In this week's Mystery Box Challenge, the judges gave the contestants some pretty random items to cook with. These items included duck, bananas, rhubarb, sweet potatoes, maple syrup, dark rum, and kale. Everyone has 60 minutes to cook. While cooking, Helene starts a fire.
After time is up, the judges call three home cooks to the front for their outstanding dishes - Samantha, Ryan, and Scott. This usually means that these cooks had the best dishes in the group. However, the judges inform them they've been called up because they feel these three home cooks have the *worst* dishes.
The judges inform everyone that they are changing the rules this season. They taste the three worst dishes and decide to send Samantha home. Personally, I think I would have sent Ryan home because he interrupted Gordon Ramsay when he was talking and he seems to have such an arrogant attitude.
Felix is the contestant with the best dish, and she's deemed the winner of the Mystery Box Challenge. She gets to choose which entree everyone will cook for the elimination challenge. The judges give her a choice of their most intimidating dishes. Graham Elliot chooses clam chowder as his most intimidating dish to cook. Joe Bastianich chooses Italian risotto. Gordon Ramsay chooses beef Wellington.
Felix chooses Italian risotto for everyone to cook. Felix is further rewarded by being allowed to sit out the elimination challenge.
The rest of the home cooks come up with some interesting ways to spruce up the risotto they're cooking. Of course, some rise to the challenge while others don't do so well with it.
Monti tells the judges she's never even tasted risotto, which Joe Bastianich finds odd. So it's not surprising that she hasn't made risotto correctly.
Frank and David from Chicago both receive praise on their risotto dishes. Frank made his risotto with blood oranges, clams, and artichokes. David put veal stock and mushrooms in his.
However, most of the other contestants receive criticism. Gordon Ramsay tells Christine that her risotto is sub-par. Tali made his dish with cranberries and different types of nuts. I love cranberries, but it sounded really gross for a risotto, and the judges agreed, saying it was a disgusting dish. Dave Mac didn't wash his mushrooms before putting them in his dish. The judges remark that the unwashed mushrooms make his dish taste gritty. Joe Bastinich tells Helene her scallops are "a joke" and her risotto is undercooked.
Frank and David are made team captains for the next challenge based on their excellent risottos.
Helene, Tali, and Dave Mac wind up in the bottom three for having the worst risotto dishes. Dave Mac is sent home while Tali and Helene are allowed to continue competing for the title of MasterChef.
What did you think about the first Mystery Box Challenge? Who's risotto looked the best and the worst in your opinion?
No comments:
Post a Comment