Rupert Rowley Yes Chef

Four of the best chefs in Britain are on the hunt for their perfect partner...

..because, for the first time ever,

amateur home cooks will be paired with the best in the business

for the cooking experience of a lifetime.

I can't hear you, say it to me louder! Yes, Chef!

Each day, a different Michelin-starred chef will choose their perfect partner

from four talented home cooks.

Your veal is annihilated. It's...

It's not good. You couldn't eat it, could you?

Then, in the Friday final,

all four pairs will go head-to-head to cook for culinary royalty,

Pierre Koffmann.

There's only two types of cooking - bad cooking and good cooking.

For the professional chefs, their reputations are on the line.

Bring in the home cooks!

For the amateur home cooks,

they're about to be put to the test by the country's finest.

She's stirring the mousse!

Why would you do that?

But who will win?

This is Yes Chef.

Welcome to Yes Chef.

Let's meet today's four home cooks.

First, it's Magdalena Wozny,

a waitress from Manchester.

People always tell me my food is amazing and it's always delicious,

and they love whatever I make for them.

It's got a bit of kick!

Next is Gill Peak,

who owns a cleaning company in Bolton.

I'm northern, I like proper food,

all me family like proper food and we like big portions.

This is just burning, everything's burning.

Louise Fountaine, from Chester,

is in marketing for the medical industry.

My strength is freestyle, I would say,

being able to bring things together without necessarily looking at

a cookery book.

And finally, Helen Barrie

is an IT trainer from Crewe.

I'm totally experimental in my cooking style.

This isn't looking like it does normally.

I have a ridiculous number of herbs and spices within my cupboards.

This doesn't look like this at all!

Oh, maybe I'll get a corner out of it.

So, we've got our four home cooks.

All we need now is our chef.

It's Rupert Rowley.

Rupert Rowley has been head chef

at the Michelin-starred Fischer's at Baslow Hall

in the heart of the Peak District for the last 13 years.

His menus are inspired by the seasons,

and he's a huge champion of home-grown produce.

OK, check on one monkfish, one asparagus, one pork, one carrot.

Having trained under Raymond Blanc, John Burton-Race and Gordon Ramsay,

he knows exactly what it takes to stay ahead of the game.

I'm looking for somebody who's going to do what they're told.

Big pet hate is when you show somebody how to do something

and then you look round and they're doing it a different way.

Fork. Fish on, Steve, yeah?

It just needs a bit more on there.

It'd be nice to get one over on the other chefs and win the competition.

Welcome, Rupert. Thank you. It's so good to have you here.

It's great to be here. We're all very excited, aren't we, ladies?

Now, you are looking for your perfect partner for the Friday final. Yes.

Brilliant. So what are you going to be looking for today?

I've been having a think, because it's a bit different to me

just judging what food you're going to cook,

because I've got to work with you.

So I'm going to treat it like it's your first day at work

and we're going to see how we get on from there.

So, looking at, obviously, what you're cooking, the way you're working, your time management,

if you've made it really, really complicated, or if you've gone and played it safe.

Or if it goes wrong, how you manage that if it goes wrong.

I need to know that you're going to be able to sort it out.

So, shall we get started?

Let's get on with it. This is Round One, Dish Of The Day.

So, cooks, in this round, you will be making a dish

that you believe will set you apart from the rest.

You have to make it count, because after this challenge, one of you,

unfortunately, will be going home.

OK, ladies. Are we ready?

ALL: Yes, Chef!

So, our cooks are off.

And with someone destined to leave at the end of this round,

impressing Rupert is crucial,

because no-one wants to go home.

There's only 45 minutes on the clock,

and Gill is already feeling the pressure.

Agh! Boiling.

And this is just burning, everything's burning.

Hi, Magdalena. Hello.

Tell us what you're making. I'm making chicken and potato curry.

Is it something that you always make?

I make it always for my friends and family, and they all love it.

And I'm not making it too spicy, because I don't like it too hot.

Not overpowering. Otherwise, all you see...

All you taste is the heat.

About presenting...

Obviously, Rupert said, you know, he's looking for presentation on a plate and stuff. Of course.

Well, I'll try to make as most presentable as possible.

I think, within each dish, it has the limits of its presentation.

As long as no splatter on the plate.

Yeah, we don't want it dripping down the sides. No.

Right, well, we'll let you get on. Thank you. Good luck. Thank you.

I'm stressed. There's not a lot of time.

Hi, Gill. Hi. Hi, Gill. So, tell us what you're making.

I'm making a cannelloni made with pancakes today.

Oh! Rather than with pasta.

Have you had it with pancakes before? Not cannelloni. I've done...

We used to do a savoury duck dish and we used to confit the legs and wrap it in a pancake.

Oh, really? And serve it underneath, yeah. Oh, there you go.

You're in good company, he's done it as well. I like pancakes.

My kids love pancakes.

Yeah, my kids like pancakes. They love this dish.

OK, well, we'll let you get on. Thank you.

Hi, Louise.

Hi there. So what are you making?

So I'm doing baked salmon with rough-mashed, buttered new potatoes

with a hollandaise sauce

and, erm, some peas and broad beans.

Shelled broad beans.

So you've got your butter. And I've got my butter melting...

Are you doing a reduction for that?

No, I've put a little bit of lemon in the egg yolk.

And the salmon is here and that's probably only going to take about

ten minutes because it's quite a small piece,

and we want it sort of slightly al dente.

And so everything's ready to go, really.

So the chives, are they going through your potatoes?

They're going to go in the potato, and a little bit of garnish as well.

OK. Lovely. Very nice! Yeah, looks good. OK, well, you look like you're in control.

So we'll leave you to get on with it. Great, thank you very much! Thank you!

Hi, Helen. Hello. Hi, Helen.

Hello. There looks like lots.

Very busy here. Yeah, lots going on here.

A lot of improvisation going on.

So I'm making lamb with sumac and tahini.

And you bake an egg in it. OK.

And I'm doing hummus and I'm going to do a baba ghanoush,

and I'm hoping to do some flatbread.

But I'm not guaranteeing anything.

OK. Right. I think you need to... Better crack on and get on with it.

I do, I think so! OK, all right, talk to you later. We'll leave you alone. Bye-bye!

So, Rupert, whose dish at the minute is exciting you?

I think, really, Helen, probably.

OK. She's got lots of things going on. She's busy.

Looked like she's really trying to impress.

It looks like she's pushing herself as well. Yeah, yeah.

You know, she's used to working and busy people and lots of

things going on. Yeah. Which is what cooking's all about.

Is there any dish that is slightly worrying you?

Probably, erm, Magdalena with the curry.

Right. It's all in...

..what it tastes like, really. I'm not sure. I'm not sure,

it didn't look particularly traditional and she didn't sort of say,

"Oh, I've got a spice blend that I've made that's this and that.

"And that's..." You know, it looked a bit more onions and a bit of tomato.

But we'll wait and see.

OK. What about Louise? I'm not sure.

I felt a bit sorry for her chives that she got on her chopping board.

She sort of murdered them with a cook's knife.

They looked like, you know,

she might as well have taken a lawnmower over the top of them

when she was chopping them. No!

I could hear them crying, you know.

It was a terrible shame.

And what about Gill? The pancakes. Yeah, it sounds really nice, that.

Sounds really nice. Yeah. OK.

You know, she was obviously proud of what she could cook.

Yeah. And it sounded a nice dish. A bit of fun and, you know...

It's interesting because they're all different, aren't they? So different. Mm, mm.

Rupert is looking for good presentation,

time management and how the cooks solve any unforeseen problems.

So these last few minutes could make all the difference.

Right. Sauce.

I don't think I've got enough time, no.

Right, ladies! You only have five minutes left.

No chance.

Having told Rupert she was making a mild curry,

it seems Magdalena's recipe has proved otherwise.

It's got a bit of kick.

On the yellow station, Helen has concerns about her bread.

This doesn't look like it does normally.

It's a flatbread, but it doesn't look like this at all.

One minute left, ladies.

Only one minute.

Despite her curry being rather hot, Magdalena plates up.

Stressful...but fun!

Meanwhile, Helen's trying desperately to fix her flatbread.

It doesn't look like this at all!

Oh, maybe I'll get a corner out of it.

Ten, nine, eight...

..seven, six,

five, four,

three, two,

one. That's it!

Stop cooking, step away from your plates. No more.

SHE LAUGHS What a disaster.

First to be judged is Magdalena, with her dish of the day -

chicken breast and potato curry,

served with basmati rice and garden peas.

Hi, Magdalena. Hi! Hope you enjoy it. So, want to tuck in? Yeah, yeah.

Rice is cooked lovely. That's nice.

There's a bit of spice there. Yeah.

There's a bit of spice there. It is quite spicy.

You've got the potatoes in there,

you've got nice flavour into those and whatnot.

Erm, chicken's a little bit dry.

OK. A little bit over with that.

Maybe the sauce a little bit, so you coated the chicken a bit more.

