Episode 13 MasterChef

It's Knockout Week on MasterChef.

Over four weeks of heats,

64 amateurs have fought for their place in the competition.

Yeah.

This is an absolute disaster.

-Don't, don't, don't!

-No, no, no!

Of you go. Come on, let's go.

You cannot rush perfection.

Only the best 14 remain.

Knockout Week. Ooh, scary!

It just feels like there is so much more at stake now. So much more.

However hard I think it's been so far,

I think it's only going to get harder from now.

There's no second chances now. If you cook badly, you're gone.

-GREGG WALLACE:

-We have our chosen 14 here.

Only one of them, though, can become our champion.

This is turning out to be one ripper year.

Welcome to Knockout Week.

I think it gets very exciting from this point on.

We've split you into two groups,

that's blue apron group and red apron group.

Blue apron group, you are cooking first.

When you've both cooked, then we'll make a decision on who

we believe is good enough to go further.

At least two of you will be leaving the competition.

Red aprons, off you go. You have to wait your turn.

We want you to cook for us one plate of food inspired by

your childhood or a family favourite.

And you've got 90 minutes to cook it in.

The food today has got to shine. It's got to sparkle.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's cook.

You look at Lorna's food - the quality, the sophistication -

and it's hard to believe this is a 22-year-old contestant.

Quite remarkable.

This has just been the most mind-blowing experience

from start to finish,

and I really don't want it to finish just yet,

because it's so much fun.

What are you making, Lorna?

Today, I'm making roast beef and Yorkshire puddings,

with some braised red cabbage

and roast potatoes and a cauliflower cheese puree.

All of these different elements are kind of my family's favourite

Sunday dinner treats, I guess.

How long have you been making the Sunday lunch for your family?

Since I was about 10, 11. My mum's a completely useless cook,

so it was either a ready meal or it was down to me.

And I was quite happy to do that.

I think we're in for a treat.

Yorkshire puddings have got to be crispy, the beef has got to

be cooked just so, the potatoes have got to be crispy on the outside.

I don't doubt for one minute that she can cook a Sunday roast.

Can she make it smart enough for MasterChef?

Shauna, so far in this competition, has shown that she is

very, very technical and understands great food from all round the world.

I find Shauna very, very impressive.

The best moment was meeting three past finalists.

To finally have them eating my food,

that was... You know, I was starstruck a little.

And I think, since I've got this far, they must've liked it,

so even better.

Shauna, what are you making?

I am making my version of a full Irish cooked breakfast today.

GREGG LAUGHS

Right!

So, I am basting my bacon with Lapsang Souchong tea,

maple syrup and Irish whiskey.

Then I'm doing white beans with lemon, thyme and roast garlic.

I have just made a black pudding

and put it in the oven in the bain-marie.

I am going to do a morel mushroom base

with a baked duck egg and creme fraiche,

and I am doing a sweet potato rosti,

so I am just heightening things a little.

Of all the dishes from your past,

why are you doing a dirty great fry-up?

Because my relatives used to own a bacon company,

and three or four times a year they would send us a box of their goods,

so that was like a luxury, and we had one cooked breakfast

a month. That was really my biggest childhood memory at the table.

You've given thought to how this is going to look, have you?

I just need to spend some five or ten minutes at the end

making sure it looks the way I want.

Shauna's not making a smarter Irish breakfast.

She is reinventing the breakfast.

She is taking every single part and trying to do it

with different flavours.

But has she given herself too much to do?

30 minutes gone.

You've got an hour left.

The food that Steve cooks is amazing.

Real finesse, real flavour

and lots and lots of detail.

Rarely have I seen anybody impress William Sitwell that much.

Getting that feedback from the critic was a big confidence boost.

Have I peaked too early?

I hope not. I hope not.

How are you doing, Steve?

-Yeah, not bad. You?

-I'm OK, actually.

Tell me what your dish is, Steve.

So, I am going to do roast loin of pork,

braised belly stuffed in a cabbage, a little bit of mashed potato,

a little bit of parsnip puree, a tiny little bit of apple sauce.

I've got some crackling in the oven.

So what's the inspiration, what's the memory of the dish?

I mean, my mum was a single mum, sort of working all the time,

so the only time we really sat down as a family was Sunday dinner,

and of all the things I could've done today, I thought

I'm going to try and come here

and pay a little homage to my mum's Sunday dinner.

What were the chances, when you were a kid,

having pork belly wrapped up in a cabbage leaf?

You probably could have knocked yourself out

with a pork loin my mum cooked, to be fair!

You've got to step it up, haven't you?

Steve's pork dish bears no resemblance whatsoever

to a roast dinner right now.

A loin of pork with no fat on it?

