Episode 19 MasterChef

The MasterChef semifinals continue.

Last night, this year's best amateurs had their first

lesson in teamwork.

Oh, my God!

You guys are legends!

But from here on in, it's going to be a battle.

We are going to push them really hard.

Tonight, the team challenge escalates.

Up against it, to say the least.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

And it's sink or swim because one more cook will be sent home.

Aargh!

We don't know what's coming up and we need to think on our feet.

Really just going to come down to instinct, I think.

I don't think today is as far as I could go.

I want to take it as far as I possibly can.

Really couldn't deal with going home very well today.

At this stage, there is no room for the odd mistake.

They've now got to cook like they want to win the title.

Devonport, just west of Plymouth,

is the biggest naval base in Western Europe.

Back in 1588, Captain Sir Francis Drake sailed from this coast

in pursuit of the Spanish Armada.

And today, it's the home port for 20 of the Royal Navy's ships.

Welcome to HMS Northumberland here at Her Majesty's naval base,

Devonport.

It's seen service in the Gulf

and recently celebrated its 21st anniversary.

You today are cooking and serving lunch for the ship's company.

There are 110 of them. It's a great honour to be on here.

Make sure you serve a lunch worthy of note.

At the beginning of the semifinals, we put you in two teams.

Those teams remain.

Juanita, Billy, Jane and Annie, you're the blue team.

And the red team, Jack, Stuart, Jen and Liz.

At the end of this, Gregg and I will choose our winning team.

The losing team will go back to the MasterChef kitchen to fight

it out for their place in the competition.

I say rally your troops and get ready!

Massive honour to come and cook for the Navy.

I mean, we're eight amateur cooks.

We were cooking in our own kitchens not that long ago,

and here we are, cooking on the deck of a warship.

We've got a lot to prove but I think we can do it.

We're four good cooks.

We will all stick to that kind of game, really,

making sure we show what we're about.

Two mobile kitchens have been specially constructed

at the stern of the ship...

..and a dining area in the ship's aircraft hangar.

For today's lunch,

each team will be responsible for feeding one of the two tables.

They each have to create two main courses

and a dessert to feed 110 members of the ship's company.

The timeframe, the quality,

the weird kind of cooking environments and equipment,

lots and lots of pressure and, you know, as ever,

I'm just focused on not going home.

So we have to be on the winning team.

PCRSCC? Can I speak to the RSCCP, please?

The first task for the red team

is to come up with a dish using chicken.

-Main-wise, we're thinking ballotine, we're leaning towards that, aren't we?

-Yeah.

-We'd like to use all of the chicken.

-Like a slice of ballotine each and a chicken breast.

-Yeah.

-I like your idea of black pudding in Porcini.

-Also, the black pudding, wrap it in bacon

and we've got the Porcini mushrooms there as well. Easy in four hours, easy in four hours.

-We want to use whisky in the main.

-We've got ale, as well.

-Ooh.

-With chicken?

-No.

These need to be really rinsed though, because they're salty.

The blue team have to base their main dish around cod.

-Beautiful cod.

-Do you know, that is brilliant.

-We could do a cockle broth?

-Yeah. Bacon? Have we got any bacon?

Peas, bacon, cockle broth.

-I would call it a cockle ragout.

-Cockle broth.

-Cockle ragout?

-Mmm, fancy!

-What's it called?

It's called a thing, er, bacon and peas... It's a French name. I've forgotten the name.

-It's like a fricassee.

-Is it a fricassee?

-No, I don't know.

It'll just be a cockle ragout with bacon and peas.

'Both teams need to offer a vegetarian option

'and a dessert that caters for 60.'

-Veg-wise...

-We've got great butternut squash.

-The butternut squash looks great.

-We've got everything we need for pasta.

-I've made quite a lot of tortellini.

Well, how time-consuming is that and how many would we need to do?

How long is it going to take to do 100 tortellini?

-I mean, Annie did it, didn't she?

-Yeah.

-In the impression kitchen.

-Yeah, it's pipe, paint, fold, seal.

-Yeah.

-Takes...30 seconds.

-You roll the pasta out and then put the...

-You are really confident with pasta.

-And then put the other sheet on top of it and then and then just cut them out.

-Yeah.

-Let's chuck some booze in there.

-Yep. I'd quite like to use a rum, because it's the Navy.

Or is that a bit too literal?

So my initial thought was Tarte au Citron.

-You could put a syrup on the bottom?

-Yeah.

-So when you turned it over you had a syrup...

-Or when it's cooked,

we could poke it and just put the syrup on top and it all...

-Like an upside-down cake. And then turn it over.

-Clever, yes.

What's the ideas?

The idea is that we're going to create a ballotine of chicken,

-going to wrap that in pancetta and fry that off.

-Nice.

-Veg, what about veg?

-Tortellini, butternut squash veloute.

-OK.

-Dessert? Why am I looking at you?

-LAUGHTER

Well... So I'm thinking I'm doing a tarte au citron,

-making a compote from the berries.

-What will you do?

Make two or three enormous lemon tarts and...?

Big lemon tarts, sliced, I'm thinking, looking at the equipment we've got.

