Episode 5 MasterChef: The Professionals

'These eight chefs all want to become Professional MasterChef champion.'

Service.

I get a great sense of achievement out of cooking at this level.

I don't see the point of doing food that people can execute at home.

I want to push myself, I want to test myself

and I want to get as high as I can as quick as I can.

-I'm always confident.

-SHE LAUGHS

I'm a little bit nervous, but hopefully I can show the best of me today.

I think I can produce anything with any ingredient. I can make anything look good, without a doubt.

'But over the next three nights, they'll have to pass the tests

'set for them by chef Monica Galetti, diner Gregg Wallace

'and Michelin-starred Michel Roux Jr

'before some of them are sent home.'

Each year, the level rises.

You've seen what they could achieve last year.

They've got to be as good, if not better.

Who knows what talent lies beyond those doors?

'Today it's Monica's first challenge.

'She wants to test the chefs' creativity

'by giving them seven main ingredients,

'from which she wants them to create one dish.'

Here, Gregg, for today, they have sardines, pomegranate,

caped gooseberries or physalis, a small cucumber,

pistachios, endive and Camembert.

'The contestants will also have a basic larder, which includes fresh herbs.'

-What's a clever way of using the Camembert?

-I don't think I would use the Camembert with the fish.

No, no, no, neither would I. And I hope nobody does, please. Cheesy fish is not something we want.

But if I wanted to use the Camembert, what could you make?

You could make a lovely salad to go with it

or use it to make a savoury souffle if they wanted.

All right. Look, they've got one hour.

-What about I give you one hour and see what you can come up with?

-Yep.

-Right-oh. Get amongst it.

I think it's going to be very obvious to go for the savoury route

-so I'm going to go for the dessert.

-Ooh.

I'm going to make a pistachio nougat parfait.

-You're making a praline.

-Yes.

Now I'm going to make my parfait mix.

So I'm just cooling it slightly before I fold in my whipped cream.

The nuts, as well, I'm going to smash up and fold into my mix.

Gently fold that through.

Monica is just unbelievable. Have you seen that parfait?

I mean, I looked down, I saw two fish and a pomegranate. Monica saw a parfait.

-Ooh!

-In her mind, she's got the exact measurements for the parfait

and a shortbread biscuit.

Parfait is setting in the freezer as we speak.

I'm going to garnish it with a lemon syrup

with thyme and some of the fruit that I have left.

Mm. Lovely pink puddle.

She's using the rest of the fruit to decorate the plate.

Quite beautiful.

-Oh, Monica!

-There you have it, Gregg, my pistachio parfait

with the lemon shortbread biscuit and the syrup with thyme.

That is just beautiful.

Look at that. You shouldn't be able to do things like this out of invention tests.

Creamy, light, toasty, nutty, plenty of sugar, as well,

and a slightly citrusy zing to your syrup, which cleanses the palate.

That tastes every bit as pretty as it looks.

What a way to use culinary herbs in desserts.

Ohh! I'd like to see an attempt at something as lovely as that.

This is the level I've always been expecting

and I'm hoping they're going to deliver.

All right. Let's see what they can create themselves. Shall we get them in?

Chefs, hello.

Welcome to Professional MasterChef.

A fantastic opportunity

to shine light on your skill and your passion.

We want you to give us one dish

that demonstrates your skill and creativity.

We are going to give you five minutes thinking time.

Chefs, uncover those ingredients.

Your dish can be whatever you want it to be.

It can be savoury, it most certainly can be sweet.

Have a good look at what you've got in front of you.

You have the sardines, Camembert,

baby cucumber, pomegranate,

caped gooseberries or physalis,

you also have endives and the pistachios.

Focus on the task, use as many or as least ingredients as you want.

I'd like to see as many skills as possible.

Right, we're giving you an hour.

Your time starts now.

My favourite side of cooking has got to be fish.

Being from Grimsby, it's a big fishing town and where my heart is.

In the future, I'd like to open a restaurant in the South of France.

