Original subtitles

It's the semifinals of MasterChef: The Professionals. Come on!

After four weeks of intense competition... Fire! ..only the most

talented ten chefs remain.

I'm getting a bit panicky now.

Tonight, they cook off against each other for the first time.

Only the best will make it through.

I feel like MasterChef has taken oven

It's everything that I live and breathe right now.

All the hard work, all the stress, the ups and downs.

But I can't wait to get back in there and keep cooking.

Every round you go through,

you just want more and more and more.

It's addictive.

I want to be wowed.

They have to push the boundaries, because otherwise

they'll be left behind.

The competition is getting hot.

There is a champion waiting to be discovered.

Congratulations, you are our top ten.

For the first time, we can say the winner of this year's competition

is standing in front of us.

We would like you to make one outstanding dish

that is all about your favourite food memory.

Once we've tasted everybody's dish, we will choose our top five chefs,

and they will go straight through to the next round.

The remaining five will have to stay here and cook again for their place

in the competition.

Chefs with the blue aprons, you're cooking first.

Chefs with the red aprons, you will be going up second.

Thank you.

Chefs, I hope you're ready for this.

You have 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Let's get cooking.

Head chef, Chris, originally from County Durham, won a place

in the semifinals with his playful and creative take on classic dishes.

Every round so far, my food's getting better,

but this has to be a perfect dish.

There's no two ways about it, I need a ten-out-of-ten.

Chris, what dish are you making for us?

So, on a Friday night, Mam would make steak and chips.

Saturday, it was takeaway day.

I'd have Chinese, Thai.

So you're going to end up with steak tartare with the Asian flavours,

hash browns as the chips, and con fit egg yolk done in sesame oil.

You want to recreate your Friday and your Saturday night?

Yeah, Friday and Saturday. That's just greedy!

Chris, love his story, and I'm really interested to try

this steak tartare.

You've got the classic flavours, but we've also got

the beautiful gochujang ketchup.

It's a chilli paste, but what you don't want

it to be is too powerful in the chilli.

A good tartare is all about the balance of ingredients.

Confit egg yolks, they are tricky.

If you get the timing wrong, it'll burst.

You want to make sure you've

a steady hand and you've got a bit of time to take care of them.

It's a really risky dish,

but if I get it right, it's a banger.

Portuguese-born senior sous chef Wilson has stood out

in the competition with his modern style and daring

and original flavour pairings.

I feel quite happy with this dish, actually.

It just speaks a lot to me when it comes to memories

of growing up with my grandfather.

So today I'm going to be cooking a praline in a sweet rice, hazelnut

cookie, compressed peaches, honeycomb and rice ice cream.

In a way, it's kind of like a sweet risotto.

Why this love of sweet rice, where does this come from?

My grandpa used to cook me sweet rice all the time.

And the reason why I wanted to have a praline is because we only

had, once a year, praline chocolates.

So that was my Christmas gift for my grandfather every year.

So it's like, I want to use

this with the rice that my grandpa used to cook.

Wilson is creating a sweet rice pudding, which is going

to have hazelnut praline through it.

If he keeps that rice silky and smooth and rich and creamy,

this could be delicious.

He needs to be very careful with the honeycomb, the white peach

and the sweet rice.

It could all be just a little bit too sweet.

Being able to cook this dish, which is in my grandfather's hon our,

it's a great thing for me.

So, hopefully, the judges will be wowed.

Chefs, 30 minutes gone already.

Nikita, a chef de partie originally from Derby, has impressed

with exceptional dishes, combining her classic training

with inspiration from her travels around Asia.

This is huge. I mean, I've worked so hard to get here.

I don't want to go home now.

Nikita, tell me the dish.

So I'm doing an ume savarin. What's a savarin?

It's sort of like a brioche,

which is soaked in the syrup, usually with alcohol.

In this case, I'm using umeshu,

which is Japanese plum wine, with lime and ume jelly, crystallised

shiso in a shiso sorbet. Wow!

I travel led for a month in japan when I was 17,

on my own. I absolutely fell in love with the flavours of japan,

especially ume, it was something they had everywhere.

Your mum and clad let you travel round japan on your own at 17?

Yeah, it was my dad's idea, actually.

They just wanted to get rid of me.

Nikita is doing a French dessert with the flavours of japan.

Why not?

Umeshu savarin sounds delicious.

What we're looking for here is that she gets the right ratio

of umeshu and sugar so that it doesn't make the savarin soggy.

You're going to crystallise your shiso leaves? So I'm going

to brush them with oil and dust it with icing sugar, and back

in the microwave till they're crisp. Sounds good.

So far in the competition,

sous chef, Gabriella, from Liverpool, has wowed with cuisine

from her Italian heritage.

Cooking with flavour and passion.

It's worked well for me so far,

so I think I just need to keep on doing what I know.

