‘MasterChef’ season 6, episode 3 review: Pie problems

Tonight gave us our first real proper episode of “MasterChef” season 6, but let’s not pretend that it was anything different from some other episodes over the years. This was a fairly predictable hour of TV, and one that contained the standard Mystery Box and Elimination Challenge.

Of the two, the Mystery Box was so much more exciting. Having contestants cook using ingredients that they have “in their own fridge” (still not sure how they figured this out) was a fun twist! This also allowed us to see a great diversity of food and creativity, which is something that this show does not always allow for. Often, the series opts more to give you something akin to the Elimination Challenge, which was basically making a variation of an Apple Pie. We understand the idea here to force the home cooks into doing something that they may have done at home already, but there’s only so much drama that we really get out of watching it.

So to see Brianna go home over a “runny pie” was sad, but when it comes to this, typically the people with the enormous edits are the ones that stick around a little bit longer. It’s hard to spend too much time on this particular exit.

Instead, this episode spent more time setting up people like Dan and Christopher as contenders, though at the same time we also saw the show set them up potentially for a fall. Both were egregiously cocky, with Christopher basically daring Dordon Ramsay to try it after he learned just how much cornstarch was in it. Maybe they go far, but at the same time we could also see them gone next week. Episode Grade: B-.

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