Episode 13 MasterChef

It's knockout week on MasterChef.

Over four weeks of heats,

40 amateurs have fought for their place in the competition.

Come on, come on, come on!

Oh, for crying out loud!

Only the best 14 remain.

I keep on pinching myself to say, "Am I living a dream here?

"Or is it reality?"

The competition definitely starts now. I've got to up my game.

You've got to cook your heart out. That's what I'm going to try to do.

I need to be absolutely perfect, or else it's game over.

The first time these 14 cooks are going to look into each other's eyes

and understand that one of them is going to be our champion.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to knockout week.

This is truly exciting.

You are our 14 best cooks.

We're going to split you up, make two groups of seven.

Red aprons, you will be cooking first.

Once you've both finished cooking, John and I will then decide

who we believe is good enough to go through.

Word of warning - at least three of you will go home.

Right, blue aprons, off you go. Wait your turn.

You've all been given the same brief,

to cook us one dish

inspired by a family favourite,

or food from your childhood.

Ladies and gentlemen, one hour, 30 minutes.

Let's cook.

Jacob - crazy, disorganised,

but could be an absolute genius.

He can deliver some amazing flavours

and I've never seen anybody get through that amount of work.

Today there are a lot of things.

Hopefully they will think

they go together. I'm being a bit stubborn

and not just putting three things on a plate.

Jacob, we know what sort of cook you are.

By the looks of the bench, it's going to be crazy again.

Yeah, I've tried to actually scale things back a bit,

believe it or not. Gone for a dessert today.

I'm doing a blackberry chocolate brownie

with a blackberry and elderflower sorbet,

chocolate cylinder with a blackberry mascarpone mousse,

some elderflower jelly,

-a blackberry tuille, and this spherified bramble cocktail.

-No way!

-You can't get all that done in 90 minutes.

-Er, we'll see.

What childhood memory inspired you to cook like this?

End of every summer, I used to love going blackberry picking.

We'd come back with a glut and not know what to do with them all.

We'd make lots of crumble and jam.

How many times have you actually made this dish as one dish?

-As one dish?

-Mm.

-Um, less than one.

-Less than one.

-Yep.

-So never?

-Never.

Jacob's cooking us a plethora of blackberry and chocolate.

What can go wrong? Well, probably everything.

I can't see how he'll get it all done,

but I've said that about Jacob every single time he's cooked in here.

Jane's food is stylish, it's knowledgeable,

it's got technique and it's exciting.

My best moment is when Gregg said to me, "You can cook, girl,"

and I was like, "Yes! I can cook."

Food is just so central to everything I do in my life,

so, yeah, it really is all-encompassing. I can't tell you.

-Hey, Jane.

-Hiya.

-That's a proper trout, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

I fish. My husband and I, we both fly fish,

so during the summer we get a lot of trout.

-You fish with flies with your husband?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

He's teaching one of our boys as well, who really wants to learn.

So I wanted to use it because it's an ingredient that's really

-precious to me.

-Jane, tell us about your dish.

-I'm doing a picnic.

I think picnics are just family, aren't they?

The idea of eating outdoors and everything else.

I'm going to cook a Scotch egg using the trout tail.

I'm going to make a trout and watercress tart,

and a piece of poached trout.

I've got this far and you seem to like what I'm cooking,

and hopefully that will see me through.

-And I can learn more along the way.

-Good luck.

Thank you very much, Cheers, guys. Thank you.

I'm not quite sure of the trout Scotch egg. I just...

I've never had a fishy scotch egg.

There is a huge amount of work to do.

She's making pastry for tarts, a tart filling,

a Scotch egg outer, make sure the egg's cooked properly, a mayonnaise.

The comments that I've had have been incredible.

It's fantastic.

-I love it.

-I feel like I'm learning so much and so quickly.

So hopefully the best is yet to come.

Annie, a dessert?

I'm making a midnight feast.

Myself and my dad used to have midnight feasts when I was little.

I'd have really bad nightmares. He'd make jam sandwiches and hot milk.

So I'm making Victoria sponge, blackberry jam, butter cream,

milk jelly with freeze-dried raspberries on the side.

That is worth having a nightmare for.

If I can do it all in time it will be like a nice dream.

We've also got toffee apple, popping candy

and an iced tea flavoured with raspberries.

I'm fascinated to see what Annie is doing.

For me, the complex bit for Annie is the presentation.

Jack's an exciting young cook who takes a classic idea

and he turns it straight on its head.

He's got talent and he finds the fun in cooking.

For William Sitwell he took coriander

and turned it into a dessert.

I think that's ingenious.

