Episode 23 MasterChef

It's the MasterChef Final.

From 50 amateurs, only the three most exceptional cooks remain.

Today is probably the biggest day of my life.

I've put everything into this competition.

It's going to be a battle.

You've got to go out on a massive bang.

I want to win MasterChef

because this is the first time in my life

that I've done something that I've really believed in.

It feels like you can almost reach out and grab the title.

Today is a big lifetime moment.

You be lying if you said you didn't want to win it.

Tonight, Natalie, Dale or Larkin

will be crowned MasterChef Champion 2013.

Now we know how exciting this final is truly going to be. Bring it on!

I was born in Cardiff.

My parents are from China. My mum was a peasant farmer.

My dad was a factory worker.

Life was pretty hard, you know. That's why they came over to the UK.

Financially, we didn't really have anything.

I still remember having Christmas dinner,

we all sat on the floor eating.

We used a milk crate as a table, you know.

We literally did have nothing.

A lot of my childhood is influenced by food.

My late grandfather was an amazing chef.

To this day, I still remember those dishes. He was so talented.

My mum really influenced my food.

For me, she is one of the most dextrously gifted cooks

I've ever seen.

My parents bought their first takeaway in the Valleys.

They didn't have a holiday for 15 years, or something like that,

because money was tight. I've seen the bruises, I've seen the backaches.

The long hours. Unsociable hours. It's hard, you know?

And they did that all for me.

A couple of pounds' worth of cockles, please.

-Thanks.

-Thank you very much.

I never want him to be working in the takeaway kitchen.

I always encouraged Larkin to get a good job.

University was the first time I sort of moved out of the house

so I just got exposed to the big bad world.

In my second year, I hit sort of a crossroads, really.

Toyed with the idea of actually quitting law and being a chef.

But my parents have invested so heavily in my education,

so it made sense to qualify as a solicitor.

I've been working as a solicitor for three years in total.

It is a great profession.

It's just, I would love to be able to cook.

It's coming to the stage now where you think,

do you do something that you love

or do you follow a career path

that is going to make you successful?

I appreciate so much what my parents have done for me.

Everything I've achieved to date,

I wouldn't have done without my parents.

So, I mean, if I can make them proud even a little bit,

it'll just be amazing.

We know how good Larkin can truly be.

The guy has got real invention and he's got courage.

Most people can't do this sort of stuff. This is opulent food.

It's very good, Larkin.

Larkin bridges the gap between East and Western cuisine

with such style and such grace.

Oh, my word, your food is beautiful.

It's packed with flavour, isn't it?

I don't like clever for no reason,

but I fall in love with clever that delivers beautiful-flavoured food.

My favourite moment in the competition was cooking

the braised pork belly dish.

JOHN: It's heart-stopping beautiful. It's delicious.

LARKIN: Gregg and John loved it.

To get that sort of feedback was just amazing.

The risks that Larkin has taken are extraordinary and quite outstanding.

Through this competition, he went up, up, up and up,

and then suddenly crashed to earth.

Oh, no.

JOHN: No, Larkin, no!

A mango souffle in a mango shell, for Marcus Wareing,

not the time to be experimenting.

I'm sorry, Larkin, but I'm not going to taste that.

It's just not good enough.

I've been humiliated, I've been shouted at.

JOHN: Souffle! Come on!

Please, let's go! Last thing! Oh!

I've been criticised.

Push yourself to the absolute limit, but don't run out of time.

Not on the lemon tart. Come on.

LARKIN: But no matter how bad things get, if you keep plugging away,

you will get there.

Larkin has had his ups and downs,

but he still has the ability to produce unbelievable food.

There's not a lot left here, because I've eaten most of the starter.

I've put so much into this competition.

I'm a million times the cook I was before.

The MasterChef experience has been amazing.

I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

MUSIC: "Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)" by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel

I grew up in Hackney.

And then I lived in Chingford, so I'm proper Cockney.

I've got one little sister, I'm the oldest.

You wouldn't think it, though, because she acts older than me.

She always puts me in my place.

My mum, she was like a housewife.

She pretty much gave up most of her life for me and my sister,

just to look after us. And my dad wanted to be a boxer...

