I really liked Ben - he took such joy in the cooking. And, when things went wrong, he was so disappointed.

I think Ben's mother should start a cottage industry making chef hats (maybe matching aprons, as well).

And I want Christian to lose - he's SO arrogant and has no respect for the others. There was one show - last week, I think - when Jennifer's dish was praised. They told him to come up and taste it; when he did, he kind of shrugged and said, "It's good. I've had better." They've called him out, saying that he's stopped learning. And he never admits to a mistake.

I couldn't believe Christian thought chili would get a better reception than the meatloaf or any of the other dishes. Jennifer's meatloaf and side dish looked beautiful.

I thought it was odd the reaction to ground beef, veal, and pork was -- "what am I supposed to do with this?" When that's a classic meatloaf mix.

I missed the first five to ten minutes, so I had to infer what the ingredients were. I thought Ben's pie looked yummy.

Suzi is another one who can go - she's back there making faces and bad-mouthing the others ... and with even less justification than Christian.

When the lid was lifted they showed 3 mounds of ground beef and various veggies - carrots, peppers, potatoes.

As soon as I saw it I knew it was meatloaf mix and that's not something I grew up eating. We just had meatloaf made from ground beef.

Suzi's arrogant but she doesn't come across as completely disrespectful as Christian does.

She's just ... sour. And she went through a long period of doing badly, but not undertanding why they didn't like what she cooked.

Or meatballs!

I don't mind Suzi, either. Christian, on the other hand, is a complete dick.

I think Christian may lose just for being obnoxious. He's disrespectful to the judges, as well as the other contestants.

Edited to add: and he's not going to be offered any consolation prize, either.

So I've been reading Ben Starr's blog and getting some insight to the Masterchef process.

He said that one thing he's learned on Masterchef - he doesn't want to be a chef. At least not in a restaurant and not what Masterchef is looking for. Also he says he doesn't really eat "cuisine" or cook it (meaning gourmet expensive restaurant stuff). So a lot of times he was out of his comfort zone.

I'm still sorry to see him go and I liked him the best. Partially because he was often times very informative about hows and whys of cooking.]

I liked Ben a lot, too.

My husband says the same thing -- he loves to cook, but he's very clear that he does not ever want to do it professionally.

MY BiL is a chef and he likes it, but so much of it is not cooking, or cooking something you don't particularly love. Ordering ingredients, managing staff, budgeting, etc. are a big part of being head chef anywhere.