Episode 20 MasterChef: The Professionals

It's the penultimate Professional MasterChef.

Tonight, Matt, Elly,

Gary and Arnaud...

will have to fight for the opportunity...

..to cook in one of the world's most innovative restaurants.

Only the best of them...

..will have that chance, as four...

..become three.

For the first time in the competition,

I feel like an equal to the other guys.

There's so much on this, you know, it's all or nothing today.

This is going to be the hardest round yet,

because we're all wanting this so much.

The amount of work is enormous, the commitment.

So because of that, I really want to make it through.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

I'm up against three awesome chefs.

To go home today would probably be the worst time ever.

This dish is going to be the ticket

that is going to get you to cook

with one of the finest chefs in the world.

We would like you to cook a dish inspired

by the region that you come from.

You know what's at stake.

You have 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Off you go.

I'm very proud to come from Leeds.

This is not only for me, this is representing where I'm from.

So it's got to be good.

-What is the dish?

-I want to call it the rhubarb triangle,

but there's more than three elements,

so I can't really call it that,

so it's just like a celebration of rhubarb.

So I'm doing a rhubarb and vanilla and ginger compote

with a rhubarb and vanilla sorbet,

some rhubarb and lime jellies.

I'm going to garnish it with the White Rose of Yorkshire.

So it's all sort of centred around God's own country.

God's own country, Yorkshire, Gregg?

You're a red rose, aren't you?

-I'm a Lancashire lad.

-Yeah, red rose.

That's a red rag to a bull, that one, mate.

I'm up against it now, aren't I?

Do you know what my favourite pudding is in the world?

-Go on.

-It's a rhubarb crumble.

-Is it?

-Don't mess it up.

-I won't mess it up.

-Good luck, Matt.

Cheers, thank you.

I'm from a region called the Loire Valley,

which is the north-west part of France.

Today it's about my childhood on a plate.

So, yeah, quite exciting today.

-What's the dish, Arnaud?

-So the dish is pan-fried fillet of zander,

which is a river fish, crayfish tortellini and a crayfish bisque.

What's inspired the dish that you're cooking for us today?

When I was a little boy on holiday,

I used to look for crayfish every summer.

I'd bring them back and my dad used to go fishing,

he'd bring back zander.

Zander from the Loire to get you into the final three.

-Yes.

-Go on, mate.

-Thank you.

-Thanks, Arnaud.

Zander is not a fish I expected

Arnaud to come to the kitchen with today.

It is a freshwater fish, it does have a unique muddy flavour to it,

but what a fabulous opportunity for him to fly the flag of France

and the Loire valley.

45 minutes left, guys.

One dish between you and the final three.

I've got the pressure

that I'm doing elements of Scotland's national dish,

so it's absolutely crucial that I nail it, it really is.

So we're doing some wood pigeon and we're doing a kind of variation on

haggis, neeps and tatties.

There's probably about three different sorts

of Scottish dishes combined into one.

I was thinking, any more Scottish,

this pigeon would sit up and play the bagpipes.

Yes, it probably would.

I was actually going to bring a wee thistle in,

because it's the only thing that's missing, really.

I'm looking forward to seeing

how Gary's going to put a twist

on this very classic, or traditional, flavours of Scotland.

I've not done a lot of pastry throughout this whole competition.

I'm putting myself out there, and it's a massive risk for me.

But I'm going to go for it.

What region do you call home?

So I was originally born in the Southwest.

When I was a little girl, I used to go down to the garden

and pick some apples with my grandad,

and we used to come back up and do an apple tart,

and we all love clotted cream in the Southwest,

so I've incorporated clotted cream parfait, a green apple sorbet.

It's going to taste like an apple tart,

but it's not going to look like one.

And where do I queue up for it? Just here, I suppose.

Yes, right here.

The core elements of this dish is apple and clotted cream.

She is really relying here on just two ingredients.

Wow, it's going to have to be good.

Five minutes, please, chefs.

Come on, you know the score, you've been here long enough.

Five minutes.

Yeah, so far, so good.

An awful lot of pressure in here today.

It's a little bit hectic with a couple of minutes to go.

That's it, stop, please.

Gary's celebration of Scotland's is pigeon breast in mushroom mousse,

confit saffron-infused turnip, mashed potato,

haggis rolled in feuilles de brick pastry, carrot puree,

morels and a pigeon Scotch broth.

I think the pigeon is wonderfully pink.

It's how I would like it.

The neep is perfectly cooked.

Really like the haggis in the crispy pastry that you have there.

That's got to be my favourite thing on this plate.

Love that peppery, earthy haggis,

wrapped up in the smartest way I've ever seen.

I really enjoy the flavours of Scotland,

and you've delivered them to me in a very, very smart way.

Thank you.

I think the dish is absolutely delicious.

When the dish came to life for me was the broth and the haggis.

