Masterchef Final – BBC 1 8.30 Tonight!

It’s the MasterChef final. After an arduous six-week journey, the search for the country’s best amateur cook reaches its climax. The finalists have to push themselves to the limit one last time before judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace crown one of the three talented cooks the MasterChef champion 2021.

Tonight, they must produce the best three dishes of their lives, push their culinary boundaries and produce jaw-droppingly impressive food for the judges.

It’s now or never for these exceptional amateur cooks, as only one of them can lift the trophy and become the 17th MasterChef champion.

I don’t know if it is me or is the quality of contestants waning a bit. Or are we expecting too much from them?

Anyone can practice a dish until they are blue in the face and have got it down to perfection. Is there a skill in that, yes, does it make you  Masterchef? No. Can you expect a very keen amateur to know knock up a Hollandaise, yes, to know about all the so called Mother sauces? Possibly not.

To knock up a spice based dish or something else you had on holiday is also not really Masterchef is it? Come on Grace! You could do better than that. I bet they made you say that, didn’t they? Take all your classic Thai ingredients and as long as its salty, sweet, sour and hot and the meat or fish isn’t over or undercooked you are on to a pass to the next round. Who doesn’t like this kind of cooking, anyone who loves food has all their senses hit at once. Cook pretty much anything with a bit of CHOOOREEETHO and you are bound to go through. Its only when things get a bit more technical and the required finesse is not met that those contestants will be found out, but they can dine out or in as it will be for a while longer on their success and some will no doubt forge a career in the food industry as a result of being inspired by being on the show.

Mark Morris Mok, he started with that incredible twist on Sweet and Sour dish only to get too ambitious and it all went wrong. But a very creative talent.

I don’t doubt the ability of any of them, some at the start perhaps had a nightmare, but that is what makes it interesting and good food is not just about great flavours but consistency and pushing things a bit further. We can all play it safe.

Have we got the best 3 amateur cooks in the land here, not a chance. But here they are and all talented in their own ways. Congratulations to them all.

Last night we saw Alexina struggle with getting her lobster through a sieve and didn’t like it when told to put a bit of elbow grease in and hurry up by Michel Roux Jr.

Mike admitted he hadn’t made a pudding through all the heats so far and it showed. He struggled but he didn’t launch them across the kitchen and he tried his best to please Michel roux with the Madeleines, how ironic that bit just didn’t work. But he produced a stunning dessert at the end.

Tom, was steady and although he had a lot to do, it perhaps wasn’t as complex as the others had to deal with, but he did cook 2 fillets of Veal perfectly and clearly impressed M Roux.