Episode 13 Junior MasterChef

It's Junior MasterChef,

the competition to find the best young cook in the country.

From over 1,000 applications,

only four cooks have made it to the finals.

Now, top chef John Torode

and food blogger and TV cook Donal Skehan

have to decide which cook is good enough

to win the title of Junior MasterChef.

There are only two more shows before the Junior MasterChef final.

Before that, the final four face some massive challenges.

Today, it is all about cooking for celebrations.

First, they will be feeding some of the youngest performers

at London's Notting Hill Carnival.

Oh, no!

-We'll have to start again.

-No, we're not.

We need to move on now. We need to get some food out, we're way behind.

Then they'll have to cook their own celebration dish

for John and Donal.

Really fantastic. This is how celebration food should be.

I'm just

so happy and I'm just really glad that I've got this far.

I cannot compare

the MasterChef experience to anything in my life before.

It is just amazing.

I am just so happy

that I have been able to come back day after day.

I'm loving it.

I've really, really grown

as a cook here, and, like, winning will be everything to me.

Good morning, guys. Today, you face your biggest challenge yet.

We are in Notting Hill

and tomorrow the biggest street festival in Europe takes place -

the Notting Hill Carnival. You are going to be cooking

for the Fox Carnival Band.

-Wow!

-Whoa!

We're going to put you into two teams. Josie and Tom, one team.

And Jamie and TJ.

Come on, TJ, come on!

Come on!

Make it exciting. Make the food fun. Make these people smile. Off you go.

-Let's do this!

-Come on, let's go.

The Notting Hill Carnival began in the 1960s.

Today, over two million people come to watch

all the performers parade and celebrate Caribbean music and food.

# Me mind on fire

# Me soul on fire Feeling hot, hot, hot! #

The Fox Carnival Band has been going for 14 years.

The children who are going to be parading,

they know Caribbean-inspired food, they know what to look for.

That Fox Carnival Band, they're going to be hungry.

More than anything, our cooks have to get that food out on time.

So far, the most the finalists have had to cook for is four.

Today, they will be cooking for 50.

In just two hours, each team must make

25 portions of a Caribbean-style main, dessert and drink.

# Ole, ole... #

It's food that I'm used to, so I think it'll go pretty good.

TJ says he specialises in Caribbean food,

so it is going to be tough today, yeah.

-Are you best at doing mains or desserts?

-Mains.

So, I'm best at doing...desserts.

Josie and Tom will be making spicy mango chicken

with rice and peas and coleslaw,

a dessert of upside-down cake and a pineapple and banana punch.

This is a lot of chicken breasts. I'm doing 15 chicken breasts here.

It says, "In half, chicken breasts," so I'm just doing that,

with this really nice knife

that I have to get one of, cos it's red, and that's cool.

Remember, these cooks are experienced.

If you are cooking at home, you need the help of a responsible adult.

I have never made an upside-down pineapple cake before.

It should be fun. I've just got to get the exact measurements.

Josie's first job is to mix the sugar

and butter together for the top of the cake.

The butter is actually pretty hard, so it is quite hard to cream it.

Tom's now making a marinade to soak his chicken pieces in.

Well, the marinade is going to be quite acidic cos it's got

a lot of lime juice in it.

And it's going to be slightly spicy cos of the soy sauce.

And then we'll get sweetness from the sugar.

I think the kids are going to say that they really love it

when they taste it. Hopefully, because that's the idea.

-Are you all right with that?

-Yep, fine.

-Sure?

-Yeah, it's cool.

So, while I'm cutting, you cut as well. We've got to work

at that sort of pace if we want to beat the others.

-That has got to be like our motto or something.

-Yeah.

TJ and Jamie will be cooking spicy beef burgers with pineapple

and honey chutney and spicy plantain chips,

a dessert of mini tropical fruit and meringue pavlovas

and a ginger and pineapple punch.

TJ's first challenge is to separate 24 egg whites

from the yolks to make the meringue for the pavlova.

If any egg yolk gets in, it won't work.

I've never made pavlova before.

I've made meringues.

Meringues, you need the same technique for, as well.

So, I'm not really fazed by this. This is a bit easy for me.

I am charring some pineapple and some onion.

For this chutney, yeah.

You have to keep your eye on what you do or else it'll burn.

-You going all right, guys?

-Yeah, it's going good.

Already grilling pineapple? OK. That's good for 20 minutes.

I think he was checking out the competition a little bit,

trying to see how well we're doing.

That looks really good, well done. Amazing.

I think we are on track.

We're doing our pavlova, we are doing our chutney

and everything is going good.

