MasterChef Australia - Season 5 (2013)

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

In the first of a series of challenges in the Barossa Valley, contestants were first tasked with breaking down a whole lamb after a quick masterclass from a professional butcher. Continuing the 'Boys vs. Girls' contest, each team started strongly, but both made some crucial errors. In the end, the boys edged out the girls and were safe from the next round. Round 2 saw the girls cooking a dish of their choice, with a range of lamb cuts. Contestants struggled with missing ingredients, using the given 90 minutes and the elements, and the results were mixed. Lucy, ...

Contestants faced a tag-team challenge set by MasterChef favourite Maggie Beer. After a masterclass on skinning and breaking down a whole chicken, the teams picked their lead members who were taken through the two courses their teams had to prepare in the two hours given. Each member had twelve minutes to cook followed by one minute to transfer information to the next team member. The girls team had a few hiccups overall, with small problems found with all of the elements of their main course, but with a flawless dessert. The boys suffered from poor communication and ...

The teams faced a seafood relay challenge: shucking oysters, peeling prawns and filleting flathead; the losing team facing round two and the possibility of filling the two last spots in the Elimination Challenge. With each team picking three representatives for each part of the relay challenge, it was a close race until Totem's inability to fillet his flathead sealed the Boys' fate. The next round saw the losing team cooking a seafood dish (with the same proteins as round one) in 60 minutes. In the end, Nicky's overly salty dish, Xavier's poorly cooked fisherman's ...

In this double Elimination Challenge, Andrew, Clarissa, Daniel, Michael, Noelene and Xavier were given two and a half hours to revisit the proteins that they failed with earlier in the week. Cooking for twenty locals proved daunting for some, and the pressure caused the contestants to make some missteps along the way. Daniel struggled to make enough pasta in the given time, Noelene found she didn't have the right ingredients or enough oven space and Andrew had to scrap his potatoes last minute. In the end, both she and Andrew impressed with their dishes, and Clarissa ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

To Begin Kids Week, the Mystery Box Challenge returned with a twist, followed by the Invention Test.

Emma, Rishi, Kelty, Lynton and Neha faced off in an Immunity Challenge with a twist. They had 60 minutes to produce their best dish, with one of them guaranteed an immunity pin, however the pantry would be in complete darkness. With only five minutes to blindly grab their ingredients, and then plan a coherent dish with the results, the contestants struggled with the constraints of the challenge. Kelty and Neha were criticised for a lack of direction in their dishes and failing to produce enough in the time given, and while there were some good elements to Rishi's dish...

Teams went "back to school" catering for 450 students under the tutelage of chefs Curtis Stone and Shannon Bennett. Each team prepared their lunch menu consisting of four items thought of by the chefs and with their mentor-ship, the winning team being the one with the most popular menu with the judges and students. Vern's leadership of the Blue Team early won praise, while Emma struggled to fill her required role as Red Team Captain. Both teams worked well under their mentors, until service time when the Red Team's organisation was called into question. In the end, ...

The Blue Team faced a two-round Elimination: a skills test followed by a pressure test. In the first round, the ten contestants had to successfully separate eggs and whisk the whites to perfect soft peaks, holding the bowl upside down over their head to prove their whites were whipped correctly. The first seven contestants were declared safe, leaving Andrew, Christina and Clarissa in the final round. Their task, in three and a half hours, was to recreate Bernard Chu's Lolly Bag Cake with seven layers based on seven classic lolly flavours. Contestants got off to a slow...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

Contestants were faced with a Team Challenge to start off Italian Week. Due to repetitive stress fractures, Andrew was forced to retire from the competition on medical advice, while Jules' hip injury forced her out of the challenge and therefore into the next day's Pressure Test. Working in teams of four with the guide of four Italian Nonnas and with Antonio Carluccio as a special guest judge, they had four hours to prep, cook and serve a plate of food for diners on Lygon Street with the winners the ones to raise the most money. The Green Team were first to start ...

Jules, Vern, Totem, Nicky and Kelty faced off in an Italian Pressure Test set by Stefano De Pieri. They had 60 minutes to prepare his dish of Quail Ravioli with Sage Butter, but with no given recipe for the pasta. With the limited time given, contestants faced struggles with their pasta (being too dry and crumbly or too soft), breaking down their quail, cooking and pulsing the filling correctly and even with reading the recipe. Ultimately, Jules, Kelty and Totem had the best pasta and well cooked filling leaving Vern and Nicky as the bottom two. Despite Vern's pasta ...

