Episode 21 MasterChef

It's the last of the MasterChef semifinals,

and tonight just one challenge stands between

these six exceptional cooks and their place in the finals.

I can't quite believe that this is me talking about

possibly being in a finals week of MasterChef.

Semifinals week's been tough,

so to get this far and to go home would be...

it'd be a right gutter.

I'm going to go into it and just cook my heart out,

and that's all I can do.

What a huge amount of pressure,

but you know what? It's for finals week.

They've set their own benchmark, they've got to keep going.

Bring it on.

Today, one dish...

separates you from finals week.

You have presented your food to a restaurant critic before,

we know that.

However, today, you are presenting your food to four.

Tracey MacLeod,

Charles Campion,

Jay Rayner,

and William Sitwell.

At the end of this...

one of you is going home.

Five plates in one hour and 15 minutes.

Please don't have a disaster.

Let's cook.

This is probably my most "ideas" dish with the least practice, sadly,

but, yeah, I have done the individual elements

so I just hope it all comes together.

I'm going to look at you and pretend I haven't seen a mixture of

oranges, venison, Brussels sprouts and pomegranates - and coffee!

You wouldn't expect it to be anyone else's bench

other than me, would you?

Mate, you are now officially nuts!

-Congratulations.

-Thanks, Gregg.

What on Earth are you making, mate?

Venison with pomegranate and sweet potato and celeriac granola bar,

a coffee crumb and some charred Brussels sprouts leaves.

I don't know what to ask you, really.

I sort of want to wish you the best of luck and leave you to it,

and I hope that I'm going to love it.

Billy's enthusiasm enthrals me.

We know for a fact that venison matches sweet flavours.

This could be geniously clever or it could fall flat on its face.

My quarterfinal duck dish for Jay Rayner,

the feedback that I got for that was incredible.

So, we'll see, but, yeah, I'm trying not to think about

the end of today and just concentrate on the task at hand.

-Annie, last time you cooked for a critic it went down a storm.

-It did.

-Today, can you do the same?

-I think so. I hope so.

So it's roasted wood pigeon with a celeriac puree,

salsify, salt baked turnips and a red wine and Madeira sauce

with lots of nutmeg and allspice in it.

-Are you nervous?

-Yes.

-Why?

-Cos it matters a lot.

I think I just need to push a bit more

and hopefully get as far as I can go.

Many of the dishes you've cooked, there's been a little secret,

a little something magical.

Is there a secret in this dish?

Erm, I don't know, you'll have to tell me.

The sauce is pretty good if I get it right.

Cooking pigeon requires a very good touch.

She allies that with some brilliantly cooked vegetables

and a deep, rich sauce, it could go down very well.

You've got to take a few risks so you stand out from everyone else.

I just hope that I get into my happy zone, then I can just crack on,

and I don't have any major disasters,

cos if I do, I don't really have any time to fix it.

-What are you making today?

-So it's like a pine nut risotto.

A confit egg on top, a little bit of shaved black truffle,

some nice pan-fried chicken with a crispy chicken skin,

watercress salad with a sherry vinegar dressing and some herb oil.

-Wow!

-If you make a mistake now I just think you're out.

I mean, everyone is just putting out absolutely cracking dishes,

so there's no room for errors, really.

-Harsh, innit?

-It is harsh, but it's the competition,

so just got to man up and get on with it.

What's really intriguing me is something I've never had before,

which is a mound of pine nuts with a confit quail's egg.

I hope the critics are intrigued by it as well.

I can almost taste it, the final week, now.

Standards are going to be exceptionally high.

I think nothing less than perfection is the order of play today.

Stuart, I think of you as a big, meaty man,

and today we've got scallops!

Yes, I love a scallop, I'm still keeping some big flavours in there,

but I thought, "Let's smarten it up, let's make it look a little neater."

Scallops, apples, cheese, cauliflower...

How do they all fit together into a dish?

Everything in here I, I love eating.

Got to be careful to balance all the flavours with it, obviously,

cos you don't want to lose the scallops.

It's simple ingredients that you can buy in the supermarket

hopefully elevated to something really delicious.

I want those scallops to be cooked beautifully,

I want them dark and crisp on the outside.

I want to taste the pea.

Cheese, as we know, is a big, strong flavour.

There's danger, and it's flashing a warning sign out to me.

I love the flavours on this dish,

they're really earthy and gorgeous,

and I just hope that they love them too,

and that the passion that I have for it comes across.

I'm doing a roast loin of venison with a fig tarte tatin,

celeriac puree, glazed carrots and butter cabbage.

