The first series of the Australian

reality television series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

'' MasterChef Australia'' began on 27 April 2009 and aired on Network Ten, concluding on 19 July 2009 when

Julie Goodwin Julie Goodwin (born 31 October 1970) is an Australian cook, author, radio and television presenter. She came to public attention when she won the inaugural season of '' MasterChef Australia'' in 2009, defeating artist Poh Ling Yeow in the final ...

was crowned the winner. The series was hosted by Sarah Wilson.

Contestants

Subsequent appearances *

appeared on

Series 2 Series 2 could refer to: * Apple Watch Series 2, a smart watch by Apple * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 2, the automobile model * BMW 2 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 2 series, line of nV ...

as a guest judge for an invention test and for Masterclass. *

Poh Ling Yeow Poh Ling Yeow (; born 1973) is a Malaysian-born Australian cook, artist, actress, author and television presenter. Early life and history Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, into a fifth-generation Malaysian Chinese family, and her mother is of ...

appeared on 1st Junior Series for a Masterclass. * Andre Ursini appeared on

Series 3 Series 3 may refer to: * 3 Skypephone Series, the mobile phone series * Apple Watch Series 3, smart watch * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 3, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 3, the automobile model * BMW 3 Series, the automobile model li ...

to give a lesson for Masterclass * Julie again appeared on

Series 4 Series 4 could refer to: * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 4, the automobile model * BMW 4 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 4 series, line of nVidia video cards * Scania 4-series, the truck model line * South African Class 6E1, Series 4, e ...

to be a guest judge for a Mystery box Challenge. * In a Special All Star Series for Charity, Julie and Poh took part along with

Justine Schofield Justine Schofield (born 29 October 1985) is an Australian cook, author and television presenter. Early life Schofield was born on 29 October 1985 in Sydney to an Australian father and a French mother. She has an elder brother. When Françoise ...

and Chris Badenoch. Poh came 7th, Julie came 5th, Justine came 4th & Chris came Runner Up. * Joshua "Josh" Catalano appeared in the team challenge during "Wild West Week" of Series 5. * Julie appeared at the first Mystery box challenge & Invention test of Series 6. * In a Superstar themed week in Series 7 Poh appeared as a guest for a mystery box challenge and masterclass, while Justine appeared as a guest judge for an elimination challenge. * In Series 10 Julie appeared to support the top 50 during auditions, Poh meanwhile appeared during South Australia week for a masterclass. * Poh was a mentor during the immunity challenge in Series 11. * Poh and Chris appeared in Series 12. Chris was eliminated on 10 May 2020, finishing in 18th and Poh was eliminated on 5 July 2020, finishing in 6th. * Poh also appeared in Series 13 as guest judge for an elimination challenge. * In Series 14 Julie appeared for a chance to win the title for the 2nd time. Julie was eliminated on 5 July 2022, finishing in 5th. * In Series 15 Poh appeared as a guest judge for a Mystery Box Challenge. Julie later appeared as a guest judge for an elimination challenge.

Judges

* George Calombaris *

Gary Mehigan Gary Mehigan (born 12 February 1967) is an English-Australian chef and restaurateur. Mehigan was one of the original judges of the Network 10 series '' MasterChef Australia''. Career Chef Mehigan trained at The Connaught and Le Souffle in ...

Matt Preston Matt Preston (born 21 July 1961) is an English-Australian food critic, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his role as a judge on Network Ten's ''MasterChef Australia'' between 2009 and 2019, and for his weekly national food ...

Special guests

* Manu Feildel – Celebrity Chef Challenge 1 * Martin Boetz – Celebrity Chef Challenge 2 * Pete Evans – Celebrity Chef Challenge 3 * Frank Shek – Masterclass 3 * Alex Herbert – Celebrity Chef Challenge 4 *

John Torode John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's ''This Morning ...

– Guest judge, Invention Test 4 * Guy Grossi – Celebrity Chef Challenge 5 *

Ben O'Donoghue Benjamin O'Donoghue (born 22 May 1970) is an Australian chef. Early years O'Donoghue was five years old when his family moved from England to Port Hedland. At the age of ten, his family moved to Perth. On finishing school O'Donoghue was employe ...

– Celebrity Chef Challenge 6 * Donovan Cooke/Tam Kin Pak – Celebrity Chef Challenge 8 * Emmanuel Stroobant – Celebrity Chef Challenge 9 *

Adrian Richardson Adrian Richardson is an Australian chef and television presenter. Richardson has hosted a number of food shows and is most widely known for being the ''Bad Chef'' in Good Chef Bad Chef and appearing with chefs Manu Feildel, Gary Mehigan and ...

– Celebrity Chef Challenge 10 * Adriano Zumbo – Elimination Challenge 7 * Armando Percuoco – Guest judge, Formal Dinner Challenge *

Margaret Fulton Margaret Isobel Fulton (6 October 1924 – 24 July 2019) was a Scottish-born Australian food and cooking writer, journalist, author and commentator. She was the first of this genre of writers in Australia. Fulton's early recipes encouraged A ...

