Six of the best
CELEBRITY MASTERCHEF
BBC1, 8.30pm
IT’S the last chance for the six celebs still standing to try and flambé or fricassee their way to the final.
That’s to say, it’s the last of the semi finals and our remaining half-dozen celeb cooks are about to take on three tough challenges in the hope of winning one of the four places on offer for finals week.
First up is the Pie Challenge, where each of the six – Spencer Matthews, Stefanie Reid, AJ Pritchard, Martin Bayfield, Zoe Lyons and John Partridge – have to choose ingredients from two heaving tables and use them to cook a pie for the judges.
Sounds pretty simple, although there’s room for controversy as some of their culinary creations play a bit fast and loose with the definition of ‘pie’ if you ask us.
If it doesn’t have pastry top and bottom, it’s not a pie – simple. So we’d have disqualified half of them straight off.
Fortunately, John and Gregg are more tolerant, so we only lose one contestant before moving on to the next challenge. And this is some seriously fine dining, as they head to Hever Castle to cook a very fancy-schmancy lunch for some Antiques Roadshow experts, to help celebrate the series’ 40th anniversary.
Cooking under award-winning chef Paul Askew, they serve up some impressively professional dishes and manage to wow the posh folk tucking in.
Then it’s back to Masterchef HQ for the final cook-off, where they must each make one perfect dish inspired by someone they love or admire. So no pressure.