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, four new hopefuls compete
to impress MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace,
renowned chef Monica Galetti
and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing.
I didn't come here all the way from the Isle of Skye to go
straight back home.
I'm very competitive. I don't like losing.
I spend a lot of time preparing myself mentally, physically.
I'm feeling good. I'm ready to go to the competition and smash it.
I want fireworks in this kitchen.
I want a battle.
I can't wait to see what talent is waiting outside this kitchen door.
Do you know we're halfway through? We've seen 16 chefs,
we've got 16 more to see.
Four of them are waiting right now to do the Skills Test.
First up, Monica, your Skills Test. What is it, please?
Gregg, I would like our chefs to prepare and cook us a piece
of this pork loin, served with a Bramley apple puree
with a charred baby gem and a cognac sauce.
Very nice. I'm partial to a pork loin, me, Chef.
So 20 minutes. Go on, Chef.
First thing I want to do is prepare the pork.
You've just got a try and bone
along the back, so all they have to do
is follow the natural joint along the bone.
MARCUS: Butcher skills,
there's not a great deal of work there to do, but there's enough
to show us what type of chef we've got in front of us.
I think the most important thing
is you don't need to throw the rind away cos it's crackling.
You don't need to throw away the trimmings
because they can be confited and used for canapes.
Nothing of the pig you can't eat.
So I want a nice piece of the loin there.
It doesn't matter to you how thick or thin they cut it?
It's completely up to our chefs.
The thicker it is, the longer it's going to take to cook.
Hot pan, some oil.
I want to sear the fat.
To crisp it up?
It's rendering the fat down.
If you don't, all you're going to get is just white fat on there,
it's not going to cook properly.
I've seared my pork all over, and then I'll add a bit of garlic
into the pan, some butter as well.
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
So, colour not just on the fat, then, colour on both sides?
All over. All over.
You have to be very careful on the sides, cos there's no fat on it,
it can dry out pretty quickly.
There's nothing to protect it.
Right, so that's in the oven.
it'll take about four or five minutes.
But what I want to do is to cook it and use the juices in the pan
for my sauce and also for my gem lettuce.
What's the caramel for, please?
I'm making an apple puree, but I'm using Bramley apple.
Great cooking apple,
but it's very sour, as you know.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a caramel
and then add the apples into that, cook it down in the caramel,
and then add some cognac to it and then blend it up.
The idea of caramelising it
just gives it a sort of a molasses flavour as well,
so it's taking the flavour up another notch.
So there's not too much liquid in there. Oh, yeah!
That's surprised me. But it's got the caramel flavour.
Pork's come out of the oven.
Still got a bit of bounce to it, you can feel it,
but it's going to continue to cook as it's resting.
So you're using the same pan
with all those lovely pork juices
and that pork fat rendered down,
adding that flavour into the lovely
little gem lettuce there.
So I've taken the gem out,
and I'm going to start off my cognac sauce.
And I've just added some cognac into the pan, just to release
all the flavour that's been left in that pan. Yummy!
I'm adding some reduced stock
to it, and then just slowly adding
the butter and let it emulsify
just by shaking the pan gently.
To use all the pan juices and all the flavours of the ingredients
that have gone before is always
a lovely way of doing it,
so the flavour's just continuously running through the dish.
I'm just going to finish it with a touch of creme fraiche.
SHE SUCKS TEETH
You're happy with that sauce, aren't you?
I AM happy with the sauce.
And now we're ready to plate.
Oh...!
well, | say.
Here we have it, my pork
with apple puree, charred baby gem
and cognac sauce.
Absolutely fabulous.
Bit of old-fashioned cookery there, I would say.
It's something our chefs should have done, but it's the detail,
it's the love and care that you put in every element of it
which I think counts. I really want
to see what the chefs can do with this as well,
because I'm more than happy to eat this a number of times.
HE CHUCKLES
Marcus, you are going to watch the chefs perform from the back room
on the monitor. I will. we'll see you back
here for notes and tastings, of course.
Let's get our chefs in. I want to see them perform well.
No negativity here, pozzy vibes, pozzy vibes.
CHANTS: Ah!
NARRATOR: First to tackle Monica's Skills Test
is 32-year-old chef patron Verity,
who runs a catering business with her wife
in the Scottish Highlands.
I'm very inspired by the landscape that I'm in.
Produce is fantastic. And then
there's also the wild larder side of things as well,
so we're getting wild garlic, mushrooms, and all of it super-fresh
and amazing here.
So one day I might be out foraging and prepping for a dinner,
the other day I might be packing up my van and then serving people
a nine-course tasting menu.
The Skills Test,
I'm not going to know every single recipe, so all I need to do is take
a deep breath... SHE CHUCKLES
...and calmly move my way through whatever comes my way.
Verity, welcome to MasterChef.
Thank you. Relax as best you can.
This Skills Test was set by Monica.
So, Verity, I would like
you to remove a portion of the pork loin and cook it
served with an apple pie, charred baby gem and a cognac sauce.
Great. You have 20 minutes, off you go.
So I want to take the loin out here.
So she's removing the bone,
which is a good start.
So for me, the loin is this lovely
bit in the centre.
You can leave some of the fat on, but the way she's cut
that, it's fine.
