MasterChef Canada contestant Dora Cote's beef not well done

It was the unkindest cut of all for the outgoing plumber Dora Cote on MasterChef Canada - going home to Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, after being eliminated on a beef challenge.

Mind you, it was unfamiliar beef cheeks that was her undoing in a challenge that saw contestants using head-to-tail cuts, from brain to tongue to kidneys.

Im certainly not happy about going home on Alberta beef, Cote said in a conference call Tuesday. In fact, Chef Claudio Aprile refused to eat it, saying it looked like vomit.

I informed Cote that Id had beef cheeks at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, and that they, like her, also made it into a stew (and it was tasty, but not pretty).

My biggest mistake is I dont know how to make a stew look fancy, Cote said. Thats half the battle coming in as a home cook. Presentation was my biggest fear. Because Im used to doing it army style at home. Slap down three piles on a plate, if you dont eat it, youre going to bed.

Meanwhile, Cote confirmed a recent tweet by fellow contestant Dale Kuda that both of them had been competing while suffering from viral pneumonia.

If you heard my voice throughout the season so far, I thought it was due just to yelling and screaming. But right before the ACC challenge (where contestants fed the Toronto Maple Leafs), I went to get a coffee and I almost passed out.

So after we were done the ACC challenge they let us go to the doctor and Dale and I both had viral pneumonia. So we were on some pretty insane meds that week. So that made it interesting.

Ironically, the two patients ended up on the chopping block together on Mondays top-10 elimination. Dale had severely undercooked the primest cut a rib steak, and protested when the chefs judged it raw. Though both Cotes cheek-stew and Kudas steak were judged failures, Kuda was kept on because he was deemed to be more talented. Cote admitted this rankled her.

When Claudio called my dish barf, how do you not go home? But when Dale was being such a twerp about justifying his raw steak, I thought, Okay, hes being enough of an ass that Im going to be okay.

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MasterChef Canada contestant Dora Cote's beef not well done