Original subtitles

It's the battle for the ultimate culinary prize.

Aargh!

60 of the country's best home cooks...

I need to stop shaking.

..all with their hearts set...

Not really sure what I'm doing!

Flaming brilliant!

..on the coveted MasterChef trophy.

This is the sort of stuff that dreams are made of.

That is a cracker of a job.

This is absolutely banging. Yay!

Each week, 12 extraordinary amateur talents...

SHE GASPS

..battle for a place... Yum, yum, yum. Oh, wow, that's hot!

..in the quarterfinal.

I think it's delicious.

This is a revelation. Congratulations.

But only the best can earn their passports

to the ultimate cookery showdown.

A British culinary icon

is just about to enter the MasterChef kitchen.

Are we ready for this?

Concentrate...

I cannot send it!

I like it.

I love it.

I think this year has been an absolutely brilliant competition.

We've found some amazing cooks so far,

but we're looking for a few more.

It's the last week of this year's heats,

and these passionate home cooks all think they've got what it takes

to become MasterChef champion.

But at the end of today,

only three will make it through to this week's quarterfinal.

I'm really serious about this competition.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I just can't wait to get started.

I would love to win MasterChef,

but I know the competition's hard,

so all I can do is try my best.

I know how to hold my nerves

and show a very calm person,

but inside I'm just, like, bricking it!

Hello. Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.

All we want from you is

for you to indulge yourself in your great passion,

and that is cookery.

This, your first round, we call Basic To Brilliant.

We want you to cook for us a dish taking the everyday,

the ordinary, the basic,

and elevating it to something extraordinary, brilliant.

And at the end of this,

Gregg and I will choose our two favourite dishes,

and the people who cooked those

will get themselves a MasterChef apron

and go straight through to the next round.

The rest of you will need to cook again

for the last two remaining aprons.

Your basic ingredient should be the star of the show.

Ladies and gentlemen, 1 hour, 20 minutes.

Let's cook.

Erm...what am I doing?

I am confident. There's a few tricky bits,

but hopefully everything will go well.

One, two, three, four, five...

36-year-old humanitarian aid worker Fareeda

loves to cook the food of her Bengali heritage,

but is also influenced by having worked and lived

in the Middle East and South Asia.

There is something beautiful

about food from these parts of the world,

which is centred around family, community

and basically everyone tucking in,

and I think that's what my food is about.

Fareeda, out of all of these lovely ingredients,

which one's your basic one?

It's spinach. I love it, it's really affordable,

everyone can do something with spinach.

What's your dish, please?

A spinach and prawn and potato curry,

but it will be accompanied with basmati rice with zeera.

Zeera is cumin, and I brought my own cumin.

This cumin's from Afghanistan. I used to work there.

Have you worked in many... many places around the world?

I've been mainly working in emergency and crisis contexts,

so Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Palestine...

So, yeah, I've worked in a lot of places.

Fareeda is cooking us a potato, spinach and prawn curry.

The prawn needs to be cooked all the way through

so it's still got a little bit of a bite to it.

The actual potatoes also need to be cooked all the way through.

With that, we've got a spinach pakora.

A bhaji, pakora, quite similar.

I need to go to the deep-fryer.

Lovely and crispy, with lots and lots of spinach in there.

Oh, this smells so good!

A huge amount of technique.

If she can get this right, this could be delicious.

Bit more. That'll do.

Time is of the essence today,

but I've got a plan in my head, so hopefully we can pull it off.

22-year-old professional musician Paddy

has played the bassoon since he was eight,

nurturing a methodical and improvisational style

which is mirrored in his approach to cooking.

We're taught that it's fine to make a mistake,

it's part of the music,

and mistakes are part of the cooking process.

But I am very nervous to fall completely flat on my face.

So my chosen ingredient is 00 flour today.

Why that?

I think it makes a really rich pasta dough.

What's the dish?

It's spinach and ricotta ravioli

with a sage and butter sauce on the side.

There's going to be a mountain of Parmesan tuile,

and the foundation of that is going to be creme fraiche

with some grated orange as well.

You're a lover of Italian food?

I love pasta. Love it.

We've been to Italy as a family many times.

Do you love Italian composers? Obviously!

Puccini, La Boheme opera. I wish I could play it right now.

PORCINI, but you're not using mushrooms, so I'll move on!

Paddy's ingredient of choice is 00 flour,

flour which is really, really fine, used to make pasta...

Just going to flour that again quickly.

You can never have too much flour on this.

Sage butter on spinach ricotta ravioli -

absolutely, very, very classic.

What's not classic is a mound of creme fraiche on the side

with orange rind across the top.

It could be overpowering and taste more like a cheesecake.

Yeah. OK. Right.

I think I'm good. Sorry, I'm talking to myself over here!

38-year-old Kayleigh works in the hair and make-up industry.

Her varied cooking style was influenced by her Scottish uncle

and Jamaican father, who lived in France.

I used to mess around in the kitchen a lot

when I was a kid, making all sorts of horrible concoctions!

So, yeah, I think I'll be OK. I'm hoping I'll be OK!

SHE LAUGHS

Kayleigh's using carrots in three completely different ways.

She's going to make us a chicken katsu.

We have got a carrot pickle,

we're going to get spiced carrot puree...

Jesus.

..but also a katsu sauce using carrots

as one of the main ingredients in it.

Katsu is actually just a crumb cutlet in Japanese.

It could be any meat at all.

She's using chicken,

but chicken needs to be cooked all the way through.

The last thing we want is chicken katsu

with raw chicken running through it.

Bleurgh. It's MasterChef, isn't it?

SHE LAUGHS

What can you do?

What is it you love about a carrot?

SHE LAUGHS

How versatile it is.

And it's just a nice thing to go alongside a katsu curry at home.

I've just been cooking it for years. Who do you cook for at home?

