Original subtitles

From across the UK...

..32 up-and-coming chefs are putting their reputations

on the line...

..in the battle to become Professional MasterChef Champion.

Tonight, four new hopefuls compete to impress

MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace,

renowned chef Monica Galetti

and culinary legend Marcus Wareing.

I can't wait to start cooking for the judges.

100%, I can win the competition.

I'm feeling nervous.

There's been a lot of sleepless nights, but I'm ready to take on

a challenge like this and hopefully go all the way.

As a younger chef, I want to show that experience isn't everything.

I'm going to be giving the competition all my energy.

Hopefully, I come out winning.

This is my prime, optimal time in my career to really showcase

my style of cooking.

I've practised nonstop relentlessly for a month.

Hopefully, it works out.

Who's got what it takes to set this competition alight?

It's time to uncover a new culinary superstar.

Ready to go?

We've seen some outstanding talent.

I'm pretty sure we're going to see some more.

First up, they're going to face the Skills Test.

Marcus, this is your Skills Test.

Please tell us what it is you're going to do.

I would like our chefs to make us a blue cheese gnudi

with a vibrant broccoli soup.

A gnudi is very much like gnocchi but, where gnocchi

is potato and flour,

this is semolina and ricotta.

I'm very much looking forward to this

because I'm not sure people will know what gnudi is.

So off you go, Marcus. 20 minutes. Will do.

Get the soup under way first.

So a bit of oil in the pan,

sliced onion, bit of salt, bit of pepper.

Lovely.

I want them to use all of the broccoli.

So we'll cut the head of the broccoli down first

because that's where all the vibrant green is.

That can go in at the end.

And the core of it, I'm going to slice down

and get that cooking away first.

I'm really happy to see you using the stem of the broccoli.

I think too many people throw it away.

By slicing it thin like this,

it just gets it cooking a lot quicker.

So just get that in there as well. They're making a soup.

They've got limited time.

So, for me, it's really important that they do break it down

and not just chop the whole thing up and put it in

and just hope for the best. I want to taste the broccoli.

I don't want watery soup. And also we want to see some colour.

It's a broccoli soup.

Now we can put it in the top.

Mm!

And put in our vegetable stock.

The broccoli is all cooked down.

I'm just going to put in a good splash of cream.

Bring that up to the boil.

And then I'm going to turn it off and just let that just cool down

for a little bit before I put it in my blender.

So the gnudi, very, very simple.

We've got ricotta cheese, egg yolk.

Normally, the gnudi is just ricotta cheese,

but I'm adding blue cheese as well.

Just makes this dumpling just that little bit more interesting.

In with the semolina.

Mix those up.

Is it the same texture as a potato gnocchi?

It's actually a little bit firmer, but it's got really,

really good flavour.

The challenge with the gnudi is they need to be able to feel

the texture of it and know when it's firm enough to be shaped.

They can roll them up whatever size they like.

My water's come up to the boil. It's seasoned.

I'm going to just drop the gnudi into that.

They'll take about two to three minutes.

If they continue just cooking them, it's going to go really,

really, really hard.

I'm going to take them out and dry them,

and then I'm going to saute those off.

So I've just put a little bit of sage leaf in,

just to enhance the flavour of the butter.

A little grated pine nuts.

Toast those off. Very, very nice.

Right, out they come.

So, soup in.

So we put a handful of the spinach in there too.

Give it colour again? A bit more colour.

Absolutely stunning colour.

We are ready to dress.

Drop your little dumplings in.

Little bit of nutmeg.

That's beautiful! Beautiful.

There we have it. Blue cheese gnudi

with a vibrant broccoli soup with a little finish of nutmeg,

sage and pine nuts.

Wonderful. I'm really loving those gnudi.

Dense, firm dumplings with their salty hints

of blue cheese to finish.

Broccoli soup packed full of broccoli flavour.

It's not just a bowl of soup. It's so much more than that.

And I'm expecting the chefs to create something that has got

deliciousness to it but also looks amazing too.

Monica, we're going to say goodbye to you for a little while.

You're going to watch on the monitor.

Come back for the tasting and the chat. Right?

Ooh!

Great challenge. Are we ready to meet our first chef?

Let's get them in.

Chef patron Dani has been cooking professionally for 12 years...

..and opened her own fine dining restaurant in 2020.

We've been open for three and a half years.

The food style here is very seasonal, very light, very fresh.

I would say that travelling has definitely influenced my food,

especially living in Norway.

The fish and the shellfish is so good over there.

Not only that, like, it's very heavily influenced

with a lot of Chinese and Japanese culture over there.

I applied to MasterChef because I wanted to push myself.

I'm kind of ready for like an extra challenge on top of running

a restaurant to see what I'm made of, really.

Dani, hello. Hello. Welcome to Professional MasterChef.

Thank you. You look pretty confident and ready for action.

No! No? Looks can be deceiving! Right. OK.

I would like you to make for us a blue cheese gnudi

served with a broccoli soup. Heard of that before?

Yeah. It's a ricotta gnocchi type thing.

I don't think I've ever made one, but... Wow!

I said Chef was ready for action! Yeah! 20 minutes.

Over to you. Off you go.

So I'm going to use the onions and garlics to sweat off first

for my broccoli soup.

How long have you been a chef, Dani?

I think it's like 12, 13 years now.

And can you remember the spark that got you into it?

I used to cook a lot with my nana when I was younger.

Stirring a lot of gravies and making a lot of jam tarts.

Was Nana a good cook? Yeah.

