Episode 16 MasterChef

MasterChef is searching for the country's best amateur cook.

After five weeks of heats, the strongest 12 have made it through.

Yesterday, the first six went head-to-head.

-The first person going through to the next round is Larkin.

-Oh, my God!

..is Saira.

Dale.

..is Shivi.

Tonight, the remaining group are back to fight for their place.

Farhana, up to this point, has given us some amazing flavour combinations.

This is the biggest thing I've done in my life.

I will carry on going and cook every day as if it's my last.

Dave has got a good touch. His food is delicious.

It's a privilege to be here. I don't want to waste it and ruin it.

I want to go as far as I possibly can.

It would be nice if Louise can carry on being that bit different.

My desire to win is getting stronger as each day goes by.

Everybody is stepping up their game, so you have to run with that or get left behind.

There is no doubt that Rukmini does stunning-looking plates of food.

Potentially winning the competition, that would just change your life.

Natalie is an adventurous cook.

I think about food all day long. I don't sleep very much.

My whole life's been consumed by it.

Ollie is a really interesting cook. He's a daring cook.

I want to spend the rest of my life in food,

but I have to win this competition. I can't go home now.

Only the best will go through to Friday night's showstopper.

You can't rest on your laurels, not on MasterChef. You have got to fight for your place.

It's early morning and the six contestants are travelling west.

Today, they face their first mass catering challenge.

Welcome to the Fire Service College here in Gloucestershire,

one of the biggest fire and emergency training centres in the world.

You six are going to be responsible for cooking lunch for 200 fire-fighters this morning.

Today is about mass catering, but today is also about teamwork.

Teams...

Ollie, Louise, Natalie,

and then Dave, Farhana, Rukmini.

Each team today is going to be responsible for cooking 70 main courses, 30 vegetarian dishes

and 100 desserts.

That is 200 plates of food per team.

Lunch is at one o'clock.

You have just two-and-a-half hours.

I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, get to it!

There is a lot of pressure because we don't want to let the firemen down. They save our lives every day.

The biggest number I've cooked for is 17. That was Christmas dinner.

This is a bit bigger than that!

OK, OK!

Each year, over 6,000 trainees take part in over 100 courses,

dealing with every type of major incident.

OK, good morning, guys.

We've got a really busy morning, a lot of work to do.

The customers today expect and deserve a good standard of food.

We've only got two-and-half hours to prepare and serve the meals, so let's get a move on.

Right, what have we got?

Each team now has to come up with a main course, a vegetarian option and a pudding.

Actually, Louise, look, dessert. You're the dessert queen.

This is ace.

I'm most worried about not getting things in on time and it not being up to standard.

It's not just one dish, it's 100 dishes that could go wrong.

John, listen, unless you're a professional chef, who has cooked for 200 people before?

Nobody cooks for 200 people.

It's about organisation, technique and planning.

They haven't got a clue what they're walking into, John.

-It's like information overload.

-Yeah.

So who wants to be team leader?

I don't mind doing it. I'm quite vocal.

-Then keep checking up and jumping in with everyone.

-Sounds cool.

-OK, so, menu, what have you decided on?

-We're going to do a fish pie.

Then we've gone Italian, so we'll do garlic bread and a spinach and ricotta pasta bake.

Then for dessert, we'll do a spiced plum upside-down cake with custard.

Wow, this is ambitious! You've probably made enough fish pie for four people.

-How about for 70 people?

-One of these makes 25 portions, so we're going to do three trays of fish pie.

But the pasta, we're going to boil. We'll make the sauce off the hob

and just put it in for browning on the top, so it'll be a last-minute "whack in the oven".

-You sound like you know what you're talking about.

-I'm thinking of what I cook for my grandad.

-All the fire-fighters round here are like your grandad?

-He likes feeding, so it's like big, homely food.

That's a lot of work between three people, a lot of work in two-and-a-half hours.

They've been clever with their menu. I would get in a queue for it.

They've got it absolutely right. Let's see what it looks like when it comes out of the oven.

They're so blunt.

DJ Natalie begins the mammoth task of skinning over 70 fillets of haddock...

-Ollie, can you sharpen knives?

-Yeah, let's give it a go.

Mate, these are blunt.

I still can't get it off properly.

..while graphic designer Ollie starts prepping the potatoes for the fish pie's topping.

-How many kilos of potatoes are you doing?

-Five trays.

-What's five trays equal in weight?

-15 kilos.

-So, 15 kilos into 70...

