MasterChef is back...
Boom!
..with 45 of the country's most ambitious home cooks.
Argh!
Stressing.
Each week... Oh!
..nine will battle for a coveted place
in the quarterfinal.
THEY GASP
Oh, my God!
Stress. Stress.
Argh!
I can't believe it.
Ohhh! Chronic!
I absolutely love it.
Hey! Dib-dab, that's fab.
Only the strongest will make it to the final challenges
and the culinary adventure of a lifetime...
It's all about the speed now, OK?
Whoa! It's a piece of art.
Cheers! To the fair.
Whoa-ho!
We need to pick up the pace, please.
..as they compete for the title of MasterChef Champion 2023.
We want passion, drive, ambition.
We want beautiful food.
Let the culinary battle commence.
It's early morning,
and this week's nine MasterChef hopefuls arrive
for their audition.
Cooking in the MasterChef kitchen is going to be 50% terrifying
and 50% like being at Disney World.
When I cook at home, everything kind of disappears around me
and I just cook,
so I'm hoping that kind of magic happens in the MasterChef kitchen.
This feeling, the nerve-racking feeling,
I don't know why, but I like it.
Welcome to MasterChef.
This, of course, could be the start of a fantastic adventure.
We've asked you to cook for Gregg and I
a dish that you cook for your family and your friends,
a family favourite, as such.
John and I are going to choose our three favourite dishes.
The cooks who cook those dishes, they're going to get themselves an
apron and they are in the competition.
The remaining six of you will get a chance to cook again
for four last aprons.
We will not be in the MasterChef kitchen with you.
Our floor manager,
he will keep time and make sure you deliver to us
because we will be next-door in the tasting room.
We'll see you soon.
I am so scared. Are you? So scared, yeah.
I want to do my best and try and get one of the aprons
and go through, yeah.
Definitely the easy route, if possible.
I love this round.
We have no idea what we're going to get.
I'm excited and I'm terrified.
I feel like I need a huge hug.
Their job right now is to simply make us fall in love
with their cooking through their family favourite.
I've not got a podcast playing. I've just got my own thoughts
and a frying pan, so what could go wrong?
The contestants will audition in groups of three, and have one hour
and 20 minutes to make their family favourite MasterChef-worthy.
Doing well - chop, chop, chop.
First up will be 27-year-old fire and security engineer
Ryan from Wigan.
He regularly cooks at home for his partner Rachel and the kids.
It wasn't me who applied for MasterChef. It was Rachel.
She was like, you should just go for it.
And, er, yeah, I'm here!
So hopefully, I'll prove her right.
I literally just watch every TV show to do with cooking
all the time.
I love Tom Kerridge and then John Torode, as well.
I do like John Torode.
Got a man crush!
Ryan's up first - seafood paella with tempura squid
and a parsley oil.
Actually, there's probably a lot of skill on show here.
Family favourite from holidays with my mum and dad in Spain.
We used to always get a big pan of paella
and then it just takes me back to that moment.
The secret is get the saffron in, all the flavours of the garlic,
paprika, and just let it stew away and soak up all that flavour.
That squid - there's got to be a lovely, crisp batter
round the outside.
I'm a bit worried about my batter.
It's not really crisp enough. It's just really oily,
so I need to try and change it.
Going to try and make it a bit thicker.
Ryan, how are you getting on? Flapping a bit.
What about you?
Yeah, I think I'm all right.
27-year-old Nikka grew up in the Philippines and now works
as an NHS neo-natal nurse in London.
I deal with babies who are quite sick and needing a bit more support.
I love my job so very much, but I do love cooking.
We had MasterChef in the Philippines.
It was such a big thing.
And then, when I came here, I did not realise that MasterChef
could be within reach, so it's a dream come true already.
Nikka is making for us pork belly adobo, served with garlic fried
rice and atchara. I love the sound of this dish.
It's a classic Filipino dish. We have it at least once a week.
This is basically my family's version, but a little bit elevated,
I'd like to think.
I love pork belly. When it's cooked beautifully,
it should be lovely and soft and fall apart.
Adobo is putting it into vinegar, soy sauce and garlic, isn't it?
It's just a way of marinating it.
NIKKA:It's special because, whenever I miss home,
whenever I want some form of comfort,
I put it on the plate in the form of adobo!
Emma, how are you feeling?
Fantastic, thank you for asking.
Next up is 42-year-old property manager Emma from Glasgow,
who's been cooking since she was six-years-old.
My biggest inspiration for cooking is my grandma.
She is 91.
She's an incredible cook.
Just about everything I cook has a little bit of a hint back
to what she has taught me.
What is it you're actually making?
Persian chicken.
Ooh, that sounds amazing!
Doesn't it? Let's see what happens.
I'm guessing here with this chicken stew
is a kind of tagine sort of affair.
I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see some saffron in it,
some nuts in it, maybe some dried fruit in it.
The chicken needs to be cooked really well.
If it's going to be thighs, we need to have meat that just falls away.
This is loosely based on something that my grandma's
been making since 1954.
