MasterChef Junior
Pictured, contestants for the latest season of "MasterChef Junior." Fox

This week, “MasterChef Junior” Season 4 returns with a two-hour mid-season premiere. Part 1 kicks off with an “eggsplosive” team challenge. The top 10 contestants get a chance to compete against “MasterChef” judges Graham Elliot and Gordon Ramsay. Later, the teams face the first of two elimination challenges, which takes out a total of four contestants.

Graham walks in wearing a chicken costume and cheerfully announces that the contestants will be facing an egg challenge. However, only 4 contestants can compete in two teams of two members. Each of the young home cooks picks out an egg from a basket and breaks it on Graham’s head. The ones, who get regular eggs, are exempted from the cooking challenge, two will break eggs filled with red ink, and another two will find eggs filled with blue ink.

Addison, Corey, Kaitlyn, JJ, Avery and Sam, all pick regular eggs. They won’t be able to compete for a chance to automatically get into the top 8. They are also disappointed to learn that they won’t be able to compete against Gordon and Graham, who are forming a team of their own.

Blue Team: Amaya, Kaya

Red Team: Zac, Kamilly

Yellow: Gordon and Graham

Remaining judge Christina Tosi tells the contestants that each team needs to make as many perfect deviled eggs as they could, within the designated time limit. The contestants have a five minute head start over the Yellow Team.

The contestants get to work, and they try to work well with their teammates. The pressure is on, because if Gordon and Graham win, then all of them would still have to cook in the elimination challenge.

Luckily for the contestants, even the world’s top chefs can mess up under pressure. Gordon and Graham fail to work together properly. They mess up their eggs and only produce 3 satisfactory eggs. Zac and Kamilly manage to turn out 10 good deviled eggs, edging out the blue team, with only 6. The winning contestants are saved from the elimination challenge, and they head straight into the top 8.

Meanwhile, the rest of the contestants get back to their stations. Graham talks to them about their aspirations as young home cooks, and they all share their ideas for their future cookbooks. The challenge is all about dreams, and everyone needs to make the signature dish that they want to include in their first cookbook.

Avery and Amaya win the challenge by going back to their roots. They manage to produce signature dishes that truly reflect who they are. Avery’s bayou delight is a Crawfish Etouffee with steamed rice. It’s so good, that Gordon couldn’t help but ask for the recipe. Amaya also hits a homerun with her classic Dominican dish, a Shrimp Asopao. It’s a rich shrimp stew, served with rice and deep-fried plantains called tostones. Graham thinks it’s an amazing dish that represents who she is.

Kya Sam and JJ create dishes that are good enough to keep them safe, but are not spectacular enough to be called a chef’s signature offering. In the end, Addison, Kaitlyn and Corey end up in the bottom three.

Addison’s apple and passionfruit danish tastes good, but Christina thinks it’s visually flat, and does not reflect how good of a cook Addison really is. Luckily for her, the other two cooks really mess up.

Kaitlyn get sent home due to her lone black forest cupcake with raspberries. The icing is too buttery and the overall concept is too boring for a signature dish. Corey’s dish looks great at first glance, but it’s a huge disaster. The moment Gordon cuts into it, he immediately sees that the Jerk chicken is almost completely raw inside. Kaitlyn and Corey say goodbye to the competition, and the remaining eight contestants move on to the second hour of the show, where two more contestants are eliminated.

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