Episode 5 MasterChef

-NARRATOR:

-MasterChef is back.

Hundreds auditioned, and now the best 60 amateur cooks are through.

I'm not that mad! Wait till you hear what's in me dish.

It's burnt!

No! We call that enthusiastically crisp.

Each week, 12 new contestants battle for just four places

in Friday's quarterfinal.

It's so raw.

Only the strongest will make it to the final challenges.

It's not as lovely as your pear.

-I love it!

-Ha-ha!

They wanna survive this competition, they're gonna have to be good.

Cooking doesn't get tougher than this.

These six amateurs all think they've got what it takes

to become MasterChef.

But at the end of today's heat,

only two will become quarterfinalists.

Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.

This, your first test, is your calling card.

A dish that tells us something about you.

Your own food, and we hope, the food that you love to cook.

Ladies and gentlemen, one hour. Let's cook.

I'm a paramedic.

I've been a paramedic for a number of years.

Constantly thinking on your feet. Things change, things evolve.

Hopefully, I can take that into the kitchen and make it work for me.

Joel, I can't work out what you're making

'cause you've got salmon over here and then you've got pastry as well.

I have. What I'm gonna do is an asparagus and salmon tart.

And then we're gonna have a raw asparagus salad on the side.

-Where you from, Joel?

-North Queensland, Townsville.

-I love the sound of what you're cooking. Thanks, mate.

-Thank you.

-Relax!

-Yeah, absolutely. All good.

Aussie Joel is running around like a madman.

That tart has to be cooked really beautifully.

The sauce has to be well flavoured.

But what happens when you put a sauce inside a tart?

You get a soggy bottom.

I'm quite disorganised.

I'm not a particularly naturally... methodical cook.

Angela, what are you making?

I'm making a Thai duck curry, lime leaf rice and a cucumber salad.

-You've got some serious Thai ingredients on here.

-Yes.

I cook a lot of Thai food at home. I love it.

Angela, I'm very much looking forward to this.

I hope you like it. Timing's not my best...bit.

Great! Well, that augurs well for the future.

Other contestants will have a lot more experience than me.

But I've got a lot of passion behind me.

I do. I will give it everything I've got.

What are you making, Verity?

I'm making Moroccan lamb cutlets with a spicy carrot salad

and a sweet potato and mango mash.

I like to just mix it up a bit,

so I don't like to stick to just one certain genre of food.

I like to just invent randomly amazing dishes.

-This unusual food that you make.

-Yes?

Serious question - does everybody always like it?

Yeah, obviously.

I wouldn't be here if they didn't.

What do you do right now? Do you do something unusual?

Er, no, I do something really boring, actually.

I'm an IT recruitment consultant.

We have got Moroccan flavours and we've got Thai flavours.

It's fusion all the way for Verity.

Or confusion - whichever way you look at it.

You're halfway! Half an hour left.

I'm really competitive.

I'm super competitive.

I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to win.

David, where are you from?

I'm from Gateshead, just south of Newcastle.

What are you making?

I'm making a pan-fried duck breast

with a parmesan flavoured soft polenta

and some wild mushrooms fried with garlic and parsley,

and a red wine and port sauce.

-How good are you, mate?

-I think I'm OK, yeah.

I think we'll see in about an hour's time, won't we?

-You seem relaxed and happy. Are you?

-Yeah.

Now I'm in and now I'm cooking I'm...I'm...I'm comfortable.

-Best of luck, mate.

-Thank you very much. Cheers.

I'm not necessarily a showy cook.

I prefer just things to taste...amazing.

Hopefully, I won't make an absolute fool of myself.

Liam, I wanna know who's put you up for this?

My pushy girlfriend, shall we say.

I'm used to saying "I can do that" and she said, "Well, go on, then."

-Where are you from?

-I'm from Doncaster.

-What do you do right now?

-I just work in a supermarket.

Chucking beans out on shelves. You know, living the dream.

So have you got another dream?

To get out of there as soon as I can and hopefully become a chef.

-What are you cooking right now?

-I'm doing a Thai beef curry.

I went to Thailand and fell in love with the food over there.

I've had a love affair with curry since I were 10 years old as well.

-Best of luck, big man.

-Thank you. Cheers, Gregg.

Sweet, sour, salty and hot.

They're the four notes we need to be able to taste

and it's gotta be fragrant.

At the same time, Liam's going to cook his rice.

I have seen more disastrous rice in this competition

than I have chocolate fondants.

You've got 10 minutes left.

I want cooking to be part of my life, a bigger part of my life.

And I think MasterChef is a really good opportunity to say

I'm giving myself permission

to take my love of food a bit more seriously.

Oliver, what are you making?

