Episode 6 MasterChef

It's the MasterChef quarter-final,

and this week's best amateurs are back.

Every round that goes on, and every time you get an opportunity to cook,

you just start wanting it more and more and more.

MACHINE WHIRS SHE GASPS

The nerves are still there.

It's still really scary. I'm still petrified.

I don't want to go out of this competition being the person

that just ran about like a crazy person.

Tonight, they will face just one challenge -

to cook an exceptional dish from a brief set

by renowned restaurant critic William Sitwell.

Our competition standard is sky-high.

I'm loving it.

We've got some serious talent in here.

Only the best are going to rise to this challenge.

Welcome to a MasterChef quarter-final.

You have been set a challenging brief,

to cook either a main course with no meat or fish,

or a fruit tart dessert.

The person that set that brief was none other than food writer,

broadcaster, William Sitwell.

And he will be joining us to taste your food

and help us judge.

90 minutes, ladies and gentlemen.

One extraordinary plate of food to keep you in the competition.

Let's cook.

So the brief I've given today's contestants

is based on the fact that I've gone vegetarian,

just for a month, just to see what it's like.

I want to see some originality.

I want to see people really think about the wonderful plethora

and myriad of dishes there are around the world

that don't have meat or fish.

My other brief is to cook a tart.

I do love classic English puddings,

and the idea of a tart could sound quite simple,

but I don't think it's a simple option.

So I want to see really good use of British seasonal fruit,

and it's about getting the pastry cooked properly.

I love MasterChef: The Amateurs, because it's where new talent comes.

And to be honest, I'm also completely starving!

Steve has surprised you and I,

and it seems to be his secret is simplicity,

understanding flavours that go together.

The guy has got the skills, that's for sure.

Steve's cooked amazingly well.

What I haven't seen from him is pastry work or vegetarian dishes,

so it's a challenge for Steve.

You all right, baldie?

-I'm all right, mate.

-What are you making?

So I'm doing a pea and ricotta tortellini.

I'm doing some fresh peas, just going to halve them.

I'm doing a pea and mint puree.

I'm going to serve that with some pea shoots.

I'm making a pea consomme.

So it's almost like making pea tea, if that doesn't sound strange!

-Yeah.

-I mean, this is really quite a simple dish.

There's really one ingredient, which is peas.

So hopefully I can pull that off

and make it look good and taste good, yeah.

-Good luck, mate.

-Cheers.

He's taking the humble green pea

and turning it into three different ways.

A puree, inside a tortellini, and a consomme.

But if that consomme is wishy-washy, that dish is finished,

because we've got tortellini floating in pea water.

I hope they like peas, to be honest!

I'm in trouble if they don't!

Faye is one of those cooks who, you look at her and say,

"Yeah, you know what you're doing."

What I love about Faye is her confidence to keep her food simple

and do her talking through the flavour.

The area that I will definitely need to work on

is the presentation side of it,

and how to make that plate of food look smart and sexy

and appealing to the eye.

Sorry. Faye, I came over to talk to you,

then I watched you melting all that chocolate in the cream

and I thought, "Ah!" What are you going to make?

I'm making a raspberry tart with a chocolate ganache on the top,

with a cobnut brittle

and some raspberry coulis, with a little bit of cream on the side.

You've chosen the fruit tart to really push yourself.

Yes. I don't want to be a one-trick pony.

I want to show you that I can do other stuff.

I can do more than just be a home cook mum.

Faye, we never, ever thought you were a simple mum home cook.

Ever.

Faye is taking some massive risks.

Just raspberries and chocolate in a tart case

with some raspberry cream. Is it special enough?

30 minutes gone. You've got an hour left.

Billy did us fish and chips with a curry sauce.

He then went on to do a beef Wellington.

Obviously, Billy loves classic dishes.

So I'm making a potato risotto.

So rather than using risotto rice,

I'm going to use very finely chopped potatoes.

I'm going to curry that with some spices,

then it's sort of flavours of the Caribbean.

So there'll be some lime through it,

there'll be some coconut milk to get it a bit creamy at the end.

There's then also some pineapple it'll be garnished with.

I'm going to make some tempura aubergine,

just as a little side bit that you can sort of

scoop it up with and have a bit, and get some crunch in there.

Classic flavours again,

but classic flavours from the Caribbean this time.

Classic flavours?! An aubergine and a pineapple?!

There's nothing classic about this, mate!

I think John and Gregg might be surprised when they see my dish today.

I'm hoping they understand it, that it still is classic flavour.

It's just from a different part of the world.

And fingers crossed that they'll see that different creative side

to what I can do, and enjoy it.

Potato risotto with pineapple running through it,

with some curry sauce and Parmesan cheese?

Wow, Billy, you are right out there.

