Episode 23 MasterChef: The Professionals

'It's the final week of Professional MasterChef.

'And for Adam,

'Scott and Steven,

'the competition is almost at an end.'

I'm only young, at the end of the day, so if I was the winner of MasterChef, it would make my career.

As you get through the stages, the harder you have to work.

The finish line's in sight and the more you see it, the more you want it.

I don't want to get this far and stumble at the last hurdle.

I want to cross the finish line in first place.

'Amongst the challenges over the last two nights,

'they've had to create stand-out dishes from scraps.'

I have no idea where to begin.

I look at it, I want to eat it, I'll push Michel to the side and have it to myself.

'They've cooked with one of the world's most creative geniuses.'

You just have to express yourself.

THEY LAUGH Whoops. I dropped the lemon tart.

'But between them and the final stands one last test of their skills.

'Tonight, 30 of the greatest chefs in the country

'will descend on central London

'for one of the biggest culinary events taking place in Britain today.'

To have every table full of chefs of this calibre, that's a big ask.

This is when our chefs are really pushed to the limit.

You just cannot afford to get it wrong today.

'On what is predicted to be the hottest day of the year,

'the finalists are on their way to Browns Hotel in London's Mayfair.

'In just four hours, the chefs' table service will begin.

'But for the first time,

'the event will be run as a restaurant service.

'Each finalist has had to design an exquisite main and dessert for the menu.

'The 30 guests will then decide what they want to order.'

Doing our own menus

for the best chefs in the country just mounts the pressure on today.

Really nerve-racking.

But, you know, hopefully it'll go really well and they'll enjoy it.

My heart feels like it's about to come out of my throat.

It's beating very fast.

But that's a good thing. Nerves show you care.

'Because of the amount of work involved,

'they have each been given a commis chef to help them with their preparations.'

-I'm looking forward to this.

-'But they'll be on their own when it comes to service.'

-Nice to meet you. I'm Steve.

-Nice to meet you.

-Today, let's start with the onions.

-Yes.

Once they're done, let me know and I'll get them on the stove.

-Yes.

-If you see anything you're not sure about, just ask. I'm not nasty.

'There are four hours left for preparation

'before service starts at seven o'clock.'

Today is extremely big for me.

It's the perfect opportunity to actually showcase my food

with these top names in our profession,

so it's very important that I make a good impression.

'Adam's main is based around octopus,

'piglet belly, squid,

'compressed lemon flavoured with bergamot and crispy seaweed.'

Adam is being very brave and bold and pushing the boat out.

I can understand pork and squid. It works quite well, actually.

Pork and octopus can work quite well.

What's confusing to me is that he's not serving any vegetables with this dish,

just some oranges, some lemons and some seaweed.

Hm.

Er, I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure how it's going to be received, either.

-Phwoar! You are one brave or crazy chef.

-Tell me about it.

If I didn't know you any better,

and if I hadn't tasted any of your food previously,

and took one look at your menu, I would throw it away and say, "The guy's a lunatic."

But at the end of the day, what would Massimo do?

He'd do crazy stuff, as well, and he's the one who's actually got me

out of my shell to go and be...

Not put crazy things that won't go together,

but the thought process behind it, you know.

The usual things that go with it,

let's just bring it back and actually think about the ingredients, that's what I've done.

If you get this right, they will be applauding you all the way back home, for sure.

But I think it's a very, very fine line between getting it right

-and a car crash.

-It'll be interesting.

I think there'll be a lot of guessing games going on at the table tonight. Good luck. Crack on.

'But before he can focus on his main,

'his most pressing concern is getting his dessert underway.

'A chocolate mousse with a mint sorbet and a lemon sorbet,

'all of which need to be set in the blast chiller.'

Can you smell all that mint now?

I do like the idea of chocolate and mint.

-With lemon? I've got to try it.

-SHE LAUGHS

I've just got to try, more for curiosity's sake.

'With the sorbet mix in the blast chiller,

'he makes a start on the chocolate mousse.'

I'm running a little behind, not on everything,

just on this chocolate. This has annoyed me a little bit.

I don't know if Adam has realised, but this kitchen is about 30 degrees.

It is hot and humid.

If he's going to attempt any chocolate work in here, it's going to be difficult.

In saying that, if anyone can pull these flavours and techniques off, Adam can.

It's a chocolate mousse which I'm going to put into shards.

This is like a 24-hour job.

That blast freezer better work.

The first couple of hours of prep is going to be really key,

just getting everything ready and organised the way I want,

they hopefully service should go nice and smooth.

'Scott's main is based around venison loin,

'tortellini

'and a smoked consomme.'

Scott is using venison and some truffle to make a crust.

This truffle, he's going to make it more intense in colour

by using the squid ink, which has me a little bit worried.

If he uses too much, it's going to influence the flavour of this dish and he doesn't want that.

