MasterChef (American season 6)

MasterChef (U.S. season 6)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	May 20, 2015 (2015-05-20) – September 16, 2015 (2015-09-16)

Season 6 of the American competitive reality TV series Masterchef premiered on Fox on May 20, 2015 and Star World on May 21, 2015.

Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot returned as judges. Joe Bastianich left the show after 5 seasons and was replaced by Christina Tosi.

The season was won by Claudia Sandoval with Derrick Peltz becoming the runner-up. Claudia is also the current Masterchef winner who participated the most pressure tests (five).

Top 22

Contestant	Age	Hometown	Occupation	Status	Winnings
Claudia Sandoval	31	La Mesa, California	Events Manager	Winner September 16	5
Derrick Peltz	28	Ft. Myers, Florida	Drummer	Runner-Up September 16	6
Stephen Lee	47	Palm Springs, California	Urban Gardener	Eliminated September 16	9
Nicholas "Nick" Nappi	31	San Diego, California	Dishwasher Sales Rep	Eliminated September 9	8
Katrina Kozar	34	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Administrative Assistant	Eliminated September 2	5
Hetal Vasavada	27	Bloomfield, New Jersey	Startup Developer	Eliminated August 26	4
Tommy Walton	53	Chicago, Illinois	Fashion Designer	Eliminated August 19	6
Olivia Crouppen	25	Thousand Oaks, California	Fashion Stylist	Eliminated August 12	3
Michelle "Shelly" Flash	32	Brooklyn, New York	Kitchen Assistant	Eliminated August 5	3
Christopher Lu	30	Los Angeles, California	Restaurant Manager	Eliminated July 29	3
Sara Zacek	29	Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin	Mobile Home Park Manager	Eliminated July 15	1
Kerry Prince	37	Greensboro, North Carolina	Human Resources Rep	Eliminated July 8	3
Amanda Saab	25	Seattle, Washington	Social Worker	Eliminated July 1	2
Charlie Chapman	25	New Orleans, Louisiana	HVAC Technician		2
Jesse Romero	29	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	Petroleum Landman	Eliminated June 24	3
Veronica Cili	58	Key West, Florida	Beauty Consultant		1
Ailsa von Dobeneck	27	Norfolk, Virginia	Assistant Railroad Manager	Eliminated June 17	0
Dan Collado	29	Chicago, Illinois	Engineer & Model	Withdrew June 17	1
Justin Banister	18	New Caney, Texas	High School Student	Eliminated June 10	1
Darah Carattini	29	Irvine, California	Amusement Park Guide	Eliminated June 3	0
Brianna Watson	24	Worcester, Massachusetts	Hairstylist	Eliminated May 27	0
Matthew "Mateo" McConnell	38	Atlanta, Georgia	High School Teacher		0

Elimination Table

Place	Contestant	Episode
		3		4	5		6	7		8	9		10		11	12	13		14	15		16	17		18	19		20
1	Claudia	IN	IMM	NPT	IN	IN	PT	IN	IN	PT	IN	IMM	HIGH	IN	WIN	WIN	IN	LOW	PT	IN	IN	WIN	WIN	IMM	PT	IN	PT	WINNER
2	Derrick	IN	IN	NPT	IN	IN	PT	WIN	IMM	WIN	LOW	LOW	IN	IN	WIN	NPT	IN	IN	LOW	HIGH	WIN	PT	HIGH	LOW	WIN	WIN	IMM	RUNNER-UP
3	Stephen	IN	IN	WIN	IN	WIN	WIN	IN	IN	NPT	IN	IMM	IN	IN	PT	WIN	WIN	IMM	WIN	IN	WIN	WIN	HIGH	HIGH	WIN	IN	ELIM
4	Nick	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	HIGH	WIN	PT	LOW	PT	IN	IMM	WIN	PT	IN	IN	WIN	WIN	IMM	WIN	IN	WIN	ELIM
5	Katrina	HIGH	IMM	PT	IN	IN	NPT	HIGH	IN	WIN	LOW	LOW	IN	WIN	WIN	WIN	HIGH	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	PT	IN	ELIM
6	Hetal	HIGH	IMM	PT	IN	IN	NPT	IN	LOW	WIN	IN	IMM	HIGH	WIN	PT	WIN	IN	WIN	LOW	HIGH	IN	ELIM
7	Tommy	IN	IMM	LOW	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IMM	WIN	IMM	WIN	LOW	HIGH	WIN	WIN	IN	ELIM
8	Olivia	IN	LOW	PT	HIGH	IN	WIN	IN	WIN	WIN	LOW	IMM	IN	IN	NPT	PT	IN	IN	ELIM
9	Shelly	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	WIN	NPT	IN	IN	LOW	LOW	IMM	IN	LOW	PT	WIN	IN	ELIM
10	Christopher	IN	WIN	WIN	IN	IN	LOW	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IMM	IN	IN	PT	ELIM
11	Sara	IN	IN	NPT	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	PT	IN	IMM	IN	ELIM
12	Kerry	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	LOW	ELIM
13	Amanda	IN	IMM	WIN	HIGH	IN	WIN	IN	IN	ELIM
14	Charlie	IN	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	WIN	IN	IN	ELIM
15	Jesse	IN	IMM	WIN	WIN	IMM	WIN	IN	ELIM
16	Veronica	IN	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	NPT	IN	ELIM
17	Ailsa	IN	IMM	NPT	IN	IN	ELIM
18	Dan	WIN	IMM	NPT	IN	IN	WDR
19	Justin	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	ELIM
20	Darah	IN	IMM	ELIM
21	Brianna	IN	ELIM
22	Mateo	IN	ELIM

     (WINNER) This cook won the competition.

     (RUNNER-UP) This cook finished in second place.

     (WIN) The cook won the individual challenge (Mystery Box Challenge or Elimination Test).

     (WIN) The cook was on the winning team in the Team Challenge and directly advanced to the next round.

     (HIGH) The cook was one of the top entries in the individual challenge but didn't win.

     (IN) The cook wasn't selected as a top or bottom entry in an individual challenge.

     (IN) The cook wasn't selected as a top or bottom entry in a team challenge.

     (IMM) The cook didn't have to compete in that round of the competition and was safe from elimination.

     (IMM) The cook was selected by Mystery Box Challenge winner and didn't have to compete in the Elimination Test.

     (PT) The cook was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, competed in the Pressure Test, and advanced.

     (NPT) The cook was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, did not compete in the Pressure Test, and advanced.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in an individual challenge, but wasn't the last person to advance.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in an individual challenge, and was the last person to advance.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in the Team Challenge and they were the only person from their team to advance.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in the Team Challenge, and their team was last to advance.

     (WDR) The cook withdrew from the competition due to personal reasons.

     (ELIM) The cook was eliminated from Masterchef.