-That's 200 grams of potato each.

-Yeah.

So, have we decided on this main?

The other team have nominated policeman Dave as their leader,

but struggling to finalise all three of their dishes,

they've lost half an hour of prepping time.

-Pears and syrup sponge. Does that go? Like a steamed syrup?

-Yeah, it will.

-I'm not sure about the pears and the sponge.

-I know what you mean.

-The chocolate worked.

-Do you think maybe steamed pineapple pudding?

-Yeah, yeah, brilliant.

-We should get started soon.

-Yes, we should.

-Dave, I hear you're team leader.

-I am. I'm boss for the day.

-What's the menu?

-We're going to be doing a chicken and rice curry,

so we're frantically getting the onions and butternut squash.

Secondly, we have like a vegetable with chickpea tagine and rice which will be Moroccan-spiced.

Then for the dessert, we'll have the pineapple chilli syrup on a sponge.

-My concern is you've got two curries and rice with both dishes.

-Yeah.

-Don't just chuck everything with rice.

-Right.

-Anything else you could use?

-Let's have it with a lemony couscous and put a load of coriander through it.

-And then flavour your rice.

-Yeah.

And I'm sorry, guys, you can't do a sponge. The other team is doing one. You can't do the same dessert.

-We'll do an exotic fruit cobbler. We'll use the pineapple and the mango and do a cobbler.

-Fantastic.

You need to somehow work out who's doing what because now you've got an hour and 45 minutes.

The team of Dave, Rukmini and Farhana took a long while to get going, John.

They couldn't agree on a menu.

Two dishes were virtually the same. Technically, that's a right muddle!

I've got a lot to prep for the vegetable dish. Rukmini's going to get on to the cobbler now.

So, hopefully, we're going in the right direction... Finally.

On the other side of the kitchen, Natalie's team are well into the prep for their fish pie.

-Have you got the potatoes in, Ollie?

-Potatoes are in, chef.

-How long?

-20 minutes more to go.

Natalie has put HR adviser Louise in charge of making the plum sponge and custard.

We need to get that cake in by midday.

I've got the measurements. I'm on it now.

- Will you be all right on your own? - I should be.

Oh, my God! I can't believe the quantities that are going into this.

100 portions of the dessert,

so I've just got to get my calculations right,

and then once the sponge mixtures go in, I'm doing my custard.

So...a lot to do!

-I wouldn't dice it that fine.

-No?

-Don't dice it that fine.

-Keep it a bit chunkier.

-Yes, chef.

Natalie has been fairly quiet in the MasterChef kitchen, but today, she's being really vocal.

She is a natural leader. She's a little general.

Who's got the salt?

On Dave's team, Farhana is frying off the spices with the butternut squash for the curry.

-A bit of chilli in there!

-Yeah. JOHN COUGHS

Oh, yeah. This is just looking amazing.

Exactly how I wanted it!

But they haven't worked out how to cook their Moroccan vegetarian dish.

-Which pot have we got on?

-This one.

-This'll be the vegetarian dish.

-Do you think that's enough for 30?

-I think so.

How are you going to do this with just that pot? That's not going to be enough for 30.

By the time you get all the veg in that pot, it'll be overflowing.

Aubergines need to go in, chickpeas, tomatoes. I'll have to transfer it, which is not something I want to do.

Look for the equipment, young man. Look like this.

Look at the size of this cooker! It's amazing.

Dave has got stuck into this North African-style vegetarian dish,

but do they have time to get that rich, lovely flavour in those veg?

It's not enough time to get flavour in chickpeas.

If we've got a compartment that's under pressure, hot gases, that pressure will certainly leak out.

With half an hour to go before lunch, the firemen are in full training mode.

Our staff carry out a lot of practical training

that is physically very demanding.

-'They burn a lot of calories.'

-OK, OK!

We've got 200 people on site today.

They will be keen to get away as quick as they possibly can back to their training,

so they'll be hoping the meal is served on time and it's of the right quality for them.

Back inside, Louise is still on the plum sponge pudding.

I'm panicking a little bit just about this cake. I want to get this cake sorted. It's not going to cook.

-The cake's not in yet?

-She's got two portions of the cake in. There's one more tray to go in.

-Then you've got to get the mixer clean for the mashed potatoes?

-Yeah.

-Nat, how are we doing?

-All right. Is that cake in the oven?

-What's going on with the mash?

-Just worry about your cake and starting that custard.

