The 2022 series finale, which screened last night, saw Low far from his MIQ days, beating Elliot McClymont to win the title, scoring three perfect 10s in the final round with his "weird, wonderful" ocean-themed dessert.
Today, it's still sinking in. Speaking to the Herald, Low reveals he "didn't know how to react" when he was announced the winner.
Low says it feels "surreal" to have won the title of MasterChef. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
"I'm so grateful for the opportunity and feeling so proud of the fact that I've gone through this staying true to myself and talking about my story, and highlighting my food as well, and I think that's the ultimate win," he shares.
Low says he couldn't have picked a better person than McClymont to be in the final with.
"The competition wouldn't have been the same without him. He challenged me and pushed me to be better."
Low was a frontrunner in the competition from the beginning, but despite the fact that his culinary expertise had already earned him a social media following, he says it was MasterChef that taught him "actually, I can cook!"
"I didn't realise that was good enough to win until I started doing well in the competition and thought, actually, I might have a shot at this."
Low's dessert earned him three perfect 10s from the judges. Photo / Warner Brothers Discovery
In his final cook and throughout the competition, Low showcased his identity and his Chinese heritage through his food. It's something he took years to become comfortable with, he shares.
"It sounds weird, but I've used the show as my coming-of-age story," he says.
"And it's weird to use a reality TV format to do that, but I genuinely felt more proud and confident and found more strength in my culture and heritage and hoping to be that role model that I never had.
"If I did this competition two years ago it wouldn't be the same. I wouldn't be as proud, I wouldn't be able to talk about my story as honestly, and my food wouldn't be reflective of that. It was all in the right time, right moment."
During the final episode, his parents appeared via an iPad to wish him well ahead of the cook, and Low reveals they're "stoked" they got to be on camera.
"I think they're proud, you know. It's quite jarring and very confronting when I'm talking about things that aren't really talked about in conservative traditional households ... but we're going to have a debrief later on."
Now that MasterChef is over, Low has "a thousand things" on his foodie bucket list.
Opening his dream restaurant is one of them, but for now, he's more passionate about inspiring others to cook. He already does this on TikTok and Instagram, where he shares short how-to cooking videos to his 24,000 followers.
And it's something he wants to keep doing, whether that's through a TV show, a podcast - and of course, his MasterChef winner's cookbook deal, just one of several prizes including $6000 worth of appliances and six months' worth of groceries.
"I just want to show people, hey you can make delicious things and it's really easy and fun. I want to show people food that most Kiwis can make at home with really accessible ingredients."
