Episode 25 MasterChef

Seven weeks ago,

64 determined amateur cooks

set their sights on the MasterChef title...

Off you go, come on, let's go.

-Fumbi, I need this ravioli, please.

-I am under the cosh.

..now only the three most talented remain.

It's a lot of work.

A lot of thinking about food, talking about food,

dreaming about food.

Hopefully I can cook to my best and that's good enough to win.

It's a bit sad, really.

It's all coming to an end.

It's the last chance to cook, it's the last chance to get in

that kitchen and really show what you can do.

It is a really big test and I'm treating it a bit like an exam.

It has to be

the best three dishes of my life.

Tonight, either Giovanna,

Steve or Saliha will be crowned MasterChef Champion 2017.

13 years we've been doing MasterChef

and it is different every single year,

but one thing always remains true -

that is the passion for cooking and some absolutely fantastic dishes.

Every year, you and I are blown away.

We're continually surprised.

The quality of the cooking just gets better and better.

64 cooks from all walks of life - doctors, air hostesses, dentists,

farmers, policemen, DJs, musicians.

All sorts of people with one common goal -

to lift the MasterChef trophy.

Throughout this competition, right from day one,

we have had dishes that have delighted us...

Love it.

Yum!

..dishes that have surprised us...

Crocodile. It's kind of weird.

..and terrified us.

Prawn in oats.

It's almost inedible.

I'm not enjoying it, I'm sorry.

It's beyond my powers of description.

But now it's the final.

And what we've ended up with is three, I think,

incredible finalists.

I actually grew up in north-west London.

Mum and Dad got divorced when we were really young,

so my mum was just looking after me and my sister.

Going out working all day.

She didn't enjoy cooking. More functionality, rather than passion,

you know.

Food in my house when we were kids was just toad-in-the-hole,

or you know... But she always used to do a roast dinner.

When the microwave got invented in the '80s,

you don't see the oven again, you know.

Steven was a quiet child.

I noticed he was very creative when he was working with

Lego and Meccano.

And then I noticed that he enjoyed music.

He joined the recorder club and that was the start of the music.

Never really did that well at school.

I was a bit of a tearaway when I was younger, I suppose.

But I always had a goal and I always knew what I wanted to do.

I always really wanted to write music.

I think I released my first record in 1995.

It all kind of carried on from there.

Started DJing in 2006.

It kind of just takes you all over the place.

I've been to America, Australia, New Zealand, all over Europe.

Blends into one, really!

I met Sabina back in 2002.

We got married three years ago.

-There you go, honey.

-Thank you.

She's my best friend and we do lots of things together.

We both enjoy the food side of things.

You know, when you're cooking those dishes on the programme,

it takes a bit of practice and been eating the same thing over and over

and over and over again.

I'm very, very proud of him.

With his music, he expresses himself a lot,

because he's very talented in that way, but when it comes to

his food, not a lot of people see how good he is.

The chicken's lovely and tender.

Steven's cooking has gone onto another level,

into another hemisphere.

-Here's to you...

-Cheers.

-..in the final.

I'm very, very proud of him,

as all of his family will be when they watch him on the television.

Steve has not ceased to amaze me, from the moment he walked in

through round after round after round.

You can cook.

Yeah, I think Steve's onto a winner with this dish.

When you get good feedback, it's a little bit of a boost and you think,

"Yeah, OK, you know what? Yeah."

Steve has always taken a classic idea

and, with a little bit of technique,

turned it on its head.

I didn't realise I was doing technical cooking.

It's when other people have pointed it out to me,

I'm like, "Oh, yeah, it's a good point."

Your cooking is sound.

That's a yummy, yummy thing.

It's a masterpiece. It's everything that it was visually and more.

I was not expecting that cos it was...a plate of peas.

That was probably a bit of a turning point for me.

That made me think, "Wow, actually, maybe I could do all right here."

I think this is fantastic, Steve.

Mate, you are a talent.

Steve has continually pushed himself throughout this competition.

Me and you are going to have to really go for it now.

It's getting very close to a professional kitchen in there.

And Steve really looks like he's over every single section.

This is good. Go, go, go, go, go.

In every round, I've always been determined to do my best and get

-faultless dishes.

-Steve, let's go, please.

I haven't managed to do it all the time.

Little bit of a last-minute rush.