The judges announce a final team challenge that will determine who will advance to the Top Three. Find out which contestants demonstrate how far they've come in the competition in order to earn a spot in the finale and move one step closer to winning a life-changing grand prize.

With Emma opting not to use her pin, the entire losing team fought to keep their place in the competition in an elimination challenge based on the colours of the Italian flag: red, white and green. Faced with a wall of colour-coded ingredients, they randomly picked one of the three and could only use ingredients of that colour in their dish. A number of the contestants struggled to design a dish within the constraints given, but by the end, six of the eight dishes created impressed the judges and Rishi, Emma, Jules, Noelene, Pip and Christina were declared safe. Neha,...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

The top 15 contestants started Wild West Week at the Fremantle docks. Separated into two teams, they headed offshore to catch their own seafood for a feast for 30 local fishermen, with 60 minutes to prepare their catch once they'd docked. After braving the wild seas and a good deal of sea-sickness, teams called in their catch to teammates shopping for ingredients, in time to meet them back at the dock to start cooking. With 60 minutes to prepare all their seafood and cook a feast, the Red Team found themselves behind in their prep due to their incredible haul. ...

The Red Team, as winners of the previous challenge, had the chance to win immunity, but it was down to them to elect one member to face chef Russell Blaikie. The team decided on Vern, because of his contribution in the previous challenge. Vern was allowed 90 minutes (Russell given 60) to produce a dish with the core ingredient of duck, chosen by Russell. With the guidance of Guillaume Brahimi, Vern worked well in the kitchen and with Brahimi's help produced a commendable dish. The judges noted Vern's dish lacked precision in plating, and elements such as the lentils ...

The contestants headed to Kylagh Station in York to cook lunch for 20 hungry stockmen and women, with the farmed beef the focal point of the menu. With limited time, access to only a certain weight of ingredients and only an open fire to cook with, both teams struggled with the conditions. While the judges noted that the quality of dishes was quite even between the two teams, it came down to how well teams treated the prime beef on offer. The Red team were judged to have done this the best, leaving the Blues to decide which three members were the worst performers. ...

As the 3 worst performing members of the previous team challenge; Christina, Totem and Rishi faced a service challenge held at Greenhouse restaurant in Perth. Under the supervision of restaurant head chef Matt Stone, contestants had to prepare one of three pairs of dishes and cook them during the dinner service to 80 diners. Overall, the contestants struggled with the pressure of the challenge and limited preparation time, especially Christina and Totem, the latter having two serves of his Mussel dish sent back to the kitchen. In the end despite Rishi's Mushroom dish ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

The fourteen contestants faced a tough choice in this Mystery Box Challenge with a twist: the Heaven or the Hell Box. Contestants (working in pairs) choosing the Heaven Box would have 90 minutes to create a dish from 9 heavenly ingredients as chosen by the judges, while those choosing 'Hell' would have three hours (plus a recipe) to create one of the hardest dishes from past seasons. Four pairs chose 'Hell' and were faced with a Zumbo Macaroon Tower, featuring over a hundred macaroons flavoured with beetroot and olive. Liliana (who had made a Macaron Tower for her ...

Daniel, Kelty, Pip and Lucy faced a two-round Elimination Challenge set by chef Ian Curley. The first round saw them recreating the chef's dish of Steak Tartare with Pumpernickel Biscuit (with a recipe given for the biscuit only), with the best two dishes saving their contestants from the elimination round. Lucy's decision to add lemon juice early, and thus 'cooking' the raw beef for too long, and Pip's failure to plate up the biscuit paired with her overly minced meat dropped them into the bottom two. In the final round, Lucy and Pip had two hours to replicate Ian ...

The remaining 13 contestants faced a seven-course service challenge based around the seven deadly sins. Cooking in two teams for 70 university students, they had to design and cook seven courses in two hours based around the same core ingredient signifying one of the sins (envy, lust, sloth, etc.). The Blue Team struggled under Neha's leadership with the strong personalities of Jules, Kelty and Noelene butting heads with her over the menu's direction. The Red Team, with one less member, thrived under Rishi's leadership but faced some struggles with preparation and ...

The losing contestants from the previous challenge were given two hours to produce a dish that personified their position: a Last Supper showcasing their skills and beliefs about food. With no limits of ingredients or creativity, contestants thrived and each successive dish wowed the judges. In the end, Lilliana's Four Layer Birthday Cake was singled out for, though well made and capturing the essence of the challenge, being not up to the same standard as the other contestants' dishes and she tearfully bid goodbye to the MasterChef kitchen.

