MasterChef Australia series 16

MasterChef Australia
Season 16
Judges	Andy Allen Sofia Levin Jean-Christophe Novelli Poh Ling Yeow
No. of contestants	22
Release
Original network	Network Ten
Original release	22 April 2024 (2024-04-22)
Series chronology

The sixteenth series of the Australian television cooking show MasterChef Australia was announced in October 2023 and premiered on 22 April 2024 on Network Ten. Series 4 winner Andy Allen returned as judge since series 12, while Melissa Leong left the show to judge the second season of Dessert Masters. Food writer Sofia Levin, French chef Jean-Christophe Novelli, and series 1 runner-up Poh Ling Yeow took over as judges, replacing Leong and the late Jock Zonfrillo.

Changes

• There are four judges instead of three.

• The number of contestants increased from 18 to 22. Like the previous two seasons, the audition stage was not broadcast.

• At the start of the competition, only one immunity pin is up for grabs.

Contestants

Top 22

The Top 22 was announced on 14 April 2024.

Contestant	Age	State	Occupation	Status
Sue Bazely	58	VIC	Customer manager	Competing
Harry Butterfield	29	QLD	Commercial property	Competing
Snezana Calic	40	VIC	Financial services	Competing
Darrsh Clarke	31	WA	Management consultant	Competing
Josh Clarke	27	QLD	Coffee roaster	Competing
Alex Crisp	27	WA	Sales representative	Competing
Lily Davies	30	NSW	Former nurse	Competing
Stephen Dennis	62	QLD	Tour guide	Competing
Gillian Dinh	31	NSW	Lettering artist	Competing
Jonathan Hooper	29	NSW	Carpenter	Competing
Lourdes Leschen	22	VIC	Marketing coordinator	Competing
Savindri Perera	30	SA	Banking consultant	Competing
Josh Perry	43	TAS	Butcher	Competing
Sumeet Saigal	46	NSW	Sales manager	Competing
David Tan	30	QLD	Pharmacologist	Competing
Nat Thaipun	28	VIC	Barista	Competing
Juan de la Cruz Torales Villarreal	39	NSW	Board game designer	Competing
Khristian Walker	26	VIC	Insurance services	Competing
Lachlan Whittle	34	VIC	Landscape gardener	Competing
Mimi Wong	25	NSW	High school teacher	Competing
Steph Griffen	28	QLD	Events manager	Eliminated 30 April
James Holmes	38	WA	Primary school teacher	Eliminated 28 April

Guest chefs/judges

Week	Guest	Challenge
1	Jamie Oliver	Series premiere
		Team service challenge
2		Pressure test

Elimination chart

No.	Week	1			2
	Mystery Box Challenge Winner	None			Darrsh Harry Nat
	Immunity Challenge	Nat		Lourdes Savindri Snezana Stephen Sumeet	Josh P. Mimi Stephen Sue Sumeet
	Elimination Challenge Winner	David Harry Juan Nat Snezana
	Sue	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Win	IMM
	Harry	IN		Top 5	Top 3	Team Lose 3
	Snezana	IN		Top 5	IN	Team Lose 1
	Darrsh	IN		Btm 16	Top 3	Team Lose 3
	Josh C.	IN		Btm 16	Btm 4	Team Lose 2
	Alex	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Lose 2
	Lily	IN		Btm 16	Btm 4	Team Lose 3
	Stephen	IN		Btm 16	DNP	Team Win	IMM
	Gillian	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Lose 2
	Jonathan	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Lose 1
	Lourdes	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Lose 1
	Savindri	Top 2		IMM	IN	Team Lose 1
	Josh P.	IN		Btm 3	Top 4	Team Win	IMM
	Sumeet	IN		Btm 3	Btm 4	Team Win	IMM
	David	IN		Top 5	IN	Team Lose 1
	Nat	WIN	I.P	Top 5	Top 3	Team Lose 3
	Juan	IN		Top 5	IN	Team Lose 2
	Khristian	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Lose 3
	Lachlan	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Lose 2
	Mimi	IN		Btm 16	IN	Team Win	IMM
21	Steph	IN		Btm 16	Elim	Eliminated (Ep 7)
22	James	IN		Elim	Eliminated (Ep 5)
	Eliminated	None		James	Steph

