Millville native seeks MasterChef title
Contestants are being whittled down in Season 10 of Fox's hotly-contested reality TV show, MasterChef.
The top 20 finalists hailed from exotic places like Boston, the Bronx, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and London.
Also from Rochester, via Millville, pop. 180-ish.
"It feels crazy. It feels like a dream," said Shari (Becklund) Mukherjee, a Millville native who attended elementary school in Elgin and graduated from Lake City High School in 2003. "It's one of those things that feels so unlikely. You see them on TV and it never seems possible."
But here she is, impressing the culinary judge of all judges, Gordon Ramsay. Mukherjee earned a coveted white apron in early June by whipping up a tasty dish of red snapper with green coconut curry.
The winner earns $250,000, a trophy, and a chance to gain hands-on experience at restaurants owned by famed judges including Ramsay, Aarón Sanchez and Joe Bastianich.
"She's amazing," said Jaycee Medina, executive director of communications for Endemol Shine Group, a company which produces MasterChef. "I'm rooting for her, looking forward to seeing how it rolls out."
Mukherjee, daughter of Scott and Charlotte Becklund of Millville, attended an open casting call last August in Minneapolis, and is now among the top 16 finalists, having survived skills tests, an elimination test, team challenges, a "pressure test" (cook something tasty - fast) and the Mystery Box (use ingredients supplied in a box to create something tasty and good-looking - fast).
This year's season was filmed from around February into April, in Los Angeles. Contestants also are challenged
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