Episode 7 MasterChef: The Professionals

The hunt for the next professional MasterChef champion continues.

And these six chefs all believe they have what it takes to win the title.

Tonight, they face two challenges set by judge Gregg Wallace

and two of Britain's best chefs -

Monica Galetti and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing.

Nobody likes losing.

Everybody's all about coming up on top and, obviously,

that's what I want to do, at the end of the day.

There's a certain amount of excitement, but let me promise you,

there's also a massive amount of fear and nerves.

Brand-new set of contestants who are walking into this kitchen

and we need to find one shining star.

Our chefs have got to be at the top of their game.

They need to be focused, they need to want this more than anything.

Tough test time, skills test.

Monica, what are you going to set them to do?

I would like our chefs to fillet and cook this sea bream

and serve it in an escabeche style.

Now, escabeche is a cooking method

when it's actually sort of pickled gently.

It's got vinegar in it and then you marinate the fish in it overnight.

We're not good to have the time to leave this overnight

so I'm happy for them to make an adaptation of an escabeche.

-And the fish can be grilled and then served with it.

-I love this task.

I think filleting the fish will be the toughest part.

That's not an easy fish to fillet at all, and do they understand

and know what an escabeche is?

Off you go, Monica.

The first thing I'm going to do

is get the liquor out for the escabeche.

I'm going to use some cumin seeds.

To add to this I have some white wine and a touch of vinegar.

And they want to be careful, you know, with the acidity.

If you add too much, it will just overkill the whole dish.

A little bit of Demerara sugar. Some shallot.

The vegetables I'm using, I'm slicing them very thin.

The carrot as well. I use pepper.

The reason being is they should be cooked very quickly.

Looking at this being made, thinking,

there's lots that could go wrong here.

Trust you to put a downer on everything, Gregg!

-I don't think I'm a downer.

-I think I'm a realist.

SHE CHUCKLES

So first, I'm going with the peppers cos they're thicker.

I'm going to drop in just a small pinch of saffron.

It comes off the heat. They'll want to cool it down.

And so now, onto my fish.

Very simple, from behind the head and along the backbone.

If there's anything that would be tricky on here, it would

be where the belly is. Repeat on the other side.

You could do this, Greggy!

I could. Not as well as you.

So, then they need to pin-bone it.

There's nothing worse than having someone choke on a fish bone.

There's a lot of work to do here, Monica, in 15 minutes.

They can cook the sea bream any way they like

but I am going to put mine under the salamander.

Right, and I'm ready to plate up.

Look at the colours! Wonderful!

Here we have it - my grilled sea bream in an escabeche.

Look at that - light, pretty, colourful. Fabulous!

That, for me, is absolutely delicious and the crunchiness of the vegetables

and the acid going through, finished with the herbs, is great.

Find it funny cos the finishing of putting the oil at the end

just brought a smile to your face and it just felt complete.

And it's that little touch at the end that just makes the dish.

We don't have to bring the chefs in now, you know.

We could open a bottle of wine.

THEY GIGGLE

First into the kitchen to face Monica's test

is 21-year-old chef de partie Jamie, who works in a hotel in Colchester.

My uncle was a chef, my sister's boyfriend is a chef

and he used to come home and show me

these pictures of all the food he cooked at work

and it would amaze me, intrigue me, and I wanted to learn more.

So I started catering college and went from there. Here I am now.

Being a professional chef is my career, it's my job, it's my life.

I love it. I wouldn't change it.

-HE RINGS BELL

-Service!

I'm young, fearless and, hopefully, that will work as my advantage.

-Jamie, welcome to MasterChef.

-Thank you.

What I would like you to do today is to fillet and cook the sea bream.

-Yes.

-OK? And I want you to serve it in an escabeche.

-Yes.

-Do you know what an escabeche is?

-Very mildly.

-I've not actually done it myself but...

-What do you think is?

I'm thinking it's not too different from a ratatouille.

-It's like a pickling liquid.

-OK.

-Pickling's not something I've done much either.

-OK. Do your best.

-Thank you very much.

-15 minutes. Off you go.

-Thank you.

-Getting stuck in there, young Jamie.

-Yes, no problems so far.

-Calmed your nerves a bit?

-I'll let you know soon.

-Jamie, you've had five minutes.

-Thank you.

-Ten minutes to go.

-How long left, please?

-Three and a half minutes.

You're running out of time, young Jamie.

-Jamie?

-Yes?

The time's up but we want you to cook that fish,

-get it on a plate, please.

-Yes, Chef.

Come on, then, Chef! Let's have you!

-Finished?

-Yes.

-You're two minutes over, Jamie.

Not happy at all, to be fair.

