MasterChef Australia

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.
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 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, 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

Spin-off series

Winners

Main series

Series	Placement	Contestant	Age	State	Occupation	Date
1	Winner	Julie Goodwin	38	NSW	Office manager	19 July 2009
1	Runner-up	Poh Ling Yeow	35	SA	Artist	19 July 2009
1	Third Place	Chris Badenoch	41	VIC	Beer merchant	16 July 2009
2	Winner	Adam Liaw	31	SA	Lawyer	25 July 2010
2	Runner-up	Callum Hann	20	SA	Student	25 July 2010
2	Third Place	Claire Winton Burn	31	VIC	Lawyer	22 July 2010
3	Winner	Kate Bracks	35	NSW	Stay-at-home mum	7 August 2011
3	Runner-up	Michael Weldon	25	SA	Film projectionist	7 August 2011
3	Third Place	Alana Lowes	30	QLD	Journalist	4 August 2011
4	Winner	Andy Allen	24	NSW	Electrician	25 July 2012
4	Runner-up	Julia Taylor	26	QLD	Legal secretary	25 July 2012
4	Third Place	Audra Morrice	41	NSW	Account manager	25 July 2012
5	Winner	Emma Dean	35	VIC	Town planner	1 September 2013
5	Runner-up	Lynton Tapp	25	NT	Stockman	1 September 2013
5	Third Place	Samira El Khafir	28	VIC	Stay-at-home mum	1 September 2013
6	Winner	Brent Owens	24	VIC	Bobcat driver	28 July 2014
6	Runner-up	Laura Cassai	18	SA	Student	28 July 2014
6	Third Place	Emelia Jackson	24	VIC	Marketing coordinator	27 July 2014
7	Winner	Billie McKay	24	NSW	Restaurant manager	27 July 2015
7	Runner-up	Georgia Barnes	27	QLD	Health product representative	27 July 2015
7	Third Place	Jessica Arnott	29	WA	Food sales assistant	26 July 2015
8	Winner	Elena Duggan	32	NSW	Teacher	26 July 2016
8	Runner-up	Matt Sinclair	27	QLD	Coffee roaster	26 July 2016
8	Third Place	Harry Foster	21	QLD	Cocktail bartender	25 July 2016
9	Winner	Diana Chan	29	VIC	Accountant	24 July 2017
9	Runner-up	Ben Ungermann	32	QLD	Retail manager	24 July 2017
9	Third Place	Karlie Verkerk	26	NSW	Deputy editor	23 July 2017
10	Winner	Sashi Cheliah	40	SA	Prison officer	31 July 2018
10	Runner-up	Ben Borsht	31	QLD	Builder	31 July 2018
10	Third Place	Khanh Ong	25	VIC	DJ	30 July 2018
11	Winner	Larissa Takchi	22	NSW	Restaurant manager	23 July 2019
11	Runner-up	Tessa Boersma	27	QLD	Criminal statistician	23 July 2019
11	Third Place	Simon Toohey	32	VIC	Cocktail bartender	23 July 2019
12	Winner	Emelia Jackson	30	VIC	Cake designer and chef	25 July 2020
12	Runner-up	Laura Sharrad	24	SA	Chef and restaurateur	25 July 2020
12	Third Place	Reynold Poernomo	26	NSW	Chef and restaurateur	19 July 2020
13	Winner	Justin Narayan	27	WA	Youth pastor	13 July 2021
13	Runner-up	Pete Campbell	36	NSW	Tattoo artist	13 July 2021
13	Third Place	Kishwar Chowdhury	38	VIC	Printing business owner	13 July 2021
14	Winner	Billie McKay	31	NSW	Stay-at-home mum	12 July 2022
14	Runner-up	Sarah Todd	34	VIC	Chef and restaurateur	12 July 2022
14	Third Place	Daniel Lamble	28	NT	Firefighter	11 July 2022
15	Winner	Brent Draper	34	QLD	Digital content creator	16 July 2023
15	Runner-up	Rhiannon Anderson	47	QLD	Administration manager	16 July 2023
15	Third Place	Declan Cleary	24	NSW	Carpenter	13 July 2023
16	Winner	Nat Thaipun	28	VIC	Barista	16 July 2024
16	Runner-up	Josh Perry	43	TAS	Butcher	16 July 2024
16	Third Place	Savindri Perera	30	SA	Banking consultant	15 July 2024
17	Winner	Laura Sharrad	29	SA	Chef	12 August 2025
17	Runner-up	Callum Hann	35	SA	Chef and restauranteur	12 August 2025
17	Third Place	Jamie Fleming	36	QLD	Bar owner	11 August 2025