Hopefully, she'll go back and use the stem of the broccoli.

There's so much flavour in there.

And if she's going to put it all in like this,

she should really cut it down.

So I've got a little bit of butter added.

Then I'll put the stock in, reduce it down a bit,

a little bit of the cream, and then when I'm blitzing it

I'm going to use the spinach

so it keeps a little bit more of the green colour in there.

Nice.

You've had six minutes. You've got 14 minutes left.

Can you tell me your plan for making the gnudi?

I think I'll start with the ricotta and the blue cheese together,

add in the yolk and then the semolina last to get it

to the right consistency. Well done.

What consistency are you looking for?

I don't know, really. I've never made it before.

I'm aiming to go the same as what I would do with a gnocchi,

to be honest. She's doing really well.

I really like how calm she is.

You are halfway.

You've got ten minutes left.

Where have you been with your career?

So I started up in the Lake District,

and then I went to Oslo, Norway, and stayed there for five years.

I cooked at a few restaurants there, and then I came back home

to open my own place.

So you're a restaurant owner. Why have you come into MasterChef?

I think it's good to challenge myself.

I mean, I might be regretting it now, but I thought it'd be fun!

Right. You've got about six and a half minutes left.

Your soup is still in the pan, I assume, almost ready to blitz.

Yeah. Your gnudi is waiting to cook. Yeah.

You need to get things moving, then. Yes, Chef.

She needs to finish her soup.

She was going to put some spinach in it.

What's the butter for?

I was just going to fry off the gnudi a little bit.

Not really sure if that's what you do do, to be honest.

She's got some sage in there. That's great.

Right, you've got about a minute left. Yes, Chef.

Where's the rest of the soup?

Put it in the bowl! Give us more soup!

Oh, right, OK!

Sorry! Well, it's up to you, but it's a soup! Yes, Chef.

The soup looks good. Looks thick. Great colour.

Looks smooth.

Hey!

She's doing really well.

All right. You done? Just in time.

Well done! Well done, Dani.

That was good to watch! Good start to the day.

Dani, are you feeling good? Yeah, I feel better now.

The soup, I would like to have seen you use the stem or the core

of the broccoli because the stems really do carry

quite a lot of flavour.

But I'm really pleased that you knew what the gnudi was.

You've boiled them, you've fried them.

You did exactly what I did. You know, you've got the sage leaves

and the pine nuts as well. You're not a million miles away here!

You've never made a gnudi before but you've made gnocchi,

so you just felt your way around it. You didn't panic.

To be able to perform in this kitchen for the first time

the way you did is very impressive.

Dani, there's big smiles over here.

Really looking forward to you in the next round.

Off you go with a smile on your face!

It went better than I thought it was going to go.

They said some reassuring stuff at the end, so I feel very relieved.

Next up is 21-year-old junior sous-chef Evan...

He looks so young!

..who works at a Michelin star restaurant in Birmingham.

I sort of fell into being a chef.

I was just looking for a job,

and then I turned up to the back door of a nice, high-end restaurant

and threw myself in there.

I do enjoy plating.

You've almost got the freedom on the plate to do what you want.

I'm very happy that I've found a job that I want to do

for the rest of my life.

I've entered the competition to get my name out there

while I'm young so everyone knows who I am.

How are you, Evan? Yeah, good, thank you.

I'd like you to make a blue cheese gnudi

and serve that with broccoli soup. You look slightly nervous.

Yeah, a little bit. Do you know what a gnudi is?

No! Any ideas? I ain't got a clue.

It's almost like a gnocchi. Oh, OK.

20 minutes. Over to you.

What's the plan?

Get the broccoli on first so I can get it blending

to make the soup.

Oh, no, Evan!

Not a fan of broccoli stems, Chef?

No, not really.

Evan just charged into it.

Just broccoli into the water. But he's just let it boil.

It's just going to taste of water.

Onions, I'm going to sweat them down with the garlic.

All those flavours need to come together.

You don't boil the vegetables separately.

How old are you? I am 21.

I started off cooking since I was 16.

So you've been in the industry a good five years now, then?

Yeah. Good five years now. Nice one.

Any chefs in the family? Your mum and dad in catering?

Um, my grandad was a chef when he was younger

but went to the food safety side of it when he was a bit older.

Ten minutes left. Nerves calming down now you're working?

No, not really!

Come on, Evan! He's a bit nervous.

So what are you thinking now, Evan?

I'm going to roll out the gnudi, just to get the shape

to what I want, and fry it off and get the soup made.

It's quite a big gnudi.

That broccoli is just going to go to mush.

Ah, he's draining it.

Thank goodness for that.

He's just going to blend it all

so it'll mean that the flavours haven't developed.

So you've boiled up the broccoli and then you put that in the blender

with some fried onions, garlic and stock? Yeah.

It's like making a broccoli smoothie.

You have five minutes left. Soup's made.

Your gnudi need to be cooked. Yeah.

Oh, he's not going to blanch them. He needs to blanch them first.

It could cook this way, actually, if he leaves it in there enough.

Evan, you've got two minutes. Yeah.

Start thinking about getting this dish together, all right?

Yep.

Are you done? Yeah.

That was tough. That was tough.

Evan. Hi there. Hi.

Guess it's been a while since you've made soup. Yeah.

Evan, the soup, there's just no real flavour.

Making a soup is about letting it simmer and everything

coming together with the onions, the garlic, your broccoli in there.

And then we blend it up. But you cooked everything separately.

You threw the stem of the broccoli away.

And using the stem of the broccoli is the key to its real core flavour.

