"(Announcer) Tonight on MasterChef..." "All:" "MasterChef!" "(Announcer) Across America, thousands of amateur cooks lined up for the opportunity of a lifetime." "I'm a software engineer." "I'm the mother of three children." "I'm an attorney." "Construction worker..." "I'm a physician." "(Announcer) Only a select few were invited to Los Angeles to cook for three of the toughest figures in the culinary world." "I'm Graham Elliot from Chicago." "At 27, I became America's youngest four-star Chef." "My name is Joe Bastianich." "I own 20 of America's best restaurants and three award-winning Italian wineries." "And, of course, there's me." "Gordon Ramsay." "I have 28 restaurants worldwide..." "Earned 12 Michelin stars..." "And no one knows more about food than I do." "(Announcer) Now the tryouts are over." "(Gordon) Come on, guys!" "Raise your game!" "The first person is now leaving." "(Announcer) 30 finalists faced their first head-to-head challenge." "(Gordon) How bad is it?" "Do we need stitches?" "I need all three of you to untie your aprons." "(Announcer) Unfortunately, for half of them, the dream of a lifetime ends today." "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" "(Announcer) As they continue their quest to fulfill a lifelong dream." "But only one will win $1/4 million, a cookbook deal, and become America's first..." "[Dramatic music]" "MasterChef." "MasterChef 1x03 Original Air Date on August 10, 2010" "(Announcer) As the contestants arrive to meet the judges, they have no way of knowing just what's in store for them." "Each one of us has got a scratch ticket with $250,000 and a cobook on it." "Only one of us is gonna get that winner." "It could be anybody, but there's gonna be some tough competition ahead for sure." "(Announcer) The question is:" "Who will make the cut?" "Welcome." "Now, clearly, you've all earned the right to wear that apron." "Today's test will determine whether you deserve to keep it or not." "And before we make any cuts, you will be making a truckload." "[Horn honks]" "[Laughter]" "Oh, my God." "(Announcer) To progress in the competition, these contestants need to prove they have the basic culinary techniques necessary to become a MasterChef." "[Cheering]" "(Tracy) Oh, my goodness." "It's onions." "My first month in Paris, at the age of 22, I got my butt kicked for 15 hours a day, six days a week, chopping onions." "Why?" "'Cause I needed to understand how to really, seriously master it-- a humble onion." "If you can't cut an onion, you have no place being in the kitchen." "The root clearly holds the onion together." "Take that off." "Let the knife do the work." "Transparent." "Nice and thin." "When it gets too high, turn it down, and make your life easier all the way to the end." "I was thinking, okay, I'm gonna need to see that, like, about ten more times." "By the end of today, over half of you won't be in this competition, and your dream will have disappeared." "(Announcer) Chopping onions may seem simple, but it's the perfect test to spot the potential MasterChefs and eliminate the wannabes." "(Tony) Right now, I'm a waiter at a restaurant." "I recently left a career in radio sales." "I was making a lot of money but I had to stay true to myself and pursue my dream of cooking." "(Avis) It's time for me to blossom as this professional cook that I know that I am." "(Paul) I own my own law practice." "I walked away and put that on hold to be able to do this." "So there's a lot at stake for me." "(Joe) The opportunity for me to cook instead of turn a wrench is a great opportunity." "All of you are gonna chop until I tell you to stop." "When I tell you to stop, you'll find out whether you're staying or going home." "If we're gonna be judged today on actual technique, um, I'm going home." "Right, your first serious test starts right now." "Off you go." "Let's go." "(Announcer) The judges are looking for perfectly consistent slicing and dicing with minimum waste of onion." "(Gordon) Guys..." "The more evenly they're cut, the more evenly they cook." "(Gordon) Unbelievable." "30 seconds in, a cut." "I already cut myself." "Do we need stitches?" "Unbelievable." "Stop." "You've cut yourself." "Medic, please." "(Announcer) Tension is running high." "Less than a minute into the challenge, four people have already sliced their fingers." "But the pressure is not letting up." "Stop." "Stop there." "Chopping onion is about consistency." "Look at that." "It's not even chopped." "I've got half onions." "Is that what we showed you?" "No, it is not, Chef." "No." "I'm sorry I let you down, Chef." "Yeah, you