Nathan Outlaw Yes Chef

Four of the best chefs in Britain

are on the hunt for their perfect partner.

For the first time ever,

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

the cooking experience of a lifetime.

Let me back in there!

Each day, a different Michelin starred chef

will choose their perfect partner from four talented home cooks.

You've made it very difficult for me

because you were pretty much faultless.

Then, in the Friday final,

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

Pierre Koffmann.

What I look for, for a perfect dish, is to keep it simple and tasty.

The professional chefs' reputations are on the line.

Bring the home cooks in!

But will the amateur home cooks live up to their expectations?

And who will win?

This is Yes Chef.

Hello and welcome to Yes Chef.

Let's see who's cooking in the kitchen today.

Andrew Garner is a digital media director from Cheshire.

My best dish is by far a curry.

Arty, farty stuff, not that keen on.

Really like proper food.

That's nice.

Sarah McNabb is a transformation manager from Manchester.

My strengths in the kitchen are planning my meals

and making them really tasty.

It needs just a bit of seasoning.

I'm just going to try and make it

how I would like to eat it if I was in a restaurant.

Pat Cannings is a retired nursery nurse from Leeds.

I think presentation of food is one of the main things because if it

doesn't look nice, no-one's going to eat it.

I'm just here to have a good day and hopefully things will go well.

And finally, Euginio Reyes is a translator from London.

I'm really excited about getting to see how the Michelin starred chef

works and hopefully learning a few things.

I'm really going to try my best to win this.

So, our cooks are at the ready.

Now it's time to meet today's chef.

It's Nathan Outlaw.

Today's chef is undoubtedly the king of the Cornish coast.

Nathan Outlaw is the mastermind behind three phenomenal restaurants,

which between them have amassed an incredible four Michelin stars.

My style of cooking is a simple, British style of cooking.

Seafood, obviously, and the ingredients have got to be the best.

Lauded for his skilful handling of British seafood,

and famed for his fish-only menus,

he trained under the watchful eye of the legendary Rick Stein

and knows exactly what it takes to become a great chef.

The home cooks have got to be confident,

eager to learn and cook lovely food.

Also, I want to see them tasting the food.

No tasting - it's not good for me.

This is a competition,

and I wouldn't be in it if I didn't want to win it.

Welcome to the show, Nathan.

It's an absolute pleasure to have you here.

Our four home cooks are going to be

doing everything they can to impress you today,

in the hope that you'll pick one of them to be your partner in the

Friday final. What are you going to be looking for?

For me, it's all about ingredients, so I want to see an understanding of

some ingredients but I also want to see that they're confident, because

confidence is a big thing, especially in a competition.

But the most important thing is to be happy,

because, if you've got happy cooking, you've got good cooking.

Let's get on with it, then. This is round one, dish of the day.

Now, home cooks, you're going to be making the one dish that you believe

will set you apart from the rest.

Now you need to make it count, because, after this round,

one of you will be going home.

You have just 45 minutes to make this dish.

So, Chef, it's over to you.

Well, everyone happy?

ALL: Yes, Chef!

So, our cooks are off.

I'm getting my potatoes on,

which is the thing that will take the longest.

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

they are going all-out to impress Nathan with their dish of the day.

But with only 45 minutes on the clock, it's not all plain sailing.

I'm feeling very nervous,

as though everyone in the world is watching me.

I didn't think I'd be as shaky as this.

Hi, Andy. Hiya.

What's been happening with these limes?

I keep dropping them. Is it the nerves?

I think it is, yeah. I didn't think I'd be shaking this much. Oh!

Tell us what you're making. Salmon curry.

Oh, nice. I'm going to create a red paste and then serve that with

Thai basil, mint and salmon on a bed of noodles.

So is Asian food your thing? Curries are my thing. Yeah? Yeah.

And this is kind of a take on that, trying to be a little bit more

healthy rather than just get a curry out of the jar. Yeah.

Actually make it yourself. Have you made this a lot?

I've made it a couple of times, yeah.

It's been pretty disastrous, but confident today.

I'm sure it won't be a disaster today. No. You'll be all right.

Yes, it will be fantastic. Just don't drop anything else.

I probably will. THEY LAUGH

So, Andy is all fingers and thumbs,

whereas Sarah has a much calmer approach.

I'm just getting all my pans organised

because it will be hectic at the end.

Hi, Pat. How are we getting on?

Not too bad. I daren't look at the time. Don't worry about that.

It smells good. It does.

What are you making?

I'm making Bolognese pancakes in a cheese sauce with

a green salad. And some crispy bread if I get round to doing it all.

Bolognese pancakes?