I like your menus. Do you know what's paramount here?

Is that everybody has a clear understanding of what they're doing

and somebody, as well as doing their own job, oversees everything.

-Yep.

-Yeah.

-Have you made a final decision?

-Yes, we have.

We are going to do pumpkin ravioli with a cream sauce.

We're doing oven-roasted cod with a cockle ragout.

For dessert, we are going to do a honey cake, with stem ginger poached plums and almond crumb

and a duck-egg custard with the vanilla and some spices running through it.

Good, good, good. I look forward to all of it.

I do, I look forward to all of it. Good.

Four hours of cooking.

This is a massive, massive challenge for anybody.

I have to tell you right now, I'm a little bit frightened.

I'm a little bit scared. We're only just starting the cooking

and there's a lot of work to be done.

-So it's going to be here.

-Just on this side, yeah?

Guys? We're all clear about

-what we're doing this first 30 minutes, yep?

-Yep.

-Yes.

-Fab.

Under the leadership of company director, Liz,

the first job for project manager Jack is to prep 25 chickens.

-It's actually quite fun.

-It is, actually.

-We're outside...

-So far. It's not that cold. Could be worse!

Could be sat in my office responding to client e-mails,

trying to do timing plans and status reports.

Rather be butchering 25 chickens, personally!

The red team's main course I think is great.

Roasted chicken, ballotine chicken, mashed potato, kale, a rich sauce -

oh, it could be really delicious.

-Do you reckon I can just force all these in?

-Pardon?

Can I get nine in each of these?

I'd leave a bit of air to circulate around.

-I'd rather do them in batches.

-Yeah, agreed.

Research chemist Stuart's taking control of the pasta main,

and he's made a start on the dough for the tortellini.

I've made pasta at home before.

Made quite a few tortellini - never on this sort of scale, admittedly!

But I'm happy with doing this dish.

He's built for a pasta machine!

I wish I hadn't put so many thermals on this morning!

Strip off, Stu, we don't mind.

This isn't The Naked Chef!

In charge of dessert, mortgage adviser Jen

needs to make the pastry for the seven lemon tarts.

Dessert, I've got to say, I think is a really big ask.

Lemon tart, 60 portions of it?

Is this proving trickier than you thought?

I didn't anticipate how windy it was going to be,

so I am finding when I'm trying to very accurately measure

that things are moving a bit.

All things considered, the pastry's come out really nice,

-so should be a good lemon tart.

-A good lemon tart on time?

-Yes.

-There's nothing I can do

to keep the flour on the table, I'm afraid.

No, but it hopefully gives you a nice dessert.

What the contestants didn't consider,

and what I didn't consider, is the wind!

Every time you try and weigh out flour and sugar,

it goes flying about four miles off the ship's bow!

Now put your head in the tray.

Not your head, THE head. That's it.

-And then do all the heads first, like that.

-Yeah.

-And then flip them all at the same time, OK?

-Yeah.

Actor Annie is leading the blue team

and she's put property surveyor Billy

and mum-of-four Jane in charge of prepping the cod for the main.

-So you start at the head end and work the other way?

-Yeah.

You can feel the bone, yeah, Billy?

Don't hack at it, cos then you get a clean fillet, yeah?

-How many cod have you got to deal with?

-Six.

-And how many fillets have you got to cut out?

-50.

-50 bits of fish?

-Yeah.

-How many have you cut out so far?

One.

It's all right, they only take ten minutes to cook, Gregg. It's fine.

The actual fish we're not worried about.

How tough is it working with Billy the whirlwind?

Oh, he's fine, I'll just give him my mum death stare.

-Is that right?

-Yeah.

We're all right, actually, we work together.

We're in sync on this dish, we know exactly what we're doing.

Well done. Well said.

-Dare you to kiss it.

-Oh, no.

I've kissed a few frogs in my time but not a fish!

As well as running the blue team,

Annie has taken on responsibility for their pasta option.

So I'm just preparing the pumpkins

that's going to go in our ravioli filling - I'll probably do two.

-I think one's probably enough for 20, love.

-Do you think?

-Yeah.

I'm just going to cover them in nice spices and oil

and roast them in the oven.

But it's really difficult to chop 'em!

Going to be fine, as long as they all listen to me.

I think I'm going to be a nice team leader.

-SHE LAUGHS

-I hope!

Do you really need two kilos of pasta dough?

-For 120 pieces of ravioli...

-Oh, I see. OK, fine.

-A lot of ravioli to make.

-Yep.

I made 150 in the restaurant, so if I can do that, I can do this.

-How long did that take you, though?

-50 minutes!

-You can beat that, Annie, I reckon.

-Yeah.

-You've got it in you today.

Web producer Juanita is in charge of making

eight upside-down plum sponge cakes.

-Have you counted them?

-I have been counting them,

but now I've forgotten.

Well, there you go. How many do you need per pan?

I need 64 halves in total.

I want to put that in a glass of rum and drink it.

-It smells lovely, doesn't it?

-Beautiful.

I've never done this before. Never.

So hopefully it'll work!

The dessert with the plums

and that sponge with spices in it could be an absolute winner.

