MasterChef (U.S. season 5)

Season 5 of the American competitive reality television series MasterChef premiered on Fox on May 26, 2014.

Many contestants this season broke records or made history for the show in a number of ways. Runner-up Elizabeth Cauvel was the first to never be in the bottom 2/3 or lose a team challenge. This means she never had to compete in a pressure test. Leslie Gilliams survived the most pressure tests to date (survived 6 pressure tests, and eliminated on his seventh). Joshua "Cutter" Brewer survived the most times in the bottom 2/3 facing elimination (6 times) and Gordon Houston was the first contestant to withdraw due to medical reasons. Tyler Viars was the first to be disqualified for mistakenly serving another contestant's dish. This season's finale is the first finale where both contestants were of the same gender (female).

Courtney Lapresi was the winner of this season while Elizabeth Cauvel was the runner-up in this season.

Top 22

Elimination Table

     (WINNER) This cook won the competition.

     (RUNNER-UP) This cook finished in second place.

     (WIN) The cook won the individual challenge (Mystery Box Challenge or Elimination Test).

     (WIN) The cook was on the winning team in the Team Challenge and was directly advanced to the next round.

     (HIGH) The cook was one of the top entries in the individual challenge, but did not win.

     (IN) The cook was not selected as a top entry or bottom entry in an individual challenge.

     (IN) The cook was not selected as a top entry or bottom entry in a team challenge.

     (IMM) The cook did not have to compete in that round of the competition and was safe from elimination.

     (IMM) The cook was selected by Mystery Box Challenge winner and did not have to compete in the Elimination Test.

     (PT) The cook was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, competed in the Pressure Test, and advanced.

     (NPT) The cook was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, but was exempted from the Pressure Test.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in an individual elimination challenge, but was not the last person to advance.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in an individual elimination challenge, and was the last person to advance.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in the Team Challenge and they were the only person from their team to advance.

     (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in the Team Challenge, and their team was last to advance.

     (WDR) The cook withdrew from the competition due to illness or personal reasons.

     (DSQ) The cook was disqualified due to a violation of the competition rules.

     (ELIM) The cook was eliminated from MasterChef.

Episodes

Episode 1

• Original Airdate: Monday May 26, 2014
• Auditions Round 1: The top 30 contestants were each given an hour in which to cook their signature dishes with full use of the MasterChef pantry at their disposal, with the challenge meant to decide whether a contestant would be worthy of being awarded a MasterChef apron. They were also warned that anyone guilty of any severe errors would be eliminated before the hour was even up. Two contestants were eliminated in this manner; Gavin was eliminated 35 minutes in for generally poor technique on his bland chicken liver pâté (including never once tasting his food as he cooked and using very little seasoning), while Natanya was eliminated 50 minutes in for producing an awful-tasting and overly acidic lemon butter caper sauce with raw wine in it (two more contestants, named Rickie and Ruth, seemed to have been eliminated before the end of this round, but it was never shown). The judges then tasted the dishes and awarded aprons to 17 contestants (Ahran, Christian, Christine, Courtney, Cutter, Dan, Daniel, Elizabeth, Francis B., Jaimee, Jordan, Kira, Stephani, Tyler, Victoria, Whitney, and Willie). The remaining 9 contestants (Amy, Astrid, Chandis, Corey, Elise, Francis L., Gordon, Leslie, and Michael) were all called down and told that while their dishes didn't quite meet the mark of those who earned a white apron and made it up to the balcony, they would all get a second and final chance to cook a dish worthy for some or all of them to receive a white apron from the judges and advance to the next round.
• Auditions Round 2: Each contestant (and Chef Ramsay, who produced his own dish after being challenged by Astrid) was given another hour, along with a refrigerator full of simple, common ingredients (including chicken, shrimp, bacon, potatoes, mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers, corn, and carrots), as well as a MasterChef staple box. When the allotted hour was up, Ramsay presented his dish to Joe and Graham consisting of a Minted Shrimp Dumpling cooked in a sweet and sour Asian-style broth, which Graham revealed was the standard that they wanted the contestants to aspire to reach. The dishes by the home cooks were tasted in three groups of three, where each contestant would either earn an apron or be sent home for good based on that dish alone. In the first group, Gordon's pan-seared chicken breast with a soft-boiled egg and potato puree and Leslie's crispy chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, spinach, and bacon served with mashed potatoes and carrots received some criticism over their presentation (compared to Chef Ramsay's dish) and absurd portion size respectively, but their dishes were otherwise enjoyed by the judges, earning them both aprons. Corey on the other hand produced an underwhelming portion of fried chicken with sauteed spinach and a potato soufflé with a parmesan crisp that was so badly overcooked that Chef Ramsay broke the plate trying to remove it from the ramekin, which easily resulted in Corey's elimination. In the second group, despite earning Joe's ire (where he told her that if she was working in his kitchen, she would be taking a taxi home) for making a huge, filthy mess of her work area, Astrid's pan-seared chicken breast with bacon-potato hash was loved by all three judges, easily earning an apron. Amy and Michael failed to earn aprons however, with Amy's dish suffering from her chicken taco being really dry, and Michael's roasted chicken with corn maque choux and a poached egg being heavily over-seasoned with salt. In the third and final group, the judges were concerned about Francis L.'s style of cooking, as he used molecular gastronomy (a technique generally scorned by the judges, as shown with season 2 contestant Alvin Schultz) in the earlier challenge and produced a complicated sous vide shrimp and spinach pasta dish (he called it "Runaway Shrimp") for this challenge, but they ultimately felt he had executed it well enough to deserve an apron. Chandis's dish suffered from the potatoes in her rosti stack served with shrimp, spinach and mint being completely raw (which Joe called "one of the worst offenses in the MasterChef kitchen"), which quickly resulted in her being eliminated. Finally, the judges (especially Gordon) were critical about Elise's decision to make another pie (chicken pot pie stuffed with roasted chicken, mushrooms, and carrots served with corn succotash) when she'd made a pie in the previous challenge (blueberry, goat cheese and basil hand pies), but felt that she had shown enough improvement and potential with her second pie to be awarded an apron as well. So overall, Ahran, Astrid, Christian, Christine, Courtney, Cutter, Dan, Daniel, Elise, Elizabeth, Francis B., Francis L., Gordon, Jaimee, Jordan, Kira, Leslie, Stephani, Tyler, Victoria, Whitney, and Willie received a white apron and advanced to the Top 22, while Gavin, Natanya, Rickie, Ruth, Corey, Michael, Amy, and Chandis did not succeed in earning an apron and were sent home on day one.

