'MasterChef' Recap: Top 7 Compete In Family-Inspired Challenge; Tag-Team Sushi Challenge Sends Eddie Home

Eddie was eliminated after the Top 7 competed in an emotional mystery box challenge and an intense tag-team sushi challenge on Wednesday’s installment of MasterChef.

The contestants have been separated from their families for months now while participating in the reality show, so the mystery box challenge proved quite successful, with even the most tough contestants tearing up at the sight of their loved ones.

The only contestant without a family member present was poor Krissi, whose son couldn’t make it due to standardized tests!

The judges give the top three dishes to Luca, Jessie and Natasha. Inspired by his wife, Luca whipped up white asparagus risotto topped with halibut. Natasha prepares Thai green curry, shrimp paste, and coconut rice. And, despite her parents’ non-stop chatter and critique, Jessie cooks a duck breast in a red wine reduction.

Luca eventually was crowned the winner, making this his second mystery box success.

As the winner, Luca gets to divide the remaining six contestants into three groups of two for the sushi making tag-team challenge! Each pair has one hour to prepare sushi, switching places so that they are never working simultaneously, but yelling instructions at one another from the sidelines.

Jordan gets paired with James, Natasha with Krissi, and Jessie with Eddie. They are told to make shrimp and vegetable tempura, various nigiri, and an Alaskan king crab roll. Jordan and James serve up raw shrimp, and the judges detest Jessie and Eddie’s sour rice – making Natasha and Krissi the winners. (Luca’s plan of setting up Natasha and Krissi to fail was, obviously, a dud, as judge Joe Bastianich is quick to point out.)

Jessie and Eddie find themselves in the bottom two, and Eddie is sent packing. Oh, how the mighty have fallen: just two weeks ago Bastianich sang Eddie’s praises in his blog for People, calling Eddie “the most significant threat in the MasterChef kitchen.”

MasterChef airs Wednesdays at 8 P.M. on FOX.

— Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Get Uinterview's FREE iPhone App For Daily News Updates here.

Get the FREE Uinterview iPad app here and watch our videos anywhere.

More on MasterChef:

_{'MasterChef' Recap: Bri Eliminated After The Top 8 Goes Camping}

_{Graham Elliot, ‘MasterChef' Judge, Undergoes Weight-Loss Surgery}

_{‘MasterChef’ Recap: Lynn & Savannah Sent Home}