Episode 10 Junior MasterChef

It's the Junior MasterChef final.

We have seen cooks from all over the country

come into this kitchen and cook up a storm.

We have seen some brilliant food.

Creativity, we've seen skill, we've seen adventurous food.

This is a really clever dish.

Bold food.

Ah!

That's like volcano pork!

Things we have never tasted before.

Surprisingly, it works a treat.

Thank you.

But today we are at the final.

The final of Junior MasterChef.

Amelie, Phoebe and Barney

have proved they're the best cooks in the country.

I really, really want to earn the title of Junior MasterChef.

It would just be, "Wow!"

I want to win Junior MasterChef this much...

like bigger than my arms can go.

I think the feeling of being the champion of Junior MasterChef,

my mind would explode with fireworks and my stomach explode with lava.

It comes down to one final challenge

and after that we're going to crown our champion.

Bring it on.

Hi, guys, welcome back to the Junior MasterChef kitchen

for the very last time.

This is your moment to cook the best food of your life.

Today is all about you.

Your food, how good you are,

because one of you will be crowned MasterChef champion.

Ladies and gentlemen, three courses, two hours.

Let's cook!

To walk away with the trophy they have to make a starter,

a main course and a pudding to show everything they have learnt.

I want to eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it.

-You are hungry today.

-I am hungry.

Barney is a brave and adventurous cook.

He has delivered us some great things throughout this competition.

Figs and blue cheese and stinging nettles.

-Every time he walks in here he surprises me.

-Hooray!

It is really very, very delicious and really accomplished.

He has wonderful knowledge in terms of the flavours

he presents up on the plate.

I'm really excited about what Barney's going to bring to the final.

I feel really excited

because I'm one of the three junior top chefs in this country.

Amelie and Phoebe are really good chefs

and I don't want to be kicked out by them.

Barney, you've got more bowls on this bench

than a bowl seller in a bowl market.

I'm going to cook you haddock fishcake

-with creamed leeks and quail's egg.

-Yes.

For the main, I'm going to cook steak and kidney pudding,

but the steak out of the kidney pudding,

-so a small kidney pudding on top of the steak.

-OK.

And for dessert, I'm going to do a pear and rhubarb tarte tatin

with ginger and orange ice cream.

That is one menu and a half, Barney.

Why have you given yourself so much to do?

Because I wanted to show you both the...

My French side and my English side.

Because, when I was about two years old,

I went to France to live there for eight years.

Brilliant. Who do you think cooks better food?

-France or England?

-I am not making that answer.

OK, fair enough. Barney, I think you've got a lot of work to do.

-How many times have you practised this?

-Five times.

And? Were you on time?

-Once.

-You were on time once?

-Today are we going to get everything right?

-Yes.

Good luck, Barney.

I want to show to John and Donal my English side and French side,

so I call this menu Franglais.

Barney is up against it because Barney's promises are big.

A lovely, pretty little well-formed fishcake with smoked haddock

served with lovely soft creamed leeks.

And then that quail's egg on top has to be perfectly cooked.

I am looking for a runny yolk.

When it comes to his main course, he's taken a British classic,

a steak and kidney pie, and he's deconstructed it.

We're going to get this wonderful steak and he's promised us

a suet pie with a little kidney running through it on top.

It's the sort of dish, for me,

if I saw it on a menu, I would definitely order.

Issue we've got with the tarte tatin and rhubarb

is that rhubarb is very, very wet, so is the pear,

and I hope that pastry is still crispy and not soggy underneath.

Talking to Barney, he's told us

that he's got it right one out of five times.

I'm just hoping that he can do it one more time in this final today.

45 minutes gone. One hour and 15 minutes to go.

Phoebe walked in this kitchen and impressed us straightaway.

That is what I would call a great pizza.

Phoebe has shown us that she can cook.

I mean, she is a great cook.

One that has learned the lessons from her nonna.

She works really, really hard.

We saw at the zoo. She rallies the boys. She works really hard.

Guys, start assembling over here, OK?

On sports day, she's cheering all the time.

-ALL:

-Pipe it, pipe it, pipe it!

Phoebe's always happy, and her food shows it.

It's a sweet little piece of heaven. I love it.

I really hope I win today.

I would be quite upset if I didn't, but it's OK if I don't

because it's really cool to still be a finalist.

Phoebe, there is a lot of pressure on today.

What are you going to cook for us?

