‘MasterChef’: Did a Portland cook transform ‘not that great’ ingredients into a winning dish? (2024)

The remaining home cooks competing on “MasterChef” faced some daunting challenges in the two episodes that aired Wednesday. This season of the culinary competition is subtitled “Generations,” and the teams are broken into four demographic groups, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.

(No cable or antenna? Stream “MasterChef” live on Fubo, which offers a free trial; or watch episodes the day after they air, on Hulu)

Portland-area contestant Jeet Kaur Sawant, a member of the Millennial team, entered the night still in the kitchen, though she has so far been in the middle, not making a winning dish but not making a bottom-ranking one, either.

So, how did Sawant do in the Aug. 14 episodes? In the first episode, “Birthday Bakes,” cooks were asked to make celebratory cakes. Some looked OK, and others, unfortunately, seemed like they belonged on the Netflix show, “Nailed It!,” in which contestants’ creations often look like they’re about to collapse.

Related: Portland ‘MasterChef’ alums team up for a special ‘Donut Brunch’ event

Sawant again was a low-profile competitor in the cake contest, but she made it through. The winner, Becca, was from the Gen Z team, and her chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, chocolate ganache, and peanut brittle toffee earned her the immunity pin, and made the rest of her Gen Z team safe from elimination.

Not so lucky was Anna, from the Millennial team, whose brown butter coffee cake was lopsided and sad-looking. She went home, as did a second cook, Geags, from the Baby Boomer team, whose vanilla cake with blueberry cream cheese frosting left host and head judge Gordon Ramsay appalled by the raw flour in the frosting.

Sawant got more camera time in the second episode of the night, “Memory Lane -- Mystery Box,” in which the cooks had to prepare a dish featuring items from mystery boxes that contained ingredients associated with each of the four generations.

But there was a twist -- as the winner of the cake challenge, Becca was able to say which team would cook from which box. She assigned Gen Z the Millennials mystery box; Millennials got the Baby Boomer box; Gen X got to use their Gen X box; and Baby Boomers had to work with the Gen Z box.

Cooks had to use at least four ingredients from their respective boxes, and had access to a limited pantry. At last, viewers saw Sawant talking with the judges, when Joe Bastianich and Aarón Sánchez came by her station to ask what she was making with the Baby Boomer mystery box ingredients.

Sawant said she saw some canned spinach, and was inspired to take a saag route. “Saag paneer, yep,” Sánchez said.

“So, I’m adding the ground beef as meatballs, some cabbage steaks, and I’m going to be serving it with a quick rice pilaf,” Sawant said.

“You haven’t had a winning dish yet,” Bastianich said. “Could this be your opportunity?”

“I hope so, Joe,” Sawant said. “I’m inspired to take something that might not look that great, and turn it into something that you all hopefully really enjoy.”

Later, the judges checked out the cooks’ completed dishes. Sánchez looked at Sawant’s cabbage steaks, and said, “Is that cabbage? Wow, impressive.”

Once again, Sawant didn’t make the winning dish. But the good news was that her fellow Millennial teammate, Michael, did. His pork chop breaded with bran flakes, and served with canned meat and spinach pasta, and lemon sports drink beurre blanc, earned Michael the immunity pin and saved his Millennial teammates.

The losing cook was Christopher, from the Baby Boomers team. The judges couldn’t get past the fact that his dish, pan-seared chicken thigh with feta and eggplant salad, jackfruit relish, and matcha garnish, included chicken that was raw inside.

“MasterChef” returns with two more new episodes at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, on Fox.

— Kristi Turnquist covers features and entertainment. Reach her at 503-221-8227, kturnquist@oregonian.com or @Kristiturnquist

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