Episode 8 MasterChef: The Professionals

The hunt for the next professional MasterChef champion is on.

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.

I'm very competitive. I haven't come here to make up the numbers,

I've definitely come here to win.

I'll bring my A game and then we'll see who comes out on top

at the end.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be here.

I'm just going to do what I love.

We've met some amazing winners in the past and I can't wait

to discover the next one.

The pressure in this kitchen is going to be immense.

Skills test time, and Marcus has got a beautiful John Dory on his bench.

The challenge is going to be to portion and cook a John Dory,

serve it with polenta, and then I'd just like them to make

a simple pesto.

John Dory is my favourite, favourite fish.

How long are you going to give them?

-I'm going to give our chefs 15 minutes.

-Go on, chef.

-Crack on.

First thing we'll do is start off with our fish.

I would love to see a chef who knows how to fillet any flat fish

or any round fish. I think it's a fundamental, very important part

of our training.

The chefs do have to be careful because it does have a ridge bone

down the middle and, if they're not careful,

you could go straight across and cut through the lovely fillets.

I'm going to take the skin off.

If they want to score the skin and cook it as a whole,

that's entirely up to them.

This is going to be the last thing that I cook.

Before then, I'm going to make my polenta.

So that's our milk in the pan.

Our chicken stock.

Just going to put a little bit of saffron into there.

Polenta has its own natural yellow colour,

but I think a little saffron just helps to bring out the colour,

make it a little bit stronger, a bit more vibrant.

Polenta, you can pour or you can slice.

-Yeah.

-It can be any texture, can't it?

Just because it's wet or soft polenta,

you still have to make sure it's cooked,

otherwise those granules can still be quite bitty

if they're not cooked through.

We also need to bear in mind that we're also going to be adding

some Parmesan, so it's also quite salty.

Some tarragon.

Lovely.

OK, so now we're going to make our pesto.

So we've got a little machine here.

Just pack our basil in.

Good olive oil.

Some pine nuts and some grated cheese.

It would be great to see our chefs make a great pesto here.

We've got great ingredients, something that is quite common

in all kinds of kitchens.

So now you're just looking for that beautiful vibrant green colour.

I think basil may be my second favourite herb.

It's the butter that's going to add an amazing amount of flavour

because it's just that nut-brown butter that we look for

in our cookery.

-Turn that fish over.

-Yeah.

And just baste away.

Yes, wonderful. It's a wonderful sight.

Just a little bit of the polenta.

That's lovely.

There we have it, guys.

Pan-fried John Dory, polenta and pesto.

Lovely. Very, very lovely.

It's got Gregg Wallace written all over it.

-Extraordinary.

-Mmm.

That polenta is wild!

Aniseed tarragon, little bit of salt from Parmesan and then, of course,

the bottom base of saffron. That is wild!

Good polenta cookery, good fish cookery and a lovely, vibrant

flavour of the pesto, lovely green.

It's about great techniques, great cookery and it's what we want

to see on the plate.

First up is Kamarl, who currently works in a five-star London hotel.

So I've been a chef for ten years now.

My current position is a sous-chef, so it's running all aspects

of the kitchen.

Growing up, I was about six, that's where I first got my passion

and my love for cooking.

My mum, she got me this chef jacket that was, like, ten sizes too big,

but I loved it.

I've worked in some very high pressure kitchens,

so I'm very good at staying calm. Hopefully I can carry that over

to the competition.

-Kamarl, I would like you to fillet and prepare the John Dory.

-OK.

I would like you to cook and serve it with polenta and

a basil dressing.

-And a basil dressing. OK.

-You've got 15 minutes.

-Off you go.

-Thank you.

Kamarl, have you done much work with fish at all?

I've done a few bits and pieces in fish.

-First time with John Dory though, have to say.

-OK.

-You're halfway. Kamarl, you've got seven minutes left.

-OK.

What's the dream?

One day to hopefully be in the position of you guys, to be honest.

What you mean I'm losing my job here?

Get a few more years under my belt, but maybe one day.

I think you're doing well. He's got a beard, he's got a bald head.

Get yourself a pair of glasses, mate, you're on your way.

What are you doing in that pan?

Basically, I just want to make a bit of a sauce to go on top.

-Listen, you've got two minutes.

-Two minutes? No problem.

You've got to start to think about plating it up.

No problem. Two minutes is going to come right now.

-Done? OK.

-Yes, done, finished. Thank you.

I thought that was a very cool, calm, together skills test.

-Thank you.

