The Top 14 contestants enter the MASTERCHEF kitchen for the very first time and begin on a journey that will change their lives. Judges Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot put the contestants through a series of challenges throughout each episode and at the end of them some contestants are sent home while the rest are left to move on in the competition. During the team challenge, the contestants spend the day feeding hundreds of Marines at Camp Pendleton. The team who wins the challenge is safe from elimination while the losers return to the MASTERCHEF kitchen to face a pressure test.

The home cooks are challenged to make a single cupcake, and while that sounds like a simple task, they quickly learn that it's not that easy. Later, special guest Chef Cat Cora and the contestants step out of the kitchen for the team challenge: cooking for truckers at a truck stop. The losers return to face the pressure test, where they must name as many ingredients they can from a table of fresh farmers-market finds.