History Series / MasterChefAustralia

The series was hosted and judged by Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston until 2019, after which they were replaced by Jock Zonfrillo (who previously appeared as a [[AscendedExtra guest judge in Season 6]]), Melissa Leong, and Season 4 winner Andy Allen. On April 30th, Jock Zonfrillo passed away after filming Season 15, one day before it was due to premiere. It is currently unknown who he will be replaced by in Season 16.

** After being forced to withdraw from Season 6 due to her injuries, Cecilia cooked her way back into the Mastechef kitchen in Season 8. She almost did this twice: during the Second Chance Challenge after her elimination, her dish was considered one of the best; however, she ultimately lost to Theresa, if only by a very narrow margin.

The series was hosted and judged by Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston until 2019, after which they were replaced by Jock Zonfrillo (who previously appeared as a [[AscendedExtra guest judge in Season 6]]), Melissa Leong, and Season 4 winner Andy Allen.
%%On April 30th, Jock Zonfrillo passed away after filming Season 15. It is currently unknown who he will be replaced by in Season 16.%%

* MyGreatestSecondChance: Brent walked out of the competition in season 13. [[spoiler: He then came back in season 15 and won.]]

** And just to make it a pattern, Season 3's Paul withdrew due to "work commitments" having his spot taken in the top 24 by another contestant.

* SuddenDeath: In one episode of Season 2, both the Blue Team and Red Team were equally matched, and the judges could not decide on a winning team. As a result, two members from each team faced an elimination challenge.

* InMemoriam: The first episode of series 15 was dedicated to Jock, who passed away suddenly on 30 April 2023, just a day before the show was initially due to premiere.

The series was hosted and judged by Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston until 2019, after which they were replaced by Jock Zonfrillo (who previously appeared as a [[AscendedExtra guest judge on season 6]]), Melissa Leong, and season 4 winner Andy Allen.

* AffectionateNickname: Matt from season 8 is frequently called "Matty" by his friends.
* BaitAndSwitchComment: While the 3 hosts are generally upfront about what they thought of a dish, one notorious example occurs in season 2: Matt Preston, having tasted a weird dish, states "That is disgusting!" He lets the plate fall to the floor and shatter. ...before adding "Disgustingly good" and claiming he destroyed the plate so that no one else could taste it.

** After being forced to withdraw from season 6 due to her injuries, Cecilia cooked her way back into the Mastechef kitchen in season 8. She almost did this twice: during the Second Chance Challenge after her elimination, her dish was considered one of the best; however, she ultimately lost to Theresa, if only by a very narrow margin.

* TheCameo: In the Season 8 Grand Final, during the winner announcement, Reynold (the fan favourite from season 7) and Anna Polyviou show up as unexpected guests.
* CatchPhrase: George's cheer during challenges: "Boom boom, shake the room!" This becomes a BorrowedCatchphrase, when guest chef and Season 7 alumnus Reynold Poernomo uses this phrase before the Pressure Tests he was assigned to oversee in season 8.

* DistaffCounterpart: "Dessert King" Reynold Poernomo from season 7 gets his counterpart in season 10's "Dessert Queen" Jess Liemantara. Both are high-end dessert artists who often comes up with gorgeously crafted desserts that looks like work of art and tastes just as good. Bonus points that they both came from Indonesian backgrounds and placed 4th in their respective seasons.

** The reward of winning a Celebrity Chef Challenge. That season had the winner pass through the finals week and got some training with the celebrity chef. Due to removing said contestant from the unique pressure that allowed the other to grow and losing the sense of familiarity for the viewers. The reward changed to an Immunity Pin where they can use to save themselves from an elimination challenge.
** The losing team from the Team Challenge will have to one person off. Obviously unpopular for not matching the integrity of the show and ripe for abuse, now the losing team has to participate in another cooking challenge to determine who's going to be eliminated.
* EasilyForgiven: During a team relay challenge in season 7, John almost single-handedly destroyed his group's dish by attempting to change the dish into something else entirely, but ended up overcomplicating the elements, and leaving the last two cooks from his team completely lost on what they're actually making (and giving Georgia essentially five minutes to make a totally new dish while battling a panic attack). This puts the whole team in danger of elimination. But the others, while dejected at their poor results, did not seem to be angry at him at all, and even came to his defense when the viewers started to send him hate messages on Facebook.
* EndangeredSouffle: In one of the elimination rounds in season 7, Jacqui tried to impress the judges by creating a soufflé out of her mystery box ingredients. While the soufflé looked good while it was in the oven, it quickly collapsed when she brought it to the judges.

