Episode 7 MasterChef: The Professionals

The hunt for the next professional MasterChef champion is back on.

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

Tonight, they face two challenges set by Gregg Wallace

and two of Britain's top chefs -

Monica Galetti, and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing.

I will fight, I will fight for my place.

I'm very competitive. I want to be the best I can.

This is a competition, we're all in it to win it.

You know, let the fight start.

The journey in front of our chefs is colossal.

It takes a brave chef to enter this competition.

Let's see if they have what it takes.

Skills test time. Monica, what are you going to set for the chefs?

I would like our chefs today to make a sauce carbonara

and use it to dress their freshly-made tagliatelle.

-Pasta's already made?

-The dough has been made, they need to roll it out.

-How long are you going to give them?

-We're going to give them 15 minutes.

Come on, let's do it. I fancy a bowl of pasta.

I'm just cutting my pancetta into lardons.

Always the lardons, it's quite important.

They need to be cooked off,

and you're releasing some of that beautiful fat.

OK, so I've got my onions done as well.

They're ready to go in when I need them.

How many egg yolks would you expect to make one portion of sauce?

No less than two yolks.

I'm now going to roll out the pasta, getting it ready to cook.

I think there's a lot of areas here for error.

You would assume most chefs would use the fresh pasta machine.

That's going to be tricky.

The thickness that they roll that pasta to is vital.

I think it's easy if you've done it many times.

If you've never done it, it's daunting.

So, my pasta has been rolled out.

We're going to cook my lardons and the onions.

Everything is about timing and the temperatures of this frying pan now.

In go the onions.

In goes the pasta.

This'll only take half a minute to cook, it won't take long at all.

Pull this off the heat, pull the bacon off the heat.

Look at that. How quick was that?

It's essential that this pan is not too hot

when you add the pasta to it.

I've got my egg yolks. So just whisk it up with a fork.

If the pasta in the pan's too hot,

when the egg goes in it's going to scramble straight away.

And I also like to add just a touch of the cooking water.

It helps to coat it and make more of a sauce.

People tend to use cream and butter,

but in Italy that's sort of frowned upon.

I love the food of Italy.

I don't want to see cream anywhere near that carbonara.

I'm finishing it with a drizzle of olive oil.

A bit more black pepper.

Yeah!

And there we have it, tagliatelle with carbonara.

I love that. That is the simple beauty of the food of Italy.

It's so tempting, though, to put more into this dish, isn't it?

It's so easy to more cheese or some cream or butter or some parsley.

That egg yolk gives it almost a creamy texture,

but it shouldn't have cream in it.

I hope they don't put cream in it.

What makes this dish amazing is the simplicity of it.

-Shall we get them in?

-Yeah, I want to see what they can do.

First in is 37-year-old Max.

I'm head chef at a gastro-pub in the heart of the City.

I've been here for about two years.

I used to work in fine dining.

But with a lifestyle change - getting married,

and I've got a baby on the way,

I decided to kind of step down

and do some more sort of simple cooking.

I don't do subtle, I only do really big, bold flavours.

When you're cooking fine dining it needs to be mind-blowing.

Service!

If I went out in the first round

I would get nailed by all my colleagues.

I've been bigging myself up for a couple of months now,

so we'll see how that one goes.

-Hello.

-Max, I would like you

to make for us carbonara with fresh tagliatelle. OK?

-How does that sound?

-Yeah, absolutely fine with that.

You have 15 minutes. Carbonara, when you're ready.

Have you made a fair bit of pasta in your time, Max?

Yeah, I love making pasta.

I've done tagliatelle on my menu recently, actually.

-Pasta done?

-Pasta's done.

What training did you have?

Pretty much self-taught. I've only been, essentially,

a professional chef, for about seven years.

Before that I was actually a general manager.

You've got three minutes left.

Come on, come on.

Two seconds, put that on a plate, please.

-All done?

-Yep.

You've given us a great pasta dish.

Clearly, you're competent in working with pasta.

I think you've done a great job. Well done.