You need a lovely sponge that takes up all the sauce,

and I'm concerned right now there's a little bit too much sauce

in those pans and it's going to be sauce more than sponge.

-Being inventive.

-Inventive?

-Yeah.

-Brilliant. Just what I need.

I've got 120 people for lunch and you want to be inventive.

At over 130 metres long and weighing nearly 5,000 tonnes,

anti-submarine frigate HMS Northumberland

has to be ready to deal with any deployment...

Priorities are safeguard navigation-essential supplies...

..from counter-piracy and drugs operations

to peacekeeping duties.

To help deal with the demands of life at sea,

providing decent food is a priority.

Getting a good meal on board is absolutely vital.

Sailors live for...

scran time, we call it.

It's the heart of the morale of the ship,

so it's really important that we feed well.

Yeah, they're all a demanding bunch,

but you can't please

180 people all the time.

But yeah, generally food is very good on board the ship.

Your first hour has gone.

Three hours left.

With the clock ticking,

Jack is already behind with the chicken prep

for 50 portions of ballotine.

I'm removing the thigh and leg bone.

The idea is to end up with one flat piece of meat

which I'm then going to bash and tenderize, flatten,

and stuff with black pudding.

You can't just, like, bash through it, you have to make sure

you haven't got any cartilage or bone left.

I am concerned about the amount of work it takes to put this

chicken dish together -

to bone out 20 pieces of chicken.

I just hope they've been realistic.

I'm never eating chicken again. I'll tell you that much!

For their pasta dish,

Stuart needs to make the filling for 120 tortellini.

It's minced shallots and garlic.

I'm going to get a load of thyme and nuts in there in a minute.

My big labour-intensive job comes in about half an hour,

which is filling and rolling all the tortellini.

I've got 120 of those to do.

How long is it going to take to make 120 tortellini?

We've allowed ourselves an hour and a half.

An hour and a half. How's your maths?

That's 90 minutes, that's 45 seconds a tortellini.

Jen will help me out when she's finished with the pie,

so it won't just be me.

Look at that, hey.

It's Jen's world of tarts.

Oh, Jen, you absolute legend!

All right!

-Blind bake them, take them out, trim them...

-Yeah.

-..brush them with egg...

-OK.

..back in the oven. The egg seals the tart case.

-So it won't leak.

-So they don't leak.

-I love it. OK.

-What's the rice for?

-I haven't got enough baking beans for them all.

-Good. Half and half, then.

-Half baking beans, half rice?

Yeah, because otherwise it won't work.

You've got the heat from the baking beans, got the rest of the rice.

OK, yeah.

Argh!

-Argh!

-I know.

-Oh, my God. That's so bad.

-What's happened?

I put the rice in without putting the baking parchment.

It's all right, I'll fix it.

OK.

Jane is still filleting 50 portions of cod but Billy needs to

make a start on cleaning the sand out of over two kilos of cockles.

Don't worry, Jane, you carry on with the fish.

Never done this many before.

-Billy, are you nervous?

-No. Ooh!

-Obviously not.

-Just knocking things over as normal, Gregg.

It wouldn't be me if there wasn't things flying about.

-Billy, cod, sauce...

-Yeah.

-..mussels, as well.

-Yeah. Potatoes.

-Can it be done?

The cod's going to take between, depending on the oven,

between 10 and 20 minutes to cook.

So, obviously, that's the last minute process.

We can't hold a bit of fish. You have to have it last-minute.

Everything all right?

Yeah, I'm just a bit worried that the cockles are very sandy.

I mean, look at that. That is like it's come out of a sandpit.

-Oh, no.

-I mean, look at the water.

Oh, what are we going to do?

I'm literally going to sit these under the tap

for the next 20 minutes, I think.

Racing to keep the pasta dish on course, Annie is making the topping.

It's like a crumb with bread and pine nuts and herbs and stuff,

so it should be really nice, we hope.

Her next job is to make the pumpkin puree for the filling.

Wow.

-A bit soggy, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Is there any way I can bulk it up, do you think?

I can put potato through it.

Well, you can put some pangritata through it.

Pangritata through it.

-Better?

-Much.

-Good, there you go.

-Great.

Quick, quick, quick.

You have to do it warm otherwise it's not going to come out.

-Very good.

-Oh!

-Yay!

-Ooh!

-Right, next one.

I need to do another four, but they take 15 minutes in the oven,

so while they're cooking,

I'm going to get on with the first batch of custard.

I've got to de-yolk 48 eggs shortly so that will be messy.

I think we're going to have to rely on Billy and Jane

to help out quite a lot.

I've got three litres of custard in here

and then I need to make another three litres.

Going to have a really strong arm by the end of it!

-Have you got all the custard done, darling?

-No. One batch.

-One batch?

It takes too long. I just need to get four more loads of cakes on

and then I'll do another batch.

CCI/C FCP, report your location and confirm the status of the door.

BEEPING, SPEECH DROWNED OUT

There is a fire in the CTO location marking 3J.

BEEPING CONTINUES

Just started, caught a little bit, but I think we're all right.

Fire, fire, fire!

-Did he just shout fire, fire, fire?

-Fire, fire, fire.