This is absolutely the first food memory I've got.

You know, after mother's milk, it was a bowl of pasta.

So, one meal in our house that is cooked weekly is veal

Milanese with pasta pomodoro.

That's a breaded piece of veal and a tomato sauce pasta, right?

Exactly, yeah. But I'm just going to try and elevate it a bit.

So we're doing veal sweetbreads, and then a Parmesan fondue, tortellini,

and then a tomato consomme just to kind of light in the dish

up a little bit.

One of my favourite treats is a crispy rose veal sweetbread.

Gabriella is covering hers in panko, and she's going to pan-fry

the sweetbread.

She's making a Parmesan fondue, it'll sit within

that beautiful-sounding tortellini.

Once she's cooked the tortellini, that lovely fondue comes oozing

out into the dish.

Tomato consomme is a beautiful way of celebrating the tomato.

It should be crystal-clear and bursting with flavour.

There's a lot going on, but you have just 20 minutes.

Senior chef de partie,

Charlie, originally from Dorset, won over the judges with elegant dishes

showcasing his passion for getting the most out of his ingredients.

Charlie, tell me the dish today, please, Chef.

So I'm doing a poached lobster, watercress pesto, stuffed potato

and a lobster and watercress sauce.

My great uncle owns a watercress farm, so when I was younger, we used

to pick our own watercress, and then Mum would make stuffed

potato, shove loads of cheese and watercress and butter inside,

and then that was our dinner.

Watercress is a big, peppery flavour to put with a lobster.

I'm looking forward to this, Chef. Thank you.

I'm doing lobster and watercress,

quite powerful ingredients, both of them.

But I want to showcase that I am skilled enough to be able to put

that two together and make an incredible dish.

And they do go together when you get it right.

This is a dish that's all about the fresh ingredients.

Watercress - peppery, great flavour.

For the watercress pesto, we've got the tops, we've got the stems,

and we've got some toasted hazelnuts, too.

That'll bring a lovely nut element.

Charlie is making an elevated baked potato.

He's scooping out the flesh, and he's going to put it back

in with the watercress butter a little bit of pickled shallot.

I imagine for this to be crispy and luscious at the same time.

Chefs, we have five minutes. Let's start plating.

Final touches. 30 seconds, please.

That's it! Your time is up. Stop, please.

Stop, stop, stop!

Oh, everything looks gorgeous.

Yeah. Yeah.

Inspired by his uncle's watercress farm and his mum's stuffed potatoes,

Charlie is serving poached lobster claw and tail with a watercress

and hazelnut pesto,

and a lobster and watercress sauce, and potato skins stuffed

with watercress butter mash, pickled shallots, hazelnuts

and watercress tops.

A fantastically cooked lobster tail, it's lovely and soft

and juicy and sweet.

It's a lovely sauce.

It's got a great sweetness to it.

Very, very nice dish, that, Charlie, thank you.

Your pesto is bright and green and undeniably tastes

of watercress and hazelnuts.

Your stuffed potato is lovely.

The pickled shallots through it really elevate it and lighten it up,

and I can taste watercress off it.

I think you've done a great job, Charlie.

I like this dish, Charlie.

I like the way that watercress and the hazelnuts keep occurring.

They just keep flowing through the dish. Well clone. Thank you.

It was OK.

Definitely, I made my mum proud for the potato.

I'm glad the watercress came through, cos obviously that's

a huge point of my story.

Yeah, I'm happy with what feedback I did get, definitely.

Chris's dish is inspired by Friday night steak and chips

and Saturday night takeaways.

He has made steak tartare, marinated in Gochujang Korean chilli paste

ketchup, with a sesame con fit egg yolk on a broccoli and sesame puree

and crispy hash browns, finished with an Asian-styled broth,

poured over dry ice to create the aroma of a takeaway.

I like the little theatre, the presentation on the box.

You've got your classic tartare and then you've got the flavours

of the Gochujang ketchup added into it.

I'm getting neither one or the other standing out.

Personally, I think you would have been better if you'd have used

a classic tartare and put the sauce on a plate

and you could clip into it.

The hash brown's a nice idea and it's a good take on chips.

The tartare I like, but it hasn't taken me into the world of Asia.

I've never had a sesame con fit egg yolk.

It's got a lovely explosion of that toasted sesame flavour.

But the flavour, as I eat the steak tartare, all I can taste is sesame.

It's a romantic idea of the weekend coming together, but I think

it needs a bit more work.

I'm feeling a little bit deflated, you know.

I wanted to go in there and get a ten, and I never got a ten.

Kicking myself, to be honest. Not the way I wanted it to go.

In memory of his Portuguese grandfather,

Wilson has made Arborio rice pudding sweetened with hazelnut

praline cream and topped with a hazelnut-laced biscuit,

white peaches and honeycomb served with rice ice cream.

The rice pudding in the bottom is delicious.

