Best Trevor Connie Dishes | MasterChef Canada | MasterChef World

I love salmon. I eat a lot of it. I'm going to respect it. And I'm very pumped on this challenge. Look at Barry and Trevor. They already started filleting their fish. I'm going to be using strong Asian flavors and techniques to impress Alvin today. This is definitely going to set me apart. Trevor, Trey has two fish heads. Did your salmon have two heads? I borrowed a fish head from Miranda. Why? Because I am going to be doing some crispy fish eyes, and I wanted more than two. Coming from a Chinese family, the eyes is a very special thing. I'm doing it for you, Chef. I'm so touched, because, you know, I never get the fish eyes, because my mother always takes it, OK? What kind of glaze are you going to do for the salmon? I'm going to be doing an Asian-inspired glaze. I have oyster sauce, some honey for that sugar, get it really nice and caramelized. You have only 45 minutes, remember, OK? Yes, Chef. Trevor. It's an Asian-inspired glazed salmon with crispy skin, crispy eyeballs, and enoki mushrooms. Visually, it's stunning. Thank you, Chef. These eyeballs, I mean, they're staring at me right now. There it is. You can see that nice piece of really soft gelatinous. You got it just perfect. Thank you, Chef. Perfect. Now, I'm going to cut into it. What am I going to see? Hopefully, a medium-rare piece of fish. Look at that. You nailed this one. It's perfect cooked on this salmon. That's nice, a fantastic glaze. It's got that sweetness. Thank you, Chef. I would prefer a little bit more glaze. And I told you, OK, to get it nice and thick, because that would give it a bit more flavor. Now, what's that? That is a potato puree. Did you taste it? I did not, Chef. It's grainy. It's bits of raw potato. This is a beautiful dish, but you ran out of time. And unfortunately, it shows on that puree. I tasted every component of my dish except for this puree. That cuts my chances of winning this big time. This is like a chef's dream. I mean, to take a luxury protein and then to do it three-way. I mean, it's going to show every ounce of skill they have. It could be a dream. It could also be very tricky to find three different ways to turn one protein into three different dishes. Trevor is starting with a Chanticleer chicken that's been grain-fed. It's been cared for. It is just a kind of chicken that any chef in any kitchen across Canada would love to be cooking with. I'm definitely the most creative out of the three of us. This is great. I could do 100 different things with this one chicken. I have dark meat, white meat, bones, skin. I got a variety of stuff to work with. This is my wheelhouse. My goal today is to seek and destroy. Taya, boom, Barry, boom. I'm here to fight, and I'm not going home today. I'm going to the finale. Trevor, how you doing? Chef, I'm doing good. So walk me through these three Chanticleer chicken dishes that you're making. I am going to be making a pomegranate molasses glazed drumette. I'm going to be doing a prosciutto-wrapped chicken breast and a tower of crispy chicken skin. So it's down to the three of you right now. Who do you think is going to be in the finale? I think Taya and myself, Chef. Why not Barry? I think Barry's overconfident. Overconfident? He's got the flavors down sometimes, but I think he's been helped through this competition quite a bit. By who? Well, I mean, I saved him in one challenge. He's been on, let's say, my team a couple of times when we win, so is that him or me that's making the victories? Stay focused. 30 minutes, Chef, 30 minutes left. Your protein, three distinctive ways. One of the great techniques with chicken is taking the skin right off the bird and then frying it very, very slow and low. He's burning it right now, though. There's black smoke coming out of my skillet. I go and check it, and it's all completely black. I just burnt one of my three elements. Are we watching Trevor's hopes of getting into the finale go up in smoke? I've got to think of something fast. There's still a bit of skin left on one of my drumettes and thighs. Rip it off, I get it into the pan, start cooking it from scratch. Plan B, here we go. I'm feeling like a winner. This is a finale-worthy dish. I prepared a romesco sauce, crostini with the chicken breast, crispy chicken skin, and crispy purple potatoes. And chicken drumette glazed with pomegranate molasses and honey. Looks beautiful. Doesn't mean anything if it doesn't taste good, Chef. Absolutely. Delicious. Wonderful texture, the peppers, the almonds, olive oil, and has great depth of flavor. A great utilization of this