Episode 10 MasterChef

These five amateur cooks have proved themselves

to be the best in the country.

Tonight, they take on the most infamous challenge of all.

Restaurant critics are intimidating.

You start pushing the boat out,

and you get it wrong, they'll have your guts for garters.

Ah!

They have a fearsome reputation, and don't hold back on their views.

Your mouth surrenders immediately.

Keep on working!

I want to impress the critics. I want to get to the final four, now.

If you had that in a restaurant, you would want to write about it.

That's weird.

Come on!

You've got to be right on your game.

Over the past few months, these five talented amateurs

have pushed their cooking ability to the absolute limit.

-Let's crack on!

-Has everyone got their food on the pass, or do they need a help?

KNOCKING

Looking good, let's just get faster, OK?

Now they are all on the verge of a place in the final four.

29-year-old Shelina recently left her job as a diversity manager.

I have never put this much effort

into anything in my life.

So the competition is what it's all about, right now.

My end goal is to have a restaurant.

And I have this vision of this amazing, quaint restaurant

that focuses on Mauritian food. My mum's there all the time, my auntie's there.

But it's still very much a dream at the moment.

Now that I've experienced what the professional kitchens are like,

I want to be there, cooking. And, you know, I've got the burn marks already.

Apparently that's a sign of a real chef.

I'm really focused on getting to the final four, the final three, and then the finals.

That's what I'm here for.

Specialist joiner Eamonn is moving between the MasterChef kitchen

and his family in Lincolnshire.

I've had a passion for working with timber that's sustained me for the last 25 years.

But it's starting to get overwhelmed by my passion for cooking.

The dream is, down the line, to have a small, perfectly formed,

perfectly-run restaurant.

That's the dream.

We're right at the sharp end of the competition, now.

If I can win this, then it is a life changer.

I'll make sure it's a life changer.

32-year-old Andrew lives in London with his wife and young son,

and works as a financial analyst.

I've got to the stage now

where I've got to make a decision about where I take my career.

The more cooking I've done,

the more I've realised that I could be quite good at it,

and that I want to do it

for the rest of my life.

I'm totally, unexplainably seduced by the world of it.

I go and buy cucumbers just so I can practise chopping.

Yeah, I probably am a cooking geek.

I set myself that goal of making the final, and I'm so close,

I just want it, yeah, I want it more than anyone.

Plasterer Tom is juggling the demands of his work

and travelling from his home in West Yorkshire for the competition.

I've been plastering for about eight years, now.

But I'd sooner be a chef than a plasterer, any day.

I spend a lot of time thinking about food, daydreaming, coming up with recipes,

which is probably why I come up with some quite weird combinations, sometimes.

Maybe a little too much time in my mind on my own.

Every dish I'm attempting to do, now,

I'm pushing myself a little bit further.

It's so important to me.

Everything's got to be as close to perfect as humanly possible.

40-year-old Jay is the director of

his own successful security company in Southport.

To build any business, it's never luck.

You know. It's always got to be hard work.

But food is like my love, it's like my passion.

That's why I'm doing MasterChef.

My mates all call me weird, cos I love cooking.

They'll phone me up,

"Where are you? Coming for a beer?" "No, I've got to go shopping.

"There's a couple of cookbooks

"that have just come out, and I've just got to go and get 'em."

You can hear them roaring, laughing. These are all doormen.

But you know what? I've took them in the pub,

and next minute they've got them out. "That looks nice!" Know what I mean?

I'm naturally competitive. I really want it, now.

If I did win it, oh,

it would be,

it'd be the most amazing thing in the world.

Today you are presenting three courses not just to John and I,

but to three respected restaurant critics.

These are not easy people to please.

Show these critics your skill, your determination,

and how good you truly are.

A huge amount at stake, today.

Because right now we have five cooks.

At the end of this,

one of you will be leaving us.

Your three courses. One hour and 45 minutes. Let's cook.

The contestants have each designed their own three-course menu

in the hope of impressing their formidable guests.

Tracey MacLeod has been a restaurant critic for The Independent for 15 years.

I want to be well fed,

but I also want to feel a kind of excitement.

Charles Campion is the godfather of British food critics,

and a prolific food writer.

The difference between an OK plate of food

and an excellent plate of food is measured in teaspoons.

Jay Rayner has spent the last decade reviewing restaurants for The Observer.

The thing I live in fear of

is someone thinking they're being creative and witty,

when in fact they're just trying too hard.

During the competition,

I've wavered between trying to change my food,

is this the right style?

