Original subtitles

It's the battle for the ultimate culinary prize.

Ah!

60 of the country's best home cooks... I need to stop shaking.

..all with their heart set... Not really sure what I'm doing.

Flaming brilliant! ..on the coveted MasterChef trophy.

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

That is a cracker of a job. This is absolutely banging.

Yes! Each week, 12 extraordinary amateur talents...

GASPS: Oh!

..battle for a place... Yum, yum, yum. Wow, that's hot.

..in the quarterfinal... I think it's delicious.

This is a revelation. Congratulations.

..but only the best can earn their

passports to the ultimate cookery showdown.

A British culinary icon is just

about to enter the MasterChef kitchen.

Are we ready for this? Concentrate. I cannot stand it!

I like it. I love it.

21 years of MasterChef,

and every year our expectations get higher and higher.

Light the stoves, get yourself a clean apron.

Let's find some talent.

It's early morning,

and the first six home cooks

in this week's heats are arriving at the MasterChef kitchen.

I can't believe today

John and Gregg are going to taste my food. Dream come true.

I'm extremely serious about this competition.

I've put hours and hours of practice in.

I'm not nervous at all, I'm just ready to go.

I'm ready to win, so here we go.

Welcome to the MasterChef kitchen.

This round we call Basic to Brilliant.

All six of you are going to cook for us a dish,

taking something that you may put in your shopping basket

every single week, and elevating it from the ordinary

to something MasterChef-worthy.

But that ingredient has to be the star of the show.

At the end of this, Gregg and I

will choose our two favourite dishes.

And the people who've cooked those will get themselves

a MasterChef apron and go straight through to the next round.

The remaining four will need to stay and cook again.

One hour, 20 minutes, ladies and gentlemen.

Let's cook!

Pretty nervous, but I was trying to get into the groove.

I am up for this, I'm more than ready.

I was born for this.

Born and bred in Brixton, South London,

therapeutic radiographer Joy takes culinary inspiration

from both her Nigerian heritage and the food of the Caribbean.

I do like a lot of flavour. I like a lot of spice.

I think one time I had

13 Scotch bonnets and I was perfectly fine.

Yum, yum, yum. That's my level of spice!

SHE LAUGHS

Joy, welcome. What's your basic ingredient, please?

My basic ingredient will be mangoes. I love, love mangoes.

Tell me what you're making, please. Mango habanero,

deep-fried chicken wings, and a coconut,

lime and mint rice with a mango salsa.

Wow! Indeed. Tropical! Indeed!

So, the habanero chilli, otherwise known as Scotch bonnet. Yeah.

One of the hottest chillies... Indeed. ..known to man.

It's going to be spicy. Good.

If you like spice, then this dish is for you.

Joy's ingredient of choice is mango. Look at that.

Ah! This is so ripe, this is gorgeous.

Firstly, she's going to make a spicy hot sauce.

She's going to blend that with sweet mango.

Then she's going to take chicken wings,

which she's going to make a batter

mixture which has got lots of different seasoning.

She wants to make the batter spicy as well as the sauce spicy.

On the side of that, we've got ourselves a mango salsa,

which is going to be nice and cooling.

That's great. It really is the flavours of the tropics.

It's a bit stressing!

SHE LAUGHS

Victoria grew up in Hull,

where she was taught to cook by her mum. Now a lawyer,

she uses cooking and creating new dishes

as an escape from the pressures of work.

Oh, my God, I'm obsessed with cooking.

I keep a pen and paper at the side of my bed.

I often wake up in the night having thought

about a new recipe idea and scribble that down.

And, in fact, some of

my best inventions have come from the bizarrest of dreams.

Victoria, what's your basic ingredient, please?

Cod loin. All right. What is it that you like about that?

So we used to eat cod a lot as kids growing up.

So either fish and chips with Nan and Grandad or, you know,

cod fish fingers.

It was readily available in Hull. It still appears in my household.

Victoria's baking this cod loin, this beautiful piece of cod.

It needs to be soft and falling apart, lovely and flaky.

The crumb on the outside from almonds, cumin and lemon rind.

I hope it's nice and crispy.

She's got sauce made from coconut,

coriander seeds and curry leaves all together, so slightly spicy.

And topping the whole thing, a black squid ink tuile.

All these bits and pieces basically saying,

"I can do fish and curry sauce, but I can do better."

The son of Chinese parents,

web developer Michael grew up in Bromley,

where family life revolved around food.

My dad was the one who taught me to cook.

You know, I had quite a strict upbringing,

but he'd always have me watch him cook.

And, you know, like, first-generation Chinese people,

they're not very good at showing emotions.

And food is the way we do that.

So, for me, it's always been my way of showing care and love to people.

Michael's ingredient of choice is egg.

He's doing omurice. Now, omurice is a Japanese omelette.

The actual centre of it is almost raw egg.

When it's cut open, the egg oozes out over the rice.

It's a really difficult thing to get right.

He's also serving that with a confit egg and a chicken

katsudon, a piece of chicken which has been crumbed.

There is so much work to admire from Michael.

If this works for him, it could be absolutely delicious.

What's your style?

My roots are, like, Asian home cooking, mostly Chinese,

but no-one does eggs like the Japanese.

Are there cooks in your family? Yeah.

My grandma ran a fish and chip shop and had me on her back

when she was frying the fish and chips.

No way! Yeah, so I got in there early.

Halfway, everybody.

Don't know how to do this. Wah!

Teacher Naomi hails from Inverness and started baking with her mum

when she was two.

