MasterChef 2014

Have to say, tonight's show was one of my all-time favourite episodes of MasterChef. John Campbell is such a patient and well-mannered chef and having the chance to work with him would be a dream come true for any amateur chef with higher aspirations.

My only slight reservation is that Campbell's food is so good and he's such a good teacher that it was almost impossible for any of them to stuff it up under his watchful eye.

But to follow that experience up with a leftovers invention test just rounded things off perfectly for me. I hope that's going to become a standard part of MasterChef.

Ping - nailed the service as you'd expect her to from past experiences and John Campbell looked as please as punch with her efforts. Loved the look of the pumpkin dish she was preparing and it went down well with the diners as well. Wasn't totally enamoured with the way her noodles and broth looked but the ingredients shouted flavour and the judges certainly seemed to agree - such a clever dish with those little elements of crispy skin, pickled giblets and shaved cauliflower and possibly her strongest showing all competition.

Jack - got a bit behind in service but Campbell's measured tutelage saw him through the worst of it and he served up a dish which he ought to be extremely proud of. Funnily enough his mackerel dish reminded me of one of Michael's earlier efforts... But there's still something about him that doesn't convince me. You don't approach dissecting a cod's head to get at the cheek unless someone has shown you how to do that before as no amount of supposed 'natural talent' will see you through. Impressed with his dish, but thought his pumpkin and fennel ravioli looked like a complete mess on the plate, despite Torode's claims.

Michael - arguably had the 'pro' dish best suited to him and his strengths, but he still nailed it and you could see how much it had taken out of him at the end. I hope he's going to take away a lot from working with Campbell and that's reflected in his food in tomorrow's cook-off. Thought he was slightly stitched up by Luke with the pastagate incident, but his venison and rabbit ragù was utter genius and the little touches like the addition of bone marrow really showed his class. Finally, he's pared things back and regained his touch!

Angela - a complete bag of nerves in the kitchen earlier and her dessert really didn't come out exactly as it should, but at least all the flavours were there and she treated it with all the care and attention it deserved. Wasn't impressed by her game pie - and yet again her presentation lets her down - but her flavours were strong and she'd treated the scraps with care. If she can sort her plating-up she's going to be tough to beat.

Luke - didn't seem all that comfortable in the pro kitchen and was doing his utmost best to make a complete hash of things whilst still retaining an air of smugness throughout. Such a tool. Didn't like the look of his tortellini myself (should have put a fifth one on there) but the idea seemed sound and it was just the execution that let him down - luckily for him, nobody went home...
The cooking and plating-up for tomorrow's episode looks simply stunning. Can't wait to see who makes it through.
 
looking at the tv guide for next wednesday, it says there are 4 in the final. isn't it usually 3??? anyway, i'd expect luke to be on his bike tonight.

and rather annoyingly, they've put it on at 9pm next week instead of 8 meaning it conflicts with other stuff i want to watch. why can't they just leave it alone. :mad::p
 
marc2003 said:
looking at the tv guide for next wednesday, it says there are 4 in the final. isn't it usually 3???
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I think there's usually four in the final week with one getting knocked out at the end of the first day, having completed a service challenge and then cooking for the judges.

I remember a recent one being held at Ramsay's Royal Hospital Road restaurant with Clare Smyth at the helm, but I can't remember if it was last year or not.
 
I think Ping is definitely the favourite followed by Angella. Jack also has a chance too, his presentation is the best, if he nails flavour in the last week then he's the complete package. I don't really feel like Luke has a chance, he's way too inconsistent.

Saying that I hope Ping takes it, she's the most deserving and consitent.
 
Hmmm. That played out as I'd feared it might.

Jack - I still think he's cooking from someone else's recipes and not from his own experience in the kitchen. The duck was poorly executed (turned far too early and overcooked), his celeriac puree was grainy and yet again he forgets to season his food which either means he's not tasting as he goes or he is tasting and has no palate. Technically capable and pays a lot of attention to the visuals, but his flavours suck and I really don't think he understands the food he's cooking well enough to figure out what's going wrong. Could well end up being the British Donal Skehan the way he's going, even though a series of stages would be a better route for him to take.

