Original subtitles

It's the MasterChef finals.

After eight weeks of relentless competition...

..only four extraordinary amateur cooks remain.

Tonight...

Our four are in for a culinary adventure of a lifetime.

Welcome to Athens.

It's completely surreal to be here.

This one tops it so far. Incredible.

To not only be in Greece,

but to cook here and to soak up the local cuisine

is going to be pretty special.

I'm going to learn

everything that I can here.

Yeah.

I cannot stop smiling!

We're in the pinnacle part of the competition right now,

so, you know, just got to give it your all,

and you never know where it can take you.

Three absolutely massive

challenges ahead. This is Athens,

and Greek food at its best.

Athens, a city steeped in

ancient history, with a rich

food culture, thousands of years

in the making.

From the seafood found around

the Greek islands

to the extraordinary meat

and dairy on the mainland,

it's food that's cooked from the heart.

Harry, Sophie,

Sam and Claire

will begin their culinary adventure on the outskirts

of the capital, at Margi Farm.

Ten acres of stunning landscape,

bursting with the finest

organic produce the Mediterranean

has to offer.

The foundation of great Greek food

is the produce. It's full of

sunshine and it's full of flavour.

Welcome to Finals Week, and welcome to Greece.

We brought you here to immerse you

in the great food of this extraordinary country.

Now, this farm supplies ingredients

to some of the finest restaurants within Athens.

And today, you have the honour of cooking that produce

and cooking for locals,

and you'll have three hours to do it in.

It is a mammoth task and, as such, we're going to split you

into two teams. Sophie and Harry, Claire and Sam,

there's your kitchens. Off you go.

The finalists will have the honour of being guided

by a chef fondly known as the First Lady of Greek Cuisine,

Argiro Barbarigou.

Since I remember myself,

I remember me in the kitchen.

Always around my mother, around my grandmother.

All the day, they were cooking.

With knowledge passed down through generations,

Argiro has gone on to open restaurants in Athens

and even America.

I cook and I share my love with my customers through the food.

She is one of the most loved

TV chef personalities

in the country...

SPEAKS GREEK

..and is a global ambassador

for Greek cuisine.

Argiro has given each team three well-known Greek dishes

for today's mezze-style lunch.

Sharing is very important. When you sit down in a table

with the family and the friends,

we share not only the food, we share our thoughts,

we share our feelings, we share our taste.

We share everything around the table.

Kalimera! Welcome to Athens, Greece. Good morning! How are you?

We're excited and nervous.

We are going to serve the best Greek food today.

So you must be organised, focus on the recipes and hurry up.

Yes. Pame! Let's go!

Claire is working on Argiro's version

of a traditional Sunday dinner

from the island of Corfu.

Pastitsada is wild rooster

in tomato sauce,

infused with a lot of spices.

This is an Ionian Island recipe,

very famous and very, very tasty.

Well, I am portioning the rooster.

I've got the leg and the thigh meat,

and I need to get those browning to get a bit of colour on them.

Now, a rooster is a male chicken.

The meat is a little bit more solid, and if it's not cooked properly,

it's going to be tough. That's why they must

start to cook rooster very early.

Ever used rooster before? Once, in France. Oh, brilliant.

For Greek people, it's very common to cook rooster...

..because everybody has roosters in the garden!

Look at that guy! Oh!

Sam is taking on the challenge of preparing one of Greece's

national dishes.

Kolokithopita means zucchini pie.

In Greece, we love pies.

The chefs are going to make their own filo recipe.

It needs a lot of attention.

So, start from the middle. Yeah.

They must knead the dough until it becomes very, very smooth.

Give your energy to the dough.

Now you have a smooth dough,

but smoother, smoother. Yeah. Bravo.

For someone who hasn't done it before,

it will be difficult.

Ah! I feel like I don't need to go to the gym after this!

Over on the Blue team...

I am making a deep hole in this cabbage.

We're going to take the outer layers off, steam it,

so we can make our cabbage rolls.

..Sophie is working on another mezze classic,

universally adored across the country.

Lahanodolmades.

One of the greatest recipes of the Greek cuisine.

Cabbage leaves,

stuffed with beef and lamb.

My flatmate is Romanian.

They have something similar called Sarmale,

so I am using what knowledge I have from that.

The cabbage leaves first have to be cooked, so they're nice

and soft and malleable, so that when the filling goes in,

which is raw, they're going to be wrapped up

nice and tightly so they don't burst open.

Team-mate Harry has a time-critical recipe

popular on the island of Crete.

Arnaki Fricassee, lamb with wild greens.

It's one taste that you are never

going to forget it in your life.

They must saute the lamb,

and then we boil it until it becomes tender and soft...

How long has the lamb got to cook for? The lamb's got to cook

for an hour and a half.

..and then we add the wild greens.

So, we've got

probably about five kilos' worth of greens going in.

They've all got to be chopped, boiled,

sauteed and then into the stew.

The recipes, they need a lot of work to prepare.

Guys, one hour's gone. There's only two hours left before lunch.

Back on the Pink team...

We still have, like, a lot to do, so...pressure.

..Sam's filo dough for the courgette pie is resting,

so he's turned his attention to their third dish

that celebrates the best of Greek seafood.

Calamari misto - stuffed squid.

The chefs must clean very well inside.

