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Baby Octopus Rice
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Baby Octopus Rice
BOTTOM DISH, team Americas. ELIMINATED. Maria cooked a Brazilian baby octopus rice from the Bahia coast with bell peppers, onions and garlic, chopping some of the octopus through the rice and reserving whole baby octopus to sit on top as the visual hook. She braised and then pressure cooked the octopus to tenderise it, which overcooked it. The judges liked the rice but found the dish lacked a wow factor and any link between the rice and the seafood. Maria was eliminated and left the competition one place short of the top 10.
Dialogue:
{Maria}: "I'm making octopus rice. It's very popular in Brazil."
{Maria}: "I'm going to chop some of the mini octopus and put it in with the rice. And then I'm gonna save the mini whole octopus to put on top of the rice."
{Maria}: "Yes, absolutely. A lot of people never seen mini octopus before. They see that on a plate, they're gonna think, what? What is this?"
{Maria}: "Well, I'm a food content creator. I create my own videos. If I have an idea in my head, I go and make something, I post it. Sometimes random stuff goes viral. I'm the type of person, I like to make random things."
{Maria}: "It's very rare to see baby octopus in general. I think this is a scrolling stopper on the Internet."
{Maria}: "I am really disappointed right now. I know my plate looks beautiful, but at the same time, I'm concerned about the texture of this octopus."
{Maria}: "I made baby octopus rice. It has bell peppers, onions, garlic, and it's very popular in the Costa Bahia where I'm from. I thought it would be really cute with the little octopus on top of the rice."
{Maria}: "I thought it would be tender, and when I do a regular pan on top of the stove, it doesn't get the texture I want."
{Maria}: "Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I never imagined in a million years being here."
{Maria}: "I'm feeling a little bit sad that I'm going home, but at the same time, I'm just beyond proud of everything I've accomplished here on MasterChef."
{Maria}: "I am so proud to have represented Brazil. I'm cooking to show my culture, my flavors. It means the whole world to me."
{Maria}: "I can walk with my head held high."
JUDGES IN THE KITCHEN
{Tiffany Derry}: "What makes this dish viral?"
{Tiffany Derry}: "So it's mostly just the visuals that make it viral?"
{Tiffany Derry}: "How much experience do you have with viral videos?"
JUDGES AT THE TASTING
{Nick DiGiovanni}: "Well, I'll tell you on a positive note that it looks like a dish that I would want to sit down and have for dinner, but I do fear that it misses that wow factor that you're looking for in something that you want to be visual and viral."
{Gordon Ramsay}: "Why did you put them in the pressure cooker, Maria?"
{Joe Bastianich}: "I think that what's going on here is the rice component has really nothing to do with the rest of the seafood component of the dish, and it just doesn't come together."
{Tiffany Derry}: "I just so wish you would have done more. I know that you made rice. I understand that you braised and pressure cooked the octopus. But even, like, getting some crispy bits on that octopus, finishing it with some type of sauce to beef up the whole dish, it just feels a bit lackluster."
{Gordon Ramsay}: "These octopus on a skewer grilled for 30 seconds each side, would be so much more attractive. Sadly, this octopus, because it's been in the pressure cooker, is so overcooked, but the rice is delicious. There's no two ways about that."
{Nick DiGiovanni}: "It did miss the mark on that viral aspect, but on a different night, in a totally different challenge, I could see it doing very well."
AT THE ELIMINATION
{Tiffany Derry}: "And honestly, I don't feel like Maria did enough work in some 60 minutes."
{Nick DiGiovanni}: "I think it's a very hard dish to defend."
{Joe Bastianich}: "Not much to salvage on that."
{Gordon Ramsay}: "The home cook that will be leaving the MasterChef kitchen tonight, sadly, is Maria."
{Gordon Ramsay}: "Maria, you came into this competition dancing. You lit up the room, and we've loved your spirit and your attitude ever since."
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