After a two-hour cookfest and a grueling test of potato skills, Brookhaven native Katie Dixon survived both episodes of “MasterChef” Wednesday night to land in the top 7.

Dixon, 34, a personal trainer in Hattiesburg, is competing on the Fox reality show for the chance at $250,000, a cookbook deal and the coveted MasterChef title.

The first hour saw nine home cooks using their culinary know-how to turn a mystery box of ingredients like lamb belly, garlic buds and baby octopus into a high-end dish that would impress chefs Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi, who were joined by guest judge, “Top Chef” winner Kevin Sbraga. Dixon was in awe of Sbraga.

“I’m like a sponge,” she said on the episode. “I’m going to absorb everything from Chef Kevin.”

The mom of two made lamb belly over quinoa with eggplant mushrooms and squash blossoms.Though her dish wasn’t one of the worst, it wasn’t one of the three chosen by judges to taste. Vegas Chef Shaun O’Neale won that challenge and with it came a huge advantage for the elimination round.

The star ingredient was salmon and he got to choose which four home cooks used fresh salmon and which had to make a restaurant-quality dish with the canned fish.He gave Dixon the real deal because he didn’t consider her a threat for the top spot and figured she wouldn’t be able to butcher the fresh fish properly.

She did, however, and turned out a decent dish of a crispy-skinned salmon over a lentil cake with both a celery root and carrot purée.

She was safe from elimination and into the top eight. In the second hour, Dixon’s skills with potatoes came into play as the contestants battled it out in a trio of spud tests.

“The next challenge was all things potato,” Dixon told The Daily Leader. “We first had a french fry challenge. I’m a healthy home cook. I don’t fry things. The french fry challenge definitely showed I don’t fry things. I make a delicious oven baked fry for my kids all the time.”

With 20 minutes to turn out a cone of perfectly browned, crispy fries, Dixon’s were still raw inside when Tosi snapped one open in front of the tearful home cook.

Four were safe and four, including Dixon, headed into the next test — to make the creamiest, smoothest bowl of mashed potatoes they’ve ever made. None of the four nailed the challenge, each serving lumpy whipped spuds. But Dixon’s weren’t just lumpy, they were gritty, too.

In the final test, Dixon went head-to-head with NYC firefighter Eric Howard in a gnocchi battle.Both had missteps making a dish of  gnocchi in brown butter with sage. Dixon’s gnocchi was fluffy and browned, but she absent-mindedly garnished her plate with raw sage, an herb that is extremely bitter when not cooked.

Howard’s gnocchi was a tad gooey and pale, though the judges enjoyed his cooked sage.

In the end, though, they overlooked Dixons’ culinary faux pas and passed her into the top seven.

“I’m absolutely living in a dream,” she said. “I’m truly so blessed to be able to say I’m top 7 on MasterChef. What a journey and learning experience this has been. I can’t wait to be back in the MasterChef kitchen next week.”