-For me, it looked like you're a bit out of practice with filleting.

-OK.

You got most of it off. Not the neatest way to fillet.

As to making your escabeche garnish, you've used the shallots,

the carrots and the peppers, which is great to see.

You need to consider the fact, when we're cooking these vegetables,

what's cooking first.

The carrots you put in last but they need to cook a bit more, OK?

-Yes, OK.

-The lemon twist, well, I haven't seen that in a while!

No, I don't know why I did it. It's completely irrelevant.

It has no input on that plate whatsoever, does it?

I don't think the fish is cooked well.

It's got bones in, the skin wasn't crispy at all.

Jamie, when we serve an escabeche,

-you want quite a bit of that liquor.

-Yes.

There's not a lot here but, in saying that, because it's

-very strong, you wouldn't need very much on your dish.

-Yeah.

Jamie, you have another round that is now taking on

real importance because you, I believe, have got a point to prove.

Yes, definitely. It's not nice, you know,

top chefs and food critics telling you your food's not good

so, of course, there's room for improvement

-and those comments will only make you more determined.

-Thank you.

-We'll see you again. Off you go.

-Thank you.

However young and inexperienced,

you should be able to fillet a fish and cook it.

Well, that's what we're expecting.

Not my best, by any stretch of the imagination.

Filleting fish tends to be one of my fortes.

I've grown up at college doing it and my grandad was a fisherman,

so I'd like to have thought I'd have done him

a bit more proud than what I did.

Overall, yeah, not a good round.

-Hiya.

-Hiya.

-Hello, mate.

Next is senior chef de partie Alex,

who cooks in a high-end fish restaurant in London's Mayfair.

Life as a chef in London is busy.

We work a lot of hours, start very early in the morning,

finish very late at night.

The passion is the only thing that keeps you in the job,

really, I think. Probably be a bit mad to not have any passion

and be working in a kitchen.

I entered the competition because, you know,

why don't I give it a shot?

You know, I'm a good cook, I feel confident now, so see what happens.

-15 minutes. Off you go.

-OK.

Right. Um...

-I need to just think about what I'm going to do for a sec.

-Mm, yeah.

-GREGG:

-Yeah, sure.

Alex, what section are you working on at the moment in your kitchen?

-Fish sauce.

-Ah!

-Ah!

Um...

-You filleted fish before, Alex, yeah?

-I have, yeah. Um...

-I'm just really nervous.

-It's the same as any other fish.

-Yeah.

-Feeling any better, Chef?

-Er... Not yet.

HE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

-You've had five minutes, Alex.

-Yeah.

-Alex, are you all right?

-Yeah.

-Are you sure?

No.

-All done?

-Yeah. Sorry.

Alex, it's not a bad effort.

I love the colours of what you've done here

but it's quite evident you're trying to hide the fish.

The flavours of cumin and saffron are lovely, absolutely lovely,

and the fish is cooked really well.

I don't think you have a reason to be as nervous as you are.

I actually quite like it. The fish is cooked really nicely.

It's flavoursome, it's got a flavour of all the things that we want.

So you should use this round to get rid of those nerves

because that's not a bad attempt.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Alex.

-Thank you.

He was so scared. He had a panic attack there.

I think he did a good job, though.

I was just really nervous and I wasn't happy with what I did,

really.

I think they were being nice to me, the judges.

Yeah.

Last to take on Monica's test is chef de partie Josh,

who cooks in a gastropub in Cheshire.

I've been a chef for about three years now,

so not a long time, really.

I used to be a canoe instructor.

I don't really think I cooked a proper meal

before I kind of went to college to learn.

I used to just bang it in the oven!

But I took to it, I loved it.

Now I'm a chef.

-HE RINGS BELL

-Service!

The challenges I can practise for, I'm OK,

but it's the ones that you can't that get you a bit nervous

and I've just got to try my best and go for it.

Yeah. Scary!

-Josh, how many are in the team in your restaurant?

-Two.

-Two?

-Just me and the head chef.

-So you cover a bit of everything, then?

-Yeah.

-That could work in your favour, then.

-Yeah, I guess so.

-Josh, you have 15 minutes.

-OK.

-OK?

Fillet, cook the fish, serve it in an escabeche style.

-Is that sugar?

-Taste it.

-That's quite a mouthful of salt you had there!

-Yeah, it was. Yeah.

-Josh, you're halfway. You've got seven and a half minutes left.

-OK.

-How's it going?

-Yeah, OK, I think.

-All done?

-Yes.

-With nearly three minutes to spare, Josh.

So you've filleted the fish.

We normally tend to remove the pin bones

using these things called tweezers.

So I think, when we taste this, we're going to have to go round

the sides because I'm not a fan of choking on fishbones.

