It's the MasterChef: The Professionals final.
Tonight,
Mark, Gareth or Luke will be crowned champion.
The day has finally come.
Three plates of food between me and the MasterChef trophy.
To get to the final, and then to win would be beyond belief.
There's two very tough contestants
in between being able to lift that trophy.
I've just got to put my head down
and really focus on what's coming up.
It is the most important day,
the most important cook of my entire life.
Going in, full guns blazing, no holding back.
Giving it my all.
This is what our chefs have been dreaming about.
We've pushed them, and they've always risen to the challenge.
Now they've got to do that one last time.
They're going to have to come up with some real magic.
Who has got what it takes...
..to lift that trophy?
What an exceptional competition this has been.
Under pressure, but under control.
Come on, steady hands, steady hands. There's a bit of speed.
Not much time. Looking all right, to be fair.
Molto bene, molto bene.
We've seen some chefs crumble.
Ooh!
I'd get a move on, if I was you.
Please don't be burnt.
Oh, no! Set, set, set.
Oh! This looks a little hectic.
Oh, come on. I've just broken the egg yolk, Chef. Oh!
We've seen some amazing skills on display...
Whoa, Smoky. We're definitely winning.
..and we've tasted some amazing food.
I could eat all of it, and some more.
It's a cracking good dish.
Honestly, this has blown me away.
That's just ridiculously good.
What an incredible ride.
We've made it, and discovered the three best chefs in this kitchen.
Three very special cooks,
but we can only crown one champion.
# I people-watch on the way back home
# Envious of the glimmer of hope?
# Gives me a break from feelin' alone
# Gives me a moment out of the ego. #
I grew up on a council estate with my brother, my dad and my mum.
We didn't have too much money, but we always got what we needed.
I had my first child at 17.
Grace, are you coming on?
Two and a half years later, my second.
After I got with Katrina, we've had another two children.
Whee!
Luke is a very good dad. Would do anything for anyone.
Does everything for the kids. He's the fun one.
He's always hands-on with them. Really good.
Ohh! My hair has gone everywhere!
Having a child very young moulded my life.
I had to provide from a young age. Hello!
Hello. I was very determined to stand on my own two feet.
Was that good?
I've always had quite a strong work ethic.
Come on, then. Come on.
Work hard and it'll pay off.
Did a paper round for a few years,
then I got into the cafe next door as a pot wash.
And then they put me into the kitchen.
From the beginning, it felt natural to me.
Cooking didn't feel so much like work.
It became part of who I am rather than my job.
I wanted to make a name for myself.
I wanted to be recognised.
I entered a lot of competitions.
Then I decided to enter MasterChef.
Luke's very hard on himself.
He doesn't know his full potential.
People are always telling me that I'm a great chef,
but sometimes I don't fully believe it.
Yeah, yeah. I sort of brush it off.
Got to find a sandy bit if we can.
I think putting yourself on a platform against other great chefs
with great judges critiquing you...
Not too much or it'll stick like sludge.
It's a big deal, yeah.
It made me realise that I am half decent.
Lift it up slowly.
Whoa! Yeah! We did it.
The whole family is so proud of Luke for how well he's done.
It's absolutely amazing.
Yeah, we're just rooting for him.
I want to make my children proud, give them a good role model.
Someone to look up to.
Show them that sometimes risk is good.
I haven't actually told my children what I've been doing.
I've been telling them that I've just been working away.
So the reason I've not been here
is because I'm on MasterChef: The Professionals,
and I've made it to the final.
You're a professional?
Well, I was a professional before the show, yeah.
Are you going to win? Do you think I could win?
ALL: Yeah. Yeah, of course, of course.
You're the best, Dad. Dad, you're the best chef.
You're the best chef.
Luke has always had a quiet, calming presence,
but his food is anything but.
You have delivered what we've asked for without panicking.
And that's what we want to see.
It absolutely tastes delicious.
Perfect. That looks great.
I would happily finish it. I probably will.
The whole MasterChef experience has been eye-opening.
Smells amazing.
It's definitely made me think in a different way.
Luke was always ambitious with the amount of work
he would bring into his food.
This is a chef that's cooking in a pub,
but he's cooking food of a fine dining restaurant.
It's bold, gutsy and I love it.
Fabulous flavours.
Great ideas, beautiful execution.
It's a wonderful, wonderful plate of food. Yeah!
I think I've been relatively strong throughout.
John Dory is one of my favourite fish.
I hope you're going to do it justice.
First time cooking fish like this on a barbecue.
Each stage I feel like I can sort of push myself a little bit further.
He's taken on the challenge and delivered a great dish.
Despite Luke's many talents,
there have been dishes that didn't quite hit the mark.
Gnocchi just feels soggy in the consomme.
In the MasterChef kitchen, things are different.
Things don't always go to plan.
Pastry. There's not much room for error.
Your tuiles around the outside, they should be connected.
They should be together.
That was terrible, wasn't it?
Definitely my worst round so far.
To redeem myself, I came back strong and fighting
and tried to show them who I was on a plate.
That looks fantastic, Luke.
Loved it. Chef's kiss.
Just ace.
Luke is a chef that has shown he is inventive
and thinks outside of the box.
I actually asked my wife to give me a brief.
