Chocolate — that sweet stress-relieving, decadent dessert ingredient — meant the end for a home cook who hails from Brookhaven.

Katie Dixon cooked her way to the top six in Fox’s “MasterChef,” beating about 22,000 amateur cooks for a spot on the show and then one-by-one making her way from 100 contestants to just herself and five others.

In the first hour of the double episode Wednesday, cooks discovered in their mystery box challenge they’d be limited in their cooking equipment to just a cast iron skillet, a wooden spoon and a paring knife. Aa fully stocked pantry was at teir disposal.

They were given one hour to create a restaurant quality dish. Dixon, 34, the daughter of Henry and Vickie Newman of Brookhaven, prepared a ribeye steak with roasted potatoes and carrots, and though it looked tasty, it wasn’t one of the three standout dishes chosen to be tasted by the judges.

Kentucky school teacher Brandi Mudd’s steak dish was chosen as best, so she got to pair up the remaining six contestants for the next test.

She put Dixon together with Las Vegas poker pro David Williams for a tag-team challenge to duplicate a romantic “MasterChef” picnic basket — beef sliders, lobster rolls, Scotch eggs, homemade potato chips, heart-shaped jam cookies and strawberries covered in chocolate tuxedos.

Williams and Dixon didn’t seem to communicate well and his anger was an issue. When he couldn’t open the bottle of champagne to fill the two glasses — the last remaining element on the platter — he threw it to the floor.

“Things weren’t perfect, but overall, we worked together,” she said. “I knew David’s anger just came out of frustration. We just wanted it to be perfect.”

And though it wasn’t, it was still the best picnic of the three teams and the pair headed into the next episode’s challenge as captains.

Tuxedo salesman Nathan Barnhouse of Pennsylvania, who fainted during the tag team challenge, was sent home.

At the opening of the second hour of the double episode, the remaining six home cooks are dressed to the nines for a party at the Park Plaza Hotel’s grand ballroom.

“I’m feeling like the belle of the ball tonight,” Dixon said on the show.

Unfortunately, the six are not the guests. They’re the help for a Roaring Twenties-themed soiree.

Williams and Dixon must lead two teams of three in a pop-up restaurant challenge to serve the 101 guests two appetizers and two entrees handpicked by Ramsay.

And they’re not simple dishes.

“Appetizers were oyster shells on a salt bed with sautéed spinach topped with the oyster then hollandaise and finished with a fennel bread crumb and seaweed scallops over parsnip purée with pea shoots, quail eggs and lemon vinaigrette cavier,” she said. “For entrees it was a filet over mashed potatoes topped with mushrooms and finished with a red wine demi and root veggies and butter-poached lobster tail over pasta with a lemon cream sauce and green and white asparagus.”

Ramsay demonstrated the preparation and plating one time and they were tasked with duplicating them perfectly. Ramsay himself would be expediting the dishes and warned them he wouldn’t serve anything sub-par.

“I knew it would be hard,” Dixon said. “We were down to six and everyone is really strong. I knew it would be a challenge, but I was excited about the opportunity.”

Dixon, with her red team of Las Vegas DJ Shaun O’Neal and Dan Paustian, a server from North Carolina, had a rocky start. “We started having trouble from the beginning with our quail eggs and then our first outing of steaks were raw,” she said.

Dixon’s plating was an issue as well, as she slid sloppy dishes to Ramsay in hopes they’d pass muster.

They didn’t.

“Katie, I’ve seen 8-year-olds plate better,” he told her.

The guests voted for the best overall dishes — choosing red or blue — and Ramsay delivered the bad news when they were all back in the “MasterChef” kitchen.

“I’m so optimistic,” Dixon said. “I really thought we might win until we were announced as the losing team.”

For the elimination challenge, Dixon, O’Neal and Paustian had to recreate three chocolate desserts.

“I love chocolate. It’s my guilty pleasure,” Dixon said. “I make a lot of healthy, dark chocolate desserts — not the three we made.”

The cooks had one hour to replicate perfectly a milk chocolate cheesecake with candied kumquat and almond tuile for judge Christina Tosi, a white chocolate eclair covered with white chocolate ganache and gold leaf and filled with a white chocolate mousse for guest judge Kevin Sbraga and a dark chocolate molten lava cake with hazelnuts for Ramsay.

Dixon’s cheesecake didn’t rise, but Tosi said her crust was delicious and the cheesecake was good. Her lava cake needed one more minute in the oven and though it tasted OK, it was a runny mess.

But Paustian’s cheesecake — prepared without a water bath — was cracked and overcooked, and his lava cake was an even runnier undercooked mess than Dixon’s.

Since O’Neal’s three desserts were the best and he made it to the next round, it came down to the health coach and personal trainer from Hattiesburg and Paustian for the last spot in the five.

To choose the contestant to send home, the judges had to pick between Dixon’s white chocolate eclair, which was missing the white chocolate, and Paustian’s, which wasn’t perfection, but at least it was covered in ganache and had some filling.

“Time killed me on this one,” Dixon said.

Standing there, waiting for the verdict, Dixon was so excited to hear her name cross Ramsay’s lips that she let out a “Thank you, Jesus!” before he was able to finish the sentence. It was Dixon going home.

“I’m leaving with a sad heart,” she said, before placing her apron on her work station and exiting the “MasterChef” kitchen.

Dixon said the experience taught her to never stop learning. She was able to cook for some of her culinary idols including Wolfgang Puck, Edward Lee and Sbraga. “Always be yourself and pick yourself up after falling down,” she said. “I am so blessed to have had this wonderful opportunity.”

So what’s next on the food journey for this mom of two? “I will continue to do motivational talks to children, youth and adults,” she said. “I love teaching everyone the joys of cooking. I am working on my first of many cookbooks. I’ll be teaching cooking classes and expanding my cooking through classes, education, and of course, just getting in the kitchen with my kids making new recipes. That’s my favorite.”

Follow Dixon at chefkatiedixon.com for  upcoming cooking videos and on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @chefkatiedixon.

Also, fans can visit www.eatwith.com to book a meal made by Dixon or of the other “MasterChef”contestants and former winners.