-The filleting of the fish, you don't cut that John Dory

-through the middle, you take the whole fillet off.

-Mm-hm.

Nice looking plate, it's lovely.

I think that's very good. I'm not even going to go and try and pick

little holes, this, this, this, this, this, this.

-I think it's an excellent piece of work.

-Thank you.

Yeah, that's lovely. That's fine!

That's a really well-cooked piece of fish and lovely flavours of

basil and saffron in a creamy polenta.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

I like the way you worked, kept it nice and tidy.

You have a great attitude about you as well and I think it's a great way

to walk into this kitchen and start.

See you soon.

What a fabulous start. This is pretty good.

If you don't mind, I'm going to stare at your face for a while

cos I probably won't see it smile again for another four days.

That's probably true.

Very happy. I don't want to let the comments go to my head.

I just want to stay focused and then if I get past the next round,

then I'll be a bit more happy, jumping on the sofas.

Next is 23-year-old Zoe, a development chef

from Harrow, West London.

I look at new, exciting ingredients, whatever's on the restaurant market

and then create something really new and exciting.

What I love about being a development chef is that you can

walk in a supermarket and look at a product that you've made

and think, "Well, instead of making dinner for

"a few hundred people tonight, I've made dinner for thousands."

Slightly petrified about the skills test, but fingers crossed

I'll know what they put on the table in front of me.

Right, Zoe, fillet a whole John Dory, cook one portion,

serve with polenta and a basil dressing.

15 minutes.

Off you go.

Zoe, do you enjoy working with fish?

It's not one of my favourite ingredients.

I'm definitely a pastry chef at heart.

You've had six minutes, OK?

You OK, Zoe?

Yeah.

-Bit trembly hand?

-Slightly trembly hand, it's slightly nerve-racking,

but it's all good.

You've got five minutes.

-Zoe?

-Mmm?

-You've got a minute.

-OK.

OK?

-Yeah.

-All done?

-All done.

I think it was quite obvious to see that you find it quite hard

-to deal with the John Dory.

-Yes.

When it came to filleting, going from the belly side

-and working your way through is the opposite.

-Yeah.

You need to go from the spine, the back.

I think you did very well. However, you were so rushed at the end,

this isn't the most delicate or pretty of plates.

It's kind of chucked on.

Zoe, it may not have looked good, but it certainly tastes good.

The fish is spot-on. You've obviously made polenta before.

Everything I put into mine, you've pretty much got in there,

and your seasoning is bang-on.

Thank you very much.

Zoe, I like your attention to the tasting and the cooking of

your food here. It shows a lot of care and love in your cooking.

If you continue to do that, we'll always get good tasting plates

-of food from you.

-Thank you.

You did very, very well. I think that's a good tasting dish.

Thanks very much.

I saw the fish and I just knew I was petrified and my legs

kind of went to jelly a little bit, but I'm really, really happy

with the comments I received.

So, yeah, I'm really happy with those, yeah.

Last to take on Marcus's test is Wayne,

head chef at a restaurant and hotel in Cheltenham.

I've been a head chef for ten years now.

I've been cooking for 20 years.

I'm quite relaxed in the kitchen, which helps.

You know, when you're not shouting and bawling at your staff,

you get the best from them.

I don't like to play about with the food too much,

I've got quite classical training.

Don't really use too many modern techniques,

but I like to reimagine the dishes a little and just bring it to life

on a plate.

I look up to Marcus Wareing like there's no tomorrow.

To have your food critiqued by him would be something else.

Monica Galetti is fearsome, there's nothing that gets past her.

So that's quite scary.

Wayne, I would like you to fillet the whole John Dory

and cook a portion, served with polenta and a basil dressing.

-How would you like the polenta, creamed?

-Up to you.

-OK.

-Down to you.

-15 minutes, Wayne.

-Sure.

-Off you go.

-Thank you.

Wayne, are you preparing and cooking lots of fish in your restaurant?

I've got three fish dishes on the menu currently, so...

Come on.

-You're halfway, Wayne.

-Thank you.

-What made you become a chef?

-My grandparents.

Basically, I originally wanted to be a journalist,

but their thoughts on it was - people always need to eat.

So go and be a chef.

Wayne, where are you at now?

The polenta and the basil dressing's ready, so I'm just

-waiting for that to cook.

-Polenta's ready?

-I think so.

Well done. You had two minutes to go.

Cool, thank you.

The preparation of your fish, you started off well,

-until you got to the other side of the fish.

-The tricky side.

Yeah, the way you were cutting into the fish.

