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| Photo from MasterChef Asia FB Page |
- This episode, the MasterChef Asia contestants had another team challenge at the Changi airport. There was an elaborate scene at the start of the episode where the contestants were asked to head to the airport with uber, so let's just call this 'The Uber Episode'.
- The contestants were divided into three teams of three with the top 3 contestants in the previous episode as team leaders, each with a stall in Changi Airport to run. The teams had to cook with a certain cuisine (chosen at random) - Indonesian, Japanese, and Vietnamese. The team with the least number of votes will be facing elimination.
- The teams had 30 minutes to check out the competition at Changi Airport to observe the food standards and portion sizes in the airport
- They had 2 and a half hours to plan and prepare their dishes, after which they'll transport the food to Changi Airport for a 1 hour service. They had to prep enough food to serve as much passengers as they can.
- Each contestant had to choose their teams and the cuisine they will be cooking with by means of a knife draw. Here are the teams for tonight's challenge:
- The Red Team (Japanese Cuisine) was composed of:
- Ha - Team Captain
- Sandrian
- Priya
- The Blue Team (Vietnamese Cuisine) was composed of:
- Lennard - Team Captain
- Marcus
- Jasbir
- The Green Team (Indonesian Cuisine) was composed of:
- Lica - Team Captain
- Leong
- Blanche
- I wonder why Lica didn't choose Jasbir as a member of her team. The spice queen might have won her the challenge because of her knowledge of Indonesian cuisine. I'm not sure, is there something between Leong and Lica?
- The Red Team seems to be the weakest team tonight and the Blue Team is the strongest team. The Green Team might struggle because they don't have any knowledge of Indonesian cuisine.
- The Green team wanted to go for 3 dishes, while the other 2 teams were cooking 2 dishes each.
- The Blue Team didn't find any bread in the pantry, so they couldn't make any Banh Mi.
- Lennard seared the beef before marinating it, a weird technique. The judges pointed out that the meat needs to be raw for the marinade to flavor the beef. Lennard wouldn't listen and just went on with cooking the beef his way.
- Leong was cooking the Indonesian Sticky Beef Stew with Rice and he was doing a lot of work. He definitely loves a challenge, doesn't he?
- Lica used hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and candlenuts in her peanut sauce rather than peanuts. This may cost her the challenge because it doesn't sound too Indonesian. Susur showed her a technique to prepare the peanuts but I'm not sure she listened.
- Jasbir seems to be all over the place while preparing her meatballs. The fryer wasn't working but it's a good thing that Lennard immediately told the team to heat a big pot and use that instead.
- Leong still went with cooking the tripe by cooking it with thin strips in the pressure cooker. He might not get it cooked in time.
- That was a great meatball technique from Susur!
- Sandrian is fierce! I wouldn't want to mess with her at all.
- Jasbir was cooking the meatballs using the fryer and the pot. The meatballs look really good so far!
- Leong was assisting both Lica and Blanche throughout the challenge. He had the most difficult dish to pull off so it's amazing how much he was doing for the Green Team. He's acting like the captain and Lica seems to be right to choose him first.
- The Blue Team had an accident with their noodles, and it seems that it was Marcus who screwed it up because he used ice from a tray on the floor.
- The Red Team was fighting on whether they should leave the ice cubes on top of the cabbage. Sandrian looked so confused on what she should do. They eventually agreed to take the ice off and transfer it into the freezer.
- The Blue Team and Green Team sent Lennard and Blanche, the two pretty faces, out to attract customers to their stall. The Red team sent out Ha, very funny!
- Customers thought the vegetable noodle salad from the Green Team was bland - Lica will be going home if the green team loses tonight because her teammates did well. Leong had the best team from the Green Team and Blanche did really well with her dessert because a lot of customers liked it.
- The Red Team and Blue Team both had solid dishes. So it's up to being able to sell as many dishes as they can.
- The Blue Team had really tasty meatballs and they had good feedback from both the customers and judges. Lennard might go home if they lose because he seared the beef before marinading it.
- The Red Team had a really great salmon dish (moist and perfectly cooked) while the roasted pork belly was too thick and disappointing based on feedback from the judges and customers.
- The winning team for tonight is the Blue Team. I think it's a great win for Lennard, Marcus, and Jasbir. They are 3 of my favorite contestants!
- The losing team tonight was the Green Team with just 95 votes. It didn't surprise me that they lot based on the feedback from both the judges and the customers.
- Lica was eliminated from the competition. It's a sad episode for Filipino fans of the competition.
- I'm a Filipino and it's really sad to see all three Filipino contestants leave the competition so early. It doesn't mean that I won't stop watching MasterChef Asia because there are some pretty great contestants that are still in the competition. It's a nice show and you can learn a lot of techniques watching these brilliant contestants.
- I'm going to start ranking the top 5 contestants per week, based on who I think has what it takes to win it all. I think we have seen a lot from the contestants so far to know who can be the winner of MasterChef Asia.
Here are my picks for MasterChef Asia Top 5 (in order):
- Ha - winner
- Leong
- Lennard
- Jasbir
- Marcus
Lica would have been part of the top 5 had she not been eliminated.
Here's a list of what each MasterChef Asia team cooked today.
- Red Team
- Japanese Salmon Teriyaki Salad
- Japanese Pork Belly
- Blue Team
- Vietnamese Pork Balls
- Vietnamese Salad with Steak
- Green Team
- Indonesian Sticky Beef Stew with Rice
- Indonesian Coconut Pudding
- Indonesian Vegetable Noodle Salad with Peanut sauce
I would love to hear your thoughts on the episode, so please do leave a comment. Who do you think has what it takes to win MasterChef Asia?
Further reading you might like:
- A Primer on MasterChef Asia
- MasterChef Asia Season 1 Episode 6: Recap and Thoughts on Episode 6
- MasterChef Asia Season 1 Episode 7: Recap and Thoughts on Episode 7
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Cheers,
Chef Jay
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