Episode 5 Bake Off Creme de la Creme

-Tonight on Bake Off Creme De La Creme...

-Let's go.

..it's the fifth and final heat.

A team from Wales who represent their country

at the Culinary Olympics...

My little arms can't cope.

..take on three chefs from a fine-dining restaurant

in Liverpool...

Sponge is very nice, Victor.

..and a team from Leeds united by their passion for chocolate.

-I love you.

-I love you too, mate.

Punishing challenges...

Puts me 15 minutes behind.

I need to catch up.

..and the toughest judging we've seen so far.

I am bored.

There's nothing else I can say. I'm bored.

At stake, a place in the semifinals.

Quickly. You've got two minutes.

Who will be...

Chocolate sauce! Chocolate sauce!

..the creme de la creme?

I want Mary Berry!

Here at the Welbeck Estate on the edge of Sherwood Forest,

we're searching for the finest pastry chefs working in the UK.

Welcome, chefs.

I hope you've settled in OK

and are ready for battle.

Judges, please.

The teams are being judged by three of the world's leading pastry chefs,

Cherish Finden, Claire Clark and Benoit Blin.

-Three judges...

-Morning, chefs.

..two formidable challenges

and only one guaranteed place in the semifinal.

We start today with the miniatures.

This is to test your precision

when producing high-volume, small, fine patisserie.

Three different types, 36 of each type,

108 in total,

and each pastry in every batch must be identical.

You have three hours, chefs.

Best of luck.

Your time starts now.

Let's go.

The teams have been asked to produce a classic layered slice,

a handcrafted pastry and a geometric petit gateau.

This heat's petit gateau must be in the shape of a cube.

Perhaps one of the simplest kind of shapes.

Having said that, we will need to see precision.

Where will the surprise come from?

Will it come from the fact that they will use the cube in a different way

or will they surprise us with what's inside the cube?

I've been competing on and off for about 20 years.

Yeah, I do always get nervous,

but, now we've started, it's fine.

Karl is the executive pastry chef

at the five-star Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, South Wales.

He's put together a team of former colleagues

who, like him, compete for Wales.

Amit and I are working together now

towards the 2016 Culinary Olympics in Erfurt

and Fi will be heading up the pastry section

for the junior team.

It's a really big deal to be representing Wales

and we're really proud of it.

-God.

-Erm...

I'll pay you both later.

He's a calm leader.

Yeah, he's more like a friend than a leader, I'd say, yeah.

I think everybody thinks that just the normal chefs

knock out all the pastries and things like that,

whereas, no, no, there's a bunch of artists in the background.

Oven is a little faster.

-The ovens are faster, did you say?

-Yes.

Karl's Welsh team will be layering their cube

with a granola crumble lemon sponge and fruit-flavoured buttercreams.

It will be centred with a blueberry gel

and topped with a layer of creme fraiche mousse.

Cut the crispy edges off and give it a good brush with this.

You have to make it moist.

Very moist or mildly moist?

Moist moist.

Karl has chosen to leave the sides of his cube exposed

so precise layering is vital.

How many times have you practised this?

As a full run-through,

-twice.

-Twice. And then, out of those two times,

how many times have you completed it all in the three hours?

-Never!

-We haven't.

-You haven't?

-No.

-Was that nervous laughter?

-Yeah, nervous giggle.

Always got a nervous giggle.

In the next-door kitchen...

You sure you want the whisk on that or the paddle?

Ooh, paddle probably is better, yeah.

Leeds-based Stephen is a chocolatier by trade.

Me and my wife started making chocolate at home in the kitchen.

We've literally grown it from our kitchen table

to being served on BA first class

and some of the finest restaurants in the country.

Joining his team are two of the best pastry chefs

from his extensive list of contacts.

Are we going to say we're the dream team together?

No, I'm not saying the dream team. It's too cheesy.

Stefan is the head pastry chef at two upscale restaurants

also in Leeds.

Stefan Rose.

My pastry name is Stefan Souffle.

And Portuguese-born Nelson has been schooled in five-star hotels

and Michelin-starred restaurants and joins the team from London.

I lacked experience of restaurants

and working with plated desserts and frozen desserts.

They don't get a lot of chocolate exposure

so, hopefully, we can help complement each other.

How are we doing at the back, Nelson? You OK?

-Very well, Thank you, Chef.

-OK, Stefan, Stephen, you OK?

-Settled in all right?

-Yeah, getting there.

-So a bit manic but...

-Bit manic?

-Settling in and cracking on.

In terms of training, where did you train?

Myself, more of a passion than a classical training.

Yeah, so self-taught chocolatier, because I'm a chocoholic by nature.

So you've taught yourself chocolate?

What were you doing before your interest in chocolate took hold?

-I was an IT consultant.

-You were an IT consultant?

Stephen's team will be layering their cube with pecan praline cream,

yuzu jelly, pecan nut streusel and pecan sponge cake.

It will be topped with sprayed chocolate.

Captain Stephen has given himself

the job of making the pecan praline cream.

This sugar needs to go with the eggs.

-Where's the eggs?

-That's for the egg white, no?

The eggs are in here. I've already put sugar in.

-Have I?

-What's in there?

-This is pecan,

cream, gelatine and eggs.

-There's no sugar. We're

-BLEEP.

-For the mousse?

-Yeah.

