Jeff Philbin, director of marketing for Helicon, during Wednesday night's Mystery Box Challenge. Credit: Greg Gayne / FOX. ©2017 FOX Broadcasting.

Jeff Philbin, director of marketing for Helicon, during Wednesday night’s Mystery Box Challenge. Credit: Greg Gayne / FOX. ©2017 FOX Broadcasting.

I think our guy, MasterChef Season 8 competitor Jeff Philbin, tweeted it best.

"Desserts 2, Jeff 0."


During Wednesday evening's new episode, which I watched alongside a couple of CL colleagues this time around (they've dubbed Chicago nutritionist Cait a Pam Bondi lookalike, and now I'll never look at her the same), Philbin — the local home cook who resides in Tampa's Carrollwood area and hasn't stopped putting on those watch-party fundraisers to support community organizations — found himself competing in another Elimination Test. 

Pam… errr, Cait, who won the Mystery Box battle, was told to hand either a sweet or a savory shopping basket to each of the bottom contestants, so, naturally, she gifted Philbin with the sweet option (we all saw how well his box of cannoli turned out last week). Although the types of dishes they had to prepare varied, the cooks were also tasked with incorporating the same main ingredient: coconut.

Coconut cupcakes, the sweet offering Philbin went with, definitely seemed easier to pull off than cannoli. However, they didn't turn out much better. Judge Gordon Ramsay called the cupcakes, which Philbin decided to bill as "deconstructed," the worst dish that the Helicon marketing director has produced in the competition. The dessert led Philbin to become one of the episode's bottomest-of-the-bottom competitors alongside Texas stay-at-home mom Reba, whose time, the judges ultimately determined, was up.

I don't recall the preview for next week looking too stressful. But, seriously, you never know with this show. Something tells me Philbin, who says he's known for his MasterChef dishes as much as his emotion in the kitchen, will make a comeback for Tampa Bay.

In the meantime, here are some thoughts on his performance from viewers, in the form of tweets.










This article appears in Aug 10-17, 2017.