It's got a very nice flavour, but it's not a prawn cocktail.

My issue is the risotto.

It has the texture of babyfood.

It takes a lot out of you.

This heat is just so draining.

It's so difficult, you know.

Doing this competition has definitely given me a different

insight into food.

I'm so proud of you, it looks amazing, well done.

I will use words such as yummy.

Getting the opportunity to cook with Sat Bains was absolutely amazing.

Seeing some of the techniques that I'd actually tried to do and seeing

a two-star chef doing them properly, I think I got a lot out of that.

I didn't realise how many people are watching me do this!

Don't worry about them.

That's as good as we send out at the restaurant.

To execute like that, I think for an amateur cook, is extraordinary.

For me, that dish was wow.

I think Steve's dishes have finally reached his ambition.

I think he's been pushing himself,

he's been searching for the finest of food

and I think he's got there, John.

What a time, I think,

to present the best dish you've done in the competition

-by a country mile.

-Wow.

Bingo.

I want it as much as the next person.

You know, we've come this far and it would be amazing to walk away with

that trophy, of course it would.

I was born and raised in and around Cambridge.

I was quite a typical oldest child.

I think I was very bossy.

I'd decide that I wanted to make something

and used every pan in the house

and every ingredient in the fridge.

It didn't matter, but that's what I was going to make.

I was quite academic,

but I always loved music and theatre and sort of generally showing off.

I was part of a drama school.

I played the piano from the age of seven.

Gio certainly was... had an interest in music early on

and we encouraged that.

Sat with her many times doing scales and things before breakfast.

You weren't allowed breakfast till you'd done your scales!

-We used to make pasta together.

-Yes.

'My nonna is Italian.

'She is 95.'

We used to stay for weeks and weeks with her in the school holidays.

Do you think I'm a good cook, Nonna?

You are, yes.

I cook for you all the time at home.

Yes.

She's been a huge influence on my food and upbringing.

-Do you want the salt and pepper, Gio?

-Yeah.

My family have just been so incredibly supportive.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

They've put up with so much, cos I can get quite stroppy.

-We've been amazed and incredibly proud of her.

-Of course, yeah.

-What can we say?

-Yeah, amazed.

It's just wonderful that she's managed to get to this point

to demonstrate her capabilities.

To get to this level, it's just wonderful.

To Gio and best of luck in the final.

Salute. Chin-chin.

-Thanks, guys.

-Chin-chin.

-Chin-chin, Nonna.

Chin-chin.

Giovanna came in here with her grandmother's Italian cooking

and has developed from there.

It can be polished up, but I don't think it's going to be very hard,

cos I think you've got a really good foundation.

That's a rather grown-up, lovely set of flavours and textures.

For somebody out of their own kitchen, an amateur,

I think that's a pretty good plate of food.

The almond dessert brief was quite a turning point for me.

That was the first time that I thought, "Yeah,

"I could push the boundaries, doing something that

"not many people have tried before."

I think it's subtle, I think it's sophisticated -

absolutely wonderful.

It's been a very impressive journey for Giovanna.

Her food has been well flavoured, well thought out.

Delicious, superb, fantastic, extraordinary.

It's dreamy.

I think the whole thing is absolutely delicious.

And some of the most brilliant desserts

we've ever seen on MasterChef.

Yeah!

Mmm! I think this is a stunning dessert.

There's nothing left of it.

I love that.

There's been times that it's been really, really tough.

Move, move, move!

John, my octopus really isn't good,

but I don't know if I should serve it.

Main event is not great.

The pumpkin, I don't really understand what it's doing there.

It's been a long old slog but I really feel

like that's made me stronger.

Whoops!

Hasn't always been plain sailing but she's one of those classic finalists

who has grown through every step of the competition.

Yes, that is amazing, all right?

I mean, smell it!

Absolutely beautiful, well done.

Lot of love and precision in that.

-Yes!

-Thank you so much.

-Wicked!

When she gets a lesson from somebody professional, she shines.

You've done an absolutely great job, Giovanna, well done.

All these people that we've met, they're my absolute heroes.

I can't describe to you how much of a privilege it is.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

Real, proper, great cooking.

Just a real hug of a dish.

Giovanna's food has always had really strong foundations.

Ally that with newly-found skills

and it's resulted in food that makes you

sit up and take notice.

