Masterchef
The three judges (from left, Gordon Ramsay, Christina Tosi, Graham Elliot) will choose the next contestant to go home in this week's episode, "A Storm's a Brewing." Reuters/Kevork Djansezian

In this week’s episode of “MasterChef,” only seven contestants remain. Titled "A Storm's a Brewing," the top seven home cooks battle it out in a Mystery Box challenge. They are forced to cook with coffee, and the best cook gets a big advantage. Later, they go through the annual “MasterChef” tag team challenge in the elimination round.

The remaining contestants find piping hot cups of coffee in their mystery boxes. The judges tell them that they have a limited pantry filled with a wide variety of coffee as well as several other basic proteins and other ingredients that they can use to create their dishes.

As predicted by Gordon, many of the contestants go for the dessert route. Stephen is the only contestant who decides to cook a savory dish. He produces a chili and espresso crusted fillet.

Meanwhile, Claudia makes a coffee liqueur flan and Tommy makes some white chocolate coffee cream beignets. Hetal’s coffee chocolate cake with mint ganache gets major praise from the judges. Derrick’s caramel latte panna cotta also stands out, but it’s Nick’s vanilla coffee cake with mascarpone cream that comes out on top.

Nick wins the challenge and is exempted from the tag team elimination challenge. He also gains the advantage of choosing the pairs. As expected, he puts together the contestants that he knows would clash in the kitchen.

Stephen and Derrick have been very vocal about their rivalry and they are paired together first. Tommy and Katrina have also butted heads in many previous group challenges, so Nick brings them together. The last pair is formed by Hetal and Claudia.

The teams are then given the task of making a party platter, which contains the following dishes: barbecue chicken wings, burger sliders, crispy tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole plus grilled shrimp skewers.

Nick’s plan to rattle the two top competitors backfires. Derrick decides to step back instead of clashing with Stephen’s strong personality. They produce an amazing platter and show that they have great respect for one another.

Claudia and Hetal are unable to work well together and they produce what judge Christina Tosi calls a funeral platter. The mushrooms are burnt and the shrimp is raw. Luckily for them, Tommy and Katrina did more shouting than cooking.

The pair's breaded chicken is horrible and they also serve raw shrimp. The judges all agree that they could have worked better on their own. In the end, they lose the challenge and Tommy is sent home.

Only six home cooks remain in the running to become America’s next "MasterChef." The series airs every Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT on FOX.