Last time... This is the real thing. ..six brand-new teams...
Oh, backs. Sorry. ..entered the fray...
How many times have you cried? Not yet! I'm saving it for later.
...competing to be crowned... Whoo!
...Britain's best pastry chefs. Push it, yeah? Yeah, man.
And it was Ajay and Petra who rock and rolled their way
into first place... It's a very, very good effort.
My body can't take it. It has to. Go!
...while Ben andjason almost missed a beat.
I was so worried that you're going to break your showpiece.
This is so frustrating. ..Adi and Flo struck the wrong chord...
It typically doesn't even look like an accordion.
...and they had to leave the competition.
Short and sweet, girls, short and sweet.
Now... Right, I'm going in. ..five teams remain.
Yay!
They'll reimagine two classic desserts...
It's lemon in a modern way. ..and come alive
in a carnival-themed showpiece.
Ooh! It screams carnival.
Who will parade their finest work... I find them really attractive.
...and whose invite to the party... Are you party people?
No. "will get lost in the post?
I'm terrified, man.
BIRDSONG
There you go, my man. Thank you.
Back at it again. Back at it again.
It'll be fine. It'll be fine. I'm excited.
We'll go with that.
Well, this time, we know what we're doing.
So a bit better than last time, I guess.
It's strange. Time seems to go a lot faster,
there seems to be 50 minutes in an hour here!
Good morning, chefs. Today, Benny and Cher would like you
to reimagine two classic desserts,
creating 24 identical versions of each.
So, Cher, what have you gone for?
Liam, please do not call me that again.
Chefs, today I have chosen the Japanese cotton cheesecake,
but I want you to come up with a reimagined version.
Keep the jiggly fluffiness they are famous for,
but play around with the shape and the flavour too.
Oh, can't think of anything I'd rather play around with.
Right, Benny, what have you chosen?
The custard tart. But we don't want simples.
We want reimagined.
Your tarts must traditionally feature
a crisp shortcrust pastry and custard.
The rest is really up to you. So go crazy with your custard
and hopefully, you will cut the mustard.
Lovely bit of wordplay there.
Right, chefs, you have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in,
three and a half hours, to be precise.
So good luck, your time starts now.
All right, let's go.
Cotton cheesecake is basically a souffle.
It's a meringue-based cheesecake. It's very, very, very light.
You want that fluffiness and jiggly...
Cherish, you want your cheesecakes to jiggle today?
Oh, yeah, definitely. jiggle, jiggle, jiggle.
It's quite restrained, your jiggle. Let loose, be the cheesecake.
Come on, Bench. Pfi...
I love, love, love cotton cheesecake
because it is my childhood favourite.
This is one... Go to seven straight away.
Seven, seven, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Yeah!
They need to nail on the temperature of the oven.
If you get your temperature wrong, your cheesecake will collapse,
the cheesecake will be dry.
And it is prone to cracking.
You've got nowhere to hide, so once it's in the oven, that's it then.
There is so many element that you can enhance.
You can put a jelly in, a caramel in - it's totally up to them.
It's lemon in a modern way. I can't wait to taste.
Bring me beautiful memory from childhood.
Morning, chefs. Morning, chefs.
Good morning. Explain to me what is your creation.
So our cheesecake is going to be
a lemon and yuzu centre
with lemon supremes, con fit lemon skins.
We want to really celebrate citrus this week. Have you clone it before?
Um, I think I made it once a long time ago.
If you get the meringue wrong, it collapses. You just have to feel it.
Ben andjason hope not to fall flat with a vanilla cheesecake
sitting on a lemon and white-chocolate crispy layer
while a yuzu-lemon centre will bring a much needed zest
to their meringue topping.
Everything's always very busy around your bench.
You're 1,000 miles an hour all the time.
Yeah, I'm either on or off. Are you a nightmare to live with?
I don't know. My girlfriend probably says yes.
I've been living with him for a month. He's been crashing at mine.
He's pretty self-sufficient, I'll give him that. Self-sufficient!
You sound like you're talking about a pet!
# Mama G and Michael
# Mama, Mama, Mama G, go, go... # THEY LAUGH
Mama G, why is that purple?
Cause this, uh, ube.
Ube. Yes. It's basically a purple yam.
Very, very proud of this
because this is originally from the Philippines where I am from.
ELLIE: Bringing a taste of home, a mango coulis
and cream-cheese frosting will accompany
Gerol and Michael's cotton cheesecakes.
They'll be filled with jam flavoured with ube,
a sweet-potato-like vegetable.
Any reason why are you using flavouring
rather than a, uh, natural product?
Um, because it's more lighter because ube is a bit dense.
So on top of that, I'm going to incorporate with mango.
So is it going to wobble? Hopefully.
To get the all-important jiggle,
the teams must achieve the perfect meringue.
I'm looking for sort of medium-soft peaks.
Nice and shiny, but it needs to be stable, the egg white -
if it's not stable, it's going to collapse. No, not quite.
Over-whipped and they risk dense, cracked cotton cheesecakes.
Going to fold it gently through into the cream-cheese mixture.
