Adios Beth! I liked your perky personality and even though you were unable to handle the heat in some of the events, you were still a fun person to watch.
In this episode of Master Chef, Ramsay introduces two people (Anya and Aaron) to the chefs. Aaron is a flavor scientist whereas Anya is a ‘foodie’. Their wedding is tomorrow and it is up to the two teams to cook the main course to their wedding. What I found funny was that very few of the chefs thought that this was a good idea. In Bethy’s words: “I cannot believe they are trusting us to cook for their wedding.”
To make things a bit more complicated, Anya produces a very specific list of things that she does not want in the wedding. These things include NO:
- peanuts
- beets
- radishes
- celery root
- fennel
- Indian food
- bell peppers
- dill
- cilantro
- olives
Already the chefs are feeling a bit annoyed and concerned with this list. However the chefs will be given two distinguished chefs to assist them with the wedding dinner. The first person, who will be in charge of the appetizers, is none other than Judge Graham. The second, who will be making the desserts, will be Judge Ramsay. The teams are only in charge of the main course but they will have to make sure their dishes match up with the quality and flavors of Graham’s and Ramsay’s courses.
Now before the chefs can begin, they will need to be first separated into teams. The team leaders from the last challenge are James (Blue) and Natasha (Red). On the Blue Team we have:
- Lyn (Chosen for his visual presentation)
- Jessi
- Johnny
- Bri
- Luca
And on the Red Team we have
- Eddie
- Krissi
- Jordon
- Savannah
- Bethy
There is one twist that will be presented onto the teams. Both teams must choose 1 member to sit out the competition. Those who are sitting out will be safe from elimination. James chose Bri (who is the only vegetarian of the competitors and they needed to make 15 vegetarian teams) whereas Natasha chose Krissi (who is pleased as she gets a free ride to the next round).
To start the night off, Graham presents his appetizer; Spring Pea Essence with Whipped Crème Fraiche. Ramsay then showcases his simple but eloquent dessert platter consisting of a sticky toffee pudding served with brown bread ice cream and caramel sauce.
Once the judges show off their meals, the teams have two hours to choose, prep, and serve their meals. James’ team decides on Lamb with a parsnip puree. Grilled Mushrooms with goat cheese and crème Fraiche will be served to the vegetarians.
Natasha’s team struggles a bit at the start when it comes to choosing a meal. Despite the objections of her team, she chooses halibut as her protein while providing an eggplant and tomato stack for their vegetarian dish.
The Blue Team seems to be moving like greased lightning while the Red Team is already struggling. Carrots burning, people bumping into each other, and on top of the pile is Natasha who is unable to focus on her team. The poor girl is literally just stumbling around the kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off – much to Ramsay’s dismay. So chaotic are the chefs that Ramsay and Joe worry that this challenge could be over the chef’s heads.
With Graham’s appetizers winning over the wedding party, it is now up to the chefs to keep the meals moving forward. What is surprising is the fact that while the Blue Team seemed to be moving at extraordinary speed, suddenly comes to a stand-still thanks to Lyn’s inability to keep up with the pace. He starts freezing up, plating in a sloppy, messy manner. During the serving, Red Team’s chaos seems to have calmed down while the Blue Team starts things off terribly by presenting dirty, sloppy dishes.
To make matters worse is the fact that Ramsay caught Lyn sweating all over the plates. When Ramsay pointed this out, Lyn used a cloth to keep the sweat off his face but in all the chaos, he forgets this fact several times and uses his sweat cloth to wipe the plates clean. This infuriates Ramsay beyond belief. The biggest problem comes that with all these little bumps in the road, the Blue Team begins to fall far behind. So badly that Graham has to step in to expedite the meals thus taking over James’ role as leader for the rest of the challenge.
With Graham’s help the Blue Team was able to get back on track. With everything said and done, it would be the Red Team that pulls out ahead. This leaves the Blue Team up for elimination but there is a very strange twist with this elimination challenge. Judges Ramsay, Graham, and Joe will decide which members of the Blue Team will be safe and which members will be up for elimination. What this translates too is that there will only be two chefs up for elimination during this matchup. The judges decided to pit Lyn versus Johnny in this one-on-one elimination challenge and the dish that they would have to prepare?
Macaroons.
Both chefs are very inexperienced with something such as this. Johnny seems to be all over the place whereas Lyn is practically trembling with nervousness. The biggest challenge to this dish is that the chefs needed to get the cookie size just right in order to fit twelve of these delicious morsels inside of a Macaroon box. Lyn is unable to fit all twelve into the box and he ends up having to leave two on the outside during his presentation. Furthermore, he uses fresh fruit which will make the cookies soggy. Johnny on the other hand pipes his cookies too high meaning that they will be too thick for the box.
Sadly, unlike Lyn who puts two outside his box, Johnny’s frustration takes control. As the final seconds tick down, he slams his hand against the side of the box thus jamming the cookies inside. This results in several of his cookies being destroyed.
It was a very costly mistake because after tasting the two desserts, the judges all agreed that Johnny’s cookies were superior. But it was because of his treatment of the cookies that the judges couldn’t pass him. This breaks my heart as Johnny was really one of those chefs that I enjoyed watching throughout the competition.
Consider yourself lucky, Lyn, that Johnny got frustrated otherwise you’d be the one going home!