After thirteen nail-biting weeks, the judges have crowned a winner – Billie McKay is the 2022 MasterChef champion!
WATCH BELOW: Billie McKay reacts to her MasterChef 2022 win
In an incredible final challenge, Billie put on a performance that completely wowed the judges.
Heading into the final, returning champ Billie McKay was favoured to win over season six fave Sarah Todd.
It was a second shot at the crown for Sarah who placed ninth in her season in 2014.
While Sarah took out the first challenge with her sweet and savoury chicken wings, she didn’t do quite as well in the second challenge: a pressure test set by Heston Blumenthal.
While Sarah scored 30 out of 40 for the round, and 56 overall, Billie’s dedication to perfection pushed her over the edge.
She scored an impressive 37, taking her to 58 points total, and winning her the MasterChef title.
Unfortunately fans weren’t represented in the grand final with Daniel Lamble hanging up his apron in the semi-final.
On his way out Fireman Dan told New Idea, “if I was a betting man I would put my money on Billie.”
Despite this being her second time entering a MasterChef grand final, Billie wasn’t counting her chickens before they hatched.
Under a sweet image of herself and Sarah on Instagram, she wrote, “suitably terrified [for the grand final]… I’ve been here before and I know it’s going to be the hardest challenge yet.. but I’m ready to give it my all.”
Billie first appeared on season seven back in 2015. Prior to that she was working as a restaurant manager and applied to the show after much encouragement from her now husband Haydn.
After her win, Billie went on to work for Heston Blumenthal in London but recently returned to our shores to work on her family’s dairy farm and to have her daughter Ada.
Despite making it so far in the comp, Billie revealed she was uncertain about returning at all, she told Refinery29 leaving Ada behind was “very hard”.
“I guess [returning to MasterChef] also came at a perfect time as well. Being a new mum, it takes up a lot of your time and you put a lot of your own hobbies even and dreams aside to make sure that child is fed and watered.
“But I think she was at a good age where I knew I could leave her and she’d be fine. I just thought. ‘Yeah, I need to do something for myself right now’,” she said.
Sarah has also done well for herself since appearing in the 2014 season.
She opened her own restaurant and briefly had her own TV show, My Indian Kitchen. In 2020 she returned to Aussie screens in the Channel 10 show, Farm To Fork.
Her return to the MasterChef Kitchen is a shot at redemption for Sarah who placed ninth in her original season.
The 2022 season was a slight departure from the usual MasterChef format with 12 professionals going up against 12 armature cooks.
“Throwing together 12 contestants that have been here before and have gone out into the world and achieved their own sense of self within the world of food,” series judge Melissa Leong told our sister site, WHO.
She continued: “Then throw in 12 superfans who have grown up watching the show and are really very sophisticated in what they can achieve. That’s an interesting dynamic.
“I think for the returning contestants, they are invigorated by that rush of new blood. And for the brand new superfans, they are really working with people who have been their heroes and who they aspire to be.”
At the end of the day there can be only one winner and the judges deemed Billie and her version of Heston Blumenthal’s Taffety Tart to be the best.
“I can’t believe it. I am so grateful for this experience,” Billie said.
“I’ve learned so much about myself. It’s changed a lot about me, and I’m really excited about that.”
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