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Isabella wins Junior Masterchef

12 year old Isabella has won the title of Junior Masterchef over 13 year old Jack. But another media embargo was broken in the process.

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Isabella has won Junior Masterchef.

The 12-year-old from Brisbane beat Jack by 97 points to 94 in the final, winning $15,000 for her efforts.

The night was a close battle between the two.

In the first challenge, Jack’s dish scored 41 points. Isabella scored 47 points.

For the second challenge 13 year old Jack from Tasmania cooked so well the judges decided -controversially- to award him three 11 point votes after bettering Patisserie chef Adriano Zumbo and his wild concoction: 5 green Pear Perfections.

But Isabella scored five perfect tens.

Jack wins $10,000 cash in a Trust Fund. Both contestants also won family trips to Tokyo.

The finale celebrated the joyous spirit of the season. All the contestants from the series returned for the finale, participating in a frenetic challenge with judges Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.

But in an online upset mirroring the first season of MasterChef, the winner’s name was published in advance of the episode ending.

The Herald Sun published the winner at 8:54pm AEDT, more than half an hour before Isabella was named winner in Sydney and Melbourne broadcasts.

TEN today announced a new series of Junior Masterchef will air in 2011.

This post updates.

36 Responses

  1. Does the outcome really mater? They are all great little chefs, pure and sincere. Something you cannot find in the adult show. No bitching and moaning. No excuse and just thinking about doing their best they can. I truly enjoy the show and the spirit of these little people.

  2. All negatives comments of the last day of the competition were correct. you cant have 10/10 if your dish was not perfect .The choux were not crunchy and the size was not equal.
    My husband guessed that Anna and Gary already
    have made their decision (before the final’s competition) that Isabella would win the first junior master chef.

    Jack is a talented, creative cook, he invented most of his recipes. He is the one who gave us lots of ideas and tips. Bonne continuation Jack!!!

    I hope that next time the final’s (even semi final’s)judges would be Outsider judges

  3. @Allie: You are slightly correct. Although the program, its website, and interviews with most newspapers and magazines such as New Idea and Woman’s Day did not reveal the contestants’ last name, The Hobart Mercury mentioned Jack’s last name as the paper had interviewed him for the show on several occasions (the interviews are still available on the paper’s website). Also, the October issue of MasterChef magazine revealed the last names of six of the top 12 contestants, including Jack and Isabella. Talk about double standards. If you still have a copy of MasterChef magazine you are in luck.

  4. Yeah, I agree with someone’s comment that the judges should have tested the dishes ‘blind’ and I think the judges were ‘soft’ – with Anna giving Isabella a 10 for her 1st dish, considering her jelly and custard were not set. Gosh, it was 10/10 overload…

  5. @steven, none of the kids’ surnames were ever revealed, at least not that I can see. On the contestant profiles on the MasterChef website, only their first names are used, and in the news stories I read about the finale, neither Jack nor Isabella’s surnames were mentioned.

  7. @Armchair Analyst, I think there’s plenty of examples in our society where children are cruelly exploited, abused and exposed to sexualisation from a very early age, etcetera, but honestly, when watching JMC all I saw was excited kids doing something they loved and having a ball with it.

  8. This show was not needed at all, it did help ten improve their share though. The truth of the matter is that whilst these kids are talented in the kitchen, they have clearly been exploited by their parents, and if you think that the network should be blamed well maybe. But since 2001 i have no standards for the networks for these shows, because i know that they put these shows on to make money i do get that after all it is all about money and ratings i do live in the real world. In saying that i do not have any positive things to say to the parents of the mini contestants on this show. They have clearly exploited their children and that is just unacceptable. Where was the parental consent, my guess no ware all the parents had was $$ signs in their eyes. If these parents really wanted to help their children get into the hospitality or food industry as a chef, then they would and should have taped their kids preparing dish on their own and then send it to one of t he big time chefs and hopfully their child would have then gotten mentored by a big time Australian chef. that would have been the way to go not this.

  9. You cannot be crown a MasterChef until you can
    a) drink soup with a fork and
    b) make a vegetarin dish using only chicken, beef or pork meat.
    Since noone had demonstrated either of these skills, noone can yet be named a MasterChef.

    And with the 11/10 thing? I mean… isn’t it bad enough we have to listen to new and more annoying ways to say “this food tastes good”, we have to endure their even worse math skills?

  10. To me, the 11/10 makes sense. Simply because they tasted/scored Isabella’s dish first and gave her 10s and when they tasted Jack’s it was clearly better and therefore he deserved extra points compared to Isabella on that particular dish. If the tasting had happened the opposite way around I suspect that they would have just given Isabella 9s and Jack 10s.

  11. The 11/10 thing wasn’t the most credible or legitimate thing to do but seriously… who gives a ****? If you’ve got nothing better to do than whinge about then your life must be pretty good. It didn’t alter the outcome. It’s a fun show, they’re allowed to have a little fun including with the scores. Folks, not everything needs to be serious business!

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