* GuiltyPleasures: One of the season 7 challenges revolves around this, with Georgia having to pick one "guilty pleasure" ingredient from a table of three that all the contestants have to cook with.

** From the same series, Reynold is known as the "Dessert King" due to his incredible skill in making sweets, and is even advertised as such in the commercials.

** Jess from Season 10 is called the "Dessert Queen" for the highly complex, technical and intricate she often comes up with. Even the judges acknowledge this nickname.

* MidnightSnack: The first round of the Immunity Challenge that took place during season 8's {{Creator/Nigella|Lawson}} Week has the three hopeful contestants cook up a midnight snack for Nigella, which is something she is apparently well-known for.

** And just to make it a pattern, season 3's Paul withdrew due to "work commitments" having his spot taken in the top 24 by another contestant.
** After making it to the top 14 in season 3, Adam resigned his position after ending up in a pressure test, saying he felt he lacked the commitment the others in the pressure test felt towards cooking.
** After making it to the top 9, Mat was eliminated from season 3 after it was revealed he'd been breaking the rules by bringing a smartphone into the ''Master Chef'' kitchen.

** The last [=MasterClass=] in Season 8 has 3 of the judges (George, Gary and Shannon) switch places with the contestants and participate in a Mystery Box challenge. Meanwhile, the contestants get the change to have revenge on them by looming over the work benches, questioning and criticising their work.

* ProductPlacement: Coles supplies all the fresh ingredients for ''Master Chef Australia''. And pick up some Western Star butter...only at Coles!

** First season winner Julie Goodwin released cookbooks, wrote a few columns in Women's Weekly (an Australian magazine) and opened a cooking school, which paled in comparison to runner-up Poh Ling Yeow who become a bigger household name in the cooking community, starting with her own cooking TV show ''Poh's Kitchen''. Fourth place finisher in the same series Justine has a weekday TV show called "Everyday Gourmet".

** Matt Sinclair may have lost the 8th Season to Elena Duggan. But he has consistently been invited back as a guest chef in subsequent seasons, even becoming one of the contestants' mentors (alongside past winner Billie and season 1 runner-up Poh), while Elena has been conspicuously absent.

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: A variant in season 2; the contestants, while blind tasting dishes made for them by [[spoiler: the previously eliminated contestants]], correctly identified that Jimmy had made one dish because his style of Indian curries was so unique and notable.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: When season 6 auditionee Grant came to the judges' "lair", George immediately began telling Gary how much the guy looks like Ben Milbourne from season 4. He's, of course, Ben's younger brother.

* UpToEleven: Melissa describes the flavors and textures of Minoli's lamprais as this in season 13.

** First season winner Julie Goodwin released a book, and wrote a few columns in Women's Weekly (an Australian magazine) but that's about the extent of her post-competition achievements, while runner-up Poh Ling Yeow has her own ongoing cooking TV show called ''Poh's Kitchen''. Fourth place finisher in the same series Justine has a weekday TV show called "Everyday Gourmet".
** Season 7's fourth place Reynold Poernomo is one of the biggest internet sensations from the show. He manages to open up his own dessert bar shortly after leaving the Masterchef kitchen (which is the dream of most Masterchef contestants) and is the first of the show's alumnis to ever be invited back to coordinate a ''Pressure Test'' (a priviledge that's given to only the top chefs). It's probably helped by the fact that his brother, Arnold Poernomo, is a famous chef in Indonesia who also has his own restaurant and is a recurring judge of Masterchef Indonesia.

* PerspectiveReversal: The last [=MasterClass=] in Season 8 has 3 of the judges (George, Gary and Shannon) switch places with the contestants and participate in a Mystery Box challenge. Meanwhile, the contestants get the change to have revenge on them by looming over the work benches, questioning and criticising their work.

* YoungerAndHipper: Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo are (collectively) younger than Matt, Gary and George, and they are more likely than their predecessors to joke around with the contestants and make pop culture references (such as when Melissa compares one of Jess's dessert to the "mushrooms" from ''VideoGame/MarioKart'').
* YoungerThanTheyLook: It's hard to believe that Nicolette from Season 8 is only 19, considering how she looks the same age, if not older, than all the other female contestants aside from Theresa.