Max, the pasta is wonderful and thin. It's perfectly cooked through.

The lardons have got a nice crispiness to it.

I think it's a great dish.

You ought to go away keeping your head up from here

and take that confidence into the next round.

Thank you.

Your pasta is perfect. There's enough seasoning in there as well.

Those eggs are absolutely bang on.

They are coating everything in a really nice, sticky yolk.

It's great!

Great working techniques. You took on board everything

that was around you, you did the dish in the right order.

You've made a great-looking plate of food. Good start. Well done.

Thank you, Chef.

Thank you very much, off you go.

Oh, it's so nice to get something you can actually enjoy eating.

I was really happy with that.

It was something I know how to do, so, it could have been something

completely random and I'd be sat here

depressed at the moment. No, it was good.

That was a great start. Let's hope the next two are like this.

Next up is 24-year-old Adam.

I am a sous-chef in a three-rosette restaurant

on the border of Herefordshire.

There was a massive buzz when we got the third rosette.

When I joined it was only two.

I'm not classically trained. What we're doing is very modern.

I've got a fire in my belly to do well.

I don't want to be just going stale, going in the same kitchen and

doing the same stuff, day in, day out. That's not what I want to do.

Adam, I would like you to make us a carbonara and fresh tagliatelle.

-OK.

-15 minutes. Off you go.

OK.

-How old are you, Adam?

-24.

And how long have you been cooking for?

I've been cooking for about four years.

What happened to you at 20-years-old to get you to start cooking?

An accident, really. I was working front of house.

They were short over one Christmas, so I decided to

go in the kitchen and help them out, and I've never left.

-You've had five minutes, Adam.

-Thank you.

-Do you make pasta, Adam?

-Not normally, no.

You've got two minutes, Chef.

-All done?

-Yes, thank you.

Adam, a carbonara, classically, you don't need to use

any cream or butter to make that sauce.

You normally rely on the egg yolk to coat it. OK?

But it was boiling for such a long period on the stove,

it's actually scrambled that egg on there as well.

The pasta is tough, it's chewy, it's not right.

And the fact that you just boiled the lardons

in that cream sauce for so long,

it's actually made them tough as well.

There's no way I'd finish that.

It's far too rich. You've got butter, cream in there

and cheese, and your pasta's too thick.

And it's not cooked enough.

It's a bowl of stodge, Adam.

And it's not a very pleasant bowl, either.

I did like one thing, though, and it was the way you stood there

for a minute just to observe your new surroundings.

That's a very good thing. I've not seen that yet from a chef.

Normally, they go running in at 1,000 mph.

Thank you.

-Adam, thank you. We'll see you again. Off you go, Chef.

-Thank you.

What's really interesting about this test is it's actually

incredibly simple when you know how,

but it's very difficult when you're not sure.

I'm gutted. I'm gutted. I'm disappointed with myself for...

not thinking it through properly.

But...there's no way back from that now.

The final chef to face Monica's test

is 28-year-old Glaswegian Ruaraidh.

So I'm a junior sous-chef at a large hotel within Glasgow city centre.

I've been here nine years.

It's a very busy hotel.

It keeps us on the go all the time.

Our style of food here is very simple, contemporary Scottish food.

My parents have always really encouraged me to chase my dreams.

If I was able to go all the way

it would be like winning

the Champions League if I was a football player.

It's a wild, wild dream.

You have 15 minutes. Off you go.

-Ruaraidh, you made a carbonara before?

-Yeah, I have.

-And how are you with pasta?

-Not too bad.

You're halfway, Ruaraidh.

Keep it together, Ruaraidh.

All right, Chef, you've got five minutes to go.

-All done?

-Yep.

Ruaraidh, I wanted you to make us a basic carbonara.

What you have done is burnt some bacon, threw in some red onion,

a bit of cream,

boiled it.

Pasta skills are not there.

The pasta is not great, and it's not a great sauce.

I hope we're going to see better from you in the next round.

It's too thick and rich, because a carbonara doesn't have cream in it.

Your pasta is cooked in some bits, it's thicker in others.

