Episode 24 MasterChef: The Professionals

Over the last six weeks,

40 of the UK's brightest culinary talents have been fighting

for the title that will propel them to the top of their profession.

Now, just three remain.

I really want to win this competition.

This is the pinnacle for me.

To come away being the winner would be absolutely amazing.

This is probably the biggest achievement of my life,

I'm really proud to be, you know, one of the finalists.

To be in the final of Masterchef is something you never imagine

you're going to do so yeah, it's massive for me.

I have to cook the best food that I've cooked in the whole competition

otherwise you're not going to win it.

Tonight, Anton, Keri and Oli will cook for the last time

as they battle to be crowned

Professional Masterchef Champion 2012.

I grew up all over the place, really.

I was born in Sheffield

then moved to Malta for five years.

And then moved from there to Suffolk.

And now I'm in London so, yeah, there's quite a bit of moving around.

When Oli was little, he was a little bit different.

I'd say quite a quirky, funny child.

Very independent.

He was in my kitchen all the time.

From three, he used to drag a chair across and get all these

ingredients down from the cupboard

and he'd make food for us all the time.

I was quite lazy as a teenager.

I could have been academic, but I liked the girls and the sport,

do you know what I mean?

That's just what I enjoy doing, much more than going to lessons and that.

The school - I was literally dragging him there

so I was nicely surprised when he came to be a chef.

I left school a year early and went and worked as a pot washer

in, like, the local pub.

After the pub, I realised that I needed to actually learn how to cook

before I actually went and worked anywhere decent.

When he first went to chef school,

I phoned the first couple of mornings cos I didn't believe he'd be there.

From there, I went to a catering company.

And then I moved to London.

When I first got here it was quite difficult.

You don't really know anyone and you're going to work

16, 17, 18 hours a day, come home, sleep, and get up again.

But once you get in the groove of a good restaurant,

it's like the best thing you can imagine.

I don't, to be honest, do a lot when I'm out of the kitchen.

Just chilling out, really.

Seeing my mates when I can, you know?

It's, like, the most enjoyable job you could possibly have.

I never get up in the morning and think, "Ohh".

I just like going to work.

I'm really proud of Oliver.

The most important thing for me is that he's found something he's so passionate about.

He's a young man and he's just going ahead with life

and really making stuff happen.

Yeah, I'm more than proud!

And now that I'm cooking, I'd say that I love grafting.

It's the only thing that I like working hard at,

and I don't feel like I'm working hard when I do it.

Service, please.

So it must be the right thing for me.

Oli impressed me from the very beginning.

I could see the makings of a true chef, of a great chef.

That's very good, Oli. I would very easily eat all of that.

For such a young chef to have developed such a classic style.

Mouth-wateringly, meltingly good.

It's a very good dish.

That's the sort of dish I'd polish off, happy boy.

Oli's invention test of that egg yolk ravioli,

I thought was fantastic.

Ohh, that is heavenly.

It was precision personified.

The lowest point of the competition was, without a doubt, the skills test.

There's Gregg and Monica sort of standing there, and a sea urchin.

I've never seen one of them in my life.

I just knew as soon as I saw it... I knew I was going to go down.

Oh, Oli, Oli, Oli.

I think, throughout the competition, your confidence goes up and down quite a lot, you know.

You have moments where you get really good comments

and you come out and you're beaming.

The rabbit dish, that was my favourite...

I'd probably say my best dish.

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

The highlight of the whole competition for me

was the service at Marcus Wareing.

I got a bit of a hammering.

-What's wrong with that?

-Not enough cabbage.

-So why are you here?

You've just identified what was wrong with it, so what are you doing here?

But yeah, I really enjoyed it, you know.

It was in a proper kitchen, pushing - it was good fun.

Good, go, table 16, well done, Oli.

You know, what can you say about The Fat Duck? It's wicked, isn't it?

I saw stuff that I've never seen in my life.

Oh, Oli.

That is of the gods, isn't it?

When you add it all together, what you've done,

and the pressure of being here, it is hard work

but I would recommend it, for sure, to any chefs.

Obviously, now I've got to the final and stuff,

it gives you a little confidence boost

and you think, "I must have done all right to get here."

I've always wanted to work within the best restaurants.

I know that if I did win it, a lot would come my way.

It would give me the opportunities that I've wanted the whole time -

to work in the best restaurant.

You know, the best restaurants in the country,

the best restaurants in the world.

I grew up in Erith. From two years to when I moved out when I was 18.

