MasterChef Australia All-Stars
MasterChef Australia All-Stars is an Australian cooking reality show which screened on Network Ten from 26 July 2012. It featured a number of returning contestants from the first three seasons of MasterChef Australia, revisiting past challenges in order to raise money for charity.
The series aired for three weeks, mostly during the 2012 Summer Olympics. It was also the last iteration of the show to be shot in the MasterChef kitchen in Alexandria, Sydney, home of the series for all past seasons.
Contestants
The following contestants returned from Season's 2009, 2010 and 2011. Notable absentees were Season 2010 winner Adam Liaw and Season 2011 runner-up Michael Weldon. The initial stages of the competition focused on the Teams raising money, but from episode 7, contestants competed separately and were eliminated in order to crown the 'best of the best' All-Star.Guest chefs
- Adriano Zumbo – Series Premiere
- Adrian Richardson – Immunity Challenge
- Dan Hong – Immunity Challenge
- Jeremy Strode – Immunity Challenge
- Martin Boetz – Immunity Challenge
- Darren Purchese – Immunity Challenge
- Alessandro Pavoni – Immunity Challenge
- Shaun Presland – Immunity Challenge
- Vincent Gadan – Immunity Challenge
- Curtis Stone – Elimination Challenge 2
- Neil Perry – MasterClass
- Maggie Beer – Grand Finale
- Peter Gilmore – Grand Finale
Episodes
| Ep# | Original airdate | Episode Title / Event | Total viewers | Nightly Ranking | Weekly Ranking |
| 1 | Thursday 26 July 2012 | Series Premiere: Croquembouche Challenge – The MasterChef All-Stars returned to the kitchen and were given a "rude awakening" by Adriano Zumbo with the greatest classic MasterChef dessert: Season 1's croquembouche. The Blue Team produced the worst copy of Zumbo's piece with various technical flaws. As it boiled down to the Red Team and the Yellow Team, the judges preferred the overall decoration and silky custard of the Yellows over the consistency and richer caramel of the Reds. The Yellows won the first $20,000 at $5,000 per contestant for their charity of choice. | 1,256,000 | 1st | 19th |
| 2 | Sunday 29 July 2012 | International Challenge – The teams were faced with a four-round challenge, in which one member from each team cooked against each other. The winner of each round would earn $5,000 for their charity. Each team captain picked their champion, and the team that won the previous challenge would get to pick the cuisine to be cooked in the next round. As the Yellows won the previous challenge, team captain Kate got the first cuisine and contestant pick. She pitted herself against Julie and Jonathan in Lebanese food. Jonathan produced a bad dish, while Julie managed to snag a win. Julie then picked Poh to go up against Marion and Dani in Chinese. Dani scored a surprising win with her modern take on a traditional Chinese dessert. Kate then let Kumar take on Aaron and Chris in Indian cuisine, with Chris' sophisticated salmon dish taking the prize over top favourite Kumar's mussel curry. Justine, Callum and Hayden were assigned French cuisine by Julie, and it was Callum's dish that pulled off the first win for the Reds. | 728,000 | 7th | 38th |
| 3 | Monday 30 July 2012 | Offsite Challenge – The teams prepared a sausage sizzle for 100 trainee firefighters. The winning team would be determined by total votes given by the firefighters and would be given an advantage for the next day's Mystery Box Challenge. The Blue Team's pork and fennel sausages splitting and oozing all their fat led them to be dry and left them in third place with 28 votes. It was a tie between the Yellows and Reds with 36 votes each. As the decision came down to the judges, they preferred the Red Team's dish despite inconsistency in size and pronounced them the winners. | 826,000 | 9th | 31st |
| 4 | Tuesday 31 July 2012 | Mystery Box Challenge – The contestants found eight ingredients in their Mystery Boxes each chosen by a world-famous chef, including Heston Blumenthal's signature dry ice, Rick Stein's spanner crab and a sea urchin picked by Anthony Bourdain. Marion, Kate and Kumar cooked the top three dishes, and it was Marion's delicate and technical Crab and Sea Urchin Soufflé with Singaporean Black Pepper Sauce that earnt $10,000 for her charity. | 771,000 | 11th | 37th |
| 5 | Wednesday 1 August 2012 | Fix-That-Dish Challenge – The All-Stars participated in a race to be the first to finely dice 1 kilo of onions. The winner would get an advantage for their team in the upcoming challenge. Poh won it for the Blue Team. The Fix-That-Dish Challenge was a relais challenge in which the teams were to fix a poor bolognese in 45 minutes. Only the first in line would learn what the dish was, and each following team member would have to leave obvious hints for the next cook. The Blues' advantage consisted of all four team members knowing what the dish was and getting two minutes to strategize. The Yellows plated the worst dish, mostly due to errors from Kumar and Dani. It was between the Reds, who oversalted their bolognese by adding too much Parmesan at the end, and the Blues, who added too much sugar. It was the latters' choice to use pappardelle that got them the win, as it was deemed a better fit than spaghetti for a traditional bolognese. | 852,000 | 7th | 28th |