What I do like is the care you took in chopping your vegetables,

getting them all nice and neat.

-What would have been good to see was some of that liquor.

-OK.

-Aya!

-Aya!

-COUGHING

-Ooh!

Josh, that is really just harsh, harsh vinegar!

OK.

I cannot emphasise enough you tasting, OK? Taste! Taste!

-Cos you can't send that...

-No.

-..to anybody.

-OK.

Josh, I'm really struggling to find something good

to say about this, some positives to sort of give you

-a bit of a lift apart from just pull yourself together, OK?

-Yup.

-This round, you're lucky cos nobody goes home.

-OK.

-I expect a whole lot more from you in the next round.

-OK. Thank you.

I can understand getting things wrong,

but not taking the bones out,

not tasting what you're throwing on that veg bothers me.

I don't think I did very well at all, to be honest.

I think I made major mistakes and, yeah,

made myself look like a bit of a fool.

-Marcus, now it's your test.

-Yes.

-What is the test?

I want my three chefs to cook a watercress soup with a poached egg.

-That's a lovely thing.

-Mm.

-Could you show me how it's done?

-I certainly will.

-Thank you.

So, in this pan here, we have some very, very light chicken stock

and into that, we're just going to add a little bit of cream.

The reason I put the cream into it is to give it a little bit of body,

but also I don't want the chicken stock to colour the potatoes.

The reason why I'm slicing the potatoes really thin is

cos I want them to cook quickly.

If the potatoes aren't cooked,

no matter how much you put it into this blender

and you try your hardest to pass it through a sieve,

it will never be smooth, and that's what we're looking for.

What makes a great soup?

Asking for a watercress soup, we want to taste that watercress.

We don't want more potato.

-The potato here is a thickening agent.

-So in they go.

What I'm doing now is crack some almonds.

I'd be very interested to see if any of our chefs have seen

and used a fresh almond.

If they haven't seen them, they've got to work out

-that the husk needs taking off.

-That's right.

If they're not sure, my advice to a chef is just taste it.

And they're nice and soft. Now we add in the watercress.

They want the soup to cook as fast as possible.

The main reason is that I want to retain the colour of the watercress.

I'm going to be serving it with a poached egg.

I'm just going to put a little bit of vinegar into the boiling water.

Vinegar is what you want to keep the egg together.

Good. I've drained the stock out.

If I add all the stock, it may be too loose.

I just want to just put the stock in gradually as we go along.

If they put it all in the blender together, what's the problem?

That it won't get a thorough, rich, silky consistency?

You need to puree first then turn the puree into a soup.

-Wow!

-See the colour?

-Yeah!

I'm going to add some mustard

because this is the flavour I want to have in the background.

So we'll just add a few knobs of butter, just at the end.

Take our soup off.

Wow, that is green!

It's good to go. You can always trim up the egg.

I never, ever considered trimming the egg. I never considered that!

-Really?

-Never!

-Ah!

THEY GIGGLE

Now I'm going to dress the dish.

Stunning, isn't it?

Mm!

And there we have our watercress soup with a poached egg.

That is stunningly, stunningly beautiful!

Oh, the flavour is incredible!

The soup, in itself, is smooth, and the texture, it's wonderful.

-The addition of the almonds was not expected in the dish.

-No.

I'd be happy, like Marcus, if they can poach the egg nicely

and make a good soup. I'll be really impressed if it looks like this.

-I really want to see what they can do.

-Let's get them in.

First to take on Marcus's skills test is 33-year-old head chef Gayle.

I first got into cooking...

My mum's going to hate me!

..because my mum couldn't!

And if you wanted a nice tea, then you had to make it yourself.

It feels insane to be cooking for people like Marcus Wareing!

I may have to ask him for a hug, just to, like, break the ice.

Hopefully that'll work and he won't kick me out of the competition!

-All right?

-Yeah.

-OK, Gayle. Well, this is it. You're here to cook...

-Yup.

-Watercress soup with a poached egg, fresh almonds, 20 minutes,

off you go.

-You've never used those before?

-No, not fresh. No, definitely not fresh.

Why don't you take one of those other almonds

-and give them a good hit, crack it?

-Right, OK.

-There we are.

-There we go. There we go. Thank you very much.

That's all right.

-How long you been a chef, Gayle?

-19 years.

-Wow!

-You'll get the hang of it.

-Maybe one day!

You've had five minutes but you've got 15 minutes left.

-Watch your fingers!

-Mm-hm.

-Stop the lid.

-Stick the lid in.

-Oh, that one?

-SHE LAUGHS NERVOUSLY

-You were just about to create Vesuvius!