OK. Could have maybe done a little bit more with the presentation.

OK, yeah. But it's got a lovely taste to it.

Bit spicy, but not too spicy.

I think that would... My wife would be crying.

Oh, would she? She'd be crying.

But that, for me, that would be fine.

I think that's nice. 'I think they liked it.'

Thought the chicken breast might be on the tad of dry side,

but the potatoes were cooked properly and everything.

It had nice taste.

I thought it was a bit disappointing, really.

Really? Yeah, I think so.

She's used chicken breast and, for me, if you're doing a curry, you're looking at chicken thighs.

Right, is that because it's...? For me.

There's more sinews in there, so they break down more,

so you end up with a juicier piece of meat.

So chicken breast is really a big no-no when it comes to a curry?

It's the wrong dish. Yeah. We spoke about the presentation,

and I think the rice round the outside neatly

and then that in the middle and a bit of coriander on the top

would have been better than what she'd done.

Just plonking it on. Yeah, plonking it on.

Next to be judged is Gill with her dish of the day - beef and pork

cannelloni pancakes with a tomato, mascarpone and bechamel sauce,

served with a fresh green salad.

There you go. Thank you. Oh, lovely. Thank you.

How did you find that? Nerve-racking. Yeah.

Tuck in? Yeah.

Did you put a dressing on the salad?

Just a bit of olive oil. Olive oil. Yes. Lovely.

I think the pancake's really nice.

It's a different... You know, it's a different take on it.

I think... I saw you doing the two sauces, that was nice.

They're nice and tasty.

I think maybe you could have done a little bit more work with the salad.

Yeah. You know, dicing up your olives a bit more.

I think a bit more dressing on that.

If this had got a bit of a zing to it, that would have really cut through nicely.

Yeah. Cos you've got quite... It's quite heavy, isn't it?

It's a heavy thing. It's a nice-sized portion.

It'd be nice if we had a glass of wine to go with it.

Oh, yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

SHEREE LAUGHS

I thought I'd done rubbish,

but, actually, I don't think I did that bad, really.

Did all right, yeah!

It was very rich. There was no flavour that really stood out.

I would personally... Pasta would be better.

The pancake was quite thick, wasn't it? Right, yeah.

Home cooking is different to restaurant cooking. Completely.

And you've got to be open to that.

Time for Louise with her dish of the day -

baked salmon with roughly mashed,

buttered new potatoes with chives, peas,

broad beans and a hollandaise sauce.

Hi, Louise. Looks very nice, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does. Sunshine yellow.

Yes, it does! Colours look lovely. OK, we'll tuck in.

So, it's a lovely plate of food.

Erm...

The hollandaise is nice.

Strictly speaking,

it's not hollandaise because it's not a reduction.

I would've thought that would have been more of bearnaise,

rather than... No, bearnaise, you would leave the reduction in.

Oh, I see. I would call it a lemon sabayon, goes perfectly.

It's not a criticism of the sauce.

But, no, be very happy with that. It's a nice plate of food.

Er, yeah, Rupert had some comments about my hollandaise

and suggested that a traditional hollandaise should be a reduction.

I'm not sure I agree with that but, anyway, overall, the comments were very positive.

I just have to pick up the fact that she was questioning you about the bearnaise sauce... Yeah, yeah.

No, quite funny, but there's a difference between an amateur and a professional.

OK. I wouldn't dare tell a builder how to lay bricks properly,

you know what I mean?

If I ask somebody to do it, they do it.

And finally, it's Helen with her dish of the day -

minced lamb with sumac, tahini, pistachio nuts,

pine nuts in a baked egg, hummus, baba ghanoush,

and butternut squash with yoghurt, glazed with brown sugar, lime juice,

chilli and garlic.

There we go. Lovely.

Now, your flatbread didn't make it.

Ha-ha! My flatbread didn't make it. Aww! Which is a shame.

But you did say you were pushed for time and you were a bit worried

about actually getting it on the plate.

I was being a bit optimistic.

OK, let's dig in. What are you going to go for first?

I'm going to start with the hummus.

OK.

The hummus could have done with a bit more oomph.

Yes. You know, bit more garlic, bit more lemon.

Right. Bit smoother. Shall we just work round?

Yeah, go on.

Are you smiling? Is that a nice smile there?

You kind of lose the aubergine taste.

But, in my personal preference, you know, it's got to have,

if you ask me, it's got to have that oomph to it.

And it's certainly got that. It's nice.

The butternut, I love the way you glazed that.

I saw that on the tray. Yeah.

And it was one of those ones where you just want to stick your finger in the tray and lick it.

