Fiona Byrne: Master chefs serve up a new season with recipe for success

Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan have fronted MasterChef for more than a decade but the show’s three judges are unanimous about the moment that changed the show forever.

They have fronted MasterChef for more than a decade but the show’s three judges are unanimous about the moment that changed the show forever.

Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan embraced eventual season one winner Julie Goodwin and it turned them from grumpy judges into mentors.

“When you look at the first photos we did we just look grumpy. We look like a couple of bouncers on King St,” Mehigan said.

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“When they started editing, the first interaction you see is between us and Julie Goodwin,” Preston said. “She made lamb and we all gave her a hug and that moment redefined us.”

As the 11th season of MasterChef prepares to launch the trio have reflected on the show’s success.

Julie Goodwin transformed the grumpy MasterChef judges into mentors.

Preston said there were three reasons why they made such a good team.

“We have prior history with each other, we filmed the show for four years in Sydney and outside Melbourne which made us into this little triangle where we all realised what our strengths are, and we all respect and celebrate each other’s successes,” he said. “Also we are united by one fundamental thing, which is we like to eat cake.”

MasterChef was a hit from the minute it launched in 2009, with 3.7 million viewers tuning into the final episode.

However, Preston said they were not sure the show would succeed.

“The UK version had been going a long time and we were the first country to pick it up,” he said.

“We just thought it was going to be another small show made in a shed in Australia.

“We all thought, ‘this is never going to work. It will end up on a secondary channel in a couple of weeks, no one will watch, can’t taste it, can’t smell it’.

MasterChef hosts Matt Preston, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan share the secrets of the show. Picture: David Caird

“What happened is because of those first amazing two years, and it is still hard to understand the phenomenon the show became, suddenly all these other countries wanted to do it, it was named by Time (magazine) as one of the most influential shows in television in the last decade.”

For Mehigan the global impact of the show has stretched beyond former contestants having careers as chefs, cookbooks and spin-off shows.

George Calombaris, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston return in season 10 of ‘MasterChef’. Picture: Channel 10

“One of the things we found on our recent trip around the world was for example we were in Naples and Portuguese people were stopping us to talk about the show, or Filipinos were coming up to us in Italy,” he said.

“I was asked for a photo and I said, ‘do you mind me asking where you are from?’ and they go ‘Venezuela. I learnt English from watching MasterChef in Venezuela’.”

The trio admit they almost went their separate ways after series five in 2013 when only 1 million viewers watched the grand final.

“We sat down at the end of five and asked, ‘are we happy continuing doing this style of show?’,” Preston said.

“We all felt things that one of the joys of the show was the three of us working together.

“It (the show) is about giving our contestants the best chance to cook well. It is not about putting them on the South Pole with a Bunsen burner and asking them to cook a 15-course dinner.”

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