Exclusive! See the Stress-Inducing ‘MasterChef’ Tag Team Challenge Twist That Chef Calls 'Ten Times Harder'

MasterChef: Back to Win continues to challenge this season’s returning competitors and tonight is no exception as it will feature the classic MasterChef time challenge, but with a twist. The episode, entitled “Tag Team” will feature the cooks splitting into teams of two and making not one but three signature dishes from chef Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin star menu.

The remaining 12 chefs will be divided into six teams: Amanda and Willie, Derrick and Michael, Emily and Gabriel, Bowen and Shanika, Brandi and Christian, Fred and Dara, with Michael safe as he won last week’s immunity pin.

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“Season 1 of MasterChef Junior had a very similar tag team challenge where we had to make a Beef Wellington, mashed potatoes, and broccolini,” Dara Yu, the youngest remaining contestant, exclusively tells Parade.com. I thought that my previous experience with that challenge would help me this time around, but it was ten times harder.”

Her partner for the challenge, Fred Chang, said, “When you and your partner are running around, back and forth, just to get components made, it can get overwhelming. Working with Dara, we are quite similar personalities, and ironically, it worked against us here in the sense that we were both stressing each other out when we were trying to calm each other down. It also didn't help that we are really close friends, and we were directly holding each other's lives in this competition, which made the stakes that much higher!

When the clock is turned on and the competition begins, each team is focused on the prize, which is immunity for both cooks and a guaranteed place in the Top 10.

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“Fred is one of my best friends and I was really excited to work with him,” Dara added. “We soon realized that we were both getting very overwhelmed and things kind of spiraled from there. I’m happy that we had to go through it together though. It definitely made our friendship stronger.”

“I am proud of us for getting food on the plate, all things considered, and looking back on it now, Dara and I can laugh about it, just because the trauma of the challenge definitely brought us closer together. I always tell Dara that the tag team challenge was the couple's therapy we didn't really want or need, but it definitely brought us closer as friends, and made me realize just how strong and resilient of a person she is!”

MasterChef: Back to Win airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.

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