There is a lot of sand. Yeah. OK?

And you make a small hole here, tuck.

So you wash it like this.

Whhhhfff... Yes. It goes out,

everything. Yes. OK?

Also, embracing the best of the country's produce is Claire,

who's moved on to a tomato sauce

that goes with her rooster.

Got a Corfu spice mix. It's beautiful.

I will tell you the secret recipe

of Corfu Island spetsieriko.

Bayleaf, paprika, allspice,

nutmeg, cinnamon.

Oh, look at that!

All the cumin that you can smell.

It's full of layers of deliciousness,

slow-cooking all together to make something truly incredible.

The rooster will need two hours to braise,

so Claire can lend a hand on the squid stuffing.

Stuffed with a mixture

of cracked wheat with raisins,

lots and lots of herbs. And then the tentacles are going inside

the body of the calamari. This is whole new territory for me.

Not cooked in the right way, chewy like a boot.

And we do not want chewy squid in any way.

Beautiful. It IS beautiful. Well done on the vegetables.

Thank you so much. You're welcome, my dear.

Cabbage prepped, Sophie is in more familiar territory.

She's working on the Blue team's third dish,

which is plant-based.

Gigantes Horta.

Giant beans with wild greens.

We must boil the beans in low fire.

This is about taking dried beans, cooking them well,

make sure they're nice and soft.

The most important thing here is heart and flavour.

The amount of sheer chopping just takes so long.

The taste comes from onion,

garlic, herbs,

olive oil and the wild greens.

We'd need a whole brigade for this!

This is not a day for baked beans out of a tin.

This is where everyday, ordinary ingredients

have to become absolutely brilliant.

Harry's seared his lamb for the fricassee,

but it now needs to slow-cook for 90 minutes.

The lamb is the big worry, getting that nice and soft.

Yeah, we've done all we can do.

He now needs to carefully fill and roll 20 dolmades

with the beef and lamb filling.

You just need to roll these parcels nice and tight.

Hopefully, we'll get there,

but it's going to be right down to the wire, this one.

We have only one hour left. Yes, Chef.

Today's mezze lunch will be attended by the chefs

and farmers of Margi Farm,

who grew the produce the contestants are cooking with,

as well as some of Argiro's specially invited guests.

Cooking for 15 Greek locals

who have grown up with food like this, cooked by their mothers,

by their grandmothers, this is enormous.

Yamas!

Back in the kitchen, there's still a lot to do.

Ah-ha, ha-ha! Nearly.

Sam's courgette, carrot

and feta pie filling is prepped...

It's a nice, beautiful pie.

..but his next job

is the biggest challenge...

Sam, it's time for filo. We are going to run out of time.

..hand-rolling the delicate pastry.

This is a first for Sam.

Never tasted it, never made it.

It needs to be very, very thin.

I'm not too sure, am I doing it

right? Bravo! Bravo, Sam!

First time! Bravo! Bravo!

It needs to have lots of different layers...

You need sometimes to do this.

..and it needs to be really crispy when it's cooked.

It must be very, very thin.

Yes. Otherwise, it won't be crunchy.

OK, Sam? Yes.

Bravo! I trust you. Don't worry.

When the Chef done it, she's making it so easy,

but it's not that easy.

Oh, Sam, well done!

Never done it before?

Nope. First time.

Team-mate Claire has also made good progress with the stuffed squid.

It feels like the right bounciness,

and they've got some time to rest, so fingers crossed that's good.

Come on, Sam, we've got to get this pie in the oven.

Come on, come on, come on, come on. We can do this.

With service fast approaching...

I've nearly got a complete dish.

Thank God!

THUNDER CRASHES

The gods!

..Sophie's racing to get her beans in to bake.

The beans are looking good. They smell great.

I think once they, like, roast and they start getting some colour

on them, I think they'll be gorgeous. Gorgeous!

And Harry also needs to speed up.

It's rolling nicely. They're looking great.

So, yeah, much happier.

Once rolled, the dolmades

still need to braise for 40 minutes.

A few bits more to do just yet.

The clock is ticking for the finalists,

but to complete their mezzes,

each team will have to make a famous

Greek dip, with pitta breads.

So I'm making my first-ever taramasalata.

It's made of stale bread and fish roe.

Smoked aubergine as well. It's so lush.

They're going to be made into a lovely dip.

You have just half an hour left, and nobody's made breads.

A Greek meal without bread?

Sacrilege.

With everyone feeling the pressure...

..Sam needs to check on his pie.

I think the timer's gone off with this,

because that doesn't look like it's baked for me at all.

No, that doesn't look baked. I'm really worried now.

What's happening? What's going on?

So the pie, with the oven, it just went off,

so it will take me another 25 minutes.

What we're going to have to do is you're going to have to serve

the rooster... OK. OK. ..and get that across, so they start to eat.

And the Pink team aren't the only ones who are up against it.

Sauce to be done for these dolmades, breads to be finished off.

And Sophie's only just started

one of the most crucial elements

of Harry's lamb dish.

This is the most famous sauce

in the whole of Greece, so I really don't want to get it wrong.

Avgolemono.

Absolute classic Greek sauce...

You must whisk all the time with Avgolemono.

..using lemon juice and eggs together...

Keep whisking.

..with a warm broth to make almost

a mixture like mayonnaise, but warm.

