What do MasterChef winners get? In one version of the show, not a single penny
Same brand, same white apron, wildly different payday. What a MasterChef champion actually takes home depends entirely on which country's kitchen they're standing in — and one of the biggest versions hands over no money at all.
The prize, version by version
- MasterChef (US) — $250,000 plus the trophy and title, unchanged since the show's 2010 debut. Some seasons add extras: season 11's Kelsey Murphy also won a full set of Viking kitchen appliances.
- MasterChef Australia — AU$250,000 and the trophy, with perks like a column in Delicious magazine in some years.
- MasterChef Canada — CA$100,000.
- MasterChef Junior (US) — $100,000 for a cook aged 8 to 13, plus kit and appliances.
- MasterChef UK — nothing. No cash whatsoever. The winner gets the trophy and the title.
That's not an oversight. It's the same for MasterChef: The Professionals, and for Bake Off — big British cooking competitions have a long tradition of offering prestige instead of prize funds.
Why the UK pays nothing
The BBC's position, effectively, is that the title is the prize — and the careers of past winners make a decent case. The 2005 champion Thomasina Miers went on to found Wahaca, one of the UK's most successful Mexican restaurant chains.
Derek Johnstone, the first winner of The Professionals, was offered a job at Le Gavroche by judge Michel Roux Jr and spent six years in the Roux family business before opening his own restaurant.
In other words: the exposure genuinely does convert. Doors open, backers appear, book deals follow. The trophy is the least valuable thing the winner leaves with.
Do American winners feel the same?
The $250,000 helps them get there faster. Season 10's Dorian Hunter put her winnings into opening a restaurant; season 15's winning duo announced plans for a bricks-and-mortar shop for their bar pies. Several champions — Whitney Miller, Christine Há, Luca Manfé, Claudia Sandoval, Shaun O'Neale — have published cookbooks, sometimes as part of the prize package itself.
Though even in America there's grumbling. The prize has never risen in fifteen-plus seasons, and fans on Reddit have pointed out that Fox's profits have — while the cheque stays exactly where it was in 2010.
For the record: adjusted for nothing at all, the UK prize has also remained perfectly consistent since day one. Zero then. Zero now.