That lovely praline that you've folded through the rice pudding,

I've never heard of that before.

Your laced biscuit,

it's really crispy and flavoursome and very well executed.

Thank you, Chef.

Lovely flavours of the rice and the biscuit.

There's, like, toasty sweet nut.

There's, like, a vanilla, but with a honeycomb as well,

it's too sweet.

I couldn't finish the whole thing.

I think the ice cream could be better,

maybe add a little bit more flavour into the ice cream.

But it's interesting.

Thank you, Chef.

I feel happy after the challenge.

I cooked the food I wanted to cook.

It does say, "Sweet rice," you know?

HE LAUGHS

In an homage to her Italian family's veal Milanese

and tomato pasta,

Gabriella has cooked pan-fried veal sweetbreads in panko breadcrumbs,

topped with Parmesan,

and tortellini filled with a Parmesan fondue,

with tomato tartare, and a tomato consomme.

Your sweetbread,

mine is lovely and creamy and perfect on the inside.

But the consomme makes the crispy sweetbread soggy.

Tortellinis aren't great, they're not well-made, and they're flat.

But the cheese inside is lovely.

The Parmesan, I love the flavour, just more of it.

That's what I want this dish to be, all about that cheese flavour.

And then the sweetbread.

That sweetbread does not work in that pasta dish.

I mean, for the simple thing that once you put crispy into wet,

it's no longer crispy.

I'm a little bit disappointed, I'll be honest.

I feel like I've let myself down a little bit.

Inspired by her time spent travelling in japan,

Nikita has made a classic

savarin sponge cake soaked in umeshu, ajapanese plum liqueur,

topped with poached plums, creme diplomat and a sugared

shiso leaf crisp,

with plum puree, umeshu and lime jelly, almonds and a shiso

and lime sorbet.

I have to say straight away,

"Mm!" That looks great.

You're savarin, it's beautiful.

It's perfectly cooked. Soaking it in that beautifuljapanese

plum wine is a stroke of genius, it's really good.

That perfectly poached plum is just the right ratio of fruit.

This is brilliant, Nikita.

That diplomat cream on top is just absolutely delicious.

It's intricate, it's delicate,

it's bold, it's executed beautifully well. Thank you!

So you've put sugar over a shiso leaf and stuck it in the microwave,

and it's made a crispy, sweet wafer with a bitter finish!

I couldn't be more impressed if it jumped up and sang me a song.

You smashed it.

Really smashed that one, well clone.

I can't believe the feedback I got on that pudding.

I mean, I believed in the dish, but I didn't get a negative comment,

which has never happened before to me.

Yeah, I feel great.

LAUGHS: Yeah!

Great start to the semifinal.

The chefs were pushing themselves, and that's what we want.

I see two chefs who have clone really well.

We've got a couple right now that should be slightly nervous.

Everything depends now on how the next five chefs cook.

Let's do it. I really can't wait to see what they've got.

Right, we've seen the first five.

Now it's your turn.

We want a beautiful dish from you based on a food memory.

1 hour and 20 minutes.

Off you go.

Devon-born head chef, James, won a place in the semifinals

with his passionate and energetic approach to classic cookery.

Clearly, I performed well to get myself to here, but I've still got

a lot to show. There's still a lot of tricks up my sleeve yet.

So my dish is a cod loin with pan-fried scallops, pepper puree.

We've got some really meaty chorizo.

What's the memory that's inspired the dish?

So, when I was a kid, I was terrified of fish.

Like, I'm talking, I couldn't even look at it,

I couldn't touch it.

What was the turning point from hating fish to being in love

with the fish? Being scared of getting shouted at at work?

"Get on the scallops, get prepping!"

It looks like you've clone a kind of...

I've done some good jobs. There's ones I'm not too happy about.

Do you want me to not look? Please!

I'm afraid it's my job, I'm supposed to look.

THEY LAUGH

I'm very proud to hear that he's overcome his fear of fish.

What we need for him now is to take that cod and perfectly cook it.

Pan-fried on the outside,

so we want it crispy and golden-brown.

Scallops are going to be fried in the pan with the chorizo,

so the flavour of the oils, of the chorizo, should seep

into the beautiful scallops.

You've got big, strong flavours here.

You've got saffron as a flavouring with the potatoes

and the black garlic puree.

I just hope that the dish is balanced.

Despite some controversial flavour combinations, junior sous chef,

Anastasia, made a strong start to the competition.

I think my performance has been pretty good so far,

but there's definitely areas of improvement.

I want to show them a little bit more, especially from my younger

years, which is what my dish today is based on.

The memory behind this dish is cooking braised chicken

with my mum, growing up.

She's a really great cook and Sunday lunch is always a really big thing

in our family. When Mum's in charge, what are your jobs? Gravy.

SHE LAUGHS Vegetables, if I'm lucky.

