Framingham Chef 'Redeemed' on Cutthroat Kitchen... Almost

Aussie Alastair Mclean, a Framingham resident and chef in Boston and Natick, got a chance at a comeback on The Food Network's "Cutthroat Kitchen: Redemption" Wednesday night. But, true to the show's name, it was no easy task: Mclean flipped upside down to make pineapple upside-down cake using fruit harvested from a Hawaiian pizza, walked a "tight-rope" while prepping a surprise French onion soup and confronted the sabotage that knocked him out on his prior appearance on the show.

He redeemed himself in the first round, but couldn't quite capture the $25,000 prize.

Mclean and his fellow contestants all got knocked out in the first round of previous "Cutthroat" contests. This episode, each competitor began by facing the same assignment and same challenging "sabotage" in the new redemption round.

In Mclean's case, his assigned dish was breakfast to-go, and his challenge was to cook it over what's called "coffee heat," a small burner similar to a camp cooker and the size of a coffee tin.

"Last time I had this burner, it ruined me," Mclean moaned to the camera, minutes in. "This is what sent me home. Why even bother coming back?"

He rallied.

Mclean assembled a makeshift camp cooker, balancing metal racks over the burner and setting a skillet on top to heat while he prepped. The dish was a breakfast wrap with Italian sausage, eggs and fresh ingredients.

A disappointing "frog leg burger" undid a competitor in the first round, redeeming Mclean.

That left him to survive the second round, despite a "tightrope" sabotage that sent him tip-toeing between prep stations wielding a long balancing rod with a knife on one end and whisk on the other. Again, he stayed in the game, this time thanks to a forgetful competitor missing an ingredient.

But the final round undid him. After prepping a cake while hanging upside down and salvaging ingredients from on top of a pizza dug out of the dirt, Mclean's competitor bested him with a fluffy, bourbon pineapple upside-down cake.

When not battling kitchen sabotage, Mclean is Executive Director of Food and Beverage at The VERVE Crowne Plaza in Boston and Natick.

Image via Food Network