MasterChef Australia is back, returning for its 13th season on Monday, April 19th at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10play. This season, the winner stands to walk away with both the title of Australia’s MasterChef 2021 and $250,000 in prize money.
Contestants will be challenged to create delicious meals both inside the famed MasterChef kitchen and at locations across Victoria – getting out for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown meant that the show was unable to film outside of its kitchen set.
Judges Jock Zonfrillo, Andy Allen, and Melissa Leong entered the kitchen last season, making their mark on challenges and tastings alike. Ready to encourage and push contestants to extend their repertoire, the trio are back to mentor the next batch of hopefuls.
See More: MasterChef season 13: Everything you need to know about the judges
Each week will kick off with a team challenge on a Monday. The bottom team will battle it out during Tuesday’s pressure test, before the mystery box challenge on Wednesday. Top contestants fight for immunity on Thursday before everyone else takes to the stage on a Sunday evening for the elimination where a cook is farewelled each week.
Mediaweek spoke to the judges ahead of the season premiere about how they feel now as a trio, how production went, and what to expect from MasterChef when it heats up. Speaking about the new contestants, Melissa Leong said:
“This is 24 people who truly, truly are putting themselves out there and will have their lives changed by this show. I know that sounds like a tag line, but it really isn’t. These people quit their jobs as doctors, lawyers, med students, the whole gamut of professions. They’re deciding to pull up stumps and go down a different path in life, and there’s a tremendous sense of vulnerability and uncertainty that comes with that.
“We have a front row seat to that every single day that we go into work, we see how much they want it, we see how much they’re learning along the way, and how as they start to discover who they are in a food identity context, how much that continues to light their path. To be able to be involved in that for the first time, even though technically this is the third season we’ve been in the saddle so to speak, is huge. It’s huge and it’s meaningful.”
In 2020 MasterChef Australia took home the AACTA Award for Best Reality Program – its fourth win in the category. Most recently it won the Most In-Demand Reality Series at the Global TV Demand Awards.
See More: MasterChef Australia season 13: Everything you need to know
MasterChef Australia season 13 premieres 7:30pm Monday, April 19th on Channel 10 and 10play.