MasterChef Australia 2024 has not only brought us a batch of new contestants who are vying for the $250,000 prize, but also whole new judging panels and celebrity guests to “ooo” and “awww” at!
Following the tragic passing of former MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo and departure of foodie queen / fashionista Melissa Leong, this year’s judging panel has had a bit of a shake-up. Most noticeably, there are now four judges instead of three.
Andy Allen is back again for Season 16, and he is joined by MasterChef‘s princess Poh Ling Yeow, food critic Sofia Levin, and renowned French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.
Alongside their arrival to the scene, MasterChef Australia has seen a plethora of iconic celebrity guests and judges to heat things up in the kitchen including dessert master Anna Polyviou and TikTok omurice icon Mikiko Terasaki.
So, without further ado, here’s everything we know about the MasterChef Australia 2024 judges and the celebrity guests!
Table of contents
- Who are the MasterChef Australia 2024 guest judges?
- Who are the judges on MasterChef Australia?
- Why did Melissa Leong leave MasterChef?
Who are the MasterChef Australia 2024 guest judges?
Nagi Maehashi
The GOAT of online recipes Nagi Maehashi has finally graced us with her presence!!!
This week’s run of MasterChef Australia kicked off with a bang after it featured RecipeTin Eats’ founder for the biggest Mystery Box Challenge in the show’s history.
“To see the real thing that you’ve seen on your TV screen for over 16 years is quite surreal to walk into the actual set,” Nagi told PEDESTRIAN.TV, reflecting on her time on MasterChef Australia.
“It was a great experience and everyone was so helpful. It’s the first proper TV filming I’ve done so I warned them, I said ‘I’ve never done TV before, so I have no idea how I’m going to go’.”
She’s beauty, she’s grace and she needs her own show ASAP.
Adriano Zumbo
One of the horsemen of the MasterChef Australia apocalypse, Adriano Zumbo, returned to this year’s season for Sweet Week.
If y’all don’t remember the impact Zumbo made on the MasterChef world, in Season One, the pastry chef wowed Aussie audiences with his iconic croquembouche.
Ever since then, the celeb chef has returned multiple times to the MasterChef Australia kitchen to judge all the sweet desserts our cast has conjured up.
Unfortunately, at the end of Sweet Week, it was Gillian who said goodbye after she dished up a delicious but overcooked créme caramel.
Curtis Stone
Great hunk of spunk I mean, celebrity chef Curtis Stone came in, guns blazing, with an intense cook-along challenge.
Contestants were asked to follow along with the celeb chef as he cooked one of his signature dishes: a spice rubbed pork, paired with smoked beetroot and hasselback potatoes.
Sue was the unfortunate contestant to face the MasterChef Australia chopping block after multiple elements in her dish were overcooked.
Rick Stein
British chef, restaurateur and presenter Rick Stein made a splash as a guest on this year’s MasterChef Australia by tasking our 2024 cast with a seafood challenge.
During his episode, the celebrity chef challenged the MasterChef Australia contestants by asking them to serve their best raw seafood dish.
Unfortunately, for “mad scientist chef” David he failed to keep his place in the competition with his tuna and salmon dishes.
Mikiko Terasaki
Again, another gift from the internet! TikTok egg queen Mikiko Terasaki blessed us with her presence for this year’s egg challenge.
Appearing in a giant iPhone place in the MasterChef Australia kitchen (how cvnty, right?) Mikiko shared how she makes her famous omurice!
Although the episode started on a positive note, the MasterChef Australia curtains were closed for Stephen, who failed to impress the judges with his twice-cooked tempura eggs with miso sauce.
Anna Polyviou
My culinary icon, queen and dessert dream maker! The “punk princess of pastry” Anna Polyviou shook up the MasterChef Australia kitchen during her cheeky stint on the show.
In Anna Polyviou’s challenge, contestants had to recreate her “Sunny Side Up” dessert, which featured a shit tonne of elements, ingredients and skill.
Although it appears to be a sunny-side-up egg on a gorgiana bun, it’s actually a brown sugar sponge, caramelised bacon, passionfruit curd, sourdough mousse, coconut panna cotta and pabana yolk.
Snezana‘s was the unfortunate contestant’s rendition of the delectable dessert didn’t “leave a good taste” in the judge’s mouths, resulting in her elimination.
Vincent Yeow Lim
OK. Say what you want about TikTok, but it has truly birthed some of the most quirky, inventive and interesting stars. One of my favourites is Vincent Yeow Lim — famously known as Dim Sim Lim, or that guy who puts a bit of “yum yum” in his food.
The “Wolf of Wok Street” shared his talents with this year’s MasterChef Australia cast. During his episode, the contestants put their wok skills to the test after the wok-star recreated his viral “Flying Lobster Noodle” recipe.
Luke Nguyen
Celebrity chef and my mum’s crush Luke Nguyen joined the MasterChef Australia kitchen for the famous ingredient gamble challenge.
To give you a quick rundown on how the “ingredient gamble” works, contestants can use an ingredient visible to them before the cooking clock starts. But they also have the option to “gamble” by using the ingredient that’s hidden, which will only be revealed when the timer starts.
In this challenge, Juan was eliminated for his Vietnamese-style soybean tacos and orange and soybean empanadas.
