This week, nine more ambitious home cooks
have taken on the challenge
to become this year's MasterChef champion.
It's going to be a tight ride.
I'm shaking like a leaf.
It's absolutely spot-on.
Last time, seven earned themselves a MasterChef apron.
It's been a roller-coaster. Rides have to end at some point.
I'd really like to keep going round on this one, though.
I'm loving the competition.
It's the best experience I've ever had.
Now that I have a little taste of it, I want it more.
Tonight, they continue their quest...
HE SIGHS ..facing two demanding challenges...
Get it all on a plate quickly
because you're going to run out of time.
..including cooking a dish to a brief
set by one of the country's leading food critics.
It's the kind of thing I adore. I love this. Well done.
Only the best can go through to this week's quarterfinal.
I think, in this group, there is real talent.
This is where we find out how good they really are.
Well done. Well done for getting your MasterChef aprons,
and, of course, a place in the MasterChef competition.
We believe we've got some talent here. We really do.
But we are now going to test you, and I mean really test you.
We are going to present you with a MasterChef Market Challenge.
At the end of this, one of you will be leaving us.
Through those doors there is the market,
and we have stocked it with incredible produce
to enable you to let your culinary imagination run wild.
Pick up the basket. It's time to go shopping. To market!
They've got some of my favourite ingredients in there.
They've got rabbit, John Dory,
tuna, chicken, venison.
There's also lovely, fresh crab.
Now, I'll be really impressed if somebody cooks and preps that.
Lots of exciting products.
If they make a sweet dish, they've got fruits,
they've got syrups, they've got chocolate.
I tell you what - for me,
this is an opportunity to show off a little bit.
I'm just trying to pull myself together a little bit
and figure out what to make.
So, initially, I thought I was going to go for
a Thai green curry, until all of the chicken was gone,
so I'm going down the sweet line. Thinking I'm going to make
some type of a dessert with some type of pastry.
I'm pretty resourceful, usually, trying to make the best
of what I've got around me, so, hopefully, I'll do OK today.
Don't ask me why I'm doing this, but I'm going to go in for that.
You have your ingredients. Hopefully, you've got a plan.
1 hour, 20 minutes to show us your best work. Off you go.
OK, let's get this done.
Inspired by her mother's Gujarati cuisine,
31-year-old Bhavina was the first to be awarded an apron
with her lamb meatball curry served in a tiffin box.
Your sauce, your gravy is packed full of flavour.
Listen, I think you've made quite an impression on me and John.
Well done. Thank you so much.
My mum will be super happy about this.
Cooking an unknown dish for Gregg and John,
nervous is probably the first emotion that comes up.
Hopefully, I can give my personality, my flair,
and to show that I deserve to be here.
Bhavina, you absolutely delighted us with your tiffin boxes.
Thank you. Delighted us in the first round.
What are you going to make for us now?
Puy lentil, carrot, celery kind of warm lentil salad.
It's going to be spiced, as well.
And then it's going to have a John Dory fillet on top
and then, like, a bit of a herb oil as a dressing to go around it.
Why did you pick the John Dory?
Don't ask me why. It was a moment of panic, I think.
I've never filleted it before.
Have you ever cooked a John Dory before? No.
Bhavina's gone for the John Dory - an extraordinary fish.
Ooh! Very difficult to handle.
Nearly there. It has spikes all around the outside.
Ah, OK, I can see it now.
Bhavina seems to have got there with it... Ooh! ..which is great.
Yes! Bhavina's got lentils.
The vegetables, they should be soft. They shouldn't be hard at all.
And then she's adding to that spices.
I think it needs more spice.
If it's really, really spiced with lots of turmeric
and lots of cumin and coriander... I need some chilli.
..and paprika, we're not going to be able to taste that fish.
Polish-born Evy has a passion for fine dining...
SHE HUMS
..and sealed her place in the competition
with an ambitious ravioli and langoustine bisque.
I think it's a very good dish. Thank you.
This competition means a lot to me.
I've paused my artistic career for that.
I want to prove that, even at the age of nearly 40,
you can start a new career and you can still be successful.
You know, the sky's the limit.
Did you have a passion for food when you were growing up?
My mum, she's a really good cook.
A very traditional Polish cook,
so loads of stews, dumplings, hearty soups.
So, I got all the basics from her
and I always helped her in the kitchen.
Evy's cooking us roasted chicken thighs.
I hope the skin's going to be nice and crispy,
cooked all the way through to the bone.
With that, she's got fondant potatoes.
She coloured the outside really well.
Then she's going to put stock and butter in there
and cook them long and slow.
They need to be cooked all the way through.
Caramelised carrots, Swiss chard, and then a chicken sauce.
If she gets this right, I'm going to be really impressed.
I'm just worried that the thighs won't have enough time in the oven,
but we will see. You don't want raw chicken, do you?
Professional golfer James has a love of classic cookery.
His first dish showed potential...
..but he wowed both judges with his boozy sticky toffee pudding.
It's a really confident-looking dish
and I think, to do that in 1 hour and 20 minutes,
is good going. Thank you.
Thinking on your feet in the kitchen is quite tough.
It's so easy to make little mistakes.
So, getting it perfect is hard work,
but hopefully it will happen at some point
if I can stay in the competition.
James, you're looking more relaxed as the competition is developing.
Are you? In your eyes, maybe.
Bit like a swan on the water -
calm exterior, paddling frantically underneath.
We know you're competitive because, of course, you're a golfer. I am.
Are you competitive also with your cookery? Absolutely, yeah.
I think everyone who cooks, they want to bring people joy.
It's what you do it for. So, putting your dish in front of someone
and them liking it is an amazing feeling.
James is cooking for us crab linguine.
He's gone into that market and he's got himself a whole crab.
That's pretty brave.
So, I've prepped a crab before, but never had to cook one.
We'll see how that goes down.
He's got to boil it first.
He's got to crack open the shell.
He's got to take out the meat.
He's got to get the pasta absolutely right.
And the crab has to be ample in that pasta.
35 minutes have gone, everybody.
Originally from Singapore,
60-year-old Thomas has lived all over the world
working as an interior designer.
In the last round, his chicken curry dish
earned him a place in the competition.
There is a smokiness and a heat to your chicken.
I'm really enjoying your flavours.
Oh, thank God!
The last 30 years, by living in different countries
and experiencing different cultures, it will help me to, you know,
get closer to the MasterChef final, I hope.
We have got tuna tartare.
He's doing a seared piece of tuna
with black and white sesame seeds on the outside of it.
And we've got a Thai-flavoured rice vermicelli noodle salad.
We know he likes colourful food, we know he's travelled the world,
therefore his food is going to be eclectic,
but how do they all work together?
You've obviously had a successful career.
Why are you here on MasterChef?
Well, it was on my bucket list. I always enjoyed cooking.
Whenever I cook something at home, my partner always teases,
"Is this MasterChef-worthy?"
How do you feel about instantly having to invent a dish
rather than plan one?
Usually, I go to the supermarket, I let the ingredients inspire me,
so I was really happy.
This is like a kid in a candy store.
Wine merchant Oli's passion for food comes from his Italian heritage.
His first-round dessert was lacking technique,
but he came back fighting with his pollack and chicory dish.
Really like the way your fish has been cooked.
You've seasoned it really, really well.
Oli, I'm just pleased to know that you can cook.
HE CHUCKLES
As a cook, I don't think I've ever followed a recipe.
I always change things. Like, always.
I am very much kind of ad hoc, inventive, trying different things.
Maybe that will help. I don't know.
Have you cooked with John Dory before?
I actually haven't... So... ..so this is a bit of an experiment.
What are you making? It's based on a Brazilian fish and coconut stew,
but what I've done is kind of pulled pieces of the stew apart,
so it's a little bit more deconstructed, if you like.
Then we've got a coconut and lime reduction
and some coconut rotis to kind of use alongside.
Did you say you're reducing lime and coconut?
Into a little sauce with a little bit of sugar.
Where does that come from? Is that an invention?
Just kind of thought of it now. THEY LAUGH
Oli's making for us what he calls a Brazilian fish stew,
which he's deconstructed. Fascinating.
He's got a mixture of coconut milk with onions and peppers,
which he's stewing down.
Coconut milk's very, very sweet.
Peppers are really sweet. Onions are really sweet.
I'm not quite sure how this dish is going to come together.
Credit controller Vanessa has been learning to cook
with her mother since the age of three,
and showed a flair for pastry in the first round
with a knockout pudding.
I love it, Vanessa. Aw, thank you.
How are you on inventing dishes? Oh, it's been a challenge.
At first, I thought I was OK at it, until I came into here,
and there are so many ingredients that you've got 100 things
going through your head at the same time.
What are you making for us, please?
Frangipane with some stewed plums on the top.
What, just frangipane? Frangipane inside a tart case or...?
Hmm, if the tart comes out right,
I'm hoping there'll be a tart case with it.
Are you unsure of this pastry?
No, it's something that I make at home,
but usually I have a lot of time to rest it.
How pushed for time are we here, then?
It's up against the clock. It really is.
But I'm in the MasterChef kitchen and I've got to go full force,
so I'm going to make sure I get it done.
So, I just don't think that my frangipane and tart case
is going to cook in time, unfortunately.
I'm going to put some frangipane in here
and I'm going to see if it can cook.
I'm not a creative person at all, so...
It will just be great to see, like, how my brain can work.
"Can you do this?" "I'm going to give it a good go."
Vanessa is really panicking.
The tart's not working, her frangipane's not working,
and she feels she doesn't have a dish.
I don't think it's my day today! She was panicking so much,
she actually went into the market and got some potatoes.
I don't know what we're going to get from Vanessa,
but right now, she's panicking.
Not as I planned for it to be.
You have 15 minutes left, everybody. OK? 15 minutes left.
27-year-old Jamahl grew up in a family
of keen Caribbean home cooks.
After a nervous start...
Your potatoes, in part, aren't cooked properly.
..he pulled it back with his chocolate fondant.
That's not bad, is it? Thank you very much.
The MasterChef experience isn't really like anything
I've experienced before.
I'm literally going to freestyle and just try to enjoy myself.
And taste your food as you cook.
How are you feeling about this competition?
Is it tougher than you thought it was going to be?
The answer to that is a big yes. What are you making, Jamahl?
