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.
Oh, my God, it's happening!
I must admit, none of this feels real quite yet.
Yeah, I'm going to give this competition everything.
It's in my nature to do everything 100%.
Feels scary. No, terrifying. Definitely terrifying.
I'm super-excited and buzzing to get in there.
Who has got the talent to rise to the top?
It's time to discover our next culinary superstar.
Here we are.
Do you know, this is the last week of our heats, and you never know,
we may well have saved the best till last.
We have four new chefs today eager to make an impact.
First of all, they have to face a Skills Test.
Monica, we're starting with yours.
What are you going to get them to do?
I'm going to get our chefs to make us some squid croquettes
served with a garlic mayonnaise.
Sounds simple, but technically, there's a lot to do.
The key skills I'm looking for from our chefs is the preparation
of the squid, the making of the thick bechamel that's
going to bind their mix
and, of course, the mayonnaise with garlic.
Squid croquettes with a garlic mayo, 20 minutes.
Over to you, Monica, please.
Right, let's get going.
First thing I'm going to do is make up the binding agent,
which is going to be a really thick bechamel.
So I've got some milk.
I think they might be looking around for a potato.
I think officially it's croquette if it's potato,
croqueta if it's bechamel.
So I've got some butter in the pan. I want it a little a bit thicker
so I'm going to add just a touch more of the flour to it.
Soft bechamel with wet squid, recipe for an explosion.
Yes, it is.
THEY LAUGH
So I've cooked out the butter
and the flour and now I've added the milk to it,
so I've made quite a thick bechamel.
If this is too thin, then there's just no way they're going to be able
to make it into a ball.
So I'm just adding one egg yolk to the bechamel.
Ooh! Just for richness? Yes.
Next thing I'm going to do is prepare the squid.
Remove the tentacles, take the wings off and, of course,
remove the quill from the inside.
You can actually use the wings as well, even the tentacles.
You don't want to waste anything.
I think the question's going to be once they've prepped it
is what to do with it. Do they cook it, do they put it in raw?
I'm only going to sear that literally for seconds.
So, hot pan.
They've got to chop it up fine, haven't they?
They got no option here. They can't have a big lump of squid inside it,
it won't be cooked.
Put some smoked paprika into it and then into the bechamel.
I'm going to put a little bit of chopped parsley
through it as well.
I'm going to roll these into balls after,
but what I want to do is make sure
that they're going to be firm enough,
so I'm going to put them into the blast chiller.
I'll do that, I'll do that.
SHE CHUCKLES
While my croquettes are in the blast chiller,
I'm going to make my mayo. Coming!
I've got two egg yolks.
I'm going to use some mustard.
And I'm also putting some garlic into my mayonnaise.
A touch of vinegar.
And then it's just about emulsifying with your oil.
We've seen plenty of mayonnaises go wrong, haven't we? Plenty.
My daughter makes mayonnaise from scratch. I think we should be OK.
So only a couple of minutes in the blast chiller, that needed.
Just lightly flour them.
These will only take a minute or two to cook.
Not too much browning. Just a... No, just a little bit.
But I want that bechamel hot enough that when you bite into it,
it'll be nice and gooey.
There we are. Look at them!
And there we have it, my squid croquettes with a garlic mayo.
Very, very good indeed.
You go from the crunch on the outside to the softness
of bechamel in the middle to that lovely, delightful bit
of bounce of that squid. It's great.
Very different to a potato croquette.
So much lighter.
Marcus, you'll be watching things remotely.
We'll see you in a moment. OK.
Are we ready? Yes!
Let's see 'em.
NARRATOR: First to attempt Monica's Skills Test
is 36-year-old head chef Simon,
who works at a four-star hotel in Dorset.
If you don't love this profession, it's not for you.
My father was a chef for 25 years, so I always wanted to follow
in his footsteps and maybe one day be a bit better than him.
My grandparents, Portuguese, were a big inspiration to me.
My personal cooking style is very much like my personality,
it's big and bold. Good flavours, good food, cooked well.
Cooking for the judges is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Bring it on, let's go.
Hello, Chef. You all right, Simon? Living the dream.
Living the dream? Absolutely.
Could be a 20-minute nightmare, though.
HE CHUCKLES
Simon, this is a Skills Test.
This one was set by this wonderful chef, Monica. Great!
Simon, I would like you to make for us
squid croquettes served with a garlic mayo.
There's no potato mix here, you've got to make a bechamel.
20 minutes. Good luck. Thank you.
Off he goes with what looks like his bechamel.
So it's a little bit of milk,
melt the butter, add the flour,
make the roux, season up and chill it down ready for the croquettes.
Sounds good.
He looks very confident.
Key to this bechamel is making sure it's a little bit thicker
than your normal...
Squid preparation, you seem to be fine with that, yes?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I come from a Portuguese heritage, so...
Oh! Interesting. He knows what he's doing with that squid.
He's done that very well.
But he's kept the squid quite large.
He's got to incorporate that into the white sauce.
So you really want them to be cut down a bit smaller.