-You need to whisk the eggs and the sugar first.

-Until they're pale and fluffy.

-Yeah, that's right.

And then add this to it, yeah?

Forgetting to whip the egg whites with the sugar first

is going to take valuable time to fix.

In the third kitchen...

I'm making the chocolate mousse

which is going to be as a layer for our gateau

and Victor's making pistachio and mint flavour sponge

and Simon's making our base.

Tomas's culinary journey began a long way from Liverpool,

the city he now calls home.

I was born in Slovakia.

Ever since a little boy, I was raised around food

because my dad, he had a restaurant.

Always loved eating, always loved trying different things

and playing with the different flavours.

I fell in love with pastry

when I first moved in Liverpool seven and a half years ago.

Tomas has assembled a team of pastry colleagues from Panoramic 34,

a fine-dining restaurant

which sits 300 feet above the famous Liverpool docks.

This is Victor and this is Simon.

And we work together for about a year and half

and we just work together great as a team.

I'm from Liverpool, Tomas is from Slovakia

and Victor's from the Dominican Republic,

so that brings a lot of different backgrounds

and skill-sets to the table.

We are a strong team

because we are together every day.

We work very well as a team

because we are friends even outside of work.

We're all going to work together and do the gateau.

Get that done because that needs to be chilled so we need to get that...

That our first job to get out the way.

Tomas's team layering back up with mint and pistachio-flavoured sponge

and chocolate mousse.

It will be sprayed in dark chocolate

and garnished with a pistachio tuile.

Sponge is very nice, Victor.

With the sponge a hit, they move on to the chocolate mousse.

We're a little bit under pressure.

In an ideal world, it would take probably at least two to four hours

to set properly and we only have three hours to finish product

so it's important to go in the blast freezer.

Over with the Leeds boys...

OK, let's try and rescue this.

..Nelson is fixing Stephen's praline cream.

Managed to rescue that.

Top man. Thank you.

-How are you on your stuff?

-On my stuff? I'm behind.

I have to catch up.

The gel's not set.

They'd planned on layering their cube with a yuzu jelly

but it's failed to set.

We've just got the flavour. Let's go with the flavour, OK?

It'll soak through.

It's fine, Stephen.

Open the blast freezer.

Down there.

Now I need to catch up my stuff.

The second miniature the teams have been asked to deliver

is a coconut dacquoise slice.

Dacquoise is a type of meringue.

It's soft on the inside, slightly chewy and crisp on the outside.

We want to experience all of these textures.

Perfect dacquoise slice must be constructed

with pinpoint precision.

A cross-section should reveal clean straight lines

so knife skills are key.

Dacquoise is traditionally made with ground almonds or ground hazelnuts.

We're asking them to make it with coconut.

Now, this is harder.

If you don't cook the coconut dacquoise correctly,

you end up with tiny little bits of coconut between your teeth.

It's really unpleasant.

So this is in the dacquoise.

It's got some beautiful classic pina colada flavours,

so we have pineapple, rum, coconut.

Classic, you know? Taste of the tropical.

The lads from Leeds are making their dacquoise

with two layers of coconut meringue,

a pineapple cremeux and a coconut mousse.

It'll be topped with a pineapple and rum jelly.

OK, dacquoise is going in the oven, guys.

Amit is in charge of the dacquoise for the team from Wales.

He's decided to risk making two different baked layers,

a coconut joconde and a coconut dacquoise.

So, I need to make the sponge as quick as possible

and then get these baked, cooled,

so it's cool enough to layer up later on.

His dacquoise will be layered with the two sponges, a coconut mousse,

a mango ganache and a coconut ganache.

It will be glazed with dark chocolate

and topped with Swiss meringues.

But baking under competition conditions

can cause the simplest of mistakes.

OK?

Erm...

It's OK.

Adding the wrong ingredient

means Amit must start the mango ganache again.

Probably puts me 15 minutes behind.

But I have to do miracles now.

Come on.

I need this to work.

Victor from the Liverpool kitchen

is adding a splash of colour to his dacquoise.

This is the plain one, this coconut.

I just put the colour, yellow and white, yellow and white.

Their dacquoise will be layered with a passion fruit bavarois,

chocolate cremeux, coconut mousse and the multicoloured sponge.

You pipe one layer of white and followed by yellow, white, yellow,

so, when you cut it through, I already can imagine in my mind

that you will look really, really nice.

But they need to move a bit faster.

You know, I like to see dimension, I like to see a bit of dynamo,

I like to see a bit of passion.

At the moment, it's very slow and calm.

Pastry chefs, that is half-time.

You have one and a half hours remaining.

With the petit gateaux cubes and the dacquoise slices

setting in the blast chiller,

the teams turn to their third and final miniature,

a hand-crafted Breton fruit tart.

A sable shortbread base topped with the chef's own choice of fruit.

Fruit that you choose has to be in season.

The combination of the tart and the fruit

will make a perfect Breton fruit tart.

The Breton's sable base must be crumbly and light

and its slightly salty flavour should complement the sweet fruits.

I like a perfect-cooked pastry which is golden brown.

Can you imagine eating a doughy piece of pastry that is undercooked?

I will have stomach upset.

This is going in the base of the sable biscuits.

So I've got vanilla pod, orange zest

and a little bit of thyme just to add a bit more to the base flavours.

