MasterChef Australia to air 7:30pm Monday, April 19 on 10

MasterChef Australia season 13 will launch on Monday, April 19th at 7.30pm on 10. 

Judges Jock Zonfrillo, Melissa Leong and Andy Allen return to the MasterChef kitchen ready to work with the country's next generation of contestants as they battle it out for the title of MasterChef Australia and a cash prize of $250,000. 

In 2021, MasterChef Australia guests will include some of the world's most renowned chefs including Nigella Lawson, Yotam Ottolenghi, Heston Blumenthal, Massimo Bottura and Clare Smyth, all set to challenge the top 24 contestants. 

Plus, homegrown names including Curtis Stone, Kirsten Tibballs, Darren Purchese, Alla Wolf-Tasker, Scott Pickett, Poh Ling Yeow, Callum Hann and Reynold Poernomo return to the kitchen. 

The first batch of contestants announced to be heading into the kitchen this year are: 

Brent, who says that his cooking is just like his face – not refined at all. He grew up eating meat and three veg, so he’s a 100% self taught cook.

Kishwar, who comes from a big family of cooks, and makes Bengali food that has been passed down from generation to generation. She takes a bit of creating license with it, however.

Minoli, who lost her sense of taste at 31. It’s slowly returned, but the experience gave her a whole new insight and appreciation for food and flavour.

Therese, who is part Burmese, part Taiwanese, and part Chinese, and loves cooking French pastry. 

And Elise, who loves feeding people, and wants to make people happy with beautiful food.

MasterChef Australia is produced by Endemol Shine. In a statement about the filming conditions of season 13 and how they comply with Covid regulations, the production company said:

“On the set, changes have been made to the spacing of cooking benches and additional sinks have been added as dedicated hand washing stations. Crew and contestants have limited physical interaction with each other, temperatures are checked daily, and masks are worn at all times when not on camera.”

MasterChef Australia premieres Monday, 19 April at 7.30pm on 10 and continues Wednesday and Thursday nights.