Gerron’s Journey To The Trophy: A Humble Teacher Conquered The Kitchen!
One of us is going to find America’s next Master Chef. That’s right. Let the battle begin. Young man, describe this dish, please. This is a Nashville hot chicken with a green cabbage and a red cabbage slaw made with a vinaigrette and a sweet heat sauce. Love the spice.
It’s got that heat, sweet. And the fire. Thank you, Chef. I just would have loved to see a little bit more finesse on plating it. Yes, Chef. But Yeah, your mom taught you well. She did. Thank you, Chef. Thank you. Do you feel you have to spice to others’ taste or to your own taste? So, for me, Chef, I spice to others’ taste.
Uh but when you eat a Nashville hot piece of chicken, you expect it to be hot, Chef. It’s good. Thank you, Chef. But this dish is good, too. I want someone who really wants I’m hungry. Gerron, you have got my seven apron. Now, put that apron on and let’s see that smile because you’ve got yourself the greatest mentor in the history of Master Chef.
Team Joe. Woo! YEAH! HEY! HEY! YEAH, WE HERE, BOY! WE HERE! I’M ONE OF THE TOP 22 home cooks in America. I’m on cloud nine. I cannot be taken down. Yeah, we here! Something that I tell my students every single day is that if you put your mind to it, you can achieve. I’m really feeling that statement in the Master Chef kitchen tonight.
Let’s get that on that warm water. There we go. There we go. Gerron, how you feeling? Yes, Chef. I’m good, Chef. I’m good. Have you made hollandaise before? I have never made hollandaise sauce. Have you poached eggs before? I have never poached eggs before. Really? Chef, I’m from the hood. We don’t really do the poached eggs in the hood.
How do you do them in the hood? We fry them hard. We fry them hard. Were you watching carefully? I was. Good. Poached eggs means you can multitask. Thank you, Chef. Good luck. All right. So, Gerron, explain to me the dish, please. Today, you have pan-seared redfish with a shrimp and au gratin potato with sugar snap peas and carrots and then a white wine sauce. Error number one.
That’s the intestinal tract where the shrimp actually process everything it eats. I’m not going to eat that cuz that’s disgusting. So, Louisville, Kentucky, do you cook seafood? I don’t use the fresh ingred1ents cuz it’s hard to get in Louisville, Kentucky. You made a huge error by serving a fish skin side down.
You have this flabby flaccid skin. But you over-peppered them as well. No bueno. It is a Salisbury steak stuffed with bacon and white cheddar, uh pan-seared green bean in bacon fat, and then also added a layer of fried onions on top. It’s delicious. Thank you, Chef. I love the cheese and the bacon elements and the pâté is just so soft and delicious and rich.
You just want to dive back in there for more. Amazing. Thank you, Chef. Who do you think is going to shine tonight? I’m looking at Gerron and Ryan. They both have a love for Southern flavors. Sure. So, I’m looking for them to be very successful. That’s polenta or simply corn, right? Corn just Yeah, yeah, yeah, just corn.
Okay. But it’s going to add kind of a more crunchy texture. Hey, Ryan. I see that flambé action, baby. that. I like that. Ryan, Gerron, what’s going on? What’s up, Chef? All right. So, talk to me about your dish. We two Southern boys. We got some good fried chicken going on. We got some cabbage.
We got some bacon and onion jam with some bourbon in there. All right. Good luck, gentlemen, okay? Thank you, Chef. Thank you, Chef. Ooh, baby! The chicken’s good. It’s ready to go. Ryan and Gerron. I’ve made fried chicken numerous of times. I grew up 5 years old in the kitchen making fried chicken with my mom.
And so, I’m really feeling confident about this dish. Gentlemen, describe the dish, please. What we have is cornmeal-crusted fried chicken with dual-colored cabbage and also a bourbon, bacon, and onion jam on the side. This is crunchy as anything. It sounds like I’m eating a bag of freaking chips. Please don’t tell me that you dredged this chicken in that whole cornmeal.