That's cos it's different shapes and sizes that went into that pan.

Come back with a fresh approach, a new approach,

and just maybe try and forget that this ever happened.

-Cool.

-I think that's what you need to do.

Cheers.

It was tough having two very highly skilled chefs and Gregg

breathing down my neck, you know.

I think, today, the pressure just really did get to me

and it's going to bug me.

What is your skills test, Marcus?

So, I want our chefs to make us

a taramasalata and serve it with crab, scallop and croutons.

Taramasalata is sort of like making a mayonnaise with smoked cod's roe.

-How long are you going to give them to achieve this?

-20 minutes.

So the first thing is to get the taramasalata underway.

What we've got here is a smoked cod's roe.

What we need to do is, you need to scoop this out.

Don't put the skin in there, because it is just going to be bitty,

you want this to be nice and smooth.

I love taramasalata and I've never once considered how you make it.

So, crush garlic.

A squeeze of lemon.

Just a pinch of salt.

It's a wonderful aroma.

It does actually remind me of being by the sea.

Now we'll start adding vegetable oil and water.

You want to sort of add them at the same time.

It's sort of like making a mayonnaise.

The addition of the liquid is where they need to be careful.

If that's added too fast, you know, it can split.

You can see it's starting to come together

and almost look like mayonnaise.

The taramasalata's done. We need to prepare our scallop.

I take a knife and I gently sort of just edge my knife in there.

And just run my knife through.

This opens the scallop. I'm going to remove the muscles,

the skirt and the roe.

You just don't need to tear anything,

you just need to pull it away.

If they butcher that scallop, that's sinful.

So now we're going to go to the crab claw, which has been blanched.

Just want to crack it, I don't want to smash it to pieces.

And what we're looking for is

to see if the chef knows their way around shellfish.

Prepping a crab, prepping a scallop,

making taramasalata - there's a lot going on here.

So, there we go. That's our crab claw.

Now I'm going to cook the scallop, in a nice hot pan. Olive oil.

Turn the scallops over.

Yummy! Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

Scallops out.

Now we're ready to dress the plate.

Really looking forward to this.

Crab's just going on.

Finish with olive oil.

There we have it - taramasalata with scallops, crab and croutons.

Immense, that is.

Can I tell you right now?

I don't think any of them are going to know how to do it.

It's a tough one to get right, this one.

I think it's got all the makings of a taramas-disaster.

Let's get them in.

First in is 36-year-old South African-born Nina.

I'm a head chef, I work in a prestigious law firm in London

and part of a contract catering company.

I enjoy cooking modern British food

because I enjoy cooking for the British.

I love the British culture...

Service, please!

..but I love to put my twist on things

with my international experience.

I'm very competitive. I hate coming second.

I'm very inquisitive and I love to win.

Nina, welcome to MasterChef.

This skills test was set by Marcus.

I'd like you to make for us taramasalata

with sauteed scallops cooked crab and some croutons.

Excellent.

-Have you made a taramasalata before?

-Yes, I have.

-Yes. Good.

-You've got 20 minutes.

-Excellent.

-Off you go.

Just mind your fingers, OK? Just be careful.

There's a blunt knife, there, as well.

Do you work with shellfish a lot?

Not as much as what I used to, or what I would like to.

So, how are you going to make your taramasalata?

Take the scallop roe, maybe I'll start with that first.

-With the scallop roe?

-Yeah, that's correct.

Do you recognise that other ingredient on your table?

Um...

I'm embarrassed to say, no, I don't.

OK.

This is fish roe, really?

Yep.

Oh, for goodness' sake.

-Just five minutes left, please.

-Excellent, thank you.

You've got two minutes, Nina.

That's it, your time's up.

Nina, I've got to be really honest with you -

there's errors in your work all over the place today.

The opening of the scallop was actually quite scary to watch.

You need to go from the hinge side.

The taramasalata, I was a little bit surprised

that you were going to make it with the scallop roe,

and watching you cook a scallop...

Phew. Wow.

It's been a long time. And that showed.

Whoa...