We might need to decide whether we do home-made or powdered custard.

Natalie is trying to finish their fish pie, but needs Ollie to start the ricotta and spinach pasta bake.

-What about the pasta?

-Pasta?

-Is it in?

-No, it's not, chef.

-What about the water? Is it boiled?

-No, it's not.

-Right, can you get on it?

-Yeah.

It is hard work. I'm sweating like a race horse!

-We need to make some space here. We've got to get this potato off. I need to get that fish out now.

-Yeah.

This is frightening right now. They have to concentrate, calm down and re-organise themselves.

-Farhana!

-Sorry!

You've got to get this cooked. Spread it out. You've got bits that are raw on top.

-I needed to...

-How long is it going to cook for?

See, look, raw bits, look.

-Yeah.

-Then you've got to thicken your sauce up.

-Are we going to be ready?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

I hope so.

I'm scared. The desserts haven't gone in the oven and they take a good 45, 50 minutes to cook.

The fish pie hasn't even got the sauce on it yet. Stuff that's too wet needs thickening up.

I could go on and on.

Rukmini is in charge of getting the exotic fruit cobbler prepared and into the oven.

We've not got much time at all. It needs to go in in ten minutes.

-Thank you.

-We'll get through this now.

-Whole strawberries, is that all right?

-Yeah, that's fine.

Dave has taken his eye off the vegetarian tagine.

-It's catching a little bit.

-Let's get the temperature down.

Oh, hot water!

-You're not supposed to put that water...

-Yeah, the brine's going in.

-I've put salt in there.

-You've seasoned it already?

-Yeah.

-Right, we'll just have to see...

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of communication. Dave is not team leader.

Working at this rate, John, they won't be in time for tea, let alone lunch. This is worrying.

There is only 20 minutes left until service.

-Ollie, how long for the pasta?

-15 minutes.

We ain't got 15. We need to do it quicker.

Just get it in the oven and get it out there. These guys will be hungry. We need to feed them.

Come on!

Where's the steamer? Steamer, steamer, steamer...

Chef!

-We're trying to get...

-Watch your head.

Get the other frozen one. That's it.

It's all gone a bit...thingy.

We've got 15 minutes, so...

We've just got to hope for the best.

-Can you check on my cakes?

-Yeah.

Louise, your oven's been turned down.

-What?

-It's on 142 degrees.

It needs to be on 180. Who's turned that down?

-It won't be cooked in the middle.

-It's going like that.

Chef!

Guys, you've got five minutes. You should be on the counter by now.

With moments until service, Rukmini is also struggling.

They don't have a bowl that I can use to whip the cream in. The whisk won't fit in that.

-I just can't even get it to fit on.

-Hold on, hold on.

-Can you find the chef?

-OK.

-Rukmini, I've got this.

-It's too late. There's only five minutes. Could you help me pour these out?

-You can carry on cooking the... You can carry on whisking if you need that pot.

-No...

We are two minutes late.

It's just after 1pm and 200 fire-fighters are queueing for their lunch.

We usually have lunch at one o'clock.

It's important that we eat at one, so we can maintain our schedule for the afternoon.

Ow!

That broccoli needs a bit longer.

We've got to be back out on the drill yard by two. There are a lot of hungry bodies out there.

We're all getting impatient.

Yeah, I've got it, I've got it.

-Are we ready to go?

-Yes, chef.

-You're ten minutes late.

We need one out there and one in here to back up. Yeah?

Let's get this out. Let's go!

-Take that one. I'll take the other one. Give me the tea towel.

-Are you all right?

-Yeah, go for it.

The fire-fighters have been queueing for 15 minutes

and finally, both teams are ready to serve.

-Fish pie! Come on, boys.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Loads of veg.

Fish pie, please.

Natalie and Ollie's poached haddock and prawn fish pie is an instant crowd-pleaser.

It's got a nice bit of haddock and prawns in there.

There you go, darling.

Very tasty.

Superb. It's sated my appetite. What more can I say?

The proof is in the pudding - empty plate, so thumbs up. Very good.

-Nice. Tasty.

-I like the sweetness of those leeks.

The mash is all buttery, quite fluffy. The taste of fish is there.

For 70 portions of fish pie, that's pretty good.

Staff canteen, over 200 people coming through here, that is a decent plate of food.

-All veg, yeah?

-Italian spinach and ricotta pasta.

-Bit of garlic bread!

The spinach and ricotta pasta bake, infused with lemon and nutmeg, is also doing well.

