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Source: ONE News -
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A New Zealander has been crowned Britain's Masterchef on one of the UK's most popular TV shows.
Amateur cook Mat Follas, 42, impressed the judges with his mastery of wild foods.
"Basically I learnt to cook to impress women," says Follas.
Almost six million British viewers watched the final episode as Follas won the title after weeks of gruelling competition. His speciality is wild food.
"The British countryside is full of natural produce - you go out you pick nettles, you pick wild garlic things we don't have at home and it's great and I've learnt to cook with that," he says.
The winning meal was rabbit with nettles for an entree, a main of spider crab thermidor and a dessert with just a hint of Kiwi cuisine.
"I made a lavender mousse a lovely blackberry sauce to go with it, a bit of hokey pokey on the top and crumbled on the side. It's good - bit of home," says Follas.
He now plans to give up his day job in IT and open a restaurant.
"The dream was always to go back to New Zealand and open a cafe (but) I'm going to stay over here for a while longer and do it here first," he says.
The Masterchef trophy will take pride of place on the mantleplace of his new restaurant.
Note: Follas is not a competitor in the current season of Masterchef, which is screening before ONE News on weekdays. He will be in an upcoming season of the show.