She's made that look easy.
I'm going to get my pork on first,
and I'm going to render down some
of that fat in there.
That's a great idea. If I was her,
I'd get that pork in now.
Ah! She must have heard me!
And I'd push the pork into the fat
just to give it a bit of protection.
There we go.
She IS listening to me!
What's the plan for your apple puree
now that your pork loin is on, Verity?
I'm just going to sweat down the apples with some butter,
a little, tiny bit of salt,
Sugar? Just puree that down.
Sugar? If it needs a bit of sugar, I'll add it.
That pork's beautifully caramelised.
Nicely coloured.
In the oven.
So, halfway, you've browned your pork, it's now in the oven. Yep.
We're going to move on to the cognac sauce.
She's put the pan on the back.
That's the pan you need to make that cognac sauce.
What I'm going to do is use some of the pork trim just to get a bit
of colour and flavour in the pan.
You're got a pan there already with your flavour in.
Did you always plan to be a chef, Verity?
No, I originally studied guitar building in college.
Guitar building?! Yeah.
Too many strings attached, or didn't strike a chord?!
Oh, my God!
So it takes nine months to build a guitar,
whereas cooking food, it hopefully takes 20 minutes.
She put a little bit of butter into the apple.
These apples are nice and soft now.
I'd prefer her to just put a drop of sugar into those apples
cos it's going to be incredibly tart.
Nicely seared baby gem lettuce.
You've got just over two minutes to finish this off, please.
Wow, that time goes fast, doesn't it? Mm. Mm.
Pork should have come out a bit earlier,
it's not having much time to rest.
It looks nice, though.
What did you just drop in your sauce there?
Some of this creme fraiche into the sauce.
Right now she needs to start dressing.
Done?
Done. Right, just in the nick of time.
Let's go and taste it.
How are you, Verity? Very good. How are you, Marcus?
Good, good, good.
Verity, good start with your butchery skills.
Removed the loin, trimmed off all the fat.
It's also nice to keep some of the fat there.
However, I really like that you took some of that to cook the pork in.
You've made a sauce, you used some of the pork trim,
but you had a great pan there that had so much flavour
in it from the cooking of the pork that you could have used.
I'm curious to see what the next round is with your signature dishes.
All the processes you did beautifully well.
I feel that the pork could have done with just a little bit more resting.
The apple puree's very tart.
I think there's more to come from you, though,
because you've got skill,
I can see that. It was a good watch. Well done.
You know, Verity, let me tell you, that is not a bad start
to the competition, that is not a bad Skills Test.
You got it all done and you clearly know the processes.
Well done. See you in the next round.
I'm pretty relieved that that's finished. It went OK.
There was some things that I didn't get right and other things
I did, and I'm all right with it.
Hey. Hey, guys.
Next in is Ukrainian-born sous-chef, Dimi,
who ran his own cleaning
business before deciding on a career in cooking five years ago.
From my childhood, my mum, she told me that,
"You will be a chef, you are talented."
I said, like, "No, I want to have my own business,
"be a big boss."
At some point, I decided that maybe my mum was right.
Yeah, I just changed everything.
I start from education, and I became a chef.
When I'm cooking, I just feel happiness,
I just feel that I'm doing what I SHOULD do.
One year ago, I start thinking, OK, I feel that I can smash it
and I can win the show.
So this is the goal for me now.
Dimi, are you ready?
Erm... HE LAUGHS
...I don't know. Maybe ten more seconds, please.
He does look a bit terrified, I must say.
Dimi, you've got this. Just relax, OK? Deep breath.
20 minutes, Dimi?
Yeah. Off you go.
Where are you from? I'm from Ukraine originally. OK.
I moved to London two years ago, and I met my wife.
She was living in London.
I decided that I need to be with her.
It's just a bit rough, the way he's doing that.
He's cut right into the meat, look.
What sort of kitchen are you working in now?
Now I'm working in an Indian-inspired restaurant.
Indian? It's quite interesting to learn more about spices.
He's got his apples going into the little pan.
A splash of water.
You don't need too much water.
Oh, it looks a little bit too much.
Be nice if he puts a bit of sugar in there.
He's put some sage into the apple.
That's nice! Are you feeling better?
How's your nerves? Yeah, now better.
Got a nice colour on the pork.
I really hope he doesn't overcook it, though.
It's not a thick piece, So you can get away
with it just by pan-frying it.
It's going OK. You're halfway. You've got ten minutes left.
He's taken the pork out, that's good. In the oven.
No, no, no, no, it doesn't need to go in the oven.
It's cooked.
That's going to overcook.
So, Dimi, what's going on with your sauce?
A reduced cognac with some stock,
and we're going to put butter in.
Add some mustard, maybe.
And you need to cook your gem lettuce.
What's the word in Ukraine for lettuce?
Erm, lettuce!
We call it lettuce!
Dimi, you've got five minutes left.
That's interesting, he's putting the sugar in at the end.
He'd have been better cooking the sugar.
It's a bit wet.
Whoa!
Dimi, you're going to have to think about plating up soon. Yep.
How is it, Dimi?
Erm, maybe a bit overcooked.
Right, sauce on, and then that's it, we're out of time.
All done. Well done. Well done.