He just wants it for the look.

Unusually, he's not serving a sauce but he's making a consomme with all the trimmings.

Interestingly, he's serving the consomme in a teapot filled with smoke,

so there's going to be a lovely element of theatre.

That's being a clever chef and I think our chefs will appreciate that.

-How you feeling about this evening?

-Erm, yeah, really nervous. There's some fantastic chefs in there.

Amazing opportunity that we've got to cook for them.

And working with you guys. You've only judged us, so the fact that you're running the pass is exciting.

-As long as you don't shout at me.

-Let's wait until it starts, yeah?

-THEY LAUGH

What are you hoping to have here that's going to impress our chefs tonight?

You know, well-balanced, well-seasoned, good cooking techniques

and a bit of personality. I hope they all see that today.

I'm definitely putting my heart and soul into it.

-Fantastic, Scott. Keep it going.

-Thanks, chef.

'Scott's dessert is a baked lemon custard

'with a lemon drizzle cake

'and white peaches.'

All of that I could see working beautifully together.

On a bright summer's day, that is the kind of refreshing dessert you would sit down to and really adore.

'Scott's commis chef is making the mixture for the lemon drizzle cake

'while he gets to work on the smoked venison and beetroot consomme for his main.

'He begins by caramelising the venison trimmings.

'And then separately frying off the beetroot, carrots and celery.

'He then transfers everything to a pressure cooker

'and adds chicken stock and herbs to build the layers of flavour.'

Yeah, it's pretty hot. I think my legs are sweating.

I don't think my legs have ever sweated in the kitchens. But everything's going well,

so I've got two big jobs to get out of the way and then I'll be really happy.

'The consomme now needs to cook for two hours,

'so Scott moves onto the next big element of his main,

'the venison sausage filling for his tortellini.'

It's looking pretty good at the moment. Really good.

As soon as I get this done, I think I'll be on the right track.

Almost two hours gone. Keep it going, guys, come on.

'They are halfway through prep.

'At 7pm, they will lose their commis and service will begin.'

This is probably the most nerve-racking day so far.

My main worry is getting the prep exactly how I want it and ready for tonight's service.

'Steven's main is based around pork and artichokes.'

-These, puree.

-Just making a puree, yeah?

-Just cut straight through. Cut the top and then...

-Yeah.

'His commis starts prepping the veg

'so he can focus on the two cuts of pork.

'The fillet needs to be wrapped in sage and Parma ham

'and then cooked sous-vide

'before he can turn his attention to the rump.'

Steven is taking a rump of pork, a cheaper cut,

and slow-cooking it in a salt crust.

It should leave that pork really, really moist and tender.

Bags of flavour, straightforward, good, honest cooking.

That's got Steven written all over the menu.

And he's going to serve it with a dressing made from pickled lemon.

This sounds divine. I love the match of pork with some lemon, capers in there, as well.

That dish, to me, sounds delicious.

So is this going to impress our elite list of guests tonight?

Chefs love pork and I think the rump of pork will catch their eye

because the salt bake really keeps it tender, gets the flavour in there,

cos pork and salt love each other.

Mm! Just hearing you talk about the salt crust pork, I'm, yeah, licking my lips.

You don't seem nervous in the slightest bit.

I think I'm like... is it a swan on the water?

Er, I am very nervous

about timings, about getting things right.

Well, you're not showing it. You're really... You look as if you're in total control.

At the moment, I'm in control, but I will let you know when things start slipping away.

-We don't want to know.

-OK.

-No, no, no.

-Are we done?

-Yes, I think so.

-Crack on.

'With the clock ticking, Steven finishes prepping the pork

'and now can begin work on his complicated dessert.'

Steven's is a take on toffee apple, and we all love a toffee apple.

He's got popcorn there dipped in caramel. He's also got a parfait going with that.

'The parfait is made by roasting apples

'and adding them to sugar syrup, egg yolks and cream.'

Ooh, I like the sounds of Steven's dessert.

He likes to play with his presentation,

so you will see something quite artistic from him.

He's putting his parfait in a cone, he's got a tuile going around the top,

it's going to be a fun-looking dessert.

Pipe it in, put this in the freezer, you get like a witch's hat parfait.

Do you want to try a little bit?

Mm!

'Steven is also making an apple sorbet to go with it.

'Like Adam, the success of his dessert

'relies on all the main elements setting in time.'

At the moment, things are going to schedule, I believe.

Sorbet's in the freezer now so hopefully it's got enough time to set.

'Outside, the temperature has risen to 34 degrees,

'the hottest day of the year so far.

'With service approaching, Scott is now assembling the venison sausage tortellini for his main,

'but the heat is starting to take its toll.'

It's very hot in this kitchen to do pasta.

It's drying out very quickly, isn't it?

Scott looks flustered.

