MasterChef Australia is back in 2026, and it’s promising to be a massive season with numerous high-profile guest judges from Robert Irwin to Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
As it premieres, we will share recaps of each episode here, from the cook highlights (and lowlights), guest judges, and who was eliminated…
Meet the contestants here and past winners here.
If you missed last night’s episode or just want to quickly catch up, follow our episode recaps below.
MasterChef Australia at 7 pm on Sundays and 7.30 pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on Channel 10 or stream on-demand on 10 Play.
Here’s the recap of the latest episode of MasterChef Australia:
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD
Grand Finale of MasterChef Australia 2026:
We did it. We made it to the Grand Finale of MasterChef Australia 2026. Or should I say, Vinnie and Petro, the two finalists battling it out for the title, made it to the Grand Finale.
Who would have picked these two men for the top two? Vinnie arrived with a dream of opening a panini shop – and even served up a panini to win his spot in the competition. Tonight, that dream is closer than ever.
And then there’s Petro. At the beginning of this competition, he had never made a dessert. Now, he’s this season’s dessert savant, creating unique – and frankly absurd – desserts ranging from celeriac ice cream to Greek éclairs.
Tonight is their final shot at the top prize of $250,000, the iconic MasterChef plate, and, of course, all the bragging rights.
Petro stepped away from his family’s accounting business to pursue cooking. It took him a while to find his feet in the MasterChef kitchen, but once he did, he was off.
His tonka bean tart was the moment everything clicked.
“You are naturally gifted with flavour,” Andy tells him, while Poh calls him “a wizard”.
For Petro, the competition has been a transformative experience.
“Feels surreal [to be here],” Petro says. “[It’s been a] transformative time”
“This is where I’m meant to be… I’ve been in the wrong profession”
Vinnie has been one of the season’s most memorable contestants, with a big heart and a deep connection to his heritage.
He earned his apron with a panini and went from strength to strength from there, becoming a force to be reckoned with – and appearing in the most eliminations of any contestant.
Poh sums up the relationship between the two finalists perfectly: “amazing to watch you as cooks and your mateship take moments to soak it all in”
Of course, no Grand Finale would be complete without meeting the guys’ now-famous families.
Petro’s mum, Georgia, reveals that her son has always loved being in the kitchen and watching MasterChef.
His dad, Gus, is equally excited to see what happens.
“I’m very excited for him, I’ve kept the desk there in case.”
Meanwhile, Vinnie’s dad knew his son had what it took from the beginning.
“I knew that he had it in him”
And, in a beautiful father-son moment, he adds: “I must have taught you a lot of shit”
The Challenge:
Round One: Mystery Box
For the first challenge of the Grand Finale, the finalists face a Superstar Mystery Box, inspired by some of the incredible guests who have appeared throughout the season.
There’s flathead from Josh Niland, Jerusalem artichoke from Meghan, cavolo nero from Jimmy Barnes, and Ooray plums from Robert and Sarah Todd’s black garlic, to name just a few.
Both finalists make fairly typical choices. As expected, Vinnie goes straight for the protein, putting duck breast on the crown and creating a spicy-sweet glaze with Sichuan pepper and Ooray plums.
And, as suspected, Petro is making a weird-but-it-works dessert: a Sichuan caramel tart with Jerusalem artichoke crisps.
Sadly, when Vinnie takes his duck out of the oven, it is very overdone. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Vinnie this season, it’s that he can think on his feet and stay cool in a crisis.
After Josh Niland’s time in the kitchen, Vinnie became something of a master at filleting, so he decided to cook the flathead from the Mystery Box on the hibachi with just 15 minutes remaining.
Amazingly, he gets the fish cooked, creates new sides, and plates a balanced dish in time.
He did it all thanks to adrenaline and instinct.
“This dish is better than what you set out to do,” Andy says after tasting it. “That is showing the cook you are.”
And if Vinnie is still trying to land that job at Three Blue Ducks, I doubt Andy is going to pass on a cook who can fillet a fish and finish an entirely new dish in 15 minutes.
In comparison, Petro has a much more seamless and calm cook.
However, at the last minute, he decides to serve up two tarts – and one is slightly more cooked than the other. Could that cost him?
“What you’ve done is fantastic,” says Jean Christophe.
Poh’s only criticism is that he didn’t add more artichoke chips. Sofia, meanwhile, points out that her tart shell is overcooked, while Andy says the balance is a little out of whack.
So maybe Petro shouldn’t have been quite so confident?
Round One Results:
Vinnie: 9/20 from Andy, 9/10 from Poh, 9/10 from Sofia, and 10/10 from Jean Christophe. Total: 37/40
Petro: 10/10 from Jean Christophe, 8/10 from Poh, 7/10 from Andy, and 7/10 from Sofia. Total: 32/40
Vinnie has the early lead.
Round Two: Pressure Test
For the second and final challenge, internationally acclaimed pastry chef Cherish Finden has set an enormous Pressure Test.
Cherish has created a Chinese Afternoon Tea designed to test every inch of the finalists’ pastry prowess. We spoke to Cherish about her creation; read it here.
“My worst nightmare come true,” Vinnie says of the challenge.
The dessert is unbelievably intricate, featuring curds, jams, mousses, and meringues.
As desserts aren’t Vinnie’s thing, he locks in, drawing on his nursing training to stay focused, cool, calm, and collected.
Cherish makes her way around the kitchen during the cook and gives both finalists absolutely nothing – except, perhaps, a mini anxiety attack with a single look. It is a hectic cook. Both finalists make mistakes and leave things out.
Petro accidentally skips ahead and misses a page, while Vinnie misreads the recipe and is checked by Cherish.
“Did you read the recipe?” she asks him with a withering look.
Andy gives Petro a pep talk halfway through, but by the end, Petro knows he has missed a lot and doesn’t feel like he has done enough to take home the top prize.
Tasting: Vinnie
“I am very, very proud of myself,” Vinnie says.
When Cherish cuts into his petit gâteau, she has a big smile on her face – the first good sign for our Sicilian cook.
“Oh my goodness, the mandarin orange was va va voom, he nailed it,” she says, adding that the sponge is “spot on.”
“He can come work with me anytime,” she adds. What a compliment!
The judges commend Vinnie for his ability to correct his mistakes throughout the cook. However, his sesame teapot is overcooked, making it a disappointing element of the dish.
Tasting: Petro
Petro is overcome with emotion when he gets to the tasting.
“If you told me on day one that I would be here in the MasterChef finale, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Although it is unfinished, Andy says he is in love with the sesame teapot. However, Petro has overwhipped his mousse in the mandarin cake. It is still good, but it’s another mark against him.
Then Sofia points out that the firecracker has gone wrong.
Petro left the pandan leaves sitting for too long, and the result is not good. It might look great, but it tastes like it has been fermented.
The final scores:
Petro scores 7/10 from Cherish, 7/10 from Jean Christophe, 7/10 from Sofia, 7/10 from Poh, and 7/10 from Andy.
That gives him a final score of 67 points.
Vinnie scores 8/10 from Cherish, 8/10 from Jean Christophe, 9/10 from Sofia, 9/10 from Poh, and 9/10 from Andy.
And that means…Vinnie wins MasterChef Australia 2026!
“I don’t really have any words…that’s just insane. I’m so so grateful for absolutely everything,” Vinnie says. “I couldn’t have done it without the support from everyone. And it was just a blast to cook alongside you [to Petro].”
“Really, really happy for Vinnie,” says Petro, gracious in defeat. “Just missed the mark.”
As the runner-up, Petro takes home $40,000, while third-place finalist Aaron receives $10,000.
And after 60 episodes, countless challenges, some truly chaotic dishes, and more desserts than anyone could have predicted from Petro at the start of the season, we finally have our MasterChef Australia 2026 winner! Congratulations Vinnie!
Episode 59
It’s the penultimate episode! Tonight the top three, Aaron, Vinnie and Petro, are battling it out for their spot in the final.
I don’t know if I would have chosen these three as the top. But I have been a fan of each of them, so I’m happy no matter the outcome of tonight’s challenge.
“You’re so sexy by the way,” Jean Christophe tells the trio – he’s been extra French this season!
To assist the trio in tonight’s semifinal service challenge is a former winner, hatted restaurant owner and new dad…Judge Andy Allen is back in the kitchen! All three are beaming when Poh tells them – Aaron even clenches his fist in glee.
“Welcome back, Papa Andy,” says Poh.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Andy tells them of fatherhood. “Just to hold him and stare at him. It is the most beautiful thing.”
Tonight, Andy will support the trio with advice and guidance. They will be serving 60 diners plus the judges, with a two-course meal – that’s 46 plates each. Phew.
Aaron
Asian flavours with French techniques with some Aaron flair. His dessert tonight is a more refined and elevated version of his tomato salad dessert from earlier this season – a dessert that blew my mind and the judges. It’s basil ice cream, with tomato granita and hazelnut crumb.
Aaron spends the majority of his prep time getting his dessert ready, which means he’s short of time to finesse his main.
When he takes his pork out of the oven for service, it’s undercooked. He decides to cook it a bit more on the flat grill. When she tastes his final dish, Poh says that the pork is beautifully cooked, but the other elements on his plate – the miso mustard, the xo sauce, and the jus – are fighting one another instead of being in balance.
Whereas the judges adore his dessert. “That ice cream is just…*whistle*” says Jean Christophe. Is it enough to save him?
Petro
Petro is making eye fillet with pine mushrooms and artichoke chips. Andy isn’t too impressed with the dish.
“Safe isn’t going to get you there,” Andy advises him, pushing Petro to use the hibachi – an instrument that he has a love-hate relationship with.
When the judges receive it, Sofia immediately commends his plating. After tasting, Poh says that she loves it, from the “melt in your mouth” beef to the seasonal silky Jerusalem artichoke puree.
For dessert, he’s making a Greek eclair “That’s my Petro!” Andy exclaims. He’s made fig leaf cream patisserie so many times before, but it splits. He has a little bit of a freak out, but Andy tells him to take a breath and reset. He decides to just redo it, but slower.
Poh is delighted with it – as the pastry queen, she’s who you want to impress. Jean Christophe calls it “genius”. He’s a shoo-in for the Grand Finale!
Vinnie
Tonight, Vinnie is recreating the porchetta panini that earned him his spot in the competition. But obviously he’s refining it to show how much he’s grown. Because he’s serving over 20 diners with porchetta, he has to butcher two full racks of pork. It takes a lot of time.
Andy advises him to pull back on the portion size, but the resulting dish is still…very generous.
“Such an apologetically Vinnie dish, generous, unpretentious,” Poh says, adding that the crunch on the porchetta is great.
However, Jean Chrstiphe says that the pork flesh is inconsistently cooked.
For dessert, he’s making a tiramisu tart. Andy tells him that the tart idea is risky as tarts can be tricky to get perfect in the time he has. When it comes to dessert time, his tart dough doesn’t get enough resting time and so they shrink dramatically in the oven. However, Vinnie stays calm and rejigs the proportions. It looks a little rough, but it works.
“I think it’s actually quite a lovely interpretation of a tiramisu,” Poh says, although they all agree it’s a bit boozy.
Who goes into the Grand Finale?
After they send their final plates, Aaron breaks down and cries, and the trio have a group hug. It’s very sweet.
Unsurprisingly, Petro is the first person through to the final! Well-deserved in my opinion.
“This is a dream come true,” he says. “Such a special experience to cook with these guys; we are so close. It’s a bittersweet moment.”
It was close, but the person joining Petro in the finale is…Vinnie.
“I didn’t expect that at all,” Vinnie says.
He looks completely shocked by the news, and Aaron, to his credit, is thrilled for him, saying, “Of course you’ve got it.”
“It may not have gone my way today, but it just goes to show the potential is there,” Aaron says on his elimination. “I’m really excited for what’s to come. The sky’s the limit.”
Find all the Grand Finale details here:
Episode 58
It’s finally Finals Week! As is tradition now, tonight is the “fun one”. Instead of the top three going up against one another, they are taking on the judges!
Still no Andy as he’s still on parental leave…but he’ll be back tomorrow night for the semi-final.
Round one
In round one, Vinnie, Petro, and Aaron are joining Sofia as judges, while Poh and Jean Christophe are going head-to-head. Their hero ingredient is potatoes, aka the world’s most versatile vegetable. Whoever wins the challenge wins “bragging rights for a full 12 months”.
Jean-Christophe spends about five minutes explaining all the potato elements in his dish. He also wastes time sticking his tongue out at the top three, having a nibble of potatoes, and flapping about. Then, with five minutes left, he goes back to the pantry to get asparagus. Plus, he gets his potato out of its mould with seconds to spare and walks away in triumph while the former contestants on the gantry all yell at him to finish plating. It is honestly hilarious.
His final dish of chicken mousse dariole with crispy potatoes is divine…except it’s covered in long chives he had no time to chop. Chicken mousse dariole with crispy potatoes. It looks great…except for the long chives that he ran out of time to chop.
During the tasting, Petro has a great time imitating Jean Christophe from the sauce pouring, eyebrow wagging and table slapping.
“It’s like watching myself in the mirror,” Jean Christophe says.
The top three and Sofia love his dish…just not how it looks.
Poh attempts redemption by recreating a Sardinian potato dumpling dish, Culurgiones. She’s tried (and failed) to make this dish on MasterChef twice before. Could it be third time lucky? During the tasting, Aaron does his best Poh impression and says he “loves it!”
“Third time lucky,” Sofia adds. And she wins round one! In consolation, the top three all give Jean Christophe a hug and a kiss.
Round two
The top three are back in their aprons. It’s a team challenge. Aaron, Vonnie, and Petro compete against Poh and Jean Christophe to create a family feast.
Joining Sofia as judges are Dot and Luke – he just keeps coming back!
The top three look like they decided what they were doing ahead of time. They go straight to the pantry and pick up everything they need for their “boys’ barbecue.”
Petro is on dessert, but it’s too big and takes too long to cook. As a result, it’s still piping hot at the end. Aaron, Vinnie and Petro all come together to finish dressing the cake.
Sofia tells Vinnie his steak is “amazing”, and Aaron’s prawns are also great. Sadly, the potato gratin is a bit wet. Petro tells the judges that he actually used Poh’s recipe for the cake, and despite it being hot when he was decorating it, Sofia says he nailed it and gives Poh a slice to confirm.
Whereas Jean Christophe and Poh went down the French route. Poh says she’s staying out of “the hurricane’s way.”
“I have no control over the man,” she laughs after Sofia points out that Jean Christophe is also planning a dessert. There is no team leader and no communication.
“They’re breaking all the rules,” Dot says. Somehow they pull it all together – although with minutes to go, Jean Christophe does yell at the fish in the oven to finish cooking.
Despite cooking separately, they still managed to create a cohesive feast. The judges win with their “flawless feast”!
That’s the fun one over; tomorrow night it’s serious: Semi-final service challenge!
Episode 57
Tonight our tour four will reduce to a top three. Aaron, Casper and Vinnie are all competing for their spot.
But it’s an emotional challenge. The three contestants each have a parcel from home with a message and an ingredient from a loved one, which they must hero today.
Aaron has garlic and a letter from his partner Crystal, who tells him he has “levelled up exponentially…you even make dessert now!” She ends by saying that “little Aaron would be in awe of you” and we see a sweet image of Aaron as a young kid with his dad. There’s not a dry eye in the gantry.
Vinnie is next, and he has sardines and a letter from his Dad. His parents are split up, and growing up, he only got to see his Dad on the weekends. But it was a special time for both of them, cooking together on the barbecue and spending time together in his restaurant. In his message, his Dad advises him to “keep it simple”, something that Vinnie at times struggles with!
Last up is Casper, who has grapes (which his family are apparently obsessed with!) and a beautifully presented letter from his parents.
Not to be left out, Petro also has a letter from home! It’s from his parents, Gus and Georgia, who reflect on how amazing it is that he is on MasterChef after the family watched the show for years. They tell him that he’s learned so much from his yia yia and she would be so proud of him. She passed away not long after he cooked a dish inspired by his family tree.
“Family means everything and a big part of why I’m here,” he says. His letter even gets me tearing up!
What do they make?
Aaron previously complained to Crystal that the mystery boxes never have garlic, so that’s likely why she chose that ingredient. He loves garlic and is super focused about making a dish that she would be proud of. We see a series of videos of the two of them – they have been together for a decade, and the family videos are so sweet.
He makes a garlic pasta with spanner crab – he’s made garlic four ways: boiled, crisps, cream, and confit. The judges all agree that the garlic is absolutely celebrated, but it didn’t take over the dish.
Vinnie hasn’t actually cooked with sardines before, and Poh tells the other judges that he needs to be a “flavour wizard” to wrangle all the elements on his dish. He channels his Dad’s barbecue skills to cook the sardines on the hibachi.
He called his final dish “Dad & Vinnie’s Sardines” and served them with white beans, zucchini and agrodolce sauce.
Poh says that it is a delicious dish and well-balanced. However, Sofia says that it doesn’t have a great eating experience with the charred sardines.
Casper is incredibly close with his family, and he’s quite emotional throughout the cook after receiving the letter. Casper and the judges all agree that grapes are a tricky ingredient to hero as the flavour isn’t super strong. He decides to make a dessert with an almond biscuit, with white chocolate cremeux, pickled grapes, a grape granita, and raw grapes. Basically every element is grapes. But he does say that he has tried to balance all the ingredients.
Jean Christophe says he is “amazed” by the dish, but both Sofia and Poh don’t look impressed. Poh says that she enjoyed it, but the grape flavour is very subtle. Instead, the white chocolate flavour is taking over. Sofia agrees and adds that she also can’t taste the verjus. She says that it’s not balanced and doesn’t hero grapes.
Who goes home?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the judges decide to send Casper home.
Poh confirms that it wasn’t a unanimous decision – I’m guessing Jean Christophe was pushing for Casper to stay.
“It’s disappointing, but I’m equally as proud of these guys,” he says of Vinie and Aaron. Both of them call him a food genius and can’t wait to see what he does next.
“All good things come to an end,” Casper says.
Next episode isn’t until Sunday night, and the tables are turning on the judges…
Episode 56
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was in the MasterChef Australia kitchen. She wasn’t the only one; all the previous contestants also attended (Lydia was sporting a fun new hairstyle).
From FaceTiming Prince Harry to becoming fast friends with judge Poh Ling Yeow, it was a super fun episode.
For a full recap, plus all the best moments, head here.
But for the TL/DR (too long didn’t read) version, the challenge was to celebrate a seasonal vegetable in a dish “fit for a Duchess”. The remaining four contestants battled it out for top dish and a spot in the semi-final. It came down to Casper’s celebration of Jerusalem artichoke and Petro’s somewhat bonkers idea for a celeriac dessert. But the “genius” of the dessert won over the Duchess, and the judges and Petro won the challenge!
Episode 55
Andy Allen is missing tonight because…his wife Alexandra has gone into labour! We know now that she had a healthy baby boy, Jude Jackson Allen!
So the four contestants have three judges to impress. Tonight they are making Poh’s Malaysian snacks. They are her special family recipes passed down through generations. With his heritage, this could be Aaron’s challenge. Although he says that he knows how to eat them, not how to make them.
There are three dishes: a multi-layered kueh lapis, a karipap (curry puff), and kueh koci rice dessert. Because they can be quite technical, she gives them a quick demonstration.
