Entertainment

The day Rachael Ray announced she was starting a culinary competition, "So You Think You Can Cook?!" Ben Starr became quite popular.

"I got six phone calls from friends," says Mr. Starr, 30, a Lewisville resident who's a freelance writer, massage therapist and event planner by day, kitchen king by night. He not only has a large organic garden in his yard, but also owns 11 chickens, packs gourmet lunches for his roommates and throws a fancy fall dinner party each year.

How fancy? "People fly in from other continents," he says.

Add to his fan club one Rachael Ray, who calls Mr. Starr "an absolute riot. He has an enormous sense of humor that really grabs ya. Ben's got that goof factor. He probably doesn't want to admit it, but one goof can recognize another."

But that's not all: "I think Ben's going to get a lot of love letters after this," she adds.

Our hometown hero is one of five finalists for the competition, which starts Monday. The cooks will compete in a variety of challenges – resulting in one person getting the heave-ho every Monday – until the winner is announced on Nov. 26.

That skilled individual receives a chance to prepare his or her recipe on Rachael Ray, with the hostess acting as sous chef, along with "boot camp" at the Culinary Institute of America. The recipe will also be published in Ms. Ray's magazine.

How does this show differ from that other televised culinary face-off, Top Chef? For one, the contestants on Rachael Ray are required to be amateurs. As was Ms. Ray when she got her break.

"My life is a series of happy coincidences," she says during a break between filming 30 Minute Meals episodes. "I'm not a chef, and I had no training in television, so I was really grossly underqualified for everything I do. So I like to say that if I can do it, literally anybody can. So with this contest, I'm putting my money where my mouth is."

Joining her will be Survivor alum Colby Donaldson, who's co-hosting.

"It's nice to be a part of a competition where there's no chance I'll be eliminated," he says. "I'm showing up for the second show, no matter what."

Mr. Donaldson says he has become fast friends with fellow Texan Mr. Starr, who started cooking at the ripe old age of 4.

"I grew up on a sheep farm in West Texas, and cooking was a really big part of my family's heritage," says Mr. Starr, whose first creation was toast in a broiler. (He was later told that as he toiled away with the butter, he could be heard boasting, "Whoever heard of a 4-year-old who knew how to make toast?")

That led to further cooking mastery and travel abroad, where he lived with locals "and saw how they cooked," he says. "That kind of expanded my technique."

His friends are glad he did. When they called him in September and demanded he enter the contest, "it was perfect timing, because I was practicing my recipes for my fall dinner party this year," Mr. Starr says.

So he was filmed showing off his garden and chickens, one of which joined him inside as he began to cook. The producers later told him that his entry stood out as "the only one with a chicken in the kitchen."

He and the other contestants, who hail from Ohio, Washington and California, weren't exactly pampered by Ms. Ray.

"We all just sat around and decided it would be really fun to torture them as much as possible," she says. "At first I said, 'Oh, we can't do this,' but as the competition went on, Evil Rachael came out. During one challenge, literally three out of four of them spill blood. I thought it was awesome!"

9 a.m. weekdays on CBS (Channel 11) {WebBlog}Forum: Weigh in on Rachael Ray on our Eats blog. GuideLive.com/eats

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