She was a young bride and went to my grandpa's boss's house
for dinner and they were Egyptian, so they made a kind of style
of this stew and my grandma just started cooking it,
and we've had it in the family for years.
That spiced aubergine - aubergine can be really tough
if it's not cooked properly,
but using lots and lots of spices and flavourings in there,
it could be elegant.
OK, Ryan, you've got 15 minutes left. 15 minutes. Thanks a lot.
Yes! This seems to be a bit better.
Yeah. I think I'm happy with that.
Let's get plated up.
Yeah, I think so. Looks pretty. You're good.
Hopefully, it'll taste OK.
Yay! You're doing it. You're great. You've got this.
This is the tempura squid going on now.
I just need some parsley oil on there, going round.
I'm happy. Deep breath. Breathe!
Go on, Ryan!
CHEERING
That looks so good. Cheers, thanks. Amazing.
Nice job! Cheers.
So we know the standard now, don't we, yeah?
Hello.
Fire and security engineer Ryan's audition dish
is seafood and chicken paella,
topped with pan-fried king prawns,
tempura squid and parsley oil.
How did it go in there? Stressful.
Really? I have to tell you, it smells good. Thanks.
I think you've captured the flavour of the paella, with all that saffron
and the spicy pork that comes from the chorizo.
I think that's really good.
But I find those prawns overcooked.
They've gone dry for me,
and they've gone really sort of cotton wool-like.
There are a thousand ways of making a paella.
I like yours. It's saucy, and that's how I like it.
Rice is nicely cooked.
Your tempura squid is perfect -
light tempura batter, nice chew to the squid.
Thanks a lot. Cheers, mate.
I think you like this more than I do. Those prawns are dry.
RYAN SIGHS
As I was walking through the doors, my heart was pounding.
My hands were shaking as well.
I just couldn't believe it.
I was like, "They're actually there."
I'm quite confident with how this has turned out,
but it's a coin toss at this point.
Yeah, hopefully they like it.
OK, Nikka, that's one minute to go.
This will be the last thing and then it will be in their hands after.
Good luck. Thank you. Gosh.
Hello. Hi.
NHS neo-natal nurse Nikka has cooked a pork belly adobo,
a Filipino pork stew flavoured with soy sauce and vinegar,
served with garlic fried rice and atchara,
lightly pickled carrots, shallots and chillies.
Your rice is beautifully done.
There's a nuttiness to it, and there's so much garlic in there,
it's almost hot, but it's not overpowering. It's perfect.
I love your atchara.
There's a light pickling on that,
and there's ginger and there's chilli and there's heat.
But it's very refreshing.
But I've got bits of pork in there going a little dry,
a little chewy.
Nikka, I think you cooked your rice beautifully
but your pork belly adobo, because you've got soy in there and vinegar,
the flavour is very concentrated and quite salty.
Nikka, thank you very much.
Thank you.
It was amazing having them critique my dish, but at the same time
they said it was a bit salty,
so quite nervous about that.
I can breathe now.
I think we're OK.
I think just cobble it all together and keep my fingers crossed.
So, chicken thigh.
This is rose petals.
Because everyone needs a bit of pink and sparkle.
Done!
That's so pretty, Emma. Wow. Well done, Emma. Good luck.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hello. Hello. Hello, hello.
Property manager Emma has made her version of her grandma's Persian
chicken stew, served with spiced aubergine rice, and a tomato filled
with a cucumber and pomegranate salad.
I love that jammy onion.
Sweet, sharp, dried apricot, rose petals.
All the spices, including cinnamon. I think that's absolutely delicious.
Sadly, the chicken's gone dry because you've kept it separate.
Cooked in with those onions, I can just imagine
it tastes absolutely delicious.
Your tomato salad,
I like the bite of the onion and the freshness of the pomegranate.
But it seems strange to have a cold salad
with a hot rice dish.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
I'm feeling, pffff, elated and devastated in equal measure.
Who dries out chicken? My grandma will kill me.
Back in the kitchen,
the next three competitors are under way.
43-year-old Chris from Henley-on-Thames has been a circus
performer for over 20 years and performs in London's West End.
I'm a fire breather.
I spend my life dressed as a pig,
so I'm known onstage for being a pig
that makes a mess with food.
My day job, usually, is eating and breathing fire, and cooking
in the kitchen, I guess, still working with heat.
So I'm happy with that.
But cooking on the MasterChef kitchen, it is going to feel totally
out my comfort zone.
So I'm going to make steak and chips, but I'm going
to reimagine it for MasterChef.
Marinated fillet of beef with some Asian flavours,
a smoked pomme puree and a red wine,
port and five-spice gravy.
Chris is promising a steak and chips, actually, without any chips.
You can't do steak and chips and no chips!
He's got steak and mash.
I'm a fan of rare steak, but I'm going to go
for a nice medium for the judges.
I think they'll appreciate that.
Chris is attempting what needs to be a very fine balancing act.
Asian marinated fillet steak and smoked puree
AND a red wine, port and five-spice jus.
That's a lot going on there.
At home, I cook for my boyfriend.
He would say I'm a messy cook, but I'm getting better.
