That's it for MasterChef Australia 2021!
Thanks to everyone for playing along tonight and last night!
It’s been a real blast recapping the eliminations for you this season, and I can’t wait to buy each and every cookbook (and earring diffusion line? Conor, call me) that the contestants release.
See you all in the queue outside Kishwar’s restaurant, and in the words of Peter Gilmore:
Congratulations to our #MasterChefAU 2021 WINNER! 🏆🎉 pic.twitter.com/NaxVzRtd1H
— MasterChef Australia (@masterchefau) July 13, 2021
Having been on Team Justin since the early days, I’m absolutely stoked. We talk a lot about the ~journey on MasterChef, but Justin’s really had it all: from “I just cook tacos for my mates” to flailing and receiving Disappointed Dad energy from Jock to being told he could cut it in any Michelin-starred restaurant.
Justin's not the only winner...
They’re giving Pete $30,000 and Kishwar $20,000 “to kickstart your food dream”!
Kishwar on Pete and Justin: “I was third wheel to one of the greatest love stories”.
Justin apologises to his fiancé for not being able to help with the wedding planning, “But... I think I can pay for it now?”
Justin wins!
I can’t believe it!! King Juzzy!!
He’s going to take a week to process it. “And then I’ll write you an email and tell you all how I feel.”
...Mel gives Justin 9/10!
Updated
Jock gives Justin 8/10. Andy gives him 9/10. Peter: 9/10. Mel...
Finally, it’s Justin. He needs 35 points to beat Pete.
Now it’s time for the dessert scores.
Kishwar gets 31/40, bringing her a final score of 114.
Pete scores 35/40, giving him a final score of 124.
Kishwar is not winning ... I'm done #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/3vpM7GBW0y
— Owais (@owayshaji) July 13, 2021
Updated
Kishwar gets 32/40 for her squid: Andy: 8/10. Jock: 8/10. Mel: 8/10. Peter: 8/10. She’s on 83.
Pete gets 9s from each judge, for 36/40; he’s now on 89 overall.
Finally, Justin. TENS ACROSS THE BOARD! Jock: “Extraordinary.” Peter: “Perfect.” 40/40! He’s on 90!!
There are a possible 80 points available to each contestant: a max of 10 per judge, across the two courses.
This is it! Time for the scores
Kishwar, Pete and Justin enter the cleared-out MasterChef kitchen/chook shed, welcomed by their fellow contestants, former winners, and their families.
Just want to return to Mel’s unbridled joy at Justin’s dessert for a moment.
And finally, Justin’s dessert. Jock notes that all of the different varieties of coated rice are “present”.
“Can’t see anything wrong with it,” Peter says with a smirk.
The cake is “slightly undercooked”, but... “it’s really tasty”, Peter says, like he can’t quite believe it.
Andy makes the argument that the balance of flavour and completed crispies makes up for the cake’s shortcomings.
Time to eat.
The judges start to do those little chuckles that mean someone’s absolutely nailed it. Peter nods like a wise old owl.
“If I had to say a word, I would say ‘perfect’,” Peter says.
Andy decides to ruin all of our lives by reminding Justin how psyched his dad was up on the gantry.
Now everybody’s crying! Dammit, Andy!
“Mate...” Justin says, “That was a wild cook!” He’s full of praise for Kishwar and Pete; “Whoever wins today I’m going to celebrate with them.”
Who’s getting the triumph edit?
Justin with the triumphant music edit #MasterChefAU
— Debs (@TaperJeanGirl) July 13, 2021
The way they’re having Justin narrate this plating seems like they’re setting us up for a Justin win. His precision with the 7 dots of aioli and 7 peanuts and 7 wings of mystical fairies and a single hair off a unicorn #MasterChefAU
— Fiza Zali (@fizawanders) July 13, 2021
And...
Justin emerging from the bushes in the last 3 episodes of MasterChef #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/5Ivwqs67wf
— Ash Jarra (@ashjarra) July 13, 2021
“Seven peanuts, evenly scattered,” says Justin. KING JUZZY!
Justin’s got a clear image in his mind of what Peter’s dish looked like. “Slow and steady,” Jock says, nodding like Yoda.
Finally, it's Justin's time to plate up
Justin’s got every element ready!
...But he knows he’s still at a disadvantage, points wise. He has to nail this.
The judges taste Pete’s dessert and the music goes super spooky, but... it’s pretty good!
Andy is impressed that he’s got three out of the four chocolate crackles on the plate.
Mel rates the crackle crunch. Andy says the flavour profile is very close to Peter’s. Go Pete!