And inspired by a family trip to Tuscany,

she now dreams of opening a Scottish-Italian bakery.

By friends and family I'm known as a dessert queen.

I always love to come up with something sweet.

For me, desserts make people happy. Like, when I serve somebody dessert,

all I want them to do is smile and enjoy it.

Naomi... Hi. ..you're the only one in the room making something sweet.

I'm a bit of a dessert queen.

What's your basic ingredient, please?

So my basic ingredient is hazelnuts.

It is a flavour that me and my boyfriend absolutely love.

If there's something hazelnut-flavoured,

we'll pick it. I'm doing for you a hazelnut cake.

It's ground hazelnuts and it uses dates as well,

so it makes quite a sticky consistency of the cake.

A vanilla gelato,

a really rich chocolate sauce, and some hazelnut brittle.

Naomi's hazelnut and date cake,

I think it's a really lovely idea, but how sweet is this going to be?

Sweet chocolate, sweetness coming from caramel and hazelnuts,

sweetness coming from sugar syrup in that gelato,

and sweetness from dates inside the cake.

Mr Wallace might like it,

but I hope it's not too sweet for me.

I'm ahead of schedule,

which is making me feel a little bit uncomfortable.

HE LAUGHS

When entrepreneur Martyn isn't running

a property business in the Wirral with his wife,

he likes to entertain guests by cooking them elaborate meals.

So, dinner parties,

and any time I've got friends and family round,

for me it's all about preparation.

I'm a spreadsheet guy, so I'll have all the meal planned out,

the recipes, ingredients, the cutlery, etc,

military precision, and so is the food.

Martyn, what is your basic ingredient, please?

Egg. So I'm doing a large ravioli which

has got ricotta and spinach in, but then introducing the egg yolk

so it's self-saucing. Why a stuffed pasta?

It's a challenge, but also, hopefully, one

that I can complete in the time. And, for me,

the first time I ever had it, I was in a restaurant, ordered it,

absolutely loved it, and I've been addicted to it since.

Martyn's whole dish centres around this one piece

of pasta filled with the egg yolk.

He's got to make sure the pasta isn't too thick,

and when we cut into it,

then the egg yolk runs out the side and it becomes almost self-saucing.

That's either success or failure in that parcel.

It's really quite difficult, because you have to have

the pasta thin enough so it cooks,

but thick enough so it holds the ingredients.

How long left? 30 minutes left, everybody.

30 minutes left.

Reuben, an IT project manager,

learnt the cookery basics at a young age,

helping out his single-parent mum. Now living in Bristol,

he practises his culinary skills

making dinners for his girlfriend.

The style of cook I am, I'd like to say,

"Calm and collected."

My girlfriend would probably say, "Messy,"

but I'm trying my best to get better at that.

My basic ingredient is mince,

so I'll be making fresh

meatballs with a tomato sauce and fresh pappardelle.

What's inspired this? My love for Italian food.

But also my girlfriend loves this dish,

so I'm making it in honour of her.

Pasta and meatballs. This is where size matters.

They should be nice, little meatballs, crusted on

the outside but cooked all the way through.

Uh-oh! This is for a MasterChef apron,

so we want really special meatballs.

You have just ten minutes, everybody.

Listen, I thought all this was a good idea,

but now I'm not so sure.

I haven't looked at my gelato,

that's probably my main worry.

Come on.

There it is.

Just five minutes.

GASPS: Oh, it's worked!

SHE LAUGHS

You have got one minute.

SHE GASPS

60 seconds. Finish up, please.

That's what we're looking for. There we go.

OK, time's up. Well done, everybody. Time's up.

Michael, please, if you would.

First up is web developer Michael,

who has used his Basic to Brilliant ingredient of egg

to make the Japanese-inspired omurice.

an omelette served over

rice topped with a confit egg yolk and nori seaweed.

And chicken katsudon,

dashi-poached breaded chicken with a soy, mirin and sake sauce.

I'm really enjoying this rice with the egg.

It's like a kind of omelette overcoat to the sticky rice.

The egg yolk that you've confited, that gives a real richness to it.

I'm really, really enjoying it. Lots of technique on show.

Flavours are good.

Love the sweetness and the saltiness of the sauce.

Your chicken itself is lovely and crispy. It's very good.

HE CHUCKLES

Thanks, Michael. Cheers, Michael.

Thanks very much.

I think the way I showcased the egg was good.

WHISPERS: Good feedback. In terms of skill level,

I can only hope I've done enough to get a MasterChef apron.

Therapeutic radiographer Joy

has chosen to showcase mangoes and is serving deep-fried spiced

chicken wings with a mango, habanero chilli

and spiced-rum sauce,

coconut, mint and lime rice, and a mango and jalapeno pepper salsa.

The sauce on that chicken is wonderful. Thanks.

It's got the sweetness of rum,

it's got the sweetness of mango. The chicken's cooked beautifully.

That salsa is delicious, the bite of the onion,

the sweetness of the mango. But you're using it as decoration,

and, actually, I want to eat it. Don't lose the yummy,

trying to make it smart.

I think you've held back on everything here.

Held back on salsa, held back on chilli.

held back on the amount of sauce on the side of the plate,

thinking, Oh, look, those guys won't get it.

Honestly, I'd rather my heart be pumping at 150 beats a minute

cos the chilli's too hot than right now thinking,

Oh, that's a shame.

I am more than happy with what I presented.

Moving forward, I definitely will put more flavours,

put more spice, and definitely put more on the plate.

IT project manager Reuben chose mince, and has made beef

and pork mince meatballs

with handmade pappardelle pasta in a tomato sauce.