Out of practice, I think we'd say.

The plate looks really nice, the way you've presented it.

Pesto, you can see the errors there. You need to break those

-pine nuts down.

-Yeah.

That polenta doesn't taste great because it's cooked in just stock.

And what you need is to get the milk jug in and get lumps of butter in.

The pesto hasn't got anywhere near enough basil!

However, I don't think this makes you a bad cook.

I think this makes this a nervy start.

The fish cookery's OK. I think you salvaged it

by putting some butter in the pan.

The plate of food's good, I just think there's a few

schoolboy errors there that, when you leave this kitchen,

-you'll know.

-Already.

You already know.

Massively kicking myself over the schoolboy errors.

The polenta wasn't good and the pesto wasn't the best.

It was just being too safe.

But no, hopefully the next one will be a lot better.

Marcus, we've seen the chefs attempt yours.

Monica, this is your skills test. What are you going to set the chefs?

I would like the chefs to make us a tartare of lamb

and serve it with a confit egg yolk.

Wow. I've never had a lamb tartare ever.

Pretty much everything out there can be tartare,

as long as it's a very good quality of meat or fish.

How long are you going to give them?

Our chefs have 15 minutes.

The first thing I'm going to do is make my mayonnaise,

which is the base of the sauce of the tartare.

I'm adding a bit of Dijon mustard into mine.

-We would expect any chef to make a mayonnaise, right?

-Yep.

Now I'm going to move onto the butchery of the lamb.

So I've removed the loin from the lamb rack.

If you've got a chef that has never seen a rack of lamb before,

then that chef is going to have a massive problem with this challenge.

As you can see, there's still a lot of sinew that runs through it.

So you want to remove as much of that as possible, trim it down.

You can see I'm not hacking at the meat here

because you want to keep some of the texture.

I don't want to mince it. If I was going to mince it,

I might as well put it in a blender.

So what I want to do now is to prepare the rest of the garnish.

So I've got some gherkins.

Everything about a tartare comes down to the techniques of the knife

and how fine they get everything.

Not one thing should stick out, everything should come together.

So I'm going to use some of the shallot, bit of caper as well,

and I'm also going to add flat parsley.

I'm asking them to confit the egg yolk.

Just separating as much of the egg white out of the yolk

before I confit it.

The egg yolk is very fragile. They've got to keep an eye on the

temperature, it cooks very quickly. So I'm going back and forwards,

checking on it. For me, I know it's about a minute away.

Right, so I'm ready to assemble and serve the tartare.

We don't need a lot of this.

Brandy,

tabasco, and a couple of drops of Worcestershire,

and a touch of ketchup.

Very gently mix that together.

That's my tartare mix and I'm ready to plate the dish.

So this is just a really simple little herb salad

that I'm going to serve on the side.

And there you have it - lamb tartare with a confit egg yolk.

Well, I've never seen a lamb tartare before,

but it looks very similar to a beef one.

SHE CHUCKLES

The lamb is just incredibly tender.

The fine-cut garnishes that go through it are crucial

to this dish succeeding.

It's an intriguing dish and it's going to challenge our chefs.

This is a huge test on their palate as well.

A tartare is a simple thing - anyone can put it together -

but it's in the eating that really shows the quality of the chef.

Get them in, get them in.

I'm really interested to see what they make of this.

First to face Monica's test is 24-year-old Theodore,

a chef de partie and college student from Stirling.

I've been a chef for seven years now.

I'm going back to college to get my qualifications to go offshore

to work on the oil rigs.

I look forward to going offshore and saving up to have my own

restaurant one day.

My grandmother, she's a Kenyan-Indian.

She had a very different cuisine,

a lot of spices and herbs, so I was always on her shoulders

and she used to get me to make chapatis.

Definitely a good learning experience and that's where I got my love for food.

I'm just going to give it my all and I'm just going to be

concentrating on the food so much

that my nerves won't be there, hopefully.

Theo, I would like you to make us a lamb tartare

-with a confit egg yolk.

-OK.

Garnish it any way you want

and season it with the ingredients on the table.

-15 minutes, off you go.

-OK.

Have you made a lamb tartare before?

A lamb tartare, no. I've made a beef tartare, was my last.

-You've had five minutes, Theodore.

-Yep.

-10 minutes left.

-Yep.

You have 90 seconds left.

-You need to get this on a plate, please.

-Yeah.

-All done?

-Yeah.

Theodore, this piece of meat is very expensive,

cos in a tartare we want the prime cut for that.

