Finally! The winner of MasterChef 2016 has been announced.

The winner of the 2016 Masterchef has been announced after a final that cut closer than the blade of a freshly sharpened Shun.

Elena Duggan has taken home the title and the prizes with an incredible 86 points scored over the three final rounds.

The competition truly boiled down to the final round where both contestants struggled to recreate a diabolically difficult dessert.

Coffee-roaster Matt Sinclair was pit against teacher Elena Duggan after their impressive semi-final dishes scored them a place in the final round.

The prize this year is $250,000 cash as well as a magazine column.

The final showdown saw the contestants battle it out to capture points over three main rounds:

The first round offered contestants 30 points for a 60-minute dish based around one ingredient.

Duggan plated marron with a dashi dressing while Sinclair presented confit quail with a corn and chorizo salsa.

The second round once again offered 30 points for a main that could take any cuisine with any ingredients.

Sinclair cooked crispy skin barramundi with brussels sprouts with a prawn and pancetta broth while Duggan hit back with a twice-cooked lamb with pickled beets and vegetables.

The final round for a whopping 40 points and over five and a half hours was a challenge to recreate a Heston Blumenthal dessert of a verjuice egg.

But don't worry. The recipe only had 91 steps and according to the recipe listed in his book Historic Heston, a mere 45 ingredients:

Milk chocolate. cocoa powder, whipping cream, golden syrup, honey, kirsch, lemons, limes, oranges, orange blossom water, caster sugar, Triple Sec, vanilla pods, cocoa butter, red food coloring, yellow food coloring, white food coloring, white chocolate, mandarin orange purée, eggs, gelatin powder , pasteurized egg yolks, Greek yogurt, guar gum, Campari, mead, coffee beans, lemon thyme, golden caster sugar, all-purpose flour, vanilla powder, feuilletine, pectin jaune, fructose, glucose, powdered citric acid, clarified butter, kataifi pastry, liquid nitrogen, lemon purée, blood orange purée, pink grapefruit purée, verjus du Périgord, sterilising tablets and kabosu juice.

Both contestants worked their fingers, hearts and minds to the bone but there could only be one winner.

The series may have come to an end but it's worth reflecting on the efforts both finalists made in its last leg.

Duggan won her place in the final with a lemon myrtle tuna and nicoise salad with a bush tomato dressing.

Sinclair similarly wowed judges with a confit duck leg with pumpkin and date reduction that looked fit for a queen.

It was a close-call and after an even more surprising season.

Let's all get ready to sit back and say: "yeah, I could do that" next year.