Raglan man, Aaron Brunet has won TV1’s Masterchef competition. Enthusiastic Aaron supporters gathered on Sunday night at the Harbourview Hotel to watch the drama unfold on the big screen.
At first Aaron moved into the lead in the taste test. While working on entrees his competitor, Paula Saengthian-ngam, sliced the tip off one finger. While the medics attended to the injury, Aaron agreed to stop the clock. When cooking started again Paula came back strong with a dish that the judges loved, awarding her a massive 20/20. Aaron’s experimental dish of cored sweetcorn, polenta and scallops was criticised for presentation being on the wrong shape of plate and too many flavours. Getting only 11/20 he seemed to be left in an impossible position.
Deconstructed chicken was the next assignment, cooked under the demanding eye of Australian celebrity chef, George Calombaris. A good showing on this main allowed Aaron to start to close the gap. Calombaris offered Brunet a job in one of his restaurant and Aaron said, “The girls have been talking about moving to Australia, so that sounds great.”
The next challenge for dessert was a towering Croquembouche. This profiterole tower has a nougatine base and two different custard fillings all covered with spun sugar. Australian dessert maestro Adriano Zumbo gave advice to both contestants along the way. While Aaron forged ahead putting up with the pain of hands in hot caramel, at times it seemed that Paula wouldn’t complete a tower in time. Somehow she made it in time. The judges pointed out that the base was burnt and the tower was lopsided. Aaron had a bit too much caramel. Apart from that the judges were pretty pleased with his Croquembouche.
The scoring allowed Aaron to just slip ahead of Paula with 75 points out of 100 against Paula’s 74. Aaron said he had started thinking about his cooking book deal and wanted it to capture the enjoyment of cooking. Other prizes, include a Skoda Superb luxury car, $15,000 of designer kitchen appliances, $5000 in kitchenware, a year’s supply of wine and $20,000 of groceries.The contestants’ families joined them at the end of the show. Ani and Ariana gave Aaron a big hug and Ani said, “You’ve always been our rock star”. A reference to the judges describing Aaron as a culinary rock star during the series.
Aaron said, “It’s a small community in Raglan and everyone has been very supportive, but there have been a lot of jokes about when the Skoda would turn up in the driveway – they’ll try anything to catch you out.”