Which MasterChef season is best? We scored every season on cooks, drama and finales — one ran away with it
Which MasterChef season is the best one to watch? We ranked the seasons on cooking talent, drama and finale quality to settle the argument — and explain what made the winner untouchable.
A highly scientific ranking, in the sense that we made up the scoring system and stand by it completely.
Let's establish the methodology, such as it is. Every season of MasterChef Australia — the version that made the franchise wholesome, weepy and genuinely about the food — was scored out of ten in three categories: quality of the cooks, quality of the drama, and quality of the finale. No appeals. The wooden spoon jury has spoken.
The podium
- Bronze — Season 1 (2009). Julie Goodwin versus Poh Ling Yeow, the rivalry that launched a national obsession. Cooks: 7. Drama: 8. Finale: 8. Poh losing remains an open wound; Poh returning years later as a judge remains the healing.
- Silver — Season 4 (2012). Andy Allen goes from apprentice electrician to winner to, eventually, judge — the show eating its own tail in the most charming way possible. Cooks: 8. Drama: 7. Finale: 8.
- Gold — Season 2 (2010). Cooks: 10. Drama: 9. Finale: 10, and honestly the scale felt insulted we didn't go higher.
Why Season 2 ran away with it
Adam Liaw versus Callum Hann, with Marion Grasby's shock elimination along the way as the mid-season heartbreak nobody has recovered from. The finale wasn't just good television — it was a national event: an average audience of 5.29 million, peaking at 5.74 million, the second-highest-rating programme since the modern ratings system began. It was such a juggernaut that a federal election debate between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott was moved to a different time slot to get out of its way. A cooking show bullied democracy. Ten points.
And the winner it produced went on to become arguably the franchise's most beloved alumnus anywhere on Earth — cookbooks, television, the lot. Liaw himself has always been disarmingly level about the whole thing:
"None of us hated our old life," Liaw said of himself and his fellow winners, pushing back on the reinvention cliché.
"I feel really lucky to have all these opportunities," he said years later, with the win still reshaping his career.
The rest of the field, briefly
Season 12 (Back to Win) gets an honourable mention for assembling an all-star cast and actual culinary fireworks; the middle seasons blur into a pleasant broth of pressure tests; and whichever season you personally started watching with your mum is, of course, exempt from criticism. That one's perfect. We don't score it.