The scallops are completely torn

and cooking - what was the idea that of frying the crab?

-I've got no idea why.

-No, I know.

The fish has been cooked in loads of lemon juice.

Cooked lemon juice goes really bitter. It's not great.

-But you kind of know that, right?

-I... I know that.

The crab you've cooked with the scallop -

lots of lemon juice going in there, as well.

The taramasalata, which you're meant to really whip up -

like making a mayonnaise, in fact -

literally was only on for about a minute.

I wouldn't eat that if that was served to me.

I'd be very, very disappointed.

Too much garlic, too much lemon.

There isn't really any good points I can find with this dish at all.

-Nina, you look angry with yourself.

-Yeah, I am. I know what I can do.

-I will prove it to you guys later.

-I'm really pleased to hear it.

Nina, we'll see you in the next round.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

SHE SIGHS

Oh, I'm so angry with myself, I could kick myself.

I'm like... Ugh!

Anyway.

Next is 29-year-old Matt...

..originally from Mersea Island in Essex.

I work in a four-star hotel in Jersey.

I work as a senior chef de partie,

and I work on the pastry section, as well.

I was born and raised on Mersea Island.

Most of my professional career has also been on islands.

I'm very stuck to the kind of food that we eat there.

Seafood all the way.

I applied for MasterChef to, one, represent, you know, where I'm from.

I'm also quite competitive. That's why I'm here.

Right, Matt, I would like you to make us a taramasalata,

serve it with some cooked scallops and crab.

-Have you made a taramasalata before?

-No.

-Do you know what it is?

-No, I don't.

No idea what it's made from?

Um, I'm guessing that it's made from the avocado and the lemon.

-No, you're thinking of something else.

-OK. This, then.

-That is correct. What is it?

-Foie gras?

Foie gras? No.

-Kidney?

-No.

-No?

Taramasalata is made from cod's roe.

-Make it as if it's a mayonnaise.

-OK.

-Right, are you with me?

-I'm with you.

-Good man.

-20 minutes, off you go.

-All right.

Was this your fear,

being asked to do something you didn't know how to do?

Yes, I was kind of hoping it was going to be pastry!

-Never opened a scallop before?

-No, no.

-Never?

-No, no.

They come in prepared.

You've had seven minutes.

You've got just seven minutes left.

Come on, then. Let's get this, mate.

-Mate, you have got to move it.

-Yep.

You've got just a few minutes left. Cook something.

Go on, I dare you.

Right, you've got 30 seconds.

We need something on a plate, please.

-Yeah, no problem.

-Really?!

Good start(!) Good start. Come on, chef!

Come on!

Time's up, so put the scallop on a plate.

OK, shall we call it a day?

-Can I just cut a few of the herbs?

-No.

-OK.

-No.

-Just...

-No, no.

No, you're done.

-Thank you, Matthew.

-Thank you.

I suppose, at the end of the day,

there are three elements on the plate.

You have some cod roe, you have some crab meat, and we have a scallop.

So, by the theory of the challenge,

-we've actually got three out of four of the things.

-Yeah.

How you did that, I've no idea!

Thank you.

You didn't know how to do it. That's abundantly clear.

However, for someone that didn't know how to do it,

it's not a bad attempt!

You've never opened a scallop,

so, it was always going to be a challenge for you,

and I hope in the next round you can prove that you're better than this.

Matthew...

-Off you go.

-Thank you.

Taramas-disaster.

Yeah.

That was horrible, yeah.

I came up with something...

Something is better than nothing, I guess.

The final chef to take on the Marcus' test

is 40-year-old Simon from Nottingham.

I'm a lead chef and development chef for a leading events company.

The food we do is high-end modern British.

Life as an event chef, it's either all or nothing.

So, I'm used to the high pressure,

catering for large sporting events around the world.

I've always wanted to be a chef, and I'll be a chef until retirement.

I've been cooking for 24 years,

so I think I've got the tools to do the job.

Simon, we're looking for taramasalata,

cooked scallop, crab meat and croutons.

I'm going to give you 20 minutes. Off you go.