I've always done croquettes
potato-based, making it up with fish or crab or something like that.
This white sauce is effectively replacing potato.
It's got to be really thick for it to work.
That looks quite thin.
So your bechamel base is cooling
and now you're making, what, your mayo?
Whisk up the eggs with a teeny bit of the mustard.
Just over halfway, Simon, you've got ten minutes left.
My mayonnaise is good to go.
Has that firmed up? He'll be in big trouble if it hasn't.
Could you talk me through what you're doing with the squid?
I don't think I want to mix it together, but I feel
it should be mixed together.
What should? The squid with the bechamel.
The raw squid and the bechamel?
But it doesn't make sense.
You don't want to fry it first and the inks will be greasy.
I think you do need to cook it first.
I think I need to add the squid raw, cut it smaller, put
it in and then it'll cook through quicker. That makes more sense.
The thing when you're cooking a croquette is all you're doing
is crisping up the outside.
What you're not doing is cooking the centre,
so you can't put raw squid in.
Simon, you've got about four minutes,
so you've got to get this done now.
Yeah, I have.
The moment of truth.
Even Mon's crossing her fingers.
They need to be in the fryer
for at least five minutes if he wants that squid to be cooked.
How are they looking in that fryer, Simon?
Large and golden-y, like me at this very precise moment in time!
No way that squid's going to be cooked. No way.
Well done, Simon. Thank you. Got it done.
You relieved? I'm relieved, I feel really happy.
SHE CHUCKLES
Hey, Simon. How are you? Living the dream, thanks.
Oh, really? Never said it was a good dream!
THEY LAUGH
The squid is raw.
You made the bechamel.
You made croquettes, they're lovely and crispy.
But the mix, it's not edible.
You knew the squid needed to be cooked before it went
into the bechamel,
but you weren't sure how to do it.
The garlic mayo could be a touch thicker.
You've worked with squid, that was quite clear to see.
You prepped it beautifully.
You've completed the task that Monica was looking
for in certain areas, but they do need improving.
Simon, not the start you would have wanted.
I've got a strong feeling you are a lot, lot better than this.
We'll find that out in the next round. See you soon, Chef.
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Simon.
Under this pressure, we've seen many a chef crumble,
yet Simon has shown potential there.
I'm feeling pretty deflated.
The next round, I just want to push on, get my head down, focus.
NARRATOR: Next up is 37-year-old Casrick.
Hi, Casrick.
Originally from St Vincent and the Grenadines,
he's a junior sous-chef at a Michelin-starred
restaurant in London.
If you're a chef, it's a very hectic life.
You have to be mentally strong.
My family, they love food.
We always cook at home.
So we used to live close to the river, so we would catch some
crayfish, some whelks,
and everybody just cooked outside.
My style is basically French/Italian/Caribbean.
HE CHUCKLES
I would like to have my own restaurant, like a farm-to-table
restaurant, cos my wife works in horticulture, so just fresh fruit
from the garden into the kitchen.
Always, you do your best, and never take feedback negative.
That's one thing I learned in the kitchen.
I would like you to make for us a squid croquette served
with a garlic mayo, OK?
Have you made croquettes before? Yeah.
OK. 20 minutes, good luck.
He's under way and he's gone straight for the squid,
which is OK.
It doesn't take long to prepare a squid.
Where does your passion for cookery come from?
I left college and I was doing construction, and this lady playing
bingo asked me if I wanted a job.
LAUGHS: Which is actually funny, so that's how I started.
Bingo and ladies isn't the usual route into catering.
No, not really.
I think that's how Marcus started. Yeah, yeah.
CASRICK LAUGHS
He needs to really get a motor on now and get that bechamel on,
get it chilled down.
He's working a little bit too slow.
That is not how you start a bechamel.
I think we're going to get a very floury bechamel.
He's not really cooked it out much at all.
Your bechamel's chilling. Yeah.
And now you're going to quickly fry some squid? Yes. Good plan!
Is the mix looking good?
Yes, looking good. You can shape that? Yeah.
That's only going to taste of just raw flour.
So, Casrick, you need to cook your croquette
and make your garlic mayonnaise.
You've got three minutes.
It looks like he just doing one croquette.
Can he make a mayonnaise in three minutes?
SHE MOUTHS
Some stir action right there.
Looks like you got batteries in your elbows!
Oh, he's putting the tentacles in now.
You've got about a minute. Oh, OK.
Are you done? Yeah.
Hooray! Well done.
Are you pleased?
99.9%. Good man.
Casrick, I like that you cooked the squid before it went into it,
but what we have is a bechamel that's not quite cooked through,
so it's quite heavy and stodgy.
The mayo part, it's a garlic mayo,
so you want garlic in it, but not two whole cloves.
I can't quite make up my mind
where your skills are at. Thank you.
Your bechamel cookery - nice and thick, yes,
it is just almost pure flour.
The skill in that area's not good.
I can't eat the croquette because it's not cooked inside.
That doesn't mean your competition's over,
it just means that you have got a lot to prove with your own dishes.
We'll see you soon. Thank you very much. Cheers. Thank you. Ciao.
