With a lot of work, effort and perseverance, Eneko prevailed last night in the final of the eleventh edition of MasterChef leaving the judges of the La 1 culinary contest speechless. At 38, the former soccer player won the duel against his partner Álex and under the watchful eye of his wife and two daughters, who were accompanying him on set to encourage him .
Eneko, who wanted to give a professional turn to her life after dedicating herself to sports, he managed to fulfill his dream, despite the difficulties of being away from home while his wife was pregnant and to the poor evaluations of the judges, who increasingly demanded more from him because they knew his potential.
The judges were the most demanding in the grand finale. Eneko, Pilu, Álex and Lluís had to face a classic contest: the ‘follow the chef’ test. However, there was a novelty that the finalists did not expect: they had to follow Toño Pérez, but with their backs turnedJust listening to your instructions. That upset the contestants, who had to give their best version to carry out the dish, which was already quite complicated.
Lluís wanted to go too fast and got ahead of the chef himself, which led him to make many mistakes. Alex, for his part, did not stop asking questions to his Pilu, who was very focused, just like Eneko. In the end, Eneko was the one who presented the dish most similar to the one Toño Pérez cooked and that gave him the pass to be the first duelist. The other finalist Álex, managed to enter the duel after shining in the last outdoor test of the edition, which was held in one of Martín Berasategui’s restaurants.
the final duel
Thus, the duel was expected to be very close between Eneko and Álex, who was also visited by his family, specifically, his parents and his brother. Both applicants got down to work to prepare a high-level menu to demonstrate everything they had learned during their time in the program.
The ex of Barça B, Alavés and Sabadell, among other teams, He formed his menu with a starter dedicated “to the love of his life”, to the trip to Thailand that he made with his wife; later, as a main dish, offered low-temperature pigeon, pâté mille-feuille and corn multispheres, as a tribute to the family tradition; for dessert, ‘The future’, “the door that was closed before entering MasterChef”since he confessed that it had cost him a lot to make the decision to take risks to fulfill his dream.
Jordi Cruz was shocked by Eneko’s result, who surprised the judges with the textures of her dessert. All his dishes had the main requirements: originality, flavor, aesthetics, modernity, risk… The judges could not put a but on him and the guest chef, the Argentine Mauro Colagreco, stated that his preparations could be in any high-level restaurant.
“You have given us one of the closest duels we can remember,” confessed Samantha Vallejo-Nájera before communicating the jury’s decision: Eneko became the winner. Now he takes home trophy that he believes as a winner of MasterChef 11the possibility of publishing his own cookbook and the Master in Cooking, Technique and Product from the Basque Culinary Centeras well as 100,000 euros in cash.