He's having problems with his pasta. It is drying out very quickly in the heat of this kitchen.

'With his first tortellini ruined...

'..he has to start from scratch.'

I just need to work a bit quicker, that's all.

'The heat is also affecting the equipment.'

The blast chillers are not working as they should do

and this is affecting Steven and Adam,

especially with their iced dessert.

My apple sorbet's in the blast chiller, it's still not set.

It's saying it's on minus-5,

but it's not setting.

Plan B is to put all these iced desserts into the main freezer, which is at minus-18.

Hopefully that'll work.

This has just totally messed up everything to do with my timing, everything to do with the desserts.

'But there is no time to rethink their dishes.

'Steven still has to make 30 circular popcorn tuiles

'which will become the brim of the witch's hat.'

You're looking a bit puce.

A hot kitchen and it's a hot day today, so I'm used to it.

We're all chefs here, we all work in these environments every day.

-If you can't stand the heat...

-Get out of the kitchen.

-It can go up another ten degrees for me.

-HE LAUGHS

'He makes white chocolate sugar tuiles as the base,

'and once they're cooked,

'he grinds popcorn into a powder

'and sprinkles it on top.'

It's really difficult to judge the timing and I really want to try and get ready before the deadline

so I've got time to check through everything,

so I'm really pushing hard at the moment and hopefully keep up the pace.

I think our chefs have just realised the enormity of the task they've got.

Things are getting really hot in here.

I don't know why I insist on doing chocolate work.

'Despite the heat, Scott finally finishes his venison sausage tortellini...

'..and can shift his attention to the all-important consomme.'

-How we doing, Scott?

-Yeah, good, chef. Just getting my consomme passed.

I need to portion my venison and then just wash my mushrooms and then I should be pretty much there.

-All going to plan?

-Yeah, all going to plan.

Obviously, timings got away from me a little bit,

but I'm happy with the consomme, lovely golden colour.

Lovely. That looks great. Absolutely great.

I don't know if you've got enough, though. What if they all order that?

I won't have enough, chef.

Just over half an hour to go, guys. Come on.

Keep it going.

'Adam's mousse has set

'and he's managing to cut it into shards.

'But his sorbet is not yet ready.

'He is now turning his focus onto the mussel broth

'that will accompany his octopus and pork belly main.'

I'm cooking a lot of mussels because it's the juices that it produces.

You get that really nice, smoky flavour from it.

That's the thing that I need.

'Adam flames four kilos of mussels

'and then adds white wine.

'Next he burns a piece of coal before adding it to olive oil.

'The coal oil, along with the Ras El Hanout spices,

'are added to the mussel juices to finish the broth.'

Adam seems to be ready mostly on the main course.

The issue here for Adam is his dessert.

It has a lot of cold elements.

He's got two sorbets to go on. He's under pressure.

He needs to keep his head on and focus.

'While Steven's apple sorbet seems to be setting,

'Adam's have not.

'He decides to put the lemon sorbet in the ice-cream maker.

'But his problems don't end there.

'It's too hot to take his shards of chocolate mousse out of the freezer.

'So he has to spray them with lemon and cocoa butter powder while still inside.'

The blast freezers aren't working,

so that's going to put us behind with the chocolate work quite a bit,

as I rapidly boil my cream all over the floor.

'Tonight's service needs to be finished within two hours,

'requiring military precision.

'To ensure this, Monica will be running the pass.'

We're nearing seven o'clock, my chefs aren't quite there yet, which is making me a bit anxious.

I like to kick a service off, everything ready.

My team gets flustered, I'm not happy.

CLATTERING

'Steven's salt crust pork is now cooked, but it needs time to rest

'and then he needs to sear each individual portion when the orders are called.'

Ohh!

Oooh! That smells lovely!

'There's just moments to go before service will begin.'

We're going to be late by a few minutes, for sure.

They're pushing themselves to the limit.

'Outside, the great gathering of Michelin-star chefs

'and new culinary stars has begun.'

On a normal night in your restaurant,

you might have one, maybe two,

but to have every table full of chefs of this calibre is a big ask.

Being a young cook myself,

I know how daunting it is to cook for peers.

That's the respect you want more than anything, respect from your peers,

so I'm glad that I'm sitting this side and not that side.

I think it's going to be immense pressure downstairs.

They know this could make or break them.

We are going to be late, for sure.

I've asked the maitre d's to slow it down just a little bit.

Cos the last thing I want is for one of these guys to be ready

and the others not. They all have to be ready on time together.

-Getting there, Scott.

-Oui.

One more minute. That's it. Quick. Last job.

That's it. Come on. Commis out of the kitchen.

-Thank you very much.

-That's it. Finished.

They've done enough work for you. Come on. It's up to you now.

You're on your own.

'Now all the contestants can do is wait to see how many orders they get for their dish.'

