Episode 15 MasterChef

It's the last of the MasterChef

quarter-finals.

And this week's best amateurs are back to face

two more daunting tests.

'I'm massively excited and I'm hugely nervous.'

I feel all fired up and competitive

and I can't wait to go further.

'Feels strange to be in the quarter-finals.

'I knew I could get this far,'

but I'm hoping I can take it further still.

I don't like losing.

I want to get to the end, I want to feel that

I can do better than everybody else.

I know what to expect now,

so nothing can get in my way.

GREGG: 'I love quarter-final days.'

This is the point where they've got to start to show off.

-JOHN:

-'We're going to push them to the limit.'

And they know their competition life is at risk.

This is the palate and skills test.

I love the look of these ingredients on here. What actually is the dish?

Today, I'm going to be making Singapore chilli crab.

Let's go!

First thing I'm going to do is prepare the crab.

The way you take the top off is with the back of a spoon.

Here you go.

There are bits of the crab that now need to be discarded.

So just pull the mouth out.

Now, the gills.

There is a myth that if you eat these gills, they can kill you.

Then, they won't, but they taste pretty awful

and they're probably full of toxins.

And split it down the centre.

And then each one of these legs - crack.

Cos as it cooks, I want all those flavours to go inside it.

Ready to go. And I'm going to make the paste.

Black beans, dried chillies and garlic.

Hot oil.

And then blend.

Oh, that's seriously punchy. Cor!

The next thing is our pepper chilli paste.

So, some ginger, green peppercorns, a dried whole chilli,

fresh turmeric root and coriander root.

Lovely.

Good colours.

And now, going to take our crab.

Whoa, that is really strong.

Wow!

And then, we start to add our herbs.

So there you go.

There's my Singapore chilli crab.

Come on, then. Sleeves rolled up.

Oh, look at that!

Oh, John.

I'll tell you what, that is just lovely.

Let's get them in and see if they can make that dish.

Oh! I really hope so.

There's a dish in front of you.

And what we want you to do is to eat it.

And then, list down all the ingredients

you think are in it.

Ten minutes, guys. Go for it.

I've only eaten crab once.

So...

Yeah, I am struggling.

Like, there's something that I've had before,

but I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Like think it's a... It's annoying me.

Yeah, it's complicated and it's all lots of leaves I've never...

I don't know what that is, it's spicy.

Actual spicy leaf.

Not sure.

It's really nice.

I'm just trying to work out what's in that paste.

I'm getting there, just keep eating.

Now you've worked out what's in it,

we want you to make it.

We're going to give you 45 minutes.

Over to you.

The ingredients have been separated onto four trays.

One for the crab, two for the pastes

and one for the garnish.

The one ingredient not required is the butter beans.

-Cleaned a crab before, then?

-No.

-Ha!

I like Sophie. I like Sophie's Italian food a lot.

I have no idea what Sophie knows about Asian food at all.

This could be completely alien to her.

There's that weird thing of the further I'm going now

in this competition,

the more amateurish I feel.

I'm realising how little I know.

Sophie has prepped her crab very, very well.

But the thing is, she needs more paste.

SHE COUGHS

Tim's food through this competition has always been about style.

It's about skill, it's about technique.

This, in its own way, doesn't have very much style.

How will he cope with it?

I think I can get big flavour into my food.

That is the one thing that I think is letting me down

in this competition so far.

But the longer it lets me down,

the longer I'm in danger of being sent home.

Young Tim has just blended up a whole tin of butter beans with some

chillies and some black beans to make the paste.

GREGG LAUGHS

God love him.

Sorry for doing this to your dish.

JOHN LAUGHS

You've had 20 minutes,

you've got 25 minutes left.

It's flying by.

Never cooked the whole crab in my whole life.

Megan has given me delicious dishes

and I believe she's got exceptional taste buds.

I don't know whether Megan knows the techniques that make this dish,

but hopefully, she can work it out by tasting it.

I definitely have a good palate.

And I want to show them that I do know what I'm doing

and I'm not going to buckle under pressure.

I'm just hoping I'm doing OK.

-What is that?

-I've no idea.

It came out of the crab, but I don't know what it is.

-That looks to me like the gills.

-Oh, right, oh. Didn't realise that.

-Which are poisonous.

-OK, let's not serve that then.

-Right.

-OK.

I am more than concerned now.

Because I've just picked the crab gills out of Megan's wok.

So I'm going to very gingerly be tasting Megan's.

Edd came into this competition all guns blazing.

Since then, he's gone off the boil a little bit.

