Masterchef Canada Recap, episode 10: The one with the raw meatball

This week’s episode saw the final eight getting schooled in the art of street food. Here, three takeaways from episode ten.

Lesson #1: Nothing trumps tacos
It was clear from the get-go that Eric’s Italian sub plan was doomed to failure, no matter how soft his buns or succulent his meatballs. The reason can be summed up in a single word: tacos. In a city where Mexican restaurants outnumber stop signs, there was zero chance that anything non-tortilla-encased was coming out on top. Perhaps sensing this, Eric spent the entire challenge running around like a completely deranged person while the rest of the his team tried to get stuff done. That guy needs to cool it.

Lesson #2: Cook yer balls
Serving raw beef to an unsuspecting lady didn’t help the red team’s chances, either. Refreshingly, Eric made no attempt to verbally flagellate anyone but himself: “I was the leader, I let my team down, and I let a raw meatball out.”

Lesson #3: Don’t look a helpful Welshman in the mouth (or screw up your sponge)
The dreaded pressure test called for the contestants to whip up an ice cream-topped sponge cake shellacked with meringue—i.e. a baked Alaska. The stress of having to cook such a daunting dessert seemed to manifest itself in physical form, with Eric developing a noticeable eye twitch and Kaila turning slightly green. Julie, we must assume, went temporarily deaf, or perhaps insane, those being the only two possible explanations for why anyone would disregard Michael Bonacini’s kindly cake-making advice, to their own obvious detriment.

Evidently, though, not even clumps of raw flour could outweigh the terribleness of Kaila’s and Danielle’s respectively fudgy and soggy sponge cakes. After an intense conference session, it was Danielle who was sent packing. Meanwhile, for all his humility and dessert-related histrionics, Eric got a big gold star for his near-perfect cake.

Images courtesy of Bell Media