Jackson Free Press

Jackson is on the menu for the next season of FOX's hit program "MasterChef." The network announced its seventh season casting route, which includes a stop in Jackson on Saturday, Oct. 3.

The competitive cooking show, which features judges Gordon Ramsay, Graham Elliot and Christina Tosi, puts amateur chefs in the hot seat, competing for $250,000, a published cookbook and the title of MasterChef. Many previous winners, such as first-season victor Whitney Miller, a Poplarville, Miss., native and graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, have gone on to have successful culinary careers, which can draw competitors from around the country to audition sites.

"With my initial audition in New Orleans, people drove from places like Alabama, Texas and Tennessee," Miller says. "Whenever you have a southern city (host) one of these, you're going to have people from all over come."

Miller, who was in her senior year at USM when she auditioned, didn't initially plan to start her career with reality TV. In fact, she only found out about the audition two weeks before. However, since winning season one, Miller has delivered cooking demonstrations across the country, written for publications such as Southern Living and Taste of Home, and released one successful cookbook with her follow-up, "Whitney Miller's New Southern Table" (Nelson, 2015, $26.99), hitting shelves Oct. 27.

"I'm very thankful because it opened a lot of doors," she says. "It was a stressful time to do the show, for sure, but I gained confidence through it, met people that I'm still in contact with, and just gained a lot of knowledge. Especially being as young as I was, but I think even someone older, being around people who have been professionals in the industry for years and are highly acclaimed, it's a free opportunity to learn."

"MasterChef" auditions are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at Hilton Garden Inn (235 W. Capitol St.). For more information, visit masterchefcasting.com.