That’s what I did, Chef. You can’t take cornmeal, crunchy cornmeal, and then cook it by frying it. You’ve got to grind this first. I’ve never known that, Chef. This is crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. However, it’s seasoned on point. But that is not your best effort. Period. I’m not feeling too great.
It’s all good, bro. It’s not the review that I wanted, but I should have done something about that cornmeal and broken it down. Hey, shoulda, coulda, woulda. Gerron, wearing Joe’s apron. What’s up, Chef? Let’s check in there. So, I have a banana walnut cupcake with vanilla bourbon icing from Kentucky, and it’s the bourbon state.
Oh, dear. Looks like the old cupcakes have had too much to drink and sunken into bed. They don’t look great, do they? No, they don’t. Height is not there. Did you weigh out the ingred1ents properly? I mean, honestly, uh when I poured in some walnuts, I didn’t really weigh those out. So, you can see through there. Insufficient aeration.
Looks like the inside of a brownie. Bourbon’s delicious. But if we don’t start off with a perfect batter, we’re screwed. I’m sorry, Gerron, but that’s been one of your weakest performances. Damn it. First up, Gerron. Since day one, I’ve been working on my plating and I’m feeling pretty confident about what I have here.
But the Master Chef kitchen is always full of surprises. You can be knocked down really quick. So, how would you describe the dish? It is a jerk chicken infused with bl00d orange zest and then also a coconut cauliflower puree with crispy bacon and Brussels. You put coconut in cauliflower. Yeah, I actually boiled it in coconut milk.
I lived in Trinidad for a month on study abroad and I ate a lot of jerk chicken there and just experienced a lot of island flavors. And so, that was just my inspiration tonight. Well, I’m happy that you spent time in Trinidad and understand those flavors. You chose to serve the breast. You were able to inject a lot of flavor in that marinade and the jerk in a very short period of time.
I love the velvet nature and the creativity of coconut and cauliflower. What would I’ve done different? Herbs. This needs some freshness. But look, man, this is really showing that you’re growing as a cook. Gerron, very impressive. Thank you, Chef. There were two outstanding dishes tonight. And it just so happens that one was savory and one was sweet.
Gerron and Ashley. Thank you. Great job, young lad1es. Thank you. Amazing. Hello, top nine. Good evening. Top nine, baby. This is one heck of a milestone. Come down here and stand behind a box at random. Yes. Being an English teacher, my full dream is to open up a culinary program at my school.
If I am this much closer to making it happen. So, I got to keep pushing until I get that Master Chef trophy, baby. Show everyone that you guys are contenders, okay? Okay. We won’t let you down. Gerron, nice to be up here, huh? It’s very nice to be up here. I can’t believe it. All right. What’s the dish? Tell me. So, what this is is a peach bread pudding.
I dunked the bread in condensed milk and spices. With the pecans, I just cand1ed them. Then I finished it off with a bourbon glaze. This is beautiful plating. Who gave you the idea of using a cast iron pan? My grandmother taught me dessert. This is something that she makes for every single holiday. And so, I knew it was the perfect thing to put it in to get that perfect texture.
This is so good. And it’s like rich and has good acidity and the peaches are properly cooked. Thank you, Joe. I taste home in this dish. I can taste your grandmother’s kitchen. Thank you. No, thank you for bringing a piece of who you are. Coming out as a real contender. It’s an amazing job. Thank you. Wow.
Future hubby, I miss you beyond words. I especially miss your cooking. I know your mom is in heaven smiling from ear to ear because she created an incredible human being. Everything you’re doing is making her proud. I love you, Gerron Hurts. Sincerely, your future wife. So, tonight, Joe, Aaron, and myself want to see you make a dish inspired by the person who placed that letter under your mystery box.
All right. You guys ready? They’re coming. Big smiles. Raspberry vinaigrette. Chicken stock, Captain. Come on. Here we go. Let’s go, guys. Gerron, you have your gorgeous fiancée, Brandi, here. Hi. I told you I’m always going to be here for you, no matter what. Gerron, what is the dish? What I’m making today, it is a homemade potato soup.