Don't stop. It's very important.

Otherwise, it will split. OK.

We should be serving

in ten minutes, everybody. In ten minutes, we're serving.

OK, let's go and dress these noodles.

Here we go.

Oh, guys, it looks great.

Pink team, just so you know,

the Blue team are plating. You need to do the same time.

I think they look beautiful,

but I'm not exactly a squid expert,

so hopefully, they taste good.

Ooh! What smells perfect here?

What smells perfect?

Go, go, go, go, go.

Ooh, that's quite warm.

Hope you enjoy it. Enjoy. Enjoy!

Sophie and Harry's mezze consists of melitzanosalata,

a smoky aubergine dip, with pitta breads,

dolmades,

beef and lamb mince-stuffed cabbage leaves,

beans with wild greens,

and a lamb fricassee, with the famous avgolemono sauce.

Well done! Easily the hardest thing we've done so far. Absolutely.

That was very challenging. Not everything was perfect,

but, yeah, I think it's going to taste great.

I liked the eggplant dip.

It was smoky, rich in garlic.

The pitta bread, somewhat overcooked, somewhat undercooked.

But the melitzanosalata, it had a nice taste.

That aubergine salad is nothing short of delicious.

The breads, they're a little bit tough and a little bit chewy.

Harry's done the dolmades. He's done a great job of wrapping,

they're lovely and tight, and the meat inside is lovely and sweet.

The cabbage is cooked perfectly, and there's some great flavours.

I liked the beans. They were tasty.

They were nicely cooked.

Just was a lack of olive oil, for sure.

Sweetness of tomato, loads and loads of garlic.

The flavours are great.

The lamb was very juicy and very tender.

The greens were very well cooked.

And the sauce was very balanced.

The lamb is stunning.

Soft and beautiful,

falling away from the bone,

with this egg and lemon sauce.

Absolutely fantastic.

Claire and Sam have served

taramasalata with pitta breads,

squid stuffed with bulgur wheat, pine nuts and raisins,

and rooster in a Corfu spiced tomato sauce with pasta.

Taramasalata had a very good texture,

but then the pitta bread was amazing.

I like the fact that it was just chewy enough.

Beautifully smooth Taramasalata, sharp with lemon.

These pitta breads, they're puffed up.

I think they've done a great job.

The calamari, I don't think was very successful.

It definitely needed a little bit more cooking.

Some of the people in the dining room felt it was a little bit

undercooked. I've got to say, mine's absolutely perfect.

The nuttiness of that cracked wheat, lots and lots of onions,

which are all so sweet, and they're just delicious

and moist and beautifully cooked.

The chicken, it's just amazing.

The balance between the spices and the herbs, really, really well done.

Looks like a professional cooked it.

That rooster

is as moist as anything.

The spices in here are fantastic.

Cinnamon. Cayenne pepper.

Smokiness of paprika.

This is a great job.

Back in the kitchen, it's the moment of truth for Sam's filo pie...

Are you happy?

I'm happy, Chef. Looking good.

20 minutes late...

Sam, you made filo in Greece!

Kolokithopita!

..the Pink team's last dish is finally served.

The first and most important is to be crispy and crunchy.

It looks amazing.

The pie was an impeccable execution.

Like, shockingly good.

Filo was just perfectly flaky and crunchy.

The combination of the feta cheese

and the zucchini and the herbs...

..to die for.

Crispy pastry, fantastically sweet

and savoury and salty, all at the same time.

He's definitely delivered a pie of outstanding quality.

Those young chefs, I think

they did it well. They worked

very hard, and I'm proud of them.

THEY CHEER AND LAUGH

There was nothing straightforward about today.

I need a lie down. It was exhausting!

I now think of food differently.

It's not just Thai food any more.

It has other cuisines now, so...

That was easily the most

difficult thing we've done on MasterChef.

Times where I really didn't think

we were going to get it all done in time,

but I think we got there in the end.

It's absolutely a baptism of fire.

It will set us up amazingly for what's to come.

And hopefully, I survive it, because that...was intense!

It's day two...

..and the finalists are on their way to a restaurant

renowned for being at the forefront of Greek gastronomy.

Situated in the Margi Hotel

is Patio...

..a one-Michelin-starred restaurant,

with a cuisine that bridges

the divide between tradition

and innovation.

Their mentor for the day is

celebrated chef Panagiotis Giakalis.

Every dish has its story...

..and comes from our heart.

That's how us Greeks work.

We work with our heart.

I want to see them have the motivation.

I want to see the hunger.

It's exactly what I want to see in my cooks.

The finalists will each be responsible

for one course from the restaurant's extensive tasting menu.

Harry is in charge of the first course,

inspired by a classic Greek mezze dish of cuttlefish,

spinach and tomato.

What we did, we changed a little bit the basic of the recipes,

and we fix it with a twist.

One of the most difficult things, it's the plating... Yeah.

..and it's something that I'm going to show you right now.

Start by putting the spinach pesto.

The cuttlefish is cut into fine ribbons

and brushed with a tomato sauce.

They have to have a very good consistency in the tomato sauce.

It's crucial that Harry cooks

the cuttlefish to perfection.

If it gets hard, it will not roll.

I can't believe how tender the cuttlefish is.

The dish is topped with salted fish roe, called bottarga.