Jerk chicken, rice and peas with a jerk sauce and pumpkin puree.
Why go with that? It's what I know.
It's what we eat growing up every day.
I wanted to give something that has a bit of a punch to it, so...
And if John and I love your dish today?
I'll be a very happy man. THEY LAUGH
Jamahl's making for us jerk chicken.
He's serving it with rice and peas. Brilliant. That's a classic dish.
The rice has to be cooked very, very well,
usually flavoured with coconut milk
because it gives a bit more sweetness.
I'm hoping for one thing and one thing only -
I want it to be singing with spice.
HE SIGHS
Oh, deary me! This is hilarious.
So far, still on track,
until they tell me five minutes left.
You have five minutes, everybody. Oh!
It's a little bit stressful.
Just got to make sure I get things up on time.
Come on! Please, please, please!
Just two minutes.
The rice is undercooked, unfortunately.
Evy, get it all on a plate quickly
because you're going to run out of time. Yeah.
That's it. Time's up.
Ooh! I'm glad that's over, to be honest.
I don't know if I'm happy with this.
The rice is undercooked, so I can't serve it, unfortunately.
It is what it is. Do you know what?
At this point, I'm just glad I've got something on the plate.
Let's just hope it's edible.
I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
Thomas, please.
First up is retired interior designer Thomas.
From the market ingredients,
he's cooked pan-seared tuna coated in sesame seeds,
a tuna tartare with diced pear and capers,
and a Thai-style vermicelli noodle salad
topped with crispy tofu.
Thomas, I really like your presentation.
I guess, as an interior designer,
presentation's pretty important to you.
The tuna is lovely, just seared.
I mean, it's gone in a hot pan for about a second.
Absolutely lovely.
Your tartare, it's got loads of chilli
and it's got, like, vinegar sharpness.
It's a really clean dish.
It feels healthy and it feels vibrant
and I really like it.
Your tuna tartare is fascinating for me -
Worcestershire sauce and capers. I'm really impressed.
Your seared tuna - I really like when I eat it with
your little noodle salad. You're making me smile, Thomas.
I like your food. Thank you.
Relief. HE CHUCKLES
I enjoy it with the heart pounding the whole time.
Jamahl, would you mind?
Recruitment consultant Jamahl chose chicken thighs,
and served them in a jerk rub
with a tomato and jerk sauce and a coconut and pumpkin puree.
Where's the rice and peas? I didn't do the measurements correctly,
so it's undercooked so it can't go on the plate.
For some reason, you were cooking about 30 kilos of rice.
I've cooked way too much rice.
I did it to a recipe that I know well,
like, the way that we do it for the family at home.
The MasterChef kitchen gets you doing silly things.
You haven't boned out the chicken very well.
We've still got gristle running through it, which is a shame.
Your jerk sauce is delicious.
It's got a lovely amount of chilli heat
from that Scotch bonnet,
and then you matched that with that pumpkin puree with the coconut.
That's great.
Your chicken thigh is cooked nicely. It hasn't dried.
And I really like the flavours of the two sauces you're giving me.
That chicken skin, I would like crispier, please. Yeah.
And I think it's a real shame about the rice.
I think the comments were what I expected...
..but you've got to get the full dish up
regardless of the good comments.
Inspired by a Brazilian fish stew, wine merchant Oli has made John Dory
with tomato, pepper and onion cooked in coconut milk,
a lime cream reduction and coconut rotis.
It doesn't look great. Yeah, if I'm honest,
I would have wanted the presentation to be better than it is.
You've never filleted a John Dory before.
You've never cooked a John Dory before.
The flesh is cooked really, really nicely. It falls apart.
It's lovely.
The rest of it, I'm not a fan of. I'm really sorry, Oli. OK.
I find that mound of red peppers and onions
inside the coconut milk is not appealing.
I've got sweet peppers, sweet onions, sweet coconut milk,
and nothing in there which is sharp.
Your coconut roti - they're not quite cooked in the centre.
You've deconstructed this stew.
I don't think it's done it any favours at all.
I don't think the lime reduction thing works.
It's just dissolving in loads and loads of butter.
Your fish is really lovely.
It deserves to be on a better-looking plate. Yeah.
Pretty disappointed. I'm not pleased with the dish.
It's far short of what I'm capable of doing,
so I've let myself down a bit, which is a shame.
Professional golfer James has served crab linguine
with garlic, spinach and baby leeks.
It's a ludicrously simple-looking dish,
but, of course, you have prepped the whole crab,
you have made fresh pasta.
Your pasta is perfect.
It's cooked really, really well. The crab meat is sweet.
There's the hint of chilli in there, as well.
There's not a single little bit of bone or cartilage in that crab.
It's a nice dish. Well done.
I love the fact that you've got the leek and the chilli and the crab
all running through every single strand of the pasta.
Nice bit of white wine in there for a bit of acidity, as well.
As an invention test, James, I think you've done a great job.
There's nowhere to really hide. It's either going to be half-decent
or it's going to be an absolute disaster,
so I'm just happy that it wasn't an absolute disaster.
Artist Evy's dish is roasted chicken thighs
with fondant potato, butternut squash puree,
roasted shallot, buttered carrots and chard,
and a chicken sauce.
That's a really elegant, nice-looking plate.
