Wipe that drool of your face and get a plate ready because Season 16 of MasterChef Australia is here, and you know what that means: we have a whole new batch of talented contestants ready to blow our minds with their culinary skills.
This season of MasterChef is particularly exciting, with three new judges joining former winner Andy Allen on the panel: beloved two-time contestant Poh Ling Yeow, food critic Sofia Levin and French chef and restauranteur Jean-Christophe Novelli.
At first, Channel 10 decided to tease us by only releasing the identities of six contestants but now the official social media accounts for the show have revealed the identities of ALL the upcoming contestants. Yahoo — let’s meet them!!!!!!
MasterChef Contestants 2024: Who’s in this year’s line up?
Alex
When Alex, 27, was nine years old, she started collecting cookbooks. Her first ever recipe book in her collection was by this season’s guest judge Jamie Oliver and now, all these years later, she’s had a full-circle moment where she’s using the knowledge from those books to cook for the man himself. How fkn cool is that?
To give you some perspective, when I was a kid, I collected beanie babies and had matching flannelette pyjamas. Neither the bean-filled bears or the PJs have helped my career, I’ll say that.
Anyway, these days Alex works as a fine food sales representative in Western Australia. She specialises in gourmet things like cheese and smallgoods — a skill which I’m sure will come in handy during the competition.
You can follow Alex on Instagram at @alexcrisp__ .
Nat
Nat is a 28-year-old barista from Victoria. Growing up, Nat watched on as her parents ran a bustling Thai restaurant on the outskirts of Melbourne. She’s always looked up to her mum Nutsiree who was also the head chef but it’s only over the last few years that Nat’s passion for creating dishes inspired by her Thai heritage has really blossomed. Over the last decade, Nat has lived in Switzerland, Japan and New Zealand but cooking has helped her connect to her own identity and culture whilst being able to teach people about her heritage too.
Nat was also one of the first contestants announced and managed to nab her own trailer — what an honour!
In the clip, we learn that in the first episode she’s decided to blend native Australian ingredients like kangaroo mince with a traditional Thai dish called Larb!
While the clip makes it sound like this could go horribly wrong, I completely disagree. In fact, as a giant fan of Larb, I’ve actually made it with kangaroo mince before and it was delish!!!! It’s such a healthy lean protein!!! Larb balances flavours of salty, sweet and zesty perfectly!!!
Live, life, larb, I say!
And some more wisdom she imparted on us? In the first episode, Nat showed Jonathan (and all of us) the easiest way to open a jar. Truly doing the lord’s work!
You can find Nat on Instagram @nattywolf.
Darrsh
Darrsh is a management consultant from Western Australia who loves cheeky competition. Over the years he’s represented WA in basketball and volleyball, but this time around, he’s representing his state in the kitchen. Hell yeah!!!!
The 31-year-old got his love of food from his late father who was a chef in an Indian restaurant. But it wasn’t just his dad’s incredible food that inspired him, it was the passion and creativity that he brought into everything he did. Darrsh hopes to utilise that energy and one day create his own fusion bar and restaurant.
You can follow Darrsh on IG at @darrshclarke.
David
By day, 30-year-old David works as a pharmacologist who performs national clinical trials in the hopes of finding crucial treatments for cancer patients. But by night (or any time that he’s not working, TBH) David prides himself on cooking for his nearest and dearest. After growing up in a food-focused, tight-knit family, David realised that cooking could be a love language too plus a nifty way to share and express his culture.
Although David lives in Queensland now, he grew up in Singapore. He says that his family loved a good feed so much that they would often scoot over to Malaysia for lunch and then come on back. Now that’s dedication!
Even though his work as a pharmacologist is incredibly important to him, David has put his career on hold to see how this whole MasterChef thing works out. We love a dedicated king!!!
You can find David on IG at @davidbistronomy.
Khristian
Khristian, 26, currently works in insurance services but he’s had a passion for food ever since he was 10 years old and helped his single-mum out by stepping up and learning to cook.
Clearly, Khristian is a sweet pea so he managed to nab his own teaser clip too! In his teaser, we learn that he is a HUGE fan of Jamie Oliver and is over the bloody moon that the famed British chef will be trying some of his cooking. Khristian tells Jamie that he learnt to cook from watching his show when he was young and that Jamie is the reason that he is standing in the MasterChef Australia kitchen today.
Wholesome, no?
We also learn that Jamie will take care of anyone who wins the show and will arrange for a meeting in London to set up their culinary dreams. Pretty fkn cool.
Gillian
For Gillian, cooking feels intuitive and instinctual. For that, she says she has her mum, dad and her Nonna to thank.
Growing up, her mum Doreen and her Nonna Lina showed their love through their cooking while her late father Tommy always made sure Gillian felt comfortable trusting her palette in the kitchen, and the skill of balancing flavours. With Italian and Vietnamese influences, the 31-year-old lettering designer grew up with all sorts of flavours on the dinner table.
On MasterChef, she’s determined to hit the judges out of the park with big, flavourful dishes presented to perfection. But she is a tad worried about being messy and beating the clock.
Gillian is on IG at @gilldinh.
Harry
Harry may be in the commercial property game at the moment, but his real passion is in seafood. I’m hoping that he can prove to the majority of people I know that there are actually other fish other than salmon!!!
Harry’s love for cooking kicked off when he was 12 and he would offer his parents a hand in the kitchen, but these days the 29-year-old has not only developed his culinary skillset but become something of a seafood expert.
One of his favourite things is creating an ocean-to-plate experience for his friends and family by diving for hours to search for crayfish — even if they’re bloody shark-infested waters. He takes a lot of pride in serving up something yummy that he’s caught himself and makes sure that nothing goes to waste.
You can follow Harry on IG at @harrybutterfield_.
James
James, 38, is a primary school teacher and a family man from Western Australia. While he loves his job of forming young minds, he was inspired to give MasterChef a crack when his pal commented how calmly he would float around the kitchen — even with a whole house full of guests to feed and multiple elements simmering away. After that moment, James decided he wanted to show his kids, Benji, seven, and Goldie, three, that you can follow your dreams and embrace change to get what you want.
His dream is to one day open up a café in South Yandrup, a riverside down south of Perth, full of local produce and great eats.
You can follow James on IG at @james_at_home.
Jonathan
Jonathan, 29, is a carpenter from NSW but he says he’s always been drawn to food. As a kid, if he wasn’t vibing the dinner his parents put in front of him, they would encourage him to whip something up himself. While I’m sure that whole thing began with a frustrated parent (let’s be honest!!!!), it was the beginning of Jonathan’s life-long passion for food.
Jonathan’s favourite kind of culinary delight is anything that falls under the ‘comfort food’ umbrella. You know, slow-cooked meats, hearty mash, big bowls of pasta — BIG YUM.
With this in mind, he will be attempting to bring some big flavours to the competition and is excited to be around a bunch of like-minded foodies to learn from. But most of all, Jonathan’s goal is to make his Nonna proud.
Juan De La Cruz
Everybody meet Juan De La Cruz! While some contestants would like to keep their relationship with the audience on a first-name basis, Juan De La Cruz wants everybody to know his full name to make his mum proud — and I fkn love that!
Anyway, Juan De La Cruz was born in Argentina and is over the moon to bring his favourite dishes and some Latin flavours to the MasterChef kitchen. I am praying, nay, pleading that he brings us an elevated Alfajores!!!!
When he’s not cooking up a storm, Juan De La Cruz’s passion is in music and singing. In fact, he was legit on the Argentinian version of Popstars. I cannot wait to see this man on screen and I think he’s going to be an absolute delight.
¡Dale, no más!, Juan De La Cruz!
Josh C
Josh Clarke is a coffee roaster who now lives in Queensland, but he grew up in Queens, New York City. He went to college but felt that the world was calling so he left his studies early to travel around the world sampling a whole heap of delicious delicacies from around the globe from Iceland to Spain to Mexico and Thailand, just to name a few.