If it works, I'll be so, so happy for Billy.

If that cooks too much, it becomes mashed potato...

-Yes.

-If it doesn't cook enough, it's raw potato.

Yes, so it's...

Got to get it right in between.

Saliha is a doctor, cares deeply about nutrition, her food is light,

healthy, really colourful, and really spicy.

But she likes to push the boat out.

Hopefully she won't trip over.

Massive, massive day.

You put getting married, having a child,

and then MasterChef quarter-final pretty much on the same...

Well, not really!

But it's up there in terms of important and memorable days.

How did you feel about the brief?

I'm really excited.

As a society, we eat far, far, far too much protein in our diet.

So any vegetarian brief is good for me,

because it means that it just lets me, you know,

cook something that's healthy and nutritious

and avoid meat for one day.

-What's your dish?

-The dish is an emperor's dum biryani

and fresh home-made paneer, which is a curried paneer

and spinach pakoras, and a sweet lassi drink to go with it.

Why have you got a bunch of flowers on your work surface?

They're going to be used as part of the presentation of the final dish.

Oh, right, I thought you might've had an admirer!

-I wish!

-It doesn't matter if he's Irish!

We have a biryani, which has got cauliflower, potatoes and green beans.

We've got pakoras, which are going to be really lovely and crispy,

and spiced very, very well.

She's making her own paneer, which is fantastic, a lovely cheese,

just by warming up milk and adding a bit of vinegar to it.

That in itself is a really difficult thing to get right.

I think it sounds fantastic.

Alex has got a wonderful eye for creativity and presentation.

Alex loves process, loves culinary terminology,

but can he deliver a plate of food that William will indulge in?

Alex, you've got stuff all over the place!

Yeah, it's a bit cluttered. I apologise.

I'm making salt-baked celeriac that's been coated in hay ash,

and I'm serving up with some goat curd.

I'm using the whey from the goat's milk to glaze some carrots.

I've got a porter sauce I've got some pickled shallots,

and mushroom croquettes as well.

You are playing with, probably,

twice as many flavours as any other contestant.

-Yeah, you could say that.

-Does that bother you?

I mean, it scares me, because it's a lot to go wrong.

-I'm quite nervous.

-You are, aren't you?

Come on, man up!

Very few people have had ash-baked celeriac.

I know it's very famous in a couple of restaurants around the world.

You might say it's quite high-risk.

It might be too high for the quarter-final.

I guess we'll find out.

What he's doing right now is a dish which is known

to be cooked by one of the greatest three-star Michelin chefs in the whole world.

Now, it could be fantastic.

It can't be a high expectation and fall flat.

Sharon has proved that she has knowledge of cuisines around the world.

I like her cooking. It's full of flavour and it's fun.

However, her weakness is presentation.

She's got to get a little bit smarter.

As I go in to cook today,

I'm feeling as confident as I can,

but I don't want to be over-confident,

because that's when you make mistakes.

Sharon, your food makes me smile.

Oh, that's good to hear!

What option did you choose?

I'm going to make an apple and blackberry tart,

and there will be a fruit fool and a perry jelly.

Last time we saw you do something in dessert,

I got a lump of cake as big as my head!

Is this going to look a little more refined?

This is an individual, fluted tart portion.

Hopefully very refined!

A tart should have equal quantity of something really wet,

and something quite firm.

I'm hoping the mixture of blackberries and apples

that Sharon's got doesn't make her tart go soggy.

As Mary would say, nothing worse than a soggy bottom.

15 minutes left, just 15 minutes.

MACHINE WHIRS SHE GASPS

Just three minutes, please.

Three minutes.

It fell.

Guys, that's it, please stop.

Stop.

Very sexy food.

That looks beautiful.

I think I've over-seasoned it.

I bet you haven't.

-Oh, wow.

-Well done, you.

Ladies and gentlemen, food writer, broadcaster, William Sitwell.

-Welcome.

-William.

-Hi.

-Good to see you, mate.

Saliha, please.

First up is hospital doctor Saliha

who opted to cook a vegetarian dish of Emperor's dum biryani

served with home-made paneer bhurji, kachumba

spinach pakoras and a sweet lassi.

Well, visually, it's a real treat and great textures.

I think, beautiful rice.

I love the paneer.

The lassi is really delicious but I'd love a bit more fire,

bit more spice, bit more heat.

I think the whole thing is fantastic.

You've made your own paneer and I love the flavour of it.

The biryani has got free flowing rice

and you can taste all the vegetables.

There is a little bit of spice to it.

Your kachumba is nice.

I admire all the work.

-Thank you.

-Incredible.

-Thank you.

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

eat-ily!

It's absolutely beautiful.

I love your biryani. I love how it goes sweet

and then creeping up with a little bit of heat.