I don't know how to explain it,
but that's not how I really cook, but I have a lot more to show.
It's like that was just a major slip-up for me.
Marcus, time for your Skills Test. We have chefs waiting.
What are you going to do with those sweetbreads, please?
I'd like our chefs to make a sweetbread and caramelised onion
tart and served with a meat stock vinaigrette.
OK. Interesting.
I'm also providing them with a shortcrust pastry tart.
You can't make this in the time that our chefs have got.
Don't need to worry about the sweetbreads just yet,
the most important thing is the caramelised onion.
I'm going to use this red onion.
The reason why I'm putting these on first,
it's going to take quite a long time for these to cook down.
Put a little bit of thyme in there.
These little baby white onions,
I'm going to put them into some pickle.
So a bit of water,
add some white wine vinegar,
a little spoon of sugar,
and a little bit of tarragon,
and then just let them simmer
just for a little bit.
So keep an eye on these onions.
Just get a little bit more colour on those,
I'm just going to deglaze that with a touch
of balsamic vinegar,
so it just gives the base
of the tart just a little
bit of edge.
Our chefs have got to be careful, because if the pan is too hot,
you know, they will catch, they'll burn,
and they've only got one red onion.
In with a little bit of meat stock,
turn it down and just let that
just gently cook down.
So that's my caramelised onion on.
They're going to be tempted to go
straight for the sweetbreads, but they've got to get those onions on,
right? Yeah, I think to get the caramelised onion, you need
the time, whereas the sweetbread, once it's trimmed,
will take four, five minutes to cook.
Now I'm going to do a third onion,
so I'm just making a little garnish
which I'm just going to sit on top. So it's in ice water,
so it just gently curls up
and is nice and crispy.
Right, now to my sweetbreads. Wahey!
What are you trimming away
there, please, Marcus?
Just the sinew, any blood veins.
If they've not handled sweetbreads before, that could be an issue
where they might trip up.
Sweetbreads are delicious,
I love using them, but I find an undercooked sweetbread
not a pleasant thing to eat. I agree.
But by the same token, too much,
and you've turned a beautiful thing almost into chewing gum.
Little coating of flour,
protects them a little bit.
Put some thyme in there.
Look at them!
Just get a nice coating, a nice seal.
I'm just going to drop in some butter...
Whoa! ..just to get them really cooking.
THEY LAUGH
Why not?
Don't let the butter burn.
So we'll take those out
and let them rest.
And then I'm just going to make
a quick vinaigrette.
So a bit of oil in the bowl,
balsamic vinegar, a little bit
of reduced stock.
Now we're good to go.
Take the peeled onions out.
Lift the skin off, cut them in half,
and just pop them out.
Tart onto the plate.
Caramelised onions.
Oh, wow, you are spoiling us!
Just a little drizzle of your vinaigrette.
Happy? I'm very happy.
I'll be happier when I get to try it. There we have it.
Sweetbreads, caramelised onion tart,
and a meat stock vinaigrette.
That is stunning!
I'm looking for good cookery with the sweetbread,
that's really important.
You are through to the next round.
Thank you very much!
I think we've found a winner.
I don't know about a winner, but the boy's got promise.
SHE CHUCKLES Monica, see you in a bit. Yeah.
Come on, let's give 'em a go.
Hello.
NARRATOR: First to face Marcus's Skills Test
is 32-year-old chef patron, Ayesha...
Trying to remember how to tie a bow today.
..who runs her own Middle-Eastern inspired restaurant in Somerset.
I've always loved food.
There are photos of me as a child in the kitchen with a mixing bowl,
covered in flour.
Being half-Arab, I got to try a lot of Middle Eastern food, getting
to visit my family in the Middle East when I was younger,
so I do think that has influenced my food massively.
I have my own restaurant, I get to cook the food I want,
and there's no-one telling me how to do it, what to do.
It's modern Middle Eastern food
using classic French techniques.
I recently got my Bib Gourmand, which I was very excited about,
but why not aim for more, why not aim for the world?
Ayesha, welcome.
You are facing a Skills Test... Yep. ..and this one was set up
by the marvellous Marcus Wareing.
So I'd like you to make a sweetbread and caramelised onion
served in a tart, which is made for you there... Oh, lovely!
..with a meat stock vinaigrette.
Happy? I'm as happy as I can be, yeah.
Abject terror, but, sure, let's give it a shot.
Right, 20 minutes.
OK. Thank you very much.
Right. Probably get my onions
caramelising first.
Yes, that's what you want to do, get those onions caramelising.
I mean, of course, you know, I've peeled 1,000,001 onions in my life,
but today it's the most terrifying thing I've ever done.
She's got personality, I like it.
I hope she can deliver.
Ayesha, that's an unusual name for me.
Where is that from? So I am half-Arab.
My dad was born in Jordan,
but my family are originally Syrian.
My mum's side is English.
Does your food have Arabic influences?
Yes, absolutely.
My food is definitely inspired by the Middle Eastern pantry
because it was a way I could engage with my own heritage
and where my family are from.
