The competition is starting to get serious in the MasterChef kitchen, with the majority of the chefs coming across as competent, collected and even inspiring. Out of all of them, Craig was incredibly strong, showing incredible skill for a twenty-one-year-old. Louisa also piqued our interest with her colourful dishes, even if her Sichuan peppercorn-infused ‘electric’ sauce didn’t go as planned.
There were, of course, still some things that made Marcus mad, Monica shocked and even Gregg a bit miffed. Here are some of the more serious infractions.
On day one the skills test involved creating an Italian meringue – quite a simple process that shouldn't worry any trained chef. However, two of the contestants (Chris and Lee) panicked under the pressure and didn't cook their sugar enough, resulting in a grainy finish.
Day two saw a slightly more difficult skills test, involving a whole pigeon which needed to be turned into a finished plate of food in just twenty minutes. Most of the chefs were probably worrying about overcooking the bird and messing around with the garnish, but they should have focused more on the actual prepping of the bird. When Monica tasted Peter's attempt, she had to spit it out because he'd left an unpleasant sounding 'neck sack' in, and another chef left a little blood pocket inside. It all got a bit visceral.
Despite a pretty positive reaction all-round, when Lee served his turbot dish to critic Jay Rayner he felt it hadn't been given the love and attention such a luxurious ingredient deserves. If you're going to serve something up that costs a lot of money, you need to be absolutely certain you've done it justice in the kitchen.