haven't let me down." "You've let yourself down." "You're out of the competition." "Come on, guys!" "Raise your game!" "The first person is now leaving." "I may look at the process of chopping onions uh, slightly differently, but I will continue cooking and continue pursuing and learning how to become a better cook." "Stop, Ryan." "Right there." "Knife down." "(Announcer) Will 23-year-old dock worker Ryan be the first to make it through the onion chop?" "Is that you at your best?" "No, Chef." "Talk to me, please." "Is that you at your best?" "I've got bits of chopped onion, sliced onions..." "That's in the diced bowl right there." "And bits of onion that stuck together." "That is not good enough." "Please leave the competition." "Thank you." "Stop." "Right there." "That..." "Is exactly what we're looking for." "Congratulations." "You're through." "Well done." "I was absolutely super excited." "Really happy." "(Announcer) Four more contestants will be eliminated, but this challenge is especially tough on 28-year-old Darryl." "Of my culinary arsenal, my knife skills are my weakest link." "I was born with a very rare birth defect called ectrodactyly." "And I only have three fingers on each hand." "So I knew that this was gonna be a daunting challenge." "Stop." "I was incredibly nervous." "You've got a bowl here..." "Of perfectly sliced, beautiful onions." "The dice looks great." "Incredible." "And the fact that you're doing that with three fingers on each hand is mind-blowing to me." "It's an inspiration." "You're in." "Thank you, sir." "Good job, well done." "Over there." "Good job." "Whoo!" "Unbelievable." "(Announcer) Darryl is the second contestant to advance..." "Well done." "You're through." "(Aouncer) Followed by several more yeses." "Congratulations." "Whoo!" "Congratulations." "Well done." "You're through." "Good job." "Head over there." "Yeah, baby, yeah!" "(Gordon) If you need any form of inspiration, have a look behind you." "Great, huh?" "Congratulations." "Yeah!" "You're through." "Well done." "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Let's go." "Up you go." "Wellone." "[Laughing]" "Oh!" "(Gordon) Come on, guys." "Energy, energy, energy." "They were pulling people off the line, but I didn't even look up." "I wanted to be one of the people going to the stage." "Stop." "Joe..." "Unfortunately, it's a no." "I'm very disappointed." "I love to cook." "Thanks for sharing your story with us." "This was an opportunity to do something, you know, unreal." "(Announcer) Joe is the third elimination." "Three more will be asked to hand over their aprons and leave MasterChef." "Stop." "I had crazy butterflies in my stomach, and I was just scared but ready." "I--I had my game face on." "That's the bowl of chopped onion." "These are your sliced?" "Yes." "You're going through." "Congratulations." "Oh, my gosh!" "Well done." "Up you go." "Stop right there." "How many times you cut yourself?" "Roughly twice." "Twice." "Look, look." "Chunks." "The skin is in there." "Scott, not good enough." "Sorry." "It's--it's sad." "I was hoping to go the distance." "For me, I'll just go right back into the kitchen and enjoy what I do." "You can never take the love of food or cooking away." "In fact, this only enhances it." "Ooh." "[Cheers and applause]" "You've been chopping onions now for nearly 90 minutes." "Keep that stamina going." "Come on!" "[Applause]" "And stop right there." "You're through." "Well done." "[Cheers and applause] Yeah!" "I'm sorry, Jennifer." "I don't think it's gonna work." "[Dramatic music]" "Stop right there." "I consider myself a confident person." "But, yeah, heart was pounding pretty hard at that moment." "You..." "Are going through." "Well done." "[Laughing]" "Yes!" "(Announcer) After more than 90 minutes chopping, just two contestants remain." "Only one of them can stay in the competition." "When it came down to just us, you know," "I just had to have faith that no matter how many people was up behind me or on the-- in the winning circle, there was still one spot left for me." "I knew it was down to the wire." "I knew it was just us left." "I wanted to win." "(Announcer) Coming up..." "The final cut." "Both of you stop." "(Announcer) And the next challenge is hatched." "Your future will be determined on how well you cook one stunning, single egg." "(Announcer) Two cooks remain." "But after more than 90 minutes of chopping, only one will continue to the next round." "[Cheers and applause]" "Both of you stop." "First of all, both of you have been cutting the longest-- over 90 minute only one of you is