Episode 8 MasterChef: The Professionals

Only an elite group of chefs holds two Michelin stars.

Michel Roux Jr is one of them.

One lamb, two fish gone. BOTH: Wahey!

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.

Perfect.

These six chefs have made it through to the quarter-finals.

Now they will have to fight to stay in the competition.

'I'm very determined not to leave today.'

There's a lot of pride there.

I really want to make it through to the next round.

'There's a goal today and whatever the challenge'

that's put in front of me, I'm going to work to the best of my ability.

Everybody wants to get to the final.

I believe I can get there.

First, they need to cook a dish of their own invention

for Michel and Gregg to prove they are worthy.

Only the best chefs will then go through to showcase their talents

before some of the country's toughest restaurant critics.

It's fantastic.

I mean, it's the sort of dish you'd tell all your friends about.

Welcome back. Good to see you today.

This is what really excites me as a chef -

being put in front of a beautiful array of ingredients and being told,

"Cook." We've got beautiful fresh fish -

dabs, trout, some clams -

pheasant, partridge and some beautiful vegetables.

You've got ten minutes to plan and one hour to cook a beautiful dish.

At the end of it, two of you, unfortunately, will be going home.

Come up and do your shopping.

'It is absolutely a chef's dream, yeah,'

to have all these ingredients in front of you to choose from - anything you want.

Yeah, it's beautiful. I've got in my head I know what I'm going to do.

There's a lot to choose from so just taking my time

and making sure I get the right choice, I guess.

You've got five minutes left.

Beautiful samphire, beautiful baby carrots.

I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm confident.

OK, you have chosen your ingredients, your ten minutes is up.

This is it - your chance to excel.

One hour. Off you go.

Martin is a 33-year-old head chef in Cornwall.

Martin has given us so far some beautifully presented food.

Sometimes lacking a bit of oomph, a bit of flavour.

That's what's needed today from Martin.

My passion for what I do is unbelievable

and I've just got to show them that I can carry on producing and take it up to the next level.

Martin, what are you cooking for us?

Pan-fried dab with samphire and clams,

toasted pine nuts and baby fennel.

Hmm, I like the idea of putting pine nuts with fish.

I don't think I've ever come across it before. Why this dish?

I want the fish to really sing out with the samphire

and the clams and really give a real pack of flavour,

which is what I missed in the last round.

Martin says he's going to serve his dab with some pine nuts.

Some nice nutty flavours, texture as well. It could work really well.

15 minutes gone.

'Charlie has got the skills. He's a good chef.'

He might be young but he has got talent within him.

Do not put rhubarb with your well-cooked lamb, Charlie.

Rein it in a bit.

I feel I've got a point to prove after the last round.

I want to show them that it was right to put me through.

I'm going to do everything I can today.

Charlie, what are you cooking?

Partridge, wild mushroom ravioli, celeriac puree,

wilted spinach and a red wine and tarragon jus.

You're going to go tried and tested, classic combinations, and a ravioli.

That's a lot of work.

-It is a lot of work, yeah, yeah.

-I'm ready for it.

Charlie, what's your ambition as a chef?

I want to keep learning, keep working, get a star for Essex.

I'm ambitious and, you know, I really want to prove myself today.

Confident about this dish, then?

Yeah, yeah, it's classical and the flavours work

so it's just the execution.

I want to see a really thin ravioli

and a really good red wine reduction sauce

to bring this whole dish together.

Anton - 30-year-old head chef from Devon.

He's proved before he can do a good invention.

He's proved he's got a great eye for presentation.

He's an inventive chef. This is the kind of test where he should excel.

My food's a little bit more...out there.

I'm just using elements of dishes and breaking them down

in a different way than some people would.

I'm doing a few ways of guinea fowl. I've got a ballotine.

I've crisped up the skin,

I've confited off the wings, confited off the legs.

I'm going to make a little fritter out of the shoulders

-and I'm going to serve it with a little butterbean and mushroom puree.

-My word.

So you've got guinea fowl about five ways.

That's it, yeah. I came here to impress, so, hopefully,

it's cooked to perfection, seasoned exactly how you want it to be and...

-No room for mistakes today.

-That's it, no room for mistakes.

-It's going to be as good as I can cook.

-Go for it.

He's showing off. He is going to push the boat out.

That would sing out of the menu at me,

but he's given himself a lot to do in one hour.

25 minutes left.

Simon is a 27-year-old head chef in West Yorkshire.

Simon's scallop dish was absolutely superb.

