'MasterChef' Sneak Peek: Contestant Cutter Gets in the Judges' Faces

'MasterChef' Sneak Peek: Contestant Cutter Gets in the Judges' Faces

The reality show cameras can be cruel, as amateur cook Cutter Brewer has been finding for the past couple of weeks. MasterChef pits talented home cooks against one another in high-pressure challenges, then adds the critical eyes of three world-class chefs to raise the stakes. Last week, Cutter's teammate, Dan Wu, let him down, leaving him frustrated and angry. This week, he takes that frustration out on the wrong person.

Watch the results of Cutter and Dan's disastrous dish from last week:

We talked with both Cutter and Chef Graham Elliot about the red velvet cake challenge. In the exclusive clip above, Chef Gordon Ramsay gently needles him for his decoration — hastily made flag and cake crumbles, whichRamsay said look "like a hairy back" — before actually laying into him for having too much frosting. In response, Cutter then starts to start interrupting Chef Elliot during his critique, and then proceeds to talk back to Joe Bastianich in a way that draws gasps from the balcony above and amazed headshaking from the other judges.

[Photos: Meet the 'MasterChef' Season 5 Contestants]

"Cutter is just one of those guys that gets in front of himself and doesn't take two seconds to catch his breath and just think through things," said Elliot of the altercation. Of course, the contestants are welcome to take or leave the advice the judges give, but, he says, "I think everything just comes down to respect."

And, "Joe is the last person I would ever want to get into any kind of argument with," Elliot told us.

"It's hard when you're sitting there getting hammered every week, and I just felt like I should defend myself," said Cutter. "I felt like I was trying to explain it to Chef Elliot, and I got nervous and started talking. And then, obviously, me and Joe at this stage in the competition aren't getting along very well. He's from New York. I'm from Texas. Our attitudes clash, and our personalities clash.

"It was not my intention to argue or disrespect him in any way. It's just the fact of you're there, and I'm on the verge of going home," Cutter said. "I've been on the bottom, and I'm fighting for my life. So of course I'm going to do whatever I can and say whatever I can to stay. Because I know that I deserve to be there."

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People handle the pressure of the MasterChef kitchen in a variety of ways: Some cry, some shut down, and Cutter, who is a Navy veteran — but, more importantly, a Texan — can get combative. "I don't mean to come off — if that's the way the audience is taking it — as being arrogant or brash. I think it's just, in the words of George Bush: 'Everybody else calls it swagger; in Texas, we call it walking.'"

But even that's not the whole story. The show began with 22 contestants and, even now, when there are only 14, that's still a lot of faces to cram into an hour. "TV doesn't show all my dishes," said Cutter. "They only show the bad ones that I've done!"

Add in the direct connection fans now have through social media such as Twitter, and things can get weird. "It's been interesting having the people that love you on one side and the people that hate you on the other. [The ones who] want you to go home, think you should go home and tell you that you don't know how to cook and 'Why are you there?' — that's the hardest part to get over."

Chef Elliot is a bit more comfortable with the social networking; he live tweets every episode (@grahamelliot) and, seeing the fan reactions, also wishes they could see a bit more than what an episode allows. "We spend so much time with [the contestants] and that's never shown," he said. Elliot takes the cooks on an hourlong tour of the pantry; Chef Ramsay shows them how to butcher; and on nonshooting days, they're in cooking classes. "People have really expressed that they'd love to see that stuff, so maybe in the future we'll have some b-roll or something on the website that people can watch."

[Related: From 'MasterChef' to Biggest Loser: Graham Elliot Drops 150 Pounds]

Of the three judges, only Chef Elliot has had direct experience with the pressure of cooking on a show like this. He's appeared on Iron Chef America and two seasons of Top Chef Masters, which could explain why he's the most sympathetic of the trio. "I know how hardcore it is when you look behind your shoulder and the clock's, like, two minutes left, and you're like, 'Oh, my God, I need to get something on the plate!'"

So what advice would Elliot have for Cutter — or anyone who wants to win MasterChef, for that matter? "Be extremely open-minded. Have your foundation based on who you are and your travels, but go with the flow," he said. "And don't worry about the drama." Despite what makes it on the air, in the kitchen, it really is all about the food and the judges working to make the amateur cooks better. "What we always try to do — whether the camera is on us or off us or anything — is let the contestants know that we are here to make you look good. That's all we want to do."

And did Cutter take that advice to heart? Well, he's expanded his cooking repertoire. He said, "In the words of the judges, I'm more dainty now; I'm more sophisticated." But he hasn't given up his Southern and Creole roots or his love of spiciness. "As far as the way and style that I cook, yeah, I still like things the way I like to eat it. That's what cooking's all about: how you like to eat it, correct?"

New episodes of MasterChef air on Monday nights at 8 p.m. on Fox and re-air on Fridays at 8 p.m.