Episode 17 MasterChef: The Professionals

Only an elite group of chefs holds two Michelin stars.

Michel Roux Jr is one of them.

One lamb, two fish, go.

ALL: Oui!

Now, he, Gregg Wallace and Monica Galetti are on the hunt

for Britain's next culinary superstar.

A professional with the talent to cut it in the world's top kitchens.

After four weeks of heats,

these eight chefs have made it through to the semi-finals.

Who's perfect? I don't know anybody who is,

but today hopefully I'll be able to achieve it.

Head down, give it everything. I can go all the way.

If I could knock out a few more guys and get to the final,

I'd love that.

You are our eight semi-finalists. Time for you to prove your class.

Show me how far you have improved.

Sublime food. One plate.

Don't get it wrong.

Two of you will be going.

One hour 45 minutes. Off you go!

Everything you cook has to be bang on. You can't cook anything wrong.

He sees everything, doesn't he?

Oli, I've got to confess,

the ingredients on your bench are making me smile.

-Good. Good start.

-What are you making?

I'm doing rabbit - wrapped kidneys, saddle stuffed with livers.

Summer veg and summer truffle gnocchi.

Throughout your career, how do days like this compare?

Much harder than a day in the kitchen.

I never thought I'd say that, but yeah!

-You've got a smile on your face now.

-Yes, I'm excited.

I feel like I'm going to get it right today.

Oli is stuffing his saddle,

he's giving us the lovely little racks and he's using the kidneys.

This boy knows how to cook and he's showing it off for us here today.

I just hope there's a good sauce to go with it.

15 minutes gone. An hour and a half left. I love it.

You've really got to put yourself out there

and get out of your comfort zone.

Semi-finals, so you've got to do something no-one else is going to do.

What have we got from you, Aaron?

Rosemary-smoked squab pigeon with apricots, almonds.

I'm showcasing the whole bird

and today I've got to make sure everything is spot on.

-You're the youngest chef in here.

-I know that.

It could be quite daunting,

but I'm young and fresh and I've got new ideas.

I'm probably quicker on my toes than these guys anyway.

Pigeon is a wonderful, dark meat.

A little bit gamey, but, if it's over smoked, it can be very bitter

and acrid.

The key thing for me is I've taken on board everything they've told me,

and hopefully I can put it on the plate today and show them

I have been listening.

Golden beetroot, red beetroot. What are you going to make?

Roast rack of venison with a gin and tonic jelly, caramelised

pineapple, marinated beetroots and a citrus puy lentil jus.

If you guys give me the same feedback

I'm used to getting from my own customers then I'm happy.

He's throwing everything at it.

I fear that the venison is going to be taking second place

-when it should be...

-A star!

..a star.

You've had 30 minutes.

James, explain to me what you're doing.

I'm doing crab, brown bread and butter.

If you want to tell me what you're really doing, it would be great.

I'm doing a crab salad, devilled brown meat, salad of white.

I'm not using lemon, I'm using sorrel stalks

to give the citrus flavour.

I'm doing some soda farls and making some butter.

-You're making your own bread and butter?

-I am, yes.

You are different to the others, James, aren't you?

You've got to be different to win it. Different, odd, eccentric.

There's many ways to describe me.

Chefs, we're halfway. Halfway point.

The level now, it's way above what we've produced so far.

This is where it gets really serious.

Keri, tell me your dish today, please.

A roasted piece of pollock with a fresh garden pea

and buttermilk veloute, broad bean puree and prosciutto mash.

How are you going to please the chefs?

It's going to taste amazing and just look beautiful, clean,

well presented on the plate.

You have got just 35 minutes left.

I've got to keep my head focused and just go in and do what I do.

At the end of the day, it's what I do for a living.

What are you cooking, Ross?

I'm going to do a lamb rack, shoulder of lamb

and Provencal flavours.

That's my sort of food.

