Perfectly Cooked Cod | MasterChef UK: The Professionals | MasterChef World

The key thing is that cod in the middle. If he overbakes it, it's a complete disaster. And if he doesn't, it might be marvellous. Good to see you back in our kitchen. I hope you're ready and prepared for what's coming up. You are now cooking for some of the best critics in the country. Grace Dent, Tom Parker Bowles and Jay Rayner. At the end of this, we will lose one of you. This is a chance for you to shine. Show us your skill, your flair, some great food. One hour, 15 minutes, two courses for that place in our final 12. Off you go. The competition so far has gone very well. I've had very little negative feedback. Today, I'm going to be on top of my game, work really hard, trying to make sure everything is 100% perfect. My dishes are all influenced from my travels. So, my first dish is a lemon-baked cod with a chorizo ragu. And then we have squid ink, tuile, and there's a bit of coriander pesto just to show a bit of freshness in the dish. So, I've kind of taken that classic from Spain and made it kind of more modern. That sounds really nice. What about the main course? The main course is barbecued Brazilian beef, and that's going to be served with bean puree, saffron, turmeric, puffed rice, and then we have little garlic, seared onions and red chard. Dean's really going to need to get his timings just right, especially with the beef. Once it's cooked and coloured, he's going to need to give it the resting it needs to prevent it from bleeding onto the plate. Our critics never want to see blood on a plate. Dean's fish course sounds delicious. He has got a lot of work to do, though. I've not seen him run around this much in a kitchen. He's really pushed himself with this menu. Gavin, what are you going to cook for our critics? First up, I have a rabbit and langoustine ballantine with, like, a spring veg fricassee, a carrot puree, and I've also got a morel veloute. It's a ballantine, so how's it holding together? How are you cooking it? I'm going to fill it with, like, a truffle chicken mousse... Right. ..and then roll it up and poach. And then for dessert, I've got a matcha, strawberry, white chocolate and coconut mille-feuille. Can you do it in the time? I am pushed for time, 100%, but it's either I'm good enough or I'm not. Gavin looks incredibly confident. He's apprehensive, slightly. He's concerned about his times. Who wouldn't be? It's a very skilful thing to get a ballantine looking and tasting good, and if you do it right, it's delicious. Serving it with a little fricassee of vegetables and a beautiful-sounding morel veloute. Heaven. Liking the sounds of Gavin's dessert. Mille-feuille with white chocolate, matcha and strawberries. It's all about the textures of the mousse. Make sure they're not set too much, and also the crispness of the phyllo pastry that he's using to layer his mille-feuille. What I'm most worried about is timings. That's my biggest enemy today. I need to make sure that I run and don't stop until the end, just to make sure I get this done on time. Oh, my God. The white chocolate mousse dropped on the floor. Luckily, I've just about got enough. After my invention test, I think that I am in a good place. Both of my dishes are Malaysian-inspired dishes. I really hope that they will be impressed today. I'm cooking a sweet halibut with a Malaysian-flavoured laksa, but it's a laksa bisque that I'm doing. I'm going to roll some angel hair pasta to go together with it, and also cucumber, pineapple. And for dessert, I'm doing a jackfruit souffle. Souffle? Yeah. And then I'm going to serve them together with a Malaysian-inspired ginger-flavoured tea creme anglaise. That's my plan. Wow. A souffle. I did not see that coming. Oh, you're a brave man. What Mohan is doing is using Western-style cookery and influencing it with those lovely Malaysian flavours. Mohan's doing a refined version of a Malaysian super laksa. This is the type of food that's going to make Mohan stand out from the rest of the cooks in the kitchen. Jackfruit's quite sweet, so this is a bit like a really ripe papaya. I'm really curious about his ginger tea custard. I just hope he gets the custard right today, because there were issues with his last custard. I've cooked for critics that come to the restaurant, but never on my own initiative. I'm hoping to show them a little bit more finesse and just work on the balance of stuff on a plate. This is pretty big for me, pretty big. William, what's your menu? Firstly, I'm cooking a grilled fillet of mackerel with crispy polenta, avocado and wasabi, horseradish chantilly, spiced carrot puree on the bottom. There's a little bit of a radish salad on there, just give it a little bit of freshness and crunch as well. And then secondly, I'll be cooking 64% chocolate crema with compressed raspberries, apple and the chocolate soy to go with it. And how do you feel, then, getting this opportunity to cook for the critics? Well, there's a lot of pressure, but I'm not going to let that, so stop me. I'm just going to go for it. William is doing a mackerel dish, which he's going to take off the bone and finish under the grill. I'm just hoping that there's a nice balance of the ingredients that William has brought to the table, because we have a wasabi and avocado puree and a spiced carrot puree on the same plate. Chocolate crema is all about the consistency. He's using a lovely, rich chocolate. The consistency has to be like velvet. You don't want it to be too hard, so you have to be very careful that when you're setting it, how long you leave it in the blast chiller. Judging MasterChef, the professionals, is a bit of a rollercoaster ride. Every time that door opens, you're hoping that brilliance walks in, but you're never sure. Every time I come in and I look at the menu, I get excited. I think we're going to see some searing new talent. These people should know how to cook. If you can just leap and get all of those flavours singing at once and make us happy, not only will you do well today, we'll never forget you. You have 15 minutes before the first course is served. Dean, that's you. The lemon-baked cod started from Dean. It is full of sunshine. Chorizo courgette squid ink crisps, smoked tomato puree. Well, he's taking us on our summer holidays, isn't he? The key thing is that cod in the middle. If he overbakes it, it's a complete disaster, and if he doesn't, it might be marvellous. How are we doing? On time. Good. Rocking it. It's looking nice, Dean. Just a little touch of lemon oil. Finish it and we're done. Good job, well done. Thank you. Good afternoon. So, we have lemon-baked cod. It's been slightly cured and then baked in the oven. Spicy chorizo and yellow courgette ragout. Little cherry tomatoes and coriander pesto. A smoked paprika puree. And then, finally, the squid ink tuile. This looks very precise. I suddenly think Dean has a sock drawer that's ordered by colour. The cod flakes away perfectly. It's been cooked to the second. The chorizo underneath is big and spicy and punchy, and, you know, that pesto just zings. He really understands flavours and he can really cook. This dish delivers a lot more than I was expecting. This is pretty good. I think it's a really lovely dish. The cod is just flaking apart. Loving the little tomatoes. I hope the critics are enjoying this as much as I have. This is a dish that packs a punch. It's great.