Yes, I usually do it with minced beef,

but I can't cook it in time,

so I've changed it a bit this time,

and it's going to be chicken with pancetta.

Oh, wow. And how your nerves?

Do you feel nervous or are you quite relaxed now?

Just getting on with it at the moment. Yeah.

Keep doing things wrong, like I've just left a chunk of pancetta.

I found it. You'll be fine.

Well, we'll let you carry on. Thank you. Good luck.

So while Pat is attempting to make her dish

with alternative ingredients,

Eugenio is relying on a meal influenced by his Spanish heritage

to impress Nathan.

Hi, Eugenio. Hi there. Tell us what you're making. I'm making a paella.

OK. OK. With chicken, clams and prawns.

You said that properly as well, didn't you? Absolutely.

I can't say that. Well, I'm sure you can.

What's your biggest worry about this dish?

I'm using fish stock, and I like to use prawn stock,

so I've got the prawn heads in the fish stock boiling away.

They're in there, are they?

That's right. I'm going to try and get a bit more prawn flavour

into the fish stock so that the rice sucks all that up

and it's really tasty as well.

And are you pushed for time or are you all good?

Should be all right because it's a fairly smallish one. If I was cooking for everybody here today,

I probably would be pushed for time.

But we should be OK, we should be OK.

Good luck. Thanks ever so much.

So, along with Andrew's salmon,

that's the second fish dish, but what's on Sarah's menu?

Hi, Sarah. Hi. Hello. Hiya. How are you doing?

OK. Just doing my prep at the moment.

Talk us through what you're making.

So, it's a dish that I do at home

but I've tried to sort of add a few bits for today.

So it's mashed potato with some wilted spinach,

a piece of smoked haddock, poached egg,

a nice white wine and mustard sauce

and then some crispy shallots for texture.

Sounds very nice, doesn't it? Sounds delicious. Yeah.

It will come together at the end, hopefully.

Well, you look very organised. Try and keep organised and then...

Might be a different story at the end of the session.

What's the biggest thing that could go wrong if it went wrong?

To be honest, the poached egg. Poached eggs?

They're a nemesis for some people, poached eggs. Yes. Good luck, Sarah.

Good luck. Thank you.

'So, that's three fish dishes.

'Good enough for their friends and family, but will they live up to the

'expectations of the king of the sea?'

So, you guys know that Nathan is like THE fish man.

Yes. Does that add to the nerves? Yes. Just a bit. Massively, yeah.

'And if that hasn't piled on the pressure, this certainly will.'

Right, cooks, you're halfway through.

Out of all four menus, whose excites you the most?

Sarah's smoked haddock dish sounds good but there's a lot of elements in that to get right.

Getting all of them things to work well together at the same time is going to be hard.

It needs just a bit of seasoning.

I think Andy, as well, with his salmon.

It's about balance because Thai curries,

it's all about the sourness,

the sweetness, the salt and all those elements, getting it right.

Ooh. That's nice.

I think Eugenio has got the simplest dish but, again,

there's lots of elements in there to do.

It's going well but the time is running away with me.

I'm quite conscious of that.

These prawns are a bit bigger than I thought they would be.

They're enormous. They look lovely but they're causing me a bit of trouble.

Pat, what she's doing is actually quite radical.

She's changed the ingredients from the classic beef to chicken.

To actually change the whole meat, that's quite risky. Yeah.

That'll be interesting to see.

I've never had a Bolognese pancake before.

No. First for me.

I'm think I'm running out of time, but never mind.

I'll get there.

I noticed that you were impressed with Sarah's organisation.

It just looks in control.

I'm looking for someone to cook with me up against Mr Koffmann,

which is no mean feat.

That's a good trait to have.

Wilt that down.

And how do you feel about cooking for Pierre on Friday?

I'm as nervous as them lot in there. THEY LAUGH

Right, guys, you've got just 15 minutes left.

Goes so much quicker here than it does when you're at home.

All on time? Yes, I think so, I think so.

Too late now to worry. You've not forgotten anything?

No, I haven't forgotten anything.

Everything's in there. It's looking all right.

How are we getting on here, Pat? I'm panicking a bit now. Why? Why are you panicking?

Because I don't think I'll get it all done in time.

You've got ten minutes, so don't panic.

I could do with a mini whisk.

A mini whisk. Let me get you a whisk.

There you go. Thank you very much.

Anything else? That's fine, thank you.

You'll be fine.

Are you happy with the taste? Yes, lovely. Yeah? Yeah, not too hot.

Got nice spices through it.

I feel organised. I don't know what's going on. You've not left anything anywhere?

No, I'm waiting for something to occur that goes, "Actually,

"you've forgotten that." But I've got everything. It's good. Good.

The poached egg bit. Oh, the big moment. Yeah.

And this is where she shakes.

(Didn't break it.) No, it's not broken.

It looks fine, and you've always got another one if you need it. (Yes, that's what I said, too.)

SHE LAUGHS

Leave it for about five or ten minutes, or, in this case, three,

because that's all we've got.

Cooks, you have just two minutes left.

Start thinking about plating up.

I've just cut myself but I don't want to do anything about it.

Smells good. Bit hungry now.

I'm always hungry. That's my problem.

Ten seconds to go.

I'm done. You're done? Yeah.

Ooh, Sarah!

One... Stop cooking.

Step away from your plates.

Time's up.

Oh!

First to be judged is Pat.

She's made chicken and pancetta Bolognese pancakes

with crusty bread,

a side salad and a vinaigrette dressing.

Hi, Pat. Hi. Come in.

There we go. Wow.

Wonderful. OK, so do you want to tuck in?

Go for it. I'm going to put a bit of the dressing on the salad.

I saw you making that and I was watching you measure it all out,

so it'll be a waste not to try it.

See if you can get a bit of the filling that's right in the middle.

You've done well.

When you said to me you were changing the beef

and going for something different,

I thought that's probably the riskiest move

of all the competitors.

Well, I was terrified of having minced beef that was all

gristly and chewy and horrible, so that's why I did that.

And the risk with something like this as well,

it can become too heavy, but it's very light.

I could finish all that off but I've got to try another four dishes.

Thank you very much.

It's been an honour to come and

an honour to have my food critiqued by you.

THEY LAUGH

There you go. How did that go?

Very good, actually.

That's gorgeous. I can taste the garlic. It's lovely.

'If anything, it is very simple,

'and what I've got to find

is someone that can maybe do a few more elements than that.

I was worried for her because, when we went in there

and we were tasting it,

'and she'd changed that beef and she'd put chicken in there,

'I was worried for her,

but she pulled it off. Yeah, it was tasty.

I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah. very good.

Next up is Euginio with his signature dish.

Paella with chicken thighs and prawns served with an aioli dip.

How did you find that?

It was nerve-racking but it was really enjoyable.

Are you pleased with everything? I am.

I don't think I've forgotten anything

and I had time to rest it a little bit.

Yeah, I saw you resting it.

That's quite important with a paella. Did I say it right?

Say it again? Perfect. Paella. You're like a Spaniard.

THEY LAUGH

OK, well, we'll tuck in. Let's try it.

I'm going straight for the prawn first.

Nice, big prawns.

Oh, it's got a real kick to that.

Yeah, I don't like to put garlic in there,

so I made an aioli next to it so anybody who really likes garlic

can dip in there, or if you've got a date day,

then you can steer clear of it and not touch it at all.

The good thing about that dish is, what you've done, you've cooked the

rice just right. What I like, Euginio,

is you're using chicken thigh as well.

It's got so much more flavour.

The seasoning, two pinches more of salt would have elevated that dish a

little bit more. But what you've done is you've got that lovely punchiness that

comes for the aioli, which really complements the whole dish and gives

it that authentic Spanish feel, so it's a really nice plate of food.

Thank you very much. It's great, great to hear.

It was brilliant to chat to Nathan and get some feedback from someone who knows his fish so well.

Love that.

'The plus side of that dish is he pulled off all the proteins being cooked nicely.

'The prawns were nice, the chicken was well cooked.'

That's lovely, and these are done just perfectly, aren't they?

What let it down is... Maybe it's the simplicity.

It is one of them classics, and with classics,

you have to get them bang on.

Time for Andrew to face the taste test with his dish of the day,

Thai salmon red curry served on a bed of rice noodles.

There we go.

Did you enjoy that? Yes.

That was the fastest 45 minutes I've ever experienced.

OK, well, let's tuck in.

I'm going to go for this bit here because I want to see that it's been cooked. Look at that.

It's lovely. That's what you want.

These Thai dishes, you've got to get the balance right.

From my point of view, I like the spice.

When I saw the chillies on your section, I was thinking,

"You've got to be careful with that, mate." Yep.

But you've managed to get that nice warmness from the chillies,

but you can still taste everything else that's in there.

The one thing I would say,

if you take it back in a minute and taste it,

is the salt.

When you've got a real big piece of fish like that,

season it a little bit beforehand and let that salt get in there.

Because the fish is a little bit bland.

Listening to his comments, I'd really like to learn more

and get some tips and more tips.

It's lovely and soft. The noodles.

You just get that kick, don't you? Oh, it's there.

'Andy, obviously, is confident cooking fish.

I know. And he comes across quite confident.