Episode 2

• Original Airdate: Monday June 2, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 1: The top 22 contestants were faced with their first Mystery box Challenge, which was dessert-based. In the box, items included chocolate, flour, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, various extracts, lady fingers, brandy, honey, fresh ground coffee, and other various baking products. Joe Bastianich then stated that at least one person will be eliminated from the competition at the end of this challenge. The cooks had 90 minutes to prepare their dishes. During the challenge, Elizabeth and Leslie had a confrontation about work ethics and personal life, for which Chef Ramsay reprimanded Leslie, as he is the oldest and should be the most mature. After the time was up, the judges selected 4 contestants; Cutter, Astrid, Courtney, and Willie. Cutter and Astrid were deemed to have the worst dishes. Cutter's cappuccino pudding and biscotti was disliked by all three judges. Gordon Ramsay stated he was offended by Cutter putting the MasterChef Logo on the pudding in caramel, while Joe thought Cutter's biscotti was misnamed and incorrect. Joe then stated that everyone's dishes need to have a certain standard. Astrid's lemon tart with lavender were raw and inedible. Gordon stated that he doesn't see much potential in Astrid. Graham then added that while baking and pastry may not be her forte, she needs to know what she's doing and how to elevate her weaknesses in the kitchen.
• Eliminated: Astrid
• In the end, Astrid was eliminated for her lack of drive and potential. This marks the second time where a person was eliminated after the mystery box challenge after Samantha of Season 3. Willie and Courtney were deemed the best dishes. Courtney's Honey cake with toasted pecan, honey caramel topping, mixed berry coulis and vanilla whipped cream received rave reviews, while Graham stated that it looks like a restaurant quality Dessert and her use of salt was really smart. Gordon said that the dessert could go on the menu's of any of the judge's restaurants. Willie's Spiced Gingerbread Mini Cakes with an orange coffee mascarpone cream and spicy mixed berry compote with cayenne pepper was delicious. Joe stated that it was delicate, beautiful and well plated (unlike Willie himself). Gordon said it was a party in his mouth. In the end, Courtney was deemed the winner of the challenge.
• Elimination Test 1: For the Elimination Test, Courtney was given the option of choosing three ground meat based dishes: meatballs, meatloaf, and hamburgers. For winning the Mystery Box challenge, Courtney was also immune from the challenge. She chose for everyone to make meatloaf, and she also got to choose 10 contestants to receive immunity. She chose to save Leslie, Jaimee, "Little" Gordon, Elise, Cutter, Francis L., Kira, Ahran, Elizabeth, and Christian. The remaining 10: Willie, Dan, Stephani, Jordan, Victoria, Whitney, Francis B., Tyler, Daniel, and Christine had to make a stunning meatloaf dish in 60 minutes. Once the time was up, the judges tasted. There were some highs: Francis B's Burrata stuffed Short Rib and Lamb meatloaf with charred bok choy, oyster mushroom caps and romesco sauce, Daniel's Lamb and Beef meatloaf with sweet potato mash, Christine's veal and pork meatloaf with fried egg and basil-fennel pesto, and Willie's Beef and pork meatloaf with creamy mashed potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and pine nuts. The decision for the best meatloaf came down between Francis B. and Willie, with the judges awarding Francis B. the win and an advantage for the team challenge due to taking a bigger risk with his dish. Meanwhile, Jordan's pork and veal meatloaf with roasted tomato cream sauce received lukewarm reviews from Gordon for being under-seasoned. Stephani's Herbed lamb meatloaf with couscous, pepper ribbons, and a blue cheese cream sauce, Whitney's Caribbean-Asian style meatloaf with lemongrass, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and a mango glaze with sweet potato mash and green beans, and Dan's Asian inspired veal, pork, and short rib meatloaf with carrots, onions, shittake mushrooms, and kimchi made of brussels sprouts, swiss chard, and boo chop all received bad reviews. Victoria and Tyler's meatloaves were not shown. Gordon spat out Stephani's meatloaf, criticizing it for being too dry, overwhelmed with chili flakes and poor usage of the blue cheese and couscous, and told her she should be going home. Whitney's meatloaf was severely overcooked, bland, the mango glaze on it was much too sweet, and he thought it looked like a TV dinner and she turned it into a TV disaster by Gordon, while Dan's was deemed absolutely disgusting due to a wet, soppy blend, raw brussels sprouts, and poor, overall flavor (Dan himself admitted he got overconfident).
• Bottom 3: Dan, Whitney, and Stephani
• Eliminated: Whitney
• Dan was reprimanded by Gordon for cooking out of control, humiliating the meatloaf, and getting too cocky for his own good, but was ultimately sent back to his station (but not without being warned to get a grip and get focused with his cooking) due to his meatloaf being better than those belonging to the other two. Dan said he promises to never disappoint the judges again. Then the judges left Stephani and Whitney to face the second elimination of the night. The judges asked Courtney who she thought would be sent home, to which she replied that because passion and love for food were essential to getting far in the competition, she thought Whitney would be eliminated. Ultimately, Courtney was correct with her guess and Whitney was eliminated; while Stephani's meatloaf was singled out for its poor all-around technique, flavor, thought, and execution, the judges felt that Whitney's inability to bring passion, energy, creativity, and flare to her food were worse than the mistakes that Stephani made with her meatloaf.

Episode 3

• Original Airdate: Monday June 9, 2014
• Team Challenge 1: The 20 remaining contestants were brought to Mojave Desert's US Army base Fort Irwin to participate in their first team challenge of the season. For winning the meatloaf elimination test, Francis B. would be a team captain in this challenge and could choose his entire team. Leading the Red team, he selected Cutter, Tyler, Victoria, Francis L., Willie, Christine, Elizabeth, Ahran and Kira to join his brigade. The remaining contestants (Christian, Courtney, Dan, Daniel, Elise, Gordon, Jaimee, Jordan, Leslie and Stephani) formed the blue team, and they elected Daniel as their leader. Each team had to serve a meal consisting of one grilled meat, one sauce, and one side item to a group of 500 U.S. Army soldiers, the largest number ever fed in the history of MasterChef team challenges. The Red team had no trouble deciding their menu thanks to Willie's ideas, going with a grilled pork chop served with bacon Mac and Cheese and an apple cranberry chutney. The Blue team, however, had a disagreement between Daniel (who wanted to use chicken) and Leslie (who wanted to use beef, saying it was a better fit for the army and that chicken was difficult to grill for large groups) on deciding the protein. Since most people agreed with chicken,they eventually went with a barbecued chicken breast served with potato salad. Both teams had their difficulties during prep, with the Blue team placing severely undercooked chicken breasts cooked by Stephani(and Leslie who checked the chicken and said it was raw but Stephani did not care) in their hot box that Gordon reprimanded them on, while the Red team struggled to deal with the thick cuts of their pork and then producing a gloppy mac and cheese, forcing them to ditch the mac and cheese and switch to coleslaw with only 45 minutes left in prep. When service began, both teams got off to an okay start, but the Red team quickly broke down due to the delay of cooking double-cut pork chops. To make matters worse, two of their dishes were returned from the soldiers due to being raw and severely overcooked in the middle, which Gordon was infuriated by, leading him to scold the Red team. The Red team changed direction by butterflying the pork chops, which resulted in better cooked pork and much more positive reviews. The Blue team had no trouble during service, with good reviews received on their chicken and potato salad. When all the soldiers were fed, they lined up in front of the team that they think should win the challenge. In the end, despite having more trouble with the service and consistency aspect, the Red team received 329 out of 500 votes and won the first team challenge. This left the Blue team, who received 171 votes of 500 votes, to face the first pressure test, much to their shock and bewilderment.
• Pressure Test 1: Because they lost the Team Challenge, the 10 members of the Blue Team had to face the first Pressure Test. Daniel was told he would get the choice of which 3 members of his team he would like to exempt from competing in the challenge (including himself, which he refused to do due to his performance), and chose to save Christian, Gordon and Dan. Leslie was angry that Daniel did not pick him and put his target on Daniel. The remaining 7 members had 75 minutes to bake a perfect Blueberry Pie with a lattice crust. Once the 75 minutes of cooking were over, Jaimee's lattice crust blueberry pie with blood orange and orange liqueur, Leslie's traditional lattice crust blueberry pie with cinnamon and ginger, and Courtney's lattice crust blueberry pie with Meyer lemon zest were all deemed delicious, well balanced, and well prepared, resulting in the three being sent to safety up on the balcony first. Elise, with a pie that "tasted like sand" due to an undercooked base and floury filling, and Stephani, with a crust that was also deemed undercooked, and too sweet due to her use of adding too much sugar and an unbearable amount of crushed pecans to the pie, were terrible. Jordan had a sloppy crust and a filling containing specks of raw flour, and Daniel got his pie in the oven too late and served a very unappetizing-looking dish.
• Bottom 2: Elise and Stephani
• Eliminated: Stephani
• In the end, while Elise had disappointed the judges again due to her past experience and passion for baking and yet had produced another underwhelming pie, Stephani was eliminated due to producing results that continuously contained too many fundamental flaws.