Yay, which was great.

I grew up with two brothers and two sisters.

I was number three.

I think, as a kid, I was maybe a little bit cheeky.

But not TOO cheeky!

My earliest memory of food was every day there was a cake and a dessert.

So we were pretty lucky.

When I said I was going to make some cakes,

she used to come there straightaway.

She just used to get her fingers in.

It was great watching Mum cook, like, something savoury

but you always got a treat when Mum cooked the dessert.

She was very inquisitive.

She really wanted to know about it straight from the off.

From the age of about 13 or 14, I kind of knew what I wanted to do.

I worked collecting glasses and worked in a chip shop, you know.

So there was always some kind of catering thing there.

My first job in a hotel was pretty daunting.

You know, 16 years old, walking into a massive kitchen,

it was quite overwhelming.

But I've always loved making desserts because of Mum.

-Hello.

-Hello.

The pastry just blew me away.

Just making a bread pudding.

-Mine always comes out hard.

-Perhaps you cook it too long.

-Fruit.

-Enough!

To make the most beautiful-looking chocolate cakes,

and things like that, I just fell in love with it.

She won Chef Of The Year...

At 18.

That's when we thought, "Oh, she's got something here."

There isn't anything that I don't like about my job.

I enjoy what I do,

I love what I do and I wouldn't want to do anything else.

She's worked so very hard to get to where she is

and we are very, very proud of her.

I'd worked in hotels, worked in restaurants, done events...

..but Masterchef came along and made me rethink

what I kind of want to do.

I can just see bigger and better things on the horizon.

I don't mind admitting I've been impressed by Keri

from the moment she walked in.

I remember my first day on Masterchef

and when we pulled that cloth back -

Oh, my word, this is actually happening.

She did a dessert as soon as she walked in here.

A brioche pudding with toasted almonds and pears.

That is delightful. For a first invention test, you are good.

I thought "Wahey! This is my sort of chef!"

And she managed to step it up round by round.

It's a lovely, light starter,

it's very, very good.

Thank you.

Mate, that is lovely. That's quality, quality cooking.

I had low points. That whole critics experience.

20 minutes to go and everything still raw on my bench!

I'm never going to do it.

-How long do you need?

-Another hour.

-Another hour?!

-Yes.

I don't know if it was a low or high experience, but I got it done.

-I don't quit.

-No, you are not a quitter, are you, Keri?

No, Chef.

This is food made by someone who wants to feed you.

I thought my highlight was at Tom Kerridge's, which was fantastic.

Thank you, Keri.

If you do it like that all night long, I'll be very happy, yeah?

I loved every second I was there

and I really didn't want to leave.

She came back and made a beautifully, stunningly good lamb dish.

This is a very, very fine dish. I think you've got it.

She has got a lightness of touch with her desserts.

She's produced something that's actually very beautiful.

Yes, this is great.

Seriously, this is very, very good.

-Keri, it looks great.

-Thank you.

People that I looked on when I was younger as my mentors,

like Michel Roux Senior -

just to speak to me and say how amazing it was just blew me away!

I was happy with that.

It is a perfect dessert. You are doing wonder.

Well done, Keri. You can be proud. Thank you.

APPLAUSE

I believe in myself a lot more as a chef

than when I first started this competition.

The people that have critiqued my food have said some amazing things.

That's perfect, OK, Keri?

Now I've got to start believing it.

All that passion, all that desire,

the flavour she conjures up in her food -

She's just the DJ that gets everybody dancing.

It's been exhausting, surreal, a little bit daunting,

fantastically great fun...

..and a brilliant learning experience.

I was born in Plymouth.

I grew up five miles away from Sparkwell

in a little village called Ivybridge.

Dad was a lagger in the dockyard.

Mum was a household cook for nuns in a nunnery.

Always had vegetables growing, always had fresh food on the table.

It was a real celebration when you sat down for dinner.

I've got a brother that's in the Army.

I had a brother that passed away at 16.

My brother had muscular dystrophy.

It's a breakdown of your muscle fibres and basically,

in the end, you die at a very young age.

So we had a bit of a heartache when I was younger.

Trying to, you know, fight through that.

I was a bit of a rebel, really.

I didn't really pay much attention at school

and kind of got myself into a little bit of trouble.

But if I went round a friend's house,

I'd be the person that wakes up in the morning making everyone breakfast,

and would always be cooking lunch for friends.

So I've always had that love. It's in you, I think.

Sometimes you need to find a goal in life

and go for it.

