pinch of salt.
Bring it up to the boil and allow them to infuse.
The other key things they need to get on as well
is their vinegar reduction, which is the base of hollandaise.
So I've got here a white wine vinegar...
..and some sherry vinegar.
And then you need to get your butter on.
So now we go to our guinea fowl.
I love guinea fowl. It's one of my favourites.
So what I want to do is I want to butcher this down.
I want them to remove the legs, the wings, the two breasts,
and cook and serve one portion.
You can see, Gregg, the guinea fowl has no fat.
They've got to be careful and take their time.
So there you have it.
If they think of a chicken and they just approach it
exactly the same way, they should be OK.
So the stock's come up to the boil.
I've just turned it down,
and then just take the breast and just drop that in.
Should the guinea fowl already be cooked in the poaching liquid
before it goes into the pan?
I'd say three-quarters cooked.
You can have the guinea fowl a little bit on the pink side,
it's absolutely fine.
Now onto the hollandaise.
The vinegar reduction is reduced down and my butter is ready to go.
Hollandaise is such a versatile sauce,
you can add flavourings to it,
you can pour puree through it.
For example, garlic puree to change it.
So you just bring up your egg yolks to a ribbon stage.
Start to get those over your bain-marie.
So whip the egg yolks up before they go anywhere near any heat?
Yeah. Overheat and it will split.
They'll cook on the side.
Not enough heat and it's just going to be raw egg.
And then that's your acidity reduction? That's it.
It's really important, Gregg, that once our chefs start
with the hollandaise, that they do not walk away from it
or it will just scramble.
So as it's cooking and getting thicker,
so rather than letting it down with water,
I'm just using concentrated sherry.
Because that's the flavour I just want it to have at the end.
Now on to our little salad.
I have a personal love of chicory.
I like the crunch. I like the real bitterness.
This salad is whatever you want it to be.
A bit of fennel.
A bit of parsley.
There's some lovely herbs there.
I spy a bit of truffle on the side as well. Yep.
So I've just taken the guinea fowl out of the cooking liquid.
Pat it dry, because otherwise you'll just get the water
into the fat and it'll just spit at you.
And remove the fillet off the breast.
I've just put that to one side.
Oil in the pan.
All I want to do is just put a little touch of colour
onto the skin, that's all.
It's almost cooked.
And as you can see, it's a fabulous colour.
That's lovely and golden.
So that is really gentle - and that's the whole point, right?
Yeah. Because anything more than gentle and it will dry.
That's right. That's right.
Now I'm ready to dress the plate.
Beautiful.
So I've got a little truffle here.
So I've taken the fillet off the breast
and I've just kept that separate.
I've not pan-fried it, cos it does dry out very quickly
and I've just covered it in this little truffle.
Guinea fowl.
Oh, how pretty.
There we have it.
Poached and pan-fried guinea fowl,
sherry hollandaise, and a bitter salad.
Absolutely stunning!
I actually can't believe that guinea fowl.
To get that crispness on the outside
and to have it so juicy in the middle is absolutely lovely.
It actually tastes a little bit like a glass of sherry
INSIDE the hollandaise.
I think it's going to be a great test. Mm.
And, you know, just hopefully our chefs manage to keep calm
and deliver beautifully cooked guinea fowl.
We've got two new chefs to meet to do this challenge.
Shall we get them in? Let's get them in.
Monica, we'll see you back here for the tasting, right?
Right. See you later. OK.
Chef de partie Himanshu is first to face Marcus's Skills Test.
Originally from New Delhi in India,
he currently works in an exclusive brasserie in London.
We grew up eating with street food.
It's so cheap, so I can afford it on my pocket money.
And then one day I decided to go to culinary college.
So my dream is to travel across to India.
I want to cover all the regions.
I want to cover all the cuisines and cultures and traditions.
I would like to represent Indian street food in a fine dining way.
Himanshu, welcome to Professional MasterChef.
This is a Skills Test, and it was set by my friend Marcus.
How are you feeling?
I'm feeling combinations of many feelings right now.
I'd like you to butcher down the guinea fowl.
Yes. I'd like you to poach and pan-fry one portion.
Yes. Served with a sherry hollandaise.
Yeah. And a bitter salad.
How have you worked with guinea fowl before?
