Episode 9 MasterChef: The Professionals

'It's the professional MasterChef quarterfinal.

'These seven talented chefs stood out in their heats.'

It's just a case of staying as calm as possible.

Try not to overthink things.

When you overthink, that's when it can lead to trouble and tension.

Now that you've had that taste of being accepted

and that sort of approval, you crave it a bit more.

I've done OK so far,

but I really want to knock their socks off this time.

'Tonight, they will be pushed even further.

'First, they will face a reinvention test.'

I've really enjoyed this. I really have.

'Those that impress will get to cook some of the country's

'most discerning food critics.'

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

'Only the best will earn a place in knockout week.'

Seven chefs set the standard very, very high.

I hope that can continue today.

They should be confident and ready for whatever test

that we're going to throw at them.

This is the reinvention test.

We want you to reinvent a British classic.

The steak and kidney pie.

We all know what a steak and kidney pie is.

Show us something we've not seen before.

At the end of this, three of you are going to be leaving the competition.

It's going to have to be good.

You're going to have ten minutes to plan your dish.

Off you go.

Reinvent it, but it's got to be better,

so that's where the difficult part lies.

I haven't cooked it a lot. Not for a number of years.

Just see what happens.

I'm not a big fan of kidney, but I like pie,

so hopefully it works in that favour.

OK, chefs, your ten minutes are now up.

Your 90 minutes start now.

Good luck. Off you go.

I don't want them to stray too far away from the main ideal.

I still want to taste those flavours of the steak...

..the kidney...

..beer, pastry

and a really good, strong sauce.

I know that, technically, I can cook,

so that gives me a solid ground to be able to be

slightly more experimental.

The idea is to stay calm, just relax,

embrace what we're going through.

This is a test of thinking on your feet.

-Yeah.

-How do you feel about that?

It's not a million miles away from how my menus work anyway,

not that I like to deconstruct or pull apart dishes,

I like to re-imagine them. One of the things that we look at at work

is a theme called "playful authenticity".

So something that somebody will identify with,

but when it comes to them on the plate, they're a bit surprised.

So, this is actually quite a good challenge.

Wayne is not going to braise the steak.

He's actually going to cook it very quickly and serve it very rare.

He's taking the kidney,

and he's going to braise it lightly in some beer.

He's also using bone marrow, and he's going to cook the puff pastry.

My concern is the sauce here.

He's using the braising liquid from the kidney.

Now, you're not going to cook that kidney for very long,

so it's not going to have much of a meaty flavour.

I don't feel it's got enough oomph.

I normally kind of turn it on for the competition,

when you get the brief, then it's time to try

and think of something that's going to be tasty

and appeal to the judges.

I have black spots where nothing actually happens.

Hopefully I don't have a black spot today.

-Andy.

-Hello there.

-So...

-Not a lot going on.

I'm just waiting for the main part.

Just waiting for the whole ox cheek in there,

with beer, vegetables, thyme and garlic.

So that's the crux of my dish. I'm wanting that to be really tender.

Hopefully it's going to be done in time.

And the sauce is from that.

I've just got a simple few garnishes and some sauteed kidneys.

Where does the pastry come onto the plate, then?

I'm not quite sure. I think because it's a steak and kidney pie,

so it has to be pastry somewhere. So I think just...

It'll be on there somewhere.

It's all about the cooking of the ox cheek for Andy.

He wants to cook it down enough within the time.

He says he's going to roll it up to make a cylinder, which sounds fine,

but in doing that, you don't want to dry it out.

I hope he's going to have a lot of that wonderful cooking liquor

to sauce over it, to bring it back into the

wonderful, juicy steak this meat deserves.

Andrew's dish is steak and kidney pie two ways.

We're going to have some of his dish served in a little pot,

and then some seared bavette and seared kidney on the side,

with some horseradish pomme puree.

This is a chef that reinvented a classic Black Forest gateau.

A reinvention of a steak and kidney pie, if it's as good as his gateau,

then we're going to be in for a really, really good dish.

STEAM HISSES

-Andrew, how are you?

-A little bit nervous still,

but I like taking the classicals and then turning them into modern,

same as I did with my dessert.

So just work on that and see how that kind of goes.

I haven't had time to practise this one,

so it's a little bit more...harder to kind of get that balance

of what I need.

There's a lot of pressure now.

I've got to make sure that my savoury is as good as my dessert.

I don't want to just be a one-dish wonder.

OK, chefs, you're now halfway.

Cooking, creativity come quite naturally to me.

Sometimes, I don't think I'm necessarily being

particularly creative, but other chefs kind of go, "Oh, wow."

It just seems to come naturally.

I don't really plan dishes.

They just seem to sort of happen.