The chicken, it's really nice - crispy skin, seasoned on the top.
Your puree is smooth and sweet.
Your chard is soft, like good spinach.
In a limited amount of time,
you have made a really flavoursome sauce.
Your chicken sauce is delicious,
but there's an issue with your fondant potato -
it's not cooked all the way through.
You have knowledge and you have skill.
You have got to eradicate the silly mistakes.
SHE SIGHS I'm gutted.
When I plated the dish, all the elements,
I thought they were all cooked to the standard I wanted.
Obviously, it turned out that they were not.
Bhavina, could you please?
Marketing professional Bhavina chose John Dory
and served it on spiced lentils
with carrots, celery, onions and garlic,
and a coriander oil.
Perhaps you could have cooked the fish a little less
and your vegetables a lot more.
Those vegetables are still really crunchy.
I like the heat, I like the spicing,
but there's way too much garlic in there for me.
I think the age of vampires is over,
and you can pull back just a little bit. Yeah.
Never have you prepared or cooked a bit of John Dory before.
You prepared it pretty well.
The lentils are cooked really, really nicely.
The vegetables amongst them are not. This is what I call a...
HE GROANS ..dish. I know.
Bit gutted, to be honest. I think it wasn't my best,
and it shows in the dish, but it is what it is.
Finally, it's credit controller Vanessa.
She's made plums stewed in orange
on an almond frangipane with flaky pastry and cream.
We know you got yourself in a real panic.
It's supposed to be a frangipane tart
with some stewed plums.
You were going to give up a couple of times,
and I'm glad you didn't. OK.
We have stewed plums with orange, which is a slight sweetness,
and then it finishes like a glass of red wine.
You have an almond, light frangipane here
that's now the texture of a muffin.
We have some very, very lovely, vanilla-flavoured whipped cream
and pastry that's now a crumb.
It's shocking to look at. It tastes good.
What you have on this plate
are the flavours of a plum frangipane tart
with really lovely cream.
You knew the recipe for a frangipane.
You knew the recipe for a pastry case.
You got really good flavouring in the plums with orange.
You've got all these things in your head.
Just calm yourself down and believe in yourself.
Under the pressure today, I completely crumbled,
like my tart case. That's what happened.
I've learned something new about myself.
I didn't realise I panic this much in the kitchen
because I'm not like this at home at all,
but it is what it is.
I think there's a couple who got very, very nervy
with the invention test.
I tell you what - it got a bit wobbly at times.
Some of them got a little panicky.
How do you feel coming out of that?
Stressful. Very stressful, right?
I would call it brutal. Today was actually brutal.
I was running back and forth to the market at least four times.
Was that to pick up more rice?
To pick up more rice. To pick up more rice.
The contestant that didn't make any mistakes at all was James.
Cos that's not easy to do - making your own pasta,
taking a whole crab.
That was a good dish, a very simple-looking dish,
but, to me, that smacks of confidence.
Evy's chicken, for me, was great.
Crispy skin. The sauce was stupendous.
The only mistake I had on the plate was that fondant potato.
But I think she's a great cook.
I think that Thomas did really well.
We got a tartare, which he flavoured with the capers
and a little bit of chilli running through it.
We had a noodle salad which was sweet, sour,
salty and hot. Great!
He's got a style of his own, good flavours, and I liked it.
Jamahl - I know his rice didn't cook right,
but the rest of it, I thought, was delicious.
We had a thigh of chicken,
which was seasoned really, really nicely,
with a fantastic jerk sauce
and a wonderful pumpkin puree, which was beautifully spiced.
So, right now, what we've got, we've got Evy, James,
Thomas and Jamahl going through.
That now leaves us with Bhavina, Vanessa and Oli to talk about.
Oli gave us John Dory, which was cooked nicely.
The rest of the dish, Gregg, I'm really sorry,
I did not like at all.
I'm disappointed with Bhavina.
The fish was on the edge of being overcooked.
The lentils themselves were really well cooked,
but the vegetables weren't, and there was too much garlic.
Vanessa got herself in a real pickle,
but, actually, the flavours on the plate that she presented to us
were the flavours of a plum and frangipane tart
with a lovely vanilla cream.
The frustrating bit is that
it didn't look the way it should have looked.
The pressure definitely got to me.
Had I stayed calm, I think I would have managed it OK.
I think I never want to do a Market Challenge ever again.
It's just gutting that it wasn't as good as I thought it could be.
It was too risky, it was a bit strange,
and, you know, perhaps I'll live to regret it,
but it's just one of those things.
As we said at the start of this,
six of you will go through to the next round.
And that does mean, sadly, one of you will be leaving the competition.
We have made our decision. The person leaving us...
..is Oli.
Oli, thank you very much indeed. You've had a good competition.
Thanks for all your hard work.
Nice to meet you, Oli. Thanks, Oli. Thank you.
I feel disappointed, sad, gutted. I feel like I let myself down.
The MasterChef kitchen, it just can get the better of you,
and it got the better of me today.
Well done, you six.
We'll see you in the next round. We have got a cracker for you.
CHEERING
I made it through by the skin of my teeth,
so I'm gobsmacked that I'm still here.
This challenge was intense,
but I have definitely used up one of my lives, that's for sure.
