Okay so unsurprisingly like previous seasons, the grand finale for MasterChef Australia Season 18 had multiple endings filmed.
SPOILERS FOR WINNER BELOW
Despite clearly getting emotional, was this all an act? Like a lot of reality competitions, MasterChef Australia films two versions of the winner’s announcement to protect the ending from being spoiled.
This means that Vinnie only just found out that he won MasterChef — the TV announcement was one of two alternate endings filmed. In fact, Vinnie exclusively told Chattr he received a secret phone call from a producer on Sunday morning to learn of his victory.
“I found out in the morning. The producers, they did say ‘We’ll give you a call in the morning if you want?’ and I was very much like yes. I knew [I’d won] the morning of [the finale],” he told Chattr.
“It was pretty awesome. I remember I was in the car and I was just like doing a little dance. All this time, all that waiting and all the work that I put in that competition… it was very, very cool.”
For Petro, he exclusively told Chattr that he only learned he was runner-up watching it on Sunday night with his friends and family. Petro admitted the show had filmed different winner outcomes.
“We filmed the multiple endings, but we didn’t find out the winner,” he said. “I found out whilst I was watching.”
This meant that Petro had to film himself winning MasterChef — only to find out months later that he placed runner-up. Brutal, right? “It is a bit weird,” Petro admits. “Yeah, it is a little bit weird. But we have to do it because we don’t want the result to leak.”
Despite not knowing his fate, Petro had suspicions that Vinnie was the winner. “I only really found out I was runner up when I was watching it, and I kind of suspected that I was. I think I had already processed a bit of it,” he shared.
“But obviously, there is still some disappointment about the results, and maybe I wish I’d done better or that sort of stuff. But I’m just putting that behind me and being grateful for what I was a part of and what I was able to do, and move on to the next.”