Sorry, Reuben. Look, the bigger you make 'em,

the harder it is to get heat in the middle.

Your pasta's really well-made. That's a good tomato sauce.

Not too sweet, nicely seasoned.

But you've got a big issue with those meatballs.

I like what you're doing.

I can't avoid the fact that you've got meatballs

that aren't cooked all the way through, sadly.

I'm feeling slightly deflated.

At the end of the day, the meatballs weren't cooked,

so I can forgive them for not wanting to eat them.

Lawyer Victoria chose to showcase her

childhood favourite, cod, and is serving baked cod loin with

an almond and cumin crumb,

samphire, and a coconut curry sauce split

with coriander oil, garnished with a squid ink tuile.

There's some great work here.

Your fish is cooked really beautifully.

It does come away in big, slippery chunks.

The outside crust with the almonds and the cumin is good,

but, for me, that needs more seasoning.

That sauce is really well-made. Salty coriander in there,

I'm loving the sweetness of the coconut.

There's a creeping heat of chilli coming through there as well.

You are showing a fair bit of knowledge. Thank you.

Oh, God, I'm absolutely exhausted.

Oh, my God, that's so good.

I hope that I've shown everybody that cod is just a little

bit more than fish finger sandwiches and fish and chips on a Sunday.

Entrepreneur Martyn chose eggs

as his basic ingredient, and has made a spinach, ricotta and egg yolk

raviolo, served with a lemon butter sauce,

pancetta, peas and pea shoots.

There you are.

A runny egg yolk, my friend, congratulations. Thank you.

Martyn, I admire your bravery. Good on you.

Runny egg yolk coming out of a ravioli,

showing off skill.

The issue we've got here, the edges of that ravioli,

that's the thickness of a pie crust.

And it no longer just disappears and melts in your mouth.

You've got the salty, creamy ricotta in there.

I think the sweet pea and the salty pancetta is a really nice addition.

Your flavours are right.

You just need to be a bit braver and go a little bit thinner,

that's the only issue.

Honestly, I've done that dish, like, eight times over

the weekend and it's never been thick pasta.

I'm devastated. So, yeah, it's just one of those things.

Finally, it's teacher Naomi,

who created her dish based around hazelnuts, and has made

a hazelnut and date cake with hazelnut brittle, served with

a chocolate sauce and vanilla gelato.

It's not what I expected at all. OK.

But it's very good. Thanks! You have lovely

sweet and stickiness, like a breakfast bar.

And it's quite squidgy with the dates and the nuts as well.

And you definitely get a hazelnut in every single bite.

You haven't particularly sweetened your chocolate sauce,

you've left a little bit of bitter cocoa in there as well.

That's great. That gelato's fabulous.

Thick, creamy, Half a kilo of vanilla.

Again, not too much sugar. Mate, get in there, that's delicious.

I wish I could bottle up this feeling and keep it forever,

it is the best feeling in the world.

I couldn't have asked for better for my first round!

Well done. Your first experience of MasterChef,

it's not easy.

As you know, two of you are getting an apron,

going straight through to the next round.

Four of you will have to cook again.

First MasterChef apron goes...

..to Naomi. Congratulations. Thank you.

The second apron, the second person going straight through

to the next round is...

..Michael.

Congratulations.

Naomi, Michael, come and collect your aprons, please. Thank you.

Thanks, Michael.

LAUGHS: Oh, my goodness! Well done! We did it!

Yes.

SHE LAUGHS

Good job.

I'm so happy to get an apron in

the first round cos it means I don't have to cook next.

I'm still nervous now,

I feel more nervous than before I started,

so I just can't wait to just sit down for a bit.

HE CHUCKLES

Honestly, I'm having a "pinch me" moment,

like, this just feels unreal.

I can't believe I actually did it!

Listen, you've got a job to do, right?

Dig deep into that passion for cookery,

there are two more aprons here up for grabs.

In front of you there is a mystery box,

and inside that box there are three common ingredients.

Please reveal your ingredients.

Puff pastry, filo pastry, shortcrust pastry.

What we'd like you to do is cook

for us a dish using any of those ingredients

alongside anything you like from that lovely larder over there.

Ladies and gentlemen,

you'll have 45 minutes to cook your dish.

Two aprons. Incredible food, please. Let's cook.

I love the idea of a pastry challenge like this.

The possibilities are endless!

It's my worst nightmare ingredient, I think.

I'm not really a pastry chef,

but I'm going to stick with my Yorkshire roots.

Three different types of pastry. They all cook differently,

they all behave differently,

and they can all be used for different things.

They're going to have to really think on their feet here.

Pastry's one of those things

where it wouldn't have been my first choice,

but, no, I'm feeling good.

What's it like being back, Martyn? I'm disappointed.

I really, really, obviously, wanted the apron.

But at the same time,

it gives me an opportunity to test my skills again.

Good on you, that's the right way to look at it.

So I'm working on a chicken,

bacon and mushroom pie with some mash and some veg.

Martyn's using shortcrust pastry as the base,

which he's blind-baking.

It needs to be lovely and crisp and have a nice little crack to it.

He's using puff pastry as a top,

which he's doing separately to put across the top

once he's got the filling made. It needs to be puffed-up,

it needs to be lovely and light.

Get that pie out, Martyn,

using two pastries with a good filling,

I'll be really, really impressed. Fingers crossed for him.

Maybe I should have used filo.

Oh, I'm not a pastry person at all.

But it works, it's OK.

Joy, what are you making?

