by Gina Scarpa

 

Last night, on MasterChef, Gordon Ramsay presented the final six contestants with their last Mystery Box Challenge of the season. In the box were: rack of venison, blueberries, bacon, red cabbage, quail eggs, fingerling potatoes, beets, hazelnuts, Brussels sprouts, and wine. They had just one hour to cook a dish using only the ingredients from the box. I was hoping these cheftesants had worked with venison before - it's definitely easy to overcook!

 

Sheetal found herself running out of time and is a state of panic. When Gordon checked on her, he told her that her food tastes like "Ghandi's flip flop" - and she wasn't even offended! Must've been too busy to think about what was just said. The guys seemed calm, quiet, and confident so it looked like one of them was about to pull off a win.

 

Based on presentation alone, Sheetal, Whitney, and Sharone were chosen to by the judges to have their dishes tasted. Sharone is called up because his venison is cooked perfectly and on the bone but he gets his butt handed to him by the judges for his strange presentation. It's doubtful that anything that was said knocked him off his high horse but it was still nice to see the judges try to cut through the b.s. with him! Though it looked like a man was going to take this one, Sheetal pulls off a surprise (and her first) victory. Looks like Ghandi's flip flop tasted better than Ramsay thought!

 

Sheetal was able to choose the main ingredient for the Invention Test, where a dessert would have to be made, and went with vanilla. The contestants should've had a little bit of fear running through their bones because dessert is one of Whitney's specialties. After running around the kitchen like maniacs, the chefs pulled together some vanilla infused desserts for the judges to try.

 

Sharone: Mille-feuille with mixed nuts and vanilla zabaglione sauce
David: Vanilla crème bruelle with a vanilla orange mango coulis
Whitney: Profiteroles with Chantilly cream and flambéed bananas

Sheetal: Vanilla custard with vanilla pear coulis and whipped cream

Lee: Bourbon pain perdu with walnut vanilla sauce

Mike: Poached pear trifle with vanilla scented brandy

 

After spending a decent amount of time trying to figure out how these amateur chefs know how to make things like zabaglione sauce, profiteroles, and coulis, I was fully prepared to see Lee, Mike, Sheetal in the bottom three - and was correct.  Whitney pulled off a win and was called the strongest chef in the competition.  Big words but probably fair and accurate.

 

Unfortunately, it's Mike who was eliminated.  His energy and passion will most definitely be missed.

 

To find out what happened in the second hour of MasterChef, click here.

 

 

Thing you have what it takes to be the next MasterChef?  Visit masterchefcasting.com to apply for season 2!

 

MasterChef airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.

 

(Image courtesy of Fox)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

For more MasterChef links, visit SirLinksALot.net