Episode 20 Celebrity MasterChef

We've got 16 celebrities battling it out

to win the MasterChef crown.

Everything boils down to today's two courses.

These celebrities have already made a name for themselves

in their own professions.

But can they cut it in the kitchen?

I will give it everything I've got to stay in this competition today.

Success is acceptable, you know. Failure...is not an option.

Cooking doesn't get tougher than this!

This week, these three celebrities

have been set the toughest culinary challenges they have ever faced.

Today, they will battle it out

for the two remaining places in the final eight.

Two of them make it to the top.

One goes spiralling down the plughole of cooking obscurity.

Welcome back to the MasterChef kitchen.

You're not just serving your food to me and John today.

We have invited three previous celebrity MasterChef finalists

to test your food.

This is one of those great days where, if you perform well,

you cement your place in the competition.

If you don't cook very well, guys,

sorry, but one of you is going to go home.

Ladies and gentlemen...let's cook!

The contestants have just one hour and 15 minutes

to cook a two-course menu of their own design.

They have got to pull something out that makes us go, "Wow!"

because if they don't, they might be the person that goes home.

I can remember so well how ghastly and frightening it can be in there,

so I'm really wanting to... to love it all.

I expect to see nervous people coming in,

probably some of them late, but I want good food.

Our three guest judges are tough, they are going to be brutally honest.

Guys, you've had 20 minutes!

I think the competition so far, it has been tough.

I've not felt this sort of intensity

since I played football, effectively.

I just want to keep getting better, keep improving.

It's a great opportunity today to show what I can do.

So I've got to make sure... it's as perfect as it can be.

Danny, you are working at a furious pace! What's going on?

I think I'm pushing it right to the wire.

It could go fantastically well or it could go horribly wrong.

-What are you cooking for us?

-To start with,

we've got fennel and chilli risotto with sea bass,

followed by lamb wrapped in couscous with squash puree and Savoy cabbage.

-Lamb wrapped in couscous?

-Yeah.

So like a couscous crust around the outside?

Couscous with Parma ham around the outside to hold it all in.

Mm, interesting dishes.

I'm having a go, trying to make it look great, taste good

with lots of different flavours in.

And what's at stake?

Me getting knocked out!

-Don't want to go home now?

-No.

I just want to be here as long as I possibly can now.

Danny's going North African with this lamb.

But how does the heat get through the ham and the couscous?

I'm worried the lamb will be raw.

It's revitalised my love of cooking, being here on MasterChef.

Which I...I lost it, I lost that passion,

and it's back again.

I'm discovering things all the time, so I don't know my potential yet.

Gregg and John haven't seen it,

and I certainly haven't seen it, so I think I've got more to give.

Cheryl, by the looks of your ingredients,

we are going to Southeast Asia.

Yes, we are. I love Asian food, love it.

OK, so your two dishes are...

I'm going to start with a hot and sour prawn soup,

-and then I'm going onto... What?

-Yum!

-Go on.

Yum, it's yum, and then I'm going onto sea bass.

I'm just going to pan-fry the sea bass plain

because it's going to sit on a bed of Thai-style bubble and squeak.

See, you went, "Yum," with my soup, and now you're going...

So the sea bass sits on Asian flavoured potatoes.

Yeah, you'll love it.

-Are you worried about today?

-Yeah, of course.

I've made all the dishes, I haven't done them in an hour and a quarter.

I'm not panicking, I probably will as time goes on.

Cheryl's hot and sour prawn soup, fantastic,

as long as it's hot, and I mean properly hot.

However, Asian bubble and squeak? Really?

What's that? Penang meets Peckham?

I think this competition has had a lot of smiles and laughter,

and there's been a lot of tears as well,

so it's been a real whirlwind journey for me.

-Zoe, how are you feeling?

-The kitchen just makes me so nervous!

It's just when I cook at home, I have candles lit and music on,

and then you come in here, and this is completely different.

We could dim the lights, John could sing.

-That would be lovely, have you got a nice voice?

-No.

-Maybe not, then!

-What are your two dishes today, Zoe?

I'm starting off with parsnip and parsley soup,

and then, for my main course, scallops in a champagne sauce

on a bed of garlic spicy edamame beans.

And also, with the scallops,

I'm attempting to get between 20 and 30 of them out of their shells,

which is going to be a massive task.

If you take them out of the shell as quickly as you talk,

perfect, we're going to be fine.