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

In this Mystery Box Challenge, contestants were tasked with re-inventing three fast food favourites: fried chicken, souvlaki and burger-with-the-lot. Working in groups of three, they had only as much time as it took Matt Preston to go out and buy all three items. With each contestant making one of the three dishes, they had varying success with some overly ambitious while others playing it overly safe. The judges found fault with at least one dish in each team, and though Emma's burger lacked all the necessary elements and Daniel's souvlaki meat was poorly cooked, it ...

In an Elimination Challenge with a twist, Rishi, Jules and Samira faced the first ever ingredients auction. With three lots of ingredients (a protein, a dairy ingredient and a vegetable element) to 'purchase', they could bid with their cooking time in five-minute increments. With only 90 minutes of cooking time initially, they quickly bid away their time trying to win their preferred ingredients and ultimately, Rishi was left with 60 minutes, Samira 50 minutes and Jules only 30 minutes. Rishi with plenty of time and well-matched ingredients, wowed the judges with his ...

In a Car Rally Team Challenge, teams were tasked with creating the perfect Club Sandwich with Chips for 50 Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. With three hours on the clock they raced to three checkpoints and competed in mini challenges with the winner of each getting to pick from pairs of key ingredients. At the first challenge, the Blue Team were first to crush six bottles of grape juice and picked sourdough as their bread, leaving Red with multigrain. On the way to the second challenge the Red Team got repeatedly lost and Blue easily won the next two challenges (making the ...

The losing members of the Red Team faced a Pressure Test set by Daniel Wilson of restaurant Huxtable. With two hours on the clock they had to recreate his signature dish of Maple Glazed Bacon Hot Dog, with Comte and Dijon Sauce, Tomato and Quince Relish and Mustard Pickles in a Pork Brioche Bun. What looked like a simple dish at first had many contestants confounded at its actual difficulty, which included making brioche and sausages from scratch. The pressure of time and delicate nature of bringing together all the components got to most contestants, but Rishi again ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

With the Top 10 safe from elimination for the week and an immunity pin up for grabs, the contestants first competed in a skills test: crushing a Chinese five-spice mix in a mortar and pestle. Christina was the slowest to finish and lost her chance at immunity for the week. In the second round, nine of the twelve eliminated contestants returned to cook for their place back in the competition. Paired up randomly (Rishi and Samira, Kelty and Jules, Lynton and Lilliana, Daniel and Pip, Emma and Faiza, Vern and Nicky, Neha and Xavier, Lucy and Michael, Noelene and Dan), ...

The remaining seven teams of two competed in a test of planning, synchronicity and communication: without seeing or tasting each other's food they had to produce exactly the same dish. Dishes were judged on their similarities in taste and presentation, with the least identical losing their makers the chance at immunity or a place back in the competition. Being unable to work collaboratively with their partner caused some key missteps in a number of teams, with the smallest difference in preparation (such as the type of blender used) leading to big differences in final...

The twelve remaining contestants faced a three-hour Pressure Test set by owner of Gelato Messina, Nick Palumbo: a Black Forest Gelato Cake known as The Dome. With pairs working together in teams of four, each member had 45 minutes (plus changeover time to pass on information) to prepare the various precise elements while working in a cold store at -2 degrees Celsius. The Blue Team, headed by Neha (with Nicky, Vern and Xavier) fell behind early but recovered brilliantly to almost perfectly replicate the dish, wowing the judges. Both the Red (Noelene, Dan, Kelty and ...

The final challenge of Second Chance Week saw the remaining four teams (Lynton and Lilliana, Neha and Xavier, Rishi and Samira, and Vern and Nicky) compete in an Invention Test with butter as the core ingredient. With 90 minutes on the clock, each pair had to produce one sweet and one savoury dish, the winners receiving either a ticket back into the competition or (for the current contestant) an immunity pin. With so much on the line, teams scrambled to develop dishes which championed butter as an ingredient. Lynton and Nicky struggled to produce the sweet dishes for ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

The remaining eleven contestants faced an empty Mystery Box and were tasked with filling it with ingredients they loved, plus one 'hard to love' ingredient. In a further twist, they had to swap boxes with another contestant of their choice (although Rishi was luckily left with his own ingredients), forcing some hasty re-evaluations. This curve ball rattled some contestants, including Vern whose dessert Mystery Box put him out of his comfort zone and landed him in the bottom three. Joining him were Neha (whose Pavlova contained too much cornflour) and Rishi, who ...