Thing is, is it his sort of food?

It's a big bowl of crab.

'I think I was lucky getting into the quarter-finals, to be honest.'

But now I'm here, I've got to do the best I can,

and concentrate and focus.

What's the most difficult bit of this, do you think?

Personally, I think, actually the sauce.

You've got just five minutes.

That's it, your time's up.

Stop, please.

This is a Singapore-style chilli crab.

And it should be covered in sauce. It should have lots of it.

It should be voluptuous.

Uh, varying degrees of success.

Megan...

That sauce on the outside of the shells is really powerful.

It's sour, it's hot, and once you mix it with that lovely white meat,

you end up with a delicious dish.

I'm really impressed with you.

Thank you.

Apart from nearly poisoning us with the gills,

-you've done well.

-Thank you.

I'm really happy, actually.

I'm still a bit in shock that I did so well there.

Sophie...

Ooh!

You've got a little bit of ferocious heat in there I like.

I like the saltiness that's coming off that rub

that you put on the outside of it.

But it needs to have the whole outside of it covered.

Your sauce is nice.

I mean, it's not John's.

I get the feeling, you've made what you THINK should be in it

and not actually what you taste.

'It could have gone better.'

It does feel really horrible. It feels like you're being told off.

Um, and I'm a mummy and a teacher.

I'm not used to being told off myself.

Right, Edd. It's your turn.

John's dish is wet. There's no sauce.

What I get is Thai parsley and a flavour of coriander.

Smell your dish. It smells of herbs.

It doesn't smell of ginger or heat.

Nothing.

-I find this quite frustrating, actually.

-Sure.

Because it's nothing like it

and there's all those ingredients on the tray,

I don't understand why you can't just make a paste out of it.

Doesn't make any sense to me.

'Yeah, not good, to be honest.'

I couldn't work out how to get the sauce,

so I tried my attempt to make a stew.

Erm, but it just dried in the pan.

And, yeah, I just got hammered for it.

Tim, your turn.

Your dish isn't wet enough at all.

Although you did have the crab in the wok with a paste of sauce

that you made - from butter beans.

Yes.

You've served me a crab claw that I can't access the meat.

And an empty crab shell.

I don't understand. I don't get it.

I'm a bit disappointed in this. I know you're disappointed.

I'm not going to harp on about it.

Your butter bean paste -

at least, you were trying to work out how to get texture.

-You know it's completely wrong.

-OK.

'Disappointed and ashamed.'

Yeah, it was not good.

I hope this doesn't deflate them.

I hope this doesn't knock their confidence, because we have one

more dish to go and then we have to make a decision on these four.

And as yet, our four cooks have no idea that we've invited

somebody who knows all about food to help us taste.

The very clever, sharp-tongued,

Kate Spicer.

I'm not poisonous by nature, no.

But, as a journalist,

you can't be worried about what people think of you.

It's not a job you go into to make friends.

Like so many people, my love of food comes from my family.

Um, my mother cooked three, sometimes four meals a day.

And my dad relaxed by cooking.

I've been writing about food and restaurants for about 20 years now.

One of the first things that I did as a young journalist was enter

The Independent's Young Food Writer Of The Year Award.

Um, unfortunately I lost out to a 13-year-old,

what I did was runner-up.

You are now cooking to stay in the competition.

One incredible dish.

80 minutes.

Let's go.

What are you making?

I am making today red bean with apples, mussels and a curry sauce.

Have you eaten fish and apple before?

Well, I've tried this and it's quite nice, so...very nice.

Has anybody else tried this?

-My dad has. My dad really liked it, so...

-Right.

Your hopes of mixing fish

and fruit is resting on the culinary expertise of your father.

Kind of, yes. My dad's to blame if this goes very wrong.

Megan is being very, very dangerous, because she has got mussels,

curry sauce, apples and fish.

I've got an open mind here,

because I know one thing -

her food up until now has been

nothing short of delicious.

I feel confident about the dish. It's one of my favourites.

So I'm hoping they'll maybe have their doubts at the beginning,

just because of its uniqueness,

but hopefully, they'll love it as much as me and my family do.

How do you feel getting back to the safety and comfort of your own food?

More comfortable with this one, much more.

And I had a bad round this morning,

so I'll have to pull this one out the bag.

-All right. What is the dish?

-I'm playing with the classics.

It's duck a l'orange, a la Tim.

Sorry, that's great.

I love this classic dish. I want you to do it justice.

Thank you.

Classically, duck a l'orange is made from a roasted duck

and it's raw-cooked all the way through.

The orange sauce and the duck are magical together.

But pink duck and orange sauce, I don't believe works.

It's always dangerous playing with a classic

and I'm sure John might slap me for it,

but if I pull it off right, then, he'll kiss me for it.

You lot are halfway.

14 minutes left of your quarter-final.

Edd, by the looks of this,

you're turning back to your love of Japanese food.

Well, this is going to be a mix of Japanese tastes,

but with French technique.

I'm fascinated. Tell me.

So, it's going to be a chicken ballotine

with poached pumpkin and fish stock dashi, soya, sake and mirin.

-France meets Japan.

-Yeah.

-Wonderful.

I'm really pleased to see Edd going back to the flavours of Japan.

We've got ourselves a classic chicken ballotine

filled with a mousse made from sweet pumpkin which has been

cooked in dashi.

It could be absolutely delicious.

Fusion can be difficult and you have to get it right.

As long as I think clearly and don't let myself get confused.

No mistakes today.

You have got just 20 minutes.

Focus or it might be your last MasterChef 20 minutes.

What are you making, Sophie?

It's going to be a roast loin of venison with smoked black

-pudding spaetzle.

-What's spaetzle?

Spaetzle's like a little sort of noodly dumpling.

-Served with?

-Served with roast beetroot

and a beetroot and horseradish puree and a red wine sauce.

Wow.

-You've sold it to me.

-OK, cool.

-All you've got to do now is cook it.

-I know.

I love spaetzle.

They're one of my favourite things in the whole world.

What she needs to do now - that venison has to come alive.

Really hot pan, huge amounts of seasoning,

big, woody flavours of beetroot, wonderful spices of black pudding,

all coming together in a red wine sauce.

That's what I want.

What I get, who knows?

I just have to keep my focus.

If I overcook my venison,

I might as well not bother.

But I am really determined.

Got a little fire that's burning.

This is your final five minutes.

Final five minutes.

I always judge food on MasterChef as if it were in a restaurant.

And people say, "Oh, you're so mean."

But it's actually no, if that dish was brought to me,

I would have complained.

And I don't feel afraid of complaining here.

You've got just two minutes.

That's it! Stop. Stop.

We've invited somebody to come in and taste with us.

Someone whose forthright opinions on food are well known.

Ladies and gentlemen, tremble.

Kate Spicer.

Hello, Kate. Good to see you.

Edd, could you bring your plate up, please.

Edd is serving a chicken and pumpkin mousse ballotine

poached in a Japanese dashi fish stock

with spinach, fondant potatoes

and a shiitake mushroom sauce.

It's not necessarily that pleasing to the eye.

I don't think orange is something

we look at and go, "Yummy."

Potatoes are cooked great.

Everything's cooked well.

But it is overwhelmingly quite sweet.

Almost puddingy sweet.

The sauce is too sweet.

And it becomes a bit overwhelming.

It's unbalanced but not awful.

Thank you.

I have a sweet tooth, I love the sweetness of that.

Unfortunately for me, I find the chicken a little dry.

I agree with both of them.

I agree with Kate, it's far too sweet for me.

I agree with Gregg, I think the chicken's gone dry.

Would I order it again in a restaurant? Probably not.

It's just too sweet for me.

'They weren't 100% pleased with it.'

Don't think it did enough to pull me through, to be honest,

cos I've made mistakes in the past.

We'll see.

Sophie.

Sophie has cooked a fillet of venison,

smoked black pudding spaetzle

with roasted beetroot,

a beetroot and horseradish puree

and a red wine sauce.

I really like this dish.

It's earthy and all the flavours work together.

Frankly, it's a yes from me, Bob.

LAUGHTER

The venison's cooked really well. I love your sauce.

I love how rich it is.

I adore that bit of black pudding with a smoky flavour,

really great.

What I don't like is - you need more horseradish in the puree.

Apart from that, lovely flavours.

I think it's great.

I love that you've come in and made spaetzle.

I think they're amazing, lovely little things.

You've got some lovely, little dancing flavours.

I think it's lovely.

Great.

That was really incredible that Kate Spicer was there.

Um...

because she's very scary, but she was very nice then.

So I suppose that's a good thing, isn't it?

SHE LAUGHS

Tim, please, sir.

Tim has made his version of duck a l'orange,

with pan-fried duck breast,

fondant potatoes, baby turnips,

orange jelly, roasted carrots

and a brandy and orange sauce.

Stunning presentation.

I'm not sure I agree about the presentation.