-You all right, Simon?

-Yeah.

-Going well?

-I think so.

You've had five minutes.

Got just seven minutes left.

-You done?

-Yeah, done.

Simon, not a bad attempt.

I would have liked to have seen some garlic go into the taramasalata,

-and some water to lighten it up.

-Yeah, yeah.

It's not as refined as could be.

The scallop, as well, as you can see,

you've still got quite a bit of dirt left all over there.

-Yeah.

-You need to really polish up the act.

Simon, the eating of it's not great.

Cod's roe, it's like a pate.

Bunging in a bit of avocado into some crab, that's easy enough to do.

Marcus set the skills test, he has very high standards.

Me, I don't mind your taramasalata.

Watching you, and watching how you went about the test, not bad at all.

Taramasalata, good to see that you know the basics of it.

It's the first test.

Can't wait to see what the next round is going to bring.

-Off you go, see you soon.

-Thank you.

I think he did really well.

In comparison to the other two.

I think it's been a pretty average day.

I think it went OK, but I know I could do better.

It was very nerve-racking,

and I don't like being watched.

The first in and the last in, I think, were very good.

Simon...

and Max.

The rest of them, I tell you what,

there are holes in their knowledge and experience.

Some of these chefs have got a point to prove in the next round.

Can they bounce back?

Yet to see.

This is a wonderful opportunity for you to showcase your talents.

This is your food,

and there is no reason why this shouldn't be absolutely superb.

You need to redeem any problems that you had in the skills test.

You have got to cook to your best today,

cos at the end of this round, three of you will be leaving us.

You've got 90 minutes to really make a point, to really make a statement.

Off you go.

After the criticism from the judges,

I need to come out now and give it all guns blazing

and show them what they really can do.

The pressure's massive to get this plate of food absolutely spot-on.

This is about the future of me being in this competition...

..and I'm not ready to go home yet.

So, I've got a pan-fried hake

with a with a scallop and hake cannelloni.

Textures of cauliflower and a vermouth and parsley sauce.

-Sorry, did you just say you're making pasta?

-Yes.

What went wrong in your skills test, then?

-I think this morning it was just nerves.

-Was it?

-Got the better of me.

-Have you done the dish before, Ruaraidh?

Yeah, I've had a few practices at it.

-It's been on your menu?

-No.

-No?

-No.

-Good luck, son.

-Thank you.

Hake is a wonderful fish to use, yet the more that you cook,

the more it's going to flake and fall apart.

So, this is something that Ruaraidh needs to get right.

Cannelloni is not easy.

You've got to get the pasta beautifully made.

Then he starts to make his cannelloni with his scallop mousse.

Quite a skilful thing to do.

I'm going to completely forget about taramasalata.

I'm going to imagine that scallops doesn't exist...

and I'm going to blow Monica and Marcus away with my salmon dish.

-What is your dish, what are you cooking?

-Pan-fried salmon.

I'm going to do that with a strawberry and basil risotto,

asparagus spears.

I'm going to finish it off with a green peppercorn sauce

and a balsamic glaze.

-Did you just say strawberry risotto?

-I did, Chef, I did. I did.

It's a fine balance.

Why strawberries in a risotto? Why strawberries with fish?

It reminds me a little bit of South Africa,

and it brings together the asparagus and the strawberries from England.

There's a lot of fruit served in our dishes in South Africa.

Strawberries, pineapple...

But you know that strawberries don't go with risotto?

-It will, with this.

-But you know it doesn't?

Not usually. But it will work. The flavours will work.

It's very different, it's very daring.

-I wish you the best of luck, Nina.

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

Nina is creating a combination of ingredients

that I've not seen put together before.

Peppercorn sauce we know goes with steak.

Strawberries go with desserts.

It's really hard to know whether or not this dish will work.

Nina's confidence in her cooking and in the flavours

and in the balance of this dish has got me curious.

I can't wait to try, to see if it works.

You've had 20 minutes, guys.

Taking it easy is not an option.

This dish could be amazing, if I get it right, and how I want it to be.