My partner and my two children. Have they offered any advice?

Yeah, but some of my daughter's suggestions

have been a bit bonkers, you know? Childlike.

She gave me some... Just some crazy recipe ideas, so...

Yeah...

SHE LAUGHS

I just.... Yeah, I was just polite about it.

You have 30 minutes left, everybody.

Paddy, what's music for "go faster"?

Accelerando. Cello ando, everybody!

Cello ando!

LAUGHTER

Thank you, Paddy.

I'm like that old swan with the paddling underwater.

Calm exterior, lots of paddling underneath!

Born in Singapore,

58-year-old Keith has worked in the NHS as a nurse

for over 40 years and is also a professional lipreader

to help overcome his severe hearing loss.

When they first put the hearing aids in and turned them on,

I actually burst into tears,

because I hadn't actually realised how much I was missing.

They've been a life-saver in many ways.

Keith, what's your basic ingredient, please? Nuts.

Everybody loves a nut. They're versatile,

you can use them in a main course, you can use them in puddings,

or you can just have a snack of nuts.

What's your dish, please?

Chocolate ganache with a nut base, using three nuts -

pistachios, almonds and hazelnuts -

a pistachio ice cream, a little tuile

and some honeyed pistachio nuts with smoked harissa.

Where did your passion for cookery begin, Keith?

I met my wife 14 years ago

and I'm not getting any younger or any better-looking.

She's a good cook, so I had to rise to the plate.

Keith's ingredient of choice is nuts,

and he's using three types of nuts.

We're getting a chocolate ganache and nut tart, using pistachios,

almonds, and walnuts.

But Keith's got some real gambles here.

Making a tuile - that's got to be really, really thin.

He's got to make sure his ganache has set all the way through,

and he's got to make sure that his ice cream has set.

Otherwise, we've got ourselves a pistachio milkshake.

SHE LAUGHS

I'm so clumsy!

26-year-old estate agent Francesca

started cooking around the age of ten,

and loves to make hearty comfort food for her family.

I love feeding people.

I'm constantly cooking,

especially for my brothers!

They are literally, like, my biggest fans, basically.

Well, that's what they tell me. I don't know if they are, but...!

SHE LAUGHS

So I'm focusing on lemons, because it's fresh...

It reminds me a bit of, like, holiday.

SHE LAUGHS Even though I'm not on holiday!

What's your dish, please, Francesca? I'm doing a lemon meringue pie,

but a deconstructed one.

So I'm doing a lemon meringue,

lemon curd, and your biscuit base as well.

Lemon meringue pie is a wonderful thing.

Crispy base and a creamy curd

with a lovely meringue that sits across the top, which is bouncy.

Come on, thicken!

Deconstructing it, I think that becomes style over substance.

It might look great,

but food should taste delicious first and foremost.

My biggest concern right now is Francesca's working in a real mess.

Are you OK? Because I've watched you running up and down this kitchen

and you've got a bit of a mess here. What's going on?

I've already potentially... might have cocked up something,

so I want to make sure I've got enough time to potentially redo it

at the end. What have you messed up?

The lemon meringue curd.

I, by accident, put the whole eggs instead of the egg yolks.

Egg white through a lemon curd will mean it'll go stringy.

I hope she can pull it back.

Contestants, you have ten minutes left, please.

Aargh!

No! Don't fall off!

Woohoo! Two tuiles.

Oh, God!

Back on track, hopefully.

The curd, now I just need to cool it.

All going good. Fingers crossed. Got a nice colour now.

Is that going to be enough sauce?

A couple of those...

The heat. Aargh!

You have one minute left, guys!

Come on, come on...

Oh, sugar!

The chicken's a little bit crispier than I would normally have it.

Yes!

That's it! Contestants, your time is up.

Ohhh!

Good? Uh...yeah.

HE EXHALES

Oh, it's warm in here!

HE LAUGHS

Fareeda, if you wouldn't mind, please.

NARRATOR: Humanitarian aid worker Fareeda's

Basic To Brilliant ingredient was spinach.

She's cooked a prawn and spinach curry sauce

served with pan-fried prawns and mustard chilli potatoes,

spinach pakora,

zeera- or cumin-spiced rice,

lemon raita and pickled daikon.

You've got a lovely crunch to those prawns.

They're cooked beautifully.

Lovely sharpness coming from the pickled daikon radish,

the sourness coming from the raita on the outside,

and then that pakora is delicious.

And I'll have a bucket of those, please, for my lunch.

That curry is fantastic.

Your layers of flavouring

going from warm to bitter to heat is lovely.

You can taste the freshness of the spinach as well.

Your rice is beautifully cooked. Your potatoes are beautifully cooked

with mustard seed heat and bitterness on there.

Well done! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I felt a bit emotional, because I put a lot into that dish.

Yeah, it was a really special moment.

I need to breathe! Breathe.

Professional bassoonist Paddy chose 00 flour as his basic ingredient

and made spinach, thyme and ricotta ravioli

with a sage butter sauce,

creme fraiche flavoured with orange rind

and roasted chestnuts,

inside a pyramid of Parmesan tuiles.

Your pasta-making, rolling,

forming it into that little pasta pocket is really well done.

Inside it's creamy and there is the flavour of thyme.

Well done. I'm impressed by how well this is made.

Crunchy, chewy Parmesan wafers on the outside,

chestnuts even on top. That's really, really good.

But the rind in that creme fraiche,

it's the flavour of the inside of a cheesecake.

Oh, wow. Oh... Oh.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel to be impressive.

OK.

I'm feeling OK, but maybe I need to bear in mind

if it tastes like a dessert or a main course!

Cheesecake with a main!

Semi-permanent make-up artist Kayleigh

has used her basic ingredient of carrot

to make chicken katsu curry -

poppy-seed crumb chicken

and katsu sauce made with carrots,

served with carrot puree,

saffron rice and ginger pickled carrot.