I honestly can't get enough of that.

That delivers crumble plus.

MasterChef has been one of the toughest things I've ever done.

Cooking and food is such a huge part of my life.

Winning the trophy would just make everyone so proud, I think.

My parents moved from Pakistan to England.

I was born in Sutton in Ashfield in Nottingham.

So, the Midlands!

Food has always been a massive part of my life.

My mum worked but we always had fresh meals growing up.

14 years old, she wanted to do food technology.

Then her teachers said she should go to a local competition.

And she won that. So that really gave her a big boost.

I've got one brother and one sister, both are younger than me.

We are a bit boring, actually,

because we're actually a family of doctors.

My husband is also a doctor.

On the dinner table it will be talking about

very boring sciencey-related things.

I'm working at the moment in Watford General Hospital.

I'm a junior doctor.

I really love my job.

It's incredibly rewarding.

But it's very pressured and challenging.

Add in the pressure of then managing our son,

life is just a constant balancing act.

Seven!

Eight.

'I'm incredibly proud of Saliha and her achievements.'

I think when she first started,

she was in awe of everyone she was working with

and she didn't actually believe she'd do as well as she has.

Again, again!

'As her family, we always believed in her, we knew how good she was.'

Whoa!

Seeing her progress and actually grow in confidence

has been very rewarding.

Yeah!

I'm making biryani for dinner tonight.

-What else are you putting in there?

-Lots and lots of butter.

The amount of work she has done to get to where she is,

doing night shifts, going in the morning and cooking the whole day.

OK, enjoy.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

We, as a family, have been very, very supportive but,

at the end of the day, it is her who has to go and perform.

She has the potential to win.

I think she deserves to win and I'll be very glad if she wins.

Saliha has given us the yum factor right from the very start.

The first day, I cooked food which was pretty normal.

I thought it would be rubbish and that I'd get lots of criticism.

And it turned out that the judges really liked it.

Everything's seasoned really well,

you've thought about the presentation.

Yeah, I like it a lot.

That, for me, is a feast visually and...eatily.

I think the whole thing is fantastic.

That immediately made me think, "OK, no, you have the ability,

"just be confident in what you're cooking and go for it."

Saliha always does something just a little bit extra,

something which always surprises me.

The flavours across this plate punch above their weight,

yet the whole dish is so light and so delicate.

I want to keep on eating it because it's not something as a combination

I'm used to.

This is one of the loveliest things I've ever eaten on this show.

It's just mouthful after mouthful of just pure joy.

Saliha has given us some real triumphs on the plate,

but she's had her off days as well.

This doesn't really excite me.

I'm just looking for something that's, like, wow.

The worst point in the competition

was probably the blackberry dessert.

It needs more flavour of the roasted pistachios.

It needs more flavour of rose-water.

I just thought, "Right, I've really got to up my game now.

"I'd better make myself as good as I possibly can be."

There's a lot for me to do but I'm on it like a bonnet.

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

That lady does not mind rolling her sleeves up

and seriously getting stuck in.

-How you going?

-I have to make sure seven things are happening

at one time.

Well done, looks lovely.

I tell you what, I want to be a vegetarian today.

That looks smashing.

OK, Saliha, this is you now, it's your time to shine, eh?

Get you - you smart, trendy cook.

I thought that dish was delicious. It showed personality.

It was quite unique.

What I've taken from MasterChef has allowed me to

develop so much more confidence for the future.

Very cool.

I mean, it's an incredible piece of cooking.

For me, it's probably my favourite dish of the day, I think.

You don't want it to end -

that's what it's all about, surely?

Saliha has always been able to conjure up

beautiful flavour combinations using spaces.

In this competition, she has learnt modern restaurant chef techniques.

And those two combined have resulted in an extraordinary cuisine.

The aubergine with the walnuts, the fesenjan, is just beautiful.

There is the familiar and the unusual.

And it comes together, for me, in quite a thrilling way.

It would mean the world to me to be able to win MasterChef.

I think it's an undescribably amazing achievement

for whoever gets it.

And I really hope that it's me.

I'm really nervous. It's a huge day.

There's only one challenge separating us from the title.

Feels like a weird dream.

It is a big thing to win MasterChef.

I want it as much as the next person.

Welcome for the final time to the MasterChef kitchen.

This has been a wonderful competition.