Chicken with cream and tarragon

served with asparagus and fresh pasta.

It's based on a recipe my mother taught me called chicken a la creme.

My mother's French, it's the first recipe she taught me.

What does Mum think of your cooking?

I suspect...she doesn't think I'm as good as her.

But I think she knows that I've got some moves.

-Have you got some moves, mate?

-I think I have some moves, yeah.

-I'm hoping you do well.

-Cheers.

HE LAUGHS

What he's doing is chicken with tarragon

and a cream sauce with some pasta.

If his mother's a decent cook and she's French,

then we're in for a treat.

You've got five minutes only, so you've gotta start plating up.

You've only got two minutes.

We've got six really interesting calling cards.

We've got food from France, Thailand,

but we have got the odd weird combination, I have to say.

Just 60 seconds and that's it.

That's it! Time's up. Stop.

-NARRATOR:

-For his calling card,

paramedic Joel has made a salmon, leek and asparagus tart

with a dill and asparagus side salad and a dill and tarragon sauce.

That's pretty good. It's not perfect.

Your pastry's good, the salmon is soft.

The flavour of leek and salmon together is absolutely lovely.

Great presentation. Good eye. That's pretty good.

Joel, I'm impressed to a point.

Your raw asparagus on the side with the salmon and the dill

seems a bit foreign, a bit hard,

compared to the glory of the rest of it.

But your tart's really delicious.

Your pastry is thin and crisp.

You don't have a soggy bottom, I'm pleased.

-I like your cooking a lot, Joel.

-Thank you.

Really like it.

They said they liked it, so, um...wow.

That's an amazing feeling, it really is.

Supermarket worker Liam has made Thai red beef curry

with lime and coriander rice.

You've got the red curry paste right.

It is hot, it's spicy.

But your issue is the beef.

All you've got is this flavour of the sauce

and the sort of shredded, dried beef.

The flavour of your sauce and the flavour of your rice I really like.

The texture of your rice and the texture of your beef, is wrong.

That's alright.

When they're just stood there just ripping apart your food

it's hard to listen to.

I think I need to show them that I can cook.

Sales rep David's dish is pan-roasted duck breast

on wild mushrooms and parmesan polenta

served with a port and red wine sauce.

Red wine sauce with the duck and the mushrooms - lovely thing.

We then have soft polenta and duck with parmesan cheese. Lovely.

But all of those things together as a combination -

it doesn't work.

But I gotta say, your cooking is great.

It's not perfect, but for a start on Masterchef, it's pretty good.

Thank you.

University lecturer Oliver's dish

is chicken with cream and tarragon sauce

served with asparagus and fresh pasta

sprinkled with pine nuts and micro herbs.

LOVE the pasta as fine as it is.

LOVE that pot of chicken a la mum.

And I could eat those chicken thighs all day long.

However, this isn't one dish, it's a medley.

It's a bit confused, Oliver.

There's aspects of your cooking which I really like.

I taste the chicken, I taste the tarragon.

But the rest of it, to me, is a little bit...confused.

I can forgive you being excitable at this stage.

OK.

Businesswoman Angela has made a Thai duck curry

with kaffir lime leaf rice, topped with crispy shallots

and duck skin crackling, served with a cucumber salad.

I love that that duck curry is smoky from turmeric.

Your rice is cooked nicely, but what I really like is the extra bits.

The little fried shallots on top and the duck crackling.

Your cucumber salad - put it to one side.

Because trying to eat them all together, it's a bit too much.

But I like your cooking and I really appreciate the hard work you put in.

Thank you very much.

I like the way you build up flavours, I like the way you made the curry.

It's that sauce - it's too rich for me.

OK.

Recruitment consultant Verity

has made lamb cutlets on a Moroccan sauce and spicy carrot salad

served with sweet potato and mango mash.

Your lamb's cooked beautifully, your salad's made really nicely,

your sauce is lovely and creamy and rich.

This sweet potato and mango mixture

should be inside an American celebration pumpkin pie.

-SHE LAUGHS

-It doesn't quite work.

There are things on here that I believe many people would find odd.

That mash is half the plate.

It's a monster mash.

He hated my mash! So bad.

Oh, my God. That was a disaster, wasn't it?

A real exciting round.

A great calling card from all of you.

It gives us a bit more of an insight into what you're like as cooks.

We've got another test coming up next.

Bigger, tougher, gloves off.

Off you go.

Inside the blue box are sweet ingredients.

Inside the green box are savoury ingredients.

They get to choose, you get to choose.

-Sweet, please.

-Really?

-Yep.

Hey! Nice!

