The winner of the inaugural MasterChef Singapore has been announced and it's 30-year-old IT manager Zander Ng.

Ng beat fellow finalist Genevieve Lee, 20, in the final challenge where both had to create a five-course Asian-inspired banquet in two-and-a-half hours. The criteria was that the banquet had to consist of meat, fish, vegetable, starch and dessert.

Here's Ng's menu:

1. Flank steak with Asian chimichurri
2. Pan-seared red snapper with beurre blanc
3. Shaved fennel marinated with soy, honey and lime
4. Fettuccine carbonara with Szechuan peppercorns
5. Ondeh ondeh panna cotta

Here are some photos of Ng's dishes:

According to the judges, Damian D’Silva, Audra Mortice, and Bjorn Shen, each of Ng's dishes managed to highlight one Asian ingredient. They were bowled over by all his dishes except for the ondeh ondeh panna cotta, which did not bear any resemblance to actual panna cotta. 

Ng won S$10,000 in cash, a S$2,000 Cold Storage shopping voucher, a book deal with Marshall Cavendish, and kitchen appliances from Ariston, KitchenAid, Thermomix, and Whirlpool. He also won three-month internships at Shen and D'Silva's restaurants - Artichoke and Folklore, respectively. 

On the other hand, the judges found Lee's feast very visually appealing with a variety of colours.

1. Duck confit with candied orange
2. Clam mornay
3. Roasted eggplant with Szechuan peppercorn yogurt sauce
4. Herb quinoa salad
5. Red wine fig mochi

Here are some shots of Lee's dishes:

Ultimately though, the judges went with Ng, even though D'Silva found bones in his snapper and the panna cotta wasn't up to standard.

Netizens cry 'kelong'

Lee's loss did not sit well with netizens, particularly in light of Ng's failed dessert (some say it resembles green diarrhoea) and improperly filleted snapper.

Many of them claimed that the decision to award Ng boiled down to "marketability", Ng's good looks, and even his gender.

One of them even linked the decision to Cold Storage, MasterChef Singapore's sponsor.

Many people online agree that Lee is the more proficient and creative chef.

A more legitimate concern was the lack of transparency in the judging criteria. The show did not seem to touch on the rubrics for judging and instead jumped straight to announcing Ng as the winner.

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MasterChef Singapore to troll: "Why are you like that?"

Some of the comments got personal, triggering the admin of MasterChef Singapore to respond, even though in all likelihood, the admins of the page have nothing to do with executive decisions relating to the show:

We leave you with this particular comment:

Most of us should stick to eating too.

Screenshots of dishes from Toggle. Screenshots of comments from Facebook. Top images via Masterchef Singapore Facebook.