Simon, what is your signature dish?

I'm doing, like, a take on surf and turf.

I'm going to be using pork, Iberico pork presa, with baby squid,

cauliflower textures, and black pudding, boudin noir,

with a red wine sauce.

-Why this dish?

-Things I love to eat.

I love pork and I love black pudding and I love squid, fish, seafood.

I like to travel round the world,

-so, things I picked up along the way.

-It's unusual.

Yeah - it works. I think it works.

Why would you push yourself like this?

I want to do well in the competition,

and being safe doesn't get you anywhere.

-Faint heart never won MasterChef Trophy.

-No.

The red wine sauce that Simon is putting with his dish

has got to complement and not overpower everything.

If it's too reduced, too intense,

you will lose the cauliflower in there, as well.

-MARCUS:

-I suppose the question is, does this pork dish need the squid?

I'm not so sure. I don't think so.

I hope Simon can prove me wrong.

After experiencing what just happened,

yeah, I'm a little bit shaken.

I'm taking quite a lot of risks on this dish,

just simply because I'm not confident.

Hopefully it comes out all right!

Tell me about your dishes for today.

I'm doing pork fillet with gigas rock oysters,

served with wilted cos, morels, chestnut mushroom puree,

Parmesan crisps and a marsala sauce.

This is a dish I've had in France.

-I'm hoping it's going to come out well.

-How much travelling and

-eating do you do?

-A lot.

I travel to France every month,

try the regional wines and food and...

How much do you need this to work?

I've practised it too much for it not to work.

So I'm hoping that I'm going to nail it.

Let's hope so.

Pork with mushrooms and beautiful fresh oysters.

It's a combination that works.

I want this chef to deliver it in a perfect execution today.

Matthew needs to be very careful how he cooks the tenderloin of pork.

He cannot afford for it to dry out.

One hour gone! All right? You've got 30 minutes left.

There's a lot of pressure on this dish,

because I think I did so well in the skills test.

It's very hearty,

full of flavours.

And some little surprises on there as well.

I think there's a lot of skill on show,

and I don't think I'm playing it safe at all.

Max, what is your signature dish?

Pork ribeye with roasted salsify, curly kale, crispy sage,

Calvados-poached apple dice, dehydrated apple slices,

crackling and a Calvados jus.

-You got off to a good start.

-I did!

How do you finish off a successful day?

Nailing this and getting great feedback from you guys.

And a place in the quarterfinal would be about a perfect day.

Max, thank you. I love the sound of that cut of pork.

I get the feeling it's in very confident hands.

Thank you very much.

Max is cooking us a pork ribeye.

The best way for me to cook that is just a really good hot pan.

Get a lovely quick caramelisation.

Don't overcook it.

I'm very excited about trying it.

I just want to see something wow about it,

and it could be in the presentation.

The judges haven't seen me at my best, they've seen me at my worst!

I'm going to have to work very hard to claw myself back.

-Are you feeling a bit more confident in this round?

-Yes.

A lot more confident than the last one.

What are you going to make for us?

A pan-seared piece of cod with a cod roe custard, a pea puree,

pickled morels, rock samphire,

charred asparagus and asparagus jus sauce to go with the cod.

You seem to be more in control now.

Yeah, I like to work clean, I like to work tidy.

I think clean section, clean mind.

-Where do these ideas come from?

-This dish is my own creation.

I just like to keep it simple. I like simple flavours.

I like the sound of what you're doing. I hope you can deliver that.

I hope so too.

Adam's dish sounds interesting, but it does come with risks.

The asparagus sauce, which is the juicing of raw asparagus,

I'm not 100% convinced how that's going to look and taste.

This young chef has got a point to prove and I think he's

actually on his way to doing that.

You guys have got just four minutes.

You've got less than two minutes! Come on, mate, where's your plate?

Come on, come on, come on! You're going to run out of time!

Last touches. Ten seconds.

Time's up, stop!

(My sauce...!)

What are you doing?

-HE MUMBLES

-Time's up!