The use of the carrot, I think, is very clever indeed.

Your carrot puree is lovely and smooth, slightly sweet.

Your carrot pickle - ginger heat in the back of your throat.

Your chicken is cooked beautifully.

I think that's a really good dish. Thank you.

Your curry sauce is rich and smoky,

and then you get the sweetness coming from carrots.

Really good, thick, rich sauce. Perfectly cooked rice.

Everything I can see and taste here

makes me think you're a quality cook. Thank you.

I'm really pleased to get feedback like that.

So, yeah, I'm happy!

So far!

NHS nurse Keith chose to showcase nuts.

He's serving a chocolate ganache tart

with a base of pistachio, almonds and walnuts,

a pistachio tuile,

smoked harissa and honey pistachios

and pistachio ice cream.

I think this tart is great.

It's almost savoury.

You haven't put a lot of sugar in there at all.

That natural cocoa bitterness comes in.

The nuts, almost like oaty, toasty nuttiness.

That's really, really working for me.

Thank you.

Your pistachio ice cream, I think, is really good.

The rest, I feel as if I'm having

a chocolate savoury nut mixture here.

Your nuts with the harissa across the outside,

and then there's a couple in there which are really hot

and just starting to burn my tongue. But some nice skill. Thank you.

I'm...relatively pleased.

I think I split the judges a little bit,

but I'm happy with what I put out. It's what I set out to do.

Estate agent Francesca is serving her basic ingredient of lemons

in a deconstructed lemon meringue pie -

lemon curd,

burnt lemon gel,

Swiss meringue,

biscuit shards

and raspberries.

As a brief, taking the lemon,

I think you've done a pretty good job.

You've got a really sort of sweet, mellow flavour coming from that gel,

and you're getting a sharp flavour also coming from your curd,

which is great. This biscuit's lovely and thin.

It would be a fantastic tart case.

The meringue that you made across the top is perfect.

I don't think you need to deconstruct it,

because you've got the skill to make one. Yeah.

The problem here for me is one of texture.

Mm-hm. There are too many wet things for the amount of dry things.

That's what the lemon meringue tart would have given you.

So, looking at the skill, great.

It's just a little too wet.

OK.

I definitely showed technique.

So, yeah, just fingers crossed

I could potentially make it to the next round.

At the start of this, we did say that we'd choose

our two favourite dishes, and those people get themselves

one of those MasterChef aprons

and go straight through to the next round.

You'll be pleased to know we've made a decision.

Two people, we think, in a room of good cookery,

were outstanding.

Kayleigh.

Fareeda.

Well done.

Kayleigh, Fareeda, please,

come and get your well-deserved aprons.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks.

THEY CHEER AND LAUGH

I've dreamt of having this apron.

You can only get it from one place, and that's MasterChef,

so I'm loving this moment.

I'm feeling absolutely amazing.

But I want to, you know, kind of remain humble, so, yeah!

Well done!

THEY CHEER AND LAUGH

Two aprons here

waiting for somebody's name to be written on them.

On your bench in front of you there is a box,

and inside that box there are three common ingredients.

Could you please reveal your ingredients?

Vanilla, cherries and almonds.

We would like you to make for us a dish

using any one, two or three of those ingredients,

and whatever you choose from that box

needs to be the star of the show

alongside anything you like from the larder over there.

Here's the twist -

you'll only have 45 minutes to cook it.

Two aprons up for grabs.

That does mean at the end of this, one of you will be going home.

Grab your trays. Off you go.

If you consider cherries and almonds and vanilla,

they're all used in savoury things.

Can someone take those cherries and make them into a sauce?

Cherries... I love them, but don't really cook with them.

But, you know, it's going to be fun whatever.

However, if they've done any sort of baking,

they would have come across these three ingredients.

Dessert is the obvious option.

Very challenging, but I've just got to see what we can do.

I'm still formulating ideas in my mind,

but my cook's brain is saying savoury.

Where's the nuts? Oh, there they are!

Francesca, what's your thoughts on a dish?

I'm going to stick with the cherries and nuts.

I want to make, like, a cherry gravy.

Right. With my chicken over here, which I'm using my spices.

And then I'm going to be making roasted potatoes.

What are you going to do with the almonds?

The almonds, I'm going to see. I'm probably going to toast them.

Maybe give it some honey, some sweetness as well.

Why not a dessert? I did a dessert last time,

so I wanted to show what I can do for a savoury dish.

Cherries and chicken together? Not something I've had before.

A Chinese spiced chicken with a lot of spices in there.

But does that mean the cherries are going to get lost?

Chicken's got to be cooked all the way through,

and potatoes, if they're going to be roasties,

they need to be nice and crispy on the outside.

Cherry sauce, she's got to make sure that it reduces down

so it's thick and sticky, so it will coat the potato

or it will coat the chicken.

It's OK, I can work on it.

Keith, have you got a plan? I'm going to make pan-fried duck.

I'm going to make a red wine and cherry sauce

with some small fried potatoes

and cherry and garlic savoury compote to go to the side.

OK, fine. So are you feeling the pressure? I am, yeah.

You're a nurse! I know!

Think about us as...well patients. OK. That helps.

JOHN CHUCKLES

Keith is cooking a duck breast with cherries.

That's a classic.

He's making a cherry and port sauce. Fantastic.

Make sure it reduces and goes thick and sticky.

Duck breast, we want the flesh cooked all the way through.

We want it to be nice and tender.

Motoring to try and get everything done in time.

Got the duck, which is going on in a couple of minutes.

In fact, it's going on now.

He has got a cherry and garlic compote.

It looks like he's using half a bulb of garlic

with cherries, all stewed down. I just hope it's not too sweet.

20 minutes to go.