I'm getting better at being tidy.
Oh! The smell of it.
40-year-old master coffee roaster Chariya grew
up in northern Thailand and now lives
with her fiance in Farnborough.
Chariya is going to cook for us nam ngiao.
Northern Thai curry with beef short ribs.
There's a huge amount of work in this dish.
It's my grandad's favourite. I cook for him today.
Thai food is not about pad thai, tom yum, red curry.
No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
It's a lot more than that.
I'm wondering how she's going to cook beef short ribs.
When I cook them, they're in the oven for two, three hours.
So what's she going to use? A pressure cooker?
If the pressure cooker doesn't work and the beef is not tender,
then that is...that is going to be a disaster.
Ta-da! Oh, that looks good.
I've put 30 chilli in there.
SHE LAUGHS
It's going to be very hot.
Look at the colour. It's so red.
Mm!
SHE LAUGHS
Beetroot vermicelli rice noodles.
Does that mean noodles flavoured with beetroot?
It's a nice colour! It's so pink.
If Chariya can make home-made noodles in the time that she's got,
I'm going to be really impressed.
I do think it's an apron-worthy dish.
I mean, this garish orange one is lovely, but I would prefer
a MasterChef one.
25-year-old recruitment consultant Josh lives in Stratford-upon-Avon
and started cooking when he was at university.
I remember when I first made a white sauce in front of my flatmates
and they looked at me like I was some kind of wizard.
Josh is making Scottish venison with pearl barley risotto, served
with a haggis bonbon, asparagus puree and a red wine jus.
It's so Scottish, it's waving the flag of St Andrew.
I, myself, am not Scottish. However, my wife's family
very much are.
We got married earlier in the year, so I kind of wanted to do something
kind of dedicated to them.
I've been watching MasterChef for pretty much as long
as I can remember.
We even had a picture of Gregg up in my uni accommodation
in the kitchen, kind of hovering over me while I was cooking.
Don't tell John. I don't want them to think
that I'm playing favourites.
HE LAUGHS
I love pear barley risotto.
I think it's a great thing, as long as it's seasoned really well.
Maybe some mushrooms in there.
If I screw up pearl barley, I don't think I'll ever be able
to look my wife's grandparents in the eyes again.
Asparagus puree?
Asparagus puree, to me, is like the odd one out there.
OK, Chris, time to start plating.
Great. Thank you.
Moment of truth.
HE LAUGHS
I'm happy with that.
That looks incredible, Chris.
Hi. Hello, Chris.
Circus performer Chris has marinated his beef fillet with soy sauce
and sake, and served it on wilted cavolo nero with caramelised
carrots, smoked pomme puree and a red wine, port and five-spice sauce.
Have you got a butchered pig tattooed on your arm? I have.
So I've spent my whole career dressed as a pig, performing fire
and fire-breathing, in circus, in a show in the West End.
I mean, we've had some people in here before.
I've never had a fire-breathing pig in here before!
I'm surprised you've allowed me on.
THEY LAUGH
Your sauce is great.
Sharp with red wine. Sweet with port.
Love that Chinese five spice.
I really like it.
I like your carrots. They're really good.
But because you marinated that beef, what's happened
is when you've cooked it, it's starting to go slightly dry.
Your mashed potato is absolutely splendid.
It's really thick and creamy and it's completely lump free.
But it lacks seasoning.
Chris, it's been a pleasure to meet you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Everything inside me is just mixed-up emotions.
It definitely was more scary leaving my food for John and Gregg
than doing a show, for sure.
Right. Let's do this.
This is the rice noodle.
We're going to serve next to the curry.
Some fresh coriander. All done. Good luck.
Thank you. It's very heavy.
Hiya! Hiya!
Chariya's audition dish is nam ngiao, a northern Thai beef
short rib curry served with home-made beetroot
vermicelli rice noodles, crispy
chicken skin and a beetroot coral tuille.
Chariya, I really like what you're trying to do with presentation.
I feel as though you have probably done a little bit too much.
Yep.
Oh! Is that too hot for you? Sorry!
No, it's fine. Cor!
The short rib is melting in the mouth and falling apart.
Your rice noodles are lovely.
They've got a nice little crunch to them, but I think them being pink
is a little bit unusual.
You've done a huge amount of work in here.
I think it's really good. I think it's a really good dish.
That broth. My word.
I don't know whether you noticed, but I can't keep my spoon
out of there. There's a real sweetness.
It goes very salty. It is hot as well.
And sour. It's really quite lovely.
That's powerful. Thank you.
I think it looks odd.
Tastes good. Tastes great.
I'm convinced that lady can cook.
That was very good.
Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm here.
However, I think they are right about the pink noodle. Yeah.
OK. Josh, that's five minutes remaining.
Thank you very much.
Oh, my venison is still in the sous vide machine.
Come on.
Right, Josh, it's time to go.
Thank you.
Good job. That looks fab. Well done.
That's an apron. Definitely. That's an apron.
Okey dokey.