Gayle, you're halfway. You've got ten minutes left.

Ooh!

Eek!

-How's that, Chef?

-Good...I think, I hope.

-You're done?

-Think so.

-Gayle, how was that?

-Intense. Very intense.

-It looked it.

-Yep.

I am amazed you've managed to retain that colour.

I think why you've retained the colour is you didn't boil it

-when you put it back in the pan.

-Right.

The almonds, you've left the husks on.

You needed to peel that off to get that beautiful white almond.

It's great that you've actually got there.

You have got a soup on the plate but it's going to be in the eating.

There you are. Look at that.

Gayle, what I get is there's a lot of the watercress flavour

but it's that raw watercress that's quite pungent, quite strong.

I think you've seasoned it quite well.

Great to see the mustard in there as well.

The poached egg could have been done a bit nicer

but the yolk is still runny, which is very important.

Gayle, this is the first round of MasterChef.

That's not bad, OK?

-No-one's going home right now.

-Good.

-Thank you very much and off you go.

-Thank you.

I made some schoolgirl errors, which I shouldn't have,

and I think it was just purely the pressure.

Next into the kitchen is junior sous-chef Dean,

who works at a one-Michelin-starred restaurant in Castle Combe.

I'm originally from South Africa.

My parents are both British, so we moved back.

I started off just cooking in a little pub for my parents.

From there, I just fell in love with it all. I couldn't get enough of it.

I work in a Michelin-starred kitchen.

Everything's got to be precise cos not everybody gets that opportunity

to eat in a Michelin star, so you want it to be perfect for them every time.

Service, please!

Dean, I'd like you to make a watercress soup,

-serve it with a poached egg and fresh almonds.

-OK.

-You've made soups before?

-Yeah.

-You've poached an egg?

-Yes.

-Should be easy, then.

-Hopefully!

-20 minutes, off you go.

-Cool.

I've never prepped a fresh almond.

Not bad.

Dean, five minutes gone. You've got 15 minutes left.

-Dean, you're halfway. You've got ten minutes left.

-Yeah.

-All done?

-All done.

-Couple of minutes to spare.

-No, I think I'm happy.

-Happy?

-Happy.

-Good.

Overall, Dean, I think you've delivered

a very good-looking plate of food.

There's just one fundamental error that you did

that is the reason as to why that soup is that colour

and not dark green, is that you didn't cook the watercress.

But that is it. So I think you've done a really good job.

I love the way you worked around your bench.

You looked like a proper professional chef.

Dean, the soup is so smooth.

Yes, it's missing the watercress, but it's been seasoned so well.

The poached egg has been done very well. It's still lovely and runny.

I loved watching you work, the tasting.

-You've done pretty good today there, Dean.

-Thank you.

-You can take confidence from this, Dean.

-Yup. Thank you.

-You've done a great job, Dean. Well done.

-Thank you. Thank you.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Dean.

-No worries.

-Good boy.

-Good cook.

-Good chef.

-Yep.

I think, overall, they were happy.

I delivered things, but obviously I'm not after just getting by.

I want to be perfect.

-Apron?

-Oh, sorry.

Last to face Marcus's test is gastropub head chef David.

I started cooking with my dad when I was 14 in France.

My dad had a restaurant

and I've been cooking now for 26 years.

I watch MasterChef all the time and my daughter says,

"Dad, you should enter it. You could do it."

And I thought, "Well, why not? Let's have a shot."

OK, service!

I never entered a competition, so, I mean, the way I see it,

I'll take it a step at a time, you know,

see what's being asked and just do my best.

-You've got 20 minutes. Off you go.

-OK.

So why did you pick Great Britain in the first place?

I've been with school and stuff... you know?

Exchange. And I really, really like Britain.

See, that's something I never actually...

-You haven't come across them before?

-Never.

-No?

-No.

David, we want the almonds.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-I was just being a bit silly, you know?

I'm not sure if I should blanch it really.

Hmm.

The almonds...that's the garnish on the soup? Yeah.

-You're halfway, David, you've got ten minutes left.

-Sure.

Finish this soup.

-Nearly there?

-Not far off.

BLENDER HUMS

-Five minutes left, David.

-Yeah.

-You all done, Chef?

-Yeah, finished.

-David, how was that for you?

-OK.

Not too sure about the almonds though, really not sure.

-Yeah, the almonds were a bit of a struggle, weren't they?

-Very much so, yeah.

-OK.

The first thing I'd like to bring up was the starting off and the potatoes.

Whenever we're going to make a soup,

slice the potatoes as thin as you can possibly get them.

Then they cook, the job can get done.

You can visually see the grain going through it, so the soup has

a coarseness to it and it's a little bit on the light colour as well.

