Missed it? Let us whet your appetite. Watched it? Recap on the episode's tastiest morsels
Words: John-Paul Nicholas
In brief
The remaining contestants went three-by-threeish into Italian, French and Spanish restaurants for a day, then brought everything they had learned to the MasterChef kitchens to face the mighty palates of John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
Italian
After spending a day with Italian Francesco Mazzei of L'Anima restaurant, Shelina threw a huge white truffle in the bin. Or was it Tom? Either way, it was fished out (three-second rule?) and evidently no-one told Mr Torode who pronounced Shelina's tagliatelle, porcini mushroom and chilli sauce and white truffle dish "beautifully made… not just technically, it's made with feeling." And Gregg clearly had no problem with it, saying his only issue was that he'd "like some more truffle in there".
Spanish
Andrew's crumbed hake with aioli-filled patatas bravas served with padron peppers, roasted red peppers, a chorizo, orange and saffron sauce and a squid ink buerre blanc made our eyes, then our mouths, water.
Eamonn's dish, not so much. "I'll be inviting my Spanish friends around and showing them how to do it," he said. The only trouble is, coming after Andrew, that just makes you sound ever-so-slightly delusional, not to mention smug.
French
Jay pulled out the stops and constructed a deconstructed bouillabaisse while Emma didn't really decide what to make. The result was a stew Jay wasn't happy with and an ice-cream fail for Emma when she put hot caramel into the ice cream for flavour and left Gregg and John with a milky puddle alongside her otherwise stunning banana, caramel and profiterole dish.
A less-than-perfect apple and cinnamon flan cake with galvados ice cream (which didn't freeze properly either) lead Afsaneh to some deflating comments from the chefs, followed by the (spoiler alert) ultimate deflation. The moral of the story: don't do ice cream on MasterChef - it has pulled the trapdoor handle on too many good contestants over the years.
Gregg's Brit abroad observations:
On the Spanish dishes: "I'm there, I'm on holiday. I'm looking for the bloke with a pedalo."
On the benefits of French over Spanish food: "You can keep yer sunshine; give me butter and cream and sugar!"
If you missed it, or are just greedy and want to go back for seconds watch the episode on iPlayer
Next episode: Wednesday 15 February, 9PM, BBC1
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