America's Best Cook Finale - Winner Takes Home $50,000

Photo - Food Network

Tonight is the season finale of America's Best Cook, where the winning cook will take home a $50,000 cash prize.  The final four contestants will compete in three separate challenges, with someone getting eliminated after each one.  The judge that will be eliminating the contestants tonight is Bobby Flay.


Here are the final 4 contestants competing for the $50,000 prize and the team that they are on:

• Marc Huebner - sales manager (Michael Symon)
• Stephanie Goldfarb - social worker (Michael Symon)
• Christina Verrelli - substitute teacher (Alex Guarnaschelli)
• Ben Portman - financial adviser (Cat Cora)

Both of Michael Symon's finalists made it to the final episode, while all of Tyler Florence's contestants were eliminated.  Judging by the voting on the Food Network website, it looks like people are rooting for Christina to win.  The percentages for a poll on who people want to win America's Best Cook were: Christina - 47%, Ben 27%, Marc 16%, Stephanie 10%. 

So despite Michael Symon having two contestants in the final, it seems like people are rooting for them the least.  Who knows if people are rooting for the contestants or the mentors.

I will update this post after the episode airs with the winner of America's Best Cook.

Update is after the jump:


The first person eliminated was Marc, and then Ben was eliminated after a burger challenge.  This put Stephanie against Christina in the final challenge for $50,000, where they could make anything they wanted.  Stephanie ended up impressing Bobby Flay with her lamb dish and won the $50,000 grand prize, and Michael Symon's Midwest team.


Christina already won $1 million dollars and $10,000 worth of appliances in 2012 by winning the Pillsbury Bake-Off, so it is nice to see some prize money go to someone different.

The ratings for America's Best Cook were above average, so I would expect this show to be back for another season.