Max is "deconstructing" the pie.

He's going to take that pastry case

and serve it on the base of the dish.

The steak and the kidney,

he's searing them quickly, and then serving it on top of the pastry.

I hope the essence of the steak and kidney pie

is not being lost in the deconstructing of it.

When you're not braising a dish,

how are you going to get a big flavoured sauce

that we so recognise with a pie?

-We'll have to see, won't we?

-Is that a secret,

or you've not thought about it yet?

No, no, no. I've got the sauce on,

and then it's just a case of tweaking it as I go.

-OK.

-So obviously... because without the braising,

you don't get that heavy sauce, so I'm just going to do...

-So why not braise, then?

-That was the whole point of the dish,

was to turn it on its head, so the complete opposite of how you would

make a steak and kidney pie.

I've taken away from when I've put my signature dish forward is,

less of style over substance.

I tried to overcomplicate it.

What I need to do is strip it back a little bit.

Keep it a little bit more simple.

I think that reinventing something

doesn't mean you need to change what it is.

So, we've asked for a reinvention of steak and kidney pie,

and you're not going to do it.

I think a steak and kidney pie should be a steak and kidney pie.

I'm doing a pie, but I like the kidney pink.

-You don't get that with a pie.

-True.

I think that's quite a nice element to add to it.

He wants to stick to the tradition of a pie.

This pie, however, has got to be the best steak pie

that we have ever had.

He's got some beautiful roasted carrots.

And he's also got some horseradish chips

that he's going to put with it.

I had great feedback on my signature dish

so, hopefully, I can repeat that success.

I do quite a bit of development,

so I'm just given words on a piece of paper

and have to develop the dish from scratch,

so hopefully I can use those skills and create a great dish.

Simon, do you like a steak and kidney pie?

Yeah, I do, but I don't eat them that often.

They're not good for the waistline!

Yeah, I do like a steak and kidney pie.

How are you going to reinvent this?

I'm doing an ox cheek pie, with kidney and Stilton and mushrooms,

in a little ramekin pot.

Still working in my head

but, hopefully, I should give you a good dish when we get to plating up.

I think Simon's inventing this dish as he goes along.

He didn't seem 100% sure.

That slightly concerns me.

But I love to be surprised,

and I hope Simon's got something up his sleeve

that we've not seen before.

30 minutes for your reinvention of steak and kidney pie.

I think I'm very creative as a chef.

I remember, notoriously, at college,

I was always known for being the person

that overcomplicated everything.

So, if someone else has done something,

then I want to do it my way

and try and do it a bit better.

I thought, well, what else is similar to a pie?

I love a dessert, so I'm going to try and create

a steak-and-kidney millefeuille aspect.

Try!

-Delicious.

-It sounds very creative.

A classic French millefeuille,

which is cooked puff pastry layered up with creme patissiere.

So you're taking away the sweetness and the custard,

and you're going to be filling it with your steak and your kidney.

-Absolutely.

-Wow.

-Thank you.

-Very creative!

Thanks very much.

I really love the sound of Zoe's dish.

She's also made some little fondant potatoes,

and a bacon jam that she's making from the oxtail.

So you've got a big sticky sauce

added to that beautiful-looking beef that she's got on the bench.

Out of all the dishes in the kitchen,

this is the one dish I can picture in my head.

I love the sound of it.

Chefs, you've got seven minutes left!

You've got to start plating up your food.

That's it, time's up! Stop cooking.

First up is Adam, who's made a traditional steak pie,

alongside pan-fried kidneys, pomme puree, horseradish crisps,

carrots and a beer sauce.

Adam, are you happy with this dish?

-No.

-What's wrong?

-I think the pastry could be cooked a little bit more

-and I had a nightmare getting it out of the case.

-OK.

The meat and the kidney is a little bit

on the under side for me, personally.

You know yourself, the pastry's not cooked.

Having said that, though, I like the flavour that you've made inside.

It's quite intriguing.

There's a bitterness going on there, and I think it's your sauce,

beer that you've used,

and it's just about getting away with it with the pastry.

I wanted you to give me the best damn pie you'd ever made, Adam,

because you love pies.

For me, I'm disappointed because I know how great this dish

would have been if you had got that right.

I should have put my pie in sooner.

If that pie was cooked, then maybe I could have done enough.

Max has served seared bavette steak on top of a disc of pastry,

with pan-fried kidneys, pommes purees, Swiss chard, girolles,

carrots, and a red wine and beer sauce.

Please tell me you like it!

I think the dish tastes great.

I think the beef is beautifully cooked.

The pomme puree cuts through the bitter tinge

that is on the back of that sauce, because you've used the beer.

I love the vegetable garnishes, the kidney's beautifully cooked.

