Episode No. 3
BY ANITA STIEFEL
ANITAS@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
OPELIKA — On the third installment of this season’s MasterChef Junior, which aired March 18, Opelika’s Bryson “Cheese Curd” McGlynn suffered a burn, but the 11-year-old did not flame out in the face of adversity.
In this week’s episode, the aspiring chefs were divided into red and blue teams, and the challenge was for each team to prepare a hearty and tasty meal for the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters. The twist was that one of the Globetrotters is vegan, so each team had to prepare an equally hearty and tasty plant-based meal containing no meat, eggs or dairy products.
Bryson was assigned to the red team, led by 9-year-old Lydia of Atlanta. Lydia decided the team would prepare New York strip steaks. Her teammates chimed in with ideas for sides, including mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, asparagus and coleslaw, and, as the vegan dish, a cauliflower steak with tomato sauce and asparagus.
When it was time to divvy up the tasks, Lydia said, “Jordyn, you’re helping me with the steak, I trust you. Bryson you’re going to do the cauliflower. Alfred you’re doing the mushroom gravy. Kristell you’re doing the coleslaw.”
The dismay showed clearly on Bryson’s face.
“Lydia assigns me the vegan dish — I’m like, what in the world?” he said, confused. “I’m not a vegan person. I do a whole bunch of barbecue and grill competitions.
“There’s a lot at stake with team challenges, because if you don’t do your part right it’s going to mess up the whole entire cook. But Lydia is the team captain, so I have to follow what she says.”
As they worked, the blue team was calm and confident, with each member focused on a task. Meanwhile, the red team was in chaos and scrambling. World-renowned chef and host of the show, Gordon Ramsay, tried to get the youngsters back on track, telling them to focus.
“Bryson, jump on those steaks, please!” Ramsay directed. “Crank up the heat!”
“Yes, chef!” Bryson enthusiastically replied, pumping his fist.
“I’m the steak person,” he said. “I have to take over, otherwise this team’s gonna go down.”
With 10 minutes to go, Ramsay shouted that the cooks needed to start plating their dishes.
“Almost done with the steaks?” Lydia asked Bryson.
“No, because nobody is helping me — I need help,” he replied, clearly frustrated. “Time’s almost up, and Lydia is acting like she is a chicken with her head cut off. I have one of the most important jobs, getting the steaks cooked perfectly, and no one is helping me and I’m like, dude, I need help.”
“Help! Head’s up! Hot!” he cried out to teammates as he struggled to move a heavy cast iron skillet from the oven to the stovetop.
“Ow!” he then yelled in pain, as Ramsay called for a medic to bring a cooling lidocaine salve. Once the ointment was applied, Ramsay gave Bryson a personal pep talk.
“Look at me, listen to me: you’ve got this,” Ramsay told him. “I know you’re one of the tough kids in here, okay? Now, you cook these steaks. You take them all the way to the finish line.”
“I burned my hand, and it hurts really, really bad, but I can’t think about my hand right now,” Bryson said. “I have to push through and help my team out.”
Ramsay was impressed with the 11-year-old’s perseverance.
“Thank goodness for Bryson, by the way,” he told the other judges. “He burnt his finger and he’s still in the mix of it. What a hero, honestly.”
In the end, despite Bryson’s best efforts, the blue team won the challenge with buttermilk fried chicken with hot honey sauce, potato salad, green beans and cornbread.
“The red team’s steak, I’ll be honest, it’s cooked beautifully; medium and it’s juicy,” Ramsay said. “I just think the rest of it is a bit of an [afterthought].”
The other judges agreed, praising the steak but calling the mashed potatoes lumpy and the coleslaw flavorless.
For its vegan dish, the blue team prepared grilled eggplant and zucchini with tomato stack and basil pesto, which made less of an impression than the cauliflower Bryson prepared for the red team.
“The cauliflower steak — the texture, the tenderness, it was well-seasoned — this would be something I would order again at a restaurant, for sure,” the vegan judge said, jokingly asking for a to-go box.
From the losing red team, the judges sent home Lydia as well as 10-year-old Kristell in a surprise double-elimination. All of the remaining aspiring chefs move forward in the competition to be named MasterChef Junior. A teaser ad for next week revealed that the fourth episode will feature a magic theme and have a grilling challenge, which will give Bryson an opportunity to do what he does best: magic on the grill.
The Observer will provide a weekly recap of the show, which airs Mondays at 7 p.m. CT on FOX network.
On Friday, March 22, the Cheese Curd himself will demonstrate his grilling skills as the featured guest at Watson Brothers Patio and Hearth’s annual tent sale, which starts at 10 a.m. at 1799 Ogletree Road in Auburn.