A contract specialist at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg finished as the runner-up in Monday’s season finale of the FOX television’s competitive cooking show “MasterChef.”

Josh Marks, who lives in Jackson, and competitor Christine Ha, of Houston, were challenged to a three-course cookoff.

Marks’ creations, a rack of lamb, vanilla bean ice cream, bacon pecan pie and lobster on sweet corn grits with pureed sweet potato, were judged second-best to Ha’s Thai crab salad, braised pork belly and coconut lime sorbet.

The winner of the show, Ha, received $250,000 and a chance to produce a cookbook.

Judges were Gordon Ramsay, star of FOX’s “Kitchen Nightmares” and “Hell’s Kitchen,” Graham Elliot and Joe Bastianich.