Episode 8 Junior MasterChef

It's the second of three Junior MasterChef semifinals

and the best four are still cooking.

Amelie.

I never imagined I'd get to the final four of MasterChef.

But there was a little flicker of hope, which has now grown a lot.

Barney.

The competition is very tough, but not tough enough for me.

Phoebe.

I didn't really expect to get this far, so I'm really happy with myself.

And Mya.

I really think I'm up for the challenge,

but I've just got to wait and see if I am.

Today, we're going to have some fun. Today, it's sports day.

First up, it's the circuit skills test.

And later, they'll have to survive the Junior MasterChef relay race.

It's going to be great fun!

It's sports day in the MasterChef kitchen!

How good is that going to be?

First test, we are doing a circuit challenge

and we're testing their basic skills.

The contestants will have to complete four tasks

against the clock.

Station one is about shelling peas quickly.

Then, at station two, it's piping cream on to shortbread biscuits.

Next, they'll have to separate egg yolks from the whites.

Finally, it's whisking egg whites, until they're firm enough to hold

upside down.

Before they start, I think, we need to have a go.

Well, I think we need to set the benchmark

and we've got to work out who's fastest and who's best.

I think I know.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

-Steady?

-Yeah.

-Spaghetti?

WHISTLE BLOWS

OK, shelling peas.

Not on the floor, mate, please.

Ah, there goes a pea! Oh, there goes another one.

This is tough!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, done. OK, two.

You've had over one minute now.

OK, three, where's the next? Three, over there.

-OK.

-Separating eggs.

OK, I've cracked my first yolk.

I could disqualify you, but I won't.

OK, next one.

This is the dangerous point. This is the point where you don't know

whether or not it's stiff enough.

It's nearly there, will I chance it?

I think it's good!

-Whoop!

-Across the finish line.

-There you go.

-Well?

Three minutes and ten seconds.

-That's not bad!

-Not bad, at all.

-Happy days.

-There you go.

Right, you're up, give me that timer.

Oh, it's trouble now.

He means business. Let's get in it. Are you ready?

-Yes.

-On your marks, get set...

WHISTLE BLOWS

He's confident, he's confident.

You're taking it very slow there.

You've got to beat three minutes, ten seconds.

You're already at 45 seconds.

-Oh!

-Then, station two.

I'd speed it up there, John.

Stack them...that's done.

How did you do that so quickly?

And then simply lift up the egg yolk...out.

That's that done.

And then take your egg.

Go on, John! Come on!

Oh!

Two minutes, 45.

-That's quite impressive.

-Thank you.

High-five, well done.

Right, you and I have got pretty fast times.

We don't expect them to be that fast.

However, do you know what? I've got high expectations.

I have high expectations and I think they're going to have fun, as well.

-Shall we get them in?

-Let's get them in, let's do it.

Let's start sports day!

Hi, guys, welcome to the Junior MasterChef Sports Day.

Your first test is a circuit test.

Four stations, each station needs to

be completed as quickly as possible but it needs to be done very well.

OK, we need to determine who goes first.

OK, Barney, draw a straw please.

Phoebe.

That's me.

Oh, no.

Oh, that's not me, then.

No!

Amelie, you go first.

Why me?

-Amelie, are you ready?

-Yeah.

On you're marks, get set...

WHISTLE BLOWS

Remember, if you're trying this at home, you shouldn't run

in your kitchen.

-Go, Amelie!

-Go, Amelie!

So far, ten-year-old Amelie has impressed the judges with some

of her amazing-tasting food,

especially her gooey chocolate fondant.

Amelie, one minute gone.

Keep going!

-Nearly there, get ready for the next station.

-Almost there.

That was two and a half minutes, well done.

I have never done this before.

-Come on, Amelie!

-Come on, Amelie!

I don't know why I did that last bit. Where's three? There.

Right, eggs, here we go.

Go, Amelie.

Four and a half minutes gone.

-Are you done?

-Yeah.

Right, let's go! Next station, then, come on, go.

-Go, Amelie!

-Whisk those eggs! Whisk those eggs! Whisk those eggs!