The cook
During the cook, Petro falls behind the others. He somehow misses one of the kueh lapis’ layers. Poh tells Sofia that he can’t afford to get anything else wrong. At the end he does get all the elements completed. However, Poh calls his kueh lapis “haphazard”, they are undercooked. The only saving grace are his “brilliant” curry puffs and the “tasty” kueh koci.
Aaron thrived in this challenge. He calls the dishes “priceless heritage” and is really grateful that he had the chance to learn some of his own history. Poh says his kueh lapis has “perfect layers” that are cooked evenly. Sofia says the kueh koci is “tasty” and “fragrant” and perfectly wrapped. Seems his natural instincts served him well today.
For Annabel, the challenge was really fun… until the last ten minutes. Her kueh koci only had a couple of minutes in the steamer, so it’s uncooked. Poh confirms that the kueh koci is raw. Also, the layers of her kueh lapis are melding into one another. However, the curry puff is excellent.
During the challenge, Poh also says Casper is going too slowly. However, he manages to catch up. Although, he made some crucial errors like too much water in his dough. After the tasting, Poh says that the curry puff is “unpleasant” due to the dough. The other judges say that his kueh koci is underdone. However, his kueh lapis is excellent.
Who goes home?
The bottom two dishes were made by Annabel and Casper. It came down to the person who made the most errors, which was Annabel.
“It’s such a bittersweet experience today to design that challenge and see one of you go,” Poh tells her through tears. ‘It’s been so wonderful to get to know you and see you flourish in the kitchen.”
“Thank you, being here has just been like a dream that I’ve had for a really long time,” Annabel responds. “It’s been a priceless moment in my life.”
I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her in MasterChef.
“I am going to go back to work as a nurse because I actually have been really missing it,” she says. “But…I’m going to have a tough conversation with my boss,” why? To drop down her hours. “I’m going to become a nurse chef!”
On Sunday night, the Duchess of Sussex will be joining the kitchen as a guest judge. Read more here.
Episode 54
We’re down to the top five! Tonight, Annabel, Aaron, Casper, Vinnie and Petro take on a cookalong challenge with Andy Allen, who returns to the kitchen in his Three Blue Ducks chef whites.
The contestants have just 15 seconds after Andy finishes each step to replicate his dish, leaving little room for error.
Aaron admits his mind “goes absolutely blank” under the pressure. “I go really quiet and completely into focus mode,” he says.
Watching from the gantry, Poh and Sofia relish the rare chance to see Andy cook.
“I’m pretending to nod along, but I’m picking up a lot of tips,” Poh jokes.
Annabel quickly falls behind when she struggles with Frenching the lamb, a technique she’s never used before. Petro also loses time removing the sinew before disaster strikes when the fat on his lamb catches fire on the hibachi. He grabs another piece of meat to start again, only for the flames to flare up once more. Other contestants also battle unexpected flare-ups.
Casper avoids burning his lamb by taking it off the hibachi early. Petro spots it and checks with Andy that it’s allowed, inadvertently saving Casper from making a costly mistake. However, Casper then fumbles the cartouche for his beans, despite having done it many times before.
Vinnie is the only contestant who appears to be enjoying himself, calling the challenge “fun” and laughing throughout. With Andy one of his favourite chefs, he’s clearly thriving.
As the clock winds down, every contestant scrambles to finish, leaving several dishes with missing or unbalanced elements.
Who wins the challenge?
Petro isn’t happy with the cook on his lamb; he thinks he took it off early. The judges all commend his sauce, but they agree that the meat is underdone.
Andy tells Aaron that it was like he didn’t know he was in the kitchen, as Aaron kept his head down the entire time.
Annabel’s dish isn’t as bad as she thinks it is. Ahead of the tasting, she thinks it’s a disaster. But the only thing that Andy points out is that her eggplant puree was a bit more acidic. All the judges compliment her attitude in the kitchen and adaptability.
Casper left the capers off his final plate. The judges call it a “solid effort”, but they miss the capers.
Vinnie is last up and tells the judges that he had an “absolute ball” during that challenge and asks Andy for an apprenticeship at Three Blue Ducks. Way to shoot your shot, Vinnie!
“There’s a job if you want it mate,” Andy tells him after tasting! There are no faults, other than too much pancetta. So unsurprisingly, Vinnie wins the challenge and is safe from elimination.
Episode 53
Tonight, the remaining contestants (besides Vinnie) are battling it out for their spot in the top five of MasterChef Australia.
At the beginning of the episode, Aaron shares that the hardest thing about joining this competition was leaving behind his partner and leaving behind the family business and striking out on his own. Getting such an emotional moment from Aaron sadly makes me think that this could be the last time we see him cook in the kitchen. Or is it a classic MasterChef misdirect?
Also tonight, multi-Michelin-starred French chef Jean Christophe is setting the challenge, and it’s all about sauces.
Before they begin, Jean Christophe gives the cast a masterclass on two of the mother sauces: Espagnole and Velouté. Their challenge tonight is to make one of the sauces and include it in a dish of their choice.
What they make
Petro steps outside his comfort zone by tackling a classic French dish for the first time: pan-seared duck breast with celeriac purée and a “supercharged” sauce espagnole made from Jean-Christophe’s stock. He elevates the sauce with dark chocolate and orange, impressing the judges from first glance. Jean-Christophe says he’s “invited” by its glossy finish before declaring himself “flabbergasted” after tasting it, praising Petro for having “nailed the sauce.”
Annabel puts a French twist on fish and chips, replacing tartare sauce with a velouté. Jean-Christophe is particularly taken with the sauce, calling it “just phenomenal,” and even finishes off Sofia’s hashbrown fries, which Sofia cheekily claims are “better than a chip.”
Casper also opts for a velouté, adding Asian flavours like mirin and sake. While the judges praise the sauce, his hibachi-cooked fish is let down by an overpowering char, with Poh saying it dominates the dish.
Aaron also blends French and Asian influences, serving hibachi-charred prawns, pan-seared scallops and mussels in a fusion velouté. Unfortunately, undercooked scallops hold him back, and the judges note the sauce doesn’t taste as Asian-inspired as intended.
Luke struggles with time management while preparing a rack of lamb, repeatedly changing elements of his dish before leaving his sauce until the final 20 minutes. Admitting he needs “some kind of miracle,” he delivers lamb with a well-cooked eye but an unrendered fat cap. Andy says the sauce isn’t the right match, with too many bold flavours competing on the plate.
Who goes home?
Aaron’s and Luke’s dishes were at the bottom. And because his dish had too many flaws, the judges decided to send Luke home.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Luke says. “I’m just really grateful for the opportunity, and for the way you guys look after us. It’s such an awesome experience, and I’ve made some friends for life – which is a real pleasure.”
Episode 52
This week, the judges are each setting a challenge every day. The winner of tonight’s (which was set by Sofia) will get into the top five! Tomorrow’s will be set by Jean Christophe, and it’s an elimination.
Sofia has set four mystery boxes for the contestants to choose from – but each box contains only one ingredient. There’s onion, yuzu, beetroot, and almonds. They can only work with one ingredient plus the under-the-bench staples. It’s a tricky one.
What do they cook
First up is Aaron; he’s made onion tortellini with charred onion broth with charred onion petals and a twill with the onion water – he’s not the only one with onion pasta, as Vinnie has done that as well! The judges all commend how his dish looks and his pasta work.
“I can feel that you’re hitting your stride,” Poh tells him, adding that his broth is deep and rich. “You’re thinking like a chef.”
Vinnie is up next with his caramelised agnolotti and onion broth. Jean Christophe tells him that he loves it and his ability to layer his flavours. Sofia says that there is a “beautiful sweetness” across his dish.
Petro is next with his beetroot and whey dish. At the start of the challenge, he listed out seven beetroot elements that he was going to make. Sofia advised him to edit, and then he fully got in his head. We also find out that Petro is a musician, and we get a sneak peek of what looks like a country music video. Random, but welcome. His resulting dish has fewer than seven elements, but the highlight is a beetroot and whey sauce. Jean Christophe tells him that he’s done a “pretty good job.”
Just like we had a battle of the pastas, both Annabel and Casper made cruellers. Annabel’s is a beetroot cruller with fried choux pastry and buttermilk ice cream with beetroot caramel. Andy says that the dish had “potential”, but the fried cruller took away from the overall dish (and the beetroot).
Whereas Casper made a salted yuzu cruller (and he’s worried it’s still raw when he presents it to the judges) with creme anglaise, yuzu jam, and toasted white pepper – to which Poh says “interesting”. As he feared, the cruller is raw.
Luke tells Aaron that he feels “embarrassed” and breaks down at the end of the challenge. He chose yuzu, which he isn’t too familiar with and made a meringue crepe cake. At the tasting, he calls his dish a “disgrace” and adds he couldn’t get enough juice out of yuzu when he used ten.
It does look a bit sloppy. Andy gives him some tough love, stating that there were 50 other yuzus up at the front, so saying he didn’t have enough juice isn’t good enough. However, Poh tells him that it’s quite nice. So not all bad.
Who wins immunity?
It came down to Vinnie and Aaron’s onion pasta dishes. And it is Vinnie! He’s officially in the top five!
Episode 51
Tonight, Heat Week comes to an end with a head-to-head battle in two heats. They are put in pairs, one for smoke and one for fire. The winners of the first round are safe, and the losers go into a final battle.
Luke and Vinnie both draw smoke tokens, so they must incorporate smoke into their dishes.
Aaron and Pat draw fire, so they have to flambé something in their dishes.
Round One:
Fire
Pat wasn’t too thrilled when he got the first token; he says he was “rattled”. But despite that, he’s pulling out the stops for his pan-seared barramundi and bisque sauce, charred leeks, potatoes and fennel. Sofia asks if he’s made a bisque in 45 minutes before…which he hasn’t. Should he pivot? Instead, he uses all his know-how to get as much flavour as possible out of his sauce.
Although the judges love every element, Jean Christophe says that the bisque is missing “depth”.
Aaron shares that his drunken prawn dish with egg floss is inspired by his grandfather, who sadly passed away. “He taught me so much about living life to the fullest…I want to honour the memory of my grandfather through this dish.”
“That is so fantastically good,” Andy tells him. Sofia adds that the egg floss is so “unique” and texturally interesting.
So, Aaron wins the first round.
Smoke
Vinnie is so thrilled with the smoke. He recognises that he hasn’t been cooking at his best in recent times, so has decided to make something that he loves to cook for his loved ones: scotch fillet steak on the hibachi. So he’s back in his element. He tells Andy that there are pretty much smoked elements in everything…he may need to edit.
Andy tells him that even with all the smoked elements, he got the balance right and commends his choice of salad.
Whereas Luke is being a typical wildcard tonight. He’s not familiar with cooking with smoke. He decides to make a dessert inspired by s’mores with smoked meringue – a technique he’s never done before. Classic Luke. However, when he smokes the meringue, he tells the crew that it doesn’t taste smoky…
Poh tells Luke that the idea behind his dish was good, but the textures let him down as the cremeux and meringue are both not right.
Unsurprisingly, Vinnie wins the first round.
Round Two:
Luke and Pat can cook whatever they like and have 60 minutes to do it. No parameters.
Luke decides to make something that the judges haven’t seen from him before: sous vide kingfish mosaic with a miso beurre blanc.
The final dish looks stunning, but does it taste good? Andy points out that the middle part of the mosaic fish discs is not cooked enough. Sofia also says that she can’t taste the kingfish and says she feels it’s just a carrier for the sauce.
“I don’t think it ate as elegant as it looked,” says Andy. “The fish should be the hero of that plate.”
Pat pulls from his experience and creates a dish packed with flavours. He’s cooking octopus with a romesco sauce. The judges are concerned when he decides to cook his octopus in the pressure cooker, as it could dry out. When he takes it out, the octopus is overdone. He still has more, so he tries again. And the second batch is better, which he gets on the hibachi to char with three minutes to go.
During the tasting, Pat holds back tears as he thinks about his family, whom he misses immensely. At the time of filming, his partner was six months pregnant, and his daughter had just celebrated a birthday.
Sofia calls it a “yummy dish”, but she didn’t get “heaps of char” on her octopus. Andy says that the octopus gave him “mixed emotions” and the sauce was “hollow”.
Who goes home?
In a shocking twist, the judges decide to send Pat home as his dish had more errors. Perhaps seeing his backstory so much in this episode was a signal that he was going to leave.
“I’m ready to go home to my girls,” Pat tells the judges through tears.
“Being here, I achieved more than I ever thought I would, learned so much about myself and my skills and what I can do in the kitchen. I could not be more thankful for having this experience. But I am excited to go home, because that’s my favourite place on Earth.”
Episode 50
No ovens, no microwaves, no stoves. Tonight on MasterChef Australia, the remaining contestants vying for the last top six spot can only cook with the hibachi grill.
Pat is chuffed; he loves cooking over coals. He makes a chilli jam on the hibachi and serves it with grilled squid, young coconut puree and daikon salad. Poh tells him that chilli jam doesn’t get better than his. But she doesn’t love the coconut.
Aaron is similarly comfortable on the hibachi, but like Pat, he’s using new techniques, including making a sauce on the coals. He makes charred coral trout with smoked pipis and seafood sauce. Jean Christophe calls his sauce “impeccable” and “delicious”. However, Sofia tells him the coral trout is underdone.
Vinnie plans to create too many elements, including two different butter sauces. Andy and Sofia tell him to “reign it in”. He ends up overwhelmed and burns his flatbread and knocks over his sauce. At the tasting, Andy tells him the flatbreads are lovely, but his fish is “30 seconds under”, and his sauce is too acidic.
Luke is doing a play on an Indonesian satay with lamb and Australian natives. Poh tells him that it has to be “better than the original” to pay off. After tasting, Poh tells him he’s done a great job and loves his rice cakes (which he made on the grill).
Petro is again going down the sweet route – is this his new thing? He makes charred corn ice cream, pickled pineapple, dark rum caramel, and Corn Flakes clusters. Andy calls his dish a big gamble, but he’s excited.
Jean Christophe loves it and steals it back from Andy to have some more. Andy calls it beautiful, and Sofia likens it to a fine dining dish that’s made into a sundae.
Who wins immunity?
Petro and Luke are singled out for the top dishes today. But in the end, it came down to who made the best use of the hibachi.
It was Petro’s charred corn ice cream! He’s officially in the top six with Annabel and Casper.
Episode 49
Keeping the Heat Week theme going, tonight the MasterChef contestants have to cook with chillies.
Aaron mines his Malaysian prowess with chilli mud crab. He was positively giddy as he shared his memories of eating this dish as a child. The judges get stuck in eating with their hands, and all adore it. Poh calls it “perfect” numerous times; Sofia calls it “fun”. The camera keeps panning to Jean Christophe as he licks his fingers.
Vinnie also went to his heritage. He serves nduja-glazed prawns and zucchini salad with nduja-inspired sauce. It’s a cheat nduja (no time to cure it in 60 minutes). Andy says it hasn’t worked.
Pat’s next with his take on patatas bravas, made with saffron-potato hash. Poh immediately compliments the presentation of the dish and specifically its colours. Pat said that he loves to have this dish with a beer, and Andy responds that that is actually one of the dish’s few “downfalls”, as he needed a break from all the flavours.
Luke says that he’s “not embarrassed, but disappointed” in his dish. Filleting his fish took too long, and his other elements suffered.
“At this point in the competition, you need to take measured risks,” Poh advises him. This time the risk didn’t pay off.
Petro was the only contestant who made a dessert. Sofia calls his chilli ice cream with a bright orange chilli and lime granita and coconut tapioca pudding the most “refreshing” chilli dish. However, Andy can’t get around the addition of the pear. Petro originally had pineapple, but when he charred it in the pan…it burned badly.
Annabel is last up with her King George whiting with some pipis with a Thai red curry-inspired sauce. Jean Christophe calls her fish-cooking technique “fantastic” and adds that not everyone could do it.
Who wins immunity?
It comes down to Aaron and Annabel for the top dish today. Jean Chrstiphe says the top dish was “utter perfection” and it was made by…Annabel! She’s in the top six of MasterChef Australia 2026.
Episode 48
It’s Heat Week in the MasterChef kitchen. I have to say, I’m actually loving the themed weeks. Sofia explains that every day the dop dish will win its maker immunity.
Tonight the contestants are cooking with a “sizzling mystery box”, Andy says. And it’s set by Marion Grasby! It’s been 16 years since she was in the MasterChef kitchen. After finishing up on MasterChef season 2, she packed her bags and went to Thailand and started her business, Marion’s Kitchen.
Before they get cooking, Marion gives the contestants a masterclass in cooking with spice. She makes Thai green curry dumplings and a twist on a bombe Alaska with spiced rum.
Her box is packed with spices and flavour bombs, like Marion’s crispy chilli oil, as well as butternut squash and pork belly.
Most of the cooks are excited about the ingredients. But, Annabel, the last woman standing, is a bit lost at the start of the challenge. She really gets in her head as she wants to impress Marion. This has happened to Annabel before in the pantry time auction challenge. The pressure got to her, and she chose a pantry too soon. By the end of this cook, she has lost her confidence in her cooking.
What do they make
Petro impresses with his chargrilled pork belly, Szechuan green peppercorn salt and silken tofu salad. Earlier, Andy worried the rich elements might compete, but at tasting, he calls it “absolutely stunning”, leaving Petro visibly stunned. Marion says it tastes like something she’d eat in a Singapore restaurant.
Vinnie combines his Sicilian heritage with the spice challenge, serving pumpkin gnocchi with Szechuan pork sauce. Unfortunately, it’s overwhelmingly spicy. Jean-Christophe jokes, “Were you trying to kill us?” Poh admits, “I kinda like it,” while Sofia laughs, “It hurts, but I want it to like me.” Andy delivers the final blow: “I used to like you.”
Aaron’s braised pork belly tortellini with whipped silken tofu sauce shows promise, but Andy says while the pasta is lovely, the sauce misses the mark.
Annabel is visibly disappointed as she presents mushroom and pumpkin skewers, rolling her eyes and holding back tears. “I’m not putting up dishes consistently that I am really happy with and proud of,” she admits. Marion reassures her the dish isn’t as bad as she thinks, praising the flavours while noting the spice is overpowering. Jean-Christophe urges her not to be so hard on herself, while Andy reminds her the worst thing a cook can do is cook with fear.
Pat enjoys the challenge, serving barbecue-glazed pork belly with hot and sour noodle soup. Poh praises his “impeccable” noodles but says the broth needs more balance after too much lime juice.
Luke, who admits he’s “not great with spice”, earns praise for his crispy roast pork with whipped tofu and roti, with Marion calling it balanced and not overpowering.
Casper rounds out the tasting with chilli and lime-braised pork belly. Marion says his Szechuan salt makes her “tongue dance”, while Sofia jokes she’ll be stealing his recipe.
Who wins immunity?
Luke, Casper, and Petro were all singled out for their dishes. However, there can only be one winner, and it’s Casper! He’s officially in the top six. But the rest of the contestants have another shot tomorrow night.
Episode 47
Australian Michelin-starred chef Sam Aisbett is in the MasterChef kitchen tonight and setting the pressure test. Tonight, Casper, Alyona, Luke, and Annabel are all battling for their place. They have to recreate Sam’s mud crab salad – which doesn’t look like a mud crab salad. It includes a jiggly cone of fennel and seaweed vinegar.
