Tuesday, August 9, 2011

MasterChef: 6 Chefs Compete

The remaining chefs
cook a meal at Patina
salmon gets filleted 



There are only six remaining chefs so the intensity of the competition is increasing. Christian, Ben Star, Susie, Tracy, Jennifer and Adrien are introduced to this week's challenge: they will be running the kitchen at Patina - a Michelin Star winning restaurant. Ben Starr is in such shock during his interviews his hat must have flown off:

Where's my hat?!

They are divided into two teams. Tracy gets to be team captain for her third time and selects Adrien and Jennifer. Susie selects Ben Starr and gets stuck with Christian on his team. He's a great chef, but his personality sucks. No one wants to be around him and his bandanas. Susie lies to the camera (in case Christian wants to murder her after the series airs) and says that Christian was her next choice.


The chefs will have to replicate four dishes: hamachi, lilly risotto, scallops and beef two ways. Each dish is intricate in flavors and precise plating. They seriously use a ruler on a dish. Ben Starr is equally in awe:


GASP!

The team captains take charge and assign stations to each person. Christian and Tracy will both work on the risotto which is the station I worry most about (I've seen Hell's Kitchen). Christian is worried as customers begin to trickle in the restaurant and orders start coming in. To add to the pressure, Gordon Ramsay will oversee the service from the back of the kitchen. This will mean lots of yelling. The blue team is all prepped and ready but the red team is MIA.  Chef Ramsay takes that as his first opportunity to yell at Susie.

Find out of Chef Ramsay yells at Susie any more - after the JUMP!


Ramsay yells out orders and I have absolutely no idea how on earth they keep track of all the orders. I'd need to take notes to keep it all straight. Each team has it's own set of problems and no one wants to listen to Chef Ramsay. The blue team seems to fall deeper in a hole while the red team starts to hit their stride. The final obstacle within the challenge is that they must serve their dishes to the owner and executive chef of Patina. It sounds as though the red team will win and sure enough, when the contestants are taken back to the MasterChef kitchen, it is announced that the red team won. Christian, Suzie and Ben Starr are all safe.

That leaves Adrien, Jennifer and Tracy to compete in the pressure test: scale, fillet and de-bone a salmon then  use one fillet to create a delicious dish. Ramsay gives a quick tutorial on how to do it all perfectly. Suzie is brought to orgasm according to Ben Starr. I didn't need to know that.
Tutorial.

The three struggle with the challenge. Tracy seems to be having the hardest time. The reactions from the chefs who are safe are so over the top it's ridiculous. The 45 minutes fly by but everyone ends up with their salmon fillet to present to the judges.

Jennifer's knife work is ok. Her cooked salmon isn't cooked at all and is completely raw in the middle. Adrien's fish is not uniform, but his cooked salmon has a perfect sear. Tracy's fish is a mess. Even though each one's presented fish is flawed its obvious, when Chef Ramsey makes them bring then carcass over, that Tracy did the poorest job. [Gross side note - in anatomy in high school we dissected fetal pigs. Our teacher dangled our completed dissection by its head to make sure we didn't cut the spine/head connection too close. This reminded me of that. Sorry for that visual.]

Tracy sadly goes home but the chefs do something nice for her. They offer her a year's worth of MasterChef cooking classes for free at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. I really for a second thought that they were going to give her a set of MasterChef pots and pans, but this was much better. It was a really nice surprise for the unemployed Tracy. Way to be nice, MasterChef! You get to yell and sneer at everyone tomorrow, so don't worry.

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