That could be her claim to fame if it goes well.
I think it's really out there,
but I think you've absolutely nailed it.
Everything here is reminiscent of the fun of eating fish and chips.
He has delivered time and time and time again.
Tails coming up now, Chef. Happy? I'm happy if you're happy.
Good. You should be.
I'd do it again, yeah.
Get me on the books, I'll do a shift tomorrow if you want me to.
Beautiful, beautiful work. Well done.
To make it all the way and lift the trophy,
yeah, it'd be unreal.
Doesn't feel possible.
# You are so good
# I know that this is gonna hurt. #
I grew up for most of my life in Dublin.
Really, really loved living by the sea.
Swimming, sailing, all sorts of water sports.
In my early teens, I started to get really into cooking.
Starting to see food could be a really cool
and interesting thing for young guys to be interested in.
I've known Mark for a really long time.
We were part of a little friendship group,
and he would always just throw these incredible parties,
and he would cook for everybody.
And I just kept hanging around.
I just wouldn't leave him alone.
And now we're here.
When I was in my early 20s,
I did this short stint in a culinary school
in Dublin before getting an opportunity
to move to a restaurant in London.
That was really the lights out moment for me.
It was, it was... There was no going back after that.
I got to watch him build his cooking career
and discover his passion for American barbecue.
All right.
I'd always loved barbecue,
always loved smoking, always loved the live fire stuff.
I went off to the States for a couple of months
and I travelled around the southern states,
ate in so many amazing barbecue restaurants.
And that was incredible.
That time was really intrinsic to how I cook now.
Ooh! So good.
Have you ever considered doing this professionally?
There's a huge amount of art to barbecue and to smoking.
Good Lord.
It's so much more than just throwing a bit of meat in a grill
and hoping for the best.
Outrageous.
As always, you've outdone yourself. This is amazing.
And I realised that this was really what I wanted to be doing.
Starting little pop-ups around Margate was amazing,
to open my own business, to choose my own menu.
It was phenomenal. It was absolutely amazing.
The goal for him is to have his own restaurant
and he is a nightmare to walk around town with.
Yeah, I mean somewhere like this
would be absolutely perfect - bar space in here. Sure.
Dining room there, courtyard at the back. Yeah.
His imagination just gets captured about what could be possible.
One day maybe. Who knows?
Oh!
I don't think he believes that he's gotten as far as he has
in the competition, but I am not terribly surprised.
Mark showed us his skills right from the off.
Smashed the skills test, I love it.
I now have my eye on you.
Expectations are high.
I'm always trying to focus on bringing, like,
really big flavours, high-impact dishes.
This is a wonderful little dish.
You want to pour directly into my mouth.
It is an absolute triumph.
Well done.
Mark is never more at home
than when he's got his face over a hot grill.
I love that smoky barbecue bringing the hay into the equation
and I think it's absolutely great.
Trust Mark to bring flames somewhere in his cooking, right?
I'd never put up a dish
that I wouldn't be incredibly excited to eat.
You must feel at home? A little bit, yeah.
Definitely playing a little bit more to my strengths here in a pop-up.
Because that is ultimately why I cook, is to make people happy.
Get a move on because we want to try this.
You just read my mind. Hurry up, Mark.
The only way I know how, is to be like,
look at this amazing thing that I love. Please eat it.
I definitely want to be having more of these sausages.
ALL: Hey!
When Mark started off in this competition,
he was big, he was bold.
Refinement was one of those things
that we were really looking for in Mark's food.
I think it's messy in your piping. It's not your best plate.
He needs to be refining the portion control.
When they say something and you can see
where they're coming from, definitely strikes a chord.
You don't look happy.
It didn't come together the way I wanted it to.
Yeah, it just wasn't up to standard.
Certain cooks don't go your way,
but the next challenge, you come in
and you really, really smash it out of the park.
This lovage and mustard sauce is sensational.
It's the colour of Ireland.
And it's Ireland on a plate.
I like how your dish is being served. It looks good.
Just feel like I've grown and have such a clearer sense
of my food and how it can be presented.
Finally...
..this is refined food at its very, very best from you.
You are like a painter, huh?
Literally is a picture on a plate.
It's a piece of art.
Thank you. Thank you, guys.
It's crowd-pleasing food and it's always delicious.
If he can do that with his cooking today, the sky is the limit.
You see every different step of the way all laid out. It's amazing.
I think it would be mind-blowing to stand on that final line
and to hear them call out my name.
It'd be absolutely incredible.
Yeah.
It'd mean the world to me to be able to walk out
of this kitchen a champion.
In the biggest possible letters.
Just gotta win it now.
It's all that's left.
Look at all the cows coming.
Oh! Let's get moo-ving.
I was born in Carlisle.
Surrounded by farmland and countryside.
It was me, my mum, my dad and my two sisters, Gemma and Gail.
He's always had a nice nature.
The mother would say that he was a perfect child,
but he really was lovely.
My mum's an amazing cook.
She's always raised us on really good food.
When all the other lads were out playing football,
I was at home baking cakes with my mum.
Music was a big part of growing up.
My dad was really into his music.
Blues and jazz. He used to take us to gigs.
My first band, Slater Baty and the Nightmare Boys, we were called.
That was pretty cool.
I ended up going to university and studying drama and film and TV.