The cook
The recipe flummoxes some of the contestants from the start, including the formula for cooking the crab. This particularly confuses Alyona. She cooks her crab for only one and a half minutes and puts it into the ice bath…and it’s essentially still raw. She figures it out and recooks it, but that could impact its texture. However, she ends up falling behind the rest of the contestants. Andy comes over and advises her to stop and take a breath as she clears her bench to reset. Her final dish looks great, but she didn’t have time to make the dressing, and Sam points out that the crab is too salty.
Getting the crab meat out of the shell is tricky for all contestants. Especially for Casper, whose rough method had everyone in the gantry winching. But otherwise, he was a pretty chill cook. Andy commends her “deft” plating. However, Sofia and Poh both get crab shells on their plates.
Just when you think Luke is down, he builds himself back up. After a week of mistakes which landed him in this pressure test, he is all focused tonight. But Aaron points out that Luke isn’t using the correct part of the heart of palm. Oopsie. After tasting, Sam says that Luke’s dish shows that he has an “eye for detail”. The only fault is that the balance was a bit out of whack, which confirms that he used the wrong part of the palm heart.
Annabel’s final dish looks exactly like Sam’s, so on visuals she’s solid. After tasting, Sam adds that her jelly is better than his, and he would hire her. All the judges say it tastes just like his.
Who goes home?
Because her salad was missing the dressing, had overseasoned crab and big chunks of macadamia nut instead of shavings, Alyona was sent home.
“I’m just so grateful for all this experience; honestly, I’m overjoyed that I came so far”, she says. “And so happy I met all of you guys. I honestly am going to miss you so much.”
“Your creativity will be missed the most,” Andy says to her.
This means that Annabel is the last woman standing. Will she make it to the top five? Find out our predictions here.
Episode 46
Tonight you can tell that this show was filmed ahead of time, as I watched this episode wrapped up in a cosy woollen jumper to fight against the winter chill while the contestants taste ice cream.
And that’s the challenge today. They have to make a dish inspired by a flavour of ice cream from a trolley of Connoisseur ice creams, and there are some fun flavours. Vinnie actually picks almond biscotti which is wild given his Italian heritage. However, it means he can get redemption after his performance in the previous episode put him in the bottom two.
What do they make?
Vinnie transformed his almond biscotti ice cream into an almond biscotti tart with chocolate orange ganache and almond praline. When Poh cut into it, the tart revealed beautifully defined layers, leaving Vinnie beaming. Jean-Christophe called it “impeccable”.
Aaron followed with a dessert inspired by his vanilla caramel brownie ice cream: a flourless chocolate sponge with whiskey and white soy, paired with black pepper and vanilla ice cream, and topped with peanut and chilli praline. Sofia declared the ice cream “a gantry winner,” while all the judges praised his clever use of black pepper.
Petro recreated his salted caramel and almond ice cream as éclairs stuffed with salted caramel and almond cream. After previously calling his éclairs the best she’d ever tasted, Sofia was equally impressed this time.
Alyona also made éclairs, inspired by her rocky road ice cream, but her flavours were out of balance and the choux lacked softness. Standing beside her, Petro became emotional, giving her a hug and apologising through tears.
Pat’s toasted coconut and white chocolate crémeux earned a “solid effort” from Poh, while Casper’s river mint ice cream sandwiches, inspired by mint chocolate ice cream, tasted good but suffered from messy construction.
Annabel’s Australian honey and honeycomb dessert unravelled when she abandoned her baked ice cream bombe after running out of time for meringue. To make matters worse, her ice cream became stuck in the mould and, by the time she served it, had melted into what she described as a “puddle”. The judges enjoyed the flavours, but the execution fell short.
Luke rounded out the cook with a pistachio tart featuring burnt fig, lemon caramel and white chocolate mousse. Despite Poh urging him to simplify, he pushed ahead. His mousse failed to set, the tempered chocolate didn’t work, and he was left “devastated”. While Poh praised the flavours as “solid”, she concluded he had been “way too ambitious.”
Who goes into the elimination pressure test?
The bottom dishes were made by Annabel, Alyona, Casper, and Luke. So they will be battling it out in the elimination cook tomorrow night.
Episode 45
Tonight, the contestants are greeted with unique ingredients from various countries: Bottarga from Italy, sancho pepper from Japan, banana blossom from Vietnam, alheira sausage from Portugal, and juniper berries from Sweden.
Turns out, none of them has cooked with them before, which really levels the playing field. There’s a huge prize for the top dish: a $10,000 travel voucher to travel the world. Sadly, the least impressive dish will send its maker home.
Casper has immunity from the last round. However, Andy gives him the choice to give up his immunity to compete for the prize. But Casper is a sensible sort and decides to stay put and safe from elimination.
Cook highlights (and lowlights)
Alyona is first up with juniper berry ice cream, blackcurrant coulis, macerated berries and a delicate tuile. Inspired by memories of home, she says the piney flavour reminds her of the forests she grew up around. Sofia is transported too, calling it a dish that puts Alyona firmly in contention.
Annabel serves charred octopus with whipped bottarga and salsa verde. While Sofia enjoys each component, she says the salsa verde overpowers the bottarga. Poh’s verdict is simply: “Okay.” Not what Annabel was hoping for.
Pat also cooks with juniper berries, pairing kangaroo with pomme purée and a rich juniper sauce. Jean-Christophe is so impressed he drinks the leftover sauce straight from the jug, calling the dish fantastic.
Emily is the only contestant to tackle banana blossom, creating Filipino-inspired spring rolls with pork and prawns. Earlier, Poh questioned whether the banana blossom would stand out, and unfortunately, it doesn’t. Emily lands in the danger zone.
Aaron impresses with a refined seafood pasta featuring bottarga, earning praise from Andy.
Petro is the only cook to use alheira sausage, serving it with white bean purée and octopus. Sofia enjoys the flavours but says there are simply “too many things on this plate.”
Luke transforms juniper berries into a gin-and-tonic-inspired dessert. Although the sherbet is overpowering, Sofia still finds the dish fun to eat.
Last is Vinnie, who arrives at the judges looking devastated. His prawn and bottarga ravioli hasn’t come together, and he admits it feels like the last dish he’ll cook in the MasterChef kitchen. Andy agrees it’s not his best effort, leaving Vinnie in danger.
Who wins the travel voucher and who leaves MasterChef?
Pat and Alyona made the most impressive dishes. But in the end, Pat wins the $10,000 travel voucher! A family holiday is in his future.
The bottom three dishes were made by Annabel, Vinnie, and Emily. The judges said it came down to the flaw that they “couldn’t overlook”, so Emily is sent home.
“I’ve learned so much about myself, my resilience, the fact that there’s so much more for me to learn,” Emily says.
“I feel as though everyone was always willing to give me a lot of feedback and teach me. There’s no other place like MasterChef.”
Episode 44
Legendary chef and prolific author of 150 cookbooks, Sanjeev Kapoor is in the MasterChef kitchen tonight with a gorgeous mystery box. He’s packed in some of his favourite ingredients, including mussels (which give Capser a bit of PTSD from his last cook). Some more unusual to the contestants anyway are palm sugar or jaggery, fresh turmeric root, garam masala and mango pickle. To help the contestants, the underbench staples have had an upgrade. There’s a spick rack, ghee, basmati rice, and more.
Plus, the top dish today will win immunity plus a one-on-one masterclass with Sanjeev that will be streamed to his 2.1 million followers on his social media.
Cooking highlights (and lowlights)
A sweet moment unfolded when Sanjeev learned Alyona’s name. It turns out his wife is also called Alyona and is Russian, so he greeted her by her full Russian name and even spoke to her in Russian. Inspired by the exchange, Alyona brought some Russian influences to her Indian-inspired dish, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite come together for the judges.
Petro, fresh off two standout cooks, made spiced lamb cutlets with sweet potato and coconut purée and pickled guava. Disaster struck when his lamb caught fire on the hibachi, filling the kitchen with smoke. Forced to manage the meat to avoid overcooking carefully, Petro ultimately pulled it off. Sanjeev praised the perfectly cooked lamb, while Andy called it “another quality dish”.
Emily served the only dessert of the day: a sweet dosa with cardamom lassi ice cream, cardamom syrup and guava chutney. “This combination is stunning,” Sanjeev said, while Poh declared it Emily’s best dish in the competition so far.
Annabel accidentally sprayed coconut foam over Sofia’s dress while plating her Indian-inspired lamb tartare, but recovered with a dish Sanjeev described as “beautiful”.
Sanjeev was particularly excited by Pat’s inventive “choux bhaji”, saying it was unlike anything he had seen before. “It doesn’t look Indian, but it tastes Indian,” he said, earning Pat a celebratory high-five from Jean-Christophe.
Last to cook was Casper, who revisited mussels with a sweet potato and spinach curry, pickled mussels and finger millet roti.
“Do you think you can do anything and call it Indian?” he asks with his arms crossed. Casper responds, “No”.
“Do you think because it’s MasterChef Australia you can do anything?”
“Yes” Casper responds with a confident smile. Sanjeev slaps the table in approval. This dish is innovative and executed really well.
Who wins immunity?
The judges named Casper’s dish his best yet. Poh says his “mussels were his perfect flex”. Redemption achieved! He bagged the masterclass with Sanjeev and immunity.
Episode 43
It’s the finale of MasterChef’s Knock Out Week. Tonight, the top ten is reduced to the top nine.
The judges lift the cloches to reveal…nothing! Are they cooking with nothing? Well, actually no, the three immunity winners are choosing the ingredients they have to cook with. So, Aaron, Annabel and Vinnie head to Coles to go grocery shopping.
Aaron comes back with short ribs, Annabel with leeks, and Vinnie with mussels. The contestants have to cook a dish that celebrates their chosen ingredients from those three.
Alyona
There’s a lot of fusion happening in the kitchen tonight. Alyona initially attempts to combine Japanese, French, Russian and Italian elements in her mussel dish until Sofia points out her confusion in her fusion. She refines it to just Japanese with Russian buns (which remind her of Japanese milk buns). When the judges taste her mussels with dashi broth, Andy says it’s “spot on”.
Petro
Petro struggled to settle on one of the three. He eventually chooses leeks, but doesn’t seem confident. Once he cooks all his elements and tastes them, he’s not happy. “It needs some tweaks.” He trusts his palate and refines his dish and ditches gochujang for miso. In the end, he makes leeks with miso-glazed scallops and tofu and miso cream and leek oil.
Jean Christophe simply calls it “amazing”.
Hannah
She also went with mussels as she was “playing around with” a seafood pasta dish. However, her time management was a bit askew, and she didn’t have the chance to refine her dish.
Even though she attempted to clean the mussels, some of them still have their beards, and they are inconsistently cooked. However, the judges love the pasta and the sauce. But the mussels are meant to be the hero. She could be in trouble.
Luke
Luke served up short rib massaman curry with a French-style pomme puree. Mixing both was a curious move for Sofia and Jean-Christophe. But in the end, they did like the potatoes!
Pat
Pat’s dish was the one I most liked the sound of: Charred leek agnolotti, pickled grapes, leek velouté, hazelnuts and crispy leeks. Jean-Christophe calls it a “delight” and the stuffing “perfect”.
Emily
Emily was solid throughout the cook. She made beef short rib randang and roti jala (which look incredible). Poh says she’s “really impressed by this dish.” Adding that it’s “so Malaysian”.
Casper
Last up is Casper. He’s really confident going into the tasting with his Tom Yum Mussels. However, the judges are confused by his strategy to add pipis and clams to his dish instead of only using mussels. When Poh points that out to him, Casper looks like he’s seen a ghost.
Jean Christophe calls his dish “phenomenal” and the best Asian moules marinière he’s had. However, the other judges say that they can’t distinguish the mussels’ flavour.
Who goes home?
The judges put Casper and Hannah in the bottom two. The dish with the most technical flaws, which ended up being…Hannah.
“To do this experience it’s been just so amazing,” Hannah says. “To meet everyone here, to do life with them for as long as I have, to be able to bring food to you guys, it’s amazing. You can’t actually put words to it.”
Episode 42
Tonight is the contestants’ final chance to keep themselves safe from elimination, and it all comes down to a service challenge. They’re cooking for the farmers and producers who supply many of the ingredients used in the MasterChef kitchen.
To set the scene, producers Rebecca and Tanya drive tractors into the MasterChef garden with fresh produce. Tanya brings navel oranges, grown primarily in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, while Rebecca delivers Queensland-grown pineapples, proudly calling them the “king of fruit.”
There’s another twist: each team will be mentored by a chef. Andy Allen guides the pineapple team of Vinnie, Aaron and Annabel, while Jean-Christophe Novelli leads Petro, Pat and Alyona, who are cooking with oranges.
Yellow team
The yellow team wastes precious time debating their menu. By the time Andy checks in, they still haven’t decided what to cook.
Once they settle on a pork dish, they’re forced to race through the cook. Vinnie also runs into trouble when the pork doesn’t have enough time to cook and rest, so he and Andy quickly sear it at the end.
Thankfully, it pays off. Poh calls the pork “cooked so beautifully, so tender and succulent,” while Sofia loves that they’ve “tripled down” on the sambal and incorporated pineapple throughout.
Dessert also causes some last-minute nerves. Annabel planned to serve roti but ran out of time, swapping it for roasted nuts instead. Despite the menu still listing roti, both judges agree she made the right decision.
Orange team
The orange team is far more organised, already cooking by the time Jean-Christophe arrives. The French chef is in his element, while Petro embraces the opportunity to make éclairs for the first time.
Their pan-seared duck earns praise, with Poh applauding Pat’s perfectly cooked duck and Sofia loving the silky-smooth parsnip purée. However, both judges agree the orange sauce lacks enough citrus flavour, with Poh saying it’s “missing in action.”
Dessert is another story. Poh describes Petro’s pastry work as “magnificent” and says the orange “hums” throughout the éclair.
Who wins and who heads to elimination?
Sofia calls Petro’s éclair the best she’s tasted in the MasterChef kitchen and tells Annabel she made the right call swapping the roti for roasted nuts.
Although both teams impress overall, the missing orange flavour in the orange team’s main proves costly. Petro, Alyona and Pat are heading into tomorrow night’s elimination challenge.
Episode 41
It’s a knock-knock fridge challenge tonight on MasterChef. Each judge has stocked a fridge with their favourite ingredients, and contestants must choose a fridge before seeing what’s inside.
Andy’s fridge is packed with seasonal vegetables, ferments, Travlr beer (his own brand), quail and crab, while Poh’s features pork belly, tofu and preserves suited to Asian dishes or desserts. Sofia’s fridge contains globally inspired ingredients including lamb backstrap, Turkish sausage, spices and oysters, while Jean-Christophe’s is filled with classic French ingredients, including pig’s feet.
Also up for grabs is a $5000 LG voucher.
Cook highlights and low lights
Petro chose Poh’s fridge to challenge himself, although he quickly regretted it. Planning a Greek-inspired dessert, he initially paired strawberry with pandan in his crème pâtissière, but after Poh warned the flavours didn’t work together, he switched to coconut and boosted the pandan in his filo cigars. The change paid off, with Poh telling him he had “nailed it”.
Aaron also selected Poh’s fridge and felt right at home with the Malaysian-inspired ingredients. His twice-cooked pork belly with Asian glaze and slaw impressed the judges, with Poh calling it “bloody delicious”.
Meanwhile, Jean-Christophe entertained the kitchen by making champagne-flambéed escargot while Luke, who wasn’t using his hobs, attempted Portuguese tarts in the air fryer. Unfortunately, his first batch overflowed and the second burnt, leaving him to serve the overcooked tarts with fig ice cream. While Sofia praised the ice cream, Andy said the pastry was “close to inedible”.
Hannah, the only contestant to choose Jean-Christophe’s fridge, focused on perfecting her champagne beurre blanc to accompany chicken breast. However, Poh felt the rest of the dish lacked enough flavour to match the sauce.
Who made the bottom two dishes, and who wins the $5K prize?
To his surprise and delight, Petro wins the $5,000 to kit out his kitchen.
Sadly, the bottom two dishes were made by Hannah and Luke. They will be joining Emily and Casper in this week’s elimination challenge.
Episode 40
We’re getting to the pointy end of the challenge now! This week is Knock Out Week. But what does that mean? Whoever cooks the bottom dish in any of the challenges this week goes straight into elimination.
To kick off Knock Out Week, they bring on a massive special guest, or should I say, guests? Sarah Todd and Declan Cleary are in the MasterChef kitchen tonight with their twins, Claudia and Charlotte! We met the twins a few months back and featured them in The Australian Women’s Weekly. Sarah and Declan were also guests on our podcast, Love Stories, to speak about the really scary entry the twins made into the world.
The family’s entry to the kitchen was so adorable.
“This is where mummy and daddy met,” Declan says to Charlotte as he walks in. “I was put on the world to be a dad…a twin dad.”
Sarah calls her return to the kitchen a “full circle moment”.
Poh says the twins are the “most consistent choux buns you’ve ever made.”
Tonight, the challenge is the classic and very “twins challenge.” The contestants will be paired in pairs and must communicate with their partners across a wall as they attempt to create identical dishes.
Sarah chose the ingredients for the mystery box, and Declan took the twins away so they wouldn’t be bothered by the noise. Her ingredients are crab, Chateaubriand (tenderloin beef), king george whiting (“For my baby daddy”), ghost chillies, beetroot, black garlic, dashi, cashew nuts, green apples, parsnip, and lots of herbs.
Yellow: Pat and Petro, aka P1 and P2, aka “a couple of bananas”
Pat and Petro were completely in sync, quickly settling on steak with parsnip purée and a ghost pepper and black garlic glaze. The only hiccup was Petro’s hibachi running hotter than Pat’s.
When revealed, their dishes looked almost identical, and the steaks were cooked similarly, too. Andy called them “bloody delicious”, while Sarah said, “You’re totally giving twin vibes.”
Blue: Aaron and Vinnie
Despite never cooking crab before, Vinnie embraced Aaron’s idea of crab linguine. Aaron largely took the lead, including insisting on using a food processor for the pasta dough, much to Vinnie’s hesitation.
Disaster struck when Vinnie accidentally broke the crab shell they planned to serve the dish in. Somehow, Aaron also plated a much larger portion.
Jean-Christophe said the dishes looked similar “from afar”. While the pasta and crab were consistent, the sauces differed, which could prove costly.
Orange: Casper and Emily
Communication issues plagued Casper and Emily from the start, with Emily struggling to hear Casper over Vinnie’s booming voice. Frustration grew on both sides.
They cooked chateaubriand with black garlic and parsnip purée, plus an apple and kohlrabi salad. Their dishes looked very similar, although Emily accidentally left the ring mould on her plate.
Unfortunately, the steaks were cooked and cut differently, and both needed seasoning, leaving the orange team in trouble.
Pink: Hannah and Luke
“It’s like being at home with kids,” Hannah said of cooking with Luke.
“She’s used the mum voice on me a few times,” Luke joked.
Their upside-down apple and caramel cake with thyme ice cream looked almost identical, with only a missing thyme sprig on Luke’s plate setting them apart.
Poh admitted it was difficult to tell the dishes apart.
Green: Annabel and Alyona
Annabel and Alyona communicated well throughout the challenge, but their black garlic ice cream with beetroot caramel, cashew crumb and pickled green apple was an ambitious choice.
