The competition is heating up, and some chefs are crashing and burning.

Yes, the pun is most definitely intended after the events of MasterChef Season 13 Episode 7.

An attempt at saluting first responders, cooking a delicious meal for 101 firefighters essentially went up in flames and had at least two judges hot in the collar.

And no one wants to deal with angry chefs!

It was a downright hellish hour, and while more than a few home cooks couldn't take the heat, only one had to leave the kitchen. Let's get into it.

Burn, Baby Burn!

The next challenge that the regional contestants got should have been a great one. It allowed them to put together an impressive menu, a tremendous act of service in providing meals for hometown heroes, and winning and getting an edge during the next challenge.

It should have been relatively straightforward, and yet nearly everything fell apart for them.

Jennifer is proving to be quite an impressive threat and a bit of a strategic mastermind of her own. I shouldn't have underestimated the remaining Real Housewives of Masterchef member!

She competed with the advantage of leading, winning the Apple challenge during Masterchef Season 13 Episode 6.

And it meant she got to pick which regional teams would merge, forming Blue and Red teams to compete in this competition.

She thought she was again giving herself and the South the edge by combining the South and Midwest teams. Kudos to her since that was likely the best combination.

And it also gave her a full team of ten people rather than the Blue team, comprising the Northeast and West, only having eight members. And when you have the challenge of feeding a literal hundred people quickly, there is safety and effectiveness in numbers.

Aarón was right about preferring a stacked brigade because there are moments when numbers count.

Joe And Gordon Are FIRED UP!!!

I never want to be on the receiving end of either Joe or Gordon's ire.

It's been a minute since both judges got this irate during a Masterchef Challenge. It's been about as long since they've failed to serve everyone during one of these challenges, which is 12 years.

Joe and Gordon rotated, breathing fire at both teams more than Ryan would've spent rotating the chicken he should've opted to make instead of those thick-ass pork chops. Ahem, I mean thick-cut pork chops.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Masterchef Gordon was gone, and we got Hell's Kitchen Gordon Ramsay right down to the cursing, yelling, that little vein in his forehead protruding, and throwing things in frustration.

It's a good thing we didn't have to call 911 because Ramsay was just shy of committing a murder. Do you see what we did there? Good times, my friends.

Both teams got the full force of Joe's refined, simmering rage and icy glares that could make someone disintegrate to dust in front of him.

And Gordon was completely and utterly on one.

But we were Team Judges because the contestants were doing too much this time.

From the captaincy to the cuisine and the wind sabotaging them, it is a disaster that even the easygoing fictional firefighters of Chicago Fire wouldn't have been able to put up with for long.

Who The Hell Is Brynn?

Did anyone else ask that question when she became the Blue Team's captain?

The only thing worse than me forgetting that Brynn existed was knowing she was repping my home region.

Poor Brynn is a victim of the season's editing because we hadn't seen much of her since Masterchef Season 13 Episode 1, when she created a perfectly fine seabass that had the judges debating whether or not it was worthy of an apron.

Sadly, if Brynn was forgettable then, fell into the background thus far, and failed to show off her leadership skills during this challenge, in addition to mostly remaining in the middle of the pack, it doesn't bode well for her.

Something else that doesn't bode well for her is the inability to listen to anything and overtalk everyone.

She was bossy, yes, but not a leader. Every time she spoke over THE JUDGES who were trying to give her advice, all I could do was cringe.

Maybe it was better when Brynn was in the background.

The Dishes

Here's the thing, when you get a challenge where you have to produce mass amounts of food for a large party, you have to ensure it's feasible.

Both teams overshot things when it came to this.

The Red team decided on a New York strip with chimichurri sauce, glazed carrots, and mashed potato with compound butter.

In itself, it is promising. The idea of giving these firefighters who work up an appetite fighting fires and deserve something hearty was there, with good old-fashion steak and potatoes, but elevated.

The meal itself wouldn't have been bad if not for the disaster with the freaking mashed potatoes.

It was both simple and elevated enough, and once the judges warned them against all that pretentious plating they were doing with the smear of potatoes and strategically arranged carrots, it was good times.

The Blue team, however, royally screwed up with choosing thick-cut pork chops.

The thought process of cooking something hearty was there, but there was zero consideration for the time frame and their ability actually to execute it, and it went down in a burst of flames from that point forward.

When you have thick cuts of pork like that, which leaves no wiggle room for it to be undercooked or underdone, lest we poison people, you need time to cook them.

Most likely, all of those chops at least needed to go in the oven for a bit before hitting that grill. And there's also the fact that you don't want to overcook them and dry out the meat.

Dry pork is like a mouthful of dust, awful!

It's a real pity; everything else on the Blue team's menu was doable and delicious. They opted for Ancho rubbed pork chop with avocado crema citrus slow, black-eyed pea roasted corn salad, and cornbread.

That same dish would've been divine if they opted for chicken instead! Hell, even some pork ribs wouldn't have been this disastrous.

The Notable Flameouts

It's hard even to pick one person who botched this challenge, as there were more than a few standouts across both teams.

One of the most shockingly egregious disasters was the lovable Grant repeatedly f*cking up mashed potatoes from before the firefighters even arrived until they ran out of them altogether.

How is the man from IDAHO f*cking up potatoes, Fanatics? Inquiring minds want to know!

It was probably the most consistent issue that the Red team faced, and if they had lost, he would've been on the chopping block

An honorary mention goes to Charles from the Midwest on the Red Team for avoiding conflict and not assisting in any way when the team was flailing.

He was like a fly on the wall watching Grant's downfall at times with the occasional commentary, but in those moments, it felt like he was the antithesis of a "team player," which sucked.

While Jennifer won, it was by the skin of her teeth, and if she didn't manage to pull this win off, there would be some serious concerns about her leadership ability during high stake situations.

The judges noted that she has a bad habit of trying to be everyone's friend and not calling people to the carpet when they need it.

She wasn't holding people accountable enough or calling the shots when things were falling apart. Although, as a leader, she was at least pulling off "Mom-mode" well and lightyears ahead of Brynn.

Brynn couldn't get the Blue Team under control or triage that situation with Ryan and the pork. It was painful to watch.

At some point, Gordon and Joe seemed to lead her team more than she was because they did not want to look like idiots or let down these hometown heroes.

Gordon and Joe felt seconds away from rolling up their sleeves, pushing people out of the way, and making the food themselves if it meant firefighters wouldn't go hungry. The embarrassment was real.

Up in Flames

However, the biggest screwup of the bunch was Ryan.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen, right?

The worse part about the Pork Fiasco was that Ryan suspected pork would be too tricky to cook and cause them problems, and he instantly regretted the menu choice seconds after it was decided.

Even though he was the Blue Team's resident grill master (as an aside, was it odd that Kendal wasn't operating the grill on the other team?), Ryan was so far out of his depth trying to grill something so challenging for that many people at once.

I've never seen so much raw pork in my life!

His fire wasn't right, the wind wasn't his friend, the meat was too thick, his time to get them out needed to be longer, and the meat was either too raw or too dry.

Probing the hell out of the meat didn't help with any of these situations, and most of his team just left him hanging, although James was doing as best as he could to no real avail.

It genuinely sucks that a self-professed grill master went out on a challenge involving him manning it. You hate to see it!

It was an intense installment all around!

Over to you, Masterchef Fanatics!

What did you think of this challenge? Do you believe the right person went home? Sound off below!

For more food-related content, recipes, and news, check out our sister site Food Fanatic!

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.