Welcome back to yet another wonderful week of MasterChef! A lot happened in and out of the MC kitchen this week, so let’s just go ahead and get into that, shall we?
The episode opens up and we’re in the Mohave Desert with all of the contestants walking through the swirling sand and across the dry plains as if they’re reenacting an episode of ‘Breaking Bad’. Worst part? They’re all dressed like they’re trying to be on the cover of random magazines. Willie’s scarf looks like it’s straight out of GQ and Courtney’s heels are not the type of shoe for this environment.
(THE HEAT WOULD TARNISH THOSE PUMPS)
Anyway, the show goes on and the contestants are given their first individual confessionals of the night. Who do we see first? My dawg! Willie (@MC5Willie on twitter, y’all!) and he’s looking pretty stressed. Apparently, big people and deserts don’t go well together and I feel him on that, haha. He claim’s he’s “big, hot and uncomfortable.
(TAKE OFF THE SCARF OMG)
Willie is followed by Leslie, who just wishes he was back on the beach in Malibu, surfing. Seems like he isn’t too concerned with cooking in today’s challenge, ’cause like– there’s a wave calling his name out there, bra. Whereas, Francis L. just claim’s he’s Scottish and that Scot’s are notorious for not doing well in the desert. However, before these ninny’s get another chance to complain about something irrelevant to their next immediate focus, a big fat reminder or three come rolling in. Wind suddenly kicks up and heavy military choppers fly in, bringing with them the three judges. True MasterChef entrance, guys. Pro-Chef stuff.
With the judges, comes the reality: This competition is ON!
Francis B. was the winner of last week’s elimination challenge and because of this, as usual, he is given the first Captain spot and is chosen to captain the Red Team. Naturally, though– as this season is full of new twists and surprises, that’s not the only perk he get’s for winning. As Captain, not only does he now get first pick in the upcoming challenge, but he gets to choose EVERY. MEMBER. OF. HIS. TEAM.
And of course, he does what any sane person would do: He grabs the talent off rip. Not being given time to think about it, he just starts listing off names: Cutter, Tyler– they know their meats, that’s got the protein covered. Victoria for sides and grilling if needed, Willie for his “finesse”, Christine, Elizabeth, Kira– and a sleeper if ever there was one, the unnoticed Ahran.
Strong team, right?
Let’s hope so, for Willie’s sake. The remaining ten contestants are left on the blue team and are forced to elect a captain. Majority of the chefs look to Daniel to be the captain and he seems happy to take on that role. Teams are the separated into different trucks labeled by their respective team colors and are briefed on their destination by some high ranking military personnel. “You are travelling through one of the largest national military training facilities, in Fort Orwin, California.”
It’s roughly the size of Rhode Island.
Here comes the kicker, though. These two teams are about to step into the biggest challenge in MasterChef history. Each team must present 500 soldiers with one grilled meat, one side and one superb sauce to compliment their meat. Victoria is immediately glad to hear that they’re cooking for soldiers, having military family and knowing what these troops do for us daily. Cut to the judges and Joe is claiming that this feat is near impossible; citing sound reasoning by saying that it’s the biggest challenge they’ve ever put on to date with more than double the amount of people they’ve ever fed at once on MasterChef.
With such a daunting challenge before them, the cooks are given two hours to prep and two hours to serve. The red team immediately get to work on a game plan, as Willie suggests that they do pork chops as their protein and everyone agrees. Good thinking, Willie! Pork may be difficult to grill in large quantities like that, but there is no denying that when done properly– a pork chop can be heavenly. They decide to go for an apple cranberry sauce for their pork and a mac and cheese on the side, with freshly made and crumbled bacon. Sound’s delicious on paper, but did I mention— they’re forced to use a field kitchen? No oven, guys!
TEAM CHALLENGE
Out of the gate, the Red Team seemed to hit the ground running, whereas the Blue Team still seemed to be putting their shoes on. Daniel suggests chicken as their main protein and the groan could literally be heard across America! Chicken is dangerous when grilling in large quantities too, guys! Raw chicken, much like raw pork– is very dangerous. Multiple that potential danger by 500 and tell me that it’s not going to at least be a little worrisome. Leslie seems to have this exact sentiment, as he suggest doing steaks instead of chicken, but nobody must have been listening at that point because not one person responded to him.
They end up sticking with Daniel’s suggestion and go very traditional with their meal by doing grilled chicken with a tangy BBQ sauce and potato salad on the side. Ramsay comes over and questions Leslie about the chicken, knowing that it isn’t the wisest of choices and the red team is shown briefly, concerned about the size of their pork chops. The judges then get together and pool their thoughts on what is going on around them: Joe reiterates that this is the biggest challenge ever in MC history and wonders aloud if it will remain a challenge or become a disaster. Graham and Gordon both question the idea of the red team doing a macaroni and cheese side, with Ramsay questioning how you can make such a large portion without an oven. Joe says that it may be a difficult task, but that it’s bold and that if they manage to pull off a bacon topped mac and cheese that it’s almost a guaranteed win– high risk, high reward.
