Line #32 Awesome/MasterChef


1	! US Version
2	!! Season 1
3	* In the first Pressure Test of the series, the red team had to do a blind taste guess of a chili Graham made that used twenty ingredients. Whitney set the bar high with 12 out of 20, something nobody else from her team could get past.
4	* During the Wedding Team Challenge, the red team (consisting of chefs Lee did not choose) turned in a very strong performance, thanks in part to David's amazing palate. They won of course.
5	* Whitney managed to make perfect Chocolate Souffles despite not making any test versions despite the judge's concern.
6	** 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.
7
8	!!Season 2
9	* 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.
10	* 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:
11	--> "Look at me, you may want to be (bleep) smart and start acting like an arrogant (bleep). But let me tell you something, it's cooked perfectly and it's seasoned beautifully. Your mashed potatoes are bland and so I want you to identify the difference, hoping that you've got the intelligence to take it to the next level and learn from it. Because all of sudden, over the last couple of weeks, you've shut down. Because you can't learn anymore and that's pretty obvious with the results you're putting on the plate."
12
13	!!Season 3
14	* [[DeafComposer Blind chef]] Christine is the epitome of ''awesome''.
15	** [[{{Jerkass}} Ryan]] tried to screw Christine by giving her a '''live Dungeness crab''' for the elimination test. Obviously, the [=MoA=] goes to Christine who not only completes her dish, albeit with some difficulty, but she made the winning dish of crab ceviche cocktail! Gordon Ramsay was so shocked by how it looks that he wondered if she was really blind.
16	*** The [=MoA=] also goes to Ramsay, who saw through Ryan's trick and forced him to taste her dish. Unlike season two's Christian when he was put in the same position, Ryan admitted that the dish was delicious.
17	*** Also, while she didn't make it into the top two, Monti used canned crab to make scotch eggs, which Ramsay thought was an insane idea until he and the rest of the judges tasted them and declared them delicious. It's especially noticeable after Gordon tastes it, as his chuckle and facial expression indicate that he was not expecting the dish to be that good.
18	** Early in the season, Christine is the captain in a team challenge. Thus far in team challenges (and even later on), captains struggle on trying to think of what Christine could do, due to her being blind, and often she gets stuck on just serving the food and maybe a bit of prepping and cooking. Also, she pretty much always gets picked last. That one early team challenge, however, had Christine herself as captain. After things started out chaotic, loud and messy, Christine got tired of that, put her foot down and took some serious charge, putting order in the kitchen, delegating tasks, keeping everybody focused and communicating while still doing prep and some cooking of her own. All of this was key to leading her team to victory.
19	*** And later in the season, during the final 6, Christine isn't picked last, instead being picked first by Becky, something Gordon Ramsay agreed with due to Christine's excellent palate, but Joe Bastianich thought it was a mistake because the specific team challenge was to cook in an actual fine dining restaurant. Joe mentioned a few times how he thought Christine would be a detriment to her team, but Christine proceeded to perform very well, helping her team win the challenge and making Joe eat his words.
20	** One of the elimination challenges in season 3 was to replicate one of Graham's dishes (which was eaten by President Obama). Christine, despite her lack of sight, not only was able to copy how the dish was plated (again causing Gordon to doubt whether or not she's really blind), she also wowed the judges so much Joe cast out doubts about her cooking ability and Gordon was at a loss of what to say to praise how good her dish was.
21	** And of course, Christine winning season three.
22	* After Ryan and Tali both started grovelling at Ramsay whenever either of them was up for elimination, as well as Ryan's constant belittling of Monti and David, the two of them ended up being up for elimination together (meaning that one of them WILL go home). The judges, knowing another episode of lashing out and backstabbing was to ensue, instead refused to state which person was chosen for elimination and instead told them that both of them knew who it was and that said person should man up and hand over his apron.
