Best Dishes on MasterChef Part 1

Wow it's pretty. It's a millefeuille. What's in there? Each layer consists of a different layer of nuts. On top is a zabaglione with marsala and vanilla. That's not only delicious for what it is but I think you've achieved in kind of capturing the essence of what a zabaglione is on the plate. The lightness, the airiness, the flavor. A real triumph. This is unbelievable. Thank you chef. Yeah listen to that. I love that crunch. You know it's one of the senses that even professional chefs in a restaurant forget to think about. That is delicious. Really good job. You can hear it. It is absolutely on the money. Oh wow. They loved it. They absolutely loved it. They thought it was bam straight on, bam delicious. And now I'm not in a position where I go home. What a great start. Yeah absolutely amazing start. You could lift that dish now and stick that in any restaurant in this country. Next is Monty. I know that Monty is a single mother and she does raise her kid, all this stuff. But this isn't like the best budget cooking mom's show you know. She's not a master chef. How do you make soup on a pizza stone? I roasted carrots on a pizza stone and I pureed them. I made soda bread on the pizza stone as well. I thought about what I would cook for my son and I on a rainy day and I would cook soda bread with a soup. I love the soda bread. Thank you sir. It has a depth of flavor. Every ingredient makes sense and I would like to on a Congratulations. Thank you. The soup's delicious but the bread is phenomenal. Great job. Thank you. I mean are you really doing this because you know it or is it a fluke? I'm not a fluke sir. Well done. Thank you sir. Really well done. Thank you guys. We've now chosen three dishes that stood out, really stood out. The first person we'd like to invite down, Felix. Let's go. Felix, whatever. I know that I'm better than her. Okay, explain to us what is it please? It's an uni risotto, a little bit of ginger, some pearl onions, sake and snow peas. So visually the uni's gone, it's disappeared. Why nothing on top at the end? I did an uni cream sauce. What else is in there? Yuzu to give it a little bit of citrus brightness. I mean it's breathtaking. I mean absolutely bloody delicious. Tough just doing a risotto, let alone a sea urchin risotto. Bold move but well done. Thank you. I love the fresh grating of citrus over the top with the zest. You know it makes it, you get those essential oils. It's just a really, really complex technique-driven dish that showcases the uni. Great dish. Thank you. I haven't seen you up here since the first mystery box, right? Welcome back. Thank you. This is amazing. Thank you, Joe. This is really taking it to another level. This is what we want to see. You're back in this competition big time because you're kind of pulling on it from all levels now and then nailing it. Good job. Congratulations. Courtney, tell me what we have here. A honey cake topped with toasted pecans and a honey caramel on top of a mixed berry coulis with a vanilla whip. I mean it looks like a restaurant dish. Did you use salt in anything? Yes, I actually put a little bit of salt in everything including the whip. It's really smart. The honey can sometimes be so overpowering and sweet and when you get those together, it's very harmonious. Thank you, chef. Good job. Thank you. Love the crunch. Thank you, sir. Honey can be too much of an overkill sometimes. You've got that balance absolutely right. We would easily put that in any of our restaurants. If that is a sign of what's to come, good luck to the people standing behind you. Great job. Thank you, chef. Seven, six, five, four, three. Great job. I cannot wait to start tasting them. First up, Francis. I took a big risk doing something I've never done before and I'm looking down at my dish and it looks amazing. Describe the dish, please. It's a burrata stuffed meatloaf using short rib and lamb, a charred bok choy, oyster mushroom caps on top of romesco. When was the last time you tried meatloaf and burrata together? Today. Wow, seriously? Yes, chef. I saw it earlier, I thought burrata, why would you take that and stick that inside a meatloaf? Bold move and it worked. It's a dish that you just want to eat more and more and more. Great job. Well done. Thank you, chef. That's great. You know, this is something that I'd be screaming like, you know, at home, mom, meatloaf. Come on, mom, meatloaf now. Great job. Thank you. Thanks. Tell me about this. So it's a romesco sauce. Now that is a master chef idea. Taking a staple out of Spanish food culture, making a meatloaf, stuffing it with burrata, you're playing the game at a high level. Thank you, chef. Keep an eye on this one, guys. Jamie, explain to me exactly what your pie is. I did an orange scented blueberry filling. It has an orange juice, orange liqueur, and then a little bit of cinnamon, allspice, and ginger. You have a slice of blueberry pie on your neck and bake written on your hands. This had better be like the most life-changing pie of all time. I sure hope it is. The latticework is beautiful. The overall flavor is awesome. The floral component makes so much sense and the crust is nice and flaky. You pretty much lived up to the tattoos. Good job. Oh, thank God. That's impressive. The orange aspect really lifts it up. Your crust is perfect. You certainly earned your ink today. Good job, Jamie. Thank you very much. The combination, the blossom water, blueberries, lovely, delicious. You've done yourself the tattoo, the pie justice. Thank you. And you are now the most famous blueberry tart in New Jersey. Congratulations. Thank you. And stop. The judges will name the top three dishes. We give you each a net tonight of the freshest seafood available. It's almost like a chef's dream. The first dish we'd like