Maitland Electrician Andy Allen was crowned the season four winner of MasterChef Australia last night after beating out Sydney mum Audra Morrice and Brisbane legal secretary Julia Taylor.
The final three were tasked first with cooking hot entrees with the top two progressing to the final round and still in the running to become America’s Next Top Model. Audra cooked an egg net with ma hor and sambal prawns, Julia served up seared beef with horseradish cream and turnips and Andy turned in seared tuna with cauliflower and squid ink puree. Julia was the clear first round winner and posted 25 out of a possible 30 points to leave Andy and Audra to fight it out for the final spot in the MasterChef grand finale. In the end, Andy pipped Audra by a point because of all the raging pride boners the judges had for him and because Audra’s dish was more of a salad than a “hot entree”. Audra exits by spontaneously mounting Matt Preston.
Next up was an invention test to create Australia’s new national dish. This time Andy prevailed as his fisherman’s basket outscored Julia’s undercooked rack of lamb 28 to 21 and gave him a handy five point lead heading into the final round.
The final task was a dessert-focused pressure test designed by Universal’s Christine Mansfield which was kind of funny because the entire competition rested on a dish called ‘Gaytime Goes Nuts’. The recipe appeared to favour Julia, but both struggled throughout. Julia in particular with rolling her wafer tuile while Ben forgot to put gelatine in his mousse and his caramel split.
After the biscuit dust settled, Julia’s notched 22 points of mediocrity which meant Andy needed just 17 to claim victory. Despite having never made his own ice cream, honeycomb or caramel before (we call that dabbling in the dark arts) Andy scored a respectable 25 to beat this season’s “Dessert Queen” and prove his growth as a chef throughout the competition.
Allen walked away with $100,000 cash, a cookbook deal and the chance to work in some of the best kitchens in the country. And of course, the bromance of a lifetime.
