The MasterChef Junior Semifinal had Adaiah,Abby,Logan and Samuel fillet a king salmon but then also cook the portions into one stellar dish. None of the kids had ever done this before so Gordon demonstrated the proper way. Say what you want about Gordon, but he is a master of his trade. The kids try to match but only Adaiah and Samuel do the best job while Abby and Logan struggled. Adaiah had the most portions so she got the win. Her prize was to select the number of ingredients her fellow cheftestants would use. Which brings us to to the product placement chapter of this episode titled “Selling the Fridge.” After a glowing description of the fridge, Adaiah looks into the fridges since they are not tagged. I wondered why and then realized it was all part of the advertising. Without her opening them, we would not see the insides!
She gives Abby 100 ingredients,the fussbudget Samuel 25 (“pedestrian” ingredients),herself 50,and leaves only 5 for the bow-tied wonder Logan. Logan produces a good moist salmon by poaching in olive oil though stumbles with the raw broccoli rabe. Samuel overcame burning his salmon and produced a good dish as well. Sadly Abby had an overooked salmon though the puree is good. Adaiah had a lot of ingredients that mostly went well and her salmon was decent. What sealed her doom was burnt garlic. I know from personal experience how this can totally ruin an otherwise good dish. The smell hits your nostrils but it also dominates the dish. Whatever goodness you have on the dish will be overshadowed by the burned garlie.
Which is sad because it sends Adaiah home along with Abby. I really liked Adaiah and think she is more talented than Samuel. No surprise with Abby going on, she was unfocused. Logan is a surprise. I think early on many wondered if he would make it this far. Not me, this kid has talent and is serious challenge to Samuel. So it is the fussbudget versus the bow tied wonder. Bow ties are oft ridiculed but it really comes down to the person who wears it and Logan wears it well. It ought to be a good match between these two and I hope Logan pulls out the win if nothing else to prove that someone wearing a bow tie is not the comic nor fool many think they are.