Mate, I called two minutes, I called a minute, I called 30 seconds,

I called ten seconds.

And I kept telling you and I kept telling you and I kept telling you.

Simon, please, come and join us.

First up, it's Simon,

who's cooked Iberico pork presa,

which is a shoulder of pork.

Served with textures of cauliflower,

black pudding crumble and baby squid.

Topped with nasturtium leaves, finished with a red wine sauce.

-Simon, that's a nice-looking plate of food.

-Thank you.

The pork, for me, is cooked nicely. I quite like it pink.

Puree is wonderful and smooth and that sauce is so rich and packs

a lot of flavour.

I don't think the squid really needs to be on here,

but everything else I've quite enjoyed on your plate.

Thank you.

I particularly like the squid and red wine sauce.

Never had that before. Love that bit of pork, puree and black pudding.

I think that dances.

I think that flavour combination absolutely dances.

You've done that meat justice. You've beautifully cooked it.

You've made a sauce that I thinks sits very well.

It's got body, it's brave, it's shiny.

The black pudding adds a nice texture to the dish.

I just think what a fabulous glass of wine I could

be drinking with this dish.

You've delivered a good plate of food.

I'm feeling fantastic, over the moon. Pulled it out of the bag.

Great feedback from everyone, especially from Marcus,

who's an idol.

Matt's dish is pork fillet and rock oysters, accompanied by

mushroom puree, morels, wilted cos and smoked creme fraiche.

Topped with Parmesan crisps.

Before I ask about the dish,

there's supposed to be a sauce, isn't there?

That was an arm's distance away!

This is the second time in two tests you've run out of time.

I like the delicate look of your plate, I really do.

I like your puree, love the taste of the morels,

love the natural saltiness of those oysters.

It's just missing probably the most important part and that is

the sauce that was going to bring everything together.

I'm desperate to dip that pork into something wet.

I like the flavour of the mushroom puree,

yet the texture is still a bit grainy

and there's not enough on the plate.

The fillet of pork, it's dry.

The oysters, I'm not a fan of fried oysters.

Presentation, unfortunately, as we know, just looks incomplete.

It's flat, it's not very well executed.

Yeah, it's not good enough.

I was really frustrated by not getting the sauce on the dish.

You know, it was literally an arm's distance away,

ten seconds too late, unfortunately.

Ruaraidh has made pan-roasted hake with scallop and hake cannelloni.

Served with cauliflower puree, charred florets and samphire,

finished with a parsley and vermouth sauce.

Good bits and bad bits.

The hake itself, the puree, the parsley sauce, I really like.

The pasta, for the second time today,

I don't think is cooked properly.

And inside it's a little grainy, it's not a smooth finish.

I don't like the presentation of the dish at all.

The fish mousse is split, it's grainy. The pasta isn't very good.

The sauce lacks colour. The cauliflower puree is grainy.

The dish is, for me, is poor in every area.

I don't mind the sauce,

but I think there's just too many errors on this plate for you.

I could see the things that are going wrong as they went wrong

and then time just went, so...

Oh, well.

Max's dish is pan-roasted pork ribeye served with curly kale,

salsify, apple three ways and a fennel puree,

topped with pork crackling and finished with a Calvados sauce.

I love the choice of meat you used and you cooked it really well.

It's nicely seasoned. The sauce is wonderful.

It goes very well with your dish, and the crackling is fantastic.

But not quite refined yet, Max.

I love the ribeye and the sauce is great.

Good flavour, good body, just the right balance for the pork.

It looks big, bulky,

but I think you've got all the right elements there.

-Thank you.

-I love the softness of that meat.

I really like the fennel puree. I like the aniseed of fennel.

I really, really like your flavours.

Thank you.

It's good because you're learning from them.

If they say it's great, you didn't actually learn anything.

That's why I made a couple of errors,

just to kind of get a bit of knowledge, you know?

That's the way to do it.

Adam's made pan-roasted cod served with a pea puree, smoked cod,

roe custard, pickles and roasted morels, asparagus,

poached potatoes, rock samphire

and finished with an asparagus jus sauce.

