MasterChef Israel () is an Israeli reality cooking competition show that debuted on 14 October 2010 by Keshet on Channel 2 (from 2017 Keshet 12). It is based on the global MasterChef competitive cooking show television format. The show was very well received and highly acclaimed, achieving excellent reviews and high ratings.
Format The premise of the show is a cooking competition between amateur cooks, competing for the title of "MasterChef" and a kitchen renovation. The first few episodes of every series are audition episodes where contestants cook to a panel of judges who decide based on a dish cooked in front of them whether or not to pass the contestant to the next level, where a large number of the contestants chosen in the auditions are eliminated through a series of tests, until 12–14 are chosen as the show's final cast, and the members of the season's "Nivheret" (Selected Team).
The members of the "Nivheret" compete in different challenges every episodes, such as the mystery Box Challenge, the Invention Test, Dish Recreation Challenges and Taste Challenges.
Mystery Box Challenge In the Mystery Box Challenge contestants receive a number of ingredients of which they are to make a dish of their choice. The contestants are allowed to use any number of the ingredients they are given as they wish, and are free to leave out any ingredients.
The Invention Test The Invention Test requires of the contestants to make a dish, usually with a certain requirement, such as that the dish should cost no more than a certain price, the dish should contain a certain ingredient or be an adaption of other dishes. The Invention Test is usually the challenge that leads to eliminations.
Dish Recreation Test In the Dish Recreation Test contestants are asked to recreate a complex dish made by a guest chef, usually with a recipe at hand.
Taste Challenges In Taste Challenges the contestants are given a dish to taste, and are asked to name ingredients in the dish, for every ingredient they name correctly they score a point, until their first mistake. The contestant with the lowest score is usually eliminated.
Judges The first season judges were Haim Cohen, Eyal Shani, Michal Ansky, and Rafi Adar, all successful restaurateurs in Israel.
After the first season was concluded, Eyal Shani became famous, due to his eccentric treatment of food as poetry in the show, though Haim Cohen was the most famous of the judges, Shani became the symbol of the show and became a cultural icon in Israel.
In the second season, Haim Cohen, Eyal Shani and Michal Ansky continued as judges with Yonatan Roshfeld, chef of the Herbert Samuel restaurant, brought in to replace Rafi Adar.
In the seventh season, Haim Cohen, Eyal Shani and Michal Ansky continued as judges with Israel Aharoni, a famous Israeli chef, brought in to replace Yonatan Roshfeld.
In the tenth season, Ruti Broudo was added as a fifth judge alongside the existing panel of judges in which Ansky continued while being pregnant during filimg.
In the eleventh season, Michal Ansky quit the show and thus the number of judges returned back to 4.
Season 1 (2010) First aired on 14 October 2010, the first season of MasterChef received very high ratings and resulted in a large cook book that held all of the recipes shown on the first season.
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Ina Kravetsky Winner Elkana Bitton 2nd Smadar (Smadi) Vaknin 3rd Aviva Fibko 4th Itzik Harel 5th Musa Abu Sris 6th Ran Vasiliver 7th Morria Ka'atavi 8th Adi Mizrahi 9th Gal Leibowitz 10th Galit Bonfeld 11th Aviv Ezer Fischler 12th
Season 2 (2011) The show was picked up for a second season in November 2010, a month after the first season first aired. the show began airing in June 2011, with the new judge, Yonatan Roshfeld.
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Avi Levy Winner Elihav Sasson 2nd Emmanuel Rosenzweig 3rd Shai Sarmani 4th Gili Halfteck 5th Iris Kaspi 6th Yossi Azulay 7th Sima Ifargen 8th Elisa Hammer 9th Ilan Weissbrod 10th Zohar Arnon 11th Jennifer Sunny 12th Moshe Sassoon 13th Rachel Kadosh Mashan 14th
Junior MasterChef (2012) Junior MasterChef Israel premiered on 20 April 2012 the judges will be the same as MasterChef Israel.
