Episode 23 MasterChef: The Professionals

Only an elite group of chefs holds two Michelin stars.

-Michel Roux Jr is one of them.

-One lamb, two fish.

-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.

Ca c'est fait.

It's the final week of the competition.

And Oli, Keri and Anton are the last three chefs remaining.

When you're in the final three, you're going to put a lot of work

into what we've actually got to do, and a lot of time.

So, realistically, you know, I'd love to win it.

But it's going to be very hard to get there.

Ultimately, all of us are here to win it.

I've just got to give it everything I've got,

every day I'm here, you know?

It has been mentally and physically demanding.

But now I won't give up until that last dish is plated.

It's still all to play for.

The village of Bray is in rural Berkshire.

17 years ago, an unknown and untrained chef

called Heston Blumenthal opened a restaurant here

that has gone on to change the face of gastronomy for ever.

The Fat Duck.

What set Blumenthal apart was his obsession

with questioning the accepted rules of cooking and dining.

And in breaking and rebuilding those rules,

food would never be the same again.

Using tools that had never been seen in the kitchen before,

he introduced menus with bizarre sounding dishes

that challenged the senses but delighted diners.

It brought a global spotlight to this quiet village.

Within eight years of opening,

the restaurant was awarded a coveted third Michelin star.

And in 2005 it was named the best restaurant in the world

by Restaurant magazine.

A generation of chefs, a culinary language

and an entire new technical discipline

based on stimulating the senses continues to be defined

by what goes on inside these walls.

The Fat Duck has contributed a huge amount to the food culture

and the way we think and the way we cook.

Great British food has always been fantastic.

The Fat Duck has just taken it to a whole new level.

When I got one star, I went to the Fat Duck just after they got two.

And that was a turning point in my life.

It opened up so many doors in this country.

And so many people have been driven by what Heston's achieved.

When you go there, you might go with preconceptions,

thinking I'm about to have tricks played on me.

But then you sit there and eat the food, and it tastes fantastic.

When the history books are written,

I think it will show that the kitchen at the Fat Duck is the source

of more creative and more inventive food than anywhere else in Britain.

Today, Heston Blumenthal continues to push forward

these culinary boundaries.

Along with his head chef, Jonny Lake,

and head chef of the development kitchens, Jocky Petrie.

We're trying to take the guests away from an average,

run-of-the-mill experience meal.

We're taking them out of their comfort zone.

Places they've never been to before.

Or places they want to revisit.

And these dishes hopefully conjure up that experience.

One of the most important principles that we work by is that whatever

we're serving to the guest has to taste good and it has to make sense.

Even if it looks amazing and it smokes and steams,

unless it has a purpose, and it tastes good, we won't do it.

Because there's no point.

Pretty much every chef that I know would love to swap places

with me right now.

But they're not going to get the chance!

It's not a normal three star, you know.

It's a three star with something extra that you've never seen.

So it's completely new to me,

and I'm just really excited about taking everything in, really.

I wouldn't say excited. I had more to say, like, super, super nervous.

Our reputation is on the line with having these guys in the kitchen.

They're going to have to produce the goods.

These kitchens are rarely opened to outsiders.

But today the finalists have been invited to witness

some of the restaurant's iconic techniques.

All right, guys, this is going to be your first masterclass of the day.

Jonny is showing them scallops

with birch syrup, bergamot, and Coral Royale.

One scallop is pan-seared and the other isn't quite what it seems.

Why I want to show the scallop dish

is because it has a number of elements in it

and techniques that kind of define what we do.

So they get a really good idea of our style of cooking.

We're going to make a fluid gel, what we call a fluid gel,

out of caramelised onion water.

OK?

A fluid gel, you know,

that's a technique that we developed probably over ten years ago now.

To just make a better puree.

We make the caramelised onion water, by slicing onions,

placing them in a sous vide bag.

-And we cook them at 85 degrees for 96 hours.

-96 hours!

By the end of it, the onions are pretty much finished.

And just by hanging it, you end up with that.