I think you spoiled it a bit with the... Didn't need the dressing.

Yeah, I don't think it did. I think that should have been another part. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah.

This is lovely. Hm. I think this is lovely.

I've never had...

..mince with nuts, and I've never had tahini in it.

Yeah. The flatbread's missing.

That's what it needed. Yeah.

You didn't serve it, you didn't say... No.

I thought that was quite nice because you thought it wasn't right,

you know what I mean? But it's a nice plate of food.

Thank you. You'll be happy with that.

I think you've done very well.

I think I am overambitious.

'And when I have people home, you know, for supper and things,

'often, they comment on the fact they've had...

'You know, they didn't realise the starter wasn't their main course.'

So I do get carried away.

You know, she's quite experimental.

Yeah, yeah. Does that worry you, or does it...?

No, I don't think so, no.

And what she served... Yes, there were elements missing,

but she admitted and she didn't serve them.

Yeah. You know, what she put on there she was happy with.

Yeah, that's quite brave, isn't it? That was quite brave.

Only three people can be taken through to the next round.

For one of our home cooks, it's time to leave the competition.

We'll see if I've done enough to get through to the next round.

We'll see. It all depends.

Hopefully, fingers crossed.

I hope I've done enough, and I hope I impressed the chef.

Now I've cooked my first dish,

I would really enjoy going through and trying something else.

There's some tough competition out there, but I hope I've done enough to get through.

A massive well done to all four of you, you've done extremely well.

Unfortunately, at this stage, we do have to lose one of you.

So, it's over to you, Chef.

Yeah, well, I think you've all done really, really well.

Unfortunately, the person we're going to lose from the first round is...

..Magdalena.

Aww!

It's very hard to pick.

But I just would have liked a bit more to it,

and a bit more sort of finesse and style to it...

OK. ..than what you produced.

I think the thing that went wrong, it was my presentation.

If I presented with more finesse, I think that would have been better.

I really wanted to go through, but it's not meant to be just yet.

So, that leaves three home cooks.

They are Gill from Bolton, Louise from Chester and Helen from Crewe.

Round Two, it's the Chef's Challenge.

Now, in this challenge, Rupert has devised a skills test

to determine which one of our home cooks

has the skills he's looking for.

So, Rupert, what's on the menu?

We're going to use asparagus and we're going to poach an egg.

Simple, straightforward.

It's something as a chef you quite often get asked.

We're looking just to take this rougher skin off.

Take a peeler and you're looking to expose that lighter colour.

Asparagus is round, so we're not looking for that.

Mm-hm. Square, sort of sharp edges.

Yeah. So we've got that flat edge.

So there we go, so we've got our asparagus.

Green vegetables, general rule of thumb,

if it grows below ground, it goes in cold water.

If it grows above ground, it goes in boiling water.

Salt in there? Yeah.

Quite a lot. Quite a lot. We'll put the lid back on.

Right, while that's coming back up, we'll look at our poached egg.

I always get a nice, big pan.

With a nice...what I call a nice drop. Right.

So, as you drop it in,

it falls through the water, creating that shape.

The other way of doing that is the swirling of the pan.

So, vinegar in.

You don't want too much, cos they taste like pickled eggs.

Because you've got too much in it. So the reason you put it in, it keeps the white of the egg together.

It's just to help keep the shape, yeah. I would have the water boiling

when I put the egg in. You would actually have it bubbling?

Yeah. I'd have it like that, yeah.

Because as soon as I put the egg in, it's going to cool it down.

Crack the egg into a ramekin first, just really...

to make sure I don't drop any shell in. Oh, yeah.

I'm going to put that in there.

Right, we're going to take the lid off our asparagus.

We're going to drop that in.

Put the lid back on, bring it back up to the boil.

Right, so now our egg...

And we'll just drop that in.

And you can see that, if I call it a tail,

that's the bit. How long do you leave that in there for?

Till it's cooked. How do you know?

Do it by eye. Probably three minutes.

Each egg is different, each piece of asparagus is different.

You're learning to cook, you're not learning to use a timer.

And now we can see, with that, I can just separate that tail.

And if I pick it out too early, the yolk will fall out.

I like the white cooked and the yolk runny.

Sure. I don't like... I call it snotty egg.

OK? So, egg's looking good, asparagus is looking good.

We're going to just put a couple of knobs of butter in this pan.

And we're just looking to melt that.

If we're going to test if the asparagus is cooked, pick it out...

The only way to tell, take the end off and try it.

It's got a little bit of crunch. Yeah.