So I'm making a strawberry and blueberry puff pastry pie.

Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do you cook pastry at home?

I've never cooked with pastry in my life, to be honest with you.

Joy's lined a ramekin with puff pastry.

Puff pastry is a pie case. It's always really,

really difficult, it's got so much butter in it.

When that hot liquid goes in it, the butter melts.

The whole thing could just fall apart.

However, I do like her choice of ingredients - amaretto,

soft fruit, plenty of sugar. But I'm worried about the pastry.

I think I know what I'm doing, I'm not even sure,

but I think puff pastry can work. Oh, God!

Reuben, are you all right about cooking at this sort of speed?

Erm, I'm OK. I'm aware that I don't have a lot of time,

and so I don't want to overcomplicate it.

Reuben's going to make us

a mushroom and leek pie with a puff pastry top,

and he's going to serve that with buttered cavolo nero on the side.

The problem with that is mushrooms give off water when they're cooked,

leeks give off water when they're cooked.

I hope the sauce he's binding it with is really, really thick,

cos that could go quite liquid.

Not too confident at the moment, I don't think.

However, hopefully, my pie does me justice.

Victoria, what are you making?

I've chosen a shortcrust pastry.

I'm going to make a mince and onion pie,

which we eat a lot of in the North East, Yorkshire.

And then fondant potatoes, carrots, asparagus,

and Yorkshire puddings and gravy.

You do realise you've only got 45 minutes?

Yeah. I'm not leaving this kitchen without an apron.

Victoria's trying to give us a huge Sunday lunch in 45 minutes.

With just 20 minutes to go, Victoria's just put her pies in.

The pie filling is already cooked,

so all we need now is

for that pastry across the top to crisp up.

These fondant potatoes are never, ever going to cook in time.

This is right against the wire.

Can you turn this up? Can this go up...faster?

You have just ten minutes left.

No complaints. If I go out on this, then so be it.

HE LAUGHS

Just waiting for the pie to brown.

I'll need 30 seconds to stick that in a plate!

SHE LAUGHS

You have got three minutes left.

Better than I expected, although I have never made a pastry before,

it came out good.

SHE LAUGHS

60 seconds, please. Come on.

That's it! Stop, everybody, your time is up.

Martyn, if you would, please.

First to serve is Martyn,

who's used two kinds of pastry to make a pie.

A shortcrust pastry base with chicken,

bacon and mushroom filling,

topped with a puff pastry lid, served with mash,

asparagus, carrots, and a masala and chicken gravy.

I am really impressed.

You have perfectly cooked the bottom of that pie with a shortcrust

seasoned and crunchy.

You've perfectly cooked the top using puff pastry

light and fluffy. Mate, that is a cracker of a job.

Salty bacon in there, the chicken just cooked enough.

The little mushrooms disappearing everywhere.

Creamy, opulent mashed potato. The richness of the gravy.

I think that's really good.

And you know this was make-or-break,

and I've got to say, you made it. Thank you.

A lot of heart and effort went into that 45 minutes.

And the comments that I've had back have just blown me away.

It's been quite the ride, but what a result.

Reuben has used puff pastry as a lid for his mushroom

and leek pie, served with cavolo nero.

HE COUGHS

Do you like a little bit of pastry with your salt topping?

Yeah, I've been known to add too much salt on top.

Whoa, my friend!

Soft, meaty mushrooms. Good sauce, nice and thick,

coats the back of the spoon.

But you've put salt across the top of the pastry,

and your cavolo nero, you've also seasoned that quite liberally.

Your pastry top is just cooked. You get away with it.

I don't know why you sprinkled

so much coarse, big flakes of salt in there.

You can actually feel them crunching on your teeth.

You've overdone it.

I think their critique was fair. There is still hope for me.

Like, they loved my filling,

so if that's at the forefront of their decision,

then I should be OK.

Victoria has used the shortcrust pastry to top her

Yorkshire-inspired mince and onion pie,

and served it with Yorkshire pudding, fondant potato,

asparagus, carrots and gravy.

I can't believe you've got this all done in 45 minutes,

I really can't.

The pastry itself, the top is cooked.

Love the rich flavour of rosemary through the mint.

Sweet onions.

That Yorkshire pudding dipped in the gravy,

it's warming, it's hearty, and I really like it.

I really like your endeavour.

You do need a couple of more minutes on my potato,

but only a couple more minutes,

and then we'd be cheering cos it does taste good.

I'm pleased.

I'm glad that's over.

I cannot believe I tried to cook a Sunday dinner in 40 minutes.

But, anyway, there we are.

That's what we've done!

SHE LAUGHS

Finally, Joy chose to make a sweet pie

using puff pastry filled with a strawberry, blueberry,

and amaretto compote with a caramel and almond apple sauce.

The filling of the pie I like. Puff pastry across the top

just cooked. The sides, sadly, the puff pastry is not cooked,

it's just gone all soggy.

Your flavours inside there

are delightful - natural fruit sweetness.

You've added amaretto,

which gives it an almondy flavour,

but your pastry won't cook properly with all that liquid in there.

We obviously have a problem with that.

A little bit disappointed.

When I saw the pastry, I was quite shocked,

so I just rushed into it.

But we live and learn.

We got four pies. I didn't expect that.

One of them I think was absolutely fantastic.

Others, there were some issues.

That was absolutely brutal.

That was intense.

There's only two aprons left, so may the best two cooks win.

Absolutely.

SHE CHUCKLES

Martyn was the cook of this round, without a doubt.

That chicken pie was absolutely fantastic.

