It was semifinal night on MasterChef Junior and that can mean only one thing: it was time for the side-by-side cook with a chef. With this being the final chance for these young chefs to get into the final, it was time for their hardest challenge yet. And what could be harder than cooking along with Chef Gordon Ramsay?
To start the semifinals, all the chefs had to break down a duck with Chef Gordon. And while he had no problem slowing down and guiding the chefs through this portion of the challenge, once we got to the side-by-side cook, the heat was turned up!
The MasterChef Junior contestants had to make a classic duck a l'orange at the same time as Gordon Ramsay. And since Chef Gordon was treating these junior chefs like he would the adults, this was cooking on a super fast scale. But there were quite a few issues during this cook. Perhaps the only young chef who never seemed to falter was Michael.
Remy struggled towards the beginning and at one point, Chef Gordon had to remind her that she needed to pay attention. And Asher also struggled, as he fell behind and there was a question over how long his duck ended up in the oven. Bryson seemed to be doing fine, until we got to the point of needing to handle three pans of food, and suddenly he was falling behind as well, and he seemed to forget that he needed to shake his pans.
The MasterChef Junior chefs might have struggled, but for the most part they were keeping up with Chef Gordon. And that is impressive, since he was not playing around. In many ways, he was treating them exactly like he would professional chefs competing on the classic MasterChef.
In the final moments, there were some serious issues and it was a challenge for these young chefs to get these dishes done. But in the end, it seems like all four chefs got things on the plate. So while it was emotional for Bryson, at least he had something to serve the judges.
Overall, the judging for this challenge was good, but there were issues on some plates. Bryson struggled with the vegetables on his plate, but his duck was perfectly cooked, even if he did add the sauce to the duck, which isn't good when you want a crispy skin. And sadly, Asher didn't get orange onto his plate and his duck was undercooked.
Cooking with Chef Gordon Ramsay is a challenge no matter what. And these are young home cooks. So what they did was impressive. But in the end, the three chefs moving on to the MasterChef Junior finale are Michael, Remy, and Bryson.
It was sad to see Asher leave, but it made sense with how things turned out with this cook-along. And in the end, we can't wait to see where he goes next, because he was an impressive cook in his own right at just 8-years-old.
Now we just have to see what happens in the finale and who will end up winning it all for this season.