His eyebrow rose a little bit when I did criticise him a little bit

about the salt. You could see he maybe thought it was bang on

but, yeah, that's hopefully the advice I can give.

Yeah, it's a good tip, a really good tip.

And finally it's Sarah with her dish of the day.

Smoked haddock on a mustard mash, served with clams, wilted spinach,

a poached egg and topped with crispy shallots.

Wow. Lovely. How did you find that?

It was good in the end.

It all just came together at the end.

Your finger didn't. Yes, two minutes towards the end,

a slight nick, so that sort of threw me off a little bit.

As long as it's not in there.

That's fine. Kept it away.

This dish has got so many things in it that you've got to get right.

The fish has got to be bang on, that's the star of the show.

The egg's got to be great.

No-one wants a hard poached egg, do they? You've got the mashed potato.

The texture's got been nice. The sauce, the consistency has got to be there.

This is the most challenging dish in the room today, so...

All in the taste.

That's what you want. Ooo!

That's what you want. That lovely opaque... Look.

That's perfectly cooked.

The presentation is lovely, actually.

I've seen professional chefs fall at a dish with that many components.

If someone served me that in a restaurant,

I'd pay good money for it.

Thank you very much. Gosh. Very good. Well done.

Well done. Thank you.

When I found out it was Nathan Outlaw and I was doing fish,

I was quite nervous about that

because obviously he is a fish man,

but the comments were amazing, so I'm quite overwhelmed.

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

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

I hope that I've done enough to get through

but we'll have to wait and see.

I didn't think I would be as competitive

but I would love to stay now to just learn some more hints and tips.

It's definitely between two of them.

OK. Two of them really impressed me.

The other two, I'm not quite sure

that they're going to grasp my recipes too well.

All four dishes were really tasty, so I've no idea.

It's really up in the air.

I didn't realise what good competition I was up against,

but I would love to go through.

Well, Nathan, it is time to tell them,

so shall we go and break the news?

Yep. Don't want to do this, but I have to.

A massive well done to all four of you.

You've all done extremely well.

However, only three of you can proceed to the next round,

and Nathan has made his mind up,

so it's over to you, Nathan.

Well, the four of you made it very tough.

I'm being honest. The actual standard of the food surprised me.

I wasn't expecting that when I came in from Cornwall this morning.

I've also looked at what you've given me

and what techniques were in your dishes as well.

I know what my dish is going to be

to cook at the final for Pierre Koffmann.

There's two of you here that showed lots of techniques.

There's two simpler dishes but, for me,

the one dish that just didn't have enough technique to it was,

unfortunately, Andy's.

It was a perfectly cooked piece of fish,

but I know there's about four or five elements in my dish

that I've got to cook,

and what you displayed today didn't have quite enough going on.

OK. Oh, Andy.

Well done, though. Well done.

I'm gutted, yeah.

It was obviously closely fought...

but, yeah, sad to be going home now.

So, just three home cooks remain.

Retired nursery nurse Pat,

transformation manager Sarah,

and translator Euginio.

Round two - it's the chef's challenge.

In this round, Nathan is going to be testing you to see who's got the

skills he's looking for.

So, Nathan, what is the challenge?

Right, so, as you can see, I've got a mackerel here.

Everyone knew it was mackerel, didn't they?

ALL: Yes.

I didn't. THEY LAUGH

Mackerel is one of them fish that's sort of looked down upon, but it's

my favourite fish. It's a round fish, so it's got two fillets.

What I want you to do is demonstrate to me how to fillet this fish.

First thing, with fish, it's expensive.

If you were to cut the fish straight down, you're going to lose all this bit here.

Lift up its fin, and towards the head. OK?

Every time, wipe your knife.

Turn it over again, lift up its other fin, and towards the head.

This time, I'm going to go through.

And I'm going to just take the head off.

OK? What I'm going to do next is the nice bit, which is going to gut it.

So we're just going to take that through there. And then what we do

is...we just let the gravity take the guts out and...

It comes out like that. OK?

Now, to fillet it, you see this centre bone there?

That's the spine, all right? You want to come this side of the spine,

so you want to make sure your fingers are out the way.

Hand nice and flat, but lift up the belly.

And then we come along.

Nice and flat.

And then off it comes like that.

Same thing again. Turn it over.

In like that. Keep your hand nice and flat so you don't cut yourself.

All the way to the tail...

and then you're off again. This bit here goes with the head.

And then just wipe everything down.

Turn the knife that way up and you come along where the rib bones are,

and, then once you've got that bit there,

you just come down like so

and then just trim

all of that up.

That looks a bit more appetising.

OK? Looks good. Have any of you filleted a fish before?

Once. Have you?

I watched at school but that was a long, long time ago.