However, we can only have one champion.

My expectations today are sky-high,

only because I think you three are awesome.

Food today has to be outstanding, it's got to be individual,

it's got to be thought-provoking

and it's got to be superb.

Three hours, three courses.

At the end of this, one of you is our champion.

Let's cook.

Three great finalists, that's for sure.

And today they're going to have to cook

like they've never cooked before.

We are going to see some amazing food.

We are going to get culinary fireworks.

I think today is probably one of the biggest days of my life,

it's definitely the most important meal I've ever cooked.

I've really put a lot of thought into these dishes.

They are things that I love to cook for my friends and my family so I've

tried to keep it really true to myself

and true to what I like to cook.

How about being in the final?

Oh, gosh, it's like a little dream!

I woke up this morning and thought, "Oh! Off I go to the final."

It's all very surreal but I'm trying to enjoy myself, I'm really,

-really trying to enjoy it.

-Are you going to draw on your Italian

-influences for the final? I was hoping you would.

-Yes.

We've got quite a lot of Italian in there.

You guys have always told me to stick to the food that I love,

the food that I know, the food that I've grown up with,

and this is definitely that.

I wanted to base my menu on what I think cooking should be,

which is making people happy with food.

So everything's sort of based on people I generally cook for

and their favourite things.

My mum loves clams.

So, my starter, I'm doing fregola, clams, baby squid,

and then a tomato broth.

I love the concept of a big bowl of clams

with tomato and squid and pasta.

You can almost taste the sea.

Giovanna's making fregola, a classic Sicilian pasta,

which is just made from semolina and water.

First of all, it's rolled out almost like spaghetti.

Little tiny bits, and then rolled into tiny balls.

And the idea is it's hollow in the centre,

so the inside absorbs the sauce.

The thing is, a bowl of pasta can taste delicious,

but does it look beautiful?

My boyfriend's a butcher,

and he's definitely a meat and two veg type of person.

So I wanted to create something that wasn't, you know,

quite as fancy.

My main course is based around rabbit.

So it's basically rabbit and peas.

Giovanna's main course, a rabbit loin, a rabbit faggot,

a pea and tarragon sauce, and crispy potatoes.

Lardo, well, it's almost fat,

completely fat, and it is delicious!

And she's got that around the loins.

That is lip-smackingly beautiful.

You know, I know,

every cook does know that a rabbit is not easy to handle.

It can dry out.

That's where she has to be careful.

It's a very small bit of meat and it's incredibly tender.

A couple of seconds too much and it's tough.

A couple of seconds too little and it's raw in the middle.

So, pudding, I created for my friend Millie,

who is French.

Giovanna's dessert is really interesting

cos we've got pain perdu.

She's serving that with some blood oranges...

..a creme fraiche sorbet...

..and a rosemary syrup.

Rosemary syrup across with the oranges?

I love it.

Rosemary and blood oranges together?

It could be fantastic.

The pain perdu is quite difficult

because it has to be soaked for as long as possible.

And then it has to be fried off

but it's quite delicate because it's been

soaking in custard.

That's a particularly difficult thing.

Taking inspiration from her French mate, her Italian family,

and her British butcher boyfriend.

Now, that is food from the heart and from the soul

and it sounds delicious.

And Giovanna looks really happy and comfortable with it.

Right, first hour's gone.

You've got two hours left.

I'm sure there'll be a bit of nerves.

We've been doing this so long now that you know the job.

I'm trying to show John and Gregg I can cook fine dining food,

I can be precise, I can get good flavour combinations.

Everything has its place on the plate.

I know I'm a capable cook. I just want to do my thing, really,

and make sure the dishes come out perfectly.

Days don't get a lot bigger than this, mate, do they?

No, they don't. It's a pretty big one today, isn't it?

What's the inspiration for today, Steve?

I think I wanted to take lots of the techniques and stuff that I've

learnt throughout the competition and to do them in my own style.

So, sort of gone back to the quite traditional ingredients

but with a little twist.

What would you give right now to lift that title?

Well, all I can give is my best cooking, so...

Hopefully that'll be good enough.

Steve's first course is scallops

with a celeriac and smoked haddock mousse and apples. Amazing.

The scallops are two different ways,

so there's a bit of a scallop ceviche,

some pan-fried scallops.

It's celeriac a couple of different ways as well.