But I'm now beginning to appreciate the kind of food that I can do.

I'm starting to appreciate where I am as a cook.

You've combined skills and real understanding of cooking.

Well-cooked lobster, I think the sauce is wonderful and rich.

It's really soothing, really spicy. A lovely, lovely dish.

Today, she's got to stick with the confidence

and deliver beautiful, vibrant food.

My anxiety stems from the fact that I'm cooking for the critics today.

This is horrible!

I've got to keep my eyes on the prize, so fingers crossed.

-Lots and lots of lovely Shelina things on your bench.

-There are.

Lots of lovely, lovely Mauritian things on the bench, yep.

What are we going to make?

I'm doing a street food starter.

It's an open flatbread with dry shrimp,

and a chilli crab cake.

The main is going to be spiced monkfish,

and my dessert is going to be a Mauritian tea ice cream,

with a kind of molasses ginger cake.

What do you think the critics will make of your menu when they read it?

To be honest with you,

the dry shrimp is a bit of a turn off anyway,

it's a bit of a dodgy one, and it obviously smells, as well.

I'm going back to my roots. I'm trying to do stuff that I love,

and I want to impress these guys, I want to impress you two, again.

Zipping up your boots, back to your roots, to the place of your birth, back down to earth.

Love your rap. That's so cool.

Brilliant, Shelina. Listen, they're miserable, in there.

-Make 'em smile. Get a bit of Mauritian sunshine into their lives.

-Er, OK. OK.

Shelina's three dishes sound really interesting.

It's how she puts it on the plate.

How will it actually make those critics go "wow!"

I've had my ups and downs, you know.

Do you know what my honest opinion is?

The beef is... is beef. I don't find it exciting.

It needs something that's going to lift it, make it sing.

Jay, that is a huge portion. But you need to refine.

You have an extraordinary touch. It's a really, really good dish.

Last time I was in the bottom three. So it's kind of given me a kick.

I know what I've got to do.

You can't walk in there at this level and not want to impress.

Jay. Important day. What are your three courses?

I'm doing pan-fried cod with pancetta and broad beans.

My main course is loin of venison with spiced pears,

chestnut puree and sprouts.

Right. And pudding?

Is vanilla panna cotta

with pink grapefruit, stem ginger and a little sprinkling of praline.

What does your food have to do today for you to stay in the competition?

It's got to wow everyone.

The seasoning's got to be bang on, it's got to be perfect, the flavours have got to marry.

I've always said it, cooking's a balancing act,

and today, mate, I've got to be tightrope walker.

You two are bad enough, let me tell you,

but you've got three mates in there backing every word up.

Jay's starter, cod, I love. His panna cotta with pink grapefruit, I love.

Main course of venison, pears and Brussels sprouts

is bothering me.

Bothering me more than a dodgy Christmas present from my nan.

My abilities as a cook are changing so quickly. I am improving so much.

I just love it.

It's your inventiveness and creativity at its best.

Timing's always going to be an issue.

You've got great textures in there.

It would be great to have a smooth, velvety beetroot puree underneath.

-That was the idea.

-That was the idea, you ran out of time.

He has got to temper his creative style, today,

with a little bit of realism.

I'm doing something a little bit different.

In order to show a true reflection of myself,

I have to do something that I believe works.

My place in the competition's riding on today,

so it's a massive day for me, today.

Tom, your three courses that are going to wow the critics are?

I'm doing a seared tuna with a wasabi and sesame seed crust,

and I'm doing

a rack of lamb with almonds, apricots.

And for dessert I'm doing

a millefeuille of mango and chocolate cheesecake.

Tom, what about your timings today? Have you worked this out?

Because that's been a failing of yours.

I've worked out as best as I can do.

I won't know till the end. I'm still pushing myself.

-I'm certainly not going to go out without trying.

-Whoa!

I don't want to go home. It's as simple as that.

I'm concerned about some of the ingredients he's putting together.

I'm always concerned about his timings, the amount of work he gives himself.

If I was going to look up the word "concern" in the dictionary, I'd expect to see a picture of Tom.

I think I do deserve to be in the final four.

I've shown right from the start that I can cook.

That's cooking from a professional chef, not an amateur chef.

I'm really impressed with this.

But I've had a habit of over complicating things in the past.

In my mouth now I've got a floral, sweet, oaty fish-biscuit.

It's too many flavours for me.

It's just not right.

Right now is not the time for that.

Today, I've gone for confident food, and interesting food,

but I don't think there's anything controversial.

-A huge quantity of ingredients on your bench.