He definitely wanted to be a rock star or an actor, but who doesn't?
The last year of uni is when my dad died.
I did feel lost.
I had no reason to try and better myself.
It was in that time when I met Katherine.
We didn't actually meet in person.
I saw a video of him dancing at a wedding
and I thought, he looks a little bit of me.
I pretty much hunted him down until he decided to meet me.
Kat was the best thing that ever happened to me.
And she always pushed me and supported me and believed in me.
I didn't decide to be a chef until much later in life.
I blagged my way into an amazing job.
I just said I'm really passionate.
Whatever I lack in experience, I'll make up for in hard work.
And then from there, I went over to Newcastle
and built a restaurant in the back of a empty warehouse.
This industry is hard, right?
It's a difficult industry to be in.
But I've supported him, and he's worked so hard.
My dad always actually told me that I should be a chef.
It's a real shame that he didn't get to see it,
because, yeah, he would be... he'd be really proud of me.
Hello.
When Gareth phoned me and told me
that he was going to be on MasterChef,
it was the most exciting news I've heard in a very long time.
That beef looks amazing. Proper rib of beef.
He really deserves it. He's worked so hard.
We're all really proud of Uncle Gareth, aren't we?
And Daddy. ALL: Yeah. Well done.
Yeah. Perfect.
If you had said to me a few weeks ago
that I could be the winner of MasterChef: The Professionals,
I would have laughed at you.
But I'm really starting to believe that I can.
Cheers, everybody. Cheers, MasterChef.
Yeah.
Gareth, you are our last contestant entering this competition.
Wow. Rather large.
Have we got a ladder for that mille-feuille?
I'm sorry, Chef.
I think it was great.
I think you did a great job, well done.
Gareth loves to bring a story to his food.
My fiancee's most memorable thing
was the first thing I ever cooked her.
It's delicious.
Main course is memory that I have of a family holiday.
It's absolutely knockout.
I'm cooking for the kids every day at home,
and meatball night is their favourite night.
I like it he's treating us like a couple of kids.
There are great restaurants that serve this type of food.
Never thought I'd get emotional over a meatball.
He's a chef that wears his heart on his sleeve.
I'm doing a plum and frangipane tart. Right.
Which was something that my grandmother used to make.
I love this.
A masterclass in doing the simple things well.
His journey has been quite extraordinary.
Very nervous at the beginning
and then really started to build momentum.
It's been a wild ride.
It's given me a real passion and a fire
to keep going and push myself as far as I can go.
Let's get these off.
Gareth's pop-up dish was incredible.
Today I'm making you cheesy chips. Cheesy chips?
I thought that was absolutely fantastic.
Our guests loved it so much.
Gareth floated straight through to the semifinals.
Gareth has had highs, he's also had lows.
Whisky on a dessert should pack a bit of a punch.
That whisky, it just didn't work.
I'm really not happy with my cake.
Sticky toffee pudding.
The mix wasn't quite right.
Cauliflower, cauliflower, cauliflower cheese.
The balance is just a little bit off.
It's quite monotone.
Gareth found himself fighting for his place in this competition.
However...
..he came back into this kitchen with a steely determination.
I think it's very clever. I like it a lot. Well done.
This chef was not ready to go home.
It really takes every ounce of everything you've got
to keep coming back and giving it your all.
This is a first for me. Beef heart on a barbecue.
I can't really fault that. It is sublime.
He's always got that fight.
This is one of the best plates
you've served in the MasterChef kitchen so far.
I want to do a good job. It needs to be perfect.
I've definitely changed and grown as a person.
Fish is looking good.
I've learned a lot about myself.
I've done things that I never thought I was capable of.
Oh, my God, Gareth, you can cook.
When Gareth's cooking at his best, he cooks from the heart.
I couldn't possibly fit any more love into it, Chef.
I've put love into everything.
If he can do that just one more time,
he is a serious contender to lift that trophy.
This whole competition has been one of the best things I've ever done.
It really has changed my life.
The way I think about the future,
the way I see the future for me and my family.
I think they deserve a phone call to say that I've won it.
I'm coming home with the trophy.
Yeah, that's what I'm going for.
One more cook-off.
This is career-defining. This is a life-changing moment.
Into the lion's den.
One last time.
Look at you. Our final three.
We are so proud of what you have done so far.
Everything that you have fought for has brought you here.
This last cook, chefs,
give it everything you've got because at the end of it,
one of you will be lifting that trophy.
There is no two ways about it.
We've got three fabulous chefs standing in front of us.
Three hours, three courses.
For the final time, off you go.
You can feel it in the air, it's going to be a big day.
Big cook for all of us.
I think we're all here to really prove what we're made of.
I've got a plan, and I think I just need to stick to it
and trust the process.
Whatever you do, don't panic.
Coming into the final, the pressure's massive,
and I don't know how I'm going to stand up against the other guys,
but I just need to trust my instinct.
Go in there and do my best. Let the food do the talking.
Yeah.
Luke, are you enjoying this moment?
If I look relaxed, I'm not. I've got a lot to do.
I feel like the dishes represent me as a chef.
For a starter, I'm making a breakfast...
..like an English breakfast.
So I've got sausage, bacon, black pudding, egg.
But I'm changing it completely.
