MasterChef: The Professionals 2018 blog - week 3 by Monica Turnbull

It’s been another whirlwind week in the MasterChef: The Professionals kitchen as the latest batch of contestants were whittled down.

Seasoned judges Monica Galetti, chef owner of London restaurant Mere and Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing are once again joined by host Gregg Wallace to test the MasterChef: The Professionals contestants.

Monday saw two-Michelin starred Marcus Wareing set the MasterChef: The Professionals contestants the test of butchering a chicken and making a chicken, bacon and mayonnaise sandwich.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? However the deceptive task had the chefs fumbling with their knives as they struggled to successfully butcher the chicken and assemble a satisfactory sandwich.

Marcus said that chef patron, John, had prepared the dish badly while host Gregg Wallace said: ‘no one would call me refined but even I want something more refined than that.’ Ouch.

Chef owner of Mere restaurant, Monica Galetti, then asked three chefs to make agnolotti pasta filled with béchamel sauce. Corporate chef Maxim stood out in the challenge, making the pasta similarly to Monica and impressing with his calm attitude.

When the chefs came back to prepare their signature dishes senior sous chef, William aimed to win over the judges with his offering of partridge with an abundance of fruits. He said he wanted the dish was ‘like a song […] everyone stays in the choir of the plate.’ The song was a sweet tune to the judges, with Monica hailing it a clever plate of food.

Unsurprisingly William was sent through to cook for the judges along with Maxim – who Marcus named his chef of the day – along with senior sous chef Geanina.

Wednesday saw Monica set the unusual challenge of preparing broccoli three ways. Sadly relief chef Ben was left disappointed with the feedback on his attempt when Marcus told him ‘you could have shown us some more creativity’.

However private chef Dean shone with his version of the dish: poached broccoli, seared broccoli and raw shaved broccoli. Monica liked his working methods.

Marcus then set the task of cooking poached haddock on brioche with a fried egg and polonaise sauce. Sadly head chef Gavin was left bamboozled and ran out of time. The judges were reluctant to eat his fish as they said it was too salty. However sous chef Mohan managed to serve up a version of the dish very similar to Marcus’. Needless to

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say the judges were very happy with him.

In the signature dish challenge Gavin managed to save himself when he wowed with a scallop dish with crispy chicken wings and chicken skin. The judges thought that he almost appeared as a different chef.

Gavin 2

Dean once again remained cool and clinched his place to cook for the critics with his Nordic and Asian fusion dish of cured trout with cucumber three ways. The two chefs were also joined by Mohan to won a place in the next round.

On Thursday the six remaining chefs faced the challenge of inventing a dish with the key ingredient, vanilla. And they came up with some interesting creations.

vanilla 4

Despite a mishap – having to turn ice cream into a crème anglaise – Mohan’s mango and brioche tart was a hit with the judges.

Maxim sadly had a disaster with his dish, being unable to serve his pasta and settling for: lobster poached and glazed with vanilla, artichoke, potato and lobster and vanilla bisque. The judges thought the plate was cluttered and they couldn’t taste the vanilla. Sadly the dish heralded the end of Maxim’s MasterChef journey.

Geanina was also sent home after her semifreddo failed to wow Marcus and Monica. Dean, Gavin, William and Mohan were sent to cook for the critics.

This week saw them serving Grace Dent, Jay Rayner and Tom Parker Bowles who seemed to have a sweet tooth as the desserts separated the wheat from the chaff.

William’s chocolate crema was hailed the dish of the day and secured him his place in knock out week. Mohan then wowed with his jackfruit soufflé. They said it would be his signature dish if he opened his own restaurant.

William 1

Unfortunately Gavin, who ran late with both of his courses, couldn’t save himself with a show-stopping dessert. The critics weren’t blown away by his matcha green mousse, white chocolate and coconut mousse and mille fuille. Jay Rayner said: ‘matcha has that funky, I’m going to sit at the end of the garden eating worms, taste to it.’ Not what you want to hear.

When it came to the judging, Dean, who failed to wow with his barbecue inspired beef dish, managed to clinch himself a place in knock out week along with William and Mohan. Unfortunately it was the end of the road for Gavin who was sent home.

Next week sees the last helping of contestants fight for their place in knock out week.

By Monica Turnbull

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