{"id":850220,"date":"2026-08-10T12:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850220\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T12:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T12:08:15","slug":"masterchef-australia-2026-vinnie-gibaldi-from-melbourne-wins-cooking-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850220\/","title":{"rendered":"MasterChef Australia 2026: Vinnie Gibaldi from Melbourne wins cooking show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Sunday night, Vinnie Gibaldi was crowned the winner of MasterChef Australia\u2019s<\/a> 18th season. The 25-year-old transplant nurse from Melbourne beat Petro Papathomas in an intense two-round cook-off that included a mystery box challenge and then a five-hour Chinese Afternoon Tea pressure test set by world-renowned pastry chef Cherish Finden. He tells national TV editor Louise Rugendyke how he made the move from \u201csandwich guy\u201d to champ, being a hit in the hospital and the meaning behind his necklace.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Vinnie! How are you feeling? <\/p>\n

Pretty good, pretty, pretty good. I\u2019m very grateful, and I\u2019m just so appreciative of everyone. I don\u2019t really have that many words because I\u2019m still lost for words at the moment.<\/p>\n

\"WinnerWinner Vinnie (centre) and judges (from left) Poh, Andy, Jean-Christophe and Sofia. Ten<\/p>\n

How long ago did you film the final? How long have you been hanging on to this for?<\/p>\n

We filmed the final in May. I was in a bit of a limbo for a while. I know how I cooked, but you don\u2019t see what happens at the other bench, and you don\u2019t see the tastings. I got a call yesterday [Sunday] morning from the producers, and that was when I found out. So I only had to hold on to it for a little bit of time, but it was nerve-wracking just trying to wrap my head around everything.<\/p>\n

How did you feel last night when you got to see everyone\u2019s reactions to your dishes in the pressure test? Cherish was pretty happy.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Race<\/a><\/p>\n

It was crazy because when that dish [Chinese Afternoon Tea] was revealed, I was like, \u201cOh no, this is the end for me.\u201d Not only were they desserts, but they were also this big [makes tiny shape with fingers], and these hands aren\u2019t really meant for things like that. So I was pretty scared. But hearing that feedback was really, really nice. All that work that I\u2019d been doing, and all that time, and all that practice led up to this, and it was awesome to do everyone proud, including Cherish.<\/p>\n

I know you were nervous, but my theory with you and fellow contestant Annabel Lloyd is that you both have nursing backgrounds, which means you\u2019re able to follow processes and not get flustered. Am I right \u2013 did nursing help?<\/p>\n

One hundred per cent. I feel like that\u2019s me, but it\u2019s also nursing, and I feel like those type of people go into nursing as well. So it\u2019s hand-in-hand. But it\u2019s definitely staying calm under pressure when something goes wrong, instead of hyper-fixating on it, just being able to brush it off was definitely a skill that I feel like came from nursing, and it was very, very helpful to me.<\/p>\n

\" Vinnie Gibaldi with judge\u00a0Jean-Christophe Novelli and Cherish Finden during the MasterChef Australia final. <\/p>\n

Do you get flustered over anything?<\/p>\n

To be honest, not really. I\u2019m usually quite calm. I feel like there\u2019s never a time where you should dwell. I\u2019ve been like that in general, just as a person, but especially at work. When something\u2019s going wrong, you can either focus on it or you can just get it done.<\/p>\n

In that final pressure test, did you notice how much Petro was struggling? He was getting quite emotional.<\/p>\n

Honestly, that cook was a blur to me. Being over five hours, but it felt like 45 minutes. Everyone was yelling, but it was just muffled. I was really locked in and focused. But after the cook, I could see he was pretty emotional, and you don\u2019t want to see that. He\u2019s still my mate. I never once thought that we were competing against each other. I thought it was always us cooking together, so that was sad for me as well.<\/p>\n

\"MasterChefMasterChef Australia finalist runner-up\u00a0Petro Papathomas. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s group seemed really collegiate. Was that the experience you thought it would be?<\/p>\n

What was a surprise was the fact that other years haven\u2019t been like this. Talking to the judges, they were like, \u201cYou guys are really close, and you seem like genuine friends\u201d, and we\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, is that not normal?\u201d I\u2019ve met like a lot of people on that show who have become my friends for life, which is pretty special. I thought it was weird that that wasn\u2019t the case for other seasons.<\/p>\n

At the beginning, you were \u201cthe sandwich guy\u201d. Did you feel like that let you fly under the radar, even though you got the apron right at the beginning?<\/p>\n