She knows her onions need time to caramelise.
And it's been a hot minute since I have done a sweetbread,
so I'm just trying to remember... A hot minute? A hot minute.
I think it's what the kids say these days.
"A hot minute"!
What type of establishment are you cooking in right now?
So I own a restaurant and free house in Glastonbury.
My first-ever booking was a group of Druids.
No! It actually it was.
Warlocks. And they were lovely.
I mean, I don't bat an eyelid now,
I'm used to seeing warlocks, wizards, the like.
By the way, how much time have I got?
Cos I am wittering away. You've had six minutes,
you've got 14 minutes left.
14 minutes? Let's get a hustle on, then.
She's actually removing the right bits off.
It's taking longer because she just hasn't stopped talking.
SHE LAUGHS
I get distracted and chat too much.
I am quite the talker, as you will find out.
Right, so you've got onions sweating away...
So I'm sweating away my onions.
When they're reduced a bit more, I'm going to add a little bit of red
wine vinegar to get the stickiness going.
That's good.
Use the flour for your sweetbreads.
So let's pop you... Chef, you've got eight minutes left.
Yeah! I'm loving chatting with you,
I want you to complete the task, though.
SHE LAUGHS
Well, I mean, I've got my sweetbreads cooking.
Just going to make my vinaigrette now.
I've got some finely diced shallots,
going to add a selection of herbs.
We're going to reduce a tiny bit
of meat stock at high speed.
A bit of red wine vinegar, a bit of olive oil,
and happy days, in theory.
She knows what she's doing, but she's distracted,
she's not focusing.
You've got three minutes. Three minutes?
Wahey! OK. Let's add...
# The stock to my vinaigrette. #
The onions are caramelised, and then I'm just going to pile
it all into a tart and hope for the best.
Ooh! Let's try not to break the glassware.
SHE LAUGHS
How's the sweetbreads? They're warm and they feel tender,
so I think that's kind of what I was aiming for.
You've got 60 seconds to finish this.
OK.
And I think that's me.
All done, Chef? Done. Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SHE LAUGHS
THEY LAUGH
Hi!
Never seen anyone talk through the whole 20 minutes.
SHE LAUGHS
But I love your energy.
Got very nice sweetbread preparation,
and you've really brought out the lovely flavour. The red onion,
it could have done with a bit more caramelisation, but you
understood what you were doing, which is really nice to see.
Your meat vinaigrette,
you tasted it, you reduced it down,
you got herbs in there.
You understand flavour. Control those nerves.
You don't always have to chat your way through it,
maybe quietly upstairs...
SHE LAUGHS
This is a decent job.
How you managed to focus with all the chat,
I don't know.
Well done. Off you go. Thank you.
Spent years and hours of my life doing this,
so to have these, like, greats tell me I did a good job, that's
really, really awesome.
NARRATOR: Last in is 30-year-old private chef Cecily,
who currently works for a family in London.
My job is...it's just very fun.
I get to cook all day, which is something that I love to do anyway.
Being a private chef is very varied.
I do all the menus myself, so everything is always my ideas
and I have quite free rein.
I'm always striving to be the best chef that I can be.
That's where I'm going with this competition, is just to push
myself to see how much better I can get.
Welcome to professional MasterChef. Thank you. This is a Skills Test,
and this Skills Test was set by this gentleman, Marcus Wareing.
Hello. Cooked some sweetbreads before?
I actually haven't, but I have been looking at it.
You've been doing your research? Yes, a little bit, yes.
20 minutes. All yours.
OK.
I might put some water on to boil.
What's the water for?
I think I need to blanch the sweetbreads before I cook them.
OK. I think that's what I'm doing.
But that might be wrong. That's fine.
They only need to go in very quickly because they're so small.
But she doesn't need to.
Erm, OK, and then I'm going to do, like, a reduced red onion.
Did you always want to be a chef?
I went to university to be a weather woman,
but then that didn't work out.
What, you wanted to be on our tellies,
telling us it was going to snow?
And now I'm here instead.
What was the actual course you went on?
Environmental science. OK.
I think it's done me quite well in the fact that I quite like to cook
sustainably and with things that are in season.
Erm...
So I don't know whether this is the right thing to do,
but I'm going to do it. OK.
I'm just going to do this.
You've had five minutes.
How many minutes have I got? 15. OK.
How did you end up in kitchens, then?
I started doing ski seasons after university.
I was working in a chalet.
You got put into the kitchen to cook for the guests?
Yeah. That was probably about eight or nine years ago.
So you've had no basic cookery training?
No, I haven't been to college, but I've worked
in kitchens since then. Yeah.
You just kind of learn as you go along, don't you?
How much time have I had?
You've got ten minutes left.
I think I've done this really wrong.
The sweetbreads are making her unsure.
She's trimming it down, but she's also cutting
it into little nuggets, which is fine.
OK. She's got meat stock that she's going to reduce for vinaigrette.
How do you plan to cook the sweetbreads?
I think I'm going to pan-fry them in some butter.
I don't know if that's correct, but...