Whew! Whoa!
You looked very relieved when that was over.
Dimi, the butchery was a bit of concern, the way
that you were trying to remove the fat.
You were very tense.
The cooking of the pork,
the piece I had was lovely, but do remember to gently render
that fat down.
The sauce-making, would have been great to see you use the pan
that you cooked the pork in, but you have given us sauce.
You need to relax into your cooking, especially in the next round,
OK, Dimi?
It tastes better than I thought it would.
Your pork is overcooked, but it's still really nice.
Your apple puree's too wet,
but I do like the element of the sage going through it,
it's got sweetness there. Thank you.
Actually, you presented
a decent-looking plate, and this tastes nice.
I think you know what you're doing,
you just have to believe in yourself. Dimi, see you soon.
Thank you very much.
It's definitely not my best one because of pressure and nerves,
but I would like to show more cooking my own food.
Fingers crossed.
Right, we've seen two chefs already, done your test,
two chefs ready to do your Skills Test, Marcus.
What do you want them to do with that lovely crab?
I would like our chefs to make a crab bisque, serve it with the crab
claw meat and a portion of John Dory.
What defines a bisque, please?
It's a cream soup with stock using the bones of the main ingredient.
Delicious! I love a bisque,
especially if it's got a bit of brandy going through it.
20 minutes, Marcus. Please, show me.
I'm going to start off with the bisque,
we need to get that on straight away.
So the crab meat in the claws, we're going to take that out later,
so we just need to take those off.
Generally, in kitchens, it takes hours to make a good bisque.
Normally, you'd roast off your shells in the oven.
We're going to do it a different way, going to do it in the pan,
we're going to make it nice and quick. Wow!
I'm hoping our chefs will be able to understand what a bisque
is all about and get some really good flavour.
So the head, this is cooked crab, so you just push
the body out of the head.
It just pops out like that.
Scrape out all of the brown crab meat.
We're using absolutely everything,
apart from one thing. What would that be, Gregg?
Dead man's fingers. Oh, you're getting good!
The dead man's fingers are the gills of the crab.
Those, you need to throw away.
They won't kill you, but they will upset you,
most certainly. So smash up the shells.
That's not bone, that's cartilage,
so it will cut through. Yeah.
Look at all that lovely stuff.
So we're going to get the brown meat and the head of the crab, the shell
as well, all the flavour into that and just get those nicely
caramelising down. You're roasting them, you want intense heat,
so the hotter the pan, the better.
Shallots and two cloves of garlic.
We've got dill,
we've got star anise.
Now the bones and all the ingredients
are all starting to caramelise.
Good spoon of tomato paste in there, so cook that out.
Now we're going to flame it with our brandy. Whoa!
Good glug of that.
Burn off the alcohol and then
we're going to add the aniseed liqueur.
Aniseed really works well in a bisque,
it's a perfect marriage.
Smells great. Now we're going to put
in some fish stock...
...seasoning,
and then just a splash of cream.
Smelling that beautiful aroma
from the pan, you can do this in about ten minutes.
It IS doable, Gregg, but we've seen that Marcus has gone nonstop
for the ten minutes, to get that to where it is now.
They need to move, the chefs.
Beautiful! Look at that colour.
And just leave that there just to drip through.
So that's the bisque done.
With the back of a knife, you just want to give them a gentle hit.
What you don't want to do is smash the shell into the meat
so that you have to then pick through it cos it just takes
even more time.
The crab prep is vital.
We used to have to pick through kilos of the stuff, right, Marcus,
you know those kitchens?
To remove as much of the shells as possible.
Just going to pull a little bit of chopped chilli in there, too.
Just a little bit of extra virgin olive oil,
a little bit of chopped dill.
My pan is warming up for my John Dory. I've given them the fish
filleted because I really want them
to focus on the bisque, and it's up to them how they serve this.
I'm going to take the skin off.
But if you do cook it with the skin on, you do need to score it,
because as soon as it hits the pan, it will tense
up and it'll curl the fish up.
So I'm just looking for a nice sear on the outside,
I want it to be lovely and soft.
Flip it over. PAN SIZZLES
We're good to go, we're ready to dress.
Crab meat.
I would definitely order that.
That looks like a portion just for me, Gregg.
Pour the soup in. And if you weren't so tough, I'd wrestle
you for it. MONICA LAUGHS
Just finish with a little oil.
Crab bisque, crab claw meat and John Dory.
Wow!
I am amazed. Saltiness, natural sweetness of crab,
absolutely delightful.
I can't believe you can get that sort of depth
in, what, ten minutes?
Brilliant Skills Test.
They really need to come in here, focus on the bisque and deliver us
beautiful cookery, especially that John Dory
at the end. The crab is the star, the crab itself is the flavour.
It's what you do with it is the key.
Monica, I know you're going to be fascinated by this.
You watch from the other room. Oh, absolutely.
This is skilful, and this is fine,
and it's what this competition's all about. Come on, let's get them in.
NARRATOR: First to face Marcus's Skills Test is Dan,
currently senior sous-chef
at a luxury boutique hotel in his home county of Norfolk.
So I grew up in Cromer, by the sea, so it's a big tourist trap.