Gordon then questions the blue team by bringing up their choice of protein and wondering if chicken was wise. All the judges agree that it’s sort of boring and that a soldier would much rather a steak than a chicken thigh. Gordon says chicken is actually all wrong and Joe says that it’s either going to be raw or dry and that if by some miracle, they fully cook it to a point where it’s just simply dry, that their sauce better be to die for.
Back over in the red kitchen and Cutter is taking charge of the pork chops. Graham compliments him on the flavoring in his pork rub, but claims that his grill is not hot enough. “That’s worse than microwaving them,” he says. In the blue kitchen, Leslie is panicking. Stephani is supposed to be checking the chicken but as she passes it, he says that it still looks and feels raw. She decides to overrule his decision though and doesn’t think to cut open and check the chicken before putting two pans of it in the warming ovens. Gordon immediately comes over and pulls a tray out just to touch a leg and tell that it’s not fully cooked. He calls the entire blue team over to watch as he cuts it open and sure enough, it’s raw.
“The chicken is now more deadly than the enemy,” he says.
They quickly improvise by covering the chicken they’re cooking with long baking pans and throwing the cooked by raw chicken back on the grill. Breeze back on over to the red team and they’re struggling with that Mac and Cheese. Leave it up to Gordon to be blunt when he asks whether they expect the troops to know the difference between Mac and Cheese and Mac and Sh*t? At this point, I was really starting to wonder what was going on. Common sense would tell you that you can’t just mix pasta and cheese and cream and voila, gourmet cooking. No. I cannot stress to you guys how much I was yelling at my TV last night, “CHEESE SAUCE SEPERATE FROM PASTA THEN MIX!”
And y’know what? I felt totally justifiable in my actions when Gordon questions why they didn’t go that exact route. Surely, cream and cheese wont separate that much if there isn’t thirty pounds of pasta in between them while they’re mixing, right? Right.
As this challenge draws to a close, we get one more glimpse at the judges thoughts on what is going on around them and things really do not look good for the red team. Sadly, they’re way behind and are even at this point, just scrapping their mac and sh*t for a good ol’ fashioned red cabbage cole slaw. Yum, right? Lets just hope they can make enough in time! Joe admires Daniel at this point, claiming that even though he was thrown into his position as captain, he’s really coming into a well rounded leader at this point, citing his job delegations and his time management as good qualities in this challenge.
Suddenly, the prep time is up and the warriors come out to play. Er– soldiers. 500 of them, remember?
They come in on tanks and on helicopters, sending dust flying and giving the cooks one more grand entrance to marvel at. The contestants are suddenly faced with not just the thought, but the actuality of 500 live, hungry soldiers. Some claim that it’s invigorating and mildly terrifying, whereas Francis L is just “totally buggered.”
Right out of the gate, Red takes a bad plunge by missing out on a lot of plates. Their food wasn’t fully ready by the time it came to serve and as it stands in the beginning, most of the soldiers aren’t even getting food out of the red kitchen. Graham does the first round of check-in’s with the soldiers and the blue team is very easily getting the majority of the votes at this point.
Then, Red finally gets a few plates out, but not before something justifiably challenge-stopping happens. They put out raw pork! Gordon brings up a plate to their grill and grills them about it (lol get it?) He suggests that to cut down on cook time that they butterfly the chops so that they cook quicker and all the way through. I swear, sometimes these things make me wonder how these people make it on the show in the first place.
However, as the cooking goes on, it seems that despite the red team missing out on serving quite a few people that those that are getting pork (that isn’t raw) are really quite enjoying it. They might end up getting some votes after all! With 50 soldiers left to feed, the judges are getting even feedback– red, blue, red, blue. The results were the same when they were down to 20 left to feed and finally, that last soldier came up to claim his plate and shortly after he eats, the judges ask him to weigh in with his opinion and he undeniably chooses the red team’s pork chop. Asking the rest of the people at his table, Joe deciphers that they’re literally split, 3v3 on which team has the better dish.
Talk about a nail biter!
In the end, after all the votes are counted and tallied– we have one hell of a come back, ladies and gentleman. With well over half of the votes, 329 out of 500, Red Team wins the first team challenge with their raw pork.
Good job, guys!
I don’t know if you heard me through the time/space continuum, my TV and Ahran’s wild banshee scream, but I definitely was happy that Red won this week, simply because a few of my favorite cooks are on that team. I am however, unhappy to see someone like Christian or Leslie with the potential of going home in the Pressure Test that is to follow.
PRESSURE TEST
The blue team walk into the MasterChef kitchen ready to face the dreaded pressure test, only thing is– this time, they’re not in blue, they’re in those dreaded black aprons! As a contestant on MC, wearing a black apron is like getting sent to Redemption Island. You’re there to redeem yourself from the loss the previous day, but according to the judges, not all of them will be cooking in the upcoming challenge.
