History Awesome / MasterChef

* Episode 14's team challenge resulted in a first for MasterChef: [[spoiler:a ''tie'']]. The stunned judges were forced to determine [[spoiler:a winning team]] based on minutiae after the fact.

* Episode 14's team challenge resulted in a first for {{=MasterChef=}}: [[spoiler:a ''tie'']]. The stunned judges were forced to determine [[spoiler:a winning team]] based on minutiae after the fact.

* Episode 14's team challenge resulted in a first for {=MasterChef=}: [[spoiler:a ''tie'']]. The stunned judges were forced to determine [[spoiler:a winning team]] based on minutiae after the fact.

** During the pressure test, everone except Mark (who kept ignoring the judges' advice), made good to decent cupcakes: Emily did a balanced dozen of two flavors, Bowen did three flavors despite never having a cupcake in China, and Christina declared Samantha as the best of the bunch, with Cesar and SJ succeeding with a decent box each as well. Even Gerron, who landed in the bottom two, managed to complete his dozen with good flavors, with the only criticism being the density of his batter.

* Episode 10 has the pizza stone challenge which Monti proceeds to make a bowl of soup and some bread.And even during the preparations, her bread exploded inside the oven. The fact that she ''won'' dish of the night with such simple dish is a testament of the sheer quality of her carrot soup and soda bread.

* Episode 17, Jeff, Eboni, and Cate were in a pressure test with the goal to make a chocolate souffle. The end result was [[spoiler:all ''three'' of them made perfect souffle's causing the judges to announce that neither of them will be going home that night!]]

* Episodes 1 and 2 had the best round of auditions so far, by adding the Mentor Team dynamic.

* Darrick, in Episode 3 audition round where each cooks are doing dishes based on Gordon's dishes, did his sticky toffee pudding so great that Gordon put down ''all 3 of his remaining aprons'' for him [[note]]He can only really take one, but the point is made[[/note]].

* In Episode 11, everyone, even the judges, had enough with Mark's KnowNothingKnowItAll attitude when making a Bearnaise sauce[[note]]He insisted on beating the yolks in direct contact with the flame, despite Aarón, Joe and Gordon telling him not to do that[[/note]], since that’s what cost the win to his team.

** During the pressure test, everone except Mark (who kept ignoring the judges' advice), made good to decent cupcakes: Emily did a balanced dozen of two flavors, Bowen did three flavors despute never having a cupcake in China, and Christina declared Samantha as the best of the bunch, with Cesar and SJ succeeding with a decent box as well. Even Gerron, who landed in the bottom two as well, managed to complete his dozen with good flavors, with the only criticism being the density of his batter.

** During the pressure test, everone, except Mark, made good to decent cupcakes, Even Gerron, who landed in the bottom two as well, managed to complete his dozen with good flavors, with the only criticism being the density of his batter.

** 1) He purposefully toke the "pick team first" advantage, and managed to trick Shelly into picking chicken tenders for her team, leaving him with the lobster like he wanted.
** 2) With the "pick team first" advantage, he picked the strongest chefs of the competition at that point for the red team, leaving Shelly with what he deemed the weakest.

* Episode 10, Dan, after a pep talk from Ramsay, managed to rein his blue team in during the farming team challenge. He kept a level head, and even told David to trim off any burnt parts they had on their dish. They of course won in one of the few blow outs the competition had.

** Olusola, a bus driver from South Carolina, got high praise for her Jerk Snapper, to the point Gordon, Aarón ''and'' Joe give her an apron.
** Taylor, competing in the auditions for the ''third'' time, finally got her chance to impress Gordon. Not only that, her fellow duel competitors also got an apron from Aarón and Joe as well, meaning that the three of them passed.

* Despite the two of them having smaller cooking times (Shanika had 40 minutes while the rest had 45 minutes), Emily (who had 35 minutes) and Julia (who had 30 minutes) managed to make two strong Salisbury steaks in very little time with minor criticisms. What's better is that the six who were immuned from the challenge purposefully gave the two the smaller time window as they wanted the strongest out, and they foiled their plans.

* Despite the two of them having smaller cooking times (Shanika had 40 minutes while the rest had 45 minutes), Emily (who had 35 minutes) and Julia (who had 30 minutes) managed to make two strong Salisbury steaks in very little time with minor criticisms. What's better is that the six who were immuned from the challenge purposefully gave the two the smaller window as they wanted the strongest out, and they foiled their plans.

* Despite the two of them having smaller cooking times (Shanika had 40 minutes while the rest had 45 minutes), Emily (who had 35 minutes) and Julia (who had 30 minutes) managed to make two strong Salisbury steaks in little time with little criticisms. What's better is that the six who were immuned from the challenge purposefully gave the two the smaller window as they wanted the strongest out, and they foiled their plans.

** Darrick, in an audition round that each cooks are doing dishes based on Gordon's dishes, did his sticky toffee pudding so great that Gordon put down ''all 3 of his remaining aprons'' for him [[note]]He can only really take one, but the point is made[[/note]].