going through." "Hollie..." "You're not." "I'm so sorry." "[Applause]" "Congratulations." "Thank you, sir." "I love to cook." "I'm very passionate about food and being creative with food." "I've learned things that I never thought I would learn from other people." "So that experience just in itself has been amazing." "This competition's not gonna stop me from my passions that's in my heart at all." "That's life." "Well, let's go, guys." "Quickly." "Let's go." "All of you." "(Announcer) The remaining 24 contestants get no time to rest." "The judges move on to the next challenge, where more will be eliminated." "We know you can chop under pressure." "What I want to see next is what you can cook under pressure." "[Laughter]" "Wow." "[laughs]" "I do feel confident going into the egg challenge." "I love eggs, and I cook with them all the time." "Behind me, there are 20,000 eggs." "Wow." "But your future will be determined on how well you cook just one, stunning, single egg." "[Dramatic music]" "♪ ♪ these next 30 minutes will determine who's staying and who's going home." "Anyone can cook a three-minute egg." "A MasterChef is defined by what they do with the other 27 minutes." "(Graham) And to help you with that dish, you can choose from any ingredients from the spread you see back here, which features a bounty of everything from local organic vegetables to smoked salmon." "Make sure this egg shines and is the hero of this dish." "Yes?" "(All) Yes." "30 minutes." "Your time starts..." "Now!" "Off you go." "(Announcer) Each contestant gets just one egg for their dish." "There's no room for mistakes." "The slightest slipup, and their dreams will be destroyed." "(Gordon) Gently." "Knowing that we have one egg is, like, crucial." "I want to treat that egg like it's a baby." "(Joe) Pick a good one." "(Gordon) Off you go." "So when the time came to go and they, like, dropped the green flag and it's just ass[Bleep] And elbows and everybody's just on it, you know, it was intense." "I mean, I'm like, oh, man," "I got a thousand things going through my head." "I know what I want to do, and I gotta execute this thing, and I got 30 minutes to do it." "You know, no pressure." "[All chatter]" "Where's the cinnamon?" "Do you see cinnamon?" "Cinnamon?" "With eggs?" "Anybody by a shallot," "I'd love a shallot if anyone's got one." "They're down there." "Over there on the left." "(Gordon) And never forget, the egg is the star of the dish." "(Graham) Let the other ingredients be the supporting characters." "(Announcer) Time is of the essence." "The more time the contestants spend picking ingredients, the less time they have to cook them." "Let's go, David." "Come on!" "Get your stuff." "Get in there!" "Tony." "You're on my basket, man!" "(Graham) Remember, guys." "Chaos is okay, but it's gotta be organized chaos." "You have one egg." "One shot." "Let's take advantage of it, guys, come on!" "Come on, come on." "What else?" "Oh, my God." "(Mike) I'm thinking, what can I do with this egg?" "I can poach it." "I can scramble it." "I mean, I can hard-boil it." "I can soft-boil it." "Okay, what can I do?" "What should I do?" "What can I do?" "What should I do?" "What could I do?" "What should I do?" "My mind is just-- my mind's going 1,000 miles an hour." "Time is--is-- right now, is--is--is killing me." "(Announcer) The contestants were given 30 minutes and just one egg to create the dish of a lifetime." "'Cause at the end of this challenge, more cooks will be eliminated." "I am making whipped potatoes." "A little steak, sliced, fanned out." "Poached egg, red wine mushroom sauce." "Fantastic brunch food, let me tell you." "There's a lot that could go wrong with this dish." "I could break the yolk, which, if you're poaching an egg, breaking a yolk is-- it's done." "It's no longer a poached egg." "And then you have, you know, an egg sitting in the water." "Caviar." "This guy's going for the big splurge here." "Stakes are super high." "You know that they're cutting quite a bit of people, and you know that your dish cannot have any excuses." "It's got to be flawless." "(Gordon) 25 minutes left." "Five minutes gone." "One egg, I mean, it's crucial." "You only have one chance, and they're so delicate." "Huge pressure today." "Whoo!" "Very simple, I'm making an egg sandwich, except I'm actually making the bread." "It's a Trinidadian flatbread." "It's called a bara." "And it's pretty much a basic dough, but it's infused with chiles, garlic, and cilantro." "I'm Jamaican, so my plan is to absolutely bring Caribbean to the egg." "Whitney, what are you doing?" "Yes?" "I