MasterChef Canada (season 7)

Gauntlet Pressure Test 1: Chef Shigeo Kimura visited the MasterChef kitchen to test the chefs' knife skills with a snapper usuzukuri dish, consisting of thinly sliced sashimi. The chefs had 15 minutes to break down a fresh snapper and beautifully present the dish. With the winning dish last week, Andre was immune from all challenges this week, while four chefs were saved after the first challenge. Jeremy presented the best dish and was saved along with Mai, Andrew, and Thea.

Gauntlet Pressure Test 2: The remaining chefs had to create their own personalized maki sushi rolls to be safe from the next challenge. The rolls had to be uramaki (rolled inside out) with a tempura element and thinly sliced toppings. Three further chefs were saved. Christopher’s vegetarian maki and Jen’s soy tuna maki were deemed the best and were saved. Barrie’s maki didn’t meet the brief as he added an extra layer of nori on the outside and April Lee’s maki was criticized for her strange combination which included salami. This left the judges to choose between Marissa’s sloppily presented but flavorful surf-and-turf maki and Andy’s tempura scallop maki, which had too much rice and little filling. Marissa was saved.

Pressure Test 1, Part 1: As the losing team, Mai, Andre, Andrew, Barrie and Jen faced a two-round Italian pressure test, in which one of them was sent home. In a big surprise twist, the judges announced not everyone on the winning team was exempted from the pressure test. As the captain of the Red Team, Jeremy was given the power to choose which team member to send to the pressure test; in a strategic move, he chose Andy. The first round featured pasta, and Michael's son Oscar Bonacini visited the MasterChef kitchen as a special guest to demonstrate three types of pasta for the chefs: capunti in a tomato sauce; lorighittas in a herb butter sauce; and trofie in a pesto sauce. The judges also announced that this was a head-to-head challenge in which Andy would decide the pairs and pasta dishes. He chose to cook against Barrie in capunti, and paired up Andre and Mai to compete with lorighittas, leaving Andrew to cook against Jen in trofie. Each judge decided the winner of one head-to-head match. Alvin deemed Jen’s trofie to be too hard despite having a better appearance, giving Andrew the win and sending him to safety. Claudio decided to send Mai to safety after Andre’s lorighittas were raw in the middle due to time mismanagement. Lastly, both Barrie’s and Andy’s capunti were near perfect, but Michael preferred Barrie’s more vibrant tomato sauce, thereby giving Barrie the win.

Quiz Challenge: The chefs competed in a game show challenge called Kitchenary! The judges quizzed them of their knowledge of culinary ingredients and techniques, with each correct answer giving them 10 points and an incorrect answer costing them 5 points, and the chef that had the highest score at the end won immunity from elimination. Because Andrew won the previous challenge, he received a 20 point head start. At the end of the challenge, Andrew won with 65 points.

Elimination Test 2: The Top 6 faced the classic tag team challenge, in which they had to replicate a complex luxurious seafood platter composed of six dishes: steamed mussels in a white wine broth, fritto misto with aioli, grilled sardines, stuffed squids, red snapper ceviche and scallop Coquilles Saint Jacques. With his last mystery box win, Andrew was given the advantage of choosing the teams. Targeting to eliminate Jeremy and Mai, he chose to pair up himself with Andy; Mai with Christopher, and Jeremy with Thea (who had a shellfish allergy). In the end, Andrew and Andy’s platter was mostly praised with notable minor issues, including a rough presentation, a lack of aioli, an overcooked fritto misto and a slightly watery ceviche. Mai and Christopher’s platter was highly praised, though a bone was found in their ceviche and their fritto misto needed more frying. Jeremy and Thea’s platter fared the worst with no fritto misto or aioli, badly overcooked mussels with no garnish, clumsily done scallops and a lacking ceviche. Mai and Christopher were declared winners of the challenge, while Jeremy and Thea faced elimination.

Team Challenge 2: The Top 5 chefs were tasked with working together as one group to prep, cook, plate and execute a 5-course tasting menu, with each member cooking individually for a high-end, fine dining dinner banquet for eight anonymous culinary insiders. The five chefs agreed on an Italian-inspired menu, although Mai and Thea briefly butted heads initially, with both wanting to serve a stuffed pasta dish and decided to go ahead with their dishes, regardless of concerns of repetitiveness. Throughout the 1 hour cookoff, Thea nearly faints from the pressure and required medical attention, but finished the challenge. At the end of the cook, the judges reveal the VIP guests were the chefs themselves and the 3 judges, and all five ranked each other’s dishes.

Skills Test: The Top 4 chefs were told for the first time in MasterChef Canada history, the finale will consist of three chefs and only one chef would be eliminated in the penultimate episode. The chefs were told that the first challenge featured three skill-testing rounds and that the winner would be given an advantage in the elimination challenge. Each of judge demonstrates a skill, such as a mirepoix of aromatics uniformly diced by Claudio, Alvin unveiling how to break down a coconut, and Michael laying out a trussed trio of chicken, roast beef, and trout. The chefs had to replicate all three judges' demo displays to move on to the next part of the challenge. Christopher finished the first skill-testing challenge first, followed by Thea and Andy, who move onto the next round. In the next round, Christopher maintained his lead and finished first, followed by Andy, leaving the two of them in the final skill-testing challenge. In the final round, in addition to trussing all three proteins, the two chefs had to also gut and stuff their trout within ten minutes. Neither chef finished their trout on time, but unlike the previous rounds, technique was key and Andy won the skill-testing challenge.