MasterChef Trivia
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50 free MasterChef trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
MasterChef began as a polite Sunday-afternoon BBC contest in 1990 and grew into the most widely adapted cookery format on television, with versions on every continent and a Guinness World Record to prove it. Along the way it picked up the spin-offs, the catchphrases and the moments that made home cooks into household names. These 50 questions cover the whole franchise: the original series and its 2005 relaunch, the professional, celebrity and junior spin-offs, the Australian and American versions and their judges, the challenge formats every fan can recite, and what the champions did after the trophy. Judge line-ups change often, so every question about a panel is tied to a year. It suits fans of any version, quiz-night hosts who want a cookery round, and anyone who has ever shouted at a plate on television.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1979 mod film was directed by Franc Roddam, the creator of the MasterChef format?
Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia, built on The Who's 1973 rock opera, was Franc Roddam's first feature. He went on to create the builders-abroad drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet before devising MasterChef in 1990.
Q 02Which US broadcaster launched MasterChef in July 2010 with Gordon Ramsay judging from episode one?
Fox
Fox premiered MasterChef on July 27, 2010, but it was not America's first go at the format: PBS had run a version called MasterChef USA from 2000 to 2001.
Q 03Which MasterChef challenge hands every contestant an identical set of ingredients to cook from?
Mystery Box
The Mystery Box gives each cook the same box of ingredients and allows nothing else, so the dishes reveal pure technique and imagination. The Invention Test that often follows asks cooks to build a dish around a theme and a core ingredient.
Q 04Which MasterChef US champion, the show's first blind contestant, later opened a Houston gastropub?
Christine Hà
Christine Hà lost her sight to neuromyelitis optica, a condition in which the immune system attacks the optic nerves, and won season 3 in 2012. Her gastropub The Blind Goat was a 2020 James Beard semi-finalist.
Q 05Which Boston-born Through the Keyhole co-host presented the original MasterChef from 1990 to 2000?
Loyd Grossman
Loyd Grossman's much-parodied Anglo-American accent fronted the show for a decade. He launched a sauce range in 1995 that a 2003 survey named the UK's most successful celebrity brand, and was knighted in 2025 for services to heritage.
Q 06Which restaurateur judged the first five US MasterChef seasons and eight seasons of MasterChef Italia?
Joe Bastianich
Joe Bastianich, son of TV cook Lidia Bastianich, judged MasterChef Italia for its first eight seasons, then left in 2019 to devote himself to music. He rejoined the American panel full-time in 2018.
Q 07Which Central Coast mother of three won the first MasterChef Australia in 2009?
Julie Goodwin
Julie Goodwin's win drew about 3.7 million viewers, making the finale Australia's most watched programme of 2009. She went on to publish Our Family Table and open the cooking school Julie's Place.
Q 08Which Le Gavroche chef quit MasterChef: The Professionals in 2014 over a potato advertising deal?
Michel Roux Jr
Michel Roux Jr left the BBC in March 2014 after a clash over his ambassadorship for Albert Bartlett Rooster potatoes. Le Gavroche, opened by his father Albert and uncle Michel, closed in January 2024 after more than fifty years.
Q 09Which Bollywood action star judged the first season of MasterChef India on Star Plus?
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Kumar judged alongside chefs Kunal Kapur and Ajay Chopra. The first winner, Pankaj Bhadouria, a schoolteacher who quit a 16-year job to enter, was crowned on Christmas Day 2010.
Q 10Which 2005 MasterChef champion co-founded Wahaca, the Mexican street-food chain, the very next year?
Thomasina Miers
Thomasina Miers opened the first Wahaca in Covent Garden in August 2007 with co-founder Mark Selby. She won the relaunched show's first series in 2005, praised for a bold, eccentric cooking style.
Q 11What two-word suffix did MasterChef carry when the BBC relaunched it in 2005, a tag it shed again in 2008?
Goes Large
MasterChef Goes Large radically overhauled the old format, introducing heats and quarter-finals under two new judges. The revival was devised by the original creator with producer John Silver.
Q 12Which MasterChef round gives the weakest cooks a set recipe they must emulate against the clock?
Pressure Test
The Pressure Test sends the bottom three from the previous challenge into a race to reproduce a particular dish from a given recipe. The Invention Test, by contrast, asks cooks to invent a dish around a theme and a core ingredient.
Q 13Which Chicago chef judged American MasterChef from its 2010 launch until leaving after season six?
Q 21Which London 2012 Super Saturday gold medallist won Celebrity MasterChef in 2019?
Greg Rutherford
Greg Rutherford's long jump gold came on 4 August 2012, the same evening as Jessica Ennis's heptathlon and Mo Farah's 10,000 m wins. He had tried reality TV before, dancing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016.
Q 22Which member of the Pussycat Dolls, the group behind Don't Cha, won Celebrity MasterChef in 2015?