Episode 4

• Original Airdate: Monday June 16, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 2:
• Left: Gordon
• At the beginning of the episode, the judges announced that "Little" Gordon had withdrawn from the show due to illness, marking the first time in the history of the American version that someone had been forced to drop out during the season. The 18 remaining contestants were required to cook using a collection of live seafood, including crab, shrimp and scallops, with access to a limited pantry for ingredients to accompany the seafood. During the challenge several of the contestants struggled to work with the seafood, while Ahran openly accused the judges of bias toward Courtney. The top three dishes were Francis B.'s seared scallops with a mixed seafood broth, Ahran's Asian-style spicy mixed seafood stew, and Christian's Creole-style shrimp & grits. The judges decided that Ahran's spicy mixed seafood stew was the best, winning her the challenge.
• Elimination Test 2: For winning the Mystery Box Challenge, Ahran was given immunity from the next challenge, which was based around sweet treats; she was given the choice of muffins, cookies or donuts, and chose the latter. The judges then told each contestant that they would be required to cook twelve donuts and present them in a box. During the cooking phase, both Courtney and Francis B. had major troubles, as Courtney's first batch of dough went badly wrong because she forgot to add the eggs, and she didn't have enough yeast to make a second, forcing her to ask everyone else until Francis L. eventually gave her some, while Francis B.'s dough failed to rise, forcing him to make spherical donuts that Gordon likened to meatballs. On the other hand, Kira forgot to melt her shortening in with her milk and thus her dough was dry. After the challenge ended, Ahran was given a third advantage, picking a further contestant to be immune, and she chose Francis B., saying that she respected his abilities and thought he deserved to carry on in the competition despite being one of the strongest competitors and producing terrible-looking donuts. Courtney was the first-up to be judged, and while it initially appeared that she had recovered well from her early disaster by presenting donuts that looked aesthetically pleasing, Gordon spat out her donut, which she had bizarrely seasoned with a huge amount of salt by mistake when she rushed to make her second dough. Leslie, despite having never actually made his own donuts before, wowed the judges with his three different types of donuts, getting huge compliments. Kira's donuts initially looked impressive, but were found to have no filling (despite she claimed she filled them) and tasted more like kaiser rolls. Victoria's donuts got great reviews, as they were felt to be simplistic, well-executed and tasty, while Christine's suffered from uneven portioning in the dough and mediocre presentation, but were otherwise liked by the judges in terms of their flavor. Daniel inexplicably presented 16 donuts instead of 12, but Graham felt they still tasted great and called him "a beast with the sugar and the yeast". The judges had predicted that Francis L. had set himself up for failure by making 12 different flavors and using bizarre combinations of toppings (including a mixture of prosciutto, stout, and maple syrup), but to their surprise they greatly enjoyed his donuts. Cutter's donuts were small and uneven, and like those of Kira, lacked filling. Morever, his frosting broke and the donuts were poorly presented, though were felt to taste okay. Although four boxes of donuts really stood out in the challenge, the two best boxes of donuts were named as those of Leslie, for very strong overall execution, and Francis L., for making his risky choice of twelve toppings work, giving them the role of Team Captain in the next team challenge.
• Bottom 3: Cutter, Kira, and Courtney
• Eliminated: Kira
• Cutter was warned by the judges that they were getting impatient with his consistently mediocre, unimpressive performances, but felt in this case he deserved to be sent to safety, leaving Courtney and Kira to face elimination. In the end, the judges felt that the lack of passion that Kira had displayed so far in the competition had put her behind, and she was therefore eliminated, much to Ahran's dismay.

Episode 5

• Original Airdate: Monday June 23, 2014
• Team Challenge 2: The contestants were brought to a beach in southern California, where it is revealed that they will be cooking for a wedding party of 120 guests. Leslie captained the red team and chose Christian, Francis B., Tyler, Daniel, Christine, Ahran (who immediately took offense to Leslie's mispronouncing her name as "Iran"), Jordan and Jaimee. Francis L. picked Willie, Courtney, Cutter, Victoria, Elizabeth, Dan and Elise for his blue team. The teams were then told that the bride and groom requested a scallop starter and a seabass entrée, which they had two hours to cook. Francis L. had a clear strategy throughout, and decided to serve the scallops with arugula salad, papaya and a pineapple sauce, and the seabass with white asparagus, purple cauliflower puree and lemongrass beurre blanc; consequently, the blue team were able to work through the cooking phase with a minimum of fuss. On the other hand, Leslie had no real ideas for the red team's menu, and the rest of the team came to a consensus on cooking the scallops with mango salsa and pea puree, and the seabass with a purple mashed potato and cauliflower mix. During the cooking, Leslie proved so weak and indecisive as a leader (in particular not even being able to explain the menu to Chef Ramsay, along with trouble handling Ahran's openly hostile attitude and Jordan's own indecisiveness) that upon Daniel's encouragement, Francis B. deposed Leslie as team leader and took over. The red team managed to regroup and got their scallop appetizer out without trouble, while the blue team had trouble with their appetizer going cold due to the time it took to set up the plates. However, the red team quickly came tumbling down again when it came to the seabass entree; Francis B. had gotten rid of the original potato side, believing the guests wouldn't like it, but forgot to replace it with anything else. Chef Ramsay ordered the team to put something else on the plate, and they hurriedly threw together a side salad. Adding insult to injury, the red team ran out of seabass shortly before the end of service, and had to slice their last few portions in half to serve all the guests. While the guests seemed to indicate a slight preference for the red team's dishes, the blue team's food was also greatly enjoyed by the bride and groom and their guests. In the end, the blue team were named the winners thanks to the high quality of their food and their far better teamwork, sending the red team into the pressure test.
• Pressure Test 2: The nine members of the red team were told that only three of them would have to take part in the pressure test, and as the designated team captain, Leslie was asked who he would choose to take part; he chose Christian for trying to dictate the team's menu over him, Daniel for pushing Francis B. into taking over the team captain's role, and Ahran for being disrespectful to him from the start of the challenge. However, the judges then told Leslie that the decision wasn't actually his to make, and that they would choose. Gordon selected Leslie without any hesitation, deeming him to be arguably the worst team captain in the show's history. Graham selected Jordan for being lost in the service and contributing little of value. Joe selected Francis B., noting that while he had gotten the team organized he still made two major blunders in forgetting to replace the potato side and then running out of ingredients. Ahran, Christian, Christine, Daniel, Jaimee and Tyler were sent to safety, while Leslie, Jordan and Francis B. were told to each cook a portion of steak frites, with the steak's temperature being specified as medium rare. During the challenge all three men seemed relatively confident, through several of the other cooks shouted out advice to Francis B. in an effort to ensure that he survived the challenge. Gordon sampled Leslie's dish and felt that the steak was cooked and seasoned perfectly, but felt that his fries were awful, as they were soggy, limp and tasteless. Graham noted that Jordan's steak was a little overcooked, and his fries were felt to be similarly poor to Leslie's. Similarly, Joe found Francis B.'s steak to be overcooked as well, though noted that he at least had the best fries of the three.
• Bottom 2: Francis B. and Jordan
• Eliminated: Jordan
• Between the remaining two, Francis B. was deemed to have the edge due to better seasoning on the steak and generally better-executed fries, resulting in him being sent to safety, and leading to a teary-eyed Jordan being eliminated.

Episode 6

• Original Airdate: Monday June 30, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 3: Under the Mystery Box was another mystery: 52 unlabeled aluminum cans containing various processed vegetables, fruit, meat and seafood. The cooks were tested on their ability to elevate cheap canned ingredients to restaurant-quality dishes. Jaimee was completely stumped, and appeared to waste time panicking before making an unremarkable soup. Willie was more confident, feeling that his experience with eating out of cans would help him, but Gordon dismissed the Eggs Benedict he made as lacking imagination. Additionally, Francis L. was proud of his unexpected technique of combining all the juices from the canned seafood into a fish stock, but his soup was not selected. In the end, the top 3 were: Elizabeth's borscht topped with chickpeas and diced canned ham; Victoria's potted meat fritters, which combined five types of canned meat and were served with spiced ketchup, artichoke hearts, and beets; and Ahran's rolled sponge cake with a fruit cocktail and vanilla whipped cream filling (the fruit cocktail was the only can she used). Despite some constructive criticism over her use of condensed milk, Elizabeth was chosen as the winner and received the advantage in the next challenge.
• Elimination Test 3: MasterChef Season 4 winner Luca Manfè and MasterChef Junior Season 1 winner Alexander Weiss returned to the MasterChef kitchen, each bearing one of their signature dishes. Luca presents pancetta-wrapped veal with radicchio and apples, while Alexander had made passion fruit panna cotta with berry coulis and hazelnuts. For her 2 advantages, Elizabeth receives immunity from elimination and is given the privilege of selecting who'd cook which dish. In the Masterchef kitchen, Elizabeth assigns the panna cotta to Cutter, Christian, Jaimee, Christine, Ahran, Francis, Victoria and Tyler, leaving Courtney, Dan, Daniel, Elise, Leslie, Willie and Francis L. to cook Luca's veal. Despite his consistently bad desserts and having never eaten a panna cotta in his life, Cutter's panna cotta is made properly and enjoyed by the judges. During the cooking time, Jaimee makes the puzzling discovery that one of her panna cottas had gone missing from the blast chiller, leaving her with only 2 that are loose and failed to set in time, leading to mixed reviews from the judges. She's an early candidate for elimination, as is Willie, whose veal is severely overcooked, and Christian, whose panna cotta is tasteless and overly gelatinous. But when Tyler is called on to present his panna cotta, the judges reveal that he'd made an egregious mistake: he'd actually taken Jaimee's third panna cotta out of the blast chiller rather than his own.
• Disqualified: Tyler
• Although the judges believe his mistake was an honest one, they emphasize the need to maintain the competition's integrity, and Tyler is immediately disqualified for not serving his own meal to the judges, a rule in the competition that's heavily stressed by the judges; thus, no bottom 3 is selected. After Tyler leaves, the judging ends with Courtney being declared to have cooked the best meal of the day after getting rave reviews for her veal dish, setting her up to receive an advantage in the following episode.