We just drop that into our butter,

and we're really just looking to glaze it up a little bit.

Little bit of salt onto the asparagus.

If I was serving this,

I would season it up with a little bit of pepper. Do that.

And we take our egg onto our cloth, just to let that dry.

All the asparagus in the same way.

I use the kitchen towel to pick up the egg, so that sits on there.

And we'll just finish that on top of the egg - a little bit of salt...

..and a crack of pepper. So there we go.

So, do you want to have a taste and see and try?

Then you'll know.

Go for it.

Nice. Lovely. Nice inside.

Great job, Chef. OK, ladies.

You have 15 minutes to do this challenge.

If you'd like to go to your stations... Good luck.

So, our cooks have just 15 minutes to create perfectly cooked,

neatly plated asparagus and poached eggs.

Sounds straightforward enough, but Helen isn't feeling confident.

I'm not very good at poaching an egg in water.

So...we'll just see how it goes, really.

Rupert is looking for someone that can follow his instructions and

demonstrate good time management.

He'll also be watching closely

to see how our cooks handle any mistakes.

Ooooh! I think that's how not to do it!

So how are they getting on? Yeah, they're doing well.

Really, this test, we're looking for precision and neatness.

So there should be no room for error when it comes to putting it on the plate and how it looks? Yeah.

You know, they've got two eggs there.

So if they made a mess of the first one, they can do another one.

Is anyone kind of standing out for you, or...?

It's hard to say, really. Louise is sort of rushing.

She's getting on with it. Helen is being quite slow and methodical,

and quite neat and precise, really.

Whereas, this morning, she was a bit more... Yeah. ..frantic.

OK, so it's quite good to see the difference in her work.

Yeah, yeah. OK, and what about Gill?

Yeah, Gill looked good. She was just in between and just getting on.

Again, she was very carefully peeling the asparagus.

But we'll see. I think it's to do with what we get in front of us.

OK.

Oh, I've not melted me butter. I just remembered.

So whilst Gill and Helen are still working on their dishes...

..Louise is first to the finish.

I'm going to try my egg again because it was disastrous.

Yeah.

Stay together! As Helen starts poaching her second egg,

Gill carefully rolls hers onto the plate.

It's better than the other one. It's still not perfect.

How much longer have we got?

Ladies, you have ten seconds.

Get your egg on the plate, Helen.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Step away from your plates.

Can't do poached eggs!

Welcome, ladies.

Rupert's going to taste

and then he's going to make his decision. OK.

So we start with eggs slightly over.

Asparagus lovely peeled.

Just looking for a bit more crunch to it.

Sure. Seasoning, you've put a lot around the side of the plate.

That wasn't what I wanted.

Just a little bit on the asparagus in the pan

and then just a little on the egg, just to bring out that egg flavour.

Sure.

This one, egg perfect.

Spot-on. Asparagus, a little bit neater with the peeling.

You've got bits on there slightly overcooked.

Seasoning, nice.

This one, egg obviously is under.

The asparagus is peeled lovely...

..and it's cooked spot-on.

So we've got a real mixed bag.

First one I'm going to put through is this one.

Louise. Thank you. Well done, Louise.

Thank you very much. Well done. Thank you.

And then we've got a difficult choice.

Helen, you know, you tried too much this morning... Yep.

..but what you produced was very, very good.

We come this side. I think your food this morning wasn't quite as strong.

But your eggs are perfect, you've done exactly what I wanted there.

I think I'm going to go based on...passion.

I'm going to go with Helen. All right. Thank you.

OK. You've got a bit more of a foodie drive for it.

Thank you. It's been a fantastic experience.

And a Michelin-starred chef likes me eggs, so not everyone can say that.

So that leaves just two cooks.

They are Louise, who works in marketing, and Helen, an IT trainer.

But only one can be Rupert's partner.

OK, so this is our third and final round, The Chef's Special.

Now, our home cooks will be given a set of ingredients to one

of Rupert's signature dishes.

Now, the aim of this challenge, guys,

is for you to make a dish from these ingredients.

You'll get to find out what Rupert makes a little bit later on.

But for you viewers at home, here's today's ingredients.

Rupert's chosen loin of veal,

eggs, red potatoes, milk,

00 pasta flour, butter, spinach,

pea shoots, fresh peas, asparagus,

purple sprouting broccoli and truffle oil.

Easy enough for a Michelin-starred chef,

but what will our home cooks make?

Right, ladies, you have one hour.

OK. Time to cook.

This is the first time our home cooks have seen these ingredients,

and with the clock now ticking,

they're going to have to think quickly on their feet.

