MasterChef: The Professionals 2023's biggest cooking explosions and disasters

Watch one of the biggest cooking disasters on Masterchef: The Professionals this year

It is finals week and the competition in Masterchef: The Professionals has been on fire this year in the kitchen. The stakes are higher than ever as the pressure is on the remaining four contestants who are battling it out to make the final three.

But along the way, there have been big talking points over the series when some of the contestants have served up the biggest cooking disasters. The MasterChef: The Professionals judges have responded to the accidents and serious cooking blunders with horror and sympathy in equal measure. The MasterChef: Professionals viewers at home also have cringed while watching the disasters play out on their TV screens.

So far, fans of the show have seen a few jaw-dropping disasters unfold in the kitchen from a boiling soup explosion and a dessert bowl shattering to "raw" food being served to the judges. As the tensions rise in the kitchen, will the contestants escape these cooking errors and disasters in finals week? Or will their nerves shake them?

We take a look back at some of the biggest cooking disasters to plague this series...

Boiling soup accident

Brazilian chef Cristina Maia had to quit the competition early after she was covered in boiling soup in a shocking accident that shook viewers at home and the judges. In the episode that aired on 24 October, the contestant received medical care after the soup explosion.

The 51-year-old was stunned when the piping hot soup went everywhere after she popped the blender open in the final round of the episode. Having to react quickly, a member of the TV crew was on hand to help and held a cold towel to the chef's injured chin.

Reacting to the scene, Wallace was horrified by the scene unfolding in front of his eyes and he asked: "You alright? Is that red hot?" Maia simply apologised for the mess caused by the soup and she tended to her chin at the sink with a medic.

Marcus Wareing explained what was going on in the background in a piece to camera. He said: "Unfortunately, Cristina's had a bit of an accident. She put the bisque into a blender and it was incredibly hot. When she released the lid, unfortunately, some of it hit her face." Blenders can erupt when they are overfilled due to excessive pressure.

Dessert 'blew up'

It wasn't the only major disaster to hamper stars competing in Masterchef: The Professionals. As temperatures were rising in semi-finals week, Tom had a hiccup with his dessert, pink peppercorn chocolate tart.

The Sous Chef was left flustered when his glass bowl shattered on MasterChef: The Professionals - just seconds after he had tried to vac the air out of the chocolate. He told Wareing: "I was vaccing the air out of it, and the bowl exploded. I didn't think glass would explode, I've done it at work so many times."

Not losing heart though, the contestant whipped up his dessert again from scratch and still managed to impress the judges. On judging, Wareing told him that he basically "blew up" the glass bowl in the machine but had successfully managed to pull it together by starting the dessert again.

Relieved, the chef said the disaster had been a "turning point" and he was proud that he managed to make a success of it still. "I just breathed and go back to it," he said. "I'm pleased I did... It was a great result in the end."

Being a good cook runs in the family as he works in a hotel restaurant alongside his mum and dad who are also chefs. Of his MasterChef journey, he said: "My journey into cooking was mostly through my dad being a chef. I think a big part was him not wanting me to do it which made me even more interested!

"If I’m being serious I do think cooking is in my blood. My dad is an exec chef and my mum is a pastry chef and we are all obsessed with food and cooking."

Raw food

Wallace and Monica Galetti were left with a bad taste in their mouths when they pointed out chef Himanshu Verma had served up undercooked lamb chops.

His lamb chops were served with palak spinach puree but it failed to impress the judges for this major reason. Galetti told him: "You would have known by touching this meat and pushing around that it wasn't cooked enough. When you cut into it you should have had the intiuation to get it back in a pan."

Wallace agreed saying: "I've got obvious issues on this bake... The lamb is undercooked." Following his lack of success with the dish, he was one of the stars eliminated in the episode. "We really hope you enjoyed the competition," Wallace told him.

MasterChef: The Professionals continues on BBC One at 8pm tonight.

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