It’s been a while since I’ve put out a post about MasterChef.

Last year — season 4 of the series — was a relatively quiet one. That’s not to say there weren’t fireworks and controversy dolloped throughout the episodes. Though quiet, the show’s fourth incarnation still remained completely watchable and even included the neat caveat of having a contestant from season 3 (Luca Manfé) not only returning but winning the whole enchilada as well. Additionally, MasterChef Junior debuted last summer. And while it mirrored the first season of its parent program, it held its own and was intriguing in its own right with kids 8 – 13 years of age getting the opportunity to strut their culinary stuff.

Then, Monday night showed us something we haven’t seen previously on the program. Something that made you take pause and think about … at least for a minute. You bandied with the dilemma of it, if only for a moment, considering what could or should be done given the situation. In the end, you knew the decision made was the right one, that there couldn’t be any other outcome.

Here’s what went down:

The final contestant called before the judges — Tyler Viars — brought his panna cotta to Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich to be reviewed …

… except it wasn’t Tyler’s panna cotta. It was another contestant’s creation.

Sure enough, he was called on it. Gordon walked to a fridge off the competition area, opened a door and pulled out a tray of panna cotta. The tray Tyler had originally put in the fridge. It seemed evident that, in his haste, he had pulled a ramekin off a wrong tray. Presented with the evidence, Tyler not only owned up to the unintentional faux pas but apologized for it. Per the rules of the competition, preparations have to be judged based on what the contestants offer. The problem here was the dessert Tyler offered for consideration wasn’t his creation.

The judges had no choice but to eliminate him outright on the technicality. And, no matter how you look at it, it was the correct call.

But despite his realization and admission of wrong doing I’m not convinced it was as cut and dried as Tyler made it out to be.

Why?

Look … I can understand in the heat of competition grabbing a wrong item as he did. But here’s the part I don’t understand, the part I’ve been trying to wrap my head around from the time Ramsay brought out that tray of four untouched panna cotta:

Tyler prepared 4 individual portions of the dessert. Four of them. So riddle me this: Why in the world would he grab one — and only one — to prepare for the judges? I don’t care who you are, you don’t rely on a single, randomly pulled dessert to pin your hopes and dreams on in the heat of battle. Was he that confidant any one of his creations would have done the trick when offered up for review? Hell no. I don’t buy that for a second. You grab them all, you compare them all and you pick the best one of the bunch to be judged.

Back to the question: Why only one? Would you chalk that up to panic? Being so focused you’re in a zone and unaware of what you did? Did he just not have enough time to rifle though them all, thus the reason he snatched only one? Or was it as simple as not thinking clearly in the heat of the moment? How do you explain something like that?

Regardless, the dude owned up to it. Without blinking. No argument. No excuses. Completely commendable of the guy.

But something … something’s not right about it. Just a gut feeling.

Oh … those two wrongs making a right I alluded to in the excerpt? Wrong #1: Tyler picked the wrong dessert. Wrong #2: Tyler offered it up for consideration. The right? The decision to eliminate him from competition.

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I’ll say again: spoilers for last night’s MasterChef follow. …

A few weeks ago, as I was watching an episode of MasterChef with Deb, a contestant — I can’t remember who it was — presented a dish to the judges that was crap. It wasn’t just presented poorly or simply underdone; it was raw. And by raw I mean it was inedible. If someone ate it, they’d likely become ill. As this contestant was being berated by the judges for having served them that trash, I paused the episode and said, “I have a ballsy move someone on the show should try sometime to save themselves. It would be a huge risk and would be a one-off trick, but it might just save their ass in a situation like this.”

“Drop the plate on the way up?” Deb asked.

“No! That would never win the judges’ sympathy, and they’d see right through that bullshit. I’m saying they walk right up there either empty handed or — in an even more ballsy move — take their dish up there and do the honors of dumping it right in the trash.”

Deb, of course, thinks I’m insane. But hear me out!

My thinking is this: if you’re trying to be a “master chef,” then act like it. Someone who’s competing to make a name for themselves either with incredible dishes in their own restaurant or with a cookbook would never — NEVER — knowingly serve inedible, disgusting or possibly dangerously undercooked food. It just wouldn’t happen. So why serve it to the judges? Hoping they won’t notice or not throw up on the spot?

For my plan to work, it would have to be executed flawlessly, at the perfect moment and could only work ONE time. And by “one time” I mean it would only work once in the season and for no one else afterwards — possibly for the extent of the series.

Let me play out the perfect scenario. You’re a contestant on MasterChef, and as you’re busting your ass trying to cook, say, chicken, you realize this dish just isn’t going to be edible; it’s going to be raw or just gross, and the judges probably won’t even take a bite. You’re fucked. As you’re stressing this over before being called up to the judges’ table, you notice that another contestant has a pretty awful dish as well; maybe not worse than yours, but definitely second-worse. Ideally, that person is called up first, and the judges tear them apart. Now’s your chance. Your name is called to the table. You walk right up there, and instead of putting the plate on the table, you dump it right in the trash.

“What the bloody hell did you do that for?!” would be Gordon’s likely response.

Your response back: “What I cooked there was something I would never, ever put in front of someone I was serving food to. I’m not going to dishonor myself or you guys by trying to even pass it off as something you should or could eat. So I’m presenting you with the best I have right now, which is nothing. Serving nothing is better than serving that.”

Deb’s (and likely your) first reaction to this is: bullshit; it’d never work. They’d be first to get kicked out, right? I’m saying I think it could not only work in the contestant’s favor, but it’d cause a wave of shock throughout the MasterChef-verse at what a ballsy (and, I might add, professional) move it was to pull, but that the judges let him stay.

Why would this work? Because the judges could say his conduct was most becoming of what it means to be a true “master chef” in the business. That a chef not only needs to be able to cook and cook well, but that they are able to discern what is suitable for someone to eat before serving it. Sometimes a chef makes mistakes, and they need to recognize that. Because this contestant chose to hold their head high and not present something knowingly bad to the judges and (and this is the most important part) because another contestant chose instead to give them slop, the one throwing their dish in the trash is safe.

Yes, this is a huge gamble. I’m definitely not saying this would surely work. I do think it’s a worthwhile consideration, though, if what you’re presenting to the judges is clearly going to get your ass thrown out. I’m also not entirely sure this would have worked with Eddie’s issue last night, since he would have been speaking for both himself and Jessie — I’m not sure she’d have gone for that move, unless at the last second he pulled the uni off the plate and threw it away without consulting her.

So, am I as delusional as Deb continues to say I am? Think this could be a “get out of jail free card” for someone some day? Or what if MasterChef allowed each contestant one time to pull this off, at the risk of that meaning their dish will be considered as “the worst” if nobody else puts something up that’s awful?

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