I felt a little bit of impostor syndrome. I\u2019m not discrediting my audition dish because I did make every single element, but then I was looking at what everyone else did, and what everyone else would cook. I\u2019m like: \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know how to do that\u201d, or \u201cI don\u2019t know these fancy words\u201d. I was very much a rustic Italian home cook. I felt a little bit out of my depth, but that just made me practise more and work harder to get up to scratch and do my absolute best every single day.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Our<\/a><\/p>\n

I did notice in the grand final episode you said, after the Josh Niland<\/a> cook, you bought a whole lot flathead so you could practise filleting and deboning. Is that what it was like every single night? You just finish the cook, go home and keep cooking.<\/p>\n

Every time I had a cook, and I didn\u2019t do too well, I would listen to what the judge\u2019s feedback was as gospel, and I would go home and improve, and would work and work and work, and I would practise anything. So, for example, Josh Niland, I remember going to the Vic Market, and I was like, \u201cI need to get up to scratch with this\u201d because this is a really good tool to have in my arsenal, and it proved well [Vinnie won the first round of the final cook with his grilled flathead]. But, yeah, everyone did go home afterwards and would practise, and you\u2019re always in each other\u2019s room tasting something: \u201cOh, what do you reckon of this? What do you reckon of that?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"MasterChefMasterChef Australia winner Vinnie Gibaldi said all of the contestants were quite close. <\/p>\n

In our house, we all have a crush on Jean-Christophe Novelli. He has no poker face. You always know when he likes something.<\/p>\n

John-Christophe is the loveliest man ever. Off camera, you don\u2019t see a lot of it [on TV], but he is so lovely and caring and just a genuinely nice person. We would always look at him [during judging] because he would always let it loose.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to get too political here, but when I watch MasterChef Australia, I think of comments from Pauline Hanson, where she says she wants a monoculture. For me, MasterChef is just the best example of what being a multicultural country is all about. Your family is from Italy, Petro\u2019s family is from Greece and so many of the other contestants had such a variety of backgrounds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty awesome that we live in a country that\u2019s so multicultural, and there\u2019s so many different cultures here, and they all bring something new. When I was brought up, my grandparents would tell me stories of when they came to Australia and the food that they brought. And I feel like now it\u2019s even changing again, and I feel like we\u2019re very, very lucky to have this food scene here, especially in Melbourne, that\u2019s so different, and you can go out and have cuisines from around the world, and they\u2019re all top-notch. There\u2019s a lot of places you go, you don\u2019t get that.<\/p>\n

\"VinnieVinnie with his good luck Sicilian corno necklace. <\/p>\n

Can I ask about your necklace \u2013 is it a red chilli?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Sicilian thing. They call it a corno, which is like a horn. It\u2019s like the evil eye in Greek culture, and it\u2019s meant to bring protection and good luck.<\/p>\n

Well, it worked!<\/p>\n

Yeah, I wear it every day.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it been like being back at work in the hospital while the show\u2019s been on TV. I saw some comments on Facebook where a patient said, \u201cOh, Vinnie pulled out my tube the other day, and he\u2019s such a nice young man.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was difficult going back to work, to be honest. Coming from doing what I loved every single day to going back to nursing \u2013 and nursing is, there\u2019s no sugarcoating it, it\u2019s not the nicest job in the world in terms of what you see and what you do, it\u2019s very emotional, it\u2019s sad oftentimes \u2013 but to make a difference is really important, and that\u2019s why I still do love it. But it\u2019s good being back at work in the sense of I have patients, or [other] people have patients that are like not doing so well, and obviously, they\u2019re very sad. And then my friends would be like, \u201cOh, do you watch MasterChef? Vinnie\u2019s here.\u201d And then I\u2019d come in and put a smile on their face. That\u2019s pretty cool. Nursing is still very close to my heart, but I might chop the hours.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Former<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, what are you going to do next? Have you spent any of your $250,000 yet?<\/p>\n

Not yet. At the moment I want to take every single opportunity that I can get and make the most of it, and practise and actually work in the field of hospitality, in restaurants that I can take things from and learn before I actually go out and do anything by myself. I feel like it would be dumb to just go out on a limb and not have any experience at all. I want to do a pop-up with Casper and Annabel, and I was thinking about doing a pop-up and some paninis, maybe like once a week. I don\u2019t want to rush, but I also want to make the most of it.<\/p>\n

So what was your celebratory meal, after you found out you won?<\/p>\n

We just went to the pub to watch the show, and because it\u2019s our local, they put [the final] on. I had my family and friends there, and I just had a parmie. You can\u2019t go past a good parmie at the pub.<\/p>\n

MasterChef Australia is now streaming on 10Play.<\/p>\n

Want more TV? We\u2019ve got you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-850220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}