The next thing you need to do is take the pin bones out.

So you get little fish pliers and make sure they pull them out.

They all go at an angle that's like that.

What you don't want to do is pull it that way.

Because then you'll rip the flesh, OK?

So what are the key things you're going to be looking for?

So what I'm looking for is, as you can see on this fillet here,

for it to be nice and clean.

There's obviously no rips in the flesh.

Taking out the bones, that they're all taken out, because I don't want

Pierre getting one of them stuck in his throat. Oh, God, no. We don't want that, do we?

You've got to really look after it. It's a really precious protein.

So, 15 minutes. It's going to be all right, isn't it?

We'll tell... THEY LAUGH

We'll tell you afterwards.

Do you feel quite confident?

I think I'll be struggling to get it that neat, but we'll do, you know...

Try your best. Yeah.

I've done it a few times.

THEY LAUGH

So, you should have two fillets of mackerel.

Everyone understand? ALL: Yes, Chef!

So, our cooks are against the clock.

They have just 15 minutes to transform their fish into two perfect fillets.

Whilst Nathan is looking for a cook with natural flair,

he also needs to know they will follow his instructions

to the letter when it comes to the Friday final.

So this simple challenge has huge consequences.

It doesn't help when you're shaking.

Having removed the guts,

our cooks then need to carefully slice through the flesh without tearing it.

How are you going, Pat? All right?

Not so bad. I've just nicked that bit.

Would you take that bit off? Yeah. Just go steady with it.

Clean it all up, and you can always trim it at the end.

Nathan's watching for precision, but Pat doesn't seem to be following

his technique to fillet her fish.

Very nice.

Thank you. Still got to all get the bones out of it, though.

Yeah, I know. This is the bit I'm not looking forward to.

While Euginio gets to grips with the fiddly task of removing every bone,

Pat is racing ahead.

Use your thumb as a guide.

You made it look so easy.

I've done it a few times. That's what it is.

My hands aren't as big as yours to hold the fish.

Cooks, you have three minutes left.

It's painstaking.

'So, Pat is the first to finish but this challenge isn't about speed,

'it's all about precision.'

One minute to go, guys.

Just one more minute.

Desperately trying not to damage the flesh.

Lay it down on the board, if you find it easier.

Sarah's taking the utmost care and using every last second to ensure

her fillets meet Nathan's standards.

Right, time is up.

Step away from your fillets.

Well done, guys. Thank you.

There's two fillets on each plate. That's a good start.

THEY LAUGH

It's the moment of truth.

One of our home cooks will be leaving the competition

if their fillets don't make the grade.

If you'd like to test.

On the actual finished fish, filleted,

and also watching in there,

the one person that did actually follow me to a T was...

..Euginio. Well done.

Right, OK, so I'm going to go on two things when I'm judging this.

I'm looking, obviously, at the end result.

And I'm looking at how you worked in the kitchen.

Sarah, I think you took your time, made sure there was no bones in it.

So, unfortunately, Pat, I'm afraid...

you're going to be going home. No worries, no worries.

It was very good.

'Well, it would've been nice to have got through to the next round,

but I'm not disappointed at all

because I've had a brilliant day and a brilliant time

and I've met lots of lovely people.

Thank you very much.

Just two cooks remain.

Translator Euginio and transformation manager Sarah.

But only one can be chosen

as Nathan's partner for the Friday final.

Time for our third and final round.

The chef's special.

Now, in this challenge, our home cooks

will be given a set of ingredients to one of Nathan's signature dishes.

Cooks, you can make whatever you want from these ingredients.

You'll get to see what Nathan makes a little bit later on,

but, for you at home, here's today's ingredients.

Nathan's chosen red gurnard,

garlic, tomatoes, a carrot,

red pepper, samphire, an orange, and fish stock.

Easy enough for the seafood supremo, but what will our home cooks think?

Good luck. You've got one hour to create a delicious dish.

Reveal your ingredients because your time starts now.

'So, the clock is ticking and it's the first time our home cooks have seen these ingredients.'

Look at that. 'But where will they begin?'

OK, so one thing I'm going to just say to you,

this fish has got much sharper parts of the head.

So just be careful with it.

Good luck. God.

Right.

HE LAUGHS

'Our cooks are off, but with Nathan's selected ingredients,

'will they know where to start?'

I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, at all.

Have a feel of you.

It's been gutted.

'Euginio uses his new-found filleting skills

'to get stuck straight in.

'Sarah, on the other hand, has decided to buy

'a little bit more time to decide what to do with her fish

'by preparing her vegetables first.'

I'm thinking ragout because there's no carb here,

so that will make it quite sort of meaty.

So I just wanted to prep those.