..but now he's a black cab driver.

From an early age, I was brought up around food,

because I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my nan.

She was a really good cook.

She used to make the best corned beef hash pie, like, ever.

There was always roast dinners.

Me and my sister were terrible, we'd come up on Saturday

and nick the chicken skin off my grandad's chicken.

I wanted to be a chef when I was 15,

but then I sort of went off that idea.

And then I wanted to be a PE teacher.

And then I wanted to be a fireman.

And then I don't know what I wanted to be.

My mum said I was good at maths, and she said,

"Why don't you just go and do something in finance?"

So I work in credit control.

It's pretty boring, to be honest.

You know, I'm quite good at what I do, but it's not what I love.

My two favourite things in life is food and music.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

I've DJ'd in Italy and around the UK. Fabric.

Yeah, it's something that I really love.

KNOCK AT DOOR

-Hiya.

-Hello.

'I spent a lot of time with my grandad.'

My nan passed away quite a few years ago,

and my grandad's not much of a cook,

so I just thought I'd feed him up a bit.

Ever since she went into this competition,

she tries out all her stuff on me!

If it ran for a couple of years, I'd be happy as a sandboy!

-Aye-aye.

-There you go.

'I've been doing it for about two years now.'

-Good?

-It's lovely.

Someone's got to look after him.

It's absolutely essential that she's there.

She is irreplaceable, really.

I think if I won MasterChef, my grandad would be really proud.

I know he's been getting quite into it,

because when we got to the final seven,

he was waiting for me to come through the door,

and when I told him, he went "Good girl!",

so I know he'd be really up for it.

Natalie walked into this competition and we saw the potential.

There was a sense of excitement between you and I

about what Natalie could become.

I love the sweetness in there from the mussels,

I think that's really good. We're happy. Are you happy?

I am now you're happy.

She's just full of surprises.

She just comes up with a fantastic, I mean stunningly beautiful, dish.

She's challenged herself, and I think pretty well pulled it all off.

-NATALIE:

-Each round you learn something different about yourself,

and about food.

I find it really exciting. I find it really delicious.

Don't do that to me!

I said I wanted emotion today, and you've done it to me as well.

You're the first ones I've cooked it for as well.

One of the stars was a piece of sea bass and cauliflower three ways.

The flavour sensations are incredible!

Clever, and new to me.

There's been a couple of tough rounds.

The low point for me was the Bond Girl thing,

because I took on far too much that night.

It really stressed me out and sent me into a massive panic.

I've got to get these done in five minutes. John's going to kill me.

I'm not going to get it done, it's not going to go out on time.

Let's go, lets go, let's go.

You've just done it, OK? Well done.

Welcome to the real world of catering.

Oh, it's lovely. Whatever that's called, it's lovely.

Just some amazing experiences.

Things that you never thought you would ever do.

Fennel, langoustine, sea bream. And it's very, very good.

Natalie has grown throughout this competition

and continues to get better.

An amazing plate of food. Well done.

This has definitely been the hardest thing I've ever done.

Guys, we need to make some space. Chef!

It really makes you just believe

that this is what I really want to do for the rest of my life now.

You don't want this fairy-tale dream to actually come to an end.

I think winning the competition would just be the icing on the cake.

It would just be the perfect end to the perfect dream.

I was born in Cardiff, I grew up in Cardiff. I'm still in Cardiff.

I've got three sisters. I'm in the middle.

Life for me growing up was full of wonderful memories,

wonderful parents.

Never went without.

My childhood is full of fond memories of holidays.

I had quite a privileged childhood.

Not privileged in the sense that we had loads of money,

just a good, hard-working family.

Everything my parents did was for their kids.

You know, my mum raised us whilst my dad had business ventures

which he tried to kind of make as successful as he could

to make a better life for his wife and kids, really.

My dad said to me when I was young, "Just remember,

"there's only two ways to get rich.

"Win the lottery or work for yourself."

When I was 23, I decided to set up my own company.

The only reason I worked myself to where I am now

in my professional career

is because of the lessons he taught me at an early age.

The only reason I'm in the final three of MasterChef

is kind of because of my mum.

She's the person who has cooked beautiful food

for years and years and years.

