Episode 4, Part 1 Celebrity MasterChef

Celebrity MasterChef.

We've got ourselves 20 celebrities who want to show us

how good they are in the kitchen.

I hope I have what it takes to win MasterChef.

Many of them can sing, dance, act. We don't care about that.

What we care about is whether they can cook.

I'm feeling ready, willing and able.

"Bring it on", I believe the young people say.

Who's not just going to be a flash in the pan?

Light the oven, set the stove, sharpen your knives, let's go.

This week, the MasterChef heats have pitted five celebrities

against each other.

I'm under so much pressure to get it done.

-Now, let's go.

-Yep, coming now, chef.

-All right.

-Talk to me afterwards.

I'm right in amongst it now.

Last time, despite his best efforts to rise to the challenge,

singer Simon Ware went home.

Good luck, guys. Thank you.

All the best to you.

Now, the remaining four are back

to fight for their place in the semifinals.

I just to think of it as a one-woman race.

Like, I literally don't look left or right

and if that's good enough, then hurrah for me.

If I went all the way, I'd be ecstatic, I'd jump over the moon.

What I don't want to do is drop off because

that's not what Neil Back does.

I'm actually really enjoying the pressure.

Mind you, 30 carol services at Christmas, that's pressure.

-Together again.

-At last.

Good to see you back. Over the next couple of days,

we're going to put you through your paces.

And at the end of that, we will have ourselves some semifinalists.

This, your first task, is all about teamwork and communication.

A red team and a blue team.

Oh.

We want from you a main course and a dessert but you're going to be

cooking it in relay.

-OK.

-Right now, decide which one of you is going to go first.

Are you nominating me?

-Yes.

-Why do you think that?

-I don't know. Go on, you can go first.

-I think I want to go second.

-OK.

-I think.

-Do you...?

-I don't mind.

-You go first.

Right, have we made a decision?

-Yes.

-Red team, who's going first?

Good. Blue team, who's going first?

Fantastic.

So, you guys stay where you are.

People going second, you can now leave us, thank you very much.

We'll be fine.

I think they've got the hard bit.

Yeah.

Reveal your ingredients.

HE LAUGHS

Your main course must include that fish

and the dessert must showcase the chocolate.

OK. Your 25 minutes, the foundation of these great dishes.

Let's cook.

As well as cod and chocolate,

Richard and Neil can select from a larder of ingredients

to create their dishes.

Being paired up with Neil, good.

I'm glad I got him.

I wish I knew a bit more about vegetables.

I haven't got a clue.

I think he knows what he's doing and what he's going to cook.

He's that type of man.

I have no idea what to do with this.

The ingredients we've got for them, they're classic but I tell you what,

if you don't know how to handle them properly, it could be disaster.

-Have you filleted a fish before?

-I have, yeah.

That's fortuitous, isn't it?

Nothing the size of this.

Hopefully, Rich is good and can start something real nice

and then I can do it justice after.

-What's your plan?

-It's to get a fillet off this fish, two portions.

-And what sort of fish is it?

-It's a sea fish, John.

Very good. What sort of fish is it? A fish with only three letters.

Quite well known to be with chips.

-That would be a cod, then.

-What about the dessert?

What I might do is put on a pan and just melt some chocolate, actually.

-And do what with it?

-Well, that might be the problem for Amelle.

-Great. OK.

-But you can't go wrong

with a bit of melted chocolate.

Considering you don't have an idea of what to do with it,

you might be able to go wrong with it!

I'm not a great dessert fan but I'm just thinking melted chocolate

gives you so many options within the time available.

I really hope Richard doesn't just stick to the main

and leaves me with the dessert because we're probably

going to lose this challenge.

Hopefully, yeah, it would be lovely if he could just do dessert.

That would be great for me.

I always strive to do my best in anything that I do.

If I'm not good enough, I can sort of live with that.

It's lack of effort is unacceptable in my life.

No, he doesn't do anything by half.

I mean, he's got where he's got now for being a tough guy, hasn't he?

Neil, the look on your face when this fish came out

from under that cloth was extraordinary.

Yeah, never seen a fish that big.

Had no idea where to start or finish

but I've cut off a nice little chunk and I think we'll fry that.

Going to boil it with some of those clams, bit of mushrooms,

put it on a bed of...

Neil, with all due respect, you've got 15 minutes left.

You're not going to be able to finish that so...

-No.

-What about dessert? You don't seem to have come

sprinting out the blocks with that one either?

No, I haven't.

I'm not on the dessert yet.

Neil, have you got any ideas at all with dessert?

-Yeah.

-Poor old Mo.

That poor lady. How can you leave her in such a pickle?

-You should be ashamed of yourself.

-She'll be fine.

We'll, let's hope so. You've got to come back and pick up the pieces.

I don't eat desserts.

I'm a main course person so it's going to be a right to do if...

If he's left me the dessert, there's going to be murders.

Guys, you're halfway.

Dessert right now is a bit of a question mark.

In fact, it's not even a question mark.

It's just a little dot at the bottom of the question mark.

What are you going to do with your bowl of melted chocolate?

Well, there are so many things you can do with molten chocolate.