This is quite a challenge, because the things that you might use all

the time aren't here.

I'm thinking you've got to try and get a flavour in a different way.

I don't particularly want to go anywhere near the eggs again!

Hi. Hello. Hi. How are we getting on?

Yeah, I'm quite happy. So what are you actually going to make for us?

I'm going to do something with the pork,

but I'm going to massage it with rosemary,

pan-fry it very slightly and then put it into the oven.

I thought that I'd try and use the pea pod as well as the peas inside.

My biggest challenge is actually staying the course.

Yeah. You've got to stick to your guns and do what you feel is right.

Right. Well, we'll let you get on. Yeah.

Thank you. Great.

So Helen thinks she's cooking pork, not veal.

Let's see what Louise makes of her meat.

Hi, Louise. Tell us what you're going to make.

I've just basically coated the fillet of meat in this...

What meat...are you going for?

Well, I think it's pork.

OK. Yeah. I'm going to pan-fry that a little bit and then I'm probably

just going to finish it off in the oven for a little bit.

So with that I'm going to make some creamy mashed potato

maybe on a bed of spinach.

Even though it might not be identical to yours.

It's not got to be. It's not meant to be. Good, OK...

Well, in that case... Shall we go away?

Yes! Good luck. Thank you.

So Louise and Helen both think they're cooking pork

rather than veal, which actually takes less time to cook.

But will they notice?

How do you think they're getting on?

They're not totally sure what the ingredients are,

but they're portraying that they do know.

But they don't know when they've got it wrong.

When I said, "Do you know what they are?" "Oh, yes, yes. I know."

And they said pork, and it's veal.

Louise thinks the truffle oil is olive oil,

which I think if she's going to use that to cook with,

we're going to get a very strange dish.

You know, you can smell it here now. Yeah.

Oh, no! So that could ruin that.

Helen's peeling the pea pods, which I thought was very strange.

She knows they're peas, but she's going to serve the pods.

But she's going to serve it to eat. She's going to serve it to eat it.

There's more than enough veg there.

Just put the pea shoots in the compost, you know?

Let the garden have them. Obviously, out of these two lovely ladies

you've got to pick one to be your partner. Yeah, yeah.

I think Helen will do what she's told,

but she could choke at the last thing. Yeah, yeah.

Whereas Louise could just do her own thing! Yeah.

As Louise douses her veal in heavily scented truffle oil,

Helen adds some to her potatoes before adding the finishing touches

to her inedible pea pods.

Ladies, you only have one minute left.

It's knowing actually how you present the food

which is the challenge, I think. Maybe stack it up a bit.

I might put another potato on. Stack it up high.

Get your plates ready. Three, two, one.

Stop cooking.

Put your plates down, you've done all you can.

Well done.

That really is it, our cooks have done all they can.

It's time to taste.

First, it's Louise.

She's made a fillet of veal on a bed of creamed potato,

served with mushrooms, purple sprouting broccoli and fresh peas.

ALL: Hi!

So, right.

The first thing, it wasn't actually pork.

Oh! It's veal...

Oh. ..but obviously veal is pink.

We might be in luck. Yeah, we'll see, we'll see!

The other one was the olive oil... Yes, it was truffle oil.

..was truffle oil. Yeah, I got that after you left the table.

Yeah. So, obviously that is a...

Quite different in how we use that...

Absolutely. ..and there was quite an aroma in the kitchen coming through.

Yeah.

So, yeah... Shall we taste? Shall we try? Yeah, let's go.

The veal, if it was pork, I would say is slightly over.

OK. As veal, it's definitely over.

Yeah. The mash is good, certainly. Certainly good.

There's a lot of it.

It's more of a mashed-potato dish with a veal garnish.

The mushroom's a bit salty, a bit overseasoned.

Peas are lovely. I'm not sure with the rosemary... It's too strong.

There's too much, is there? There's too much. Yeah.

But, yeah, no, it's a nice plate of food.

I think we could have done a bit more on there. Yeah.

You know, made it a bit more challenging.

Yeah, it was good. I mean, you know, obviously disappointing

that I didn't know the meat.

But I think it was quite tasty in some respects,

and that's kind of really what you're trying to achieve.

I mean, probably I'd give myself six out of ten.

Louise's potato, you know, she can season, she's put some butter in it,

it's milk. It was nice. Yeah. It wasn't just mashed potatoes.

It was a bit more than that. Yeah.

Next into the tasting room is Helen.

She's made oven-roasted veal in rosemary, with whole peas,

asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli,

buttered mushrooms and roast potatoes in truffle oil.

