Sunday, September 13, 2015

MasterChef Asia Season 1 Episode 2: Recap and Thoughts on Episode 2

MasterChef Asia Season 1 Episode 2: Recap and Thoughts on Episode 2
Photo from MasterChef Asia FB Page
  • It's the first ever MasterChef Asia team challenge and the contestants are tasked to feed 80 VIP guests going up on the Singapore flyer.
  • Each team had to serve 5 varieties of canapés - small finger food that's you would see served during cocktail parties. They only had 2 hours to plan and prepare the canapés before they serve it to the VIP guests and two of the canapés had to be served hot.
  • Lennard won the best dish in the previous episode so he gets to choose his entire team. 
  • The Blue Team (by order of being called) was composed of:
    • Lennard (Singapore) - Team Captain
    • Sandrian (Singapore)
    • Leong (Singapore)
    • Priya (India)
    • Jasbir (Malaysia)
    • Marcus (Malaysia)
    • Ha (Vietnam) 
  • Lica then volunteered to be the leader of the Red Team. I'm happy she stepped us and I think she can do really well because of her competitive spirit. 
  • The Red Team was composed of:
    • Lica (Philippines) - Team Captain
    • Jake (Philippines)
    • Rico (Philippines)
    • Stefan (Indonesia)
    • Vonny (Indonesia)
    • Blache (Taiwan)
    • Alice (China
  • When planning for their dishes, both teams had some pretty good ideas for their canapés. Lica and Lennard were really taking charge of their teams. 
  • Jake should have checked if a pasta machine was available before deciding to propose making an agnolotti. Pasta in the menu would be nice, but would take too long without a pasta machine. This was the biggest blunder of the night.
  • Alice was taking too much time cutting up the salmon. It's a good thing Bruno stepped in to give her advice and speed things up. She only cut only 20 out of 80 salmon rolls after 1 hour.
  • Lennard chose not to serve a vegetarian dish, but he changed course and put together a Watermelon and Brie salad in the middle of the challenge after the judges pointed out that there might be vegetarians on board. 
  • The Blue team looks way more confident than the Red team throughout the entire challenge. The Red team started to panic towards the end and were running to Lica for help. 
  • I'm not sure who burned the Bechamel sauce for the pasta, but that was a huge mistake.
  • I'm very impressed with Ha, Lennard, and Leong from the Blue team. They were so composed throughout the challenge - signs that they'll go a long way in this competition. 
  • Jake started to make a Brown Butter Sage Sauce for the pasta instead of the Bechamel but it didn't make it to the first service. He's definitely going home. 
  • Of all the dishes that Blue team made, the judges loved the Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Lime Curd the most. They really weren't crazy about the Watermelon, Tomato, and Brie salad.
  • Of all the dishes that the Red team made, the judges loved the Mini Quiche Lorraine. Hands down to Blanch for making the best dish from the Red team. They really didn't like the Chicken Sisig, Truffle Potato Agnolotti, and Salmon roll. The ones who prepared these, including the three Filipinos, might be going home today.
  • Compared to MasterChef US, the Asian contestants showed a lot more emotion throughout the challenge. You can see that the contestants already consider their teammates family, so it's a bittersweet feeling to see anyone go home. 
  • The final votes were tallied and one team had 29 votes while the other had a landslide 51 votes
  • The Blue team won! The Red team lost because of execution. The menu was great on paper, but they needed to execute better. 
  • I'm curious if it would change the result had the Red team served pasta in the first service 
  • Contestants shouldn't go home because of a team challenge. The MasterChef US format of team challenges followed by an elimination test would have been better. That would really show us who the weakest contestants are.
  • The contestant eliminated on this episode was Jake from the Philippines. It's sad to see a fellow Filipino go, but the judges made the correct call on this one. There were a lot of execution mistakes on the pasta. They also didn't taste any truffle inside the pasta filling and that felt like a letdown.


Here's a list of what each MasterChef Asia team cooked today. 
  • Red Team
    • Mini Quiche Lorraine 
    • Truffle Potato Agnolotti with Butter Sage Sauce
    • Chicken Sisig on Toast
    • Salmon Roll with Avocado
    • Orange Tart
  • Blue Team
    • Spiced Prawns on Cucumber Slices
    • Deep fried Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Sticky Passionfruit Sauce
    • Tenderloin Roll, Frisee Purple Carrot Vichy
    • Watermelon, Tomato and Brie
    • Lime Curd, Grilled Pineapple, and Crumble
You can watch the full episode for free at http://www.msn.com/en-ph/lifestyle/masterchefasia/full-episode-2-food-on-the-fly/vi-AAeltvM.

MasterChef Asia Recap and Thoughts for the week's episode will be released every Saturday at 7:00pm PHT. 

Any thoughts on the episode? Let us know through the comments! 

For my MasterChef Asia Recap and Thoughts on Episode 3, check it out here.

Further reading you might like:

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Cheers,
Chef Jay

3 comments:

  1. I watched this episode again recently. Lica burned the bechamel. She shouldve asked for help from other team members or at least been assertive enough as a leader to tell jake to change his choice of dish. But whats done is done.

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    Replies
    1. Really? Well, she was holding the saucepan a few scenes before it got burnt, but Jake was incharge of the pasta overall. Sadly, what's done is done and Jake got axed. Lica has been doing quite well in recent challenges though!

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    2. Yup. She accidentally left it behind.
      http://www.msn.com/en-my/lifestyle/masterchefasia/the-bechamels-burnt/vi-AAe64aX

      Personally, I think she and Rico will reach the top 10 at least. She may possibly even reach the top 5.

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