If she hadn't given me a passion for food,

then I might never have got interested in cooking.

If I could in some way incorporate my love of food into a business,

then that would be absolutely fantastic. It would be ideal.

-Cheers, guys. Hopefully we'll be celebrating next weekend.

-We will.

Dale walked into this competition and has surprised us from the off.

We are a twist of seasoning away from a masterpiece.

Great cooking, and a good-looking dish.

I love Dale's food.

He is a smart young man who really does understand classic cuisine.

Venison is cooked perfectly, your bearnaise is a joy to behold.

Yay!

We've got an apple tart tatin, creme anglaise.

I'm so impressed with this guy!

Yes! This guy has got some mad skills.

I think I've made a lot of progress.

I've come in to the competition and learned things

that I really didn't expect to learn.

From really precise and really intricate

to fun and really exciting crowd-pleasers.

I think this is really good.

That is a fantastic demonstration of how you can do a big manly dish

and still make it look smart.

The toughest moment in the competitions so far for me,

got a bit complacent, maybe, and my food went in front of Marcus Wareing

and it just didn't go to plan at all.

This is as far away from fine dining as North Pole, South Pole.

I took it really badly because I care so much.

That's what this competition does to you. It's so emotional.

Cooking for 12 critics,

I really needed to pull a cat out of the bag.

I put up some seriously complex dishes that really, really

pushed me to the absolute limit.

This dessert is absolutely sensational.

This is a triumph. 10 out of 10.

The competition has been quite eye-opening.

-You're being challenged, being tested.

-Don't panic now.

Just change the way you're doing it. Something's gone wrong.

-Let's go.

-I'm a fan, absolutely, 100%,

and I'm savouring it, all of it.

You're learning, progressing.

Wow. That's probably the nicest dessert I've ever tried.

Other times, you are just overcome with the joy,

you're overcome with excitement.

-You've got a smile on your face!

-Yeah!

-Hey! Well done!

Dale is a real talent.

-Very nice. That was no mean feat.

-Thank you.

The competition means the world to me.

The whole time you're working towards an end.

It's all building up to that moment that you stand

in front of John and Gregg and they say, "The winner is..."

It means a hell of a lot.

LARKIN: The road getting here hasn't been easy,

but I'll always battle till the end.

If they want it, they're going to have to work for it.

'I've seen off a lot of people to get here.

'Each contestant has got their own strengths.

'It's going to be a real battle.'

'After putting everything into it, yeah, you do want to win it.

'I'm going to put everything I've got. I want to nail it.'

This is the final stage of the journey.

We are not looking now for an apprentice,

we are looking for a master.

All that hard work, the ups, the downs, it's all about today.

Make us smile, make us cry, whatever you want to do,

but your food has got to stir emotion.

Three courses.

Three hours.

At the end of this, one champion.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the last time,

let's cook.

Right here, right now,

we need to see everything they've learned in this competition.

John and Gregg took a punt on me. They thought that I was good enough.

I'm going to prove to them I'm good enough.

I'm doing a lot of modern techniques.

There's going to be an element of risk, but it's the final.

OK, tell us your three courses.

For my starter, I'm doing a little play on the mixed starters

that you get from Chinese takeaways.

The main course I'm doing a Chinese three-roast dinner.

It reminds me of my grandad,

because the roast pork he used to do was absolutely incredible.

-Such a talented chef.

-What's that going to be served with?

A glutinous rice wrap. I love those things.

It's a peasant dish. They used to take those to the paddy fields.

-It's just a testament to my mother's background as well.

-Dessert, Larkin?

-I'm doing a chocolate mojito.

-A mojito?

-Yeah.

-A cocktail?

So within that there will be mojito snow, Thai basil gel.

Do you think you're doing enough, Larkin?

Do I...? Yeah, yeah, I get the point.

I think Larkin has actually been saving his best for last.

I'm really excited about his menu.

Can he get it all done?

He's got about seven things on his starter.

We've got a vegetable spring roll.

We've got a prawn spring roll.

We've got some cockles in a tofu sauce.

Which sounds really interesting.

But what is going to happen on that plate, I am not quite sure.

My main is my big one.