Keep going till it's folded through. If you under-mix it, you're screwed.
Ancl when it comes to flavours... I'm making black-rice-vinegar gel.
...one team are getting experimental.
We are really keen on exciting the palate,
so vinegars and pickles are really nice
and an easy way to bring in the acidity in the dish.
Hello, green team. Hello.
You came first last week - how was that? We're really happy.
I bet. Who was the first person you told that you came first?
My family of course. I have, uh, six siblings,
so three brothers, three sisters.
You're the Von Trapps. There's seven of you, crikey.
Gosh, if you want to cook for them, that's quite an undertaking.
Yeah, I don't do that.
Ajay and Petra's ambitious reimagined cotton cheesecakes
will be filled with salted-caramel mousse,
topped with chocolate and decorated with a sesame tuile
piped with black-rice gel.
I'm quite intrigued with your black-rice vinegar.
We use it for, uh, our restaurants
and the flavour combination is quite nice.
Very Japanese in terms of the flavour profile.
OK, is that elevated enough?
Well, we should find out very soon. But thank you very much.
Thank you. See you later.
Smelling really good.
Ajay and Petra aren't the only team going for Japanese flavours.
Miso's got a kind of salty, caramelly taste.
We paired it with rice milk, keeping with the whole Japanese style.
Nathan and Andrew's miso-infused cotton cheesecakes
will be accompanied with a charred pineapple compote
and decorated with a delicate rice-milk veil.
How's your wife, Andrew? Is she still pregnant? Yes,
the baby is still baking in the oven. Great.
How long have you guys been married? Two years.
We had a chocolate business which ended up paying for our wedding.
It kicked off a lot better than expected.
We ended up having to work 36-hour shifts.
That is the only time you can legitimately say
to your female partner, "Get in the kitchen."
Exactly! That is allowed.
All right, chef? Mmm.
With all the other teams making individual cheesecakes,
Ashley and Kian are taking a different approach.
We thought we'd just keep it classical like it is in japan,
so we're doing a larger cheesecake
and then we'll portion ours into slices.
Ashley and Kian are hoping to elevate
their classic vanilla cotton cheesecakes
with apple crumble and an apple compote.
You are the only one that make, uh... Large one.
...entremets size.
Do you think you have enough time to rest and chop them up?
We think so. We think we can just do it, yeah.
Well, good luck with that, uh? That's all we can wish you.
I'm going to put water in now.
Baking them slowly in a water bath
will help ensure cheesecake success.
It'll help control the temperature, uh, so it doesn't overheat.
So then you don't get your cracks in your cheesecake.
Right, I'm going in. Let the oven temp drop to 165
before you close the door. Into the oven.
Close the door. Go, go, go, go.
Chefs, you are halfway through. If you haven't clone already,
you might want to check your ovens - top tip.
They're professionals, Ellie. Everyone has an off clay, Liam.
I'm here to help.
With their cotton cheesecakes in the oven...
Jason, keep your eyes peeled on those cheesecakes, please.
...the challenge is also heating up.
I'm really hoping this doesn't sink.
...as the teams still have to produce 24 reimagined custard tarts.
I'm going to start the pastry. Move, go.
I love, uh, I love custard tarts. Yeah.
Even, you know, just the simplest traditional ones.
How would you reimagine the custard tart, you would ask.
Well, reimagine it cleverly.
I think times have changed. We don't always think it needs a case.
Play with flavours and potentially the textures
and especially presentation.
Banana and custard, yeah, it is a bit of a classic.
As long as they are not losing the essence
of the beautiful custard tart -
the creaminess of the custard and the crispiness of the pastry -
they can do pretty much what they want.
I am adding the chai tea bags to it to flavour it.
At the end, I do not like a custard tart. I love it.
Well, well, well, another day, another custard tart.
Are you the queen of custard tart? Uh...
"yeah.
Ha! There was a moment of doubt here.
Tell us all about your elevation of the custard tart.
Going to do an Earl Grey set custard
and do a raspberry gel and then our coconut, uh, dome on top.
It's quite similar to a Manchester tart with a little bit of nutmeg.
Not too much nutmeg, yeah? No. BENOIT LAUGHS
So we are doing rhubarb and custard. What's not to like about it?
And when it comes to balancing flavour for their tarts...
Because you get a lot of sweetness from the rhubarb,
you get creaminess from the custard, so then the pepper would be
that little bit of excitement right at the end.
...Ajay and Petra are using their Michelin-star skills
to elevate their classic custard combo.
Chopped up some rhubarb, put it in a bag then I'll vacuum-seal it
and then cook it in a sous-vide until it's soft.
Ancl they're not the only ones getting fruity.
We have done a banana custard and we've got caramel in there.
I actually don't like bananas, but I like this tart.
So what you make of that, I don't know.
Nice buttery caramel.
Nathan and Andrew are also using
this tried and tested flavour combination.
We'll make a dry caramel, put in the bananas
till they start to break down and then you add creme de banane.
That can be very sweet because banana is quite sweet,
caramel is quite sweet and the banana is even sweeter.
Yeah. Is that going to be sweet?