Show the French how it's done, you know?

Tom, you seem very comfortable, very happy. Are you?

I'm a happy chap. I'm cooking and I enjoy cooking.

What do you think your strengths in the kitchen are?

-Erm, fish.

-Well...

-Fish and pastry, really.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-What are you going to make for us?

I'm doing a grilled sardine fillet, ceviche of sardine,

I'm doing some dill and chilli pickled cucumber,

caramelised endive, which is in the oven, it'll be sweet and bitter.

I'll also do some raw endive so you've got that fresh element.

-Are you confident you can do quite well on here?

-Yeah.

-What do you think you have?

-Ability, passion, drive, pace.

-And a fair bit of enthusiasm, Tom.

-Yeah.

-Cheers, mate.

-Thank you.

I've got very high expectations of Tom. He's cooking in his comfort zone, apparently,

so I'd like to see what he comes up with.

I've always loved cooking. Both of my parents were in the industry

and it just seemed natural to follow in their footsteps.

I would love Gregg and Monica to look at my food and think

that it's original, creative and something they haven't seen before.

You've got a very serious look on your face, chef. What's going on?

-Focus. Just trying to stay focused.

-Why would you put yourself under this pressure?

You seem like a nice fella. Why put yourself through it?

I like to challenge myself. I haven't got through to where I am

without putting yourself out of your comfort zone.

-Where are you now?

-Head chef of a two rosette restaurant...

-Ooh!

-..at a five-star hotel.

-How old are you, Steve?

-I'm 26.

Young to be head chef. Tell me what it is you're going to make.

I'm going to do sardines and garnish that with some pickled cucumber and dill and lemon.

-Pushing yourself?

-I will be. I need to crack on.

-You want me to go?

-If that's all right, Gregg.

-Am I in the way?

-A little bit.

-All right, chef. Good luck.

Steve's preparing the sardine three different ways,

which is nice to see. It's only a small fish,

so it's not a difficult amount of work, but it's very clever.

He wants to show us that he's got skill.

Let's hope it's as good as it sounds.

I'm from Manchester but I'm now cheffing in Wales.

The only way you find out what you can do is by testing yourself, I suppose.

You don't want to look stupid. That would be a number one.

If I can do that then I'll be raring to go, I think.

-Your arms tell a story, Vin.

-Yeah, I went to art college

and I studied art, so they're all just by my favourite artists,

I just took bits from their work and stuck it on my body.

-How artistic is your food?

-Oh, I think you might have to be the judge of that.

I like to think a bit of my personality comes out onto it.

-What are you making now?

-I'm making a sweet Asian-influenced dressing,

then I'm going to grill the sardines, caramelise the chicory. It's quite bitter

so I'll need quite a lot of sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the chicory.

-And that's as far as I've got.

-Are you nervous, Vinny?

-Yeah, really.

-You're a big man but if you need a hug, Monica's just over there.

-Cheers, mate.

You're halfway. You've got 30 minutes left.

I'm from Poland and I came to Scotland about six years ago.

At the moment, in my work, we change the menu every day,

so we have to be very creative. That's the beauty of being a chef,

that you can just actually look what you've got

and just create something amazing from it.

-How you feeling, Maria?

-Good, thank you.

-Happy?

-Happy, yes.

-Ooh, your accent. Where are you from?

-I'm from Poland.

-What are you doing now?

-I'm a sous chef at a boutique hotel restaurant in Scotland.

I want to become a head chef one day and just run my own place.

Erm, so hopefully I can get there.

-What are you going to make today?

-I'm going to make chargrilled sardines

with a pomegranate and chicory salad

with a little pickled cucumber and chilli salsa

-with some hollandaise sauce.

-Hollandaise, as well?

-Yes.

Maria's doing a chargrilled sardine with a hollandaise sauce.

Salsa, hollandaise...

Let's hope she's not over-complicated what could be a great dish.

I'm a chef owner. I have a restaurant in Cornwall.