-Better stay that way.

-Yeah.

TJ now adds sugar to the egg whites and starts to whip them.

But it isn't working.

That is not going to whisk up. And the reason is,

-you had some egg yolks in it.

-Yeah.

-So, see what it's doing?

-Yeah.

-It won't actually whisk up.

So, we're going to have to start again.

-We're going to need to get 24 more eggs and weigh out more sugar.

-Yep.

-OK?

-Yep.

We need to really move now, guys,

cos otherwise we're going to be in big trouble. OK? Let's go.

There was a bit of egg yolks in the pavlova,

so we have to restart with it.

It will set us back,

but I think we can catch up we can probably catch up.

Surprisingly, Josie and Tom are really calm in their kitchen,

really well organised. TJ and Jamie, on the other hand,

had a bit of a palaver with their egg whites.

The first lot of egg white didn't work

and now TJ has got his pavlovas almost ready to go.

The question is not whether they ARE going to get it done,

they HAVE to get it done. They have got children to feed.

Hungry people.

So, they'll have to move. Won't you?

Yep.

The meringue mix is shaped into pavlova nests

and put into the oven to cook.

Across the kitchen, Tom has almost finished his cabbage coleslaw.

Chicken marinating, coleslaw ready

and I can move onto prepping the rice and beans.

And Josie is working on the upside-down cake mix.

Is that nice?

It's perfect. Absolutely perfect.

She is ready to start layering up the cake in trays.

But she's forgotten something.

SHE GASPS

Oh, no! I didn't put baking paper on there.

-We're going to have to start again.

-No, we're not.

What should we do?

Basically, I've just remembered that there is no baking paper on it,

so it won't turn out. So, I'm having to scrape this out and do it again.

Never mind, at least we're able to fix it.

If it was in the oven, then it would have been a disaster.

Right.

It needs 35 minutes. We'll put that on the timer in a second.

There we go.

Sorted. Get that on the timer.

There is an hour till lunch and the Fox Band are busy making

their own costumes for the carnival.

It would be great for the kids to get a really good lunch.

They'll need that energy for the weekend.

They're going to be dancing for seven hours.

To impress the carnivalists,

you need to make sure there is a lot of flavour

with lots of exotic bits and bobs in there.

TJ has remade his pavlova and they are racing

to finish the plantain chips and the spicy burgers.

TJ and Jamie are a little bit behind. They have to pick it up.

They need to get their burgers all set and ready to go.

Otherwise, we're going to have very hungry carnivalists.

The burgers are doing great.

All I have to do is roll them into, like, little pates, patties.

I like to be generous with my burgers.

I like my burgers meaty.

This is what we have to think about when we're making the burgers.

They're tiny!

This is going to be a very generous burger alongside this bun.

We may need to rethink these tiny burgers, OK?

All right.

How many burgers are we looking at?

-25.

-25, OK.

Just so you know, dress rehearsal is about to start.

That means your lunch is going to be served in half an hour.

You've got 30 minutes to finish all your food.

In the other team, Tom begins griddling the chicken.

I am on the drink now. And the drink is the last thing that we need to do.

We'll be early, I think, hopefully,

but I'm not going to sort of, like, say it

cos anything could happen between then and now, so...

Josie, you need to look at your cake in that oven, eh?

Just put it on there if you need to.

That's not ready.

Well, it's weird. It's cooked on the outside, but not on the inside.

-So, let's put that back in there.

-Yep.

-Did you put baking powder in it?

-Yeah.

It looks like it has too much baking powder in it.

I don't really know why cos I followed the...

-I'm sure it will be delicious.

-OK.

-We'll call it upside-down mush cake.

-Hello!

-ALL: Hello!

-Irie!

-ALL: Irie!

Outside, the dress reversal is under way.

Can you wave it?

Can you wiggle it?

Smile now! Take it back.

Everybody!

THEY CHEER

It is starting to smell good in here.

TJ is adding the toppings to the meringue.

Yeah, I am very, very happy with them. They look very, very good.

But they haven't even started making their drink.

Guys, we should be serving lunch by now.

You won't have time to do your drink.

So, you got your dessert done, your burgers done.

So, I think you need to move on now, OK?

We need to get some food out, we are way behind.

Ready? Moment of truth.

-Oh, yes!

-It's looking good. It looks really good.

Head that way. Table's out there.

Oh, it's plantain crisp time!

-Finally, after all their hard work, it looks great.

-It does look good.

It is looking really good.

Dig in!

Thank you for the lovely food after all that sewing.

It looks wonderful to me. Different, but I see a lot of the classics.

Looking forward to it.

Josie and Tom's spicy mango chicken with rice and peas

and coleslaw is proving popular.

The food is amazing!

The chicken was really moist, it was my favourite part,

cos it had a nice charred outside, a bit of barbecuing.

It was really nice. The chicken was cooked perfect.

For dessert, Josie and Tom have made pineapple upside-down cake

and a pineapple and banana punch.

Oh. Oh, that's good.

It is kind of like a kind of eggy...eggy sponge.

And pineapple. Very nice.

I've never had such a good pineapple upside-down cake, so I loved it.

The smoothie, oh, I loved the smoothie.

It was... I think it was banana, so it tasted really good.

TJ and Jamie's spicy beef burgers with pineapple and honey chutney

and spicy plantain chips are also going down well.

I had the burger, and the burger tastes nice.

I really like plantain, I eat it quite a lot.

And they were nice and, like, crispy. Quite a good thinness.

TJ and Jamie's dessert is pavlova -

meringue topped with cream and tropical fruit.

I've just eaten the pavlova, it's all over my face,

but it is so delicious.

They got it exactly right.

And there was a fruit salad on the top. It was really good.

It is like five desserts in one.

Lunch is over and 50 band members have been fed.

We asked our four cooks to cook a celebratory meal,

and today they've done it, they've made people smile.

Everyone got into that carnival spirit,

and that is exactly what we needed today.

Josie and Tom, I think, work really, really well together.

They had a lot to do, but delivered wonderful dishes.

It has gone really well today. It's been amazing, yeah.

It has gone fably.

TJ and Jamie, few mistakes from them,

but they delivered wonderful dishes.

They didn't have time to make their drink, which is a bit of a shame.

But their food was tasty.

Like, a few weeks ago,

I'd never think I'd be cooking for this many people.

Yeah, I think it went quite well.

Today's food was all about celebration

and the next time we see our four,

they're going to be cooking celebration dishes for us.

Welcome back, guys.

We have seen you cook carnival food, we know you can do it,

so now we want to see your OWN celebration dishes,

the dishes that make you smile.

One celebration dish.

One-and-a-half hours.

Let's cook.

It is all about fun in the kitchen today.

They have us on hand if they need any help, but if they were at home,

of course, they would need the help of a responsible adult.

Remember, give those hands a good wash.

I'm doing Halloween as my celebration.

Halloween is so special to me because it's my birthday.

-Tom, today is all about making people smile.

-Yes.

What is your celebration dish?

I'm doing Halloween.

Bleeding tart, a lost witch's sock

-and a spider's web.

-All out of food?

Yes.

Fantastic, Tom! Sounds really exciting.

Can I just ask a question,

-the sock won't taste like a sock, will it?

-No.

-Oh, good.

-That's important, isn't it!

-That's really good, yes. Really good.

Today, Tom really wants to wow us.

The bleeding tart is a raspberry tart made with frangipane.

The witch's sock is made with creme fraiche and food colouring

and then he's making a caramel spider's web. Very clever.

This dish has to be, like, the best I have ever, ever done.

I just really want to show them what I can do

and that I've got bags of ability.

We've got pineapple and coconut milk,

beans... What is your celebration dish?

Curried goat with rice and peas and coleslaw.

-Nice.

-This is, like, a really important meal to Jamaica.

We always used to celebrate with curried goat.

We always used to do it on Sundays, um, Christmas.

Do you think Usain Bolt had this when he won the 100 metres?

-Um, probably, yeah.

-Can you do the Bolt?

There you go, brilliant.

I want that goat curry today to be really spicy,

but at the same time, have lots and lots of layers of flavour.

That sounds like celebration food to me, and I cannot wait to try it.

Guys, we are at that halfway point now -

stay focused and keep on cooking.

I think this is going to be one of the funner things.

It's kind of like, "Yeah, I'm going to cook this!

"Yeah, let's get this cake on!"

Josie, it looks like you have been celebrating already.

I'm going to cook a three-tier

chocolate and fruit gateau.

It's a cake that my brother always has for his birthday.

And this year was his 18th and I wasn't with him, I was here.

So, I thought, instead of making him the cake to eat THERE,

I'd make it on TV for him.

Honestly, that really chokes me up. That's brilliant. Good on you.

We are in for a proper treat from Josie today.

Let's just hope she gets it right.

I really want to make the judges' mouths water with, like, happiness.

Yeah, I hope they enjoy it.

-Jamie, by the looks of it, you made us some profiteroles.

-Yeah.