Episode 7

• Original Airdate: Monday July 7, 2014
• Team Challenge 3: As the contestants walked into the kitchen, the judges informed them that they will be cooking their next team challenge in the kitchen, and will be working in pairs. The bottom 2 pairs would then have to face the dreaded pressure test. As Courtney had won the last Elimination Test, she had the advantage of choosing the teams and was also safe from elimination. Targeting Christian, Courtney paired up: Christian and Francis B., Cutter and Dan, Jaimee and Elizabeth, Ahran and Leslie, Victoria and Christine, Francis L. and Elise, and lastly Willie and Daniel. The pairs had to cook a "surf and turf" dish, with choices of ahi tuna, monkfish, oysters, red snapper, octopus, king crab, crawfish and clams for their "surf" and ribeye steak, pork belly, short ribs, lamb rack, venison loin, chicken, pheasant, bacon and veal chop as their "turf". The contestants had five minutes in the pantry and one hour of cooking time. During their time in the pantry Cutter and Dan were unable to come to a conclusion on what to create due to their constant arguing over the concept of their dish, only bringing out meager ingredients. In the midst of the cooking, Ahran and Leslie worked well together putting all their differences aside. On the other hand, Cutter and Dan continued to argue over what dish to execute. Ahran and Leslie served a Spicy Pork Belly Tostada with Crab Guacamole, Pico de Gallo and Kimchi Fried Rice, which received great reviews from the judges who also praised their ability to "bury the hatchet" and share a hug, thereby ending their feud. Jaimee and Elizabeth's Yogurt marinated Lamb and Red Snapper with Roasted Carrots and Kale, and Victoria and Christine's Pork Belly wrapped Monkfish with Green Apple Risotto and an Apple and Pork Belly Salad were deemed outstanding as well. Willie and Daniel received good reviews for their Seared Ahi Tuna and Buttermilk Miso Fried Chicken with Bitter Rice, Radish and Crispy Skin Egg Rolls, but Gordon pointed out that, while their idea and their flavors were great, there were too many components on the plate. Cutter and Dan's Seared Venison Loin and Ahi Tuna with Cauliflower and Parsnip puree and a Three Radish Salad was very poorly reviewed the judges (Gordon went so far to call it the worst dish of Season 5 thus far, while Joe refused to taste it and made Cutter throw the dish in the trash). Francis L. and Elise's dish of Yogurt baked Rack of Lamb with a Crab Risotto, Blood Orange Foam and Lemon and Mint Caviar got mixed reviews; with good taste but poor presentation and too much fat on the lamb. Also, top contenders Christian and Francis B. produced a dish of Ribeye Steak with a Creamy Herb King Crab Topping, Roasted Red Potatoes, Green Beans and Crispy Bacon tossed in Arugula Oil, which Gordon found offensive as he felt it was far beneath the expected class and quality of dishes made in the MasterChef Kitchen. In the end, Christine and Victoria's dish was named the best of the night, giving them immunity from the pressure test and a spot in the Top 14. Ahran and Leslie, Jaimee and Elizabeth, and Willie and Daniel were also sent to safety, which left Francis L. and Elise, Francis B. and Christian, and Cutter and Dan as the bottom three teams. After some discussion among the judges, despite concerns that Elise was out of her league in the competition and that Francis L. wasn't learning that over-complicating dishes usually ends in failure, the two were sent to safety for at least having nice flavors in their dish and being creative with the interpretation of surf and turf. Christian, Cutter, Dan and Francis B. were therefore sent into the Pressure Test, this time as individuals.
• Pressure Test 3: Each contestant had to make 6 perfect spring rolls as well as a dipping sauce. During the challenge, one of Cutter's rolls ended up bursting when he put them in the deep fryer, forcing him to make a new one in a limited amount of time. Francis B. also hit a blunder when his rolls failed to properly fry in the deep fryer and forced him to fry them once again on a frying pan, therefore saturating the rolls with cold oil. Christian was the first to be judged, and his vegetable medley spring rolls were well received by the judges, only making minor errors with them. Francis B.'s glass noodle spring rolls were deemed terrible, as they were greasy, had an inconsistent filling ratio and were fried in cold oil. He was also panned on his dipping sauce, which was too gloopy. Despite Dan's confidence it making spring rolls (due to being born in China) his vermicelli noodle rolls were deemed sub par by the judges who also displayed disappointment. He was, however, commended on his dipping sauce which the judges found brilliant. The pastry on Cutter's spring rolls was deemed too soft, and the filling too sweet with no heat or acid, and the dipping sauce was lacking in quantity.
• Bottom 2: Cutter and Francis B.
• Eliminated: Francis B.
• In the end, while Cutter had disappointed the judges once again and expressed worries that he would be sent home due to his overall poor performances and being arguably the least consistent cook in MasterChef, Francis B. was eliminated for having the worst spring rolls of the night and his declining performances as a competitor.

Episode 8

• Original Airdate: Monday July 14, 2014
• Team Challenge 4: This season's Restaurant Takeover took place at Dinah's Family Restaurant in Culver City, California. The selection of teams took a different format than usual. First, the judges selected the 2 team captains themselves from among the cooks who had not previously been team captains; and the teams were boys vs girls, but with a twist, as a member of opposite sex could be on the other team. Christine captained the red team with Christine, Courtney, Christian, Elise, Elizabeth, Jaimee, and Ahran. Willie led the blue team with Willie, Victoria, Cutter, Daniel, Francis L., Dan, and Leslie.

Then they announced that the teams would be boys vs. girls (a la Hell's Kitchen), with captains as expediters, but with an additional twist: both team could choose a member of the opposite sex to join them. Christian and Victoria were chosen to switch places. During the service, where traditional American breakfast and lunch fare were served, both teams had their share of difficulties. On the blue team, Leslie quickly got lost on his breakfast station and was criticized by Daniel for producing greasy fried eggs, while the team's general lack of coordination, highlighted by Willie's inability to keep up with the tickets, caused many diners to leave in frustration unfed. On the red team, Elise held things up by forgetting the ingredients for a club sandwich; it took Elizabeth and Gordon's help to get her back on track. Additionally, at least one order of Christian's fried chicken was served partially raw. The diners voted by either "tipping" or not "tipping" the team that served them, using red or blue dollar bills. The winner was revealed the next day in the MasterChef kitchen. In a close margin, the red team had received more tips with $87 compared to $82 for the blue team, ensuring them safety from the pressure test.

• Pressure Test 4: Willie was given two options: save three members of his choice from his team or save only himself and let everyone else cook. He chose to compete in the pressure test and save Daniel, Francis, and Victoria from elimination, but not before Daniel lashed Leslie with some stinging insults, saying Leslie behaves "like a child". Cutter, Dan, Leslie and Willie had to bake a 3-layer red velvet cake. For once, no cooks experienced any real problems during the baking time and all were confident (especially Willie) with their finished product. Willie's and Leslie's cakes, which incorporated pecans and pistachios respectively, were well received by the judges with only minor flaws to their name. Dan was criticized for the odd texture of his overcooked cake, which Joe described as "boiled wool". But it was Cutter who really left a bad taste in the judges' mouths; he lashed out at Leslie and then could not handle criticism of his cake, getting into a boisterous verbal spat with Graham and Joe after he disagreed about his cake being too sweet. The other contestants were certain that Cutter had just taken himself out of the competition due to his argument.
• Bottom 2: Cutter and Dan
• Eliminated: Dan
• Dan is eliminated for baking the worst cake of the day, along with his declining performances as a competitor, much to other contestants' dismay.