Your gnudi, I have to say, I've never seen it made like this before.

You blanch them in water to cook out the flour,

which is really important.

The gnudi isn't cooked, which is such a shame.

I should imagine you will learn a valuable lesson from this.

I think you may have a point to prove. Yeah, definitely.

We'll see you in the next round. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Yeah, I'm feeling down, disappointed.

Just the nerves getting to me as well as not knowing what it was.

Hopefully, I can show them what I can actually cook

with my own dishes.

Two chefs down. We're about to meet some new chefs.

And, of course, a new Skills Test, Monica.

This one is yours. What is the test, please?

I would like our chefs to make us citrus cured sea bass tacos

served with a vegetable garnish and crispy fish skin.

What's the difference between citrus cured and ceviche?

It is very similar to a ceviche.

It's going to have all the citrus through it.

But I'm adding in coconut milk, which is how we have it

where I'm from in the Pacific Islands.

It's a Skills Test with a difference.

20 minutes. Monica, please show us.

All right, we'll get started.

First thing I want to do is prepare my lovely sea bass.

So you want to see the mark along the spine of the fish,

just above the fins here.

And then, as you gently open it up, just let the knife do the work.

The key is getting the fillets off beautifully and the carcass

with hardly any meat on it.

I think it's a good test of our chefs' skills.

There we go. Everything off.

So sea bass, there's not that many bones,

there should be about five or six.

But they've got to make sure they take them out.

I'm taking the skin off.

Using the skin to crisp up.

You make that look so easy!

I've got a pan here, a bit of greaseproof paper on the bottom.

Fish skin goes in.

I thought they might try and do it in the oven.

They could do it in the oven. You can. Yeah, absolutely.

So I've got my fillet and then I'm dicing the fish.

But they can do it however they want.

If they want to slice it, they can.

This is where we're going to have to be precise

because you don't want big bits, little bits,

all different shapes and sizes.

You want an even curing when you're adding

all the other ingredients, which is really important.

So, onto my tacos.

We're giving them the dough made.

Just check the size.

What I want is a taco that I can serve the cured fish on top

and you can just pick it up.

So pretty good. Happy with that.

So a hot pan. As long as it starts to speckle a little bit,

then that's ready to be turned.

So literally a couple of seconds each side? That's it?

Yes. For the garnish of my cured fish, I want to make sure

all my vegetables are ready.

I like it to be kept as uniform as possible

so it all looks so good when it's mixed through with that fish.

Very light, very healthy.

We have red onion.

We've got the cucumber, spring onion.

We've got the chilli and tomatoes in there.

So what I want to do now is take my fish, limes and a lemon.

You want your fish to stay as fresh as possible.

The minute the citrus gets into it, it's starting to cure,

it's going to start to cook it

and it's going to have a completely different texture.

That's why Monica is doing it last minute.

So I'm adding in coconut milk.

I don't expect them to use the coconut milk.

But I'd like to see them maybe try it.

Everything goes in.

I have a feeling they won't do that.

I think they'll put the coloured veg on the top of the taco.

We'll see.

We're going to put our tacos onto the plate.

And then just breaking over the crispy fish skin

for that texture.

And there we have it, guys.

Superb. Citrus cured sea bass, tacos and crispy fish skin.

Wow.

That is really light, sharp and delicious.

You make it look incredibly simple because it's your dish.

But under the pressure of the Skills Test,

this is a task that's going to really push our chefs, I think.

Marcus, we've demolished this! See you back in a little bit.

I want to know if our chefs have done any fish curing.

I'm really interested in this.

Come on. Are we ready? Oh, always ready!

First up is 26-year-old senior sous-chef George,

who works at a Michelin star restaurant in York

and takes huge pride in using ingredients

from the farm it's located on.

The restaurant which I'm currently at, we've got a huge kitchen garden.

We have our own cattle, sheep, pigs.

It's like a chef's dream, living around here

and being able to use these ingredients.

I want to do MasterChef because this past year as a chef

I feel like I've just matured and matured and matured.

I'm confident at the minute.

I just want to get in there, put your chef's head on

and go for it.

Hello, George. Hi, Gregg.

Welcome to Professional MasterChef.

This is a Skills Test set by Monica.

George, I would like you to make for us a citrus cured sea bass

served with tacos and crispy fish skin.

How does that sound? Yeah, good. I've worked with curing fish before.

I've made a taco before.

It's just putting it together and trying to do it in the time.

Brilliant. 20 minutes. Off you go.

Straight down the back. Good start.

Do you like handling fish? I do, yeah.

I do a lot of fishing myself.

I've fished since I was about four years old.

Used to go to Ireland, salmon fishing. Yeah. OK.

That second fillet is not as good as the first.

Look at all that meat left on that bone.

Any other outdoor pursuits?

I do a bit of shooting. Game birds when it's the season.

Too much flesh left on that skin.

He's going to need to take that off if he's going to get crispy skin.

I'm going to just pop the skin

between two bits of greaseproof paper and pop it in the oven.

That will never get crispy. Never, never, never, never, never.

Six minutes gone, George. Six minutes? Wow.

Yeah, mate. You are racing!

He's got some salt on a tray so he's going to cure the fish

as a whole piece.

Wow, that's a lot of salt!

This is not what Monica wanted.

Citrus cured sea bass, not salt.

I think he's just realised he has not pin-boned it.

I'm annoyed, I've just not took these out. There we go.

He should have done the pin-boning earlier.

You are halfway. Halfway?

You've had ten minutes.