Is your chicken as good as Mum's?

I hope so. I would be very mortified if it wasn't.

We all have our roast chicken memory that our mammy made,

so she is really got to knock this out of the park.

We need a perfect roast chicken, skin needs to be golden -brown

and crispy, and the breast needs to be still moist and juicy

in the centre.

There's a few little twists that go into her dish.

We've got the truffle cauliflower cheese bonbon.

We've got some roasted rhubarb.

Now, that's the bit I didn't expect on this dish.

Rhubarb probably doesn't naturally go with roast chicken to a lot

of people, but I think it works.

The judges might think differently.

You do realise you may be playing with fire here, don't you?

I do, but it's the semifinals,

I need to push myself out my comfort zone.

25 minutes gone, Chefs, OK? 25 minutes gone already.

23-year-old senior sous chef, Sagar, has bowled over the judges

with his ambitious, modern interpretations of dishes

from his Indian heritage.

I think I impressed the judges with the spice element

that I'm giving into every single dish.

Today, I'm giving so much to do for myself,

but let's see what the judges will think.

Sagar, you always have a very colourful bench.

What's inspired your dish?

So the memory is the festival Holi we celebrate in India.

We cook at home and the guests come.

So we put the colour on their faces and then we ask them

to have some food.

So it's like a whole of a buffet.

So we're not getting one plate,

we're getting a series of little dishes? Yes.

Are you going to get it clone in time? Hopefully, yes.

It's an Indian celebration.

Lots of things to choose from.

We've got a roasted cauliflower

curry with a butter cauliflower sauce, I love the sound of that.

Sagar's making dahi bhalla.

This is a white lentil-based mix that he's going to deep-fry

and then soak afterwards.

He's also making poori, which is a little Indian bread,

which puffs up beautifully when it's cooked,

and that'll be lovely with all the little clips and sauces

that you've got around the dish.

He's going to make a saffron and yogurt-based dessert,

which is going to have all sorts of delights on top,

it's going to have nuts and spices.

I mean, this chef has got a lot of work to do today.

Swedish-born sous chef, Theres, has delivered knockout dishes

inspired by her love of Scandinavian cookery

and its smoke-infused flavours.

With this dish, I'm going to do a lamb loin.

We're going to have apple, butter-baked hispi cabbage,

smoked celeriac puree, lingonberries.

And this is really flavours we're using in Sweden.

Does this dish mean a lot to you?

Yeah. My mum, she always cooked Sunday dinner for us.

She passed away when I was young.

Yeah, so this dish is a memory for my mum.

This why I think I feel a lot of pressure on me to make.

Theres is making smoked celeriac puree and drying it out to make

a celeriac tuile.

She's taken the hispi cabbage,

she's cooked it in loads of butter, and then she's just wrapped

it in some beautifully cooked apple.

I can't wait to try it.

She's left the lamb to the very last minute.

It needs to be cooked just right.

You don't want any blood coming out of that lamp.

You've got about 20 minutes to go. Yeah.

How long is the lamb going to take? It's going to take 50 minutes.

Are you sure? Yeah.

24-year-old Welsh head chef, Owen, earned his place with solid dishes

showcasing classic ingredients and techniques.

Obviously, I've done well to get here, but if I'm being honest

with you, I feel like I haven't done that one standout dish yet,

and that's what I'm aiming for.

I think if I nail this one, I've got a good chance.

What's the dish here, please, Owen?

So I'm doing Anjou squab pigeon with wild mushroom fricassee,

celeriac fondant, candied hazelnuts and wood sorrel.

I've been foraging when I was younger with my dad a lot

because, obviously, in Wales the forests are in abundance.

Do you want to give your children aspects of your own childhood?

Hopefully, my daughter will have the same experience.

Are you going to take her foraging?

Yeah, definitely, when she's old enough.

Just started walking, so maybe not quite yet. Ha-ha-ha!

Owen's squab pigeon sounds delicious.

Classical combinations that we've had before, but when it's clone

well, it can be a triumph.

I want the squab pigeon lovely and caramelised on the outside,

and then a beautifully pink flesh underneath.

Celeriac fondant, you want cooked to perfection, nice and soft

and oozing with butter.

Owen's roasting off the pigeon bones for his pigeon sauce,

and this is really key to get that strong, robust flavour.

Chefs, you have ten minutes left.

Sugar.

It's not going to be able to rest, is it? You've got a minute.

Whoa, that's it! Stop, time's up. Oh, God.

Well clone.

How did you do? Just... just? Yes!

Well clone, man.

To celebrate overcoming his fear of fish,

James is serving pan-fried cod loin and scallop cooked in chorizo oil

on a red pepper puree with saffron potatoes, chorizo, black garlic

puree and roquito peppers.

I love these flavours, I really do.

I love that black garlic,

there's a sweet sharpness to that, but I've got translucent bits

of the scallop and the cod.