Some pasta? Yeah?

There you go, sir. Enjoy.

It was really nice, really tasty. Nice and filling for a lunchtime.

Hmm! Hmm! I really like that.

I'm really surprised. The dish looks good. You've got crispy cheese across the top.

There's richness from the ricotta, a heavy, salty but sharp taste.

There's a grind of lemon on the side of it and nutmeg.

If Ollie's put that together in 30 minutes, that's amazing. Very good.

Right, OK. Anybody for chicken curry and rice?

On Dave's team, Farhana's butternut squash and chicken curry with saffron-spiced rice is flying out.

-The chicken curry, please.

-There we go, sir.

-Lovely. Thanks a lot.

-Can I have the chicken curry, please?

-Chicken and rice?

-Thanks very much.

-Thank you.

Chicken and rice?

I tell you what, boys, that chilli is warm!

I chose the chicken curry because I like spicy food. I got a little bit of salad on the side as well.

And it's really tasty.

It was excellent, really, really good.

I really like the sweetness that comes from those onions and the fruit.

I like the spiciness from the chilli and the wonderful smokiness from the rest of the spice.

I like that sweet butternut squash against the well-cooked chicken.

Nearly 100 plates of canteen curry? That's a decent curry.

Chicken and rice?

There you go, sir.

-Sorry, guys. The chicken curry's finished.

-No more chicken curry. Sorry!

-I'll have some of the tagine, please.

-Vegetarian, yeah?

There you go, sir.

Dave's vegetarian dish is a Moroccan-style chickpea and aubergine tagine,

served with lime couscous.

Thank you.

There was no chicken left, so I had to get this vegetarian dish which is not that tasty.

That looks and tastes to me like a rushed after-thought.

What should be a really luxurious, opulent, spiced tomato mixture tasting of the Middle East

has become quite a damp, dull, over-reduced tomato sauce.

The best thing on there is that couscous.

I get the almost smokiness of the aubergines from that tomato sauce and I get plenty of pepper.

It just is a bit dull.

With the main courses over, the competition between the puddings begins.

Plum sponge and custard!

Come on, girls, we'll sort you right out. Let me quickly do this for you. There you go, lovey.

Do you want some spiced plums, darling?

-Spiced plums?

-Thank you.

-And for you, darling?

-And for me, please.

It was absolutely gorgeous, so I went up and had a second helping.

LAUGHTER

Hmm! That is a really moist, fruity-flavoured, really moreish sponge.

The custard's a little thick, but that's a pretty good sponge.

-Exotic fruit cobbler, people.

-Pineapple and mango.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Brilliant.

Thank you.

I had the cobbler. It wouldn't be my usual choice, but it was gorgeous.

Hmm!

-You like that?

-Hmm.

-Do you?

-Hmm.

-How can you?

It's a bit stodgy, it's a bit too sweet. For me, not a very nice thing at all.

You're going to love it, aren't you?

There's stewed fruit that's mellow, soft, slightly sweet, shortbread on the top, cream on the bottom.

I mean, that pretty much is a big, old-fashioned, stodgy, sweet British pudding.

It's the sort of stuff we were brought up on over here, John, and I love it.

High five, guys!

Whoa!

You were a good captain.

I'm not hungry now, I tell you that!

I can't believe we pulled that off.

I don't know how we done that, but we done it.

Of all the challenges we've done, this has to be the most chaotic.

They pushed themselves. It was madness in the kitchen, it was madness behind that counter.

I've got to say, by both teams, it was a really good job. Decent quality dishes en masse!

For me, today, the person who walked into this competition the quietest and the most understated

suddenly became this roaring lion. It was Natalie.

I hope I've impressed John and Gregg. Especially like today, I don't want to let them down.

It was also for the firemen. Hopefully, maybe I stepped up to the challenge of being team leader.

Ollie grafted. He rolled his sleeves up and really got stuck in. He was here, there and everywhere.

Ollie listened to orders. He played the team member. He did very well.

It's hard getting that amount of food out and feeding hard-working people.

I'm proud of what I did today - feed the fire-fighters.

Louise was in a strong team with Natalie and Ollie and she did her bit,

but I would like to have seen her make a bigger presence.

It's not my forte having to think on my feet. I like to plan. It took me really out of my comfort zone.

I don't think Dave is a natural leader

and trying to oversee everything, as Dave did, I actually think he took his eye off the ball.

We held, but it was hard work. Once I sit down, I don't think I'll be getting up for a while.

