After 14 weeks of toil, MasterChef Canada crowned its Season 3 winner. Mary Berg triumphed over Jeremy Senaris to not only claim the title, but the $100,000 grand prize. She is the first female winner of MasterChef Canada.
“This trophy represents everything I’ve learned and that is about to happen,” Berg said moments after judges Michael Bonacini, Alvin Leung and Claudio Aprile handed her the trophy; she was surrounded by her family.
“Mary really deserves this, and I’m happy for her,” Senaris said. “I made it this far and I’m really proud of what I did. Second ain’t so bad.”
Berg had been a frontrunner all season long, proving being a vegetarian wasn’t a disadvantage as she prepared meat dishes that won consistently high marks from the judges. She proved that once again in Sunday’s season finale by featuring beef tenderloin in her modern take on surf and turf, pairing the seared protein with fried oysters drew raves from the celebrity chefs. The trio deemed Berg’s three-course menu of roasted golden beet borscht, surf and turf and blueberry financier to be a little more cohesive than Senaris’ bison takaki, sushi boat and milk tea panna cotta.
Unlike Berg, Senaris improved week to week throughout the competition, winning over the judges quietly but confidently, and showing he could create innovative and thrilling plates. His Achilles heel was presentation, though that didn’t hurt him in the finale. If anything, he saved his most beautiful plating for Sunday night, especially his multi-coloured, multi-layered dessert.
Season 4 of MasterChef Canada is happening now.
Were you happy Mary won Season 3 of MasterChef Canada? Comment below.
Check out our exclusive interview with Mary and her plans for the future.
Flash back to last July, when Mary auditioned in Toronto:
That hour flew by. Mary won because her dishes were more mainstream and because of the first female masterchef hype, you knew it would be a female winner this season. Jeremy was more creative and dared to introduce non-traditional Canadian flavours into his dishes and had the winning menu for this viewer. Did you see the reaction from two of the judges when he described his dessert? It was inspiring to watch his calm demeanour as he cooked amongst his competitors and the clock. He may not have won first place but I wish him much success in his culinary journey going forward. Congratulations to both. Second ain’t so bad. A true winner!
Completely agreed with you! Did you notice how much more screen time Mary received compared with the others throughout the season?
Pre-determined victory at its worst… I feel bad for her feeling such a shallow victory. The 100K must alleviate the pain.
Jeremy should have won. I watch all these food contests on TV all the time and successful creative/innovative “delicious” dishes often win. I was disappointed when Mary was declared winner. For the judges, it seemed like it was a choice between cohesiveness and creativity. For these set of critical judges, their choice was a surprise for me.
Absolutely! Jeremy should have one. Just HOW politically correct do we have to be because we are nice Canadians! Yes first female. Big deal!!!
I think Jeremy should have won! His dishes were more complex and innovative. Based on the judges’ reaction to Jeremy’s dishes, I thought he was going to win. I agree with TLO, this contest was rigged!
That’s true! Jeremy’s dish was better.. Watching the judges reaction and comments…bias.
I knew a long time ago Mary was going to win. I realized this for sure when they picked her chicken and waffles. She should not have won that one either. I believe Matthew really beat her and she should have had the challenge with Jeremy but it is what it is show bizz.
Exactly! The show was so biased in her favour it isn’t even funny. They had to kill of Matthew to ensure a clear path to victory. They knew Jeremy would be close enough that they would make it look like she won. Even in this case they didn’t manage to pull it off and we all know she lost in reality.
Just because your preferred contestant didn’t win – it’s all a conspiracy!
I’m thrilled that Mary won. I’m really tired of hearing people say they want to represent their cultures all the time. Mary proved that Canadians have their own unique culture and our food is as good as anybody’s.
Ya right. surf and turf??? Canadian???
And “sea urchin” is Canadian?
Unless you are first nation people, you are _not_ real Canadians. We are all immigrant descendants, with each of our own “unique” culture.
