It is a stage where ordinary people can realize their culinary dreams and show their love for food and cooking.

Fairmont Peace Hotel Executive Chef Steven Liu, popular host and "Professional Eater" Cao Kefan and the musician Jonathan Lee Tsung-sheng serve as the main judges of MasterChef China.

In the last round of the preliminaries, the theme of the challenge was to create a stunning dish with a core ingredient in an hour.

They would then compete in an elimination challenge, which is the pressure test while the other contestants would be safe in this section and go upstairs.

Episode 1 (29 July 2012) – Sixty-five contestants from all over the country were given the chance to cook their signature dishes and present them to three judges in Shanghai.

The 34 contestants who won the apron advanced to the second round of preliminaries – slicing and dicing onions which lasted for three and a half hours.

Mei Xiaofan was the winner of this challenge and had the advantage to choose the core ingredient for their "Invention Test" in the second round.

In the last part, Mei Xiaofan, Cai Chengqi and Liu Junjie were required to cook the sample dish given to them.

Both teams were required to finish a main course, a dessert and a vegetable dish within two and a half hours.

The first round was the Off-site Team Challenge and the two leaders were Tang Lu and Yi Min.

What was waiting for the red team in next round was the Skill Test that included cutting salmon.

Episode 6 ( 2 September 2012 ) – The major ingredient in the "Mystery Box" was Jinhua ham this time.

Wei chose cow's tongue for himself and mutton kidney for the other contestants, which made him be questioned by them.

Wei, Tang Lu, Huang Ying and Liu Junjie were chosen into the third round—the Pressure Test.

The winners of the last episode, Gu Xiaoguang and Li Liang were the two leaders in this round.

Li Liang, Mei Xiaofan and Wei Han all faced the third round—the pressure test.

Despite disputes between Yu Hanbing and Li Liang, their traditional Chinese dishes won praise from five gourmet judges, including Chua Lam, a renowned food critic from Hong Kong.

Gu made it through, leaving Wei Han and Fan Tiantian to face the pressure test, in which they were supposed to tackle with the common ingredient of chicken meat.

Five survivors were tasked to prepare dishes of the five major styles of Chinese cuisine, and Gu Xiaoguang came out on top, gaining the advantage to skip the Invention Test in the next round.

Wei Han's convincing performance enabled him to skip the Pressure Test, in which the other three chefs were supposed to make a croque-en-bouche in 3 hours.

It is a French dessert with a cone that's piled to the top with cream puffs, the making of which requires patience and attention to detail.

Eventually Li Liang was eliminated due to the unsatisfactory shape of his pile of puff, despite its delicious taste.

Gu Xiaoguang competed with Yu Hanbing, both dealing with fish, and Wei Han was paired off with Yi Min, both faced with prawns.

In these semi-finals, Gu and Wei beat their rivals, stepping forward to compete with each other for the MasterChef title.

In the final round, they had to prepare two dishes and one dessert in 2 hours, while their family and the previously eliminated contestants were watching upstairs.

Opinions divided among the 5 gourmet judges, including Chua Lam, who also appeared on the 9th episode, however, Wei's lobster and shrimp, crispy chicken and Chinese pastry beat Gu's cuttlefish, shrimp ball and French brûlée.