Episode 9

• Original Airdate: Monday July 21, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 4: The contestants are tasked with creating a dish using Alaskan king salmon, which can run up to $450 per fish, in sixty minutes. Gordon filets his fish quickly and efficiently, and Graham cooks it and serves it to Joe, all within half an hour. Elise is shown having a panic attack, and leaves the kitchen for a few minutes, but returns and finishes her dish as best she can. Eventually, the top three dishes were Christian's blackened salmon with tomato puree and vegetable medley, Courtney's seared salmon with broccolini and couscous, and Elizabeth's baked salmon with cauliflower steak and relish. For making his risky idea of Cajun-styled salmon work, Christian is named the winner of the challenge, earning him the advantage for the elimination challenge.
• Elimination Test 4: Christian is first declared safe from the elimination test. The judges then "shop" the pantry for some of their favorite ingredients, and Christian selects Joe's Italian-themed basket for the other contestants to prepare in another sixty minutes. Just as the judges prepare to start the challenge, Joe announces that Christian has a third advantage: he will get to decide which contestant will only have thirty minutes to cook their dish, and, deeming her a threat, he chooses Courtney. During the challenge, Elise openly admits that her dish is subpar, prompting Ramsay to show her how to properly roll pasta. The judges worry that Ahran is setting herself up for failure with her savory tiramisu. When time is up, the judges first taste Courtney's Spaghetti with mushroom ragu and artichokes, which was deemed delicious and the judges were very impressed with her effort and level of finesse in such a short time. Christian called out Courtney for playing it safe, to which Joe said Christian simply wasted his advantage on Courtney while he could have placed it on five other competitors that would be much more likely to go home. Other highly praised dishes belonged to Christine's mushroom caramelle with brown butter sage sauce, Elizabeth's breakfast lasagne with artichoke heart salad, and to the judges' surprise, Ahran's savory tiramisu with mushroom prosciutto sauce. Leslie's artichoke ravioli with prosciutto and mushrooms was considered badly presented, and its cream was very thick, but was felt to taste decent and he showed nice techniques in making his pasta. Willie disappointed the judges with his tomato soup with fried egg and flatbread; Ramsay asked Willie to rate his own dish on a scale of one to ten, and Willie felt it was an eight, to which Ramsay replied "that's seven points too high". Cutter once again let down the judges with his small "artisan" pizza with artichokes and mushrooms, which Ramsay considered lazy, and Joe spat out Cutter's dish, adding that it felt like an insult. Elise's mushroom ravioli with red wine tomato sauce also let the judges down, since her pasta was small, bland, and Ramsay stated that it tasted as though Elise had given up. After everyone's dishes were tasted, the judges named the dishes by Elizabeth and Ahran the best, and they would be team captains for the next team challenge.
• Bottom 2: Cutter and Elise
• Eliminated: Elise
• Ramsay told Cutter that he wasn't sure how much longer deserved to stay in the competition, since it was his fifth time in the bottom and he seemed too stubborn, too arrogant and unwilling to learn and grow as a cook, but ultimately, Elise is eliminated as the judges felt she had given up and could no longer handle the pressure of the competition.

Episode 10

• Original Airdate: Monday July 28, 2014
• Team Challenge 5: The top twelve chefs have to create romantic dinners for 17 couples, including Mr. Ramsay and his wife, Tana. For having the best dishes in the previous elimination test, Elizabeth captains the Blue team, and Ahran is the red. Elizabeth chooses Francis, Jaimee, Victoria, Courtney, and Daniel, while Ahran takes Willie, Christine, Christian, Leslie and is left with Cutter. The blue team decides on an entrée of medium rare filet mignon with golden beet and potato purée and a red wine reduction with a chocolate sponge cake parfait layered with salted caramel, dark chocolate, strawberries and nuts for dessert, while the red team decides on an entrée of lobster risotto underneath a butter poached lobster with a chocolate raspberry tiramisu for dessert. The blue team struggles with Victoria undercooking some of the filets, which were a little too rare for some of the diners, although their dessert (made by Jaimee) is beautiful and flavorful. The red team has a good risotto, though the Ramsays note that there doesn't seem to be any lobster flavor to the risotto and the risotto was overwhelmed with onion flavor; their dessert (made by Ahran and Willie) is a little sloppy, however, largely because Ahran's original plating idea proved far too complex, forcing the team to hurriedly rush it together, and the Ramsays also feel the chocolate flavor is let down because it tastes delicious, but completely overwhelms the raspberries, which they cannot taste. In the end, with more than 75% of the votes, the blue team wins, leaving the red team to the pressure test.
• Pressure Test 5: For the pressure test, the red team was required to make 9 chocolate truffles with at least 3 different flavors. The team members were also told that, in part because their performance was so inferior to the blue team during the cooking and they lost the challenge by such a large margin, nobody would be exempted and all 6 members of the team would be required to participate. During the cooking, Christian, Leslie and Willie managed to maintain their composure, but Cutter was lacking confidence due to his seeming inability to produce great desserts, knowing that he was most likely to go home unless his truffles were outstanding, while Christine struggled to finish her truffles in time, and Ahran was extremely overwhelmed by the pressure and lost her confidence in her ability to bake due to the crushing defeat in the team challenge. For their dishes, Cutter made dark chocolate mint truffles with crushed peppermint, orange liqueur milk chocolate truffles topped with white chocolate and milk chocolate truffles topped with coconut. Christian made eggnog brandy truffles, chocolate covered pretzel truffles and chocolate bacon truffles. Willie prepared dark chocolate truffles with togarashi and flake salt, milk chocolate truffles with habanero pepper and rainbow sprinkles, and milk chocolate truffles with coconut. Ahran made dark chocolate peanut butter truffles, milk chocolate hazelnut truffles and milk chocolate mocha truffles. Leslie made dark chocolate brandy truffles, milk chocolate coconut truffles and white chocolate truffles with ginger and coffee powder. Lastly, Christine made sea salt dark chocolate truffles, cinnamon coffee chocolate truffles and almond crunch truffles. After having been in the bottom for 5 challenges, particularly in desserts, Cutter shocked everyone - even himself - by making the best truffles of the night, so much that Graham rated their appearance a 10 out of 10 and Ramsay had him take them up to the balcony after the test for the blue team to taste. Leslie's truffles tasted decent but the presentation was disastrous, while Christine's were decent-looking but the chocolate was bitter and the truffles were deformed and shaped. Christian's truffles were a little dry and the pretzel pieces were small, although their flavors were still good. Willie was praised for his flavors, although his presentation was lacking and the sprinkles were used a little heavily. Ahran's truffles were a little dense but not bad.
• Bottom 2: Leslie and Christine
• Eliminated: Christine
• In the end, despite Leslie disappointed the judges due to his successful dishes in past pressure tests along with having been in them all four times, Christine's truffles were deemed to be the worst due to their unpleasant bitter taste and she was eliminated. Before she left, Ramsay asked her who would win MasterChef, to which she said Ahran.

Episode 11

• Original Airdate: Monday August 4, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 5: The judges provided the remaining 11 home cooks with two Mystery Boxes: one containing everyday ingredients, and another containing more fancy high-end version of the same ingredients, and the chefs were allowed to pick which box they would use to make their dish. The top 3 consisted of Elizabeth's pan roasted Pork Chop with Herb Biscuits and Pea Salad, Victoria's Tilapia and Ham Steak with Iceberg Salad, and Leslie's triple protein dish of Kobe Beef, Pork Chop, and Ahi Tuna with Truffle puree, Stilton and pea puree. (Elizabeth and Leslie used the high-end box, while Victoria used the everyday ingredients.) Despite having gotten into an argument with Joe about not seasoning his food during the prep, Leslie's dish was seasoned perfectly in the end and ultimately his dish won the challenge.
• Elimination Test 6: For winning the Mystery Box Challenge, Leslie was granted immunity, making him the first contestant to reach the top 10 of this season. He then got to pick between three different types of stuffed pasta: Joe's Tortellini, Graham's Caramelle, and Gordon's Raviolacci. Leslie decided on the Caramelle in the end, and the chefs had one hour to make their Caramelle dish. However, before time started, Leslie had the advantage of removing one person's pasta machine and make them use a rolling pin to make their pasta. After much teasing around from Leslie, he gives Daniel the rolling pin, who says that Leslie picked him because he held a grudge against him. Daniel ultimately produced a Short Rib Red Wine Caramelle with a Tamarind Habanero Curry, which the judges deem to be completely off from their expectations. The judges mention how spicy it is and Joe scolds Daniel for not respecting Italian-style cooking in an attempt to stand out. Jaimee makes a Creamy Tomato and Pork Sauce Caramelle in honor of her father, which receives praise by all three of the judges. Cutter makes a Short Rib Caramelle with a White Vodka Wine Sauce, which earns the judges' approval. Francis makes a Short Rib Beetroot Caramelle with Yellow Cauliflower and Bell Pepper Purée, which is met with negativity from Graham, who scolds him for also trying to stand out from the rest and not focusing on taste as much as he did with appearance (as Francis had used beetroot to color his pasta like candy). Courtney makes a simple Tomato Sauce Caramelle, which is also liked by all three. Lastly, Willie makes a Squash and Apple Caramelle, which earns him ire from Gordon, who is disappointed that he made a dessert out of the Caramelle that looks and tastes dreadful, and is also scolded for attempting to stand out, and calls Willie "lazy" in contrast to his nickname of "Big Willie". The top two dishes belong to Jaimee and Courtney (making them Team Captains for next week's Team Challenge).
• Bottom 3: Francis L., Daniel, and Willie
• Eliminated: Francis L.
• In the end, Francis was eliminated for treating cooking like an art instead of a craft, much to Leslie's dismay.