A tiny amount of gelling agent is added to the hot onion water.

And it's blended as it cools.

Just going to show you one little trick here.

To make the gel even smoother,

it goes into a vacuum machine which sucks out any remaining air bubbles.

OK. So you can see now all the air bubbles are out.

We've got our nice dark caramelised onion colour back. OK?

The real scallop is precision-cooked in the pan.

To make the mock scallop, a cooked daikon radish cylinder

is filled with a blend of scallop roe, Bergamot, grape seed and sesame oil,

and dipped in glazed sesame seeds and Japanese panko breadcrumbs.

Now that's ready to toast up in the pan.

All plating, whether I do it, you do it, or anyone else,

the guests should always get the same thing.

It's very important to us. OK?

-What do you think of that?

-That's amazing.

-Beautiful.

Whoar!

-That's amazing.

-It's really good.

But you've still got the scholar, and it tastes like the ocean as well.

Awesome.

-That is well nice!

-Thanks.

-Welcome, guys. So ready for the masterclass?

-Yes.

The masterclass dish we're going to show them

is the take on a quintessential great British picnic.

It's macerated strawberries, with an Earl Grey tea ice cream

and strawberry jelly.

We're trying to evoke memories of a Great British summer

with the addition of the biscuit or the scone,

the strawberries, the cream.

The picnic blanket and the edible flowers.

All looking very pretty but very nostalgic.

The picnic blanket is made from white chocolate,

which gets its check pattern from an edible transfer.

OK. You see how thin this is? That's really key.

It shows a bit of skill.

So next up, we're going to macerate the strawberries.

The fresh strawberries are spritzed with orange blossom water

and then coated in chamomile and fructose.

These flavourings are then drawn into the strawberry

using another technique originated in these kitchens.

So you place the strawberries into the vac pack machine.

And what's going to happen in there when I close it,

I'm going to pull all the air that is present in the vacuum machine,

and what's going to happen, it's going to break the cell walls of the strawberry.

And it's going to mix them with the fructose and the chamomile,

and when the vacuum finishes,

it's going to be pulled back into the strawberry.

Take a smell.

To finish the dish, a shortbread biscuit

topped with a soft olive oil and white chocolate ganache

is sprinkled with pistachios and freeze-dried raspberries.

What we're going to do now, because we want the blanket

to look more like a blanket, so we want it to fold over.

So we take the blowtorch, ever so slightly.

The blanket will fold over our ganache. OK?

All right?!

Finally, the Earl Grey tea ice cream is churned in seconds

using one of the restaurant's most iconic techniques.

Liquid nitrogen.

So we just half fill the cone with jelly.

We're going to put Mr Whippy ice cream on top. OK?

So then we have our jelly

and ice cream cone served with our macerated strawberry picnic.

Brilliant. Let's dive in! Let's have a munch.

Pretty good!

-It's like when you first pick a strawberry from a field.

-Yes.

I can't stop smiling!

Dishes like these are the result of ongoing experimentation

in three separate development kitchens.

A dish will take anywhere between six months to two years

to get from concept to getting onto the menu. So it's a lengthy process.

Young chefs from around the world clamour to be part of the evolution of the menu.

So these are different fish in the samples.

-I think it's cod, salmon and swordfish.

-Incredible.

-Yeah.

You know it's a playground, to walk round the kitchen.

And we love doing that, enjoy doing that.

And that's what you want to encourage young guys as well,

not to play with your food but just question it and enjoy it.

It's delicious.

It challenges me every day.

You are constantly looking for something new

and not resting on its laurels.

Absolutely, I feel lucky to work here.

Oli, Keri and Anton are now being given their own chance

to experiment with ingredients from the restaurant's larder.

They each have an hour and 15 minutes to cook a main course

and a dessert.

This is a very good test

because it's very similar to the test that we do for the chefs

at the Fat Duck when they're coming for an interview

and for a job.

I hope they kind of experiment a bit.

And, you know, if it's something they haven't done before...