Recruitment consultant Josh has served Scottish venison,
seasoned in wild mushroom powder, with a haggis bonbon, asparagus
puree, mushroom and bacon pearl barley risotto topped with grilled
asparagus and a red wine sauce.
Tell me why asparagus puree is a family favourite.
It's a very beige dish without a little bit of colour
and freshness on there.
I'm colour-blind, so I can't really tell where my dish is.
So it was some feedback from my wife that I needed some extra
colour on there. What colours can't you see?
Most of them. I'm pretty good with orange, though.
Venison, really nicely cooked. Pink, and a really nice seasoning
around the outside that is peppery. Your pearl barley, it's got
just the right amount of give.
There are good mushrooms in there.
There's good work on here, my friend.
You've captured the flavour, the essence and the beauty of venison
with a really magical touch.
I think this is absolutely brilliant.
You've got a fine asparagus puree I didn't want to like.
And I think your sauce is a very, very good sauce for an amateur cook.
It's got a really lovely richness of meat stock and the sweet
sharpness of wine.
Thanks a lot. You did good, mate. Thank you. See you later.
See you later.
I'm amazed. I think that's probably the best plate of venison
I've had on MasterChef in probably a decade.
That young fella has got talent.
I'm over the moon.
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry or do both at the same time.
I don't think that could have gone better.
Really amazing to hear.
It's now down to the final three auditionees to win an apron.
38-year-old tree surgeon Fabio is originally
from Newcastle upon Tyne.
He grew up surrounded by food, as his Italian-born dad was a chef.
My father is from Palermo in Sicily, so he came over in the '70s,
when the Italian food boom was, like, kicking right off.
So that's really dictated my culinary world.
Fabio, a braised shin of beef in a red wine sauce.
Absolutely fabulous. Speaks to my inner depth.
My earliest memory, I would say, would be going to Sicily as a child.
And my Sicilian grandmother was just the typical Italian nonna.
She would make pasta with one hand whilst frying something in the other
hand and having a conversation.
And so it was just, like, the theatre of all of that, I was always
surrounded by it, you know?
Braised shin of beef in an hour and 20 minutes?
Not easy.
If you don't cook a shin of beef properly, all that fat that's
in there is going to be in hard, chewy lumps.
A great pomme puree, free of lumps, really well seasoned.
There's roasted celeriac.
When you cut into it, you get that lovely nuttiness
that comes with it.
Now, here's the odd one out. A minted pea puree.
Lamb, yes. Beef, never had it before.
Spot-on.
Hey, I can take a big, deep breath a little bit more now.
HE LAUGHS
Also competing for an apron is 30-year-old fashion and textiles
artist Anurita.
She moved to Bristol five years ago from Lucknow in northern India.
Anurita's making for us
galaoti kebabs with laccha paratha, a carrot, cucumber and pomegranate
salad and a peanut chilli chutney.
I'm really excited about this.
Galaoti kebabs basically means "melt-in-your-mouth kebabs", and I
grew up in a vegetarian family, so my mum made
a vegetarian version of this.
So it's melt-in-your-mouth vegetarian kebabs
that I'm making today.
Those kebabs, she's doing them with red kidney beans.
Trying to get the kebabs to stick together and be moist,
because beans are dry.
So she's got her work cut out.
It means a lot to me because it's my family's favourite dish.
All of us live in a different city, and I live abroad.
So whenever we get together, this is the first meal
that we have together as a family.
I've got a really beautiful-looking dish in my head, and I've got
a little doodle over there, and I'm hoping
that I present it that way.
Make the parathas, please, a little bit fluffy
because I would really like to wipe those across a plate.
The way it's been folded,
it's going to create a lot of layers in between, and then it goes
really well with the kebabs.
Peanut and chilli chutney. That's a new one on me,
but I like the sound of that a lot.
I would love to get an apron today, and I'm hoping my dish
might help me get one.
Let's see how it goes.
How are you doing, Robin? I'm doing good, thanks, guys.
Last to audition is 28-year-old child's rights officer Robin,
who spent his childhood living in Italy.
Robin is cooking for us
hazelnut and charcoal pastry tart filled with a salted caramel
and baked chocolate mousse, served with milk crumb and milk ice cream.
Mate, I don't know whether to eat this or bath in it, because right
now, this just sounds delicious.
Chocolate and hazelnuts - flavour of my childhood.
Hazelnuts grew in my garden.
But for me, it's all about chocolate squares.
My family's favourite cereal.
I have so many memories of waking up,
jumping out of bed, rushing down the stairs
to try and get the cereals before my brother and sister,
try and get the last bowl of chocolate squares.
The tart shells,
it's all made out of a hazelnut and activated charcoal pastry.
That grey charcoal doesn't have flavour,
but it definitely adds colour.
Charcoal pastry.
I've played this well. (INDISTINCT)
He's got to make the tart first,
then blind bake it,
then he's got to put the actual mousse in there and bake it again.
This is technically demanding pastry work.
I'm really impressed by Robin's ambition.
Fingers crossed, right?
Milk ice cream.
Delicious, but got to be really careful
it doesn't go icy.
John,
this has got the makings of something absolutely delicious.
