There is a new MasterChef champion!
It has been a special season of MasterChef this year, as the cooking competition celebrated 20 years on BBC One.
Over the last eight weeks, judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace set out on a mission to discover the UK’s next best amateur cook and they have found just that in MasterChef 2024 champion Brin Pirathapan!
Brin beat out 57 other contestants, including finalists Louise Lyons Macleod and Chris Willoughby, and was awarded the coveted trophy during tonight’s (22nd May) final.
Reacting to his MasterChef win, Brin said: “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits. I can’t breathe! I’m a big mix of my background, my culture and all the opportunities my parents have given me.
“They’ve been incredible and I’ve done it for them as much as I’ve done it for myself. The experience itself has been incredible and to top it off with this is just the most amazing thing, ever.”
During tonight’s episode, the final three were tasked with cooking the best three-course meal of their lives, leaving judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with the task of deciding which cook’s nary skill, determination and creativity could earn them the title of MasterChef 2024 champion.
Brin’s winning menu kicked off with fried capers, pickled chilli, pickled and charred shallots, orange and honey-glazed octopus with tempura mussels, and herb tuiles dusted with scallop roe, an orange gel and samphire, on a romesco sauce.
“It’s delightful. This is a beautiful piece of work,” Wallace told Brin.
His main course was a spiced venison loin, beef short-rib and pickled mushroom tartlet, celeriac and miso purée, salt-baked beetroot and pak choi, served with a gochujang and red wine sauce split with a herb oil.
For the final dish, Brin served a dessert of white chocolate and cardamom and saffron cremeux, with pistachio meringue shards, whisky-poached mango, raspberry gel, pistachio crumb and a mango, lime and chilli sorbet.
As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, the season has included the highest ever number of returning alumni, with the semi-final featuring 15 former MasterChef Champions and those in the UK’s restaurant scene.
There was also an extraordinary trip to Singapore for a number of challenges, including a market task and cooking at a leading hotel.
Speaking of Brin’s win, Torode said: “Brin is an extraordinary cook and an amazing talent. He takes combinations that don’t sound like they belong together, but they actually work. Today, he’s delivered three absolutely sensational courses that could grace the table of any restaurant up and down the land.”
Meanwhile, Wallace added: “These are ingredient combinations that Brin is inventing. That makes him dangerously clever. He’s got technique, he’s got creativity. In my experience, Brin is unique. One of the cleverest talents I’ve ever, ever seen.”
As for what’s to come beyond MasterChef, Brin said: “I’d love to have a future in the food industry. Waking up every morning knowing that I’m doing something I absolutely love would be a great feeling.
“It would be incredible to write a cookbook and, explore supper clubs or private dining. Longer term, I’d love food to take me all over the world. MasterChef has already given me an opportunity to cook for some of my absolute heroes –including Tom Kitchin, Monica Galetti [and] Pierre Koffman.
“I’d love to do another Chef’s Table for some more of the greats and see what they really think of my food!I feel like I’ve got so much more to learn and this is hopefully just the beginning.”
MasterChef season 20 is available to catch up on BBC iPlayer now.
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