Now you've come this far, how far do you think you may be able to go?

I don't know, Gregg. You might have to drag me out kicking and screaming

but I'm going to stay as long as I can,

as long as you keep enjoying what I'm cooking.

-And feeding the critics?

-I...I just think I'm feeding my mum!

-I'm not thinking about that at the moment!

-Jane, good luck.

Thanks a lot, cheers.

Jane is relying on old-fashioned cookery skills

and the ability to pack flavour into that dish.

Let's hope it's safe and good, and not safe and dull.

Cooking for four critics is incredibly nerve-wracking.

I have tremendous respect for their opinion,

and I do not want to let them down.

What are you making, Jack?

Guinea fowl in half-mourning, with a celeriac fondant,

girolles, cavolo nero, a champagne sauce,

-and I'm doing little croquettes as well.

-What's half-mourning?

Half-mourning is where you layer truffle underneath the skin,

and then when it comes out they've got a black skin,

and I think that's what the French used to say,

the bird was in mourning cos it was dressed in black.

You've become very classic here and quite conservative, Jack.

You don't need to put a spin on everything.

I think if you start to do that

then you dig yourself a hole and you can't get out of it.

But last time you used truffle you put it in custard.

And I've learned from that mistake

and there is not a spot of custard on this dish.

I'm hoping that Jack can really infuse that bird with the truffle.

Lots of green vegetables, a big rich sauce,

and a little bon-bon made from the legs.

It could be a very good thing.

I really hope they do themselves justice today.

I want them to impress the critics as well as they've impressed us.

A moment like this, you've got to deliver.

What's not to like?

It's a day when the people who are cooking are the six best.

Fantastic!

Us critics are lovely people, we're kind to children

and we feed pets when people are away on holidays

and all those sorts of things,

but when they start cooking for us, sometimes it just falls apart.

I'm slightly disappointed that none of the cooks from my heat

have made it through to the semifinals.

They were good, so the fact that these guys are better really

fills me with excitement.

If they can stay true to their roots as being

really good amateur cooks then we should be in for a treat.

-You on time?

-Er, yeah.

I could have done with getting these on a bit earlier.

-Where's our granola bar?

-Not sure we're going to get a bar, sadly.

Doesn't seem to have set very well.

Billy isn't giving much away.

Venison, pomegranate and oats.

There are deer in the Middle East, so presumably deer have met

pomegranates at some point in their life.

What's he actually going to do? We have no idea.

(Come on, Billy, come on.)

Good work, let's go.

-Hello.

-Hi.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Hi, guys. So I've done you a fillet of venison

with a potato puree, a pomegranate granola,

coffee crumb, coffee oil,

and some charred sprouts,

and a venison reduction.

-Cheers.

-Enjoy.

This looks like a sort of unusual piece of landscape

in the kind of Australian outback with this, sort of, this mountain.

But it does draw you in.

It's very clear what the star of the show is.

A lovely piece of venison that's not been overcooked.

That smoked potato puree is actually quite nice

if you had a real dollop of it, but the other stuff...

I mean, this coffee crumb,

it's a flavour put on a plate by somebody who hates you.

I can totally understand it, lots of people hate me.

Didn't have to show it so directly.

It's a mixture of ridiculous things.

If you want to serve some sprouts, serve some sprouts.

Don't just tear off two leaves and singe them

and think that's going to give you a little bit of, erm, veg.

It's all just a sort of, just a dish in a minor key.

The venison is cooked very, very well.

The puree is lovely and sticky and creamy.

But what I expected was a crunch of granola.

Instead what I've got is a puffed, chewy rice.

'A bit, er, frustrated with myself.'

HE GROANS

I don't know, I just felt that

the balance of the plate wasn't quite right.

There was too much meat and not enough everything else.

I know I didn't nail it, that's for sure.

So, Jack is doing guinea fowl in half-mourning

with truffled croquettes, cavolo nero, girolles,

and a champagne sauce.

Half-mourning?

I hope we're not in mourning for his dish when he comes out.

There we go.

Ooh, I like that, mate. Ooh, I do like that.

-Smells good.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Good, it's going.

-Go, Jack, go!

-Go on, mate.

-Well done, Jack.

Thank you, I'm just going with two, if that's all right?

-Yeah, sure.

-Bye, Jack.

-Nice.

Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks.

So, today, I've cooked for you guinea fowl in half-mourning,

with layers of truffle underneath the skin, celeriac fondant,

girolles, a champagne sauce, cavolo nero, charred leeks,

and a truffled croquette.

Thank you, enjoy.

Rather admire the classicism of this.

