‘Top Chef’ Crowns a Winner in First World All-Stars Finale: ‘A Monumental Finish’ (Exclusive)

The Bravo 'Top Chef' World All-Stars finale came down to Buddha Lo, Sara Bradley, and Gabriel Rodriguez

Warning: This article includes spoilers for Top Chef World All-Stars.

Buddha Lo is the first-ever Top Chef World All-Star!

The Chinese-Australian chef, who also won Top Chef season 19 last year, was crowned the season 20 Top Chef World All-Stars winner on Thursday night's finale of the Bravo cooking competition series. For the first time ever, this season, the show featured 16 all-star chefs picked from the original U.S. series and its 29 international versions (France, Canada, the Middle East, and Brazil, to name a few). While they mostly battled it out in London, the finale took place in Paris.

Lo sealed his win with a four-course meal inspired by all the cultures he collectively represents. Along with Lo, finalists Sara Bradley and Gabriel Rodriguez were tasked with cooking “whatever you like” in a four-course progressive meal representing who they are as chefs, as explained by host Padma Lakshmi, who recently announced this will be her last season after 17 years.

Lo spoke with PEOPLE about what his win means and how he crafted his history-making menu.

“There wasn't so much of a gap between seasons, it's very hard to conceptualize the best meal of your life when you just only had maybe three months to prepare from it from your last finale,” the champ says of his last win in Houston. “So I really needed to think about the season, who I am as a chef, who I represent.”

Related: 'Top Chef's Buddha Lo Jokes His 'Marry Me Pasta' Could Have Been Named 'Divorce Me Pasta' If He Lost

He adds: “I know that, coming into the show, it's like, ‘Is he Australian? Is he representing America? His parents are from Hong Kong and Malaysia. What is his identity and who is he representing?’ I thought that by doing a menu to show that I represent these places is important to show because this is Top Chef: World,” he says. “I am showing parts of the world and not just one area and bringing it together."

Lo, who’s the executive chef at HŪSO, a fine-dining restaurant inside Marky's Caviar in New York City, ultimately made rainbow trout with clam velouté inspired by New England clam chowder, blue lobster with squash and curry bisque to represent his Malaysian background and ngau lam with lamb and roasted eggplant and lamb croquette inspired by a Hong Kong dish.

His final course was a coconut, raspberry and chocolate lamington — an ode to his favorite Australian dessert.

Lakshmi, judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons and guest judge, esteemed chef Hélène Darroze ultimately crowned him a back-to-back winner.

“It's a monumental season with a monumental finish,” Lo says, noting the difference of this season versus his last. “One time, you could be on the bottom. One time, you could be on top. It was a much harder season, even though that I won a few of the challenges. But still very hard.”

Lo, who was a clear frontrunner, earning several challenge wins throughout season 20, says he didn’t let his ego get in the way.

“I tried not to think about it too much. I think that Top Chef, as much as you think that it could be physically demanding, it's very mentally demanding and you cannot get comfortable. I obviously was starting to feel that I was starting to take a little bit of the lead, but also, at the same time, I was never comfortable with it,” he says. “So it's all those sort of things where you just have to really think about it and not get too ahead of yourself. I was extremely proud to be able to win so many challenges in probably arguably one of the hardest seasons of all time.”

Related: 'Top Chef' Crowns a New Winner: 'It Was Always Win or Nothing'

Lo says he still doesn't know how to use the $250,000 cash prize that comes with the title, but one thing's for certain: he’s just very grateful. “We are looking at getting a restaurant started up and hopefully a family. So those sort of things, those all help,” says the chef, who’s married to wife Rebekah Pedler.

Lo, who says he’s dedicated “one whole year” to Top Chef between his two wins, feels “relief” after making history with his new title.

“I feel like season 19 and 20 molded into one journey, and I felt like this journey is quite a special one because for so many reasons there's never been a back-to-back winner,” he says. “So I feel really honored, and I feel a lot of relief that it's finally came to an end. And I got to get my full experience of just being able to do it twice and making it all the way twice, as well. So it's been incredible.”

Related: Padma Lakshmi Announces She’s Leaving ‘Top Chef’ After 17 Years: 'Time to Move On'

Although this season proved to be “one of the hardest,” Lo shares what he embraced this time around.

“I think I learned to have fun. That's the number one thing,” he says. “I think that coming back into it, I felt like there was times and moments where I just didn't really soak up my scenery, soak up where I am at, even just from hanging out with the chefs behind the scenes, just not take it too seriously. When the competition is [on], make sure that you are serious, but you also look around and go, ‘This is definitely not going to happen again. So I just got to really enjoy being there and really embrace it.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Lo, who didn’t know that it was host Padma Lakshmi’s last season until the news broke last week, said that made this season feel even more memorable.

“I think that finding out and then realizing what's to come…really changed everything. It made such a meaningful season be even more meaningful,” he says. “The final three is so lucky to be a part of a final episode and that it's coming to a full circle.”

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.