MasterChef: The Professionals 2026 winner revealed

Private chef Gareth Baty has been crowned winner of MasterChef: The Professionals 2026.  

 

By taking home the coveted trophy, Baty has joined the likes of Craig Johnston, Stu Deeley, Alex Webb, Nikita Pathakji, Tom Hamblet and 2024’s winner, Dan Merriman.

 

Over the past seven weeks, the 40-year-old took on 31 other ambitious professional chefs, having impressed judges Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and Matt Tebbutt with his imaginative food and skilful cookery.

 

Even food critics William Sitwell and Tom Parker Bowles were full of praise for Baty’s quarter-final halibut dish with beer-battered mussels.

 

 

Baty is a self-taught chef originally from Carlisle, Cumbria, who joined the hospitality industry later in life. His first foray into cooking involved hosting supper clubs in his east London flat.

 

He has since worked in New York, cooking soul food in Harlem, at Berner’s Tavern in London’s Fitzrovia, and even on a farm in the Lake District prior to launching private chef business the Wandering Cumbrian, which offers private dining, pop-ups and kitchen takeovers.

 

Baty now lives in Whitefield, Greater Manchester, with his wife Katherine and two children.

 

What went down at the MasterChef: The Professionals Grand Final?

During finals week, Baty competed against Caroline Meyer Kerber (who left the show on Monday having reach the final four), and runners-up Luke Emmess and Mark O’Brien.

 

For their final task, which aired this evening (26 March), the final three had to cook a three-course meal in three hours for the MasterChef judges.

 

 

Baty’s winning menu was an ode to his family. The starter was his take on a prawn cocktail for his mother, consisting of langoustine and green apple tartar with a kefir and caviar sauce split with dill oil, topped with a tomato tuille, dusted with tomato powder and served with a marie rose langoustine mayonnaise.

 

In memory of his dad, who he lost while Baty was at university, the chef prepared a main of chicken and chips, featuring chicken breast roulade wrapped in a chicken and truffle mousse with king oyster mushroom and tarragon mayonnaise, served with a side of shoestring fries, finished with a madeira sauce.

 

To close, he prepared a dessert dedicated to his fiancée’s family, which was a twist on the Brandy Alexander cocktail, featuring a layer of milk chocolate cremeux and dulce de leche cremeux, topped with a brandy snap and brandy poached pears, finished with a ginger and brandy sauce.

 

After tasting the three dishes, Wareing said to Baty: “Three very different stories for three or four very different people who mean something to you. You finished off with an absolute knockout three-course menu, congratulations, well done. Loved it.”

 

Reacting to his win, Baty said: “I’ve taken so much more from the competition than I thought. It’s changed me as a person; it’s changed me as a chef. Now that I’m standing here holding this trophy, it’s given me a whole new road to travel on and I’m going to go all the way down it.”

 

Over the years, MasterChef: The Professionals has produced 19 winners. Applications for MasterChef: The Professionals 2027 are now open.

 

Photography: Shine TV/BBC