Ten things we've learned from MasterChef

Amy Fleming distils some culinary wisdom from the twelfth series of MasterChef. Who should take the title?
MasterChef hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace
MasterChef hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace. Photograph: Emilie Sandy/BBC/Shine TV

In recent years the MasterChef format has grown tired. The hammed-up arcs of task-based tension have become insufferably samey, and the various offshoots (celebrity, professional, junior) have meant the show is rarely off air. Surprisingly, however, the current series has regained its mojo, returning to the original format with keen amateurs competing for the title. Not even the gratuitous extended three-day final this week (which culminates on Thursday evening) has incited a backlash. So far.

The contestants have been a largely compelling bunch - from departees Jay Tinker, the former bouncer from Southport who cooks fish to perfection, and Aki Matsushima, the eccentric quantum physicist you either adored or detested, to the talented and frankly bloody lovely finalist Shelina Permalloo. There has been genuine sweat and tears, culinary flops and fireworks and delightfully ludicrous babble about food. The often bizarre challenges set for the competitors (preparing a Thai Prince's banquet; making high tea for a reunion of comic actors who were big in the 1970s) have proved pleasingly entertaining.

So, as the best series in ages draws to a close, here's a reminder of some of the culinary lessons we've learned this series.

1. No one knows what salmoriglio is ...

Not even the three food critics the final five had to cook for in episode 10. Charles Campion, Tracey MacLeod and Jay Rayner seemed rather peeved about this, and you could see Andrew "overeager" Kojima (another finalist) struggling to maintain his shruggy, humble demeanour when Rayner asked him what it was (a southern Italian pesto with oregano, as you ask).

2. Blast chillers are way cool

Your domestic fridge-freezer is Toy Town compared to one of these; it's the must-have item for every keen cook. They've been essential in nearly every challenge this series and in one episode Shelina even had to commandeer a golf buggy to transport her desserts across a Thai palace to use one. If your kitchen is on the bijou side, fear not: you can pick up a countertop model for a mere couple of grand. Granted, there'll be an additional wee cost to the environment but, when you consider that these beasts can cool food down from 70C to 3C in 90 minutes, their mousse-setting abilities alone surely justify a few carbon toeprints. Or not.

3. Don't mix whisky, honey and fish

This combination spelled an epic fail for Andrew. On the plus side, though, his dish of (deep breath) pan-fried mullet in whisky and honey, pearl barley risotto, pickled girolles and razor clams (and exhale), did elicit a contender for the most hilarious Gregg Wallace quote of the series. The show's cuddly cockney co-host declared with palpable affront: "In my mouth I have a floral, sweet, oaty fish biscuit."

4. Jane Austen fans love salmon en croûte

Yet another random outside broadcast challenge involved the contestants catering for 100 attendees of a Jane Austen Festival. Shelina's fish dish won the day - perhaps because it would leave the least offensive stain if it came into contact with one of those lovely period costumes.

5. You won't go wrong with mango

Shelina, who has Mauritian roots, served it with spiced scones, in a millefeuille, a tart, a trifle (which Wallace described as possibly the best dessert he'd had anywhere) and with a yellow snapper curry. Not to be outdone, our third finalist, plasterer Tom Rennolds, also dabbled with a spicy pork and mango salad, and really scored with his mango millefeuille and chocolate cheesecake, which the critics lauded even though he had piped chocolate mush on top in a horrid faecal curl.

6. It doesn't get tougher than cakes

Considering how late in the competition it came, the high-tea-making challenge saw a shocking rate of flops for the final four. Dainty tiered cake stands groaned under Tom's soggy macarons and dry coffee cake, along with Jay's rubbish slabs of custard tart (he had to ditch his raspberry and chocolate tarts, which even the blast chiller could not save). And surprisingly, basic pastry seemed to let the contestants down throughout the competition. Andrew's treacle tart base was accused of having unwanted elasticity by critic Tracey MacLeod, while his Thai mango tart (again with the mango) ended up as a Thai mango slice due to incinerated pastry.

7. Humble pie is always served late

If a course is running five minutes overdue, chefs must desert their stations at the most crucial moment and shuffle out with their tails between their legs to warn the diners, thus further delaying service.

8. Amateur cooks can use liquid nitrogen ...

But it helps if you're also a physicist. Aki's miso ice cream was a new experience for Michel Roux Jr and he was mighty impressed. She says she perfected her method in the lab where she had been working on cryogenics. When she saw how quickly the -196C liquid freezes stuff (including fingers, so precautions must be taken), she realised what Heston et al have know for years - that it would make the smoothest ice-cream possible (rapid freezing makes for smaller crystals).

9. A messy chef means messy food

Poor Aki got in a major pickle while attempting to produce toffee and hazelnut brownies in a Cumbrian barn. Her workstation was carnage and the state of her chef's whites prompted John Torode to say: "You looking like that, and people coming in for lunch: it's embarrassing." Later she could be seen serving her tragically soggy pudding by pushing it off a spatula with her fingers. Disaster.

10. MasterChef turns a single into a double

Some less kind viewers have pointed out that Messrs Torode and Wallace's chins have multiplied as the series has progressed - so the contestants must have been doing something right.