Give me more of that on the plate.

I think you've absolutely done a sensational dish,

and I think that you've nailed the flag of Scotland

well and truly to the mast of this building.

Managed to serve haggis and get compliments on the presentation,

which isn't easy. So, all in all, I'm really happy.

Inspired by the Loire Valley,

Arnaud has served fillet of zander

on a bed of samphire and sea beads...

..with crayfish tortellini, confit salsify, capers and pancetta,

finished with a crayfish bisque.

I find the presentation a little bit oily.

Plate looks greasy.

I think the fish has a real nice freshness about it.

The garnish around the plate,

the tortellini's real great flavour of the crayfish.

What has a muddy flavour to it is the sauce.

It's incredibly muddy,

and that clouds the consistency of the bisque.

Love the fish.

I think the fish is very fresh.

I'm getting a bitterness from those leaves, which I don't like,

and I find the sauce grainy.

Almost gritty.

The sauce, for me, does have the odd texture.

It's sort of floury, almost.

I don't think it's the best plate of food that you've served us, Arnaud.

Matt's dish is a celebration of rhubarb.

Rhubarb and ginger compote,

compressed rhubarb, pistachio granola,

rhubarb and lime jelly, white rose petals,

creme anglaise and a rhubarb sorbet.

I'm not a fan of that presentation.

I think it needs height.

However, the flavours, I absolutely adore the flavours.

That sorbet is fantastic.

-Thank you.

-I particularly like the rhubarb and lime jelly,

I think that's very refreshing.

The whole thing feels to me like a very sophisticated rhubarb crumble.

I was just expecting a little bit more here from you.

You know, if you're going to put a rose petal on a plate,

do something to it so that I can eat it.

Take the pretty rose out of the equation,

the jelly with the lime works very, very well.

The sorbet is delicious.

Thank you.

I don't think that custard is evident enough

to be a part of this dish.

There's only a couple of drops and Gregg's eaten what was there.

I'm a huge fan of rhubarb,

I love the flavours of the rhubarb that you have on this dessert.

Thank you.

It was a risk to do pastry, I knew it was a risk.

But no risk, no reward, do you know what I mean?

I can't keep getting through on a good red wine sauce.

Elly's Southwest-inspired dish is clotted cream parfait,

a feuilletine wafer, burnt butter crumb,

apple jelly, caramel puree, hazelnuts,

sultanas poached in apple syrup and an apple sorbet.

What I love is that parfait.

Wow, it's like cutting through double cream that's ice-cold,

surrounded with that lovely little biscuit around the outside,

then you just hit the sorbet,

and it just refreshes your palate and sort of

brings you back down to earth again.

Fabulously balanced dessert.

I love it.

It's just spot on.

I don't know what your fears are being weak in the pastry,

because this is a testament, for me,

of a very strong chef in the pastry department.

I loved tucking into your little bits and pieces.

The jelly, the caramel.

However, that's a little sweet for me.

OK.

-He didn't like it, look.

-I know.

They all ate it.

Marcus was diving in like a schoolboy,

Monica on the other side like a schoolgirl,

I was trying to be more professional about it, and hardly got a glimpse.

Ah! That was amazing.

I pulled it off, and they absolutely loved it.

(Well done! You smashed it!)

Great cook-off. Lovely to see them cook food

from the regions that mean so much to them,

and I think they actually brought out the flavours

of those regions brilliantly.

My favourite of the day is Elly.

It was a beautiful-looking plate of food and it tasted delicious.

Elly's dessert was an absolute triumph.

I think she did a great job.

I loved Gary's dish of haggis, neeps and tatties.

He'd refined a Scottish classic.

I thought it had great flavour and the haggis pasty tasted delicious.

Do Elly and Gary make it through to the final three?

Absolutely!

That means we have to decide between Arnaud and Matt.

I think Arnaud's dish was very true to him.

The combination of the zander

and the water crayfish were fabulous.

The sauce was a little bit on the weird side.

It could've just done with a little bit more refinement.

I thought it was a nice-tasting plate of food from Arnaud,

but it just wasn't one of the greatest ones I've had from him,

and I know he can do better.

I really enjoyed Matt's flavours.

I thought the flavours of rhubarb were fantastic,

a little bit of lime in there as well.

I didn't think the presentation was great.

The rhubarb dish had great flavour.

The sorbet was absolutely delicious and refreshing.

Today's dish was just missing one element.

You know, just crystallise those rose petals for me.

That would've just lifted that dish to a whole new level.

One of these guys is going to make it through to the final three.

Which one?

It is a bittersweet moment for us.

We're going to discover our final three.

But unfortunately, we're going to have to lose one of you.

The chef leaving the competition is...

..Arnaud.

-Thank you.

-Arnaud, thank you very much.

-Great competition.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Thank you, Arnaud.

I'm disappointed, but I think it's fair.

