A Brookhaven native’s potato dish wasn’t the best of the night, but it was good enough to keep her in the MasterChef competition.

Katie Dixon, 33, wowed celebrity judge Wolfgang Puck with her potato dish in the mystery box challenge of the Fox culinary reality show Wednesday. His tasting and praise came off-camera, so viewers didn’t see his big smile.

The 20 home cooks were tasked with creating a dish that made the humble potato the star of the plate. Dixon, a Brookhaven Academy graduate who lives in Hattiesburg, prepared Amish meatloaf over a trio of potato mash topped with kale and a sweet barbecue sauce.

“He had a huge smile on his face and loved my dish. He definitely made this Mississippi girl smile,” Dixon told The Daily Leader. “He loved how moist the meatloaf was and he also loved the barbecue sauce. He really liked that I did a potato trio instead of just using one type.”

She said host Gordon Ramsay raved about her sauce as well and commended her on her use of parchment paper and kale to keep the meatloaf moist.

The cook who prepared the worst dish was sent packing, while the winner of the challenge received an advantage for the elimination round. The home chef didn’t have to cook in the round, but could also save either the men or the women from cooking in the challenge as well. She picked the women, which meant Dixon and the other females watched the rest of the episode’s competition from their perch above the kitchen.

The men were tasked with replicating one of Ramsay’s dishes, halibut with potato scales and a parsnip puree.

“I love cooking so although I was safe in the balcony with the girls, it also gave the guys an extra opportunity to cook in the MasterChef kitchen,” she said. “I’ve always learned the more you do something the better you get, so it’s definitely mixed emotions with being safe versus getting more time cooking.”

Dixon will get that chance June 22 when she and the remaining 17 other contestants, in the first team challenge of the season, must cater an outdoor wedding.

Though Dixon lives in Forrest County with her husband, Todd, and daughters Stevee Kate and Risi, most of her family still lives in Brookhaven. That includes her parents, Henry and Vickie Newman, grandparents Jimmy and Betty Smith and two of her three siblings, Sarah Smith and Taylor Newman.