Canberra's Casper Kenworthy says he has no hard feelings after he was eliminated from MasterChef Australia by cooking with green grapes, the ingredient selected by his family.
"I won't blame it on the ingredient. I think you can definitely make grapes work," he said on Tuesday.
"But it was just a high-pressure, high-stakes, anything-can-happen night.
"The boys and I, we were all at the tail end of the competition. We said between ourselves, 'It's anyone's game'. We're all a pretty tight-knit group of guys."
The 28-year-old Torrens resident just missed out on a spot in the semi-final, eliminated from the cooking competition on Monday night.
The three contestants in the elimination cook each received a letter from home - and an ingredient selected by their loved ones that they had to make the hero of the dish.
Casper received green grapes, a favourite snack in the Kenworthy family home.
Michelin-starred French chef and judge Jean-Christophe Novelli loved Casper's grape-inspired dessert, which featured an almond biscuit, a white chocolate and grape juice cremeux, finished with a fresh grape granita.
But fellow judges Sofia Levin and Poh Ling Yeow thought the grape flavour was not prominent enough in the dish.
In a shock decision, Casper, the final ACT contestant in the competition was sent home, leaving three Melburnians to fight out the semi-final - Aaron Kher, Petro Papathomas and Vinnie Gibaldi.
Casper watched Monday night's episode with his parents Fiona and Peter and his sister Willow at the family home in Dickson.
"We had a good laugh about bits and pieces of it," he said, adding it was a unique experience to be able to share with his family.
Casper, a technology consultant, was always cool, calm and collected in the MasterChef kitchen - until Meghan, Duchess of Sussex was a guest judge, on Sunday night's episode, which was all about trying to win immunity rather than an elimination challenge.
Casper blushed a fair bit during the episode in his interaction with the glamorous Meghan. He blamed it on his fair complexion.
"We were all pretty giddy when she was there. We were all like, 'What is happening?!'," he said.
"During a white-apron cook [for immunity], you could say there was a lot on the line, but the white-apron cooks for us were a chance to have fun. We weren't thinking about the consequences of it too much. And I don't think any of us were expecting [Meghan Markle to walk through the door].
"Unfortunately, being the very white person I am, red shows up on me a lot!"
Casper, who has just moved to Torrens with his girlfriend Chelsea, says he is happy in his consultancy job, working in government and public health, but he did spend a month working in the kitchen of the Kingston bistro and wine bar Onzieme, right before it sadly closed earlier this year. He took time off and then balanced his day job with working shifts at Onzieme.
"It was something that was very beneficial. I got my head around service. It was so busy, like, we were booked out every single night. Onzieme was closing, so I couldn't have picked a busier restaurant," he said.
"I was nervous that the chefs would be like, 'This guy has been on MasterChef, he thinks he's a chef now' but they were just the most supportive people.
"The chefs were all pretty young so they grew up with MasterChef and were like, 'Oh my god, I always wanted to go on this, now you're here'.
"They were very open to me coming in and working there and it was really nice."
Casper was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis two years ago. He manages it with medication and exercise. During his time on MasterChef, he sometimes felt unwell but powered through.
"I did a lot of walking. Sometimes I'd just go on a midnight walk with some of the other contestants," he said.
"For me, keeping active is a good way to manage my CF."
Food will be part of his future, somehow, somewhere, while balancing it with his day job which he loves.
"I'm on the lookout for a place in Canberra and I'm lucky I'm well-connected with hospitality in Canberra," he said.
And his recommendations for cafes and restaurants in Canberra? Casper doesn't drink coffee but loves tea from INTRA at Campbell or Braddon.
His favourite restaurants are Lunetta on Red Hill (he took fellow Canberra contestant Annabel Lloyd and her family there recently) and Rebel Rebel and Bar Rochford in the city.
"Otherwise, Dickson. I'm up there a lot. I used to live there and my family live there as well. There's lots of good little Asian restaurants there that are cheap and cheerful, so that covers off all my bases really," he said.
And that's not the last Canberra will see of Casper in terms of plating up good food.
"There's plenty in the works," he said.