-I have got a lot of work to do, yeah.

What are you cooking for us?

I'm cooking New England raviolo, which is basically a chowder in a raviolo.

Main course is rack of lamb, crusted with mint and hazelnuts,

then I'm making a salmoriglio,

a southern Italian pesto made with oregano.

For dessert we've got treacle tarts,

spice cream, and I'll serve that

with these lovely roasted crab apples.

I haven't managed to do this on time yet, so today will be a first.

Er, foolish?

Well, slightly foolish at this stage.

But if I get it all done, that will be impressive.

Yes, it will be impressive, but what happens if you blow it today, Andrew?

Then it will have been too much of a risk.

Andrew's menu, John, is so difficult, so time consuming,

and this is an awesome amount of work.

That is daring. In fact, it's bordering on dangerous.

40 minutes left.

Cooking for the critics is a bit of a scary prospect.

I'm trying to approach it as I've approached the last few rounds.

You've got to improve every time.

You've broken my heart here, today.

This dish isn't right. You've overdone it.

You've got to be more measured in your approach.

But I think I'm in the ascendancy.

I like the sauce.

I like the combination of the celeriac puree.

-I think you've done a good job.

-Thank you.

Three courses today. I'm trying to keep it reasonably simple.

I'm not going to experiment on top food critics.

-How big a day is it today, Eamonn?

-Massive day today, Gregg. Yeah.

Three important people to feed and to impress.

-Maybe even five.

-Maybe even five.

Tell me what it is you're cooking?

I'm doing a marinated mackerel and a spiced aioli,

bit of soda bread. Just nice and simple.

I'm doing partridge with porcini,

and I'm doing a banana sponge

with a ginger and thyme custard and butterscotch.

What is it about today's food that you think will make the difference?

I think it's going to be the balance between the three dishes.

There's going to be changes in textures, in flavours,

the mackerel's going to be sweet, acidic, and then I want to take you back to school.

I want to give you bananas and custard,

but, you know, with a little twist.

What do you want from today? What's the outcome you want?

I just want to go through. It's as simple as that.

I'm not aiming for fourth worst, I want to be the best in the room. But I just want to go through.

Eamonn's dishes look a lot safer than a lot of the others in here.

I've got no issue with that at all.

Classic combinations are classic for a good reason.

It's whether he can cook them to absolute perfection, and bring some elegance to his plates.

First course, 20 minutes.

I want someone who's got a bit of personality. I want them to talk to me through their food.

I don't want to see dull food.

I don't want to see ill-conceived combinations.

I don't want people to try so hard that it all goes horribly wrong.

I'm going to judge today's food on the highest standards.

These people need to prove that they deserve to be here.

15 minutes before your first course. 15 minutes.

I think we're all feeling about Shelina's menu that

it's got some potential surprises in it.

Even for our jaded palates.

I'm excited by the idea of chilli crab and dried shrimp.

No idea what it will be.

If she's cooking in a tradition that she really knows,

that could be marvellous stuff.

This is nice. How much more you got to do?

The crab cakes need to cook. Two minutes, probably.

In there.

-Done.

-Brilliant. Come on, come on, come on! Let's go, let's go.

-OK.

-Good luck.

-thank you.

-Do you think they'll moan it's too small?

-Don't know.

Hello.

Shelina's Mauritian street food starter is a chilli crab cake

with a coriander and mint dip,

and a roti flatbread with a dried shrimp and tomato creole sauce.

I think it looks lovely. Delicate. This is nice girl food.

Not so much girl food, this is pixie portions.

The crab cake's fantastic texture and crunch to it,

and the little dipping sauce is wonderful.

I thought there was very good contrast between the crispy bread

and the fresh greens in there,

worked really well with the shrimps.

I liked every element.

There's serious cookery skill, here. There's a woman who knows what she's doing.

I love it, I love it! That little crab cake is a ferocious little chilli rocket.

The little flatbread with those salty dried shrimps and tomatoes - absolutely delicious.

I think the whole thing could probably do with just a little more chilli.

The main course, spiced monkfish on red lentil dahl with tomato and coriander sauce.

It'll be about how finely tuned her spicing is.

We need those mains in 15 minutes.

-Are you under control, Shelina?

-Apart from the fish.

-What's wrong with the fish?

-I'm just having to make sure... It's quite thick.

-OK with the fish?

-Yeah. It's fine.

-Good, good, good. Well done.

Let's go, let's go.

Smile!