wonderful chicken. Thank you, Chef. It's amazing to see how far you've come in such a short time. I don't know how it tastes, but the way it looks, it's world class. I noticed you burnt the first batch of chicken skin, but you saved enough to get through. Very smart. It's delicious. Where's all the sauce? There's almost none here. There's a small amount. I guess I could have put some more on there for you, Chef. I'm glad you didn't. The sauce is not balanced. It's very acidic and harsh. This looks great, but it's not a winner. A little bit of a jump. So not only does this challenge have a huge amount riding on it, it is extraordinarily difficult. Blackberries. How many do you need? We don't want to see muffins and cupcakes, OK? I want to see sophistication, variety, and hopefully some creativity. I see sugar. Now here's where it gets really tricky. Barry, Taya, and Trevor are not pastry inclined. Flour. I'm not a baker, but I'm going to try to bake to the best of my ability. I am making a raspberry cheesecake, a mango and vanilla panna cotta, poached pear galette, coffee liqueur creme brulee, and a pink peppercorn chocolate ganache. So right now, I'm working on my raspberry cheesecake. It's a little scary. I've never made a cheesecake before. I want to show what I've become and doing something new that's kind of out of my comfort zone. So think about the journey that these cooks have come on. Take Trevor. He started strong. He was first to win a mystery box. However, he's not done a whole lot of baking. So this, I think, is going to be a huge challenge for him. This is testing his mettle. I've never been to Paris before. I haven't even been to Montreal, for that matter. I've never been to a real patisserie in my life. Trevor, I won't take up too much of your time, because I see you're busy running around. So what is it you're working on? Tell me. My chocolate truffle, chef. And what's in the chocolate truffle? It's a pink peppercorn cream that I use to make my ganache and about 60% cocoa. So you ground down the pink peppercorns? I did not. I just steeped the cream in it. But when I top it on top, I'm going to ground them a bit. Any concerns that that might be a little overpowering? I tasted it, and it didn't seem overpowering to me. But as you know, I'm not a pastry guy. So all of this is sort of out of my boundaries. All right, well, I'll let you get on. Thank you, chef. Thank you. I'm definitely the underdog in this challenge, and I need to win. I cannot go back to plumbing. I have come so far as a person and a home cook. Here you go, partner. Thank you. No problem. Enjoy. So here we have five different items from Trevor's Pink Patisserie. Trevor's ganache, on the appearance, it looks really expensive, because he's got probably an ounce of gold. I think that's way too excessive. Smooth, velvety. It almost feels like very soft fudge just melting in your mouth. And then you get a tickle of that heat from the peppercorns. Really super delicious. From a chocolatier's perspective, the texture is extremely exquisite. That silken quality I look for in a ganache. I like the chocolate, and it's so good. I'm going to try the creme brulee, because it's one of my favorite desserts. When I hit this, I want to hear that crunch. When you go into it, it's too thin. The taste, very important. The crust on the top is missing, for sure. Otherwise, it is rich, creamy, delicious, and silky. Unfortunately, the crunch on the top disappeared, but the texture has been cooked properly. Try the cheesecake. Nice, even crust. Smooth. Let's give it a taste. That's a really good cheesecake. The jelly on top is perfectly set. Great balance of flavor. I love the consistency. It's a baked cheesecake. I mean, remember, this pipe fitter, plumber, it's not a baker. Can you believe he did this? Here you are, buddy. This is the challenge that will decide which cook has the most maturity and which cook can adapt really, really well. Barry may have trouble, because he seems really upset. Now, you know, is that going to affect his performance? Because you know you can't cook when you're upset. I'm angry, but I'm focused, and I'm determined. If all the cooks here are smart, they're going to put their minds inside of the original cook's basket and decode it, and that's how they can win this. I tend to go overboard, typically. I try to do too much, so what I'm trying to show the judges is that I can use five ingredients and make them shine. Today, I've got to keep it simple, but elevate it at the same time. Hey, Trevor. Hey, Chef. Tell me, how do you feel about not being able to keep your own basket of