Episode 15 Junior MasterChef

It's Junior Masterchef,

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

From over 1,000 applications,

only four cooks have made it to the final.

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.

It's the final day of the competition.

These four cooks have proved they are the best in the country.

I really want the title now. I've got this close to it.

I have to have it now.

I really need to just execute it, go through and get it.

Everything I've done on Masterchef comes down to this day.

All my work and effort has to go into this if I want to win.

Making the final is my greatest achievement.

I've never done something like this before.

This is the start of a future.

I'm just hoping I impress the judges cos I want to win.

It means so much to me that I'm here. It's the best thing ever.

It would be amazing if I got the title.

They have to cook for us today their favourite three-course menu.

The person who's going to be our champion has to show us

they have that shine, something that really sets them

apart from the other three.

Four great cooks, one winner, bring on!

Guys, you're ace.

It's time for you to show us how good you really are.

Good luck.

Three courses, two hours,

let's cook.

The pressure is seriously on, but our cooks

have us on hand in the kitchen if they need some help.

If they were doing this at home,

they'd need the help of a responsible adult.

TJ has surprised me throughout this competition.

I wasn't sure he'd hack it in the professional kitchen.

But he blew us away.

I'm really impressed with how you've cooked the steak.

I think it's perfect.

TJ has brought to us the sunshine of the Caribbean,

full of spice and smiles.

TJ, you promised us killer jerk chicken and you've delivered!

I've enjoyed the whole experience completely.

Even making mistakes, I've enjoyed that.

That's not going to whisk up. We have to start again.

Cos I'll not stop trying it until I get it perfect.

That shows me something new.

I am so proud. I would really like my son

to grab that trophy and go home with it and raise it and say,

"I am the winner of Junior Masterchef 2012."

If I won, that'd be incredible. Just thinking about it, I'm stunned.

I'm just going to go out there, do my best, and hopefully I'll win.

TJ, what are you cooking for us?

Spinach, topping it with buttered lobster and grilled prawns.

It's going to be really spicy. And then, basil and cheese dip.

The main course, duck with three different types of mash potato.

Minted mash potato, creamy mash potato and sweet potato.

I'm making it with two different types of gravy. And for dessert,

-a flourless chocolate cake.

-TJ, can you get all this done?

Yeah. Done it before and I'll do it again.

Why do you want to win Junior Masterchef?

I want to be a world class chef

and I want to own a few restaurants and cooking schools

and what a way to start it off.

-You're giving John a run for his money.

-Not really.

-I'll stick to mine and he'll stick to his!

-Your dream's admirable.

-Keep on doing what you're doing and you'll achieve it.

-Thank you.

For his main course, he's got pan fried duck with three types of mash.

What's wrong with just one? There's a lot of mash going on!

The wonderful thing about Josie is that she cooks with passion.

She delivers great flavours.

That's the best dessert in the competition.

Josie's a brilliant cook, but she makes little mistakes.

I didn't put baking paper on there.

Going to have to start again.

Being on Junior Masterchef has been so fun. I have learnt so much.

I'm really proud of her already. She's got to the final four.

I don't like to tell her that much because it gets her ego up.

She's done so well.

I'm going to put absolutely a trillion percent in

cos it does mean a lot.

Josie, what three dishes are you cooking today to impress us?

A smoked salmon mousse, followed by roe venison with celeriac mash.

And sticky toffee pudding with a toffee sauce.

-I like sticky toffee pudding.

-Got to love it. It's my absolute favourite.

The thing today is everything you're going to do has to be precise,

-which means no silly mistakes.

-No.

I have made sure I have greased the tins for my sticky toffee pudding,

so it should all go according to plan.

Josie has to make sure that she cooks that venison to perfection.

Venison has a lovely rich flavour that I hope she doesn't ruin.

Guys, we're already at the halfway point.

Remember that this is for the trophy.

Tom has shown us he's a great classic cook.

I think that's brilliant. I might even change my recipe, Tom!

Best dish that Tom's ever cooked.

Tom has made mistakes in the past.

The chocolate brownie isn't a chocolate brownie,

it's a chocolate cake.

If it was a chocolate sponge, it would have been really nice.

Just change the name.