What did you just put in there - some balsamic?
A bit of balsamic, yeah. Ooh. That's a lot.
You have seven minutes left.
Got to cook the sweetbreads. Yeah, I think I'm going to do that now.
Got to make a vinaigrette.
Onion garnish. I just don't know.
Time to get a bit of a move-on. Yass.
Get them in the pan.
How do you think you're doing? Terribly.
Look, she hasn't given up.
Right, I'll just quickly make the vinaigrette.
Right, you've got less than 90 seconds. OK.
So you need to start putting something together. Yeah.
It's really horrible, so I might do it without it.
She tasted it, doesn't like it, not going to use it.
Some of those look like they're not cooked through.
Last bit, last bit, last bit.
Are you done? Yeah.
I bet you're glad that's over.
WHISPERS: So glad.
From a visual point of view, beautifully presented.
The downside is your onions are not caramelised,
your sweetbreads aren't cooked.
That's the fact that you just didn't know.
But you've worked your way through it, which is a good thing.
You were so unsure.
You just didn't believe in yourself.
But I'm telling you, there has been worse situations
in this kitchen, all right?
And I actually respect the fact you gave it a go.
You were almost there with those sweetbreads,
you really, really were.
So it's not the disaster you think it is.
We look forward to seeing your own dishes.
Thank you. Off you go.
That was quite awful.
Definitely not my finest hour.
SHE LAUGHS
I just need to brush myself off, get on with it.
All I can do.
As Skills Tests go, these are a bit shaky.
I mean, there's one standout, and that's Ayesha,
I think she did brilliantly well. The other three,
mate, I tell you what, they've got a fair bit to prove.
They need to come back strong, confident, cooking their own menus
in the next round.
You now have an opportunity to show us what your cookery is all about,
the food that really interests you.
One main, one dessert, hour and 30 minutes.
At the end of this,
two of you will be going through to the next round,
two of you will be leaving us.
Off you go.
Push, push, push, push, push. Let's go.
The theme behind my whole menu is essentially to showcase
what I do best.
I really want to show how I see Middle Eastern food.
Ayesha, tell us about your menu.
So today I'm doing a squid ink freekeh risotto,
a sous-vide piece of cod
with a preserved lemon gel, rose harissa.
What's freekeh? Freekeh is a cracked, smoked, young durum wheat.
It's so quintessentially Middle Eastern
that I thought it would be remiss of me not to show.
Got quite a nutty, interesting flavour.
And you can smell it as well.
Interesting smell to it. It's nuttier, it's more savoury.
What are you showcasing here, do you think?
The Middle Eastern pantry.
So lots of the spices and flavours that aren't traditionally seen
in things like risotto.
I love the sound of Ayesha's menu because she's bringing inspiration
from her Middle Eastern roots.
A cod dish, which she's serving with a squid ink risotto made
from freekeh, which is a type of grain.
For me, it's wonderful to see a twist on something we all know
with a big ingredient that's very different.
She's making it with a shellfish and arrack stock.
Arrack is a grain spirit.
How strong is that arrack going to be?
You've got to be very careful that it doesn't kill the risotto.
We also have preserved lemon gel.
This will work wonderfully with the cod, of course.
And then for my dessert, I'm doing a basbousa soaked in Somerset
cider brandy with sous-vide rhubarb, rhubarb and muscatel gel,
and a tahini whipped cream.
LAUGHS: Is that all? And the kitchen sink.
What's basbousa? Basbousa is a little semolina cake.
I mean, similar to many polenta cakes, but it translates
to "little kiss" in Arabic, which is really cute.
And then it's soaked in sugar syrup.
So I'm doing a Somerset cider brandy sugar syrup as a little nod
to Glastonbury being my hometown at the moment.
Fabulous! Intriguing menu!
I love tahini in a dessert.
First time I ever had it was actually away in the Middle East,
and they have it with dates and tip it in tahini, so it can work wonders
in a dessert.
They key will always be within the eating and the execution.
She's got to bring these beautiful flavours to the forefront for us
to enjoy them.
I set myself an astronomically large task to do a lot of things!
So let's just hope I can complete them within the time.
If I talk less, I probably will.
25 minutes gone, Chefs. 25 minutes gone.
I don't think I proved myself in the Skills Test, but I am
definitely pushing myself with these dishes.
I want to really show that I can do a few different techniques and plate
something really a bit more exciting.
Simon, how are you feeling now?
Seriously, how are you feeling? Yeah, really good. Super-psyched.
Whatever the last test was doesn't matter any more,
just want to crack on with this.
So what do you need to do now in this round?
Push on, smash it.
Make it absolutely soigne, and then we're good.
Soigne? Make it nice and French, that's what I was always told.
First course is pan-fried scallops
with cauliflower puree, cauliflower florets and raw shavings,
finished with a strawberry vinegar, a potato galette.
Did you say strawberries for your scallop?
Yeah. Really?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I really like it, it adds a nice acidity to the sweetness
and balances it off quite well.
Scallops and potato galette, cauliflower puree,
we know that they work.
