“MasterChef. Professionals” -4: what surprised the chefs at the casting

STB premiered the fourth season of MasterChef. Professionals”. In the first episode, the participants surprised with extraordinary dishes that are difficult to prepare in 45 minutes. Not all the experiments were successful, but most of the chefs managed to impress the demanding chefs!

Some of the chefs dared to confuse the judges by presenting ordinary baked potatoes in foil, and some of them risked taking on fish, which they were cooking for the first time! Read more about the dishes and participants in the article.

Anastasia Shevchenko from Mykolaiv. On March 13, 2022, the girl planned to open her own confectionery, but a full-scale war broke out…

“A Russian shell hit the confectionery. Windows and doors were smashed…  My mother almost died. There was heavy shelling. And if we hadn’t gone, I don’t know what would have happened to us. So I was saving my child and my mother,” Nastya admits. 

Her first dish in the MasterChef. Professionals 4 is a crumble dessert and passion fruit confit.  

crumble and passion fruit confit

Cheese-maker Danko Matiychuk produces cheeses. He considers this process an integral part of the kitchen. Once upon a time, the man lacked greens in his dishes, so he decided to start growing them. Presenting the dish to the judges, he noted that absolutely all the products were made by himself.

“It is incredibly important that you are developing Ukrainian cheese making. And your burrata is much tastier than the one I tasted in Italy,” commented Hector.  

Anton Bogdanov is a developer of street food delivery. He cooked eggplant with cheese and caviar for the project judges. “When the war started, my team and I gathered in our old kitchen. We volunteered. We cooked 80 kilograms of banosh with truffle paste, and in total, we cooked more than 1,000 dishes a day,” Anton recalls.

eggplant with cheese and caviar

Chef Viktor Voloshyn was in Kherson when the full-scale war broke out. He spent 60 days in the occupation. It was quite dangerous and difficult to get out. I passed 68 checkpoints and drove 200 kilometers for 18 hours…

“In the first three days of the war, I joined the municipal guard. I helped the city, the citizens. We still had a lot of food, so I was sorting it. I also remember when 10,000 chickens were brought to me, they had to be cleaned. I had to do something with them to distribute them to people,” the man recalls. 

I surprised the chefs with a veal tartare with caviar made from beer in a Ukrainian presentation.

Pastry chef Victoria Ryabova came to the project with a Napoleon. She recalls how her father, who is currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, believed in her culinary skills as a child. So now she wants to thank him and show that she is worthy of the most professional cuisine in the country.

“My cake is in the Ukrainian Book of Records. The tallest cake was 3 meters high. Some layers were edible, but the rest of the tiers had to be covered and filled with cream. It took 75 kilograms of mastic,” says Victoria. 

MasterChef: Napoleon

Anton Hilchuk, on the other hand, took a rather pragmatic approach to the choice of dish, using the products that every Ukrainian has at home. Bacon and baked potatoes are exactly what we all love.

“For me, our Ukrainian lard is something on the level of pancetta or jamon. So I want to develop a culture of eating this product.” 

Photo: press service