With Rishi choosing to play his immunity pin (only days after he won it), Noelene (as the fourth worst performer from the previous challenge) joined Neha and Vern in a Pressure Test set by Kirsten Tibbles: the Lourous Cake. With an extremely technical, five-page recipe it was crucial to get each stage right. While a misstep with dessert landed him in elimination, Vern impressed with a near flawless dish. And while both Noelene and Neha had some problems in preparation they recovered well to also impress the judges and Tibbles. But it was an unfortunate piece of baking...

The Top 10 contestants faced a team challenge: to cook a main and a dessert for 50 couples on a first date. Complicating matters, each contestant randomly chose an mystery ingredient that had to feature in their dishes, five desirable (such as red wine and figs) and five not usually associated with date night food (such as garlic and sardines). Lucy's Blue Team luckily ended up with four of the five desirable ingredients, leaving Kelty's Red Team to get creative with their less typical date food. While the Blues faced some missteps in prep time (a mistake in ordering ...

After losing in the previous challenge, Lucy, Daniel, Christina, Lynton and Vern faced a breakfast service challenge in Gary Mehigan's restaurant the Maribyrnong Boathouse. Each contestant had to design a modern breakfast dish with 90 minutes of prep time before one hour of service. With this being the first service challenge for most of them (plus Lynton's first elimination challenge), the time constraints and pressure of a commercial kitchen was a steep learning curve. Lynton had to think on his feet as his dish was re-imagined twice during prep, but he recovered ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

In this episode the contestants were split into three teams - red (Samira, Kelty, Lynton), blue (Lucy, Emma and Noelene) and Yellow (Rishi, Christina and Daniel). The teams were asked to re-create Heston's classic Royal truffle. Noelene and Emma struggled in the blue team.Blue team's base was too runny so it came down to the red and yellow teams. Kelty misread the recipe and didn't add enough gelatine to the jellies.Finally yellow team won the challenge as all their components were perfect.The winning team gets a shot at immunity.

The winning team from last night's pressure test gets a shot at immunity. Each contestant gets 90 minutes to cook a starter (Daniel), main course (Christina) and dessert (Rishi). Heston gets 90 minutes to cook all the three courses. It was a blind tasting. Daniel had the entree and eggs, Christina had main and wine, and Rishi had dessert and milk.Daniel and Christina's course were on par with Heston's and it came to very tiny details. Rishi's dessert was a disaster. Heston's dish was declared a winner in all three courses, so none of the contestants won the immunity ...

The contestants were split into two teams- Blue (Rishi, Kelty, Samira and Noelene) and Red (Lynton, Lucy, Emma and Christina). The challenge was to prepare a Medieval feast, which included a range of poultry and game birds along with Heston's garden (herb garden with some garnishes). Team blue captured the essence of medieval theme when compared to the red team and all their dishes were cooked to perfection; however blue team lost the challenge as their turkey was raw and the judges couldn't taste it. Red team won the challenge and blue team was put into elimination.

The Elimination Challenge required contestants to 'Hestonise' a dish of their choice with innovation in technique and use of ingredients. Drawing on their experiences during the week, all four managed to exceed expectations with their dishes. Rishi plated sweet Indian-Chinese dumplings with a soy sauce caramel and dry ice tea; Kelty offered up a deconstructed hot toddy with liquid nitrogen frozen ice-cream at the table; Samira changed her initial idea of a volcano to serve Znoud al-Sett (sweet Middle-Eastern rolls) with the flavours echoed in a rose and orange blossom...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

On Day 1 of World Food Week, the top 8 contestants paired off to cook local for 36 Emirati VIP guests in the Dubai desert with Michelin-starred Greg Malouf mentoring and judging their platters. The teams were assigned proteins with their pick of team colour: Rishi and Christina (Yellow) received fish, Lynton and Lucy (Green) camel, Kelty and Samira (Red) lamb, and Daniel and Emma (Blue), chicken. In a budget of 600 dirham, the teams sourced their ingredients from the local market and then travelled by camel to the cooksite at Al-Waha. All pairs overcame problems faced...

The bottom six were tasked with taking over service at Ossiano Restaurant at Atlantis, The Palm, cooking for 50 VIP guests. The menu comprised a selection of high-quality entrees, mains and desserts, from which the contestants picked their dish in the order assigned them after drawing coins from a 'treasure chest'. Lynton picked the beef tenderloin main due to his familiarity with the ingredient, but struggled through prep and failed to prepare and serve the beef cheek croquette element of his dish. Christina, choosing the crab entree, also failed to use her prep time...