Episodes

No. in season	Title	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Let the Battle Commence (Top 40)"	May 20, 2015 (2015-05-20)	3.39
Auditions Round 1: The Top 20 contestants were given a surprise once they arrived at the MasterChef kitchen that they would be facing another 20 contestants in head-to-head battles to decide who would be receiving a white apron. Contestants with similar signature dishes were put together against each other to decide which was the best home cook among them. The first battle was between Claudia and Andrew in shrimp, and Claudia emerged as the winner and received the first MasterChef white apron. The next battle was between Stephen and Tommy in pork tenderloin. Tommy initially had difficulties during the cooking as his pork tenderloin was still raw after taking it out from the oven, but he quickly bounced back and won the battle and received a white apron due to Stephen serving raw vegetables. The next battle was between four contestants - Amanda, Derrick, Nate and Moniza in lamb. Moniza's lamb was raw. Derrick was the first to receive a white apron, and then after some consideration from the judges, Amanda was the next to receive a white apron. In the following battles, Ailsa, Dan, Kerry, Mateo, Veronica and Nick all received a white apron. The final battle in this episode was between Katrina and Taylor, hometown rivals, in salmon. After some long consideration from Gordon, Katrina was the winner and received the final white apron of the episode.
2	"The Battle Continues (Top 40)"	May 20, 2015 (2015-05-20)	3.39
Auditions Round 2: As the head-to-head battles continued, the next battle was between Hetal and Jill in an apple dessert. Hetal was the winner and received a white apron from Christina, but admitted it was a close loss for Jill. In the following battles, Darah, Olivia, Sara, Charlie, Justin, Jesse and Brianna all received a white apron. The final head-to-head battle was between Christopher and Shelly in chicken. Both of their dishes received mixed reviews from the judges, but while Gordon chose Shelly, Graham and Christina both chose Christopher and therefore Christopher was declared as the winner of the battle and received the final white apron. Gordon thought "[they] had made a major mistake" in the decision. Auditions Round 3: The defeated home cooks were called back into the MasterChef kitchen and the judges announced that they would be distributing two more white aprons for a spot in the competition. Six of the defeated home cooks were chosen by the judges for the final challenge. Graham chose Taylor and Stephen, Christina chose Andrew and Demetria, and lastly Gordon chose Jill and Shelly. The challenge consisted of every day ingredients including chicken, tomatoes, bacon, kale, heirloom carrots, mushrooms, a bottle of Pinot Grigio (white wine), blueberries, cheese and chocolate, and the contestants were given one hour to create a stunning dish for the last two spots in the competition. Andrew made a stuffed chicken thigh with puree medley and tomato salad. The judges thought that the chicken was delicious but there were too many things going on with the puree as there were three different purees all together on the same plate. Taylor made a pan seared chicken with kale and carrot mashed potatoes. Graham thought that the chicken and kale had great flavors, but the puree was too "gummy". Jill made blueberry BBQ chicken with scalloped carrot and potato, which Christina thought had unexpectedly great flavor. She also felt the gratin was delicious but had too much cream and herbs in it. Stephen made grilled chicken with pappardelle and vegetables. Gordon thought everything was delicious, but the portion was way too big as it felt like there were three separate dishes on one plate. Shelly made mushroom and kale fritter with kale salad and fried chicken skin. Christina thought the dish was delicious but thought the fried chicken skin could be better presented. Demetria made a chicken roulade with sauteed potatoes and mole sauce, but Graham criticized her mole sauce for looking very unappetizing and felt that it looked like a shit stain on the plate as if the chicken was plated on a "diaper", and Christina thought she threw her second chance away with the mole sauce. At the end of the challenge, Demetria was the first to be sent home. Taylor was sent home because of the puree. Andrew and Jill were sent home also, despite the rave reviews for their dishes. This leaves Stephen and Shelly to advance. So overall, Alisa, Amanda, Brianna, Charlie, Christopher, Claudia, Dan, Darah, Derrick, Hetal, Jesse, Justin, Katrina, Kerry, Mateo, Nick, Olivia, Sara, Shelly, Stephen, Tommy, and Veronica all earn a white apron and advance to the top 22, while Andrew, Nate, Moniza, Taylor, Jill, and Demetria failed to get an apron and were sent home on day one.
3	"You're the Apple of My Eye (Top 22)"	May 27, 2015 (2015-05-27)	4.72
Mystery Box Challenge 1: The top 22 contestants were faced with their first Mystery Box Challenge. In the box, there were ingredients that the contestants had themselves left behind in their own kitchen when they left to travel to the competition. The cooks had 60 minutes to prepare their dishes. The top three dishes were Katrina's pork schnitzel with braised cabbage and Christmas peas, Dan's savory eclair with creamy mushroom filling, and Hetal's coconut curry soup with red chili chutney and Cilantro mint basil oil. The judges decided that Dan was the winner of the first Mystery Box Challenge and received the advantage heading into the season's first Elimination Test challenge. Challenge Winner/Immune: Dan Collado Elimination Challenge 1: For the Elimination Test, the contestants were required to make a stunning apple pie by Christina Tosi. For winning the Mystery Box challenge, Dan was immune from the challenge. He also got to choose as many contestants to receive immunity as he wanted by presenting them with apples that he took from the MasterChef pantry. Targeting Derrick, Mateo, and Stephen, he chose to save Hetal, Amanda, Claudia, Justin, Shelly, Nick, Jesse, Kerry, Tommy, Ailsa, Katrina and Darah. The remaining 9: Brianna, Charlie, Christopher, Derrick, Mateo, Olivia, Sara, Stephen and Veronica had to bake a stunning apple pie in 90 minutes. The judges also announced that two cooks would be sent home at the end of this challenge. During cooking, Olivia told Gordon that she doesn't know if she will be doing a crust for her apple pie, to which Gordon reminded her that Christina asked for an apple pie (which has a crust). After much hesitation from her, she finally was convinced by Gordon to do a crust. Once the time was up, Veronica's apple pie was up to be judged first. Her apple pie with caramel and walnut had a bizarre and messy presentation, but all the judges agreed that her pie was absolutely delicious with a nice use of cinnamon. Christopher was very nervous because he had never made an apple pie before. His apple pie had maple syrup and bourbon filling, but during judging, he got very defensive to Gordon about his heavy use of corn starch in the pie, told Gordon to "just eat it" and expressed that he always got picked on, to which Gordon calmly told him to relax as he too himself has been picked on a lot in his life and the proof of his abilities will be in the food. Christopher's pie was deemed delicious and the pastry was cooked beautifully and had amazing color. Olivia vocally expressed that she hated her apple pie so much that she would rather shave her head than serve the pie to the judges. Her pie was made with goat cheese and blueberries, and the judges thought everything in her apple pie tasted nice and balanced except for the goat cheese, which tasted very out of place. Derrick made a Granny Smith apple pie with orange zest and brown sugar, Gordon thought the pie was delicious but not enough apples inside it. Stephen made an apple pie with mascarpone and caramel, which contained nicely flavoured apples, but Christina pointed out that his pastry crust still tasted raw and was undercooked. Charlie made Grandma's apple pie. Graham thought his pie was good but lacked techniques. Mateo's ginger apple pie with cardamon and salted caramel was panned by the judges for the thickness of the apples. Its pastry was too thin to sustain the weigh of the apple and the pie disintegrated when cut, and Christina pointed out that the ginger was overpowering the rest of the components in the pie. Sara's pecan apple pie with cinnamon and caramel sauce was delicious and Graham said it was like "a slice of autumn". Brianna's apple pie with ginger and mint received bad reviews - Christina commended her for her lattice work, but the pie was very watery and literally like "apple soup". With the best apple pie, Christopher was declared winner of the elimination challenge. Veronica, Derrick, Stephan, Charlie, and Sara also had good enough pies to keep themselves in the competition. Immune: Ailsa von Dobeneck, Amanda Saab, Claudia Sandoval, Darah Carattini, Hetal Vasavada, Jesse Romero, Justin Bannister, Katrina Kozar, Kerry Prince, Nick Nappi, Shelly Flash & Tommy Walton Winner: Christopher Lu Bottom three: Brianna Watson, Mateo McConnell & Olivia Crouppen Eliminated: Brianna Watson & Mateo McConnell Mateo was the first to be eliminated, much to Dan's delight. After much deliberation from the judges, Brianna was the next home cook to be eliminated.
4	"Cinnamon Roll-er Coaster (Top 20)"	June 3, 2015 (2015-06-03)	4.70
Team Challenge 1: The top 20 contestants are faced with their first Team Challenge. Each of the two teams must serve their own unique version of a hamburger with onion rings and coleslaw and a fish & chips dish for the thousands of hungry visitors of Knott's Berry Farm. The cooks were split into teams of ten. The Red team consisted of Amanda, Charlie, Christopher, Jesse, Justin, Kerry, Nick, Shelly, Stephen and Veronica, while the Blue team consisted of Ailsa, Claudia, Dan, Darah, Derrick, Hetal, Katrina, Olivia, Sara and Tommy (as most of the female contestants ran to Dan). The judges selected Kerry as the Red team captain (as he works in HR)and Darah as the Blue team captain (as she works in an amusement park). During the challenge, Darah's poor leadership and organization skills caused the Blue team to fall behind in preparation. The red team are making hamburgers with panko crusted onion rings and lime sriracha ketchup, and cajun spiced crusted fish and chips. While the blue team are serving cheeseburgers with beer battered onion rings and chipotle mayonnaise, and beer battered fish and chips. Tensions started to rise between Katrina and Tommy as Tommy urged Katrina to work quicker with the batter, but Katrina thought he was being irritating. Meanwhile, the Red team also experienced difficulties in preparation as they wanted to serve three different sauces with the burger, which Gordon chastised them for and urged them to focus on making one sauce. When Gordon checked on the Blue team before the guests arrived, he discovered that no fish was cooked as Katrina fell behind with doing the batter for both the fish and the onion rings resulting in Claudia quickly stepped in to fry the fish. As the guests arrived, the Red team began to run short on onion rings due to Kerry having difficulties balancing responsibilities between cooking and leading the team, and Nick quickly stepped in to make the onion rings. As service went on, Gordon discovered that the Blue's team's fish wasn't cooked properly and was raw in the center due to the batter being too thick and threatened to close it down if he discovered another raw fish. On the other hand, the Red team had recovered from the earlier hassle, while the reviews from guests seemed pretty even for both teams. When all the guests were fed, the Red team received 59% of the votes while the Blue team received 41% of the votes. Therefore, the Red team was declared winner of the team challenge, sending the Blue team to the pressure test. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Amanda Saab, Charlie Chapman, Christopher Lu, Jesse Romero, Justin Bannister, Kerry Prince, Nick Nappi, Shelly Flash, Stephen Lee & Veronica Cili Pressure Test 1: The ten members of the Blue team were told that only five of them would have to participate in the pressure test. Tommy vocally expressed his dissatisfaction with Katrina saying she wasn't communicating to him at all during the challenge, leaving Katrina visibly upset and angry. As the Team Captain, Darah would be deciding which five cooks (including herself) will be saved. She decided to save Ailsa, Claudia, Sara, Dan and finally Hetal. (Katrina was annoyed at the decision as she felt Darah was only saving her friends and not actually people who had put in the work during the Team Challenge.) However, Hetal declined the immunity and offered Derrick to be sent to safety in her place, to which the judges respected her decision. The judges thought Darah's overall choices were "bizarre" and thought that Katrina and Derrick should have been the first two saved. As a result, Darah, Hetal, Katrina, Olivia and Tommy were put up in an pressure test in which the home cooks will make 12 cinnamon rolls for the three judges in 45 minutes. During cooking, Tommy told Gordon that he wanted Katrina out of the competition for "throwing [him] under the bus" during the challenge, to which Katrina responded that Tommy will be sent home "because all [he] can do is talk". At the end of the test, Darah's anaise and nutmeg cinnamon rolls with lemon zest were raw and undercooked and the judges commented the flavors were overcomplicated and just didn't work together at all. Hetal's chai latte cinnamon rolls with espresso icing, despite the dreary presentation, were greatly liked by the judges and Gordon complimented her courage for "taking the hit" and saw the potential of a unique baker in her. Katrina's rosemary raisin cinnamon rolls were also liked by the judges, however Graham expressed his disappointment of her leaving the baking paper in the box. Olivia's rum raisin cinnamon buns with orange glaze were well baked and had good flavors but they weren't rolled tight enough. Lastly, Tommy's green tea and pistachio cinnamon rolls were heavily criticized by Gordon for looking very unappetizing, saying it was like a box of "sick" and "should have come with a health warning". Despite that, Gordon thought some parts of his cinnamon rolls actually tasted decent. Immune: Ailsa von Dobeneck, Claudia Sandoval, Dan Collado, Derrick Peltz & Sara Zacek Bottom two: Darah Carattini & Tommy Walton Eliminated: Darah Carattini With the best cinnamon rolls, Hetal was the first to be sent to safety much to the delight of the other contestants. With only minor flaws in their cinnamon rolls, Katrina and Olivia were also sent to safety, leaving Darah and Tommy as the bottom two. In the end, Darah was eliminated for having the worst cinnamon rolls of the night, along with her poor performance as team captain, much to Katrina's dismay. This marked the first time in MasterChef history that a chef was sent home in a challenge that they had the choice of being exempted from.
5	"Clawing to Victory (Top 19)"	June 10, 2015 (2015-06-10)	4.83
