The Mystery Box Challenge
Tonight’s mystery box challenge was a doozy. When the chefs went to reveal their mystery box, there was nothing there! Instead, they were instructed to choose up to 15 ingredients to create their dream dish. And just when the chefs thought they were going to get off easily, Gordon told all of the chefs to switch ingredients with the person in front of them. The chefs had 60 minutes to put themselves on the plate using another chef’s ingredients. Here’s what they came up with:
Josh (Frank’s box) – savory bread pudding with onion rings
Christine (Becky’s box) – pan-seared chicken with beet and goat cheese salad
Monti (Christine’s box) – tom kha gai
Becky (Josh’s box) – something
Frank (Monti’s box) – a dessert with ricotta and raspberries
Becky pouted like a little schoolgirl because she forgot her chicken skin (basically putting her out of the running) and Christine made it with her ingredients. As you can probably tell, Josh, Christine and Monti had the top three dishes during the challenge. The winner of the challenge was Josh! As the winner of the challenge he received a huge advantage in the elimination challenge.
The Elimination Challenge
Josh’s advantage in the elimination challenge was that the got to choose which of Graham’s three famous dishes to cook and would receive every ingredient he needed to perfectly mimic it. His choices were: sweet corn bisque with red pepper jam and a cilantro marshmallow (eaten by Oprah), Alaskan king crab with vanilla creme fraiche and pomegranate gelee (eaten by Jay-Z) and white tuna sashimi with passionfruit and crispy plantains (eaten by President Obama). Josh chose to go with President Obama’s dish. Each chef was given 30 minutes to prepare the dish and was given the option to either mimic Graham’s dish or try to improve it.
Josh – inconsistent (added mango)
Christine – delicious
Monti - embarassing
Frank – awesome
Becky – poor
The winner of the elmination challenge was Christine. Her dish was perfect and according to Graham could have been served to the President. In the bottom three were Monti, Becky and Josh. Becky was granted safety, leaving Monti and Josh in the bottom two. But who did the judges send home: the crier or the fighter? Surprisingly, Monti was sent packing and Josh was safe for another day.
Christine may win this one yet! (In your face, Joe.)