Episode 12

• Original Airdate: Monday August 11, 2014.
• Team Challenge 6: The Top 10 home cooks arrive at a football stadium where the team challenge will take place. Jaimee and Courtney were announced as the team captains for having had the best dishes of the previous week. Jaimee, having had the best overall dish, gets to pick first, however Gordon Ramsay tells her that she will instead be picking Courtney's team and vice versa. Jaimee chooses Leslie, Christian, Ahran and Victoria for Courtney (the Blue Team) and Courtney chooses Cutter, Daniel, Willie and Elizabeth for Jaimee (the Red Team). The teams must now create two dishes of a turkey burger and fish tacos to be served in a concession stand to hundreds of people attending the football game. The Blue Team faces problems with the turkey meat being too soggy (a problem Christian quickly, and cleverly, resolves) and the fish, which Leslie prepares, not being seasoned properly. Over on the Red Team, Jaimee falls under the pressure of being team captain which leads to the team being unorganized and missing orders, and Cutter breaks the fish in half, at which point Elizabeth takes over. Once all the turkey burgers and fish tacos have been served and the votes have been counted, Ramsay announces that, despite all their troubles, the Red Team won the challenge with 51% of the votes while the Blue Team, who had 49% of the votes, will now face the pressure test.
• Pressure Test 6: The home cooks of the losing team face what is to be the most challenging pressure test of the competition. Courtney is told that, as team captain, she has the option of saving herself, and that she would be more than justified in doing so, as the judges felt that she had been a very solid leader despite the loss. Courtney accepts, claiming the credit for the team's performance. Christian was then saved by the judges for an outstanding job on his turkey burgers.
• Bottom 3: Victoria, Ahran, and Leslie
• The first dish is a Ceviche, followed by a Prawn Tempura and lastly stuffed prawns. As usual, the home cooks have just one hour to complete their dishes. The stakes rise even higher as they are now told that only one person will be saved and the remaining two will be sent home (This is the second time in MasterChef history that two people were sent home after the pressure test. The first time this happened was in season 1). Victoria was praised for her exceptional tempura; however, her ceviche had an overpowering flavor of onions, and her stuffed prawns were raw and had a dry, unpleasant texture as a result of using too many breadcrumbs. Leslie had the best ceviche dish and a decent tempura dish, however, his stuffed prawns were too soggy. Ahran's tempura was well liked by the judges, as was her ceviche despite having a little too much liquid, and her stuffed prawns were lacking seasoning.
• Eliminated: Victoria and Ahran
• Victoria was the first contestant to be eliminated, as only her tempura was up to the standards that the judges were expecting. In an emotional and bittersweet ending, a teary-eyed Ahran was the second to be eliminated, much to the other contestants devastation, and she named Leslie, who had survived his fifth Pressure Test, as her prediction for the season's winner.

Episode 13

• Original Airdate: Monday August 18, 2014.
• Team Challenge 7: For the second time this season the contestants were put into teams of two, though this time they were allowed to decide among themselves on the pairings. Leslie, Christian, Willie and Cutter all tried to pair up with Elizabeth, who they believed was the strongest cook, much to Courtney's dismay. Courtney then tried to pair up with Daniel and he immediately objected. Ultimately, Elizabeth agreed to have Leslie as her partner after much begging from Leslie (as he convinced Elizabeth that she can take full creative control); Daniel paired up with Jaimee; Cutter agreed to work with Willie; Courtney and Christian were therefore left as the final pairing. The objective was to take a cut of chicken and create a dish with it, though the teams would not find out what cut they would get until after they had picked their ingredients. Cutter and Willie got the breast, Courtney and Christian got the thigh, Daniel and Jaimee got the wings, and Elizabeth and Leslie got the oysters. Most of the teams worked well together, but Cutter and Willie were in complete disarray, with the judges predicting the worst even as they were cooking. Elizabeth and Leslie's curried chicken oysters with roasted carrots was greatly enjoyed by all three judges, though made it clear that they considered Elizabeth almost solely deserving of the credit for the dish (which Leslie didn't mind, saying in an interview that he had learned several techniques which would benefit him in the upcoming weeks). Daniel and Jaimee's chicken wings with fingerling potatoes and carrots was felt to be decent, and while the judges noted no major flaws, they felt it lacked ambition. Cutter and Willie's roasted chicken breast with root vegetables and asparagus was roundly panned by all three judges, for not only being completely tasteless, but having improperly prepared asparagus; Gordon said that it would have been even worse if Cutter had gone through with his plan to serve it with hollandaise sauce (which he was prevented from doing when it split during cooking). Finally, Courtney and Christian's braised chicken leg and thigh with beans, brussels sprouts and tomatoes was generally praised by the judges, though Gordon criticized them for an ill-fitting selection of side vegetables. Elizabeth and Leslie were quickly deemed safe from the pressure test for having easily the best dish of the night. Despite noting more flaws with their dish than with Daniel and Jaimee's, the judges decided to save Christian and Courtney from the pressure test for showing more ambition and finesse, leaving Daniel and Jaimee to face the pressure test with Cutter and Willie, whose dish was deemed to be clearly the worst.
• Pressure Test 7, Part 1: In a twist, this episode's pressure test was broken down into three smaller tests, with the best performer in each test being sent to safety. All three tests had eggs as the main ingredient, and the first one required the four contestants to perfectly poach an egg. Jaimee's egg was deemed good, if only a little lacking in seasoning. Willie's egg, despite concerns over the amount of vinegar he used, was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Daniel kept stirring the water while his egg was still cooking, and the egg was sliced in half, resulting in him serving just a plate of egg whites which Joe refused to even taste. Cutter had a decent-tasting egg, but broke the yolk while plating it. In the end, Willie's egg was deemed to have the edge over Jaimee's, and he was deemed safe.
• Pressure Test 7, Part 2: This part of the test required the contestants to each make an egg yolk ravioli. Jaimee's egg was raw. Daniel failed to properly seal his ravioli and allowed water to leak in, and the resulting watery filling and mushy texture of the pasta guaranteed him bottom spot again. Despite concerns over his technique, and his own lack of confidence, Cutter managed to make the best ravioli of the three, saving him from elimination.
• Bottom 2: Daniel and Jaimee
• Eliminated: Daniel
• Pressure Test 7, Part 3: Daniel and Jaimee were each told to make and present a cheese soufflé. During the cooking phase the two were so disorganized that Gordon threatened them with a double elimination if they both failed to impress, though they were both able to present impressive-looking soufflés. There was noted to be very little difference in the appearance and texture of them, though it was noted that Jaimee's could have used a little more cheese, and Daniel's was too salty. In the end, the judges decided that Daniel's over-salty mixture was a fatal error and between that and having the worst dishes in both the previous parts of the pressure test, eliminated him from the competition.

Episode 14

• Original Airdate: Monday August 25, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 6: After being given messages from their families, the Top 7 each found their Mystery Boxes to be full of apples of several different varieties. However, they were thrown a curveball by being told that the dish they cooked had to be an entrée, not a dessert. With access to a limited pantry, nearly all of the contestants chose to work with pork. The best three dishes were Christian's apple stuffed pork chop with bacon, brussels sprouts, zucchini and red apples, Leslie's apple stuffed pork loin with bacon and Gruyere cheese, and, similar to Leslie's dish, Courtney's apple stuffed pork loin with apple and celeriac salad. Courtney's dish was deemed the best and was declared as the winner of the Mystery Box (much to the annoyance of most of the other contestants, particularly Elizabeth, who felt that the judges were showing blatant favoritism toward Courtney).
• Team Challenge 8: For the third time this season, the contestants were grouped into teams of two, though this time for the "relay challenge," which had been run in the previous two seasons (and the first season of MasterChef Junior). The teams would be required to prepare five dim sum dishes, and for winning the Mystery Box, Courtney was made safe from elimination and got to pick the teams; she paired Cutter with Elizabeth, Christian with Willie, and Leslie with Jaimee. During the cooking, Cutter and Elizabeth seemed to work together with no trouble at all. Christian and Willie initially did well, but Willie became increasingly exhausted as the challenge progressed, which led to the duo slowly unravelling. Leslie and Jaimee experienced massive trouble working together, due to Leslie's poor communication and Jaimee's negativity and defeatist attitude. When the allotted time was up, Jaimee and Leslie were called down first, and to everyone's surprise, had somehow managed to produce a reasonably good set of dishes, with only minor flaws noted. Christian and Willie didn't fare nearly as well, with their dishes being generally badly-made, poorly presented and lacking in seasoning. The judges expected Cutter and Elizabeth to have the best dishes, but were shocked to discover that their dishes were just as bad as those of Christian and Willie, suffering the same problems in presentation and flavoring. As a result, Jaimee and Leslie were deemed the clear winners and sent to safety first.
• Bottom 2: Christian and Willie
• Eliminated: Willie
• While the judges felt that Christian was continually failing to live up to the promise that he had often showed, they ultimately decided that Willie had gone as far as he could in the competition, and he was eliminated, much to the devastation of the other contestants. Before leaving, Willie said that despite the result of the challenge, he still predicted Christian would be this season's winner.

Episode 15

• Original Airdate: Monday September 1, 2014
• Team Challenge 9: The Top 6 will prepare dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant under the supervision of Gordon and Graham, with Gordon expediting. For the first time in the show's history Joe was not present in the episode, as he was dealing with business matters related to his own restaurants. Leslie and Jaimee were appointed as Team Captains due to their stunning performance in the Dim Sum challenge. Jaimee captained the blue team and chose Christian and Courtney to join her, while red team captain Leslie chose Elizabeth and was left with Cutter as the last pick. During preparation Cutter got into an argument with Leslie, feeling that he wasn't being delegated enough responsibilities, causing Gordon to pull them aside and rebuke them. The red team got through the appetizers without any major trouble, but the blue team were stalled from the beginning by Courtney's inability to make the gnocchi appetizer, despite both Gordon and Courtney herself having predicted that she would excel at it. This caused Jaimee to quit as captain and hand the role off to Courtney, who in turn quit herself after botching another order of gnocci, leaving Christian to take over. Under his leadership the rest of the service went well. At the start of the entrées Cutter got into yet another argument with Leslie, resulting in Gordon pulling them into the dining room and threatening to eliminate them both if they argued again. After this, both teams got through the entrées with no major troubles. On returning to the MasterChef kitchen the following morning the blue team were named as the losers, mostly because of their disastrous appetizer course and the lack of leadership within Jaimee and Courtney; the winning red team were therefore safe from elimination because of their strong finish in dinner service, much to Leslie's relief.
• Pressure Test 8: Courtney, Jaimee and Christian were all tasked with creating a gorgeous croquembouche in 90 minutes. Courtney started off initially anxious but was able to create the best croquembouche of the night, with perfect profiteroles, a beautiful shape, and the only dish with spun sugar. Christian, whose sugar failed to properly caramelize, ended up with a lopsided, ugly dish with weak caramel at its base and brown, sticky caramel at its top. Christian was, however, praised for the delicious flavors of his cream puffs (despite some of them having no filling). Despite Jaimee's confidence in baking along with having the "best looking croquembouche", she was far too heavy with her caramel, causing the profiteroles to become stuck together. The undercooked, bland cream puffs themselves, unfortunately, failed to impress as well.
• Bottom 2: Jaimee and Christian
• Eliminated: Jaimee
• Ultimately, Gordon and Graham decided that Jaimee had the weaker of the two desserts, resulting in her emotional elimination. However, before she left, Gordon offered her a job at any of his pastry shops in New York City.

Episode 16

• Original Airdate: Monday September 8, 2014
• Mystery Box Challenge 7: In this challenge, the Top 5 lifted their small mystery boxes, but there was nothing inside. Then, they saw a huge mystery box where the judges were, with their loved ones standing inside (Courtney's little brother, Cooper, Christian's fiancée, Jasmine, Elizabeth's husband, Ross, Cutter's Father, David and Leslie's wife, Paula). Each contestant was then asked to create and elevate their loved ones' favorite dish: mac and cheese for Cooper, seafood gumbo for Jasmine, Italian meatballs and grits for Ross, red snapper steak for David, and crusted racks of lamb for Paula. During the challenge, the judges were worried that Jasmine, Christian's fiancee, might have stumped him with gumbo in just an hour. They also wondered how Courtney would elevate mac and cheese, her little brother, Cooper's favorite dish. They were worried about Elizabeth as well and wondered how she would be able to elevate meatballs and grits, her husband, Ross's favorite dish. In the end, Courtney's lobster mac and cheese with truffle and a fried quail egg, Christian's seafood gumbo with andouille sausage, and Elizabeth's meatballs and grits with broccoli rabe were named the top 3 dishes, and Elizabeth's was singled out to be the best and declared as the winner of the Mystery Box.
• Elimination Test 7: For winning her second Mystery Box challenge, Elizabeth was safe from elimination, giving her a guaranteed spot in the final four. She also got the opportunity to assign a protein to each remaining contestant: an ox heart, veal brain, lamb's tongue and buffalo testicles. Elizabeth gave brains to Christian, tongue to Leslie, heart to Cutter and testicles to Courtney. During cooking time, Christian was struggling, with Elizabeth even stated that he looked scared and the judges thought she might have done him in with that protein. Cutter's cut of meat was too thick. When it comes to tasting, Christian's veal brain pasta with tomato sauce was told to have too much oregano in it, and while the brains were delicious, the rest of the dish pulled him down. Courtney's fried buffalo testicles with mixed vegetables were deemed delicious. Leslie's braised lamb tongue with spinach and bok choy had a clumsy presentation, and while the cook and flavor were good, the meat wasn't cut right and had a lot of garlic in it. Cutter's seared ox heart with stuffed poblano was judged to have a great presentation and was cooked beautifully.
• Bottom 2: Leslie and Christian
• Eliminated: Christian
• In the end, Christian was eliminated. Even though the brains were cooked perfectly, the rest of the components on his dish didn't add up. Before he left, Gordon told Christian that if he needed an investor for his food truck give him a call and when he was asked who was going to win MasterChef, he said that Elizabeth would win the competition.

Episode 17

• Original Airdate: Monday September 8, 2014
• Team Challenge 9: The remaining 4 cooks were divided into 2 teams of 2. Courtney got to choose who was on her team because she made the best dish in the last challenge. She chose Elizabeth, setting up a "battle of the sexes." Each pair had to choose a box of ingredients from one of their home states - Pennsylvania and New York for the women, California and Texas for the men. Courtney and Elizabeth chose Pennsylvania, and Leslie and Cutter chose Texas. Each pair then had to make an appetizer and an entree based on what was in their box. Both teams had their troubles in the challenge, with Cutter cutting his hand and needing medical attention along with them messing up a sauce with too much fat. Courtney and Elizabeth had little spats and arguments. In the end, both teams presented underwhelming dishes. Courtney and Elizabeth presented a savory pear with slices of rainbow trout as an appetizer, and venison medallions with mashed potatoes as an entree. Leslie and Cutter presented ribs with corn for their appetizer, and rib eye steak with a vegetable puree for their entree. The appetizers for both teams were underwhelming, with the ladies being criticized for the fish making no sense in the dish and the men's dish having no flair and implying it was inappropriate for MasterChef. For the entrees the girls' venison medallions were judged to be delicious, but the mash was lumpy and the judges stated they would have liked something more with the dish like vegetables. Leslie's rib eye tasted delicious but Gordon said it was undercooked. Elizabeth and Courtney were narrowly judged as the winners, leaving Cutter and Leslie going head to head in the pressure test. With this, Elizabeth has set new a MasterChef records - the only contestant ever in the history of the show to advanced to the top three while not even once being in the pressure test and the only contestant to win every single team challenge.
• Bottom 2: Cutter and Leslie
• Pressure Test 9: For the pressure test, Leslie and Cutter were assigned to use the California box of ingredients for the challenge, and the judges proceeded to introduce three different dishes they would make from those ingredients. The challenge was to replicate all three of the judges' dishes in ninety minutes, with each judge evaluating the dish they presented to see whether Cutter or Leslie did a better job of replicating it. Joe felt Leslie did his dish the best, while Graham felt Cutter had the edge on the second dish.
• Eliminated: Cutter
• Gordon ultimately sent Leslie to the final three, eliminating Cutter, much to the ladies dismay as they knew that Leslie was going to be coming for them at full force. With this, Leslie also set a record - the first contestant in the show's history to survive 6 pressure tests. Before leaving, Cutter admitted that Leslie's victory in the pressure test has proven him to be the better chef in his eyes.

