Radio Times: Review by:; David Butcher

It’s can’t be easy to spice up a well-worn formula like MasterChef but the new “palate test” does the job. There’s an enjoyable hint of Generation
Game, as the contestants try to mimic an elegant dish that John Torode has just demonstrated for us — but not for them. They have to figure out the ingredients and techniques from taste alone, then busk it. Which isn’t easy considering Torode’s potato pancake is topped with smoked trout and horseradish sauce.

Apart from anything else, will they spot the pancake is made with potatoes?
It might not sound like high drama, but MasterChef always manages to crank up the tension, particularly when the amateur chefs are unleashed on a professional restaurant kichen. Among the hopefuls are two
young brothers, as keen to beat each other as anyone else.

About this programme

3/23. Five contenders take a palate test in which they have to recreate John Torode's dish of potato pancakes with smoked trout, horseradish cream and beetroot salad without a recipe. Two of them are then eliminated and the three remaining hopefuls work a lunchtime service at London's Cadogan Hotel before heading back to the MasterChef kitchen to cook two courses to impress John and Gregg Wallace, hoping to win a place in the quarter-finals.