Episode 12 Celebrity MasterChef

We've got 16 celebrities battling it out to win the MasterChef Crown.

Of course we are up against it. We always were going to be. It's a big ask.

These celebrities have already made a name for themselves

in their own professions.

But can they cut it in the kitchen?

We've got half an hour.

Just got to get through half an hour and pray that this stays right.

We've lost it already but we might as well...

We haven't lost anything already, woman.

Cooking doesn't get tougher than this.

Today, the celebrity chefs are about to face

their first outside challenge.

This is heading towards Chessington, without a doubt.

We are going to feed the animals. Is there a zoo?

Welcome to Chessington World of Adventures,

one of the UK's largest theme parks

but also home to many, many exotic animals from around the globe.

Looking after these animals is a dedicated workforce,

over 100 of them,

including a special breed of people, the zookeepers.

Your task today is all about mass catering

and we are pairing you up.

So, our teams are

Diarmuid and Jenny.

And Michael and Rebecca.

Lunch is at one o'clock

and I suggest you get a move on.

Off you go.

They have no idea what's going to hit them.

No idea.

Jenny and Diarmuid together. Can you imagine the calamity?

I think I'd rather ask the sea lions to cook.

Yeah, absolutely.

'This challenge is going to be a problem. The most people I've cooked for'

is eight, and I didn't cook enough then.

It's going to be a fun challenge,

tough one. Real tough, I think. Up against it.

'This isn't the time to be worried.

'The time to be worried is'

when it's going wrong.

It's not started to go wrong yet.

What's the point in worrying about it? Let's just go for it.

The original Chessington Zoo was opened in 1931

and the theme park started on this site in 1987.

There are over 1,000 resident wild animals in the park

and they have over a million visitors every year.

In charge of the staff kitchen is executive chef Colin Campbell.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the kitchen.

So, from each of your teams I need 40 portions of a meat dish,

30 portions of a vegetarian dish and 50 portions of a dessert dish.

We look after our staff very well here.

It's not an easy ride

so I suggest you crack on cos there's a fair bit of work to do.

Away you go.

Hmmm. OK.

They now have to come up with their menus from a selection of

pasta, rice, chocolate, spices,

tinned and fresh fruit and vegetables

and either the tray of minced beef or diced pork.

JENNY: I don't even know what that is.

Pork.

Pork is a hideous... I'm Jewish.

-MICHAEL: You're taking the mince?

-No, we haven't taken the pork.

-No, no. I know you haven't taken the pork but you've taken all the mince.

-Oh, the mince, yes.

MICHAEL: You're just taking everything.

What can we do with pork?

Do you want to make an apple crumble, or a rhubarb crumble?

I'd love to do a rhubarb crumble but I think they might do something similar.

We'll see what they...

OK, ladies and gentlemen, decision time now.

Enough talking, we need to get some cooking so I need your menu choices, please.

We'd like to start with spaghetti Bolognese for our meat eaters,

a ratatouille for the vegetarians

then either an apple or rhubarb crumble with custard.

OK, see what we'll do, we'll let you have the mince

if you let us do a crumble.

Therefore, you can't do a crumble for your dessert.

OK, fair enough. I think that's fair enough.

So, we'll do pork. We're going to do, like, a pork stir-fry.

Yeah, stir-fry with...

Yeah, pork stir-fry.

A vegetable bake and with dessert

we are probably going to do a rhubarb apple crumble.

- Both? - Yes.

What are we going to do for our pudding?

There's tinned stuff.

OK, OK, right.

Hold on, you're saying, "OK," before we have any ideas.

I tell you what, we'll get the Spag Bol on and the thingy on then we'll worry about the pudding after.

Enough talking, we need to see some cooking.

Let's do it.

This is our area.

I'm not sure how to turn this on.

The celebrities have just two and a half hours to prepare lunch for 120.

-So, if we go for two of these?

-Yeah, that's good.

I don't know where the olive oil is.

Diarmuid and Jenny start with what they hope will be

their trump card, spaghetti Bolognese.

Just need bigger spoons. I can't understand why the ladle is so tiny.

What's the final menu? Do we know what all three courses are?

Not for the pudding. I think we'll have to bite the bullet and make a sponge or a pie

and I want you to choose, Diarmuid.

Sponge or pie?

I think we go and say, "We're doing a crumble and it'll be better than yours."

-We can't do that.

-Why not?

-Because we beat them on the mince.

-That doesn't matter.