But when you poured that whole jug of sauce on there,

that said "pie" to me, Max's way. Well done, good job.

I really like that dish a lot.

-Thank you very much.

-So you've plated it in a way you wouldn't

recognise a steak and kidney pie,

but it has to capture that memory of when you eat that dish,

and I think you've done that.

I think it was very well done.

Thank you very much.

That's what dreams are made of,

when you have two chefs at that level telling you

everything was good, everything was perfect.

Yeah, it was amazing, brilliant.

Andrew's made steak and kidney pie,

along with pan-fried steak and kidney,

together with horseradish mash, pickled chard, carrots,

charred shallots, and a sauce made with blackberries and redcurrants.

The pie is dry, and it's undercooked a bit on the base of the pastry.

The carrots and some of the veg is undercooked.

I had hoped there was more sauce there.

I went looking for more sauce to pour into the pie.

I think that would have helped it a lot.

You've added the blackberries and redcurrants into the sauce.

You've balanced it out beautifully well.

I just wish you'd have put it inside that pie,

and made the filling taste better than it does.

Pretty down, not going to lie.

Too many complications to go with what I was trying to do.

Just didn't really work.

Wayne's dish is roasted bone marrow with seared bavette steak,

braised kidney, puff-pastry shards, shallots, roasted artichokes,

chard and a braised kidney and beer sauce.

I like the idea of the dish. I like the bone marrow, the bavette.

You've cooked the kidney very well

and you've got a little bit of chard on the plate there,

you've also got some artichoke as well, the Jerusalem artichoke,

but the thing that hits me more than anything

is the bitterness in your sauce.

Possibly the beer. It's been over-reduced a touch.

I love bone marrow, and it brings a different element to the dish.

When you eat that together, the marrow, the steak and the kidneys,

for me, are wonderful, and it's just a shame about that sauce.

Thank you.

Silly mistakes that I shouldn't make.

Let's just hope somebody else has made bigger mistakes,

otherwise I'll be going home.

Andy formed a cylinder with his braised ox cheek

and topped it with puff pastry,

served with sauteed kidneys, cocotte potatoes,

bacon girolles, shallots

and a red wine and beer sauce.

You OK?

I can't eat that. It's not nice.

-Yeah, that's cool.

-The cartilage of the cheek, which is super-tough,

it has to be removed, especially if you've picked through the meat,

you find them and you know we have to leave those bits out.

They never break down.

The kidneys are so undercooked, it's not nice.

It's not, Andy. I can't eat that. And I love kidneys.

You've got a nice sauce.

You've used a cooking liquid, which is what we want.

You've made it really moreish,

and that's sort of the flavour that you get with a good pie,

but that's about it, Andy, unfortunately.

-Sorry.

-And I think you know that.

-Yep. Yeah.

I should have looked more closely and tasted more of the meat.

Yeah... No.

Bad mistakes, but you have to live with them.

Zoe's reinvention is steak-and-kidney millefeuille,

served with fondant potatoes,

carrots, shallots, rainbow chard and a bacon jam.

This dish is crying out for a sauce. Screaming for a sauce!

It needs it. And secondly, your beef's not cooked.

It's not braised enough.

It's just a little bit on the chewy side.

I like the idea, though, Zoe.

Fabulous little garnish to go on the side.

Bit more cookery and a big sauce

and you would have absolutely, probably, nailed the brief.

What I really like about this is your bacon jam.

That, because it's sat on the pastry for a bit...

You know when you get the bottom bit of the pie

and then the pastry that the liquid's sort of soaked through it?

I love the bacon jam.

Could have been worse but not great.

As soon as I plated it up,

I knew that there should have been a sauce at the side so, yeah,

all very valid comments.

Last up is Simon,

who's filled his pastry-topped pot with braised ox cheek,

Stilton and chanterelles,

alongside bone marrow with parsley, baby carrots,

celeriac puree, and an ox cheek beer sauce.

The actual little pot here, for me, is quite a treasure.

I'm finding little bits of mushroom

and then I've got a bit of the kidney coming through,

and the pastry, which is still lovely and light on top,

and then I took some of that marrow and ate it

with the rest of this, it's quite indulgent.

I've really enjoyed this, I really have.

You've over-delivered on the idea

and you've really taken the steak and kidney pie to new heights.

Just fabulous combinations.

Good job, you.

Thank you.

Can't quite believe it, that it went so well.

It feels fantastic.

Best news ever.

What an interesting round.

This quarterfinal was a tough one for our chefs,

but some definite stars here today.

I think Max and Simon were the two-star cooks in the kitchen today.

I really enjoyed both of their dishes.

Two very different dishes, two very different takes,

but very interesting, good cookery, and very inventive as well.