Maree Allen
The second guest judge to appear on this year’s MasterChef Australia was Andy Allen’s mother Maree Allen. In her special episode, Maree shared three classic dishes from the 1980’s that played an important part in building Andy’s palate.
This included The Pine Burger, Maree’s Lamb Chops and Maree’s Fruit Salad Slice. Contestants were tasked with dishing up their own interpretations of Maree’s dishes, worthy enough for the MasterChef kitchen.
This time around, it was Jonathan‘s take on Maree’s Fruit Slice that sent him packing from the comp.
Jamie Oliver
Kicking off the season with a bang, Jamie Oliver was the first guest for this year’s MasterChef Australia, where five contestants had to participate in a follow-along challenge.
In Jamie’s challenge, Steph, Lily, Josh, Sumeet and Steve had to plate up their version of the celeb chef’s “Trevor’s Chicken” — which can be described as a chicken Wellington — while cooking along with the culinary icon.
Lily unfortunately struggled to keep up with Jamie, causing her chicken to be overcooked and underfilled. She was sent home for her version of Trevor’s Chicken.
Who are the judges on MasterChef Australia?
Andy Allen
Okay, you’ve already met MasterChef‘s sweet boy Andy Allen. Before he became wrapped up in the celebrity chef universe, Andy was an electrician with a love for food. In 2012, Andy applied to MasterChef Australia and somehow, despite seemingly floundering throughout the competition, he took the whole thing out.
From there, he kicked off a pretty amazing career as a cook, a critic and a restaurateur, launching Three Blue Ducks with a couple of mates. The restaurant now has five locations and was awarded a Chef’s Hat. He’s the first MasterChef contestant to receive the honour — pretty bloody impressive, hey?
Andy became a judge on the show in 2019. At the time, it was pretty great having a former contestant and winner step into the role. Finally, contestants had an expert who knew exactly what they were going through on the show and really understood the stress that comes with making top-notch food under a strict time limit.
Poh Ling Yeow
Next up is the princess of MasterChef herself — Poh Ling Yeow. Poh was on the very first season of MasterChef Australia back in 2009 and she was an absolute delight from the get-go. Although she had a brief stint as an eliminated contestant after incorrectly guessing ingredients in a minestrone — heartbreaking for viewers at the time — she was brought back into the competition and made it to the top two. She ended up coming in second to Julie Godwin but put up a pretty great fight with a dish that brought Century Eggs to a mainstream Aussie audience.
Poh came back to MasterChef as a mentor in 2019, and then a contestant for 2020’s Back to Win season. Although she didn’t actually win, she’s now won the big ole’ competition of coming back as a fkn judge. On ya, Poh!
Aside from the MasterChef universe, Poh has hosted her on cooking shows Poh’s Kitchen and Poh’s Kitchen on the Road.
She has also hosted Channel Nine’s show Snackmasters and appeared on Channel 10’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! in 2022.
Jean-Christophe Novelli
Now we’re onto the newbies!!! Jean-Christophe Novelli, 63, is a French chef, restaurateur and television personality. In the culinary world, old mate is no joke. He’s got his own cooking school which has been voted as one of the top 25 cooking academies in the world, he’s a multi Michelin star-winning chef and despite all that hullabaloo, he still regularly teaches classes and performs cooking demonstrations for his students. What a guy!!!!
Although we haven’t seen him on mainstream Aussie television before, he has a heap of TV credits under his belt, including his own show Chef Academy in which he trained a bunch of aspiring chefs. He was in the British version of Hell’s Kitchen too and, along with a bunch of other appearances, he managed to win the celeb version of reality show Hunted.
Sofia Levin
And finally, it’s time to meet food critic Sofia Levin. Sofia, 35, is a food journalist and presenter who knows a thing or two about a delectable plate of grub. She’s been writing about life’s greatest pleasure (see: food) since 2013 for some of the biggest publications across the country.
One of my favourite pieces by her is called “Is Burrata Actually Boring?” which concludes that it really depends on the chef, and how the cheese is made. Personally, I think burrata is overrated but I’m open to being proven wrong!
Anyway, one of the coolest things about Sofia and her writing is that she’s down to try anything, with a penchant for street food and off-the-beaten-path snacks.
In 2021, Sofia launched a website and newsletter called The Seasoned Traveller which discusses culinary delights and food stories from lesser-known corners of the world.
Why did Melissa Leong leave MasterChef?
Queen Melissa Leong may have stepped down from MasterChef, but the good news is that she’s still on our screens! She’s now the host of the spin-off series Dessert Masters with Swiss-French pastry chef Amaury Guichon.
When it was first announced that Melissa would be stepping down from the helm of MasterChef Australia, there was a bit of discourse around what led to her departure.
So, Melissa clarified her decision on Instagram with a statement that makes me want to burst into applause.
“I get that there is going to be a bit of confusion and chaos about the ‘why’ of it all right now. I’m here and happy to clear that up, because negative tropes draped around women who achieve something is boring, and frankly we are all better than that,” she said. Yes mama!!
“This is a shift I embrace with joy. One that allows everyone involved, to expand. To put it plainly, I’m very fortunate to continue to be a key part of [MasterChef], yet have the space to evolve my career.
“In effect, I get to have my cake and eat it too…and what could be better than that?!”
What a woman, honestly.
The new season of MasterChef Australia 2024 kicked off on April 22. You can watch it on Channel 10 or 10Play.
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