What a roller coaster this week was! I was literally on the edge of my seat as I watched the episode. We had tempers flare, arguments start, and an elimination challenge that was so shocking that it warranted a second part to this week’s episode of Master Chef!
Before I get ahead of myself, however, let’s go through the entire episode. This week gave us another team challenge. For being the two best chefs during last episode’s elimination challenge, Bime and Bethy are given the title of Team Captains. The challenge; to cook a gourmet meal using Walmart produce (They really advertised the heck out of Walmart in this episode) and prime cut steaks for a hundred and one firefighters. This week’s teams were:
Bethy’s Team:
- Lyn
- Jessie
- James
- Howard
- Johnny
- Savannah
- Krissi
Bime’s Team:
- Beth
- Bri
- Jordon
- Kathy
- Natasha
- Luca
- Eddie
What struck me as odd is that both Krissi and Kathy were in the bottom three to be chosen. I don’t know if it is because of her stronger personality but I believe Krissi has proven herself time and time again to all of these competitors and I feel she should be considered as one of the top choices. Kathy on the other hand has been up and down but I don’t really see such a terrible talent in the kitchen where she deserves to be chosen last for the second time in the row.
Once the teams have been selected, Ramsay explains to Bethy that because her cupcakes were the best, she may swap out any of her teammates for one of Bime’s. Who does she swap out? She takes Eddie (much to Bime’s dismay) and exchanges him for Krissi. Bime is terrified by this since earlier he called her a “Fan of eating” when determining his team.
With the teams decided the groups must work together to plan a meal (composed of a steak with two side-dishes and a sauce) for these firefighters. Bime’s team decides to make a steak with sautéed mushrooms, a cauliflower puree, and a simple reduction sauce.
Whereas the Bime’s team was a group effort, Bethy took complete control over her team, shooting out who does what. There was very little team input in the matter and the meal was decided to be steak with red-peppers and potatoes. James was put on sauces but unfortunately he was unable to decide between two of the sauces that he had in his head. Ergo he decided to make samples of each sauce to see which one Bethy would prefer for the steaks.
As the competition heats up, we see a huge difference in how each team is handling their steaks. Bethy’s team has decided to put a rub on their meat whereas Bime believes that the flavor should come from their sauce (much to Ramsay’s dismay). Even after Ramsay explained that a rub is needed, Bime refuses to give in believing that the prime steak would speak for itself.
Ramsay is equally frustrated with Bethy’s team when he discovers James is making two sauces. Luckily he is able to figure out which of the samples would taste the best with the meal and he was able to focus on that single sauce.
Bime’ team begins to fall apart as he fails to step up and control the situation. Krissi keeps warning him about smaller mushrooms cooking faster than larger ones but he dismisses her claims. He doesn’t give his opinions to how things should be cooked nor does he keep his team in check. A prime example of this comes with the puree. As the cauliflower puree begins to cook, Beth begins to protest some of the ingredients that the team wants to use but she is either ignored or shot down. Her teammates found her to be very annoying and refused to listen to any of her opinions concerning the puree.
It isn’t long until the teams’ 90 minutes are up. Now they must feed a hundred and one firefighters who will then vote for their favorite dishes. During service, it is the Bethy’s team that is able to send out food faster than Bime’s though this speed comes at a cost as some of Bethy’s plates needed to be returned as ingredients were accidently left out. Bime’s lack of leadership really hinders his teams’ ability to get the food out but near the end, he finally steps up and service is completed.
In the end, it would be Bethy’s team that wins. As her team is brought back inside, Bime’s team must stay behind to clean up the kitchens. It is at this point where Beth comments on how the cauliflower puree was disgusting which enflames Natasha who verbally lashes out at Beth until Beth is reduced to tears. (As a note, many of the firefighters agreed that the puree was not that good) When Bime’s team is lined up for the elimination challenge, Bime straight out tells the camera that it was his fault and he refuses to allow himself to be saved. Unfortunately, that is not what the other judge have in mind.
Bime is forcefully given exemption from elimination and he chooses Jordon (despite being chosen, still decides to state to the camera that Bime is a terrible chef) to be the one team-mate who shall also be exempt. This leaves Beth, Natasha, Kathy, Krissi, Luca, Bri to face off against one another with one of the most technical elimination challenge yet: Eggs Benedict.
To make things even more difficult, the chefs are only given a very limited amount of ingredients. In fact, they are given just enough to make the two eggs benedicts requested. One mistake could spell disaster as there will not be enough ingredients to go around.
