Original subtitles

It's the MasterChef quarterfinal,

and this week's six best cooks are back.

I really am a quarterfinalist.

That is brilliant!

I'm so determined to stay in this competition.

I feel like the world's my oyster at the moment.

I'm at a calm level, ready to cook, but I know that's going to change

as soon as I get into that kitchen and start cooking.

If the standard so far is anything to go by, this dish

has to be really good.

I think I need to really nail it to stay.

Any sort of slip up or mistake might see you home.

So I definitely need to show that today I can deliver.

I am determined.

That's just Beth. So, yeah, let's crack on.

Tonight they will face just one challenge -

to cook an exceptional

dish from a brief set by renowned restaurant critic William Sitwell.

We've got ourselves six absolutely incredible cooks.

Let's see how creative they truly are.

It's a quarterfinal, and I'm so excited, I've lost my voice.

Congratulations, and welcome to a MasterChef quarterfinal.

It's an exciting day.

I've had a cold.

I'm now not unwell, but I am rather hoarse.

I'm going to stop talking now.

I want to make sure I can taste properly.

It's a really big day,

and so we have invited in a special guest.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the MasterChef kitchen

the formidable Mr William Sitwell.

You all right, guv'nor?

Today I'm setting a brief that you may never

have come across before.

I'm really taking the whole culinary world and turning it upside down.

You can either take a traditionally sweet ingredient and cook

it in a savoury dish, or you can take a savoury ingredient and cook

that in a sweet dish.

One and a half hours, 90 minutes.

At the end of this, three of you are through to Knockout Week.

Three of you will be going home.

Time to show off. Let's cook.

I love being creative and thinking of how I can make things maybe

sweet or savoury, and so hopefully that'll shine through here

with the dish I'm making and William

will be able to see that and appreciate it.

I've set quite a few briefs over the years, but I do think,

actually, this is probably the toughest, and I think

the contestants will really have to dig deep

for creativity and originality.

I feel fine. It's just a slightly bizarre situation.

Sweet or savoury -

there are ingredients that you can use.

You know, chocolate in venison, beetroot in cake.

But then, I don't want to see those dishes, because those

have been done before. I want people to delve deeper into their talents.

I think we could see some really great successes, but I think

there is the potential for this to go horribly wrong.

Beth's a great cook with a lot of knowledge.

I've got good flavours here and I can see real promise.

She's got great foundation.

She just needs to continue to cook really good food.

BETH: My dish for the quarterfinals I'm really excited about,

but it also causes me to be more nervous because today's flavours

are not something you put on a menu together normally.

Beth, how much pressure does this gentleman put you under?

So I'm trying to compartmentalise the pressure and, at the moment,

William is my next new dinner guest.

What are you cooking? I am making for you

caper and redcurrant brownie with a fennel and currant ice cream.

Is the caper there to do a sort of job that salt

might in chocolate or...? Utterly.

I use caper as, you know, a seasoning, mainly in fish cookery.

Yeah. I love capers.

If I don't have capers in the house, then I get in a bit of a panic.

Do you consider this to be risky?

I want you to think, "That tastes banging

"and let's see her in Knockout Week."

A great brownie's rather like scooping

the inside of a bowl of chocolate,

you know, for a chocolate cake.

It's like that naughty dish that you shouldn't really have.

The interesting thing here is she's using a caper to add a salt

element to the chocolate, and then she's got ice cream

with fennel and berries.

So you've got these two fishy friends - the capers and the fennel.

Danger zone is that we think we're having a fish dish.

Claire is ambitious.

She's exciting. She's got great ideas.

It's a joy to eat.

And she seems really comfortable in the kitchen.

She's done a fantastic job.

The whole thing is so beautifully balanced.

I think what the judges will see next might be a little

confusing for them.

I'm going a little left field.

My food follows my life, my travels.

There's always a story there.

Claire, tell us what your dish is.

S'mores beef - chocolate steak with marshmallow sweet potato fluff

and a Graham cracker crumb.

So, s'mores beef, tell me about that.

I lived in North America, in Canada, for 12 years. So, s'mores

are a very common campfire snack.

It's a type of cracker close to a digestive,

and then you top that with some chocolate and you roast

a marshmallow. Put that on there and it melts the chocolate slightly,

and you eat that by a fire, and I'm putting them into a steak dish.

Bonkers. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you.

She is taking a sirloin steak,

she's dusting in cocoa,

and when she fries that, that will go quite bitter and cause

a crust on the outside.

And she's making a sweet potato marshmallow whip.

I'm so happy with the marshmallow.

It's come out glossy and sticky.

Not too sweet.