However, when he rocked up to Australia in 2018 he fell in love with his now-wife Laura who is super supportive of his foodie dreams. So much so that she was the one who first filled out his MasterChef application in secret!!!
With his love for travel and adventure, plus his Irish and Jamaican heritage, Josh loves incorporating flavours from all over the world. I can’t wait to see his dishes in the competition.
You can find Josh on Instagram at @josh.clarke.__.
Josh P
Josh Perry — otherwise known as Pezza — is a country boy and butcher from a small town in Tasmania called Smithton. However, like all Aussie blokes from a country town, he refers to it as “god’s country”.
He spends his days fattening up his own cattle to sell and naturally, absolutely loves homegrown, grass-fed Tassie beef. As a huge fan of the classic meat-and-three-veg, he is slightly worried about showing some range in the MasterChef competition. I mean, how will Pezza go plating up a moist cake? A croquenbouche? A delicate seafood dish? Only time will tell, my friends.
At the end of the day though, Pezza’s focus is keeping his food simple and executing it well. After all, he was taught by the best (his mum, Nan and Aunt) and can’t wait to do them proud.
You can follow Josh on IG at @pezza_the_tazzie_butcher.
Stephen
At 62 years old, Stephen may be the oldest contestant in the kitchen this season but he couldn’t care less. For the last 16 years, the tour guide has been working tirelessly on upskilling to make his MasterChef dreams come true.
As a tour guide, Stephen has travelled the world tasting all sorts of delicious things but his favourite things to cook are simple dishes, often inspired by French or Japanese cuisine.
Stephen is another contestant who nabbed his own trailer, and boy, he’s already spinning a yarn worthy of an entire episode. In the clip, he tells new MasterChef judge Jean-Christophe that he was once attacked by a crocodile. According to Stephen, the croc went to grab him but somehow sunk its teeth into a tree instead.
The unlucky croc ended up losing a tooth in the tree trunk, so Stephen decided to grab it and put it on a necklace.
Anyway, in the first episode, we see Stephen attempt to cook a delicate French quail dish — quite the daunting task when a genuine French chef is in the building, hey?
Lachlan
Lachlan is a landscape gardener from Victoria. He was inspired to apply to MasterChef following the tragic passing of his mum Jen to cancer late last year. She was also suffering from Huntington’s Disease, a genetic degenerative brain disease. Lochy recently learnt that he suffers from this condition too.
But now, Lochy wants to live his life to the absolute fullest. He’s going on MasterChef in the hopes that he might make his two-year-old daughter Lily proud. Also, the MasterChef kitchen sounds like the perfect place for Lochy. As someone who admits that he is always thinking about food, it’ll be fab to be surrounded by likeminded people while he expands his culinary horizons.
You can follow Lochy at @lochycooks.
Lily
Former nurse Lily, 30, comes from a line of good cooks. Her mum was a chef who trained at Le Cordon Bleu and even became one of the youngest chefs to teach there when she was only 18. So, as you’d expect, Lily grew up surrounded by incredible food and loved spending time in the kitchen with her mum.
As a result, Lily describes her cooking style as deeply intuitive, hearty and made with love. Aww!!!!
One day, she hopes to run her own deli-style eatery mixed with a relaxed wine bar. I really hope she does it because that sounds like my dream venue.
You can follow Lily at @lilslarder_au.
Lourdes
Lourdes, 22, from Victoria, credits her love of cooking to growing up in a household which has strong ties to its maternal homeland in Catalonia, Spain. Spending time in the kitchen with her mother Laly and Yiayia Ana Maria, she gravitates towards healthy, simple and flavourful food.
Lourdes currently works as a marketing coordinator but she is super open to feedback and hoping that this experience on MasterChef will help her grow as a cook. One day, she hopes to write her very own cookbook so she can focus on her two favourite hobbies: cooking and photography.
You can find Lourdes on IG at @lourdesleschen.
Mimi
Mimi, 25, is a high school teacher from NSW. She decided to give MasterChef a crack when she realised she was beginning to outgrow her humble kitchen and wanted to see how she’d go in the big leagues. I love a gal who enjoys a challenge!!!