* Episode 17, Jeff, Eboni, and Cate were in a pressure test with the goal to make a chocolate souffle. The end rest was [[spoiler:all ''three'' of them made perfect souffle's causing the judges to announce that neither of them will be going home that night!]]

** Taylor, comepeting in the auditions for the ''third'' time, finally got her chance to impress Gordon. Not only that, her fellow duel competitors also got an apron from Aarón and Joe as well, meaning that the three of them passed.

** Cesar, S.J., Matt, and Ryan performed so good individually that ''all of them'' got selected, with S.J. and Cesar haing the chance to coose between Gordon or Aarón.

!! US Version
* From Season 1, Whitney managed to make perfect Chocolate Souffles despite not making any test versions despite the judge's concern.
* From Season 2, Jennifer is getting praise from Ramsay regarding her risotto, and brings Christian down to taste. Christian however states he has had better, leading Ramsay to give him a ReasonYouSuckSpeech:

** In an earlier moment that season, Joe caught Christain eating his dish when he wasn't called up for the top 3 in a mystery box challenge, and ordered him to stop.
* From season 3, [[DeafComposer Blind chef]] Christine is the epitome of ''awesome''.

* Season 3 Episode 10 has the pizza stone challenge which Monti proceeds to make a bowl of soup and some bread.And even during the preparations, her bread exploded inside the oven. The fact that she ''won'' dish of the night with such simple dish is a testament of the sheer quality of her carrot soup and soda bread.
* The premiere of Masterchef Junior has a few of these, as children aged 8 to 13 bust out amazing dishes in just one hour, some of them being dishes that contestants have struggled with or just completely failed at in the adult version of the show, such as French macaroons, molten lava cakes, sushi, and tortellinis.

* One of the Mystery Box challenges in season 4 has Gordon, Graham and Joe introduce a guest that will be cooking with the contestants. The guest turns out to be... Gordon Ramsay, in his chef attire:

* Season 5, episode 4: The contestants are tasked with creating a box of twelve donuts, and Francis L. decides to create twelve different kinds of donuts (in his words: "Go big, or go BIGGER!"); when the judges learn of his plan, they think he's crazy, and do not expect it to work. When Ramsay opens his box, he admits to being [[MindScrew mind-screwed]] at the sight, and after tasting a donut flavored with prosciutto, stout, and maple syrup, Ramsay says it's amazing. Usually, when the judges predict someone's dish will be bad, it will be bad, so seeing Francis L. defy the judges' expectations is pretty damn awesome.
* Season 5, episode 8: Cutter standing up to Joe Bastianich. Joe's been getting a lot of heat this season for twisting certain contestants' words and making them look bad, so seeing someone finally take him to task felt quite satisfying. On the other hand, some others felt that Cutter was being disrespectful and needed to keep his mouth shut, especially considering he was only getting mixed reviews instead of outright bad ones (whereas Dan, who eventually went home, received terrible reviews but took it like an adult). Some people speculated that this was why Cutter stayed - he showed he had passion and cared about his food, while Dan's nonchalant acceptance made it seem like he'd given up.

* Season 5, episode 14: Jaimee and Leslie were paired together to make dim sum, and they spent the majority of the challenge arguing with each other, and everyone thought they had set themselves up for disaster...which made it even more impressive when they had by far the best food of the challenge, only receiving a few minor nitpicks while the other teams made dishes that looked horrific and tasted mediocre at best. TeethClenchedTeamwork taken UpToEleven.

* Much like in its first season, the second US season of Masterchef Junior starts off with children of ages 8 to 12 dishing out amazing dishes, though the most exceptional example goes to 9 year old Oona. After having one of the best dishes in the mystery box challenge, she moves on to make a crostini with chicken liver pate in the elimination challenge and ends up yet again in the best 3 dishes. What makes this particularly exceptional is that Oona had never made chicken liver pate before, she just decided she really wanted to make it, risking elimination, and she just nails it.

* Also in Season 6, on Episode 10 after Tommy won the challenge, he was given the right to rescue two people from the pressure test- one before cooking and one after cooking. His first save was to save Claudia, his closest friend. However, she turned him down to show what she could do. This risk was rewarded when she wowed the judges with her dish.
* The fourth episode of the second season of the Masterchef Junior has the young contestants needing to do perfect sunny side-up eggs in only ten minutes, and the number of perfect eggs they made would be the same number of ingredients they would have to use in the elimination challenge (not including the basic staples such as salt, pepper, butter, cream and oil). Eight year old Abby, the youngest contestant, went into the challenge with a big disadvantage, as with only two perfect eggs, she could only get two ingredients to prepare a full dish that could be served in a restaurant. Abby remained unfazed by this disadvantage and took salmon and asparagus, creating a dish of broiled salmon with asparagus five ways (boiled, sauteed, fried tops, fried bottoms, and a soup). The end result was perfectly cooked salmon, with every asparagus application being just as perfect (Joe Bastianich especially raved about the soup), and Abby ended up having one of the two best dishes of the night, as though there had never been a disadvantage at all.
* In Season 7, Episode 6, contestant Alejandro manages to shell a lobster ''better than Ramsay did in his demo'' by extracting meat from the blade (which Gordon didn't do in the demo), wowing everyone including Ramsay himself.
* From Season 7, Episode 10, Dan, after a pep talk from Ramsay, managed to rein his blue team in during the farming team challenge. He kept a level head, and even told David to trim off any burnt parts they had on their dish. They of course won in one of the few blow outs the competition had.
* From Season 7, David winning the team challenge by memorizing the number patterns of the order tickets, putting in good use his expertise as a Professional Poker Player.
* From Season 8, Episode 5, Jason earns the rarest praise one can get out of Gordon Ramsay for his seafood dish. Unsurprisingly, he wins the Mystery Box that episode.

