Original subtitles

It's the last of the MasterChef semifinals,

and only the five best cooks remain.

This is it, this is crunch time.

You either hang your coat up, or you go all the way.

The worst I can be is fifth in MasterChef.

But you really want to be a finalist.

Who doesn't want that?

Oh, gosh.

It's excited, it's scary,

it's daunting,

but I'm ready to do it.

I want to go to the very end.

I think I'm still in disbelief that I'm at this point.

There is no room for error.

The pressure is on.

I never thought I'd get this far,

and now that I'm here, yeah, I don't want to waste it.

I really want to get in there and show the judges what I can do.

Tonight, just one unique challenge stands between them

and a place in finals week.

Our five have coped with everything we've thrown at them.

Who's got something left in the tank?

For four of them, it is going to be the start

of the most amazing adventure.

But for one of them, right now, today, heartbreak.

You five have had a great semifinals week,

and you seem to be enjoying almost every minute.

Right here, today, secure your place in the finals.

We want you to make us a dish which celebrates an ingredient

you do not like.

Because if you go into the professional world,

you will be tasked, at times, to cook with ingredients

that you may not be a fan of.

We want a coherent, exciting,

delicious dish, which has texture and flavour.

At the end of this, four of you go through to finals week.

Sadly, one of you is going home.

Ladies and gentlemen, 1.5 hours. Let's cook.

The competition is hot now.

You know, everyone here is so amazing.

So got to try and pull all the stops out

and just do a really good job.

14 months ago, when I had my little baby girl, Halo,

I couldn't even see past the end of the day,

let alone being in the MasterChef semifinal,

potentially going on to the final.

It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

Hazel in this competition has grown as a cook.

She's got her self-confidence, and she's now at the stage

where she's willing to give anything a go.

GREGG: She has now done vegetable dishes, meat and fish dishes,

she turns her hand to dessert.

In the last round, she had you and Heston Blumenthal

drinking out of a baby's bottle.

The ingredient I don't like are pears.

I don't like the texture.

I find it really fibrous and furry.

The feeling of the skin in my teeth, I don't like that.

And when I was younger, my mum would incessantly make poached pears

in red wine - and just, as a kid, it's not what you want.

I wanted cake and custard.

What's the dish and how does the pear feature in it?

Pear-infused risotto with lobster tail,

a truffle butter sauce, and a pear crisp.

Fascinating.

Rice, lobster, and pear with truffle.

Yes.

This is a massive, massive gamble.

That lobster tail is going to drape across a risotto

flavoured with lobster bisque, enriched with pear puree.

Pear is honey sweet.

If I had to write a top ten list of things that I wouldn't put in

a lobster risotto, pretty quick down the list would be pear.

I don't want to hear al dente when it comes to rice.

That's pasta.

I don't want chalkiness. I want soft grains.

It's a bit too al dente still.

I never cook it, so first time for everything.

Not too sure I like the texture so far.

Sam was born in Thailand, loves Thai food.

He's showing skill, he's showing technique,

and he understands deliciousness.

And in the last round, mate, he impressed Heston himself.

Sam, I love that.

The guy has got a whole load of passion.

Everyone is so, so good,

which is so frustrating because also you want...

I want to win, so I was hoping someone would trip.

What's the ingredient you don't like, please?

I don't like offal. I don't even know what it tastes like

because I never cooked it before.

John doesn't particularly like offal.

So what's your dish, please, Sam?

So the dish is a wonton with Chinese-spiced broth.

So inside the wonton, there will be all of the offal - liver,

pork lung, pork heart - mixed with pork mince.

I don't like offal.

However, I appreciate when people cook it very, very well.

What Sam's doing here is he's making a dish inspired by kway chap.

A very, very famous Chinese soup,

whereby the broth is made with all the offal together.

He's cooked all of his offal within some stock to be able to

give him a broth.

The offal's come out, he's chopped up some of that offal,

and that's been mixed with minced pork

to go inside our little wontons.

There's not a great deal of fat on offal,

so you've got to make sure it doesn't go dry,

because inside that wonton, you still want it quite moist.

Guys, you have one hour left, please. One hour.

That's mental.

Harry works as a fishmonger.

His technical ability, I think, is probably second to none.

But that last round didn't go to plan...

The meringues you put inside are starting to collapse.

..and Harry himself was truly disappointed.

Harry, how are you feeling after that last round?

Have you picked yourself up?

It did knock me a little bit, but at the same time you can only learn

from your mistakes rather than your successes.

So onwards and upwards.

What's the ingredient you're not fond of?

Ugh, blue cheese.

What is it about blue cheese?

Absolutely everything - the smell, the taste.

The fact that you're eating something that's gone mouldy

is just abhorrent to me. I think it's the devil's food.

What's your dish?