I have fresh croutons that I’ve made from scratch. I have a bacon. First dish I made for that woman and that’s why I got that woman. Brandi, what’s it been like being without Gerron? It’s It’s extremely hard. I’m just waiting for him to return and just cook for me. You know, he’s my last mentee. We’ve been shaping him here.
We’ve been molding him. He’s like a block of marble and I’m going to sculpt him. Good luck, Gerron. Thank you, Joe. Gerron. Thank you. My dish is 100% inspired by my family. It is my mom’s recipe and with Brandy up on that balcony cheering me on, I know it is the best dish that I have ever made in this MasterChef kitchen.
Wow, young man. Describe that beautiful looking dish, please. It is a homemade potato soup with herb infused oil, crispy bacon, sour cream, homemade croutons and chives. What’s on top? Bacon pieces, chives and then croutons. Wow, delicious. It’s rich. Great seasoning. The bacon, fragrant, nice and crispy.
You’ve shown it finesse. You’ve nailed it. What would I change? You know, maybe just let it down with a touch of stock so it’s not so thick so you can eat more of it. Okay, chef. But you cook from here and that’s very rare. If you cook like this with that future wife up in the balcony, please come back next week cuz you put that heart and soul in to this man’s cooking. I love you.
I love you, too, babe. Me? I love you, too, chef. I do. I love you, chef. Great job, young man. Thank you. Next up, the young man that got dealt the beef heart, Gerron. I don’t have much experience cooking beef hearts, but growing up I cooked beef livers with my mom all the time and so tonight I put a lot of heart into my dish.
My mom would be so impressed. Describe the dish, please. You have beef heart and onions with a herb and potato mash and sauteed cabbage with stewed tomatoes. Gerron, let’s make something really clear. That looks like that beef all over my plate. I’ve seen the way you have plated so beautifully and I look at that, I think that’s not Gerron.
What happened to the plating? I waited to the last minute just trying to make sure that all of my flavors were going to come together. Trying to make it look nice, but just lost a lot of time toward the end. The actual cook is perfect. So, it tastes way better than it looks. Thank you, chef. Flavor’s there. Cabbage, delicious, but your presentation, we’ve hit rock bottom and that’s what it’s coming down to.
Your flavor profile is a dream for me and to see you go home now based on presentation, I’m not mentioning you, but I would be pissed. Yes, chef. Thank you. Gerron. Hey, chef. Visually, they look beautiful. Good color. Thank you, chef. What type of marinades is in the kebab? Uh so, I tried to get close to like a jerk marinade.
Jerk, mushroom, two peppers and the red onion. The cook on the beef, pink and beautiful and you’ve really charred them. That’s the essence of that grill, that’s what a kebab stands for, right? But the bit that lifts me is that jerk seasoning which traditionally you don’t really get with a kebab. Good job.
Today, I want you to write about a story that you plan to tell your children someday. Being back home has been amazing. To see my kids’ faces for the first time in months, it means the world to me. Something that you’ve experienced, okay? Mr. Hurt, can I interrupt your class? Oh my goodness. How are you? With the finale right around the corner, I’ve been cooking every single day.
What’s going on, guys? I’ve really been pushing myself to focus on plating so that I can bring that MasterChef trophy home. So, I invested one of my eight aprons in him cuz I believe that he had the passion and he had the sk1lls and I think the greatest thing is he is an incredible student. So, I’d love to hear from some of you guys the impact that Mr.
Hurt has had on you and your lives in this classroom. Like when he came, I just thought he was going to be like another teacher, but he actually was connecting with students. Like he actually came to the basketball games. He’ll leave his door open for students to come in during lunch and stuff like that. We don’t really have that many male figures in the school.
