Two cooks from Portland are in the mix this season on “MasterChef,” and in the episode that aired Wednesday, June 26, one prepared a dish that drew initial skepticism from host and judge Gordon Ramsay, which made it seem like culinary disaster might not be far away.
This season of “MasterChef” is subtitled “Generations,” because the cooks are split into teams representing four demographic groups, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. In the previous audition episodes, Ramsay and fellow judges Aarón Sánchez and Joe Bastianich chose a top 20, with five members of each team.
Millennial team members include Jeet Kaur Sawant, a senior human relations specialist from Portland. The Rose City is also represented by Sunshine Carlos, a yoga instructor from Portland, who’s on the Gen X team.
Wednesday’s episode began with the top 20, but by the end of the show, Ramsay, Sánchez and Bastianich sent one home cook packing.
The cooks faced a “Mystery Box” challenge, though this time the box contained adorable photos of the contestants when they were children. The challenge was to prepare a dish from their childhood but to update it to make it worthy of, as Ramsay said, “the ‘MasterChef’ kitchen.”
After a hefty serving of wisecracks about the Baby Boomers being creaky and old, the episode got underway. Sawant gave her generation a shout-out, saying, “Millennials are the best,” because they’ve been through so much change in their lives. “So, I think we’re going to rock. I don’t even know why you invited other generations. I mean, Millennials are going to win, hands down.”
Ramsay then stopped by to talk with the other Portlander, Carlos. She was making a lamb shank.
“A lamb shank in 60 minutes?” Ramsay said, skeptically. “How are you going to cook this thing?”
Carlos said she was going to braise it in a pressure cooker, and Ramsay told her that, with only 39 minutes of cooking time left, she needed to “get that pressure cooker up to pressure, and get that thing moving.” When Carlos said she intended to cook the lamb shank for 30 minutes, Ramsay replied, “Yeah, I’d cook it for the next 38.”
Carlos said, “I’m definitely taking a big risk with this dish. I have never cooked a lamb shank in a pressure cooker. It’s so crazy to get something that would normally take five hours, and do it in 60 minutes.”
At this point, suspense was building, as it looked like Carlos wouldn’t be able to make a dish that would meet Ramsay’s standards. Things didn’t seem any more promising when, in another visit to the cooks’ stations after their food was ready to serve, Ramsay asked Carlos, “Did you test the tenderness of that lamb shank before you pulled it out?”
Carlos said she didn’t. “So, you didn’t even taste it before you put it on a plate,” Ramsay said, sounding like the voice of culinary doom.
“I didn’t taste it,” Carlos said.
But then — surprise! When it was time for the judges to select the top dish from each of the teams, Carlos’ lamb shank, mashed potato, roasted carrots, and pan-seared trumpet mushroom meal turned out to be the top dish from her Gen X team.
“I am so proud of myself,” Carlos said. “This dish is me on a plate. This is my region, it’s my ancestors, it’s everything I believe in. I took a big risk. I hope it pays off.”
As Carlos presented the dish to the judges, she said, “My grandparents always had goats and sheep. We would always have stew on the table, so there would always be a big Dutch oven.”
Despite seeming ready to throw her under the food truck earlier, Ramsay looked at Carlos’ plate, and said, “It looks hearty. It’s rustic, it’s charming, and it’s really elevated, having the confidence to cook a lamb shank inside that pressure cooker in under 60 minutes. I love that.”
He loved the dish, too, as did Bastianich, who said, “The flavor of the lamb is amazing, because it’s rich and profound.” Sánchez was also impressed, and said, “The sauce is really where the magic lies.”
Viewers never got a chance to see what Sawant, Carlos’ fellow Portlander, prepared. But we did see the judges name the updated meat loaf made by Rebecka, of the Baby Boomers, as the week’s winning dish. Her victory earned Rebecka immunity in the next challenge and guaranteed the rest of her Boomers team was safe in the Wednesday episode.
Not so lucky was Si, of the Millennials team, whose Vietnamese sweet and sour soup with lobster, scallion puree, yuzu, coconut milk broth, and rice, left Ramsay judging the dish as “weird.” Si was sent home.
“MasterChef” airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox.