I've given it my best shot.

Overall, it's been a great experience.

I think I've done myself proud.

You know, I got through to the last four.

But the guys who are through really deserve it.

Congratulations! You are the final three

of Professional MasterChef 2016.

Fantastic!

-Yes!

-We are now sending you to Oslo in Norway,

to work in the three-Michelin-star restaurant Maaemo.

Woohoo! Yes!

-Yes!

-Whoo!

Amazing!

Norway.

A country dominated by mountains, forests...

and fjords.

At its heart, the capital city of Oslo...

..a modern metropolis surrounded by nature.

Situated in the ultramodern city centre

is a restaurant that has defied

assumptions within Nordic cuisine...

..Maaemo,

brainchild of visionary chef Esben Holmboe Bang.

The name of the restaurant, Maaemo, is an old Norse

word that means "Mother Earth"

or "All that is living".

We want this restaurant to celebrate nature.

We can really feast on the natural bounty of our surroundings.

Esben's 20-course tasting menu takes the diner on a journey

of Norwegian tradition,

drawing inspiration from as far back as the Viking age.

This is a country that's been poor for so long,

and rough, rough winters!

So it's all about "How can we make produce last?"

There's a lot of curing, smoking, pickling.

It was all about surviving.

Now, we don't do it to survive any more,

but it's still part of our DNA,

who we are as a nation, so I feel like,

obviously, we have to do the same.

In 2012, just 15 months after opening,

Esben was awarded two-Michelin-star status,

followed by another earlier this year,

making Maaemo the first restaurant in Norway ever to hold three stars.

The three Michelin stars we got for something we've done.

I don't care about that. I don't care about what we've done.

It's what we do today - that's what matters!

The opportunity to work in a Scandinavian restaurant

that is absolutely at the cutting edge of world cuisine.

It's going to be incredible.

It's the restaurant that everyone is talking about.

The food is something that you've never experienced.

The flavour, the combinations.

I want to learn new things,

something that I've never done before,

cos that's, you know, that's what it's all about.

Being here, in this wonderful setting,

about to go into a three-star Michelin restaurant

and to experience that and watch it

and taste and the smells and the atmosphere -

it's going to be insane.

For chefs that are coming to work here, they have to have eagerness.

But I expect them to give everything.

Everything! Like WE do every single day.

-Hi, guys.

-Hi.

-Hi.

-Hello.

I'm going to show you a few dishes that we have on the menu now,

just to give you an idea of what we are doing here

and a little bit of the background of the restaurant,

a little bit about the philosophy,

how we approach our cooking and our produce, OK?

The first dish is an emulsion of raw Norwegian oysters...

covered with an oyster and mussel gel

and a warm sauce made from dill oil and mussels.

The taste of everything you dream the sea would taste like.

I wanted to make an oyster dish that had an intense flavour of oysters,

but not necessarily that texture of oysters.

So, what we did is,

we made an emulsion and this is basically oyster and oil.

That's all it is. The next thing we have here -

this is a gel made out of oyster and mussels.

It's very intense.

So we're going to put that on top and this is obviously...

It represents the sea.

The last thing we are going to do is we have this sauce...

..made out of mussels and dill.

The actual growing season, when we can get dill, is quite short,

so this is an oil that we do in the summertime.

So we're going to spoon that over,

and that's going to give the hot sauce

and the slightly cool oyster.

For me, it's a perfect marriage.

There you go. That's dish one.

-Oh, wow!

-Do you like it?

-Yeah, wow!

-An amazing dish.

-Mm-hm?

I mean, it's incredible. There's three elements to that, is it?

This is what it's about for us.

-Yeah.

-It's not complicated food.

-Yeah.

-Our dishes, normally, is three, maximum four, ingredients.

The presentation is beautiful but simple.

It just shows that you don't have to put loads and loads and loads and

loads of different things on a plate for it to be absolutely incredible.

So, the next dish we're going to show you is scallop.

Again, we're going to try and keep it simple

and let the produce really speak for itself.

The hand-dived scallops, from the Norwegian coastline,

are considered some of the finest in the world.

Exceptional produce is the key of this dish.

To enhance the flavour,

the scallops are cooked in their shell on a yakitori charcoal grill

for no more than three minutes.

Right, here I have a cream of celeriac.

Now, scallop and celeriac is one of those classical marriages.

And I'm not afraid to do that.

We just want to do it a little bit better than everybody else.

The scallop is evenly sliced...

Perfectly cooked.

..then covered with small discs of apple.

So we want each bite of the scallop to have a little bit of the acidity

from these fresh apples.

Raw celeriac, dusted with leek ash.

Now, the leek ash will add some bitterness

that you need in this dish,

because there's quite a lot of sweetness.

And finally, oxalis - a member of the sorrel family.

So you want nearly all of the scallop to be covered up?

I want it just to feel natural, you know.