The scallop, for Gregg, could have clone with a bit longer.

I would eat that.

The pepper sauce is just absolutely delicious.

It's fresh, it's vibrant, you feel like you're in Spain.

It's lovely.

Thank you, Chef.

You have some really interesting flavours on the plate,

chorizo and the saffron and the red peppers,

but I'm not sure they're all completely balanced.

Thank you, cheers.

I'm just really disappointed about those scallops.

So I've just got to hope that I've done enough with my flavour

combinations and style to get myself through.

In hon our of her mum's Swedish Sunday dinner, Theres

has made roast lamb,

served with buttered hispi cabbage wrapped in poached apple, topped

with a celeriac tuile, smoked celeriac puree with a black pepper

and apple gel, raw lingonberries and a lamb sauce.

The celeriac puree has a smoky feel to it.

It's earthy, it's rich.

Your sauce is lovely, but your lamb is undercooked and you didn't manage

to execute your tuile, that's not crunchy at all.

I am loving this apple, cabbage, rosemary combination.

Your gel is lovely and refreshing, but lamb definitely needs resting,

and sauce a little bit bitter for me.

You use smoke and you use combinations that are risky

and daring, but you use them really well.

But you will need to sharpen up in areas of your cookery.

I was not happy.

I know what was wrong,

the lamb was not perfect,

so I think it's going to hang on that.

In memory of foraging with his dad

in Wales, Owen has served squab pigeon, topped with chopped

hazelnuts, chives and truffle shavings

on a celeriac fondant with con fit pigeon leg,

celeriac puree, wild mushroom fficassee

and a Madeira and black truffle sauce.

The pigeon is beautifully cooked.

I love the caramelisation on the outside. I love the nuts

and the truffle that you've got on top,

it's like a little salsa of flavour.

The mushroom fricassee is delicious, beautifully sauteed.

Thanks, Chef.

Your salary puree is beautiful.

Silky, sweet, earthy, yum.

When that sauce mixes with any element on this plate,

it enhances it. It's very, very delicious.

Thank you.

It's so working for me.

I've tasted a lot of food today, and I'm on the verge

of finishing this plate. HE CHUCKLES

Really happy with those comments.

That's what I've been waiting for that, that all three judges

are in unison with the comments and stuff.

So, yeah, unbelievable.

Inspired by her mum's chicken roast dinner, Anastasia is serving roast

chicken breast with a cauliflower truffle and cheese bonbon

on a watercress and leek puree with roasted baby onions, leeks

and rhubarb, finished with a chicken sauce.

I love the cauliflower little bonbon with the truffle running through it.

Ancl the sauce is absolutely sensational.

So the fact that you've been on

gravy duty all of your life has paid off.

But the chicken is overcooked, and the leek, the rhubarb

and the little baby onions are not working together.

Love elements of it, but there are bits that I don't like.

Your sauce, you could go for a paddle in.

I mean, it is thick, it's really meaty,

there's a hint of sweetness to it, and it's making my

lips stick together.

The rhubarb is a no for me,

it doesn't enhance any of the flavours on the plate.

When something is on the plate, it's got to be a star.

Otherwise, it shouldn't be on there.

That was tough.

I didn't feel as in control as I normally do,

it definitely reflected in my food.

So we'll just see.

Finally, in celebration of Holi festival, Sagar has made

dahi bhalla - deep-fried white

lentil balls with fresh pomegranate and chilli,

ginger and cumin-spiced yoghurt, cauliflower roasted in masala

spiced yoghurt, carom seed puree bread, a butter and paneer curry,

fried Petra leaves with sesame seed and coconut tempeh,

and shrikhand - saffron and cardamom-sweetened yoghurt, topped

with rose petals, pistachio and edible silver leaf.

Sagar, hats off to you.

It takes a very brave chef to cook so much when you're only

asked to do one dish.

The lentil bowls in yoghurt is delicious.

The pomegranate just explodes in your mouth, it's brilliant.

Thank you, Chef.

I think my favourite part of your wonderful festive plate,

it's that tandoori cauliflower.

It just is warming,

but it keeps giving in a very pleasing way.

This dessert is divine.

You've got yoghurt, sweet pistachios,

and then, of course, heady, beautiful saffron.

I love, love, love your food.

I don't know how I done on time, but I was just running,

running, running, running.

I feel very, very happy just now,

it's like I'm celebrating the Holi again.

HE LAUGHS

We've now seen all ten and we need to pick who we believe

need to cook again.

I'll tell you who we loved - Nikita.

Beautiful dish, tasted fantastic.

Without a doubt, Nikita goes straight through.

Sagar and his colourful tray of some of the most wonderful

flavours and spices.

For me, that was just a stand-out show of cookery

and balance of flavour.

Charlie, the lobster was absolutely delicious.

