Last week, the home cooks were tasked with cooking for MasterChef judge Graham Elliot, this week they were cooking alongside Claudio Aprile.

A key lesson should have been taken by every one of those home cooks present and future contestants as Chef Claudio presented a master class in calm. Where even David can get a little flustered under the gun, Claudio had no wasted movements during the Mystery Box challenge. While the Top 7 ran to the pantry to get extra ingredients, Claudio seared off his lamb and started prepping his potatoes. It may have been all in the editing, but Claudio might not have used anything from the pantry, preferring to keep it simple. The result? He was done with 15 minutes to spare, cleaned up his station, sat down and took the time to plate his final dish. (It was refreshing to see the three judges have a little bit of fun, especially when Michael took away Claudio’s goat cheese and Alvin ate half of his pear.)

Despite David’s unique idea of making a pistachio purée, it was Sabrina who won the Mystery Box—and a huge advantage. (For all of those viewers who moan when David wins, look at the reason why: he veered from the usual pistachio crust and made something different.)

The Elimination Challenge was a sharp contrast to Claudio’s control in the first 20 minutes of Sunday’s “Tea for Two.” Chaos ruled when Sabrina teamed up the six finalists to re-create a traditional English afternoon tea platter of desserts, scones and sandwiches.

At first blush it appeared the pairing of Line and Cody would self-destruct. After all, they aren’t friends, and have clashing personalities. But a funny thing happened midway through the profiterole making: the two meshed and got along. Every time they swapped out to continue the challenge they gained momentum on the way to winning the night and scoring captaincy’s in next week’s team challenge.

David and Jennifer, meanwhile, were a frigging disaster. They started strong, with Jenn coaching David through the first steps of making pastry. Then she went off the rails. David had to guide her, listing ingredients for pastry cream and ultimately making all of the sandwiches with just four minutes before time ran out. After all that, their profiteroles were missing whipped cream.

With David doing most of the work during the hour, it was easy for the judges to eliminate Jennifer from the competition.

Notes and quotes

• “I might be old, but I ain’t dead. And that’s some eye candy going on up there.” — Line, describing Chef Claudio in his chef’s whites.
• Claudio taking part in the Mystery Box Challenge was like watching a sports car rev at a stoplight next to a kid on a three-speed bike.
• The smirks traded between Chef Claudio and Chef Michael were hilarious.
• Sorry, but most of the home cooks’ lamb dishes looked like a mushy mess.
• Did the chefs not have to make scones? I didn’t see any footage of that.

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.

I don’t like it when reality shows bring eliminated contestants back to win their way onto the program. To me, if you have been cut, you weren’t good enough in the first place and don’t deserve another chance. And you certainly don’t deserve another shot at winning the MasterChef Canada title and $100,000 over someone who has been in the trenches every single week.

So I went into Sunday’s latest episode, “Walking on Eggshells,” with a bad taste in my mouth. To me, Andrew, Cody and Kevin were nothing more than a dramatic twist that didn’t need to be there. This season has been filled with enough twists to keep me interested, so why this overkill? Regardless of my thoughts, the trio competed in the first challenge of the week, to prepare the perfect egg three ways.

The judges didn’t make things easy on Andrew, Cody and Kevin—they had just eight minutes to make a three-egg omelette, poached egg and soft-boiled egg—and the trio sweated it out. Kevin, who always seems to be a bit of a bull in a china shop in the kitchen, broke his poached egg yolk and was out of the running early, leaving the door open for Cody and Andrew. Cody ultimately won a spot back in. I won’t spend any more time whining about it.

Instead, I’ll spotlight Cody’s bonehead move of giving David a pass for the week. He is one of the strongest chefs in the kitchen and instead of making him battle, Cody let David off easy. Armchair David indeed. I understand Cody’s reasoning of putting David up there so he’s not competing with him, but he’ll have to face David sooner or later.

As for the rest of the finalists, they had an almost insurmountable task in recreating a sea scallop mousse. I’m sorry, but how can the judges expect the home cooks to master a dish that Michael Bonacini messed up the first few times he tried to construct it? Making things worse for herself was Jennifer, who forgot to grab eggs from the pantry. Kudos to Michael for taking time out to talk her off the ledge, but she had a tough road ahead of her. And yet she pulled it off by using a roux to thicken the custard and snagged a special nod from the judges.

Jon’s double shot of whipping his mousse too much and leaving a chunk of lobster cartilage in the finished dish put him firmly in the bottom next to Cody and his chunky mousse and Michael’s puddly creation. Jon’s two mistakes were enough to send him home and keep Cody in the competition.

Notes and quotes

• “I’d rather cook what lays the eggs.” — Kevin
• “It’s one of the most attractive poached eggs I’ve seen.” Uh, thanks Alvin.
• I love that the finalists refer to David as “Armchair David,” because he’s always in the gallery watching others compete.
• “I don’t get a mousse. Why would you do that to food?” Amen, Jon. Amen.
• Does anyone have time to sit in that little library/study at the back of the kitchen?

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.

If it was me, I’d be too star-struck to make an omelette, much less anything high-end for Graham Elliot. And yet that’s exactly what was expected of the Top 8 on Sunday night. “Good Things in Small Packages” showcased not only the finalists preparing a dish utilizing ingredients the MasterChef U.S. judge had selected, but Canada as a cooking nation. Elliot was quick to celebrate the talents of this season’s home cooks, a fact that was cemented at the conclusion of the Mystery Box challenge when he, Michael, Alvin and Claudio tasted four plates rather than the usual three.

In something that has become a trend of this season, David impressed with his stuffed quail (he had expertly boned it prior to stuffing it) and won immunity from the Elimination Challenge.

Every season in the MasterChef franchise seems to feature that odd-looking, phallic sea creature known as the geoduck, and this year was no exception. The suggestive shellfish was one of three sea creatures David could choose to saddle his competitors with and he went with sea snails as conch. That move made perfect sense to David—assuming no one had prepared conch before—but he was dead wrong: Christopher and Jennifer both had recipes ready to go. Things might have turned out quite differently if the judges didn’t throw a massive twist at the finalists: after choosing their ingredients everyone had to move one station forward and use the ingredients chosen by their competitor instead.

What followed was mass confusion until the clock started to tick. Then everyone buckled down and got going—they only had 45 minutes to make something—and I was most impressed with Jon. Despite being a huge, burly CFLer, he showed great restraint and finesse with his sea snail and conch fettuccine with mushrooms, which was a hit with the judges. Christopher once again proved to be a tough chef to beat, wowing everyone with his paella and scoring the top dish of the night. Michael’s conch fritters were a close second.

Someone had to be on the bottom, and that fell to Tammy and Jennifer for their sub-par offerings. Tammy was shown the door.

Notes and quotes

• As soon as Line said she hoped Tammy would be in the finals I knew the mother of six was toast. There was no reason to have that comment in the episode if it didn’t foreshadow what was to come.
• “I’m going to be out of my comfort zone working with these itty-bitty ingredients.” — Jon
• The look on David’s face when Jon slapped his butt was priceless.
• I’m sorry guys, but the making a heart out of your hands is done.

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.

Sunday’s newest episode of MasterChef Canada, “Wedding on the Waves,” was notable for a couple of reasons. First, it featured perhaps the most difficult Team Challenge so far—making a three-course wedding dinner on a boat for 70—and it saw the expulsion of two strong home cooks during the Pressure Test.

Andrew, who I thought had a very good chance of competing in the season finale, and Cody saw their fates sealed when they ran into the buzz saw that is a French fruit tart. Cody has been an up-and-down competitor who has the confidence to win but was betrayed by an ego that made big promises he couldn’t deliver.

The pair were both members of the losing blue team earlier in the episode thanks to a three-course meal that was skimpy on big flavours and fraught with bad time management. Andrew had rightly given his team the chance to shine during each of their courses, but he didn’t step in at the right moments and confusion reigned. Appetizers were tabled missing key ingredients and that as enough to hand them defeat.

Michael, on the other hand, was an astute and canny leader, knowing when to step in and take charge on the boat, a key move that got them back on track after a canapé was served with a hair in it. To the bride. Some crews would have been deflated and easy to beat, but not the red squad. Michael bucked up their confidence and they walked away with the win thanks to a winning canapé from Sabrina and a beautiful plating of their duck breast main course.

Once the Pressure Test began, I targeted Cody, Andrew and Jon for elimination. All three fumbled along the way, but Jon’s tart won out despite being a little light on pastry cream. Andrew had plenty of cream but it lacked flavour and Cody forgot to put raspberries on his tart, a major sin in a replication challenge.

Who do you think will win MasterChef Canada? Comment below or via Twitter @tv_eh.

Notes and quotes

• Toronto’s harbourfront beautiful? Sure, if you ignore the construction and fishy smell.
• Having your wedding featured on MasterChef Canada is certainly a way to make the memories last forever.
• I would have eaten Sabrina’s fig-proscuitto flower. Who am I kidding? I would have eaten 10 of them.
• It sure looked windy and cold out there on that boat.

MasterChef Canada airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET on CTV.