Zoe is surrounded by a sea of scallops,

and she's got to open up every single one,

then she's got to clean them and cook them perfectly.

That worries me.

If I don't get the dish right, you know,

I could very well be easily going home, absolutely.

Only ten minutes till that first course goes out.

There's nothing on Danny's menu that I don't like as an individual item.

I don't see the point of a chilli risotto with the sea bass.

Risotto is a meal in itself,

so to add sea bass and fennel, it's a dangerous game.

Oh!

-How long, please?

-Two minutes.

OK...let's go.

You're right on time, well done.

-Afternoon!

-Hello!

This is chilli and fennel risotto with sea bass.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

I like the simplicity of this.

The fish looks nice.

I like the colour on the fish and, erm...yeah, a good effort.

Mmm! That's gorgeous.

Lovely little crispy bits around the side.

He's cooked this fish brilliantly, seasoned it well.

It's flat, it's crispy. He's done the fish brilliantly.

The risotto doesn't add any flavour to this,

and I can't taste any chilli at all.

But the sea bass is good, very nice.

Lovely sea bass, the skin is crispy.

Really nice, soft, creamy risotto.

It's good, it just needs a bit of a punch.

It needs a punch of spice.

15 minutes on your main course, Danny.

-Are you in control?

-Yep.

-Good.

Danny's main of lamb wrapped in Parma ham with fruit couscous

sounds hideous!

I think that has the potential, actually, to be delicious,

but I'm also prepared to be horrified if it doesn't work.

-You've got two minutes, Danny.

-OK.

-Are you sure you're OK?

-Yep.

-You have to push, push, push this, Danny, please.

-Yep.

What's got to go on there now, Danny?

Just the lamb to go on top, er...

and then a little bit of sauce and we're done.

Good job, mate.

If it tastes the way it looks, we're in for a good dish.

Hello again.

We have lamb wrapped in couscous and Parma ham

on Savoy cabbage and a squash puree.

Lovely, thank you!

On paper, I thought the dish looked like a disaster.

On the plate, I think the dish looks very appetising.

I genuinely like it!

I love the cabbage, I love the sweetness of the squash.

I don't believe it! I genuinely think it works, I really like it.

I like my lamb pink, but this is a little bit too pink for me.

That's a good effort. That was quite a lot to do in the time.

He must have been working quite hard.

I love the sweetness of the sauce, the butternut squash puree.

I like the texture of the ham and the couscous, love it.

However, I want the lamb to be cooked more.

It's too pink for me.

See, this is where we slightly disagree,

I think that lamb is cooked absolutely perfectly.

It's well executed, well flavoured,

but for me it just needs a bit of spice.

I've worked hard in there, you know. It was an effort.

It wasn't easy, a bit of pressure, had a lot to do.

Hopefully...I've done enough.

Cheryl, it's ten minutes before your first course goes out.

-How are you doing?

-I'm all right, I think I'm on course.

I like hot and sour soups - it's all about balancing.

How hot, how sour, we shall see.

My biggest fear is that Cheryl is cooking Thai food for John.

He loves his Thai food. I would never have done it myself.

Come on, Cheryl, two minutes.

-Two minutes includes your plating-up time.

-Oh, I see!

-Yes.

So are you going to get it done?

-I might be 30 seconds late.

-Hurry, then.

-That's time. You're just running over now.

-OK.

Shall I just put that on top, just to...?

If that's what you want to do, but you better hurry up, mate,

-you're eating into your main-course time.

-I can't do that!

-You're going to have to hurry up, then, aren't you?

-OK.

Where am I going?

Hello!

Oh, Andy, as you're closest...

There you are. You've got hot and sour prawn soup,

but there is a slice of chilli on top if you want to take it off.

-Oh, OK.

-Thank you for the warning!

I think this looks absolutely delicious.

It's clearly seething with prawns, which is excellent.

Hmm, looking forward to it.

Not got as much heat as we'd like it to have,

but it's got a lot of flavour.

The prawns are perfectly cooked.

I mean, they could be so over the top and boiled out.

A good effort.

I think my mouth should be tingling a bit more,

that's the big difficulty.

For me, there's a balance issue with the flavours.

It doesn't have enough power, chilli heat or sourness.

It's quite salty and quite sweet.

But it seems to be missing a couple of dimensions.

We've got a decent Asian broth here, but it's not zinging.

Cheryl, you're a bit behind,

you got about ten minutes to get that main course done.

Your fish isn't on, your bubble and squeak isn't on.