So, Simon and Max definitely through?

I think so. They ticked the brief, they did a great job.

I feel that Andy today underperformed with this challenge.

The beef cheeks still had the cartilage, which you couldn't eat,

and my kidneys were raw.

Big expectations for Andrew today in the kitchen.

This was a dish full of errors.

He was just trying too hard to impress

and didn't focus enough on the key elements of cookery.

Andrew and Andy are definitely leaving.

Without a doubt.

We have Adam, Zoe and Wayne left.

We have to send one of these chefs home.

Really frustrated that Adam didn't put that pie in the oven sooner.

Ten more minutes and that pie would have been cooked,

it would have been delicious.

There's a slim chance, but then that's the judges' decision.

I've done my bit and now I just need to wait for the consequences.

Today, Zoe sold us a great idea, the millefeuille,

and she achieved some wonderful cookery as well.

Her bacon jam I still can't forget.

But it was about steak and kidney pie,

and those elements weren't quite right today on Zoe's plate

as well as missing a great sauce to complete it.

I know not all the elements were executed correctly

but I hope I've shown enough flair

for them to see what I could be capable of.

There was some good positives on Wayne's dish.

Well-balanced, chose the right ingredients.

Just didn't quite come together

because of the bitterness in the sauce, unfortunately.

There's some really strong dishes in there and,

at this stage, even the smallest of mistakes

can be enough to send you home, so not good.

And we can only take through the chef that could cope

with cooking for the critics.

Thank you for today, chefs.

Tough round but a great round.

The first chef that is leaving us is...

..Andy.

I've learnt to just keep going, like I always have done.

Just keep pushing and just trying to open doors.

The second chef leaving the competition is...

..Andrew.

Feeling a little bit gutted, but I knew it was coming.

I'd have liked to have gone further and try and win it but... Oh, well.

The third chef leaving the competition is...

-..Adam.

-Thank you.

Didn't think I did enough.

Thought there was a slim chance but very, very slim.

Tried my best. Just hasn't worked today.

Well done. Good job.

This is a chance for you to cook for three of the country's top critics -

Tracey MacLeod,

Jay Rayner,

William Sitwell.

You have an hour and 15 minutes to cook us

two of the best dishes so far in this competition.

Unfortunately, we will lose one of you at the end of this round.

I wish you the best of luck.

Off you go.

These four chefs, when they've cooked their own food,

have really stood out.

If they could do that today,

we are going to have a really exciting cook-off.

I've never cooked for critics so, yeah,

it's quite daunting to cook for these guys

that are obviously in the public eye,

and what they say, people take notice.

William Sitwell seems a pretty cool guy.

I find the others a bit grumpy.

-How are you, Simon?

-Yeah, good, thank you.

Tell us about your menu today.

I'm doing pan-fried turbot with fresh peas, baby gem, asparagus,

and I'll serve that with a warm tartare dressing.

And then, for the dessert, chocolate and salted caramel.

So a chocolate mousse, salted caramel ice cream, chocolate crumb.

Is there something in these two dishes that Marcus and I

are going to look and think, "Wow! We weren't expecting that"?

There might be, I'll have to wait and see.

-You don't want to give too much away, do you?

-No.

-OK.

Well, that's all right. We like to be nicely surprised.

-NICELY surprised. Good luck, Simon.

-Thank you.

I really do like turbot. I think it's a fabulous fish, cooked well.

The spring vegetables, you want to maintain that beautiful green.

Fresh peas, asparagus,

then he's got some beautiful morels.

Simon is also going to be incorporating some potatoes

through his tartare sauce.

I'm really excited about potatoes going through that

beautiful tartare sauce, with the capers and gherkins.

There's the acid on the dish to cut that beautiful, rich fish.

And then a chocolate mousse with salted caramel ice cream.

Ice cream, as we know,

he's got to make sure he gets that in on time and early enough

so it sets.

This sounds delicious to me.

We've seen Simon when he cooks great food,

and I hope he can do that here today for us and for our critics.

I'm slightly nervous, I'm not going to lie,

but you always are, going into that kitchen.

There's a smell about it.

It smells like fear, quite frankly, and the unknown.

But it's my food,

and I can do it the way that I love doing it.

So you can't ask for anything more than that.

So for my main, I'm going to be doing

smoked haddock, cooked sous-vide,

with a confit egg yolk, black quinoa, crispy chicken skin.

And then for my dessert,

I will be doing a white-chocolate and tonka bean ganache

with pink peppercorn shortbread, a macadamia nut butter,

honeycomb and a strawberry jus.

Wow! I like the sounds of your menu.

It sounds like you're keeping the main course nice and simple,

so your focus and your strength here is your pastry, isn't it?