Uh, yes, it will be sweet. Yes, but just a tiny little hint of banana.
I've just infused my cream with Earl Grey.
The chefs must balance the flavours of their custard...
It needs to be there, but not to take over the dish.
Smells lovely.
...whilst also achieving the perfect consistency.
Going to stick the custard in the fridge. We want the custard
to be just set enough so it's still wiggly.
Starting to get the pastry rolled out for the tart.
While the other teams are leaving the flavour to their custard...
Nice and thin on those. Thin as possible.
...Ben and Jason are flavouring their pastry with cocoa powder.
We're doing a dark-chocolate shortcrust pastry.
and then we're topping it with an orange-rind gel,
segments of orange and then blood orange.
Is that going to be enough elevation? Uh, hopefully, should be.
Simple but very elegant, essentially. OK, good.
You've got one go at it, it's day one.
You can't have two bad days in the kitchen.
I'm going to line the tart cases next and then blind-bake them.
The chefs need to bake their pastry shells
while the custard is setting so the casing remains crispy.
They're a touch on the thick side.
And Ajay and Petra plan to go big on their filling
by shaping their pastry cases around the outside of the mould.
We've inverted it so you'd get a mix into the middle
so it'd be more of a substantial tart.
You'd better move, mate. Yeah. OK. Go, go.
Tarts are in.
Keep pushing it. Precision, precision, precision. Yeah.
Chefs, you have one hour left.
One hour until we see some beautiful tarts.
Liam, it's 2024, you can't call them that.
It's funny, sometimes you feel like you can smell
when something's ready in the oven. You're like, "Yeah, it's ready."
Cheesecakes coming out. Backs.
It's essential that cotton cheesecakes
are light, fluffy and airy.
Whoo! So far, cheesecakes have a nice jiggle to them.
Yeah, I'm HAPPY-
But if they are cooked at the wrong temperature...
I'm really hoping this doesn't sink.
...they'll be dried out...
I'm not happy with how it looks. There's a crack in the cheesecake.
...or won't hold their shape. The rising, I can see it's not perfect.
I'm a bit sad about my cheesecake.
But there's no time for setbacks...
Right. ..as their custard tarts also need assembling.
Starting to layer the tarts up now.
I'm happy with the tart shells. Like, we wanted them
to be slightly thicker than a normal tart shell
because ultimately we want that chocolate flavour to come through.
While the tarts firm up, the chefs can turn their attention
to the decorative elements.
I'm doing oat crumble, that's a garnish for the cheesecake.
This is our lemon con fit and Japanese yuzu centre.
Felt fitting for a Japanese cheesecake to include that.
I am making the rice-milk veil.
This is looking lovely. Thank you.
Gerol, when you're not busy making tiny green leaves,
what do you do for fun? I like playing board games.
Do you have big, raucous board-game parties?
Yeah, I do. My husband's very proud of the fact
that he once had a Pictionary party and the police were called.
Oh, OK. So...there's something to aim for.
Chefs, you have 15 minutes to go!
Ooh, la, la. Quickly.
The teams need to focus on decoration
and producing the perfect finish demanded by Benoit and Cherish.
I'm not happy with how it looks with the cracks at the top.
If I go any quicker, I'm going to risk them being messy.
I don't use it for, uh, playing music, I just use it for piping!
Let's go quickly. What's this veil? Like, a...a wedding-dress veil.
So these cheesecakes are getting married, then?
To the custard tart, yeah!
Whoo! Look at that.
We're getting there, chef.
I'm pleased that the chocolate is so thin.
just pop the top down so they're round. Yeah.
So they're not leaking off the edges.
You OK with time, yeah?
Chefs, you have five minutes to go.
Let's do this. I'm going with fresh nutmeg over the top to finish it off.
just putting on lime zest just to help the lime custard.
I'll never get this garnish clone with tweezers.
How many more? Nine.
Only two more. Chefs, one minute left.
24 beautiful ones, four still beautiful ones.
23. Coming through.
And some purple in the other gaps.
One more. We're getting there. You going to finish?
Think we're good. That's it.
Done.
Chefs, your time is up.
Well clone, chef. And that's the end of the challenge.
Please step away from your bakes.
They look good. I hope they like the flavours.
just worried we didn't do enough, right? I mean, that's it, yeah.
So we're the only ones that have done big ones, aren't we? Yeah.
But they don't look as refined as everyone else's.
MUSIC: Flower Duet by Delibes
The teams' reimagined Japanese cotton cheesecakes
and custard tarts now face the judgement of Cherish and Benoit.
Gerol and Michael from the Royal Air Force Club,
please come on up.
Chefs, overall, I think the presentation look very nice
so we need to test whether does it wobble.
SHE LAUGHS
It refuse to wobble.
I think overall, cheesecake over baked.
Let's taste. We have ube cotton cheesecake
with ube jam and a mango coulis and a cream-cheese frosting.
I really like the taste profile of the ube, but the mango take over.
I like the fact that it is fairly smooth.
Is it as light and fluffy as a cotton cheesecake should be?
No. Custard-tart time.
They look very cute.