-Yeah, like what?

-There's some cake stuff over there,

so we could just have some lovely chocolaty cake stuff.

You're sounding like afternoon tea down at the...

-Of course.

-A tea vicar.

-Of course.

If you have an idea, then I suggest you leave a clue

because presently you've got pots of chocolate on a bench

and a bowl of melted chocolate.

-Yeah.

-A couple of shallots over there, a bit of cod here.

It's all going to come together now.

Do you want a loaf to go with the fishes?

That would be lovely.

HE LAUGHS

You've got five minutes before you swap over, OK?

The plan for this stuff... We've got some sultanas,

we got some hazelnuts, both go very nicely with chocolate.

We've got a bit of cake. You're salivating already

at the thought of the pudding that might just come out of this.

I know you are.

No, don't want any of that.

I'm trying to lay a sort of plan that Laila can follow.

The knowledge she's had of 71 years will just say,

I know where we're going with that.

Yeah, but hang on a minute, what is your idea with the chocolate

and the nuts because it doesn't look obvious to me?

Soft fruit, chocolate, nuts.

It's a winning combination.

-We'll see.

-HE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

Right, 60 seconds till your mates come in.

60 seconds before the girls take over.

-Are you nervous?

-I am nervous now, to be honest.

I didn't think I would be.

I hope we don't make a pig's ear of it all.

Right, swap over.

Off you go. The others are coming in.

Go on, off you go.

Here we go.

How did you get on?

THEY LAUGH

What could go wrong?

Right.

Oh, really?

Oh, dear, oh, dear.

Oh.

Right.

I mean, where's the...

I enjoyed it but it was an awful lot to do in no time at all.

I tried to sign path where to go with it

but she might have better ideas. Hopefully, she will.

What do you see?

What do I see?

Well, I see a blooming big fish gaping at me.

I see it's all prepared there and he's got the piece there,

so I think that needs to go first.

I don't know how long that'd take.

Oh, I'm just going to put them on and hope for the best, I think.

What do you think he wants to do with desert?

I think strawberries,

with melted chocolate.

Right. Off you go.

OK.

I was expecting it to be a lot worse, believe you me.

I think he's done a good job.

Now, this is where it gets tricky.

Laila's come along and tipped all of it -

and I mean everything on that bench -

into one pan.

It's a bit like the way my grandad used to do a fry-up.

I hope she's not cooked the fish yet, because it doesn't need cooking yet.

We've got 15 minutes when we team up together,

so, hopefully, she hasn't tried to do too much.

At the moment, that fish is not frying in that pan, it's steaming.

So, it's going to have to be rescued by Neil

if she doesn't sort herself out.

I literally have no idea what he's trying to do here.

Right, so what are you going to do with the fish?

The fish. I'm going to put this in the oven, put some onions around it.

-Right.

-Put a tiny bit of olive oil, put that in the oven.

-So you're going to bake that?

-Uh-huh.

-With the onions?

Yes, yeah.

Definitely have never done this before.

How long does a piece of fish take to cook?

20?

So, you've got 25 minutes and then you've got 15 at the end.

OK, you've given me a hint there. I'm going to just put it straight in the...

That's not happening.

Oh, my God.

Oh, man. I thought it would be more obvious than this.

Amelle's walked in and there, on the bench, is a lovely fillet of cod

and that could be finished off at the last minute, but now,

with still 20 minutes to go, the fish is cooking in a pan.

The onions aren't even cooked yet, so what's going to happen

with the rest of the dish, I'm not quite sure.

What is he doing?

I don't understand why there's white chocolate, though.

This, I was thinking about plastering it over that.

I honestly don't know.

I'm just going to hope and...

hopefully it works.

I had a feeling that Amelle's probably got a better instinct

for desserts than I have, so what I did was try to give her some stuff to go on.

So, I melted some milk chocolate, melted some white chocolate,

found a piece of cake

and, er, leave the rest to her imagination.

Right, I have no idea, to be honest with you.

All I've done is I've put a little bit of chocolate on top of this.

I need Richard to save the day.

OK.

The chocolate is going to be melted so it goes on the strawberries.

And I should imagine with a few nuts

and bits and bobs.

It seems to me that there is a dilemma, and the dilemma is,

"What are you and I going to eat for dessert?"

Cos, right now, there ain't a dessert in sight.

On either bench.

It's five minutes before your mates come in

and you push for the final 15.

Or rescue it for the final 15.

So with the fish...gosh.

It's breaking up a little bit.

Yeah, so I'm going to leave it alone for a while.

So, are the onions cooked?

I was going to make them a little bit more, erm, so I can get all the juices out of them.

Right.

-All right?

-Yeah.

-LAILA:

-Keep it warm.

Right.

I've done the fish and the little potatoes.

This is still just down low,

keeping it warm.

The strawberries I've done with some chocolate,

but I'm now going to put some white chocolate on.

I've never done this before, anyway.

No kidding?

No, I never melted chocolate.

-No.

-You look like a master chocolatier from over there.

No, I'm not!

Yeah, I think the 15 minutes at the end is going to be very interesting.

See where we can possibly go in 15 minutes. It's not long.