ingredients? Oh, it's devastating. I had a really, really cool idea planned. More importantly, which path are you on right now, and what are you making? I'm going to do sautéed prawns, and I'm going to do sort of a succotash, with the corn. I'm rendering down all the fat out of that chorizo, and I'm going to use that as sort of my sauce for the plate. You know what I think? I think you got lucky. I think so too, Chef. This sounds like a very delicious basket, Barry. It was. It was. You had the right attitude, Trevor, and that's what I think will push you to the edge here. Thank you very much, Chef. I'm tasting everything. Every step of the way, I have to. That's been my downfall in the past. Minutes. You have two more minutes left. You better be plating now. There's a lot of focus happening with all of the home cooks. Taya is frantic right now. Yeah. And she can't quite decide how to plate her dish. Don't overcomplicate it. Eight, seven, six, five. Great job, guys. Well done. I'm super happy. I actually tasted every component of my dish, and I think they're all great. Trevor, please bring up your plate. This is a corn and bell pepper succotash, a beef reduction, and some chorizo sautéed prawns. Now, visually, there's something missing on this plate, OK? And I bet you don't know what that is. No, I don't, Chef. I see two shrimp. I only see one head. When you plate, it has to be logical and symmetric sometimes. So let me get all these flavors in there. I like it. You have that succulent shrimp. You have that sweetness in the corn, the textures in the pepper, and then that beef stock sauce, which you reduce, pull everything together. That is a very, very nice dish, OK? Well done, brother. These two menus sound spectacular. It seems to me as if they've taken comfort foods, and their plan is to elevate it to MasterChef Canada standards. My entire menu is based on some of my very favorite childhood memories and dishes. My first dish is octopus and chips. It's a riff on fish and chips, which I had pretty much every Sunday at my grandmother's as a kid. This transports me right back to my childhood. Oh, having my family here is amazing. I feel the pressure, though. I gotta pound these tentacles, get them nice and tender, or else they're gonna be really hard and not enjoyable to eat. Octopus are very, very difficult to cook. You know, if you undercook it, it's very tough and chewy. If you overcook it, it's dry and chewy. There you go. I think he's gonna put it into a pressure cooker. It takes a long time to get the perfect cook on that octopus. That is gonna be right down to the wire. I'm gonna get my octopus in the pressure cooker for exactly 30 minutes. The irony of the situation is, I'm literally in a big pressure cooker. Trevor, how you doing? Chef, I'm doing good. What stage are you at right now? Well, right now I got my pressure cooker on for my octopus. This is some lemon aioli I'm gonna be making. Smells great already. Thank you. I hear that you have a photograph of someone that's inspired you. There we go. So that is my aunt Tracy. She actually owned a catering company her entire life. And as early as I can remember, I was bussing tables for her and making roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. How old were you when you were doing that? Nine, 10 years old. Good luck. Remain focused. Thank you, chef. I have to nail the cook on the octopus. There is no room for error. Anything less, anything more, and this could sink me. Here is a defining moment for Trevor. He's now checking to see how the octopus has been cooked. I pulled the octopus out of the pressure cooker. It is perfect. It's so tender. Yeah. Five minutes, you have five more minutes left. Both cooks are bringing this down to the wire. I mean, Taya has already started plating. Her dish looks incredible. Trevor's got nothing on his plates right now. My strategy is to produce very artistic dishes that have a story. And that takes a lot of time. Trevor loves his fine detail. He just loves to make sure that everything is absolutely perfect. Stay focused, buddy. Come on, you guys. You can get it done. You got this, girl. You got it. You got this, Taya. Trevor, yeah. It's down to the wire on every plate. This is the most pressure I've ever felt in this kitchen. 