I'm not one of those chefs that's going to give you

some crazy ice cream or some strange puree,

vanilla and carrot or something, cos it just doesn't need to be there.

I put things on the plate that need to be there, I think.

Kit, you strike me as a chap who knows his way round a saucepan.

I hope so. I think so. Pretty sure I do.

-How long have you been in the kitchens?

-Er, 20 years.

-Yeah. I'm old.

-Are you?

-Have you got a family?

-Yeah, wife and two kids.

What do they think about you putting yourself through this?

I haven't told the kids cos they'd tell everybody, but she thinks I'm mad.

-What are you making?

-I am making pan-fried sardines,

a little bit of pickled cucumber, some Camembert gnocchi.

I'm going to do a little salad and I've made a spicy nam chim dressing for that.

And I'm going to make a beurre blanc just to dot around the plate to rich up the sweetness.

Beurre blanc, nam chim, cheese gnocchi, sardines. Have I missed anything out?

-Pickled cucumber.

-Pickled cucumber.

-It'll work.

Looks like the majority of them decided to go savoury option

using the sardines. Interesting.

Cucumber's a favourite, as well. Seems to be a lot of pickling going on.

A lot of people say I'm too modest,

that I don't really take credit for what I do.

Hopefully I'll prove to myself that I can do it.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

-Sean, you're not cooking the sardines, are you, mate?

-No. I'm doing thyme-infused panna cotta.

I know it's your favourite. And then I'm doing a pistachio crumble,

physalis compote, infusing with ginger and star anise,

and then some fresh pomegranate seeds.

-Do you do a lot of pastry?

-I'm the pastry chef.

-You're the pastry chef!

Have you thought about presentation here with these little morsels?

-Presentation's easy.

-You're a confident man.

Are you good at virtually everything in the kitchen?

Er, I'd say 80 percent, yeah.

-How far are you going to go in the competition?

-All the way.

Ohh! Sean, I like the cut of your jib.

I like your style, son.

Sean's standing out today for the fact that he's doing something different.

Everyone else has gone down a savoury path

but he's decided to stick to what he knows best and deliver us a dessert.

If he pulls it off, this could be something amazing.

If he doesn't, it'll be a real shame.

From the beginning, I want to go all out. There's no point holding back

cos if you hold back, you can go home and you've ruined your chance.

I want to push the boundaries as much as I can within my limit

without failing.

I can't work out whether you are concentrating or scared

-or a mixture of the two. Which is it?

-Bit of both.

-What position do you hold now?

-I was a demi chef de partie in my last job.

Yeah. You might be the least experienced guy in here.

-Does that trouble you?

-No, because it comes down to a plate of food.

-It's what you guys taste. So that doesn't bother me.

-Well said.

-What are you making now?

-I'm going to do some sweet chicory in a caramel

with a little bit a white wine vinegar, finish with pistachios,

some mini potato fondants, pan-fry the sardines, keep it simple,

and a nice little dill, onion and garlic chilli dressing.

-You're a poker-faced Scotsman, ain't you?

-You've got to be, haven't you?

-Looking forward to it.

-Thank you.

You've only got ten minutes. Ten minutes.

I'm really intrigued by you, Liam. You are a bundle of energy.

I'm OK. I'm just... I just want to do well.

-What are you making?

-I'm going to do cured and scorched sardines,

blow-torch the skin, it should cook through nicely.

I'm going to do an onion and dill potato royale topped with Camembert

and then a pomegranate and pistachio vinaigrette

with a little endive salad.

You made that great big potato royale thing that was like an enormous sponge pudding,

-then you just cut the top off.

-I know the recipe to make X amount,

but I don't know how to break it down too far.

-Liam, I love your honesty, mate. You know how to make a big one.

-Yeah.

-Right, shall I get out of your face?

-In a polite way, yes, please.

There's a lot of cheese on that.

Cheesy sardines?

Hm. I'll have to try those together. It could be quite overpowering.

It's got to be coming on the plate now. Five minutes.