Strawberries with scallop is not a combination I've had
before, and probably for a reason.
It may sound wrong, but yet it's all going to be about the eating.
And then for my dessert, I'm doing a toasted fennel seed panna cotta
with raspberry sorbet, raspberry jelly, raspberry puree, honeycomb,
fennel cress and fennel pollen.
Mm, flavours of aniseed and panna cotta with raspberries,
I like that.
Panna cotta, set cream,
always got to get that level of setting just right.
We've had many a panna cotta in this kitchen, but there's always
room for one more as long as it's done well.
Chefs, you are halfway.
45 minutes left, please.
The Skills Test is behind me, I don't have to do that ever again.
So I just want to get in
and do the things that I know that I can do.
Cooking your own food now, your menu. Yes.
What has inspired this menu?
Partly my travels in Japan and working there.
Partly it's just kind of the food that I like to eat as well.
So for my main course, I'm doing beef fillet
in a yuzu ponzu, with some crispy shallots, crispy garlic,
some lotus root crisps on top as well.
And then I'm doing, like, a shiso rice cooked with the beef fat.
Oh, like the sound of that!
That stint in Japan obviously had a massive impact on you.
Yeah, it did.
I just like the way that they take so much care over everything.
All the ingredients has to be the best,
and, you know, all the cows are, like, fed, the sweetest apples
that they can find.
Beef fillet, it's a beautiful piece of fillet,
it's got lovely marbling.
She's going to seal it on the outside,
slice it perfectly well, and then she's going to cover it
with the yuzu ponzu sauce.
The beef pretty much speaks for itself.
But it's going to be the balance of the sauce that she puts with it
that'll see whether or not this dish works.
Yuzu ponzu, it's a lovely soy dressing,
it's got those citrus flavours through it.
I love the sound of this dish.
And then for dessert, I'm doing a wild woodruff cream tart with wild
strawberries and pistachios,
and then an apple jelly with apple blossom.
What does woodruff taste of?
It's quite floral-y, but not in a kind of lavender-y way.
It's not easy to get, you normally have to forage for it. Yes.
Why did you want to use woodruff?
Erm, I think because I wanted to use wild strawberries, and I think
because they kind of grow in similar kind of areas,
I just thought put things together that grow together.
Oh, that's almost like a floral citrusy syrup.
Yeah. This sounds great.
The tart, the pastry, has got to be
beautifully cooked and golden throughout.
And, of course, woodruff can be very sweet.
There has to be something to cut through all of the sweetness.
Cecily looks much more calm cooking her own food,
and that's exactly what we want to see.
Definitely feel more confident with doing my own dishes, yeah.
SHE CHUCKLES
Second round, I'm hoping that the judges change the way
they see how I cook because I try to rush the first round,
which I now learn
from my mistake.
Casrick, how are you feeling? I'm feeling OK.
I'm pumped. Pumped?
Yeah. Good man.
Casrick, his main course is pan-roasted pigeon with different
textures of carrot.
He is cooking his pigeon on the crown, which is the best way
to cook it.
And then you remove the breast from the bone,
so it's really important you get a lovely caramelisation.
What is it that you like about pigeon, Chef?
Well, the gameyness,
cooking it medium rare.
Don't overcook it.
We've got a crispy chickpea.
Chickpeas, which is blitzed, pureed with the potato puree,
he's going to deep-fry.
He's got thyme sauce, which is made from the pigeon bones.
I've been watching that sauce slowly simmer away, developing flavour,
with lots of thyme in it.
He's taken a lot of care in the making of that sauce.
And dessert?
Dessert is a chocolate mousse with a shell.
Confited strawberries.
And walnuts.
The key to this is when you line the mould with the chocolate
that it's not too thick.
It needs to be an even spread all the way around.
And then he's put the mousse into it,
so when he turns it out it should be set.
I hope it works out because it sounds great.
Caramelised walnuts for some texture.
Strawberries, of course, fabulous.
What are you looking for from this competition now?
Oh, just the exposure for my country.
I'm from a very tiny island.
St Vincent.
How many people?
110,000.
Wow. No, that is tiny.
Chefs, you've got ten minutes left.
Oui.
A bit over, so I'm not happy with them.
I'm just redoing.
You have only five minutes left.
I suggest we get a move on.
Final touches!
OK, time's up. Stop.
NARRATOR: Chef patron Ayesha has cooked a squid ink freekeh risotto
served with torched sous-vide cod,
preserved lemon gel, rose harissa,
rock samphire and wild garlic flowers.
A very striking plate of food.
And I'll have to say, for a risotto,
that's beautifully presented too.
Your cod is absolutely sensational.
The risotto is delicious with the squid running through it.
I really like that.
The harissa brings a lovely warmth and spicy flavour to it.
There's a really pleasant flavour in my mouth right now, and I think
if that was put in front of me, either at home or in a restaurant,
I would absolutely devour every little bit of it.
Very, very good.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I can't remember ever having freekeh before, but I really like it.
There's a nuttiness to it.
It's like a softer pearl barley.
It's absolutely lovely.
Your flavours here are sensational.