I've got a nice bit of braised shoulder in there to please you,

a nice and sticky jus. Got a little bit of sweetbreads,

classical flavours to please Michel,

and a little bit of a modernist twist to try to please Monica a little bit.

-You look pumped up, is that right?

-Yes, today, I feel I found my groove.

I'm really confident and up for this.

I like the fact he's chosen lamb, because it works

so perfectly well with Provencal flavours - garlic, basil,

maybe a few anchovies in there.

Anything less and I'll be upset.

Final 20 minutes. No timing issues in the semi-finals.

You see the competition in the room and your mind plays games with you,

but once you're in that kitchen, you just block it out.

They don't exist.

Karl, what is your dish?

Marinated sea trout with creamed oysters and an oyster foam.

There's a layered, smoked sea trout terrine

and these very potent flavours with the Tabasco and lemon.

Tabasco and lemon balls with oyster three ways served with a sea trout?

You are part chef, part chemist shop! What is going on?

I want to impress you, that's it. Simple as that.

Karl's a very clever chef.

He's made little droplets of Tabasco, shallot vinegar and lemon.

Traditional accompaniments for the oyster.

He's being different and he's standing out.

Let's hope for the right reasons.

I've put my heart and soul into this.

I've just got married, I've even been doing menus on my honeymoon.

My head is a bit skew-whiff at the moment.

It's like being back on a bike again. Get on it and go for it.

What tricks are you going to pull out today to impress the judges?

Basically, it's a take on my mum's pork

and apple sauce on a Sunday, really.

It's got shards of crackling,

green beans wrapped in Parma ham, some little

roasted belly pork, pickled cherries and it's got a little Scotch egg.

It's a little bit more than your mum's roast dinner, chef, isn't it?

Knowing Anton,

there's going to be at least 25 different elements on the plate.

What's wrong with just roast pork?

-With apples.

-And scratchings!

This is your last ten minutes.

Guys, you've got just three minutes.

90 seconds.

That's it. Time is up.

First up is 21-year-old Aaron.

He has made rosemary-smoked squab pigeon with a pigeon liver

parfait, a braised pigeon cabbage parcel, apricot puree,

almonds, pan-fried girolles and a rosemary and port jus.

I love the theatre of it, Aaron, with that cloche full of smoke

and then the reveal, and then we see what's on the plate.

And I like what I see.

I think you've got the balance of flavours right.

Everything on this plate has had a lot of thought behind it.

I think you've achieved a great plate.

I think the sweetness

and slight sharpness of the apricots against the pigeon is lovely.

But I wish there were more things on my plate.

You judged the smoking of this dish bang on. You get the liver, heart.

For me, it's a very accomplished dish. Truly delicious.

I split the judges again.

I had the chefs on my side and Gregg always wanting that bit more.

But overall, I'm really happy with that.

Alec has cooked roast rack of venison,

a gin and tonic jelly, spinach, marinated beets,

caramelised pineapple and a port, lentil and orange jus.

A lot going on on that plate. A lot of skills, a lot of work.

Vegetables, beautifully cooked. Pineapple fruitiness, I like.

Excellent cooking of your venison.

What I absolutely love is the thin gin

and tonic jelly on top of those sweet, earthy beetroots.

It's got real, real bitterness to it.

I can understand venison with pineapple. Perfect, not a problem.

But, personally, I think that gin and tonic jelly spoils this dish.

The sauce looks beautiful but is far too sweet.

So many ingredients, they're going to kill the dish.

You need to know when to stop.

Maybe a couple of the flavours didn't go together

because they were too powerful.

But maybe they'll think about it a bit more and find the positives.

Contract caterer Keri has cooked roasted pollock,

prosciutto mash, a crispy prosciutto filo cracker, asparagus,

summer beans, a broad bean puree and a minted pea veloute.

Keri, I like what I'm seeing.

The pollock, nice and golden, perfectly cut,

and this little garnish here, very elegant.