I hope that's a drill and not one of our ovens.

On a day-to-day basis, when the ship is out on operations,

we're constantly practising and training, so we have our own

firefighting teams on board the ship and that's because when we're out

on the sea, in the middle of the ocean,

no-one is going to come to our assistance.

We have to look after ourselves so we train everybody in that ability

for firefighting, should something go wrong.

With under two hours to go until service, the red team are just

rolling out their pasta for the goat's cheese tortellini

and still have to make 50 portions of chicken ballotine.

The next half-hour, we need to have made the ballontines

and the filling.

I'm going to need your help with that.

We're not going to bother piping the mixture.

No, I think we were quite ambitious.

Liz, we've done it the wrong way. We need to roll it that way.

It's all right. We can roll it and move it.

They won't stick together, will they?

-Yes, the bacon is the wrong way.

-It's going to split up like that.

-It's not going to work.

-I think it will.

Jen has blind baked her seven tart cases

but she still needs to juice over 30 lemons for the filling.

Jen on the red team seems very,

very confident that she can get out lemon tart for everybody.

I've got my doubts.

How long are those tarts going to take to bake, Jen, when they've got

-the filling in?

-In my oven, 35 minutes,

but I think I'm going to need longer in that oven.

You need to get that filling done pretty quickly otherwise

-those tarts aren't going to go in.

-Yep.

-Jen, want a hand?

-If you've got time, Jack.

-I'm more than happy to do that.

-If you're happy to get on with these.

-I'm happy, I'm happy.

-What do you want me to do?

-Basically, 1,250. Thank you.

-You are a superstar, Jack.

-Whoo!

-Would one of you mind grabbing the oven door for me?

-Ready? Go.

-Thank you.

-You're all right, don't worry.

-I've spilt it.

-Don't worry.

It doesn't really help when the ovens are not on an even keel.

-I have just rolled the last bit of pasta.

-Get on the filling. Yep.

-Are you going to start filling now, are you?

-Yes, very shortly, yes.

-We are into our second half, aren't we?

-Yep.

-Wow.

The tortellini with the filling inside is a marvellous idea

but 120 little fiddly pasta parcels. Argh!

I think this is my life for the next hour and a half.

Next door in the blue tent, they are falling behind.

Billy is still getting the grit out of the cockles.

I'll tell you what, I don't want to see another bit of shellfish

-for ages

-I know. Or another bit of fish.

Jane's only just finished filleting the cod.

Annie, we need those potatoes in.

But Annie hasn't even started rolling out the pasta.

I'm going to really, really need some help on pasta.

Guys, can we just come together for one second, please?

I really need some help with ravioli

because I don't have enough time to do it.

I need to start doing the potatoes so if someone can help the ravioli,

-that's good.

-I'm worried about the potatoes.

William is on the fish dish at the moment.

We've got to steam them and I've got to sift the sauce about four times.

I need to do four more cakes and they take 50 minutes.

I need to crack on with those.

I need to make another batch of custard.

So nobody can help me with the ravioli?

If you give me ten minutes, I'll take the potatoes out of there

-and come and help you on ravioli.

-OK.

-There's no point panicking.

-I know how much we've got to do.

-Do you want me to stir that?

-Yep.

-Is it done? Is it all ready to go?

You two seem to be swapping jobs all the time.

One minute you're doing ravioli, then mashed potato,

then you're doing mashed potato, you're doing ravioli.

-Who's doing what?

-We're helping each other out on each job

so we're swapping over.

With Billy desperate for help on cockles, Jane steps in.

-So I just put them in here for now?

-Yeah, put them in there.

Right, where's the piping bag.

-There you go.

-Right, let's go.

-When do these need to go in the oven?

-Now.

You have one hour until people are eating.

Outside, there's high winds and the ship is on a lean

-playing havoc with Jen's lemon tarts.

-How are we looking?

-Oh!

I know. I didn't account for the tilt of the oven.

Well, I mean, you know, you are on an angle, aren't you?

I'd put a tiny bit more in and when it sets, it might catch it a bit.

OK, yeah.

The middle ones are the ones that we need to refill a bit.

All right, you need to put some more in that one.

-Careful, careful, careful.

-That'll do.

To keep the tortellini on track,

Stuart has had to enlist Jack's help.

One, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine, ten.

-How long until you two are done?

-Not long, actually. Not long.

-Really?

-15 minutes.

-Perfect.

For dessert, Juanita still has to make three litres of custard

but Annie needs her help on pasta.

I really don't think I'm the best person to be on pasta.

I'm not very good.

Someone is going to have to jump on this in 15 minutes

or else we're not going to have enough custard.

Nobody wants to commit to it.

You've got to just stand here and make the pasta.

-How many people are on ravioli now?

-Two.

-Three, third person on ravioli.

-More people making ravioli in this tent than the whole of Italy.

-Whoo!

There are things to do but if we don't get this ravioli course

out, then we're in deep trouble so we've got to get all hands

on deck and get this out.

Annie, you need to really move on this ravioli,

lovely, because otherwise your wheels are going to fall off.

-That one looks fine. This one has been on the slope.

-Yes.

Does that mean you can use two thirds of it?