..then I hope they have the courage to just try something new.

This is going to be the toughest challenge for me in the competition.

I'm a very classical, earth person, and this is more about, you know,

putting liquid nitrogen in peas and, yeah, going for it, really.

I'm going to do mackerel

and gooseberries with a kind of garden salad.

And then for dessert, I'm doing a take on Peach Melba.

I'm going to use the processes of how they cook stuff

and how the elements will work with it to make this dish, basically.

I don't know if it's going to work, but I'll just try my hardest.

I'm doing lamb with some summer veg and a tomato fluid gel.

And then for the dessert I'm doing like a fruit salad.

A lot of it is a bit of an experiment, to be honest.

But I'm going to try and nail these techniques and if I don't, I don't.

I've never done it before, so I haven't really got anything to lose.

I'm going to do a piece of salmon which has been water bathed

then sealed, with a cucumber and gooseberry fluid gel.

Pickled melon and candied onion seeds.

And dessert is still a work in progress!

I'm taking a lot of risks.

There's a lot of things that I haven't done. Hopefully I can pull it off.

Oh!

Anton has devised a dish of mackerel, cooked sous vide,

with mackerel ceviche, pickled gooseberries,

pickled radishes and shallots, and tomato seeds.

It's a pretty nice-looking plate.

There's a lot of colour there, which is good. Maybe a little too busy.

But we'll see how it tastes.

I like the pickled veg. I think it goes well with the fish.

The gooseberries, the freshness there, the acidity.

It's really, really good. It's the highlight of the dish, for sure.

I'm very impressed. It's not too over-complicated,

and on the time that was given to you, I think you've done very well.

Anton's pudding is mascarpone cheese with sweet-and-sour peaches.

Raspberry snow made with liquid nitrogen,

caramelised hazelnuts and popcorn.

Wow! It's definitely fresh raspberry going on there. Love it.

The acidity is brilliant. It's great to find that in a dessert,

because sometimes it can get too heavy, too creamy.

You've got the cream aspect in there from the mascarpone cream.

Bang, the raspberry is cutting right through there. I love it.

I was a bit apprehensive about the popcorn. But it really does work.

-Yeah, really good dish.

-Thank you very much. Thank you.

-Did pretty well.

-I think so.

This guy was under immense pressure and he's delivered the goods.

I'm a bit kind of like relieved now,

because it was a massive amount of pressure trying to do that.

And yeah, it was good fun. Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

The first time I've made a sorbet with liquid nitrogen, definitely!

Exciting stuff.

I don't know if it's good enough to put in front of three star chefs,

but hopefully better than my mum's fruit salad!

Oli has made lamb cooked in a water bath, served with summer veg.

He has used the technique

Jonny demonstrated in his masterclass

to make a spicy tomato fluid gel.

Looking at it, the fluid gel looks a little grainy,

but we'll taste it and we'll see.

The lamb is really well cooked. You've done a really good job there.

The fluid gel actually didn't feel as grainy as it looked.

But I found just the Tabasco a bit strong, a bit peppery.

But, yeah, well done.

I particularly like your presentation.

It looked very simple. Just I wanted more tomato fluid jelly.

There's nice acidity in there, but I want more of it on the plate.

Oli's dessert is a fruit salad

with strawberries macerated with mint sugar in a vacuum machine,

compressed melon and a strawberry sorbet with an almond crumb.

I'm loving the strawberries. The strawberries taste really good.

I love the way you used the fructose

and then the freshness of the mint in there.

The sorbet, intense colour, lovely flavour. It's a really good dish.

-Have you had fun?

-I was pleased that I managed to do some of the stuff that you show me.

So you know I was taking something from it, I've learned something.

-Excellent. Well, there's more to come!

-Good!

-Thank you.

Yeah, I learned quite a lot today. More than you could imagine, really.

The whole day is completely different to anything I do, you know.

I feel like, you feel like you can't cook again.

It's a bit of a weird feeling. But it's kind of nice at the same time.

Oh!