Come on, Amelie, you can do it!

Put it over your head. Hurry up, come on, go!

-It looks like it's nearly there, Amelie.

-Yeah, nearly.

-Come on, just turn it upside down.

-Go on!

Beautiful, that's great. Well done, cross the line, quick, quick, quick!

The final time is seven minutes and 56 seconds.

That's the time to beat, guys.

Under eight minutes, well done.

Whisking those eggs, my arm really hurt and it was just like,

"Oh, no, I'm not going to be able to carry on, no!"

OK, Barney, on your marks, get set...

WHISTLE BLOWS QUIETLY

To get to this stage, ten-year-old Barney has been a brave and risky

cook and even put stinging nettles in his mushroom filo pastry basket.

Two minutes gone.

Barney, come on! De-shell those peas!

Done.

-TOGETHER:

-Pipe it, pipe it, pipe it, pipe it, pipe it, pipe it!

Well done, make it look nice.

Looking good, Barney. Are you ready? The next one's behind you.

Nearly four minutes.

Come on, Barney, it's a race, quick let's go!

Use all your strength, Barney, go on, go on!

Go, Barney, you can do it!

-They're looking good.

-Come on, Barney!

Go on, Barney, over the head, over the head, over the head!

-Yay!

-Up you come, come on, quick.

Quick, quick, quick, cross the line.

WHISTLE BLOWS

And what's the time, what's the time?

Barney, five minutes, 45 seconds.

Woo-hoo!

Wow, very good, good job.

Well done.

That was so much fun! It was way better than my sports days

at school and I so wish that was our normal sports days at school.

Go, Mya!

-You need to beat five minutes, 45, are you focused?

-Yes.

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

All right, Mya, on your marks, get set...

WHISTLE BLOWS

-Come on, Mya!

-Go on, Mya!

Throughout the competition, nine-year-old Mya has shown a flair

for the classics and demonstrated loads of skill with her duck dish.

-Come on, Mya!

-You can do it, Mya, you can do it!

-Go, Mya!

-You can beat Barney.

Brilliant, really fast.

Go, Mya!

Oh, my hands are shaking.

Well done.

Two and a half minutes and you're on your third stations,

that's impressive.

Come on, Mya!

SHE SHRIEKS

OK, I've done badly on that one.

Go on, Mya, quick, next station.

OTHER CONTESTANTS CHEER

Four minutes, quick, quick, quick, then you can beat Barney.

Go on, Mya, go on!

Go for it!

-Is it looking good?

-Oh, no!

Happy? That'll do you, get in here, quick, quick, quick!

WHISTLE BLOWS

Five minutes, 48 seconds.

Barney's still in the lead, Barney's still in the lead.

BARNEY CHEERS

I didn't expect anything like that. I thought it would be a taste test

or something, but obviously, it was

a sports day and it was really, really, really fun!

Phoebe has to beat five minutes, 45 seconds to win and I'm excited!

-Are you ready for the challenge?

-Yeah.

On your marks, get set...

WHISTLE BLOWS

Get podding those peas.

12-year-old Phoebe has impressed the judges throughout with

her ambitious food and wowed with her paella in the last round.

-Wow, one minute, 22!

-Go on, Phoebe, onto the next station.

Amazing, Phoebe.

Look at the skill here.

-Phoebe!

-Go, Phoebe!

Pipe it!

Barney's definitely got competition now.

Phoebe, you're doing it better than I did it.

Two minutes gone, station three, here we come.

Come on, Phoebe!

-Good on you, here you go.

-Two, 24.

-She's going to beat me.

-She's going to beat you.

Go on, Phoebe!

Come on, Phoebe!

This is brilliant!

There you go on, go on, go on!

WHISTLE BLOWS

Wow! Wow!

Three minutes, 34 seconds, wow!

It was so much fun! I was really happy with what I got.

I didn't beat Donal, but I was really close to his time.

Phoebe, you are our winner, well done.

Give her a big round of applause!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Very well done,

but that is the first test of the day.

I suggest you fuel yourself up. You'll need your energy back again,

because the next test is really tough.

But sports day shall continue.

-Oh, no!