Kimberly Wyatt
Kimberly Wyatt won the 2015 final, a decade after the Pussycat Dolls' debut album spawned Don't Cha, Stickwitu and Buttons. In March 2026 she signed on for another reunion of the group.
Q 23Which Strictly Come Dancing pro, champion with Ellie Leach in 2023, won Celebrity MasterChef in 2024?
Graham Elliot
Graham Elliot had been the youngest chef in the United States to earn four stars from a major publication, awarded by Chicago's two daily papers. When he left MasterChef, guest judges filled his seat for a season.
Q 14Which former co-host of ABC's The Chew joined the MasterChef Junior judging panel for its eighth season?
Daphne Oz
Daphne Oz was named to the panel in July 2019, but her first season on the kids' show, for cooks aged 8 to 13, did not reach the screen until March 2022.
Q 15Which London-born food critic, famous for his cravats, judged MasterChef Australia from 2009 to 2019?
Matt Preston
Matt Preston left after eleven seasons with fellow judges Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, then joined Manu Feildel on Seven's Plate of Origin in 2020. He published a book titled Cravat-A-Licious in 2009.
Q 16Which broadcaster has aired MasterChef Australia since 2009?
Network 10
Network 10 launched MasterChef Australia on 27 April 2009, and its first finale was the country's most watched programme that year. A year later, a national election debate was moved to an earlier slot to avoid the second finale.
Q 17MasterChef Australia left Sydney in 2013 for which city, its production home ever since?
Melbourne
Melbourne became home after the show's Sydney studio in Alexandria shut down in August 2012. Production moved to the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds for the fifth season and has stayed there.
Q 18MasterChef's UK production left London's 3 Mills Studios for a new base in which city?
Birmingham
Birmingham's Digbeth Loc Studios took MasterChef out of London for the first time since 2001. The move was part of a six-year deal the BBC agreed with the producers in 2022.
Q 19Which Guardian restaurant critic became a Celebrity MasterChef judge in 2025, then a main-series judge?
Grace Dent
Grace Dent stepped in for Gregg Wallace on the 2025 celebrity series, and that September the BBC made her a judge of the main show. She had already written 11 novels for teenagers, including the Diary of a Chav series.
Q 20Which 2003 Rugby World Cup-winning scrum-half won the very first Celebrity MasterChef in 2006?
Matt Dawson
Matt Dawson beat Roger Black and Hardeep Singh Kohli in the September 2006 final, two years after becoming a team captain on A Question of Sport. Phil Vickery, his World Cup team-mate, won the 2011 series.
Vito Coppola
Vito Coppola, born in Eboli near Salerno, won the 19th series of Celebrity MasterChef two years after joining Strictly's professional line-up. He lifted the glitterball with former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach.
Q 24Which Kuala Lumpur-born painter, runner-up on the first MasterChef Australia, became a judge in 2024?
Poh Ling Yeow
Poh Ling Yeow joined the panel for the sixteenth season beside Sofia Levin and Jean-Christophe Novelli, fifteen years after her 2009 final. Her ABC series Poh's Kitchen followed her MasterChef run.
Q 25Which former electrician, the 2012 MasterChef Australia winner, joined its judging panel in 2020?
Andy Allen
Andy Allen was named in October 2019, with Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo, to replace all three original judges. His restaurant group Three Blue Ducks had earned a Chef's Hat the year before.
Q 26Who alone has won MasterChef Australia twice, in 2015 and again in the 2022 Fans & Favourites series?
Billie McKay
Billie McKay beat Sarah Todd in the 2022 grand finale, seven years after Heston Blumenthal offered her a job at The Fat Duck on the night of her first win. Her 2015 prizes included an Alfa Romeo Giulietta.
Q 27Which Penang-born media lawyer, then working for Disney in Japan, won the second MasterChef Australia in 2010?
Adam Liaw
Adam Liaw beat Callum Hann 89–82 in the July 2010 final and went on to host Destination Flavour and The Cook Up on SBS. He had moved to Japan in 2004 to work for The Walt Disney Company.
Q 28Which Dublin-born owner of Chelsea restaurant Myrtle was named a MasterChef judge in September 2025?
Anna Haugh
Anna Haugh named Myrtle after the Irish cooking pioneer Myrtle Allen, and takes over the main show from its 22nd series. She grew up in Tallaght and is a resident chef on Morning Live.
Q 29Which Saturday Kitchen host was named in September 2025 as a new MasterChef: The Professionals judge?
Matt Tebbutt
Matt Tebbutt took Gregg Wallace's seat for the 18th series, shown in early 2026. He had first deputised on Saturday Kitchen whenever James Martin was away, then became its regular host after Martin left.
Q 30Which Samoan-born former Le Gavroche sous-chef joined MasterChef: The Professionals as a judge in 2009?
Monica Galetti
Monica Galetti moved from Samoa to Wellington at eight, rose to senior sous-chef at Le Gavroche and opened her own London restaurant, Mere, in 2017. She sat out the 2022 series and returned in 2023.