Yes, anything that has not got enough filling, we won't be using.

Lemon tart is going to be all right. The major issue here is the chicken.

I need you to get the ballontines out of that back hob,

get some frying pans and start frying them off.

-That won't get done in half an hour.

-Just get them in.

We are really, really tight now.

There's a lot of detail left to do, so we're up against it,

to say the least.

The contestants, they've got their work cut out today.

There's going to be 110 hungry sailors who want their food on time.

They want good quality food that they're going to enjoy...

..and have a tasty meal.

With the sailors making their way to lunch,

both teams are still battling to finish their dishes.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Watch out, coming through.

-We've got to get this fish in.

-Yep.

The red team have pulled together to get their chicken dish

-ready for service.

-Shall we get a production line?

You take them off the bone and I'll trim it.

Yes, chicken is looking good.

MUSIC PLAYS

Everything on trays and, you know, brought out to us.

But the blue team are still a long way off.

-You've got 10 minutes to go.

-OK.

-And you're still rolling out ravioli.

And I'm getting scared.

-Quick, quick, quick, quick, let's go, go, go.

-Where's the poke.

Jane is swinging from the tree tops.

She must have learnt it from Tarzan because I'll tell you what,

she's all over the place. She's doing a brilliant job.

Just got to do as much as we can now.

If it wasn't for Jane, I think the blue team would be in big,

big trouble.

-How is our sauce going, buddy?

-It is what it is.

Five minutes till service.

MUSIC PLAYS

-Ravioli?

-On.

-Right.

-Nearly there.

MUSIC PLAYS

Come on!

With all the sailors ready for lunch, both teams must now

work quickly to get the food out hot in the freezing conditions.

Very, very nice looking dish.

Just a drizzle over the chicken.

Good, take it.

From Liz's red team, the first main is chicken breast and a chicken

ballotine wrapped in bacon and stuffed with black pudding.

It is served with pomme puree, a parsnip croquette,

curly kale and finished with a chicken jus.

Yeah, the chicken was absolutely great. Really beautiful.

However, I suspect as you go along,

you'll probably hear from quite a few people they want more of it.

Probably slightly smaller than I'd usually eat.

I thought that was a starter, sorry. I could take about four of them.

Everything is very well cooked, buttery mash, soft chicken

and the sauce is very good indeed. They've got real depth into that.

There's not a lot of chicken on here.

-We have to do four at a time, OK?

-Yes.

Try not to put as much sauce on because it's splashing.

Guys, you've got to work fast. That food is going to go cold.

-It's windy out there.

-The vegetables are blowing all over the place.

-Good work, guys.

-I know, everything is blowing.

-That looks great.

Well done, well done, well done, well done.

Led by Annie, the blue team's fish main course is oven roasted cod with

a cockle, bacon and pea ragout, pomme duchesse and a panko

coated mussel with a garnish of samphire and sea aster.

Really nice. The fish was really well cooked.

The sauce was nice as well.

The cod broke up really, really nicely.

The quality of the dish, I would happily pay for that

so it was very, very nice.

-A very tasty looking plate of food.

-Yeah, good dish.

Sea vegetables, lots of different bits and pieces.

The fish is cooked really nicely.

-Come on, guys. Keep on pushing that out.

-Madness.

The pressure is on for both teams to get their second main out.

-Three vegetarians, please.

-Come on.

Good, let's go.

The blue team's pasta is ready to serve.

A pumpkin ravioli with a mascarpone sauce,

parsley oil and a pine nut and herb breadcrumb.

I really love the pine nuts and the cheese, as well,

made it really tasty.

It was lush. It was really lovely, thank you.

This is ravioli gate.

This had the hands of everybody in the team upon it.

The pasta dough is thick and a bit chewy but I like that

lovely flavour of sage and rosemary running all the way through it.

I think the flavours are good. There's a bit of seasoning in there.

I like this sweetness of the squash.

It's a little messy. It's a little mushy.

Another veggie here.

The blue team have managed to get all their main courses out.

-Have got all the fish?

-Yeah. We've definitely pulled together.

-I'm really pleased with my team. Happy.

-Right, let's clean down.

All the blue table have got their lunch

but some of the diners on the red table are still waiting.

They've finished, we've not started.

Guys, they're staring at you in wonderment.

Can't understand why they don't have their lunch. Come on!

You too. Come on, guys, keep on pushing that out.

It's not fast enough.

Oh, can we take a bit more care with what these are looking like?

Seriously.

Finally, the red team get the rest of their dishes out.

Their second option is a goat's cheese ravioli served with

a butternut squash veloute and toasted breadcrumbs.

It was really, really nice.

The flavour of the butternut squash and the goat's cheese

really came through.

The flavour was good. The sauce was very nice, yeah.

I thought it was OK. I thought the pasta was a little bit hard though.

The pasta is a bit thick. The filling is really dense and hard.

The breadcrumbs across the top are a little bitter.

I get a sweet start and a very bitter, bitter finish.

Clean down, ready for dessert, please.

Come on, quick, quick, quick, let's go.

-The tarts need to be sliced and then just dressed.

-OK.

There's no letup for the red team racing to get their lemon tart

ready for service.