Now, what you've done is just destroy it,

when all you had to do

was just follow the natural line of the bone,

remove the meat out and then clean that lovely fillet, OK?

You have got a plate up. I like the look of the tartare.

I would wonder, if this came out to me, what that sauce was.

I wouldn't ever imagine that was a mayonnaise,

I would guess that was a mustard dressing.

Oh.

Well, not quite oozing.

What I'm getting is a mouthful of capers,

lots of gherkin as well.

The mayonnaise, you only tried to emulsify yolks and vegetable oil.

You didn't use any mustard in there,

which is needed to hold a mayonnaise together.

The elements of tartare are there

but the method is completely wrong.

I can only taste these capers and gherkins, vinegar and some shallots.

I can't taste the lamb at all.

And the confit egg on the top, unfortunately, is overcooked.

Theodore, this wasn't a great round for you.

I'd like to think

you are going to come out of that door in the next round

and cook up a storm.

I'll give it my best.

I definitely felt I could have done better.

I should have thought about what I was doing and how I was doing it,

how I was going to plate it up.

So I definitely want to show them in the next round that I can cook.

Next up is senior sous-chef Andy, who works for

a Three Rosette restaurant in Leamington Spa.

He's been in the industry for 25 years.

I've done a large restaurant, I've done contract catering

and this is my first real stint at fine dining.

I started doing competitions a few years back

and managed to get into Chef of the Year back in 1990.

A young man called Gordon Ramsay won the final

and I got through to the semifinals.

It's push yourself, it's a project, outside your comfort zone,

you meet new people and it's just a fantastic thing to do.

Andy, today I would like you to make us a lamb tartare

and serve it with a confit egg yolk.

Oh, lovely.

-Lovely, lovely.

-Happy with that?

I think so, yeah.

15 minutes, Andy.

-Yep, OK.

-Lamb tartare and a confit yolk.

So, tell me about your tartare. How are you going to put this together?

I'm just... I'm obviously very nervous stood here

so I'm just going to go with what I know.

Just the meat and then do some spices and seasonings.

I haven't done a confit egg yolk before, not without a water bath,

so I'm just going to maybe just put the yolk into

-the oil and hopefully get it out on top, hopefully.

-OK.

Sounds like a good plan.

You're halfway. Seven minutes left.

-You've got just four minutes.

-Yep.

-Working?

-Yeah, that's nice.

Egg.

-You're all done, chef?

-Yep.

I like your attempt at the tartare today.

You've managed to get that fillet off and trim the sinew.

I really like your attitude, Andy.

Andy, great approach to the challenge.

You're very competent, you're looking, you're seasoning,

you're tasting. You're doing everything that we're looking for.

I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

Look at that - ooze.

I can taste the lamb, but there's just a lot of gherkin in there.

But I think you've done a great attempt and that yolk is spot-on.

I like the tartare.

The criticism I have is I think you've just mushed the lamb up

a little bit too much.

You need it to be just a little bit more broken.

But that's just a fine, fine detail.

The egg yolk oozing all over it I just think gives it real body.

I think it's a marvellous job, Andy,

and a really cracking good start to the competition.

Brilliant. Brilliant.

Well done, chef.

To have the judges watch me cook is great.

The next round coming up, and now I've seen the kitchen

and I've had a little look round, I'm ready to go, ready to cook.

Last to face Monica's test is Andrew,

sous-chef at a small village restaurant just outside Leicester.

Leaving school at 16, I had to decide what I wanted to do,

so I flipped a coin.

It landed on heads, I became a chef instead of a physiotherapist,

which is a little bit weird to think of.

Being a chef is very hard, the hours are long,

but, at the end of the day, it's you on a plate.

Why did I apply for MasterChef? My mum.

I went home on Mother's Day and she gave me a form

to fill in online and she was like,

"Go on. Do it." So I did and here I am now.

Andrew, I would like you to make for us a lamb tartare

and serve it with a confit egg yolk.

-OK.

-15 minutes. Off you go.

-OK.

So, Andrew, where have you been training?

I started working in Surrey and then I moved back to Bedfordshire

and then Leicestershire way.

Did you work under John Campbell?

I did work under John Campbell, yes.

I had one of my weddings there.

-I did your wedding for you.

-Did you, Andrew?

-Yes, I did.

You had the fish and chips.

-You know, that's brilliant.

-Yeah.

I love getting married.

You are halfway.

-You've got seven minutes left.

-Yes.

-Five minutes, Andrew.

-Yes.

-You done?

-Yes.

You had a minute and a half left.

