MasterChef Canada (season 5)

Mystery Box 1: The first Mystery Box featured coffee as the main ingredient. Half of the home cooks were tasked with making a savoury dish while the other half had to make a sweet dish. Kaegan, Beccy and Michael G. made the three best dishes, and Kaegan won the challenge.

Team Challenge 1: The home cooks faced their first off-site team challenge, in which they were tasked with preparing a hearty meal for 101 Habitat for Humanity volunteers, who were building homes at a construction site. Split into two teams, they were given only two hours to create a family-style meal using various cuts of chicken, with hungry volunteers deciding their favorite meal by casting votes. As the winner of the last challenge, Jonathan was given the option of picking either the protein or his team first - he chose to pick a team member first. Michael V. chose the dark meat, leaving the white meat to Jonathan, who chose Eugene, Marissa, Andy and Jen, forming the Red Team, while Michael V. chose Michael G., Nadia, Reem and Kaegan, forming the Blue Team. As the last home cook standing, Beccy chose to join the Red team. The Red Team won the challenge; Kaegan's abrasiveness and poor communication were cited as reasons for the Blue Team's defeat.

Mystery Box 2: The home cooks found a large delivery cardboard box from Chefs Plate, Canada's #1 meal kit service, which contained a large variety of ingredients, including sauce, syrup, fruits, dairy products, meat and vegetables. The cooks were tasked with designing a home-inspired dish that could be made in just 30 minutes, with the winner of the mystery box receiving three big advantages. Michael V., Nadia, and Michael G. made the three best dishes, and Michael G. won.

Team Challenge 2: The home cooks' second team challenge took place along Toronto's lakeside off leash dog park at the dog-friendly Cherry Beach. They were given two hours to make donuts for dog owners who frequented the park, and the team with the most sales won the challenge. Eugene chose Michael V. and Nadia, forming Red team, Andy chose Michael G. and Jen forming the Blue team, and Marissa chose Beccy and Jonathan forming the Green team. The Green team won the challenge.

Pressure Test 2: The two losing teams faced the pressure test, but not all six home cooks participated. The Green team was given the advantage of decide which home cooks would be saved. After discussion, they decided to save Andy from the Blue team and Nadia from the Red team. This left Michael G., Eugene, Jen and Michael V. to face the pressure test, in which they had to replicate a Russian salmon coulibiac. Jen made the best dish and was the first to be sent to safety. Despite his initial best efforts, Michael G. made coulibiac that had large gaps between his slightly undercooked puff pastry crust and his slightly overcooked salmon, but did well enough to be saved, leaving Eugene and Michael V. in the bottom, since they both forgot to season their salmon as they were layering, and their pastry crusts were very thick and hard. The judges decide that Michael V.'s coulibiac has more problems than Eugene's, and the former was eliminated as a result.

Gauntlet Pressure Test 1: Like the seventh episode of the previous season, the top 8 home cooks faced three grueling and daunting pressure tests, each featuring a French classic and progressively more difficult than the previous, revealing the home cooks' skills, strengths, and weaknesses, and one home cook was sent home at the end. The home cooks had to battle for survival to progress to the next stage of the competition. The first pressure test required them to make a classic French omelets by frying stiffly beaten egg whites and butter on a pan in just four minutes. While Jen's, Nadia's, Jonathan, and Marissa's omelets were complete messes, Eugene's and Beccy's omelettes were the best with Eugene's omelette deemed picture perfect, and both advanced safely into the Top 7. They also became team captains in their next team challenge. Additionally, Andy and Michael G. have also made intact omelettes perfectly cooked and decent enough to safely advance to the Top 7.

Gauntlet Pressure Test 2: Jen, Jonathan, Marissa and Nadia faced the second pressure test, in which they had to make a butter-basted steak cooked medium rare, with just 15 minutes (2 minutes to heat up the pan, 8 minutes to sear the steak and baste it with butter, and 5 minutes to rest it). Nadia and Jen emerged as the winners and were saved.