Farhana didn't really seem as if she was part of a team.

She quietly went about her own business and came up with a very well flavoured, very good curry.

The highlight for me was seeing the bottom of my curry pan.

Everything went to the last bit. Everything went.

Rukmini did not handle the pressure and the pace well at all today.

She got herself in such a tizz. She was in virtual meltdown by the end of it.

The pressure of cooking for 200 people is unbelievable.

You know how to cook for maybe ten people at a time,

but this, the volume of prep, was something like I've never done before.

The six contestants are now facing their second mass catering challenge.

Only three of them will go through to Friday's showstopper.

Welcome back to the MasterChef kitchen.

As you can see, you are in the same teams.

You have done mass catering for fire-fighters.

Now we want you to do it for us.

We want breakfast!

From the ingredients in front of you, we want you to devise, cook

and deliver 20 plates exactly the same.

At the end of this round, the strongest cooks will go straight through.

The weakest ones will have to cook off against each other to secure their place in the competition.

Ten minutes to work out what you're going to cook and then one hour of cooking. That's it.

You can't be late on this one.

Good luck. Off you go.

Each team has the same ingredients to choose from -

a range of smoked fish,

bacon, berries,

vegetables, bread and eggs.

We've got eggs, we've got the milk. We can make a nice scrambled egg.

So we're thinking sourdough sliced, nice scrambled eggs with herbs in,

smoked salmon on top.

Should we make three different elements of the dish?

What I can do with this is cut it up, fry it with butter, mushroom and onion. That's one element.

-But we can't just choose three random.

-Right, OK.

-We've got to work together.

-I'll use the onions as well.

-You can't say that. We have to decide...

-We can't just decide one dish and we work round. We need to come together to get a dish.

-OK.

-You think poached egg will be quicker or fried egg?

-Poached egg.

-It'll be nicer.

-Shall we do poached eggs?

-No, poached will be too complicated.

-Why don't we do scrambled eggs?

-Yeah. Keep it simple, but really good.

-OK.

-The mushroom sits on top of it?

-And the bread on top of that?

-No.

You've got 60 seconds, guys, to make your decision.

-Shall I do the poached eggs?

-Are you good at poached eggs?

-I've never done 20, but we'll see.

Let's do it.

Your planning time is up.

Your cooking time of one hour starts now.

Take all the ingredients over here, guys.

Time-wise, 20 eggs is a big deal.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Fantastic.

It's a team challenge, but we'll be looking at individual performance.

They need their cookery skills, but their organisational skills must come to the fore.

-Do you want me to do the bread first?

-Do the bread first. Then cut these up as well.

-What have you decided to make?

-We're going to be doing smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

We'll serve it on toasted sourdough with baby roasted tomatoes and a bit of sour cream and chives on top.

Out of all the breakfasts there are in the world, why that?

Because smoked salmon is fit enough for a king and it tastes good.

Right oh. And what did you learn from yesterday?

We need to be quite focal.

We need to try and stay calm.

And we all need to share out the workload.

-Natalie, are you in charge again?

-No, Ollie's in charge today.

-Ollie, are you happy being leader?

-Yeah.

I've led a lot throughout my whole life, whether it's in sport or in school or whatever.

I enjoy giving orders and making sure the whole thing comes together.

It's a really nice, modern, breakfast-cum-brunch dish.

The issue we're going to have is all the hot component parts coming together,

so they're lovely and warm and delicious.

Let's hope they finish on time because they didn't yesterday.

You're halfway. That means you've got 30 minutes.

Rukmini, what's the menu?

We are doing a parsley and butter roasted mushroom on top of a nice bit of fried bread,

a spinach sauce and some crispy bacon on top.

-With poached eggs?

-Yeah.

-Poached eggs for 20 people - whose idea was that?

-That was a joint idea.

-Yeah.

-Why poached eggs?

-I love poached eggs in the morning. It's my favourite thing.

-When did you last cook poached eggs for 20?

-Never.

-How are you finding it now?

The good and the bad. I'm getting there.

How did this dish come together?

-A bit of everybody's idea.

-You wanted to do the mushrooms.

I love garlic mushroom with bread.

Dave, you like poached eggs for your breakfast. What do you like, Rukmini, for your breakfast?

I like pancakes for my breakfast, but I also absolutely love mushrooms and bread.

I would rather see Dave's team working to one person's direction

than all three of them putting what they want on one dish.

-There's about six different bits there that will take about an hour to plate up.