For her main, Shelina has made spiced monkfish

on a red lentil dahl, garnished with pickle papaya,

a tomato and coriander chutney, and garam masala onion rings.

It does smell very, very good indeed.

I have high hopes.

Everything has got an equal presence on the plate.

I really like the look of it.

-The monkfish is very well cooked indeed.

-Mmm.

-I mean, that's bang on.

I love the dahl, I love the tomato and coriander sauce.

I even like the pickled papaya.

I mean, there's a lot of technique on the plate, isn't there?

It just feels a little restrained.

As if she suspects we couldn't quite take the punch that she would normally throw in.

Because it's so good,

we're lamenting the fact that it could almost be great.

Fish is beautifully cooked, sauces are nicely made, dahl is cooked beautifully.

To me, it needs more spice, it needs more seasoning, it definitely needs more chilli.

Right. Dessert to go, yeah? Let's go, let's go.

-Desserts are fine.

-Are you happy with it?

Yeah, I am happy with this one.

Ginger cake with vanilla tea ice cream.

Er... OK.

Sounds interesting.

A bit of ice cream on the side - excellent.

And cream and custard, for me.

Final minute for the final course, yeah?

Yeah. I'm ready to go, after this scoop.

-I think that's it.

-What about the cup with all the ice cream smudged down the side?

Oh. I didn't even see that.

-I'm ready to go, I am.

-Brilliant! Come on, come on.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Her dessert is a molasses ginger cake drizzled with

a rum and cardamom syrup, with a sweet vanilla tea ice cream.

It smells absolutely gorgeous. I mean, rum and cardamom syrup. How good does that sound?

This looks like a ginger cake that has sufficient squelch.

It's a very, very good piece of ginger cake,

and I really, really like the ice cream,

which is sort of an iced version of Indian chai, milky chai.

The cake is where the sweetness comes,

the ice cream is actually tempering it.

They go beautifully together. I think it's wonderful.

It's a very good ginger cake. It's up there amongst the greats.

I'll finish it, now.

Overall, I like her food very much.

I'd quite like to take her home with me to cook my tea.

That tea ice cream and the ginger cake is amazing.

Moist, sweet, with the warmth of ginger running through it.

Luscious.

-So you liked the cake and ice cream?

-I think that's delicious. Absolutely delicious.

I wanted to be so happy with everything that I give to them,

and I just wasn't.

It's tough in there. All your senses go.

I don't think I spiced enough.

Jay, you're aware you've got eight minutes, are you?

-Yeah.

-All right, all right. I look more scared than you do.

Fair enough. OK, good.

His starter, fish and minted peas,

there's nothing to scare the horses, here.

It is a pretty conventional dish.

I wonder if he's going to do something a little different with it.

Jay, John looks nervous. You sure that fish is cooked?

If it's not by the time I've plated up, then it's going back on for literally ten seconds.

-Happy?

-I think that's there.

-Good.

-As soon as that fish hits the plate we've got to go, yeah?

-Good to go.

Go on, son. That looks lovely. Go and knock 'em dead.

-Hi.

-Hi.

Jay's starter is pan fried cod served on crushed minted peas,

with crispy pancetta and broad beans.

That piece of fish is just cooked, and I wouldn't be surprised

if one of those critics gets a piece which is not cooked all the way through.

My fish is, at the heart, hasn't been cooked through properly.

It's a shame, because in the seasoning

and the combination of flavours, you know, it's perfectly good.

The sweetness of the mashed peas

is quite attractive with the pancetta.

It tasted good, it was just the fish not being well cooked.

Loved the richness of those peas with the mint and the dill running through it,

the saltiness of the ham and those broad beans. It's a really good dish.

-15 before your next course, all right?

-I'm all over it.

Loin of venison with spiced pears.

There is a potential for this to come out as a fairly dry plate of food. Who knows?

You got just over a minute to finish off, yeah?

OK.

All right?

One second. Can't take in dirty plates.

-OK, good to go.

-Go. Go, go, go.

-Good luck, mate. Well done.

-Thank you.

For his main, Jay is serving loin of venison

rolled in crispy bacon shards,

with cumin and cinnamon spiced pears,

Brussels sprouts, and a chestnut puree.

I do like venison rare, but this looks like it's merely been seared round the outside.

I suspect that if I put a few volts of electricity through this,

I could get the muscle to twitch.

Pears, sprouts, chestnuts and venison. Fair enough.

A sauce over everything might have pulled it together.

Brussels sprouts and bacon, kind of classic combination,

but the pears are the, you know, the low point.

It just doesn't come together, does it?

It's very, very sweet.

