MasterChef Australia

- Season 8

(2016)

Contestants started Series 8 with a challenge to cook their signature dish in one hour, vying for automatic entry into the Top 24. Gary, Matt and George judged the competitors with either "yes" or "no", with their votes deciding whether the contestant should stay in the competition. Nineteen contestants received three yes votes and won their way through to the main competition. Eleven other contestants, who received either one or two yes votes, were given a second chance and cooked again in the next episode.

Eleven contestants, who were given a second chance to secure the five remaining spots in the Top 24, competed in the first challenge round to cook a dish with one of ten ingredients from their individual basket in 90 minutes. Mimi was praised for her snapper dish and immediately received an apron and joined the Top 24. The other three contestants receiving an apron were Elise, Harry and Adam.

The remaining seven contestants faced the Pressure Test in the second round to recreate Shannon Bennett's chocolate peanut bar to secure the last apron into the Top 24. Between the chosen three contestants who delivered the best dishes, Miles won the last apron after earning high praise from the judges with his dish.

The top 24 contestants enter the MasterChef Australia kitchen for the very first time. First up tonight, the contestants face the classic mystery box challenge, but there's a surprise in store.

The bottom three contestants faced their first elimination challenge. Each had to pick one of twelve cloches that contained twelve mystery ingredients on display and create a dish based on the chosen cloche in 75 minutes. They had the option to choose again if they didn't like their first pick but would be stuck with their second selection. Ashley's choice was mushrooms, Charlie's pick was ginger and Theresa chose prawns. The judges were impressed with Theresa's prawn salad and Charlie's chocolate ginger cremeux, despite the lack of ginger in his dish. As a result, ...

Marco Pierre White presents his ingredients from the Mystery Box (cinnamon, chicken, extra virgin olive oil, ham, honey, lemon, parsley and potatoes) to the contestants. After 75 minutes of cooking time, five standout dishes were cooked by Cecilia, Charlie, Matt, Mimi and Nidhi. Charlie, who won the challenge with his Honey Semifreddo, had to pick a choice of meat and three vegetables for their first Invention Test. He chose lamb for protein and parsnips, onions and carrots for three vegetables. They have 90 minutes to cook a dish with these ingredients. Nidhi, Olivia...

Nathaniel, Con and Cecilia had to copy and recreate a dish Marco was cooking with no set time limit. All their instructions came from Marco and they had 10 seconds to prepare the dish after Marco finished cooking. Cecilia managed to follow Marco's instructions carefully and took the lead in the challenge. Meanwhile, Nathaniel and Con fell behind after the latter accidentally cut himself while skinning his fish. All three managed to complete the dish. Cecilia thrived with her approach similar to Marco's and was saved. It was between Con and Nathaniel who both had ...

The top three contestants from the invention test must make a filled pasta with a matching sauce. The winner will then enter a cook off for immunity against guest chef, Jake Kellie.

The 22 contestants traveled to Footscray at the Plough Hotel for their first team challenge. The team captains, Brett (Red Team) and Nicolette (Blue Team), each picked a card from three jars representing a three-course meal that would describe the traits of each meal. The teams had three hours of prep time to cook enough food for 70 people, before service began. The Blue Team fell behind the Red Team after they took a lot of time to prep the dishes. The Red Team's entrée, skewered prawns, received praises from George and Gary who declared them the winners. The Blue ...

Alphabet Elimination Challenge - The Blue Team faced the first round of elimination. Each contestant must name an ingredient correctly according to the first letter. Cecilia, Adam, Matt and Harry made mistakes and were in the second round of the challenge where they had to cook a dish in 60 minutes. They get to use all of the ingredients they chose correctly in the first round and the usual pantry staples. Both Matt and Harry produced exemplary dishes and were declared safe. Cecilia impressed the judges with the flavours of her tuna dish, but it was simplistic and the...

The remaining 21 contestants faced their next Mystery Box Challenge with 75 minutes to cook with ingredients chosen by the viewers: cauliflower, maple syrup, coconut, goat cheese, okra, lemon myrtle, beef mince and squid. Karmen, Con, Heather, Matt and Anastasia stood out with their dishes. The judges picked Anastasia's dish as the winner of the challenge with the advantage for the Invention Test. She chose marmalade (over peanut butter and vegemite) which everyone then had to cook a dish with in 75 minutes. Anastasia won the second round of the competition with her ...