I like to take a dish that's quite basic,
something that's very commonly known and try and reimagine it.
Luke's starter is a take on a full English breakfast,
and it's not like any other because there's pasta.
So he's making a raviolo.
Luke isn't workshy.
He's going to make that pasta dough stripy.
He's giving us a squid ink black pasta and a regular one.
You don't half know how to make your life complicated.
It'll be worth it in the end.
Maybe.
The black pudding, he's pureeing.
In the middle of that, we have an egg yolk.
He's got to be very careful in the cooking of the raviolo
that that egg yolk, one, does not burst,
and two, doesn't get overcooked.
And I'm going to be serving on the side, a sausage sandwich.
Give him the trophy now. Not yet. Sausage sandwich.
Definitely took inspiration from Scotland
working with Mark Donald.
It was great, it was playful, it was fun.
And I decided to add that element into my meal today.
He's got two slices of bread
and he's made this sausage puree, so he's got sausage meat,
he's added some seasoning into it.
Sausage sandwich, you can't really go wrong, can you?
Maybe I'm the first person to serve a sandwich in the final.
I don't know.
He's making a brown sauce.
Almost 20 ingredients in it.
We've got plums...
Tamarind, yeah. Worcestershire sauce.
We've got dates, we've got pomegranates.
It's going to have some sweetness, some sharpness to it.
I can't wait to try this breakfast.
The main course, I've gone for sort of an Asian influence,
the same sort of flavours you get with a duck pancake,
that most of us have probably eaten from the Chinese takeaway.
I'm serving duck breast,
making a plum sauce.
The cooking of the duck breast on the crown,
beautifully caramelised on the outside,
render that fat down beautifully and roast it to perfection.
Luke's going to braise the duck legs in some star anise,
some lemongrass, some ginger and some plums.
He's going to strip the meat.
He's going to turn that into a croquette.
So nice and crispy on the outside,
and that soft, melting, flavoursome meat in the middle.
And then he's going to take that stock, and he's going to reduce it.
And he's going to make that into a sauce.
No waste, and I love that.
We've got miso-glazed celeriac fondant
full of umami and saltiness that's going to really pick this dish up.
I think it's great, and again, it's playful.
It's very Luke.
The dessert is a classic Italian dessert,
tiramisu, but far more elevated than a tiramisu that everybody knows.
Luke's starting with mascarpone panna cotta
and a coffee chocolate cremeux.
Now, that sounds very straightforward, but this is Luke.
It is not.
It's quite different to a tiramisu.
There's quite a lot going into it, I think.
He is going to do layers of the mascarpone and the coffee chocolate.
He's going to do one layer, set it,
another layer, set and freeze that.
I've got to set five layers into my moulds,
so I've got to wait for each layer to set before I can add the next.
And then I need it to set fully
before I can take it out of the moulds.
Have you started the layers, Luke? Yeah, yeah.
How many have you done? I've done three. I've just got two more to do.
OK. I've just got to let them set a little bit.
I want to taste the coffee.
I want a little bit of acidity coming through
from the actual mascarpone itself.
Creaminess as well.
I'm serving that with amaretto cherries.
It does work quite well with the coffee flavour.
I'm making a sorbet out of that.
The sorbet has got to be beautifully set.
You want to taste a cherry and some of the alcohol running through it.
I think Luke's going to give us
a tiramisu like we haven't seen before.
What time are we at? One hour has gone.
Two hours remaining. Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef.
This cook is everything
that I've been working towards for the last couple of months.
You've just got to come in and do the absolute best you can,
and the best chef on the day will walk away with the trophy.
Mark, it's been exciting watching you change and develop.
Yeah, I think I've taken away a huge amount of refinement.
It's been a few years since I've been in a fine dining kitchen
and really reigniting that passion, and that love
for that rigour into food has been absolutely amazing.
So, what's the inspiration for your three dishes, then?
They are based around the idea of my last meal.
They're all of my favourite things to eat and to cook.
It's a momentous day in so many ways,
so I wanted to do a lot of the stuff that I absolutely love.
Nice. Like that.
The starter is based on, like, a big fruits de mer seafood tower.
It's one of my absolute favourite things to eat,
and just trying to bring that sort of sense of celebration
and that freshness of, like, all things shellfish.
Oysters.
He's put them into the steamer
with elastic band wrapped around them, just to slightly firm them up.
They only steam for two minutes,
and it keeps all that moisture inside.
They're cooked slightly, but they'll be effectively still raw.
With oysters sometimes, you just put a little bit of red wine vinegar
with shallots running through it.
A touch of Tabasco.
He's replacing those with the horseradish,
which I think is a great idea.
We have sake-poached mussels with kimizu.
Kimizu is a bit like a hollandaise,
but it's with rice vinegar that's going over his mussels.
And he's finishing it with a nori oil.
He's going to be brining scallops.
He's then going to pipe a little bit of champagne gel
over the top of that.
Mark, you were always my favourite. You were always my favourite.
I always bring the goods, I know.
Again, elevated for this MasterChef kitchen.
This will look like a million bucks.
I think they'll all taste amazing.
I think it's just whether or not I can achieve it all in the time.
I've given myself a lot of work to do.
For Mark's main course,
we have got a pork loin cooked, of course, on the barbecue.