Sweet pear, there's cinnamon in there,

and then there's chestnut puree as well.

The sweet pear and the venison, I really like.

And, actually, I would love a lot more sprouts on that plate to balance the whole thing up.

-15 minutes, OK? Dessert.

-Gotcha.

-You happy with everything?

-Yeah.

Jay's dessert, vanilla panna cotta with pink grapefruit and stem ginger.

I really like panna cotta. It's one of my favourite things.

I wouldn't think of putting pink grapefruit together with stem ginger.

90 seconds, Jay. But it looks like were there, doesn't it?

Good. Love it. On time again. Well done.

Jay's dessert is vanilla panna cotta

topped with pink grapefruit and stem ginger,

and a sprinkling of crushed hazelnut praline.

I'm afraid it's wrong and cowardly

not to turn out your panna cotta.

However, you can see that he's done the thing you need to do,

which is to spread the vanilla pod all the way through.

Panna cotta is fine, texture-wise, isn't it?

It's just so odd to have such a sharp, biting flavour as fresh grapefruit.

The panna cotta mix does set relatively well.

I just don't think this combination of things

makes for a very good pudding.

That's a really lovely panna cotta that's absolutely full of really nice, warming vanilla.

And then there's a really sharp but sweet pink grapefruit.

And it's hard to blend the two.

It's intense, there's no two ways about it.

I've done all I can. I'm just hoping that they liked it.

12 minutes, yeah, Tom? 12.

-Tell me what you've got to do, Tom.

-Slice the avocado, dress my salad and coriander,

slice my tuna, plate up, slice my toast.

-(Jelly.)

-And my jelly!

Come on, mate. Got to move, now.

I'm a little bit scared by Tom's starter.

Seared tuna salad with wasabi pickled ginger and anchovy toast.

Blimey, it's like something thrown out by a random menu generator, isn't it?

It will either be magnificent, or it will be ghastly.

Right, come on. Let's go, come on.

That's weird.

Tom's first course is wasabi and sesame seared tuna,

topped with salmon roe, and a sliver of anchovy toast,

with avocado and a pickled ginger jelly.

I love the toast and the saltiness, and I love the tuna with the wasabi.

It's great. I just don't like the jelly.

I don't mind the flavours, it's the textures I find weird.

I never want to see tuna, toast and jelly ever again.

I bet you the critics love it.

There's a bunch of flavours I actually rather like, here. This tuna's good.

The little bit of roe on the top works.

The jelly, despite looking terrifying, is bright and fresh and clean.

The anchovy toast is a real star. Got a little crunch to it.

This is a really harmonious dish, to my mind.

This jelly just sort of detonates with the tuna.

Just brings it zinging to life.

If you had that in a restaurant, you would be excited,

and you would want to write about it.

-You've got seven minutes for your main course, Tom.

-Thank you.

-Seven minutes.

Lamb OK?

-TIMER BEEPS

-Tell you in a minute.

Spiced rack of lamb with an almond and apricot crust.

As long as he knows what he's doing, that makes quite a bit of sense.

It's all about timings, isn't it?

You should be serving now, Tom.

Let's go. Well done. Come on.

For his main, Tom has made spiced rack of lamb

with an almond and apricot crust,

served with crushed roasted potatoes,

a mint raita, and a pomegranate glaze.

This looks beautiful to me.

I have every expectation that this is going to eat very well indeed.

The lamb is fantastic. I love the use of the pomegranate seeds.

Even the potatoes, a very simple idea, they work, too.

It's so satisfying because there's so many textures.

The little drop of acidity you get

from pomegranate seeds is just terrific.

It's very difficult to say anything but good things about this dish.

Isn't it nice when a plan comes together?

LAUGHTER

It's rich, it's opulent. It's just a little bit sweet, for me.

I like a little bit of sharpness and sweetness with the lamb. I think it's very nice.

15 minutes, then we'll have your mango and chocolate, please.

Yep. Er...

It's a mysterious sounding thing.

Can't quite work out what it's going to be.

I don't think that mango goes particularly well with chocolate.

I worry that this is a little too complicated for its own good.

Is he actually making a millefeuille,

i.e. a layered thing, with mango in one side and chocolate cheesecake as the next layer,

or is there a millefeuille of mango on one side, and a chocolate cheesecake?

I don't know! I'm a little bit afraid.

-Come on, mate. We've got to go now.

-Yeah.

Tom's dessert is a millefeuille of mango and chocolate cheesecake,

layers of crushed amaretto biscuits, vanilla mousse,

chocolate ganache and diced mango, dressed with mango puree and nuts.

