Masterchef UK Professionals
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Bavette Steak with Papaya and Noodle Salad
Polly, a 23-year-old chef de partie from a five-star luxury hotel in London, blanched her vermicelli noodles in boiling water instead of soaking them - Nikita noted they didn't need boiling and would overcook quickly, though Polly ran them under cold water to stop the cooking. She used a mandolin to slice the papaya thin. She initially put salad ingredients directly together without a dressing, but then decided to make one using jaggery, shrimp paste, fish sauce and lime - tasting carefully and using the shrimp paste sparingly. Her steak portion was too large and uneven in thickness, meaning it wouldn't cook evenly and didn't have enough time to rest properly. She cut the steak with the grain instead of against it. The final dish was heavy on noodles with insufficient papaya and other vegetables in the salad ratio.
{Nikita}: "I think you hold your nerve quite well, actually."
{Nikita}: "You should have cut a smaller piece of steak. It's not going to rest in time. Well, having said that, you know, you knew how to cook the steak. It was nice to see you basting it, looking after it in the pan."
[Marcus}: "By rule of thumb, you need to cut across the grain. You didn't. But it's still incredibly tender, which is great."
{Matt}: "What we have here is a papaya noodle salad. But the ratio of noodles to everything else. It's mainly noodles."
{Matt}: "You made a dressing quite like that. It's sort of salty and sharp, but that's all I'm managing to get is sort of dressed noodles. But admire the fact that you tasted and checked and didn't just throw things in for the sake of it."
{Monica}: "You'd never cooked the noodles like that before but you thought, I'm going to give that a go. And you produced a half decent plate of food. But generally I thought the way you worked and your attitudes was bang on."
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