I'm going to do my fish and then perhaps do a bit of a marinade

to get some flavour into it.

'He may now be the master of the mackerel,

'but Euginio is quickly finding out that all fish are not the same.'

Just realised his bones are in a different place.

I'm thinking of doing a tomatoey, peppery, oniony sauce.

Maybe with a bit of orange zest.

I was thinking also of pan frying those

and trying to get a bit of rosemary flavour

into it as I'm pan frying it.

That's as far as I've got so far.

It sounds like they're both making the same dish, doesn't it?

Very similar. In one way, you're a bit disappointed.

Another way, from judging, it will be like a straight cook-off.

I don't know what to do with that carrot. I'm confused.

I would've looked at those ingredients and thought, a soup.

Stew, definitely.

I suppose it comes down to whether you've done much fish cookery.

That gurnard has got such a fabulous flavour anyway,

you don't need to add marinades, you don't need to add more to it.

It holds its own.

But Sarah is finding out it's not just its flavour that's strong.

A beast! How are you going, Sarah, all right?

I think so. It's a bit tougher than the mackerel. They're made of stronger stuff.

Do you know what they are, the fish? Is it a gurnard?

Very well done.

Just remember that fish cooks very quickly. Yeah.

Good luck. Good luck with it. Thank you.

Halfway through and Sarah and Euginio appear to be on track,

but with some unfamiliar ingredients

a bit of experimentation is needed.

I've never actually cooked with samphire before.

I'll just give it a little experiment to see what I need to do,

but I think I probably need to blanch it for a second or two

and then stick it in some iced water,

just to keep it green and then I'll pan-fry it a little bit.

I can see carrot being used,

which is scaring me because I have no idea what to do with that.

While Euginio is still stumped on one ingredient...

Unless I get some inspiration in the next few minutes,

I think I'll probably leave that.

..Sarah's got everything on the go. You haven't got many ingredients left.

You've pretty much used... Yeah, I think I've used everything but not all of everything. Yeah.

It's just one portion we're making, isn't it? Yeah. But a...

good portion. Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

So, they've got ten minutes to go

and I've seen that Euginio has already cooked his fish,

but he's taken it out, had a look and back in the pan again.

Yeah, he seems to be making quite hard work of it.

Sometimes with fish, you're supposed to leave it there.

Don't fiddle with it. Don't fiddle with it, leave it,

make sure the temperature in the pan is nice and you'll get a lovely... Always last-minute as well.

Last minute, yeah. That's why I said to him, "Be careful you don't overcook it."

Yeah. There's nothing worse than overcooked fish. No.

So the key thing, for me,

is getting those carrots cooked because they tend to take the longest,

so I've got them on quite a high heat to give them a chance that they're cooked.

I don't want him eating raw carrots.

Three minutes to go, so start thinking about plating up.

'Time is ticking away, and with the two dishes looking so similar,

'it will all come down to taste.'

Right, that's it.

Your time is up.

Step away from your plates.

Right, they've done all they can.

It's time to taste.

First up is Euginio with his dish of pan-fried gurnard,

red pepper and tomato puree topped with samphire.

Now, how did you find that challenge?

I found it pretty difficult.

It was very, very hard to get your head round what to do first,

but, under pressure like that, little things go wrong.

It's so difficult.

You doubt yourself. You could see your mind ticking...

"What's going on?"

Anyway, I'm going to try it first.

Let's get stuck in. I tried not to do too much to the fish, so just put

a bit of flavouring in the oil and just pan-fried it.

Experimenting with foods -

is that something you like to do? Yeah, definitely.

I like to look at what's in the fridge.

Any leftovers, anything like that.

And kind of come up with something.

Not going to find any bones in there, are we?

I hope not. THEY LAUGH

It was a lot trickier to bone than the mackerel, I thought.

Picked quite a few of them out and hopefully haven't left any in there for you.

The fish is beautifully cooked. And I was worried about that

because I saw you keep taking it in and out of the pan.

That's something I wouldn't do.

If you're going to cook it, cook it.

Don't muck around with it.

The only other thing I was a little bit worried about

was how you'd cut them vegetables beautifully and you were making

this ragout and all of a sudden you've blended it.

I was thinking, "Right, where are you going with that?"

Because you'd lost that texture. Sure.

But because you've got the samphire in there

you've still got some of that texture there.

I found the seasoning on the fish bang on,

and I think what that shows me is the sign of someone

that understands how to eat but also how to cook,

which is important. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well done.

Well done. Thanks a lot.

'It went quite well.

I was pretty worried because it was a really tough challenge,

but it was pretty positive. Yeah, I'm quite happy.

Did he use all the ingredients?