For me, Martyn's got himself an apron.

Joy's filling of strawberries and blueberries,

you loved the flavour, but that pastry wasn't cooked enough.

Joy was honest enough to confess she'd never,

ever made a pie before. It did show. I think Joy leaves us.

I had undercooked meatballs from Reuben in the first round.

He did have to prove a point.

Reuben gave us a leek and mushroom pie.

Seasoning was the issue here.

He put salt across the top of

the pastry and it may have distracted from

the beauty of the pie.

There was only a little bit of cabbage on the side,

that's it, but there was far too much salt.

Victoria, huge amounts of process both times she's cooked.

I liked the inside of the pie.

Mince and onion absolute classic. Made a decent gravy to go with it.

The potato fondant could have done with a few more minutes,

but I love her ambition.

To geta MasterChef apron would just be absolutely everything to me.

To go home without that now,

I would be really, really disappointed.

Gosh, I'm so tired now,

but I would love to still stay in the competition.

Hopefully, my story doesn't end here.

You have now experienced the highs and lows of MasterChef.

It's a tough competition, right?

We have made a decision.

The first person getting an apron is...

..Martyn.

Congratulations, Martyn. Well done! Thank you.

This is where the decision becomes a little bit more tough.

We have just one more apron.

The second person getting an apron is...

..Victoria.

Victoria, congratulations.

Reuben, Joy, thank you so very much indeed.

Thank you, guys.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

I was excited to see where this journey could take me.

But I've lots of things to be proud of from today.

I would say this experience

has definitely been a lot harder than I thought.

It is a challenge, but, overall, it's still been great.

It's very important to me.

You've put a lot of effort into these things,

and, obviously, there are people,

you know, who are out there rooting for you,

and I want to make them proud. So, yeah, very happy.

I'm so happy, I'm so happy to be here.

This was everything. So, to get an apron, to me,

I think anything from here now, it's a bonus.

Congratulations for winning your MasterChef aprons.

We are ultimately now looking for quarterfinalists.

You are going to be presenting your food to

the winner and runners-up from 2022.

The champion, Eddie Scott,

Pookie Tredell, and Radha Kaushal-Bolland.

There are only three quarterfinal places.

That does mean that one of you will be going home.

Two courses, an hour and 15 minutes. Let's cook!

We're doing it, we're doing it. A lot to do today.

Lots of critical elements and not much time.

This is no mean feat.

Eight plates of food in an hour and 15 minutes,

even if I was doing microwave food, would be a challenge.

So may the cookery gods be with me.

Martyn, big day in the MasterChef kitchen.

What are you going to cook for us?

Main course is risotto

with smoked haddock and a Parmesan tuile.

OK. And your dessert? Is a luxurious

sticky toffee pudding, lip-smackingly gorgeous.

What is it about the sticky toffee that you love so much?

It's the sauce. So I'm doing

a really indulgent butterscotch sauce,

which you're going to want to mop up and ask for more,

and you're going to get lashings of it.

Martyn's two courses, two courses I think we've all seen before.

Smoked haddock risotto. Flavour's all-important.

Salty smoked haddock, salty Parmesan cheese.

Not too salty, please, Martyn.

My biggest concern right now

for that risotto is the size of that tuile.

That is not a tuile, that's a Frisbee.

A sticky toffee pudding, John.

Martyn is doing one great, big sticky toffee

that he's cutting a slice out of.

There needs to be the right quantity of pudding to sauce.

Too much sauce, it becomes like a pudding in a soup.

Not enough sauce, and we've got ourselves a dry pudding.

Erm, it's hectic. I'm stressed. But we're fine.

I'm very excited to show off my Scottish heritage today.

I'm cooking food that I have grown up with and eaten for my whole life.

And, hopefully, I can make it as delicious as my mum and dad did.

Naomi's going to do us a venison loin.

Very, very tender, very little fat.

I want a nice bit of colour on there to give it the flavour.

We've got parsnip puree,

we've got parsnip crisps, and we've also got the game sauce.

A sauce with chocolate included is a good idea.

It gives it richness, it gives it body,

it also gives it a little bit of a bitter finish.

But you've got to make sure you get the balance absolutely right.

So tell me the inspiration behind the venison dish.

My mum used to do, like,

a port and Guinness slow-cooked venison for Christmas dinner.

I don't have the time for that today,

so I'm trying to make a similar version of that

with a nice rich sauce.

Dessert, sticky toffee pudding.

Second sticky toffee pudding of this round.

It's kind of an ongoing joke within

the family that we've tried every sticky toffee pudding in Scotland.

It's just our go-to.

And so I'm hoping it brings that kind of hug in a bowl today.

With that, we've got a toffee sauce

and a cream flavoured with malt, malt powder.

The flavour of crushed-up biscuits.

Toffee sauce, very, very sweet.

Wait till you see how much sugar goes in this.

Malted cream sounds like a good idea to reduce that sweetness.

What are your dishes, please, Michael?

Yeah, so my main is a butter miso steak ribeye,

served with a tamagoyaki egg and rice.

What did you call the egg? Tamagoyaki, which is a rolled

omelette, Japanese-style. You've got another omelette?

Yeah, another trick.

HE LAUGHS

Mate, is it the same sort of

omelette as we got in the last round? It's very different.

Fantastic. I love the idea of it.

Steak, miso, egg, rice on one plate,

not a combination we're used to hearing.

That lovely buttered miso, as it starts to cook,

it will start to go sweet, almost like caramel, on the outside.

