Victorian barista Nat Thaipun was last night named the winner of MasterChef Australia 2024, taking home $250,000 and a residency at Crown Melbourne’s ALUMNI restaurant. The grand finale, which raked up a total TV national reach of 1,779,000 for Network Ten, saw Nat up against Tasmanian butcher Josh “Pezza” Perry, two very different cooks, each with a unique set of strengths.
In round one, it was an ingredient knockout challenge. The five ingredients were fennel, lemongrass, black peppercorns, mint, and baby leeks. Black peppercorns were the final ingredient left standing, so Nat and Pezza needed to hero this ingredient in their dishes.
Pezza decided to stick to his butcher strengths and made rib eye with fondant potatoes, brussel sprouts done two ways and a peppercorn sauce. The judges loved how Pezza stuck to his guns and delivered a perfect steak. His peppercorn sauce was packed with punchy flavour, but the texture of his brussels sprout purée was a touch grainy.
Nat continued her risk-taking ways, deciding to make a scotch egg with sai oua, a Northern Thai sausage full of heavy-hitting flavours, along with nam prig room, a Thai-roasted green chilli dip. When the judges cut into her eggs, they were both oozy, and they were surprised that despite all the deeply Thai ingredients, the peppercorn shone through.
With high risk came high reward as Nat impressed the judges, scoring nines across the board for a total of 36 points. Pezza’s efforts earned him 33 points, giving Nat a three-point lead heading into round two.
In round two, Pezza and Nat tackled a pressure test set by British superstar chef Clare Smyth, whose restaurants Core in London and Oncore in Sydney have earned three Michelin stars and three hats, respectively. Clare entered the kitchen with an incredible dessert, the “Core-teser”, her high-end take on a Malteser.
When Pezza brought his dish to the judges, he felt like he had let his family and the judges down by not completing the dish. Even though Pezza didn’t have the malt puff on the dish, his entremets looked very good, and the judges could see the layers when they cut it open; every element that made the plate was near perfect.
Nat’s dish looked incredible when it hit the tasting table, her malt puff sitting proudly with feathers on top. When the judges tasted Nat’s dish, they were surprised; even though everything was on the plate and her flavours were great, there were some textural flaws.
When the judges read their final verdict, they told Pezza that although he was missing the malt puff, his flavours were identical to Clare’s. He scored sevens across the board for a round two score of 35, taking his total to 68 points. Nat needed at least 33 points to take out the win, and she too ended up scoring a seven from each judge, taking her total score to 71 points, beating Pezza by just three 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,” Thaipun said.
Pezza was awarded $40,000 to go after his food dreams and Sav Perera who took the third position took home $10,000 for her efforts.
Over on Nine, it was Beyond The Dream: Matildas The Rise that did the numbers, with the documentary on the Australian female soccer teams rise to success in the 2023 Women’s World Cup raking in a total TV national reach of 1,241,000.