Oh, beautiful.
Oh, it tastes so good!
I'm happy.
There we go. Oh, my God, it's good.
OK, Fabio, that's three minutes left.
OK.
I'm just trying to present it as nice as I can,
so I'm just going to dot the celeriac around the outside,
braised beef shin.
I'm happy with it. It's beautifully tender.
OK, good to go.
Go, Fabio.
Looks so good, so good.
Hi, Fabio. How you doing? Hey, John.
Tree surgeon Fabio has braised his shin of beef in a red wine sauce
and served it with pomme puree,
roasted celeriac,
and a mint and pea puree.
With the time you've had, you've cooked this beef nicely.
It's soft enough, and it's got an almost heavy sweetness
of that red wine.
Nice, it's good.
I also like your sauce.
It's getting fruitiness to it as well.
It's got body.
Your mashed potato, lovely and fine, well seasoned.
Your beef and the gravy I think is wonderful.
The pea puree is frivolous.
What am I going to do with that?
There's not enough celeriac
and there's not enough peas,
so the whole thing is not balanced.
Thanks a lot, guys, I'll take all of that on board.
I'd love to go to his house to eat
because I think the heart of this is good.
It was pretty overwhelming, the whole experience.
I'm glad I got the first meal sort of done and dusted
and it wasn't a disaster, so I'll take it.
HE CHUCKLES
We've only got a few minutes remaining.
One wrong move and it's going to all fall apart.
It's looking so good, Anurita.
I love the colours, they look gorgeous.
Anurita, looks amazing. Anurita, enjoy.
Fashion and textiles artist Anurita's audition dish
is vegetarian galouti kebabs
made with red kidney beans,
served with laccha paratha,
layered flatbread,
a peanut and chilli chutney,
and a salad of cucumber,
carrot and pomegranate.
These little kebabs with the beans aren't dry in any way at all.
And in there you've got a little bit of chilli.
There's lots and lots of spice, there's cumin, there's coriander.
These little parathas all layered together
and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
I think that's really good.
My issue with this dish
is simply I want more of this peanut chutney
and more of the salad
because I'm left with so much of this kebab.
I like this. I think you've conjured up some good flavours here
and some interesting textures,
but I think we could have a better-looking dish somehow.
Anurita, thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you, thanks a lot.
Very relieved.
I'm pretty hopeful that I would get an apron.
And I hope I don't embarrass myself by saying this now and then
end up not getting an apron.
OK, ten minutes left.
We got this.
Right, this is a delicate process.
That looks perfect, Robin.
Yeah, well done with that pastry. So good.
Very happy.
That's it and then I've just got to do one last thing.
Fabulous. Well done.
I'm bringing you dessert. Good man.
Inspired by his favourite hazelnut and chocolate cereal,
child's rights officer Robin
has made a hazelnut and charcoal pastry tart,
filled with salted caramel and baked chocolate mousse,
served with a milk crumb and a milk ice cream.
So this is inspired by a bowl of cereal.
Damn straight. Mate, I think it's a great idea.
I need to tell you, I think your pastry is too thick,
just from looking at it.
What I thought was thick pastry,
it just disappears in your mouth like a powder puff.
I like your little baked mousse,
almost like a top of a chocolate fondant,
crispy across the top, slightly bitter with the chocolate,
a little bit of sweetness running through it as well.
Your milk crumb underneath gives you crunch like a breakfast cereal.
I find that delicious, my friend.
Oh. Milk ice cream, not too sweet.
Gold leaf on the top, that's a little bit of luxury.
Chocolate tart, caramel in there
has stayed gooey, hasn't gone hard.
Really light pastry.
John's enjoying it,
I'm enjoying it.
This is good, good work.
Mr Wallace, Robin can cook.
That's a good dish. Really good dish.
I'm feeling good.
I feel like I need to go
and have a cold shower and wake up a little bit.
I don't know, I'm in a dream.
We've actually seen some brilliant cooks today.
There's a couple of dishes here that you and I both stood back and went,
"Wow, you've really got talent."
Picking three, that's tricky.
I've got about six.
What an incredible mix of food and flavours and techniques,
and fantastic food from all around the world.
So thank you very much indeed.
In a heat with some great cookery,
we thought there were two absolutely outstanding dishes.
The contestant getting the first apron is...
..it's Robin.
Congratulations, sir.
Outstanding. Thanks.
Second apron...
..Josh.
Thank you. Well done, my friend.
The contestant getting the third apron is...
..Chariya.
Chariya, Josh,
Robin, congratulations.
Come and get your aprons. Congratulations.
Well done, well done, well done. Thank you.
Very good.
Oh, my God.
Well done, well done, well done, well done.
Big hug.
I can't believe it! I know!
Oh! Is it flattering?
Oh, you look gorgeous.
So do you, Josh, so do you, Chariya.
Now put any disappointment behind you.
This isn't the end of the road.
There are four aprons up for grabs.
That does mean, unfortunately, two of you are not going to make it.
We have laid out for you an incredible
selection of ingredients,
so you can make whatever you like.
