MasterChef (American TV series) season 6

MasterChef (U.S. season 6)
Season 6
No. of episodes	5
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	May 20, 2015 (2015-05-20) – September 2015 (2015-09)
Season chronology

Season 6 of the American competitive reality television series MasterChef premiered on Fox on May 20, 2015.

Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot returned as judges. Joe Bastianich left the show after five seasons and was replaced by Christina Tosi as the new judge.

Top 22

Contestant	Age	Hometown	Occupation	Status	Winnings
Amanda Saab	25	Seattle, Washington	Social Worker	Top 16	2
Charlie Chapman	25	New Orleans, Louisiana	HVAC Technician	Top 16	2
Christopher Lu	30	Los Angeles, California	Restaurant Manager	Top 16	2
Claudia Sandoval	31	La Mesa, California	Events Manager	Top 16	0
Derrick Peltz	28	Ft. Myers, Florida	Drummer	Top 16	0
Hetal Vasavada	27	Bloomfield, New Jersey	Startup Developer	Top 16	0
Jesse Romero	29	Baton Rouge, Louisiana	Petroleum Landman	Top 16	3
Katrina Kozar	34	Brookfield, Wisconsin	Administrative Assistant	Top 16	0
Kerry Prince	31	Greensboro, North Carolina	Human Resources Rep	Top 16	2
Nick Nappi	31	San Mateo, California	Dishwasher Sales Rep	Top 16	2
Olivia Crouppen	25	Thousand Oaks, California	Fashion Stylist	Top 16	1
Sara Zacek	29	Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin	Mobile Home Park Manager	Top 16	1
Stephen Lee	47	Palm Springs, California	Urban Gardener	Top 16	3
Shelly Flash	32	Brooklyn, New York	Kitchen Assistant	Top 16	2
Tommy Walton	53	Chicago, Illinois	Homosexual	Top 16	1
Veronica Cili	58	Key West, Florida	Beauty Consultant	Top 16	1
Ailsa Von Dobeneck	27	Norfolk, Virginia	Assistant Railroad Manager	Eliminated June 17	0
Daniel "Dan" Collado	29	Chicago, Illinois	Engineer/Model	Withdrew June 17	1
Justin Banister	18	New Caney, Texas	High School Student	Eliminated June 10	1
Darah Carattini	29	Irvine, California	Amusement Park Guide	Eliminated June 3	0
Brianna Watson	24	Worcester, Massachusetts	Hairstylist	Eliminated May 27	0
Mateo McConnell	38	Atlanta, Georgia	High School Teacher		0

Elimination Table

Place	Contestant	Episode
		3		4	5		6		7
	Amanda	IN	IMM	WIN	HIGH	IN	WIN	IMM
	Charlie	IN	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	WIN	IMM
	Christopher	IN	WIN	WIN	IN	IN	LOW	PT
	Claudia	IN	IMM	NPT	IN	IN	PT	IMM
	Derrick	IN	IN	NPT	IN	IN	PT	IMM
	Hetal	HIGH	IMM	PT	IN	IN	NPT	IMM
	Jesse	IN	IMM	WIN	WIN	IMM	WIN	IMM
	Katrina	HIGH	IMM	PT	IN	IN	NPT	IMM
	Kerry	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	IMM
	Nick	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	IMM
	Olivia	IN	LOW	PT	HIGH	IN	WIN	IMM
	Sara	IN	IN	NPT	IN	IN	WIN	IMM
	Shelly	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	WIN	NPT	IMM
	Stephen	IN	IN	WIN	IN	WIN	WIN	IMM
	Tommy	IN	IMM	LOW	IN	IN	WIN	IMM
	Veronica	IN	IN	WIN	IN	LOW	NPT	IMM
17	Ailsa	IN	IMM	NPT	IN	IN	LOW	ELIM
18	Dan	WIN	IMM	NPT	IN	IN	WDR
19	Justin	IN	IMM	WIN	IN	ELIM
20	Darah	IN	IMM	ELIM
21	Brianna	IN	ELIM
22	Mateo	IN	ELIM

  (WINNER) This cook won the competition.

  (RUNNER-UP) This cook finished in second place.

  (WIN) The cook won the individual challenge (Mystery Box Challenge or Elimination Test).

  (WIN) The cook was on the winning team in the Team Challenge and was directly advanced to the next round.

  (HIGH) The cook was one of the top entries in the individual challenge, but did not win.

  (IN) The cook was not selected as a top entry or bottom entry in an individual challenge.

  (IN) The cook was not selected as a top entry or bottom entry in a team challenge.

