A Cooking with Cheese Curd update:
Bryson McGlynn, AKA Cheese Curd, enjoyed a watch party of Episode 6 with his friends and family at O’Town ice cream shop in Opelika.
BY ANITA STIEFEL
ANITAS@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY — In this week’s Episode 6 of MasterChef Junior, entitled “Pancakes & Ice Cream,” the six remaining contestants were faced with two sweet treat challenges. First up was a pancake race.
The young cooks were divided into three teams of two. They were challenged to make beautifully plated stacks of three fluffy pancakes with a fresh fruit, drizzled with coulis (pureed fruit garnish) and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. The team that could produce the most restaurant quality plates in 15 minutes would win this week’s prize — the opportunity to blast a judge with gooey fruit compote and, of course, immunity from being eliminated during this round.
The blue team had blueberry toppings and the red team had raspberries. Bryson McGlynn of Opelika, who was 11 years old during the filming, was paired with 8-year-old Asher of Yakima, Washington, on the yellow team, assigned bananas.
“I’m so excited,” Asher said. “I love pancakes. I make so many pancakes at my house. I’m the pancake master. I’ve been making pancakes as long as I can remember, which is, like, four years!”
When time ran out, the yellow team and the red team each presented 14 plates to be judged. The blue team produced 17, giving the other teams cause for worry.
“You made 17 plates of pancake stacks, but it’s not just about the quantity, we said it’s all about the quality,” the show’s host, world renowned Chef Gordon Ramsay, told the blue team. “And so, seven of those pancake stacks made our standards.”
Ramsay told Bryson and Asher, “You created 14 stacks of pancakes, and nine of them passed the test. Well done.”
The two cooks on the red team won the challenge with 10 perfect plates, so they got to blast Ramsay and another judge with sticky fruit and were exempt from the second challenge.
To say the second half of the show was intense is an understatement, not because the next challenge was overly difficult, but because the four young competitors knew one of them would be sent home.
The challenge was to make an ice cream dessert from scratch.
Remy, 10, from Hollywood, Florida, decided to prepare what she called “chocolate peanut butter cookie palooza” — peanut butter chocolate ice cream on a skillet cookie containing potato chips and pretzels for crunch and salt, topped with whipped cream and peanut butter ganache.
Alfred, an 11-year-old from Binford, North Dakota, chose to make pecan ice cream, which he crusted with corn flakes and served with spicy honey sauce, bruleed bananas and whipped cream.
Asher decided to make toasted marshmallow ice cream in a s’mores-inspired dessert with chocolate cake, roasted strawberries, chocolate ganache and graham cracker crumbles.
Bryson decided to make candied pecan ice cream, which he served on a skillet of cornbread with a peach compote and caramelized pecans on top.
The contestants had 75 minutes to complete the challenge. The judges looked on as the youngsters worked, using liquid nitrogen to expedite freezing of the ice cream.
“Have you ever done this before?” Remy was asked.
“No, but I saw it done on Tik Tok,” the 10-year-old replied nonchalantly.
One of the judges asked Bryson where the Cheese Curd has been lately.
“Oh, he’s still around — you’re talking to him right now,” he said, grinning.
The amused judges moved on to critique the other cooks as they prepared their desserts.
No episode of MasterChef Junior would be complete without a crisis of some sort, and once again it was Bryson who hit a snag.
“Oh no!” he called out. “Oh goodness. Oh no, this is not good. My pecans are burnt, and this cannot happen. I need to put those in the ice cream, and I do not have time to make them again. If I don’t get this right, then I could go home.”
Dramatic music played as he picked through the charred pecans.
“I’m freaking out right now,” Bryson explained. “My pecans are burnt, and you do not want burnt taste in your ice cream, so I tried to find the good ones to put in the ice cream, and I’m hoping that the pecans do not bring the dish down.”
In the end, he did have enough time to remake the glazed pecan topping before time expired.
“That — that was stressful! Whew!” Bryson declared. “I’m not completely sure if there are burnt pecans in the ice cream, so I’m hoping my ice cream won’t be bitter.”
The judges were obviously intrigued with his creation.
“So why cornbread, though?” Ramsay asked.
“In the South, you gotta have cornbread,” the Cheese Curd replied.
The judges dug into the dish.
“Bryson, who taught you to cook?” Ramsay asked.
“My dad,” Bryson answered.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, right?” Ramsay said. “I’ve seen you cook so well on the grill, but I’m disappointed with this.”
You could hear a collective gasp from the other contestants, and tension filled the air as the show paused for a commercial break.
After three minutes of advertising (torture?), the show resumed, with the camera flashing back and forth between Ramsay’s serious expression and Bryson’s flushed, wide-eyed face of panic.
“I’m disappointed in this,” Ramsay said. “I’m disappointed that dad can’t taste it, ’cause it’s fricking delicious!”
“You had me going there for a second,” Bryson said, relieved.
“The peaches are in abundance — it’s like a cobbler gone mad,” Ramsay told him. “The cornbread and all that syrup on the peaches and the ice cream and the pecans — I like it. Seriously, really good job.”
“Bryson, this is a celebration of the South,” said Chef Aaron Sanchez. “And I love how much caramelization you got on those peaches. You transformed them into something completely different. Unbelievable!”
“Um, I got a little burnt pecan in mine, a little charred, but we’re calling it smoked and I kind-of like it like that. Well done,” said judge Daphne Oz.
The judges retired to another room to discuss what they just tasted. They agreed that Remy’s dessert was good overall, but she used too much peanut butter ganache, and her skillet cookie was slightly overbaked, rendering it a bit dry.
“I have to say, Bryson’s, I just fell in love with,” said Ramsay. “Oh, my lord!”
“The cornbread was a sponge, and he took the time to puncture it to make sure all that good juice got in there,” added Sanchez.
Asher’s dessert was praised as being “upscale” and “artful,” and in the end, he and Bryson were judged as preparing the best ice cream desserts. They move forward in the competition.
Alfred’s dessert was judged as having too many unnecessary ingredients, which resulted in a disjointed dish of competing flavors. With tears in their eyes, the judges decided he would not continue in the competition, but they sent him home with words of encouragement and accolades for having made it into the top six of 12 original contestants.
The show will continue next week with the five remaining aspiring chefs. To find out what happens, tune in to FOX network at 7 p.m. CT on Monday.
The Observer will provide continuing coverage, and fans can keep up with Bryson on his Cookin’ with Cheese Curd page on Facebook.
