MasterChef Junior season 5 episode 8 review: Who’s back in the kitchen?
After all, if we were speaking within this article purely about the course of events that we saw in this episode, it’d be rather brief. Jasmine won an advantage breaking down chicken in the first competition, and she was able to use her advantage to get the right protein (the oysters) in order to make a second dish that the judges really liked. She was the slam-dunk choice to advance, which makes sense given that she was never expected to be sent home in the first place last week.
As for the second returning home cook, it’s … Gonzalo! Great for him. He has a lot of promise, and more than that he seems to have the focus and understanding as to how to succeed moving forward. Charlie and Donovan both probably need a little more experience, and while we love Mashu, he’s almost the Katsuji of MasterChef Junior (to use a Top Chef analogy) in that he goes so big and tries so many different things that he ends up over-complicating things. Syd not making it through was somewhat of a surprise, mostly because of the fact that she was someone who had the hardest ingredient of all in the chicken feet. Real talk: If you have a young chef who’s so worried about her food that she’s nervous about trying it herself, you know that you’re making something a little bit unusual.
Now, let’s dive into the concept of bringing people back. As a general rule, it’s not our favorite twist since you do want there to be a level playing field, and this is not something that the young cooks know about during the season. If everyone knows it’s happening before they start the season, it’s a little different.
With MasterChef Junior, it’s an exception since this is not really a show about winning huge sums of money. It’s more of a learning experience for the kids and a chance to inspire people at home. There’s nothing more inspiring than watching someone earn redemption and get a second chance. The two kids selected are worthy, and we’ll see now where the competition goes from here. Episode Grade: B+.
Interestingly, we did recently do an exit interview with Jasmine prior to her elimination from MasterChef Junior. If you want to read that right now, you can do so by heading over to the link here! (Photo: Fox.)