It was a real highlight of the competition, so I'm hoping to

channel some of that positivity and really bring it out today.

-Jack, a big day today.

-Big day, yeah. You're not kidding.

I'm going to do fillet of beef with deep-fried bone marrow,

crispy roast potatoes, gravy and a Yorkshire pudding.

You've got a roast beef dinner.

It's inspired by Sunday lunch,

but really the focus is that moment at the end of a roast dinner when

you get that last Yorkshire pudding, which was always my favourite bit.

Me and my brother used to fight over it.

We've all had our own best Yorkshire puddings, our best gravy,

our best roast beef.

-Haven't we?

-Up until this moment, maybe.

The problem with Jack I see is this.

You have to move away from a traditional roast dinner

to make it sexy.

The further you move away from it, the more dangerous it becomes.

But we've seen Jack change things really successfully before.

Time is flying! You have one hour left.

Pedro is either brilliant or bonkers.

I've got to say, he intrigues me.

Pedro digs deep into the Portuguese food that he grew up with,

and, John, at its best, it's absolutely stunning.

The final 14 is definitely something I can be proud of,

but I want to oust some people out and stay in this competition

and keep fighting, so that's what I'm going to try to do.

What's the inspiration today, Pedro?

So I've called it Mum's alternative Christmas dinner.

A Portuguese family would never have a turkey.

You have little plates of everything, and you just eat it,

and it all works cos everything's been cooked with love and care.

Pedro, what's the dish?

I'm going to make for you a spiced duck, glazed carrots,

mashed potato with spring onion running through there,

a little bit of an onion jam with some baby pak choi.

I'm doing a raspberry port reduction for the sauce.

So there's a lot of things going on but it has to be perfectly balanced.

It has to all come together on one plate.

-Your flavours have worked very well so far. Very well.

-Thank you.

It's a very eclectic mix of ingredients

going on in Pedro's dinner. Mash with spring onion is Irish.

Spiced duck is Asian. The sauce is European.

Pedro's cooked like this all the way through the competition, though.

He's always brought different things onto one plate,

and he has done it with success in the past.

The competition so far has been brilliant.

It empties your wallet when you're practising

and gives you sleepless nights. There is an element of nerves

but I think that's me wanting to do well, so...

We'll see how it goes.

Mike loves process.

He's inventive and his combinations are really interesting.

His flavours are great.

-What are you making, Mike?

-I'm making sticky toffee apple pudding.

I'm doing that with a cinnamon ice cream and hopefully,

if I get time, a little bit of sugar work as well.

Inspired by what memory? My early Army career.

When I joined the Army I was only 16,

so I was still essentially a kid.

And in the ration packs that we had, they used to give us

these highly calorific and ridiculously sweet

sort of desserts, but it was just a fuel boost to keep you going.

I used to swap mine for breakfasts because for me,

waking up at 4:30 and stuff, and having a cold packet

of sticky toffee pudding for me was better than having cold beans.

I agree with you. If I had to wake up at 4:30 every morning

I'd be eating sticky toffee pudding.

I think it's an indication of just how much ambition's in this room

when Mike tells us

he's doing a sticky toffee pudding with apple, and that sounds safe.

Guys, listen to me. You have 30 minutes left.

You have half an hour to bring that food memory onto a plate, please.

Half an hour left.

The reason I like Julie is her food is generous.

She's got the skill. Now what she needs to do is demonstrate

the little bit of polish.

I've cooked previous meals where I felt fairly safe.

Now I'm having to push the boat out slightly, challenging myself.

I think I need to.

Julie's smiling, as always.

-That nervous smile?

-Yes, I know.

-Scared rabbit.

-What are you making?

Pan-fried pheasant with a little pheasant Scotch egg,

-stuffed Savoy cabbage and a cider and mustard sauce.

-Why this dish?

My grandparents used to cook pheasant a lot.

This year my grandfather showed me how to pluck a pheasant,

how to gut a pheasant and how to truss a pheasant.

So that's what it's been homage to, to my grandfather, who's 94.

That's lovely!

Julie is probably cooking the most traditional dish in the room.

She's got to make sure the presentation on this is superb.

It's got have no errors at all.

You have just ten minutes.

Only ten minutes! Please, come on.

I'm peeling an egg. I'm having a nightmare.

I've not done them enough.

Right, I'm going to do another one.

I can do this in time. I've done this before. Yep.

Five minutes - that's all you've got. Five minutes.

-Jane, you can't cook that in five minutes, can you?

-Oh, I can.

If I can get it in and it's whole, I can.

60 seconds. Come on! Get them on a plate.