Where you're working,

are they supportive of you being here?

Very supportive.

My boss, he's been my number one helper.

He's been in every weekend trying my dishes.

Hey!

Tacos are good.

Now needs to concentrate on the vegetable garnishes.

I'm going to make a little salsa with onions, cucumbers, pepper.

It's a little chunky salad he's got there.

That fish, I'm going to just do some nice thin slices of it.

It's going to be too salty.

Please wash that fish.

What am I doing?

I'm just going to quickly rinse it off so it's not salty.

Thank goodness for that!

Ooof!

Sorry, how long have I got left? Three minutes now, Chef.

No need to worry about the skin. That's definitely not cooked.

He's running out of time. Come on.

Is it crisping? It's not as crispy as I'd like it.

I don't really want to serve it, to be honest. No, all right.

You've got about 30 seconds, so we need to finish the plate.

Oui.

The most important part of this dish is the citrus dressing.

And it's not there at all.

Right, your time's up. You all right, George? Yeah.

Hi, George. Hi, Chef.

I have to say, that was a pretty interesting watch back there.

The taco's slightly undercooked. The fish, you left a lot

of the protein on the skin,

hence it was never going to crisp up in time.

The curing of the fish, you did a salt cure.

I was hoping you would do a citrus cure.

Monica, her citrus cure was squeezing the citrus into a bowl

and making a lovely dressing with oil and seasonings and coconut milk.

There's no citrus. The citrus there right in front of you

is calling out, "Squeeze me, squeeze me!"

That's the point of difference. Yeah, Chef. You look bashed up.

Don't be too tough on yourself.

There's a big, big, important round coming.

Off you go. See you soon.

I'm not happy with it at all.

It's not even a scratch on the standard which I work to

on a day to day basis.

The pressure's on now, yeah.

It's go hard or go home at the end of the day.

Last in is 40-year-old senior sous-chef Dairo.

Originally from Colombia,

he discovered his love for cooking when arriving in the UK in 2009.

In Colombia, I am a PE teacher.

I come to London just to study English.

Now I end up in a different world, in a kitchen.

I've been working as a chef for 12 years now.

I really like it.

I am a competitive person, always trying to challenge myself.

In the future, I would love to be having my own restaurant,

showing my own cuisine from Colombia.

And I want to really show to the world how exactly Colombia

is in the gastronomy side.

Dairo, I would like you to make for us a citrus cured sea bass

served with tacos and a crispy fish skin garnish.

Perfect. 20 minutes. Good luck.

Dairo, do you have much experience with prepping fish?

I am from Colombia, so we go very familiar with the fish.

Seems to know his way around. Very nice.

So, growing up in Colombia, you must be familiar

with dishes like ceviche?

Yes, we love ceviche in Colombia.

And we eat a lot of ceviche.

So he's cleaning the skin down.

At least he's remembered that we need a crispy skin.

My dad, he was the first person to make me try what ceviche is.

He's got his skin cooking away there. He's removing the pin bones.

It's good.

So he's now slicing the fish into little slices.

It's good. That's what Monica did.

You've got 12 minutes left. Now I'm going to attempt the tacos.

You look like you've made them before. Are they a family favourite?

Yes, we love it.

And I've got one of these at home as well.

Still got a lot of work to do.

He's got the marinade to make. He's got some garnish to chop up.

And he's got to get the tacos cooked and cooled down.

I will apply the citrus to marinate the fish.

What's going to go in the marinade?

The marinade, I will make it like quite citrus.

And I will fill it with maybe a little bit of coconut milk

and chilli peppers.

Got a little kick as well with the Tabasco.

I can see that's nice.

Dairo, you've got about five minutes left.

That's not necessary.

He's just going to slow the cooking of the tacos down.

Just remove it. It's preventing any colour on the tacos.

Now there's some heat there. Turn them over!

Whoa!

He's removed the burnt taco, which is nice.

Dairo, you've got two minutes left.

The biggest problem he's going to have is that those tacos are warm,

just out of the pan, and he's going to put raw fish on top.

Speed it up a little bit, please.

He needs to get a move on. He's going to run out of time.

Put the fish skin on the plate?

OK, stop.

Fish skin tacos. Time just got the better of him.

Let's go say hello.

Hello, Chef. Hello, Marcus.

Your cured sea bass using the citrus flavours,

I like that you wanted to use the coconut milk.

That's how we make it where I'm from.

The crispy skin, I used it more for texture.

Just like broke it up into it.

I think just take a bit more time on the detail of your chopping,

but it's a good start.

I think the tacos could have been on a lot sooner

so they had time to cool down because you don't want a warm,

hot taco with a cured fish.

But I have to say, you've got all the little bits and pieces

on show there and it's a very, very good effort.

I think that's perfectly yummy! I would have liked a whole one!

But you only served two because you burnt the other one.

Uh, yeah. Sorry about that.

Dairo, thank you very much. We'll see you in the next round.

Yeah. Thank you, Chef. Thank you.

The time goes very quickly.

You open and close your eyes and then the time is gone.

But I feel very good. They enjoyed the two tacos

they'd got left, so that made me feel happy.

Overall, guys, I think we've got

quite a bit of promise in the kitchen.

Dani, who did your soup, looks absolutely fantastic.

Good job. Very close as well.

Young Evan, I think the pressure got the best of him.

George didn't manage to get the citrus or the citrus cure.

He just didn't connect. Dairo did a great job.

He knew how to make it, it's something he does,

and good skills on show as well, which I thought

was really good to see.