Adam, you have a nice-looking dish here.

I can tell you spent a lot of time thinking about the presentation.

Thank you very much.

I think your fish is cooked brilliantly, brilliantly well.

As is your smoothness of your pea puree.

The potatoes need more cooking.

I like the texture of the roe custard,

but obviously because it's roe, it's very, very salty.

This asparagus sauce, I love the fresh flavour of

asparagus at the start, but its finish is oily.

I like the fact you're playing, I don't agree with all of your games.

I think the fish is nicely cooked.

It could be a bit bigger.

The roe, it's nice but it's actually very strong.

This asparagus sauce, for me, is quite slimy.

I see where you're going with it but that sliminess is just ugh!

The dish is colourful. You're trying really hard.

It's sort of a fresh, vibrant take on a fish dish.

OK, thank you.

Some elements I was very happy with, some elements I wasn't so happy

with, but I just didn't have enough time to rectify

what I have actually done.

Nina, please, up you come.

Last up is Nina with her dish of pan-fried salmon,

strawberry and basil risotto, served with asparagus,

balsamic glaze, green peppercorn sauce and balsamic caviar.

I quite liked the idea of sweetness with the fish,

but the risotto, no.

The fatty fish, creamy risotto, finished with a sweet flavour,

I just don't like.

I don't like.

There's a weird flavour about this dish that's quite odd.

I don't know if it's the pearls of vinegar or the peppercorn sauce

or the fact that you've incorporated strawberries into a risotto.

For me, it's just all wrong.

The dish, for me, doesn't work. The fish is overcooked.

I find it a disappointment.

I know it's very, very unusual from the beginning,

but I like to be different. They're just not used to those flavours.

Which is unfortunate.

Oooh! Not the greatest of days on MasterChef.

Sometimes it just happens, doesn't it?

However, I do believe we've got talent here. I like Simon.

Simon had a fantastic cut of pork there. Great sauce-making.

Simon's dish was probably the dish of the day.

I like Max. I really liked that pork ribeye. What a great dish!

I liked the cooking of the pork and I loved that sauce.

I think Max gets through today.

I think he did enough today too.

Simon and Max, yeah, good, decent, competent.

The other four, they had a rough day.

Ruaraidh is an untrained chef trying to impress.

No matter how good the ideas, if you don't have the basic

skills to back it up, you won't go any further in this competition.

Nina's dish, the strawberry risotto, overcooked salmon,

there was just nothing to like on that plate.

The ideas were way out there, way out there.

Adam...

actually attempted quite a bit - was very adventurous and quite daring.

There were elements that didn't make sense. That sauce.

But the flake looked lovely, the fish was cooked nice,

we liked the puree.

It would mean the world to me to get through.

Whether I've done enough or not, I'm really not sure.

Matt, I think, had quite a nice presentation style.

Quite delicate. However, he failed to get his sauce up.

I'm wondering what the dish would have been like if he had.

I'd love to stay in the competition, you know,

it's a really important kind of milestone in your life.

Chefs, we could only take three of you through to the quarterfinal.

So our first chef leaving competition is...

..Ruaraidh.

-Thank you, Chef.

-Thank you.

Our second chef leaving the competition is...

..Nina.

And our final chef leaving the competition is...

..Matt.

Disappointed about it.

The pressure gets to you.

The timing went a bit off and,

unfortunately, it didn't pay off for me this time.

When I started cooking, I really, really enjoyed every moment of it.

I just feel, unfortunately, I just chose a really wrong dish.

Devastated.

Had an off day at the office and...

I paid for it.

Well done! You're through to the quarterfinal.

An absolute rollercoaster of a day.

Ups, downs, but I'm ecstatic with the results. Really, really happy.

Getting to the quarterfinal is just amazing.

Very, very happy.

It feels amazing.

Elated that I'm through,

and hopefully build on what I've done today for the next round.

Tomorrow night...

..another six professionals fight for a place in the quarterfinal.

The whole thing is an absolute delight wherever you stick your spoon.

That says it all.