Can you tell us what we can expect from this season? And how does it feel different to the previous ones that you’ve judged?

This season feels more like the first season we judged – back to newbies, which I love. Last year was amazing with Back To Win, but I I’m really excited about the food being more relatable. And there’s just such a lovely batch of contestants. They’re so close and so supportive of each other. That always baffles me to watch the camaraderie, they build up around each other. And it is always the case, but this year I’m feeling it extra.

It’s kind of the only show where they’re all, where they do have that camaraderie, isn’t it?

I think it’s because everyone learns quite quickly that no matter how good you are, you always have a down and you’re in a pressure test?  It’s just, the nature of the competition. You get creative fatigue and everyone has a low moment, everyone has a high moment. And I think if you get to a certain point in the competition, everything just kind of levels out and everyone knows that it’s just how you cook on the day. I think they learn to support each other through the whole experience.

Were you surprised by the calibre of cooking in this crop of chefs?

I always am.  What I like about this season is, there was a point where people were cooking very high-end food, but at home. There’s a bit of shift in that because I you still need to learn all the fundamentals and there’s a massive return to that this year, which is really lovely.

Thinking back to your first season, to what contestants are dishing up now, do you think that the ‘home cook’ has evolved and what do you think’s behind that?

I do feel that, and we’re rewarding them for it. We keep telling them there’s nothing wrong with cooking something simple if you do it really well. And you just put a little bit of your own twist on it. It doesn’t need to be a whole wheel reinvention. It can be just a riff on an old favourite and that’s enough because if it’s clever, and it’s something that no one’s thought about before, by just adding one extra ingredient that might completely flip the whole idea on its head and that’s good enough for us. I think sometimes the contestants think too hard and try too hard to be creative and that’s where they can actually go a little bit awry.

What’s the biggest misconception you find people have about MasterChef, both either in general or being a judge?

I think people assume it’s fake – that contestants have access to recipe books or that the time limits aren’t real. They’re always surprised when they visit the set and realise everything is real. The time is real, the stress is real. Contestants have to come up with ideas on the spot, so they need to be prepared.

What upsets me most is when people think someone has been hard done by. We take our roles very seriously because fairness matters. There are no incentives, and the outcome is completely independent of producer influence. We judge the dish, not the person – it’s not about past performance or future potential. We’re judging what’s on the plate that day.

I also find it disappointing when people think we have favourites. We absolutely don’t. We keep each other in check constantly and challenge each other on those decisions.

Some days, it gets complicated. You might have two excellent dishes – one that’s more creative but has a small flaw, and another that’s less ambitious but technically perfect. That’s where subjectivity comes in.

Sometimes it’s the simplest dishes that stand out. You’ll think, “That’s basic, but they’ve executed it perfectly.”

What viewers don’t always see is that we don’t have time to break down every element of every dish. Ultimately, it often comes down to two questions: would you eat it again, and could it be served in a restaurant?

We’ve seen a handful of past contestants doing some amazing things in the food world post MasterChef. What’s that like for you seeing these chefs go from contestants that you’re judging to then finding their footing out there in their own culinary space?

I really love it. It reminds me how much impact this show has on its contestants. because they have a legitimate impact on the food world. When we first started, there was quite a bit of pessimism about us not being the real deal. A lot of chefs don’t quite understand how full on the competition is and how we really try and challenge the contestants from every angle.

Sav is now a judge on MasterChef Sri Lanka, how amazing is that? Dan Churchill carved out this incredible career in New York. I was there recently and got to see a piece of his life over there, which is really cool. Mimi Wong was very creative on the show, and I can see she’s peaking now. She’s just doing the most creative stuff with Chinese/modern Australian fusion, and she’s getting a lot of kudos from big native chefs. It’s really nice to be able to see all that happen.

What is the one recipe that you think everyone should be able to master? A really good tomato sauce to put pasta. Because I’m from South Australia and we get really great tomatoes, making a tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes is just one of my all-time favourite things to eat. It’s the colours of the Italians – fresh basil, handmade pasta, and it just feels you can survive the world. And learning how to make that sauce is such a simple thing, but you learn so much about balance.