Luke - remains annoying and I still fail to see what the judges like about him. He dished up a plate straight from a gastropub, the meat around the egg would have totally destroyed the delicate flavour of the quails egg and his 'failed' scotch egg went wrong because the egg still had the bloody shell on! His reliance on finger food isn't going to win him the crown, but at least he'll not put up any competition to the two girls should he manage knock Jack out during the chef's table service on Wednesday.

Michael - what a utter, utter pillock. Not only did he come up with an dish which sounded like it was made from stuff found in the back of your kitchen cupboard, he then managed to completely shoot himself in both feet by lumping it all on the plate in a style more appropriate for a school canteen than MasterChef. Torode had it right when he criticised him for going too far with technique and losing sight of flavour and my heart sunk when he read out his list of ingredients. I sorely wanted him to make the final three, so I just hope he can make the best of his experience on MasterChef and do something with his talents - a food blog would be a nice place to start.

Ping - I really don't see how anyone can beat her now, so it might well be time to sit back and enjoy the ride and see what surprises she has in store for us. I didn't think her pork belly sandwiches were without fault but it was the only dish of the five that I wanted to sample for myself. Should things play out as expected, she'll be a worthy winner. But whatever happens, I look forward to seeing her do amazing things over the course of the final three episodes.

Angela - the presentation on her dessert still sucked, but it was a masterpiece as far as she's concerned and a plate of her food finally had the looks to stand up to the flavours. Hopefully she'll make the runner-up spot now she's got over her final stumbling block and go on to forge a career in food that her talents deserve. I mean, it's not like she's going to win... is she?
Next week's first challenge looks like it could be an epic. Kerridge in the kitchen and Rogan, Outlaw and others at the table!
 
Goes to show one bad dish and it can all be for nothing. Seriously bad time to forget to season properly.

I still want Ping to win but have a sneaky suspicion Jack may end up taking it.
 
im bored of this series, the last week or so ive been watching it on the iplayer and skim watching it, takes just a couple of mins :)
 
Two very different episodes so far this week!

Wednesday was a strange one. I remain unconvinced by the need for a challenge to cook a course each under the watchful eye of a top chef when there's nothing in the rest of the episode to back it up. Going through all that only to be hit with a knockout format invention test straight afterwards doesn't really give them a chance to show anything they've learned from the previous challenge.

I suppose it makes for decent television, but it seems like a strange approach to take - was there a straight knockout last year or did they all cook off together?

Angela - very surprised by the lack of seasoning in her first dish and wasn't expecting such a basic mistake from her at this stage. I suppose nerves could have been at the heart of it, but that still leaves plenty of opportunities to taste the food along the way before dumping it all on the plate. Nailing the presentation but making a a mess of the flavours isn't something we'd have expected from her at all, but there we go. I thought her gurnard dish looked awful, especially compared to some of her most recent efforts, but at least she was back on song with the flavours.

Ping - first dish wasn't as much of a mistake as it was made out to be, but compared with what she's been capable of it was quite a let down. Although I got the feeling that the comments from John and Greg were marking her down for being unremarkable rather than there being fault. Thankfully she brought out the big guns for the second dish as the judges had nothing to criticise about Angela's dish - hopefully she's got three more dishes like that in her...

Jack - technically his first dish was head and shoulders above the rest and it was probably something he'd cooked before, but you can't deny the lad has talent and is starting to apply himself a lot more in the latter stages of the competition. There's no reason he can't win this if he manages to serve three perfect plates of food to the judges, yet even if he doesn't I'm damn sure he'll be the one to make the most from MasterChef.