You've got just 30 seconds.

That's it. Finished. Step away. Well done.

You don't know this yet, but with those ingredients, Monica cooked a dish in one hour.

And let me tell you, the result was incredible.

That is a benchmark and it's shown what is possible.

'25-year-old junior sous chef Tom has prepared the sardines two ways,

'grilled and ceviche,

'and served it with caramelised endive, raw endive

'and a dill and chilli pickled cucumber.'

It's very pretty, it's very intriguing, but it's very small for a starter.

-Where's the rest of it?

-That's it, I'm afraid.

It's a nice presentation. It's great to see that you prepared the fish

-in two different ways. Shall we go for it?

-Yep.

For me, I like the endive with the grilled sardine.

Flavour-wise, the pickle in the cucumber is strong,

it's overpowered the small amount of the fish on the side.

You need to give a bit more to actually carry those strong flavours through.

OK.

I love the way it tastes, Tom. I think it's really, really lovely.

That ceviche on its own with a slight bit of acidity and that oily fish is lovely.

When you get a little bit of that sweet chicory, delicious!

-Well done. Good lad.

-Thank you.

'Pastry chef Sean has made the only dessert,

'thyme-infused panna cotta with pistachio crumble,

'physalis compote infused with ginger and star anise,

'fresh physalis and pomegranate.'

-You are a pastry chef?

-I am indeed, yes.

-I love the colours, I like the way you've presented this.

-If anything, I think a third panna cotta would not go amiss on your plate.

-Yeah.

-What happened to it? You had a few.

-This is the first one I made.

I thought it was a bit firm so I tried to make another one.

-You made two batches?

-Yes.

-Oh, I see. OK.

I like the thyme in the panna cotta.

It's very delicate and not overpowering.

I can't help but feel that it needs a sauce or some kind of coulis to go with it.

A touch too much gelatine in your panna cotta.

It's a little bit bouncy for my liking.

-It was the first batch.

-I don't care if it was the tenth batch.

That sort of physalis caped gooseberry compote

with those pistachios is fabulous!

But those panna cottas are far too bouncy.

-Sean, thank you very much.

-Thank you very much. Cheers.

I think I represented myself quite well, actually.

Small, minor mistakes, but nothing that can't be corrected.

I was happy.

'Maria has chargrilled the sardines and served them with an endive salad,

'hollandaise sauce with dill, pickled cucumber and a chilli salsa.'

Hollandaise with pickled cucumber.

I don't think it's a match I've had yet.

-I'm curious to try.

-Right. Fancy a nibble?

-Yes.

Your hollandaise, erm, has a lovely texture to it,

it's very thick and creamy. It's quite sharp.

But there's too much. For me, it's not coming together well.

It could work, possibly, but it hasn't worked here.

-OK.

-I like the taste and textures.

Nicely-cooked fish, like the sweet acidity you've got in there.

However, there's far too much dill and the plate's messy.

I think you need to be a little bit more refined.

It was a shame I couldn't show them how good I am in the first round.

That was definitely a good lesson.

Hard one but good one.

-Wow.

-'Head chef Steven has prepared the sardines three ways,

'roasted, cured and a sardine tartare,

'with roasted cucumber and cucumber ketchup,

'garnished with dill, caramelised pistachio nuts and blackened onions.'

It's a really good-looking plate of food. It's attractive,

it stands out, it looks simple, but when you look at it properly,

there are really different elements going on.

I'm very impressed that you've taken this fish and done it three ways,

I think that's great, and I love the sweet acidic notes you've got, like the ketchup,

and I love the onion with a bit of caramelisation.

-I love that. Love that. Very impressive.

-Thank you.

There was a lot going on in there flavour-wise.

I like the ceviche and I do like the ketchup.

I think this is a very talented plate.

Well done, chef. Thank you very much.

I'm feeling confident. I think it went really well

and I'm glad I've got the first round under my belt.