It is quite out there. It is like nothing I've ever had before.

But this is the whole point.

This is what the brief was designed to provoke -

something extraordinary.

30 minutes gone, everyone.

30 minutes gone. Just one hour left.

Jordan grew up in Glasgow in a fish and chip shop. In his first

round, he cooked for us fish and chips.

Absolutely fantastic.

That is a cracking plate of fish and chips, Jordan.

Thank you.

He makes food which looks simple but demands a huge

amount of technique.

Right now I want to see a lot more of Jordan.

Jordan, tell us what your dish is and what are the sweet and savoury

aspects of your dish?

Straight away I thought, Korean fried chicken and waffles

with a side of Asian slaw. I can actually remember when brunch

became a bit of a thing, you know, probably, you know,

ten plus years ago. The sweet elements are the waffles.

You know, those are sort of vanilla.

And then there's also quite a lot of honey in the glaze to make

it really sweet and sticky.

You've obviously eaten chicken and waffles before, William, have you?

I don't think so. And I've never eaten brunch.

I mean, I get up in the morning, I have breakfast, so therefore

I'm not hungry until lunchtime. So why would I have brunch?

Try not to be angry with me, William.

You're here to judge the contestants, not me.

I'd like to ban brunch, along with Morris dancing, but that's just me.

I mean, I just absolutely love Korean fried chicken,

and, you know, every time I'm anywhere in Asia, really, I try

and find the best place for it and I think it's great.

So hopefully, hopefully they like it.

The fried chicken needs to be nice and crispy.

And for his slaw, he's making mayonnaise, which is showing

off some skill, and a fried egg across the top.

The deliberate challenge of Jordan's dish is the juxtaposition

of the vanilla in the waffle and the chicken - the sweetness,

the honey, with the spice.

Whilst this is a dish that I'm excited to eat, I do

slightly worry about the originality.

You have just 40 minutes left.

That means you're over halfway.

Shaun walked in here and he's impressed right

from the start. I can't find fault with your dish, Shaun.

It's delicious.

He's learnt it from the internet, the same way as people learn

to cook from cookbooks.

The anaesthetic quality of the Sichuan pepper

is just amazing.

I love that.

Mate, he knows what good food is.

This was the round that I was the most scared of because not

everyone gets to cook for a food critic, so it's one

of those that I'm just hoping to hear good things from them.

Just wafting this bacon over because I knew

you guys were coming. So, you know, just to get that smell there.

Very successful.

What are you cooking?

So I'm making for you guys a fried chicken and waffles.

So, the heart of the brief, it's the sweetness of the waffle

with the chicken or have you got...?

So it's the maple - candied maple bacon.

You've got a caramel, a hot maple syrup as well.

Are you worried about the fact that you're not

the only chicken waffle?

A little bit, but I'm hoping that I'll get that extra

kick in there.

Shaun, it sounds fascinating.

I love a chicken waffle, especially for brunch.

Thanks, guys.

I love a great waffle.

Crispy on the outside, but the inside should be lovely and soft.

We need moist chicken.

We need crispy batter.

We need a really lovely spicy sauce.

I think this is interesting.

The problem is that it is very much a tried and tested dish.

He's really got to create the superlative version of chicken

and waffle, so the pressure really is on him.

Finley's really interesting, a young guy of 22 years old.

Invention test - he got cauliflower, bacon

and pear and made a dish work.

I'm really impressed.

I think that's really quite special.

He cooks food that I want to eat.

I think that's a really good steak, really good chips,

and I love the sauce that goes with it.

Can he play around with this sweet and savoury?

I've chosen to do a tiramisu because it's my girlfriend

Molly's all-time favourite dessert.

She's a bit of a connoisseur,

so fingers crossed it goes well or I'll know about it.

Hello, Finley. Hi. Nice to meet you.

What are you cooking?

I'm doing a basil and matcha tiramisu with a basil ice cream.

OK. All right.

It's such a traditional, classic dessert,

so I just thought I'd get creative,

see if I can replace the coffee with basil and a tea leaf,

being matcha, and fuse the two together and see

what it tastes like.

On your plan of attack on your bench, it says "Confidence."

What's that about? Yeah. It's actually a tip from my girlfriend

when piping the cream because you need to actually

be quite aggressive, and it's quite a dainty activity.

William, would you order this dish if was on a menu?

Yeah, definitely. It's really intriguing.

Finley is making his take on a tiramisu with savoury flavours.

Matcha tea, which is quite smoky,

and with that, he's also got basil, which is aniseed sharp-cum-sweet.

I hope that cream is not curdled in any way.

I hope the biscuits don't go too soggy and I hope he can make

it look really, really smart.

