On this past week’sMasterchef, viewers were introduced to a new challenge never experienced before in the Masterchef kitchen: Recipe Telephone. This surprised the remaining nine duos and caused immediate nerves among them all.
As always, judges Gordon Ramsay, Tiffany Derry, and Joe Bastianich were ready to challenge the competitors at the highest level possible and would be looking for any and all mistakes made throughout the challenge. Here’s a recap of what happened in this week’s episode.
The Recipe Telephone Challenge, Explained
The Recipe Telephone challenge was a culinary relay where one half of each duo wouldstart cooking a particular dishthat they picked out. Meanwhile, their other halves were sent away, having no clue what ingredients they chose or what dish they were meant to be making. It’s when the duos switch places halfway through the challenge that the true chaos ensues. This challenge has high stakes and immense pressure, and it truly tests just how well each duo truly knows one another.
At thestart of the episode, judges Gordon, Tiffany, and Joe laid out the rules for all the competitors. The challenge will begin with one competitor from each duo starting the dish, cooking for 30 minutes in the kitchen, while their other half is separated. They ultimately switch places halfway through, and the latter half has to pick up where the first person left off without any knowledge of where they were going with the dish. What they didn’t know was that those who had cooked first in the challenge would get to watch their partner finish the dish on a television in another room, without being able to say a word to lead them. This quickly becomes intense and too much to handle for some.
Joe tried to give a hint for the contestants, telling them to “set yourselves up for success” by leaving clues for their counterparts. However, not every chef takes that as literally as they could or should have. But the duo that creates the best-tasting dishwill receive an incredible prize: three extraordinary dinners at each of the judges’ award-winning and iconic restaurants. Meanwhile, the losing duo will be eliminated.
A Series of Missteps
Throughout the cooking challenge, the judges express concern over different duos. Tiffany, in particular, was concerned that married couple Zach and Michelle had too many elements and that the way Michelle set her husband up would be too confusing. Ryan Kate and Kayla may also be struggling in the end, since Ryan Kate didn’t completeenough in the first half of cooking.
While in the holding room during the last 30 minutes of the challenge, Michelle anxiously watches on as her husband, Zach, attempts to piece together the dish she was trying to make. She becomes so panicked,she nearly faints, just as Ryan Kate did earlier in the season during the first team challenge. Luckily, she pulls herself together and nervously watches as her husband doesn’t completely put together the dish she had envisioned in her head.
By the end of the challenge, some duos clearly feel more confident and proud than others. Now all they can do is wait as the judges go around to see what each duo completed, tasting here and there along the way as they tend to do. Ultimately, the top three duos ended up being long-term couple Jessica and Jesse,married couple Rachel and Julio, and aunt and niece Tina and Aivan.
Jessica and Jesse made a chargrilled pork chop with maple glaze, chipotle sweet potato, broccolini and peperonata. Rachel and Julio took a different approach and made something from their culture: pan-seared chicken breast with sautéed asparagus, chimichurri sauce, tostones, and bacon farofa. Finally, Tina and Aivan finished strong with a gorgeous lobster garlic butter pasta with lemon asparagus and sautéed mushrooms. In the end, though, the winner was none other than Rachel and Julio, who have become one of the strongest duos in the competition.
Time To Say Goodbye
But now it was time for the dreaded bottom three announcements, which immediately filled the room with tension and nervesfrom the remaining duos. The first was Tonna and Cait, the mother-daughter duo. They were knocked for a lot of things on their plate, particularly from Joe, who said it tasted like their wine sauce was more like “dumping half a glass of Cabernet on the plate.”
The next duo was married couple Zach and Michelle, whose salmon was cooked beautifully, according to Gordon, but the couscous was dry without any broth. Finally, there was Kayla and Ryan Kate, whose plate clearly suffered from time running out on them and too much work being piled on Kayla due to Ryan Kate mostly doing prep before her turn was up. Sadly, it was the former Masterchef Junior besties, Kayla and Ryan Kate, who were eliminated from the competition this week.
Next week, though, onMasterchef, we look forward to the second team challenge of the season with the contestants cooking a VIP fine-dining experience — on a moving train!And as Gordon saidin the preview, it looks like it just might be a “train wreck.”