So I'm doing pork tenderloin with a blue cheese crumb,

and that's going to be served with a stuffed red onion cup,

which has got apple, walnuts, and more blue cheese.

Serving that with a beetroot puree, fondant carrots,

and an apple cider sauce.

Have you been practising this dish?

I have.

I've only managed to do it whilst wearing gloves.

The crumbliness of the blue cheese is, yeah,

making me gag a little bit, but I'm going to force myself to touch it.

The pork tenderloin has been in the water bath from minute one,

so I just want to make sure it's cooked all the way through.

If it's not, I'm going home.

Simple as that, really.

That pork needs to be nice and moist.

So he's going to cook it in a water bath, then pan-fry it

to get some colour on the outside,

coat the whole lot with Dijon mustard.

And then a crumb of blue cheese and breadcrumbs mixed together,

which will then go underneath the grill.

Should be illegal.

And almost like a blue cheese toastie across the top

of that piece of pork. Lovely idea.

We've got a little onion cup with walnut,

apple, and blue cheese in it.

That's almost got the makings of a glorious salad,

and I love the idea of that.

Blue cheese, cider, and beetroot all on one plate.

They're all really strong, they're all really powerful,

but it's actually bringing these flavours together

which is going to be the make or break.

I've never allowed myself to get within five feet of blue cheese.

I don't understand how someone could hate the smell of something

and like the taste of it, you know?

It just... It belongs in the bin.

Sophie, our vegetarian, has realised that actually staying true

to herself and the food that she loves is the best way

to get through this competition.

Sophie is a major talent, and it's all plant-based.

That tartare made out of watermelon with a carrot egg yolk

was truly surprising.

Being vegetarian, you can't be too much of a picky eater.

But saying that, I definitely managed to find about three things

that I didn't like, and I'm putting them all into this dish.

What's the ingredient you don't like?

Bananas and also dates.

What is it you don't like about bananas?

I just don't like the texture of the stringy bits

that you get in there. I don't know.

You don't like dates. Why?

When I started eating plant-based, every recipe for anything

used dates as a sweetness, and I just got so sick of them.

What's the dish?

Spice sticky toffee pudding with a whisky toffee sauce,

whisky-soaked dates, banana ice cream,

bruleed banana,

and some banana skin chips with a ginger tuile.

So far in the competition, you haven't cooked very many desserts,

Sophie. No, I'm not big on desserts, and I find things too sweet,

so I'm just disguising it with a lot of whisky.

Now, a plant-based sticky toffee pudding is a little bit of magic,

because there's no eggs.

She's using plant-based cream, she's got dates which she's soaked

with the cream as well, to be able to give that lovely richness

to the pudding. She's got lots of spice in there,

and she has to deliver us a lovely, soft, sticky toffee pudding

that we all know.

Ice cream, brulee, sticky toffee, crisps, tuile, whisky sauce...

..in an hour and a half?

She's got her work cut out.

Everything on this plate is very, very sweet, including the dates

inside that sticky toffee pudding.

I just hope the whole thing is not too sweet.

I'm just trying to not think about that this is the dish

that might get me to finals week, and that I'm cooking it right now,

cos I'll freak out.

Claire loves to be creative, she likes to be different,

and she likes to put the unusual together.

What we love about Claire is how daring she is.

She just point blank refuses to do ordinary.

The MasterChef competition at this stage...

..I've forgotten what else I do.

I still manage to get dressed and, you know, basic hygiene,

so that's great.

But the rest of it is just cooking, recipes, techniques.

I don't know anything else now.

Claire, what's the ingredient you don't like?

I don't like liquorice.

As a child, it was the most disappointing sweetie you could get,

and all my family loves liquorice.

What is your dish and how does liquorice appear?

So I'm doing liquorice root and juniper berry pan-fried duck

with a star anise and blackberry port sauce,

pomme puree, and some honey-roasted carrots with hazelnut,

fennel and liquorice crumb, and a little bit of fennel jam.

Big flavours to mix together here, haven't you?

Yeah. Balance, balance, balance.

Claire's using the flavour of liquorice,

but in four different ways -

star anise, liquorice root, fennel bulb, and fennel seed.

Done that, done that, done that.

Little bit of butter.

What Claire is promising us is a duck breast

which is seasoned with liquorice root and juniper berries.

She's got a blackberry sauce flavoured with star anise.

Star anise is probably one of the most powerful liquorice flavours

in the culinary world.

A fennel crumb with fennel bulb and hazelnuts...

..and the jam of fennel seeds.

I like aniseed, but this could be an aniseed bomb.

It could be so strong that your tongue will just start to fizz,

and you won't be able to taste anything else.

Claire's duck needs to be on for long enough

that it has time to rest. I hope she gives it enough time.

Right now, it seems like Claire may have put her duck on

a little bit too late.

