It's just the start of a celebration for Canada's first MasterChef Eric Chong. The chemical engineer from Oakville, Ontario bagged the acclaimed title along with $100,000 in an entertaining finale Monday night.
"Being only 21, I'm pretty sure I'm the youngest MasterChef in the world, excluding Masterchef Junior of course," Chong said.
"This $100,000 means a lot to me. I can use it to invest in my restaurant. Not many people know what it feels like to actually realize your dream and this feeling is indescribable. "
Chong was competing against Marida Mohammed of Toronto.
Both had to create an appetizer, entree and dessert and had one hour to complete each dish.
Mohammed's pumpkin callaloo soup with salted pig tails won against Chong’s pork belly dumplings. In the main-course round, Chong defeated Mohammed with lobster on egg noodles over her steamed black cod with pigeon pea puree, mango and cucumber. The sweet culmination went to Chong’s Asian banana split — green tea and red bean ice creams with banana tempura. Mohammed concocted a deconstructed apple crumble with coconut ice cream and warm rum sauce.
She regretted not peeling the apples for her dessert, a criticism from the judging panel which she feels led Chong to net the grand prize.
Chong spoke on Mohammed saying the finale was intimidating "because Marida wasn't in the bottom too much. She was definitely consistent and that her strongest quality, I think. "