I think it's fantastic.

Such a relief that they liked it.

I'm really happy. I'm really, really happy.

Naval architect Alex has made ash-baked celeriac

served with wild mushroom croquettes on goat's milk ricotta,

whey-glazed carrots and pickled shallots,

lemon and thyme emulsion

and finished with a porter beer in malt sauce.

I really like your carrots.

And I like your veggie gravy.

I'm afraid I didn't enjoy the celeriac.

I don't think it's tasty enough to take prime position here.

I'm afraid the balls with the creamy ricotta were a bit dry.

So I didn't enjoy it. I'm sorry.

It's OK.

The huge amount of work in here.

What you're attempting to do is bring flavour to the party.

In doing so, the whole thing tastes of salt.

I don't like those mushroom balls.

However, I love everything else on that plate.

I really like that big lump of celeriac with the saltiness.

It's really salty and it's quite bitter.

I like the sweet notes of shallot and especially that carrot.

I love your sauce.

I think you've been very clever, very daring.

The older, more boring fellas, they didn't particularly enjoy it.

The younger, trendier one,

he liked it a lot!

Thank you.

A mixed bag.

I think it's natural to be disappointed.

I put in so much work but they're all fair comments.

Yorkshire-based Sharon opted to make a pastry.

Apple and blackberry tart served with fruit fool

and a pear cider jelly.

Obviously, I can see that you've stumbled with the challenge

of producing a perfect little pastry case.

And that is the challenge with pastry,

it's very, very difficult to do.

I hope the flavour is forgiving, therefore.

I think your fool is delicious.

The creaminess of it really tempers some of the acidity

of the blackberry and the apple. However, I love the texture

of blackberries and I think it's a shame you mushed them up with the apple.

Therefore, the whole thing becomes a bit of a mush.

It's a few notches beneath wonderful.

Your pastry's very, very short. Very buttery and very, very crumbly

and that's why your case is starting to disappear.

My favourite thing on the plate is that perry jelly.

The perry and the mint together is just really, really lovely.

I love that.

The taste of the pear and a bit of sharp and sourness

and the mint is all really refreshing

and it's lovely and cold against everything else.

I like your flavours.

My issue with all of this is its appearance.

I just think the whole thing needs smartening up.

I'm disappointed that I didn't produce what I have done at home

but I think the judging was better than I expected.

Call centre manager Billy is serving

curried coconut and lime potato risotto with aubergine tempura,

garnished with charred cauliflower and pineapple.

Pineapple's interesting.

Worrying, but I mean, you're the chef,

I look forward to seeing if it works.

Thank you.

I'm not convinced that that dish is worth going vegetarian for.

For me,

that's chopped up potato with curry sauce thrown in.

And then the pineapple...

Which fortunately, I couldn't really taste.

The food I've seen from you so far in the competition

has been really big, very bold, very British and extremely classic.

And here, you've gone right off piste

and it doesn't suit you, Billy, I'm sorry.

The potatoes are slightly undercooked because otherwise

they wouldn't keep their shape.

The aubergine fritters are a little bit greasy.

The whole dish has not worked, I'm sorry to say.

OK.

You've got the texture of potato and a deep curry sauce.

There's nothing else going on.

But I think it also shows that what you love is meat and veg

-and you're a bit lost here.

-Yeah.

I would have liked to have kept up at least the same standard

as my first round.

That's not been the case so I'll just need to take it on the chin.

Mum of three Faye chose the pastry option.

She's made a raspberry and chocolate tart,

served with raspberry whipped cream, cobnut praline

and a raspberry coulis.

If I had my eyes closed,

I would have absolutely no idea there is any chocolate on this plate.

The flavour of the chocolate has completely evaporated

because I'm not getting lovely, sweet, bitterness of chocolate,

which would go perfectly with the sweetness of the raspberries.

The thing is, the chocolate is there and you can just taste it,

but there is something about the amount of acid in there

which is just stripping your palate and taking away

the flavour of the chocolate.

I think it's a good-looking dish.

I think it's a really tasty dish.

I really like it.

I love the chocolate and the pastry.

I love the raspberry and the pastry.

I like the cream. I think that's good work.

Do I feel like I've done enough?

I don't know. I really don't know.

I couldn't call it at all.

Hoping I get that little piece in the end.

Last up is sound engineer Steve,

who's made pea and ricotta tortellini

served with pea and mint puree, pea shoots,

topped with Parmesan cheese breadcrumbs

and finished with a pea consomme.

Very pretty, very elegant.

I mean, visually, it's a masterpiece.

Well, first of all, you present a dish which looks amazing.

Second of all, you present a dish which, when you first eat it,

is very, very subtle and then the little surprises start to come in

which I very much liked.