Contestants Contestant Place FinishedDaniel TiroshWinnerDana Sharon2ndStav Choen3rdRadi Halvi4thShaked Snerch5thRoy Vresano6thRean Vice7thAmit Shabu8thOded Ovadia9thSivan Klika10thNil Shatraunber11thLihi Naim12thYarden Hamo13thDana Kozinitzki 14thItay Choen15thAvia Dozali16th
Season 3 (2012–13)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Tom Franz Winner Salma Fyumi 2nd Jackie Azulay 3rd Paulin Shoval 4th Dalia Alchadf 5th Mia Ben Tzvi 6th Eti Levi 7th Beni Ben Israel 8th Shai Brandas 9th Shelly Harman 10th Vicky Jan 11th Itay Elimelech 12th Elinor Rachamim 13th Snir Nekar 14th
Season 4 (2014)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Nof Ethamna Ismail Winner Ido Kronenberg 2nd Masrat Woldmichael 3rd Shlomo Ezran 4th Ricky Soysa 5th Tzila Ofer 6th Serenada Dilvski 7th Shai Tobol 8th Eitan Slomon 9th Asher Levi 10th Josh Steel 11th Lior Slomon 12th Moran Sasa 13th Lary Suesman 14th
MasterChef VIP (2015)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Shai Avivi Winner Pnina Tornai 2nd Aya Kramreman 3rd Betty Rockawy 4th Shlomo Scharf 5th Norman Issa 6th Eden Harel 7th Avi Nosbaum 8th Noam Tur 9th Shlomi Eldar 10th Dorit Rabinyan 11th Eti Levi 12th
Season 5 (2015)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Massimiliano De Matteo Winner Rachel Ben Elul 2nd Lama Shchada 3rd Michal Epstein 4th Ron Soriano 5th Iv Anan 6th Eyal Geresh 7th Racheli Kadosh 8th Rut Ruzovski 9th Misha Lederman 10th Natali Finkelstein 11th Ben Aviad 12th
Season 6 (2016)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Tom Aviv Winner Yehonatan Biton 2nd Sofi Porat 3rd Shira Betzalel 4th Liron Asulin 5th Diana Rachmani 6th Matan Chaliva 7th Amit Haya Twito 8th Eli Mitzri 9th Yacky Algranti 10th Gal Ofir 11th Neria Cohen 12th
Season 7 (2017–18)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Yehuda Amar Winner Amichai Shrapstein 2nd Yehoyada Nizri 3rd Edi Babaeib 4th Victoria Goberman 5th Bar Pines 6th Muzna Bishara 7th Sivan Amar 8th Nadia Awid 9th Bar Eilon 10th Itzik Batashvili 11th Liron Partosh 12th Larisa Slapian Ashed 13th Yochay Golan 14th
Season 8 (2019)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Vanessa Vidal Winner Shahar Levi 2nd Gal Kaspers 3rd Lior Ohayon 4th Farrah Raslan 5th Yotam Aranovich 6th Jana Khein 7th Costa Osadchy 8th Albert Ifraimov 9th Nimrod Zioni 10th Ruhama Hershdorfer 11th Dana Elharar 12th Adi Sivan 13th Arnon Naim 14th Tahel Kedem 15th Sagi Keren 16th
VIP Special Contestant Place Finished Itay Levi Winner Ofira Asayag 2nd Eli Ildis 3rd Itzik Cohen 4th Tahounia Rubel 5th Nesli Barda 6th Eitan Cabel 7th Dana Grotsky 8th
Season 9 (2021)
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Ithiela Hayat Winner Hofit Sarmili 2nd Asaf Day 3rd Adi Weinberg 4th Guy Bimka 5th Tair Mordoch 6th Manal Ismail 7th Haim Cohen 8th Bat-Shai Oz 9th Eti Morad 10th Eden Gindi 11th Meital Raichel 12th Irakli Gonswili 13th Shemi Afniar 14th Avner Rosenthalis 15th
VIP Special 1 Contestant Place Finished Kobi Oz Winner Albert Escola Competitor Hana Laszlo Competitor Lihi Lapid Competitor Moshe Peretz Competitor Ruslana Rodina Competitor Yifat Shasha-Biton Competitor
VIP Special 2 Contestant Place Finished Dudi Amsalem Winner Aki Avni Competitor Alex Hazanov Competitor Avraham Tal Competitor Einav Boublil Competitor Lea Snirer Competitor Shimon Bouskilla Competitor
Season 10 (2022) Season 10 began on 15 June 2022, Ruti Broudo joined as a fifth judge.