Chloe, Olivia and Karmen were tasked to recreate season 7 alumnus Reynold Poernomo's dessert "Moss" in two and a half hours. Chloe received praise for creating a very similar dish to Reynold's, making her the first contestant to pass the Pressure Test. Several of Karmen's elements were liked by the judges but she didn't allow time to finish her dulce crémeux so didn't serve it, which was criticised. Olivia completed all the elements of the dish but despite of this, each have notable errors - a dense pistachio sponge, a lime yoghurt foam without gelatine and a matcha ...

Anastasia, Con and Nicolette faced the first round for immunity pin with 60 minutes to make a dish using popcorn. Both Con and Anastasia lacked popcorn in their dishes, handing Nicolette the win with her popcorn parfait, earning a chance to cook against guest chef Braden White in the second round. She decided they would both cook fish. She had 75 minutes and cooked a confit salmon with crispy skin. In his 60 minutes, Braden cooked a mulloway dish but the judges found his fish over-cooked and declared Nicolette the winner of the season's first immunity pin with the ...

Contestants were split randomly into two teams to replicate a three-course meal for 30 guests from two restaurants in Melbourne: Huxtable and Pei Modern. The Blue Team were assigned to Pei Modern while the Red Team were assigned to Huxtable. The captains (Blue Team's Karmen and Red Team's Matt) and vice-captains (Blue Team's Chloe and Red Team's Trent) arrive at the restaurants to memorise the directions of the recipes from the chef of each restaurant (Anthony Hammel of Pei and Daniel Wilson of Huxtable) before returning to the MasterChef kitchen, relaying ...

After losing the team challenge, the Blue Team faced a two-round elimination. The first round was to prepare a raw dish with one ingredient from the pantry without cooking in 30 minutes. The rest of the team were safe while Miles, Nidhi and Theresa (after they fell behind with their dishes) had to compete in the second round. They had to cook with the ingredient they had chosen from the first round (cauliflower for Nidhi, pear for Theresa and tuna for Miles). While Miles was safe after impressing the judges with his tuna tataki, Theresa and Nidhi were left to await ...

International celebrity chef Nigella Lawson appeared as a guest chef for the week. She presented her chosen ingredients (butternut pumpkin, chestnut, chicken thighs, pippis, ginger, pancetta, feta cheese and cumin) in a Mystery Box for the contestants to cook with in 75 minutes. Heather won the challenge over Charlie, Elena, Jimmy and Zoe with her open filo pumpkin pie. She chose chocolate as the core ingredient for the Invention Test, with 60 minutes to cook. Harry, Karmen and Mimi were named as the Top 3 with their inventive chocolate desserts. Chloe, Jimmy and ...

The bottom three performers from the Invention Test faced a Pressure Test featuring three dishes from Nigella: crab avocado salad, lamb with radishes and peas, and coffee pannacotta with chocolate coffee sauce. The contestants had only 60 minutes to plate up all the dishes. Chloe was praised for her dishes and was declared safe. All of Miles' dishes had notable flaws (salad that lacked dressing, sauce for the lamb that was burnt and pannacotta's texture was grainy) which would be enough to send him home. However, the judges were more disappointed with Jimmy, despite ...

Having landed in the top 3 of the Invention Test, Harry, Karmen and Mimi were surprised in the middle of the night by Nigella and Matt as the preliminary round for the Immunity Challenge was creating a midnight snack, something Nigella is well known for. Harry's brookies, a combination of brownies and cookies, were deemed the best dish and he won the right to challenge chef Lachlan Colwill for immunity in the second round . Harry chose "Christmas sweet" (over "Christmas savoury") as the pantry but his Christmas Pavlova wasn't enough to beat Colwill's Australian summer...

The 18 contestants were randomly divided into three teams. They had to cook three dishes (one savoury, two sweet with one of these containing jam) for a crowd of 1000-2000 people who would turn up for a fete. The judges declared that the money that the teams made by selling their food would be donated to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. The two teams who made the most money would be safe and the winning team would therefore be decided by the guests. The teams were given four hours to cook before service would start after two hours. The yellow team's rocky ...

The losing fete challenge team now face elimination. Contestants must correctly name cakes, fail to do so and they will need to impress the judges with a cake of their own to stay in the competition.

In the Mystery Box Challenge, the contestants found themselves cooking with a mix of ingredients including barramundi, vanilla beans and miso, as well as with instructions to keep every discarded piece of food stored with a "waste not, want not" principle in mind. Chloe won the challenge and her advantage was a pass straight through to the week's Immunity Challenge. The remaining cooks were tasked to create an inventive dish with no pantry or garden available, just what was left of the mystery box items including the scraps. Matt, Karmen and Mimi impressed the judges ...

The bottom three from the invention test now face the elimination pressure test. Contestants have just over 3 hours to recreate UK chef Jason Atherton's quail afternoon tea dish to avoid elimination.