-It's probably down to the fact it's not cooked enough.

-Right.

Just...

Not a great soup, David.

It lacks flavour in every department here,

but you're adding these bits in.

You're adding mustard, you put cream in. You added a bit of lemon juice.

-You added the seasoning. You did it.

-Not enough.

-..but not enough.

David, there's just no depth here.

It's not a good soup, I'm sorry, David.

It doesn't taste of watercress. It's quite bland. It's a shame.

-Thank you. We'll see you again.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Very stressful really, didn't do too well.

I made really silly mistakes and...

but...what's done is done now

and I have to do better on the next round.

That's the skills test done.

By and large, I think a decent standard...

No? You're not convinced, are you?

No, I'm not 100% convinced, I thought there was

a huge amount of errors from quite a lot of the chefs.

-Probably bar one.

-So, your skills test, you're happy with one?

-Your skills test, I imagine you're only happy with one?

-Only just.

But everything can change in the next round

-when they cook their own food.

-Really can.

Chefs, this is it. Your signature dish.

A dish chosen by you...

so you should be confident.

If you can cook your best today,

you've got a chance of going through.

My bit of advice is leave your nerves in the changing room.

Give it your best shot, only three of you are going through

and three of you are going home.

You have one hour and 15 minutes to cook your way

into a MasterChef quarterfinal.

Off you go.

I think the judges at the minute think

I'm a little bit inexperienced.

Hopefully after the skills test I can change their minds completely.

They can see that was just down to nerves and it's not who I am.

I'm not a clumsy chef or anything like that.

Josh, what's your signature dish today?

My signature dish is lamb rump with a orange carrot puree

-and then roasted purple carrot...

-Yeah?

..then pickled yellow and pickled shallots.

Are you serving a sauce with this as well, as such?

Yes, yeah... I've got one sauce on the go here.

Why did you choose to come on MasterChef?

-My head chef told me to come on.

-Oh, right, OK.

-He believes in me, so why not try?

-Great.

Go on, Josh, fighting talk, go on, son.

Josh has put his lamb into the water bath.

It's a good way of cooking, but we do like it to go through the pan

to get some colour on there and get some flavour.

The sauce he's making with mince

so it should be quite heavy and rich.

The signature dish has to be a standout dish.

I hope I remember this dish.

You have had 20 minutes already.

20 minutes gone.

Cooking my dish for the judges is going to be quite intense

because at the end of the day it's me on a plate and obviously having

Marcus and Monica criticise your dishes

is always something which is going to be nerve-racking.

Dean, your skills test went rather well, didn't it?

Yeah, it went all right, better than I thought it would.

Tell me about your dish today, please, Dean.

I'm doing a sweet potato fondant,

curried sweet potato puree to go with it.

Poached and roasted chicken breast, curried chicken veloute

with some baby onions and a bit of golden raisins.

Tell me about you because when I looked at you, I thought, yeah,

classic cook, and now, I'm looking at pak choi and sweet potatoes.

I don't really follow any style influence, I just kind of hope

for just...I'm more about just trying to give big, bold flavours.

-Let's start with a perfect curried chicken.

-Thank you.

I didn't expect Dean to come to the table today with a signature dish

of what is basically curried chicken with sweet potato.

I do like the flavours of curry and chicken.

He's poached the crown of the chicken

and then he's going to remove the breast.

I think it's a nice way to do it, especially in a curry.

You still want that chicken meat to be moist.

The hardest thing with curry is the balance, getting it right.

If you don't know how to use a curry leaf, it could ruin the flavours.

It could be too strong, too powerful.

I think in the signature dish round I just need to prove that I can...

control the nerves. Just breathe.

And think about what I'm doing and not concentrate on...

-on the eyeballs on me.

-LAUGHS

-Gayle. Here we are, signature dish.

-Yeah.

-You look a bit more relaxed now.

-Yeah, a lot more.

-Yeah?

-Yep, definitely.

-What's the dish?

It's a langoustine and baby squid laksa.

Nice and spicy, nice and flavoursome.

Vermicelli noodles...

Thai basil, shrimp paste,

all the...usual suspects.

Why would you pick this as your signature dish?

I really enjoy it personally.

I just think, if I enjoy it,

-hopefully you guys will enjoy it too, so...

-Fair dos.

Gayle's making us a laksa.

She's using Scottish langoustines, which, for me,

are quite a delicacy in their own right and my concern

is going to be the power, the heat, all of those different flavours

are going to camouflage such a beautiful ingredient.

What I would like to see here is...

is the laksa brought up to another level.

What's so great about this dish

that's it's going to be your signature dish?

You are halfway.

So, you've got less than 40 minutes.