Gauntlet Pressure Test 3: Marissa and Jonathan went head-to-head for survival in the final pressure test, in which they had 30 minutes to make a stunning crème caramel finished with a caramel sugar dome. Marissa made the best dish and was saved, while Jonathan proceeds methodically but fell dangerously behind, leaving everything under the wire, compounded when he oiled the inside of his ramekin and filled it with sugar syrup instead of the outside, which made it difficult for him to remove the sugar syrup dome. Finally, he made a costly mistake when he flipped his pudding out from the ramekin, causing his pudding to collapse into a messy sauce, resulting in his elimination to the shock of the other home cooks.

MasterChef Canada Redemption - Part 2 of 3: Made available online shortly after this episode was broadcast, Kaegan and Jonathan faced off in the final round of Redemption. They were both tasked with making a dish based on choices, the first of these being made by Jonathan for ranking higher than Kaegan. First, Jonathan selected the duck breasts, leaving Kaegan with the wild boar chops. Kaegan then selected the red potatoes, leaving Jonathan with the sweet potatoes. Jonathan then selected the broccolini, leaving Kaegan with the Brussels sprouts. Finally, Kaegan selected the Granny Smith apples, leaving Jonathan with the sweet oranges. The two home cooks began cooking with their ingredients. Ten minutes into the challenge, Claudio revealed that he was looking for someone who was inventive, resourceful, and flexible. Therefore, as a twist the two cooks were asked to switch places in the middle of the cook.

Team Challenge 3: The Top 7 home cooks gathered for a Team Challenge in Kleinburg, Ont., at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, home to the iconic Group of Seven. They were tasked with creating a three-course tasting menu inspired by the G7 art themes (land, sea and sky) for seven esteemed recipients of the Order of Canada. Eugene chose Andy and Michael G., forming the Red team, while Beccy chose Marissa and Jen, forming the Blue team. Nadia originally wanted to join the Blue team, but was ordered to join the Red team by Claudio, who then announced the winner of the MasterChef Canada: Redemption challenge. To the home cooks' surprise, Kaegan returned as the last member of the Blue team after emerging as the MasterChef Canada: Redemption winner after beating Michael V. and Jonathan. In the end, the Red Team was declared the winner for their creative menu. As their advantage, the Red Team (Andy, Michael G., Eugene and Nadia) safely advanced to the Top 7 once again, this time safe from the pressure test.

Mystery Box 3: The voice cast of Corner Gas Animated (Brent Butt, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Lorne Cardinal and Nancy Robertson) made a surprise appearance during the mystery box challenge to inspire the home cooks with some comic relief. The theme of the challenge was elevated diner food. Nadia, Beccy, and Andy made the three best dishes, and Andy won.

Team Challenge 4: The Top 6 home cooks face a super-charged Restaurant Takeover team challenge at Claudio's Toronto restaurant, Copetin. The teams had to prepare and serve two technically demanding appetizers: octopus a la planche and beef tartare, and two entrées: sea bream and lamb, to a restaurant filled with discerning dinner guests. As the winners of the last challenge, Michael G. and Kaegan were team captains; Michael G. chose Andy and Nadia, forming the Red Team, while Kaegan chose Eugene and was left with Beccy, forming the Blue Team. While the Red Team performed smoothly and effectively throughout service, the Blue Team fell dangerously behind service as Kaegan was overcome with stress. He eventually relinquished his role to Beccy, allowing the Blue Team to catch up. The Red Team was declared the winner.

Mystery Box 4: As the competition tightened, the Top 5 were presented with coolers containing the same ingredients they used to make their audition dishes and were required to make a new dish that used those ingredients in a different way to showcase how much they grew during the competition. Furthermore, the judges surprised the home cooks by bringing in their family members for a surprise guest visit, who also worked alongside them. The winner of the challenge received a big advantage in the next challenge. Andy, Beccy and Michael made the three best dishes, and Beccy won.

Individual challenge: In the semi-finals, the final 3 home cooks faced their first pop-up restaurant challenge in the MasterChef kitchen with 30 of Canada's top food bloggers and influencers in attendance. They were tasked with making an entrée that reflected one of three different restaurants with unique cuisines that were set up for each of them, and the winner of the challenge directly advanced to the finale. While each home cook's entrée had pros and cons, the judges decided that Beccy, whose elegantly plated dish was perfectly cooked (albeit a tad under-seasoned) did slightly better than Michael G. and Andy, and she earned the first spot in the finale.