| 6 | Thursday 2 August 2012 | Worst Nightmare Challenge – The Blues were each faced with three of their failed dishes from series 1. The dish they would have to revisit would be determined by a random draw from a knife block. It turned out to be an all-dessert challenge as every contestant drew a tricky dessert from the block. For Justine it was the Warm Pear Tart from the Celebrity Chef Challenge against Matt Moran. For Chris, it was Zumbo's Vanilla Panna Cotta with Macaroons from Week 11's Pressure Test. For Julie, it was her Passionfruit Puddle Pie from a Finals Week Elimination and for Poh, it was Matt Moran's Chocolate Tart from the Grand Finale. Poh and Chris got 2.5 hours to cook as their dishes were more intricate, while Julie and Justine had to wait on the balcony for an hour before their cooking time started. All three dishes showed great improvement from their season 1 counterparts, but Julie and Poh's were considered the top two. Though the judges considered both desserts virtually flawless, it was a split-hairs decision due to Poh failing to perfectly temper her chocolate on her highly technical dish. Julie won the $10,000 for Oxfam, but she decided to split it with Poh due to how close the decision was. | 772,000 | 10th | 36th |
| 7 | Sunday 5 August 2012 | Immunity Challenge – Upon learning that two cooks would be eliminated in the next challenge, the All-Stars were pitted against twelve of the best chefs in Australia to win guaranteed immunity. Whoever cooked a better dish than the chef they were paired with, as judged in a blind tasting by three food critics, would receive immunity from the next day's Pressure Test. Kate, Dani and Justine were the only three to pull this off and received immunity. Chef Darren Purchese, paired with Kate, also promised an extra $1,000 donation from his restaurant to Kate's charity. | 787,000 | 7th | 31st |
| 8 | Monday 6 August 2012 | Pressure Test – All contestants except for Dani, Kate and Justine had to cook Gary's Beef Wellington with an accompanying red wine sauce in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Despite struggling with the dish's various elements, everyone managed to put up a passable dish. Jonathan, who had already cooked the dish in the Top 50 portion of Season 2, was "miles ahead" during cooking and delivered a stellar Wellington and sauce. Julie, Marion and Callum were also applauded. Chris, Poh, Aaron, Hayden and Kumar's dishes all had significant flaws, but Aaron and Kumar made the most mistakes and were eliminated. | 753,000 | 11th | 36th |
| 9 | Tuesday 7 August 2012 | Where Are You Now? Challenge – With $5000 up for grabs, the contestants were asked to revisit and improve the first dish the cooked on MasterChef. After 75 minutes the standout dishes were Justine's Coq Au Vin, Callum's deconstructed Peaches and Cream, Chris' Chicken Tagine and Kate's Retro Coffee Cake. Kate won the challenge, winning the money for her charity and immunity from the next day's Elimination Challenge. | 773,000 | 10th | 32nd |
| 10 | Wednesday 8 August 2012 | Elimination Challenge 1 – With two more people going home, the All Stars faced a three-round chicken elimination challenge. Given 30 minutes, unlimited use of the pantry and a whole chicken, the only catch was, if they went through to subsequent rounds the chicken they had leftover was all they had to use. Round one saw Dani, Marion and Poh safe as the best performers. With 20 minutes in the second round, this time it was Justine, Callum and Chris who produced the best dishes, leaving Julie, Hayden and Jonathan in the 10-minute round three. Despite all producing great dishes, Julie's had the slight edge over Hayden and Jonathan who were therefore eliminated. Jonathan received $5000 for his charity. | 745,000 | 11th | 38th |
| 11 | Thursday 9 August 2012 | Cake Challenge – With $5,000 at stake for today's winner, the judges were joined by three members of the Country Women's Association. The All-Stars each had to bake and assemble a cake in 1 hour and 40 minutes and had to meet up to the CWA's exacting standards regarding flavour, size and overall look and detail. As no one received exceedingly bad comments, it came down to selecting a top three that made the least mistakes. Kate claimed third position with her lamingtons, Poh came in second with her passionfruit cake despite struggling to get it in the oven in time, and Julie's perfectly detailed Neapolitan cake scored the win and another $5,000 for Oxfam. | 741,000 | 10th | 40th |
