MasterChef Australia (series 8)
| MasterChef Australia (series 8) | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Australia |
| No. of episodes | 63 |
| Release | |
| Original network | Network Ten |
| Original release | 1 May – 26 July 2016 |
| Season chronology | |
The eighth series of MasterChef Australia premiered on Sunday, 1 May 2016 on Network Ten. All the judges from the previous series returned.
This series was won by Elena Duggan in the grand finale against Matt Sinclair on 26 July 2016.
The first 19 contestants were announced on 1 May 2016. Cecilia Vuong was chosen having previously been selected in series six, as she withdrew that year before the competition started because of complications from a brain injury. A further 11 applicants were required to cook again the next day for the next four positions. The remaining seven then cooks competed for the final place. The competition includes two siblings for the first time in MasterChef Australia: Jimmy Wong and Theresa Visintin.
For the main course, there were no rules, with contestants cooking whatever they liked in 75 minutes. Both Matt's crispy skin barramundi with prawn and pancetta sauce and Elena's twice-cooked lamb and smoked vegetables received perfect scores of 30 from the judges. Matt took the lead with the total score of 56 while Elena got 53 points total.
The finale then came down to dessert: Heston Blumenthal and Ashley Palmer-Watt's "Verjus in Egg" creation. Both contestants had struggles, with Elena having to remake her 'egg yolk' jelly and Matt his coconut panna cotta 'egg white'. In the end, this led to Matt running out of time and not being able to seal the tempered chocolate egg shell on his dish, which split apart. Matt's dessert cost him the win, scoring 7 points from each of the four judges, giving him a total score of 84. Elena scored 8 each from Matt, George and Gary and 9 from Heston and Ashley, giving her 86 points.
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