I worked in a cafe in Cromer for six years, so that was kind of my first
foray into kitchens, and from there I really kind of got the bug
about it and I'm really passionate about food.
My food is probably influenced by classical cooking,
but having never really worked anywhere that's done classical
cooking, I'd say it's probably more in the modern spectrum.
As a chef, you get to be creative,
you get to put it on a plate for other people to kind of, generally,
tell you how much they love it...
...or not.
Dan, hello, welcome to MasterChef.
You looked quite happy when you saw that crab.
I'm from Cromer. Which, of course, is famous for its beautiful crabs.
So it makes a little bit of a difference, I suppose.
OK. I would like you to make for us a crab bisque served with white crab
meat and John Dory.
OK. 20 minutes, over to you.
Yes, Chef.
You've done a lot of crab work?
I haven't prepped a whole crab in a little while.
Good, great, grand, terrific.
So I'm going to take the claws for the white meat,
and I'm just breaking down the other parts of the body so I can get them
into the stock pan and get the bisque made.
Perfect. He's got a plan.
What are you sticking in there?
A couple of star anise.
That's for some classic flavours.
A classic French bisque, for me, doesn't excite me as much
as the modern way that I've done it before.
My modern way would generally be adding things like
ras el hanout, a little bit of hibiscus.
Your way is just adding other ingredients?
My way is probably ingredients in a slightly different
order as well. You can add whatever spices you want to at the end,
but at the heart of it, you've got to have a good base.
Chefs, eight minutes gone, so you've got 12 minutes left.
I'm now going to go in with the brandy.
Just cook off the alcohol on that.
That's a lot of stock.
Adding too much stock will just wash out the flavours.
When you poured the stock into your pan,
you looked disappointed. What's wrong? I saw the tomato paste
on the side, and I forgot to add
to the bisque. For me, when I normally make a bisque,
I don't normally add it,
but obviously, we're going down the classic route.
GASPS: Ah!
Dan's now added a whole bottle of cream.
He'll need to reduce that quite a bit.
Dan, you've got six minutes.
Are you going to put anything into the white crab?
So I'll use a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of salt,
and then we'll garnish with coriander shoots.
The pan, I've got warming on for the John Dory,
cos they're pan-fried so you get a nice crisp on that skin.
He'll need to score the skin if he's going to cook the whole side
like that because it will tend to curl up.
How's the bisque?
I am going to add the brown meat just to give it a real kick of crab
as I pass it.
Your time is almost up, so you need to get a move on,
especially with that fish.
Just finish the fish under the grill.
That fish needs at least another three, four minutes to cook.
Is it going to be ready?
30 seconds, please, Chef.
Yep. You need to start putting some food on the plate.
Are they cooked? No, Chef.
That's it, Dan.
Unfortunately, you are out of time.
Oui, Chef.
Dan, that was tough watching.
It was tough doing it.
Your breaking down of the crab, you got off to an OK start.
The most important thing about making a bisque
is that you roast all the bones down, you bring out the flavour,
you reduce it, you bring in your stock, you reduce it, you add
in your cream, you then gently reduce it.
It's very wishy washy. Very wishy-washy.
Dan, you took the whole side of the John Dory, which is fine,
but keeping the skin on, you'll need to score it so it doesn't
curl up that way, and then it's not cooked.
The crab meat, it's nicely picked.
I like the dill through that, but it is heavily seasoned.
I'd like you to come back in here,
show us what you're about. Thank you, Chef.
Dan, there's another round. I think you've got a point to prove,
not just to the judges, I think to yourself.
All right? We'll see you then.
That didn't go very well at all.
HE EXHALES
It's easy to sit here and say I would never do that normally,
but it's true. I messed that up royally.
Like, what was I thinking?
Finally, it's 33-year-old private chef Philippe, who moved to London
in 2019 after a decade of working in Paris kitchens.
I was born in France and my parents
are from Benin in the west of Africa,
so I like to combine French technique with Beninese ingredients.
I came to London to learn English, and I think London people
are very open to new cuisine.
And I think for a chef it's the right city to experiment.
I'm confident to my skills,
and I really want to enjoy this competition as well.
But if I can enjoy and go far, it will be very nice for me.
20 minutes, Philippe. Yep. Over to you.
When was the last time you made a bisque? A long time ago.
You've prepped crab before? Not that much.
Philippe... Yes. ..to make the bisque,
you're going to use the head and what else?
I will use the head,
and how would you call this? Shell.
And the shell, yeah.
Philippe's not preparing a crab in the right way.
He needs to remove the dead man's fingers.
Philippe... Yes. ..you've got the gills there,
the dead man's fingers. Yeah.
They need to come off. You know which bit? Yeah, yeah, there.
That's it, tear them out. OK, well done.
He's going to have to get those shells in the pan very soon.
So I'm going to roast the shell.
Come on, Philippe.
After, I'm going to add the shallots and the garlic, and then I'm going
to put the tomato paste.
Yes! He knows what he's doing now.
How many time I have, please? 12 minutes left.
You were a bit slow with the crab,
but you know how to make a bisque, my friend.
A little bit of stock, not too much.
What do you call that fish in France?
St Pierre. St Pierre.
He hasn't scored the skin, but he's holding that down.