No matter what I write tonight, it will never compete with this masterpiece:
MasterChef finales bring back mixed emotions for me. My Mum died a few hours after we watched Brett win in 2014. She was obsessed with the show & he was her favourite. Some of her last words while in and out of consciousness were ‘Go Brett’ 🤣makes me laugh #MasterChefAU
— emj 🧃 (@emjshelley) July 13, 2021
Jock reckons the texture of Pete’s noodles is great, but his savoury custard has gone a bit too far.
Peter is very impressed; Andy reckons it’s “luxury”.
Pete seems to be eulogising himself in advance. Jock tells him that he’s done something spectacular by making it this far.
Pete’s bloody done it!
The judges react with the sort of laughter that only happens when you’ve just avoided being run over by a freight train.
We’re back: Pete’s dome is in one piece!
Jock’s clutching his worry beads so tightly I’m worried he’ll cut off his circulation.
“Why not throw in one last heart attack?” says Pete.
...Pete’s golden dome slips from his fingertips! The judges recoil in horror! I check myself in at Le Pine!!
#MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/G0Aj5mbwRW
— MasterChef Australia (@masterchefau) July 13, 2021
AD BREAK, OF COURSE
i'm too stressed i turned the tv off #MasterChefAU
— Yoncé⁷ (@tamjoon1217) July 13, 2021
Updated
Time for Pete to plate up
Now it’s Pete’s turn to approach the plating up bench.
He’s only got one dome...
Now it’s time for Kishwar’s dessert. Jock and Peter agree it looks beautiful.
Andy says it’s a “very solid effort”. Mel praises the discernible layers. She’s in with a chance!
As Kishwar had hoped, mixing her split butter sauce with the warm squid has emulsified it back together again.
Jock says the noodles are “absolutely perfect”. Peter is impressed!
Congratulations, @Kishjustathome - what a triumph! 🙌 #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/XuSTHhQjvA
— MasterChef Australia (@masterchefau) July 13, 2021
But Jock’s worried about the texture of the sauce... Time to score. (We won’t get to see the scores until the end!)
Updated
Kishwar is in tears as she tells the judges how winning “would mean everything to me”.
“Thank you for letting us witness your Everest,” Mel reassures her.
Kishwar presents her dishes to the judges
I think Peter and Mel speak for all of us:
And then, 3, 2, 1… she’s done it!
Kishwar’s plate up is going from bad to worse as time ticks away. Andy and Mel look like they’re going to have a stroke.
Same, tbh!
While we’ve all aged about twenty years just from the stress of the finale, many MasterChef fans are wondering whether a pressure test is actually the best way to gauge the home cooks’ talent as potential chefs.
I'm not sure a giant pressure test like this actually shows who is the best cook #MasterChefAU
— Alison (@alijcoles) July 13, 2021
This final is like doing HSC exams. Great for process followers but awful for creative people. #MasterChefAU
— Rachael (@RachaelHasIdeas) July 13, 2021
I'm team "wishes that the final challenge wasn't to copy someone else's dish" tonight #MasterChefAU
— liya ✨ (@liyalazuli) July 13, 2021
As someone who once, uh, “lost control” while doing an entrance exam, I’m inclined to agree. It’s great viewing, but I can’t help but wonder if they had the stages around the wrong way - wouldn’t it have been nice to finish on a more personal note? Whatever happened to “me on a plate”!
Kishwar’s crackle dome looks “perfect”, but then, disaster strikes: her butter sauce splits!
“I don’t know if I can fix this,” she says. And you know what that means: time for an ad break! ARGH!
The final stretch begins: time to plate up
The contestants now have 25 minutes each to plate up, and to cook the koji butter sauce for the squid.
Kishwar is first to the station. It’s not stressful at all, I’m sure, that the judges are watching while she does this.
Oh no, now Pete can’t stop crying! Like the king he is, Justin tells Pete that Alana is proud of him.
They did it! Five hours, two dishes, one winner to come 😍 #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/btpNLgpRn8
— MasterChef Australia (@masterchefau) July 13, 2021
Updated
Time's up! The five-hour pressure test is done
Kishwar, Pete and Justin have a cathartic group hug.
Justin’s stoked! Kishwar’s proud of Pete and Justin!
Two minutes to go!
Kishwar’s got three of her crispies done! She’s getting her savoury dish ingredients ready for plate up!
Andy rocks up to Justin’s bench to suss out how many crispies he’s made.
“All of them,” Justin responds confidently. Andy makes this face:
There’s still so much to do!! Peanuts need to be shelled! Ingredients need to be readied for the plate-up!
Having watched Pete channel some sort of Zen master of refined cuisine all season, it’s awful to see him struggling like this.
Peter Gilmore appears at Pete’s bench: “They look a bit clumpy.” Suddenly, the tension starts to overwhelm Pete. He drops his recipe...