I always said I would save one dish for the final,

if I got to the final.

And now I'm here, I think it's time to unleash it.

Larkin's main course, we've got belly pork.

That belly pork has got to cook long and slow,

so it's wonderful and tender.

It's a long time since I've seen one of these.

And then we've got proper char siu.

With red bean paste, yellow bean paste and garlic.

It should be amazing.

The smells of that rub that he's got on that pork,

it's absolutely delicious.

We've got ourselves a roast Chinese duck.

The duck has to be well-cooked and well done all the way through,

and it's got to be lovely and moist.

What are you doing with a bicycle pump and a duck?

I'm tried to separate the skin from the fat

so it gets nice and crispy.

DUCK SQUEAKS

He's doing his mother's steamed glutinous rice.

Which he's first cooking, then wrapping in a woody lotus leaf.

Then he's going to steam it so it goes all sticky and glutinous.

It sounds amazing!

The Chinese have been doing this recipe for 2,000 years.

A recipe that can last 2,000 years has to be pretty good.

Larkin is putting together in his dessert

some of my favourite flavours of all time.

He's got chocolate, coconut and caramel.

Seriously big on the yum factor.

Chocolate mojito. Classic drink made with rum, ice, sugar and mint

and a little bit of chocolate.

He's doing a Thai basil gel.

A coconut crumble.

Some chocolate cylinders.

And then he's serving alongside of that a caramel sauce.

I am excited about Larkin's food. Do you know why?

He's cooking food of his childhood,

with the spirit of his grandfather standing at his shoulder.

Really, actually, for me, can he get it all done?

He's given himself a mammoth task.

An hour's gone.

Two hours left.

I'll be putting everything into these plates of food.

I've practised them and, you know, I've researched them.

I'm about 1,000% determined to get it right today.

You know, not just to win it, but to prove to John and Gregg

that I have learned so much since I've been in the competition.

What are you going to cook for us, Natalie?

Today, John, I'm doing you a lobster tail

with a fennel puree, compressed fennel.

I'm doing, like, an orange gel,

an orange beurre blanc,

and lobster caviar for your starter.

The main course is like a Sunday roast, but pimped up.

I'm doing roast belly pork with a sous-vide pork tenderloin,

pomme puree, a black pudding Scotch egg

and a honey mustard sauce.

Oh!

And for dessert, I'm doing chocolate panna cotta

with hazelnut biscuits and caramelised pears.

What do you want from today?

I want you to be full, happy and not moan about anything.

Very good.

I'm really impressed with Natalie's bravery today.

She is pushing herself harder

and further than I've ever seen her do before.

Starter, lobster tail.

She wants to treat us.

And then fennel three ways.

She's making orange beurre blanc.

Natalie has got to carefully balance the orange with lobster.

If it's sharp, fine.

If it gets too sweet, no.

For the main course, a roast dinner.

I'm cooking a Sunday roast in the final of MasterChef.

It's not normally something that's served up on MasterChef,

but it just brings happy memories to me.

Crispy belly pork.

A loin of pork.

Potato puree.

Scotch egg.

The egg's got to be lovely and runny in the centre,

crispy on the outside.

It sounds fantastic.

Good on you, Natalie, that sounds absolutely wonderful. Yummy.

Natalie has got a fair amount of work to do with her dessert.

Hazelnut biscuit.

Chocolate panna cotta.

And a caramelised pear.

Hazelnuts, chocolate and pear is great.

A marriage made in heaven.

The flavour in the dessert will speak for itself, if it comes off.

I'm really excited. I think it sounds like a wonderful menu.

Just over an hour to go, guys. Just over one hour left.

What I'm hoping to show is that from the first day

I walked into the kitchen until now, I've been through 500 hours.

I've come a really, really, really long way.

That's what I'm looking to show.

Final cook-off. What are you going to cook for us?

I'm starting with a ballotine of red mullet stuffed with livers,

and serve it with a Mediterranean style stew of chorizo, black olives.

Main course?

Main course of guinea fowl, with asparagus and truffle,

a white truffle sauce.

And then quite an extravagant dessert -

panna cotta in champagne syrup with poached fruits,

coconut meringues, a nice chewy texture.

