Just some notes on the most recent episode on MasterChef (aka Survivor Chef) shown on 24 Jul 2013.
*Perhaps Fox is considering a new show called Survivor Chef. Contestants would be taken a remote location in a wilderness, force them to cook one stellar meal with limited tools and food, declare a winner, and have the losing team decides who gets voted off.
*Krissi once again shows how nice she is by declaring she does not like Bri. So when the two teams are formed up initially, she is not on the team lead by Bri. Unfortunately Gordon decided to do the captain switch so she ended up on Bri’s team anyway.
*Each team had bare essentials and one protein to cook. Bri choose rabbit and Natasha got pigeon. They had one iron pan and limited pantry.
*Krissi actually made pasta, a daring feat considering the limitations
*Both teams did well by MasterChef standards but in the end Team Natasha won with their braised pigeon. Gordon like Bri’s better (rabbit with pasta) but was outvoted.
*The pressure test had them cook eclairs. I had an éclair a long time ago and disliked it. Initially it was Krissi, Jordan, Bri, and Jessi that faced the dreaded test. In an unusual twist, they had the winning team decide who should be saved. Saved: Krissi. Their thinking was Krissi was the weakest. That left two strong contenders, Jordan and Jessi and one vegetarian to to make the dreaded eclairs.
Not one of them got it right but Jordan’s were the best of a bad lot. Jessi and Bri were on the bottom and both could have gone home. Bri’s though was more raw than Jessi’s, so she was sent home.
My Thoughts
No surprise Bri was sent home. I pegged either her or Luca as the next one going home. Jessi ending up in the same boat as Bri was a surprise. Then again, those eclairs are tough to make. Jordan just barely escaped being in the bottom two.
The outdoor challenge was not that interesting to me. It was one of the few times we see the cheftestants forced to be together for a very long time (overnight). In Hell’s Kitchen it is staple we see them both in the kitchen and back in the dormitory. Not so on MasterChef. Outside of the challenges and their confessionals, we do not seem them anyplace else. We saw both teams trying to figure out their strategy for cooking. Obviously they were given gear to camp for the night.
I also thought it just a bit pretentious they had to set up a table with a white cloth. This is outside folks! Think casual.
I also hope MasterChef is not starting to become more like Hell’s Kitchen in some respects. Ramsay admitted in an interview what many suspected was the case, that many selected to be on HK are just duds put there for entertainment and shock value. It explains why he would keep some around and drop others. Now that is not the case here for MasterChef but in the case of Krissi, I do have to wonder if the reason she has hung around this long is they want the drama she creates.
Krissi’s save surprised me since they all dislike her (and she is the same back at them). Then again they looked down and saw two top competitors and one wildcard in Bri. So Krissi gets the save so one of those three gets to go home. Obviously knocking out Jessi or Jordan would have been better but knocking out Bri gets rid of someone who, to the surprise of many, has some genuine creativity. I would have put Krissi down there since she is a strong chef and not weak. Cooking out her element might very well send her home.
Now we are down to Eddie, James, Jordan, Jessi, Krissi, Luca, and Natasha. Seven nice chefs left, to paraphrase Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka. According to the promos, family members drop by. And yet another aspiring MasterChef will bid farewell. The top is Eddie and Natasha, followed by Jessi, James and Krissi. Luca ought to go next but, as so often happens, something can happen and trip up someone who ought to be in the top four being sent home. Luca might stick around longer than Krissi though, so you never know!