You seemed very tense and I was actually quite worried that

you weren't breathing at one point.

In saying that, the butchery,

you took your time and didn't damage the lamb too much.

Good effort.

I'd be satisfied if that came up to me.

However, I'd get rid of the red spider's legs

that are scattered across your egg.

-Could have a bit more ooze on there, chef, couldn't we?

-Yep.

Could have a little bit less cooking.

I don't think it's a bad attempt at tartare.

I think you needed to just taste it a bit more.

There is a touch too much mustard.

Yep.

And the gherkins, for me, could have been chopped just a little bit

smaller so you're not crunching through big bits of the gherkin.

I think that's not half bad at all.

I really like it.

I like the fact I can taste the lamb, which is great,

and I can taste a beautiful little bit of parsley.

You're a competent chef, without a doubt.

I think that shows in your skill.

The criticism is the egg because it's just overcooked underneath.

-Yep.

-But from a tartare point of view, I really like it.

-I think it's a very, very good effort.

-Thank you.

You've had a good start to the competition. How do you feel now?

Are you breathing?

I'm breathing.

Good lad.

-I like him.

-Yeah, yeah.

-I like him.

We've had a really good skills test today.

Nerve-racking. I'm happy it's over and I can relax.

I know what I'm doing next

so it's a little bit more straightforward.

That was a great skills test.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that may be the best skills test

we ever had.

I think we only had one person mess up.

That was poor young Theodore.

Theodore did make a bit of a mess of the butchery of his lamb

but he did put a plate of food in front of us.

He did put a tartare with an egg on top.

So, in theory, I think we had six great challenges today.

I'm very happy with the quality of the chefs we've seen so far

and I can't wait for the signature round.

I've got high hopes from these chefs.

We should get royally fed.

I'm going to get a bigger jacket.

Chefs, this is it -

signature dish round - and you've got to cook your hearts out.

At the end of this, though, we will be losing three of you.

This is going to be a battle I can't wait to see.

90 minutes. Off you go.

I'm hoping to show the judges today that I have an imagination

when it comes to putting flavours together.

Cooking your own food is putting yourself out on a pedestal

and saying, "Right, this is my food. This is how I cook it.

"Judge me for it."

So what's your dish, Wayne?

Pan-roasted duck breast,

toasted almond quinoa, sweet potato,

charred purple sprouting

and pickled peach.

Is this your own creation, because it's unusual?

I haven't seen pickled peach with duck in many places.

Obviously sweet potato and duck go hand-in-hand.

It's just a combination of flavours that I know work well.

Are you worried about the other chefs in the kitchen?

There's a very strong calibre of chefs in here today.

Just makes you think,

yeah, I'm going to have to up my game from what I thought I'd have

to do to get through cos they are really strong.

The key to the success of duck cookery is the

rendering of the fat and of course that vital resting.

I really like the sound of pickled peach with this dish.

I hope it all comes together and he gets that balance of

the sweetness and savoury right.

I like clean, good flavours.

So I think there's a time to overcomplicate things

and there's a time to just let the ingredients speak for themselves.

So I definitely have to get the timings down,

make sure it looks beautiful

and then I'm sure they'll be happy with it.

Tell me about your dish today.

Basically, I'm going to do a pan roasted sea bass with langoustines.

Squid in crumb, watercress veloute, confit mushrooms.

And a celeriac puree.

This dish has been tried and tested?

I tried half of it once and it went well,

so there's no reason why the rest of it shouldn't go well today.

-Well, let's hope so.

-Definitely.

You don't really then know the timings on this dish, do you?

No, I more or less know. I more or less know.

You've got a lot of ingredients here.

-I hope you're going to make it in 90 minutes.

-Oh, definitely. Definitely.

I love the cooking of the sea bass, the pan fried.

He's got to make sure that he gets a lovely crisp skin.

The watercress and spinach veloute sounds great,

as long as the watercress is nice and smooth.

Kamarl has admitted that he's only tested half of his dish.

I just hope the other half is going to make it on the plate.

Chefs! You've had 20 minutes already. 20 minutes gone.

I'm feeling really confident.

I can't wait to show the judges a bit more of my skill and

passion, so there's going to be no holding back.

It's going to be full-on.

Andy, tell me about your Signature Dish, please.

I'm doing pork three ways, and that'll be sat on some onion

jam, some asparagus, peas, broad beans, spring onions.

-Girolles.

-And a little potato cake.

Hopefully... Yes.

-How much do you love cooking fine food?

-Love it. Love it. It's my..