Meringues are going to take quite a long time to make.

Panna cotta has to set on time. Champagne syrup, proper reductions,

all those things.

Are you well on your way?

Timing is absolutely of the essence

and timing this, we're literally talking down to the wire.

At the start of this competition, I saw Dale - very, very steely,

very determined.

Today, he's gone back into killer mode.

He's gone steely and he is focused. He is cooking like a man possessed.

I've got lots of things going on.

I've got to blend, blitz, fry,

puree, mould.

Everything you can imagine, I'm pretty much doing.

Dale's starter, ballotine of red mullet...

..he's serving with a Mediterranean stew.

Chorizo, roasted peppers and confit tomatoes and little bits of basil.

I think that's delightful.

He's going to butterfly the red mullet.

He's opened the whole thing up.

He's filled it with a stuffing, including the livers of the fish.

He's rolled it. He's going to poach it and slice it.

The issue is, the fish on the outside could be overcooked

and the stuffing could be lovely.

Or we could have the fish cooked beautifully

and the stuffing just being a little bit under.

Dale's main course is guinea fowl three ways.

We've got a confit of leg, cooking it really slowly in a little bit of fat.

We've got guinea fowl

with its thigh turned into a tiny rissole with black pudding.

And we've got a breast.

Plus asparagus, plus truffles, plus wild mushrooms.

I'm worried he's putting a little bit too much in there.

That sounds like a lot on a plate.

It's got to be dainty, it's got to be small

and it's got to be elegant for it to work.

John, I cannot wait to get my lips and my spoon round Dale's dessert.

He's got a coconut panna cotta.

He's got coconut meringues.

And he's got a champagne fruity sauce.

Sweet, sharp, sour sauce from champagne with mangoes

and bits of other tropical fruit floating through it.

It should be pretty as a picture and eat like you're on holiday.

Dale's three courses are brave and challenging

and they sound delightful.

I'm not going to worry about the three plates that are

in front of me being between me and the MasterChef trophy.

I think if I worry, then it's going to go wrong.

I'm just going to concentrate on what I know I can do

and see if it's good enough.

Think about your plates, you've got just over 20 minutes left.

-Larkin, where are you up to?

-I've still got a bit to do.

I still need to prepare the vegetables and make the emulsions,

so I want to get those on now just in case they split.

-Gels are in setting? Crumbs are done?

-Yep.

-All the roasts are done?

-Yep.

-All the wrapping?

-Yep.

-Wow.

Larkin, I do say one thing to you, I don't know how you're going to

plate your dishes in this mess.

-I'm going to have a bit of a tidy up now.

-Yeah, that would be good.

-OK, thanks, John.

Whoa, Dale, you've picked the pace up a little bit, mate.

Yeah, I'm really, really pushed for time,

so I've got a lot to do and not enough time to do it.

Stop, you're worrying me. What's the chances of you finishing on time?

-At the moment, I'll be pushed.

-Just keep going, keep going.

I've got confidence in you.

-What have you got left to do?

-Do the crackling...

-Oh, and do my Scotch egg.

-Has your egg been boiled yet?

They're boiled, they're done.

Oh, and I've got to make my beurre blanc. I've got a lot to do.

Come on then, go, push.

You all have just over 15 minutes to finish your cooking

and to plate your dishes, please.

Got about six minutes left.

I am loving these dishes. Absolutely loving them.

That's it! Your time's up.

Larkin, please come up.

Hi.

Absolutely extraordinary.

I'll tell you what, what you've got in sight is unbelievable.

Larkin has made a mixed Chinese starter.

A vegetable spring roll, a prawn spring roll,

tofu and prawn yakitori and poached chicken in soy and rock sugar.

They're served with steamed water egg with crab meat,

stir-fried cockles and peanuts, a soy and a tofu emulsion

and a side of morning glory.

Very, very clever indeed to serve lots of little bits and pieces

and to make it look so attractive.

-Very creative, very artistic.

-Thank you, Gregg.

Very good.

I get different degrees of sweetness and saltiness,

sometimes in crispy wrapping.

That tofu emulsion is like an electric shock on my tongue.

It's such intense saltiness and tang that matches everything beautifully.

