July 18, 2012 | Posted in REALITY TV | By sockii
Paula Deen and Sushi?
The MasterChef Ultimate Cookbook, featuring recipes from the television series. Get it today at Amazon.
There’s only 7 contestants remaining so now it’s time for the “Biggest Mystery Box Ever” – one that turns out to include none other than Paula Deen! The celebrity chef has put together a Mystery Box of selected ingredients including a whole chicken, grits, bacon, cream cheese, hot sauce and other items needed for a great Southern meal. But before the home chefs can use their 60 minutes to start cooking, they each are rewarded with a photograph and letter from home…cue the emotional drama and tears! Okay, let’s get back to the cooking.
The chefs are all taking different approaches to their meal. David is kicking up the spices, and Joe seems to like what he’s tasting. Monti is ignoring the chicken and cooking a dessert instead. Lots of the dishes look good, but the judges can select only three to taste. The first one ends up being Becky’s, and she’s made a classic Southern-style Roasted Chicken with Fried Green Tomatoes, Biscuits and Gravy. The judges all seem to agree that it’s terrific. Next up is Frank, who has prepared a rather elegant Southern-Inspired Chicken Galantine with Roasted Potato and Green Tomato-Red Pepper Chutney (you can find his recipe now up at Paula Deen’s website). The judges think it’s an impressive show of technique – impressive enough to win it? The last dish they taste is David’s Pan-Roasted Chicken with Red Pepper Grits and Shoestring Onions, which also gets praise for taking simple ingredients and making something impressive with them. Is David ready to make a real comeback in the competition?
The judges discuss and decide that Frank is the winner. As the winner, he has immunity from the Elimination Test – which he breathes a huge sigh of relief over, especially when it turns out the challenge involves Japanese food. The remaining contestants must recreate a standard plate of vegetable tempura, California roll, and two pieces each of tuna, yellow tail, salmon and shrimp nigiri. They will work in “Tag Teams” of two to complete the sushi in one hour. Frank gets to pick the teams and he pairs Becky with David, Felix with Monti, and Christine with Stacey.
Fortunately for Monti, Felix has experience with making sushi and they seem to be working well listening to each other. The other teams are not doing well at all, especially David and Becky who are disagreeing about technique (and no, David, you DON’T soak nori for sushi!) But Christine and Stacey don’t even complete the challenge in time and don’t get their California Roll plated.
The judges taste Monti and Felix’s plate first and are overall very impressed with the job they did. The sushi looks good and they managed to work together on their strengths. It seems they are both definitely safe. David and Becky do not fair nearly as well, as their fish is cut extremely poor and ragged. Joe also comments on the way Becky interacted with David and that perhaps Frank’s “plan” to eliminate Becky by pairing her with David has paid off. Last up is Christine and Stacey, though, and the missing roll is definitely a huge negative mark for them. Their rice came out well, but the fish is cut poorly and it’s a very disappointing performance from both of them.
After deliberating, the judges first dismiss Felix, Monti, Becky and David, as the worst team performance was from Christine and Stacey. Now they must decide which of the two is going home. It turns out Christine is safe and Stacey is the one leaving MasterChef this elimination. Everyone seems upset, the judges too as Joe was the one who decided to give Stacey a “second chance” during the auditions, and he is glad that he did because she made it so far.
So now we have our final six for the season: Becky, Christine, David, Felix, Frank and Monti. Next week promises some excitement and surprises with the return of some previously eliminated contestants – are any of them going to get a second chance at becoming MasterChef? I guess we’ll find out soon!
For more on Season Three of MasterChef US including polls and background information on all contestants, check out my full season hub!
MasterChef US 2012: Season 3
MasterChef has been a hit television sensation all around the world. Learn about the contestants from Season Three, which aired in the summer/fall of 2013 on the FOX Network.
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sockii
sockii is just your typical Jane-of-All-Trades who never has enough time in her day for all of her projects. She has written for many websites online including Squidoo, Zujava, Yahoo! Contributors Network, HubPages and Wizzley. She has been attending and vending at science fiction and media conventions for over 15 years, and for several years ran an art gallery and jewelry store in Philadelphia. Today she is happy to be living in South Jersey with her partner David and their 6 cats. Sockii is a member of several affiliate sales programs including Amazon Associates and Viglink. Products from these services may be advertised on her posts and pages to generate sales commissions.
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