It's quite intimidating.

Huge lumps of meat and there's

an awful lot on that plate to have gone wrong.

Shall we see if anything has?

I felt like it was a bit of an assault course,

tearing through that meat.

Actually, really lovely.

Acute orange in the jellies, but why?

Why bother?

It's burnt. It's definitely not going to taste nice.

It's burnt carrot.

For me, this dish doesn't work.

Love the bitter-sweet orange sauce.

Um, the biggest problem for me is that duck. I would send that back.

That's far too rare for me.

I'm with Gregg on this, it's too rare for me.

I don't think it delivers on flavour and what I'm doing at the moment

is I'm running on this sort of mellow world of orange.

And that's all I've got.

'Little bit gutted.'

Said it needed a lot more flavour, so...

I fell short on that, I think.

Megan, yes, please.

Finally, it's Megan.

She's made grilled red bream,

with apples and mussels served in a curry sauce.

I know it doesn't look great.

It was meant to have mussel shells just like balanced,

but I totally forgot to put them on, so...

Well, if you think the lack of mussel shells is the only problem

-with that presentation...

-Yeah, it does look great, I know.

Let's taste it!

That's one of the most ill-judged dishes I've eaten

in a long, long time.

The sauce has absolutely no subtlety to its flavour.

It's quite one-dimensional.

It's quite salty, the fish, but you know, it's cooked reasonably

nicely, but it's just got such an unpalatable appearance.

It just hasn't fallen together at all well.

As soon as I got into apple, and out came all that sharp,

sweet juice, I thought, "What on earth is that doing in there?!"

It almost made me recoil from it.

-No, I think you got this one wrong.

-OK.

It's not very good, I'm sorry to say.

I'm annoyed, I'm really disappointed in myself.

I had to eat it, you're annoyed?!

I know. Sorry.

I've done so well so far and then, to get to the final hurdle

and just do something so disastrous, it's such a pain.

Thank you, Kate. It's really lovely to see you again.

Ah, Gregg, no problem. Bye, John, thank you. Good luck.

-See you later.

-Bye-bye.

-MEGAN:

-I'm so mad.

You look disappointed.

We only had one good dish and that was the venison dish from Sophie.

Sophie's dish - the venison cooked beautifully.

Absolutely lovely.

I'm disappointed that Tim still seems unable to flavour food

properly despite many warnings.

A lump of raw meat.

The duck wasn't even seasoned, it was weird.

I'd be surprised if I don't go.

But I'd love another opportunity to show the judges that I can,

you know, deliver more flavour.

I'm disappointed for Edd, he's never reached the heights he did

when he first walked in here.

And his palate test this morning was atrocious.

We'll see what happens, actually. I don't know.

It'll be another leap of faith to keep me in.

I'm so disappointed for Megan.

I mean, what a time to come up with a duff dish.

It was ghastly.

Megan's dish, it ripped my heart and soul out. That really concerned me.

My day today started off on a total high.

But the second dish was just a total disaster so...

I don't know.

This is our last quarter-final. We know who else we've got.

And how good they are.

Just think, are any of these good enough to be able to compete with

the people we've got gone through?

It's difficult at times because we have to make sure that we pick

the right people to go further on.

Actually, the cooks we believe who have a chance of winning it.

Big call.

Decision we've made is...

..to take one of you through.

We're only going to take Sophie through.

-Congratulations, Sophie.

-Congratulations, Sophie.

Edd, Megan, Tim...

thank you very much for all your hard work.

Off you go.

-TIM:

-'Well, gutted.'

But it's your performance on the day that counts

and, obviously, it wasn't good enough.

-EDD:

-'It's a lot harder than you think it'll be.

'It's not going to stop me cooking. Definitely not.'

It's just...is the way it is.

Falling short right at the end was a bit of a nightmare.

But do you know what?

I've come this far and I'm very proud of myself for getting this far

in the first place, so...

Very, very well done.

Oh, my goodness.

I'm completely thrilled. I'm gobsmacked. I'm really amazed.

I can't wait. I really can't wait, actually,

to see what is around the corner.

Had a little taste of it and I'd like to have a big bite of it now.

Next week - MasterChef knockout week begins.

Sophie will join nine other exceptional amateurs.

For the first time, they'll be thrown into professional kitchens.

It's so salty, it's unreal.

-It is salty.

-Yeah, fix it then.

Two trout now. We go, we go!

I'm not going under.

Only the best will become semi-finalists.

I'm expecting fireworks, John.

Culinary fireworks.