I'm feeling stressed out.

It's not my usual sort of comfort zone,

so I'm a little bit worried.

Paddy is doing a duck breast flavoured with sumac,

that citrusy spice. He's going to serve a cherry sauce - fine.

And he's going to put the whole thing with fruity couscous.

It's sort of the flavours of the Middle East, almost, North Africa.

I'm fine about this, but couscous is really, really bland.

Put a bit of chilli in. Doesn't harm anyone.

That might do, though!

He needs to make sure that couscous is really well flavoured,

otherwise what we're going to have

is just a duck breast and a sour cherry sauce.

Have you cooked a duck breast before?

No.

Why pick the duck if you've never cooked it before?

I've seen it being done.

If you were halfway through a bassoon solo...

Yes. How are you doing? How are the crowd reacting?

We're doing OK. Hopefully, the crowd are going to go wild.

Is it Beethoven? Is it Mozart? Who is it?

It's just contemporary...

"don't know what I'm doing" type vibe.

All three cooks have gone for savoury.

We don't have a dessert. I'm virtually heartbroken.

I can see the tears running down your cheeks!

You've got ten minutes left, guys.

God!

God, this is stressful!

Aargh!

SHE LAUGHS

Got no idea if this is right, but I'm giving it a go.

You have just five minutes, everybody.

Is that cooked enough? Maybe do it another bit... Mmm!

You got fries, my friend?

90 seconds.

Think. Think, Paddy.

Are we going to get this on a plate, Francesca? Yeah.

What IS that, Francesca?

A foam, a cherry foam.

Where's your cherry sauce?

In here now. You threw it all in there? Yeah.

And what's made it foam up? What have you added to it?

Milk. Milk.

Happy? Happy, yep.

How long's that been resting, Chef?

I don't know, t...

Never been called "Chef" before!

That's it, guys! Time's up. Stop, please.

HE EXHALES DEEPLY

God, it looks so messy!

Let's see.

Francesca, if you could.

NARRATOR: Estate agent Francesca has used the cherries and almonds

to make Chinese five-spice chicken breast

topped with toasted honey almonds,

served with chilli-spiced roast potatoes

and a cherry foam.

Your chicken's cooked really nicely and you've got, like,

that sweet pepperiness of five-spice on there.

You can roast a potato, and they're really hot and peppery,

but you were supposed to feature the cherries.

You lost confidence in the cherry sauce,

and you've lost all the cherry flavour by adding milk to it.

You should have stayed with what you had.

I really like the almonds.

They're toasted. That works quite well with it,

because it's a texture rather than being a flavour.

But what I don't get is, I've got this sort of milkshake affair,

and it's gone a bit sort of like curdled cream.

And it doesn't work.

Not with a bit of chicken. Thanks, Francesca. Thank you.

Obviously the main element was cherries,

and I think I ruined that a bit.

But, yeah, I've done my best, so literally that's all I can do.

NHS nurse Keith chose the cherries

and made pan-fried duck breast

served with a cherry and red wine sauce,

asparagus, roast tomatoes,

cherry, honey and garlic compote

and shoestring fries.

Your duck, I'm fine with,

but for me, I'd like a little bit more cookery.

Your fries are lovely and crispy.

Really, really well done.

Good use of the cherries.

You got cherry compote there with garlic in it.

It's quite sharp and sour at the same time.

Almost like a chutney.

Asparagus, great. Your cherry sauce -

maybe a bit more time to reduce it, but a good start.

Thanks, Keith. Thank you. Thank you.

I think I put a reasonable plate of food out.

There's a couple of things I would have done differently.

It's the MasterChef kitchen. Stressful!

Professional bassoonist Paddy also used cherries

to serve sumac-spiced duck breast

with chilli pepper and cherry flavoured couscous,

and a cherry and red wine sauce.

The sauce is an odd colour, but it smells pretty good.

That's a really beautifully cooked piece of duck.

You've got chilli running through your couscous,

cherries as well, and roasted peppers.

There's even mint in there as well.

Paddy, I think that's delicious.

Thank you. I really like it!

That sauce is great.

You may have good cook's instincts here,

because that's actually not bad. OK!

I didn't really know what I was doing,

but John Torode saying it's delicious, I...

Yeah, I'll walk away happy, no matter what happens, so, yeah.

Three cooks and only two aprons.

That does mean that one of them is going home.

We need to make a decision.

Today I think we should all be proud of ourselves,

and...little pat on the back. Well done.

Really proud that I got this far. It's been a great day.

I've got a pick of this round, and that was Paddy.

Paddy cooked the duck breast pretty well.

He made cherry sauce with blended cherries.

It didn't look right, but it tasted really good.

Paddy goes through, most certainly.

Now, Keith...

That duck, I would like it cooked a little bit more,

but he's got a nice little bit of technique here and there.

A good red wine sauce with cherry flavour.

Cherries turned to a compote to go with that piece of duck.

Francesca cooked a really nice chicken thigh,

but the sauce didn't work.

She ended up trying to serve it as a foam.

Tatoes and cherry-flavoured milk on a plate?

That doesn't work.

Keith and Francesca.

One gets the apron, one person goes home.

Who's got the knowledge? Who's got the skill?

I definitely feel like I've got more to prove.

I really hope I get that chance to just show them what I'm made of.

If I had to go home today, I'd be disappointed.

But I think I've done enough to get an apron.

Fingers crossed.

We only have two MasterChef aprons left.

That does mean, sadly,

one of you will be leaving the competition.

The first contestant getting a MasterChef apron is...

..Paddy.

Congratulations.

Our second contestant grabbing an apron is...

..Keith. Congratulations.

Francesca... Whoa, it was a tight call.

Really hope that you enjoyed your experience here in MasterChef.

Sorry. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Francesca.

