I got a little behind on my Masterchef Junior episodes, and before I recap the finale, here is a recap of episode six:

Everyone is excited about being in the top four. Abby says that they have to be careful, because even the tiniest mistake could send you home. Adaiah wants a girl to win, because a boy won last year.

Joe says that if they excel at the challenges that are thrown at them, any one of the kids has a chance to be the biggest fish in the culinary pond. Naturally, this is a segue into what the kids will be working with: fish. They all head back to the pantry and each grab a fish, which happens to be a very large Alaskan salmon. The kids are sweet, and Samuel offers to help Abby with her fish, which is pretty big for an eight year old. He helps her put it at her station. She sighs with relief.

Gordon quickly demonstrates how to filet a salmon effectively, and how many filets they should be expecting to get when they are done. He buzzes through it quickly and warns them to pay attention because he’s only going to show them how to do it once. All of the kids look a little wide-eyed and intimidated.

For their next challenge, they have 30 minutes to filet their salmon like Gordon showed them. Whoever has the most filets at the end of the challenge has a big advantage in the next round and possibly a spot in the finale.

Already you can see that Abby is at a disadvantage because she might not be strong enough. She seems to be having problems cutting her fish. Samuel seems to be doing fine. Adaiah as well. It looks like Logan didn’t cut his salmon close enough to the bone and it looks like there was a lot of fish wasted.

Adaiah wins the challenge as her filets are perfect. Already it is clear that Adaiah and Samuel did the best, while Abby and Logan struggled in this challenge. Maybe age really does matter?

In the next challenge, each of them have 45 minutes to cook a filet using the ingredients that is given to them, but there is a catch: they don’t know what those ingredients will be. In the pantry, there are four refrigerators. One with 100 ingredients, one with 50, 25 and five. Adaiah’s advantage is that she gets to choose who has what ingredients.

Surprisingly, she gives the 100 ingredients to Abby and takes the 50 for herself. The 25 she gives to Samuel because she knows he likes to cook with upscale ingredients and there isn’t that much to choose from in that refrigerator. Poor Logan gets stuck with the five ingredients.

The judges comment that they really don’t need a lot of ingredients to make a fantastic dish. Abby, surprisingly, says the same exact thing when she mentions that she doesn’t need 100 ingredients. She can’t seem to figure out what she needs for her dish, and keeps running back into the pantry.

Logan is first to present his dish which is an olive oil poached salmon with potato rosette and broccoli rabe. Gordon says that poaching the salmon was a very bold move and not something that you see very often at their level, but he is impressed because the salmon is cooked perfectly. His broccoli rabe is not really cooked, though.

Abby is next and admits that having the 100 ingredients was actually hard for her. She made a mango and orange glazed salmon with carrot puree. Abby’s salmon is a little dry, but Gordan says that the carrot puree tastes delicious. Gordon tells her that it wasn’t her best salmon dish. But they offer a lot of encouragement too, and Joe says that if she turns out as great of a chef as she is a young lady, then she is going to make some amazing dishes. How sweet!

Samuel made pan-seared salmon with tomato confit and cilantro shallot gremolata. Graham says that he has some great flavors but that the flesh of the salmon is slightly over-cooked. Gordon says that it tastes fantastic but the filet is too small.

Adaiah makes Asian-style salmon with garlic broccoli and green bean stir-fry. Joe says that the salmon is cooked perfectly, but that she burnt the garlic on the broccoli. But when it comes down to it, it is the little details that make all the difference, and Adaiah and Abby are sent home.

This leaves two boys in the finale: Logan and Samuel. Not who I thought would be the top two in the finale, but we will see how it goes. It is difficult to see the two girls sent home; especially Abby who cries. Samuel says that he is happy he is in the finale, but he doesn’t like to see the friends that he has made go home. The judges remind them that this is just the beginning and they will accomplish so much more in the years to come.

Especially Abby, who is so sweet and so talented. She even makes Joe cry. She also gets a kiss on the cheek from Gordon Ramsay. Now, how many Masterchef junior’s can claim that? I think it was a difficult goodbye for everyone, but they managed to get through it with some watery smiles.

I wanted to see a girl in the finale as well, but it looks like a tough competition in the next episode when Logan and Samuel go head to head and we see who will be the next Masterchef junior!