23	* Episode 8 saw Tanya put together a delicious steak dish that easily won her immunity in the second challenge of the evening, which saw the other twelve contestants produce one of three different desserts that were favorites of the judges. Impressively, Tanya's strategy had several of the strongest cooks in the kitchen, among them Felix, Josh, Becky, and even Christine all at the mercy of the judges when their respective desserts turned out to be poorly prepared. Tanya had merely sought to give her fellow competitors a true challenge, and the judges were impressed at how effective her selections proved to be. Of particular note was Felix's soupy and sad-looking tiramisu dish and Becky's trifle dish which contained such a bizarre mix of strong flavors that the judges could barely swallow it. Although it was ultimately Scott who went home for his underwhelming strawberry shortcake dish, Tanya's strategy nonetheless was quite well-played.
24	* 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.
25
26	!!Season 4
27	* 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. 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.
28	* One of the Mystery Box challenges 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: Once the contents of the Mystery box are revealed (black cod, with an assortment of spices) Gordon takes 30 minutes doing things like talk to his fellow judges, observe the contestants and drink tea. The last 30 minutes he spends preparing, cooking, and plating his dish, showing the contestants the expertise of a world class chef. When the contestants taste his creation, they say it was absolutely delicious.
29	* Episode 11 had Gordon and Joe finally putting Krissi in her place. After antagonizing and bullying everyone for nine episodes straight, Krissi becomes Lynn's direct target by getting assigned a catfish. She finally gets harsh reviews for a badly made catfish with a muddy taste. Not only did Joe called her out on her arrogant attitude, later told her to have the balls to say whatever she's whispering behind his back to his face. For many having to put up with her bullying during the season, this comes as a well deserved catharsis moment.
30	* In Episode 15, Eddie's given the advantage of selecting four contestants who would have to cook with canned mushrooms and four others who would have to use fresh mushrooms. He targeted Jordan and James, his biggest competitors, by giving them fresh mushrooms, correctly predicting both of them would feel too comfortable and end up overworking their dishes. They ended up in the bottom three along with Bethy, another strong cook who also had fresh mushrooms (who ends up going home), and Joe mentions Eddie's strategy was able to put 3 of the top contenders in elimination.
31	* During a beachside team challenge, Jessie, one of the team captains, [[{{Fingore}} has a gruesome accident with a vegetable slicer]], and is made to sit out the challenge for her safety and that of the food. Instead of sitting idly and nursing the injury, she cheers and directs her team from the sidelines, ensuring they can keep up even though they're down a worker. Her blue team not only won the Team Challenge, but they won with an impressive 51-21 over the red team.
32	* In Episode 19, as much of a JerkAss Krissi is, she had a sound strategy for being in charge of the second challenge pairing each contender with a bird to cook. (And for once none of the choices were picked with any underlying malice or pettiness). Her top targets were Natasha, Luca, and Jordan in that order, so she gave what she deemed would be difficult for them to better the odds of her biggest competitions being eliminated. Natasha got pheasant for being an unfamiliar meat and the difficultly of it drying out quickly, Luca got a turkey because turkeys aren't found in his native country Italy, and Jordan got quail because of its complexity to work with and Jordan has been known to overcomplicate dishes. Although Natasha and Luca excelled, Jordan was a successful hit and he ended up going home. The challenge also managed to put Jessie who's been a strong cook throughout the season at the bottom despite having chicken, the easiest of the birds given to work it.
33
34	!!Season 5
35	* 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.
36	* 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.
37	** Seeing Christine absolutely ''own'' her role as the leader of the Red Team was definitely awesome - she solved problems and didn't let anything leave the kitchen that wasn't 100% perfect, leading her team to victory.
38	** Gordon offered a choice to Willie - he could either save himself from the pressure test (forcing the entire Blue Team to take part instead), or he could save three people (and he would have to compete in the pressure test). He gracefully accepted responsibility for the Blue Team's loss and chose to save Daniel, Victoria and Francis L., and then easily won the pressure test.