10, nine, six, five, four, three, two. Absolutely gorgeous, Trevor. Woo! All right! Trevor and Taya, please keep working. Your appetizers look fantastic and we can't wait to try them. The judges will now head into the dining room to privately taste both appetizers while the home cooks continue with the entree round. I feel like I nailed the appetizer round. It's exactly how I wanted it to look. It's exactly how I wanted it to taste. First is Trevor's braised and grilled octopus with purple and gold fingerling potatoes and a deconstructed lemon tartar sauce. So immediately I could see this is a dish that Trevor thought very carefully about. This says elevated cuisine to me. So let's see how it tastes. That's incredible. The octopus is cooked to perfection. It's fresh, it's clean, it's tender. He was able to get the octopus to have a great flavor from that broth that he cooked it in. I think he could've done with a little bit more charring on that grill just to give it a little bit more crispness and a touch of smokiness to it. The flavors of the aioli are incredibly bright and very, very tasteful. And the potato chips, nice and crispy, thin, perfect side. Tight on time. All comes down to this. My dessert is a really rich, dark chocolate mint gelato and a Dutch cocoa pozzelli cone. Both Taya and Trevor are making ice cream, but Taya started her ice cream when she was plating her main course. It's delicious, cinnamon ice cream. Whereas Trevor is just starting his ice cream base now. I'm cutting it so close for time on this dessert, this might bite me in the butt. Trevor, how you doing? I'm doing all right, chef. Tell me, what are you making? So right now I'm making a creme fraiche whipped cream with no sugar. It's gonna be very tart because I have a really, really rich, dark chocolate mint ice cream going with this. Going back to my childhood, this is a play on, kid just gets his ice cream cone at the stand and he drops it and it's all over the sidewalk. It's gonna be very abstract and splattery. I like where you go with food. There's always a concept behind it. Let me ask you though, do you think that this is elevated enough to win the trophy and the title? 100% chef. This is gonna be a knockout dessert, but showing restraint and sophistication at the same time. Let me give you some advice. Don't look back, just keep looking ahead. Thank you, chef. It means a lot to me. Looking good, Trev. So Trevor, he is making pizzelle. It is really, it's like an Italian wafer thin cookie that can be shaped once it's hot into a cone. Perfect for ice cream. And let's go, 10 minutes. Taya's cake is out of the oven now. That's gonna be a sigh of relief for her. I need to cool my cakes. Now I need to plate, I'm good. Look at the way Trevor's plating. Trevor is an artist. My hands are shaking like a leaf. I know I need to make sure my plating is absolutely beautiful. You have five minutes left. In five minutes, the MasterChef Canada kitchen will be closed. I go to my ice cream machine and it's nowhere near being frozen. How's it looking, Trev? Trevor is starting to panic because his ice cream is not setting. He's not gonna have enough time to set it. If I don't nail this ice cream, I just have a chocolate puddle on a plate. His MasterChef journey could end right now. The ice cream is the star. I need to get this ice cream really cold. He's only got four minutes left. My only option is liquid nitrogen. It's a crazy gamble. I've never worked with it before. Let's give it a shot. Trevor is really thinking like a chef and adapting to the situation. Using liquid nitrogen is always risky, but it's either try it or serve as soup. Two minutes, you only have two more minutes left. Two minutes. Come on, Trevor. I'm gonna do a little mousse. Oh my God, that looks amazing. That ice cream and that liquid nitrogen, it's gotta come out right about now. Otherwise it will be like a rock. One problem turns into another. The mold is so frozen that it's actually rock solid. I can't get the ice cream out of the mold, but I gotta keep pushing hard to get this dessert. So Trevor's just come back from the equipment room with a torch. So now he's heating the bottom of that silicone mold, which should release the ice cream. He is not giving up, and neither is she. Taya's just brought her ice cream from the blast freezer and she has one minute to make canals and get it on the plate. This is so much pressure, but I gotta shake it off because I need to make the best damn dessert these judges have ever tasted. There we go. There you go, it's coming out. Yay! Six, five, three, two. Trevor, please describe your dessert. What you have in front of you is a chocolate mint gelato with a Dutch cocoa pazelli cone and a creme fraiche whip. Let's try this dessert. You know, this dish really resonates with me. The ice cream is obviously a bit hard. It's a bit too frozen. That's a common mistake when you're working with liquid nitrogen. However, having said