Feel The Burn-Mystery Box Challenge

The Hot Ones - Top 10

Hello, food lovers! 🌶️ I'm thrilled to share my latest adventure on MasterChef Generations with you. This week, we faced one of the most intense challenges yet – the Feel the Burn Mystery Box Challenge. As the name suggests, it was all about heat, spice, and pushing our culinary boundaries.

The Set Up

Imagine walking into the MasterChef kitchen and seeing ten mystery boxes on fire!! The atmosphere was electric, and the heat from the boxes filled the room, fueling our excitement.

We were greeted by the familiar faces of our esteemed judges, Gordon Ramsay, Aarón Sánchez, and Joe Bastianich, but there was a twist. None other than Sean Evans, the host of the popular show Hot Ones, joined them. Known for his fiery interviews with celebrities, Sean brought an extra layer of heat to our challenge.

The Challenge

After blowing out the flame, we lifted our mystery boxes and discovered various spicy ingredients—from fresh chili peppers and bottled hot sauces to exotic spices. The task was to create a dish that showcased these fiery elements and balanced them with flavor and finesse. The judges sought creative techniques and the ability to handle the heat without overwhelming the palate.

On A Side Note

Nothing can prepare you for the grueling production schedule filming MasterChef: hours of standing and waiting endless hours in hot and cold conditions, feeling a sense of fight-or-flight anxiety every minute of every day, and sleepless nights studying recipes since none are allowed in the MasterChef kitchen, not to mention constant worry about what happened that day and what would happen next.

The cold LAFC soccer challenge and the sideways blowing wind at the sand Quarry Challenge all led to a cough that shook me to the core. Thank goodness for over-the-counter meds and cough drops. I'm exhausted, so I dig deep to find my spicy roots. I must keep it simple or literally burn out from the challenge.

My Approach

Make a simple fried chicken sandwich.

For my chicken breast, I dredged it in spicy flour with (1) cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and an egg wash seasoned with salt, pepper, and more cayenne. I dried roasted (2) red chili peppers, blended them with water to reconstitute them and added the liquid from canned (3) Chipotle Peppers to make an adobo mayonnaise.

My side dish is a fiery avocado creamy slaw made with blistered (4) serrano and (5) jalapeno peppers and lime juice for a cool heat burn. I finished the dish with a (6) habanero honey drizzle to bring a pop of sweet fire.

After all was said and done, I eventually used six of at least three challenge-required ingredients.

The Judges Remarks

Sean Evans said the heat on my dish was perfectly balanced, and the chicken cooked perfectly. Gordon said it was a good but safe dish. He said that after my last two cooks, it was a wise choice to keep it simple.

The Top Three

Murt, Michael, and Adam—all three rising stars in the competition, now lovingly referred to as the Spice Boys! Michael wins with his spicy prawns, which are a lovely restaurant-quality dish.

The Bottom Three

Kimberly, Hailey, and Warren

Double Elimination

Sadly, two of my favorite people were eliminated in a double elimination: Kimberly and Hailey. Hailey's fried chicken dish was overcooked, as was Kimberly's fried chicken sandwich. I thought Kimberly and I might be together at the bottom, as we both made similar fried chicken sandwiches, but I remained in the game to fight another day. Whew!

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