MasterChef Season 14 ‘Age Is Just A Number’ just hit the TV schedule and is available for those with a Hulu subscription. But spoilers can be found throughout the story. Just giving you a heads up!
My husband and I always argue about what the best portion of any given MasterChef season is. Is it the auditions for the Gordon Ramsay show? Is it when a large swathe of contestants are left? Is it when the cast has narrowed down and you can’t hide behind a mediocre dish? One thing we can agree on is that the first team challenge is always a delightful mess every. single. year. And I was pleased as punch about the latest episode.
MasterChef tee’d us up for the first team challenge with some cast interviews mentioning they were prepped to go out into the field, and when I say field, I mean a literal field. The cast split into teams to feed 101 members of the LAFC soccer team. Of course, there are four teams this season, and that’s where the chaos primarily ensued.
While not all twists on the show work, the conceit on MasterChef Season 14 is just way better than a lot of other concepts the show has tried. Gordan Ramsay and the other producers have split the cast into four teams based on what generation they hail from: Baby Boomers, Millennials, GenX and Gen Z. Those four teams had to split into two teams for this challenge, which meant Gen X and Gen Z were paired together and Millennials teamed up with Baby Boomers.
It was, for lack of a better word, chaos. It’s always a mess when these folks who are mostly home cooks try to start cooking in large volumes, but throw a bunch of slow moving and cranky old people in with assertive millennials and there were problems immediately. The captain Anna (a millennial) couldn’t get along with the previously likable but very foolish Rebecca (baby boomer) who inexplicably even argued with Gordon when he tried to tell her she needed help cooking halibut.
Hot Tip: If you are on a reality competition show with Gordon Ramsay, maybe don’t argue with him or mutter at him under your breath.
Over on the other team, Becca (Gen Z) did a great job keeping things moving during meal planning, but her idea of leadership was sending platitudes of encouragement out for the rest of the night. Two more enterprising members of her team, Chris and Adam, tried to actually jump in and get the execution of the steak right -- the toughest bit -- while the rest of her team quietly produced OK accouterments. They ultimately ended up 12 plates short of sending out enough dishes, though the other team ended up a little short too.
Everyone was stressed on the red team (Millennials and Boomers) and talking smack about one another. That's reality TV drama in the most normal fashion, but the other blue team (Gen X and Z) wasn't immune to problems either. Largely, on the blue team, everyone was trying to be supportive and help each other out but no one was able to really take charge and get enough plates out. At one point, service was going poorly and I distinctly remember Becca hopefully saying, 'It feels like a train wreck but stay with me.' As you may have guessed, nothing changed after this.
It's really hard to be the losing team when you are cooking steak for a sports team. (I'm hungry just thinking about the reality show.) They were the losing team.
My husband would say that right now, while the chefs are trying to figure out who's great in the kitchen and who's not, there's the most honest and interesting reality TV moments happening. My counter argument would be that at this point a lot of chefs are hiding behind mundane tasks like cooking vegetables or making other sides.
It's great TV, but the downside to this portion of MasterChef is that sometimes talented people go home early specifically because they take on leadership roles, while other contestants hide out in the middle. That's exactly what seems to have happened here, as the blue team ultimately lost, and those who attempted to take charge (Adam, Chris and Becca) were all on the chopping block.
Chris ultimately went home this week after failing to execute on the cook of over 101 steaks, which honestly sucked because he was the only person on his entire team who really looked like he was trying to get a handle on this beast of a challenge and busting his butt to get stuff done, while Fatima phoned in a mediocre polenta and Becca tried to continually tell everyone how “proud” she was of them.
I don't blame Gordon and co. for the decision, as there really is just a difference between executing like 6 steaks at home and executing like 100+ on TV. Chris just didn’t quite get there.
Still, this is why I have a tendency to enjoy Gordon, Joe, and Aarón's critiquing best when there are 7-8 contestants left. At that point, most of the chefs who can't hack the competition have been eliminated and we get some of the best food of the season.
I still love a good trainwreck though.