-Come on!

Rubbish! I wish I hadn't volunteered for the eggs.

You've got ten minutes left.

-We've got ten minutes.

-Let's start plating up then.

-You'll do bread, bread, bread. I'll do scrambled egg, scrambled egg.

-I'll do the garnish.

-Then you follow behind with the tomatoes.

-Cool.

-How many have you done so far?

-I think it's in the late teens, but there's a few I'd rather not use.

Watch your bacon, Dave.

Grab that one and do those two there. Thank you.

I'm still not sure Dave's team will get it out on time.

I've got 16 and 17 here. 18's in bad shape. How many have you got?

Two on now. One will be done in a second.

Right, are we finished?

Can you put the eggs on and I'll follow you with the sauce?

-One here.

-We need two eggs, there and there.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

Time's up.

Oh, my God!

-That was wicked.

-Yeah.

-It's a disaster.

-No, it's not. Overall, it's...

The yellows broke.

-There's no uniformity.

-You're right.

At least we tried, anyway.

Dave, Farhana and Rukmini

have made poached egg with a roasted garlic and parsley mushroom,

served on fried bread, topped with a spinach sauce and crispy bacon.

You can see it's rushed. They all look very different, these plates.

Some eggs are broken, some yolks are sticking out.

In saying that, that's not unappealing and I'd happily tuck into that if it was served up to me.

Well done, Dave.

I actually like it.

I like the strength of the spinach, I like the garlic that's over everything

and I like the richness from the butter. It's quite opulent.

You've invented a new dish.

I tell you what I really like about your dish - I love the textures.

That nutty seed bread sitting underneath that spongy mushroom

with that oozing egg and that wonderful creamy sauce is brilliant.

My issue are the flavours.

I think there's way too much garlic and way too much lemon in that iron-rich spinach.

I'm surprised by you lot today because after yesterday, I thought you would have worked more as a team

and with a bit more teamwork, your dish would have been a lot better.

Natalie, Ollie and Louise have made scrambled eggs and smoked salmon

on toasted sourdough bread with sour cream and chives and roasted vine tomatoes.

Your teamwork today was brilliant. Ollie, you ran with the troops, you got it together.

I'm pretty impressed with the consistency of presentation.

20 virtually identical plates.

I really like the smoked salmon against the well-seasoned, creamy, buttery scrambled eggs

and the bread underneath is soaking up some of the butter.

I don't like the sour cream across the top, but I love the taste of it.

It's absolutely beautiful, really well made and I admire your teamwork.

I think it's a really thought-out dish, not too complicated.

I think your eggs are cooked really well. I love the bit of smoked salmon sitting on top.

I even like the different textures of that cooked smoked salmon which is quite chalky with your rich egg.

You've done really, really well.

Taking into consideration both mass catering challenges,

we believe there are two cooks who deserve to go straight through to the next round.

The remaining four will need to cook off against each other.

The first person is...

..Ollie.

The second person is...

..Natalie.

Congratulations. Well done. You two can take a break.

Oh, my God!

I am so happy, I'm absolutely relieved. All the weight has just been taken off.

And I'm so excited.

The feeling now of getting through to the next stage is unbelievable.

I'm just shocked, really.

Yeah, it's just a bit unreal, really.

I feel disappointed because I really want to get through to the next level. I really want it.

But if I have to do it, I have to do it. I'll just get my head in the right place and do the best I can.

I will do everything I can to not go home and be the best I can.

If I mess up and it's my fault, I'd be devastated with that because I want to show my best.

It's going to be stressful, but I'm already juggling ideas in my head,

so hopefully, you know, my back-up plan will work.

Oh! Your destiny's in your own hands.

You four are now going to cook off against each other

for the one remaining place in this competition.

Create for us one dish using the same ingredients.

At the end of this, one of you will go through to the next round.

You have one hour.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's cook.

I'm feeling quite nervous. The standard is really, really high.

There's not very much margin for error.

Rukmini, you set off with real gusto. What are you going to make for us?

I'm making a plum brioche pudding. I've not quite decided what to do on the side.

I'd like to do something with pecans and butterscotch and a berry compote with the raspberries.

Why would you start out and not have a finished dish in your mind?

I knew that I wanted to do the plum and that needs 20 minutes to cook.

I can get on with all the other things to go with it and everything should be ready at the same time.

Rukmini got some brioche, got some plums, made herself a custard.

From there on, she has no idea what she's doing.