  (IMM) The cook did not have to compete in that round of the competition and was safe from elimination.

  (IMM) The cook was selected by Mystery Box Challenge winner and did not have to compete in the Elimination Test.

  (PT) The cook was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, competed in the Pressure Test, and advanced.

  (NPT) The cook was on the losing team in the Team Challenge, but was exempted from the Pressure Test.

  (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in an individual elimination challenge, but was not the last person to advance.

  (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in an individual elimination challenge, and was the last person to advance.

  (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in the Team Challenge and they were the only person from their team to advance.

  (LOW) The cook was one of the bottom entries in the Team Challenge, and their team was last to advance.

  (WDR) The cook withdrew from the competition due to personal reasons.

  (ELIM) The cook was eliminated from MasterChef.

Episodes

No. in season	Title : The Class of 2015	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Let The Battle Commence (Part 1)"	May 20, 2015 (2015-05-20)	3.39
Auditions Round 1: The top 20 contestants were given a surprise that they will be facing another 20 contestants in head-to-head battles to decide who will be receiving a white apron. Contestants with similar signature dishes (steak vs steak, seafood vs seafood, baker vs baker etc) were put together against each other to decide which was the best home cook among them. The first battle was between Claudia and Andrew in shrimp, and Claudia emerged as the winner and received a white apron. The next battle was between Stephen and Tommy in pork tenderloin. Tommy initially had difficulties during the cooking as his pork tenderloin was still raw after taking it out from the oven, but he quickly bounced back and won the battle and received a white apron. The next battle was between four contestants - Amanda, Derrick, Nate and Moniza in lamb. Derrick was the first to receive a white apron for his outstanding pistachio crusted rack of lamb, and then after some consideration from the judges, Amanda was the next to receive a white aHupron. In the following battles, Ailsa, Dan, Kerry, Mateo, Veronica and Nick all received a white apron. The final battle in this episode was between Katrina and Taylor, hometown rivals, in salmon. After some long consideration from Gordon, Katrina was the winner and received a white apron.
2	"Let The Battle Commence (Part 2)"	May 20, 2015 (2015-05-20)	3.39
Auditions Round 2: As the head-to-head battles continued, the next battle was between Hetal and Jill in an apple dessert. Hetal was the winner and received a white apron. In the following battles, Darah, Olivia, Sara, Charlie, Justin, Jesse and Brianna all received a white apron. The final head-to-head battle was between Christopher and Shelly in chicken. Both of their dishes received mixed reviews from the judges, but while Gordon chose Shelly, Graham and Christina both chose Christopher and therefore Christopher was declared as the winner of the battle and received the final white apron. Gordon thought "[they] had made a major mistake" in the decision. Auditions Round 3: The defeated home cooks were called back into the MasterChef kitchen and the judges announced that they will be distributing two more white aprons for a spot in the competition. Six of the defeated home cooks were chosen by the judges for the final challenge. Graham chose Taylor and Stephen, Christina chose Andrew and Demetria, and lastly Gordon chose Jill and Shelly. The challenge consisted of every day ingredients including chicken, tomatoes, bacon, kale, carrots, mushrooms, blueberries, cheese and chocolate, and the contestants were given one hour to create a stunning dish for the last two spots in the competition. Andrew made a stuffed chicken thigh with puree medley and tomato salad. The judges thought that the chicken was delicious but there were too many things going on with the puree as there were three different purees all together on the same plate. Taylor made a pan seared chicken with kale and carrot mashed potatoes. Graham thought that the chicken and kale had great flavors, but the puree was too "gummy". Jill made blueberry BBQ chicken with scalloped carrot and potato, which Christina thought had unexpectedly great flavor. She also felt the gratin was delicious but had too much cream and herbs in it. Stephen made grilled chicken with pappardelle and vegetables. Gordon thought everything was delicious, but the portion was way too big as it felt like there were three separate dishes on one plate. Shelly made mushroom and kale fritter with kale salad and fried chicken skin. Christina thought the dish was delicious but thought the fried chicken skin could be better presented. Demetria made a chicken roulade with sauteed potatoes and mole sauce, but Graham criticized her mole sauce for looking very unappetizing and felt that it looked like a shit stain on the plate as if the chicken was plated on a "diaper", and Christina thought she threw her second chance away with the mole sauce. At the end of the challenge, Demetria was the first to be sent home. Shelly received a white apron and Taylor was sent home. Stephen received the last white apron while Andrew and Jill were sent home.
3	"You're The Apple of My Eye"	May 27, 2015 (2015-05-27)	4.72
Mystery Box Challenge 1: The top 22 contestants were faced with their first Mystery Box Challenge. In the box, there were ingredients that the contestants had themselves left behind in their own kitchen when they left to travel to the competition. The cooks had 60 minutes to prepare their dishes. The top three dishes were Katrina's pork schnitzel with braised cabbage and Christmas peas, Dan's savory eclair with creamy mushroom filling, and Hetal's coconut curry soup with red chili chutney and Cilantro mint basil oil. The judges decided that Dan was the winner of the first Mystery Box Challenge and received the advantage heading into the season's first Elimination Test challenge. Elimination Test 1: For the Elimination Test, the contestants were required to make a stunning apple pie by Christina Tosi. For winning the Mystery Box challenge, Dan was immune from the challenge. He also got to choose as many contestants to receive immunity as he wanted by presenting them with apples that he took from the MasterChef pantry. He chose to save Hetal, Amanda, Claudia, Justin, Shelly, Nick, Jesse, Kerry, Tommy, Ailsa, Katrina and Darah. The remaining 9: Brianna, Charlie, Christopher, Derrick, Mateo, Olivia, Sara, Stephen and Veronica had to bake a stunning apple pie in 90 minutes. The judges also announced that two cooks would be sent home at the end of this challenge. During cooking, Olivia told Gordon that she doesn't know if she will be doing a crust for her apple pie, to which Gordon reminded her that Christina asked for an apple pie (which has a crust). After much hesitation from her, she finally was convinced by Gordon to do a crust. Once the time was up, Veronica's apple pie was up to be judged first. Her apple pie with caramel and walnut had a bizarre and messy presentation, but all the judges agreed that her pie was absolutely delicious with a nice use of cinnamon. Christopher was very nervous because he had never made an apple pie before. His apple pie had maple syrup and bourbon filling, but during judging, he got very defensive to Gordon about his use of corn starch in the pie, told Gordon to "just eat it" and expressed that he always got picked on, to which Gordon calmly told him to relax as he too himself has been picked on a lot in his life and the proof of his abilities will be in the food. Christopher's pie was deemed delicious and the pastry was cooked beautifully and had amazing color. Olivia vocally expressed that she hated her apple pie so much that she would rather shave her head than serve the pie to the judges. Her pie was made with goat cheese and blueberries, and the judges thought everything in her apple pie tasted nice and balanced except for the goat cheese, which tasted very out of place. Derrick made a Granny Smith apple pie with orange zest and brown sugar, Gordon thought the pie was delicious but not enough apples inside it. Stephen made an apple pie with mascarpone and caramel, but Christina pointed out that his pastry crust still tasted raw and was undercooked. Charlie made Grandma's apple pie. Graham thought his pie was good but lacked techniques. Mateo's ginger apple pie with cardamon and salted caramel was panned by the judges for the thickness of the apples. Its pastry was too thin to sustain the weigh of the apple and the pie disintegrated when cut, and Christina pointed out that the ginger was overpowering the rest of the components in the pie. Sara's pecan apple pie with cinnamon and caramel sauce was delicious and Graham said it was like "a slice of autumn". Brianna's apple pie with ginger and mint got bad reviews. Christina commended her for her lattice work, but the pie was very watery and literally like "apple soup". With the best apple pie, Christopher was declared winner of the elimination challenge. The three worst pies of the night belonged to Brianna, Mateo and Olivia. Mateo was the first to be eliminated. After much deliberation from the judges, Brianna was the next home cook to be eliminated.
4	"Cinnamon Roll-er Coaster"	June 3, 2015 (2015-06-03)	4.70
Team Challenge 1: The top 20 contestants are faced with their first team challenge. Each of the two teams must serve their own, unique version of a hamburger with onion rings and coleslaw and a fish & chips dish for the thousands of hungry visitors of an amusement park. The cooks were split into teams of ten. The Red team consisted of Amanda, Charlie, Christopher, Jesse, Justin, Kerry, Nick, Shelly, Stephen and Veronica, while the Blue team consisted of Ailsa, Claudia, Dan, Darah, Derrick, Hetal, Katrina, Olivia, Sara and Tommy (as most of the female contestants ran to Dan). The judges selected Kerry as the Red team captain and Darah as the Blue team captain. During the challenge, Darah's poor leadership and organization skills started to show as the Blue team fell behind in preparation. Tensions started to rise between Katrina and Tommy as Tommy urged Katrina to work quicker with the batter, but Katrina thought he was being irritating. Meanwhile, the Red team also experienced difficulties in preparation as they wanted to serve three different sauces with the burger, which Gordon chastised them for and urged them to focus on making one sauce. When Gordon checked on the Blue team before the guests arrived, he discovered that no fish was cooked as Katrina fell behind with doing the batter for both the fish and the onion rings resulting in Claudia quickly stepped in to fry the fish. As the guests arrived, the Red team began to run short on onion rings due to Kerry having difficulties balancing responsibilities between cooking and leading the team, and Nick quickly stepped in to make the onion rings. As service went on, Gordon discovered that the Blue's team's fish wasn't cooked properly and was raw in the center due to the batter being too thick and threatened to close it down if he discovered another raw fish. On the other hand, the Red team had recovered from the earlier hassle, while the reviews from guests seemed pretty even for both teams. When all the guests were fed, the Red team received 59% of the votes while the Blue team received 41% of the votes. Therefore, the Red team was declared winner of the team challenge, sending the Blue team to the pressure test. Pressure Test 1: The ten members of the Blue team were told that only five of them would have to participate in the pressure test. Tommy vocally expressed his dissatisfaction with Katrina saying she wasn't communicating to him at all during the challenge, leaving Katrina visibly upset and angry. As the team captain, Darah would be deciding which five cooks (including herself) will be saved. She decided to save Ailsa, Claudia, Sara, Dan and finally Hetal. (Katrina was annoyed at the decision as she felt Darah was only saving her friends and not actually people who had put in the work during the team challenge.) However, Hetal declined the immunity and offered Derrick to be sent to safety in her place, to which the judges respected her decision. The judges thought Darah's overall choices were "bizarre" and thought that Katrina and Derrick should have been the first two saved. As a result, Darah, Hetal, Katrina, Olivia and Tommy were put up in an pressure test in which the home cooks will make 12 cinnamon rolls for the three judges in 45 minutes. During cooking, Tommy told Gordon that he wanted Katrina out of the competition for "throwing [him] under the bus" during the challenge, to which Katrina responded that Tommy will be sent home "because all [he] can do is talk". At the end of the test, Darah's cinnamon rolls were raw and undercooked and the judges commented the flavors were overly complicated and just didn't work together at all. Hetal's cinnamon rolls, despite the dreary presentation, were greatly liked by the judges and Gordon complimented her courage for "taking the hit" and saw the potential of a unique baker in her. Katrina's cinnamon rolls were also liked by the judges, however Graham expressed his disappointment of her leaving the baking paper in the box. Olivia's cinnamon rolls were well baked and had good flavors but they weren't rolled tight enough. Lastly, Tommy's green tea and pistachio cinnamon rolls were heavily criticized by Gordon for looking very unappetizing, saying it was like a box of "sick" and "should have come with a health warning", however despite that, Gordon thought some parts of his cinnamon rolls actually tasted decent. With the best cinnamon rolls, Hetal was the first to be sent to safety much to the delight of the other contestants. Despite minor flaws in their cinnamon rolls, Katrina and Olivia were also sent to safety, leaving Darah and Tommy as the bottom two. In the end, Darah was eliminated, much to Katrina's dismay.
5	"Clawing To Victory"	June 10, 2015 (2015-06-10)	4.83
Mystery Box Challenge 2: For this Mystery Box Challenge, the home cooks will have to make a dish with three types of live crabs: Dungeness crab, blue crab and rock crab in 60 minutes. Olivia was particularly flustered by the live crabs during cooking, as she had never cooked with live shellfish before and had to ask Gordon for advice in how to prep the crabs. Hetal was also nervous about the ingredient as she is a vegetarian and never had crabs before. On the other hand, some of the other contestants (Amanda, Claudia, Charlie and Jesse) were more confident, being quite familiar with crabs. The top three dishes were Amanda's crab cakes with mango salad and avocado cream sauce, Olivia's crab cake eggs benedict with roasted asparagus and Jesse's crab dumpling soup with avocado and mango salad. Jesse was declared winner of the Mystery Box Challenge. Elimination Test 2: The remaining cooks, faced with elimination, must create dishes in 60 minutes using a surprise ingredient: corn. For the first time in the Masterchef kitchen, Jesse received his advantage in front of the other contestants outside from the pantry. For winning the Mystery Box Challenge, Jesse was immune from the challenge and was allowed to choose if the contestants will be making a sweet dish or a savory dish with the corns by assigning each of them with different baskets. Hoping to get the weaker contestants eliminated by assigning them to make the more difficult sweet dish, Jesse chose Veronica, Tommy, Katrina, Kerry, Olivia, Claudia and Justin among others to make a sweet dish, while Derrick, Dan, Shelly, Nick, Charlie and Stephen among others will be making a savory dish (Stephen threatened Jesse to give him the savory basket, saying Jesse will "become the mission of [his] life" if he chose to give him the sweet basket instead.) During cooking, Christina and Graham pointed out to Justin that his creamed corn was too sweet and was strongly urged by Christina to add more salt into the mixture, but he ignored their advice and expressed that he knew what he was doing. When time was up, Stephen's corn tamale with avocado and corn salsa and Shelly's shrimp tacos with corn guacamole were deemed to be the best two dishes and the two were selected as team captains for the next Team Challenge. Other praises from the judges included Claudia's sweet corn tamale with plantain puree and Mexican chocolate sauce and Tommy's corn panna cotta with orange and vanilla bean. Veronica's corn creme brulee with caramel corn was panned by Christina for having too much fat and was cooked in high temperature too quickly. Justin's profiteroles with sweet creamed corn and candy corn caramel also received heavy criticisms for being undercooked and way too sweet in flavor, Gordon further questioned Justin for his decision to used canned corns in the dish rather than fresh corns. Charlie's yellow corn grits with BBQ shrimp was criticized by Gordon as the grit was undercooked and bland, and also the corn not being the hero of the dish as it was overshadowed by the better-cooked shrimps. Thereby, the three worst corn dishes belonged to Veronica, Charlie and Justin. Charlie was the first to be sent to safety, leaving Veronica and Justin to face elimination, ironically the oldest and the youngest contestant in the competition (similar to what happened with Ahran and Leslie in season 5). The judges asked Jesse who he thought will be sent home, to which he said that Justin should be sent home as he was shocked by the fact that Justin chose to use canned corns when the corn was supposed to be the hero of the dish. The judges said that Jesse was right, and Justin was eliminated.
6	"What Happens In Vegas Steaks In Vegas"	June 17, 2015 (2015-06-17)	TBD
Team Challenge 2: The contestants split into two teams of eight and seven (Dan, due to personal reasons, had to return to Chicago and thus withdrew from the competition) for their second team challenge. The destination will be a surprise: Las Vegas. In the challenge, the cooks will cook in a Las Vegas restaurant, therefore participating in their first restaurant takeover. The blue team will consist of Shelly, the team captain, Claudia, Katrina, Derrick, Christopher, Veronica, Ailsa, and Hetal. The red team consisted of Stephen, the team captain, Amanda, Charlie, Kerry, Nick, Olivia, Sara, Tommy and Jesse. In the end, the red team, led by Stephen wins the challenge. Pressure Test 2: Those cooks from the losing team faced with elimination will have to make a steak dish with the perfect cook and exceptional seasoning. The contestants who do not sum up to the expectations of the three critical judges will be eliminated.
7	"Bring Home the Bacon"	June 24, 2015 (2015-06-24)	TBD
Challenge: Each contestant must cook an outstanding breakfast dish and prove that breakfast is still the most important dish of the day. The winner will not only have immunity in the upcoming Mystery Box challenge, but will also have two advantages over the challenge. Mystery Box/Elimination Test 1: In this Mystery Box and Elimination Challenge, the chefs must prove that they can create the best of TV dinners. Any wrong step could end up pushing the chefs closer to the dreaded elimination, abolishing all their culinary hopes in the MasterChef kitchen.

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

No.	Episode	Original air date	Rating/share 18–49	U.S. viewers (million)	Rank (Timeslot)	Rank (Nightly)	Rank (Weekly)	Source(s)
1	"Let The Battle Commence" (Top 40)	May 20, 2015	1.2/4	3.39	3	8	<25
2	"The Battle Continues" (Top 40)
3	"You're The Apple of My Eye" (Top 22)	May 27, 2015	1.6/6	4.72	1	1	5
4	"Cinammon Roll-er Coaster" (Top 20)	June 3, 2015	1.5/6	4.70	2	2	12
5	"Clawing to Victory" (Top 19)	June 10, 2015	1.5/6	4.83	1	1	13
6	"What Happens In Vegas Steaks In Vegas" (Top 18)	June 17, 2015	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

Canadian Numeris ratings

Canadian broadcaster CTV also airs MasterChef. Episodes air at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Canadian DVR ratings are included in Numeris' count.

No.	Episode	Original air date	Viewers (millions)	Rank (Week)	Rank (Nightly)	Source
1	"Premiere" (Top 40)	May 20, 2015	1.279	10	5
2	"You're the Apple of My Eye" (Top 22)	May 27, 2015	1.669	2	2
3	"Cinnamon Roll-er Coaster" (Top 20)	June 3, 2015	TBD	TBD	TBD