The three semi-finalists were tasked with designing their own menu, and making a three-course meal for 20 diners and the judges, under the watchful eye of Curtis Stone.

When coming up with her menu, Savindri knew exactly what she wanted to achieve, and what she wanted to show the judges in what would be her last cook in the competition.

"I knew it was going to be a chance to showcase all that Sri Lankan food could be," Sav explained to 10 Play. "I had done the job of representing parts of it, showing different components and very traditional aspects for the most part.

"I wanted to lean into that, but make it really elegant, while staying true to the big, bold flavours I love and just really show Australia that just because you come from any of the countries in South Asia where we're known for spices, doesn't mean that there's a lack of refinement.

"That was a big goal for me, which I felt honoured to achieve."

Sav's menu began with a kalu pol pork belly with a blackened coconut spice mix and kithul pani glaze, a turmeric potato purée with pickled onion and parsley salsa. Following that, her main dish was a ghee-poached lobster, hodi, salsa and a chili dahl purée.

Finally, for dessert, Sav served a salted Greek yogurt and lemongrass sorbet amuse-bouche alongside a tropical dessert of coconut water jelly veil, mango, pineapple and coconut.

The challenge was difficult for all three chefs, on their feet for five hours churning out courses.

"We did the same thing on the second day of the competition [but] with ten other people on the team," Sav added. "Nat, Pezza and I did this by ourselves, and a similar number of plates so there was a lot to do and manage on your own.

"For me, it was a lesson in learning to edit, which has been my feedback from the judges throughout the competition as well."

While she was extremely proud of her whole menu, her dessert was especially a point of pride. "I didn't want to use an existing concept, I'd rather approach it as the sum of its parts... and the dessert was special because it's a core memory of mine, eating jelly my grandma used to make with fruit studded into it."

Unfortunately, mostly down to time management issues, Sav's dishes just didn't impress the judges as much as the other two and by the end of the marathon challenge, it was her time to hang up her apron.

"There's always that disappointment because you want to get to the end but, after that cook, I felt a sense of relief."

Looking back on everything Sav had achieved in the competition, she couldn't help but hold her head up high. It also wasn't a foreign feeling for her, having been briefly eliminated earlier in the season -- only to win her place back the very next day in a redemption cook.

"When I got eliminated first I wasn't ready to go, it just felt like unfinished business for me," she explained. "Leaving at the end of the semis didn't feel like unfinished business, it felt like the chapter ended and the book needed to be closed. It was the right time.

"I'm not leaving upset or sad or anything, I'm leaving just intensely proud of myself."

During the competition, Sav was often praised for her ability to work with spices, highlighting Sri Lankan cuisine at any opportunity. Like many South Asian chefs in the competition, she was aware that she could face criticism from viewers that she "only makes curry", overly simplifying the richness and diversity of the cuisine she set out to honour.

"I still made the conscious decision to make Sri Lankan food because that's the whole point. The more I talk about my heritage and my cuisine, of my people and my country, the more I dispel the ignorance around it and the more I make people understand the level of nuance and skill that it takes to do what I do."

"I make cooking Sri Lankan food look easy because I'm damn good at it," she continued. "It's actually really hard and complex, there's so much skill that's not documented and it's hard to teach, it comes with instinct. I know because I've spent a long time cooking it, and I've learned from my mum.

"I just wanted to play a part in opening the conversation up, dispelling the myth that there are cuisines outside of Europe and outside of the Western world, they deserve to be celebrated just as much, there's a lot of skill that's involved in all of those as well."

And the response has been massive, not just from Sri Lankans seeing their dishes represented on Aussie screens, but fans across Australia too who have been exposed to more dishes through her time in the kitchen.

"It's been incredibly humbling and also validating that I made the right choice in representing my cultural identity," Sav said.

Sav also spoke often about her late mother's impact on her love of cooking, honouring her memory through the dishes they would make together and the lessons she was taught. It was difficult, but Sav said she knew that if she wanted to do well in the competition she needed to "crack herself open".

"That was the whole point of being in the competition," Sav explained, "to get myself out of my comfort zone and my comfort zone, for a very long time, was hiding behind this massive wall of grief.

"I knew I needed to be open, vulnerable, and not let that grief be the driver of everything I do. Rather, turn it into a form of gratitude that I can express," she continued.

"It's where my growth happened, and I'm glad our judges saw it... I felt a lot lighter than I did at the beginning of the competition, I felt like the only things I had to prove were things I wanted to prove to myself. I wanted to celebrate my Mum, and I did my absolute job of that every step of the way.

"Everything I do, everything I learned is from my mum. Being able to channel that into something positive and just go, 'I’m grateful I’ve been so blessed to be able to do this', was a very positive thing, as hard as it was."

Now, with a world of opportunities at her feet, Sav has realised that her passion lies in teaching.

"Teaching people how to cook Sri Lankan food and spice work, the things I'm good at. That's what I want to focus on.

"If there is the opportunity to do stuff in Sri Lanka, there will be so many people that will jump on board and want to do projects with me, which very much is what I want to do as well. So, if you're planning a holiday in Sri Lanka in the next year... I might be there!"

Don't miss the Grand Finale of MasterChef Australia, Tuesday, July 16 at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play