The preserved lemon gel with the fish,
it was always going to work beautifully well.
I'm a huge fan of sumac.
Citrus sumac, on top of that fish.
This is a delightful plate of food to enjoy.
NARRATOR: Ayesha's dessert is basbousa, a semolina cake
soaked in Somerset cider brandy syrup
with sous-vide rhubarb, rhubarb gel,
smoked almond brittle
and a whipped tahini cream.
Really extraordinary flavours.
You've got a cake that's dense with syrup, which is absolutely
lovely, but it finishes with a side of brandy.
You go on to the rhubarb, which is sharp, which is wonderful.
And then when you finish, you get tahini.
It's really working for me.
This is absolutely delicious.
It's so delicious.
Texturally brilliant.
You've got it absolutely spot on.
I love the way you bring the Middle Eastern pantry
into your cookery, but I've got a funny feeling that that pantry
is full of stuff and full of magic.
Thank you.
I really like it.
I really do like it.
And I like it even better with a big dollop of the tahini cream.
Really delightful dessert.
You know, it's just...
You are going to be bad for my waistline!
THEY LAUGH
I don't always think that I can do it.
There's always that bit of impostor syndrome.
So to have these people say,
"You did good," I'm like, "Oh, my God."
It's honestly one of the most astounding feelings I've ever had.
NARRATOR: For his main course,
head chef Simon has cooked pan-seared scallops
served with roasted cauliflower and cauliflower puree,
potato galette and a strawberry vinaigrette.
The scallop, I had two lovely pieces that were perfectly cooked,
then three of them slightly under.
That's not the first time I've had strawberry with seafood.
I like the sweetness.
I like the sharpness.
Strawberry after a scallop -
really odd.
We like to push boundaries as chefs, but it's got
to be the right boundaries.
My scallops are under.
That's the big issue for me.
But I'm happy with your cauliflower bits.
The one that you've roasted, that nuttiness,
I'm happy with that.
I know where you're going.
Sweetness and sharpness, I can have.
But then when it finishes with strawberry,
it is highly unusual.
Fruit and fish is always going to be tricky.
I think you're trying too hard here.
And I'm really sorry, but there's two things here
that I can't work with.
One is a raw scallop and the second thing is a strawberry
inside a plate of scallops.
Sorry, they shouldn't be together.
NARRATOR: Simon's dessert is a toasted fennel seed panna cotta
with honeycomb, fresh raspberries, raspberry jelly,
fennel cress, fennel pollen
and a raspberry sorbet.
Looks fabulous.
I think you should take your fruit off your fish and stick it
firmly in your desserts, cos I'm really enjoying this.
This fennel panna cotta is fantastic,
and it finishes to me like liquorice.
That's different.
That's clever.
And that's really working for me.
And also a really lovely raspberry sorbet.
Panna cotta's beautifully set.
Lovely fresh raspberries, sorbet on the side,
beautifully whipped up, nice and light,
got lovely a flavour of raspberry.
The honeycomb with the fennel panna cotta together,
it's just delicious.
I'm enjoying it.
Perhaps I did take some risks.
Big and bold is my personality and I want that to be on my plate,
but it's just got to be in that right balance.
And obviously it wasn't quite there.
Junior sous-chef Casrick has cooked pan-roasted pigeon
served on a bed of carrot puree with roasted carrot,
a thyme sauce and a green parsley oil.
Have we got something missing?
Yeah, it was the chickpea.
You were really rushed.
Yeah. You were really, really rushed.
I would prefer my pigeon cooked a little more.
I wouldn't send it back, but I'd be nibbling around it
rather than demolishing it.
Really nice, sweet carrot puree.
Plenty of butter. It's smooth.
And I'm picking up thyme as well from your sauce
and a little bit of the meatiness of the pigeon.
You've cooked it on the crown, which is the best way to do it.
You've roasted it. You saw it wasn't cooked enough.
You put it back in the oven.
But I'm completely put off by this cartilage
and it's such a shame.
I can't get much of the sauce because you haven't served
any on the side.
You were taking so much time to make that sauce.
I was excited about it.
And yet you don't serve enough of it on the plate.
Casrick's dessert is a chocolate mousse set with gelatine,
encased in a chocolate shell,
served with poached strawberries,
deep-fried caramelised walnuts and a strawberry sauce.
I feel like I've got a little pirate's
treasure chest of chocolate.
It's lovely.
I think the chocolate around the outside on the mould,
you've done that really well.
Love the syrup. It's got a great depth of flavour.
I like your idea, but I don't like the gelatine
in the chocolate mousse.
You didn't need it. A bit bouncy.
Inside that really fine chocolate work is a texture that's not
as soft as I was expecting.
But I love those flavours.
Thank you.
The walnuts, you know, dusted in sugar like that and deep-fried,
I really like that.
I think it's the makings of a great dessert.
You need to play with a bit more just to get that right.
Thank you very much for the feedback.
I'll keep it in mind.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, I'm feeling a bit frustrated because you know
what the consequences are, what the problems are,
but sometimes when you're in a rush mistakes happen.