I think Junior Masterchef's changed me quite a lot.

My confidence level has grown all the way through the competition.

I'm very proud of him.

It's an amazing experience that most kids don't get.

It's fantastic.

If he wins, he will have

just surpassed my wildest expectations.

I'm just incredibly proud of him. He's lovely.

I'm going to feel amazing if I win it.

It's been such a great experience.

To win it would just be the icing on the cake.

-Tom, your three courses?

-Chilli scallops with blackberry syrup.

For my main course, rack of lamb

with dauphinoise potatoes and minted crushed peas.

For dessert, I'm doing plum and cinnamon crumble

and making my own custard. I know you'll really like them.

Why do you want to win Junior Masterchef?

Just cos it's something I've always wanted to do,

so it's a great thing for me.

I've enjoyed it. To not win now would be a bit disappointing.

-So you want to take it home.

-Yes.

With the crumble, he's making custard.

It could split, curdle, be not cooked enough.

I want creamy rich delicious custard.

Jamie seriously has an incredible flair for cooking.

Three little parcels of loveliness. It's a very good dish.

I'm actually quite blown away by this dish.

But he always puts too much pressure on himself.

I think sometimes food suffers on the back of it.

Don't be so disappointed. What you've achieved is incredible.

Thank you. Nobody's perfect, so I have had a few mistakes.

But the journey's been really fantastic.

I'm so happy I've got this far.

Incredibly proud.

I can tell he's just doing what he wants to do and he's so happy.

I don't think he's got

any nervousness about the final. I think

he's going to go ahead and do what he does best and cook.

If I win Junior Masterchef, it will feel unreal.

I'd be on a different world.

Hopefully, that'll happen.

Jamie, your three courses are?

Sweet and spicy salmon with stir-fried veg and a pea puree.

For main, lasagne with a rocket salad.

Then my own creation for dessert, raspberry and chocolate sponge

with a ganache and raspberry frosting, with a raspberry on top.

Why did you choose these dishes?

I chose my starter because I wanted some kind of spice.

My main is comfort food

and my dessert is just like a creation of my own.

You've come all this way and you're at the final.

-How does it feel?

-It feels amazing.

Now I've got this far, I really want the title.

The main course, the beef lasagne, has to be really rich.

We all have our favourite way of making lasagne.

Are we going to love it?

Guys, it's your last ten minutes now.

You really need to think about your presentation.

Time's up.

Step away from your benches. Well done. Very well done.

To start, TJ is serving spicy prawns and buttered lobster

on a bed of spinach, drizzled in herb oil

and served with a basil and cheese dip.

TJ, there's a huge amount going on on this plate.

Sweet prawns, cooked beautifully with that wonderful spice. Your lobster,

cooked in butter, it's soft, it's got a tiny crunch to the outside.

That's a difficult thing to get right.

The cheese and basil sauce, I don't quite get with the fish.

Cheese and fish, for me, deserve to be apart.

I agree with John. I think the cheese and basil sauce

on the side takes away from it a bit.

As you have those other really well cooked components,

-you can afford to lose that.

-Thank you.

For his main course, TJ has pan-fried duck breast

and served it with three types of mash -

creamy, sweet potato and mint mash,

made by boiling potatoes with peppermint teabags.

TJ, more mash potato in many forms than I've seen in a long, long time.

The amount of work on this plate, TJ, is amazing.

Your sweet potato mash is delicious.

It goes wonderfully with that iron-rich, almost liver-like duck.

Your creamy mash potato as well is seasoned well.

Your mint mash potato is cooked well

and has a background of fresh mint coming from the tea bags.

But there's so much work in here,

it's maybe just a little bit of an ambitious dish.

As an Irishman, I'd never complain about too much spuds,

but there's a lot of potato going on here.

However, all the ingredients are great in there.

And then that interesting mintiness from the addition of the teabag.

Maybe just the duck and the sweet potato,

those components would be perfect.

To finish, TJ's made a flourless soft chocolate fudge cake

with poached pears, creme fraiche, pomegranate seeds and walnuts.

What's inside this pot, young man, is delicious.

It's warm, soothing, rich with chocolate.

It goes beautifully with your pears.