39	** Although somewhat counter-intuitively, saving only himself would have ultimately been ''better'' for the rest of the team, as with more people cooking, everyone's odds of remaining in the competition go up. Still a classy move.
40	* Cutter ''winning'' the pressure test with his truffles, which is very impressive because he has been weak with desserts (except for his panna cota) and chocolate is such a temperamental ingredient to work with, especially with time constraints. Gordon is so impressed that he insists Cutter take them up onto the balcony and share them with the other chefs. Even Joe grudgingly admitted they were great!
41	* 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 up a notch.
42	* Similarly, earlier in the season, Leslie and Ahran had been bitter rivals and he couldn't even get her name right. Then, in episode 7, they were forced to work together in a paired challenge, did well, and hugged.
43
44	!!Season 6
45	* In Episode 6, Stephen absolutely dominated the team challenge in many ways to list off:
46	** 1) He purposefully chose to pick his teammates as his advantage, and then managed to trick Shelly into picking chicken tenders for her team, leaving him with the lobster like he wanted.
47	** 2) With the "pick team first" advantage, he picked all the teammates Shelly wanted to have on her team, knowing well that they were going to follow his lead no matter what.
48	** 3) He kept his team organized and made them follow the recipe he wanted.
49	** 4) When Tommy kept being a hassle, he demoted the latter to dish washing.
50	** 5) All of the lobster dishes were pushed out in a very good momentum, and they managed to finish with only 8 minutes left of service. In the end, the Red team won (albeit in a close race but still).
51	** For the Blue team, despite a blatant lack of leadership by Shelly, Derrick and Christopher were able to salvage service almost all on their own by Derrick stepping up as de facto team captain and Christopher taking lead in the cooking area, to the point that in spite of dishes being sent out only halfway through service and being unable to get the final eight plates out before time was up, the Blue team only lost by 3 votes.
52	*** And when Shelly throws Derrick and Christopher under a bus by [[NeverMyFault blaming them for the chaos]] and making them go through a two-part steak pressure test (along with Claudia and Ailsa) while she was guaranteed safety and saved the weaker members of the Blue team, Derrick was the first the judges called safe which exempted him from the second half, while Christopher went through both parts and won the final safe spot.
53	* In the ninth episode of season 6, the contestants were tasked with replicating Gordon's Beef Wellington dish after tasting it. Hetal, a vegetarian, could not taste the Wellington and had to rely solely on look and other contestants. When the time came to present, Hetal (along with Christopher, her unknown partner) presented her Wellington over Christopher's as Hetal's had sauce. In a total surprise (especially considering she was nearly eliminated two episodes earlier for failing to make a good Salisbury steak), Gordon loved her Beef Wellington, saying it was perfect. And a good thing too, as Christopher's received heavy panning for its size and raw pastry.
54	* In 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.
55	* In Episode 15, a similar incident from Season 5 occurred when Mystery Box Challenge winner Nick put bitter rivals Derrick and Stephen together for the tag team challenge in hopes their animosity would implode. Not only did it fail, but the two were able to make a summer platter with few mistakes compared to the other pairs that night.
56
57	!!Season 7
58	* 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.
59	* Episode 10, Dan chose the correct protein instead of the first teammate pick, knowing well that he would end up with Nathan on his team. After a pep talk from Ramsay, he 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.
60	* 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.
61
62	!!Season 8
63	* 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.
64	--> '''Gordon:''' "Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I mean, it's a work of art. You know, [[ICantBelieveImSayingThis I've never said this before]], but what would I change? Quite honestly? ''Nothing.'' Great job."
65	* 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.
66	* 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. 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.
67	* Episode 17, Eboni, Cate, and especially Jeff were in a three-way baking pressure test with the goal to make a chocolate souffle. The end result was all ''three'' of them made perfect souffles, with Jeff's declared as the cream of the crop, causing the judges to announce that no one would be going home that night!
68	** Jeff actually ''winning'' the baking pressure test with his spot-on souffle, flooring all of his fellow competitors (including his teammates, much to their grudging ire) which is impressively amazing because he was historically 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 Jeff was the first one to advance forward in the competition, and insisted that he hit all those notes, Even Aaron and Christina were amazed.
