Overcoming a tricky dessert round, Georgia’s incredible mastery of flavours in homages to her Sri Lankan heritage saw her edge out the competition, with the judges crowning her as the winner of Junior MasterChef Australia 2020.
Standing in front of a full orchestra, Jock Zonfrillo, Andy Allen, and Melissa Leong had one last challenge for the Junior MasterChefs.
Tasked with creating a two-course meal comprised of a main course and a dessert, the final three had to make sure their dishes were as fancy as possible.
With a 90-minute round to cook the mains followed by another 90-minutes to create their desserts, the chefs had complete freedom to cook whatever they liked but they needed to plate up four servings. One for each of the judges and one for the very special guest judges: their mums.
For her final main dish, Georgia created a Sri Lankan feast featuring a pork curry, cashew curry, and eggplant curry with sides of rice, papadums, and cucumber raita.
Watching on from the gantry, Georgia’s mum admitted that her daughter’s skill with curries definitely didn’t come from her.
Earlier in the season, Georgia spoke about how her grandmother taught her how to make a lot of Sri Lankan food, but taking on three separate curries in just 90 minutes was a risk that paid off huge for the 11-year-old.
“The one thing that I love about grandma’s cooking is how much love and thought goes into it,” Georgia said in the finale.
Though she felt like time was getting away from her, Georgia stuck to her plan and refused to sacrifice any dishes to save time. Despite the risk, Georgia plated up all six elements and each one blew the judges away.
Melissa called it an “utter triumph” while Jock and Andy both praised Georgia for her ability to balance so many elements at once.
But it was her mum's words that really made us tear up as she explained cooking is Georgia’s way of showing her love and expressing her feelings, much like Georgia’s grandma.
Having impressed the judges in the first round, inching ahead of Carter and Filo, Georgia set out to make her dessert, a toasted coconut ice cream slice with a brown bread crumb, Davidson plum meringue, Davidson plum pearls, and a lemongrass granita.
During the dessert round, Georgia struggled with plating her ice cream and became overwhelmed with emotion. But the young perfectionist pushed on, pivoting her plating and renaming her dish a “tropical mess”. Though it wasn’t up to Georgia’s levels of perfection, the judges were once again thrilled at the dish in front of them.
“I don’t care what it looks like, that’s one hell of a dessert,” Andy said.
With her incredible ability to balance complex flavours, Georgia’s dish was once again the top of the pack, securing her the win and the title of Junior MasterChef 2020.
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