MasterChef ™

Scott: "My name is Scott McKinnon. I made a mustard fried venison backstrap, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a southern cream gravy."

Judges

"Visually, it's beautifully breaded. It's appetizing. I love the color, but this backstrap is one of the most difficult slices to cook. Did you marinate it?" 

Scott: "I did." 

"Lightly tenderize it?" 

"Yes, sir."

"At the end of the day, this is a deep fried venison, which is either really smart or really stupid. I don't know which one. 

"I love the texture of the actual breading. It's very hard. When you got such a huge slab of venison, it could have done with being seasoned before dredging. That's just a little bit bland on my palate for that. But venison's cooked beautifully. "

"For me, personally, I don't think the venison actually worked in this dish particularly. I'm getting sort of, like, this mealy texture, and I feel like southern cream gravy. Like, usually you're gonna get a lot of that savoriness, and I'm not really getting that so much with this."

"What you have here with that gravy and the cooking of the venison, I think, is a very pleasurable bite."

"This is a difficult thing for me, because this is a very competitive year, and I like the dish, and I like the gravy. There's a lot of things that are good about it, but that lack of salt on the venison, before you bread it kind of takes the wind out of the room. It's like a fatal mess."