MasterChef

Original series

In the original series, amateur cooks competed for the title of Master Chef. The show featured nine rounds leading up to three semifinals and a final. In each round, three contestants were tasked with preparing a gourmet three-course meal in under two hours. The contestants could choose the meal, although there was a price limit on ingredients. "Everyday" ingredients and equipment were provided, and contestants could also bring up to five "speciality" ingredients or utensils.

The first incarnation of the series was commissioned by Dave Ross for the BBC and he gave it the name ‘Masterchef’. It was presented by Loyd Grossman, who was joined each week by a professional chef and a celebrity to act as judges. In each episode, Grossman and the guest judges discussed the menus, talked to the contestants, and finally ate and judged the food. The judges' "cogitations" originally took place off-camera, but later episodes included edited highlights of the discussions after the food had been tasted and before the winner was announced.

In 1998, Grossman decided to take a sabbatical and the series was not made in his absence. He returned to present the 1999 series but left the show in 2000.

Grossman's departure and 2001 revamp

In 2001, the show underwent a makeover in response to declining ratings. It was moved from its traditional Sunday afternoon slot on BBC One to a Tuesday night slot on BBC Two and the format of the show was modified. The celebrity judge was no longer included and the contestants had to cook two courses in 90 minutes, which was extended to two-and-a-half hours for three courses in the final episode. As an additional requirement, each contestant had to use the same key ingredient in each course.

In October 2000, Grossman left in anger over the proposed changes and was replaced by chef Gary Rhodes, who had previously presented MasterChef USA. Rhodes' advice to contestants was more critical than Grossman's and the show was acclaimed for its more serious tone, which later inspired the MasterChef Goes Large format and other cooking competitions like Hell's Kitchen. However, the new version of the show did not revive ratings as hoped and was cancelled by the BBC after the first series.

Revived series

In 2005, the executive producers Franc Roddam and John Silver, with the series producer Karen Ross, radically overhauled the show's format and introduced a new series. It was initially titled MasterChef Goes Large, but the name reverted to MasterChef in 2008. The new series was originally judged by John Torode and Gregg Wallace, with voice-over narration provided by India Fisher.

The show proved very popular and became one of BBC Two's more successful early evening programmes, leading to an announcement by the BBC in 2009 that it would be promoted to BBC One.

In February 2022, the BBC and Shine TV announced that they had agreed a multi-series six-year deal for the programme, and from 2024 the production base would move from London to Birmingham. In January 2023, it was reported that Birmingham City Council had approved BBC plans to use the old Banana Warehouse in Digbeth as the new MasterChef studios.

Wallace and Torode's departure

It was revealed in November 2024, that following allegations against judge Gregg Wallace, he had decided to temporarily step away from the show. In December 2024, it was revealed that Wallace had temporarily been replaced with food critic Grace Dent for the following year's celebrity series. In July 2025, the BBC dismissed Wallace as presenter after a further 50 complaints emerged concerning his behaviour. Following Wallace's dismissal from the show, it was revealed on 15 July 2025, that Torode had also been dismissed following extremely "racist remarks".

Later that month, the BBC confirmed it would air the final amateur series with Torode and Wallace, which was filmed in 2024, but could be re-edited in light of recent events; meanwhile, no decision had yet been made on what to do with the completed celebrity series and Christmas special, which were both later filmed with Torode and Dent. It was later revealed that one contestant from the amateur series was to be edited out of the programme after requesting for it to not be aired. Philippa Childs, head of the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union called for the BBC to reconsider its decision.

On 8 September 2025, it was announced that Grace Dent and Anna Haugh would be the new presenters of MasterChef. Haugh appears alongside Torode in the final episodes of the 2025 series, before the pair debut together from 2026.

On 3 June 2026, it was announced that Giorgio Locatelli would replace Torode as the judge of Celebrity MasterChef alongside Dent from the twenty-first series.

Format

Each series is broadcast on five nights a week for eight weeks. During the first six weeks, the first four episodes of each week are heats and the fifth episode is a quarter-final. Six contestants enter each heat and the winner becomes a quarter-finalist. At the end of each week, the four quarter-finalists compete and a semi-finalist is chosen. After six weeks, the six semi-finalists compete in the final two weeks.

In 2010, the judges were given more flexibility, allowing them to advance more than one contestant to the quarter-finals or, in one instance, none at all. Series 7 of MasterChef had auditions with a format similar to The X Factor, in which hopeful chefs cooked in front of the judges to secure a spot in the competition. More than 20,000 people applied to audition for the series.

The heats follow a three-round format:

The Market Test: the contestants must invent a dish using ingredients from the show's market. They have 15 minutes to select ingredients and 1 hour and 10 minutes to cook the meal. Three contestants are eliminated from the competition and those remaining advance to the Impression Test.