Jamie...fish again?

Yes. Absolutely. I'm confident with fish.

Last round wasn't strong but I'd like to prove myself in this round and show you what I can do.

-Good. Good, so, what are you cooking for us, Jamie?

-I'm going to do a sous vide supreme of hake.

Do some cockle fritters and on top just to cut through everything

I'm going to be doing a lemon foam.

What do you think you've got to do now after the skills test

-to get yourself a quarterfinal place?

-Perfection. Perfection.

Nothing less.

How many times have you achieved perfection, do you think?

I don't think I've ever... achieved perfection...yet.

Jamie says he's worked quite a bit with fish.

Wasn't evident in the last round so he's got a point to prove here.

Water bathing fish...not my favourite way to cook fish.

I prefer it in a pan.

I love the sound of the cockle fritters.

Hope they've got a little bit of acidity in them as well

so they're almost sort of pickled cockles.

One of the things that slightly concerns me

with this dish is the lemon foam.

Foams just disappear straightaway

and personally, I don't think they bring much to a dish at all.

I've never done the dish as a whole before. I have practised it.

So...

We will see. It'll be interesting. Hopefully I'll pull through.

-Alex, you were very, very nervous earlier on in the skills test.

-Yeah.

How are you feeling?

I'm still fairly nervous. I just want to get my dish finished.

You, despite your nerves, had a good start to this competition.

-He's thinking now...what?

-Yeah.

I wasn't really happy with what I did.

I think you guys were being nice.

Do I have the reputation of being nice, Alex? Nice?

-I hope to redeem myself anyway.

-So, your dish, what is it?

I'm doing a piece of halibut with fennel puree,

fennel potato rosti on top of that. The halibut with some brown shrimps,

some sea veg and I'm doing, like, a little cockle and mussel garnish.

OK. Just do me one thing. Just relax, yeah?

We're here to eat good food, that's all. Just treat us as customers, OK?

-Chef, thank you.

-I love the sound of this.

-Yeah, sounds delicious.

I really like the look of Alex's table

even though he's incredibly nervous.

Beautiful little plate of herbs

and garnishes all portioned out ready to go.

If Alex can control his nerves and he focuses on the cooking,

we could have a great dish here.

A rosti that's cooked well is delicious.

Veloute made well is delicious.

Cook a bit of fish well... we've got a winner here.

I've practised my dish pretty much every day at work for the last week.

I can do it in under an hour,

so I know I can do it well within the time limit.

So, fingers crossed for me.

You've got 25 minutes left

to prove how good you are.

I just want to show the judges, you know, I can do some nice food.

It'll mean a lot, for me,

just already to be here and it'll be even better

if I could go through to the next round.

-David?

-Yes.

-How are you?

-I'm good, thank you.

You look very calm but you were quite calm in the first round.

I say, yes, I was calm but I didn't do too well, so...

So, what are you making for us?

I'm making dark chocolate and pistachio parcel, so it's a parfait

coated in candied pistachio and it's wrapped into a thin biscuit.

-Oh?

-With champagne, vanilla and pink peppercorns sabayon.

-Why have you come on MasterChef?

-Maybe a midlife crisis?

I can't afford to buy a motorbike or Porsche,

so I thought, let's try MasterChef, you know?

-Third in line, it's not bad.

-So...

Listen, this sounds yummy, to me.

OK? I wish you the best of luck.

-Thank you very much.

-MONICA:

-Good luck, David.

David is making a chocolate pistachio parfait and then

he's going to wrap it in a very thin biscuit like a tuile.

This sounds like a very technical dessert.

What concerns me is when you put the parfait inside the tuile,

it's still going to be quite warm.

It could melt the parfait but if he gets it right, it sounds delicious.

You have just five minutes.

That's five minutes to completely plate and finish.

Five minutes.

Come on, you're cutting it a bit fine, some of you.

Move!

These are the final touches to your plate.

Come on, come on!

That's it. Stop! Stop!

Stop!

Jamie, your turn. Up you come, please, Chef.

21-year-old chef de partie Jamie's sous-vide hake

has been served with its crispy fish skin.

There is a garnish of samphire, sauteed Jersey Royals,

cockle fritters and a lemon foam.

Foam is never really always

the best thing to put on any dish, I don't think.

It does have a tendency to disappear.

The fish doesn't look too fantastic, looks like it's a little bit broken.

I completely agree, yeah.

Jamie, a basic dish done well is a good thing.

What we have is a basic dish done very badly.

The fish cooked like that, in the water bath,

the texture of it is not pleasant to eat.

The only good thing I can say about it is it's seasoned well.

Even the fish skin is burnt.