It'd be nice to keep the momentum going. Anything can happen.
I think you've just got to take it one dish at a time.
I'm so thrilled to be here and I can't wait for the next challenge.
Six amateur cooks, one big challenge
before we decide on our four quarterfinalists.
That means they're going to have to really fight
for their place in the competition.
I feel a lot calmer today than I have any other day,
so I'm just going to go in there and enjoy it.
That's all I can do now. I'm here. Let me just show them what I can do.
The last challenge and the comments kind of broke me a little,
but I can cook - I know I can cook - so let's see what happens today.
I'm confident going into this round.
Hopefully, I'm becoming a little known for flavour,
so I want to keep riding that wave.
Welcome back. The competition is hotting up.
This is a big challenge.
You are now cooking for a place in a quarterfinal.
You have all been given a very specific brief,
and that brief was set by a famous restaurant critic.
Ladies and gentlemen, can I now introduce you
to Jay Rayner?
SHE MOUTHS SILENTLY
Hello, chaps. Welcome, Jay.
Hello, contestants. Lovely to see you all.
So, the brief I've set you is to cook me a dish
which makes rice the star.
There are rice traditions
in almost every culinary culture on the planet.
You have the whole world at your disposal.
But to get it right takes a lot of skill,
and why else are you in this kitchen other than to show us your skill?
Ladies and gentlemen, you know what you've got to do.
You've got 1 hour and 30 minutes.
At the end of this, two of you will be going home. Let's cook.
Ah!
This sounds like a really simple brief.
Rice? That's a staple.
But if you get it wrong,
what you end up with is a big, gluey mess.
One of the intriguing things about rice is
it can be used in sweet dishes.
There are so many ways to go with this,
and there's nowhere to hide with it.
One of the things I particularly like about amateur MasterChef
is that they really are bringing
their own cultures from their own kitchens.
There are so many diverse rice cultures to pull on,
and I want them to express a bit of their own stories.
Why do you have to get me when I'm crying with an onion?
Rice is definitely a strength of mine.
I know the tips and tricks that my mum gave me,
so, hopefully, they're going to do me well.
I might eat my words after this challenge, but who knows?
I'm going to hope that rice is my strength.
How did you feel when you saw the brief?
Coming from Indian cuisine, rice is a staple. Of course.
So, there were so many dishes running through my head,
so I thought it was more difficult, actually, the brief.
So, what did you alight upon? What are you cooking today?
Sticky rice balls in a tamarind rasam broth,
so bringing in some South Indian cookery and flavours.
Your family aren't from the south of India.
No. They're from Gujarat. Yes. So, where did you learn this?
So, it was just a bit of giving you a different flavour of India,
which is why I did it,
and just to push myself a little bit more
and give you something slightly different,
and hopefully it is tasty enough for you.
Just do your best and feed me. No pressure.
Bhavina's cooked jasmine rice - long-grain rice -
but hasn't washed it, so there's loads of starch in it
cos she wants those rice balls to be sticky,
so that, once the rice is cooled,
she can actually roll it into a ball.
There are a number of things that could go wrong with Bhavina's dish.
The broth could completely overwhelm the rice.
The broth, I just need to balance slightly.
It's a little bit too sour at the moment.
The rice balls could just completely fall apart in the broth...
Trying to roll as fast as I can. SHE LAUGHS
..and then this lovely idea actually just becomes a mess of stuff.
My dish is really simple and really delicate.
Doesn't have anything punchy in it.
So, I'm worried that it could be too simple.
Well, we'll see.
I am making rice-stuffed Tiger green tomatoes...
OK. ..and I'm serving it with tomato consomme
and a Parmesan crisp.
What's going into that stuffing? It can't just be the rice. Yes.
So, I have rice, onion, garlic, pepper, courgette, lots of parsley,
and a bit of Parmesan to give it, like, a saltiness.
Did your mum cook rice when you were growing up?
Yes, we had lots of rice at home.
We had lots of tomato soups with rice.
Like, in Poland, we put rice in loads of different soups.
Well, you've set yourself a lot of work
and I'll be fascinated to see what you come up with. Well, I hope you like it. So do I!
Evy's fascinating.
Her dish is centred around a tomato and rice.
She's going to take that tomato, she's going to hollow it all out,
and then she's going to fill it with cooked rice,
which is flavoured with lots and lots of vegetables,
and bake it in the oven.
She's going to sit that stuffed tomato
inside a tomato consomme.
Now, consomme means it's got to be completely clear,
and she's got to have it tasting of tomatoes, not just of water.
I think I'm definitely pushing myself in this dish
with a tomato consomme.
If it's not clear, it's not a consomme. It's a soup.
What I'll be looking for in Evy's dish
is some real flavour to the rice.
Everything else around it
should be the pedestal upon which that stands.
Jamahl is making a three-mushroom risotto.
Right, let's go.
Risotto, it's a short-grain rice which is cooked with stock.
You feed it with moisture a little bit at a time.
It means you get a lovely, creamy sauce
that goes with that rice.
Not bad. Not bad.
With that, we've got polenta chips. Odd combination.
We've got asparagus and a Parmesan crisp.
I hope it's not too many flavours going on the plate.
In the last round,
Jamahl failed to serve us a pot of rice.