Let's see what they're going to do next.

I'm really, really looking forward to the next round.

Now it's about your signature two course menu.

The food that you love. One main course, one dessert.

I'm really looking forward to this. Make sure you do it well.

At the end of this, two of you will be going through

to a quarterfinal.

Two of you, sadly, will be leaving the competition.

90 minutes. Grab yourself a quarterfinal place.

Off you go.

The judges haven't seen me at my best yet.

I chose both these dishes because they taste really good

and they look amazing on the plate.

Evan, how are you feeling after your Skills Test round?

I'm feeling a bit nervous after the Skills Test

because it didn't go to plan as I wanted.

Tell us about your two dishes. For the main course,

I'm doing sea bream with a shellfish sauce with double cream at the end

to finish it off and courgettes with a dashi gel. A dashi gel?

Yeah. Interesting.

Where did that bit of Asian flavouring come from?

So from my workplace, showing a bit of Asian flavours in it,

and I've sort of brung it into my cooking.

Did you always know you were going to be a chef?

I used to love cooking when I was younger, but my dad,

he teaches golf, so he wanted me to be a golfer,

but really didn't turn out like that!

Evan, he's got bags of nerves, but he's keeping them under control.

It's all going well. All going to plan.

You've got a sea bream, lovely round fish, two fillets on it.

You've got to take it off beautifully, pin bone.

But don't leave it too long in the pan.

Courgette, sea herbs. We've also got a shellfish sauce.

He's got lobster shells through it.

It smells so fragrant.

But if he reduces it too much, it can get very salty.

So this sauce is a key part to the dish.

Very flavoursome.

It brings the whole dish together.

The dashi gel is a nice touch.

You want to taste the dashi stock, which has flavours of the sea,

and hopefully he remembers to put enough of that gel

so it doesn't get lost in the sauce.

For the dessert, it's going to be a bit like a mille-feuille.

Instead of using puff pastry, I'm using brioche

and I'm going to do apple marigold cremeux in the middle

of that with fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce.

These dishes have been practised?

Yeah, I've been practising these dishes throughout service,

after service, on my break.

As we're talking to you, so your confidence seems to be...

Yeah, it comes out eventually.

I was very quiet as soon as I came into the kitchen.

Didn't come out of my shell. Now I don't shut up at work, so...!

Evan's dessert is a toasted brioche layered mille-feuille.

So I've frozen the brioche to make it easier to cut.

I'm going to put it in the oven to toast off.

Overcooked, and it'll be bitter and just crumble away

and be too dry.

We're going to have apple marigold cremeux.

That sounds delicious.

I do love the flavours of apple marigold,

the herb that actually is very fragrant

and does have essence of apples running through it.

We've got apple marigold gel, strawberry sauce,

but a mille-feuille is about the presentation.

The perfect layers with the filling looking absolutely brilliant.

I've made sure today that I wasn't too overambitious.

Just to make sure that I can 100% get everything on the plate

and it tastes perfect.

Careful.

Glass bowl, Chef. That's what we've done.

Careful, careful.

Whoa!

What's in there?

It's apple marigold gel. Why is there a glass bowl in there?

I've never used a glass bowl in the kitchen before.

So why did you put it in there then? I didn't think it would shatter!

I really did not think that it would shatter like that.

Evan just had an accident.

He put a glass bowl with a hot liquid

inside the vacuum pack machine.

Of course, once he switched it on, the bowl exploded.

So he's had to throw all that away and start all over again.

I'm not going to vac-pack it this time.

I've chosen these two dishes

because it's food that I like to cook.

I think they eat really well

and they show something about my flavours.

So I just hope that the judges do too, really.

Dani, tell us about your two dishes.

So I'm cooking a hogget loin for my main course,

with a celeriac puree, some roasted maitake mushrooms

and some lemon thyme pickle gel.

You don't see a lot of hogget. I love hogget.

That's the middle between a lamb and a fully grown sheep.

Why are you using that?

I prefer the flavour than sometimes I do lamb.

Yeah, I just thought it'd be something good to use.

We don't see hogget very often, but we do like it.

It's that beautiful flavoured lamb that's just a little bit aged.

Lovely sort of fat content just sitting on the top.

Just perfectly caramelised.

And, of course, pink.

You never know until you cut into it, but it feels OK.

Your celeriac puree, cooked down beautifully

in milk or cream, seasoned, blended so it's nice and smooth.

We've got onion petals, crispy shallot.

And I've just dusted them in some flour now and then just crisping

them up for a little bit of texture on the dish.

We've got the maitake mushrooms which she's going to pickle.

And then afterwards she's going to toss them through in some butter.

And a pickled lemon thyme jam.

That sounds delicious.

For dessert, I'm doing a posset set with grapefruit juice

and lemon juice. Grapefruit segments,

a couple of little dots of salted caramel,

some fresh wasabi and a celery and apple granita.

Did you say wasabi is on the dessert? Yeah.

So just a little bit grated over the last minute,

just to give it a little bit of like heat and freshness.

You talked about your food being influenced by your time in Norway.

Food is very light and very fresh there.

So, with the dessert, I've tried to aim around that.

Something to cleanse your palate with after.

Dani's dessert, posset. I love posset.

And she's not only doing a lemon posset, she's adding a little bit

of grapefruit into it as well.

Posset is a set cream, so Dani's got to make sure

she gets that in the fridge as soon as possible.

So I'm just setting my possets now in the fridge,

so hopefully they'll be set in time.

We've also got red grapefruit as a garnish, salted caramel.

