MasterChef Recap: Finale, Finally!!!

Recaps

By Dangerously | Wednesday, September 19, 2012 | 7:00 pm | 14 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: Featured, Master Chef, Recaps

DareDevil is making a Thai crab salad for her app, a braised pork belly for her entree, and a coconut and lime sorbet with a ginger tuile for dessert. 

They scurry back out of the pantry, and into the spaceship kitchen, and the cooking has officially begun. The crowd is really into it…

You’d think that Stace-aholic was watching a cage fight. 

Man, that would be an awesome twist to the MasterChef finale, wouldn’t it? I mean, even if they were simply cooking in a cage, it’d be cool. Like way more epic. 

The judges are hoping that the contestants show a little of their roots, but also demonstrate their evolution. I think both are attempting that. For Josh, the pecan pie is still pretty damn Southern, as is anything (lobster included) and grits, but the rack of lamb w/ green curry is not at all. For Daredevil, obviously there’s the Thai crab salad, but she’s branching out more w/ the braised pork belly. 

Did Josh just say he was making a bacon-pecan pie? Holy crap. The judges fear that all three of his courses may well be too heavy, but they’ll have to wait and see. 

Bastage tells the other two judges that DareDevil’s chosen techniques are probably driven by her handicap, since she can’t see a perfectly medium rare rack of lamb, so she’s steaming and braising things so she doesn’t have to worry about that. 

Gordie stops by to check on Josh. As always, he’s feeling confident. Otherwise, there’s nothing really valuable in their little conversation. 

Bastage and TG head over to check on DareDevil. Ok, so does it bother anyone else that Bastage always tells DareDevil it’s him when he stops by? He and TG both say “hi” right away already, so why does he say “it’s Bastage and TG?” 

“I can hear TG’s labored breathing, and Bastage, I can hear how shiny your head is.” 

Bastage, when back w/ TG and Gordie, compares the entrees, stating that it’s “starred European restaurant food” vs “hawker stand street food.” I feel like Bastage has already made up his mind. 

At the halfway point, the judges make another round. Bastage is SHOCKED at the idea of Josh putting bacon in his pecan pie crust. He suddenly seems to be taking a step back, and is a little worried about Josh’s dessert. 

Now only 30 minutes left! And then Josh commits a grievous foul. He purees his lobster, shell and all, and according to the judges, probably ruins his appetizer. 

Bastage is starting to regret his pick…

Josh says he knows what he’s doing, that putting the lobster shell in the blender will extract all the flavor from the lobster, and he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Including the judges, apparently. 

Becky apparently is the color commentator for the evening. I think she’s pulling for Josh, but she has plenty of things to say about how great both dishes look just so we know she knows what she’s talking about. 

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Dangerously

Dangerously is a Southern boy misplaced in windy Chicago. He spends most of his time wandering around Chicago hoping for a random encounter with Graham Elliot...(I bet that guy gives the best hugs!).

14 Comments

  1. 1
    Bobbi
    Posted September 19, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    She was my winner of choice since the first time I saw her. It took a lot of courage on her part to even compete. Why should Josh have won? He had lost and was off and came back. No way should he have been the winner and if he had won, I would have cried FOUL. Good going Christine, :-)

  2. 2
    annie Annie
    Posted September 19, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    I developed a huge crush on Chef Bastage, Looked good in the suit / sneaker combo…sarcastic attitude.
    *** swoon***

    oh yeah, Christine….YAY!!!!!! So happy for her!!!!!

    Now, back to Bastage…did I mention his dreamy eyes?

  3. 3
    JimbobJones Jimbob Jones
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 12:53 am

    Daredevil’s thoughts during the confetti: “Where’d all these f***ing moths come from?”

  4. 4
    JimbobJones Jimbob Jones
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 12:54 am

    And Annie, you need help. Not a psychiatrist, but a psychologist — you’re gonna need some drugs. (Thank you, “Joy Ride”)

    ;-)

  5. 5
    chaosbutterfly
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 3:07 am

    I can’t even lie though, Bastage is kind of hot.
    If he emotionally abused me and glared at me menacingly the way that he does to everyone else on this show, I’d probably melt with happiness.

    But yeahhhhhhhhh Daredevil!!
    Josh’s food was hoity toity and all, but Christine’s looked absolutely yummy. I wanted to roll in her pork belly and that dessert looked so banging. When Gordon said that the smell of lime was wafting all over the table, my eyes like rolled into the back of my head imagining it. Is her cookbook out yet? If I get it, I’ll have to leave the fish sauce out of all the recipes.

    But what warms my heart the most is that Becky did not win.
    Hallelujah.

    And thank you Dangerously for a wonderful season of recaps! If you’re not recapping anything else, I hope you enjoy your time off!

  6. 6
    Pegalicious
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 4:40 am

    Wahoo! At last I’m happy with a winning cheftestant!

    I’ve been pulling for Christine since the beginning, and IMO her win was well-deserved. I’d much rather have a cookbook from someone who can explain to me how to take lowly ingredients (such as pork belly) and elevate them rather than someone who’ll tell me how to prepare a ridiculously expensive ingredient (e.g., lobster or rack of lamb). I look forward to her cookbook.

    @Dangerously, to echo chaosbutterfly, thanks for your recaps this season. They have, dare I say, “elevated” my viewing experience.

  7. 7
    chaosbutterfly
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 6:54 am

    Oh, and I found this blog post by Christine: http://www.theblindcook.com/thoughts-on-winning-masterchef-usa-2012/ that I think is pretty interesting, if really really long.
    She shares some interesting tidbits on her helper too.

  8. 8
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 8:29 am

    I don’t know why Gordon doesn’t seem to know anything about American food culture since he has about 3 million restaurants and 18 different shows based in the US.

    Because they’ve been braising pork belly on Top Chef all along and I don’t remember Tom or Gail or any guest judge sniffing their noses at the lowliness of the ingredients. It’s not posh but it’s not uncommon in fine dining, either.

    But his obsession with pricing dishes to convey the chef’s success, touting Michelin stars, which barely even affect American fine dining since only three cities are reviewed by the Michelin organization, and Los Angeles is no longer one of them, and judging the perceived luxury of ingredients rather than the chef’s skill with them always strikes me as a much more European way to approach cooking.

    At the very least, you’d think the “Michelin starred” chef who uses POP ROCKS on his menu would school Gordon on what is and is not relevant to American food culture.

    Still, I’m glad Christine won, not just because Josh didn’t even belong there, but he’d become much less likeable as the season progressed.

  9. 9
    LAC LAC
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 9:28 am

    YAAY!!! Becky didn’t win…. I mean, Daredevil won!!!

    She had me at pork belly…

    Josh didn’t bother me nearly as much as Becky “Flick”.

  10. 10
    Pegalicious
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 10:14 am

    @chaosbutterfly, thanks for the link; if possible, I have even more respect for Christine after reading her blog.

  11. 11
    crankyguy crankyguy
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 11:17 am

    I stopped watching this about mid-season because I could not stand seeing Becky and Josh. I noticed this recap and had to check the winner, and I am so relieved. It’s nice when things ultimately work out as they should.

  12. 12
    AmyOops AmyOops
    Posted September 20, 2012 at 4:35 pm

    “I like to call it the Spaceship Kitchen. Why? Because I imagine that if I had a spaceship, this is what the kitchen would look like. Duh.”

    Dammit, Dangerously! Now I can’t have a cig while reading the rest of your recap because for some reason this caption made me laugh so hard I choked…and no, I am NOT ready to quit; this was not “a sign” – for those who may be thinking it. But thanks :-)

  13. 13
    Dangerously Dangerously
    Posted September 21, 2012 at 6:01 am

    Thanks for sticking it out with me, guys…especially with how late these last few recaps have been. Once labor day arrives it becomes a lot harder for me to find the time for these….here’s hoping next season doesn’tfollow a similar schedule… I am still planning on writing a recap if Dragoncon for those interested…but otherwise don’t think I’ll be recapping anything until MC next summer. So…if I don’t see tard….good afternoon, good evening, and good night

  14. 14
    zerocool
    Posted September 22, 2012 at 9:05 am

    Late to comment, but I just saw the episode online. Glad Christine won, it seemed as though they were really favoring Josh there so I was worried he would win. I do think Josh got the shaft when he was originally eliminated, the fault his team was there was Frank and he didn’t even have to cook in that elimination round. But I really liked Frank so it didn’t bother me too much. And given the option of having the “flavor elevator” return, I’ll take Josh any day. At least the boy had talent.

    Ideally, I would’ve liked to see Frank & Christine in the final two. But very glad Becky didn’t win.

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