Not with guinea fowls, but I assume it's like all the birds.
I'm confident about it.
Right, over to you.
20 minutes. Off you go.
So I'm just going to start with...
..removing down this leg piece.
He's not prepared guinea fowl before, but like he says,
it's like other poultry. And that's good.
That's a good way to attempt something you've not done before.
What have you got in that pan there?
Chicken stock with a nice flavour of rosemary.
I'm going to simmer it down so that it's ready by the time
I butcher this down.
When did you first fall in love with cookery, Chef?
So I started when I was eight years old.
My mum was tired of cooking everything,
and I offered her her tea.
And the very own moment, I felt in love with the cookery.
Should have just taken the breasts off while it was still whole.
I think Himanshu's a little bit out of practice
with his butchery skills.
Six minutes have gone.
Yes, sir. You're doing all right. You've got 14 minutes left.
Are you familiar with the sauce - hollandaise?
Uh, when I was 21 years old, I moved to Dubai.
This was my first job to do, only hollandaise every day.
Every day, fresh for every service.
So talk to me about how you're going to make your hollandaise.
So I'm going to just put some of the sherry vinegar
inside my egg yolks.
Himanshu's put...
..the butter into the oven.
Any other early food memories cooking with Mum?
Yes. She was my first tutor.
I always wanted to do Indian cuisine, but then I moved
to Dubai, I got only one option - to work in a French restaurant.
So I struggled a lot because everything they were doing
was totally different.
So you're going to be seeing me doing many things.
Some of them are French with Indian touch in it.
Ooh, sounds like Himanshu's going to treat us with some wonderful food.
Your guinea fowl breast is poaching.
Yes. Your eggs are aerating for your hollandaise.
Your butter's in the oven melting. Yeah.
Your salad is prepared. Yes.
You've got five minutes left,
so you're going to need to get a move on.
Perfect. Now it's the time for searing this bad boy.
This bad boy!
LAUGHS
Now I'll check on my butter.
Do you always clarify your butter in the oven? No.
I don't know why I did that,
but it's fine.
LAUGHS
I got the same result.
THEY LAUGH
You have now got to finish the hollandaise.
OK. And you've got to dress your salad and plate up.
You need to start speeding up.
Yes. Come on, come on.
Come on. Get your butter in there.
Let's start getting this together. Come on. Yes.
All good? Hopefully. Yes.
How happy are you? I'm really happy.
So are we. Come on, let's get it on a plate.
Well done, my friend.
Yes! That's it.
In the nick of time!
Watching you from the back there,
I had concerns with the butchery.
The breasts need to come off before you remove the backbone
of the carcass.
You got it poached.
It's actually cooked quite nicely.
It's moist. And we have a hollandaise sauce.
I think more sherry, more flavour into the hollandaise.
That's really what I was looking for.
I've got a nicely cooked guinea fowl breast, a bitter salad,
and a really well-made hollandaise.
I'm enjoying your dish.
Looking forward to seeing you in the next round. Thank you, Chef.
I could have done better.
I did some mistakes, but I'm going to show the judges
what I am and focus on my signature round.
Last to face Marcus's Skills Test is 31-year-old Catrin,
head chef at a contract caterer in central London.
My style of food is very classic, cos I'm classic trained.
Also very sustainable, very modern.
And, like, English-style food,
but with Swedish influences,
because that's where I'm from.
My whole family would cook together. If that was my brother and my dad
and me, or with my mum or whoever would be doing the cooking.
It used to be like a family activity.
I think my biggest fear is the Skills Test.
You have no idea what's coming.
All you can do is practise everything.
Catrin, lovely to meet you.
Welcome to Professional MasterChef.
I'd like you to butcher down the guinea fowl,
poach and pan-fry one portion.
Serve it with a sherry hollandaise and a bitter salad.
20 minutes. Over to you.
Thank you very much.
Catrin is straight into it, hit the ground running.
She's got her butter on to melt.
She's got her bain-marie on.
You look like you've done this before.
Yeah, I'm in contract catering. When we have our special events...
Yep. ..we tend to do these kind of things.
So she's doing a reduction of sherry,
as opposed to a reduction of vinegar.
Have you always wanted to be a chef?
Well, I did at one point think,
"Oh, I'm going to be a coastguard, cos that's fun."
