One team walked away with $100,000 and the title of My Kitchen Rules winners during the show’s “closest finale ever” on Sunday.
Two teams made it to the grand finale: Footy dads Justin and Will, who’d been frontrunners throughout the season, and high achieving business bosses Maria and Bailey, who’d broken away from the pack during MKR semi-finals.
And the winner is…
Justin and Will, scoring a grand total of 73 points out of a possible 80. It was unbelievably close, with Maria and Bailey just one point behind, scoring 72 points.
“We’ve accomplished what we set out to do – we’ve made our kids proud, we’ve made ourselves proud, and that’s the main thing,” the lads said after their win.
“I just want to go home, hang out with my kids, and then? The world’s our oyster.”
Moments before announcing the winner, judge Manu Feildel came clean with both teams.
“Let me be honest with you: This is the closest grand final I can remember,” he told them.
Fllow judge Colin Fassnidge said this year’s grand finalists were the “most exciting cooks I’ve seen in a Grand Final in a long time.”
And the pressure was on, as both teams were tasked with serving up a jaw-dropping 100 plates of food across four courses: Canapés (an MKR first), seafood, meat and dessert.
The judges praised Maria and Bailey’s canape of a caviar tartlet, calling it an “amazing start to the meal.”
Their second course, seafood, showed “an amazing amount of work” but was lacking a little flavour in the sauce and seasoning.
But their meat course came with a sauce so strong that Colin confessed he and Manu “actually drank it at one stage.”
Their dessert of a cookie earned a glowing review from Colin: “I don’t like cookies… until tonight,” he told them.”
Earlier, both teams said they were eager to take home the win.
“We’ve been strong this whole competition. We’ve been determined, confident and we cook from our hearts,” said Justin.
And Maria said she was eager to prove that she and Bailey had earned their place in the grand final.
“It’s definitely been a rollercoaster for us, but that doesn’t mean we don’t deserve to be here,” she said. “We are never going to give up.”