We have a hot scallop with a warm mousse served with a ceviche

on the side.

I think it's an unusual combination.

I wanted to try and do something I hadn't done yet.

I'm just playing on that smokiness you get with scallops

but trying to do it in a slightly different way.

I've used smoked haddock to infuse cream,

to get that nice smoky taste, which goes so well with scallops.

Celeriac and smoked fish, that's slightly unusual.

I can get the smokiness and earthiness, but inside a mousse?

That's tricky. Tricky to do and tricky to pull off.

However, I'm quite impressed by Steve's thought process.

I'm here to be taught something. That's great.

The main course is just a play on beef and oysters.

It's a very classic, almost Victorian combination.

Sirloin steak with an ox cheek ravioli,

an oyster emulsion and morel mushrooms in a porter sauce.

That's going to be rich and it's going to be hearty.

Piece of beef, first cooked in a water bath.

Needs to have some texture on the outside.

With an ox cheek ravioli...

..which is going to be flavoured with some oysters and some tomato.

I just really love the idea of having steak and oysters.

I'd actually never tried it until this competition and I just thought

to myself, "Let me try and do that for the final."

Oysters, morels, steak, ox cheek, raviolis.

I mean, it's hugely complex...

..as we expect from Steve.

That's a big, beefy, big boy's dish.

That, I cannot wait to get my fork into.

That actually thrills me. That is making me salivate.

Steve's dessert is orange and honey panna cotta...

..with figs.

Delightful combination.

But, again, you can see the skill, you can see the process,

you can see the technique.

I'm doing a gel out of some blood orange juice...

and some honeycomb.

The thing there has got to be those figs.

And they've got to go really,

really beautifully with a creamy little panna cotta on the side.

Cos it's quite a rich, heavy menu,

it's something quite light and refreshing to have at the end.

What Steve is attempting is extraordinary.

He has given himself an incredible amount of work to do.

I know I can cook the food.

But to do all three in three hours?

Obviously, that's always the enemy, you know?

OK, your very last MasterChef hour.

Today is a big test

and it's probably one of the biggest tests I've done.

And that's saying a lot for someone

who had five years of tests at medical school.

I'm going to be working at my top speed.

So it'll be stirring the pot with one hand

while cutting with the other, I think, on this round.

I am feeling really excited.

At the same time, I'm extremely focused right now.

I've got time plans, lists, Venn diagrams.

It's so unlike me.

But I think having a structured approach to my cooking

is going to help me through the next three hours.

What's it been like - MasterChef?

I have been waking up, you know, four, five o'clock

in the morning to cook kumquats or set jellies. And people would think

that's insane but that's what life has been like for me

for the last couple of weeks.

But if you don't work hard, you're not going to get anywhere,

so push yourself to the maximum.

-Good luck, Saliha.

-Thank you.

Saliha's first dish is a kebab made with venison served with a dhal,

a kachumber, and her magic green chutney.

The venison shami kebab is in memory of my grandma's house in Pakistan

where we used to have these kebabs stored in the freezer.

And they used to come out every single time

we had a special guest coming.

They have a very different texture.

They're blended with chana dhal lentils

and the meat is pulverised into a paste.

It's not like anything you've ever eaten before.

Saliha is making a classic dhal, soup with lentils in it,

and lots and lots of flavours and spices.

I'm very, very excited indeed.

I've never had a venison kebab.

I've no idea what this thing is going to look like or taste like.

This is a MasterChef magical mystery tour.

Saliha's main course,

Kashmiri-style duck with a duck sauce

flavoured with the duck livers,

a cherry chutney,

some walnuts, and freekeh.

Freekeh being a green wheat grain

which has just been roasted and dried.

What we both want is the duck to be cooked absolutely perfectly.

Not dry, and it can't be tough.

Saliha has taken the skin off the duck.

She's going to cook it separately so we should get really beautiful,

crispy duck skin.

A cherry sauce and duck?

We know that works.

Sounds almost classic French.

My dessert is going to be a saffron panna cotta...

..which is going to be served with deconstructed baklava, of sorts,

and kumquats.

I think the dessert sounds fantastic.

Saffron being lovely and smoky and really decadent.

Served with bits of filo pastry,

which are going to be crispy because she's deconstructing a baklava.

Comes from my childhood love of baklava.