That one, you can use most of.

Cut them all into 12 and then use all the best slices.

That's the best way to do it. It saves any need for thought then.

Some of these have actually come out quite nicely.

-Have we got 60 slices of tart?

-If we cut them small enough.

We've deliberately cut them this small, have we?

We need to get 60 portions out.

Up against it, the blue team are frantically working

to get their puddings out on time.

Is that custard ready?

Yes, do you want to get this first bit of custard ready

and I'll keep an eye on the big pot?

MUSIC PLAYS

Juanita, are you happy with how they look?

They could have been a little bit neater

but it's a horrible day outside, so I guess it's what they want.

OK, let's go, please. Service!

-Service.

-OK. They are ready to go.

Keep going.

The red team's dessert is lemon tart served with a Navy Rum Chantilly

cream, a berry compote and a garnish of fresh berries.

It's not going to last long, is it, really?

I had the tart and it was quite nice.

Not enough of it and I don't think the cream was boozy enough.

The pastry was lovely and buttery and I very much enjoyed it.

I'm not one for dessert but that was lovely.

Probably conquer with a lot of my colleagues,

again used to larger portions so obviously not enough of it

and again the pastry was a little bit thin for me.

I like the cream with it. I like the berry compote as well.

That's not a bad little tart at all.

It's a wonky tart but it's a tasty tart.

Sharp with lemon, sweet with sugar, sour with the berries.

I'd just like a bigger portion.

MUSIC PLAYS

Go, go, go, go, Jane. Take those up.

For dessert, the blue team have made an upside-down plum sponge

pudding with spiced plum syrup.

It's served with custard.

The sponge was very fluffy, so it was really nicely...

It went down nice for a big man. It was good.

We quite often have sponge-style puddings for dessert, so it fits

completely with what we're used to and it was lovely to eat.

28 years in the Royal Navy. I'm a bit of a connoisseur on sponges

and that was up there amongst the best, I think.

Oh, that is yummy.

The sponge is good because the plums have been cooked

almost in a mulled wine.

It is a winter's day big sponge.

It is spicy. It's got the fruit of the plums.

-It is a very, very good custard.

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Yay!

-Oh, my goodness.

-Well done, Billy.

-Oh, my God!

-By the skin of my teeth.

All in all, I think they've done a really good job.

Let's face it, both teams got a lot of food out.

More food than they've ever cooked before, in difficult conditions.

If the blue team didn't have Jane, I think

they would have been in really big trouble. Really big trouble.

I think the pressure point was without a doubt the pasta,

but we got there in the end.

We just all mucked in and took our turn and churned them

out as quickly as we could.

I thought the blue team were going to sink without trace

but actually they did pull it out.

Come service time, they seemed to all get together

and get the food out.

Absolutely manic, but I'm so pleased with the way that service went.

The food looked amazing. I had super faith in my team.

For me with the red team, the issue was not one of cooking,

seasoning and flavouring, the issue was about portion size.

I thought up to service they were going to do really well

and then come service time, they struggled a little bit.

If the blue team beat us, I mean given we have put our all

into this, I would obviously be disappointed.

Just feel really kind of emotional, actually.

I'm hoping that we've done enough to win.

We've got to make a decision. Which team did the best?

-We know. We know who did the better job.

-Yeah.

Really, really proud of both teams.

You've done a huge amount of work in these conditions.

We do have to make a decision.

One team is going to go straight through.

The other team, you are going to go back to the MasterChef kitchen

and you're going to have to face a cook-off for your MasterChef life.

Taking into account teamwork, quality of the food,

popularity of the food, the amount of the food...

..how you worked overall.

One winning team...

..the blue team.

-Thank you.

-Oh, God.

Oh, my God! Well done guys. Well done.

We're lucky. For us, it has been a rewarding day.

It's sad as well to see other people not succeed

but I'd rather be on this side of the fence, if I'm honest.

Yes, it is disappointing. The team worked really hard.

We're still in the competition. That's not going to stop.

You don't really have time to feel sorry for yourselves

so just going to get on with it.

For me, being the team leader, I feel a huge amount of responsibility

for not guiding us to win.

I'm really, really, really gutted.

Now the red team must compete against each other.

One of them will be going home.

Nobody wants to go home today,

I'm just going to have to cook my best and, hopefully, it's not me.

One of us is going. I really don't want to say goodbye to anybody

and I don't want to go myself, so it's not a nice situation to be in.

They are the opposition, yeah. They've always been the opposition

and I don't think anyone is naive enough to ever really forget that.

It's back to business as usual.

If I can't cope with something, what's going to come at me today,

then I ain't going to win.

Welcome back to dry land.

I know you're disappointed, I can see you are.

You now have got to pick yourselves up.

We want you to cook for us one dish.

It can be sweet or savoury, you can use anything you like from

what was left from your incredible larder from that ship.

Create something amazing.

The contestants must now create a dish from the leftover produce

from both teams, which includes the cod's heads and trimmings,

vegetables, fruit and herbs,

some bacon, pancetta and black pudding.

I've never cooked cod cheeks before,

but they're definitely in the head there.

It's a punt but I know it could work.