JAY: Oh! Yes, sir.
THEY LAUGH
So, when you saw this brief, did you think,
"Oh, no, here we go again"? HE LAUGHS
I'll also make sure I don't cook for my whole family this time,
cos I cooked way too much rice.
How much pressure are you under now with that rice?
HE LAUGHS
Yeah, I'm only using 300g - 100g for each person - so...
Jamahl, have you seen the size of me?
I hope it's going to fill you up.
I'm sure all three of them have tasted hundreds of risottos,
and I think, if they can appreciate the whole dish,
how it complements the centrepiece of the rice,
I'll be very, very happy.
I was hoping that somebody would do a risotto today
and Jamahl is doing a risotto.
I'm a little baffled by everything else that's going on.
I'd have been very happy if someone had simply said,
"Here is a perfect bowl of risotto."
Jamahl seems to be lacking a slight confidence
in that standing up for itself.
You've got one hour to go.
The reason why I've chosen this dish?
Because my father used to cook it for us when we were little,
so there's a lot of childhood memory in this.
Thomas, first of all, is going to take a chicken carcass
and duck fat,
cook a load of vegetables, sweet potatoes and yam,
with some spices.
He's going to toast the rice with those vegetables and the duck fat.
Then he's going to add to that fish sauce,
chilli and chicken stock.
We've also got pork belly, which he's going to braise.
The juice that comes out of that will become the sauce.
I'm really, really excited about this dish.
Does it mean a lot to you to cook a dish like this?
Yes, this is the most appropriate brief
for me to bring this dish in honour of my father.
Sometimes, we do have this at home,
but I'm glamorising the whole dish today.
I mean, obviously, I'm a glamorous man,
so that's thrilling for me. Well, then we are there.
I'm bringing a piece of China to the table today.
And if they don't like Chinese food, I'll be doomed.
HE LAUGHS
There is absolutely no doubt that Thomas is right on the brief.
I feel extremely confident and excited in what he's doing.
So far, so good. Don't want to speak too soon,
cos the last moment's when I go crazy and ruin everything.
Vanessa's making us a dessert inspired by a classic Iranian rice.
We're getting a rice pudding, which is flavoured with saffron,
pistachio nuts and cardamom. Fantastic.
And then she's serving that with a barberry pie.
Barberry are small little berries,
which are really quite sharp and quite sour.
It's risky because of the flavours that are in it.
I'm using saffron, which, if I use too much,
it's going to taste like medicine.
I'm using rose water.
If I put too much in, you're going to have perfume.
I'm using cardamom.
If I put too much, it's going to overpower the dish.
So, you need to smell it,
you need to see it, you need to taste it.
But you can't have one overpowering the other,
and that's the difficult part.
When you saw this brief,
were you terrified by it, excited by it?
A mixture of the two, really.
I love to eat rice. I have it most days.
But it's usually with something and not the main component.
Are you OK with pastry today? I hope so. We'll find out soon!
We had a bit of a pastry meltdown in the last round.
JAY: Oh! Yes.
But that's in the past, isn't it?
Right. Today, new attitude. It's going to be great. Excellent.
Guys, you've got just 14 minutes.
This dish means a lot.
It's obviously for a place in the quarterfinal.
Everyone's going to be cooking their hardest.
It's so much fun being in the kitchen.
I just want to try and stay in as long as possible now.
James has showed quite a bit of classic technique. Quite a bit.
JAY: So, how will that classic technique be expressed today?
Don't know whether you would call it a classic technique today.
I love Italian food, so my mind immediately shot to arancini balls,
but I'm going to do them as a dessert. Ah.
GREGG: This creative side,
is this a side of you we haven't yet seen?
I think it is a side that we haven't yet seen, so...
I like to be creative. Something a bit different, a bit more fun.
You're taking quite a bit of time to fashion roses from mango.
I want to serve you something that looks nice.
I thought diced mango in a bowl doesn't quite cut it for Jay Rayner.
Instead of doing a savoury arancini,
we're getting a sweet rice pudding ball,
which is flavoured with desiccated coconut,
black sesame seeds and coconut cream.
He's going to crumb it with panko breadcrumbs, egg and flour.
With that, a Greek yoghurt and coconut sorbet.
He's putting a white chocolate and mango mousse on the side, as well.
I mean, this is interesting stuff.
It's sort of very, very tropical flavours.
Guys, listen, you have just four minutes.
I'm nearly there. I'm feeling positive.
Stressed. Extremely stressed.
Rushed. It's right to the wire on this one.
Two minutes, please, everybody. Oh!
SHE GASPS
A few remaining seconds. This is last touches.
Jamahl, if it's going on a plate, it needs to get on right now.
OK. Right now.
Time's up, everybody. Stop.
Bhavina, we're ready for you.
Bhavina has made sticky rice balls
flavoured with garlic, ginger and spring onion,
served in a rasam broth - a South Indian spiced soup
with tamarind, tomatoes and coriander.
There is something kind of shimmering about it.
What essentially looks like a bowl of soup.
It's rather beautiful.
The broth has depth of flavour and layers of flavour,
and it's sharp and it's sweet and it's sour. It's fantastic.
The rice balls still have the texture of rice.
They're comforting. I love this. Well done.
