Fox"The question of the year: Addison or Avery?"
MasterChef Junior's fourth season came to a close on Friday night, crowning its first female winner ever. The final two chefs left standing in Gordon Ramsay's culinary challenge were two nine-year-olds Addison Osta Smith, from River Forest, Ill., and Avery Kyle, from Baton Rouge, La.
"This is the battle of the A's...this is the battle of the nine-year-olds...this is the battle of the girls," Addison said at the beginning of the Fox reality hit's finale.
And after a three-course showdown, "It all comes down to who has the best menu overall," judge Graham Elliot said. So who had the three-course best menu? The winner of MasterChef Junior season four was...Addison, who also happens to be the MasterChef spinoff's youngest winner ever.
Addison, who wore her signature backwards hat during each episode and won more challenges than any other competitor throughout the season, takes home the $100,000 grand prize and the coveted MasterChef Junior trophy. She follows previous winners Alexander Weiss, Logan Guleff and Nathan Odom.
From the season premiere, Addison was confident in her culinary skills, telling Gordon, "I can go to the finale and then from there I'm going to win."
Sadly, fans should prepare themselves for the lack of Graham Elliot moving forward in the MasterChef franchise, as the judge announced he was departing in December 2015. "It has been an awesome experience to be part of the MasterChef family," Elliot said in a statement. "I learned so much from the people I got to work with and it has been a true honor to share my love of cooking with the audiences who have allowed me into their homes over the last six years."
A replacement for Elliot will be announced later this year.