that, the flavor that you have is divine. Great balance of chocolate and mint. Really playful. I love it. Thank you very much. Great flavors. That big, bold, bitter chocolate with fresh poppy mint, which is a perfect combination. You have the balance just right. In the ice cream, I tasted a bit of salt and that's a very good idea. That little bit of salt brings out that chocolate even better. I like it. I like it very much. Thank you, Chef Alan. Are you ready to earn a spot on Jamie Oliver's menu? Yes, Chef! Your time starts... Wait, wait, wait. Come on. Don't start yet. No idea what's going on at this point. This is weird. We need to be sure that the winning dish is exactly what Jamie Oliver's looking for. Please help us welcome internationally renowned chef. Oh my God. Jamie Oliver. Hey, guys! Oh my God. Jamie Oliver. He's right here and he's in front of me. This is so cool. This is so exciting. It's so nice to meet you. Jamie, with your restaurants opening all across Canada, your new series on Gusto and everything else you've got going on, you're a very busy man. I wouldn't have missed this for the world. I can't wait to see what you're gonna do for my restaurant. This is Jamie Oliver. If I'm gonna impress anybody in this industry, I want it to be this guy. I have to win this. All right, let's do this. Most of my cooking skills and techniques come from watching celebrity chefs on TV. I would say to date, this is the most important dish of my life. Jamie Oliver is like massive. He's an idol of mine. Trevor. Mr. Oliver. Very, very excited to see you, brother. What is going through your head? So what I'm gonna do for you today is a roasted fall vegetable medley. Yeah, like you're thinking, like you're thinking. I mean, to be honest, I base a lot of my cooking after you. I like your approach to very simple but elevated food. I like you shave your cheese from up here and it falls all over the plate. They all think I'm doing that for style. It's not. It's not? Even distribution. There you go, chef. You crack on, I don't wanna stop you. It was an honor to meet you. Beautiful world. It's gonna be an honor to try your food. Enough said. I need to win this. The next home cook we'd like to call up deliver a beautiful concept. Not too simple, not too complicated, but just right. Please bring up your dish. Trevor. Yes. Win or lose, this is an achievement on its own. This is dream come true. What you have in front of you today is a warm fall vegetable salad with a roasted garlic lemon aioli and then some toasted squash seeds and some pecorino cheese. Let's get in there. Plating's very nice. What do you do for a living? I'm a plumber gas fitter, chef. Your pipe work must be beautiful. I wouldn't disagree with you. You know, here's the thing. Vegetables are always secondary in a lot of restaurants. And what you've done here is you've made them numero uno. Seasoning very nice and helped along with that pecorino. Very good dish. Thank you. It means a lot, chef. Trevor. Chef Alvin. This is beautiful. Thank you, chef. This is good food. The techniques you have here, you got grilling, you got some saute, and you did the right thing for the right vegetable. That's very intelligent. I would say the seeds, it's a bit hard. Maybe deshell them. Other than that, this dish is perfect for any restaurant, including mine. Thank you so much, chef. This is wicked. It validates exactly what I came here to prove. And I couldn't be happier. Trevor, what did you find under your mystery box? This bad boy here is a pepper grinder that I stole from my mother when I first moved out of the house. It's pepper. I'm a spicy guy. This is my wheelhouse. I'm so stoked. I can't believe I'm top 12. This is freaking awesome. Last week, I was driving a Zoom Boom at my construction job. Now I'm cooking in the MasterChef Canada kitchen. I am doing a seared chicken breast, a cauliflower puree, roasted carrots, and a blue cheese Mornay sauce. My mom means a lot to me. I'm dedicating this dish to her. I love you, mom. Come on, come on. The energy in this kitchen right now is incredibly intense. A lot is at stake. The huge advantage that they get if they produce the best mystery box. I smashed my heavy cast iron plate right into the front of my glass oven. Are you okay? The oven is completely shattered. I literally destroyed my oven. How am I gonna cook chicken? There's no way I can recover from that. I've never seen this happen in this kitchen. These ovens are state-of-the-art quality pieces. I don't know if he's being reckless or just careless. You cannot cook without equipment. Alice, can I borrow your oven? Go