Onto their herb-infused sable base,

Karl's team are adding a creme chiboust

topped with summer berries, strawberry and passion fruit gels,

all served with a pipette of Pimm's.

By tinkering with the traditional sable ingredients,

they're going out on a limb.

With something else.

-Thyme! Oh, yeah.

-It's really strong.

Nice.

Over with Tomas and the Liverpool lads...

Pastry need to be moulded.

They're just going in the blast freezer now,

just for five, ten minutes so I can work with it straight away.

They'll fill their handcrafted sable bases with orange-infused

diplomat cream and assorted berries.

It will be coated in a bitter orange glaze

and sprinkled with almond streusel.

The sable base, Victor's doing the pastry cream for it.

I've got the glazes going on now,

so we're getting on with it.

In the next kitchen...

200g of egg yolk, the sugar as well.

So we're going to cream it till it's nice and fluffy. OK?

..Nelson's guiding Stephen through the mousse recipe for their fruit tart.

Sorry, Nelson, which one do you want me to do?

What am I doing? Which recipe?

-200g of egg yolks.

-OK.

They're creating a Breton tart layered with fig and blackberries

and a mascarpone and black pepper mousse.

For a uniform batch of sable bases, Nelson weighs each piece

of dough individually, before rolling and baking them.

Whereas Welsh lass Ffion is saving time by creating

large blocks which will be hand-cut after baking.

We're just pressing the finger, giving it a little edge

so it's easier for us to fill the tart.

And Tomas, captain of the Liverpool team,

is taking a gamble with timing

to impress the judges, shaping each base by hand.

We're going to do our very best to shape them all the same.

Tomas's team, oh, my word.

I am worried.

Very laid-back.

-They're chilled.

-They're a bit chill.

-Very chilled.

We will see what is the end result.

Karl's team, what is your thought about them?

They seem to be in a panic.

You know, they're all over the place.

Well, I've been observing Stephen's team,

and it looks like pressure is building up.

Panic is starting to hit and the work organisation is crumbling.

Having said that, there is some lovely pecan nut

and chocolate flavour I am dying to taste.

-I saw that too. Yeah.

-Yum, yum.

-Yum, yum, yum. It smells good.

OK, pastry chefs.

You have half an hour remaining.

That is 30 minutes.

How are we doing, Victor?

-A little bit busy now.

-A little bit busy now.

The pace has picked up a little bit in this kitchen.

Are you going to be done in time, are you going to be ready?

Well, we are going to have to make a few changes in our plan, but...

-You're going to have to make in you changes in your plan?

-Yeah.

I mean, there was going to be coconut decoration,

and we were going to spray the gateaux, but it's not going to happen, not enough time.

It's still going to be amazing though, isn't it, Simon?

-Yeah, of course.

-Yeah?

-Positive thinking, that's the way.

With all the teams' sable bases in the oven...

Watch your biscuits in there, Fi,

because that oven seems to be browning quite harshly.

..they begin the final assembly of their petit gateaux cubes.

But with no time to spray them,

the Liverpool lads have had to come up with an alternative plan.

They should be sprayed with cocoa butter and chocolate to give

a chocolate finish, but we've had to leave that bit off.

-No time to do it.

-No time to do it.

This is part of the garnish for the cube.

I'm going to roll them up into little cylinders and wrap them in silver leafs,

so they look like a little individual Fruit Pastille wrapped up.

It's a bit weird to look at to eat because you think you're eating silver foil, but it's all right.

-It looks like you're eating silver foil.

-Yeah.

Way to start your dessert.

You seem quite controlled and calm.

I'm all right. I'm just a good actor.

The other two are doing quite a good job of acting

that they're UNDER pressure.

-Guys, you're OK, yeah?

-Yeah, I'm all right.

-You're fine?

It's all good.

I'm using the J-cloth just to put all the prepared fruit on to,

so then all the excess moisture from the fruit can go on to there

and it doesn't go all over my tarts and make my sable soggy.

Nothing worse than a soggy sable.

Pastry chefs, you have 10 minutes left.

-Oh,

-BLEEP.

-Huge air bubble.

Just go with it.

That mishap from the first hour

cost me this 15, 20 minutes,

which is very crucial for doing a nice finish on a product.

But that's how it is.

Just go, go, go, go.

-Oh, man.

-You OK?

-It doesn't work.

-It doesn't work?

Guys, just get something done.

Oh, it's always just at the end. It's the time element.

If we had no time limit we'd be fine.

Everything onto the presentation tables.

Ten, nine, eight,

seven, six, five,

four, three,

two,

one.

That is it, guys.

Well done, boys. Well done.

I'm not happy.

That was tough. That was tough.

Everyone was on the back foot today, I think.

Presentation nowhere near where we hoped for,

but we run out of time and we had to put something out.

We thought we'd got off to a good start,

but one or two things just went a little bit sideways.

Over 300 intricate miniatures made in just three hours.

And now the teams will have their work judged by three

of the most respected and exacting pastry chefs in the world.

The judges asked you to make 36 coconut dacquoise,

36 Breton fruit tartlets

and 36 petit gateaux in the shape of a cube.

Shall we see if you've delivered?

Tomas's team have served a coconut dacquoise with a chocolate cremeux,

coconut mousse, passion fruit and a mascarpone cream.

So the slice. Well, we've got the right quantity.