He needs to be careful. As soon as he takes his hand off,
that will curl. Right, you've got five minutes.
Yeah. Let's just start to speed up now. Yeah.
Start thinking about your presentation.
Mm!
Happy? Yeah.
We've got a bisque. He's slicing the St Pierre, the John Dory.
Oh, not cooked enough? No.
That's gone back in the pan. Crab meat's done.
We've only got the fish to go. You've got about a minute.
Good? Yeah.
Let's get that fish on a plate. Let's go, let's go.
That's it, time's up. Stop.
Fini.
You OK? I'm good, I'm good. GREGG LAUGHS
I'm good, yeah.
Hello, Chef. Hello, Philippe.
You started off to prepare your crab,
you smashed through the shell,
and that's not the way, you need to pop the head open
and then break up the shell from there.
But you have a very good understanding of what a bisque is.
Your bisque is very, very good. Very good.
The John Dory, the St Pierre, you could have skinned that,
cut it into little pieces, and it'd have been much quicker to cook,
but overall, that's a very good attempt.
That bisque is superb.
LAUGHS: It's rich and it's creamy, and I can pick out star anise,
a little bit of chilli. I'm really enjoying that.
Philippe, all in all, you got the gist of what we wanted
from the Skills Test. That's a good bisque.
This is a good start. Thank you, Chef.
Thank you. Thank you. Au revoir. Au revoir.
I like him. He stands out, he does.
To get that flavour in 20 minutes,
that took some doing. Good start.
20 minutes to do a bisque
is not easy with the pressure,
and I think it went well.
HE LAUGHS
Do you know, all in all, a pretty good standard. I think,
out of the four, there's only one
of them that's going to be kicking themselves,
and that is Dan with the bisque.
Yeah, I think Verity and Dimi showed great potential.
Philippe, great bisque, great flavours and also great potential.
We've got a good bunch here. We've got a very good bunch.
It's their own dishes next, it's dishes they've practised,
so I'm looking forward to the next round.
Let's see what they're all about. Mm.
Chefs, welcome back to our kitchen.
Were so excited to see what you've got planned for us.
This is your signature two-course menu.
It's the food that you love, right?
Your golden opportunity to showcase your talent, your passion.
You have an hour and 30 minutes to cook one main, one dessert.
At the end of this, two of you will be leaving the competition.
Nail it! Chefs, off you go.
I want to bring something unusual in terms of taste and flavour.
It's a bit dangerous, but I really believe in these dishes.
So, Dimi, tell us about your menu.
For the main course, I cook for you
pan-fried hake with the con fit carrot, carrot oil, carrot puree
and a creamy caviar sauce.
You've got orange liqueur on your bench. Yeah.
Where does that feature?
I want to marinate my fish in Cointreau with the orange zest,
salt, sugar. So it will be like a brine.
And for the dessert, I'm going to have a blue cheese cheesecake
with the rhubarb gel and the poached rhubarb.
Why blue cheese in a cheesecake?
It's not the usual thing, to put the blue cheese.
That's why I decided to put it in there.
And it works really well.
So you have tried and tested these recipes? Yeah.
I did five, six times yesterday at home,
just to practise, practise, practise.
And, yeah, I can't eat cheesecake with blue cheese any more!
Orange and fish. Blue cheese cheesecake.
You are different.
Thank you. HE SNIGGERS
Dimi is taking a hake fillet. He says he's using the orange liqueur
to make a brine.
So he's going to cure it first before he pan-fries it.
Hopefully it's going to seep through and you can taste
the orange liqueur.
Carrots in three different ways. Got a carrot puree.
Nice and smooth.
Got a con fit carrot.
And, of course, the carrot oil should be nice and vibrant.
I love the addition of caviar sauce.
He's got cream in it,
some yoghurt and some caviar running through it.
Very unusual dessert from Dimi.
A blue cheese cheesecake. We've got cream cheese.
We've got whipped cream.
We've also got condensed milk for sweetness.
This is going to be all about the balance.
I have been practising these dishes.
I've had my wife asking me lots of questions, pretending
to be Gregg, trying to distract me as I'm working.
I hope that that's put me in good stead for today.
Verity, why are you here on MasterChef, please?
I felt like I was getting to a place where my food felt like my own.
And I thought it would be nice to come and see what you guys
thought of it. To what end?
I'd love to have a restaurant on the Isle of Skye.
That'd be amazing. Verity, what are your two courses?
Pan-fried hake with mussels and a mussel sauce.
Salsify. I'm doing crispy salsify, a salsify puree,
and parsley oil and wild garlic.
Mm, all right. And for pudding?
Sheep's yoghurt mousse with elderflower, strawberry
and shortbread. A bit of Scotland
down here in the MasterChef kitchen.
Hake is all about the timing, the cooking,
and just a gentle pan-fry. You don't want to stress the fish,
you don't want to hit it with too much heat because it will dry out
very easily.
She's got some mussels served in the shell, and then the rest,
she's going to crispen them up by deep-frying them.
For the mussel sauce, she's going to use some of that cooking liquor.
That can provide so much flavour in this sauce.
I chose to use hake and mussels because coming from
the Isle of Skye, I love these ingredients so much.
They're something that I use a lot.
I'm hoping that the flavours of the ingredients will
really stand out.