-No!

Yes, off you go.

I was so excited with this challenge, it's so much fun

but it's great to have fun in the kitchen, but also see the skills

of our four cooks coming to the forefront.

Really, really impressive stuff.

Phoebe was fast. I mean, really fast.

That's great, really good.

Now, another sports day challenge.

Sports day continues and this next challenge is the MasterChef Relay.

Barney and Mya, you're in the Red team.

Amelie and Phoebe, you're in the Blue.

And what we'd like you to do for us

is cook, for us, one dish in one hour.

One of you will start the dish.

The other team member then will pick up the baton

and do the middle part of the dish, and the baton, again, will be passed

and the first person will come back in again to finish the dish off.

Right now, you guys need to decide, between each team,

who is going to be team member one, to start and finish the dish,

and who's going to be team member two, to do the body of the dish.

-You're one.

-No, you should be one.

No, that means I'm cooking.

Done, that was simple.

THEY WHISPER

I'll have to hurry you now.

Right, Barney, Mya, who's number one and who's number two?

I'm number one and Mya's number two.

On the Blue team?

I'm number one, Phoebe's number two.

OK, those people who are team member two, you're going to

leave us. Team member one, you stay right where you are.

Off you go!

Get out of here, Phoebe.

Once they start, the team members will not be able to talk

TO each other till the end.

OK, Barney, Amelie, the very best of luck.

How long do they have to cook, Donal?

-One hour.

-What do we say to them?

-Let's cook!

-Off you go.

The teams have been given a recipe for crab ravioli,

with a tomato and mussel sauce.

Barney and Amelie now have just 20 minutes to start the dish...

I've never cooked crab before.

..before they have to hand over to Mya and Phoebe.

I'm a bit worried about it.

I hope she does well.

Yeah, I hope he does well.

The first job is to get the crab meat out of the shell.

If you're trying this at home,

make sure there's a responsible adult with you.

Have you ever done this to a crab before?

No, I've never hacked a crab to pieces.

And how do you think it's going?

Well, because I've never done it before, I'm not sure,

but I think it's going OK.

Oh! I'd hate to be that crab.

I might as well be vicious.

Amelie has never prepared crab, but the great thing about it is

that she's straight in there and that's what I like to see, no fear.

You've both done one step and you've had ten minutes already.

Next, they add prawns, herbs

and finish with lemon juice and seasoning.

This mix will become the filling for the ravioli.

-Have you ever made ravioli before?

-No.

-Do you know what a pasta machine looks like?

-No.

-Have a look behind you. There you go, you've never used one?

-No.

-OK, do you want to try and work it out for yourself?

-No.

Yes, you do, come on.

I want you to make that as thin as you possibly can, OK?

Quite a bit of time for Barney to get his confidence, but now

I think he's getting his head around what he's actually got to make.

The secret is to make the pasta thin but big enough to hold the filling.

I'm really worried about their pasta at the moment, because Amelie

has cut it quite small for that big stonking filling in the centre.

The first 20 minutes are almost up.

They can't talk to their team mate,

so need to leave a clue about how much of the recipe they have done.

-Go!

-It's changeover time.

And you're off, go, go, go, go!

The two girls now have to work out what to do next.

I'm confident in Mya that she will pick it up a bit for me, because

I was terrible in there, I thought,

because I've never cooked or made

crab in my life and I've never seen a pasta machine or ever made pasta.

So, have you made ravioli before?

-Yes, I've made it a million times.

-You've made it many times?

-Yes.

Brilliant, so you're a star at this, aren't you?

Let's go, you've got 30 minutes. There's your pasta done,

your filling's ready to go. Off you go.

Yeah, I'm quite pleased that I'm with Phoebe,

because she's got an Italian family,

so she'll know what to do with pasta, hopefully. Fingers crossed.

What did she leave you to do?

Well, these bits weren't so neat,

so I just want to fill the raviolis and do them again.

So, you've redone Amelie's ravioli?

Erm, yeah, cos some of the bits weren't so even,

-so I wanted to make sure it's all even and perfect.

-OK, great.