He's got to be careful it doesn't dry out.

My concern for Steve right now is, apple puree,

parsnip puree and mashed potato and the cider sauce all together.

It could be a bit potato-and-pork soupy.

Being in Knockout Week feels amazing.

I didn't know I was going to get this far,

so I surprised myself.

I think I surprised my husband as well!

So, yeah, really pleased.

So, I'm cooking lamb cawl,

my version of lamb cawl, which is a traditional Welsh stew

based on root vegetables and lamb,

but I'm obviously going to jazz it up for the competition,

so we are going to have a rack of lamb with an onion-and-leek puree,

heritage roast carrots, which are baking in the oven in a salt dough,

and a sauce, and parsnip crisps.

Where's the inspiration, where's the food memory for this cawl?

When I was younger, my mum, she did love Welsh lamb cawl,

and she taught me to cook lamb cawl when I was really young.

-Any worries?

-The timing of my lamb.

I am going to really slow pan-fry it first,

in the oven for ten minutes max,

and then leave it to rest for at least 20 minutes.

Leanne is cooking us a lamb dish inspired by her Welsh lamb stew

with vegetables but, actually, it's not a stew in any way at all.

It's a roast rack of lamb and some veggies.

And the big concern for me right now is the way she's going to cook

that rack of lamb. Just ten minutes?

Is that enough to cook through a rack of lamb? I'm unsure.

We love the heart and soul of Lindsey's food.

Got a great touch, good palate.

There's a really good, great grounded cook in Lindsey.

This is absolutely burnt, I think.

Ohh.

When I was younger, my parents had a pub,

and my mum used to make these amazing pies.

Her steak pie was renowned throughout the land,

and so I wanted to do something similar,

but elevate it slightly.

-Lindsey, is everything going to plan today?

-Not quite, no.

What's gone wrong?

The juices from the ox cheek should have been used to make the sauce,

so, unfortunately, it's caught on the bottom, and the last thing

I'd want to do is serve a burnt sauce to you guys,

so I'm just going to have to make some new gravy.

Right. So, what are you going to make for us?

I making you an individual ox cheek Wellington

with baked bone marrow

and truffled cavolo nero.

Listen, I hope you get this right, because this sounds divine to me.

So do I!

Beef cheek Wellington, John - superb.

-Big flavours.

-It sounds delicious,

as long as that pastry across the top is lovely and crispy

and not soggy on the bottom.

As long as the beef cheek inside is wonderful and tender.

She has got an issue with her gravy.

I just hope she gets it out the way she wants it.

30 minutes left, please, guys. Half an hour left.

Giovanna, she's got an Italian grandmother,

and you can see Italian influences running through her food.

It's bursting full of flavour, it's always really well seasoned.

Giovanna's not put a foot wrong so far in this competition.

That's pretty impressive.

I love this brief. I love the family element of it.

My family are huge, huge foodies.

We fight in the kitchen all the time about who gets to cook

so, obviously, they've all had their oar in,

but I am really excited to cook this dish.

What are you making for us, Giovanna?

I am making what I'm calling Zia Lena's butter rabbit.

So, my great-aunt Lena is Italian, and she used to keep rabbits.

She used to do this amazing thing where she'd literally take a rabbit,

stuff it full of so much butter you wouldn't believe,

and roast it for hours and hours and hours. And it was amazing.

So, I have taken the loins and I'm rolling them with the

liver and leg meat, and I've wrapped it in prosciutto and sage.

I am doing it with pumpkin puree, little cipollini onions,

which are roasted, hazelnuts and a beurre noisette,

which is where the butter comes in.

Giovanna, that is the most beautiful piece of trussing work

-I have seen in a very long time.

-Oh, thanks.

My boyfriend is a butcher, so he'd be really pleased to hear that.

So, at least if you go home today, you've got something to be proud of.

Giovanna's dish sounds absolutely fantastic.

If she gets it right, I'm going to be truly impressed.

Absolutely lovely. But you can't see how the rabbit is cooking.

So I hope she understands the timing down to the minute.

Imran understands good food.

It's got true style and it's got great concentrated flavour.

A truly focused, technical, very good cook.

I'm really pleased that my dishes have got me to this point.

And I still think there's quite a bit of improvement to go.

-Imran.

-Yes?

-You're the only person today cooking a dessert.

-Yes.

I've gathered.

I'm making rice pudding called kheer.

It's something I can remember having from a very young age.

So, essentially, a cardamom-spiced rice pudding,

and then I'm serving that alongside a chocolate-filled samosa.

My wife and I actually had one at our wedding.

For the wedding dessert, it was a chocolate samosa,

so I want to recreate that memory. And the very last thing is,

being in born in Kenya, we ate a lot of papaya,

so I am making a papaya sorbet.

