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Master Chef 2

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apskip:
MC2, Ep. 17

There are 5 cooks left in this competition and the challenges get harder. This episode started with any Mystery Box Challenge. The ingredients were ground beef, ground veal and ground pork, corn (on the cob), celery, bell peppers, butter, carrots, potatoes, rice Worcestershire sauce, cheese. The cooks have 60 minutes to create a stunning dish. Ben immediately thinks those ingredients were just right for Shepherd’s pie and remembers that he had promised Ramsay at the beginning that he would cook him something British. This may be the last opportunity. The others decide on:
Christian – chili (which Suzy says takes too long)
Suzy – Shepherd’s pie
Jennifer – meatloaf
Adrien – 3 different meatballs in 3 different sauces
The cooking proceeded with the judges closely monitoring what was happening, because they would have to choose the top 3 dishes to taste based on what they saw. Those chosen were those of:
Jennifer – meatloaf with bell pepper and other vegetable bits integrated, homemade ketchup, roasted corn
Adrien – beef meatball w/ carrots, celery, potatoes, mushrooms in yellow pepper picadillo sauce, veal meatball w/parsley and parmesan sauce, an unknown third meatball w/ a red sauce
Ben – Shepherd’s pie with inner layer of ground veal, celery, carrots, onions sauteed in butter and outer layer of garlic mashed potatoes, red wine reduction and Worcestershire sauce

On tasting, Adrien’s dish was far too salty so he was effectively out. It was Jennifer vs. Ben and Ben won his first Mystery Box Challenge. That gave him a special advantage, which was to choose from 3 signature dishes for a world famous chef (the one and only Gordon Ramsay). Those were pan-roasted filet of halibut with crab, new potatoes and basil vinaigrette; roasted duck breast with honey-glazed baby onions, minted peas, and Madeira sauce; roasted loin of venison set on a bed of braised red cabbage and a red wine sauce. Ben chose Ramsay’s venison dish because he believed he had more experience cooking venison than any of the other cooks. Ben was then given a basket of the correct amount of the 5 primary ingredients for that dish (venison, parsnips, red cabbage, mushrooms, Madeira red wine for the sauce). He was also given the unique opportunity to ask Ramsay 3 questions to help him decide cooking methods. Here is where Ben squandered some of his advantage, as he failed to ask the most important question, which was how long and at what temperature should the venison be slow-cooked before final cooking. Ben did ask about how the parsnip puree was made (small amount of milk blended in, the finishing with cream). The third is about searing, which Ramsay replied was done with being warmed (effectively light poaching) in butter first, then seared at the end.

The other cooks were given an opportunity only to taste the dish and from that they had to select 5 ingredients and discern cooking methods. They then had 90 minutes to prep and cook. Here was the feedback given to each one after tasting their dish:
Ben – venison way overcooked (Joe said it should have been at 140 degrees and Ben did it at 200 degrees); parsnip puree broken; Ben knew he had totally squandered his advantage
Christian – parsnip puree broken; too much pepper used to season; meat not the hero of the dish
Adrien – venison cooked with butter in a pan, which gave the wrong results; “all over the place”
Jennifer – her dish was a disappointment on flavor
Suzy – by far the best, even though she had never cooked venison before; got the balances right

So, Suzy was quickly off the hook. Jennifer and Christian were placed in the same grouping and let off the hook after some drama. That left Ben and Adrien. Ben was eliminated.

captjoe06:
Here's A Video and Picture Of Gloucester's Christian Collins Competing In A Seafood Throwdown at The Cape Ann Farmer's Market-




http://goodmorninggloucester.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/seafood-throwdown-tonight-at-cape-ann-farmers-market/

TexasLady:
Thanks for the link and article captjoe. It helps me to have a better understanding of Christian. He could well win this season.

apskip:
There are just 2 more episodes of Master Chef 2, so I expect the first will eliminate one more cook before the 2 hour finale starting at 8pm EDT Tuesday with 3 go head-to-head.

It's time to make a fearless forecast. I think the one eliminated with be Jennifer, which will leave Christian, Adrien and Suzy in the finale. Christian has a lot of talent but he makes mistakes. Suzy is lucky to be there. The only one who was consistent throughout was Adrien, who is my pick to win in it.

Please note that if you have been depending on full episode videos from FOX, those will only be available after an 8 day delay after today as a result of a special exclusive deal the DISH Network cut with FOX.

apskip:
MC2, Ep. 18

This started with Suzy picking her teammate. She decided on Christian for a battle against Jennifer and Adrien. A wide array of proteins and other ingredients was available. Jennifer and Adrien selected Maine lobster and California spot prawns as their proteins and came up with these dishes to accompany them:
Roasted corn
Avocado
Coulis w/blood orange, roasted red pepper, ginger and chipotle
Sweet potatoes

Suzy and Christian went with duck to simulate Thanksgiving dinner with these accompaniments:
Sauce based on a raspberry coulis
Mushrooms
Gastrique
Fennel

The teams had 90 minutes to cook their dishes. For judging this special event Ramsay imported judges from the Master Chef versions in France, Israel and India
Sebastian Demorand
Michal Ansky, food critic
Kopal Kapoor 

Christian was told by Joe Bastianich that his team’s dishes were “disrespectful” to the foreign judges, which I think is absurd. What’s not OK about a tasty Thanksgiving dinner? Christian responded that duck was Suzy’s idea and that he would have used lobster instead. The foreign judges appeared to be unsatisfied, but Joe and Gordon were vociferous that the Christian/Suzy team had no teamwork (which you expect whenever Christian is on a team).

The Adrien/Jennifer team also did not knock it out of the park. Adrien had forgotten to clean at least two prawns. However, the foreign judges gave the win unanimously to Adrien and Jennifer.

That put Christian and Suzy into the ultimate Pressure test for 90 minutes. That turned out be lemon meringue pie. Suzy’s dessert experience would give her the edge going into this. Christian as a seafood cook did not have much desserts experience, so this was recognized as being more of a challenge for him.

The components of this pie are the filling (lemon curd), crust and meringue.  Here were the stated results:
Gordon – Suzy’s was delicious but light on meringue, dough undercooked
Graham – her filling great, but not enough meringue, dough undercooked
Joe – her meringue flavorless, dough undercooked

Graham – Christian’s filling broke and separated
Gordon – his texture was broken, his sugar was not properly incorporated into the meringue
Joe – pastry rich, meringue not good enough
The judges all agree that Christian’s pie looks better than it tastes and Suzy’s tastes better than it looks.

So who would you think won? I thought it would go to Suzy because she had a better overall pie. However, the judges had a different interpretation of the above stated results. They gave the win to Christian and eliminated Suzy. How could that be? I can’t explain it except for the judges making a correction for higher difficulty for Christian based on his prior limited dessert experience and an effective penalty to Suzy’s greater experience.  Another possible explanation is that in past episodes the judges have been carrying Suzy by judging her above what she really earned and that they just cannot stomach allowing her to go to the finals and leave Christian (a technically better cook) behind.

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