I've got ideas for both sweet and savoury,

so it's trying to work out which one to go for it.

I think I'll stick with savoury at the moment.

Getting there. I've got a couple of ideas in my head.

I'm still looking though.

Ladies and gentlemen, at the end of this, one of you is going home.

One hour and 15 minutes, let's cook.

I am going to do a smoked cod fishcake.

I've got Applewood chips to smoke it,

so it should be smoky, but not too intense. That's the idea.

What are you prepared to do to stay in the competition?

Just the memory that I really love cooking, so do you know what?

If I've had a bad day, I'll go and cook.

-This is no different really.

-Good luck, son.

I think Jack's is a really risky dish.

Smoked cod fishcake

with a pancetta and black pudding crumb,

a confit duck egg, which he's going to cook in olive oil.

He is serving the whole thing with a fish veloute and spinach.

Jack's got to make sure that fish is not too smoked

and it doesn't become acrid and bitter.

Huge amount of technique, huge amount of work

and it could be absolutely delicious.

How are you feeling, Jen?

I feel OK. I'm disappointed we didn't win yesterday

but, you know, it's a chance to cook again.

What are you going to make?

So, I've filleted the cod tongues.

I'm going to be putting panko breadcrumbs on

and I'm going to be deep-frying them.

I'm making a veloute from the rest of the head

and then I'm actually doing some confit fennel with it as well.

Have you cooked dish like this before?

I mean, fish head, sauce and cod tongues?

I've never cooked anything like this before,

but I had cod tongues at a restaurant in Norway

and I really like them, which is

why when I saw the cod's head, I thought, "Yeah, let's do that."

You say Jen and cod tongues in the same sentence, you don't

really think that's ever going to happen.

I mean, that's just extraordinary.

The cod tongues, she's going to breadcrumb and then deep-fry.

She's serving up with some braised fennel and a fish veloute.

I think, right now, Jen is being really, really risky.

Halfway.

About 37 minutes left.

-How are you doing, Stuart?

-I'm all right, all things considered.

I'm actually, yeah, happy to be in the kitchen again.

What are you going to make, big Stu?

Pan-fried cod cheeks. I'm going to crumb them with a little bit

of breadcrumbs, some herbs, give them a bit of crunch.

Got some bacon crisps, we've got some lovely, fresh asparagus

and some herby mayonnaise.

Are we going to have little bits and pieces of things,

or are we going to have one dish?

I think they're all flavours that should go quite nicely together,

so I'm not trying to do too much today,

but the things that I do do, I'm trying to do really, really well.

Very good.

Stuart's got a lot of work to do.

He's got to do mayonnaise...

..he's got to make sure those cod cheeks are done properly

and he's got to make sure that crumb has got lots and lots of herbs in.

And how it's going to come together on a plate, I'm not quite sure.

Captain Liz, what are you making?

I'm poaching some cod in milk and bay leaf

and some peppercorns, I've taken the new potatoes and sliced them

and I'm just roasting those off as a topping

and I'm going to do a bit of a garnish of a

caper and parsley addition.

I really want to win, so I have to pick myself up and

it's not a team competition, it's an individual one,

so it's back to business as usual.

Liz has taken all the trimmings from the fish and she's poaching it

and then she's making a, sort of, deconstructed fish pie affair.

My concern right now is we're going to have a plate with

lots of sauce on it and some fish and nothing really

binding it together.

How long have we got?

Ten minutes left, please.

No panic at this stage, that may yet come.

It's just such an important round.

I'm more nervous than I normally would be

and I really want to stay in, so I really want to get it right.

I didn't really want to play it safe, but I am wondering

if this is maybe a little bit simple.

You have three minutes.

It's a bit flakier than expected.

So, what are you going to do with it?

I'm going to put the sauce all over it, so it's like a fish pie.

That's it, guys. Stop, please.

THEY SIGH

To stay in the competition,

Jack's made a smoked cods' cheek fishcake and a confit duck egg,

served with spinach and a pancetta and black pudding crumb.

It's finished with a fish veloute.

I particularly like where the crumb is cut off across the egg,

as if you've poured it over a stencil, I like that.

I'd like a little bit more texture in that fishcake.

However, the flavours are fabulous, absolutely fabulous.

I love the light bit of smoke inside,

creamy potato, the little bit of duck, rich egg yolk,

spicy black pudding, smokiness of pancetta, richness of spinach.

It's a really, really tasty thing.

Thank you.

I find the sauce of little bland, however,

I find the smokiness of the fishcake inspired.

You are a clever lad.

I'm massively relieved.

That was good feedback.

Oh, I'm just glad it's over and they liked it.

Jen has cooked panko coated cods' tongue with confit fennel

and potato wedges.

It's served with a cod and parsley veloute.

It's very dainty, I'd say that was a starter.

Three chips?

We like chips and we like a stack or a pile of chips.

I love your little tongue balls, I like those.

It's very much to me like cod and chips out of

a fish-and-chip shop, which it should be.

I like the fennel. I find the whole thing lacking in flavour.

The fish and chips, I think's a very good thing.

The textures are right - crispy, crunchy bits of cod tongue.