So I'm a bit gutted that I didn't go through,

but all I can say is, take this into a positive,

and, you know, I'm still going to carry on cooking.

I love it, and I'm going to keep going.

Gentlemen, please come up - richly deserved - grab your aprons.

Well done, mate. Well done. So good, so good.

It feels absolutely amazing to wear this apron.

It's really, really cool.

Hopefully a long road ahead.

Absolutely brilliant. Really chuffed. Chuffed to bits.

I'm coming back fighting. I'm here to prove myself, so...

Ready for the next round.

Welcome back.

You are now cooking for a place in a quarterfinal.

We have invited three special guests into the dining room.

The final three from 2010 -

Tim Kinnaird,

Alex Rushmer,

and of course, the champion, Dhruv Baker.

We want from you two courses in an hour and 15 minutes.

There are just three quarterfinal places up for grabs.

That does mean one of you will be going home.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's cook.

I'm calm on the outside, but inside I'm like,

"I need to get this all done!"

SHE GASPS

SMASH! SHE GASPS

Plates are down. Sorry!

Excited, nervous, under pressure.

Producing eight plates of food in 1 hour, 15 minutes is insanity.

I don't know how I'm going to do it,

but I'm feeling super-competitive, actually.

What are you making, please, Kayleigh?

Herb-crusted loin of cod,

green herb pomme puree,

a tarragon creamy sauce split with parsley oil

with asparagus.

You're going to serve green mash?

Yeah, I am. Right!

THEY LAUGH

Is it about colour or is it about just flavour?

I always make sure things taste good,

but then I want them to look nice as well.

And then for dessert, I'm doing a lemon, lime and pineapple tart.

You've planned your timings? Yeah, yeah. Good luck, Kayleigh.

Kayleigh's giving us all a piece of cod.

Make sure there's no white bits around the outside -

that's protein coming out - that means it's overcooked.

We've got tarragon, we've got chives,

we've got parsley.

They are very, very strong flavours.

Yes, I do love herbs!

What we've got to hope is that they blend and they don't clash.

Dessert -

a tart with lemon mixture inside.

But they're not individual tarts.

Now, if that tart doesn't set

or something happens with the pastry, we've got a problem.

Ahhh, Jesus Christ!

Come on!

Butter! The secret to success is more butter.

Keith, what are your two courses, please?

Pan-seared loin of venison with a Stilton and broccoli puree,

hasselback potatoes, girolle mushrooms,

some carrots and a red wine sauce.

And your next course?

Vanilla panna cotta with pineapple mint salsa

with some rum and some ginger and lemon.

You told us that your good lady wife was a fantastic cook.

She's a brilliant cook. Has she tried these two dishes?

She's tried these two dishes, yeah. Verdict was thumbs-up.

And the grandchild particularly likes the panna cotta.

I have been making rather a lot of panna cottas,

because my three-year-old granddaughter asks for it

every time she comes each week.

But we've not gone there with the rum!

There's so much going on here.

Pan-fried venison, we want it crispy on the outside,

nice river of pink running through it,

but not jelly-like in the centre.

Everything tastes better with butter!

Potatoes need to be cooked all the way through.

We don't want hard carrots.

Just want these carrots done a bit more.

Want a lovely glossy sauce,

nice and thick, that coats the back of our spoon.

Vanilla panna cotta - we want a slippery,

wobbly little cream dome.

He's serving that with a pineapple salsa.

If it's going to be a salsa, it should be even.

I don't want big hunks of pineapple and little tiny bits of pineapple.

We need to see a bit of style.

Which way is the blast chiller?

That's the fritter done...

There are so many ingredients on here!

Are you able to get all this into your dishes?

I really hope so. A lot of these ingredients are from friends

that have passed me their spices from travels. Lovely.

Interesting menu there for Fareeda.

First off, you've got a meze from Turkey,

a fattoush, crispy bread that she's going to fry,

she's going to spice up. We've got a lentil fritter.

Labneh, which is a type of yoghurt.

She's got a kind of green, spicy chutney,

so she's got quite a bit of work going on.

For main course, we've got aubergine stew.

OK, that's the lid on.

Walnuts, pomegranate, molasses, za'atar all going in there,

which is lemony and sherbety.

I'll whack it on now...

Aubergines stewed down nicely...

All right, go in.

..they should become like a lovely, tender piece of meat.

And with that, we're getting some rice as well.

I hope she can get it all done.

What is that book of yours? I don't really follow recipes through text,

but through pictures. I note the stories

around where I've been travelling, friends that have influenced me,

and then I do a little doodle.

Taking part in the MasterChef experience means a lot to me,

because it's really about betting on myself.

So I'm really invested.

BLENDER WHIRS SHE COUGHS

Oh, just splash yourself with chilli?

COUGHING: Yeah.

You OK? Yeah. Brace yourself!

Oh, I like that!

We're doing all right. Come on, Paddy.

Cooking is also another passion on the side of bassoon,

and it would be really cool combining both careers together.

A cooking bassoon player could definitely work out.

Paddy's two courses are risotto - classic creamy rice porridge -

but he's going to flavour it with a pistachio pesto.

Looks nice, looks nice.

That's going to be really, really rich. And on top of that,

we're going to get breaded prawns.

To put the prawns on the top is unusual.

And if they are crispy and the risotto is wet,

what's going to happen to the crispy prawn?

This has been inspired by a recent family trip to Venice,

where we went to loads of cicchetti bars,

and I had a pistachio pesto pasta dish

and I was blown away by it.

Tell us about a cicchetti bar, Paddy.

A cicchetti bar is sort of a tapas bar in Italy,

where there's small plates being served.

Me and my family travel a lot, and it's really inspired my cooking,

and I've been very lucky as a child growing up.

Dessert - he's taking a classic chocolate fondant.

Look at that!

But we're having it flavoured with ancho chilli.

