[BBC2 21:30u] Masterchef: The Professionals #2

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Legendary double Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jr and Masterchef dining expert Gregg Wallace are joined by Michel's trusted sous chef Monica Galetti as they hunt for a young chef who has what it takes to go to the top of the culinary world.

Four chefs must deal with the pressure of a nail-biting elimination round. In front of the watching Monica and Gregg, they must earn the right to cook for the legendary Michel. Each chef must demonstrate they have the necessary skills and palate by trussing a chicken, removing the liver and cooking it in a cream and madeira sauce.

At the end of the round, one of the chefs will be going home, and the three remaining contestants face one more gruelling elimination challenge, as Michel cooks a classic recipe of cardoon gratin with bone marrow before asking them to recreate the dish in just 60 minutes. After judging each plate on presentation and flavour, Michel and Gregg will send one more chef home.

The two remaining contestants will make it through to the quarter-final and a step closer to winning the title of Professional Masterchef.

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Double Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jr and Masterchef judge Gregg Wallace are on the hunt for a young chef who wants to make it to the top of the culinary world. Over the course of this week the three finalists are pushed to the limit when they are set an incredible series of challenges.

This show sees the first ninety-minute special for final week and the penultimate show of the series, in which the chefs are taken to The Langham Hotel, winner of the 2010 Tea Guild Award for the Best Afternoon Tea in London. Here, for their first challenge, the finalists must match the perfection required in the culinary world's most feared discipline - pastry.

Each chef must recreate one of Pierre's most famous and intricate signature pastries, and serve them to the man himself. Helping Pierre judge is the Langham Hotel's head pastry chef Cherish Finden, and James Petrie, head pastry chef at Heston Blumenthal's three Michelin starred The Fat Duck.

They then return to the Masterchef studio to use their new-found skills to prepare their most elegant trio of desserts for Gregg and Michel.

On day two, the three finalists travel to Denmark for a challenge that will push them to their culinary limits - cooking at Noma.

Chef Rene Redzepi has propelled his Nordic foraging based cuisine to the forefront of international gastronomy. The young chefs receive a master class in Noma's innovative philosophy, before they prepare dishes for Rene. As well as having their performance judged by Rene, the finalists must also take charge of the restaurant kitchen and serve the lunch service to critical diners, including Gregg and Michel.

Then it's back to the Masterchef kitchen where the three chefs must demonstrate what they have learnt from their time at Noma.

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It's the final of Masterchef: The Professionals 2010. Three exceptional young professional chefs have proven they have what it takes to make it to the top of the culinary world, but only one can carry off the title.

In this ninety-minute finale the last three remaining chefs must draw on everything that they have gained over the past few weeks when they face the toughest challenge of their careers - preparing an intricate Michelin-standard three-course menu designed by Michel. This will be served to 30 of the world's leading inspectors, restaurateurs and Michelin chefs, with 40 Michelin stars between them, at Pearl in London.

Then they must return to Masterchef headquarters for the final time, to cook Michel and Gregg their last three-course meal, at the end of which one of them will be crowned Professional Masterchef Champion 2010.

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A MERSEYSIDE chef won through to the finals of a top TV cooking show without realising she was pregnant.

Masterchef: The Professionals finalist Claire Lara, 30, originally from Moreton, Wirral, first got her taste for cooking by making apple crumble with her nan, Melva.

But now she has worked with Michelin starred chefs including Albert and Michel Roux Jnr, and wowed big name restaurateurs on the international scene.

Claire said: “I learned so much from Michel.

“To be criticised by him every week was wonderful because his criticism is constructive.
Claire Lara on Masterchef

“He doesn’t just say that’s bad, that’s good. He tells you why.

“It’s a great honour to be taught by one of the great chefs.”

Claire, from Childwall, who is a tutor at Liverpool Community College now hopes to be able open her own restaurant. But it’s a far cry from the teenager who took up a YTS scheme more than decade ago.

