MasterChef season 8 episode 3 review: A road to Mystery Box redemption
The first Mystery Box of the season – This one was exciting since you basically were seeing the home cooks at their best — everyone had fairly common ingredients, which meant that there was a lot of people within their comfort zone.
Sam, Heather, and Mark (trust us, more on Mark later) were the three who were plucked out of the field as the … worst of the night. Who saw that coming? They weren’t happy, and they basically were sent out of the room to pout. Meanwhile, the following three home cooks were given real praise from the judges.
Yachekia – Biscuits and gravy. Basically, this is the sort of breakfast that anyone would want to eat. Did we mention that is the best mean of the day? Really tasty-looking stuff.
Jennifer – The self-proclaimed “debt collector from Louisiana” created a dish that was indicative of the sort of food that she wants to make.
Brien – He wasn’t as arrogant this time around, which was nice given that this showed more of his personality. He made fried chicken with a broccoli slaw.
The winner here was Brien, but that was almost more like a symbolic win given that ALL THREE WERE SAFE. Now, it’s back to the three cooks that were sent out at the start. They were all given a chance at redemption, which is where things started to shift past the typical format.
Redemption Time – Sam, Heather, and Mark effectively got a do-over on what they did the first time. They only had 45 minutes, and anyone who disappointed would be going home. They didn’t have to cook the same dish.
As far as twists go, this is a great one since it exposes some of the home cooks’ psychology. Would you do the same dish all over again if given the opportunity, or would you pivot and do something completely different? Interestingly, all three contestants all tried to do modifications of the same thing they did before. They all ended up making mistakes. Sam still may have put the meatloaf in too late, Heather was still take a big risk with the chimichurri, and Mark had a questionable raw bacon decision going on. After all of that, he was also super-lippy and that got him a tongue-lashing from Gordon. The dude has an above-it-all attitude, and that could get him in trouble just as much as the food.
The Judging – Both Sam and Heather got far better marks for their food this time around. As for Mark … well, he was at least confident. He did get better marks, but so did everyone. The truth of the matter was that Mark didn’t do enough. He was improved, but he also scaled back and with a fairly simple dish.
Final verdict
This was a nice way to start off the season, especially since it felt like the producers took into account past criticisms of the early part of the show. In spending half of the episode on just three people, we had a chance to get to know a few different people and suss out the vibe for the season.
As a personality, Mark will be missed given that he was a little of a fire-cracker — you need these people around to mix things up. Still, it probably was the right move. Episode Grade: B+.
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