Doing "Something A Bit Different"

I've never been a massive fan of BBC Masterchef. For a start, unlike me the programme is culinarily very conservative. Although chef John Torode is reasonably open-minded about food, his partner in crime Greg Wallace is like Desperate Dan - give him something "foreign" and he'll run a mile, give him a jam roly poly with custard and he'll marry you. At the end of the day, Masterchef tends to play safe with Michelin-style modern French cuisine and contestants who cook it. Hannah of Hannah's Country Kitchen, with whom I've exchanged a few blog comments, discovered this when she was beaten in the 2007 final by Steve, who was so much at home cooking for Raymond Blanc and Michel Roux. Anyhow, whatever my views of the programme, they're irrelevant these days as I'm in Barcelona and can't watch it.

Or at least that's what I thought, before my dad edited a clip from last Monday's show and uploaded it to my fileserver. "Have a look at this", he emailed me. "It's something very special. You don't see a lot of contestants ordering roses as a cooking ingredient. Especially not wannabe chefs who are only 18 years old." He was right, of course. Some people are just a little bit special... and you know it the first time you see them. There was something about Emily's approach to food that we both recognised instantly.

"Are you trying to shock us a little bit, Emily?" asked Greg Wallace. "Not shock", she relied. "I just want to do something a bit different and show you that I can do it." That got my vote. Emily's two courses were seared scallops with watercress gnocchi and rhubarb soup with coconut crème chiboust and crystallised rose petals. OK - the scallops were a safe bet... but the rest! And it was just round 1.

Rarely if ever can the Masterchef judges have come out with a set of comments like these: "I thought it just danced around my mouth like magic." "This is not just food... this is art. I'm very, very excited. I'm also part petrified." "Genius is very close to madness. I think her food is bordering on madness at times." "I don't have a criticism. You're eighteen years old and you're cooking like that. Incredible." "I am very rarely moved to the stage where I say I have no comment." "I'm shaking, because I think she's awesome. I do... I think she's awesome!"

I drafted this piece on Wednesday intending to post it with a good luck message for the quarter-finals (a strange thing to do, thinking about it, given that the programme was pre-recorded quite some time ago). But the more I watched the video clip and talked to dad about it over Messenger, the more sure I was that I should hold off until after the next round. Mike and I weren't party to the results, but we were both absolutely certain what the outcome would be. And we weren't wrong.

Emily's first two courses for the quarter-final really resonated with me. The ginger salmon tartare was an elegant fusion dish, bringing together the best of Asian and European traditions. The duck with cherry sauce and parsnip mousse was a combination that's quite conservative on paper, but its execution showed brilliantly how Emily understands flavour combinations and reinforced what I never tire of stressing - the fantastic harmony of game and red fruit when cooked properly. Finally, Emily's dessert course and pièce de résistance was... a mud pie.

"A mud pie? What's a mud pie?" "Hopefully pure nostalgia. I used to make mud pies at the bottom of the garden, so I thought I'd try to recreate one as a pudding... Chocolate with thyme and... tarragon grass, candied, with raspberries." "Wow!"

Listening to the judges' questioning the mud pie dessert and Emily's response tells you absolutely everything about the creative process that underlies her cooking. "That's risky stuff, Emily", observes John Torode. "Well", Emily responds, "you can have disasters. But when I visualise the dish I take into account all the different elements of it... and hopefully make something that's a bit of a different experience and tastes good." "Amongst your friends, you must seem very different," chips in Greg Wallace. "You could say that, yes. I think they've come to terms with how different I am."

This young woman visualises the flavours, aromas, textures and appearance of her dishes and then practises them until she gets things right. And that's a million miles from those contestants who boast of experimenting by throwing ingredients together and seeing how things turn out. It's a world apart. At the end of the first round, Emily told the judges: "I've always had this niggling doubt in the back of my head. I'm only eighteen. There's no way I'm going to be able to perform at a level that's the same as people who've been cooking for ages." Well, now you know, kid. Don't ever doubt yourself again. No matter how far you get in the competition - whether you slip up in the semi-final or go on to win the final - you know you can cook great creative and adventurous food. "I think my mum will probably be incredibly proud of me", you said after round 1. I bet she was. And I bet she was even more proud after the quarter-finals. The best of luck from a fellow maverick.

Extracts from the qualifying round

Extracts from the quarter-final