The Aragonese man beat Alex in the final after preparing three family-inspired dishes
Eneko Fernández has won the eleventh edition of ‘master chef‘ after beating his partner Alex in the final with a menu made up of three dishes inspired by his family, with which he has conquered the jury and also the Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco.
“I am proud of myself, it is very strange for me to say these things to myself, but I really am,” Eneko said when taking the trophy, which he raised with his wife and two daughters, after presenting a menu that reflected his evolution in the program. “It has been the experience of my life,” said the former soccer player from Zaragoza.
Eneko has won thanks to the elaboration of a menu made up of a red shrimp tartare as a starter, a low-temperature pigeon as a main course and a white chocolate ice cream with pepper and cotton candy. “It is a dish that is like you; transparent, beautiful, and elegant. It defines you”, said one of the jurors, Jordi Cruz.
The winner’s starter was ‘El amor’, dedicated to the first trip with his partner to Thailand, from where he has rescued key flavors. The main one, called the “family”, for “the chosen one and the one who touches”, while the dessert, named “the future”, is a tribute to the daughter she is expecting and her future as a cook. Three dishes that have been praised by the official Masterchef jury: Cruz, Samantha Vallejo-Nájera and Pepe Rodríguez, who on this occasion were accompanied by Colagreco, chef of the Mirazur restaurant, in Menton (France), chosen as the best in the world in 2019 by The 50 Best list.
The winner has beaten the young Catalan Alex in the final, who at 19 years old was competing for the second time in Masterchef after having participated in the children’s edition. Alex prepared a marinated mackerel with piparra gel and tomato water, a marinated venison loin and mushroom salad for main, and a chocolate sphere and Catalan cream foam for dessert.
One step from the end they stayed Pilu and Lluis, who were surpassed by Alex in the outdoor test held at the Martín Berasategui restaurant in Lasarte Oria, in which they had to replicate a menu prepared by the Basque chef and tasted by Berasategui and nine other prominent chefs of Basque cuisine, including Elena Arzak and Pedro Subijana.
In the first part of the program, Eneko took first place as a duelist after a first test in which they had to follow chef Toño Pérez (Atrio, in Cáceres), a challenge whose difficulty has been increased by having to prepare the dish with their backs to the chef, only listening to his instructions. The chef brought to the kitchens of the program a sandwich of torrezno with carrot puree and spring onion whey. “You started out nervous, but you’ve managed to recover,” said Pepe Rodríguez as he put on Eneko the jacket that took him directly to the final of the program.
The winner has received a trophy and 100,000 euros in cash, in addition to seeing his official recipe book published and being able to take the Master’s Degree in ‘Cooking, Technique and Product’ at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián. Second place has given Alex the opportunity to take an intensive pastry course at the same center in San Sebastian.
The eleventh edition, the first in the history of the program to carry out two weekly broadcasts -Monday and Tuesday-, this time has had double the number of applicants, more than thirty chefs who have passed through the kitchen of the program in its 50 challenges and 23 programs .
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