This dish, the most important is to watch the detail.

Finally, it's a tomato water.

That is a dish that we want to serve.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

It's a very intricate dish,

very delicate plating, with lots of different components,

so it's going to be a hard challenge in service when the heat's on.

They have to clean the cuttlefish good.

I've done it once before.

It's very similar to squid.

So, just about getting off

all the membrane.

And then it's going vac-sealed,

and going into the sous vide for nice tender texture.

This is astounding. I've never filleted a whole cod, ever.

Claire will have the pressure of cooking one of the restaurant's

signature dishes.

It's the only dish that is in our menu since the first day

that we opened, at 2016.

It's centred around cod, with a sun-dried tomato crust.

You cook the cod fish

83 degrees for six minutes. Yeah.

The cooked fish is topped with the crust.

It's butter. Butter. Parmesan. Beautiful.

Sun-dried tomato. Oregano.

The next stage is crucial. Wow!

Claire will need to torch the crust... Look at that.

..so that it melts, without overcooking the delicate cod.

That is beautiful. We give some colour to the crust.

Very important, because it makes the taste stronger. Yes.

We start by putting artichoke on the plate.

The fish is served with Chef's version of Greece's

famous avgolemono sauce.

Avgolemono is something very traditional in Greece,

but we do it in our way. Fennel. Garlic.

The eggs and the lemon, to have a nice foam.

The sense and the aromas that you take is all the summer in the plate.

Dress with the flowers.

I would order that in a heartbeat.

I'm so excited,

but also, absolutely terrified about getting that one right.

The cod has a curved rib cage,

so you can't go straight down,

because you'll lose most of the meat.

The cod will need to cure in salt before Claire can portion it.

If they leave the salt a lot,

we'll really have a salty fish and it will destroy all the dish.

Sam is tackling the main course, using a meat synonymous with Greece.

This is my first proper butcher on a Michelin-star restaurant.

For us in Greece, lamb is something very important.

We eat a lot. We love it.

Accompanying the lamb

is another element made with a Greek staple.

We fix something with olives, an olive puree.

Wow. On the puree, you need the texture to be very fine.

Absolutely, they have to watch out the cooking of the meat.

We want the lamb rose.

The lamb and olive puree are served

with white aubergines and a lamb sauce.

This is definitely a next level up, a step up for me.

I need to focus.

While Sam gets on with

his lamb prep...

..Sophie is finding her way around the pastry kitchen.

This smells so good.

I could drink this.

She'll be making a technically challenging dessert,

which combines sweet and savoury elements of chocolate

and black truffle,

created by executive pastry chef Manolis Stithos.

It might be the most difficult dish

on the menu...

We have also

a crumble, with chocolate.

..because it has many different preparations,

who need time to be done.

Do you like desserts? Well, I'm learning to like them.

After this, you're going to love to make desserts. OK, good to know!

Of the ten time-critical elements,

the biggest challenge will be recreating

a black truffle that's filled with chocolate mousse.

That looks like a savoury truffle.

Yeah. That's the idea.

And then you have actual savoury truffle in the ice cream.

In the ice cream, exactly. Amazing.

It's absolutely stunning.

I've never done anything like this before,

but I'm just really excited to give it a go.

With so many elements that need to set...

Yeah, this is ready now. ..it's crucial Sophie gets

her truffle ice cream in to freeze.

The ice cream is a preparation that has to be smooth...

I need an extra arm,

or maybe just some extra muscle!

..so that you can achieve the texture that you want.

There's some lumps left over.

I think I should have been whisking it more.

So I think I'm just going to do it again, just to be safe.

Half the prep time is gone...

..and Harry's onto the next stage of the main component

of his mezze-inspired dish.

You have to cut the cuttlefish,

so that we have the portions that we need.

So we're just going to get that on the meat slicer.

It's supposed to look like nice sort of almost pasta.

I want you to be very careful with this. Let's go, let's go.

It's very time-consuming, no?

If I don't do this bit properly,

I won't be able to get a nice shape on the...on the plate,

so it's really important.

Claire's making good progress with her cod dish.

So I've had the cod fillets

in salt for a while, but obviously, that's got to be washed off now.

Otherwise, it's going to be absolutely horrible.

She now needs to roll the fish into a ballotine...

Just making sure that I get all the air out.

..so it can be sliced into perfect medallions.

That seems very good. Thank you, Chef. That seems very well.

I've never done it before. What happened? Just nervous.

Sam's got his lamb butchered and filleted...

Very good job, my friend.

Very good. Thank you, Chef.

..but it's vital he gets his bones caramelising for the sauce.

I don't want to burn them.

They need to be, like, golden brown.

The sauce needs time to be cooked and have the time to reduce.

Oh, this is a workout!

Ah! Have you smelled it?

Yes. Huh? Gorgeous.

Sophie's remade

her truffle ice cream base.

Does it look better? Yeah. Yeah?

That looks how it's supposed to look, yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

While it's freezing, she has to tackle another challenging element.

I'm currently making the creme anglaise, or the mousse.

The chocolate mousse needs to be

very balanced and fixed with really great technique.

I just need to be careful that I don't, like, scramble it,

because no-one wants scrambled eggs in their chocolate.

If you're not concentrating, everything can go bad.

Finally got there.

Going to pour this in now.

