Wow great! Another wonderful episode! There were a lot of highlights last episode, especially when Charli, Mollie and Micah competed in a 3-way battle for the last apron and the final spot in the top 20! It was also sad to see Mollie and Charli go but this is a competition and there could only be one winner. Let's crack on!
Disclaimer: For the ones who I also ranked in the previous episodes, rankings could change but descriptions could also stay the same as last week.
20) Renee: The first actual competition episodes shouldn't disappoint. There's been standout contestants however I haven't really seen much from Renee, however with all due respect, there has been several people missing-in-action but she may be the first boot out of them. Sorry Renee!
19) Micah: I can vouch for Micah because he cooks from the heart. Unfortunately though, he was kind of lucky when he got that last apron. There are still some hits and misses in his signature dishes. With the standard of season 10 being set so high, I can already see Micah eventually falling short and buckling under the pressure.
18) Kimberly: Kimberly is another MIA, will she make it past a few rounds? Yea she might, it's just I haven't seen much from her to put her higher.
17) Kenny: I really like Kenny's energy. He is a great cook like all the others who had gotten a white apron. Unfortunately for me, I can see Kenny as one of the first too be eliminated since he gets flustered easily and needed his family members to save his butt during the auditions: this was especially when he forgot the cheese 2 minutes before his 45 minutes of cooking time finished.
For the next few contestants, descriptions will not be in a full sentence:
16) Michael: Missing
15) Deanna: In
14) Bri: Action
Back to contestants who got a bit more screen time:
13) Jamie: I underestimated Jamie, even though he doesn't look like a winner to me, I think he's got a solid road ahead of him. I'm letting him slide for now but I'm always up for some good surprises!
12) Sam: Sam looks like a solid cook. However he's probably too busy saving people's butt in court cases. Haven't seen much from him but just like Jamie. I'd love to see more from that man!
11) Liz: Liz is a good cook, for me she's slightly somewhere in the middle though. I've seen her shine in the auditions. However the actual competition is way more intense than the audition itself. Best wishes to you Liz.
10) Keturah: First of all, Keturah knows how to bind different cuisines together. She looks solid to me since she's British and she got the accent. Pretty solid but haven't seen enough of her to put her higher up on the rankings. I also love her energy! Someone like her DEFINITELY needs to be on the show.
9) Evan: Evan wasn't featured too much. He's known as the "pan spinner" and his new york strip steak was really good. I'd rank him really high for that. Great job chef Evan!
8) Noah: Noah's dish may be hit or miss, but the hit definitely outweighted the miss. Although his side dish may be not pleasant to the judges liking, his burger was really out of this world. I think Noah is passionate enough to learn from his mistakes quickly but that shall be realized over time throughout this competition. I think he's going to go far in this competition!
7) Nick: Nick is like the Gabriel of the season to me. Gabriel ranked seventh on season 8, while having a lot of talent. Nick feels like he's going far but he's one of the very youngest in the competition. I feel that he may be a one to watch.
6) Wuta: Wuta cooks like an inspiration, his food definitely makes us all hungy. Having another teacher background come to this competition brings much more love into the dishes that gets served week by week in the competition.
5) Dorian: Dorian is the type of person who will do very well but may make it short of the finale. She's a very solid cook and her drunken chocolate cake was a knockout dish! However a drunken chocolate cake is pretty simple for someone to make it more than 100 times. Her creme anglaise didn't impress the judges. However I'm really excited to see her shine even brighter in the competition.
4) Shari: Shari is an amazing cook. She's only learnt Indian flavors after marrying her husband! That's a huge talent when someone easily makes the top 20 with something they've just newly learnt. Therefore, she easily grabs the top four spot on my very first 'complete contestants' power ranking.
3) Subha touched my heart the moment he entered the MasterChef kitchen. He's got a lot of knoweledge about culinary fusions. Subha has the age and experience to even make it to the finale. However no contestant that was 40 years and over has even made it to the grand finale in this competition. Subha also shows me a lot of promise. I feel that Subha is doing this for his family more than anyone in this competition and he has the skill and the heart to go really far in this competition.
2) Sarah: Sarah is exactly in the middle of the age range of past MasterChef winners. She had a very interesting past as a military army officer. Her dish was also really solid and I feel that she is very confident and screams "WINNER" to me. Sarah is also one to really watch out for in the competition. To be safe though, there's someone who made an even bigger mark than her during the auditions, and that person is:
1) Fred: To get a judge to lick a dessert plate clean and smash the plate afterwards for a person that's aged very young is an extremely delightful feeling. Fred has a lot of talent in dessert and can represent the Chinese community well. To be a solid number one, he needs to put the same talent into main courses which for him I would think it's easy to achieve.
There are plenty of contenders: Fred, Sarah, Subha, Shari, Dorian, Wuta, Nick, Noah and Evan. I think that they've got a solid first start into the competition. People missing in action such as Renee, Kimberly, Michael, Deanna and Bri haven't shown much so therefore I'm putting them someone lower in the rankings. Micah is an iffy question mark for me because he hasn't shown plates that would solidly snatch an apron from the judges hands. However, I do think an MIA is leaving first and Renee is probably the most vulnerable out of them and the most likely first boot. Sorry Renee!
Going Home - Renee Rice