I met Clare when I was about 15.

We both used to hang around,

go to the beach, and have beach parties as kids.

I went away travelling, done my bits and bobs,

and then somehow our paths crossed.

We met up again a few years later in a bar.

After having a few drinks, he came along and slapped my bum

and that was it.

There we are 10½ years later.

We've been together ten years and married two weeks.

Thanks to Masterchef, I had to cut my honeymoon short.

We spent most of our honeymoon on the beach with a pad

and pen, writing recipes!

Ever since I've known Anton, he's always been into food.

He's obsessed.

He's always wanted to have his own place to be able

to put his own stamp on somewhere.

Clare's dad phoned up and said I've heard of a little pub in Sparkwell.

It's weird that you're back in your own village.

It's kind of like it was meant to be.

-A lamb and a pork, please, yeah?

-Yes, Chef.

Very local lad. You know, everyone knows everyone.

It's that kind of lifestyle I love.

It's an amazing feeling to have your own place.

Watercress, please, dressed with olive oil.

When you've got to worry about the wage bill,

making sure the business runs smoothly,

there's a massive amount of, like, sleepless nights

worrying about that.

-Good to go, Chef?

-Yeah, ready to rock'n'roll.

My role is looking after the front of house.

'It's been really hard, the last year...'

The mussels?

'..opening a new business'

and now we're just starting to find our feet.

It hasn't been a bad year at all.

Got the pub, got married and if I was to win Masterchef,

it would make 2012 probably the best year of my life.

The nerves got to me at the start.

We done the skills test and I don't know what happened to me.

I was possessed.

I don't think I'd shake this much!

'My hands were all over the shop, very stressful.'

I was ginger when I started. I think I'm starting to go grey.

I love to see Anton cooking.

His food is imaginative, beautiful, creative,

but above all, it tastes good.

When I sit in restaurants and I have dishes like this,

I actually would consider giving myself over completely to gluttony.

It looked wonderful, and it tasted just as good.

To have this great-tasting food - really delicious.

As I've settled into the competition,

I think I've got stronger and stronger.

Anton's mackerel dish was truly unbelievable.

You've taken a humble mackerel and given it, like, superstar status.

I thought "Oh, my word, where have you come from?"

It wasn't a flash in the pan, either.

Anton is incredibly inventive and he also manages to pack

so much work into the plate of food.

He did five ways with the guinea fowl.

You know, I was really sweating to get that out.

I don't know how you get this stuff done in an hour, but keep doing it.

It's Anton's creative flair that absolutely wowed the critics.

This is a carrot cake.

It's just full of surprises, and full of interest

and I could carry on eating it for ever.

For me, going to the Hand and Flowers was my biggest highlight so far.

It's where I want to be. It's the style of food I love.

Lovely food tonight, Chef, well done.

Well done.

Chef's table was a very hard service.

35 plates of food for some of the best chefs in the world!

Come on, Ant! Come on. Big push.

That was good.

They're idols of mine. They're like film stars to me.

Thoroughly, thoroughly good dish.

I would sell this, happily, in my restaurant.

It was an experience that I'll take away for the rest of my life.

Anton is so good, he's almost faultless.

He's just an artist at work.

It's just been an amazing experience.

I really feel proud of myself for getting this far,

but to be a winner would be an even bigger achievement,

but you've got to be positive with life, you know.

I'm a finalist!

The talent of these three chefs has been forged in the white heat

of the Masterchef competition.

They've worked with some of the greatest chefs,

they've been in some of the most demanding kitchens.

Now their final test. One of these is going to be our champion.

Check on. Let's go.

Incredible privilege to watch you develop.

Three courses now stand between you and the title.

We know you're good, but are you good as your neighbour?

Three hours, three plates of food.

Let's go out with a bang.

It's the Masterchef final.

You don't think you can just sort of get away with doing

a half-decent meal.

It has to be, like, your best.

It has to be better than anything I've cooked throughout the competition.

Oli. What is it you're cooking for us?

Starter is poached lobster with a chicken cannelloni bisque

-and a pea salad.

-Get in there, Oli.

Main course is duck passetire, roasted duck breast

and orange-glazed endive.

What's a passetire? Like a pie?

It's normally a braise wrapped in pate a bric, but I'm wrapping it in potato string instead.

I'll deep fry it.

Love the sound of that. Lovely textures. Crispy. Mmm. Dessert?

Dessert - Calvados parfait with some sort of maple tuiles...

Ah!

..blackberry, fennel and caramelised apples.

-That's a lovely menu, Oli.

-Only if I nail it today.

When I'm in my own kitchen, I'm more than confident.

It's just when you get here, you sort of... It's all on your back.

And I know how good their food's going to be,

so I'm going to have to get it all bang-on.

Oli has got the menu from heaven.

That has got Gregg Wallace written all over it. I LOVE it!

I love the sound of Oli's starter. A chicken cannelloni.

But flavoured with lobster.

And a really intense lobster bisque sauce.

And all of that with sweet pea.

That's plate-lickingly delicious.

I've never cooked the dish before.

It is a risk, but I know how to make a chicken mousse.

I know how to make pasta.

I know how to poach a lobster.

And I know how to make a pea salad!

Oli's main course, he's cooking his duck in two different ways.

He's cooking his duck breast in a water bath.

And he's confit-ing the legs.

He's going to shred the meat once it's cooked.

And then wrap it in some shredded potato, and deep-frying it.

It sounds heavenly.

He's serving with his duck a bitter endive

that's been glazed with a little bit of orange

and that's going to add sweetness.

Clever boy. I'm telling you - I'm lovin' it!

Oli's dessert, I love the Calvados parfait.

It's like a semifreddo, an ice cream that's only just set.

Serving it with glazed apple.

A hint of fennel, which I think could work.

That aniseed flavour with apple and Calvados could be good.

Oli is making a little maple tuile to go with his dessert.

Because it's desperately in need of a crunch.

Classic dishes, classic Oli. Go for it, boy.

I put so much thought into what I'm cooking.

I feel like if I get them bang-on, I think they'll be good enough,

but that's the hard bit, isn't it. Getting it all right.

It's a lot easier said than done.

One hour's gone! A third of the way through now.

There's no-one more determined than me. There isn't.

It's all guns blazing today.

It's got to be right. I can't afford to make any mistakes.

Keri. How do you feel?

Nervous as normal.

I don't think it's right if you're not nervous.

So what is it you're cooking for us?

Today your starter is a mackerel tartare

with crispy poached quail eggs,

prosciutto crisps and green apple vinaigrette.

The main course is duck with confit duck leg,

bok choy, and spiced beets.

And the dessert is a green olive and pistachio cake

with a white chocolate parfait, and marshmallow.

A lot of interesting combinations there. Some classic and some not so.

Yeah.

What is it in this menu that is going to make you the champion?

There's a lot of emotion that's gone into my cooking.

There's a lot more emotion going in it today.

So hopefully it kind of puts me one step ahead.

Hopefully.

For me, Keri's menu sounds as if she's really going for it.

The starter of mackerel tartare

is not just your ordinary raw chopped-up mackerel.

No.

She's serving some smoked mackerel with it,

that's reinforcing that mackerel flavour

but giving it a hint of smokiness.

Seasoned with a bit of green apple to give it a hint of sharpness.

And a green apple vinaigrette.

Some prosciutto crisps.

And some crispy quail eggs.

That is going to add texture

and a different dimension to the raw chopped mackerel.

I can't wait.

Keri's main course is roasted and confit duck

with Chinese five-spice and some bok choy.

We're bordering Chinese duck here. That could be beautiful.

The duck's going to be confited completely.

It's got to be thoroughly cooked.

It's all down to timings.

They're going to be cubed and deep-fried in Panko crumbs.

And a duck sausage.

The garnish on the duck is going to be spiced beetroots. I love beetroot.

They'll bring a lovely sweetness to the duck dish.

That is right up my alley.

That is something I really want to get stuck into.

What is intriguing me the most about Keri's menu is the dessert.

Keri's dessert is olive and pistachio cake with marshmallows,

raspberries, and a white chocolate parfait.

I think I'm most worried about the...marshmallow.

Making the marshmallows is not easy to get right.

They have to have that right texture, nice and bouncy

and springy, but not chewy.

White chocolate parfait and marshmallows together

sounds very, very sweet to me.

But hopefully it should be offset with a bit of saltiness from the cake.

To put green olives into a dessert -

it's different, but it works really well.

I think it works really well.

But it's a very fine line.

It's very difficult to judge this and to get it right

but if anybody's going to do it, Keri will.

These are definitely dishes I would never have cooked.

From day one, I was always pretty simple,

but if you can't push yourself in the final

then there's no point you being here.

If she gets it right - wow.

An hour and a half left! Warning - it's going to fly.

The menu that I'm cooking today is my style of food.

It's three plates that are very close to my heart

and I think that's what food's got to be about.

You've got to have passion in what you do and believe in your food.

If you don't believe in it, there's no point cooking it.

Hi, Anton. So what is your menu?

It's a cured pan-fried pollock with squid ink crumble,

elderflower and brown shrimp beurre noisette and mascarpone cheese.

Then for my main course, roasted venison loin with beetroots,

ox heart and then a little ballotine of the trimmings,

wrapped in stinging nettle on the plate as well,

so it's a use of all of the ingredients that I've got, really.

And for my dessert - a chocolate caramel centre,

banana parfait rolled in banana chips, digestive base,

basically banoffee pie, but taken in my own adaption of it, really.

I love the sound of your menu, Anton. I really do.

But the only thing that worries me is there's so much

going on on this dessert. It's very, very complex.

It's not an easy dish, but that's why I'm doing it for the final.

With all due respect, you have never done anything simple.

No!

-Have you had bigger days than this?

-No, not at all.

I'm supposed to say my wedding day, aren't I?!

You got married during this competition,

you cut your honeymoon short.

Yeah, lost a lot of sleepless nights

and I haven't really seen my wife since I've been doing this, so...

It's been hard.

But this is what it's all about, really.

You get a chance in life and you've just got to take it, really.

Anton, get your head down. You've got a lot of work to do.

Yes, Chef.

The final three dishes, they are hard-core.

There's a lot of elements and I've only got three hours to do it,

so I'm going to be sweating today.

I really have to push it out there, I think.

If there was ever a go-for-it menu, that is Anton's.

Absolutely got his sleeves rolled up.

He's opened the culinary arsenal and he's gunning for it, mate.

Anton is giving us a starter of pollock that's been marinated

in elderflower and salt.

Then he's adding more elderflower,

and a brown butter sauce with some shrimps.

And then squid ink crumble. I've never seen that before in my life.

It's slightly weird but it's Anton.

And he is an incredibly talented chef.

His main course is about as meaty and as beefy as it gets.

Venison that's been rolled in cocoa.

And tiny little nettle leaves that have been stuffed

with pieces of venison.

Again, it's intense flavours.

Anton's very brave using ox heart.

It's not something that we come across very often. But I love it.

The texture can be a bit chewy if it's overcooked

so I'm expecting it to be very pink.

Deep, rich, really good. I can't wait for that.

My dessert is going to be the hardest challenge today.

He's got 17 elements going on. I mean, that's just colossal!

Just to start, he has to temper that chocolate.

And then make sure it's set. And then put caramel inside and set that.

When you break into it, a load of salted caramel is going to come out.

That is delicious!

We've got a banana parfait as well going on there!

Anton is using a bit of yuzu juice, Japanese citrus fruit,

which will add a touch of acidity and bitterness to this dessert.

I think it really does need it.

But he has taken on a monumental cookery task.

That is not so much putting a menu together,

that is like the labours of Hercules.

I'm going to double-check, do the double-tick, double-tick everything.

I might even tick it four times

just to make sure everything's cooked perfectly.

It's hard cos you've got to get all those three dishes up

at one time as well, so it's not an easy task for anyone, really.

Right. Just 30 minutes left. Serious time now, isn't it?

All going to plan?

Yeah, I've got two more jobs I need to do.

What do you mean, two? You've got about 100 jobs on the go here.

-I know.

-Look at the bench! It's everywhere. Is it going to happen?

Yeah.

-You doing OK, Keri?

-Yeah.

Worried about anything?

Yeah, just plating up on time.

Keri, you've never had timing issues. Don't start now.

You look terribly, terribly organised and focused

and in charge of your section.

I don't like to let people down.

Final ten minutes.

All three of our chefs are full-on.

They are concentrated, they are focused.

That is just a celebration of culinary art.

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

Five minutes.

Come on, please.

Eeh!

I left it in the fridge, not the freezer.

Get it back in the freezer.

Come on, you've got two minutes. It's on full blast.

Last touches.

That's it! Time's up!

OK, Oli. Up you come.

Oli's starter is butter-poached lobster

with a smoked chicken mousse cannelloni,

crispy chicken skin, sugar snap peas, pea shoots,

a pea puree and a lobster bisque sauce.

I love the presentation, Oli. It's incredibly colourful.

Especially on that lovely black plate.

It's extremely appetising and very pleasing to the eye.

There are some great skills here.

That pasta is beautifully rolled out, beautifully cooked.

The cannelloni is lovely and light

and that hint of smokiness is really a pleasure.

The sauce is full of intensity, full, full of flavour,

and of course these lovely peas in different shapes and forms.

It's a very well-balanced dish.

My only little issue is with the lobster.

I find it ever so slightly underdone.

The sea sweetness of lobster and the garden sweetness of pea

with the fish depth of your bisque in-between is wonderful, wonderful.

For his main course, Oli has cooked roast duck breast,

a confit duck leg wrapped in potato string,

orange-glazed endive, carrot puree, pickled carrots,

braised cabbage and a duck, Madeira and white wine sauce.

The duck is perfectly cooked.

Lovely brown, rendered-down, crispy skin

and beautiful and moist and tender.

Very, very good.

The little passetire is nice and crispy on the outside.

Lovely flavour of the potato

and then that wonderful sweet,

well-seasoned and well-cooked confit duck.

The sauce is just liquid nectar. Really very, good.

Exceptionally good cooking. Gosh!

It's a delicious plate of food.

You've got moist, beautifully cooked, seasoned duck,

and everywhere throughout that plate

is sympathetic little mellow hints of sweetness. Everywhere.

This is classic technique Oli at his best without a single mistake.

A dish of absolute perfection. It's got us both drooling.

Finally, Oli's dessert is a Calvados and fennel seed parfait,

served with balls of caramelised apple,

blackberries and a maple tuile.

It came out only just frozen. So this is not obviously how you wanted it.

That Calvados parfait is absolutely heavenly.

It's light, it's creamy, it's silky and it's got a great punch

of that apple brandy without being overpowering,

and then you crunch on the odd fennel seed there,

which adds a little aniseed aftertaste.

Really very good. Such a shame it's not the finished dish.

I love that Calvados parfait cos that is warmth spreading over

all of your palate.

Really nice and warming. Those apples have got caramel on them.

They're like little toffee apples. You get a bit of a crunch of sugar.

But it's when you crunch on a fennel seed that's been coated in sugar

so it's sweet aniseed -

I can't remember having that flavour combination before

and I'm in love with it.

Chefs, I know what you're like, you won't be happy cos of the errors,

but let me tell you, I'm just blown away by it.

So clever. So sophisticated, your food. Thank you very much indeed.

-Off you go.

-Thank you very much.

Nice. Nice.

I am a bit disappointed to be honest.

If I hadn't messed up the dessert and put it in the fridge,

things might have been a bit better now.

But you know, stuff like that happens. It still tasted good.

It's just a shame, but everything else I was really happy with.

Keri. Up you come.

Look at you.

Keri's starter is a mackerel tartare

served with crispy poached quail eggs,

marinated cucumber cubes, prosciutto crisps,

horseradish sour cream, and a green apple vinaigrette.

This is a really beautiful plate, Keri. Absolutely stunning.

It's almost like a little rock garden. Really wonderful.

I think it looks beautiful, and it actually tastes even better.

It really does.

I've never had a mackerel tartare

with a little bit of smoked mackerel in it,

and it's just a hint, but it lifts the whole taste of the mackerel

and it works. It's lovely.

And then when you bite into the tartare,

you occasionally get a crunch of apple as well

and then it's another burst of flavour

and the apple dressing is sweet, sour and it's a perfect accompaniment.

So it's got the texture, it's got the flavour, it's got the look. Yeah.

What can I say? Just well done, Keri.

Great. Brilliant. Love it.

The unmistakable oily, fresh strength of mackerel,

matched brilliantly with little sharp bits of apple,

texture comes from the crisp ham and you've made the egg crispy.

That's perfectly seasoned as well.

It's stunningly good. It really, really is fantastic.

Cor, Keri.

For her main, Keri has cooked Chinese five-spice duck breast,

confited duck leg cubes and duck sausage with roasted pak choi,

spiced baby beets, spring onions and a duck jus.

A very beautiful plate of food again, Keri.

A lot of thought has gone into this presentation.

Beautifully cooked duck, pink,

nice skin that's been glazed with an almost Asian-style kind of glaze.

The sausage, well-seasoned.

Your confit that you'd reshaped into a little cube

is really very good.

Crispy on the outside and very moist on the inside.

The bok choy has got a really nice crunch to it.

There's lots of textures going on on this plate here, which is great.

This for me is a perfect fusion dish.

This is East meets West very successfully.

It's very difficult to do, but you've done it brilliantly.

I love the five-spice on the duck. That gives it a Chinese duck feel.

I like the sausage, I like the duck breast, I like the confit cube.

I like the lot.

Thank you.

Keri's dessert is green olive and pistachio cake,

with a white chocolate parfait, marshmallows,

fresh raspberries, and a raspberry coulis.

A very well-made pistachio and olive cake.

It's really light, rich,

and goes beautifully well with the white chocolate parfait.

White chocolate parfait, very light, creamy,

the right amount of white chocolate in there.

Hitting the right notes.

The whole dessert is held together in my view

by a beautiful raspberry coulis

that adds real sharpness to it and not too much sugar.

It's a very fine dessert, showing off great skills,

which we knew you had in pastry.

Cor!

I tell you what, you are just making me really,

really happy with your food today.

Really, really, really happy. I absolutely love it.

The white chocolate parfait is just a beautiful texture

and taste sensation. It's so mellow!

But the one that gets me that I love,

cos I've never had anything like it, is the olive and pistachio cake.

It is delightful. I love this. Absolutely love it.

Keri, the three plates you've put in front of us today

are testimony to an unbelievable journey.

Thank you.

You have now elevated your cuisine to something very, very special.

You should be very proud of yourself.

Well done, Chef. Very, very well done. Off you go.

The judges' comments made me feel ecstatic. I couldn't stop smiling.

I was like a little hamster.

Anton. Your turn.

I can only admire the amount of work that you have put into these

three plates of food.

Anton's starter is elderflower marinated pollock,

served with a brown shrimp and elderflower beurre noisette,

squid ink and malt vinegar crumble, white asparagus and mascarpone.

Looks beautiful, Anton. Very smart, very elegant. It's typical of you.

Beautifully seasoned and perfectly cooked piece of pollock.

It's just flaking off there and it's wonderful.

The squid ink and malt vinegar crumbles works perfectly

with that pollock as well.

It adds that lovely bit of acidity.

The little shrimps in the shrimp butter's really nice.

It's excellent cooking. Perfect seasoning.

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

The whole thing melts in together in a beautifully soft, buttery,

fishy, salty, aromatic delight.

Anton's main course is a cocoa marinated loin of venison,

accompanied by a nettle ballotine stuffed with venison trim,

pan-seared ox heart with spinach, wild mushrooms and gherkins,

roasted beetroot, a celeriac puree and a dark chocolate jus.

Ah! Gosh, Anton.

This is good.

The venison is perfectly cooked

and it's got a lovely bitter exterior from the cocoa powder.

A little nettle parcel. I find this stuffing absolutely glorious,

absolutely fabulous idea.

The sauce is just heavenly.

It's rich without being cloying or sticky.

Those little beetroot are absolutely packed full of flavour.

Lovely, glorious. For me, it works. It's a beautiful plate of art.

Thank you very much.

This dish is not for the faint-hearted.

It doesn't give you a hug. This gets you in a bear hug embrace.

Honestly, mate, you are playing with some very bold flavours.

The meatiness inside the nettles

and the strength of the nettle as well is wonderful.

The sauce with the venison is sweet, rich and sharp.

And the pepper in there - spicy, it's hot,

there's sweetness on that dish.

That is big, bold, bad cooking.

For his dessert, Anton has made a dark chocolate cylinder filled

with caramel, a banana parfait coated in banana chips,

with shards of honeycomb tuile, and a banana bread disc,

banana and yuzu juice puree and finished with roast banana,

caramel dots and popping candy.

That's all you've done, is it?

It looks great! That's craftsmanship. That's really nice.

Thank you ever so much.

Ah! Ah!

That is an absolutely amazingly brilliant taste sensation.

Nothing is too sweet, nothing is too rich, everything is mellow,

everything is for the diner, you can taste them all individually

if you like, you could mash 'em all up in a big bowl

and stir it round and eat it with a ladle.

It's an absolute work of art to look at and mate,

that is just a beautiful pudding to eat.

It's strange because you've got banana, you've got cream,

chocolate and caramel.

All those kind of things you would associate with being very rich

and sticky and heavy. They're not.

A beautiful chocolate cylinder filled with caramel inside,

it could be too sweet, but it's actually not.

It's beautifully judged.

The banana parfait is light, not too rich, a bit of salt as well.

And all these flavour notes work perfectly.

It's a very, very well-balanced dessert.

I'm stumped for words.

Anton, thank you very, very much indeed.

Amazed. Amazed with what Gregg said.

And Michel, he picks out the fine details,

and when he's not picking out any details and he's lost for words,

then you think, "yeah", you know you've done well.