...and then falls over. Pete, no!
(In case anybody was wondering why I call it “the chook shed”, the MasterChef kitchen is held in the building that used to house the poultry show at the Royal Melbourne Show.)
Pete smells a challenge: he wants to give it a go! Justin’s trying for all four chocolates! It’s anarchy in the chook shed!!
Forty minutes to go!
With forty minutes to go, Andy and Peter announce the bad news: there’s no way they can do all the different rice crispies done in time. It takes ten minutes to make one alone!
Finally, Kishwar gets her dome finished, too. Her hubby blows her a kiss from the gantry.
I LOVE LOVE!!
Pete’s only got one potato starch dome and… it works! Hugs from Andy!
And then… so does Justin! He’s so excited he kisses Jock.
HE KISSED JOCK ON THE CHEEK #MasterChefAU
— Vicki (@Vicki50091) July 13, 2021
Updated
Justin’s mushroom custard is going in the steamer! Does anyone else cry when Jock helps the contestants? :’)
He’s clearly not allowed to play favourites, but anyone else get the feeling that Peter Gilmore has taken a particular shine to Justin?
Ninety minutes to go!
Someone’s stolen Justin’s juicer! “Oh, yeah, I took yours, sorry!” yells Kishwar.
Playing dirty!
And now, a word from the MasterChef finale liveblog mascot
While I’m typing away like a maniac, my dog Milly has passed out in protest under the desk.
The stress of the finale is clearly getting to me, because I keep bursting into tears every time First Officer Jimmy’s plane starts shooting rose petals across the sky in that promo for The Bachelor 2021.
THIS IS HOW THEY GET YOU!
Kishwar’s working on her chocolate caramel cream when Peter Gilmore appears: “Did you use single cream?” “Yes.” “What did the recipe say?” “Double cream.”
KISHWAR!!!
Meanwhile, Pete’s spent so much time perfecting his dome he has forgotten he has to make three. He’s going to move on and hope that his one dome is good enough. Pete!! Think of your wife’s mascara budget!
Justin’s making three domes; one perfect one for the judges, one to test, and one because “I’m pretty hungry”.
“Right now you should be starting to assemble the crackle dome,” Jock yells, giving me the name of my next dystopian action screenplay.
Justin’s squid isn’t working! His parents look as stressed as I do.
Suddenly, his dad calls out his name: “Justin,” he says, holding up his bottle of water. “Cheers!” Juzzy’s dad has recently come out the other side of an ICU visit.
Okay Justin’s dad lifting his bottle in solidarity and saying ‘cheers’ to Justin has RUINED me #MasterChefAU
— Fiza Zali (@fizawanders) July 13, 2021
JUSTIN’S RALLYING FOR HIS DAD!!
Updated
What fuels a MasterChef liveblog?
While our favourites are churning out not one but two fine dining dishes, here’s what I’ve consumed at my desk so far:
- bowl of soup (which Mum dropped over)
- bread roll with butter and salt
- Imperial mandarin
- small bucket of Coke
What can I say: I don’t know much about three-Michelin-starred food, but I know what I like!!
Two hours down, three hours to go!
This whole squid membrane situation is very Cronenbergian.
...But I once heard a marine biologist describe squids as the bastards of the cephalopod family, so I guess it’s okay?
While Justin and Kishwar are performing high level squid surgery, pulling off outside membranes in order to create the noodles, Pete is playing catch up, which sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Who decided to call them squid noodles and not squoodles? #MasterChefAU
— Jeremy Bowell (@jezzster) July 13, 2021
Updated
Kishwar is an old pro at squid dismemberment! Peter seems impressed.
Is anyone else incredibly tense at the thought of garlic aioli being made next to chocolate caramel cream?
How many glamour shots of the trophy is too many?
It’s a different story at Justin’s bench. He’s cool as a cucumber.
Peter heads over to the fridge and perves on Justin’s mousse; it’s good, it’s good.
We’re back from the break, and Pete’s really stressed. Up on the gantry, Alana’s already crying. Pete, what are you doing to our nerves!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought they were seeing a savoury lunch favourite inside Peter’s golden masterpiece...
What I saw underneath the golden dome. #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/nOWUBo8u9a
— Sam Robinson (@samsquareeyes) July 13, 2021
Also: Conor’s earrings said trans rights!
I am so here for this gif 🥰 #MasterChefAU https://t.co/KjeIdxwn9j
— ✨ Miss Natski ✨ (@Natski82) July 13, 2021
Updated
On the gantry, the four horsemen of dessertpocalypse look down in fear. “He should have folded the chocolate into the sabayon,” says Dan, “and then the cream into the mousse, right?”