It's starting to split.

With yet another failed element,

she'll need to start the mousse again.

How things are going? Um, had a couple of mental breakdowns.

I want you to think positive. Yeah.

If you start enjoying more what you're doing,

things will come up by their own in a better position. Mm-hm.

OK? Do you trust me? Yes, I trust you.

Yeah. Thank you, Sophie. Thank you, Chef.

I believe in you. I really believe in you. Thank you. Thank you.

There's just 45 minutes till service.

We need to push, customers are almost here!

Harry's got his cuttlefish sliced into ribbons...

Let's do this.

..but he's only just started another key component.

We've got about seven or eight kilos of tomatoes

that just need to stew down really softly.

We'll have to move fast, because we have the first dish. OK?

Across the kitchen, Claire's now starting

the most important element of the cod dish...

Because I just haven't done enough yet today to earn my keep,

now I've got to whisk like a demon!

..a labour-intensive foam, based on Greece's lemon sauce.

It's extremely hot!

I can't stop stirring, because my eggs will scramble,

and I'll have fennel scrambled lemon eggs. Fancy that?!

That's perfect. Let's go. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's 5pm...

..and the restaurant doors are open.

A restaurant full of people, buzzing with excitement.

MasterChef's in town,

and our four are going to have to step up to the mark.

With time running out,

Sam's still prepping his aubergine garnish.

Still got a fair bit to do.

I still have the olive puree to do.

As soon as I have done my puree,

I will be a little bit more relaxed.

After two major setbacks,

Sophie's starting to get back on track...

Everything good? Better. OK.

..and is ready to fill the truffle moulds with chocolate mousse.

I'm realising, as this recipe goes on,

that you need to be doing more than one thing at one time.

It's time to start the service.

Are we ready for this?

Yes, Chef! Yes, Chef! Yes, Chef! Yes, Chef!

Harry's up first, with his mezze-inspired starter.

It's looking good, tasting good, so, yeah.

His final job before plating is to gently warm the cuttlefish,

without overcooking it.

If Harry actually warms it too much, it will go rubbery.

Nobody in this restaurant wants rubbery cuttlefish.

Put everywhere some spinach. Let's go.

A little. Not more.

Stop, stop! Not more, less.

Exactly. Put it on the side.

Now you take, and you start to roll.

Harry now needs to create

the perfect swirl of cuttlefish.

You know why it's not rolling very good now?

It's hard. Why has that happened?

It is cooked already a little more than it should. OK.

Put it in the centre of the plate.

Exactly.

Set aside. You move to the other.

Exactly. Let's go.

You put the sauce here. Yeah.

OK. Let's go.

Increase your speed and let's go.

Focus must remain the same.

OK. Service, please.

They look OK. Could be better, but...

We need to increase the speed of the service.

We don't want people to stay without having food

on the...on the table. Let's go.

So much precision needed at speed. It's...

It's something else.

Let's go. Service, please.

Thank you. You did... You did a great effort.

You worked clean, you worked fast, and you really did your best.

OK. Thank you, Chef. Thank you, Harry. Thank you.

Wow!

Harry has made a traditional mezze dish.

Cuttlefish ribbons with tomato sauce,

spinach pesto and a tomato water.

I think it went OK overall.

You know, a bit disappointed in the presentation.

And the cuttlefish, I was staggered how quickly

it can overcook just by a little bit too much time in the steamer.

That cuttlefish is warm, but it's been cut so thin

that, actually, now it has the texture of pasta.

Definitely the flavours of Greece.

That's a fantastic dish.

Claire is next in the limelight

with her cod dish.

Is the fish ready? Yes, Chef.

She needs to work quickly with the blowtorch...

That's it. ..so the cod doesn't overcook.

Bravo, Claire.

Claire's dish is one of the restaurant's signature dishes.

And let's go for the service.

It's been perfected over time,

and Claire's only got one night to get it absolutely right.

With the crust cooked,

it's imperative Claire moves fast

to get the dish out hot.

Oh! I'm sorry, Chef.

We will clean it after. Thank you.

I want you to stay focused.

Let's go to service. Service, please.

Better and better every time. You see?

Service, please.

I have loved that. I have absolutely loved that.

Thank you very much, Claire. Thank you so much, Chef.

Thank you for letting me do the dish.

Why am I crying? Don't cry in front of the Michelin chefs!

I just don't think I could quite believe that I did that.

Claire's made cod

with a sun-dried tomato crust,

and avgolemono foam,

infused with fennel.

The fish was...very nice.

The best part of the dish was the sauce.

Very vivid, because of the lemon.

The fish, cooked beautifully,

and it's just falling apart.

Across the top, that lovely

little crust. The sharpness

is coming from the lemon sauce.

That's a job really well done by Claire.

Two courses done, it's now down to Sam to bring home the main course.

I'll just quickly turn them, and I'm just going to put

some butter, and then

some thyme and garlic.

Lamb, olives and aubergines.

Now, there's a classic combination.

The meat doesn't have much fat in it at all,

and that means he's got to cook it really, really gently.

This is exactly the cooking

that we wanted at the lamb. It's medium-rare.

With the lamb cooked to Chef's Michelin-star standard...

Yeah. No, no. Take, take.

That's my nightmare. Take something.

..there's one last technique for Sam to master.

So, there, and...