He actually left the carrot out.

The carrot actually might have tipped it over the edge as well.

So, maybe he was just holding back,

or he didn't know what to do with it.

THEY LAUGH

Next into the tasting room is Sarah.

She's serving marinated pan-fried gurnard with a tomato,

red pepper and carrot ragout,

topped with samphire and an orange and chilli dressing.

There we go. Fantastic. Look at that.

How did you find the challenge?

It was actually better than I expected.

There's a lot of ingredients there that I have used.

Never used the gurnard before, but, as I said,

cooked it like I would a white fish.

So, wasn't as panicky as I thought.

I was very impressed with the way you worked.

I was watching you and you obviously picked up a few tips from the fish filleting,

which was nice to see. Looking at the dish,

it looks like you want to eat it. Both of you did very similar dishes.

We did, yeah. Yeah, so...

I'm going to try it, anyway. See if they taste the same.

I'm going to ruin your presentation because I just want to see the fish.

It's cooked lovely.

Beautifully prepared, that fish.

Overall, obviously the fish is bang on. Good.

Cooked it at the last minute, which was good to see.

The vegetables, what you've done there is you've cooked them,

made almost like a ragout. I love the texture.

The texture is there. A tad on the rustic side, though.

If you're eating it. I'm still chewing on a bit of rosemary,

so just be careful when you're using harder herbs.

You either keep them whole and then cook it and take them out,

or chop them very, very finely. OK.

And you've thought about the balance of the whole dish and that's what...

I'm looking for people that are really thinking about food, not just cooking it.

If I was to eat out, if I were served a gurnard dish like that,

I'd be very happy to pay money for it. Brilliant!

Well done. I'm looking for a cook who can really showcase what I do

but also learn, and both of you have taken it on board

what I've done today,

so it might take a while for me to come to a decision.

OK, thank you. Please be patient.

There you go, and if you'd like to go back to the waiting room,

we'll see you shortly. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Thank you, Sarah.

To get a Michelin star chef to say he would actually happily pay for my food

is just unbelievable, so I'm really happy.

With the final challenge complete,

it's just left for Nathan to deliberate over our two home cooks.

Totally impressed with it.

I'm really, really surprised.

All day, the cooking has been good but them two, they know how to cook.

There's not many professional chefs that could pull them dishes off.

Wow. So now I'm thinking ahead to Friday.

Obviously we've got to pick one of them to be your partner.

Have you got any idea of who you might choose?

No. That's the answer to that.

I expected one of them to slip up

and then it would be an easy decision,

but they haven't. Well, you've got two great cooks,

so, whoever you pick, I'm sure they'll do you proud.

But before Nathan announces the winner,

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

So it's over to you, Chef.

Thank you. So what it is, basically, is one of my signature dishes.

I think any seafood restaurant,

any great seafood restaurant has to have a good fish soup.

So, for me, gurnard is the ultimate fish-soup fish

because it has the body but it also has the flavour.

Were none of you tempted to make a soup? No.

THEY LAUGH

Off with its head. Keep the head for a second.

Where you were filleting yours, you did it from the top,

like the mackerel, but I do this one from the bottom

so I can come cleanly round the ribs.

So you come all the way to the top.

Why fish? You know, you've always been into fish,

even when you were younger, when you started cooking?

I went to work for Rick Stein when I was younger.

He's basically Fish God. Yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

To work for someone like that is so inspiring.

It's infectious.

What I've done... Just going to cut these vegetables up,

all the sort of same size.

How old were you when you got your first Michelin star?

I was actually very young.

I thought it would be a good idea to open a restaurant when I was 24, and

then 25, I got a Michelin star.

Wow! So I've got the oil hot.

All the vegetables are roughly the same size,

which is important because you want to make sure

they cook at the same time. OK.

Just let that fry away. Then into this pan,

we're going to put all these trimmings that you would have put in the bin.

The head's actually a really important part of this dish because it's got

so much protein and so much flavour in it.

It gives you that sort of real body.

Now this has sweated down and starting to soften,

I'm going to put a couple of pieces of orange peel going in there.

We've got a bay leaf and then a few bits of rosemary.

Try not to beat them around too much.

I don't want to break them up too much cos I'll pull them out.

And then I'm going to put these tomatoes in as well.

Lots of flavour. Is your wife a good cook?

She's very good. Is she?

No, she's very good. Very good at cooking homely things like lasagnes

and shepherd's pies and all that sort of stuff,

which is all the stuff I love.

In with the fish stock.

I'll probably put about half of that in there and we use the other half of that pan in a second.

And then what I've got here with the...

actual fish... So you see it's nice and roasted on the fish now? Yeah.