There's skilful cooking here

and I think your presentation is extraordinary.

We've got sweet and we've got crunchy and we've got crispy.

I think roasted peanuts covered in sugar with salty cockles

are the star of the show. What an unexpected combination.

But we've also got crispy prawns in bean curd

and vegetables wrapped in spring roll wrappers

and chicken poached with soy and rock sugar.

Dancing flavours around your mouth.

Some of it's acid house, some of it's a ballerina,

but at the same time, it all works together.

It is really clever stuff.

Larkin's main is a Cantonese three-roast dinner,

made up of roast duck, roast pork belly and char siu pork.

It's served with a lotus leaf rice wrap stuffed with pancetta,

Chinese sausage and shiitake mushrooms.

And sides of plum noodles and pickled cucumber.

The three meats are cooked really well.

I like the natural almost sweetness,

but almost liver-like flavour of duck. Very good.

My favourite is your pork with the really crispy crackling on top.

Really moist inside.

Love the texture of the sticky rice, really do enjoy that.

What I really love, and I so wish there was more of,

is that sauce you made with the bean and the tamarind

because that is salty, that is tangy,

it's slightly sharp and there's a sweetness to it.

And you can easily spread it across all of these meats

and the rice and it gives it a beautiful overall flavour.

Roasting duck with crispy skin.

Perfectly cooked and wonderful and soft and rich.

Your crispy pork with crispy crackling on top

and your char siu melt in the mouth and salty and addictive.

I think it's wonderful. I love the sticky rice.

Smoky with the bacon, the pancetta.

What you have achieved here,

and the amount of work you've done, is admirable.

I think it's extraordinary. Clever, clever man.

Larkin's dessert is a mojito granita with a chocolate cylinder,

sweet cucumber, coconut crumble, Thai basil gel and a caramel sauce.

How a man comes up with a chocolate mojito that looks like that,

I'm not quite sure, but brilliant.

Ooh.

Love the snow. It fills up your face full of cold.

When it goes, you get slight sweetness

and sharpness, almost like apple. Very, very nice indeed.

You have lots of nice-tasting little morsels on that plate

and there's nowhere near enough of them.

Give us enough to eat!

It's all beautifully made.

Your caramel sauce is lovely and sweet and sticky,

almost like boiled down condensed milk.

Your chocolate cylinder is wonderful,

delivering that intense bitterness of good quality chocolate.

I think that the combination of crunchy, toasted coconut in a biscuit

with caramel and chocolate and rum

and mint with a bit of cucumber was completely bonkers.

I'm wrong, it's my new revelation. It's beautiful.

I'm really pleased to see you again

reliving the memories from your childhood,

cos, for me, when you cook what's in your heart,

like your grandfather, the results can be stunning.

That's what's happened here again today, Larkin.

-I love your food like this.

-Thanks, Larkin. Thank you.

-Thanks.

I'm just relieved that I've got through it.

I just feel like all the stress has been lifted off,

so I'm feeling quite good right now.

Dale.

For his starter,

Dale has made stuffed ballotine of red mullet

on top of a pepper and black olive stew

with confit tomatoes and a chorizo and tapenade bruschetta.

That is beautiful.

Look at the bright red vivid colours and the sheen of the oil.

That is beautiful. Beautiful.

This minced liver and chorizo stuffing for the fish

is extraordinary. It's really tangy.

The unmistakable flavours of Provence,

the unmistakable flavours of the Mediterranean.

Tang of basil, tang of garlic, deep, fruity, rich, peppery.

Very good indeed. I like that, Dale, a lot. I really do.

In there, you have this wonderful sweetness

from your little confit tomatoes and the tang of the basil.

The saltiness from your red pepper stew is really intense.

Inside that red mullet, the actual filling,

your stuffing with the liver, is cooked perfectly.

But your fish inside is just slightly under.

Dale's main is guinea fowl three ways.

Roast breast, confit leg and thigh and black pudding bonbons.

He's served them with asparagus mousse and spears,

sauteed mushrooms and a white truffle cream sauce.

That truffle sauce is heady.

I've never tasted a truffle sauce like it.

The little green sauce is all sour, almost like yoghurt.

