Source: ctv.ca/
The advertisements leading up to this week's episode of MasterChef promised archenemies paired with each other in the team challenge. While I was certainly intrigued, it was also pretty obvious that this was enough cog in the Gordon Ramsay/Fox Promo Wagon, where things are always THE BIGGEST BATTLE EVER IN THE HISTORY OF LIFE AND/OR RESTAURANTS. There were, of course, some obvious archenemies on the show. The battles between Leslie and Ahran, mostly fueled by Leslie's insistence of pronouncing the teen's name E-ran or Eye-ran or O-ran or Ramad-an in an infuriating power move, were already legendary, and everyone is archenemies with Courtney. But no one could tell me Big Willie ever had an archenemy in his life, and others like Elise and Victoria and the adorable Scottish Francis also seemed impossible to hate.
Turns out, that was pretty much what happened. With 15 people left, Courtney learned that her victory in last week's Elimination Challenge gave her the ability to pair the rest of the contestants up while sitting the challenge out herself. She immediately set her sights on Christian, one of the strongest people yet and the person who immediately stated he didn't want to have to work with her before realizing she didn't have to work with anyone. She paired him with Francis B, another strong competitor, and the two didn't seem like they disliked each other. I admit, I wondered what Courtney was doing here, but it turns out she and her stilettos have a much better mind for this than me and my moose pajamas.
Courtney's other pairings were Jaimee & Elizabeth; Victoria & Christine; Cutter & Dan; Big Willie & Daniel; Ahran & Leslie (because duh); and Scottish Francis and Elise.
The challenge was to create a surf and turf-style dish, with countless different types of meat and seafood to choose from. Right away, one team's cracks became evident and it's from a strange source: tough, get-er-done Cutter doesn't like loner Dan's wishy-washy attitude and inability to listen to anyone. Their bickering left them with two unrelated pieces of meat and seven items from the pantry, and Cutter spent the next hour trying to refrain himself from pulling Dan's goatee out, one hair at a time.
But let's not focus on the negative. At least not when we're having a moment across the kitchen, because look! Leslie and Ahran are talking to each other and listening to each other! Ahran's eyes have remained unrolled! Leslie is actually responding to Gordon Ramsay's pronunciation lessons of Ahran's name ("AGHHHHH-RAN!!!!!!!"). THEY'RE HUGGING IT OUT! It's like the commercials leading up to this week were completely full of garbage!
Ahran and Leslie's pork belly tostada with crab guacamole earned rave reviews from the judges, as did the dishes from Jaimee and Elizabeth (lamb and red snapper with carrots and kale), and Big Willie and Daniel (seared ahi tuna with buttermilk miso fried chicken). But the big winners were the underwhelming-by-themselves-but-unstoppable-as-a-team duo of Christine and Victoria, whose pork belly and monkfish with green apple risotto was both intriguing and delicious-looking.
The bottom three consisted of Dan and Cutter's venison and tuna and three carrots; Scottish Francis and Elise's rack of lamb with crab risotto, a Francis-style creative dish that was way too complicated for Elise; and Christian and Francis B's boring and non-creative Moroccan spiked rib-eye with king crab. After the judges saved Scottish Francis and Elise, I'm assuming to save us all from having two Francises in another challenge, the final four had to duke it out - individually, this time - in the Pressure Test.
The challenge? Spring rolls. You know, that favorite of Asian cuisine that someone who maybe grew up in China might have some experience making. You could actually see Cutter's head start to split open when he realized that his newfound mortal enemy Dan Wu would have an advantage in the challenge he had hoped would get him eliminated.
Indeed, Dan's spring rolls are alright, but not exactly stellar. Stellar belonged to Christian, who despite never having cooked spring rolls before, knocked it out of the park. Dan's safety was ensured, rather, because of the disasters that were Cutter and Francis B. Cutter had all sorts of problems: one of his rolls exploded in the fryer and he had to make another last-minute, he didn't have enough filling, they were too sweet, there was approximately a teaspoon of dipping sauce for six rolls.
But the hot mess was Francis B. After cooking with an uncharacteristic listlessness in recent days, he turned out a rough set of spring rolls. His big problem came when the fryer didn't cook them fast enough and he tried to speed the process along by searing them in a greased pan. Except the pan never had enough time to heat up itself, so he just had them sitting in cold grease. And while that might work for the Chinese restaurant down the road from me, it's frowned upon in the type of establishments guys like Joe Bastianich frequent.
In the end, Francis was just thismuch worse than Cutter, although I think he was eliminated more for his attitude and lack of fire than by his one terrible dish. Still, it was way earlier than I thought Francis would be leaving, that's for sure.
Dish I'd Most Like to Try: Victoria and Christine's pork belly and monkfish with green apple risotto sounded intriguing and looked delicious. I also can't say no to spring rolls, so put Christian's in my mouth, please.
Dish I Made Myself: Dinner was on the road, so I didn't make it myself. But I highly recommend the shrimp scampi at the Chateau in Westboro. Whatever breading they put on the shrimp should cover everything I ever eat.
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