And then there were eight.
Vernon’s MasterChef Canada contestant Jennifer Innis has survived yet another week on the televised cooking competition after her team won the team challenge on Sunday’s episode.
Entitled Wedding on the Waves, Innis and her fellow competitors were tasked with catering a wedding on a cruise boat in Toronto’s harbour.
After successfully getting through last week’s birthday cake Mystery Box challenge and pressure test, the 33-year-old dental hygienist and mother of three joined the others in creating French-inspired canapés, appetizers, and main dishes for the bride, groom, and their wedding guests.
“The stakes are so high when it’s somebody’s wedding. I should know, I’ve got two under my belt,” Innis told the TV audience.
The winners of last week’s Mystery Box challenge, Andrew Al-Khouri and Michael Motamedi, led the teams, with Motamedi strategically selecting Innis as the second-to-last pick for his Red Team.
“What the heck is going through his head? Has he figured out that I’m actually a worthy competitor?” asked a bewildered Innis on the episode, adding Motamedi’s team was made up of the competition’s underdogs.
Both teams suffered setbacks during the high-stress challenge, including a lack of strong leadership from the opposing Blue Team’s Al-Khouri, and a hair found by the bride on a canapé from Red Team.
However, the Red Team redeemed itself in the appetizer and entrée courses, with Motamedi saying he was proud of Innis after she continued working after pepper flew into her eyes while she prepared duck for the entrée.
With setbacks for each team, the home cooks watched anxiously as the bride and groom sliced into a red-dyed wedding cake, revealing the Red Team as winners of the challenge.
Saved from elimination, Innis and her teammates returned to the MasterChef Canada kitchen to watch the Blue Team’s five members compete in the pressure test.
In a surprising end, Al-Khouri from Halifax, and Cody Karey from Vancouver were both sent home by judges Michael Bonacini, Alvin Leung, and Claudio Aprile after failing to properly replicate a French fruit tart.
The next episode of MasterChef Canada features MasterChef U.S. judge Graham Elliot, who surprises the top eight home cooks with a special mystery box, while an underwater-themed elimination challenge sends at least one cook home.
MasterChef Canada airs Sunday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