But I was so seasick that that did not work out.
THEY LAUGH
She needs to whisk that
or those egg yolks are going to cook.
Whisk, whisk, whisk!
To the poaching liquor, I'm just going to add some more shallots
for some more flavour.
So I've got my clarified butter melted.
I've got my hollandaise working over a bain-marie.
I'm going to poach the guinea fowl.
I'm going to finish it in a pan after,
just give it some colour for you.
So, Swedish cuisine... Yeah?
..does that come into your repertoire?
I like to, like, have some bit of my Swedishness
in what I'm cooking on a day-to-day basis.
The flavours, things sort of like reminding you from being back home
when I was younger. That water, the poaching liquor looks
like it's boiling, which could actually make the guinea fowl
breasts sort of tough and dry if it overcooks.
Have you got any butter in your hollandaise yet? No, not yet.
I need to cool it down a little bit before I add my butter.
You're halfway, Chef. You've got ten minutes left. OK.
I have to say, you look incredibly relaxed.
Well, you know, I think I am quite calm as a person.
Maybe not always confident, but calm. OK.
Why cookery? What is it about food?
I've just always really enjoyed it.
And, like, in my family we tend to do a lot of cooking together,
and, like, my grandmother and I always used
to bake together as well.
What made you come to the UK?
I had an internship in a hotel during my second year at uni,
so I actually really enjoyed it.
Said I was going to stay for a year.
It's been ten.
That's a bit sweet.
It's sweet because she's used the sherry and reduced it down.
What Catrin is lacking in her hollandaise is the vinegar.
Catrin, you're doing well,
but we've got five minutes left,
so we need to get stuff on plates.
Yep, no problem.
I just want to give it a bit of a colour. Yep.
Chef, you have two minutes left.
Let's hope the guinea fowl is cooked.
Bit pink.
Yeah. Just a bit.
Well done. It's what happens when you poach and the liquid is boiling.
The meat just tenses up and it's just cooking
around the outside.
It's not penetrating through.
Ooh. Nice.
You're done with about a minute to go.
OK. Well done, you.
How are you, Catrin?
Good, thank you. Glad it's over?
Yeah.
Your calmness is great,
but your butchery is a little bit rough.
You've got quite a lot of meat left on the carcass there.
I think that's down to slightly rushing.
When you're poaching meat,
it's got to be a gentle poach.
You want it to relax in the stock.
I've got a guinea fowl that's not as tender as it could be,
but there is seasoning across it.
I've got a nice crunchy salad and I've got a hollandaise
that's the right texture, but very sweet.
Catrin, I was really impressed with how calm you are.
The making of the hollandaise, you got the bain-marie straight on.
But the reduction was missing the vinegar.
And I watched you taste it and say it was too sweet,
but it was good to see you tasting your food throughout.
We'll see you in next round. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Well, she seemed calm, but watching her work tells a different story.
I'm feeling good, but I also think I could do better.
The hardest thing about it is
to not know what you're going into.
I think you two have a couple of concerns.
I'm delighted with the start.
I think across the board, we've got four chefs.
We've seen some interesting points from all four of them.
I'm excited. I'm happy. For me, there's one chef that stood out
in the four and that was Cameron.
I think he's got great potential.
I think Catrin really needs to come back strong
with her signature dish.
Himanshu, I'm really curious what his style of food is about,
so I'm excited to see that.
And Dara, for me, needs to control those nerves.
In the next round, of course, they get the opportunity
to showcase their own food.
Everything could change.
Exciting.
Chefs, wonderful to see you back in our kitchen.
I hope this time the nerves have started to settle
because this is when you get to have some fun.
This is your signature two-course menu - one main, one dessert.
Your chance to showcase your skill set,
your knowledge, your passion.
You have 1 hour and 30 minutes.
At the end of this,
two of you will be leaving the competition.
You get one crack at this opportunity.
Grab it with both hands,
cook well, and I wish you the best of luck.
Show us what you've got.
The signature dish round, I think everything's riding on it.
I would like all the judges to eat my food and go,
"Wow, this boy can cook."
How are you feeling? I'm excited to be here.
And hopefully I can execute these two dishes for you.
Good. What are they?
Keeping it very Scottish. We're doing venison loin, crispy haggis
with a confit potato.