There's a confidence about it, and everything's going together

and working quite well.

I think he's done something really original with this

half-mourning with the truffle under the skin, the guinea fowl is

just right, the cavolo nero, there's such good flavour there.

What sort of just elevates it is that little croquette, which

just adds an accent to the whole dish, and a crunch, and a savour.

This is work of the highest standards.

The best thing on the plate is that crispy bon-bon that's made

with the leg of the bird, that's very nice.

A little bit of truffle underneath that skin of that guinea fowl,

which is cooked beautifully and buttery and rich.

It's good.

HE GASPS

It's not something I ever thought in a million, million years

that I'd ever get a chance of doing, so I just hope

that my food has done it justice, done the opportunity justice.

So, Juanita is doing pan-roasted chicken with pine nuts,

confit quail egg, black truffle and watercress salad.

Now, I remember Juanita's spicy laksa,

and it was a fiery little number,

so whilst I wouldn't trust her with my life,

I would trust her with my next main course.

-Oh-oh, you've broke one. Oh, it's tense, innit?

-Really tense.

Doesn't help when you're shaking.

That's nice. That's clever, that's nice.

-Wonderful.

-Go.

Come on, don't rest on your laurels, get it out there.

-How are you?

-Very good, thank you.

So I've cooked for you today pan-fried roasted chicken

with crispy chicken skin, pine nuts, confit quail egg, black truffle,

a little watercress salad dressed with sherry vinegar and a herb oil.

-Enjoy.

-Thank you very much.

The chicken, to me, is good.

I like the way that the truffle

picks up on the mushroom flavour going through,

and I, I don't mind the little egg.

She's sort of used it to add a bit more lusciousness.

The surprise number is the risotto made out of pine kernels,

which I really rather like.

It's sweet, it's quite comforting, it's quite nice.

Er, I don't understand, Charles, where you're coming from.

I think it's got, erm, actually a really nasty texture.

CHARLES CHUCKLES

There's flavours on there I really like, and I love the appearance.

I'm just not sold on this pine nut mound.

That was really tough, but I managed it.

Hopefully they liked it and they didn't think it was too weird.

-We're going forward, Stuart, yeah?

-Might be a minute or two over.

So, Stuart's doing scallops, cauliflower, cheddar and ham.

Cauliflower and cheddar, that's cauliflower cheese.

Cheddar and ham, that's cheese on toast.

But all of them together?

I'm concerned. I've got...

This is my concerned face.

Not seen you shake before, Stuart.

Just calm yourself down.

Peas, pea shoots, crumb, apples, come on!

-I don't like being over time.

-Mate, you'll have to apologise.

I will do, I will do.

I'm so sorry I'm late, guys, apologies for the delay.

So, today I've cooked you pan-seared scallops,

cauliflower and apple veloute, shaved cauliflower,

brown butter roast florets, and there's a little bit of

cheese fondue, peas, Iberico ham, and some crunchy breadcrumbs.

-Hope you enjoy.

-Thanks.

I quite like the fact that it's got a mixture of raw ingredients, those

breadcrumbs to add texture, the scallops are extremely well cooked.

He's nailed the textures, but it's not eating pleasure.

The cauliflower veloute, a little bit on the heavy side,

under-seasoned.

It looks good on the plate but it doesn't deliver.

The apple, the cauliflower and the cheese sauce,

with the cauliflower veloute and the scallop actually works.

I don't like it.

Ohhhhh, man!

A little bit of a risky combination, maybe, but I think it works.

HE SIGHS

I need a pint.

Annie, you've got seven minutes.

-Are they being kissed by the pan again or not?

-Yes.

I like the prospect of Annie's dish.

She's got roasted wood pigeon with celeriac, cavolo nero,

salsify, turnips and a red wine sauce.

Wood pigeon is a small bird, and it can be very,

very easy for her to overcook it.

In the round that I judged, she turned in a cracking dish,

so I'm excited to see what she's going to do with this.

Where's this sauce that everything depends on?

In here. Looking good, I think.

Mm-mm, yum.

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

So, today I've made for you pan-roasted pigeon breast

with salt-baked turnips, a Madeira-glazed salsify,

a celeriac puree, cavolo nero, and a red wine and Madeira sauce.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

It's all very pale, uninteresting, so it does make the pigeon

really pop, but I would like to see more colour on the plate perhaps.

I think the pigeon is a little bit overdone. It's fairly tough.

Sauce that pulls it together, just about.

The star of this dish is the cavolo nero.

Without it, it's just a little dull.

Nothing in the delivery is dancing, there's no chutzpah.

