Gordon Ramsay almost throws up after being served Band-Aid on MasterChef US
Gordon Ramsay may have bitten off more than he could chew as a MasterChef judge - literally - after one contestant served up a dish that almost made him throw up.
Ramsay, 59, is one of three tough judges on the 16th season of the American version of MasterChef, standing between 20 competitors and a $250,000 grand prize.
Although the celebrity chef has made a name for himself as a brutal critic, he can't be blamed for gagging after an unfortunate kitchen mishap saw a used plaster wind up on his plate.
This season of the hit TV cooking competition sees contestants representing four global territories - Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific - go head to head for the 'Global Gauntlet'.
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In the latest episode, the pressure got to be too much for contestant Nora, 35, from team Africa, and accidentally added a nasty hidden ingredient to her final course.
Nora and her fellow competitors were rushing against the clock to concoct a delicious dish worthy of a sports stadium, while also staying true to their heritage.
The sales rep and former model chose to make a haddock and maadkouda sandwich with chermoula mayo and a Mediterranean salad - yum!
But what should have been a mouthwatering sandwich turned into a kitchen nightmare when a Band-Aid made its way into the food.
Unfortunately for Ramsay, he spotted the mistake a little too late, and had taken a bite out of the dish before the rotten ingredient was discovered.
The famously hot-headed chef started gagging immediately, dropping a trademark f-bomb between coughs and splutters.
"We're eating Band-Aids now, what the f*** is going on?" he cried.
Earlier in the cooking challenge, Nora had confessed she was feeling 'very overwhelmed', and was 'running around like a chicken with her head cut off.'
The contestant told cameras she found herself 'running to get tomatoes, then running back to get olives', and fretted that her 'brain is just not braining.'
As if to prove her own point, Nora then accidentally sliced into her finger with a sharp knife.
Quickly alerting the medics, Nora patched herself up with a plaster and got back to cooking, but the kitchen 'chaos' continued.
"A lot of things are going on," she said to cameras. "It's chaos all over the kitchen. No one wants to be the first person to leave the competition."
Unfortunately things went from bad to worse for poor Nora, and it wasn't long before she had to flag down the medic team again to let them know her plaster had fallen off and she needed a fresh one.
When it came to the crunch, Nora served up her sandwich to judges Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, and Tiffany Derry, admitting she hadn't had easiest time in the kitchen.
"I'm feeling overwhelmed because I didn't have enough time to make my plate a little more neat or pretty," she confessed.
"But I'm confident in the flavours. You never know, there's always plot twists, right?"
Plot twist is right.
While Derry inspected the sarnie's presentation, Ramsay went right in for a taste.
But just as he took a bite, a horrified Derry spotted something that didn't belong on the dish: Nora's used plaster.
Horrified, the Hell's Kitchen star coughed up his food, almost making himself throw up in the process.
Unsurprisingly, Nora was eliminated from the competition after her little kitchen hygiene faux-pas.
But despite the rather disgusting slip-up, Nora still came away from the show feeling proud of her efforts.
Speaking on her elimination, she said: "I served a bandage to Gordon Ramsay, what do I expect? Beyond the bandage, I was not satisfied with how I executed the dish, but I'm still proud of myself."
Ali Condon