The winners of the Mystery Box Challenge and Invention Test were split in pairs for the first round of the Immunity Challenge. Chloe, as the winner of the Mystery Box Challenge, had a second advantage of picking one of the Invention Test winners as her partner. She chose Matt and in the first round, they had to cook two jaffles (sweet and savoury) in 75 minutes. Matt and Chloe beat Mimi and Karmen with his spiced mince jaffle and her apple pie jaffle. As a team, they then competed against Woodland House chefs Thomas Woods and Hayden McFarland from Melbourne in the ...

Today's off-site challenge will take place at George Calombaris' Hellenic Republic restaurant. Split into two teams, each team must prepare a three course feast for 120 guests to avoid elimination.

The contestants from the losing team compete in a blind taste test. They must taste a mystery dish while blindfolded then recreate the dish. The worst dish will be hanging up the apron forever.

Each contestant picked one of three ingredients - abalone, silken tofu and lemongrass - to cook a dish within 60 minutes in the Invention Test by Maggie Beer. The top three dishes were named and Zoe won with the use of silken tofu for her cheesecake. Her advantage was to choose the eight ingredients in the Mystery Box Challenge for everyone to cook with in 60 minutes. She chose basil, chilli, garlic, pancetta, pork mince, ricotta, thyme and tomatoes. The top three dishes were cooked by Chloe, Trent and Brett while Charlie, Elise, Harry and Nicolette were at risk of ...

The bottom three contestants from the mystery box challenge face off in the elimination pressure test. Contestants have just three hours to recreate & 15 minutes to plate up Anna Polyviou's mess.

In the first round, Brett, Chloe and Trent had 60 minutes to bake an éclair for an advantage in the second round. Both Trent and Chloe impressed the judges, who voted Chloe as the winner with her chocolate éclair with toasted pecan praline. Hoping for a second Immunity pin, Chloe chose coffee over tea as the core ingredient to cook against guest chef Morgan McGlone of Belles Hot Chicken in Barangaroo. She presented her coffee bombe dessert but an issue with the meringue failed to win her another pin, scoring 18 to Morgan's 22 for his coffee crusted quail.

Today's off-site team challenge marks the celebration of Chinese New Year joined by guest mentor, Kylie Kwong. Each team must prepare two set-price Asian street food dishes & sell them to the public.

Chloe opted to use her Immunity pin and skipped the challenge while her remaining team members faced elimination. They had to pick a core ingredient and a cuisine from lucky dip bags to cook a dish within 75 minutes. Elena, Harry and Matt cooked the best dishes and were declared safe. Mimi's Thai lamb dish lacked a crunchy element and Zoe was criticised for the texture of the pumpkin filling to her American tart. But it was Miles' salmon dish that lacked focus on the fish itself, eliminating him from the competition.

For the contestants to gain a Power Apron, Luke Nguyen presented his Mystery Box (with ingredients including crickets) for them to cook an exemplary dish. Beating Matt and Heather in the challenge was Elise with the use of crickets for her parfait. After earning the power apron, Elise had 90 minutes to prepare her dish, choosing the method of frying (over steaming), while the others had 60 minutes to prepare their fried dishes. Despite this advantage, Elise fell behind after wasting her 30-minute advantage due to choosing a dish that would require an element that ...

The bottom three contestants from the invention test face off in the elimination pressure test. Contestants have just two hours to recreate two of guest chef Ross Lusted's signature dishes.

Previously eliminated contestants returned to the MasterChef Kitchen to compete for a place back in the competition. They had 60 minutes to cook a dish with the use of the following ingredients: wine, rosemary, raspberries, dark chocolate, cardamon pods, lemon, Greek yoghurt, lamb and beetroot. The returning contestant would also receive a Power Apron for the winning dish. In possession of the Power Apron, Anastasia got a second advantage to choose one of the eliminated contestants who would add another ingredient. She chose Theresa who added desiccated coconut in ...

Curtis Stone mentored the contestants at the restaurant Sails by the Bay in their team challenge. They were randomly chosen in pairs and each team had to cook and serve a 6 course degustation dish with the use of citruses for 50 people. The thirteenth contestant could sit out of the challenge to avoid elimination if Theresa used her Power Apron. Returning the favour for giving her the advantage to earn her place back in the competition, she chose Anastasia. The green team (Elise and Trent) attempted to come up with another element to improve their dish at the last ...

