Georgia wins Junior MasterChef Australia with her Sri Lankan feast

Dubbed by the UK’s Guardian newspaper as  “an 11 year old dynamo with a passion for her grandma’s Sri Lankan curries” Georgia emerged the winner of this year’s Junior MasterChef Australia. Beating off stiff competition from 13 other young cooks, Georgia continued to wow the judges each week as she made her way to the grand finale which was aired on Network 10 on Monday night. 

For the grand finale the triptych of Georgia, Carter and Filo were allocated just 90 minutes to prepare a main course followed by another 90 minutes to cook a dessert. They each had to cook four plates for the three judges and a surprise guest which turned out to be their respective mothers. Georgia’s mum Natalie looked excited and watched from the Gallery egging her daughter on with words of encouragement. 

Adding to the suspense of the show, there was also a live orchestra in the studio kitchen playing tense music. 
On air Georgia paid tribute to her mother Natalie by saying “without her there is no chance I would have been able to chop up a carrot and I owe everything to her.”

Cooking under the watchful eyes of her mother Natalie who was watching the proceedings from the gallery alongside the other two mothers, Georgia did her prep and cooking extremely well.  Undoubtedly there was a lot of backseat cooking going on and 15 minutes into cooking her mains, we saw Georgia exclaim “What silly person decided to invite the parents”. She later added that  her mum is a perfectionist and quipped “and I wonder who I got it from.”

“My mum and her mum and her dad are all Sri Lankan so I thought if I was going to the grand finale  then I want to do something that means something to my heritage”

For the grand finale Georgia decided to cook a Sri Lankan meal. She said “My mum and her mum and her dad are all Sri Lankan and I thought if am going to the grand finale then I want to do something that means something to my heritage.”

Her mains comprised of Pork curry, cashew curry and eggplant curry served with rice, papadams and a cucumber raita all of which wowed the judges. 

During her prep for dessert, Georgia faced a meltdown when some of the components of her dessert failed to cook the way she wanted it to and her dessert literally fell apart. With her mum shouting words of encouragement : "you can do it angel” Georgia replied "No I can't."  But after a quick cuddle from mum Georgia was back in fine fettle and displaying a sense of wisdom way beyond her years she said : ” I always try to get everything right but that’s not how life works.” She then managed to get all her elements on the plate and served up a dish which she called a tropical mess. The judges paid little regard to how it looked and instead raved about the flavours of it, especially the lemongrass granita.  

With her superb cooking abilities, unfazed attitude and cuteness overload Georgia certainly won over viewers from around the world. Social media was flushed with positive comments for Georgia and everyone wishing her well.
When she was finally declared the winner and awarded a trophy and a cash prize of AUS 25,000 Georgia had the biggest smile on her face.  In her own words Georgia summed up  her culinary journey with the words "Junior Masterchef is the best experience I have ever had."