So we have a coconut sable on the bottom, Earl Grey custard,
raspberry pates de fruits and then the coconut dome.
Really, really love the raspberry with it, yeah?
Because the raspberry with that Earl Grey custard -
ahh, now we're talking. This is really nice.
I really like the taste profile,
however, I think it's a little bit hard for my liking.
OK. just tweak it a little bit
and that will be a sensational piece of dessert. Thank you, chef.
I have to say, I find them really attractive.
So on the bottom, we have a regular cheesecake
then sesame caramel, sesame tuile,
uh, blonde chocolate namelaka... Mm.
...rice-vinegar gel.
It's explosion. It's Asia on my palate.
But what bugs me here
is the texture of the cotton cheesecake itself,
which I find a bit claggy. It's a shame.
Let's see if you do a better job with the custard tart.
Uh, so we have a sweet pastry cooked on an inverted tart case.
In the middle, we have a rhubarb gel with vanilla custard,
uh, black-pepper snow, candied pistachios
and a rhubarb rose. Phew.
You guys have tried to get the thinnest of pastry... Mm.
...the creamiest of custards,
the most flavoursome rhubarb you can get
and the rest is just adding on to elevate.
So I really like that.
The eating sensation is so beautiful.
Thank you very much.
No jiggle.
So through the actual cheesecake mix, we have white miso. Mm-hm.
And then on top, we have a charred pineapple compote
with a rice-milk veil.
Your cheesecake is not as velvety and smooth as I want it to be.
I like the flavour you've done with the pineapple
and the little veil on top. You can feel the miso in there.
Uh, there's almost like a savoury kind of take on this.
I like. So now we've got the custard tart to talk about.
We have a chai custard with a reconstructed sable base,
a lime whipping ganache on top with banana gel.
The custard tart is a bit far-fetched, but I forgive you
because this is absolutely lovely to eat. Voila. Thank you. Voila.
When you taste the lime cream, it's supposed to be nice,
but there's an aftertaste that is not so sensation when you eat it.
Does it excite me? Not really.
I like it, she doesn't.
We're going to have fun marking, innit?
OK, visually, it's very minimalist.
The base is a lemon-zest and white-chocolate crispy.
You've then got a Tahitian vanilla cheesecake,
a yuzu con fit-lemon and fresh-lemon centre.
And then you've got Italian meringue and lemon thyme.
When I eat it, the cheesecake itself is dry, dry, dry, dry, dry.
Not really for me. The hero is the cotton cheesecake,
so all of it, it's a little bit stodgy.
Mm. OK, custard tart.
So you have a chocolate-hazelnut case,
you have a orange blossom and vanilla custard.
You then have an orange-rind gel.
So the part I like - the custard. Beautiful creamy texture,
very custardy, on the money.
But the part I don't like is the pastry. Hmm.
Ah, that pastry is powdery.
That's the problem with working with cocoa-powder pastry.
I didn't taste the orange blossom,
but I can taste the vanilla more. It's just too strong.
Well, the first glance of the cheesecake,
it is not as precisely cut as I want it to be.
Let's taste. So we have vanilla inside the cheesecake
and then we have an apple compote with Granny Smith apple
and we have a cinnamon and oat crumble.
The temperature of baking is definitely wrong in your recipe.
It is very heavy and it's just not my cup of tea.
OK. Well, I like the flavour.
I like what you've done on top, your crumble,
but it's true, it's very dense.
So it's not very pleasant to eat. What about your custard tart?
You've got a sweet pastry with some fresh nutmeg.
You've got a caramel piped into the bottom of the tart.
You've got a banana-creme patisserie and then there's a caramel mousse.
The sweetness seems well balanced because it c0uld've been very sweet.
So all in all, I really enjoy eating your little tart.
Treacle that you put in there just lift your tart to the next level.
We'll see you later, guys. Thank you. Thank you very much.
We didn't quite get the cheesecake right. No, we didn't nail it. No.
Think t went well. Comments - some good, some bad.
Didn't do that great, I don't think. I just don't think they liked it.
With tomorrow's all-important showpiece challenge looming,
the teams have been given an hour to prepare.
Definitely a game of two halves today. Beautiful custard tarts,
but no team managed to nail the cotton cheesecake.
There were no jiggles. Sans jiggle.
Because all of them bake it so thinly, it is impossible
for me to jiggle them. I can jiggle.
That's the only jiggle we got.
We even had a few cracks today. Ashley and Kian.
It need to be very precise and clean.
They are walking on very thin ice. Then we have Ben andjason -
for some reason, something's not connecting yet.
The custard tart they made today, they've got a nice custard inside,
but the flavour is not clean enough.
So they've got a lot to prove tomorrow.
How did Ajay and Petra do? Well, you know,
they had a very strong day in the kitchen, simple as that.
Similar with the Royal Air Force Club - you liked their custard tart.
It was cute to look at and the flavours were interesting.
Tell us about tomorrow's challenge.
Well, they've got to produce a beautiful showpiece
inspired by the theme of carnival.
I've never been to one. Notting Hill Carnival is the best carnival.
Next year, Cherish, come with me and the boys.
