History Awesome / MasterChef

* In season 5, the kids are dismayed when they find out the burger challenge in episode 4 is a ''vegan'' burger challenge, particularly Shane who's a meat and burger enthusiast from Texas. He not only makes the winning burger, Gordon tells him it's turned him vegan for the night.

* In episode 10, Joe calls Christian out for eating his own dish and ignoring the critique, when Jennifer's makes top three instead of his. He outright threatens to kick him out then and there, leaving him absolutely flabbergasted.

* Episode 14 featured a layer cake replication challenge where Noah adventerously went for the opera cake (the trickiest, most technically difficult and complex cake in the room). His fellow competitors were astounded because they were too scared and nervous to go for it. Even the judges were stunned because professional pastry chefs spend months, if not years perfecting this complex cake. Although his presentation was sloppy, ugly and messy, Noah nailed the actual cake itself on his first try (the perfectly intact, multilayered structure, deliciously spot-on, well-balanced flavours, and great flavour combinations in the right ratio, which complimented each other perfectly). So it tasted a lot better than it looked. Gordon gave massive respect to Noah for achieving the near-impossible.

** Even despite his loss, Sharone stillj gets rave reviews; Joe in particular praises his "balls that clang," and Gordon wholeheartedly encourages him to continue his career. What's more, Joe even offers him a job.

** Even despite his loss, Sharone still gets rave reviews; Joe in particular praises his "balls that clang," and Gordon wholeheartedly encourages him to continue his career. What's more, Joe even offers him a job.

* In an earlier moment that season, Joe caught Christian eating his dish when he wasn't called up for the top 3 in a mystery box challenge, and ordered him to stop.

** Jeff actually ''winning'' the pressure test with his spot-on souffle, flooring all of his fellow competitors (including his teammates, much to their grudging ire) which is impressively brilliant because he was very weak with baking desserts and chocolate is such a temperamental ingredient to work with, given time constraints. Gordon was so blown away that he announced that Jeff was the first one to advance forward on the competition, and insisted that he hit all those notes, Even Aaron and Christina were amazed.

* During the cupcake baking pressure test in Episode 11, everyone 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 having never baked or eaten a cupcake since he's from China, and Christina declared Samantha as the best of the bunch, with Cesar and SJ succeeding with a decently good box each as well. Even Gerron, who landed in the bottom two, managed to complete his dozen, which actually tasted a lot better than they looked with great flavors, the only criticism being the density of his batter.

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

* During the cupcake baking pressure test in Episode 11, everyone 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 baked or eaten a cupcake since he's from China, and Christina declared Samantha as the best of the bunch, with Cesar and SJ succeeding with a decently good box each as well. Even Gerron, who landed in the bottom two, managed to complete his dozen, which actually tasted a lot better than they looked with great flavors, the only criticism being the density of his batter.

* In Episode 18, Gerron, who previously stated that he was weak on desserts, managed to nail all three of the chocolate desserts in the pressure test, compared to Samantha and Fahran who both had two of their three desserts fail spectacularly.

* Episode 9's Tag Team Challenge. Nick thought that Noah and Sarah would butt heads because both were captains in a previous challenge and both were Alpha types. Instead, this helped them to have one of the best tag-team performances in the show. Despite having a few observations regarding presentation, the judges praised their flavors and the efficency throught the challenge.

* In Episode 11, everyone, even the judges, had enough with Mark's KnowNothingKnowItAll attitude when making a Bearnaise sauce[[note]]Instead of making the sauce on a double broiler, 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.
** Bowen criticized him openly with what everyone has said in many occasions: Having a family restaurant doesn’t make him more of an expert than the rest, while Joe scolded Mark by reminding him about their deal.
** During the pressure test, everyone 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 12's Immunity Challenge featured Alaskan king crab, and Micah, who had a serious shellfish allergy meaning he could not taste his dish, decided to make a ''squid ink risotto'' with the crab. While Ramsay called it a very dangerous move, the judges heavily praised the dish for making a successful dish, with the crab tasting phenomenal despite being unable to taste it. Not only did Micah win immunity, but Joe called in the best risotto he tasted in the 10 year history (a claim he did not make likely).

* In the Finale, Gerron, who was slowly becoming one of the underdogs of the competition, opted to do a menu based on his southern roots, despite Joe repeatedly telling him to take off from them and do more foreign dishes. [[spoiler:From the three of them, Gerron did his appetizer, entreé and dessert all perfect, with minor mistakes compared to Ashley and Cesar, who overcooked some of their proteins in the first rounds. Not only Gerron proved Joe wrong by presenting stunning and elevated versions of these humble dishes, he won the whole competition by staying true to himself.]]

* In the Finale, Gerron, who was slowly becoming one of the underdogs of the competition, opted to do a menu based on his southern roots, despite Joe repeatedly telling him to take off from them and do more foreign dishes. [[spoiler:From the three of them, Gerron did his appetizer, entreé and dessert all perfect, head and shoulders above Ashley and Cesar, who made mistakes in each round. Not only Gerron proved Joe wrong by presenting stunning and elevated versions of these humble dishes, he won the whole competition by staying true to himself.]]

* Gerron, being one of the underdogs of the competition, opted to do a menu based on his southern roots, despite Joe repeatedly telling him to take off from them and do more foreign dishes. [[spoiler:From the three of them, Gerron did his appetizer, entreé and dessert perfect, head and shoulders above Ashley and Cesar, who made mistakes in each round. Not only Gerron proved Joe wrong by presenting stunning and elevated versions of these humble dishes, he won the whole competition by staying true to himself.]]

** [[spoiler:And of course, Christine winning season three.]]

* During the Season 3 auditions, the three judges were treated to the energetic Luca, who just got a huge boost of confidence from his mother appearing unannounced (it actually made him squee like a little girl in happiness). However, the judges were unimpressed, but Gordon told Luca to go back to cooking, because the auditions would be open again for next season. [[spoiler: Luca did get back to cooking, and not only won an apron the second time, but would end up going on to win the whole competition. In season 5, it's revealed that not only has he become an accomplished chef in his own right, but now has his own catering company.]] Now that's one hell of a comeback.

* 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]].
* 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!]]

* Episode 14's team challenge resulted in a first for {{Series/MasterChef}}: [[spoiler:a ''tie'']]. The stunned judges were forced to determine [[spoiler:a winning team]] based on minutiae after the fact.
** The team that ultimately faced the pressure test had Emily, widely considered to be a strong candidate for winning the entire competition, and Shanika, whose suggestions were shot down by Emily in the team challenge. Emily chose to go one-on-one with Shanika in a black forest cake baking competition, explicitly in order to send her home, as Emily was not only one of the strongest cooks in the competition, she also specialized in baking. What Emily (and the judges) didn't even realize was that Shanika was allergic to chocolate - a ''key ingredient'' in a black forest cake, meaning Shanika couldn't even taste her dish. So what did Shanika do against her biggest nightmare, facing the strongest cook at her strongest suit with a dish she couldn't taste? She '''won''', absolutely flooring pretty much everybody and sending Emily off to her ShockingElimination. Even the judges were stunned.