After touching viewers’ hearts with their personal stories, the country’s best 40 skilled amateur cooks go through the last round of intense culinary battle this week in MasterChef Pinoy Edition in a bid to join the kusina-serye’s top 15 official cooks.

Different types of Inspiration Challenges will require them to draw inspiration from their past or loved ones in preparing their dishes. Nine have already been declared official cooks last Monday (Nov 26) Tuesday (Nov 27), and Wednesday (Nov 28) namely Carla, an entrepreneur; Betty, a househelp; Sonny Boy, who is known for his darak cookies; Lito, a police officer; Reggie, a call center agent; Gian, a student; Ivory, a nurse; Maureen, a housewife; and Myra, an accounting associate.

Who among the remaining 16 cooks will delight host Judy Ann Santos-Agoncillo, Chef Ferns, Chef Lau, and Chef Jayps? What recipe will bring them closer to being the first ever Pinoy MasterChef? The hit kusina-serye, meanwhile, continues to soar high in the ratings game based on data from Kantar Media. Last Monday (Nov 26), it registered a national TV rating of 16.5%, easily outperforming rival TV5’s Face to Face (7.1%), and GMA’s Cielo de Angelina (6.4%) and Nay-1-1 (4.2%) . Watch MasterChef Pinoy Edition, Mondays to Fridays, 10:30 a.m. before Be Careful with My Heart on ABS-CBN’s Umaganda block and on Saturdays, 10 a.m. before Be Careful with My Heart Saturday Rewind. For updates on the program, like www.facebook.com/MasterChefPH, follow @MasterChefPHL on Twitter, and visitwww.masterchefph.tv .