Congratulations to Amy and Tyson who have taken out the My Kitchen Rules Australia grand finale, beating fellow foodies Courtney and Valerie by just five points.
While both teams put up a tough fight during the five course challenge tonight, which saw them serve up 100 dishes, it was Amy and Tyson who came out on top with a grand total score of 57 out of 60. Valerie and Courtney ended the night on 52 points.
The siblings celebrated in style by taking over the Hotel West End for a private event to watch their victory live, joined by a group of family and friends – including fellow group one alumni Karen and Roz.
The venue is where Tyson has started his career in the food industry so he was thrilled when the owners offered up the space.
Having filmed two different endings, the siblings weren’t certain they’d be triumphant. And they were so cautious of getting too ahead of themselves that they still haven’t worked out how to spend the $250,000 prize!
“We didn’t want count our chickens before they hatched so we’ve only just started discussing it this morning,” Tyson tells TV WEEK.
“But we want to do something together, we just don’t know quite how that’s going to manifest. We get a lot of interest about our deserts, so we’re thinking of trying to get that out to the public. We don’t know how or when, but it’s definitely in the pipeline.”
While Tyson has made the move from Uber driver to the kitchen, Amy says she won’t be following suit in changing careers to put on an apron full time.
“I really enjoy working in HR,” she says. “But I’ve realised Tyson and I are a really great team, we complement each others skills and we are creative together. So I want to continue to support Tyson, I want to kick him on through his apprenticeship as fast as possible and hopefully get our deserts out there for people to taste. I’ll definitely be doing that but I don’t think I’ll be giving up my day job just yet.”
With hosts and judges Pete and Manu having given Tyson invaluable advice, he plans to continue drawing on their support. They also plan to continue to stay in touch with the majority of their fellow MKR contestants.
“Absolutely we’ll stay in touch,” says Tyson. “We’ve formed this weird bond with everyone, we’ve gone through this strange reality TV journey together so I think we’ve made friends for life, that’s for sure.”
And that definitely goes for Valerie and Courtney. In fact, the first people they had a congratulatory message from were the narrow runners up.
“I really gravitated towards Amy – and Tyson too – during the competition so I sent Amy a text as soon as it aired saying congratulations,” Valerie tells TV WEEK of her reaction to seeing the fellow Brisbane duo win.
“On the night we were happy with the way we performed but we knew Amy and Tyson would be very strong contenders so we were expecting the very best from them too and obviously that’s what we got. It was a well fought battle and I was very happy with the way we all conducted ourselves.”
“It was really beautiful to get that message,” says Amy. “It was really lovely of them and it could have gone either way and we would have been just as happy for them if they did take out the win.”
The mother and daughter watched the grand finale at home along with 35 close family and friends – and to keep herself occupied in the nervous lead up Valerie cooked for all of them!
“I cooked one of the sauces I made on the grand finale for everyone so they were chuffed,” she says.
Sauces are still on Valerie’s mind in the aftermath of the reality showdown. Having won a challenge which saw their Sweetly Spiced Sauce debut on the shelves at Coles – and sell out in under 24 hours – the pair are keen to add another one to the market.
“It will be completely different – more of a lemony coconut sauce,” says Valerie.
And she’s also got a cookbook in the pipeline so that fans of the pairs’ recipes can continue to add some spice in their life. Watch this space for any developments!