The foam has now turned into quite a sharp, vinegary, sharp puddle

and the potatoes aren't cooked. You do have issues here, Jamie.

Heart goes out to you.

The feedback was terrible.

I didn't need them to tell me where it had gone wrong, I already knew.

Unfortunately, it's just how it goes. You win some, you lose some.

Dean, up you come, please.

Dean has poached and then roasted a chicken breast

and served it with curried sweet potato puree,

sweet potato fondants, button onions,

rehydrated golden raisins and baby pak choi.

It's finished with a curried veloute.

A nice presentation, Dean. The sauce has brought it to life.

It's not what I envisioned in my head, but that's a good thing,

that's not a bad thing, so I'm really pleased

with the way you've presented it. It looks good.

Dean.

I really like the balance of the mild curry sauce,

the sweetness of the potato puree and the raisins.

For me, the raisins really does

bring the extra bit to your dish here.

If anything, a pinch more of salt on that chicken breast,

-but, overall, I think you've done yourself proud today.

-Thank you.

I think the sweet potato is beautifully cooked. Chicken -

I like the way you did that on the crown

and then finished it in the pan,

and the curry sauce is very delicate,

very mild and I think the lack of warmth has retained

the beautiful flavours that you've brought on the plate

and I really like that.

I like that dish a lot. Well done.

I love the puree with the chicken, I love how the chicken is cooked.

Curry sauce with a puree - I'm not convinced.

I can't find fault with it, but I'm not excited by it.

Making Marcus smile has, obviously, made my day.

I feel all right. Feeling good.

Gayle, would you come and join us, please.

Next, it's Gayle's seafood laksa

with roasted Scottish langoustine

and five-spice dusted deep-fried squid,

served on vermicelli rice noodles,

with a garnish of red chillies, spring onions and fresh lime.

I think bowls of food are virtually impossible to present

in a stylised way, so we've ended up with a great big,

hearty bowl that doesn't actually look refined.

Gayle.

Come on.

This is MasterChef Professionals.

Gayle, I do love the laksa that you've made,

but there's just not enough of it in this bowl of food.

You've got the hotness of the chilli in there,

the ginger comes through and it's lovely and warm,

but the rest of the dish just hasn't worked

and it's not at the level of cooking that I want from you.

I'm looking for, as a chef, a lot more than some raw chilli on top,

some raw spring onion, some lime

and a couple of heads of langoustine.

That is one of Scotland's best products, a langoustine,

and I don't think, personally, you've done it any justice.

You're using Chinese five spice, you've got Thai fish sauce.

You're mixing the flavours of Asia

and it's resulting in a very muddied plate.

I'm feeling disappointed in myself.

A bit eager, if I do get through, to show them what else I can do.

Josh, would you come and join us, please.

23-year-old Josh's signature dish is a rump of lamb

with heritage carrots prepared three ways -

an orange carrot puree,

roasted purple carrots and pickled yellow carrots.

It's garnished with crisp potatoes, roasted and pickled shallots

and is served with a lamb sauce made with a mince base.

It's an intricate detail of garnishing,

beautifully presented and the beautiful colour of the pink lamb.

Yep.

Josh, I love the cooking of the lamb, it's lovely and pink,

it's been seared.

That sauce is so intense. There's a lovely shine to it,

that could be very heavy for the lamb dish,

but I think it really works well.

And the roasted purple carrot, I really enjoyed that.

I'd like to find something wrong with it. No, I wouldn't.

There's nothing bad that I have to say

-about this plate of food here, Josh.

-Thank you.

Personally, I wasn't expecting a big, bold, brave,

kick-ass dish like that from you.

-Oh, good.

-It's got flavour.

To pull yourself up off the canvas after YOUR skills test,

and deliver that and smash us all round the chops...

Good job!

-Thank you.

-I fell in love with that at the first bite.

At the absolute first bite.

If that was served up to me, I'd eat that, leave a big tip,

say, "Thank you," to the kitchen on the way out.

I was shocked.

I was doubting my dish, to be honest, when I put it up

and they loved it. I wasn't expecting it at all.

Alex, your turn, please. Up you come.

Alex's dish is pan-fried halibut with a panko and parsley crumb,

on a thyme-infused potato rosti with a fennel puree

and a brown shrimp and butter sauce.

Served with sea purslane, samphire,

oyster leaves and a cockle veloute.

-Is there something missing from this plate?

-Yeah, there's...

-cockles and the garnish is missing from it.

-You ran out of time?

-Yeah.

It's a real shame but, nonetheless, I still like

what you've presented to me, even though it looks incomplete.

I think the fish is beautifully cooked,

I like the colour that you've got on the top of it and I think that

the puree is beautiful and rich and smooth

and almost sweet-like in a way.