And then for dessert, a whisky panna cotta,
oat crumble, bang-in-season rhubarbs and some honey cake.
It's obviously important to you to highlight
the flavours of Scotland. Why is that?
Because it's the flavours that I love to cook and eat.
This is me on a plate and this is the food that I love.
Cameron's very proud of his Scottish heritage.
Venison loin.
Venison needs to be beautifully cooked.
He's putting that into the water bath
and then just colouring it in the pan.
And a confit potato is great.
He's put it on a Japanese mandolin and he's got layers of thin potato,
which he's seasoned, put clarified butter on,
he's rolled it up, he's poaching it.
He's then going to cut it into little fondant-sized potatoes.
We've also got some crispy haggis on the dish.
I think all of these ingredients are fantastic.
They do work together.
He works in a restaurant that is predominantly serving fish.
So it's fascinating how he's doing us a venison loin.
I'm a seafood chef. All I do is cook fish.
I can cook meat just as well as I can cook fish.
I think it's something that I want to prove to everybody.
I love the sound of a whisky liqueur panna cotta,
but he's got to get the balance of the sweetness right.
And a honey cake as well.
I like the sound of the honey cake.
I have never taken this much big risk in my life.
People think that Indian cuisine is like, OK, curry, curry, curry.
It's not about curry.
We have a lot of, you know, technicalities
in our Indian cuisines.
Himanshu's food is a bit of a fusion of his wonderful Indian heritage
and the food he grew up with, and of course,
the skills and the classic French cooking
that he's picked up over the years.
He's doing tandoori lamb chops.
Tandoori lamb chop is about a great spice, great marinade.
Now, that's a very difficult thing to do.
That's quite a skilful thing to do.
He's got palak puree, which is like a spinach puree.
He's got burnt spice running through a raita.
He's got a potato fondant,
which has got cumin running through it.
The fondant potato, it's got to be nice and caramelised,
almost sort of melt in the mouth.
You don't want any crunch or any bite.
How do you do lamb tandoori without a tandoori oven?
I'm going to be cooking on a high temperature,
which means I need a really nice charred colour
while baking the lamb chops.
For my dessert, I'm going to be giving you
a traditional street food in India. It's a falooda.
Basically, it's a frozen ice cream kind of thing,
which is called kulfi. It's a fabulous dessert.
And I'm going to be serving this with corn-starch noodles.
What does this competition mean to you?
It means everything for me.
It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I used to watch MasterChef when I was 12 years old,
and I was imagining myself then and I'm here.
So, still I cannot believe it, that I'm here.
Himanshu's dessert,
he's got noodles and normally they flavour it with rose water
or rose syrup.
He's got pistachio kulfi, which is like a set ice cream.
And a sauce with chia seeds, with a bit of saffron
running through that. That's unusual.
Something that I've not tried before.
For both dishes, I have 20 elements to do.
So you'll be seeing me running inside the kitchen.
So it's going to be a really big challenge for me today.
Perfect.
Chefs, you have 30 minutes.
30 minutes to complete this masterpiece.
What I need to do now is I need to leave my nerves
outside the door when I step back into the kitchen.
My dishes,
I need to ace both of them in order to go forward and not to go home.
Dara realises that if he doesn't control the nerves,
he's not going to cook to the best of his ability.
His menu of lamb with black garlic, wild garlic puree,
that's a beautiful marriage made in heaven.
Lamb going to go into the water bath.
It's going to be finished off in a pan with a little bit of butter.
If this goes right, then hopefully I've got this in the bag.
His dessert's really interesting.
It's an apple rhubarb rose.
He's putting the apple onto a Japanese mandolin,
so you get a very, very long strip.
He's also going to be making a rhubarb gel.
He's then going to lie that on top and then roll it up,
and then he's going to open it up and it'll look like a rose.
The apple's not actually cooked in this.
He's just going to flavour it with lemon water.
It sounds intriguing.
It sounds a little bit risky, in my opinion.
So I'm a very imaginative, creative chef.
I like to try new things.
I need to step myself outside of the box,
which I intend to do.
What's inspired these dishes, Dara?
Growing up in Ireland,
I grew up around the countryside with my dad.
I grew up around good food, good ingredients,
ate well all the time.
Your dad was a chef for 52 years.