Stop. You have to stop. Time is up.

Phew!

Jack, come on. Up you come.

Jack's dish has been inspired by his mum's Sunday roasts.

He's cooked a fillet of beef with roast potato crisps, celeriac

and star anise puree, carrots, kale,

deep-fried bone marrow,

a Yorkshire pudding and an onion gravy.

I love the crescent shape of goodies. I think that's lovely.

You, Jack, are a serious talent,

because that is absolutely delicious.

It's all the flavours you'd expect of a roast dinner.

It's very soft beef. It's a really good gravy, a good sauce,

plus the bone marrow - it's stunningly beautiful.

Jack, that, to me, is a beefy triumph.

You know what's great about it?

It's comforting and clever all at the same time.

The comfort of Yorkshire pudding and gravy and roast beef, little bits of

carrot, the aniseed running through from the star anise in your puree.

Lovely, lovely, lovely things.

-Thank you so much.

-Thanks, Jack.

-Cheers, guys.

HE SIGHS

When you get feedback like that, it makes the stress really worthwhile.

So yeah, really pleased.

Jane's dish is a celebration of fly fishing with her family.

She's cooked trout three ways -

a trout and watercress tart,

poached trout, and a smoked trout Scotch egg,

served with a watercress and lemon mayonnaise and pickled vegetables.

The flavours are good and they're sound.

Your fish with that mayonnaise,

slight little bit of lemon in it, is just lovely.

The way you've pickled the vegetables,

-it's a sweet pickle, it's not sharp.

-Yeah.

But there are mistakes on here, which is a shame.

-This egg white isn't cooked.

-Yep. I know.

-You know what you've done wrong.

-I do, 100%.

-You've bitten off a lot here.

-Yep.

-You've taken on a lot of work

and you've tried to do a picnic in an hour and a half,

which most people would probably take 4½ or 5 hours

-on a Saturday morning putting together for their family.

-OK.

I am frustrated with myself.

I know I can do better than that.

I'm angry with myself. But also, you want to do your best.

Inspired by blackberry picking as a child,

Jacob has cooked a blackberry and chocolate brownie,

a dark chocolate cylinder filled with blackberry mascarpone mousse,

blackberry and elderflower sorbet,

a blackberry tuille,

elderflower jelly and a spherified bramble cocktail.

It sort of reminds me of walking through brambles,

sort of getting lost on them, trying to fight your way out, you know?

It's really wild, Jacob!

Mm.

There's loads of work on there to admire.

You're obviously a really accomplished cook.

I like the sphere because it tastes like I've got a little bit

of light vodka with a blackberry flavour. I really like that.

The brownie, because it hasn't cooked,

because it's too soft inside,

you've had to put it on there and splodge it on.

And, of course, that's spoilt the look of the plate.

I really like it.

I really like it.

I like the fact that we've got textures and flavours

of blackberry mixed in with textures and flavours of chocolate.

Your blackberry and elderflower sorbet is fantastic.

I don't mind the brownie, cos actually I think

that soft inside with crispy bit on the top is a good thing.

I like the dish. I like the fun of it.

I'm glad I took the risks.

Hopefully they can see through the fact that

I just undercooked a brownie.

It could have been improved but, I mean, it tasted good.

Annie's cooked a midnight feast.

A Victoria sponge, blackberry jam and buttercream sandwich,

toffee apples with popping candy,

milk jelly bottles with freeze-dried raspberries

and a raspberry iced tea.

It's very clever.

I'm always really nervous when I see things theatrically made up,

cos it's got to be about what's inside it.

I really, really, really like this.

I fell in love with this as soon as I had the toffee apple.

Really good toffee with sweet, sharpened apple.

When I'd finished it all,

the popping candy started going off in my mouth like a firework show.

Your Victoria sponge jam sandwich is exactly that.

What I love is this fruit-flavoured iced tea, which isn't really sweet.

-That, to me, cleanses the palate.

-Thank you.

Things are made very, very well. Things taste really good.

How you slept after all that sugar, I have no idea.

Cos my kids would be running, bouncing off the walls.

-Annie, thank you very much.

-Thank you, thank you.

I don't think I could have done any more.

I threw everything at it and it worked, and that's good.

I didn't have any disasters, thank goodness.

Thank you!

Mike, please. Up you come.

Mike's cooked an Army ration-inspired

sticky toffee apple pudding

with caramelised apples, pecan brittle,

apple compote, cinnamon ice cream

and a toffee sauce.

I really like the flavours.

The sponge is soft, you get a bit of sweet, light relief with apple.

However, I feel like I actually haven't got a dessert.

