Masterchef: Top 15 Compete

Another interesting night in the Masterchef kitchen kicked off with one of the more bizarre mystery box challenges we've seen in 3 years. When it was time to reveal the task at hand, the chefs lifted the lids to find sheep's head, bull testicles, cow tongue and a mess of other disgusting ingredients. All the chefs were left gagging at the sight in front of them...except Christine. As she said, this was probably the first time her blindness gave her an advantage over the competition.

Once they were able to gain their composure, they had just sixty minutes to prepare their best dish for the judges. In the end, 3 dishes were chosen for the taste test. The chefs at the head of the class: Christine, Ryan and Becky. Ryan ended up taking the challenge, much to the dismay of most of the other chefs.

With a victory in a mystery box challenge comes an advantage over the competition in the elimination challenge. Ryan's rewards were: 1) a free pass to the next stage, and 2) the ability to determine what each chef's main ingredient would be. Obviously, he accepted #1. For the ingredients, he had to choose between tuna, ham or crab. For whichever one he chose, he would get to decide which half of the field cooked with the actual product and which half had to cook with an inferior version of it. He went with crab. Notable decision included Ryan rewarding his "partner in crime" Tali (huh?) with the biggest $60 dungeness crab while giving his nemesis Monti canned crab. He also gave Christine live crab -- the one chef that was hoping for the canned substitute. As Monti put it, "what kind of d*** gives live crab to the blind chick?"



As the challenge began, the chefs went about the mission in their own ways. It was very interesting to see all the different ways that the chefs interpreted the ingredient and some fantastic dishes were turned out. The top 3 dishes belonged to Monti, Christine (again!), and Josh -- which was funny because Ryan's intentions were to send either Monti or Christine out of the competition. After Ramsay pointed out how strong Christine's was, he invited Ryan up to try it and he, too acknowledged its greatness. In the end, Christine was awared the top dish while Josh's was the second best. They will be the two team captains in next week's team challenge.

As for the worst dishes, those belonged to Frank (pasta again?), Helene, Tali and Mike. 3 out of the 4 had the opportunity to use the $60 crab making their dishes all the more disappointing. Frank and Mike's dishes were bad, but not the worst two -- sent back to their stations. Tali basically threw away the best meat from the crab and served crab legs with a crab sauce, while Helene did "a fantastic job" at making the fresh crab taste like canned crab. Somehow Tali skated as Helene was told to leave her apron at her station and leave. When asked who she thought would win the competition on her way out the door..."Frankie." Fat chance.

Who do you think will win the competition? Who will be gone next week? Who will be the better leader - Christine or Josh? And...is anyone else weirded out by Ryan and Tali's bond? Share your thoughts below.