As Captain, Daniel is given the opportunity to save three people (including himself, if he’d like) from the pressure test and automatically advance them to the next round in the game. Christian claims he busted his ass and that if Daniel knew what was right, he would send him up to the balcony; which is exactly the first thing he does, along with Gordon as a thank you for “showing up” at the challenge. With one choice left, most people would assume that Daniel would do what they’d do if they were in his shoes; save himself. However, Daniel claims that a Captain goes down with his ship and refuses to save himself, but is smart enough to save Dan Wu from cooking because he “doesn’t want to go up against him in the pressure test.”
Immediately, Leslie is angered by the thought of not being seen as deserving enough to be saved. He sets his targets for Daniel and hopes to send him home in this challenge. The dish that they’ll be forced to make is then revealed and Daniel is immediately second guessing himself when it comes to whether or not he should have put himself up on that balcony, because it’s the dreaded: blueberry pie.
What is this, MasterBaker? I’m so tired of pies! It’s been four and we’re on episode 3. I bet Elise feels the same way as I do, because she has already been faulted on her pies twice this season. Jaimee however, is ecstatic and her neck tattoo is showcased as it happens to be a blueberry pie with the words “New Joisy” under it. The judges and her both agree that this challenge might be tailor made for her.
Up on the judges podium, they’re conferring and they all three agree that in the upcoming challenge, they expect to see Jaimee shine while Elise overthinks things and Stephani reaches too far and tries to do too much. They also notice how suddenly uncomfortable Daniel is and they’re wondering if he’ll end up sending himself home with this one. Gordon says that the secret to any pie is the foundation; without the right dough mixture, it’s all going to fall apart– literally. He says that a little bit of lemon or lime zest would be clever to cut the natural sweetness of the blueberries and add for a bit of tanginess. Graham, on the other hand, suggests steeping mint and taking it out, just to perfume the pie.
Back to the contenders and Elise is suddenly shown with a fit of nerves, worrying about making yet another pie. Stephani is also doing the exact thing that the judges predicted and she is attempting to put pecans in her crust, but time to bake the pie is running out. As a last minute thing, she just throws a whole crust on top instead of doing a lattice crust like everyone else. With 40 minutes left to cook, Daniel is behind, having scrapped his dough and starting over. He is 15 minutes behind, but still may be able to pull this off if he gets his pie in the over immediately, which he does.
At this point, it’s a waiting game.
Everybody is watching their pies bake as the rest of the competition is out of their hand. Once the timer ends and it’s time to present, Jamiee is first to the podium:
Jaimee; did a orange zest and orange liquor infused blueberry pie with cinnamon, all-spice and ginger. It is given riveting reviews and is crowned “delicious”. Gordon even goes as far to tell her that she is now officially the “most famous blueberry tart in all of Jersey.”
Elise; follows Jaimee and presents her homestyle blueberry pie. Gordon asks if it’s Lucky #3 and she says that she hopes so. He lifts up the pie to check it’s bottom and can see that the crust isn’t fully cooked. He claims that it is too floury and that it is way too bland and that it made him feel like he ate a mouth full of sand.
Jordan; brings up his Lemon Zest and Brandy infused blueberry pie and the judges are once again, appalled to see raw flour. Joe cites it as one of his personal pet peeves and things do not bode well for Jordan.
Courtney; is fourth to present and has no problem once again wowing the judges. Gordon asks her if there is anything she can’t do.
Leslie; puts up a delicious butter crust, all-spice, ginger and cinnamon infused blueberry pie. The judges claim it’s delicious and somewhat like a working combination of a apple and blueberry pie.
Stephani; really seemed out of her element, even having gone as far as to having admitted to never making a blueberry pie before. She is given terrible critique, and her pie is claimed to be over sweetened and under cooked. She is asked if she thinks she did better than Elise and she says that, “considering Elise is a baker– yeah, I do.”
Daniel; Team captain is last to present and is silently booed by Leslie, whom notices that his dough is lousy and claims that he wants Daniel to go home. Gordon says that the pie is visually unappetizing and that although he didn’t particularly care for the presentation, that it held up better than he suspected it would. He states that the pastry is a mess, but that the filling is good. Joe questions Daniel’s decision to cook in the pressure test and Daniel says that it was his duty as team captain, but Joe simply says that his honor is better than his pie.
After all the presentations, everyone is brought up front and the elimination process begins:
ELIMINATION
First called forward are Jaimee, Courtney and Leslie– all three are safe from elimination and are considered top of today’s class. They are then followed by Daniel and Jordan, who are given the bad news first– their pie’s were not the best out there today; and the good news, that they also weren’t the worst and that they’re both also safe.
In the end, it comes down to Elise and Stephani. Elise is praised for her passion for baking and Gordon says that he did not see that today, but that he isn’t quite ready to give up on her just yet. In the end, her technique was miles ahead of Stephani’s and Stephani is sent home for technical reasons.
Pecans and Blueberries do not mix, Steph. Sorry to see you go!
19 home cooks remain and we are set to go into our next mystery box challenge. What’s gonna happen next week? Tune in to find out! And if you missed anything? Check it all out here!
OH!! And.. buy some BB16 live feeds if you don’t have any already. We got ’em!