Beautifully cooked pollock. It's flaking away, just as it should.

I really like that crispy prosciutto or ham that you've done on the top.

It's salty and it's a good addition to this dish.

However, you've got a broad bean puree here

and a veloute of pea flavoured with mint.

The mint is overpowering

and taking over the delicate flavour of the pollock.

I believe everything on there is cooked really, really well.

When you get a piece of ham with that fish, wa-hey!

The whole world and the whole plate comes alive.

I'm happy with what I put up. I'm not confident, but just happy.

22-year-old Oli has made a spinach and liver stuffed saddle of rabbit,

pan-fried rabbit rack and kidneys, served with truffle gnocchi,

black truffle puree, pea puree and a rabbit sauce.

That's a very nice presentation.

That's not business class, that's first-class.

The truffle you have there is just the right amount,

it's not overpowering.

The vegetables are cooked properly and it's perfectly seasoned.

And that sauce tastes almost like a liquorice stick. It's really lovely.

Job well done, son.

Almost, but not quite, for me. Your ballotine is slightly underdone.

That liver is borderline.

So near to perfection.

That's the whole point, isn't it?

To have criticism from someone that good, with that high standards?

Otherwise everyone would get through.

Ross has made spring lamb with flavours of Provence.

Lamb rack, sweetbreads, braised shoulder

in a crispy potato case served with a red pepper foam,

courgette puree, roasted aubergine and confit cherry tomatoes.

Some great butchery skills.

The bones are beautiful and clean, I like to see that.

You had me at the first bite.

It is sweet lamb with mint, a deep meaty sauce that tastes

like a good old-fashioned gravy, and you've got the shoulder in there

which is soft, fatty, well seasoned, wrapped up in crispy potato.

Very well cooked lamb, nice and pink and juicy, just as it should be.

Your little vegetables and the tomatoes

and everything else on that plate are very good.

But you billed it as Provence, and for me this is not Provence.

Provence would've needed a lot more garlic and rosemary and basil

and the list could go on.

It is really hard to try and please all of them.

Which in the end is what you've got to do.

Private chef and forager James has made a crab salad seasoned

with sorrel juice and scattered with wild flowers and herbs,

served with crab claw goujon, tartar sauce and brown farls and butter.

I'm really excited. It looks fantastic.

The star of the show, the real star, is that crab salad.

The seasoning is bang on.

And all those lovely little foraged leaves are adding more acidity,

bitterness, floral notes.

Probably one of the best crab salads I've tasted. It really is.

We make a lot of crab salads in the restaurant.

I'd happily have that there any day.

To have those compliments is... You know,

it doesn't get better than that, really.

I'm buzzing at the moment. The adrenaline is coursing.

Karl has made creamed oysters wrapped in marinated sea trout,

a smoked trout millefeuille, an oyster foam, saffron aioli

and chilli, lemon and shallot vinegar balls.

What were you thinking, Karl?

I honestly can't recall when I've seen a plate like this.

I mean, it looks like...

..a picture postcard.

Karl, there are things on this plate that I really, really love.

And others that I don't.

I really like the smoked trout mousse.

Good texture, good flavour

and those little balls that you made - clever.

But your marinated sea trout could've done probably with about

another half an hour just to firm up the flesh and give it more taste.

The froth, the oyster froth, is not bringing anything to this dish.

For me, it's not working.

I feel really disappointed that my work has been misunderstood.

I don't know.

Everything I deliver I believe in, so I took that choice

and you have to pay the consequences.

Last up is Anton.

He has cooked roast pork fillet rolled in splinters of crackling.

With apple puree, a black pudding scotch egg, pickled cherries,

green beans wrapped in Parma ham, and a pork jus.

I love the look of this plate.

I love that you've made your egg look like an apple. It looks fun.

I especially like that black pudding scotch egg,

I really like that irony yolk, with that peppery black pudding around it.

But I was scraping around for a bit more sauce for the pork.