John has an hour to invent a dish from raspberries,

filo pastry, brioche, rolled oats,

pistachios, rose water,

creme de cassis, cinnamon and eggs.

He also has a basic larder.

-Your hour starts now, John.

-Good.

Best of luck, mate.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to make raspberry

and rosewater custard tart with rosewater cream.

That's good-looking pastry, John. How long will it take to cook?

-Uh, 20 minutes blind.

-Tell me what the filling's going to be again.

It's going to be raspberries and custard.

The custard's going to be flavoured with rosewater and sugar and lemon.

I don't want to be sloppy, I don't want to be soggy.

-I want it to be impressive.

-Custard!

That looks great.

Five minutes left, John. That's brilliant.

Splendid.

From the sweet box, John's made a raspberry

and rosewater custard tart with rosewater cream.

-That is beautifully, beautifully flavoured.

-Thank you.

Let's get 'em in. Invention time.

This is the sweet and savoury invention test.

The blue box is sweet, the green box is savoury.

Firstly, we're going to give you ten minutes to devise the dish you're

going to cook.

Two contestants have chosen the sweet box like John,

and the other four chose the savoury box, which contains chicken thighs,

black pudding, roquefort, shiitake mushrooms, tarragon, rice noodles,

baby leaf spinach, a red pepper and spring onions.

These are beautiful things.

If you can't make something tasty out of that, then...can't cook.

Ladies and gentlemen, lot at stake here, because at the end of this invention test,

two of you will be leaving the competition.

One hour. One dish. Let's cook.

-Liam, how are you feeling now after the first round?

-Not great,

because I don't think I did the best I could first time round.

And what can you do about that now? How can you rectify that?

Come out all guns blazing, just try and do the best I can with this one.

Why the savoury box, Verity?

Because I was too scared to see what would be in the sweet box.

15 minutes gone.

-What do you think you might be feeding us, Joel?

-HE LAUGHS

Can you not... Yeah, it's a little bit hectic at the moment.

You get plenty of ideas and they obviously they chop and change throughout the course of the dish.

Joel from Australia, and we have now layers of filo pastry

and raspberries and praline, and we have sugar.

Joel is in a right pickle.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are halfway. Halfway.

30 minutes gone, 30 minutes left.

-Angela, you're looking really sort of nervous.

-It is quite daunting.

-Don't suppose you want to go home right now, do you?

-No. God, no.

David, how many times have you made bread and butter pudding before?

I haven't made bread and butter pudding before.

-I can tell.

-Yeah.

Oliver seems to be in full swing - mushrooms

and black pudding stuffed inside his chicken.

He's made a ballotine. I think it sounds like a decent dish.

As long as it all holds together.

Not too wild this time.

I'm trying to rein it in for you gents after

I was a bit distracted with too many bits and bobs last time.

You've now got just five minutes left.

Last three minutes.

One more minute.

That's it. Time's up.

From the savoury box, Liam has made chicken stuffed with roquefort

served with garlic mash and mushrooms in a mustard sauce.

You don't look very happy about this, Liam.

-No, I'm absolutely gutted with it.

-Are you?

The blue cheese has all come out of your chicken, which is a shame.

Although, there is a little hint of it.

And your chicken is absolutely soft and beautiful.

Your mashed potato is smooth.

However, the appearance of that chicken needs to smarten up

and these mushrooms need more cooking.

OK.

The sauce around the outside of them is a bit overreduced,

but I do like your crispy skin around your chicken,

which is still lovely and moist. Liam, definitely not fault-free.

-Mm-hm.

-But probably not as bad as you thought it was going to be.

-Thanks.

-Cheers, guys.

Trying to put a dish together with half-baked ideas

I don't think is the best way to go, but...it is what it is.

Oliver has made a has made a ballotine of chicken stuffed with

black pudding and shiitake mushrooms and served with a potato fondant,

spinach and a cream and onion sauce.

It looks a fright, but what I really like about it is it tastes good.

The whole thing is well-cooked

and the whole thing is really well seasoned.

Look, there's things you can pick on -

skin needs to be more crispy,

your potato could be crusted a little bit more with colour.

But I think at the moment as an amateur in an invention test,

Oliver, you've shown some skill and a brain.

-Thanks, Oliver.

-Thanks, gents.

The compromise in this case was it wasn't very pretty-looking dish.

The problem is, there's probably not a lot of room for compromise,

so I need to wipe that out, tidy it up.

From the sweet box, Joel has made a raspberry

and cinnamon layered filo pastry topped with pistachio crumble and a

raspberry and cream brioche sandwich served with cream-filled raspberries

topped with a creme de cassis caramel and vanilla cream.

Mate, you're going to have to calm down when you cook

-and think of one dish.