Every day, it's my passion. It's what I do. Just excites me.

Just really excites me.

Big fan of pork.

Cooking it three ways is always going to be

a risk of getting all three elements right.

The pork cheek, you want it just to flake away.

The pork loin can come out dry sometimes.

And he's got black pudding that he's turning into a bonbon.

We've seen what the pressure in this environment can do to chefs.

I hope that Andy can deliver this dish within the 90 minutes

allotted to him today.

You guys are halfway! 45 minutes left

to create a culinary masterpiece.

I'm very competitive. Like, not just cheffing, everything.

Sports, you name it.

The plan now is just to go for perfection really.

Andrew, what are you making for us?

I'm making a take on a black forest gateau,

so I'm doing a joconde sponge, chocolate mousse,

but I'm making it into a sphere and making it into like a cherry,

so you're actually getting different elements of cherry and

chocolate and sponge on there.

-Can you do all that?

-Hopefully.

-Andrew! How long have you been on pastry?

-I've done about five years.

On or off. I'm going out but I'm not going fully out,

so there's always going to be more to show.

-Wow! That's brave.

-That's cooking fighting talk!

-Yeah.

I can't wait to see how it's going to look and I hope he manages to

deliver those memories that you have when you eat a black forest gateau.

It's sponge, it's cream, it's cherries, it's kirsch.

It's just oozing luxury.

I'm hoping that they're going to enjoy my dish.

I can't do any worse than I did in the last round.

I want it more than anything.

I didn't come down here for nothing, so...

Theodore, what are you making?

Pan-fried cod with wild leek seeds, lemon mussels, saffron potatoes.

I'm going to be serving that with some wild flowers.

Do you feel after the first round you have a point to prove?

Yes, definitely. Definitely.

Place in the quarterfinal would mean absolutely everything to

-me and I've been waiting for this day for a long time.

-Well, you're here now.

-Yeah.

-Best of luck, chef.

-Thank you, chef.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Theodore's going to pan fry a fillet of cod.

This has got to be wonderful and crispy, yet still moist.

He's got some mussels, he's paned them with a lemon breadcrumb.

I like the sound of that. Brave not serving a sauce,

but I hope the parsnip puree can carry this dish through.

I definitely don't think I'm playing safe.

I don't think you enter a competition like this to do so.

It's a really short amount of time, so yeah, fingers crossed.

Zoe, what are you making for us?

I'm going to do sort of tastes of carrot cake with my spin on

it really.

-And how are you doing that?

-I like a lot of different Asian influences.

I've decided to use a miso caramel instead of a salted one.

Then I have added black and white sesame seeds into my walnut

brittle, with a carrot puree, with zested oranges.

-Have you got time to do all these things?

-I think so, yeah.

This is my strongest point.

-Pastry is my love and I love making it complicated.

-Good on you, Zoe.

This is your strength. Let's hope we see you in the quarterfinal.

-Thanks very much.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Zoe is going to elevate this dish to another level, so that excites me.

I can't wait to see how she's going to achieve that.

The puree, the caramel, the powder, and the carrot tuile - these

are all nice things, as long as they all work in harmony together.

Ten minutes left!

Ten minutes left!

Guys, you have four minutes. That's all you have, just four minutes.

That's it. Stop!

Stop!

-Theodore!

-Sorry.

Wayne, up you come, please.

First up is Wayne.

He's prepared a pan fried duck breast,

served with almond quinoa, sweet potato puree,

charred sprouting broccoli,

pickled peach, and a sumac tuile,

accompanied by a duck jus.

Really good looking plate of food, Wayne. I like the presentation.

The cooking of the duck is spot-on for me.

The sweet potato not too sweet.

I like what you've done with the peach.

It's been roasted and pickled.

For me, this dish was all about that balance of savoury and sweet

and you've achieved that.

Really nice duck and I love it with the peach.

I really like your duck sauce as well.

It's really sticky and it's got bags of flavour.

-I'm not a fan of the quinoa. It's really dry.

-Love the peach.

It refreshes the palate,

while you're eating this beautiful duck dish.

Very good dish. I could just do with a little less quinoa, that's all.

OK, thank you.

To have a two Michelin star chef say that

he liked your plate of food, it's overwhelming really.

I'm over the moon.

Kamarl's dish is pan fried sea bass, langoustine,

and squid in crumb, served with girolle mushrooms,

celeriac puree, asparagus,

radish and samphire, finished with a watercress veloute.

I love the cooking of your sea bass. That's perfect for me.

And I really enjoy the buttery langoustine.

