Fort St. John rancher advances to MasterChef Canada finals

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Fort St. John rancher Marianne Smeaton is one of three contestants heading to MasterChef Canada’s season finale.

Smeaton, the only current B.C. resident in season eight, will compete alongside fellow finalists Veronica Wu and Liz Worndl.

Daniel Ebanks, who was a resident of Fort St. John from 2012 to 2016, was eliminated in episode four.

Smeaton spoke with Energeticcity.ca following her advancement from the semifinals into the final round in December 9th’s episode.

She said the most difficult part of the competition has been learning to create under intense time pressure.

“My greatest challenge was how to be creative in that short amount of time,” Smeaton told Energeticcity.ca. 

“You have minutes to compose a dish. Sometimes I would just start cooking, and it would be instincts and crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.”

Smeaton admitted she never expected to be on MasterChef Canada in the first place – and certainly not in the finale.

“I’m still not over the fact that I am on national television,” she said. “I was shocked that I would go this far.”

She noted that baking has always been her strongest skill, but a difficult cake challenge earlier in the season left her convinced her time on the show was over.

“I was like, ‘that’s it. I’m going home, and I’m totally okay with it.’ But then I got lucky, and it just kept progressing. Every time, I was just shocked.”

As she prepares for the finale, Smeaton said viewers can expect dishes that reflect her roots in both ranch life and the Peace region.

“You’ll get a little insight into the way that I cook for my community and the way that I cook for my family, but just slightly elevated,” she said. “I’m going to put my heart and soul into each plate.”

Beyond the competition, Smeaton is already planning how she hopes to bring her cooking home to Fort St. John. 

She and her family are in the process of converting part of their barn into a small event space where she envisions hosting pop-up dinners.

“I’ve always loved to feed my community,” she said. “I hope to be able to have people come out and actually try the food that I cook.”

If she wins the competition and its $100,000 prize, Smeaton says the funds would go directly toward completing the event space and launching a community meal program she has dreamed about for years.

She hopes to offer “welcome home meals” for families bringing home newborns, adoptive children or foster kids – an idea rooted in her experience as a registered nurse (RN) working in postpartum care.

“Being an RN, I could give information, but I always felt like I wanted to do more,” she said. “Being a mom myself, having that warm cooked meal someone brings to you makes all the difference.”

Smeaton said the program would be especially meaningful in Fort St. John.

“It’s a transient [and] very young community,” she said. “A lot of people up here don’t have family for support.”

The 11th and final episode of MasterChef Canada’s eighth season airs on Tuesday, December 16th, at 6 p.m. MT on CTV and is available to stream the following day on Crave.