We can really relate to Mr. Hurt. His background is similar to mine. Just knowing how far he’s come, I feel like I can achieve the same the same thing. My students, they grow up in these rough neighborhoods and rough communities. Well, guys, thanks for sharing your stories. I know where they come from. I’ve been there and I’ve done that.
And so, if I win the MasterChef title, I’m taking that money back and I’m going to open up a culinary institute to make sure that I give my students a chance so that they can better themselves. You got to win for those kids I met in the classroom. You got a lot riding on this, Gerron. I got you, Joe. It’s game time. My eyes on the prize.
All right, Gerron, I’m counting on you. And I can see that MasterChef trophy sitting in my living room. Finale, I’m coming for you. Okay, Gerron, tell me about your appetizers. What I want to do tonight is to elevate my Nashville hot chicken by doing it with a quail. Quail is much bonier, much smaller.
The meat’s dark, not white. Will it take the spice? Will it take the heat? Does it translate? Are you taking such a big risk with swapping out quail for chicken? Can you make it work? I can definitely make it work and I’ll let you be the judge of that. You have a Nashville hot quail with a fingerling potato salad and poached quail eggs. The dish is beautiful.
It shows your journey. You know, my inspiration for tonight is family. The frying technique is something that my mom taught me, but I wanted to find a way to elevate that to restaurant quality. Gerron, I’m going to take a bite of that quail. It needs to be moist. It needs to be spicy. It needs to be crispy.
If all that happens on my palate, you have a dish that could win. Gerron. I’ve never tasted anything quite like that before. This is kind of like perfection. The quail meat is flavorful. The batter is well seasoned. The spiciness of the Nashville hot sauce is spot on. Perfect. There’s so many different things going on on this dish and they’re all really well done.
My criticism would be perhaps it lacks the cohesiveness of one conceptualized appetizer. I disagree with you, Joe. I think this is exactly what MasterChef is intended to do. To bring out the best in you with us helping you with technique. So, this says so much about your evolution.
I think frying is the lost art in the kitchen and it’s a true art and I think you’ve done that. Fantastic job. Thank you, chef. My mom has been with me every step of the way in the MasterChef kitchen and this dish is a memory of my mom. I’ve taken her favorite dish and elevated it to the highest umpteen. I am doing my mom justice here tonight.
Thank you. Describe your entree, please. You have carabineros prawns with heirloom grits, a shellfish au jus and crispy shallots. Gerron, when you serve that amount of grits in terms of this volume, how do you know you’ve perfected the fat to acidity to the creaminess? I really know the taste of grits and so I always dig a spoon in and just taste it to make sure that, you know, the flavor’s leveled out with the amount of fat that I put in so that you can still taste that corn flavor within the grits.
So, that fork there with the shrimp, the grits, the sauce, the jus is worth a quarter million dollars. I think so, chef. Gerron. I just wish one thing. Young man, I wish your mom was present to taste them. They’re delicious. Chef, don’t scare me like that. It’s creamy, heavy, shrimp cooked beautifully and then the grits.
It’s so nice to see grits elevated to the Premier League of flavors. I love it. Thank you. Shrimp and grits, you took it to another level. The shrimp, spot on. Grits, that creaminess is exceptional. Gerron, how you doing, man? I’m good. So, what does a chess pie mean to you? Why bring it out tonight? My grandma, uh Elizabeth right up there, she showed me how to make a chess pie. Yeah.
Now, how are you taking your sweet granny’s chess pie and elevating it like you’ve done everything else tonight? I’m adding a little bit of amaretto liqueur to give it another element of flavor. Uh-huh. I’m also putting it with a pop sargon. What that is is almost like a a caramel baby popcorn.
And you’re making a vanilla mousse as well. Yes. You got to cannelle that, no? I do and that is a tough technique. Maybe I should have told you, Gerron, make a chocolate souffle, but you decided to go right back, take tradition and try to play with it and have it bring you to victory. If I did anything in this finale that didn’t represent the South, I represent me and who I am, then I wouldn’t be doing myself justice.
