Four Local Cooks Make the (Master Chef) Cut

The formidable Gordon Ramsey has a new reality show on Fox, Master Chef, and needs fresh blood: home cooks, amateur chefs. Hopefuls lined up yesterday in Kirkland, and four of them made it through to the second round: Leslie Kelly, erstwhile restaurant critic for the Pee Eye; Mark Schermerhorn, whose Dalmatian ate one of the duck breasts he was going to prepare; Scott Heimendinger, who blogs as SeattleFoodGeek; and Linda Miller Nicholson, whose website, SaltySeattle.com, is molto elegante. Congratulations are in order, we think, although standing up to Chef Ramsey would try the passion of even the most passionate foodie. Our money's on Nicholson, who has lived in Italy and looks like nothing would throw her.