Episode Report Card Mr. Sobell: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Eat Where the Truckers Eat
By Mr. Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 7 | Aired on 08.25.2010
Anyway, the votes are knotted up at 17, and Sharone decides to gamble -- let's douse the buns in bacon grease! Apparently, it produces nicely toasted buns. And if the truckers happen to be felled by massive coronaries after casting their votes for the Red Team, well, them's the breaks. At any rate, it's helped the Red Team surge to a lead, trucker arteries be damned. Gordon brings over a bacon for the Blue Team to taste to see if they want to maybe rethink the way they're doing things. "That burger I just tasted was gross," sniffs Jake, who thinks that the whole thing is oversauced and that the bacon is overcooked. His palate must not match that of the truckers, then, because the Red Team is just seven votes from victory. "There is no way that the Red Team had a better burger than the Blue Team," Jake insists. I got a scoreboard that says you're mistaken, friend.
So yeah, the Red Team overcomes its horrible organization and middling teamwork to win the burger cook-off. Credit their adaptability, their secret sauce, and, of course, the all-healing power of bacon. "Our burger was the better burger," Jake continues to say. "The weaker burger won today." Perhaps that mantra will help you in tomorrow's Pressure Test.
Speaking of which, we've left behind that depressing desert for the slightly less depressing confines of the MasterChef kitchen. The Blue Team stands hang-doggedly in front of the judges -- in between them, there's a table covered by one of those black curtains the show's producers apparently bought in bulk. [Or they keep using the same one. Hope they wash it regularly. - Zach] Underneath that curtain: 25 ingredients -- some of which the contestants may recognize, some of which they may not. They'll have to guess as many as they can until they miss; lowest score loses the apron. Clear? OK, Jake, start us off, while the rest of the Blue Team cowers for safety in a soundproof booth.
Joe and Graham pull back the curtain to reveal... well a lot of stuff, actually. Jake takes a look around -- "I'm shooting for 20," he voice-overs -- and starts guessing. He's got to grab an ingredient, carry it over to the table, and tell the judges exactly what it is. That takes up a fair amount of camera time, so let me just cut to the chase here -- he identifies golden raisins, tomatillos, butternut squash, macadamia nuts, rosemary, plantains, lemongrass, filet, smoked salmon, okra and rhubarb. He is finally undone by watercress, which he mistakenly IDs as sorrel. Nevertheless, it's an impressive performance -- even Gordon seemed wowed -- and he's set a high enough bar at 11 that it seems unlikely the five remaining humps will all top him. Jake is feeling less confident: "You blew it, you're done," he huffs. Since the opposite of what everyone says on MasterChef always happens, I'm going to assume he'll be joining us next week.