What I'm looking for is something that's going to excite me,

something I haven't seen before, something that will make the table

stand up and say, "Wow, that's a great plate of food."

'For the main course, they have the choice between

'Adam's octopus and piglet belly with confit squid,

'crispy seaweed and compressed lemon flavoured with bergamot...

'..Scott's truffle and squid ink crusted venison,

'pork belly, tortellini and smoked venison and beetroot consomme...

'..and Steven's salt-baked rump and fillet of pork

'with artichokes and a caper and lemon pickle dressing.'

Good evening. Welcome. Are you ready to order?

Er, I think we are.

-Pork, please, with the artichokes and lemon and sage.

-Certainly.

Very high expectations. All three main courses are very exciting,

they show a good balance of ingredients, good imagination,

and it makes it very hard to decide which of the main courses I should choose.

-Sir?

-The venison.

-The venison? Certainly.

I'll have the, erm, octopus.

Ca marche, two venison,

three octopus and two pork.

-Right!

-How long will it take for you to get that together?

-Eight minutes. Eight minutes.

-Eight minutes.

'Now these three finalists have to prove they can work together

'and serve food worthy of the chefs who will eat it.'

Every dish on that menu seems to have a lot of ingredients.

So it'll be really interesting to see how they can put them all together,

all in time to feed everyone at the same time.

Ca marche, three octopus, two pork, one venison.

'The first two tables are in

'and Adam already has six orders for his octopus dish.'

I've chosen the octopus and piglet belly.

There's a lot going on there, so it'll be quite an intriguing dish

to see how they pull that one together.

'He needs to sear the octopus and his piglet belly

'before he can begin to plate.'

It's got a complexity about it and it also shows a lot of skill.

Will the octopus be tough, will it be tender,

will the squid be just cooked right

and will the piglet belly be dry?

'Steven has four orders and he needs to sear off his pork,

'finish the confit artichokes and puree

'and then he can serve.'

For mains, I've ordered the rump and fillet of pork.

There's a lot going on in that dish

but it's the one dish that I felt a little bit of connection with.

'For Scott, with three orders, he needs to cook his venison tortellini

'and also sear the venison loin and top it with a truffle crust

'before he can plate.'

You've got venison, you've got pork belly, you've got truffle.

If each flavour you can taste and the venison comes through the most,

then I'm sure they'll do very well.

First table and then we'll be on a roll. Well done. I love what I'm seeing, guys. Love it.

-Come on.

-Is there a sauce?

-The sauce is coming.

-Oh, that looks lovely.

-The consomme's just coming, chef.

Waiting on you, Adam. Come on. Don't let the side down.

Adam, I need the sauce from you.

I was really hungry.

I now want two octopus, one venison and three pork.

-Right!

-Keep it going. First plates were wonderful.

I want them all like that for the rest of the night.

-Two minutes and we'll go?

-Two minutes.

-I'm going to be more than that.

-How long, Adam?

-Er, seven, seven.

-Seven on the next one.

-My tort's a minute away from that table.

-Just take them out.

-Yeah, I haven't done my pork yet.

It started off not very good, but now service is going,

we're getting in to the rhythm of things, settling down quite a lot.

Come on, guys, quick, quick, quick. Keep it going, keep it going.

'With three orders on the next table,

'Steven has the most work to do to get his pork dish up on time.'

I'm really happy that the dish is popular.

It was a frantic start and now I'm starting to get into the swing of it.

I love pork. It's one of my favourite dishes.

But there's two different types of pork on here,

the fillet and the rump, so they're both very different

and very difficult to cook. If it's overcooked, it'll be very dry and not very nice,

but if you get pork perfect, it's one of the most amazing things ever,

so fingers crossed, I'm going to have perfect pork.

I have the venison. Waiting on two octopus and three pork.

Come on. I want everything hot.

Sorry, Monica. 30 seconds.

OK, you can start to go.

Those plates look wonderful.

I just hope they're happy upstairs. I'm almost as nervous as the boys.

'With only half the room served

'and the temperature in the kitchen still rising,

'the challenge is to keep delivering Michelin-standard dishes.'

Ca marche, two venison, three octopus

-and two pork.

-Oui.

-Oui, chef.

-Would you like some more?

-No.

-No, I didn't think so. So let's get these tables up.

-Five minutes the next table, yeah?

-Oui.

'Orders for Scott's main are finally picking up.'

I was a bit nervous at the start, but we're working our way through it.

The bit that stands out most for me is the oak-smoked consomme.

I'm very intrigued to see how they're going to present that dish

and also to capture that flavour in that dish.

-Can I start dressing?

-Oui.

-Oui.

-How long?

-30 seconds.

-30 seconds for Scott. How about the other two?

-Same.

-Same.

The boys are getting into a rhythm, they're talking to each other

and trying to get the food up as close as possible to each other.