En masse, all four of them go “Aaahhhh”. Pete!!
Meanwhile, Pete’s busying himself by merrily reading the recipe…
...and wouldn’t you know it, his chocolate mousse is starting to “seize up”! It looks like the final moments of the storied 1989 body horror movie Society (just trust me on this).
Justin has given himself the nickname of “captain consistency”. He’s following the recipe like a king. Go, Juzzy, go!!
“Don’t burn yourself today,” Kishwar says. Nothing but respect for my blue-bandaged queen!!
“The only thing that bothers me is sticking to the recipe and not making any mistakes,” Pete says, which naturally makes me think he’s about to do exactly that.
And they're off! Five hour pressure test starts now
Okay look, it’s a few minutes into their cook and I’ve already turned into the spiral eyes emoji. They’re fermenting their own shiitake mushrooms? In a vacuum sealed bag? Why don’t they just run out the back and refine their own sugar, too!
They’ve got five hours to replicate the dishes as best they can, then twenty-five minutes to plate up in front of the judges, before finally the judges will taste.
And their time starts… now!!
Sorry, I just can’t get over the individually choc-coated rice puffs!! What is this sorcery?
“Mate that makes the Snow Egg look like a Paddle Pop,” Jock cries, as Gilmore laughs like a true supervillain.
The rice crispies are individually coated in different chocolates and caramel. But wait, there’s more! Inside, there are SIX MORE LAYERS.
This dessert is doing my head in. I want it. But I will never ever ever want to make it. I don’t even know if I want to watch people try to make it #MasterChefAU pic.twitter.com/LaHCerTBGU
— Fiza Zali (@fizawanders) July 13, 2021
Updated
On to the dessert. Gilmore cracks it open and my face legitimately goes like :o
Gilmore explains the highly technical methods that bring together the Shaved Squid. Pete goes into hardcore teacher’s pet mode, telling Gilmore he’s always wanted to know how a dish like this is made.
Kishwar gives him a look not unlike the one I often gave Jessica in Grade 2.
The dishes smell and look so good that the former contestants nearly fall off the gantry in admiration.
“I’m sorry in advance,” Gilmore says of the dessert, which took three months of development, and presumably a few midnight visits to a crossroads.
Making matters worse, a brand new Bennelong dessert: the Golden Crackle. Hey, isn’t that the thing that kicked off the events leading up to Götterdämmerung?
The savoury dish is a shaved squid number from Quay, introduced with music that I’m pretty sure I heard in a nightmare I once had about the end of the world.
“Today,” says Gilmore, “there’s two” pressure test dishes.
Peter Gilmore returns to wreak havoc
“He does have a really friendly face,” says Pete of Gilmore. Spoken like every fairytale character who’s ever been eaten by a monster!
Andy hypes up the pressure test by introducing each of this particular chef’s dishes like they’re people; by the time the Snow Egg appears, there are screams of psychic agony coming from the gantry.
“Scared? You should be!” yells Andy. “It’s Peter Gilmore!”
Here we go! The families and former contestants are back on the gantry, Jock’s feeling another Highland fantasy, Mel is a candy pink dream, and Andy looks like the sports captain heading to the deb ball.
Justin wants the hardest pressure test the judges can conjure up. Be careful what you wish for, Juzzy!
Pete’s kicking off day two of the finale in bed with his iPad, I assume browsing the top Google hits for “messed up ingredient combos”.
Updated
Wow, who else had just recovered from Heston’s psychedelic nightmare only to be traumatised all over again?
Here we go, friends! It’s start-of-season flashback time! Remember when Kishwar was just a humble home cook with a dream? Can it really be so long ago that Brent strolled up for his first tasting and told Andy “I know who you are”? :’)
MasterChef Australia 2021 grand final liveblog
Well, friends, we made it! The 2021 MasterChef Australia [cooing voiceover] journey has reached its final stretch, as we join hands and stumble towards the finish line with only a pickled muntry and some oyster reduction to whet our whistles.
Tonight, Pete, Kishwar and Justin will battle it out to decide just who will be taking home the title and $250,000 with it.
In case you missed it, last night the first two stages of this three-stage blockbuster unfolded – and after a mystery box and a mystery ball (??) challenge, and despite serving Mel a quail so undercooked it was still breathing, Pete is narrowly ahead in the points.
Our trio have one final chance to impress the judges, with eighty points in total up for grabs (four judges, two dishes).
Before they can set off the confetti cannons, however, they’ll have to survive a two-course pressure test set by none other than Peter “Snow Egg” Gilmore himself. Who will crack under pressure? Who will forget a key step of the recipe? Who will be victorious? Join us here from 7:30pm AEST for the last liveblog of the season!
