Gary has been crowned champion of MasterChef: The Professionals 2016

He triumphed over Elly and Matt in a tense finale



After seven gruelling weeks, Gary has been crowned champion of this year's MasterChef: The Professionals.

Tonight's (December 22) tense finale saw our three finalists - Gary, Elly and Matt - charged with making the "best three courses of your career" by Marcus Wareing. No pressure there, then.

Over the course of three hours, they each delivered a starter, main and dessert in a bid to impress Marcus and Monica Galetti, as well as MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace.

Among the mouthwatering dishes served were Gary's loin of roe deer served with whisky washed carrots, Elly's lamb three ways and Matt's fillet of Dexter beef with goose fat potatoes and a port wine sauce.

Following his win, Gary described it as an "amazing journey".

"This is the biggest competition I think that any professional chef can put themselves through and to stand here at the end is incredible. I just ran out of words to be honest," he enthused.

Gregg praised the winner for forging his "own style of cookery": "It's modern, it's of the moment and I think it's fantastic."

One of the dishes that propelled Gary to victory was his razor clams starter.

"It's absolutely outstanding. There's freshness, there's the ocean, there's the taste of the razor clam. They're not tough, they're not under-cooked, they're absolutely perfect," Marcus explained.

"That, for me, is a dish that would come from any three-star Michelin kitchen in Europe. Best razor clam dish I've ever eaten."