It's a little bit plain in colour.

Perhaps you would expect to see

a little bit more eye-catching elements.

Shall we get on and taste then, guys?

The dacquoise's texture is quite nice,

except for the fact I've got little bits of coconut

sticking to my teeth.

Taste-wise, I think it's just good, nothing more.

-Queen of Tart, Claire Clark, shall we move on to the tart?

-Exactly.

I like my royal titles.

Their Breton tart is filled with orange-infused diplomat cream,

mixed berries and sprinkled with an almond streusel.

Well, Tomas.

It was lovely to see you actually handcrafting.

It's a handcraft challenge, and that's exactly what you did.

Do you know, that's a really good sable Breton.

It's crumbly,

it has a lovely butter texture.

Sable...a bit basic.

'Their petit gateaux cube is filled with mint and pistachio-flavoured sponge,

'chocolate mousse and coated in a dark chocolate.'

Cherish, what do you make of the cubes visually?

As for the glaze, it is not quite well-finished.

I can see that the corner of it has not been covered by the glaze.

It looks a bit clumsy, so I was thinking just use a palette knife,

scrape it so that it looks nice and covers the four corners as well.

-What is the name of your pastry?

-Mint and pistachio gateaux.

But when you put mint, especially in the first word,

I expect to taste mint.

It has to be, "Wow, chocolate and mint is very refreshing.

"I really want to eat that."

I'm bored. There is nothing else I can say. I'm bored.

You know, guys, you have done something which is OK,

but that's not why you came all the way down from Liverpool.

You came here to show us, you know, the passion of a pastry chef

-and what else you can do.

-Yeah.

OK then, judges.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

We can see three different characters in the kitchen,

three different ways of working,

and some are struggling more than others,

without saying anybody in particular.

THEY LAUGH

Amit, you seemed to have a bit of a morning, didn't you?

I had a...not a very good day today.

Karl's team have used mango, lime and chocolate flavours

in their coconut dacquoise slices.

So in terms of precision, I would expect you to use a ruler

and not cut free-handed.

I like it that little bit more uniform.

You have to eat it with a knife and fork, though, not your ruler.

-On the whole, when I eat it, it's just a little bit heavy.

-OK.

And if you can cut down on the sugar content

that would be even better to make them perfectly.

Thank you.

Claire?

I can't taste mango, I can't taste lime, I can't taste coconut.

The only flavour profile I get coming from that is the chocolate.

-OK.

-You've put too much work on you.

Yes.

-Too much work is going on in there and we don't taste half of it.

-Yeah.

Less is more.

Their Breton fruit tart has a vanilla,

orange and thyme-flavoured base,

a creme chiboust, summer berries,

fruit gels and a pipette of Pimm's.

You went for a safe sable,

I would have wished for perhaps a little bit more

of the handcrafted side.

So what do we do with the...?

-We dip it all over?

-Give it a squeeze over, yeah.

-Squeeze over.

The Brittany shortbread is very heavy, very claggy.

It's not a Brittany shortbread.

It may be the recipe of Brittany shortbread,

but I don't think you've cooked it properly.

The problem when you do big blocks of things, they don't...

the gases inside haven't got a chance to lift anything up.

It's not baked enough.

What do you think, you guys?

You were so patient when you put all this together, it looked beautiful.

But you compromised on the taste.

OK. Shall we move onto the cube?

Karl's open-sided cube is layered with a granola crumble lemon sponge,

a blueberry buttercream and a ginger and poppy seed buttercream.

You've done something with the cube which is, you know, the idea of

the geometric shape is to try to explore the shape

and take it somewhere else.

I like the idea that you haven't stuck to the easy path.

It took several phone calls to a science and a maths teacher...

to ask if it counted as a geometric cube.

But I noticed at the last minute that, you know,

you're pressing for time,

you still managed to pipe every each individual very nicely.

-Well done for that.

-Thank you.

-You can't rush Karl.

You can't rush Karl.

Karl, the sponge is so tight and chewy.

I even have to use a knife to cut through it.

Sponge should be light and airy.

The only flavour I get is white chocolate.

Even, you know,

there should be a certain amount of acidity coming from your blueberry.

So all your lovely skills have kind of paled into insignificance

because the taste hasn't delivered.

She said it all.

-Cherish?

-We need taste, chef.

-Oh,

-BLEEP.

Benoit, over to you.

I find the way you worked this morning was a bit hectic,

and I can see that also in the result of your pastry.

Stephen's team have created a pina colada dacquoise

from coconut meringue, pineapple cremeux,

coconut mousse and a pineapple and rum jelly.

I think the little bit of meringue, the purple, the little cubes

of pineapple actually do indicate what's inside, so that's quite nice.

I do get the pina colada flavour,

so that is coming through.

I get the coconuts, the lime, the pineapple.

However, there's no texture,

so everything's soft.

You know, dacquoises are supposed to give a crunch on the outside

and be slightly chewy, and yours is just soft.

Saying that, I really like the texture of the mousse.

What I'm not so keen on is the level of sweetness.

It comes almost to your throat there.

But the glaze....

-HE WHISTLES

-That's good.

-It's a good flavour.

-Yeah, good.

Their miniature fruit tarts are layered with fig,

blackberries and a mascarpone and black pepper mousse.

I can see that they are quite uniform, and the figs,

you slice it very nicely.