for it, go. Alice really helped me out. I went from feeling totally crushed to now motivated. I can do this. I mean, I know it's a competition and everything, but it just shows what kind of person she is and I'm very thankful. Trevor. I can't believe I made the top three. When I broke that oven, I thought I was done. So what you have before you there is a pan-roasted chicken breast, cauliflower puree, carrot done two ways, and a blue cheese Mornay sauce. It's a work of art against all odds. I'm curious, what's your reputation? I think people think I'm sort of a goofball, but I mean, I'm here to play. I'm here to play hard. The flavors are so intelligent, so well put together. I'm struggling to find an imperfection here, but there's one. You need to use a little bit more sea salt if you have it. Trevor, you got a lot of fancy stuff here. Tell me, who taught you all this? I was trained to cook as a young boy and I sort of developed this plating technique by watching chefs among your stature on television. This is rich. This is sophisticated, you know? I was not professionally trained either. One of the few self-taught Michelin star chef in this world. And being here in this kitchen is the best opportunity that you will get that I did not get. Thank you, chef. One of you created a dish that stood out a little bit more than the rest. And that home cook is Trevor. Yes! I couldn't be happier. Getting the very first advantage in this entire competition. Trevor, you are now the cook to beat. My main course is going to be lamb two ways. I'm going to be serving it with a celeriac puree. I'm going to be braising lamb shanks and I'm going to be braising lamb tongue. Both of my cuts take a really long time to cook. So I'm going with the pressure cooker again. I think the trickiest meat to cook in a pressure cooker is the lamb. There's less fat and if you overcook that, it's going to become stringy and dry. It's a lot of added pressure, so I'm hoping for the best. It's important for me to nail this lamb for my mama up there watching down. She's the one that introduced me to lamb and I just want to make her proud today. I want to win so bad, my food dream is to open a restaurant. I'm not sure what kind of restaurant. I can tell you it's going to be called Valerie's though. Named after my mama. No boys, girls. Stay focused. Just got to get that puree going. The tables have completely turned. Thea is cool, calm, ready. And Trevor is trying to play catch up. I'm way behind. I'm rushing to get this finished. Look, look, look. It's caught fire. I look over and my entire pressure cooker is in flame. I put too much port wine in my lamb osso buco. Whenever you add alcohol into a pot, always make sure that pot starts cold. It's a very hot pot. It can ignite right away and can take away a lot of hair. Like Michael. I had to restart it up. I lost a good 10, 15 minutes of pressure cooking time. You got it, you got it, Trevor. I hope my lamb shanks are tender. I looked down at my lamb and I couldn't be happier. It's exactly how I envisioned. Beautiful. Get it going, buddy. All right. My lamb reduction, I got to get reduced before it goes on the plate. It's too fatty. It's too whiny. I'm cutting it really close. This is a sauce that needs usually hours of reduction. He's going to try and do it in minutes. He is really pushing it now. Found that for me. Pull it together. I got to get back on track. I got to be able to plate. My plating is everything. In five minutes, the server will be coming for the entree. I'm getting frazzled because I don't have that much time to plate. Look at the focus right now. This is next level. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Unreal. The first entree the judges will taste is Trevor's braised lamb shank and lamb tongue with celeriac puree and vegetables. Judging from looks alone, this is a piece of art. It has this progression of color to meat. I just love this. He's plating like a true professional chef. Always has, and I think that's one of his strengths. The flavors of the lamb shank, I think are wonderful. Great depth of flavor. It is cooked beautifully. I would have loved a little bit more of that braising liquor as a sauce reduced and poured over it. His celery root puree, creamy, delicate, well-seasoned, really nice. The shank, nice and tasty. My tongue was nice, soft, and tender. I love these little beef roots, adds an extra touch of earthiness to the dish. I love this dish. The vegetables, I think, are world-class. Perfectly cooked, perfectly cleaned. It's really smart. There's not one ingredient out of place. Absolute perfection.