Tamagoyaki, a thin layer of egg,

and as it cooks, then it's rolled up, and then, when it's cooled,

it's sliced and it looks like a little sort of circle,

like lots and lots of wheels going together.

He obviously likes his egg.

Dessert from him, we've got sago.

It looks like tapioca,

but larger balls, which need to swell up,

usually in coconut milk,

and then he's going to top that with pomelo.

If you've never had a pomelo before,

it's close to, like, a pink grapefruit.

But using the mango and the pomelo in the coconut,

he's got flavour explosion going over there.

I think that's really, really good.

It's the dessert I always ordered when I was younger after dim sum.

The whole dish altogether, to be honest, is about comfort.

I hope it turns out the way I remember it.

VICTORIA: Right, come on.

My two dishes were inspired by my love of Scotland.

The long walks in the cold air. Scotland is my absolute escapism.

So the first course, I'm making

an Arbroath smokie orzotto with chopped egg,

bacon crumb and pea shoots.

Orzotto. So, risotto, but using orzo.

Little bits of pasta that look like rice but, actually,

are made from wheat flour. I hope

that pasta is cooked all the way through.

Right, come on, come on, come on, come on.

And then Arbroath smokie, a smoked haddock,

which is really strong, quite well-flavoured.

It should flake nicely. I just hope she doesn't dry it out.

So, next course?

I'm making a prosciutto-wrapped venison loin with

a fondant potato, cumin and beetroot puree,

carrots, cavolo nero,

parsnip crisps, a chocolate drizzle, and a red...

SHE LAUGHS

..port jus.

Don't look at me like that.

Can you honestly do all of that?

It's quite to the wire,

but it's definitely doable, and it's definitely from the heart.

Eh, don't panic, don't panic!

SHE LAUGHS

Victoria's venison dish, in my opinion,

is attempting far too much.

Everything on this venison

dish needs care and attention and a lot of cooking.

Can she produce four plates that look the same?

Can they all be cooked absolutely perfectly?

And if she can, can she impress the dining room?

Since I won MasterChef, a lot has happened.

I wrote my first cookbook, and then, earlier this year,

I went on to open a restaurant as well,

where I cook French classics every day.

I'd never have imagined that would ever be possible

without applying to MasterChef.

I was a vegetarian when I was on the show,

but being a chef on my day-to-day job,

I have got that responsibility of tasting all foods,

so I will be tasting the food that is put in front of me today.

This round, as I remember, was a nightmare for me.

My advice would be do something not too difficult

and cook with lots of love and happiness.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, guys.

Cheers to a day of some good eating, hopefully.

11 minutes, Martyn, 11 minutes on your first course.

On paper, it seems like quite a simple dish,

but the risotto needs to be nice and al dente,

it needs to be creamy, it needs to be silky.

He needs to get the seasoning right with the salt and the Parmesan,

cos Parmesan's quite salty in itself.

And that smoked haddock is going to add another dimension, I hope.

Are you happy with the consistency of your risotto?

Yes. I mean, it's been a slog, I won't lie.

The time just flies.

And I also want to see how he's going

to present this lemon and black pepper tuile.

Ah, this one's so thin.

Should you put it together like a jigsaw puzzle?

That's it. There we go.

Yay! Risotto! Let's go, let's go, let's go!

Hello. Hello. Hi. How are we? Good. How are you?

Stressed.

SHE LAUGHS

So I've prepared for you today

a smoked haddock risotto served with a Parmesan,

lemon and cracked pepper tuile. I hope you enjoy.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Personally, for me,

I would have liked my risotto a little bit more creamy.

I would have wanted a lot more white wine within

the base of the risotto, just to give it that extra flavour.

I never tried a smoked haddock with risotto before,

but this is very nice. I think this tuile is good.

It's crispy, it's got a nice lemony, caramelised Parmesan flavour.

But it's the risotto, for me,

which I think is lacking a bit of excitement,

a bit of punch, of flavour.

That fish is well-cooked. It's in big flakes as well.

It's put its smokiness throughout the risotto.

It could be a little bit wetter.

It doesn't have a large amount of oomph to it.

OK, you got 15 minutes.

Sticky toffee pudding, you know, it's a classic.

We want it to be nice and light. The butterscotch sauce,

we don't want it to be too sweet. It's a crowd-pleaser,

isn't it? Who doesn't love a sticky toffee pudding?

Nice colour. I'm not the biggest fan.

It's sticky, it's toffee. If it's going to win me over,

it's got to be spectacular.

This is how I would have it.

Go, go, go! Come on, don't let it go cold.

Well done, you. On time.

Back again. I hope you have sweet teeth.

Thank you. So I have prepared

for you a sticky toffee pudding with a lip-smackingly

gorgeous butterscotch sauce with fresh cream.

Enjoy. Thank you so much.

I mean, I've got a sweet tooth, but that is one large portion.

The texture of his sponge is very good,

but it's extremely sweet.

For me, it's the fact that you have got this really lovely sauce

that is over the plate and not actually over the cake.

It is quite dry. It's huge, it's massive.

I think he could have done a lot more with the presentation,

because you need a lot of cream with a dessert this rich, this sweet.

And I'm not getting it

because it's just poured all over the plate.

How do I get the sauce on my pudding?

Not enough sauce!

And there's definitely not enough cream.

It's a sort of an apologetic sponge.

It's just exhausting. I'm so glad

I'm not still in that kitchen.

No amount of preparation can get you ready for that experience.

NAOMI: Just need to keep calm. Well, Naomi's cooking venison loin.

Extremely lean, delicate. Can overcook in seconds.