But this is the most interesting bit.

It's the fresh wasabi which she's going to be grating over the top.

Now, having it with lemon and grapefruit, that's a first for me.

Personally, I think the wasabi really works

because it cleans your palate out. I don't want to put too much on.

That's the whole point of it. That's why they put it on sushi.

It's trying to find the balance of it.

We've also got celery and apple granita.

Celery and apple, you would eat them on a cheese board together.

So they do work together.

Points of detail and imagination running wild here.

Chefs, you're halfway.

There's no time to take it easy. There's no time to relax.

Why are you doing that?

The heat, it made the coconut flesh to get out quickly.

Soon, I start breaking it out. Oh, yeah?

This is all or nothing.

This is a good opportunity for me to show what Colombia is about.

Dairo, I'm really excited by the ingredients on your bench.

What are you making, please?

I got one dish from the Pacific Coast of Colombia

and I got another dish from the Caribbean.

So Colombia has got the Pacific Ocean side? Yes.

And it's got the Atlantic Ocean side with the Caribbean? Yes.

Yeah! From the Pacific Coast, the dish is called encocado.

What's encocado? Encocado just means that we serve it

like in a small bowl with prawns,

monkfish, yam puree, corn,

and we fill it with peach palm. So that comes from a palm tree?

That's the one. And what do they taste like?

They taste quite natural, coconut flavour. Wow!

Dairo has got some incredible ingredients,

but he's also got a huge amount of work to do as well.

His monkfish needs to be perfectly cooked.

Carabinero prawns, some of the best prawns you can buy.

So you've got to treat them with delicate hands.

They don't need much cooking at all.

We've got fried plantains.

We've got yam puree, peach palm.

I don't think I've had peach palm before, but I can't wait to try it.

Corn on the cob.

I mean, there's so much. I'm really concerned.

He's also got a coconut sauce,

but his coconut sauce has already boiled over.

You close your eyes and then the milk has just evaporated.

So I have to really keep an eye on the...on the milk.

That's the dish from the Pacific side? Yes.

So what's the dish from the Caribbean side?

From the Caribbean, we're using cassava, coconut.

And then I will make a cake with those two ingredients.

And then we finish with a goat cheese mousse... What?!

..to go on top of the cake.

And then we've got feijoa ice cream. I used to be a greengrocer.

I used to sell feijoas.

They're like the taste of like an apple and a lime.

Yes. I'm excited, Chef. I am too. Really excited.

Thank you. No problem. Good luck.

Cassava and coconut cake, it's just unusual.

Cassava are a type of edible shrub with a slightly woody root.

Let's see what it brings to the party.

We've also got a goat's cheese mousse as well. Interesting.

A goat's cheese mousse,

it's almost like an addition of a whipped cream,

but I think the acidity will bring a different flavour.

We've got a cashew honeycomb,

got coconut and rum gel, and crispy sweetcorn.

Already, my taste buds are blown, so I have no idea

what to expect from this.

Colombia, we eat a lot of sweetcorn.

And we use it in savoury and the sweet as well.

We've got feijoa ice cream.

I love feijoas. It's a fruit of my childhood from New Zealand,

but I've only ever had feijoa as a sorbet,

not in an ice cream, so I can't wait to try this.

Chefs, we have 25 minutes left, please.

I was definitely not happy with my Skills Test.

And I've got absolutely everything to prove going into this last round.

George, how are you feeling?

Better now I'm in here and I've got going. Good.

What are you going to be cooking for us?

I've got a monkfish main course,

which I'm just going to really simply pan roast.

I'm going to serve it with a fricassee of courgettes,

some pickled courgette ribbons, some coriander yoghurt

and then a really fragrant like Thai sauce with loads of kaffir lime.

I really enjoy cooking food like this.

I love curry, I love fish.

You talked about your father taking you fishing.

Is that, do you think, where food started to get into your soul?

Yeah, that, and then from then I did lots of baking.

My mum just used to force me to bake.

As I got a little bit older, I grew to love it.

And then that got me into cooking.

George is cooking for us a monkfish main course.

He is salting his fish like he did with the Skills Test.

But a monkfish, it can do with a salting.

It draws out that excess moisture.

We've got courgette ribbons, slightly pickled for acidity.

We've got a coriander yoghurt and a curry sauce with coconut,

ginger, lime leaf, chilli.

I like to cook with Asian cuisine,

but I'm very like classically trained.

So I like to pan roast a piece of fish,

but putting that with an Asian, Thai sauce.

You see monkfish a lot in curries.

What we're going to need is perfect cookery

for it to sing and for it to dance.

For pudding, I've got a layered dessert,

so I've got three-biscuit tuiles I've made from chicory roots.

We grow it from the garden at work.

Really makes like the biscuit tuile really nice and bitter.

Then a dark chocolate cremeux, then a vanilla mascarpone.

Hidden in the centre, a berry compote,

and then finished with some chocolate shards on top.

I want to get this nailed and put up something which I'm proud of.

Make sure it's a winner! Cheers, Chef.

George's dessert is layers of biscuit tuiles

which he's putting chicory root through.

It's the root of the chicory plant which we dehydrate, toast

and then blend into a powder.

So there's going to be hints of coffee.

So that bit of bitterness.

Sounds so interesting, so different.

With a dark chocolate cremeux, we want it rich and intense

and chocolate and smooth.

We've got a lot of bitter notes going on here,

but we've also got a bit of sweetness added into it.

Blackcurrant compote and mascarpone flavour.

I like the sound of this.

