Masterchef UK Professionals
Baker:
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Challenge Type:
Baked Halibut with Potato Crumb
Baked Halibut with Potato Crumb, Mussels, Boiled Potatoes, Pickled Cucumber, and Champagne Cream Sauce with Chive Oil
{Ben}: "I'm feeling good, ready to crack on. I don't want to go home today. Essentially, I have to cook the best dish of my life, and no mistakes."
{Ben}: "I'm doing a baked halibut with pickle, cucumber, champagne cream, mussels, chive oil, some bronze fennel. I love fish. My first head chef was really big on fish. So as a commis, I was prepping fish and oysters, making fish stock. It's just food that I like eating. If I was at a restaurant, it's what I'd order."
{Matt}: "Who has tried this dish?"
{Ben}: "Quite a lot of my customers. One of the customers actually tried to buy the recipe with a pint of beer. I obliged."
{Marcus}: "Who's the person behind you that really, like, is like, go, Ben?"
{Ben}: "My girlfriend. She helped me drunkenly apply, and then here I am."
{Ben}: "So my sauce is reduced, and it's had all the fish stock in it."
{Ben}: "Tastes really nice."
{Ben}: "I'm happy."
{Ben}: "I've got to finish my potato crumb. Pass my chive oil. Should be all good."
Voiceover (Marcus): "I like the fact that Ben is cooking the food that he enjoys. He's taken the halibut, which you bake in the oven with the skin on, remove that skin, and then he's going to put a lovely little potato crumble on top."
Voiceover (Marcus): "The mussels, he's cleaning up and cooking those in a little bit of champagne. We've got potato. We've also got a little bit of bronze fennel."
Voiceover (Monica): "He's making a champagne cream sauce."
Voiceover (Monica): "And then he's going to put the mussels, potatoes and pickled cucumber through it. Then it just becomes something quite delicious."
Voiceover (Matt): "Sounds classical. It sounds beautiful. And I love the fact that he's tried it on his customers, so much so that they wanted to bribe him for the recipe. So that's got to be a good sign, right?"
Monica: "The fish cookery is beautiful. Just falling apart. And that potato crumb with saltiness on it, which you've used to season on top of the fish. Very clever. The mussels are perfect. Just divine. The potatoes, beautifully cooked. It is solid cooking skills done well."
Marcus: "Your champagne cream sauce is fantastic. It's fishy, it's fresh in champagne, and it's creamy and delicious and velvety. It's just really good cookery. And that's what a signature dish is all about. That says a lot about you. And you gave that recipe away for a pint. Yeah. You need to be asking a little bit more. It's just a pint."
Matt: "Ben, this is a very accomplished plate of food. Honestly, if I had this in a restaurant, I'd be rebooking. Everything on this dish is brilliant."
Matt: "You should be very proud of yourself."
DELIBERATION - Monica: "There's one chef that stood out, and that was Ben."
Marcus: "Absolutely melt in the mouth and then the perfectly cooked mussels. His execution was excellent."
Matt: "100% agree. Ben is sailing through to the quarterfinal."
RESULT: Ben advances to the quarterfinal (announced first, the clear standout).
{Ben}: "Brilliant. It made me really emotional. The best feedback I've ever had in my life."
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