-Yes.

Thinking of 12 and hoping they're going to become one is unlikely.

Joel, technically, it's a car crash, but saying that,

what you've got is really tasty little bits and pieces.

What I really like, your little brioche sandwich.

Tasting to me like a cinnamon doughnut.

Your little filo tart is rich with raspberries and pistachio nuts,

your custard's OK.

I can criticise you till the cows come home,

but I liked eating your food.

Thank you.

I'm not sure what that this, neither are you, but we are both agreed

there's some stuff on there that tastes really nice.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks, Joel.

-Thank you.

Mixed emotions, I think.

I was happy that I actually presented something, I got something

up, but I mean, as the judges said, it was a little bit chaotic.

Verity has chosen the savoury ingredients,

and has made pan-fried chicken served on spinach with a creamy

white wine and mushroom sauce, and a black pudding and roquefort fritter.

HE INHALES SHARPLY Eee!

It's undercooked.

Oh, I cooked it for so long as well.

Verity, I've never eaten a black pudding

and blue cheese fritter before.

The black pudding is lovely,

but the cheese is making it a little bit salty.

I had a little end of chicken which was all right.

Can see the inside of the chicken's not cooked quite properly enough.

Then you sit that next to the spinach and the cream sauce.

It's all a bit of a muddle. It's not the most brilliant dish, is it?

-No.

-I actually like your fritters.

I think some of your invention really works.

I even like the flavour in your sauce. It's tangy and it's seasoned.

-My issues come with this chicken...

-OK.

-..in that it's not cooked.

I honestly never thought in a million years that that would be

pink in the middle.

Pretty gutted, to be fair.

I'm proud that I've come on and been unique,

but the uniqueness hasn't really pulled off.

I think that dish would've pulled off if I'd have cooked the chicken right.

David has made a brioche and pistachio bread and butter pudding

served with raspberries

and a pistachio brittle on a pistachio crumb,

and a cassis and raspberry compote.

There's tons of vanilla in there, and then there's that sharp

but sweet jam which goes on top, which is lovely.

And then you've got other little surprises on there.

You've got some caramel, which gives it another flavour dimension,

and more importantly, another texture dimension.

Mate, well done.

I was concerned you were going to throw one too many ingredients

at this plate - nuts, raspberries, cassis and pistachio nuts -

-but you seem to have got it to work.

-Thank you.

It went OK. The flavours came together like I thought they would.

Yeah, I was quite happy.

Oh.

Angela has pan-fried chicken and served it with mushrooms

in a white wine and tarragon sauce, potato puree and spinach.

Really crispy skin, really soft, sticky chicken.

Perfect cream mashed potato. Lovely sauce.

-I tell you what, mate - that's lovely. Lovely.

-Thank you very much.

Your dish is gorgeous.

Your sauce is rich and delicious from white wine and tarragon.

You've got all three elements of that dish absolutely perfect in an invention test.

It's very, very good.

-Angela, have you got more like this?

-Yeah, lots more.

-Thanks, Angela.

-OK. Thank you.

-That is great.

-Good part.

I'm absolutely chuffed to pieces. Really, really pleased.

-SHE WHISPERS

-Thank you.

Yeah, I feel like, "Wow. That's pretty good."

Off you go. Get a well-deserved cup of tea.

Very, very exciting day.

Six amateur cooks and today we've had some really good food.

I think Angela's amazing. Absolutely amazing.

That chicken dish she just did in an invention test was superb.

Let's put through Angela through right now. Let's just be bold because she's good.

-OK. Fine.

-I like David.

David's first dish beautifully cooked duck and a wonderful,

wonderful sauce that he made. Unusual flavours but you can see the skill.

And then the invention test, made a bread and butter pudding.

And he had to prove to us he could make a coherent plate of food.

And that's exactly what he did do.

Oliver. Now, Oliver came in here.

Calling card of chicken dish inspired by his mother.

Interesting technique. Really showing skill.

Then we get a ballotine of chicken filled with black pudding.

And not a bad tasting dish that could be elevated to something very, very special indeed.

No, not half!

That, then, leaves the competition open to who stays

and who goes between Verity, Joel and Liam.

I think for Liam, calling card was the Thai beef curry with overcooked rice and dry beef,

and he had a lot to prove coming into this invention test.

We had a pretty average plate of food.

Not a very good show from young Liam.

-LIAM:

-I'm not sure if I have done enough to stay in the competition.

I'd be gutted if I left now.

Joel's calling card, I thought, was a good-looking dish.

But, crikey, he has got to calm down.

And then we get the invention test.

Joel chose the sweet box

and then ran around and didn't quite know what he was doing.

