MasterChef Australia 2026’s Casper Kenworthy was sent home after being tasked with heroing grapes in an elimination challenge dish — an ingredient chosen by his own family.
While the other contestants‘ hand-picked ingredients were easier to incorporate, like Aaron’s garlic and Vinnie’s sardines, many fans argued Casper was at an immediate disadvantage after being assigned grapes.
Casper was ultimately sent home from the competition, with the judges finding that the grapes didn’t shine enough in his dish.
“Can you imagine how his parents must feel? I’m not sure it’s fair to have the contestant’s loved ones pick a hero ingredient like that. I would be so totally devastated if I was ‘responsible’ for my son, brother or partner being eliminated,” one person wrote on Reddit.
But, in a post-elimination interview with Chattr, he said he doesn’t blame his family for choosing the ingredient.
“They’re definitely not an easy ingredient,” he said. “I think [my parents] were a bit sad that an ingredient that they picked was the one that sent me home, but you know, I’m always sort of looking on the bright side,” he explained.
“They definitely were sad, but also we’re a family where we like to have a laugh and stuff too. So there were plenty of things we were having a laugh about, and I was reassuring them that, you know, it’s not their fault. They weren’t the one cooking with [grapes] at the end of the day,” Casper added.
Casper added that he would have loved to have proven himself by blowing the judges away with a grape dish, adding that that would have given him a lot of confidence moving forward.
“It’s that challenge you need before the semi-finals to really dig deep and get creative to show that you can beat it. If I nailed putting up a dish with the grapes, then that sets you up for semi-finals and even the finale, so I think it was a really good final test. But I’m not going to say that I failed it either, because I still managed to get up a dish that I’m proud of, and my parents were proud of it too.”
Casper explains why his family picked grapes for the MasterChef challenge
Casper explained that, unlike Aaron and Vinnie, whose ingredients reflected strong family food traditions, his own family didn’t have the same culinary heritage to draw from when choosing an ingredient.
“Being from a very white Anglo family, we don’t have a whole lot of food culture, so there’s not a whole lot they could have sent me anyway. It’s been up to me to make my own food culture for us, and grapes have such strong memories for me,” he said.
“I think it’d be no surprise to people as well. You probably saw some of the reactions on the gantry. I always had grapes in my fridge. I was always eating grape lollies in the green room and stuff. So yeah, it would be no surprise to a lot of people to see grapes under there.”
Casper admitted grapes may have seemed like an unusual choice, but he said he never viewed it as an unfair one.
“But you know, at face value, it does seem like a funny ingredient to pick, but I wouldn’t say it’s unfair. I think just having that lack of food culture, you probably have that most ingredients they’d send me there would be a bit more difficult to hero.”
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday – Monday on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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