As for my opinion on the finalists, Mary has always been a safety player. Haven’t seen anything other than a revved up “old school” stuffs. Also bad social skill, if anybody remember how she once trash talked about Terry when he was right there within earshot, and wondered why he was upset over what she said. Typical self-absorbed person.
I think Mary had it in the bag all season and her final meal looked and obviously tasted great. Good on you girl. Hope you get everything you want.
The top two finialist were equally perfect chefs. However I am sure that audiences would love to see a woman winning this season
The finale was a joke. Jeremy clearly beat Mary, but still, it would have been much better with a showdown of Matthew and Jeremy. I don’t think Mary’s cooking was creative at all and the desert looked rather unappetizing to say the least. Not a true MasterChef, we will have to see what each of the finalist do after the show to know if the judges were really judging accurately.
For those who thought Jeremy should have won, keep in mind that the winner was likely decided not just based on the final round but over the entire competition.
At any rate, I didn’t think Jeremy decisively beat Mary in the final round. Keep in mind, none of us tasted the food.
What a disappointment!! Jeremy clearly had the better meal – creative , different , risky. Mary made soup, some steak and fried oyster, and a muffin with blueberry sauce for dessert. How amateur.
Jeremy threw in everything but the kitchen sink in that appetizer, four sushi dishes and dessert. That doesn’t make it creative! Would you like a bison entree, followed by four different raw seafood rolls and then a dessert that had cream in it? None of the dishes were connected in any way.
For those of you who think Mary won because she is a woman, how would you like it if a man won and everybody said he only won because he’s a “man”? You are sore losers.
Veronica, Matthew, the doctor and several other contestants got as much face time as Mary did on the show. She won because she’s a great chef – get over it!
I agree with you. If Jeremy had served one entree rather that 4 dishes in 1 I think he would’ve had a better change of winning. His mistake was making 4 dishes rather than 1 in the entree round.
Woow thats all I can say what a dissapointing finale.
Jermey was supposed to win.
They wanted a canadian female to win for ratings but atleast find someone other than jeremy to put her up against he outclassed her on so many levels
Why shouldn’t a Canadian win? It’s called MasterChef Canada. And, for your information, females make up half the population.
Are you Mary??? It’s so funny how you are so hard-core defending her LOL. Dude, chill.
Suck it up, not everyone thinks she deserves to win.
When Mary won with her “chicken and waffles,” I knew then and there it was rigged….and this win proved me right. Nooooo way she should have won over the complexity of Jeremy’s dishes.
Yeah, it was rigged because your favourite didn’t win. If your favourite had won, then it wouldn’t have been rigged.
This was fixed by the producers all along. There is nothing against Mary if she won it fair and square. When Claudio announced the steak as “Perfect Medium” you knew it was rigged. The steak supposedly to be medium rare and was actually overcooked to medium well. This alone should lose it already. This is unfair and disgrace and an insult to the competitors and all the TV audiences. They just didn’t want two Filipino guys and a Chinese woman in the top three and the finale.
Another questionable call was when Mary won the challenge with her fish and chips. Both Jeremy and Mathew created more complex dishes. I find it hard to believe that the chefs chose Mary’s simplistic fish and chips dish over the complex and innovative dishes prepared by Mathew and Jeremy.
Mary cannot honestly believe that she deserves the title “Master Chef”! She should do the right thing and relinquish her title to Jeremy.
When I watched all the episodes unfolding. I could tell who was going to leave and who would be the final winner. Mary ‘s cooking was not that spectacular. Take a look at her dessert in the finale. Basically is a blueberry cornmeal muffin with ice cream and pop corn. Her dessert was a joke. Ridiculous to present in the final competition. On the other hand Jeremy had created a new dessert to wow all the judges. Jeremy’s fusion cuisine is innovative and creative and this is what the judges are preaching and looking for throughout the shows. The winner is pre-determined. You can tell through the editing of each episodes. You cannot fool all the TV audiences.