by Todd Betzold

 

Watch out for the horns! Its rodeo time on MasterChef, as the homecooks team up to cook for some hungry cowboys at the rodeo. Will they get bucked or ride it out? Find out on this bumpy ride tonight for the homecooks!

 

The homecooks head to Horse Town USA for the next team challenge and the judges arrive on horses to tell them of their next challenge. In an hour and a half, 101 hungry cowboys will be arriving and they must feed them. They will have USDA NY Strips and Rib Eye Steaks, as well as fresh produce. They will be split into two teams and each team will cook 101 thick steaks and two sides. Each cowboy will eat from each team and vote for the best. The losing team will face the Pressure Test.

 

Monti and Frank had the best dishes last challenge, so they are team captains this week. Frank (Red Team) picks Becky, Josh and Felix. Monti (Blue Team) picks Stacey, David and Christine. I am ticked they always leave Christine last...she is amazing. Now to switch it up, Chef Ramsay tells Frank and Monti to switch aprons and are now team captains of the other team!!!

 

The Red Team (now Monti) is going to cook a Rib Eye Steak and now has to come up with their sides. Monti wants to do sweet potatoes, which her team thinks will take too long. Becky wants to make baked beans, which could be a great and easy dish to make. Despite her team's objections, Monti goes with Rib Eye Steak with Sweet Potato Mash and Spicy Green Beans. Becky thinks it doesn't speak cowboy enough.

 

For the Blue Team (now Frank), they work together as a team and come up with a menu and each of them working on what they are good at. They come up with New York Strip Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Grilled Corn on the Cob with Stacey making the barbecue sauce.

 

The cowboys are an hour away and Frank has started to seer the steaks. For the Red Team, Monti put Becky on the grill and in charge of one of the most important parts of the challenge. Meanwhile, Christine puts the corn on the grill with the dry tusks on them and starts them on fire! They get the fire out and get back on track and try to salvage the corn.

 

For the Red Team, Becky started cooking the steaks and has overcooked the steaks. With only 105 steaks to cook, Monti may be screwed on this challenge. She calls over Josh to take over on the grill. The judges are impressed with Frank's leadership ability, but his stacking of the steaks has them concerned. Monti is worried that they might run out of potatoes during the service.

 

The cowboys arrive and it is time for dinner service! They have one hour to impress these cowboys. The cowboys are back and forth with who is better, but if I hear Wal-Mart mentioned one more time I may scream! Just five minutes into dinner service and the Red Team is already out of potatoes! They must serve cowboys without the Sweet Potato Mash until more are ready, which is going to hurt them.

 

The cowboys all loved Stacey's sauce and wanted to buy it from her! Halfway through dinner service and votes are starting to come in. After eight votes for the Blue Team, the Red Team finally gets their first vote. It is 29-12 and the Red Team finally gets more sweet potatoes made and starts winning over cowboys again. All plates are out and now just waiting for the final votes to come in. As they tried to overdramatize it, the Blue Team kicks butt on this challenge and gets their 51st vote.

 

Time for the Pressure Test, where one of the homecooks will be sent home. There are four homecooks, but only three of them will be fighting it out in the Pressure Test. They must decide as a team which person does not deserve to compete in the Pressure Test and they will be safe for another week. They fight over who should be safe, but they decide on it being Felix, which Josh and Becky do not like. I think that hurts Monti, even though she fought for her to get immunity.

 

The Pressure Test tonight is for them to cook eggs. They are given six eggs and must make one perfect soft-boiled egg, one impeccable sunny side up fried egg, one stunning perfect poached egg and one phenomenal three-egg omelet. They can't screw up because they have no extras to work with. They have 20 minutes to make them all.

 

The homecooks are all worried about one of the eggs, but confident they can get through this. Monti is determined to not go home tonight. Joe said the loser will be the one who has their burners on high heat and Monti has all her burners on high heat! Becky puts her egg in boiling water, which Graham should be put in cold water to start. They all get their eggs done with the time running out.

 

Monti is first and Chef Ramsay said the sunny side up has rawness to it and it's a shame because it tastes good. He said the omelet looks very flat and looks like a crepe, but tastes nice. The poached egg is beautiful, nicely seasoned and tastes nice. The soft-boiled egg is beautiful and perfectly executed and timed to perfection.

 

For Becky, Graham said the sunny side up is absolutely fried and looks like a cloudy day, but great flavor. The omelet looks beautiful and is like sex on a plate. The poached egg has a definite wow factor and is great. The soft-boiled egg is almost an unboiled egg, not a soft-boiled and is disappointing.

 

For Josh, Joe said the sunny side up egg is perfectly cooked and delicious. The omelet is fried custard and tastes like fried custard. The poached egg looks like the egg white is violently boiled and you've gone too far. The soft-boiled is raw cold and undercooked.

 

This is so hard to see. I think Monti is safe and Becky and Josh are in danger of going home, which I thought they would be there at the end. The judges discuss and Monti is asked to step forward and she is safe tonight. That leaves us with Becky and Josh. They are shocked that an egg got the best of Becky and the level of knowledge Josh has cannot be matched in a top-notch kitchen and yet he is an amateur. Becky is asked to step forward and she is sent up to the gallery and is safe. Josh is sent home, but not until Chef Ramsay tells him he has whatever he wants from him after this show, if it is time in his kitchen or help or questions answered...how nice!

 

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

 

(Image courtesy of FOX)

 

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