Definitely not holding back with this dessert.

There's a lot to it.

If something goes drastically wrong, it'll be to the wire,

but you just have to move faster if any mistakes happen.

My timer just didn't go off and my tuiles burnt.

George has burnt the tuiles.

I hope it doesn't unsettle him,

he just cracks on and gets another batch on.

The only way is up and I need to just absolutely smash this.

Ten minutes, chefs, please.

Happy with the cooking?

I'm just going to flash it through the oven.

Still needs a little longer. Last minute?

Definitely up against it.

I think it'd be weird if I wasn't, really, so, yeah.

I'm getting there.

I'm better than I was ten minutes ago, so I'm happy.

A little bit struggling.

But I'm trying to manage to put everything together.

Chefs, you've got two minutes.

Are you going to be able to complete this?

Yes.

Dairo, when you look at his bench and see the way he's working,

it's really...

..pressurised, I have to say.

The most important thing is putting up two dishes. OK.

If little bits are missing, then that has to be. OK.

HE SIGHS

Chefs, time's up.

Dairo, your time is up but we want to see you finish your dessert,

so as quick as you can, but you're actually officially out of time.

That's it. Stop. Thank you.

Junior sous-chef Evan has cooked pan-fried sea bream

served with a dashi gel, pickled courgettes,

sea herbs and a creamy white wine and shellfish sauce.

What a stunningly pretty dish.

I don't know whether to eat it or put a frame around it and

put it on the wall.

Your fish cookery's great.

I also like your dashi gel -

seaweed saltiness and a real sharpness to it.

You can still get the slight sweetness of

the natural courgette here.

The sauce is beautiful.

The flavour of the lobster, it sings through and yet still holds back

enough that it doesn't override the whole dish.

Brilliant.

The dashi gel, salty, fishy,

so when you bring the sauce and the fish together

it all starts to beautifully work.

Delicious plates of food, Evan.

Thank you. Well done.

Evan's dessert is toasted brioche served with

a white chocolate and apple marigold cremeux,

apple marigold gel, fresh strawberries

and a strawberry sauce.

Evan, another really pretty dish.

You've got an eye for this.

You've got the lovely crunchy brioche toast and there's hints

of flavour from the apple, the marigold, of course

the natural freshness of really delicious fresh strawberries.

It's a very well executed but also a very well thought-out dish.

Very interesting, I have to say.

It is all very sweet with the brioche, with the coulis.

But then come the strawberries, which are still quite sharp,

and it cuts through that sweetness and it makes it really delightful.

Oh, my word, what a triumph of a dessert!

And I'm floating away right now on a cloud of sweet

apple and strawberry.

That is just delicious!

Yeah, I'm feeling really happy about my two dishes.

I've shown the judges that I can cook tasty food and that

the Skills Test was just the nerves getting to me.

For her main course, chef patron Dani has cooked hogget loin

in garlic and rosemary,

served with pickled and roasted maitake mushrooms,

crispy shallot rings, celeriac puree,

onion petals, pickled lemon thyme gel

and a lamb, red wine and port jus.

The hogget is delicious and it's been seasoned perfectly.

I love the amount of fat you've left on there.

You've seared it so well, it's got a texture to it.

Your celeriac is beautiful, smooth, creamy, nutty.

I like these mushrooms.

They are woody but they have a sharp finish.

Absolutely lovely.

I think the hogget is great.

The meat's beautiful and tender and I love the counterbalance

of the sweetness of the gel.

No-one puts cream into lamb and hogget sauces,

but you did and it works.

I like the port element of it.

This is absolutely sensational.

Dani's dessert is a lemon and grapefruit posset

topped with fresh grapefruit and wasabi,

salted caramel and grapefruit zest,

served with a celery and apple granita.

I love the wasabi on the grapefruit.

It just brings your palate alive.

I think the salted caramel on your well-made posset is inspired.

I like going through the saltiness, going into the sweet sharpness.

To bring celery into it, in a water granita, for me,

is a very odd thing to do, but I really think it works a treat

because the celery savoury notes works with the posset.

I love this.

I really, really do.

Lemon, grapefruit, salted caramel, wasabi, celery and apple.

It's possibly one of my new favourite things!

I'm really enjoying it.

Thank you.

My palms were very sweaty and my heart was going

while I was watching them.

But it went a lot better than I thought it was going to do.

Senior sous-chef Dairo has served Colombian encocado,

poached monkfish tail topped with a carabinero prawn,

fried plantain and a yam puree,

and finished with a coconut, Thai parsley

and coriander sauce.

What else was supposed to be on here, Chef?

The palm peach.

You just ran out of time?

Yeah, disappointing on that side.

The monkfish, mine is well cooked,

but it's actually quite bland. It has not been seasoned.

The sauce, so you've got coriander running through it.

It is tasty, I have to say.

But your dish, it was rushed and it's not complete.

The prawn to me is a little bit over, but I love

the sweetness to it.

Your plantain should be crispier,

but your yam puree, it starts quite buttery and it's got

a proper bitter finish.

I'm really enjoying it.

The coconut in your sauce is fresh and delicious,

and I really like that.

You've got fascinating flavours.

You've just not executed them as well as I think

you could've done.

I think you can cook better than this.

Dairo's dessert is a cassava and coconut cake

spiced with star anise and cinnamon,

served with crispy sweetcorn and a Brazilian feijoa fruit ice cream.

What else should be on there?

The rum gel, goat cheese mousse, cashews and honeycomb.

We're missing two thirds of the dish.

I love this bar!