You have just five minutes. Five minutes.

I've got all my components. Duck has to be last minute,

otherwise, you know, it just goes not very nice.

90 seconds to finish your masterpiece that's going to

get you into finals week. 90 seconds.

I got my duck on too late.

That's it. Let's stop! Stop, stop, stop!

Out of time. Well done.

Doesn't look good.

I think it's going to fall apart.

You...

You are such a sausage.

That is beautiful. Have you been making tuiles?

I think this one's going to fall apart.

First up, full-time mum Hazel has used her dislike of pears

to make a pear-infused lobster bisque risotto...

..topped with lobster tail,

pear crisp, and a truffle butter sauce.

I've got a nicely-cooked lobster,

and it's rich with butter and that heady truffle.

Two things here I'm not at all sure of.

The pear puree for the risotto, of course, makes it sweet.

That's daring, in the extreme.

The other one is the cooking of that rice.

I prefer mine cooked all the way through. Yeah.

You've got a little bit of chalkiness still in yours.

I prefer mine soft.

Your truffle butter sauce around the outside is absolutely delicious.

But the sweetness of the pear inside a risotto with lobster

and truffle is an unusual combination.

My lobster has gone completely mushy.

The problem with that is that I don't have a bite,

I don't have any texture any more.

And it's not very nice at all.

I do feel a little bit deflated.

Well done.

HAZEL: Yeah, so...

Yeah, I just don't know. It wasn't my best day in the kitchen.

Taking his dislike of offal, vocational trainer Sam

has served heart, liver, lung and pork mince filled wonton,

topped with coriander and spring onion,

and a Chinese five-spice broth made using the offal.

I love it.

The broth, almost medicinal

with the peppery fizz on your tongue of the five-spice.

But it's also got a hint of meatiness.

The wontons, slightly heavier than normal because they have to carry

so much meat inside.

You've cooked that offal really, really well.

I don't like offal...

..but I like this a lot.

Inside that parcel of yours is a really lovely,

rich mixture of your offal - heavily spiced -

which is really giving a huge amount of power to it.

I can taste the liver.

I really like the chew that comes with that piece of heart.

The lung being quite velvety, almost like the flesh of a chicken wing.

And I think you've done a really good job.

Thank you. Thank you, John.

I'm feeling proud, happy.

I have done everything that I could.

So, yeah, it's now down to the judges.

Fishmonger Harry abhors blue cheese,

but has used it as a melted crumb for his sous vide pork tenderloin,

and served it with a blue cheese, apple, and walnut-stuffed

red onion cup, fondant carrots, beetroot puree,

and an apple cider sauce.

You've done a fantastic job showing blue cheese off

without overpowering everything else.

I think that's really, really clever.

You've used the cheese as a texture,

because you get the crispness of the top,

but then also you get the seasoning you used,

the saltiness goes with it.

Sweet carrots, beetroot being really woody.

I think it's great. Well done, Harry. Thank you.

Very good cookery on the pork.

You had the presence of mind to colour it in the pan

when it came out, so you've got some texture with it as well.

Your sauce is fantastic - really thick, creamy.

Look at the shine on it.

And it's the unmistakable sharp sweetness of an apple.

Absolutely lovely.

I like the flavour of the filling inside the red onion -

more tangy blue cheese, sharpness of apple.

This is a good job. Thank you.

Now's the bit where I'm daring to dream.

The cook is over, and now I just...

I can think about that place in finals week.

Well done.

But, yeah, I want it more now than ever.

Showcasing a childhood dislike of liquorice,

copywriter Claire is using aniseed flavours four ways.

Liquorice and juniper spiced duck breast,

served with pomme puree, roasted carrots,

hazelnut, juniper and fennel seed crumb,

fennel jam, pickled blackberries,

and a port blackberry and star anise sauce.

I think you've done an amazing job here showing off the flavour

of liquorice.

The liquorice coating on the outside of that duck skin,

fantastic - rich with juniper - wonderful.

The sauce in there as well - star anise, but also lovely

and glossy - fantastic.

And then the little bits of secret in here.

Fennel seed in that jam, slightly sticky and sweet.

The fennel itself, roasted nicely with a bit of hazelnuts.

The thing is, you've got one bit of duck here which is OK.

The outside, I can eat. Mm-hm.

Right in the centre, I can't.

But there are chefs who serve duck like that.

Beautiful, smooth mashed potato acting like a base for anything

that you want to wrap into it.

And aniseed everywhere.

And it's not as sweet as I thought it was going to be.

Even the jam, you haven't over-sweetened.

It's a great dish.

This piece of duck, this side that I'm eating, absolutely fine.

Crispy rendered skin, beautiful soft flesh.

But here is an undercooked piece of duck.

I knew the duck wasn't right,

and I should have left the one piece off completely.