The watercress was clotted through this dish beautifully.

Yeah, I think Charlie deserves to go through. Absolutely.

Can I venture one more name?

Owen.

Lovely cookery from this young chef.

Yeah, I agree. I actually think

that's Owens best dish to date. Yeah.

Now, who hasn't quite clone enough?

Chris is cooking again? I think so. Trying too hard to impress,

and he just needs to just pare it back,

he needs to prove himself once more.

Gabriella, with the sweetbread, the filled pasta,

we all had issues with it.

I wasn't crazy about the crunchy sweetbread being made soggy

by the consomme.

I think she has to cook again.

We've got four more to discuss.

Anastasia, you two didn't like the rhubarb on the plate.

I don't think the chicken cookery was very good, but sauce-making,

I enjoyed that, and I liked the little cauliflower and the truffle.

We all liked aspects of Wilson's rice pudding.

I thought the actual rice pudding was delicious,

as was the laced biscuit.

For me, I still think it was too sweet.

James. The dish worked for me, I enjoyed the flavours.

However, I've got undercooked cod and I've got an undercooked scallop.

Theres. I've got another undercooked bit of meat on the plate.

Yes, my lamb was a bit undercooked, but the sauce was delicious,

the puree was delicious.

Welcome back.

Five of you will be going straight through to the next round and five

of you will be staying here to cook again.

We believe there were two absolute stars in this round.

Nikita, Sagar, congratulations.

Brilliant work.

OK, Owen,

Charlie, well clone,

you are going through to the next round. Congratulations.

Yes! Yeah!

Nice one! SHE LAUGHS

Oh, who's the fifth one? I don't know.

The final chef going through to the next round is...

...Wilson.

Wilson, congratulations.

Through you go. Thank you.

Well done, man. Well done! Well done!

Hey, congrats for everyone. So great to be in this group.

THEY LAUGH

It's just such a relief to not have to cook again.

You now have a second chance to prove to us that you deserve

to stay here.

We have an invention test for you now, and we want

you to create a wonderful dish using all of the leftovers

from the last challenge.

At the end of this, two of you will be leaving the competition.

Chefs, come up and choose your ingredients.

This is where our chefs really need to come out fighting.

They're going to have to think out of the box if they're going

to stay in this competition.

There are a few leftover bits of fish here.

I feel like I need show a bit more fish cookery.

So, yeah, I'm excited.

I've spotted some things, that I'm really looking forward

to using up, I'm hoping that I can deliver some

really good plates of food.

I think I'm going to go for an Indian menu where I maybe steer

away a little bit from the Italian roots.

Right, Chefs, time's up.

You've got an hour and 30 minutes. It's time to cook.

Chris, what are you making?

This is a very classical-style

dish - pigeon breast, celeriac, wild

mushrooms, beetroot, and a Madeira jus.

This is a real move away from what we saw in the last round.

Absolutely. Why have you clone this? it just backfired in the last round.

So, yeah, I felt like I was creating a dish, and I may not have ordered

that on a menu. This I would order.

Chris has chosen the pigeon,

he's taken all the pigeon breasts off the bone.

When you're cooking pigeon, that's not on the bone,

he has to be very careful he doesn't dry out that meat.

He's creating this kind of mushroom and pigeon leg mix

that is going to be wrapped in celeriac and then blowtorched.

I hope he can focus correctly on all the elements to make

this whole dish sing.

Anastasia, how do you feel about leftovers?

Do you know what, we've had some really great ingredients,

so I'm happy. I'm doing pan-fried cod,

I'm going to brush that in a little bit of chorizo oil.

Butternut squash, pearl barley risotto, crispy sage, sage oil

and a pangrattato for a bit of texture.

What did you learn from the last round?

I think the stress showed in my food, showed in my plating,

so I'm just trying to enjoy this cook.

Anastasia's got sage, butternut squash, pearl barley.

These flavours were born to be put on a plate together.

The addition of cod was a nice move.

I think chorizo will really give it a good layered flavour.

She's making a butternut squash puree and then she's going to mooter

that back into the pearl barley risotto. Lovely!

But the barley needs to be cooked just right.

Theres is doing a selection of vegetables that she loves.

She's going to cook them in lots of different ways.

She's going to fry some cauliflower,

she's going to deep-fry some mushrooms,

she's going to take some chives and turn them into a mayonnaise.

She's created a cauliflower puree and she's going to smoke it

using a smoking gun.

Theres has got a pam full of vegetables and mushrooms,

and she's making vegetable and mushroom broth.

She's packed loads of ingredients into that pan.

It sounds quirky, I can't quite picture it,

and I hope it's delicious.

Where does the inspiration for this come from?

This is my kind of cooking at home.

After working all week and coming home and not having so much

in my fridge, take what I have and try to do a nice meal.

Chefs, you have 30 minutes left.