Ancho chilli, not really hot - more smoky in its flavour.

And then we're going to get the whole thing flamed with tequila.

The problem could be that when he flames the fondant,

the crispy outside could become soggy.

I believe in these pieces... Erm, pieces?!

I believe in these dishes. So... Still thinking as a musician!

But maybe I've got to think of that today. It's a performance.

It's no exaggeration to say that

MasterChef changes lives, and I think the three of us

sat around this table today would agree.

We've all worked in food,

and it just goes to show how many different careers

and career opportunities are available

to the guys who are in that kitchen today.

21 years of MasterChef now,

and that standard raises.

That base level understanding goes up,

new cuisines are represented,

so the expectation gets higher every year.

I just want them to do

as well as they hope they can do, because I think

the contestants that do that,

they can get into that zone of cooking for themselves

to make it how they want it to be. The deliciousness sorts itself out.

You've got 15 minutes on your first course.

OK. We've got herb-crusted cod loin.

What temperature's that?

50.

Well, I wanted it at 62.

Turn it up a bit.

I have.

Don't want it overdone.

Nice sort of translucent flesh in the middle of the cod.

I would hope in the pomme puree there's loads and loads of butter.

Do you like a bit of potato with your butter, Chef?!

SHE LAUGHS

Yeah!

Kayleigh, you've got two minutes. OK. OK?

And it's got to be beautiful and silky and smooth.

Nice!

We're having a green party!

We are, yeah, it's turned out that way!

Now we've got sauce and oil. Right! Let's go, let's go, let's go!

I mean, I think this dish is going to be held together

by the tarragon sauce.

If it's too thin, it just sort of washes away on the plate.

OK. That's a good looking plate.

Lots of good cookery. Let's go!

Get back for your dessert, you. Mm-hm.

Hi! ALL: Hello. Hiya!

Thank you. You're welcome.

Nice.

So I've made for you

a herb-crusted loin of cod

with a green herb pomme puree,

a tarragon sauce split with parsley oil and asparagus.

Thank you. Enjoy! Thank you so much! Thank you. Bye!

Wow! It's a celebration of green.

I think it looks amazing. I'm utterly blown away.

I genuinely don't think

it's possible to cook a piece of cod more accurately than that.

It's exquisitely cooked.

And then I keep going back for these little bits of charred asparagus,

which, again, itself is perfectly cooked.

Lovely little notes of herbs with that crumb.

You've got mint, there's parsley, there's tarragon.

The mash is buttery.

The tarragon sauce brings it all together.

It's absolutely spot-on. It's a tremendous plate of food.

She's done incredibly well.

The fish is nice and soft.

I actually think she's got the balance pretty well right

with all those herbs. I like that sauce.

It's quite sharp and quite tangy.

Can't see any pastry rolled out for your tart yet.

Nor can I.

Kayleigh hasn't lined her tart tin with a pastry.

She was going to give us a tart,

but you can't do that if there's no tart tin.

I was thinking about maybe cutting it out

and just leaving it flat and baking it like that.

Deconstructing? Yeah.

Get it in the oven quick. You've only got just 15 minutes.

OK. Go, go, go.

DHRUV: So, Kelly's lemon, lime and pineapple tart.

You want that pineapple to have a little bit of texture.

Just watch your pineapple, because it's cooking fast.

Come on!

DHRUV: You want it to be cooked through, though,

so you don't want to be chewing through crunchy bits of pineapple.

Cook, biscuit, cook, biscuit, cook, biscuit... I know!

SHE LAUGHS

And it's cooked!

Kayleigh's tart will succeed or fail on how good the pastry is.

All done? Yeah.

Come on, let's go. Good on you for getting something out.

Well done. I know!

Hello again. Hello again! Hello!

I've made for you

what has now turned out to be

a deconstructed lemon, lime and pineapple tart.

Didn't have time to make my case, so... Yeah.

Well done for... Had to improvise. Yeah,

well done for getting it on a plate.

Yeah. Thank you very much. So, yeah. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

There was obviously an issue in the kitchen,

but she's got a dessert out and it smells fantastic.

You know, once you break into it and you break up the pastry

and the pineapple and the cream,

it's perfectly delicious.

I'm pleased that she's rescued it.

That pineapple is beautifully cooked,

pastry's light, and then the cream

with the promised lime zest through it,

and they all come together and they work.

Kayleigh will be kicking herself for this,

but I really don't think she needs to.

It actually tastes really, really good.

That pineapple's lovely.

It's very refreshing and it's not oversweetened.

A couple of things didn't quite go to plan,

but I got it all out.

I'm glad about that.

15 minutes, Keith.

Keith's main course is loin of venison

with broccoli and Stilton puree.

What I'd like is a nice bit of caramelisation

around the edge of the loin, and sort of nice and pink in the middle.

You're happy with the venison? Yeah.

Hasselback potatoes - you want texture on that,

crunch on the outside, sort of soft in the middle.

And a red wine sauce.

It needs to be reduced. It can't have split.

I can't quite see how the Stilton fits in with it.

I don't think I've ever eaten venison and cheese,

but I'm super-excited to taste it.

Mate, you do so much stuff!

Whoa! We ready to go?

Yep. Thank you very much. Point me in the right direction.

Through the doors. Through the doors!

Thank you very much. Let's go! Venison away!

Hello. Hello. Hello, hello.

I've cooked for you some pan-roasted venison,

Stilton and broccoli puree,

a hasselback potato,

water-bathed and then roasted carrots

and girolle mushrooms for you. I hope you enjoy.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

The venison is well cooked. Still pink in the middle. Tender.

The carrots, I think, maybe could have done with

another couple of minutes or so.

The hasselback had the right texture.

The mushrooms were cooked well. The sauce was great.

Maybe a little bit more reduction on it,

but all in all, I think Keith's done really well.