Last up is private chef Cecily,
who's cooked seared fillet of beef
topped with fried lotus root,
fried shallot and garlic crisps
with a yuzu ponzu sauce,
served with a beef fat and shiso leaf rice.
Cecily, I like your presentation.
It's very delicate.
Your beef, beautifully done.
Beautifully seared, nicely caramelised.
Love the little deep-fried vegetables with garlic on top.
I like the flavouring.
It's delicious.
Your lotus crisps start nutty and finish a little bit bitter.
And I like your shallots' crispy sweetness.
Your rice could do with a little bit of seasoning.
I really like the yuzu ponzu.
You made your own dashi stock that's in it.
You've got citrus in there as well.
And, you know, together, it's a nice plate of food.
Cecily's dessert is a woodruff cream tart,
topped with wild strawberries and pistachios,
served with apple jelly, apple blossom
and a pistachio crumb.
I'm very much enjoying that and I think it's very clever
of you to add the woodruff.
Woodruff is absolutely delightful.
For me, it's like a cross between coconut and vanilla.
Fine pastry work.
I really like an apple jelly that's very refreshing.
Well done.
It's got some fresh wild strawberries on top.
Your tart case is nicely lined.
The jelly is really nice and fun.
It's got a lovely crunchy apple going through it -
it's nice and soft.
But overall it's an incredibly simple dessert.
I think you could've done a little bit more to this.
As simple as it is, I actually see promise in what you're playing with.
If my young pastry chef came to me with a dish like this,
I'd be excited with the ideas that are on it.
I'm glad I didn't crash and burn.
I was trying to keep it simple so I didn't run out of time.
Tough job on our hands.
We've got one really good cook -
really, really good cook.
And we've got three people that have had a very, very
nervy start to the competition.
Our standout cook by far was Ayesha.
My goodness, isn't she full of personality?
Her food is original.
I absolutely devoured that main course. I won't lie.
And that cake at the end there,
dipped in the syrup of cider,
lovely tahini cream that was on the side, yeah, give me
another bucket of that, please. That was delicious.
That lady is a talent,
and I think we're all agreed that she goes through.
There was one chef in here whose timing went awry,
didn't actually manage to complete the dishes.
Casrick, I think, had a day he would like to forget.
The pigeon, it wasn't the dish he wanted.
I felt the chocolate mousse, it didn't need gelatine.
It was just too hard. So there were things on the plate I did like
and there was ideas there.
He just didn't execute them well, unfortunately.
Disappointed for him because he really needed to be strong
in his signature round.
Casrick's leaving the competition?
Yes, he is.
That leaves a conversation between Cecily and Simon.
Simon, I thought, had a nervy start with the skills test.
His scallop dish came with strawberries!
He served up a raw dish of scallops and served it with strawberries.
Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.
His dessert, the panna cotta was beautifully set.
The honeycomb was delicious.
Coming back with a dessert that strong was
a great thing to see.
Cecily, interesting.
Nice-looking dishes.
The beef was nicely cooked. She seared it beautifully well.
The ponzu dressing had a great citrus flavour.
Her dessert, nice presentation, nice and simple.
Sharp, clean.
Skill on show?
Not as much as I would have liked...
But great ideas, exciting ideas.
I suppose the question is, does Cecily's food have enough
skill and ambition to put her through?
Simon does have experience and a certain amount of skill.
But is the quality of his dessert good enough to save him
from the disappointing scallop dish?
SIMON: To go through to the next stage would be mega.
I would be really, really over the moon to give it another go
and to show them a bit more of what I can do.
CECILY: You just never know, do you?
But I've got a lot more skills that I can prove to them
that I have.
Coming in here and showcasing your skills,
it isn't easy - we know.
That was a fantastic cook-off and you all gave it everything.
And we thank you for that.
There was one standout chef here today.
Ayesha, take a bow, Chef.
That was just stunning. Thank you.
Absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much.
Absolutely brilliant.
The first chef leaving the competition...
..Casrick.
Sorry to see you go.
Thank you very much indeed.
The second chef leaving is...
..Simon.
Simon, it was a tight thing.
Good to have met you. Thank you.
SIMON: I think I gave it my all and it was not my day today.
And that's fair enough.
But the experience was incredible.
You have to go through life and fail sometimes. That's how we learn.
It's no use if you're always getting compliments
and you never try anything.
That's how you cope mentally.
Well done, the pair of you.
I'm pleased. I'm really pleased. I'm really, really relieved!
I'm glad that they saw that there was some promise in me.
The Middle Eastern pantry, the Aladdin's cave that is my brain,
I've got plenty more in there.
So hopefully I can give them some more tasty things to eat.
Next time...
The last four hopefuls...
Hey!
..fight for their place...
Oh, oh...
Feeling the pressure? Yes!
..in the quarterfinal.
This was a fantastic Skills Test to watch.
You can't not love a doughnut.
I've got the shakes.
Come on.
Yeah, tight, tight.
That looks like an autumnal walk through a forest.
I love that.
You came here to fight for something. This starts right now.