It's totally sugary and indulgent and rich and full of nuts and honey,

and we used to love that.

Saliha's dessert? I know the ingredients individually.

I'm really unsure of how they're all going to come together.

I wake up having nightmares about melting panna cottas

and about uncrispy baklava pastry.

And honeycomb that's going wrong.

I can't even tell you how distressing it can be!

It's like the worst dream ever.

I love Saliha's menu.

I think it sounds absolutely fantastic.

It's going to be full of spice, it's going to dance around like crazy,

it's just can she get it all done?

Guys, you've got just over 20 minutes left.

Give yourselves enough time to plate your food.

That clock is ticking.

That clock stops for no chef.

-Is it coming together?

-It is coming together, yeah.

Each of these three is completely focused,

their noses down,

cos they know what's at stake.

11 minutes, should be OK.

Giovanna's in a bit of a flap.

She's burned her croutons and she's burnt her pain perdu.

I'm just having a bit of a nightmare.

You've only got to look around her bench to see the mess she's in.

She doesn't calm down, this could go terribly awry.

It will be fine. I just need to keep a clear head and not get panicked

about it.

Final five minutes!

You have ten seconds.

Right, stop, time is up.

Giovanna, up you come.

Giovanna's starter, inspired by her mum's love of seafood, is clams,

baby squid tentacles and fregola,

served with a sourdough crouton,

saffron aioli, fennel flowers, and a tomato and fish broth.

Absolutely spectacular.

That's got to be the sexiest crouton I've ever seen in my life.

That's brilliant. I hope this tastes like it looks cos that's delightful.

That's really appealing to me.

Well, if I ever go to Sicily,

I hope everything tastes the same as this

-cos I think that's delicious.

-Thank you.

What I really, really love is the strength of that fish soup because

it tastes of fish but it's not overpowering.

The clams are cooked really nicely, the squid is really lovely,

the little bits of pasta, the fregola,

at the bottom are wonderful.

I like your crouton on the side.

I think it's just really, really tasty.

Thank you.

That is a lesson on how to cook perfect squid

it is soft, beautiful, salty clams. That is delicious.

That's really surprised me.

You should be very, very proud.

Her main course is rabbit and peas.

Pan-fried rabbit loin wrapped in lardo,

a rabbit faggot made from the liver and kidneys,

hasselback potatoes,

a pea and tarragon puree, fresh peas, savoy cabbage,

and a rabbit and vermouth sauce.

So much to admire, the way you've handled the rabbit, for a start.

Both of them, the one with the lardo over and the faggot itself.

They are soft, they haven't dried in any way.

They are beautifully cooked and expertly dealt with.

Your sauce is good.

But the potatoes are beautiful!

The tarragon in the pea puree giving a slight bit of sweet aniseed to

an already sweet vegetable I think is inspired.

I think you are showing here what a very, very clever cook you are.

It's only when you go to the second

and the third and the fourth mouthful

that you actually realise how fantastic that dish truly is.

Oh, look, I could say to you I'd like more tarragon in the pea puree

but there is a great subtlety to this dish

that I really, really like. Really like.

Giovanna's dessert is pandoro pain perdu with confit blood oranges,

rosemary syrup and flowers, and a creme fraiche sorbet.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't like the presentation.

I think it looks a bit lumpy.

Seriously could munch this to death.

I could blitz it all up and serve it as a milkshake.

I think it's beautiful!

The cake is a lot lighter than it looks,

even though it seems to be completely drenched in syrup.

The segments of blood orange

are giving much-needed citrus light relief.

Your sorbet is creamy and yoghurty and slightly sharp.

-However, it's chunky.

-Yeah.

It needs work on presentation.

I think the cake could be a little bit more soaked in syrup.

I think some of the edges are a little bit dark.

The oranges I really like.

The creme fraiche sorbet I think is delicious.

I think it's good. I don't think it's quite there.

Well done, mate. I'm really proud of how you've developed,

I think your food's great.

Well done! Oh, well done.

Oh, goodness!

I really feel like I've given myself the best possible chance.

I would have rather had a little bit more time,

five more minutes at the end and I probably would've made that dessert

look beautiful, but, apart from that,

I'm proud of what I put out today.

Steve, please, come and join us.

Steve, beautiful dishes, all three.

Very modern, very smart,

very lovely.