Episodes and ratings

Ep#/Wk-Ep#	Original airdate	Episode Title / Event	Viewers (National reach & total)[a]	Nightly Ranking
Week 1
1/01-1	Monday, 22 April 2024	Series Premiere: Identity Dish — Jamie Oliver, guest judge for two weeks, tasked the contestants with creating a dish that represents them. The majority of the contestants received positive feedback with Savindri and Nat named the top 2. While Savindri's Sri Lankan breakfast (blackened coconut snapper with milk rice, snapper sauce, raw onion sambal and Sri Lankan treacle) received universal praise, it was Nat's kangaroo larb with soy cured egg yolk and toasted rice wafer that won the only immunity pin of the season and a trip to London to work for a week at Jamie's latest restaurant.	1,423,000 / 776,000	#6
2/01-2	Tuesday, 23 April 2024	Jamie Oliver's Team Service Challenge — Each team had to cook a three-course meal for 40 previous MasterChef contestants in a service mentored by Jamie. The judges revealed four compulsory ingredients: mushroom for the entree, cashews and peppers for main, and grapefruit for dessert. The purple team led by Mimi served an entree of pork wontons with mushroom broth and a dessert of grapefruit-soaked date sponge with vanilla ice cream. But Mimi's passive leadership style led to a lamb backstrap main course that had tasty elements but lacked cohesion. The burgundy team led by Savindri was a success thanks to her hands-on direct leadership. Their entree of scallops with mushroom dashi sauce, main of red emperor curry and herb rice, and dessert of grapefruit pavlova were all triumphs, making them the winners, and advancing to the next challenge for an opportunity to cook for the single weekly immunity spot.	1,400,000 / 649,000	#6
3/01-3	Wednesday, 24 April 2024	Finger Food Invention Test — Sofia set the winning team a challenge to create a dish in 75 minutes that anyone can eat with their hands. Lourdes' lemon choux buns, Savindri's seeni sambol and egg bun, Snezana's krofne with strawberry jam and crème pâtissière, Stephen's pork belly with whiskey tamarind sauce and Sumeet's panipuri were deemed the best dishes and earned the five spots in the immunity challenge.	1,021,000 / 561,000	#10
4/01-4	Thursday, 25 April 2024	Time Versus Ingredients Immunity Challenge — Lourdes, Savindri, Snezana, Stephen and Sumeet were given a choice to cook with one ingredient for 90 minutes, or 20 ingredients for 45 minutes. Both Snezana and Stephen selected the 90-minute cook. Snezana chose onion and Stephen chose macadamia nuts, while the rest chose the 20-ingredient challenge. Lourdes struggled the most, and while her corn salsa won praise, her pork chop was overcooked. The judges loved Stephen's macadamia nut gateau, but his rustic cake lost to Savindri's tropical squid ceviche with mango, chilli, coconut and curry leaf, which was deemed more restaurant worthy. She won immunity from the competition's first elimination.	1,106,000 / 547,000	#7
Week 2
5/02-1	Sunday, 28 April 2024	Food Dreams Elimination Challenge — In a one-round elimination challenge, the contestants besides Savindri had 75 minutes to cook a dish inspired by their food dreams. The dishes with the highest praise were David's winter squash soup with cocoa cream, Harry's ocean parcels with green peppercorn sauce, Juan's beef empanadas, Nat's khao soi gai and Snezana's three-course bread and butter. Josh P., Sumeet and James received the most criticism from the judges and were the bottom 3. Josh's dish had good presentation and the vegetable elements were a hit, but his beef was raw. Sumeet's butter chicken curry was tasty, but she tried to do too much and as a result, the other elements suffered. James' feta and green pepper-stuffed squid was raw, the fillings along with the parsley tahini sauce overpowered the squid and the texture was criticized. Ultimately, the judges felt that James' dish had missed the mark, and he was the first contestant to be eliminated this year.	1,236,000 / 674,000	#8