You've really used what you've got on the plate very, very well

and the other ingredients would've enhanced it to another level.

Loved the shrimps, the rosti. There's so much flavour in there.

The heads of the thyme coming through it as well,

and add to that the sea veg - it's an accomplished dish.

My feelings are a bit mixed.

I was so close to getting my actual shellfish garnish on the plate,

but I ran out of time.

David, up you come. Dessert time.

Finally, David's dessert is chocolate parfait

wrapped in tuille biscuit parcel.

Served with a champagne pink peppercorn sabayon,

candied pistachios, fresh raspberries,

chocolate-coated physalis and a sugar spring.

That parcel doesn't look refined enough for me

and it's breaking here at the edge. It's a big old lump of a parcel.

-I don't think we'd get it through the letterbox.

-No.

I like the flavours.

That chocolate parfait is not too sweet, it's not too bitter,

I think there's a nice balance, however, the parfait,

it's not solid, it's gone to liquid. You know, we've got issues here.

It's got errors all over the plate from having just too many things

going on and I'd rather, David, that you just focused on the main event.

A sugar spring is totally unnecessary

when the main event is not great.

I would love to love this plate,

because when you told me what it was,

I was sold on the idea, but you've not executed it well at all.

Feeling pretty gutted, to be honest.

Just messed up badly. I don't know...

Just a big mess, really.

Well, a tough day in the MasterChef kitchen.

I'm going to ask you to step outside

while we decide which three of you are going through.

Off you go. Thank you, chefs.

Well, it's fair to say, chefs, it was a day of ups and downs,

weren't it?

Not all of it was a disaster. We did get some good plates of food.

I think Dean definitely was the stronger of our chefs

-today in both rounds.

-Yeah, I think Dean's a good cook.

I think he works well and he could be the real deal.

Can I just point out one young fella

who didn't have a good skills test at all

and, actually, when he got to cook his own food,

shone in this competition and that's Josh.

Big, big, big plate of food, big flavours, big, bold

and not expected from him, so good on Josh.

-So we put Dean through, we put Josh through.

-Absolutely.

Gayle did not do well in the skills test and she really had to

bring it in the signature round and, unfortunately, she didn't.

None of us enjoyed her laksa.

It was scruffy and I don't believe

she got the flavours right either. Not great.

David, I was really excited when I saw him attempting a dessert.

It tasted OK but it looked scruffy and it didn't work.

It was a bit of a mess and I'm not too sure whether David really was

just maybe just trying a little bit too hard today.

I think we all agree here,

David and Gayle are definitely out of the competition.

Jamie, young chef, didn't have a great skills test,

he had a lot to prove here in his signature dish.

He made mistakes - undercooked potatoes,

-foam that didn't quite work.

-Gregg, if he can't cook a potato right,

how are you going to be able to cook some fish?

Yeah, of course I want to stay in the competition.

It means a lot to me, but if it's not my time, it's not my time.

I'll come back again, try again, bigger, better, stronger.

Alex was so nervous today that it almost crippled him

and his timing ran away from him.

He had the clams and the mussels cooked,

but he didn't get them on the plate.

Apart from that, what he put on the plate, I thought

it was actually very good. Great balance of flavour.

Cooking my own food for the judges was very nerve-racking.

If I stay, you know, I won't make the same mistake again,

I'll make sure that everything gets on the plate

that is meant to be on the plate.

Which one is going to overcome their issues quicker?

Is Jamie going to learn quicker than Alex is going to shed his nerves?

It's not easy coming in here, cooking, but it's about

who we can take through to the next round

and that can only be three of you.

The first chef that is going home is...

..Gayle.

The second chef leaving us today is...

-..David.

-Thank you.

-Thank you, David.

The last chef that is leaving us today is...

..Jamie.

-Sorry, Jamie.

-Thank you.

Not feeling too brilliant, of course, but on the day,

better chefs went through.

They deserve their place, I didn't do well today.

Very gutted, to be honest, but, you know, obviously,

I just had a bad day.

It's been emotional and it's been stressful and it's been

a roller-coaster, but I tried, I came, I done it, so there we go.

Congratulations. Well done. You are MasterChef quarterfinalists.

Yeah, relieved. Still nervous,

but...happy I'm in, happy I'm through.

It was a lot harder than I thought today,

the pressure, but it has been an incredible experience as well.

I definitely had a bad start but I brought back.

It paid off in the end, so, yeah, happy.

Well done, guys.

Tomorrow night,

another six professionals fight for a place in the quarterfinal.

Sorry, chefs.

Don't get caught short!

I like the dish a lot.

Get it on a plate!

I reckon I could come back tomorrow morning, you'd still be here.