‘Next Level Chef’ season 2 episode 12 recap: Who didn’t rise to the occasion in ‘Bake It Until You Make It’? [Live Blog]

Denton Davidson
·8 min read
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Tonight on “Next Level Chef”: The chefs are faced with their toughest challenge yet. For the first time ever, the contestants are tasked with baking a next-level dessert that looks as delicious as it tastes. Some chefs will rise above the rest, while others crumble in the all-new “Bake It ‘til You Make It” episode of “Next Level Chef” airing Thursday, April 27 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Follow our live blog below.

Joined by two elite names in the food world, chefs Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais, Gordon Ramsay and his co-mentors leave no stone unturned, as they’ve scoured the country and hand-picked the best home cooks, social media chefs and professional chefs who will be on each of their teams. The winner will receive a $250,000 prize and a one-year mentorship.

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SEE ‘Next Level Chef’ season 2 power rankings: Top 11 finalists ranked from worst to best

Here is the remaining roster of contestants (or scroll through the gallery above for more info on each chef):

Team Arrington: Nuri Muhammad, Omi Hopper, Pilar Moega

Team Blais: Christopher Spinosa, Mehreen Karim 

Team Ramsay: Michelle Calcgni, Tucker Ricchio 

SEE Everything to know about Gordan Ramsay’s ‘Next Level Chef 2’: Meet the 18 chef-testants competing

8:00 p.m. — Previously on “Next Level Chef”! Contestants were challenged to elevate a dish by frying their entree; a process that proves difficult to many. Gordon announced the top two chefs were Michelle and Mehreen. As the overall best of the night, Michelle won the Time Token advantage. In the cook-off, Nuri and Tucker defeated Tineke Younger, sending the 20-year old social media chef from Frederick, Maryland packing. Let’s find out who comes out on top tonight!

8:05 p.m. — The final seven chefs enter the studio and Gordon informs them they’ll be baking their dish today. They have 60 minutes to bake a dessert, which thrills Mehreen and devastates Pilar. Michelle is not comfortable baking, so she decides to use her Time Token advantage to give herself 10 extra seconds at the platform.

8:10 p.m. — Pilar admits she has feared this challenge would come. Nuri is determined to get himself out of the basement after facing elimination two weeks in a row. For this challenge, Gordon heads to the top level, Nyesha will coach the middle level and Richard will be in the basement. The platform descends and Michelle guns for cheesecake ingredients. Mehreen is excited to see peaches and snags those. On the middle level, Chris is thrilled to see coconut milk and fruit — he’s ready to bake a pastry cream tart. In the basement, Nuri and Tucker get what’s left over. Tucker feels comfortable grabbing ingredients for a chocolate cake. Nuri is no stranger to baking, and looks okay to make a pastry.

8:15 p.m. — Mehreen is making a spicy peaches and cream cake. She looks completely comfortable and says this is her specialty. Michelle admits she’s “kind of winging it” and this is the first time she’s baking something from scratch. Pilar will make a tequila lime chocolate cake. Baking isn’t her forte, and she’s a little nervous after barely making it out of the elimination challenge last week. She has to redeem herself. Omi is making a dessert her boys absolutely love and she’s made them since she was a kid. They resemble doughnuts and Omi plans to bake and fry them. Chris hopes his tart will finally take him from the middle kitchen to the top level for the first time.

8:25 p.m. — Pilar’s dessert is falling apart and Nyesha tries to coach her through it. For the mid-round mayhem, a platform full of fruits and other ingredients to elevate their dishes descends. They’re 30 minutes into the challenge and Nyesha screams at her chefs that anything that needs to be in the oven better go in right now! Upstairs, Gordon looks worried about Michelle. The base of her cheesecake looks too thick. Michelle is the only chef left who hasn’t been in elimination, and she doesn’t want to start today.

8:30 p.m. — Chris begins to panic when his tart shells don’t cool in time. “I’m not going home because of a botched Thai dessert!” he asserts. He’s got the shells in the freezer. He pulls them out and it’s “game time.” He feels good to go and calls it “money in the bank.” Downstairs, Richard tells Tucker not to overdue the sauce. Upstairs, Michelle is having a total disaster. Her cheesecakes haven’t settled and she has yet to begin her sauce. Meanwhile, Omi appears to be sailing through this challenge. Time is winding down, so it’s time to plate each dish. Everyone finishes up and places their dessert on the platform. Michelle barely gets hers finished. It looks like a mess and she’s certain she’ll be heading to elimination.

8:35 p.m. — The judges start by tasting the basement dishes. Nuri’s citrus tart with a tropical fruit marmalade looks “pedestrian” and the tart is “way undercooked.” Tucker’s chocolate cake “visually looks nice,” but Nyesha wants more sauce. A deeper pan would have helped, but Richard thinks it’s “tastier than the dish looked.”

8:37 p.m. — From the middle kitchen, Omi’s fried and baked pastry with wild berry sauce looks “beautiful.” The cook inside the pastry is “spot on” and Richard calls it “superb.” Pilar’s chocolate cake with fresh berries is “just fudgy enough” and not too dense. Chris’ coconut tart is “wafer thin, but cooked beautifully.” That shows great skill.

8:39 p.m. — From the top floor, Mehreen’s cornmeal cake with peaches “looks fantastic” and Nyesha loves the structure. Richard thinks there’s just “a little too much corn.” Michelle’s cheesecake looks like someone stepped on it, but it has all the right components. Nyesha says it’s undercooked.

8:45 p.m. — The judges gather to deliberate. Gordon is thrilled with what Nyesha’s middle-floor chefs pulled off. They agree Michelle’s cheesecake was a total nightmare. They also slam Mehreen’s “dry” cornmeal cake. They aren’t thrilled with Nuri or Tucker either. The judges return and Gordon says the two dishes moving to the top level belong to Chris and Omi. The winner of the Time Token is Omi. Next, he reveals the chefs battling it out for elimination are Michelle, Mehreen and Nuri. That means Tucker and Pilar will be cooking in the middle floor next week. Nuri gets emotional and says, “I feel like I failed,” after being sent to elimination for the third week in a row.

8:55 p.m. — For this elimination challenge the chefs will be making eggs Benedict. Michelle is content with this challenge, saying she doesn’t make this dish often, but she has ordered plenty when she’s hungover. Richard will coach this elimination challenge and the chefs have 30 minutes. Nuri struggles to make a hollandaise sauce, which will destroy his dish if he can’t pull it together. He decides to edit down extra components and focus on what matters. With less than six minutes remaining, Michelle’s hollandaise is practically scrambled. Richard demands she make a new sauce and pulls two extra eggs from Mehreen’s station. Finally, time expires and it’s time for someone to go home.

9:00 p.m. — Gordon and Nyesha will now judge these three dishes. Mehreen’s egg is cooked “beautifully” but the salmon is slightly too crispy. Michelle’s cook on the egg is “delicious,” but the shrimp taste like sand. They’re not properly cleaned. Nuri made a “bold move,” but it didn’t need the bacon. Nyesha says it’s not perfect, but it’s “delicious.” Nyesha eliminates Michelle’s dish. Gordon agrees. That means Michelle will be leaving the competition. Gordon gives her words of encouragement and Michelle says, “This has been a real dream come true for me.”

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