While the dishes looked similar, they weren’t exact matches. Poh praised their bravery, but the crumb and caramel differed in texture and flavour, and Alyona’s plate was short on ice cream.
Who goes into elimination?
To thank Sarah for bringing in her twins, the judges gifted her two mini MasterChef aprons with her twins’ names stitched on in pink thread!
The bottom dishes today were made by the orange team. This means that Casper and Emily will go straight into the elimination at the end of the week.
Episode 39
After tonight’s pressure test, we’re down to the top 10 contestants. Setting the challenge is world-renowned pastry chef Kirsten Tibballs, who asks the cooks to recreate her intricate chocolate iris — a dessert that looks more like a work of art than a cake. The delicate chocolate flower sits atop a layered entremet, and the contestants have just three hours to recreate it.
Kirsten reminds everyone that getting the entremet into the fridge and freezer quickly is crucial. Thankfully, tempered chocolate has been provided.
Poh is absent from the tasting after going home sick.
Luke
Andy tells Luke he has recently been cooking with fear, but today the young cook wants to prove himself. Andy even says he seems like a brand new person.
Luke performs well until he forgets to remove the acetate from his chocolate leaves before assembling the flower, forcing him to remake it with just 15 minutes remaining.
The judges are impressed by his flavours, textures and construction, even if the flower is a little rough. Luke appears safe.
Grace
Grace forgets the gelatin in her white chocolate cremeaux but quickly corrects the mistake. Later, she accidentally places it in the regular freezer instead of the blast freezer.
She then realises she has left half the sugar out of her flourless cake after it has gone into the oven, with no time to remake it.
When assembling the entremet, the cremeaux still isn’t set, forcing her to spoon it in and compromising the layers. She does manage to finish all the elements and paint the iris petals.
The judges praise the exterior presentation, but the uneven layers and altered textures disappoint. Grace looks to be in trouble.
Emily
Dessert is not Emily’s strength. She admits she struggles with recipes that have five steps, let alone one with more than 100.
She loses time after mixing ingredients too early and having to start again. Later, her entremet slips in the blast chiller, slightly disrupting the layers.
Despite this, her finished dessert looks good and includes all the elements. The layers are a little uneven, and the leaves are described as “rough and ready”, but overall, Emily appears safe.
Aaron
Aaron also isn’t a dessert cook, but he stays organised and focuses on precision. “Perfect is the enemy of good,” warns Casper from the gantry.
The edit suggests he is falling behind, and he is the last contestant to assemble his entremet. He finishes the dessert but runs out of time to paint the iris petals.
Although Aaron says he is disappointed in himself, Kirsten praises his effort. When the judges cut into the cake, his layers are the best of the day. His precision pays off.
Who goes home?
The judges decide Grace’s dessert is the least like Kirsten’s and send her home.
“I just really loved challenging myself, and I’ve learned so much from everyone and from you guys,” she says. “I’m obviously crushed to be leaving this close to the top 10, but I’m leaving this competition with so much knowledge and so much love.”
And just like that, we have our top 10 for 2026!
Episode 38
Tom Sarafian is Melbourne’s hottest chef at the moment and tonight’s special guest. The contestants are chomping at the bit when they see him walk in the door. Annabel shares that she’s been trying to get a table at his restaurant Zareh for months to no avail. Turns out Petro must have taken her spots as he shares that he’s been there twice!
Tom shares his signature dish, it’s a speciality he’s spent three years perfecting: hummus topped with spanner crab, king prawn and bread. And that’s the challenge today: create a dip, a topper, and a mopper, aka a dip, something it’s topped with and something to dip into it.
They also have pizza ovens in the kitchen available if needed.
And they need all the help they can get. We’re nearly down to the top ten, and the bottom four dishes today will go into tomorrow night’s pressure test.
Many of the contestants are inspired by Tom’s story of his own heritage and how he translated that into his showstopper dish.
Cook highlights (and lowlights)
Vinnie is looking for redemption tonight. He’s decided to make focaccia. The last time he attempted that in the MasterChef kitchen, it didn’t cook in time. He’s swapping out water for beer to help with raising the dough. He manages to pull off a focaccia in under 60 minutes and serves it with his version of caponata topped with sardines. Tom calls it a “beautiful dish.”
Not only has Petro eaten in his restaurant, but Tom has tasted Petro’s halloumi (and he loves it). But their prior relationship isn’t giving Petro confidence; in fact, he’s feeling the pressure! He makes taramasalata with scallops, prawn head and Aleppo butter topper and flatbreads. Tom calls it “fantastic” and adds that it took him three years to perfect his dip, and Petro did it in an hour! His dish is named the dish of the day.
Aaron is leaning on his Malaysian heritage and making a laksa dip with seafood and roti. However, right before he was about to portion it out, his dough rolled on the floor. He can’t serve floor dough, so he has to start again! He does get one roti on the plate, but admits he thinks it’s doughy. However, Andy says that his dip is gritty.
Alyona almost went home the previous night. So she also reaches into her heritage and creates a spin on a classic New Year’s Eve salad dish from her home country called “Herring Under a Fur Coat” It’s beetroot and sour cream dip, cured kingfish topper and lavosh crisps. When it’s all plated and she tastes it, she gets emotional as it brings her straight back to her youth, a good sign! Poh calls it “beautiful” and “delicate” and commends her for modernising and making it Australian.
Who goes into the pressure test?
Luke, Emily, Aaron and Grace are heading into tomorrow’s pressure test.
Grace attempted to roast beetroots in the pizza ovens, but the heat was too intense, and they burned. So she recreates her dip with canned beetroots. When it comes to tasting, Poh says it’s not as complex as other dishes, and the tuna topper is “incompatible” and the chips are too thin.
Emily made a Thai-style capsicum dip, but the judges reckon it’s more of a sauce. Also, she topped it with squid, which was “chewy”.
Luke had a tricky cook. His beetroots didn’t roast in the oven, and he didn’t have the time to look after his mince. But in fact, the judges didn’t like his choice to serve his dip and topper with roast potatoes as they couldn’t dip and scoop.
Episode 37
We had fish butchery yesterday, and tonight it’s meat. Who better to showcase meat butchery than MasterChef’s resident meat guy, Curtis Stone?
He starts by demonstrating how to correctly butcher a shoulder, focusing on the oyster blade. It’s not commonly found on a restaurant’s menu because of the butchery involved.
So that’s the challenge today: Cooking steak!
However, they have it easier tonight as Curtis has already butchered their oyster blades into flat iron steaks. The contestants just have to cook a dish that makes the steak sing.
The cook highlights (and lowlights)
This challenge is right up Pat’s alley, but for an extra bit of luck, he puts a turtle charm from his family on his bench. He serves flat iron with cheesy polenta with “paddy-churri”, a kind of chimichurri sauce. The judges all adore his dish.
Vinnie pushes himself tonight. He makes two dishes in one: steak tartare and grilled steak on the hibachi. It’s a large ask, but he absolutely nails the brief. Andy says that he loves “every bit of that”. Curtis calls his dishes “sublime”.
Grace has never cooked flat iron steak before, and it also appears she wasn’t listening to Curtis Stone during his masterclass. He said to have the steak at room temperature before cooking it. Instead, after seasoning her steak, she puts it in the fridge to rest. Something that Curtis notes to Sofia. Poh says her final dish has too many layers of seasoning that don’t mesh, and Curtis points out how uneven the cooking is.
Bella isn’t confident with steak. Also, she’s making a cold soba noodle soup with cooled steak. Andy and Jean Christophe aren’t keen on her idea. However, she also adds sesame oil to her sauce, which overpowers it, much to her regret. Also, her steak is quite rare when she takes it off the grill. In the end, the sesame oil ruins the texture of her sauce.
Contrastingly, Alyona is very confident. She decides to make her cauliflower puree with miso, a herby salsa verde and the grilled steak. However, the judges call it “safe”, but she can’t think of what to add to the dish to make it stand out. In the end, she decides on mushrooms, and when she serves them to the judges, she looks completely ashen. But her steak is overcooked, and Jean Christophe calls it “rough”.
Who goes home?
At the bottom tonight are Bella and Alyona. However, in the end, the judges sent Bella home! Just two episodes after she cooked her way back into the competition, just seven episodes ago.
“I feel so lucky,” says Bella. “This is not the last you’ll see of me for sure.”
Episode 36
Another week, another theme and another slew of guest judges. Tonight, it’s none other than fish butchery legend, Josh Niland, for their first taste of Masters Week.
Turns out Alyona’s grandfather taught her to “eat all the weird parts of the fish”, so all of his work and philosophy mean a lot to her. She’s starstruck.
Today, the contestants are learning how to butcher a rock flathead. They learn how to butterfly, reverse butterfly and fillet with the head and tails still attached. For vegans or those sensitive to butchery, I would recommend not watching his demonstration…
And so that’s the challenge today: make a flathead dish that celebrates the fish. The top three dishes will be safe from elimination.
The cook highlights
Some of the contestants, like Hannah and Emily, experiment with raw and cured flathead.
Grace initially considered making a sausage with the fish. However, that quickly changed after Andy commended her filleting and looked on in horror when she told him her sausage plan. Instead, she made a reverse butterflied flathead with clams, saltbush and clam sauce. Because of her switch, she was fairly stressed throughout her cook, and it came down to the wire. However, Andy calls it “stunning”. Right choice to pivot!
Annabel follows with her reverse butterfly stuffed and roasted flathead that’s rolled to look like a whole fish. However, she isn’t 100 per cent sure it is cooked through. But she need not have worried, Josh is so impressed he gives her a high five and says it’s “remarkable.”
Bella appears to be the only contestant who’s truly nervous about cooking the fish. But Sofia calls her fried flathead tostados “tasty”, and Josh said he thought he’d be underwhelmed, but wasn’t.
Casper made flathead two ways, one side fried and one side grilled and two sauces to go with each. Jean Christophe says that he’s “doubled the risk”. But he pulls it off; Jean Christophe calls it a “masterpiece”.
Aaron is the only one who butterflied his fish…but sadly, it had lots of pin bones left inside. Vinnie’s was also overdone. And Luke attempted to cure and then torch his flathead, but Andy says the technique doesn’t work well with this fish.
Petro is going for redemption after burning his last fish on the hibachi. Plus, he’s keen to impress Josh. He pairs it with ghee-roasted almonds, boiled potatoes and roasted tomatoes. And he doesn’t burn his flathead. Even better than that, Josh calls it the dish of the day! Redemption achieved!
Who wins immunity?
To no one’s surprise, Petro is first to win immunity. Anna and Casper also join him thanks to their “clever cooking”.
Curtis Stone is back tomorrow for the elimination round.
Episode 35
A MasterChef pin is back up for grabs tonight! Plus, Poh is back in the kitchen after missing last night’s episode. Also returning to the MasterChef kitchen is “a superstar of dessert” and major alumna, Jess Lemon! She actually competed alongside Poh in their season.
But Jess isn’t here to judge; she’s here to compete. It’s a “beat the chef” challenge. If the cooks beat Jess, they also win the immunity pin!
Raspberry, lemon, hazelnut, ginger, and fennel. But what are they cooking? The judges present five ingredients, and it’s a first-come, best-dressed situation. They each receive a macaron with a number inside.
Bella gets one and picks fennel! She does love to experiment with desserts. Alyona takes lemons next. Pat follows with raspberry, leaving raspberry or ginger for Hannah and Jess. Hannah decides on raspberry, which means Jess gets ginger. However, because Jess is a veteran, the other cooks get a 15-minute head start.
Also, today is Alyona’s birthday! Perfect day for making a cake.
However, everyone is mesmerised when they see the sheer speed and precision of Jess Lemon as she rapidly gets to work on her ginger and honey dessert. But Jess, she shares that her adrenaline has spiked as she falls back into her role as MasterChef contestant.
Things start to go wrong for the contestants. Hannah’s tart sides fall down, and Pat’s pastry doesn’t cook or set properly, and Alyona’s dessert is deemed a little bit boring by Poh and Sofia, plus, it’s not cooking in time. But somehow they all get their desserts done in time.
What they cook:
The first person serving their dessert is Jess. She made “Ginger Thread” with manuka honey wafer, ginger ice cream and yoghurt foam.
“I thought I was the coolest person in the room,” Jess shares about what she thought when she first got her white apron in the MasterChef kitchen. And the judges all adore her dish.
Alyona follows with her lemon and thyme olive oil cake with lemon curd, blackberry coulis and Italian meringue. Poh and Sofia both commend the intense lemon flavour of the curd. However, Andy says that “if this beats Jess Lemon, I’ll be very surprised.”
Bella is next with her fennel and yuzu parfait with fennel sorbet and fennel oil. She shares that it was like a “dream” to cook alongside Jess. Andy says that it’s a “genius move” and he’s in love with the “funky” dish.
Pat then arrives with his raspberry and rhubarb tart with layers of textures and flavours.
“I don’t even know if Jess would have attempted this many elements,” says Poh.
Jean Christophe says that he really went for it but took on too much to chew without thinking about what he would have to swallow. The pastry is underdone, and the frangipane is also underdone.
Last up is Hannah with her hazelnut-and-orange tart featuring hazelnut cream, orange mousse, and chocolate ganache, finished with an orange mirror glaze.
Jean-Christophe says it’s the best tart they’ve had today. Andy goes further and says all year. Sofia calls it “perfect” and says that it wouldn’t be out of place in Jess’s patisserie. But is it good enough to beat Jess’s dish?
Does anyone beat the chef?
Unsurprisingly, Hannah and Bella are both named the top dishes. In fact, they say that Hannah’s was her best dish yet. But whose was the dish of the day? Jess Lemon, which means that no one beat the chef. She wishes the contestants the best of luck and reminds them that she lost three times and is still a success.
Episode 34
No Poh tonight, but Sweet Week remains in full swing. And tonight, it’s an invention test challenge. The added twist? They must use an airfryer to create at least one element of their dessert invention.
The top four dishes will cook in tomorrow’s immunity challenge. Plus, as an added incentive, the dish of the day will win its maker a $5000 voucher to kit out their kitchen.
Most interesting attempts in the airfryer
Petro channelled Poh and made a gorgeously flower-decorated chiffon cake. Andy tells him his flavours are great, but the texture was off.
Annabel serves up rhubarb, strawberry and pistachio custard hand pies. The judges were really excited about her flavour combo, and the resulting dish lived up to their expectations. “It’s a perfect little marriage,” says Sofia.
Vinnie made gochujang chocolate vol-au-vents with strawberry and yuzu jam. I love the concept of this one. Andy tells him he’s done a good job, but the edit doesn’t stay on him too long, so it’s not looking promising for Vinnie to get into immunity.
Casper followed with a mini black sesame Basque cheesecake paired with roasted blueberries. Again, another really interesting, and in my opinion inventive concept, but like Vinnie, Casper doesn’t get a lot of time. Sounds incredible though!
Hannah is not super keen on airfryers; she’s decided to make doughnuts, which baffles Jean Christophe, as doughnuts are traditionally deep-fried. However, her “After Dark doughnuts” are a smash, especially as they are very whisky-forward.
Grace used banana leaf-roasted peaches with banana leaf ice cream, spiced rum syrup, and ginger crumb. Her flavours were out of balance, but what an interesting concept!
Who goes through to immunity?
The top four dishes were made by Alyona with her whisky and miso chocolate tart, which Andy said smashed the brief; Hannah with her doughnuts; Bella with her inventive apple meringue tart; and Pat, who made a tarte tatin. He was subjected to Jean-Christophe’s intense criticism. He even makes Pat taste it with him as Jean Christophe is the tarte tatin expert. However, it’s worth it, because he loves it. “Once again, Creme Pat, perfection,” he finishes.
But who wins the $5000 voucher for a new kitchen? And it was Pat who scored the top prize! Maybe he should just accept that he’s a dessert guy. This is the second dessert challenge that he has won, the other being his ice cream, which is available in Coles stores!
If you’d like to peruse some more airfryer recipes, head over to Women’s Weekly Food to discover your new family favourite! Find recipes here.
Episode 33
It’s the return of the classic challenge: The MasterChef taste test. Tonight, the contestants have to taste ice cream correctly. The first four who get their guesses incorrect go into a cooking challenge.
Everyone gets through round one successfully. Casper is the first to be wrong when he incorrectly guesses jackfruit for saffron in round two. Annabel is the next to be incorrect when she guesses mango for orange. Aaron follows when he guesses parsnip for cauliflower ice cream (I am not on board with that). Jackie is the final person to get her ice cream wrong; she thought it was watermelon, but overthought it and guessed rockmelon. It was watermelon!
In round two, the four cooks have to create a standout dessert using the ingredients from which the ice creams were made.
The dishes and judges’ remarks
Annabel made a decadent miso and brown butter ice cream with chocolate mousse and passionfruit and chilli granita. Get in my mouth now! Andy calls it “safe” but “exciting”, a bit of an oxymoron, but adds that she pulled it off and she’s a “weapon”.
Jackie made figs and ice cream with brown butter financier and orange and cinnamon ice cream with mint granita. The granita melts pretty quickly, so it doesn’t look that appetising to me, and whenever they cut into the financier, it’s uncooked. Plus, Poh says that the mint granita was unnecessary and messed up the flavour balance on the dish.
Casper tries to use his weakness as his strength and decides to use saffron in his dessert. He made a saffron and carrot ice cream with orange meringue macaron kisses and vanilla bean oil. Andy does say that the ice cream is delicious, but the dish itself is very monotone. Jean Christophe is the only judge who actually likes the dish, calling it gentle.
Aaron was creative with his choice. He made a “tomato salad” with basil ice cream, tomato granita, olive oil and hazelnut crumb. The judges agree that it was a “risky” move for Aaron. But it works! Apparently, the crumb is what pulls the more savoury-leaning dish into dessert land and delights all the judges.
Who goes home?
To their delight, Aaron and Annabel are safe tonight. Meaning, Jackie and Casper are at the bottom.
Sadly, Jackie’s dish was the one with the most faults.
“I’m sad to be leaving,” she said on the show. “But I’m so proud of how far I’ve come – over halfway – and I’ve done things I never thought I’d do. This has been the wildest ride, it’s been such a good time.”
Episode 32
Aussie Week is over, and this week is sweet! Really great timing for Bella returning to the show. Joining MasterChef Australia today is guest judge Chef Adriano Zumbo, a frequent guest on the show. As Andy says, it wouldn’t be MasterChef without him joining in on the fun.
The kitchen is kitted out with circus meets Wonka Factory with black and white cloches and bright pink plinths. One by one, each of the contestants must lift a cloche to reveal an ingredient that they must hero in their dessert dish. The first ingredient found is fish sauce, to give you an idea of what to expect. Some fruits are hiding underneath some of the cloches. But there are more rogueish ingredients like the aforementioned fish sauce, tamarind, kombu, plus some traditional tea ingredients like hibiscus and chamomile. And lesser-known ingredients like barberries and tonka beans.
It’s a white apron day, so there’s no risk involved in experimenting with flavours. However, there are only three immunity spots up for grabs…
The most memorable dishes
Bella got kombu, and the judges are so excited to see what she does with it (as are the viewers, as kombu is a perfect mix of salty and umami and not sweet). Although she’s initially confident, she starts to waver once the cook begins. In the end, she made “kombu chaos” complete with kombu ice cream, kombu caramel and black sesame sponge. Sadly, the judges couldn’t taste the kombu at all!