Your broth is sharp and sour with tamarind, which I really like.
The surprise, though, is the rice balls,
which have got garlic and then spring onion and coriander.
So, when you bite into it,
there's this completely different flavour profile to your soup.
I really like it.
I've never had this dish before.
It's so strong, I'm not sure I would finish it.
I don't know why I'm not convinced.
Maybe it's because it's a bowl of soup.
Elated. Relieved.
I actually really enjoyed this cook,
had fun, and just delivered what I could,
so, yeah, I tried to not let the pressure get to me.
Evy has served Tiger green tomatoes stuffed with basmati rice,
onion, garlic, courgettes and peppers,
with a Parmesan crisp and a tomato consomme.
It's very clean and very pretty, actually, this. Thank you.
The consomme is wonderful.
The fact you actually made the flavour of a cream and tomato soup,
and it's completely clear - I think that's really, really clever.
That rice needs a good grind of black pepper
just to lift it up a little bit.
Very well-made consomme. Your rice is beautifully cooked.
The tomato that encases the rice is beautifully cooked.
That is inches from being an absolutely stunning dish.
I just want some more flavour in that rice.
It's a very good-looking dish.
Maybe one of the best Parmesan crisps I've ever had.
It's a very comforting dish, but it's not actually something
that hits you in the chest and goes, "Wow!"
I'm exhausted.
It was so much pressure, so much pressure.
And I'm a bit disappointed with my dish, as well.
Inspired by a dish his dad made him as a child,
Thomas has served yam rice -
jasmine rice cooked in chicken stock,
soy, oyster sauce and spices,
with pork belly, fried yam, lotus root crisps,
spring onion oil and a pork sauce.
The carrot looks like Olaf out of Frozen.
HE LAUGHS The rest of it's all very brown.
Brown's good. All the best foods are brown.
I think the pork is beautifully cooked.
Your rice is really well cooked.
You've toasted it first, so it's gone really nutty.
I've got this herb oil underneath, which is really fresh.
It's so exciting on my palate, I can't stop eating it.
I think it's fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you.
The pork sauce that you've got over this rice is almost sweet,
like you'd get on spare ribs,
and there's heat in here and there's salt.
The yam hasn't got a great deal of flavour,
but it's a really nice, soft texture.
This is a great dish
that's really difficult to keep your spoon out of.
It's the kind of thing I adore. It's a delightful, delightful dish.
It's the kind of Asian-inspired dish
that I was absolutely hoping to meet when I set this brief.
I think you've done your old dad very proud here.
It's an emotional plate of food.
It's come from a great place. Thank you.
Excuse me.
Oh, it was quite emotional.
The dish means a lot for me.
It brings back a lot of childhood memories.
Well, that definitely has boosted my confidence.
Jamahl, would you please?
Jamahl has served a mushroom and chilli risotto
with polenta crisps,
sauteed asparagus and balsamic tomatoes.
And no Parmesan crisp. I had everything cooked,
but I didn't leave enough time to plate,
so the Parmesan crisp didn't make it to the plate.
Your dish has been rushed,
and the presentation has really suffered.
We've got a couple of issues.
I've got a mushroom-flavoured rice, which I like,
but risotto, to me, is unctuous. It should be creamier.
The balsamic tomatoes are very strong,
and I quite like the polenta crisps.
I still don't understand how they go with the risotto, but I like them.
Your rice is cooked. I would prefer mine a lot wetter.
I'm not a fan of the chilli.
I think it's masking the beautiful, smoky, strong,
beefy mushroom flavour.
There's a good mushroom flavour to it,
and I understand why you did all the other things,
but, really, they weren't necessary
when what you could have been concentrating on
was serving us the perfect mushroom risotto,
which I'm afraid this isn't. Yeah.
I'm feeling relieved that the round is done.
I gave myself a lot of work, so I was running around a lot.
The comments that they said, I was expecting it.
You have to give yourself time in the MasterChef kitchen.
You have to give yourself time.
James used pudding rice to make sweet coconut arancini balls
with a mango, white chocolate and almond liqueur cream,
fresh mango, and a yoghurt and coconut sorbet.
It's like a walk along a tropical island.
Inside those balls there is, like, really lovely, sweet coconut.
Loving the sharp but still sweet yoghurty sorbet.
Juicy mango. I'm really into this.
I'm finding those sweet arancini with the coconut quite dry.
I definitely want more of that white chocolate mango cream.
For me, it's not quite there.
I really like these, and I think,
if anybody in the canape business is watching,
they should be taking notes because you could send those out
to a party on platters and they'd go down an absolute storm.
But they do need some sort of sauce.
If you'd put them with a chocolate sauce,
that would have been fabulous. Could have dipped them in.
The dish came out semi how I wanted it.
I think I probably gave myself a little bit too much to do
in the timeframe.
But, yeah, it's the MasterChef kitchen.
Time goes seriously fast in there.
Finally, it's Vanessa.
She's made a saffron rice pudding
topped with barberries and pistachios,
with a barberry and rose-water pie and a cardamom cream.
Vanessa, when I set this brief
to make a dish with rice as the star,
I was quietly hoping that somebody would make me a rice pudding.
You have made a glorious rice pudding,
as far as I'm concerned, one with a softness.