Verity's dessert
is going to be elderflower-infused strawberries.
She's putting the sheep's yoghurt mousse into an espuma,
so when she serves, it's nice and fluffy and light.
But she does need to make sure that it sets.
You want a bit of body to it.
We all like shortbread. We all know what it should be.
Short, full of butter.
Nice and light. Delicious.
Perfect accompaniment with a dish like this.
Chefs, you are halfway!
Come on, Chefs. Let's go.
Philippe is cooking grilled turbot.
We've got plantain and a moyo sauce.
So I'm from Benin, is in the west of Africa, and we have a sauce
called moyo, and it's a half-cooked tomato sauce
with pepper, red onion,
garlic and scotch bonnet.
Oh! Yeah.
I'm excited about Philippe's menu.
He's taking his French roots and bringing in his West African
flavours into it too, things I haven't had before.
He's got a cornmeal, which he's put some spinach through.
A bit like a potato cake.
And then he's coating it in the garri, which is a cassava
powder or flour.
And then he's going to pan-fry that to crisp it up.
The turbot. You've got a trancon of fish cooked on the bone.
It's the best way to cook turbot.
It is quite a skill.
99 chefs out of 100 would fillet the fish and cook the piece of fish
off the bone. But we've got the 1% here today,
and I'm looking forward to trying it.
Philippe's dessert is a lemon thyme financier.
The financier is a classic French cake with a lot of butter.
I remember making financiers first thing in the morning, working
in pastry, and it's about getting that nutty butter in it.
Has to have a little bit of a bite on the edges.
Mm! Beautiful served warm.
He's also got a tonka bean sheep yoghurt mousse.
Oh! Love tonka bean.
You've got the sharpness of the yoghurt, and then you've got
the vanilla-y flavour of the tonka bean coming through.
Delicious.
We've also got caramelised cashew nuts and mango
flavoured with hibiscus.
With hibiscus, you've got to be careful with it.
It is a very, very strong flavour.
Two lovely dishes from Philippe. Really piqued my imagination.
Who was cooking when you were a child?
My mother.
She was cooking French dishes and African dishes.
Naturally, I was in the kitchen tasting different ingredients,
and I think because of this, it gave me the sense
to become a chef.
So your mother is a big inspiration with your cookery. Yeah.
Is she very proud of you?
For sure. LAUGHTER
She proud of me.
Chefs, you have 25 minutes left.
These are some dishes that I've made plenty of times before.
I've been practising.
I really hope that I can redeem myself with this.
Dan, how are you feeling now?
I'm...I'm OK. I'm better now I'm doing my food.
Tell us what your two dishes are.
So we've got a little bit of roasted lamb loin, asparagus, a salsa verde,
an anchovy cream, and a little bit of sauce that I've made
with the lamb bones.
I think Dan's got a point to prove, and I think he really wants
to showcase his food.
Roast loin of lamb.
Need to be very careful that there's no fat on the lamb.
He can't afford to overcook it.
There's no room for error.
Dan's making salsa verde, which is going to have fresh
sharpness because he's got green herbs,
there's parsley and mint in there,
and he's also got capers running through it.
I think this will work wonders with the roast lamb.
I love the addition of the anchovy cream as well.
Tell me, what is your dessert?
My dessert, which is a bit daunting telling you, is a baked egg custard.
Egg custard tart? Egg custard tart. wow.
You know a thing or two about custard tarts, Chef.
Many years we've been baking that, and it's been a very popular dessert
ever since I cooked it for the Queen.
You're brave. Not because it's me.
Because of the time constraints. Well, fingers crossed.
I've made my pastry. I've blind-baked my pastry.
Beautiful. So you're making a big one
and we're going to get slices from? That's the theory.
Success with a custard tart is all about the technique.
Crunchy pastry, the custard itself, and nutmeg.
They're the three key things that you look
for in a great custard tart.
Trust me, I know.
Getting the egg custard made, set, cooled enough to be able to cut
and then put on the plate is the big challenge for me.
If I smash this, I'll be ecstatic.
Chefs, you now have 12 minutes left.
12 minutes.
I think I'm looking all right.
Hopefully not forgotten anything. CHUCKLES
Dimi, just calm down!
I know time's against you, but you're actually
ruining your own dish.
You've got five minutes.
Are you going to be all right, Dan? Tart's not ready.
How far off is that cooked?
Not close.
HE GROANS
Oh, my God. No, no, no, please! Please!
Listen, everybody, you've got two minutes.
Right, where are we? Is it done?
No, not quite yet, Chef. Time's nearly up.
It's almost set.
What you also know as well, to cut it, it needs to cool.
Chefs, time's up. Stop.
No.
You happy, man? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.
What about you?
Dessert's not ready.
Oh, yeah.
First up is senior sous-chef Dan, whose signature main course is roast
lamb loin with pea puree,
salsa verde, asparagus, anchovy cream,
fresh peas and lamb sauce.
Dan, my lamb is nicely cooked.
It's pink.
My asparagus is perfectly cooked.
I wish there was more of that anchovy cream on the plate.
That was delightful.
Dan, you've worked very hard on your presentation, but I think
this dish lacks refinement.