Once again, what he's done brilliantly

is this fantastic ability to introduce texture,

so the amaretti biscuits and the pistachios and the hazelnuts

all just kind of crunching

and adding a fantastic layer of subtlety and interest to the whole thing.

I take back everything I've ever said

doubting the marriage of mango and chocolate.

I thought they worked together really well. I think this is a nice pudding.

I said at the beginning I wanted to see personality on the plate,

and I feel we've really got that from Tom.

There's toasty nuts, there's the flavour of amaretti biscuits,

there's chocolate, there's fruit of a mango, as well. Very nice.

It's interesting textured, it's fun, I actually quite like it.

Yeah, yeah, I like it. Yeah, I like it.

The pressure is, it's immense.

But I've definitely delivered to a certain extent, today.

And I just hope that they think there's something in me

that's worth, you know, developing.

Menus are meant to tell me what I'm about to have to eat.

Don't play peekabo with me. New England raviolo.

OK, so it's a raviolo, but what are they putting in it?

Please tell me what you're going to serve me. Do not play games.

Eight minutes until your starter goes out.

Yeah. I'm running behind, Gregg, I'm afraid.

-Your first dish is the ravioli, right?

-Yeah.

-And this is the ravioli.

-This is the ravioli.

-Is...?

-Doesn't take long to cook.

How about the things you've got to stuff them with, where are they?

-That's here.

-Are they all done?

-Yeah, that's all done.

-You're supposed to be serving in two minutes.

-Yeah.

Do you think it might be worthwhile telling them you're going to be late?

I'm only going to be a couple of minutes late at this stage, I don't think I need to.

-I would.

-Pardon?

-I would. Give yourself some breathing space,

-make sure you put the dish out the way you want it.

-OK.

-OK, Andrew, go and tell them, mate. You're late.

-Yep.

I'm running a few minutes late, I'm afraid.

But I hope in four or five minutes the starter will be out. Thank you very much.

-Come on, Andrew, let's go, mate.

-Yep.

Right now, you're seven minutes over.

-It's ready, it's ready. That's it.

-Go!

-Good.

And then get straight back for this main course.

I hope that wasn't much longer than five minutes.

Andrew's starter is based on the flavours of a New England clam chowder.

With a scallop and potato-filled raviolo,

a clam and sweetcorn veloute, leek fondue and crispy bacon.

The pasta is beautiful, those parcels wonderfully filled.

Saltiness from the clams, a little tiny hint of scallop,

and leek running through the whole lot. I think that's a very good dish.

Truth be told, it's one of the most ambitious dishes here today, and it's very skilful.

I mean, no wonder Andrew was late.

There's a hell of a lot of work that's gone into this.

Taken as a whole, I think this works.

There is a riff on the flavours of New England, here.

It's all there. It's rather sweet.

You look like you've swallowed a wasp.

I think it's got a bit too complicated for its own good.

I think you're wrong on this. I think it would be mean

to penalise him for throwing everything at us in this round of MasterChef.

Crusted rack of lamb, sounds fair enough.

Celeriac puree is a nice thing.

Rainbow chard is a pretty thing, salmoriglio is an unknown thing.

I've met an awful lot of ingredients,

and when you start throwing words at me that I don't know, I get a bit tetchy.

He could've just told us what it is.

This is your four-minute warning.

I'm liking this, Andrew.

I'd like it a lot more if it was quicker.

Right, finishing touches now, mate, please.

-What else to go on the plate? Sauce?

-Sauce.

-Let's go, then.

-And then pesto.

-Come on!

-Done?

-Yep.

-Good. Let's do it. Well done, mate, looks great.

-You're back on time.

-Looks very good.

Andrew's main is a rack of lamb with a mint and nut crust,

served with rainbow chard, celeriac puree,

lamb sauce, and a salmoriglio dressing.

-What is salmoriglio?

-It's a southern Italian pesto made from oregano.

Thanks.

It's all absolutely accurately cooked.

The meat is good.

And I like the way he's used the chard both as vegetable and as garnish.

The celeriac puree is remarkably light and very nice.

The jus is all right, but it's a little on the sweet side.

Andrew clearly knows how to cook.

But whether he can then actually take it to that next stage,

which is to say something through that cookery is another question.

John, that's a really nice blend of textures and flavours.

Sweet, sharp, earthy, irony, meaty.

Very good.

It's really pronounced in its flavours,

and they all come together, become a very, very good dish. I like it a lot.

