Masterchef UK Professionals
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Confit Halibut with Caviar Hollandaise
Duck Fat Confit Halibut with Caviar Hollandaise, Gem Lettuce Ballotine and Crispy Potato.
Luke's starter was a refined fine-dining dish built around halibut gently confit in duck fat. The fish was submerged and cooked slowly at low temperature to achieve a buttery texture. A caviar hollandaise blanketed the fish, with additional caviar placed atop a crispy potato element. The most inventive component was a gem lettuce ballotine — baby gem lettuce was charred, then rolled with anchovy, parmesan and Parma ham into a cylinder wrapped in Parma ham slices.
{Luke}: "I've got halibut confit in duck fat, and I'm serving it with a caviar hollandaise, a ballotine of gem lettuce which has got anchovies, parmesan, and Parma ham in it, and crispy potato and a little bit of caviar on top of the potato as well."
{Marcus}: "He's going to confit those in duck fat, nice and gently. You don't want that duck fat to be too hot. If it is, then that skin will curl up and you're going to have almost like a piece of fish that's the shape of a banana, which is not going to be good."
{Marcus}: "Baby gem is almost like a Caesar salad — baby gem that's sort of slightly wilted down and then rolled up into a ballotine and then wrapped in slices of Parma ham."
{Luke}: "There's not really anywhere to hide because I'm not doing anything too crazy. So it needs to be clean and precise."
{Tom Parker Bowles}: "The halibut is just gorgeously cooked. There's a beautifully made hollandaise with the pop of caviar."
{Leyla Kazim}: "You don't taste the duck fat. And the halibut is beautifully cooked. And the crisp potatoes — great."
{Jimi Famurewa}: "This ballotine, which I had real qualms about, I think it's actually really good because the lettuce inside has been charred but remains crunchy. I actually really love it."
{Tom Parker Bowles}: "It's a wonderful plate of food."
{Marcus}: "Oh, my goodness me. Sublime."
{Monica}: "The cooking of the halibut — when it's confit like this, it's like butter. It just melts. The hollandaise like a blanket, just wrapping around this beautiful piece of fish. All together, it's divine."
{Marcus}: "Two dishes from Luke today were flawless. The halibut was just stunning."
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