The Calling Card: the contestants must invent a dish from scratch in 75 minutes (originally 40 minutes until 2009). The contestants can choose any ingredients they like.

The Invention Test: the contestants are given two boxes: one with sweet items and the other with savoury items. They must pick a box and make a dish using its ingredients within 75 minutes.

The Impression Test: the contestants must cook a two-course meal in 75 minutes for past winners and finalists of MasterChef. They are given one hour to serve the main course and 15 minutes afterwards to serve dessert. This segment was first featured in 2017.

The format of the quarter-finals has changed over the years. Before 2010, the format featured three rounds:

The Ingredients Test: the contestants were asked to identify a selection of ingredients or produce.

MasterChef Live

MasterChef Live is an extension of the television programme. It has been held each November since 2009 and the event lasts three days. It is hosted at London Olympia and is co-located with the annual Wine Show. Highlights of the event include live cooking demonstrations in the Chefs' Theatre, celebrity chefs, former contestants, critics and MasterChef-style cook-offs.

Celebrity MasterChef

Celebrity MasterChef was devised as a celebrity version of MasterChef Goes Large. The show was screened on BBC One from 2006 to 2011. Originally, 24 celebrities participated in each series with three contestants per episode following the full MasterChef Goes Large test.

In 2011, the programme was moved to a daily daytime slot with 30 episodes screened over six weeks and with only 16 celebrities. Catch-up shows were broadcast on Fridays at 20:30 (30 minutes) and on Saturdays at various times (60 minutes). In 2012, the show moved to BBC Two due to low ratings and returned to an evening 18:30 slot. In 2013, it moved back to BBC One prime time, shown at 20:00. Since 2014, the show has had 20 celebrities competing for the title.

Contestants

The winners from each year are in bold texts.

Matt Dawson, Arabella Weir, Charlie Dimmock, David Grant, Fred MacAulay, Graeme Le Saux, Hardeep Singh Kohli, Helen Lederer, Ian McCaskill, Jilly Goolden, Kristian Digby, Lady Isabella Hervey, Linda Barker, Marie Helvin, Paul Young, Richard Arnold, Roger Black, Rowland Rivron, Sarah Cawood, Sheila Ferguson, Simon Grant, Sue Perkins, Tony Hadley and Toyah Willcox.

Nadia Sawalha, Midge Ure, Craig Revel Horwood, Jeremy Edwards, Chris Bisson, Martin Hancock, Sunetra Sarker, Gemma Atkinson, Sherrie Hewson, Pauline Quirke, Rani Price, Chris Hollins, Matthew Wright, Angela Rippon, Sue Cook, Lorne Spicer, Emma Forbes, Jeff Green, Darren Bennett, Sally Gunnell, Mark Foster, Matt James, Robbie Earle and Phil Tufnell.

Liz McClarnon, Linda Robson, Louis Emerick, Debra Stephenson, Christopher Parker, Joe McGann, Steven Pinder, Mark Moraghan, Vicki Michelle, Sean Wilson, Clare Grogan, Hywel Simons, DJ Spoony, Claire Richards, Denise Lewis, Noel Whelan, Andi Peters, Andrew Castle, Michael Buerk, Kaye Adams, Julia Bradbury, Josie D'Arby, Wendi Peters, and Ninia Benjamin.

Jayne Middlemiss, Colin Murray, Wendi Peters, Simon Shepherd, Janet Ellis, Deena Payne, Iwan Thomas, Rav Wilding, Pete Waterman, Stephen K. Amos, Gemma Bissix, Shirley Robertson, Ian Bleasdale, Paul Martin, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Brian Moore, Saira Khan, Rosie Boycott, Michael Obiora, Joel Ross, Shobna Gulati, Dennis Taylor, Siân Lloyd, Jan Leeming and Joe Swift.

There was also a week of Comeback contestants featuring Joe McGann, Marie Helvin, Linda Barker, Claire Richards, Rowland Rivron, Ninia Benjamin, Steven Pinder, Wendi Peters, Helen Lederer, Tony Hadley, Martin Hancock and Jeff Green.

Lisa Faulkner, Neil Stuke, Richard Farleigh, Nihal Arthanayake, Alex Fletcher, Tessa Sanderson, Jenny Powell, Colin Jackson, Tricia Penrose, Martin Roberts, Christine Hamilton, Chris Walker, Dick Strawbridge, Danielle Lloyd, Marcus Patric, Dean Macey, Mark Chapman, Jennie Bond, Mark Little and Kym Mazelle.

Other versions and spin-offs

MasterChef: The Professionals

MasterChef: The Professionals, a version for professional chefs, was introduced in 2008.

Junior MasterChef

Junior MasterChef originally ran from 1994 to 1999 for contestants under 16 years old. It was revived in 2010 with contestants between nine and twelve years old. A second series of the revived format ran in 2012 and a third series followed in 2014.

Young MasterChef

In February 2022, BBC Three commissioned Young MasterChef, which premiered its first series in 2023. The judges for the first series were Poppy O'Toole and Kerth Gumbs. While O'Toole continued as a judge for the second season, Kerth Gumbs was replaced by Big Has. The second series aired in 2024.

Controversies

During the 13th episode of series 14, judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode criticised a rendang dish made by the Malaysian-born contestant Zaleha Kadir Olpin. Zaleha had been given a task to make a chicken dish in thirty minutes and chose to attempt rendang, which takes several hours to prepare. Torode deemed the dish inedible because the chicken skin was rubbery and undercooked and Wallace advised her that with a thirty-minute task she should have made a crispy fried chicken with a sauce. Malaysian and Indonesian commentators pointed out that rendang is usually cooked as a stew and is not intended to be crispy, and that both judges had failed to differentiate between "crispy" and "under-cooked".

Najib Razak, the Malaysian Prime Minister at the time, joined the conversation with a subtle tweet denouncing the judges' opinion. The former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad also joined in, suggesting that the judges were confusing rendang with KFC.

In December 2024, following allegations against Wallace, the BBC announced that they had pulled two Christmas specials that were due to air.

Winners

MasterChef (original series)

Note: The original MasterChef series did not appear in 1998.

MasterChef (revived series)

The show's original name returned in series 4 in 2008.

Transmission guide

Original series

Happy 10th Birthday MasterChef: TX 18 June 2000

Tales from the MasterChef Kitchen: Series 1, 10 editions from 2 July 2000 – 3 September 2000

Celebrity Special: TX 27 August 2000

Revived series

Specials

What The Winners Did Next – featured winners from series 1 and 2 of MasterChef Goes Large, broadcast on 22 January 2007

Notes

1.^ The final was postponed from its 9 April 2021 air date due to the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

A six-part series looking back over 15 years of Celebrity MasterChef, first episode broadcast on 6 August 2020.

Christmas special episodes, where past contestants competed to hold the title of Christmas champion; first episode broadcast on 21 December 2020, second episode broadcast on 23 December 2020.

The winner from each episode is in bold text.

21 December 2020: Janet Street-Porter, Christopher Biggins, Dev Griffin and Vicky Pattison

23 December 2020: Craig Revel Horwood, Amar Latif, Crissy Rock and Spencer Matthews

21 December 2021: Joey Essex, Judi Love, Neil Ruddock, Oti Mabuse and Su Pollard

23 December 2021: Gemma Collins, Joe Swash, Les Dennis, Mica Paris and Rev. Richard Coles

23 December 2022: Bez, Josh Cuthbert, Lesley Garrett and Iwan Thomas

30 December 2022: AJ Pritchard, Chizzy Akudolu, Kitty Scott-Claus and Megan McKenna

20 December 2023: Duncan James, Faye Winter, Mel Blatt and Richard Blackwood

Books

Masterchef: 1990. London: Ebury Press. 13 December 1990. ISBN 978-0563361077.

Masterchef: 1991. London: Ebury Press. 15 July 1991. ISBN 978-0091752156.

Masterchef: 1992. London: Vermilion. 20 July 1992. ISBN 978-0091773762.

Masterchef: 1993. London: Vermilion. 12 July 1993. ISBN 978-0091777654.

The Best of Masterchef Since 1990. London: Ebury Press. 21 October 1993. ISBN 978-0091777838.

Masterchef: 1994. London: Vermilion. 4 July 1994. ISBN 978-0091786861.

Junior Masterchef 1994. London: Vermilion. 14 November 1994. ISBN 978-0091786915.

Masterchef: 1995. London: Vermilion. 10 July 1995. ISBN 978-0091806835.

Junior Masterchef 1995. London: Vermilion. 23 October 1995. ISBN 978-0091806682.

Masterchef: 1996. London: Ebury Press. 25 April 1996. ISBN 978-0091814625.

The Best of Masterchef. London: Ebury Press. 2 January 1997. ISBN 978-0091853068.

Masterchef: 1997. London: Ebury Press. 3 April 1997. ISBN 978-0091853051.

Junior Masterchef 1998. London: Ebury Press. 5 March 1998. ISBN 978-0091853228.

Masterchef: Best of British Cooking. London: Ebury Press. 7 January 1999. ISBN 978-0091868444.