'MasterChef US' Season 6, Episode 16 Recap: Hetal Fails At Pasta

In this week’s episode of “MasterChef,” the final six home cooks take a field trip to downtown Los Angeles. They are divided into two teams, and in an episode titled “The Restaurant Takeover,” they are given the task of completing dinner service at Chaya, a legendary Japanese fusion restaurant. Later in the pressure test, the contestants make the judges’ favorite pasta dishes to avoid elimination.

The six remaining home cooks head to Chaya in Los Angeles to take on a dinner service in a real professional restaurant kitchen. After winning last week’s tag team challenge, Derrick and Stephen are the designated team captains.

Stephen heads the red team and chooses Nick and Claudia. Derrick goes with Katrina and is left with last pick Hetal for his blue team. The teams get a demonstration from Chaya’s executive chef and they are told that they need to make two appetizers and two entrees.

For the appetizers, the teams need to make the signature tuna tartare, a world-famous dish created in the Chaya kitchen. They also need to make a Wagyu beef risotto. For the entrees, they need to serve a seared venison and a miso seabass dish.

As expected, judge Gordon Ramsay is expediting the dinner service. He soon regretted taking on the task as both teams gave him headaches.

Stephen decides to take over most of the cooking tasks and immediately learns that he cannot handle it. Nick tries to step up to help him but they all get flustered. Claudia puts out tuna tartare dishes but Gordon is appalled by the amount of mayonnaise in it. Claudia quickly sorts it out but the customers complain that their seabass is very oily.

Over at the blue team. Derrick tries to delegate properly, but Hetal is not communicating. The team falls into complete chaos and they are unable to serve their appetizers even after a full hour. The diners get impatient and Christina is forced to apologize on the restaurant floor.

Once Derrick gets his team to regroup, they manage to send out dishes and they breeze straight into the entrees. Unfortunately, Katrina messes up the fish. She starts to burn the seabass and they get flustered again. The blue team falls back and diners almost walk out due to the long wait.

In the end, the red team wins the restaurant takeover challenge. Derrick, Hetal and Katrina end up in the pressure test.

Christina reveals that the each of the contestants needs to make three different pasta dishes in only 60 minutes. The judges reveal their favorite pasta dish and the contestants soon learn that they are facing a very daunting task.

Christina wants a manicotti with a ricotta and spinach filling, while Graham wants a squid ink striped farfalle with seafood sauce. Finally, Gordon wants a delicate egg yolk ravioli.

The contestants scramble about in the kitchen. Hetal immediately hits a snag when she puts in a dollop of ricotta in her ravioli. Luckily, Claudia calls her out from the balcony and she is able to correct it.

Meanwhile, Katrina has no idea how to create stripes in her pasta. She ends up with a farfalle dough that looks like a cowhide. Derrick also faces a challenge of his own, when he has a hard time forming a ravioli.

When the judges taste the dishes, Christina likes Derrick’s pasta on the manicotti but his sauce could use a little more seasoning. His farfalle is unfortunately a little bit undercooked but his sauce is cooked perfectly. His biggest slip-up comes with his ravioli. The actual pasta is cooked perfectly but he made the mistake of adding a raw sage leaf on top. Gordon is completely disgusted.

Meanwhile, Katrina’s manicotti is perfect. However, her farfalle is a complete visual failure because she couldn’t produce the squid ink stripes. Apart from that, the pasta is also undercooked. Her ravioli is not so great either because she decided to put in a dab of ricotta in it.

Hetal’s dishes are a train wreck from the start. Her manicotti needs both in the sauce and in the filling. She manages to produce a great striped farfalle but the seafood and the other components of her sauce are raw. Finally, her ravioli is full of air and full of pepper.

Needless to say, Hetal ends up on the chopping block and is sent home. The competition is finally down to the top five. The remaining cooks that still have a chance of becoming the next “MasterChef” are Derrick, Stephen, Katrina, Claudia and Nick.

“MasterChef” airs every Wednesday at 8:00 pm EDT on FOX.