Mystery Box Challenge 2: For this Mystery Box Challenge, the home cooks will have to make a dish with three types of live crabs: Dungeness crab, blue crab and rock crab in 60 minutes. Olivia was particularly flustered by the live crabs during cooking, as she had never cooked with live shellfish before and had to ask Gordon for advice in how to prep the crabs. Hetal was also nervous about the ingredient as she is a vegetarian and never had crabs before. On the other hand, some of the other contestants (Amanda, Claudia, Charlie and Jesse in particular) were more confident, being quite familiar with crabs. The top three dishes were Amanda's crab cakes with mango salad and avocado cream sauce, Olivia's crab cake eggs benedict with roasted asparagus, and Jesse's crab dumpling soup with avocado and mango salad. Jesse was declared winner of the Mystery Box Challenge. Challenge Winner/Immune: Jesse Romero Elimination Challenge 2: The remaining cooks facing elimination must create dishes in 60 minutes using a surprise ingredient. For the first time in the MasterChef kitchen, Jesse received his advantage in front of the other contestants outside from the pantry. As usual for winning the Mystery Box Challenge, Jesse was immune from the challenge. He was then allowed to choose if the contestants will be making a sweet dish or a savory dish with the ingredient by assigning each of them with different baskets. Hoping to get the weaker contestants eliminated by assigning them to make the more difficult sweet dish, Jesse chose Veronica, Tommy, Katrina, Kerry, Olivia, Amanda, Christopher, Claudia and Justin to make a sweet dish, while Derrick, Dan, Shelly, Nick, Ailsa, Hetal, Sara, Charlie and Stephen would be making a savory dish (Stephen threatened Jesse to give him the savory basket, saying Jesse will "become the mission of [his] life" if he chose to give him the sweet basket instead.) In the pantry, the mysterious ingredient was revealed: corn. During cooking, Christina and Graham pointed out to Justin that his creamed corn was too sweet and was strongly urged by Christina to add more salt into the mixture, but he ignored their advice and expressed that he knew what he was doing. When time was up, Stephen's corn tamale with avocado and corn salsa and Shelly's five spice shrimp tacos with roasted corn guacamole were deemed to be the best two dishes and the two were selected as team captains for the next Team Challenge. Other praises from the judges included Claudia's sweet corn tamale with plantain puree and Mexican chocolate sauce and Tommy's corn panna cotta with orange and vanilla bean. Veronica's corn creme brulee with caramel corn was panned by Christina for having too much fat and was cooked in high temperature too quickly. Justin's profiteroles with sweet creamed corn and candy corn caramel also received heavy criticisms for being undercooked and way too sweet in flavor. Gordon further questioned Justin for his decision to use canned corn in the dish rather than fresh corn. Charlie's yellow corn grits with BBQ shrimp was criticized by Gordon as the grit were undercooked and bland, and also the corn not being the hero of the dish as it was overshadowed by the better-cooked shrimps. Winners: Shelly Flash & Stephen Lee Bottom three: Charlie Chapman, Justin Bannister & Veronica Cili Eliminated: Justin Bannister In the end Stephen and Shelly are deemed to have the best dishes and are made team captains in the next episode. Claudia and Tommy's dishes are deemed good enough to move on leaving Charlie,Veronica, and Justin as the bottom 3.Charlie was the first to be sent to safety leaving Veronica and Justin to face elimination. Gordan noted that it was the oldest and youngest competitors facing elimination (similar to what happened to Ahran and Leslie in season 5). The judges asked Jesse who he thought should be sent home, to which he said that Justin should be sent home as he was shocked by the fact that Justin chose to use canned corn when the corn was supposed to be the hero of the dish. The judges said that Jesse was right, and Justin was eliminated.
6	"What Happens in Vegas Steaks in Vegas (Top 18)"	June 17, 2015 (2015-06-17)	4.83
Team Challenge 2: The contestants were split into two teams for their second Team Challenge. Before the Challenge began, the judges announced that Dan had withdrawn from the competition for personal reasons and would no longer be competing making him the second person in the MasterChef history to withdraw from the competition after Gordon Houston of Season 5. In the challenge, the home cooks would be serving 101 Las Vegas performers using lobster or chicken tenders as the main ingredient of their entree dish. As top two in the last elimination challenge, Stephen and Shelly were the Team Captains for this challenge. With the best dish from the last elimination challenge, Stephen was allowed to either choose the ingredient or pick his team first. Wanting lobster for himself, he tried to trick Shelly into picking the chicken by saying lobster will be difficult to work with and decided that he will be picking his team first. In the end, Shelly opted for chicken for her team, much to Stephen's joy. Stephen chose Amanda, Charlie, Jesse, Sara, Olivia, Tommy, Kerry and Nick to form the Red team (much to Shelly's chagrin as she wanted Amanda, Charlie, Jesse, Sara and Nick to be on her team), leaving Shelly with Ailsa, Claudia, Christopher, Derrick, Hetal, Katrina and Veronica to form the Blue team. During preparation, Derrick had reservation about Shelly's idea of a complex chicken roulade dish, but Shelly decided to go ahead with her idea anyway. On the other hand, Stephen decided to make a simple lobster dish with roasted vegetables and proved to be a good team leader with his great leadership skills. During cooking, Gordon voiced his opinion that chicken roulade will be too complicated to be done within the time, much to Derrick's agreement, leaving the team questioning Shelly's decision. As service was about to begin and the judges sampled the dishes, the Red team's lobster dish was praised, whereas the Blue team's chicken roulade dish was panned for being severely burnt and badly presented. The Blue team quickly fell behind in service and struggled to get their dishes out. On the other hand, the Red team started to struggle with Tommy's sloppy plating, leading to Stephen having to switch Tommy out with Sara and leaving Tommy to be cooking the potatoes. Halfway through the service, the Blue team had still yet to serve any of their chicken dishes, leading Derrick to quickly take charge in plating and Christopher working speedily around the kitchen and they were finally able to get their dishes sent out. The judges even commented from the side that the whole Blue team could have just had Derrick and Christopher alone, and the rest of the team didn't make a slight difference. Over on the Red team, problems started to rise again as Tommy kept burning the potatoes, leaving Stephen annoyed and sent Tommy to wash dishes in the back. Meanwhile, both teams' dishes were receiving equally good reviews from the guests. With Stephen's efficiency and skills as team captain, the Red team finished their service with 8 minutes remaining, while the Blue team was running late with time and was unable to send out eight of their dishes before service ended. In the end, in a very close call, the Red team received 52 votes while the Blue team received 49 votes. Therefore, the Red team was declared winner of the Team Challenge, sending the Blue team to the pressure test. Withdrew: Dan Collado Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Amanda Saab, Charlie Chapman, Jesse Romero, Kerry Prince, Nick Nappi, Olivia Crouppen, Sara Zacek, Stephen Lee & Tommy Walton Pressure Test 2: The Pressure Test took place in Gordon Ramsay's Steak in Las Vegas. The Pressure Test would be in two parts involving steaks and would be blind-tasted by Gordon Ramsay himself. Despite her lackluster performance, as Team Captain of the Blue team, Shelly was immediately granted immunity and was allowed to select which three members of the Blue team would be sent to safety along with her. Many of her teammates, especially Derrick, vocally voiced their dissatisfaction with her during the Team Challenge and criticized her decision to make chicken roulade despite having only made it once before. Shelly was annoyed by the blame of the loss being put upon her and expressed that she knew her teammates would throw her under the bus because they were speaking under their breath the entire time. Targeting Derrick and Christopher for elimination, she chose Hetal, Veronica and Katrina to be sent to safety with her, much to her other teammates' annoyance as she sent the three weakest cooks in the team to safety. Therefore, Ailsa, Claudia, Christopher and Derrick were put up against the pressure test where they needed to serve Gordon Ramsay a medium rare New York strip steak in 20 minutes. The best two home cooks would be sent to safety, leaving the other two to battle it out in the final pressure test. The tactics didn't work as it was on Derrick's bucket list to cook steak in a famous steak restaurant. During cooking, Christopher forgot to sear fat side down and Ailsa took her steak out from the oven too early. In the end of the challenge, Derrick's steak was greatly seared and excellently cooked. Christopher's steak was cooked unevenly on both sides and was also undercooked, while Ailsa's steak was raw and lacked seasoning. Claudia's steak was seared well and had good seasoning, but undercooked by two minutes. Derrick was the first to be sent to safety, followed by Claudia. Immune: Hetal Vasavada, Katrina Kozar, Shelly Flash & Veronica Cili Bottom two: Ailsa von Dobeneck & Christopher Lu Eliminated: Ailsa von Dobeneck In the final pressure test, Ailsa and Christopher had to serve Gordon a rare Filet mignon in 15 minutes. During cooking, Christopher second guessed himself and took his steak out from the oven to see his steak wasn't seared well enough, leaving him to sear the steak again on the pan but accidentally sat it on fire. When Gordon blind-tasted their filet mignon, Ailsa's steak was undercooked by thirty seconds and was cold in the center but had good seasoning, whilst Christopher's steak was seared a bit too heavily and was overcooked by thirty seconds but nonetheless tasted good. Unfortunately for Shelly, her plan to eliminate Christopher and Derrick backfired, because in the end, Gordon opted for Christopher's steak, sending him to safety and Ailsa was eliminated.
7	"Bring Home the Bacon (Top 16)"	June 24, 2015 (2015-06-24)	4.73
Mystery Box Challenge 3: The next Mystery Box involved breakfast ingredients that included sausages, bacon, smoked salmon, eggs, tomatoes, asparagus, bananas, raspberries and English muffin. The contestants had half an hour to prepare an elevated breakfast dish and also would be cooking alongside Graham Elliot. When time was up, Graham wowed the contestants and judges with 3 breakfast dishes: smoked salmon scramble with grilled asparagus, stuffed French toast with bruleed bananas and English breakfast. In the end, the top 3 dishes from the Mystery Box were Nick's breakfast three ways with French toast, deviled eggs and sausage asparagus medley, Katrina's blood sausage frittata with stuffed tomato, and Derrick's breakfast trio with salmon benedict, French toast and creme anglaise. Derrick was declared winner of the Mystery Box challenge. Challenge Winner/Immune: Derrick Peltz Elimination Challenge 3: For this elimination test, the contestants were required to recreate and elevate TV dinners. For winning the mystery box, Derrick was safe from elimination. The judges then showed him their favorite TV dinners: Christina's Salisbury Steak with broccoli and mac 'n' cheese, Graham's meatloaf with mixed vegetables and red potatoes and Gordon's turkey with green beans and mashed potatoes, to which he had to select one for the other contestants to cook in an hour. He chose the Salisbury steak and mac 'n' cheese. Before the Elimination Test started, the judges gave Derrick another advantage to choose which contestant would have to sit out and be unable to cook in the first 15 minutes of the challenge. Deeming him a threat, Derrick chose Christopher, knowing he would likely take it too personally and thereby mess with his head. Being a vegetarian, Hetal was extremely nervous going into the challenge, having never made Salisbury steak and would be unable to taste it, adding to the fact that she is allergic to mushrooms meant Gordon reminded her to ask someone else to taste the dish for her. The same also applied to Olivia, who didn't even know what Salisbury steak was. When time was up, Christopher was the first to be judged. Despite his disadvantage coming into the challenge, his Salisbury sliders with cheese fusilli and broccolini were deemed delicious and had beautiful presentation (despite the fact he didn't have enough time to take off the ring around the fusilli). Hetal was extremely ashamed and upset by her dish and expressed to Gordon that she knew this was not her best performance. Gordon deemed her Tandoori Salisbury steak as "depressing" and her mac & cheese watery. Gordon expressed that he knew she'd be uncomfortable working with steak but he expected her to pull off a perfect mac & cheese and broccoli and said her plate was a sign of someone who had given up. On the other hand, Olivia wowed the judges with her mini Salisbury meatballs, while Shelly also impressed the judges with her Jamaican Salisbury steak. Nick also wowed the judges with his Italian Salisbury meatballs with roasted broccolini and mac & cheese. Despite her initial confidence, the judges panned Veronica's Salisbury steak for completely missing the point of refinement and elevation. Gordon commented her dish looked very amateur and messy like something that came out of "King Kong's kitchen", and criticized the presentation by saying it was like "3 compartments filled by puke". The portion was too big and the broccoli was very watery, and the judges were getting impatient with her consistent below par performances and seemingly lack of potential because she cooked like she was at a Vegas buffet. Last up was Jesse, Gordon heavily criticized his venison Salisbury steak with fried mac 'n' cheese and pickled broccoli for looking "bizarre" and the dish's weird concept. The venison was very dry and felt like "sands" in his mouth. When Gordon asked Jesse to taste his own steak, Jesse arrogantly disagreed with him, saying it wasn't that dry and that was how venison should taste. Winners: Nick Nappi & Olivia Crouppen Bottom three: Hetal Vasavada, Jesse Romero & Veronica Cili Eliminated: Jesse Romero & Veronica Cili The two best TV dinner dishes of the night belong to Nick and Olivia, making them team captains for the next team challenge. Christopher and Shelly are deemed good enough to move on. Leaving Hetal, Veronica, and Jesse as the bottom 3. A teary Veronica was eliminated, but in a surprise twist, the judges announced that there would be another contestant leaving the competition immediately. In the end, despite being a notable contender, Jesse was eliminated, much to Hetal's shock and the other contestants' devastation.
8	"Happy Birthday MasterChef (Top 14)"	July 1, 2015 (2015-07-01)	4.40