Really nice fillet of pork, well seasoned.

I like the fact that you basted it as well.

It adds another flavour and texture. Delicious.

The cherries, soused in a bit of vinegar and mustard seeds,

and your apple - all flavour combinations that work.

I'm happy. You make little mistakes in life, but you learn from them.

That's the main thing.

Thank you, chefs. That was good cooking.

It's going to be down to the smallest of mistakes, I can feel it.

Off you go.

Well, guys, I'd hate to be in your shoes. It's going to be a tough one.

The standard today was incredibly high and, for me,

it's making this judging nigh on impossible.

Yes, it's never going to be easy, Gregg,

but on days like today, it's even tougher.

Aaron - he's a chef's chef. I quite liked the smoke.

I really didn't like the presentation.

He had half the plate empty.

Oh, no! It was good.

You had this beautiful plate of pigeon, smoked to perfection,

and delicious with the apricots.

-I loved James's crab dish. Loved it, loved it.

-It was sublime.

Above all, it showed a great palate,

because the judgement of seasoning on that crab salad was just perfect.

Let's talk about Oli. Me and Monica absolutely loved his dish.

Just delicious, delicious food.

You found mistakes in it, almost broke his heart.

His ballotine of rabbit was ever so slightly undercooked.

But Oli's sauce was absolutely superb. It was rabbit essence.

That far away from perfection.

I really liked Keri's plate of food.

The pollock had a lovely golden crust to it and it was tender

and soft. Beautifully cooked.

But the veloute for me was too strong in mint

and just really didn't enhance the fish properly.

However, that potato,

ham and vegetable ensemble was absolutely gorgeous.

Anton did lots of work. The black pudding scotch egg was a triumph.

-However, I found the dish a little dry.

-Good cooking, though.

I really enjoyed those little cherries that he'd

steeped in vinegar and mustard seed.

That added a real kick to the dish.

I think if you really give your all,

it's nice to think you might get through to the final.

If there's anyone who's going to divide a crowd, that is Alec.

Lovely venison and I loved his jelly.

I loved his gin and tonic jelly on that beetroot.

You've got a look on your face like you've just sat in a cold

-bowl of custard.

-I'd rather eat a cold bowl of custard!

But, saying that, pineapple and the venison worked.

For me, that's where he should have left it.

I was happy the way I cooked today,

but it's what they think that matters.

Ross - lamb, sweetbreads, good jus, the flavours of mint.

He had me on the first forkful.

He can cook, but the taste of Provence was not there.

I genuinely don't know if I've done enough to stay. I genuinely don't.

I don't know what Karl was trying to prove with his presentation.

It was bizarre, to say the least.

It was all good, honest flavours of the sea.

But he's trying to show everything he's got.

I think he may be losing track of the dish he's trying to create.

It was wrong on so many levels.

I should have stuck with what I know best

as opposed to reinventing the wheel.

So...yeah.

I know the people that I really like,

but I haven't got two that I want to dismiss.

Great effort. Best eight-course dinner I've ever had.

We asked for three stars and we got eight stars.

It's painful that two of you have to go. It really is.

The first chef to leave us...

..is Karl.

The second chef leaving us is...

-..Alec.

-Thank you.

It's been really challenging. It's been great, really good.

My food was on a different planet today.

It was completely different, and it didn't work.

Have to accept that.

Got married, been on a honeymoon. It's rounded off an amazing week.

Amazing. The last six. Yeah, happy days, happy days.

I'm over the moon, over the moon.

Still a bit shell-shocked at the moment. It's going to get hard.

Very hard.

Over the next three nights, the semi-finalists will go head-to-head

in some of the UK's most acclaimed Michelin-starred restaurants.

Let's make sure this is super special.

-We can't afford to mess it up.

-Take it back, it's overcooked.

I can't send it out like that.

-Just need to concentrate and get the cooking right.

-Do it again, yes?

This is killing me.

Only the best will make it to the final.

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