No.

We start to plating slowly, slowly.

OK. Let's go.

Ready? Yes, Chef.

Service, please. OK. Let's continue.

With a little help from Chef with the puree,

Sam is beginning to turn out faultless plates of lamb.

Service, please. Thank you.

It's the last one.

Service, please.

I'm really happy. You're smiling.

You know, it means that you enjoyed it.

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Wow!

I had so much fun!

So, was not expecting that!

Sam has served lamb loin

with aubergine,

green olive puree and a lamb sauce.

The lamb was really nice cooked.

It's really impressive.

The sauce is lovely and sticky.

The lamb, beautifully cooked.

The olive puree is lovely and salty.

That's incredible.

Last to serve is Sophie,

who's putting the finishing touches

to her chocolate mousse-filled truffles.

I can safely say I've never used one of these before.

Sophie's got dessert, and she has got herself a mammoth task.

She now needs to perfectly plate all ten components.

You can take out the ring.

This is a dessert that would unnerve the most professional of chef.

With so many elements that can melt,

it's crucial for Sophie to work at speed.

Very nice. Perfect. Thank you.

You bring these two, with the two truffles. Service, please.

OK, guys, let's go give some quality.

Yeah.

Let's call the service.

Service, please.

Two more? OK.

And we need a disc with the last two.

OK? Service, please.

Thank you that you put yourself

together and you made it. Oh, thank YOU!

You finally made it. Yeah, we made it.

I believe in you, I told you. Thank you.

Oh!

Wow! I mean, I guess

it's what you can expect from a Michelin-star kitchen.

Very intense,

but we got there in the end.

Sophie has served the restaurant's

chocolate truffle dessert,

with a black truffle ice cream.

It was an amazing presentation.

The flavours and the textures

are something that I really enjoyed.

So the chocolate truffles were my favourite part of the dessert.

I really liked it.

Sophie hasn't found it easy,

and you can understand why.

Technically, so very challenging,

but I think she's done a great job.

Personally, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed working with them.

And the result was good. I'm happy for them.

That was an honour, and I'm so happy and so proud.

With the little bits and pieces that went wrong,

I think overall, it was still a fantastic experience,

and one that I'll remember for a while.

I'm incredibly proud, especially when I had a bit of a wobble.

I proved myself, and that feels really good.

The more I've gone on in the competition,

the more I surprise myself that I can do it.

It's just the gift of this experience.

I hope they've got their heart and their head around Greek cuisine,

because what comes up next is enormous.

It's the final day in Athens...

..and in Vouliagmeni Bay,

to the south of the city,

the contestants are arriving

for one last challenge.

The third, and probably the toughest

challenge of this trip to Greece

so far. They, today, are on their own.

For one day only, they've been handed the keys to Akti,

a stunning seaside restaurant,

where they will be tasked with running their very own service.

Welcome, you four, to your own Greek restaurant.

You have to cook something truly exciting,

because your guests today include your mentors

both from the farm and the restaurant,

and Athens' leading Michelin-star chefs.

You've got three and a half hours. Make it great. Make it exciting.

Make it as Greek as you possibly can. Off you go.

Each finalist has created one course for tonight's VIP dinner.

Our four now have to take inspiration from their time

so far here in Greece.

They've got a chance here to show

their real heart and emotion on a plate.

Kicking off tonight's menu is Sophie...

No pressure! Serving to the Michelin-starred Greeks!

..who's putting her own twist on

a classic native vegetarian dish

called briam.

Briam is like a ratatouille,

and I'm doing that in a little tartlet.

So I'm going to make the tart case out of filo pastry, from scratch,

which I have never done before.

She's got to get that filo pastry made in enough time

that she can make the tarts,

fill them with all the vegetables in a really pretty manner,

and get it all baked.

What's the inspiration for your dish?

It's the olive tree that Athena gifted to Athens.

So, um, briam uses a lot of olive oils,

so I wanted to do a celebration of that.

Opposite you, there is a man who HAS made filo pastry. Exactly!

So are you going to be student and he's going to be teacher?

Exactly. He's given me a few tips and tricks already!

This dish definitely reflects

Sophie's time in Greece,

but it's also very much Sophie.

Her love of vegetables and vegetarian food. This is briam.

For the second course...

This is my first fish that I'm cooking in the competition.

..Sam is busy prepping

fillets of sea bass.

A beautiful big, wild sea bass.

That piece of fish needs to be cooked with real love.

It needs to taste like a gift from the gods.

I'm just checking all the bones,

to make sure that all the bones

have been taken out.

He's serving the fish with a tomato sauce...

Just add some cayenne peppers,

and I'm going to add some basil.

I've got some chilli and garlic in there as well.

..and crispy potato skins...

Trying not to break the skin is quite hard.

..filled with a black olive mash.

Like, the minute I touch them, it's break.

Fantastic idea. But those potato cups

that he's making, he's boiled them, and they're starting to fall apart

as he's scooping out the actual mixture.

Giving me a nightmare at the moment.

I need to calm down.

Claire is hard at work on the main course.

I'm doing a lamb dish, with sweet potatoes and aubergine puree.

So as traditionally Greek as I could do it.

Claire's dish is about Greek lamb.

Fantastic!

Little potatoes, which have been filled with a mixture of courgettes,

sultanas and pine nuts.

