The judges fell over themselves in praising the meal, declaring several dishes, “The best they’d ever had on the show.” Those aren’t particularly surprising comments considering the level of skill displayed by Logan and Samuel throughout and positivity is nice, but eventually it becomes mere noise if it’s ubiquitous. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Logan went for a fairly classical menu, and the preparation of his entree, a salt-crusted branzino, was an unmitigated success. His dessert featured raspberries frozen and crushed with liquid nitrogen to make a crunchy topping, but his modern technique strangely didn’t stop him from also dismissing his opponent’s use of a smoking gun as a gimmick. Twelve-year-old Samuel maintained his high level of technique and upper-crust taste by pursuing an Asian-themed menu, with particular highlights including a seared arctic char and kaffir lime panna cotta. Ultimately, Samuel and Logan’s battle for the title was a high-quality, if airless, affair. Granted, that’s perhaps an unreasonable expectation to have of children, but all the same, watching three rich white guys judge two small white boys, I found myself wondering if it could be a more interesting and diverse experience. In other words, the finale of MasterChef Junior was missing any sense that the people involved loved food, and so a certain level of warmth was lost, too.
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It doesn’t seem like either of them really like food all that much.
![masterchef junior finale 2014 masterchef junior finale 2014](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1797128.1398769097!/httpImage/image.jpg)
But the fascination they exhibit with the cooking process seems to be just that: a fascination with the process. The thing about both Logan and Samuel is not that they’re bad chefs or uninteresting boys.
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But during the finale, Samuel and Logan each completed cooking their final three dishes, and there was still more than half an episode to go. This was abundantly clear during last night’s MasterChef Junior, which is at its best when the kitchen is stuffed with children tumbling around like overcaffeinated puppies. Even as reality shows always try to build to a crescendo, by the time a show reaches the point when only two contestants remain, many of the elements that originally make it feel frenetic and engaging are stripped away, meaning a finale can seem a bit empty compared to earlier episodes.