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Becky Reams and Christine Ha collaborate on a dish on MasterChef.: Courtesy of Fox
Houston’s Christine Ha, a blind home cook, advanced Tuesday night to become one of two finalists in the finale of Fox’s popular cooking reality series MasterChef. She’ll compete against 24-year-old Jost Marks in the finale, which airs at 8 p.m. Sept. 10.
Ha, a 32-year-old University of Houston student and food blogger, won an edge in the season’s penultimate “Mystery Box” competition Tuesday night with a Vietnamese scallop stir fry. It gave her the pick of proteins in the elimination dish when the choice of proteins was chicken legs, frog legs or lamb.
Her last dish, buttermilk fried chicken with creamed kale, was praised for the chicken, which celebrity chef and MasterChefs host Gordon Ramsay called “modern home cooking,” but was criticized for her too creamy kale.
The winning cook will take home $250,000 and will get a cookbook deal.
To learn more about Ha, go to christineha.com.
An earlier edition of this story incorrectly listed the prize as $25,000 and the dish as being made of chicken wings.
It is 250,000 and not 25,000. C'mon Syd, don't take away their money
well thanks for ruining it for everyone else with that headline.
I believe it's $250k, but regardless, let's go Christine.
The foods were all legs (chicken, lamb, and frog). And the prize is $250,000
GO CHRISTINE!!!
"...choice of proteins was chicken wings, frog legs or lamb..."
The theme of that competition were LEGS. Presented were chicken legs, frog legs, or lamb leg meat....
Sloppy sources.
The guys name is Josh, not Jost, and the take home prize is $250,000- not $25,000.
is this chef completely blind or rather "legally blind"? Big difference between the two as 'legally blind' may mean only that she has difficulty seeing words.
She is legally blind, which means she can see fingers 10- 12 inches in front of her face (with difficulty) if the light conditions are good- which they never are in the studio as they are too bright
I think she's blind. I read that if you hold up ten fingers directly in front of her, she can see their shadows. She's totally amazing and surpasses any disability I know I could ever handle. Too me, that's totally blind.
It was not wings, it was legs and they win $250,000.00 not 25. Great journalism!
The cash prize is 250,000
Best of luck Christine. God speed.
Yes, it was legs. I'm anatomically challenged. I saw the legs and it came out wings when I was slamming it out last night. Also: mea culpa on the payout. A zero makes a huge difference.
I tried, as an experiment the other night, preparing a meal with a blindfold on...
Wow!
Quite an experience.
Typical foodies...so quick to dole out the criticism that they miss the point. Sometimes the quality of a great meal cannot be expressed by describing the minutiae.
And I don't think six people pointing out the prize value benefits the Syd's attempt to support Christine Ha.
Syd's still reeling from Labor Day spirits! It ok Syd, we catch your drift! ;)
no thanks. I don't want a blind chef cooking for me any more than I want to ride with a blind truck driver.
I would put her up against most anyone with 20/20. Go Girl
OMG..... Me and my husband have been cheering her on every Tuesday!!! Cant wait till she wins!!!!!! I Love you Christine!!!!
While I do like Josh Christine is an inspiration to anyone with a disability. She is phenomenal. Can't help but root for a hometown girl. She shatters any misconceptions you may have about people with disabilties. Bring it home Christine you rock!!!
Really?
Do other cooks get an "assistant"? I'm all for accomadating people with disabilities, but no way can a blind person perform as a cook, let alone live life, with out assistance from a sighted person.
IMHO It gives an unfair advantage to Ha.
She has a palette that most of us would kill for. Christine, I am so proud of you. You have been cool and collected. You have brought respect to both women and to loved ones who are blind. Way to knock off the 'chefs' socks.
Oooh, that certainly was a great episode because many of them had never cooked with food like that before. I don’t think it gives her an unfair advantage to have an assistant Ryder other than it isn’t possible to pay two people to do one job in the real world, but for the contest, they act as one person. In many ways, her assistant couldn’t do things as quickly as if Ha could see, so she’s still at a disadvantage. The season was riveting though, to say the least. I started having my Dish coworker over to watch since he introduced me to the show and we made a big event out of the finale. Instead of the commercial breaks, we used the Auto Hop on my PrimeTime Anytime recordings to watch commercial free, and then took food breaks. Everything took an hour anyway, but we enjoyed the time we would have been watching commercials by loading our plates!