After winning a dessert challenge last week (and getting his ice cream stocked in Coles shops nationwide), Pat is feeling confident today. He picked oranges and is hoping to not only impress the judges, but also impress his fiancée (who is a baker!). He made an orange mille-feuille, and the judges found no faults with it.
Petro picked tonka beans, an ingredient he had never tasted or cooked with before. He was excited to try something new and likened it to cocoa beans. Throughout the cook, he got more or less convinced in his abilities, but by the end, his tonka bean and date caramel tart looked and tasted great.
“You don’t know how good you are,” Poh tells him, commending him on his use of tonka bean throughout the dish. Andy also refuses to accept that he had never used tonka bean before.
“I don’t think I’ve come across someone so naturally gifted with flavour,” he says to Petro.
Alyona loves fish sauce and was happy that she got that ingredient. She made fish sauce ice cream and caramel. The judges all comment on how pungent and funky the caramel sauce is. However, Poh says that she successfully switched the yuck to yum.
Who wins immunity
Unsurprisingly, Pat, Petro, and Alyona all win immunity from the next challenge!
Episode 31
Aussie Classics week is closing with a very special guest. Is there a bigger Australian icon or Australian classic than Robert Irwin?
The contestants correctly guess who it is before Poh officially announces it.
Robert Irwin hasn’t been a guest on the show, but it’s fantastic to see him in his Australian Zoo khakis in the MasterChef kitchen. And the contestants are beyond thrilled. He’s an international superstar after all.
“I grew up watching this show,” says Robert. “To be here to taste it, to experience it, it’s just a dream. I want to eat!”
Plenty of the contestants are starstruck. Luke is literally speechless, and Aaron even says, “You’re so much more handsome in person.”
Robert didn’t just bring the vibes to the kitchen; he also brought his favourite native Australian ingredients, including lillipilli, ooray plum (Davidson’s plum), lemon myrtle, wattleseed, and rivermint. He advises restraint when using the native ingredients, but the contestants really want to impress Robert, more so than other guests, it seems!
They can make anything they like as long as they feature one of the native ingredients. The least impressive dish will send its maker home.
There’s a mix of experience among the contestants with native ingredients. However, it looks like the most popular is ooray plum.
Who goes home?
Robert is a breath of fresh air in the kitchen. It doesn’t feel like a black apron day at all. He’s up front dancing with the judges and racing from contestant to contestant, barely containing his enthusiasm. Robert can’t help but bring positive energy with him!
He does say that he’s most excited about Luke’s lillipilli milly filly, but sadly Luke put the oven on the grill setting and burnt his pastry. He cuts off the burnt ends and continues. Poh says that it’s not the prettiest milly filly she’s seen, but flavours are there. However, his creme pat is too thick.
Petro also doesn’t have a good cook. He ran out of time and wasn’t able to make sure his pork chop was cooked. At the end, he was holding back tears and was clearly not happy with his dish. But when they carve the pork, it’s perfectly cooked!
Dot was the only contestant to use rivermint in her dish. She made rivermint doughnuts with ooray jam. When Robert heard about her dish, he loved the concept. However, when they taste it, Andy says that her rivermint is out of balance, it’s too overpowering.
Grace’s prawns are also slightly undercooked towards the head. Andy warns her that she could be at the bottom.
However, in the end, Dot’s dish was the least impressive, and she’s going home. However, now she can finally go on her honeymoon!
“Thank you all for being my mentors during this,” she says to the judges. “It’s just been a dream come true to be here and to celebrate food every day and to think about food every day. Maybe not rivermint…”
“It’s been amazing, so thank you all for everything.”
She says she’s going to miss Pat, who is openly weeping at the news.
“You have brought so much light into the kitchen,” Jean Christophe says and adds that they will be first in line when she opens her cafe.
Episode 30
It’s Aussie Classics week, and what do Aussies love more than a comeback?! All the eliminated contestants are back to win their spot back in the MasterChef kitchen!
Not everyone returned. Back to earn their spot are Lydia, Miin, Jack, Bella, Alita, Megs, Belinda, and Lucy. I was gutted that Olaolu, Kanika and Jeff weren’t able to return.
The challenge is to cook something that they didn’t get to. Some take the opportunity to make a dish for the challenge that led to their elimination, as Miin did. Others, like Jack, are going over the top and making four courses. Some are showcasing their techniques and creating new dishes, like Lydia’s Greek salad-inspired dessert!
“It means everything for me to be in this competition,” says Lydia. “I’m hoping I get the opportunity to do more.”
Similarly, Bella is making a vegetable-forward dessert complete with capsicum sorbet and chocolate soil.
Who wins their spot back?
The judges are mostly happy with everyone’s dishes. Belinda’s whole-roasted (and very well butter-basted) cauliflower is nice, in fact, Andy says it’s “flat-out delicious.” Poh calls Lucy’s corn noodle soup with scallops “sublime”. Miin redeems himself with his barramundi masak lemak. Poh calls is a “celebration” of Malaysian cuisine.
Lydia’s Greek salad-inspired dessert looks stunning, but not like a salad at all, and also not like a traditional dessert. She looks nervous as the judges taste, but she needn’t have been. Poh says that it smells exactly like a Greek salad, and Sofia says that the olive dressing is “plummy” and “delicious”. Jean Christophe even asks for the recipe. Could she have the white apron in the bag?
Bella’s vegetable dessert, “Nonna’s Garden”, was risky, as the last time she did a technical dessert, it led to her elimination.
“Where the hell have you been?” Jean Christophe asks her, incredulous at her creation. Andy calls it “insane cooking”. Those four were the favourites. But there’s only one spot, and it goes to…Bella! We really thought that Lydia had it in the bag, but Bella inched out for technique. Welcome back, Bella! And tomorrow night, Robert Irwin is in the MasterChef kitchen.
Episode 29
Aussie Classics week continues with tonight’s elimination challenge. Curtis Stone is back in the MasterChef kitchen, and tonight, he brought various cuts of Australian pork.
They can make anything they would like, but the least impressive dish will send its maker home.
Disaster strikes when Alyona burns her hand, and Annabel nearly burns the kitchen down when she flambéd her sauce!
Who goes home?
Although Jack’s plating was beautiful, his pork crackling wasn’t cracking enough. He also combined different flavours (Chinese, French and Korean), which Poh said confused the direction of the dish. She calls it “disjointed”.
Alyona attempted to bring some of her life’s story to her dish. She served a pan-seared pork chop with apple and fennel puree, rhubarb relish (a nod to her heritage) and black pudding pangrattato (a nod to her time living in Scotland and Ireland). She got flustered after burning her hand, and the final dish isn’t up to her own standards. Poh comments that because she was missing a sauce, there was nothing to tie all the elements together.
Sadly, because Jack’s pork was inconsistently cooked and “disjointed”, the judges decided to send him home tonight.
“I’m really proud of myself to even be wearing one of these aprons is such an honour,” Jack says. “I’m walking out of these doors a better man.”
But will this be the last we see of him? In the preview for the next episode, the eliminated contestants are back to win their place back in the competition!
Episode 28
It’s Aussie Classics week, and starting it off strong with guest judge Curtis Stone. Inside the mystery boxes are dishes that Curtis says “every Aussie loves”: pies and ice cream.
The judges are looking for the top pie and ice cream, both of which will go into the immunity challenge. However, there’s an extra reward: the winner of both will have their product rolled out in Coles stores nationwide! It’s a lucrative prize and an incredible start to a home cook’s career in the food industry.
The contestants don’t get to choose whether they are making a pie or an ice cream. Instead, the production team left alternate pies and bowls of ice cream under the boxes. This, of course, means that cooks who normally like making desserts get mains and vice versa.
Petro is one of those. He has to make an ice cream and is completely out of his element, but by the end of his cook, he shares that he’s “nearly hooked” and considers switching to dessert full-time. Another savoury guy thrown a little by the sweet challenge is Luke, who accidentally turns his ice cream into ice! He also meant to have a sponge, but decided during the cooking to leave it. Plus, many of the cooks have issues with getting their pies out of their tins. Like Grace, whose pie collapses as soon as she places it on a plate.
Who wins the challenge?
The dish that wows the judges the most is Hannah’s cheeseburger pie. It baffles Jean-Christophe, but he loves it. Curtis says it’s a “beautiful pie”, from the construction side of things, but also that he can taste the effort she put in. “It’s a revelation.”
Dot’s butter chicken breast pie also gets outstanding marks from the judges. Curtis says he can’t fault it.
Annabel’s lamington-inspired ice cream gets a “top dish” from Jean-Christophe. Andy calls it “elite”.
Petro’s ice cream surprises the judges with his presentation and choice of Basque cheesecake ice cream. Andy tells him he did an “awesome job.”
Pat goes all out and makes an apple pie with salted caramel ice cream and golden biscuit crumb (he’s being judged on the ice cream).
“Are you trying to kill us, Pat?” Poh asks in response to the luscious dessert. Jean Christophe calls him audacious for doing both a pie and ice cream. Andy says his pie could be the best short-crust of the day! But who actually takes home the win? In the end, the judges chose Hannah’s hamburger pie and Pat’s salted caramel ice cream. Both are available to purchase from Coles nationwide until stocks last.
Episode 27
Tonight’s elimination challenge is a classic one: the time vs ingredient challenge. Every 15 minutes, a new pantry will be revealed with increasingly better ingredients. The clock starts as soon as they reveal the first pantry, meaning that if they decide to wait until the last pantry, they will have only 30 minutes to cook.
Vinnie decides that the odds aren’t in his favour and plays his immunity pin. However, now the odds are even tougher for the remaining four contestants.
What the contestants make
The first pantry is herbs, spices, and alliums (garlic and onions). Lydia considers it as she’s concerned about the time pressure. She decides to go for it and starts cooking an “onion tart of some kind”.
The second pantry is fruit and veg, and Hannah is immediately picking up her berries for a dessert she wants to make. Annabel seriously deliberates, but decides to wait… for about five minutes before deciding to cook with the two pantries. However, she’s still not confident about her decision. Her stress levels rise even further when Andy points out that her dish is essentially “chips and dip”. But she believes it’s too late to pivot; instead, she attempts to evolve it with fennel salt and a burnt orange oil.
The third pantry is “flavour bombs” which includes cured meats, oils and vinegars, truffles, mushrooms and more. Even though she’s tempted, Alyona decides to wait for the last pantry. Andy commends her strategy and tells her that he would have done the exact same thing.
The last pantry is seafood, and Alyona is thrilled! She races to grab all her ingredients and moves at a rapid pace to cook a puree and herb sauce for her scallop dish.
When Lydia comes to flip her onion tart, she chooses a very heavy plate and struggles to flip it. When she lifts the pan, the pastry has completely crumbled. She can’t figure out why, however, earlier Dot mused to Pat that Lydia was using a lot of butter.
The regret gets to Annabel, and she starts to cry after the time is up, admitting that the pressure got to her and she made a snap decision to cook instead of waiting for a better pantry.
Who leaves MasterChef?
The judges unanimously love Alyona’s miso cauliflower and scallops and commend her confidence and execution. They also only have good things to say about Hannah’s strawberry and basil cake.
However, Andy is confused about Annabel’s dish, even calling it “odd”. And Lydia is unhappy with her pastry. The judges also agree that the pastry isn’t up to snuff. Jean Christophe simply says it’s not a tart. And it’s her pastry work that makes the judges decide to send her home.
“Dammit,” Lydia says in response.
“You are a real treasure,” says Poh as she lists off some of Lydia’s highlights.
“This experience has been the most incredible thing I have ever experienced. The environment is so nurturing. I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you. The level of sophistication around the food was so inspiring.”
“She was like a Greek yaya even though I’m not Greek,” said Vinnie.
“I’m not that old,” she laughs in response.
“As painful as this is, I’m super proud of myself. Hearing those positive comments about my cooking from the judges, just knowing that someone of their calibre has enjoyed what I’ve cooked, is such a highlight.”
Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Lydia in MasterChef…We spoke with Lydia following her elimination. She has plenty of plans for the future. Read that interview here.
Episode 26
Who loves peanut butter and chocolate? Seemingly, everyone in the MasterChef kitchen does! In this episode, the contestants are presented with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. But chocolate and peanut butter aren’t the only pairs today. The contestants are cooking in pairs for tonight’s challenge.
The challenge tonight is to work together to create a delicious chocolate and peanut butter dessert. No other flavours should steal the show, warns Andy.
The bottom two teams are cooking in tomorrow’s elimination. And joining them is Vinnie, as he didn’t cook in yesterday’s challenge. Because of that, he’s not cooking again today and is watching from the gantry (it helps that it’s an odd number of contestants as well).
Dot and Pat
This dynamic duo made chocolate and peanut banoffee pie. These two had a delightful cook, even ending with a “little jig” as Dot says. But does it translate to the final dish? Turns out yes! Poh says that the banana is on the edge of taking over, but chocolate and peanut butter wins out and are very balanced.
Casper and Petro
This pair made a miso salted caramel tart with peanut cremaux and tempered chocolate shards. Disaster struck in the last five minutes of the cooking time. Casper had an accident. He smashed a glass bowl and sliced his finger. Terrible timing, and Petro has to take the lead on plating, even though desserts aren’t really his thing.
“It’s a bit rustic for us,” Casper says of the final dish.
However, the judges all commend both cooks on the flavours and their balance. It’s just the looks that let them down.
Lydia and Alyona
They made a chocolate and peanut butter cake. Initially, these two had planned to serve an ice cream alongside it. But sadly, the ice cream didn’t set in time, and so they replaced it with peanut mascarpone. And unfortunately, Sofia says the vanilla ice cream might have added more balance to the dish. Andy ends by saying it wasn’t their final work.
Emily and Jackie
This dessert-loving duo made a chocolate peanut fudge ice cream with crumble and a salted caramel sauce.
“Wow, that is a very good ice cream,” Andy squeals. “It is legit.”
Jack and Aaron
This pair made a chocolate creme pat with a peanut butter diplomat and peanut brittle. Jean Christophe says it’s beautiful, and Sofia agrees.
Grace and Luke
They made chocolate and peanut profiteroles with peanut whisky ice cream. Sadly, their choux pastry ended up being quite chewy and soggy as they put them in the freezer.
Hannah and Annabel
These two weren’t happy coming up to the judges. Instead of four dishes (which was the brief), they served up two, and neither of them was happy with the resulting dish.
They made a peanut and chocolate tart shell with passionfruit salted caramel and peanut ice cream. And even though they only served up two dishes, they cannot win this challenge because they didn’t serve four; therefore, they missed the brief.
Who is going into the elimination challenge?
The dish of the day goes to Pat and Dot, to no surprise.
As mentioned, the bottom two dishes are going into the next elimination challenge along with Vinnie. Because they missed the brief, Hannah and Annabel are going straight into elimination. Joining them are Lydia and Alyona, as their dish didn’t “hit the mark.”
Episode 25
Waiting for the contestants in the MasterChef kitchen are five classic flavour pairs. There is bacon and maple, coconut and pineapple, fennel and orange, chilli and lime, and soy sauce and honey.
The challenge is to put up a perfectly balanced dish that features one of the pairs.
The dishes
Lydia kicked off the tasting with maple and bacon-inspired Greek loukoumades, which Andy described as “very naughty” but “very bloody delicious.” Casper impressed the judges with his orange and fennel dessert featuring orange granita and olive oil mousse, earning praise from Jean-Christophe for his technique.
Petro’s chilli and lime-inspired fried calamari with pepper sauce was well received, while Emily’s pan-seared scotch fillet with lime and chilli had Sofia declaring the dish “sings” with flavour. Jackie’s soy and honey fried chicken, however, fell short, with judges finding the sauce overly sweet and the soy flavour lost.
Luke took a risk with fish en papillote, a dish he had never made before. Cooking it in foil rather than paper resulted in overcooked fish, though the judges praised his sauce and flavour pairing of orange and fennel. Hannah had far greater success with her orange-glazed pork and braised fennel, earning unanimous praise, particularly for her use of pistachio.
Jack’s chilli and lime snapper curry was labelled “decent” by Andy, while Aaron’s kingfish tartare impressed Poh. Dot and Alyona both tackled orange and fennel, with Alyona’s roasted quail drawing particular acclaim from Jean-Christophe, who called it “phenomenal.”
The biggest criticism of the round was reserved for Olaolu’s coconut and pineapple “breakfast trifle.” Despite featuring both hero ingredients throughout, Poh said neither flavour came through and described the dish as “incredibly basic” for this stage of the competition.
Grace’s pan-seared kingfish suffered from overcooked fish after she returned it to the pan, but her balance of orange and fennel flavours may be enough to keep her safe.
Who leaves MasterChef?
The top dishes of the day were made by Lydia, Aaron, Hannah and Casper. All are safe.
However, not everyone is safe.
Olaolu kept his dish simple and sadly they couldn’t taste his flavour pairing. Luke also didn’t execute his dish correctly. However, his pairings were still heroes, so Olaolu was sent home.
I’ve got some real mixed feelings right now,” Olaolu says on his departure. “It’s never nice to hear that your food didn’t hit the mark but at the same time I’m super proud of how long I’ve been here and I’m so excited that I’ve learned so much.”
“It’s been cool to share some Nigerian flavours with all of Australia”
Episode 24
It’s a mystery box challenge today, and there’s an extra twist. There are two mystery boxes for the contestants to choose between, one is called “home” and the other is “restaurant”.
The judges are looking for two top dishes, one for each box. Both winners will be safe from the next elimination challenge. Because more people chose the Home box, Hannah swaps from Home to Restaurant as the odds are better!
MasterChef alum Matt Sinclair is the guest judge today, and joining him is Dobbers, the head chef in Matt’s restaurant. Hence, the mystery box themes.
Inside the home box is chicken, prawns, silverbeet, pumpkin, orange, sriracha, coriander, coffee, chardonnay, white onion and parmesan.
Inside the restaurant box there’s black truffle, sardines, goat’s cheese, dry-aged duck breast, figs, lentils, tarragon, Pedro Ximénez, radicchio, potatoes, and mustard fruits.
Home box dishes:
Pat is first up for tasting. He made a classic roast dinner with the Maryland chicken, roast pumpkin and chicken jus. Matt Sinclair says that everything is “so-well executed” and “moreish”. Dobbers goes further and calls it “phenomenal”.
Jackie is next with her sweet roti with orange ice cream and sriracha caramel with chicken skin crumb. The dish totally surprised by the dish and all say that it’s delicious. Matt simply calls it “fun”.
Luke made a chicken thigh with a beurre blanc sauce. Jean-Christophe says it’s lovely, but we don’t see what the rest of the judges thought.
Grace is next. She had buyer’s remorse when she saw the restaurant box ingredients, but rallied and made a prawn pasta. Poh comments that it’s a “perfectly made dish.”
Lydia made fried pastry with spinach and ricotta with prawns. Dobbers says the pastry is fried too much.
Dot is next with a larb salad, but Sofia says that it’s missing freshness.
Vinnie is up next; he also regretted his choice of mystery boxes. He made a stuffed silver beet with chicken pumpkin puree and pumpkin puree. However, Andy says that his dish didn’t have clarity because he focused too much on the separate elements and not on a cohesive dish.