I think Joel's a good, fun cook but I'm not convinced just yet.

There's no point being here

and not pushing yourself to the absolute limit.

I hope that I've done enough.

-Verity.

-Oh!

Calling card we had a Moroccan-inspired spice lamb with

a carrot salad and then next to that, we had a sweet potato

and mango puree.

The mango and sweet potato puree I didn't like at all.

It was awful and it didn't belong there.

And then in the invention test,

Verity doesn't cook that piece of chicken.

It's touch and go as to whether I'm going to go through so I'm just a little bit nervous.

I think we both know who stays and who goes.

We have now made a decision.

Two of you are leaving the competition.

The first person leaving us...

..is Liam.

-Thanks very much, Liam.

-Thank you.

-LIAM:

-Bit gutted. Bit gutted.

But can't be too hard on myself.

I think I've just been beaten by a better bunch of chefs today.

The second person leaving the competition...

..is Verity.

Thank you. Cheers.

I am really disappointed, actually. I think I massively let myself down.

I knew the second I undercooked that chicken that was going to happen.

Well done.

Today is not for the faint-hearted.

You will be cooking not just for us

but three MasterChef champions and finalists.

Johnny Stevenson, Tim Anderson and Shelina Permalloo.

You will have one hour to get your four main course orders up

and then 15 minutes after that, your four dessert orders.

We have two quarterfinal places to give.

You have to cook like you want them.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's cook.

Those past champions really know their food.

They've also been where we are now,

so it's all to do with whether they remember their roots.

What are you going to cook for us, Oliver?

Fillet of dorade, pan-fried, with some buttered samphire,

potato croquette and a punchy prawn sauce.

For my dessert, I'm doing a raspberry frangipane tart with a calvados cream.

I've given a lot more thought to presentation.

The first dish is meant to be like

the sea's just kind of climbed up ashore and come and sat on the plate.

-The croquette's the rocks.

-Yeah. They're our little bit of sand.

-It's very French, Oliver. No surprise.

-It is, yeah.

I mean, it's staying true to how I like to cook.

-What about feeding the champions?

-I'm a bit nervous about those guys.

I hope that they're gentle.

Good luck.

If I saw Oliver's dishes on a menu,

they'd be the first things that I order.

I think his combinations are right. I think his dishes are lovely!

It's all to do with the execution of the cook himself.

It would be huge to get through to the quarterfinals.

That's why we came here

but the other guys out there are all looking for the same thing.

And it's really going to have to be top-notch if I want to get through.

-Dave?

-Yep.

-I really like what you've got on this bench.

For my main course, I'm doing pan-fried cod,

serving that on top of a tomato, chorizo, white bean stew.

And for my dessert, I'm doing spiced poached pears with an Italian

meringue and just chocolate sauce and some toasted hazelnuts.

How does the Italian meringue work on the plate with the poached pear?

-I coat the pear in the meringue and then toast it.

-Brilliant.

How exciting! You've done this before?

Yeah, I've done it before. I've practised it a few times.

Last couple of times it's been spot on. It's been really good.

What are you hoping our champions will see in this?

Main course, I just want the flavour to just smash them in the face.

Hopefully with the dessert, they'll see a bit of skill

from the poaching of the pear from the meringue.

I've eaten a fair few puds in my time,

and I've never seen one of those.

Well, first time for everything, isn't it?

He has been clever in the way in which he's designed his menu.

Bean stew with the cod on the top. That's lovely.

And then to turn around and do something really

impressive like a poached pear covered in Italian meringue...

It should really surprise them with something quite beautiful.

25 minutes gone. Almost halfway.

The last two rounds were very, very scary.

This round I'm feeling more confident, full of adrenaline

and raring to go.

Angie, what will you cook for us?

Pheasant breasts, but I'm cooking them on the bone with parsnip puree,

parsnip crisps, spiced poached quince.

And for dessert it's baked figs with cinnamon and vanilla ice-cream

and walnut tuile.

-Can that be done in an hour?

-I think so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

How many times have you cooked this before?

Loads of times. I love this dish and I cook this a lot.

I tell you what - you do this, I'm going to be very, very happy for you.

You are pushing it right to the wire, Angela.

Angela says that the pheasant is one of her favourite dishes

and she does it all the time.

So she must know how long it all takes.

Cooking for the champions, it's a huge honour.

They've been in this position. They know what we're going through.

I like to make my own food. I like to invent my own food.

I've worked hard and hopefully it all shows off on the plate today.

What are you going to cook for us, Joel?

Today I'm doing a stuffed cannon of lamb.

Going to do little filet mignons as well with thinly sliced potato stack

and then a red wine and rosemary sauce.

