MasterChef season 8 episode 7 review: Did Yachecia make a mistake?
By the end of it, though, we’re not sure we could have more respect for Yachecia than we do. This is a woman who made some mistakes, owned them, and still fought to stay alive in the competition. Her performance at the end of the Team Challenge was disastrous; she wasn’t alone in the failure, but she was the captain and she understood that the burden for the loss fell on her. She was offered a chance to be immune from having to compete in the Pressure Test, but she carried the burden and went up against Jennifer, the person that she clearly perceived to be the weakest remaining.
You can argue that she should’ve went against Jeff, given that their discord seemed to be really problematic near the end of the episode, but we understand her thinking here. She went up against someone she thought that she could beat, and for a few moments, she may have still questioned if she made a right choice. Jennifer did a good job during the fish ‘n chips showdown, with the one weakness that she made being her ability to batter and fry the fish properly. This error was enough to doom her, even if she did everything else virtually better than Yachecia did. Kudos to Jennifer, who goes out with her head held high.
Meanwhile, Yachecia fights on, and provided that she works on her leadership and composure, she should still have a good shot of sticking around for the remainder of the season.
Other things to note
Clearly, Jeff’s being edited as the villain of the season, and we do understand why since the guy’s combative with everyone — including Gordon Ramsay. Clearly, he needs to know how to cook, but he’d be a much better contender if he took it down about eight notches. If you’re on the show, you have to remember that Gordon, Christina Tosi, and Aaron Sanchez want a good ambassador for the show — causing a ton of drama may not be the key to making that happen, even if you are talented. (We know that Jeff’s got a big heart outside the kitchen, so this may just be a result of the intensity of being in there.)
Elsewhere, Eboni established herself as a clear favorite after she pulled the Red Team from the ashes in the Team Challenge and had them producing a breakfast that anyone would want to eat. She has the passion and the ability to do very well this season, even though she was a little under-the-radar early on.
Overall
We’re glad that the show does have personalities like a Yachecia and a Jeff, since they add so many different dynamics to the show and the way people compete for the title. While we anticipated Jennifer’s exit, there was still a great edit behind the entire Pressure Test that kept us engaged just enough so that we had some doubt. Episode Grade: B+.
What did you think about tonight’s episode, and did the right home cook go home? Be sure to share below!
Also, click here for some further MasterChef news and updates, including a preview for the next installment! (Photo: Fox.)