Right now she needs to get some clarity. Which way does she go?

15 minutes gone.

I think I need to show John and Gregg that I can give more and there is so much more to come.

I'm going to give it the best... I'm going to give it everything I have.

I'm making potato rosti with pan-fried spinach, mushroom and red peppers

with a bit of garlic and cream and smoked haddock on top.

-Have you cooked this dish before?

-Yeah, I've cooked it with salmon before.

Guys at home like it. Hopefully, you two will too.

I'm concerned for Farhana because I don't really understand where her dish is going.

We've got a crispy potato rosti.

We've got mushrooms and peppers that are done in a cream and garlic sauce and on top of that, smoked haddock.

That sounds very confused to me.

You've got 30 minutes.

If I was sent home today, I'd be devastated.

I'm not thinking too much about it because if I do, it's going to blow my head,

so I'm going in calm, I'll try and take my time and just take it in my stride.

-Dave, you took an age to decide.

-Yeah.

-We were almost up to halfway. What was going on?

Desserts and fish are not my strongest two.

-Dave, what are you cooking for us?

-I'm doing a bread-and-butter pudding.

The custard is flavoured with a bit of cardamom. Some slightly sugared pecan nuts are running through it.

What do you feel that you need to prove now with this dish?

It needs to be quite refined, to look nice and to taste nice.

I don't want any glaring errors.

If there's anything wrong with the custard or it burns, that'd be a tragedy.

-How long does a bread-and-butter pudding take to cook, Dave?

-About 40 minutes.

-You had 30 minutes when it went in the oven.

-Yeah.

-Is that not a worry?

-Yeah, it is.

Dave's concerned the pudding won't be cooked in time. He's burnt some caramel. He hasn't got a sauce done.

It's a dangerous time for Dave to be doing something which isn't really his strength.

You've got 15 minutes left. 15 minutes.

There's a huge amount of pressure at this point. If you make any errors

and it doesn't matter how small now, you could be going home.

And because you want it so much, it just makes it even worse.

Louise, you look a bit upset to be here.

Yeah. I would have loved to have gone through, but it wasn't a surprise.

-Why not a surprise?

-Because I've been really out of my comfort zone in the last couple of challenges.

-You might have seen me revert into myself a little bit.

-What are you making now?

An open ravioli of mushroom and it will kind of be like a mushroom gratin thing,

then I'm going to layer it up with a tarragon cream.

Unfortunately, I've messed up my first lot of mushrooms with some whipped double cream and some egg.

It's gone really watery, so I've got to start again.

Louise, you can cook. You've got to get out of a flap.

-You've got pasta to make, a sauce to finish off, a lot of work to do.

-Absolutely.

-Will you get it done?

Yeah, I'm going to try my very best.

I do like the sound of really nicely seasoned mushrooms in a creamy sauce with pasta.

I just can't see how she turns that into a dish.

I'm not confident with the dish Louise has got and she's got so much work to do that she's in danger

-of not completing the dish.

-Where's the flour?

You've got ten minutes left.

This is going to be so difficult.

Yes!

That's it. Stop, please.

Rukmini has made a plum and brioche pudding with poached plums,

spiced cardamom custard,

raspberry and cranberry compote

and pecan brittle.

What I do absolutely love is that cardamom custard.

I think that is divine.

I love the texture of your brioche pudding.

That's soft and gooey and comforting.

You have shown skill.

I love the texture of your custard. It's beautiful.

It's thick like condensed milk and perfumed with cardamom and cinnamon.

I like the stack. You've got crusty bits on the outside, soggy, gooey, almost doughy bits on the inside.

Your poached plums are delicious, flavoured and fragrant.

And I like the crunchy brittle stuff you've got around the outside with the pecan nuts.

Farhana has prepared a smoked haddock Scotch egg,

served with a potato rosti

on pan-fried mushrooms, spinach and peppers.

-This Scotch egg idea came to you in the last ten minutes. It wasn't what you told us you would do.

-No.

After speaking to you, I said, "I'm going to push myself a bit more and see..."

It's just... I don't know what I was thinking.

Oh...

Lord help...

Yes, it's a runny yolk.

Wow!

I really love the idea of the smoked haddock Scotch egg -

a boiled egg inside with smoked haddock round it.

It's normally the other way round, an egg on the haddock, and that works.

You've then got a dish of a crispy rosti, there's pepper in there, chilli, nice mushrooms,

and sweet bits from pepper. That's another nice flavour combination.