If he can repeat that in this invention test,

that boy could go far.

I'm confident that I can reach the same standards as the last dish.

It wasn't just a one-off.

I like to think that that's how I cook most days.

I'm doing a panache of seafood or fish.

So I've got the bream, the trout, the clams.

I've made a fish stock

so I'm going to do a light fish kind of broth to go with it.

What is it in this dish that is screaming out and saying,

-"I definitely want my place in the next round?"

-My dish last time

was good enough to hold up, so, hopefully, this one is as well.

Your own standards have put you under pressure.

They have a bit, yeah, yeah,

-so... It's good, I like to work under pressure.

-Looking forward to it, Simon.

He wants to show off his understanding of a great dish.

I just hope that the sauce he makes is going to bring this dish together.

If Ross can carry on impressing you with his skills

and impress me with a lovely bowl of something I really want to eat,

he's done it, hasn't he? He's ticked all the boxes.

Today is the day where he has to deliver on all fronts.

So what are you cooking, then?

What I'm going to do is cook a piece of bream

with some potatoes and carrots and fennel.

I've cooked some cockles off,

I've strained all the liquor off it

and I've made a lovely little veloute with a little bit of capers in there.

I'm going to add all the veg back into it with some fresh chervil

so it's almost like nice and brothy, nice and saucy.

I like cooking simple flavours

and getting my ingredients to talk to me.

You don't need to be complicated to get food to really come out.

Ross, confident?

Quietly confident, yes. Quietly confident.

-I haven't seen him smiling like this before, have you?

-Hmm.

That boy's got butter and cream going on in there, Michel.

You wouldn't get it sponsored by the heart foundation

but I can't wait to try it.

I think I've maybe played it a bit safe.

I've got to widen my game, basically.

I've got to get 150% today to really push it.

For me, Rob the chef is solid and safe,

but today that isn't good enough.

What I want Rob to do is explode into creativity.

What are you cooking?

Pan-fried pheasant breast,

and with that I'm going to do pancetta and Savoy cabbage puree,

a celeriac fondant

and then I'm going to do a reduction of the bones and stocks

and put a nice pheasant stock with it.

-In the last round, I wanted you to be a little bit more ambitious.

-Yes.

Is this your idea of being ambitious?

I don't say it's totally ambitious,

but I think the flavour combination together, showing that

I obviously can cook a nice bit of pheasant and mixing flavours up

with sweetness and earthiness, I think, will go quite well.

-Make or break with the cooking of the pheasant.

-I think so.

Pheasant breast just pan-seared can go terribly, terribly dry.

That, immediately, is alarm bells for me.

Last five minutes.

Final touches.

Last 60 seconds.

Stop. Time's up.

First up is Rob, who has made a pan-fried pheasant breast

on top of a Savoy cabbage and pancetta puree

with buttered spinach, beetroot, a celeriac fondant

and a red wine sauce.

I love the celeriac fondant. Earthiness, nuttiness, sweetness.

I was really worried about pureeing cabbage and pancetta.

I thought, "Why would you do that?"

But, actually, it works as a nice extra sauce and it is great.

It is just the flavours of bacon and cabbage.

Well cooked pheasant supreme.

It's been cooked in lots of butter, it's still moist and pink.

Pheasant can be very dry so you've done a very good job there.

I like it inasmuch as it's classic flavours well cooked.

But I'm not blown away.

Charlie is serving wild mushroom ravioli

on top of pan-fried partridge breast with spinach and bacon,

celeriac puree and a red wine and tarragon reduction.

The partridge is the star billing of this plate, or at least it should be.

But we can't see it.

The pasta is a little bit too thick but I like the filling.

The filling is really, really mushroomy and it works well

but your partridge is a little bit dry and overcooked.

I like your choice of ingredients

but there are issues here, there are errors.

I really like your sweet, earthy celeriac puree. Love that.

But that tarragon reduction hasn't worked.

It's split and there's not enough of it.

Ups and downs there, Charlie.

A couple of little issues that have let the dish down, so,

of course, that's disappointing.

Ross's pan-fried sea bream is served on top of artichokes,

fennel, carrots, samphire

and cubed roasted potatoes,

served with a clam, caper, chervil and parsley veloute.

Beautifully cooked fish,

and all the vegetables taste as good as they look.

Your potatoes have been roasted but cubed to a perfect shape.

This whole plate is a melody. It's beautiful.

Thank you.

It's the quality of that sauce that is just wonderful.

Creamy and deep and the zing of capers giving you

a little bit of sharpness with every mouthful. It is real quality.

It is flavour that envelops you.

When judges praise your food, it does make you feel good, eh?

It lifts your spirits, it drives you.

That's why we do this job, at the end of the day.

Martin is serving pan-fried dab sitting on top of samphire

with carrot puree, clams, toasted pine nuts, baby fennel

and a cream and dill clam reduction.

A lot of very good skills there on show.

Good seasoning, good filleting, good cooking,

a good sauce and a good puree.

And the pine nuts, yeah, I think they work.

For me, the samphire is a little bit too strong

and could have balanced it out perfectly

with a little squeeze of lemon.

I love that fish with the clams.

A little bit of saltiness of the sea, a little tang.

I also like the samphire with the fish.

Again, saltiness, crunch and juice. But I don't like the carrot puree.

It's too sweet and sticky, for me, for fish.

I tried to be restrained and show, you know, my experience

and let the ingredients shine through.

Anton has made guinea fowl five ways.

Ballotine, confit thigh and leg,

roasted wing,

fritter and crispy skin

and is serving it with masala roasted red onions,

butterbean, carrot top and bacon fricassee,

a butterbean and mushroom puree

and a cep and guinea fowl gravy.

Anton, it looks great. I really do like it.

I think it is visually very pleasing.

It shows an incredible amount of work there. It really does.

And what I like is that you've used every part of the guinea fowl.

There has been absolutely no waste.

Your croquette, or fritter, of guinea fowl is really moist,

well cooked, crispy on the outside

and has a lovely scent of tarragon going through it,

which I really enjoyed.

Your sauce is very, very rich and deep in flavour

and reduced down to the right consistency.

For me, the skin is a bit of a let down.

It's slightly overcooked and therefore bitter.

The end result is a very good plate of food, couple of errors.

I absolutely love it.

To get confit really moist bits, to get crispy bits,

to get a ballotine with lovely meat with tarragon running through it...

Mate, I don't know how you get this stuff done in an hour

but keep doing it cos that, to me, was great.

I'm from a little pub in the middle of nowhere

and to have that, you know,

that kind of feedback is absolutely amazing.

Finally, it is Simon,

who is serving his panache of sea bream, trout and clams

with baby fennel, baby turnips,

confit golden tomatoes,

samphire, tomato concasse, potatoes and a fish veloute.

The fish has been beautifully cooked and I love the crispy skin.

Well seasoned.

The one thing that really stands out immediately

is that you've put little strips of confit lemon peel

and when you bite on to one of those with the fish,

I think it's really, really good.

Such a let down, though, that the sauce is just missing that big kick.

I was expecting it to be full of the sea and have a lot more to it.

I love the explosion of those yellow tomatoes.

That sweetness, that richness,

then going on to the well-seasoned fish,

but there is not much to that sauce at all.

There really isn't.

The sauce is annoying.

I had it probably how they wanted and I changed it

but I think there was a lot there on show,

so, hopefully, it would be enough.

Superb skills on show. Great cooking. Well done.

Thank you, gentlemen. Off you go.

I think they all approached today's invention test with gusto

and delivered.

I'll tell you my favourite dish.

Anton, Anton. That guinea fowl, Michel. I'm in love with that.

That was a game lover's delight, that was.

You cannot deny the fact that he put his heart and soul in that dish

and he managed to create

five different recipes of guinea fowl in one hour.

It's a long old trek up from Devon to come up here and, you know,

I really want to go a little bit further in this competition.

My favourite dish of today

was definitely Ross's sea bream with the clams and capers in the sauce.

It not only looked beautiful and elegant,

it was restaurant food at its best.

I don't think I could have done anything more.

I did what I believed was right

and what I believe in, so I'm happy with that.

Rob's dish was a little safe. He's done the same thing before.

It's hard to criticise him cos he actually doesn't make mistakes

but he doesn't unleash himself, does he?

It was good cooking but uninspiring.

I hope I've done enough to get through.

I don't think I can keep playing it safe now.

I've really got to push myself now and show what I've got to give.

There was only one person that messed up and that was Charlie.

Today was just not his day.

The ravioli that he attempted was far too thick.

The filling was delicious

and it worked perfectly with the partridge, but the partridge was dry.

It was overcooked.

It's hard when you're under pressure to not make these little mistakes.

Unless you crunched onto a piece of lemon,

I felt that Simon's dish was a bit of a let down.

The broth that the fish was sitting in wasn't highly flavoured enough.

It just didn't have the depth of flavour that I was expecting.

The competition is massively important.

I'm not here to make up numbers. It's all I'm thinking of right now -

getting another chance to come back and show off again.

Martin filleted his fish perfectly

and cooked it with a lovely little bit of golden skin on it.

It was moist, well seasoned.

But, for me, the samphire really took over

and almost ruined that plate because it was so harsh.

The further you get, the more and more you want to win.

It would mean everything just to get through to the next round.

There was some great cooking today.

But it wasn't without error.

Two of you will be going home.

The first chef leaving us is...

..Charlie. Sorry, Charlie.

I'm still really ambitious.

I just want to build on, you know, what I've got from this competition,

keep going, keep learning and become a better chef, yeah.

The second chef leaving us is...

..Simon.

A bit disappointed not to go a bit further

but I'm really happy with my effort

and, you know, I'm going to leave with my head high.

You're not just cooking for Michel and I today,

you're going to be presenting your dishes

to three highly respected restaurant critics.

Sadly, two of you will not be going through.

Two dishes of your own creation.

One hour, 15 minutes.

Off you go.

Those restaurant critics eat in the best restaurants in the country.

That is the standard that our chefs have to reach today.

They're not easy to please, that's for sure.

Rob's a good chef. He's got good knowledge, a great repertoire.

But I want to see something different from Rob today.

I want to see him really express himself.

I think I've got to be bold now.

This is my style of cooking and if I was to cook any other style,

that just wouldn't be me on the plate.

I've got to cook from the heart.

What's your menu?

Pork fillet rolled in Earl Grey tea,

served with some goat cheese and sage tortellinis,

pancetta and creamed Savoy cabbage

and a really nice red wine reduction sauce.

Then dessert is olive oil and orange cake served with a nice chocolate mousse.

We've sort of been a little bit on your back

saying that it's fairly safe. Is this the real you?

Yeah, I think this is the real me, yes. It's my pride.

It's my bread and butter. This is what I do every day.

-Rob, get that heart and passion onto that plate, please.

-OK. Thank you.

Could be an issue with balance of flavour,

with Earl Grey tea being a bit bitter

and the very strong red wine reduction sauce

and he's serving some goats' cheese ravioli with sage.

There's a lot of strong, powerful flavours going on here.

Anton has got flair and imagination and he's a true workhorse.

I've never seen anyone get through such precise work in so little time.

I like to push my limits. I like to, kind of, see what I can do.

You need to have your own style as a chef,

and hopefully they will see that in my food today.

So what are you cooking?

I'm doing a Devon duck, caramelised duck hearts,

broccoli puree, wild asparagus and then I'm doing a carrot cake.

Ordinary run-of-the-mill carrot cake you'd get out of any coffee shop?

It's a play on it. It looks like you've gone to the potting shed and picked up a carrot.

-Is that what the plant pots are for?

-That's what it's for.

-You're nuts!

-Yeah, well,

some of us have got to be, haven't we?

Have you cooked for critics before?

We don't get critics. My critics are my customers.

So no professional critic has ever had your dessert in a plant pot?

No, no.

My mum loves it so that's always the main thing. She's the best critic.

Roast duck supreme with glazed hearts.

Really looking forward to tasting that but it is fairly straightforward

in comparison to his dessert.

I just hope the critics don't see this as a gimmick.

But if it is cooked properly then I'm sure they will admire his invention.

Listen, halfway.

Martin has got an eye for presentation and he is a true, solid chef.

The kind of chef that I would want in my kitchen.

The critics will be looking for perfect execution of dish.

'Every element on the plate has to come through

so you can say to them, "I know what I'm doing.

"I deserve a place in the semi-final."

So what is it you're cooking?

I'm going to be doing pan-roasted John Dory

with caramelised cauliflower, potato tuiles, some sea beets.

-If anything's going to go wrong, what's it going to be?

-Overcooking the John Dory

which, you know, obviously I'm trying to have as the feature.

I just want to be true to that and really show that off.

And for dessert?

Chocolate creme brulee but it's going to be freestanding,

it's going to have a chocolate biscuit base,

I'm doing that with poached cherries.

Tried and tested within the time limits?

Yes. That's why I've kept it a little more simple

than maybe some of the other guys

so I know I can, you know, execute everything that I want

to my standard and be pleased with it.

-Cor. Can you do it?

-Yes.

Martin's menu isn't going to blow away the critics

with its ingenuity or its invention,

but it will blow them away if it's perfectly cooked.

Ross has got the true professional touch,

the eye for presentation and he now bags in all that taste into his food.

If he can cook to his real capacity today,

the critics will absolutely fall in love with him.

Ross, what are you cooking for the critics?

For the critics, I'm going to do

some rabbit and langoustines with carrot ribbons,

baby fondants, and a nice glaze jus.

Have you tried this dish before?

I've not tried this particular one before,

but I do like rabbit and langoustines together.

It's a nice sweet, nice balance to it.

-And for pudding?

-For pudding, I'm going to do rhubarb custard.

-How?

-How? I'm going to set my custard,

almost like a panna cotta,

and I'm going to do three different textures of rhubarb -

puree, compote, and foam.

I'm going to do some nice shortbread

so I've got that nice crumbly texture to it.

Just like your gran used to make!

-A wee bit of a twist.

-Mmm!

Have you got what it takes?

I believe I do. I believe I do.

I think simple flavours done well can go a long way.

Rabbit and langoustines is a somewhat odd combination.

But I do know it works.

He's keeping it fairly simple, fairly straightforward,

because his dessert has got a lot of process.

He's doing three different kinds of rhubarb,

and some shortbread biscuits.

All of that in an hour and 15,

I think may be pushing it just a little bit, even for Ross.

I think there's always a danger on this kind of occasion

that people try and do too much.

They try and show you everything they know,

rather than just the best of what they know.

I'm far less interested

in brilliant technique.

I just want a good plate of food that tastes nice.

A bit of inventiveness is fine.

But what I really care about is that the best ingredients

are allowed to shine through the best cooking techniques.

That first course needs to go in eight minutes.

Martin's main - a piece of roasted fish, lovely.

Caramelised cauliflower puree.

I just hope he has enough time

to be able to cook his fish properly.

Flowering oyster leaf - the mandatory obscure ingredient -

I think that's a sort of leaf or herb?

It's a leaf that tastes bizarrely like oyster.

That's a lovely looking dish, Martin.

So that's a bit of flower, then what?

-You've got the roasting juice?

-Yes, the juice and then we're ready.

Well done.

-Hi.

-Hi.

Today we have pan-roasted John Dory

with caramelised cauliflower puree,

sea beets, potato toile, and flowering oyster leaf.

That is so weird! I just ate a flower that tasted like an oyster!

The one thing that actually does irritate me is the potato toile.

If you wanted crispy potatoes there, do us a rosti or something.

I think this is just a bit silly.

But otherwise,

the fish is well-cooked. I like the puree.

It kind of works.

I think mine might be slightly more well-cooked than yours.

It's definitely over.

There are some very strong, good flavours here.

And this sea beet has got this lovely mid-point

between seaweed and cabbage.

He's brought together some really nice ingredients.

You know, overall, I think this is a good dish.

It's not a GREAT dish, but it's a good dish.

-Mmm.

-His fish is well-cooked, well-seasoned.

The sea beets and the cauliflower, really nice

to add a bit of sweetness and saltiness to the dish.

It's good cooking, precise cooking,

but it's just not singing to me.

It tastes nice.

But there isn't a lot actually going on.

Martin, eight minutes,

-and then your dessert goes, yeah?

-Yes.

Martin's dessert - dark chocolate creme brulee, poached cherries.

Sounds like he's not trying to do too much.

If he does those two things really, really well,

it could be lovely.

Two minutes, Martin.

-Just the creme brulee on there now?

-It is, yes.

A little bit of the syrup and then we're done.

Right, they're ready. Let's go.

Thank you.

-MARTIN:

-We have dark chocolate creme brulee with poached cherries.

-JAY:

-What did you poach the cherries in?

Vanilla syrup and just some cherry liqueur.

This is one of those ideas

that probably looked OK on paper,

but on the plate, it just looks a bit of a mess.

The sugar top is too thick.

And because it's so thick,

he's had to get the real flame going on it,

and because of that, it's really burnt.

There's not much finesse going on, but the flavours themselves are fine.

It tastes pretty good.

The problem is that it's a chocolate-flavoured creme brulee.

You're rather longing for that light, vanilla,

delicious creme brulee thing that this isn't.

This is heavier, it's sweeter,

it's slightly sicklier.

Martin is almost, but not quite.

Silky, silky smooth, with bags of bitter chocolate taste.

With the cherries around it

and that cherry brandy that they've been cooked in,

that is delicious!

If everything was cooked correctly, I'd like to think

I've got a great chance of staying in the competition.

-Anton, five minutes. Are we going to be there?

-Yep.

-Are we?

-Yep.

Duck breast, glazed duck hearts, broccoli puree,

ale-braised carrots, hog's pudding fritter, wild asparagus.

It seems like he's got a lot of things there

and he wants to really show us what he can do.

Oh, yes!

Hey, look at that!

Come on! This is splendid!

A drizzle of sauce. Just a drizzle.

That's good. That's good.

-Go on, chef! Knock 'em dead!

-Well done.

-I love that!

-That's fantastic.

All right, guys? Sorry about the sweaty brow!

-Ladies first.

-Thank you very much. Thanks.

It's local Creedy Carver duck.

The hog's pudding is made especially for our pub.

Broccoli is grown in my dad's garden.

Wild asparagus is harvested from a local supplier near to us.

And the carrots are glazed in a local ale.

Obviously because, down Devon, we like our beer.

And what's actually in a hog's pudding?

A hog's pudding is a spiced white pork meat.

Thank you.

The most important thing here is

there's two big hunks of duck with a proper caramelised skin.

And once you've seen that,

you think everything else is going to be all right.

Oh, wow! Carrots that taste of beer! I mean, it's amazing, isn't it?

This duck is like a masterclass.

It's fantastic.

The meat is beautifully tender,

it's a lovely layer of fat and then crisp, crisp, crisp.

Everything on the plate is bursting with flavour.

It's fantastic.

The hog's pudding fritter, which I've never had before,

which is a revelation, is phenomenally good.

Mixing the pork with the duck is brilliant.

And the little duck hearts,

for a tiny bit of offal-y bitterness in there,

it's a very good idea. He's full of good ideas, isn't he?

Do you think we could take him home?

This is the sort of dish that I dream of having on this show.

It's fantastic. It's the sort of dish you'd tell all your friends about.

Mmm.

Anton managed to get so much on his plate.

I mean, the roasting of the duck perfectly,

and the fritter coated with just the right amount of breadcrumb. A perfect puree.

The carrots that have been braised in ale and orange are divine.

They're scrumptious. That is great-tasting food.

Really delicious.

That's as good a cooked duck as I've had anywhere. Anywhere.

Anton is giving us carrot cake for dessert.

I'm assuming this won't just be a slab of your bog-standard carrot cake

with cream cheese frosting.

-Anton, three minutes - how are you doing?

-Yeah, ready to rock and roll.

Ready to plant your carrots?

-Can we go?

-Yeah, you can go.

-We can go?

THEY CHUCKLE

This is carrot cake.

Oh, yeah?

Basically it's chocolate soil with cream cheese

and icing you'd normally get on top of the cake.

You can hear the hotness of the popping candy.

It's making a noise.

I like it when my dessert talks to me.

Popping candy, soil, edible flowers...

It's...it's nutty.

If your granny gave you this kind of carrot cake,

you'd have her hauled off, wouldn't you?

You start with this kind of light powdery rubble, the chocolate soil,

which has got all these little bits of popping candy in it,

so your mouth is fizzing.

Then a lovely kind of creamy layer of cheesecake frosting.

And then the warm sort of spice-scented cake.

And then these little glazed crunchy carrots in there.

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

I could carry on eating it for ever.

The thing about dishes like this...

I say "like this" - in this genre of craziness -

..is that fundamentally they have to taste good. And this really does.

This is witty, smart and it works.

It really works.

I love the idea of serving a carrot cake or a carrot dessert in a flower pot like that.

For me, it's a little bit too dense and too sweet.

I just like the cleverness, I like the fun of it,

I like the inventiveness.

You think when you're about to plate and you've got eight minutes... Then those eight minutes go like...

Yeah, that was fast. The fastest hour and 15 minutes of my life.

-Rob, you got under eight minutes.

-I see.

-Are you going to get there?

-I think so, yeah.

Wild mushroom sage and goats cheese tortellini.

Ham-roasted pork fillet in Earl Grey tea.

Whether the two belong on the same plate, I'm slightly doubtful of.

He's using pork fillet, the least interesting of the fillets.

Beef fillet's better. Lamb fillet's better. My fillet would be better.

Right, this should be gone now, Rob.

-Last touch, this?

-Yeah.

I do like that, son, I've got to say.

-Ladies first.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-There you go, sir.

-Thanks.

Today you are eating, as a main course,

pan-roasted pork fillet rolled in Earl Grey tea,

pancetta and cream Savoy cabbage with shallot,

celeriac puree and a reduction of pork and red wine sauce,

and a goat cheese and sage tortellini.

If I take that pasta hat off, I think the dish is slightly improved.

Although it is not improved by the fact that when I take it off,

I can see that the pork isn't cooked.

Let me big up the positives. The celeriac puree is lovely.

The Savoy cabbage is really crunchy and savoury and great.

I like the tortellini with the quite acidic goats' cheese in there.

The rest of it is a disaster.

I don't want my pork to taste of Earl Grey tea,

nor to have that grittiness.

Is it over-boiling that's made that jus lose any kind of subtlety at all

and just turn into this kind of rasping metallic taste?

I don't mind the tortellini, actually, a bit of goats' cheese. It's a perfectly well-made thing.

It just doesn't really belong on the plate with these other ingredients.

I would no more match tortellini with pork fillet

than I might have a scone with a steak.

The thing that lets it down is the star ingredient.

I love the cabbage on here with the pancetta,

and that creamy silky smooth celeriac puree.

The pork fillet is definitely not dried out

because it's actually a little bit undercooked. For me, it ends there.

That would have to go back to the kitchen if it was brought out to me.

You've now got just ten minutes for your dessert.

Rob's dessert - olive oil and orange cake, dark chocolate mousse -

is a slightly complicated way of saying "chocolate and orange".

I think it's a good idea.

It takes me back to one of my happy places.

Come on, then, Rob, let's do it.

-Are we there?

-Yeah.

-All done?

-Yeah.

-Super.

-Let's go.

-I like the look of that. My kind of pudding.

-I like that.

Thank you.

We've got an olive oil and orange cake

and a dark chocolate mousse

and then some orange syrup with cloves and cinnamon.

Enjoy.

The mousse is good, it could be a little lighter,

but it has great flavour. That little spiced syrup, really good,

although not nearly enough of it.

Rob can really cook a good cake.

The fact that there's orange in that cake is quite subtle,

it's just a bit of zest,

it actually seems to marry rather well with the chocolate.

That cake, I think, is lovely, sweet and soft.

It's a proper chocolate mousse. But I'm very, very tempted to walk up to that door

and shout into the kitchen, "Anybody got any cream?"

The orange cake, for me, could have had a bit more orange taste.

The chocolate mousse - it's a little bit too rich

and too heavy for a mousse.

The two together, I think, are possibly a little bit too rich.

I need a piece of fruit or something juicy.

I can't go from rich cake to rich mousse, back to rich cake,

back to rich mousse. It's too much.

HE SIGHS

That was very hard. I'm guessing they are only going to get harder.

Ross, you've got ten minutes, and your pace is quickening.

I don't think I've ever seen rabbit on a MasterChef menu before. Partnering it with langoustine,

it's a kind of unusual combination.

Those two can work together.

I've had dishes with rabbit and langoustine, it's quite a Catalan thing to do.

OK, you've got three minutes, so you're all right. Come on.

Ready when you are.

-Done.

-Done? Go!

We have rabbit and langoustines with crispy shallots,

baby fondants and carrot.

It's very pretty.

It almost looks like it's been art directed, doesn't it?

The langoustine are lovely.

Perfectly cooked, sweet and plump.

The rabbit is under-seasoned.

The problem is nothing is singing here,

there's no overwhelming texture, flavour, idea.

The whole thing is just muted.

If he had made a really deep luscious meaty jus,

we'd probably be singing its praises.

The langoustine are beautifully cooked, sweet and tender.

The rabbit loin is nice and pink and juicy,

but everything needs a pinch more seasoning.

Otherwise, it's a great dish.

Right, you've got 15 minutes to get your dessert out.

Ross' dessert reads as custard panna cotta with textures of rhubarb,

which, I believe, is a very fancy way of saying "rhubarb and custard".

Mmm. "Textures of rhubarb."

I fear a smear on a plate coming on.

How are we looking, Ross?

-Not good.

-BOTH: Not good?

Oh, dear, not set?

-Have you got a plan B?

-I'm working on one.

Set?

The edges are.

You're living on the edge here, Ross, aren't you?

Let's go.

Here we have rhubarb and custard, textures of rhubarb.

Thanks.

This does look like the three textures of rhubarb you don't want to eat.

It might be the first time I've had a SLICE of panna cotta.

But on the plus side, I love the smell of this little biscuit.

I really like the texture of the little strips of rhubarb and the shortbread is fantastic.

A lot of this is just let down by the way it looks.

If he had piled it up in a glass, or something like that,

it would have been terrific.

But Ross' dessert has got what his main course really lacked,

which is big, clear, distinct flavours.

Mmm. Mmm.

The shortbread is beautiful.

It's got that lovely sandy texture and buttery taste.

The rhubarb puree has just got the right amount of sugar and acidity

and it's nice and smooth. It looks rushed, but it tastes good.

All three different degrees of sweetness and sharpness

you get from rhubarb with a beautiful vanilla custard

and fantastic sweet, crumbly shortbread.

I think I just gave myself that little bit too much to do with the time frame.

I tried to stay organised and everything seemed to go everywhere.

It's a lot of work.

A good day today. I was quite excited by today and I had good reason

-because there was some fantastic stuff that went out of there.

-All of them did well today.

A few little slip-ups but that's the pressure, it does get to you.

I think the critics went away with a big smile on their face.

They were very happy.

Especially happy with Anton.

That roast duck supreme with the little bacon crumble on top,

broccoli puree, good reduction of sauce, the hog fritter...

My word, the taste, it really packed a punch.

I don't think you could find a fault on there.

At least, I couldn't find a fault on it.

I loved Anton's imagination with his dessert.

For creativity and imagination, it was right out there.

The critics loved it.

It had wow factor and it really did look the part.

I'm not the same as every other chef. I'm an individual chef.

I think sometimes that's what people are looking for, at the end of the day.

Fingers crossed, and hand on my heart, I hope they love it.

Rob served to you and I, and three restaurant critics,

undercooked pork.

But I really enjoyed the cabbage and bacon

with the little bit of cream through it

and that celeriac puree was sweet and really silky smooth.

But the tea really didn't bring anything to the pork.

The tortellini was too thick and watery

and, really, I don't think it brought anything to the dish.

The dessert was far too rich.

You said you thought it needed fruit, I thought it needed cream.

It definitely needed something. Maybe both.

There's things which I could have improved on.

But it's happened now, it's done.

It is going to be a big ask to get through to the next round.

But who knows?

Martin gave a decent piece of John Dory,

cooked well, with cauliflower puree.

The critics tend to agree with us in that his cooking is sound,

and mostly without error, but it's not setting the place on fire.

It's not delighting.

It's underwhelming maybe, but it's very satisfying to eat.

I really enjoyed his chocolate creme brulee.

It had a lovely addition of crunchy praline on the base

and I thought the cherries worked really well with the chocolate.

The topping was ever so slightly burnt on the edges,

which shouldn't happen.

I did the best I can. I'm really proud of what I did.

It's not necessarily going to be as complicated as some other people.

For me, as long as the flavour's there, that's what matters.

Ross put together another skilful plate

of rabbit and langoustine.

But, for me, lacking the punch of really good, deep flavour.

But his dessert tasted great!

It had a really interesting balance of sweetness and sharpness.

That shortbread biscuit was superb.

It was pretty important that we've impressed today.

I'm not sure if I've done enough, though. I really am not.

Ross, I think, attempted too much. Maybe Martin didn't attempt enough.

They've both actually let themselves down a little bit.

One's had some highs and some lows

and the other one's been a bit more consistent.

You know, Gregg, this is tough, because, one way or another,

we've got to send another good chef home.

That really was a quarter-final to remember.

There was some great cooking today.

But there were a few mistakes.

The first person to leave the competition...

..is...

Rob.

Sorry, Rob.

A bit disappointed, but it's not the end of the world.

I've shown that I can cook and I made it to the quarter-finals. This is just the start, really.

The second chef leaving us is...

..Martin. Sorry, Martin.

I'm really disappointed not to go through to the semi-finals.

They did see some of what I am capable of but obviously not enough to take me through.

Well done.

I thought I was definitely going home today. I couldn't believe it. I can't believe I'm still here.

I'm over the moon.

It's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

There's no feeling to describe. It's almost cloud nine.

Just absolute joy. Probably the best feeling I've had in a long time.

Tingling at all ends, it's absolutely...

awesome, really awesome feeling, this is.

Anton and Ross will be back for the semi-finals.

Next week, ten more chefs will compete to impress Monica and Gregg.

Let's find the next cookery genius.

No matter how many ways you turn that bowl, it's never going to look right.

I'd be really happy if it came up to me.

Well, it has come up to me and I am very happy.

This looks like a plate from an amateur.

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