I've got a sponge cake with extras.

Flavours? Can't argue with that.

Presentation? And the work?

-It leaves a couple of question marks from me.

-Right, sure.

There is so much treacle, thick treacle,

across the top of that pudding, at first it's just sugary and thick

and gets the back of your throat.

If your inspiration's a ration pack cos you needed

lots of calories to give you grunt, I tell you what -

there's enough sugar in there to make you run for about 3½ hours.

I think a mixed bag of critique.

They liked the flavours,

but I don't know if it was a bit overload on the sugar.

So overall happy, yeah.

I suppose what will be will be, for use of a better phrase.

Inspired by her 94-year-old grandad, Julie has pan-fried pheasant breast

and served it with a Scotch egg made from the leg meat and a quail's egg.

With stuffed Savoy cabbage,

a celeriac cream, cider pearls,

crispy bacon and a cider and mustard sauce.

-Julie, I may sound like a broken record here...

-Right.

-I think it could probably be a little bit smarter.

-OK.

You're going to have to get some books out

and have a look at how plates can be smartened up.

You can taste the richness of that pheasant,

and then your sweet but sharp cider sauce.

You get that tang that comes from the apple cider.

But on here we've got bits chucked on, things thrown around,

and I've got a carrot which was once round...

It's now a hexagon shape and it's not cooked. It's got to look better.

Right, OK.

Your food tastes good, your pheasant's nicely cooked.

Your problem is the look of your dishes.

-We've got to do something about your presentation.

-Right, OK, then.

-Right, OK.

-Thank you, Julie.

-Julie, thanks very much.

-Thank you.

It's just frustrating. Why can't I present things?

Why can't I present things? Oh, God.

Pedro has cooked his mum's alternative Christmas dinner -

pan-fried breast of duck, crispy confit leg,

spring onion mash,

pak choi, honey-glazed carrots, a garlic crumb,

onion jam and a raspberry and port sauce.

I had my doubts about this, but I think that's a very,

very attractive plate of food, Pedro.

The duck is so well cooked, and that leg is crispy.

The mashed potato is smooth, the pak choi, of course,

is just a brassica like a cabbage - it's juicy.

Then you've got garlic croutons across your mash,

which give more flavour and texture!

That's a good dish, Pedro.

You do good food.

Thank you.

Mashed potato on a sour raspberry and port sauce

was always going to be a clash. But the one thing you've got on there

is lots and lots of raw spring onions.

So those raw spring onions explode in your mouth

and then it seems to sort of make itself all all right.

I'm really, really impressed, Pedro.

I definitely took some flavour combination risks.

Sometimes you've got to be a bit daring and a bit bold,

and today it paid off.

Well done. Very, very well done.

The ambition is quite incredible.

There's no-one in here playing it safe. I mean, everyone's pushing it.

Before we make a decision of who stays and who goes,

we need to see the other seven people cook.

Thank you very much indeed. Off you go.

Good cooking in here today.

Very, very good cooking.

Lots of skill on show, lots of technique, lots of ambition.

And I think Jack, for me, was the master of it.

It was fantastic.

Just fantastic.

I love Jack and his cooking, and I tell you why -

because it looks beautiful and I want to eat it.

It tastes good.

Do you know my favourite cook out of these seven?

-Pedro.

-Mm, I knew you were going to say that.

That fella has got excellent touch and he understands flavours.

Cos his dish was nothing short of delicious.

As for the other five,

I think we've got to wait for the others to cook

-before we can really comment.

-Ooh, I tell you what -

there's a couple that I think are skating on very thin ice.

Mike actually did not deliver me a sticky toffee pudding.

I don't know where I sit in our seven,

but I've done what I felt I could do today.

Just wait out patiently, I think. Hard, but wait out patiently.

The other one I'm really sad for,

because I think she's had an amazing competition so far, is Jane.

The egg inside the Scotch egg wasn't cooked.

She just tried to do too much.

To some extent I've got maybe a little time to collect myself,

and brace myself for any bad news.

I tell you the one who has to be able to right now start to get

a bit of polish about her food, and that's Julie.

As good as that pheasant may be,

it needs to have a little bit more finesse.

Cos the competition is really, really stepping up.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I need to keep being optimistic.

All I can do now is just sit back and wait and see.

We know how ambitious this lot were.

Let's see if the next lot can match the ambition, maybe even exceed it.

Coming up after the break, the second seven cook off...

Five minutes. Come on, guys, please.

..before John and Gregg decide who stays...

I think you're a genius.

I absolutely love it.

..and who goes.

The three people leaving us...