You've got some nice ideas. It's a bit mangled up when you put the whole thing on one fork.

It's quite confused, Farhana, I've got to say. There are some interesting flavours.

I like your chilli-spiced rosti, but then we've also got these vegetables around the outside.

It's like there's three different things happening on a plate and it's not coming together.

Dave's dish is a brioche and sugared pecan pudding

with a spiced cardamom custard and a caramelised pecan garnish.

I really like that crispy, sugary top with that sweet brioche,

the nuttiness from your pecan nuts and the sweetness of your custard.

It's too dense.

That custard is taken up by that brioche, that sweet bread, and it's become too much of a mush.

-I mean, that should really fall apart, shouldn't it?

-Yeah.

Let's be blunt. That's pretty hefty.

I like the sweetness. I like the toasty nuts on it as well. I really do.

I even like the hint of cardamom in the custard,

-but that's a bowl of nicely flavoured stodge, mate.

-Hmm.

Louise is serving an open lasagne

with sauteed mushrooms, fresh herbs and a tarragon cream.

-Louise, a long, hard day.

-Yeah.

-An emotional, hard day.

-Yeah.

It's not bad, actually, considering where you were with five minutes to go.

The mushrooms are lovely. The pasta is slightly too thick.

The tarragon cream is really nice, but there's not enough sauce on there and it needs a sauce

because it's bordering on a little bland.

I really like that tarragon cream sauce, rich with aniseed and slightly peppery.

I like the woodiness of those mushrooms, but then we have this very bland world underneath.

The pasta is bland because it doesn't have any real flavour to it. It's not thin enough, the pasta.

And that's the thing, actually. It's not quite right.

We need to make a decision,

a big decision.

Who stays and who goes?

Thank you very much.

You have to fight for your place, you have to deserve your place.

Who in this kitchen right now deserves a place in the next round?

Dave took a risk because he did a dessert and he said desserts aren't his strong point.

There wasn't a sauce besides some custard. There was a nut on top which was caramelised.

That was it. It was tasty enough, but it was stodge.

I'm not sure if I've done enough to get through to the next stage. I've made a few little mistakes.

So, kind of a bit nervous and worrying.

Louise put something tasty together there.

It needed more sauce, the pasta was slightly too thick, but it did taste good.

She proved she's got a good palate, but I'm not sure she's got the skill.

If I was to go home, I'd be absolutely gutted. I can feel myself getting emotional now.

Yeah... Yeah, it would just be awful after all this hard work.

Rukmini isn't really comfortable with mass catering challenges

and when she produces her own food, she's fantastic.

I really liked the idea of what she was doing - plums in a sort of brioche stack.

She made some cardamom custard which was fantastic, poached some plums, nice idea.

I feel like I've got quite far in the competition.

It would be a real shame to go home without showing John and Gregg

that I can take on their feedback and produce beautiful food.

I really liked the idea of Farhana's fishy Scotch egg.

It was the cleverest and most inventive thing in the room.

The rosti was well made and there was chilli in with the peppers

and that tasted nice.

The two didn't match, but there might be something about her.

We saw a brilliant curry from Farhana in the mass catering challenge, but it's inconsistent.

We've got some extraordinary dishes and some really weird combinations.

Do you know what? I feel really nervous.

I think...

I don't know whether I've done enough to go to the next round. I really don't know.

It's crunch time now.

We need to make a decision as to who should join Natalie and Ollie in the next round.

Three of you are going to be leaving us.

Rukmini...

Congratulations. You're in.

Thank you. Thank you.

When you put it into perspective and you think about how many people applied for this,

to get to this amount of people left is just a huge achievement

and although I might feel a bit funny today when I walk out, I will remember that.

I've learnt so much and I'm going to keep on cooking. I'm going to take all this forward with me.

That's the way I look at it, yeah.

I'm going to be a bit glum for a few days, but I'll get myself together.

You know, it's onwards and upwards. I'm certainly not stopping.

Well done.

I mean, euphoria again. Every stage, every kind of success is a new success to build on. I love it.

It's a bit like a dream. It's like you're watching the TV and it's not happening.

I've worked really hard to get here now and just double my efforts.

I'm going to put everything into the rest of this competition.

Tomorrow night, the battle really begins

when the seven best amateur cooks in the country come together

to fight for a coveted place in the semi-finals.

It's the biggest day so far in the competition, one of the biggest days of my life.

This, I think, is the most exciting cook-off we've ever had.

This is the clash of the titans.

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