Really well cooked.

-Really well cooked.

-Lovely.

Right. Dessert.

Andrew, what goes with that tart and apple?

The spice cream, then the apples.

You've pulled it back from the brink, son.

Well, it was all front-end loaded.

-Keep on working!

-Sorry.

Well, I've never met a treacle tart that I didn't like, but they can go wrong.

-You can get soggy pastry underneath.

-I'm really keen on this one.

This appeals to all the greedy bits of my nature.

I have a real problem with Andrew's dessert.

If you bite into a crab apple, your mouth surrenders immediately.

Spice cream, ice cream, what is it?

It's creme fraiche ice cream infused with vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon.

-If you don't carry on working, John's going to shout at you.

-Sorry, sorry, Sorry, sorry!

-That it, you finished?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-Come on, then. Let's go!

For his dessert, Andrew has made black treacle tart

with cardamom and cinnamon spiced ice cream,

and roasted crab apples.

These little chaps have been dipped in sugar of some description.

I don't know whether that will save them or not,

or whether they'll be sharp as hell.

Sharp as hell.

The quality you look for in the pastry in a treacle tart

is not elasticity, and that is the main characteristic of this pastry.

The spice cream is nice. It's fresh, it's light, got a little acidic edge.

The flavours are good. I think Andrew's possibly just set himself a bit too much to do, today.

Treacle tart is nicely made. The pastry is undercooked.

-But the ice cream is delicious.

-It is, isn't it?

-Delicious.

Beautiful ice cream. I just love it. The crab apples?

Honestly don't care if I never see one as long as I live.

I was ten minutes late for the starter. But, I had so much to do for the later courses,

I had to get it done, otherwise everything was going to be late.

From the perspective that I think that is a tough challenge, I think I did OK.

-You got ten minutes. You going to be on time?

-Ten minutes for the starter? On time.

Don't let me down.

Each of these three things, marinated mackerel,

soda bread and aioli have to be bang on, or it's a disaster.

For the mackerel to have taken on the flavours of the marinade

in that short time, this is quite a big ask.

We got five minutes, Eamonn. What we got left to do?

For the starter, I've just got to get the mackerel on the plate.

-Aioli, that turned out OK?

-Yeah, I'm happy enough with it.

Should have a bit of kick in there, I know that.

Nice. Come on, Eamonn.

Well done, Eamonn.

Eamonn has made a starter of horseradish and gin marinated mackerel,

served with soda bread and saffron-topped aioli.

Look at it, just shimmering and silvery.

Absolutely perfectly presented.

It looks like it's just swum onto the plate.

The mackerel is a sweet cure, and I think it could do with a slightly saltier edge.

What's amazing about this mackerel, it's got this amazing texture to it.

It's almost like fatty tuna. I just wonder about the aioli with it.

It's the most garlicky, really, he's turned it up to 11.

Just don't know whether the two need each other.

My wife's going to know what I had for lunch.

HE SPLUTTERS

That aioli is so strong,

so garlicky, it's like munching down on a raw garlic clove.

And it's overpowering everything.

HE EXHALES

Partridge breast with porcini. Yum!

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

He'll need to add some moisture to the breast,

and I hope there'll be some other things going on on the plate.

-How long have I got?

-You've got under four minutes, Eamonn.

-OK.

-How's the bread sauce?

-Ready to go on.

Ah!

-Right. We going?

-We going.

Eamonn's main is partridge breast with pan-fried porcini mushrooms,

game chips, and a bread sauce.

The partridge breasts are just very solid and very dry.

To me, this is not working.

This bread sauce is, it's like wallpaper paste, isn't it?

And very, very clovey.

The potato is not really game chips. They're cut a little bit thicker.

They don't really ring a bell.

I'm afraid I would categorise this as a near miss.

-The bread sauce, for me, is just a little bit...

-Wishy?

-Wishy-washy.

The mushrooms are lovely.

And my bird is really, really dry.

For me, it's that gravy that he's made with pork, that's really holding the whole dish together.

-SIGHS

-Oh, man.

Banana sponge is very much

a sort of nursery pudding to serve up to restaurant critics.

I bow to no man in my love of custard.

Adulterating it with ginger and thyme

will either be magnificent or a disaster.

Come on!

-Eamonn, three minutes.

-Thank you, Gregg.

-Can we go?

-Just a second, please.

-Good to go.

-Let's go, let's go, let's go.

Eamonn has served his banana sponge in a bowl of ginger and thyme custard,

topped with butterscotch sauce and caramelised bananas.

