The MasterChef Australia 2026 Grand Finale was always going to be intense, with two back-to-back monster challenges on the agenda. However, neither the finalists nor the fans could prepare for the second challenge that guest judge Cherish Finden had in store.
After already spending 75 minutes cooking a dish inspired by the guest judges this season, the finalists – Petro and Vinnie – were tasked with a 5-hour pressure test.
The task was set by Finden – a renowned pastry chef – and required the contestants to replicate her extravagant Chinese Afternoon Tea, which included nine intricate petit gateaux and over 100 steps in the recipe.
After seeing how difficult it was to create those teapot desserts, it’s no wonder fans had a strong reaction to the challenge, with many calling it “ridiculous” and “too much”.
However, speaking to WHO after the finale, winner Vinnie and runner-up Petro gave their candid thoughts on the challenge, revealing why it was perfect for the final cook-off
MasterChef fans divided over ‘ridiculous’ Grand Finale challenge
While many fans expressed their outrage over the pressure test on Sunday, with one fan commenting online that “even a trained pastry chef would be challenged by the final pressure test, let alone amateur cooks”, other viewers suggested alternatives they believed would have been more appropriate.
“This pressure test was ridiculous,” one fan wrote online. “Those poor guys reading recipes for 5 hours and trying to replicate a top dessert chef…cmon!!!!”
“For me, the finale should be a service challenge,” one viewer suggested in response. “Serve the 4 judges an entree, a main and a dessert – I think that would better show how far they’ve come as cooks and how much more rounded they are.”
“I wish they did a service challenge for the finale as in prior years,” another fan echoed. “Choose a sous chef from the eliminated contestants, make your dream three courses for twenty diners.”
However, whether it was “too hard” or the wrong type of challenge entirely, other fans admitted that for the Grand Finale, the finalists had to be tested on how “they can do all disciplines in the kitchen”.
Petro and Vinnie weigh in: ‘Everything was leading up to that moment’
Both finalists admitted that the challenge was “super intense” – and definitely not one either was looking forward to – but they also confessed that if it wasn’t the “hardest challenge there is”, then it wouldn’t be right for the Grand Finale.
“Ah no, look, it’s Grand Finale, that’s what it should be – it should be super intense – so I’ve got no issues with that,” Petro told WHO. “It is meant to be the hardest challenge there is, so if it wasn’t intense, I think it wouldn’t be right.”
“I feel like it was not a challenge that I was looking forward to,” Vinnie confessed. “Obviously desserts, not my strong suit, and then seeing how small and precise they were was also just not me and that was really difficult.
“But you could either stress about it or I felt like you could just get on with it and I feel like that’s what I did. I’ve been practising and working hard the whole competition…everything was leading up to that moment, and I just said to myself, ‘You know, this is what you’ve been working towards, and now you just need to pull it off.'”
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