My nightmare situation would be to see a large piece of cod

dipped in chocolate.

Richard's going to go mad when he sees this.

Hopefully, there's enough time to put right

what I've put so wrong, huh.

So cringe. OK.

Got Mary Berry outside.

Seriously, desserts are, like, seriously my weak spot.

-No?!

-I was trying to make it look as normal and as nice as possible.

Hopefully, you, like I, will just go in there and watch the ladies

finish it and take us over the finishing line.

We'll just fine tune it.

A little bit of "ho-ho-hee-ho".

Yeah.

-GREGG:

-Right, your partners are coming back in. You work together

for the final 15 minutes.

-Oh, Richard.

-How's it going?

Right, I had no idea. This is what I've done.

-Oh, that's delicious.

-Is that OK?

-Magnificent.

-I've put loads of stuff inside and then there's chocolate.

-Fantastic.

How are you doing, babe?

-All right.

-Fantastic.

I just added all that in there.

-That's that.

-Oh, I tell you what, you are a ledge.

Absolute ledge. She's an absolute legend.

She's done everything that I would have done, so, we are in sync.

Good.

-OK?

-It's the practical thing for you to do pudding and me to do this.

-Richard's here.

-I'm glad you think that's helpful, but you carry on with that, I'll carry on with this.

-OK. With this, do you reckon I should cut it, because it's quite big?

-I would cut it.

Cool. Perfect. And I can dress it a little bit nicer.

I've never looked forward to seeing you so much, Richard.

-Right, we don't have long, do we?

-Looking at the door every two seconds.

The dishes have become miracles of confection and delight.

That's what's happened. It's all gone very well.

So, I learned to do this at the restaurant,

but it looks a little bit

dodgy, I think.

I'm not sure about that.

Are you on it, Mo? Do you need a hand?

No, go on. You carry on with your bit.

I'll carry on with this.

I think Neil and Laila's fish is actually coming along OK,

because I think Neil did some excellent work there.

However, the dessert leaves a lot to be desired.

I mean, between the pair of them, they've sliced some strawberries,

drizzled two different types of chocolate across it, and now

they're going to sprinkle some crushed nuts.

I mean, it's hardly going to set the world on fire.

Final five minutes.

Finishing touches.

-NEIL:

-What do you reckon with the shells for decoration?

Yeah, put it like it's a seascape.

60 seconds left.

Final 60 seconds.

-RICHARD:

-Get some madeira into the cake.

Ooh.

That's it! Stop.

You're done.

There we go. Et voila.

-High five.

-What do you think?

It's not going to kill anyone, is it?

We've done a brandade de morue avec les nouilles citron.

That's nice.

We've done a gateau de madeira avec de madeira.

So, you picked the right person, didn't you?

-Didn't she?

-Yeah.

-JOHN:

-Laila and Neil, what have we got?

Laila, what have we got?

You should know. You prepared it.

-You cooked it.

-I know. Go on.

Cod on a base of spinach, peas, bit of bacon.

Toasted, oven-baked chips.

And dessert?

A Laila special.

Strawberries,

two types of chocolate and crushed nuts.

I think the main looks great, actually.

And I think you both worked on that really well.

Neil, it was quite clear exactly what it was that you needed to do -

and you did it, and you did it pretty well.

Thank you.

Fish is flaky and soft

and you've got lemon juice in your spinach, which is delightful.

You've got natural sweetness of clams, peas, shallots.

Really good flavours.

Well done.

-BOTH:

-Thank you.

Well done.

I like that spinach.

Some people might think it's overcooked, but I love that,

cos it's really cooked down well, it's strong, it's earthy,

and it goes beautifully with the fish.

I like the ideas. I like them a lot.

Posh fish and chips.

All the effort, right from the start, went into the main.

Neither of you could come up with a decent plan for the dessert.

-And it shows, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

This is a kind of afterthought. "What are we going to do? Let's piece something together."

And that's what it tastes like.

That's what it was.

Yeah.

-NEIL:

-Today was terrible.

Like, Laila was absolutely terrible.

Hopefully, I will never work with her again.

No, she was fantastic.

-Honestly, I'm really happy.

-Yeah. I'm well pleased.

Richard and Amelle, what have we got?

We have a celebration of white food,

with pan-fried cod

with white wine

and some white noodles

and some white stuff.

And dessert?

That's a Madeira tipsy cake,

with a duo of chocolate,

hazelnuts and sultanas.

Well, I've got to say, you'd be able to sell ice to Eskimos, wouldn't you, eh?

Yeah, you sounded really nice, too.

A Madeira tipsy cake?

-RICHARD:

-Yeah.

What, you put booze in it?

-We have.

-Oh.

Why the noodles?

Cos I see noodles as a kind of Asian dish,

yet the flavours are very European.

Well, I wanted some starch, because I didn't look at the table that had the spuds on,

and it would have been a very different story. I just saw noodles

and we didn't have much time, so I thought, well, we'll have some noodles then.

You just need to look around a little bit. The problem is it's called blind panic.

Yeah.

Considering your fish has been cooked for so long,

it's still lovely and moist and I'm surprised,

cos a piece of cod will take about five minutes to cook

if it's not on the bone.

