MasterChef Season 5

Host award-winning chef Gordon Ramsay, along with fellow judges restaurateur Joe Bastianich and acclaimed chef Graham Elliot return for Season Five, putting the latest group of contestants through a series of challenging elimination rounds and turning one home cook into a culinary master.

The contestants must prepare a unique dish in the first mystery box challenge -- which features ingredients typically used in desserts; in the next round, the contestants prepare a classic American dish.

The cooks compete to feed 500 male and female troops on a desert Army base; the losing team faces a pressure test featuring blueberry pie.

The contestants tackle a seafood challenge, with the winner choosing what dessert the others will prepare in the elimination round.

The contestants prepare a seafood menu for a beachfront wedding; one team faces a challenge featuring a meal with steak and fries.

A mystery-box challenge has the Top 16 chefs preparing dishes using canned foods. The winner will work with former "MasterChef" champion Luca Manfe and "MasterChef Junior" winner Alexander Weiss to select a specialty dish for the elimination round.

The contestants must put aside their difference as they pair up to create a surf-and-turf dish; the challenge losers face a pressure test featuring spring rolls.

The remaining 14 cooks work in two sets of teams at a busy, iconic diner in Los Angeles; the members of the losing team must make a three-layer red velvet cake during a pressure test.

The cooks must create a dish using Alaskan king salmon; during the elimination round, the cooks create a dish using one judge's favorite ingredients.

The cooks prepare romantic dinners for couples celebrating anniversaries; Ramsay's wife joins him for dinner; the losing team create their own truffle recipes for a box of chocolates.

For the first time, the contestants get to choose between two mystery boxes: one filled with high-end ingredients and one containing ordinary items; the winner of the challenge chooses which type of stuffed pasta the remaining cooks make.

The home cooks split into two teams and create menus of healthy football game concessions for an entire stadium; the cooks on the losing team must create three unique prawn dishes in a pressure test.

The cooks split into teams of two and prepare a poultry dish using different parts of the chicken; two pairs face a pressure test with eggs.

The remaining contestants receive hometown encouragement as they prepare savory apple dishes; while the challenge winner is safe from elimination, the other contestants form teams of two and make a variety of potstickers.

Ramsay works alongside the cooks as they take over a high-end restaurant in Los Angeles; croquembouche pressure test.

Joined by VIP kitchen guests, the cooks prepare dishes inspired by loved ones; the cooks face a challenge involving rare protein dishes.

A final team challenge establishes who will move on to the top three.

The Top 3 contestants create dishes for a panel of judges from all 50 U.S. states. The winner earns an automatic spot in the Top 2, while the other two chefs face a pressure test involving desserts.

In the Season 5 finale, the winner is chosen after the Top 2 compete for the trophy, a book deal and a $250,000 grand prize.