69
70	!!Season 9
71	* Episodes 1, 2, and 3 had the best round of auditions so far, by adding the Mentor Team dynamic.
72	** Olusola, a bus driver from South Carolina, got high praise for her Jerk Snapper, to the point Gordon, Aarón ''and'' Joe offered her an apron each.
73	** Taylor, competing in the auditions for the ''third'' time, finally got her chance to impress Gordon. Not only that, her fellow duel competitors, Ralph and Chelsea, also got an apron each from Aarón and Joe as well, meaning that the three of them passed.
74	** Cesar, S.J., Matt, and Ryan performed so good individually that ''all of them'' got selected, with S.J. and Cesar having the chance to choose between Gordon or Aarón.
75	** Darrick, in the 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]].
76	*** This needs some elaboration: Gordon himself states that sticky toffee pudding normally takes him three hours to prepare. Darrick prepares the dish in '''45 minutes.''' For added symbolism, Gordon gives Darrick three aprons - equal to the highest Michelin star rating a chef can receive.
77	* 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, with Julia being named the best of the night. 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.
78	* 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 well-executed and great box of cupcakes as well. Even Gerron, who landed in the bottom two, managed to fully complete packaging his dozen, which actually tasted a lot better than they looked with great flavors, his only criticism being the density of his batter.
79	* Episode 14's team challenge resulted in a first for ''Series/MasterChef'': a ''tie''. The stunned judges were forced to determine 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.
80	* In Episode 17, Bowen found out from everybody that he should go home due to his dip in performances, but a pep talk from Ramsay brought him back from despair. Then, he presented a near perfect dish that Ramsay himself said was strong enough to ''keep'' him around for another day, just before Bowen declared that he was back in the game.
81	* In Episode 18, Gerron, who previously stated that he was weak on baking 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.
82	* 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. 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 did Gerron prove Joe wrong by presenting stunning and elevated versions of these humble dishes, he won the whole competition by staying true to himself.
83
84	!!Season 10
85	* During the auditions, Fred presented a malted chocolate cake, with miso ganache. Keeping in mind he had to impress all three judges to earn an apron, and they had to decide among themselves...the three of them between them completely cleaned the plate, decided there was absolutely no point in any discussion, and Ramsay just THREW the apron at him, laughing and telling him to GetOut.
86	* Gordon perfectly cutting a whole chicken while ''blindfolded''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qvmumHnkVA See the video here]].
87	* Episode 9's Tag Team Challenge. Nick thought that Noah would butt heads with Sarah 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.
88	** When many thought this team was heading to be an EpicFail because of Subha's slow pacing and Dorian's nerves showing, they ended up presenting the complete tray in spite of the chaotic performance.
89	* 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 take lightly).
90	* During Sweet Week, Jamie expertly nailed two baking challenges back-to-back involving pastry and desserts he had never baked nor eaten before. This is an awesome moment of brilliance because as a fisherman, Jamie is an expert at seafood. He claimed that he was very weak on baking pastry and baking desserts, but he rose to the challenge and defied the odds. The judges praised his Black Forest cake, and the following night his macaroons were also praised along with Fred, Shari and Sarah's.
91	* Episode 14 featured a layer cake replication challenge where Noah adventurously 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.
92
93	!!Season 11 - Legends
94	* The final chef of Auditions - Part 1, Suu, wows all four judges (Emeril Lagasse being the fourth judge of the season) with her Burmese coconut soup. So wowed that they were all fighting for second tastings after she left.
95
96	!!Season 12 - Back To Win
97	* Episode 2 (Auditions Part 2) features some stand out dishes.
98	** Michael Silverstein (who placed fifteenth in Season 10) managed to wow the judges with a wonderful filet dish, proving that he left too early the first time and could have made it further had it not been the infamous Tag Team Challenge. And he managed to beat out Sarah, who was the ''runner-up'' in that season!