I think that's fantastic.

However, I find the use of asparagus a little too strong.

And that sauce does nothing for me.

-In terms of colour, I think it's maybe a little bit too lurid.

-Mm-hm.

I do love this squid in crumb,

it's got hints of the Parmesan coming through it,

which I find goes quite nice with the creaminess of the veloute.

Some of the veg, I'm finding quite underwhelming and under seasoned,

but then I get very salty mushroom.

I think overall, there are bits of this dish which I like,

but I'm not getting the harmony and the balance of the seasoning

throughout the dish.

Kamarl, I like your presentation.

-Maybe just one piece of fish too much, that was all.

-Yeah.

I really like the cookery of your fish. I also like the langoustine.

And I actually like your sauce. Good dish, Kamarl. Very good dish.

Thank you.

Mixed emotions about it.

I'm happy to an extent that Marcus could see my vision with the

dish, but I was still a bit disappointed with the small

errors that I did make.

Andy's cooked pork three ways. A pork fillet, wrapped in pancetta,

braised pig cheek

on an onion marmalade,

and a black pudding bonbon, topped with a potato cake,

served with girolle, peas, broad beans, asparagus,

and finished with a pork jus.

It's a very well presented plate of food, very well put together.

I love that black pudding earthiness with a crunchy crust on it.

I absolutely love the cheek on top of that sweet tangy marmalade.

When I did get a little bit of sticky sauce,

it put the whole thing up another step.

I wish I had more of that.

The way the pork fillet has been cooked with that bacon around

it is a winner for me.

If I have to find a fault, I would say sauce is what we need on

this plate.

The vegetables are very well prepared and beautifully cooked.

What this dish is crying for is that sauce,

which would just marry the whole thing together.

A bit let down slightly by the lack of sauce. I'll know for next time.

I think I've done enough for them to understand where I'm coming

from, so it should be OK.

Zoe has made carrot cake spiced with cardamom,

accompanied by miso caramel,

orange liqueur infused cream cheese, carrot powder,

a walnut and sesame seed brittle,

carrot puree, and a light coffee syrup.

I love the presentation.

I'd be very, very happy to eat that,

and very happy to eat it in a restaurant.

I've had a lot of cakes in this competition.

-I haven't quite had one as good as this though.

-Yay!

Thank you very much.

There's lemon on the plate, there's carrot on the plate.

The little sweet biscuits you've got there. And of course then,

you've got all the spices of the carrot cake as well,

so you've got all these fabulous little delicate things going on.

I think that says it all.

Yes.

I get carrot in there that almost tastes like apple.

I got a carroty flavoured cream.

I love the textures, I love the flavours.

I love your pleasantly warped cake mind.

You've got some great ideas in here.

The cake is wonderful and moist.

Then that caramel with the miso on top was ingenious.

I love that and I wish you had more on the plate.

I just think you really know your craft and it's just been

-a really smartly put together dessert.

-Thank you very much.

Thanks very much for those comments. I really appreciate it.

On top of the world!

To get comments like that was beyond a dream,

so yeah, absolutely blown away.

Really am.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Theodore's dish is pan fried cod,

paned lemon salt mussels,

and saffron potatoes,

with a parsnip puree, wild leek seeds,

and wild garlic flowers.

I think your fish is cooked really, really well.

I love those mussels, which you've coated in lemon salt,

which is something I've never seen before.

However, your saffron potatoes aren't cooked enough.

They're hard.

Your fish, for me, is perfectly cooked, it's well seasoned.

Really happy to eat a piece of fish cooked like that.

The puree's nice and smooth.

Unfortunately, the potatoes are too hard. They're not cooked enough.

There's some nice things in here,

but it's not a dish that's really wowing me at the moment.

The parsnip puree is velvety and sweet,

but it doesn't work with saffron potatoes.

So I think with some vegetables, less potato,

you might have something, but it's just a little bit...

-For me, it's a picture, it's not a dish.

-Yep.

Unfortunately, I undercooked my potatoes,

which I'm disappointed about, but I'm happy with the judges' comments

and I'm definitely going to take them on board for future reference.

Andrew is serving his take on a black forest gateau.

A dark chocolate mousse sphere, with a cherry compote centre,

accompanied by a joconde sponge, kirsch gel,

mini meringues,

tempered chocolate and cherries, all sat on a chocolate crumb.

Andrew, your presentation is fabulous.

A beautiful choice of plate.

The colours really compliment each other.

Oh!

That is an absolute stunning piece of work, Andrew!

