‘MasterChef’ USA season 4 review: Into the wild, and into hot water

Ever since Graham Elliot first hyped up this outdoor-themed challenge on “MasterChef” to us earlier this summer, we’ve been stoked to see how it will happen. You’re putting cooks out there, including some who probably hate the outdoors, into a pretty tricky environment and then asking them to function. Not exactly a fun way to spend a competition with cameras in your faces.

Yet for whatever reason, these people, regardless of who we like and who drives us nuts, continue to impress us week after week in some pretty surprising ways. For example, who in the world braises a rabbit in just two hours, and also outdoors? Also, who makes pasta from scratch? The fact that the blue team lead by Bri did all of this and still lost is something to drop your jaw at, since Natasha managed to find a way to pull off a win with the rest of the Red Team. Wow, or to quote Gordon Ramsay, wow wow wow.

This of course meant that we had a “dreaded pressure test” featuring Bri, Jordan, and Jessie for the first time ever having to make something that every lover of baked goods enjoys: A chocolate eclair. Who doesn’t love getting one of these at the local bakery? The problem is we’ve never sat around and thought about how tough they could be for a rookie to make. All for of these cooks looked lost at times, and by the time they were done, it was pretty clear that Bri and Jessie especially could be in some trouble, despite being the favorite of last week’s eliminated cook Bethy.

In the end, though, Bri ended up leaving the competition in a pretty close showdown. We think that she will be just fine at the end of the day. Jessie, meanwhile, will continue to fight for another day.

Now, the race is down to five, and there are likely some crazy things ahead. What do you want to see happen? If you want to check out some more of the latest “MasterChef” news, be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: Fox