MasterChef

Gordon: Previously on "MasterChef"...

This incredible tenth season

continues with this mystery box...

- Yes! - What?

- Aarón: Let's move! - You want to make

the best dish possible, you got to use the appropriate equipment.

I've cooked well over a hundred pounds of skirt steak in my day.

- Okay, you know what, Evan? - Oh, wow.

The ( bleep ) that you dole out will come back at you.

Gordon: ...with just three home cooks gaining immunity.

- I absolutely love this dish. - Joe: Wow.

- Gordon: Shari. - Nick.

- Thank you, Chef. - Wuta.

- Whoo! - There you go!

Sam, Liz, and Fred,

you three have the worst dishes of the night.

Those of you still down here face elimination.

- Tonight... - It's your first dessert challenge.

...it's a demo from me that you won't want to miss.

- Awesome. - Oh!

And an elimination challenge...

...with an ending

that surprises everyone.

- I don't like it at all. - I--

Gordon: This could send you home tonight.

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

- Whoo! - Welcome back to the amazing

tenth season of "MasterChef."

Let's do this today.

Sam: Going into this challenge,

I'm not feeling very confident.

I'm coming off of the worst performance I've had so far.

I just need to regroup, focus, and get some confidence back.

Honestly, it's been the most talented pool

of home cooks we've ever seen.

But you know what's on the line tonight.

At least one of you will be eliminated

from this competition.

Yesterday, three of you exceeded our expectations.

That's why you are all three safe up on the balcony.

For the rest of you, it is time now to put on

your black aprons to face elimination.

Liz: Being unsafe and having to cook

in the elimination challenge is scary.

But I'm not leaving "MasterChef" until I win this thing.

Your upcoming elimination challenge will put you in a sticky situation.

- Oh, boy. - Oh, boy.

That's right, it's your first dessert challenge.

Nothing should scare you guys more.

Keturah: I don't eat desserts,

I don't make desserts,

so I am losing it right now.

Are you ready to face your fears?

All: Yes, Chef!

What's under here is one of my favorites.

It is a classic, delicious French dessert.

A stunning...

- A tarte tatin! - ...caramelized pear tarte tatin.

- Oh, yes! - Yes.

Dorian: I was hoping for a crème brulee.

Even a soufflé.

But I've never seen on "MasterChef"

something so technical.

Chef Ramsay is pulling out the big guns this season.

Now to make this dish correctly,

it takes utter precision, skill, finesse,

and in your case, a little help.

That's why I'm about to show you how it's done.

Noah: Hallelujah. So, the master blaster

is going to show us how to do this.

It's a dream come true, really.

Tonight, you'll have 60 minutes to cook a caramelized tarte tatin.

The secret is the pastry and the fruit.

You got apples, pineapples, peaches.

Take it any direction you wish,

but there's steps you've got to follow.

First thing, the short crust.

Flour, sugar, salt, okay? And your butter.

Make sure your butter is nice and firm.

The most important thing in this short crust

is to make sure it's robust.

Any of you ever made a tarte tatin before?

I made one for a Christmas party at work.

Wow. Make this dough nice and pliable.

Let that rest now. Now, for the caramel,

take a cast iron pan, place that butter into the pan.

From there, fingers, push that down.

Lightly sprinkle the sugar, and that's the base of the caramel.

You got the butter, you got the sugar.

Some cinnamon sticks, some star anise,

and then a beautiful vanilla pod.

Now, the pears.

You place the round part into the butter

at a 90 degree angle, and the point comes up.

All the way around. Look at that there.

We put that on.

We'll start seeing that sugar and that butter melt,

but you need to be super careful here.

Caramel, as you know, we're going to take it to 380 degrees.

We're not burning it, but we're going to get it really nice and dark.

Take this caramel too far and it's bitter.

I have no clue how I'm going to do all this stuff

as smoothly as he's doing it.

Now for the pastry.

The secret here is to make sure

we do not roll this pastry too thin.

You're looking for about 3/4 of a centimeter thick.

Then we can see the color, right? It's nice and dark.

The smell is incredible. Take that off the gas.

You go onto the board, super careful.

We lift up and we go over the pan quickly.

- Awesome. - Then you lift up the pear and tuck the pastry in.

Up and twist. Lift up and tuck in.

Super important-- one, two, three.

If we don't pierce that pastry,

you're going to steam it underneath, and it'll be raw.

Into the oven she goes.

18 to 20 minutes, 375.

Wuta: I'm so grateful I'm up here,

because this is one of the challenges

that either makes a chef or breaks a chef.

I've never even seen this dessert before.

Now, crème anglaise. What is crème anglaise?

It's custard. You start off and bring your cream

and your milk to a boil.

As that's boiling, whisk in the yolks,

in with your sugar, and we whisk.

Now, I'm doing a vanilla basic custard.

What I want to see tonight is some creativity.

You can go any route. In she goes.

One third, a quick whisk.

And then from there, back in.

This is where you got to be super careful.

You turn the gas down, nonstop stirring.

As you start to see it thickening, you take that off.

I'm feeling nervous.

It's a classic French dessert,

so how do I put an Indian twist on it?

Out. Back on.

380 degrees caramel. Please be careful.

Plate on top, firm hand on, and twist.

And there we have our beautiful tarte tatin.

- Oh, wow. - Wow.

- Wow. - All right.

Gordon: Well, guess what.

We're not done yet. Lights down, please.

Cognac in. We're going to flambé the tarte tatin.

In. Tilt.

- Noah: Awesome. - Wow.

Noah: Oh, my gosh.

That smells so good.

And then finally, a beautiful sprinkling

of powdered sugar across the caramelized pastry.

And that is how

a true MasterChef delivers a caramelized tarte tatin.

- Beautiful. - Awesome.

Micah: This tarte tatin challenge is deceptively simple.

I can see a thousand ways it could go wrong.

Your dough could be too thick. You could burn the caramel.

- You could burn your fruit. - Head to your stations.

- Yes, Joe. - I'm honestly terrified

because baking challenges in the MasterChef kitchen

are the toughest,

and it has sent home

some of the best cooks.

Your 60 minutes start now. Let's go.

Aarón: Come on, everyone, let's go.

Damn, Subha.

Renee: Running into the pantry,

and I see all this beautiful fruit.

Peach is my favorite.

Dorian: I doubt, Renee, if you're going to need

- that many peaches. - First come, first serve.

Oh, my God.

Keturah: My strategy right now is I'm making my dough first

because I want it to have ample time to rest.

Get that pastry started. Smart, Keturah.

I'm feeling really anxious.

I've never actually made a tarte tatin before.

Unbelievable, I know, being that my family lives in France.

But I just, um-- I don't eat desserts.

Fred, like, knows what he's doing,

so he's just-- he's loving this.

I've been asking for a baking challenge this whole time.

I'm making an apple ginger infused tarte tatin.

I need to redeem myself from being told

that I was one of the worst three dishes last night.

And because I'm the only one in the room

who's made a tarte tatin before,

I feel like they're going to have much,

much higher expectations of me.

I'm excited about this challenge.

I've never made a tarte tatin before, but I know cooking.

I know baking. I've been blessed to be able to cook and bake,

and I definitely got this one.

Noah: This is like an upside-down fruitcake.

I've never made that, of course,

but I've eaten a hell of a lot of them,

because I used to be, like, almost 400 pounds.

So I definitely have tasted a hundred cakes