There is nothing to excite my palate, there is

nothing to say, "Eat me, you know. I'm really tasty."

There's no excitement, chef. No excitement at all.

I do have to agree with Cherish on the taste.

I wanted to try it, thought it looked lovely,

it just didn't deliver.

The blackberry and the fig, a combination made in heaven.

But the pepper is just killing me now.

So if there is one rule with pastry, you don't want to kill your guest.

OK, thank you.

Their petit gateaux combines pecan praline cream,

pecan nut streusel and a pecan and yuzu sponge.

Unfortunately it looks like we've got quite a few holes and damaged cubes.

It might not be coming from the moulding,

but it might have been coming from the handling

and perhaps the panic you all seemed to enjoy...

..towards the end of the session.

-Obviously, clearly, issues with the spray gun?

-Yes.

We put this one to the side, but hopefully, they taste beautiful.

When you started, I say, "Oh, that's going to rock," because I can smell

roasted nuts and pecan nuts and it kind of goes everywhere.

-A beautiful pastry smell.

-That's my favourite.

-CHERISH:

-Mm.

-Yeah, bravo.

After that, usual, fantastic flavour.

I'm sure my Asian colleague here will agree,

but the rest is kind of uncertain, unsure.

It's not a bad thing to eat,

but there is quite a way to take it to where we want it to be, OK?

Thank you, Chef.

So, that little square of chocolate tastes beautiful.

It's a single estate organic plantation chocolate.

Well, it's very nice, so I thought we'd finish on a good positive

and the attention, the last little touch was noticed.

-I have to agree with you.

-Oh!

This is well tempered and very tasty.

-Thank you, Chef.

-Whay!

That might just be the toughest judging we've seen yet.

That was, like, ravaged.

Utterly and absolutely destroyed.

The final result in Creme De La Creme is based on points awarded

by the judges.

It's like walking into a firing squad.

The team with the most points at the end of both challenges

is guaranteed a place in the semifinal.

Now, each of the judges are going to award

each of your batches of pastry a mark out of ten.

So that is a possible 90 points available for your miniatures.

Tomas, we'll start with your team.

12 for your cube-shaped petit gateau.

Onto the Breton fruit tart...

And then, finally...

..for the coconut dacquoise

and a grand total of 39

for your miniatures round.

'Despite being commended on their hand-crafted Breton tart,

'this is a rocky start for Tomas' team.'

Karl, 13 for the cube.

14 for the Breton fruit tart.

The total of 11 for the coconut dacquoise.

And a grand total for the Miniatures Test of 38 for your team, Karl.

'A harsh critique of the flavours

'across all three miniatures

'leaves Karl's team one point behind Tomas'.'

So, for Stephen's team...

12 for your cube-shaped petit gateau.

For the Breton fruit tart,

a total of...

'Stephen now needs at least 14 points from his dacquoise slice

'to win the Miniatures Test.'

For Stephen's coconut dacquoise...

..the total of...

So, at the end of the miniatures,

inching out just in the front,

with a score of 44,

is Stephen and your team.

-Well done, chefs. STEPHEN:

-Well done.

It was quite a testing morning, that.

You deserve a bit of a break. Why don't you go and take five?

-(Come on!)

-Thank you, Chef.

'The judges look for perfection

'and there was no pleasing them this morning.'

I feel pretty gutted, to be honest. Pretty crushed.

-I thought it was better than that.

-Yeah.

There were so many mistakes

and so many things that we didn't finish the way that we wanted.

We're pleased we're in the lead, but it's a narrow lead,

so we know we've got to keep our heads down and focus.

We are ready for it

because it's our only chance to impress the judges now.

The second and final test is on such a grand scale

that the day before the heat began...

Right, have we got a timer for two minutes?

..the teams were granted a golden hour to make any elements

that needed to be chilled or set.

All three teams are constructing ambitious chocolate showpieces.

Lovely!

And with just six points separating them, the competition is wide open.

Now, judges, some harsh scoring there, some low ones.

Not very impressed with this morning at all.

-CHERISH:

-No.

-No.

No. I think there was good techniques and good flavours,

but in all sorts of different things.

So, where technique was high, flavour was low.

-Where flavour was high, technique was low.

-..Was low.

They are not investing the right time for the right job.

D'you think when entering a competition like this

it's a completely different mind-set

from the day-to-day working practices and processes?

They need to readdress their time management

and the strategy to win this competition.

We need lots of positive energy and loads of really good,

mad pastry skills going on this afternoon,

and huge impacts of flavour.

Yeah, plenty of skills, plenty of skills, plenty of skills.

Well, let's hope they come back this afternoon

with plenty of skills.

Welcome back, chefs. It's now time for the Showpiece.

This is where you take something ordinary and make it EXTRAORDINARY.

Benoit.

The starting point for your showpiece is chocolate cheesecake.

We want you to create a display which will bring the cheesecake

at the centre of a fine-dining experience.

The dessert should feed 36.

Please surprise and wow me.

Good luck, chefs.

Now, you had one hour yesterday to do some basic prep work.

You now have a further three hours to complete your showpiece.

Your time...starts now.

OK, there's the chocolate, Stephen.

For the Showpiece, we've asked them to reinvent the chocolate cheesecake.

-KARL:

-Put that oven on for me, will you, please?