Your face... THEY LAUGH
OWL HOOTS
Welcome back, chefs. For today's showpiece challenge,
the judges have gone back to basics.
Yes, no trick-of-the-eye malarkey going on today,
just a classic showpiece. So, judges, tell us more.
Chefs, today is paaarty time!
Because today, the theme is carnival.
We want you to create the most beautiful showpiece
celebrating the vibrancy of this incredible party.
The design is totally up to you, but remember -
movement and colour.
just a small tip for you. Handing out tips, Cherish?
You've changed. Benoit, are you expecting anything to taste?
Yes, we are, Liam. Chefs, incorporated within your showpiece
must be exotic flavour dessert. Enough to serve 24.
Your dessert must also reflect the theme,
so think carefully about your textures, flavours,
design and decoration which need to celebrate carnival too.
I love carnival. A bit of jerk, a can of Red Stripe,
pure vibes.
All right, chefs, you had a hour last night to prep
and now you have a further four hours to complete this challenge.
Good luck and your time starts now.
CARNIVAL MUSIC
Carnival!
I've been to one carnival many years ago. Lots of fun.
I've never been in one. I avoid people!
Ooh.
This screams carnival. You show me carnival!
What's your carnival dance? Always walking, always on the move.
What is that? Drink. Food. Drink. Food.
And what's wrong with drink, food, drink, food?
Drink. Food. Have a sit down.
Nice. Came out nice.
Last night, the teams were given a golden hour
to create any elements that required setting overnight...
Ooh. That's very nice, very sharp.
...so now they can begin construction right away.
Level, level, level, level. Uh, this way a little bit. Yeah, stop.
I can stick them all together in good time
so that it's got a good, sturdy structure.
The beauty of carnival is every country,
every region celebrates it differently.
So let us travel with your showpieces. Let us voyage!
We've gone for a Venice carnival. We've got a moon, mask, a boat.
I want vibrant colour in their showpiece.
Red, blue, yellow, gold, silver, black.
I want them to transport me to their carnival.
South Africa's kind of seen as a rainbow nation,
so you're going to see all these different colours.
The exotic flavour dessert have to connect with the theme
in their textures, in their flavour profile, in their decoration.
We've got a coconut mousse with a sudachi jelly.
Whatever flavour profile that they choose,
it need to samba, rumba on my palate.
It'll be all the flavours you'd associate with West Indian carnival.
Except for the jerk chicken, yeah. Yeah.
We want excitement. We want a party. Bring it on.
Morning, chefs. Morning, chefs. How are you?
Which carnival have you chosen and why?
The Venetian carnival, so it'll be based around the curvy architecture -
you get spirals, you get that finesse that I think their buildings have.
We've got 24 beautiful desserts,
but what are they going to taste like?
We've gone for quite classic exotic flavours.
Coconut whipped ganache with a mango-passion-fruit gel.
But what's the strong connection between flavours
and your theme of carnival?
It's a case of vibrancy, I think. When you go to southern Europe,
you've got this vibrant culture around fruit and fresh produce.
So it's about getting that integral, sharp, aggressive freshness
straight in the bat.
Shaggy-dog stories - have you heard about that expression?
Ben and Jason's homage to Venice
will include masks for the judges to wear
and be decorated with coconut, mango and passion-fruit desserts
and they'll be topped with white-chocolate feathers
to get the party started.
Are you party people? No.
HE LAUGHS
Thanks, Ben. OK... What about you, Jason?
Used to be. What happened?
I joined the real world. Entered the world of work. Aww.
And now I'm in bed by nine. Oh, that's so sad.
Yeah. The world has ground you down. Really has.
I'm broken inside. I've got nothing left.
Unlike Ben and Jason... You get all that boozy flavour.
...Ashley and Kian are getting into the carnival spirit,
packing a punch with their desserts.
I'm just making a pineapple sponge
then we're going to glaze that in a rum and lime syrup.
Can't beat 'em, chef, get 'em all... Yeah, get 'em drunk, exactly, yeah.
Ashley, Kian, so yesterday wasn't particularly the best day.
But do you know what? It's carnival today!
We're celebrating vibes and your showpiece - what's it inspired by?
Chapeltown Carnival in Leeds.
It's the longest running West Indian carnival in Europe.
Longer than Notting Hill? It's better than Notting Hill. It's got to be.
Inspired by the colours of Leeds' West Indian carnival,
Ashley and Kian are moulding coloured columns
using sugar substitute lsomalt.
They'll be topped with rum and pineapple-flavoured desserts
shaped to make the judges go nuts.
It's going to look like lifelike coconuts.
There will be no decoration, just a coconut? Coconuts.
Is that enough? Can you dress a coconut up? I don't know.
It will have to be all in the flavour, then.
No, it needs to be well executed. Yeah.
And also well integrated within your showpiece. Yeah.
All right. Let's dance our way out of here.
Thank you. Thank you.
It has to be a good coconut. Yeah, it'll have to be a good coconut.
But before the chefs can set about decoration...
Sponge is in. 20 minutes.
...they must work on the tantalising textures of their dessert fillings.
Battenberg sponge, it has this, like, unctuousness.