-It does. If I had been left with pork now, I'd be in tears.

-How are you doing, grumpy?

-I'm doing OK.

-What have you got?

-We are making Bolognese.

-Bolognese?

-Spaghetti Bolognese.

-Spaghetti Bolognese?

-Yeah.

Wow, that's innovative(!)

Why wouldn't you do spaghetti and meatballs or something like that, rather than doing Bolognese?

Cos I've had disasters with meatballs.

I was trying to make my beefburgers

and it was absolute

unmitigated disaster.

On the other side of the kitchen, they're splitting the workload.

Rebecca is prepping veg for the pasta bake...

..whilst Michael has begun marinating the pork in soy sauce.

The great thing about the pork stir-fry is we can leave that till the end

cos obviously you want pork to be as freshly cooked as possible.

I don't know why I'm clicking my fingers. I don't know what that's about.

-But, you know what I mean.

-You don't want a soggy stir-fry. That'd just be nasty.

You can't cook a stir-fry in advance.

Yeah, things are going to plan.

Next, Michael makes a start on the rhubarb crumble.

This, apparently, is the tin opener.

How difficult can it be? It's a tin opener.

Right.

Oh, here we go. Oh, yeah. Actually, that's not too bad.

That was close. That would have been a real problem. Can you imagine?

I can't even get the tins open. Good to go. Oh, hang on.

How do you...?

How do you get...? How do you get that off the, um...?

Oh, hang on, wait a minute.

Seriously. This is getting ridiculous. I can't take this any more.

-Job done.

-Oh, so, no fresh rhubarb?

Do you think they'll mark us down because we are using tinned?

-I really don't know.

-Let's just use it. I'm going to use it.

The preference would be to go for fresh. I can chop fast, if you want.

You don't know what I went through to open these tins.

I mean, it does not take long to get it done.

It's there, ready, just in case.

Yeah, it was a good call from Rebecca. Fresh ingredients, always better.

I fell back into my lazy, student habits of using tinned products so, I'm glad that's done.

It's 30 minutes in and Diarmuid and Jenny are still getting the Bolognese on.

What's happening with dessert, Jenny?

We're not going to worry about dessert yet because,

if the worst comes to the worst, we'll just make,

we'll get some tinned peaches and cream.

No, we won't. We have to be prepared.

Yeah, I know but we'll just start this going.

We are still waiting to hear what the dessert choice is yet.

A lot of talking and not a lot of action, so it's a little bit of a concern, at this stage.

Diarmuid, Jenny, I need to know what your final menu is now.

-I need a decision.

-Can we do an apple pie?

You can but I don't know if you'll have it ready in time.

-If you're happy doing a pastry.

-No, we're not.

Talk me through it. Give me some confidence...

-What?

-..that we can make pie.

-Right. We need plain flour.

-Yes.

-We need butter.

-Yes.

And we need a little bit of water for the pastry.

A-ha. I don't know how to make sweet pastry.

How do you make sweet pastry, Do you put some...?

-You put some sugar in it.

-Sugar in it?

-Yeah.

Listen to me for a second. We are failing a lot of people.

It's not just our family, it's not just for ourselves to experiment.

We need to stop talking and stop having ideas.

The time for ideas... The time for ideas is over.

The quickest dessert we can get out today is baked apples.

That's fine but I wouldn't order baked apples and this is a competition.

Apple always beats rhubarb. It's one of the laws of fruits.

Apple beats rhubarb. It's stone, scissor, paper.

You know, we've lost it already but we might as well...

-We haven't lost anything already, woman!

-We'll do baked apples. Why don't we try, Diarmuid?

That's it. No more talking.

You need to be turning the heat up now and not just on the cooker.

Do you think we need a bit more garlic?

You all right, guys?

-Yeah, yeah, we are all right.

-You seem happy.

We've, somehow, managed to get some order, haven't we?

Where are we with the stir-fry?

The stir-fry we're leaving till relatively late.

The pork is marinating but, cos it's a stir-fry, we want it to be as fresh as possible and not get dry.

-The marinade won't dry it out?

-No, it shouldn't do, it shouldn't do.

That's the plan.

I've used up all the rhubarb we had not it's not enough

so I'm going to use some of the tinned rhubarb and, sort of, mix it all in.

My main concern, though, is the custard

cos I've not made custard before

and I've got to make it now

and I haven't got a clue.

Guys, you've got just one hour to service.

One hour left before we need to be serving this food.