The contestants faced each other in pairs in a two-round elimination. For the first round, Elise and Nicolette had to cook a dish inspired by seashells while Trent and Chloe took the inspiration from autumn leaves. Elise and Trent produced the best dishes and were saved while Chloe and Nicolette then had 60 minutes to compete with a dish inspired by fire in the second round. It was a close decision, with one of them declared safe based on presentation. Although she was praised for the flavours of her dish, Nicolette was eliminated by judges' decision.

Today's mystery box challenge contains eight of the ugliest ingredients ever seen. The contestants must impress the judges by creating a beautiful & delicious dish in only 60 minutes.

The four members of the Blue Team had two and a half hours to recreate Flynn McGarry's "Beet Wellington." Heather and Theresa impressed the judges, but both Anastasia and Chloe had a couple of serious flaws on their dishes. Chloe's beet bordelaise sauce was diluted after she accidentally spilled half of her smoked beetroot water and her beet leaf balls lacked smoothness. However, despite her impressive run throughout the competition, Anastasia's first Pressure Test saw her struggling the most. Though she was praised in the cooking of her wellington, the dish lacked ...

The four contestants who impressed in the relay invention test cook for immunity. Does the winner of the first round have what it takes to out-cook guest chef Victor Liong from Lee Ho Fook?

In today's gourmet cinema team challenge, the judges reveal that the contestants must cater for 165 cinema goers at a very special cinema event - the screening of MasterChef Australia's Greatest Hits.

Elise, Karmen, Matt, Mimi and Trent competed in an elimination challenge to secure the last remaining spots in the Top 10. They had up to 100 minutes to gather their ingredients from between one and five small different hidden pantries. Karmen, Matt and Trent chose 75 minutes to cook with herbs and vegetables while Elise and Mimi waited another 15 minutes and had 60 minutes to cook with the addition of fruit. Trent, Matt and Mimi had amazing results, joining the Top 10. Karmen showed the judges her ambition and creativity on her Mille-Feuille which has sweet tomatoes,...

Heston Blumenthal mentored the Top 10 home cooks for the week's challenges, which involved a pop-up restaurant each night, with contestants from each challenge sent straight into the Elimination Round. For their first challenge, contestants were divided into teams of two, with each team preparing a main dish and a dessert for 20 diners in pods on the revolving Melbourne Star, which for one night would become the world's largest pop-up restaurant. Heston set the theme of the night: outer space. A number of teams struggled with timing, but all managed to get the dishes ...

Heston Week. For one day only, Melbourne's iconic Brighton Beach bathing boxes become ice cream stands selling Heston-inspired ice creams & ice blocks. The least impressive team will face elimination.

Heston Week. Tonight's challenge, Heston inspires the contestants to create a three-course dessert spread using only the food of the Gods: chocolate. The least impressive team will face the elimination challenge.

Harry, Elise, Mimi and Theresa competed in the last pop-up challenge at the restaurant of Rippon Lea Estate. It was a service challenge where each received an envelope containing a recipe of an historical-themed dish. They had two hours to cook their assigned dishes to serve for 10 diners plus the judges. Theresa fell behind the others after panicking when preparing her dish during service time. Her poor presentation of the dish and inconsistent plating put her in the last spot in elimination as Harry, Elise and Mimi were safe. Elise's fennel nougat tart was praised ...

Rainbow Affinity Elimination Challenge - The losing contestants from each pop-up challenge faced an elimination set by Heston and the judges. Each contestant randomly picked a knife with a colour of the rainbow (Red for Theresa, Orange for Elena, Yellow for Heather, Green for Brett, Blue for Matt, Indigo for Chloe and Violet for Trent) and they had 75 minutes to present a dish inspired by their assigned colour. Theresa, Elena and Brett had the top three dishes. They were safe from elimination, along with Trent, while Chloe, Heather and Matt all missed the mark, each ...

The contestants' Mystery Box Challenge was more difficult than usual as they had to cook a dish using all of the ingredients from the box (corn, dates, pork belly, onion, apples, cinnamon, rum and condensed milk). Harry and Mimi delivered the best dishes, but it was Brett who won the advantage with his sticky pork and smoked corn puree. His advantage was to choose one of three difficult Invention Tests from previous seasons: cactus and prickly pear (chosen by Julia Taylor from series 4), 70s' Apricot Chicken (chosen by Amy Shields from series 6) and earth (chosen by ...

Peter Gilmore presented his acclaimed dessert, "Cherry Jam Lamington" to the contestants to replicate within two hours. Trent didn't receive any negative feedback from the judges on his dish and was safe. Mimi, despite struggles and mistakes in her preparation time, also impressed the judges although she was criticised for the lack of coconut shards on her dish. Theresa's dish lacked tartness in the cherry jam and her ice cream was too sweet. The imbalance of the dish resulted in Theresa being re-eliminated from the competition.