I'm cooking a courgette soup with courgette flower fritters.

TIMER DINGS

And, for my main, I'm doing beef brisket stuffed with a paste

made out of butter and parsley and pancetta,

and then for the dessert, I'm doing a coffee chocolate mousse

with home-made biscotti.

Wow. That is a menu to impress.

What is it about these dishes that you've chose

that are going to really knock our socks off today?

Because it's something that my grandma's taught me,

my mum's taught me,

and I just think they're really nice and I like the Italian theme.

So are you going to make it...

ITALIAN ACCENT: ..just like Nonna used to make?

-Yes.

-You are?

-Yeah.

-Good.

No? It's not working? I'll stop. OK.

Phoebe has a very, very interesting menu

and you can see the influence of her Italian grandmother

running all the way through it.

Courgette soup. Wonderful,

but it needs to be rich in flavour. Courgettes can be a bit watery,

but courgette flower fritters, I love.

Main course, Phoebe's using brisket or braising steak

and she's battered it out, opened it all up

and she's filled it with lots of butter and parsley and pancetta.

Buttery tomato sauce with beef and pasta? Right up my street.

Then, to finish it all off, a brilliant chocolate coffee mousse

served with a wonderful little biscotti.

If she gets it right we'll be left with a crunchy biscotti

that crisps when you break it apart and then that velvety light mousse.

The biscottis aren't going hard.

It needs to be baked again.

I want to show the judges that even though this food

is quite rustic and Italian, it's awesome,

and, like, Italian food's my favourite food.

You have just 45 minutes left.

Give yourselves enough time to be able to plate your dish as well.

Oh.

I think I'm just going to stand back over here.

Amelie is like a giggling whirlwind when she comes into this kitchen.

I love her passion and her big smile.

Yay!

We've seen Amelie walk in the door

and be extremely ambitious as a cook.

Please come out. Please come out.

Amelie is an exciting cook

because when you put her under pressure, she delivers.

-ALL:

-Whisk those eggs! Whisk those eggs!

Oh, hang on! Don't we have to start the aioli again?

Oh, no. I can't believe you split our dressing.

-I thought we were a team?

-We WERE a team.

Until I split your dressing.

She delivers really good food throughout the competition.

It is this eruption of flavour in your mouth and I love that.

I've enjoyed being on Junior MasterChef so, so much.

I've made loads of new friends, I've learnt loads of new skills.

I wish it could carry on forever.

Amelie, what are you going to cook for us?

Today I'm making roasted tomato, sweet pepper and garlic soup

-with Cheddar cheese puff pastry twirls.

-Nice.

Then I'm making roast duck on a bed of creamy mash

with tea-infused carrots and savoury blackberry jam.

Then I'm making a raspberry cheesecake with a raspberry coulis.

-Wow.

-We get that you like raspberries, but you like them

so much that you've decided to coat yourself in them pretty early on.

That was when I blended them!

It does look like you have a case of the raspberry chicken pox.

I don't!

Amelie, you've always got a big smile on your face.

How have you found the competition so far?

I've found it tough-ish, but it's been really fun, so...

Amelie, what would it mean to you to win Junior MasterChef?

A lot.

I might do my dance.

Amelie is giggling her way through three brilliant dishes.

A big, bright soup with lots of sweet and smoky flavour

from roast peppers and tomatoes, blitzed until really nice and smooth.

She's promised us, on the side,

lovely, cheesy, crunchy puff pastry twists

and I'm very excited about them.

Her main course is a little bit unusual

in that she's roasting the duck, pairing it with mashed potato,

and a kind of sharp and sweet blackberry jam sort of sauce.

I'm a little bit scared of this combination

and I hope that it works out.

Dessert, a raspberry cheesecake with raspberry jelly.

Chocolate biscuit base, then the creamy cheesecake filling,

raspberry coulis and raspberry jelly.

But, presently, Amelie has got most of the raspberry sauce over her.

I think that if I cook my dishes perfectly

it will be enough to win me the title.

Fingers crossed.

Yes!

Your final ten minutes, everyone.

-What?

-Final ten minutes.

Yes!

Mmm.

Guys, you're into your final five minutes.

You need to get your food on the plate, please.

Come on, Barney, don't run out of time.

You've got nothing on your plates yet, mate.

That's it, guys. Time is up.

Well done. Amazing amount of work. Good job.

Amelie, up you come.