I'm trying to achieve a gel which I can pipe on a plate.

But there's too much acid in the gooseberries,

which is stopping it from actually setting.

You've got to push yourself,

but you don't know whether it's going to work or not.

Makes you feel sick, actually!

SHE GROANS

For her first dish,

Keri has created salmon cooked sous vide, with pickled melon,

cucumber flowers and cucumber and gooseberry fluid gel

with candied onion seeds.

The plating on the salmon, I really like it.

-It's very clean, very pretty.

-Thank you.

For a first attempt at cooking fish in a water bath,

I think you did a good job.

I really like the fluid gel.

What I really like about it is the black onion seeds in there.

I think they come through really well.

Given the constraints of it, and cooking in that kitchen,

I think it's very good.

-Thank you.

-Yeah.

For dessert, Keri has made a chocolate and star anise ice cream

using liquid nitrogen.

Served with a cherry jelly and an almond crumble.

I get a real big bang of chocolate and star anise,

which is delicious. I think it goes really well.

I also like the way you've made a really smooth ice cream.

I think the highlight of the dish is the ice cream you have in the centre of the plate.

Thanks.

Together, the two dishes, I think you've really shown

a particular style that is kind of common between each

in terms of presentation and very clear flavours.

-And yeah, I like your style.

-Thank you.

It was really tough in there today, really, really tough.

I had a lot of low points.

But I feel so happy! I really do.

Thanks very much for today, guys. You should be proud of yourselves.

You did a very good job today,

considering the task that was given to you.

Now we've got an even greater challenge for you.

We're going to train you to work service in our restaurant.

This has never, ever happened before.

So this is a big, big ask, from both sides.

So I hope you take on the challenge.

You're wearing the Fat Duck apron tomorrow.

I need you looking like Fat Duck chefs. OK?

So the two guys, I need you to show up clean-shaven tomorrow. OK?

And you look like everyone else.

So thank you very much, and we'll see you tomorrow.

Thank you very much.

That's insane. They're insane to entrust us to do that.

If I had three stars and some random people

walked into my kitchen, I wouldn't let them do it.

I suppose this is what's expected of working in a three-star kitchen.

Good luck, mate.

See you later.

-Morning, Anton.

-Morning, chef.

-How are you?

-Very good, thank you.

-Ready for today?

-Yeah.

Anton is responsible for the first dish on the menu.

The savoury lollies, I think what we wanted to do there was

recreate something that is quite internationally recognisable.

But obviously with different flavours.

The first one we are going to put on is the salmon twister.

On the inside we have got cured and tea-smoked salmon,

and then on the outside, we've got two mousses,

the white one is horseradish and the green one is avocado.

It's a very unique dish, it's a very quirky dish,

but it works because it looks good.

This is the chicken liver parfait feast.

Inside is a chicken liver parfait dipped in a fig gel.

We're going to coat it with roasted and chopped almond and coconut.

A lot of things can go wrong in making them.

The set has to be right, the flavours have to be right.

There's so many little things that could go wrong.

Perfectly in line.

This is the Waldorf salad rocket.

So from bottom to top, it's apple, celery and grape, and walnut.

OK?

And I think they just have to look so perfect

because they're just out there all on their own.

Anton's second dish is the Sound Of The Sea.

Not only does the dish looks and taste like a beach scene,

but it recreate the sound of actually being at the seaside.

I think the Sound Of The Sea definitely is the ultimate

multi-sensory dish.

It's something in the late '90s, Heston started thinking about,

you know, considering as many different senses that you can.

Hearing, touch, sight, all of these things,

altering the guest's perception of what they are eating.

The base of the dish is inedible sand made from misa-infused

tapioca flour.

Topped with lemon and lime coriander cured mackerel.

Seaweed and Rooibos tea-cured halibut and grilled abalone.

A range of delicate seaweeds are placed amongst the fish.

This is sea jelly bean.

These come from the southern coast of Cornwall.

A woman named Anne picks them for us and sends them to us every day.

