Image: Channel 10
MasterChef Australia has a brand-new look in 2024, with new judges Poh Ling Yeow, Jean-Christophe Novelli and Sofia Levin joining Andy Allen in the kitchen.
22 contestants entered Australia’s biggest cooking reality show this year, and they will be pushed to their limits in mystery box challenges, pressure tests, and group service challenges throughout the season.
As the episodes progress, contestants will start to be eliminated and their cooking dreams in the MasterChef kitchen will sadly come to an end.
They’re competing to gain valuable experience from industry professionals as well as to win $250,000 to kick-start their food careers, but only one can win.
See which MasterChef 2024 eliminations have been made so far
Sue
The contestants were treated to an appearance from another guest judge, this time Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone.
The cooks were challenged to keep up with Curtis in a brutal challenge and from the get-go, Sue struggled.
Sadly there were too many elements with issues in her dish, and she was sent home.
David
Guest judge, celebrity chef Rick Stein, challenged the contestants to create a dish that heroed raw seafood. Having never prepared raw fish before, David admitted he was nervous.
His tuna dish with raspberries and apple puree was labelled too imbalanced by the judges, which meant he had to cook again in round two. His smoked salmon with couscous and fennel salads was the weakest dish and he sadly left the competition.
Savindri
A gruelling four-hour pressure test pushed the contestants to their limits, and they had to recreate an extremely technical and intricate dish by Darren Purchese.
Fan-favourite Savindri had a chaotic experience in the kitchen. She wasn’t feeling confident when she plated her dish in front of the judges.
Sav was ultimately eliminated due to her brownie being dry, and her cheesecake lacking balance.
However, in a MasterChef twist the previously eliminated contestants were given the opportunity to win back their spot in the competition. Savindri’s dish was deemed the best and she re-entered the MasterChef kitchen.
Stephen
All of the remaining contestants partook in an elimination challenge where the judges gave the cooks a seemingly simple task: creating a dish that featured egg in an interesting way.
Unfortunately for 62-year-old Stephen, his dish didn’t come together quite as he had imagined and he was sent home.
“Going into the challenge I wasn’t worried at all. But as I went through I started having cracks come apart and I suddenly realised I wasn’t working as well as I normally do. I wasn’t as calm as I normally was,” Stephen said after his elimination.
Snezana
Special guest Anna Polyviou, “the punk dessert” icon, challenged contestants to recreate an original dessert she crafted just for this challenge.
The dish was extremely intricate, and no element tasted like what it appeared to be.
Snezana struggled throughout the cook, with multiple elements needing to be remade, and although she managed to plate her dish in a way that looked identical to Anna’s, the flavours weren’t well-balanced and she was eliminated.
Juan
Last night, the cooks were put to the test during a gruelling two-round elimination.
In the first round, Juan De La Cruz got overwhelmed by the challenge. He also wrongly assumed his dish needed to be inspired by guest-judge Luke Nguyen’s love of Vietnamese food. The dish was not his best and in the second round he returned to his Argentinian roots and made empanadas.
Unfortunately, the flavours were lacking and his time in the competition came to an end.
Lourdes
In a tough elimination challenge, four contestants had to recreate a challenging and intricate dish.
Unfortunately for Lourdes, the youngest cook in the competition, her egg yolk and sauce were both overcooked, therefore disrupting the balance of the dish.
The 22-year-old was sent home after the judges decided her dish was the least like the original.
Lily
A classic MasterChef challenge, the blind taste test, had the contestants relying on only their senses of taste and smell to try and identify ingredients.
Lily was named in the bottom six after struggling to correctly name enough ingredients, and had to cook a dish using only the ingredients from the first round where she struggled to come up with a dish concept.
The 30-year-old former nurse said she felt “really deflated” going into the cook and was therefore eliminated after she was deemed to have had the weakest dish. Lily revealed she had a “gut instinct” that she was going home.
Khristian
After landing in the bottom four, Khristian had to participate in the first Pressure Test cookoff of the season. He was tasked with recreating one of Jean-Christophe Novelli’s most intricate dishes.
Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, nothing really seemed to go his way during the cook. He was sent home after the judges decided there were too many elements that weren’t up to par.
Jonathan
The judges eliminated 29-year-old Jonathan after he failed to impress them. The dish in question was his iteration of one of judge Andy Allen’s mum’s favourite dishes.
The carpenter had a bit of a mishap in round one, so his cheesecake stuck to the pan and the judges struggled to get it out. He also had to cook again in round two.
In the end, Sofia said the elements of his pappardelle pasta felt “clumsy”. The judges deemed he had the weakest dish so he was sent home.
Steph
A tough challenge saw the contestants recreating one of Jamie Oliver’s dishes alongside him. Afterwards, Steph was sadly sent home.
The 28-year-old’s dish had some inconsistencies and her chicken was overcooked, so unfortunately that meant she was eliminated.
James
James was the first of the MasterChef 2024 eliminations.
The 38-year-old from Western Australia failed to impress the judges because his squid dish was undercooked and had conflicting flavours.
Poh described it as “one of the least impressive dishes” of the night. The other judges agreed, so he was sent home.
Stream MasterChef Australia 2024 now on TVNZ+.
