Masterchef UK Professionals
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Poached Pear Millefeuille with Praline Cream
Sebastian openly admitted unfamiliarity with millefeuille before starting. He began with the pears rather than the pastry, losing critical early time. When he did put the pastry in the oven he placed it directly on the tray without a rack on top, resulting in pastry that rose too high and lacked the flat layers essential to the dish. His poaching liquor was correct - sweet wine, cinnamon, star anise - but pears were not cut small enough, leaving them slightly firm. The caramel colour was praised as spot on, but he blended the praline separately rather than combining nuts with the caramel before blending, weakening the flavour in the finished cream. He used a hand whisk throughout, adding further time pressure. He did not use the mascarpone available to him, leaving his cream lacking richness and sweetness. Most critically, he did not cool the pears before assembly - they went into the freezer for only seconds - causing the warm pears to melt the cream and prevent the tower from holding its shape. The result resembled a sandwich rather than a layered millefeuille.
{Matthew Ryle}: ""What we're looking for, millefeuille, is layers of puff pastry, cream, poached fruit. But you've got some food on the plate and I'm looking forward to trying it.""
{Matthew Ryle}: ""The puff pastry is cooked. The pears, they're a little bit too firm.""
{Matthew Ryle}: ""If you just blitzed up that praline and folded that through the cream, you would have got a bit more of that nutty caramel flavour into the cream.""
{Judge}: ""Good caramel. But I'm really shocked that you put hot pears on top of whipped cream.""
{Judge}: ""The cream is there, but it needs more sweetness. You've got mascarpone sat in front of you, not doing anything - that would have given you that kind of richness.""
{Judge}: ""It's almost like a sandwich is what we have here. You've sort of struggled through this, Sebastian. I want to know what your style of food is like and a bit more confidence in your abilities in the next round."""
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