Gerron, listen, man. It’s been me and you all the way. Let’s cross the finish line together, brother. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Run! This is it. It’s time to taste the final course. Let’s begin. But you’re on. I’ve strived every round of the finale to make sure that my presentation is on point. And with this coulis splattering everywhere, my plate is a disaster.
I sure hope that my flavors are big and bold enough to see me through. In front of you, you have a amaretto chess pie with a raspberry coulis and popped sorghum. Grandma was watching you live. It was. What was going through your mind? She’s really influenced my life and without her, I wouldn’t be here, you know? I wouldn’t have the baking technique that I have.
I just would not have the passion for food and cooking that I do now. I owe everything to her. Gerron, it is delicious. And it’s got such finesse to put the filling in and still have that crunch. Beautiful. Very beautiful. But, I’m dying to hear what your mentor’s got to say. Great job. Thank you, chef. Good job, brother. Thank you, Joe.
Thank you. So proud. I appreciate it. You know, if in the beginning you came on my journey, now I feel like I’m on your journey. This is wow. I was completely wrong in thinking that you should venture out into doing other cuisines and other techniques that don’t pertain to you.
You stuck to your root, and you know what? You were right and I was wrong. And I don’t say that very often. You have achieved in creating the great American dessert. Thank you. I consider it an honor to mentor you. Thank you, Joe. Now, Gerron started with an appetizer of Nashville hot quail with fingerling potato salad, poached quail eggs with some quick cucumbers and uh some radishes. It was done with finesse.
Plating was beautiful. Yeah, I think Gerron was so masterful with frying that quail. And talk about paying homage to Nashville. I thought he did a great job. For me, there was no better plate than Gerron’s shrimp and grits. It was the most delicious, the most satisfying plate I tasted tonight. The shrimps were sweet and delicious and those grits, they were exceptional.
Absolutely. Then, his dessert, an incredible amaretto chess pie with raspberry coulis and puffed sorghum. It’s just the perfect end to his journey, you know, he kind of stayed true to himself. The corn flavor was consistent throughout. The garnish was impeccable. But I had some issues with the coulis.
It was inconsistent plating throughout. It was messy. So, he needed to really work on refinement and I did not appreciate that considering that this is the finale. But the guy brought everything a MasterChef contestant needs to bring. And tonight, even though I thought he might have needed to go beyond, he brought his family, his story, and cooked with such passion and love every time he got the chance to.
And I couldn’t be prouder of him as his mentor. He was playing at the top of his game. One of you will receive a check for a quarter of a million dollars. And only one of you will win this, the most coveted and most important trophy in the culinary world, the MasterChef trophy. And that person, the winner of MasterChef, is Congratulations.
Gerron! I’m the NEXT MASTERCHEF, BABY. YEAH! I wish my mom was here in the flesh. Everything that I put out on a plate was representation of me, home, my family. And I really feel like I did my mom proud tonight. Lad1es and gentlemen, AMERICA’S MASTERCHEF, GERRON! JOE HAS INVESTED SO MUCH IN me from the very beginning.
He gave me an apron when no other judge saw anything in me. Believe me when I say that I’m honored to be your mentor and your friend. Thank you for giving me a chance at the beginning when no one else saw me. Thank you, Joe. I love you. Here’s a quarter million dollars. How about a hug, big boy? Cheers to Gerron.
Cheers to Cesar. It was just a pleasure and a blessing to be cooking in this finale and have made it this It was a big deal for all of us and I’m so happy for you. And I’m so happy for you. I’m grateful for this experience because it really defined what I need to be doing with my life and what I’m passionate for.
And I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Now that I’m America’s next MasterChef, I’ll finally have the opportunity to go back home and start this culinary program at my school for my students. This is my dream. My dream HAS COME TRUE, BABY. TURN UP! YEAH, BABY! Thank you so much for always believing in me. I’m just swept away.
Thank you so much. I love you. I love you, too. I am America’s next MasterChef, baby!
