Five things we learnt from week two of MasterChef: The Professionals 2016

For the most part, plates of food are so-called for a reason; they should be served on a plate. While there are exceptions to this, Dylan decided to go completely off-piste with his glass box full of sand and pebbles, on which he served John Dory with edible puff pastry ‘sand’. While this was probably supposed to invoke a multi-sensory experience of being at the seaside (like Heston Blumenthal’s infamous Sounds of the sea), it instead completely distracted the judges from the food itself. All the rocks also ended up on one side of the box, which made it look as if it was accidentally upended at some point.

Chef Rohan started off on a positive, acing the skills test, but his signature dish of paneer layered with apricot and mint chutney dashed his chances in the competition. As a soaker-upper of other flavours (like a sort of cheesy tofu), paneer is well-loved in Indian cuisine, but the judges wanted something more on the plate. Perhaps it’s best to stick to other proteins for a showstopping dish; at the very least, a combination of cheese and fruit should be well avoided.

It almost looked as if the chefs were having fun trying to reinvent the classic British fish and chips, but it was Marcus who seemed happiest (probably because all he had to do was eat everything). Yes, when he’s not cooking two-Michelin-starred dishes in his restaurants it appears Marcus loves nothing more than to tuck into a piece of battered cod and a big pile of chips, and he fully enjoyed this round. Mushy peas in particular seemed to please him, even when they’re served as a foam with potato crisps.

In the quarter-finals, fish and seafood featured on every menu served to the critics, but was the undoing of three of the four chefs. Arnaud, Dale and Brenton let themselves down with undercooked offerings, but Andrew hit the spot with his fillet of cod and secured himself through to knockout week. Arnaud and Brenton were lucky enough to join him, but Dale was sent home due to one to many schoolboy errors.