7.5 13

Grand Finale - Andy, Audra and Julia faced off in the Grand Finale, consisting of three challenges. Entrée - The final three were given three hours to prep 35 hot entrées each and 30 minutes to plate them up during service. Each finalist could also select two eliminated contestants as commis chefs. The person with the lowest score would land in third place. Julia's dish was criticized for sounding like a main course, but was very well-received overall despite lacking punch of flavour. Andy's lacked visual balance due to the size of his tuna portion, but scored in taste. Audra's got rave reviews, but missed the brief as it contained too many cold salad elements. Julia scored 25, Andy 23 and Audra 22, eliminating her and pitting Julia and Andy against each other for the last two rounds. Main - Andy and Julia were given 90 minutes to cook their own interpretation of "Australia's National Dish". Andy served up his modernised Seafood Basket with which the judges found little fault, despite insecure plating. Julia's lamb dish fared worse with slightly undercooked meat. Julia received 21 points; Andy got 28 (including a perfect 10), allowing him to overtake Julia with 51 to 46. Dessert - Christine Manfield set the signature final sweet challenge with her "Gaytime Goes Nuts", a highly intricate dessert including a cylindrical biscuit, two ice creams, a mousse, a soil, a caramel and a honeycomb. Julia failed to plate up four perfect biscuits and her caramel ice cream lacked intensity. Andy did manage near-perfect looking desserts, but failed to fix his split caramel to a decent consistency and had a dense mousse on top. Julia scored 22 and Andy 25, tallying the final score to 76 for Andy and 68 for Julia out of a possible 90. The Winner Announced - Andy was crowned MasterChef Australia 2012. He won $100,000, a cookbook deal and professional training in the country's best kitchens. Julia was given $15,000 and a pastry apprenticeship with Adriano Zumbo, and Audra received $5,000 for her third-place finish.