On MasterChef 2012,tonight began with the first day of competition. The final eighteen contestants had to cook using ingredients from the mystery box. Some of the items in this box were duck, rhubarb and sweet potatoes.
The theme of this season of MasterChef 2012 is probably “changing the rules” because, once again, judges Joe Bastianich, Gordon Ramsey and Graham Elliot went against expectation and changed the format of judging the meals. If you’re Interested in finding out what were the changes introduced tonight on MasterChef 2012 and which contestants left the competition then continue reading.
WARNING: MASTERCHEF 2012 SPOILERS AHEAD!
Please be warned this post contains Masterchef 2012 spoilers for episode 4. Please do not keep reading if you do not want to know what happened.
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The mystery box, as stated, included duck, rhubarb, and sweet potatoes. Some contestants couldn’t figuring out some of the ingredients in the box. Others tried to be a little too ambitious and combine things that should not combine. After going around looking at the cooks make their dishes and ask them some questions, they called Samantha, Ryan and Scott to the front.
Usually, if the judges call you to the front after a mystery box it means you’re in the top three. Thus, these three looked smug as they walked to the front. In a (kind of) surprise twist those three contestants were the bottom three contestants, not the top three. Cue the fake looks of shock. Then the judges tasted each pf these dishes and of course they tasted just as horrible as they sounded and looked. Almost as horrible as Gordon Ramsey’s joke about Ryan being bananas for using bananas with duck. I miss just mean Gordon Ramsey, he’s kind of too nice and not as funny on this season of MasterChef.
As Gordon Ramsey began to announce the biggest loser of these three, Ryan became the villain of this season by trying to throw Samantha, who already seemed a likely candidate to go home, under the bus by saying she deserved to go home over him. The judges told him he was there to compete and not judge. Then to the shock of no one, Samantha was the first of the eighteen to go home.
After the dramatics of the bottom three, Gordon Ramsey announced that one person did standout above the rest. The person to win tonight’s mystery box challenge was Felix. For Felix’s win she received the privilege of following the judges into the pantry to choose the ingredients for the first elimination challenge.
Tonight’s elimination theme involved making a dish using ingredients from the judges most feared dishes. This means the dishes they most fear cooking. Graham Elliot’s dish of fear is New England clam chowder. Gordon Ramsey’s most feared dish, also his most famous, is Beef Wellington. Joe Bastianch fears cooking dishes with Italian Risotto. Felix picked the Italian Risotto for the other contestants and herself to cook for tonight’s elimination challenge. In another twist, Felix learns she also earned the right to not compete and just watch the others.
The other sixteen contestants had forty-five minutes to cook their risotto dishes. Then the judges would taste all the dishes and single out the top and bottom dishes.
Producers focused a lot on a couple people who struggled with cooking risotto. One of them was Monti, who seems constantly struggling and never quite in the bottom or top. Could the producers and editors be grooming us for an “underdog” victory with Monti?
After the forty-five minutes, many of the dishes failed to impress and even a couple ended up in the garbage. The top two for this round was David, or this year’s crier, and Frank, the tough guy. When Frank presented his dish to the judges they made comments about him having to impress or being an embarrassment, because of his Italian roots. The judges said his dish was something to be proud of and Frank stood in glory with confidence.
David was completely shocked when they loved his dish. Graham Elliot even claimed it was one of the best things he tasted in a while. David had to keep himself from crying, again. The prizes for their victory was that they will be captains in next week’s group challenge.
On the other end of the spectrum, the bottom three were Tally, Helene, and Dave Mack. These three were just three of many that failed to cook risotto right tonight, and many in a long line of people on cooking reality shows to fail at cooking this dish.
Sidetrack: Isn’t risotto kind of just like rice? Is it that hard to cook? So many cooking shows these contestants fail at cooking risotto. It’s like the dish of death, so why don’t these contestants, I don’t know…actually learn to cook risotto before they audition for a cooking reality show!
Dave Mack was sent home. Now sixteen of eighteen continue on to compete for the title of MasterChef 2012.
So risotto, really that hard to cook?
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Risotto’s tough because cooking it for too long ruins it and cooking it for too short ruins it, too much water, too much stirring, etc. You have to be ridiculously precise to make good risotto.