It's highly original and, I would say, highly dangerous.

Only one of those elements has to fail and he'll be scampering

around wishing he'd come up with some other, slightly

more conventional, idea.

You have just 23 minutes left.

23 minutes left.

Gon takes Thai flavours and puts them to European classic dishes.

It's got a lot of flavours of Thailand.

Flavours are great, textures are great.

I think he's done really well.

He's used to playing with people's minds.

I think he might love this.

I'm doing a creme brulee served in a sweet potato with a dark

chocolate soil and strawberries that's wrapped

in crystallised sugar.

Sorry. Hang on. You're putting creme brulee in a potato?

Yes. This is inspired by my dad's garden, so I'm serving

it in this plant pot here.

I really wanted to use potato.

He's an Irish man, and he loves potato.

There's no denying with that.

And it's going to be served with the soil as well,

so I want it to almost look like a potato growing

that you would find in the garden.

Right. OK. I've never had anything like this before in my life.

And, actually, I've got to say, if I saw this on a menu, I think

I might order it.

Gon is doing something that none of us have ever heard of.

It just doesn't exist.

There may be good reasons why.

I pretty much look at myself as an accumulation of my mum and my dad,

all the lessons they've taught me, all the flavours they've showed me.

I'm so grateful for everything they've done,

and I wouldn't be here without them two,

so it's very important for me. Extremely.

A great creme brulee,

it's that smell of the sweet vanilla and the cream,

it's the look of the burnt, torched top.

Put it in a sweet potato, I'm not so sure.

We've got chocolate soil with strawberries,

which have been caramelised, almost like a toffee apple sort of coating

around the outside. This is fascinating.

Just ten minutes, everybody.

Just ten minutes.

Ten? Ten minutes left.

Think about your plates.

Are you sure?

SHE PANTS

I'm really happy, they're set.

If William eats them and goes, "That's why

we don't have capers and chocolate," then, you know, that's OK.

Pretty good. Almost there.

Just now got to plate up in time.

Guys, you've got just four minutes left. Four minutes.

You've got to get it on a plate.

Everything's gone well.

Just making sure that I put an extra bit of bacon here and there.

CLAIRE: I'm excited.

Could this work? Could this work?

That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Right. That's it. Time's up. All done.

VOICEOVER: Inspired by her time living in Canada, copywriter Claire

has served s'mores beef - cocoa crusted sirloin

on a sweet cracker crumb served

with onions filled with sweet potato marshmallow

alongside Brussels sprouts and a whisky gravy.

It's what's commonly known as a rushed plate, Claire.

That's a very well cooked piece of steak.

Colour on the outside, pink in the middle.

Your biscuit is both sweet and savoury.

The little bits of meringue, beautifully chewy meringue,

and your whipped sweet potato,

I really like with the onion.

You definitely put sweet and savoury here.

And by the idea of putting marshmallow with sweet potato,

I think that's a revelation

and I think it's very, very cleverly done.

The steak with the chocolate across the top of it

I'm finding very sweet, and I feel as though it probably needs

something like coffee to give it some bitterness

alongside that chocolate.

But there's plenty of technique here. Good sauce.

I appreciate the work you went to try and create something original.

Yeah. I like that marshmallow - home-made marshmallow.

Absolutely fantastic.

But you've got sweet chocolate with steak.

To me, it doesn't work.

It was always going to divide people,

but I didn't want to play it safe.

Yeah, I'm OK.

VOICEOVER: Digital marketing manager Sean has used sweet maple syrup

four ways in his savoury fried chicken and waffles,

a chilli and maple butter, maple bacon,

chilli and maple sauce, and a maple caramel.

WILLIAM: I'm intrigued by it. I think it's fun.

There's no question that this dish should come with a very serious

health warning, that you should only eat this about once in your life.

You've kind of poured syrup over us and slapped us around the chops

with a chilli, and then given us the fried chicken

that has the gutsy, crisp coating

that, you know, you would want.

It really works.

Salty bacon across the top with maple syrup, which is fantastic.

The waffles are made perfectly, with caramel sauce nice and smooth -

good enough to be poured over ice cream.

Oh, yeah. Honestly. That's fantastic.

Thank you. Good on you.

That may be the most fattening thing I've ever eaten, and I'm loving

every single mouthful of it, Shaun.

We'll go the whole hog.

I'll get a large portion of cheesy fries as well.

That is gorgeous. Thank you.

Ecstatic. The feedback that I got from William,

John, Gregg was better than I thought.

FINLEY WHISPERS: Yes, mate. That's so good. Well done.

Better than I expected.

It's amazing. Very, very happy.