The parsnip puree, it needs to be smooth,

it needs to be silky.

You are really up against it here.

How much time do I have? You've got about a minute and a half.

Oh, my God!

The game, red wine and chocolate sauce,

now, that's what's interesting to me. Happy with the sauce?

I'm happy. Yeah, I am, actually.

And that is going to be the element that ties the whole dish together,

brings it to the next level.

Go on, slice it. Nice.

That looks good. It looks really good, doesn't it? Go on, go, go.

Right, OK.

I'm just... Crisps, come on.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Well done. That's a lot of work.

SHE LAUGHS

Hello. Hello. There you go.

So, today, I've made for you

venison loin with parsnip puree, parsnip crisps,

buttered asparagus,

and then you have a game, red wine and chocolate sauce to pour on top.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy it.

The venison's got a lovely colour round the outside,

it's lovely and pink in the middle.

But, for me, the sauce is the star of the dish.

It's got that right amount of richness.

It's not too sweet, but it has got that hint of sweetness as well.

The parsnip crisp is crispy, lovely.

The parsnip puree is smooth.

This is the kind of dish

that I want to sit down and have a long, leisurely lunch.

I think Naomi's done a superb job.

It's a really well-cooked piece of venison.

That sauce is great.

At this stage of the competition, I think it's a very good job.

How long before those puddings come out? One minute.

Oh, my God, this is my nightmare!

Second sticky toffee pudding of the day.

But, hopefully, the melted

cream will bring down the level of the sweetness.

I'm just going to finish my cream carefully.

Malt flavour, I think, will go with

the sticky toffee pudding really nicely.

OK, can we get these on these plates? Yeah.

Oh, look at you. Wow!

Wow! Get you, that's great!

They are really good. Oh, thanks, guys!

One minute, please.

I think I'm ready to go. Go, go, go! Thank you.

Well done, Naomi.

Here we go.

Thank you. So, today, for dessert,

I've made a sticky toffee pudding, a malted-flavoured cream,

and then a sticky toffee sauce as well.

I really hope you enjoy it. Thank you very much, Naomi.

Thank you. Thank you.

LAUGHS: I think I've got, like, a lot of nervous energy left over!

Literally, my hands are covered in toffee sauce, I'm sweating.

But it was quite exciting at the same time.

I actually weirdly enjoyed it.

SHE LAUGHS

I can't remember eating a sticky toffee pudding,

honestly, as good as that. It melted in your mouth.

The texture of that sponge, God, I mean, heaven. That malted cream,

the whole combination together, it was perfect.

The toffee sauce, it's not too sweet.

It's got a lovely shine. I am very, very happy with this dish.

This is absolutely delicious.

I can't believe that I would say that I like sticky toffee pudding.

Yay!

I've got no complaints here. That's a good sticky toffee pudding.

Nice, sweet, sticky toffee sauce, which is slightly bitter,

and a little bit of malted cream. That tastes great.

Nice. Looks really good.

Yeah, I'm happy with that. Butter miso steak,

I do love the combination of miso with the meat.

I am looking to have the steak juicy and tender.

You got three minutes.

There's flavour right there. Well done, Michael.

He's got a tamagoyaki. With any omelette,

you want it to be nice and fluffy and airy.

You are running a little bit over, Michael.

OK. Egg on, quick, quick, quick!

Well done!

Hey, guys. Hi!

For his main course,

Michael is serving

a miso butter steak rice bowl,

with a tamagoyaki rolled omelette,

stir-fried cucumbers and chives.

The steak's cooked beautifully. It melts like butter in your mouth.

That butter miso sauce over the beef is really, really lovely.

The omelette, he's done very well on that.

And the layer, how he rolled it, it's just, like,

I think it's perfect.

Lovely, sweet Japanese omelette

with a flavour of dashi running through it.

The beef, I love.

Mate, he's got some good flavours in there.

How much time? Six minutes, Michael. Six minutes.

So, Michael's dessert,

coconut sago with a pomelo and mango.

You would be looking for the similar sort

of textures with what you'd get with a rice pudding, essentially.

Cool that down and we need to start to move.

What's going in there? The vanilla coconut mixture.

Sure.

Great. Good news. OK, there we are.

Pomelo mango.

It sounds really tropical with the coconut, the pomelo, the mango.

So, hopefully, it should be a little bowl of sunshine.

OK, we should be going now. OK.

Hey. You're done!

Hey, guys. We have a tricky one. OK.

Help, help, help. OK, OK. There we go.

So I've made for you a coconut sago with a flaked pomelo and mango.

Enjoy. Thank you so much. Thank you.

The texture's fantastic,

but there was an opportunity

that's been missed of adding loads of flavour.

You have got that coconut flavour,

it's very, very subtle,

but the pomelo doesn't add anything to the dish.

And the mango, he could put a lot more in

and it would make this dish a lot more flavoursome.

But I did enjoy it, though.

The sago's actually cooked,

the mango's nice, the pomelo's lovely and bitter.

It's got a lovely coconut creaminess to it.

It's hard to find something to dislike.

This challenge was meant for me to kind of find my groove

and just be a bit more calmer,

but it still ended up being really hectic at the end.

But fingers crossed.

VICTORIA: You know what? I think I'm under control.

I'll tell you what, Arbroath smokie, hot smoked haddock from Arbroath.

Deep, rich, smoky, fishy flavour. Delicious. With the orzotto,

the small pasta in the shape

of a rice...it sounds really interesting.

Are we going to get this out in about three minutes?

Yep. Come on.

If you're going to have a bacon crumb it needs to be crispy.

