‘MasterChef’ season 5, episode 16 review: Christian, Leslie, brains, and tongues

We’ve got a double-dose of “MasterChef” on Fox tonight, but for the sake of judging each episode individually like Gordon Ramsay would a dish, we are going to compose two separate reviews … starting of course with this one.

The pleasant part of this episode was the family visit, which brought in loved ones from all over America for some of the home cooks to take on a food that their loved one really misses. This whole challenge felt a little awkward … for example, why would Leslie’s wife be so specific about the lamb rack?

Elizabeth won, which gave her the opportunity to sentence some of the other cooks to having to cook with some questionable proteins. Christian got the brain, Courtney the testicles, Cutter the heart, and Leslie the tongue.

The editing in this episode was pretty surprising, mostly because it looked like they sent Leslie on a train to Disaster Town around 50 minutes in. They spent so much time trying to stress how much of a disaster Christian was in getting his “brain pasta” together, but all of a sudden in front of the judges, Leslie wasn’t very good, either. We felt like he struggled, but the judges would have a hard time sending him home over Christian. The only argument we thought they could make is that Christian cooked his actual protein better … but still, that wasn’t much when the rest of his dish fell apart.

In the end, Christian did leave, and at the very last second, we actually thought the editing was turning his towards him staying again. He just got done in by over-thinking his dish. He’s a great guy it seems, though, and hopefully he does make his food truck into a success. Grade: B+.

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Photo: Fox