* From Season 8, Episode 7, during the Team Challenge, Eboni took charge as new captain of her red team after Cate demonstrated zero capacity for leadership, completely turning the tide and giving them the win.
* From Season 8, Episode 9, Eboni had another awesome moment when she proved Adam, Jeff and Brien wrong by making the best cannolis in the pressure test (next to Dino, who seems to be an Italian food expert), and it was the ''first'' time she ever made them. What's even better was that Jeff and Brien made the worst of the six, and were up for elimination. [[spoiler: Brien went home, which is even more satisfying when one considers that his buddy Adam tried to put his undeserving butt on the balcony. The judges overruled him and saved Yachecia, who made the best element in the team challenge. Adam was also the third person in the bottom three of that pressure test]].
* From Season 8, Episode 17, Jeff, Eboni, and Cate were in a pressure test with the goal to make a chocolate souffle. The end rest was [[spoiler:all ''three'' of them made perfect souffle's causing the judges to announce that neither of them will be going home that night!]]

!! Australian version

!! Other versions

* Season 3 Episode 10 has the pizza stone challenge which Monti proceeds to make...a bowl of soup and some bread. The fact that she ''won'' dish of the night with such simple dish is a testament of the sheer quality of her carrot soup and soda bread.

* From Season 8, Episode 9, Eboni had another awesome moment when she proved Jeff and Brien wrong by making the best cannolis in the pressure test (next to Dino, who seems to be an Italian food expert), and it was the ''first'' time she ever made them. What's even better was that Jeff and Brien made the worst of the six, and were up for elimination. [[spoiler: Brien went home, which is even more satisfying when one considers that his buddy Adam tried to put his undeserving butt on the balcony. The judges overruled him and saved Yachecia, who made the best element in the team challenge. Adam was also the third person in the bottom three of that pressure test]].
* From Season 8, Episode 17, Jeff, Eboni, and Cate werein a pressure test with the goal to make a chocolate souffle. The end rest was [[spoiler:all ''three'' of them made perfect souffle's causing the judges to announce that neither of them will be going home that night!]]

* Season 3 Episode 10 has pizza stone challenge which Monti proceeds to make...a bowl of soup and some bread. The fact that she ''won'' dish of the night with such simple dish is a testament of the sheer quality of her carrot soup and soda bread.

* The premiere of Masterchef Junior has a few of these, as children aged 8 to 13 bust out amazing dishes in just one hour, some of them being dishes that contestants have struggled with or just completely failed at in the adult version of the show, such as French macaroons, molten lava cakes, sushi, and tortellini's.

* Season 3 Episode 10 has pizza stone challenge which Monti proceeds to make...a bowl of soup and bread. The fact that she ''won'' dish of the night is testament of the sheer quality of her carrot soup and soda bread.

* From Season 8, Episode 9, Eboni had another awesome moment when she proved Jeff and Brien wrong by making the best cannolis in the pressure test (next to Nico, who seems to be an Italian food expert), and it was the ''first'' time she ever made them. What's even better was that Jeff and Brien made the worst of the six, and were up for elimination. [[spoiler: Brien went home, which is even more satisfying when one considers that his buddy Adam tried to put his undeserving butt on the balcony. The judges overruled him and saved Yachecia, who made the best element in the team challenge. Adam was also the third person in the bottom three of that pressure test]].

* From Season 8, Episode 9, Eboni had another awesome moment when she proved Jeff and Brien wrong by making the best cannolis in the pressure test (next to Nico, who seems to be an Italian food expert), and it was the ''first'' time she ever made them. What's even better was that Jeff and Brien made the worst of the six, and were up for elimination. [[spoiler: Brien went home, which is even more satisfying when one considers that his buddy Adam tried to put his undeserving butt on the balcony. The judges overruled him and saved Yachecia, who made the best element in the team challenge. Adam was also the third person in the bottom three of that pressure test]]

* From Season 8, Episode 9, Eboni had another awesome moment when she proved Jeff and Brien wrong by making the best Cannoli's in the pressure test (next to Nico), and it was the ''first'' time she ever made them. What's even better was that Jeff and Brien made the worst of the six, and were up for elimination