Draw on your experience and the things that you know.
Show us a bit of skill.
Show us a bit of potential.
You'll have one hour and 15 minutes to cook for us
an extraordinary plate of food.
Ladies and gentlemen, up you come.
It's a bit like doing your weekly food shop,
but it's great and better quality.
I'm used to winging it, to be honest,
so this might be a good thing for me.
I'm just going to make it up and hope for the best.
We have got an amazing selection of ingredients here.
There's mushrooms and tofu.
There's chillies.
Mackerel.
Prawns.
Racks of lamb.
The world is their oyster.
This is not a round to experiment.
This is an invention round, taking ideas and things they already know
and applying them to one great plate of food.
I really like Thai flavours,
so hopefully, I can get some of that on the plate today.
In the last announcement of aprons, I had this impending doom
stuck in my chest
and waiting for either a yes or a no,
so I'm ready to get an apron.
What are you making for us, my friend?
Thai-inspired king prawn.
Sort of a stir-fry on top of a vermicelli noodle.
What will this dish tell us about you?
It's to do with my love of travelling.
So spending a month in Thailand kick boxing,
I became obsessed with Thai food and Thai flavours.
Fire breathing, kick boxing.
What is it with you and physical activity?
I just love it.
Originally, I trained in dance
and realised it was the wrong career for me,
so decided to run away with the circus
and then I became a much happier person from that, so...
Chris, he's got to cook the prawns really well so they're nice and
soft and they're not dry.
The noodles need to be free flowing and coated in lots of sauce.
I want lots and lots of herbs in there and lots and lots of chilli
to give it bags of flavour.
At the end of the day, those noodles are bland.
I want to show them that I could make something sweet as well,
so seeing berries and mascarpone cheese and all the nice things
that could go with something baked would be fantastic and lovely.
So I'm making some raspberry lemon cupcakes
with raspberry frosting, with some toasted almonds.
Wow!
I hope so. Well, are you...
Are you a lover of sweet things?
Yes, I am, I love sweet.
Why do you love cupcakes?
It was when the pandemic was in its peak
and I was working in an NHS Trust
and we didn't get quite a lot of breaks,
so these cupcakes were a bit of a favourite.
I would bring them every now and then if I had the chance to,
and it keeps us going.
You're feeding me and John a bit of NHS love here, aren't you?
Yeah, that's what I aim to do.
We've got a cupcake on a plate.
It's going to have to be a really good cupcake.
So it needs to be really, really light and fluffy.
She's going to make a filling like a raspberry jam,
flavoured with lemon and cinnamon.
That could work really well.
She loves to bake, fantastic.
Let's hope these cupcakes show that baking skill off.
Guys, you've got 50 minutes left.
5-0, 50 minutes.
When I heard it was an invention test,
I think my initial feeling was, oh!
And then I thought, oh,
because it could go either way.
All you can do at this stage is just go for it.
Put your heart into it and do your best.
Emma, what are you making?
Let's say it's a jambalaya.
Why would you make a jambalaya?
Because I love spice and herbs and different flavours.
And there's thousands of things,
and they come together in one magical jumble in your mouth.
Right, OK.
Where's that okra going?
Well, I've never cooked okra before, but I thought it looked pretty
and I heard that it can be slimy,
so I thought if I batter the heck out of it and get rid of the slime,
then it can just be a wee garnish on the top.
Emma, give us a delicious dish, please.
I'll try, thank you.
Jambalaya is a rice stew.
And across the top we're going to get some prawns.
I hope they've been cooked really well and the shells are off.
My concern right now for Emma,
she's got chorizo in there,
she's chopped up some vegetables, put in some stock
and stood there and stirred the rice.
I hope this demonstrates enough skill.
I hope to make some pasta
and cook something probably more traditionally Italian,
because that's really where my heart is.
I think it's just the fear of having a brain freeze
and all your ideas falling out of your head,
which can happen.
I'm going to do some stuffed ravioli
with this goat's cheese,
some lemon in there on a bed of pesto.
Have you made filled pasta before?
Yeah, many times, I'm pretty good at it, I'm pretty confident.
Fine, fine, fine.
So what are you keen to demonstrate to us now, then?
That I understand big flavour,
it's something very close to my heart.
And, yeah, I just want to do myself justice
and show that I can cook good Italian food.
Fabio's dish sounds great. Definitely demonstrating some skill.
He's made ravioli, he seems to be very confident.
And he's taking a vegetable like Romanesco,
which is a spiky looking cauliflower,
and he's going to make pesto
with pistachio nuts, basil
and the fat from some bacon lardons.
Fascinating.
You've got half an hour,
30 minutes.
Ryan, what did you learn from the last round?
I feel like I played it safe last round,
so I'm going to try and challenge myself a bit.
Right, OK. So what are you going to do now, then?
A pan-fried mackerel, garlic and parsley,
crispy potatoes, crispy carrots,
and a beurre blanc.
Right. I've never made a beurre blanc, so...
Right, OK.
I'm just trying to push myself and do something a bit extra.
I'd like to think that I'm good at thinking on my feet.
I like to just look in the fridge when there's not much in,
I'll try and make a dish out of whatever's in the fridge.
I am nervous, I'm not going to lie cos I want that apron so bad.
I'm going to change my fish, yeah.
I'm going to go to the pollock.
You had a mackerel on your bench. Yeah.
So I've gone back on what I was thinking because I was thinking
the mackerel's so oily and rich,
with the beurre blanc, it might be a bit sickly.
So you were going with the mackerel,
now we're talking pollocks.
Yeah, yeah.
Literally.
This is posh fish and chips from Ryan.
He says he's never made a beurre blanc before,
which is quite difficult to get right.
Lots and lots of butter, a sharpness coming from shallots
and also white wine and vinegar.
I hope it works for him.
Guys, you have just 20 minutes left.
20 minutes.
I'm very confident, but I don't know what's going to happen in there.
This test could be really good for me today,
or it might turn into a complete disaster.
You never know.
What are you making for us, please?
Tandoori Momos.
Momo is like a Nepali dumpling,
but it's become a really big street food in India as well.
What's inside them?
Wild mushrooms and tofu,
chilli and coriander.
I'm going to serve them with a chutney
which will have tomatoes, lots of chilli, garlic.
It's going to taste nice.
This doesn't actually sit in any one cuisine, does it?
No, I come from an Indian background,
but I absolutely love Asian food,
Chinese, Japanese style.
The flavours of your last dish were fantastic. Do it again, please.
Thanks.
Right now, I'm impressed with Anurita's skill.
She's made her own dumpling dough.
She's made a filling.
Then she's going to soak the dumpling in a mixture of yoghurt
and spices and bake them at a really high temperature
like a tandoor oven, so they go crispy on the outside.
What an invention!
Seven minutes, everybody.
Seven minutes.
I'm running out of time,
but I'll give it my best.
You have two minutes, everybody, please.
There's an apron up for grabs and you've got two minutes.
You got one minute to get that on the plate -
quick, quick, quick, quick. Come on.
That's it. Stop.
Time's up.
Time's... Time's up,
..time's up. Yeah!
This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Come on, Chris.
Circus performer Chris
has cooked tiger prawns in garlic and chilli
and served them with vermicelli noodles,
a Thai-inspired sauce
and pickled cucumber.
I'm happy with my prawns.
They are clean.
They have a pleasant crunch to them.
I like your sauce.
A little bit of sweetness, saltiness.
What I'd like with this dish is more of that pickled cucumber
because your sauce is so sticky and sweet
it needs more sharpness
so that you get that balance absolutely right.
It's good, nicely prepared.
I like the look of it, it looks smart.
Well, I feel kind of mixed emotions with that.
But I'm ready to get that apron.
I want it so badly.
If I can just go home and hold it in my hand and be like, "Yes!"
Fire and security engineer Ryan
has pan-fried his pollock
and served it with carrot crisps,
garlic and herb crispy potatoes,
samphire, and a beurre blanc sauce.
That fish is falling apart in thick flakes.
That's absolutely lovely.
Potatoes, I like the amount of garlic on them,
but they could be crispier.
The samphire is cooked all right.
The thing is, though, you haven't cleaned it
and when you don't clean samphire
it's got little branches in the bottom end of them.
That is like a toothpick.
Your beurre blanc is too sharp.
It tastes like just raw vinegar on the plate
with some butter and some cream.
Doing it the first time on MasterChef is a big ask.
Almost there.
I'm glad it's all over.
I think I tried too hard. Gutted.
Gutted.
Neo-natal nurse Nikka
has made a raspberry and lemon cupcake
filled with raspberry jam,
lemon and cinnamon
topped with mascarpone frosting and flaked almonds,
served with a caramel syrup,
toasted almonds and lemon rind.
I like your sweet raspberry jam in the middle of it.
You've got across the top of that a mascarpone frosting
with lots and lots of icing sugar, sharp with raspberries,
a little bit of lemon. It's a good cupcake.
I have learned one thing about you in this round,
and that is you have a sweet tooth.
I do.
Your cupcake is a little dense.
However, I'll forgive you.
That's a very citrusy, raspberry,
sharp, gooey delight.
Thank you. I'm impressed with people that bake.
Well done for having this recipe in the top of your head.
It's obviously something you've done a lot and it's yummy.
Seeing John and Gregg smiling at me
after they had my cupcakes,
it was just such an amazing feeling to have.
I'm glad they liked it, so...
Fingers crossed.
Tree surgeon Fabio
has made ravioli stuffed with goat's cheese,
served with a Romanesco cauliflower and pistachio pesto,
and topped with pancetta and pistachios.
Your pasta is lovely and thin,
so much so that I can actually see the filling inside.
The filling is almost like lemon in flavour
because that goat's cheese is so sharp.
Pistachio nuts and cauliflower with bacon and goat's cheese?
Everything's massive flavours.
I really like it.
And you're not trying to decorate it with silly little cubes
around the outside of it, Fabio.
This pesto, I think, was an invention on the hoof.
It is very thick.
But your ravioli is perfect.