99	** Stephen (from Season 6), made Rabbit and Donuts as his audition dish. Despite the weird as hell combination, it amazed the judges with its flavor profile. It easily won him an apron.
100	** We get a three way battle of former contestants from the Junior edition between Dara (Season 1), Tae-ho (Season 4), and Shayne (Season 5). All three had some stand out dishes in varying ways, but only Dara and Shayne receive their aprons, making the duo the first from the Junior edition of the show to join the home cooks that competed in the mainline edition.
101	* In the first Mystery Box Challenge of the season (Episode 5), Fred Chang decided to take a big risk and make phyllo dough from scratch, something nobody did in the show's history. The risk paid off and he won the challenge, earning immunity and breaking his poor streak of Mystery Box Challenge failures in Season 10.
102	* In this season’s tag team challenge (making a three-course meal of Gordon Ramsay’s signature dishes), despite the judges’ misgivings about Bowen and Shanika’s team-up, they manage to win the challenge by nailing all three dishes.
103	* In the Takeout Elevation Challenge, Derrick takes a massive risk with his Lobster En Croute, taking them out of the oven with so little time left that no one is sure if they are properly cooked or not (as he didn’t slice them). The judges call Derrick up, and his lobster is perfectly cooked, earning him the win for pulling off such a dish in a mere 45 minutes.
104
105	!Masterchef Junior
106	* 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 macarons, molten lava cakes, sushi, and tortellinis.
107	** In the restaurant takeover episode, ''[[BeyondTheImpossible not a single dish]] gets sent back to the kitchen''.
108	* 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.
109	* 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.
110	* The season premier of the third season, right in the first challenge, 11-year old Kayla cuts herself with a knife. It's a fairly serious and obviously painful cut across two fingers, but her MajorInjuryUnderreaction is both awesome and hilarious: She cuts herself, let's out a fairly loud "Ouch", then turns around, lifts her injured hand and in a complete deadpan goes: "Medic". And she still gets called up as one of the top three contestants for that challenge.
111	* 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. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1LPoMFEUP0&ab_channel=MasterChefOnFOX He not only makes the winning burger]], Gordon tells him it's turned him vegan for the night.
112	* In season 6 episode 9, Gordon decides to get into the first half's challenge with less than 20 minutes on the clock on a dare from Joe. He makes a restaurant-quality pork ramen, impressing everyone.
113	-->'''Olivia:''' Are you kidding me right now Gordon Ramsay? I can make an ''appetizer'' in 20 minutes, but a full blown entree that blows the judges away? He's ''insane''!
114	-->'''Remy:''' I have never seen someone make a good dish in 20 minutes. But...he's [[SupremeChef Gordon Ramsay]]! He's like, a cooking superhero!
115	* The quarterfinals of season 8 turned the difficulty on an already tough season up a notch with the final elimination challenge -- keeping up with Gordon in constructing a signature ravioli dish. This type of challenge is generally reserved for the adult Australian version, and the kids pull it off in the minute allowed after Gordon finishes.
116
117	! Australian version
118	[[Awesome/MasterChefAustralia Has its own page.]]
119
120	! Other versions
121	* In the second season of Masterchef Canada, Jennifer has been considered the weakest contestant from the very start. In the tenth episode, now the top 8 (with contestant Cody having just returned from being eliminated by winning an egg challenge), contestants must replicate judge Michael Bonacini's very technical and complex sea scallop mousse with lobster, and Jennifer returned from the pantry having forgotten to grab eggs, a key ingredient in creating mousse because it helps everything bind together. After a bit of a breakdown, Chef Bonacini talked to her and calmed her down. Jennifer did not bother asking any other contestants for any eggs, instead she decided to try making a roux as a substitute for the eggs. Her improvised technique ended up being successful, with her mousse being near perfect. After the challenge, even though Jennifer did not win (Christopher won, with Jennifer having technically the second best dish), the judges called attention towards her, commending and congratulating her in her tenacity, determination and improvisation.
