'MasterChef Junior' Season 8: Bad salsa sends Starla home during group challenge

While both the Red Team and the Blue Team struggled, Starla found it impossible to find her stride

UPDATED APR 29, 2022

Starla in 'MasterChef Junior' Season 8 (FOX)

With 'MasterChef Junior' Season 8 down to its top ten chefs, these young chefs are now feeling the heat of the competition, as they are all gunning for a place in the top five. But before that, they have a plethora of challenges to face.

This week, the young chefs walked into another team challenge. Competing in teams of five, they had to cook for monster truck drivers and off-roaders -- 51 drivers and spectators in total. In addition, they also had to come up with their version of a corndog for appetizers.

This time around, the judges picked out the team captains based on their previous performance as sous chefs. The judges picked Abir to be the captain of the Blue Team and Molly as the captain of the Red Team. With Molly winning the coin toss, she got to pick the first member of her team. In the end, the teams were -- on the Red Team were Liya, Sierra, Ava and A'dan. On Blue Team were Grayson, Ivy, Cruz and Starla. While each of the teams was ready to hit the ground running, the judges dropped a bombshell on them, seeing that it was Season 8 of the show, there were bound to be some twists.

First, the judges revealed that the teams' captains would be switched, which meant that Molly was now the captain of the Blue Team and Abir was the captain of the Red Team. Next, the judges noted that each team did have its pros and cons -- while Molly had a capable team, her teammates were the youngest of the lot.

Meanwhile, Abir said that A'dan on his team tended to want to take over, as he previously did. The Blue Team whipped up corndogs with chive aioli for the corn dog appetizers, and the Red Team put together corndogs with a mustard dipping sauce. The Red Team's menu consisted of grilled rib eye with mashed potato and corn salsa for the main course, while the Blue Team served up barbeque glazed veal chop with black-eyed pea relish and Brussel sprouts. While A'dan struggled with taking orders on the Red Team and on the Blue Team, Starla was having a tough time putting together the salsa.

While both the teams dealt with considerable pressure, the Red Team managed to pull through and win the challenge when it came down to it. However, this meant one person would be eliminated from the Blue Team. The judges talked it over and decided that Starla should be the one to leave, seeing that she struggled with the salsa. However, the judges encouraged her to keep cooking and hold on to her dream of having her own food truck and a cookbook.

Catch Season 8 of 'MasterChef Junior' on Thursdays, at 8 pm ET/PT on FOX.