Don't think that you have to cover this up.

I don't think like that. When you plate it,

let it come to you really natural, you know.

There we are.

The sauce is the juice from the grilling.

And we split it up with a little bit of smoked butter.

OK?

So that's the second dish here.

There's nothing ground-breaking

about celeriac, apple and scallop, you know?

But when you get the quality of the produce that we get here,

you can just make it that much better.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-That is amazing.

The final dish is Esben's interpretation

of strawberries and cream.

It's like going on a picnic in the summertime, you know?

For me, eating strawberries is eating in the garden as a kid.

It's transporting the diner back to their childhood.

The dish starts with strawberries compressed in a strawberry infusion.

Then we put a little bit of cream, fresh cream,

that we just infuse with roses.

And then we cover it with this disc

that we made out of pickled roses from last year.

We had actual roses growing in our garden,

so you'd smell the roses, eat the strawberries, cream, sugar.

You know, it's just one of those most cliched, but beautiful things.

A second dish of rose creme patissiere

is topped with strawberry and pickled rose jelly.

While you eat that, you get a little soda...

on the side of strawberries.

And that's it.

That is so delicious.

I could eat about three.

It's done exactly what it says on the tin -

it's transported you back to your youth.

And so, guys, you've seen a little bit about what we do here.

The next thing we are going to do,

I would like you guys to cook for me.

And I would like for both, of course,

your personalities to shine through,

but I want to take...

that you take something away from what I showed you as well.

Esben's philosophy is to use only Norwegian ingredients...

..sourcing organic produce from local farms

and seafood from along the country's 25,000km coastline.

This is a lovely little ingredient list I've put together for you.

And obviously very seasonal.

In the centre, we have these mahogany clams.

These are coming from Nordskott,

which is right in the Arctic Circle.

They can be up to 300 years old.

So treat them with a bit of respect.

So these scallops hand-dived, much like the mahogany clams.

A bit of mackerel as well, just fresh fish,

like some of the pickles that we have here,

can be a couple of years old.

A lot of these flowers are coming from Ekeberg Park

which looks down from Oslo.

These forest ants that we've lovingly picked out for you today,

definitely worth trying.

These are something that we refer to as being like a Nordic lemon.

Dig in, man, and enjoy yourselves.

Just make sure you have some fun, yeah?

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Wow.

That is nuts!

That's incredible! Have you tried them? Ants!

That is not what you would expect.

-That's amazing!

-It's mad, innit? It's just really citrusy, isn't it?

See, this - you'd trip over this

when you take your dog for a walk at home in the UK,

and it tastes like...

..pineapple! What?!

It's a different kitchen, different food, different produce.

You know, there's no lemons, no limes,

so you've got to think outside the box.

All I expect is something personal.

I expect them to show me something that means something to them,

that shows that they have an understanding

about cooking with their hands

and they have some understanding about cooking with their mind.

That's what I'm hoping to see.

Gary has gone straight for the mahogany clams.

He was talking a lot earlier about his childhood, you know,

and the first thing that I ever think about

when I see clams and mussels

reminds me of going to Helensburgh, near where I live, and picking them.

The gooseberries as well.

It was the only thing that ever grew in my garden.

So I'm just going to take some of that kind of childhood inspiration

and see if I can put it on a plate.

OK, so I'm going to do roasted fennel,

pickled fennel, and then scalloped,

but I was going to do it how...

Cos I didn't want to do, you know, copy what he did this morning,

so I'm going to do how I normally do them.

To go with the scallop and fennel,

Elly is using the unripe pickled grapes.

You know, that's a classic flavour with scallop,

so altogether, hopefully,

I can deliver today, and he loves what I've done.

I'm going to do something with this mackerel.

It's so fresh. But I'm thinking of hardly even touching it,

just doing like a mackerel tartare.

Something with the beetroot. Two ingredients on the plate.

Very simple, which is what I'm all about.

And, hopefully, it's tasty!

Well, since it's summer right now,

I really hope that we get something that's alive and vibrant,

and at the same time, has that sense of restraint.

-Yeah.

-That they know when to stop.

Are you doing 375 components to your dish, Gaz?

No, just the 300.

-Oh?

-I've cut back.

Elly is first up, with her scallop dish.

So I've been asked by Monica and Marcus to let myself go.

I think I have in this.

I'm going to try my best to showcase what, you know,

we've learned this morning with the local produce we've got behind us.

It's been an amazing experience so far,

so I'm looking forward to doing this and getting some feedback.

To be honest, that is probably one of the simplest dishes

I've cooked in the whole competition,

so, hopefully, it goes down a storm.

-Wow!

-Lovely!

-Ooh!

Elly's dish is roasted scallop, barbecued baby fennel,

pickled unripe grapes, lovage,

pineapple weed and a burnt butter sauce.

-It looks really good.

-Yeah, it looks really nice.