Steve's starter is pan-fried scallops on a smoky celeriac mousse,

with apple jelly, and apples marinated in chive oil,

served with a scallop ceviche on an apple and celeriac slaw with

a scallop roe mayonnaise.

That's a very smart starter.

It looks Japanese. It's very smart.

Thank you.

Incredible flavour sensations.

There's an apple sweetness that almost feels like honey

and then goes into citrus before you that beautiful fresh scallop,

and a little earthy creaminess of celeriac.

I don't get the smokiness from the fish.

It's very unusual. Maybe a little too sweet for me.

I like your raw scallop and the slaw.

I think that's lovely and subtle.

There's nothing subtle about those cooked scallops, that's for sure.

The apple jelly is sweet,

and then you've got sharp Granny Smith on the side,

so you've got the sweet-and-sour combination.

With that, and your creamy celeriac, I think that's lovely.

Thank you.

Steve's main course is his take on beef and oysters.

Sirloin steak, parsley pasta ravioli filled with beef cheek and oyster,

an oyster emulsion,

morel mushrooms,

leeks, baby turnips,

and a beef and porter sauce.

It's a very good-looking plate.

I think that piece of sirloin steak is cooked beautifully.

I really like the fact that it's still really, really rare

and it's got that lovely texture on the outside.

I like the sauce. I think the sauce has got a lovely, clean,

sharp shine to it.

But, for me, it's a little bit bitter.

I've got to say the cooking in here, I think it's absolutely fantastic.

I really, really like it.

Lovely! I have different stages of beefiness.

It's just gets deeper.

The ravioli is beautiful, soft beef.

And when you get that oyster emulsion as well, of course,

you get saltiness, which is lovely.

Topped off with morel mushrooms, which, in itself,

is probably the beefiest, meatiest mushroom you can lay your hands on.

It's just different levels of delicious beef, Steve.

Very good.

For his dessert, Steve has made orange and honey panna cottas,

roasted figs, blood orange gel,

honeycomb, and bee pollen.

I love that presentation, really do.

A really well flavoured panna cotta with figs,

which are just beautiful and soft enough and braised just enough

that they fall apart.

But the star of the show has to be those blood oranges.

They're bitter and sweet at the same time,

with the honey and caramel and the little bit of honeycomb on there,

along with your bee pollen, I think it's a lovely dessert.

It looks great and it tastes great.

Yeah, that's the business.

That is absolutely the business.

That is a very light, lovely combination of sugar, citrus, fig.

I think it's beautiful.

I think that's really beautiful.

-Well done.

-It looked amazing.

-Yeah, well done, really well done.

-Really good.

'It was pretty good on the whole.'

It would've been nice to have no negative comments but, you know,

I suppose they're going to be extra harsh today of all days.

I've done all I can, really, so out of my hands now.

Saliha, come and join us, please.

I've got to say I think it looks fantastic.

Thank you.

Saliha's starter is a venison shami kebab

with cashew and coriander green chutney,

chana dhal and a kachumber salad.

Your venison kebab is so much softer than I thought it was going to be.

It's almost the texture of pate but still rich with the flavour of

venison, and because there's no fat running through it,

it just dissolves completely in your mouth.

I think that green chutney is fantastic,

with the coconut in the background, the sweetness.

It's fantastic. I love it, absolutely love it.

The flavour combination there, it's mint freshness going sweet,

getting salty, going spicy, finishing hot.

It's divine.

Her main course is sous-vide duck breast with crispy duck skin,

freekeh wheat grain spiced with dried barberries,

walnuts and coriander,

a cherry chutney and a duck and cherry sauce.

It's another very, very attractive dish.

I love it.

Honestly, I love it.

And I'll tell you what I love about it -

it is this extraordinary mixture of flavours.

The skin itself of that duck is the thing that holds it all together.

The duck itself is soft as you like,

and there's that lovely flavour

of aniseed running all the way through the back of it.

I'm really, really blown away by this.

I think it's delicious.

Fruit and duck is a combination we know really well.

It's as old as time.

The sharp sweetness of the barberry inside the freekeh matches the sweet

sharpness of the cherry.

The bitterness in your sauce matches the bitterness of the skin.

All surrounding that beautifully soft duck breast.

That's very, very clever.

-It's very, very good cooking.

-Thank you.