It's not easy. They've not worked together properly as a service, but they're doing a damn great job.

The plates are looking wonderful. They've done themselves proud here today.

Start to go. Table five. Wakey-wakey.

I think my venison dish was too crowded. It looked a bit tight.

But I'm happy with all the flavours and all the cooking.

I hope they really enjoy it. I can't put words in their mouths.

Fantastic chefs up there, so I'll wait to find out their opinion.

'Scott's venison loin with a black truffle and squid ink crust

'is served with venison sausage tortellini, crispy pork belly,

'a deep-fried potato hoop,

'sauteed spinach, girolle mushrooms

'and a smoked venison and beetroot consomme.'

First impressions are good. I'm just wondering...

I maybe thought the pork belly would be a little smaller.

It's a rather dominant part of the dish. So we'll see how it is.

The venison is beautifully cooked

and covered nicely with truffles.

The tortellini with sausage is just excellent.

And on top of that, the beetroot consomme, exceptional.

The venison itself was cooked well.

Erm, I think spot-on temperature-wise.

And the pork belly, although initially I thought it was going to be too much,

the flavours did work all right.

I thought it was a fantastic dish. There were a lot of flavours happening.

The good thing is, they all worked together very well.

The only thing was the pork belly. I didn't think it belonged to that plate.

The dish was fantastic. Loved it. Just the pork belly.

I'm not sure why he put venison and an almost equal-size piece of pork belly on the same plate.

But apart from that, the consomme was lovely, really nice, delicate smokiness.

Erm, enjoyed it a lot.

I really liked it. All the different textures and cooking techniques.

My favourite element was the potato hoop.

It's kind of cheeky, because it's quite a serious plate of food

and suddenly there's something funny on it. That offset everything else.

It was quite mellow, it was quite a nice flavour,

the truffle worked really well through the dish.

It would be nice to have a bit more roasting on the venison

to get more venison flavour, then it'd be fantastic.

There were a lot of flavours in the dish and I think the key elements,

the venison, the pork belly, the truffle and the smoked consomme,

came across very well.

I believe the contestant delivered.

Scrap the pork belly and you've got a great dish.

'For his main course, Adam has cooked octopus

'with crispy piglet belly and confit squid,

'compressed lemon with bergamot, crispy seaweed,

'served with a smoked mussel broth.'

This wasn't a very enjoyable service. It wasn't set up, wasn't organised, wasn't in control.

Everything tasted the way I wanted it to, just a wee bit more refinement would've been better.

Very, very modern presentation.

When the broth was poured over, there was a lovely little crackling sound

from the crispy pork. Really nice.

Quite small for a main course. There's a lot going on in there.

But first impressions, pretty good.

-The octopus is cooked lovely.

-Yeah.

-Squid's cooked lovely.

I just wonder if the smoked mussel broth

could've been a little bit more smoky.

I thought it was absolutely delicious.

The combination of flavours was very good.

It was quite a tricky dish to do and very brave and I think it's worked.

Technically I thought it was really cooked well.

The belly, the octopus I thought was really nice.

Maybe the lemon could've been cut smaller.

Once you put a piece of that lemon in your mouth, you overpower everything else in there.

Apart from that, I was happy.

If you put it in front of me again, I'd eat it again.

Sound technique. My main complaint is

I don't think it was a main course portion.

You know, it was... I'd have been happier if it was a starter.

It was quite nice. It was meant to be with a smoked mussel broth,

but I didn't really get the smoked mussel broth at all, I just couldn't taste it.

The mussel flavour was fantastic.

If you're going to say it's a smoked mussel broth,

it should be a little bit more smoky, just a fraction more, ten percent.

To have so many different textures

and tie them all into a cohesive dish that is cooked perfectly

at the same time is just phenomenal. You know, it works brilliantly.

Just a little bit bigger for me next time.

'For his main course, Steven has made salt-baked pork rump

'and pork fillet wrapped in sage and Parma ham,

'served with confit baby artichokes,

'globe artichoke puree,

'accompanied by a caper and lemon pickle dressing

'and a sage and port sauce.'

Overall, I am happy.

There could've been a few tweaks on the main,

but I'm never going to be 100 percent happy with the food I do, I'll always be searching for more.

Presentation was quite good, it was nice, clean.

It was quite big. There was a lot on there.

It was a big portion, so... Erm, but, yeah, it was nice.

When it arrived, I thought it looked absolutely stunning.

There was a lot of things going on on the plate. The pork was cooked beautifully.

The problem was the balance of the dish.

There was so many things going on,

so every time that you had a mouthful of all of the dish, you just got a lot of acidity.

The best thing on this plate is the artichoke.

Pork and artichoke, I get that. Olive, that's good.

But capers, pine nuts, broad beans? There's too much going on.

It was nice. There was some issues with, for me, too much acidity

with capers and lemon.