This looks inviting...

-Yeah.

-..the caramelisation!

There is something about the caramelised scallops,

the brown butter, there's something...

It's very, like, an easy, accessible flavour.

The thing that I don't like is the fennel.

-I'm not a big fan of fennel...

-OK.

-..to begin with.

But what I did like was the grapes, the brown butter and the scallop.

That, for me, was the dish.

As the dish goes, overall, I very much enjoyed it.

The flavours are very direct here.

Everything you see on the plate, you taste,

and I think that's really important, you know.

It was good.

It was probably the most comfortable I've been.

Just... I was prepped in five minutes!

I thought it was too simple!

He loved it, though.

It's quite surreal, weird, this.

It's like... "Here's a loads of amazing ingredients

"you've never used before - crack on."

Yeah, you've just got to jump in headfirst.

Don't overthink it.

Yeah, I'm done.

I might take them off.

Yeah. I've just took the wilted beetroot leaves off.

Although they taste very nice...

they just crowded the plate a little bit for me.

-ESBEN WHISTLES

-Nice.

All right.

Matt has served mackerel tartare with elderflower pickle,

beetroot and blackcurrant puree,

sliced beetroot pickled in balsamic vinegar,

pickled blackcurrants, with marigold and nasturtium flowers.

I feel like it's a bit too big.

For me, um, I like the earthiness of

the beet to go with the mackerel.

I do feel like the mackerel becomes a bit clumsy.

If you'd smoked the fish,

-that would've resonated well, I think, with the...

-The beetroot?

-..the beet more.

-Yeah. Maybe, yeah.

What I do like is the fact that you were able to show restraint.

You chose your three ingredients and that what's you were like -

"This is what I'm going to build my dish around."

-OK.

-That, I really liked.

I actually liked the mackerel tartare quite a bit.

The onions through it, it reminds me a lot of what I grew up with eating,

-like catching mackerel off the coast with my brother.

-Mm.

But it needs a bit of refinement, I would think, for sure.

It was a difficult challenge to do, that.

It was clumsy, it was always going to be clumsy.

I thought all the flavours worked.

Maybe the flavours worked independently

better than they did together.

I'm using the mahogany clams.

It's something I've never done before.

It's given me an incredible flavour. It really has.

Well, I think it's going to eat really well.

Let's hope the guys downstairs do.

Fingers crossed I've done these amazing mahogany clams justice.

A lot of pressure.

Chef.

Oh, wow.

-Well, you can smell the sea, no?

-Yeah. I love it.

Gary has served mahogany clams marinated in dill pickle,

wilted gooseberries, pickled onion,

Scots pine,

wheat grains cooked in clam stock and marigold petals,

with a sauce made from mahogany clam stock and butter.

The inspiration behind it, when I picked the ingredients,

was just there was lots of things that reminded me

of being a kid on the West Coast of Scotland.

Gooseberries was the only thing that ever grew in my garden at home...

-Oh, yeah?

-..so we always had gooseberries.

-Yeah.

-So...

You know what?

-I really, really like it.

-Yeah?

I actually really, really, really like this dish.

And the thing I like about it is that the clam tastes of clam.

-Yeah.

-You know?

But then you've got all these sweet and acidic notes coming through,

and that salted, buttery situation you've got going in your sauce,

that makes it luxurious to eat, you know?

I really like it.

I feel like you took what we do here,

but you made it your own.

-I'm glad you've enjoyed it.

-Really enjoyed it.

-I'm very impressed.

-Very impressed.

-Super impressed.

Amazing!

Cooking for one of the best chefs in the world and him enjoying it,

you know, and actually understanding what I was trying to do

was just incredible.

It was an immense experience, really was.

Well, I think, overall, I'm really impressed.

They showed that they are cooks. They can cook.

Now, the question is,

are they going to be able to fast adapt to the way we work?

That's going to be interesting to see.

The first test is over.

But the finalists are about to face

the biggest challenge of their culinary careers.

For one night, they have been given the honour of joining

Esben's brigade of elite chefs for evening service.

In just a few hours,

they will be feeding paying customers

who have waited months to eat at the restaurant.

I think the challenge today...

is to get through the day.

Cos it's going to be tough!

Each contestant will be in charge of two courses

on tonight's 20-course tasting menu.

Elly will be responsible for Esben's signature oyster dish

and one other course,

using a traditional Norwegian preservation technique -

months-old fermented trout known as rakfisk.

The key on this dish here is our fermented trout.

So this is trout that's been salted

and laid in barrels for months and months

-until it rots, basically.

-OK.

Added to the fermented trout mix is horseradish gel,

followed by bitter cress.

And then we're going to cover it with these grilled strips of leek.

And you see you get, like, a resemblance of

kind of almost like a shallot.

-Right?

-Yeah.

-You see that?

Fresh dill sprayed with apple pickle is carefully laid on top.

