Best 'MasterChef' Episodes

The Top 7 must make an Asian dish using chopsticks in this mystery box challenge. The winner gains a big advantage. The rest compete in a pasta challenge.

Restaurateur Eva Longoria chooses Mexican ingredients for a mystery box challenge.

The Top 10 cooks compete in a chicken-and-potato team challenge. Find out who gets eliminated.

The kitchen becomes a dining room. Purveyors of local goods—butchers, farmers, beekeepers, herb growers—arrive. Home cooks split into two teams. They use guest ingredients to cook. Purveyors vote. The losing team cooks a classic Italian dessert, the cannoli, for a pressure test. Judges decide who goes home.

A mystery box challenge uses foreign ingredients. Chef Lidia Bastianich judges the pasta dishes.

Two teams of remaining home cooks must serve 100 dishes to hungry airmen. This event celebrates the 100th anniversary of the March Air Reserve Base. The top two winners become team captains for the next Field Challenge. One cook goes home.

The Top 11 get live crawfish. They must cook them to get the most meat. The six weakest cooks compete in an elimination challenge. They make a crawfish dish created by Gordon Ramsay.

The Top 6 get a special treat: family members join them in the MasterChef kitchen. Contestants then cook a dish inspired by their families before an elimination test sends some home.

The top 19 contestants face a mystery box challenge. The contestants face elimination.

Cooks face a skills test. They must prepare racks of lamb with fine artistry. Those who fail face an elimination challenge recreating Gordon Ramsay's signature lamb chop dish. Judges decide who leaves.

Only eight aprons remain for hopeful home cooks. They must pass auditions with under 45 minutes to prepare their signature dish. Judges want more before the Top 20 are chosen.

Cooks pick mystery box ingredients showing who they are. Judges surprise the cooks with a twist. The cooks recreate a dish Graham Elliot served the president.

The Top 8 go to Big Bear Lake to cook fresh fish. Find out which contestants will be eliminated.

Cooks make a dish with their own homemade sausage under one hour.

Three teams compete in a food truck challenge. Losing teams face a pressure test.

Cooks must add sea urchin. The mystery box winner assigns others one of eight different types of fish.Cooks use different types of fish.Twenty home cooks face their first team challenge at an amusement park. Teams make amusement park burgers and fish & chips for guests. The winning team avoids elimination; the losing team makes 12 cinnamon rolls.

The 'Cinnamon Roll-er Coaster' appears in the 'Best MasterChef Episodes' list.

Teams prepare a two-course menu for the 100th episode. VIP guests eat oyster and caviar appetizers and a duck breast, followed by judge Christina Tosi's surprise dish. The losing team faces a pressure test making a three-layer birthday cake.

Remaining home cooks face a mystery box challenge. They must make a rice dish in 60 minutes. The winner gets featured in Family Circle Magazine and skips the next elimination. Next, contestants create dishes using duo ingredients. This finds the Top 10 home cooks in America.

Cooks perform a flambé in a mystery box challenge. The winner avoids elimination and chooses the Southern dish the contestants must make. The winner also gets two other advantages.

Home cooks must create a dish using coffee in the next mystery box challenge. The challenge winner gets a big advantage in the next pressure test and avoids elimination. During the pressure test, contestants pair up to replicate an elaborate party platter.

The Top 6 home cooks face the restaurant takeover. Each team makes two appetizers and two entrees for guests in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant. The winning team avoids elimination; the losing team faces a pressure test making three different pasta dishes. Find who stays and who goes to the Top 5.

Four contestants use Gordon and Graham ingredients for the next team challenge. Each team creates one appetizer and one entrée, making three versions. The losing pair recreates Christina Tosi's Chocolate Malted Layer Cake during a pressure test to round out the Top 3.

Edward Lee, the special culinary guest judge, introduces the contestants to the third Mystery Box challenge. Contestants lift their boxes and find only a $20 bill. They must shop for pantry ingredients under $20 in five minutes. Next, they have 45 minutes to make four entree dishes for the judges. The winner and their dish appear in Family Circle magazine, and they skip the elimination challenge.

Twelve contestants split into two teams prepare, cook, and plate 30 dishes for Sweet 16 birthdays. Each team gets a surprise box containing 16 ingredients and one protein. Teams have 60 minutes to make and present their food; diners vote for favorites. Losing contestants face the Birthday Cake pressure test, baking a three-layer cake in 90 minutes before facing elimination.

Ten contestants spend 60 minutes prepping, cooking, and plating a Nutella breakfast dish. The winner avoids the next elimination challenge and chooses the dish the other contestants prepare: paella, bibimbap, or risotto.

Cooks compete for a spot in the next round.

Cooks compete for a spot in the next round.

Contestants try to impress the judges and advance to the next round.

Remaining contestants try to impress the judges.

Five remaining chefs compete for a spot in the next round.

Four remaining contestants prepare dishes for the judges from around the world.

Hopefuls prepare their signature dishes for the judges.

Contestants compete in a ground beef challenge.

Cooks must create a unique dish using unconventional cuts of meat.

Judges split the cooks into teams to prepare breakfast for hotel guests. The losing team members must prove they deserve to stay in the competition.

Graham Elliot joins the amateur cooks in a mystery box challenge; two contestants leave.

Contestants face a mystery-box challenge involving an unusual ingredient and a limited pantry. Season 3 winner Christine Ha surprises the chefs.

A meal gets prepared for a wedding party.

Nine remaining contestants make sausage link dishes using a sausage maker. The winner chooses the ingredient for the canned versus fresh challenge.

Cooks split into two teams for the mystery box challenge.

Three remaining contestants cook more sophisticated versions of their initial audition dishes.

Contestants prepare a unique dish in the first mystery box challenge, using ingredients usually found in desserts. In the next round, contestants prepare a classic American dish.

Contestants pair up to create a surf-and-turf dish. Challenge losers face a pressure test with spring rolls.

Home cooks split into two teams. They create menus for healthy football game concessions for the whole stadium. The losing team cooks must make three unique prawn dishes during a pressure test.

The cooks split into teams of two. They prepare a poultry dish using Different parts of the chicken.Two pairs face a pressure test with eggs.

A final team challenge decides who advances to the top three.

One chef reaches the finals after impressing judges from all 50 states. A second finalist emerges from a challenge involving three classic American desserts.

The top 22 home cooks in America face their first Mystery Box Challenge. Each contestant gets 20 common ingredients. They prepare a dish for the judges, as if the judges were eating at their homes. The winner of the Mystery Box Challenge gains an edge in the first pressure test, where contestants make their apple pie versions.

The next mystery box challenge has home cooks prepare unique crab dishes for the judges. The home cook who makes the best crab dish gets a big advantage before the next elimination challenge.The remaining home cooks make sweet or savory dishes, using corn as the surprise ingredient.