Vibrant colours, Amelie, aren't they?

Mm-hmm.

Amelie's starter is roasted tomato, red pepper and garlic soup,

drizzled with basil oil, served with Cheddar cheese twirls.

You have a really fresh-tasting soup. With the herbs dripped around the top

it looks really beautiful and it tastes good too.

But what I really love are those little cheesy puffs on the side.

It's rich, it's delicious.

It's got everything you want from a big bowl of soup.

And I love these. I think they're great.

For her main, Amelie has served roasted duck breast

with creamy mash, a blackberry jam and tea-infused baby carrots.

For me, that duck is cooked to perfection.

You've got a crispy skin on the outside,

you've got nice pink and tender meat in the centre and it's seasoned well,

but those carrots aren't cooked all the way through

and not taking on the flavour of the tea and that's what I was hoping for.

I'm really impressed with the combination

of your blackberry jam, duck and mashed potato.

I didn't think it was going to work, and I was a little bit afraid of it.

However, I think it's really well done.

Cook your carrots!

Her dessert is cheesecake topped with raspberry jelly

and served with a raspberry coulis.

Got enough?

You've taken the rasp and you've done great things with it.

I really like that chocolate, salty, buttery biscuit base

with the cream on top of it.

It just needs a fine layer of jelly,

but, at the moment, it's a bit too chewy on top.

I think it's a very, very well-made dessert indeed.

What you've got is this great creamy, velvety, sweet cheesecake

and it is absolutely gorgeous.

This is a really good cheesecake.

I'm really happy. Yeah.

I think that my dishes went really well overall, so...

Barney, what you've done here is truly impressive.

Barney's starter is a smoked haddock fishcake

served with creamed leeks and topped with a poached quail's egg.

You have delivered a wonderful creamy mashed potato cake

with that lovely smoky fish running through it

and that lovely leek sauce underneath.

My only thing about this dish is, I wanted a nice runny egg.

I like the texture of the cake. I like the smokiness.

I like the creaminess of the leeks.

I would like some more sauce

and I would like an egg that's not overdone.

Otherwise, yeah, very good.

For his main course, Barney has made a fillet steak

topped with a suet kidney pudding

served with horseradish mash, French peas and a kidney gravy.

Mmm.

It's like somebody's wrapped me up in my favourite blanket,

chucked me in front of a fire, put my fluffy slippers on

and given me a tasty, tasty thing to eat

that's comforting me beautifully.

It's real comfort food.

There's lumps in your mashed potato, which is a bit of a shame.

Otherwise I think it's a great, great dish.

Barney, one of the biggest issues with your dish

is that now I have to think of John in fluffy slippers.

When I put that aside from my mind,

what we have on this plate is really, really impressive.

Your kidneys are really nicely cooked.

You've got a lovely gravy running around them,

full of rich and kind of dark flavour in there.

I'm really impressed with it, Barney.

Barney's dessert is a rhubarb and pear tarte tatin

with ginger and orange ice cream.

I think your ice cream is great, Barney.

It's very, very tasty indeed.

Your tarte? The pastry top is crispy,

but, underneath it, it's still a little bit underdone.

But that sticky caramel with the rhubarb and the pears is inspired.

It's great.

That tarte is absolutely gorgeous.

It's really sweet, it's gooey

and it's got all those wonderful things you want a tarte tatin to be

and I love that ice cream because you've got the heat of the ginger,

you've got that wonderful orange running through it.

-I really like it.

-I feel really surprised

because I thought it was going to be a disaster.

-Why?

-Because at the start I got really nervous.

Well, I tell you what, if this is your being nervous,

I'd love to see when you're not nervous.

I feel really startled,

because I thought my dishes were going to be a disaster,

but the judges really enjoyed it.

Phoebe, today your dishes sparkle.

I think they look amazing.

For her starter, Phoebe has made a courgette soup

served with courgette flower fritters.

You've taken one brilliant ingredient, the mighty courgette,

and you have transformed it into something silky, smooth and velvety

that tastes specifically of that one ingredient.

A lot of people might say that it's a bit of a risk,

but it's really impressive.

-I can't find fault in that soup, Phoebe.

-Thank you.

I think it's absolutely delicious. It's velvety smooth,

perfectly seasoned, lovely little fritters on the side.

I think the presentation is wonderful

and it delivers, absolutely, on flavour.

Very good.

Her main is braciole.