You're going to have to push, push.

Just everything, right...

I'm worried about this Thai-style bubble and squeak.

Bubble and squeak are potatoes.

If you go to Thailand, you hardly ever see potatoes.

How she's going to do that I have no idea!

It'll either be, again, a fantastic fusion,

or it'll just be an attempt to try to tie them altogether with lemongrass.

You've got five minutes left before main course is supposed to go out.

-What have you got left to do?

-I've got it all to do!

-How long do you reckon, Cheryl?

-Maybe an extra two minutes, I don't know.

I reckon at least another five, you haven't even got the fish on yet.

-Why don't you tell them you'll be five minutes late?

-OK.

Hello! I'm just going to be a few minutes, is that OK?

-How many?

-Five. No panic!

Right.

Oh, that's not ready, I'm not ready yet, I'm not ready yet.

Come on, Cheryl, up a gear, please.

A bit of sauce.

-All done, Cheryl?

-Yeah, all done.

-Let's go.

HE SIGHS HEAVILY

I'm not sure.

Not sure at all.

Sorry to have kept you.

Thank you.

So you have...pan-fried sea bass

on a bed of vegetables

and sitting on top of Thai-style

bubble and squeak.

It looks good. Good effort! Yeah.

Let's see what this tastes like.

She's got well-cooked fish.

The asparagus is cooked perfectly, baby sweetcorn is cooked perfectly.

The bubble and squeak doesn't work for me,

and it's certainly not Thai bubble and squeak.

Nice sea bass... with spuds and veggies.

The Thai bit, I think it's missing a little bit.

It doesn't worry me that it's not necessarily authentic Thai,

but it might worry John and Gregg.

Cheryl has cooked the fish absolutely beautifully.

I love those Asian flavours, spring onions and chilli,

coriander, sesame seeds,

but the potato just muddles the whole thing.

It's a dish of two halves, two continents, two time zones

and too much going on for my liking.

Cor, blimey!

Oh!

That was absolute hell!

It would have been fine if I wasn't up against the clock,

so...it wasn't good for me, it wasn't good.

-Zoe, ten minutes on your first course.

-Thank you.

Zoe's starter, parsnip and parsley.

There's something missing, there's got to be something else there.

I make a lot of parsnip soup, and I put all sorts of things in.

There may be more to it than meets the eye.

Zoe's soup is going to have to, as Gregg would say,

"Come out of the bowl and give me a hug," for it to make any impression.

Three minutes on your first course.

Are you OK?

Yeah...

Stay focused, Zo. You're doing fine, mate.

-That's it, time is up. They've got to go, Zoe.

-OK.

-Plates got to go.

-Literally just a garnish of parsley.

OK, let's go, let's go, let's go!

-Hello, good afternoon!

-Hello.

Erm... This is my starter,

which is a parsnip and parsley soup.

-I hope you enjoy, thank you very much!

-Thank you.

Mmm!

It looks pretty thick for a soup.

You could almost turn the bowl upside down,

but it might be delicious, we'll see.

It's a liquidised parsnip that's what it is.

It's like...baby food, it's that consistency.

It's the kind of thing that gives me nightmares.

It's the other end of the scale, too, it's geriatric food.

And I'm not there yet!

The parsnip is there, the parsley is there, but it's...

I could not eat, I simply couldn't eat that whole bowlful,

I, erm...I couldn't.

The look doesn't help,

and then the taste doesn't actually finish off for you,

so I'm afraid, Zoe, it didn't work. Never mind.

It's very, very sweet, thick parsnip soup.

Very sweet, very sweet.

A bit too sweet for me.

It's a very, very thick soup - it's almost a vegetable puree.

It's just a big sweet bowl of greenness.

Zoe, 15 minutes to go - you've got sauce to do, scallops to finish off.

Yeah, I'm going to have to focus and get it done. It has to be done.

Scallops in a champagne sauce on a bed of edamame beans.

I like my edamame, I like it a lot.

I can't picture it with scallops and a champagne sauce. I just can't picture it.

It's an odd combination. Fingers crossed.

-Zoe?

-Yeah.

-Are all your scallops opened now?

-Yeah, we're done.

How long do you think?

I think I will run five minutes over.

-It's the end of time now.

-I know it's not good, I'm...

-Don't worry, just need to know how long you will to be.

-Em...

-No more than ten minutes.

-Do you want to tell them you'll be 10 minutes late?

-Yeah, thank you.