During the season Eyal Shani was criticized after he discriminated against a contestant who lives in Bat Ayin based on his residence. Critics called for Shani's removal from the show.
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Hillel Gardi Winner Yaniv Shahar 2nd Michal Motil 3rd Sivan Brick Hen 4th Shani Ben Shimol 5th Omer Shaysh 6th Giselle Sarah Lellouche 7th Gal Moran Yisraeli 8th Elad Elzara 9th David Cohen 10th Sarah Malka 11th Shoval Katony 12th Mastawal Mogas 13th Hamos Guetta 14th Or Wangenheim 15th Eden Yam Reuven 16th Qmars Malkan 17th Michal Lahav 18th Inessa Binyamin 19th Haim Rabinovich 20th
VIP Special Contestant Place Finished Yarden Gerbi Winner Michal Amdursky 2nd Didi Harari 3rd Avi Kakon Competitor Dana Frider Competitor Stéphane Legar Competitor Tuvia Tzafir Competitor
Season 11 (2024) Season 11 first aired on 2 March 2024. Michal Ansky left the show, leaving 4 judges.
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Natalie Mizrahi Amaral Winner Astar Biton 2nd Itay Dagan 3rd Nissim Zelite 4th Raya Erica Marian 5th Miri Ezra 6th Avishag Pe'er 7th Bar Levy 8th Arye Rozenshtock 9th Amit Bazyler 10th Pusha Chernov 11th Lior Shnaidman 12th Ziv Shapira 13th Danit Sofer 14th Ori Aharonovich 15th
MasterChef All-Stars 1 (2024) MasterChef All-Stars Israel 1 was first aired on 12 October 2024. Michal Ansky returned the show, with chefs Yuval Ben-Netia and Avi Biton added as new judges as well.
Contestants Contestant Original season Place Finished Michal Epstein 5 Winner Amichai Shrapstein 7 2nd Rachel Ben Elul 5 3rd Hofit Sarmili 9 4th Farrah Raslan 8 5th Lior Ohayon 8 6th Albert Ifraimov 8 7th Yehoyada Nizri 7 8th Smadar (Smadi) Vaknin 1 9th Roy Vresano Junior 10th Eitan Slomon 4 11th
Season 12 (2025) Season 12 began on 25 August 2025.
Contestants Contestant Place Finished Yuval Rozen Winner Hadas Bandel 2nd Nitzan Aharon 3rd Anat Agmon 4th Zachi Masas 5th Netanel Vilder Mecher 6th Dorin Abdan 7th Michelle Skorik 8th Ruthi Gur 9th Raziel Illouz 10th Shalev Hazan 11th Yaniv Persy 12th Noga Ratz Vakrat 13th Haim Sigawi 14th Ron Shirazi 15th Shira Eliyahu 16th
VIP Special Contestant Place Finished Valerie Hamaty Winner Izhar Cohen Competitor Liron Zaid Competitor Lucy Ayoub Competitor Ofer Hayoun Competitor Sapir Avisror Competitor Shalmor Shtrozman Competitor Subliminal Competitor
MasterChef All-Stars 2 (2026) MasterChef All-Stars Israel 2 will first air on 11 August 2026. Michal Ansky, along with chefs Yuval Ben-Neriah and Avi Biton returned the show after quitting in season 12. Eyal Shani is the only judge remaining from the previous season.
Contestants Contestant Original season Place Finished Elihav Sasson 2 Winner Haim Cohen 9 2nd Gal Kaspers 8 3rd Manal Ismail 9 4th Nissim Zelite 11 5th Tair Mordoch 9 6th Danit Sofer 11 7th Jackie Azulay 3 8th Bar Levy 11 9th Eden Harel VIP 10th Aviva Fibko 1 11th Costa Osadchy 8 12th
See also Israeli television Israeli cuisine
References
External links MasterChef's page on Keshet's website (Hebrew)