But I'm genuinely thrilled with the rest of the comments.

Quack!

Proper pleased.

Video colourist Sophie has used her aversion to bananas and dates

to make a plant-based ginger spice sticky toffee pudding,

with whisky-soaked dates, bruleed bananas,

topped with a whisky toffee sauce,

and served with banana ice cream and banana skin crisps.

Funnily enough, I don't like bananas in desserts,

but I'm very, very much enjoying this.

The sponge itself is moist, and it's not dense, it's not heavy.

I like what you call the brulee,

which is a little bit of sugar around a slice of banana,

blowtorch so it gives it a crispy outside.

That really works for me as a bit of texture.

The amount of whisky in that sauce is actually lovely,

and it's that smokiness and that heat that is actually adding

as a contrast to all of that ultra sweet banana.

I really like it, Sophie. Thank you.

That pudding itself is nice and soft, that's great.

Sweetness of date in the bottom with the whisky as well,

so that's really powerful.

The banana skin crisps are a little bit chewy,

but good on you for giving them a go.

And the ice cream is lovely and smooth.

And the fact that there is not a single egg in that pudding

is absolutely fantastic.

I'm really proud of myself for sticking to my plant-based roots...

..and I'm really happy that they liked that

and they thought I'd done the right thing.

Four places in finals week.

That does mean, sadly, one of our incredible five

is leaving the competition.

Right now, you and I have got to make the biggest judgment

of the competition so far.

Sam's my dish of the day.

In an hour and a half, we had a lovely broth.

Wontons filled with that offal, cooked really well, well flavoured.

Sam's got himself a place in the final four.

Harry used that blue cheese to really good effect

to make an almost crumb across his pork that added seasoning.

But I also like the almost slaw that he made.

Apple, walnuts, blue cheese.

It was a great dish.

Pork cooked beautifully. Nothing to complain about at all.

Harry's got himself a place in the final four alongside Sam.

Sophie cooked a sticky toffee pudding.

The sponge was lovely and moist.

Many people would have no idea that was completely plant-based.

The quality of that whisky toffee sauce was fantastic.

Good job.

Sophie's joining Harry and Sam in the final four.

Now we've got a conversation about Claire and Hazel.

Claire's dish highlighting liquorice was great.

It tasted really, really good.

The use of liquorice and aniseed flavours in a crumb,

in a sauce, in a little jam, really, really good.

Both you and I had a piece of duck on our plate that we could eat,

and one piece which just wasn't cooked enough.

Hazel put pears through a risotto with lobster bisque,

lobster, and truffle.

My lobster tail went mushy, which says to me it's been overcooked.

The rice had a real sweetness of pear,

because it had pear in it. I wasn't a great fan.

The butter sauce, that was well made.

My lobster, well cooked.

The rice cookery?

Definitely had a little bit of chalkiness.

I'm enjoying this. I'm passionate about cooking.

I want to get better.

So I just have the desire there to, you know, go all the way.

Getting through to the finals would mean a lot for me

in terms of my confidence.

And not many people can say it, right? MasterChef finalist.

I think I could even get a little bit of swagger.

JOHN: Who's joining Sam, Sophie, and Harry in the final four?

Who's going home?

This round showcased once more just how good you are.

And we've just had to make probably the biggest call of the competition.

There isn't a bad cook amongst you.

We've only got four places in finals week,

so sadly, one of you is leaving the competition.

There were two people today who really stood out.

Sam.

Harry.

Thank you.

Congratulations, you're through to finals week.

Well done, guys. Well deserved. Yeah, absolutely. Well deserved.

There was somebody else who we believe has done enough.

Sophie, congratulations, you're going through to finals week.

Well done. Thank you.

Thank you.

The last person through to finals week...

..is Claire.

Hazel, what a fantastic, fantastic competition.

But, sadly, you're leaving us. Thank you so much.

I'm sad, obviously.

But I loved every second of it.

I've grown as a person, I've grown as a cook.

I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

So I'm not leaving on a bad note, I'm leaving on a high.

Congratulations, you four.

Welcome to finals week.

Oh!

That feels absolutely epic, to be a finalist.

So let's find out what more there is in the tank.

I didn't think I could really do it, to be honest with you.

But now I can go into finals week all guns blazing.

I'm expecting to wake up,

and this is all going to be a dream.

I don't know... I think I need to, like, ground myself

and just make sure this is real.

Well done!

Finalist.

Sam, finalist... Oh!

..of MasterChef!

Yay! Well done, all!

Next time...

..it's the MasterChef finals...

Welcome to Athens.

..as the remaining four embark...

Here we go.

..on a culinary adventure of a lifetime.

Are we ready for this?

In the end...

If it's not cooked, I cannot send it.

..only one can be crowned...

It was perfection.

..MasterChef champion 2025.