Victorian barista, Nat Thaipun, has won MasterChef Australia 2024 defeating Tasmanian butcher, Josh “Pezza” Perry.
She scored 71 points to wins $250,000 and a head chef residency at Alumni restaurant at Crown. ‘Pezza’ scored 68 points.
The finale, watched on by both former contestants and families of the grand finalists, consisted of two challenges.
In the first both had were given free rein to cook their preferred dish using black peppercorns.
While his rib eye with fondant potatoes, brussels sprouts done two ways featured a peppercorn sauce packed with punchy flavour, the texture of his brussels sprout purée was a touch grainy.
Nat’s scotch egg with sai oua, nam prig noom, and Thai roasted green chilli dip wowed the judges with universal nines from the judges.
By the end of round one Nat scored 36 points to Pezza’s 33 points.
British superstar chef Clare Smyth, famed for three Michelin stars and three hats, entered the kitchen with an incredible dessert take on a Malteser, her “Core-teser”.
After a 4 hour cook, ‘Pezza’ failed to finish all the elements but was praised for its taste.
Nat’s dish looked incredible when but there some textural flaws.
That left judges with a scoring dilemma over two imperfect dishes. In the end each judge played safe with sevens for both finalists. That will likely draw some blowback on social media, especially given the rule that taste wins every time.
After leading in Round One, that gave Nat the victory at 71 points to ‘Pezza’s 68 points.
“I feel so good, this is crazy! It feels like a dream but it’s not, it just happened, I just won MasterChef Australia!” she declared.
As Runner Up ‘Pezza’ was awarded $40,000 with and third place Sav Perera awarded $10,000.
10 will screen Dessert Masters later this year and has already opened auditions for MasterChef 2025 here.
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