-What's your celebration dish?

-Well, I'm making a croquembouche.

The inspiration was when I was

at my cousin's First Holy Communion in France

and they brought this cake that was filled with profiteroles

and I was just like, "Aaaah!"

You have an hour-and-a-half, and you're making croquembouche?

-Yeah.

-You feeling confident about it?

Um, at the moment, I am feeling confident.

If you do this, honestly, I'll be like that - doffing my hat.

A tower of profiteroles held together with sticky caramel

and then the whole thing piled up and sitting on a plate.

-I mean, what a challenge!

-If he pulls it off,

he is SO going to impress.

20 minutes left, guys, just 20 minutes left.

Not cooked yet.

It was always going to be a risk for Jamie. I mean,

ten minutes to go and he's still trying to make that croquembouche.

He may just have to make it a little bit smaller.

Four minutes left, everyone.

Just four minutes.

Guys, your time is now up.

Please stop cooking and step away from your benches.

Jamie has made croquembouche -

chocolate-and-orange-cream-filled profiteroles

held together with caramel.

Jamie, I want you to stop looking so disappointed.

What you have achieved in an hour-and-a-half is incredible.

-Good on you.

-Thank you.

Let's dig in.

Tastes great.

You can hear the crunch of the caramel, which is slightly bitter,

with the sweetness of your chocolate custard,

fragrant with wonderful citrus coming from the orange.

I would be very proud if I was you.

Really ambitious and it tastes good.

A bit of a triumph, Jamie, well done.

Thank you.

It may look like a Leaning Tower of Pisa,

but do you know what? This tastes really good.

I mean, it is total celebration food.

I was really happy with the comments and the taste of it.

And, yeah, I'm just...

Yeah, I'm just really over the moon about how it tastes.

Tom has made a Halloween dish of bleeding tart

flavoured with raspberry and almond...

...a witch's sock with coloured layers of creme fraiche

and a spun caramel spider's web.

I think it's great. I think it's really adventurous and really clever.

Good sense of humour.

It's really sweet and sticky jam

with the orange frangipane.

And then to offset it, you have been clever enough to use creme fraiche.

So, not only does it look really clever, it tastes really good.

-Good dessert, Tom.

-Thank you.

Very, very, very tasty.

And especially around Halloween time,

this is exactly the sort of thing I would want to be tasting.

'It made me feel really, really overwhelmed'

because I was not expecting that at all.

So, yeah, I'm really proud of myself.

TJ has made a goat curry

with rice and peas...

..coleslaw and a pineapple drink.

Boom, TJ, this is proper celebration cooking.

There is wonderful, rich heat from that goat curry.

Then you've got sweetness from that coleslaw.

And then that kind of almost nutty rice and peas, really fantastic.

-Thank you.

-Goat curry, coleslaw, rice and peas on one fork.

I'm nicking that combination.

I think that's brilliant.

Hey, we are in the sunshine. You want to celebrate Jamaica, TJ?

-You've done it. Brilliant!

-Thank you.

I couldn't, like, wish for something better, to be honest.

That was really, really cool.

Josie has made a three-tier chocolate cake

filled with raspberries and blackberries

with a white chocolate topping.

-Should we cut it?

-Let's do it.

It's rich with chocolate,

it's sweet with that wonderful vanilla cream,

it's sharp with raspberries, sweet with blackberries.

It's pure indulgence. I think it's wonderful.

I know how it looks, but you know what? The taste is wonderful.

With cake and chocolate, you can't

but not please people with all that wonderful, beautiful sugariness.

And if I was your brother and it was my 18th birthday, I'd be proud.

I think they really liked it,

apart from the presentation was a little bit off.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy.

Incredible day today, guys.

We asked you to make us celebration food and you seriously delivered.

You four are ace.

You pushed yourselves today, worked really hard,

and took it to a new level altogether.

Thank you very much indeed.

Can't wait to see you cook again.

Off you go.

Oh, yeah!

Our four cooks have proved to us that they can cook

great carnival food, and every single one of them

came into this kitchen today and showed us their creativity.

My favourite day of the competition so far.

The competition just gets better and better.

Today, I think they were all brave. I think they worked really hard.

We have a winner in our four, but who's it going to be?

Tomorrow, the final four cook for the stars

of the hit Western show Matilda.

They have to deliver their most show-stopping performance yet.

And they've got me on the pass to contend with.

Let's go, go, go!

He is shouting orders from that pass.

Quick, quick, we got to go.

I am a little bit scared myself.

We're supposed to be going now.

If it's not good enough, it's not going to the dining room.

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