MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking reality show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Endemol Shine Australia and screens on Network 10.
Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's original hosts and judges until 2019, when they were replaced by Series 4 winner and chef Andy Allen, food critic Melissa Leong, and restaurateur and chef Jock Zonfrillo. After Zonfrillo's sudden death and Leong's departure, Allen was joined by Series 1 runner-up Poh Ling Yeow, food writer Sofia Levin and French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.
The series has also spawned five spin-off series: Celebrity MasterChef Australia, which featured celebrity contestants, Junior MasterChef Australia, which featured younger contestants, MasterChef Australia All-Stars, which featured returning contestants from the first three series, MasterChef Australia: The Professionals, which featured professional chefs as contestants, and Dessert Masters, which featured professional pastry chefs.
Format
MasterChef Australia has a different format from that of the original British MasterChef and MasterChef Goes Large formats. Initial rounds consist of a large number of hopeful contestants from across Australia individually "auditioning" by presenting a food dish before the three judges in order to gain one of 50 semi-final places. Entrants must be over 18 years old and their main source of income cannot come from preparing and cooking fresh food in a professional environment.
The semi-finalists then compete in several challenges that test their food knowledge and preparation skills. In series 1, the top 50 competed until 20 were left, with the final 20 progressing to the main stage of the show. From series 2 onwards, 24 contestants progress. The contestants will then be whittled down through a number of individual and team-based cooking challenges and weekly elimination rounds until a winning MasterChef is crowned. The winner plays for a prize that includes chef training from leading professional chefs, the chance to have their own cookbook published, and A$250,000 in cash.
Episodes
MasterChef Australia airs five nights a week from Sunday to Thursday. Each night features a different episode format, however some episodes modify the format slightly. The typical episode formats are as follows:
Sunday is the Challenge night. From series 3, it can range from a variety of challenges, including a Mystery Box, where each contestant is given the same box of ingredients and are to create a dish using only those ingredients. The judges then pick three dishes based on technique and visual appearance alone and a winner is chosen. There can also be an Invention Test, where contestants have to invent a dish relevant to a theme using a core ingredient. There can also be Off-Site Challenges and Team Challenges, which often involve cooking for large numbers of people. The top three contestants who made the best dishes are selected by the judges, from which a winner is chosen to compete in the Immunity Challenge. After this the bottom three are revealed, who will face off in an elimination challenge the next night. In the first two series, it would always consist of a Mystery Box, where the winner was able to choose the core ingredient for the Invention Test.
Monday episodes feature the Pressure Test. The bottom three from the previous night's challenge are given a recipe for a particular dish they are to emulate in an allocated time. Once completed they are taken in to the judges to be tasted, before all three contestants are seated in front of the judges for critiquing. The judges then eliminate the contestant out of the three that performed least adequately in the test.
Tuesday episodes feature the Immunity Challenge, where the winner of the Sunday challenge competes against a guest, which can vary from a chef, apprentice, or to a home cook in a cook off. The contestant is given the choice of two pantries of ingredients they can use, usually contrasting such as "Black" and "White". The contestant gets a head start to complete the dish before their opponent starts cooking and after the allotted time for both is finished, the dishes are presented to the judges for tasting and scoring out of ten. The judges are not aware which dish was made by which person, however. If the contestant's dish's score is equal to or higher than that of the guest, they are crowned the winner of the challenge. In the first series they are given a free pass to the finals week of the competition and can go home. From series 2 onwards, they receive a pin that allows them to save themselves from one future elimination.
Wednesday features a Team Challenge. The contestants are split into teams, and are given a task, and a set amount of time to complete the challenge. Tasks have included presenting a three course meal to a celebrity guest, running a restaurant for an evening or catering an event such as a birthday party or wedding. Once completed and judged the teams are given the results, which can be determined by which team the judges think did the best, or receiving the most votes or making the most money by the people the teams had to cook for, with members of the losing team facing an elimination the next night. The winning team safe from elimination receives a reward (for example lunch at a top restaurant).
Thursday is another Elimination. The two worst performing contestants from the losing team in the team challenge compete against each other in a head-to-head challenge to determine who will be eliminated. The loser of the challenge is then eliminated. On some occasions, all members of the losing team will be selected to compete as individuals in the elimination challenge. In the first series, a different elimination process was used. The contestants from the losing team were to vote for a contestant that they each feel did not perform to their best and may have cost them the challenge. After voting the team is called in together to announce the results of the vote, with the contestant with the most votes being eliminated from the competition. If the previous challenge was an individual challenge, the bottom two contestants competed in a head-to-head taste test where one contestant at a time named one ingredient of a particular dish or sauce, and the first person to name an incorrect ingredient is eliminated. MasterClass airs on Thursday following the elimination show and is generally limited to themed weeks. Here, judges George, Gary and Matt run a masterclass for the remaining contestants, which usually call back to some of the challenges from the previous week. For example, they may revisit the Mystery Box challenge and demonstrate some other dishes that could have been made or redo one of the contestants' dishes to give tips on how it could have been improved.