And to accompany it is a grilled lettuce and scallop garum sauce.

-I'm going to finish it off table-side, OK?

-OK.

And we're going to be a generous amount of sauce

right next to it, like this.

-What do you think?

-I think that's beautiful.

-It's quite funky, no?

-ESBEN LAUGHS

-The leek's really nice. It's so fresh.

-Mm-hm.

Mmm, really nice.

How do you like the fish? Is it too much, or what do you think?

I really like it. I think it balances out together.

-Like, the crunchiness of the leek.

-Mm-hm.

-And then the cold of the...

-The sauce, yeah?

-..the sauce.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, I really like it.

Matt will be in charge of Esben's scallop course

and will also be responsible for

one of the most traditional dishes in Norway.

This is something people would eat at special occasions.

It's a luxurious dish.

It's not lobster and caviar,

but, for me, it has just as luxurious a feel.

This is a traditional Norwegian porridge called rommegrot,

and it's made out of an extremely sour cream.

It's super simple.

-You take your cream, you pour it in the bottom, like that, OK?

-OK.

This is a reindeer heart that's been salted, smoked and dried.

-But this is a classical way of preserving a piece of meat.

-OK.

'It's not like we're going around killing Santa's little helper.'

We have a vast majority of reindeer in the northern part of Norway.

So, you've got some cured and smoked reindeer heart

that you're going to cover the cream with, you see?

So it doesn't take much,

but nevertheless, you need to be VERY focused.

The dish is finished table-side with brown butter and plum vinegar.

It's the simple things like this

that is the most complex to master, you know?

Because you have to perfect everything,

otherwise there's no point, because it's SO transparent.

If you mess anything up with this...

..everything falls apart.

Found out that the porridge actually with a vessel made out of wood,

-it tastes better.

-Wow! OK.

-Wow.

-How's that making you feel? Norwegian?

It's nothing like I've ever tested in my life before.

-It's brilliant.

-Good.

So, man, are you comfortable with your two dishes?

I wouldn't say I'm comfortable. I'm excited to do it, and I'll be focused

I'll do what I can do,

and I'll ask everybody for as much help as possible, and...

-And then we'll see if anybody helps you.

-Yeah!

-That's going to be interesting.

-Yeah.

The approach to the food is incredible.

Like, I've learned more in the last half-hour

than I've done in the last 14 years.

Wow!

Blown away. Absolutely blown away.

Gary will finish the meal with Esben's strawberries and cream.

But before that, he'll be tasked with

a fish course of lightly-brined mackerel,

topped with a ramson gel, a type of wild garlic.

These flowers come from a small farm nearby.

And then we spray these with a little bit of apple.

And then we have our time to put it on nicely, OK?

So we're going to cover the fish up

with these beautiful...

fragrant...flowers.

And the important bit here is to be fast,

but it has to look perfect.

And then we have a beautiful acidic vinaigrette

with apple and ramson.

-What do you think?

-Stunning.

Absolutely beautiful.

I think one thing that's nice to communicate

-is the locality and the seasonality of this.

-Yeah.

So, the mackerel's coming from this Oslo fjord.

You can see it there.

The ramsons coming from Ekeberg Park - you can see it!

It's a complete representation of the season of right now!

-Yeah.

-Here!

-Yeah.

-You like it?

-Yeah, it's incredible. So powerful a flavour, isn't it?

It's very vibrant! Alive.

Every mouthful's different depending on the flower that you get.

Exactly. Yes.

And again, what is very important to focus on tonight in service

is don't stress.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Stay focused, keep timing.

You're going to be fine.

-Looking forward to it. Really looking forward to it.

-Good.

Attention to detail's incredible.

The eye that the chefs have got here is incredible, you know.

And it's just those finer points that make the difference, I think.

I'm quite nervous, but I'm going to set that aside

and concentrate on the task that I've got given.

I'm looking forward to the two dishes that I'm doing

cos they're absolutely amazing.

Yeah, it's mad I've got to send it out to paying customers.

But it's another experience.

I've got an opportunity to do a service with this guy,

which is...amazing.

The experience so far here's been incredible.

But to be cooking in service,

I'm going to make the absolute most of that.

Many a chef in the world would love this opportunity, to be in this -

a three-Michelin kitchen.

-MARCUS:

-There's a huge amount of pressure for our three chefs.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

They've got to grab it with both hands and give it their best shot.

Splendid! How wonderful!

What's most important is our guests in the dining room

that's waited three months to come tonight.

That's what matters, OK?

-Good service.

-ALL: Good service.

They look nervous, our three.

But I think, at the same time,

they must be having the time of their lives in this kitchen.

I know I would be.

We're waiting for trout.

-CHEFS: Ja, takk.

-Ja, takk.

So, six-centimetre pieces.

Elly is first up, with her fermented trout dish.