You've used what we normally see as crisp, the cassava,

flavoured with coconut and so much cinnamon

it's almost antiseptic!

It's like a protein bar that you get at the health club.

I'm actually enjoying it, in a way.

The elephant in the room is the sweetcorn.

It's like the veg section has got involved with my dessert.

It shouldn't be there,

not without all the other ingredients.

The ice cream, I love feijoas - a hint of pineapple, a bit of lime

through it. And it's the best thing you've got here.

But I'm disappointed for you and for us too that we didn't get

to try the dish as it was meant to be.

Well, that was disappointing.

The time just got me, when you want to realise this.

That was my big mistake.

Last up is senior sous-chef George.

He's cooked pan-fried monkfish,

served with pickled courgette ribbons,

a green and yellow courgette fricassee, coriander yoghurt

and a kaffir lime and lemon verbena curry sauce.

Very, very nice presentation.

The monkfish is beautifully cooked.

I like the subtle heat in your curry sauce.

It has almost a floral sweet note to it as well.

Very clever.

Thank you, Chef.

Lovely monkfish.

It's buttery. You can tell it's been given some love as well.

Your courgette ribbons, you've had that in some sweet pickle

because there's a sweetness that's coming to that.

It's absolutely delightful.

Love the texture of the little chopped courgettes

around the outside.

The sauce is absolutely knockout.

The kaffir lime, the ginger running through there,

the curry as well - I'm really, really enjoying that sauce.

I'm very happy with this.

Very, very happy. Thank you.

Thank you, Chef.

George's dessert is layers of chicory biscuit tuiles,

whipped vanilla mascarpone in a dark chocolate cremeux,

filled with a blackcurrant compote and topped with chocolate shards.

The chicory is in the bitterness of your biscuit here.

I am enjoying the bitterness.

The blackcurrant, it's like a dense blackcurrant jam in the middle.

And it's got a sharpness to it so it's not too sweet.

This is my kind of dessert.

Going through those fine tuiles into the slightly sour mascarpone,

into the very sweet and sharp blackcurrant, is lovely.

It's reminiscent of a Black Forest gateau.

I think that's great.

I love chocolate cremeux, I love mascarpone and I love a tuile,

but the fruit for me is what's singing through this dessert

beautifully, but it just carries on - it's like a fine wine.

After the Skills Test, it was quite clear that you had a point to prove.

And, George, well,

you've done just that. Well done. Cheers, Chef.

I feel so much better.

I needed that 110% after this morning.

The comments were phenomenal.

I'm happy with them. Very happy.

That was great.

I think we were tasting dishes

that we'd normally eat further down the competition.

We have some talent in this kitchen.

There's one chef that unfortunately had a real timing issue,

and that was Dairo.

There was parts of Dairo's menu that I did enjoy.

I loved the sauce with the coriander running through it

and of course that feijoa ice cream on his dessert.

There was just too much missing from both plates.

Unfortunately for Dairo, it's the end of his competition.

We've now got a big issue

because we know we've got three real hot talents.

Evan. That fish and courgette and the dashi gel.

The quality of that sauce, like a bisque. Mate!

His dessert - brioche, the marigold apple, the fresh strawberries

and that sauce executed brilliantly.

Dani. She's an exciting cook.

Hogget - so full of flavour.

The way she cooked it, even the fat had a crispy texture to it.

I loved the sauce, really delicious, and I loved the sweet and sour notes

that ran through the gel as well. And the mushrooms were delicious.

That posset. She served it with salted caramel,

wasabi grapefruit,

and a celery and apple granita.

Who does that?

But, more importantly, who dares to do it and pulls it off?

I thought it was genius. Really enjoyed it.

I believe George to be a proper talent.

The main course, it looked very delicate, very simple.

But when you ate it, you got really clever flavours.

The dessert. Wow!

Beautifully stunning, lovely biscuit cookery,

but the blackcurrants that sat within it were magical.

We know how good they are.

How do you separate them?

We need to make a call.

It's a big call, but we have to make it.

If I go home after today, I'll be absolutely devastated.

I feel like I could find my flow

if I managed to stay in the competition.

I'm still feeling nervous, not knowing if I'm through or not.

It would mean a lot to stay,

to keep on showing the judges that I can cook really good food.

The standard's been really high in the kitchen today.

Hopefully, I've done enough, but we'll see.

Chefs, firstly, I want to say thank you for a brilliant cook-off.

You all came in here with a mission to set this kitchen alight.

And you did.

We did say, at the start, we can only take the best chefs with us.

The first chef leaving the competition...

..is Dairo.

Dairo, you're a good chef. Your timing just let you down today.

Sorry to see you go. Good to have met you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Disappointing, because you don't want to get out of the competition

at this stage, that early.

But I have to move on and take the feedback as a positive

and keep improving.

Now, you three caused us all sorts of issues.

The reason is, the three of you are really talented.

We have made a decision.

We have decided that all three of you

will go through to a quarterfinal.

There is far too much talent in this kitchen.

Buzzing that I got through.

I can't wait to text my mum and my partner.

I've probably got about 50 missed calls at the moment.

I'm really happy about myself today. Standards are really high.

I'm going to have to bring something better than the dishes

what I brought today. I'm sure I can.

Relieved.

So relieved!

I want to hit the quarterfinals head on.

No messing. Just get better and better and better.

Next time, it's the quarterfinal,

and this heat's most talented chefs

return to face two tough challenges.

Come back again.

Fingers crossed.

Only the best will earn their place in knockout week.

This main is outrageously good.