There's no one single thing that will live on in memory and go,

"Wow, that pigeon dish was amazing!"

I'd like more style.

This is very old-fashioned.

(Phew!)

That was the quickest hour and 15 minutes ever,

and hopefully they finished the plate.

-You've got three minutes, Jane.

-I've got to cut the meat yet.

That's beautifully cooked.

I like the sound of Jane's dish.

Venison loin, fig tarte tatin, celeriac, port sauce.

All those ingredients on paper working really well together.

The key thing here is the fig tarte tatin.

If she can pull that off, that would go brilliantly with venison.

-I do like them, Jane.

-Thank you.

Very nice. Jane, very classic, very nice.

-Let's go, Jane!

-Well done.

Thank you.

-Good afternoon.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-Hi.

This afternoon I've cooked for you a roast loin of venison

with a fig tarte tatin, celeriac puree and a port wine sauce.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Hope you enjoy it.

-Thank you.

Look at that venison.

It looks so well cooked, and you've got some colour.

Lovely balance of colour here.

Her venison, it's still tender, but it has loads of flavour.

She's really seasoned it well.

A lovely puree with good depth of flavour.

You wouldn't have thought you could make a button-sized tarte tatin.

It's marvellous.

And then you've got this jus, oh, I mean, this is amazing!

I would travel a long way to eat this.

Oh, so good!

Some good well-known flavours on there,

and the little surprise is the fig tarte tatin.

That's a really nice, deep,

sweet flavour that matches the venison very well.

Exhausted, exhilarated, scared.

Bit numb, not quite sure, really.

But I've done it, I've done it, so I'm pleased with myself, I'm proud.

Our critics enjoyed themselves,

had some harsh words to say here and there,

but I'll tell you what fascinates me today is

the change in styles of many of the cooks, and I wasn't expecting that.

We've got one big decision to make here, John,

and then we're in finals week.

We've seen some very complex food from Juanita,

and today we got chicken with watercress

and a sort of pine nut porridge.

Jack did a decent job with his guinea fowl

and the truffles under the skin. Nice looking dish.

Another competent round from Jack.

But here's the other great example of a cook who's changing tack,

and I don't know why.

Jack is a man who deconstructs a coriander cheesecake,

and now we're back to a man doing a classic guinea fowl dish.

I liked Jane's fig tarte tatin,

I thought that was a really lovely idea.

Sweet and sticky with venison, I thought it was great.

The little fig tart I think was the best thing on Jane's plate.

But there was nothing there that grabbed hold of you and...

and sucked you into the plate.

One of the reasons I've really loved Annie through this competition

is everything she's cooked, there's a little sparkle,

and that seems to have disappeared, which is a shame.

I think Annie did a decent dish. My issue is, are we seeing progress?

You quite enjoyed Stuart's dish.

I found it odd.

Cheese, cauliflower, scallops,

I didn't quite understand it.

Maybe he made a mistake by putting one too many ingredients

on that plate, but at least he's pushing himself.

Billy cooks the way he does, I mean,

it's really experimental, and some of the stuff is mind-blowing.

He's an interesting cook, it just didn't quite work for him today.

I've stuck true to my word,

that's how I cook, I like to cook on the edge,

but we shall see, I guess.

I think today's been a really interesting round,

but I think today's been a really dangerous round,

cos right now all six of them are in jeopardy of leaving the competition.

It's really hard when you've just put in all that effort

and you don't know whether it's thumbs up or thumbs down.

You never really know how these things have gone

until you stand up in that horrible line.

This is by far the hardest bit, just waiting to hear the result.

We've pushed you all really, really hard.

You've cooked a lot in these semifinals,

and I'm sure you're exhausted.

But congratulations, all six of you.

We can't take everybody through.

One of you, unfortunately, is leaving us.

The person leaving us...

..is Annie.

Annie, you've been a great contestant.

Thank you so much. Enjoy it!

I don't know if I could have done any more.

I've given everything to the competition.

I've enjoyed myself immensely,

it's been such a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It's been great.

-STUART LAUGHS

-Well done.

You are our final five.

-Finals week.

-Finals week.

MasterChef finalist?

Yeah, I'm speechless.

I feel like I've been hit round the face.

Yeah, I think maybe I need a good slap, actually,

that might bring me back to life.

Exhausted, happy, in disbelief, just, yeah, amazing.

I'm just, I'm really emotional today.

I'm dead proud of myself, and I know my family will be too.

Next week, it's the MasterChef Finals...

Wow!

..and the push to become champion is on.

Sensational flavour.

At the end of the week,

one will be crowned MasterChef Champion 2016.