It has the right sort of texture that we need.
This is our crunch element in our dessert.
It's feuilletine and white chocolate.
Filling out the mould, we've got a passion-fruit insert
and a lychee cream going on top. It should shape like a bamboo.
So I took the inspiration from the carnival in the Philippines.
We celebrate bamboo in the Philippines.
It sounds very exotic. So on the bottom,
we're going to have a banana and macadamia-nut sponge,
the pabana exotic mousse, a passion-fruit insert,
topped with a lychee cream. Pabana?
Pabana, yeah. Pabana is the three purees -
the mango, the passion fruit and the banana. Yes.
Ah!
Did you create this name yourself?
No, it's a...it's a thing.
With flavours inspired by the tropics,
Gerol and Michael's bamboo-shaped desserts will sit upon a showpiece
decorated with a masked lady wearing a headdress
of coloured chocolate feathers
named after Michael's daughter Cleo.
How old is baby Cleo? just over six weeks.
Now you've got Cleo, you'll have to go to loads of kids' parties...
Oh. ..which are the seventh circle of hell.
You're in a soft-play, they've all had loads of sweeties
and then we die. Carnival spirit - yay! Yay!
Red on the right, blue on the left.
Crossbasket Castle are also going back to their roots...
...celebrating the carnival in Nathan's home town.
Our showpiece is themed around Cape Town.
It's all about family, having fun, brings that feeling of home again,
you know, because I'm so far away from home.
Nathan and Andrew's desserts will be coated in the colours
of the South African flag and flavoured with coconut,
passion fruit and brown butter sponge.
They'll sit on top of their chocolate showpiece,
inspired by the outfits worn at the carnival.
Is this going to look like a dress or like a Christmas tree?
I would say more like dress. I hope so
because I can see this also looking a little bit like a tree, you know?
Hopefully not. Hopefully not. But it's going to be colourful.
It's going to be very colourful. You promise? Yes, promise. Promise.
While Nathan and Andrew are featuring a feast of feathers...
We're making 250, so we're getting close.
...Ajay and Petra...
...plan to unmask a crowd of Venetian party goers.
How you going to link your exotic dessert with Venice carnival?
To sit on top of the dessert, we've small Venetian masks.
Essentially, mini-people dessert. Mini people?
Yeah, so the mask will be like a sable Breton
flavoured with grains of paradise. Grains of paradise.
Can we have a look? It's a form of pepper.
Can we taste it like that or it's going to blow my head off?
I don't think it'll blow your head off, but I'm not really sure.
Peppery. Intriguing.
Ajay and Petra are spicing things up with their coconut-mousse,
sudachi-jelly and citrus-sponge desserts,
inspired by a family trip to Venice.
I went there with my sisters and mum.
There was a lot of Venice masks and dresses
and so it was really just nice. Ah, lovely.
How was it growing up with all your 3,000 brothers and sisters?
You must have had good parties there. It was a good party.
Did they take you for your first drink? Yeah.
I've got an older sister and I used her passport
to get into pubs earlier than I was meant to.
That's my great advice for the kids watching.
Chefs, you are halfway through your exotic showpiece.
Definitely need to push now. I get exotic and erotic mixed up.
Bit of coconut rurn for soaking syrup for the sponge.
With two hours remaining, the chefs need to inject their desserts
with flavourful fillings.
This is the toasted-coconut mousse. Going to put inserts in.
Sponge on a crunchy layer.
So we have sudachi jelly, mango compote, citrus sponge.
Ancl get these straight in the blast freezer.
Ancl once their desserts are setting,
they can focus on the decorations for their showpieces.
We're making bamboo out of white chocolate.
just got to make sure that these curves look really nice and natural
like those columns you see in Venice, beautifully carved by hand.
They're quite a hard thing to get pretty.
I'm making colourful feather tuiles to stick on top of the showpiece.
What is a tuile? It's a very simple biscuit mixture with icing sugar.
it just sounds like a noise. "Tuile!" Tuile, yeah.
Tuile!
The judges are expecting an imposing structure.
I used to be a builder.
I'm going to go as high as I can to get as much height as possible.
These are the Isomalt columns that are going to sit into the holes.
We've done them all at different heights.
But Ashley and Kian have hit a snag.
I've got one that seems to have stuck. it just won't push out.
just one. Yeah. Urgh!
Without this final piece...
We're just missing the tall one.
BLEEP
...their showpiece won't be tall enough.
Ohh...
Sol don't think there's anything we can do.
BLEEP. Really annoying, that, innit?
This is the big push now.
I'm currently de-moulding our dessert.
While most teams are focusing on their desserts...
They're a little bit softer than I'd like to be unmoulding them at.
...Ashley and Kian are still stuck on their columns
and there is no time to mould more.
No extra.
No. Right, how long have we, uh, how long have we got left?
Chefs, as I say to my husband when he's giving me a foot rub,
you've got one hour left. That's it now, innit? Final hour.
I need you to move a bit faster on the desserts. Yeah.
How is your marriage? Yeah, it's actually great.
For me.
This is not making me want to go to the Cape Town festival.