This looks a bit like something I would arrange

to try and make my children eat something they didn't want to eat.

If I was about nine, I'd be really, really pleased to receive this.

This isn't really a sponge so much as a rather dense textured cake.

The custard, I am getting thyme, getting a bit of ginger,

I'm also getting a lot of aioli from his first course, unfortunately.

LAUGHTER

I don't think the people who make that nice custard in packets

will be quaking in their boots.

The cake is really heavy, and those bananas, which are half-cooked but just glazed with sugar,

-and the butterscotch sauce make the whole thing quite cloying.

-Bit too thick and sweet, even for me.

HE SIGHS

Whether it's good enough, I've no idea. I've no idea.

But it's a push, it's a rush, you know?

We just have to wait and see.

A very, very long, very, very difficult day.

Our decision is not going to be easy.

I still say we got some extraordinary food. Had some fabulous dishes.

Shelina, I was impressed with today. I liked the starter.

Little fiery chilli crab cake, I thought was a joy.

As for the monkfish, the fish was cooked beautifully.

But the dahl today wasn't spiced as well as she can.

Her dessert, I thought, was just mouth-wateringly wonderful.

That rum and vanilla syrup over the top. That ice cream.

Absolutely fantastic. Loved it.

Andrew. Huge amount of work.

I thought his ravioli was fantastic.

Love the main course.

The dessert, the ice cream, I absolutely loved it.

We said right at the start he was doing a lot, maybe too much.

But he delivered.

Tom. They loved his tuna dish. They loved his lamb dish.

One standout dish for me,

Tom's chocolate and mango dessert cheesecake.

Really tasty, and it looked fun.

It put a smile on your face.

I agree. I thought Tom's dessert was great.

Shelina,

Andrew

and Tom

stay in the competition.

Our fourth place, now,

is battled out between

Jay and Eamonn.

Jay was full of promise, today.

The fish, he played it a little bit safe,

but spiced pears and venison which was really, seriously rare.

I'm OK with my venison cooked like that.

But I did think that spiced pear and a chestnut sauce

was far too sweet.

And then, for dessert, from Jay, we get a panna cotta.

Beautiful, full of vanilla,

and for some reason he put grapefruit on top of it.

But the work that he put into each dish was good.

I don't want to go home.

I don't want to go home.

But, if I do,

I'll take that on the chin.

Eamonn is a difficult one to work out, today.

Taking a mackerel and trying to pickle it in the time was always going to be difficult,

and in my opinion it wasn't done properly.

His aioli, John, that wasn't aioli, that was a garlic puree.

That was just too strong. I mean ferociously strong.

The partridge dish,

the partridge was dry,

the sauce, the bread sauce was more like milk sauce. It didn't deliver.

And we had a pretty average banana dessert from Eamonn.

I know the calibre of everyone else, so, you know,

maybe me being reasonably happy with everything, maybe that ain't enough.

I've just got to cross everything and hope to goodness that I'm through.

You and I have to make a decision.

Five cooks, one of them is going to leave us,

and we'll have our final four.

I honestly, honestly don't know.

They've come so far.

You five have been extraordinary throughout this competition,

and demonstrated some real skill, proper tenacity, real determination.

And that makes the day's decision even tougher.

The contestants that are staying in the competition...

Tom. Well done, son.

Shelina. Great job.

Great job.

Andrew, bit late, but it was worth it.

The contestant leaving MasterChef...

-..is Eamonn. I'm sorry, Eamonn.

-I'm sorry, Eamonn.

OK, guys. Thank you very much.

Massively disappointed. Massively disappointed.

Four great cooks out there. One of them's going to be MasterChef champion,

and it ain't going to be me.

But it's been a ball, a total ball.

I will take so much away from this.

But for now, the lesson stops.

It's awesome. It's really awesome.

I wish I could describe it, but I can't.

Just feels better and better, and then to be part of that gang,

just... It's magic, just fantastic.

Final four! Whoa.

Cannot believe, cannot believe that I'm in the final four.

It's amazing.

It really does fill me with confidence, I think.

I might even have a chance at winning it.

Congratulations, you are our final four.

We are about to give you...

..the masterclass of your life.

We are taking you

to Thailand.

GASPS AND LAUGHTER

Oh, my God!

Thailand!

Tomorrow night...

Ah! What are you doing?

The final four face their toughest challenges yet.

"Aharn thiang!" Means "lunch time". Come on!

Harder! Harder! More! More!

-We've got 15 minutes.

-They're not going to be ready.

Burnt?

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