Hi, guys, em...

Sorry, you can probably tell by the state of my apron,

I making a real mess out there, I'm sorry to have to say

that it's going to be about ten minutes late, the main course.

-Ten minutes?!

-I know, it's really not ideal,

and I will get it out to you ASAP. Thank you.

-Sauce?

-Yeah, the sauce is nearly finished.

Get those scallops on, get that moving.

Otherwise our three guests, our judges, will be going home.

Yeah, I know. I'm really not happy about it.

-Done, Zo?

-Yeah, I just... I'm literally cleaning the plate.

Like, literally one minute.

-Come on, Zo.

-I know. It's, like, totally not centralised.

Em, firstly, I would really sincerely like to apologise

for how late this is.

I said ten minutes, it's probably like 15.

But what I have attempted to make

is scallops in a champagne sauce

on a bed of dry roasted chilli garlic edamame beans.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

I mean, I'm no MasterChef winner, as we know!

-But I could have cooked this

-in

-ten minutes.

The scallop is cooked really well.

I like the beans, I like the very sort of rustic...

There's a great chilli hit,

but I'd rather have had a good old-fashioned pee puree.

All in all, erm... the beans didn't work for me.

I didn't like the texture of them,

and the sauce didn't particularly work, but I like her scallops.

It's a really nicely cooked scallop,

and the champagne gives a little bit of acidity

and sweetness to the scallop.

But the edamame, those little soya beans,

are dry and tough, like chewing fingernails.

It's a weird texture sensation.

So relieved, em...that... I did get it done,

but obviously way over time, which is not good at all.

Our three celebs today knew they had to perform

if they wanted to cement their place in the competition.

Can we just talk about Danny first?

Danny cooked very well, worked extremely hard

and had two very elegant dishes.

The fish cooked beautifully, skin lovely and crisp,

the rice cooked really, really well, but I wanted a bit more of a punch.

His second course, that lamb, was absolutely brilliant.

Huge amounts of work, well delivered.

There is no denying Danny's skill,

head and shoulders above the girls today.

That man marches himself through to the final eight.

That's agreed, Danny stays in the competition.

This is a debate between the two ladies - Cheryl and Zoe.

I'm a bit disappointed with Cheryl today.

I got a hot and sour soup

that was sweet,

but it needed a whack of chilli to be properly exciting.

The sea bass, cooked beautifully,

but the issue for me was the potato.

Asian flavours in no way matched

the flavours and textures of a bubble and squeak.

It was East meets West, and it wasn't successful.

I'm really enjoying myself on MasterChef, I don't want to go home,

it's not my time yet.

But if Gregg and John think it is my time, then, you know, bye-bye.

Zoe's two courses were from her own imagination.

Two dishes you would not see in a cookbook.

The first course was a parsnip and parsley soup.

The texture was like baby food,

and the flavour was really sweet of parsnip,

not balanced very well.

The main course from Zoe, she cooked the scallops really well.

I liked the flavouring on the edamame,

but they were a bit dry, a little bit rubbery.

Today, Zoe got herself in a real tizz,

and as a result her dish was hopelessly late.

Cheryl was late as well - not as late as Zoe, but late is late.

I know I could do better, and, yeah, someone does have to go,

but I haven't actually even thought about it.

Both of them have made mistakes.

But both of them have also impressed throughout the competition,

so...which one leaves us?

Our decision has to be based upon the competition as a whole,

but very much upon the food that you've cooked for us today.

It's been tough, but we've made that decision.

The person leaving us is...

..Zoe. Sorry, Zo.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you very much for the opportunity.

-Thank you. Well done, guys.

-Well done, Zo.

Do you know what? I am really happy that I had the experience.

And I don't think I could have done any better.

So, I really honestly am happy,

and I'm thrilled for Danny and Cheryl.

I feel amazing. I can't believe that I got through,

I absolutely can't believe it.

It's serious now.

I've got to do a proper job if I want to stay in this competition,

and I do.

Getting through to the final, it's great, you know.

But again already my head is racing.

It's ridiculous. You know, food is starting to take over my life.

Now it's down to the last eight, it's going to get really tough.

-Well done!

-Cheers, well done, you.

-Cheers.

-Thank you, guys.

Next week, Cheryl and Danny will join the other six celebrities

who have made it through

as the fight for the title intensifies.

You've got something special, always knew you did.

That's superb.

That vanilla essence is now making it taste like soup.

The two celebrities leaving us are...

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd