The Smole: 56.14-Chef's kiss

The final 5 previously had to find ingredients and brew coffee to earn 100 points in 2 hours. They failed to get one of the ingredients correctly and thus lost out on these points with poor quality coffee. The pot stays at 329/800 points. Will they do better in the food segment coming up?

Jenny: "Sarah took too long to arrive with the last ingredient so we had to rush the brewing process. Maybe if we had ground the potatoes better they would have been less noticeable."

Jesse: "Gordon was the one who suggested ground beans were potatoes. In my excitement I went along with it and didn't think much, but now I see how it doesn't make sense to have potatoes in coffee."

Mason: "Jenny put the recipe book back secretly and we wasted so much time trying to find it. She was also the one to suggest just smushing the potatoes with my hands. She also held the recipe the whole time. Who knows if she skipped a few steps? It was so embarrassing serving something so bad."

"I need two contestants today to take part in Masterchef. You will be working together as a team to defeat another team. If your team wins, you get 100 bonus points, all or nothing."

Jesse: "Cooking is a basic survival skill. I know how to cook."

Mason: "I think it's only fair if the ones who didn't take part in the singing bonus mission got a chance here."

Sarah: "I volunteer. I'm no expert cook but I can make a meal. Gordon, want to come with me?"

Jesse: "I wouldn't trust someone who thinks potatoes belong in coffee to cook."

Mason: "He makes a good point. That leaves me as the only option."

Jenny: "Are we sure we want to exclude Jesse and me?"

Mason: "Yes, you already had your chance."

Gordon: "Can you even cook bro?"

Mason: "I live alone and eating out is expensive. Of course I know how to cook. It's settled then."

Mason: "I eat out more than I cook because I can afford it so I haven't touched a knife in a long while. But I'm prudent with my spending so I do still cook once in a while. I hope that's enough."

Sarah: "I don't actually cook that often but I saw my chance and I had to grab it. I was hoping to work with Gordon and keep Mason out of it because I don't want to work with him yet again but we somehow are. It's not off to a great start."

Romon: "Welcome to Masterchef! It's been an exciting few rounds in the team challenge."

Gil: "Indeed. Joris and Manuel managed to beat Stacey and Luke, sending them to the Elimination Test."

Juanita: "I'm excited to find out which pair will prevail today."

Romon: "I am too. Let's introduce our teams today!"

Gil: "In Team CatBoots, we have Clint Blake!"

Gil: "In Team CatBoots, we also have Manuella Blackman!"

Juanita: "In Team Smole, we have Sarah Ambile!"

Juanita: "In Team Smole, we also have Mason Montgomery!"

Gil: "I don't think we met these two contestants before."

Romon: "We haven't. Today's challenge is a little special. Sarah and Mason are special guests from the Smole. I can't wait to see their culinary prowess."

Romon: "Today's challenge will require you to work in your teams. The winning team will advance to the next round while the losing team will have to take part in the Elimination Test. Since Sarah and Mason aren't full-time contestants, Clint and Manuella will be the only ones who may have to suffer the test. Now Gil, would you share with us what today's theme will be?"

Gil: "Certainly. We're here in beautiful Finland surrounded by a snowy white landscape. That reminds us that Christmas is coming, so today's theme is to create a dish that reminds us of Christmas. We hope to see something that is nostalgic yet innovative."

Romon: "You have 60 minutes to create your dish. Your time starts...now!"

Mason: "Wait, Sarah and I haven't decided on what we want to do yet."

Manuella: "Too bad for you!"

Manuella: "We need fresh plums."

Clint: "Got 'em."

Mason: "There are so many ingredients here. What do we make?"

Sarah: "We should have thought about this first."

Sarah: "I discussed Finnish culture with Olli before. They love cinnamon for Christmas."

Mason: "How about cinnamon rolls?"

Sarah: "I've never made them before but we can try."

Manuella: "We're making a plum pie. Pies are my specialty so this will be a piece of cake, or in this case a piece of pie."

Sarah: "We decided to make cinnamon rolls since we're in Kaihola. I heard it's a traditional local pastry."

Gil: "Clint and Manuella are making good progress. Clint is already starting on the batter."

Clint: "Mix mix mix. Remember to preheat the oven."

Manuella: "425F. I know this like the back of my hand."

Romon: "I like the teamwork shown by the Smole team. They're even sharing the same station."

Juanita: "I disagree. I think Manuella and Clint have divided the work well while Sarah and Mason feel like they're winging it."

Gil: "As a chef space is important. I'm not too sure why they don't want to work on their individual workstations but cramp into one tiny one instead."

Mason: "The dough is too tough. I'm going to cut it."

Sarah: "You only need to chop the cinnamon."

Mason: "I did that already. Now I'm going to add the chopped cinnamon to the dough."

Sarah: "And into the oven we go."

Gil: "They forgot to preheat the oven."

Romom: "You've been in a cooking reality competition too, right? What are your thoughts?"

Juanita: "I have. It's called Dishes To Delicacy. I don't envy the contetants right now. The kitchen can be a stressful place, even more so when it's a competition."

Romon: "Let's find out more about their progress."

Romon: "Sarah, Mason, how's it going?"

Mason: "So far so good. We just put the cinnamon rolls in the oven."

Romon: "Did you remember to preheat it? Otherwise it may be undercooked."

Mason: "Sarah?"

Sarah: "No. We'll redo the batch."

Romon: "You better step on it. There isn't a lot of time left."

Mason: "Thank you for the tip."

Gil: "What are you doing?"

Clint: "Manuella and I really don't want to be sent to the elimination test today so we're going all out. We're making some ice cream too."

Gil: "Plum pie with a few scoops of ice cream. Sounds delicious."

Clint: "Not scoops but it will be a surprise."

Gil: "I can't wait."

Sarah: "I see them lick the spoon all the time on TV but I don't actually know what they're doing."

Manuella: "Perfect."

Romon: "10...9...8...7..."

Sarah: "Mason, it looks too white. I think we didn't bake it for long enough."

Mason: "We can't serve that."

Sarah: "But then we have nothing to serve."

Mason: "Fix it."

Romon: "6...5..."

Sarah: "I'll sprinkle some more cinnamon."

Romon: "4...3...2...1..."

Romon: "Time's up!"

Romon: "Good job contestants. Now for the moment of truth. Team CatBoots, let's try your dish first."

Romon: "Can you share with us what you've made?"

Clint: "We made a plum pie with vanilla ice cream drizzle."

Manuella: "Plums are the quintessential Christmas treat all around the world. And my grandma would always make us a huge plum pie every Christmas."

Romon: "Amazing job. I can taste the fragrance of the plums."

Juanita: "The ice cream drizzle is a nice touch too. It's not too sweet and also doesn't take away from the main star."

Gil: "You've outdone yourself this time. The crust is perfect and the filling is chef's kiss. Your story also adds bonus points. Thank you for bringing your Christmas delicacy to us."

Manuella: "Thank you."

Romon: "Team Smole, bring up your dish."

Romon: "Tell us what you made."

Sarah: "Ok. It's not great and I think it's a little undercooked but this is our first time making it."

Mason: "I'll do the talking Sarah. We made cinnamon rolls. We were inspired by a friend of ours who's Finnish. We're in Finland, so we thought, why not pay homage to his kind's traditions? In Finland they prefer things light and white so we catered to it. We hope you enjoy it."

Gil: "It's light and white all right. It definitely doesn't look appealing."

Juanita: "See this? It's not cooked enough. It's too gooey. The cinnamon also isn't ground finely enough."

Romon: "I appreciate the attempt to integrate the local culture into your food. However I'm not a big fan of what you've done overall. We observed your cooking process and can conclude that this isn't what a Finnish pastry would look or taste like either."

Mason: "That's racist and close-minded."

Romon: "We're being race-blind by focusing entirely on the food. Thank you."

Gil: "We've had two delightfully Christmassy desserts today. Team CatBoots, your plum pie can be summarised in one word: flawless. Everything was done to perfection."

Juanita: "Team Smole, you took a bold risk in trying to adapt cinnamon rolls to local preferences today. Unfortunately, that risk did not pay off."