Braising steak stuffed with butter, garlic and pancetta

and cooked in a tomato sauce, served with tagliatelle.

-Come on, John.

-I'm trying. I'm trying.

Wow! That is seriously good.

I have travelled to Italy

and I've tasted some of the fantastic nonnas' dishes.

This would beat them all hands-down.

The taste of Italy in one big, beautiful bowl and I love it.

Your beef is cooked beautifully.

The pasta is cooked really well. The sauce is really lovely.

I'd just like more sauce around that pasta,

but, for a piece of beef and a bowl of pasta, Phoebe,

I'd pay for it.

Phoebe has served her coffee and chocolate mousse

topped with cream in a cappuccino cup, with hazelnut biscotti,

a traditional Italian biscuit, on the side.

So these are what I'm interested in

because you sweated over these biscotti, didn't you?

Yeah.

I was a bit worried that they were a bit under.

-BISCOTTO SNAPS

-Yay.

It's delicious.

Really strong with bitter chocolate, really strong with coffee,

but these!

These lovely biscuits flavoured with hazelnuts are fantastic.

These biscotti I am making myself because they are ace.

You've got chocolate, you've got coffee, you've got creaminess

and also, it kind of reminds me of a thick version of, like, a tiramisu.

It's really, really lovely.

I think I really shocked the judges

because, like, the presentation looked quite fancy,

so, yeah, I'm quite happy with that.

You three have now made our decision really difficult.

We're going to ask you now to step outside for a well-earned break.

When we call you back in something extraordinary is going to happen.

One of you will be crowned our champion.

Thank you very much indeed. Off you go.

I mean, what we saw with our three cooks coming in here

was incredibly impressive.

They produced thought-provoking food.

They've demonstrated skill,

ambition,

and that makes for a great final.

Barney has always been a very brave cook,

and today, he did exactly the same thing.

He came in here and surprised.

He's an enthusiastic cook.

That, for me, is a cook who takes what he does extremely seriously.

Amelie cooked today what I think is food that she loves to cook

and food that she loves to eat.

And because of that, I think she's done a great job.

Over the course of the competition,

we have seen some really impressive dishes from Amelie

and she delivered today as well.

Phoebe, those three plates came up here

and they were twinkling, they were sparkling.

They were just really gutsy, bold.

She went with what she knows.

She went with the dishes she's grown up with.

We've seen how they've grown in this competition,

but it comes down to today.

To be Junior MasterChef champion

will make me cry and will make me really happy.

It feels quite sad knowing that I've just cooked my last three meals

on Junior MasterChef, but I also feel quite happy

because I just really want to find out who's going to win.

I've got everything crossed for good luck

so hopefully, I'll hear my name called.

I think today there's somebody who's walked in here, really impressed.

Not just impressed a little bit, but truly, properly impressed.

For me, it really is a clear winner.

-We're agreed, aren't we?

-I think we are.

-Mr Skehan, it's been a pleasure.

-Thank you.

You three have turned out to be absolute superstars.

I know it's been a big journey.

I hope you've been inspired.

Whatever happens today, don't stop.

Guys, today, you three blew us away.

Incredible work.

But we have made a decision.

Our Junior MasterChef champion 2014 is...

..Phoebe.

# I got the eye of the tiger A fighter

# Dancing through the fire

# Cos I am a champion and you're going to hear me roar... #

Amelie, Barney, thanks very, very much indeed.

It's been worth it because I've now proved to myself and to my family

that I'm a really good cook.

I think I might apply for the older MasterChef when I'm older.

I've had loads of fun being on Junior MasterChef

because we've been to the zoo, we've been to a chocolate factory

and we've been making a lot of new friends.

I'm going to remember being on Junior MasterChef forever.

-Wow!

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-How does that feel?

-Awesome.

-Well done!

-You're hurting me.

I'm so proud of you. Well done.

You thoroughly deserved it.

# I've got the eye of the tiger A fighter

# Dancing through the fire

# Cos I am a champion and you're going to hear me roar... #

Every so often you find a cook who's got the magic in their fingers

and Phoebe's got it.

That girl is going to go a long way.

This is one of the happiest days of my life.

I'm really just, like, excited and proud and really happy.

# ..I got the eye of the tiger A fighter

# Dancing through the fire

# Cos I am a champion and you're going to hear me roar

# Louder, louder than a lion

# Cos I am a champion And you're going to hear me roar. #