u/Beneficial-League572

Let’s say we completely remove the partner/duo concept and treat everyone as an individual chef from the beginning. No teamwork, no partner advantages, no having to adapt to someone else’s mistakes. Basically, if all the contestants competed against each other individually, who do you think from 24 homecooks would come out on top?
if i have to choose i will definitely go to aivan as my pick.

so i know a lot of you didn’t like this season, and honestly, neither did i. there were so many things that pissed me off about global gauntlet, and even though the season ended on a strong note, i still think the format had some serious problems.

first, the regions lasted way too d&mn long. unlike s13 and s14, where the regional format eventually stopped being such a huge part of the competition, this season kept dragging that sh!t out forever. the whole “one person wins and saves their contestants” thing got old as h&ll, especially when someone could survive because their region won while someone from another region who arguably had a better individual performance could end up going home. it made some eliminations feel less about the actual cooking and more about which d&mn region happened to win.

second, four double eliminations was way too much. seriously, four? double eliminations can be exciting when they are used once or twice at the right moment, but this season relied on them way too heavily. it also meant that some genuinely strong contestants like jaime, aishu and shampa got knocked out in formats where they barely had any room to recover. when you keep doing double eliminations, it starts feeling like the show is rushing contestants out instead of actually letting the competition breathe.

third, the tag team challenge was f&cking cringe. the whole collaboration with the forgotten island movie promotion was one of the most awkward things this season did. having gordon constantly push the whole “you need to work together like the characters in the movie” thing felt so d&mn forced. it didn’t feel like a natural masterchef challenge, it felt like a f&cking advertisement shoved into the middle of the competition. and apparently i wasn’t the only one who felt that way because some of you were literally calling out the product placement and laughing at how forced the forgotten island references were.

but honestly, what saved this season for me was jake winning it.

and this is where i’m genuinely f&cking proud as a fan because when i first saw jake, i never expected him to make it this far. he started as an underdog and after being at the bottom in that first challenge, i honestly thought he was going to get eliminated sooner or later. but he just kept f&cking going.

that’s probably what i liked most about jake. he never seemed to completely lose his head when things went wrong. he stayed calm, kept improving and slowly grew on me throughout the competition. and you could actually see his cooking evolve as the season went on. his mexican dishes became more refined, more confident and more professional, even better then Claudia dishes from s6 and he managed to elevate his food without losing the identity behind it.

his performance as captain during the restaurant takeover was probably the moment where i really started thinking, holy sh!t, this guy might actually win this thing. he didn’t completely fluster, he didn’t start screaming at everyone or lose control of the kitchen. he stayed calm, communicated with his teammates, encouraged them and helped get the team across the finish line. and he had other strong team performances throughout the season too, including the soccer themed challenges.

that growth is what makes his win so satisfying to me.

and i know heidi or peter deserve to win too , and i have absolutely no hate toward either of them. there were people who genuinely thought heidi had the strongest finale, while others were rooting for peter. but there were also a lot of people celebrating jake, calling his cooking creative, praising his growth and saying they were happy to see him win. some of you even specifically pointed out how strong his performances became during the later part of the competition. even in the finale, his dishes looked absolutely delicious and he showed the confidence and creativity that he had been building throughout the season. and seeing him go from someone i thought might be an early elimination to actually winning the whole thing was such a satisfying character arc.

i’ve been watching masterchef ever since i was 9 years old, and honestly, jake is easily one of my favorite winners ever in my list . for me, he’s up there with christine ha and luca. not because he had the easiest journey, but because i actually felt like i watched him grow throughout the competition and become a better and more complete cook.

so yeah, season 16 started messy as h&ll, dragged in the middle and had a lot of questionable format decisions, but at least it ended with a strong finale and a winner i was genuinely happy to see take the trophy.

after all the bullsh!t this season threw at us, seeing jake win was honestly one of those moments where i just sat there and thought, finally, they got one f&cking right.

PS : srry for the bad words hhhh.

In S 9, we all know Emily chose to go head-to-head against Shanika and ended up going home. But what if she’d chosen to save herself instead of taking the 1v1? out of the remaining 4 , who wins the challenge, and who ends up getting eliminated based on their performance and their abilities ?
farhan , shanika , gerron or ashley ?

https://preview.redd.it/bqhrlglzy5oh1.png?width=1288&format=png&auto=webp&s=d14ba4969c01495b882b8464d4070f81da49977b

After ep 16 , now that we know our final 3 based on their growth, talent, how they manage their palette, their overall presence throughout the show, and what we’ve seen in their confessionals, who is your favorite to win this season?

For me i hope julia , jake and heidi make it , cause those 3 has an amazing creativity and ideas .