VOICEOVER: Vocal coach Beth has cooked a chocolate brownie flavoured

with redcurrant and capers,

topped with a tempura caper leaf,

served with a redcurrant, blackcurrant and fennel ice cream.

It's a really well made brownie.

You've got that lovely crust on the outside.

It's moist in the middle. I love the little sharpness of the currants.

And then I just get dragged into the savoury, almost sharp,

vinegary world of capers.

I'm tiptoeing from my dessert into a salsa verde, and my palate

is a little bit uncomfortable.

Your ice cream is fantastic.

I love it. Sharp with those currants,

and, actually, it's slightly vibrant with those roasted fennel seeds.

I think that's really delicious.

Beth, it's clear to me that you are a very good cook. To produce ice

cream to that standard here on MasterChef is very difficult,

and it is beautiful. It's perfect.

And you make an amazing brownie.

Then you've got this caper thing.

It's like a caper terror.

SHE LAUGHS

You know? It's like I'm going to walk

down the street and you'll jump out of a shop with capers.

I'll be sleeping and you'll jump out of a cupboard.

Cook anything else in the world.

Don't put a caper near anything unless it's supposed to be.

Please, nowhere near pudding ever. Never again, please.

OK. You're going to remember me, though, aren't you?

Apart from that, it's great.

SHE LAUGHS

Thanks!

I think I took that brief, screwed it in a ball and just threw

it as hard as I could.

My thoughts on the caper comments, especially "Never do that again"

I think is pretty unequivocal, but I'm still proud of myself.

VOICEOVER: Accountant Jordan has made vanilla waffles and a fried egg

topped with honey and soy glazed chicken, fresh chilli,

pickled radish and sriracha mayonnaise,

served with a cabbage slaw.

Perfectly cooked chicken.

Lovely and moist.

You have sugar and vanilla in the waffle, just enough to give

it a hint of sweetness.

I'm getting sweet and savoury.

You've cooked the chicken well.

I love the quirk of the fried egg.

You've got a bit of sugar and a bit of vanilla in the waffle.

It's not overpowering.

It's quite subtle.

The only thing I'd say is that I think you're being a little bit

tentative in terms of taking my brief with two hands

and really trying to throttle some life out of it,

so I would temper my enthusiasm for your slight lack of courage.

Your slaw is nicely made.

I just think the whole thing needs a bit more punch.

More pickles, more crispness on that chicken.

I like it, but I think you can afford to be a bit bolder here.

When they said I played it safe, it's probably fair.

I personally feel like the only way I could go more to the brief

is if I did a different dish, to be honest.

HE BLOWS RASPBERRY

Glad it's over, but it was a fun experience.

VOICEOVER: Part-time fashion model Finley

has made a matcha and basil tiramisu.

Layers of home-made ladyfingers

soaked in matcha tea and basil cream,

served with a basil ice cream.

There's the flavour of matcha tea, which I like.

There's the wonderful aniseed of basil in there, but it's also

really, really sweet, so it's so sweet that I can almost

be confusing it with melted white chocolate ganache.

I'm really sad for you because I think it's a great idea.

I like your basil ice cream.

It is like a sweetened pesto.

I like the bitterness of the matcha tea next to the sweetness

of the basil, but the cream has split, making this whole thing now

a little swamp-like.

When someone says the word tiramisu,

you know, you've got in your mind this idea of this voyage

of discovery as you dive down in between these beautiful layers.

The reality here is your tiramisu has the sort of texture of mashed

potato gone wrong.

It's also incredibly sweet.

Hasn't worked at all.

Deflated because I know I could have done better.

That's the first time I've ever split my cream,

so, you know, things happen and it's just a shame that it came

at this point, but I'm still really proud of myself.

VOICEOVER: Recruiter and Thai boxing coach Gon

has paid homage to his dad's garden.

He's served sweet potato creme brulee on a dark chocolate soil

with candied strawberries and raspberries and fresh mint.

WILLIAM: Gon, your presentation has something of the kind of

Alice in Wonderland about it.

It's certainly nothing that I've ever seen before,

so congrats on the originality.

I think the combination of the creme brulee mix and the sweet

potato really, really works.

It's a texture like sweetened mash.

Your sweetened cream on it as well, it makes so much sense.

You've got a lovely crispy crunch across the top of that sugar.

Your chocolate soil's made nicely.

Those raspberries and strawberries are really beautifully made,

just a thin crust of the sugar around the outside.

I think it's a really interesting invention.

The miracle about this is that creme brulee and sweet potato marry,

and this is a revelation.

