Masterchef UK Professionals
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Dover Sole Ballotine with White Wine
Dover Sole Ballotine with Fish and Herb Mousseline, Pickled Grapes, Blanched Asparagus, Asparagus Puree, White Wine Sauce with Herb Oil, and Citrus Breadcrumbs
{Guiseppe}: "Today I will be cooking a Dover sole ballotine stuffed with fish and herb mousseline with pickled grapes, blanched asparagus and asparagus puree, white wine sauce split with green oil and citrus breadcrumbs."
{Marcus}: "So fish from the UK waters and flavours of home, which are asparagus, herbs, lemon." {Guiseppe}: "I will put some lemon through the mousseline." {Marcus}: "How much does this competition mean to you, now that you're here?"
{Guiseppe}: "I feel it's the right place to be, it's the right moment of my career. I want to put the cherry on the cake, which will be winning. Obviously, for the moment I'm having the cake. Let's see if I manage to put the cherry on."
{Marcus}: "Let's take it one cake at a time."
{Guiseppe}: "One slice at a time for sure."
{Marcus}: "Guiseppe has taken the fillets off the Dover sole. I imagine he's going to line them up next to each other, maybe batter them down just to make it a little bit thinner."
{Speaker 3}: "Within the ballotine, he's also making a mousse from the same fish."
{Guiseppe}: "The sole itself, I'm using the trimmings and the sides to make the fish mousse, which I will blend with double cream, some herbs, some eggs, and a touch of lemon juice and lemon zest."
{Marcus}: "So he's going to roll that up, beautifully poached. The filling cannot be grainy, it cannot be overcooked."
{Speaker 3}: "He's gonna be serving those with some black grapes, which he's pickling."
{Guiseppe}: "Just gonna place them on top of the fish to make them look like the scales of the fish. Basically, it'll take a while."
{Speaker 3}: "Guiseppe is making a white wine sauce. It's got fennel running through there. He's got lots of herbs, shallots gently cooked and of course, added some white wine as well."
{Monica}: "All I can see is that he's whipping around the kitchen with his usual kind of enthusiasm and energy."
{Speaker 3}: "I just hope that he takes a beat."
{Guiseppe}: "I really pushed it to the limit. They did mention about the mousseline. It was a little bit grainy. I agree with that. But overall, I think it was positive. Yeah. Happy with it."
{Speaker 3}: "Beautiful presentation. Nice. Very, very clean. Incredibly precise, which is good to see."
{Marcus}: "The cooking of the sole is wonderful. The fish itself is beautiful. The filling inside I find very disappointing. It's split, it's grainy, you know, so that is a shame. It hasn't quite worked out. The asparagus is nicely cooked on the side, although maybe more style over substance. We could do with a bit more."
{Monica}: "It looks amazing. It tastes fantastic. The first thing I smelled was the vinegar coming off the grapes. But with the rest of the sauce, it's really needed because that sauce is rich."
{Speaker 3}: "What you've got here is a beautiful sauce. It's a lovely white wine reduction. It just feels smooth and delicate and delicious. A lot of it, which I like."
JUDGES DELIBERATION: {Monica}: "Guiseppe is a real mix. We saw him in the skills test, and he's lively, he's fun, slightly chaotic. And then we saw him in the signature round. I was very impressed."
{Speaker 3}: "Once you poured the sauce onto the plate, it really did lift it. It was lovely for me."
{Marcus}: "The mousseline of that fish was grainy, and that was a disappointment, but there was a lot that Guiseppe got right."
OVERALL VERDICT: Beautiful presentation and a wonderful white wine sauce, but the mousseline filling was grainy and split, which was a significant flaw. The sole itself was well cooked and the pickled grapes added welcome acidity. The asparagus was nicely cooked but could have offered more substance. Guiseppe went through to the quarterfinals.
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