MasterChef takes on Southern Fusion with the help of Tiffany Derry

MASTERCHEF: L-R: Contestant Tommy, Gordon Ramsay, guest chef Tiffany Derry, Aarón Sánchez and Joe Bastianich in the “Back to Win: Southern Fusion with Guest Chef Tiffany Derry” episode airing Wednesday, July 20 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2022 FOX MEDIA LLC. CR: FOX.
MASTERCHEF: L-R: Contestant Tommy, Gordon Ramsay, guest chef Tiffany Derry, Aarón Sánchez and Joe Bastianich in the “Back to Win: Southern Fusion with Guest Chef Tiffany Derry” episode airing Wednesday, July 20 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2022 FOX MEDIA LLC. CR: FOX.

It’s time for a little southern fusion on MasterChef. And that means it is also time for a very special guest judge – Tiffany Derry!

With 16 chefs left in the MasterChef competition, things are getting even hotter in the kitchen, especially with geography in play. So what does this mean? It means that these chefs are going to have take southern cuisine and take it a whole new level by fusing it with an entirely different cuisine from somewhere else in the world.

But first, the cheftestants get to see Chef Tiffany and Chef Gordon cooking together to make their own southern fusion dish. Bring on the southern-fusion fish and chips.

MasterChef welcomes Tiffany Derry for a Southern Fusion challenge

Now it’s time for the chefs to do their own fusion dishes. So what countries do the chefs have to fuse with southern cooking? Well, after pulling flags from the globe, everyone got a different country, with chefs like Shanika pulling Italy and Fred pulling Greece.

And while some of our cheftestants looked ready to take on this challenge with enthusiasm, others seemed to struggle with the countries they pulled. And of course, we can’t wait to see how Bri fuses Vietnamese cuisine with Southern cooking or how Shayne brings the Ethiopian flare to his dish.

With all the dishes needing to bring a sense of harmony to the ingredients, this is the kind of challenge that will definitely rip people out of their cooking comfort zones.

Once Gordon and Tiffany walked the MasterChef kitchen, it was clear that there were a few chefs who were definitely struggling with this challenge. And we get that. It’s hard to make magic happen when you aren’t necessarily familiar with the cuisines you need to fuse together.

But before we talk about the bottom three, the judges had to walk around to see what everyone made. And that meant coming up with a top three. So who made it to the top three according to the judges?

Up first it was Shelly with her Mustard Fried Catfish, a fusion of southern cuisine with Spain. Next, they called up Emily who got Thailand and made a Crispy Skin Chicken Thigh. Finally, they called up Christian who got Jamaica and made a Jerk Fried Chicken.

So which of these three chefs came out on top and earned the safety pin for next week? For this Southern Fusion challenge the winner was Christian!

With a top three, there are bound to be a bottom three as well. So who is in the bottom this time?

The first person called up was Bowen who got Israel and made a Rack of Lamb. Then they called up Shayne who pulled Ethiopia for his country and made a Chicken Fried Steak. Finally, the third chef in the bottom three was Bri who got Vietnam. And her dish was the Grilled Shrimp Summer Roll.

So which of our cheftestants saw their MasterChef dream come to end? Sadly, the chef who was sent home was Shayne.