‘MasterChef’ USA season 4 review: When mushrooms attack

It may seem strange, but we almost prefer these mystery box / elimination challenge episodes of “MasterChef” more than the ones that get the contestants out of the kitchen. We get to see a heck of a lot more creativity here, whereas watching everyone do the same thing a la a pressure test is never particularly as exciting.

At this point in the show, the edit is unfortunately making the majority of things predictable when it comes to the contestants. It is not particularly a challenge to figure out who is going to leave week in and week out, just when you look at things based on the edit. The bottom two tonight after the mushroom-based challenge (which we would have done absolutely terribly at since we hate mushrooms with the passion of a thousand fiery suns) was Bethy and Jordan. One has received a pretty substantial story edit as someone to watch out for, whereas the other person has not.

So was it a shock to see her leave the competition? Hardly, since the judges all felt like she did not give the mushrooms a dish that really allowed them to be shown off to their full potential. While this happened, we yet again saw some other cooks (including Natasha, whose attitude still fluctuates like a pendulum) continue to excel in the kitchen.

This season things are all over the place, and at this point, we really do not know who is going to win? Is there a favorite? For the first time in the show’s four-year history, we don’t think it will be a woman, based on the edit; instead, we’re putting our money behind James at the moment, who seems to be pretty likable and confident in his food.

Who is your favorite right now to win “MasterChef”? If you want to read one of our most-recent contestant interviews, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox