Harrison Smith brings us the report on this week’s Master Chef. Unfortunately for me, I don’t have cable, thus watch it a day late, thus didn’t know Ben Starr was kicked off.
Well folks, I guess all good things must come to an end. Ben Starr, Lewisville’s lovable baker of all things pumpkin and creator of all things tasty, was eliminated from Master Chef after making the show’s top five. Give the guy a hand, everyone, give the guy a hand—he’s made it through the Gordon Ramsay gauntlet.
Details after the jump.
Ben’s boot from the Fox reality TV show came after he won his first Mystery Box challenge. Required to create a dish using only the box’s ingredients of ground pork, ground veal, ground beef, and veggies, Ben whipped out a shepherd’s pie with a red wine reduction and stole the hearts of Scottish judge Gordon Ramsay and Anglophiles across the country. His ground meat victory gave him a huge advantage in the elimination challenge, which called on contestants to recreate one of Gordon Ramsay’s signature dishes. Allowed to pick the dish and ask Gordon three questions about it, Ben chose Ramsay’s signature venison tenderloin.
“I cook venison tenderloin all the time at home,” said Ben, and at this point in the competition it sounds like he’s made a good choice going with the venison. “I barely sear the outside of it; I eat it incredibly rare. I learned that the proper way for cooking this venison was to warm it in butter.” Now here’s where things turn bad. “I had the butter at around 200 degrees.”
As judge Graham Elliot pointed out, the perfect temperature for cooking venison “is just shy of 140.” The meat was overcooked, and the sauce was too overpowering.
But that’s okay, Ben. We’re glad to have you back here in Texas, even if your dream is to start a guest farm in Hawaii. I think we’d all just prefer the farm to be a little closer to home.
Christian, Jennifer, Suzy, and Adrien—Ben’s pick to win it all—will compete in part one of the season finale next Monday at 8. —Harrison Smith