Episode 18

• Original Airdate: Monday September 15, 2014
• Individual Challenge: Gordon Ramsay informed the final 3 home cooks that their final challenge would consist of creating an amazing dish for very special guests - 50 chefs representing the 50 states of US - in only 90 minutes to secure a spot in the final. The top dish would advance to the final right away, and the bottom two dishes would face off in a pressure test. Also, in this challenge, six of this season's best cooks had returned to help out their fellow competitors. Leslie got the help of Ahran and Christian, Courtney got Daniel and Willie, and Elizabeth got Jaimee and Victoria (Cutter, for unknown reasons, did not return). Leslie made a filet mignon with herb gnocchi, which was deemed as to have been cooked perfectly. Courtney made pan seared halibut with beet dashi vermicelli, which was judged to be well cooked, and the broth was sophisticated. Finally, Elizabeth made a pan sear red snapper with cauliflower trio, which the guests agreed that every component on the plate worked well together and that it was a restaurant quality dish. As a result, Elizabeth was deemed safe and moves on to the finals of MasterChef, it was revealed from her that 39 out of 50 chefs voted for her dish. Here, Elizabeth and Leslie were extending their own record; Elizabeth as the first American MasterChef contestant to make the finals without ever once being put up for elimination or taking part in a pressure test (not counting MasterChef Junior season 1 runner-up Dara Yu), and Leslie as the contestant with the highest number of pressure test done in a single season, with seven.
• Bottom 2: Leslie and Courtney
• Pressure Test 10: Because Elizabeth had the best dish, she automatically advanced to the finale. Leslie and Courtney had to face off in a pressure test. They had to make three different cakes from three different regions in America - a New York cheesecake, a Florida key lime pie, and a Boston cream pie - within two hours. On one hand, while Courtney's cheesecake was deemed to have the edge over Leslie's, the latter's key lime pie was deemed better. It all came down to the Boston Cream pie. Courtney's cream did not set and her pie was visually imperfect, whereas Leslie's had a lovely ration, but he had accidentally added salt instead of sugar.
• Eliminated: Leslie
• Courtney was deemed safe and joined Elizabeth in the finals, while Leslie was eliminated. Before leaving, he predicted that Elizabeth would win the competition.

Episode 19

• Original Airdate: Monday September 15, 2014
• Season finale: The top 2 home cooks, Elizabeth and Courtney had to each create a beautiful appetizer, a stunning entrée and a magnificent dessert.
• Appetizer: Elizabeth made a grilled octopus with chickpea and chorizo salad. The judges informed her that her dish looked fantastic, the octopus was well grilled, yet slightly overcooked and the flavors were great. Courtney made a crispy pig's ear with dandelion and fennel salad. The judges told her that her dish was assertive, the salad was well dressed and that the sauce was explosive.
• Entrée: Elizabeth made a spiced rack of lamb with red quinoa and carrot purée, whereas Courtney made a sumac duck breast with spring vegetables and farro. For Elizabeth, her lamb was undercooked, but the quinoa was great. For Courtney, her dish was deemed visually stunning. The duck was crispy and the sauce buttery.
• Dessert: Elizabeth made a grapefruit semolina cake with poached plums and ground pistachio - her best dish of the night, as opposed to Courtney who made a cherry meringue with salted chocolate and almonds - her weakest dish of the night.
• Judges' Deliberations: After having tasted all the dishes, the judges had a tough time deciding on the winner. On one hand, there was Elizabeth who set the record as the only contestant to win every single team challenge and never competing in a pressure test, while on the other, there was Courtney, known for her multiple mystery box challenge wins and her risk taking attitude to try new recipes.
• Winner: Courtney
• Runner-Up: Elizabeth
• Winner Revealed: Finally, the judges announced that the title of MasterChef US 2014, a $250,000 cash prize, and a cookbook deal went to Courtney Lapresi.

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Epilogue

After getting eliminated this is what happens to the contestants.

Astrid is the “Food Sales Representative” from Louisiana, who had been the co-owner/operator of the restaurant Meson 923 between 2008-2011, is now listed as the “DSR” for the Ben E. Keith Foods company since 2014, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is also listed as the owner of a new business “to be known”, so perhaps she is working on opening a new restaurant or other business venture at this time.

Whitney does lots of catering and chef work instead (including her training at the Culinary Institute of America from 2005-2007, and a stint working as a chef for the Celebrity Cruise Line in 2009-2010). Today she is listed as still working for “W. catering” in Columbus Ohio as a caterer/personal chef, a job she has had since January 2012. She also has made some TV appearances on 6 ABC in Columbus on “Good Day Columbus”.

Stephani is now apparently living in Cincinnati and working as a personal chef—for the Cincinnati Bengals player A.J. Green, according to an April 2015 appearance on Fox 19 where she prepared her Lemony Garlic Shrimp Scampi Pasta.

Gordon mentions studying for and taking the bar exam in July 2014, and “offering a few cooking demo’s and classes” after that.

Kira now has a website, Cooking with Kira, where she offers her services as a personal chef and personalized cooking classes in the Chicago area.

Jordan is still in school but working part-time for a catering company.

Tyler is now a “Land Specialist” for Whitetail Properties, a real estate company specializing in “hunting, ranch and farm land.” He also has been promoting his “Cookin’ in Camo” brand.

Francis B. launched his website Cooking With Confidence, and now offers cooking classes and pop up dinner events in the Orlando area.

Dan says the experience of being on the show transformed him from an unemployed “slacker” to a “culinary evangelist”. He still resides in Lexington and has a weekly local radio broadcast where he talks about food, farming and more.

Elise's website, Adventures in a Tiny Kitchen, shows her still doing occasional acting work in the Chicago area as of January 2015. She also took part in the 2015 Reality Rally, a breast cancer fundraising event which occurred in April of this year.

Christine is available for appearances and cooking events while, and continues to work as an investor relations director for a pharmaceutical company.

Francis L. is still doing music videos and recording live shows in NYC, focusing on 3D filming, and still cooking up a storm according to his Twitter stream, @francisfilms. He also mentions him being a Chef at Williams-Sonoma, but it’s unclear if that information is current or past, his website is francislegge.com.

Ahran is now a freshman at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She is looking to earn a hospitality degree to work in the hotel management industry, focusing on food and beverage management, according to the article. She says, “After MasterChef I realized I didn’t really want to go into the culinary field, because cooking is more of a passion for me … I would rather pursue it as a hobby on the side.”

Daniel now has a band, The Pride, which has released an EP entitled Yakuzamerica. He has had recent interview at The Imaginarium podcast from March 2015. He also made an appearance in January at the LA Cookie Con and mentioned he is also working at the Sherman Oaks restaurant Tipple & Brine.

Willie is currently working on a cookbook.

Jamiee has become an awareness advocate for dystonia, a condition she finally received diagnosis for after MasterChef was filmed. She started a blog in September 2014, Tiny Whisk, although it has only been sporadically updated.

Christian announced plans to hopefully open a food truck in New Orleans this coming summer – with some help from Gordon Ramsay.

Cutter, In January of this year he actually opened his first restaurant, one specializing in Texas comfort food called Ace’s Ice House and Chop Shop (so far the Yelp reviews are fairly mixed).

Leslie launched a website after Masterchef ended, Malibu Sunshine, although the blog only has a few entries and recipes and was last updated in October. On Halloween 2014 he was arrested in Malibu for public brawling.

Elizabeth has kept up the blog at her website, Elizabeth Cauvel Cooks, with some regularity. The website lists her as available for private dinners and events, consulting, as well as content writing and social media. She is now Associate Creative Director at MRY in New York, so she continues to balance cooking with her original career from before MasterChef.

Courtney's cookbook entitled Everyday Fancy: 65 Easy, Elegant Recipes for Meals, Snacks, Sweets, and Drinks is scheduled for release on May 19, 2015. She launched a website immediately after her win was announced, The Posh Tart, although it never seems to have been developed beyond a “coming soon” splash page.

References