After a huge journey for both finalists, Pezza and Nat stood side-by-side ready to tackle two final rounds. First, the duo had 75 minutes to hero black peppercorns in a dish of their choosing.
"[I was] definitely nervous going into the grand final with Nat," Pezza told 10 Play. "Nat's been, I think, the frontrunner since day one when she got the Immunity Pin. She's so good with her flavours.
"I was nervous because I was up against who I consider one of the best cooks in the competition, and I knew I had to be on my A-game, I had to be relaxed and enjoy my last cook in the MasterChef kitchen."
At the end of round one, just three points separated the pair, and Pezza knew he had to put everything he had into the second round, a pressure test set by Clare Smyth to recreate her 'Core-teser', a high-end take on the Malteser which featured over 110 steps and multiple technical pressure points.
Throughout the season, Pezza had wowed the judges with his ability to switch on during pressure tests and nail the flavours of some of the trickiest dishes like Hugh Allen's Banksia Pod or Darren Purchese's Cherry Blossom.
"I felt really confident going into that pressure test," Pezza said, "I thought it was right up my alley and I was just going to go through it step-by-step, tick everything off and just let everything flow into place. I was really excited."
"I always say I'm good at taking orders," he joked, adding, "I found the whole MasterChef experience hard that you don't have recipes whereas, in the pressure tests, you do... you can really work through it."
Methodically making his way through the recipe, Pezza hit a snag when making a key element, the aerated malt puff, which refused to puff up and create the light texture of Clare's original dish.
"That was just a heartbreaker when the malt puff didn't work," Pezza admitted. "It just didn't seem right from the start... I knew I didn't have time to redo it and I had to try and make it work.
"If there was ever a time in my life where I wanted to quit, that was it. I started to second-guess myself and what I had done. I felt like this was going to be the end of me."
With his family and the past contestants watching on from the gantry, Pezza added that he was "really gutted", overwhelmed with the sense that he had let down his family and the judges.
"I guess what was going through my mind was that somebody else might have done better there on that day, and I shouldn't have thought like that," he admitted. "I really questioned my worthiness."
But having time to reflect, watching the season and seeing his growth in the competition, Pezza is ready to accept that he was definitely worthy to stand in the grand finale.
"There's no doubt about that," he added.
"It's an emotional competition and to hear negativity can get you down but, when you sit back and the ones that really love you speak so highly of you, how proud the town is of me, how proud Tasmania is of me, it makes it all worth it.
"I had a few sleepless nights when I first came home, but I'm sleeping like a baby again," he laughed.
"Everything happens for a reason, I'm a big believer in that. Natty winning this, it's happening for a reason for her and, me coming second -- just like Poh coming second -- it happens for a reason. There are opportunities for both of us.
"It wasn't my day, and that's just the way the cookie crumbles."
Looking to the future, Pezza said he's still weighing up his options. "I'd love to do TV work and I think there's a great opportunity to showcase Tasmanian small businesses and the produce in Tasmania," he said, adding that he's also not giving up on the idea of building a little restaurant in his home of Smithton.
"Everything happens for a reason, so whatever's going to happen is going to happen," he added.
"I'm just going to follow the little path this takes me on and if it doesn't... I'm just going to be the little butcher from Tassie that had a crack on MasterChef."
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