But the Stilton is a little bit annoying.

It's a bit over-present,

the strength of the flavour of the cheese.

I'm happy with the cookery of the venison.

But the carrots are undercooked, and that sauce is very, very salty.

Hey, Keith! All good. Look at the smile!

Loving the smile! Ohhh!

15 minutes to the panna cotta. Yep.

ALEX: Keith's panna cotta -

it's either perfectly set or it's not good enough.

Come on, wobble, wobble, wobble.

So you've got that variance of texture,

you've got that variance of heat,

with that rum against the cool panna cotta.

It's all about the rum now.

So I'm really excited to try that.

This is the worrying bit. Can we get it out?

MasterChef is strewn with the corpses of failed panna cottas!

Away you go. Great. So good luck to him.

Let's go! Thank you. Go get 'em!

That does the job, son! That does the job.

Hello again.

So for dessert, I've made a vanilla panna cotta,

pineapple chunks with some mint,

a little bit of rum and some lemon and ginger.

I hope you enjoy. Thank you. Thank you so much.

HE EXHALES HEAVILY

Really pleased with the panna cotta. It had a wobble.

Almost had a wobble, thinking it didn't have a wobble,

but it had a wobble!

I feel that this hasn't quite worked.

The vanilla seems to have clumped into the bottom,

so you haven't got that lovely flecking

of vanilla beans throughout.

So, for me, the panna cotta wasn't sweet enough.

I think I'm mostly disappointed with the pineapple.

It isn't kind of sweet, rich...

It needs a bit more kind of life.

I think one of the issues is a bit of acidity and a bit of booze

from the rum has just made the whole thing curdle.

I can't taste the vanilla, but I can't see any specks in there

at all. That pineapple salsa is not pineapple salsa.

That's pineapple chunks, but it's the texture of

the panna cotta that's concerning me.

It's like mozzarella. It's going a bit stringy.

Oh, beautiful.

Come on!

This is the fattoush crisp that I'm making.

Once these are done, I'm ready to plate up.

So, Fareeda's starter.

There's so much there in terms of flavour,

- in terms of texture. - Three minutes, please.

Three minutes.

Lentil fritter... Anything that's deep-fried...

Oh, my God.

..hot oil and then drain so it's not greasy.

Yeah, I'm happy with that.

If you're roasting a carrot, I think it's important to roast it.

Nice and soft on the inside.

And then I've got my little lentils for you.

This just sounds, you know, bit crunchy, bit fried,

bit creamy. It's just going to be delicious, isn't it?

Happy? Yeah.

Off you go. OK.

Well done, you. Thank you.

Hi! Hello. Hello. hello.

I have made whipped labneh with roasted carrots,

a red lentil fritter, fattoush crisps

and a green shatta,

which is a chilli, vinegar and garlic dip.

It is very hot, so be mindful.

Or if you enjoy it, go for it! No problem.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy.

Crikey! This is an absolute flavour bomb, isn't it?

I was very vocal about not wanting a medium-rare carrot.

They're really nice and perfectly roasted.

This shatta dip is super-hot,

and it just brings the whole thing together.

I absolutely love this dish.

The labneh is rich with garlic.

A bit of acidity through it.

The fattoush - wonderful crunch.

Those red lentil fritters - light, pillowy.

It's outstanding.

It's packed full of flavour.

The textures are spot-on.

This is tremendous cooking.

There's a lot of spice.

There's nothing shy about that dish at all.

I think it's well done.

I like her food.

Fareeda. Yes. 15 minutes on your next course.

Great.

Feels soft. You do the job.

Beautiful!

There's a simplicity about an aubergine stew

with walnuts and rice.

Why am I shaking?

But I think this is going to deliver,

like, bags and bags of flavour.

We're getting an aubergine each, right?

Yeah. Good, good, good. Leaving the skin on? Yeah.

So, aubergine, I really like it

stewed down and kind of nice and silky,

and I hope that's what this is.

In Farsi, it's called bademjan. Farsi?

That's the national language of Iran.

It smells great. I like your style.

And then loads of freshness from the salad as well.

I think it sounds like an incredibly well-balanced dish.

Thank you. OK, shall we, shall we, shall we, shall we?

Yeah. We're good to go.

All right, give 'em a big smile. Yeah.

Proud of your dish? Thank you. I'm super-proud, thank you.

Well done. Let's go, Fareeda!

Hi again! ALL: Hello.

So, for the main, I've made

aubergine in pomegranate and walnut stew,

white basmati rice,

and then a Persian salad with tomatoes, cucumber and sumac.

Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy!

WHISPERS: Oh, my God!

I've never put eight plates of food

in an hour and 15 minutes in my life. Ever!

So I'm glad it's over.

It's delicious. The aubergine is cooked through.

It's meltingly soft. It's quite silky.

The rice is well cooked.

There's a gentle warmth and spice running through that sauce,

and there's quite a lot of cinnamon and walnut,

and that's delicious.

This salad, this is brilliant.

This is flavoursome,

this is packed full of acidity and freshness and herbaceousness.

I've really enjoyed eating her food. It's really exciting.

Nice, slippery aubergine. Perfectly cooked.

I think it's a really well-balanced dish.

There's sweet, there's sharp, there's sour. Just fantastic.

That just oil in there, Paddy? Yeah, that's just oil.

Paddy's main course... A perfect risotto is one

where the rice just has a tiny bit of texture.

JOHN: Right, risotto done? Risotto done.

DHRUV: Garlic prawn risotto - delicious.

Pistachios - start to be a little bit dubious how that fits in,

but I'm certainly curious to find out.

You got cheese in there as well, right? Yes, some pecorino.

And then I'm going to put a grating of Parmesan just on the top.

Prawns - you've got to get them just right.

Not overcooked and chewy.

