Episode 14 MasterChef

MasterChef is back.

Hundreds auditioned.

Now the best 50 amateur cooks are through.

Let's cook.

Get your pudding spoon out and man up!

You either stand out or you're knocked out.

Each week, ten new contestants,

battling for a place in Friday's quarterfinal.

I don't want to eat it.

I already feel nervous for them.

This is just...bang!

Only the strongest will make it to the final challenges.

Come on! We've got to move now.

You've got six minutes left.

OH!

Cooking does NOT get tougher than this.

MasterChef quarterfinal, and five cooks

anxious to get their place in the next round.

I get fat on quarterfinal days, and I love it!

Today is a huge opportunity.

I never imagined I would get as far as this.

Butterflies in belly.

Hopefully, I'll put them nerves to good use, to get me going through it.

I've done a great job to get this far,

but I'm worried about what lies ahead.

Good to see you back here.

This, of course, is a quarterfinal day.

You are presenting your food not only to John and I,

but to three previous winners of MasterChef.

You've got one chance today.

One chance, because you've only got one course.

At the end of this, we will make a decision of who stays and who goes.

Ladies and gentlemen, one hour. Let's cook.

Today's critics are three MasterChef champions -

Peter Bayless,

Mat Follas,

and Thomasina Miers.

So far in the competition,

communications advisor Graeme

has turned out some outstanding dishes.

Your sauces are fantastic.

Depth, little bit of sharpness - really good.

Graeme, you look seriously focused. What's going on?

A lot, which is my problem.

-A lot of things, and a lot of things that could go wrong.

-You're in a right pickle, son.

I want to impress you. I want to show you that I've taken on board everything you've said.

Learn things from being in the kitchen,

and I just want to make one good, solid plate of food.

What are you making for us?

Duck breast

on a potato rosti

with a Brie-stuffed beetroot fondant

and a red wine sauce

and parsnip puree.

Have you got enough time to do all these things?

I'm wondering. I'm really wondering.

-But I hope so.

-Is there anything you're confident about with this dish, Graeme?

Right now? No, not so much.

I wouldn't say

I've cooked this dish a lot before.

There were different elements that I've done

in different dishes,

but it's the first time I'll have put them all together on one plate.

DJ Natalie has wowed with some original ideas.

You get the sort of orange background

with that sweet but sharp beetroot.

It's very, very interesting.

This competition means everything.

Sleepless nights, waking up feeling sick.

Just...you know, life's one big blur. It's on hold at the moment.

Natalie, what are you cooking for us today?

Today I'm doing pan-fried sea bass

with fennel three ways.

So it's pureed, confited and shavings.

I'm doing mini crab bon-bons with a sauce vierge.

Oooooh!

Ooh, I do like the sound of that.

Ooh, that's fancy.

It's quite a nice dish. My mum likes it.

Why does it mean so much to you, Natalie?

It's going to be that step to move into food.

And now I just don't stop thinking about food.

It's just taken over.

-So what about the...?

-I think that's going to go on the back burner now.

I think that's in my 20s, and...

my late 20s to early 30s are all about food.

15 minutes gone.

HR advisor Louise

earned her place with a stand-out scallop dish.

Looks amazing. I love it.

Already, having only done a few challenges,

I've soaked up so much stuff

that is just making my dishes better and better.

-What are you making for us today, Louise?

-I am making

a roast duck breast

with a pommes puree, a pea puree,

Madeira sauce, and I'm putting some wilted spinach

and chanterelles underneath the duck breast.

How confident are you about cooking for three champions?

Ah...um...

Do you know what? I am confident, because I'm confident in my dish.

And when I cooked in the professional kitchen, the chef said,

"As long as you've got confidence, you can make the dish fantastic."

Have we got the Louise trademark sketch on a recipe

of exactly how the dish is going to look?

Brilliant! Very good.

I've even got a note from my mum today as well,

spurring me on. It just says that she thinks I'm really determined

and I've got a lot of passion, and that I can do it.

"Do tell Gregg I think he's the sexiest thing on television..."

She didn't want that read out!

"I don't know what he's doing with that Aussie bloke..."

Nice words of encouragement from your mum.