Wow, TJ! There is incredible warmth in that chocolate pudding.

And then the pear is beautifully poached.

-It's TJ style and I really like it!

-Thank you.

'I gave it everything I've got.'

But some of the elements, they said it would have been best

to keep out, so I'm just hoping I've done well enough.

For her starter, Josie has made a horseradish salmon mousse

with smoked salmon and melba toast.

Smokey, rich, sweet, fresh with your lemon, it's delicious.

Thank you very much.

But, as good as your melba toast might be,

it's a bit burnt round the outside.

-Just get rid of it. Don't want to eat that really, do I?

-No.

I love the smoked salmon on the side

and the wonderful sweetness in there and what really brings

this dish alive is the dill in there.

-I think this is really good.

-Thank you.

Josie's main is wild roe venison with celeriac mash,

lemon carrots, sugar snap peas and a caramelised apple and chutney sauce.

What I love is the zingyness of your carrots in there.

You've got citrus freshness going on and then that venison.

It's a little undercooked for my liking, but overall, the dish works.

Thank you.

I like the celeriac mash. I think that's really wonderful.

It tastes of autumn going with that wonderful, rich venison.

But, across the top of it, is a sauce which became very bitter

and slightly burnt, which is a bit of a shame.

But otherwise, this, young man, is perfectly cooked venison.

Fair enough.

Josie's desert is sticky toffee pudding

with butterscotch sauce and clotted cream.

That is possibly one of the sweetest

sticky toffee puddings I've ever tasted.

Really beautiful, really moist,

balanced out with that bit of cream.

-Really great desert and I would be proud of that.

-Thank you.

It's cooked really well, it's executed really well,

there it is, pudding standing proud, rich with dates,

rich with spice, it's great, I love it, absolutely love it.

I'm feeling so chuffed, it's unreal. I'm just so happy.

The comments that I got were amazing and apart from the main,

it was absolutely great.

So, yes, pretty chuffed.

For his starter, Jamie has made sweet and spicy salmon

with pea puree and spicy stir fried vegetables with a chilli sauce.

The salmon tastes of the sea, a little sauce,

little gems around the plate, it's really very, very good.

I just want a bit more chilli, a bit more spice to liven it up.

OK.

Your salmon is beautifully cooked

and I love the crustiness on the top of that salmon.

The only thing for me, is the fact that I think pea puree

is kind of lost in there.

Jamie 's main course is a classic beef lasagne

served with a rocket salad.

What I like the most is those chunks of meat in your ragout.

It's like somebody has got meatballs,

poured white sauce over the top of it, sprinkled it with cheese,

mashed the whole lot together and given it to me on a spoon.

-I really like it.

-I like your lasagne.

I like that it has that sweetness, that richness.

I love the creamy white sauce as well, on top,

but I don't think it needs the salad on the side.

For desert, Jamie has made a chocolate and raspberry sponge cake

with chocolate ganache served with a raspberry coulis.

Wow! That dessert knocks my socks off.

You've got sweetness and rich earthiness from that chocolate

and then this wonderful raspberry coulis on the side

-which is wonderfully tart. I really like this.

-Cheers.

Chocolate and raspberry, great combination.

When you've got pureed raspberry,

sharp and sweet, it's a great, great thing.

I like the buttery icing across the top of your chocolate sponge.

I like the raspberry icing.

I'm so impressed that this is your creation. Good on you.

I'm feeling really proud that I've made them three dishes in time,

not made a real mess of it.

I can't do anything about it now, I'm just going to have to wait.

Tom's starter is pan-fried chilli scallops with blackberry reduction,

served on a bed of salad leaves.

I really like the rings of chilli, fiery hot with those scallops.

The detail of them by putting those criss-crosses on top is great.

Then the blackberry with the scallop. I'm not quite sure.

It's the fishiness with blackberries, I'm finding a little bit difficult.

OK.

I think you could just drop the blackberries here,

just have that wonderfully cooked scallop with some chilli in there

and then some light dressing. I think that's all you'd need.

OK.

Tom's main is roasted rack of lamb rolled in herbs

on top of crushed mint peas and dauphinoise potatoes,

served with roasted baby carrots.

Tom, this is great.