OK. And then dessert is...?

-Apple and cinnamon-infused pannacrumble.

-What's a pannacrumble?

It's a pannacotta but it's also got apple crumble properties on it as well.

Explain to me why you look so desperately nervous.

I really want this. You know, I've given myself a lot to do.

I'm trying to prove myself by trying to show you guys too much.

Joel's had an epiphany

and the epiphany is that he's doing a little bit too much.

And he's pushing himself a little bit too hard

and that could cause mistakes.

There's only 15 minutes till the main courses go out.

-NARRATOR:

-Jonny Stevenson is one of today's critics.

He made it to the final three in 2008.

After the final, got an opportunity to buy my first restaurant.

So I sold my house and put all my savings into this first restaurant.

But relationships with his business partner became strained

and they ran into difficulties.

The end of every week, I was coming home with no money.

It can get quite demoralising to find out at the end of the week,

you don't have any money to show for it.

But Jonny didn't give up and in 2012,

he opened his second restaurant, The Scullery.

My dream when I was on MasterChef was to have this busy,

bustling bistro somewhere back home in Northern Ireland.

I think I've actually found my dream.

I have very happy customers here.

They go home telling me

I'm still creating the best food they've ever had.

That, at the end of the day, is what I wanted to gain out of MasterChef.

Two years ago, Shelina's Mauritian food won her the MasterChef crown.

I suppose the thing that made me

win in the end was staying true to my roots.

It looks fantastic. It tastes fantastic.

I'm going to show you how to make two dishes.

Since then, she's been doing live cookery

demonstrations across the country and written her first book.

So at the moment I'm working on some really exciting plans to

open my restaurant next year.

It's going to be Mauritian food.

My life has completely changed.

It's not the nine-to-five office project management that

I was doing before.

It's really different.

Tim Anderson won the crown in 2011.

-TIM:

-We all partied pretty hard the night of the final.

I woke up the next morning hungover and wondering

if it was all some fabulous dream.

After running a series of pop-up restaurants over the last two years,

he's now planning to open his first permanent venue.

We have found premises in East London and I'm also writing a book

and it's all southern Japanese food.

I'd love to go back and show John and Gregg what I can do now

because I'm so much better.

So much better than I was. I was just terrible.

You've got ten minutes.

So Oliver's main, the dorade fillet with prawn sauce, buttered samphire

and potato croquette.

I would totally order this in a restaurant. Love the sound of this.

The main thing is not overcooking this

because it really doesn't take long to cook.

Three minutes.

That's fantastic. Keep going.

-Last plate. Anything else to go on the plate?

-That's it.

-Hello. ALL:

-Hi.

-How are you?

-Really good.

You're eating pan-fried fillet of dorade with buttered samphire,

potato croquette, a king prawn and a prawn sauce.

Looks delicious, smells delicious.

The fish I think's cooked well.

The potato probably doesn't need the bacon. The sauce is just delicious.

-I'm really enjoying this.

-TIM:

-Yeah.

I think this guy knows what flavours he wanted to get on a plate

and he delivered.

I think they're really good.

I think it was a really well thought-out dish.

I think all the flavours work really well together.

It's got lovely little notes of flavour and texture all together.

-It's a good dish, Gregg. That's good.

-That's lovely.

I mean, that is proper, proper, up-there lovely.

-Can't rest on your laurels.

-Nope.

-Frangipane tart.

-Great.

Oliver is giving us raspberry and frangipane tart,

calvados cream.

Something I despise is frangipane.

I certainly will try this with an open mind. I hate almonds.

I'm sorry that you don't like almonds but I adore frangipanes.

I'm really looking forward to this pudding.

Good lad.

This is a raspberry frangipane tart with calvados cream.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

This looks properly lovely. And no soggy bottom!

I was really worried about this dish.

-But for me that's just spot-on. It's delicious.

-The pastry.

-Is beautiful.

He should be very happy with that.

It's thin, it's crisp and the dessert itself as a whole,

I think it's very good.

I'm more than happy with that. Completely happy with that.

It's like a big, posh, grown-up Bakewell tart.

It's good. Very good.

I don't think, given the amount of time that I've just had to cook,

that I could've done any more, really.

It smells fantastic.

David's main, pan-fried cod, chorizo, tomato and white bean stew.

To me, that actually sounds really nice.

The challenge with this dish is making sure that the chorizo doesn't

overpower the taste of the cod.

Oh!

A couple of minutes left, David.

Lovely. Come on, sunshine.

Well done, mate. Good job.

-Hey, guys. Nice to meet you.

-Hello.

So your main course is pan-fried cod on a stew of tomato,

chorizo and cannellini beans.

-Enjoy it.

-Thank you.

It smells delicious.

-The cod is beautiful.

-The stew itself is really tasty.

It's rich and savoury.

I think he may not have considered the level of salt the capers

and the olives bring to the stew.

It's really good but the balance is a little bit off.

Cod is flaky, exactly as I want it to be. And I love the sauce.

That's my sort of food.

I think some people may find that dish a little bit salty.

But I think it's a good start.

-Pears out in 15.

-Yep.

So, David's dessert is spiced poached pears with Italian meringue

and chocolate sauce.

That sounds pretty delicious to me.

The meringue could go horribly wrong.

You've got one minute to go.

Last bits. That's it? Good job, David.

For dessert, you have spiced poached pears with an Italian

meringue, a chocolate sauce and toasted hazelnut.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

I love it. I think it's so pretty.

-I'm actually really excited about this.

-It looks funny.

It looks like a big toasted marshmallow.

The pear's been cooked really, really well.

The meringue is actually cooked and has that charring on it.

The chocolate sauce is really bitter.

So it doesn't taste overly sweet.

I think he was really wanting to wow us with this dessert.

And I do think it's got a real playfulness about it.

It's been really well executed.

The pear's cooked well and hazelnuts and chocolate go well together.

Yeah, it's a pretty good effort.

It's rich, it's sticky. The flavours are lovely.

But I wouldn't want to eat a whole one. Maybe I'm getting old.

The dishes how I wanted them. Everything kind of went to plan.

No major disasters, so, yeah, we'll see.

-Are you going to get all this done?

-No.

I've had a bit of a nightmare with my pheasant.

And it's not cooked so I'll have to pan-fry it.

I don't actually know what's happened to it.

-Just take a breath, calm down. It will be fine.

-OK.

Angela's main, roast pheasant with spiced quince, parsnips,

masala and chestnut sauce.

It's quite a lot going on.

It's really important that the pheasant is really sort of singing on this plate.

All game can be quite difficult to cook.

It's very easy to undercook.

I don't want to eat raw pheasant.

-JOHN:

-You are five minutes over time.

-Angela, you've got to go. Sorry.

-Come on.

Yes.

Hi. I'm so sorry. Bit late.

Thank you.

You've got pheasant breast with parsnip puree, parsnip crisps,

poached spiced quince and a masala and chestnut sauce.

Hope you enjoy it.

It's a little bit messy but you could tell she was nervous.

She could've done with another 30 seconds to wipe down the plate.

But you get a good impression from it anyway.

And it smells good.

I think there's a lot to like about this dish.

The sauce is actually really tasty. I like the quince.

But the big problem here obviously is the cooking of the pheasant,

which is far beyond what it should've been.

My parsnip crisps are delicious.

The parsnip puree was cooked so, so well.

She did look really stressed. It's really not bad.

I think the flavours actually work really well together.

That pheasant's drier than it should be. She's overcooked it.

But I love the sweetness of the puree and of the crisps.

Quince you hardly ever see - it's beautiful.

Regardless of her timing, it's a really lovely thing.

Oh, my Lord. This is so stressful.

You've got only ten minutes now, Angela. Yeah?

Angela's dessert, we've got roasted figs, cinnamon ice-cream, walnut tuiles.

It's just making sure the cinnamon doesn't overpower the whole dish.

I want the fig to be the star of the show with this one.

Ice-cream always a risk, unless she's got liquid nitrogen.

-GREGG:

-Well done, Angela.

You've got spiced roasted figs, walnut tuile and an ice-cream sauce.

SHE LAUGHS

The figs look so good.

They look really caramelised and baked but the ice-cream sauce,

as long as it tastes good I think it will still be pretty delicious.

Flavours-wise, it's not bad. To me, it's quite sweet.

You can taste the walnut. You can taste vanilla.

Figs are cooked really well. To me, they're delicious.

The ice-cream would've been nice

but it's not much that worse off for having melted.

I'm not missing the cold texture, really.

I really like this dish. I think it was really yummy.

It's just beautiful, sweet flavours.

Unfortunately the ice-cream is turning into cream.

ANGELA: It was actually really good fun.

Just a shame I didn't get the dishes finished as I wanted to.

Main course needs to go in five minutes, OK?

Thank you.

Quick, quick.

Joel's main - stuffed cannon of lamb with a red wine, onion

and rosemary gravy, seared mangetout,

layered potato and pancetta-wrapped filet mignon.

Wow. That sounds like a lot. The key thing here is the meat.

Want the meat perfectly cooked.

Ahhh, this will be a tricky one to pull off.

Let's go.

I've made a cannon of lamb,

filet mignon there just wrapped in pancetta, seared snow peas,

thinly sliced potato, just with a bit of thyme.

