The contestants were divided into two teams, and each team had to choose a leader who would be responsible for the delegation of tasks and the overall success of the team. Terry was named as the leader of the Blue Team, while Emily was chosen as the captain of the Red Team. Both teams had three hours to prepare their meals before the cruise departed.
The Blue Team decided to make a blackened shrimp salad for their appetizer, while their main dish was a crawfish étouffée with rice. The Red Team, on the other hand, made a creamy shrimp bisque for their appetizer, and their main dish was a seafood gumbo with okra and rice.
The cruise started with the appetizer course, and the guests were impressed with both teams’ offerings. However, when it came to the entrée course, the Red Team’s gumbo received rave reviews from the guests and Aaron Sanchez himself, while the Blue Team’s étouffée fell flat. The judges, including Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi, agreed that the Blue Team’s dish lacked seasoning and had too much rice.
The losing team, the Blue Team, had to face a pressure test. The contestants were presented with an extensive array of ingredients, including quail, squid, duck, quinoa, and truffles. And they had thirty minutes to produce an impressive dish using any combination of these ingredients.
After thirty minutes of frantic cooking, the pressure test was over, and the judges started tasting the dishes. Elizabeth and Brien impressed the judges; their seared duck breast with truffle mushroom quinoa and sweet potato puree impressed both Gordon and Christina. Terry, however, failed to impress the judges with his grilled quail with marbled potatoes. He was therefore up for elimination.
In the end, Terry faced off against Shawn, who was the winner of the previous episode’s elimination challenge. The pressure test for the two contestants was to cook a classic French dish, Coq Au Vin, in ninety minutes. Shawn’s chicken was undercooked and lacked flavor, while Terry’s dish was overcooked and mushy.
The judges decided that Terry’s dish was the lesser of two evils, and he was therefore saved from elimination. Shawn’s journey in the competition came to an end, and he thanked the judges and his fellow contestants for the learning experience.
The seventh episode of MasterChef season eight saw the contestants challenged in different ways, from preparing New Orleans-inspired meals to cooking under pressure. With each passing episode, the competition gets more challenging, and the contestants are learning valuable lessons about cooking, teamwork, and perseverance. The remaining contestants must bring their A-game if they want to impress the judges and make it to the end of the competition.