Brett, Harry and Elise competed in the first round of the Immunity, which was another Mystery Box. They could choose to cook with one or more of the first four ingredients in twenty minutes, or open a smaller box inside to gain 20 minutes cooking time but then have to cook with whatever ingredient was inside. Brett chose the 20 minute cooking time with venison, bay leaves, cauliflower and elderflower oil. Harry and Elise opened the smaller box which contained quandongs and another smaller box. For a further 20 minutes cooking time, they both also opened this, meaning ...

The remaining eight contestants are split into teams of two to cook a two-course meal inspired by quality Australian produce for 80 diners. The two least impressive teams will face elimination.

The losing team from the off-site challenge will compete in a time-auction elimination challenge and one contestant's dream will be over. Also, we end with a sweet Masterclass that's all about dessert.

California Week. The MasterChef Australia competition travels to California for the week. With just a map in hand the contestants must track down today's mystery box ingredients from local San Francisco produce shops.

California Week. Contestants must work in teams to recreate two of Dominque Creen's signature dishes. Dominque is a Michelin-starred chef & was recently voted the World's Best Female Chef.

Elena, Matt, Mimi and Trent arrived at the vineyards of Inglenook Estate in Napa Valley. To compete for a fast pass to the finals, they had 90 minutes to cook their dishes with grapes. Elena cooked quail, grapes and goat's cheese. Trent prepared his grilled quail with cauliflower skordalia and sauce. Mimi prepared a dessert dish: red wine sorbet and cake with blue cheese cream. Matt cooked a roasted lamb rack dish. All of their dishes impressed the judges but Elena's dish was declared the most outstanding, winning the fast-pass to the Finals.

California Week. Today the contestants are split into teams to run their very own food trucks at the world famous Santa Monica Pier. There is plenty at stake with the winning team guaranteed a place in finals week.

Maude Restaurant Elimination Challenge - Curtis Stone returned to instruct Mimi, Harry and Brett, who had to cook dishes inspired by what they want to do when the competition ends. They had 90 minutes at Curtis' restaurant Maude in Beverly Hills. Mimi's chocolate aero mousse highly impressed the judges and she was declared safe and into Finals Week. The creativity of Harry's plate was praised by the judges although his burnt lemon puree overpowered the dish. Brett was praised for his perfectly cooked pork and vegetables but his underwhelming sauce failed to meet the ...

The Mystery Box Challenge contained ingredients that are "hot right now" or popular to cook with. The top 6 contestants had 60 mins to cook and impress the judges. Harry's grilled cobia with gochujang sauce and kohlrabi was the winning dish. Taken inside the pantry, Harry had to choose between three popular methods of cooking: smoking, sous-vide and using liquid nitrogen for the Invention Test. Harry chose liquid nitrogen. The contestants had 60 mins to cook a dish using this technique. Elena's savour cucumber dish along with Harry and Elise's desserts impressed the ...

Matt, Mimi and Trent had to recreate Christy Tania's "Mistique", which had almost 64 steps, with 4.5 hours to cook. Mimi enjoyed the dessert challenge while Trent and Matt struggled. Trent was imprecise in following the recipe and so the amount of mix in each layer was out of balance. He also made his banana milk brownie too thick and it didn't set. Matt made mistakes in the first two steps but managed to recover. Mimi went on to create each of the layers of the cake perfectly. Matt's passionfruit curd did not set and became more of a sauce. All three struggled with ...

Finals Week. The Top Five contestants must cook five dishes from the menu of the Lake House in Daylesford under the guidance of legendary chef & owner, Alla Wolf-Tasker.

Finals Week. The bottom 3 contestants from the Lake House challenge now face elimination & must impress the judges with a dish produced from the ingredients that they each cooked with to get into the competition.

The contestants have a last moment of relax before the dreaded finals, in a masterclass disguised as a contest between the judges and the contestants.

Grand Final Week. In today's Quarter Final mystery box challenge & invention test, contestants cook off for a place in the Semi Final using ingredients chosen by their loved ones.

Grand Final Week. The final three contestants vie for a place in the Grand Finale in tonight's service challenge. Each contestant must prepare a main and a dessert for 20 guests plus the three judges.

Matt and Elena go head to head on to be the 2016 Masterchef (Australia). In a three step challenge - entree, main and dessert, emotion will play a big role in the final outcome, as well as Heston Blumenthal and Ashley Palmer-Watt's most difficult dessert ever to replicate "Verjus in Egg".