6/02-2	Monday, 29 April 2024	Jamie Oliver's Parents Mystery Box Challenge — The judges announced that Stephen was unwell and as a result, he must compete in the next elimination. The remaining contestants faced a mystery box challenge set by Jamie's parents. They were given 75 minutes to make a dish using one or more of the following ingredients: rainbow trout, potatoes, sultanas, radicchio, lemons, Hula Hoops crisps, sorrel, peeled prawns, golden syrup and custard powder. Harry's rainbow trout with chip roasted potatoes and prawn sorrel bechamel, Darrsh's sticky toffee pudding with custard and Nat's rainbow trout and prawn savoury tart received the highest praise from the judges and were the top 3 dishes. Josh P's sultana cake with golden syrup crumble (Lazy Daisy cake) and custard was also praised. However, the meringue for Josh C's lemon tart was split; Lily's lemon custard tart was not set and the pastry was not baked well; Steph's rainbow trout and prawn ravioli was overtaken by her burnt radicchio, and Sumeet's rainbow trout with pomme puree had bones and her three sauces overpowered the flavour. As a result, the latter four joined Stephen in the pressure test.	1,152,000 / 687,000	#11
7/02-3	Tuesday, 30 April 2024	Cook with Jamie Elimination Challenge - The elimination challenge included the four contestants whose dishes were weakest in the previous episode, plus Stephen, who had missed that episode due to illness. The challenge was to cook alongside Jamie Oliver as he prepared a dish from his family's pub: chicken breast stuffed with duxelles, baked in puff pastry with a mustard cream sauce, and served with a celeriac and potato mash and steamed vegetables. Stephen struggled to keep up with Jamie, but he repeatedly tasted from Jamie's dish to ensure correct flavours. Steph rushed and incorrectly removed the breast tenderloin, meaning her chicken breast was under-stuffed and too dry. Lily also had trouble keeping up with Jamie, and her chicken was also under-stuffed and dry. Josh C. and Sumeet followed well and prepared good matches to Jamie's dish. In the end, Steph's dish was deemed the worst match to Jamie's. Because the chicken was the foundation of Jamie's dish, the judges felt that Steph had missed the brief, and she was eliminated.	1,191,000 / 655,000	#9
8/02-4	Wednesday, 1 May 2024	Queen Victoria Market Street Food Immunity Team Challenge - The 20 contestants were taken to the Queen Victoria Market for a team challenge, where they were split into four teams. The blue team (Darrsh, Harry, Lily, Nat and captain Khristian), the red team (Mimi, Stephen, Sue, Sumeet and captain Josh P.), the yellow team (David, Lourdes, Savindri, Snezana and captain Jonathan) and the pink team (Alex, Josh C., Juan, Lachlan and captain Gillian) were given five hours to prepare a street food menu for 1000 people. Each team had to feature one protein dish (blue-fish, red-beef, yellow-chicken and pink-pork) and one vegetarian dish. The yellow team chose a Greek-style menu but struggled due to the team's lack of knowledge of Greek food as well as Jonathan's chaotic leadership. As a result both of their dishes, while tasty, were too confusing and did not celebrate Greek cuisine. The pink team's sticky glazed pork belly received praise but their yakitori mushroom skewers were underwhelming and seemed like a snack rather than a dish. The blue team had an ambitious menu of seafood stew, which received unanimous praise. Though the eggplant dish was nice it needed more seasoning and sweetness. The red team's tandoori beef skewers, biryani rice with a spicy curry sauce and raita received positive comments though Andy wished they didn't hold back on the spices. But it was their vegetarian dish of spicy eggplant dip, semolina bread and raita that was hailed the best veggie dish of the day, making the red team the winners of the challenge and saving them from elimination.	1,346,000 / 651,000	#7
Week 3
9/03-1	Sunday, 5 May 2024

• ^a From 28 January 2024, OzTAM ratings changed. Viewership data now focus on National Reach and National Total ratings instead of the 5 metro centres and overnight shares.