Just keep that pot steady from that side.

You're doing really well, really, really well.

Three quarters out, bit more. Baby's head.

Jenny, what are your concerns?

First of all, I want to get this ratatouille, sort of, in the pot

and then we can concentrate on getting some kind of pudding together.

You are obviously in charge, aren't you?

No, don't pin that blame on me cos I'm not taking it.

-Where's the rest of the veg for the ratatouille?

-It's under there. As much...

-So, you haven't chopped any of it yet?

-No, we haven't chopped...

-Oh, my God.

-Yes, I know.

Guys, you're going to have to get your acts together because you won't get this out otherwise.

-I know.

-You really won't.

I mean, you can't just keep your head down, chop and not do anything else.

I can't do more than just chop, though. I can't.

Don't know what another hand can do. I haven't got any more hands.

Mate, I'm a bit worried they're up to their necks in it, here.

Looks like a bit of a struggle over this side. We might need to intervene soon.

Bit of a struggle?

They've got an hour to go and they haven't even chopped the veg for the ratatouille.

I think our biggest problem is we're both slightly chaotic, don't you, Diarmuid?

No, we're not chaotic at all.

We prepare, first thing in the morning,

up to 40 kilos of fish.

That, then needs to be carried across the park and fed to the animals.

And then, pretty much for the rest of the day, it's mucking out.

It's a very physical job. I like to refuel.

I'd say lunch is the most important meal of the day, to me.

The one thing you can absolutely guarantee is,

by lunchtime they are absolutely starving.

If they get this wrong today, they could feed them to the lions.

I mean, that would be a proper adventure.

With 45 minutes to go,

Rebecca and Michael begin cooking the pork for their stir-fry in 40-litre soup pans.

Ow. We started steady but now we are feeling the pace.

It's really hard and it's so hot.

We're up against it, always were going to be. It's a big ask.

COLIN: I need you to get this pork on the flat griddle. We need to cook it quicker.

I can't get the bottom, it's too hot.

-OK.

-OK.

JOHN: How's the rhubarb?

The rhubarb's over here. It's good to go. Just going to make the crumble for it and get it on the top.

How's your white sauce, Rebecca?

I haven't started the white sauce,

so we're just doing this then I'm going to get straight on to the sauce.

White sauce to make, pasta to cook, bake to finish,

crumble to make, custard to do. You've got a lot of work.

-Yes.

-I'm afraid.

-You should be afraid of us.

I'm not afraid of you, I'm afraid of the food.

We've got 50 minutes left,

then I need to get on and I need to make the cheese sauce

which is going to take some time and this needs to cook.

OK.

How's it coming with the dessert, guys?

We're running out of time so we're going to leave the custard. It's a little bit too much.

Neither of us have properly done a custard before so we're not going to take the risk.

We're thinking, maybe do something slightly different, maybe cream and vanilla pod, or...

Given that we are short on time, we'll go with vanilla cream for the crumble. Right, OK.

And I need some flour...

Right, these need to go in.

JENNY: Have we got a tray for these apples cos they're going in the oven?

Do they need to go in the oven before the stuffing?

No, no. Stuff them then get them in the oven.

OK.

I'm having trouble with breaking the butter up, it's so hard.

Jenny and Diarmuid have conjured up their own unique concoction for the sweet stuffing.

Butter, dates, sugar and milk chocolate.

Take half and do the other tray.

I think they can be very disappointing, stewed apples,

if they haven't got lots of nice, compacted, fruity stuff in the middle.

-The technique is just get as much fruit down...

-Yeah.

Really pack it in.

You are the messiest person I've ever... Oh, no, I'm a bit like that, as well.

You're a one-off.

Both teams, we're down to 30 minutes to service.

We must serve this food. Guys, we really need to get these apples in.

Do we sprinkle salt all over the top of that?

-Sugar.

-Sugar.

-Sugar, I mean.

-Yeah.

Jenny, I think you're a magician. This mix looks fantastic.

-Thank you, Chef.

-That's it, we're away.

How long?

About 45 minutes. And you've got to fit that into the next 30 minutes.

Give me an update. Where are we?

I'm worried the ratatouille doesn't have much personality.

The mushrooms have only just gone in.

-Are the apples stuffed?

-They're stuffed.

-What are they stuffed with?

-Date and sugar.

-Sugar.

-And chocolate.

You're not going to attempt a custard or anything like that?

It goes against what we are trying to do and it might be too gloopy.

-What are you trying to do?