Now, Phoebe is filling the ravioli, she's cooking the mussels

and she's going to make that sauce.

All hopefully in time for Amelie to come back in

and finish it off beautifully.

With their 30 minutes almost up, both girls have finished

prepping the ravioli and got the mussel sauce on.

Now, it's time for the final changeover.

Go!

Oh, what am I supposed to do here?

Where's the ravioli?

I made an arrow out of chives, pointing to the fridge,

to show her that the ravioli was in the fridge.

Well, there's nothing over there.

-Where could it be pointing to?

-Oh, fridge.

-A-ha.

-Oh, right.

-There you go.

-How many did she make?!

I think I've left Barney in a fairly good position.

All he's got to do is just put the tomato in the pan

and cook the ravioli, and that's really it.

OK, Amelie, you've got five minutes left, five minutes left.

Oh, I haven't even started plating up yet.

-Yeah, I think that's quite nice.

-Good to go?

I am really looking forward to seeing the end result, because

I'm just going to be wondering what it's going to look like.

30 seconds left, just finishing touches please.

Time up.

It's the plainest-looking thing I've ever made.

Oh, yes, you did really well.

I think you did well.

You got so much done, it was awesome!

It looks really good.

Well done guys, now this is Sports Day and, in order to

judge your food, we are going to get the help of a sports person.

Olympic medallist and Britain's best gymnast...

..Miss Beth Tweddle.

-Hello!

-Have you been working hard?

-Yeah.

Beth Tweddle is Britain's most successful female gymnast ever.

She is a triple world champion and has won over 20 gold medals.

I'm in shock!

Red team...up you come.

Barney and Mya have made ravioli, filled with crab and prawns,

served with a mussel and tomato sauce.

Guys, I've got to say, presentation is absolutely fantastic here!

But not only that, it tastes beautiful as well.

The pasta is made really well, as is the filling for the ravioli.

You can taste the crab and the sweet prawns.

The sauce is lovely and it's sweet because it's been reduced down.

If I was served that in a restaurant, I'd be very, very happy indeed.

I am amazed, because I can't cook at all.

So, I did not know what to expect, but it's just incredible.

Do you know what? You should be so proud of yourselves for doing that.

Thank you.

Barney and Mya, very well done, indeed. Good job.

Well done.

That went better than I thought. It was just incredible.

It felt amazing, with Beth Tweddle judging the food

and tasting it. I'm really happy it went this well.

Blue team, bring your plate of food up, please.

Mmmm.

Phoebe and Amelie's crab ravioli

has been served with the mussel sauce on the side.

You guys have gone for something completely different, in terms

of the shape of your ravioli and I like it, it's a nice square.

The one thing I really wanted you guys to do was to cover

the pasta in the sauce because what's happening is, the sauce isn't

getting a chance to, kind of, infuse its flavour into the pasta, OK.

Inside there, you've got your filling of prawn and crab and it's really

fresh with lemon and your sauce, as well, is really fresh and very light.

I loved what you've done. I'm quite fussy about how much sauce

I have over my pasta, so I quite liked how you separated it

and then I could just pour as much as I wanted on it.

I actually quite liked how you presented it.

Thank you very much.

Well done.

I'm pleased with the dish,

but I still think I could have put the presentation up a notch.

I'm feeling quite pleased after this challenge, because i think

we both worked really well, so I'm feeling quite happy.

A massive well done!

I mean, this is definitely a different sports day for me

and your food was incredible. You should be so proud of yourselves.

Thank you very much, off you go.

A bounce of happiness!

I loved Sports Day. I thought this was so much fun in the kitchen.

I mean, it was great to see our cooks smiling in the kitchen

and having fun, enjoying themselves.

But also, that first relay was great, because we got to see skill

and we got to see how quick they could do it.

In this round, it was really impressive,

because they were up against it. They were working together,

they were using their mind and they were creating a delicious dish.

I'm really impressed with these four.

Sports day's done, the fun is over.

Next up, they're going to have to raise the bar - the chocolate bar.

Next, the final four face two more tough tests.

Today, you are cooking for restaurant critics.

But only three will make it to the final cook-off.

The person who is leaving us is...