In an even final against "Master Chef" colleague Karin Jamil, it was ultimately the 30-year-old Matilda Klarqvist who stood as the winner of the cooking program, a quarter of a million kronor and a cookbook contract richer.
The self-proclaimed vegetable ambassador has hardly grasped what has happened:
You would really like to be in the feeling now, I think. I would have liked to be 100 percent in the win. But it's maybe only in a few years that I'll understand the scope of it all, she says.
Pressure and stress
Matilda Klarqvist had no expectations of what it would mean to participate in the competition, and the qualifying round in Gävle came as a shock. The pressure and stress were worse than she could have imagined.
It's really brutal there. It's small spaces, cramped and messy, and so many people in the same place. It's really like that Korean series, "Squid game", where everyone just tries to survive, she says and laughs.
When she finally made it past the grueling qualifying round, she had a clear strategy: The competition shouldn't be about life and death, it should just be fun and playful.
I found a sense of security in that. I tried not to stress, which is easier said than done. But I went on gut feeling instead of trying to "please" the jury, she says.
Was it that attitude that made you win the whole competition, do you think?
Yes. But everyone who makes it to the top twelve is actually on exactly the same level when it comes to cooking, everyone is equally skilled. It's very subjective what you think about, and you need to be lucky to get competitions that suit you. But it's an advantage to be calm and stable, she says.
Finding her way back
Now Matilda Klarqvist is trying to "land in the win", then she'll see what's waiting. Food is her biggest passion in life, but the competition has taken its toll, she thinks:
It makes me a bit worried that I feel like I've lost a bit of love for food along the way, I hardly taste anything anymore! When you make a hobby or a passion into your job, it can become a requirement, she says and continues:
But I identify myself as a cook and food lover, and I want to find my way back to that. The dream is to be able to work with food, I just haven't quite figured out which path I want to take.
Age: 30 years.
Lives: Lidingö, Stockholm.
Current: Winner of "Sweden's Master Chef" on TV4.