Of course, the taste is the most important,

but we mustn't lose sight of the fact that this dessert must be

special enough for a fine-dining restaurant.

-STEPHEN:

-Yeah, I've got a problem with this already.

After this morning's low scores,

none of the teams can afford to play it safe.

-Can I ask for a favour, Stef?

-Yep.

Can you just hold it while I try... Cos it's melting.

To book their place in the semifinal,

they'll need to create a showpiece

that looks and tastes out of this world.

-TOMAS:

-How are you doing, Si?

-All right.

-You OK?

-Got the sauce.

-Remember please to put the hazelnuts on for me, OK?

-Yeah.

For their showpiece, chocolatier Stephen and his team

are taking their inspiration from the birthplace of chocolate.

We are doing Aztec chocolate cheesecake.

Chocolate was worshipped by the Aztecs,

so we want to celebrate the chocolate and the cheesecake.

They're creating a cheesecake

from Peruvian chocolate mousse,

cream cheese

and a chocolate sable base.

It'll be presented with decorative

symbols of Aztec culture,

cast from tempered chocolate.

I'm mainly working on the structural elements of the display.

Nelson's going to concentrate on the cake,

we'll all come together to decorate it.

I'm making the cheesecake...

First we start with the biscuit, which is...a chocolate sable Breton.

Tomas and the Liverpool lads have also travelled back in time.

They're paying tribute to ancient Greece.

The concept of your cheesecake design - what is it?

There is evidence that it's been served to athletes

in the first Olympic Games.

Athletes ate cheesecake at the Olympic Games?

So it was in 776 years before Christ.

I think athletes' eating habits have changed a little since then.

This Olympic-inspired showpiece will feature

a chocolate lyre perched on a plinth.

The cheesecake will combine a chocolate cream cheese filling,

hazelnut sponge and chocolate soil.

I'm making the cheesecake filling.

So, I've got a bowl of chocolate there

and I've got some creamed sugar.

That's going to come up to boil,

then that's going to go into the chocolate.

I'm just cooking out the eggs now with some sugar,

over a pan of boiling water.

And then I'll fold it all together with the cream cheese at the end.

-Can you just give this a bit of a mix, Amit?

-Yeah.

And finally, Karl and Team Wales...

My little arms can't cope!

..whose showpiece has a less dramatic story.

The actual design of it doesn't actually represent anything.

It just came out of my head one day.

I was tinkering in work, I made one shape and then...

..made another shape and it all eventually just tied in together.

And then once we had the shapes,

worked out how to make it taste good.

They're making a white chocolate

and mascarpone cheesecake

with an orange jelly

and ginger beer centre.

Their deconstructed streusel base

will be served in a chocolate bowl,

flanked with wings of sugar.

And we're creating four multi-layered terrines.

Amit is making the chocolate spheres,

which is going to hold the streusel crumb at the end.

Ffion has started making

the actual chocolate cheesecake flavoured terrines.

How we doing, Karl and Team Wales? Are we doing OK?

-Pressing buttons and beeping.

-That's what we do best!

That's what you do best? Press buttons and beep!

Amit, how are you? How are you feeling about this afternoon?

I'm doing very good. I'm better this time than in the morning.

Tell me exactly what it is you're doing? You're making a sphere?

I'm making a chocolate sphere and using it as a bowl

to put the crumble in...

So not as the base? You're properly taking cheesecake to another level?

Yes.

In the Leeds kitchen,

captain Stephen is creating the chocolate showpiece.

-NELSON:

-It's looking good, guys.

-Thank you.

After the trials of this morning's test,

the chocolatier is now on safer ground.

This is your time to shine, isn't it? Bit of chocolate...

I couldn't wait for this afternoon, so...

I'm just carving something out of chocolate.

Yeah, a big chocolate snake. What we got going on?

So, we've got a sundial Aztec calendar.

The sun - which they worship - is going to sit...like here.

And the cheesecake itself, are they going to be, like,

individual portions or is it, like, one big cheesecake?

No, it's the Amazon rainforest, it's a temple, so it's one...

One big cheesecake, 36 portions.

You'll look into the rainforest

and the sculpture will be above it - Aztec sundial.

And this is where all your experience in IT comes in.

-STEPHEN LAUGHS

-Cheers, mate.

Got my hot dog sausages.

It's milk chocolate, ginger and... something - panna cotta?

-What's the other thing?

-Milk chocolate, ginger beer.

Ginger beer, that's the one, I remember now.

So pre-set. They're going in the blast chiller now.

Um, so we can put the next layer on.

We're just trying to get all the cooking out the way

cos we're going to be doing a lot of chocolate work,

so we want the temperature to be as cold as we can in here.

We can switch everything off once we've got all the cooking done.

Oops... Almost.

So, that's going to be the petals for your flower?

-The petals, that's right.

-I've seen that technique before, you guys.

-Nice one, yeah.

-Technique, technique!

Moulded chocolate is delicate to work with at the best of times...

-AMIT:

-I need to fix the piece, it's broken, really.

-KARL:

-Smaller fingers, yeah?

..but in the heat of competition it's another story.

-Don't break, don't break!

-AMIT CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY

-STEPHEN:

-I'm going hardcore now.

-NELSON:

-OK, great.

This is cocoa butter - coloured cocoa butter.

Get this to set and then we're going to polish it with some ice water.

-So that polishes the cocoa butter...