Part of this brief was, surprise me with concocting a dish that brings

together what seemed to be opposing elements in food, and I think

you've done that, so congratulations.

It was so unreal to me,

a little Gon came in and made William Sitwell think something

is a revelation. It's something I never, ever thought I'd achieve.

I'm really proud of myself for the risk I've taken today.

We were surprised.

You'd think after all these years, there are flavour combinations

that you know, you understand,

and I think we've proven today that you can, on a competition

like this, see new things that you didn't think would work, work.

I'm very glad it's your decision, not mine.

But I'm glad to be part of it.

Thanks, William. Thanks, John. Thanks very much indeed.

Thanks, Gregg. Absolute pleasure.

See you, guys. Great brief. Thanks a lot.

They're great cooks.

They're really talented.

We've seen some fantastic food, but you and I now

have to make a decision.

There are only three places in Knockout Week

and that does mean that three of them are going home.

Shaun, with his chicken and waffles,

bacon and maple syrup,

I mean, we couldn't stop eating it.

It was big, bold, superb, delicious.

He nailed the brief. Sweet, sharp, you know, a little bit

of chilli heat. It worked perfectly.

Shaun's cook of the day.

If there was one cook in the room that actually really surprised

William and delighted him, it was Gon.

A creme brulee inside a sweet potato and he made it work.

Chocolate soil, a good amount of skill.

It seemed to be a bit of a crowd pleaser.

Finley knows it just didn't go to plan.

His invention of a tiramisu with matcha and basil,

I admire the guy's tenacity. But you can't have a dish made

out of cream with split cream.

That chocolate brownie from Beth looked great.

We loved the ice cream.

We loved the making of the brownie.

None of us liked the capers.

Capers and brownie do not belong together.

We now know that.

Shaun and Gon going through, Finley and Beth going home,

which now leaves a conversation about Jordan and Claire.

From Claire, really nicely cooked steak.

I liked the sweetness in the meringue.

I thought she nailed the sweetness there.

Her dish suffered because she rushed with presentation, and the cocoa

on the outside of the steak was just a little bit

too sweet for me.

I enjoyed eating Jordan's chicken and waffle, and the sweetness,

although subtle, I liked.

But compared to the others, it was a little safe, John.

It was a bit everyday.

It didn't have the oomph.

The chicken wasn't crispy enough, the waffle was all right.

There was nothing that grabbed hold of me and went, "Come and eat me."

Last place in Knockout Week.

This brief was all about being daring.

It was about trying something new.

Who has really hit the brief?

I don't think anyone could say that I didn't push it to the nth degree.

My gut says I haven't got a place in Knockout Week, but if I got

through, it would be fantastic.

I don't know if I've done enough in the competition.

I mean, hopefully it's not the end, but it's out of my hands.

GREGG: Some absolutely amazing dishes.

Whatever happens, please remember you've left quite a mark

on this competition.

The first two people going through the Knockout Week are...

..Shaun,

Gon.

Congratulations.

Sadly, we can't take you all with us.

Finley, Beth, thank you so very much for all your hard work,

but it just didn't work out on the day.

Best of luck, the pair of you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

BETH: There's not many people who can say

they've been a MasterChef quarterfinalist,

and I will wear that badge.

I've had such a great time today, so I'm going to take

those memories away.

I'll look back on the experience I've had with such fond memories.

I've absolutely loved it, loved every second,

but it is still sad to be going.

OK, we have one place left in Knockout Week.

The last person to go through the Knockout Week is...

..Claire.

SHE GASPS

JORDAN WHISPERS: Well done.

Jordan, sadly, you're leaving us.

Thanks so much indeed. Best of luck.

My time on MasterChef has been a bit of a blur, to be honest.

I think the competition has given me just, you know, even more enjoyment

for food and for cooking and been a great, amazing experience,

sort of once-in-a-lifetime.

GON WHISPERS: Well done.

Congratulations.

You're through to Knockout Week!

SHE SIGHS

I'm so, so happy.

And, yeah, it's one of those where it's going to take time to settle

in and I can't wait.

But, yeah, just that next stage, ready.

I really feel like the sky is the limit.

I have so many things in my head that just wants to jump out.

I've got my eyes on the final and never letting John or Gregg

say, "Well, Gon's gone."

Like, my idea is not to be gone even though I am Gon.

Yeah.

CLAIRE: Stunned and elated.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, my gosh. Knockout Week.

SHE EXHALES

No marshmallows.

VOICEOVER: Next time...

Feeling good.

..another group of contestants compete for the right...

We got a pie.

..to wear a MasterChef apron...

I think that's really fantastic.

..before battling for a place in the quarterfinal.

I love it.

I finished the whole thing.