There is sweetness and crispness in the parsnip,

there is a strong, acidic vinegar, beautiful sweetness with the onion.

The bird itself is moist.

That is the sort of dish

I would expect to find in the best of fine-dining restaurants.

-Thank you.

-It's an incredible dish.

Great flavours in there, Dale, and you have

the tang of the tarragon, which is flittering through the whole thing.

The smokiness of truffle, richness coming from your asparagus,

smokiness from your mushroom sauce

and that wonderful peppery spice from the black pudding.

Really very, very good indeed.

I agree with Gregg, craftsmanship and skill. Really well done.

Really well done.

Thank you.

Dale's dessert is a coconut and white chocolate panna cotta

with fruits poached in champagne syrup,

topped with desiccated coconut and meringues.

Your panna cotta is wonderful and bouncy and smooth,

your poached fruit lovely and soft.

But at the same time, you've still got a bite to it.

I really like that little bit of warmth from the alcohol,

the champagne, sitting on the back of your throat when you have the whole thing.

It's really, really good.

Panna cotta, creamy, heady with vanilla

and the fruit, nice and sharp.

But it's the coconut flavour that comes from these little dumplings,

and comes from the shavings all over the fruit

that really gives it its cosiness.

I really do like that.

Dale, how are you feeling?

I feel like crying, but I'll hold it back.

It's tears of joy if they come through.

It just means I came here and did what I set out to do,

which is just grow with the competition.

Cor, you've grown with the competition, son.

-Thanks, Dale.

-Cheers.

-Nice.

-Yeah.

I found today more pressurised than any other situation we've been in.

No second chances today. That's it.

What you cook is what you're going to be judged on,

so the pressure, I felt it.

I felt it a touch more.

Natalie, come and join us.

I think your food looks amazing.

Thank you, John.

Natalie's starter is lobster tail accompanied by compressed fennel,

a fennel puree and shavings.

It is dressed with an orange gel and beurre blanc and lobster oil.

I love the fact that that lobster is cooked beautifully

and it's got some texture.

I'm really happy. It's so pleasing to me.

Quite astounded by the technical work in here.

Compressed fennel, shaved fennel, fennel puree,

two types of orange,

a perfectly crunchy cooked piece of lobster that when you open it up,

it's fragrant, it's still got that wonderful smell of the sea about it.

It's a good-looking dish, it's well executed, it's intensive,

it's exciting, it's interesting.

I like it a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot.

For her main, Natalie has made a roast pork belly,

pork tenderloin and a black pudding quail Scotch egg.

They're served with pomme puree, caramelised shallots

and two sauces - an apple sauce and a honey mustard.

Hey, clever. Clever.

People wonder why after a series of MasterChef, I get fat.

When I'm served food like that, there's very good reason.

-I want to eat the whole lot! Natalie, it is awesome.

-Thank you.

I mean, properly awesome.

It takes you into the most comforting place - roast pork,

mashed potato and apple sauce and then there's the little extra bits.

The sharpness and the heat coming from the mustard sauce

along with that wonderful richness of your quail's egg,

the yolk running through it.

Your belly pork is cooked beautifully,

your tenderloin is soft with a river of pink running through it.

Your crackling is just fantastic

and I love the addition of your pea shoots sitting on top of it.

It's sophisticated, it's clever, it's interesting, it's exciting.

I really, properly like it a lot.

-You can tell, can't you?!

-Yee-ha!

One of the great delights in life has got to be munching your way

through salty, crispy crackling to soft, moist, fatty pork underneath.

That is one of the great delights.

What you've done is add extra little bits,

everything giving a little bit of tang.

And a little bit of sweetness prevails throughout the whole lot.

That's a good dish. Way to go.

Finally, Natalie's dessert is a vanilla chocolate panna cotta,

topped with a tempered bitter chocolate tuile

with caramelised pears and a trio of hazelnut crumble biscuits.

You have delivered here three things

that I really want to get my gnashers sunk into.

It is like some other-worldly beautiful cheesecake.

You've got that crunchy base, you've got the wobbly middle,

slightly of chocolate, and pear is lovely because it releases juice.