Are you doing a dessert? I am indeed. Whoa! Why?

Now is the time to showcase another side of what I can do.

So I'm going to use up the apples, and I'm going to make an apple

puree, which I'm going to put

on the bottom of a sweet pastry tart.

I'm going to do some nice compressed rhubarb, some fresh apple,

some caramelised apple.

I'm going to make some salt caramel, and then I'm going to top it off

with an Italian meringue.

So you've got a load of sweetness, a load of lovely fruit

in all different textures. So, let's hope it works.

James is making an apple tart that's got topping of lovely Italian

meringue, and Italian meringue is

slightly thick, and it's absolutely delicious with a tart like this,

but he does need to make sure that it gets it whisked up well.

That's all right.

What he needs to do is create the most delicious apple puree

that is bursting with flavour.

His salted caramel could be a nice touch, but also could be just adding

too much wetness to this dish.

Your tarts have just gone in the oven now?

They have. We are a little bit fine, finer than I wanted it to be.

Gabriella, what are you going to make?

I'm putting the Italian food aside for the day.

I'm making a dhal with a chargrilled scallop.

I'm going to do a little onion bhajis and possibly

a little poori bread on the side.

Why are you moving away from the food that you know and love?

My mum makes the most amazing dhal, so I'm kind of just going

on the smells and the flavours and remember what my mum does.

That's a very bold thing to do at this stage in the competition,

completely change your style. We'll see.

A great dhal is layered with flavour - your garlic,

your onion, your spices,

but to put chargrilled scallops on top of that sounds interesting,

but I really hope she does something with the scallops

so that they can really stand up to that dhaL

When it comes to her onion bhaji,

I really hope she gets this on as quickly as she can.

You want to make sure you've got the full time to cook that whole mix

together so it's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

We have five minutes to secure your place in this competition,

five minutes.

Everything else is done now,

I've just got to wait for these tart cases, so...

Don't run out of time. No, Chef.

That's it! Time's up.

It looks stunning. Looks beautiful. Thanks.

To stay in the competition, Gabriella has made a red lentil dhal

spiced with cumin, coriander seed and ginger, and grilled scallops,

topped with tamarind sauce and an onion bhaji,

served with a fried flat bread with peach and cumin seed chutney,

mint raita, and a carrot and pomegranate salsa.

Your flavours of your dhal are very nice.

I can absolutely get the fresh coriander, the coriander seed,

the cumin, those lovely, aromatic spices.

The scallops, there's the tamarind on them,

they've got the natural sweetness of the scallop, which surprisingly

goes very well with the dhaL

Thank you.

As invention goes, I think it's really, really good.

I really like this bread. I've got a raita on there, which is creamy,

a little bit of mint.

And your peach chutney, it's lovely.

The onion bhaji was delicious, but give me more.

He literally went off-piste and you've clone a good job.

Thank you.

I'm feeling like I can go, "Phew," after that.

I'm feeling happy, I'm really happy.

Anastasia's dish is pan-fried cod dressed in chorizo oil, topped

with crispy sage and pangrattato garlic breadcrumbs,

served on a pearl barley and butternut squash risotto.

The cod is beautifully cooked, it is shiny and silky and elegant.

Your crispy sage is undeniably crispy, which is great,

but I cannot taste butternut squash in the risotto.

The flavours are subtle, but I like them.

However, this pearl barley,

which makes up at least half the dish,

I would like mine cooked some more.

The thing that is left out for me is the butternut squash,

unfortunately, and the chorizo,

so it's not packing the flavour that I ordered

when it was on the menu.

Yeah, disappointed again.

I'm feeling, I don't know, like I let myself down again.

Guess I didn't get the flavours through that I wanted to.

Theres has made a vegetable-inspired starter of pan-fried wild mushrooms,

roasted and pickled cauliflower, smoked cauliflower puree, chive

mayonnaise and radish, topped with deep-fried mushrooms

and finished with a vegetable broth split with chive oil.

As soon as the broth goes onto the dish, the first thing that is quite

visual is the quantity of oil,

the chive oil, that you've got on this dish.

So every mouthful you take, you've got a mouthful of oil.

But I love the crispy mushrooms on top.

The little radishes bring some colour.

Your cauliflower puree that you gently smoked is tasty.

I love little bits of elements on it, but I'm just not loving

the whole dish.

The crunchy sweet pickled cauliflower is delicious.

Then the other cauliflower that's been caramelised in nut butter

is also beautiful,

but I don't think the broth enhances what's on a plate.

You've got some great, great flavour on here, but the amount of oil

that is in this sauce is making every mouthful feel greasy.

That's an issue.

WHISPERS: Don't be too downhearted, it wasn't bad.

Yeah, it was a tough challenge.

It was a risk, but I feel I did the best I could

and I'm happy with what I served today.