You're halfway.

Operations manager Barry has impressed with some precise cooking.

Your pork is cooked brilliantly. Absolutely brilliantly.

Today, my destiny's in my own hands. I know exactly

what I'm cooking out there.

That's why I'm making sure what I cook is perfect.

What are you making for us?

I'm doing pan-fried sea bass

with crushed new potatoes

with crab, red pepper sauce...

Where do dishes like this come from?

It's trial and error.

I really like just trying different things at home.

I've tried this dish with different sauces in the past,

and to me, the red pepper one just works.

-Last time you cooked, there were real issues with timing.

-Yes.

Things going wrong, things not cooked, not finishing off the plate properly.

How are you going to combat that today?

This is very much a military operation.

I've planned what time everything's got to be ready. Everything will be out on time, and to a high standard.

Barry's dish sounds pleasant enough,

but I wonder whether it's ambitious enough.

Pan-frying a piece of fish,

boiling some potatoes?

Mum-of-two Saira's distinctive palate

has made her food stand out.

Bit by bit, in comes some more spice.

I really, really like it. Honestly.

You seem to be well amongst it.

You've got lots of lovely things on your bench. Tell us about this.

I don't just use ground spices.

I use the whole spices - the cassia bark, the cardamom and bay.

So that gives you a lovely freshness

and a sort of a mellow edge to the spice mix.

What are you cooking for us?

A lamb bhuna with new potatoes in it

and some aubergines with a nice tamarind almost chutney-like sauce.

How do you feel about cooking for past winners?

I'm really, really excited. Especially about one of them, who's just my heroine.

I love Thomasina. I love her food,

and I think that she's just a real inspiration for me.

She hates Bengali food. Hates it with a passion.

So mean to me!

This is an old family recipe,

brought down from my mother.

I think the pressure will really be on me to do this well,

because my mum does it so well.

You cannot leave MasterChef champions waiting for their lunch.

What will impress me today,

I think, is having a plate of food that makes me smile.

There are elements from my quarterfinal

that I still serve today in the restaurant,

so there has to be something

that makes you go, "Wow!"

I feel for these guys at this stage,

because they've got a lot to impress, with one dish. And if they lose their bottle,

they've got nothing else to pull out the bag.

So we'll see how they do.

Pan-fried sea bass with fennel puree and confit is right up my street.

And that's not even looking at mini crab bon-bons and sauce vierge.

What's not to like about that?

-You've got two minutes, Natalie.

-I'm going to go over.

Sorry, Gregg.

There's quite a few things going on there that need to be

brought together at the right moment.

You're now into extra time.

I'm going as quick as I can.

Fish.

Come on, let's go, please.

Hi. Sorry for the delay.

There you go.

Natalie's made a main course

of pan-fried sea bass

resting on fennel puree

with crab bon-bons,

shaved and confited fennel,

and a tomato and basil sauce vierge.

This is a very pretty plate of food.

I've run over time, so I just hope they like the taste of it,

but I'm not pleased with my performance.

Mmm.

Mmm.

The fish has been cooked absolutely spot-on.

It's moist, lovely and crispy on the outside

and just cooked in the middle. Absolutely bang-on.

Beautifully seasoned fennel.

Absolutely lovely. And now for this crab...

Look at all those flakes in there.

It's packed full of crab.

Mmm.

Really well seasoned.

That's lovely.

It illustrates quite a breadth of knowledge and experience.

She's challenged herself,

and I think pretty well pulled it all off.

The elegance of Natalie's dish actually surpassed my expectation.

I always knew she'd do flavour, but it's a really elegant dish.

She's done a lot of things here which are really admirable.

The star of Graeme's dish has to be the duck.

So how he does that with Brie and beetroot and parsnip

and red wine sauce is going to be really interesting.

I'm not necessarily totally over-excited about trying it,

but he might confound all expectations.

-You've got about four minutes left, OK?

-OK.

Could have done with being a bit thicker.

Come on, come on, come on!

Right-o.

We're ready to go?

Hi.

Graeme's duck breast is served on a potato rosti

with a Brie-stuffed beetroot fondant,

parsnip puree

and a red wine sauce.