Back to Win Episodes
For series 12, the weekly format was modified to air a Team Challenge on Mondays, Pressure Tests on Tuesdays, Mystery Box on Wednesdays, Immunity Challenge on Thursdays and an All-In Elimination Challenge on Sundays. While an Immunity Pin was offered in the first challenge of the series, the Pins (as a regular weekly feature) were replaced with "Weekly Immunity", granting a contestant safety from the week's All-In Elimination, which involved all contestants except for one immune contestant. Immunity Challenges no longer involved competing against well-known chefs (hence there being no need for a mentor), and instead involved one or two challenge rounds which contestants progressed through to win Immunity. This format is also used in series 13.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the format for Series 12 was changed again, to a three-day format from mid-June, in which the winners of the Mystery Box on Monday participated in the Immunity Challenge on Tuesday. The winner of the challenge was immune from Sunday's All-In Elimination. Pressure Tests and Team Challenges were discarded and only one contestant was eliminated each week.
Hosts and judges
Main series
+ Timeline of hosts, judges and other personnelStarring Series 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1718 Gary Mehigan colspan="1" colspan="10" colspan="7" George Calombaris colspan="1" colspan="10" colspan="7" Matt Preston colspan="1" colspan="10" colspan="7" Sarah Wilson colspan="1" colspan="17" Matt Moran colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="14" Jock Zonfrillo colspan="9" colspan="2" colspan="4" colspan="3" Melissa Leong colspan="11" colspan="4" colspan="3" Andy Allen colspan="3" Contestant colspan="7" colspan="7" Poh Ling YeowContestant colspan="5" colspan="3" Contestant colspan="3" Jean-Christophe Novelli colspan="15" colspan="3" Sofia Levin colspan="15" colspan="3m" Curtis Stone colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="13" TBA Adriano Zumbo colspan="4" colspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="2" Julie Goodwin Contestant colspan="3" colspan="3" Contestant TBA Heston Blumenthal colspan="1" colspan="10" colspan="2" colspan="4" Darren Purchese colspan="1" colspan="6" colspan="1" colspan="5" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="2" Shannon Bennett colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="4" colspan="3" colspan="1" TBA Maggie Beer colspan="1" colspan="10" colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="1" TBA Peter Gilmore colspan="1" colspan="4" colspan="1" colspan="5" colspan="3" TBA Rick Stein colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="3" colspan="2" Luke Nguyen colspan="2" colspan="4" colspan="6" colspan="2" colspan="2" Kylie Kwong colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="12" Nigella Lawson colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="4" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="5" Marco Pierre White colspan="2" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="4" Massimo Bottura colspan="3" colspan="2" colspan="3" colspan="5" Jamie Oliver colspan="3" colspan="10" colspan="2" colspan="2" Kirsten Tibballs colspan="4" colspan="7" TBA Martin Benn colspan="5" colspan="5" colspan="2" colspan="5" Anna Polyviou colspan="6" colspan="3" colspan="6" colspan="2" Callum Hann Contestantcolspan="5" colspan="1" colspan="3" Contestantcolspan="1" colspan="2" Contestant Billie McKay colspan="6" Contestant colspan="2" colspan="2" Contestant colspan="4" Reynold Poernomo colspan="6" Contestant colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="1" Contestant colspan="2" colspan="4" Yotam Ottolenghi colspan="8" colspan="5" Clare Smyth colspan="8" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="4" colspan="2" Matt Sinclair colspan="7" Contestant colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="3" colspan="1" colspan="3" Gordon Ramsay colspan="9" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="1" colspan="4" colspan="1" TBA
Spin-off series
+ Timeline of hosts and judgesStarring Seasons C1 J1 J2 TP J3 C2 DM1 DM2 Gary Mehigan colspan="4" colspan="5" George Calombaris colspan="4" colspan="5" Matt Preston colspan="2" colspan="4" Anna Gare colspan="1" colspan="2" colspan="6" Matt Moran colspan="2" colspan="6" Marco Pierre White colspan="4" colspan="1" colspan="4" Jock Zonfrillo colspan="5" colspan="2" colspan="2" Andy Allen colspan="5" colspan="2" colspan="2" Melissa Leong colspan="5" colspan="4" Amaury Guichon colspan="7" colspan="2"
Winners
Main series