Not too fatty, but, you know, it can't be burnt.

You all right? WHISPERS: Yeah.

You're done, you're on time. Right. You're on time.

Go, Victoria. Well done.

Hi! Hello!

Here we go. Thank you. Thank you. So, your starter,

I've made you an Arbroath smokie

orzotto with a chopped egg,

a bacon crumb, and pea shoots. I hope you enjoy.

Thank you. Thank you.

It smells good. Oh, it's smells... A nice, smoky flavour.

That beautiful smoked haddock tastes good.

The orzo is cooked nicely,

still retains a bit of bite,

but I think the best element

that kind of lifts the dish is the crumb.

Delicious. For me, it's too salty.

You know, you've got the saltiness from the bacon crumb,

then you've got the natural saltiness

from the smoked haddock as well.

A few tweaks of seasoning here and there,

it would have been a really, really good dish.

The flavour is very overpowering with

the saltiness from many elements on the dish.

Salty, rich smoked fish. The orzo is cooked really,

really well. I like the flavours of that.

I think the crispy bacon is just more saltiness

it doesn't need.

So, for the main course,

Victoria's cooking prosciutto-wrapped venison loin,

cumin and beetroot puree,

fondant potato. Fondant potatoes soft?

They're soft.

Carrots, cavolo nero, parsnip crisps,

chocolate drizzle, and a red wine and port jus.

When does it stop?

That dish is far more elegant than I imagined.

Well done, you. Victoria's

got a lot of energy because she's got to run around

the kitchen so much to get all the elements done.

I didn't want to make it easy, and I wanted to push myself,

and I hope it's paid off. Good on you.

I doubted her. I think I was wrong to doubt her.

I don't know how she's got all this done.

Thank you, darling.

Victoria's main course

is prosciutto-wrapped venison loin with fondant potato,

carrots, cavolo nero, parsnip crisps,

cumin-spiced beetroot puree,

chocolate drizzle and a red wine and port jus.

God, that was really tough, but good.

I'm pleased with what I've done.

I've literally poured my heart and soul into that,

so a bit emotional.

SHE LAUGHS

SHE EXHALES

My venison was cooked perfectly, really well-seasoned.

The parsnip crisp, you know,

it's got a nice crisp to it. The jus is fantastic.

It's got a great shine, it's got great flavour,

great body. There are some marvellous touches,

but the potato fondant, that is the standout on this plate for me.

It's buttery, it's soft,

it's absorbed all of that beautiful stock.

I enjoyed the sauce so much. Port and red wine, yummy.

The crust across the top of that venison's lovely.

The sauce is nice and rich.

I am actually almost gobsmacked

that she's managed to get all this done.

I don't know how you did that. THEY LAUGH

I don't know how I did it. I've got no idea.

I think we can all hold our heads high

and we can be proud that we did it. Definitely, definitely.

You know what? In a round like this, where the pressure is on.

It wasn't without its troubles, however,

we got some very, very good food.

Who was your cook of the day? It was Naomi, right?

It was mine, too. It was also

the dining room's. Venison cooked really,

really nicely, and an absolutely incredible sticky toffee.

Naomi is going straight through to the next round, and well-deserved.

Victoria, we have that Arbroath smokie orzotto.

There might have been a little bit of comment about salt,

bacon, smoked fish. I thought it was a really good dish,

I liked it. That venison dish was great.

I didn't think Victoria would complete all of that.

She completed it with gusto.

Congratulations, Victoria,

you got yourself a quarterfinal place.

Martyn cooked for us what we can probably call classics.

We had a risotto of smoked haddock and peas.

I think it could have been a bit wetter.

Sticky toffee pudding, for me, should be sticky,

it should be indulgent, and it wasn't quite that.

It didn't come together as one.

With Michael,

the main course, a rice bowl, the steak coated with the miso,

cooked really, really nicely. The omelette on the side,

really nice, slightly salty.

Dessert, the sago,

I thought it was pretty decent.

But we didn't get that flavour of tropics

cos we got a little bit of coconut,

some mango and some pomelo.

Getting through to the quarterfinal,

at the moment it feels like everything to me because I know

what I'm capable of, and I love cooking, I love food so much,

and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.

The apron is great, you know,

it's something that you can bring out at

a dinner party and say, "I did that."

However, I really would like that trophy.

Thank you very much, all four of you.

With the help of the dining room, we have made a decision.

Three of you are going through the quarterfinal.

That does mean that one of you is going home.

The contestant leaving us is...

..Martyn.

Martyn, it was a close-run thing.

Sorry, you are leaving us. Thank you.

I'm disappointed, but delighted at the same time.

You know, I've had an amazing experience.

I didn't crash and burn, to my knowledge.

I just went out against three amazing people.

So, Victoria, Michael, Naomi,

you are MasterChef quarterfinalists.

Congratulations. Well done. Well done.

Well done.

This is a complete new emotion for me.

I don't even know what I'm feeling right now.

This is just...it's unreal.

Absolutely thrilled to say that I'm a MasterChef quarterfinalist.

I might have to say that a lot to myself.

SHE LAUGHS

I don't think this is real!

There's a little part of me that's enjoying it

so much that I'm thinking, actually, maybe I CAN do this.

So I need to just keep giving it my all, I think.

Next time, six more contestants...

Trying to ignore everybody else.

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

Everything right now, if I was you. Everything right now, got it.

You've raised expectation incredibly.

..before battling for a place in the quarterfinal.

It's really, really tasty, and I would definitely finish it.

Wow, does it pack a punch!