MasterChef Season 7: Nick Nappi's Wedding Challenge ⋆ Somewhere Luxurious

Nick Nappi a contestant from Season Six of MasterChef was the guest on MasterChef, Season 7. The episode that aired at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 on Fox. Nappi is a MasterChef success story, because he realized his dream of becoming an executive chef. He’s now the executive chef at Bar One in San Diego.

A photo posted by Bar One _ Drinks And Links (@bar_one_sd) on May 6, 2016 at 2:50pm PDT

For their first team challenge the home cooks had to prepare food for Nick’s wedding to Janelle Gomez. The home cooks were asked to prepare an appetizer with scallops and a main dish with a rack of lamb. Nathan Barnhouse, a 20-year-old tuxedo salesman, from Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and Terry Mueler, 26, a handyman from Long Island were the team captains.

The home cooks traveled to Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Santa Susana, CA for their challenge. The MasterChef cooks were able to choose their own teams for this challenge, so after Gordon Ramsey told them to move to their team, only five people elected to be on Nathan’s team and 12 people were on Terry’s team. Terry had to eject some people from his team, and send them to Nathan’s team. So, D’Andre Balaoing, Alejandro Toro and Shaun O’Neale were sent to Nathan’s team, the Blue Team.

Hummingbird Nest Ranch

MASTERCHEF SEASON 7: Bride and Groom Janelle and Nick complete their weddign vows in the all-new “A MasterChef Wedding” episode of MASTERCHEF airing Wednesday, June 22 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Cr: Greg Gayne / FOX. © 2016 FOX Broadcasting Co.

The Blue Team, led by Nathan, to cater Nick Nappi’s wedding included: Alejandro Toro, Brittany Craig, Barbara Savage, Andrea Galan, Dan Paustian, D’Andre Balaoing, Shaun O’Neale, and Katie Dixon.

The Red Team, led by Terry included: Diamond, Brandi, Eric, Diana, Manny, Lisa-Ann, Tanorria Askew

The teams had only two hours to cater the wedding. The red team decided to make pan seared scallops with asparagus and lemon beurre blanc, followed by a roasted lamb entrée with polenta and a tomato gastrique.

Nathan had trouble handling the leadership role from the start. He tried to dictate what should be done, and his team member, Shaun, a 33-year-old DJ with a Type-A personality, complained about how he spoke to them. Nathan dictated that his team would prepare pan roasted scallops, charred romanesco and a blood red orange vinaigrette, a pan seared lamb entrée, mushroom pea orzo and a pistachio gremolata.

Things started off rocky for the blue team. Chef Ramsay chastised at the blue team for cooking the scallops too early. Shaun felt that he had to take over the team. So, there was a power struggle between the two of them.

On the red team, the burners to cook the food were constantly going out because of the high wind in the area. The home cooks were preparing their food outdoors, for this outdoors wedding. Next, a taste of the vinaigrette revealed that it was terrible and Barbara was responsible for it.

On the red team’s side, the cooks were able to serve their appetizers despite the wind. Nathan’s team, the blue team, got so behind schedule, and the lamb was undercooked. Manny had trouble getting the heat consistent for the lamb, but luckily, he bounced back. The happy couple, Nick and Jenelle felt that the red team did better on the appetizer, while the blue team performed better on the main.

Nathan started to excel in leading his team and everything was running smoothly. It looked like he had regained their respect. In the end, the red team, led by Terry, won the challenge, and the blue team was up for elimination.

Alejandro, Katie, Shaun and Nathan were excused from elimination. MasterChef judges, Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi felt that he did all that he could do under the circumstances.

The rest of the blue group was saved except for Barbara and D’Andre. Christina and Gordon felt that D’Andre should be allowed to stay, because although he made some mistakes, he didn’t stop working. Barbara was told that although she is a talented cook, she was not ready to be the next MasterChef. Barbara was sent home.

Photo credit: Bride and Groom Janelle and Nick in the all-new “A MasterChef Wedding” episode of MASTERCHEF airing Wednesday, June 22 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Cr: Greg Gayne / FOX. © 2016 FOX Broadcasting

Eliminated

A criminal investigator from Denver, Barbara Savage has been holding cooking classes in California. She was eliminated during the June 22, 2016 episode of MasterChef.