The red wine sauce

has not been reduced enough.

It looks like a bit of a watery splodge, which is a bit sad.

So the duck, for me, I'm finding a little bit tough.

There's a kind of chewiness there

that I don't feel should be there.

The fondant... This is hard. This is actually really hard.

As for the Brie, I'm afraid it adds absolutely nothing.

It doesn't actually taste of anything at all.

The rosti is totally delightful.

I'm going to eat all of it up.

It's absolutely wonderful. So he can obviously cook.

I just think he's neglected to really think

about what's going on in this dish.

We've seen him cook a lot better than this.

The pressure got to him. We saw how nervous he was

and you can see it on that plate.

I feel completely exhausted after that.

You think you've got the timings down,

and you get in there and everything just kind of falls apart.

We need these plates out in three minutes.

All right? You haven't plated up a thing yet.

Louise, with her roast duck...

Madeira sauce, would be rich and deep and punchy and shiny, I hope.

Louise, how's your sauce?

It WAS lovely.

It all sounds very sweet, so it'll be interesting

how she manages to bring that into a really punchy dish.

Come on, Louise, please!

Where's my drawing?

Your drawing's under here.

-What's left to go on?

-I've just got the duck breast to go on top of this,

then it's onions, pea puree, and I'm done.

-What's left to go - just sauce?

-Just sauce.

Come on, Louise.

-Your past winners are waiting for your plate.

-Done.

Done? Good.

Come on, Louise, let's go.

Nice dish, that.

I'm so sorry I'm late.

Louise's roast duck has been served

on a bed of wilted spinach,

pommes puree and chanterelle mushrooms

and accompanied by caramelised onions,

pea puree and a Madeira sauce.

Presentation looks really very nice indeed.

The sauce itself is actually pretty good.

It's got a nice sweetness to it. Works well with the duck.

Unfortunately, this dish feels rushed.

The pea puree is not puree.

The spinach and the mushrooms have got grit in them.

It's been rushed, and it shows.

I like the nice presentation.

I like the duck, but I think she should have devoted more time

to the actual cooking of everything and less time to the presentation.

I was happy with what I served.

All the flavours were nice, the duck was cooked really well.

I was happy with it.

Barry's going to give us pan-fried sea bass with a red pepper sauce.

It doesn't sound incredibly creative.

It's not jumping out the page at me.

He's got to cook that incredibly well and make it look damn sexy.

Three minutes you've got.

-You happy, Barry?

-Yes, I'm happy

that everything's going to be cooked right.

Just difficult to make sure I'm not too early with the fish.

Just got to put the sauce into the pot.

And then it's all ready to serve.

Right, so I'm all ready to go.

Hi, everybody. How are you?

OK, thank you.

I'll come in with some sauce in a second.

Barry's pan-fried sea bass and asparagus

are resting on crab and chive crushed potatoes,

served with a red pepper broth.

The fish is cooked perfectly well,

but the sauce is just overpoweringly sweet.

Once that's on the plate, that's pretty much all I can taste.

I just really question whether he's tried all these flavours together.

Because, for me, they work so badly,

that they don't work in any way.

I feel sad for him, and for the poor fish.

That is not for me.

And it's a shame. And it's that sauce.

It tastes like you're licking the inside of a tin

and it's really horrible, and just really...

Eugh!

I'm sorry - that's nasty.

It's difficult to know how I've performed today.

Did they like it? What was wrong with it, if anything?

Or was it perfect?

I don't know!

You've got about three or four minutes to get this plate up.

Go, Saira!

I'm a sucker for a good curry.

The thing is is how well she spices it.

I forgot to put the crispy fried onions in,

which should run through the rice.

-Extra texture.

-Extra texture?

-Extra texture.

Right, Saira, we need to start seeing some food on plates now.

OK.

Can't blow it now, mate. You've worked too hard for this.

How's it going to look on the plate, though?

You know? It's a curry. Curry tends to be a lump on the plate.

-You've got your curry to go on and your salad to go on?

-Yep.

Come on!

Let's spoon the bhuna!

Come on!

-Done?

-Done.

-Let's go.

-Need a cloth, sorry.

-Hot plates, Saira?

-Little bit.

