And then there were eight

Monkfish, sea urchin and taro root were elements used in Danielle Cardozo’s winning culinary creation

Half of these competitors have ben eliminated, leaving eight cooks in the MasterChef Canada competition. — Photos courtesy CTV

Months after the filming of episode nine of MasterChef Canada, Danielle Cardozo still remembers her feeling of elation at winning the mystery box challenge, and the satisfaction of checking another item off her list of hoped-for accomplishments.

In a tweet sent at around midnight on Monday night, and continued on her facebook page, Cardozo said, “Top 8 !!!!!! Thank you everyone for your continued support! That's one more thing off the MasterChef Canada checklist! Team Captain: Check! Win a Prized Challenge: Check! Mystery Box: Check! I think I've officially proved that I am a contender in the MasterChef Canada Kitchen!! All that's left to do is win this gig!!”

Winning strategy

Cardozo was inspired by the ingredients that the judges included in the mystery box, and chose chanterelles from Michael Bonacini, monkfish from Claudio Aprile and sea urchin and taro from Alvin Leung. The dish she created was judged best of the night, and Cardozo was exempt from elimination in the next round.

In her strategy to try to eliminate a strong competitor, Cardozo chose the Nanaimo bar as the inspiration for desserts to be created by the other eight cooks.

“I knew right away that I was sticking to my B.C. roots with the Nanaimo bar,” Cardozo said, “not because of the B.C. connection, but because I knew it would be easy (for the other cooks) to over-think and forget to respect the three flavors and textures. I have an amazing sister who taught me how to bake, but it's never been without effort. I feel like someone was watching over me, because I probably would have gone home if I had to bake that day.”

Dessert challenge

Cardozo said that if she had been required to join in the elimination challenge, she would have been limited by her baking abilities, and would have made a coconut cream filled vanilla eclair with chocolate ganache coating.

“It sounds fancy but it’s a simple choux pastry with flavoured whipped cream and a simple ganache,” she said.

The dessert-making challenge saw a few of the cooks run into difficulty, with collapsing panna cotta, dry truffles, burnt caramel sauce and “clunky” presentation. The winning dessert, Nanaimo bar pierogies with warm custard sauce, was made by Tammara Behl. The contestant eliminated in this round was Carly Tennant.

Next week, the top eight cooks will be creating and selling their wares from a couple of food trucks. In the meantime, I need to google “choux pastry” and “ganache.”