However, cos there's so many herbs and onions

inside with the sweet shallots and the parsley,

it's a tasty, tasty thing and the dill in the background's good.

Love the spinach, the dill, the white wine flavour

that's going on underneath that fish. I think that's beautiful.

The noodles are only there because you didn't realise we had potatoes,

and I think your ideas are always quite solid and just work with them.

Right, shall we move from there to dessert?

What's in the pot?

You don't want to know.

Lots of little goodies there for you.

There's some nuts and sultanas,

and then some white chocolate for you.

-RICHARD:

-I thought it was a nice idea, hazelnuts and white chocolate.

It's so rich and sweet and sticky.

You said that you can't go wrong with a bowl of chocolate,

melted chocolate.

I think we could probably be a little bit more adventurous

than a slice of cake covered in chocolate.

Yes, desserts are not my strong point, to be honest.

You're both decent cooks, actually.

We'll leave it up to you two

to take whatever lessons from this you choose.

But learn from it.

-OK.

-Thank you, we shall.

-JOHN:

-Thank you.

-There were knocked out by it.

-Yeah.

They mocked us.

It's never good when someone speaks about your menu

and uses the expression "blind panic".

Oh, man. Yeah.

What you've learnt today

is important

because what comes up next

is ferocious.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much indeed.

We will see you again

very soon indeed.

Off you go.

It's early morning on day two,

and Richard, Laila, Neil and Amelle

are heading to their most daunting challenge yet.

I wasn't sure what we were going to do today, cos do you remember Greg said that it would be ferocious,

so I thought maybe we would go to London Zoo,

where we'd be thrown in with the lions.

Good morning and welcome to Battersea Power Station.

Undoubtedly, one of the most iconic sights on London's skyline.

This is the biggest brick-built structure in Europe.

Right now, it's one of the biggest regeneration schemes

London has ever seen.

There are, at any one time,

up to 3,000 builders and contractors on this site.

Today, you are going to make lunch

for 120 of them.

Oh, my God. That beats your eight.

I was thinking, like, 20.

That's my anxiety dream come true.

You'll be remaining in the same teams as you were in the last round.

Amelle and Richard,

and Laila and Neil.

This is big, industrial cooking,

and you've only got three hours until lunchtime.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd say you'd better get on with it.

Right.

-NEIL:

-Oh, my God.

-AMELLE:

-Oh, my gosh!

Didn't expect him to say 120.

I had a mini heart attack on the spot there.

It's fantastic to be at Battersea Power Station.

I think we filmed a video here in the 1980s, so it's good to be back.

Very daunting. Over 3,000 workforce here.

Thank God we're not cooking for all 3,000,

but working with Laila,

I know we'll smash it.

I should imagine that the blokes that work here are hungry.

I mean, you've only got to look round

and see what's going on.

They're hungry boys. Yeah.

My name's Andy. I'm the head chef here at Battersea Power Station.

The guys that are coming in today, they're expecting something that is simple and wholesome.

I don't want anything that's going to be coming through which is going to be plain.

You've got 10 minutes to come up with a menu idea.

Off you go.

-AMELLE:

-Oh, my G... that was so sudden.

Using the kitchen larder,

each team must make 50 portions of a meat or fish dish,

20 portions of a vegetarian option

and 70 portions of pudding.

Aubergine.

-Red peppers.

-Red peppers, yeah.

You can have mashed potatoes and greens.

-AMELLE:

-Those brown things. What are they called again?

-RICHARD:

-What brown things?

-Not brown, they're black.

-It's not a cucumber, is it?

-It's a courgette.

-OK, sorry, courgette.

-LAILA:

-Do you know how to do it?

-NEIL:

-Yeah, I do.

-OK, then.

I'm on it. I'm on it.

I think I'm leaving you in charge.

-GREGG:

-120 of these people, our celebs are cooking for.

Now, my guess is the most they've ever done is probably eight at a dinner party on Christmas Day.

Anybody's who's had a pick and shovel out in this weather

is going to eat a lot more than a standard lunch.

I think they can do it,

but they're going to have to work really hard.

The teams now have just three hours

before lunch service.

Service here is absolutely bonkers.

It's start to finish nonstop onslaught.

I think the guys are going to be in for an experience.

Various roasted veg.

-Yeah.

-Tomatoes.

These will go lovely, actually.

Yeah.

Laila and Neil have decided on

steak and kidney casserole for their main

and apple pie for pudding.

But they've yet to fully work out their vegetarian course.

Tell me about vegetarian?

Courgettes, aubergine...

It's going to be like a sauce, but chunky.

But, spicy or...?

I will add a bit of spice,

but that's a secret ingredient.

Maybe a curry?

-Ah, vegetable curry?

-Yeah.

-Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

-Yeah, it'd be lovely.

-That lovely curry sauce you did with your salmon.

-Absolutely.

So, tell me about steak and kidney.

Just like a stew?

-Yeah.

-Dumplings?

-No.

I ain't got no dumplings.

-OK.

-I can't do 120 dumplings.

-We ain't got time now.

-Haven't you?

No.