Team Challenge 3: In the next team challenge, the remaining home cooks were tasked to help celebrate the 100th episode of MasterChef. Each team would prepare a two-course menu for this celebration, during which VIP guests would dine on an oyster and caviar appetizer and a duck breast entree, followed by a special surprise dish by judge Christina Tosi, a birthday cake for MasterChef. With the best two dishes from the last elimination challenge, Nick and Olivia were the Team Captains for this team challenge, with Nick getting first pick. Nick chose Amanda, Stephen, Sara, Charlie, Shelly and Claudia, forming the Blue team, while Olivia chose Derrick, Katrina, Christopher, Hetal, Kerry and is left with Tommy, forming the Red team. Derrick was unhappy about the choice as he had reservations about Olivia's skill as a team captain, while Olivia also shared concerns for having Tommy on her team due to his reputation of making stupid mistakes when under pressure and over-complicating matters. During preparation, Derrick (similar to the last team challenge) voiced his concerns about Olivia's complex ideas to the dishes, to which her other teammates voiced similar concerns. During cooking, Christopher overcooked the oysters by smoking them for too long (despite Tommy's initial warning), leaving them with only small portions of oyster to serve as the appetizer, with Graham saying it was like "garnish" on a plate. During plating, Derrick was becoming increasingly impatient with Olivia's lack of leadership and organization, much to her distress, leading to Gordon giving Olivia a pep talk. While the Red Team started to pick up from their troubles with their appetizer, the Blue team suffered major problems when Charlie threw everyone off by burning all the carrots in an untimed oven, leaving them to quickly choose another vegetable to replace the burnt carrots. When plating their entrees, Sara also discovered their ducks were cold as Charlie cut the ducks too early and left them sitting, while Shelly severely burned their sauce for the ducks, adding much pressure and chaos to the Blue team. Gordon also later discovered some of the ducks were raw and scolded the Blue Team. On the other hand, despite the Red Team having fully recovered from their earlier disasters, guests criticized their ducks being overcooked and tough. In the end, after the judges received all the feedback from the guests and having observed their performance throughout the challenge, the Red Team were declared to be the winners of the Team Challenge, much to Olivia's relief, and sending the Blue Team into the pressure test. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Christopher Lu, Derrick Peltz, Hetal Vasavada, Katrina Kozar, Kerry Prince, Olivia Crouppen & Tommy Walton Pressure Test 3: As the losing team, the Blue Team faced the pressure test and the judges also announced that one member of their team would be exempt from the Test and the judges would not be choosing that person, the Blue Team would. The Team was given five minutes to discuss among themselves and decide which member would be saved from elimination, with the warning that if they could not come to a consensus, the judges would eliminate all of them immediately. Both Shelly and Charlie opted for themselves despite their glaring errors during the Team Challenge. Nick opted for Stephen, much to Shelly's annoyance and objection, but in the end, Stephen was chosen to be safe from elimination. In this pressure test, the contestants had to create a 3-layer birthday cake in 90 minutes and the judges also announced that two contestants would be sent home. During cooking, Charlie did not make enough batter for three layers and needed to make more, ultimately leading him to put his sponges late into the oven. Despite the judges' initial confidence in her, Amanda took one of her sponges out from the oven too early and the sponge collapsed and broke apart as it was raw in the center. With less than 20 minutes to go, Charlie only had two sponge layers done and needed to make a smaller third layer. When time was up, Nick's birthday cake was first to be judged. His cake was deemed good with nice even layers, though tasted a bit too sweet and one-dimensional. Amanda's cake tasted delicious but it was raw in the center. Shelly's rum birthday cake also received similar criticisms as it was undercooked and too dense. Sara's cake was deemed good, though Christina pointed out the cream cheese frosting was too sugary but praised her by saying her choice of raspberries was smart. Claudia's birthday cake, a tres leches cake, received rave reviews from the judges and was deemed absolutely delicious. Lastly, Charlie's cake had an absolutely disastrous presentation, with Gordon saying it was the "ugliest cake in America" but nonetheless tasted delicious, as approved by Claudia as well. Immune: Stephen Lee Bottom three: Amanda Saab, Charlie Chapman & Shelly Flash Eliminated: Amanda Saab & Charlie Chapman With the best birthday cake, Claudia was the first to be sent to safety, and beat Amanda and Sara, who had been the best bakers thus far in the competition. Nick and Sara's cakes are deemed good enough to move on leaving Shelly, Charlie, and Amanda as the bottom 3.Charlie was the first to be eliminated for his cake's hideous appearance and for being the person responsible for Nick's team losing the team challenge, leaving Amanda and Shelly to face another elimination. In the end, despite being a notable contender, a teary-eyed Amanda was the second contestant to be sent home leading to her emotional elimination, much to Shelly's shock and devastation. (This is the third time in MasterChef history that two people were sent home after the pressure test. The first time this happened was in season 1 and the second time was in season 5)
9	"Gordon's Greatest Hits (Top 12)"	July 8, 2015 (2015-07-08)	4.93
Team Challenge 4: In this special challenge, the home cooks had to prove to Gordon Ramsay that they are the best re-creators of his signature Beef Wellington dish. The home cooks were split into pairs to taste the Beef Wellington in the MasterChef restaurant. The pairs of home cooks were Christopher and Hetal, Claudia and Tommy, Derrick and Katrina, Kerry and Nick, Olivia and Shelly, Sara and Stephen. Each home cook would be cooking alongside the other home cook they were paired up with, and were given 60 minutes to recreate the dish. Hetal was anxious during cooking due to her lack of confidence cooking meat seeing as she is a vegetarian, and again, her allergy to mushrooms meant she cannot taste the dish, even when paired with Christopher, who is a confident steak cook after Derrick, while Katrina's pastry was full of holes. By the end of the challenge, the judges surprised the contestants by announcing that they were actually cooking in teams of two, and each pair had to select one of their Beef Wellingtons to be tasted by the judges. First up were Sara and Stephen, who chose Stephen's Beef Wellington to be served to the judges. His Beef Wellington was deemed by Gordon to be beautifully cooked and was absolutely perfection. The next pair to be judged were Christopher and Hetal. Much to the judges' surprise, the pair chose Hetal's Beef Wellington. Christopher reasoned that he didn't serve his Beef Wellington because he forgot the sauce and didn't want to serve an incomplete plate, but said that his Beef Wellington was cooked perfectly. Out of interest, Gordon asked Christopher to show him his Beef Wellington too, only for Gordon to heavily criticize his Beef Wellington for being too large like a "cushion" and the pastry was raw. However, Hetal's Beef Wellington was deemed to be delicious and seasoned perfectly. Christina pointed out to Christopher that he didn't show the skill to match the way he ran his mouth and that he needed to put the technique on the plate, saying that Hetal carried him through this challenge and he should give her all the credit for it. Derrick and Katrina opted for Derrick's Beef Wellington. His Beef Wellington was also large like Christopher's, and Graham pointed out that the steak was a bit overcooked, the pastry was loose and it lacked the mustard. Kerry and Nick opted for Nick's Beef Wellington, which was also panned by the judges who felt the pastry was a bit too thick and noted that he, like Derrick, also forgot the mustard. Olivia and Shelly chose Olivia's Beef Wellington to be served to the judges. Her pastry was uneven, and the steak and carrots were both overcooked. Claudia and Tommy served Claudia's Beef Wellington. Her Beef Wellington was deemed to be absolutely delicious and Graham commented that Claudia is now fast becoming a real contender in this competition. With Beef Wellington that had met the judges' expectation, Sara, Stephen, Christopher, Hetal, Claudia and Tommy were all sent to safety. The remaining teams fell short of the mark, but Olivia and Shelly were judged to had just done enough to be also sent to safely, thereby leaving Derrick, Katrina, Kerry and Nick to face the pressure test. This episode marks the first time whose winners in the challenge are not mentioned. Immune: Christopher Lu, Claudia Sandoval, Hetal Vasavada, Olivia Crouppen, Sara Zacek, Shelly Flash, Stephen Lee & Tommy Walton Pressure Test 4: In this gruelling Pressure Test, Derrick, Katrina, Kerry and Nick were given 30 minutes to recreate one of Ramsay's most well-known appetizers, scallops with puree of English peas, pancetta and quail eggs, finished with shaved truffles. All cooks appeared to have difficulties separating the scallop from its shell. Katrina was overwhelmed by the pressure and received some words of encouragement from Gordon. However, one of her quail egg yolks broke when she cracked the quail egg. At the last 90 seconds of the challenge, Gordon urged all four home cooks to start plating, and all the home cooks barely made it in time. Derrick's dish had all the components but needed more peas. His scallops and eggs were cooked nicely but the scallops weren't rinsed well enough and still had bits of grit in it. Derrick explained that he was so concentrated in making sure that all components were on the plate that he didn't want to spend more time cleaning the scallops. Katrina's dish lacked peas, truffles and one of the quail egg yolks. Graham commented that her scallops were not seasoned well and the quail egg yolk wasn't runny, so the dish just didn't taste that great overall. Kerry struggled immensely with the timing and only managed to plate the scallops and bacon, but the judges thought they were done nicely enough. Lastly, Nick's plate was deemed to be delicious, having perfectly replicated Gordon's hit appetizer. Bottom three: Derrick Peltz, Katrina Kozar & Kerry Prince Eliminated: Kerry Prince Nick's scallop dish was the best leaving Derrick, Katrina, and Kerry as the bottom 3. In the end, Kerry was eliminated for his poor time management.
10	"Rice Rice Baby (Top 11)"	July 15, 2015 (2015-07-15)	4.86
Mystery Box Challenge 4: In this Mystery Box challenge, each contestant had to create a rice dish that was elevated in every way possible. The best dish would also be featured in the September issue of Family Circle magazine in this special challenge, urging the home cooks to trace back to their roots to create one stunning rice dish. The top three dishes were Hetal's Khichdi with peas, cauliflower and tomatoes, Tommy's Jambalaya with andouille sausage, chicken and shrimp, and Claudia's Arroz Con Leche Molotes with custard and orange marmalade. The judges said it was a difficult decision as all three dishes could have won any other day. But in the end, the judges declared that Tommy was the winner of the Mystery Box Challenge, much to the other contestants' surprise. Challenge Winner/Immune: Tommy Walton Elimination Challenge 4: In this Elimination Challenge, the home cooks were challenged with the task of making dishes with dynamic duo ingredients. As winner of the Mystery Box challenge, Tommy received immunity from this challenge and was deemed to be safely in the Top 10. He was shown the judges's favorite culinary combos: Christina's peanut butter and jelly, Graham's ham and pineapple and Gordon's tomato and basil, for which he had to select one pair for the other contestants to create a dish out of. He chose peanut butter and jelly. For his third advantage, Tommy was allowed to choose two home cooks to be safe from elimination, one before cooking started and one after cooking ended. He chose Claudia to be saved first, but she turned it down, believing with every challenge that comes, she is getting better with her cooking. As challenge began, Shelly made a fatal error of forgetting to take the peanut butter and jelly from the pantry, leaving her to beg the other contestants for the ingredients. Eventually, Hetal and Olivia lent her some of their peanut butter and jelly. Christopher also suffered some hassles during cooking with his tart mixture being too runny and Christina commenting that he looked defeated when she came to check his progress. After cooking ended, Christopher wished Tommy would save him, but Tommy ultimately decided to save Nick from elimination, believing his dish of peanut butter shrimp and grits was not so up to par today and that Nick would help him knock out some of the other contestants later on. Claudia, who gallantly turned down the immunity, was the first to be judged. Despite her initial concern with how cooked her pork chop was, her peanut crusted pork chop with grape jelly brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes was judged to have been cooked beautifully with the only criticism that the crust was a bit too charred. Despite the hassles during cooking and his lack of confidence in his dish, Christopher's peanut butter and raspberry jam tart with toasted peanuts also received great feedback from Christina, who was really impressed with his techniques in the lattice work of the tart and how thin and even the pastry was. However, Shelly's peanut butter and jam five spice spring roll with Sriracha sauce received heavy criticisms from Gordon, who said that they looked like stuffed condoms and her combination of ground beef and strawberries was bizarre. On the other hand, Hetal's peanut butter and jam cookies two ways and Katrina's chicken satay and shrimp spring rolls with peanut sauce and grape jelly sauce received rave reviews from the judges, with Graham telling Hetal that she should be in the Top 2 with this dish, and Christina was "blown away" by Katrina's dish respectively. Lastly, Sara's strawberry tart with peanut butter pastry cream was criticized by Gordon for her lack of creativity (as she stayed in her comfort zone of baking) and most importantly he could not taste any peanut butter in her dish. Her pastry tart was also too thick and undercooked, and ultimately the dish tasted bland. The two best dishes belonged to Hetal and Katrina, who will be made team captains of the upcoming team challenge. Claudia and Christopher's dishes are also good enough to move on. Immune: Nick Nappi Winners: Hetal Vasavada & Katrina Kozar Bottom two: Sara Zacek & Shelly Flash Eliminated: Sara Zacek Sara was eliminated just short of the Top 10. Before she left, Sara also predicted that Derrick will win the competition.
11	"Moo-vers and Bakers (Top 10)"	July 22, 2015 (2015-07-22)	4.44
Team Challenge 5: In this field Team Challenge, the home cooks were split into two teams of five. The challenge would require them to prep and serve 101 steak dishes to 101 hungry cow-boys and -girls and various country ranchers. The steak dish would require two sides and one sauce. These guests would cast the votes to decide which team had the best performance. With the best two dishes from the last elimination test, Hetal and Katrina were selected as team captains for this challenge. However, this time the two selected the members for the opposing Captain's team, with Hetal getting first pick. Hetal chose Claudia, Tommy, Nick and Derrick for Katrina, forming the Blue Team, while Katrina chose Shelly (who revealed herself as a pescetarian), Olivia, Christopher and Stephen for Hetal, forming the Red Team. For another advantage, Hetal also was allowed to choose which type of steak both teams would be cooking: New York strip steak or Hanger steak. After discussion with her teammates, Hetal opted for the Hanger steak, leaving the New York strip for Katrina's team, much to Katrina's surprise and joy. During preparation, Shelly had concerns with Hetal's more light menu with potato salad and grilled zucchini, believing something rich like BBQ sauce will appeal to the ranchers more. The judges discussed and wondered if the fact Hetal being a vegetarian would hinder her team, but Christina expressed her confidence in her due to her great performance in the Beef Wellington challenge, while also Gordon voiced his belief that Katrina would be a good leader. When Gordon came up to check on the Red team, he chastised them for their strange menu choice, believing the vegetables won't be going so much up the cowboy's alley (with Gordon saying it was like "ladies' lunch") and it would also be time consuming to cook. However, as time started to run out, Hetal decided to stick with the zucchini and added more flavors into it to try to appeal to the guests. On the other hand, the Blue Team was operating smoothly, but Gordon had some reservation over Katrina's unusual choice of sweet potato mash and whiskey sauce, saying they need more heat in the dish. Katrina decided to add cayenne to the potatoes and Claudia suggested changing the sauce to a red pepper sauce. The Red Team continued to struggle with Hetal's poor management over her team, she sent Christopher to help out Stephen in the grill, while the girls are struggling to prep the vegetables. Moreover, Stephen refused Christopher's help and decided to do the grill all by himself and wanted Christopher to go away, rising tension between the two. Over on the Blue team, Derrick and Nick also had issues controlling the grill. As service was about to begin, the Red Team's zucchini were still not cooked, leaving the guests to get an empty plate from them, while the Blue Team was running smoothly on service. However, as service continued, Derrick was starting to get stressed out and panicked, causing some chaos in the Blue team, but Katrina quickly took charge and calmed him down. On the other hand, the Red team was starting to pick up from their earlier hassles, and things were running smooth for them in the second half of service. However, in the end, the Blue team won by a landslide with 50 votes ahead of the Red team, sending the Red team to the pressure test, much to Hetal's devastation. Derrick commended Katrina for leading their team to victory and saying that she was the best captain. As an immediate punishment for the Red team, they must clean down both kitchens. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Claudia Sandoval, Derrick Peltz, Katrina Kozar, Nick Nappi & Tommy Walton Pressure Test 5: With their crushing defeat, the Red team was sent to the pressure test. Before the pressure test began, the judges announced that one person would be safe from elimination, and this decision was left to the Blue team. The Blue team discussed and decided to save Olivia from the pressure test as they felt she had been a team player in the past team challenges, much to her relief. Therefore, Christopher, Hetal, Shelly and Stephen were put up in a pressure test where they would have to bake a perfect and delicious fruit tart in 90 minutes. Due to her forte being in baking, Hetal was confident going into the pressure test, saying Stephen, being in his first pressure test, might crack under pressure as he wasn't so comfortable with baking as shown in the apple pie challenge. And just as Hetal predicted, Stephen felt agitated throughout the challenge and appeared to panic. As the challenge continued, Christopher discovered his pastry cream was too runny due to him adding lemon juice into it, while Stephen also cracked his pastry when he lifted it up from the baking tray, leaving him visibly upset and defeated. When judging began, Stephen was the first to be judged. Aside from the fact the pastry was cracked, the pastry cream in his tart was loose and Christina said his only choice of blueberries was rather one-dimensional and visually not colorful and appealing as a result, but nonetheless his blueberry tart with apricot glaze tasted delicious. Shelly's mixed berries fruit tart had little glaze on the fruits (as she ran out of time) and the pastry was also a bit undercooked in a few areas but was good overall. Christopher's fruit tart had a perfect pastry but his pastry cream hadn't set and was really runny but tasted good. Hetal's fruit tart was visually stunning but Christina pointed out it could do with a few extra minutes in the oven to get the golden brown color around the pastry. Her pastry cream was also a little thin as her pastry shrank but the flavors were great. The judges said that this was a tough pressure test as there weren't any major defining mistakes between the four home cooks and none of the fruit tarts were perfect. Hetal and Shelly were the first to be sent to safety, leaving Christopher and Stephen to face elimination. At the end, the judges still appeared to not have met an unanimous decision of who to send home and Gordon asked for another discussion. In the end, Gordon said it was too close to call and sent both Christopher and Stephen to safety, much to their surprises. This was the third time overall in this version of MasterChef where no contestants were sent home. Gordon said this was their hardest decision in the competition yet and said as the Top 10 of this season, the decisions are going to get harder and harder, and asked them to have a good night before the next challenge. Immune: Olivia Crouppen Bottom two: Christopher Lu & Stephen Lee Eliminated: None
12	"Family Reunion (Top 10)"	July 29, 2015 (2015-07-29)	4.73
Team Challenge 6: The Top 10 home cooks contestants were informed that they would be cooking a family-style meal, to be blind-tasted for the VIP guests, a group of special diners that Gordon had invited. Each team had to create a family dinner consisting of an entree, two sides and a dessert. In this challenge, the judges selected Derrick and Claudia as team captains, with Derrick getting first pick. Derrick chose Nick, Olivia, Christopher and Tommy, forming the Blue Team, while Claudia chose Katrina, Hetal, Stephen and Shelly, forming the Red Team. Christopher had concerns about joining Derrick's team, thinking they probably wouldn't get along and would argue with each other. The Red Team decided to do a traditional and cohesive menu of roasted chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and broccolini, and strawberry shortcake as dessert, while the Blue Team decided on an Italian menu of roasted lamb racks with baked ziti and a caprese salad, and for dessert, chocolate mousse pie. During preparation, Gordon pointed out to Claudia that the chicken might not be cooked in time, so Stephen suggested to Claudia to cut the chicken in half before roasting it. Over on the Blue Team, Christopher had issues with the pie crust for the chocolate mousse pie, and the judges said that the Blue Team's menu lacked a big picture vision and the dishes would look like hodge-podge on plates. With 45 minutes to go, the Red team's chicken had still not been put in the oven, which led to some squabbling among team members. Meanwhile, Gordon checked on the Blue team and chastised Derrick for the ziti and the salad both being made of tomatoes and cheese, which led Olivia to suggest changing the salad to a strawberry and arugula salad. Their pie crust still wasn't done because Christopher repeatedly opened the oven to check how done it was, so Derrick took charge and made sure the oven stayed closed. The Blue team's ziti came out great but the chocolate mousse pie looked terrible, which led to concerns from Derrick and the judges that the dessert would cost them votes. When the dishes were served to the guests, both teams waited outside during tasting and it was revealed that the ten guest judges were actually the contestants' family members. When the contestants were called in, they had an emotional reunion with their family and Graham was brought to tears. Despite the dishes being blind-tasted, most of the judges picked their own family's team, but Katrina's boyfriend chose the Blue team, while Nick's mother and Derrick's mother both chose the Red team. This resulted in the Red team being declared as winner with six votes against the Blue team's four votes, much to Derrick's dismay. Therefore, the Blue team would be put into a pressure test in which at least one home cook would be sent home, but before that the contestants spent an enjoyable night with their families. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Claudia Sandoval, Hetal Vasavada, Katrina Kozar, Shelly Flash & Stephen Lee Pressure Test 6: The next day, the Blue Team faced a pressure test, knowing that at least one of them would be sent home after it. The judges also announced that due to his great performance as team captain, Derrick was exempt from participating in the pressure test and immediately sent to safety, much to his joy as he believed he had been a good team captain. Christopher, Nick, Olivia and Tommy were put up in a pressure test where they were to create a gnocchi dish finished in brown sage butter sauce in 25 minutes. Nick was confident in making gnocchi due to his Italian background, while Olivia was nervous as she only made gnocchi once before. During cooking, Christina pointed out Christopher's gnocchi was blanched for too long, and with three minutes left in the challenge, Tommy's gnocchi exploded, leading him to quickly cook another batch but ended up pouring too much butter sauce on the gnocchi. At the end of the pressure test, Nick's and Olivia's gnocchi were deemed to be delicious and perfectly cooked by the judges. On the other hand, the judges expressed disappointment in the presentation of Christopher's gnocchi as the dumplings were under-seasoned and dry. Moreover, Gordon chastised Christopher's line of black pepper on the plate (which Christopher thought was a pretty presentation, but Gordon said it was like a infestation of ants on the plate) but Christopher rolled his eyes to which Christina scolded him for being disrespectful towards the judges. Gordon also expressed that the dish lacked flavors because Christopher hadn't tasted before plating his gnocchi. Lastly, Tommy's gnocchi looked a mess and was mushy, but otherwise the judges said the dish tasted great. Olivia's dish was deemed the best and was quickly saved.Nick's dish was also good enough to move on. Immune: Derrick Peltz Bottom two: Christopher Lu & Tommy Walton Eliminated: Christopher Lu Christopher was eliminated for his bad attitude and when Gordon stressed that flavors and tasting are important for a Masterchef.
13	"A Little Southern Flare (Top 9)"	August 5, 2015 (2015-08-05)	4.94
Mystery Box Challenge 5: In this Mystery Box, the home cooks were tasked to intricately replicate a flambé using any of the five different spirits: Bourbon, Brandy, Calvados, Anise Liqueur and Cognac in 45 minutes. The three judges also demonstrated how to flambe by creating three different dishes: Christina's beef stroganoff with cognac, Graham's mussels with shallots and anise liqueur, and Gordon's peach shortbread dessert with caramel and brandy, urging the home cooks to be creative with their dishes. At the end of the challenge, the top three dishes were Tommy's bananas foster with apples and maple-bourbon cream, Katrina's pan-seared sea bass with seafood stew, and Stephen's leek-wrapped sea bass with garlic and pecans. The judges declared Stephen as the winner of the Mystery Box. Challenge Winner/Immune: Stephen Lee Elimination Challenge 5: As the winner of the Mystery Box, Stephen was immune from the elimination challenge and was allowed to decide which Southern dish the remaining home cooks would be cooking. He was shown three different Southern foods: Shrimp and grits, Chicken and waffles and Gumbo. He selected chicken and waffles for the remaining contestants to cook in 60 minutes. For his third advantage, Stephen was also allowed to single out one contestant who would only have 30 minutes to create the dish. Stephen chose Derrick to be singled out as he deemed him (Derrick) as his biggest competitor in the competition, much to Derrick's ire. At the end of the elimination challenge, Derrick was the first to be judged and he admitted he was a little nervous given his disadvantage. When asked by Gordon how he felt to be put in a disadvantage by Stephen, Derrick said that he had been frequently targeted by the other contestants since the start of the competition, so he would wear the target on his back like a cape but Stephen blurted out that he will use his cape to fly back to his home much to Derrick's annoyance. His buttermilk chicken and waffles with blackberry-maple reduction was deemed to be delicious and his chicken crispy, though a little dry but still tender nonetheless, with Gordon saying he was amazed by the dish's level of finesse when it was created in only 30 minutes. Hetal wasn't sure how her dish tasted (as she is a vegetarian), but her Indian spiced fried chicken with cornmeal waffle was deemed to be absolutely delicious by the judges, with Christina saying that this better be in her cook book if she won the competition. Most of the other contestants did not fare so well. Despite her confidence and being familiar with the dish, Claudia's cayenne fried chicken with lemon and thyme waffle and a citrus maple glaze was panned by Gordon as it looked like diner food. Her chicken was undercooked and still pink on the inside, and her waffle was limp and spongy like a mattress, though Gordon did praise the crust on her chicken. When asked by Gordon if she had gotten lazy, Claudia reasoned that the dish would be better if she had more time, to which Gordon chastised her for that, saying Derrick had half of her time and still created a stunning dish. Nick's southwest chicken and waffles with horseradish-maple syrup was deemed to be okay, but Graham chastised him for his strange choice of horseradish. Katrina's miso fried chicken and scallion waffles disappointed Gordon as her chicken tenders were dry, saying though her waffles were good, this was clearly not among her best performances. Olivia's honey and soy glazed chicken with orange and ginger waffle also received similar criticisms from Christina as her chicken was also dry and her waffles were only judged to be just okay. On the other hand, the judges raved about Tommy's duck fat fried chicken with pecan-quinoa-corn waffles with Gordon saying his waffle was in another league from the rest and the chicken was perfectly seasoned. Graham also said that he liked the tomato whiskey marmalade in his dish so much that it should be put in a jar and sold out. Lastly, Shelly's classic chicken and vanilla waffles with bourbon maple syrup and chopped strawberries received heavy criticisms. Her chicken, like Claudia's, was undercooked and pink on the inside, much to both her and Gordon's surprises, as Shelly had mistakenly left the cooked chicken on her bench and served the undercooked chicken instead. On top of that, her chicken and waffles were also bland, and Gordon chastised her for the chopped strawberries side which felt to be far too amateur at this stage of the competition. Shelly admitted that the pressure was getting into her head during the challenge. Winners: Hetal Vasavada & Tommy Walton Bottom two: Claudia Sandoval & Shelly Flash Eliminated: Shelly Flash In the end, Tommy and Hetal were deemed to have the best two dishes in this elimination challenge, making them team captains for the next team challenge. Derrick, Nick, Katrina, and Olivia's dishes are deemed good enough to move on. Meaning the bottom two dishes tonight belonged to Shelly and Claudia. Gordon said he and other judges was shocked to see Claudia down here given her past performances but Shelly have come as far as she could in the competition for being in the bottom group thrice, and she was eliminated for her declining performances as a competitor.
14	"Getting A-Head in the Competition (Top 8)"	August 12, 2015 (2015-08-12)	4.76
