Fantastic finales & compassionate connections: This week in cooking shows

Want to know what’s cooking each week when it comes to your favorite food and dining shows? Be sure to check out our weekly roundup of what’s sizzling, what’s salty, and what’s a little under-seasoned on your favorite food, lifestyle, and cooking competition shows.

‘Kids Baking Championship’

Much of the charm of the “Kids Baking Championship” comes from co-host Duff Goldman, owner of the appropriately named Charm City Cakes and his interaction with the young bakers. If you ever watched his show “Ace of Cakes,” which centered around the fantastical custom cakes he produced with his quirky friends, you know he’s a bit of a kid at heart himself.

This is why it wasn’t a huge surprise earlier in the season when, during a team challenge that split the bakers into Team Waffle and Team Pancake, Duff impulsively promised his team that he would get a waffle tattoo if they won. They did, of course, and for the past several episodes the young bakers have teased him for not following through…

While we would have opted for a great big New School waffle tattoo dripping cartoonishly with butter and syrup instead of Duff’s more subtle approach, he gets mad props forever.

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The gesture showcases just how much Duff and co-host Valerie Bertinelli emotionally engage with these kids, and just how permanently their lives are affected by these connections. This fondness was underlined by the how visibly teary-eyed both judges were when they had to send the talented Cody home at the end of the episode. There’s a big prize for the winner — but because these bakers are so young, this show doesn’t always feel as high-stakes as, say, “Top Chef” or other shows that can immediately elevate a chef’s career path. Duff’s gesture of solidarity and permanence reminds us that this kind of experience is life-changing, no matter the age of the participants.

‘MasterChef Junior’

And speaking of: There is much to recommend about this week’s (Mar. 2) “MasterChef Junior” it’s hard to find just one clippable moment. There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment when Justise hilariously but subtly sasses Gordon Ramsay using one of his signature phrases. There’s the gut-wrenching moment when Cydney drops her entree moments before she has to plate it and completely panics, but regroups thanks to her fellow young chefs calling out words of encouragement — including MVP Mark who actually jumps up and down besides her while coaching her, which distracts her enough to rein in her tears.

But ultimately, it’s the kids’ unadulterated glee when they meet guest judge Mayim Bialik — giving way to universal mayhem at learning they’ll have to prepare vegan burgers — that’s most endlessly entertaining. We cannot stop watching it.

‘My Kitchen Rules’

Honestly, we kinda stopped caring what would happen in the rest of the season finale (Mar. 2) after Lance Bass opened the episode by flawlessly dropping some *NSYNC lyrics during his vow to win. Luckily, the show continued to deliver all night.

All the eliminated contestants return for the final meal, alongside several really amazing all-star chefs, including our secret boyfriend Chris Cosentino. We thought the sequined lapels on Dean Sheremet’s tuxedo were a fashion statement — until Larry Strickland stole the show in a suit made of eelskin. Ray J continued to to have the palate of a small child — the professional chefs listened to him describe his favorite meal (ham and cheese omelette covered in maple syrup) in a kind of horrified fascination — but delivered an impressively on-point critique when he likened Lance and Diane’s main course to fancy banquet food. But you know us: we’re always happiest when Brandi Glanvlle is being blunt and inappropriate all over the place.

Brandi openly states she’s much more relaxed knowing they just get to enjoy the meal and not compete — and the professional chefs definitely seem to enjoy her salty language and ribald attitude. But the hands-down best Brandi moment is when she coaches soft-spoken chef Nyesha Arrington into spicing up her language with some “f-bombs.”

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“My Kitchen Rules” was often frustratingly uneven throughout its season, but it really hits its stride in the final episode. The finale delivers what we wanted to see all along: A lengthy dinner party, with an eclectic mix of people bantering about everything under the sun, including the food they’re being served. It’s tempting to say a second season would be more successful with a shift in format, perhaps even jettison the competition aspect altogether, and give more time for these freeform dinner parties. But at the end of the day, it was nice watching underdogs Valerie Silverstein and Andrew Dice Clay take the win after watching their surprisingly sweet love story unfold over the course of the season. Shaggy and shambling as this show was, if it comes back for another season, we’ll be back for a second helping.

‘Top Chef’

Brooke Williamson and Shirley Chung are two of our favorite “Top Chef” contestants of all time, so it’s really satisfying to see them facing off in the season finale. They are so supremely talented and driven, and we know so much of their personal history that we were already mega-invested in the result… Then Bravo upped the ante in a big way.

First, they brought in each competitor’s chef de cuisine from their own restaurants to assist in the preparation of the final meal. Then, Brooke and Shirley were surprised by their husbands (and Brooke’s adorable son) at dinner the night before the last competition. Finally, the chefs came out to present their first course to the judges and diners — and were surprised again, this time by Brooke’s parents and Shirley’s mother and sister.

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We know so much about these women after seeing them on TV for two whole seasons. We know that Brooke is gifted and thoughtful chef whose biggest liability is her own self-doubt. She is her own harshest critic, and she is still nursing the wounds from not winning in her prior season. We also know that Shirley left a tech career in Silicon Valley to pursue her true dream of being a chef — a decision that has caused lasting tension with her parents: Their inability to understand what cooking means to Shirley and their continued lack of approval clearly still cuts deep.  All of these details we’ve heard about come into stark relief when we see the chefs interact with their loved ones — making this finale even more emotionally fraught… For, it turns out, all of us.

In the end, both chefs gave it their all, leaned into their natural competitive streaks and turned out fantastic finale food. In a gratifying conclusion, Brooke took home the title of Top Chef. Honestly, we would have been happy with either woman winning — but we think a victory will probably be more emotionally fulfilling and validating for Brooke.

As for Shirley, well — she may have gotten an even better prize: Her mother, who speaks very little English, went out of her way to learn the English word for “proud” so she could tell “beautiful Shirley” she was proud of the meal her daughter served. Somebody must have been cutting a lot of onions in the “Top Chef” kitchen, because something sure has us in tears…

“Kids Baking Championship” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network and “Masterchef Junior” Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Fox. The season finales of “My Kitchen Rules” and “Top Chef” aired Thursday, Mar. 2 at 9 p.m. on Fox and Bravo respectively.

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