God, she's a force to be reckoned with, isn't she? Eh?

Let her think she's the boss. That's all you got to do.

Richard and Amelle are also doing a curry with chicken and spinach.

Their vegetarian dish is pasta with Mediterranean vegetables.

What about dessert? What are we doing for desert?

We're going to do some classic, English baked apples.

Don't look at me like that.

No, the only reason I do that is cos the guys are doing apples over here as well.

Oh, baked apples would be really nice, you see. What are they doing with their apples?

Apple pie.

-Oh, we're not doing that. Stick to the plan and let's...

-OK. I think we'll have to have a think.

I'm not too sure we can do two apple desserts.

-We can change.

-Yeah?

In a flash. No, seriously, we can change. We'll do it.

But what will you change to, Neil?

We'll do pancakes with strawberries.

-You can do the apples.

-That's very decent of you.

-Team work.

-Bless you, Neil.

-No problem.

-We owe you one.

-SINGS:

-That's what friends are for.

Well, these baked apples better be good.

Might make a little strawberry coulis.

The strawberries, the pancakes, bit of coulis

and some fresh cream, so...

Who doesn't like that?

-LAILA:

-Oi, these men are hard working. They'll think they're at the Ritz.

They'll love it. They'll love it.

And then they'll want it every day, you watch.

They can have it every day.

I just won't be here to cook it.

-Got some apples here.

-Oh, lovely.

About a thousand.

You know what a Bramley does when it's baked?

-It goes soft.

-Yes.

-Delicious.

It's sharp.

-Oh, yeah. We're going to have lots of sugar. Lots of sugar.

-Good.

-Yeah, loads.

-Custard?

-I was thinking of a custard, but...

-We saw some nice cold cream.

-You're being lazy here, Richard.

-Not lazy at all.

I'm scared of doing custard...

-Are you?

-..in quantities that I've not done before.

-What about if I give you a recipe?

-That'd be brilliant.

-I'll give you a recipe for custard, you do custard. You promise me?

-I promise.

-I'll give you a recipe.

I've got 60 chicken legs, Amelle.

I think we just get them in and get them on.

Get it straight up, yeah.

Such a big knife for such a small job.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11.

If we do 12...

Laila has got her steak on to brown

and is now prepping the beef kidneys.

I like kidneys.

Usually, I use lamb's, er, kidneys.

You know, when you've got a lot of men to look after.

This is the best, I suppose, the best one to use.

Now, we can get cracking, I think.

Yeah, that's it.

Give it a good stir.

That's it. Look at that.

Beautiful.

Beautiful. Once I got a few herbs in there.

I've never cooked for more than six or seven people,

so, this is totally out of my comfort zone, but...

one virtue, I did do A-level maths and passed it,

so, hopefully,

we've got the calculations right.

Neil, is this going to be enough to serve all the guys that we've got coming in?

I'm going to consult Laila.

Do we think we've got enough meat in here to serve the guys we've got coming in?

Erm, well, I'll put more in then.

It's just the last thing I want is to have hungry guys.

OK, guys. We've got less than 90 minutes now.

Yes, Chef! Yes, Chef!

Little concerned about the steak and kidneys.

I know that Laila and Neil are working really hard to get it done

and I do think it's going to taste really nice, but they need to get it cooking down.

Otherwise, that meat's going to be tough as old boots.

Richard is making a yoghurt raita to accompany their chicken curry.

While Amelle is busy prepping the Mediterranean vegetables

for their pasta dish.

You know like chips in a casino?

Like, "There you go, mate. I put 20 in."

The biggest vegetable pot I've ever created in my life.

Have you seen the size of this thing?

I've never cooked for this many people, ever.

Scared the hell out of me earlier,

erm, so, I was thinking, "How is that even possible?"

But...

somehow, it just, I don't know. It's all right.

It's not so bad.

I'm going to add a tiny bit of lemon and lime as well, just to...

-RICHARD:

-Good-o. All the help that we can give it to make it delicious.

With the raita finished,

Richard's next task is to make a curry sauce, using ginger,

garlic and cumin.

We are calmly and confidently approaching a culinary miracle.

It's kind of managed chaos at the moment,

and I'd don't really want chaos to get the better of us,

so, time is always running out

and I haven't even got on to those baked apples yet.

But, we just need to do this.

Richard, we need to get some sauce on these chickens.

Yeah.

We can't be serving that as it is.

We've got less than 90 minutes to go. Let's rally and get it done.

Yeah.

Couldn't imagine cooking this much food every single day.

I literally just dropped this

in someone else's food, so I hope they don't think I was trying to sabotage them.

But, erm, yeah, I've just taken them out, fished them out.

No-one has to know.

So, we've got like, I think, an hour now.

We'll soon see.

What will be, will be.

Now, out of my way.

Laila has finally browned off the extra beef and kidneys

for her casserole, but she's behind getting it into the oven to braise.

Well, I've never had to do something like this, where I've got to stand on tiptoe

and look into it, cos I'm too short.

Do you want a hand?

Yes, please.

I really needed some more sort of, like, flavours in here.

-What do you need?

-Something that I can thicken it up with.

-Do you want some gravy?