If it's less stressful, then, maybe.
You guys must throw down some moves in carnival.
What's your dance move? I've seen him do the worm before.
No, definitely not!
If we stay in this week, we'll both do it. Yeah.
Ashley and Kian, they are making a West Indian carnival.
How are they going to build the showpiece?
I saw a lot of columns and that's about it. Is that enough?
So these are the coconut gateaux. Oh, beautiful, chef.
And what about the dessert? Oh, it's coconut again.
I'm bored, bored, bored, bored to death.
We've got two teams which have chosen to go with Venice carnival.
Ajay and Petra. Interesting flavours.
Sudachi jelly and a grain of paradise.
They're going to have mask on their dessert as well to act as a crowd.
How clever is that? Ben and Jason.
These are the insert moulds, we're putting the mango-passion-fruit gel
then put the sponge on top. In terms of the connection
with the flavours and the Venice theme, I don't see it, really.
Is that enough feathers?
Am I going to be dead bored with just feather and masks?
Yes, bring on the Venice carnival and let's hope we feel we are there.
I haven't got any feathers for the judges' masks, to be honest.
OK, just embellish and no feathers, then. Yep.
You happy with me to do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do that.
ELLIE: With 45 minutes left, the chefs focus on adding colour
to their showpieces.
So we're going to spray the feathers South African flag colours.
With all the spray, maybe I should be a painter-decorator.
Get it covered, innit? SPRAY WHIRS
I just want it to be colourful. That's what carnival is.
Paint me like one of your French girls!
And it's not just the showpieces that need a splash of colour.
just spray-gun fast as you can.
This is for the glazes that's going to go on the individual desserts.
Got white, yellow, red, blue. I'm going to let it set.
Nice. Very nice.
Chefs, 30 minutes left. 30 minutes till it's carnival time.
Don't want to rush. I need to get straight onto gluing stuff.
With most of the teams' basic structures in place,
the chefs can focus on the finer details
that will bring their carnival showpieces to life.
Let's not rush this.
Oops. There we go, first one. BLEEP. Oh.
Oppa.
Oh. I need you to freeze-spray these, Jason, I can't hold it.
The more we touch it, the more it's kind of falling off.
Don't stick to lsomalt very well.
This is just chaos. Looking good so far.
That needs resticking. Keep it a bit neater.
This...this is terrifying.
15 minutes until carnival time, chefs.
Now back to the desserts again. Desserts.
just get the last couple of details.
Going to add some texture onto the side of that with the wire brush.
About to finish my mango. It's about right, don't go any more.
It's on the edge of too much.
We're going to move the thing over now.
This is the bit we've not been waiting for.
just breathe.
After three. I've got it. Let go.
Go slowly, slowly. Don't pull. Yeah.
OK, I've got it, it's on.
Jason, get the desserts on. Coming in with the gateaux.
To me, to you.
It's seizing up a bit.
20... 21, 22, 23, 24.
I think one more. just need one more.
Oppa.
Chefs, you have one minute to go.
BLEEP
Come on, let's finish.
Push, push, push, push, push.
We didn't put the lsomalt gems on, did we? Can we do it now quickly?
Masks for the judges. Want them to feel like
they're at an old-school masquerade.
just make it look pretty.
I'm terrified now.
Ooh. Re-glue that! Quick!
Think they might fall off?
My heart is pumping so fast for that.
Chefs, your time is up.
Please step away from your carnival showpieces.
MUSIC: Habanera by Bizet
Well done, chef. Well clone.
I'm terrified, man.
I can't believe we finish in time!
Ours looks colourful as well.
CARNIVAL DRUMMING
Five carnival showpieces from around the world in just five hours.
Nathan and Andrew from Crossbasket Castle, come on up.
Chefs, very colourful. Well clone.
When I see the movement, I can see myself
swaying around in my dress.
Ancl you make the feather, the technique you use is nice.
You used a brush, you pipe it.
I see a colourful tree which I was a bit fearful of.
Everything is out of proportion. OK, we've got dessert also to enjoy.
Chef, in term of skills, it's the bare minimum.
Dipping it in the glaze is quite simple to do it.
OK. So we have a chocolate clip
which has freeze-dried passion fruit and hazelnut nibs,
crunchy fueilletine base with toasted coconut mousse,
beurre-noisette sponge and then a mango and passion-fruit centre.
So what I feel is the nuts in the feuilletine,
I feel mango, passion fruit and coconut. It's a nice dessert to eat,
but it doesn't transform the world of pastry.
The sponge itself, I felt that it's a little bit too thick.
However, what I really like is to bite in the chocolate,
the crunch is quite intriguing.
Thank you very much, chefs. We'll see you later.
Thank you.
I'll take that.
Really like the headpiece. You cut it with your free hand.
The Filipino carnival colours are definitely there.
OK, let's talk about dessert.
You bring the bamboo from the top to the bottom,
which link beautifully. It's very, very brave of you
to do it individually and cut.
So we've got banana and macadamia-nut sponge,
pabana mousse, passion-fruit curd and a lychee cream.
The nuts gives a very nice crunch to your dessert.