Your verde sauce there is so coarse because there's all stringy bits
of the herb running through. Your pea puree's
very nice on the side, but yet, not a lot of it.
Your sauce lacks body.
You've basically got three sauces on here,
if you think the sauce, the salsa verde and the puree. And I don't
think the sauce was ever going to live with the salsa verde.
The salsa verde is too strong.
Right, dessert.
We called time on you.
Your custard tart wasn't out of the oven.
All right? It's been a few minutes.
Is it ready now? It's set,
what I would argue with, as perfect.
Personally, I'd like a slice of custard tart, if that's all right?
Not set within the cooking time,
Dan's signature dessert is egg custard tart topped with nutmeg.
You know why that tastes so good?
Because that's my recipe.
And I recognise that anywhere.
Mm!
We're all eating it, we're all enjoying it.
It's a shame you didn't get it done on time.
Dan, thank you very much, Chef. Thank you very much.
A bad day in the kitchen.
I tried to push as hard as I could for dishes
that I believed in.
Didn't execute them quite right.
So it is what it is at this point.
Chef patron Verity's Scottish-Highlands-inspired
main course is pan-fried hake with steamed mussels,
breadcrumbed crispy mussels,
salsify, salsify puree,
wild garlic, and a mussel sauce
split with parsley oil.
Your fish is cooked beautifully.
It's just flaking apart in really nice, soft chunks.
Your salsify pieces are cooked all the way through.
To put a crunch of breadcrumbs around the outside, I think,
is inspired. Well done.
Crispy things on top of wet purees is always going to be a tough call
because everything's going soft underneath.
But the puree at the bottom is nice and smooth.
Love the sauce.
Great flavour with the parsley oil running through it.
Um, this dish is a very tasty plate of food,
and it's been executed well. Just need to dress it differently.
Hake, it's beautiful.
Love the mussel that have been breadcrumbed.
Salsify, the wild garlic...
You know, they're all things that work wonderfully together.
All in all, great flavours.
Thank you.
Verity's dessert is sheep's yoghurt mousse with elderflower-infused
strawberries and crumbed shortbread.
It's interesting, by putting the yoghurt into an espuma,
it's obviously aerated it and made it incredibly light.
And so when you put everything else on top of it, it sort
of disintegrates and disappears a little bit.
Still tastes good. Great flavours, shortbread's beautifully cooked.
I like the idea of keeping them on the side and just sprinkle them
over the top.
Strawberries are fantastic with the elderflower and, of course,
the crumb there.
If you had more of that mousse, and a little bit firmer,
this would be great.
I'm very much enjoying your dish, Verity.
I think you've got some great textures and some lovely flavours.
Well done.
Right now, I'm feeling pretty relieved.
Well done.
It was good feedback, so I'm very chuffed.
Sous-chef Dimi is serving pan-fried hake
that has been brined in orange liqueur, on carrot con fit,
with carrot puree, carrot oil,
crispy fish skin
and a cream caviar sauce.
Dimi, I'm not a fan of the presentation with the grey sauce
that we pour on it.
It doesn't look very appealing.
My hake is cooked nicely.
You sort of brined the fish a bit in Cointreau.
It only just comes through. The carrot puree...
There's a lot of it, and it's very sweet.
The texture is quite coarse.
And I'm not enjoy eating all that together.
Sadly.
Your caviar sauce,
the way you've thought about it is the more caviar,
the more luxurious it is. It's all about balance.
Too much caviar turned it all grey.
And the crispy skin...
It's not crispy enough. You need to dry it out, deep-fry it.
That's too chewy. And it's not cooked, unfortunately.
I love the flavour of your puree,
the sweet carrot with the carrot oil, but not the texture.
And it wouldn't matter what you did with that sauce.
Once that goes grey, it's off-putting.
It's not quite there.
Dimi's signature dessert is blue cheese cheesecake with a brown
butter crumble base,
poached rhubarb in ginger syrup and rhubarb gel.
It didn't set well.
Dimi, you've got more of a mousse that's set rather than a cheesecake.
The cheesecake is something that has a little bit
more body to it.
There's not enough blue cheese in here
for it to be a blue cheese cheesecake. I'm not tasting it.
It's not worked, unfortunately.
Dimi, I like the flavours of your dessert.
Rhubarb, ginger.
It's a shame that the cheesecake hasn't turned out the way
that you had hoped to.
Thank you.
I like the flavours. I like the buttery biscuit base.
Funny enough, I do.
I love sour rhubarb across the top.
I think this is lovely.
Your points of difference are great and they're interesting.
But the technical side of your cooking, you've got to get
absolutely bang-on, A1. Yeah.
After a Skill Test, I was really proud of myself.
Like, yeah, I can do this.
And now I'm a bit upset.
Bad day.
Yeah, definitely could do better.
Finally, inspired by both his French and West African heritage,
private chef Philippe is serving grilled turbot,
with fried plantain, a corn meal and spinach slice
with a garri - or cassava flour - crust,
and both a chunky and smooth Beninese moyo
sauce made from tomato, red onion,
peppers and scotch bonnet chilli.
Philippe, I think this is a fantastic dish.
You have a corn cake here full of spinach.
The garri - that's made from cassava flour, right?
Yeah. And it's lovely.