There you go, look at that. The other half of the fish stock is going to go into the pan,

and that's just going to deglaze anything that's come off of there.

All the sediment that's on the bottom of the pan is going to...

All the good bits. ..going to release, yeah?

All the nice stuff. It's like making a gravy. Yeah. You know, when you do your roast.

Put the rest of that fish stock in there.

Take these bits of fish and put them into the soup.

Put them back right in the middle.

And then all that sediment from the pan goes in there as well.

All that flavour. Everything?

Then what I've got here is some samphire.

What you should have done this morning is take the bottom off

because the end of it is a little bit tough.

You don't want that. So the soup will be ready now.

This is called a mouli.

It pushes through all them vegetables,

all the cooked vegetables and all the fish as well, but should leave

behind most of the fish bones.

This crushes the head, crushes all the bones and gives some body to the soup.

Once you've passed that through the mouli,

you're going to put that through the actual sieve into the pan.

Fish soup shouldn't be overly thick anyway. Yeah.

So, I'm going to get a hot pan. This is for the gurnard.

The one thing you want to do is make sure your pan is not too hot.

You've got to make sure your fish is dry.

The natural thing now is you think you want to push it down.

But just let it relax for a bit.

To make the dressing, a little bit of rapeseed oil in with the oranges.

I'm going to put a little bit of salt in there as well

and a little touch of pepper.

Give that a bit of a mix-up.

That's to go on the fish at the end.

Simple. What I'm going to do now with this fish is just flip it over.

And then what I'm going to do is take it off the heat and leave that to one side.

And the heat in the pan will finish that off, OK?

Then we'll put our samphire into the water.

It literally needs that much.

The fish now is going to be ready.

So...we put the fish in like so.

And then try to avoid putting it on the skin.

And then we finish it off... We've got this samphire

And then...

..the orange. And this will just liven the whole thing up a bit.

And that's it. Looks great, doesn't it?

So that's a red gurnard soup, with a little bit of orange,

a little bit of samphire.

That's probably the nicest fish you can have, but I would say that,

wouldn't I? Well, it looks amazing.

Right, well, let's have a taste. Thank you. Take a spoon.

It's incredible.

It's beautiful.

Oh, my gosh.

It's lovely.

That was absolutely delicious, but it's now time to reveal

who you're going to pick as your partner for the Friday final,

but, before we do,

let's have a quick recap of the dishes they made earlier.

In the first round,

Euginio impressed Nathan with his speed and efficiency, making a tasty

paella in only 45 minutes.

He sailed through round two with his filleted mackerel and then pushed

himself out of his comfort zone

with a brave attempt at pan-fried gurnard.

Scaring me because I have no idea what to do with that.

I've packed a lot of flavour in there and I think it was nice,

but so was Sarah's.

I'd really like to go through and work alongside Nathan.

That would be a fantastic opportunity.

Sarah impressed with her presentation and flavours

in the first round,

showed off her filleting skills in round two,

but, in round three,

was her fish dish too rustic for a Michelin starred chef?

I'm still chewing on a little bit of rosemary, so just chop them very, very finely. OK. Yep.

'I'm quite happy that I've got this far, and to see Nathan cook,

but I'd love to win and get through to the Friday final.

First thing I'd like to say... Congratulations to both of you.

You've been brilliant today. Thank you. Thanks.

But, Nathan, it is time to declare your winner and who will be your

partner in the Friday final.

So it's over to you.

Well, you guys have both cooked some amazing food today,

and you both made it very difficult for me

because you both were pretty much faultless.

I just want to say, whoever has lost,

don't be upset because you both did really well.

But I'm going to go with someone I think can help me

win this competition.

So...

..Euginio, you're coming with me for the final day.

Oh, my goodness! Congratulations.

Sarah, you cooked amazing food,

so please go away with your head held high because it was amazing.

'Yeah, I was genuinely shocked that I was selected

because I know Sarah's last dish was fantastic.

A little bit disappointed that I won't get to work

with Nathan on Friday but absolutely no regrets at all.

So, big congratulations, Euginio.

You're going to be back on Friday.

Any final thoughts or tips?

Sharpen your knives because we've got a big challenge ahead of us.

Yes, Chef. And well done. HE LAUGHS

Thank you.

'I'm really excited to be working with Nathan in the final

and hopefully I can do him justice.

Tomorrow on Yes Chef,

it's the Friday final and our four pro-am teams will go head-to-head.

You've overcooked the grouse.

We should be ready now, we should be on.

They will be judged by triple Michelin starred chef Pierre Koffmann.

I doubt, in 45 minutes, if you can do that.

But only one team can win.

Let me back in there!

Everybody loves sitcom. I've watched a lot of telly,