The filling that I did for the squid, actually, is something that

I was really inspired by, so that's going in,

but with slightly different flavours.

There's an aubergine puree, with lashings of garlic

and lots and lots of olive oil.

Like an aubergine salady-type thing that was done at the farm? Yeah.

Yes, exactly. Fantastic.

That's about as Greek as you get.

A lamb sauce rich with red wine.

But she's also using a Greek-style port,

which is quite sweet. Utterly beautiful.

I've just had that for the first time today.

With so many different things

going on the plate together,

this is a real risk.

I'm really excited to cook for our mentors.

I'm excited to give them my food.

Finishing off the menu...

Dessert! Yeah, yeah, my favourite!

..is Harry.

The last time I made a dessert, I nearly went out of

the competition, so hopefully, this one will be a bit better.

The dessert he's making is truly

as Greek as you can get.

Portokalopita.

The people I'm cooking for today certainly know a thing or two

about Greek cuisine, and it is on my mind that I'm cooking a classic.

Portokalopita is basically an orange sponge cake,

but it's made with torn-up filo pastry...

No ovens needed. Filo's drying out in the plate-warmer. Even better.

..and then it's all crushed up together to make a base for a cake.

That goes into the batters, here.

And then we've got a mix of oil

and some Greek yoghurt that goes in as well,

and then that goes in to bake. Harry's got to be careful here.

He's got an orange syrup, which is sweet.

He's got candied orange peel, which is sweet.

I need to get the white pith off it,

and then they're going to go into the oven to dry out,

and then they're going to get covered in sugar.

Can't be too much sugar on the plate.

So it's not going to be a sort of grandma's favourite

that gets taken round in the back of a car on a Sunday afternoon.

It's going to be a little bit more refined than that,

but hopefully still have the same flavours.

But you can't lose the heart of it. Exactly.

This is the sort of texture we're looking for,

so crumbling in your hands, nice and dry.

It's time for Harry to gently mix the dried filo

through his cake batter.

This is where it all goes well, or it all goes very wrong,

and I haven't got time to do it again.

Harry's got a great eye for detail,

he loves presentation,

and I hope he gets this absolutely right.

The cake needs to be in the oven for about 40 minutes,

and then it needs to rest.

It's one of those things that gets better with age.

Two hours to the first course, guys. Two hours to the first course.

So I'm just prepping all of my vegetables for my briam.

My tomato sauce is done.

I've made the filo dough.

I am yet to roll it out and see if it's worked.

I've got to say, I think our diners will really appreciate the fact that

she's going to make her own pastry...

You pull it? Yeah. ..which means

she's got to be very, very careful.

Gently, and pull. Gently, and pull.

Gently, and pull. Right. OK.

How long she cooks it for...

You got it. You got it.

..and whatever goes in that tart, that it's not too wet.

Sam's been a little superstar

and given me a little tutorial on this.

That's looking a lot better, Sophie. It's looking really good.

The student becomes the master, eh?

This looks good to me now,

but you just don't know until you put it in the oven and bake it.

It's always a gamble.

While Sophie gets on with assembling eight tarts

with multiple vegetables...

They're all not the same size.

..Sam's juggling several of

his garnishes at once.

Just want my potato to be, like, really crispy.

I'm doing the stuffing that will go inside my courgettes,

which is aubergine, mushroom, garlic and onions.

I still got the mashed potato to be done.

Pushing myself, but I think I can do it.

Claire's been working on the aubergines for her puree...

Ooh, that's hot!

..but she's worried about

another of her key elements.

I'm a bit concerned about my sauce.

The Greek port is much sweeter than I expected.

Oh, wow. Made a good old mess there.

Claire's got to work out how she's going to get these flavours

to work properly. I hope it doesn't get lost in translation.

Back in Pastry...

It feels great. It's cooked earlier than I thought.

..Harry's also conscious of sweetness,

and needs to get the balance right with the syrup

for his Portokalopita.

Well, I like it.

There's just 45 minutes till

the first course is served.

There's a bit of a change of gear going on now.

The guests today include the finalists' mentors,

Argiro Barbarigou

and Panagiotis Giakalis...

..as well as some of Greece's most renowned chefs.

GLASSES CLINK

Yamas! Yamas!

What I see now is that

there is totally a Greek influence in their menu,

so I really expect

good-quality food and tasty food.

The last days, they have been together

with two amazing Greek chefs,

so we're expecting a lot.

I haven't eaten all day, so my mouth is ready!

Sophie's first up with the starter,

but with service fast approaching...

Yeah, we're going to be tight.

..she's yet to bake her main component.

Sophie's going to make a briam tartlet.

Come on. In the oven. Go, go, go.

I think Sophie is quite brave, actually.

This is a very typical Greek dish,

and filo pastry is quite challenging to make,

you know, from scratch.

Tarts in the oven, she's now

got to finish the garnishes.

The most important part, for me,

is that she needs to find balance.

She adds the Greek yoghurt and cheese mousse,

which either can destroy the dish

or evolve the dish.

Go, go, go, go, go!

You've literally got four minutes. Four minutes to go.

Briam is one of my favourite flavours,

so, you know, I'm looking forward to try this version of briam.

Well done. Go. Right, put it there.

Sophie's tarts have baked in the nick of time...

Then how are you going to get that out?