to take a much closer look at. Please step forward. Francis B, well done. Let's go. Having my name called again as one of the top dishes is awesome. I'm feeling really proud and I am really proud of my dish. So I'm sure the other competitors, they got to watch out. Thanks, Chess. Talk me through the dish. So I have a spicy seafood broth that I cooked down with the blue crab, mussels, and clams. I used chorizo oil to sear the scallops. Visually, it looks like it's come out of one of the top bistros in the country. Talk to me about the base of the broth. I tossed the blue crab in a tandoori spice, turmeric, and I cooked the shellfish down in sake. Here's the thing. You've nailed the champignon and the scallops. Clams beautifully done. Then you've got the sake, which is Japanese with a tandoori spice influence at the beginning. Middle East creeping in. Normally, I'd call this fusion confusion, but this is fusion at its best. Wow, does it punch a flavor. Pretty good job. Thank you, Chef. Thanks. So this is the most, certainly the most restaurante dish that we saw today. And this ability to season so aggressively, where'd you learn how to do that? My dad loves to use a lot of spices. He used to live in Morocco. And my mom lived in Italy, Rome for eight years. So I feel like I grew up with a lot of good foods. You hit the nail on the head. This is like Morocco meets Rome in a plate. Great. You use the crabs smart. I think that you're really firing on all cylinders with this. Francis is one to watch, guys. Good job. Cheers. Thanks. Good job, Francis. Delicious. Good job, young man. Okay. What's the secret behind this steak frit? A lot of love and the secret butter sauce on top. Why are the raw herbs on the plate? Just for design. No, no reason. So great color on the steak. Medium rare, right? Medium rare. Want to look away? No. Why should I? You confident? Oh, yeah. Nailed. You tell me. It could be a little crispier. Come on. They're soft and limp. You know that. So steak is done beautifully. Okay. But unfortunately, your fries are dreadful. Thank you. Thank you. How are the frits? Dreadful. Really? How good is the steak, though? Steak is perfect. Yeah, it's absolutely on the money. I'm literally praying. Oh, please be good enough that I don't get my ass chewed. It's time to taste your chocolates and find out who will be leaving the MasterChef kitchen tonight. Cutter, we'll be honest with each other, right? The last few weeks have not been going too well. Before I open it, what's your assessment? Would you say one to ten in all honesty? I'd say about a seven or eight, I hope. Really? Here we go. Wow. Is that a good wow or bad wow? Visually, these are a ten. Wow. Thank you. You guys see that from up there? Yeah, they look great. Who's surprised that Cutter made these? Tell me the flavors. Okay, so I have mint-infused dark chocolate with a peppermint coating, and then I have two milk chocolate infused with orange liqueur. One's got white chocolate shavings with orange zest, and then I did a toasted coconut. So what should I try first? I like truffles for after dinner, and so I would go with the mint to freshen my breasts so I can kiss the girls. Just please be good on the inside. It's like a Christmas ornament. Nice and fudgy. It's perfectly balanced. The peppermint candy on the outside is a great foil for that creaminess of the actual ganache. I don't think you could have done it any better. Good job. Appreciate it. Thank you. So is this like the new Cutter we're going to see here going forward, or is this just a one-time deal? Even though y'all have been hard on me, I've tried to pay attention to what y'all say. I'm hoping this is my rebound. Rebounding in a box of chocolates. Who would have ever thought, Cutter? Right. Great flavor. The orange infusion is very sophisticated. Tastes like something you get from a real chocolatier. Good job. Thank you. Personally, I think Joe and Graham are full of crap. I mean, they look like you. Plumsy. Just kidding, Cutter. They look great. You want me to die right here? Finally, man. Delicious. Great texture. Smooth. And the only thing I want to do now is eat another one. Thank you, chef. This is an amateur competition, and you've just created a box of chocolates at a professional level. Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you. Good job, man. Okay, Cutter, step forward. So I've made no secret of the fact that I've doubted your ability to create quality food, but when I am wrong, I will admit it. And tonight, you proved me wrong. Thank you, sir. Take your box of chocolates, go up to the balcony, and have your fellow contestants have a taste of success. Yes, sir. Please, head to the balcony. Good job. The shock of the season. Courtney. Courtney can sometimes just nail it in crucial moments, and I have a lot of respect for that. Visually, it looks beautiful. It's the only one with the spun sugar. The spun sugar just should tear away. That's the idea. Roll that round. We serve these in the restaurants for celebration. The spun sugar sits on top, and then bang, you have there a beautiful croquembouche. Caramel's lightly dipped, and then for the crunch, crisp, light, beautiful. Delicious. Thank you, chef. Absolutely delicious. Finishing, gorgeous. Pastry cream, light. Good job. Thank you, chef. Thank you. Look at that. Nice. Have you ever made one of these before? No, but my mom always told me she would love to make me one, so I just thought of her when I was making it. With that spun sugar, it's not just a garnish to make it look pretty. It adds something, and that one that I just tried, you could hear it crunching. It adds a completely different dimension, but the greatest thing in there is that pastry cream. This is what we asked for. This is top-notch. Good job. Thank you, chef. Christian. Well, now on to better news. Three home cooks in particular really impressed us. The first dish that really caught our eye, this dish had great finesse around it, showcasing those ingredients, and more importantly, MasterChef-worthy. Please come down. Yeshika. Yeah, mama. Way to go, Yeshika. The first name called is Yeshika. Yay! Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I spent my childhood making biscuits with my grandmother, so I know I am making Grammy proud. Right. Describe the dish, please. It is biscuits and gravy with homemade chicken and apple sausage, homemade buttermilk pepper biscuit, crispy home fries underneath, and a soft scrambled egg on top. So you do all that, and then three minutes to go, you decide to make scrambled egg on the side. Is this what you like in general? Absolutely, because sometimes I have to preach the sermons, sing the songs, and be the janitor, so we've got to put it all in there. Let's talk about the biscuits. You know, we couldn't believe how light and exciting they were. Well, cold butter is my key, and then I didn't have buttermilk, so I had to make it and added buttermilk to it. Really high temperature for a short amount of time. Wow. I mean, it's delicious. Thank you, chef. It tastes expensive, yet it's made with the staple ingredients. Biscuits are incredible. The potatoes underneath, they cook beautifully. Yeah, what would I change? Just a touch less cream in the sausage. Okay. It's very rich, but the flavor's there, and if that's what you do for breakfast, God knows what you do for dinner. Great job. Thank you. Thank you, chef. Hallelujah, right? Well, well done. A lot of big flavor there, but none of those spices are overpowering one another. I think your idea of baking buttermilk and enriching that dough for the biscuits is really exceptional. If there's such a thing as tasting like 60 minutes, that's what it tastes like. Excellent job. Thank you, chef. I mean, we didn't give you chicken apple sausage. Talk me through that sausage. I took the chicken breast and ground it up with some spices, fresh dill, apples, and flavored it up with a little kick, a little heat. That dish is delicious. The eggs add a great, light, fluffy richness to an otherwise rather dense sausage gravy there, but you took the most basic grocery store ingredients and you literally churched them up. Yes. You knocked it out of the park. Thank you, chef. Nice job. Nice job. Detail, guys. Come on. Come on, get it all on the plate. Focus on finishing strong. Come on, guys. Here we go. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Let's stop. Hands in the air. It's time to see who is able to turn this night around and to find out, of course, who is heading home for good. First up, Ebony. Let's go, please. I really feel like I let my husband and my kids down the way I butchered this lamb, so I really hope that I redeem myself with the cook on it, especially, but in this competition, you never know. Okay. First off, across those 60 minutes, you look down. You okay? I'm okay. I was concentrating, trying to put everything in order to make sure I don't forget anything. Here's the thing, Ebony. 10 minutes ago, the way you were cooking, I thought you had one foot out the door, so I'm amazed you've got something looking this good. Visually, it looks beautiful. The lamb is not hacked. Sliced beautifully. Love that nice, dark green crust. It's almost like the sort of field of grass that the sheep's come out on. It's beautifully done. Slicing that lamb is like slicing through butter. And look, when you slice through there, pink, and then the crust, nice and crispy. The dish is delicious. Let's get that right. Thank you, chef. Lamb is cooked to perfection. Carrots, beautifully glazed. Sauce, not too thick. What would I change? Cooked potatoes a bit longer. But here's the thing, you just cooked like a chef's dream. I need you just sounding more confident. Just start believing in yourself a little bit more. Great job. Thank you, chef. Now, Ebony, what did you season this lamb with? I used some thyme, garlic. And how much of that mustard did you brush down on that lamb? Two, three tablespoons. It's delicious. It's well-seasoned. Your vegetables are beautifully cooked. You've never made this dish before, and yet your replication of Gordon's dish is almost exact. Thank you, chef. Nice job. Good job, Ebony. Tray for 30 esteemed guests. You know what comes after the entree course, right? Dessert, chef. Dessert. What's inside this box is a treasured Italian classic. They're the perfect ending to any meal. Rich, perfectly cooked and rolled pastry, fried to perfection, then filled with that flawless creamy filling, and finished with the most beautiful, delicate garnishes. It's cannoli. Oh my god, it's cannoli. I didn't have a pacifier growing up as a baby. I had a cannoli. Dino, this is a pressure test. Usually people come into this environment and are dreading it, and you seem to almost want to just go out there and tackle this challenge. Yes, chef. To be able to present something that my grandmother brought to me, to you, like I had her spirit behind me. Let's take a look. Wow. That looks like an Italian grandma made that. So which one am I having here first? That is my nonna's classic. She did a pistachio cream with mascarpone and blood orange zest. She either had blood orange or oranges, whatever was cheaper at the market that week. Man, I love the blood orange zest because it perfumes that cream. It gives a nice relief from something that is just so rich. So what's this one? I had the cognac in there, the roasted hazelnuts, and a little bit of peanut butter. The bridge of chocolate and hazelnut makes total sense. Dino, this is how you honor somebody. This is how you keep their spirit alive with great food like that. Thank you, chef. Thanks, cook.