Greg Gayne/FOXWe enjoyed watching Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliot play nice while it lasted.
Ramsay crowned the first-ever winner of the U.S. version of MasterChef Junior on tonight's finale, the competition coming down in the end to 13-year-old Alexander Weiss vs. 12-year-old Dara Yu for the grand prize—a trophy, $100,000 and school yard bragging rights.
MasterChef season four winner Luca Manfé was in the kitchen to help cheer the kids along as each tackled the task at hand: Preparing, in Joe's words, a "perfectly composed" three-course meal in 90 minutes.
So, who took the cake? Pastry expert Alexander from New York, who was the frontrunner all along, or patient, composed Dara, from Culver City, Calif.
It was Alexander who won by a nose.
Though though judges expressed concern that the curly-haired teen had bit off more than he could chew in 90 minutes, he wowed them as always with the finished product.
Dara shined brighter in the appetizer round, her ahi tuna duo showing more technical prowess than Alexander's shrimp and heirloom tomato crostini, but the slightly older contestant came powering back in the entrée round after Dara presented shrimp that were overcooked by about a minute and Alexander served the best-looking veal chop "anywhere in the country tonight," according to Ramsay.
It was neck-and-neck after dessert, with Dara's sophisticated poached pear with lemon-ginger miso sauce and Alexander's deconstructed cannoli both wowing the judges.
But probably the sweetest part of the night, aside from Alexander's big win?
Dara suffered a bout of light-headedness with about 20 minutes left to go and Alexander actually stopped what he was doing to give her a reassuring pat on the back.
We won't be seeing that anytime soon amid the field of discontent the judges take pride in sowing on regular MasterChef, where contestants won't even loan each other butter, right?
At least the junior version has been renewed for season two. We'll see Gordon, Joe and Graham's less prickly twins next year!