THOUSANDS of hopefuls auditioned, with the judges scouring the country to hand-pick Australia’s best foodies, but only 24 could claim a MasterChef apron for season eight.
Among this year’s group of amateur chefs, we’ll see an airline captain, a professional golfer, a pharmacy technician and a park ranger try their luck in the famous kitchen.
Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston will be joined by a horde of guest judges this season, including domestic goddess Nigella Lawson, Heston Blumenthal, Marco Pierre White, Curtis Stone, Maggie Beer, Kylie Kwong and Luke Nguyen.
But Preston has revealed that season eight won’t necessarily be “bigger and better”. In fact, it’s going to be “smaller and more real”.
“Ever since season six, the return of MasterChef has been about making it smaller and more real, not bigger and better,” the celebrity chef told news.com.au. “There’s a temptation to overdo everything and the essence of MasterChef is very reasonable, it’s to find people who have tangible food dreams and are good cooks and try and turn that into a future career.”
The judges say after seven seasons on air, they have realised the show “is not ours anymore, it belongs to the viewing public”.
Here’s the full list of the MasterChef class of 2016 below:
Adam Mizzi, 30, South Australia, Adventure Company Owner
Anastasia Zolotarev, 26, New South Wales, Marketing Co-Ordinator
Ashley McConnell, 29, Western Australia, Software Sales
Brett Carter, 43, Western Australia, Airline Captain
Cecilia Vuong, 31, Victoria, Teacher
Charlie Sartori, 24, Victoria, Professional Golfer
Chloe Bowles, 24, Queensland, Nanny
Con Vailas, 31, Victoria, Restaurant Supervisor
Elena Duggan, 32, New South Wales, Teacher
Elise Franciskovic, 28, Queensland, Pharmacy Technician
Harry Foster, 21, Queensland, Cocktail Bartender
Heather Day, 32, South Australia, Sales Manager
Jimmy Wong, 49, New South Wales, Sustainability Specialist
Karmen Lu, 24, Western Australia, Waitress
Matt Sinclair, 27, Queensland, Coffee Roaster
Miles Pritchett, 46, Queensland, Park Ranger
Mimi Baines, 26, Victoria, Product Manager
Nathaniel Milevskiy, 29, Queensland, Paramedic Student
Nicolette Stathopoulos, 19, Victoria, Student
Nidhi Mahajan, 30, South Australia, Call Centre Worker
Olivia Robinson, 26, New South Wales, Restaurant Manager
Theresa Visintin, 44, New South Wales, Mum
Trent Harvey, 29, New South Wales, Electrician
Zoe Konikkos, 31, Victoria, Sales Manager
The winner will walk away with $250,000 and a monthly column in Australian food magazine, Delicious.
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday to Thursday, 7.30pm on Ten.
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