Her culinary passion lies in Asian fusion after being influenced by the strict cultural food practices she grew up with. But she also has a fondness for cooking tarts so she seems to be pretty well equipped to handle both sweet and savoury challenges.
Mimi admits she does have a tendency to be a perfectionist, so hopefully, she can find the perfect balance between smashing out good quality dishes without letting her perfectionism take too long on the little details.
You can find Mimi on IG at @mimiwonggaa.
Savindri
Savindri, 30, is a banking consultant from South Australia. She’s coming into this competition hoping the judges will like her food, but also that she’ll get the approval of the Sri Lankan aunties watching on from the comfort of their living rooms.
She describes her cooking style as “rustic, generous and colourful” and says her holy trinity of ingredients are onion, garlic and curry leaves.
Savindri also got her own trailer! Man, my head would be so big if I was in this cast and copped my own trailer. In the clip, we see her cook a spicy little dish for the judges. The best bit about this is that judge Andy Allen is terrible with spice. I get a tremendous amount of joy watching him cough and splutter every season. You’ve got to hand it to the bloke though, he always gives it a go.
Plus, just from the trailer alone, Sav seems like a bit of an oversharer and we love that. In fact, during the 45-second clip, she tells the judges about her brand new relationship with her boyfriend who is “like a block of white chocolate”.
You can follow Savindri at @savisquishles.
Snezana
Snezana, 40, credits her love of cooking to her upbringing and background. She was born in Croatia before moving to Serbia as a child, and her mum was an incredible cook who encouraged her to start cooking at a young age. Whenever Snezana pops in for a quick visit, she says her mum always has three whole dishes on offer.
These days, Snezana shares her own love of cooking with her family and is heavily inspired by Serbian culture. In a beautiful circle of life moment, Snezana says her daughter is already starting to show interest in cooking.
Although she currently works in financial services, Snezana would love this experience on MasterChef to lead to a career change. One day, she dreams of running her own rural, home-style café.
You can find Snezana on IG at @snezanacalic_official.
Steph
Steph is a 28-year-old events manager from Queensland but she’s hoping to make a delicious little career change. With big dreams of hosting her very own pop-up dining experiences, the MasterChef kitchen seems to be the perfect place for this bubbly cook.
Steph identifies as a wholeheartedly savoury cook (same, girl same) who thrives in challenges involving meat and high-end dishes (okay, not same.) She feels pretty damn confident with her abilities to elevate any dish into something memorable and delicious — which sounds like an incredibly valuable skill in this competition.
You can follow Steph at @stephlisecooks.
Sue
Sue, 58, has been a huge MasterChef fan for yonks but it’s only now that she’s had enough of living vicariously through the contestants. This time around she’s excited to be at the centre of the action to prove to her kids that anything is possible if you believe and work really bloody hard.
She was first inspired to start cooking by her mum and eldest sister’s dinner parties in the ’80s, but it wasn’t until she started learning from her Sri Lankan mother-in-law that things went from zero to 100.
One day, Sue dreams of releasing handwritten cookbooks. In what she calls a “42-year work in progress”, she started writing down her recipes at 16 years old. I love that idea so much!
You can follow Sue at @suebazely.
Sumeet
When Sumeet, 46, thinks about her childhood, she thinks about food. Growing up in Bangalore, India, her fondest memories are centred around her parents throwing parties and cooking up a storm. But her biggest culinary influence was her grandfather, whom she called Darji. He was a food lover and former freedom fighter who gave Sumeet her first cookbook and helped her find her own sense of curiosity in the kitchen.
Sumeet is going on MasterChef with the hopes of simplifying Indian food. She wants to show Australia how versatile it can be and break down stereotypes around Indian food being to rich, spicy, heavy or complicated.
You can follow Sumeet at @sumeetsaigal__.
How many people are in the cast of MasterChef Australia?
After writing this whole article, I can confirm that there are 22 contestants in the MasterChef kitchen this year. That’s a lot!!
You can catch up on older seasons of MasterChef on 10Play.