I was always going to use the barbecue for my last cook here,
and this dish really celebrates the barbecue in a big way.
Every element here touches the fire in some way, shape or form.
Whoa! He's going to brine his pork in some sweet tea.
He's then going to put this barbecue rub all over it.
All those famous flavours from the Deep South.
The idea is to, like, slowly render the pork,
and as it cooks, all this fat will start to render out,
hit these coals, and that's going to be
what's going to flavour the pork all the way through the cook.
Now, you can't just put that pork on the barbecue and walk away.
This is going to take some love and care.
He's going to be in and out of the kitchen.
How much time has Mark given himself to just stand over that pork
and make sure it's perfectly cooked?
Mark is making hispi cabbage rolls.
He's going to do layers of apple, lardo,
rolling that up and then steaming it.
He's going to barbecue some crayfish.
He's going to put those in the hispi cabbage roll.
Crayfish - they're delicate, they're sweet.
Will they be lost in that wrap?
I hope he puts lots of them in there
because that's a flavour I will be searching for.
Mark's is all about that American classic loved by cops,
coffee and doughnuts, but not as you know it.
I love coffee and doughnuts
as the most amazing breakfast and a very American touchstone,
so I wanted to bring a little of that.
We've got a coffee espuma.
Coffee flavour. Bitter. Really want to get that big flavour in there.
That espuma has got to have the right texture
that once he pumps it onto the plate, it will hold and stay set.
These little doughnuts are going to be fried,
so they've got to be nice and crispy on the outside.
Super light in the middle.
We've got malted milk bavarois.
Malted milk, obviously.
Much-loved bedtime drink.
With the bavarois, a little bit like a panna cotta,
you've got to get the balance of flavours right,
but you've also got to get the setting agent just perfect.
If you win, what do you think it'll do for your career?
The dream would be to open a restaurant.
Lots of butchery in house, lots of beautiful live fire cooking.
Do you think you've got what it takes to lift that trophy?
Somewhere deep down, maybe it's there.
And if it is, I'm going to bring it out today.
There's no other day. Absolutely. This is it.
The last opportunity.
Chefs, you've got one hour remaining.
Yes, Chef. Oui. Oui.
I can't quite believe this is the last cook
in the MasterChef kitchen.
This means everything.
So the whole menu is dedicated to the people who have supported me
and got me into this position today.
The first course is dedicated to my mum.
A big thank you to her.
All the luxury ingredients she deserves,
loosely based around one of her favourite dishes.
Um...prawn cocktail.
Prawn cocktail is a dish that's been in pubs, restaurants,
up and down the country.
Four, five, six, seven, eight...
This is going to be a little bit different though.
It's been inspired by his trip to Italy.
We've got some beautiful fresh langoustines...
That is great.
..that he's chopping down into almost like a little tartare.
Phew!
Into that tartare, he's going to put a little bit
of green apple, so a little bit of acidity.
He's giving us a kefir sauce. I love the use of kefir.
It's got that slight kind of sour, yogurty twang to it.
It's going to be a little bit on the sharp side.
He's got to get the balance of that just right.
The langoustine heads, I'm going to cook them
over the barbecue like we were doing in Italy.
Just want that barbecue, charred smoky flavour. Yeah?
Yeah. Caramelised, you know. Perfect, perfect.
Perfect.
To give you the flavours of the Marie Rose sauce...
We've got a langoustine mayonnaise.
..we've also got a tomato tuile.
They look very fragile.
Delicate hands are needed.
They broke. One of them has just broke.
Yeah. Don't throw them away. Yes, Chef.
Just in case.
But also, you have got more mix, so do make some more, OK.
Don't give up.
I want them to be perfect.
I really need to start pushing.
The next dish is for my dad.
Based around when he used to take us foraging
in the woods for mushrooms.
And then we'd all stop at the pub afterwards
and all have chicken and chips.
Chicken and chips.
The simplicity here is just in the title.
He's basically taking the breast of the chicken
and then he's wrapping a chicken mousse around the outside.
We're getting there.
Generally, you would have the mousse on the inside,
he's got his on the outside.
I've gone through a hundred different ways of doing this.
It's almost like a reverse ballotine.
If the chicken's not quite cooked in the middle
or the mousse is overcooked, it could be a disaster.
It's a risky thing to do,
but it's the finals of MasterChef: The Professionals.
King oyster mushroom, it's meaty.
On the side, we have tarragon mayo.
Tarragon with chicken - oh! A match made in heaven.
With a Madeira sauce.
The base of that will be the chicken wings,
which he's roasting off, lovely and golden.
I think in the last round, I served you steak
and you asked for a big bowl of chips.
So that's what I'm going to give you today.
He can have just the bowl of chips.
I love a potato. Yeah.
This dish is complex.
It's full of detail, and it's full of confidence.
Dessert is a take on a really retro cocktail, Brandy Alexander.
Whenever we went round to my partner's families
as we were leaving, they'd always say, "One for t'road?"
We'd have a brandy, and no matter how expensive or cheap it was,
they'd all go, "Oh, that's reet smooth, that is."
You know, you're drinking...
Kat's brother passed away recently,
but he was the one who pushed me
into being a private chef, who had given me the confidence
to go it alone and cook my dishes.
