by Todd Betzold

 

The homecooks are headed back out for their next Team Challenge on MasterChef, as the teams take on food trucks and one more homecook is headed home. Who will strive and who will fall as they head to the next Pressure Test?

 

The homecooks head to Venice Beach, CA, where they are about to face a tough Team Challenge. As they gather together, in comes three food trucks, all driven by the three judges. Monti and Becky are excited, because Becky loves food trucks and Monti wants her own someday. The homecooks will be split into three teams today, with each team having their own truck. Stacey had the best dish last challenge and she gets to pick her three team members, which are Tali, Frank and Becky (she picked Tali because if she loses and goes to Pressure test, she knows she can beat him...I like your style girl)! Stacey now gets to choose the two teams she will go up against. The next team is Monti, David, Anna and Tanya. The last team will be Mike, Christine, Josh and Felix.

 

Stacey then gets to pick the colors of the teams, which will then be the cuisine they will be cooking. She chooses Red for her team and they will be cooking Mexican. For Monti's team, they get Yellow and have American. For Josh's team, they get Blue and they have Indian. Anna steps up as captain for the Yellow Team and Josh steps up as captain for the Blue Team. They will have three hours to prep, cook and serve the locals. Whichever team ends the day with the most money wins and all the money goes to Save the Children and Boys & Girls Club of America...good job Chef Ramsay. The losing team will face the Pressure Test.

 

The teams have 90 minutes to prepare one $7 dish for their customers. For the Red Team, Stacey wants to do a steak taco and a vegetarian taco, which Becky thinks is going to be hard to keep up with, but Stacey is team captain. The Yellow Team decides to do a burger duo with a side of chips, which Monti and David fight over to get to that decision. For the Blue Team, they decide to do a Chicken Tikka Masala and Mike has no clue what he is doing and either do I.

 

Chef Ramsay comes around to see what the teams are making and he questions the Red Team for making two types of tacos, so they change it to just Beef Tacos with Guacamole. The Blue is making Chicken Tikka Masala on Nann with Slaw. The Yellow Team is making Mini Burger Duo with Chips and Chef Ramsay questions why they are doing two burgers and not one. They decided to switch and just do one Texas Burger. With two minutes to start serving, the Yellow Team has zero burgers on the grill.

 

As service starts, the Yellow Team has no burgers ready. They have to tell the customers there is a five minute wait. It is 15 minutes into service and they finally get some food out. Meanwhile, the Red and Blue Teams are moving food out quickly. The Yellow Team is pushing out food, but then Chef Ramsay finds a raw burger and he goes off on Anna. He says he is cranking out more burgers than they are serving, but it won't matter David if they are raw!

 

The Red Team has no line, so Stacey goes out to recruit some customers from the skate park. Good for her! As time is running out, both teams are pushing out food and the judges do not know who is going to be the winner today.

 

Time to find out the winner of the Team Challenge and see who made the most money. Combined, the teams made over $2000 for charity. The winning team tonight after making $798 is the Red Team. With a difference of $154, the losing team is the Yellow Team and they will be facing the Pressure Test. So, afterwards the Yellow Team argues over who is to blame for the loss. Move on, you can't change it now people!

 

Time for the Pressure Test and all of the Yellow team will be cooking tortellini tonight. Joe gives them a quick tutorial on how to properly make tortellini. They will have 60 minutes to make ten perfect tortellini filled with a meat and cheese filling served in a simple broth. This challenge is designed with one thing in mind: technique. David is worried because Joe said you need small hands to do this, but he has big hands. All of the homecooks seems nervous, except for Monti, who seems confident she is not going home tonight.

Tanya has a breakdown and feels defeated, but Graham tells her that she cooks with heart and that means more than someone with amazing skills, which gives Tanya the confidence she needs to finish the challenge. Anna doesn't have her flame on and gets her water boiling later. Time runs out and it is now time to taste their dishes.

 

Anna is first and Joe said nothing, but Anna could tell as he was chewing the pasta was raw. Chef Ramsay said the pasta is raw. Up next is Monti and Joe asked if she ever made it before. Up next is David and Chef Ramsay said it is great tortellini. Joe asked how his fat fingers made such great tortellini. Last is Tanya and Graham asked if she struggled during this. Chef Ramsay said it is very weird looking tortellini and too much parsley in it.

 

It looks like it will be between Anna and Tanya to see who will go home. The judges discuss and David and Monti are told they are safe and can head up to the gallery. That leaves us with Anna and Tanya. Chef Ramsay said he has not seen Anna struggle as much as she did tonight. Chef Ramsay said he has never seen Tanya look so uncomfortable and that was her worst dish in this competition. The homecook leaving us tonight is Anna, so Tanya is safe.

 

MasterChef airs on Mondays and Tuesdays at 9/8c on FOX.

 

(Image courtesy of FOX)

 

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