During this challenge, both Beth and Natasha are confidant in their abilities as they claim to make this dish all the time. Bri is out of her element as she has never cooked Eggs Benedict before whereas Kathy and Krissi both struggle with their dishes as the challenge heats up. Krissi finds herself in a world of trouble when her sauce breaks leaving her with only one egg left for the sauce (where it is said by the judges she needs at least two). Luca struggles with his dish as does Kathy.
In the end, however, it would be Bri and Krissi who survive the match. Bri’s dish (which I personally believe won because of the fact she did not know how to make this dish, therefore she worked at keeping it simple and delicious) was considered the best of the group whereas Krissi pulled off some amazing tricks with what little she had left to impress the judges.
Natasha’s sauce turned into mayonnaise, Luca’s was undercooked, Kathy did not include enough sauce, and Beth’s sauce broke making it, as Ramsay puts it, look like “Eggs Vomit.”
Natasha’s Eggs
With Krissi and Bri safe, it is up to the judges to choose who of the remaining four would be eliminated. Unfortunately, because none of them were able to get the soul of the meal done proper, they were all chosen. However, because there can be only one elimination, Ramsay decides to pit the remaining four against one another in a final team challenge; cooking a service in his new Las Vegas restaurant Burgr.
Luca is teamed up with Kathy whereas Natasha and Beth must work together. Natasha takes this chance to extract her revenge on Beth by refusing to give any input in their gourmet burger dish which Beth decides should be a breakfast sandwich of a burger patty with an egg on top. Finally, just before the chefs are out of prep time, Natasha gives in and begins to give her input as she said she does not want to sabotage them so badly that she could be up for elimination. They change their dish to a more dignified burger with blue cheese, bacon, and arugula.
Luca decides upon a classic, simple burger but he fails to decide upon any spice or seasoning. He also decides against cheese much to Kathy’s chagrin.
During service, Luca and Kathy start off strong. Beth has issues with toasting the buns for their burgers (constantly burning them) but it isn’t long before Luca and Kathy lose steam. This costs them some votes as their burgers don’t make it to the window on time. To make matters worse, some of their burgers are sent out raw. However, Luca is able to pull through and expedite his meals with such speed that Natasha and Beth cannot keep up which ends up costing them two votes as they did not make the burgers on time.
At the end of service, a group of guest judges are brought in to taste the burgers. These judges are the other competitors. By a vast margin, it is Natasha and Beth’s burgers that are chosen for the simple fact that theirs was flavored and spiced much better than Luca’s simple burger. In the end, it is Luca and Kathy who must face off in the final elimination challenge.
This challenge was nerve-wracking to watch. The reason being is that I have been a huge supporter of Luca from the beginning and seeing him make so many tiny mistakes throughout this two-part episode makes me fear that he could be eliminated at this very moment. It is literally a fifty-fifty chance that Luca can be eliminated thus my heart was in my throat during this final dish.
The dish that they had to prepare was butter-poached lobster. Right away the two cooks began prepping their meals but it was Kathy who the judges were worried about as she seemed to fall behind on several occasions. Luca was very well versed with lobster (except that he cut off the tail instead of twisted it off – a technique the judges were horrified to watch). Kathy (who has never cooked this dish before) struggled with her lobster claws but was able to plate her dish on time.
When it came to the presentation, Luca’s dish was the closest to the judges’ sample. Kathy’s was a bit of a mess but the judges all agreed that her lobster was cooked to near-perfection. The only flaws came from the exploded knuckles (very minor) and the fact her fennel salad was very acidic due to the amount of lemon she used.
Luca’s lobster lacked a bit of color thus making it look bland in appearance. Ramsay believed that the lobster was “Just 30 seconds off” of being perfect but he complimented the dish as a whole – fresh salad, great presentation. Elliot proclaimed the dish to be so fresh that it might as well have been taken out of the ocean just moments ago. His only critique was the color.
In the most nail-bite inducing conclusion, it was Luca who survived another day. Kathy’s lack of presentation and her salad lowered her score just enough where Luca’s dish won out. The judges each gave Kathy a very high recommendation, proclaiming that she had a bright future and in a surprise twist, Ramsay invites Kathy to get in contact with him back in New York so that he can help prepare her for a culinary career.
So, after a very stress-inducing two-part episode, it is poor Kathy who is eliminated. She was a fierce competitor and continuously proved herself over and over again and it was through minor mistakes that she ended up going home. Good luck Kathy, where ever you are!