-Yeah.

Have you got some gravy? Here you go, try that.

Oh, yeah. Ladle would've helped, wouldn't it?

-Thank you.

-You're very welcome.

I mean when I do stews and stuff like this,

I cook it for about three to four hours and about five hours if I'm doing oxtail.

It seems as though it's never-ending.

Cor, it makes your arm ache.

If they don't like it, I'll stick it in their laps.

You want a job, Laila?

Yeah. If that's how you like...if that's how you want me to talk to the men, I'll do it.

Absolutely perfect.

If you don't eat it, you wear it.

And I don't want to see no leftovers either.

Oh, that's nice.

Battersea Power Station has dominated London's skyline

since it was built in the 1930s.

It generated part of London's electricity for over half a century

before it was decommissioned in the early 1980s.

Now, after years of neglect,

it's undergoing an £8 billion redevelopment

with the transformed former power station at its heart.

When finished, the huge 42-acre site

will house nearly 4,000 homes,

shops and restaurants.

This is a mammoth task, John, isn't?

If you were working down here,

you would be cold and you would be really, really hungry

and you'd want something pretty decent for your lunch.

MasterChef are in town.

They know it. Their expectations are going to go up.

I'll tell you what, these celebs have got to deliver.

With 45 minutes till service,

whipping up a cream that's going to be flavoured

with vanilla and I'm mixing up a pancake mix...

Well, I've got to open it up yet.

..for 70 pancakes.

What are you concerned about here, because you realise

120 hungry builders are going to walk through that door?

-Yeah.

-Soon.

I've just said to chef,

they'd better eat it

or they can wear it.

I've cooked it,

eat it.

Ooh, look at that little face.

Ooh, you're tough.

I thought Neil Back was tough -

he's nothing on you.

Absolutely. You're ferocious.

Oh, good.

I'm going to tell them to keep their hard hats on.

Neil and Laila are actually doing quite well.

Their steak and their kidney and their mashed potato is on.

The vegetable curry, it's ready to go.

What I'm very nervous of

is 70 individual pancakes.

With 40 minutes to go,

Richard has finished making the curry sauce,

but Amelle is still working on the vegetarian pasta dish.

I'm panicking a bit about rice.

We need to get some rice on. So we need a pot.

Is there another pot for you?

Well, I can use this pot, but I'm just going to have to

get this going.

How are you doing?

This is smelling very good.

Is it? Good.

You've got a happy smile on your face.

-I normally do.

-Why does he look as stressed as hell?

I am stressed, to be fair. I'm not going to lie.

As in, I was really stressed, I'm starting to calm,

cos it's out of our control now.

What will be, will be. I think it's not bad.

What will be, will be. OK, fine.

I'll put that out over the building site by Tannoy.

Don't worry about lunch. It might be there, it might not be.

What will be will be. I'm sure they'll agree with you.

Yeah, I think it'll be nice. I think they'll enjoy it.

Lunch is now fast approaching

and the first shift of 120 workers

is about to descend on the canteen.

Richard gets the rice on ready for service,

but with just over half an hour to go,

they still haven't started on dessert.

We've got an emergency here, I think.

-We really need to get on the apples.

-Yeah, I know.

Before their apples can go into the oven,

they need to be cored and filled with sugar and sultanas.

These are big apples.

I don't know how we're going to get through 70 of these.

Right, I'm going to go super-speed.

What have you got as a team?

We've got talent, we've got vision, we've got skills.

-What have you really got?

-We've got a problem.

-We've got a problem.

-What's the problem?

The problem is that our dessert is not going to be anywhere near ready and we're stuffed.

-Have you baked a Bramley apple before?

-Many times.

-Have you?

-Yeah. And they take a bit longer than we've got.

A lot longer then we've got.

And you're serving it with what?

Love.

-Custard?

-Oh, custard.

We forgot about the custard.

-Delicious with cold cream.

-Yes.

-You're not doing custard. You're running out of time.

-How long have we got?

-About 35 minutes.

-We could do custard in 35.

-Yeah, we could.

On the Red team,

Neil is finishing the 50 portions of mash

to go with Laila's steak and kidney casserole.

Well, it looks all right. It really could be thickened a lot better.

And their vegetable curry is nearly done.

Whose is the rice? Your rice is burning.

-Blooming hell.

-Right.

Just get that off.

That is burnt.

Right. I don't cook rice.

I'm a boil-in-the bag person.

If we can get it on now, you may just have time to get it done.

-Right.

-So let's crack a leg,

let's get this cleaned out and let's get another load on. Yeah?

That was Neil's idea.

Rice. Now we've burnt it.

So, if we're doing another lot and if it goes all right we'll dish it up.

If not, they'll have no have potatoes.

Or mash.

I'm very concerned. Laila and Neil have just burnt their rice so we are

around just under the half an hour mark.

We've got no rice to go with their vegetable dish.

Richard and Amelle, we've got the apples sat on the side not even ready to go in yet.

I'm very concerned now that we're not going to have anything to serve to these guys that are coming in.

Right now, 120 builders are about to walk in to a dessert of raw

cooking apple from the Blue team.