Jack also went down the pasta route and made a prawn tortellini. The judges commend his pasta work.
Oloalu followed with an olive oil ice cream sandwich with orange curd. Poh says it’s one of the nicest curds she’s had in the MasterChef kitchen.
Who wins from the home box?
The top two dishes are made by Pat and Jackie. Both very different dishes, but the winner is Pat for showing great skill and execution.
Restaurant box dishes:
Petro was first in the restaurant dishes. He decided not to make duck (like most of the others) and instead attempted to make a fig tarte tatin with goat’s cheese ice cream and tarragon oil. However, it didn’t go well and looked like “trash” according to Dobbers. However, he said it “didn’t taste like trash”. Phew.
Hannah switched from the home to the restaurant box. She made a goat’s cheese and fig tart with buck skin and tarragon potatoes. During the cooking, she couldn’t decide if it was sweet or savoury. However, Dobbers says that the potatoes and chicken skin made the dish confusing, as the figs and goat’s cheese are more dessert-leaning.
Aaron is next. He really wants to be a chef, so he naturally chose the restaurant box. He made a roast duck with caramelised figs. It looks beautiful, and the judges say it tastes even better. Aaron grins from ear to ear as Andy commends his execution of the dish. Chef Dobbers gives him 10/10.
Casper also made roast duck, but with pickled racchicoo. Dobbers loves his idea of toasting the lentils to coat the duck breast. He calls it a completely unique move.
Emily is next with a pan-seared duck breast and also makes a rachiocop pickle. Jean-Christophe tells her she did a great job.
Alyona also pan-seared her duck breast but made a lentil puree. Poh says that her duck was the best she’s had today.
Annabel is convinced she overcooked her duck breast. When she was plating, she only chose the best pieces. She served it with a potato gratin and fig salad. However, she shouldn’t have worried, Sofia says her duck is “tender and supple”. Dobbers calls it “phenomenal”.
Who wins from the restaurant box?
The top two dishes were made by Aaron (no surprise) and Annabel (also no surprise after the judges’ comments). In the end, Annabel’s truffle potato gratin pushed her dish over the line, and she won dish of the day and is safe from elimination.
Episode 23
Last night, Jack, Hannah, Vinnie, and Casper won the relay challenge, and tonight they are competing against one another to win immunity. And, to make it extra special, the guest judge is none other than returning MasterChef alumna Justine Schofield! Plus, there’s another special twist: the winner will also receive an immunity pin.
Justine competed against Poh and Julie Goodwin in the first-ever season of MasterChef Australia and has gone on to have an incredible career.
Tonight, in celebration of Justine being in the kitchen, the contestants must create classic French cuisine.
Vinnie isn’t too pleased, as French-style cooking is not his jam.
But there’s another twist: the judges won’t be watching the contestants cook. Instead, it will be a blind taste test, and Justine will stay in the kitchen to help.
What did they make?
Lobster bisque (made by Jack) is up first. Jean-Christophe called it “impeccable”, Poh said it’s “succulent”, but Andy said that the sauce is a bit “hollow”. Jean-Christophe believes that Casper made it.
But, Casper’s is up next, with a classic French roast chicken (or poulet rôti). Andy said that the potatoes were his favourite part of the dish, but the chicken breast was overcooked. Poh’s chicken piece was cooked better, but she loved the leeks. Sofia guesses that Vinnie made it.
Hannah’s duck à l’orange is next. The judges keep calling the dish safe and correctly guess that it is Hannah’s creation. However, the sauce let down the dish. She forgot to put the butter in too late, and the sauce is closer to caramel and is too thick.
Vinnie’s dish is last with his pâté en croûte. He was the least excited by this challenge, but gave it his all. The judges all believe that the dish could only be made by Casper, who uses plenty of French techniques in his cooking. But essentially it’s meat encased in a pastry, much like a sandwich, which is Vinnie’s comfort zone. Jean-Christophe said the dish is “incroyable”. Andy comments that it’s “proper French cuisine.”
Jean-Christophe is flabbergasted when he learns who made each of the dishes. And unsurprisingly, Vinnie wins the challenge and the immunity pin!
Episode 22
Waiting for the contestants in the kitchen tonight is an old-school television and a VHS tape. Some of the younger contestants are baffled.
The VHS plays previous seasons’ team relay challenges! Which is what’s happening today. They are split into four teams of four. They each have 20 minutes to cook their part of the dish, then 30 seconds to relay their information to the next team member. The winning team will cook in the next episode’s immunity challenge.
After they decide who goes first, there’s a twist. There’s an ingredient they have to include in their dish. Tonight, that’s yoghurt.
Red team
Petro is starting for the red team. He decides on pork skewers with tzatziki. Emily follows, and Petro tells her she needs to get a flatbread on. He gives her a ratio for the flatbread and decides to just do what she’s told. However, Petro told her to use plain flour, but it was supposed to be self-raising flour. Oops.
Hannah follows Emily, and she freaks both of them out when she decides to add fish sauce to the tzatziki. It’s also not clear if she knows that yoghurt is the hero ingredient.
Pat tastes the tzatziki and thinks it’s a bit tart (thanks to the fish sauce) and adds in tahini. When the flatbreads don’t rise, he decides to roll them out and make them into thin flatbreads.
In the end, they served up pork skewers, flat breads and tzatziki. It’s the dish that Petro planned, even with the communication issues.
However, Andy says that their take on the tzatziki sauce just didn’t come together.
Green team
Dot starts for the green team. When she heard yoghurt, she immediately thought of Lebanese cuisine. However, she considers her teammates and decides to start a dessert. She starts a yoghurt ice cream and a pear galette with yoghurt in the dough.
Jackie follows, and she notices that the dough isn’t the right texture as she thinks it’s a rough puff, because Dot said tarte tatin, when it was meant to be a galette!
Aaron isn’t a dessert guy, so it’s a bit outside his comfort zone. He has no idea if he’s doing it right. Both Dot and Jackie are begging him to get it in the oven from the side room.
Grace adds a wash to the tart and cranks the oven up to ensure the tart cooks in time.
They serve up a pear tart with yoghurt ice cream. It’s similar to what Dot planned, except for the galette/tart tatin mix-up.
Sadly, the tart isn’t fully cooked.
Blue team
Alyona starts with yoghurt-marinated chicken with tzatziki. She gets the bench super organised to make it clear to her teammates what’s happening.
Olaolu follows Alyona and seems at ease as he butchers the chicken. However, Andy tells him that the dish so far is too simple. So, Olaolu decides to make a flatbread (with self-raising flour).
Luke cooks next, and he can’t see where the yoghurt is (it’s in the flatbread and roast chicken marinate), so he decides to make a tzatziki. However, he decides that the salad is too boring and grabs squid from the pantry and starts manically prepping it, leaving it to Lydia to finish. He fully changed the dish.
“I have a bench of chaos,” Lydia says as she gets to work constructing an actual dish. She decides to leave the Romesco sauce that Luke made off the dish.
The final dish is totally different to what Alyona planned. Jean-Christophe says Luke’s decision to pivot was “brave”, and he commends Lydia’s efforts to finesse the dish. However, Sofia says the yoghurt sauce overpowers the squid.
Purple team
Jack is going Aussie with a rack of lamb with yoghurt mint sauce and hasselback potatoes. Keeping it simple, but allowing his team to elevate as needed. Hannah says Jack’s handover was seamless. She puts on some carrots to add to the dish. Her handover to Vinnie is equally seamless. He gets the lamb on and elevates the yoghurt sauce with black garlic and Aleppo peppers. When Casper joins, he basically just finishes and dresses the dish.
The dish is what Jack planned, and the judges love the dish.
Who goes into immunity:
Unsurprisingly, the purple team wins the challenge and is going into the immunity round.
Episode 21
Tonight, the contestants are greeted with a family tree. But instead of leaves, there are heart-wrenching family photographs for each of the contestants.
It is an emotional day, with many of the contestants crying as they are overwhelmed by the family photos. Alyonea says that the MasterChef kitchen has helped her reconnect with her Russian roots, something that Poh relates to, as MasterChef helped her reclaim her heritage.
Petro’s voice breaks as he is overcome with emotion while sharing his family’s refugee journey from Cyprus to Australia.
Olaolu also gets overwhelmed as he starts to talk about his father, who passed away two years ago. He began cooking after his father died, so it’s a side of Olaolu that he never got to share with him.
There’s an extra surprise today. Although someone is going home, the top dish will score its maker $10,000!
Who wins the $10K prize and who goes home?
The top dish today and the $10,000 prize goes to…Olaolu! He went super traditional Nigerian cuisine today with Efo Riro with semolina. He was positively gleaming throughout the cook. Even though Jean-Christophe doesn’t like “sticky fingers”, he eats it the traditional way, with his fingers and says he “absolutely loves it.”
The bottom four dishes are Miin, Jack, Luke, and Grace.
Miin attempted to make Poh’s noodles from a few weeks ago, but the dough didn’t come together properly. And after three attempts, he ran out of time to make another batch, plus he neglected his duck, which was underdone. A major no-no in the MasterChef kitchen.
Jack made a frankly gorgeous-looking honey semifreddo with honey twill. But Poh said it was too sweet.
Luke made a seafood paella (his family’s version). Sadly, said that what he’s actually made is risotto, plus, his seafood is overdone.
Grace made Mr Wolf’s Ice Cream Sundae, inspired by her parents’ former cafe. However, she had trouble with her ice cream during the challenge. Andy says that her vanilla bean wasn’t strong enough, and the ice cream had melted, so it didn’t hit the mark.
The dish that showed the least technique was Miin.
“He’s taught me so much, he’ll be a best friend for life,” Pat says through tears.
“I’m very sad, I tried my best, and today my best just wasn’t good enough,” Miin says. “It’s probably one of the best experiences of my life. I’ve made lifelong friends here, and it’s made my life richer.”
“I think my wife will be looking forward to having proper meals again when I go home,” he laughs as he says goodbye.
Episode 20
I don’t think I’ve ever seen MasterChef-branded steamers in the MasterChef kitchen. The steamers are replacing the usual mystery boxes – but of course, with all the steamers, the kitchen is hot.
The guest judge today is Vincent Yeow Lim, aka Dim Sim Lim, to the delight of many of the contestants.
This week is “nostalgia week”, so Vincent is bringing his story and heritage to the MasterChef kitchen. He demonstrates to the contestants how to make “the O.G. dim sim” using double-meat cleavers instead of a food processor, to prep all the ingredients. Hannah says she could bring the technique home as “angry mom cooking” as there’s a lot of smashing and slapping with the cleavers.
The challenge today is fairly straightforward. They can make whatever they like, but they must use the steamers for one element. However, the judges will only be tasting the ten most appealing dishes, and the top two will be safe from elimination.
What they taste
The judges first taste Dot’s dish. She made chicken momos, a Nepalese dumpling dish. However, she based her dish on something she tasted in Nepal over seven years ago and reconstructed it from memory. But she does it, Vincent says her dumpling skin is “perfection”.
Annabel is next. She steamed mussels and served them in the steamer basket. But the judges aren’t too impressed.
Hannah follows with steamed trout and charred capsicum sauce. Andy commends her technique.
Pat is next with prawn mousses Florentine and lobster. Jean-Christophe calls it perfect and fantastic “You make me happy.”
Petro makes banana leaf steamed kingfish. Sofia compliments his balance of flavours.
Miin makes a spiced fish custard, which reminds Vincent of the street food dishes he enjoyed in Malaysia, but the fish is a bit dry.
Casper went in a different direction and made sweet tamales with horchata custard. And it was a good move, Poh says she has no point of reference for his dish other than it’s “absolutely delicious.” Sofia goes further and says that she is “obsessed with this dish.”
Vinnie is next with steamed snapper on a Sicilian Sughetto. The judges all love the sauce and commend his use of nostalgia.
Grace made a basil steamed sponge cake, but she made a major error and forgot to put eggs in her first sponge mixture. So she restarts, but she puts the sugar in too quickly and has to restart again! However, after all of that, it came together. Sofia calls it a “special little cake.”
The last dish is Aaron’s. He decided to showcase his technical expertise. Snapper roulade with prawn mousse. But nearly hits Jean-Christophe with his raw prawn mousse when he swings his piping bag. Jean-Christophe says his dish is unbelievable, and it’s remarkable that he did this. He nearly comes to tears, he’s so impressed.
Who is safe from elimination?
Unsurprisingly, Dot and Aaron are safe from elimination tomorrow.
Episode 19
For tonight’s pressure test, the guest judge is renowned Chef and cookbook author Rosheen Kaul. Both Jackie and Miin are massive fans, so it doesn’t seem like Jackie will use her pin…
Tonight, the contestants have to make Rosheeen’s savoy cabbage ‘chou farci’. A take on a dish she perfected for Bistro Marigold. It’s seven layers of savoury deliciousness, plus a runny egg.
Although she thinks that she’d be a better cook if she learned how to make this dish, she decides to play it to ensure she stays in the game for another day. So now it’s down to three!
Lucy loves following recipes, so she locks in and seems okay. Vinnie is used to stressful situations as a nurse, so he’s no stranger to the pressure. Miin starts to fall behind them. And he also admits that he’s bad at following recipes as he’s more of a “skimmer”. He ends up putting shiitake mushrooms in his stock and doesn’t have enough for his duxelles, and he gets completely frazzled.
Vinnie tells Rosheen and Poh that he’s having “fun”, and he’s clearly the most relaxed. Lucy starts to fall behind him as well. Petro says that Miin has been flying around like a “headless chook”, but he caught up a lot and starts to outpace Lucy.
However, Miin again gets flustered and doesn’t get all his elements on his plate. He couldn’t find his better and barely got his cabbage on his plate in time.
Who goes home?
Even though Vinnie didn’t put his cabbage in a mould to cook, his layers are well constructed. Rosheen does say that they are squashed a little. But his presentation is “fabulous”. However, Rosheen adds that she found it salty. Vinnie did say during the cook that he likes salt.
Lucy’s is missing her butter glaze, and sadly, her cabbage is a touch uncooked.
Despite his kerfuffles in the kitchen today, Miin’s layers are well-defined, and his mushrooms are balanced. Plus, Poh says his egg was perfect. All the judges are pleasantly surprised.
When the judges tell Miin this, he’s also surprised! His eyes widen, and he shakes his head in disbelief. He thought he was leaving.
Because Lucy’s dish had more flaws than Vinnie’s, the judges sent her home.
“This has just been the best experience ever, and every time I step into this kitchen, I feel so lucky to be here and to be cooking for you guys, and I feel so lucky and grateful to have met all of you, and I will miss you guys so much.”
“I’m so excited to see what opens up from here. No regrets.”
Episode 18
It’s a fusion challenge tonight in the MasterChef kitchen. Waiting for the contestants in the kitchen are a selection of postcards and luggage.
The contestants have to choose two destinations and invent a cohesive and delicious dish that “sings of both countries”.
However, there are mixed reviews from the contestants who love fusion but are worried about inventing something new. The bottom four dishes will be going into tomorrow’s pressure test.
Jean-Christophe can’t help himself from helping Alyona, who’s combining Japan and France in her dish. She’s new to making French pastries, and he lends a hand and some advice (and even stirs her pastry mixture for a bit).
Poh is concerned about Jackie’s dish, as she’s combining China and South Korea. Poh isn’t convinced that her dish will be able to hero both cuisines. Plus, Jackie can’t use her immunity pin as she’s already started cooking. So she swaps China for Italy and is making a more European-style broth.
Luke didn’t fare well in the last invention test. This time around, he’s combining Australia and Spain by creating a strawberry gazpacho and kingfish. Plus, each element is packed with Native Australian ingredients like Geraldton wax.
Lucy is combining Vietnam and France in her dish. She’s making iced coffee crullers. Sadly, she burns her coffee crumb, which could mean that her dish no longer tastes like coffee. Eeek.
Who goes into tomorrow’s pressure test?
The tastings start off strong with Dot’s fusion of Turkish and Hungarian cuisines. All the judges adore it. The good vibes keep going with Lydia’s “empanlaba”. A mix of Argentinian and Thai cuisines. Olaolu picked the most distinctly different combination of Chinese and Nigerian cuisine, and made Suya Agege Bao, which he completely nails. And Jean-Christophe’s guidance with Alyona works, as the judges call her dish phenomenal.
Sadly, with the good comes the bad.
As we know, Jackie had to pivot mid-cook, and she’s not happy with her resulting dish. The skin refuses to budge off her steamed fish, and the dish doesn’t look appetising. Sofia simply says it doesn’t make sense.
Vinnie’s combo of Italian and Thai doesn’t land as the arancini rice is too “mushy.” And Andy says there’s nothing Indian about Miin’s combination of Indian and Mexican in his ceviche dish. Also, Aaron’s combo of Italy and Malaysia didn’t work as his filling wasn’t cooked enough. Petro nailed the flavours of his fusion of Greek and Japanese, but his prawns were cooked inconsistently. And sadly, Lucy’s coffee cruller dish is lacking in every element except presentation.
The bottom four dishes were made by Jackie, Vinnie, Lucy, and Miin who are going into the pressure test.
Episode 17
It’s another black apron day in the MasterChef kitchen. Waiting for the contestants today are five cloches decorated with the flags of five countries. There’s one for Italy, Vietnam, Mexico, Lebanon, and Japan.
They can choose whichever cuisine they want, but they must use whatever ingredient is hidden under the cloche. But, they won’t know what the ingredient is until after they choose a country.
Most contestants choose Mexico, and the ingredient they have to use is…corn!
Lucy and Aaron both chose Vietnam as their heritage is both from Southeast Asia. And they are rewarded when they find out that the hero ingredient is…lemongrass!
Petro and Lydia both choose Lebanon, and they must use…eggplant! Lydia puts her head in her hands. “I like eggplants,” she says to Andy. “Do I??” She asks herself, clearly not happy with the ingredient.
Japan’s featured ingredient is miso, and Jackie decides not to use her pin and cook.
Italy’s featured ingredient is….tomato, to the absolute delight of those who chose that country.
Mexican, heroing corn
Annabel made seared scallops with corn butter. The judges adore it.
Kanika decided to make corn three ways, including a salsa and chipotle corn. She was meant to serve tortillas as well, but didn’t get them made in time. And it seems she was right to be nervous, Andy calls her sauce “one-note”, and each of her elements appears lacking.
Olaolu’s tacos do make it to the plate, but his corn is overcooked and has lost its brightness.
Hannah made pork and corn tacos with crema, but Sofia says she’s missing some heat.
Luke made birria tacos with corn salsa. Remember, he had difficulty making tacos in a previous episode. However, Andy says they are good, he just didn’t have enough corn in the salsa to hero it.
Italian, heroing tomato
Pat made tortelli with tomato water. It both looks and tastes impeccable.
Dot follows with a ricotta spinach pasta dish. Jean-Chripstophe says he can’t fault it.
Vinnie made ricotta and basil ravioli with tomato sauce. Jean-Christophe tells him he’s not going anywhere tonight. Andy adds that he’d like to rub that sauce all over himself…so, that’s great?
Jack made a seafood pasta, but Jean-Christophe says that the tomato isn’t dominant in his dish.
Lebanon, heroing eggplant
Petro chose Lebanon and made a loaded Lebanese dip platter. Andy says it’s ripping.
