Tonight on FOX Gordon Ramsay’s Masterchef continues with an all-new Wednesday, August 22, 2018, season 9 episode 14 & 15 called “Sky’s the Limit – Tag Team,” and we have your weekly Masterchef recap below. On tonight’s Masterchef episode as per the FOX synopsis, “TThe Top 12 face their third skills test in the MASTERCHEF kitchen and replicate the proper way to break down a halibut. Those who fail to impress the judges are then tasked with creating a stunning original dish using their broken-down fish. Some contestants yield a bountiful filet, while others offer up a poor portion of protein.”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 8 PM – 9 PM ET for our Masterchef recap. While you wait for our recap make sure to check out all our Masterchef Junior videos, pics, news & recaps, right here!
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One of the oldest and most prolific air bases in the United States was celebrating its 100th birthday on tonight’s all-new episode of “MasterChef”.
This was a momentous occasion for the Air Force. There were going to be a hundred airmen showing up for the luncheon and the contestants had been asked to cater the event, so once again this was a Team Challenge. The remaining ten contestants were broken up into two groups. They each got to choose which team they wanted to join and so it all came down the team captains. The captains tonight were Emily and Cesar. Both of these home-cooks had good and bad points however they were the team captains and so the others chose a team based on whether or not they could work with either. There was a mixed bag for Cesar who got Julia, Samantha, Bowen, and Taylor. And Emily meanwhile got Shanika, Gerron, Ashley, and Farhan for her team.
With everyone having picked which team they wanted to be on, there should have been harmony in the kitchen. They should have been able to work together without having to fight and that, unfortunately, was just asking for too much. Each team had had their share of opinions and not everyone was happy that the winning vote was left to the captain. The captain of the Blue Team was Emily and she had a few problems with Shanika. Shanika had suggested they cook salmon which was easier for them to cook and she found herself overruled by Emily. Emily had wanted to cook pork chops and she had wanted to cook with both peaches and balsamic vinaigrette. She had had to argue for her position against Shanika and had won that fight.
Shanika, on the other hand, had continued to gripe behind the scenes. She had even told her captain that she wasn’t going to cook the pork chops because she knew it was a bad idea to cook them and so Emily had to go with who she could get. She put Ashley and Gerron on the protein and the two went about blundering half of the pork chops. Somehow they turned out to be burnt on one side and undercooked on the other. It had gotten so bad that Emily had to judge each pork chop and a few of the bad pieces had gotten inspections. The airmen that were sitting down and eating their meals would cut in the pork chop only to find it completely raw on the inside. The people that were cooking had only let the meat kiss the pan and so quite a few pieces came back to the kitchen.
Except the Red Team wasn’t without problems. Cesar had been the final vote on his side as well and he had wanted the asparagus cut a certain way that just hadn’t made sense to anyone. It sure hadn’t made sense to Chef Ramsay when he came around and was viewing everything. He asked why the asparagus was cut that way and had demanded that Samantha fix the problem. She, in turn, got upset at Cesar who had been the only one that demanded she cut them like that and so there had been a tension in the Red kitchen. Both teams had wanted to do their best and they both had had one dish set back. The Red Team had gotten a plate back when a hair was found on the plate and the Blue Team had gotten a plate back when a pork chop had been raw.
It hadn’t been too bad for either side and so they had had to wait until the score was tallied to find out who won. The results were revealed when someone parachutes onto a colored box. The skydiver came and he landed on the Blue Team’s box, but there was actually another skydiver who landed on the Red Team’s. It turns out there had been a tie. Each team had done so well that they had a tie for the first time ever in MasterChef history! So the judges had had to decide amongst themselves who should win and they came to a decision after speaking to each of the airmen. The serving men and women had had something different to say than how they voted. They seemingly chose the Red Team for the most part and so it was Emily’s team to cook in the later Pressure Test.
The Blue team had been upset that they lost. They each had played a part in their team’s loss and so the judges gave Emily a decision. She could either save herself from the elimination or she could choose to go head to head with one person on her team. Emily chose to go head to head with Shanika. The two had clashed during the Team Challenge and Emily thought it was time for Shanika to go home. Only Shanika said she would have done the same thing in Emily’s place. They both disagreed the most out of the team and so it was only fair that they were cooking for the Pressure Test. The Pressure Test tonight was a bake-off. Both contestants had to cook a Black Forrest Cake and neither of them had ever cooked that before.
Emily was a stronger baker and so she felt she could still ace the cake. She did doubt whether Shanika could hold her own against her and she hadn’t been the only one. The others that were watching had all thought Emily was the stronger baker and they later found out Emily had the added advantage of not being allergic to chocolate. Shanika couldn’t taste her cake because of her allergy and she knew that the Pressure Test was going to be like David vs. Goliath. She just didn’t let that trip her up. Shanika kept going until they called time and she got lucky because she didn’t receive the same setback as Emily. Emily’s cake had turned over on its side in the fridge and so she had had to reconstruct her cake in the last five minutes of her cook time.
