It’s a episode full of pregnant ladies this week, with our Season 1 host Thea back for this episode. She introduces the Quickfire, which is to take a pair of very different ingredients and combine them into one amazing dish, because preggo ladies are known to crave weird combos of food. These pairings are truly heinous, and they are:

Jimmy: Wasabi + Oatmeal

Trevor: Peanut Butter + Pickles

Jonathan: White Chocolate + Durian

Sarah: Banana + Parsely (*I put parsely in my smoothies, this is no big deal*)

Elizabeth: Cauliflower + Cocoa

Ryan: Tomato + Licorice Root Powder

Xavier: Blueberry + Cilantro

Sergio: Dark Chocolate + Sage

(We don’t see Trista/Gabriel/David/Curtis/Carl/Joel)

Thea chooses the best dishes and they are Sergio’s seared pork tenderloin with dark chocolate and foie gras sauce with fried sage, Ryan’s black cod with tomato and licorice chutney and Jimmy’s wasabi crusted chicken wings and oatmeal with apple and wasabi peas. The winner is Jimmy, and he gets immunity.

The Elimination Challenge this week is to cook for a baby shower for Thea and Shereen. Chefs will work in teams of two, and cook one girl inspired dish and one boy inspired dish. Let’s get right to the dishes:

Team 1:

Elizabeth (boy) – maple + bacon mini potato donuts

Ryan (girl) – rose and vanilla infused panna cotta with roasted pineapple

Judges Say: Loved the donut, lots of sugar and bacon. Ryan’s dish is a little perfumy.

Team 2:

Jonathan (boy) – yeasted maple donut with double smoked bacon, drizzled with chocolate and topped with whipped cream

Jimmy (girl) – quail egg and pickled beet disk

Judges Say: Jimmy’s dish was kind of boring and awkward to eat. They freak over Jonathan’s donut, it’s way better than Elizabeth’s.

Team 3:

Xavier (boy) – goat cheese and crispy proscuitto ball

Sarah (girl) – sweet arancine ball with spicy proscuitto chocolate sauce

Judges Say: Both dishes are spit out.

Team 4:

Carl (girl) – poached salmon and truffle aioli on a potato chip

Trista (boy) – duck rillette on a blue potato chip

Judges Say: Carl’s is lovely, one bite, pink and a bit salty. Trista’s tastes good too, although the blue chip threw them off at first.

Team 5:

Sergio (girl) – poached shrimp with pink grapefruit

Joel (boy) – scallop sausage with speck bacon

Judges Say: Sergio’s shrimp was hard to eat, he should have cut it in half. Joel tried to put a spin on a classic combination, but it didn’t work.

Team 6:

Trevor (boy) – beef tenderloin with black pepperforn jam and potato confit

Curtis (girl) – pink peppercorn macaron with meyer lemon

Judges Say: Nice presentation on Trevor’s dish, it’s cooked perfectly. Curtis’ macaron is PERFECT!

Team 7:

David (boy) – white chocolate and lemon thyme cornbread

Gabriell (girl) – waffle cone cookie, chocolate mousse and sour cream citrus pearls

Judges Say: David’s cornbread texture is off, and it’s too heavy. Gabriell’s is super sweet and the pearls don’t work.

Closet! Lisa calls in Sarah, Xavier, Joel, David. They are the worst. Joel’s dish was hard to eat and had a bad mouthfeel. David’s cornbread was hard on the palate, what was he thinking? Xavier had the worst flavours of the day, and Lisa’s mouth was traumatized. Mark was confused with Sarah’s choice of flavours, why would she add proscuitto and spice to a chocolate sauce? It was offensive. Shereen chimed in with this insightful soundbite: “There are reasons that food is paired with other food”.

The bottom four return to the closet and call in Jonathan, Trevor, Curtis, and Carl. They are the best! Carl’s dish had a pleasant flavour, good balance of acidity. Mark thought Curtis was cray cray for doing a macaron, but everyone loved it! Trevor’s beef was great and potato confit was superb. Jonathan’s donut was delicious, and they loved how it was cooked to order.

The winner: Curtis for his pink macaron! LOVE IT!

The bottom four come back in. Judges expect more from David. Xavier’s dishes have been mediocre. Sarah made questionable flavour choices. Joel’s was just all wrong.

Going home: Sarah

Next week: CHRIS COSENTINO and the cutest dimples in all of cooking. 

First of all, none of my friends with kids have ever had pregnancy cravings as weird as the ones above. What’s the weirdest thing you have heard a preggo lady ask for? I was pretty sure Xavier or Sarah were going home; if the judges spit out your food, that’s definitely a red flag! I don’t know if I’m ready for next week’s offal episode…I’ll just focus on Chris’ aggressive eyewear.