It's crispy, like crispy breadcrumbs.
Philippe, the plantain is divine. The way you've cooked it,
almost like a fondant, the way you were roasting it, with a slight
hint of sweetness. And it works so well.
The moyo sauce - sweetness of pepper.
There's only a slight hint of warmth from the chilli in there.
I could do with a little bit more.
If you're making something so lovely, give us a little extra pot
on the side. Yeah.
I think your fish cookery is the star of the plate here.
It's very difficult to take any fish off the bone and make
it look really refined.
But you've done a really good job of that.
You've cooked it on the bone,
you've removed it beautifully and put it back together.
Good flavours, very colourful.
It's a really good start in the kitchen.
Thank you, Chef.
Philippe's dessert is lemon thyme financier cake topped with tonka
beans, sheep's yoghurt mousse,
hibiscus-flowers-infused mango, caramelised cashew nuts
and edible flowers.
Philippe, the presentation of your financier dessert is lovely.
It's delicate.
Financier, for me, is one of my favourite things.
It's all about that butter, a bit of crispiness on the edge of it.
You've got it spot-on.
Thank you.
That is fantastic.
A quite sour mousse, but with tonka,
which is like vanilla plus.
But what I'm loving here is the little bits of candied cashew.
Very sweet and a crunch to them.
I'm finding that an absolute delight.
Take a mango, which I think is the most incredible, perfect
fruit on its own,
and just give it a little flavour of the hibiscus flower is very,
very bold, but it actually really does work.
It brightens up the mango and it gives
it a completely different dimension.
I'm really enjoying this dish, and I'm really enjoying your menu.
Thank you, Chef.
I think the chefs was happy.
So I'm really happy to start the competition like that.
Throughout the whole day, there was some good cookery,
but it was nervy in parts, wasn't it? Yeah.
Tough day for some of our chefs today, but some great flavours,
some great plates of food.
I actually felt for Dan.
I thought we had a really good menu in here, but he didn't get
his custard tart out. Right, we can't judge it.
It wasn't up on time.
It was brave. A brave attempt.
It's a shame, because I love the flavours of his lamb dish.
Disappointed for him.
If I got through today, like, one, I think it would be a minor miracle.
And two, it's almost that second chance, and I'd have to grab
it with both hands and then really kind of up what I'm doing
in the kitchen.
Philippe, I did enjoy his cookery. I really did.
He gave us French cookery technique with the flavours of West Africa.
I thought it was just a really clever, lovely plate.
His dessert - flawless.
Beautiful combination, lovely floral notes just running through it.
Texturally beautiful and absolutely delicious.
I think this is the goal of the competition, is to show
what we can do and stay as much as I can.
And I want to stay.
HE LAUGHS
Verity gave us a nice hake dish.
Great puree of the salsify,
lovely and crispy mussels, crispy salsify as well.
Fish was beautifully cooked. It was very nice.
The dessert. For me, I found the mousse was a bit too light,
but overall, delicious plate of food.
I'd love to cook again in the MasterChef kitchen.
Nice adrenaline rush.
I'm hoping that I've done enough to get through.
It was a tough day today for Dimi.
Brining the hake in alcohol didn't really have any effect.
Dimi's sauce turned grey because of the amount
of the caviar he had through it.
A blue cheese cheesecake with ginger and rhubarb
is a really good idea, but there wasn't enough blue cheese in it.
Dimi had great intention and great ideas.
He just didn't execute it well today.
I made a lot of mistakes.
I'm realising all of them while I'm making a presentation.
It's like, "Oh, this is not right. This is not right."
But it's done already, so I should take it.
Two of these chefs go through to the next round.
Two of them leave the competition.
We need to make the call.
Chefs, we know what this means to you.
And we also know how difficult it is to come into the MasterChef
kitchen and showcase your food.
That was a challenging day.
It always is, the first day in the MasterChef kitchen.
We can only take our strongest two chefs through to the next round.
And we've made our decision.
The first chef leaving the competition is...
...Dan.
Thank you, Dan. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dan.
The second chef leaving the competition is...
...Dimi.
Thank you. Thank you so much, Dimi.
Thank you very much indeed. Best of luck.
Leaving at this stage is difficult because obviously I wanted to do
as well as I could. Falling at the first hurdle,
I am just a little bit disappointed.
DIMI: Tomorrow, back to work. Keep working on myself.
I know I can't be the part of the MasterChef Professional again,
in the UK, but still I have
around, like, 190 countries
in the world, so I can try all of them!
Verity, Philippe, you're through to the next round.
Congratulations.
Well done. Well done.
Good job. That's not a high five, that's a low five!
LAUGHTER
Ah, go on.
Yeah!
The pressure's high. It's...it's hot in here.
Time goes fast.
I'm totally thrilled.
PHILIPPE: I have more to show. I have more to show.
And I'm really happy to be part of the next stage.
And I can't wait to see what's happened and to see what I can do.
Next time...
...four new hopefuls fight for their place in the quarterfinal.
Wow. Yeah. You've done that before.
A few times, Chef.
Either that or you play the drums.
You've got a couple of minutes, guys. Are we plating?
Yes, Chef.
Nice pockets of surprises in there.
That's fantastic.
You've delivered an absolute stunning dessert here.