Farewell Bime; I really enjoyed watching you but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. I am sure you have a bright future ahead of you. Just keep fighting for what you believe in, man and I know you can accomplish great things!
During this episode of Master Chef, the chefs are given a rather surprising ingredient for their pressure test. Their ingredient is a pig’s head complete with eyes, ears, and tongue. The judges explain that most of the meat has already been broken down and is waiting for the chefs in their cupboards. The chefs must any part of the pig’s head along with anything in the limited pantry.
I felt for poor Bri as she is a vegetarian (As did James and Ramsay) but despite the fact that she had to cover her pig head with a towel, she was able to work on the meat beautifully. She created what she called a “Farmer’s Breakfast” with fried pig’s ears and cheek.
Both Lyn and Johnny impressed the judges during prep as they both finally started utilizing the advice the judges have been telling them. Lyn started to properly season his meals whereas Johnny started mixing the flavor profiles together in a good way as opposed to his unusual flavor choices that we’ve seen in the past.
Surprisingly, there was not a single complaint from the judges during this challenge. It seemed that every chef was able to come up with a meal that was of a passing grade. The top three chefs for this challenge were:
- Lyn (whose dish Ramsay called sophisticated) – traditional red wine braised pork cheek on top of Asian braised pork tongue with a parsnip puree and ginger scallion oil.
- Jessie – Braised cheek and ear on top of black eye peas and roasted corn
- Johnny (who the judges said they have been frustrated with because they know he has potential) – Tongue and cheek tacos with tomato jam.
In the end, however, there can only be one chef out of the three to be chosen as the winner. This week it was Lyn. He will be given three special gifts – the first being the usual safe from elimination – whereas the other two will be presented by special-guest chef (and last year’s winner); the blind cook Christine Ha.
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Lyn’s second and third gifts are to choose one of Christine’s favorite ingredients; chicken, catfish, and live crab. He gets to choose which one of these ingredients that his competition will cook with. The twist is that he needs to choose TWO ingredients. One of these will be given to only a single competitor whereas the other will be given to the other chefs. He chooses the catfish for Krissi thinking that her city upbringing may backfire on her in the sense that she may not know how to properly prepare catfish. The other chefs will be cooking with live crab (poor Bri!)
To complicate matters further, Christine announces to all the chefs that they will be cooking blindfolded! This is an obvious heavy blow for the chefs and there was not a single person in the kitchen who looked thrilled to deal with such a handicap. Once the clock started ticking, all we were exposed too were chefs fumbling, stumbling, and groping helplessly for their cutlery, ingredients, and spices.
Luckily for them, this was nothing more than a big practical joke concocted by Christine and the judges. After about a minute of hilarity, the judges told everyone to remove the blindfolds and they reset the clock. Now the elimination challenge was underway.
During the elimination, Krissi was very confident in being given catfish. She went goes so far as to call Lyn a dumb-ass as she claims to prepare catfish all the time.
Luca decided to work on a crab risotto whereas Bri focused her attention on making a delicious crab salad. Beth wants to make a crab-cake with some avocado though the judges are concerned with how little meat she plans on using but she insists that she will be making her meal nice and “Fresh”.
The drama kicks in when Joe and Graham pay a visit over to Krissi’s table and discover that she is making catfish with mashed potatoes. Joe asked if her meal was “Survival Food” or a Philly version of catfish. This immediately caused Krissi to become defensive. She insisted that her meal was “traditional” southern food with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and fried catfish. Joe seemed very insulted at how elementary this dish is; telling her that he expects greatness out of her and she is presenting this. The two begin growling at one another which ends with Joe walking away in a huff. He tells Ramsay that Krissi’s meal is like a Saturday night dinner than a gourmet meal.
Once the timer goes off, it is Krissi who is brought to the chopping block. Ramsay straight out calls her presentation a “TV” dinner. He is shocked to see that Krissi left the skin on the catfish. Christine said that the flavors were missing while Ramsay explained that by leaving the skin on, it absorbed everything leaving the meat muddy and bland. Graham calls the meal a “6.99 blue plate special” but it was when Joe steps up when things get kicked up a notch. He claims that her meal tastes like mud. He then tells her that her defensive attitude needs to quit and because of this attitude he has lost all faith in her.
Ah, but things don’t stop there. When Krissi returns to her station and begins bad-mouthing Joe’s words. This inflames Joe and he calls her out on it, demanding that if she is going to talk about him, at least have the balls to say it to his face.
Natasha and Bri both wow the judges with their meals. Bri’s simple crab stacked salad won over the judges. James’ spice crab with rice and broth wowed Ramsay and Christine alike.
Sadly, the compliments could not continue forever. Beth, who has never worked on crab before, ended up serving up raw crab to the judges. The crab cakes were too thin and even Graham, the gentlest of the judges, admitted that the crab was terrible.
Finally came Luca. Ramsay asked for Luca to explain his soup to the judges but when Luca admitted that it was a risotto (a dish that Ramsay himself prepares all the time), Ramsay became shocked and appalled. The fact that Luca, an Italian chef, presented this dish to the judges in such a terrible state was practically unforgivable. What’s worse is that he used Fish Sauce in the meal because of the fact that Luca knew that Fish Sauce is one of Christine’s favorite ingredients (though she admitted she would never put it in a risotto). Joe explained to Luca that this meal was an embarrassment. It broke my heart to see Luca being hit so hard and my heart shattered when he was, once again, placed in the bottom three along with Beth and Krissi.
Luckily, Luca was spared thanks to Krissi’s muddy catfish and Beth’s undercooked crab. After the tasting, it would be James and Natasha who will end up the winners during this elimination. The three worst were Luca, Krissi, and Beth. After giving their opinions on each of the chefs’ dishes it was Beth who got the axe. The judges also made it very clear that Krissi has a target on her back and frankly, I do not blame them. While I do like underdogs, the fact the woman cannot handle anything without getting very defensive is getting a bit old. I hope this attitude changes as things move forward.
Farewell Beth!