The result for Emily was that her cake hadn’t had enough filling between the layers. She also could have infused her cake with more cherries and besides that, the judges had enjoyed the cake. They liked that Emily had added the extra cocoa powder and so that carried weight with them. The judges next tried Shanika’s cake. She hadn’t measured her layers like Emily had and had gone by the scoop, so the first thing the judges had to check was whether or the lawyers were even. They cut into the cake and it looked beautiful. Shanika had looked amazing and had tasted like a traditional Black Forrest Cake. Its just the flavors on Emily had tasted better and so they drawbacks to each cake. And the judges ultimately decided to eliminate Emily because her cake just hadn’t been constructed properly.
The second hour of “MasterChef” began with a Mystery Box Challenge. The Mystery Box for the remaining contestants was all different because they were each ingredient that America was built on and so each contestant had to highlight their own piece of American history. The contestants had to all make their dishes unique to them and so they all they thought they would have time to think of something, however, the judges had wanted to speak to them. The judges had wanted to speak to the last few members on their team and they had offered words of encouragement. They reminded the contestants that they had already come so far and that they shouldn’t begin to doubt themselves when the title was so close to their grasps.
That had served to lift a few people up because they had all needed some encouragement every now and then, so the contestants later returned to the kitchen with a new fire. They had lifted their Mystery Boxes and had found ingredients like corn and peaches which had given them a few ideas. Shanika had wanted to highlight her father’s Cuban heritage with her dish and Gerron had brought his southern flare to those peaches. The others had all done the same with their proteins and so the eventual countdown began. Each contestant had forty-five minutes to cook their dish and they all managed to finish their dishes within the given time. There was just one problem – the judges were only going to pick three dishes to taste.
Ashley’s dish had gotten called first. She had cooked Duck Breast with Cranberry Relish, Granola, and Romanesco. The colors had been beautiful and the dish itself had had a wow factor because they were served on a wooden trunk. It also hasn’t hurt that the dish tasted wonderful. Ramsay had been proud of her and he called her a threat in this competition. Afterward, it was Gerron’s turn. His dish had gotten called second. Gerron had cooked his grandmother’s Peach Bread Pudding with Pecans and Whipped Cream. That too had looked and tasted great because the judges enjoyed that he had cooked his desert in a cast iron. And so the final person the judges called was Farhan. Farhan had cooked Lobster Three Ways.
It was Saffron Lobster Bisque, Ghee Poached Claw, and Tandoori Tail. The judges had enjoyed the way it looked and had said that maybe he needed to cut down on the coconut milk which Farhan liked to put in his dishes. With the top three dishes having been tested and judged, the ultimate winner turned out to Gerron. It was his first Mystery Box Challenge win and he received an advantage. Gerron didn’t need to cook the later challenge. and he got to pick the teams. He was saved from having to cook in a Tag Team Challenge and he received the added advantage of getting to pick the teams. Gerron knew that he could get rid of people if he paired them with someone whose personality would clash and so he set them up to fail.
Gerron paired Cesar with Bowen, Samantha with Shanika, Julia with Taylor, and Ashley with Farhan. The teams would be trading off every few minutes and so this challenge was all about communication. They could all fail this challenge if they didn’t learn how to communicate properly and so they had to work together even as the judges told them they were going to be cooking a Greek plate. There was going to be Greek yogurt, hummus, pita bread, lamb shish kabobs, and several other delicacies. Delicacies which had to be handled carefully and so Gerron’s plan had pretty much hurt every team besides Farhan and Ashley. Those two were the strongest team by far and all the others had been left frazzled.
Gerron’s plan had sunk everyone else. The communication had been all over the place and towards the end, they had just been yelling at each other. The team that was perhaps the worst off was Cesar and Bowen. Bowen didn’t talk. He would have nothing to say when he was advising his partner and would rarely answer back when it was his turn to cook. His partner Cesar had tried to get him to engage and each time it was a failed mission. Cesar had given up on trying to communicate and was one of the loudest yellers as he began cursing. He couldn’t handle that Bowen wasn’t focusing communicating and so they hadn’t liked each other when it was said and done. They did, however, cook a delicious Greek plate and Gerron hadn’t taken them down.
He did take down Julia and Taylor. Taylor had followed Julia’s lead at first and then it all fell apart because Taylor panicked. She became too frazzled and her team’s plate hadn’t looked good or tasted good. Unlike them, Farhan and Ashley had worked pretty well together. They had had some technical errors and other than that they had handed over a great plate. The last team hadn’t worked so well. Samantha and Shanika had argued when they were working together and they had argued again in front of the judges. The judges eventually grew tired of that and had told them a winner of MasterChef had had to have thick skin. It shouldn’t have mattered who cooked what or that someone wasn’t being as supportive as they would have liked. They should have come together to stand by their plate and they were too busy keeping score.
Still, their dish hadn’t been the worst and so the judges chose to eliminate Taylor.
This was Taylor’s third time trying out for this competition and Gordon had advised coming back because he still believed in her.
THE END!
