Exactly right. There were very few contestants this year that took risks or created innovative dishes. Getting to the top 4 by cooking very little other than parfaits and panna cottas shouldn’t happen.
Matt is a great cook when it comes to safe dishes. When it comes to creativity though, Elena excelled.
As did Billie last year. Both flew under the radar but both were by the far the most creative and thankfully that was rewarded.
Congratulations to Elena,she came good at the pointy end of the season .She was mainly ignored early on in the season.Matt came close,it was his mistakes in the final round ,his egg split open,that cost him the win.I will try to check out his stall when he has it up and running later on this year
Finally the girl-boy repeating sequence is broken.
Now the show is over for another year, what changes would you like to see for season 9? I have two suggestions:
The MasterChef kitchen will again be open during this year’s Royal Melbourne Show, from September 17 to 27. For the second year in a row, the kitchen at Centenary Hall will be turned into Winning Tastes Pavilion, featuring pop-up restaurants, wine tastings and masterclasses.
Likeable contestants.
Gary dumped for someone more authentic, and George dumped for someone that has something witty or clever to say.
Masterclass to return on a weekly basis. Either air at 7:30 Fridays (with Living Room at 8:30) or 6:30 Sundays.
I like the idea of Masterclass at 6.30 on Sunday… even if it achieved 700k it’d be better than pretty much everything else Ten throw into that timeslot. Living Room shouldn’t be messed with, it deserves to have a consistent timeslot across the year.
I think a tighter structure to the show - it’s probably something that has happened every year but I felt episodes this year just dragged and ran over quite alot.
I miss the season 1/2 days where Tuesday/Thursday were a brief 30 minutes… sitting down to a show 5 nights a week where the episode runs anywhere from 60/70 minutes through to 90-120 minutes is draining.
A bit of a shake up to the challenges would be good too… maybe some interstate visits, been a while since we had a challenge similar to that of the Hong Kong race/cook of Season 1 - the was really exciting TV to watch so a couple of those spread through the season would be great.
I agree, return it do a 6 day show 
MasterClass (along with The Living Room, The Project & Family Feud) would really boost Ch 10’s Friday shares…
It’d be better for Gogglebox, etc on Thursdays.
It wouldn’t cost that much more, to produce a handful more of MasterClass eps.
Yeah that could be a good idea. It can’t do any worse than any of the weak lead ins for it that Ten currently have. I tend to think Masterclass on it’s own wouldn’t do too well and it needs to be paired with a regularly Masterchef ep so they should try this.
I thought the format of this season was fine, except earlier in the season a week away somewhere in Aus would have been a nice touch.
Yeah I thought the season worked quite well. Themed weeks were nice with the guest judges. I agree an interstate trip along with an international one would be good. QLD would probably be the best place to do the trip. A Masterclass episode on Sundays 6:30 could pave way for a weekly cooking show for the timeslot on a regular basis if it does ok.
Add a female judge to the judging panel, Maggie Beer would be great as a judge
Applications for 2017 have been extended until August 12th.
Trouble finding suitable applicants?
i know someone who has been accepted onto the show. she only found out in the last few days…
The current season finally makes it to grand final week on Star World in India, one month after it ended in Australia. Monday and Tuesday were the final mystery box and invention test, Tonight and Thursday will be the final service challenge. The two hour grand finale will be shown this Friday night.
Masterchef runner-up Matt Sinclair prepares for Eat Street markets debut
MASTERCHEF runner-up Matt Sinclair says he is “s----ing himself” ahead of his Eat Street Markets debut tomorrow night.
“I’m pumped and nervous, that’s for sure,” he said.
The popular Noosa chef and coffee roaster will launch food container Ten Piece Cutlery with friend and business partner Moe Rickard– after putting their dream on hold so he could appear on the Channel 10 show.
I had to Google who that was as I had honestly forgotten who that was referring to lol.
Cristy from the Langham Hotel in Melbourne, who produced the popular & much talked about “Mistique” pressure test dessert in the final weeks of MasterChef (also one of the highest-raring eps in 2016), told 3AW radio today that a special ‘tasting’ (for a price) will be opened to the public on Monday night 
I went to the Royal Melbourne Show this afternoon, on the event’s opening day. As I posted before, the MasterChef kitchen (formally called Centenary Hall) has been turned to Winning Tastes pavilion, showcasing produces which won at the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria Fine Food Awards in 2016.
ICYMI, the auditions for season 8 late last year was held at nearby building 15, which has named the Farmhouse for duration of the Royal Show (top photo is from the screencap)
I went into the Masterchef kitchen last year and its cool to see (and learn how small it actually is compared to how it looks on TV!). Hoping to get there again next weekend.
Matt Sinclair from this season is guest hosting Couch Time on ELEVEN this week with Carina as Billy is overseas on his honeymoon.
