‘MasterChef Canada’ hops on a culinary craze in adrenaline-charged challenge

Sometimes in life, you get a second chance. And sometimes in life, you get a second second chance. Barrie learned that the pleasant way when the previously eliminated MasterChef Canada (Sundays, 9 pET on CTV) competitor was asked back into the kitchen in the latest episode of the series. But from the looks of things, he could be going home again sooner than he thought. 

A surprise exit

Let’s back up a second though. When the 10 remaining chefs congregated in the MasterChef Canada kitchen on Sunday night, they noticed they were a person short: April Lee. Turns out, the home cook had to depart the series because of a back injury, needing to take care of her health first. 

Rather than cut the field to nine cooks, the judges asked Barrie back onto the show, bringing the number back up to a nice, even 10. Naturally, while the other competitors seem to like Barrie and all, they weren’t so thrilled to see someone who had already gone home return. That just means more competition for them. 

Perhaps that’s why Barrie was chosen last for the teams in Sunday night’s newest challenge: the launch of a one-night-only MasterChef Canada food delivery service. You see, earlier on in the episode, the competitors were asked who their biggest threat is, and most of them said Jeremy. So the judges made Jeremy captain of the Red Team. And when Jeremy selected Mai as his biggest threat, she automatically became captain of the Blue Team. 

The pair then did the old schoolyard sports pick method of selecting their teammates. Jeremy picked Andy, Christopher, Thea and Marissa for his crew, while Mai went with Andre, Andrew, Jen and last-pick Barrie.  

With the teams in place, the cooks got to work on their most adrenaline-filled challenge so far: create three mains and prep them in under an hour for a food delivery service. There couldn’t have been a timelier challenge, considering that restaurants everywhere have had to shift to online ordering in order to stay open and profitable during the pandemic. So even though the challenge was tough as heck, it was nice to see the show embracing and highlighting the food delivery lifeline that eateries everywhere have had to rely on. Seeing that translate on a TV show has got to make a restaurant owner feel a little less alone during these trying times, right?

Getting down to business

The competitors probably weren’t feeling all of those warm and fuzzies in the moment, though. They were more focused on creating a themed menu that included a meaty, starchy, and veggie-forward main. The blue team went for a tropical Asian theme, with a cold soba noodle salad, a weird mushroom taco that took forever to assemble, and a jerk chicken wing, because everyone knows that wings travel well. (Or so went the theory.) 

On the red side of things, Jeremy wanted to showcase his Filipino roots, and he crafted a menu that included a chicken dish, a sweet potato noodle dish, and a roasted eggplant dish. No one else on the team knew any of the flavour profiles he was throwing at them, but they sounded delicious so his fellow cooks were all in. 

Unfortunately, Jeremy’s leadership didn’t come together quite so easily. He was quiet and seemed to prefer doing almost everything himself, which quickly backfired on him. Thea pleaded with him to step up to the pass by the time the orders started coming in, and eventually the judges had to light a fire under his butt to get him going. 

Mai, meanwhile, knew the importance of putting someone experienced at that pass and she counted on Andrew to keep everyone together. However, he quickly wondered whether his fearless leader even knew what he was up to, telling the cameras it would have been nice if she’d checked in with him at some point. Ah, the conflicting leadership styles that plague every group challenge. Who else loves to see them all play out while quietly judging from their couches?

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And then it all fell apart

There were a few other proverbial fires to contend with too. Both teams ran out of food, both teams seemed to serve up underwhelming portion sizes, and both teams failed to impress the judges with their vegetarian dishes. In fact, it really seemed like the only highlight of the entire challenge were the noodle dishes, which both teams rocked. It turns out asking home cooks to run their very own restaurant delivery three episodes in—Back to Win or not—was a recipe for disaster. Luckily for viewers, it was also an entertaining choice. 

Given the low points, it was impossible to tell which team would win. As it turned out, that decision was out of the judges’ hands too. Since “flavour is king,” it was those receiving the food who got to vote. And they decided that it was the red team, scoring them with a 4.1-star rating to win the night over the blue team (who got a 3.8). Guess Jeremy really is the guy to beat in this competition after all.

That means next week the blue team disbands and will go against one another in another sweat-inducing pressure cooker challenge. The loser is going home, so here’s hoping that Mai, Andre, Andrew and Barrie spend the next week studying up. Especially Barrie, because who wants the luck of a second, second chance, only to have to go home the very next week? It’s going to be intense. 

Watch MasterChef Canada Sundays at 9pET on CTV and stream episodes anytime on CTV.ca and the CTV app. 

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