MasterChef Australia 2026 has deviated from its tried-and-tested format, with contestants being given far more freedom in the dishes they create instead of having to adhere to strict challenges centred around specific ingredients or techniques.
In the June 16 episode, the remaining contestants were asked to cook a dessert in an air fryer, and a previous challenge saw them tasked with whipping up a favourite dish that they cook at home for their loved ones. This is a stark difference to challenges that have appeared in past seasons, like 2025’s Tower of Terror, which required all contestants to perfectly construct a towering, eight-layer Michelin-style dessert.
And, the change hasn’t gone unnoticed, with some viewers complaining that they wish the show would revert back to it’s more regimented format.
“The challenges are really too simple…99% of challenges this season have been some variant of “what dish makes you most emotional,” one person wrote on Reddit. Another penned: “There’s an open pantry and you can make whatever you want… What happened to hitting the brief!”
Hannah weighs up whether MasterChef is easier with a strict brief or a relaxed one
However, MasterChef Australia‘s Hannah Johnson told Chattr that while it’s nice to have the freedom of being able to cook without strict limitations, it can make it much harder to choose a dish.
“There’s moments where it is really great when you’re like, ‘Sweet, it’s open pantry, 75 minutes, I can come up with something’, but then at the same time I’m kind of like, it’s really easier with a Mystery Box because you don’t run to the kitchen and you just focus in and you just gotta figure something out right in front of you,” she explained.
Hannah referred to one of the odd challenges this year that has been strict, the Perfect Pair challenge which involved cooking with two specific ingredients and making them the star of the dish.
“There are times where I actually really did appreciate the constraints to be focusing on something, like the episode a couple of weeks ago, the Perfect Pair challenge. You have to just focus in on those flavours, and it nearly helps your brain go, ‘Okay? What can I pair with these?’
“It’s a lot easier to kind of create a dish when you’ve got a starting point, even if it is a limitation.”
Hannah says coming out with a dish idea is the “most stressful part of the whole thing”
Every episode has some kind of brief — even if they’re a lot more relaxed on the 2026 season — so contestants must brainstorm a dish to cook immediately after the constraints are announced. Hannah told Chattr that the stress of thinking of what to cook in the moment is extremely overwhelming.
“Oh my goodness, it is the most stressful part of the whole thing, when you’re standing there and you’re just waiting for the judges to be like, this is what you’re doing today,” she said.
“As soon as the judges are like, this is what the challenge is, my brain starts going like, okay, do I pull this, do I do this?”
She explained she tried to think of a fitting dish by starting with one ingredient, and building it into something that suited the brief.
“I started having a little dish popping up in my head, maybe it’s protein first or a flavour combo, and I try and build it from there. In my head I’m like, ‘Cut that bit out, add that bit in, no, that doesn’t work’. You’re just crossing your fingers and you hope you’re on the right track.”
MasterChef Australia airs Sunday – Wednesday on Channel 10 and 10Play.
Want to CHATTR with us? Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for more entertainment news.