I tell you what, that is a little bit like panic stations there.

-OK, guys, how we getting on?

-We're just about to get the apples in.

Yeah? Do you need me to? I'm going to have to bring somebody in.

Otherwise, I'm going to have 120 guys coming in with nothing to serve. OK. Kingo.

I want these salted, sultanas, a little bit of butter,

-straight in the oven. Let's get 70 portions in the oven.

-All right.

-Lovely.

-There's a tray down there.

Puddings are my Waterloo. We're not great with puddings, are we?

No. Puddings, desserts, we're not very good with. I feel so much better that there's more apples.

Rescue has come.

We haven't got time to cut the cores out, as you can see.

They might be undercooked. They need 35 minutes and we haven't got that.

We both learnt our lesson again that we definitely should have started

with the dessert. They take so much longer than you think. So, yeah,

a lesson learnt but towards the end of when I should have already learnt my lesson, really.

The desserts in the last round from both teams was pretty atrocious.

I mean, today they're going to have to sort it out.

Otherwise, they are going to have a rebellion.

The rebellion of Battersea Power Station.

I don't want to be responsible for that one.

Guys, we have got 20 minutes until service.

I need you to pull out all the stops.

We cannot serve these guys nothing.

Yes, Chef. Yes, Chef.

We got about 20 minutes to go and Neil and Laila are just about to climb a pancake mountain.

I don't know whose idea this was, these pancakes.

I've got a feeling it Neil's and I think it's a little adventurous at this stage.

I think I might start a waffle business.

My arm's dropping off.

But look, it's coming. It's coming, it's coming, it's coming. Aargh!

-Richard?

-Yeah.

Oh, yeah. That's a nice bit of pouring cream there, Gregg.

Wasn't that supposed to be custard?

It was custard. But we felt custard was, we didn't have time.

So, nice cold single cream with baked apple.

-Is the apple baked?

-It's baking.

Yeah, I don't think we're going to win a Michelin star for this dessert, I'm afraid.

It is quite a hard working day today.

I'm so excited to go in there and try the food today.

I'm hungry. I'm very hungry.

Really hungry.

My stomach is in my hand, actually, hungry. Yeah.

Guys, we've got five minutes.

I've got people queueing up outside.

We've got five minutes. Let's go.

Everybody in positions, guys.

Amelle? Yes, Chef.

You ready? Yes, Chef.

-Lovely.

-Oh, my gosh.

-I've seen worse.

-Yeah.

Look at those hungry people.

-Afternoon, everyone.

-I fancy the Red team.

It'll be the Red team.

-Perfect.

-There you go, sir.

-For you.

-They said don't be shy.

-Don't be shy, no, we're not shy here.

-You got to serve the customer.

-Can I get the steak and kidney, please?

-Certainly.

-Would you like rice?

-No, thanks. Can I get the mash?

-You can have mash.

Boiled meat. Who killed it?

The Red team have served steak and kidney casserole

with the choice of mashed potatoes or rice.

It was absolutely brilliant.

Fantastic. The food was cooked well, the potatoes was nice.

There wasn't any lumps in it.

On a cold day like today, a meal like that is fantastic. Brilliant.

I haven't had kidney since I was a kid and I didn't think I would like it,

but I actually really, really liked it. It was lovely. Really good.

Nice gravy.

Very, very tasteful.

Very filling. Nice portions.

Very nice.

Laila got the crowd absolutely right, didn't she?

The sauce's good. The sauce is great.

The beef could have cooked a bit longer. My only complaint on that

is that the mashed potato lacks any seasoning at all.

But it's soft and it's light and that's a rich gravy

that actually tastes of kidney.

Listen, this played into Laila's hands, didn't it?

I like it a lot.

Laila and Neil's second main course is vegetable curry with rice.

It's hot, the veggie.

That's good. Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thanks very much.

I went for the vegetarian curry. It was the perfect spicy level.

I don't know what was going on there.

Listen, neither Laila or Neil are vegetarians, and this shows.

There's a sweetness and there's a heat of chilli about it but it's a mush of Mediterranean veg.

I mean, I don't even know what it's supposed to be.

-Have you had a busy morning?

-It's been waiting for this.

It's about to get so much better.

There you go.

Thank you very much. Cheers.

On the Blue team, Richard's working hard to keep up with demand.

Lovely, thank you very much.

-Chicken.

-Chicken.

There you go.

Enjoy. Hello.

-Thank you.

-Same again.

Their meat course is chicken and spinach curry with rice and raita.

I've gone for the chicken sag.

It's actually quite nice, not as good as I can do, but it will do.

It was very succulent, very moist.

It had some coriander, which is what I like.

Yeah, lovely. It was lovely.

I was enjoying it, tucked into my mint yoghurt and I found...

this, which I can only suggest is probably the lid off the yoghurt.

I am a little bit unimpressed, yes. If this was in a restaurant, I'd send it back.

I certainly wouldn't be paying for it.

Can I speak to the chef, please?

-Yes, of course.

-I found a yoghurt pot lid in my mint yoghurt.

-I'll give you another one.

-Make this one a large portion, yeah?

Yeah, of course. I'm sorry about that.