-Appreciate the beauty of the apple.

-Just show off the natural beauty of the apple itself?

-Yeah.

By stuffing it with chocolate?

100, 200, 300, 400...

With just 30 minutes to go,

Rebecca still has to make six litres of cheese sauce for her bake.

Oh, my God. It's a bloody nightmare.

Cheese.

Trying to make a sauce on equipment of this scale,

we've not got control over the heat, everything is burning hot when you touch it,

dropping everything in the pans.

It's just...

Ugh.

We've got half an hour.

Just got to get through half an hour and pray that this stays right.

Michael has begun making the vanilla cream to accompany the rhubarb crumble.

Where's the veg for the stir-fry?

-It's there.

-All I can see is some courgettes.

It's not cooked just yet, that's my next thing to do.

Why are you working on the dessert?

Because I need to get this done. I need to get this done, it's ready... Are you saying that...?

Desserts go after mains but if something is going to be late...

It might as well be the dessert.

-Dessert is going to be 15 minutes after mains, isn't it?

-Yeah, you're right.

-REBECCA:

-OK, I've got no heat on the back here.

Guys, just 15 minutes to service now.

Pasta going in.

Also, apple is nearly done.

Been working all morning. We're all pretty hungry now, so very much ready for a bit of lunch.

Ten minutes to service.

We've got customers queuing already so we really need to start moving this food across.

I'm looking forward to lunch. I've worked up a big appetite

-Bolognese is delicious.

-Transfer it to those shallow trays.

Aargh! No! Bring it back.

Coriander.

Not too much, lovely. Fantastic.

The others are already starting to move it across to the buffet for service.

You really need to get this food out now.

-That's going into the bake, isn't it?

-Yeah. I haven't finished it yet.

-I can't, it's just...

-Do you want the cheese yet?

It's just absolute mayhem in the year. It's like a madhouse.

I'm really scared that we are not going to be ready on time.

It's ever so heavy. I'm struggling, I'm struggling.

I'm sorry, I can't, I can't, I can't.

Come on, guys, we need to really move this now. Hurry it up, we are ready for service now.

I'm ready for my lunch now. I'm really hungry, can't wait. Can't wait.

There are 120 people lined up outside and it's snaking out the door.

You have to be really lively. Come on.

You've got two minutes.

Does it taste all right?

-I think it tastes all right

-Would you serve it at a wedding?

Depends if I like the wedding people.

It's supposed to be a crumble, not a rhubarb swamp.

It's one o'clock.

Feeding time for 120 hungry zookeepers.

JOHN: OK, here they come.

-Come on around this way.

-There's also this side.

-Come and see what we have.

-Hello, how are you?

-Are you vegetarian?

-No.

-Would you like some meat?

We have the most delicious spaghetti Bolognese.

There you go. Enjoy that.

Come on through. Come on through.

-Can I have spaghetti Bolognese?

-Spaghetti Bolognese.

I'm doing blondie's Spag Bol.

-Right, what would you like?

-Can I have spaghetti Bolognese?

-You certainly may. What work have you been doing?

-Engineers.

-You're engineers?

-Fixing the rides.

If you want to turn the girls on, say you're a lion tamer.

There you go, sweetheart. You're a growing lad.

-Go on, help yourself to cheese.

-Thank you very much.

The spaghetti Bolognese is really nice. Quite meaty. I like meat.

But not too heavy, either.

I chose spaghetti Bolognese today.

Nice flavour. Yeah, really, really good.

It's seasoned OK.

The pasta is nicely cooked but look at all the grease on that pasta.

It's a little greasy but it's got a sweetness of tomatoes,

it's well seasoned. I actually like the mushrooms in there, as well. It's not bad at all.

There's the pork stir-fry here which comes with some rice.

-Pork stir-fry, please.

-There you go, my friend.

-Pork stir-fry as well, please?

-The pork, of course.

It looks good, man.

Thanks, man.

The pork stir-fry is proving really popular.

It's actually, I think, it's the best thing here but I would say that, I made it.

I have pork stir-fry with rice.

The vegetables in there are really nice.

It's salty but it doesn't have much flavour. Maybe it's not supposed to.

I've gone for the pork stir-fry. A little bit dry but very nice.

I'm going to call it more like stir-frightened pork with rice

cos I'm frightened by it.

It actually tastes really good. There is pepper there, a bit of heat, the sweetness of tomato

but that pork is so dry.

It feels a little bit on the dry side.