Sweetness very well balanced and the flavour profile, well, I like it.
It's not groundbreaking, but you connect it very well
with the theme of your showpiece, so well done. Thank you, chef.
Well clone, chef.
This showpiece is not tall and this is one of the requirements.
Visually, it's colourful. Does it shout carnival?
Not enough. OK? Dessert.
It's a quite a simple technique that you do.
You clip it in the glaze and then you give it a brush and that's it.
On the bottom, we have a coconut sable
and on top we have a coconut whipped ganache,
pineapple and lime con fit insert with a rum sponge.
Your mousse is just melt on my palate
and it blends together with the rum-pineapple sponge.
That stodgy little bit of sponge at the bottom,
that should not work. But it does.
It's like a clafoutis kind of texture almost.
I think the rum is fairly strong in there. Oh, I like it.
That's good. Yeah. All in all,
it has been executed beautifully.
Thank you. Thank you, chefs. Thank you.
Well, we know we are in carnival. It's very beautiful and elegant.
What I really like is the masks that you actually put in some pattern
and I also quite like the headpiece with the different colour tone.
You've got good elements, but everything is flat.
Give a little bit of 3D. Give a little bit of movement,
it would make the whole world of a difference. Dessert.
I really like the little masks that you put on.
So we have a grains of paradise sable Breton
as the mask on top, a coconut mousse, sudachi jelly,
mango compote, a citrus sponge and white-chocolate feuilletine base.
It's super, super refreshing.
The way you actually roll out the feuilletine on the bottom
plus the sponge is skilfully clone because it's very thin.
Plus the jelly. Everything fit together beautifully.
It's a lovely dessert, well done. Very fresh, clean, love it.
Thank you very much.
join in the party to Venice.
Ah, yes.
You've got a showpiece which has got height,
colour and techniques,
but it's lacking a little bit of character.
If you could have add in a little bit more colours
and bring it alive. I first feel when I look at this mask
is that I felt that I'm going for a gala dinner.
OK. We've got dessert also to enjoy.
Simple, elegant presentation. It's clean.
So you have a lime sable at the bottom, almond sponge,
mango-passion-fruit insert which also has a crispy in it as well.
Coconut whipped ganache and then you've got a mango, lime
and passion-fruit compote on top. I love lime.
So it works for me. It's borderline a little bit too acidic.
Mm-hm. But the sweetness is very well controlled.
It's a fairly fresh dessert, but I've had it before.
I wanted something a bit original today.
All flavour profile work together very well.
What I'm really disappointed with is I can't taste the mousse.
It is not balanced well. Thank you. Thank you, chefs.
Based on how they performed over both challenges,
Benoit and Cherish will now rank the teams
and the team in last place will leave the competition.
It does take us to the world of carnival.
The dessert, I liked it to a degree. I think it's part of the showpiece.
There's some good and there's some bad.
Do you feel you're at a carnival? No, I feel I'm in a gala dinner.
We could've put more theme in it.
It's not a bad dessert, but it's not balanced correctly.
Dial back the fruit, dial back the acidity and if they give us
a shot next week, then we just knock their bloody socks off.
They know what it takes to do a nice dessert.
They need to work on their showpiece a little bit.
We haven't really been doing showpieces for a very long time,
so we're still quite new to it.
Does it take us to the world of carnival? No.
It were a bit short because we wanted to get some lsomalt on there.
The dessert, what a surprise.
If only it could look as good as it tasted. Oh, yes.
I think we're fighting for our place in the competition.
I really like the movement of the dress.
What about the dessert? It's actually quite nice.
It wasn't something we haven't had before.
I think it's 50-50 whether we're going to go or stay.
I fear this is going to be a tough call today.
Cherish and Benoit have made their decision.
The judges thought the team in first place won both challenges,
so congratulations,
Ajay and Petra from Adams. You're through to the next round.
Gerol and Michael are in second and in third - Nathan and Andrew.
The judges have made their decision
and it was incredibly, incredibly close,
but the team leaving the competition are...
...Ashley and Kian. We're so sorry to see you go.
The rest of you, congratulations.
No way.
OTHERS COMMISERATE
Bit gutted. Yeah. I can't believe it. I can't believe it.
I think we've clone a really good job and I think nothing was a disaster.
Yeah. Which is good.
Oh, my God, that was close, wasn't it?
Got through by the skin of our teeth. Ooh.
Literally the skin of my teeth.
That's twice in the bottom, guys, eh?
It was a miracle. I had fully, fully emotionally prepared to go home.
For a second time, well clone.
We're both having a cider after to celebrate!
Whoo!
Next time - Viennoiserie sees the chefs take on savoury pastries...
That sounds banging.
...and a spectacular choux-pastry-circus showpiece...
Clowns are terrifying. I like them in horror movies.
...with a place in the final six at stake.
Visually, it's a little bit boring.
Who will tame the judges...
Maybe they bring in a big lion that roar. Rahh!
...and whose high-flying dreams...
SPLAT "will come crashing down?
MUSIC: In The Hall Of The Mountain King by Edvard Grieg
Subtitles by Red Bee Media