Food fit for a Masterchef final and now

we have got the toughest judging decision of the whole competition.

One of you of course is going to be our champion. Thank you so much.

Brilliant. Off you go.

Look how good they are. Look how good they are.

You all right? Happy?

EXHALES DEEPLY

So unreal.

I thought that was fantastic. I really did.

What a joy.

That was just like eating in three different top-class restaurants,

one after the other. That was unbelievably good.

Some of Oli's food was absolutely stunning. Absolutely stunning.

Some of his food was just perfect.

I thought his lobster and pea salad was delicious.

The amount of work that went into that, the precision was unbelievable.

But the lobster needed more cooking.

I absolutely adored the duck dish that Oli gave us.

I thought that was first-class cooking.

Everything on that plate was absolutely perfect.

It was a fault-free plate of delicious food.

It was true classic cooking at its best.

Oli's dessert - he had issues with the blast freezer.

But the flavour of that brandy in the parfait

and fennel seeds in it that had been coated in sugar first.

Brilliant ideas, modern food rooted in the classics.

It really was great.

Such a shame he didn't have enough time to complete that dish.

I wouldn't say I've done enough to win, to be honest.

I think if I'd nailed my dessert, I would've said,

"Maybe I have done enough."

But I didn't nail it.

But at the same time, I was really happy with my two dishes

so it's quite a nice feeling just to finish on giving them

at least two really nice plates.

I love the young fella and his food is incredible.

But when you look at the quality and the strength of Keri and Anton,

you've got to pick out the mistakes of Oli

and say "You've put yourself out, mate."

It's very sad and I'm sorry to say

that Oli has just made one mistake too many.

Right. OK. Now what?

Keri. Wow. She's just got better and better.

Some of Keri's cooking today was out of this world. Incredible cooking.

I'm so impressed with her. Can you tell?

Am I going a bit OTT? I don't mean to be.

It was just absolutely delicious.

I think I made the judges quite proud today.

I put in everything that I had.

I pushed the boat out a little bit and hopefully it'll pay off later.

What is there to say about Anton? The guy is brilliant!

Everything he touches and puts on the plates not only looks great,

but it tastes great and it's also challenging!

It's pushing the barriers.

I'm a little bit overwhelmed because you put your heart into something,

you don't know if it's going to be amazing and everything's a risk

when you're giving it to Michel and Gregg, but it all paid off.

Yeah. Mind blowing.

Anton is an exceptional talent.

He had a brilliant competition, but for me...

I want to eat Keri's food more than anybody I've met

in a long, long time.

I don't know what magic is running through her fingertips.

I don't know who poured the passion into her soul.

But you can feel it and you can taste it on dish after dish.

Keri is an exceptional chef.

But you can't get away from the fact that Anton has got the knowledge,

he's got the skills in abundance, he's got that passion, the drive.

Every dish Anton cooks is original. It's got a twist.

It's got his character there. That's what I like about Anton as a chef.

Now what do we do?

Oh!

Really nervous. I could be walking out of here as Masterchef 2012.

You put your heart and soul into something.

You do want to win at the end of the day.

I don't think I could've worked any harder at all,

so yeah, I really want it.

I do really want it.

What an amazing final.

And I can't ever remember a decision this tight.

Oli. For a young chef, you have cooked some outstanding food.

But...

..I'm afraid to say that today, the title is not yours.

This has probably been one of the hardest, tightest finals

that I've ever seen.

But that said, we had to make a decision.

The title of professional Masterchef champion...

goes to...

..both Anton and Keri.

Well done!

We couldn't separate you.

We've never been able to separate you all the way along.

That's right, both of you.

Well done.

Obviously I'm really happy for Anton and Keri.

They were, like, inseparable, to be honest.

Obviously I'm disappointed that I didn't win,

but I don't feel gutted at all.

I feel massively proud, do you know what I mean?

We were all in the final. It's brilliant.

Here you go, guys.

-Thank you very much.

-Very deserved.

-Cheers.

ALL: Cheers.

-Well done.

-Brilliant.

I can't even speak.

It's absolutely amazing,

and to share it with someone that's so talented and so amazing

is just unreal.

Yay!

It's a good start to the rest of my life, this is. Mind-blowing.

Thank you so much. You're amazing. Thank you.

You two are amazing.

Joint winners is just fantastic.

We've had a good run together.

Yeah. He's awesome.

Today has surpassed anything I've ever achieved in my career,

in my whole life. This is just massive.

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