Since then she lived in France for five years where she met husband Marc, worked with Albert Roux at a Michelin starred restaurant and returned to Liverpool to work at the London Carriageworks and Panoramic restaurant.

Claire, who will be seen competing in the final on Monday, said: “I’m still in contact with Michel.

“I hope my experience with Masterchef will open some doors for me.”

Before that she has another delicate creation to complete when she gives birth in November.

Claire said: “I’m not calling him Michel. He has to go to school!”

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Claire Lara wins Masterchef show

MasterChef: The Professionals has crowned its first female winner - a pregnant 30-year-old who said her heightened sense of smell helped her triumph on the notoriously tough cookery show.
Claire Lara, who was brought up on an oven chip-heavy diet, clinched the title in the third series of the hit BBC programme.

Despite being sick while competing against fellow finalists David Coulson, 25, and John Calton, 29, she did not realise she was pregnant and put her symptoms down to nerves.

Lara, from Birkenhead in Merseyside, said following her win: "I think being pregnant gave me an advantage. It heightened my sense of smell and taste. I felt so sick and was vomiting each day but I put it down to stress on the show as David was feeling the same. But obviously, he wasn't pregnant!"

Lara, who is expecting a boy with her French husband Marc, said it was "about time" a woman won the show, judged by Michelin-starred chef Michel Roux Jr and food writer Gregg Wallace.

She said: "It feels brilliant, but at the time I didn't know I was the first female winner. Men have definitely dominated. I feel quite proud. Hopefully other young female chefs will be inspired to go on."

She added: "It's a really tough industry and not female-friendly. You've got to be very thick-skinned."

Roux Jr, who has offered Lara a job, said: "I think she's the most complete chef that I've come across. Not just in the MasterChef context, but anywhere, in the last five years.

"We started off the competition looking for a talent and we have uncovered a diamond... She has that exceptional talent that will take her to stardom."

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A LEADING professional chef who has worked at top Michelin-starred restaurants has made it to the television stages of MasterChef.

Executive chef David Coulson has worked at the highest level and will now hopefully impress judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with his culinary talents in this series of MasterChef, due to be screened on BBC1 in February.

The head chef at Wynyard Golf Club in Billingham, County Durham, is successfully through to the next stage of the competition after completing a number of challenges.

Impressing judges with his taster menu, David was then selected for the basic skills test, which was recorded for the show’s launch.

David said: “I am ecstatic to get this far but I’m not going to television not to win. I would like to get through the television stages and progress my career.”

David, who is 26 and from County Durham, has nine years hospitality experience and has built up an enviable reputation as one of the region’s youngest and most talented chefs.

Working for the exclusive Wynyard Estate, he heads up the club’s professional catering team.

He said: “I hope that one day I will have my own Michelin-star and own my own restaurant.

“I love the North East and would love to open something up here.”

David creates new gourmet menus for golf events, business and corporate functions, private parties and special occasions.

Wynyard hosts ‘The Duke Suite Restaurant’, a contemporary bistro-style restaurant offering customers the very best traditional dishes and modern British cuisine every Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday lunchtime.

David said: “The new restaurant will offer customers an alternative but luxury venue to dine locally and will serve superb gourmet dishes at an affordable price range. Wynyard Golf Club has an excellent social scene so I am looking forward to developing the new restaurant and welcoming more customers from further afield.”

David has previously worked at Seaham Hall, also in County Durham.

The new Duke Suite Restaurant at Wynyard Golf Club is open from 5pm-9pm every Friday and Saturday.

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Op donderdag 4 november 2010 00:12 schreef Roel_Jewel het volgende:
David heeft al werk...

http://www.hartlepoolmail(...)but-David.6611246.jp

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Op donderdag 4 november 2010 07:19 schreef Quinn_Dexter het volgende:

Of zorgt er in ieder geval voor, net zoals Gorden Ramsey ooit heeft gedaan voor een jonge kokkin uit Parijs die weg kwijnde in zo'n achteraf restaurantje....