Team Challenge 7: For this team challenge, the home cooks were split into two teams of four and the challenge would take place in Masterchef restaurant for 50 VIP guests. With the two winning dishes from the last elimination challenge, Tommy and Hetal were selected as team captains for this team challenge, with Tommy getting first pick. Tommy chose Stephen, Katrina and Nick, forming the Red team, while Hetal chose Derrick, Olivia and Claudia, forming the Blue team. Stephen was upset about being in Tommy's team as he believed they are complete polar opposites to each other, while Derrick also had great concerns in Hetal's poor leadership and communication skills (and also the fact she is a vegetarian and therefore lack of knowledge to cooking proteins.) For this challenge, each team had two large boxes labelled "vegetables" and "meat". After opening the vegetables boxes, they discovered the meat boxes were empty, to which the judges announced that this would be the first ever Masterchef vegetarian challenge, where each team would be creating one vegetarian entree for the guests. Hetal was overjoyed about this, while most of the contestants were not so comfortable. For the Blue team's entree, Hetal decided on a chickpea-cauliflower curry with coconut rice and tomato gravy, but Claudia voiced out her concerns that only Hetal would know how to use these spices, to which Hetal reassured that she would guide them through. On the Red team, Tommy had troubles working with his teammates as they were all very vocal about their individual ideas and objected Tommy's ideas, but they eventually decided on an entree of butternut squash with black lentils and mushroom. The Blue team started to struggle as Hetal could not delegate jobs for her teams as no-one apart from Hetal knew how to prepare the dish, but eventually they appeared to get on track after Hetal demonstrated what they needed to do. Over on the Red team, Gordon scolded them for their poorly cooked goat cheese, to which Tommy said he knew the way they cooked the goat cheese wouldn't work but nobody in the team was listening to him. Moreover, their butternut squash were still not cooked. On the other hand, the Blue team experienced problems again when they discovered their rice was really watery like porridge, sending them into panics. When Graham came to check up on the Red team, Tommy admitted the team overrode him and said he doesn't want to take possession of it at this point, to which Graham told him to step up as he is the team captain. As the guests started to arrive, Tommy started to plate his dish but Katrina and his other teammate's constant nagging was annoying him, to which Tommy finally blew up and told them all to shut up, which they actually did and the Red team was finally able to work in perfect harmony as service began. The Blue team also appeared to have overrode their problems and their dishes were sent out smoothly. In the end, with a huge margin of 13 votes, the Red team was declared as the winner, sending the Blue team into the pressure test, much to Tommy's joy. Hetal was disappointed for losing yet another team challenge and felt doubly guilty of leading to her team to failure especially considering this was a vegetarian challenge which was right in her comfort zone. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Katrina Kozar, Nick Nappi, Stephen Lee & Tommy Walton Pressure Test 7: As the Blue team lost the team challenge, Hetal, Derrick, Claudia and Olivia would be facing a pressure test in which at least one of them would be sent home. Derrick was particularly unhappy to be in the pressure test, saying none of them deserved to be here besides Hetal as they all did what she wanted. The judges announced that the hero of this pressure test was resting underneath mystery boxes of different sizes, to which the home cooks would be selecting one randomly. It was revealed that the cooks must create a delicious dish made of the head meats of various animals, much to Hetal's shock and horror. Hetal received a lamb's head, Derrick received a halibut's head, Claudia received a pig's head and lastly Olivia received a cow's head. All four home cooks must create a stunning dish in 60 minutes with a limited pantry and at least one part of their animal heads. As most predicted, Hetal was rather flustered in this challenge, while Claudia was very confident due to her familiarity of roasting whole pigs. The judges and the other contestants shared concerns for Derrick who, although had the easiest protein and was the strongest cook, would have too much time to overthink and over-complicated his dish. During the challenge, Derrick started to panic, messed up the blow torch and almost set his arm on fire, much to the winning team's joy that they could see their biggest competition home. Stephen, in particular, was vocally taunting Derrick, much to Derrick's annoyance. At the end of the challenge, all four home cooks managed to plate beautiful dishes and the judges said they were all very impressed. Hetal was the first to be judged, her braised lamb tongue and cheek with Jasmine rice and arugula salad was deemed to taste "confusing" by Gordon, saying her lamb tasted delicious, but there was too much rice and the rice was undercooked, much to Gordon's frustration that ironically that she, being a vegetarian, had more finesse cooking meat than cooking the vegetarian components of her dish. Derrick's Tandoori Halibut cheeks with cauliflower puree, cabbage, mango balls and grapefruit gastrique was also deemed to taste confusing by Graham due to the many disjointed flavors on the plate. While his fish tasted great, Graham said he had definitely over-complicated his dish like his fellow contestants suspected. On the other hand, Claudia's pig ear and cheek tostada with mango salsa and chipotle crema was deemed by Christina to be delicious and visually beautiful, saying it had great crunch and nice acidity. Lastly, Olivia's BBQ beef cheek with braised kale and cheddar polenta was deemed by Gordon to taste good, but the biggest problem was that it was hard to identify the protein being the beef cheek because the sauce tasted so strong, hence the hero was overlooked from her dish. Bottom three: Derrick Peltz, Hetal Vasavada & Olivia Crouppen Eliminated: Olivia Crouppen Claudia's dish was deemed the best and she was saved first leaving Olivia, Derrick, and Hetal as the bottom 3. In the end, Olivia's dish fell short of the mark leading to her emotional elimination much to the other contestants devastation. Before she left, Olivia predicted that Katrina would win the competition.
15	"A Storm's a Brewing (Top 7)"	August 19, 2015 (2015-08-19)	4.66
Mystery Box Challenge 6: The Top 7 home cooks will compete in another mystery box challenge in which each one of them will create a restaurant quality dish using coffee. Most of the contestants opted to do a dessert as a result. By the end of the challenge, the best three dishes were Derrick's caramel latte panna cotta with raspberry sauce and spun sugar, Hetal's coffee chocolate cake with espresso whipped cream, and Nick's vanilla coffee cake with coffee mascarpone. After sampling all three dishes, the judges declared Nick as the winner of the Mystery Box challenge. Challenge Winner/Immune: Nick Nappi Team Challenge 8: In this elimination challenge, the home cooks will require to re-create a summer party platter consisted of BBQ chicken wings, pigs in blankets, shrimp skewers with a peanut dipping sauce, sliders and tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole. This challenge will be a Masterchef classic tag team challenge. As winner of the Mystery Box challenge, Nick was immune from the challenge and formed the tag teams. Targeting Stephen and Katrina, he paired up Stephen with archrival Derrick, believing their strong personalities will clash during the challenge; Katrina with Tommy as the two had frequently butted heads with each other in past team challenges, leaving Claudia and Hetal as the last team by default. As the challenge began, communications between Stephen and Derrick began to quickly fall apart as Nick expected. Katrina and Tommy also worked poorly together as they argued over how to prepare the chicken batter and their own techniques, while in contrast to the other two teams, Claudia and Hetal worked reasonably well with each other with little disagreements. Katrina and Tommy became increasingly disorganized in cooking with Tommy getting annoyed over Katrina's constant yelling and refused to do what she asked, causing Katrina to become increasingly agitated. On the other hand, Derrick and Stephen continued to work against each other with Derrick gradually losing focus during the task. By the end of the challenge, despite their lack of communications to each other, Derrick and Stephen somehow produced by far the best party platter as every component on their plate was deemed to be delicious and cooked perfectly, thus ending their feud and they became friends. The two were therefore named to be the clear winners of this challenge, much to Nick's disappointment. The other two teams did not fare so well. Claudia and Hetal's party platter received very heavy criticisms from the judges. They managed their time poorly and their plating was sloppy and lacking with Christina commenting that it looked like someone else had already eaten it beforehand. Their burgers tasted poor due to their burnt mushrooms, shrimps were undercooked, and their guacamole dipping tasted bland, with Christina ending her tasting by saying that rather than a party platter, this could be their "funeral platter". Lastly, Katrina and Tommy's party platter also received severe criticisms from the judges as the plating was a mess with Gordon commenting they were fragmented as a team and he believed that both of them would have worked way better on their own. The breading on their chicken wings were too thick as Tommy added eggs to the batter. Their burgers tasted good but Gordon was upset about the burnt onions and the raw block of cheddar cheese served with it, moreover their shrimps were raw and their tortilla chips were soggy and limp, and Gordon ended tasting by saying they now both had one foot out the door. Team Challenge Winners: Derrick Peltz & Stephen Lee Bottom two: Katrina Kozar & Tommy Walton Eliminated: Tommy Walton Derrick and Stephen's party platter was deemed the best and they were made team captains in the next episode. Claudia and Hetal were sent to safety next for at least working well together, leaving Katrina and Tommy facing elimination. In the end, the judges felt Katrina had made more effort during the challenge and Tommy was eliminated, much to the devastation of the other contestants. The judges commenting that he will be remembered forever. Before he left, Graham offered Tommy to cook with him back in Chicago, and Tommy predicted that Derrick would become the next Masterchef. In his exit interview, he shocked himself in the way he didn't cook as many European haute cuisine as planned, but rather returned to his Southern roots. He ended the show with his signature grand exit.
16	"The Restaurant Takeover (Top 6)"	August 26, 2015 (2015-08-26)	4.61
Team Challenge 9: The Top 6 chefs will split into two teams of three for the dreaded Masterchef restaurant takeover in a Japanese restaurant. With the best party platter in the last tag team challenge, Stephen and Derrick were selected as team captains for this challenge, with Stephen getting first pick. Stephen chose Nick and Claudia, forming the Red team, while Derrick chose Katrina and Hetal, forming the Blue team. They must complete two appetizer dishes, a Signature tuna tartare, and Wagyu beef with mushroom risotto. And two entree dishes, a Vension loin with chestnut puree and mushrooms, and Miso sea bass with Japanese eggplant, bok choy and rice cake for the hungry diners in Chaya. Gordon also announced he would be expediting both teams during the challenge, with Christina as head waitress and Graham as sous chef. As challenge was about to begin, on the Blue team, Derrick dived the tasks to his team mates and stressed the importance of communications, while on the Red team, Stephen took on most of the tasks and left very little for his team mates to do, much to Nick's worry. As orders started to come in, Stephen realized that he had taken too much upon himself, resulting in Nick stepping in to help him. On the other hand, the Blue team also started to struggle to put out the appetizers as Hetal was not communicating to any of her team mates and Gordon, to which the latter scolded her to answer. This lack of communication among the Blue team caused a massive delay in the service as customers grew impatient. Over on the Red team, their appetizer of tuna tartare needed to be redo as a result of Claudia putting too much mayo in it, but they eventually managed to get back on track, and so did the Blue team. As both teams moved on to the entrees, the Red team started to struggle with the timing for the cooking of the fish and the venison, much to Gordon's anger, and Stephen overcooked the sea bass and had to start over again. Meanwhile, the Blue team also started to experience hassles in service when Katrina kept burning the sea bass, making Gordon to ask Graham to step in to help them. Over in the dining area, the guests gave good feedbacks to both teams, but one particular guest said there was too much oil on the Red team's sea bass entree. The Red team finished service ahead of the Blue team, while the Blue team struggled with the last few tables as communication fell apart in the team, but they managed to finish service in the end before customers started to walk out. At the end of service, Gordon told both teams that it seemed a very close call and the judges would decide overnight which team would be safe from the pressure test. On returning to Masterchef kitchen the following morning, the Red team was declared as the winner of the restaurant takeover, sending the Blue team to face the pressure test, much to Derrick's dismay. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Claudia Sandoval, Nick Nappi & Stephen Lee Pressure Test 8: As the losing team of the team challenge, Derrick, Hetal and Katrina were put up in a pressure test where they needed to serve three of the judge's favorite pasta dishes: Christina's manicotti with spinach ricotta filling and tomato sauce, Graham's squid ink striped farfalle with the sauce of plateau de fruits de mer, and Gordon's egg yolk ravioli in brown sage butter sauce. The home cooks had only one hour to perfect their pasta dishes, which Nick, of Italian descent, noted that as impossible. All three struggled immensely during the challenge. Katrina failed to understand how to create the stripe pattern in the squid ink farfalle and almost knocked her pasta machine over the table. Hetal improperly put ricotta cheese filling with the egg yolk in her ravioli, to which Claudia and Stephen called down from the balcony and hinted to Hetal to have only the egg yolk as the filling. As the challenge continued, Hetal almost gave up on finishing her squid ink farfalle but Graham encouraged her that it can be done within the time remaining, while Derrick busted the egg yolk in his ravioli and cut his ravioli too small. When the judges came to tasting, Derrick's manicotti was deemed to taste nice but a little low on the ricotta filling, his squid ink farfalle was a little undercooked but the seafood was cooked perfectly, and his egg yolk ravioli was cooked beautifully but Gordon scolded him for plating a piece of raw sage leaf with it. On the other hand, Katrina's manicotti was said to taste delicious and was perfectly seasoned, her squid ink farfalle was not correctly made (having failed to form the striped pattern required) and was also undercooked but the seafood was cooked perfectly, and her egg yolk ravioli was almost perfect with the exception of her putting a dab of ricotta cheese in it, to which Gordon was very angry about. Hetal's manicotti was deemed to taste okay as her manicotti was a bit under-filled and needed more seasoning and the tomato sauce was lackluster. Despite having the best shaped squid ink farfalle, her seafood was raw and the wine was not cooked off, and lastly her egg yolk ravioli was overcooked as her yolk coagulated, moreover, water seeped through her ravioli and it was over-peppered. Eliminated: Hetal Vasavada In the end, despite having previously been a frontrunner in the competition, a teary-eyed Hetal was sent home as she failed to perfect any of the three pasta dishes. Prior to Hetal's departure, Gordon described that she had made history for "being one of [Gordon's] favourite vegetarians". She also predicted that Katrina would win the competition.
17	"Return of the Champions (Top 5)"	September 2, 2015 (2015-09-02)	TBD