-Well done, you.

-Well done.

All those wet things plonked on top of each other and a salad on the top!

I liked it when she had little bowls.

Hello!

Ladies first.

There you go. It's a little bit warm, the plate.

Saira's lamb bhuna

is served with new potatoes,

aubergine and tamarind chutney,

crispy onion pilau rice

and a tomato and onion salad.

I think this looks wonderful. The smell that hits you...

It's just full of spice. Warm, delicious, delicate spicing.

-I want to eat it!

-Yeah.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Mmm.

The spicing in that bhuna is absolutely wonderful.

Whole cardamom pods,

the spice in the aubergine

and the sourness of that tamarind

cutting through... It's all wonderful.

The lamb... Really impressed how tender it is.

You've just got that mix of all of those wonderful flavours.

You've got sweet, you've got sour, you've got sharp...

It's good. It's a cracking curry.

For me, it's an absolutely sensational dish.

And I'll excuse anything on terms of fussy presentation,

because a meal like this just doesn't need it.

The food is so good.

It doesn't look appealing.

It seems that you and I are going to continue to disagree

about the presentation of Saira's food. I think it's great.

It's honest. It's robust. It's her food.

It's what she cooks and I bet it tastes amazing.

Ooh!

HE INHALES SHARPLY

-Oh, yeah!

-The flavours on that plate are absolutely stunning.

There's a sweet taste, then it's turning into fire.

I feel like a cartoon character caught in a pinball machine.

I mean, thrown from one side to another, hitting the bumpers

and being bashed around - there are so many spices, so many flavours.

That food, it tastes fantastic!

I'm not sure about the presentation again,

whether it was good enough.

So I'll just have to hope for the best.

Cor! That was a day of ups and downs, wasn't it, John?

What is good is you, me and the past winners

all pretty much saw eye to eye on this.

One star cook today in my mind.

Somebody who went back to basics, created beautiful food,

all delicious, and it smelled wonderful!

Intoxicating. And that's Saira.

Saira's food is delicious, John.

But I tell you, word of caution. I do not like the way her presentation's going.

So Saira's in.

Definitely. Saira stays in the competition.

Can I put my hand up for somebody I believe whose competition is over?

Today we had a dish that both of us

weren't that enamoured by.

That's it - there's the expression.

It was a bit of an "Eugh!" dish

and it was to do with the red pepper sauce.

That red pepper sauce was wrong.

I'm afraid Barry's cooked his goose.

I like Natalie. I do admire her work,

and I do admire her flavours.

Her food is growing up really quickly.

I think Natalie could be a star.

Louise and Graeme still to discuss.

Are either of those two going to stay with us?

I recognise promise in Louise

and I think she's got the makings of a really great MasterChef contestant.

But that sort of food frustrates me.

It's there for appearance and not to be eaten.

I really just want to keep ploughing through,

cos I know I can do more and I know I can learn more.

At the moment, I think Graeme's got a lot of skill.

Today, he's tried to demonstrate more skills,

but the dish didn't come together as one.

It would be a miracle if I went through.

I would just be completely over the moon.

Do we need to take either of them through?

Oh, I'd like to keep one of them.

We have made a decision.

Three of you are going through to the next round.

The first person leaving us...

..is Barry.

It's disappointing to go out, obviously, at this stage of the competition,

but it's been a fantastic journey.

I've learned so much by being here.

Hopefully, I can take that forward and improve my cooking no end.

The second person leaving us...

..is Graeme.

I know I didn't put in my best performance today.

My love of cooking will never go away.

You never know what's round the corner.

Wow!

That was so intense, it was unreal, but wow, did I get a kick out of it!

I feel like I'm walking on air. I just feel amazing.

Yeah, it's been a great day, but now I'm through, it's been a fantastic day!

I'm feeling just unbelievable. This is probably the best thing that's ever happened in my life.

Next time...

it's the MasterChef knockout week.

And the 12 best amateurs...

Whoa!

..are back to fight for their place.

-I can't even get it to fit on!

-Hold on, hold on.

It is hard work. I'm sweating like a racehorse.

But only the top cooks will go through to the semifinals.

It's going like that!

CHEF!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd