In MasterChef Australia 2025, Jamie Fleming won $10,000 in travel vouchers for finishing third behind winner Laura Sharrad and runner-up Callum, using it for a holiday to Greece. Other contestants have won $10,000 in different seasons for specific challenges or placements, like Callum Hann receiving $10,000 for living expenses in his first season and Sabina Newton competing for $10k worth of groceries in Season 13.
The death of 46 year old MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo was simply shocking for his family, friends and many thousands of fans. His wife Lauren couldn't believe it then and now two years later, she still can't believe Jock is gone. In a raw interview Lauren speaks about her devastation, those first days and life now.
Melissa Leong has revealed she was sexually abused while working in the hospitality industry 15 years ago. The MasterChef Australia judge shared the harrowing experience in an interview with The Age to promote her upcoming memoir Guts, which chronicles the 43-year-old's career in food and television.
Yes, MasterChef Australia's Sarah Todd and Declan Cleary are still together and have expanded their family, welcoming twin daughters, Claudia and Charlotte, in late 2025, joining Sarah's son Phoenix and Declan's dog Sol to form a big family in Melbourne. Their whirlwind romance from the show blossomed into a serious relationship, moving in together and starting a family quickly, with the twins' arrival announced just after Christmas 2025.
Two MasterChef stars who fell in love on the series have welcomed twins in the days before Christmas. Sarah Todd and Declan Cleary, who both competed in the 2025 season of the show, announced the arrival of twin girls in an Instagram post on Christmas Eve.
Declan is a qualified carpenter with his own business, so he knows a thing or two about hard work and will not be afraid to put his head down throughout the competition.
A Network Ten spokesperson said the lineup change was due to filming schedules, and because Dessert Masters will air back to back with MasterChef Australia, each show would need “its own unique hosting team”.
Inside The Biggest Scandals That Rocked MasterChef
"[Melissa] was shocked but she said that she had to ask Bryce and confirm things with Bryce first. I thought 'fair enough,' it's pretty big news to take in. But I didn't realise that it had already been going on with Bec as well. "After I heard that I thought, you know, where there's smoke there's fire."
We have of course accepted their wishes and edited them out of the show." Another contestant, Sarah Shafi, was also removed from the series after asking for it not to be broadcast, following a report which upheld claims against hosts Gregg Wallace and John Torode.
In May 2019, Bastianich announced his departure from MasterChef Italia in order to dedicate himself to his passion for music. In mid-September of the same year, Bastianich released his first album, titled "Aka Joe".
The most prominent contestant who left MasterChef for mental health reasons is Brent Draper from MasterChef Australia, who stepped away in 2021 due to overwhelming anxiety and pressure, famously telling the judges he needed to "sort my mental health out," and later returned to win in 2023, becoming a mental health advocate.
On March 9, 2022, Mary Jayne filed a lawsuit to the production of MasterChef for pressuring her to film and not giving her medical treatment despite her suffering from a stroke.
The City of New York Office of Chief Medical Examiner concluded its investigation on Thursday, determining suicide as her manner of death. The chef died by "acute intoxication due to the combined effects of diphenhydramine, ethanol, cetirizine, and amphetamine," the medical examiner said.
Network 10 has pulled the plug on Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, confirming the trio will not return to MasterChef next year.
Is MasterChef really reality or is it actually scripted? “The challenge is real, the clock is real, and the judges really judge our dishes based on what we manage to put out within the time frame given.” From the moment the challenge starts, it is very real.
MasterChef contestant Matthew Gagnon has died. He was 42. The Connecticut native died “unexpectedly” on Monday, Dec. 15, according to his obituary.
Leong's departure came after claims she had been axed following a string of publicised off-camera dramas. Leong infamously had a blow up with the program's hair and make-up team along with a substitute freelance hairstylist in 2022. 'Andy has no beef with Leong,' the source told Daily Mail Australia.
He also had the tendency to be cocky (although he had the talent to back it up) and talk a lot, which usually rubbed most of the other cooks the wrong way, leading them to immediately underestimate him and consider him as a weak link, while quickly beginning to dislike him for how he came off.
He came to the audition with his sister and his mum.” “You could not conjure that. Some people thought it was manifested by the producers. But the proof is in the pudding: six years on we've both ended up in the exact same position in different states and we still consider each other best mates,” Ben says.
It had already been forced to edit the programme to reduce the prominence of Wallace and Torode and remove Shafi's appearance. It has now been edited further to remove another contestant, who has asked not to be identified, according to the BBC.
Fan favourite and three-time MasterChef Australia competitor Laura Sharrad isn't just 'back to win', she is building a legacy for her daughter, Florence. “When I first said yes to returning, I didn't actually realise the impact it would have on her,” Laura, 30, tells TV WEEK.