am making an open-faced bit." "(Announcer) Gordon suspects that 22-year-old Whitney is making a rookie mistake." "Well, there's smoke coming out of there." "Anything burning in there?" "It's definitely getting hot." "Should probably turn it down some." "I love to cook." "And this is something that I have made a part of my life." "I really see myself making it to the end." "(Announcer) With 24 contestants cooking, there are dozens of different approaches." "Slim's dish speaks to her Asian ancestry." "I am making something called pho ap chao hot ga cuon." "It means pan-fried rice noodles with egg in a roll." "They want something innovative, so I might as well go for it, right?" "(Announcer) While Slim counts on her culture to help her advance," "Sheetal's worried her upbringing could be her undoing." "I'm a Hindu." "I was raised Hindu." "And I don't eat eggs." "I definitely was nervous." "(Joe) So what are you gonna make?" "I am making a baked egg with wild mushrooms and shallot and cream." "Okay." "Well, do you think you're taking a big risk with doing something so simple?" "This is not something I'm used to doing." "It's best to do something that is simple." "Okay, guys, 15 minutes left!" "Halfway there." "You know, I'm really not even focused on what could go wrong." "I'm just trying to figure out what's gonna go right." "(Announcer) Adeliz earned her apron thanks to following one of her grandmother's recipes." "I'm making a deviled egg with some chipotle shrimp." "And I love the heat." "I'm glad you guys can tolerate it." "(Announcer) As Adeliz turns up the heat on her dish, elsewhere literally sparks begin to fly." "Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Okay, stop." "Don't worry." "Stop." "Stop." "Stand back." "Leave it, Faruq." "Leave it." "Just stand back." "Give me that." "Give me that." "Unbelievable." "[Bleep]!" "It's fine." "They say, you can't stand the heat, get out the kitchen, but I ain't going nowhere," "I'm staying right here." "It's good to have a little sparks flying in the kitchen, it keeps you on your toes." "(Joe) What we really haven't seen is any kind of three-star execution." "Any technique that you might have in a great restaurant in Paris or London or New York." "Yeah, and no one's poaching the egg in red wine." "Mm-hmm." "To take it up a different level." "There's so many things to do there." "You could easily do a beautiful scotch egg too." "Yeah, yeah." "Thinking outside the box, yet still staying true to the egg." "Yeah." "(Announcer) The judges are expecting a very high standard." "Now it's up to the contestants to deliver." "Usually when I crack an egg," "I just smack it and break it, and I don't think about the shell." "But this time the shells is part of my presentation." "So, um, here goes nothing." "Yeah, so I see potatoes, steak, mushrooms." "The only thing I don't see is the actual competition ingredient." "The one thing I am absolutely clear on, and the one thing I know I can do is poach an egg." "(Gordon) Five minutes left, everybody!" "Here's the moment of truth right here." "Dropping this egg in." "Oh, and I think we're gonna be okay here." "We'll find out." "Everything was fine in the cooking process." "I was right on clock until I got the egg in the oven, and I realized I picked a dish that was not oven-proof." "And my worst nightmare would have been that dish just cracking in half." "I panicked a little bit, and I ran to the back, looking for a larger ramekin, couldn't find one, and I knew that clock was ticking." "Guys, you gotta get plated food up in two minutes." "If you can't do that," "I don't know if you're going forward." "This is unbelievably nerve-racking." "30 minutes." "I was ambitious with this one," "I'll tell ya." "Last minute, guys." "Come on." "Make it count." "The egg has to be the hero." "The most important egg you've ever cooked in your entire lives." "I didn't know if my plating dish would make it or if I would have a big, runny mess at the bottom of my oven with no dish to present." "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six..." "(Announcer) The contestants have been given 30 minutes to cook a single egg dish." "The egg has to be the hero!" "The most important egg you've ever cooked in your entire lives." "I knew that clock was ticking, and I wasn't sure if my dish would survive the heat, but then I thought, well, just pull your dish out of the oven." "That plate is hot." "Duh." "It's gonna continue cooking." "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and stop." "Hands up." "[cheers and applause]" "Yes!" "(Robin) This is it." "This is do-or-die, and we'll just see what's going to happen." "(Announcer) For our contestants," "MasterChef means a chance to change their lives." "But for many of them, one bad egg dish will earn them a one-way ticket home." "Let's start tasting the back row first." "(Announcer) Row by row, our amateur cooks will present their dishes and face on-the-spot elimination." "Whitney." "(Announcer) The judges are looking for delicious creations following the simple rule that the egg must be the hero of the dish." "Fresh, light, but, uh, just a salad." "Okay, Max." "It's a one-egg tortilla espanola." "What I did was make a cup out of the waxy potatoes and cooked it inside of the potato shell." "(Graham) Really nice flavors." "I love the rustic approach." "But I think the egg is kind of lost." "Slim." "This is pho ap chao hot ga cuon." "English?" "Translated-- it is a pan-fried rice noodle with egg roll." "Back in line." "Thank you." "[Soft, indistinct chatter]" "Max..." "The egg wasn't good enough." "Take off your apron." "You're out of the competition." "Thank you." "Thank you for the opportunity." "[Gordon sighs]" "Okay, um, Slim, Whitney, one of you's in, and one of you's out." "A lot is on the line." "I withdrew from University for this." "I decided to risk it for my dream future." "Winning this competition would be the most amazing thing to ever happen to me, and just a dream come true." "Slim..." "You're in." "Congratulations." "Whitney, unfortunately, you're out." "I was like, yes!" "It was exhilarating." "It was absolutely awesome." "Charmaine." "I was kind of beaming with pride." "I pulled off this crazy brainchild, and I was really excited about it." "You got a lightly scrambled egg with creme fraiche and topped with caviar." "Egg's slightly bland." "Don't quite get the eggshell on the plate." "Tracy, please." "(Announcer) Tracy changes course by using her one egg to make the day's only dessert." "(Joe) You dichotomized the egg, divided it into two components-- its yolk and its white." "I'm impressed by your technical baking ability." "Thank you." "Thank you, Tracy." "(Gordon) Right, Jake." "Let's go, please." "This is a stacked bacon and egg dish." "I poached the egg, did some infused, smashed red potatoes." "The egg is poached perfectly." "Something very hard to do." "(Gordon) Thank you." "Okay." "Charmaine..." "You made the caviar taste better than your scrambled egg, which was bland." "I'm really sorry." "You're leaving the competition." "I'm disappointed;" "I really wanted to have the opportunity to learn from these guys." "And I guess maybe next year." "Tracy..." "The only one that actually done a dessert was you." "Nice." "Congratulations." "You're in." "[Cheers and applause]" "Okay, Jake." "I couldn't even look him in the eye." "I'm, like, looking at the floor." "I mean, like, I've never been in that position over a plate of food." "The hero of the dish had to be the egg." "And you constructed it perfectly well." "Well done." "You're in." "Talk about a wave of emotion." "So really super intense." "But just amazing." "Amazing." "(Announcer) Three more amateur cooks come forward." "Each with a unique approach to cooking a single egg dish." "But unique doesn't always mean good." "The overall dish is a little bit clunky." "(Announcer) Adeliz is up next." "Wow, that is hot." "No one's gonna finish that dish." "(Announcer) And things go from bad to worse." "Your pan was a little too hot." "You know, it started to crisp up the outside." "I don't know." "(Announcer) Will any of them remain in MasterChef?" "This is where the..." "Journey ends." "You'll all be going home." "[Quietly] Thank you." "(Darryl) I'm pretty devastated." "I knew, to make it to the end, that was gonna be a long shot." "But I certainly thought I'd be advancing past this round." "(Announcer) Three more hopefuls come forward to face the fire." "And Sheetal's still worried that her egg is undercooked." "Sheetal..." "I have a baked egg and a sauce made with shallots, mushrooms, cream, and some soldiers." "The presentation is nice." "I think you can see the egg is cooked properly." "[Chuckles] Wow." "I was shocked." "It was perfectly cooked." "Thank God." "Thank you." "We have a poached egg over spinach-wrapped gravlax and potato." "When you have a poached egg, the beauty of it is, every time you cook one, you get to kind of break it open and see that this is gonna spill out." "That's gorgeous." "Thank you, Chef." "I think it's..." "It's a very yummy egg dish." "I have some eggs purgatory here for you today." "Eggs in a brioche bread basket with a fresh tomato sauce and a little bit of parmesan cheese and a basil garnish on top." "I think the seasoning is absolutely exact." "I have a problem with the sweetness of the brioche and the size of the brioche." "Thank you, Chef." "(Tony) I was starting to get a little bit nervous." "Yep." "I just kept thinking, am I going home to see my wife and my dog?" "Am I hopping on that plane back to Boston?" "(Graham) Sheetal, Lee, Tony..." "I'm sorry." "I need all three of you..." "(Announcer) The fate of three contestants lies in the preparation of a single egg." "(Graham) Sheetal, Lee, Tony..." "I'm sorry." "I need all three of you to untie your aprons..." "And retie 'em even tighter." "[Cheers and applause]" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "(Tony) That was cool." "That got me jazzed because you're down and then you're up." "An emotional roller coaster." "You know, the smile on my face says a lot about how I felt." "Good job." "Whoo!" "Robin." "I made outside-of-the-box french toast." "Then, with the egg, to give it more volume, i mixed it with goat cheese." "And the cheese on the-- what have you done with that?" "That's the goat cheese." "That had a little sour taste." "Very sticky." "Thank you." "Tamar, can you please approach?" "I made an egg sandwich." "The bread is actually a fried dough, and a strawberry and mango smoothie to wash it down." "It feels heavy." "It feels like it might sink." "(Gordon) Thank you." "Back in line." "Okay." "Yup." "Faruq." "Egg stuffed with avocado and jalapeno on top of a nest of tortilla strips with a black bean and roasted corn salsa." "(Gordon) Seasoned well." "Dish, however, is somewhat fragmented." "Thank you, Chef." "Robin, I was pleasantly surprised that it was slightly sweet." "Oh, maybe I'm gonna like it." "But ultimately, I didn't." "I'm gonna ask you to give me your apron." "Thank you." "Thank you." "(Gordon) Okay, Tamar." "(Joe) Perhaps the smoothie might have been an apology for a dish that really went very wrong." "[Exhales]" "May I please have your apron?" "Okay." "Okay." "Keep cooking, baby." "Keep cooking." "No problem." "Thank you." "After being the last one chopping onions for 90 minutes, now I'm the last one to get judged in my row." "It's just like, I'm like, please, just come on already, just let me know my fate." "Do you feel that this is something that you can really do?" "Yes, Chef." "[Inhales]" "You're gonna go to the next level." "[Applause]" "I am gonna win MasterChef." "I will be the first American MasterChef champion here." "Okay, will the next row please approach with your plates?" "(Announcer) Anticipation mounts as sharone," "Mike, and Jenna step up and face the judges." "(Gordon) Visually it's intriguing." "Pleasant." "How confident are you that this is gonna spill out?" "I'm pretty confident." "Yeah." "Pretty near perfect." "(Gordon) Seasoned perfectly." "Now, I have an issue with the steak, 'cause you've sliced it against the grain." "So it's unnecessarily tough." "(Graham) Jenna, you're crying." "What's--what's going through your head?" "Suspense is killing me." "[laughs]" "[Sniffs] I think, as a mom, it's important to really feel like you have something outside of your house and, uh, this is my shot." "And I'm anxious to hear what you have to say." "The three of you have really diverse backgrounds, but the one thing that you guys have in common..." "Is that all three of you are going forward." "[Cheers and applause]" "(Mike) Oh!" "[All laughing]" "David, first, please." "We have a poached egg sitting on top of pan-seared skirt steak and mashed potatoes topped with red wine porcini mushrooms." "Looking at my plate, it was definitely a proud moment for me." "The steak was perfect, the egg was perfect, the mushrooms were perfect." "(Gordon) You slice through that egg and the richness of the yolk coats the steak." "And the seasoning is perfect." "However, the potatoes are too lumpy." "Damn." "Sheena, let's go, please." "Quickly." "It is an egg en cocotte with a mixture of crimini mushrooms, shallots, and I served it with fingers of brioche." "First impression is it looks sort of plain-jane." "Not going to blow you away." "Get inside." "You start digging deep, and it just gets better and better and better." "Okay, Roberto, please." "Blow me away." "It's a frittata." "Frittata di fettuccini." "The egg is where?" "It's all around." "So you beat the egg up?" "Yes, sir." "And i'm struggling." "I want the hero." "I want the egg." "Thank you." "Okay." "Roberto." "I'm sorry." "Please give me your apron." "You're leaving MasterChef." "(Roberto) I'm embarrassed, basically." "Like, I thought I was going to take this thing all the way to the end." "Sheena..." "You will not..." "Be taking your apron off." "Congratulations." "Well done." "[Applause]" "[Laughs]" "Oh, my God." "David..." "You served me potatoes..." "Steak..." "Egg, porcini." "Adventurous." "When you put a dish like that together, why do you send me hard potatoes?" "You got all the hard elements done perfectly and then you screw up on the potato." "(David) So Gordon is inches from my face." "I'm thinking, is he gonna grab my apron off and say "get the hell out of here"?" "Help me." "Help me." "You got all the hard elements done perfectly, and then you screw up on the potato." "How?" "Help me to understand you." "Help me." "I--I tried to do too much." "I tried to do too much." "I want you..." "To take everything that you've learned since you've been here at MasterChef..." "And put it to good use." "Especially..." "In the next round." "Congratulations." "[laughs]" "[Cheers and applause]" "Thank you." "Okay, will the final row please step forward?" "[Cheers and applause]" "Whoo!" "By the time the judges got to the last three," "I was praying and saying," ""lord, don't let me drop this plate."" "I was trembling." "Asmina, please step forward." "Scrambled eggs chilaquiles served with a roasted tomato salsa." "I like that you stepped outside of your comfort zone and did something totally unique and different." "At the same time, you've overcooked, overscrambled." "I think that's where we're at." "(Gordon) Avis, please step forward." "Thank you." "This is Italian stuffed eggs." "I stuffed them with olive oil and garlic and fresh parsley." "It's seasoned beautifully." "And I want more." "However, when you put food on a plate that old-fashioned, it really does let that dish down." "We're in 2010." "Yes." "Okay." "Thank you." "Whitney, please come forward." "It's an open-faced, fried egg bit." "(Joe) Whitney, what's going on?" "You're going to drop out of school to become a MasterChef?" "What's going on here?" "[laughs]" "I think that you created a little facade because, when we're not looking, you come and kick us in the butt with a ballsy move like putting together an open-faced bit, which I admire." "Let's see what we got." "(Gordon) Okay." "Sadly, not all of you will be staying." "Let me tell you that." "Asmina..." "Your egg was definitely not the hero." "Please give me your apron." "Whitney..." "You will not be going back to University." "You're joining that lot over there." "Well done." "[Cheers and applause]" "One was eliminated." "One was told her dish was perfect." "And it was me standing by myself." "And I couldn't hardly breathe." "Avis..." "You've come a long way in a very short time." "Unfortunately, you will not be seeing your family tonight 'cause you're joining them." "[Cheers and applause]" "[Laughing excitedly]" "It was like, "oh, God." "Thank you, thank you!"" "[Laughs]" "All right." "How are you feeling?" "Really great!" "Whoo!" "Amazing!" "(Gordon) Good, good, good, good, good." "From thousands that applied for the first-ever MasterChef across the U.S., we're down to 14." "That's you guys!" "Within-- [loud cheers and applause]" "Within that 14, there is one, unique, first-ever individual to be crowned" "MasterChef America." "Next time, we enter the MasterChef kitchen for the very first time." "Well done." "Well done, well done, well done." "[Cheers and applause]" "(Announcer) From thousands of hopefuls, only 14 of the best amateur cooks in the country remain." "And to advance, they'll face the most intense cooking challenge on earth." "[Dramatic music]" "They'll be cooking for hundreds of people... (Gordon) It's a wedding, guys." "You can't just say, "I don't know where the salmon is."" "Come on!" "(Announcer) And the finest palates in America." "(Gordon) Barbara Fairchild, Bon Appetit magazine." "(Gordon) Jeffrey Steingarten." "(Joe) Critic for Vogue magazine." "The score is..." "Breath mints, 3." "[laughs]" "(Announcer) Find out what happens when the country's top amateur cooks face challenges that push them to their breaking point." "[Metal clangs] Ow!" "No, Sheetal, come here two seconds, please." "I don't want to be on the camera." "Don't worry about the camera." "What's the matter?" "Go back to your station." "I'm not tasting this crap." "(Announcer) Who will rise through the culinary world's highest ranks?" "It's cooked perfectly." "[Cheers and applause]" "(Announcer) As the country's top amateur cooks compete..." "This is the problem." "(Announcer) To become America's first MasterChef."