It's perfectly sealed.
Really well done.
You obviously know how to make pasta.
You were brought up in a pasta house.
My heart was in my mouth a little bit because, you know,
I'd stated that I make pasta quite a lot and I'm quite proud of it.
That was decent, that was decent.
Fashion and textiles artist Anurita
has made Momos,
Nepalese dumplings filled with tofu and mushrooms
and baked in a tandoori-spiced yoghurt,
served with a tomato, chilli and garlic chutney.
The dumplings look good.
I've got a split one here, though. Oh.
I think it was ripping, wasn't it,
as you were trying to get it off the tray.
The dumpling is really quite fine and nicely made.
I really like what you've put inside.
Tofu and mushroom is a nice combination.
I'm picking up a little bit of ginger,
a lot of smoky turmeric on there,
but that dipping sauce
is really over seasoned.
You can hardly taste the tomato because it's so salty. I'm so sorry.
Your Momos taste good,
but you've got to be really careful with seasoning
because you've got soy in here, you've got yoghurt,
and then you've got salt going in that tomato
and they're becoming very, very salty.
They did like my dumplings
and I hope they ignore the sauce
and give me the apron today, so...
Last up, property manager Emma
has served jambalaya,
a rice-based dish flavoured with chorizo and chilli,
with pan-fried okra and prawns.
Are these prawns at all peeled or not?
No, you have to get in there.
Right, I've got to eat my rice with my knife
and fork and then get in there?
Yeah, rustic. Right, right.
Are yours cooked? No.
No, mine aren't either.
Rice is cooked.
You've managed to cook the okra without it being slimy. Well done.
Lots of paprika coming off that chorizo.
Lots of chilli.
You do pack flavour into things,
but it's not showing any cookery technique
and the prawns, we have an issue with.
Obviously, they're not deveined
and they don't look to me to be cooked enough.
Emma, I'm so sorry.
Emma, I like the flavour of your rice. Your rice is cooked really
nicely, it's free flowing.
I like the amount of chilli in there, that's really good.
There's way too much sausage in there for me.
And these prawns are a bit of a problem.
My prawns weren't cooked properly.
That was a bit rubbish.
It's so tough.
Cooking at home is so relaxing and so fun
and this is not at all relaxing.
I am not relaxed.
Interesting round in the MasterChef kitchen.
We've got ourselves six cooks
and only four are going to make it through to the competition.
I would like to just wave a flag for Nikka
because I loved that cupcake.
Good decoration, icing, raspberry jam in the middle.
It was my dish of the round.
OK, Nikka gets herself an apron.
Chris cooked really nice prawns, well flavoured.
I'd like a little bit more sharpness in it, but actually
it was a good dish. Chris has got himself an apron.
Somebody else's name I'd like to flag for an apron here
and that is Fabio.
Oh, Fabio is good.
Pesto, a little bit unusual, but I think he's shown skill.
He's shown knowledge.
So we've now got one apron left up for grabs
and there's three people to talk about.
Emma made for us jambalaya
and some prawns across the top that weren't cooked enough.
Anurita gave us her dumplings.
Nice idea, inside that she had, I thought, a nice filling.
One of mine was ripped
and the sauce had far, far too much seasoning in it.
Ryan, who cooked for us a piece of fish well,
made a beurre blanc, which was way too sharp.
Potatoes which weren't crispy
and samphire that wasn't cleaned.
I'd be really sad if I don't get an apron today,
but this is the best I could do.
I don't think I've done enough to get an apron, which is rubbish.
I'm just a bit sad that it wasn't
as fancy pants as it probably should have been.
I thought I'll just try and push myself that extra mile.
And I don't think it's paid off.
What a round,
full of ups and downs.
No shortage of effort.
Well done, all of you.
As you know, we have just four aprons to give.
That does mean that two of you will be leaving us.
The first person leaving us is...
..is Emma.
Emma, thanks very much indeed.
Thanks for all your hard work. Thank you.
The second person leaving us is...
..is Ryan.
Ryan, thanks so much indeed for everything. Good to meet you, mate.
Thank you very much. You too, thank you.
Gutted, absolutely gutted.
I thought I was a pretty strong cook myself,
but, um, clearly I'm not.
The other guys are a lot better than me, so fair play to them.
I hope they do well.
It's been a fantastic experience.
Luckily, the positives hugely outweigh the negatives,
so a little bit of sadness, but just delight that I got to do it.
Congratulations, the four of you.
That's amazing. You are now in this year's competition.
Come up and get your aprons.
Well done.
Thank you.
There it is.
Got goose bumps now.
Yeah, I'm very happy with that now.
Fantastic, yeah,
got what I was after.
Looks great, doesn't it?
I feel really, really happy.
And I'm just going to go home and sleep for 18 hours straight.
Having this on me
just makes me very excited about what's coming.
Next time,
this week's best cooks return to face
two demanding challenges...
That's good, that's a relief.
That's the last one I needed right there. Ah!
..as they fight for a place
in the quarterfinal.
I think this is restaurant worthy.
This is, you know, exceeded all expectations.