122	* In the seventh season of Masterchef Canada, an All-Stars season titled "Back To Win," Christopher (who originally participated in Season 2 but was eliminated in fifth place) had a terrific run on the show, showing off incredibly creative and technical dishes with both savoury and sweet dishes before finally winning in the finale over Andy and Thea (who were runner-ups in Seasons 5 and 4 respectively).
123	** Special mention also goes to Andrew, who left the competition in tenth place during Season 2 but made it all the way to the semi-finals during "Back To Win."
124	* The Brazilian edition, on its first ''Professionals'' season, got pestered by overly-sexist competitors, which did things such as ignoring instructions by the female judge Paola Carosella. However, the most blatant example was Dayse: a competitor whose record had NO bottom finishes in any point and which was strongly poised as a title contender. Yet, her opponents would often say things such as [[TemptingFate "I don't feel like Dayse is on my level"]], attempt to take over her cooking WHILE she was doing it and tell her to "sweep the floor" when she asked what she was supposed to do with all of their interference.
125	** This became even worse after the final four cut, where Dayse was the only woman and two of her opponents, Marcelo and her former boss Ivo, were highly sexist. For the Surf'n'Turf Elimination Challenge, Marcelo, as the winner of the previous challenge, could choose one of the meats that each of their opponents would use. He gave Dayse skirt steak, openly stating that he chose it because it was hard to harmonize with seafood and he wanted her out, while Ivo got the exact one he wanted. And, as if it wasn't hard enough, Dayse picked up ''scallops'' as her seafood and ''passionfruit'' as an ingredient, a combination that all but painted her as a CordonBleughChef in the eyes of the judges and opponents. In the end, Dayse won the challenge with ease and Ivo was eliminated. In fact, Dayse's landslide victory was so surprising that an incredulous Marcelo, which moments before was badmouthing her dish and saying that it would be unfair if she stayed on the show, [[https://youtu.be/Y3AzQzgih7c?t=1620 stepped out of the mezzanino to taste it]] ''and gave her a begrudging approval''!
126	** And of course, even though Marcelo wanted an all-male final, Dayse made it through. When he saw that his final opponent would be Dayse, he said that [[TemptingFate he couldn't believe he would win the show]]. What actually happened in the finals: Marcelo failed so hard on the first few dishes that, by the third of the eight, Dayse had a '''29-point lead''' over him. Even nearly perfect scores on his main dishes couldn't help Marcelo, and in the end, Dayse not only won the show, but was celebrated all over the internet as an example of humbleness and overcoming of sexism. As for Marcelo? The comments on the episodes posted on [=YouTube=] [[CatharsisFactor basically amount to "I'm here to see Dayse beating him"]].
127	* The eighth season of Masterchef Indonesia features Adi, a contestant who is very much well known for his memetic nickname "Lord Adi", and for a good reason. He managed to won 4 challenges in a row, a record that is only contested by the season 2 winner Desi. And even more impressively, on an auction challenge, he was left with only 20 minutes left for him, yet he managed to make a beef tartare that impressed all three of the judges, leaving all of them dumbfounded by his strategy.
128	** Special mention goes to Jesselyn and Nadya, who both had competed in a very grueling pressure test that left Jesselyn in a complete mess. Yet both of them made a dish so impressive that none of the judges are willing to send either of them home yet. And even more impressive, both of them ended up being the finalists of the season.
129	* On the tenth season of Masterchef Indonesia, an episode featuring the contestants having 75 minute time limit as their time limit for two different challenges. Usman decided to go AllOrNothing mode by using approximately '''68 minutes''' of his time, knowing that if he failed it's essentially a one way ticket to Pressure test. His confidence and determination results in a mouthwatering biryani set that leaves both contestants and judges hungry for it. He was then rightfully saved after the first challenge, leaving the Black team having to find another opponent to get their aprons on.

Context Awesome / MasterChef