I have to say, I've been looking a little bit enviously at my colleague's spaghetti Bolognese.

-REBECCA:

-Here we have vegetable cheese pasta.

Hi, can I have vegetable pasta bake, please?

MICHAEL: You may indeed.

-Hi, what can I get you?

-Pasta bake, please.

-Pasta bake?

Thank you.

Vegetable pasta bake.

Vegetable pasta bake.

The pasta and the cheese sauce is OK

but what's sitting underneath it is absolutely awful.

Look at the liquid coming out of that aubergine. That is nasty.

I've chosen the pasta bake. A bit cold but really nice and cheesy.

-Can I have spaghetti, please?

-Spaghetti Bol.

No-one has touched Diarmuid and Jenny's ratatouille

but their spaghetti Bolognese is going down a storm.

-There is no spaghetti left, it's rice.

-Can I have spaghetti Bolognese and rice, please?

Spaghetti Bolognese with rice. A new dish, just for today.

I'm going to run and get some more rice.

Middle-aged woman running.

Middle-aged woman running, don't watch.

-Ratatouille?

-I've got to.

-I'll go with spaghetti.

You are a brave girl. You are our first ratatouille customer.

You can have as much of this as you like. If you want to spoil it and put cheese on it, I'm not looking.

-Can I have the ratatouille?

-The ratatouille, you can of course.

-And what have you been doing this morning?

-Assistant accountant, so...

-Ah, nothing dangerous then?

-No, no. It's all under control.

Usually I go for meat or veggie

but this time I've gone for the ratatouille and I'm pleased I did. It's really nice.

Light, tasty and healthy as well.

All the things that I want from my lunch.

The classic Provencal dish of France, ratatouille.

We have, now, the addition of, both mushrooms and butternut squash.

It's seasoned OK, the veg is not too overcooked

but it's not quite that great French classic.

Next, it's the battle of the desserts.

Hi, guys. Are you here for the desserts?

Very nice.

-There you are, my friend.

-Thank you very much.

-No worries at all.

-Rhubarb crumble, please.

Would you like some vanilla cream?

There you go. No worries.

For pudding I chose the rhubarb crumble and

I thought it was phenomenal. Really, really enjoyed that.

Mmmm, that is yummy.

Sweet top, crunchy and crispy, Sour, sharp rhubarb.

It's really, really lovely.

I'd rather have custard than cream but, I tell you what, that is good.

Rhubarb crumble is good, by the way, everyone,

if you don't want those blown-up old apples over there.

-JENNY: Would you like a baked apple?

-Yes, please.

You look like a baked apple boy to me. They taste better than they look.

-A bit like me.

-They look absolutely gorgeous.

Right, I'm going to smother this in cream for you. There you go.

For pudding, I went for the baked apple and, I have to say,

it was absolutely gorgeous.

-This sticky bits are always the best.

-Classic baked apples.

Baked apple, sweetie.

It was really chewy, crispy. It was delicious.

It reminded me of what my nan used to make.

It's very sharp.

Add to that, dates which are really dry

and almost burnt at the bottom and then chocolate.

-Can I pour some cream on?

-Well, you could do.

I don't think it's going to help.

The creaminess, sharpness of apple

and an almost toffee-ness coming from chocolate and date is OK.

It's day two of the competition and we really chucked them in the deep end.

What they've achieved today is actually quite incredible.

For Michael and Rebecca, the highlight has to be the crumble.

In fact, for me, the best thing I've eaten today.

But their savoury dishes were bad to very bad.

It was a blur of stress, anxiety, panic, worry, fear.

All sort of rolled into one.

'This is insane.'

A real fight but just absolutely amazing that we managed to do it.

Diarmuid and Jenny, their ratatouille wasn't that successful

but it wasn't a write-off

and they have come up with a decent baked apple and a decent Spag Bol.

My legs are about to give way, I'm exhausted. Again.

At this cooking lark. It's harder than panto.

'It was great.

'It was manic, enjoyable, creative and very fulfilling.'

Loved it. Loved every second of it.

Well, the thing is,

now we are hurtling towards a time when we're going to lose one of them.

Right now, I can't work out who it's going to be.

Which one of these four is going to go home first?

Tomorrow night, the battle to stay in the competition continues.

That is quite an extraordinary feat.

I've never cooked fish before.

Your chicken tastes of vinegar.

Voila. As they say in Peckham.

And, for one of these celebrities, the dream is over.

The contestant leaving us...

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