It's a difficult dish to get right. Pork's a difficult meat to cook well

and that just needed a little more attention.

But it was a good effort.

I thought the presentation was very nice.

It was nice to see different cuts of the meat and different ingredients.

I'm happy but I'm not ecstatic.

The two types of pork, both are beautifully cooked,

so wonderfully tender, lots of flavour, lots of intensity,

wonderfully presented, so very, very good.

Well done. Now, clean down ready for dessert service.

Right.

'It's finally the moment when Adam and Steven

'need their sorbets and parfait to be set and ready to go.'

I'm happy with the parfaits. They've come out exactly how I want them.

I just hope enough work now.

Not set.

That's a nice sorbet. You could do a sauce.

For my mint chocolate dish, my mint component has gone.

It's just boring chocolate.

The entire dish is ruined cos it was designed as mint chocolate,

the first word being mint, the second word being chocolate.

The mint's gone. We just have chocolate.

Adam is really cut up, he's really upset, and I feel for him

because the mint element of his chocolate mint dessert has not worked.

The lemon sorbet has worked, that's set.

He is going to try and get this mint sorbet on the plate,

but I fear the worst, I fear it's just going to be a slush.

'In a last-ditch attempt to set his mint sorbet...'

Oh, you're nearly there!

'..Adam transfers it to the ice-cream maker.'

Well, if it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't.

I can only hope for the best.

'For dessert, the chefs have a choice.

'Scott's baked lemon cream custard,

'polenta and almond lemon drizzle cake and white peaches.

'Adam's chocolate mousse shard, candied mint,

'chocolate cremeux and lemon sorbet.

'And Steven's apple parfait with a popcorn tuile,

'caramel popcorn and an apple sorbet.'

Gentlemen, are you ready to order your desserts?

-Yes, please.

-I'll start the ordering off by having the chocolate.

-I'm going to have the apple popcorn, gentlemen.

-Lemon cream, please.

I can't wait to try the apple popcorn, please.

-Thank you! Are we ready?

-Oui.

-Adam.

-Yes, chef?

-Are we ready?

-No, chef.

Was that a no?

One way or another, we are going to have to go in five minutes, guys.

-So whether your sorbet is ready or not.

-Oui, chef.

Ca marche, four apple popcorn,

two mint chocolate

and one lemon.

I'm not serving it with the mint on, so it's just a chocolate dish

and nothing else.

With a dessert, it's got to look pretty but not at the cost

of how it eats. I want big spoons of it.

You know, don't get too tarty with it, it's still got to be eaten.

Wow! Well, if desserts are all about theatre, you've nailed it, mate.

Dessert, apple popcorn. Two ingredients.

So, it's a question of just textures and taste of those two ingredients

and whether they'll marry together to form a whole.

Steven, if you're ready, bring them up.

All right, four apple popcorn on the pass. Thank you.

Waiting on the rest, then we can go.

Just leave it there, darling. Yeah.

Adam, are you taking part in this?

Oui, chef!

Chocolate now. Lovely.

Why have you got a face like that when you can serve a plate that looks this good? Come on, let's go.

Right, next table. I want three lemon, two apple popcorn and one chocolate mint.

Oui, chef.

The mint sorbet won't be ready. Maybe for the last table, but...

So, after this table, I want two apple popcorn,

-two chocolate mint and two lemon.

-Oui, chef.

How long on the next table?

-One minute.

-He said one minute. Is that all right for you?

-No.

-Scott needs a couple of minutes.

-Oui, chef.

-You guys are working together on this.

I've got the polenta and almond lemon drizzle cake now.

Cakes can be very, very difficult to get right.

So hopefully, that polenta cake will be nice and moist.

I've ordered the lemon cream.

I hope it tastes exactly how it sounds on the menu. I'm really looking forward to it.

Come on, Scotty!

Right, let's go!

-Scotty, they've got to send.

-Yep.

-Sorbet on, as well, yeah?

-Do the sorbet and bring it straight up here.

-Yeah.

Let's go, please.

Next table, three lemon,

-two apple popcorn and a chocolate mint.

-Oui!

'Dessert service is coming to an end

'and Adam still hasn't sent out a dish with a mint sorbet on it.'

-How many chocolate on that next table?

-The next table you have one chocolate mint.

OK, I can do the mint, but it has to go straight away, please.

I don't normally go for chocolate. Something about the dessert is difficult,

chocolate and lemon, they're two things that don't always go together with mint, as well.

It's going to be a difficult balance. I'm quite interested to see. Something new for me.

Can I possibly have the tray here and somebody hold it while I scoop?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you, chef. Thank you very much.

Let's hope for the best.

Go! Quick! Four. Table four.

I've got one with a mint soup, I wouldn't say a mint sorbet.

But I got one on with some sort of mint element.

Last table, boys.