How was that for you?

It was an interesting challenge.

It's quite interesting. Your pork is actually veal.

Oh, is it? Yeah.

Yeah, English.

As it is veal, it's definitely overcooked. OK.

The veal is annihilated, it's not good.

It's leather. It's not good.

You couldn't eat it, could you? Do you know what I mean?

I think you know the issue here. Yeah, that hasn't worked.

I'm going to try it. I don't know if you can, actually. Yeah.

I was trying to be creative. Yeah. It didn't work.

They're papery. So this is the pods of the pea.

Yeah. I thought you thought they were...

Like mangetout. ..mangetout, or runners or something like that.

Just trying to... Trying something different?

Not very pleasant, is it?

It's really papery. Don't think I could get it down, sorry!

So you wouldn't serve this?

No. Right, I'm going to have a roastie.

They did look good, these. Or they do look good.

Yeah. They are nice.

Yeah. Truffle oil is quite strong, you know.

I wanted to use it somewhere.

They're the poshest roast potatoes I've ever had.

You know, there's good and there's bad.

He said that I'd annihilated the meat.

That's not a good thing.

Let's be frank, they were nice roast potatoes.

After that... Nothing. ..nothing.

So, with the final challenge complete,

it's just left for Rupert to decide between our final two home cooks.

But before Rupert announces the winner,

it's time to reveal what he makes with those ingredients.

OK, ladies, before Rupert makes his decision

about who he is going to take to the Friday final,

you're in for a real treat,

because he's going to show us his signature dish.

Lovely. Fantastic. So, over to you, Chef.

OK. So the dish we're doing is

roast veal with potato and egg yolk ravioli. Oh.

So, pasta first.

We've got 250g of durum wheat flour,

five egg yolks...

..and one whole egg.

Tiny bit of olive oil. Tiny bit of salt.

Season that up. Got a little bit of water here.

We're looking to get the resemblance of breadcrumbs.

If it's... Can you see it's just starting to come together?

Yeah, yeah. Now, on the worktop with your hands,

and you're looking to bring it together to form a ball.

You've got to work quick and not mess about,

because it's drying out all the time.

So that's what we're looking for.

Great. OK, touch it, grab it, feel it, squash it.

It's actually much drier

than I thought it would be, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

The next thing we're going to do is mashed potato.

The thing with mashed potatoes, cook them in the skins.

Why do you do that? Keep more nutrients in, keep more flavour in.

Oh, OK. And it's easier to peel a potato in the skin

while they're hot, by hand.

So rice that through there.

So, we've passed it once.

Yeah. Yeah? We're going to pass it twice.

OK. So now, what I do now is just add a little bit of butter,

start to loosen it up a little bit, so that I can pass it again.

And we'll just use...a sieve.

Through there.

Oh, God. So this is just to make it extra, extra, extra smooth.

Extra, extra smooth and extra, extra emulsified.

I class making mashed potato the same as making a hollandaise sauce.

It's an emulsification of butter and potato.

What's in a hollandaise sauce?

Stop stirring.

Well, you didn't agree on the ingredients, did you?

No, and I still don't, actually. Don't you?

Are you kidding? But I'm being polite.

So, we've got that through there.

So now, we're going to take our potato and then we're just going to

add a tiny bit of milk just to loosen it slightly.

So even though I've added all that butter,

I've still got a very firm mix.

You run two restaurants, don't you?

Yeah. I left college and went to work at Le Manoir

with Raymond Blanc.

Wow. And there... So that was the first place you worked after...

That was my first job, when I was 18. Wow. Amazing.

I loved it there, it was great.

It was a beautiful kitchen, lovely kitchen.

You've got fantastic gardens, you've got amazing produce.

You had... Like a dream. Oh, yeah.

So we've got a simple garnish.

We're just going to wilt the spinach and the pea shoots very lightly.

Blanch the broccoli and then we're going to fry it.

So the mushrooms, they've got a great nutty flavour

which lends itself for what we're doing.

So, we've had this in the fridge.

Get it out, leave it out, let it come back so it's soft

cos you're going to struggle to get it through the pasta machine

if it's rock solid.

So just flatten it out with your hands.

And as we work down to get it through the pasta machine,

we're just looking for it thin enough to be able to see

your hand through it. Yeah?

We're going to put an egg yolk in the middle of our ravioli.

Lovely. Amazing.

So now we've got our potato.

Put that in the middle. Ah, you've done it that shape for the egg.

I wondered why it was like that. So we take...

Just drop our egg yolk in there.

