Then, in 2012 his girlfriend (now fiancé) Melissa Morris submitted Jackson for the TV show "MasterChef," but she didn't tell him. "About three weeks later Eddie gets a phone call," she recalled.

Eddie Jackson respects traditions. The Houston native grew up with home-cooked meals on the dinner table: meatloaf, fried chicken, pot pies, biscuits and Friday fish fries. He and his father also ...