-Is it... So filo pastry with chocolate in it?

-Yes.

-Interesting...

Imran is making us a collection

of desserts inspired by his life, really.

It's an interesting collective, but do they belong together?

I think Imran is being very brave, very bold.

I love the sound of the spicy Indian-inspired rice pudding.

Wonderful.

And a chocolate samosa. Not an easy thing to do.

Not feeling too bad.

Just need to make sure these cook correctly

and get everything on the plate, essentially.

Just two minutes. Come on, guys, please.

A few things gone wrong.

A few things that wouldn't have gone wrong normally...that have.

The pork seems to have cooked OK.

Everything else has pretty much gone to plan.

Time's up. Stop!

Well done, everybody.

-Hey...

-Well done.

-You got so much done.

-My face is red and your face is red.

-It's so red.

-I know.

Giovanna, andiamo.

Let's go.

Giovanna's dish has been inspired

by her great-aunt Lena's roasted rabbit.

She's made rolled rabbit loin saltimbocca,

stuffed with rabbit leg and liver,

with a pumpkin-and-apple puree,

roasted onions, garlic spinach,

toasted hazelnuts and a beurre noisette.

That is absolutely beautiful.

That's good.

Delicious. Superb.

Fantastic. Extraordinary.

Wonderful.

And beautiful. All at the same time.

Because in here, you have the magic that is great food.

The rabbit is beautiful and moist and soft.

There is texture of hazelnuts,

sweet pumpkin, with the lovely butter as well, all going together.

It's dreamy.

Very accomplished dish in terms of cooking ability,

wonderful natural understanding of good flavours,

and presentation good enough to wear as jewellery.

Oh, it was amazing.

I couldn't have asked for better comments.

I loved that dish.

I'm so glad that they did,

otherwise my nonna would have been furious that I'd messed it up.

-Well done.

-Thanks. Thanks.

Steve, bring your plate up, please.

Steve's dish is a celebration of childhood Sunday roasts -

roasted loin of pork, mashed potato,

braised pork belly wrapped in cabbage,

butter-poached carrots and leeks, parsnip puree, apple sauce,

pork crackling and a cider sauce.

I wouldn't mind those carrots and leeks cooked a little bit more.

That is where my criticism of this dish begins and ends.

-The rest of it I find absolutely fantastic.

-Uh-huh.

The combination of the pork,

the really buttery, smooth mashed potato,

and the slight bitterness in that sauce, I think, is superb.

-Thanks.

-Superb.

Your little cabbage rolls all filled with that sweet pork belly

and vegetables is fantastic.

Your cooking is sound... when you remember to do it.

HE CHUCKLES

I do feel confident,

but it may be down to a couple of undercooked carrots.

You just don't know, do you? So I think time will tell, I suppose.

-Nice.

-You could hear him nearly break the plate

when he cut the carrot!

I think that's fine. I think you're fine.

Shauna, up you come, please.

Ohh, careful.

Inspired by the full Irish breakfast,

Shauna has cooked bacon infused in Lapsang Souchong tea,

whiskey and maple syrup,

with sweet potato rosti,

baked duck egg with morel mushrooms and creme fraiche,

cannellini beans roasted with lemon and garlic,

black pudding with apple,

stout-and-walnut bread with seaweed butter,

and a shot of stout.

JOHN AND GREGG GROAN

Yeah, it's not cooked at all. Look.

Damn.

The white is not set in any way at all,

which means I don't want to eat it.

However, on this plate there are little gems.

The fact that you made your own black pudding is extraordinary,

and it's really tasty.

Your tomato sauce is lovely and rich, that's wonderful.

Bacon.

You don't need to put tea across the top of it

because it's perfect as it is.

I love that bread with the seaweed butter.

The bread is light and naturally sweet.

Phenomenal.

It looks a mess, and there's too many things on there that are wrong.

I think you are much, much better than this.

Deflated, to be honest.

I managed to kind of mess up, and the egg let me down.

I think, after that, I felt I hadn't achieved my goal for them,

but I've taken their criticism on board and can only get better.

Oh, well. I knew it with the presentation.

Lorna...please.

Lorna's recreated the Sunday roast she had as a child.

She's cooked roast beef with Yorkshire puddings,

a cauliflower cheese puree, roast potatoes,

a horseradish cream,

braised red cabbage

and a red wine sauce.

Lovely, lovely soft, rare beef,

and I really like your cauliflower cheese puree.

Love the crunchy potatoes. LOVE, love, love the crispy cabbage.

Very impressed with you, Lorna.

You get the spiciness of the horseradish with that sweet sauce

and that beautifully cooked piece of beef, and it's fantastic.