Careful, careful.

..but she still has to get them out in one piece.

Oh! Is it not coming out? No? Just can't get a grip on it.

We have all grew up with a briam,

so we all know how good briam is.

It is out. Is it?

OK, great. Good job.

Lovely. Well done, you.

I'm super happy.

I think they look really good.

Pretty! Thank you.

Service, please.

Well done. Thank you.

It looks nice, yeah? Mm-hm.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I've done it!

I'm so proud of myself for doing filo pastry.

Yeah, that feels good.

Sophie has served a briam tart

with a fava bean puree

and a goat's cheese mousse.

It's absolutely beautiful.

The briam flavour is there, 100%.

The vegetables are cooked really well.

It respects the briam recipe.

She impressed me about the filo. The textures are perfect.

I would definitely serve this in my residence. Definitely.

The pastry is really thin and crispy on the outside,

the fava as smooth as you like, and the sweetness of honey

going through that goat's cheese mousse.

I actually think she's done a great job.

Back in the kitchen...

I just, uh, have to grill this

fish, everything else ready to go.

Sam is making grilled sea bass.

I just cannot rushing them.

I expect to be precisely cooked

and the skin to be crispy.

I see courgette,

tomatoes and basil.

I believe that it's summer in Greece in a plate.

Beautiful. Looks great.

A couple more now.

What's left to go on, Sam? Just the potato and courgette, John.

OK, you're on time, which is fantastic.

Service, please. Well done, Sam.

Ooh! That was intense.

Happy how it turned out.

The fish is the way I wanted it.

Down to the taste now.

I really hope they like it.

Sam's served sea bass

with aubergine-stuffed courgette,

crispy potato skin filled with black olive mash,

and a spiced tomato sauce.

The fish skin was crispy

and the flesh was juicy.

It was very, very good. I liked

very much the courgette with the stuffing,

because in Greece, we stuff everything.

Technique-wise, everything was perfect.

The potato, love the crispy skin.

Salty olives going through the potato itself.

Tomato sauce, sweet, but at the same time, spicy, with cayenne pepper.

Very Mediterranean. Next up is Clare's lamb dish.

How long have I got? Seven minutes.

Watcha! Man, that's hot!

They're so small,

ten seconds the wrong way, and they'll be overcooked.

Clare is making

a barbecue lamb fillet.

Oh!

As a Greek, I love lamb.

I think she's brave.

Can't wait to see it.

Ai-ya!

Aubergine with lamb match each other very good.

OK. You've got four minutes. Thank you.

Time flies when you're having fun!

She's doing OK. Aubergines here. Sauce is done.

Potatoes are done.

It's just a matter of her now getting it on the plate.

Service, please.

I'd do all that again right now,

so I've totally loved that.

Claire has served barbecue lamb fillets,

potato stuffed with roasted vegetables,

an aubergine puree

and a Greek port sauce.

My lamb was cooked medium-rare.

I liked a lot the taste of the potatoes.

Very tasty dish.

I really enjoyed the combination.

And if you ask me, that's a dish that I could eat again.

These little fillets of lamb over the coals, slightly smoky,

cooked perfectly. The sauce, slightly sweet,

but also, sharp. Smoky aubergine underneath there.

For me, that's very, very Greek.

As the sun begins to set

over the bay,

there's just Harry left to serve his Portokalopita.

Come on, Harry, let's do this, please. OK.

I think Harry should be very nervous,

because in this table, everybody knows about this dish.

Candied almonds and orange peel.

Orange tuile.

Orange sauce, served with

labneh, infused with lemon.

Sunset over the Aegean,

and a classic Greek dessert.

That looks fantastic. Service, please.

It was great, actually, yeah. Everything went on time.

Service was a bit manic, as always, but, yeah,

I was really happy with what I put out.

Lovely flavour of sort of rich marmalade orange

and fragrant orange through that cake. That labneh,

that thickened yoghurt, slightly sharp and sour.

I think that's a very, very good dessert, but I'm not Greek.

Visual-wise,

it was like my grandma is in the kitchen,

and I loved the crunchiness of the almonds and the tuile.

If you had put a little bit more orange,

then it would be really great.

We all know that Portokalopita

is a tricky recipe. It's a good effort.

After a long day in the kitchen,

the finalists' time in Greece is at an end.

You came to our country, you cooked our recipes,

you tried very much.

We all are very proud of you.

Bravo, guys! Bravo, guys! Bravo!

My time in Greece has been absolutely incredible.

It's completely redefined

what I think of Greek cuisine.

It's been really special.

Greece definitely opened up a whole new world for me.

I'm going to take that with me for the rest of my life.

It's just been so fantastic. I feel so lucky.

I've learnt so much. Yeah, it's been amazing.

I feel like I'm a better cook at the end of this week,

which is the whole point. So, Greece did its job.

Thank you very much!

Now it's back to the MasterChef kitchen for

the most important cook-off in the competition so far.

Four go to three.

Next time...

.the four finalists battle...

You got to go fancy!

Aah! ..for a place

in the final three...

Flaming brilliant!

This is adventurous.

This is brave. I think it's beautiful.

..and face their most daunting

challenge yet...

..Chef's Table.

Cooking for one of the world's greatest chefs,

Alain Ducasse.

Everything is high-level.

That's incredible.