MasterChef: The Professionals viewers joke fancy Copenhagen restaurant with a £560 tasting menu is ‘like Silence of the Lambs’ as ‘Bond villain’ head chef brags his dishes have made his diners ‘cry’

• The finalists visited Alchemist in Denmark, run by Rasmus Munk
• READ MORE: MasterChef: The Professionals viewers rage as show bids au revoir to ‘genius’ French chef – after Marcus Wareing tells him he was ‘trying too hard’ with jellied egg dish 

Viewers of MasterChef: The Professionals have slammed the philosophy of a two Michelin-starred restaurant as ‘b******’ after finalists visited the kitchen during the finals week of the competition.

Alchemist in Copenhagen, Denmark is run by Rasmus Munk, confronts its diners with uncomfortable truths about how ingredients are sourced and greets them with performance art and avant-garde decor as they walk into the space, with the head chef admitting some customers ‘cry’ at the dishes. In the interest of reducing food waste, Rasmus also tries to use all parts of an animal that has been butchered.

As the three finalists Kasae, Tom and Tommy tried their hand at making their own creations from the unusual ingredients in Rasmus’s pantry, before making his dishes for themselves.

However, viewers weren’t quite on board with the head chef’s vision and took to X, formerly Twitter, to blast his menu as ‘b******s’ and to criticise people who pay hefty sums to eat at Alchemist (a tasting menu without wine pairings works out to £563). 

They also drew comparisons between Rasmus’s restaurant and eerie movies including Silence of the Lambs (in reference to the body parts of animals used in the dishes) and Ralph Fiennes’s 2022 restaurant thriller The Menu, where diners are trapped at a pretentious restaurant and ultimately perish before they are allowed to leave.

At the beginning of the episode, the three finalists travelled through the canals of Copenhagen to arrive at the restaurant, which is set in an old building with high, heavy doors featuring cast iron heads of chickens. 

Upon entry, they were greeted by a gymnast in a dark room painted in flourescent drawings, before the gymnast presented them with an amuse bouche that resembled a piece of acetate. 

The words: ‘Who are you? Who are you really? How do you see yourself? Who do you look up to?’ played over speakers as the three finalists took in their surroundings.

Welcoming the chefs to his kitchen which contains state-of-the-art technology including 3D printers, Rasmus explained three dishes he wanted them to make – including the perfect omelette, a chicken thigh served in a cage (a commentary on battery hens) and a fish dish designed to resemble plastic (to comment on plastic in the oceans).

Last night’s episode of MasterChef: The Professionals saw the three finalists visit Alchemist in Copenhagen where they met head chef Rasmus Munk

One of the dishes served up by Rasmus was the caged chicken which is a commentary on battery hens. Rasmus explained the dish often makes guests ‘cry’

Many viewers were unconvinced by Rasmus’s vision and made comparisons between the restaurant and 2022 film The Menu in which Ralph Fiennes plays a chef who kills his dinner guests

As he showed the chefs how he prepares the chicken dish, Rasmus revealed that seeing the chicken thigh often causes his guests to ‘cry’ at their table.

While the chefs were full of praise for Rasmus’s philosophy, branding it ‘very cool’ and ‘amazing’, viewers writing on X were less convinced.

Rather than being impressed by the confronting ideas they were being shown, many were put off by Rasmus’s vision, and compared his restaurant to the plot of The Menu, a 2022 movie starring Ralph Fiennes in which he plays a head chef who invites diners to his restaurant on a remote island in Denmark – only to keep them prisoner before he burns the place down, killing them all and himself.

Viewers were unimpressed by the vision of the restaurant and accused the head chef of ‘sucking the joy out of food’

One person wrote: ‘I expect to see Gregg Wallace entering the restaurant whilst suspended from a meat hook’ while sharing a Gif from the film.

Referencing a different film franchise, another said: ‘Rasmus is definitely a Bond villain.’ 

One viewer had a much darker and more violent film in mind. They wrote: ‘Definitely the worst episode of MasterChef: The Professionals I’ve ever seen… it’s like something out of Silence of the Lambs. Burger King, anyone?’

Others thought Rasmus’s commentary on the food industry was misplaced. One wrote: ‘This isn’t clever. It’s pretentious moralistic b******s.’

Many people said they would never consider visiting Alchemist, with one person accusing Rasmus of ‘sucking the joy out of food’. 

During the episode the three chefs were challenged to create their own recipe from the unusual ingredients Rasmus works with – and Kasae produced a windpipe croquette.

While the Michelin-starred chef was wowed by Kasae’s invention, viewers were not at all impressed with the look of the dish. 

One person, referring to the plate, exclaimed: ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey!’

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