Two chocolate mint, two apple popcorn and two lemon.

-Oui, chef.

-Come on, let's go!

-How long do you need?

-How long?

-Er, one and a half minutes.

-I need about four.

-We need four up here.

-So let's go for three, yeah?

-Oui.

Come on! Last push, let's go.

-Come on, are we ready?

-Yeah, just got the sorbet to go on.

Scott's ready. Adam?

-Whoo-hoo! Happy with that?

-Finally.

OK. Let's go. Last table. Table one.

Yes.

It's only the last plate, but finally it works.

-Nice one, lads.

-SHE SIGHS

I feel pretty tired, to be honest. It's been a pretty hard seven hours.

But, you know, I think we all did really well and I'm just glad it's over.

'Scott's almond lemon drizzle cake

'is topped with roasted white peaches

'and served with baked lemon custard,

'polenta and peach puree,

'almond crumble, salted almond caramel,

'and a lime and green tea sorbet.'

The presentation of the dessert is really nice. It's really clean.

First impressions are really positive. It looks really good.

I like the apple blossom. A lot of colour there.

Erm, it looks fresh. Light. I'm looking forward to it.

It's perfect. It's beautiful. It's quite sharp. The flavours all work really well together.

The sorbet was beautiful. I think it's lovely.

There are so many good flavours on here.

The flavour of peach, the flavour of the toasted nuts,

the sorbet, the custard is really well made.

It's very sharp. It's very, very cleansing.

I've got a sweet tooth. I'd like it a bit sweeter.

The lemon custard itself was cooked perfectly. Really lovely flavours.

The roasted peach, if you had it singularly, you could taste it,

but if you had it with everything else, it was overpowered with the lemon.

It was very nice. It was quite sharp,

but I wanted to feel something on the plate from the sweetness of the beautiful peaches in season

and the crunch of fresh almonds, which weren't there.

I think there was a little bit of a misbalance on the flavours. They were a little bit too lemony.

A lot of the other flavours got lost.

The lemon cream was perfect. Absolutely spot on.

It was really nice how it had the caramelisation on top.

And it really, really packed a punch, as well. It was great.

I just think it's a lovely way to finish the meal. It's been beautiful.

I know luck's not been on my side. The rest of the components I'm very happy with.

They came out exactly how I wanted them.

It's just a little bit heartbreaking when you design a dish

and equipment fails.

It's kind of annoying.

'Adam's dessert is a shard of chocolate mousse

'encased in lemon and cocoa butter powder,

'topped with candied mint,

'served with chocolate cremeux, peanut crumb,

'a chocolate caramel tuile and a lemon sorbet.

'For the later dishes, there was also a mint sorbet.'

I think it looks good. It looks good.

In this heat, as well, the sorbet's melting quite quickly. But it looks nice. It looks appetising.

I like the shard of chocolate mousse. I'm looking forward to eating it.

I think it was maybe missing its sorbet.

But the chocolate shards were really nice and light and went with the lemon sorbet.

When I first thought of this chocolate dish,

I was a little worried about how it's all going to marry.

But I'll be honest with you, I think this dessert is stunning.

The flavour of the chocolate is fantastic. The mint works well with it

and the acidity that comes with the lemon. It's a very good dessert, very happy. Yeah, I'm a happy man.

I like chocolate, I like lemon, I like mint and I like peanut,

but perhaps not all at the same time.

Unfortunately, the sorbets suffered from the warmth of the rooms,

so they were rather liquid by the time we got them.

But they were very flavourful. The mint was very evident.

The lemon was very evident. And the chocolate mousse had a nice salty tang to it

which was very well done, well-balanced.

Textures on the dish I thought were very, very good.

I love the crispness of the chocolate shard.

The chocolate mousse with the lemon for me worked very well.

Technically, I think it was very good. And I really enjoyed it.

Delicious dish. Very, very well done.

Quite brave because of the darkness of the chocolate, the bitterness of the chocolate.

But, for me, that's a very accomplished dish.

Now I'm starting to realise who I'm cooking for.

You know, I do feel good, but I just hope they've enjoyed their meal tonight

because, you know, it's been a real honour cooking for them.

'Steven's dessert is roasted apple parfait with a popcorn tuile,

'sour apple balls, caramel popcorn, popcorn crumble and an apple sorbet.'

The witch's hat, presentation-wise, looked stunning.

And it was a showstopper.

Nice creamy apple parfait, which is really working nicely,

and all the popcorn flavours come together. It was a delicious dessert.

The popcorn worked really well. There was some really clean acidity with the apple flavour.

And, you know, with a dessert, you want something that's going to refresh

and clean the palate, and that achieved that.

Sweet and the sourness from the apple,

I think the contestant captured that very well.

And also the flavour of the popcorn, which is quite a difficult thing to do. They did a really good job.

I personally wouldn't have thought apple could work with popcorn

but this person has absolutely convinced me that it does.

I absolutely loved the plate.

It's very good. Maybe just not enough popcorn for my liking,

but otherwise, all in all, not a bad dish.

It was really good. The flavours worked well,

I thought it was going to be too sickly, it wasn't.

The popcorn, toffee can be very sickly,

and the balance was good, the balance was really nice.

The parfait, beautifully soft,

nice underlying apple taste coming through.

The popcorn adds to that flavour,

all working together, and a really good dessert, very enjoyable.

-They did well.

-They did very well. All the plates look stunning.

-Even with missing elements.

-THEY LAUGH

'Service is over

'and the finalists will finally get the chance

'to meet their idols face-to-face.'

It's nerve-racking stepping into that room.

You've got the best chefs in the UK all sat together

and all their eyes are going to be on you.

It's quite daunting.

I just hope they're all smiling.

APPLAUSE

Well, guys, congratulations from all of us here.

Erm, the food tonight, in general terms, was actually fantastic.

Erm, I think you did set yourself a pretty hard task.

I can't begin to imagine what it must've been like back of house.

But everyone round our table enjoyed a fantastic dinner.

Scott, thank you very much for the venison dish you gave us tonight.

You cooked it very well and it had a really nice truffle crust,

really good flavour, but the particular bit was the oak-smoked consomme.

I think the smokiness was particularly very nice and added a lot of depth to the dish.

-I think you did a really good dish there tonight. Thank you very much.

-Pleasure.

Cooking for all of you, it's been a very hard day, but I really enjoyed it,

and I hope you enjoyed it and just not lying to me,

to be honest. A fantastic opportunity, I'm so glad I got the chance to cook for you all.

Hello, Adam, I'm Tom Kerridge, I had your chocolate dessert.

I thought it was fantastic. The balance of flavours were very, very good.

There might have been issues with the ice cream in the heat of the room,

but it's very hot today, and the dish itself, I thought was brilliant.

-You should be very proud of yourself. Well done.

-Thank you very much.

It was extremely nerve-racking cooking for all you guys.

Erm, technically, the ice cream was the biggest issue.

It's extremely hot down there. But I'm just really thankful you enjoyed it.

It was tremendous cooking for yous. Thank you very much.

I had the pork dish. I thought the rump was absolutely amazing. The fillet was beautifully cooked.

The only problem I had with the dish was the artichokes. I thought you put too much lemon on them.

I thought everything else on there was absolutely beautiful. No, I thought it was amazing.

Hi, Steven. I had your dessert.

Very modern, almost futuristic in its presentation.

In terms of flavour, very, very good and a fantastic dessert. So thank you very much.

I want to thank everybody for their feedback.

I can take a lot from it. You know, I'm not the finished product,

and that's something I can move on from and learn and develop myself.

So thank you all for this evening.

I think you should all be really proud of what you've done tonight.

The main thing out of this that you should take, whether you win or lose,

is you should always cook from the heart and just enjoy yourselves. Well done.

APPLAUSE

My emotions are running high.

It's nice to know that I cooked for some of my idols, it was a great feeling.

An absolutely amazing experience. It was good to get good feedback,

It's good to get recognition by these guys.

I felt so, so small, purely because these are all my idols.

I thought, "They're not going to say good things," but they did and I'm very happy.

APPLAUSE

That was a long day. That was a tough one. We meant it to be a real test.

And I think they've done really well, Monica. Really well.

I'm very, very pleased for them.

All the plates that these chefs put up tonight were stunning.

Scott delivered the goods yet again.

My word, that chef is getting better and better, stronger and stronger.

Today was the biggest day of the whole competition, you know?

It will be a massive shock to the system on the final day and it will suddenly end. It will be sad.

Hopefully we'll all keep in touch and it'll be great friendships started between us chefs.

Adam is his own worst critic, and I know for a fact he will not be happy

about how service went for him today.

Adam got flustered today but he did deliver great food in the end.

Definitely had some ups and downs today. But it's just put a fire in my belly.

I'm so excited about the next challenge. It's the last challenge.

Go out with a bang. I'm ready for it.

Steven really is a great chef, and it showed on his plating up today.

Steven delivered wonderful-looking plates.

His presentation, for me, was spot-on.

This is one head chef you want to work under.

The day has been emotional. I think I've felt every feeling possible.

It feels quite surreal to be at this stage of the competition and only having one round left to go.

It's all to play for, I think, on the final day.

'Tomorrow night, it's the final.'

We know the chefs here are exceptionally good.

But we want to see that today. Now.

I think I'm about to get blown away.

There is some crackingly good food going on here.

You can taste the nervous energy.

There is a real palpable tension.

It's a wonderful dish.

Brilliant. Absolutely stunning.

The flavours are built for stuffing yourself with.

Our MasterChef champion is...

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

.