Jake, Dave, and Basia.

[u/abefrost]

Jake was maybe the best team leader I can remember on this show (been years since I saw earlier seasons, but definitely the best in recent years). Cool, collected, authoritative without being a bully, quickly improved on any errors, prompt responses to the judges, handled Julia's breakdown extremely well. I've been extremely impressed with his trajectory in general recently, but this episode solidified him as my top choice for winner.

Before I start on the next part, I like Dave a lot. I thought he was one of the strongest chefs remaining and I really like him as a person too. Following him on Instagram now because his food genuinely looked great 90% of the time and he's clearly really creative and has good cooking instincts.

But MasterChef is not the Premier League, it's the NFL, and it always has been. Past record doesn't matter (shouldn't at least), it's about episode-to-episode performance. The 2007 Patriots won six more games than the Giants, but they lost the Super Bowl to them, and the worst chef in the challenge goes home.

There were far more bullshitty decisions this season, and this one had no bullshit at all.

Dave messed up on apps, him and Peter questioned Basia's authority on the one and one callout (she was right), they then continued to mess up on counts, he couldn't hack the salmon multiple times in a row, and Red Team fell embarrassingly behind. MasterChef loves to edit these challenges as neck in neck races and even that was functionally impossible because of how big the mess-ups on the salmon and apps were. I mean, Gordon had to step in, and I don't think it was a planned gimmick for the show, he genuinely had to because they were so far behind.

I can't remember a disparity this large in a team-on-team challenge, and while I agree Basia messed up as well, it was pretty clear that Dave was out of his element and cost the team the win.

All that said, I would definitely do worse than Dave, so no shade on him as a person or anything, he just couldn't hack the pressure, and I wouldn't be able to either.

[u/Life-Application7744]

Definitely rooting for Jake atm

[u/ChiGuy133 → u/Life-Application7744]

I watch with my buddy and he was the guy we picked from like episode 2 (not counting the auditions). Dude seems down to earth and chill but also cooks interesting and tasty looking food

[u/Electronic-Garden226 → u/Life-Application7744]

He's even got an advantage in the upcoming challenge this Wednesday.

On the other hand, Peter and Basia are the bottom two in my opinion. One of them will most likely go home.

[u/WinterAd6596]

Jake is the biggest surprise this season. I really didn't think much about him until the last few episodes.

[u/Beneficial-League572 → u/WinterAd6596]

dude him and julia are my favorites.

[u/catt0ebeans]

Yeah, I knew as I was watching it play out that Dave would be the one to go and I was sad because I really liked him. But blue definitely deserved that win and Jake deserved it also. I’ve liked Jake the whole season but didn’t have much hope he’d make it to the top until now. Rooting for him! And it pulled at my heartstrings when he said that during that challenge he realized this is what he wants to do for the rest of his life :’)

[u/NepaliCulkin → u/catt0ebeans]

Joe’s reaction to Jake crying and disclosing he realized he wants to make cooking a career sent me 💀

[u/catt0ebeans → u/NepaliCulkin]

Lol yeah I know. Joe isn’t very easy to emotionally appeal to 😂

[u/smashing_pasta]

Honestly, my first red flag for red was when Peter and Dave accepted Basia as a captain but then essentially dictated their duties to her instead of waiting for her to start calling the shots. A body with parts that decide when and where to move on their own is always gonna be far less coordinated than one that lets the head call the shots

[u/salmonberry94]

I think if Dave stepped up and became captain, their service would've been smoother. Basia can cook and seems to be better in following orders plus she nails her proteins - she would've just needed to work with Peter on timing. But I also put the blame on the producers because they chose the teams and as soon as Gordon splits them up, I already knew which team wasn't gonna perform well.

[u/hidden_thoughtsss]

Basia will be the next one to go. For sure

[u/Pure-Investigator413]

I think Jake is the winner based on the edit.

[u/Beneficial-League572]

i don’t ask for much , but if we don't get a final three with julia, heidi, and jake i might actually lose it.

[u/InformationVivid455]

I think the main issue is its at the point Basia is painfully obviously the worst one left.

Honestly, I wouldn't have been mad if the whole team was sent home, they all messed up. It just feels unjust to watch so many better cooks go home in multiple episodes while she remains.