And it is finished with ponzu dressing and seaweed

and shiitake mushroom foam.

When it actually comes time to go, it's the final foam on the plate.

If it's not right and it starts to collapse,

it's a very difficult dish to clean and start again.

That's the dish you're going to be doing. Think you can do it?

-Yes, chef.

-Great.

The taste of the sea is close to my heart.

I live near the beach, and it's part of my life, so loads of pressure,

loads of mison plas, but I'm looking forward to that dish because it's me.

-Morning, chef.

-Morning, Keri. How are you?

-I'm well, thank you.

For service, you're going to be responsible for two dishes.

I'm going to show you now the first one, the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

The dish is full of references to Alice In Wonderland.

The Mad Hatter, the gold pocket watch and the Mock Turtle.

At a basic level, it's soup and a sandwich,

but the dish is anything but simple.

That's a dish that came from a lot of different loves of Heston.

He's fascinated with Lewis Carroll

and the whole Alice In Wonderland story.

The sandwich is made from perfect squares of bread

filled with egg yolk, mustard and cucumber,

egg-white mayonnaise with truffle oil, chives and smoked anchovies.

OK?

Black truffle and sherry reduction, and toast,

spread with bone marrow and home-made ketchup.

-When everything's ready together, you cut the sandwich and we go.

-OK.

At the base of the mock turtle soup is an egg shape

made from turnip and swede and studded with gnocchi mushrooms.

It's surrounded by pickled vegetables,

diced ox tongue and truffle.

You can see the kind of precision in terms of plating.

I mean, this is just one. Hopefully you don't have shaky hands.

The consomme is made by adding a stock-filled golden pocket watch to hot water.

That's got to be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

-It's just beautiful.

-It's quite pretty.

-Yeah.

One extra little bit you're going to do

which the guests would get directly after the mock turtle dish

will be aerated beetroot.

These small morsels are made from whipped concentrated beetroot juice,

which is then dried to a crispy texture.

At the last minute, they're filled with a horseradish cream.

OK. Nice shape. I take the top half

and just kind of squish them together.

Push down, so it just starts to come out of the sides a little bit.

They do not last very long. You've got a couple of minutes there

to finish it off and serve it.

After that, it'll start to disintegrate.

-It's going to be amazing today, absolutely amazing.

-Excited?

I'm so excited, I'm like a small child. Yeah, I'm really excited.

Perfect.

-Morning, Oli.

-Morning.

-How are you?

You're going to be in charge today of the two desserts.

This is the BFG,

Heston Blumenthal's take on the classic Black Forest gateau.

The BFG took us two years to create from the point of the idea

to the point where we're serving it now.

There are nine layers to this complex dessert.

Including a crispy almond base, sponge, aerated chocolate

and chocolate ganache and mousses.

This gateau, in total, is a two day process. So do not touch the gateau.

The gateau is carefully placed onto a base of cherry jam

and cocoa pieces.

It's topped with a cherry and knotted vanilla pod,

and then cherry puree is piped down the side of the cake.

One line, all the same thickness, all the way down. It's really important.

If that's not done right, you've got to start over again,

and that means doing everything again.

And the last element is a rocher, or scoop, of kirsch ice-cream.

They all have to be the same size, they also have to look beautiful,

so it's like an egg shape, they've got a point towards the end.

And that's very much down to the chef.

We have no machines that can make that.

You're also going to be responsible for the final curtain, and that's the whisky wine gum.

The inspiration for the whisky wine gums

came from the actual wine gums you get in the store.

We thought, well, they haven't got alcohol in them,

so we thought, well, why don't we make them with alcohol?

There's four flavour profiles in whisky, there's the smoky, floral,

peaty and spicy.

These flavours are represented in five whisky wine gums

from Scotland and America.

All must be delicately placed on a map just before serving.

It's the bottle neck down first and the rest to follow.

We take that to the pass, and that is served to the guest.

Everything's just another step that what you'd usually do,

just more detail, more elements. Yeah, it's pretty serious.