That sphere, that's almost crunchy on the outside,

with that beautiful, smooth, not too sweet chocolate, and then the

refreshing, beautiful sweetness of that cherry is incredible!

The whole thing is an absolute delight,

wherever you stick your spoon!

I am really, really, really impressed.

This is a great dessert. The mousse is wonderful.

It's soft and then the hidden treasure of the cherry

compote inside. It hits the kirsch gel.

You know, really brings the gateau to life for me.

I am going to find a fault. I have to, it's my job.

And the only thing want is more alcohol in this.

It's a grown-up, mature, brilliant dessert,

and it needs a mature portion of liqueur.

Yeah.

It's great.

I wasn't expecting it to be so good.

For them to say it's amazing, like that, it was... Yeah, awesome.

That is an incredible, incredible achievement.

Whatever happens, you need to be very proud of yourselves.

You go off, we've got to try as best we can to judge this.

What a day, I tell you. It's been an emotional rollercoaster.

Tough. Tough, tough, tough.

Quite an extraordinary day,

watching some extraordinary talent cooking incredible food.

From the skills test, we had six very competent chefs, who

then came through and cooked just as strong in their signature round.

The unfortunate side is, there's no obvious people to send home.

I think I can narrow the field a little bit.

Out of the six, there was one chef that didn't have

a good skills test and that was Theodore.

In the Signature Dish, his dish had problems on it.

Yeah, for me, it was vibrant,

but it wasn't my favourite looking dish of today.

-The potatoes were raw!

-Out of all six chefs,

he's probably our first candidate to leave the competition.

And that's a close call.

Yeah, and I think that's about as easy as the judging's going to get.

I'd like to discuss Andrew. Absolutely stunning dessert.

Everything on there for me was just amazing.

Andrew was the star dish of the day, just by a whisker, but it was good.

It was good.

Zoe made us that carrot cake in a crescent shape. It was lovely!

-Zoe did very well in both rounds.

-An exciting young cook here, very good.

Andy, good skills test, came in here, did the pork three ways.

Monica and I felt, listening to it, liked it more than you did.

I'm not 100% sure.

It was a pretty picture plate,

but it just lacked a good body sauce to go with it.

Wayne with his duck dish,

there was a lot that I liked about this chef's Signature Dish today.

This was a very good dish at this point of the competition.

I wasn't a huge fan though of the quinoa. It was like really dry.

I really like Kamarl's approach, but I think for

me there was just one piece of fish too much on that plate.

You really liked Kamarl's dish. Monica and I had criticism of it.

I just found some of the veg was under seasoned,

yet I thought others were too salty.

This is difficult.

Who are we going to lose? Who is staying with us?

I really, really want to continue in the competition,

especially after the feedback that I've just got.

Makes you crave more.

I feel like I've done enough and I know if I was to go further

in the competition, then there's definitely a lot more to come.

If I'm lucky enough to get through, I'll put a lot more hard work in.

If I haven't, then back to the day job and just carry on as normal.

This is really difficult. We have to lose some of these chefs.

Chefs, I'd like to thank you for an exciting day of cookery today.

We have had a really tough, tough debate.

It's actually quite sad we have to lose some of you.

Right, with regret, the first contestant leaving us...

..is Theodore.

Theodore, thank you.

I'm disappointed in my performance.

I think I could have done a lot better,

but six very good chefs in there today.

It was a privilege just to cook with them all.

The second contestant leaving...

..is Kamarl.

-Sorry, mate.

-Thank you.

Good to have met you.

This is a bad day for me.

I mean, I made mistakes I wouldn't normally make,

so at the end of the day, I have to suck it up and take it.

This decision when we got down to this point just got tougher

and tougher.

We had such a struggle.

We did eventually make a decision.

The decision we've made is that all four of you are staying with us.

You're just too good.

You are just too good!

Chefs, congratulations. Can't wait to see you in the next round.

Well done.

-Well done.

-Well done, guys.

Amazed to have gotten through.

It's the first step in hopefully what's going to be

a long journey, but yeah, I'm glad to have gotten over that hurdle.

Relieved. I know the hard work is just going to start,

so I will be practising from tomorrow.

Ecstatic. Overwhelmed. It's hard to take in for the moment.

Today has been an unforgettable experience. I'm just over the moon.

Tomorrow night, it's the quarterfinal.

And the chefs must prove themselves to Marcus and Monica.

I've really enjoyed this. I really have.

Really need to get this dish finished.

Only the best of them will get to cook for the critics.

It's fantastic. It's original. A very clever chef.