As a cooking competition, MasterChef Australia viewers have no choice but to eat with their eyes, and that makes plating a pretty big deal.
However, this season, many fans have noticed that the dishes haven’t looked as elaborate as in previous years. Newly eliminated contestant Hannah Johnson, who was sent home after running out of time to finesse her handmade spaghetti with mussels, tomato chilli sauce, pangrattato and chilli oil, said the simpler plating wasn’t a deliberate shift — it was simply a result of contestants racing against the clock.
“I loved plating, however, in that kitchen time is not on your side and sometimes you have to pick taste over plating,” she explained.
“Viewers eat with their eyes so on this show it’s fair for them to want to see beautifully presented food but at the end of the day flavour and technique will always be the biggest winning factor. “
Hannah added that while plating wasn’t necessarily the biggest priority in challenges, it was still one of her favourite parts of the competition.
“The first time I saw the plate wall, I was like, oh, I’m drooling, to have just all these different plates and jugs, it was really cool. So the options are pretty amazing, where you get to pick from all the different things, and yeah, it’s pretty cool to have nearly anything you could want in a kitchen.”
Fans defend the lack of elaborate plating on MasterChef Australia 2026
Some MasterChef viewers have criticised the contestants’ plating, with one remarking on Reddit that the “art of plating is dead this season,” but others have rushed to their defence.
“It always amuses me when someone compares the competition to real life kitchens. In real life restaurant kitchens, everything that can be premade is premade.” one user began.
“A restaurant chef plating on the pass is not plating everything made from scratch at that moment, spooning a sauce from a saucepan or similar mess-producing and time- consuming things. It’s just bang bang, twenty covers in an hour, ain’t nobody got time for fuss,” they added.
“There’s hardly any time for plating art while there is always a time crunch on MasterChef,” another added.
A few other users chimed in that Aaron and Casper do “really good plating”.
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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