‘MasterChef’ season 5, episode 8 review: Cutter’s seeing red (velvet)

Tonight’s “MasterChef” basically brought all of the same goods that you have the past several weeks: Pretty good drama, interesting challenges, and the addition of a contestant going off at the end was a nice little touch.

So where do we come down on Cutter mouthing off about his red velvet cake in the pressure test tasting pretty good? Basically, we feel it comes from a defensive place more than anything else. He’s been attacked a lot by the judges, and he’s that sort of machismo guy that feels the need to stand up for himself when he doesn’t need to be. We do actually think that Joe Bastianich was slightly putting words in his mouth and trying to get a rise out of him, but you have to know that this is reality TV. You will come across as the jerk if you act out, and not them.

Ironically, we actually wanted Cutter to stay just for bringing drama to the place … even though him saying in the pressure test that Leslie should go home is laughable. He made a great cake! That just sounded stupid. We really just wanted Dan to go home simply because he wasn’t bringing anything to the table.

In the end, the contestant who left the kitchen was … Dan. For entertainment purposes, this was the right move, but we really do feel bad for Dan. He seems like a nice guy, and really wanted to be there at the “greatest competition in the world” to learn.

We don’t mean to gloss over the rest of this episode, but the diner challenge was just dull and the same thing we get every other episode. People walk out, mistakes are made, and we really don’t like it when the cooks don’t get a chance to be creative. Grade: B-.

What did you think about this “MasterChef” episode, and do you feel that the right cook went home? Share in the comments.