There's that very powerful, almost star anise, flavour of fennel,

liquorice. But the sauce gets lost with that liquorice.

Lots of good work, it's about seasoning.

I really don't know.

It was quite simple but it was all bits I'd not done before,

so it was a bit risky, but I just have to wait and see what happens.

-Could've been a lot worse.

-Yeah.

Stuart also chose the cods' cheeks and he's cooked them

in a panko crumb, with saute potatoes, poached quail's eggs,

a bacon crisp, asparagus and green beans,

served with a parsley mayonnaise.

Not bad for an invention test and an invention test with,

dare I say, scraps.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

You have got good flavours on there and it's the immediately

recognisable flavours of British fish and chips.

You've got good seasoning on top of that cods' cheek that you've

breadcrumbed and fried and you've got a coarse saltiness,

on that crispy bacon.

But why I'm really impressed is the acidity in the mayonnaise,

which gives you the vinegar along with the salt.

At that point, you'd won me over, I was sold on the dish.

-Very well done.

-Thank you.

What I really like is it's been thought.

You've made mayonnaise, you've got these soft little potatoes,

but I think the addition of the tiny quail's egg yolk, it's a good thing.

I'm really, really happy with that.

I had to do well today to stay in,

so I hope what I've done is enough to keep me in the competition.

Liz is pinning her hopes on a deconstructed fish pie.

She's made poached cod topped with crispy new potatoes,

with a white wine and cream sauce.

It's served with spinach, carrots and green beans.

-Nice ideas. Not fully sold on the presentation.

-OK.

The fish, as you know, is a little bit over, gone a bit dry.

-Yeah.

-But I'll tell you what I really like, I like that sauce.

That sauce, it's sharp, a little bit sour, sweet with shallots,

smooth and creamy and it holds everything together

and with the spinach and the beans, it makes the whole dish special.

Great attempt, lots of work, love the veg.

John likes the sauce.

I'm not a huge fan of the sauce.

I'm feeling disappointed that I didn't wow.

I'm feeling nervous that it might leave me,

sort of, middle to bottom table.

I don't know, I don't know.

We need to make a decision.

One of you will be leaving the competition.

I will call you back in as soon as we possibly can.

Oh, here we are again.

-Here we are again.

-Oh!

I felt for our four because they'd worked very, very hard

on that ship and they had to come back here and pull themselves up

by the bootstraps and attack this challenge.

Not an easy job to do, invention test with leftovers.

Two of the four did very well and I think that was the boys.

The boys shone.

I really liked what Jack did, he's a clever cook.

The amount of technique in Jack's dish was incredible.

Confit and the egg yolk, smoking the fish, making crumb,

making a really good veloute and all those classic techniques

coming together in an invention test.

Stuart had one of those good days, he had a good idea

and he ran with it.

He made a pretty looking dish, but actually, for me,

he captured the flavour of fish and chips.

You make your own mayonnaise, you make your own crumb,

you start doing those things in an invention test

and your food starts to shine.

-Are we saying the lads are safe?

-They're going straight through.

So, we're making a decision now about the girls - Liz or Jen?

We always considered Jen to be a safe cook

and there she is today cooking with cod tongues and making veloutes.

I mean, it's interesting how she's changed

and become quite experimental.

The sauce for me was very bland.

The cod, although a decent texture, again no seasoning.

I was disappointed with the flavour of Jen's dish.

I don't think a few weeks ago I would've attempted

anything like this, so to be able to do that has made me

sort of realise how much I have learnt and I don't want to stop.

Liz made us a deconstructed fish pie, really,

and what she should have done was just made us

a good unctuous fish pie.

And that's what happens, if you start without a plan,

then you end up with a dish that doesn't really make any sense.

We ended up with the cod overcooked, nice crispy small potatoes

across the top and then a very acidic cream sauce.

I liked that sharp sauce, I thought

that was the making of the dish actually.

This is the most terrified that I've been.

I'm, like, really kind of emotional just thinking about going out.

Not what I expected to be judging, one of the ladies,

at this point, but there we are. What does your heart say?

For me, I've got to take into consideration both the tasks.

I really do.

Which one of these two is really the better cook?

I think I know.

We asked you to fight for your place in the competition,

that's exactly what you did.

We have made a decision.

The person leaving us...

..is Jen.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jen. Thank you.

I'm gutted I'm leaving because I've enjoyed myself so much,

but I'm really proud.

Getting to the semifinals has been amazing.

I had a great time and I just have to be really happy

that I've had the chance to do this.

I'm happy to keep taking the rough with the smooth.

I'm learning from every single round.

I want more. I want to go all the way.

It does not get any easier with this pressure

with the other three cooks in a room.

That was a tough challenge, that was a really, really tough challenge.

Final seven on MasterChef.

Every time the numbers go down, it gets more and more incredible.

I'm starting to think now maybe I can make it to the final.

Tomorrow night, the final seven will be pushed to their limits

as they take full control of a restaurant kitchen...

Whoa! Who opened their pressure cooker?

..cooking for their toughest critics yet.

We're moving out in two minutes.

Only the best will make it through.

We've got to go. We've got to go, got to go!

HE SOBS