Cooking his way past 57 other culinary competitors after eight weeks of increasingly tough challenges, Brin’s high stakes cook-off was in the Final Three, against the exceptional runners-up, Louise Lyons Macleod, 44, (43 while filming) and Chris Willoughby, 44. John told the finalists: “Twenty years, we’ve been doing MasterChef. That is the best final we’ve ever done.”
On his win, Brin reacted with: “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits. I can’t breathe! I’m a big mix of my background, my culture and all the opportunities my parents have given me. They’ve been incredible and I’ve done it for them as much as I’ve done it for myself. The experience itself has been incredible and to top it off with this is just the most amazing thing, ever.”
MasterChef judge, John Torode, says: “Brin is an extraordinary cook and an amazing talent. He takes combinations that don’t sound like they belong together, but they actually work. Today, he’s delivered three absolutely sensational courses that could grace the table of any restaurant up and down the land.”
MasterChef judge, Gregg Wallace, commented: “These are ingredient combinations that Brin is inventing. That makes him dangerously clever. He’s got technique, he’s got creativity. In my experience, Brin is unique. One of the cleverest talents I’ve ever, ever seen.”
Brin’s winning menu started with fried capers, pickled chilli, pickled and charred shallots, orange and honey-glazed octopus with tempura mussels, herb tuilles dusted with scallop roe, an orange gel and samphire, on a romesco sauce. Gregg told Brin: “It’s delightful. This is a beautiful piece of work,” and John added: “Your mind and how it works, I’m not quite sure. But I’d eat the whole plate. I’d eat three plates.”