For a place in the next round,

James is serving an apple tart filled with apple puree,

caramelised apple cubes and rhubarb

compressed in a honey and sugar syrup,

topped with an Italian meringue and candied hazelnuts, served

on a salted caramel sauce.

It tastes good.

The sweetness in the pastry is buttery.

I like the fact that the apple is quite sweet, not too sharp.

The rhubarb has kept a crunch.

That's good. I really, really like these flavours.

James, the flavours in the dish are grand,

but your meringue, your egg whites have not been cooked enough.

I think you panicked.

I can't think of any other reason.

Your salted caramel on the bottom is delicious. The apple tastes

delicious, the rhubarb gives a little bit of bite, you've got

a little bit of crunchy apple in there, but we've got

a meringue that's not quite working.

I admire the courage of doing a dessert in an invention test.

The question is, has it paid off? Well, we'll see.

Thank you, cheers.

HE EXHALES

I really worked hard to deliver that dish.

I knew my meringue wasn't 100% right, but I just hope that maybe

there are some things in there that have kept me strong enough

to stay in the competition.

Finally, it's Chris, who has made pan-fried pigeon breast, topped

with pickled beetroot and hazelnuts,

celery braised in butter,

celeriac rolls filled with con fit pigeon leg, wing, and mushroom

on a beetroot puree, and a hazelnut, parsley and Madeira jus.

Your pigeon is perfectly cooked,

it's been nicely rested.

Your braised celery, it's really nice.

That's brave cooking when you take something simple like that and serve

it so well. Thank you.

Your Madeira sauce is absolutely delicious, it's got the right amount

of sweetness, and it compliments the pigeon.

You've cooked a dish, Chris, from you, not from you

trying to impress people.

Well clone. Thanks.

Absolutely buttery, soft pigeon breast.

The celeriac roll, the meat and the mushroom

inside there is lovely.

This dish is outstanding. Thank you.

Dug deep for sure there.

Didn't overcomplicate it.

Gave everything a little bit more love, and that's paid off.

It's not easy to ask them to come back in and cook again,

but there was some good cooking on show.

We've now got a big call to make because for two of these chefs,

it's the end of their MasterChef journey.

Chris was the standout chef today.

Fabulous cookery on the pigeon. I loved the celery as well.

Really very, very good indeed.

Chris did a good job.

There is somebody else who I thought was really brave and cooked food

that I really, really enjoyed,

Gabriella. I can agree with you.

I think the scallops, there's still a bit of sweetness to them,

the dhal, that was delicious.

Right. Now, we've got to discuss Theres, James and Anastasia.

Anastasia's dish was a bit flat for me.

I think the fish was nicely cooked, but this dish needed more.

The idea of the dish was brilliant,

I just don't think she executed it well.

I couldn't taste the butternut squash.

James gave us an apple and rhubarb tart with a meringue.

The flavours were fresh, the apple was there,

and I loved the salted caramel, but the meringue wasn't great.

I really enjoyed lots of elements of Theres's dish.

I just wish she hadn't served it with the broth.

When that sauce went on,

the mouth feel was not right because everything

then was greasy and oily.

I hope this dish is enough, but,

yeah, I don't know.

I'm not ready to leave yet.

If I've cooked my last dish today, well, then, at least I've gone out,

like, trying to prove myself.

I've got more to show and more to give,

and I just need to hope for the best, I guess.

That was a fantastic cook-off.

You all came back in here, you gave it everything you've got.

Unfortunately, two of you will be leaving the competition.

The first chef going through to the next round is...

...Chris. Congratulations.

Brilliant work. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

The second chef going through to the next round...

"Gabriella. Oh!

You took a risk and it certainly paid off. Well clone.

The third and final chef going through is...

"James.

Theres, Anastasia, you've had a great competition.

I'm afraid you're leaving us.

Well clone, guys. Thank you.

Leaving this competition now is going to feel a little bit empty...

SHE LAUGHS

...because you put so much time and your life on this.

But, yeah, I'm glad I took the chance and I did this, yeah.

I feel gutted, you know? I've loved this competition,

I've loved, kind of, everything that comes with it.

It's just something completely different to anything

I have ever clone.

Yeah, it's been great.

Congratulations. Your competition continues, well clone.

THEY LAUGH

It all feels worth it.

No matter how many, like, manic lows you have, the highs just outweigh

it every single time.

You think it's hard at the beginning and it just gets harder

and harder and harder.

I'm just buzzing to be here and still in the competition,

you know? It's a good feeling.

I know I was lucky today, but I'm here for a reason,

so I just want that to be the focus now and to keep cracking on,

and never make a dessert again. HE LAUGHS

Next time, the semifinals continue, and the contestants are being split

into two groups. The first four will compete outside the MasterChef

kitchen for the first time...

I'm making a right old mess here today. ..before returning

to fight for their place in finals week.

Stunning, but also very exciting.

It's brilliant.