So then, egg wash, OK?

Then go round, carefully.

Pick your potato up. You're on one side

then you go straight over to the other side and pick it up.

OK. And then work your way round each side.

OK. And you've got to bear in mind,

the pasta in the middle is one thickness,

the pasta at the rim is double.

OK. So we just put those down there.

So, we've got loin of veal.

We're going to take these bits off the side.

I'm just looking for the meat.

We'll just season that up.

And we do the...

So the test is listening to the sizzling, then?

Yeah. We will now cook our garnish.

We're going to drop in our asparagus, broccoli and our peas.

We're going to do this all in one pan.

So while we do that, we'll just turn out onto the other side there,

just to get that searing off on all sides.

A little bit of butter. And the butter's for flavour, or...?

For flavour. We're cooking through contact.

So this, can you see now? It's foaming all around there.

Yeah. So we'll take our veal out now.

OK. Is that cooked now? That's done? Yeah, that's ready.

Oh. That was quick, wasn't it?

Yeah. How long did you two sear that for and then put it in the oven?

About 45 minutes.

No, not really.

We got it so wrong!

So I've just put in the peas that I've already blanched,

the spinach and the pea shoots

and I'm just looking to just gently wilt that down.

OK. So that's our vegetables, yeah?

Then we've got our butter here.

That's going to use that for my sauce. Oh, great. OK.

Rosemary, again, is a little bit like truffle oil.

Too much is not a good thing.

Especially on veal. What did you rub your pork/veal in?

A lot of rosemary.

Rosemary in our bearnaise.

And we'll just take that off now.

That's ready, that's ready, that's ready.

So we'll drop our raviolis in.

OK. We want the pan just boiling

and we're looking at the colour, yeah,

to tell when that's cooked.

OK, can you see the yolks are starting to change?

Yes. Yeah. So we'll just flip that over now.

Right, with the veal, we're going to thinly slice this

and serve this on.

Very thinly sliced.

OK.

So, right, we'll go back to our garnishes now.

So...

OK. So we just finish that with our ravioli in the middle.

Wow. Fantastic.

Over the ravioli. Of course, the rosemary's in there, isn't it?

Yeah.

It looks lovely.

Right, this is the fun part. Time to taste. There you go, ladies.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

It's lovely, actually. My gosh.

Delicious. I want to try this veal.

What do we think? What about you, Louise?

So, it's crunch time.

Rupert, you need to decide who you're going to take through

to the Friday final. But before you do,

let's have a quick recap of what our cooks made.

In the first round, Louise impressed Rupert with her baked salmon.

She slightly overcooked her poached eggs and asparagus in the second

and overseasoned her veal

with rosemary and truffle oil in the final round.

Now I've got to this stage, you know,

it's becoming much more of a possibility

and, indeed, a reality. So, yes, I definitely want to win.

Meanwhile, Helen ambitiously attempted several dishes

in the first round.

She undercooked her poached eggs in the second.

I think that's how not to do it!

But were her perfectly posh potatoes

enough to sway Rupert in the final round?

If he does pick me, I'd be really worried that I'd let him down.

So I'd be... I'm going to

watch lots of chefs' programmes and read lots of books before Friday!

OK, Rupert, it's time to declare your winner.

Who are you going to pick to join you in the Friday final?

Yeah, well, quite difficult, really,

cos quite different characters, different styles of cooking,

different ways of working.

But thinking about Friday and thinking about what we've got to do

and somebody who's going to actually keep focused and calm

and I feel has got more chance of delivering

the goods of what's needed,

I'm going to go with...

..Louise. Well done, Louise. Congratulations, Louise.

Thank you very much.

I am absolutely delighted. I can't believe it.

It's still sinking in. It's amazing, really amazing.

You know, on reflection, if I had my time again,

there's certain things I would do very differently. But that's life.

You'll be back to do it all over again! Thank you.

Don't be too hard on me.

We'll have fun and we'll get on with it, we'll see how we get on. Yeah.

I really want to win on Friday for him.

He's an amazing chef and we've really had a lot of fun today.

We've learned a lot.

Tomorrow on Yes Chef...

..it's the Friday final,

and our four pro-am teams will go head-to-head.

The race is on.

They will be judged by triple Michelin-starred chef

Pierre Koffmann.

30 seconds left!

But only one team can win.

She's stirring the mousse! Why would you do that?

Welcome to this Strictly edition of Pointless Celebrities.

Got some of the real legends of Strictly here.

We've also Anton du Beke. LAUGHTER

What's it going to take for you to win? It's not me.