After a contested final, former Zaragoza footballer Eneko Fernández became the winner of the eleventh edition of Masterchef: “Winning the program is a dream come true and now I really want to dedicate myself fully to the kitchen” , he said the morning after his victory.
“This final was a lesson in sportsmanship, how you can compete side by side with those you are next to and in a healthy way,” said Fernández, who emerged as the winner with a three-course menu inspired by his family and with which he conquered the jury and Argentinian chef Mauro Colagreco.
Along with 29 other participants, the Zaragoza arrived in the Masterchef kitchens with the aim of achieving “a huge change” in his life: “The dish I entered with seemed very good, since then they have only passed three and a half months and now it seems prehistoric to me”, he recalls.
The program takes away “an evolved, rigorous and evolved vision of the dishes”. The ones from this Monday’s final, called L’amor, La família and El futur, were praised by the jury made up of Jordi Cruz, Samantha Vallejo-Nájera and Pepe Rodríguez, who considered them “transparent and impeccable”.
A gambot tartare as a starter, a pigeon at a low temperature as a main course and a white chocolate ice cream with pepper and cotton candy were the proposals of Eneko Fernández, who admitted that she had been working on them for a long time. “I think I had the menu in mind two months before the final, I’m very reflective. I wanted to present something that spoke of my kitchen but also of my tastes and my life”, summed up the winner, who takes home 100,000 euros, a published book of his own recipes and admission to the “Cooking, Technique and Product” of the Basque Culinary Center in Sant Sebastià.
It is clear that part of this prize will be invested in further training. “I want to really like the chefs of San Sebastià; I think I have to continue training and I would like to talk to the chefs to see the businesses I could be in”, he explains.
He wants to opt for projects “where he can work closely with people to enjoy the food”, says the former professional footballer, who among other teams played for Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona B in 2007 and later, for four seasons , at CE Sabadell. He retired in 2016 due to ongoing knee injuries.
For Eneko Fernández, the most complicated has been the outdoor tests. “They are a cure for humility and a slap in the face because we all come from cooking at home and you face a lot of people, you see in front of you a world that is super complex and in which you are being trained.”
Two athletes, Ona Carbonell and Saúl Craviotto, also won the Celebrity edition of the program and Eneko Fernández believes that “the sporting spirit of overcoming helps a lot in the kitchens and helps to better manage the anxiety and tension of the competition” . In the final he competed with the Catalan Alex, only 19 years old. “The relationship between the two has always been above everything. I take my hat off to Alex’s reaction, it’s not easy, especially for someone so young.”