Saliha's dessert is a saffron, rose-water and cardamom panna cotta,

with deconstructed baklava,

including honeycomb, candied pistachios,

filo pastry shards, and kumquats.

That's another very attractive plate.

I think it's very, very pretty.

How extraordinary.

I'm a real lover of puddings...

..and that pudding is extraordinary and extraordinarily good.

I expected that panna cotta to give the sweetness but it doesn't!

It's flavoured with saffron and a little bit of cardamom.

It's not savoury but it's in no way sweet.

The sweetness comes from the honeycomb, and those nuts.

Very extraordinary flavour sensations here.

I'm in love with that dessert.

What we've got is this texture of crispy filo pastry and nuts with

the saffron custard and a sweet, sharp, bitter orange marmalade.

Saliha, thought-provoking.

Wow.

Wow.

Watching you slowly,

step-by-step develop into the cook that creates dishes like this

has been wonderful.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-So good.

So good!

'I'm absolutely ecstatic right now.'

Literally so elated.

Oh, my God!

I'm so chuffed that they got what I was trying to get across

and what I thought would work. It's just fantastic.

Great final.

Oh, mate, they are fantastic!

Three cooks being really, really brave, being very adventurous,

and pushing as hard as they possibly can.

Steve has been extremely ambitious throughout the competition.

He has always pushed himself, and we saw that today.

Steve's journey has been one of tenacity.

He's always been intent on one thing,

and that is using process and technique to take his food from

the ordinary up to a very different level indeed.

And today in the final, he's done himself justice.

If my name's called at the end,

that's going to be amazing, isn't it?

That would obviously be the icing on the cake, wouldn't it?

Giovanna has cooking in her soul.

It's in her DNA.

She's taking that peasant food of Italy and has raised it

to an extraordinary level.

If you went to a restaurant and expected Italian food and that's

what you got on the table, you'd be very, very happy indeed.

Giovanna's food was very good today.

I put everything into these three dishes.

I put everything into the whole competition.

And to win would just be incredible.

Saliha's food today has surprised me.

Those dishes sparkled.

They were clean, they were crisp.

They were refined, they were beautiful.

She's been growing steadily throughout the finals and

it's culminated in her best three dishes throughout this competition.

You know, winning not winning, I'm dead proud of how I've done.

I think the judges have got a really tough time today deciding who

the winner is cos everybody's food was so good.

I've got to say, it's tight. It's a really tight final.

There is so much talent amongst those three.

Who deserves it, John? Who deserves to walk away with that title?

The problem is, who doesn't deserve it?

# Blackbird singing in the dead of night

# Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

# All your life

# You're only waiting for this moment to be free. #

What can I say about the three of you that we haven't already said?

Incredible talent, incredible people,

made this year's competition, I think, fantastic.

Congratulations to all three of you.

An extraordinary final, and I have to say a really close call.

We have made a decision.

# You were only waiting for this moment to arise

# You were only waiting for this moment to arise

# You were only waiting for this moment to arise. #

Our MasterChef Champion 2017...

..is Saliha.

Oh, my God!

# If these wings could fly... #

Well done, mate.

Of course a little bit disappointed

but I think if anyone really deserved it, she did.

It's been amazing. We got to experience things

that I never thought I'd be doing in my life.

I think today the best cook won.

I'm just really pleased for her.

I really hope this is the start of something new for me.

I'd really love to stay in this world.

It's been incredible.

-Congratulations!

-Aggh!

I feel amazing right now.

I can't actually believe that this is true.

Yeah, I'm so happy that my cheekbones are hurting right now.

And I think I'm probably going to have to have a paracetamol

for smile-induced fatigue.

-Congratulations.

-What a winner!

-Thank you.

What a winner!

I'm a scientist, I'm not an artist. And this is pure creativity.

And to be the MasterChef Champion, it's just fantastic, wonderful,

you know, adjectives are not sufficient.

Saliha is a class act.

She's walked in here and taken her food culture apart and put it back

together in a modern and very exciting way.

It's East meets West and it is stunningly good.

# If these wings could fly... #

I'm not a cool person at all.

My husband and family will vouch for it.

I'm highly boring.

I'm not interesting in any way and this is most definitely

the coolest thing that I have ever done in my life!

# Oh, lights go down

# In the moment we're lost and found

# I just wanna be by your side

# If these wings could fly. #