What influence did your father have on you?
From a young age, my dad used to bring me into the kitchen,
give me one of his jackets.
And you're just like, "Well, I need to take this.
"Put myself out there and push forward."
Dara, it sounds great.
I love that you've got the nerves under control. Thank you.
I'd like the judges to think that I'm better than what I showed
in the skill test.
I think these dishes are representative of me
from my childhood.
Catrin. Yeah? How are we feeling?
A bit more nervous now, I think, than before.
Why is that? I don't know.
Maybe because I didn't do as well as I wanted to do
in the first challenge.
Catrin, you need to put that behind you... Yeah.
..and give us your two best plates so far.
I will. Speaking of which, what have you got?
So I'm doing my version of a Swedish dish called gubbrora.
Basically, it means old man's mix.
The traditional way is that you have chopped up boiled eggs
with potatoes and herbs, then pickled herring.
But that's a bit boring. So I've decided to take that apart a bit,
and then doing, like, a salad cream flavoured herring sauce
and, like, coating my potatoes in that,
and then we've got mackerel to go on top.
Sounds delicious!
I love the sound of the original dish that inspired
this main course from Catrin.
She's got torched mackerel, she's got new potatoes
with a spiced salad cream
she's made from the juice of the tinned herrings from Sweden.
The mackerel's taken off the bone
and she's just going to gently torch it.
The torching just needs to be just nice and darkened,
not too much.
How's that sounding to you, Gregg?
I like strong fish.
Monica does, too. Dessert?
It's my play of a classic '80s Swedish dish,
so it's pear baked in the oven
where you coat them with a mint chocolate, chocolate cremeux,
and then I've got some poached pears to go with that.
And just a vanilla whipped cream.
It's like the flavours and how I enjoy food,
and I just want you guys to enjoy it the same way I enjoy it.
Your menu sounds exciting.
Good luck. Thank you.
Poached pear, got to be beautifully cooked.
Just a little bit of bite there.
The cremeux, you've got to get the balance of the mint
and the chocolate just right.
And the mint just needs to sit in the background
of that beautiful chocolate cremeux.
You have ten minutes, Chefs.
Have we got to carve that lamb yet?
It's finishing in the oven.
You have just four minutes.
Get it on a plate, please.
You've got fish to put on there.
It's in the oven. 20 seconds.
You've got 60 seconds to finish your dishes.
That's it. Stop. Your time's up.
Time is up.
Well done, everybody.
CAMERON: Well done, guys. We got there.
Contract caterer Catrin's signature main course is her twist
on a classic gubbrora - torched mackerel,
served with jersey new potatoes
dressed in salad cream flavoured with pickled herring,
garnished with sea herbs, salmon caviar and a rye crumb.
The mackerel, for me, is beautifully torched.
The rye bread crumb, when you get that texture,
it's got a bit of saltiness through it.
I just wish there was more of it.
I like the pop of salt coming from the caviar.
That herring has actually got a sweet flavour,
which is really lovely going through that dressing.
I love the flavour of the potato salad.
I think that the mackerel itself is nice.
I like the rye bread.
But I would like to have seen some refinement in your presentation.
For dessert, Catrin has made a chocolate and mint cremeux,
with poached pear, caramelised hazelnuts,
a vanilla mascarpone cream and a pear caramel.
I keep tasting salt.
Yeah, there's some salt over the chocolate.
The mascarpone cream, delicious.
The hazelnuts, beautifully caramelised.
And the pears taste delicious.
And the cremeux is lovely and smooth.
But what's spoiling the mint and chocolate for me is the salt
that you've put over it.
You've been a little heavy-handed.
There are bits of it I'm picking out just a little hint of salt,
which is great.
I like that because it's a contrast with the sweetness.
That then disappears and you get mint with a juicy pear,
which I think is really quite lovely.
I think the presentation, I don't know what happened,
but you sort of rushed it at the end.
But really like the flavours of the pears
with the dark chocolate cremeux,
and of course the textures of the hazelnuts with your cream here.
Catrin, thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
I think the judges' comments were fair.
I really think, like, towards the end,
I could have worked more on, like, the presentation of the dishes
and to get them more refined in the end.
