Initial rounds consist of a large number of hopeful contestants from across Australia individually "auditioning" by presenting a food dish before the three judges in order to gain one of 50 semi-final places.

Entrants must be over 18 years old and their main source of income cannot come from preparing and cooking fresh food in a professional environment.

The contestants will then be whittled down through a number of individual and team-based cooking challenges and weekly elimination rounds until a winning MasterChef is crowned.

The top three contestants who made the best dishes are selected by the judges, from which a winner is chosen to compete in the Immunity Challenge.

Tasks have included presenting a three course meal to a celebrity guest, running a restaurant for an evening or catering an event such as a birthday party or wedding.

Here, judges George, Gary and Matt run a masterclass for the remaining contestants, which usually call back to some of the challenges from the previous week.

Applications for contestants closed on 8 January 2009, with subsequent auditions held in Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney.

Regular judges, chefs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan and food critic Matt Preston, returned for series 4.

The finale (winner announced) was the highest rating non-sport TV event of 2015, with 2.2 million viewers (in metropolitan consolidated numbers).

[29] This series, former contestants Poh Ling Yeow, Billie McKay, and Matt Sinclair replaced Shannon Bennett as in-house mentors.

[30] This is the final series to feature Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston as the show's judges as broadcaster Ten failed to meet payrise demands set by the trio.

[33][34] It was also announced that they would be joined by previous contestants who had returned to have another chance to win the title of "Masterchef" and the A$250,000 grand cash prize.

The sixteenth series premiered on 22 April 2024. it featured a four host/judge lineup for the first time, with French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, TV cook Poh Ling Yeow and food critic Sofia Levin joining returning judge Andy Allen.

[3] The celebrity version, which features a heats and semi-finals format similar to MasterChef Goes Large, is based around weekly episodes.

[53] Ten began broadcast of a special all-stars version of the show on 26 July 2012 that aired during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The one-hour series premiere of MasterChef Australia attracted an average of 1.42 million viewers, making it the most watched show in its timeslot.

This figure was for the last half-hour of the show, titled MasterChef Australia: The Winner Announced, while the first 90 minutes of the finale averaged 3,313,000 viewers.

As a result of the show's poor audience response Network Ten cancelled all spin-off versions of Masterchef Australia in order to focus on "a new, fresh version in 2014 that will appeal to the loyal MasterChef fans as well as new viewers" according to Ten's chief programming officer, Beverley McGarvey.

[67][68] Ten's programming chief David Mott admitted that using the new format was "a huge risk",[58] while FremantleMedia's Paul Franklin has asserted that "for a commercial audience we needed to pump it up and make it bigger, a little over the top, with more drama and storytelling and a sense of theatre".

[16] Despite these harsh views, it is still popular amongst many others who have praised the balance of entertainment, skill and overall presentation which is more fun-loving in its (Australian) attitude in comparison with the original British format.

1990)), it has been such a success that France, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, New Zealand, India, Peru, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Norway, the US and many other countries have all followed Australia's lead and formed their own series of the show in their respective countries; this in itself reveals the popularity of the Australian show from an international audience's perspective compared to that of the British version.

Supermarkets and specialty food retailers have reported increased demand from the public for more unusual ingredients, such as quail, custard apple and squab, after such were featured on the program.

[71] The success of the show led Ten to explore possible spin-offs such as the celebrity and junior versions, as well as one featuring professional chefs as contestants.

In addition, Matt Preston won the Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding New Talent for his work on the program.

[73] Significant numbers of viewers have raised allegations that the voting on the series one finale of MasterChef was fraudulent after Julie Goodwin won the crown over Poh Ling Yeow.

[76] Judge Matt Preston has denied that eliminations were rigged or the result of a popularity contest,[76] and asserted that Julie had won the title because she was the better cook on the night.

These facts were revealed in 2011 along with the knowledge that most contestants quit their jobs before entering the competition and faced seeking re-employment once eliminated from the show.

[78] Following comments made by judge Matt Preston about Marco Pierre White's son's admitted $500,000 splurge of his father's money on drugs and prostitution,[79] White stopped making guest appearances on MasterChef Australia after the eighth series and joined the rival programme Hell's Kitchen Australia.

It contains recipes from the series 1 Top 20 contestants and top Australian and international chefs: Martin Boetz, Donovan Cooke, Pete Evans, Manu Feildel, Guy Grossi, Alex Herbert, Matt Moran and Andrew Honeysett, Ben O'Donoghue, Adrian Richardson, Frank Shek, Emmanuel Stroobant and Adriano Zumbo.

Following a high-profile launch, the magazine exceeded its initial sales target within a short period of time, selling 90,000 copies in three days.