Wolfgang Puck and potatoes – what more could you possibly need?
Our home cooks arrive and they are excited to get things started.
Theyre even more excited when they learn that this weeks guest judge is Wolfgang Puck.
Credit: Greg Gayne/Fox
No one faints or anything, which is disappointing.
Nevertheless, they do seem genuinely terrified that theyll be cooking for such a legend.
THE MYSTERY BOX CHALLENGE
Puck announces that the chefs will be competing in the seasons first Mystery Box Challenge.
It gets referred to as Americas most iconic food challenge, which is a bit of a stretch.
Yes, lifting up a box to reveal the ingredient of the day is fun, but iconic?
Slow down there,MasterChef.
Regardless, our home chefsdolift those boxes up and discover that theyll be working with… potatoes.
Finally, that lumpy little guy gets to be the star of the plate.
Get yours, potato!
This is no ordinary Mystery Box Challenge, you guys.
Gordons not messing around, and neither should the contestants.
Unfortunately for three chefs, their potato dishes completely miss the mark.
In my dreams, Gordon Ramsay mouths way harsh, Tai.
Alas, Nathans potato dish doesnt taste any better than it looks.
Gordon is, frankly, embarrassed that hes called Wolfgang Puck in to taste something like this.
Nathans youth and immaturity shows in this dish.
Everything on her plate is brown, and more than that, the food is pedestrian.
But seriously, Wolfgang Puck wont even eat the food because he finds it so offensive.
All in all, not a great first challenge for Cassie.
Bill Travers,PaumaValley, CA
Potato Pancakes with bacon
Oh, Bill.
Bill, the oldest contestant in theMasterChefkitchen, seems overwhelmed.
All he offers our three judges is pancakes and bacon.
Once again, the judges reiterate the importance of creativity in cooking.
Gordon gives the effort a D. Hes not grading on a curve.
Gordon, Christina, and Wolfgang seem pretty irritated with their bottom three.
With that, our first chef of the season bids adieu to theMasterChefkitchen.
Andrea decides to save the gals, but dont think its due to some girl power, sisters-have-to-stick-together thing.
Were only one challenge in, and the claws are already out.
Poor Bill barely grabs any ingredients from the pantry in the five minutes they have to shop.
Bill is having a rough night.
Yeah, thats a lot of ingredients for the chefs to pick up on.
One such guy is handy-man Terry.
Christina is blown away by how good his recreation is.
The flavors are great, his technique is outstanding, and he shows great potential for the competition.
Terry checks off all the boxes Gordon and Christina are looking for.
The big winner of the night, however, is the comeback kid:Nathan.
Hes praised by both judges, and the kid breaks down in tears!
He feels redeemed and is thankful he had the chance to show Gordon that hes not immature.
Its a lot of emotions to be taking place over a piece of halibut.
Not everyone did as well as challenge-winner Nathan.
There were some missteps.
Well, a lot of missteps.
And Im not even getting into Frat Boy Dans mess of a plate.
Gordon was not enthused by Dans inability to take anything seriously.
Fortunately for Dan, there were two other dishes worse than his.
Tonight, the bottom two consisted of DAndre and Poor Bill.
He correctly chose halibut as the fish, but misses just about everything else.
Gordon is dismayed and wonders if they really cant teach an old dog new tricks.
We only knew you for a short time, but well remember you forever.
Next week: A team wedding challenge!
Drama is sure to ensue.
