TORONTO, December 18, 2025 — Toronto home cook Veronica Wu “wooed” the judges in the finale of MasterChef Canada on December 16th, earning the title of Season 8 MasterChef winner. Wu earns the coveted title along with $100,000 prize money.
“I think it has finally hit me that I won Season 8 of MasterChef Canada,” says Wu on a phone interview the day after her big win. Asked what was going on in her mind when she heard her name announced as the 8th MasterChef, Wu replies: “Pure excitement! I couldn’t believe I actually won MasterChef Canada Season 8, because up until the judges announced my name, there was a long pause and my heart was beating fast, and I had no idea whether I would win or not. It was especially great to have my partner and friends there at the finale. They have been supportive of me the entire run. Every Tuesday, they held a watch party. I wanted to share the good news with all my friends.”
MasterChef Canada features home cooks from across the country as they chase their culinary dreams by competing in various culinary challenges under the watchful eyes of the judges. Season 8 judges include Canadian Screen Award-winning host, cookbook author, and Season 3 MasterChef Canada winner Mary Berg; internationally acclaimed chef and cookbook author Hugh Acheson; and chef/restaurateur Craig Wong. In the finale, Veronica Wu (a Senior Data Engineering Manager from Toronto) was competing against fellow finalists Liz Worndl, a Toronto dentist, and Marianne Smeaton, a cattle rancher from Northern B.C.
Veronica Wu grew up in Tianshui, a remote and historical city in Northwest China. She immigrated to Canada 10 years ago to pursue her education. She credits her parents and grandparents as her inspiration behind her culinary passion.
“My inspiration was from my childhood and cooking with my parents and grandparents,” explains Wu. “I spent a lot of time with my grandparent,s who cooked every day for me until I graduated from high school. A lot of my dishes are from them. I have been in Canada for 10 years, so I also got a lot of influence and inspiration from being in Toronto, where there is so much diversity and so many types of cuisine that I did not get a chance to experience in my home city.”
For the finale, the three finalists were tasked with creating and plating their dream three-course menu in three hours. The goal was to show the judges how their cooking progressed during the competition and to tell a story about themselves through their cooking. Each course was served to the judges with the title of Canada’s next MasterChef and the $100,000 prize within reach. While Liz Worndl and Marianne Smeaton created exceptional dishes, it was Veronica Wu’s three-course menu inspired by her Chinese background that impressed the judges and earned her the coveted win.
“I made things that I enjoy eating,” explains Wu. “These are the foods that I cook for myself, but with a twist, since it was the MasterChef finale and the judges were expecting more. I really like dumplings, and I cook them all the time, the way my grandpa taught me. Peking Duck is such a classic in Chinese cooking, but I added a soy reduction, which adds some sweetness to the sauce, as well as the eggplant. For dessert, I made cream puffs, which are one of my favourite things to make. I was happy to make them on TV, and to make it fancy, I made corn ice cream and sweet uni foam. Making corn ice cream and sweet uni foam was a risk, both flavour combination wise and technique wise. I had never tried this dessert combination before.” (Uni foam is a Spanish tapa made from creamy sea urchin gonads (uni) blended with egg yolks, cream and sparkling wine into a foamy upscale delicacy)
After being crowned the winner, one of the first things Wu did was to call her mother in China to tell her the news. “I called my mom in China right after we finished filming. She was so happy and so excited. I think she was shocked, actually. She was like, ‘What, you are competing in Canada with all these amazing home cooks—what did you even cook?’ She knew that I had made it this far and knew that I had been wanting to pursue my culinary career, so she was happy for me.”
In terms of the $100,000 prize money provided by CIBC, Wu states: “I don’t really have a plan yet on how to allocate the $100,000, but probably it will be used to open a café or a brunch place. I will spend some time first learning more about cooking and opening a business and will set a lot of that money aside to open a food business.”
Wu is also a risk-taker when it comes to cooking and her future aspirations. One of her dreams is to open a farm-to-table restaurant with cats and capybaras (a close relative of the guinea pig) in the yard.
“My biggest takeaway from this is seeing MasterChef not only as a cooking competition but also as a great opportunity to meet people and connect with an amazing group of friends. The biggest reward is being on the show. I did not expect that one day I would be on MasterChef Canada or that I would win the title of Season 8 MasterChef. It’s a dream come true.”
MasterChef Canada airs on CTV, and past episodes can be streamed on Crave. Season 9 has officially been renewed by CTV with the return of Judges Mary Berg, Hugh Acheson and Craig Wong. Production starts in Spring 2026 and casting for home cooks to compete is open until January 12, 2026.
Social Handles:
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by Laurie Wallace-Lynch
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