Head chef Cameron's cooked venison loin with asparagus,
confit potato, crispy haggis,
caramelised cauliflower puree,
and pickled wild garlic buds,
served with a port and venison jus split with wild garlic oil.
Good-looking plate.
Venison, nicely cooked.
Cauliflower puree is lovely.
Well-seasoned, creamy, nutty. That's great.
I love those little pickled buds.
Love the little potato on the side.
That's delicious.
Your haggis cylinder, that's lovely.
Asparagus is nicely cooked.
What I'm looking for is a sauce that really wraps
around the whole dish.
It just lacks body and depth.
The crispy texture of the haggis is delightful.
The asparagus, beautifully cooked.
And I love the seasoning throughout the cauliflower puree.
Great ideas on this plate.
For his dessert, Cameron is serving a whisky liqueur panna cotta,
poached rhubarb, honey cake,
an oat crumble, raspberry gel,
and a honeycomb tuile.
Whisky panna cotta,
I'm wondering how I've gone through nearly 60 years of life
and never tasted one,
cos that is phenomenal.
Cameron, the execution in the cake,
the crumb, the panna cotta have all been done very well.
I love the tart of the rhubarb with the little honey cake,
the honey tuile.
It's a good dessert.
Cameron, it's no secret I'm a whisky lover,
and it's almost that nurturing glass of whisky when you have a sip
and savour that, and it's got the warmth of it, which is beautiful.
This is a good introduction that shows me
you're a competent chef.
Monica, she loved it.
I'm 1,000,000% a perfectionist.
Yeah, the dessert did go well.
Chef de partie Himanshu is serving a tandoori lamb chop,
with a palak spinach puree,
kachumber salsa,
burnt spice raita, with a cumin potato fondant,
charred onion, and a chilli jus.
I have to tell you straight away,
that lamb is not cooked anywhere near enough for me.
I would send it back, I'm afraid.
You would have known by touching this meat and pushing it gently
that it was not cooked enough.
And then when you cut into it,
it's chef's intuition to get that back in a pan.
I thought it was a chilli jus.
Yes. OK. Well, it's so watery,
it's like a chilli water.
It's a shame.
I was so looking forward to trying this.
I'm loving the puree and the raita,
but I've got obvious issues on this plate.
The lamb is undercooked,
and also my fondant potato,
down the bottom, still isn't soft enough.
I absolutely love your spice cookery,
every element from the fondant to the spinach puree to the raita.
But when you put so much on a plate and you want to impress,
there has to be a point where every chef says, "Stop."
For dessert, Himanshu has cooked his take on
the Indian street food dish falooda,
with cardamom and pistachio kulfi,
corn-starch noodles,
a raspberry and lime granita,
served with rose syrup,
and saffron and chia infused milk sauce.
I love the cardamom in your kulfi,
and then saffron as well.
I'm happy with the slippery noodles when they go into your creamy sauce.
This is an opulent,
elegant tasting dessert.
I really like the flavours of the kulfi, the pistachio.
It's creamy.
That is lovely.
The saffron and the cardamom running through the sauce,
I really like that.
I'm picking up pistachio and I'm definitely picking up cardamom.
It's refreshing, but I think from a presentation point of view,
I think you could sharpen this up.
The challenge was really tough,
but it is what it is,
so I can hope only for the best.
Sous-chef Dara's main course is cannon of lamb,
served with black garlic, a wild garlic puree,
cauliflower and Parmesan crumb,
and a lamb jus.
I watched you cooking the lamb. It is delicious.
The garlic puree is great.
I love the little raw cauliflower crumb.
I like the sauce and it's got good body to it.
It works well.
I would happily eat all of this.
Thank you, Chef.
I like the cookery of the lamb meat, and a decent sauce.
Also like the wild garlic puree, which is more subtle.
I mean, that black garlic is sweet.
It's a good flavour, sweet and sharp with lamb.
It's like mint sauce with lamb. That's great.
The flavours of the garlic puree are wonderful.
The crumb is also a great idea.
With the cheese, you've got the saltiness through it,
in the cauliflower.
It's a great start.
For dessert, Dara is serving an apple rhubarb rose -
sliced apple filled with rhubarb gel and hibiscus flowers,
with a lemon and honey cream and extra rhubarb gel.
I could visualise what it was going to look like,
but in my head, there was just no way for me that this is working.