The texture of the chopped pistachios on the top
with a little sourness of the barberries, it's gorgeous.
And then that little hit of fragrant rose water on top, it's fabulous.
You promised us a saffron rice pudding,
and I don't get very much saffron at all.
In fact, I'm really searching hard.
Your little pie,
the barberries are really, really sharp.
And the cream on the side -
I don't get a lot of cardamom out of it.
Don't get the celebration, I feel, of the spice that's needed
to make that rice pudding really big and exciting.
Flavour-wise, I'm with John, I'm afraid.
I can't taste saffron.
I wanted to be floating away on a magic-carpet ride
full of Eastern promise. I wanted that saffron.
I want the colour in the cream that I'm struggling to find.
Relieved that it's over. I'm glad that I got a plate up.
I'm glad that it looked smarter than the other round that I just had,
so, hmm, OK.
It's been a joy today.
You took my brief and you all ran with it
and presented some things that were absolutely delightful.
Thank you for taking my brief seriously.
I really appreciate it.
We now have a decision to make.
There's four quarterfinal places,
and that does mean that two of you will be leaving us.
Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
Thanks, Jay. Brilliant brief.
You have really expanded our six amateurs' culinary horizons.
Pleasure. Thank you for inviting me round to your gaff.
See you next time?
See you next time. Yeah, absolutely. Cheers, Jay.
There were some great dishes. I'm very, very impressed.
More impressed with some than others.
There was one person we all agreed upon
being a great cook and delivering extraordinary flavours,
and that was Thomas.
Thomas's dish was fantastic, full of emotion.
There were so many different flavours
that you had to keep on going in to see what you got next.
It was delicious.
Thomas has got himself a quarterfinal place. Absolutely.
There is one person I'm sad to say who I think's competition is done,
and that is Jamahl.
Jamahl made for us a three-mushroom risotto.
The rice was not cooked enough. It wasn't creamy.
It didn't work as a dish.
He was rushing. That dish was messy. Jamahl's leaving us.
Evy did some really extraordinary technical work.
She had a plate that looked like a restaurant-standard dish.
The thing was the rice didn't have the wow factor.
We need some more seasoning.
But beautiful appearance, lovely consomme.
I believe Evy is showing more than enough skill
to get herself a place in the quarterfinal.
I really like James.
Jay liked James. You were the one who didn't like him.
I found that coconut-flavoured rice
with the crust on the outside really quite dry.
However, you loved it.
He gave me flavours - tropical flavours -
that I really like - coconut, mango.
I really, really liked it. I would put James through.
That leaves us with Bhavina and Vanessa.
We three could not agree upon those dishes.
Bhavina - I really liked that sharp, sour broth,
and then those rice balls, which, inside them,
had garlic and ginger.
It wasn't just bland rice.
But you did not like it.
Jay loved it. I felt like the odd one out.
I just kept looking at this bowl of soup.
I just couldn't get into it.
Vanessa's rice pudding, Jay absolutely adored.
For me, there wasn't the wonder that was promised
of saffron and cardamom.
I really agree with you - not enough spicing there at all.
I've definitely split the judges.
I mean, Jay Rayner seemed to enjoy it,
but Gregg and John were expecting bigger flavours,
so we'll see what happens.
I had a whale of a time,
and I'm just proud of what I delivered.
It is what it is now, and it's all in their hands.
I have to say congratulations to all six of you.
Some great imagination, some great classic technique,
and some great flavours.
There is one cook in here
whose dish all three of us absolutely loved.
Thomas, congratulations. Well done, mate. Thank you.
You are a MasterChef quarterfinalist.
Two other people, although the odd issue,
we think have done more than enough
for them to get themselves a quarterfinal place.
Evy, James...
..congratulations, you two.
The first contestant leaving us is Jamahl.
Mate, Jamahl, really enjoyed having you here in the competition.
Thank you so, so much.
Thanks, Jamahl. Thank you. Thanks very much indeed.
Bhavina, Vanessa,
obviously, one of you is leaving the competition,
one of you is going to become a quarterfinalist.
Our final quarterfinalist is...
..Bhavina. Congratulations.
Congratulations. Well done.
Vanessa, unfortunately, you're leaving us.
Oh! Thank you very much indeed. Thank you.
It didn't work out for me today.
I will look back on it very, very fondly.
I got to cook for John and Gregg and for Jay Rayner.
Ah, fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.
Mixed emotions. Mixed emotions.
I thought I was going to be going home. The dish wasn't up to par.
But it's been a fantastic experience.
Fantastic experience. I wouldn't change it for the world.
I cannot believe it. Super happy.
I'm shocked. I'm still gobsmacked that I'm here for the quarterfinal.
I'm very happy inside, but I'm just too tired to show it.
What a dream come true.
I certainly thought it might be my time,
so to get one of the spaces, yeah, I feel really privileged.
Thrilled, surprised, shocked. It's been a great day.
You know, what a great ending.
Next time, it's the quarterfinal,
and Bhavina, James, Thomas and Evy
return to face their toughest challenge yet...
This is one of the best things I've eaten in a long time.
BHAVINA: Calm down, calm down, calm down.
THOMAS: My hand is shaking like mad.
..as they battle for a place in the semifinals.
I think that's absolutely fantastic.