-Yes.

..and with the water, compact the cocoa butter

-and get the beautiful, shiny...

-Yes, exactly.

-..and smooth it all out.

-Yes.

Mm.

-TOMAS:

-We get the base in, we get it done, it goes back in the fridge,

so it's more solid to build on, OK?

-Yeah.

-We'll try to build it a little differently

than we would normally, OK?

-BLEEP!

-I'm having trouble balancing this.

Very hot.

-STEPHEN:

-OK?

-Whoa! I'll get it.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, Chef.

-Did I just turn up at the wrong moment?

-No...

-It's kind of what happens...

It's, like, when I'm near computers, they break,

and it's also the same thing that happens

when I turn to a pastry section, everything kind of goes wrong!

But it's all been going right this afternoon, yeah?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Can you get the fridge, please?

-Yes.

-Smart...

-So this is your Aztec sundial?

This is the sundial, a celebration of the circles, the sun

and then the celebration of the cocoa pod.

OK, come on over.

To impress the judges,

the teams must showcase high-end skills and techniques.

-Is it too hot?

-It's OK. I've done it before.

Both Tomas and Karl are creating spun sugar for their showpiece.

Faster, faster.

-Come on, rapido!

-Rapido!

-HE LAUGHS

And with just an hour to go,

the teams are beginning to bring their elements together.

Aah!

-STEPHEN:

-Ready?

-NELSON:

-Central, are we?

Yep. Wait, no, turn a little bit.

-Yep, got it central. It's... It's there.

-Yeah?

-It's there, it's there.

-OK.

-The wood's not right.

-Hold it.

-Got it.

Good.

-KARL:

-Amit?

-Yes.

-D'you reckon you'll be done in ten minutes?

-Yes.

Honestly?

-I think...

-BLEEP!

That's gone, cracking.

-Keeping holding there, don't let go.

-Not letting go.

Especially keep it there.

How about that? Yeah?

Something like that, yeah.

Pastry chefs, 30 minutes remaining.

OK.

What am I doing? Am I carrying it, or...

-You carry it. It's heavy.

-Right, OK.

-VICTOR:

-We used the gold spray.

I know, but it's not going to cover up

the fingerprints and everything.

I should have built a bigger base.

STEPHEN LAUGHS

-NELSON:

-Have a quick look, guys.

-STEFAN:

-That's cool.

The only thing... Yeah, and then just the milk chocolate, yeah?

-TOMAS:

-A little bit bigger pieces of gold. Just put...

Stef, I've not... I've made the gaps too big.

-Did you do a top?

-Yeah, that's the top there.

-Have you cut it?

-Yeah.

-A big hole?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Good man, good man. I love you.

-I love you too, mate.

-LAUGHTER

Pastry chefs - five minutes. You've got five minutes left.

This is so risky...

-STEFAN:

-Look at this, it's so delicate.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Turn around.

That's it...

Take all the scraps away, please, first, yeah?

-Do you want some flowers on here as well, or just...?

-Yeah.

Everything you've got to bring out the colour.

-NELSON:

-Guys...

-STEFAN:

-That looks great, Nelson.

Remember, Claire likes it glittery.

-What position do we want it?

-STEPHEN:

-No, no, no, no...

-No?

-Just go like this.

Hope for the best.

-NELSON:

-Be careful when you blow the chocolate.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

-AMIT:

-Well done, very nice.

What can I do to this flower that's going to improve it?

-TOMAS:

-Just let's get these gold leaves on,

otherwise it's going to look stupid.

-Ten seconds!

-Chocolate sauce! Chocolate sauce!

-9, 8...

-Leave it, leave it.

-..7, 6, 5... TOMAS:

-Don't pour it over.

-..4, 3, 2, 1...

-Right to the top of it, yeah?

-Yeah.

That is it, guys. Step away from the tables.

-That's stunning, guys, that is... That's the dog's

-BLEEP.

Sorry about that, I was not at my best today, I don't know why...

Three exhausting hours...

150 points now on offer...

First to be judged is Tomas' team.

There is a little story behind our showpiece as well.

There is evidence that during the first Olympic Games

they were served to athletes.

I consider myself quite a food historian

and I didn't know that, so that's very interesting

and I like the way that you've picked up the theme.

The finishing touches are a bit rough

and I know you tried to spray it to hide some of it...

Yeah, I think you guys have been in a rush and it shows.

The little thing that I have to point out,

I am not too sure the portion size will be enough to feed 36.

This cake is for 32 people and we've prepared different cakes for you,

for presentation, for our judges, which are these little spheres.

The teams were asked to deliver visual impact

in their showpieces as a whole and as individual servings.

I like the way you've plated up your dessert.

It's very clean where I focus on

and I like this sugar tuile, well done.

I like your combination.

Now, the only downside that I will say is that I wish you'd put

a little bit more chocolate cheesecake in there.

I agree. It just needs more.

It's fairly dry.

You have to go with an axe to really cut through the shell.

The other thing which is bugging me also, you said,

"Oh, for judges, we've done you three little domes,"

which is nice, you want to please us.

But we have to serve 36 guests -

are they lesser important than we are?

Because they won't have that thick chocolate shell for a start.

Maybe it's a bonus for them.

I...appreciate how much effort you've put into this showpiece

and I really enjoyed watching your work this afternoon.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-BENOIT:

-Hi, guys.

