Spoilers follow! Don’t read if you haven’t yet watched the Season 2 finale of MasterChef Junior.
Sixteen young chefs entered Gordon Ramsay’s MasterChef Junior competition, but only one left with the title of champion and a check for $100,000.
The show, a spinoff of Ramsay’s popular MasterChef, pits 8- to 13-year-olds against one another in a series of increasingly difficult cooking challenges.
Those race-the-clock challenges — including filleting Alaskan salmon, flipping pancakes and cooking the perfect sunny-side-up eggs — were no match for Logan Guleff, a 12-year-old Boy Scout from Troop 34 of the Chickasaw Council, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.
Logan, who first made headlines in Boys’ Life magazine, won the finale and title of MasterChef Junior champion in Tuesday night’s show.
His winning dishes: a mouthwatering appetizer of grilled shrimp prawns with smoked saffron aioli and olive tapenade and a delicious-looking entree of salt-crusted branzino with chimichurri sauce.
Something tells me there’s a good chance the Scouts and leaders of Troop 34 will ask Logan to make the menu for their next campout.
While watching MasterChef Junior, it was inspiring to see how well Logan handled the pressure of cooking with cameras and professional chefs watching his every move. When he made a mistake, he owned up to it. When a competitor made a better dish than his, he was gracious and humble.
But in the end, it was Logan who outlasted all others, and he did so while being a great example for Boy Scouts everywhere. Congratulations, Logan!
One question remains
Does Logan have his Cooking merit badge yet? If not, Facebook commenter Matt M. has a suggestion: “Chef Ramsay should sign his blue card. Any Scout who puts up Gordon Ramsay for any period of time while cooking has done more than enough to earn the Cooking MB.”
True, Ramsay has a reputation for being fiery, but Logan told Memphis Parent magazine he found the chef quite encouraging.
While Ramsey [sic] is known for being tough, he showed his tender side in one segment when a flank steak Logan prepared fell short. Disappointed, he briefly lost his composure. But Ramsey [sic] quickly gave him a hug and told him how to work through the problem. “I’m very much a perfectionist,” he admits. “If a dish is to go on a restaurant menu, then it needs to be perfect.”
Repeat airing scheduled
You can watch a re-airing of the season finale at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. Central) Friday (Dec. 19) on Fox .
Inspire Leadership, Foster Values: Donate to Scouting
When you give to Scouting, you are making it possible for young people to have extraordinary opportunities that will allow them to embrace their true potential and become the remarkable individuals they are destined to be.
Donate Today