And it tastes like roast dinner at home, but it looks special.

It's really very, very good.

I'm really happy with that.

Every single lot of judging, you never really know what

they're going to say, but, yeah, another lot of positive comments.

-Great.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-Brilliant.

-Well done.

-You OK?

-Yes.

Lindsey, up you come.

Lindsey's dish is inspired by her mum's pub pies.

It's an ox cheek Wellington,

baked bone marrow with chopped parsley and breadcrumbs...

..truffle cavolo nero

and a peppercorn sauce.

Those sweet cheeks are soft, they are lovely,

and there's slight sweetness to them. They're rich.

I love the truffle flavour throughout.

Love the creamy sauce.

However, you've been too heavy-handed with your salt pot.

There's too much salt inside the bone marrow.

There's too much salt inside this Wellington.

Oh, mate!

The promise of it, I think is fantastic.

-I think you've just got to leave the salt pot to one side.

-OK.

I obviously made some mistakes,

and there's nothing you can do about that once it's on the plate.

So annoyed about the salt.

But my overall performance I'm pleased with.

Leanne, up you come.

Based on her mum's lamb cawl stew,

Leanne has served rack of lamb with roast potatoes,

salt-baked carrots,

a leek-and-onion puree,

parsnip crisps and a lamb sauce.

I do like my carrots to be peeled.

They look really a bit rough around the edges,

especially the green tops that haven't been trimmed properly.

I'm a little bit scared of this lamb fat as well, I've got to say.

The most delicious thing on here are those parsnips with rosemary.

I love your potatoes. The lamb itself needs to be cooked more.

It's raw in the centre,

and the white fat around the outside is not cooked at all.

Your flavours are lovely.

I don't think you got presentation right today,

and both John and I would like to see that lamb cooked some more.

Yeah.

Feeling really deflated.

I've never undercooked lamb in my life,

and so I am really, really disappointed.

Never mind.

Imran, about time we had something sweet. Please, sir.

Imran has made a trio of desserts -

a brulee Indian rice pudding called kheer,

a papaya sorbet

and a chocolate-filled samosa.

Inside that rice pudding there is so much spice, but I really like it.

The chocolate with that cinnamon, together,

I really like as well.

And the rice pudding is very, very cleverly under-sweetened,

because the sugar is coming from the brulee top.

And it's delicious.

The sorbet at the end is very subtle.

I think it's stylish, and I think it's delicious.

-I think it's absolutely delicious.

-That's amazing.

I'm ecstatic.

I've just got two really good reviews from John and Gregg,

so I really couldn't ask for more.

I thought today was incredibly good.

The ambition, the invention,

the cookery knowledge in this room could fill a book.

It's very, very impressive.

Well done, guys.

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

obviously the red group have to cook.

So, thank you, blue group. Off you go.

There's some impressive cooks in the room.

Some great food in this round.

Oh, John, fantastic round.

Fantastic round.

For me, one today which just blew me away, and that was Giovanna.

That rabbit dish was absolutely fantastic.

Giovanna got it today. I mean, she smashed it.

I loved Imran, not just because he did a dessert. It was just classy.

It was clever,

because it was textural but it had great bold flavours as well.

I loved Steve's pork. Really good.

Big meaty flavours, great textures.

But he didn't cook the vegetables enough,

because the rest of it was just fantastic.

Lorna did me maybe the best-looking roast beef dish I have ever seen.

Lorna has got skill and, at 22,

I tell you what, she's shining bright.

Those four had an incredibly strong round.

The other three, they had a slight wobble.

I'm frustrated for Lindsey. I really am. She's a great cook.

I mean, you think about it, beef inside pastry with truffles

and bone marrow, it's got to be a winner.

However, you laden that with salt

and it becomes not a very nice dish at all.

Unfortunately, somebody's got to go home. I just hope it's not me.

Leanne wobbled today. She had some wonderful flavours on the plate.

However, the lamb was undercooked,

and that's the centrepiece of the dish.

I'm really worried about going home.

I hope I don't, but I've got a funny feeling I will be.

Shauna today - overambitious. That was the problem.

There were some really good bits.

I particularly liked the dark bread with the seaweed butter.

I thought that was lovely.

But we had a raw egg with some cheese on it.

I mean, this isn't good.

There's another seven people, you know, to cook.

From today's feedback,

I really feel like I am one of the contenders for going home.

Regardless of how strong a round this is, we can't make a decision

until such time as we see the rest of them cook.

Coming up after the break,

the second seven cook off...

I'm losing track of a few things a little bit.

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

-It's perfectly delicious.

-Love it.

..and who goes.

The two people leaving us...