Absolutely. If this competition is nothing else,

it's an opportunity to show what you can do.

Great stuff. I think it's a lovely way to look at it.

-It's an opportunity.

-Absolutely.

Zoe is super-excited to be cooking for our critics,

and that's a great attitude to have.

Zoe's main course, she's cooking us smoked haddock,

serving it with a confit egg yolk.

It sounds like a safe dish

but it's about getting all the elements nicely cooked

and served well.

If she can do that and get us a great main course,

she can then focus on the star here, and that's her dessert.

White-chocolate tonka bean ganache.

The key to a ganache is making sure that it's not too heavy.

If it's too stodgy, too heavy, too sweet,

it could be overpowering for what goes with it.

She's serving it with a peppercorn shortbread.

She's also going to be making some honeycomb as well.

The strawberry jus will freshen this dish up.

It's intriguing, it's interesting,

and it's the dessert you want to try.

They're solid dishes. I've tried to keep them technical,

but simple enough to get out,

because it's such a short timeframe.

But I'm good with flavour, so, hopefully, yeah,

I can win them over with that.

Max, for his main course, is cooking us a fillet of cod.

And serve it on some Jersey Royals.

Some raw asparagus shavings, and some cooked asparagus as well.

Then he's making a cucumber, dill and avocado gazpacho.

A gazpacho is a very difficult thing to make in a short period of time.

He's got no time to marinade his ingredients.

You've got to bring them together, season them up, blitz them.

Fingers crossed they taste good.

Max's dessert is a dark-chocolate and hazelnut panna cotta.

He's serving it with some strawberry coulis

and Chantilly cream.

You've got three things in this dessert

that can thicken that panna cotta.

Chocolate is a thickening agent, hazelnut is a thickening agent,

and you've got the gelatine.

The balance of these ingredients has to be spot-on.

The dessert is my wife's favourite.

I made it a couple of years ago and she absolutely fell in love with it.

So every time we have a dinner party, she's like,

"Can we have hazelnut panna cotta?" So I wanted to do that.

And then the cod dish, I wanted to do something really...

I tend to go for really big robust, heavy, autumn, winter flavours,

and I thought I'd do something a bit more spring, summery and fresh,

and a little bit more delicate,

to show you I can balance delicate flavours as well.

Have you cooked these two dishes together within this time limit?

-No.

-OK.

-But I've cooked and timed them separately,

so hopefully those two timings will come together. But we'll see!

In the short space of time that I've been here,

it's given me a lot more self-belief and confidence to really put myself

out there and prove that I can do it.

-How are you, Wayne?

-At this point, I'm a little bit stressed,

if I'm being honest!

-That's normal.

-Yeah.

I've got a couple of elements that are all coming together at once.

-What is the dish?

-It's roasted cod with blowtorch scallop,

cauliflower two ways, blue cheese and caviar cream.

Dessert, I'm going to go for a chocolate ganache

with poached rhubarb,

white-chocolate custard and a chocolate crumb.

There's great chefs here, as well.

The competition is really high.

So to get through this stage would increase my belief in myself

that one step further.

I hope Wayne does well,

because I think this will give this chef a great boost of confidence,

which he really does need.

It's all about the execution of the cooking today.

He's got great ingredients, some wonderful scallops.

Beautiful piece of fish.

And bringing the blue cheese element to it,

we both know this works very well in the right hand.

It's all about getting that balance right.

This is about the bitterness of the ganache, not being too soft,

and definitely not too hard.

The sweetness of white-chocolate custard,

then beautifully counterbalanced by

the bittersweet flavour of poached rhubarb.

It's all about three, four, five different elements and textures

that should all and can work together.

The question's going to be, can Wayne get it right today?

They don't need to worry about fads and fashions

and what the food looks like.

If they genuinely believe in the food they're cooking, it'll work.

There should be a restaurant critic's prayer -

give me something different but not too different,

take all the bounteous ingredients of nature

and transform them into something miraculous.

The funny thing is that I am actually quite easy to please.

You need some simple, straightforward ideas on the plate.

Don't overthink it.

Do something that really tastes nice.

Don't do something that's just showing off.

Simon, you've only got 15 minutes left before your main course is due.

Do you think you're going to be on time?

-Yeah, I think so, or thereabouts.

-OK, good.

Roast turbot, pancetta, summer vegetables

and warm tartare dressing.

There's a confidence about what Simon's doing.

The warm tartare dressing

almost a sort of chip-shop fish accompaniment,

giving it a bit of a cheffy spin.

-Can you just...?

-Can you just...?

-Chef, just...

-Calm down.

-Yeah, calm down.

You might as well throw it on the plate there.

