Last episode had Mike Hill and Tanya Noble sent home in a double elimination.
The Contestants
- Stacey Amagrande
- Monti Carlo
- Tali Clavijo
- Felix Fang
- Christine Ha
- Josh Marks
- David Martinez
- Frank Mirando
- Becky Reams
The Mystery Box Challenge
The cooking challenge this week had a unique ingredient. There was only one item under the mystery box- sea urchin. This spiny shellfish has poison barbs and needed to be handled very carefully. Gordon Ramsay showed the cooks how to handle it safely, kill it humanely, and harvest the uni. The uni is the innards, a yellow tongue like meat that is soft, creamy, and very salty. The cooks then had a limited pantry of ingredients to showcase the uni.
I was yelling at my tv for someone to do risotto. It’s what I would have tried to do, and Felix did it too. She was on the top with Josh and his pasta, and Stacey with sushi. Felix was named the winner for showcasing the sea urchin in every bite.
The Elimination Challenge
Felix’s reward was to choose the protein each cook would be using. The judges showed her a number of different fish types: John Dory, catfish, salmon, halibut, rockfish, sardines, yellow tail, and much more. Felix wanted Monti out so she gave her to John Dory- a very thin and spiky fish. Felix took the halibut for herself, and gave Christine salmon.
Felix’s plan backfired when Monti Carlo made an amazing dish. It took her half the time to butcher the John Dory, but her filets were beautiful. Felix also gave Frank Mirando the catfish, knowing it was the only fish of the selection he had never worked with. Frankie went out of his comfort zone and did a catfish curry. The judges loved it and they loved seeing a different side of his cooking.
The chefs on the top were Monti and Frankie. Frankie won but only by a hair. Both of the cooks will be the team leaders in tonight’s episode.
The cooks on the bottom were Tali, David, and Christine. It was the first time Christine had been on the bottom, but she was having a bad day in the kitchen. David had under cooked his fish, but he was safe from elimination.
Tali was sent home, finally. He said the judges just did not understand the modern way of cooking and did not respect his dishes.