Thank you, Chef.

-He called me Chef.

-Aww!

The flavours on the chicken are good.

Bit of ginger, lots of onions,

bit of spinach, nice bit of raita on the side.

-The rice is cooked well.

-Do you know, bit of sauce, bit of cream,

bit of butter, make it wet.

Put something that would coat all that rice, you know.

-Curry sauce?

-Curry sauce.

Curry sauce. Curry sauce.

There we go. Thank you.

After a slow start,

orders are picking up for Mel's Mediterranean vegetable pasta.

There we go. Thank you very much.

-One pasta as well?

-Yes, please.

Thank you. Is it hot?

Is it spicy?

-The whole thing isn't spicy except the chilli.

-Sweet. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

I find it delicious, to be honest.

I'm really very, very hungry but I find it delicious.

I think I should have tried the chicken instead. Yeah, to be honest.

Should have gone for the chicken.

But, hey, I made my bed so shall I lie.

Well, it's ratatouille without any tomato sauce.

And there's no spice in it and you can't taste any herbs,

which is a real shame because it could be really, really good.

It just needed a bit of love and care. Instead, it's just lots of vegetables cooked together.

This could have been so much better if we'd just chopped the vegetables.

And served it in bowls.

Well done, guys. That's our mains done.

Let's get all this lot cleared away and let's get set up for desserts, yeah? Yes, Chef. Lovely.

-Richard?

-Yeah.

-This is interesting, isn't it?

-The foam?

Well, it's sort of become a sort of apple catastrophe.

Well, apples have always been complicated in the Christian story, John.

-Cover it with custard and serve it.

-Yeah, that's exactly...

-Better get some custard on quick.

-Look over there.

We've already done it. Here, we've already started it.

-Can I have your pancakes, please?

-Certainly.

For their dessert, Laila and Neil

are serving pancakes with strawberries,

strawberry coulis and vanilla cream.

Thank you, my love.

-What's that?

-It's a coulis.

So it's strawberries with a bit of sugar, so it's really sweet.

I actually love the strawberry coulis on it. Yeah, it's really nice.

It's perfect, not too sweet and not too sour.

I went for the strawberry and cream and pancakes, very nice.

Very nice.

Lovely. Very nice and light. The cream was nice.

Yeah, it was a lovely pudding.

Yeah, I could eat a lot more of it, I think. It was very nice.

I was surprised that Neil took on the task of all the pancakes and,

actually, to watch him work, he got on with it, he got stuck into it.

Lots of cream. People liked it.

This pancake tastes great.

It's got really soft, syrupy, fruity strawberries, a pancake and cream.

I mean, it's obviously what people want to eat.

-It's what I want to eat.

-Mm!

How did you find your lunch?

Beautiful, lovely flavour.

Very happy to hear that.

Richard and Amelle's pudding is baked apples and sultanas

served with custard.

-There we go, my friend.

-Thank you very much.

-Thanks very much.

Yeah, we'll go for this then. Thank you.

I'm not much of a sweet person but I'm a big fan of custard so I went for that one instead.

It was very nice, very sweet. It was really nice.

If I'm honest, too sour.

I couldn't really eat it all. The custard was nice, if anything.

Apart from that, like I said, too sour. That's it.

It's better than what we'd normally get, so it was lovely.

So, hopefully, they put on a canteen Monday, that would be fantastic.

I tell you what, how they got this apple out, I've no idea.

-No.

-This apple started to cook as the mains began to be served.

You know, they sprinkled sugar on that at the end which was absolutely the right thing to do

and they actually snatched victory there out of the jaws of defeat.

Yeah. It's a shame that they haven't taken the core out.

That's a real mistake. However, it tastes pretty good.

Service is finally over.

-We were working way ahead.

-You looked so professional today.

That's all right. Don't worry about me.

I'll just clear up, shall I?

Claire, come on.

Pull your fingers out.

Calm down, calm down.

Laila's not happy with us.

We've got to move it.

OK, everybody, just to show our appreciation for a lovely lunch today,

let's all put our hands together for the Red and Blue teams.

All right, that's enough.

Working in this kind of environment for these kind of numbers is a challenge for anybody.

Overall, I think they did really, really well and I'd have all of them back to do it all again.

Oh, my gosh.

That's all I can say. I'm really flushed, as you can probably tell.

Shining like a disco ball.

Time just dripped away like water out of a basket.

Literally, it was just dribbling away.

It was a harrowing experience which I think I'll have to take to therapy for the next 15 years, probably.

But it was fun in the end, it ended well.

All's well, that ends well.

I found today quite hard going, to be honest.

I'd sooner stick to what I do.

This is hard graft.

Lots of pressure, but I enjoyed it.

At the end of the day, we delivered,

so I'm massively impressed with the effort of Laila

along with the staff that we were able to do that.

Both teams got through this task.

Next round, they're not in teams.

It's up to them as individuals.

One last chance to try and grab that semifinal place.

Next time, the battle for the semifinals reaches its climax.

It looks like an empty plate.

It's very drinkable.

HE SLURPS

See what you have to put up with on this Mastermind?

LAUGHTER

Cut!

Cut! Cut!