MasterChef Australia Season 16 Unveils Its First Guest Judge For 2024.
If you thought the Aussie weather was beginning to scorch, just wait until Jamie Oliver raises the temperature in the MasterChef Australia kitchen, as the first guest judge for season 16.
Filming for the new season kicks off this week and Jamie is here to share his words of wisdom, mentoring guidance, and a few exhilarating challenges to keep contestants on their toes.
Jamie Oliver said: “Returning to the MasterChef kitchen and spending time in Australia makes me very happy. I think MasterChef Australia is the best food show in the world - amazing production values and an incredible story of transformation.
“I love seeing how the contestants constantly surprise themselves about what they can achieve. More than that, MasterChef connects Aussies to food and the joy of cooking and that can only be a positive thing.”
Jamie will lend a helping hand as part of a two-week stint, the longest ever appearance from a guest chef in the MasterChef Australia kitchen.
In 2024, MasterChef Australia will commence a new chapter with Andy Allen joined by three new fellow judges: MasterChef Australia season one runner up Poh Ling Yeow, revered restauranteur Jean-Christophe Novelli and food critic Sofia Levin.
MasterChef Australia season 16 will premiere on 10 in 2024.
Pretty much as I predicted (below) although at the time I didn’t think there would be 4 judges. 5 judges seems excessive, so still wondering if all 4 judges will rotate on certain nights?
A team service challenge (with Jamie Oliver as guest judge) will take place at Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market this evening, to celebrate the first Summer Night Market of 2023/24 season.
Before leaving Melbourne, Jamie Oliver posted on social media yesterday, believing the show is now in good hands with the three new judges plus Andy Allen.
The show’s Instagram account is asking fans for their all-time favourite challenge in the MC kitchen, which could be included in the new season when filming resumes after the Christmas-New Year break in January.
Share your favourite #MasterChefAU kitchen challenge and have your say in next season’s episode!
Mine would have to be Billie’s finale Heston dish in the 2015 Grand Final (which 2.2m metro broadcast watched on Ten - the largest non news program on TV that year), anybody else mention that dish there?
Which included blowing sugar confection or something ridiculously crazy, she was no doubt the best all season, especially complex, but even she failed and had to re-do that step multiple times before she got it right. She was dripping in sweat and we were all on the edge of our seats with her in the dying stages.
The current weekly competition cycle is:
Monday - team challenge
Tuesday - pressure test elimination
Wednesday - mystery box
Thursday - immunity challenge
Sunday - all-in elimination (except for the winner of weekly immunity challenge)
It will be interesting to see which challenge gets the chop, or merged with another challenge (say top 3 contestants of mystery box will immediately compete in the immunity challenge in the same episode, with the winner to be exempt from Sunday’s elimination).
Sunday: mystery box and invention test (in a longer ep).
Monday: pressure test (elimination).
Tuesday: immunity.
Wednesday: team challenge.
Thursday: team elimination.
Friday: MasterClass (shorter 30min ep before years later being extended and then added occasionally after the Thursday ep).
MasterChef Australia. Coming Soon To 10 And 10 Play.
MasterChef Australia has landed overseas, filming three mouth-watering episodes in culinary hot spot Hong Kong.
Home to 77 Michelin starred restaurants and over 15,000 dining establishments, Hong Kong is the perfect kitchen away from home for MasterChef Australia judges, Andy Allen, Poh Ling Yeow, Sofia Levin and Jean-Christophe Novelli, plus this season’s crop of enthusiastic home cooks.
MasterChef Australia last visited Hong Kong during season one in 2009. Since then, the food scene has continued to flourish and Hong Kong has cemented itself as a world-class culinary hub, with everything from street eats all the way up to award-winning fine dining.
Travelling in association with Hong Kong Tourism Board and Cathay Pacific Airways, the episodes of MasterChef Australia filmed in Hong Kong will showcase iconic landmarks and bring the city’s intrinsic east-meets-west culture to our screens.
MasterChef Australia judge Andy Allen said: “I’ve never been to Hong Kong, but I’ve been really interested in the place for a long time. That’s because I see the city’s array of food is off the charts: it’s a melting pot of different cultures, bold flavours, and one-of-a-kind ingredients.
“Blending Michelin-starred restaurants with bustling street markets, it seems to have this world-class food culture going on. It’s so good that now myself, the other judges, and contestants can finally get amongst it this season.”
MasterChef Australia is produced by Endemol Shine Australia (a Banijay company). Format created by Franc Roddam and represented internationally by Banijay Rights.
This format was really synonymous with the Andy/Jock/Mel era of judges, so I’m sure it will get a mix up now with a new era of judges.
Personally, I always found the Tuesday/Wednesday episodes resulting in just one person winning immunity a drag so I didn’t always watch them. It would be very easy to just merge those episodes into one with some sort of challenge leading to some (or one) person being safe. I’m sure it will end up being some sort of format where every second episode of the week is an elimination. It will make the show feel faster paced.
I have mixed feelings about the Hong Kong episodes. Yes it’s great the show is travelling overseas again and returning to HK after a 15-year absence is good, but I feel there is a hint of propaganda (with the sponsorship of Hong Kong Tourism Board) given the pro-democracy protests of 2019/2020 and the subsequent government crackdown which is continuing to this day.
