by Todd Betzold

 

The homecooks are back on MasterChef after taking a little break for the London Olympics 2012. We are down to six homecooks: three guys and three girls. Will another girl win this season? Tonight, they split into teams and take on signature dishes at an award-winning restaurant. Who will go home tonight?

 

The homecooks arrive at Hatfield's, one of Los Angeles' most talked about restaurants. The challenge this week is for them to run the kitchen at this restaurant. Becky and Frank are the team captains this week. Becky (Red Team) picks Christine and Monti. Frank (Blue Team) picks David and Josh. It is guys against girls tonight folks! Chef Ramsay will be expediting tonight for the teams, so he will be organizing the tickets and calling what needs to be done. They will create two signature appetizers and two signature entrees for 22 guests for each team.

 

The homecooks then meet with the owners of the restaurant, as they describe the dishes they will be cooking tonight and give them tips to making the signature dishes. The teams will be judged on their performance in the kitchen and feedback from the diners. After watching the dishes be made, they have one hour to prep for dinner service tonight.

 

The teams will make two apps: Croque Madame and House Made Ricotta. They will also make two entrees: Prairie Farms Rack of Venison and Pan Roasted Branzino Red Onion Soubise. The Blue Team gets right to their task, but the Red Team is having some communications problems, as Monti is having a hard time hearing Becky give out the tasks. I cracked up when Christine said that Becky had to amp up her game because she is working on Team Helen Keller! They get it worked out and get started with prep.

 

The judges discuss and Joe Bastianich says that Christine is going to be a liability tonight because it is a live kitchen. Chef Ramsay is not agreeing at all. Monti gets behind on making the pasta while Frank has things going strong for the Blue Team. The restaurant guests start arriving and David is sweating bullets, as he puts a plastic bottle on the stove and Chef Ramsay starts yelling at him.

The orders start coming back and Becky is freaking out because she is the eyes and ears for her team. Christine is struggling with knowing who is talking to her and who is not and Monti can't hear at all! Chef Ramsay calls them to the front and tells Christine and Monti to start responding to the orders. Despite the issues, the Red Team is sending out apps and the diners are loving it. Meanwhile, the Blue Team has yet to send out a dish. Josh is struggling with his appetizer and the breading is not working and he does not have enough butter in the dish. It is 22 minutes in and no food for the Blue Team.

 

Frank steps in and makes sure they get their dishes out. It is one hour after the start of dinner service and the Blue Team finally gets their first apps sent out. Then Chef Ramsay sends back orders from the restaurant owners. Both Frank and Becky will need to send up their dishes at the same time for the owners, so they can taste them together. Becky is all set, but because the Blue Team is way behind she has to wait for Frank to finish his dish. This doesn't seem fair because while her dish sits and gets cold, his dish will be fresh. Get it together Frank!

 

Frank is feeling overwhelmed by all the concepts of the dishes. Frank sends up his VIP dishes, but doesn't tell Becky, so now they must rush to get their dishes out to the owners. The owner's feedback along with the feedback from the diners will help the judges decide a winner tonight. The owners said the Blue Team's pasta is raw, but the Red Team's looks visually more appealing. For the Croque, the said the Blue Team's is surprisingly good and the Red Team's is lacking sauce. For the Branzino, they said there definitely is some finesse in both their dishes, but the Blue Team's comes together a little more flavor-wise. For the Venison, the Red team overcooked it and the Blue Team came close to nailing a medium rare.

 

The diners seem to be enjoying the Red Team over the Blue Team, even though the owners liked the Blue Team more. The homecooks make the final push to finish dinner service and successfully completed all 44 diners orders. Both teams are proud of what they did, but only one of them can win. The judges go back and analyze the comment cards from the diners, the feedback from the owners and their performance in the kitchen. The losing team will face the Pressure Test.

 

It is the next day and the homecooks return to the MasterChef Kitchen to see who won the challenge yesterday and who will be facing the Pressure Test! The winning team is...Red Team!!! I was so worried at first about Christine going home, but they worked it out and Joe says he was wrong for thinking Christine would be a liability! Joe tells the Blue Team that they messed up with the timing and that is huge.

 

Now it is time for the Pressure Test, so Frank, Josh and David are up to the task. Chef Ramsay said if he could save one person who would he save and Frank said he would save Josh because he did an admiral job and not himself because he was playing catch up the whole time. Well, come to find out he can save one person and Frank saves himself and Josh is pissed! He said he is a jerk for being a poor leader and then saving himself. It is a competition and you take the opportunity to be safe! I think Frank did the right thing. Do you agree?

 

For the Pressure Test tonight, they have three Filet Mignon in front of them to work with. They must make three cuts of steak: rare, medium rare and well done. The judges give them the secrets of the perfect way to make these steaks at those temperatures. They have 30 minutes to cook their steaks. Josh is on a mission to win and then take out Frank for saving himself. Joe said a little more flavor can help with a bad temperature. Joe said that Josh is cooking with confidence and Chef Ramsay said that David's smells incredible.

 

The time runs out and the judges get to taste what they have done. For the rare, Joe said it is a little bit more to the medium rare than a perfect rare for David and said it is seasoned with a lot of garlic. For Josh, Joe said it is as close to a perfect rare as you can get and if you are a rare eater that is what you are looking for. For the medium rare: Graham said the seer is not good for David and he produced a medium to medium well steak, but it tastes good. For Josh, he said the seer on the steak is beautiful, but it is leaning more towards medium and David's is much more better with the seasoning. For the well done, Chef Ramsay said that by touching them he can tell they are nowhere near well done. He said that David has a great seer, but it is medium near a medium well. For Josh, it is pink in the middle. He said it is seasoned nicely, but it is not a well done steak.

 

The judges go back and discuss and clearly Josh won the rare and David won the medium rare, but the well done is up in the air. They come back and tell Josh that he is safe this time and David is heading home tonight, but before he heads home Graham said that he has grown so much and learned and he has a job at his restaurant in Chicago...that's so awesome!

 

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

 

(Image courtesy of FOX)

 

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