Are you happy with your plate of food so far?

-Yes, I think so.

-Oh.

-That's it, yeah.

-OK.

Hi.

I've got roast turbot with morels, peas, pancetta, asparagus,

baby gem and a warm tartare dressing with potato through it.

Got a mouthful of bones.

-Did you?

-That's not really good enough.

You should be able to trim and prepare fish properly.

This is a very pleasant plateful of food.

The fish is pretty accurately cooked,

the vegetables are nice and crunchy.

Pleasant does sound like I'm damning with faint praise,

and I think I am, slightly. It doesn't fly.

I was kind of quite excited about the idea of having

this warm emulsified sauce

bringing the whole thing together

and, really, we're not getting anything of that.

I may not remember this in five years

but he's a reliable chef, and there's a lot to be said for that.

We're looking for more than reliable at this stage, surely?

Presentation, for me, is really disappointing.

It's just thrown on the plate.

It's not cutting edge by any stretch of the imagination

and there are no surprises on this dish whatsoever.

-You've got 15 minutes left, Simon. Are we going to be good?

-Yeah.

We don't know what it is. It says chocolate and salted caramel.

It's just two ingredients that we know go beautifully together.

It is a cliche, it's a lovely cliche.

Let's hope it's a delicious cliche.

-Ice cream's churning?

-Yes.

-How are we doing, Simon?

-I'm just waiting for the ice cream.

-It's not quite set yet.

-We've got three minutes left.

Is it going to be on time?

I may just pour the custard over the top instead.

Simon, time's up now.

You're going to have to finish your dessert and take them out.

Happy?

-As I can be.

-All right. Good luck.

We've got chocolate mousse.

Unfortunately, my ice cream didn't set

so I've just poured it on as a cold custard,

with a chocolate crumble and a chocolate tuile.

So the ice cream, was that salted caramel ice cream?

Yes, it was, yes. So it's now just a salted cream.

Technically, it just hasn't worked.

The mousse isn't airy, the ice cream is just cream.

If you pick up a piece of the chocolate crumb,

it just tastes like pan scrapings.

-It's not nice.

-It's just not good enough.

It's a creamy something in the bottom of a glass bowl.

I can't taste caramel and I can't taste salt.

The crumb doesn't really bring anything to the dish.

Shame.

Intense. I thought I was doing OK

and then it got to plating up and I just panicked

and just started throwing things on the plate,

which is not like me. So it didn't go down too well.

Zoe, you have ten minutes till your first course is up.

Smoked haddock with pea and watercress puree, black quinoa,

pan-fried asparagus, confit egg yolk and chicken skin.

I think it sounds absolutely fantastic.

Chicken skin, properly crisp - there's not going to be any of that

left on my plate if she's done it properly.

-Are we on track?

-Just about, I think, if I can find a spoon.

-You do not stand still, do you?

-No. Absolutely not.

Really need to get this dish finished.

-Off you go.

-Thank you.

Today, you have a sous-vide smoked haddock with pan-fried asparagus,

watercress and pea puree, a confit egg yolk,

black quinoa and a chicken skin.

Hope you enjoy it. Thanks very much.

The haddock is just smoked haddock. Nothing else tempering it.

The quinoa is just a bit of pointless texture.

Oh, dear.

It hasn't quite reached the heights that she was hoping for it.

But I do like chicken skin.

Then again, I've always liked chicken skin.

SKIN CRUNCHES

The asparagus, I don't mind the crunch, I quite like them like that.

The quinoa is also well cooked,

and the yolk has got that nice texture to it

when it's been confit.

The crispy skin has also been cooked really well.

It's got a nice crunch to it. Unfortunately,

I find the whole plate just wholly under-seasoned.

The combination of ingredients work, without a doubt.

Unfortunately, today, she just didn't quite hit the mark.

How was that?

It was OK. I'm just going to concentrate,

get my dessert out on time and just hammer it through, so...

Tonka bean and white-chocolate ganache,

peppercorn shortbread, honeycomb and strawberry juice.

She's going to fire all these weapons at us.

Everything she's ever cooked, every ingredient she's ever got hold of

she's going to shove on the plate.

Let's hope there's a little bit less than it seems.

Right, Zoe, you have three minutes left.

-Oh-oh!

-Is that a happy "oh-oh" or a worried "oh-oh"?

Slightly worried.

I don't like putting stuff in these pipettes.

They tend to take a little bit of time.

-OK, your time is pretty much up now, Zoe.

-OK.

So, today, I have for you a tonka bean and white-chocolate ganache,

a pink peppercorn shortbread with fresh strawberries,

macadamia nut butter, honeycomb, a pipette of strawberry juice.