Some of the restaurant's dishes can take up to a week to prep.

And there are 40 chefs working to produce the food for just 42 covers.

Almost one chef per customer.

Today, service is for specially invited guests.

And the finalists will be responsible for preparing

some of the key elements to these dishes.

Anton's starting on his savoury lollies.

Removing the chicken parfait from the moulds is a painstaking process.

They are then shaped and dipped in fig jelly.

I need to make sure they're all regimental and all exactly the same.

I had a cup of tea, didn't I? That's the worst, the caffeine in it.

It's already made my hands go.

Next, he starts on the coating to his salmon Twister lollies.

The horseradish cream and avocado mousse.

Whoa, no way...

See, I told you if I drink tea, I get really shaky hands.

No-one believes me.

Carrie is making the mock eggs for the Mad Hatter's tea party.

She's putting swede and turnip juice into moulds.

The eggs are made.

I don't think anyone's ever been so happy about filling a mould before!

Oli has his work cut out with the nine-layered Black Forest gateau.

At the base is a layer of crunchy praline

which is topped with apricot gel.

The next layer is a chocolate ganache

topped with aerated chocolate that has to be precision-cut to size.

At the heart of the dessert is a sponge square filled with a cherry

and surrounded by white chocolate mousse.

The final layer of the cake requires a different kind of chef white.

All right, Oli, that looks great.

There's definitely a vast improvement on before.

Carrie now has to wrap the concentrated beef stock pocket watches with gold leaf.

It's actually really hard.

If you breathe too close, obviously, it goes everywhere.

OK, that's good.

Just another 28 to go.

-Thanks for that.

-No worries.

With an hour to go before service,

Anton is prepping for his Sound Of The Sea dish.

He's made the edible sand and is now working on the fish.

I'm just finishing grilling off the abalone

for part of the Sound Of The Sea. So there's the abalone,

halibut and the mackerel.

I'm nervous, but I think nervous is always a good way to feel.

It just means you care about what you're doing, doesn't it, really?

So far, good job.

Apart from that one you just did there. That's all right.

And that one there as well, haha!

It's 12:30pm, and the first diners are due to arrive.

The service at the Fat Duck has to be impeccable

and has to meet timing standards, precision, consistency, perfection.

And knowing that there are going to be people involved there

that haven't done this before, it's, yeah,

it's going to be a challenge for us.

Right, guys, first tables are in.

OK, first checks will be coming through soon, so stand by.

You're ready, you're confident with your dishes.

It's going to the smooth, right?

-ALL:

-Yes, chef.

-All right.

I have for you an aperitif and I will be using liquid nitrogen.

-196 degrees Celsius.

I use egg white with vodka, lime juice and green tea.

From the very first thing the guest gets on the menu,

there's the sight and there's the smell and there's the touch

and there's the taste. So hopefully these contestants

are going to produce the food and capture the magic

of the Fat Duck for our guests.

I would ask you then to pick it up gently and have it all in one go.

Fantastic, isn't it?

-All right, Anton, I need four lollies.

-Yes, chef.

OK, gentle as you're picking them up.

Keep the seam of the lollies towards the back, all right?

That's it. OK, let's go. Feast.

It's all very fiddly jobs,

but that's what makes this place so amazing, really,

it's the attention to detail in every little dish.

All even, remember, all even? This is a bit high.

-OK, well done, Anton.

-Thank you, chef.

Start getting ready on three more.

So here we have savoury lollies.

-It's a salad.

-Haha! It's a salad on a stick!

What your eyes are telling you is something different

than what your tastebuds are telling you.

Mm, this is really good.

-Just the one bite.

-Yeah!

-GIGGLING

My hands are OK today.

I've got the gods on my side or something like that, I reckon.

A little bit quicker now, Anton, OK.

Remember, we're melting as we're going here, OK? So let's go.

Let's bring them to the pass, let's go.

OK.

Oh, a Feast.

Oh, this is the favourite. I've had it before and I love it.

What this is is brilliantly clever, fun and it tastes delicious.