So, yeah, I owe him a lot.
The Brandy Alexander is normally made from brandy, cream and cocoa.
But what Gareth has done is pick those elements apart
to create this dessert.
We've got a milk chocolate cremeux and a dulce de leche cremeux,
and they're going to be set one on top of the other.
This is the dulce de leche cremeux, caramelised condensed milk.
And then this will be on top of the chocolate.
So that one needs to be set before I pour this one on.
He's also got a brandy snap biscuit. Got to be soft and crunchy.
Make sure they're not overcooked because they can be quite bitter.
And then on top of that, we've got some poached pears.
It was the first thing I did in the skills test.
So, yeah, it's fitting that it would be
the last thing I serve in my dessert.
The sauce is the poaching liquid from the pears,
fresh ginger juice and then loads of brandy.
I'm adding the brandy until it either puts hairs on your chest
or knocks your socks off.
One of the two.
Big, big, big flavours here.
They will all work, only if he's got the balance just right.
Chefs, you have 30 minutes left.
Serve the three most amazing dishes of your career so far.
Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef. Yes.
Yeah, I've got to really pick up the pace now.
It's going to be a struggle to get everything done.
I just really need to pull my finger out right now.
You going to be all right? Very against the clock.
A lot still to do.
I've never seen this before. Works for me.
Hopefully work for you guys.
Just under ten minutes left. This is very intense.
How's the duck, Luke? Yeah, I'm happy.
Yes! Mark, that pork looks incredible.
Yeah, it's come out very, very nice.
Make sure you've got everything on the plate.
Yeah.
SIGHING
There is only six minutes left.
How's is it? Has it set?
Yeah, it's come out nice.
You're almost there, chefs. Come on!
Are those your beignets? Yeah. You've got three minutes.
Yes, Chef.
You have got to move it.
Mark! Let's go.
Right, chefs, you've got 60 seconds left.
Come on, come on, come on.
Mind your doughnuts.
You've got ten seconds. Yes, Chef.
They've got to come out.
Are they cooked? They're not cooked.
That's it, time's up.
Mark, come on up.
Mark, it looks fantastic. It's refined.
Can't wait to get going.
Mark's final menu starts with a fruits de mer,
a seafood platter of diced scallop with a champagne gel,
pickled celery and fresh grape,
sake-poached mussels dressed in white soy kimizu
and barbecued nori oil and an oyster
topped with horseradish cream and caviar.
The scallop or the sweetness of the grape,
the herbal notes of the celery,
and then just that cheeky sparkle.
The notes of champagne in the jelly that's fresh,
followed by the mussels.
You've got the kimizu in it.
So there's a little bit of that clever seasoning
with the smoky notes of the nori that you've just ran over the grill.
Wonderful. Thank you very much. Thank you.
My favourite out of all three of these has to be the oyster.
And I love the way you brought the horseradish heat into the cream.
And of course, finish with caviar. Yeah, why not?
You've taken the three different elements
and just made them sing in their own unique way.
I love the sweetness of those little scallops,
the mussel, which is pretty punchy.
But the star of this show is that oyster.
It's a very sort of modern take on a fruits de mer,
and you've done it justice.
For his main course, Mark has served
a southern-style barbecued pork chop in a spiced paprika rub
with a hispi cabbage roll filled with crayfish tail,
apple and burnt leek pesto,
and a hot pepper puree,
finished with a pork and crayfish sauce.
The pork chop, it's so wonderfully cooked with a rub that you've made.
It's got smokiness from the barbecue, what you love to do.
It's you on another level.
Your hispi cabbage,
you have got that crayfish flavour. I think that's fabulous.
I love your pepper puree. You've got heat in the sauce.
I love the fact you put the crayfish through the stalk.
That's great.
That's probably one of the nicest pork chops I've ever eaten.
This is everything you love about the cooking
of the Deep South, just refined.
This is a really, really good dish. Well done.
Thank you very much.
For dessert, Mark has made a malted milk bavarois,
topped with a cocoa-nib tuile and blackcurrant gel.
Finished with a coffee espuma.
Obviously there's one element missing.
We didn't quite get the beignets.
What I have here is a bavarois
that's possibly the lightest bavarois I've ever had,
and I love the flavours of malt that's running through this.
The tuile has got the crunch, it's got the nibs.
The coffee espuma, sometimes those espumas,
you know, they either love you or hate you.
It's too thick. It's definitely too thick.
You're not happy with that, and that's fine.
But this is a delicious dessert.
I love the addition of the blackcurrant gel.
It's brilliant. It's just kind of got that acidity.
You see a dessert on a menu
and there's a little doughnut sitting on the side of it.
It's going to be one of the dishes that most chefs would order.
But it ain't on there.
There is some lovely flavours running through this though,
I have to say.
Thank you very much.
You've cooked a great menu, Mark, with real passion.
And I think this competition has got the very, very best out of you.
It's refined you, and that restaurant you mentioned earlier on,
Can't wait for that to open.
It's hard to put into words what this competition
has meant to me personally, and as a chef in my career.
I think the food I'm producing now is heads and shoulders above
what I could have done even weeks ago.
And I thank you so much.
Well done, mate. Well done. Smashed it!
I'm immensely happy with the feedback I got there.
I think I put forward dishes that I believe in.
I'd like to have eaten it. Me too.
I'm over the moon with how it's all gone.
It's a bit nerve-racking, isn't it?
This is very much your style of food.
It's so precise. Just wonderful. It looks great.
For his starter, Luke, has served a twist on the English breakfast,
with a black pudding and egg yolk raviolo striped with squid ink,
topped with crispy bacon,
served with a sausage sandwich and brown sauce.
Yes!
The raviolo is cooked beautifully.
You've got that kind of earthiness,
the richness of the black pudding in there.
It's softened by the egg. Crispy bacon.
Obviously, they all work beautifully.
I think the pasta is creating something that shows skill.
That's what this is.
It's clever, it's smart, it's you.
It's the start of a great menu. Well done.
Not only that, you go and give us a sausage sandwich.
Fun and delicious.
The sauce you made, there's the sweetness of the date.
Lots of spices.
What a fun take on an English breakfast.
Luke's main is a take on Chinese duck.
Duck breast cooked on the crown with a spiced duck leg croquette,
miso-poached celeriac fondant and a duck and plum sauce.
The duck's beautifully cooked, rendered just right.
Pink, rested. Love that.
Your duck leg, it's got lovely aromats running through there.
You've got chilli in there too, chopped up spring onions,
and then you've got that sauce running through.
I love this. I think it's very clever.
Great job.
I love the celeriac.
I love the way you rolled it out and then rolled it back,
and it just makes it so much lighter.
It sucks up all those flavours that you poach them in.
It all works beautifully.
The sauce.
You took the cooking liquor from the legs of the duck and added that.
So it's got the spices and more of the fruit running through it.
There's a hint of soy.
I mean, you couldn't get two more different plates.
English breakfast followed by duck and pancakes.
For dessert, Luke has made his version of tiramisu.
Layers of mascarpone panna cotta and chocolate and coffee cream
in a thin chocolate shell lined with mascarpone cream,
served with an amaretto-soaked cherry
and an amaretto cherry sorbet.
I think the flavour that sits inside that little chocolate log there
is the essence of what the best tiramisu is all about.
You've got the coffee perfect.
Not oversweet, not under.
The mascarpone, the way it's set, working beautifully.
I love the addition of the cherry sorbet.
It's very reminiscent of Black Forest
with a chocolate and with a cherry.
This is a very, very delicious and well executed dessert.
The one stand-alone cherry here that's been soaked in amaretto,
I kind of wish you had a bowl of those.
However, there is nothing here that I am not enjoying.
Thank you.
Luke, it's been a real joy to watch you develop
throughout this competition.
You are so much more confident.
Lift your head up higher because you are doing something quite special.
I do feel a little bit, like, lost for words at the moment.
I'm going to keep pushing my food the way that I have been.
I'm going to try and bring it out of the competition
and do it in my own kitchen.
Congratulations. Well done.
I thought I was going to cry for a minute.
I was like...
The judges' feedback was far beyond what I was expecting.
It's very emotional.
I could definitely feel sort of a lump in my throat in there,
sort of trying not to sob like a boy.
It couldn't have gone better. Yeah.
So hopefully, hopefully it was enough.
Fingers crossed.
Gareth's final menu is an ode to his family.
This looks really, really good.
The starter is his take on a prawn cocktail for his mum,
a langoustine and green apple tartare
with a kefir and caviar sauce split with dill oil
topped with a tomato tuile
dusted with tomato powder,
served with a Marie Rose langoustine mayonnaise.
You've got those beautiful langoustines.
You've still got some bite and texture in there.
The kefir giving you that kind of sourness.
Hands down, this is one of the nicest dishes you've given us.
That lovely little tuile.
I've watched you make it at the bench there.
You were struggling.
It's very, very precise.
And the little Marie Rose style sauce that sits around the outside.
Slightly caramelised langoustines.
That's just delicious. Thank you.
It's such a delicate dish,
yet, it's gutsy.
What a great way to start this menu. Brilliant job.
Mum would be proud. Thank you.
In memory of his dad, Gareth's main is chicken and chips,
a chicken breast roulade wrapped in a chicken and truffle mousse
with king oyster mushroom, cep puree and tarragon mayonnaise,
served with a side of shoestring fries,
finished with a Madeira sauce.
The cooking of the chicken breast on the inside,
it's still tender.
Brilliant.
The cep puree, it is smooth.
You can taste the mushroom flavours through that.
The tarragon mayonnaise, very well thought of
because chicken and tarragon work so well together.
The king oyster mushroom is so meaty, it's indulgent.
Thank you.
The chicken is perfect. The mousse is brilliant.
I love that sauce.
It's got that smokiness, and it adds so much.
I'm struggling to find fault here.
This is an absolute winner.
And of course, on the side, the bowl of chips.
They're great. They're crispy, they're crunchy.
I love the fact you've also added cep powder onto it.
And then just to finish it off, you put some chicken skin.
Well, why not?
This is a dish for the old man.
I think he'd be very proud of you.
Well done. Thank you.
Dedicated to his fiancee's family,
Gareth's dessert is a twist on the Brandy Alexander cocktail.
A layer of milk chocolate cremeux and dulce de leche cremeux,
topped with a brandy snap and brandy-poached pears.
Finished with a ginger and brandy sauce.
You've got the bitter chocolate on the bottom,
and then a little bit of salted caramel over the top.
And I love that it's the same texture,
yet it's hitting two different notes.
The brandy snap on the top here
has just got that right sort of bite into it.
The pears, beautifully, perfectly poached.
It is rich and it's punchy. Thank you.
Wow.
That's got some body to it, and some kick.
To get that balance of the brandy, the ginger heat,
and to make it work with this cremeux is brilliant.
What a way to finish your menu.
What a way to finish a competition
with that little final brandy farewell.
I love it, it's great.
Gareth, this is exceptional. Thank you, Chef.
Whatever you set out to do, you've absolutely nailed it.
This sauce it's just wonderful.
It's rich, it's really powerful. I'm absolutely loving it.
Really, really, really good. Really accomplished.
Gareth, three very different stories
for three or four very different people who mean something to you.
You finished off with an absolute knockout three-course menu.
Congratulations. Well done.
Loved it.
When I walked through those doors all those weeks ago
and saw the three of you for a skills test,
was one of the most terrifying experiences I've ever had.
And now, sitting here in front of you,
I feel like a completely different chef.
I've learned so much this competition
and it has been an amazing adventure.
Thank you very much.
That's what you want, isn't it? Well done, mate.
I'm feeling absolutely delighted. On top of the world.
They were the most important dishes I had to cook.
A thank you to my mum.
A dish for my dad, father and brother-in-law.
I was really glad that I did them all justice.
Well done, guys. Oh!
Well done to everyone.
That was such a hard cook.
Oh, my God. What a day!
Every year, I think, are we going to get as good a final as the last?
Well, we sure did.
Our three finalists took this year to a whole new level...
..and that's what it's all about.
We've had some fantastic food.
It's been a real, real privilege to watch.
Mark for me is the chef that has had the biggest highs,
the biggest lows, but he's taken it on board.
And what we saw today was him really kind of finessing.
Three great plates of food,
the flavours of the barbecue running through.
It's fabulous.
Luke is now a chef who's unafraid to rewrite food as we know it.
Cooking this food in the final is quite extraordinary.
Brave, different.
I just thought all three of his dishes equally were delicious.
Throughout this competition, we've watched Gareth change.
Today, we had three faultless dishes
and he cooks from the heart.
We, as chefs know, that is the best food, when it's from a memory,
something that means something to you.
And if you can share that, you're onto something very special.
And I think Gareth has found the art of doing that.
We've got to make a decision, and it's a tough decision.
Who is our champion?
It's been amazing, cooking with you both.
It's been such a such a pleasure, such an honour.
We can all leave with our heads held high.
It's been a journey.
Hopefully, the journey's just beginning.
# I could be someone better if I pulled you in closer
# Feelin' the things that I'm not supposed to
# But who am I? Who am I?
# I'm the man who can't be loved. #
That was a fabulous final, outstanding cookery.
And all three of you should be incredibly proud.
It's my first time here in the MasterChef kitchen,
and it's been a real honour to share it with you three.
As brilliant as all three of you are,
there can be only one winner.
Our professional MasterChef champion is...
# Who am I? Who am I?
# I'm the man who can't be loved. #
Gareth.
Well done, mate. Well done.
Brilliant, mate. Well done.
Well done, mate.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I can't believe it.
Mark, Luke, you've been an absolute pleasure to have in the kitchen.
And I hope that you have enjoyed the journey.
For the last time, thank you so much.
Thank you, chefs. Thank you.
Well done, Gareth.
The competition has been a great experience.
I'll look back on it fondly.
It's been eye-opening
I've definitely developed as a chef.
It's going to take a couple of days to sink in.
But, yeah, I'm looking forward to going back
to normal life for a little bit.
It's been an incredible experience
from the moment I stepped through those doors.
To be with the competition right from the beginning,
all the way to the very end is incredibly special.
But Gareth was so deserving to win
and I couldn't imagine it going to a nicer bloke.
I believe this is yours.
Thank you. Congratulations.
Thank you so much. All right, thank you.
This means everything. It's the best feeling I've ever had.
It's absolutely incredible. I'm over the moon. Thank you.
Well done. Congratulations. Cheers, Gareth, well done.
Champion, well done. Thank you.
Gareth's food...it's bold, it's flavoursome,
and it's from the heart.
He has gotten better and better with every challenge.
And his final three dishes today showed that.
They were faultless.
If I've learned anything through this competition,
cooking food that you believe in and cooking from the heart
can take you a long way.
He cooks with love and he cooks with passion.
And that's why he's our champion.
Hi.
I won. Oh, my God, I can't believe it.
I've taken so much more from the competition than I thought.
I'm so proud of you. It's changed me as a person.
It's changed me as a chef.
Gareth's got a huge future,
and I cannot wait to see where he goes.
Now that I'm here holding this trophy,
it's given me a whole new road to travel on.
And I'm going to go all the way down it.
# My friends at home are in pain
# Took it back out, I hate cocaine
# I keep moving to the rhythm of it
# Can't be responsible for everybody
# My tweets put fire in my bones
# People talk right out of their own
# I never get to look at any
# He lost his job again in January
# At night, she's hearing him cry
# Getting things out... #