Mystery Box Challenge 7: The Top 5 contestants will face their next Mystery Box Challenge, in which they will have to impress the three judges with a single ingredient they selected at random, with only a standard staple pantry box to their aid (no access to the pantry room). The special ingredients were a pear for Katrina, a tomato for Claudia, a portobello mushroom for Stephen, chocolate for Nick, and blue cheese for Derrick (much to his dismay as Derrick hated blue cheese). When time was called, the top three dishes were Stephen's mushroom sandwich five ways with roasted portobello and cheese curd, Derrick's herbed pretzel with blue cheese dipping sauce, and Claudia's savory tomato Napoleon with roasted tomato, garlic and tomato sauce. (The three would have ultimately become the Top 3 of this season.) The judges decided that Claudia was the winner of the Mystery Box, as Claudia predicted in her dreams, giving her a huge advantage into the elimination challenge. Challenge Winner/Immune: Claudia Sandoval Elimination Challenge 6: As the winner of the Mystery Box, Claudia would be safe from elimination and thus she is now safely in the Top 4. Inside the pantry, Claudia was shown a copy of the coveted Masterchef cookbook and was allowed to select 20 of her favorite ingredients that she could see being included in her book and placed them inside a basket, to which she would then select one of the remaining four home cooks to use in the upcoming elimination challenge. The remaining three baskets of ingredients were then handpicked by three of the past MasterChef champions as Christine Ha (season 3), Luca Manfé (season 4) and Courtney Lapresi (season 5) make a surprise return to the Masterchef kitchen. Courtney's basket consisted of high-end dessert ingredients including Panela, edible flowers, champagne, mascarpone, chocolate, Darjeeling tea, and lemon. Luca's basket consisted of Italian ingredients including broccolini, mozzarella, eggplants, veal andwhite wine (Pinot Grigio), while Christine's basket consisted of mainly Asian ingredients including cilantro, lime, pork tenderloin,sake, tofu, fish sauce mustard greens, and shrimp. Lastly, Claudia's basket consisted of primarily seafood and Mexican ingredients including shrimp, mussels, chorizo, pineapple Jalapeño, lime, cilantro, rice and Poblano sauce. As the Mystery Box winner, Claudia was allowed to select a basket for each of the remaining four contestants to cook. Targeting Nick and Derrick, she gave her Mexican basket to Nick (much to his dismay as he said he never cooked Mexican food despite being a popular cuisine in his home San Diego); Christine's Southeast Asian basket to Stephen; In order to insure her friend Katrina's safety, she gives Luca's Italian basket to Katrina (as she felt Luca's basket was the easiest to do); and Courtney's technically most difficult baking basket to Derrick. The three champions joined Claudia up at the balcony as the challenge began (who interestingly ended up winning the entire season). The judges felt that the pressure of the competition was getting to Katrina, while Nick was very flustered by the Mexican basket and was struggling to come up with ideas. The judges also were worried about Stephen who seemed to have too much going on with his dish, despite his multi-tasking abilities impressed Courtney, to which Christine advised him to tone down the strong flavors and not overdo things. When time was up, Derrick was the first to be judged. Despite his confidence in his dish and his abilities, Derrick's chocolate and Darjeeling tea pot de creme with mascarpone cream and champagne lemon sabayon underwhelmed the judges as his pot de creme was really dense and tasted too heavy, and his sabayon tasted like "scrambled eggs", resulting in Gordon chastised him for playing it safe and therefore lack of techniques shown in his dish, and Christina saying, while it was a reasonable dish with good flavors, she wasn't sure if it would be good enough to take him to the final four. On the other hand, despite his troubles during the challenge, Nick's chorizo mussels with lime Cilantro rice and Poblano sauce wowed the judges and received rave reviews. Stephen's deconstructed pho with shrimp, pork, curried tofu and mustard greens also impressed the judges with great seasoning and only received some constructive criticisms to his presentation. Lastly, Katrina's veal scaloppine with fettuccine and broccolini was initially impressive as her pasta and broccolini tasted delicious but her veal was severely undercooked and therefore was chewy and didn't taste like protein. Winner: Nick Nappi Bottom two: Derrick Peltz & Katrina Kozar Eliminated: Katrina Kozar After sampling all the dishes, the judges declared that Nick had the best dish of the night and Stephen also did good enough to be sent to safety, ensuring their place in the Top 4, and leaving Derrick and Katrina to face elimination. In the end, the judges decided that Katrina's raw veal had fatally undermined her dish, resulting in her emotional elimination and Derrick proceeding to the top 4, much to Claudia's devastation and disappointment. Before she left, Gordon told Katrina that she had been an amazing student throughout the competition and invited her to visit his two restaurants in France (more precisely, Versailles) to aid her culinary dream. She also predicted that Nick would win the competition.
18	"Think Inside the Box (Top 4)"	September 9, 2015 (2015-09-09)	TBD
Team Challenge 10: The Top 4 of MasterChef 2015 will battle it out in the MasterChef kitchen. They will split into two teams of two to create a unique appetizer and entree three times using special ingredients in Gordon and Graham's mystery boxes. As Nick won the previous Elimination Challenge, the teams would be chosen by him. Nick selected Claudia to form the Red Team, leaving Stephen and Derrick to form the Blue Team (who had previously been paired up by Nick during the tag team challenge in episode 15 and won.) The boxes were selected randomly, with the Blue team (Stephen and Derrick) receiving Gordon's box which included ingredients such as duck, filet mignon, rack of lamb, watercress, butternut squash, pomegranate, morel mushroom and spot prawns, and the Red team (Nick and Claudia) receiving Graham's box which contained ingredients such as Dungeness crab, salmon, pork chop, kale, fennel, asparagus and apple. Gordon and Graham also both showed the contestants their own dishes from the mystery boxes for inspiration. During the challenge, Nick and Claudia initially decided to create a broth with the crab, but Nick put the crab into the water late, leading Claudia to suggest changing the appetizer to crab cakes in order for them to finish both dishes in time. In the end, Nick and Claudia's "Italian" Crab Cakes with red pepper sauce and avocado mousse was greatly liked by the judges, though the judges weren't sure if it was really Italian-style. Stephen and Derrick's spot prawn ceviche with pea and avocado puree and pomegranate seeds also received great feedback from the judges, but received criticisms for one particular ingredient- the pomegranate seeds, which felt very out of place in the dish. (At the last minute, Derrick thought the dish needed more color and added pomegranate seeds to the plate, much to Stephen's objection, and Gordon suggested him to make a pomegranate juice instead.) For the entrees, Nick and Claudia's pan-seared salmon with sauteed kale, celery root puree and roasted red pepper sauce received mostly negative reviews from the judges. Graham criticized them for using the red pepper sauce in both the appetizer and entree, and said the crispy salmon also became soggy by sitting skin down on top of the kale. Moreover, the salmon was undercooked inside; Gordon said with the presence of fennel and asparagus in Graham's box, kale would have been the last one he would pair up with salmon. On the other hand, Stephen and Derrick's seared duck breast with butternut squash puree, brussels sprouts and morel mushrooms received rave reviews from the judges, with Gordon calling the puree "mindblowing", though the duck skin was a little tough and the morels were also slightly unclean. Team Challenge Winners/Immune: Derrick Peltz & Stephen Lee Ultimately, the judges decided that, despite Nick's initial advantage, Stephen and Derrick were the winners of this challenge, securing their spots in the semifinals and sending Nick and Claudia into the penultimate pressure test of the season. Pressure Test 9: In this dreaded pressure test, Claudia and Nick were shown an array of desserts. But instead of a choice of ingredients like the previous challenge, Christina chose her signature chocolate malted layer cake, the most difficult out of all the desserts, to which Nick and Claudia would need to recreate in 90 minutes. During the pressure test, Nick had a problem when he put the wrong bowl of ingredients into the mixture and needed to redo the batter for the sponges. But in the end, Nick was the first one to assemble the cake as Claudia's cake batter was thicker and therefore took longer to cook, resulting in her leaving the presentation to the last minute. Claudia was the first to be judged. Christina noted that the presentation of Claudia's cake wasn't as good as Nick's (as Claudia ran out of time to finish the fudge frosting and the charred marshmallows for her cake), but Christina praised that Claudia's cake was almost more airy than when she made it and noted the flavours would be "hard to beat" in her cake. On the other hand, Christina complimented Nick on his fudge exterior and noted his beautiful presentation, but when she took a bite of the cake, she noted that "There's something in the cake that's not quite right." It turns out that Nick had to adjust his ratios of ingredients down after he mixed the wrong bowl of ingredients and ran short of ingredients, and ultimately this led to a cake that was far too sweet. Gordon hinted that Nick could have asked Claudia for some of the ingredients, but Nick thought Claudia would probably not give any to him, to which Claudia disputed and said she would have definitely given Nick some. Eliminated: Nick Nappi In the end, Christina decided that messing up with the ratios of ingredients was a fatal error when baking, leading to Nick's emotional elimination and Claudia advancing to the semifinals to join Derrick and Stephen. Gordon said that if Nick needed help on getting his gastro pub up, he can always ask. Before he left, Nick said he had no regrets entering the competition and confidently predicted that Claudia would become the next MasterChef.
19	"Team Gordon Ramsay (Top 3)"	September 16, 2015 (2015-09-16)	TBD
Team Challenge 11: In this next challenge, the three semifinalists will be required to each create a unique dish for each of the 30 distinguished guests in the restaurant in 75 minutes. The VIP guests were all chefs and co-workers led by Gordon, Graham and Christina in their culinary businesses. The judges also announced that the home cooks won't be working alone as each of the semifinalists will also by receiving help from an eliminated contestant who will be working as the sous chef. Stephen got the help of Tommy, Claudia had Katrina, leaving Derrick with Hetal. During cooking, Claudia and Derrick both worked efficiently and smoothly with their partner, while Stephen had some troubles working with Tommy, with Christina telling Stephen that she doesn't feel that he and Tommy is working as a team. With 15 minutes left in the challenge and the home cooks began to plate their dish, Claudia realized that she didn't have enough octopus for her dish. It turned out that she had forgot to cook one of her portion and she scrambled to grill her octopus and just made it in time. After saying goodbyes to Tommy, Katrina and Hetal, the three semifinalists were led into the Masterchef restaurant to meet their VIP guests. Stephen's pan seared scallops with rutabaga, beets and asparagus received mostly positive reviews with praises to his use of seasonings. Claudia's grilled octopus with frisee salad and oregano potatoes also received positive reviews with the guest praised the cook of her octopus which is technically very difficult to get right, though one guest pointed out that the potatoes felt out of place on the dish. Derrick's miso black cod with daikon puree and bok choy received all around favorable reviews with praises to the cook of his fish and one guest commenting that his dish could be serve in Gordon's restaurant, but also received some criticisms to his daikon puree. In the end, with 15 out of the 30 votes, Derrick was announced as the winner of the challenge, securing his spot into the finale, while sending Stephen and Claudia into the season's final pressure test. Team Challenge Winner/Immune: Derrick Peltz Pressure Test 10: The final Pressure Test of the season will consist of three MasterChef classic dishes- a cheese souffle, steak frites and a panna cotta with a raspberry coulis filling. Stephen and Claudia will have to recreate all three dishes in only one hour with the winner of this pressure test joining Derrick in the finale. The two home cooks also received some supports from family and friends through Skype as they prepared for the final challenge. During the challenge, both cooks experienced problems with their dishes. Claudia mistakenly threw away the extra panna cotta that was needed to top the filling with in order to envelope the raspberry coulis inside, while Stephen overmixed his souffle mixture and put his souffle into the oven too early. Both cooks barely made it in time. Claudia's souffle was visually better than Stephen's as his souffle had fallen somewhat, and Christina commented that Claudia's souffle was much fluffier and picture perfect, but Stephen's souffle had better seasoning. For the steak frites, Graham thought that Stephen's steak frites was well-cooked and his fries crispy, but felt that Claudia's steak frities was better seasoned. Lastly, Claudia's panna cotta was visually perfect though smaller in size in comparison to Stephen's as she threw away the extra panna cotta topping earlier, while the raspberry coulis is seeping out from Stephen's panna cotta though Gordon praised the nice texture in his panna cotta. Eliminated: Stephen Lee In the end, the judges decided that Claudia had performed better in all three dishes, thereby advancing her to the finale with Derrick, and Stephen was eliminated. Gordon told Stephen to get his business plan together as he wanted to invest in his food truck and promised Stephen that he had now have him as a partner. Stephen also predicted that Claudia will become the next Masterchef, and despite their differences in the past, Derrick told Stephen that he is going to miss him before he left.
20	"The Finale (Top 2)"	September 16, 2015 (2015-09-16)	TBD
Season finale: The top 2 home cooks, Derrick and Claudia had to each create a beautiful appetizer, a stunning entrée and a magnificent dessert. Appetizer: Derrick's spiced pork belly with watermelon three ways received rave reviews from the judges, with Gordon saying it was refreshing and dangerous and Graham saying that the dish belonged to their menus. Claudia's huitlacoche tamale with cactus salsa, avocado crema and pork skin chicharron also received rave reviews from the judges, with Gordon raving her cactus salsa and praising her unique ability to elevate street food into a whole new level. When questioned by Gordon on why she chose to do a tamale in the finale, Claudia said that, as a Mexican cuisine chef, it is all about the simplest of ingredients and elevate them. Christina said that Derrick inched out a little ahead on the appetizer, with Gordon said that both dishes made this the best start to a finale they ever had in the history of the competition and this would be a very tough call. Entrée: Derrick's pan seared venison with root vegetables and puff pastry cage once again received rave reviews for his presentation and the level of finesse in his dish, with gordon saying the pastry cage was crispy, all the elements are there and that he totally nailed everything. The judges were concerned that Claudia's grilled swordfish with chickpeas, Mexican squash, and salsa verde would be dry, thus handing the win to Derrick, but also received high praises for the perfect cook of her swordfish, with Gordon saying that her salsa verde was one of the best he had ever had and Christina saying that Claudia opened her eyes to things she would have never thought of. Dessert: Both cooks struggled with their dessert during cooking. Claudia splashed water on her flan and had to start over, while Derrick struggled with his thick cake batter and couldn't get it into the cup to cook it. But, in the end, both cooks managed to present outstanding dishes. Derrick's lemon mousse in a chocolate shell with green tea cake and raspberry sauce received high praises with particular praise to his green tea cake and overall balanced flavors on his dish, but Gordon was critical of him spending 15 minutes of his time trying to get his sponge cake to work and asked why he didn't just leave it out of the dish, to which Derrick said he just didn't want to give up. Claudia's hibiscus poached pear with key lime flan and cinnamon brittle was also highly praised, with Graham calling it eye-opening and Christina raving over her brittle. Judges' Deliberations: After having tasted all the dishes, the judges had a tough time deciding on the winner with Gordon pointing out that both cooks made mistakes during the dessert. Christina couldn't praise Derrick's artistry enough. Graham said that a true chef is defined by how they use every day ingredients and elevate it, and they all agreed that Claudia was the clear winner in this case. Winner Revealed: Finally, the judges announced that the title of MasterChef US 2015, a $250,000 cash prize, and a cookbook deal went to Claudia. Derrick took his defeat graciously and both him and Claudia acknowledged each other with respect. The season ended with the usual casting call from Gordon Ramsay. Final Two: Claudia Sandoval & Derrick Peltz Masterchef Winner: Claudia Sandoval

