Contestant Adaiah Stevens of Danbury cooks a salmon dish for this week’s episode of “MasterChef, Junior.” Stevens, 12, made it to the final four of the Fox reality competition before getting sent home this week.
Credit: Greg Gayne / FOX © 2014 FOX Broadcasting Co.
Well, it was a good run.
After weeks of being a standout contestant on the Fox reality series “MasterChef, Junior,” Adaiah Stevens, 12, of Danbury, was finally sent home on this week’s episode, due to little more than some charred garlic.
The poised, talented tween made it to the final four of the show, in which some of the country’s best chefs aged 8 to 13 compete for $100,000 and bragging rights. She also did well at the start of this week’s episode, winning a challenge that asked the four remaining contestants to filet an Alaskan salmon and get as many perfect pieces of fish as possible.
In the main challenge, the contestants were asked to use their salmon to create a beautiful dish. Each chef was given his or her own refrigerator. Each refrigerator had a different number of ingredients in it. As winner of the filet challenge, Adaiah got to select which contestant got which refrigerator, and gave herself a fridge stocked with 50 items.
She used the items to make a Teriyaki salmon with stir-fried vegetables. Though her fish was cooked perfectly, the garlic in her vegetable side dish was burned, leading to some light scolding from the judges, including celeb chef Gordon Ramsay.
Turns out, that was enough to get her sent home, along with the only other girl left in the competition, 8-year-old Abby. Though Abby sobbed following the elimination, Adaiah tried to remain as stoic as possible. Ultimately, both girls got hugs from the judges and reassurance that they were outstanding cooks whose work was much more sophisticated than their ages would suggest.
They departed the kitchen together, holding hand.