You've also got some freeze-dried strawberries on there

and a smashed strawberry lollipop. I hope you enjoy it all.

-Thank you.

-No problem.

Don't know what we're meant to do

with the turkey-baster of strawberry juice.

This shortbread is well made

and buttery and has a really nice, crisp texture.

There's lots of lovely strawberry sort of flavours

from dehydrated and fresh strawberries.

The tonka bean ganache is so sweet

that she has made some of the best honeycomb that I've had

in a very long while, and her biscuit has a nice crunch.

Yeah, I agree with Jay. The honeycomb is absolutely sensational.

I would buy honeycomb from her for the rest of my life.

I really do like the shortbread and the pink peppercorn on it.

I would happily just eat that

with the hazelnut butter and the strawberries.

That's just crazy amounts of pressure.

What I did today was a gamble.

So, we'll see.

Max, ten minutes to your first course.

Fairly classic combination.

Cod, Jersey Royals, asparagus.

Would sound a bit boring

if it wasn't for the idea introducing that cucumber gazpacho.

You seem in control.

Panicked but in control, yeah. Organised chaos, I think.

This is going to need a really light touch to make it sing...

..because, otherwise, it's just going to look like

fancy wedding food.

-You've got to finish these plates.

-Yes, 30 seconds.

-Ready?

-Yeah.

-Off you go.

-Good afternoon.

-Hi.

-Thank you.

-OK, today, we have roast cod loin.

We've got Jersey Royal potatoes with shallot and parsley,

cooked asparagus, raw asparagus,

and a cucumber, avocado and dill gazpacho.

-Thank you.

-Hope you enjoy.

Cod, when it's cooked like this, is just the best fish, for me.

This really has so much flavour.

Really perfectly cooked.

The asparagus is bang on, the potatoes...

I like the fact that he's created

this little cluster with the Jersey Royals,

and then you've got this gazpacho, which isn't watery,

it's creamy and it's really original.

I've never had it before, and that's such a pleasure,

to come on this show and have one's eyes opened.

It's a very straightforward piece of cooking

which makes a serious amount of impact.

This dish is light, it's fresh, it's vibrant,

I think it's absolutely fabulous.

It's nice to see that Max has challenged himself

to do something different to what he normally does.

Chocolate and hazelnut panna cotta,

hazelnut and pistachio praline powder,

strawberry coulis and Chantilly cream.

There's only one thing he's got to do there, which is the panna cotta.

If it's not perfect, I will blow raspberries at the plate.

How's your wobble on your panna cotta?

It started to freeze on the outside.

Now I've had it out at room temperature for ten minutes or so,

so, hopefully, it should be OK.

Max, last minute.

-You all right?

-Good.

That's it. Done.

Done? Off you go.

Hello again.

-Thank you.

-So, the dessert is chocolate and hazelnut panna cotta,

strawberry coulis, a hazelnut and pistachio praline,

a hazelnut crumb, and Chantilly cream.

Well, it's a really lovely, well-made panna cotta.

Absolutely silken with that nutty chocolate.

It's really, really good.

This is perfectly nice.

It's a good panna cotta, it's a good quenelle of cream, nice coulis.

I would have preferred to have seen a few more fireworks

when it came to dessert.

This is not a dessert that legends are made of

but it is very good. I think Max is a very good chef.

If I was in a fast-ascending balloon with Jay Rayner and Max,

I'd chuck out Jay.

Possibly, he has just played it safe but you know what?

Sometimes the eating of a good plate of food is all you want.

The texture of this panna cotta is great.

I can taste chocolate, I can taste hazelnut, and we've got the wobble.

There was a lot of hard graft.

They were pretty much exactly how I wanted them.

If it's not good enough, then I'm not good enough and I'm out,

but I think I've done enough. Fingers crossed.

OK, Wayne, you've got ten minutes to your first course.

Roasted cod, TORCHED scallops, cauliflower, samphire,

blue cheese and caviar.

He doesn't just cook his scallops, he TORCHES them.

You don't often see that written on menus.

"I'm torching my scallops! Get ready, boys - and girl."

I'm scared.

Wayne, you've got two minutes.

-Are we going to be all right?

-I'm looking on track, yeah.

Good.

You're happy with your plates so far?

-Yes, so far, so good.

-They're looking good.

Times like this, the shakes come in handy.

-Yeah!

-Good job.

OK, for you today, we have roasted cod fillet with blowtorched scallop,

samphire, cauliflower two ways, puree and raw,

caviar cream and blue cheese.

-Where's the blue cheese?

-It's crumbled underneath everything else.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-Enjoy.

Very clean and tidy, and it smells terrific.

There's a big waft of seafood coming off this.

There's an awful lot of positives on this dish.

The fish is perfectly cooked.