– Guest judge, Formal Dinner Challenge * Jacques Reymond – Guest judge, Formal Dinner Challenge *

Cheong Liew Cheong Liew (born 1949) is a Malaysian-born Australian chef. He moved from Malaysia to Australia in 1969 to study electrical engineering, but instead became a chef. Early life Cheong Liew was born in 1949 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His father wa ...

– Guest judge, Formal Dinner Challenge * Luke Mangan – Guest judge, Finals Week Elimination Challenge 1 * Matt Moran – Celebrity Chef Challenge 7 & Guest judge, Finals Week Elimination Challenge 2 * Bill Granger – Guest judge, Finals Week Elimination Challenge 3 *

Donna Hay Donna Hay (born 28 January 1971) is an Australian food stylist, author and magazine editor.

Cookbooks < ...

– Guest judge, Finals Week Elimination Challenge 4 *

Peter Kuruvita Peter Kuruvita (born October 1963) is an Australian chef, restaurateur and media personality, known for his rich culturally inspired cooking, highly influenced by his Sri Lankan father and Austrian mother. Early life Born in 1963 in Fulham, to a ...

– Guest judge, Fresh Seafood Team Challenge *

Curtis Stone Curtis Travis Stone (born 4 November 1975) is an Australian celebrity chef, author and television personality. Stone has been the fresh food and recipes ambassador for Coles Supermarkets in Australia since 2010. Early life Stone was born in ...

– Guest judge, Seafood Team Challenge, Grand Finale Many of the guest chefs returned for the announcement of the winner, while Moran also presented a dish for the Pressure Test during the finale.

Elimination Chart

In Week 1, nobody from the top 20 was eliminated. During this week the judges selected the twenty finalists from the top 50.
In Week 2, nobody was eliminated after the Invention Test. Instead, the bottom 2 chefs had to clean up all the dishes from the challenge.
In Week 4, Julia won the Celebrity Chef Challenge and a free pass till Finals Week
In Week 5, nobody was eliminated after the pressure test challenge as judges chose to spare Sam and Trevor as the differences between the dishes were too trivial.
In Week 5, the vote was tied 3 to 3 for Sandra and Kate. As Team Captain, the tiebreaking vote went to Kate. She voted to send herself home.
In Week 7, Justine and Lucas won the Invention Test as a pair. However, only one of them was allowed to compete in the Celebrity Chef Challenge. Justine volunteered Lucas to go. Lucas won, and got a free pass till finals week
In Week 8, there was not a team challenge. Instead, the contestants competed in a wedding challenge. The top 4 performers advanced, whereas the bottom 2 performers went into a taste test elimination.
In Week 9, the remaining chefs went to Hong Kong. In the Dim Sum Challenge, Sam won and elected to take Justine on his reward with him. In the High Tea/Rainbow Fish Challenge, contestants divided into groups of Justine/Julie/Andre and Chris/Sam. Julie won by outcooking finalist Lucas. In a pre-elimination challenge, Chris won immunity and won the power to select teams for elimination. He selected Justine/Julie and Sam/Andre.
In Week 10, Sam and Julie were the bottom 2 performers in the Invention Test, but were spared going into elimination. In a special Dream Restaurant Challenge, Chris won and received a reward. Former contestants Justine, Poh, and Tom returned to get a second chance. In a Navy canteen, everyone prepared a meal for 200 people, the 2 meals voted for the least, went into elimination. As the elimination challenge, Tom and Sam went into a taste test elimination.
In Week 11, Justine and Julie won the Invention Test as a pair. However, only one of them was allowed to compete in the Celebrity Chef Challenge. Julie won a coin flip and won the right to compete against a Celebrity Chef.
Poh and Julie competed against each other in three rounds consisting of a Taste Test, an Invention Test and a Pressure Test. Points would be earned for each test, with the winner decided based on the final tally after the three tests.

Episodes and ratings

; Colour key: : – Highest rating during the series : – Lowest rating during the series

Allegations of vote rigging

Large numbers of viewers have raised allegations that the voting on the series one finale of ''MasterChef'' was fraudulent after Julie Goodwin won the crown. After the show

talkback radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

had been inundated with calls, both for and against the verdict, and the finale also became a top trending topic on social networking site

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, where many users said they felt "deflated" and "ripped off" by the final episode of the hit show. Similar allegations were raised when contestants were eliminated throughout the series. Judge Matt Preston has denied that eliminations were rigged or the result of a popularity contest, and asserted that Julie had won the title because she was the better cook on the night. Goodwin herself has also asserted that her victory was not the result of rigging, insisting that the professional integrity of the three judges would be damaged if it was.

References

{{MasterChef Australia 2009 Australian television series debuts 2009 Australian television seasons MasterChef Australia Television shows filmed in Hong Kong