You want a bit of bounce, a bit of texture.

Happy with those? I'm happy with them.

I think the colour's OK...

But I trust in Paddy.

There you go, Chef.

Oooh!

Ooh, lovely. Off you go.

OK. Come on, Paddy! Come on! Well done, mate.

HE EXHALES

Hello! Hello! Hello. How are we doing?

Good, thank you. How are you? Good. Yeah, not bad!

HE LAUGHS

So today I've made you crispy chilli and lemon prawns

and a pistachio pesto risotto.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers.

Mainly it's the pesto that I taste,

and the pistachio's just kind of more texture.

But I'm actually quite enjoying it.

It's tasty. The prawns in particular are very well cooked,

and the crumb on the outside of them is properly tasty.

I like the doneness of the rice. I quite like a bit of bite to it.

Pleasantly surprised.

The prawns crumbed nicely.

Nice bit of seasoning on the outside.

He's actually cooked everything well.

DHRUV: So Paddy's chosen

probably one of the most notoriously risky desserts on MasterChef.

They're looking OK. They're looking OK.

They're...

rising...

..ish.

Chocolate and ancho chilli fondant.

I have two minutes on those fondants, so...

Nerve-racking, isn't it? It is nerve-racking.

I've got one minute until they're going to come out.

HE EXHALES DEEPLY Chocolate and chilli is fantastic,

and adding those Mexican flavours of tequila and lime,

it has the potential to be pretty good, actually.

There it is. Fondants a-go-go.

Happy? Y-e-e-e-s.

Let's hope they're gooey in the middle.

Well done. Hadn't stuck at all.

There we are! I'm really impressed, Paddy.

That's it. Go on, then, torch it...

Wahey! You got flames.

Flambeeing it, just to roll the dice a few more times!

Well done, Paddy! Right...

Amazing. OK. Right.

Let's go through. Go, go, go!

Mate!

Hiya. Hello again. Hello.

Oh, dear!

Thank you. Thank you so much.

For dessert, I've made you an ancho chilli chocolate fondant

flambeed with tequila

with a lime mascarpone.

Hope you enjoy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers.

Ooh, yeah. Yeah, beautiful.

Technically, this is the best fondant I've eaten on MasterChef.

I like the ancho stuff. I think it works quite well.

Tequila-wise, I think we're getting more of an aroma of tequila

than a flavour of tequila.

I didn't get the mascarpone. Mine is sort of split.

It's sort of gone slightly granular.

But I do applaud the fact that the fondants all came out

with a molten centre, as promised.

GREGG: That is an absolutely perfect example of a chocolate fondant.

I like the chilli in there.

The tequila works, because it gives heat.

The boy done good.

Ahhh!

I didn't realise how hard it would be doing that.

Like, really di... really difficult!

Four really interesting cooks, I think.

We've got to decide who's going to go through. But I tell you what -

I mean, I think these could hold their own

amongst the best of the competition.

I'm impressed with today.

The dining room's Cook of the Day was Kayleigh.

The cod with all the herbs - good dish.

For dessert, when it was all going wrong,

she pulled it back and it worked wonderfully.

Kayleigh's got herself a place in the quarterfinal.

I'll tell you who else I think deserves a place,

and that's Fareeda.

A Turkish-style meze with the labneh

with that really ferocious green chilli dip.

It was fantastic!

Main course - an aubergine, walnuts, pomegranate molasses and some rice.

And it was delicious.

Fareeda's going through to a quarterfinal.

Now we have to make a decision between the two boys.

Keith - the venison was cooked really nicely.

The carrots weren't cooked properly.

That sauce was too salty and also too thin.

Dessert - the panna cotta itself was almost stringy,

like mozzarella cheese, and I don't know what happened there.

Paddy's an interesting cook.

It was a well-cooked risotto.

The prawns were perfect!

For me, the dessert was the star from Paddy.

A really good chocolate fondant, crisp on the outside...

..and then flambeed with tequila.

I thought that was exceptional work.

Who's going to join Kayleigh and Fareeda in the quarterfinal,

and who's going home - Paddy or Keith?

I can hold my head up high thinking I've done my best,

and I hope they can see a cook in me.

To get a place in the quarterfinal, it'd be a dream,

a childhood dream come true.

I just want to keep going.

I think all four of you really stepped up to this challenge.

But there are just three quarterfinal places,

which does mean, sadly, one of you will be going home.

Our first quarterfinalist is...

..Kayleigh.

What a fighter. Well done, you.

Our second quarterfinalist...

..is Fareeda.

Well done, you.

Our third quarterfinalist is...

..is Paddy.

Paddy, congratulations.

Keith, thank you so very much indeed.

We hope you've enjoyed the competition.

Good luck. Well done. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

HE EXHALES DEEPLY

I'm really proud to have got this far.

It's been a great experience.

This isn't the end of my cooking journey.

I'll still be there, cooking away!

Kayleigh, Fareeda, Paddy...

Congratulations. You're MasterChef quarterfinalists.

Yay! Amazing...!

THEY LAUGH AND CHEER

I'm really, really shocked.

Holy moley! You were so good, babe! Oh, thank you!

Honestly, I'm absolutely dumbfounded!

It almost made me cry.

SHE LAUGHS

Well done, well done, both of you. Yeah, and you. Honestly, so good.

I'm so delighted!

I was really worried that I wouldn't be getting through,

but I'm ready for what's to come,

and I'm just going to keep working harder.

I feel really tingly and shocked, actually!

I'd definitely like to continue going as far as I can possibly go.

Next time...

..six more home cooks compete...

Go big or go home, I guess! So...

..for the right to wear a MasterChef apron...

It's far from being cooked.

Triumph!

I think it's a great dish.

..before battling for a place in the quarterfinal.

This is absolutely banging.

I'm really impressed by it.