I hope you enjoy it, please. Thank you.

My filet mignon doesn't look like it's had any heat.

Mine's not even browned.

It's so raw.

Potatoes are good. There's good colour. Everything's kind of nice.

See a range. I like the little bits of red chard, which I wasn't expecting.

Other than that, it's got a lot of problems that you can see.

The biggest disappointment is the undercooking of the meat,

because actually you've got a cannon of lamb and a filet mignon,

which are beautiful cuts of meat,

and that should really be the thing that's singing here and actually

the thing that I like the most is the mangetout and the potato.

He's obviously tried to do far too much and ended up doing nothing.

He's going to have to pull off something amazing with the dessert if he's got a chance.

Oh. Ugh!

That's raw. That little filet mignon is raw. It's raw lamb.

Undercooked lamb is a nice thing but a raw lamb, uh-uh.

It's a shame.

Joel's cooking for dessert an apple and blackberry pannacrumble.

Which is my new favourite word.

I don't know what it means.

In my mind, as a chef, this should come together well.

This is the one dessert I'm really looking forward to.

Ah. First time it's never worked.

Let's see how it goes.

I've made apple pannacrumble with a blackberry and red wine reduction

with a cinnamon, almond and apple-infused pannacotta.

-Thanks. < SHELINA:

-Thank you.

The flavours - you can taste the apple, you taste the blackberry,

you can taste the oats of the crumble.

Just textually, it's not right.

It's a crying shame that the pannacotta didn't set.

Because it really tastes really good otherwise.

The red wine, blackberry reduction is really tasty.

The crumble's a great texture.

It's just a shame. It's a real shame.

It's collapsed and it's not that well executed. It's a bit of a mess.

And Joel's not happy.

I'm feeling deflated.

I thought I could produce much better than that and normally I do.

It just didn't go right on the day unfortunately.

We've got ourselves some gems here, Gregg. Some real gems.

Who can go a long way in this competition

if they apply themselves.

I know he's had a couple of ups and downs in the previous rounds

but today, Oliver was just outstanding.

The fish with those brilliant croquettes, marvellous sauce

-and samphire was mind-blowing.

-Not a mistake made on that plate at all.

His frangipane tart with raspberries was a little scruffy.

I'll forgive him because it tasted really good.

Our champions also were quite impressed by Oliver.

Today, I've shown John and Gregg my best self, I think,

and that's the most that I can do.

Whether I've done enough or not, I have no idea.

With David's main course and dessert,

there were a few little mistakes. But he's an amateur.

Loved his first dish.

That piece of cod, flaky, on top of the beans flavoured with tomato

and chorizo. Nice flavours. Big flavours.

You thought maybe too salty. I loved 'em.

The pear in that Italian meringue with chocolate sauce

and nuts was too big!

But I did like the flavours.

I've done the best I can do so I guess I've just got to wait and see what everyone else thinks now.

Angela, I loved the idea of the dish - the pheasant,

thought it was wonderful, little bits of chestnuts.

Really, really good idea.

She overcooked the pheasant.

But I tell you what - the sauce was beautiful. The puree was lovely.

That red wine spiced quince - it was beautiful.

The dessert, the figs, lovely.

Flavour of walnuts and cinnamon

and red wine with those figs was also a very, very lovely thing.

I really, really want to go through but I don't know.

There is real promise in what Joel was attempting to do today.

Boning out the whole loin of lamb, making potato stacks -

he did do a lot of work.

It would be helpful if the food was cooked.

He was apologetic about his dessert and understandably why

because he feels like he let himself down.

At the end of the day, I did give myself too much to do.

You can't make any mistakes cos there's three exceptional cooks that

I was up against, you know?

I don't know what we're going to do because it was a really good day.

Nobody half-hearted, everybody giving it their all.

It's been far too close to call.

So we've decided just going to send one of you home.

The contestant leaving us...

..is Joel.

Thank you.

-Sorry, mate.

-Thanks, Joel.

Disappointed but I'm happy to make it this far

and I hope that the guys, you know, do a great job in the quarterfinals.

Congratulations.

All three of you have something really interesting about you, real potential.

Feels incredible. I can't believe it.

Going to take a bit of time to sink in, I think.

-OLIVER:

-This feels pretty good to have got to the quarterfinals.

I feel really proud of myself.

I'm ecstatic, absolutely chuffed, bewildered, delighted, everything.

-NARRATOR:

-Tomorrow night, it's the quarterfinal.

The five heat winners return to cook for just one critic face-to-face.

Oh, no.

It's the sort of single-minded dish that I would order.

I want my sauce, son.