MasterChef Australia is almost here and we couldn’t be more prepped and ready! While fans have some details about what toexpect from the season, with celebrity judges like Robert Irwin, Meghan Markle, and Jimmy and Jane Barnes on the line-up, what actually happens behind the scenes largely remains a mystery.
Until now!
While we don’t want to ruin all the TV magic, some of the top 40 contestants vying for a spot in the top 24 told WHO what it’s really like in the kitchen and answered all your burning questions that pop up every year when the show airs.
Everything from where the contestants actually live to whether the judges eat the food hot or cold.
You asked, we delivered!
All your burning MasterChef questions
Speaking to WHO, four of the season’s top 40 contestants – Dot McHugh, Olaolu Olorunnimbe, Lydia Kamperos and Jackie Yu – and MasterChef Australia alumni and judge Andy Allen answered all our questions about what it’s really like to film the hit reality cooking show.
How long does each episode actually take to film?
According to the cooks, it takes almost 10-12 hours to film an entire episode.
“Oh each episode you’re there maybe 10 hours,” Olaulu, told WHO. “You have to do a few takes of things and there’s so many of us there so things that should take no time takes ages.”
Dot said that “each episode is usually filmed in a day, and then you have lots of breaks between that.”
“The cook time is the cook time and that’s locked in, and there’s time before and after to have a bit of a break,” she clarified.
Is the food really served to the judges hot or is it cold by the time they eat it?
Short answer is, most of the time, the food is not served piping hot or at the “optimal temperature”, as Jackie described.
Between the timing it takes for the judges to try and give feedback on every contestants’ dish, the final dishes that the chefs plate up when the time runs out are not quite the same as when the judges finally get to it.
However, the contestants reassured us that the judges take this into account.
“For many people it’s been out for a while,” Olaulu laughed. “So yeah, you’re hoping that the flavours are still there and the textures have not let you down, and you keep your fingers crossed and hope they can see the vision that it’s how it was when you first plated it.”
Both Dot and Lydia explained that the judging is “all about the flavour”, with Dot reassuring us that “the flavour doesn’t disappear if it’s hot or cold.”
What happens to all the uneaten food on set?
It doesn’t go to waste (thank god)!
When asked this question, contestant Lydia was most excited to reply and was relieved to hear that everything was donated, from the final plated meals to the opened packets and unused (but still good) food items.
“I hate wastage,” Lydia said. “I was told that the uneaten food, the open packets, that all gets donated and given out to a couple of causes that they work with, which is great.”
Do contestants get any advanced knowledge about the challenges?
When asked this question, the answer was a resounding “I wish!” from the contestants.
Jackie said that they “have no idea what’s coming before we step in that kitchen.”
“That’s why we’re at peak stress at all times.”
And fair enough, too!
Where do contestants stay while competing?
The contestants stay in accommodation near the MasterChef kitchen in Melbourne.
What’s more exciting is that their rooms are all close enough to each other that they all cook, study, and eat together like one big wholesome family.
Jackie described it as “Big Brother but without the cameras.”
“We study, we eat, we cook, we sleep… it feels like culinary school,” she continued.
Lydia also added how the contestants “would practice cooking and jumped around to each others places.”
“It wouldn’t be unusual to see people walking with an ice cream machine under their arm going to somebody else’s apartment, because we needed to practice,” she said. “That would’ve been a regular occurrence.”
How do they keep good food hygiene on the show?
MasterChef Australia has often faced a bit of backlash from fans about how they keep up good food hygiene on the show, particularly referencing the testing and trying of food.
Judge and MasterChef alumni Andy Allen spoke to WHO about what the show does to make sure good food hygiene is enforced.
“They do get pretty strict training at the start of the season and they’re constantly reminded,” Andy said. “There’ll be a producer from the food team, you know, looking after each bench and if they go to double dip or anything like that, they’re there to stop them and remind them and trying to get the safest practise that we can in terms of hygiene.”
“But you can only do what you can do, right? Like, it’s one of those ones that as much as we can try and control the situation, things are going to slip through the cracks.”
Andy compared the process to cooking at home and where these hygiene habits are learnt from an early age.
“I’m sure that when you’re at home, you double dip, you put your fingers into the bowl and see how it’s going,” he said to WHO. “It’s hard to break some of those habits all the time. So, yeah, but we do definitely, definitely try and it can never be perfect, unfortunately.”
What was the most unexpected thing discovered about the show?
With majority (if not all) of the contestants being fans of the show before competing, there were a few things that took them by surprise about the behind-the-scenes process.
For Olaulu, it was the fact that the “audition” was actually “in the [MasterChef] kitchen” where they film the show, not just in a room elsewhere.
“The audition being in the kitchen, that’s not typical,” he said. “Being in the space that you only thought existed on the TV screen, that was probably the biggest surprise. Like, oh, this is real and I’m in it.”
For Dot it was how little time the contestants actually get to prepare.
“I honestly thought you would get a little more information than you did,” she said. “You have to come up with something in minutes… definitely you have to learn on the spot there.”
MasterChef Australia 2026 premieres on Sunday, April 19, at 7:00 pm on Channel 10 and 10 Play.
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