What we learnt from week four of MasterChef: The Professionals 2018

by Great British Chefs 30 November 2018

Our final set of contestants enter the Masterchef kitchen to take on some interesting skills tests and face a panel of restaurant critics.

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Great British Chefs

Great British Chefs is a team of passionate food lovers dedicated to bringing you the latest food stories, news and reviews.

Great British Chefs

Great British Chefs is a team of passionate food lovers dedicated to bringing you the latest food stories, news and reviews.

We’re into the final week of the heats! That means nine chefs are already through from the first three weeks, but there are three spots left with six remaining contestants waiting to run the gauntlet of skills tests.

This week’s chefs took on a wide variety of challenges – Marcus gave our chefs a very classic filled pasta challenge and a caramelised pineapple, whilst Monica surprised them with a couple of oysters – a dish using chicken oysters, and a tricky oysters Rockefeller test. Shucking oysters with shaky hands in front of a looming Marcus Wareing is a task we don’t wish upon anyone!

Check out a selection of things we learnt from Masterchef: The Professionals this week.

When making ravioli, don’t pre-cook your filling

How to make ravioli

Ravioli

Recipe Collection

A useful tip from Marcus in the first episode of the week, who challenged the first round of chefs to make a sausage ravioli with a chasseur sauce. Lots of the contestants chose to cook their sausage meat before filling their ravioli, but Marcus insists that you don’t need to do that – using raw meat inside your pasta gives a nice smooth finish, and makes the pasta much easier to work with.

Don’t rinse oysters in water – you’ll lose all the flavour!

How to open an oyster

Oyster

Recipe Collection

Monica challenged our chefs to make oysters Rockefeller – essentially an oyster with a herby gratinated topping. A few of our contestants rinsed oysters in water, hoping to make sure there was no shell in the final dish, but in doing so they washed all the flavour off the oyster. Learn how to shuck and prepare oysters here, and take a look at our recipe collection.

How to find the oysters on a chicken

How to joint a chicken

Roasted chicken oyster, smoked cod roe, hay-baked celeriac and egg yolks

by Adam Simmonds

Chicken oysters are the most tender, delicious bits of meat on a chicken – they would often be kept as a chef’s treat, though nowadays, we often see them used in restaurant dishes too. They’re nothing to do with normal oysters – other than being delicious and roughly the same size and shape! Knowing how to joint a chicken and where to find the oysters is an indispensable skill for a chef – find out more here.

Know how to make pomme purée

How to make mashed potato

Chicken wings with Reblochon pomme purée

by Daniel Clifford

Pomme purée is a one of the great luxuries in food – perhaps the ultimate humble ingredient, taken to lavish heights. Knowing how to make a really good pomme purée can make almost any dish – check out our guide, right here.

Know how to make crispy chicken skin

How to make crispy chicken skin

Chicken skin

Recipe Collection

Crispy chicken skin is a fantastic skill to have up your sleeve – it makes a superb, meaty garnish for dishes. The key points are to make sure your skin is pressed between two flat surfaces – Monica does this in a pan with another on top, but you can use two baking trays in the oven too – and to scrape the layer of fat from underneath to get it perfectly crisp.