But I was completely wrong in what I thought until I tasted it.
Because I think the raw apple is slightly softened,
the gel in the middle running around all the way, so every mouthful,
you've got the gel, you've got the hibiscus.
It really does work.
The apple wrapped around the rhubarb jelly and the hibiscus flowers,
that is really refreshing.
With the fluid gel on the side,
it's got this sharpness.
I really enjoy that with the sweetness of this dessert.
The issue I do have is texture.
It's gel with jelly, cream and slices of apples.
I think we need some heavy crumb,
but your flavours I find actually very pleasing.
Dara, you look like a much more relaxed man.
Are you?
Definitely from when I first started in the Skills Test.
Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you.
I'm happy in myself for what I created and what I presented.
The thing I enjoyed most was just hearing
that they enjoyed my dishes.
Right, here we are, big call to make. Judging to do.
I thought today was great.
A good start to the competition.
Four very exciting chefs.
Not without hiccups.
But I love the fact that we have potential in this kitchen
and it's only the first step in the competition.
I think there's one chef who's probably disappointed in himself
right now, and that's Himanshu.
I think he's got some great ideas, but there were issues.
Undercooked lamb,
a sauce that was too watery.
I think we've got a chef here that was just trying too hard to impress.
Catrin did much better in the second round.
The mackerel dish with that potato salad,
the dressing using the herring, I thought, was delightful.
But present it in a way that shows a level of refinement.
The dessert, I loved the flavour of the mint and the dark chocolate.
I just felt it was rushed.
It didn't look great.
For mine, there was too much salt.
It was out of balance and out of sync.
Dara, I think we all pretty much enjoyed his lamb.
His sauce wasn't bad.
I particularly liked the crumb, and, of course, the cauliflower.
Dara's dessert, the apple, rhubarb gel,
rhubarb jelly, hibiscus flowers,
I loved the flavour of that.
But texture, I had a bit of an issue with.
Cameron, he had a good Skills Test.
His main course today, the venison,
I thought the cauliflower puree was nicely seasoned.
I would have eaten it all.
The dessert, the panna cotta, beautifully balanced.
Excellent. Excellent, excellent.
We've only got two places,
and I think there are three chefs here who could easily compete
in the next round.
So we've got a decision to make.
I'm not 100% sure I'll make it through today,
but I would very much like to make it through
and show them what I've got in the next round.
I really hope I have the opportunity to cook again.
I think it's 50-50, to be honest.
I'm hoping that what I did plate up was good enough
to push me forward.
Chefs, what a day.
The first four to cook in our MasterChef kitchen this year.
Wonderful to see your different personalities in your food today.
You should be incredibly proud of what you've achieved.
It is not easy. Well done.
We have made a decision.
Two of you will be leaving the competition.
Two of you, of course, are going through to the next round.
The first chef leaving is...
..Himanshu.
Yes.
Thank you very much.
We really hope you enjoyed the competition.
Sorry you're leaving us.
Thank you very much indeed. Best of luck, guys.
It's this competition. It's the biggest competition.
But, you know, I cannot, you know, put myself behind
just because of today's result.
I will keep pushing myself and everything will be fine.
The second chef leaving the competition is...
..Catrin.
Thank you.
Thank you very much indeed.
I definitely think I had more to show the judges
and show them more of me.
My plan when I leave here is just go home,
my husband promised me a big glass of wine no matter what.
Hey!
Congratulations, gentlemen.
Dara, Cameron, well done.
Good day for the Celts, right?
Aye. Yeah!
I'll definitely, definitely take it.
Definitely take the result. Yeah, it's brilliant.
Cheers, mate. I can't believe it. Thanks, man.
It was a hairline between all of us,
but, no, I'm definitely, definitely happier.
Happier than when I showed up this morning,
cos I didn't think I was going to go this far.
I'm buzzing. I'm over the moon.
I'm going to go and get a beer after this, I think. Well-deserved.
Next time...
Exciting.
..four new hopefuls...
Burned my monkfish. No!
..fight for their place in the quarterfinal.
You've got about half a minute to finish these dishes.
Still lots of work to do.
Charlie...
..calm down. Oui, Chef. Sorry, Chef.
It's actually quite delicious.
CHUCKLES
It's an absolute knockout in flavour.