Lydia follows, and she’s worried. She chose Lebanon, so her hero ingredient was eggplant. But, she’s not sure her rice is cooked as the eggplant started to burn in the oven before the rice should have been done. However, Poh says it’s “magnificent.” So nearly burning the dish worked!
Vietnam, heroing lemongrass
Aaron makes crispy lemongrass chicken thighs, and Poh says it reminds her of Vietnam.
Lucy made a beef and lemongrass noodle soup. Poh says it’s “absolutely delicious.”
Japan, heroing miso
Emily made Jibu-ni, but with miso broth. “I love everything on this plate,” Poh says.
Jackie chose not to use her pin and made a miso and pumpkin cake.
“I’m sorry to say, but I think you should have played your pin,” Jean-Christophe says to a stunned Jackie. He says the cake is too sweet and he can’t taste the miso. Andy, on the other hand, got so much miso and thought it was too salty, so he reckons it could be how she constructed the cake.
Who goes home?
Emily, Annabel, Lydia and Pat made the top dishes!
However, the people who made the least impressive dishes were Olaolu, Kanika, and Jackie.
“It came down to the dish that had the most flaws,” says Andy. And it’s Kanika who’s going home.
Jean-Christophe asks her not to give up her dream.
“It’s just been an incredible journey and so much exposure to the world of food. This is not the last time you’re seeing me,” Kanika says on her departure.
However, on social, Kanika wrote that her dish from the previous challenge with Rick Stein should have been tasted.
“Still thinking I should’ve been in the gantry. Spice challenge was the one I truly felt I am build for.. hard not to wonder what could’ve happened if my dish got tasted.”
Episode 16
Since the last episode, something exciting has happened: Dot got married! Nice way to spend your break from the show!
Tonight it’s a mystery box challenge, and there are a myriad of spices at the top of the kitchen. Turns out, this week they are exploring the flavours of the world. And to kick off the week, there’s a special guest: Rick Stein.
Pat literally bursts into tears when he sees the food icon.
What’s in the box?
Inside, there are some of Rick’s favourite ingredients. There are blue swimmer crabs, lamb chops, snapper, zucchini with their flowers, new potatoes, English spinach, English Stilton blue cheese, chickpeas, passionfruit, and mango.
They have to use at least one ingredient from the box and at least one of the 120 spices. The pantry and garden are closed, but they have the staples under the bench.
But the dishes must look good; the judges will only taste the top 12 dishes. Plus, the top four dishes will be immune from tomorrow’s elimination.
Jackie considers using her pin and remembers she must use it before cooking begins. But she decides to save it for another day.
What dishes do they taste?
First up is Casper, serving what he calls his most “unique” dish: mango and chilli ice cream with passionfruit granita and tamarind caramel. Rick Stein declares it a “cornucopia of delight.”
Olaolu is next. Initially excited by the Nigerian spices in the kitchen, his cook didn’t quite go to plan, forcing him to pivot and put his potatoes in the chutney instead of the pie. Both Andy and Poh agree the change didn’t land, saying the filling lacked substance.
Alyona impresses with her whole baked snapper. Swapping alliums for spices proved tricky, but her passionfruit substitution worked beautifully. Andy praises the perfectly cooked fish, while Jean Christophe calls the dish “perfection.”
Vinnie follows with spiced braised lamb and hummus, earning praise from Andy, who calls the hummus “genius.” Pat also serves snapper, this time with curry sauce, and Sofia Levin raves about both the potatoes and fish.
Emily’s lamb noodle soup is a hit with Poh, while Annabel surprises herself with a North African spinach and potato pie. Jean-Christophe calls the rustic dish “flawless,” leaving her stunned.
Miin’s Malaysian crab curry earns one of the night’s biggest compliments, with Rick saying it’s the best flatbread he’s had in years.
Jack’s mango crème brûlée is fresh but slightly grainy, while Petro’s lamb cigars are let down by thick pastry. Hannah’s vanilla and rose éclairs delight Jean-Christophe, despite being a little salty. Finally, Grace’s crumbed snapper earns Andy’s verdict: “simply delicious.”
Who is safe from elimination?
The top four dishes were made by…Casper, Grace, Miin, and Alyona!
They are safe from the next episode’s elimination challenge.
Episode 15
Tonight is not just an immunity challenge; the contestants tonight will be in with a shot of winning a MasterChef immunity pin.
But this year, there’s a twist. Whoever wins the pin can only use it in a challenge after they know what the challenge is and before the cook starts. No longer can they decide in the middle of the cook that they want to save themselves and use it.
The special guest tonight is MasterChef Australia alumni and media personality, Khanh Ong.
“Honey, I’m home,” he calls as he struts into the kitchen.
The challenge tonight is seemingly made for Vinnie, but he’s not taking part. It’s to make the most viral sandwich.
During the cook, Lydia asks Khanh if she could hug him as she’s such a fan! It’s such a sweet moment.
What do they make?
Lydia is up first with her moussaka sandwich. Andy says it’s an “absolute beast of a sandwich”, in a good way!
Next is Alyona, who made a frankly massive Italian chicken sandwich with pistachio pesto, rocket, grapes and pickles. The judges love how she’s put her own spin on a classic with unexpected elements.
Following her is Hannah and her ‘nduja chicken sandwich. Khanh adored the cross-section and the flavour matched its appearance.
Next is Annabel with her steak frites sandwich. Khanh is “obsessed”, but the chips are a bit soft.
Aaron follows with a prawn po-boy. Khanh loves the sauce and the prawn flavour.
Miin is up next with his take on a Roti John sandwich wrapped in an omelette with chicken curry side sauce. Khanh calls the cross-section “gorgeous.” Jean-Christophe says he loves it as well.
Jackie is last with her bulgogi philly cheesesteak with kimchi mayo. Poh says, “It’s bloody amazing.” Andy goes further and calls it “dynamite”, and people who travel to try it.
Who wins the episode and the immunity pin?
To no one’s surprise, Jackie wins the immunity pin!
Episode 14
Tonight it’s the first service challenge! It’s happening outside, and they are serving hundreds of customers.
They have to create the next viral food sensation. Something that people would line up to try. They are cooking in teams of three and just have to make one dish. In addition to the regular customers, there will be some food reviewer influencers also trying and reviewing their food.
The two top teams will go into the immunity challenge.
What happens?
The red team of Luke, Grace, and Pat have trouble agreeing on a dish and getting started. Eventually, they decide on tortillas. Grace tasks Luke with making the tacos, but he has never actually made them before. He whispers this to Sofia, but it doesn’t look like he tells his team leader. He can’t get the hang of the tortilla press, so he starts individually rolling them out. Grace jumps on and starts helping.
The blue team of Aaron, Hannah and Lydia come up with a half-idea of a dish based on a cone dish that Lydia saw on social media. Andy tells them that it won’t work, so they go back to the drawing board and end up making tacos.
The green team of Dot, Kanika and Olaolu are making a dish that Dot had in the UK, but Dot insists that Kanika leads them as it includes Indian flavours. Kanika doesn’t really agree with that and starts feeling a lot of pressure.
The yellow team go down the sweet route, hoping their dish will stand out against the savoury dishes. Poh tells them they could have it in the bag, but their pandan pancakes don’t cook the way they want.
Who wins the challenge?
The two top teams were…The orange team of Miin, Jackie, and Annabel, with their dumpling-skin tostado with pork rang dang.
Poh calls their dish really clever, and the rang dang was a “flavour bomb.”
The second team was…the blue team! Pretty surprising as they pivoted their entire dish mid-cook. But their flavours paid off in the end.
Both teams are cooking in the immunity challenge tomorrow night. And the guest judge will be none other than MasterChef Australia alum, the fabulous Khanh Ong!
Episode 13
It’s a black apron day in the MasterChef Australia kitchen. Five cloches and a giant screen are waiting for the contestants. The screen then shows some viral food hacks from TikTok. Tonight’s special guest actually made those videos (her most viral video hit 200 million views), it’s Victoria Minell.
What is the challenge?
Under each of the cloches are ingredients from Victoria’s viral dishes: Cucumber, burrata, pistachio, rice paper, and gochugang. The contestants have to create a dish using one of their top five ingredients. The top dish will propel its maker into the immunity challenge at the end of the week. Whereas the bottom dish will send its maker home.
Who makes the top dish?
Everyone is being very creative today. Vinnie makes his focaccia from scratch, Alita is making a dumpling lasagne, Alyona is making sour cream and avocado ice-cream, and Petro is making taco shells out of rice paper. Sadly, Vinnie’s bread doesn’t cook in time, so he has to use the pantry’s ciabatta. And Petro’s taco shells don’t cook in the deep fryer. He pivots to hero cucumbers instead, a risky move on black apron day. Plus, before Allita serves her dumpling lasagne, the burrata already starts melting.
The dish that impressed the judges was made by…Alyona! She’s now fast-tracked into the immunity challenge.
Who is going home?
Sadly, the two bottom dishes were made by Alita and Vinnie.
And the judges choose to send Alita home.
“I loved the opportunity to push myself and to see how good of a cook I really can be,” Alita said.
“I’m going to miss this place so much, and I’m feeling content with everything that I’ve done so far. I’m really proud of myself, and I’m going to keep cooking.”
Episode 12
It’s the start of Viral Wonders Week in the MasterChef Australia kitchen. Tonight, the contestants have a mystery box on their benches, but they aren’t the standard wooden boxes; they are lit up in different colours and speckled with colourful designs.
Tonight, joining as a guest judge is Catherine Zhang. She won Zumbo’s Just Desserts and has since become a massive star on TikTok and Instagram.
When the contestants lift their mystery boxes, they see cakes that are made to look like fruits. They are actually intricately made cakes, each of which is a celebration of a specific fruit.
What’s the challenge?
To the contestant’s relief, they don’t have to recreate her desserts. Instead, they must create their own dessert that’s a celebration of a fruit.
However, the judges will only taste the ten most appealing dishes – so they must look incredible. The person who makes the most impressive dish will be exempt from the next elimination round.
Which dishes do they taste?
They chose Emily first. She made a coconut and mango celebration that uses chocolate shortbread to make it look like an actual coconut. Catherine commends its look and the balance of flavours. Poh calls it “inviting” and “adorable”.
Next up was Casper and his fruit sando choux buns with whole fruits inside. Sofia says he nailed it.
Grace follows with her lemon dessert with lemon leaf ice cream. Poh says she “flipping loved this dish so much.”
Olaolu is next with a lemon cruller and lemon ice cream. Andy says it needs something more.
Next up is Lucy with a spiced pear pudding. Poh says it’s nice, but her caramel is very sweet.
Vinnie made a DIY strawberry ice cream sandwich (this guy loves his sandwiches). Andy says his ice cream is really icy.
Petro is up next. He made an apricot clafoutis. However, during the challenge, he didn’t turn his oven on. So it was sitting in a lukewarm oven for a while before he realised. Sadly, although it was cooked on top, the bottom wasn’t cooked.
Dot serves up a cherry almond cake next. Jean-Christophe likes the flavours, but her marshmallow wasn’t whipped enough, and it’s too sticky. “I’m going viral for all the wrong reasons,” Dot responds.
Jack is next with a honey and thyme panna cotta with blood orange granita. Andy says it’s “bloody delicious.”
Finally, Pat serves up his self-described crazy flavour combination. He’s made “ice cream and jelly”, which is fish sauce caramel, macadamia and coconut crumble, blackberry and ginger lemongrass jelly, apricot and passionfruit jam and a pandan ice cream. Andy likes it, but thinks there are too many things going on.
Who is safe from elimination?
The top two dishes of the day were made by Jack and Grace. But in the end, Grace took home the top spot and is safe from elimination.
Episode 11
It’s an elimination tonight, so the pressure is on for the six contestants cooking.
When they arrive, the judges show them a wall of their family photographs. This week has been all about family favourites, and that’s what the photos depict: cooking memories with their families.
What’s the challenge?
They must make a dish that represents a family tradition in 75 minutes.
What do they make?
Lydia
She made avgolemono soup, an egg and lemon broth with chicken mince balls, chicken skin and halloumi.
“I’m very proud to give you this dish because it is a dish that you cook for your loved ones,” she says. “I do love you all. I still have to pinch myself to remind myself where I am.”
“That woman is unbelievable,” says Jean-Christophe
“I will remember this and crave it,” says Poh.
Bella
She made an apple and cinnamon entremet
Sadly, she made a few mistakes in her cook. There was too much gelatin in the dessert, so she had to literally cut it out of its mould using scissors. However, it has defined layers, and Poh says she’s balanced the flavours well. That being said, Andy says it “doesn’t taste amazing” or have an “awesome texture.”
Alyona
She made a “celebration cake”, her family’s take on a honey cake.
The judges commend her layers and the subtle honey flavour.
Pat
Pat made a prawn bisque and fondant potatoes.
Jean-Christophe calls it inviting and seasoned perfectly.
Olaolu
Olaolu again embraced his Nigerian roots with a spiced plantain cake that is inspired by Nigerian street food with roasted peanuts, salted chantilly and ginger custard.
“I absolutely love this,” says Andy. Jean-Christophe goes further and calls it “epic” and “perfect”.
Hannah
She made a sticky date pudding with ginger ice cream and orange and butterscotch sauce.
Sadly, Hannah had some issues during the cook and isn’t confident in her dish.
“The pudding itself sauce is lovely…but the butterscotch is not a butterscotch,” says Poh.
Jean-Christophe describes it as an emulsion sauce. The ice cream was the judge’s favourite on the plate.
Who goes home?
One dish made the judges feel like one “big happy family”, and that was made by…Lydia! Her dish is named the dish of the day.
Unsurprisingly, Bella and Hannah’s dishes were the bottom two today.
Sadly, Bella is the one who is going home because there were flaws in most of her elements.
“Cooking with this amazing bunch of people has just been so inspiring, I’ve enjoyed every moment,” Bella said on her elimination.
“I know you are going to be a superstar,” says a teary Poh. “And I want you to promise me that you’re not going to let this moment define you, it’s what you actually do after this,” she says before asking for a hug.
“I’ve learned so much from this experience,” Bella said afterwards. “Poh made me promise that this is only the beginning and I’m going to keep that promise.”
Episode 10
Tonight is the season’s first team challenge. Each team has three members. In tonight’s challenge, the teams have to make a family feast consisting of two mains, three side dishes, and a dessert. But they only have 75 minutes to get that all done.
The two teams that make the least impressive dishes will go into the next elimination.
Most teams pick their leaders easily, but the pink team (Lydia, Pat, and Olaolu) haven’t. Andy and Jean-Christophe tell them they need someone to steer the ship so they know they aren’t going off course. Pat takes the reins, despite being a bit introverted. He takes to it like a natural.
What do the teams make?
Turquoise team – Dot, Miin, Alita
They made spiced ribeye, lemon and garlic chicken skewers, cauliflower salad (Dot’s mum’s recipe), a Middle Eastern pilaf, a baba ghanoush, yoghurt and tahini sauce, and a Dubai chocolate-inspired pavlova.
“Tastes bloody good,” says Sofia. Andy adored Dot’s mum’s cauliflower salad, “it needs to be my recipe!”
Purple team – Emily, Aaron, Lucy
They made ABC soup, cucumber salad, Cantonese-style steamed snapper, lobster noodles, fragrant rice and mango and coconut sago dessert.
Poh says their Chinese family feast is all so nostalgic for her. Andy comments that the lobster cook is the best he’s tasted, “A+++,” he says.
Pink team – Lydia, Pat, Olaolu
They made a scotch fillet steak, sumac and lemon roasted chicken, kale, orange and grape salad, roast eggplant, beetroot hummus, stonefruit crumble and a creme anglais.
“It looked really inviting, but I was looking for a bit more,” says Andy, more lift, fresh herbs, seasoning and lemon.
Red team – Petro, Vinnie, Jackie
Mediterranean feast of lamb cutlets, pan-fried whiting, confit garlic hummus, charred fennel and radicchio and orange salad, roast potatoes, and an orange and olive oil sponge with lemon thyme anglaise.
“I think this is a really well-thought-out feast, “ says Poh.
Brown team – Grace, Casper, Luke
Australian surf and turf: whole split lobster, twice-cooked crispy lamb, confit cabbage, chips, side salad, and apricot crumble.
Lobster was a little over, and the lamb should have been ribs, says Andy.
Orange team – Kanika, Annabel, Jack
Indian feast with butter chicken, spicy chickpea curry, mint coriander chutney, mango chutney, yoghurt raita, lachha paratha, and kheer for dessert.
“Great flavours, it feels like this was made by an Indian family,” Sofia tells the Orange team, to the delight of Annabel and Jack, who haven’t cooked Indian cuisine before.
Navy team – Hannah, Bella, Alyona
They have made a “Modern Australian Feast” with roast chicken and yoghurt dressing, roasted snapper with herb sauce, roast potatoes with hazelnuts, broccolini, honey-glazed carrots, and a ricotta, orange and olive oil cake with orange and nutmeg icing.
Poh wonders if they had “a few too many sauces”. But she says Bella’s cake is one of the best they’ve had so far.
Who goes into the next elimination?
The two top teams were Turquoise and Purple. But two teams are going into the elimination round. They are the Pink and, surprisingly, the Navy team (despite their excellent cake).
In the preview, it looks like family recipes are the focus of the elimination challenge.
Episode 9
When the contestants arrive tonight, the judges are also wearing black aprons. It’s an elimination masterclass.
This week is all about family favourites. Yesterday was breakfast, and today is dinner. The judges each cook their own quick carbs that are frequent dishes in their homes when they are short on time during the week.
What’s the challenge?
The contestants have to make their own version of one of the judges’ quick carbs in 36 minutes.
They can choose between Jean-Christophe’s pilaf, Andy’s flat bread, Poh’s noodles, or Sofia’s potato latkes.
Andy’s flatbread is the clear favourite among the contestants, with the majority incorporating it in their dishes.
Who leaves MasterChef Australia?
The time crunch got to a few of the cooks. However, the dishes that impressed the judges the most were made by Annabel, Lucy, and Petro.
Sadly, going home tonight. The bottom three are Olaolu, Belinda, and Vinnie. It came down to the quick carb choice and how well it was executed. Unfortunately, the judges sent Belinda home.
“It’s been fantastic,” Belinda said of her time, and her fellow contestants blew her away. “I’ve been watching MasterChef since series one, and now I’m on the show, so you know, dream accomplished. I’ve learned that I would like to now take my cooking to another level. I don’t think you’re ever too old to start again. I’ve had eight career paths, so let’s make number nine.”
Episode 8
It’s a white apron day in the MasterChef Australia kitchen, and another guest judge.
“Hey, babe, what do you want for breakfast?” says a voice off-screen. It’s Andy Hearnden, aka Andy Cooks, the New Zealand chef who has gone globally viral for his online video content. He starts all his recipe videos with the line “Hey, babe, what do you want for…”.
Grace calls him the “Gordon Ramsay of TikTok.” He was recently awarded TikTok Food Creator of the Year.
Today, Andy is doing a masterclass with the contestants for “three levels of eggs”. He starts with a classic French omelette, then the tornado egg (a Melburnian brunch staple, that’s a kind of play on omelette and scrambled egg), and finally omurice, a technical Japanese omelette.
What’s the challenge?
They have to cook their “ultimate breakfast”, sweet or savoury. But the twist, the judges are only tasting the 12 most appealing dishes, and the top four will be immune from the next elimination.