Not loads of juice to wash the chocolate flavour away,

just enough to keep it clean. Very nice.

Good flavour sensation, those three things. Very good.

Natalie, it is very, very clever

because actually it's very, very understated as a dessert.

What you do have is a wonderful, intense flavour of pear

and a bitter caramel.

That bitter caramel goes into your milk white chocolate,

like a set chocolate milkshake.

Then you get the crunch of your hazelnut biscuit.

It's nutty and it's toasty.

We've got bitter, sweet, toasty, nutty, crispy, crunchy,

-wobbly thing on a plate. It is good!

-Thank you.

I'm sort of blown away by you. It's the clarity that I admire.

-There is a wonderful clarity in this dessert. It's great.

-Thank you.

-I'm really pleased for you.

-Thank you.

Yeah, I think you should be very pleased with yourself.

I am today now, yeah. Very pleased.

Natalie, thank you very much.

Thank you.

I was really happy, because I said at the beginning,

I didn't want them moaning at me today, so they were...

They said some really nice things.

Thank you very much for all your hard work today

and throughout the competition.

We have to make a decision of who is going to lift the title.

It's been an incredible final.

It's been an honour.

Thank you.

-Wow.

-Cor.

I'm really proud of them and what they've achieved.

Look at the cooks that walked in the door and then to be able to

cook food that they cooked today is quite remarkable.

Finals are always magic, but today I think the technique

and the confidence and the skill is incredible. I really do.

Most cooks I know,

who have been cooking for a very, very long time

would not be able to touch these guys.

Larkin has produced some extraordinary dishes

throughout this competition and there were extraordinary

flavour combinations on this table in front of me today.

He's worked really hard and he's said this is the food for his grandad,

for his family, the food that he's really proud of.

-I'm pleased he's done that.

-I put in a good performance today, I think.

I pushed myself to probably the very limit of what could have been

done in the time, and we're at an end, so it's always emotional.

Three good courses from Dale.

When he is on song, it is as good as a professional chef.

The guy has pushed himself, he has real skill.

If my dishes were 100% today, I would have been happy.

We're talking 98%. They were there or thereabouts,

so I've got to be quite pleased. I'll take that.

-Natalie's three courses - yum.

-Wah!

Me and her grandad, mate, we're as one.

It had the heart and soul of home cooking about it,

with the little clever touches of somebody going

for a MasterChef championship.

Very, very good indeed.

I think I've really pushed myself and, you know,

I put a lot of work into that.

So I'm pleased with myself.

What makes Larkin so exciting is, despite his ups and downs,

he has the ability to produce dishes that are unbelievable quality.

If I didn't win, I would be gutted, but proud at the same time.

I've had a bit of a tough running of late,

so it was just nice to get some nicer words,

just to finish it all off.

I love Natalie's food because it comes straight from her heart.

She's always had love, she's always wanted to give.

She's always cooked with real flavour. Her food is fantastic.

It is really emotional. A lot of tears have been shed.

I've grown really close to the boys,

so it's going to be sad when it all finishes.

Dale has had a very good running. Some very good quality dishes.

He's delivered to us

some of the most refined food we've seen in this competition.

It's difficult to sum up how hard I've worked for MasterChef.

I'm proud of getting myself here.

I do want to win, but anyone could take it.

This is the start of their journey,

it's definitely not the end of their journey.

-Who deserves it the most?

-And who stands out?

We said at the start of today, three plates of food and one champion.

We've made our decision.

Our MasterChef champion...

..is Natalie.

MUSIC: "Mr Blue Sky" by ELO

Well done, you guys, though.

Thank you.

I love Natalie, I've always loved Natalie.

There is pride in her work, there is a real love of cuisine,

a real love of food.

It's been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,

so I'll chin-up and onwards and upwards.

Probably the best few weeks of my life. I'm really proud of myself.

-Champion.

-Yeah.

-You did it.

-It's a dream come true. It's really, ooh...

Now I'm starting to go.

It's mad, innit?

MUSIC: "Mr Blue Sky" by ELO

Probably the best thing that's ever happened in my life.

-How does that feel?

-It's going to look good in my bedroom.

It's just like a fairy tale, really, innit?

The girl from Hackney did good.

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