-I really do like what he's done with the scallop.

-It's a huge thing.

It's about an inch deep, and quite hard to cook that

so it's cooked all the way through.

It tastes like everything that you hope a scallop will taste

when you order one in a restaurant, and very rarely does.

I think carved onto Wayne's sarcophagus will be the words

"blue cheese and caviar sauce".

It's fantastic, it's clever, it's original.

I wouldn't have thought it worked, but it works beautifully.

He's a very clever chef.

The blue cheese is a risk.

I think it works. It makes the dish incredibly rich.

It almost takes it to another level.

The best-dressed plate of food today.

I think it looks fantastic.

I think Wayne has done a great job here.

I like this dish.

-Are you all right, Wayne?

-Yeah.

Are we going to be all right for dessert?

I hope so, yeah.

The answer I want is yes.

-Yes, we are definitely going to be ready for the dessert.

-Perfect.

A classic MasterChef pro -

I've got to come up with a pudding.

It's dark-chocolate ganache, poached rhubarb,

white-chocolate custard and chocolate crumb.

It's a lot of slippery things in a bowl.

Wayne, you've got five minutes left.

-How are you looking?

-I think I'm looking on course.

-I just need to cut my chocolate and then I'm good.

-Brilliant.

Wayne, you've got two minutes.

-Is that it?

-Yep.

-OK, off you go.

Thank you.

OK, for dessert, we have dark-chocolate ganache,

poached rhubarb, a rhubarb gel,

white-chocolate custard, chocolate tuile and smoked salt.

Right.

-Phew.

-OK. Thank you.

-Please enjoy.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Everything tastes really vivid.

That white-chocolate vanilla custard...

The ganache is fantastic and it's very clever,

that smoked salt, which is creating that salted caramel effect

but just with the sparest little serving of it.

It's no mean thing to poach rhubarb perfectly

and then you've got this little white-chocolate custard.

He's very inventive, he's brave enough to be adventurous

on this show, which we need. His capabilities stretch quite far.

I would be interested to eat his food again,

and that's the best I can say of any competitor on MasterChef.

They ganache is just there.

It has still held and it's got a smoothness to it.

I love the rhubarb.

It's kept its shape and form, but it's much too sharp.

Oh... Where does the time go?

You just...

One minute, it's like 15 minutes,

and then it's, "OK, are you plating up?"

"What?!"

Every round brings something completely different.

A different type of pressure, a different type of challenge.

And our cooks adapt accordingly,

some better than others.

Max today was probably the star cook in the kitchen.

I'm so pleased for Max. He delivered great cookery today, and our critics

-loved him, too.

-Another chef that I feel did well today is Wayne.

I couldn't fault the main course.

It tasted amazing.

A couple of little issues with Wayne's dessert

but his main course was probably the best-looking plate of food today

and he also backed it up with great flavours.

Wayne and Max, without a doubt, go through to the next round.

So, Marcus, that leaves us with Zoe and Simon.

What surprised us both today in the kitchen was Simon's approach.

It was just a little bit blase. I felt like, here was a chef

that just wanted to finish service and just get it over and done with.

Simon's dessert today didn't work.

The ice cream wasn't set, his chocolate crumb - slightly burned.

Plus, his chocolate mousse lacked depth.

It means everything to me to go through.

I've worked hard for this so, hopefully, I can get there.

Zoe's menu sounded incredible. These are the two dishes

that I would have chosen if I'd seen them on a menu.

I just felt that today, Zoe, maybe, was trying a little bit too hard

-to impress.

-But if you dissect and look what Zoe made,

she put a lot of work into this.

Ultimately, I'm hungry for it and I want it.

If you don't give it your all in a MasterChef competition,

then when do you?

Zoe and Simon both had mistakes in their dishes.

We can only take the one through

who we think is going to make a difference.

Cooking for our critics was always going to be tough

but you all stepped up to it...

..and brought some wonderful cookery into this kitchen.

The chef that is leaving the competition is...

..Simon.

Shock to the system.

I'm feeling upset with myself

for not delivering what I could do today.

It's just unbelievable. You're standing there

and it's not your name and... and it's just incredible.

I'm doing something right.

Not 100% sure what it is, but I'm just going to keep going.

I'm really proud of myself.

Really starting to believe, so it's a case of transferring

all that belief into the next round

and just hitting whatever gets thrown at me next out the park.

As my nephew would call me,

for a pub chef to get to knockout week of MasterChef pros

is absolutely phenomenal. I can't believe it.

Yeah, very happy man.

Next week...

another six professionals fight for a place in the quarterfinal.

There is only so far a bald head and glasses can carry you, you know?

Breathe.

I love the dish. That sauce is massive.