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

No.	Episode	Original air date	Rating/share 18–49	U.S. viewers (million)	Rank (Timeslot)	Rank (Nightly)	Rank (Weekly)	Source(s)
1	"Let the Battle Commence" (Top 40)	May 20, 2015	1.2/4	3.39	3	8	<25
2	"The Battle Continues" (Top 40)
3	"You're the Apple of My Eye" (Top 22)	May 27, 2015	1.6/6	4.72	1	1	5
4	"Cinammon Roll-er Coaster" (Top 20)	June 3, 2015	1.5/6	4.70	2	2	12
5	"Clawing to Victory" (Top 19)	June 10, 2015	1.5/6	4.83	1	1	13
6	"What Happens in Vegas Steaks in Vegas" (Top 18)	June 17, 2015	1.5/6	4.83	1	1	10
7	"Bring Home the Bacon" (Top 16)	June 24, 2015	1.5/6	4.73	2	2	9
8	"Happy Birthday MASTERCHEF" (Top 14)	July 1, 2015	1.4/6	4.40	2	2	11
9	"Gordon's Greatest Hits" (Top 12)	July 8, 2015	1.7/6	4.93	2	2	8
10	"Rice Rice Baby" (Top 11)	July 15, 2015	1.5/6	4.86	3	3	11
11	"Moo-vers and Bakers" (Top 10)	July 22, 2015	1.5/6	4.44	2	3	10
12	"Family Reunion" (Top 10)	July 29, 2015	1.5/6	4.73	3	3 (tie)	UNKNOWN
13	"A Little Southern Flare" (Top 9)	August 5, 2015	1.5/6	4.94	2 (tie)	2 (tie)	10
14	"Getting A-Head in the Competition" (Top 8)	August 12, 2015	1.4/6	4.76	3	3	10
15	"A Storm's a Brewing" (Top 7)	August 19, 2015	1.4/5	4.66	3	3	10
16	"The Restaurant Takeover" (Top 6)	August 26, 2015	1.4/5	4.61	3	3	TBD
17	"Return of the Champions" (Top 5)	September 2, 2015	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
18	"Think Inside the Box" (Top 4)	September 9, 2015	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
19	"Team Gordon Ramsay" (Top 3)	September 16, 2015	1.5/5	4.65	2	3	TBD
20	"The Finale" (Top 2)

Canadian Numeris ratings

Canadian broadcaster CTV also airs MasterChef. Episodes air at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Canadian DVR(L+7) ratings are included in Numeris' count.

No.	Episode	Original air date	Canadian viewers (million)	Weekly Rank	Source(s)
1	"Premiere" (Top 40)	May 20, 2015	1.279	10
3	"You're the Apple of My Eye" (Top 22)	May 27, 2015	1.669	2
4	"Cinnamon Roll-er Coaster" (Top 20)	June 3, 2015	1.753	2
5	"Clawing to Victory" (Top 19)	June 10, 2015	1.781	2
6	"What Happens in Vegas Steaks in Vegas" (Top 18)	June 17, 2015	1.605	4
7	"Bring Home the Bacon" (Top 16)	June 24, 2015	1.660	3
8	"Happy Birthday MASTERCHEF" (Top 14)	July 1, 2015	1.009	13
9	"Gordon's Greatest Hits" (Top 12)	July 8, 2015	2.014	2
10	"Rice Rice Baby" (Top 11)	July 15, 2015	1.968	2
11	"Moo-vers and Bakers" (Top 10)	July 22, 2015	1.969	2
12	"Family Reunion" (Top 10)	July 29, 2015	1.761	2
13	"A Little Southern Flare" (Top 9)	August 5, 2015	2.013	2
14	"Getting A-Head in the Competition" (Top 8)	August 12, 2015	1.988	2
15	"A Storm's a Brewing" (Top 7)	August 19, 2015	1.944	2
16	"The Restaurant Takeover" (Top 6)	August 26, 2015	1.952	5
17	"Return of the Champions" (Top 5)	September 2, 2015	1.785	7
18	"Think Inside the Box" (Top 4)	September 9, 2015	1.99	2
19	"Team Gordon Ramsay" (Top 3)	September 16, 2015	2.019	2
20	"The Finale" (Top 2)		6.981	1