The notorious ‘MasterChef Canada’ Tag Team Challenge knocks out a frontrunner

There’s some real truth to the old cooking competition saying "You’re only as good as your last dish" and MasterChef Canada (Sundays, 9 pET) proved that in spades with its latest episode.

After weeks of asking the competitors who they thought has what it takes to win this thing, the judges sent the frontrunner home in a brutal elimination. It just goes to show you that the smallest things make a big difference on this show.

Sink or swim

The top six returned to the MasterChef Canada kitchen with plenty of nerves on Sunday night, which was completely understandable. Because as judges Claudio Aprile, Michael Bonacini and Alvin Leung pointed out, they’d survived the first half of the competition, but these competitors still have halfway to go if they want to win.

Enter a show staple: the Tag Team Challenge. And because this is Back to Win, this wasn’t just any Tag Team Challenge—it was designed to be the hardest one ever featured on the series. The chefs had 60 minutes to recreate six luxurious seafood dishes, including Coquilles St. Jacques, a ceviche, frito misto, grilled sardines, calamari and perfectly steamed mussels. In other words, this week truly was sink or swim.

As last week’s winner Andrew once again got to pick the teams, and he immediately paired himself with Andy. He then unnerved Mai by saying her “opinionated” style would clash with Christopher’s (later, she rightfully pointed out to the cameras that someone would never call a man in charge "opinionated" for leading).

Meanwhile, Andrew also threw Thea and Jeremy together, figuring that a very allergic Thea and her nerves around shellfish wouldn’t jive with Jeremy and his own quick style. Only one of those gambles would pay off.

Immediately, the judges were impressed with Jeremy’s speedy calamari-cleaning skills, and mused that maybe Andrew had made the wrong choice. Meanwhile, Mai and Christopher clashed over their methods (he wanted to finish one task at a time while she preferred multitasking), despite their best efforts to positively support each other with kind words. But then things flipped and suddenly it looked as though Thea and Jeremy just wouldn’t finish.

Battle of the titans

As the clock ticked down, things just grew worse from there. Jeremy tried to take too much on and started zoning Thea out, which all resulted in a mad dash to the finish line while the other two teams polished off their own plates. It was so bad, Claudio didn’t even want to critique what they did get on the plate because he didn’t want to kick them when they were down. Oh boy, were they down.

So as Mai and Christopher celebrated their win (despite accidentally forgetting a bone in their ceviche) and Andrew and Andy celebrated not having to go home, Jeremy and Thea tried to hold it together knowing that they had messed up big time.

Even the judges were undecided on who should be eliminated since it was such a botched team effort, and in the end, they revealed it was just too close to call. So they went into sudden death overtime.

There, Thea and Jeremy had to replicate the perfect steak poivre and the perfect steak tartare in just 15 minutes -- an important 15 minutes that would ultimately decide their fate on this show. It truly was a battle of the titans. Two great home cooks, who were both the runner-ups on their respective seasons, putting it all on a plate in the most stressful crunch yet.

Naturally, their cooks were both near-perfect as well, and eventually, it all came down to one little old sauce.

As in, both Jeremy and Thea’s sauces broke, but only Thea realized the error in time and was able to fix both taste and colour. Jeremy had the taste, but his colour was slightly off, and in the end, that’s what sent him—the guy that everyone thought would win—home.

“We are as shocked as you are that you are leaving us tonight,” Michael said. “You have an incredible talent and a burning passion that comes through on every plate and you have nowhere to go, sir, but up.”

“The last time I was here I made it all the way to the finale,” Jeremy said in his exit voiceover. “I wish I could have made it all the way this time. But it felt amazing to come back. I’ve grown so much since I was here last. I think a lot of people saw what I’m capable of. I just wish that I could have shown more."

"I’m not going to walk away sad, I’m going to hold my head high. I’ll get to go home to my little girls, they’ll still be proud of me. My fiancée will be proud of me. I always bounce back and I always come back stronger.”

There are a lot of Jeremy fans out there who will 100 per cent be looking forward to that. In the meantime, the Top 5 still have plenty of business to get to as they return next week for the ultimate MasterChef Canada dinner party. Grab your hostess gifts now.

Watch MasterChef Canada Sundays at 9 pET on CTV and catch up here.

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