MasterChef USA

- Season 6

(2015)

Top 40 compete in a head to head challenge, to narrow it down to the top 20.

In order to move to the next round, the home cooks must have an immense passion for food and be determined to out-cook their rivals in a series of head-to-head battles to earn a coveted white apron and compete for a chance to win the MASTERCHEF title, a cookbook deal and the $250,000 grand prize.

After the Battle for the Apron concludes, the Top 20 home cooks in America will face their first Mystery Box Challenge. Each contestant is given 20 staple ingredients that anyone could find in their home and tasked with preparing a dish for the judges -- were the judges to show up at their homes for dinner. The winner of the Mystery Box Challenge will receive a significant advantage in the season's first pressure test, during which contestants must make their versions of an apple pie.

After the apple pie elimination test, the remaining 22 home cooks will face their first team challenge of the season at an amusement park. Once teams are decided, each team will be tasked with creating its version of an amusement park burger and fish and chips dish for thousands of amusement park guests. The winning team will be safe from elimination, while the losing team will have to face the first pressure test of the season, during which the home cooks will make 12 cinnamon rolls. Find out which home cooks will continue to ride in the competition and who will ...

In the next mystery box challenge, the home cooks will have to come out of their shells when they must prepare unique crab dishes for the judges. The home cook who prepares the best crab dish will receive a significant advantage before the next elimination challenge. Then the remaining home cooks will create their versions of sweet or savory dishes, using the same surprise ingredient of corn.

In the second field challenge of the season, the home cooks will take a surprise trip to Las Vegas, where they will be split into two teams to take over Drai's Nightclub and feed 101 Las Vegas performers. The team who receives the most winning votes from the Las Vegas performer diners will be safe from the next pressure test, while the losing team will be dealt with a deuce steak contest at Gordon Ramsay's Steak. In the pressure test, the home cooks will face two steak challenges testing temperature and taste, and one contestant will be sent home for good.

In the next challenge, it's proven that Breakfast is indeed the most important meal of the day when the home cooks are each tasked to create an elevated breakfast dish in 45 minutes. Not only will the winner have immunity in the next mystery box challenge, but they will also receive two additional advantages. Later, in the mystery box challenge, contestants must create TV dinners. Find out who will go home and who will bring it home.

In the next team challenge, the remaining home cooks will celebrate a MASTERCHEF milestone, the 100th episode! Each team will prepare a two-course menu for the 100th episode celebration, during which VIP guests will dine on oyster and caviar appetizers and a duck breast entree, followed by a special surprise dish by judge Christina Tosi. The losing team will face the next pressure test, in which contestants must create a three-layer birthday cake in the special.

In the next challenge, the remaining home cooks will learn from the best as they enter a special taste-it-and-make-it challenge. Each contestant must recreate Gordon Ramsay's signature Beef Wellington. The home cooks with the worst dishes will compete in the next pressure test, featuring another Gordon Ramsay dish - scallops with puree of English peas, bacon and quail eggs, finished with shaved truffles. Find out who can keep up with the master and who will be sent home for good.

In the next mystery box challenge, the remaining home cooks will be faced with an assortment of rice. Each contestant must create a rice dish in 60 minutes. The contestant with the winning dish will be featured in Family Circle Magazine and will not have to participate in the next elimination challenge. Then, in the elimination challenge, contestants will be tasked with creating dishes based on dynamic duo ingredients. Find out who will make it into the Top 10 best home cooks in America and who will leave the MASTERCHEF kitchen.

The Top 10 home cooks enter the Wild West when they face their next team challenge and create steak meals for 101 cowboys and ranchers. The team that receives the most winning votes will moo-ve on in the competition, while the remaining home cooks will face the next pressure test. Back in the MASTERCHEF kitchen for the pressure test, the losing team will bake tarts and see who can bake their way to victory.

The Top 10 home cooks will cook family style when they face their next team challenge and create family style meals for VIP diners. After each team prepares their family style meals, they are greeted by the dinner guests, their family members. Each diner will vote for one team's meal and the team with the most votes will be safe from the next pressure test. In the pressure test, the losing team home cooks must create a gnocchi-in-brown-sage-butter-sauce dish.

In the next mystery box challenge, the remaining home cooks must prepare a flambe. The winner of the challenge will not only be safe from the next elimination challenge, but will also determine which Southern dish the contestants must make. The winner also will receive two other significant advantages. Find out whose cooking will go south and who will continue in the competition.

In the next team challenge, the remaining home cooks will split into teams to prepare vegetarian meals for guests of the MASTERCHEF restaurant. Teams will have access to any ingredients that they choose in the MASTERCHEF pantry, as long as the dishes are vegetarian. The winning team will be safe from elimination, while the losing team must cook in the next pressure test and create delicious well-composed meals using various cuts from an animal head. Find out who will move on in the competition and who will leave the kitchen for good.

In the next mystery box challenge, the remaining home cooks must create a dish using coffee as one of the main ingredients. The winner of the challenge will receive a significant advantage in the next pressure test and will be safe from elimination. Then, during the pressure test, contestants will team up in pairs as they replicate an elaborate party platter.

In the next team challenge, the Top Six home cooks will face the wildly popular restaurant takeover. Each team must complete two appetizer and two entree dishes for the dining guests in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant. The winning team will be safe from elimination, while the losing team must face the next pressure test, in which all members of the losing team must prep, cook and plate three different pasta dishes. Find out who can't stand the heat of the restaurant kitchen and who will move on to the Top 5.

In the next mystery box challenge, the Top Five home cooks must create a dish using pear, blue cheese, tomato, portabella mushroom and chocolate. The winner of the challenge receives two advantages: first, he/she will be safe from elimination; then the challenge winner will choose which of four different baskets filled with ingredients - put together on his/her own and with three former MASTERCHEF winners - the remaining contestants must cook with. Find out who will be one step closer to joining the champions and who will be eliminated.

After learning from past champions in last week's episode, the four remaining contestants put that knowledge to use in the next team challenge. Using special ingredients provided by judges Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot, each team must create a unique appetizer and entree - and create them three times!. The winning pair will automatically move into the Top Three, while the losing pair must face the next pressure test, in which they must recreate judge Christina Tosi's world-famous Chocolate Malted Layer Cake. Find out who will be eliminated and who will take the cake...

The home cook with the most number of votes will move on in the competition, while the remaining two home cooks will face the next pressure test, during which they must complete three classic MASTERCHEF dishes. The home cook with the best dishes will move on to the finals.

In the final challenge in the MASTERCHEF kitchen, the Top Two home cooks will have one last chance to prove to the judges that they deserve the MASTERCHEF title by creating a three-course meal. After evaluating the final dishes, the judges will reveal America's next MASTERCHEF, and the deserving home cook will walk away with a MASTERCHEF trophy, a book deal and the $250,000 grand prize. Find out whose culinary dreams will turn into a reality.