MasterChef Australia fans are divided over savage elimination

Wednesday night’s MasterChef Australia saw Knockout Week hit elimination mode, with seven contestants walking in to find three empty black cloches — and a fan fave sent packing.

The twist was that the safe cooks on the gantry — Aaron, Annabel and Vinnie — had to head to Coles and choose the hero ingredients for everyone else.

Vinnie picked mussels, Annabel chose leek and Aaron selected beef short rib, leaving the cooks to choose one ingredient and build a dish around it in 75 minutes.

Two contestants dominated, as Alyona impressed after pivoting to mussels in a Japanese dashi broth with Russian buns. At the same time, Petro’s leek, scallop, tofu and miso cream dish was also a standout.

Unfortunately, Hannah’s cook didn’t land. She made spaghetti with mussels, pangrattato and chilli oil, and while the judges liked the flavours and her pasta skills, the mussels were inconsistently cooked and gritty from not being cleaned properly. Those technical errors put her in the bottom two with Casper and ultimately sent her home.

Given how much Hannah was a fan favourite from the start, MasterChef viewers were disappointed to see her go.

However, Hannah did commit the cardinal sin of leaving the mussel’s beard on, which is a big ‘no no’ in the MasterChef kitchen, so sadly, her elimination wasn’t all that surprising.

Hannah’s poor performance in the black apron elimination left other fans saying it was her time to go.

Hannah’s sudden elimination did not leave a dry eye in the house, as her fellow contestants broke down in tears to see the mother-of-four depart the MasterChef kitchen.

In an interview with Chattr, Hannah reflected on the moment she was eliminated. “As soon as I finished cooking, I knew I had made mistakes in my dish, so I was expecting to be eliminated,” she said. “However, it doesn’t really hit you until it officially happens. It was emotional because it’s the closing of a really beautiful chapter.”

Hannah admitted that getting eliminated was a double-edged sword. “I was sad to leave the kitchen, judges, crew and of course, most of all, my friends, the contestants, but I was very excited to be reunited with my family,” she said.

“My kids were so happy to have me home. The youngest sprinted into my arms and we hugged for so long.”

Hannah’s best moments on MasterChef Australia

Hannah Johnson has been one of MasterChef Australia 2026’s most impressive cooks, bringing her bubbly personality and serious technique to the kitchen.

The WA mum-of-four entered the competition after years of putting her family first, with a huge love of food, around 250 cookbooks at home and a cooking style that ranged from comfort family food to more refined plates.

One of her earliest standout moments came during auditions, when she earned a white apron and secured her place in the Top 24. She then backed it up in the first Mystery Box challenge, where her dish was among the plates the judges chose to taste, proving she could hold her own in a stacked kitchen.

Hannah’s journey hasn’t been without wobbles, including a sticky date pudding that landed her near the bottom, but she repeatedly bounced back.

Without a doubt, one of her best moments came during Aussie Classics Week, when she cooked a cheeseburger pie that won immunity and Hannah’s creation was sold in Coles. And for that, she will always be a MasterChef icon.

MasterChef Australia airs Sunday to Wednesday on Channel 10 and 10Play.

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