And Andy is keen to try something he’s never had before.
What dishes do they taste?
The first dish belongs to Alita. She’s made a Peruvian cachanga with tahini yoghurt and chorizo ‘nduja compound butter. Poh says it’s seasoned to perfection.
Aaron’s dish is next up; he’s made a spin on a traditional congee. Andy says the amount of flavour is “unbelievable.”
Emily’s next with a bak kut teh (pork rib dish) with meat bone tea. Poh says she’s done a really good job. Casper made Korean-inspired fried chicken and waffles; Sofia says it “just works so well”. Jackie is up next, but Andy says that her crepe cake’s flavours are not balanced.
Vinnie’s fried gnocchi eggs benny are next. He had a few accidents in the kitchen today (and has the bandages on his fingers to prove it). Poh says that she loves how he includes nods to his heritage in his dishes, but that the dish was too rich.
Annabel is next with her prawn and scallop toast. She’s a massive fan of Andy Cooks, but she’s not confident in her dish. Andy points out that she’s left out her aromatics.
Bella serves up her carrot and cardamom cake that’s made to look like a fried egg on toast. Andy Allen calls its flavours unexpected. Jack is next with his luscious apple tart tatin with a pancake base. Andy Cooks says he’d go back for seconds. Hannah is next with her Dutch baby with lemon yoghurt cheesecake filling. Andy Cooks calls it “bang on”.
Dot is next with Turkish eggs. Sofia calls it a “tasty little situation.”
The final dish the judges choose belongs to Kanika. She’s made uttapam, a South Indian pancake.
“I haven’t held back on my spices,” she warns Andy Allen.
“I’m hallucinating, but I love it,” he remarks of her dish. “It is such a good breakfast.”
Who wins immunity?
Aaron’s congee is the dish of the day. He’s safe from immunity. And joining him are Kanika, Alita, and Dot.
Everyone else is up for elimination. In the preview, they learn hacks from the judges and are tasked with making a “midweek wonder” in 30 minutes.
Episode 7
Maggie Beer is in the house! Very exciting for the contestants (and viewers at home, you know we are huge fans of the legendary cook), but also sad as we will be saying goodbye to one of the contestants tonight.
Luke, Jeff, Jackie, Pat, and Vinnie are taking part in this season’s first pressure test.
“An icon of the Australian food scene” and a “trailblazer”, says Andy of the Maggie.
“I never feel more welcome than coming through that door,” she said as she walked in to thunderous applause. “At my age, it’s pretty good.”
“I’m pretty starstruck to be honest,” Luke says, who is positively giddy about having Maggie Beer in the kitchen.
What’s the challenge?
Tonight they are making pies! Maggie reveals her “fabulous” guinea fowl and mushroom pie and an apple-and-sage pie. Maggie doesn’t have a sweet tooth, so she says a “sweet dish has to have a savoury element.”
Both pies are made with her signature (and versatile) sour cream pastry.
We love sour cream pastry at The Weekly. If you are looking for some recipe inspiration, for a classic savoury pie with a sour cream twist, we adore this patchwork chicken and leek pie, and for something sweet with a touch of savoury, you can’t go wrong with this apple and brie tart.
There’s a twist to today’s pressure test. They aren’t making the pies; they are making her sour cream pastry. They can make any pie that they choose, so there’s no strict recipe to follow. The pies must be the same size as Maggie’s, and they must also make a sauce and a side dish.
Maggie gives some pie-making tips
Maggie is always a generous cook, both with what she serves up and with giving advice.
“I don’t have rules about how I do things,” she says, instead letting the ingredients dictate her process.
She tells the cooks that when they are adding liquid, never put it all in at once.
“Every flour is different”, she says. “Even the humidity can affect it.” She also advises them to “chill chill chill.”
What are the cooks making?
Everyone is going savoury. Pat has an advantage, his fiancée found Maggie’s recipe “quite a while ago”, and they use it at home for sweet and savoury pies at home!
However, Pat’s going a bit rogue and making a recipe that he’s never made before, a Sri Lankan chicken curry pie with mango chutney. But he has a good luck charm, a little turtle that his daughter also uses for luck. He ends up with more time than expected and so creates some pastry leaves as a nice little extra.
Jackie is also making something she’s never done before, a Lo mai gai or glutinous rice and chicken pie!
“You’re pushing me out of my comfort zone,” Maggie jokes with Jackie.
Vinnie is making a lasagne-style pie with his nonna’s ragu recipe. However, Maggie and Poh advise Vinnie that his idea for a gremolata as a sauce doesn’t hit the brief. So, he listens and decides to put his bechamel that was going to go inside the pie as the sauce.
Luke is making a classic beef bourguignon, mashed potatoes and a horseradish sauce. However, his filling takes longer than anticipated, and he ends up falling behind the rest and not being happy with his pie.
Jeff is a confident baker, but has never made a sour cream pastry before. He’s making a Hong Kong-style chicken pie with Asian veggies on the side. However, he takes his time scoring the crust and is the last to get it into the oven.
Who goes home?
The judges and Maggie adore Pat’s dish, no complaints, only compliments. Jackie’s dish puzzles the judges. They prefer the filling on its own, well, except Jean-Christophe, who actually really likes it.
The judges also love Vinnie’s pie and love that he put the bechamel on the outside, but Sofia thinks it’s too rich. The judges like Jeff’s scoring work, but note there are some cracks on the side, and the base is uncooked. Maggie says his top pastry was the best of the five, but agrees with Sofia that there is too much spring onion.
Luke shares with the judges that he’s worried about his pie. He didn’t think the pie got enough time in the oven. But Maggie commends him for getting it out in time. However, he needn’t have worried, the judges love it! “What the hell is going on?” says an amazed Jean-Christophe. Maggie is likewise thrilled for Luke.
The judges decide to send Jeff home.
“Jeff, your dream doesn’t end now, it’s only starting, says Jean-Christophe. “You will always be a MasterJeff.”
“I’m proud of what I achieved,” says Jeff. “I’ll always be part of MasterChef.”
Episode 6
Tonight, the contestants are greeted with jars of cereal. Does it mean a breakfast challenge? Create your own cereal challenge? Nope. It turns out the judges are bringing back a classic task: the MasterChef Invention test!
Using cereal as the inspiration, the cooks can create whatever they want, sweet or savoury or both. The bottom five dishes will put their makers in the next episode’s elimination.
Despite the contestants all being very creative and inventive, Pat and Aaron both decide to make a raw protein dish with a tartare.
“Hopefully, the best tartare wins,” says Aaron. Sadly, Pat’s tartare isn’t where he wants it to be. He calls it “mediocre.”
Elsewhere, Luke’s fried chicken is “terrible” as his cornflakes aren’t adhering to the meat.
Who goes into the elimination?
There are some criticisms of many of the dishes. The judges describe Vinnie’s cannoli as a bit “grainy”; Jean-Christophe also says that Jeff’s dessert is a little soggy; Jackie’s use of cocoa powder “overpowers” her dish, according to Poh. And a couple of other dishes are called not inventive enough to keep them out of the bottom five.
However, the judges are amazed by Casper’s pannacotta, which is made to look like a bowl of cereal. He’s shaping up to be a huge contender this season.
And Aaron’s cornflake steak tartare “smashed it out of the park,” says Sofia.
Whereas Pat’s is called just “okay” by Andy, who gives him some constructive criticism on his dishes.
Luke’s dish is likewise found lacking.
So who’s in the bottom five? Heading into tomorrow night’s elimination are: Pat, Jackie, Jeff, Luke, and Vinnie.And in the preview, Maggie Beer AO is setting the challenge, and it’s pies! Perhaps they will be tackling a sweet and a savoury option like her blue cheese tarts (recipe here)
Episode 5
Black aprons are on as tonight is our first elimination this season!
The episode opens with four windows looking into each of the judge’s own kitchens. The windows start to play video footage of the judges in their homes, including Sofia giving her partner a kiss as they cook breakfast together. Next is Andy cooking something for his partner (who has just had their first baby!). Then, Poh is shown cooking moon cakes in her kitchen under the watchful eye of her dog, whom she gives a big cuddle. Finally, Jean-Christophe and his family are shown cooking tomato soup together.
The elimination challenge
The windows were a hint. They’ve seen a window into the judges’ lives, so they have to cook a dish that gives the judges a look into their own lives. Whoever cooks the bottom dish will be going home.
During the cook, Grace nearly sets off the smoke alarm when she puts sugar on her super-hot cast iron. But it’s intentional…she says as she backs herself. However, I feel sorry for Dot, who is getting the smoke right in her face.
Later on, while chopping shallots for her duck pancakes, Jackie slices her finger with the chef’s knife. It costs her precious time and adds to the stress of the elimination challenge. Sadly, although she gets it out of the oven in time, she doesn’t manage to get her duck on her dish.
Bella’s dish tonight is inspired by her friend Amalie, who died recently. While telling her story, the judges are clearly moved. After tasting her dish, which they say is incredible, Jean-Christophe leads them into a group hug to support Bella.
Emily also blew the judges away to the point where Jean-Christophe tells her to take off the black apron. She’s safe!
And Grace gets her vindication when the judges love her dish! So the smoke was worth it.
Who goes home?
Obviously, Jackie’s dish is missing the duck, but hers isn’t the only dish that misses the mark. Belinda’s vanilla beef cheeks don’t land for Poh, Hannah’s ragu is a little tough, Kanika’s dish is too tame on spice (she made it milder for Andy, which he didn’t agree with as it misses the brief), and Megs’ prawns were undercooked.
In the end, the bottom two are Jackie and Megs.
“It came down to what we could eat and what we would eat again,” says Sofia and for that reason, Megs is sent home.
No source selectedEpisode 4
We finally have the top 24, and we have our first-ever mystery box of the season. But they’re a little different tonight. The boxes are shaped like little houses, the houses and the country-style kitchen are a “clue”, says Poh.
The mystery box has been set by two special guests, ultimate home cooks, according to Poh.
“She’s an incredible home cook, and he’s an Australian rock icon,” she concludes.
It’s Jane and Jimmy Barnes!
Belinda is a massive fan (she’s seen him perform four times!). Whereas Luke, one of the youngest contestants, has no clue who they are.
The happy couple have two cookbooks to their name. They are also avid home cook and grow the majority of their produce. Apparently, their love of gardening and cooking exploded during COVID, and it has resulted in a whole new career.
In a poignant moment, Andy asks Jimmy about his relationship with Jock, a fellow Scotsman.
“He was so passionate and enthusiastic,” reminisces Jimmy.
“He made us eat ants”, Jane interrupts, to laughs from the homecooks.
What’s the challenge?
Underneath the boxes’ roofs are ingredients that the Barneses would use at their home, including spatchcock, mulberries, cavola nero, Dutch carrots, thyme, rainbow trout, and Edinburgh rock (a Scottish treat that Jimmy enjoyed as a child), and so much more.
The top dish will be saved from tomorrow night’s challenge.
The catch, the judges will only be tasting the ten “most appealing looking” dishes, explains Sofia.
As the cooks are crafting their dishes, Jimmy says to the other judges that he wants to be able to taste the produce, but Jane wants to taste the layers.
About halfway through the cook, Jimmy adds a twist: Whisky marmalade. If the cooks use it, they get an extra 15 minutes. If they don’t, they don’t get the extra time.
They all give it a taste, and someone asks if they don’t use it, can they bring it home? A few decide to incorporate it into their dishes, both sweet and savoury. Only one cook, Grace, decides not to use the marmalade.
What dishes do they taste?
Casper’s is the first dish the judges choose. His dish is a spatchcock with roast carrots, pickled mulberries and a tamarind caramel (which has the whisky marmalade in it). Jane Barnes calls it “next-level” and is inspired.
The next dish is Dot’s. She’s made a “Celebration of Carrots” with carrot ravioli with marmalade sauce, rainbow trout and a carrot top sauce. The marmalade and the fish, “surprises” Jimmy, but it works in his opinion.
Next is Alyona’s dish. She changed from trout to spatchcock mid-cook to use the marmalade. Jean-Christophe loves it and tells her he wants her bean sauce recipe. Jimmy is disappointed…but only because his portion was too small!
Jack’s mulberry sponge cake is next. Jimmy liked it, calling it moist. Luke’s carrot cake was also chosen. Jane Barnes tells him it was a great idea.
Pat’s dish was next chosen. He made fried spatchcock, and Andy loves it. Jimmy calls it fantastic. Hannah is next, and she made a butter cake. Jimmy calls it fantastic again!
The judges choose Miin next; he admits that his spatchcock may be underdone. But Poh cuts in and it’s “perfect”. She goes on to commend every element of the dish.
Next chosen is Alita, who made soufflé pancakes with a rockstar mulberry sauce. Andy calls it a “naughty” plate of food, Jane calls it a “perfect balance.”
The final dish belongs to…Annabel! She made a cured rainbow trout with mulberry and marmalade vinegar and chicken skin salt, plus some ricotta. Jean-Christophe calls it “just excellent.” Jane Barnes calls it the most delicious cured fish she’s ever had. Annabel is a fan of Jane’s, so that is huge to her.
Who wins immunity?
The judges call Alyona, Casper, and Annabel to the front. Sofia says it was close, but the one they couldn’t go past belonged to…Casper!
So he’s safe for tomorrow night; the season’s first elimination.
Episode 3
It’s the final chance for the remaining 20 cooks to earn a white apron and therefore their spot in this season of MasterChef Australia in 2026. However, with 20 cooks and only four aprons, the odds are not in their favour.
They have to cook a “showstopper dish” in 90 minutes. The pressure is really on. We get to meet more of the contestants, but trying not to get too attached! Like Grace, who believes that every cake is better with alcohol in it, she has a little taste test of liquors at her bench. But while she was doing that, her timer turned off, and so she has little idea how much time her cake has been in the oven.
There are lots of desserts tonight, including a very ambitious Bombe Alaska!
Who gets the last four aprons?
Like with the previous episode, the judges are very, very conservative with the remaining aprons. To be fair to them, they do only have four, and the competition is tough.
However, Jean-Christophe is so impressed with Petro’s bisque that he calls him over to shake his hand and slaps both hands on the table! He calls the dish “perfect”. But again, he has to wait until after the tasting to find out if he has an apron.
“You’ve got to risk it for the bisque-it,” he jokes to Andy, to laughs from the kitchen. Poh says to Andy, “Oh my God, he’s such a cute dork,” again fuelling my own suspicions that at least an on-screen romance could be brewing.
That being said, it’s not all happy smiles; some dishes have undercooked noodles or chicken or too many conflicting flavours.
The top four are: Luke and his Bombe Alaska, Lucy whose dish brought Jean-Christophe “back to Paris with one bite”, Grace and her fabulous fig cake, and the final apron (presented by Poh just to fuel rumours), Petro! She even repeats his own pun back to him.
Sad to see the rest go, but now we have the official top 24 of MasterChef Australia 2026.
Read more about the contestants here ahead of Sunday night’s episode with the one and only Jimmy Barnes. He’s now a “true blue foodie” and is bringing a secret special ingredient along with him for the challenge.
Episode 2
In last night’s episode, it was Group 2’s turn to cook for a white apron.
One surprising character is Vinnie, a nurse who has a dream to open up a panini shop (called Vinnie’s Paninis). He’s making his own bread, but Andy and Hean-Christophe baulk at his idea to “make a sandwich.” But maybe it will be the most incredible porchetta panini they’ve ever had. He is making the bread and the boccocinni from scratch.
Another contestant, Petro, is completely starstruck (perhaps lovestruck) by the presence of Poh. Could we have another MasterChef romance cooking? He really wants to impress the judges, but sadly, he scorches his trout’s skin on the hibachi and believes he’s lost his shot.
Who gets a white apron?
Just like the previous episode, if the judges are blown away, they will give them an apron on the spot. Otherwise, they have to wait until the end.
Dot is getting married in 32 days, she shares with the judges. Eek. She was quite calm during her cook, she said she went into some kind of “trance”. But even though the judges seem pleased, she doesn’t get the instant apron.
Pat chose to cook a roast dinner with a twist and wowed the judges, scoring the first white apron of the episode. Emily was the next to earn an apron with her herbal wonton soup.
Vinnie’s choice to make a sandwich is called “brave” and “crazy”, but it worked! He gets a white apron.
After tasting all the dishes, the judges award all the rest of the aprons. Hannah, Kanika, Aliana, Miin, Bella, Belinda, and Dot.
However, the rest of the cooks will have another chance to earn an apron in tomorrow night’s episode.
Episode 1
The episode opens with a collection of home cooks’ videos showcasing their recipes and dishes.
Then we meet the new crop of super-excited homecooks arriving after hours at the MasterChef garden, when all of a sudden the lights go out, and a video is projected onto the MasterChef building showing iconic cooks from the previous MasterChef seasons, from Sarah Todd to Reynold Poernomo.
The judges then arrive, and Andy Allen points out that all the cooks they saw in the video didn’t win the competition.
“I’m proof that you don’t have to win MasterChef to make your dreams come true,” says Poh Ling Yeow. “All MasterChef dreams start with the white apron.”
The challenge
So how do they get a white apron? Andy splits the cooks into two groups of 20. Group 1 is cooking for a white apron first.
There are only ten for grabs, so it’s a 50-50 shot to score a spot in the competition. In order to earn a white apron, the cooks have to present their “dream dish” to the judges. IT’s essential an audition challenge. If the judges like their dish, they will get an apron; if they don’t, the cooks will have another chance to cook tomorrow night.
Meeting the contestants
Jean-Christophe asks one of the cooks, Lydia (58), if she needs a tissue as she’s emotional, she responded: “I’m menopausal!” But also, this is a dream come true.
She says she is “downright excited to be doing this”. We see her absolutely charming application video, including her pantry (“organised chaos”) and her first-ever cookbook, The Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook!
She got it when she was first married at 19 years old and says that it has the “best chocolate mousse recipe ever.” We’re probably biased, but…we agree! She’s not making the mousse tonight; instead, she’s opting for an octopus dish.
Like always, MasterChef allows the cooks to showcase the cuisines of their heritage. One of the other contestants, Olaolu Olorunnimbe, is passionate about bringing Nigerian cuisine to Australia. He moved to the UK as a child and tried to assimilate, but once he moved to Sydney after university, he embraced his heritage through his cooking.
Who scored a white apron?
If the judges love their dish, they will get an apron on the spot. Otherwise, they will wait to the end of the round.
Andy says that Lydia’s octopus dish is “perfect” and he wouldn’t change a thing. She is the first to receive a white apron.
As the judges go through the dishes, they are exceptional; however, the judges are being very conservative with giving out the apron.
However, Olaolu’s Nigerian dish is dubbed “phenomenal” by Sofia. Jean-Christophe calls the tripe and the plantain the best he’s had so far in his life. After receiving the judges’ praise, Olaolu starts to walk away, but they stop him. The gantry starts chanting “apron, apron, apron!’ Unsurprisingly, Olaolu is the second to receive a white apron.
Also, after calling Jackie’s cake “textbook”, the judges called her back to also give her an apron.
Jeff’s chicken and prawn dumplings also blow the judges away, and he gets an apron as well.
After tasting all the dishes, the judges award the final aprons to Alita, Jack, Annabel, Casper, Meg and finally Aaron.
We have the first ten contestants! However, the remaining cooks will have an opportunity to cook again later in the week…