| 12 | Sunday 12 August 2012 | Mystery Box Challenge – Great joy among the All-Stars as they got to chop up their Mystery Boxes as kindling for a barbecue with prawn and chicken as core ingredients. Aside from the contents of the box, they each got to pick five ingredients from the pantry and were given 75 minutes to cook their barbecue dish. With such elementary cooking processes, there was very little room for error. In the end, the judges found at least some fault with Kate, Marion, Poh and Callum's creations, and Marion and Poh were sent home as the producers of the two worst dishes. | 779,000 | 10th | 38th |
| 13 | Monday 13 August 2012 | Dessert Challenge – The final six were tasked with reproducing George's "Zeus and his 8 Mistresses" dessert in 3 hours. The extremely intricate dish with 13 recipes proved highly challenging: it included a chocolate mousse with a liquid center surrounded by a chocolate crack, a white chocolate aero, chocolate clay, a salted caramel sauce, a chocolate sorbet, chocolate cake, caramelized pear balls, salt and vinegar chocolate sticks, assorted berries and flowers and a tempered chocolate gold bar in a decorative box to symbolize Zeus' wife, Hera. Chris and Callum produced the standout dishes, as only they managed to put every element on the plate. It was Dani who was sent home for failing to plate three elements of the dish and some other technical errors. | 702,000 | 17th | >40th |
| 14 | Tuesday 14 August 2012 | Elimination Challenge 2 – Guest chef Curtis Stone entered the kitchen again, this time to set a two-round elimination challenge. In the first round, the All-Stars had to keep up with Stone as he cooked his signature dish of Lobster Ravioli with a Shellfish Sauce, Caramellized Butternut Pumpkin, Sage, Lemon and Pine Nuts. Chris produced the best dish and was pronounced safe after the first round. In the second round, the remaining contestants had to cook a dish with one of four of Stone's favourite Australian core ingredients. Callum and Justine opted for artichokes, while Julie chose the pork and Kate the apples, to make the only dessert of the night. Callum and Kate received good comments overall. Curtis thought Justine's dish was "odd" and Gary also didn't like the idea of putting two dishes on the same plate. Julie had some trouble with her pork in the pressure cooker, but pulled herself together in time to plate up a Plan B. Despite being commended for her survival instincts in the kitchen, Julie was sent home. | 788,000 | 13th | 36th |
| 15 | Wednesday 15 August 2012 | Seafood Challenge – The final four All Stars cooked for a guaranteed place in the Finale, preparing seafood dishes for 100 Navy heroes. With a little help from some MasterChef 2012 favourites, each contestant had a different type of seafood. Judging was tight, as each dish was praised and only slightly criticised, but Kate and Julia's Chilli Squid Salad that was judged as the best dish, meaning Kate became the first All Star to make it through to the Finale. | 751,000 | 13th | 39th |
| 16 | Thursday 16 August 2012 | Elimination Challenge 3 – The All-Stars were confronted with their own favourite ingredients and had to cook a dish with each other's ingredients in three 45-minute rounds. The cook of the best dish would receive 3 points, the second 2 points and the loser 1 point. The two highest scoring cooks at the end of the final round would join Kate – who had immunity – in the Grand Finale. Callum was triumphant and took 3 points in the mushroom round, putting up a dish that would fit on any Two-hat menu according to Matt Preston. Justine took 2 points and Chris 1. Surprisingly, Callum also took the win in the beer round with his Stout Panna Cotta. Beer lover Chris got 2 points, Justine got 1. With Callum at 6 points and the others both at 3, he became technically unbeatable for points and therefore didn't have to cook in the final round. Chris was pitted against Justine in her favourite ingredient chestnuts. With both delivering an excellent dish according to the judges, they had to make a split-hairs decision to determine the winner. Chris came out on top, and Justine was eliminated. As with other eliminated contestants that hadn't raised any money for their charity, she also earned a default $5,000 for the Chris Riley Foundation. | 797,000 | 10th | 32nd |
| 17 | Friday 17 August 2012 | MasterClass | 666,000 | 10th | >40th |
| 18 | Sunday 19 August 2012 | Finale Night – Kate, Callum and Chris faced off in the Grand Finale, consisting of two rounds.
| 802,000 | 11th | 34th |
| 19 | Sunday 19 August 2012 | The Winner Announced – Callum was pronounced the winner, with 70 points over Chris' 62. He wins $25,000 for the Cancer Council, but decides to split his winnings with Chris and donates $10,000 to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital. | 1,050,000 | 7th | 22nd |