MasterChef 2023 winner revealed after final cook-off
After eight tough weeks, the BBC cooking competition has crowned its 19th Masterchef Champion.
Hit cooking competition MasterChef has crowned its 19th amateur cook to become Masterchef Champion, with 40-year-old coffee roaster Chariya Khattiyot taking home the trophy.
Chariya beat out 44 other contestants including finalists Anurag Aggarwal and Omar Foster, and was awarded the trophy in tonight's (1st June) final by a tearful John Torode and Gregg Wallace.
Reacting to her win, Chariya said: "This is unbelievable. It means the world, the sun, the moon and everything to me. I don’t think anything can top this.
"I’m so happy! This just proves that if you dream something and you work really hard and you never give up, you can get it. That’s what my grandad said to me – never give up. He would be so proud of me!"
Chariya’s winning menu started with a Thai lotus tuille, filled with coconut jelly, fried king prawns, pomelo fruit salad, flavoured with honey, palm sugar and coconut.
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Meanwhile, her main course was a traditional Northern Thai khantoke sharing platter of Wagyu sirloin steak in Hung Lay curry sauce, minced lamb in a spicy tomato and shrimp paste, jackfruit and scallop salad, sticky rice and scallop crisp crackers.
For dessert she served her own take on strawberries and cream - a strawberry jelly and vanilla cremeux ring, filled with macerated strawberries in strawberry liqueur, pistachio sponge, strawberry shards and a strawberry and Thai basil sauce.
Of Chariya’s win, Torode said: "Chariya’s food has always been honest and from the heart. It’s always exciting, it’s always unusual and it’s always been beautiful and addictive. And not just punchy, exciting Thai flavours that we saw at the start, but also exceptional, innovative and exciting technique all the way through. A proper master."
Meanwhile, Wallace added: "Chariya is outstanding and one of the best MasterChef contestants I can remember. Chariya has delighted and amazed me in equal measure.
"Some of her creations are absolutely beautiful - almost with an artist’s touch. She is one of the most creative, skillful cooks I’ve seen on MasterChef for a long, long time."
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Originally from Thailand, Chariya lives in Basingstoke with her fiancé Adam. After moving to the UK she spent seven years as a district manager for a national coffee shop chain before setting up her own coffee roasting company and becoming a master coffee roaster.
Looking to the future, Chariya said: "I hope there will be opportunities to work with food and I’m excited about getting experience and turning this love of cooking into a profession.
"Long term, my dream is to open a restaurant - and eventually multiple restaurants - where I can showcase the food of my homeland in Northern Thailand - and hopefully work towards earning a Michelin star!
"I want to show the world that Northern Thai food is amazing, because it really is. I just love to see people’s faces light up when they eat my food."
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