Do we think Gregg is sockless because he used them all to make homemade masks or is it a fashion choice?

Nobody tried to miracle a fish back into one piece this time but someone did almost try to turn white wine into a red wine sauce. It’s all very Gospel of John – I’m looking forward to someone walking on water next week.

Sweetbreads in Red Wine Sauce

Oh boy was this a tale of two chefs – on one hand you have Victor, champion of Pan-African cooking, blazing through the round with such skill and speed that Marcus Wareing looked ready to sign the adoption papers there and then

And he had the time, because Victor only used 18 of the 20 minutes to make Marcus’ sweetbreads and red wine sauce (SWEETBREADS ARE NOT TESTICLES, BTW). Gregg was also so fond of Victor’s sweetbreads that he hoovered them up like a Dyson.
Then came Michaela channelling some very chaotic Fleabag energy as she muttered her way through the challenge, but to be fair to her she despite never having cooked a sweetbread still managed to work out it should theoretically be cooked – she removed the sinew, she coated it in flour and pan-fried it until golden. Unfortunately for Michaela it was dead raw in the middle and Marcus had to unceremoniously spit it out

If the Covid doesn’t get them, Michaela’s salmonella sure will.
Her sauce wasn’t much better, and nor was it ever going to be as when given the instruction to make a red wine sauce she pondered whether or not she should put red wine in the sauce – it’s very Susan Harper saying she was making Duck a l’Orange but she didn’t have oranges so she was using pears. And she couldn’t get any duck so she was using mince.
I’m not sure anyone could recover from Marcus spitting their food out but Michaela was still invited to the signature round as a courtesy.

Monica’s Classic Glazed Sabayon Fruit Dessert^™

Something about calling it a “Classic Glazed Sabayon Fruit Dessert” sounds like you’ve made a knock off brand dessert and are trying to avoid copyright infringement.
I was under the impression that a sabayon was a sort of mousse, and maybe it’s because they’ve made it wrong a few times on this show but it’s a sauce made up of egg yolks, sugar and an alcohol of your choice, or if you’re Monica you just use all of the alcohol because it’s 2020 after all.

Both of our chefs were a little more hesitant with the alcohol, Dave opting for just kirsch and Harrison putting barely a traceable amount of peach schnapps in his sabayon. And for most of the test they were pretty much on a par with one another – both opting to make a candied nut garnish and neither of them quite having the perfect consistency to their sabayon; Dave’s was too runny and Harrison’s was a little on the thick and sweet side. Where they did differ was their speed, Dave powering through the test at a rate of knots and having enough time to make 2 iterations of the dessert and by 2 iterations I mean he just put some on a plate and it looked a bit like a particularly hard to clean bird poo

This impresses everyone hell of a lot more than it should – GUYS, IT’S LITERALLY JUST THE SAME SABAYON BUT FLAT. Harrison also opted for the sad flat approach and with a lack of colour it didn’t really impress anyone

Least of all Marcus who had a panic attack when he dared to put more than 2 tablespoons of sugar into his poaching liquid.

The Signature Round

Somehow this signature round just became a Battle of the Lambs with 3 of the 4 chefs opting to make a main dish using various cuts of lamb. The one with the most to prove was Michaela who was using lamb rump and serving it with a broad bean and hazelnut pesto – unfortunately much like her sweetbreads it was a little undercooked and the fat wasn’t rendered properly

Luckily this time nobody spat her food out – so it was a modicum of improvement. Her dessert of a raspberry and pistachio frangipane tart was a lot more successful even if it wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at:

Something about that particular shade of brownish-green is just woefully unappetising to me.

It was a much closer battle between Dave and Victor – both of whom were taking the Throw Everything At The Plate Approach, the former with a cannon of lamb, chickpea bon-bons and smoked tomato sauce:

And then on the side, just for good measure, was the smallest bowl of aubergine puree just sitting there in all its malevolent beige glory

You had put everything else on the plate, you might as well be in for a penny, in for a pound! Victor’s offering of a lamb rack on couscous with a harissa jus was arguably messier because it looked like it may have been dropped at some point:

But much like Dave’s it tasted amazing, was cooked superbly and showed real skill and deftness of touch.
The two of them differed quite drastically on their puddings, Dave serving up a home run with his Chocolate Cremeux and All of the Accompaniments:

He seems to be on a one man mission to use everything in the supermarket at least once over the course of the next few weeks. Victor however stumbled on his dessert, promising a Mascarpone Mousse with a Rhubarb Jelly, Strawberry Sorbet, Pickled Strawberries and a Vanilla Biscuit. The Strawberry sorbet, pickled strawberries and the vanilla biscuit failed to materialise leaving behind quite a dull looking dish

It’s pretty bad when 60% of your dish is missing. Or at least just sadly spinning around in the ice cream machine:

It was sad to see someone like Victor have this hiccup because what he did manage to serve was very good so if he managed to do everything he wouldn’t have even been considered for elimination and he knows it

Our one lamb outlier was Harrison who was making a very simple Salted Hake and Mussel Butter Sauce

something about the phrase “mussel butter sauce” really icks me out – but it goes down a treat with the judges, the only part of the fish not working for them is the Squid Ink Crackers, which he really shouldn’t have served based on the fact they look like the hardened mouldy lemon rinds you occasionally find behind the bin

Is that just our house? Have I said too much? The addition of the sea vegetables is a nice touch and acknowledgment of his fondness for foraging, as is his use of chocolate mint in his ice cream:

The accompanying dark chocolate tart just lacking that added bit of oomph and intrigue – I honestly feel he would have been better off just serving the ice cream and chocolate crumb, even with my hatred of The Singular Crumb.

It’s a cut and dry decision to axe Michaela before she actually manages to poison someone and Dave is sailed right through for his 2 outstanding dishes. I think there was a genuine case to keep both Victor and Harrison – Victor for his unique take on food and flavour combinations and Harrison for his use of foraged ingredients and his modern take on them but in the end Victor is put through and it was worth it just for his radiant smile

And then he celebrated by doing maybe the worst flossing I’ve ever seen

I am willing to go to war for this man.