'MasterChef' Season 12 Winner Shocks Fans, Who Claim They Were Played

MasterChef: Back to Win fans have been left shocked by the winner of the show's twelfth season.

The Fox cooking show aired its grand finale on Wednesday, but some viewers were already convinced they knew the winner ahead of the episode.

Michael Silverstein, Christian Green and Dara Yu were the last chefs standing in the MasterChef final, after judges Aarón Sánchez, Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich whittled down the lineup, originally formed of 20 returning MasterChef contestants from previous seasons.

This cast included two former MasterChef Junior contestants who came back to compete as adults, one of which was Yu.

Yu, who appeared on season 1 of MasterChef Junior, has been crowned the winner of MasterChef: Back to Win, beating out her fellow contestants Silverstein and Green.

The chef wowed the judges with her crispy skin red snapper, Chinese-style short ribs, and stunning dessert of vanilla ile flottante, a dish made with meringue floating on top of créme Anglaise.

While viewers were delighted for Yu they were somewhat surprised after previously being sure Silverstein was the winner, due to a commercial seemingly dropping a clue that he was the Season 12 champion.

Food delivery service Grubhub released a series of advertisements in August to support the partnership with MasterChef. One of the commercials, which aired during the August 31 MasterChef episode, showed Silverstein alongside three other past contestants who all won their respective seasons.

Kelsey Murphy, Season 11's winner, Dorian Hunter, who won Season 10, and Season 9 champion Gerron Hurt all appeared in the commercial alongside Silverstein, leading fans to believe that Silverstein's involvement hinted at this future win.

Following Yu's win during the MasterChef finale on September 14, surprised fans took to Reddit to say that they had been "played" by Grubhub.

Reddit user Metal_Eevee joked: "Note to self: don't use grubhub for faking me out like that," as Ripwitch posted: "That GrubHub commerical played us lol."

"Grubhub trolled us alll! Congrats to Dara! Definitely deserved that win," added DangerousDarius, while Spideraxe30 declared: "GRUBHUB AD WAS A FALSE FLAG."

Another user, hunnid-bandz, also commented, asking: "Ayo did grubhub play us all?"

Yu, 21, is the youngest person ever to win the MasterChef: Back to Win title. She has walked away with a $250,000 grand prize.

Revealing what she plans to do with her winnings, Yu told TVInsider: "I think especially at my age it's important to be financially responsible. I've basically been a student my entire life. I want to be able to have that money for the rest of my life.

"Definitely want to invest a good amount of that into investments and projects and business ideas I have. I also think I need to celebrate, take a trip, and travel. I also love cars. Maybe a vintage car? We'll see."