They mess with your mind in here, don't they?

All right, Anton, first table's cleared of the lollies.

-So these need to go in five minutes.

-Yes, chef.

-Am I going to see them in five minutes, yeah?

-Yes, chef.

-OK.

Yeah, this is the dish that's got a lot more elements,

a lot more thought. I need to put my head down and concentrate, really.

-How long do you need?

-Two minutes, chef.

Are we almost there, Anton, cos we're late now.

-You told me tonight minutes, yeah? That's not two minutes.

-Sorry, chef.

I need one more jelly bean here.

That's it. OK, foam, let's go.

Down the plate, just touched the side, OK?

OK, service, please.

It's trying to remember everything. I could have been quicker,

but I'd rather have it right than wrong, really.

Have a lovely journey to the seaside.

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

WAVES CRASH

Monica's definitely on her little island.

I don't want to open my eyes and see you two.

-Now you're getting it.

-Right, chef.

-OK. Let's go, please.

Last four, Anton. Right?

That's it. Next one.

Just here. Careful now.

OK. You happy with those? OK. Let's go.

Right. That's it. Well done.

Thank you very much, chef.

It's just like a work of art.

You just look at it and think...

a little picture.

Mmm.

There's so much work that's gone on here in the techniques,

the different cookings of the seafood.

Anton has done an amazing job with this. Absolutely amazing.

Can you hear me cos my waves are quite loud?

OK, Keri. Start plating your first four.

-How long do you need?

-I think I need at least another two minutes.

-Two minutes?

-Yes, please.

-Actually, chef, I would say four minutes.

-Four minutes?

-Yes, please. Sorry.

-OK.

It's just about concentration,

getting everything in the right place and quickly.

-Just sandwiches now, Keri?

-Yes, chef.

-Keri, the next three are away.

-OK, chef.

-How long do you need now?

-Three minutes, please, chef.

-Three minutes. Maximum three minutes?

-Yes.

The only concern I have is just speed.

Her plating's really beautiful. It's accurate.

It's just we need to go now.

Fantastic.

I have some watches.

These watches belong to the Hatter, just like in the story.

Magic.

Chef, there's a problem with these eggs.

-You've had them in the heater too long, OK?

-OK.

-I'm going to get you some help to catch up now, cos this is going to put you behind. OK?

-OK.

Get rid of those, put them aside and get some more in the drawer. OK?

I'm all right. I'm all right. I just like things to be right.

That's it. I just like things to be right.

OK. Five now, Keri. Please.

-We need them just like the first ones. OK?

-Yes, chef.

-Keep calm. OK?

Let's go, please.

Whilst drinking your cup of tea, we have sandwiches for you.

So drink your tea, enjoy your Victorian toast sandwiches.

-You'll be having a Mad Hatter's tea party.

-Excellent.

This is a stunningly, brilliantly clever thing. It's beautiful.

Mmm!

I don't know what it is, but it's delicious.

So much flavour.

Makes your head burst.

Hmm.

Very clever.

There's a sort of technique and skill that's gone into this.

Keri's done herself proud.

That's perfect. OK, Keri? Perfect.

Just like that, I need three more now. OK?

Aerated beetroot with horseradish cream.

Please take them with your fingers and enjoy them all in one go.

Wow.

Just a bit more pressure when you go down, OK?

That's it. Perfect.

-Oh!

-LAUGHTER

It's like a party in my mouth.

But really!

-Happy with that?

-Yeah, very happy.

-OK. Let's go.

What've we got here?

I feel ecstatic right now. It's over!

HE CHUCKLES

I said I'd still be smiling at the end of service, so I am.

I'm happy. Yeah.

Right, Oli. Let's go. We're ready for the first table of desserts.

So that's going to be table eight. That's four BFGs.

-Yup.

-So let's get going.

-How long?

-Five minutes, chef.

-Got to be faster than that.

Less than five minutes. Go. Go. It's not going to be five minutes.

-All right, Oli. You've got two minutes. Let's go.