My favourite bit is the little bit of raw leek

that just explodes in your mouth, and suddenly,

you are walking through a garden.

I think it's a great, great dish, I think it's delicious,

I think it's well executed, I think it's very, very clever.

Thank you.

One of the great challenges in cooking

is when you start with a number of ingredients

and you bring them together,

that A, they become something new, but also,

you can still taste those individual ingredients.

You can get the pea, you've got the consomme,

there's a little crunch of the bread.

The pasta is cooked beautifully.

It's everything that it was visually and more, because it's original.

That is stunning.

Mate, believe me when I say

that could be on the menu in many of the top restaurants in Britain.

-Thank you.

-And I'm not kidding.

Mate, I look at you, you're scruffy, you're not very good looking,

but we've found something you're good at!

Hopefully, I haven't set the bar a bit high for myself now!

It was really good, obviously, and a massive confidence boost

and I'm sort of expecting to be grinning most of the day now.

We now have to make a decision.

So what we are going to do now is ask you to step outside

and as soon as we've made our decision, we'll call you back in.

Thanks very much indeed.

A good day. We did eat well with Mr Sitwell.

Thank you.

-Genius.

-Nice to talk to you, see you later.

He called me a genius!

We have a star today, definitely.

Not half!

Steve really did show us what he's all about.

If I didn't know better, I'd say he was a professional chef!

The guy is incredible.

-Any other favourites?

-Oh, Saliha.

Saliha, the biryani was brilliant.

I love Saliha's food, I really do, I think it's fantastic.

We had a bit of a disaster today, Gregg, from Billy, unfortunately.

What's happened on this brief is we took away Billy's meat and fish,

and that really left him struggling.

And that struggle resulted in a dish that wasn't good at all.

It didn't work, John.

It simply didn't work.

That leaves us with a discussion now of Sharon, Alex and Faye.

Alex's food has continuously been different.

I liked that celeriac that looked like blackened cod.

You weren't sure. William didn't like it at all.

I liked the flavours that he developed. I loved the porter sauce.

I liked the carrots, loved the little bits of shallot.

For me, that celeriac was way too salty

and so was the goat's curd,

and it overpowered the rest of the dish.

I still have a question mark over the flavour of his food.

I'd be so disappointed to leave today.

I always said that I wanted to get to the quarterfinals,

but now I'm here, I just want to get to the next round.

I liked Sharon's flavours.

I liked the fact that Sharon's tart wasn't sweet but tart.

I'm surprised how deep the flavour there was

because she mushed it all up.

There's something quite intriguing about Sharon,

the way that she thinks.

Her thought process is very different from the other cooks in the room.

If they were to put me through today,

I would feel grateful for them seeing something in me

and having faith that I can produce what they think I need to.

Faye made us a raspberry and chocolate tart

where William couldn't taste the chocolate.

I on the other hand could taste the chocolate.

It was a bit homely but I think Faye is a very, very clever cook

and she understands how food works.

I think you can only take one step at a time,

but if I don't go through today,

I will be absolutely gutted. Absolutely gutted.

I don't feel ready. I don't feel ready to go home.

We are definitely taking two, right?

Who else is good enough to go into knockout week?

That's the question.

Some extraordinary cooking.

We've decided that three of you are going through to knockout week.

The first contestant...

going through to knockout week...

..is Steve.

Congratulations, sir.

Great food, Steve.

The second contestant...

going through to knockout week...

..is Saliha.

Well done.

Thank you.

The third and final contestant going through is...

..Faye.

-Very well done.

-Thank you.

Alex, I'm sorry, mate.

Billy.

Sharon, I'm sorry.

Almost, not quite.

Well done.

Well done, guys.

I'm a little bit disappointed not to be carrying on

fun cooking in the MasterChef kitchen, but I certainly intend

to create that same fun in my kitchen at home.

I guess I was a bit too avant-garde today.

Shouldn't have cooked with ash.

What was I thinking? What was I thinking?

I should have cooked a tart. It was a crowd pleaser.

You know, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

to do something like this,

so I've loved my time, really, really enjoyed it.

Sad to be leaving.

I still haven't quite comprehended what's happening and that it's true.

Right now, it feels like I'm on a different planet.

I'm absolutely elated. I can't wait to ring my husband.

He's going to be absolutely over the moon.

My mum, my family, they are just going to be blown away by it.

I reckon I might be celebrating, yeah.

My wife don't finish work until quite late

so there will be a lot of sitting around, waiting for her to get home!

Next week, eight more cooks battle it out

for a place in the quarter-finals.

It's easy. It's like cooking at home.

Cheesy oat custard porridgy prawns, it's just not right.

Really light, really sweet, it's great.

(Can we eat the leftovers?)