The Top 8 were tasked with cooking and delivering takeaway lunch orders to office workers scattered around Melbourne CBD. Each team had to cook one entree and two mains with accompanying sides. The teams and the cuisine they had to cook were determined by picking a flag at random, with the blues getting Mexican and the reds getting Chinese. The first orders were to start calling in 90 minutes into the challenge leaving each team 2 hours to deliver the food. Once in the kitchen the blues nominated Christina to be captain while Emma captained the reds. Once preparation ...

The losing team from the previous challenge were faced with a two-round elimination using a map of the world in food. With Emma opting to use her immunity pin, Samira, Daniel and Lucy were faced with the task of cooking a single dish in 45 minutes using only ingredients from one continent. Daniel and Samira chose Australia and Africa respectively to play to their strengths, while Lucy chose Asia because she believed it was quick despite it being an unfamiliar cuisine for her. Overall all three of the contestants struggled, especially Lucy and Daniel (Lucy failing to ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

The seven remaining contestants began to realize that their food dreams are a real possibility. They were asked to create dinner for some very special guests which in the end was revealed to be their families. Everyone presented delicious dishes but it was Emma's dish that was declared as the "Dish Of The Day", thereby granting her safety from tomorrow's elimination.

Christina's dish was named "Dish of the Day" for her new interpretation on a classic Caesar Salad. For elimination, it came down to Lucy and Kelty. While Lucy presented a trio of cupcakes with some flaws, it was Kelty who was eliminated for the overly thick molasses glaze on his dish's pork shoulder.

Series 1 second runner up Chris Badenoch opened his restaurant, Josie Bones, to the red and blue teams to serve a lunch service to regular customers.

Darren Purchese and Series 4 contestant Kylie Millar gave a task to Lucy, Rishi and Samira to recreate Darren's intricate raspberry, rhubarb, chocolate and ginger dish, made of 13 individual recipes. Rishi was praised for the quality of the dish but missed the ginger element. Samira also earned praises but was criticised for the textures of her domes and jelly. In the end, it was Lucy's technical issues with her buns and poor presentation that lost her place in the Finals, therefore eliminating her.

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

The top five each get to pick an ingredient for the last Mystery Box Challenge. They picked Chili Chocolate (Christina), Prawns (Rishi), Espresso coffee beans (Emma), garlic (Lynton) and Pomegranate molasses (Samira). While the judges gave the ingredients to each contestant: Emma has kale, Samira with nuts, Rishi with prawns, Christina with onions and Lynton with kangaroo. They have 60 minutes to cook their dishes with their ingredients. Emma again won the advantage for the Invention Test. She chose barramundi (over rib eye beef, duck and squid) with 60 minutes to ...

Each top five contestant were assigned with one chef to cook their dishes in 90 minutes to survive from elimination. Their mentors (Adam Da Silva, Ryan Flaherty, Matt Germanchis, Jason Jones and Matt Stone) have fifteen minutes to assist the contestants in their dishes. Lynton is paired with Germanchis and cooked a Sous Vide Lamb Rack dish. Christina and chef Stone prep a cauliflower soup. Rishi and Da Silva cooked a Mughlai Spatchcock. Emma and Flaherty made a Buttered John Dory. After winning last night's challenge, Samira got extra five minutes to cook her dish. ...

Its service challenge in The Atlantic restaurant with Donovan Cook running the pass. All contestant had problems in the kitchen and struggled to keep up. Emma had the most problems in prep time (in some point even broke to tears) but served stand out entrée (king fish capraccio), but step back with her main scalops dish, which was good but not great (serving to judges some raw scalops). Rishi had great prep time and good tuna entrée, but struggled with risotto. Samira's crab entrée lacked a bit of punch and had trouble with snapper sticking to grill but in the end the...

Emma won the first round against Rishi. The cuisine was Indian and the protein was mussels. Lynton won the second round against Samira. He picked kangaroo as the protein when Samira picked Middle Eastern cuisine. The final round began to see who would join Emma and Lynton in the Grand Final. Cuisine was French and protein was the eye fillet. Both the remaining contestants were comfortable with what they landed with, but made a mistake while executing the dish. Rishi forgot to blanch his leeks before char-grilling them, and Samira garnished her French dish with ...

MasterChef Australia is an Australian competitive cooking game show based on the original British MasterChef. It is produced by Shine Australia and screens on Network 10. Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan, chef George Calombaris and food critic Matt Preston served as the show's main judges until 2019.

It's the grand finale of 2018 and our top 24 has been whittled down to two home cooks battling it out in one final day in the kitchen.