-Yup.

Fix the hole.

-Chef, how long for the first four?

-First four coming in one minute.

-One minute. OK. Thank you.

-Let's go, Oli. Let's go. Let's go.

Right. You get the ice cream. I'm going to put these on the tray.

Are you ready? Are you ready? Is the rochers ready? What's going on?

-Two of them aren't good enough.

-Two?

-Yeah.

-Let's go. I need four. I need four.

-Yep.

OK. We've got another four BFG. Right. Now we're in trouble.

Right. Now we have another two BFG.

OK. We're nine BFGs away.

-Still no good. Still no good. Start putting the first two on.

-Yup.

Put the first two rochers there. There's your plate. There's your spoon.

Mmm.

BFG. Black Forest gateau with kirsch ice cream...

and the scent of the Black Forest.

There's no words for this one. That is just amazing.

-Is it just two now?

-We need 13.

-13 all that once?

-13 all at once. Come on.

We're going too slow here. OK?

Can you start getting the BFGs on these plates right now.

Get on the rochers. The rochers. Three rochers. Quick as you can, please.

Nice.

Oh. You'll have to change that. Change that. Change that.

OK, Oli. Let's get that one on.

This is not like your 1980s Black Forest gateau, is it?

It is not.

Oh, it's fantastic.

-How are you doing for the two rochers, Oli?

-I think I've got two.

-Perfect. Do you want to get them on?

-Yep.

-OK. That's the last four.

-Yep.

-Well done. Service.

Mmm.

Let's be fair, Oli has made an absolutely stunner of a dessert.

That's a beautiful thing.

The best Black Forest gateau I've ever, ever eaten.

It does look very easy, but obviously,

if you don't get them on straight, you'll leave a print on the glass.

So that's obviously another thing.

-Are you happy with those?

-Yup.

-OK.

There's the check. Let's get them out.

Each gum, let it melt on your tongue to have all the different flavour.

Adult sweets, aren't they, them?

You definitely shouldn't give them to children.

We're almost there. Last table to go.

-All looking good. Let's get it out.

-Yep.

Service, please.

We're busy getting drunk on our little whisky gums.

On our whisky gums, that's right.

For somebody who doesn't like whisky,

this is really quite fun, actually. That's what I feel.

Oh...! The Highlands.

-MONICA:

-I like the Highlands.

I think Oli must have had great fun making these.

I think that is very clever. Very clever.

We could have made it easier on ourselves, to be honest.

We could have given them simpler dishes.

But I think these are the ones that really kind of show people

what we're trying to do.

I think they did well. It was a big, big ask to do that.

So they got it out, and everything looked as it should.

That's all I can ask.

One of the ethoses behind the Fat Duck is having fun

and enjoying the work. But they're under immense pressure as well at the same time.

So they must be hopefully feeling quite satisfied.

When you come out of it at the end,

you definitely have got a big grin on your face.

You know how much you've seen. You probably don't appreciate how much you've learnt until you leave.

I just can't wait to get back to work and see how I've changed.

It's an amazing experience. How many people get to come here and work?

We've actually got to go straight into the kitchen and do service and cook their food.

That's a massive task for any chef.

Yeah, I'm happy, really happy of how it went today.

'I'm looking forward to what's next.

'It is a competition, at the end of the day, and...'

the experiences so far have been phenomenal.

'But we've still got one more step to go,'

and that's the final. So I'm going to put everything I've got into the final

and hopefully come out with the right result.

That experience will stay with me for ever.

Our three finalists really impressed everyone including us.

Final cook-off round the corner, Michel.

We're going to crown one of these our champion.

I can't wait.

Tomorrow night, it's the Professional MasterChef final.

All three of our chefs are full on. They are concentrated.

They are focused.

There is enough good cooking in here to sink a battleship.

I've never really tasted anything quite like this dish.

It's a beautiful plate of art.

That is big, bold, bad cooking.

I'm stumped for words.

This has probably been one of the hardest,

tightest finals I've ever seen.

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