This is the sort of food that I love to eat because it's defined,

it's really well executed, there's creamy sauce, rich peas,

wonderful carrots and perfectly cooked lamb.

-Delicious.

-Thank you.

I love the carrots around the sides.

The lamb is beautifully cooked, it's sweet and still blushing

and then that creamy dauphinoise potato underneath.

Beautiful layers there. I really can't fault this dish.

This is a serious showstopper of a dish.

Tom's desert is a plum and cinnamon crumble

served with his vanilla custard.

Tom, you're going to need a bigger ramekin

because I want to dip my head straight in there.

It is absolutely delicious. This is a fantastic dish.

You get wonderful layers of that creamy custard

then that crispy, crumbly sweetness from that crumbly topping.

It is wonderful. And then the tartness of those plums underneath.

This is really good.

I think your custard is brilliant.

It's not too thick, it's velvety, it's rich with vanilla

and a wonderful crispy, crumble top. Really delicious,

for me, brilliant.

I'm feeling really happy right now. I gave it everything I've got.

It was a really tough thing to do, so, yeah,

I'm really proud of myself.

All four of them have got to be really proud of what they've done.

TJ, today, he decided he wanted to show off every single skill

that he's learnt throughout this competition.

I'm wondering if he tried a little bit too hard.

In his starter, we had that addition of the blue cheese and the basil.

With fish, I just don't think it works. It was a little bit too much.

However, I still like the fact that TJ is confident.

He comes in here and he works really hard. I think TJ's got real skill.

Today, Josie cooked some great food.

There was a mistake on the main course, the sauce was a bit burnt

and gone a bit crispy.

The wonderful thing about Josie is that we have seen her change.

She's proved that she can present beautiful dishes

and not make the mess.

Jamie, throughout this competition, has been really adventurous

and today was no change from that.

We had a sweet and sour salmon.

For me, I would've liked more chilli to bring it alive.

What I love about Jamie, he comes into this kitchen

and he shows us that he can create something beautiful.

Talk about Tom. Chilli on the plate with the scallops, great idea.

Scallops and blackberries, I think probably a risk a little bit too far.

On the other hand, he blew us away with those two other dishes.

When he gets it right, he executes it beautifully.

It'll mean everything for me to win, to be honest.

I just really want to come home with the trophy. Fingers crossed.

That would be awesome.

I'm feeling sad because this is the end of a journey.

Hopefully, it's the beginning of a new one, if I win.

Hopefully my dream will come true.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing I will really never get to do again.

I just hope I do win, really, yeah.

It feels really sad but also special

just because it's the last things I'll ever cook on Masterchef.

I'm really hoping I've done enough

because winning it would just be amazing.

There is one person in here who I think, today,

deserves to take that title.

The other three, they deserve also to have something special,

to be crowned with something that just says,

"You guys have worked so hard and delivered beautiful food."

But for me, today, we have a champion.

This is it, guys.

We have had so much fun watching you cook over the last few weeks.

But of course, we can only have one champion.

Our Junior Masterchef Champion is...

-Tom.

-Thank you.

-Nice one, mate.

-Well done, Tom. Well done.

Well done.

-That's pretty good.

-Yes.

-Well done.

Congratulations, Tom.

OK, that's cool.

Oh, well!

I'm just so proud for him.

He must be feeling absolutely ecstatic.

I'm feeling a little bit disappointed.

I'm so proud I've got this far, to be in the last four

and do all the challenges.

It actually happened. It's just fantastic.

Definitely, this experience is the biggest part of my childhood

and when I'm really old, I'll remember it forever.

I've had so much fun. It's just been so great.

I think we all kind of knew in our hearts that it would be Tom

because he deserves that so much.

-You get the trophy.

-Thank you. Yeah!

Never thought I'd do it. It's amazing.

Throughout this competition,

Tom has delivered us some of the best food we have tasted.

His food is clean, it's crisp, it's classic, it's brilliant.

The guy is a great cook.

It's been my dream ever since I was really tiny to win Masterchef.

To win this, it's astonishing.

Definitely the biggest achievement I've had in my life.

Very proud, very proud.

I'm Tom, the Junior Masterchef Champion 2012.

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