Giving the viewers a battle befitting the occasion, Callum, Chris and Kate gave the MasterChef All Stars Grand Finale everything in their culinary arsenal, with Callum going one step further than in 2010 to take the overall title.

The first round of action welcomed the great Maggie Beer to the kitchen to set the challenge. With a beautiful range of ingredients to choose from, the contestants had to prepare a family feast for their eliminated All Stars companions.

Chris opted for chicken as his protein and Kate for pheasant – despite never having cooked with it before. Callum, meanwhile, decided to go vegetarian, ultimately rethinking the idea by adding pheasant after a lukewarm reception to his initial concept from the judges.

The judges, All Stars and Maggie assembled at the dinner table anticipating a meal to savour, and they weren’t disappointed. The praise for all three meals was exceptional, indicating how close the first round of scores was likely to be. Chris picked up a solid total of 32; Callum excelled with a massive 36; but with the unbalanced cooking of her pheasant and unfinished beetroot salad marginally counting against her, Kate came up just short with 31 points, sending her out of the competition with $11,000 in total for her charity.

The second round saw Callum and Chris take on the former’s season two adversary: the Snow Egg. Peter Gilmore arrived to set them the challenge of recreating his revised recipe, with Chris getting the advantage of tasting the dish and practicing plating to counterbalance the advantage of Callum’s prior experience.

Despite desserts being further outside Chris’ comfort zone than Callum’s, he gave a superb account of himself, crafting a dish that was high in taste if a little lacking in aesthetic finesse. Callum, however, was in especially scintillating form, presenting the judges with Snow Eggs that were absolutely impeccable.

Awarding Callum a mixture of eights and nines to Chris’ sevens and eights, he took the win by a final score of 70-62, securing him the MasterChef All Stars trophy and the $25,000 prize for his charity The Cancer Council. In a wonderfully selfless gesture, however, he gave $10,000 of his winnings to Lort Smith Animal Hospital, bumping the total for Chris’ charity up to $15,000.

The other contestants then joined Callum to celebrate his famous victory, and new rank of MasterChef All Stars champion.