You're using a ruler to measure out a leek,

so that shows you that everything is consistent.

It's on another league.

But it's exciting!

The leek must precisely cover the trout...

It's quite tricky.

..to form the shape of a shallot.

I'm shaking.

-No pressure, Elly, yeah?

-I know.

Except to make it perfect every time.

THEY LAUGH

You can't have these gaps.

-So if you have to overlap it, that's fine.

-OK.

-Don't be pressing it down.

-OK.

-From the sides, definitely.

Backs.

This one I'm not particularly happy with, yeah?

When you're placing herbs, the negative space is as important.

Make sure that every single one is perfect.

These people are all the way from Taiwan just to eat here.

They're going to all the good restaurants in Scandinavia.

We want to come out on top, no?

-OK.

-That looks good.

Elly's first dishes have made it to the dining room.

He high-fived me, so...so far, so good.

But as part of the dining experience at Maaemo,

the chefs must also present the dishes to the customers.

-Good evening.

-Well, hello there!

OK, so tonight, we've got fermented trout with pickled and grilled leek,

dill, we have juice of grilled lettuce and leek oil.

-First three-star?

-Yes. It won't be the last, I hope!

-ELLY LAUGHS

-Yeah, that's my girl!

It's a gorgeous little dish,

but the flavour that it packs is astounding!

Blows your mind away.

The flavour of the fish with the leek and the juice in the bowl

is quite extraordinary.

This is a very complex little morsel to attempt,

and I think it's beautiful, I think it's absolutely beautiful.

The trout has been a success.

But Elly is straight back in the spotlight

with Esben's signature oyster dish.

So this is the oyster jelly.

I'm just cutting them out.

I just need to make sure that I don't break any

because they're quite fragile.

-Is that all right?

-Yeah, that great. Spot on.

The delicate oyster and mussel gel...

..must be gently pressed onto the emulsion.

It's this bit I can't do.

It's broken the gel.

I need that oyster up now, yeah?

Well, she put up three beautiful oysters.

However, there was one little tear in the gel.

It has to be perfect because the smallest thing means the world.

Three hands on oyster, let's go.

ALL: Ja, takk!

Guys! Guys, come on! Three hands on oyster!

ALL: Chef!

All right, let's send them out, then.

One night at a three-Michelin-star restaurant,

like anybody, would be quite nervous,

so I would say that she's getting along great, actually.

-My word.

-So, for your next course,

we've got oyster emulsion with oyster jelly.

We've got mussel cream split with dill,

and this is chef's signature dish.

-It's been on for five years.

-Thank you, Elly.

-OK.

Mm. Whoa.

That's lovely!

Starts off hot, goes cold, finishes with a big smash of oyster!

That's fabulous!

It's amazing, absolutely amazing.

It's deeper than the ocean. It's just delicious.

Do you know what I want Elly to learn?

You can create something absolutely sublime

if you let yourself go and you truly cook from the heart.

-I think you did well.

-Thank you.

-No issues. You had one sent back.

-Thank you very much.

And, next time you do it, nothing sent back.

-All right.

-Thank you.

-Good.

Chef seemed very happy, and that's good.

Getting asked to do two of his dishes is massive.

You wouldn't think you would be cooking in a three-star, and I am!

SHE LAUGHS

I'm pretty nervous now.

-You make it count now, yeah?

-Er, yes, Chef.

Nine courses into the menu,

and Matt's intricate scallop dish is up next.

It's just getting the scallop right.

So you've got to just get it one quarter done, turn it,

and then it sits in its juice and the residual heat cooks it.

-OK.

-Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!

It's vital that Matt garnishes the scallop quickly...

-Speed it up there, Matt, yeah?

-Yes, Chef.

..while it's still hot.

-We need to push on this here, Matt, now, yeah?

-Yeah.

Very beautiful, Chef, yeah. Killing it.

Make sure we don't put the sauce on top -

you have the sauce around, yeah?

-Yes, Chef.

-All right? That's good.

OK, so this is your scallop that we've cooked in its shell.

And then, on top, we've got celeriac dusted with burnt leek ash,

apples, sorrel

and the sauce is the same as the liqueur that it's cooked in.

-OK, enjoy.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

This is so delicate yet so balanced.

This is an art.

That is delicious.

It's light, it's elegant - it's almost raw scallop.

And the refreshing apple that just comes through.

Very clever.

We've all loved Matt's flavours.

Hopefully, Matt has learnt the art

of very simple but beautiful presentation.

-Are we enough hands on this, or...?

-I'll go around outside.

I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming.

There's no let up for Matt, as next up is a table of nine.

-Come on, Matt.

-Matt, this is it, yeah?

He must keep up with the eight other chefs

to ensure the plates are sent at exactly the same time.

It's really interesting seeing Matt there in the middle of service.

There's, like, ten chefs surrounding a few plates of food!

It's like surgery!

Chef, got nine scallops going to 80!

Now, small, elegant dots.

Meanwhile, Gary is getting to grips with his first mackerel dish.

It's brilliant.

We're just trying to make them look as natural,

as though they're growing out the plate.

But, spot on there, Gary. Only 29 more of those, man, yeah?

That's fine... I'll get faster, I think.

He's going well. No accidents so far.

It's early, though. We'll see. There's a long way to go.

Just feel the buzz and the amount of chefs that it takes

to produce food at this level.

We're feeding 30-odd covers tonight, and there must be a chef per cover.

-You got it, you got it.

-Whoo!

-You smashed it, man.

Look at that.

What we've got this evening is mackerel.

We've also got ramson gel, which is a type of wild garlic.

We're using local flowers.

The sauce is an apple pickle with ramson oil.

Are you enjoying this experience?

I don't think I'm going back to Scotland after this.

This is just such an amazing environment.

I'll move the kids over and the wife over.

The detail on the presentation is absolutely stunning.

What I love is the flowers have a purpose.

It is absolutely beautiful.

It's faultless.

Sharp, sweet and sour all at the same time.

-Yes.

-Amazing.

Mackerel and flowers - who would've put that together?

Matt's now responsible for

the most traditional dish on the night's menu.

I'm just finely grating a heart.

-HE CHUCKLES

-A reindeer heart.

They have to get the porridge right...

which I would imagine would be quite hard for

a British cook who came to Norway yesterday

and had to cook one of the most indigenous dishes

that we have here in this country.

And then, with tradition comes great expectations, you know?

Hopefully, it all goes to plan.

If it's not good enough, he won't send it - it's fact.

Just dump it straight in. A little more.

He's got it.

Good. Let's go.

Such a relief when they're giving it the nod.

Such a relief.

This is rommegrot.

So, it's like a cream,

and then, on top, is smoked and dried reindeer heart,

and it's supposed to be best enjoyed in winter

up the mountain, proper Norway dish.

And then the butter just goes...

-GREGG:

-Oh, wow.

-..in the middle.

-Oh, wow.

That smells amazing.

What's going on there?

A reindeer heart tastes like corned beef!

-MONICA:

-This, for me, is delicious. Isn't it?

Didn't you eat it and feel like it's comfort food at its best?

When you have a dish like that, you feel like a part of Norway.

It's so traditional.

You almost feel like a Viking!

After five hours of service, and 16 courses in,

the end is in sight for Gary.

-Gary? Are you ready?

-Yes, ready.

-Three strawberries.

-Yeah.

-Away.

The last cheque already. It's been a quick night.

What we're doing is we're taking rose leaves

that have been preserved since this time last year,

and we're making our tuilles for our strawberry dessert.

Very delicate and very time-consuming.

It's a completely different level

from certainly what I do for a living,

but it's also a completely different level

from anything I've ever done before.

Two minutes. Let's go, let's go, let's go.

You've got this.

-Straight through here?

-You feel good?

-Yeah, OK.

-Almost like a picnic.

-Yes.

-Childhood memories.

Oh, wow.

So what we have is strawberries and cream.

And the theory behind the dish

is it's to remind you of a summer picnic.

It's quite a sweet dish,

but it should evoke memories of being a kid.

-So thank you, enjoy.

-Thank you, Gary.

A little touch of rose petal.

I love the strawberry jam flavour as well,

with the creaminess that sits underneath.

It's clever, it's technical.

The flavour is something else.

-GREGG:

-This is a childlike pleasure, isn't it?

This is simply sitting in the garden,

eating strawberry jam and smelling the roses.

I think Gary's done a great job here,

and you can see that he's loving this whole experience.

Whoo!

It's been a great day all in, I think.

I mean, this is exactly what I thought it would be and more.

My mind's already racing for the final.

Well, we had a good service all in all.

What I liked today was the excitement from these contestants.

They really took it head on, so bravo.

An amazing dinner tonight.

Our chefs have done us all proud here.

It's been an absolutely incredible experience.

Their food is going to change.

They are going to change.

And we are going to taste it in the final cook-off.

You know what? It's something I'm always going to remember.

I absolutely loved today, and the food was amazing.

It's just really lit a kind of fire underneath us.

You know, it's been a long, long day, but I wish it was longer.

It was awesome.

-MATT:

-To be able to go work at a three-Michelin-star restaurant

with a chef such as Esben,

it's probably the best thing I've done in my career.

There is one last challenge left.

Then we're going to find out who our MasterChef Champion 2016 is.

Wow!

Tomorrow night, it's the Professional MasterChef Final.

They've just got to push themselves one more time.

Excitement! Energy! It's so intense in here.

Possibly one of my favourites I've had on MasterChef.

It just went floating up into the cloud.

That, for me, is a dish that would come

from any three-star Michelin kitchen in Europe.