'Welsh sous chef Liam has cured and scorched the sardines

'and served them with an onion, dill and Camembert potato royale,

'deep-fried fennel,

'endive salad and a pomegranate and pistachio dressing.'

I love the way the fish is cooked with the blow torch. It leaves it very delicate and just right.

However, the creamy, cheesy potato, it's just all very odd.

There's possibilities here but I don't think you've got your balance right.

I really like that oily, meaty sardine

with the sweet pistachio and quite juicy chicory.

I think all of that is lovely. What continues to be a mistake,

both visually and texturally for me,

is that blinking potato cake with the cheese on it.

You can tell the first time you look at the dish it doesn't belong there.

When you put that creamy, cheesy potato in your mouth, you know it doesn't belong there.

-The rest of it is great.

-Thank you.

'Daniel has served pan-fried sardines,

'caramelised endive with pistachios,

'mini potato fondants and an onion and ginger dressing with dill.'

I like parts of your presentation. However,

there's just something about it that's not quite right.

You're making everything go a little bit muddy-tan colour.

Lovely caramel sweetness on that chicory.

And really good seasoning on your fish. I really like that.

Two issues. One is the presentation.

The other one is it's still a little oily, still a little greasy.

There's a lot on your plate that I like. The cucumber on its own is very sharp,

but I find with the endive, it does offset the sweetness on there.

Your fondant, mind the salt when you drizzle the salt on there

because I had a mouthful on it. There are issues here,

but nice flavours. Just mind your presentation.

I can't give you such an amazing review on great flavours

when the plate looks so dull, OK? You need to get the two together.

'Vinny's dish is grilled sardines

'with an endive, cucumber and pomegranate salad

'and a dressing of pomegranate juice, soy,

'ginger, pistachio and fish sauce.'

I like the way the fish is cooked. It's cooked perfectly,

it's seasoned really well. But there's just too much salad

for the fish that you have.

-It needs to come together, Vinny.

-Yep.

-Very, very crucial.

You can't criticise that plate because there's hardly anything wrong with it,

but it's not ringing any bells.

You're a clever man, obviously, and you've still got a big smile.

-It wouldn't take much to completely turn your fortunes around.

-Thank you.

I'd love to go back and take ten minutes just to think about it more.

Even now, the presentation, everything would be completely different.

But you don't get a second chance.

Or do you?

'37-year-old Kit has made pan-fried sardines,

'endive salad with Thai-style nam chim dressing,

'pickled cucumber, Camembert gnocchi and a beurre blanc.'

I'm really pleased that you wanted to show us all these techniques and I now believe you have knowledge.

-I'm not sure it's going to make for a wonderfully delicious dish.

-OK.

You've taken time to make us gnocchi and an Asian salad.

I love the pickled cucumber. The fish is cooked wonderfully.

However, the biggest issue I have here with you, Kit,

is a chef that displays

so much skill on the plate

who then leaves this bone on the fish.

-Yep.

-I wouldn't expect, when I eat out, to find bones still in sardines.

I don't believe that gnocchi, beurre blanc,

-Thai salad and sardines works together as one dish.

-Sure.

You've proved you've got technique, skill and knowledge. It's OK.

Monica doesn't look like she's convinced.

-Can't work him out?

-No. No.

-I need to see more of you to make my mind up, Kit.

-OK.

-Because there's things here that shouldn't have happened.

-Sure.

There is some great techniques and skill, as well.

-Right-oh. Thank you very much, Kit.

-Thank you very much.

I tell you what, that's not a bad opening round at all.

I know you're a bit nervous and I know some of you will kick yourselves because of little mistakes.

But I'm quietly confident.

Still a lot of competition to come. Off you go. We'll see you again soon.

'Now the eight chefs will be split into two groups.

'Tomorrow, the first four will be back to face Monica's infamous skills test.'

You're one messy guy and I don't want to see that.

'Before chef Michel puts them through their paces

'with his classic tests.'

I tell you what, that far away.

'At the end, one of them will be going home.'

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