Luke - I suppose he got through by default with his gyoza, but it still felt like a really disappointing plate of food to be serving up at this stage. The soup was a great idea and probably earned him his place in the finals, but the the dumplings were the star and it was more buffet food from him - at least we know he'll be forging a career in event catering if nothing else works out for him after MasterChef. And he's still an annoying twerp.
Tonight's episode was, quite simply, superb. To go to Barcelona and have that experience marks a new high point for MasterChef and I'm still amazed at how they managed to put that together. To cook with the people they did and for that one particular person was an unbelievable opportunity and something most professional chefs would happily sell their own grandmother for.

I'm just a bit annoyed they crammed that all into one episode as surely there was enough content to last at least two nights and it felt needlessly rushed in places as a result. If MasterChef was still on BBC2 that would have lasted for most of the week, but I guess the show's profile might not have attracted the necessary budget to go there in the first place!

Jack - brilliant work in the tapas challenge but he didn't really nail the brief in the dessert challenge and I think that might prove telling. Given his surroundings, making the tempered chocolate dome wouldn't have been that challenging and was the only real surprise element of the dish and the lack of comments from Christian and Patricia spoke volumes on that front. But he made up for every single mistake he's ever made with that final lamb dish - it was nothing short of sheer brilliance and demonstrated skill and technique well beyond his years. Perhaps it appeals to me as it' my style of cooking and I'm overly excited about it for that reason, but I still think it's enough to mark him out as my new front-runner for the crown. If he can serve up three dishes like that, Ping's got her work cut out to beat him.

Ping - I thought she approached the tapas challenge in the right way and quite used her knowledge of Asian flavours to get her through, but there was something missing from the cooking and it didn't feel like her strongest showing. In the dessert challenge her dish showed a little more thought and flair in the execution than Jack's had and it seemed to surprise Christian and Patricia, which in itself was surprising as you'd have thought they'd have seen it all before. As for her final dish, I can't say that it excited me, although it went down well with Ferran and one would have to say that is all that matters!

Luke - went to pieces during the tapas challenge, which was surprising as it should have been right up his street, but redeemed himself by the end, despite a few glaring presentation issues. His dessert was the standout effort of the three, however - really got the brief and showed there's more to his cooking than perhaps I've given him credit for. But then he totally dropped the ball with his deconstructed moussaka and got the appropriate level of praise from Ferran which concentrated on it tasting nice... but not really much more than that.
 
yeah jack did well last night. i thought he was lucky to get as far as he had because it was mostly the ineptitude of others that kept him in. he's certainly earned his right to be there now.

regardless of who wins, they've all got a career in food ahead of them if they want it. you only have to have seen the earlier rounds with all the previous finalists coming on as guest judges to see what they've done with their lives.
 
Well last night was the first episode I've watched since last Friday. To be honest, I found it hard to watch thinking 'if only Michael had made it through!'

Really impressed with Jack and Ping. Those dishes really looked superb. Jack has come a long way in this competition and has a bright future ahead of him given his age.
 
i always wanted ping to win and she deserved it. ok she had a little blip with her chicken dish the other night and had to face the cook off against angela but other than that, i can't remember her putting a foot wrong. :)
 
I really like Jack and Luke, Luke reminds me a lot of Tim from a previous master chef, but just not as good cook. Jack is young, clearly a very ambitious and good cook. I think they were worthy runners up, very competent chefs who (probably and hopefully) have good careers ahead of them.

Ping was just the best cook in the competition and it was obvious for a while to be honest, the slip up with the chicken was not a 'huge' mistake really, she was a (imho) considerably better chef then Angela.

I enjoyed that Jack and Luke seemed to recognise that Ping was just the best chef, it's nice to hear them seem very humble in the final too. All the food on display was excellent, the only one I thought was not up to standard was Luke's dessert, obviously, however had he had time to practise the menu more he could have nailed that dessert. Jack seemed to get his food spot on too, but they were up against a fantastic Ping.

Enjoyed this season, the Barcelona episode was very good but I wish we spent more time with the chefs over there.
 
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