-Hiya.

Judges, are you happy - visual?

I am quite impressed with the work you've put into the entremets

and from far, you actually draw me in to look at your entremets.

So, there is quite a bit of intricate work here,

with a bit of swirls of... pulled sugar?

-Yep.

-Who's done the pulled sugar?

I done the coils, Amit done the horns.

You had a chocolate cheesecake as a brief and you went orange,

kumquat, ginger beer... Is there a reason?

They were all flavours that matched chocolate.

Amit, it reminds me of a very used cannonball that could probably

take out the whole of Wales with the amount of chocolate

that you've used to produce it.

-Just, if you're going to use it as your main focus...

-Yes.

..it needs to be really clean and neat and tidy.

Cherish, anything else?

I was quite impressed because I think that if you served the judges

with three different pieces, wherever you cut,

we will all get the same.

Hmm...

In terms of orange flavour...

The brownie, a little sticky at the bottom,

there's a bit of chocolate in there,

but if I eat that blind and I don't see the brief,

I'm a million miles away from the chocolate cheesecake

I thought you were asked to do.

Cheesecake lady?

It's not for me at all. It's really rubbery and coarse.

The ginger beer piece going through it,

I don't taste ginger beer and it's really gelatinous and chewy, sorry.

You did not heed the brief because I could not taste cheese at all.

I just want to add, I think we've been relatively nice.

It's really short of what we were expecting, which...

which would have come with fire and blaze,

but on this occasion, the only flame we see

is those two little things there.

Thank you.

-I want Mary Berry!

-Huh?

I want Mary Berry!

Ah, well. Sorry, guys. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

I like its height. I actually like the colours.

Although they're all dark,

the dark and the gold, I think, work well together.

And this is the...

-This is an Aztec sword for cutting the cake.

-Aztec sword...

-Oh, I see!

-You might struggle with it a little bit, but...

-LAUGHTER

-It's not cricket?

-No, it's not cricket, not cricket.

But there are a lot of fingerprints here.

To get this piece balanced at the very end was really difficult.

-Maybe gloves next time.

-Maybe.

Thank you.

I do like the textures, I have to say.

I think the textures are lovely, they are very light, very fluffy.

I love the taste of the chocolate, I love the crunch.

On the whole, I think it eats really well.

The ONLY thing is - I don't taste cheese any more.

If I taste the cheese on its own, I can taste cheese.

But if I taste it as a whole, it is lost

and it is being camouflaged by the chocolate.

I've got no problem with that.

For me, my biggest concern here is not so much the cake,

it's the way you serve it.

Cos I haven't got a pretty dessert, I've got a slice of this

and you're going to lose points because you haven't actually done

a plated dessert, as such.

-Thank you, guys.

-Thank you, Chef.

-Great job, guys.

-Yeah.

It's a shame about the presentation.

For your showpiece, each judge will be awarding your team

a possible score out of 50.

When added to the scores from this morning's test,

the team with the highest points is the winner

and automatically goes through to the semifinal.

I can now reveal the results.

Tomas, the judges scored you...

And when added to this morning's score,

gives you a grand total of 112.

'It's a respectable score for Tomas' team.

'Trailing after this morning's challenge,

'Karl's team now need some decent scores of their own.'

Karl, the judges scored you...

Which gives you a grand total of 99 points.

'For a skilled team, it's not been their day.

'Stephen's team need to score

'half marks or better

'to secure their place in the semifinal.'

The judges scored you...

That gives you a grand total of 125.

Which means, Stephen, your team is the winner

and you are through to the semifinals.

Congratulations.

-STEPHEN:

-Nice one, guys.

-Well done, guys.

-Thank you very much.

Really excited to get through.

I was confident with what we were producing there.

I knew the flavours were good, I knew the chocolate was good.

Commiserations, eh? That was very close.

In terms of your work here, you need to take it to the next level.

-ALL:

-Yeah.

-It's too safe there.

Yeah, OK.

-TOMAS:

-Thank you very much.

You should be very proud of yourselves, come back next year.

You shouldn't feel down about the fact that you haven't

perhaps achieved what you want.

For me, you've lost a lot of time

-doing things which didn't score points.

-Yeah.

-Does that make sense?

-Thanks very much.

Even if we didn't make it to the final,

we thought we'd get through the first round,

we thought we had the skills.

But unfortunately, on the day, it wasn't to be.

We're gutted that we didn't go through

and we didn't qualify for the next round,

but we've got a lot to learn from this

and it's been a great experience - that's why we've been here.

Already thinking of, "What can we do for the next round?"

because we've got to take what we've done,

learn from the judges' criticism

and go out there and give it our best shot.

Next time...

I'm sweating!

..the first semifinal.

-We need to

-BLEEP

-motor, we've got one hour left.

The Armed Forces are back...

-Let me know what you're doing, keep in contact the whole time, yeah?

-Yes, Chef!

..against the inventors from M&S.

-Is it a bit kinky? I'll take it off. Is it kinky?

-Hard to see.

No, it looks kinky, yeah.

And the five-star London Hilton...

Mamma mia! You have ten minutes.

It's one step closer...

-Help, help, help!

-It's all gone wrong.

..to a place in the final...

-BLEEP!

-What's going on there?

..of Creme De La Creme.

Samurai Sajeela...